How desperate to win votes do you have to be to be seen pulling a pint when you don’t even drink the stuff?

Will he be vaping next?

And as the heckler points out, forget the spin behind this stunt, overall alcohol duties are going UP – Owl

Is he trying to be trendy, albeit 20 years too late?

Is it, as some have suggested, an attempt by a diminutive man to create an illusion of height on the world stage? 

Or is the wealthiest UK prime minister in history wearing children’s sizes to avoid paying VAT?

Just asking. – Owl

[Sunak comes up short as he tries to stay on-trend www.thetimes.co.uk]

No resources for councillors’ police training

Despite Alison Hernandez’s bumper 6% hike in the police slice of your council tax. – Owl

Torridge councillors have got the hump with the police over their refusal to give them training sessions to help tackle crime.

Alison Stephenson, local democracy reporter www.radioexe.co.uk

Members of the council’s external overview and scrutiny committee said police are always asking for their support, but not willing to give them bite-sized training sessions  – a move which has left them feeling miffed.

Meeting chair Cheryl Cottle-Hunkin (Lib Dem, Shebbear and Langtree) said when she was a new councillor four years ago she went on a police workshop which was available to all councillors and gave them a snap shot of how police build intelligence, such recognising the signs of ‘county lines’ drugs operations.

“They are saying now they don’t have the resources to put together a programme,” she said. “They want our support but when we request it of them, they say they don’t have the capacity to provide it.

“The police talk about connecting communities and say all the right things but if there is nothing in place to coordinate it’s not going to work.”

Vice chair Cllr Annie Brenton (Lab, Bideford West) said at the first meeting of the new council following the elections, a police officer assured councillors that police wanted to support them and encourage them to get involved.

“It’s a two-way street actually. If they want us to support them and encourage our community to support them then they have to support us,” said Cllr Brenton.

She said the programme was already available, and it was a poor excuse not to be able to provide it to the rest of the council.

“To not let us sit in on this scheme and get this bite-sized information is ludicrous,” she said: “Our community is concerned about policing in our area. We need to go back to the police on this.”

Pressure will be put on police officers at the community safety partnership meeting in the autumn.

Untreated sewage was discharged from storm overflow pipes into protected areas across England and Wales for more than 300,000 hours last year, research has found.

Kieran Gair www.thetimes.co.uk

Untreated wastewater was released within 50 metres of a protected nature site more than 1,000 times, according to data obtained by Greenpeace.

The worst-affected areas included the Solent and Dorset coast, a large special protected area (SPA) spanning the West Sussex, Isle of Wight and Dorset coasts, with 14,174 hours of sewage spills last year. Bognor Regis, a coastal town popular during the holiday season, falls within a special area of conservation (SAC) and was given a “poor” bathing status this year. Human waste was identified as the main cause of pollution.

The River Derwent and Bassenthwaite Lake, a conservation area encompassing parts of the Lake District, was one of the worst-hit areas, receiving more than 6,600 hours of sewage. It is the constituency of the Tory MP Trudy Harrison, the minister for natural environment and land use.

Pembrokeshire Marine SAC, one of the largest marine conservation areas in the UK, suffered 6,997 hours of sewage spills last year. Waste spilled into the River Avon SAC, which runs from Bristol to Bath, for 6,960 hours last year. People have reported getting seriously ill from swimming in the River Avon.

Plymouth Sounds and Estuary SAC, which straddles the borders of Devon and Cornwall, is another popular holiday destination that was heavily hit with sewage discharges, receiving 11,436 hours last year. This year, the utility company South West Water was fined £2.1 million for incidents dating back to 2016, including one discharge from Torpoint sewage treatment works into Plymouth Sounds.

The data found that rivers, lakes and marine areas “already in danger” received more than 200,000 hours of sewage.

A separate analysis of Environment Agency data by the Liberal Democrats found that there were 1,504 sewage dumps last year on “blue flag” beaches — which are meant to have the highest water quality — lasting 8,497 hours.

Much of Britain’s sewer network built before 1960 is designed to handle surface water from rainfall and sewage together, meaning that systems can be overwhelmed during downpours and are prone to overflowing.

The industry estimates that to fix the problem will require £56 billion of investment. Under present plans, sewage releases will be ended by 2050. McMahon has introduced a private member’s bill to bring this forward to 2030, introducing legally binding targets for water firms.

The water sector recently apologised for sewage spills from storm overflows and promised to spend £10 billion this decade to tackle them.

The Times Clean it Up campaign has urged regulators to take stronger action against polluters, and to consider the idea floated by Emma Howard Boyd, a former Environment Agency chairwoman, of jail sentences for water company chiefs behind the worst incidents.