lundi 31 août 2026

Burnham to free criminals deemed danger to society

The grim numbers that divide Britain | The country music stars taking on data centres
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Britain’s most popular daily newsletter, read by more than 850,000

Monday, 31 August 2026

Issue No. 554

Good morning.

Andy Burnham has been warned that criminals deemed a danger to society will be freed from jail under his early release plans. The Prime Minister has been under pressure to find more prison space, but the plans could lead to “high-risk” offenders returning to the streets. Charles Hymas, our Home Affairs Editor, has the latest below.

Elsewhere, Rosa Silverman and Meike Eijsberg introduce The Telegraph’s series on the North-South divide. They have crunched the numbers, and it makes for bleak reading. Plus, Poppy Wood brings you the first instalment of our dispatches covering the US midterms, in which we’ll take you across America in the run-up to November’s elections.

Chris Evans, Editor

P.S. While you’re here, don’t miss our Summer Sale. Join us today and try four months of The Telegraph completely free of charge. If you’re already a subscriber, make sure you’re logged in to read today’s stories.


 

In today’s edition

The country music stars taking on data centres

Private jets, Putin and the Pope: Fifa ethics report on Infantino revealed

Plus, how to start strength training in midlife

Burnham to free criminals deemed danger to society

Charles Hymas

Charles Hymas

Home Affairs Editor

 

Criminals deemed a danger to society will be freed from jail under Andy Burnham’s early release plans, MPs and former justice secretaries have warned.

Opponents said Burnham’s plans to create more prison space by ending a category of indefinite sentences could lead to “high-risk” offenders returning to the streets.

Both Labour and Tory ministers have previously refused to abolish sentences of imprisonment for public protection (IPP) because of the “unacceptable” risks of freeing potentially dangerous prisoners. There are currently more than 2,200 IPP prisoners.

However, Burnham announced that he would introduce legislation to scrap the sentences before the end of parliament. This could lead to cases being reviewed to determine whether an offender should be released or given an alternative sentence.

He also announced that all offenders jailed for manslaughter would now be barred from the early release scheme, in a major about-turn, after a backlash over plans to free two of the killers of Pc Andrew Harper.

It followed The Telegraph’s disclosure in July that Albert Bowers and Jessie Cole, who were jailed for 13 years in 2020 for the manslaughter of Pc Harper, 28, were among some 6,000 criminals eligible for early release halfway through their sentences.

Burnham has also blocked the early release of offenders convicted of causing death by dangerous driving, indecent assault and causing or allowing the death of a child.

It means that some 500 extra criminals, on top of 1,000 rapists, child sex abusers and groomers previously exempted from the scheme, will now remain in jail instead of being released.

This leaves a deficit of 1,500 places that would have been created by the original plan to free 6,000 prisoners from October.
Read the full story

The Telegraph View: Burnham will need to own the consequences of his early prisoner release fiddling

 

The grim numbers that divide Northerners and Southerners

Rosa Silverman and Meike Eijsberg

 

We all think we know where the North-South divide is, but can you identify it on a map? This week, The Telegraph is launching a series that examines what we think we know about this invisible “border”, including why so many can’t agree where it lies.

The most important part of the North-South divide, of course, is the persistently stark data by which we measure quality of life and prosperity. We have delved into the numbers, and they make for sobering reading. Decades after the disappearance of many traditional industries around which Northern communities were built, you can still expect to live a shorter life up North. You will earn less on average, enjoy less disposable income and obtain a lower level of education. Successive governments have failed to alter this picture of inequality dramatically.

It’s not as simple as it sounds. There are pockets of Southern deprivation that, failing to fit into these generalisations, can find themselves overlooked. There are also important stories of Northern success and affluence. Not just the obvious ones, such as York and Chester, but also some postindustrial centres including Barnsley in South Yorkshire.

As Andy Burnham stakes much of his political capital on narrowing the gap between the two parts of the country, experts warn that devolution must come with vision and that we shouldn’t expect every place to be equally successful. The North-South divide requires no customs checks, but involves plenty of cultural customs on either side – from dialects and humour to life expectancy and education.

We look forward to learning where you think the South ends and the North begins, and what really matters about life on either side of the divide.

This analysis is available only to subscribers.
Continue reading

Try our tool to see how accurate your boundary line is

 

Opinion

John Bolton Headshot

John Bolton

The CIA’s trip to Moscow was classic Trumpian political theatre

Why did CIA director John Ratcliffe fly to Moscow last week?

Continue reading

 
<span style="color:#DE0000;">Allison Pearson</span> Headshot

Allison Pearson

My top 10 tips to avoid paying Burnham’s spiteful mansion tax

Continue reading

 
<span style="color:#DE0000;">Owen Matthews</span> Headshot

Owen Matthews

Unrealistic optimism isn’t helping Ukraine

Continue reading

 

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In other news

Dame Priti Patel is to be replaced as shadow foreign secretary by Tom Tugendhat in a shadow cabinet reshuffle, The Telegraph can reveal.

Eight people have died and more than a dozen are missing after a ‌ferry carrying about 270 passengers capsized off the north coast of Cyprus yesterday.

Foreign-trained doctors are responsible for the majority of misconduct cases in Britain despite being a minority, Telegraph analysis has revealed. They were most likely to be sanctioned for fraud or incompetence.

Nicolás Maduro held up the peace sign in new photographs of him posing inside a New York federal prison. The ousted Venezuelan president has been detained in the US for seven months.

Iceland has rejected commencing accession talks to join the EU. The vote count had the nation on edge as the Yes vote took an early lead, before results started to swing in favour of the opposition.

Rescue workers in Nepal are wading through mounds of debris and mud to find more than 3,000 people still missing after Wednesday’s catastrophic floods.

Finally, Tom Hardy, best known for playing Bane, a Batman villain, may have just reinvented himself as an even nastier character: a menacing rapper who spouts X-rated lyrics about Kathy Bates.

Tom Hardy as Frankie Pulitzer, his rap alter ego

 

Your essential reads

The country music stars taking on data centres

It’s not every day you are offered a tequila shot by a two-time Grammy Award-winning country music star at a rural ranch in Texas, writes Poppy Wood. However, Tanya Tucker is raising a glass in the name of an honourable cause. Data centres have become the 21st-century bogeymen in the Lone Star state, and even big names are speaking out against them. Like many other ranchers in Texas, Tucker learnt recently that ultra-high-voltage transmission pylons will be built straight across her land to power the hyperscale data centres of the future. I caught up with Tucker at her ranch.

For the next eight weeks, The Telegraph will be travelling across the US as part of an eight-part dispatch series examining the issues that could shape Donald Trump’s fortunes in the November midterm elections.

Read the first dispatch

 

In May, a four-acre field in Willows Green, Essex, was covered in gravel and fenced off to create a caravan park

Can Britain find space for its travellers?

A quiet Essex hamlet has become the latest flashpoint in Britain’s increasingly bitter dispute over gypsy and traveller sites. Residents say a four-acre field was transformed into a makeshift campsite over a bank holiday weekend, leaving one neighbour facing an estimated £50,000 loss. Yet behind the anger lies a more complicated story, writes Ed Cumming.

Continue reading

 

Private jets, Putin and the Pope: Fifa ethics report on Infantino revealed

Gianni Infantino’s grip on football’s governing body was already being tested within months of his election. Now, a previously undisclosed Fifa investigation reveals the private jets, disputed appointments, lavish spending and salary row that threatened to derail his presidency in 2016. He was ultimately cleared, but the episode exposed an early struggle over power and accountability.

Continue reading

 

Eve Simmons found the immediate separation too distressing to face ‘the minutiae of the divorce’

‘The toaster got to me’: the unexpected flashpoints in a divorce

Divorce can make you fight over the strangest things. Forget the house and the savings: when a marriage breaks down, seemingly insignificant possessions can become fiercely contested. From toasters to duvets, armchairs and pets, Megan Carnegie speaks to divorcees about the bizarre and sometimes bitter battles over who got what.

Continue reading

 

Seize the day

How to start strength training in midlife

xx

Muscle naturally declines from our mid-30s, while for women, menopause can accelerate changes to bone and physical function. The good news is that rebuilding strength is possible at any age, and it needn’t mean hours in a gym. Caroline Idiens shares five simple exercises to make part of your routine.

For subscribers only

 

CAPTION COMPETITION WITH...

Matt Cartoon
Matt Pritchett

Matt Pritchett

Cartoonist

 

Hello! This week we’ve got two outdoorsy types queuing for something. Good luck to all, and congratulations to Adrian Parsons, who made me laugh with the rainy entry below.
Submit your caption here

Matt cartoon

P.S. For an inside look at what inspires my weekly cartoons, you can sign up for my personal newsletter here. Catch up on last week’s here.

 

Beauty makeovers

Welcome to the first in our latest series of reader makeovers, writes Sonia Haria, our Beauty Director.

At the start of summer, I asked the readers of The Telegraph’s Fashion and Beauty newsletter to contact us if they were interested in a hair and make-up makeover. We were inundated with worthy applicants.

We invited three readers to come to London for a special makeover day. I called in the services of Lisa Eldridge, an award-winning make-up artist, and Luke Hersheson, a leading hairdresser.

 

Your say

Table matters

Every weekday, Orlando Bird, our loyal Reader Correspondent, shares an off-piste topic that has brought out the best of your opinions and stories.

Orlando writes...
In general, I am not a man prone to fanaticism – until, that is, the subject of eating at the table arises. Here I brook no disagreement: sitting together over a meal is one of the cornerstones of civilisation.

I can already see my daughter rolling her eyes as I solemnly explain this to her in a few years’ time. By then, I might be an evangelist for a thoroughly lost cause. There’s plenty of evidence that fewer families observe this ritual today, and according to Thomas Woodham Smith, demand for dining tables is plummeting.


 

I’m pleased to report, though, that Telegraph readers are still fighting the good fight. Dr Graham Blackbourn wrote: “When I discovered several years ago that I was to be a grandfather (my wife and I now have three grandsons), I said to our children that I didn’t intend to tell them how their own children should be brought up.

“I did, however, expect one thing. Whenever they visited, meals would be taken while sitting around our dining-room table, making clear that this included practising reasonable table manners. I haven’t regretted it yet.”


 

Dr D P B Pound added: “My granddaughter has recently moved into her own flat, which she has had to furnish. One of the first items she installed was a dining table that originally belonged to my parents.

“It must be nearly 100 years old, has pride of place, is used every day and is hugely admired by all her friends, not least because of the saw mark at one end made by me as a young boy practising my woodwork skills some 80 years ago.”


 

It’s true that if you have to buy your dining table, it can be improbably expensive. Beverley Trelfa had a tip, however: “Anyone looking for one should visit their local auction house. Entire dining-room suites or individual, high-quality tables and chairs can be found at a low cost. My current, quite modern suite was less than £130 – for six chairs, an extending table and small matching sideboard.

“People who gather round to eat together enjoy conversations that they just won’t experience doom-scrolling on the sofa. Dressed in a pristine white cloth, any table – even a slightly scruffy one – looks inviting.”

Do you treasure your dining table? Send your responses here, and the best of the bunch will feature in a future edition of this newsletter.

Please confirm in your reply that you are happy to be featured and that we have your permission to use your name.

 

On this day

1422 | Henry VI becomes King of England at eight months old

1997 | Diana, Princess of Wales, dies in a car crash in Paris (you can see how we covered this below, in the paper’s sixth edition that night)

2006 | Edvard Munch’s famous painting The Scream is recovered two years after it was stolen

2021 | Cristiano Ronaldo’s return to Manchester United is confirmed

Birthdays: Mohammed bin Salman (41), Kirstie Allsopp (55), Chris Tucker (55)

Telegraph front page

Plus, in the news today, a small animal showed off its daredevil skills inside a shop after sneaking into the store overnight. What was it?

1. A kitten
2. A hedgehog
3. A guinea pig
4. A ferret

Click one of the options to reveal the answer...

 

Puzzles

Panagram

Find as many words as you can in today’s Panagram, including the nine-letter solution. Visit Telegraph Puzzles to play a range of head-scratching games, including The 1% Club, Cogs, and Quick, Mini or Cryptic Crosswords.


 

Yesterday’s Panagram was MAINFRAME. Come back tomorrow for the solution to today’s puzzle.

 

Please let me know what you think of this newsletter. You can email me your feedback at fromtheeditor@telegraph.co.uk.

Thank you for reading. Have a fulfilling day and I hope to see you tomorrow.

Chris Evans, Editor

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