Do many criminals think that they're going to get caught? Statistics on arrests, convictions and meaningful sentencing could make reassuring reading for those considering a crime.

Bearing in mind the number of people caught driving while disqualified I am sure this will be highly effective.

From the BBC:

Summer 2025 confirmed as UK's hottest on record

The Met Office has confirmed that summer 2025 is officially the hottest on record for the United Kingdom.

Provisional statistics show that the mean temperature across the country - which includes overnight lows as well as daytime highs - was 16.10C (60.98F).

This is 1.51C (2.72F) above the long-term average and well ahead of 2018, the previous warmest summer, which had a mean temperature of 15.76C (60.37F).

It is in line with evidence that summers are getting hotter and drier because of climate change.

Met Office climate scientists have found that a summer as hot or hotter than 2025 is now 70 times more likely than it would have been in a "natural" climate, with no human-induced greenhouse gas emissions.

2025 has pushed the famous summer of 1976 out of the UK top-five, meaning the five hottest summers have all occurred since 2000.

The highest temperature of the summer was 35.8C (96.4F), recorded at Faversham, Kent on 1 July.

This may seem relatively modest compared with some of the exceptional highs of previous years, including the record-breaking 40.3C (104.5F) recorded in July 2022.

However what is notable about this summer is how long-lasting and widespread the heat has been - with temperatures widely meeting heatwave criteria on four separate occasions.

The heat started early with a June heatwave which brought highs above 33C (91F) for the summer solstice.

The mercury then climbed again later in the month with Wimbledon seeing its hottest start to the tournament on record.

A brief cooler spell in early July was followed by a third heatwave which brought Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales their hottest weather of the year.

A fourth heatwave in August brought temperatures of 33.4C (92.1F) in parts of England, while 31.6C (88.9F) at Charterhall in the Borders, was Scotland's highest August temperature since 2003.

The warmth was often accompanied by blue skies with sunshine amounts above average across most of the UK.


(BBC Weather article continues)

All national flags, or just our own?

So when one of these flags attached to aluminium lamp posts comes crashing down in the high winds of Autumn,on to a car or a bus, who will be held responsible?

The subway supports both passenger and heavy freight services through the area, and engineers warned that repairing it would be highly complex, disruptive and costly. Passengers will instead use a new footbridge and lifts, opened in 2024 as part of a £6m investment to make the station fully step-free.

The train is now enroute from London Victoria to Haverfordwest ...

The pedestrian subway at Bexley railway station is to be closed permanently next week over safety fears. Southeastern Railway said the underpass, which runs beneath the tracks, would shut from Saturday 6 September following safety checks that revealed long-term risks to passengers and the railway above.

Train passengers no longer have to pay higher prices for peak time tickets on ScotRail, raising the question over whether the rest of the UK could follow suit.

While some passengers told the BBC they would welcome the prospect of cheaper tickets, experts are divided over whether it could push prices up overall or result in overcrowded carriages.

The peak/off-peak system is designed to discourage passengers from getting on busier trains, by making it more expensive to travel during the commuter rush before 9am and between 5pm and 7pm.

However, the pandemic working from home and rail usage has not yet returned to pre-Covid levels so peak travel times are less busy than they used to be.

David Ross, chief operating officer at ScotRail - which is owned by the Scottish government - told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that the shift meant it could scrap peak charges as "there's plenty of capacity for people to travel with us".

Unlike the Scottish system, English railways are run by a mix of publicly-owned firms and private contractors which the government has pledged to nationalise as their contracts end.

Ticket prices are set by the Department for Transport (DfT) so if the government wanted to scrap peak fares across England it could.

London North Eastern Railway (LNER), which is run by the government, is experimenting with the removal of off-peak charges across parts of its network, external - with the pilot due to end on 7 September.

The DfT has not said whether or not it would try removing off-peak charges across the whole English network, but it has said it wants to reform the way tickets are priced as it nationalises the system.

"We know the current labyrinth of fares and prices can be confusing, which is why we want to make it easier for passengers to find the right ticket for their journey," a transport spokesperson said.

Meanwhile, Transport for Wales (TfW) and Translink operate the Welsh and Northern Irish railways and are run by their devolved governments.

The BBC has approached both TfW and Translink for comment.

ScotRail's move has reduced prices - an anytime day return ticket from Glasgow to Edinburgh has gone from £32.60 to £16.80. ScotRail's Ross said this means "passenger journeys will increase and over time it will pay for itself", but rail experts are divided.

If passenger numbers remain the same ticket prices may need to go up overall to make up for the lost revenue, some have warned. The other issue is what scrapping off-peak would mean for some already overcrowded routes.

"Clearly, the rush hour trains are already packed. And if you remove the disincentive to travel, it would mean more would want to travel on those trains," said Bruce Williamson from campaign group Railfuture. As such, he said any removal of peak charges would need to come alongside investment in increasing capacity of the rail network - something which would cost the government money.


(BBC News article continues)

.... The writer (Oliver Gill) clearly regarded this as extending the benefits of London-style tap-in tap-out to the Midlands and North, but with improvements - mainly calculating your best fare for your journey. ....

Highley.