The BBC is to target its diversity drive at news and current affairs after figures showed the department has the highest proportion of privately-educated staff. Data from the corporation’s Equality Information Report found that 22.7 per cent of employees in the news division went to independent or fee-paying schools. In the management ranks, the figure is 34.7 per cent. Another 26.4 per cent of employees attended state-funded selective schools, with 50.9 per cent educated at comprehensive schools. Managers in news and current affairs are also more likely than any other department to come from families in which at least one parent had a university degree (39.2 per cent). Across the BBC, 15 per cent of staff hired in the past 12 months attended private schools. The national average is around six per cent. Tim Davie, the director-general, signalled this week that the BBC was changing its recruitment process to hire people from more diverse educational backgrounds. “It can’t be …
Weird news
Arthur Labinjo-Hughes’ murderous step-mum attacked with salt in prison
The step-mum of Arthur Labinjo-Hughes – who subjected the six-year-old to vile abuse before murdering him – has reportedly been attacked with salt in prison . Evil Emma Tustin, 32, tortured and poisoned the young boy and forced him to stand still facing a wall for hours on end. She was convicted of murder on Friday for repeatedly smacking the kid’s head against a hard surface. Following the ruling, fellow inmates in Tustin’s prison have targeted her with salt and abuse, reports Wales Online . The anger towards the murderous step-mum isn’t new, and at a pre-trial hearing in April 2021 Tustin’s barrister said her client had been receiving “significant and substantial threats”. She is said to be at a high risk of suicide and she has been moved to hospital following prison workers becoming concerned for her health. Lawyers who represented Tustin wrote to the prison governor to urge them to “make it plain” her health and wellbeing should be …
[Read more...] about Arthur Labinjo-Hughes’ murderous step-mum attacked with salt in prison
Festive revellers party as Christmas season begins despite Omicron Covid fears
Festive revellers hit pubs and clubs in the UK as the Christmas season begins despite fears of the Omicron Covid variant spreading. Revellers in Newcastle enjoy a night on the town with some in a festive mood ( Image: North News & Pictures Ltd northnews.co.uk) UKHSA head Dr Jenny Harries, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “Our behaviours in winter and particularly around Christmas we tend to socialise more so I think all of those will need to be taken into account.” Asked whether people should be told to work from home in England, as is happening in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, she said: “We’ve seen that not everybody has gone back to work and I’d like to think of it more in a general way, which is if we all decrease our social contacts a little bit, actually that helps to keep the variant at bay. One dressed as a Christmas tree ( Image: Jason Brown/LNP) People enjoying the nightlife as the festive season begins ( Image: …
[Read more...] about Festive revellers party as Christmas season begins despite Omicron Covid fears
Inside horror case of tortured and poisoned boy, 6, who ‘knew he was going to die’
A couple who killed a six-year-old boy and tortured him for months before his death have been jailed. Little Arthur Labinjo-Hughes died of an "unsurvivable brain injury" at his step-mum Emma Tustin and dad Thomas Hughes' home in Solihull in June 2020. Tustin was found guilty of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment - she will have to serve a minimum of 29 years before she is eligible for parole. Her former partner and Arthur's father, Hughes' was found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to 21 years in jail. Prosecutors said Arthur had been weakened by abuse over the previous months before his death. Jurors heard how Tustin and Hughes forced him to eat salt-laced meals as part of their wicked campaign of terror. Step-mum Emma Tustin has been jailed for life with a minimum sentence of 29 years ( Image: PA) Dad Thomas Hughes was sentenced to 21 years in jail ( Image: PA) He had more than six spoons worth of salt in his …
Man surprises his mum with emotional reunion after years apart – on her 100th birthday
Vera Hurst was celebrating her 100th birthday at a restaurant, near her home in Reading, when she got a very special surprise. Her family had kindly arranged for her son Michael to join them for dinner. Michael had retired to Spain and hadn't seen his mother for many years and the emotional moment when the pair were reunited was captured on video. As he made a grand entrance, Vera looked confused, before realising what was going on. She shrieked 'It's Michael!' and fell into his arms crying. She said to her son: "Fancy seeing you here!", to which Michael, then 77, replied: "Yes, I caught the bus". This is the scene that took place in 2018 to mark an entire century of Vera and it was filmed by her granddaughter Emily Wiggins. Mother and son were reunited ( Image: Emily Jayden / SWNS) Get the news you want straight to your inbox. Sign up for a Mirror newsletter here. The 32-year-old sadly lost her grandmother in 2018, but she recently shared the …
Cheeky squirrel caught stealing Santa hat from man’s porch before escaping up tree
A cheeky squirrel was caught red-handed swiping a Santa hat from a man’s porch before escaping up a tree. Gregg Manternach was initially fuming when he spotted the squirrel taking the red Santa hat from where he had placed it on the head of a fake owl on his porch. Gregg said he had placed the festive hat on the owl decoration just 24 hours before it was brazenly stolen. But the 48-year-old said his annoyance soon turned into amusement when he watched the video back. The financial manager said: "On Saturday, November 27, I was walking downstairs after waking up in the morning. "As I came down the stairs, I noticed the hat scurrying across the porch. Gregg Manternach was initially fuming when he spotted the squirrel with his Christmas decoration ( Image: Gregory Manternach/ CATERS NEWS) The cheeky critter scurries up the tree ( Image: Gregory Manternach/ CATERS NEWS) “I grabbed my phone from my pocket and began recording as …
Boy, 6, killed by dad and stepmum suffered ‘a bruise for every day of lockdown’
Little Arthur Labinjo-Hughes suffered 'a bruise for every day of lockdown' at the hands of his cruel dad and step-mum, a prosecutor said. The six-year-old was murdered at his home in Solihull in June 2020, with doctors later discovering more than 130 bruises on his body. His step-mother Emma Tustin, 32, was found guilty of murder on Thursday, while his father Thomas Hughes, 29, was found guilty of manslaughter . During a harrowing eight-week trial, jurors at Coventry Crown Court heard how the pair had subjected the child to months of abuse, likened to 'torture', before his death. Arthur Labinjo-Hughes suffered an 'unsurvivable brain injury' in June 2020 ( Image: PA) According to the Daily Telegraph , prosecutor Jonas Hankin QC said he suffered 'a bruise for every day of lockdown'. He added: "Violence was a way of life for him in lockdown." The six-year-old died after suffering an 'unsurvivable brain injury' in June last year. Hughes, of Solihull, was …
[Read more...] about Boy, 6, killed by dad and stepmum suffered ‘a bruise for every day of lockdown’
Omicron variant is ‘at least 2.4x more likely to re-infect’ than original Covid strain
The Omicron variant of coronavirus is 2.4x more likely to reinfect people than the original stain, a study from South Africa suggests. The research, which has not been peer-reviewed, found people who had tested positive for Covid could pick up the virus again. It did not say how the variant will behave when spreading in a highly vaccinated population such as the UK, or whether the virus can evade the protection offered by vaccines against severe disease. The new study estimated that the risk of reinfection for November 1 to 27, when Omicron was circulating, was 2.39 times higher than in the first wave of the pandemic in early 2020. In contrast, the risk of reinfection in South Africa was lower in the Beta and Delta waves than in the first wave. The findings suggest Omicron could cause a wave of infections in people with some prior immunity. The Omicron variant of coronavirus has "substantial" ability to cause reinfection, a study suggests ( Image: SIPA USA/PA …
Carry on socialising, declares Boris Johnson, after Dr Jenny Harries causes fright before Christmas
Even before Dr Jenny Harries had finished touring television and radio studios on Tuesday morning, her appearances had stoked feverish speculation that Christmas could be cancelled . By telling the public to “decrease our social contacts”, the head of the UK Health Security Agency, a familiar face alongside Boris Johnson at Downing Street press conferences, caused panic in the hospitality industry, which has already seen Christmas parties scrapped or postponed in the wake of the omicron Covid variant . It left Mr Johnson scrambling to reassure the public that parties, Nativity plays and Christmas itself would go ahead, but after a day of muddled messaging, some on the Conservative benches claimed Dr Harries had simply let slip a hidden agenda to “suppress freedom”. The row started after Dr Harries, who was previously the deputy chief medical officer, said on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that in the light of the omicron variant: “Of course, our behaviours in winter and …
British universities have become indoctrination camps. A reckoning is long overdue
The Institute for Fiscal Studies recently announced that 13 universities in the UK face "a very real prospect" of going bust. Like all such announcements in the higher education sector the news was clearly meant to be received with a gasp of fear. Worse, the IFS warned that it is our least prestigious universities that are most at risk. I don’t know about you, but on reading this news I immediately put my head in my hands and cried, “Oh no. Not our least prestigious universities. Take anything but that.” There are many oddities about our higher education system. Oddest is the presumption that the more universities there are and the more people go to them, the better our country will be. Tony Blair was merely the most notorious proponent of this idea. His target of 50 per cent of young people going to university was achieved last year. Is our country noticeably smarter or more successful as a result? Many would say not. In some ways I would say it is noticeably stupider. One …