Vue cinema apologises after friends 'are turned away by security guard because they were not a Muslim family celebrating Eid' Daily Mail.

  Leon Jennings visited Birmingham's Star City complex with two friends 

  Claims security guard said film showings at Vue were only for Muslims

  Allegedly told his group that they 'did not look like they celebrated Eid'

  Venue based in Aston area of city, where 87% residents are non-white

  Vue is investigating and 'sincerely apologises for inconvenience caused'

  Star City management claim 'there is no truth in the recent allegations'

A sales consultant was allegedly turned away from a busy cinema yesterday because he was not a Muslim celebrating Eid.

Leon Jennings had been visiting Birmingham’s Star City entertainment complex with two friends.

But as the 22-year-old tried to enter the Vue cinema based on the site, which includes dozens or bars and restaurants, he said he was turned away by a security guard.

After asking them why, Mr Jennings claimed he was told by staff that film showings were only for couples and families celebrating the end of the Muslim festival.

Mr Jennings and his three friends were allegedly forced to turn around and go home unable to watch a film at the complex, because ‘they did not look like they celebrated Eid’.

Today he said he was left feeling embarrassed by the incident and felt discriminated against for being white.

The revelation has caused outrage as other visitors reported similar experiences across the venue, which is based in the Aston area of the city, where 87 per cent of residents are from an ethnic group other than white.

Mr Jennings, a viewing consultant at a photography studio, from Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham, said: ‘I was going there with my pals to the cinema as it’s Orange Wednesdays, so you get two for one.

‘As we drove in the bloke on the gate said to use “not tonight guys, it’s couples and families only”. We thought he was just joking and went and parked up.

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Gibraltar rejects Spanish border plans, Daily Telegraph

Spain’s government announced on Tuesday it planned to introduce a “fast lane” for workers resident in Spain with jobs in Gibraltar in a bid to reduce traffic queues at the border to the tiny British Overseas Territory.

The measure, which follows the EU recommending both sides work to ease traffic flow at the frontier, is designed to limit disruption for commuters who travel to Gibraltar each day for employment.

Spain’s Tax Administration Agency said it would spend 5.3 million euros to establish the “fast lane” using bar code readers and turnstiles to check passes issued by those who could prove they are resident in Spain but have regular work in Gibraltar.

An estimated 6,000 workers cross the border into Gibraltar each day.

Gibraltar’s government immediately criticised the plans as not going far enough, claiming freedom of movement should be a privilege enjoyed by all.

Read more here:

Further Reading

Spanish Union calls for Occupation of Gibraltar

British government should get tough on Spanish attacks on Gibraltar, say MPs

EU dismisses Spanish claims Gibraltar Reef

Spanish Journalists arrested for raising Spanish Flag in Gibraltar

Gibraltar and Spain Q&A

First Muslim mayor to face fraud trial: Tower Hamlets borough boss accused of promising houses for votes Daily Mail

Lutfur Rahman

  Lutfur Rahman allegedly used illegal tactics to win May mayoral election

  Islamic voters were 'told they should be good Muslims and support him'

  Supporters accused of branding his main rival racist and anti-Islamic

  Four voters have submitted damaging dossier of evidence to High Court

Britain’s first elected Muslim mayor is to face trial over claims he committed widespread voting fraud.

Lutfur Rahman, 48, is accused of using illegal tactics to win the mayoral election in Tower Hamlets, East London, in May.

People were allegedly promised council houses if they backed him and Islamic voters were told they should be ‘good Muslims’ and support him.

His supporters are accused of doctoring ballot papers, manipulating postal voting and sabotaging the chances of his main rival, Labour candidate John Briggs, by branding him racist and anti-Islamic.

Four voters have submitted a damaging dossier of evidence to the High Court in an attempt to overturn Mr Rahman’s election victory.

Yesterday Mr Justice Supperstone and Mr Justice Spence granted them the right to have their allegations heard at a full trial, which is expected to be heard in Tower Hamlets later this year.

Mr Rahman was a member of the Tower Hamlets Labour Party and was its candidate to be the first directly elected mayor of the borough in 2010.

But he was expelled from the Labour party after allegations surfaced about his close links with an Islamic extremist group called the Islamic Forum of Europe.

Mr Rahman then won the 2010 mayoral contest as an independent candidate.

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Homes for votes deal in council election fix': Petition claims polling for mayor in London's Tower Hamlets was fraudulent

My kingdom for the Force! Richard III model blasted for looking like a STORMTROOPER, Daily Express

Richard 111 and a Stormtropper , spot the difference.

A MODEL of Richard III which features at a multi-million pound exhibition has today been blasted for looking like a STORMTROOPER from Star Wars.

Experts said a re-creation of the former King's armour was "grotesque" and made him look an Imperial soldier from George Lucas's iconic sci-fi movies.

The model, which is mainly white like a stormtrooper, is on display at the £4million Richard III Visitor Centre which opened in Leicester over the weekend.

Annette Carson, who is part of the Looking for Richard Project, said her team were "saddened and profoundly disappointed" by the exhibition.

Ms Carson wrote online:  "Other grotesque exhibits include the white-painted depiction of the king's armour resembling a Storm Trooper from Star Wars, despite representatives of the council and university having attended the presentation by Dr Tobias Capwell in March 2013 where he described his armour and illustrated its actual probable appearance.

"As an example of the organisers' taste in these matters, it was only by strenuous insistence that we removed the planned visual which was to greet visitors: the central throne was to be drenched in a sickening pool of blood which dropped down to form words written in blood on the floor below."

Read more here

Further Reading

Comment:

When I first saw this photo,   I assumed it was the new Star Wars film,   how wrong was that.   Richard 111 needs to have a more accurate armour,  and this disgrace needs to be passed onto JJ Abrams for Star Wars Episode V11.

'Homes for votes deal in council election fix': Petition claims polling for mayor in London's Tower Hamlets was fraudulent. Daily Mail

Mayor Lutfur Rahman

  Islamic voters allegedly told to be 'good Muslims' by electing Lutfur Rahman

  His supporters handed out lollipops to the children of voters, it is claimed

  Mr Rahman, serving a second term as borough mayor, won by 3,000 votes

Voters were promised council houses if they re-elected their mayor, a court heard yesterday.

Islamic sections of the electorate were told they should be ‘good Muslims’ by voting for Mayor Lutfur Rahman, it was said.

In a further bid to win votes, supporters of Mr Rahman allegedly handed out lollipops to the children of voters in Tower Hamlets, East London.

A petition brought before the High Court claims the re-election of the mayor in May was fraudulent ‘in a variety of forms’.

It alleges that council officers were bullied into ‘securing a certain number of votes’ and were threatened with the sack if they refused.

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Further reading

His memoirs, serialised in the Mail, convulsed Westminster. Now Gordon Brown's spin doctor gives his withering verdict on the two Eds: Paranoid, confused, and their policies are a great, steaming pile of fudge Daily Mail

Ed Miliband and Ed Balls.

  Damian McBride claims Miliband and Balls run 'dysfunctional' Labour Party

  They're confused, lacking clear policies and a target audience, he claims 

  Says Labour could win by treating election like a Gordon Brown-era Budget 

Just nine months before the next General Election, the Labour Party has no positive messages to communicate to anyone about why they should vote for them. It has no policies which will persuade them, and no clear idea who its target audience is. And it’s being run in a totally dysfunctional way.

So how do the two Eds - Miliband and Balls - do it? How do they overcome historical precedent, a hostile media, a sceptical public and a nervous Party, and return Labour to power in 2015?

To my mind, it’s simple: the two Eds have to stop thinking of next year in terms of an election, and start thinking of it like one of those Gordon Brown Budgets they used to work on together.

I cannot recall one Labour policy announcement over the past year that performs those feats. Ed Miliband’s measures - rent controls or an energy price freeze - are usually populist enough but rarely stand up to scrutiny. Ed Balls’ announcements (such as his national infrastructure commission) usually pass the FT test but go entirely unnoticed in the pub.

Read more here:

Further Reading here:

'No clear idea' and a 'steaming pile of fudge': Ed Miliband under extraordinary attack from Gordon Brown's key aide who warns Labour election plan is 'totally dysfunctional' Daily Mail

Ed Miliband

·        Labour leader failing to communicate with voters, Damian McBride claims

·        Former spin doctor says Mr Miliband has no persuasive policies

·        Also attacked Labour's refusal to apologise for its record in office

·        Today's attack comes in updated version of McBride's tell-all memoirs

·        He was spin doctor for Gordon Brown but quit over a plot to smear Tories

  Ed Miliband’s ‘totally dysfunctional’ leadership tonight comes under extraordinary attack from former Labour spin doctor Damian McBride.

In an updated version of his sensational tell-all memoirs, Mr McBride warns Labour has ‘no clear idea’ of who it is trying to appeal to and a ‘great, steaming pile of fudge’ instead of key policies.

He says Mr Miliband, with whom he worked for years in the Treasury, has ‘managed to blend the worst of Tony Blair’s “me against the world” isolation with the worst of Gordon Brown’s “they’re out to get me” paranoia.’

In an apparent swipe at Ed Balls, another former ally, he says Labour has yet to persuade voters that ‘we’ve learnt our lesson’ by admitting where ‘the last government screwed up’.

The shadow Chancellor has resisted all advice to concede Labour’s mistakes during its 13 years in power.

Mr McBride concludes: ‘Labour currently has no clear idea who its target audience is, no positive messages to communicate to anyone about why they should vote for the party, no policies which will persuade them, and is being run in a totally dysfunctional way.’

Read more here:

'Most people are worse off under the Tories': Britons have experienced their biggest fall in earnings since 1874, claims Labour's Ed Balls

Labour revives plans for 15% death tax for estates of the deceased, provoking outcry from Tories who claim 'pensioners deserve better' 

Make Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson gay lovers, fans urge BBC , Daily Mail

• 
• 
  
• ·         Co-creator Mark Gatiss admitted receiving explicit plotlines and drawings
• 
  
  ·        It comes ahead of the release of series four, which is due late next year
  
  
  ·        Landlady Mrs Hudson often makes references about the pair's sexuality
  
  
  ·        Gatiss says they took inspiration from Billy Wilder's 1970s film on detective
  
  
  The creator of BBC TV series Sherlock has been inundated with fan mail urging him to make the detective and Dr Watson gay lovers.
  
  
  Mark Gatiss admitted he had been overwhelmed with explicit drawings and plotline ideas ahead of the new series starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman, due late next year.
  
  
  It follows a running joke in the show which hints the pair might be closer than friends, especially by landlady Mrs Hudson, played by Una Stubbs, 77, who often makes references to their sexuality.
  
  
  Read more here
  
  
  Further reading

'Referenda are always a gamble': Kenneth Clarke slams David Cameron for allowing Scotland to vote on independence Daily Mail

Ken Clark MP.

Kenneth Clarke has accused David Cameron of ‘taking a gamble’ with the future of the United Kingdom by allowing Scotland a referendum on independence.

The veteran Tory, who left the Cabinet in this month’s reshuffle, made clear his disapproval of the vote on September 18.

‘Referenda are always a gamble,’ warned Mr Clarke. ‘To have big complicated questions decided by one vote on one day is not as good as a continuous process of parliamentary debate.

‘Having risked the future of the United Kingdom, I trust that the good sense of the Scottish people will keep it together. 

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Dog owner to sue council because her spaniel slipped a disc in GRASS and she cannot afford to pay the £5,000 vet bill Daily Mail

A

 dog owner plans to sue a council for thousands of pounds after her pet slipped a disc in grass while chasing a cat.

Scooby, a three-year-old Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, was injured after getting his leg caught in long grass on council-owned land in Brighton, East Sussex.

His disabled owner Rebecca Richardson, 48, claims that she now faces a £5,000 veterinary bill which she cannot afford to pay as she lives on benefits.

Campaigners criticised Mrs Richardson and her husband Steven, 49, for their claim and said it was yet another example of the ‘compensation culture gone mad’.

But Mrs Richardson said Brighton and Hove City Council, which owns her house and the land outside it, was negligent and ‘completely responsible’ for what happened to her pet. 

She claimed that she and other neighbours had been asking for the long grass outside their homes to be cut for a month before the accident. 

  Scooby the spaniel slipped a disc after getting his leg caught in long grass

  Disabled owner Rebecca Richardson, 48, says she now faces £5,000 vet bill

  Claims she cannot afford to pay it as she lives on benefits at Brighton home

  Believes city council is 'responsible' for fall because it failed to cut the grass

  But campaigners deem claim an example of 'compensation culture gone mad'

Please click here to read more:

Rebecca Richardson

Clegg in royal row after saying Prince Charles living a 'nightmare' waiting to be King, Daily Express

The Deputy Prime Minister found himself in hot water after commenting on the debate about whether the Queen should abdicate the throne.

The Queen, 88, will become Britain's longest serving monarch next year when she overtakes Queen Victoria's reign of 63 years and seven months.

Prince Charles has been heir to the throne for 62 years.

Clegg was overheard stepping into the debate by saying: "I've always quite liked him [Charles] actually. It must be a nightmare just being in this ante-room for decades."

His comments caused backlash among Tories who believe ministers should not comment on royal affairs.

Stuart Andrew, MP for Pudsey in West Yorkshire, told the Mail on Sunday: "Given that next year the Queen will become our longest-serving monarch, Nick Clegg's remarks are as untimely as they are disrespectful.

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EXCLUSIVE: Calais lorry drivers BEG for aid as migrants turn VIOLENT, Daily Express

They say French police have given up trying to deal with gangs of up to 100 migrants who surround lorries and demand passage across the ­Channel under threat of violence.

The situation is so bad they want the British Army to be called in to help protect the drivers.

Many have been verbally abused or physically attacked and one needed hospital treatment after being kicked and punched by an angry mob.

Please read more

In the week the economy returned to pre-crisis level... Why I, as an ex Labour Minister, think Ed Balls MUST apologise for the mess he left us in, writes DIGBY JONES Daily Mail

Ed Balls

But last week’s economic figures weren’t some flash in the pan. Britain is back. A sustainable, deep, far-reaching recovery, not built on house price inflation, has arrived.

Inflation lower than Japan, unemployment lower than America, growth higher than Germany (and on Thursday it was even warmer in England than in Honolulu!). 

Take these facts:

·         The most productive car plant in Europe is the Nissan factory in Sunderland.

·         The Jaguar Land Rover plant in Liverpool has moved on to 24/7 working to cope with demand for its Range Rover Evoque from China, let alone everywhere else. They’re even building a new engine plant in Wolverhampton.

·         The Airbus put together in Toulouse has more British parts than French or German.

·         General Motors is actually closing a car plant in Bochum, Germany (the first such closure in that country since the Second World War) with 4,000 job losses, and expanding its plant at Ellesmere Port instead.

Construction, financial services, retail, manufacturing, creative industries, and the services sector are all going in the right direction. 

Read more here

Digby Jones.

Talks begin on devolution for whole of UK, The Scotsman

Carwyn Jones and David Cameron

High -level discussions about setting up a constitutional convention after the next election to create a devolution settlement for the whole of the United Kingdom have begun, a Cabinet minister confirmed yesterday.

Stephen Crabb, the newly appointed Conservative Welsh Secretary, who is regarded as one of the key government figures driving forward the devolution agenda, told Scotland on Sunday the prospect of a UK constitutional convention in the next parliament had been discussed.

Stephen Crabb

He said was one of the subjects aired in a meeting between David Cameron and the Welsh First Minister, Carwyn Jones, held at the Royal Welsh Show last week.

The move is significant with all three parties stating that they will extend powers to ­Holyrood and consider further devolution to Wales, as well 
as looking at how to devolve responsibilities to English ­regions.

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Commonwealth Games provide a 'tantalising glimpse' at a YES vote result in Scotland, Daily Express

It is a tantalising glimpse of what might become of the UK if there is a "yes" vote in September's independence referendum. Team GB would be no more.

It has proved irresistible to Alex Salmond, the First Minister of Scotland and professional sports fan, who recently spoke about a "self-denying ordinance" under which he would avoid talking about independence during the Games.

He did so with a glint in his eye for he knew such an ordinance would be impossible to enforce.

At least three times over the past week the SNP leader has raised his self-denial and three times he has gone on to break it, for he is happiest when taking potshots at Westminster, while highlighting the fact that most of the countries in the Games achieved their "independence" from the UK was too good an opportunity to miss.

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Mystery of First World War officer's portrait solved as researchers discover he was a teenager killed by a shell at the very beginning of the conflict

A mystery portrait of an unknown First World War soldier has finally been identified - 100 years after his death.

For years the painting of the unknown soldier hung in Carmarthen County Museum in Wales but no one knew his name or if he survived the horror of the trenches.

It remained a mystery until an amateur historian posted a picture of the painting on the Great War Forum website and asked for help to uncover his identity.

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Commonwealth Disney Eurovision Brigadoon... reflections on the opening ceremony, Christian Today

John Barrowman

It was a great example of liberal imperialism....you had better adopt our values or else! The government has also funded 'pride house' at the Games to ensure 'equality'. I wonder what would happen if I went and asked for 'Christian house' to be fully funded to ensure that the millions of Christians who are currently being persecuted throughout the world, got attention and support?! And we know of course that that 'equality' does not extend to those who dare to disagree with the liberal elites absolutist morality.

Dancing Tunnocks Tea Cakes

The words, 'equality, humanity and destiny' were blazed up on the massive screen (at least the ceremony got that aspect of Scottish life right – we spend more on the screen than we do on anything else!). The message was clear. Humanity can be God. You can control your own destiny. We are all equal – Those who are more equal than others (being smarter, richer and more powerful) will deign to tell the rest of us what that 'equality' is. It was a strange mix of liberal fundamentalism, the power of positive thinking, and Brand Scotland. But I don't want Scotland to be a Brand, where our past and present is marketed for a world shopping centre, according to the fantasies of those who believe they are the children of the Enlightenment. I want to cry 'freedom' for the poor and the rich, black and white, men, women and children. Whatever political system we have that will be a false hope until we return to our historic Scottish Christian roots. True freedom is found in Christ and in his Word.

What is true Freedom ?

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Further Reading

Tonight: Is Britain Christian?

David Cameron believes Britain is a Christian country, but these days less than half of us describe ourselves as Christian, and only 5% of us go to church on a weekly basis.

Nadia Eweida

In ‘Is Britain Christian?’ Tonight asks if the Prime Minister is right, and if it matters if he’s not? Should we accept that Christianity needs to take a back seat in a modern secular society, or will some communities lose more than bricks and mortar?

Britain’s history, laws and traditions are rooted in Christianity. The Queen is head of the Church of England - a tradition that dates back to the Tudors. Some of our greatest art, literature and music is inspired by Christianity. But these days, less than half of us describe ourselves as Christian.

This has left some of those who continue to hold very strong beliefs feeling marginalised. British Airways employee Nadia Eweida and nurse Shirley Chaplin have both fought in the European Courts for the right to display crucifix necklaces as part of their uniform.

But it’s not all bad news for the church: in the UK, membership of Pentecostal churches has risen by around 20% over the past five years, often boosted by immigrant communities.

Read more here