2 2GM Thursday November 25 2021 | the timesNews
NEWS
DAB RADIO l ONLINE l SMART SPEAKER l APPTo day’s highlights
8am
11am2pm8pm10.30pmBeth Gardiner-Smith of the refugee charity Safe Passage
Do prisons work? With the former lord chancellor Robert
Buckland, the former prisoner David Breakspear and the
Prison Reform Trust’s Paula Harriott
Mariella Frostrup in conversation with
Jacqueline Gold, boss of Ann Summers
The rock band Nova Twins, right, on
their new single Antagonist
Henry Bonsu takes a first look at
tomorrow’s newspaper front pagesBIRTH BATTLE
Disabled rider sues
mother’s GP for
‘wrongful conception’
PA G E 2 1© TIMES NEWSPAPERS LIMITED, 2021.
Published in print and all other derivative
formats by Times Newspapers Ltd, 1 London
Bridge St, London, SE1 9GF, telephone
020 7782 5000. Printed by: Newsprinters
(Broxbourne) Ltd, Great Cambridge Rd,
Waltham Cross, EN8 8DY; Newsprinters
(Knowsley) Ltd, Kitling Rd, Prescot,
Merseyside, L34 9HN; Newsprinters
(Eurocentral) Ltd, Byramsmuir Road,
Holytown, Motherwell, ML1 1NP; Associated
Printing (Carn) Ltd, Morton 2 Esky Drive,
Carn Industial Estate, Portadown, BT63 5YY;
KP Services, La Rue Martel, La Rue des Pres
Trading Estate, St Saviour, Jersey, JE2 7QR.
For permission to copy articles or headlines
for internal information purposes contact
Newspaper Licensing Agency at PO Box 101,
Tunbridge Wells, TN1 1WX, tel 01892
525274, e-mail [email protected]. For all other
reproduction and licensing inquiries contact
Licensing Department, 1 London Bridge St,
London, SE1 9GF, telephone 020 7711 7888,
e-mail [email protected]Largely sunny but with a few coastal
showers. Rain or snow in northern
Scotland. Full forecast, page 69
THE WEATHER
31322226
5
6672TODAY’S EDITION
FOLLOW US
thetimes timesandsundaytimes thetimesOFFER
Save up to 33% with a subscription to
The Times and The Sunday Times
THETIMES.CO.UK/SUBSCRIBECOMMENT
Too much memory is paralysing. Only by
forgetting is it possible to advance
JAMES MARRIOTT, PAGE 34COMMENT 33
LEADING ARTICLES 37
WORLD 38BUSINESS 45
REGISTER 61
LAW 64SPORT 71
CROSSWORD 82
TV & RADIO TIMESChief quits after
electric U-turn
Joan Braca, the boss of
Johnson Matthey’s
biggest division, has
quit after missing out
on the top job, days
after the company
abandoned ambitious
plans to make electric
car batteries. Page 46Roman mosaic
of the century
A Roman mosaic of
Achilles’ triumph over
Hector has been
unearthed in a wheat
field in Rutland.
Archaeologists said it
was the most exciting
Roman find in Britain
for a century. Page 18Parliament blaze
over China links
Police fired tear gas
and water cannon at
hundreds of
demonstrators in the
Solomon Islands who
torched parts of the
parliament in protest
against growing ties
with China. Page 38TIMES
CANING IT
I left Oxford
and became a
dominatrix
PAGES 2-SPORT
LOCKED OUT
Why Maro Itoje is
not captain material,
by Eddie Jones
PA G E 8 2French officials said. On Wednesday
alone 671 migrants were stopped from
crossing by the French authorities,
according to Darmanin.
He said that people smugglers were
exploiting the “lack of co-operation”
between France and Britain and added
that he had recently sent Priti Patel, the
home secretary, a list of requests from
French police seeking help in dismant-
ling the gangs. Officials in Paris
regularly claim that such requests go
unanswered.
However, Britain has offered police
and border officials to conduct joint
patrols on the beaches. The offer has
been rejected by France amid concerns
that it would infringe on its sovereignty.
Lucy Moreton, from the Immigra-
tion Services Union, which represents
frontline Border Force staff, said that
yesterday’s tragedy could act as a
deterrent for future crossings.
“These are the fatalities we know
about but how many others have died
that we don’t know about? Many
people crossing the Channel won’t have
families and friends waiting for a phone
call back home,” she said. “Perhaps this
tragedy will help those hoping to make
the crossing realise the dangers in-
volved and stop people crossing.”
The Mediterranean remains more
deadly. An estimated 1,369 migrants
died crossing from north Africa to
southern Europe from January to Sep-
tember, according to the International
Organisation for Migration, a UN body.
France “not doing enough”, pages 6-
Crisis requires intensive cross-border
co-operation, leading article, page 37ing Street sources as saying that the
No 10 operation was not working. He
then quoted a journalist who asked
Johnson this week: “Is everything OK?”
Johnson responded: “I tell you what
is not working — that line of attack.”
A source close to Sunak said: “The
chancellor works closely with the
prime minister and No 10 and is focus-
ing on delivering for the British people.”
PM accused of introducing ‘dementia
tax on working class’, pages 10-
Don’t fall for Sunak’s spin,
Iain Martin, page 35
Chaotic leadership, letters, page 36the briefings against Booth-Smith were
wrong. “The PM rates Liam and likes
him a lot,” the source said.
The prime minister’s press secretary
said that No 10 and No 11 were working
well together. “I’ve seen various anon-
ymous source briefings that I’m not
going to get into,” she said. “But the
prime minister and the chancellor and
the entire government is simply
focused on getting on with delivering
on people’s priorities.”
At prime minister’s questions Sir Keir
Starmer, the Labour leader, quoted
Tory backbenchers and senior Down-government. “Liam is shrewd and
smart, he’s loyal to No 10 and No 11, but
some people over there don’t under-
stand that,” one government source
said. “Rishi is going to need to look after
him. He’s one of the last remaining
people with links to Cummings.”
Another ally of Sunak said: “Liam is a
first-rate individual, he brings profes-
sionalism in everything he does. I hope
we’re not going to have a repeat of the
Sajid situation.”
A senior government source said thatThousands of Christmas holidays could
be at risk as the Passport Office courier
service appears to be in meltdown.
Hundreds of people are going online
every day to complain about delays at
TNT, which has an exclusive contract
to deliver official travel documents.
Customers report delivery dates
being repeatedly delayed, with some
saying that their passports have been
stuck with the US-owned company for
up to a month. Some travellers due to go
away soon have become so desperate
that they have driven from depot to
depot searching for their passports.
TNT’s customer service helpline ap-
pears to be overwhelmed, with calls not
being answered for hours.
The delivery delays are in addition to
long processing times at the Passport
Office. The government website warns
applicants to allow “up to ten weeks” for
passports to arrive.
Some customers have started an on-
line petition asking for an inquiry into
the failure of TNT. The petition says:
“In recent months thousands of us havePassport delivery ‘meltdown’
puts Christmas travel at risk
Andrew Ellson
Consumer Affairs Correspondent
David Byers Assistant Money Editorexperienced significant delays in get-
ting our passports delivered. Many
have had to cancel their travel plans...
and lost out on hundreds or even thou-
sands of pounds.
“TNT do not seem to provide real-
time tracking, nor can you provide de-
livery instructions. People have experi-
enced numerous failed delivery at-
tempts, others have had their delivery
date continuously pushed back with no
end in sight. Some have even had their
passport or application supporting
documents lost.”
TNT, which is owned by FedEx, was
awarded a three-year contract worth
£77 million to deliver new and renewed
passports in July 2019. The petition
calls on the government to investigate
the diligence carried out before the
deal. It asks why TNT’s failures have
not been looked into by the govern-
ment or another provider appointed.
The Times has established that in
some cases the Passport Office is turn-
ing to alternative postal companies. A
source at the department admitted that
in cases where TNT had lost a passport
it was re-printing the document and
sending it by Royal Mail instead.
Twitter had dozens of messages yes-terday from desperate people worried
that they would miss their trips abroad.
Marina Dane said that she feared she
would miss her honeymoon. She post-
ed: “Three hours on hold with TNT and
two unanswered emails, and one use-
less live chat that cancelled on me.
Several calls to HM Passport Office
and all they can say is that it’s TNT’s
fault not theirs. Supposed to travel on
Monday. Help!”
In another post Debra Michael
wrote: “TNT have failed to deliver my
passport three times. They have had my
passport a month and I still have no
idea where it is.”
TNT said that a surge in passport
applications as Covid-19 restrictions
were eased had caused a backlog. “We
are taking additional steps to provide
timely delivery by adding additional
resources to the operations,” the com-
pany said. “We apologise for any incon-
venience caused.’’
The Passport Office said: “We are
aware of some additional reported
issues from customers related to missed
deliveries by our delivery partners and
are working closely with our partners to
establish the root of this issue.”
Passport to Pimlico, letters, page 36continued from page 1
‘Chaos’ at No 10continued from page 1
Channel migrant tragedy AnalysisI
n order to solve
his most pressing
political problem
Boris Johnson is
reliant on a rival
who has reasons to
want him to fail
(Chris Smyth writes).
Relations between
the prime minister
and President Macron
of France have been
awful for months as
the two governments
snipe at each other on
issues ranging from
Northern Irish
sausages to Australian
submarines.
The strain was
visible as a minister
used yesterday’s
drownings to express
irritation that France
was not doing more to
stop migrants
crossing the Channel.
This kind of dig
goes down badly with
Macron. Last week he
accused London of
swinging between
“partnership and
provocation”.
That is a problem
for Johnson because
to mitigate the
problems in the
Channel he is largely
reliant on Frenchgoodwill, which is in
very short supply.
Johnson and
Macron have very
different styles, but
they both got to the
top through an
unconventional route.
Initially this seemed
to bind them together
but as diplomacy
became more difficult
their relationship
soured.
Paris has been
infuriated by what it
sees as deliberate
British intransigence
towards licensing
French fishing vessels.
Fishing is an emotive
political issue in
France, as it is in
Britain, and with
presidential elections
next year Macron
needed a victory.
More broadly the
French believe the UK
is taking every
opportunity to use
tensions with France
to justify Brexit. They
also point out, with
some justification,
that migration is a
political issue in
France too and that
the huge camps that
have grown up in andaround Calais do not
win votes for them
either.
British ministers,
meanwhile, feel that
France has been slow
to put in meaningful
measures to stop
migrants crossing.
And they have been
infuriated by the
sense that the French
government wants
Johnson to fail to
prove that Brexit was
a disaster. Certainly, it
is not hard to imagine
diplomats in Paris
smirking as they point
out that there was a
legal mechanism for
migrants to be
returned to France
but, alas, it no longer
applies now that the
UK has left the EU.
Johnson promised
that Brexit meant
taking control of
Britain’s immigration
system, and in finding
a better way to deal
with small boat
crossings that pledge
faces its first big test.
The irony is that to
fulfil the pledge,
Johnson will need all
the help he can get
from Europe.Banca do Antfer
Telegram: https://t.me/bancadoantfer
Issuhub: https://issuhub.com/user/book/