UNFARE RAIL HIKE
Fear 2.6% increase risks spike in road congestion & pollution
A RAIL fare rise has been called “another kick in the teeth” for passengers.
From tomorrow, ticket prices go up 2.6% – putting £80 on an average season fare of £3,144.
So, for example, a Brighton-tolondon annual season ticket will cost £129 more at around £5,109, while a Manchester-to-glasgow off-peak return increases by £2.30 to £90.60. TSSA transport union’s Manuel Cortes said by hiking fares, the Government risks dissuading passengers from returning to trains after lockdown.
He said: “Instead, this seriously risks increasing congestion on our roads and the pollution and carbon emissions that go along with such a spike.”
The Government took over rail franchise agreements from train operators in March in a move set to have cost taxpayers £10billion by mid-2021. Labour’s transport spokesman Jim Mcmahon said of the increases: “This will be yet another kick in the teeth for families struggling to get by.”
Passenger watchdogs are angry rail companies have not brought in more flexible season tickets so passengers travelling two or three days a week save money compared with buying daily tickets.
The Government says the fare rise is the lowest since 2017 and that it will last only nine months, until the end of 2021.
It is so important that these vaccinations
are done
PRINCE William has hit out at antivaxxers who peddle “rumours and misinformation” online, saying he and wife Kate “wholeheartedly support having vaccinations”.
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge echoed the Queen’s comment earlier this week that those choosing not to get a jab should “think about others”.
William, 38, and Kate, 39, shared their sentiments during a video call to two women who have been shielding.
Diabetes sufferer Shivali Modha, 39, told the pair that she was worried by social media posts claiming that if you have the jab, you can be tracked.
Relief
But William told her: “We have to be a bit careful who we believe. It’s so important that those vaccinations are done.” And Kate added: “I hope it comes as a huge relief in the end.”
Accountant Shivali from Barnet, North London, had her first jab on Friday. Husband Hiren and daughters Shyaama, 11, and Jyoti, 10, joined the call with Wills and Kate, which Shivali said was like chatting to “old friends”.
The royals also spoke to asthma sufferer Fiona Doyle, 37, and daughter Ciara, seven, of North London. Fiona told them: “I truly believe in science and medicine. It’s the best way to look ahead to a much brighter future.”
Figures show 11-15% of people are vaccine-hesitant. Prof Stephen Powis, NHS national medical director, said: “Fighting misinformation around the vaccine is crucial.”
AN informant in the Madeleine Mccann case hoped to make £1million by telling police about Christian Brueckner, it is claimed.
The witness boasted to one-time associate Manfred Seyferth that he could cash in after speaking to UK detectives about the convicted paedophile, who is the prime suspect in Maddie’s disappearance.
As part of a TV documentary, Seyferth was asked if the informant ever spoke about claiming a reward by offering details about Brueckner, 43. He replied: “Yes, he told me you can get a million or something.”
Brueckner is serving seven years for the 2005 rape of a 72-year-old woman in Praia da Luz, Portugal – the same resort Maddie, then three, was abducted from in 2007.
Seyferth, who gave evidence at the 2019 rape trial, referred to Brueckner as “the biggest a***hole I know”. Brueckner’s lawyer Friedrich Fulscher has said of the Maddie case: “My client hasn’t been charged with anything. I have to assume they do not have any concrete evidence.”
Rewards of £2.5million have been offered for info leading to Maddie’s safe return.
Prime Suspect: The Madeleine Mccann Case, streams from tomorrow on Discovery+.
IT’S nigh on impossible to find a picture of Debbie Mcgee and Paul Daniels where the pair of them aren’t positively beaming.
Married for 28 years and together for a decade before that, they adored each other – and laughed all the time.
No wonder, then, that Debbie has been in such pain since losing her beloved hubby Paul to a brain tumour in March 2016.
It has taken five tough years to find herself again. To smile. To recapture the happiness she and magician Paul shared.
And to declare that, if the right man came along, she is ready to love again.
“It would be lovely to meet somebody,” she tells the Sunday People.
Debbie opens her heart in a moving interview in which she reveals she stuffed her bed with pillows to fill the space left by Paul.
She still hears his voice and recalls the time, out shopping, she collapsed in tears after grabbing her phone to ring her soulmate... forgetting, briefly, that he had gone.
The five-year anniversary – including plans to scatter his ashes – triggers poignant memories. It also allows Debbie to look forward, knowing Paul wanted her to be happy.
That could, of course, involve a new partner, though she is in no hurry.
Debbie tells us: “I’m not seeing anyone and haven’t been in a relationship with anybody since Paul died, but if I met the right person I could definitely see myself finding love again now.
“When Paul died I felt completely lost. I didn’t know who I was any more or whether people would want to know me without Paul. But now I feel very comfortable with who I am and I’m much stronger.
“Men show interest, but I also think when you’re famous lots of men are a little bit scared, intimidated. They don’t know that underneath you’re an ordinary person.
Shoes
“I’ve learnt to be happy again without needing a person as such and I feel I can deal with life, which I think is a big thing when you’ve been left on your own.
“But it would be lovely to meet somebody. I’m not going to go hunting, as they say. I’m not out looking for it. I think if it’s going to happen it will. What’s meant to be will be.
“Most people I know who met somebody haven’t really been actively looking. They’ve found it where they wouldn’t expect to.
“It will be hard to find someone to follow in Paul’s shoes, but I don’t think you should ever compare. It would have to be somebody that makes me laugh. I’m a real people person and it’s all about their personality, never about the way a person looks.”
Debbie – Paul’s stage assistant and always introduced by him as “the lovely Debbie Mcgee” – says the pain of losing him never really goes away.
She goes on: “There were times when I thought
‘What am I going to do?
Am I always going to feel this sad?’
“But Paul said to me,
‘I know you’ll be OK’.
We never discussed me having a new partner, but he always said to me, ‘I want you to be happy’.
“Coming up to five years now I really feel a different person to the one I did then and the good days now outweigh
the bad. People say time is a healer, but I don’t believe that any more. Your grief doesn’t ever shrink. You have to build a life around it. It has got easier because I’ve created a life around myself, but if I dwell on it, it’s as hard as the day Paul died. I don’t let myself do that often.”
Paul and Debbie wed in April 1988, when she was 30 and he was 50.
They had a stellar career as Paul dominated prime time TV in his 1980s and ’90s heyday. His catchphrase was: “You’ll like this, not a lot... but you’ll like it.”
Stints in panto and a string of other TV shows followed. Their world, however, was shattered in February 2016 when Paul was diagnosed with a terminal brain tumour. Debbie says: “I cried with the consultant and said, ‘How long has he got’? He said, ‘Two months, without a crystal ball’.” But Paul, 77, survived just three weeks. Debbie continues: “Paul knew he was dying, but couldn’t say it.
“The day he came out of hospital, he said to the doctor, ‘Do you know, I’ve always felt I could beat any challenge, but this...’ then he didn’t finish his sentence. I don’t know how I coped. You just survive. I only cried in front of Paul once. “I let go of my emotions, thinking, ‘I don’t know how much longer I’ve got you’. Paul just hugged me. But most of the time during that last three weeks we just
PANTO-MINE: Debbie and Paul laughed, which was what our life was really. We made each other laugh every day, even when something awful was happening we were able to cheer each other up.
“His last words were, ‘I love you’. When Paul died I was so exhausted from the stress. I looked really skinny and horrible, even though I was eating everything in sight. I think the grief and anxiety burned every calorie off.
“In the first three years I was really dealing with the pain of grief and I didn’t have any real motivation for anything.
“I had lots of moments where I couldn’t control my grief. The first time I went in a department store after he died. I went to ring him, then realised he wasn’t at home to ring. I remember being in floods of tears in the middle of the shop. It was a very tough moment.
“It was horrible at first sleeping without Paul. I put loads of pillows on his side of the bed for six months. It helped me to feel like that was a presence, like there wasn’t an emptiness. I had counselling two-and-a-half years down the line. I was just feeling anxious and I’m not an anxious person. It really helped.” Debbie is now preparing to scatter Paul’s ashes, joined by his grandchildren and his sons – magician Martin, Gary and Paul Jnr. Debbie and Paul Jnr have patched things up after a bitter inheritance row in which he branded her “a witch”.
She says: “I’m planning to scatter some ashes near here because he loved the water and I would like to get a plot in the local church. It will be a nice way to mark the five years.
Naughty
“Paul Jnr will be invited and everything is fine between us now. He was always a naughty boy! Of course what he said was hurtful because it was so soon after his dad died, but I don’t hold grudges.
“He was in extreme grief as well and took it out on me, but everything is good now.”
While love may have been on hold, former ballerina Debbie still has her career.
She reached the 2017 final of Strictly Come Dancing – seven years after Paul was on the show. An appearance on Celebrity Mastermind is set to go out on TV next month and she has been made honorary vice-president of The Magic Circle.
And Debbie had her own health battle in 2018 – diagnosed with breast cancer. She has now recovered.
She knows that moving on in her life means addressing some of the reminders of Paul. His clothes are still in the wardrobe and she has all of his stage props and tricks.
But she adds: “I’m getting to that stage now where I don’t need Paul’s things around me, but at first I did. It was a comfort.
“The hardest thing is that Paul isn’t here and is never going to be here again, so I have to accept that and carry on.”
Debbie also reveals she has learned a lot about Paul from letters and from being approached by people in the street.
She explains: “People have such lovely stories about Paul – and many I didn’t know.
“I got hundreds of letters from people, including widows of magicians, who said he would come and collect props, sell them on ebay and give them all the money. It would take up hours, but he wouldn’t charge them anything. He helped so many people.
“Paul’s always around me. I still hear his voice and I don’t think I’ll ever lose that.
“I miss everything about him, but you’ve still got to live and decide, ‘Do you want to live and be unhappy that they’ve gone or be happy that you had them?’ And mine is definitely the second one.
“I think that if I don’t meet anybody, I need to know I can be happy and that’s what I’ve got now. I’m back to my old self now.”
TIGER Woods was said to be “in good spirits” yesterday after being moved to a new hospital following his near-death car crash.
The golf legend suffered multiple leg fractures and a shattered ankle when he flipped and rolled his 4x4 after leaving a hotel on Tuesday.
Woods, 45, needed emergency surgery at Harbor UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles after being cut free from the wreckage.
He has now had successful “follow-up procedures” after being taken to the Cedars-sinai Medical Centre, according to a statement on his Twitter account.
It read: “The procedures were successful and he is now recovering and in good spirits.”
The statement added that the golfer and his family wanted to thank well-wishers “for the wonderful support and messages over the past few days”.
Woods’ move to Cedars-sinai was made “for continuing orthopaedic care and recovery,” Dr Anish Mahajan, chief medical officer at Harbor UCLA said.
Police said on Tuesday that Woods was “very fortunate” to be alive after the horror smash just after 7am. The star had been alone when he lost control of his vehicle on a stretch of road notorious for accidents.
His car struck the central reservation, crossed into the opposite lane and then rolled over several times before careering off the road and plunging down an embankment.
Woods sustained open fractures on the tibia and fibula of his lower right leg, and a rod was inserted into the tibia. The injuries to his foot and ankle were treated with screws and pins.
Police said no other vehicles were involved in the crash and Woods would face no criminal charges over what they described as “purely an accident”.
They also said that there was no evidence the golfer had been impaired by drugs or alcohol at the time.