An award-winning investigative journalist, Emma is based in London working for HuffPost UK and is responsible for seeking out stories and exclusives that move beyond the day-to-day breaking news agenda. She focuses on how political decision-making is impacting on people s lives outside of the Westminster bubble and has a particular interest in social inequality, welfare, homelessness, housing, offshore property, the contaminated blood scandal, and using data journalism and freedom of information laws to uncover hidden stories. Emma has more than a decade’s experience as a journalist and worked for regional newspapers for many years. She has won awards including the Private Eye Paul Foot Award and an Amnesty Media Award for her investigative reporting exposing conditions inside homeless hostels for the Hackney Gazette. She is a former Weekly Reporter of the Year at the Regional Press Awards
in some cases robberies are staged leaving the young dealers in debt to their groomers.
This is part of a series by HuffPost UK about county lines drug dealing in Britain.
For decades, children and young people have been used and exploited through a drug distribution model known as “county lines” – and it has evolved under lockdown.
County lines are drug networks engineered by gangs and organised criminal networks that export illegal substances – typically heroin and crack cocaine – between the growing market in suburban areas and larger cities.
The “lines” are both the dedicated mobile phone lines and the physical geographical and transport routes that connect dealers and users.
Staff working on a Covid intensive care hospital ward
They are called the “daily death figures” – and they provide one of the starkest illustrations of the devastating loss of life caused by Covid-19.
For journalists, politicians and the wider public, the rising death toll has formed a vital part of our understanding of the severity of the pandemic over time.
It has also informed vital policy decisions, such as when lockdowns should be lifted.
But something unusual is happening to a small number of deaths in the data. These rare cases aren’t being reported to the public until much, much later than they occur – in some cases, up to nine months on.
Can Keir Starmer Persuade The Public There’s A ‘Right Time’ To Increase Taxes?
Labour leader under pressure, but can his partnership with business avoid the tax/spend conundrum?
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Labour leader Keir Starmer and shadow chancellor Anneliese Dodds during a visit to the Portsmouth Gin Distillery in Southsea, Portsmouth.
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It’s February 2021 and Jeremy Corbyn is prime minister, leading the UK’s fight against the Covid pandemic. John McDonnell is chancellor, sitting in his Treasury office and putting the final touches to his spring Budget, aka The People’s Budget.
Updated 26/02/2021 21:01 GMT
Green Party Defends Decision To Appoint White Person To Top Role On BAME Group The work to achieve racial justice is not just for people of colour to burden alone, Greens of Colour chair told HuffPost UK.
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Sian Berry and Jonathan Bartley after they were named as the joint leaders of the Green Party in September
The Green Party has defended a decision to appoint a white person to head its group to advance the rights of Black, Asian and minority ethnic members.
The party faced a backlash earlier this week when AC Baker was announced as co-secretary of Greens of Colour.