Daily briefing Monday 25th August

0:00This episode of the Times Radio News Briefing is sponsored by PwCWC. Staying competitive means getting ahead, not just keeping up. So how do business leaders cut through the noise and focus on what really matters. PwC takes you further with tech, from optimising the systems that put your data to work, to scaling AI from proof of concept to competitive edge. PwC helps you meet tomorrow's tech demands so you can compete at a speed that rewrites the rules. Discover more at pwc.co.uk. Welcome to the Times Daily Briefing on Monday, August 25th. More than two-thirds of voters believe Sikir Starmer is handling the issue of asylum hotels badly, according to a YouGov survey for The Times.

0:44That includes more than half of Labour voters. The former Labour Home Secretary Lord Blunkett is calling on the government to suspend the European Convention on Human Rights. Labour backbencher Graham Stringer wants to leave the ECHR altogether. He's told Times Radio that many of his fellow MPs could lose their seats over immigration. Over the summer, I know some of my colleagues in the North West have been having open meetings with constituents to listen to concerns and it is coming through load and clearly that people are not prepared to vote for MPs who continue to allow this to happen. Ten child protection groups say they are concerned that the government's strategy to tackle violence against women and girls appears to exclude child sexual abuse.

1:31Earlier this month, leaked Home Office documents said child sexual abuse is not explicitly within the scope of the strategy due to be published next month. Anna Edmondson from the NSPCC says violence cannot truly be tackled without addressing the abuse of youngsters. Violence against women and girls and child sexual abuse are deeply connected. They've got shared root causes, gender inequality, misogyny and power imbalances. Each year, around half a million children in England and Wales will experience some form of sexual abuse. Almost 800 shoplifting cases a day went unsolved in England and Wales last year.

2:08Close to 300 ,000 were closed with no suspect identified in 2024-25. The figures come from the House of Commons Library. Former Scotland Yard DCI Mike Neville says there's a clear problem with detection. The police don't have a national database of images like they do with fingerprints and DNA. This is a massive problem. So if you drift from area to area or you commit lots and lots of crimes, you'll never be linked with images like you would be if you committed multiple crimes and left fingerprints or DNA. The Tories are calling for on-the-spot fines for people who play loud music on public transport.

2:44Railway bylaws already prohibit playing music if someone else finds it annoying. The Conservatives want similar protections for bus passengers. Shadow Transport Secretary Richard Holden has told Times Radio that immediate action will be better than a longer legal process. At the moment, you've got to go through a court case. I don't think we should have to do that. I think swift justice is what's required. The idea of giving somebody a ticket and saying they're going to turn up to court in a few months' time, I just don't think he's going to cut the muster when it comes to enforcement anymore.

3:11That's why we're putting these comprehensive proposals forwards today. And you can follow The Times News Briefing on Spotify and listen live to Times Radio online.

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