Thousands of people are being treated ‘like cattle’ by modern slavery gangs who tattoo them and force them to work for a pittance. The number of victims smuggled into Britain has soared by a fifth as organised criminals cash in on the lucrative market in human misery. They are expanding their operations from the sex trade and drug factories into hand car washes and bogus doorstep charity collections. Victims are bought and sold for as little as £200 and put to work in fear of violence against them and their families. Many are Eastern Europe children brought into the country to join street begging gangs while their handlers steal their generous benefits. Adults are duped into travelling here, often through recruitment websites or even dating agencies, with the promise of better paid work or education. When  they arrive they are forced to work as prostitutes, on illicit cannabis farms, as construction labourers or on isolated farms

The majority of Conservative councillors believe David Cameron was wrong to pursue legalising same-sex marriage, a poll for the BBC has revealed. Responding to a survey conducted by ComRes, 60 percent of councillors said they disagreed with the Prime Minister’s push for gay marriage. Nearly two-thirds of councillors said that legalising gay marriage made the Conservative party less electable. The survey also found that 58 per cent of councillors think redefining marriage will cost the party more votes than it gains at the next election. Writing for the Daily Mail Online this week, former Tory frontbencher David Davis picked up on why he thinks the party are likely to lose votes. He said the party has ‘abandoned traditional Conservative principles and made ourselves less appealing to those who supported us’. Davis argued that the party should not have focused on ‘fringe issues’ such as gay marriage because it is rarely in voter’s ‘top five concerns’.

A missing British girl believed to be heading to join extremists in Syria could become a ‘jihadi bride’ when she gets there. Extremism expert Haras Rafiq from the Quilliam Foundation said, ‘She’s not a professional, she’s not a doctor, she’s not an engineer etc. It’s more than likely that she will become a jihadi bride. At 15 she will marry a holy warrior and play a part in the jihad by producing the next generation of Jihadists.’ Yusra Hussein, is thought to have headed to Turkey with a 17-year-old girl from London. They will try to cross the border into Syria. Friends said Yusra had recently become tied to her mobile and computer after viewing extremist material on chat rooms and forums. As many as 600 Britons are believed to have joined Islamic forces fighting President Bashar al-Assad in the last three years. See also: l

The government will vote next month on whether to allow fracking firms to drill under people’s properties without the permission of the land owners. Ahead of this vote shale gas licences are attracting solid interest from investors. A government spokesperson said ‘There’s more big companies coming into this space with the resources and I warmly welcome them.’ The Department of Energy and Climate Change will simplify underground access for oil and gas developers despite 99% of respondents to a consultation objecting. The UK-wide plan gives companies the right to drill 300 metres or more under private land without negotiating a right of access. On the flipside of the fracking coin the British firm Ineos is accused of a ‘bribes and bulldozers’ approach to fracking by offering 6% of future shale gas revenues to those sitting on reserves or affected by extraction. See: 

Some schools in east London are being taken over by Muslim extremists who are trying to convert pupils and staff to their hardline ideology, according to a report in The Sunday Times. The newspaper spoke to a contact within the Department for Education (DfE) who claims the problem there is even worse than in Birmingham, where a 'Trojan Horse' plot to take over schools was revealed this year. ‘Tower Hamlets is expected to be the next Birmingham,’ said the DfE source, ‘but even worse, because the problems surrounding Muslim fundamentalists imposing their views on education seem to be more embedded.’ One of the schools highlighted in the report is Marner Primary School, which has been inspected by Ofsted following the raising of concerns by the Home Office. The council said it expects Marner to be given a ‘clean bill of health’ within the coming days.

Radical Islamist extremists and neo-Nazis could be banned from making public appearances, including on television, under a gagging order proposed by the Conservatives with echoes of the broadcast ban that once applied to the voice of Gerry Adams. Theresa May will announce the measure as part of a widely drawn counter-extremism strategy that is intended to catch so-called hate preachers such as Anjem Choudary, who was released on bail last week after being arrested on suspicion of encouraging terrorism. The home secretary’s new orders would be aimed at those who undertake activities ‘for the purpose of overthrowing democracy’, a wide-ranging definition that could also catch a far wider range of political activists. The ‘extremist asbos’ are reminiscent of the 1980s broadcasting ban under which Sinn Féin spokesmen such as Adams were banned from the airwaves. Actors were used to voice the words of republicans and others with links to paramilitary groups in news reports

For some time now, England and Wales have had a semi-decriminalisation programme for cannabis. And it has ended up criminalising more cannabis users than ever before. But it doesn't criminalise all cannabis users: it primarily targets people who are young, black or Asian. It is a story of muddle-headed government initiatives, skewed police incentives, racism, drug wars and the old, old habit of treating white people more leniently than everyone else. In 2004, when cannabis was made Class C, cannabis warnings were introduced. These were spoken warnings given by a policeman on the street if you were caught with a small amount of weed for personal use. Five years later the drug was returned to Class B, but the cannabis warnings remained. This effectively gave the police discretion in how they treated cannabis possession. The result of this discretion has been s the disproportionate targeting of black and Asian youths.

A liquid bone tissue is being developed by scientists that could help regenerate weak and fragile bones in patients suffering from osteoporosis. The paste is made up of porous calcium phosphate microspheres which contain stem cells to trigger new bone growth. This would be injected into specific areas of concern, providing a minimally invasive treatment for thinning bones. Calcium phosphate, which is the principle mineral in bones, provides a protective casing for the stem cells, which are very delicate and often die after being transplanted. The treatment is being developed by a team from the University of Nottingham, who hope to target the growing number of older people at risk of fracture, reducing hospital visits and easing the financial burden on the health system. Dr Ifty Ahmed, a researcher at Nottingham University, said his team wanted to provide a preventative treatment, strengthening the bones of those at risk before they suffered a fracture.

Amusement arcades are being converted into betting shops in order for highly addictive gambling machines to be installed, The Independent on Sunday has reported. The fixed-odds betting terminals (FOBTs) allow gamblers to bet up to £100 every 20 seconds and have been dubbed the ‘crack cocaine’ of gambling. A Gambling Commission report earlier this month found that half of adult gaming centres (AGCs) allowed people under the age of 18 to use their machines without challenging them to prove their age. Emails seen by The Independent on Sunday revealed that the arcade industry is already converting arcades in order to use FOBTs. In Watford, part of an arcade owned by gaming firm Praesepe is being converted into a betting shop, allowing it to apply for licences for up to four FOBTs. Praesepe is the country’s fastest growing AGC operator, with 159 premises across the UK.

More than a thousand people have attended a service for reconciliation in Scotland after last week's independence referendum. It was led by the Church of Scotland moderator at Edinburgh's St Giles Cathedral. Rt Revd John Chalmers told the congregation, including Scotland's Finance Secretary John Swinney and Labour's shadow foreign secretary Douglas Alexander there would be no quick fix. He said: ‘The Church here and in congregations across the country are playing their part in making it a little easier to stretch out that hand of friendship to those who are our fellow Scots who did not support the side we supported. How we voted on one particular day does not define who we are. How we work together to put in place the democratic will of the Scottish people will be defining - both for us as individuals and for us as we work to redefine our place within the United Kingdom.’