Good evening and welcome to the Independent Republic of Mike Graham. You're with talk. We're on TV, we're on radio, we're online, and we're on your smart speaker as well.

Coming up, the UK has seen the worst levels of anti-Semitism for 40 years following the Hamas terror attacks in what's been called an explosion in hatred.

Shoplifters could be given a get-out-of-jail free card under plans to reduce overcrowding in UK prisons.

And a major UK holiday destination is set to tax tourists as fed up local slam visitors for trashing their beauty spot.

Let's start with this troubling report published by a UK Jewish charity detailing an unprecedented spike in anti-Semitic hate crime across the UK in 2023.

Tensions in the Middle East are said to be fueling the increase

with 66% of these attacks occurring on or after the 7th of October. And in what's been

described as an explosion in hate, violent assaults on members of the community are up by 96%

from the previous year, while pro-Palestine protests rage on across the country.

Now, when exactly did Britain become such a hateful nation?

I'd like to put this question forward to the CEO of the anti-Semitism policy trust

who actually did this report.

Danny Stone joins me now down the line.

Danny, were these finding surprising to you?

Well, good evening and thank you for having me on. I just need to say this was the report by the

Community Security Trust. We work very closely with them. Sadly, not is the answer. This is not

surprising. Over 4,000 incidents against the community that's only 270,000 in the UK,

and each incident has a serious impact on the individual and then on their family and their friends and so on and so forth.

We've known there's been a palpable feeling in the Jewish

community since the 7th of October that things have been worsening and we've seen it across

different sectors, the NHS, in theatre and on campus. So no, it's not a surprise. It's extremely

depressing and there's urgent work needs to be done to tackle it.

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