Watch: grooming gang victim criticises Lucy Powell

The row over Lucy Powell's outrageous comments are not going away anytime soon. It was on Any Questions last week that the Leader of the House of Commons suggested that discussing the subject of grooming gangs effectively amounted to a 'dog whistle.' She has now been forced to issue a grovelling apology in the House, having, er, conspicuously failed to do so in her original post on X.
But among the victims of those disgusting gangs, there is anger and dismay at the attitudes of politicians like Powell. This morning one of them was interviewed by Laura Kuenssberg on her flagship BBC show. Steph, who was abused when she was 12, was asked on what it is like to hear the political conversation about grooming gangs. She replied: 'It makes me angry, especially the comment of the dog whistler and stuff like that. It's not very nice to us as victims.'

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Daily Mirror

2 hours ago

• Daily Mirror

Inside tiny country frozen in time 'that doesn't exist' and is 3 hours from UK

An eerie relic of the Soviet Union, this separatist region filled with Lenin statues and Putin souvenirs declared independence back in 1990 - but is internationally not recognised as an actual country Touted as a 'surreal relic of Soviet times', this tiny country is attracting tourists from around the world - despite technically not even existing. Eerily trapped in a 'time warp bubble', Transnistria is a separatist region sandwiched between the Dniester River and Ukrainian border. In 1990, it broke away from Moldova, becoming a de facto independent, semi-presidential republic with its own government, parliament, military, police, currency, postal system and vehicle registration. ‌ Transnistria has even adopted its very own constitution, flag (which features the communist hammer and sickle), national anthem and coat of arms. However, it is internationally unrecognised, and is still seen as part of Moldova. ‌ With political, economical, and military ties to Russia, the narrow strip of land - located some three hours away from the UK - has preserved its idolisation of the USSR, despite its downfall. In the capital of Tiraspol, tourists will be able to spot soaring statues of Vladimir Lenin, run-down buses travelling along electrified lines, and souvenir shops flogging posters of Putin. It feels as though the area has become stuck in the 1950s, and has recently become a potential site for Russia to deploy 10,000 troops. The area is also facing 'deep economic contraction' as Russia - which had previously supplied the de-facto state with near-free gas, has started to impose tighter restrictions. "A referendum on independence in September 2006, not recognised by Moldova or the international community, saw the territory reassert its demand for independence and vote in support of ensuing a union with Russia," reports the BBC. "After Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Ukraine sealed its border with Transnistria - this had been the main route for imports - making Transnistria wholly reliant on Moldova for imports through its own border." ‌ It's therefore no surprise that the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) currently advises Brits against all travel to Transnistria. "There is widespread military activity in Ukraine, including close to some Moldovan borders," the body warns. "Transnistria is outside the control of the Moldovan government. FCDO's ability to offer support is extremely limited and will be more limited if there is military action on or near the Moldova-Ukraine border." ‌ The UK government also warns that Moldova announced an energy state of emergency on December 16, 2024, linked to the cut-off of gas supplies on January 1, 2025. This may result in widespread blackouts. Despite the warnings, several Brits have headed over to Transnistria, promoting it as the 'cheapest' place in Europe. User Kieran Brown, who visited last year, raved about the region - claiming a bottle of vodka from the shops costs just $1 (approximately 74p). "The Soviet vibes can really be felt here in the capital of Tiraspol," he said. "Many things have been left unchanged since the USSR. This truly was one of the most interesting places I've ever visited in my life." *Heading to a country on the FCDO's do not travel list could void your insurance. You can read the government's full advice here.

The National

4 hours ago

• The National

Kenny MacAskill: Donald Trump bombing Iran is illegal and insane

The greatest Scottish football player of my lifetime was more noted for his reticence rather than his eloquence, instead, letting his feet do the talking on the pitch and his tactics when in management. But it sure isn't funny when the president of the United States, a nuclear power with a formidable arsenal, states 'maybe I will, maybe I won't' when playing as a cat would with a mouse but about a strike on Iran. Now he's gone and done it let's be clear this is both illegal and insane. It's a clear breach of international law and threatens all of humanity with destruction. This wasn't an off-the-mike gaffe as with Ronald Reagan and his crass quip about commencing bombing Russia in FIVE minutes. READ MORE: John Swinney calls for 'diplomatic solution' after US bombs Iran Trump's was a premeditated statement seeking not just to put pressure on the Iranian regime but to demand its unconditional surrender. It was playing with the lives of tens of millions of people both in Iran and around the globe. Bullying and bombastic just doesn't cover it. Those in this country who have been craven or sycophantic to the US president are finding that they get nothing in return from him or his oligarchic mates. The office of a democratically elected president has to be respected even if he demeans it. But no more than that. State visits, let alone invites to his supposed ancestral lands are simply humiliating. No evidence has been found that Iran is planning to create a nuclear bomb. That doesn't come from me or even from international agencies but instead from US military intelligence. Of course, the Iranian regime isn't pleasant and many there, if not most, yearn for change. No doubt there's a few in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps who would love to have a nuclear bomb but the fact of the matter is they don't, and the evidence shows they're not even planning it. The rhetoric from US hawks and neo-cons is false and about endless war and US domination. Forcing regime change is wrong and illegal. US American intervention may simply stiffen the regime as folk rally to the flag. Israel's attacks are not on the ayatollahs but on the people of Iran. They're the ones suffering and any regime change would likely be for the worse. There's plenty of evidence for that across the Middle East. Moreover, the art of diplomacy is also about dividing your enemies, but this is uniting Shia and Sunni. As with Iraq disaster beckons for both the Middle East and the world. Of course, the Israeli playbook was to try to tip the United States into the war it started but cannot win on its own, and to take the eyes of the world off the genocide it is perpetrating in Gaza. Time will tell if they succeed with the former but it's working on the latter. News coverage on the BBC has been about attacks on Israeli hospitals causing no deaths while civilians die by the hundreds in Iran and life as we know it ended in Gaza. Job half done for Netanyahu and his cronies. What's happening in Iran isn't just a worsening of the risk but part of the Israeli plan. It's why the independence movement must be unequivocal in its opposition to the American escalation and increase its calls for an ending of the genocide in Gaza and the ethnic cleansing throughout the Occupied Territories. Starmer's Labour Government is the most supine and craven in living memory. Harold Wilson at last had the courage to reject Lyndon BJohnsons requests and probably demands for even a token force in Vietnam. Blair was joined at the hip with Bush in a shared enterprise for which the UK received nothing other than scorn in the US and contempt around the world. Now Starmer simply submits the news clips showed him scrambling to pick up papers which Trump had dropped. He's have been as well prostrating himself and licking Trumps boots. Condemnation not endorsement of Trumps actions is what's required. But what's happening in Scotland? The SNP were to be commended for their voice in Westminster on Palestine. But on Iran things have become strangely muted. Meanwhile, as the barbarity on the ground in Gaza worsens, the UK Government seeks to proscribe protesters while aiding the genocide enablers. Holyrood should be speaking out loud and clear – not in our name. It's not Kneecap (above) or Palestine Action who are the threat to our society and planet but those complicit and colluding in the genocide and war. We should be ceasing fuelling US war planes at Prestwick not deplatforming an Irish rap band at a music event. The old SNP and CND were once almost synonymous. Sadly, in many cases now war hawks have supplanted the old stalwarts. The united opposition to nuclear weapons is now questioned by some and even abandoned by a few. But the wider Independence movement remains true to the maxim of Bairns not Bombs. It must speak out ever louder now – no war for Trump and Israel.

Daily Mail​

7 hours ago

• Daily Mail​

ROSA MONCKTON: Why I'll fight in the Lords against this breathtakingly cruel and ignorant assisted suicide Bill

Last week in the House of Commons we saw two measures passed: the first licensing women to abort at up to full term, the second enabling the state to participate in, and even encourage, suicide for the terminally ill. There is a terrible symmetry here, and a bleak message – that life at its beginning, and at its end, is worthless. As the mother of an adult with a learning disability I am petrified by the lack of protection for vulnerable people in the assisted suicide Bill. You spend much of your life as a parent of a disabled child fighting for the necessary support, for the right school, the therapists, a specialist college. Every time you think you can take a breath and relax, the next milestone and hurdle awaits. You worry endlessly. The biggest concern for every parent is what will happen when we are dead. Who will look after our 'child', who will understand their needs, care for them in the right way and facilitate their way through life? But now, to add to that worry, is another enormous and unspeakable question – how can we stop them being killed? I cannot believe that I am having to write these words. Yet the assisted suicide Bill makes no special provision whatsoever for this disenfranchised group. How have we got to this place, where some lives are valued more than others? Many people with a learning disability are vulnerable. My own 30-year-old daughter, Domenica, who has Down's syndrome – and loves life – is highly suggestible and would intuit what her interlocutor wanted to hear, without understanding what she would be agreeing to. Yet in law she has what is called 'capacity'. The Bill is flawed on so many levels: the fact that no one on the death panel has to have any knowledge of the individual, the fact that hospices and care homes that do not want to be involved in assisted suicide will have no protection in law and the fact that their government funding could be based on participation. Where does that sit with the ethos of Dame Cicely Saunders, who founded the hospice movement? A movement based on the principle of care: 'You matter because you are you, and you matter to the end of your life. We will do all we can not only to help you die peacefully, but also to live until you die.' She also said: 'Suffering is only intolerable when nobody cares.' People who work in hospices do care, and the hospices that I have visited and am involved with are wonderful, positive and life-affirming places. Those who work in these hospices who do not approve of assisted suicide – which is almost all of them – will probably leave the palliative care profession. And where does that leave us? With people who want to end the lives of others, not care to the end. All legislators – of which I am one, in the House of Lords – should be considering the weakest and most vulnerable when making momentous, and in this case, literal, life and death decisions. The Bill as it stands has no special protection for people like my daughter. This is something that rightly troubles the Health Secretary, Wes Streeting, too. Explaining his decision to vote against the Bill in a Facebook post aimed at his constituents, he said: 'I can't get past the concerns expressed by the Royal College of Psychiatrists, the Royal College of Physicians, the Association for Palliative Medicine and a wide range of charities representing under-privileged groups in our society about the risks that come with this Bill.' Among the many amendments rejected by the committee set up by the sponsor of the bill, Kim Leadbeater MP, were safeguards to protect people with Down's syndrome – an amendment which should have included all people with a learning disability or autism. The committee, of which the great majority were backers of the Bill, rejected by 13 to eight to exclude special support for those with Down's syndrome when discussing assisted suicide. How could this possibly be considered acceptable? Was there not one of those 13 with experience of what it is to have a learning disability; no understanding of how much specialised knowledge and interpretation is needed? If anyone mentions death or dying to my daughter, she immediately becomes acutely anxious and troubled. The deaths we have had in our family have traumatised her. The thought of a stranger telling her that to kill herself would be an option if she has a terminal illness is so frightening and chilling that it makes me cry, and the fact this could all happen without any of her family being informed – as the Bill enables – is breathtakingly cruel and ignorant. But above all else it makes me angry. Angry at the lack of rigour in this bill. Angry at the lack of understanding of people with learning disabilities. Angry at the implicit assumption that their lives are not worth the same as the rest of the population. We saw it during the Covid pandemic, when the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), which provides guidance to the NHS and the social care sector, divided the population into different categories and advised how each should be treated. Category 7 was defined as 'completely dependent for personal care, from whatever cause, physical or cognitive. Even so, they seem stable and at no risk of dying'. That would have covered my daughter. Categories 7 to 9 were to be denied lifesaving treatment. Legislators have a duty to be rigorous and fair. You cannot make laws because Dame Esther Rantzen lobbied the Prime Minister, or because someone's granny had an avoidably terrible death. This should never have been a Private Member's Bill. It has not had the scrutiny or the parliamentary time necessary for such a momentous change in the way we live and die. It is a law for the strong and determined against the weak and the vulnerable. All of us in Parliament should know which of those needs the most protection.