Ian Wiggett
@wiggett-ie.bsky.social
Cymro, Kernow, Wrestler. Policing stuff.
Andy Burnham has claimed only 500 prison places were added between 2010 and 2024, but Kemi Badenoch says the Conservatives created 14,000 new places. Can these two claims add up? We’ve had a look at the figures 👇 fullfact.org/crime/how-ma...
How many prison places did the Conservatives create? – Full Fact
Andy Burnham and Kemi Badenoch have made seemingly contradictory claims about the previous government’s record on prison places.
fullfact.org
New police performance ratings: How does the new system work, and where is each force ranked? [SUBSCRIBER ARTICLE] policinginsight.com/feature/inte...
New police performance ratings: How does the new system work, and where is each force ranked?
Interim HM Chief Inspector of Constabulary Michelle Skeer spoke to Policing Insight’s Ian Weinfass about why she feels the new model for judging forces is better than what went before…
policinginsight.com
I recently noticed in my dissertation that Word was using Co-Pilot to generate alt-text of the charts/maps, with a tag that they were AI generated.
Jason Hazeley@jasonhazeley.bsky.social · 3d agoMy daughter’s university scrutinizes each essay for evidence of AI. The goal is to get a 0% score. This AI-hunting is done by… AI. A recent essay scored 17%. She questioned what the AI thought was AI, since she hadn’t used it. The answer: the uni-issued cover page showing student ID, faculty etc. 🤦🏻♂️
The software group Palantir paid just £2m in corporation tax in the UK in 2024, despite holding public sector contracts worth hundreds of millions
Palantir paid just £2m corporation tax in UK in 2024 despite lucrative public sector contracts
Software group benefits from global systems and accounting practices ‘that enable tax to be shirked’, says union boss
theguardian.com
Their case marks the first criminal prosecution of its kind by Ofsted, which regulates children’s services. They were fined £92,400 and ordered to pay victim surcharges of £2,960 and costs of £17,250. They received dividends of £193,000 each over the course of the charge period
Pair to pay £100,000 for illegal children’s home in Ofsted crackdown
Davidson Lynch-Shyllon and Miriam Ekhator are the first to be prosecuted under a new push on unregistered residential homes
thetimes.com
In a report endorsed by the former head of MI6, the Henry Jackson Society said a staggering 50% of the Russians in London - 75,000 - were informants for Putin. Russia has many operatives across Europe.
POLITICO Europe@politico.eu · 2d agoA Paris court today rejected Russian television star Xenia Fedorova's appeal against a ruling that she must leave the country, a week after French authorities accused her of acting as "a conduit for disinformation campaigns" orchestrated by Moscow.
Aug 4, 1971: CN Train No. 51, the Montreal-Toronto "Lakeshore," is held up at Dorval, QC by a group of robbers armed with machine guns. The train was boarded at Lachine when one of the bandits lay across the tracks, causing it to slow down. 1/3
Kamila Hankiewicz: ‘Forces in other countries treat innovation as something to move on this quarter, not this decade’ policinginsight.com/feature/inno...
Kamila Hankiewicz: ‘Forces in other countries treat innovation as something to move on this quarter, not this decade’
As British policing talks increasingly about exploiting AI and digital innovation – much of which was highlighted in the recent reform white paper – technology entrepreneur Kamila Hankiewicz…
policinginsight.com
Riders at the Tour de France Femmes could face additional clothing checks before Tuesday’s stage four time-trial after reports that riders may be padding their bras to make themselves more aerodynamic.
Tour de France Femmes riders face extra checks after bra padding claim
Warning comes before Tuesday’s time-trial amid fears female cyclists are modifying chest shape for aero gains — which is banned by the UCI
thetimes.com
One soldier's concerns about soldiers’ survival in the drone-dominated combat of the future initially led him to start tinkering with electronics he bought online. Now, he's putting the finishing touches on a drone detector that soldiers can wear like protective gear. Learn more:
US soldier in Germany invents wearable drone detector to protect front-line troops
Army Sgt. Ryan Minton is putting the finishing touches on a drone detector that soldiers can wear like protective gear.
stripes.com
So glad we’re free of this tyranny
European Parliament@europarl.europa.eu · yesterdayMobile data, calls, messages... family doesn't charge you extra for visiting them! This summer and any other time, travel between these 32 countries and use your mobile phone at no extra cost thanks to the EU's Roam Like at Home area 📱
People commenting they're flying over a parched English landscape and "isn't it awful" perhaps need to consider cause and effect.
Troops were still resisting in the Maginot forts in July, knowing the situation was hopeless, and had to be ordered by their own government to stop fighting.
John C@badsocialism.bsky.social · yesterdayI will fight and die on the hill that no one fought braver and better in 1940 than the French army in June, knowing that their best troops had already been lost and the Germans would show them little mercy
The tool could be used to “help students visualize the past”, “create real estate plans” to envision the final result, or “give your favorite place a makeover”, Google suggested. Nearly immediately, users began testing the limits of the feature. Turns out there weren’t many.
Google Earth’s potential disinformation nightmare
A new feature briefly allowed Google Earth users to overlay AI-generated images on locations of their choosing
theguardian.com
Jones said he had recently launched an inspection of offender tagging, and had seen that the system was coming under strain and needed to be upgraded to “minimise the risk to the public”.
Electronic tagging system failing to alert authorities of probation breaches, watchdog warns
Probation inspector for England and Wales says ‘clunky’ system needs huge increase in staff
theguardian.com
Not speaking ill of the dead is how Jimmy Saville got something approaching a state funeral.
This is also the Ben Cullen who is due to appear in court after being accused of making indecent images of children.
The High Court also heard RTC leader Ben Cullen had threatened physical violence to a resident removing flags, boasting that he was a “violent criminal” who had served 15 years in prison. Full report in today’s Clarion: oxfordclarion.uk/the-clarion-...
The Clarion, 4 August 2026
We're doing a rain dance. You? While we wait for some sorely needed water, here is some news, not all of it cheerful. Including less than savoury details about Raise the Colours; celebrating Oxford Ci...
oxfordclarion.uk
One highways manager told the High Court she had been placed on medication after becoming “fearful of being followed home, tracked and exposed on social media”. Highways staff now wear unbranded PPE, work in unbranded vehicles, wear face coverings to hide their identity, and do not travel alone.
Leaders of flag-raising group Raise the Colours Oxfordshire placed trackers on highway workers’ cars to find out their home addresses, the High Court has heard. RTC then attempted to intimidate the highway staff into no longer removing flags by repeating their addresses to them.
🇮🇹 🎫 A one-million-euro lottery ticket was recovered from the trash in Italy after the frantic winner called on garbagemen to help her retrieve it, the waste management company told AFP ➡️ u.afp.com/SH5e
Why are successive governments having to release some prisoners early? My analysis for the BBC website, done with Lucy Gilder ✍️👇 www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Early prison releases: Why some prisoners are being freed after a third of their sentence
More people going to prison, and for longer, is why governments including the current one have had to release prisoners early.
bbc.co.uk
The British press then came down on the neighbour who had reported Johnson’s drunken 2 am plate-smashing row to the police like a ton of bricks
Nate O@nateo.bsky.social · yesterdayWeird how so many members of the UK commentariat and tabloid sphere beat (Liddle), rape (Taki) and murder (Kay) women (and those are the ones we know about). Oh, remember when Boris Johnson allegedly physically abused Carrie Symonds? ‘Get off me!’ she screamed www.theguardian.com/politics/201...
Did you know that once they regulated the length of hat pins because ladies used them for defence? Thank you, spacecat39.bsky.social, for this gem. "The following yr, legislators in NY argued hatpins should not exceed 3in because of the physical damage they were doing to men across the nation"
Victorian Self Defense Fun: Women Used to Stab Men With Their Hatpins
Hands up if you think this is a trend we should bring back!
kqed.org
Officers in Argyll and Bute say they're struggling to fulfil "the fundamentals of policing" due to a lack of resources. 1919 reveals a catalogue of incidents, including officers travelling hundreds of miles just to cover shifts or transport prisoners. 1919magazine.co.uk/august2026/p...
News: Lack of resources leads to decline in rural policing - 1919 Magazine
Cops in Scotland’s rural areas fear a lack of resources is impacting their ability to police communities
1919magazine.co.uk
‘A new generation of companies are trying to offer something different: intricate, layered models of systems or places that can capture the second-order consequences of events. The purpose is… more to train soldiers and tacticians on the consequences of a decision’
‘Fortnite on steroids’: the virtual gaming worlds transformed to train British soldiers
Inside Skyral, part of a consortium that won a £2bn MoD contract to help forces game out complex decisions
theguardian.com
"I'm getting fed up with getting pulled by you guys, so this one will result in a complaint," says the driver with 59 points on his licence. 59 points, and still driving, and he didn't go to prison. The system is broken. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Lincolnshire driver with 59 points on his licence avoids jail
Iain Ashmore, of Witham St Hughs, was caught driving on three occasions despite being disqualified.
bbc.co.uk
‘Palantir has launched a “sovereignty” campaign, claiming that companies working with AI models like those sold by Anthropic and OpenAI risk handing over their institutional knowledge, or “alpha”, to companies that will eventually turn on them and monetise their know-how’
The Times and Sunday Times@thetimes.com · yesterdayPalantir sales rise as firms reject being vassals of language labs
In the night between 3rd and 4th August 1974, crowded express train 1486 'Italicus' is travelling from Rome to Munich. At 0.45 it leaves Santa Maria Novella Station in Florence heading for its next scheduled stop in Bologna. It will never arrive [Thread] >> 1
