Tottenham boss Mauricio Pochettino urges government to put brakes on EU departure

Pic:Pochettino(wp)
Political reporter(wp/es):

Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino has likened Brexit to a car crash and admits English football faces an uncertain future after the country leaves the European Union.

As Britain heads towards an exit in March and the uncertainty of a ‘no deal’ Brexit looms large, Pochettino has become the second high-profile Premier League manager to criticise the decision to hold the referendum.

The Argentine did not go as far as Liverpool’s Jurgen Klopp, who has thrown his support behind a second public vote, but said the government should have the bravery to put the brakes on Brexit rather than driving the country into the unknown.

“After two and a half years, I still don’t know if it will be good or bad [for English football],” Pochettino said. “For me, it’s about applying common sense. If the politicians now realise it [Brexit] will be tough and it will be bad for England, why not go back and explain, ‘This is what is going to happen to us?’ 

“If not, it’s like doing nothing when you are going to crash [your car]. If I’m going to crash but Jesus [Perez, Tottenham assistant manager] is saying come on, come on, push, faster... No! Stop!

“I feel sorry,” Pochettino added. “First of all for the people I love but also for the people who do not have the opportunity to say, ‘I need more information.’ We still don’t know the consequences. 

“I feel so sorry because it’s a situation that should be dealt with by people who have all the information, who know the reality. If people are for or against Brexit, they manipulate everything. 

“It’s so unfair to put the responsibility on the people because there are consequences. We said Brexit, we bought into an idea. But afterwards, who suffers? We don’t know.

“If someone told you it would be good for my family, for myself and then the consequences are different [to expected], you are the guilty one. That’s what I don’t like. If I am responsible for picking a starting XI, I need to take the responsibility — I cannot ask the fans who should play. 

“And I know the consequences if I don’t pick right and a get a good result. It’s such an important a decision and after two and a half years, 99 per cent of the people of this country still don’t know if it’s good [to be] in or out.”

Crystal Palace chairman Steve Parish has described Brexit as a “fantastic opportunity” to redress the balance of English and overseas academy players in the top flight but Mike Garlick and Peter Coates, his counterparts at Burnley and Stoke respectively, say it will be “hugely damaging” for English football.

There are concerns that Brexit could prevent Premier League clubs from signings stars from the EU under new freedom-of-movement regulations. Last year, Spurs director Donna-Maria Cullen wrote that Brexit had “added a straight 20 per cent on costs for foreign goods”, pushing up the price of building Tottenham’s new stadium, which is now close to £1billion.

For Pochettino, a second referendum on the terms of an exit deal could only increase the uncertainty. 

“We don’t know if another referendum will be good or bad,” he said. “If I need to vote in or out [again], I still don’t know what the best decision for us will be. If you’re going to vote, it’s because you believe it will be good for you, for the people you love and your friends, country, everyone. But after two and a half years, we still don’t know.”

Christian Eriksen and Mousa Dembele are back for tomorrow’s match at West Ham but Dele Alli, Danny Rose and Jan Vertonghen remain sidelined.

20 men found guilty of raping and abusing young girls

Crime reporter(wp/es):

A gang of twenty men have been found guilty of sexually abusing girls as young as 11 in Yorkshire between 2004 and 2011.

The group were convicted of more than 120 offences against 15 young girls in the Huddersfield area following their "campaign of rape and other sexual abuse".

The case can be reported for the first time today after a judge lifted a reporting restriction imposed on the series of trials almost 12 months ago.

Three trials at Leeds Crown Court this year have heard how more than a dozen vulnerable teenage girls were plied with drink and drugs and then "used and abused at will".

Those already sentenced have received prison terms totalling 221 years.

The group's ringleader Amere Singh Dhaliwal, 35, was jailed for life and told he must serve a minimum of 18 years in prison by a judge who told him: "Your treatment of these girls was inhuman."

Dhaliwal was jailed for life earlier this year and told he must serve a minimum of 18 years in prison by judge Geoffrey Marson QC who said: "Your treatment of these girls was inhuman."

Dhaliwal, who has children of his own, was convicted of 54 separate counts, including 22 rapes, involving 11 different girls.

The judge told him earlier this year: "You treated them as commodities to be passed around for your own sexual gratification and the gratification of others.

"The extent and gravity of your offending far exceeds anything which I have previously encountered."

The judge went on: "It was a very significant campaign of rape and other sexual abuse.

"Children's lives have been ruined and families profoundly affected by seeing their children, over months and years, out of control, having been groomed by you and other members of your gang."

At the end of the first trial, the judge said: "The way you treated these girls defies understanding; this abuse was vile and wicked.

"As cases of sexual abuse with which the courts have to deal, this case comes at the top of the scale.

"None of you has expressed any remorse for what you did."

He added: "The sentences I pass on you are severe and are intended to be so. They are intended to deter others from behaving in this way."

Nick Clegg joins Facebook as head of global affairs and communications

Pic:Facebook has hired Nick Clegg, the former UK deputy prime minister
ICT reporter(wp/es):

Facebook has hired former Liberal Democrats leader Sir Nick Clegg as the company's head of global affairs and communications.

The former UK deputy prime minister, 51, will take up the role from Monday and will spend a week at the company's Menlo Park headquarters.

He will then relocate to California in January with his wife Miriam and their three sons. 

It comes as Mark Zuckerberg seeks to repair the company's reputation in the face of rows over transparency and the role of "fake news" on the platform following the 2016 EU referendum and the 2017 election of Donald Trump as US president.

Sir Nick's new title will be Vice President of Global Affairs and Communications at Facebook, reporting to chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg.

He will succeed Elliot Schrage, who is set to stay on at the firm as an advisor. 

It is understood Mark Zuckerberg wooed Sir Nick by saying he would have a leading role in shaping the company's strategy, the Financial Times reported.

Sir Nick is the most senior politician from Europe to work for Facebook and in a statement on his Facebook page he said he was looking forward to "an exciting new adventure".

He added that the firm and its apps, including Whatsapp and Instagram was "at the heart of some of the most complex and difficult questions we face as a society", over individual privacy, democratic integrity, the balance between free speech and prohibition online, artificial intelligence and the well-being of children.

He went on: "I believe that Facebook must continue to play a role in finding answers to those questions - not by acting alone in Silicon Valley, but by working with people, organisations, governments and regulators around the world to ensure that technology is a force for good.

"I am looking forward to being part of this endeavour."

The timing of the move to the United States may raise eyebrows after Mr Clegg took a prominent role in the campaign for a second "People's Vote" Brexit referendum.

Addressing this he added: "As someone who has spent a lifetime arguing for Britain's wholehearted commitment to Europe, it is of course a wrench to be leaving the public debate at a crucial time in the Brexit process.

"But the key decisions will soon pass to Parliament, of which I am no longer a Member, and once I had decided to take up this unique new challenge at Facebook, I felt it was best to get going sooner rather than later."

The politician, who lost his Sheffield Hallam seat at last year's general election, was leader of the Lib Dems from 2007 to 2015.

Facebook has come under intense scrutiny following the Cambridge Analytica scandal and alleged election meddling.

The firm already has links to the Lib Dems as Richard Allan, its public policy chief for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, is a peer for the party.

Auto parts suppliers warn hard Brexit may set UK sector back 25 years

Business correspondent(reuters/wp):
Failure to secure a trade deal for Britain when it exits the European Union next year could set the UK auto sector back two decades, leading parts suppliers said on Wednesday as they urged leaders to reach agreement at a summit in Brussels.
Europe’s carmakers’ lobby ACEA and suppliers’ association CLEPA, along with BMW (BMWG.DE) and brakes maker Brembo (BRBI.MI), jointly warned that a no-deal exit would be catastrophic for the industry.

The “just-in-time” industry model relied on frictionless trade between Britain and mainland Europe, they said.

“If we are continuing to be taken hostage by this situation, the flourishing UK auto industry could come back to the situation it was at 20-25 years ago,” said Roberto Vavassori, a management board member at Brembo and president of CLEPA.

The recovery of Britain’s auto sector in the 20 years since the decline of British Leyland and its successor Rover Group was based on investment from around the world, he said.

Vavassori said he felt “betrayed” that Brembo’s manufacturing in Coventry, UK, would be a different prospect post-Brexit from the time of its investment 15 years ago.

ACEA said contingency planning by its members included a temporary production shutdowns and scouting for warehouse space to stockpile parts.

“No amount of contingency planning can realistically cover all the gaps left by the UK’s withdrawal from the EU on WTO terms,” ACEA said, referring to a no-deal scenario in which Britain would have no preferential access to EU markets.

Rapist let out for day targeted mother and girl

Pic:Johnson has been jailed for his barbaric attack ( central news )
Crime reporter(wp/es):

A sexual predator serving a life sentence for rape terrorised a mother and daughter while free on day release from  a psychiatric hospital, a court heard. 

Andy Johnson, 47, followed the woman and her 13-year-old daughter to their home and told them: “Do as I say and you won’t get hurt.” 

When the girl started to scream, Johnson was chased away by her father and later arrested nearby. The incident happened as the authorities prepared to free Johnson from custody. 

He had been given three life sentences in 1999 for raping a woman and trying to rape her 10-year-old daughter at their south London flat. 

Former soldier Johnson, also known as Andrew Le Feuvre, posed as a policeman to get into the flat, then threatened to kill the mother and daughter if they did not submit to his demands. 

Sentencing him for the attacks at the Old Bailey, Mr Justice Blofeld said it was “the most horrific sexual offence which ... certainly falls into the worst one or two I have heard.” 

Johnson was sent to maximum-security Broadmoor hospital indefinitely to be treated for his psychopathic disorder, and he was also sentenced to six-and-a-half years two years ago for an attempted rape in Jersey in 1995.

However, by February this year Johnson had been transferred to Bethlem Royal Hospital in Beckenham and was granted periods of unsupervised leave. 

He broke the terms of his release by drinking heavily in a pub in Sutton and smoking the drug spice and tried to chat up women at the bar. 

On the bus back to hospital on February 2, Johnson spotted his victims and followed them to their home, pressing up against the girl as her mother tried to open the front door. 

Sentencing him last week at Croydon crown court to seven years in prison, Judge Deborah Charles said he could receive “no effective treatment” for his personality disorder in a hospital.

The court was told Johnson had been transferred to a lower-security hospital in 2012 when his mental health showed signs of improving. He was allowed unsupervised eight-hour sessions out of custody, with his eventual release pencilled in for next year. 

Johnson admitted trespass with intent to commit a sexual offence. 

A Ministry of Justice spokesman said: “Restricted patients may be allowed temporarily into the community at the request of a doctor and only after an extremely tough risk assessment.”

No retrial for teacher accused of having sex with pupil on flight

Pic:A jury foreman said it was not realistic that the jurors would return a majority verdict (PA)
Crime reporter(wp/es):

A former teacher will not face a retrial over allegations she had sex with a student in the toilet of a plane.

Eleanor Wilson, 29, denied four charges of sexual activity with a child by a person in a position of trust during a trial at Bristol Crown Court.

Judge Peter Blair QC, the Recorder of Bristol, told the jury of four men and six women they could leave after 10-and-a-half hours of deliberations last week.

The jury foreman informed the judge there was not a “realistic prospect” of a majority verdict being reached.

After this, the Crown Prosecution Service asked for seven days to consider whether it wished to seek a retrial.

On Wednesday, October 17, it confirmed it would not do so.

Ms Wilson was accused of having drink-fuelled sexual intercourse with the teenager on a British Airways flight home from a camping trip in August 2015.

It was alleged the teacher, then aged 26, kissed and cuddled the boy on three other occasions, in addition to the alleged intercourse.

Within weeks of the pair returning from the trip, rumours spread around that Wilson was in a relationship with a student.

When confronted by the head teacher she denied this and said she was "horrified" at the accusation.

At the same time of the rumours spreading, Wilson discovered she was pregnant and went on to have an abortion.

Prosecutors claimed the boy was the father.

Wilson told Bristol Crown Court the boy had imagined the incident in the toilet.

She also denied holding his hand and kissing him during time alone, stating there was “no truth whatsoever" in the allegations.

Wilson, a Royal Navy Reservist, insisted the boy had imagined what he claimed happened in the plane, but he gave evidence and stated a bond had developed between them. 

He told the court he was speaking the truth. 

Ms Wilson, of The Rope Walk, Dursley, Gloucestershire, was released on unconditional bail following last week's hearing.

In July 2017, was banned indefinitely from teaching following a report by the National College for Teaching and Leadership.

Theresa May arrives in Brussels for crunch EU summit

Political reporter(wp/es):

Theresa May has arrived in Brussels to meet EU officials in an effort to save stalled Brexit negotiations from reaching a stalemate.

The Prime Minister will address the leaders of the EU27 countries this evening as she battles to save her beleaguered "Chequers" proposals amid continued opposition within her own party.

The meeting has been called the "moment of truth", as it was originally booked as the event where states would give the green light for Brexit to go ahead.

Before heading to the summit, she was addressing MPs at PMQs where Jeremy Corbyn said her Chequers plan was 'dead'.