[Big Arnold]

I can see where the tabloids were coming from though. My first thought when they announced two arrests just after the deployment of high tech gear was that they'd got someone bang to rights in possession of a drone. Not an almost random arrest of someone on the strength of a phone call. For all their talk of following up leads, I will think it will go unsolved. Especially when they didn’t seem to be sure that a crime had been committed.

[Andy McDandy]

I was discussing this with my brother last night. He lives in Wiltshire and the talk moved on to the case of the Skripals and other instances where the John Ford principle (given the choice between the truth and the legend, print the legend) applies.

Papers need to fill space and sell copies. Discuss the ethics of that all you like, but given a hot story, a tight deadline and little information, there is pressure to print whatever is the latest information as the truth, for now.

[Daley Mayle]

Couple released without charge over Gatwick drone 'could win libel payout'

Libel lawyer says Paul Gait and Elaine Kirk could win £75,000 from newspapers who identified them[/size]

The Sun’s former political editor Trevor Kavanagh has defended newspapers’ decision to name the couple, telling BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Monday that the information came from neighbours of the couple and publication helped “hasten the process of the law”.

“Were it not for the press, I don’t think the police would have been so quick to discover this particular suspect had a cast-iron watertight alibi,” he said.

Bollocks. The suspects would have known they had alibis, and told the police early on.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/ ... bel-payout

I listened to that. Kavanagh said the police were 'clod-hopping' along and the press' intervention sped-up the process for this couple to be freed without charge. A good thing, no? He was asked to comment on the Mail's headline "are these the morons who ruined Christmas' and said he will not criticise other newspapers.

Omertà rules OK.

BTW, as the story was getting stale there were reports of a senior Plod saying that it was possible there was never a drone in the first place. This was put straight by the police as a miscommunication. My guess is that a reporter desperate for a new angle when there was still no physical evidence or a lead as to the perpetrator asked the question, 'Can you rule out there was never a drone in the first place?'.

The honest answer to that has to be, 'No'.

[Safe_Timber_Man]

Yesterday's editorial was some of their most ridiculous propaganda to date:

THE SUN SAYS Forget Remoaners, 2019 is full of hope with investment pouring into Britain and our creative and digital sectors leading the world

THIS new year will be one of the most momentous in our recent history.

We have much to look forward to in the months ahead.

You would scarcely believe it when listening to the Remain doom-mongers but away from the Westminster bubble, Britain is thriving.

Today, Brits have never had more cash in their pockets. Our jobs market has never been healthier.

Our economy is the sixth largest in the world and our military budget is the second biggest in Nato.

For all the talk of Britain becoming a nation of Little Englanders, our island remains a welcoming place.

We have no right-wing nationalist party making great gains, unlike most of Europe. And despite reports of a “Brexodus”, for every two EU citizens who leave our shores, three arrive.

Brexit, of course, was never about pulling up the drawbridge. It was about controlling our borders to get the number of migrants that benefits us best. Meanwhile, London remains one of the world’s leading financial centres.

Investment continues to pour in and our creative and digital sectors are world-leading. Business bible Forbes recently ranked us the most attractive place on earth to do business, for the second year in a row. Hardly the sign of a country on the brink of disaster.

Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt was spot on when he said he was “constantly struck by how much more other countries respect us than we seem to respect ourselves”.

On March 29, we will quit the EU. Clearly there is much work to be done before then. It is vital Theresa May fights EU chiefs to ensure we have the right to trade freely across the globe without the “backstop” threat.

Her Government must continue planning for a No Deal Brexit, so that if we are forced into a clean break, Britain will continue to be Great.

We want more energy and bold thinking from the Government. The country is crying out for some real leadership.

The housing market remains broken, our NHS is strained, and the high street is in dire straits.

Meanwhile, the migrant crisis has shown how quickly a problem can escalate if it is not tackled head-on.

Mrs May bought herself temporary respite by winning her no-confidence vote. But Sun readers need more reasons why she should be in No10, other than the fact she isn’t Jeremy Corbyn.

Elsewhere, Gareth Southgate’s Three Lions will go for Nations League glory and our brilliant women’s team have a World Cup to win at France 2019. Added to that, we’ve got the rugby and cricket World Cups and the Ashes. There’s even a Royal baby to welcome in April.

In the meantime, we hope your heads are not too sore today. And in our own 50th anniversary year we wish you, our brilliant readers, a happy and prosperous 2019.

Today they're having a hissy fit about fireworks:

Khan’s insult

SADIQ Khan’s decision to hijack New Year with a homage to the EU was absurd.

Changing the London Eye to resemble the EU flag was little more than virtue-signalling student politics, designed to impress his young Twitter fans.

New Year’s Eve should have been a celebration of our great country. Why did it need to be politicised?

What did he hope to achieve, besides insulting 17.4million Leave voters?

The London Mayor embarrassed the capital last year with his puerile decision to allow the “Trump baby” to fly during the President’s visit.

It is about time he stopped with such pathetic stunts and worked on actually improving the lives of Londoners.

Focus on the day job, Mr Mayor.

[The Weeping Angel]

Good thing you copied that STM.

[mr angry manchester]

The instant that Brexit goes tits up and starts to impact on Dagenham Dave it will be "The Sun says get us back in NOW"

[Andy McDandy]

That or say that it's just a handful of people suffering, they probably all deserved it anyway, and send over the SAS to slap some sense into Macron.

[Malcolm Armsteen]

The instant that Brexit goes tits up and starts to impact on Murdoch's business interests it will be "The Sun says get us back in NOW"

FTFY

[cycloon]

Aye, Dagenham Dave is a peon to be exploited, not defended.

[Safe_Timber_Man]

THE SUN SAYS Deranged campaigners ignore the fact childhood obesity is NOT rising – and hasn’t for years

THE brainless panic over sugary treats ignores any inconvenient facts. For example, that childhood obesity is NOT rising and hasn’t been for years.

NHS statistics show the proportion of obese kids peaked 15 years ago, fell markedly, then flatlined after 2011. Sugar consumption is way down on 40 years ago. Children’s teeth are improving.

One thing HAS increased: the percentage eating five fruit and veg a day.

Yet deranged campaigners demand new taxes on chocolates, sweets and biscuits to curb our “escalating childhood ­obesity epidemic”. There isn’t one.

Why do the meddling zealots of Public Health England or “Action On Sugar” even get a hearing? Why aren’t they just laughed at when they suggest calorie limits on occasional restaurant meals

Because it’s January and everyone feels guilty about Christmas scoffing. Because campaigners were emboldened by the Tories’ shameful fizzy drinks tax, even pronouncing its “success” despite zero evidence it made anyone slimmer.

They smell a weakness in Downing Street for nanny-state levies and other potty measures hitting the poor hardest.

The Government insists it has no plans yet for new food taxes. But it has already caved in to this hysteria once.

Why wouldn’t it again?

Reverse ferried

SPARE us the leftie hand-wringing over the illegal migrants sailing across the Channel.

Genuine asylum-seekers fleeing persecution would seek safe haven in the first EU country they reached. These were camped in France and just decided we looked a better bet — or a softer touch.

As for their apparent destitution, they managed to pay small fortunes to criminals who facilitated their sea voyage.

Britain welcomes migrants who arrive legitimately. We should take our share of real asylum-seekers who do the same. But we SHOULD be “hostile” to illegals.

Yes, the numbers arriving in Kent are small — so what? If they are warmly welcomed, many more will risk it and drown. Who will the Left blame then?

Home Secretary Sajid Javid was commendably blunt. But let’s see action.

Ship them straight back to France.

We MUST show them and others that the expense and risk are for nothing. This evil trafficking operation must be destroyed.

Yeah, rights

IT is staggering to hear Labour champion human rights while the world’s worst abusers are the socialist regimes they adore.

Frontbencher Emily Thornberry contrives offence at Jeremy Hunt talking up Singapore’s low-tax economy, because it has a poor record on free speech.

Yet she and her Corbynite mates romanticise Cuba — where dissent ends in jail — and Venezuela, where the security forces murder starving citizens.

The hypocrisy is sickening.

ROD LIDDLE

Singing for our supper

Our Foreign Secretary has just landed in Singapore to drum up more trade for Britain post Brexit.

This tiny country – just a city state – is a major economic force and an important ally.

It’s also a good lesson for those whining lefties who blame colonialism for the desperate plight of Africa.

Singapore was founded as a British trading post exactly 200 years ago. It was under British control until 1963.

It has a booming economy, one of the world’s highest life expectancies and a top standard of living.

So it’s not done too badly, has it?

The truth is colonialism is NOTHING to do with the failure of African countries. It’s about good government.

Albert 'Pride' Square

There's going to be a gay bar in EastEnders.

This is an innovation dreamed up by the new script editor, Kate Oates.

It’s intended to make the programme more closely represent the area in which it’s set.

Ha! Here’s a tip, Ms Oates. If you want EastEnders to truly reflect the borough in which it’s set – Tower Hamlets – you need a few more sweeping changes.

Fewer than a third of Tower Hamlets’ residents are white British, so that’s most of the cast gone.

Almost 40 per cent of the people there are Bangladeshi, so the programme should be broadcast in Bengali, not English.

Come on, Kate. You want EastEnders to be more real?

Then make it REALLY real.

'Bon voyage, mon ami'

With every day that passes, more Iranians arrive at Dover floating in upturned tins of Quality Street.

Quite clearly, the French are doing nothing whatsoever to deter them.

It wouldn’t surprise me if they were actually herding them on to the dinghies.

“Go on, monsieur, you can see the cliffs over there. It’s not far. Bon voyage, mon ami.”

It’s another two fingers from the hopeless French because we’re leaving the European Union.

What we should be doing is towing the migrants all the way back to Calais.

I know living in France is probably a “cruel and unusual punishment” under United Nations laws. But it’s time the French took their responsibilities a bit more seriously.

Parking chaos

Let's be honest. It’s not just whichever oaf parked Paul Pogba’s car in that disabled bay who is doing it.

When I go to my local supermarket, all the disabled bays are full, every time.

No stickers in the car windows.

And the people inside the store don’t seem to be limping very much. Sometimes I fantasise about waiting by their cars, with a hammer, for them to emerge with their shopping.

“Disabled, huh? Well, you are now.”

But one of the problems, I think, is that we have too many disabled bays.

And so people don’t take them seriously.

[bluebellnutter]

ARE us the leftie hand-wringing over the illegal migrants sailing across the Channel.

Huh?

[Safe_Timber_Man]

Sorry, my fault. I think I must've missed the first 2 letters which would be 'SP'. Edited now.

[Safe_Timber_Man]

Ranting away about obesity again and sneering at every single idea that is put forward to tackle it. They very rarely suggest something themselves and when they do it's always this:

The focus should be on a relentless education campaign informing people what’s in their food and how many calories a day they should aim at.

Yet, in past editorials they've sneered at these exact ideas as well and called it nanny state mollycoddling. What the fuck do they actually want or are they happy just attacking and deriding any attempt to tackle the topic they appear to be so passionate about?

You fat-heads

WE fear for the sanity of the nanny-state health zealots.

The NHS’s own website says obesity is a condition “generally caused by eating too much and moving too little”.

Yet the Royal College of Physicians wants to pretend it’s a disease whose sufferers are helpless victims of their genes, or of a cruel society forcing fast food down them and encouraging idleness.

A few may have genes that do them no favours. Most of us know we could lose weight if we tried. What is our motivation if doctors say none of it is our fault?

The answer is not some mad war on the truth, or the conveniences, pleasures and technological advances of modern life.

Like the absurdity of calorie limits in restaurants. Or a chocolate tax. Or making driving so unpleasant via new tolls or speed bumps that we are forced to trudge miles to work in all weathers.

That hits everyone, even the slimmest.

The focus should be on a relentless education campaign informing people what’s in their food and how many calories a day they should aim at.

And that without some self-control and a little exercise, obesity will kill them.

Rental rip-off

HOW can working people make ends meet if more than half their take-home pay is swallowed by rent

That is the miserable plight of 500,000 households, a direct result of the shortage of properties caused by a population explosion and an abject failure to build.

The Government talks a good game — and has lifted the borrowing cap for councils to fund development.

But we are sick of urging them to sort this out.

They appear to lack the urgency or energy, or the courage to slash planning red tape and take on NIMBY residents.

They MUST increase the supply by funding new affordable social housing, liberating renters from the greediest private landlords. They MUST fulfil on their pledge to build 300,000 homes a year young people can buy.

Let’s start in boarded-up town centres.

The Sun can change their mind about their latest hero very quickly, as "Saj" is finding out:

Saj’s surrender

SAJID Javid’s loss of bottle over the ­Government’s post-Brexit immigration strategy is truly disheartening.

How can he pretend to be “taking back control” when anyone, from anywhere, would still be able to come to the UK until at least 2025 even with no job offer? No one is fooled, Home Secretary.

You cannot talk tough while buckling to the pressure from big business for yet more cheap foreign labour. The Brexit vote, among its other motivations, was plainly a demand to end that.

The think tank Migration Watch says immigration is sure to rise under Mr Javid’s 160-page blueprint, making it “the longest suicide note” in Tory history.

It’s hard to argue with that.

[Safe_Timber_Man]

THE SUN SAYS Extra billions for the NHS are only a sticking plaster – the service needs more serious treatment

WE hope today marks a watershed moment for the NHS, with a plan that makes it sustainable for decades to come. The extra billions being pumped into the Service are obviously welcome.

It’s to the Tories’ credit that they’re putting the money in, despite knowing Labour and their union brothers will give them no credit whatsoever for it.

But without sustainable reform, it is only a sticking plaster on a patient that needs far more serious treatment.

In 2000, spending on the NHS made up 23 per cent of public spending. By 2023, it will be 38 per cent. Where does it stop? How many other services do we have to cut so that we can keep propping up a system and vested interests that politicians haven’t been brave enough to take on?

Let’s be clear: healthcare free at the point of use paid out of general taxation is something we should all be proud of. The NHS is packed full of hard- working people who sacrifice high days and holidays for their patients.

But we have seen grand announcements of more money before. All too often the cash gets lost in clunking bureaucracy or procurement debacles.

This time, the Government must be clear where the money is spent — dragging the NHS’s use of technology into the 21st century; cutting down on wasteful agency costs by fixing the frontline staff shortage; and streamlining management.

To save the NHS, it needs reforming.

We hope this Government is brave enough to start that process — and ignore the bleating of Labour politicians more interested in political footballs than practical policies.

Here’s to sense

WE’RE raising a glass to Matt Hancock and Liz Truss, both of whom yesterday pledged to stop the Nanny State’s unrelenting advance.

Meanwhile the Shadow Health Secretary is pledging to put more taxes on sugar and salt, like some pea-shooting Dirty Harry taking on Big Salt.

The PM has been all too willing to give in to the hectoring of nonsense quangos such as Public Health England, with a soft drinks tax already hitting shoppers.

We hope she listens to her Cabinet..

Plan B(rexit)

THE PM is clear “nothing has changed” on Brexit but that won’t be good enough for Parliament – or the country.

Without legitimate, serious concessions from Brussels, her deal will not get through the Commons. And with less than 2,000 hours to go until we leave, she still seems to have no Plan B.

That alternative plan should be a clean break — and the PM must have more confidence Britain can thrive on its own.

[Malcolm Armsteen]