https://www.jpost.com/christianworld/article-903457
Friday, August 28, 2026
Published Without Comment.
Double murderer John Sweeney dies in prison serving life for Canal Killer crimes.
The heads and hands of both of his victims have never been recovered.
20:08, Wed, Aug 26, 2026 Updated: 20:09, Wed, Aug 26, 2026
John Sweeney has died in prison (Image: PA Archive/Press Association Images)
A man who killed and butchered two women before dumping their bodies in canals has died in prison. John Sweeney, 69, is understod to have died of cancer at HMP Whitemoor, in Cambridgeshire, on Friday, August 14.
Sweeney, a carpenter from Merseyside, was known as the "Canal Killer" after being handed a whole-life prison tariff in 2011. He murdered and dismembered two of his former girlfriends with the heads and hands of both victims never recovered. Melissa Halstead's body was found in a Rotterdam canal in 1990 before the remains of Paula Fields were discovered in London's Regent's Canal in 2001. DE.
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Inheritance Tax Is THEFT By Any Other Name! (And no, it won't affect me!)
Taxing inheritance isn’t just immoral. It’ll immiserate. Britain.
The situation is now being aggravated by the dire jobs market
Published 26 August 2026 7:11pm BST
Gift this article free
The British inheritance tax regime is now among the most punitive in the world Credit: iStockphoto
For as long as anyone can remember, there has been a quiet assumption in Whitehall: young people do not vote and pensioners do. Furthermore, as they are in work with rising incomes, it is acceptable to tax them to help those in retirement, who are towards the end of their lives and who may be in care or unwell.
The beneficiaries of this settlement have hitherto believed that they have done their bit, leaving them free to contemplate their health and what they can pass on to their spouses and their children, who they love. That last bit, the role of sentiment and affection and the duty that each generation owes the other, is not something you hear much of in the Treasury or in the halls of academia. Rather than judging a society by the value it creates over time, they are more interested in shorter-term issues like equality or the pronouncements of the Office for Budget Responsibility.
These assumptions are all now being tested to destruction.
It is no longer true that the younger generation is getting steadily richer, or at least not at the pace which their parents experienced. They must wait until their mid-30s to buy their house, 10 years later than two decades ago. The situation is worst for young graduates in the clutches of the usurious student loan system. Student loan interest payments are officially scored as taxes and as Ben Ansell, an Oxford academic, notes in a new report for the Left-leaning Institute for Public Policy Research, young graduates therefore pay much higher taxes than their grandparents.
It is no longer true that the younger generation is getting steadily richer Credit: iStockphoto
Someone over 65 with an income of £45,000, £70,000 or £105,000 faces marginal tax rates of 20, 40 and 60 per cent respectively. But a young graduate has to contend with marginal rates of 37, 51 and 71 per cent on the same income levels, once student loans and employee National Insurance are deducted.
The situation is now being aggravated by the dire jobs market. A recent survey found that vacancies for graduates plunged by 50 per cent in July compared to the same month a year ago. The unemployment rate for 16-24-year-olds has risen by around a half in the last five years to over 16 per cent.
Around the world, we are seeing rebellions by the young against the imbalanced inter-generational settlement. A recent political protest in India, initially over some messed up medical exams, was nicknamed the Cockroach Rebellion, after an unwise comment by a judge in court. I am with the cockroaches.
The situation is only going to deteriorate as the dependency ratio goes up from about a third of a pensioner for each worker to around half a pensioner in the next decade, due to the ageing population and declining birth rate.
What is to be done? Mr Ansell believes pensioners should pay a new 2 per cent National Insurance levy on their incomes. Stamp duty and Council Tax should be abolished and replaced by a 0.65 per cent levy on property. He has what he calls “Spiv Britain” in his sights, with a further levy on gambling, plus, in the future, taxes on Artificial Intelligence.
Nowhere does he mention inheritance tax which taxes, in most cases, assets which have already been taxed during a lifetime. While this is theoretically a tax on estates, this is arguably another tax on younger generations. Not only must they look after the elderly and fund much of their care, the capital they might be gifted when their parents pass away is eaten into significantly by the most joyful mourner at our funerals: the revenue officer. Increasingly, it is despised by everyone, of whatever age.
More from George Trefgarne
Rachel Reeves, characteristically, made matters even worse. She applied inheritance tax to unused pension pots, to business assets and to farmland. This is egregious. Family businesses and farms will have to be broken up to pay for it. As, in most cases, these are small and blameless enterprises, this is not only mean, it might end up causing more economic damage than benefit. It makes no sense, except on the grounds of class envy.
Those who come up with these sorts of schemes forget two things. First, the British economy is not a closed system. The ultimate sanction the citizen has over the state is to leave. And so the entrepreneurs and wealth creators are either departing, making arrangements to do so, or coming up with strategies to protect their legacies. The British inheritance tax regime, with its stingy allowances, is now among the most punitive in the world and people can shift to plenty of other more attractive jurisdictions. They do this not out of selfishness, but because they want to pass on their assets, their memories and their heirlooms to their children. The Cockroaches are on the march and the days for inheritance tax are numbered. DT.
Sharing light in the dark.
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Thursday, August 27, 2026
Taybeh.
Cardinal visits struggling Taybeh in solidarity.
The ruins of the Church of St George lie in the Christian West Bank town of Taybeh. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons/RaedHajj)The troubled Christian village of Taybeh in the West Bank has received a visit in solidarity from Cardinal Pizzaballa, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem.
Taybeh is reported to have been the target of frequent attacks by Israeli settlers, who have vandalised the village, attempted to burn down the church, torched cars and damaged local olive groves by grazing their cattle and even setting fire to them.
As the olive groves are the primary source of income for many in the village , the attacks on them are making life increasingly difficult for the inhabitants.
Israeli authorities have condemned the attacks, but no arrests have been made.
Last week the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) imposed entry restrictions on the village in order to “protect” it from attacks which some locals have described as “relentless”.
The “closed military zone” is off limits to Israelis and foreign nationals. Critics have alleged that such blockades are sometimes used by the IDF to prevent foreign press from entering the zone and that little or no action is taken against Israeli settlers already in the restricted zone.
Reports suggest that since the zone was imposed, the attacks have not in fact ceased.
Cardinal Pizzaballa, who appears to have visited with Israeli permission, spoke at a Mass at the Latin Church of Christ the Redeemer in Taybeh, reports Vatican News.
“I may not have answers on a human or worldly level, but I believe in God. And I am certain that, in Him, we can continue to bring life, even here in Taybeh,” he said.
Parish priest Father Bashar Fawadleh welcomed the Cardinal, characterising him as a father standing with his children in difficult times. Father Fawadleh said the Cardinal’s visit reminded the people of Taybeh that they were not alone.
Cardinal Pizzaballa urged the people of Taybeh to “be courageous” and to keep alive the flame of Christianity in the region.
“Your example is important, so that we can continue to be a Christian voice amid this very complex situation," he said. CT.
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