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Category: UK

  • XR wants public transport that works for the people – not against the planet

    On Saturday 5 November at 2pm, young Extinction Rebellion activists in Bristol blocked an Airport Flyer bus at Temple Meads on its way to the City Centre.

    “Fair Travel Not Air Travel”

    According to a press release, activists from Extinction Rebellion Youth Bristol (XRYB) blocked the bus’s path by standing around it with banners, including one which read “Fair Travel Not Air Travel”. As the bus was returning from the airport to the City Centre,  no passengers were at risk of missing flights.

    On 8 and 9 November, the High Court hears arguments on the expansion of Bristol Airport. XRYB points out that the expansion will significantly increase the quantity of carbon dioxide and equivalent greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere each year. XR Youth previously held a ‘die-in’ protest inside the airport terminal in March.

    The most recent protest forms part of XRYB’s Free Buses, Fair Buses campaign that was launched in June. XRYB made the following demands to the West of England Combined Authority and its constituent local authorities:

    1. Free buses: free bus travel within the West of England (including North Somerset) for all those under the age of 25, all students, and all apprentices.
    2. Fair buses: a consultation and public forum to identify improvements to bus routes that would best serve communities.

    Journalist and activist George Monbiot has spoken out against the Bristol Airport expansion:

    Public transport revolution

    XR Youth spokesperson Torin Menzies said:

    We need to revolutionise our public transport, including vastly improving the state of the West of England’s frankly awful bus network. Sadly, FirstBus are more interested in serving the potentially expanding Bristol Airport instead of our local communities, cutting bus routes across the region whilst increasing the Airport Flyer service.

    Bristol Airport expansion will increase flights and emissions at a time of climate emergency, as well as worsening air quality, and FirstBus are actively supporting these plans. What we need is fair travel, not air travel.

    Featured image via Twitter

    By John Shafthauer

  • BBC reporter faces backlash after refugee crisis ‘frontline’ comments

    The BBC is facing an anti-racism backlash after one of its regional political reporters described the Tory government’s appalling response to the refugee crisis as the UK “defending itself”.

    Michael Keohan is BBC Kent‘s political reporter. And one section of a piece-to-camera in Dover seems to be generating serious problems for the BBC:

    BBC racism?

    Many Twitter users were shocked at what they felt was offensive language in the report. The BBC was accused of reporting that was “partial” and plainly “wrong”:

    The reportage was quickly branded “vile”:

    Someone quipped that Keohan was the least racist person in Kent, on account of the county’s reputation as a Tory heartland:

    There was also a suggestion that the “inflammatory language” helped shore up an “ailing” Suella Braverman:

    BBC decline

    Others said the BBC has clearly lost its way as a public service broadcaster. Tories have long complained that the BBC is too left-wing. So, one person said that this kind of reporting was a result of the BBC‘s efforts to avoid criticism:

    The BBC‘s right-swing was serious enough to get global attention, one person lamented:

    And the Beeb was accused of Daily Mail-level journalism which clearly veered into openly right-wing, partisan rhetoric:

    Crisis of our own making

    A BBC reporter using this language is disturbing. Context is everything around topics as fraught as migration, as we saw recently with a terror attack on a refugee detention centre in Dover.

    Anti-migrant feeling of this kind is first and foremost immoral. But it is also dangerous, potentially even lethal. And the state broadcaster, hardly a bastion of virtue at the best of times, covers itself in more shame by allowing this kind of coverage to go to air.

    More than that though, we need a media which explains that refugees and migrants are not invaders. They are in many cases, victims of the UK’s own policies – seeking safe haven from the world our own governments have made.

    Featured image via Twitter, cropped to 770 x 403

    By Joe Glenton

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • A loss for misogynists everywhere as Sanna Marin cleared of wrongdoing

    An independent body has cleared Finnish prime minister Sanna Marin of misconduct. This follows an official inquiry after a leaked video showed her partying in August. Of course, the real story here is one of misogyny and sexism.

    Marin: cleared of any wrongdoing

    AFP reported that dozens of complaints were filed to Finland’s chancellor of justice. This was after Marin was shown dancing and partying with friends and celebrities, spawning global headlines. The complaints alleged that Marin was unfit to work “due to alcohol consumption”, that her behaviour was inappropriate for a prime minister, and that she undermined Finland’s “reputation and security”.

    But the chancellor, an independent office responsible for overseeing the legality of government activities, and to which any citizen can lodge complaints, concluded that Marin had not neglected her duties as prime minister.

    Chancellor of Justice Tuomas Poysti said there was:

    no reason to suspect the prime minister of unlawful conduct in the performance of her duties or of neglect of her official duties. 

    He went further, saying the complaints failed to establish that Marin had omitted or jeopardised a “specific official duty”. Poysti noted that assessing the “moral and social” dimension of a prime minister’s leisure activities is “a matter for parliament”. He added that:

    political accountability is also weighed periodically in democratic elections.

    “I am human”

    At the time of the incident, Marin said she spent “an evening with friends”, and that the videos were “filmed in private premises”. On the weekend in question, she had no government meetings. Marin defended her perfectly normal actions, saying:

    I am human. And I too sometimes long for joy, light and fun amidst these dark clouds.

    The fact she had to defend herself for having fun speaks volumes. But the situation went further – with public opinion and faux-outrage forcing Marin to take a drug test. It was negative, despite numerous accusations on social media.

    What’s the difference between Boris Johnson and Sanna Marin?

    This story is rooted in institutionalised misogyny and sexism. As Amanda Cassidy wrote for IMAGE:

    this kind of pearl-sac clutching takes away from the actual politics. In fact, it risks turning real democratic debate into Daily-Mail style take-downs based around clothing and appearance. More than a few articles referenced PM Marin as ‘gyrating’, ‘grinding’ or ‘in high spirits’ all fluff words for what they are really implying.

    She continued by saying that:

    The problem some have (and which they blame on her inability to govern if something happened that night) is that Marin is also a mother (frown), and therefore has no business being out living life so obviously enjoying her ‘wild night’ (shake of the head).

    Overall, Cassidy concluded that:

    What this’ scandal’ has shown is that a lot of people are uncomfortable with women in positions of power. It shows the power of disinformation and right-wing hysteria. It shows the media’s need to blow things out of proportion.

    Meanwhile, in the UK, law-breaking partying politicians like Boris Johnson have their careers resurrected by the same right-wing media that slammed Marin. What could the difference between Johnson and Marin be, I wonder?

    Featured image via Reuters – YouTube

    Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse

    By Steve Topple

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Oladeji Omishore’s family wants to take the police watchdog to court. But they need our help.

    Oladeji Omishore fell to his death after Met police Tasered him on Chelsea Bridge on 4 June. His bereaved family now hopes to take legal action against police watchdog the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC).

    Oladeji’s family has launched a CrowdJustice campaign. They’re trying to raise funds for the court case challenging the IOPC’s decision not to investigate the conduct of the officers involved.

    Death following police contact

    Oladeji died in June having fallen into the River Thames after police Tasered him multiple times. He was near his home and experiencing a mental health crisis at the time.

    The IOPC’s own data shows that police disproportionately use Tasers against Black people, particularly those experiencing mental health issues.

    Oladeji’s recently bereaved family joined the United Family and Friends Campaign (UFFC)’s annual protest on 29 October. Since 1999, the coalition of bereaved families which makes up the UFFC has organised a procession and rally each year. The families aim to remember their loved ones and demand justice for those killed at the hands of UK police in prisons, immigration systems, and psychiatric custody.

    Speaking to protesters on the day, Oladeji’s father told the crowd:

    My son was caring, compassionate, giving and artistically talented, with a deep appreciation for nature. But on that fateful day he was vulnerable, in mental health crisis, clearly distressed and in painful agony. He needed support and medical intervention but was instead met with brutal, brutal excessive force.

    The recently bereaved family of Chris Kaba, whom Met officers shot and killed in September, also attended the UFFC rally. Their presence reflected the ever-increasing number of deaths of Black men at the hands of police.

    Taking the IOPC to court

    Oladeji’s family states that police responded to their loved one, who was evidently in need of support, with “repeated, excessive, unjustified force”. The bereaved family is concerned by the watchdog’s “unlawful and irrational decision” to treat the two officers involved as witnesses and not investigate them for professional or criminal misconduct. Through this case, Oladeji’s family seeks transparency and accountability.

    INQUEST is a charity which supports the bereaved families of people who have been killed due to state violence and neglect. Underscoring the significant impact that a successful legal challenge against the IOPC could have in this and other cases, the charity tweeted:

    End Taser Torture, a grassroots campaign group established and led by the bereaved families of Adrian McDonald, Marc Cole and Darren Cumberbatch, has launched a petition to ban the police’s use of Taser against people experiencing mental health crises. All three men were experiencing mental health crises and died following police use of Tasers. Urging people to donate to the fundraiser, End Taser Torture shared:

    Oladeji’s family seeks to raise £10,000 by midday on Wednesday 16 November. Supporters can donate via the CrowdJustice campaign page. You can also follow the family campaign on Twitter at @justicefordeji.

    Featured image via INQUEST 

    By Sophia Purdy-Moore

  • Campaign groups have come out in support of Shaima Dallali

    Several campaign groups have signed a joint statement in support of sacked National Union of Students (NUS) president Shaima Dallali. This shows the strength of feeling that exists over the NUS’s actions – and that there is cross-organisational support for Dallali.

    The NUS: “deeply politicised” against Dallali

    As the Canary previously reported, the NUS suspended and then sacked Dallali over alleged antisemitism – including a tweet from 2012 for which she had already apologised. People have hurled racist and Islamophobic abuse at her online due to the situation. Dallali said on this:

    Unfortunately, as a black Muslim woman, it is something that I expected because I’ve seen it happen to other black Muslim women when they take up positions in the student union or the NUS, where they are attacked based on their political beliefs or their pro-Palestinian stance.

    Moreover, the NUS went public with Dallali’s sacking before telling her, and did so on the first day of Islamophobia Awareness Month. So, various people and organisations have condemned the NUS’s actions. The Federation of Student Islamic Societies (FOSIS) called the union’s decision “deeply politicised” and said that they had:

    come to the conclusion that NUS is no longer an organisation that take Muslims or Islamophobia seriously and therefore is not a safe space for Muslims.

    Now, a collective of organisations has written an open letter about the situation.

    Contributing to “anti-Palestinian racism”

    The groups which have signed the letter are:

    • The Palestine Solidarity Campaign,
    • The British Palestinian Committee,
    • The Diaspora Alliance,
    • The European Legal Support Center,
    • The Muslim Association of Britain,
    • The Palestinian Forum.

    You can read the full statement here. The groups said in a joint press release that the letter raises:

    concerns about the conflation of legitimate critique of Israel’s oppression of the Palestinian people with antisemitism. It also criticises the NUS for abandoning “its duty of care to its elected President” adding that Dallali has faced “horrifying abuse and death threats.”

    Signatories also raise concern about the disproportionate involvement of the Union of Jewish Students (UJS), who they say were given significant authority in the framing of the investigation and the appointment of the Independent Investigator. They outline how this violates due process due to many of the allegations against Dallali involving criticisms she had made of the UJS. They also point out that this fails to take into account the role the UJS has played in the conflation of antisemitism and legitimate critique of Israel’s oppression of the Palestinian people.

    The statement also expresses concern about the awaited outcome for the broader NUS investigation into the institution itself. And it shares fears that results of the investigation “rather than combatting the very real problem of antisemitism, will instead contribute to anti-Palestinian racism and the silencing of legitimate advocacy for Palestine”.

    The NUS and Dallali: see you in court?

    So far, the NUS has said nothing further to the statement it released on 1 November. However, chair of the Muslim Association of Britain Raghad Altikriti hit the nail on the head regarding the union’s actions:

    We are deeply concerned about the racist, Islamophobic precedent that the NUS has now set. Regrettably, Shaimaa is yet another young Muslim woman of colour subjected to a public onslaught of hate.

    And the situation isn’t over yet. Dallali has already got legal representation. Her solicitors, Carter-Ruck, said in a statement that she is:

    considering all available legal remedies following her summary dismissal

    Let’s hope Dallali takes the NUS to court over her appalling treatment.

    Featured image via City, University of London – YouTube

    By Steve Topple

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Jeremy Corbyn is back to doing what he does so well

    Jeremy Corbyn is always at his best when he’s taking a swipe at the Tories. However, his latest well-publicised dragging of them points to a deeper issue.

    Sunak’s lies about Corbyn

    It’s been all over the media that Corbyn raised an official point of order in parliament over Rishi Sunak. As BBC News reported, addressing Keir Starmer the PM said:

    This is the person who, in 2019, told the BBC – ‘I do think Jeremy Corbyn would make a great prime minister’.

    Let us remember that national security agenda: abolishing our armed forces, scrapping the nuclear deterrent, withdrawing from NATO, voting against every single anti-terror law we tried, and befriending Hamas and Hezbollah. He may want to forget about it, but we will remind him of it every week, because it is the Conservative government who will keep this country safe.

    The problems with Sunak’s statement are obvious. He blatantly lied about Corbyn’s Labour manifesto wanting to withdraw from NATO and scrap Trident – however much of this should happen. So, the former Labour leader hit back in parliament.

    Dragged

    Corbyn used a point of order to drag Sunak. This is when an MP can tell the Speaker they think another MP has broken the rules. The former Labour leader said Sunak had:

    a wholly inaccurate representation of the 2019 election manifesto of which he must’ve been fully aware.

    Corbyn went further, giving this riposte to Sunak’s comments:

    If I am going to live rent free in his head at least he could accurately reflect what I think and what I say rather than inventions made up by him or his office.

    Responding to Corbyn, failed Tory leadership candidate and the now-leader of the house Penny Mordaunt repeated Sunak’s lies about the Labour manifesto and NATO. Corbyn wasn’t having that either. He pointed out that the manifesto was “freely available” and that:

    Had it resulted in a Labour government we would not have such poverty, such food banks, such misery in this country today.

    Corbyn on the back benches: what a waste

    Corbyn’s last point is crucial.

    Labour under Keir Starmer has veered so far from democratic socialism that it’s almost unbelievable. Amid the most vicious class war in decades perpetuated by the Tories, the opposition is merely aping them. If Starmer wins the next general election, Labour may of course offer some respite from the current chaos. But it won’t be enough.

    The UK will experience another Tony Blair-like tenure. Starmer will merely prop up the capitalist system with false left-wing PR – giving his agenda a cuddlier sheen. Then, eventually, the Tories will get back in and we’ll repeat the cycle once more.

    Corbyn’s manifesto could (and it’s a big ‘could’) have started a system reset on how we operate as a country. Admittedly, the establishment and the system would have pushed back hard. However, as the former Labour leader pointed out in parliament, things right now could have been very different. So, here we are – left watching Corbyn drag the Tories while the country is on its knees. What a waste.

    Featured image via the Labour Party – YouTube 

    By Steve Topple

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Recession set to last till mid-2024, warns Bank of England

    On Thursday 3 November, the Bank of England (BoE) announced its sharpest interest rate hike since 1989. This is meant to combat the sky-high inflation that it warned was pushing Britain into a recession – which is set to last until mid-2024.The BoE said it was lifting borrowing costs by 0.75% – up to 3% in total. This is the highest level since the 2008 global financial crisis. BoE governor Andrew Bailey told a press conference:

    The sharp increase in energy prices caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has made us poorer as a nation. The level of economic activity is likely to be flat and even fall for some time.

    Of course, the invasion of Ukraine isn’t the only reason energy prices have gone up. Oil companies like Shell have been making a massive profit from our collective misery. In fact, the energy giant made a tidy £8.2bn last quarter – and still received a tax rebate.

    Prolonged recession

    Minutes from a BoE meeting warned of a “challenging outlook for the UK economy” that was “expected to be in recession for a prolonged period”. This should come as yet another blow to Sunak’s already troubled government.

    The BoE said the economy had shrunk since the third quarter, entering a technical recession that is forecast to last until the first half of 2024. This means that people will lose their jobs and have less money to spend, and businesses will go bust.

    The BoE rate increase is set to worsen a so-called ‘cost-of-living crisis’ for millions of Britons. Hikes by big banks will almost certainly see retail lenders push up interest rates on their own loans.

    Class War

    Repayments on UK mortgages have also surged in recent weeks after then-PM Liz Truss spooked markets. In a hold-my-beer moment, now-PM Rishi Sunak has attempted to calm the markets by hinting at tax rises in a new budget on 17 November – even if such a move further harms Britain’s economy. Sunak stated:

    I think everyone knows we do face a challenging economic outlook and difficult decisions will need to be made.

    The prime minister is believed to be worth an obscene £200m, and his wife literally has more money than the king. Meanwhile, for the rest of us, annual inflation now stands at 10.1%, the highest level in 40 years.

    The Resolution Foundation thinktank calculated that 1.3 million more people will be in absolute poverty come 2023. One thing is for certain – those “difficult decisions” are never truly going to affect the likes of Sunak. This is just another dodgy justification for the Tories’ ongoing class war.

    Additional reporting by AFP News

    By Alex/Rose Cocker

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Migrant solidarity groups are protesting against inhumane conditions in Manston detention centre

    People are sharing harrowing reports of overcrowded, unsafe and inhumane conditions inside Manston detention centre in Kent. Migrant solidarity groups are organising protests in support of detainees which are due to take place on Sunday 6 November.

    Inhumane conditions inside Manston

    On 31 November, MPs questioned home secretary Suella Braverman on whether she ignored legal advice and refused hotel bookings for migrants in Manston. The Home Office built the detention centre on a former military base in Kent. According to Morning Star reporter Bethany Rielly, the Home Office has instituted a military presence on site.

    The Home Office is only supposed to hold people on the site for up to 24 hours. However, a prison watchdog warned that authorities are detaining people on the site for a much longer period, without beds, proper healthcare, or access to fresh air and exercise. The watchdog noted reports of cases of contagious diseases such as scabies, diphtheria and MRSA within the centre.

    Grassroots migrant solidarity group SOAS Detainee Support visited the site on 31 October and reported witnessing “inhumane and overcrowded conditions”. Indeed, the site is dramatically over capacity. According to SOAS Detainee Support, Manston is hosting over 4,000 people, including children. However, it only has capacity for 1,000 people. 

    The group witnessed families sleeping on the floor for weeks on end and children crying for help. And although it’s unlawful for authorities to confiscate asylum-seekers’ phones,  SOAS Detainee Support says that authorities have confiscated the mobile phones of detainees and denied them access to lawyers.

    Sharing images and footage of the site visit, SOAS Detainee Support tweeted:

    Desperately seeking help

    Meanwhile, Stop Deportations shared the following, documenting the wristbands that people detained within Manston are forced to wear:

    SOAS Detainee Support noted that this use of identification tags is “a chilling hallmark of internment camps throughout history”.

    Writer and migrant and refugee rights campaigner Benny Hunter shared a photo of a letter thrown to the media by a child held inside Manston. Calling for urgent help, the letter claims that pregnant and unwell people inside the centre aren’t receiving the healthcare they need:

    Anti-refugee Britain

    On 1 November, home secretary Suella Braverman told parliament that there’s an “invasion on our southern coast“. This was in reference to people making dangerous channel crossings seeking safety in the UK. She made this callous and divisive remark the day after a man fire-bombed a migrant detention centre in Dover, injuring two people. Highlighting that racist and xenophobic violence doesn’t happen in a vacuum, writer Taj Ali shared:

    Meanwhile, also on 1 November, the Home Office abandoned a group of people in central London after evacuating them from the Manston holding site. Authorities left the group of around 50 asylum seekers in a street outside Victoria station. They were stranded overnight without food, accommodation or warm clothing. Responding to the news, Zoe Gardner, who works in policy and research for the European Network on Statelessness, tweeted: 

    These incidents reveal the violent and oppressive nature of the border regime. It seeks to criminalise, scapegoat and dehumanise those seeking safety. Meanwhile, the individuals and institutions that are actually responsible for the crises we face amass wealth and power.

    Resisting the border regime

    People gathered outside the gates of the detention centre in Manston on 2 November, in solidarity with those held inside. BBC reporter Simon Jones shared footage of protesters singing “we are all human, we all deserve respect”:

    According to Jones, while protesters blocked the detention centre’s entrance, others delivered toys for the children locked inside.

    Action Against Detention and Deportations, a coalition of anti-border groups, is leading a protest in solidarity with those inside Manston on Sunday 6 November:

    The group is arranging travel to the detention site from London. Those who can’t make it on the day are invited to contribute towards travel costs.

    Migrant solidarity groups are also seeking mobile phone donations to give to those locked inside Manston. The devices are urgently needed in order to contact lawyers and family members. Sharing information on how to contribute to the phone drive, grassroots group Lesbians and Gays Support the Migrants tweeted:

    Meanwhile, No Borders Manchester is leading a solidarity protest in the Northwest:

    As always, those exercising their right to protest on Sunday should come prepared. Civil liberties organisation Liberty shared:

    People can find more detailed information, as well as location-specific downloadable bustcards, on Green & Black Cross’s website.

    Those who are unable to make it to the protests on Sunday can still get involved by contributing towards travel costs and the phone drive. You can also support the work of grassroots groups resisting borders and migrant oppression. These include Lesbians and Gays Support the Migrants, Stop Deportations, Kent Refugee Action Network and the Anti Raids Network.

    This goes beyond Marston. This is about challenging the entire inhumane border regime which surveils, polices, detains, deports and dehumanises people seeking safety in the UK and globally.

    Featured image via Simon Jones – Twitter

    By Sophia Purdy-Moore

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Don’t do a Rishi Sunak and buy a red poppy. There is an alternative.

    Rishi Sunak has been out supporting the Royal British Legion’s red poppy appeal. No surprises there from the right-wing prime minister. However, if you don’t want to shore up the right-wing militarism that the red poppy represents, then you can buy a white one instead.

    Sunak: red poppy militarism

    As London Live tweeted, the PM was out at Westminster tube station on Thursday 3 November selling red poppies for the Royal British Legion:

    Of course, the prime minister’s job includes unquestioning subservience to the military industrial complex – while systematically neglecting veterans of imperialist wars. This is exactly what the Royal British Legion does too. As the Canary‘s Joe Glenton recently wrote, the Legion:

    is the most monolithic of the military charities. Despite claims to the contrary, the Legion has embodied right-wing, establishment politics from its foundation in the early 1920s.

    One of the main figures associated with it was field marshal Haig, known as the ‘Butcher of the Somme’ because of the massive death toll of his WW1 battles. As I explained in my book, Veteranhood: Hope and Rage in British Ex-Military Life, the Legion was a bulwark against radical working class politics. Haig wanted veterans of WW1 “back under their officers” – not engaged with the left-wing politics of the day.

    One trade union leader of the time called the Legion “Haig’s White Guards” after the anti-Bolshevik forces fighting to crush the Russian Revolution. Elements within the Legion also wanted to help break the 1926 General Strike. And, as I reported in Veteranhood, the legion tried to have jobs performed by foreign and women workers given to veterans. So, the British Legion has always been a right-wing organisation.

    Aside from the problems with the Royal British Legion, there are also those surrounding the red poppy itself.

    The red poppy: never “never again”

    In 2012, Assed Baig wrote for HuffPost on why he does not wear a red poppy. He noted that it was a “nationalistic and a patriotic symbol” of remembering “our” dead soldiers. The colonialist overtones are explicit. As Baig said:

    I recently received a letter from the Royal British Legion, with images of soldiers that have suffered injuries. The images were accompanied with captions reading; “They are just boys. But they are our boys”. They are not my boys or ‘our’ boys. This may sound harsh to some, but they knew what they were signing up for, they went to fight in an occupation of a foreign land. If they get injured in the process it is the government’s responsibility to take care of them, not for them to rely on the charity of the public

    Moreover, Baig said that:

    The poppy is used as a tool to promote current wars. It is not used to say ‘never again’ as it should be. Politicians use it to beat down opposition to war whilst questioning people’s loyalties and patriotism. The symbol of the poppy was never intended for peace or to stop war, it was a cry for others to take up arms and take revenge in a poem by John McCrae. The gentleman whose idea it was to start the poppy, General Earl Haig, was responsible for gross incompetence on the battlefield in which thousands perished.

    And as he summed up:

    I don’t wear a poppy, hoping that people will move away from jingoism and realise that it is not a symbol of respect and honour for the dead, but by wearing it and accepting the current narrative, it does the opposite – it glorifies and promotes war.

    However, there is an alternative to the war-supporting red poppy.

    The Peace Pledge Union

    The white poppy has existed since 1933. Currently, the Peace Pledge Union (PPU) is responsible for it. The organisation has:

    been promoting pacifism since 1934, in alliance with other pacifists around the world. We also work with other peace and human rights campaigners.

    The PPU says that since its inception, it:

    has been campaigning for a world without war. Today we challenge systems, practices and polices that fuel war and militarism and that contribute to the view that armed force is an effective agent of social change. Such systems and beliefs impede the emergence of nonviolent approaches to conflict.

    The white poppy is part of that. It is a strong symbol of anti-militarisation, peace and equality. Naturally, the establishment has smeared people who wear them – including some MPs. Now, the PPU union has updated the white poppy’s design – and it looks great.

    Wear a white poppy

    The union made a video about the new poppy:

    The PPU said in a statement that:

    As the white poppy campaign has grown over time, we have become increasingly aware of the need to minimise our impact on the environment and ensure white poppies are ethically produced. The PPU has worked closely on the project with Calverts, a workers’ cooperative based in East London specialising in environmentally responsible print and design.

    The new design keeps the traditional look of the white poppy, with two layers of petals and a green centre. It is paper-based, with a folded, self-fastening design, dispensing of any non-recyclable materials.

    So, for anyone who opposes war, right-wing militarism, and classism – but supports peace, unity, and equality – the PPU’s white poppy should be their default choice this Remembrance Day. You can get yours here.

    Featured image via London Live – screengrab

    By Steve Topple

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Andrew Marr’s up to his old BBC tricks over at LBC

    The leopard that is Andrew Marr hasn’t changed his spots. After the BBC ended the infamous Andrew Marr Show, the host transferred his debatable skills to LBC. But nothing has changed when it comes to this presenter’s bias – as his latest programme demonstrates.

    Marr: a history of bias

    Marr had a history of government bias at the BBC. It started in his early days, nauseatingly praising Tony Blair’s illegal invasion of Iraq:

    More recently, he’s been little more than a stooge for successive Tory governments. He undermined Jeremy Corbyn back in 2016, propped up Theresa May’s government in 2017, and refused to call Boris Johnson a liar when we all knew he was one.

    However, one of his most insidious pieces of government propaganda was during the coronavirus pandemic – repeating a lie from then-chancellor (and current PM) Rishi Sunak. Sunak repeatedly claimed that the government borrowed billions of pounds during the pandemic. This was not true: the Bank of England created the money for the government.

    Not to tarnish his record, Marr has carried on this government boot-licking over at LBC, where he has a new gig – and the propaganda he pushes is still just as toxic.

    Smearing the left

    On Wednesday 2 November, Marr was hosting his weeknight show. On it, he was talking about the current, Tory-instigated refugee crisis and abuses at the now-illegal Manston detention centre. However, Marr still tried to blame the left while at the same time praising right-wing Keir Starmer.

    The host smeared the left in one fell swoop during his opening monologue. He said:

    In the old days, the left didn’t much like talking about immigration. Immigration was for right-wingers, and closet racists, and xenophobes. Well, how times change. In the Commons today, the Labour leader Keir Starmer used every single one of his questions to Rishi Sunak to hammer him on the Tories record on illegal immigration.

    Marr’s point that the left doesn’t talk about the subject is demonstrably false – whichever way you look at it.

    The right wing of the Labour Party has always toed the Tories’ racist line on refugees. As the Canary recently reported:

    For example, in 2015, people – including MPs – criticised Ed Miliband’s party for its “controls on immigration” mug… In 2002, former home secretary David Blunkett defended a planned Labour policy of educating refugee children separately. He said that this would prevent child refugees “swamping the local school”. It was Labour that opened the horrific Yarl’s Wood refugee detention centre in 2001… And while we all lose our shit over Braverman using “invasion” to describe refugees fleeing to the UK, let’s not forget that hallowed Labour leader Clement Attlee called the Windrush migration an “incursion”.

    Demonstrable nonsense from Marr

    However, the left wing of Labour has always defended refugees. Not least in this was Jeremy Corbyn – who, despite Marr’s claims of ‘times changing’ under Starmer, dedicated a whole Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs) on 1 February 2017 to questioning then-PM May about refugee policy:

    Corbyn also asked questions of prime ministers before and during his time as Labour leader. Of course, that’s irrelevant to Marr – as one Twitter user summed up:

    So, once more, Marr shows his bias against anything remotely left wing. This bootlicker extraordinaire is a menace to democracy and the media. No wonder the corporate press keep giving him jobs.

    Featured image via LBC – YouTube 

    By Steve Topple

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • The Tories continue to show their contempt for disabled people

    Rishi Sunak seems to have forgotten about roughly 22% of the population – or at least his government has. So far, it has failed to appoint a minister for disabled people at the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) after the Tories made Sunak PM.

    However, this is hardly surprising given Liz Truss downgraded the role anyway. Of course, the role itself is pointless – because historically it has done nothing to improve the lives of disabled people. But this government not even considering it important enough to appoint someone to the role shows how little it thinks of disabled people.

    DWP: ministers come, ministers go

    At the DWP there are various ministers below the overall boss, who is now Mel Stride. One of them is the minister for disabled people. Five Tory MPs have had this job since 2016, including serial Tory leadership candidate Penny Mordaunt. Recent appointees for the minister for disabled people include Chloe Smith, who went on to be DWP secretary of state for just a matter of weeks.

    However, even the government website struggles to know who has actually been minister for disabled people. Currently, it says there have been four of them since 2016. Actually, there have been five. Claire Coutinho was the last one – before Sunak moved her to education:

    So who’s replacing her at the DWP? Well, it seems the Tories have forgotten to give someone the job.

    Internal DWP vacancies

    As James Moore wrote for the Independent, the DWP hasn’t officially announced Coutinho’s replacement yet. He noted that:

    Disabled people have their backs against a very hard wall. There’s the energy crisis; out of control food price inflation; and all the other stuff we have to shell out for that [non-disabled] people don’t even think about is also surging in price.

    However, the lack of a minister for disabled people isn’t the only problem. As Labour’s shadow minister Vicky Foxcroft noted in parliament back in October, Truss effectively downgraded the job – from a parliamentary under-secretary of state to its “junior” equivalent. Foxcroft said [0:08]:

    What message do we think that this sends to disabled people who already feel like an afterthought from this government, and will the government reverse this decision immediately?

    Coutinho, at the time, had to defend her own role – saying it was still an “important” job to the government:

    Minister for disabled people: abuse-enabler

    It’s hardly news that the Tories don’t give a shit about disabled people. After all, in 2016 the UN accused successive Tory-led governments of “grave” and “systematic” violations of disabled people’s human rights. More recently, on Boris Johnson’s watch 60% of coronavirus (Covid-19) deaths were disabled people. And the DWP’s assessment process for health-related social security is not, and has never been, fit for purpose – all while delivering real-terms cuts to people’s money at the same time.

    A Tory minister for disabled people made no difference to any of this. Moore wrote in the Independent that a minister in the role could lobby for disabled people. Historically, this has demonstrably not happened.

    Ministers for disabled people are little more than DWP and government mouthpieces. So, does it make any difference to disabled people not having one? Not really, because the minister for disabled people is little more than an enabler of state-sanctioned abuse – no matter who holds the position.

    Featured image via Maurice – Wikimedia, resized to 770×403 pixels under licence CC BY 2.0, and Wikimedia 

    By Steve Topple

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Liz Truss is getting the most appropriate tribute ever

    A small town in Kent is going to give Liz Truss a final send-off as the UK’s shortest-serving prime minister – and it’s a wholly appropriate one.

    Truss: set fire to her reign

    AFP reported that people will torch a giant effigy of Truss on bonfire night, Saturday 5 November. The former PM is ripe for the treatment – given that she served a disastrous 49 days in power. Organisers will set the 10-metre-tall caricature ablaze in the town of Edenbridge, Kent, with more than 10,000 people expected to attend.

    Artist Andrea Deans depicts her alongside Larry the Cat, the Downing Street feline who has now seen off four prime ministers. She’s also included a lettuce in the effigy. It’s a reference to the Daily Star‘s stunt where a limp vegetable outlasted Truss. The caricature is holding a box of possessions associated with Truss’s short but eventful time in office:

    First Trump, now Truss

    Truss became Britain’s shortest-serving prime minister when she left Downing Street on October 25. As the Canary previously reported, Truss and then-chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng’s mini-budget caused the value of the pound to collapse. It caused mortgage lenders to pull countless rates. Moreover, the mini-budget forced the Bank of England to step in to save pension funds. So, who better to feature at Edenbridge than her?

    The Kent town has poked fun at famous figures for more than 20 years. It torches effigies of them alongside the traditional Guy Fawkes. A caricature of Truss’s predecessor Boris Johnson went up in flames in 2018. Back in 2016, Edenbridge torched an effigy of US president Donald Trump. Previous targets have included British prime ministers Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.

    But Truss is one of the more appropriate figures Edenbridge will set on fire – given that she doused the UK economy in political petrol and then threw an ideological match onto it. How the former PM will react to the news is anyone’s guess.

    Featured image via Sky News – YouTube

    Additional reporting via Agence France-Presse (AFP)

    By Steve Topple

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Outrage as NUS sacks Shaima Dallali on first day of Islamophobia Awareness Month

    The National Union of Students (NUS) has sacked its president Shaima Dallali. The union claims it’s because of her alleged antisemitism. However, some people and organisations disagree – saying it shows open Islamophobia from the NUS. Moreover, the accusations of antisemitism against Dallali concerned a tweet she sent 10 years ago. And to top this all off, the NUS sacked her on the first day of Islamophobia Awareness Month.

    NUS: sacking its own president

    As the Guardian reported, members of the NUS elected Dallali in July. Almost immediately afterwards, in August, the union suspended her while it investigated claims of antisemitism. One of the allegations was about a tweet Dallali posted in 2012 which read:

    Khaybar Khaybar O Jews … Muhammad’s army will return Gaza

    Dallali was 17 when she posted the tweet. As the Canary reported in May, she has since apologised for it. Since then, people have hurled racist and Islamophobic abuse at her online due to the situation. Dallali said of this:

    Unfortunately, as a black Muslim woman, it is something that I expected because I’ve seen it happen to other black Muslim women when they take up positions in the student union or the NUS, where they are attacked based on their political beliefs or their pro-Palestinian stance.

    Yet it was the Khaybar tweet and other undisclosed accusations that led to the NUS sacking Dallali.

    The NUS says…

    The NUS said in a statement:

    Following the independent [King’s Counsel]-led investigation into allegations of antisemitism, specifically into the then president-elect under the NUS code of conduct, an independent panel has found that significant breaches of NUS policies have taken place. As per this finding, we have terminated the president’s contract. In strict accordance with rules around employees and confidentiality, we will not be sharing any further details on the investigation into the president,” the NUS said. “We can assure any interested parties that this process has been incredibly robust and that we can and must trust in the outcome.

    We know that there will be strong feelings around this issue, so we urge people to respect this process and to refrain from taking part in or perpetuating any abuse, particularly online, towards anyone involved in this matter.

    There are indeed strong feelings around the NUS’s sacking of Dallali.

    “Deeply politicised”

    The Federation of Student Islamic Societies (FOSIS) said in a statement that it has:

    come to the conclusion that NUS is no longer an organisation that take Muslims or Islamophobia seriously and therefore is not a safe space for Muslims. Following numerous attempts to engage NUS and its leadership, no satisfactory outcome has been reached. The investigation into Shaima has been deeply politicised from the outset, and due process has not been followed, opening Shaima up to the court of public opinion and denying her the opportunity to fairly represent herself.

    On this basis, the NUS sacking Dallali on the first day of Islamophobia Awareness Month does seem highly politicised.

    “Islamophobia is rife”

    Over on social media, people were defending Dallali. Academic Tarek Younis stated that the NUS’s sacking of Dallali was “outrageous”:

    Dr Nilufar Ahmed called the NUS’s treatment of Dallali “horrific”:

    To compound all this, Dallali revealed that the NUS had not told her it had sacked her. She only found out about the dismissal via social media:

    Regressive

    Meanwhile, the FOSIS has said that it’s:

    calling on all Islamic societies, friends and those who oppose Islamophobia to organise and lead disaffiliation campaigns against the NUS on their campuses.

    Without full disclosure from the NUS, it is impossible to draw any other conclusion other than that its sacking of Dallali was politicised and laced with Islamophobia. She, and other Muslim students, deserve better.

    Featured image via Shaima Dallali – Twitter and the NUS – screengrab 

    By Steve Topple

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Damning report shows our police force is beyond reform. It’s time to look at alternatives.

    A culture of misogyny and predatory behaviour is “prevalent” in many police forces across England and Wales, and fuelled by lax vetting standards, according to a report by His Majesty’s Inspector of Constabulary (HMIC).

    Inspectors found cases where incidents such as indecent exposure were dismissed as a “one-off”, and where applicants with links to “extensive criminality” in their families had been hired.
    The findings of the report won’t come as a surprise to anyone who faces the brunt of this behaviour every day, and especially those from marginalised and working class communities. But it does show that our police force is beyond reform, and we need to start looking at alternatives to our current policing model.

    “Systemic failures”

    The report found:

    systemic failings, missed opportunities, and a generally inadequate approach to the setting and maintenance of standards in the police service.

    It further stated that:

    over the last three or four years, the number of people recruited over whom we would raise significant questions is certainly in the hundreds, if not low thousands.

    It added:

    Our vetting file review showed that forces had found language and comments on social media, attributable to vetting applicants, that were potentially discriminatory, inflammatory, or extremist.

    HMIC’s Matt Parr said that “it is too easy for the wrong people to both join and stay in the police” and that there were “significant questions” over the recruitment of thousands of officers.

    However as Kevin Blowe from the Network for Police Montioring pointed out, it’s hardly surprising that police recruitment attracts the wrong type of people:

    Time for a different approach

    Report after report has exposed the institutionalised racism and misogny at the heart of UK policing. We should no longer be shocked or surprised with these findings. We should be taking action to do things differently.

    Time and again we hear promises of reform. Following this report, the Met tweeted that it would be “ruthless in ridding the Met of those who corrupt our integrity”.

    This is not good enough. As Sisters Uncut tweeted, “They had their chance to reform”:

    As the Canary‘s Sophia Purdy-Moore wrote after the Met was put into special measures:

    It’s undeniable that the Met is institutionally corrupt, racist, misogynistic, and violent. HMIC’s findings present an opportunity to reconsider the role of police in our society, and to move towards systems and strategies that actually work to make the world a safer place.

    This begins with investment in and the empowerment of communities, not the police. We need strategies that actively prevent harm from occurring, and foster accountability when it does.

    Our police force is rotten to the core. The problems are systemic, and this report is yet further proof that the police do not keep us safe. It’s time to stop talking about reform. Instead, let’s look at ways to defund the police and fund services and actions that benefit our communities rather than perpetuating the violence, racism and misogyny marlignalised communities face on a daily basis.

    Additional reporting via AFP

    Featured image via Shoal Collective

    By Emily Apple

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • The DWP just said when it will announce benefit increases

    The new boss of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has said when he’ll announce next April’s social security increases. However, he has given no indication of how much they’ll be going up – leaving millions of people in limbo.

    DWP: benefits increase review date revealed

    Mel Stride took over as DWP secretary when Rishi Sunak became PM. The previous Truss-led government said that social security may not go up by the rate of inflation in April 2023. This was after Sunak previously committed to this when he was chancellor.

    Usually, social security rises with the previous September’s rate of inflation. Next April, this would mean the DWP would put people’s money up by 10.1%. But Truss’s government said that might not happen. As the Canary previously reported, it hinted that the DWP may only match social security rises with wage increases, at just 5.4%. This would mean the department would be forcing a real-terms cut in income onto people.

    Even with Sunak now in charge, things are still unclear. The new DWP boss hasn’t made the situation any clearer either. On Monday 31 October, Stride was answering MPs’ questions in parliament. On increasing social security, at first, Stride said:

    I am currently conducting my statutory annual review of state pensions and benefit rates. The outcome of that review will be announced in due course.

    After another MP probed him, Stride went further – giving a date:

    That is a decision for me as Secretary of State, of course in conjunction with discussions with the Treasury, and those figures will be available at the time of the autumn statement on 17 November.

    Another MP asked the same question again, and Stride appeared to get ratty:

    I am afraid that, unfortunately, I need to refer my honourable friend to my previous reply.

    So, while claimants now have a date for a decision, they’re still none the wiser as to what that will be. This comes as the DWP has already been hammering social security claimants with cut after cut.

    Thankful for small DWP mercies?

    Thinktank the Resolution Foundation has already crunched the possible numbers. It said that if the DWP only increases social security in line with wages, it will be cutting £500 a year from some families’ money. This would come after years of cuts – including at least £10bn in real-terms this financial year alone. Stride has also failed to indicate whether he is reviewing the benefit cap. As the Canary previously reported, this is a restriction on how much money households can get in social security. The cap has already meant the DWP has cut around £13,000 from some families’ income since 2013.

    Stride giving a date for the social security increase review offers little to those reliant on the DWP. People will just have to hope that Sunak will force the DWP to increase rates with inflation. But even then, this will not make up for years of real-terms cuts. And it certainly won’t make our social security system any fairer or more compassionate.

    Featured image via ITV News – YouTube, Sky News – YouTube and Wikimedia 

    By Steve Topple

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • The CWU showed it won’t be bullied by Royal Mail

    The Communications Workers’ Union has announced more strikes against Royal Mail. It’s quite the turnaround, given the company recently threatened the CWU with legal action. Not to be beaten down, the union and its members clearly weren’t having it – they’ve announced strikes that will hit some of the busiest shopping days of the year.

    CWU and Royal Mail: protracted dispute

    As the Canary previously reported, the CWU has been in a protracted industrial dispute with Royal Mail. The company offered workers a pay rise that was nearly half the rate of inflation, and compounded this with worsening working conditions. Then, Royal Mail warned it would lay off 6,000 workers and axe around 4,000 positions.

    To top this all off, on Sunday 30 October the CWU said it was cancelling all planned strikes because Royal Mail had threatened it with a legal letter. As the Canary exclusively revealed, Royal Mail stopped the strikes on a pedantic legal point. However, the CWU has fought back once again.

    More strikes

    The union has regrouped and announced a series of 48-hour strikes. It said that workers will be striking on Thursday 24 and Friday 25 November. The latter is known as ‘Black Friday’, the biggest shopping day of the year. Then, workers will strike on Wednesday 30 November and Thursday 1 December – just two days after Cyber Monday, one of the busiest online shopping days. The CWU will also hold a vote of no confidence in Royal Mail CEO Simon Thompson. On top of all this, the CWU’s postal executive will meet on Thursday 3 November to discuss new actions in the Christmas build-up.

    All this comes on top of a new, yet equally derisory, pay offer from Royal Mail. The company offered a 7% two-year pay offer – once more, an effective pay cut. It also wants to make sweeping changes to working conditions. These include introducing what the CWU calls “Uber-style” owner-drivers, mail centre closures, and changes to Sunday working. The union says workers are rightly outraged.

    Tackling nefarious bosses, the CWU way

    CWU general secretary Dave Ward said:

    Posties are in the fight of their lives against the Uberisation of Royal Mail and the destruction of their conditions. But 115,000 of our members will not just accept this war on their livelihoods and their industry. They will never give up the fight to protect this industry and to protect their hard-won working conditions. Simon Thompson has to either accept that or walk away – until he does one or the other, serious disruption will continue.

    The union’s acting deputy general secretary, Andy Furey, said:

    So many of our members have given their entire working lives to building this company. They deserve a much better deal than what is on offer, and Simon Thompson is on another planet if he thinks we’ll stop fighting to achieve that.

    Announcing strikes during the year’s busiest shopping period and after a legal threat is a strong move from CWU. It shows that the union is not only savvy but also that it will not be compromised by nefarious bosses trying to shut it and its members up.

    Featured image via the CWU – YouTube

    By Steve Topple

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • “Challenging police powers is a must” say the families of those killed in state custody

    On 29 October the families of people killed by the state, along with thousands of their supporters, marched on Downing Street to deliver a letter to Rishi Sunak. In Edinburgh, a solidarity demonstration demanded a meeting with Nicola Sturgeon.

    The United Friends and Families Campaign (UFFC) is a coalition of those affected by deaths in police custody, in prisons, in immigration detention centres, and in psychiatric care.

    1,838 people killed since 1990

    At least 1,838 people have died in police custody or following contact with the police since 1990 according to Inquest, a charity monitoring state-related deaths. People of colour are at least twice as likely to be killed in custody in incidents involving restraint or force, and nearly two times as likely where mental health is an issue. Meanwhile, inside the UK’s prisons, one person takes their own life every four days.

    UFFC refuse to forget the victims of state violence. They have been marching since 1999, and newly bereaved families keep on joining the coalition. This year the march was joined by the families of Chris Kaba and Oladeji Omishore, amongst many others.

    The UFFC thanked their supporters after the march on Saturday:

    Say their names

    The London march began with speeches in Trafalgar Square. Then the demonstrators lined up behind the families, and marched on Downing Street.

    The marchers carried placards bearing the photos of those killed. Demonstrators chanted “No justice, No peace, No racist police” and “HMP [‘His Majesty’s Prisons’], Blood on your hands”.

    As the families reached Downing Street, a sound system was set up and the names of those killed in custody were read out. One marcher posted this poignant video:

    Oladeji needed care, but was met with brutality

    Alfred Omishore, the father of Oladeji Omishore, also addressed the march:

    Oladeji drowned in June 2022 after he fell into the Thames while trying to escape police officers who had already tasered him repeatedly. His father told the crowd:

    My son was caring, compassionate, giving and artistically talented, with a deep appreciation for nature. But on that fateful day he was vulnerable, in mental health crisis, clearly distressed and in painful agony. He needed support and medical intervention but was instead met with brutal, brutal excessive force.

    People also carried banners to remember those who have died in prison, in immigration detention centres, and in psychiatric care.

    A banner remembering people who have died in HMP Foston Hall

     

    Remembering those who died in immigration detention
    Remembering those who died at Morton Hall immigration detention centre

    Remembering Taylor

    A banner for Taylor
    A banner to remember Taylor

     

    One banner remembered Taylor, a prisoner who took his own life in July 2021 after serving over 14 years of an Imprisonment for Public Protection sentence. (IPP). IPP prisoners have an indeterminate sentence with no release date, and their freedom is in the hands of the parole board, making IPP sentences equivalent to a life sentence for minor crimes. Taylor served a four-year tariff for burglary, and then spent a further ten years behind bars. He was beaten by prison officers shorty before taking his own life.

    248 IPP prisoners have died in prison, with at least 74 of them taking their own lives. The IPP sentence was scrapped in 2012, but not retrospectively. Campaigners are calling for an end to the torment for the almost 3,000 remaining IPP prisoners in England and Wales.

    Placards also remembered Jimmy Mubenga, who was killed in 2010 after being restrained by G4S officers during a violent forced deportation.

    Failure of care

    Melanie Leahy addressed the crowd outside Downing Street. Melanie’s son Mathew died in 2012 at the Linden Centre psychiatric unit in Essex, after he was raped. In total, 11 people died in the care of psychiatric units in Essex between 2004 and 2015. Here is a video of Melanie’s speech:

    “I believe in the power of the people”

    The crowd heard from Mohamed Bashir, brother of Mouayed Bashir. Mouayed died in 2021 after being restrained by police at his home in Newport. The family are still waiting for an inquest to take place.

    In a recent interview with the South Wales Argus, Mohamed explained how he has little faith in the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC):

    When we went to the hospital after Mouayed died, two people from the IOPC came and saw me and I recognised one, so I asked if they were in the firm and they said they used to be police officers.

    If your family member gets killed by a police officer, it gets handed straight over to the IOPC who are still involved in the police and are ex-police officers.

    There’s never going to be an end to this because the people who are there to protect us won’t protect us.

    Here is a video of Mohammed addressing the crowd on Saturday:

    Mohammed concluded by saying:

    The more of us, we can take them down. Because I believe in the power of the people… is greater than the people in power.

    Lifetimes fighting for justice

    Jefferson Bosela also addressed the crowd. Jefferson’s cousin, Chris Kaba, was shot by the Metropolitan Police in Streatham in September 2022. Chris was unarmed.

    Jefferson spoke about the importance of friends and families standing together in the face of injustice. He said:

    It is not only wise but also prudent for families and the people to stick together during troubling times. For we, we the common people spend days, hours, years, decades and sometimes lifetimes fighting for justice. We are all we have.

    The UK government is “accountable for these deaths”

    The UFFC called for a meeting with Rishi Sunak, Sadiq Khan and Suella Braverman. Brenda Weinberg read out a letter to the prime minister outside Downing Street. Brenda’s brother, Brian Douglas, was killed in 1995, after being struck on the head by a police baton:

     Failings within mental health services across the UK are at an all time high. As prime minister, you and your government are ultimately accountable for these deaths.

    She continued:

    The recent horrific deaths of Christopher Kaba and Oladeji Omishore have yet again highlighted the issues of deaths in police custody, and the outrage and anger across all communities… The independence of the IOPC is again called into question, and the issues of treating officers as witnesses, the suspension and interviewing of officers, the use of tasers and force used on vulnerable people, stop and search, strip searches (including minors) are a matter of the greatest concern to the public.

    We need to support those affected by state violence

    If we want to overcome the state’s structural racism and build systems of justice that are not based on violence and coercion, and where mental health crises are met with care rather than brutality, then we need to listen to the people who have lost their loved ones to state violence. As the UFFC says:

    Justice and challenging police powers is a must.

    Click here to find out more about the campaign.

    Featured image is of Adjoa Andoh reading the names of those killed in custody outside Downing Street – via YouTube

    By Tom Anderson

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Rishi Sunak’s tribute to Lula achieved the opposite of what he intended

    On 31 October, Rishi Sunak congratulated Brazil’s president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, commonly known as Lula, for his election victory. Like a number of other leaders, the UK prime minister took to Twitter to send his compliments:

    The tweet drew lots of attention, and not in a particularly good way. In fact, his words achieved the opposite of what he likely intended.

    Protecting the planet?

    Recent reporting by Declassified showed that one of the issues that ‘mattered’ to the UK under Lula’s predecessor was the privatisation of Brazil’s energy sector. The UK’s aid spending suggested this was the case, as it channelled millions into “opening up Brazil’s energy markets” under Jair Bolsonaro..

    In light of this UK priority, Another Angry Voice tweeted:

    Others took issue with Sunak’s suggestion that protecting the planet’s resources matters to the UK government. They highlighted the massive amount of sewage that it is currently allowing to flow into British waters as an example:

    The government is failing the environment in a multitude of ways, from actively expanding fossil fuels to threatening to rip up hundreds of environmental laws as part of the retained EU law revocation and reform bill. In September, nature-focused organisations accused the Conservative government of launching “an attack on nature”.

    Sunak became PM towards the end of October, of course, so some of these moves and accusations pre-date his time at the helm. As people highlighted in response to his tweet though, one of his early decisions speaks volumes in this regard:

    Sunak’s choice not to attend the upcoming COP27 climate conference doesn’t inspire confidence that he ranks protecting the environment particularly high.

    Rishi Sunak’s priorities are clear

    According to the prime minister’s spokesperson, this COP27 decision is now “under review”. But regardless of whether he ultimately attends, it’s clear what his instinct is when it comes to prioritising the planet. This lack of attention to the environment was also apparent during his years as chancellor and his leadership campaign this summer.

    In contrast, Lula has a good record on prioritising the environment, particularly in relation to the Amazon rainforest. This was true in his previous tenure as president and in his recent election campaign. That’s a big reason why many people around the world breathed a sigh of relief when he secured the presidency.

    In short, Sunak’s attempt to highlight the shared priorities of the UK and Brazil under their current respective leaders only served to show the absolute divide when it comes to the protection of the planet.

    Featured image via Sky News / YouTube

    By Tracy Keeling

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Tories suspend Matt Hancock but not for the reason they should

    The Tories have suspended Matt Hancock, the former health secretary who presided over the government’s disastrous policies at the start of the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic. Their reason for doing this? Not hundreds of thousands of deaths or his wilful negligence of care home residents. The Tories have suspended him for appearing on a reality TV show.

    I’m A Disgraced Politician… Get Me Out Of Here!

    AFP reported that the  MP will be absent from parliament while he takes part in the latest series of ITV‘s I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! One previous contestant was Hancock’s Tory colleague, former culture minister Nadine Dorries. The show forced her to eat an ostrich’s anus in 2012, though that was probably of little concern to Dorries – she was used to kissing the ass of former PM Boris Johnson. However, people criticised her at the time for failing to seek her party’s permission to go on the programme. The Tories also suspended her. Poor Dorries; she was the first contestant voted off that season.

    Tory chief whip Simon Hart, who is in charge of party discipline, followed a similar course on learning of Hancock’s involvement. AFP reported he said:

    I have considered the situation and believe this is a matter serious enough to warrant suspension of the whip with immediate effect.

    PM Rishi Sunak publicly snubbed Hancock after becoming PM on 25 October. He also disapproved of the former health secretary going on I’m A Celebrity… A spokesman told AFP:

    The prime minister believes that at a challenging time for the country, MPs should be working hard for their constituents.

    They also said that the PM was “unlikely” to watch the show. Maybe Sunak is more of a Love Island fan?

    Hancock: resurrecting the politically dead

    One of Hancock’s supporters defended his involvement to AFP, saying the programme would help connect to the “politically disengaged” and show “the human side” of politicians. As it reported, Hancock was an ever-present public figure in Britain during the coronavirus pandemic. However, the Tories forced him to step down after breaching social distancing rules. He was captured on leaked security camera footage at work getting off with his advisor and former university friend, Gina Coladangelo.

    He subsequently left his wife and has been reportedly angling for a political comeback. Clearly, the Tories don’t want that – hence the suspension. It would have been too much to ask for them to suspend him over his coronavirus care home deaths lies. Instead, being on the telly was too much for them – which says it all about this self-serving party.

    Hancock’s book, Pandemic Diaries. The Inside Story of Britain’s Battle Against Covid, is due to be published in December. Funny that – just as I’m A Celebrity… will be plastering him all over our screens. Let’s hope his diaries include him fessing up to being responsible for countless deaths at the start of the pandemic. Highly unlikely, we know.

    Featured image via I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! – YouTube, Rishi Sunak – YouTube and HealthTech Hour – YouTube

    Additional reporting via AFP

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • BP Sees $8.2 Billion in Third Quarter Profits as People Struggle to Heat Homes

    The London-based oil and gas giant BP reported Tuesday that it brought in a staggering $8.2 billion in profits in the third quarter, more than doubling its total from the same period last year amid Europe’s worsening cost-of-living crisis.

    The company announced it will be using its banner profits to buy back $2.5 billion worth of its own stock, rewarding shareholders as millions of people across the United Kingdom are having trouble heating their homes ahead of the winter season. According to the Financial Times, BP has repurchased more than $10 billion of its shares this year.

    The advocacy group Global Witness estimates that BP’s $27 billion in profits over the past 12 months could pay the energy bills of 9.4 million U.K. households.

    “Big fossil fuel firms making eyewatering profits is a slap in the face for the millions of citizens struggling to heat their homes, cook their meals, or buy everyday essentials,” said Jonathan Noronha-Gant, senior fossil fuels campaigner at Global Witness. “As winter fast approaches, a dividing line is emerging: whose side is the government on? Brits facing financial hardships or an industry that’s making billions in profits off the current energy crisis?”

    The U.K.’s conservative government unveiled a windfall profits tax on energy companies in May, but it has thus far had little impact on oil giants. Shell reported last week that it has paid nothing in windfall taxes in the country, and BP said Tuesday that it expects to fork over $800 million — a fraction of the gains it has reaped from global energy market chaos spurred by Russia’s war on Ukraine.

    BP’s latest earnings announcement sparked calls for a more aggressive windfall tax as Jeremy Hunt, the U.K.’s chancellor of the Exchequer, is expected to unveil a new economic plan later this month. The Guardian reported that Hunt is “considering increasing the windfall tax by up to five percentage points, to 30%, and extending its lifespan by three years, to 2028.”

    The government of new right-wing Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is also facing pressure to reverse plans for deep public spending cuts, which could be devastating for millions of people across the country.

    Freya Aitchison, oil and gas campaigner at Friends of the Earth Scotland, said in a statement that “the announcement of yet another obscene profit for a climate-wrecking oil firm highlights the scale of the pain that these companies are inflicting on the public.”

    “While fossil fuel companies are being allowed to make record-breaking profits, households are facing astronomical energy bills and millions are being pushed into fuel poverty,” said Aitchison. “Bosses and shareholders at these big polluters are being allowed to get even richer by exploiting one of our most basic needs. BP is also worsening climate breakdown and extreme weather by continuing to invest and lock us into new oil and gas projects for decades to come.”

    BP’s profit report came just hours after U.S. President Joe Biden warned fossil fuel giants that he’s prepared to support a windfall profits tax if the companies continue gorging on their own stock while refusing to lower costs for consumers.

    “Oil companies’ record profits today are not because they’re doing something new or innovative,” Biden said in a speech at the White House on Monday. “Their profits are a windfall of war.”

    Murray Auchincloss, BP’s chief financial officer, declined to comment on Biden’s speech when pressed by Reuters.

    In a statement Tuesday, Daniel Willis of the U.K.-based advocacy group Global Justice Now noted that Chevron, ExxonMobil, BP, Shell, and TotalEnergies have announced combined profits of more than $170 billion this year.

    “To put this into perspective, that is more than the $116 billion a year that loss and damage are estimated to cost the Global South, to date,” Willis said. “It doesn’t take much to connect the dots to see what’s happening here. When fossil fuel companies are announcing record profits just days before COP27, it’s high time leaders joined those dots once and for all too and make polluters pay up for loss and damage. It’s clear they can afford to, and a polluter tax could help reduce household energy bills closer to home as well.”

    “People here and the Global South have one thing in common when it comes to companies like BP: they’re ripping us off and think they can keep getting away with it at the expense of people and the planet,” Willis added. “It’s high time we showed them the game is up.”

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • A nurse just nailed why we all need to support NHS strikes live on the BBC

    The Royal College of Nurses’ (RCN’s) ballot on strike action closes on Wednesday 2 November. The result may well be a walk-out by hundreds of thousands of NHS nurses. At the same time, other healthcare trade unions are balloting their members for industrial action. And one healthcare professional made the case brilliantly for NHS staff to strike, specifically paramedics, live on the BBC.

    Tories: decimating NHS pay

    Successive Tory governments have decimated NHS staff wages. In 2010, the coalition government froze public sector pay for two years, then imposed a 1% fixed increase. This year, the Tories have capped NHS pay rises at 4% for most staff, while inflation is over 10%. The end result is that since 2010, the Tories have cut around £4,300 from nurses’ real-terms pay. So, the workers and their union have had enough.

    The RCN general secretary Pat Cullen said:

    We are understaffed, undervalued and underpaid. For years our profession has been pushed to the edge, and now patient safety is paying the price. We can’t stand by and watch our colleagues and patients suffer anymore. Though strike action is a last resort, it is a powerful tool for change. And we must demand that change. Enough is enough. I urge you to vote ‘yes’ in this ballot.

    The union is balloting over 300,000 members. If they vote ‘yes’, it would mean the number of staff walking out could be huge. However, to get an idea of why healthcare workers are considering this, we need to listen to them.

    “Patients are already at risk”

    Holly Turner is an NHS nurse and co-founder of campaign group NHS Workers Say No! She was on BBC Politics Live London on Sunday 30 October, in her capacity as GMB London regional organiser. The union is balloting 15,000 paramedics over strike action. Turner said that NHS workers need a pay rise because:

    They’ve faced over a decade of cuts to their pay, and the situation that’s left us with is 135,000 vacancies… We know there’s seven million people sat on waiting lists, and when we talk about ambulances specifically, we’re talking of people waiting up to 30 hours for an ambulance…

    Crucially, Turner noted that:

    This is a dispute about pay, of course… but it is as much about safety as it is about pay.

    The host put it to Turner that if paramedics go on strike, people will die. Turner pointed out that:

    This is not a decision any ambulance crew would take lightly. If this national ballot passes, it will be the first ambulance strike in 30 years… [Paramedics] will be agonising over making this decision. But things can’t carry on.

    Save the NHS for all our sakes

    On Sunday 30 October, it emerged that a baby died in September, after waiting 30 minutes for an ambulance. It should have arrived within seven minutes. This is not the paramedics’ fault. This is the fault of government underfunding to the tune of around £240m. It’s also because of low pay, which means people don’t want to do the job, and because of a culture of outsourcing services to the private sector.

    As Turner summed up, striking:

    is the last bit of leverage that these workers have got left. What else are they expected to do?

    The NHS is crumbling around us, which puts most of us at risk. Central to this is Tory underfunding and cuts to wages. If we want the NHS to be a functioning health service, then the government has to treat staff fairly as a starting point. Currently, it’s not – hence, we must all support NHS workers going on strike. They’re doing it for all of us.

    Featured image via BBC iPlayer – screengrab

    By Steve Topple

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Air pollution is rising in UK as bill threatens to lower standards

    Illegal air pollution is rising in the UK, according to new analysis by the environmental NGO ClientEarth. The revelations come amid the passage of the government’s retained EU law revocation and reform bill through parliament. It threatens to axe many environmental regulations, including those related to clean air.

    Air pollution levels increasing

    In September, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) released air pollution figures for 2021. ClientEarth’s analysis of the figures showed a doubling of the number of areas reporting illegal pollution. The charity highlighted that 10 of the country’s 43 air pollution reporting zones had illegal levels of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) pollution. This is twice as many as the previous year.

    In 2020, the lockdowns for Covid-19 brought about a reduction in NO2 pollution, ClientEarth said. This was still partially true in 2021, according to the DEFRA report. It partly attributed the “low number of zones” exceeding legal limits to:

    the ongoing Covid-19 restrictions which continued to reduce traffic on many roads in 2021

    Moreover, ClientEarth pointed out that the World Health Organization (WHO) overhauled its pollution guidelines in 2021. The WHO said that it set the current limit to protect the public from the health impacts of NO2, which epidemiological studies have shown to include “bronchitis in asthmatic children” and lower “lung function growth”.

    The environmental charity said that the UK’s current legal limit for this gas is four times higher than the WHO guidelines. Its analysis showed that this places all 43 air pollution zones above the annual level the WHO recommends.

    Subhead

    ClientEarth lawyer Katie Nield commented:

    Unsurprisingly, air pollution is rebounding after the lockdowns. There needs to be concerted effort from Government and local authorities to reduce air pollution for the sake of people’s health.

    Air pollution potentially contributes to the deaths of tens of thousands of people each year in the UK. This includes pollutants other than NO2, such as fine particulate matter, known as PM2.5.

    As the Canary has previously reported, the retained EU law revocation and reform bill is currently making its way through parliament. It promises to sunset any retained EU laws that officials choose not to preserve by the end of 2023. There are 570 environmental laws among the retained EU laws that are at risk, according to the Guardian.

    Nield argued that the government is heading “in the opposite direction” to what’s required to tackle air pollution. She said:

    Instead of putting forward plans to get to grips with this public health crisis, ministers are presenting a deeply worrying Bill in Parliament which could rip out the legal protections in our statute book.

    Featured image via Chris L L / Wikimedia, cropped to 770×403, licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

    By Tracy Keeling

  • The horrific conditions at Manston expose Labour’s toxic immigration rhetoric

    The situation at the Manston refugee centre has been deteriorating rapidly, with reports of disease outbreaks and horrific overcrowding. Disgraced home secretary Suella Braverman is directly to blame. However, Labour’s response has been dire as usual. It points to a broader problem with the party’s lack of anti-racism and openly xenophobic history.

    Labour: no empathy for refugees

    Labour’s shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper has been responding to the situation in Manston. Her focus has predictably been on the British public and Tory failures – not concern for refugees. In parliament on 31 October, Cooper noted that Braverman had said:

    nothing about what she was doing to address those immediate public health crises and also the issues for untrained staff.

    Cooper pushed a similar line on her Twitter. In response to Braverman’s use of words like “invasion“, she tweeted:

    No home secretary who was serious about public safety or national security would use highly inflammatory language on the day after a dangerous petrol bomb attack on a Dover initial processing centre.

    Of course, the priority when someone bombs a refugee centre is the British population and national security – not the welfare of the refugees who’ve just been attacked. Not that this lack of concern for refugees is new.

    A history of racism

    On 5 October, Sky News interviewed shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves. The reporter asked her if Labour ‘welcomed’ Braverman’s plans to change the law to make it “easier to deport people”. Reeves said:

    Well, the problem is the government are not deporting people today, even when their claims have failed.

    Of course, Labour taking a right-wing line on refugees for centrist gains is hardly new. However, the party keeps doing it to try and win votes with colonialist, racist Middle England.

    For example, in 2015, people – including MPs – criticised Ed Miliband’s party for its “controls on immigration” mug:

    However, the problems with Labour’s xenophobic stance stretch back further. In 2002, former home secretary David Blunkett defended a planned Labour policy of educating refugee children separately. He said that this would prevent child refugees “swamping the local school”.

    It was Labour that opened the horrific Yarl’s Wood refugee detention centre in 2001 – arguably a precursor to the government-induced disaster unfolding now at the Manston facility. As a report by Right to Remain noted, under first Tory but notably Labour:

    The total capacity of the detention estate itself expanded rapidly, from 250 places in 1993 to 2644 in 2005.

    And while we all lose our shit over Braverman using “invasion” to describe refugees fleeing to the UK, let’s not forget that hallowed Labour leader Clement Attlee called the Windrush migration an “incursion”.

    Labour: wooing racist Middle England

    As Aaron Bastani wrote for Novara Media:

    the idea Labour has ever been an anti-racist party is absurd… throughout its history, many within it have felt unease and distrust around making a positive case for anti-racism. Worse still, when politically expedient they have pursued racist rhetoric and policies.

    So, here we are again. The Labour Party is copying right-wing rhetoric about refugees in an attempt to curry favour with Middle England Tory voters. Under Keir Starmer the party has demolished Jeremy Corbyn’s democratic socialism, and it’s back to centrism again. There’s not a fag paper between it and the Tory Party now – which is, of course, the way it wants it.

    Featured image via Sky News – YouTube

    By Steve Topple

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Climate activists spray-paint London buildings orange

    On Monday 31 October, London police arrested eight people. This was in response to environmental campaigners dousing four landmark buildings with orange paint in a Halloween protest.

    Six were held after paint was sprayed on the interior ministry, the headquarters of MI5, and a subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch’s US media conglomerate News Corp, the Metropolitan Police said.

    Officers from the City of London force arrested two others following a similar protest at the Bank of England in the capital’s financial district.

    News Corp targeted

    The Just Stop Oil group, which wants an end to new North Sea oil and gas exploration, said it was responsible. They also posted videos of the actions on social media:

    The activists said the buildings were chosen:

    to represent the pillars that support and maintain the power of the fossil fuel economy — government, security, finance and media.

    News Corp UK and Ireland Limited, the subsidiary of News Corp that was targeted, publishes titles that include the Times, the Sunday Times, and the Sun.

    Its London headquarters, opposite The Shard tower, was targeted by Extinction Rebellion climate change protesters in July.

    Urgent protests

    At the weekend, protesters again blocked roads in the capital, provoking the wrath of drivers and pedestrians, some of whom were seen remonstrating with them and even trying to pull them away.

    Just Stop Oil has, over the last month, mounted almost daily protests in opposition to the government’s plans to license more than 100 new oil and gas projects by 2025.

    Action has included smearing chocolate cake on a waxwork figure of King Charles III at the Madame Tussauds museum and throwing tomato soup at Vincent van Gogh’s Sunflowers at the National Gallery.

    The group said 637 protesters had been arrested over the last four weeks. They join more than 1,900 arrested since April.

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • An ITV hack just got a job working for Rishi Sunak – it’s ‘totally rotten’

    Rishi Sunak has just made an ITV News journalist his new director of communications. It should be a shocking story: allegedly impartial journalist goes through the media-government revolving door and comes out biased. However, it’s not shocking at all, because it’s repeatedly happened in the past.

    Moreover, the situation shows that even when the government has extreme right-wing leanings, the UK corporate media is still in bed with it.

    Sunak has a new comms director

    Amber de Botton is currently head of UK news at ITV News. As BBC News reported, de Botton:

    was previously head of politics at ITV and deputy head of politics at Sky News, after starting her career as a parliamentary reporter.

    However, Sunak has now poached her to work for him. ITV News‘ political editor, Robert Peston, broke the story via Twitter of all places:

    Other corporate journalists toed a similar line to Peston – not seeing that there was a problem with the situation. Sky News political editor Beth Rigby tweeted:

    Of course, there is a major problem with Sunak making de Botton his director of comms – as people pointed out on Twitter.

    The “revolving door” between media and government

    The Canary’s Amplify participant Claire Higgins pointed out that there’s a “small pool” of people in the UK who work in government and media. She noted that Peston didn’t seem to see the problem with this:

    A tweet that reads: "There are 50 odd million people in England, do you never pause to think that the system might be corrupted if media & government are from a tiny pool of people?

    Another Twitter user said:

    The revolving door of UK journalism & UK Government. How do you expect us to believe you hold power to account?

    Journalist Chas Newkey-Burden wryly asked Peston:

    But what about you? Will the Tories also reward you for being so good for them?

    There are some political undertones in the story too, as de Botton’s team at ITV News broke some of Boris Johnson’s ‘partygate’ scandal – which has ultimately paved the way to Sunak becoming PM. Even putting this aside, the PM giving an ITV News journalist his top comms job stinks.

    “Totally rotten” client journalism

    One Twitter user summed it up:

    You’re all far too close to government. You have this fantasy of speaking truth to power and holding it to account but in reality it’s client journalism. Amber brings you a step closer, she’ll be feeding you the party line first and you’ll call it a scoop.

    As the Canary previously reported, “client journalism” is where the government uses reporters for its own agenda. Former corporate journalist Peter Oborne said corporate media outlets:

    yearn for privileged access… And they are prepared to pay a price to get it. This price involves becoming a subsidiary part of the government machine. It means turning their readers and viewers into dupes. This client journalism allows Downing Street to frame the story as it wants.

    Then, governments reward client journalists by giving them jobs in government. We saw this with Johnson making former ITV journalist Allegra Stratton his director of comms – before she had to quit anyway over partygate. Tony Blair had former Mirror political editor Alastair Campbell, David Cameron had former News of the World Editor Andy Coulson, and Theresa May had former BBC journalist Robbie Gibb – who’s now back in charge at the Beeb, pushing Tory agendas on the party’s behalf.

    One Twitter user called the situation “corrupt” and “totally rotten”. They’re not far wrong. There’s nothing impartial about the UK’s corporate media. It’s stuffed with servile journalists trotting out government agendas in the hope of getting their backs scratched – de Botton’s new job is just another in a long line of examples of this.

    Featured image via Parrot of Doom – Wikimedia, resized to 770×403 under licence CC BY-SA 4.0, Rishi Sunak – YouTube and ITV News – YouTube

    By Steve Topple

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • A refugee detention centre was bombed. The state’s response shows its true racist colours.

    Following the petrol bombing of a refugee detention centre in Dover, the police and government response showed this country’s deeply ingrained racism. The attacker – who was white – threw three bombs into the centre before taking his own life. Two people were injured in the attack.

    Can you imagine the government and police outrage if this had been an attack on a white community by a person of colour? The government’s response would have been instant, while front page headlines of a suicide bombing would have dominated our front pages. Instead, home secretary Suella Braverman expressed a delayed, half-baked concern over the “distressing incident“, several hours after it happened.

    Victim blaming

    But the racism and xenophobia doesn’t stop there. In response to the attack, Dover’s Tory councillor, Nigel Collor, said:

    I’d like to see them stop the boats coming across. I know this is something that’s been going on for a few years and if they stopped the boats coming in you wouldn’t have the problem.

    Yes, that’s right: the councillor hasn’t directly expressed outrage at the attack, nor shown any concern for those who could have been killed. Instead, he has placed the blame squarely on the victims. He argued that if people didn’t flee to England in the first place, attacks like this wouldn’t happen. Disgraceful.

    Dover and its neighbouring district of Thanet are deprived areas of the country, where opportunities are scarce and where xenophobic viewpoints – blaming others for working class poverty – can easily take hold. Politicians like Collor carry a weight of responsibility when they spread racist opinions of an invading ‘other’. Nigel Farage targeted the same area back in 2015 when he stood as MP in the South Thanet constituency, which also spans parts of Dover.

    It’s clear that Farage hoped his viewpoints would resonate with the local population. He saw them as easy prey for his fascist views. Fortunately, he lost that election, but we shouldn’t underestimate his and Collor’s influence.

    Disease-ridden prisons

    Collor’s victim-blaming response is perhaps unsurprising in a country built on an empire of racism. It’s also a country where the government thinks nothing of locking up people as soon as they land on its soil, even though they might be fleeing persecution or escaping bombs made in the UK.

    The 700 people locked up in the Dover detention centre have been moved to Thanet’s Manston asylum processing centre. Manston is currently in the headlines for its squalid conditions. At least eight people locked up in the centre have been diagnosed with diphtheria, and there’s been at least one case of MRSA.

    The centre is designed to hold 1,600 people, but there are reports that 3,000 are crammed in. Meanwhile, more than a dozen more buses filled with people seeking asylum arrived at the prison on Sunday 30 October.

    There’s little public outrage in the UK at people seeking asylum being firebombed and catching diseases in filthy conditions. The state – with its racist politicians and police force, punitive laws, and vile mainstream media – is squarely to blame. We have two choices: we can hold the state accountable, or we can get on with our lives, leaving our fellow humans to fester as if they weren’t people at all.

    Featured image via Milad Fakurian / Unsplash, resized to 770 x 403px

    By Eliza Egret

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • The Tories are causing a potential ‘exodus’ of public sector workers

    Nearly two million public sector workers are thinking about quitting their jobs, with nearly half saying it’s because of pay. These are the results of new research from the Trades Union Congress (TUC), which says the Tories are causing a “mass exodus” of workers from the public sector. And it’s the NHS which will be the biggest casualty of over a decade of Tory-led pay cuts.

    Brutal Tory public sector pay cuts

    Successive Tory governments have repeatedly cut public sector pay in real terms. For example, the then-coalition government froze pay in 2010 for two years. Then, it imposed years of real-terms cuts by freezing pay rises at 1%. As the TUC noted, the end result is that the Tories – for the NHS, compared to 2010 – have cut:

    • £4,300 from nurses’ pay.
    • £5,600 from paramedics’ pay
    • £1,300 from porters’ pay.
    • £3,200 from maternity care assistants’ pay.

    It’s a similar story in education, where the Tories have wiped 25% off teachers’ pay since 2010. However, this year has been particularly brutal. The Tories have capped NHS pay rises at 4% for most staff, while inflation is over 10%. The TUC noted that this means the Tories have cut £1,100 off nurses’ pay and £1,500 off paramedics’ pay. So, workers have had enough.

    Workers have had enough

    YouGov did polling for the TUC. It found that among public sector workers, 1.8 million (32%) said they were thinking of quitting their jobs. Of the people YouGov surveyed, it found that:

    • 45% said the Tories’ approach to pay “has made them more likely to leave their job in the next one to three years”. This rose to 50% among health and social care workers.
    • 52% who “have taken steps to leave or are considering leaving” said it was due to low pay.
    • 47% feel undervalued.
    • 33% have a “poor work-life balance”.
    • 31% said they have “excessive workloads”.

    The impact of all this is already clear. The TUC noted that:

    Latest data shows that NHS England is operating short of almost 130,000 staff due to unfilled vacancies. This represents a vacancy rate of 9.7 per cent. In the education sector, one in eight newly qualified teachers (NQTs) leave the profession after one year in the job, with almost one-third of NQTs (31%) leaving within their first five years.

    TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady said in a press release that many public sector workers:

    are now at breaking point because of a toxic mix of low pay, unsustainable workloads and a serious lack of recognition. After years of brutal pay cuts, nurses, teachers, refuse workers and millions of other public servants have seen their living standards decimated – and now face more pay misery. It is little wonder morale is through the floor and many key workers are considering leaving their jobs for good.

    Strike against the Tories

    However, public sector workers aren’t taking the Tories’ pay assault lying down. As we’ve seen in recent months, strike action in the private sector has taken off. Now, in the public sector, the Royal Colleges of Nurses and Midwives, the National Education Union (NEU) and Unison have been balloting members on strike action. As O’Grady summed up:

    If there is large-scale public sector strike action over the months ahead, the government only has itself to blame… [It has] chosen to hold down public servants’ pay while giving bankers unlimited bonuses. Ministers must change course. Without decent pay rises for key workers in the public sector, we face a mass exodus of staff.

    However, given that the Tories have already signalled that more austerity is on the cards, they’re unlikely to put in place a fair public sector pay rise. That means workers will have to continue to strike until they force the government to change course.

    Featured image via goodcatmum – Wikimedia, resized to 770×403 pixels under licence CC BY-SA 2.0 

    By Steve Topple

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Exclusive: here’s why the CWU pulled its Royal Mail strikes

    The Communication Workers’ Union (CWU) has cancelled all upcoming strike action against Royal Mail. This is in response to a legal threat from the company.

    The Canary can exclusively reveal that the basis for the Royal Mail’s claim is a trifling technicality, but it was enough to force the CWU to act.

    CWU: Royal Mail strikes cancelled… for now

    Royal Mail workers have been striking for weeks. It’s over a paltry pay offer of nearly half the rate of inflation, as well as worsening working conditions. This was despite Royal Mail making £758m last financial year and paying £400m of that in dividends to shareholders.

    Recently, bosses at the privatised company threatened 6,000 staff with redundancy and plans to axe 4,000 more positions. The CWU’s next planned strike was on Wednesday 2 November. However, on Sunday 30 October the union said it was halting all strikes.

    The CWU said in a statement:

    Following a letter received by Royal Mail’s legal team which attempted to undermine pre-existing strike ballots, the Communication Workers Union (CWU) voted this morning (Sunday 30th October) to withdraw industrial action notices over the next two weeks. This means that strikes involving various sections of the workforce over the next fortnight will no longer be going ahead. However, strikes will resume on Saturday 12th November.

    Reports in the corporate media failed to give a solid reason for why Royal Mail had forced the CWU into a position where it had to stop the strikes. So, the Canary spoke to the union.

    Royal Mail: pathetic

    The CWU gave us more information – it shows that Royal Mail is being petulant at best.

    It told the Canary:

    In a very small number of workplaces across the country (less than five), the crossover of peoples’ job responsibilities would mean that when they would be striking, work would be going unattended that wouldn’t be covered in the legal notice given.

    In other words, a minority of Royal Mail workers are having to do multiple jobs. Because of the terms of the CWU strike action, this multitasking is not covered. Therefore, by breaking the legal basis for the strike, the CWU might undermine the whole action. As such, it had no choice but to withdraw.

    Bear in mind that there are potentially thousands of Royal Mail workplaces in the UK. For example, Leicestershire alone has 31, so five workplaces is a tiny number. Yet Royal Mail exaggerated the situation. It told BBC News:

    The CWU has withdrawn strike action following Royal Mail writing to CWU to highlight numerous material concerns with the formal notification of planned rolling strike action

    CWU: not backing down

    General secretary Dave Ward hit back at the bosses. He said in a video message that:

    we’re not going to be stopped in doing the right thing by people who have just turned up in the last 18 months and… have plans that are not about growing the industry. They’re about levelling down; forcing people out of work to bring in new entrants on lower pay, terms and conditions

    The CWU was clearly aware that the decision to delay strikes would frustrate many workers. Deputy general secretary Andy Furey said in a statement:

    We entirely understand the anger felt by many over the decision, but we believe it is a necessary move to protect our dispute. Our members have been facing down serious harassment from the highest levels of Royal Mail as they defend their industry and those communities they serve. They will not be forced into submission so easily, and we will be reminding the company of their determination at ACAS in the coming days.

    It’s clear that the CWU will not back down, nor will its members. The union is now regrouping, with talks between it and Royal Mail continuing via ACAS on Monday 31 October. If bosses think they can stop 115,000 workers and the CWU on a pedantic and preposterous legal technicality, they’ve got another think coming.

    Featured image via the CWU – YouTube

    By Steve Topple

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • The secretive Tory faction pushing hardline Brexit policy in Rishi Sunak’s government

    Condemnation followed UK prime minister Rishi Sunak’s reinstatement of Suella Braverman as home secretary despite her multiple infringements of the ministerial code. Then there’s her enthusiasm to forcibly send refugees to Rwanda against a European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruling. There’s also her determination to block migrant labour, though she skirts around the real problem in industries such as agriculture and hospitality i.e. notoriously low pay. And there’s the matter of asylum seekers forced into insanitary holding camps, only to succumb to diphtheria and other diseases that will likely lead to legal action and compensation claims.

    Yet Braverman’s re-appointment might be explained by her membership of a secretive Tory faction known as the European Research Group (ERG). Braverman is also a former ERG chair. Moreover, several of Braverman’s cabinet colleagues are ERG members: James Cleverly, Penny Mordaunt, Michael Gove, Thérèse Coffey, Anne-Marie Trevelyan, and Chris Heaton-Harris. Long time ERG member Steve Baker remains minister of state for northern Ireland.

    The ERG has been operational since 1994 and there are around 118 MPs who are or were members. It may be wrong to suggest Sunak is a prisoner to this extreme group, however, for he too is a Brexit enthusiast. And it appears he is, or was, an ERG member.

    Who funds the ERG?

    The ERG’s mission is to ensure their hardline version of Brexit remains government policy. Yet the consequences of that approach have been patently catastrophic, dramatically affecting UK trade with our nearest neighbours in the EU, and in turn affecting prices of imports.

    So who funds the ERG? Back in 2017, openDemocracy published evidence that the group received over a quarter of a million pounds from MPs, who claimed that money via their official expenses. In other words, funding for this secretive and unaccountable group came from taxpayers’ money.

    Also, Baker – who went on to become minister in the Department for Exiting the EU (DExEU) – accepted a donation for the ERG from the Constitutional Research Council (CRC). The CRC channelled £435k of ‘dark money’ to the Democratic Unionist Party (Northern Ireland) to buy Brexit advertising across the UK.

    ERG and Brexit

    Meanwhile, the ERG’s Brexit agenda is facing renewed criticism from mainstream media.

    A Financial Times (FT) article demonstrates that since the EU referendum, prices of goods, particularly food, have massively risen. Thanks to Brexit, there’s also been a reduction in UK investment. Not forgetting the huge lorry queues at ports; labour shortages in several industry sectors, due in part to bans on migrant labour from the EU; and the ending of the right of UK citizens to live, work, and study anywhere in the EU.

    Then there’s the Northern Ireland Protocol, which claims to guarantee peace in the province via the Good Friday Agreement. The Northern Ireland Protocol Bill, which will provide the legal means for Westminster to unilaterally amend the Protocol, has the full backing of ERG’s legal experts. Moreover, Sunak has promised the ERG that the Parliament Act will be used to tear up the Protocol, which could see UK-EU relations damaged further.

    The “Brexit effect”

    An FT video on the “Brexit effect” looks at the repercussions from a business point of view:

    The video shows how in the immediate aftermath of the EU referendum vote, the pound plummeted, while import prices rose, seeing inflation rise at 2-3%. The number of UK smaller companies trading with their EU equivalents fell by around a third, following the 2021 Brexit trade and co-operation agreement. The projected annual change in Gross Domestic Product (GDP – a scorecard of a country’s economic health) for 2023 is of note: it shows the UK is far behind many other countries.

    The FT video also points out that after Brexit, the UK chemical industry had to leave the EU registry of chemicals and create its own registry at an estimated cost of £2bn. Because of the continuing deadlock between the UK and the EU, there are now threats that the UK can’t join the Horizon Science Research Project, worth 95bn euros.

    Ironically, it’s argued that the north of Ireland, in contrast, is an economic success story, because unlike other parts of the UK it has a frictionless border with the EU via the Republic of Ireland.

    More Brexit criticism

    As with the FT, the BBC’s Ros Atkins is scathing in his assessment of how Brexit has affected the UK economy:

    Atkins mentions that in March the Office of Budget Responsibility (OBR) said the UK economy had suffered a “15% reduction in trade intensity as a result of Brexit”. He also pointed out that the post-Brexit UK trade deals negotiated with 71 countries are mostly carbon copies of the deals the UK already had via the EU.

    As for the much lauded trade deal with Australia, to put it in perspective, that’s merely worth 0.08% of the UK’s GDP by 2035 – and there’s still no deal with the US.

    Rights under threat

    There are also other consequences to the ERG’s extremist version of Brexit. In September, the Canary reported a so-called “bonfire of rights”, threatened by the Tories.

    On 24 October, the Canary’s Maryam Jameela pointed out that once enacted, the Retained EU Law (Reform and Revocation) Bill will get rid of all sorts of regulations. That bill was sponsored by Brexit extremist and prominent ERG member Jacob Rees-Mogg.

    The bill aims to destroy regulations that protect our environment, food standards, and hard won workers’ rights. Regarding the latter, this includes:

    • Paid holiday leave.
    • Equal pay rights.
    • Maternity, paternity and parental leave rights.
    • Rest breaks.
    • Pregnancy protections.
    • And much more.

    However, the Retained EU Law bill may now be delayed, if only for expediency reasons.

    A possible solution

    Meanwhile, an Ipsos MORI survey has found that:

    51% of respondents felt Brexit had damaged the UK – with only 22% saying the impact of leaving the EU has been positive. 22% said it made no difference.

    But, as the FT pointed out, Sunak only needs look to the north of Ireland for a solution to the Brexit conundrum that has been so damaging over the last six years. For the north of that country has all the advantages of remaining in the single market without requiring membership of the EU.

    Indeed, there’s no logical reason why the rest of the UK should not follow suit. That would mean not only greater and barrier-free trade for Britain, but a way out of the political deadlock in Belfast. And the SNP would undoubtedly rejoice in such a change in direction.

    In short, it would be a win-win for all.

    Except, that is, for racists, xenophobes and the ideologically extremist ERG.

    Featured image via Public Domain pictures cropped 770×403 pixels

    By Tom Coburg

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Scottish Power bosses made millions last year, while forcing sick customers to install pre-pay meters

    With all this talk of the rising cost of oil and gas, you might be excused for thinking that the companies supplying our energy are struggling. However, according to anti-capitalist research group Corporate Watch utility company bosses are still raking it in.

    The continued profits for these bosses are in stark contrast to the situation for energy consumers, who saw energy bills rise yet again at the beginning of October. Thousands of us are in fuel poverty as a result.

    Raking it in

    Corporate Watch released an alternative company profile of Scottish Power, one of the ‘Big Six’ UK energy suppliers.

    Scottish Power – owned by Spanish multinational Iberdrola – doesn’t appear to be suffering as a result of the cost of living crisis. Corporate Watch wrote:

    In 2021, as the cost of living crisis began, company top brass collectively paid themselves almost £10m, and Scottish Power paid the Iberdrola corporate group over a billion pounds. Iberdrola’s CEO’s salary was at least £5.49m, and Iberdrola shareholders were paid hundreds of millions in dividends.

    The research group continued:

    Scottish Power’s highest paid director – likely to be CEO Keith Anderson – received £425,000 (up from £383,000 the previous year) in pay, as well as £69,000 in pension benefits in 2021, in addition to share benefits. In total, Scottish Power’s directors received £1.05 million in pay, an increase from 2020. When share-based payments are included, the 15 key management personnel received a total of £9.8 million…

    15 key management personnel received £9.8 million in benefits, including share-based payments.

    Scottish Power is the sixth biggest UK energy supplier.

    Today, Joe Glenton reported for the Canary that Shell made £8.2bn profits last year, and still received a UK tax rebate. These two examples show clearly how the UK government enables soaring corporate profits, while we are told to tighten our belts.

    Fuel poverty

    Meanwhile, Scottish Power’s customers are struggling to pay their bills, and the company is trying hard to get as much out of them as it can.

    Scottish power was warned by energy regulator Ofgem in September about its “failure to protect customers” who fall into energy debt. Ofgem ordered Scottish Power to:

    • Pause disconnections for those customers with active, agreed or overdue repayment plans of £5 per week (per fuel) or below.

    • Review and update all call scripts, training materials, policies, communications with customers and provide training for company staff, to ensure they reflect that there is no default minimum repayment amount when sufficient information is available on a customer’s ability to pay.

    • Contact and review all customers on debt repayment plans of £5 per week, per fuel, or below to ensure they are based on each customer’s ability to pay.

    Forcibly installing pre-pay meters

    Scottish Power has been heavily criticised for the way it forces customers to install prepay meters, when they fall into debt. Corporate Watch wrote:

    Energy companies can apply to have a pre-pay meter installed if people fall into arrears, but they are not supposed to do it if customers are ‘vulnerable’. Scottish Power customer James Collins told iNews that the company had forcibly installed a pre-pay meter at his home despite him telling them that he had diabetes, and that he needs a consistent power supply to keep his insulin refrigerated.

    Internationally, Scottish Power’s parent company has been involved in multiple scandals, including appearing in the Spanish high court over allegations of corporate espionage. Iberdrola has several businesses registered in the US tax haven of Delaware.

    Cosying up to government

    Scottish Power protects its position and its profits by cosying up to the UK government. The company has had at least six meetings with British Prime Ministers over the last ten years, and 85 meetings with ministers.

    Scottish Power CEO Keith Anderson met with ex-Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng in August, to discuss the government’s support plans for energy companies.

    The company has donated £48k to the Conservative Party since 2010, and paid thousands to sponsor receptions at both the Labour and Tory party conferences in 2021.

    Claire O’Neill – one of Scottish Power’s directors – has a long history as a Tory politician, which means the company is likely to retain close links to the UK’s Tory government.

    Heat the Rich?

    While we’re struggling to make ends meet and pay the bills this winter, it’s important to remember that we’re categorically not ‘all in this together’. Company directors and the political class are getting richer at our expense.

    230,000 people have pledged to go on strike, and not pay their energy bills in a campaign to force the government to reverse the energy price hikes, initiate a social energy tariff, and end the forcible installation of prepay meters. The strike is scheduled for 1 December. You can read about their campaign here.

    Featured image via Corporate Watch

    Tom Anderson is part of the Corporate Watch Cooperative

    By Tom Anderson

    This post was originally published on Canary.