A heavily pregnant woman and her unborn baby were killed when an unmarked police car ploughed into her as she drove into a leisure centre to collect her husband and daughter.

The 38-year-old woman, who had been due to give birth in the coming weeks, died following the horror crash in Eltham, south-east London, on Thursday evening.

She had been turning into the Sutcliffe Park Sports Centre when an unmarked Volvo police car, which was driving at high speed along the Eltham Road, smashed into her hatchback, flipping it over three times.

Witnesses described seeing her distraught husband come running out of the leisure centre shouting “that’s my wife, she’s pregnant”.

A motorist who was in the car behind the victim described seeing two police cars speeding along the road before one crashed into the blue VW Polo.

The woman said: “We were just behind her. She was about to pull in and they just moved through and took her out.

“There were two police vehicles, one had passed and it was the second one that hit her.

“After the car had hit her there were two motorbikes behind that stopped.

“There was obviously something going on, they were all going in the same direction.”

Her son said: “They probably hit her at about 70 or 80 miles per hour, but that was once he’d braked, but coming down the road he was probably doing more.”

London Ambulance Service, London Fire Brigade and London Air Ambulance all attended the scene and tried to resuscitate both mother and baby, but neither could be saved.

One person close to the scene said medics had even tried to perform an emergency caesarean section in the road.

The two police officers in the unmarked car were taken to hospital but later discharged.

Witnesses described seeing the police car with its blue lights and sirens on driving at high speed overtaking other cars just moments before the impact.

One local resident said: “I heard it before I saw anything, and I looked out of the window and I saw the unmarked police car… it looked like it was doing some speed.

“The other car, a blue car, collided, flipped about three times across the pavement, and then turned upright and landed there.”

Another witness added: “I saw the flash of a speeding car go by and then the police car, with its lights and siren going. Then I heard the crash – it sounded like an explosion, it was so loud.

“I saw the police officer who was a passenger up against an airbag. The officer who was driving the car was able to get out by himself, but the front of their car was completely squashed.”

Plumber Abu Bakar, 34, who was working near the scene at the time, said: “It was just the lady in her car, her husband was waiting for her in the leisure centre.

“Obviously, when it happened the husband came out and realised it was his wife’s car, she was going to pick him up.

“The man rushed over and was shouting her name. He was telling [the] police ‘that’s my wife, that’s my wife’ and ran over to her.”

Mr Bakar estimated the police car had been travelling up to 70mph in the moments before the impact.

It is the second fatal road traffic accident in the area this month with a pedestrian in her 60s killed in a motorbike crash on Oct 1.

Det Ch Supt Trevor Lawry, in charge of policing in Greenwich, said: “My heart goes out to the woman’s family and friends, who have lost their loved ones in these tragic circumstances.

“An investigation into the circumstances of this collision by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) is under way, and we will assist with their enquiries in any way we can.”

‘Tragic incident’

An IOPC spokesman confirmed that an independent investigation into the circumstances of the fatal collision had been launched.

Mel Palmer, IOPC regional director, said: “Our thoughts are with the family and friends of those who have died and all of those affected by this tragic incident.

“It is important we establish all of the circumstances surrounding this incident and our investigation is in its very early stages.

“This is a busy road, and the collision happened in the early evening when people are likely to have been travelling. We would like to hear from anyone who was in the vicinity at the time and may have witnessed the incident or the moments leading up to it.

“Anyone who saw anything or has footage is encouraged to get in touch with our investigators.”

Households’ living standards are improving at the slowest rate in more than 50 years, as soaring immigration fuels population growth and the economy stalls.

New figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that real GDP per head, which is often described as a measure of average living standards, is growing at the slowest rate in decades.

It has increased by only 0.3pc a year on average so far in the 2020s. This is much lower than in any previous decade since at least the 1970s.

GDP per head has slowed as the population has grown faster than the economy. Net migration added 1.5m to the population across 2022 and 2023. The economy grew by 4.3pc in 2022 as the UK bounced back from the pandemic but growth slowed to just 0.3pc last year.

The economy has not kept pace as a result of a worklessness crisis and persistent problems with productivity. The number of people out of work from sickness has surged to a near-record high of 2.8m, fuelling fears of a spiralling benefit bill.

The ONS said: “Long-term sickness, ageing of the resident population and net migration for reasons other than work each may have been factors that contributed to a higher population outside of the labour force.”

Even as living standards have, on average, increased in the 2020s, GDP per head remained below pre-pandemic levels at the end of June following an in-year slump.

GDP per head suffered a dramatic drop during Covid before recovering only weakly, leaving it vulnerable to falling below pre-pandemic levels.

The ONS’s findings suggest economic growth is being fuelled by more people arriving, not because of improvements in productivity. It means there is little more to go around on a per-household basis than before the pandemic.

The findings come as immigration once again becomes a top concern for voters, with 45pc of Britons saying it is among the most important issues facing the country.

Sentiment is now on a par with just after the EU referendum in 2016 and means immigration is the second-most cited concern after the economy.

Worries about immigration had been in decline since Brexit and only started rising consistently again from autumn 2022.

The war in Ukraine and Hong Kongers fleeing tightening security laws resulted in around 210,000 people arriving on humanitarian visas in the past two years.

The surge in immigration has come as women in Britain have fewer children than at any point since the 1970s. Migration has become the main source of population growth as a result.

Migrants appear to have higher employment rates than the population as a whole, the ONS said.

It added: “Continued improvement in employment prospects for non-EU born residents in the UK may further contribute to increasing real GDP per head.”

A public schoolboy who tried to murder two pupils and a teacher with hammers in a late-night assault has been told by a judge that he “knew the difference between right and wrong”.

The teenager, who was sentenced at Exeter Crown Court, was detained for life with a minimum of 12 years for the hammer attacks at the prestigious Blundell’s boarding school in Tiverton, Devon in June last year.

At his trial, the defendant, who was 16 at the time, claimed he had been sleepwalking when he carried out the vicious assaults and could not be criminally responsible for his actions.

But the jury was told he had bought and hoarded three claw hammers and used the claw ends to smash the heads of his room-mates, who were 15 and 16 at the time.

He then used the DIY tools as weapons to attack Henry Roffe-Silvester, his housemaster, who heard the disturbance and ran to the room to find a “bloodbath”.

After an eight-week trial, a jury spent around 40 hours deliberating before convicting the teenager of three counts of attempted murder against the fellow pupils and the 39-year-old maths and sports teacher.

‘Both boys may have died’

The judge, Mrs Justice Cutts, said the victims were asleep, adding: “They did not know what was coming. They could not defend themselves in any way. They were very badly hurt indeed.”

Mrs Justice Cutts said he had planned the attacks, saying:”You did so because you deliberately intended to kill them. You took a hammer to the scene to use as a weapon.”

She said “both boys may have died” but for the intervention of staff, pupils and medical teams.

The judge acknowledged that the boy had been under stress at the time, but added: “You knew the difference between right and wrong, and you had planned to kill those boys and obtained hammers as weapons.”

She said his autism disorder meant he became increasingly isolated living and studying at the school and had “retreated into the online world”.

Mrs Justice Cutts said he posed a high level of danger to the public of further violence, and it was unknown whether he would ever cease to be a threat.

She said he would have to serve a minimum of 12 years behind bars before being eligible to apply for parole.

Teenager researched serial killers

The trial heard how the boy, now 17, had spent the months leading up to the attacks researching serial killers and different ways to kill. He also searched for information about child serial killers and whether they were respected in jail.

Despite claiming to have been sleepwalking, the jury was told he had been listening to dance music and watching a TV horror show in the minutes before the attacks.

The attacks lasted just a few minutes before a pupil dialled 999 at 00.57am – seven minutes after the defendant had been listening to Robin Hustin’s song Light It Up, which the judge said was to “gee yourself up” and produce the adrenaline “to do what you did”.

The jury had been told that the defendant had fallen out with the youngest victim because he thought he had slighted him during a science lesson by laughing at him. 

There was also tension between him and the younger victim over the attentions of a 15-year-old girl at the co-educational school.

Counselling available

Giving evidence at his trial, the boy said he had the hammers for protection against the zombie apocalypse, which he believed was a real thing.

The older boy sustained permanent organic brain damage, with bone fragments forced into his brain, but neither lad had a memory of what happened and only woke up in hospital after emergency treatment.

The older victim’s day-to-day activities and work ability have been affected by the attack, but the younger boy has made a “remarkable recovery” and, while still not 100 per cent, went on to obtain excellent GCSE results.

Bart Wielenga, the head of Blundell’s School, said in a statement: “We will continue to make counselling available to any staff or pupils who feel in need of additional support.

“I have been very clear with the pupils that this is not an incident we whisper about or have to be ashamed of. It is part of our narrative, our shared story. We are allowed to talk about it openly and we can express our emotions safely.

“I would like to record my thanks, too, to the emergency services who arrived on the scene so quickly and who handled a difficult situation with such compassion and expertise. The surgeons who treated the boys in the immediate aftermath were heroic, and the care the boys received has been excellent.”

Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was killed moments after making a “critical mistake”, according to Israel.

The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) described the 61-year-old’s final minutes in a briefing on Thursday and stressed the strategic error that the Oct 7 mastermind made by leaving the Gaza tunnel network where he had been hiding.

The IDF forced him to “make this mistake” and “move like a fugitive” as they gradually closed off streets and blew up tunnels around Rafah in southern Gaza, Major Doron Spielman explained.

“In fact, just yesterday he did so [made a mistake]. He left the tunnel, went into an apartment building, and [Hamas] opened fire on Israeli troops. A tank returned fire, and he was killed in that attack,” said Maj Spielman.

The IDF claimed its troops restricted his movement to a “smaller and smaller area” as they advanced.

Maj Spielman added that the IDF had been operating around Rafah with the goal of eliminating “the most senior terrorists”.

Footage emerged late on Thursday of the moments before Sinwar was killed in a building on the outskirts of Rafah.

The Hamas leader threw a stick at an Israeli drone in an apparent final act of desperation.

He had been tracked by an Israeli mini drone as he lay dying in the ruins of the building that had been bombarded by IDF artillery.

Sinwar was filmed covered in dust and slumped in a chair, according to footage released by Israel.

Daniel Hagari, an IDF spokesman, said: “Sinwar fled alone into one of the buildings. Our forces used a drone to scan the area, which you can see here in the footage I’m presenting.

“Sinwar, who was injured in his hand by gunfire, can be seen here with his face covered in his final moments, throwing a wooden plank at the drone.”

The IDF said that it has also expanded its operations in the Jabalia area of northern Gaza. It claimed “dozens of terrorists” were killed on Thursday night in “incidents and airstrikes”.

On Friday, Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, was expected to hold a special security meeting at the Kirya military headquarters in Tel Aviv, alongside government ministers and security officials.

A passport belonging to an UNRWA teacher was reportedly found on the body of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar after he was killed.

Photos published by Israel’s Channel 12 showed a document belonging to a teacher with the UN aid agency named Hani Zourob, along with other items it said were recovered by IDF troops.

The 40-year-old teacher was, however, not in Gaza at the time of Sinwar’s death on Thursday, following a shoot-out with the Israeli forces on the outskirts of Rafah.

The passport expired in 2017 and The Telegraph has been unable to independently verify where it was discovered.

Mr Zourob moved to Egypt in April, raising questions about how his old passport apparently fell into the hands of Sinwar or his entourage. The IDF said two other terrorists were killed in the gun battle.
 
After Mr Zourub’s passport was found, Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA’s commissioner-general, issued a statement calling it “unchecked information used to discredit” the agency and its staff.

“I confirm that the staff member in question is alive. He currently lives in Egypt where he travelled with his family in April through the Rafah border. Time to put an end to disinformation campaigns,” Mr Lazzari said.

It is unclear why Sinwar or his entourage would have the passport in their possession and Israeli officials have yet to comment.

Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has long accused UNRWA – an aid agency for Palestinian refugees – of being connected to Hamas.

Last month, Fateh Sherif Abu el-Amin, the leader of Hamas in Lebanon, was killed in an Israeli air strike.

El-Amin was later revealed to have been working as an UNRWA teacher and principal in Lebanon until being suspended in March.

It was the latest in a series of scandals relating to the agency.

In August, it fired nine of its staff members after finding that they “may have been” involved in the October 7 massacre.

Farhan Haq, the UN spokesman, said UNRWA had “sufficient information in order to take the actions that we’re taking – which is to say, the termination of these nine individuals.”

That announcement followed a near six-month internal investigation into claims made by Israel that 19 of its staff members took part in the Oct 7 attack.

At least one UNRWA staff member was caught on video kidnapping an Israeli civilian from Kibbutz Be’eri on Oct 7.

The accusations led to a number of Western countries freezing funds for the agency, including the UK, which then reversed its decision after Sir Keir Starmer won July’s election.

Israel claimed earlier this year that around 10 per cent of UNRWA’s staff were associated with either Hamas or Islamic Jihad.

Since then, the Israeli government has spearheaded legislation to outlaw UNRWA by declaring it a terror organisation.

That move prompted international criticism. notably from Josep Borell, the EU’s foreign policy chief.

The Spanish politician said: “Outlawing UNRWA – and labelling it as terrorist, which it is not – amounts to targeting regional stability and human dignity of all those benefiting from the UN agency work.

“We join many partners in urging the Israeli government to halt this nonsense.”

New footage appears to show North Korean troops being outfitted with Russian military gear in preparation for deployment to Ukraine.

It purports to show dozens of North Korean men in Russian military uniforms receiving equipment handed to them over counters.

The men then appear to sign for the equipment from a soldier seated at a table before placing it in bags and leaving the room in single file.

The video was filmed inside a Russian military training base in Sergievsky in Russia’s far east region of Primorsky Krai, according to Spravdi, a Ukrainian government communication unit that published the video.

Around 1,500 North Korean troops have already arrived in Russia, according to South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS), with 12,000 expected to be deployed in total.

Seoul’s NIS said the first contingent of troops were special forces and they had been transported to Russia on a Russian navy ship between Oct 8 and 13.

It comes after another video appeared to show North Korean troops training in Russia.

Video footage posted online shows dozens of soldiers dressed in military uniforms, carrying backpacks and walking in line at what appears to be a Russian military base.

The Telegraph could not verify where the video was shot but Dara Massicot, a Russian expert, believes it was taken at a base in the Eastern Military District in the far east region.

Those filmed could be heard speaking with North Korean accents, a language expert told The Telegraph.

“There’s a million of them here, new reinforcements,” the person filming says in Russian, adding: “That’s it, we’ve been conquered.”

Seoul’s NIS also released detailed satellite images of what it said was Pyongyang’s first deployment to Russia, with the forces allegedly stationed in military bases across the far east region.

The move would mark the first official deployment of foreign troops on behalf of either side since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.

Although mercenaries and foreign nationals have fought on both sides, no forces have been sent from any state or international alliance, such as Nato.

‘Appear as Russian soldiers’

South Korea’s NIS said the soldiers had been issued with Russian military uniforms, weapons, and fake IDs, and are expected to be deployed to fight in Ukraine after they complete acclimatisation training.

“This seems to be an effort to disguise the fact that they are North Korean troops by making them appear as Russian soldiers,” the spy agency said.

In response, Yoon Suk Yeol, South Korea’s president, planned to hold a security meeting on Friday, urging the international community to respond with “all available means”.

Earlier this week, Volodymyr Zelensky said he believed 10,000 North Korean soldiers could join the war based on intelligence information, labelling Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un a “coalition of criminals”.

Kyrylo Budanov, Ukraine’s intelligence chief, added to the speculation on Thursday, saying that 11,000 North Korean soldiers were being prepared to fight in Ukraine.

The first 2,600 troops will be sent to Russia’s Kursk region by Nov 1, Mr Budanov claimed.

Neither Russia nor North Korea have confirmed the claims, but Pyongyang has long been sending weapons such as ballistic missiles to Russia. The relationship has strengthened since a defence pact was signed during Putin’s visit to North Korea in June.

Whether the number of troops deployed is 10,000 or 12,000, it is low compared to the 30,000 or so Russian troops thought to be lost fighting Ukraine each month.

“The Russians are getting really what amounts to sticking plaster,” said Ian Garner, a historian and analyst of Russian culture. “It is not going to swing the war in Russia’s favour and not the start of some sort of new axis of evil.”

North Korea has nothing to lose from helping Russia, said Mr Garner, but it could gain prestige, as well as possibly receiving financial benefit, and technological or nuclear expertise.

“North Korea is isolated already and China is currently not that bothered by support for Russia. However, if China does say no, it won’t happen,” he said.

“Russia has very little to offer North Korea compared to what China offers, so if Beijing puts the dampeners on the plan, then those troops may never materialise at the front.”

When reports of Yahya Sinwar’s death first swirled around Gaza, Enas immediately hoped they were true.

The 55-year-old Palestinian had lived a relatively comfortable and safe life working as a teacher in the heavily populated strip, but all that was lost after Hamas launched the Oct 7 attacks.

She and her family were forced from their home by Israel’s massive retaliation and had to head south. While they fled Israeli air strikes and offensives, she was sure the man who had brought all this on their heads was safely hiding in a tunnel.

“I was hoping for Sinwar’s death, because the army said his death will end the war.”

When she heard reports on Thursday that Israel thought it had killed the head of Hamas, she was at first happy.

“I felt that the war would end,” she told The Telegraph.

But when she watched the footage of his last moments harried by a drone in a ruined building before he was killed by a tank shell, she quickly felt ashamed for her previous criticism.

A drone video clip released by the Israeli military showed the 61-year-old sitting exhausted in an armchair, caked in dust on the first floor of a blasted building. Sinwar limply tosses a stick at the drone as if resigned to the fact he is about to be killed.

Photographs of his body later showed him half-submerged in debris, wearing a military-style vest, with the front of his head smashed.

Enas said: “I felt very embarrassed about myself that I was wishing death for a person in return for my life, but he was fighting face-to-face and fighting drones as well.

“What happened is very painful. We are all sad about his death, but we are proud of him that he was killed while fighting and not in tunnels as we thought.”

Outside Gaza, there was debate on Friday over whether Israel’s decision to release the footage of his final moments underlined his helplessness and defeat, or turned him into a defiant martyr.

Adam Weinstein, the deputy director of the Middle East programme at the Quincy Institute, said the decision had been “foolish”.

He said: “It also underscores the wisdom of Obama’s careful handling of Osama bin Laden’s death and burial.”

“The IDF only had a domestic audience in mind.”

Israel also on Friday released video of a tank firing into the building where Sinwar was killed.

Hamas meanwhile claimed that it would take strength from the death of its leader, as it confirmed his killing.

“Yahya Sinwar and all the leaders and symbols of the movement who preceded him on the path of dignity and martyrdom and the project of liberation and return will only build our movement and resistance in strength,” Qatar-based official Khalil al-Hayya said in a video statement broadcast by Al Jazeera.

Many Gazans told The Telegraph that they had mixed emotions about Sinwar’s death and what it may mean for them.

A 21-year-old woman called Rodayna from Gaza old town, said: “People are split. There was a time when many blamed him, saying he’d led us into ruin, into this endless bloodshed, without a real plan. He pushed us off a cliff, they said.

“Yet, when the news broke that he had been killed in a clash with Israeli forces, many of those same voices shifted.

“Suddenly, people felt ashamed, as if they had wronged him with their anger. They started talking about him as if he was a hero, someone who fought to the end.”

Rodayna had herself once thought his death would speed up a peace move, and end Gaza’s devastation.

“But now that he’s gone, I see that this ruthless enemy won’t stop because of his death, just as they haven’t stopped after other events we thought would be decisive. Sadly, I don’t think the war is over yet.”

Sinwar was considered the architect of the rampage into southern Israel where Hamas fighters killed around 1,200 people and took some 250 hostages in the state of Israel’s deadliest ever day.

Israel immediately retaliated with air strikes and ground offensives, which have since killed more than 42,000 people, according to the Hamas-run health ministry. Much of the Strip is destroyed.

Huge numbers have been forced from their homes and the United Nations estimates that roughly a quarter of all structures in Gaza have been either destroyed or severely damaged.

Muhammad, an unemployed 26-year-old, said he too had been furious with Sinwar.

He said: “I was in a state of great anger at Sinwar, because of this war.

“I had to stop my work that I had only started one month before the war.

“I was sitting with my friends and expressing our anger.

“We used to say if the killing of Sinwar would stop the war, then kill him in order to stop this killing and destruction.

“But when pictures of his death spread, I felt very embarrassed about myself, that he did not ignite the war and hide, but was in the battlefield and did not leave it.

“This is shameful for us to misunderstand it in this way, I hope that he will forgive us.”

‘Like a lightning bolt’

Dina, who has been forced to leave her home in northern Gaza and move south to the Mawasi area in Khan Younis, has lost friends, cousins and grandchildren in the war.

The news of Sinwar’s death hit her “like a lightning bolt” she said.

“We wondered, is this really true? Or is it just another story from the Israeli occupation? And then the question: what will happen to us after all of this?”

She went on: “If you’d asked me before Sinwar was killed, I might have said he wasn’t a hero, and that the real heroes were us, the people.”

But her perspective changed with his death. “When you see him standing firm, fighting, and not among the people hiding in tents, you start to see things differently.”

She has doubts that Sinwar’s death will end the war.

“If Israel’s problem was only with Sinwar, maybe his death would help stop the war. But Israel’s problem isn’t with Sinwar,” she says. “Their problem is with every Palestinian who breathes and every Arab who speaks.”

But she is desperate for an end to the bloodshed and devastation.

“Everything has an end, and the war will end too,” she says with a sense of exhaustion. “The only wish I have is for the war to stop. We need a chance to stop living in fear, to grieve for the ones we’ve lost.”

Rachel Reeves intends to increase inheritance tax as part of a scramble to raise as much as £35 billion in this month’s Budget.

The Chancellor is reportedly considering a string of changes to the tax, which is typically charged at 40 per cent on assets above a £325,000 threshold when a person dies.

As well as increasing the headline rate or cutting the level at which the tax becomes payable, Ms Reeves could also alter reliefs and exemptions.

For example, the Treasury could amend a rule which allows money to be passed on tax-free if it is given away at least seven years before someone dies. It could also alter rules that exempt businesses and farmland from the tax.

The plans were first reported by the BBC. A Treasury spokesman told the corporation: “We do not comment on speculation around tax changes outside of fiscal events.”

Any changes are likely to be highly controversial. Only four per cent of estates currently pay inheritance tax, but polling has consistently suggested the public regard it as unfair.

Jeremy Hunt, the shadow chancellor, has described it as “profoundly anti-Conservative”.

Ms Reeves is understood to be planning the biggest tax raid in history in her Budget on Oct 30.

She has concluded that there is a £40 billion black hole in the public finances and intends to fill as much as 90 per cent of this gap with tax increases instead of cutting spending after ruling out a return to Tory austerity.

A £35 billion-plus tax raid would be the biggest ever recorded in any Budget in cash terms. As well as a rise in inheritance tax, there is growing speculation that this could include the first rise in fuel duty for 13 years.

Treasury officials want the Chancellor to raise the tax on petrol and diesel, saying that if she does not do so it would force her to find another £5 billion elsewhere.

Ms Reeves is also widely expected to raise capital gains tax and employers’ National Insurance contributions.

While the majority of the £40 billion is expected to be generated through tax rises, the Chancellor will also ask individual departments to find savings. This has driven some ministers to raise concerns, with several reportedly writing to Sir Keir Starmer to complain.

On Thursday, Downing Street acknowledged that engagement between departments and Number 10 was a “standard part of the process” ahead of the Budget, but warned disgruntled ministers that they would not be able to do “everything they want to” with the cash they are given.

As some departments, such as the NHS and defence, have “protected” budgets with faster spending increases, it is believed there will be tough decisions in other areas such as local government, transport and the environment.

A dog owner claimed that his eight-stone mastiff was a poodle after it mauled his younger brother to death.

Gary Stevens gave incorrect information to emergency call operators about the animal, which was really a cane corso, an Italian mastiff bred as a guard dog, when it attacked his sibling, Wayne.

Police and paramedics were confronted by the “incredibly heavy” dog when they arrived at the house, Derby Crown Court was told.

Shaun Smith KC, the judge who jailed Stevens for four and a half years, heard the dog was abusive to emergency services before the “frenzied” animal was repeatedly tasered and eventually shot almost an hour later.

Stevens knew the 14-month-old dog was aggressive and “would normally go for the face and neck”, the court heard.

The defendant, 55, sat with his head bowed in the dock as prosecutors outlined how his brother was found dead at their home in Cameron Road, Normanton, Derby, after a 999 call at 5.52am on April 22 2023. 

The judge said: “Paramedics and police officers attended the scene and you came to the front door clearly very drunk.

“You were obstructive as your exchanges with the officers continued.

“Police officers tried to persuade you to bring the dog under control – your response was to mock them for standing back.”

The judge added: “I am entirely satisfied that you clearly knew of the dangers this dog presented prior to that fateful night.

“There was a lack or loss of control of the dog due to the influence of alcohol.”

During his sentencing remarks, the judge accepted that witnessing the death of his brother and being unable to save him was likely to have impacted the Stevens’ mental health. 

The court was told the victim, 51, had been drinking vodka with his brother after returning from the pub and died at the foot of a stairway after suffering “multiple, massive and horrific” injuries.

Stevens, of Vicarage Road, Mickleover, Derby, pleaded guilty in September 2023 to being in charge of a dog dangerously out of control, which caused injury resulting in the death.

As part of his sentence, Stevens was also given a lifetime ban from keeping a dog.

The court heard that the cane corso was a “blend with some sort of bull terrier” – not an XL bully – and was given to Stevens by a mother of five who had “too much going on” to look after it.

A university student has spoken off her trauma after a stranger bit off part of her nose on a bus.

Ella Dowling, 19, boarded the number 94 bus in Cheltenham on Nov 18 2023 with her friends. She said another passenger, Darren Taylor, 53, began making lewd remarks about her appearance.

He refused to leave Ms Dowling and her friends alone.

As the bus came to its last stop, Taylor launched himself at Ms Dowling, biting her mouth and nose and leaving her needing 50 stitches.

“I couldn’t scream because he had my lip in his mouth, it was disgusting,” she said.

“I noticed him when we got on the bus, he was strange and kept asking ‘Are you girls off out?”

“When we told him to leave us alone, he started calling us ‘white trash’ and saying that he was a ‘gangster’.

“The pain was horrific and I could feel his whole body shaking – when I looked down at my clothes after they were covered in blood.”

Ms Dowling was taken to Cheltenham Hospital before being transferred to Gloucester Hospital for emergency surgery.

As well as the injury to her nose, the right side of her lip was also split open and she suffered ‘‘visible bite marks’’ over her nose and mouth.

Taylor was arrested and appeared at Gloucester Crown Court in March 2024 where he admitted GBH with intent. He was jailed for  six years and nine months on July 18 and handed a life-long restraining order.

Ms Dowling, a social work student at Portsmouth University, from Cheltenham, Gloucs, said she couldn’t look in the mirror for months after the attack.

“The pain I felt when he sank his teeth into my face is something which will stay with me forever,” she said.

“He was like a dog with a toy moving his head side to side.

“I put my hands around the back of his head because I knew if I didn’t he would rip my lip and nose off completely.

“When I saw my face for the first time after the attack, I didn’t recognise my own reflection.

“I haven’t used the bus since because of my PTSD.

“If I leave the house, I have to be on the phone with my mum or a friend because I’m terrified that I’m going to be attacked again.”

‘A permanent reminder’

She also said that she still struggles with painful eating and drinking on one side of her face .

“People say my scar is healing well but for me it’s more than a scar, it’s a disfigurement and a permanent reminder of what’s happened to me.

“I smile and speak differently which is something I’m going to have to learn to live with for the rest of my life.”

Since the attack, Ms Dowling has had a reconstructive procedure but she will be physically scarred for life.

Detective Constable Sophie McGough said: “The injuries Taylor caused were some of the worst I have ever seen.

“His actions that evening were awful and I am glad that he will now spend time behind bars.”

Gloucestershire Police has now advised that Taylor has filed an appeal of his sentence.

Ms Dowling said: “I’ve started university again this year and I’m hopeful that I’ll be able to continue.

“I want to get back to the bubbly and outgoing person I used to be but it’s going to take time.”

The father of former One Direction star Liam Payne has visited the scene in Buenos Aires of the singer’s death. 

Geoff Payne was seen in a navy suit leaving the Casa Sur Hotel in the Argentine capital, where the 31-year-old British star fell from a third-floor balcony on Wednesday.

Mr Payne is said to have flown to the country to organise the repatriation of his son’s body, the Associated Press has reported.

Mr Payne was seen visiting tributes laid out by fans outside the hotel, reading letters and pausing around flowers, photographs and candles.

It comes after the singer’s family said they were “heartbroken” following his death, adding: “Liam will forever live in our hearts and we’ll remember him for his kind, funny and brave soul.”

Meanwhile music mogul Simon Cowell said he was “truly devastated” after the death of the singer, adding that he also felt “heartbroken” and “empty”.

Payne found fame alongside Niall Horan, Louis Tomlinson, Zayn Malik and Harry Styles when The X Factor creator Cowell put them together to form One Direction on the ITV talent show in 2010.

“Every tear I have shed is a memory of you,” he wrote in a statement on Instagram.

Payne first auditioned for The X Factor in 2008 when he was 14, singing Frank Sinatra’s Fly Me To The Moon, with judge Cowell telling him to return to the talent show two years later.

“I had to tell you when you were 14 that this wasn’t your time. And we both made a promise that we would meet again. A lot of people would have given up. You didn’t,” Cowell said.

He also said that Payne had visited him last year where they “reminisced about all of the fun times we had together”.

“After you left, I was reminded that you were still the sweet, kind boy I had met all of those years ago,” he added.

Horan said in his tribute he would “cherish every moment” he had with Payne “forever”.

Payne was spotted dancing at Horan’s show about two weeks ago at the Movistar Arena alongside his girlfriend Cassidy in Argentina.

The singer died of multiple traumas and “internal and external haemorrhage”, a post-mortem examination report said.

Argentina’s National Criminal and Correctional Prosecutor’s Office No 16 said it was investigating the incident as an “inconclusive death” following the report.

When Dustin Kjersem was found dead inside his tent at a remote Montana campsite, the victim had injuries so brutal that it was initially reported as a possible bear mauling.

There have been previous grizzly bear attacks in the forests of southwestern Montana, but investigators found no evidence of any bears at Kjersem’s campsite. They are now investigating the 35-year-old’s death as a homicide, after a post mortem revealed he was killed by multiple chop wounds inflicted by an unknown weapon.

No arrests have been made, and local authorities could not say if Mr Kjersem’s killer posed a continuing public threat.

“But we do know that someone was out there who killed someone in a very heinous way,” Gallatin County Sheriff Dan Springer said at a press conference on Wednesday. “So if you’re out in the woods, I need you to be paying attention. You need to remain vigilant.”

Mr Kjersem went camping north east of Big Sky, Montana, on Oct 10 with plans to meet a friend the next day, Mr Springer said.

The friend found the body on Saturday, the sheriff said. Another person identified only as an “associate” called 911 and reported it as a possible bear mauling, said Capt. Nate Kamerman with the Gallatin County Sheriff’s Office.

Mr Kjersem suffered wounds to his skull and body, and it is unknown when he died.

Campsite not in established grounds

His campsite — in the Moose Creek area at the base of the Gallatin Mountains — was not in an established camp ground.

The remote location of the killing complicates the investigation, the sheriff added. There is limited phone service in that area, meaning no record of calls investigators could use.

The victim’s sister said on Friday that Mr Kjersem had two children and worked as a self-employed contractor, building homes and learning other trades in the Gallatin Valley, which includes the city of Bozeman.

Jillian Price described her brother as a loving father and skilled tradesman who got into the building industry after taking a construction class in high school. A fundraising website was established for donations to help support his children.

“Dustin had no known enemies,” Ms Price said, adding that the family was searching for answers. “We don’t know anything.”

The sheriff’s office asked that anyone with a trail camera or game camera in the Moose Creek area reach out to authorities.

A convicted sex offender has been found guilty of the rape and manslaughter of a vulnerable woman who he found passed out on a park bench.

Natalie Shotter, 37, suffered a heart attack and died after she was repeatedly raped by Mohamed Iidow in Southall Park in west London in July 2021.

The 35-year-old, who had a conviction for trying to groom young people online, had initially claimed that the sex was consensual but later changed his story, suggesting that she was already dead when he raped her. But his lies were rejected by the jury following a trial at the Old Bailey.

The court heard how the NHS worker had fallen unconscious on a bench following a night out when Iidow attacked her.

CCTV footage showed him walking past her multiple times before approaching and raping her.

She was found dead by a passerby in the park early the following morning and swabs taken from her mouth area matched DNA samples taken from the defendant.

Alison Morgan KC, prosecuting, told jurors: “Natalie died as a result of what was done to her by this defendant. She was not dead at the time when the defendant was raping her, it will be a matter for you to consider – that this defendant went to the park for a reason.

“He would not have sought to have sex with a dead body for over 15 minutes, he was having sex with someone he knew was alive but was deeply unconscious and therefore he was raping her.”

Iidow had denied the charges against him but declined to give evidence.

Following the guilty verdict, he was remanded into custody to be sentenced on Dec 13.

Det Chief Insp Wayne Jolley, who led the specialist crime unit investigation, said: “Iidow’s predatory attack on Natalie was disturbing and shocking.

“This man drove to the park that night and took advantage of a vulnerable woman who should have been safe.

“Even after his arrest, Iidow attempted to claim that his actions were consensual.

“This case has deeply affected those involved, due to its rarity and tragic details.

“We needed to prove Natalie’s death was caused by being raped and that involved diligent work using experts in this field to charge and now convict Iidow.

“I commend the strength of Natalie’s friends and family who have had to listen to these details throughout the trial. Iidow is now facing a long term of imprisonment.”

Two Met Police officers were investigated over alleged misconduct after failing to respond when a member of the public expressed concern over the victim’s welfare.

The case was initially referred to the Independent Office for Police Conduct but was sent back to the Met.

Rather than face misconduct proceedings, the pair underwent “unsatisfactory performance” procedures.

Dr Cas Shotter Weetman, the victim’s mother, later complained that her daughter would still be alive if the officers had helped her that night.

She said: “My beautiful daughter Natalie Patricia Shotter died on July 17 2021. She was 37 years old. Natalie was a mother of three children, who were 15, 14 and one year nine months old respectively when their mum was cruelly taken from them.

“Nat worked for the NHS for seven years and for two charities: Alzheimer’s and the British Heart Foundation prior.

‘We miss her hugs, kisses and smiles’

“She had a wonderful heart and was loved by all, now cruelly taken away from her children family, friends, and colleagues.

“She would light up a room, always happy and fun. We miss her hugs, cuddles, kisses and smiles. She is like the sky – spread over everywhere. This is our solace.

“The impact of Nat’s loss has been devastating. The police had a real opportunity to save her but failed in their duty. The cost of their failure was my daughter’s life.”

Andrea Simon, the executive director of the End Violence Against Women Coalition, said: “Our thoughts are with Natalie’s loved ones who have fought tirelessly for justice. 

“While welcome, the verdict will not bring Natalie back. We must do more to stop women’s lives being taken by men’s violence which is devastating and preventable.

“If tackling violence against women and girls is a national priority, we have to see the criminal justice system transformed, so that victims and their families are no longer so tremendously let down.”

A leading Republican official has urged Joe Biden to aggressively accelerate aid to Ukraine in his final months in office.

Roger Wicker, the head of the Senate’s armed forces committee, said the outgoing president risked leaving his successor with a “weak hand” if he failed to heed the warning.

The intervention came as Mr Biden urged the West to sustain its backing for Kyiv against Russia’s full-scale invasion ahead of next month’s US presidential election.

The looming ballot has raised concerns over Washington’s resolve with both Donald Trump and Kamala Harris expected to cut back on military aid for Ukraine.

“I am frustrated – and mystified – that your administration has accomplished so little in the last three months regarding the war in Ukraine,” Mr Wicker wrote in a letter to the president.

“You seem poised to leave the next president a weak hand. Nonetheless, I maintain that a focused effort – directed by you – could make a substantial difference over the final 90 days as president.”

Mr Wicker was one of 22 Republicans who broke with the pro-Trump wing of their party to approve $95 billion in aid to Ukraine and Israel in February.

But in his letter, the Mississippi senator accused Mr Biden of being too slow to disperse aid to Kyiv.

“The current pace of Presidential Drawdown Authority usage would drag on through calendar year 2025,” Mr Wicker wrote.

“Your administration has said that the pace of deliveries will not change. Ukraine will continue to receive only about $400 million in military equipment for the next 14 months,” he added.

Laying out a 10-point plan, Mr Wicker said the US had to ramp up the pace of its deliveries to Ukraine, including more long-range Atacms missiles for Kyiv’s deep-strike campaign.

He also proposed sharing more intelligence and removing the limits placed on the number of US military contractors allowed to operate in the war-torn country.

Ukraine is facing a perilous winter as Russia makes steady gains through the eastern Donbas regions, while there are doubts over future US support.

Trump has refused to say whether he wants Kyiv to win the war and blamed Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s president, for Russia’s invasion.

His comments have consistently raised concerns that he will pull the plug on any future support for Kyiv.

Trump has also suggested that US support for its European Nato allies would be contingent on member states hitting spending targets.

Senior officials inside the Western military alliance are braced for US aid to shrink regardless of the winner of the upcoming election.

Experts argue that there is little appetite in Congress to sanction repeat military support packages the size of the $60 billion agreed for Ukraine earlier this year.

During a diplomatic visit to Berlin, Mr Biden on Friday said it would be a mistake for Western support for Kyiv to wane.

“As Ukraine faces a tough winter, we must, we must sustain our resolve,” he said in a statement. “And I know the cost is heavy, but make no mistake, it bears in comparison to the cost of living in a world where aggression prevails, where large states attack and bully smaller ones simply because they can.”

The US president also said there was no international consensus for granting Mr Zelensky’s requests for permission to use Western long-range missiles to strike targets inside Russia.

The NHS has been accused of ignoring the Cass review recommendations on transgender care for children.

Dr Hilary Cass’s report advised that under-18s should not be rushed into treatment which they may later regret following concerns about care at the Tavistock clinic. 

However, a new NHS centre has snubbed the Cass review in favour of discredited transgender guidance that promotes both puberty blockers and surgery without age limits.

The Nottingham Young People’s Gender Service was founded in April to give psychological and social support to children with gender dysphoria who were former Tavistock patients and are currently taking or waiting to start puberty blockers.

In a job advertisement for a clinical psychologist position, the centre says it is “essential” to “practice [sic] in a gender affirming manner in line with” guidance from the controversial World Professional Association of Transgender Healthcare (WPATH).

The WPATH guidelines call for removing any minimum age to transition and lowering the age threshold for puberty blockers and surgery.

Campaigners fear the service is at risk of becoming “Tavistock version 2”.

Helen Joyce, the director of advocacy at human rights charity Sex Matters, said: “Dr Cass warned that [WPATH guidance] promoted childhood social transition without evidence that this was safe or beneficial.

“Earlier this year, leaked materials from WPATH revealed the cavalier attitude of many gender clinicians towards patient wellbeing and informed consent.

“The point of closing the disgraced Tavistock clinic in London was to learn from its mistakes and replace it with something better. This job ad is a deeply concerning sign that the Nottingham clinic risks becoming Tavistock v2.”

The NHS said the advert had used “old terminology” and was being amended when contacted by The Telegraph. 

Dr Louise Irvine, the co-chairman of the Clinical Advisory Network on Sex and Gender, said: “It is extremely concerning that the Nottingham Young People Gender Service job advertisement indicates that it is continuing to follow the discredited medicalised ‘affirmative’ approach to children and young people with gender dysphoria.

“This flies in the face of the Cass review whose findings were supposedly accepted by NHS England and the government.

“The Cass review appraised WPATH’s latest guidelines and found they were based on very weak evidence. Court documents in the USA reveal that WPATH actively suppressed research it had commissioned that did not have the outcomes it wanted,” she added. 

Job listing raised in Commons

The job posting, which pays upward of £53,700, went live earlier this week and was raised in the House of Commons by Nick Timothy, a Tory MP. He asked for the Government to confirm that the Cass review would be implemented across the NHS.

Afterwards, he took to X, formerly Twitter, to state that “unfortunately, the Leader of the House [Lucy Powell MP] had failed to back Cass” in her response.

The new clinic – run by the Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust – said it will care for children taking puberty blockers aged 11 to 17. 

It is understood that the service will be decommissioned once it has finished treating all former Tavistock patients.

Senior doctors at the centre are or have been members of WPATH, and have been openly critical of Dr Cass’s review, which found a lack of evidence to support prescribing puberty blockers to children and urged caution in the treatment of all under-25s.

Dr Walter Pierre Bouman, a senior doctor at the Nottingham Centre for Transgender Health and past president at WPATH, described the review as “poorly reasoned”. He added that there was “a fine line between naivety, narcissism and psychopathy”.

Prof Jon Arcelus is another doctor at the centre and was formerly a co-chairman of the committee responsible for developing the controversial WPATH guidance.

The advert for a psychologist to work with gender-questioning children made no mention of the Cass report, despite requiring knowledge of the WPATH guidance.

The guidelines include a chapter dedicated to eunuchs, which claims that males who identify as eunuchs can have their genitals removed.

‘WPATH lacks developmental rigour’

The Cass review was highly critical of the WPATH guidance and its widespread use.

The final report said: “WPATH has been highly influential in directing international practice, although its guidelines were found by the University of York appraisal process to lack developmental rigour.”

It added that “instead of stating that some of its recommendations are based on clinical consensus, WPATH 8 overstates the strength of the evidence in making these recommendations”.

A spokesman from Bayswater Support Group, which advocates for evidence-based care on behalf of 600 families with trans-identifying children, said: “It is alarming to hear that despite Cass and NHS England distancing themselves from WPATH due its lack of credibility, its treatment guidelines are still being referenced as ‘essential’ knowledge for working with children at one of the new centres”.

An NHS spokesman said the service “provides additional mental health support to young people already referred to endocrine services following the closure of the GIDS clinic at Tavistock – and the trust has acknowledged that old terminology was used in the job advertisement and is amending it.

“All the NHS’s new children’s gender services are being established closely in line with recommendations from the Cass Review.”

Ifti Majid, the chief executive of Nottinghamshire Healthcare, said: “The Nottingham Young People’s Gender Service has been developed in line with NHS England’s national specification. 

“This psychologist position is for a specialist to work with young people, who have already been referred on to a medical pathway by the GIDS prior to the closure of that service, to deliver psychological assessment and therapies in compliance with the recommendations set out in the Cass Review.”

If you wish to find the centremost overlap on the great Venn diagram that is JD Wetherspoons’ many, many customers, you’d be best to drop in on any of the chain’s pubs midweek at around 5.30pm, just as the light fades and day spills into evening. 

At that moment, you’d more than likely find some tables occupied by elderly couples on their ninth free refill of tea or coffee, and others by college-age pairings on a very cost-effective second date. You’d notice a number of workmen quenching their thirsts after a long day, a few parents giving their kids a quick meal after school, and the occasional birthday party or leaving drinks.

There’d probably be a small wake happening in one corner, an old man alternating between his tabloid and the fruit machine, several people working quietly on laptops, a suited-and-booted business meeting in the quietest alcove, and just about every other kind of person and occasion society could throw up in between. 

That moment is the chain in excelsis. “Spoons” at its Spoonsiest. It’s precisely the scene I’ve walked into at the Royal Victoria Pavilion in Ramsgate, and the clearest explanation for why Wetherspoon has just reported a 74 per cent rise in annual profits, results which mean it can pay a dividend for the first time in five years – and all at a time when 50 pubs are closing every month.

“We’re moving in the right direction, after quite a traumatic few years in the pub trade,” says Sir Tim Martin, who founded the business in 1979 on the site of a former betting shop in Muswell Hill, north London, and later named the business after his old primary teacher. He now has over 800 pubs across Britain and Ireland, from Penzance to Peterhead, Clacton to Cork.

There was a time when a certain subsect of the population would turn their noses up at every one of those establishments. Wetherspoon, to them, was almost too cheap and inescapable. Over time, assuming they’ve ever been in one, they have almost all been won over by the chain’s undeniable appeal and utility. In this day and age, to sneer at Spoons says far more about you than them. Meanwhile, Martin counts his coffers. 

Earlier this month the company posted a 5.7 per cent rise in revenue to £2.04 billion in the 12 months to the end of July, up from £1.93 billion in the previous financial year. Adjusted pre-tax profits rose 74 per cent from £42.6 million to £73.9 million, the best results since before the pandemic.

Nine years ago, there were 951 Spoons – as they are affectionately known – open and serving. Martin was sounding off about aiming for upwards of 1200. He has since reined that back, closing and selling dozens of sites but improving the takings of those kept open.

“We made a mistake. In a lot of towns we opened two pubs where we should have just opened one. So it’s been a slight retreat, but we’re now looking at a couple of hundred more. That’d be good going.”

Martin, towel around his shoulders, wild froth of hair swept back, speaks from his holiday on the Isles of Scilly. Now 69, he has always been a willing spokesman for his company, and in many ways represents Wetherspoons: physically vast, exceedingly hospitable, entirely without pretension.

How, I ask, has Wetherspoons managed to buck the national pub trend? “Sheer genius is the only way I can possibly describe it,” he says, grinning. “I always refer back to the thousands of components of a BMW. It’s not just one thing; a pub is like a car, it’s composed of many different things, and to get it buzzing and working well, it needs all those components upgraded as time goes on.”

It is true that no pub is just one thing, but it’s especially true of a Wetherspoons pub. At 11,000 square feet, the Royal Victoria Pavilion in Ramsgate is the biggest in the country, with a maximum capacity of 1,500 and able to feed 800.

One of the great many contradictions of a Spoons is that bottom-dollar beers are often poured in gloriously ornate settings. Martin likes to buy and revive beautiful, at-risk old buildings – several, such as The Palladium in Llandudno, are grand old theatres; The Chief Justice of the Common Pleas in Keswick was an old magistrates’ court; The Opera House in Tunbridge Wells was, well, you know – and then fill the insides with old photographs celebrating that history.

“We’re not really a brand; we give pubs individual names and try to highlight the past and the building and the area, rather than the McDonald’s or Tesco approach – which I’m not criticising, we’ve just gone down the individualism route.”

The Ramsgate site is a striking Grade II-listed building that dates from the tail-end of the Victorian era. It was a café, a concert hall, assembly rooms, a nightclub and a casino before falling into disrepair in 2008. Wetherspoons spent £4.5 million doing the place up before opening in 2017.

It has its own character – the tide lapping close through floor-to-ceiling windows, a huge terrace looking out over the North Sea – but also that immediate, ineffable Spoons feel. Which isn’t just the carpets. At 5.30pm, it’s playing all its roles perfectly.

Nestled on a table for two I find Dr John Pritchard, semi-retired historian and author, and his wife Ela Lodge-Pritchard, a former councillor. They are, they confirm, “senior citizens”. He’s watching videos on his phone; she’s reading a free local newspaper. 

“We enjoy coming down in the afternoons, it gets us out of the house, we have several cups of tea and coffee for two or three hours. It has everything we need. It’s warm, there are plugs, it’s cheap, there’s WiFi… Then we go back home and get on with the rest of our lives,” Pritchard says.

As a historian, he “appreciates the extent to which Tim Martin develops things very sympathetically, and seemingly at unlimited expense.” He also likes that a veterans group meets there weekly. Pritchard often comes here to work or read. “It’s cheaper than most cafés and cheaper than most pubs. We pay £3.12 for two cups, with free refills, and can move between coffee, tea and hot chocolate. The staff are outstanding.”

A screech rings out. We turn and notice a four-year-old’s birthday party – complete with all the technicolour trappings that normally attends such a bash – at a group of tables on the other side of the room. Looking beyond them, two old rockers tuck into a real ale. In a Spoons, everyone is welcome and everyone is equal. At a time when so many other local social facilities are closing, they are part community centre, part working men’s club, part creche, part co-working facility, part café and all pub. 

“I’m a pub-goer myself,” says Martin, who visits at least 10 of his sites a week to check the standards. “The pubs I liked in my youth have been like ours, albeit smaller. Like the Nobody’s Inn in Doddiscombsleigh in Devon, near where my mother-in-law lived – no music, old pub, lots of real ale, and a wide distribution of customers. That’s what people liked about those pubs, they were melting pots.”

Decades ago, when he entered the trade, “brand segmentation” was all the rage among marketeers. “You know, Irish pubs, pubs for women, disco pubs, splitting things up like that. It has some appeal, and is legitimate, but our particular style is the melting pot. And a large percentage of the population appeals to that. They don’t want to hang out exclusively with people like them, they’d rather go somewhere where most of society is present at one time or another.” 

Martin can romanticise about pubs until the last orders bell tolls, but you don’t make £2 billion without also being a very hard-nosed businessman. So it is that every Spoons operates with maximum efficiency, following a business model that can cope with quiet periods but sings when customer footfall is frenetic.

Lucy Pook, a comedian from Tunbridge Wells, has material about Spoons, and no time for Martin’s politics (a Brexiteer, he donated £200,000 to the Vote Leave campaign), but she has a deep affection for the chain, invariably working in them by day and relaxing in them by night. 

“The cost of going out for a drink now is ridiculous, and if you don’t have a lot of money, going to the bar can be a stressful thing. But Spoons feels like you can be included in that societal norm without flinching, so that feels liberating for people who don’t have much money,” she says.

Myths about how they keep things so cheap abound. Prices fluctuate across locations due to the varying business rents, but the national average for a pint at Spoons is £3.38, around £1.40 cheaper than the overall average. That the food is all frozen and microwaved (that isn’t true, though some comes in frozen, like any pub), or there’s some nefarious tax or wage fiddling at play (also untrue, as Martin and his lawyers make sure to note whenever the accusations are repeated; the group in fact pays billions in tax).

And everyone’s heard the one about the beer being so cheap because they buy barrels just before they’re due to go off. “Yeah, that’s nonsense,” says Damien Clark, the local Campaign for Real Ale (Camra) branch chairman, who I find sampling the offerings on the first day of the three-week Autumn real-ale festival.

“You couldn’t run an outfit like Spoons with a model like that. I know for a fact he [Martin] doesn’t. They pay on time, they don’t pay enough to make fat out of it, but they pay. The off-beer thing is a myth.”

Clark, who is “older than 21, and close to 65”, is another fan. “I think they’re good value for money. You know what you’re going to get. Some are very good, some are hit-and-miss. This particular one I find an asset to the town. It’s affordable to eat, you’re not going to get haute cuisine but it’s perfectly OK.” 

He sips his Japanese-style pale ale. “Put it this way: I wish I had put five quid on Tim Martin. If I had his money, I’d burn mine. It’s a great model, a great idea, and people might knock him but I don’t.”

In reality the Spoons secret, beyond Martin’s stringent rules about consistency, cleanliness, good lighting and cheerful staff, all of which go unnoticed when they’re done well, is sheer volume. In short, if you pull 50 million pints of real ale every year, as they do, you can afford to keep prices down.

A future in which people don’t drink as much alcohol has already been mitigated. “Our biggest single draught product is Pepsi, I’m almost ashamed to say. But even bigger than that is Lavazza coffee,” Martin says. “We’re selling a million coffees and teas a week. So we’re up there with some of the big coffee shop chains now.”

In 45 years, he’s employed thousands of people from all walks of life. “I recently wrote to a parliamentary business committee, and the reply came from an MP who used to be a shift manager at one of our pubs in the North West.”

In fact, he has a suggestion. “I’d like to propose a new rule: instead of a degree from Oxford, if you want to be a front bench government or shadow minister, you should have qualified as a grade four shift manager at Wetherspoons.” 

He’s chortling, but he also seems deadly serious. “You should know what it’s like to keep a pub ticking over. What it’s like to kick out some Valleys lads at closing time at the Prince of Wales in Cardiff. Then you’d know how many beans make five…”

In Ramsgate, daytime has been fully extinguished. Gaggles of loud friends now dominate, alongside families eating and solo drinkers idling. Staff never kick anybody out for loitering, so it remains a refuge to all who need it. A port in the storm, where Britons could just as likely have their first ever pub drink as their last. 

As I set off to leave, the weekly pub quiz is due to start. The question of the day, though, is “How did JD Wetherspoon conquer Britain?” By getting all the little things right, that’s how.