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Gathered mainly from international media sources December 2020 - March 2021 |
For recent entries click "Invalid Item"  These are news/opinion items which caught my eye. Click on the link below: 31 Mar 2021 "Invalid Entry" 24 Mar 2021 "Invalid Entry" "Invalid Entry" 22 Mar 2021 "Invalid Entry" 21 Mar 2021 "Invalid Entry" "Invalid Entry" 19 Mar 2021 "Invalid Entry" "Invalid Entry" 17 Mar 2021 "Invalid Entry" "Invalid Entry" 26 Feb 2021 "Invalid Entry" 25 Feb 2021 "Invalid Entry" 24 Feb 2021 "Invalid Entry" 22 Feb 2021 "Invalid Entry" "Invalid Entry" "Invalid Entry" 21 Feb 2021 "Invalid Entry" "Invalid Entry" 19 Feb 2021 "Invalid Entry" "Invalid Entry" 18 Feb 2021 "Invalid Entry" 16 Feb 2021 "Invalid Entry" 15 Feb 2021 "Invalid Entry" 14 Feb 2021 "Invalid Entry" 9 Feb 2021 "Invalid Entry" 8 Feb 2021 "Invalid Entry" 4 Feb 2021 "Invalid Entry" 30 Jan 2021 "Invalid Entry" 29 Jan 2021 "Invalid Entry" 28 Jan 2021 "Invalid Entry" 27 Jan 2021 "Invalid Entry" 26 Jan 2021 "Invalid Entry" "Invalid Entry" "Invalid Entry" 24 Jan 2021 "Invalid Entry" 23 Jan 2021 "Invalid Entry" "Invalid Entry" 21 Jan 2021 "Invalid Entry" 20 Jan 2021 "Invalid Entry" "Invalid Entry" 19 Jan 2021 "Invalid Entry" "Invalid Entry" 18 Jan 2021 "Invalid Entry" 14 Jan 2021 "Invalid Entry" 12 Jan 2021 "Invalid Entry" 11 Jan 2021 "Invalid Entry" 10 Jan 2021 "Invalid Entry" 4 Jan 2021 "Invalid Entry" "Invalid Entry" "Invalid Entry" 2 Jan 2021 "Invalid Entry" 29 Dec 2020 "Invalid Entry" "Invalid Entry" 27 Dec 2020 "Invalid Entry" 24 Dec 2020 "Invalid Entry" 23 Dec 2020 "Invalid Entry" "Invalid Entry" 22 Dec 2020 "Invalid Entry" "Invalid Entry" "Invalid Entry" "Invalid Entry" 20 Dec 2020 "Invalid Entry" 19 Dec 2020 "Invalid Entry" 18 Dec 2020 "Invalid Entry" "Invalid Entry" "Invalid Entry" "Invalid Entry" "Invalid Entry" "Invalid Entry" "Invalid Entry" "Invalid Entry" "Invalid Entry" "Invalid Entry" "Invalid Entry" "Invalid Entry" 17 Dec 2020 "Invalid Entry" "Invalid Entry" 16 Dec 2020 "Invalid Entry" "Invalid Entry" 15/12/20 "Invalid Entry" 13 Dec 2020 "Invalid Entry" 12 Dec 2020 "Invalid Entry" "Invalid Entry" 11 Dec 2020 "Invalid Entry" "Invalid Entry" "Invalid Entry" "Invalid Entry" "Invalid Entry" "Invalid Entry" "Invalid Entry" "Invalid Entry" "Invalid Entry" For earlier entries drill down the list 10 Dec 2020 - Covid: Genes hold clues to why some people get severely ill 10 Dec 2020 - Referendum for the state of Texas to secede from the U.S. ? 10 Dec 2020 - Covid-19: More single day dead than in 9/11 terror attack or on D-Day landing 10 Dec 2020 - Covid-19: France moves to night-time curfew from 15 December 10 Dec 2020 - Elon Musk has launched the latest prototype of his Starship vehicle from Texas. 9 Dec 2020 - Covid-19 - $600 direct payment to most Americans? 9 Dec 2020 - Hunter Biden under federal investigation 9 Dec 2020 - Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine data gets positive FDA review 9 Dec 2020 - Is BIG TECH censoring different ideas about COVID-19? 9 Dec 2020 - Clashes in Portland 9 Dec 2020 - UK is investigating two possible allergic reactions to Pfizer coronavirus shot 9 Dec 2020 - Open letter by the Prime Minister of Hungary to the European Union 9 Dec 2020 - VACCINE OPTIMISM AND PESSIMISM 9 Dec 2020 - UK EXIT FROM THE EU (Last supper?) 8 Dec 2020 - ROALD DAHL AND A WOKE APOLOGY |
| The federal Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) recently reported widespread hacks involving government agencies and private businesses -- an apparent attack linked to Russia that may have gone unreported for up to nine months. The hack compromised federal agencies and "critical infrastructure" in a sophisticated attack that was hard to detect and will be difficult to undo, CISA announced in an unusual warning message Thursday. Established under President Trump in 2018, CISA operates under the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) oversight. Its activities are a continuation of the National Protection and Programs Directorate (NPPD). CISA was established when Trump signed the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Act. CISA’s mission is to "build the national capacity to defend against cyber attacks" and to work "with the federal government to provide cybersecurity tools, incident response services and assessment capabilities to safeguard the .gov networks that support the essential operations of partner departments and agencies." CISA is an independent arm under DHS, on par with the Secret Service or Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). RUSSIA'S SUSPECTED HACKING OPERATION TARGETED 5 US AGENCIES, 18K AGENCIES Christopher Krebs was CISA’s first director. He was fired by President Donald Trump in November. Like the NPPD, CISA oversees the Federal Protective Service (FPS), the Office of Cyber and Infrastructure Analysis (OCIA), the Office of Cybersecurity & Communications (OC&C) and the Office of Infrastructure Protection (OIP). In an effort to reduce CISA’s backlog in cybersecurity vulnerability assessments, a Senate panel recently proposed offering CISA an additional $59 million in the Fiscal Year 2021 budget. For the 2020 election, the agency conducted 131 remote penetration tests and 59 onsite risk and vulnerability assessments for local election infrastructure and approximately 263 election officials around the country are receiving weekly vulnerability scan reports. It also helped train thousands of election officials through online security courses. This month, CISA reported a massive, ongoing hacking campaign believed to have started in March and be the work of Russia. The Energy Department, the Department of State, the Defense Department and DHS have all reported being compromised. Those government branches join earlier assessments confirming that the Departments of Treasury and Commerce had been breached in what investigators believe to be a mass-scale Russian intelligence operation. On Sunday, CISA announced the intrusion involving SolarWinds Orion products, which is now under FBI investigation, and directed all federal agencies to disconnect from the breached network-management software. ROMNEY SLAMS WHITE HOUSE'S 'INEXCUSABLE SILENCE' ON RUSSIAN CYBER ATTACKS SolarWinds' clientele roster traverses some 300,000 organizations -- including other highly sensitive federal agencies ranging from the Department of Justice and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), as well as thousands of private companies. Almost all Fortune 500 companies are reported to use SolarWinds products to scan their networks, including major defense contractors such as Boeing, according to The New York Times. Russia has denied involvement in the campaign. Nonetheless, preliminary reviews of the encroachments suspect that the sophistication of the attacks lends itself to the work of Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR -- the espionage wing that succeeded the Soviet Union's former secret police, the KGB). The belief that the SVR is behind the attacks stems from the hackers being especially judicious in drawing data from particular targets. |
| Clinical experts have for the first time identified the 28 common symptoms of long Covid, including breathlessness, fatigue, joint pain and dizziness. The signs of long Covid had, up to this point, remained an elusive subject for medics - they had largely been based on patients' narratives on the symptoms they suffered after contracting Covid-19. But for the first time, a conclusive list of signs indicating the long-term effects of coronavirus has been published by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE). Long Covid affects one in five people, new ONS figures suggest Long Covid: What is it, what are the symptoms and what help is there for sufferers? Long Covid, although not a medical term, is the name applied so far by experts grappling with the issue of longer-term effects of coronavirus. The latest official guidelines in Britain use two definitions: people may have “ongoing symptomatic Covid-19” if symptoms persist from four to 12 weeks, and could have “post-Covid-19 syndrome” if they do not resolve after 12 weeks. The symptoms of long Covid are highly variable and wide ranging - the most common 28 symptoms include (but are not limited to) the following: Respiratory symptoms Breathlessness Cough Cardiovascular symptoms Chest tightness Chest pain Palpitations Generalised symptoms Fatigue Fever Pain Neurological symptoms Cognitive impairment ('brain fog', loss of concentration or memory issues) Headache Sleep disturbance Peripheral neuropathy symptoms (pins and needles and numbness) Dizziness Delirium (in older populations) Gastrointestinal symptoms Abdominal pain Nausea Diarrhoea Anorexia and reduced appetite (in older populations) Musculoskeletal symptoms Joint pain Muscle pain Psychological/psychiatric symptoms Symptoms of depression Symptoms of anxiety Ear, nose and throat symptoms Tinnitus Earache Sore throat Dizziness Loss of taste and/or smell Dermatological Skin rashes The Office for National Statistics published figures on Wednesday examining long Covid, finding that a fifth of people have symptoms for five weeks or more while around one in 10 are affected for 12 weeks or more. Overall, around 186,000 people in private households in England in the week beginning November 22 were living with Covid-19 symptoms that had persisted for between five and 12 weeks, the ONS said. When looking at symptoms among people, five weeks after they had tested positive for Covid-19, the ONS estimated that 11.5% of respondents were still experiencing fatigue, 11.4% had a cough and 10.1% had a headache. England now has 69 clinics to address long Covid, harnessing doctors, nurses, physiotherapists and occupational therapists to offer physical and psychological assessments and refer patients to the right treatment and rehabilitation services. A further 12 sites are due to launch in January. |
| Charlie Hebdo trial: Paris gunman’s widow jailed in absence for 30 years as 13 others found guilty The fugitive widow of an Isis gunman and a man described as his logistician have been convicted of terrorism and sentenced to 30 years in prison in the trial of 14 people over the deadly attacks in Paris on the satirical Charlie Hebdo newspaper and a kosher supermarket. Six weeks into the trial, in October, a French schoolteacher who opened a debate on free speech by showing students the Muhammad caricatures was beheaded by an 18-year-old Chechen refugee. Eight weeks into the trial, a young Tunisian armed with a knife and carrying a copy of the Quran attacked worshippers in a church in the southern city of Nice, killing three. The verdict ends the three-month trial linked to the three days of killings across Paris six years ago claimed jointly by Isis and al-Qaeda. During the proceedings, France was struck by new attacks, a wave of coronavirus infections among the defendants, and devastating testimony bearing witness to bloodshed that continues to shake France. Among those sentenced in their absence was Hayat Boumeddiene, former wife of Amedy Coulibaly who killed a police officer and then four people in a Jewish supermarket. The two men who spirited her out of France, who were also tried in absentia, are thought to be dead. Eleven others were present and all were convicted, with sentences ranging from 30 years for Ali Riza Polat, described as the lieutenant of the virulently antisemitic market attacker Coulibaly, to four years with a simple criminal conviction. A total of 17 people were murdered during the attacks in January 2015. The three attackers – brothers Said and Cherif Kouachi, and Amedy Coulibaly – were all killed by police.Boumeddiene, a widow, fled to Syria and is believed to still be alive. Police described her at the time as an “armed and dangerous” suspect. In all, investigators sifted through 37 million bits of phone data, according to video testimony by judicial police. Among the men handcuffed behind the courtroom’s enclosed stands, flanked by masked and armed officers, were several who had exchanged texts or calls with Coulibaly in the days leading up to the attack. They described any contacts as normal communications among acquaintances. Among those giving evidence were the widows of Cherif and Said Kouachi, the brothers who stormed Charlie Hebdo’s offices, decimating the newspaper’s editorial staff in what they said was an act of vengeance for its publication of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad years before. The offices had previously been firebombed and were unmarked, and editors had round-the-clock protection. But it wasn’t enough. In all, 12 people died in that attack. The first was Frederic Boisseau, who worked in maintenance. Then the Kouachis seized Corinne Rey, a cartoonist who had gone down to smoke, and forced her upstairs to punch in the door code. She watched in horror as they opened fire on the editorial meeting. For years, she harboured paralysing guilt that her life was spared while so many others died. “I was not killed, but what happened to me was absolutely chilling, and I will live with it until my life is over,” she told the court. The next day, Coulibaly shot and killed a young police officer after failing to attack a Jewish community centre in the suburb of Montrouge. By then, the Kouachis were on the run and France was racked with fear. At a kosher supermarket, Coulibaly entered, carrying an assault rifle, pistols and explosives. He methodically fired on an employee and a customer, then killed a second customer before ordering a cashier to close the store’s blinds. Despite the pleas, Coulibaly fired a killing shot, according to testimony from cashier Zarie Sibony. “You are Jews and French, the two things I hate the most,” Coulibaly told them. The Kouachi brothers were cornered in a printing shop with their own hostages, and ultimately, all three attackers died in near-simultaneous police raids. It was the first attack in Europe claimed by the Isis, which struck Paris again later that year to even deadlier effect. Boumeddiene, believed to be of Algerian descent, reportedly lived in Coulibaly’s apartment while he was in prison for his part in a plot to help Paris metro bomber Smain Ait Ali Belkacem escape. According to Le Monde, Boumeddiene said she and Coulibaly practised firing crossbows together in the countryside while on holiday visiting extremist Djamel Beghal, who claimed to have met Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan to plan a suicide bombing. During interrogation, she reportedly said she was inspired by her boyfriend and radicals she lived with to “read a lot of books on religion”. Six weeks into the trial, in October, a French schoolteacher who opened a debate on free speech by showing students the Muhammad caricatures was beheaded by an 18-year-old Chechen refugee. Eight weeks into the trial, a young Tunisian armed with a knife and carrying a copy of the Quran attacked worshippers in a church in the southern city of Nice, killing three. |
| Woman who lives near the North Pole lifts lid on her VERY unique lifestyle - revealing how a simple dog walk is an 'expedition' that requires layers of clothes, a headlamp, and a RIFLE in case she runs into a polar bear A woman living near the North Pole shared the great lengths she must go to just to walk her dog in the middle of the afternoon. Swedish native Cecilia Blomdahl lives in Svalbard, a Norwegian archipelago just south of the North Pole that is one of the northernmost inhabited areas in the world — which is so far north, in fact, that it experiences round-the-clock darkness from mid-November to late January. 'When walking your dog is an expedition,' Cecilia says in introduction to a recent viral TikTok video. Cecelia has a Finnish Lapphund named Grim, and sometimes takes him for walks with his 'brother' Fenris, who lives two cabins down and likes to visit. And whenever they go out in the winter, there is a lot of preparation to deal with the weather, the lack of daylight, and the wild animals. 'It's starting to get really cold here and it's pitch black 24/7,' Cecilia says, explaining that she needs to layer up with lots of clothes. The local temperature averages 6.8 degrees Fahrenheit in the winter to 42.8 degrees Fahrenheit in the summer. She wears thermals, expedition pants, and a down jacket to stay warm. She also adds a hat and a scarf covering most of her face. Just as important is the 'Teletubby headlight' on her head, which lights the way because it's totally dark outside — and there aren't exactly street lamps. Safety first! She also has to bring a rifle in case she encounters a polar bear 'And of course, that's not enough. We have polar bears here, so we have to bring a rifle with us ever time we're outside,' she says, showing herself strapping the gun on. The dogs need gear too, and she dresses them up in reflective neon vests and lights. 'The dogs are obviously invisible in the dark, so I put a bunch of blinkies and hi-[visibility] vests on them so I can actually see them when they run away from me,' she says. When she steps outside, she shows off the 'beautiful weather' that meets her at 4 p.m. It is completely dark, with snow coming down and already packed high on the ground. While she might be freezing, the dogs actually love it. They race her back to the cabin, stopping a lot along the way to play in the snow. Snow dog: Luckily, her dog is a fan of the weather and loves to play in the snow BFFs! Sometimes she takes out another dog who lives in a nearby cabin Cecilia moved to Svalbard five years ago, and what was supposed to be a temporary stay turned into a much longer one. She and her boyfriend have a cabin with electricity but no running water, and can reach the nearest settlement, Longyearbyen, with a 15-minute drive. Her dog is a fan of the area, too. She told Astrid Wild that he 'absolutely loves being outdoors so every time we head out on adventures it gives me extra joy – because I know that I'm giving him his best life'. You can see the excitement in his eyes when he gets to run around in the snow, or pull me along when I'm on skis, or when he sees a reindeer that he wants to go say hi to,' she added. 'It's SO important to choose a dog after it's characteristics and what weather they are adapted to, and not by the look of them,' she went on. 'A Finnish Lapphund, for example, is the perfect Svalbard dog. They are made for cold harsh winters, have super thick fur, and can sleep outside in cold weather without a problem, and they generally enjoy outdoor activities such as hiking, sledding, etc. |
Former national security adviser Michael Flynn, who was recently pardoned by Trump, made his case for invoking martial law to prevent Biden from taking office on Thursday. Flynn insisted that Trump has 'military capabilities' to force battleground states to redo their elections, claiming that voting software flipped Trump votes for Biden. 'I mean, it's not unprecedented. These people are out there talking about martial law like it's something that we've never done,' he said. |
| Victory in the war on woke: Judges' landmark ruling in case of mother who called trans woman 'he' on Twitter means freedom of speech DOES includes the 'right to offend' Two judges have ruled that free speech encompasses offensive language Judges have insisted that freedom of speech includes the ‘right to offend’ in a landmark ruling which could help to turn the tide on ‘woke’ intolerance after a feminist who called a transgender woman a "pig in a wig" was cleared. Presiding over a case in the Court of Appeal, Lord Justice Bean and Mr Justice Warby said: ‘Freedom only to speak inoffensively is not worth having.’ They added that ‘free speech encompasses the right to offend, and indeed to abuse another’. The judgment from two senior members of the judiciary will set a precedent for future cases involving freedom of speech. The ruling has emerged only now, but came in the successful appeal decided last week in favour of mother-of-two Kate Scottow, from Hitchin in Hertfordshire, after she had been found guilty under the 2003 Communications Act earlier in the year. She was arrested in 2018 and taken from her children and into custody after referring to trans woman Stefanie Hayden as a man, a ‘racist’ and a ‘pig in the wig’. Miss Hayden, 47, reported the online remarks to police. In February this year radical feminist Miss Scottow, 40, was handed a two-year conditional discharge, and ordered to pay £1,000 compensation, with district judge Margaret Dodds telling her: ‘Your comments contributed nothing to a debate. We teach children to be kind to each other and not to call each other names in the playground.’ But, overturning the decision, Mr Justice Warby explained that the relevant parts of the Communications Act ‘were not intended by Parliament to criminalise forms of expression, the content of which is no worse than annoying or inconvenient in nature’. Mr Justice Warby also suggested that the prosecution had been an "unjustified state interference with free speech". Lord Justice Bean said the appeal illustrated the need for decision-makers in the criminal justice system to have regard to issues of freedom of speech. The two appeal judges, who outlined their reasoning in a written ruling published on Wednesday, said prosecutors had not obtained "all the contextual material for the offending messages", and had presented the case in a "somewhat disorderly way" at the trial. Miss Scottow told The Daily Telegraph: ‘It was necessary to enshrine one of the most fundamental rights of every living being in a democratic society – the right to freedom of speech that is now routinely attacked...’ But Miss Hayden said: ‘This is... a kick in the teeth to the entire LGBT community.’ |
| Coronavirus: Swiss count cost of surge in deaths "Not every death is a catastrophe." With these words Swiss member of parliament Ruth Humbel ignited a debate that had been smouldering in Switzerland ever since the Covid-19 pandemic began back in March. She was taking part in a televised discussion - Swiss TV's 18th since the first case of the virus was recorded here. The aim this time was to talk about how to get through the winter, but Ms Humbel's comments soon dragged the debate into a row about whether any, or how many, deaths from Covid could be deemed acceptable. Have the Swiss had a lot of Covid deaths? Not at the start. In early summer the Swiss seemed to have beaten back the virus with ease, schools and restaurants were re-opened in early May, just about everything else in June, and the first wave ended with fewer than 2,000 deaths. How things have changed. Although it was clear in October the second wave had arrived, the Swiss cantons dithered about what to do. They have responsibility for health unless the government declares a state of emergency, as it did in March. Now infections have surged to more than 5,000 a day and total Covid deaths are approaching 7,000, averaging between 80 and 100 a day. The previous peak, reached in April, was 63. Only this week a former Swiss president, Flavio Cotti, died reportedly of complications caused by the virus. Swiss leaders meet on Friday to consider whether to move to some form of partial lockdown. Do the Swiss think it's OK to die of Covid? No they don't, but they do disagree about how to view the consequences of the pandemic and the restrictions that have accompanied it. Those Swiss TV shows have featured debates between doctors, some of whom point angrily to the immense strain the hospitals are under, while others, often GPs, cite the increased levels of depression and stress they are seeing among their patients. The vast majority of people who have died of Covid in Switzerland are over 80. One Swiss doctor told me that "we have forgotten how to die", and argued that offering mechanical ventilation to a very elderly person was inhumane, and unlikely to save their life. Such comments are no comfort to families who have lost relatives to Covid, or to intensive care staff currently doing 12-hour shifts and facing Christmas without a single day off. But they do reflect an approach to death that may be more pragmatic, if not more hard-headed, than some other countries. Switzerland's health service is good and life expectancy is one of the highest in the world, but many Swiss also spend a lot of time thinking about the finite nature of life. Assisted suicide is legal in Switzerland, those who want to try to avoid a long and painful passing are allowed to do so, and membership of assisted suicide organisations like Exit is commonplace. When the pandemic began, elderly people openly discussed what sort of treatment they might accept if they fell ill, and many said they did not want to be ventilated. Isn't it just about money? Some Swiss do argue that the economy has been prioritised over life, and when Switzerland's finance minister, a member of the right-wing Swiss People's Party said "we can't afford another lockdown", he angered many, not least his government colleague, the Social Democrat health minister. In fact Switzerland has injected billions into support schemes to weather the pandemic, and last week topped up the fund again. But there have also been delays, complacency and basic uncertainty about what exactly should be done to cope with a pandemic caused by a brand new virus. At the start of December 5,000 candles were lit outside Switzerland's parliament to mark 5,000 Covid deaths. By March, if things continue as they are, there could be 10,000 candles. That is a catastrophe. Ruth Humbel's words, although they have attracted bitter criticism, are not what caused it. What she actually said was that the virus "is another sign that our lives are finite", that "we need to learn to deal with death", that "every death (not just from Covid) is a loss, but not every death is a catastrophe". Many Swiss would agree that is a discussion worth having, maybe just not right now. |
| A French court found guilty on Wednesday 14 accomplices of the French Islamist militants behind the January 2015 attacks on the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine and a Jewish supermarket in Paris. Among the 14 was Hayat Boumeddiene, former partner of Amedy Coulibaly who killed a policewoman and then four people in a Jewish supermarket. One of three suspects to be tried in absentia, Boumeddiene was found guilty of financing terrorism and belonging to a criminal terrorist network. She is thought to be alive and on the run from an international arrest warrant in Syria, where she joined Islamic State. Coulibaly was himself an associate of the gunmen behind the deadly attack at the Paris offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in January 2015. France's ruling party promises change in controversial proposed security law. The accomplices were found guilty on different charges, ranging from membership of a criminal network to complicity in the attacks. Terrorism-related charges were dropped for several of the defendants who were found guilty of lesser crimes. Sentencing will follow shortly. The trial has reopened one of modern France's darkest episodes, with the attacks marking the onset of a wave of Islamist violence that has killed scores more since. |
| Greater Manchester Police to be placed into special measures after damning report Greater Manchester Police will be placed into special measures following a damning report which found it had failed to record 80,000 crimes in 12 months. Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services, who made the decision, says it reflects the "poor service the force provides to many victims of crime". It said: "The level of scrutiny on Greater Manchester Police has been raised and the force has been placed in the Engage stage of the HMICFRS monitoring process. This is due to the causes of concern raised in HMICFRS’s recent reports which have highlighted the poor service the force provides to many victims of crime. "In the Engage stage, a force is required to develop an improvement plan to address the specific causes of concern that have led to it being placed in the advanced phase of the monitoring process. "The process is intended to provide support to the force from external organisations including the Home Office, College of Policing and the National Police Chiefs Council to assist in achieving the required improvements." GMP fail to record 80,000 crimes in a year whilst closing other cases without proper investigation A report released by the watchdog on 7 December found the second largest police force in England failed to record around one in five of all crimes, and one in four violent crimes, reported by the public. Between 1 July 2019 and 30 June 2020, Greater Manchester Police (GMP) failed to record an estimated 80,100 crimes reported to it - amounting to around 220 crimes a day. A higher proportion of violent crime was not recorded, including domestic abuse and behavioural crimes, such as harassment, stalking and coercive controlling behaviour. Inspectors estimated that the force recorded 77.7% of reported crimes, a drop of 11.3% from 2018. The force wrongly and prematurely closed some investigations, inspectors found, some with vulnerable victims, a proportion being domestic abuse cases, where although a suspect was identified, the victim did not support, or withdrew support for police action. And "in too many cases" watchdogs said there was no evidence to confirm the victim's wishes had been properly considered before the investigation was closed, and inspectors could not be sure that victims were properly safeguarded and provided with the right service or support. At the time of the report, Bev Hughes, Greater Manchester’s Deputy Mayor for Policing, Crime and Criminal Justice said: "It is absolutely critical that the general public has faith in the processes used by the police to record incidences of crime. Some of the findings in this HMICFRS report are extremely disappointing and I have communicated my feelings to the Chief Constable at Greater Manchester Police, who must now move quickly to make improvements." Both Andy Burnham, the Mayor of Greater Manchester, and Bev Hughes, announced a series of actions following the report - including a hotline for anyone who feels the crime they are reporting has not been recorded. * * * Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham should resign after the region's police force was placed in special measures, an MP has said. Greater Manchester Police was placed into an "advanced phase" of monitoring on Thursday, after it failed to record 80,000 crimes in a year. Conservative MP for Bolton West Chris Green said Andy Burnham, who oversees policing in the area, should step down. Mr Burnham has yet to respond to the latest steps by the police watchdog. In a report last week, inspectors said GMP's service to victims of crime was a "serious cause of concern". HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services said about 220 crimes a day went unrecorded in the year up to June 2020. Inspectors found officers prematurely closed some cases without a full investigation, while the force did not properly record evidence that victims supported the decisions, particularly in cases of domestic abuse. This means the force, the second largest in England, must "develop an improvement plan to address the specific causes of concern". As part of his role, Labour mayor Mr Burnham has responsibilities around the governance and budgets relating to GMP, supported by Bev Hughes, the deputy mayor for policing and crime. Mr Green said Mr Burnham should "resign now" as he has "absolute responsibility for policing, its failures". "His role ultimately is to ensure that GMP is delivering. He is in a position if he doesn't think GMP is performing and is delivering then he can challenge and if necessary he can sack the chief of police," he said. "That is Andy Burnham's power over policing in Manchester. He has absolute authority." Former GMP detective Maggie Oliver, who resigned over the way grooming cases in Rochdale were handled by the force, said it was "shameful" that Mr Burnham "ignored these concerns highlighted to him by myself and two ex colleagues" in August 2018. "Had he acted then, thousands of victims could have been spared further neglect," she said in a post on Twitter. The force's Chief Constable Ian Hopkins has yet to speak publicly since the report was published last week. Sir Richard Leese, Manchester City Council leader, said the watchdog's findings indicate there are "major issues" that need to be addressed. "I think it kind of says it all that GMP so far have not put up a spokesperson to explain what the situation is, what's been going on," he added. GMP has been contacted but has yet to respond. In a statement released on Wednesday, the mayor and deputy mayor said they were "putting in place the necessary actions to improve standards of service to victims of crime in Greater Manchester" |
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