Author: John Williams – constantvpn.com

Security Question Looms as Sussexes Prepare to Settle Back in Britain

Constantvpn.com – The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are set to uproot their lives in California and relocate to a private residence outside London later this month, bringing their two young children into the UK school system. Yet the practical mechanics of protecting a household that has spent six years abroad — and that stepped away from formal royal duties in early 2020 — remain unresolved, and the government has made clear it will not be the one to settle the question.

Prime Minister Andy Burnham addressed the issue directly, framing the couple’s protective arrangements as something outside his personal purview.

“It’s a matter for Harry and for Meghan, and we wish them well in the move that they are making.”

He characterised the security question as a “private matter,” a phrasing that underscores the unusual position the couple now occupies: no longer working members of the Royal Family, yet still closely tied to the monarch and still carrying the public visibility that comes with the Sussex name.

Who Actually Decides?

The Home Office confirmed that protective decisions for members of the Royal Family and other very important persons are made by the Royal and VIP Executive Committee, known as Ravec. This independent body operates under Home Office oversight, and the prime minister himself does not vote on individual security packages. In other words, the question of how many officers, what kind of vehicle protection, and which routes are cleared for the Sussex household will be answered inside a committee room, not in Downing Street.

The Home Office added that Britain’s protective security framework is “rigorous and proportionate,” while reiterating a long-standing policy of withholding granular detail about any individual’s arrangements. Officials argued that publishing specifics could compromise operational integrity and, by extension, the safety of those being protected.

A Legal Precedent That Still Stings

The security question is not abstract for Prince Harry. Last year he took a legal challenge against a decision to downgrade his protective arrangements following his permanent move to the United States. He lost that case. At the time, he told the BBC that he “can’t see a world” in which he would bring his family to Britain under the reduced level of protection on offer.

Now that the family is actually returning, Ravec must issue a fresh determination. Previous arrangements were calibrated on the assumption that the Sussexes would be visiting temporarily, not establishing a permanent base. A permanent UK residence changes the calculus entirely: threat assessments, local knowledge of the household’s routines, and the duration of exposure all shift.

There is no indication the couple intends to resume full-time royal duties. Without that status, they may not qualify for the tier of state-funded protection Prince Harry enjoyed before the 2020 departure. If the committee concludes that taxpayer-funded security is not warranted at the level the couple expects, Harry would need to supplement any partial arrangement from his own resources — a financial commitment that, for a household of five, is substantial.

In the United States, the Sussexes have maintained a private security detail. Asked whether that team would accompany them across the Atlantic, they offered no comment.

The Children and the School Question

Prince Archie, now seven, and Princess Lilibet, five, are expected to begin schooling in the UK next month. Neither the specific school nor the precise location of the family’s new home has been disclosed, consistent with the Home Office’s preference for operational opacity around high-profile households.

Why Now? Family Pull and a Shifted Compass

A source close to the couple described the timing as a moment when the “stars had aligned” to make the move workable for the family. The couple, the source noted, are an international pair who enjoy travelling, and for the foreseeable future Britain will be their base of operations. They will retain their California property.

The decision reportedly caught King Charles by surprise; he was informed on a Sunday. He is understood to welcome the prospect of seeing his grandchildren more regularly. The move follows a July visit in which Harry, Meghan, and the children travelled to Highgrove House in Gloucestershire to see the King. That gathering marked the first time Charles had held his grandchildren in person in over four years, and it was the couple’s first joint trip to Britain since 2022.

The emotional backdrop is significant. It has been two-and-a-half years since Charles was diagnosed with cancer. In a BBC interview last year, Prince Harry spoke openly about his desire to spend more time with his father. Royal author Valentine Low has suggested that a central driver of the return is Harry’s wish to rebuild family bonds and, in Low’s words, “repair his relationship with his father.”

Highgrove, Low notes, carries the atmosphere of a family home rather than a state palace — a setting where the formal distance between monarch and son can narrow. For royal watchers who had assumed Harry was settled into a Californian rhythm of “matcha drinking and yoga practice,” the announcement was, in Low’s phrase, a “bolt from the blue.”

What Comes Next

The practical question for readers is whether the couple will receive the level of state-funded protection they have sought since stepping down as working royals, or whether they will operate with a thinner official umbrella and a thicker private one. The answer will emerge from Ravec’s deliberations, and the Home Office has signalled it will not preview the outcome. What is certain is that two children will be walking into a British classroom next month, their parents’ security posture still in flux, and a household that has spent half a decade on the other side of the Atlantic now settling — at least for the time being — back into the orbit of the British state.

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Travelodge Leadership Shakeup Follows Cascade of Guest-Safety Failures

Constantvpn.com – The chief executive of Britain’s largest budget hotel chain has departed her post after a prolonged period of scrutiny over how the company protects the people sleeping in its rooms. Jo Boydell, who had led Travelodge for thirteen years, confirmed her exit on 17 August, handing the reins on an interim basis to the firm’s chief financial officer, Ray Reidy. The departure caps a turbulent stretch in which multiple guests described being locked out of their own bedrooms or, worse, having strangers let inside them.

The Incident That Set Everything in Motion

The chain of events began in December 2022 at a Travelodge property in Maidenhead, Berkshire. A woman staying at the hotel was sexually assaulted after a man deceived reception staff into handing him a key card for her room. Kyran Smith, the perpetrator, was subsequently sentenced to seven years and six months in prison for the attack.

In a BBC interview, Boydell acknowledged that she did not learn of the assault until the court proceedings unfolded nearly three years after the crime itself. That gap between the event and senior-management awareness became a focal point of criticism aimed at the company’s internal reporting and escalation protocols.

A Pattern, Not an Isolated Event

The Maidenhead case did not stand alone. In the months following the trial, a wave of guest complaints surfaced, each describing a different failure of the same underlying system: the issuance of room keys without adequate verification.

Earlier this month, a woman fleeing domestic violence told the BBC that her abuser gained entry to her hotel room after reception staff handed him a key. She described being “failed” by the chain and called the episode one of the “most traumatic nights of my life,” recounting how the man kicked the door off its hinges before reaching her.

In Scotland, a couple woke to discover a shirtless stranger already in their bedroom. He had been given the correct key card for their door by mistake at the front desk.

In Newham, east London, a group of guests staying as part of a corporate booking told the BBC that they were handed keys to other people’s rooms twice within a single week. John Nowell, a member of that corporate group, described using his key card to enter a room where the actual occupant was mid-shower.

These accounts, taken together, paint a picture of a key-management process vulnerable to social engineering, clerical error, and insufficient secondary verification — problems that, in a budget chain with thousands of rooms across the UK, carry outsized consequences for guest safety.

Government Pressure and the Independent Review

The political dimension sharpened in March, when then-Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer wrote directly to Boydell, urging her to “seriously engage” with the government over security arrangements at Travelodge properties. The letter signalled that the issue had moved beyond consumer-complaint territory into the realm of ministerial concern.

An independent review of the chain’s security architecture is now under way, led by barrister Paul Greaney KC. Travelodge has stated that once the review concludes it will “engage constructively, as we have done throughout this process,” and reiterated that its “commitment to guest safety does not change with this announcement — it remains our absolute priority.”

Interim Leadership and Immediate Measures

Ray Reidy, stepping in as interim chief executive, framed the transition in operational rather than defensive terms.

“We remain focused on the safety and well-being of our guests and will continue taking the actions necessary to strengthen the business. We will also continue to engage proactively and constructively with government and the wider hospitality industry on the issue of safety and security.”

Alongside the leadership change, the company outlined several concrete steps already underway:

Any additional or replacement room key now requires explicit, documented permission from the guest currently occupying the room. Previously, front-desk staff could issue a spare key on the basis of a verbal request or a name match alone.

A physical audit has been carried out across all UK properties to confirm that every key-card door is fitted with a secondary deadbolt — a mechanical lock that cannot be overridden by a card reader malfunction or a cloned card.

Why This Matters Beyond One Chain

Travelodge operates hundreds of hotels across the United Kingdom and employs tens of thousands of staff. Its budget positioning means it serves a broad cross-section of travellers — business guests, families, people relocating, and, as the domestic-violence case illustrates, individuals in acute personal danger who rely on a hotel room as a temporary safe space. When the key-issuance process fails, the stakes are not merely inconvenience; they can be physical harm.

The departure of a long-tenured CEO, the direct intervention of the prime minister’s office, and the commissioning of an independent legal review together suggest that regulators and consumers alike now expect hotel operators to treat room-access control with the same rigour applied to fire safety or food hygiene. Whether the Greaney review’s recommendations will reshape industry-wide practice — or remain confined to one brand’s internal playbook — will become clear in the coming months. For guests choosing where to sleep tonight, the question has shifted from “is the room clean?” to “who exactly holds a key to my door, and how was that verified?”

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Twelve Years of Quiet Grind Behind a TikTok Ice-Cream Sensation

Constantvpn.com – When Little Moons’ mochi ice-cream balls began flooding TikTok feeds during the pandemic, the internet treated the brand as if it had materialised overnight. In reality, the company had been quietly operating for roughly a decade before a single viral video ever touched its products. Vivien Wong, who co-founded the mochi label with her brother Howard, has spent the years since that viral moment explaining what actually happened behind the scenes: a slow, unglamorous accumulation of manufacturing capability, retail relationships, and operational discipline that made the sudden demand spike survivable rather than catastrophic.

From the Family Bakery to the Accounting Desk

Wong grew up surrounded by the smell of yeast and sugar in her family’s bakery. The dream of running her own food business was never far from her mind, but it sat dormant while she pursued a conventional career. At 28, she was earning £80,000 a year in accounting — a polished, well-compensated role in the City where help was always one phone call away. The decision to walk away crystallised after her father received a cancer diagnosis. That personal shock compressed what might have been years of hesitation into a single, irreversible step.

She moved in with her brother Howard so that household costs would drop and every pound of early revenue could be reinvested into the business. The swap was stark: a structured office environment replaced by a situation in which, as Wong puts it, “all roads lead to you when you run your own business.” She became head of IT despite admitting she was not great with technology. She learned to operate machinery, develop product formulations, make ice cream from scratch, and manage payroll. On Sundays, she sat down and did the company accounts herself rather than hire a bookkeeper, because at that stage saving the cash mattered more than reclaiming the day.

The “80-20 Rule” and Five Years of B2B Sales

Wong’s central piece of advice to would-be founders is deceptively simple: do not wait for perfection. She frames it as an “80-20 rule.”

“Don’t wait for perfection because that extra 20 is going to take you too long and you might miss the market.”

Little Moons followed that logic literally. For its first five years the company sold mochi exclusively to restaurants and cinemas, generating revenue while Wong saved enough capital to fund branding work and eventually negotiate supermarket listings. The product was never “finished” in the way a perfectionist would demand; it was iterated on continuously, customer by customer, shipment by shipment.

Scaling Up: The Factory Question

The most consequential operational decision came when the company weighed moving from a 5,000-square-foot factory to a 30,000-square-foot site. Annual rent would jump from roughly £40,000 to £500,000 — a twelve-fold increase that would have been fatal without the revenue trajectory already in place. Wong says she was the more risk-tolerant sibling on that call; Howard was naturally more cautious. The disagreement, she notes, ultimately produced better decisions because the two “balance each other out.”

Brother and Sister, Colleague and Colleague

Working with a sibling, Wong acknowledges, is simultaneously a strength and a source of friction. “Definitely a lot of arguments” punctuated the early years. The pair had to consciously reframe their relationship at work: not siblings bickering over chores, but two professionals negotiating strategy. Her advice to anyone building a company with family is to set explicit boundaries around workplace interaction.

“You have to be really mindful that you’re being as respectful to your brother as a colleague and you see him as a colleague and not a sibling.”

Now that Little Moons employs a chief executive and a wider leadership team, the siblings have stepped back from day-to-day operations. Wong says the distance has allowed them to “just be brother and sister again” — a small but telling marker of how much the early years demanded.

Brand Discipline and the Art of Saying No

Wong is equally emphatic about knowing what your brand stands for and declining opportunities that do not align. Trends come and go; a founder who chases every one dilutes the identity they spent years building.

“If you know what your brand values are, you know how you can apply that to a trend, but you also know when to leave it alone. Pick and choose what you say yes to and don’t try and do everything. Stay focused, know exactly what you stand for.”

She extends the same scepticism to expert advice. Consultants and industry veterans will offer prescriptions calibrated to their own clients’ contexts. Wong and Howard would discuss each recommendation, sometimes adopt it, sometimes reject it, and over time that process of filtering built her confidence to make independent calls.

“You realise that advice they’re giving you was probably right for another business but not for your specific set of circumstances.”

The Boring Truth Behind the Viral Moment

The pandemic-era TikTok explosion caught a company that had already spent years learning to manufacture at scale, train production staff, navigate export logistics, and supply major UK retailers. Without that infrastructure, the sudden demand spike would likely have broken the operation rather than validated it. Wong sums up the reality of running a food business in a line that strips away the glamour of founder mythology:

“Business is a combination of many, many, many boring things and many boring small steps.”

For the aspiring founder watching a peer’s brand seemingly detonate across social media, the Little Moons story is a reminder that the viral moment is the visible tip of a very long, very unglamorous iceberg. The mochi ball that lands in a teenager’s phone screen has passed through years of supplier negotiations, factory floor training, quality-control iterations, and Sunday-afternoon bookkeeping before it ever gets a close-up. The lesson is not that virality is impossible to achieve; it is that virality without preparation is a liability, and the decade of quiet work is what turns a spike in demand into a sustainable company.

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Three members of one family killed in sea near Shoreham Fort

Constantvpn.com – A family of British citizens with Palestinian heritage lost three of its members when they went into difficulty in the sea off the Sussex coast on Tuesday afternoon. Hassan El-Khawas, aged 55, his partner Zeina Alayn, 37, and their daughter Sara, 14, were confirmed dead after being pulled from the water near Shoreham Fort. A younger girl from the same household, also retrieved from the sea, remains in hospital in critical condition.

Sussex Police said the group had travelled from their home in London to visit the Shoreham area. After reviewing CCTV footage from the vicinity, investigators concluded the deaths were a tragic accident with no involvement of any third party. The family had been in the water when they got into trouble, and emergency crews were dispatched shortly before 15:00 BST on Tuesday following reports of four people in distress.

Emergency response and investigation

The scale of the rescue operation was substantial. Coastguard crews, RNLI lifeboats, air ambulance teams, police officers, and ground ambulance units all converged on the scene. Despite the combined effort, three lives could not be saved. Police inquiries remain ongoing, and a formal file has been opened to establish the full circumstances of what happened in the water.

Chief Superintendent James Collis of Sussex Police described the events as a devastating blow to the Shoreham community.

“The events of Tuesday afternoon are a heartbreaking tragedy which has devastated a family and their friends and had a profound impact on the Shoreham community.”

The family’s background

The Palestinian Forum in Britain confirmed that the deceased were British citizens of Palestinian origin, with ancestral roots in the Rashidieh refugee camp in Lebanon. The Palestinian Embassy in London told the BBC that Hassan El-Khawas had been a refugee before settling in the UK.

Adnan Hmidan, chairman of the Palestinian Forum in Britain, said the wider community was reeling from the news. He noted that two other children from the family had been on the shore at the time of the incident.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with the entire family, particularly the children, who are facing an unimaginable loss.”

The embassy said it was closely monitoring the situation, liaising with British authorities to establish the circumstances and to check on the condition of the girl in hospital. A statement issued by the embassy extended condolences to the family and to the UK’s Palestinian community, and wished the injured child a speedy recovery.

Prime Minister warns of open-water dangers

Prime Minister Andy Burnham reacted to the deaths by describing them as “a terrible family tragedy” and used the moment to issue a pointed warning about swimming in open water, particularly during the summer heatwave.

“The thing I can say today – and there is still, I think, a further heatwave to come in this summer period – it is just to remind people about the dangers of open water swimming. The coldness, even when it feels hot outside, it can shock people and that can cause the difficulties. So people just need to remember that at all times.”

Burnham also praised the speed of the emergency response, acknowledging that services had been stretched thin over a busy summer but were nonetheless on scene quickly.

“I do need to praise the emergency services who I know were on scene very quickly yesterday. They’ve had a busy summer but they were there and we thank them.”

The warning carries particular weight given that Shoreham’s coastline, while popular with swimmers and families on warm August days, is an open sea environment with no lifeguard coverage. Sudden temperature shock, hidden currents, and the absence of shallow-water zones make casual entry into the sea far riskier than it appears from the beach.

Community shaken

For a small coastal town, the scale of the loss was almost incomprehensible. Floral tributes began appearing on the sand near the Shoreham RNLI station within hours of the incident, and throughout the following day more people came to lay flowers at the site.

Neha Patel, who runs a local shop in the area, said she was still physically shaken when speaking to reporters.

“I think it’s a shock to everyone around here. I hope the one girl in the hospital gets better.”

Two friends, Liz Donnelly and Lee Smith, were among those who placed flowers near the beach. They described the deaths as a jolt to a community that knows one another intimately.

“Our kids were here the night before. It makes you realise how thankful we are that it wasn’t one of them, but at the same time the sadness of another family that are now going to go through this.”

Local institutions respond

The Good Shepherd church, situated close to the beach where the tragedy unfolded, opened its doors for quiet reflection and prayer. Associate vicar Rev Jane Bartlett said the congregation wanted to stand alongside the community in whatever capacity was needed.

“The church wanted to support the community in whatever way we can.”

Julia Watts, chair of Adur District Council, offered a measured reflection on the fragility of coastal waters.

“We obviously don’t know the circumstances of how they got into difficulty but the sea will never be completely safe. Many of us swim every day weather permitting and for people to lose their lives on a warm day in August seems unfathomable.”

Robina Baine, an Adur councillor representing the Southwick Green ward where the RNLI lifeboat station is based, said in 46 years of living in the area she had never witnessed anything so devastating.

“I have been here for 46 years and this is the most tragic incident there has been.”

Police have not yet announced the outcome of their continuing inquiry. The condition of the younger girl in hospital has not been updated beyond the initial report of critical status.

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Constantvpn.com – Consumers are increasingly relying on their mobile phone to make payments rather than carrying bank cards, new data shows. Two-thirds of adults in the UK were registered with at least one mobile payment service last year, according to an annual report by banking trade body UK Finance. Use of a phone to pay has jumped in recent years.

It is a decade since Apple Pay was launched in the UK. While cash use continues to decline, the data suggests that the fall is slowing and that notes and coins will remain an important payment option for many people a decade from now. Consumers are increasingly storing card details on phones or watches and making contactless payments backed up by facial or fingerprint verification, instead of pressing in a PIN.

Nine in 10 users of mobile wallets have their debit card loaded as their default payment method on their phone, with the remainder having registered their credit card. That suggests phones are being used for everyday payments – with use particularly high for younger consumers, although older age groups are gaining ground. More than 80% of 16 to 34-year-olds make mobile payments on a regular basis, compared with 22% of the over 65s.

"Our latest data show that the UK is now a predominantly digital economy when it comes to making and receiving payments," said Adrian Buckle, head of research at UK Finance. The UK Payments Market report, released once a year, shows that debit cards – included those loaded onto phones – were the predominant way to pay last year. They accounted for 54% of all payments in made in 2025.

Some 39% of payments were contactless. Cheques had been due to be phased out by 2018, until MPs forced a change of heart by the industry years ago. Instead, they have withered to just 0.2% of payments made in the UK – with a total of 77 million written last year.

Cash is unlikely to go the same way, according to forecasts by UK Finance. Notes and coins were used in 3.9 billion, or 8%, of all payments last year. This is expected to halve to 4% of all payments in the UK in 2035, or two billion transactions.

However, some people still had a strong preference for using cash. "Rather than the UK becoming a cash-free society over the next decade, the UK will transition to an economy where cash is less important than it once was but remains widely valued and still preferred by some," the report said. Nearly 50 million people used a cash machines last year.

Nick Quin, from Link, which oversees the UK's ATM network, said: "Cash withdrawals are falling across every part of the country. More people find it convenient and prefer to pay using contactless cards and digital wallets on smartphones, but millions still rely on cash day in, day out. "People on lower incomes rely more heavily or entirely on cash to budget, which is why our job is to protect access to cash for as long as people need it." Puffin and bumblebee among 18 creatures shortlisted to feature on banknotes Banknotes, beavers and a very British backlash How switching your bank account could earn you up to £220

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Four Decades of Legislative Persistence: The Unlikely Architect of British Law Reform

Constantvpn.com – For most of his adult life, Ron Bailey kept a poster on his wall that declared: “Don’t vote, it only encourages them.” That sentiment, rooted in a deep-seated distrust of institutional authority, might seem at odds with the record he has since built. Yet over roughly four decades of sustained political campaigning, Bailey has been credited with pushing 16 bills through to enactment and shaping a further 25 changes to existing legislation. The trajectory from anti-establishment poster to parliamentary fixer is one of British civic life’s more improbable arcs.

A Reputation Built in Unflattering Language

Those who have shared corridors, committee rooms, or campaign trails with Bailey tend to describe him in vivid, occasionally colourful terms. A former director of Friends of the Earth labelled him “the UK’s most successful parliamentary campaigner.” Ex-minister Sir Oliver Letwin, less charitably, called him “the most effective and relentless lobbyist that it has been my misfortune to encounter during the last two decades.” Lord Foster, a Liberal Democrat peer and personal friend, offered a shorter verdict: “A bit of a pain in the arse at times.”

“I don’t call myself a lobbyist. I call myself a community mobiliser. That’s what’s crucial. You don’t win these campaigns in Parliament, you win them outside Parliament.”

That self-description, offered by Bailey himself, captures the operating principle behind his method. Rather than lobbying ministers directly, he builds pressure from the ground up — hundreds of local groups, thousands of letters, public petitions — until the political cost of inaction outweighs the cost of compliance.

Roots in Direct Action

Before the legislative strategy took shape, Bailey’s political education was delivered through confrontation. His younger brother, a folk singer, first drew him into public affairs. A separate experience — being asked to leave grammar school for “messing about” — cemented a lifelong suspicion of hierarchical authority. By the 1960s he was embedded in the squatting movement, occupying hostels, relocating homeless families into vacant properties, and clashing with bailiffs over possession orders.

One of his earliest campaigns centred on families at the King Hill hostel in Kent, who had been forcibly separated under harsh homelessness legislation. The protests carried the revolutionary energy of the era, but Bailey tempered that energy with meticulous legal research. He recalls spending hours in the British Library tracing property statutes back to the 14th century, ensuring that whenever officials challenged his group’s position, he could answer with precise statutory language rather than slogans alone.

In 1974 he co-organised the occupation of the Centrepoint building in London, a protest against homelessness policy. He later told the BBC that he spent four months “meticulously planning” that action — evidence that even his most confrontational moves were calculated rather than impulsive.

Turning the Law Itself

More than a decade after his squatting years, Bailey shifted from reading the law to rewriting it. A pivotal early victory came through a freedom-of-information campaign. In 1983, the Greater London Council Grants Committee funded one of his projects with enough money to rent an office and hire staff. Bailey immediately turned that funding into a weapon: he launched a campaign demanding that the committee make its own meetings public.

He then pushed for a Local Government (Access to Information) Bill, which would have expanded public access to council meetings and documents. To build momentum, his team contacted hundreds of local organisations, sending them copies of the “secret files” that revealed what councils were doing behind closed doors. One anecdote he particularly enjoyed: a council that voted to support freedom of information — in a private session.

The campaign’s success became visible when Bailey overheard members of parliament in a parliamentary bar complaining about the sheer volume of constituent letters flooding their in-trays on the subject. The Conservative government, which held a large majority and had initially opposed the bill, ultimately relented under sustained public pressure. Bailey insists his team was careful to let ministers “save face,” adjusting the final wording so the government did not appear to have simply capitulated.

Golden Rules and a New Book

His full catalogue of campaigning principles now appears in his new book, Institutionalised Deceit: Taking the Lid off Westminster Governance. Among the rules he codifies: always give your opponent a dignified exit; avoid partisan tribalism regardless of your own voting preferences; and maintain an appearance of what he terms “ultra reasonableness.” In the book’s own words:

“Make it as difficult as possible for people to oppose you.”

The anti-tribalism rule is not merely theoretical. Although Bailey votes Green, he has collaborated across the political spectrum. In the 1980s he worked alongside the Association for the Conservation of Energy, an organisation governed by corporate directors and chief executives. At a farewell event marking the end of that partnership, he delivered a line that has since become a small campaigner’s legend:

“Perhaps we have both learnt something. I have learnt that not all capitalist bastards are capitalist bastards and you have learnt that not all anarchist nutters are anarchist nutters.”

What the Record Means

Among the statutes Bailey counts among his achievements is the Home Energy Conservation Act, which placed a duty on local councils to publish plans for improving household energy efficiency. His broader portfolio spans work for the Green Party, the Community Rights Project, and the Sustainable Energy Association. The cumulative effect — 16 enacted bills and 25 amendments — suggests a model of civic influence that operates less through formal lobbying channels and more through sustained, organised public pressure. Whether that model scales beyond a single determined individual remains an open question for British democracy, but the legislative record itself is difficult to dismiss.

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Communication Breakdown Cost Deaf Patient Wrong Vaccine, Ombudsman Investigation Finds

Constantvpn.com – A failure to arrange British Sign Language interpretation at a GP surgery led to a deaf woman receiving a coronavirus vaccine instead of the influenza shot she had specifically requested. The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) published findings showing that the error stemmed from staff not showing the patient a pre-recorded BSL video that would have flagged the mismatch before the injection was administered.

The patient, identified only as Samantha, had scheduled her flu and Covid vaccinations for separate weeks. On the day of her appointment, she displayed a note on her phone to a nurse stating clearly that she was present for the “flu jab only.” Despite this written indication, the practice maintained it had correctly identified her intention as wanting the Covid vaccine. Consent was purportedly obtained through her grandmother, who had early-stage dementia and was not present in the treatment room at the time.

“The experience had a profound impact on her,” the PHSO noted in its findings.

Compensation and Corrective Action

After completing its inquiry, the PHSO recommended that the surgery issue a formal apology and pay Samantha £450 in financial compensation. The practice has since entered into a contract with a sign language interpreting company to prevent recurrence of the problem.

The NHS Northamptonshire Integrated Care Board expressed that it was “very sorry” about what Samantha endured and stated its expectation that all practices make “reasonable adjustments to support effective communication” for patients who rely on alternative formats.

Broader Pattern of Accessible-Communication Failures

The investigation was not limited to a single incident. The PHSO, which examines complaints against UK government departments, public bodies, and the NHS in England, found that disabled people routinely risk missing critical information about their healthcare, finances, or employment because accessible formats — such as large print, audio materials, or sign language support — are unavailable.

Since April 2020, the office concluded 623 investigations relating to reasonable adjustments. Of those, 496 were upheld in whole or in part, underscoring how frequently public services fall short of their legal obligation to meet accessible communication needs arising from disability, neurodivergence, or English not being a person’s first language.

A Second Case: Alan Graham

The report also detailed the experience of Alan Graham, a deaf man receiving treatment for heart failure at University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Trust. When no professional interpreter was available, hospital staff asked his teenage grandson to relay information to the family. The boy was tasked with telling Graham’s deaf daughter that her father might die.

Graham was undergoing cancer treatment in Birmingham at the time his grandson was pressed into the role of medical interpreter for grave news. Following the ombudsman’s review, the trust issued an apology, acknowledging that “we did not get things right.” It confirmed that new measures had been introduced to assist deaf patients, including strengthened awareness training and improved accessibility arrangements so that communication needs are met more reliably.

“We remain committed to learning from this and to providing inclusive, compassionate care for all our patients,” the trust stated.

NHS England Response and Regulatory Context

NHS England responded to the report by declaring it “completely unacceptable for those who are deaf or have visual loss to face barriers to accessing or understanding the healthcare they need.” The body added that it had recently refreshed its standards specifying how services must deliver safe and effective care to people with communication needs.

The Department of Health and Social Care described the cases as “deeply upsetting stories” that were “completely unacceptable,” and reiterated that NHS and social care organisations carry a duty to make their services accessible to every patient.

Although the PHSO does not hold formal regulatory powers, it can order public organisations to pay financial compensation when it upholds a complaint. Chief executive Rebecca Hilsenrath framed the stakes plainly:

“When people feel they are not listened to and we that their needs are not met, they lose trust in the very services designed to support them.”

A Model for Improvement

Amid the failures documented, the report singled out North Cheshire and Mersey NHS Foundation Trust as a positive example. The trust collaborated with local advocacy groups and deaf community members to redesign its service for deaf patients who had reported feeling excluded from consultations. It produced patient-facing guides explaining how to access interpreting and translation services. Within one year, the trust recorded a 50% increase in interpreter usage.

Why This Matters

For the roughly 120,000 people in the United Kingdom who use British Sign Language as their primary means of communication, a missed appointment detail or an unflagged medication change can carry consequences far beyond administrative inconvenience. The PHSO’s findings suggest that the gap between legal requirements and day-to-day practice remains wide, particularly in primary-care settings where interpreter availability is less systematic than in hospital environments. The £450 compensation awarded to Samantha, while modest, signals that the ombudsman treats accessible-communication failures as actionable harms rather than mere service lapses. Whether the corrective steps now underway — from contracted interpreting services to refreshed NHS England standards — will close the gap identified across nearly 500 upheld complaints remains the central question for patients and providers alike.

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Constantvpn.com – A rough sleeper in London last month Every rough sleeper in England will be offered accommodation this winter, the prime minister has said. Andy Burnham made ending rough sleeping his first pledge when entering Downing Street in July and now says he wants "to get everyone in for Christmas". Emergency accommodation will be provided to end the need for rough sleeping alongside practical support for any health needs, as part of a £442m package.

Conservative shadow housing secretary Sir James Cleverley said Burnham promised to end rough sleeping in Greater Manchester when mayor of the area but "failed because he didn't do the hard work necessary". Burnham's pledge seeks to build on the success of Everyone In, a Covid pandemic-era scheme that saw thousands of rough sleepers housed in hotels and temporary accommodation. About 37,000 people were helped by that scheme, following its launch in March 2020.

The charity Shelter found that about a quarter of them had found settled accommodation, in the form of housing lasting at least six months. , external The PM's announcement comes with an additional £102m in new funding, taking Burnham's total commitment to tackling rough sleeping to £442m since becoming prime minister. The money is said to be "fully funded" within the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.

As well as providing immediate support to get people off the streets, the funding is also designed to deliver more than 1,000 homes over the next three years to provide rough sleepers with permanent accommodation. The funding will also provide "intensive wraparound support", typically psychiatric and drug and alcohol services to help people rebuild their lives. Burnham said: "We did it in the pandemic.

We can do it again. But it needs all of us. "Government will put the money in.

But I'm asking leaders in communities and sectors across society to play their part locally too." The government said areas facing the greatest pressures will get the largest share of support. It added guidance will make clear the need to ensure "adequate and accessible provision" for female rough sleepers, who it says are often underrepresented in official statistics and can be at greater risk of violence, abuse and exploitation. For the Conservatives, Sir James said the PM's pledge lacked a plan for delivery.

He said: "As with many of his other commitments, there is very little detail on how this one will be paid for." The previous Conservative government had pledged to end rough sleeping by 2024. According to official data, there were an estimated 4,793 people sleeping rough on a single night in England in the autumn of 2025 , external , a 96% increase in five years. Rough sleeping is the most visible form of homelessness, and does not include people staying in temporary accommodation like hostels, or sofa surfing.

However, the annual snapshot is seen as significantly undercounting the extent of the problem due to strict rules over how the data is collected. Liberal Democrat housing spokesperson Gideon Amos said "sticking plasters won't fix the homelessness crisis", adding a "proper long-term plan" is needed to prevent people finding themselves "back on the streets once the festive headlines fade". He urged Burnham to commit to a Lib Dem target to build 150,000 social homes every year.

Deputy Reform UK leader Richard Tice also criticised Burnham's efforts to tackle homelessness while Greater Manchester mayor. He described the government's new plans as "yet another vague announcement with no substances which uses our most vulnerable for political point-scoring". The Bed Every Night scheme which Burnham set up while mayor now provides more than 600 beds a night for people who might otherwise be on the streets.

Housing Secretary Angela Rayner, challenged about the recent year-on-year increase in rough sleeping in Greater Manchester, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that the lack of a national programme meant "everybody knew that Greater Manchester was the place where you got the support". Burnham unveils plan to get rough sleepers off streets for Christmas Plan to end rough sleeping is unrealistic, says support group Former rough sleepers on PM's 'ambitious' plan Jasmine Basran, head of policy at Crisis, said the homeless charity welcomed the announcement and believed an end to rough sleeping was possible. "What we also want to see in the longer term is interventions to prevent people from being forced to sleep rough in the first place." She urged departments across government to work together to address the issue – saying too many people being discharged from hospital or leaving care were ending up on the streets.

Sarah Elliott, Shelter's chief executive, called Burnham's pledge a "game-changing move". She said "tackling the most visible form of homelessness is a strong start" but urged the prime minister to act on his promise to build more council houses to help people living in temporary accommodation. Chloe used to sleep rough and says she welcomes the initiative Chloe, 27, from London, ended up rough sleeping last year after spending time in contact with care and foster services growing up.

She slept in parks away from the centre of the city to try and to stay hidden, and says no rough sleeper would turn down a bed if it came with the right support. "The possibility of ending homelessness is amazing. [But] things like hidden homelessness have been normalised, with people sofa-surfing and living paycheck to paycheck, I think there are certain foundational things that need to be addressed first to make sure the scope of help is there." Chloe was helped by Crisis who housed her in temporary accommodation and now has a place to study at film school.

She still thinks that the scheme will be welcomed by the majority of rough sleepers. She said: "In general, people on the street want a home. People usually end up coming back to homelessness for mental health or financial reasons.

"So if that could also be addressed, there is no person sleeping on the street right now who wouldn't want some type of security." Meron has been sleeping in a tent in a tunnel in central London for about two months. He says he became homeless after his three-month contract at an Amazon Warehouse ended. "People leave their rubbish out.

There are cars, loud music, it's not dangerous but I can't sleep. I keep applying for jobs but I can't find one." He is originally from Eritrea and came to the UK by himself three years ago. "I'm looking for any job and when I get a job I'll get a house.

But I'm applying for jobs outside of London because it's too expensive." What do you think of the prime minister's plans to end rough sleeping? Share your views and stories with us.

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A Seven-Year Search for the Perfect Bench Ends at an Altar

Constantvpn.com – On a wedding day in South Gloucestershire, a newly married couple walked back to a wooden seat overlooking rolling countryside and, for the first time in nearly a decade of obsessive bench criticism, the verdict was flawless. Sam Wilmot, who has spent seven years scoring public seating across England, Wales, and Dubai, finally handed out the one rating his audience had been demanding since 2019: a perfect 10 out of 10.

The bench in question sits beside St John The Baptist Church in Old Sodbury, a small village tucked into the hills west of Bristol. It had previously earned a 9/10 when Wilmot first reviewed it. But when he and his bride Sophie returned to the seat in their wedding attire for photographs after the ceremony, the score jumped to its ceiling. The view sweeps westward toward the Bristol Channel and, on clear days, the Welsh border — a panorama that, combined with the emotional weight of the day, sealed the final point.

From Joke to Obsession

The account called Rate This Bench began as a lighthearted bit during group walks. Wilmot would crack jokes about the quality of a seat he happened to pass, and a friend suggested the running gag deserved its own Instagram page. He launched it in 2019, and what started as a few posts between friends grew into a catalogue of more than 300 benches photographed around the globe, attracting a following of close to 18,000 subscribers.

Followers have since sent in personal stories and photographs explaining why particular seats hold sentimental weight — a spot where a couple first held hands, a bench where a grieving parent sat with a child, a rural seat that anchors a daily commute. Those messages, Wilmot says, are among the reasons he intends to keep the account alive even now that his personal quest has concluded.

The Ten-Point Rubric

Wilmot’s scoring framework is deliberately exacting. A bench must possess armrests and a backrest; the seat should curve slightly to cradle the sitter; wood is his preferred material. One mark is allocated to the base — whether the ground beneath is concreted or paved so that a visitor’s feet stay dry. Up to three marks go to the view and the surrounding location. Another point requires some form of dedication, plaque, or readable inscription. The tenth and final mark, he explains, is reserved for what he calls the “wow factor” — an intangible quality that elevates a seat beyond its physical attributes.

At the bottom of the scale, the lowest score he has ever issued is a 1/10, typically reserved for urban fixtures in city centres: metal barriers with dividing sections, armrests set awkwardly inward from the edge, seats that technically qualify as benches but feel more like obstacles than invitations to rest.

“People are always asking why there’s never been a 10,” Wilmot said. “I’m never going to sit on a bench again that’s going to have that feeling.”

Sophie’s Role: From Subject to Partner

Sophie Wilmot has been behind the camera for every bench photograph since the couple first met. She describes the ritual of each outing — the walk to the seat, the conversation that follows the shutter clicks, the quiet appreciation of small pleasures — as something she feels deeply grateful to share.

When the couple discovered the Old Sodbury bench early in their relationship, Sophie says she recognised it would become a landmark in their shared history. Choosing the church as their wedding venue was, in her words, a natural extension of that bond.

“When we decided it was the place we would get married it was only right to mark the occasion once again, but this time I was able to be on the other side of the camera, in Sam’s company moments after getting married,” she said. “The best view, on the best day, sat on the best bench.”

Why the Wedding Day Changed the Score

Wilmot was candid about what tipped the rating from nine to ten. The euphoria of marrying someone he had loved for years, he explained, added a dimension no physical attribute of the bench could replicate. The seat’s design, its wooden construction, its elevated position above the valley — all of it remained unchanged from the earlier visit. What shifted was the man sitting in it.

“The first time I reviewed it, I gave it a 9/10. But when we first discussed getting married, I mentioned that I would like this church to be involved purely on the basis of this bench,” he recalled. “On the wedding day we came back in our suit and dress, and I reviewed it again and it was the very first 10.”

A Niche That Outgrew Its Joke

The phenomenon of hyper-specific online criticism — rating everything from airport lounges to municipal park furniture — has proliferated across social media in recent years. Rate This Bench occupies a narrow slice of that landscape, yet its longevity (seven years, 300-plus entries, nearly 18,000 followers) suggests a genuine appetite for the ritual of pausing, looking, and assigning a number to an object most people walk past without a second thought. Wilmot’s scoring rubric, with its insistence on curvature, wood grain, and a readable plaque, turns an ordinary piece of street furniture into something approaching a small architectural critique.

For the residents of Old Sodbury and the wider South Gloucestershire area, the bench now carries an additional layer of meaning: it is the seat at the centre of a local couple’s wedding story, the object that prompted a church ceremony, and the final entry in a seven-year catalogue that will, for its creator, never be topped.

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A Stag’s Attack in Richmond Park Reignites a Long-Standing Debate Over London’s Wild Deer

Constantvpn.com – A picnic in one of London’s most iconic green spaces turned dangerous on Saturday when a stag charged toward a group of visitors in Richmond Park, leaving a man in his 60s with chest injuries. The animal was later put down by a Royal Parks wildlife officer after officials judged it posed an ongoing threat to the public. The incident has once again drawn sharp attention to a rule that has been in place for decades: do not feed the deer.

Richmond Park and its neighbouring Bushy Park, both situated in south-west London, are home to roughly 630 wild red and fallow deer that roam freely across vast stretches of woodland and open grassland. These animals were first brought to the park by King Charles I in 1637, making them one of the oldest continuously managed wild deer populations in the country. Their presence against the backdrop of the capital’s skyline has made them a favourite subject for photographers and a source of quiet wonder for generations of walkers. Yet their wildness remains a fact that many visitors seem to overlook.

Why Feeding Changes Everything

Paul Richards, the park manager at Richmond Park, explained that the stag’s aggressive approach was almost certainly a direct consequence of having been fed by visitors on previous occasions. Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, he made the causal link explicit:

“It is only because people had fed this particular animal that its behaviour had changed.”

Once a wild deer begins to associate human presence with an easy meal, its natural wariness erodes. The animal starts approaching groups, lingering near paths, and eventually testing boundaries that would normally keep it at a respectful distance. Richards stressed that this behavioural shift is not natural and carries genuine physical risk to people.

“Don’t feed them, they don’t need feeding. Some people think they’re doing a good deed. In fact you’re not, you’re doing quite the opposite.”

Beyond the danger of a close encounter, feeding introduces secondary hazards. Deer that grow accustomed to human handouts are more likely to pick up discarded plastic wrappers, bottle caps, and other small objects. Ingested plastic can block the stomach and lead to malnutrition, shortening the animal’s life and degrading its health.

The Deer Do Not Need Supplementary Food

A common misconception, particularly in late summer and early autumn when the landscape turns brown, is that the deer are hungry and require human help. Richards pushed back firmly on this assumption. Red and fallow deer in the parks graze on grasses, tree leaves and shoots, acorns, sweet chestnuts, and horse chestnuts. At the time of his remarks, bramble was still providing browse, and sweet chestnuts were days away from beginning their autumn drop.

“There’s plenty of things for them to eat. They’re grazing on bramble, we’re already seeing a bit of an early autumn, and it won’t be long before sweet chestnuts are beginning to fall, so there is plenty of food for them.”

Visitors are specifically asked not to gather conkers — the large horse chestnuts that carpet the paths in autumn — because these nuts form a critical component of the deer’s winter fat reserves. Removing them strips the animals of a natural, high-calorie food source precisely when they need it most.

Size, Speed, and Sudden Aggression

The physical reality of these animals is easy to underestimate from a distance. A mature stag can exceed 25 stone (159 kg) and sprint at up to 30 mph (48 km/h). While they often appear placid as they graze in the open, they can react suddenly and aggressively if they perceive a threat. Closing in on them causes stress and, in Richards’s words, risks a “fatal incident.”

Last month, video footage circulated showing families with young children attempting to stroke deer in Richmond Park. Richards described his team’s reaction as being “shocked and extremely concerned,” labelling the behaviour “deeply irresponsible and highly dangerous.” The contrast with places like Nara in Japan, where deer are habituated to regular human feeding and approach visitors as a matter of course, could not be starker. London’s deer are wild, not domesticated, and should be treated accordingly.

Practical Guidance for Visitors

The Royal Parks authority sets out a clear set of expectations for anyone walking through Richmond or Bushy Park:

Keep at least 50 metres (165 feet) between yourself and any deer. If an animal moves toward you, place all food and packaging out of sight and retreat slowly and calmly. Do not run, do not make sudden movements, and do not attempt to touch or photograph the animal at close range. For photography, use the zoom function on your phone or camera rather than closing the distance.

“Enjoy the deer, respect the deer, keep a safe distance from the deer,” Richards urged. “The deer here are wild, they have been here for centuries. If you want to photograph them, photograph them using the zoom function on your phone or camera.”

The feeding ban is not a new regulation; it has been communicated to visitors for decades. What the Saturday incident underscores is that the rule exists not as a bureaucratic formality but as a genuine safety measure. A deer that has learned to expect food from humans is a deer that will close the gap between itself and a person — and at 159 kilograms and 30 mph, that gap closes very quickly.

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