Prison leaders, from local to national, presided over an “abject failure” to provide a safe, decent and purposeful regime at HMP Liverpool, according to Peter Clarke, HM Chief Inspector of Prisons. In a report outlining jail conditions that experienced inspectors regarded as the worst they could remember, Mr Clarke said it was “hard to understand how the leadership of the prison could have allowed the situation to deteriorate to this extent.” Inspectors found squalid living conditions, with dirt, litter, rats and cockroaches, and an environment in which drugs were easily available and violence had increased. Mr Clarke added: “While much of what we found was clearly the responsibility of local prison managers, there had been a broader organisational failure. We saw clear evidence that local prison managers had sought help from regional and national management to improve conditions they knew to be unacceptable long before our arrival, but the resulting support was inadequate and had made little impact on outcomes for prisoners.” HMP Liverpool is a local category B prison serving the Merseyside area. A traditional local jail with “a very strong sense of local identity”, it held 1,115 men at the time of the unannounced inspection in September 2017. It was last inspected in May 2015. Since then, the prison had deteriorated in terms of respect and purposeful activity and these elements were poor, the lowest possible assessment, in 2017. Safety and resettlement work, the two other key inspection tests, were judged as ‘not sufficiently good.’ However, Mr Clarke said, the bare statistics “do not adequately describe the abject failure of HMP Liverpool to offer a safe, decent and purposeful environment.” He identified key issues: Violence of all kinds had increased. Over a third of prisoners felt unsafe at the time of the inspection, and 71% felt unsafe at some time. Nearly two-thirds of prisoners said it was easy or very easy to obtain drugs. Drones carrying drugs and other illicit items were a substantial problem. Staff had recovered 32 drones in the six months before the inspection, more than one a week. Half of the prisoners were locked in their cells during the working day. There were also significant failings in the leadership and management of activities and in health care. There was a backlog of some 2,000 maintenance tasks and it was clear that facilities management at the prison “was in a parlous state.” Mr Clarke added: “The inspection team was highly experienced and could not recall having seen worse living conditions than those at HMP Liverpool. “Many cells were not fit to be used and should have been decommissioned. Some had emergency call bells that were not working but were nevertheless still occupied, presenting an obvious danger to prisoners. There were hundreds of unrepaired broken windows, with jagged glass left in the frames. Many lavatories were filthy, blocked or leaking. There were infestations of cockroaches in some areas, broken furniture, graffiti, damp and dirt. “I saw piles of rubbish that had clearly been there for a long time, and in which inspectors reported seeing rats on a regular basis. I was told by a senior member of staff that it had not been cleared by prisoners employed as cleaning orderlies because it presented a health and safety risk. It was so bad that external contractors were to be brought in to deal with it. In other words, this part of the jail had become so dirty, infested and hazardous to health that it could not be cleaned.” Mr Clarke was particularly troubled by the case of one vulnerable man with complex mental health needs being held in a cell that had no furniture other than a bed. “The windows of both the cell and the toilet recess were broken, the light fitting in his toilet was broken with wires exposed, the lavatory was filthy and appeared to be blocked, his sink was leaking and the cell was dark and damp. “Extraordinarily, this man had apparently been held in this condition for some weeks…It should not have needed my personal intervention for this man to be moved from such appalling conditions.” Inspectors could see “no credible plan” to address these basic problems. Mr Clarke said: “Although there are several change projects underway at the prison, none of these will address the basic failings that were so painfully obvious at HMP Liverpool. I was particularly concerned that there did not appear to be effective leadership or sufficiently rigorous external oversight to drive the prison forward in a meaningful way. This report makes it crystal clear that leaders at all levels, both within the prison and beyond, had presided over the failure to address the concerns raised at the last inspection.” Michael Spurr, Chief Executive of Her Majesty’s Prison & Probation Service, said: “The conditions which Inspectors found at Liverpool were unacceptable and effective measures should have been taken to deal with the issues at a much earlier stage. We are committed to fixing this, have already made changes where we can, and have today published a comprehensive action plan to address the Chief Inspector’s concerns.Following the Inspection we took immediate action to rectify the situation. A new Governor has been appointed and a strengthened management team is in place; capacity has been reduced by 172 places; over 700 prisoners now have a named Prison Officer as their ‘Key Worker’; cleanliness has been improved and the maintenance backlog has been almost halved. Liverpool has a dedicated staff who are committed to providing a safe and decent environment for prisoners. The Governor will get the support she needs to deliver the action plan and make the changes necessary to substantially improve the performance and conditions at the prison.”

The current insurance system is broken. The more crime there is, the more premiums increase, and yet none of that money is ever used to prevent crime. It is not in the insurance companies interest to reduce crime, because that would mean they would have to lower their premiums (and hence profits), rather than increasing them every year. I propose a special tax should be levied on insurance companies, and that the money raised should be fed back into the Police's budget to put more officers on the ground, thus reducing crime. It would be a win for the good people of this country, and a win for the police. The only people that stand to lose anything by this arrangement would be the insurance companies, and I seriously doubt anyone really cares for their profit margins! As an example, my car insurance has increased by £400 this year. I haven't moved, I haven't had an accident - it's simply down to the fact that the area I live in has seen a spate of thefts. Surely, that £400 would be better spent on police, rather that ending up in the coffers of some insurance company.

To reduce poverty. To give the poor the opportunity to repay what they can afford. To reduce stress anxiety and depression. To stop legalised bullying and intimidation.

The high street banks for the past 3 years have sold off vast portfolios of people loans and mortgages at huge discounts to private equity companies to improve their liquidity with no regard to the consequences to their clients. These private equity funds have the nickname of vulture funds for obvious reasons. They have the reputation of "manufacturing" defaults and calling up loans at no notice thereby putting the customer into bankruptcy or financial ruin. The government plans to sell off tranches of RBS customers loans to these vultures and they must be stopped. This is the equivalent of banks throwing their customers under a bus.

Nestor Sylla is much loved and highly respected. Following the murder of his sister in Guinea, Africa, in 2006, he fled for his life to the UK, but previous legal work failed Nestor when a solicitor did not respond to a Home Office request for photographs. His complaint about the solicitor was upheld. A natural helper, Nestor has volunteered for the BOAZ TRUST winter night shelter for seven years. He has also volunteered for Red Cross and the Mustard Tree. Nestor has created a new family in the UK and, in the process, become a vital carer for both Lawrence, aged 14, and for Elizabeth Coleman, retired. Lawrence says: “He’s a really great guy and helps me with my homework and takes me to school.” And Elizabeth says: “Nestor’s home is England. He is like a son to me. He has a lot to contribute to our society.” In April of 2017 Nestor, who is also a natural leader, was elected to represent many destitute people, questioning the Greater Manchester Mayoral Candidates at a Housing Hustings about their plans for tackling the city’s desperate housing problem. Nestor was detained on Friday 30th June 2017. He had a new Leave to Remain application that was received by the Home Office BEFORE he was detained, therefore his detention was unlawful. His lawyer, Mervyn Cross of Duncan Lewis said: ”There was absolutely no reason to detain Nestor.” When Nestor’s MP, Lucy Powell, contacted the Home Office on Nestor’s behalf, the Home Office insisted that Nestor’s detention was lawful. The MP has now written to the Immigration Minister again pointing out that Nestor has documentary evidence that proves his Leave to Remain application was indeed received by the Home Office before his detention. The Home Office must be called to account for this unlawful detention and for attempting to deny that they unlawfully detained Nestor Sylla. An admission of such unlawful detention will contribute to ensuring that the Home Office stops unlawfully detaining people seeking asylum.

This is hugely important because through blood donation we can save many people’s lives. It seems that gay men are only not allowed to give blood because of highly alarming rates of HIV within the community. However, this is awfully discriminative, considering thousands of heterosexual people give blood, even though they may also have sex with someone who has an STI. This means therefore that people should be inspected through a case-by-case basis, rather than categorised into not being allowed to give blood just because they simply identify as a homosexual man. I find this outrageous, that the current law states gay men have to not have sex for a whole 12 months in order to give blood. It is said to be reduced to 3 months, however, I deeply believe this is still unfair, as heterosexual men do not have to abstain from having sex if they want to donate at all. I am sure homosexual men want to donate blood just as much as any other man in this world and they should be given the right to do so. We see adverts all over the place saying that someone with a rare blood group needs a blood donation and enlarging the group by including homosexual men (after checkup for any serious STIs) could also help this, as they surely also have rare blood groups that may not be found in anyone else in the population.

‘Tradition’ could be upheld, and hunting dogs kept within the law, yet foxes, domestic pets and others could all be legally safeguarded. If you’re hunting a scent trail, legally, muzzling makes no difference. Why not?

This will give parents peace of mind, stability and save hard earned money for the future of their children or utilising that money in other productive use.

Homelessness is important to our country what sort of planet make its own money yet has its own people starving and freezing to death on its streets of all ages in all countries great Britain has homelessness what's great about that print some notes of round them all up and help them don't they deserve a chance at life , if evil serial killers and pedophiles get the help why not the vunrable good homeless people why ? 🤔

We have the Data Protection act in this country to which we have to adhere and therefore the DVLA is likely in breach of this by selling details to third parties for profit.

Its been all over the media lately about children being taken by social services with no real evidence. All meetings with social workers including child protection conferences, PLO meetings, LAC meetings should be video taped so that no misunderstandings can happen, this would not just protect the families but social workers too.

For his humanity, empathy and actions in relation to the victims of the Hillsboro disaster and their families and for his achievements in Sport.