The town, with its white cliffs, port and sprawling castle stood at the very edge of the nation’s frontier with the Continent.

But now part of that proud history is up for sale and the leading bidder is revealed as the former age-old enemy – France.

The Port of Dover is being recommended by Government advisers for sale to the French authorities.

It is one of a string of public assets which have been earmarked for privatisation as the Government battles with a record £830billion national debt.

The proposal for the port has prompted outrage.

Prospective Tory MP for Dover Charles Elphicke said:

‘How dare he consider selling it all off to the French? Dover is the English border. The people of Dover have a clear message for him – hands off our port, hands off the English border.’

A sale of the Port of Dover, Europe’s busiest ferry port, could net up to £350million for the Treasury. Its harbour board applied to the Transport Secretary for voluntary privatisation last month.

The sale is expected to be rubber-stamped and the leading bidder has emerged as Nord-pas-de-Calais regional council, which also owns Calais.

The French port is just 21 miles away across the Channel and the sale would mark a dramatic reversal in the fortunes of the two towns. Calais was captured by the English under Edward III in 1347, and the occupation lasted for more than two centuries.

The Port of Dover is the largest British port still in the public sector and made a profit of £15.1million in 2008.

It is a ‘trust port’, meaning all revenues are reinvested into it, and it is now seeking £400million to expand. Bosses anticipate a doubling in freight traffic by 2040.

Chief executive Bob Goldfield said: ‘The time is right for the voluntary privatisation of Dover. We want to invest around £400million on a second terminal and need to invest in the existing terminal, but are unable to because of public sector borrowing constraints. We want to throw off the shackles.’

Other major ports were sold off under the 1991 Ports Act, but Dover was retained because of uncertainty over how construction of the Channel Tunnel might affect it.

Gwyn Prosser, the town’s Labour MP, warned that jobs could be lost. The port’s workforce has shrunk by 60 per cent over the past eight years.

Mr Prosser said: ‘This is a strategic asset and we must be careful about the import of foreign capital.’

The driver parked without warning then rolled out a fluorescent jacket as an improvised prayer mat.

He took off his shoes, knelt down facing Mecca, and began to chant.

'need coalitions' for future conflicts

Outlining a Green Paper on military reform, he said "further integration" with key allies may be needed.

It reveals no spending figures but prepares for a post-election spending review amid "real pressure" on budgets.

The Tories say ministers have put security at risk because spending must be cut to reduce the nation's debt.

"The future defence budget will have to be conducted against the backdrop of government debt of £799bn," shadow defence secretary Liam Fox said.

None of the three main parties has said they will protect the defence budget from anticipated spending cuts and all back a root and branch review of defence policy after the election - widely expected to be held in May.

Mr Ainsworth said the conflict in Afghanistan, which has claimed the lives of 253 UK forces personnel, remained the immediate priority.

Funding from the Treasury reserve would increase from £3.5bn to £5bn next year, he said.

However, the defence secretary told the Commons: "We certainly cannot assume that the conflicts of tomorrow, however, will replicate those of today."

The country must anticipate various threats including cyber attacks, the danger posed by failing states and conflict over dwindling stocks of natural resources, he said.

But he added: "No nation can hope to protect all aspects of national security acting alone.

"Our armed forces must be prepared if called upon to protect our interests, often in distant places, and most likely as part of a coalition of international forces."

Mr Ainsworth said the UK's most important alliance remained with the US but that it must also press EU and Nato allies to contribute more to collective defence efforts.

Among the issues the paper would examine was whether the UK should "further integrate" its forces with those of key allies, he said.

Mr Ainsworth said the "likelihood" was that the Royal Navy would still get its two planned new aircraft carriers but refused to be drawn on American-built Joint Strike Fighters intended to fly from them.

The paper also raises the prospect of an end to three separate forces, with the Army and Air Force the most likely candidates for merger, according to BBC defence correspondent Caroline Wyatt.

Mr Ainsworth told the BBC he did not envisage "major structural change" but added: "Not allowing single service interests to stand in the way of efficient delivery of security to the nation is something we have to look at."

The head of the Armed Forces, Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup, insisted the retention of three services was "plausible".

He said he recognised the nation was "in very difficult economic and financial circumstances".

"Equally, though, the first duty of any government is to provide for the security of its citizens," he said.

"Come what may... the nation has to make an adequate investment in this. What adequate means is something that we do have to consider."

Gen Sir Mike Jackson, former head of the British army, told the BBC that Britain must decide its future role on the global stage before spending decisions were taken.

"I very much hope we will not rush to quick decision about this or that ship, this or that capability on land or air, but actually go through a rigorous intellectual process from which we can make decisions. Only then can we say 'can we afford [them]?'," he said.

Professor Michael Clarke, director of the Royal United Services Institute think tank, saw an advanced copy of the Green Paper.

He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "The analysis behind this is not explicitly talking about the money because that is something a future government will have to determine, but the implicit idea is that we have got to do more with less."

The last strategic defence review was completed in 1998, a year after Labour came to power.

Defence spending is due to increase this year and next, but military experts say the Ministry of Defence's budget could fall by between 10% and 15% in real terms over the next six years if its current and capital expenditure is reduced in line with forecasts for the rest of government.

Mr Fox questioned how much Britain could afford to rely on European allies such as France.

"For us there are two tests: Do they invest in defence? And do they fight? Sadly, too few European allies pass both these tests," he said.

The Lib Dems say the defence review must include the future of Trident, whose renewal was backed by MPs in 2007.

The party says the UK can no longer afford the estimated £20bn replacement cost and believes more cost-effective alternatives must be considered.

Defence spokesman Nick Harvey said: "Surely the manner, the scale and the timing of any replacement of the Trident deterrent has profound opportunity cost implications for the entirety of the rest of the defence budget," he said.

Analysis of Government sentencing statistics reveals that one in three adult criminals convicted last year had 15 or more previous convictions or cautions.

As recently as 2000, the figure was less than 20 per cent. It has been rising steadily and now stands at a record 32.1 per cent.

Whitehall statisticians highlighted the increase in their annual Criminal Statistics report.

It suggests that criminals  -  aware that they are likely to receive non-custodial sentences  -  are no longer deterred from a life of crime.

Incredibly, 42 per cent of criminals found guilty but given an absolute discharge by courts last year had 15 or more previous convictions.

So had 29 per cent of those given a conditional discharge, 26 per cent of those fined, 27 per cent of those who received a community punishment and 26 per cent of those whose sentences were suspended.

Tory justice spokesman Dominic Grieve said: 'It is a damning indictment that a quarter of all criminals sentenced have been found guilty at least 15 times before.

'With drug convictions up by a fifth, it demonstrates this government's failure to tackle crime and the problems fuelling it  -  including drug and alcohol abuse and family breakdown.'

Liberal Democrat spokesman Chris Huhne said: 'The growing proportion of serial offenders is a clear indication of Labour's abject failure to get a grip on persistent criminals.

'A prison estate with revolving doors is doing nothing to cut re-offending rates.'

Many criminals escape with a string of cautions  -  which are supposed to be given only once. Some 550,000 offenders have received repeat cautions, including 51,874 with four or more. Almost 240 people had received ten or more cautions last year.

Justice Minister Claire Ward said: 'The overall picture is of disposals being better targeted according to the seriousness of the offence, in line with the Government's view that serious and dangerous offenders should be sentenced to custody while lesser offenders can successfully be punished in the community.

'While the conviction rate has risen, those that are convicted for more serious offences are being sentenced more severely. 2008 saw the highest number of people sentenced to custody since 1979.'

Ex-councillor Graham Powell was quizzed and kept in a police station for six hours after the boy, 15, alleged he had been hit.

But Mr Powell claims the youth punched him and that two metal plant pots were hurled at him.

The flare-up outside Mr Powell’s home came after three months of harassment that has left him and his wife Sybil, 74, feeling under siege.

The former leader of Gwent County Council, accused police of not doing anything about the youths, whom he said behaved as if they were beyond the law.

“My wife and myself are under siege from up to 10 local youths aged between 11 and 15 and the police are doing nothing about it. I have identified the youths, but despite my complaints the police do not seem to be taking it seriously.”

He called his tormentors “feral” youths – wild and out of control – who believed they were beyond the law. “It’s outrageous that instead of them being arrested I am facing standing in the dock.”

Mr Powell has written a letter of complaint to Gwent Chief Constable Mick Giannasi urging him to take action to protect law-abiding citizens.

In his plea, he asks Mr Giannassi if chief constables have learned anything from the case of Fiona Pilkington, who killed herself and her disabled daughter in Leicestershire in 2007 because of despair at official inaction against a group of youths who harassed her.

Mr and Mrs Powell say they have been virtual prisoners in their flat at Caldicot, near Newport, South Wales, for the past four months.

There have been a series of incidents which Mr Powell has listed in his letter to the Chief Constable. He says his car rear lights have been smashed, tyres let down, car belt seats cut and the bonnet plastered with flour and tomato sauce.

The couple claim Mrs Powell, a former mayor of Caldicot, has been trapped in her garage twice by youths who have jammed the door shut.

Mr Powell, a Labour councillor for 58 years, said yesterday: “I have lived here peacefully for 31 years until recently. We are constantly being verbally abused whenever we step outside and youths peer into our living room and ring our door bell.”

Speaking about the confrontation that led to his arrest, he said: “I remonstrated with the youth after my wife caught him fiddling with one of the letter boxes.

“He told me to mind my own ******* business and punched me on the arm. I poked my walking stick through the rails to stop him and he forced the stick down with his arm. I was amazed when police accused me of assault.”

A Gwent Police spokeswoman said a man arrested on suspicion of assault had been bailed pending enquiries. She also said that any crime report would be “fully investigated”.

Mohammed Sarwar, the UK's first Muslim Member of Parliament and the first MP to swear his oath of allegiance on the Quran said young Muslims who were angry about what was happening in Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine needed to channel their frustration in a positive way.

He said: "Understandably they are angry when they see the unjust that happens in Muslim countries with the international community turning a blind eye.

"They are frustrated but they need to take that energy and do something positive.

"To see change and to make change they need to get actively involved in their local political parties."

He added: "Many young people tell me that they're not happy about our foreign policy but many don't even know that the UK government supports a two-state solution in Palestine.

"And then they ask me how this can be achieved? I tell them to be part of the political process.

"We need people to work together and to get involved so that we can bring about a just and peaceful society."

Mr Sarwar, who was guest at the launch of the Whalley Range Muslim Friends of Labour which was held at the Muslim Heritage Centre also spoke about the challenges facing British Muslims.

He said: "There are many misunderstandings about Muslims in the UK but we need to work towards changing negative perceptions.

"The Muslim Heritage Centre is key in this. By opening its doors to the public soon it will engage the local community from all backgrounds, race and faiths to break barriers and find common understanding between everybody."

Mr Sarwar was also joined by guests MP Dawn Butler, the first ever Black woman to be elected to a British Government and local MP Tony Lloyd.

Trustee of Muslim heritage Centre and Manchester councillor, Afzal Khan gave a an overview of the centre and explained its aims and objectives.

"I want to thank the guests for coming to the launch of Muslim friends of Labour's Whalley Range branch and for visiting the centre.

"It's important as Mr Sarwar said that young people become politically active but we want them to also get involved in all aspects of society so that they are represented in every institution."

Sir Norman Bettison, chief constable of West Yorkshire Police, said the Muslim community could do more to help identify would-be jihadists.

'I think it's a generation of treatment to prevent the infection spreading and I think that will take us probably 20 years,' he said.

Sir Norman, the Association of Chief Police Officers' representative for policy on tackling violent extremism, said he was conscious that there was a fine line between winning the Muslim community's support and alienating it.

But he warned there was also a need for the community to work with the police.

'I'm looking for the community to work much more closely with the police in identifying young people that they have concerns about in terms of the people that they're mixing with, the sort of websites that they're going on to and the material that they're reading,' he said. 'That information can only come from the community itself.'

Sir Norman was speaking during an interview for the BBC2 series, Generation Jihad.

He told the three-part series --the first episode of which will be screened tonight - that the Muslim community could do more to help identify potential terrorists in its midst.

'I think we have to be alert and conscious of the risk that's ever present and prepared to interdict and prepared to share information,' Sir Norman said.

'So the community as a whole could do more and the Muslim community is a part of that.'

Three of the 7/7 London bombers came from West Yorkshire and the area was also home to Hammaad Munshi, Britain's youngest convicted terrorist.

The Generation Jihad series, which is presented by Peter Taylor, looks at why young men have turned their backs on the country they were born in.

Although they represent only a tiny minority of the Muslim community, the group now constitutes the single biggest threat to our national security, Mr Taylor warned.

A Liberal Democrat motion outlining steps to turn immigrant 'strangers' into fully fledged citizens gained the backing of the local authority last week - making Brent the sixth council in the UK to support the cause.

Councillors backed the principles of the Strangers into Citizens campaign, calling for a one-off naturalisation of long-term 'irregular migrants' in the UK.

Launched in autumn 2006 with the backing of church leaders, trade unions and migrant support groups, campaigners hope to get major political backing.

It argues for naturalisation by means of a two-year work permit available to those who can show they have been in the UK for four years or more.

They would gain indefinite leave to remain at the end of the two years, subject to an English language test, a clean criminal record and references from an employer and community sponsor.

James Allie (Liberal Democrat), responsible for housing in Brent, said: "The reality is most of these people will never be expelled from the UK. We therefore face a choice of ignoring them and leaving them to be exploited and neglected or giving them a chance to earn a right to stay and make a full contribution as citizens."

Between 500,000 and 950,000 visa over-stayers and failed asylum seekers have made new lives in the UK; it would take about 34 years and £8billion to forcibly remove them all, say the Lib-Dems.

More than 69 per cent of Brent residents were born outside the UK and about 20,000 illegal immigrants in the borough are unaccounted for.

Because the allocation of budgets depends on these statistics, councils such as Brent lose out in the distribution of resources such as education and housing.

A spokesman for London Citizens, which is running the campaign, said: "The existence of a large shadow population living outside the law makes it especially hard for councils like Brent, which have many more people living in the area than official statistics identify.

"We are delighted that Brent has added its name to the growing list of councils across London which support the Strangers into Citizens call."

But Councillor Ann John, leader of the Labour group, is not convinced the campaign will work: "I am not sure they have the answer. If it was that easy I think it would have been done by now. There also need to be safeguards."

(Just before an Election)

Alan Johnson, the Home Secretary, is to be congratulated for taking steps to reduce the number of foreign students given visas to come and stay in the UK. Mr Johnson says that his proposals will have a significant impact on the numbers arriving on student visas from outside the EU. If experience is anything to go by, however, they probably will not:

Perhaps only a determination to cap the number allowed in each year, which is the Conservatives' policy, would have a significant effect.

Still, Mr Johnson's proposals are better than nothing, for at least they are a sign that the Government recognises that there is a serious problem. For its first decade in power, Labour's default position on the matter was to deny that immigration had any downside at all. However, many of the party's traditional supporters certainly noticed that large-scale immigration diminished the rates of pay offered for unskilled work; many were also angered by the Government's insistence that their unhappiness with that idea was motivated by prejudice.

That anger, which has started to have consequences at the ballot box, has changed the Government's complacent attitude – hence the Home Office's decision last year to introduce a points system for student visas.

But the "toughened" system proved to be not so tough after all.

The Government now accepts that not only have many bogus students been let in, but also individuals suspected of involvement in terrorism – a shocking lapse in security, given the blood and treasure expended in fighting extremism overseas. We hope Mr Johnson's new rules, introduced only months after the last, will be more effective. But the prospects are not good.

Damning Whitehall figures revealed last night prove a shattering new blow to Labour’s open-door border policies.

Official statistics show that a total of 1,370,820 foreigners have been granted National Insurance numbers over the last two years. And the influx has continued despite hundreds of thousands of British-born workers losing their jobs in the recession and unemployment rising to 2.46 million.

Latest evidence of the collapse of Britain’s border controls will be a huge embarrassment to the Prime Minister following his now discredited vow to put British-born workers first.

It is bound to intensify fury over continuing levels of mass immigration, which is tipped to send Britain’s population surging to more than 70 million within 20 years.

Last night, critics seized on the Department for Work and Pensions figures as confirmation of the “Britons first” sham. Shadow Communities Minister Sayeeda Warsi said: “This is yet another example of the chaos within the immigration system. These figures show that all the tough talk about protecting British jobs was just hot air. Clearly, judging from the Government’s own figures, Gordon Brown is delivering anything but.”

She added: “We can’t go on like this. We must bring immigration under control and improve the education and training of British workers.” National Insurance numbers are required by anyone wanting to work legally in Britain. They are also necessary for claiming welfare benefits and tax credits.

Nearly half of the overseas workers getting National Insurance numbers come from east European countries such as Poland and Lithuania.

But the figures also show that more than 400,000 migrants from Asia, Africa and the Middle East came to Britain between July 2007 and June last year.

Overall, a total of 4.1 million National Insurance numbers have been handed out to foreign workers since 2002, the figures reveal. Total net immigration to the UK increased from 51,000 a year between 1993 and 1997 to an average of 209,000 a year from 2004 to 2008.

Separate figures show that one in 13 workers in jobs in Britain are non-UK citizens, a total of around 2.2 million. And evidence suggests that growing numbers are settling in Britain for the long term and not returning home. Employment-related grants of settlement rose by 63 per cent to 60,770 in 2008 compared with 2007.

And the influx has continued apace despite Mr Brown vowing to finally get control of Britain’s borders after a decade of Labour failure. In his first party conference speech as Prime Minister in 2007, he vowed:

Last night Immigration Minister Phil Woolas said: “We recognise the benefit to our economy and culture from immigration. We’re also very clear that it needs to be controlled.”

A Daily Express investigation recently uncovered dozens of web sites run by firms, based in eastern Europe, giving advice on the range of benefits on offer in Britain.

The firms, which have branches in Britain, even advertise that they can help negotiate bureaucratic red tape.

Mohammed Aslam Farook, from Bangladesh, says he saw at first-hand how a private language college was little more than a fast-track route for immigrants wanting to get to Britain.

His compelling warning came as the Government announced new measures designed to tighten loopholes in the student visa system.

Home Secretary Alan Johnson claimed that the numbers of students coming to the UK would be slashed by more rigorous application rules.

But a letter from Mr Farook to Tory Shadow Home Secretary Chris Grayling suggested the entire British student visa system “favours the fraudsters rather than decent people”.

He wrote:

Mr Farook spent £8,000 to come to study English at a language college in east London in the hope of furthering his teaching career in Bangladesh.

He discovered the college was little more than “an easy entry to the UK for people seeking to work”. Little teaching was offered and staff appeared to openly accept the “students” were simply using the institution to get a visa.

“The college quietly told me not to make too much fuss about the study,” he said. Staff assumed he was “like everyone else who comes to study in the UK through all these private colleges... here to work and make money for as long as possible.”

Mr Farook, who has since returned to Bangladesh, said: “I have come to the conclusion that to stay in the UK as a student, I would have to live a deceitful and illegal existence.”

He had sent emails about the loopholes to the Home Office and the UK Border Agency, but received no reply.

“I am embarrassed and ashamed that I am writing to complain about your wonderful country so soon after being a guest,” he added.

The Home Secretary yesterday insisted his new rules – coming into force within weeks – would close loopholes.

Students will be expected to have a better grasp of the English language than in the past, and those on courses lasting less than six months will be banned from bringing dependants.

Mr Johnson said: “We remain open to those foreign students who want to come to the UK for legitimate study – they remain welcome.

“But those who are not seriously interested in coming here to study but come primarily to work – they should be in no doubt that we will come down hard on those that flout the rules. I make no apologies for strengthening an already robust system.”

The Tories claimed his overhaul was inadequate.

Mr Grayling said: “The student visa system has been the biggest hole in our border controls for a decade under this Government, and Ministers still seem to be floundering around trying desperately to correct their own mistakes.

“They should be ending the situation where a student visa is a way of coming to the UK to stay, by banning the practice of moving from course to course in order to stay on in the UK and stopping overseas students from applying for work permits without going home first.

“And overseas students should pay a cash deposit which they lose if they don’t leave the country when their courses are over.”

He said he had seen shops advertising assistance with visa applications to the UK during a recent visit to Pakistan.

Under the new Home Office rules, students from outside the European Union will have to speak English to a level just below GCSE standard.

In a bid to protect jobs for British youngsters, students taking “below degree level” courses will only be permitted to work for 10 hours a week, instead of the current 20.

Those on courses lasting less than six months will not be allowed to bring dependants at all, while the dependants of students on below degree-level courses will not be allowed to work.

Student visas for below degree-level courses will also only be granted for institutions that are on a new register, the Highly Trusted Sponsors List.

Around 30 per cent of immigrants arrive using student visas.

Ministers claim banning all overseas students could cost the economy up to £8billion, including lost fees to universities and colleges.

Freedom of Information requests to councils across the West Midlands revealed in 2002 there were 42 children needing care. In 2008 there were 306.

Birmingham City Council said child asylum seekers put strains on its budget, and the government had not provided enough funds.

The government said it had met most funding claims made by the council.

Anne Botting, from specialist foster agency Pathway Care, told the BBC's Inside Out programme there had been an increase in teenage boys arriving from Afghanistan due to the conflict taking place there.

"And it fits in with wherever the conflict is in the world… you see an upsurge in the referrals from that country," she said.

The difficulties in finding care for the children is further compounded by the traumatised state in which they often arrive in the country, she added.

The 2008 figures show Birmingham has 85 child asylum seekers in local authority care. Twenty-two of these are in foster care.

Birmingham city councillor Les Lawrence, cabinet member for children, young people and families, said Birmingham was owed up to £1m in specialists grants by the UK Border Agency.

"We certainly are owed approaching between half and one million pounds and that means we are having to bear within our budgets at the current time," he said.

"And with all the other additional pressures that means we have to find that money through efficiency savings elsewhere."

Nationally, he said he believed local authorities were owed between £15 and £20m in unpaid grants from central government.

Gail Adams, UK Border Agency regional director, said she disputed that claim.

"With the exception of a small number of claims, all claims by Birmingham City Council for looking after unaccompanied asylum seeking children have been met in full by the UK Border Agency," she said.

"We recognise that the subject of unaccompanied asylum seeking children is a very complex and emotive issue, and the welfare of minors is of paramount importance to the UK Border Agency."

It Is outrageous that police were unable to discern whose side to be on after altercations between an elderly couple and a gang of youths congregating outside their home.

What a disgrace that, at the age of 84, Graham Powell was left to defend himself and his wife from a gang of feral yobs in the first place. That he should have been detained at a police station after an incident with one of them and bailed with a view to being charged for allegedly striking out with his walking stick beggars belief.

In a saner age any youth who had persecuted elderly residents would have been given a thick ear by his father.

Now many teen yobs have no contact with their deadbeat dads and the police are crippled by moral cowardice.

If Mr Powell is charged he should console himself with this thought: there is surely not a jury in the country that will find him guilty.

Mr Hussain, 53, was jailed last month for attacking a knife-wielding burglar who held his family hostage in their own home and threatened to slit their throats. His case provoked nationwide fury when he and his brother were jailed for injuring career criminal Walid Salem, while the convicted burglar was allowed to walk free.

The prayer session held up the bus for more than five minutes with no-one able to get on or off.

Passenger Gayle Griffiths complained to Transport for London about the bizarre incident on the No.24 bus in Gospel Oak, north London, this week.

Mother-of-one Miss Griffiths, 33, of Camden, north-west London, had boarded the bus a few minutes earlier on her way home from work.

She says that she even feared at the time that the driver might be a fanatic planning to blow up the bus.

She said: 'I have done the journey a million times before but I was in a hurry to get home to pick my little girl up from school.

'We had just picked up and let off people at a bus stop and moved off again when the driver stopped the bus very suddenly.

'He got out of his cab, leaving the engine running, and walked towards the middle exit door.

'He laid out a fluorescent jacket on the floor and I thought that somebody must have been sick and he was covering it up.

'I didn't really think much of it.

'But then he took off his shoes and began praying. I was gobsmacked and quite bewildered.'

Miss Griffiths said the bus driver didn't give the passengers any explanation as to what he was doing.

'He hadn't addressed the passengers at all,' she said. 'I didn't say anything and nor did anyone else. I thought it would all be over in 30 seconds but it went on for over five minutes.

'As the engine was running anyone could also have got in the cab and driven off with a bus full of passengers.

'He was also blocking the exit, so if something had happened we would not have been able to get off.

'Everyone was looking round in a mix of shock and amazement. It was truly bizarre, ludicrous and aggravating.

'We are delayed often enough as it is in London.

'We live in a multi-cultural society but there is a time and a place for prayer and the middle of a journey with a busload of passengers is not it.'

Transport for London said it had apologised to all the passengers for the delay to their journey and said all Muslim drivers are being reminded that they should pray during statutory rest periods rather than hold up services.

A TfL spokesman said: 'A route 24 bus was delayed following a decision by the driver to stop the bus to pray.

'The bus company, London General, has had a word with the driver as this is not something that should be happening.

'TfL apologises to passengers for any inconvenience this may have caused them. 

'We understand that there is some flexibility in the Muslim faith as to the times of day that drivers can pray.

'TfL and the individual bus operating companies acknowledge and value the diversity of their staff. 

'As diverse employers, TfL and the bus operators provide suitable prayer or quiet rooms at garages and other key locations for staff who wish to practise their faith.

'We have asked London General to remind drivers who have a requirement to pray to use these facilities during their rest periods.'

The Government is preparing to demolish 1,000 years of legal practice by proposing that inmates serving up to four years in jail will be allowed to help elect MPs and councillors.

Labour is implementing a verdict by the European Court of Human Rights, which ruled five years ago that it was unfair to stop convicts casting their vote.

The case was brought by axe killer John Hirst, who became the self-styled ' jailhouse lawyer'.

The Strasbourg court said a blanket ban was illegal  -  but did not specify all prisoners must be entitled to vote. Discretion on how it should be implemented was left to ministers.

Tory justice spokesman Dominic Grieve said: 'Many people will question whether this is a sensible development.

'The principle that those who are in custody after conviction should not have the opportunity to vote is a perfectly rational one.

'Civic rights go with civic responsibility, but these rights have been flagrantly violated by those who have committed imprisonable offences.

'The Government must allow a parliamentary debate which gives MPs the opportunity to insist on retaining our existing practice that convicted prisoners can't vote.'

Mark Wallace, of the TaxPayers' Alliance, said: 'It would be disgusting to let tens of thousands of criminals have an equal vote as the lawabiding majority.

'These convicts never gave a second thought to the rights of others when they committed their crimes so their right to vote should be forfeited.

'The Government should get a backbone and start standing up for British people by simply refusing to do what the European Court of Human Rights says.'

Setting out the proposals, Justice Minister Michael Wills said giving some prisoners the vote was 'unavoidable' because of the European ruling.

He suggested four options, including automatic enfranchisement for prisoners serving less than a year, less than two years or less than four years. Continued