Charlie Peters

Charlie Peters is a writer, journalist, and security specialist from London

Doubted then vindicated, Andrew Norfolk was peerless

From our UK edition

Rotherham whistleblower Jayne Senior has endured countless painful conversations with me. Across many years, we have reflected on cases of brutal sexual exploitation and explored cover-ups, bullying and brutal political scheming at the expense of children battling abuse. But the first time I heard her cry was when she phoned to share the devastating news

Britain is going through a shoplifting epidemic

From our UK edition

Britain is experiencing a shoplifting explosion. The Association of Convenience Stores has found that its membership of small shopkeepers endured 5.6 million thefts in 2023, shooting up from 1.1 million in 2022. I was involved in one of the many millions of incidents set to be recorded for 2024, intervening last night after I spotted

Britain’s grooming gangs: is Rishi Sunak doing enough?

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50 min listen

For over forty years, tens of thousands of girls and young women have been abused, raped and some brutally murdered across Britain by grooming gangs. It is a scandal that should shame the nation, yet it is an issue that gets brushed aside by authorities, clouded out in the media by disputes over racist reporting,

British volunteers shouldn’t be fighting in Ukraine

From our UK edition

What’s going to happen to British volunteers captured while fighting Russian forces? According to Ukrainian analysts, there is intelligence to suggest that Russia is planning to parade them through Red Square. You read that correctly: Putin is planning to march 500 captured soldiers in the annual 9 May victory parades. Wasn’t this kind of thing always going to

Nazanin is free. But at what cost?

From our UK edition

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s release, alongside fellow prisoner Anoosheh Ashoori, has attracted enormous amounts of praise and joy at a time when the news has felt like a relentless stream of misery. How could you feel anything other than joy at the release of a young mother after six years away from her child? These freed Britons have endured

Putin’s invasion has exposed the frailty of Europe’s armies

From our UK edition

Putin’s forces are currently steamrolling Ukraine’s defences, with Russian troops circling the capital and invading from the south and east of the country. Meanwhile European leaders, neutered by their military weakness, have been unable to do little more than offer pointless sanctions and statements of solidarity. As Russian troops streamed across the border, European Commission

Britain isn’t ready for the next wave of returning jihadis

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Ever since British jihadists flocked to join Isis in Iraq and Syria, the government has attempted to keep the terrorists away by killing them on the battlefield and stripping the survivors of their citizenship. Those who have slipped through the net and made it back home have faced mandatory deradicalisation programs, or – in the most

The Tories should ignore the Amersham by-election

From our UK edition

Chesham and Amersham has fallen. The once uber-Tory Chilterns citadel has been snatched by the Lib Dems, with local campaigners citing planning reform and HS2 as the main drivers for their success. After the ginormous swing — from a 16,000 majority to an 8,000-vote deficit — fears are growing that the Tories’ planning reforms might

Tory MPs are right to complain about the Runnymede Trust

From our UK edition

What’s the problem with the Runnymede Trust? More than a dozen Tory MPs have written to the Charity Commission demanding an investigation into the charity. They claim that the self-described ‘UK’s leading independent race equality think tank’ criticised the recent Downing Street-backed report into race relations ‘in bad faith’. The MPs, including Edward Leigh, Sally-Ann Hart and Imran

Winchester College and the sad demise of all-boys boarding schools

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There are just four remaining all-boys boarding schools in the UK. From September, there will be three: Winchester College has announced that it will start taking girls in the sixth-form. Girls will join the sixth-form as day pupils in a 50-50 split and are expected to be offered boarding places from 2024. Some have said