4 weeks agoLatest NewsComments Off on I tried UK’s wackiest ice cream flavours from pickled onion to Bisto – the crazy £4.50 winner surprised me
WHATEVER will Mr Whippy say? To compete, he may need to stick more than a 99 Flake in his cone.
An ice-cream parlour in posh Knightsbridge, Central London has come up with some very crazy flavours, ranging from, er, Twiglets, to Bisto and Irn-Bru.
Ian WhittakerAlexander McLeod has tested some of the craziest ice cream flavours[/caption]
Summer pop-up The Ice Cream Project is the idea of eccentric fashion designer Anya Hindmarch, as Waitrose recently revealed Gen Z enjoy a twist of baked beans, soya sauce or cheese in their tubs.
She bills her ices, at £4.50 a scoop, as “a celebration of Britain’s kitchen cupboard culture”.
But do we likey-lick?
Alexander McLeod, right, tries Anya’s ice creams and gives his verdicts and marks out of ten . . .
Jacob’s Twiglets
The Jacob’s Twiglets ice cream has a Marmite tangPeter Jordan
4 weeks agoLatest NewsComments Off on Staggering cost Labour has spent chartering boats to rescue migrants in Channel in just eight months revealed
NEARLY £4million has been spent under Sir Keir Starmer’s government on chartering five privately owned boats to rescue migrants in the Channel over the last eight months.
Border Force chiefs have used vessels from two private companies to patrol the English Channel and pick up migrants in dinghies making the treacherous journey from France to the UK.
Migrants in dinghies making the treacherous journey from France to the UKPAGettyNearly £4million has been spent under Sir Keir Starmer’s government on chartering five privately owned boats to rescue migrants[/caption]
Aeolian Offshore and CWind provide the boats, which are normally used to carry maintenance and repair crew between offshore wind farms.
Home Office figures show Aeolian has been paid £2,093,800 since July last year and Cwind £1,786,199 in the same period.
A Home Office spokesperson said: “The catamarans leased under these contracts are considered more suitable for the task of rescuing migrants from small boats, than the larger vessels in the Border Force maritime fleet.
“As a result, our fleet of cutters and coastal-patrol vessels are free to concentrate on tackling the wider threats around the UK coast.
“This includes preventing the smuggling of drugs and firearms into our country.”
4 weeks agoLatest NewsComments Off on Love Island’s Maura Higgins lookalike Megan Clarke reveals what she REALLY thinks about being compared to show legend
LOVE Island’s new Maura Higgins lookalike has sympathy for her fellow Irish beauty after she snogged married McFly guitarist Danny Jones.
Musical theatre student Megan Forte Clarke, 24, from Dublin, said she is flattered by comparisons to Maura, who is ten years older and appeared as a bombshell on the ITV dating show in 2019.
Megan Forte Clarke said she is flattered by comparisons to Maura HigginsInstagramDublin-born Megan, 24, said: ‘I love Maura — what a compliment. She’s an icon’[/caption]
Maura, who is ten years older, appeared as a bombshell on the ITV dating show in 2019
But asked how she felt about Maura’s now infamous kiss with Danny, 39, at a Brit Awards after-party in London earlier this year, Megan said: “We’ve all had a drunken kiss.”
Megan, who is set to enter the ITV2 villa tomorrow, has drawn comparisons to Maura thanks to her Irish accent and glamorous brunette looks.
She said: “I love Maura — what a compliment. She’s an icon.
“She is like the Queen of Ireland. So if people are comparing me to her, then cheers, love that, thank you.”
Meanwhile, Megan, who calls herself the “modern day Bridget Jones”, said she has been single for nearly three years after her university boyfriend cheated on her.
She added: “We were on and off for about a year during my first year at university and I’ve been single since.
“We met at uni [The Brighton Academy] — musical theatre boys are never a good idea.”
Asked if it ended on good terms, she said: “No. No, God, no! He cheated on me quite a bit. The girls were none the wiser.
“So I would never blame a girl in that sense, but I definitely confronted him. He felt my wrath. I didn’t really get any revenge. I think ignorance is bliss, so he was blocked. I haven’t spoken to him since.”
‘Hell and horror’
Of her recent dating life, she said: “It has been more than two years of hell and horror.
“I’ve been asked on a walk for a date. I’m like, ‘That’s brilliant, I love being a dog’.
“It is just never good and then they ghost you. So many frogs.”
But the boys of the villa will be pleased after Megan revealed she has stocked up on bikinis and sexy outfits for The Hideaway — the villa’s private area where Islanders can spend time together alone.
She said: “Yeah, I have shopped till I dropped. I feel like you can’t be too prepared with stuff like that.
“Better to be over prepared than underprepared.
“So I’ve got a lot of options for bikinis and night time.”
But the Dublin-born beauty said she will be keeping things real by wearing her plastic retainer to bed after having braces during her university years.
She said: “That’s always humbling when you’re comfortable around a boy and you are clicking it out in the morning.”
But of wearing braces, she added: “I think a lot of boys actually quite liked it, which I was surprised by.”
‘I’ve had a little flirt’
Megan revealed that she has been given strict instructions by her mum to keep things PG in the villa.
She said: “My mum’s been like, ‘Meg, please do not have sex in the villa’. I don’t think I would anyway — too exposing.”
Megan, who currently works in telesales, said she has not had any office romances, but cannot resist charming her colleagues.
She revealed: “I’ve had a little flirt here and there because, you know, you have to make work life fun, but nothing has come of it.”
Last Christmas, the beauty starred as one of the ugly step-sisters in a Christmas pantomime of Cinderella in Tewkesbury, Gloucs.
She said: “To be fair, they were meant to be Kardashian-esque and ugly on the inside.
“So I got to wear fabulous costumes. I had a ball.”
Hopefully, in the villa, she will meet her own Prince Charming.
4 weeks agoLatest NewsComments Off on Migrants in France branded ‘scum’ by ‘hypocrite’ French union boss whose cops are failing to stop boats crossing Channel
THE FRENCH police union boss whose cops are failing to stop boats crossing the Channel was branded a “hypocrite” after describing migrants in France as “scum”.
The Alliance national police union is leading the charge against calls for French officers to do more to intervene and halt dinghies heading for Dover.
AlamyPolice union boss Fabien Vanhemelryck was branded a ‘hypocrite’ after describing migrants in France as ‘scum’, pictured at a 2022 rally in Paris[/caption]
PAA packed dinghy prepares to leave Gravelines on the French coast, near Calais[/caption]
Gary StoneMigrants arrive in Kent after crossing the Channel in small boats[/caption]
And the radical body is even calling for the number of would-be migrants in immigration custody to be cut, allowing them to keep boarding boats until they become the UK’s problem.
Alliance general secretary Fabien Vanhemelryck last year called “young people of foreign origin” in France “a pain”.
But he has been at the forefront of a campaign against a proposed law change that would make French cops enter the water to stop the boats from launching.
Last weekend, Vanhemelryck’s colleagues were pictured standing by as more than 1,000 migrants crossed the Channel.
Britain is already coughing up £476million for a deal with Emmanuel Macron’s French government, under which border commanders in Calais are supposed to prevent crossings.
‘Grow a backbone’
A record 14,812 have already crossed this year — up 42 per cent in a year — with France now demanding even more cash to make its police force operate in the water.
Ministers in Paris have long planned to change the law but now want more British taxpayers’ cash to fund a new police unit with special powers to take on migrants.
Vanhemelryck, 51, has resisted the change, raising the prospect that the powerful union baron is letting the crisis go on so more foreigners leave France.
And in an interview in July last year, Vanhemelryck said of migrants: “Even my Muslim colleagues are fed up with the scum, the pests, the young people of foreign origin in working-class neighbourhoods who are a pain and who are never punished.”
Robert Jenrick, the Tory shadow justice secretary, said: “No wonder the French union bosses are refusing to get their feet wet and stop migrant boats coming to Britain — they just want to see the back of them.
“They don’t care how many go to the UK. The French could end this disaster overnight if they wanted to.
“It’s blindly obvious Starmer shouldn’t gamble on them to stop the boats. He needs to grow a backbone and sort it out himself.”
Everyone in Europe — including Vanhemelryk — needs to work to stop movement of illegal immigrants everywhere. Vanhemelryk must get with the programme or Europe will be overrun
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp raged: “French Union boss Fabien Vanhemelryk is guilty of flagrant hypocrisy.
“He slams immigrants in France but then orders his union to refuse to do anything about illegal immigration over the Channel.
“Everyone in Europe — including Vanhemelryk — needs to work to stop movement of illegal immigrants everywhere. Vanhemelryk must get with the programme or Europe will be overrun.”
Alliance sources say the union boss will fight to the end to stop his own officers from arresting migrants.
The senior source said: “People don’t realise how dangerous it is to try and carry out arrests at sea while trying to force a boat to change course.
PAFrench cops stand and watch as migrants prepare to flee for UK[/caption]
“If there are 80 people on an overcrowded boat, including women and children, then it is extremely dangerous to try and stop them.
“People can fall in the water, while others resist arrest — the potential for disaster, including further deaths, is immense. Turning us into sea police is not the way forward.”
There have been ten migrant deaths in the Channel this year, prompting Alliance members to refuse to enter the water.
The union even wants to hold fewer would-be boat crossers in French immigration detention.
They say that suspects who want to get to Britain are becoming more violent and officers are unable to cope.
Bosses have called for one key retention centre in Coquelles, at the entrance to the Channel Tunnel, to have its capacity cut from 104 male prisoners to 74.
A union source said: “We are having to look after hardened criminals while they are processed, and do not have the staff numbers to cope.”
It’s time we held other countries accountable for the continuing invasion of our shores.
Reform UK chief whip Lee Anderson
Those held in Coquelles could only be set free on bail, although almost all of them would immediately abscond and leave the country on a dinghy for the UK.
Last October, a 19-year-old migrant from Mali ferociously attacked other Coquelles centre inmates and hit police officers who intervened.
Local Alliance representative Sliman Hamzi said: “It’s unacceptable. We’ve seen scenes of colleagues being lynched. We can’t tolerate this.”
Reform UK chief whip Lee Anderson accused the union leader of “actively enabling Channel crossings.”
He added: “If France doesn’t want these migrants, why should British taxpayers foot the bill for their transport, housing, and clothing?
“It’s time we held other countries accountable for the continuing invasion of our shores.
“They’re actively enabling Channel crossings because they’d rather shift the problem onto us.”
TWO immigrants — one of them a child — were hiding in the luggage compartment of a coach full of schoolkids when it pulled into this motorway services.
Underneath a coach returning from a school trip to France to get across the English Channel – after a surge in stowaway journeys.
The pair of asylum seekers climbed into the luggage compartment as the bus brought back more than 50 children from a day trip to Boulogne on Friday.
They snuck on before the coach boarded a ferry to Dover and got past Border Officials when it arrived in the UK.
The migrants then remained in the storage section of the coach until it stopped at Birchanger Green service station on the M11, near Stansted Airport.
Year 7 pupils and teachers, who had been on the French trip to learn how to order lunch in the native language, are said to have heard loud bangs coming from underneath the coach.
It prompted the driver, from a local coach firm, to pull over and stop at the services.
Two illegal immigrants, including a child, then emerged from their hiding spot in the vehicle.
Both remained at the service station until they were detained by police shortly before 10pm.
The students, from a small secondary school in Cambridgeshire, were taken inside the halt and told the coach had suffered an engine failure.
It took an hour for the kids to be allowed back on the coach so the journey home could resume.
A parent of one of the children on board said: “The pupils were really tired because they had been up at 3am, and they were meant to get home at 10pm.
“Because of the hold-up to arrest the migrants, they didn’t get back until well after 11pm.
“It’s a total shock because they could have been any two people. Thankfully they did not try to do anything, but I feel uneasy knowing they were close to my child.”
An Essex Police spokeswoman confirmed: “We were alerted to concerns for the welfare of two people discovered under a bus on the M11 near Stansted on Friday evening.
“Officers were called out to a rest stop shortly before 10pm.
“One person has been taken into police custody, while one is being referred to social care.”
It comes after we revealed 13 migrants targeted a lorry delivering supplies to a Sainsbury’s distribution centre last week.
Figures show there were 5,874 detections of illegal immigrants at ports on the continent, including Calais, Dunkirk and the Channel Tunnel in Coquelles.
It is a rise of 22 per cent compared with 4,794 in 2023.
While migrants crossing the Channel are easily recorded, lorry stowaways may reach the UK undetected.
Many go on to obtain illegal cash-in-hand work or claim asylum and be housed in a hotel.
4 weeks agoLatest NewsComments Off on Shocking blunder as dangerous criminal left without GPS tag for over 50 DAYS after early release from jail
Getty
A DANGEROUS lag was able to roam without a GPS tag for more than 50 days after being released from jail early.
The unnamed prisoner was set free in September as part of the scheme to ease prison overcrowding.
More than 1,000 offenders — including violent criminals — were let out months early in the move by Labour.
Many were freed on licence, meaning they had to wear an ankle tag so their movements could be monitored to check they were obeying a curfew or other restrictions.
But the con in question was one of a number who were not fitted with a tag immediately.
Instead he was free to go wherever he liked unchecked until November 2 — 53 days later — when one was finally attached by a private security contractor.
Government sources blamed the unnamed firm for the lengthy delay.
It comes as senior cops have raised concerns about the state of the monitoring systems after we revealed that a machete-wielding teenager cut off his tag and absconded.
Met commissioner Sir Mark Rowley highlighted the 16-year-old boy’s case, as his force had to dedicate “massive resources” to finding the teen in Eltham, South East London.
He has since been bailed again.
Our statistics also show eight criminals have avoided being tagged in the past two years because bungling authorities had the wrong address.
We can also reveal that crooks who were supposed to have been monitored by probation officials carried out almost 750 murders and sex attacks in just five years.
Ministry of Justice figures show that 377 convicted of murder and 369 jailed for serious sex crimes were supposedly being tracked, though not all would have had an electronic tag fitted.
They include Jordan McSweeney, 29, who sexually assaulted and murdered Zara Aleena, 35, in Ilford, East London, in 2022.
McSweeney had been let out of jail on licence after serving a robbery term a week beforehand and missed two probation appointments.
Ex-cop Peter Bleksley said our findings show tagging is a “complete waste of time” if it is not effectively monitored.
The MoJ said: “Fewer than 0.5 per cent of offenders supervised by probation commit a serious further offence.”
A spokesman said that 1,300 new probation officers were being brought in this year.
GettyA dangerous lag was able to roam without a GPS tag for more than 50 days after being released from jail early[/caption]
GettyWhite Lotus star Aimee Lou Wood has been pictured looking loved-up with her boyfriend Adam Long[/caption]
TillenDoveAimee cuddled up to Adam as they sat outside a London cafe[/caption]
The couple, who met while on the set of Film Club, were seen kissing
The pair met while filming upcoming BBC comedy series Film Club but Adam is best known for telly drama Happy Valley.
Stockport-born Aimee previously dated Connor Swindells, 28 — her co-star on Netflix comedy series Sex Education — but they split in 2020.
An onlooker who spotted her with Adam in South London said: “They looked smitten with one another.
“They were hugging and kissing and she kept draping her arm around his neck while his hand was on her knee.
“They looked very comfy together — a vision of love’s young dream.”
Aimee’s romance follows rumours of a row with her White Lotus co-star Walton Goggins after claims they had unfollowed each other on Instagram.
The pair, who play lovers Chelsea and Rick in the HBO series, appeared on the cover of Variety magazine last week to put the rumours to bed.
