ARTICLE 1
Number of European criminals in British jails DOUBLED in last ten years… with 12% of all prisoners now from outside the UK
By Daily Mail Reporter
PUBLISHED: 15:31 GMT, 10 March 2012 | UPDATED: 15:37 GMT, 10 March 2012
The last decade has seen the number of foreign offenders locked up every year in English prisons more than double, with only a few actually completing their full sentences.
With the majority of them guilty of serious crimes, receiving sentences of four years or more.
Official figures show the number of European offenders sent to jail for violent or sexual offences has tripled in recent years.
English prisons are seeing a large increase in criminals from EU countries, new official statistics have revealed
Despite there being a scheme in place to repatriate foreign offenders for some time, only 10 have been sent back in the last few months under existing arrangements.
The statistics were uncovered in parliament by Lib Dem MP Martin Horwood, who sits on his party’s international affairs committee.
Horwood said that Britain could save millions by returning offenders to their home countries under the new scheme. The cost of keeping one prisoner locked up for a year is more than £30,000.
Mr Horwood told the Daily Telegraph said: ‘This represents a staggering cost to the British taxpayer for looking after prisoners from other European Union countries who are in the UK.
‘I think the Government should certainly not be contemplating opting out of the one EU-wide scheme which gives us the possibility of sending these prisoners home to serve sentences in their own country.’
The prison population in England and Wales is at 98 per cent capacity, affecting jails like HMP Pentonville in London
Last month the prison population in England and Wales reached 98 per cent capacity – a figure of 57,583.
Offenders from the European Union make up more than four per cent of the total.
Foreign nationals make up 12 per cent of the total prison population, with most coming from Poland, Jamaica and Ireland.
The number of EU nationals in English jails is 2,696, 10 years ago that number was less than half that – 1,321.
The biggest increases were in violence against the person (196 to 610), sexual offences (75 to 348).
Drug offences have actually fallen slightly in the last 10 years, from 524 in 2002 to 441 in 2011.
Last year 949 EU nationals were sentenced to four years or more, with a further 772 given prison sentences of between one and four years.
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Walter in Germany, I do not know if you are German or not, but i am amazed by your comment about xenophobes, I believe that it was the Germans who believed themselves to be the master rate, and with the rise of the far right still do, even there bullying of Greece via the EU shows that things have not changed that much.
– Smudge RN Falklands Vet/ and RMR, Worcester, 10/3/2012 20:31
Rating 1
You might be interested to learn that 30 seconds research show that the proportions in other countries are:- France 20%, Germany 26%, Spain 35%, Italy 37%, Sweden 28%, Norway 32%, Austrailia 20%. So, perhaps the UK at 12% is not doing so bad after all!! The full picture usually gives a better perspective, but, hey ho, this is the DM.
– Gary, Glad to be free from the UK, 10/3/2012 20:19
Rating 2
And all our politicians are waiting for someone else to do something about it.
– Paul, Liverpool, 10/3/2012 20:00
Rating 21
That will be down to good’ole B.Liar, Plunkitt and co. Nobody wanted to hear it back in the early 2000’s…and apparently ‘nobody’ voted for these idiots -time and time again. Still fewer ‘nobody’s’ wanted our boy’s to be killed in a ‘toilet’ as one man said earlier…and ‘nobody’ wanted the banks to be allowed to destroy our economy… Its pretty not ironic that NOBODY wants to see, hear or listen to Milli-Bland nor Mr. Balls at the moment… One thing is for sure. The treaties that Labour signed us up to for before they were hauled out of office….NOBODY WILL BE ABLE TO REMOVE THESE CRIMINALS IN THE FORESEEABLE FUTURE…
– Dean, eermm…not me…, 10/3/2012 19:57
Rating 23
Well, aren’t we just amazed by this revelation – not
– lulu, Yorkshire, 10/3/2012 19:52
Rating 26
and we are not allowed to say what we think about them.
– Alan, Huddersfield, 10/3/2012 19:42
Rating 32
Bill their home countries !
– Robbie, Sidmouth UK, 10/3/2012 19:35
Rating 29
soon as there charged send them back to there home country to serve there sentence why should taxpayers have to keep them here.
– rick, lincoln, uk, 10/3/2012 19:34
Rating 30
return all of them to france as most will have come thru that country, let the eu masters sort it because our lunatic MPs cant
– jim rooney, leeds england, 10/3/2012 19:25
Rating 40
The Labour Legacy lives on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on………………………………………………………………………………..
– Disillusioned, Middle England, 10/3/2012 19:25
[[[ *** RESPONSE *** ]]]
Heres how Osama should have taken out England. Pay for as many tickets to England as possible for uneducated and impoverished, hopeless future-type 3rd world Muslims who are willing to shout about religion in the middle of the street or be rude and offensive to ‘underdressed’ Muslim women in England, pick random fights with unknown people, then get themselves locked up for a few years. Repeat when released before leaving – then before long a few million Muslims multiplied by 40+K a year (thats the cost of per prisoner yearly – how could that cost so much for a single cell and ‘gruel’, most poor 99% types survive on far less than 40+K a year . . . ) should put England under.
ARTICLE 2
Stoned to death for being an emo: NINETY Iraqi students killed for having ‘strange hair and tight clothes’
Number of deaths could be even higher
Cleric calls the stonings ‘an act of terrorism’
Ministry of Interior ‘complicit’ in the killings
By Paul Milligan PUBLISHED: 10:55 GMT, 10 March 2012 | UPDATED: 18:59 GMT, 10 March 2012
More than 90 Iraqi students have been stoned to death for their Emo haircuts by religious extremists in Baghdad in the past month after Iraq’s interior ministry dubbed it ‘devil worshipping’.
Iraq’s Moral Police released a statement on the interior ministry’s website condemning the ’emo phenomenon’ among Iraqi youth, declaring its intent to ‘eliminate’ the trend.
The move is part of a wider clampdown on young people taking on what government officials call ‘Western appearances’ in Iraq.
Iraqi activists said this unnamed teenager was brutally killed by religious police for having an ’emo’ hairstyle
Iraqi activists said this unnamed teenager was brutally killed by religious police for having an ’emo’ hairstyle
‘The Emo phenomenon or devil worshipping is being followed by the Moral Police who have the approval to eliminate (the phenomenon) as soon as possible since it’s detrimentally affecting the society and becoming a danger,’ the statement read.
‘They wear strange, tight clothes that have pictures on them such as skulls and use stationary that are shaped as skulls. They also wear rings on their noses and tongues, and do other strange activities.’
Since the statement was published religious extremists have been harassing and killing teenagers with ‘strange’ or ’emo’ appearances.
Religious extremists have been harassing and killing teenagers with ‘strange’ or ’emo’ appearances
A group of armed men dressed in civilian clothing led dozens of teenagers to secluded areas a few days ago, stoned them to death, and then disposed their bodies in garbage dumpsters across the capital, according to activists, activists told the Cairo-based al-Akhbar website.
The armed men are said to belong to ‘one of the most extremist religious groups’ in Iraq.
‘First they throw concrete blocks at the boy’s arms, then at his legs, then the final blow is to his head, and if he is not dead then, they start all over again,’ one person who managed to escape told Al-Akhbar.
Iraq’s moral police was granted approval by the Ministry of Education to enter Baghdad schools and pinpoint students with such appearances, according to the interior ministry’s statement.
The exact death toll remains unclear, but Hana al-Bayaty of Brussels Tribunal, an NGO dealing with Iraqi issues, said the current figure ranges ‘between 90 and 100.’
‘What’s most disturbing about this is that they’re so young,’ she said.
This ’emo’ youth was one of nearly 100 who were targeted for having a western hairstyle or wearing ‘American jeans’
This ’emo’ youth was one of nearly 100 who were targeted for having a western hairstyle or wearing ‘American jeans’
Al-Bayaty said the killings appear to have been carried out by extremist Shia militias in mostly poor Shia neighborhoods and said she suspected ‘there’s complicity of the Ministry of Interior in the killings.’
Photos of the victims were released on Facebook, causing panic and fear among Iraqi students.
WHAT IS EMO?
Described as both a cult and sect, it’s name derives from the word ‘emotional’
Its teen followers dress in black, favouring tight jeans, T-shirts, studded belts and sneakers or skater shoes.
Hair is often dyed black and straightened, and worn in a long fringe brushed to one side of the face.
Music also plays a critical role, Emos like guitar-based rock with emotional lyrics – bands such as My Chemical Romance, Jimmy Eat World, and Dashboard Confessional are particular favourites.
They regard themselves as a cool, young sub-set of the Goths.
With the trend comes accusations of self-harming and suicide – something its followers strongly deny.
A young man with long hair was among those fearful at the government-ordained harassment of teenagers with Western appearances.
‘I have long hair but that doesn’t mean I’m an Emo. I’m not less of a man if I have long hair. Let’s not say that if I have long hair, I’m a homosexual, but I have long hair because this is my style, this is me,’ he told Iraq’s Al-Sharqiya television network.
Safiyyah al-Suhail, an MP, said on Thursday that ‘some students have been recently arrested because they were wearing American jeans or had Western haircuts.’
The interior ministry has not disclosed the number of teenage victims, but released a follow-up statement on Thursday warning extremists ‘not to step on public freedom of Iraqis.’
News of the gruesome deaths drew a stern reaction from Iraq’s prominent Shia cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, who criticised the stoning of the young men as ‘an act of terrorism.’
He added: ‘The Ministry of Interior took this situation very seriously and received an approval from the Ministry of Education to set a plan under my full supervision and to allow us to enter schools in the capital.’
‘There are some cases of the spread of this phenomenon specifically among schools in Baghdad, but we are facing great difficulty in the lack of women on the force who would allow us to carry the investigation more accurately since the phenomenon is more popular among girls between the ages of 14 and 18.’
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I thought that was IRAN. Wow Iraq is worse than Iran now. And even after USA trashed then occupied Iraq as well! USA, can you see this? Meanwhile Iran has become more open!?!
ARTICLE 3
Clegg wants ‘tycoon tax’ to trap rich who pay less than 20% with fury raging over child benefit axe – By James Chapman – UPDATED: 11:44 GMT, 10 March 2012
Crackdown: Nick Clegg last night called for a ‘tycoon tax’ to address the problem of tax evasion by the nation’s highest earners
Nick Clegg last night called for a ‘tycoon tax’ that would force the rich to pay a minimum rate and tackle the problem of tax avoidance.
The Deputy Prime Minister said it was unfair that while ordinary Britons were paying 30 or 40 per cent, hundreds of millionaires were getting away with sacrificing less than 20 per cent of their income by using an ‘army of lawyers and accountants’.
He said he would be willing to support the scrapping of the 50p top rate of income tax – a key demand of senior Tories – as long as millionaires are ‘properly’ taxed in Britain.
Mr Clegg said the wealthy used a wide array of tax loopholes and reliefs, which are inaccessible to ordinary workers, to reduce their bills. It means they often pay lower rates on annual earnings than those on much lower wages.
The Lib Dem leader yesterday repeated to his party that ‘the wealthy have to pay more’, as Government plans to remove child benefit from the better-off came under fierce attack as a measure that would undermine marriage.
Mr Clegg, speaking on the opening day of his party’s spring conference, insisted austerity measures must be targeted at the wealthy – with tax relief on their pensions also in the Government’s sights.
But in an interview, he turned his attention to the issue of tax avoidance. He said thousands of millionaires pay tax at a rate of less than 30 per cent, depriving the Exchequer of hundreds of millions of pounds a year.
Mr Clegg said he was arguing in government for a specific minimum rate of tax to be written into law to ensure people are ‘paying their fair share’ and not ‘massaging’ the system.
He said he decided on the need for a tycoon tax after Mitt Romney, who is expected to be the U.S. Republican presidential candidate, disclosed he was paying just 13.9 per cent tax on his multi-million dollar earnings.
George Osborne insists it is ‘fair’ to ask high-income families to share the burden of cutting Britain’s debt by removing their child benefit
He said: ‘You hope that kind of thing doesn’t go on in this country. So I looked into it. There are hundreds of people earning millions per year who are barely paying 20 per cent tax, forget 40 per cent, forget 50 per cent, forget 30 per cent. They are not even paying 20 per cent.
‘Therefore, I think it’s time that we look at what I call a tycoon tax. If you’re earning millions per year, if you’re able to pay an army of lawyers and accountants to basically pick and choose what tax you are paying, if you are paying as low as 25, 20 per cent or even less in tax, there should be a minimum fair share that you should pay to society.’
He told the Daily Telegraph: ‘It makes people so incredibly angry when you are getting up early in the morning, working really hard to try and do the right thing for your family and for your community, you are paying your taxes and then you see people literally in a different galaxy who are paying extraordinarily low rates of tax.’
Mr Clegg said he was undecided on a figure for the minimum rate. However, it is understood it could be set between 20 and 30 per cent.
Supporter: David Cameron has backed same-sex marriages
A big increase in the tax-free allowance for 23million basic rate taxpayers will be the centrepiece of this month’s Budget, but there are rare signs of tension between Downing Street and the Treasury over how far ‘wealth taxes’, which would help pay for the move, should go.
However, Danny Alexander revealed that he was close to agreeing proposals with the Chancellor, George Osborne, to go ‘further and faster’ towards removing low earners from tax. In an interview in today’s Independent the Chief Secretary to the Treasury said that raising the tax threshold ‘is our priority’.
At the last budget, Mr Osborne said the personal tax allowance would rise by £630 to £8,105 this April. The coalition has pledged as a long-term goal raising the income tax threshold to £10,000, which would enable some 2.2 million people to stop paying tax.
And Mr Alexander told The Independent that the Lib Dems would pledge to further raise the allowance to £12,000 in their next election manifesto, meaning that no one working full-time on the minimum wage would pay tax.
Meanwhile pressure on the Chancellor increased as a thinktank set up by Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith shredded his proposal to remove child benefit from higher-rate taxpayers from next year.
Family stability will suffer a further blow if the Government presses ahead with its plans, the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) warned in a report.
Couples will be deterred from marrying or cohabiting and there will be a greater risk of fraud in the benefits system, which already costs the country £1.8billion a year, it said.
Single mothers will be particularly hard hit because they will be worse off if they marry or move in with a high-earning man.
Treasury sources have insisted that the proposal to remove child benefit from families where one parent earns £42,745 a year or more is, in fact, ‘very popular’, though they are working on ways to soften its impact.
The Government says it will save £2.5billion a year by starting to means-test child benefit, traditionally paid to all families regardless of income.
BOOST FOR MIDDLE-CLASS FAMILIES
Middle Britain will benefit most from Government plans to increase the income tax allowance to £10,000, economists say.
Households with incomes of around £40,000 will be the biggest winners, since they tend to have two earners rather than one who will enjoy the maximum benefit of new tax breaks, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies.
All 23million basic rate taxpayers will benefit from plans to increase the amount that can be earned tax-free. A big increase in the tax-free allowance, to around £8,400, is expected to be at the heart of the Budget this month.
However, if the move is paid for by holding down the higher rate tax allowance – currently just under £43,000 – more people will be pulled into the upper band as a result.
The Coalition says it wants to increase the allowance to £10,000 by the time of the 2015 election.
Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said last night he wanted to see that ‘the largest amount of money by far, if you are delivering tax cuts, is spent on getting people on low pay out of paying income tax’.
Labour’s Treasury spokesman Rachel Reeves said: ‘An increase in the personal allowance is better than doing nothing.
‘But a temporary VAT cut would help pensioners and others on low incomes who don’t pay income tax.’
Here’s what other readers have said. Why not add your thoughts, or debate this issue live on our message boards.
The comments below have not been moderated.
Too right the rich should pay more, they earn more and exploit others! Also people shouldn’t be paid to have children if you can’t afford them, don’t have them simples and if you’re both earning £40000 you def don’t need them!
– Scarlett, Sheffield, 10/3/2012 22:47
Rating (0)
Dave, 20.41. Dave, I just don’t believe you are self employed. You would know a lot more about exactly what taxes have to be payed when you are a company director. You’ve exposed your ‘inexactitudes’ with your inaccurate post.
– ohdear, UK., 10/3/2012 22:39
Rating (0)
. How about this if you have kids – YOU pay for them? I’m sick and tired of going without and constantly struggling myself (working) and at the same time being forced by bleeding-heart liberals to bank roll others. – George Brown, Hornchurch, Essex, 10/3/2012 20:46<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< Does that apply to pensioners as well?
– Peter, Kent, 10/3/2012 22:39
Rating (0)
Envy is a terrible thing!!!
Stupid people with pathetic lives ALWAYS complaining how other smarter people should pay more tax – why?
Because they happen to be smarter than you and have made something of themselves through risk and hardwork rather than sit on their butts whining about their miserable lives
Don’t blame your failures and inadequacies on the successful – you may be able to learn something from them
– Toppers, London, 10/3/2012 22:27
Rating 4
Our MPs would be well advised to put as much effort into ensuring that tax revenue is spent wisely as they do in dreaming up new ways to tax us. Instead we hear constant stories of money being wasted left, right and centre. Millions spent on the development of computer systems that either fail to materialise or end up being scrapped. Millions spent on aid to countries that can easily support themselves. Millions spent on unions reps who do nothing. Millions spent on relocation bonuses to those MPs who can’t manage to get re-elected. It seems to me that the only way to put a stop to this wastage is to remove the temptation. If the wastage was dealt with then the need extract ever larger sums from the populous would abate and our leaders would find that lifting the tax thresholds would be a simpler matter. Attempting to generate a higher tax take without dealing with the underlying problems just means that the wastage increases, something of a vicious circle.
– Paul, Holbeach, UK, 10/3/2012 22:13
Rating 13
Here’s an original idea; EVERYONE pay 10% tax. No matter who they are. Across the board. Same for businesses. I guarantee it will bring more revenue for the coffers than anything Cloggy and scameroon can think up. No inheritance tax- we all already paid the taxes, no capital gains tax, just that 10% on what you earned from the capital invested as part of your annual income. It completely simplifies the tax system, doing away with the legions of taxmen we have at the moment and it would so encourage business, enterprise and the workforce that everyone would be quite happy to pay it. Probably the lowest tax system in the developed world. But I suppose it would never be implimented. Politicians like to think they are being generous with our money…..
– Nonpc, Toytown,UK, 10/3/2012 22:10
Rating 7
All very well prancing around and sounding off about a mansion tax. Who is going to value the properties and how often? How much are all the valuations going to cost? Will the effect be to drive wealthy people overseas so that then the government gets next to nothing? Clegg just wants to get points with his own back benchers for some class hatred. Will the valuations be reviewed and how often? And is any account to be taken of the age of the occupants, the purchase price when they first bought it? Otherwise there will be some real cases of injustice. A million quid barely buys a shoebox in some parts of London. And before there are exorbitant demands on home owners for tax every year are there going to be exceptions for those unable to pay – pensioners, people who had money once and now have very little due to bereavements or loss of employment? This all sounds like the Poll Tax all over again – a brilliant wheeze but no one has thought it through.
– Kathryn Bennett, Reading, UK, 10/3/2012 22:05
Rating 6
What a stupid man I will simply leave the country and stop creating wealth and employment. – Pip, Peterborough UK, 10/3/2012 21:05 Go on then and the property prices will fall giving the young dispossessed their first chance on the property ladder. And anyway currently there really isn’t anywhere to go, the whole world’s in crisis, so you can’t bully boy your way out of it this time this way.
– Clare Kingston, Swindon, United Kingdom, 10/3/2012 21:35
Rating 1
What a stupid man I will simply leave the country and stop creating wealth and employment.
– Pip, Peterborough UK, 10/3/2012 21:05
Rating 13
bolshevik clegg, lets hope he goes the same way trotsky did….. ice for my gin barman!
– simon, GB, 10/3/2012 20:58
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The rich do not need any benefits. In fact class distinctions between middle and upper (lower and middle even) when uncertain (regardless of wealth – y’see wealth does not make class, it is a certain ethos adnd pathos that determines who is classed as what) will depend on who SHAMELESSLY takes benefits.
Example here – 2 people of same wealth (won’t say how much) both claiming to be upper or middle. REGARDLSS OF WEALTH – the real middle class society type will be typified by a sense of principles and pride that is expressed in refusing to take benefits, and the upper class even GIVE benefits (via philanthropy) rather than take benefits. Guess English principles stayed lost after the colonial era eh? Anyone who can push Opium or Colonize and subjugate the really quite alright Indians (they don’t try to convert people and generally are tolerant of general weirdness) can’t claim any ethical compass . . .
This is a very condiderate law (aslo demographically sound – 1 billionaire has 1 vote only, so who do you think Cameron would prefer to write policy for. 99% votes of the poor (well maybe 50%) or 1% of the votes?
ARTICLE 4
Channel 4 search for ‘fresh meat’ forced me off Countdown, reveals Carol Vorderman – PUBLISHED: 01:53 GMT, 11 March 2012 | UPDATED: 01:54 GMT, 11 March 2012
TV trauma: Carol Vorderman left Countdown after 26 years
Carol Vorderman has claimed she was forced off Countdown after 26 years because Channel 4 bosses were looking for ‘fresh meat’.
The former co-host of one of TV’s longest-running quiz shows waded into the debate about older women on air in a candid interview with Piers Morgan for his Life Stories series. She revealed she has not watched the show since she left in 2008. Ms Vorderman, 51, also said she was bitter that Channel 4 bosses have never invited her back, even as a guest.
She said: ‘To me, it is like a bereavement as I was always terribly loyal to Countdown and I protected it. It was more than half my adult life.’ She recalled the last show that her co-host Richard Whiteley recorded, in which he inexplicably said: ‘Welcome to the final Countdown.’ In another eerie twist, the last conundrum of that episode spelt ‘lifefails’.
Mr Whiteley died in 2005 from septicaemia, which he contracted after emergency heart surgery.
Ms Vorderman said she ‘loved’ him and never argued with him in their 23-year TV partnership.
At the time of Ms Vorderman’s departure from Countdown, it was reported that the Cambridge maths graduate left because she refused to take a 90 per cent cut in her £1.2 million annual salary.
But Miss Vorderman said: ‘I agreed for them to take a third off my wages, or even halve them, but once new bosses came on to the show they wanted fresh meat.’
Ms Vorderman’s interview is likely to be broadcast in the next few weeks.
Carol with her Countdown co-host Richard Whiteley
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2.5 decades is Mubarak-esque/Gaddafi-esque/Abdullah Saleh-esque term limitless in feel. Vorderman should be happy they took her off before she looks like the female version of the ‘Evil Math-magician’. Also Vordermans’ fans would be happy to remember Vorderman in the prime of health rather than aged. It’s better for everyone and especially Vorderman who can retire and enjoy a probably many many times more than 401K retirement. Finally, how the hell is a Math programme host supposed to be allowed to earn 10s of millions anyway? Ridiculous! Blah to 1%ters! Good sense of democracy going on here! Vorderman has become a plutocrat, and in this day and age of even honourably serving military officers (some badly injured) becoming bankrupt and homeless on the street, this sort of citizen speaks very badly about USA’s priorities.
Nothing against Voderman but this extreme salary is just wrong. Once any person reaches 401K or depending on the social position lets say 10 times 401K, it’s time they stood aside for others to earn a living. Asset hogs are a blight on wealth distribution and at a 10 times 401K quantum, any ‘axings’ cannot be considered Marxism, especially when there are wars going on and trhe country is so heavily in debt that bankruptcy is already in effect but not formalized. What business does a Math Programme Hostess have in holding such wealth?!? Any hostesses should only retire at upper class, or ‘lower rich non-working class’ wealth levels at most. Kudos to ‘Channel 4’ and ‘Countdown’ .
Next, media establishments should consider a ‘give back’ paradigm that perhaps returns anything beyond a 300% profit reserved above the total overhead to the society (one can imagine how many 1000s of percent turn over can be for some media outfits, those mogul or star types should not sequester far too much either, say 50 times of 401K at most perhaps should be fair? Society is fractured when veteran soldiers beg on the street while porn stars drink 50K bottles of champagne every night . . . ). Sequestration of wealth by media owners and stockholders should not take away wealth from society as well. This should be optional of course, but considered a ‘best practice’ and ‘people friendly media’ status for countries with extreme debt especially.
malaysiandemocracy 