#daily express

[downthetubes]

The Giles The Collection 2027 is scheduled for publication on 3rd September 2026 by Cassell

Coming Soon: The Giles The Collection 2027

Coming Soon: The Giles The Collection 2027

[eaglesnick]

“Hypocrisy is the only vice that cannot be forgiven”  - William Hazlitt

I read with considerable concern the BBC’s reporting on its investigation into organised criminal activity operating through High Street mini‑marts, vape shops, and confectionery outlets, as well as the associated intimidation directed at Trading Standards officers. According to the BBC, evidence indicates that in some localities as many as half of such premises may be linked to established criminal networks. When subjected to regulatory scrutiny, these groups have reportedly engaged in behaviours including stalking, threats of violence, arson, and explicit threats to life.

The BBC further reports that weapons have been recovered from certain premises and thatTrading Standards officers have experienced a range of serious incidents. One female officer was reportedly “manhandled” and compelled to view pornographic material, while another experienced sexual assault. Threats of rape have been recorded, and one officer was told, “I kill you. I kill you.” More than 70% of surveyed officers indicated that they had faced threats of violence. In one case, a female officer experienced repeated ramming of her car, threats that her home would be set on fire, and multiple visits by unknown men to her residence. She and her husband ultimately relocated for their own safety.

This latter case of sustained intimidation was linked to what the BBC describes as “a Kurdish crime gang” involved in the distribution of illegal cigarettes and nitrous oxide across approximately fifty UK mini‑marts, forming part of a multi‑million‑pound criminal enterprise. The group is reported to have unlawfully employed asylum seekers to operate these shops, with some individuals even listed as “directors” on Companies House documentation despite not exercising managerial control. According to reporting by BritBrief, the network is said to be overseen by an elusive figure using the aliases Shaxawan Jamal and Kardos Mateen, who allegedly coordinates operations from locations in West Yorkshire while maintaining a notably affluent lifestyle.

The right‑leaning Daily Express has expressed strong alarm regarding these developments, describing the situation as “a national scandal.” It further argues that the rise of criminal activity on the High Street reflects failures by government and local authorities, stating that

 “The decline of our high streets is not inevitable. It is the visible and tangible consequence of policy choices and enforcement priorities.” (Express:04/05/26)

The primary function of Trading Standards officers is to implement and enforce a broad body of legislation relating to product safety, fair‑trading practices, age‑restricted sales, weights and measures, and the suppression of illegal or unsafe goods entering the marketplace. In this context, the Express is correct to observe that one factor enabling the presence of organised criminal activity on parts of the British High Street has been the limited effectiveness of Trading Standards enforcement in certain localities. As the newspaper notes,

“The government has proved highly effective at imposing costs and obligations on legitimate businesses. It has been much less effective at confronting those who operate completely outside the rules.” (04/05/26)

However, what the Express does not acknowledge is its own role in shaping the policy environment that contributed to this enforcement deficit. During the years of Conservative‑led austerity, the newspaper consistently advocated for reductions in public spending, characterising local authorities  as “bloated and wasteful” and framing austerity as a necessary exercise in “living within our means.” While academic analyses highlighted that local government was experiencing the deepest cuts, the Express typically presented these reductions as a justified response to alleged inefficiency within local authorities.

These campaigns were influential. Since 2009, local Trading Standards services have lost around 50% of their staff, with some authorities experiencing reductions of 60–80% in enforcement personnel. The National Audit Office has described these cuts as weakening the overall structure of Trading Standards enforcement.

It is therefore  accurate to state that Britain’s High Streets have become more vulnerable to organised criminal activity in part because of diminished Trading Standards capacity. However, this outcome cannot be attributed solely to the current government or to local authorities. It is more appropriately understood as a foreseeable consequence of the austerity measures that the Express and similar rightwing media outlets strongly promoted.

Throughout the austerity period, the Express published headlines such as “Councils waste £500M on non‑jobs” (10/01/2011), “Councils squander millions while demanding more cash” (17/02/2012), and “Britain backs the cuts” (21/10/2010). During this time, council spending fell by an average of 24%, with the hardest‑hit authorities experiencing reductions of 30–40%. For the newspaper now to criticise the insufficient deployment of Trading Standards officers is, in this analysis, a form of political inconsistency: the enforcement shortfall is directly linked to the spending reductions it previously championed.

More broadly, the Express and other right‑leaning media outlets often frame spending cuts as prudent fiscal management, without acknowledging the human and institutional consequences of such policies. They tend to separate the political decision to reduce budgets from the predictable deterioration of public services that follows. In doing so, they claim credit for economic restraint while distancing themselves from the social harms that austerity produces at ground level. This pattern of responsibility‑shifting is political hypocrisy of the worst kind.

[mdfranceschi]

Daily Express front page piles pressure on UK Government to act on Gaza

Pressure is ramping up on the UK Government to take action over Israel’s starvation of Gaza following a harrowing front page by the right-wi

[downthetubes]

Titan Comics has announced Ian Fleming’s James Bond Signature Comic Strip Collection, a hardcover edition celebrating the earliest newspaper comic-strip adventures of the world’s most famous secret agent: https://downthetubes.net/james-bond-is-back-at-titan-comics/

[sinewsofhistory]

I am quite fond of Strube's “Little Man”

Orange book cover, Chamberlain cartoon, and News Review, unknown, 9 October 1933, and 12 August 1937 respectively The Little Man with flowers, 1935 Strube: The World's Most Popular Cartoonist cover, 2004 1929 general election truel cartoon Excerpt from W. H. Auden's 1937 poem “Letters to Lord Byron” Green book cover, date unknown “Swat him!” cartoon, 29 April 1930 Strube: His Cartoons from the “Daily Express,” 1927 Watercolor with fire bucket, 1944 “Something New” cartoon, 10 April 1933

[downthetubes]

Several wonderful cartoons by legendary Daily Express cartoonist Giles are heading to auction soon, alongside many other artworks by other cartoonists, including British caricaturist James Gillray and Bill Mevin, the latter perhaps best known for drawing “Doctor Who” for TV Comic

View On WordPress

[pointless-letters]

BREAKING: Man writes to three newspapers to explain that the real victims here are wealthy men with privilege and power.