22 2GM Saturday August 1 2020 | the times
News
George Osborne appears to be strug-
gling to sell his six-bedroom house and
has cut the price by £1 million.
The former Conservative chancellor
placed the house in Notting Hill, west
London, on the market in March for
£4.95 million but the estate agent,
Domus Nova, has reduced the asking
price to £3.95 million.
He and his wife, Frances, a bestselling
author, bought the property for
£1.85 million in 2006. The couple
announced in July last year that they
were divorcing, five months after it was
revealed that he had bought a £3 mil-
lion chalet in Verbier, Switzerland.
Last month Mr Osborne, 49, who isOsborne slashes £1m from
marital home asking price
editor-in-chief of the London Evening
Standard, had an offer accepted on a
£1.6 million five-bedroom Georgian
house in Bruton, Somerset, where he
would count the theatre producer Sir
Cameron Mackintosh and the artist
and film director Sam Taylor-Johnson
as neighbours. The area has been
described as the “new Notting Hill”.
It is understood that the home he is
attempting to sell in Notting Hill has
been let.
Mr Osborne, who said in May that he
was in a relationship with Thea Rogers,
38, his former chief of staff, stood down
as MP for Tatton at the 2017 general
election. He has since taken on jobs in-
cluding a £1 million-a-year role as a con-
sultant to the fund manager Blackrock.Fariha KarimPEAK WILDLIFE PARK/MERCURY PRESSBar your children
from illegal raves,
police tell parents
In abandoned warehouses, on “private
islands”, in unsecured fields and on
council estates, hundreds of illegal
raves and parties have been drawing in
young teens and children since the
lockdown began.
The secret gatherings, arranged on
social media and using encrypted apps
with the locations revealed at the last
minute, have prompted warnings to
parents from police.
In just over three weeks to July 18,
Scotland Yard was made aware of 530
raves and “block parties”, with police in
the north warning that some parties
were being put on by crime groups to
sell drugs.
Commander Ade Adelekan of the
Metropolitan Police, the National
Police Chiefs’ Council’s lead officer on
the problem of unlicensed music events,
told The Times that young people andchildren attending the events risked
spreading Covid-19 to the vulnerable
and of falling victim to exploitation.
“Drugs are being sold, violence is a
risk,” he said. “They’re also at risk of
sexual exploitation. More than 50 offi-
cers have been injured shutting down
events that have turned violent.
“My message to parents is if their
children are telling them they are going
to a music event they should ask ques-
tions. If they can’t get through to them,
allow us to go in and speak to them.
There’s a risk to all of us if you pick up
Covid and spread it.”
The events are springing up in inner
cities and in more rural locations, with
one invitation seen by this newspapertelling partygoers to follow a map to a
London riverside location where a boat
would transfer them to a “private
island”.
The flyer for the £20 event on
Sunday, July 5, banned “racism, sexism,
homophobia and dickheads”.
Among dozens of other invitations,
often shared using encrypted messag-
ing apps such as Whatsapp and Tele-
gram, venues include private fields and
disused buildings. One Instagram page
was promoting “Lockdown After Party
DnB Massacre” at a “secret southeast
location” next month. The venue is to
be announced on the day.
One Londoner aged 23 said that he
had attended a lockdown rave on a
former industrial estate in Hackney
Wick, to the east of the capital. The
man, a business owner who asked not to
be named, said that 300 people had
gathered in a “cavern” under a railway
bridge. At the entrance, a group of
“paranoid skinny white guys” accepted
£10 as an entry fee.
“Once you were in there... anything
goes,” he told The Times of his first night
out since the lockdown began in March.
“It was very loose in terms of drug-tak-
ing, it was absolutely everywhere. You
couldn’t look anywhere without seeing
someone put something up their nose.”
He stayed until 5am but the event was
due to last until noon. He added: “The
atmosphere was definitely very lively.
People were letting out these months of
frustration.”
Farther north, raves have taken place
in the Greater Manchester area, includ-
ing 6,000 people at two events on a
single weekend. At the events, in
Trafford and Oldham, a woman was
raped, three men were stabbed and a
man aged 20 died of a suspected drug
overdose. Two men were shot dead at
an event in Moss Side last month.
Chief Superintendent Graeme
Openshaw, of Greater Manchester
police, said: “Some of the people in-
volved are used to working in areas we
would describe against the black
market, illegal activities — whether
that’s drug dealing or enterprises with
links to serious organised crime.
Others are very much just entrepre-
neurs willing to turn a blind eye to the
fact it is illegal.”
Forces including the Met and Great-
er Manchester police have set up task
forces to tackle the rise in events.Charlie Parker, John Simpson
Charlotte WaceParty time Peak Wildlife Park in Winkhill, Staffordshire, laid on beef and grapes to mark Jude the otter, far left, turning ten
Hackney, in east London, has become
a popular destination for the events