The government is establishing a new National Police Service as part of “the biggest shake-up to the crime-fighting structure” in more than half a century, said The Telegraph.

Dubbed the “British FBI” by ministers, it will be tasked with tackling the most serious crimes, enabling strained local forces to concentrate more resources on everyday offences.

How will the new unit work?
The National Police Service will target terrorism, fraud and organised crime. Despite the “British FBI” nickname, it will only operate in England and Wales, as policing is devolved in Scotland and Northern Ireland. The new organisation, set out in a government White Paper, will bring together the capabilities of existing agencies including the National Crime Agency, Counter Terrorism Policing, Regional Organised Crime Units and National Road Policing. The NPS will also be in charge of setting professional standards and training requirements and purchasing new equipment for all forces. This includes overseeing the nationwide roll-out of controversial facial recognition software.

The NPS will have its own uniform and will be led by a new national police commissioner, who will become the most senior police officer in the country. The establishment of the new body will be accompanied by a reduction in the number of police forces in England and Wales, “with some merged to create bigger regional constabularies tackling complex crimes, such as murder, drugs and county lines gangs”, said The Telegraph.

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has insisted the radical overhaul is urgently needed because the “outdated” and “fragmented” current model is “buckling under the strain” of tackling complex modern crime, leaving “serious offending unpunished”. The existing policing model “was built for a different century”, she said. 

How have the plans been received?
The establishment of the NPS “reflects a widespread consensus” among law enforcement experts that “more specialised officers are needed”, said the Financial Times.

Although the policing world is “almost giddy” about the plans, “amending police structures, processes and institutions won’t affect people’s lives in the short, or even the medium, term”, said crime expert and former BBC journalist Danny Shaw. The White Paper “is not intended as an urgent plan of action to address our immediate concerns about safety on the streets, crime and anti-social behaviour”, but rather “a roadmap towards a more efficient and effective police service in the decades to come”.

The old “Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus” premise that “men and women are from different worlds when it comes to relationships” has been robustly “rebuffed”, said Eir Nolsøe in The Telegraph. “But when it comes to politics, it may no longer be such an outlandish conclusion.” In the UK, “gender is emerging” as the new political “dividing line”, particularly among younger voters.

British women are increasingly leaning left, according to a new report by the National Centre for Social Research. Recent YouGov polling suggests that 44% of women aged 18 to 24 intend to vote Green, compared with 30% of their male peers.

Post-Brexit shift
Women in the UK were always more likely to vote Conservative than men until the 2017 general election, when women suddenly became more likely to vote Labour. In 2019, support for Jeremy Corbyn among women aged 18 to 24 was nearly double Labour’s overall share of the votes. That shift “is not because women’s values have changed”, said politics professors Rosie Campbell and Rosalind Shorrocks on The Conversation. It seems “more tied to changing events”: gender differences in attitudes towards Brexit, in particular, are “a potentially more powerful explanation”.

In the 2024 election, nearly a quarter of women aged 18 to 24 voted for the Green Party – roughly double the number of young men who voted for Reform. Yet, “predictably”, it was the young men voting Reform that “got all the attention”, said Gaby Hinsliff in The Guardian. Now, though, there’s a “growing consensus” that as the worldviews of young men and young women become “ever more starkly polarised, the driving force behind that split is women becoming sharply more liberal, not men becoming radically more right-wing”.

Altering social fabric
A key factor could be higher education: polling suggests that university graduates are more likely to support left-wing parties, and 57% of Britain’s students are female. But academics like Campbell believe “young women’s radicalisation also has a lot to do with Brexit and its unfolding consequences”, said Hinsliff. Women are “noticeably more anti-austerity and pro-Remain than men”.

“This crucial gender divide will not only continue to shape our politics but could also alter our social fabric,” said Scarlett Maguire in The New Statesman. “Women increasingly feel they have less in common” not just “with older generations” but with “men their own age”.

A model walks a Paris runway dotted with giant mushrooms and pink trees. Anna Wintour, Nicole Kidman and Dua Lipa were in the audience in the Grand Palais to see Matthieu Blazy’s haute couture debut collection for Chanel. 

Alexis Jumeau / Abaca Press/ Alamy Live News

Holidaying with kids is fun but few parents would call it restful. These family-friendly hotels specialise in small-people entertainment that gives the grown-ups a chance to unwind…

Porto Sani, Halkidiki, Greece
On arrival at Porto Santi, I noticed “strangely mellow parents in pleasant trances”, said Florrie Thomas in Condé Nast Traveller. I soon realised why. The newly renovated property is equipped with “a splash pool, kids’ club and friendly staff who’ll play peekaboo with the baby”. There’s also an Annabel Karmel-inspired healthy kids’ menu and a “Babewatch” service that treats parents to 30 minutes of free childcare a day (“cue glorious solo dips”).

Moar Gut, Grossarl, Austria
Nestled in a valley in the Austrian Alps, this “private alpine estate” offers an “entirely screen-free, nature-rich children’s programme”, said Risa Merl in The Independent. The on-site nursery welcomes babies from 30 days old, with “sensory play” and “cosy nap spaces”, and the hotel is even home to a baby spa “where little ones can enjoy baby yoga” and “gentle developmental therapies”. For older kids and teens, there is an array of activities including woodworking sessions and “crafting with natural materials”.

Rosewood Castiglion del Bosco, Tuscany, Italy
This “beautifully maintained 800-year-old estate” in Tuscany is an “enticing space” where “little legs” can “get utterly worn out toddling between the dreamy cypress trees”, the “tumble-down castle” and “the sparkling infinity pool”, said Becky Lucas in Condé Nast Traveller. The revamped kids’ club offers “quite possibly the most varied range of locally inspired activities in the region”, spanning everything from pizza making to birdhouse building.

Is Nigel Farage on a mission to make populism less popular?
Tom Peck in The Times
“There’s never been anything quite like Nigel Farage’s January transfer window,” writes Tom Peck. “No more than 72 hours” passes without another “Tory MP defecting to Reform”. Farage “seems desperate” to diminish his brand by “raiding the least popular government there’s quite possibly ever been, for seemingly all of its least popular members”. He now has “more of the last Conservative cabinet” in his “top team” than Kemi Badenoch has. “You might recall how all that ended.”

How AI is rewriting the Holocaust
Giles Fraser on UnHerd
“Holocaust memory” is “under attack”, with AI being used to “create false narratives”, writes Giles Fraser on Holocaust Memorial Day. “Those with a keen eye and some knowledge” of history “can still tell the difference between fake images and real ones”. But “as AI improves”, the truth “will be harder to recognise and easier to dismiss”, and then a “new world of Holocaust suspicion opens up”. That’s “particularly salient today, amid the continued fallout from the October 7 massacre”.

Your snus gives me the ick
Arielle Domb in The New Statesman
“Something strange” has “started happening” when I go on dates, writes Arielle Domb. The men lift up “their top lip” and squish in “a tiny, tea bag-like” nicotine pouch. They tell me that each one contains more nicotine “than a whole pack of cigarettes”. But, while smoking has “sex appeal”, there’s “nothing remotely chic or suave” about this trend. I’m “impressed that men can handle the nicotine buzz”, but the “spectacle” of wedging in pouches is “no aphrodisiac for me”.