The Daily Telegraph - 27.08.2019

‘I’m angry

as hell that

Epstein

is dead’

BRITAIN’S BEST QUALITY NEWSPAPER

Sir Ian Botham

on how Ben

Stokes’s life

has changed

forever

‘He’s the

Special One’

Celia Walden talks to Lisa

Bloom, lawyer for victims

Sport, pages 2 & 3 Living & Features, page 17

Johnson sends ‘Brexit sherpa’ to Brussels to get deal done

By Edward Malnick in Biarritz and

Simon Taylor in Brussels

BORIS JOHNSON is sending his chief

Brexit adviser to Brussels tomorrow,

as  he said EU leaders “want this thing

done”.

David Frost, Mr Johnson’s Brexit

“sherpa”, will meet senior EU officials

to discuss alternatives to the plan

agreed with Theresa May.

Talks between British and EU offi-

cials have stepped up after the Prime

Minister’s visits to Berlin and Paris last

week convinced officials that he is “se-

rious about a deal”. Meanwhile, The

Archbishop of Canterbury has become

embroiled in the Brexit debate over

plans to chair a citizens’ assembly

aimed at stopping a no-deal Brexit.

The Most Rev Justin Welby is in talks

with a cross-party group of MPs to host

a number of meetings considering al-

ternative options to leaving the EU

without a deal, according to The Times.

Iain Duncan Smith, the former Con-

servative leader told the paper the pro-

posals were “deeply inappropriate”.

Yesterday it emerged that Mr John-

son told EU leaders that MPs could not

block a no-deal exit, and he later re-

fused to rule out suspending Parlia-

ment to thwart any attempt to carry out

such a block.

Last night, the Prime Minister said:

“I think that it’s the job of everybody in

Parliament to get this thing done.

“I think it’s what the people want, I

also think ... it’s what our friends and

partners on the other side of the Chan-

nel want. They want this thing done,

they want it over ... They regard Brexit

now as an encumbrance.”

Brussels tends to “come to an agree-

ment right at the end”, he added.

Speaking ahead of a meeting today be-

tween Jeremy Corbyn and other oppo-

sition leaders trying to stop a no-deal

departure on Oct 31, Mr Johnson said

MPs must “do the right thing” and hon-

our the 2016 referendum.

The Prime Minister wants the EU to

drop the Irish border “backstop” plan

Continued on Page 4

Iain Duncan Smith: Page 14

Editorial Comment: Page 15

NEWS BRIEFING

Puzzles 16

Business 27

TV listings 33

Weather 34

BA accused of avoiding

paying compensation

Records keep falling

as mercury rises

‘Terrifying’ climate

Prom faces criticism

German business

confidence slumps

British Airways has been accused by a

pilots’ union of cancelling flights

“early” to avoid paying compensation

to passengers. Balpa, which has

thrown holiday plans into doubt with

the announcement of three days of

strikes next month, claimed the airline

was “compounding the mess it has

created” by telling passengers their

flights had been cancelled. Passengers

are only eligible for compensation if

they have been given fewer than 14

days’ notice before a cancelled flight.

Page 2

The UK yesterday sweltered its way

through the hottest ever August bank

holiday Monday as yet another

weather record was set. Highs of 33.2C

(91.8F) recorded at Heathrow

surpassed a previous high of 28.2C

(82.8F) set at Holbeach, Lincs, in 2017.

The weather followed a record-

breaking bank holiday Sunday that

saw temperatures reach 33.3C (92F) at

Heathrow, making it the hottest

August bank holiday weekend ever

declared by the Met Office.

Page 6

A BBC Prom billed as a “unique event

for all the family” has been criticised

for delivering a climate change

warning “designed to terrify”. Ivan

Hewett, The Daily Telegraph’s

reviewer, described Sunday’s concert,

which was based on the illustrated

book The Lost Words, which aims to

revive disappearing words relating to

the natural world, as a “statement of

the most extreme form of eco-

catastrophism, designed to terrify and

intimidate the mostly young audience”.

Page 9

German business confidence has sunk

to its lowest level in nearly seven years

according to a closely watched

measure, as the country’s ailing

manufacturing sector drags it to the

brink of recession. Europe’s biggest

economy is struggling as its export-

reliant manufacturers feel the impact

of global trade headwinds, which sent

it into a 0.1pc contraction during the

last quarter. The IFO Institute’s business

climate index showed confidence slid

for the fifth month in a row.

Page 27

news news news business

Taller masts

to banish

mobile

blind spots

GETTY IMAGES

As the G7 summit in Biarritz, France, closed yesterday Boris Johnson said he was now ‘marginally more optimistic’ about the prospects of reaching a Brexit agreement with the EU

Ministers lift height limits to bring better

reception and 5G coverage to rural areas

By Charles Hymas
HOME AFFAIRS EDITOR

BIGGER and taller phone masts are to
be allowed across the UK as the Gov-
ernment sweeps away planning re-
strictions in a bid to banish mobile
blind spots, largely in rural areas.
In an exclusive article for The Daily
Telegraph, Nicky Morgan, the Culture
Secretary, today announces changes to
allow telecoms firms to build taller
masts to deliver better mobile coverage
and make it easier for all networks to
share the infrastructure.
By permitting bigger and wider
masts, which can bear more signalling
equipment, the Government believes it
will reduce the need to carpet Britain
with thousands of new masts.
It has previously been estimated that
an extra 400,000 masts could be
needed to deliver the 5G network
which will offer mobile speeds be-
tween 10 and 20 times faster than pre-
vious generations.
Ms Morgan accepts that her pro-
posed changes could lead to complaints
about “eyesore” masts in beauty spots
and restricted sightlines in historic
towns and villages.
She says this has to be balanced
against the chance to create a network
that ends black spots and closes “al-
most all partial not-spots”.
It is estimated that just 67 per cent
of the UK has a consistent good signal.

“Our countryside is sacrosanct so

we  must get the balance right,” says

Ms  Morgan, adding that one of her

first acts as Culture Secretary has been

to back a plan by the mobile phone

firms to improve coverage by jointly in-

vesting in a network of shared masts.

This means phone users will be able

to switch to whichever network

provides the best signal wherever they

are.

“To give such a proposal the best

chance of success we need to make it

easier for industry to build, share and

upgrade mobile infrastructure,” she

says in The Telegraph today.

“This means planning rules will be

relaxed to enable existing ground-

based masts to be strengthened

without prior approval to enable sites

to be upgraded for 5G and for mast-

sharing.”

Under the proposed planning

changes, mobile phone networks will

be allowed to build masts that are taller

than the current maximum of 82ft

(25m) on normal public land or over

65ft (20m) on land “protected” for

its  environmental, historical or cul-

tural value.

They could also add more than a

third to the width of a mast without the

need for prior planning permission

and deploy radio equipment housing

on protected and unprotected land

without prior approval. Sites of Special

Scientific Interest would, however, be

excluded.

Building-based masts would also be

permitted nearer to roads to support

Continued on Page 2

Nicky Morgan: Page 2

Violent Albanian gangsters taunt UK police

By Charles Hymas
HOME AFFAIRS EDITOR

ALBANIAN criminals are mocking
British justice by mounting increas-
ingly violent burglaries and issuing de-
fiant social media posts from inside jails.
The Daily Telegraph has obtained In-
stagram images from the private ac-
counts of Fabion Kuci and Azem Dajci,
currently in Wormwood Scrubs jail for
aggravated burglary during which

they were caught with a gun and am-

munition.

They are part of a worrying new

trend where Albanian gangs have

turned to violent raids on homes in the

south of England to steal cash and jew-

ellery, which is smuggled back to Alba-

nia to be fenced on the black market.

Police in London, Kent and Surrey

have issued “wanted” alerts for at least

five Albanian criminals behind a string

of aggravated burglaries. The violent

tactics are the trademark of so-called

Albanian “Falcon” gangs that have ter-

rorised families in southern Europe

but are now being adopted in the UK.

Chief Insp Jim Corbett said: “These

offenders have callously robbed, stolen

or burgled from communities, com-

muters and tourists within London, of-

ten using violence and weapons, for

their own financial gain.”

Report: Page 8

Patients ‘stranded’ in hospitals for weeks

By Laura Donnelly HEALTH EDITOR

RISING numbers of elderly patients are

being “stranded” in hospital for more

than three weeks amid a growing social

care crisis, an investigation reveals.

Last year Simon Stevens, the NHS

chief executive, pledged to bring an

end to the “long stay” culture on the

wards, promising quicker assessments

and more support at home for those

who are well enough to be discharged.

Health officials warned that 10 days in a

hospital bed could mean pensioners

“aged” by a decade, in terms of lost

muscle mass.

Every NHS trust was set targets to

reduce such stays – defined as “super-

stranded” cases – as part of efforts to

reduce pressures on hospitals. But new

research shows that 87 per cent of

trusts have missed their targets – with

the number of patients enduring long

stays rising since the promise was

made. Experts said the use of hospitals

as long-stay institutions was fuelling

record numbers of cancelled opera-

tions. In the first quarter of this year,

19,969 procedures were cancelled at

the last minute, for non-clinical rea-

sons – a rise of 28 per cent in five years.

The analysis reveals that four in five

of such cancellations during 2018-19 oc-

cured at trusts which had missed tar-

gets to cut long stays. It comes after an

Continued on Page 2

‘They want this thing

done, they want it over ...

They regard Brexit now

as an encumbrance’

TELEGRAPH CAMPAIGN

Better

broadband

review

Poldark finale

A return to

form, just

in time

for a fond

farewell

Page 3

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