City staff told the EDC the parking policy changes aim to increase customer turnover, expand subsidized options for downtown workers and preserve resident access; outreach will use CRM mailings, social media and a walkabout program ahead of enforcement.

Torrington Properties CEO Jay Besignano told the Portsmouth EDC the Seacoast Landing redevelopment spans 82 acres with demolition under way, anchor retailers (including Costco) under negotiation, a potential 75k–100k sq ft medical flagship, a TIF for road work, an expected first-retailer opening at Thanksgiving next year and an estimated $300M–$400M private investment.

The heavy police presence in Southampton city centre yesterday told of concerns over an anti-asylum seeker demonstration which was set to unite ‘patriot’ groups from Southampton, Portsmouth, the Isle ...

The highly-regarded striker from Rowner scored one goal in three appearances for the Blues

It comes despite Home Office admitting 'significant challenges' in bringing migrant boats to Eastney, in Portsmouth

RNLI volunteers were branded ‘traitors’ after bringing migrants ashore

RNLI facility had been targeted by activists trying to stop asylum seekers landing in boats from the Channel

A group of masked agitators gathered outside a four-star hotel in Portsmouth after reports a group of asylum seekers had been taken there, when it was in fact Pakistan’s under-19 cricket team on a tou...

Laura Dodsworth _Writer, photographer, commentator_ Has Hampshire Police committed a hate crime? On Saturday 12th September, 76-year-old Timothy Miller turned up to the anti-immigration protest in Portsmouth dressed in a burqa. When officers approached him under the new face-covering powers, Miller told them – on camera, to the nation’s great amusement – that he was converting to Islam and identifies as gender-fluid. He was arrested anyway, and will appear in Portsmouth Magistrates’ Court charged with concealing his identity at a protest. The Crime and Policing Act now allows police to slap a 24-hour ban on face coverings at a protest and arrest demonstrators who use face coverings to hide their identities. Home Secretary, Shabana Mahmood, has told the police to “make full use” of their powers to ensure that anyone committing a criminal offence, including wearing face coverings to intimidate people at protests, was dealt with “robustly”. It’s extraordinary, really, how quickly the state can discover an appetite for identifying people in balaclavas. For years, pro-Palestinian marches have filled the streets of London with intimidating masked faces, chanting slogans that have made British Jews feel unsafe in their own capital city, and nobody was arrested for concealing their identity. For years, thuggish transgender activists have made a habit of aggressively confronting women at their own rights meetings, hoods up and faces obscured, and nobody was arrested for that either. Yes, it’s funny how the urge to see everyone’s face clearly only arrived once it was ordinary people objecting to small boats. In Mx Miller’s case, a pensioner as well as ordinary, to boot. And what is being protested? Over 80,000 illegal arrivals by small boat crossings since the election, 20,000 of those in 2026 alone. And why? France is a safe country and nobody leaving a French beach for the UK is fleeing persecution. The UK’s demographics are changing on a massive scale that no one voted for and the government is seemingly unwilling or unable to stop the boats. I think it would be fair to say this is another instance of two-tier protesting. But Mx Miller has kindly handed us something rather juicier – two-tier policing of identity itself. Because if Timothy Miller had actually looked like a woman, would Hampshire Police have arrested him at all? He told them he identifies as a Muslim woman. Under the rules the government and the police have spent years insisting the rest of us absorb without question that ought to have been the end of the conversation. Self-identification is self-identification – trans woman are women! Instead, the police looked at the self-identified woman in a burqa and decided that his stated identity didn’t count. It seems the police can decide who is and isn’t really a woman, after all. On the matter of identifying as Muslim, or converting to Islam, we must remember that faith is a private matter. Nobody is required to pass a doctrinal exam or submit to a purity test before putting on a headscarf. Plenty of people wear crosses without believing that Jesus is the Son of God. As I understand it, in Islam your conversion can be a totally private matter between you and God. You do not need a formal ceremony, there is no equivalent of a baptism certificate, you can simply recite a declaration of faith called the ‘Shahada’ on your own. Although Miller’s proclaimed identity as a Muslim woman does _not_ require him to be Muslim, to be converting to Islam nor even to believe in Allah. After all, millions of Muslim women are forced to wear the burqa or cover their hair regardless of faith. Who’s to say Miller does not identify as an oppressed Muslim woman of little faith? Either you can identify as another gender, or you cannot. It’s difficult to see self-identifying can be policed effectively. Likewise, you cannot police an internally held sense of faith. Gender fluid police officers can have male and female warrant cards, depending on how they feel on a given day. So why should this Muslim lady not have the right to dress in her burqa one day, and don more masculine clothes the next if he/she/they wishes? So, has Hampshire Police committed a hate crime by refusing to recognise Mx Miller’s identity? That’s how it’s supposed to work, isn’t it? _The media widely reported yesterday that Timothy Miller was due to appear at Portsmouth Magistrates’ Court on 14th September 2026, but there has been no reporting yet._ This article was originally published by The Free Mind.