radiofree.asia

Category: UK

  • The general election is no longer about politics. It’s about morals – and the Tories and Labour have none.

    We have arrived at that place. A general election. The one where our two main political parties are campaigning to see who’s going to be burying the bodies of the people their policies kill.

    The Tories have proven over the last 14 years that they don’t give a shit about anyone who is disabled, trans, not British, mentally ill, young, old or poor. Basically, if you’re not an Oxbridge educated, racist, corrupt prick who likes to avoid paying their taxes – you’re pretty screwed. 

    Meanwhile, the leader of the opposition has made more U-turns than a drunk guy on a unicycle. From scrapping the two-child limit, tuition fees, and renationalising our public services, to blocking new oil and gas exploration in the north sea. 

    But here’s the thing. As a proud Gen Z, people have told countless times over the years that I have to tolerate, or even be friends with, people who have opposing political opinions to me. Honestly, I’ve always agreed. I’ve never even thought about it too much. Everyone disagrees sometimes, right?

    Who lives and who dies

    However, recently a sense of hopelessness has struck me. Somewhere along the line, we moved away from discussing – and even disagreeing – about politics, to disagreeing on fundamental morals and human rights. 

    When did our politicians stop asking ‘how are we going to solve this issue?’ 

    Why is the new default ‘should we even bother trying to solve this issue?’ 

    Why do the looney tunes in charge get to decide who lives and who dies? How does the colour of my skin and where I was born mean my life is more valuable than children in the Middle East? 

    Basic human rights should not be a political issue. Clearly they are – now more than ever before – but they shouldn’t be. It’s so much more than politics. It’s literal life and death. 

    Sneaky and calculated or downright cruel?

    Currently, our main two political parties are condoning the murder of Palestinians in the name of colonialism. There are literal disabled people dying because the government doesn’t give a shit about systematically screwing them over. Meanwhile Labour made zero mention of disabled people in their pre-election pledges. 

    If one of my close friends told me they were voting Tory – I wouldn’t be angry. I’d be sad, but mainly disappointed. To me, that says they’re okay with Israel needlessly killing Palestinian children. It says they’re okay with systematically excluding disabled people. It says they’re okay with young people literally killing themselves because they can’t access mental health care. 

    As someone who has personally experienced homelessness, it tells me they don’t have a problem with thousands of people sleeping on the streets every night. That becomes even more of a problem when you realise that homelessness is a political choice. Which they proved during Covid, bringing everyone inside practically overnight.

    And getting really honest for a minute – voting Labour isn’t much better. Unless it’s tactical to keep the Tories out. Because whilst they might appear on the surface to be a little less cruel – many of their policies will have the exact same impact as the last 14 years of Tory hell. 

    Not so Great Britain

    At some point, politics stopped being about politics. The muppets in charge changed the game. From being about who could create the most well-thought-out policies and making the country a better place to live in. To one which they trivialise suffering and question people’s value. 

    Maybe it’s naive of me to expect any less from a bunch of overpaid pillocks. But I don’t believe its naive for Gen Z’s to dream of a country where the core values of our politicians – and consequently the people voting for them – are not questioned every two minutes. 

     

    By HG

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • DWP to hire ‘external agents’ for its benefit fraud fiction as Stride and Hunt stigmatise disabled people

    The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is once again ramping up its benefit criminal rhetoric around Universal Credit. Specifically, it has announced its plans to hire 2,500 ‘external agents’ to “crack down on” so-called benefit fraud.

    In tandem with this, DWP boss Mel Stride and Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt penned an article for the Times bashing Universal Credit claimants. The announcement, followed by the pair’s remarks fed into the Tory’s usual divisive ableist and classist benefit claimant-bashing narrative.

    DWP ramps up recruitment

    On 13 May, the DWP published updates to its flagship ‘Fraud Plan’. As the Big Issue reported, part of this involves hiring:

    2,500 external agents to tackle fraud and error in the universal credit system.

    Combined with the DWP’s own agents, it takes the headcount to nearly 6,000 people hired to investigate universal credit claimants.

    Alongside this, the Big Issue explained that the DWP will introduce:

    a new civil penalty to “punish fraudsters”, partly-automated checks, and £70m invested into “advanced data analytics” which will see machine learning used to detect fraud.

    Of course, this comes off the back of the DWP’s recent recruitment drive and AI roll-out. Specifically, as the Canary’s Rachel Charlton-Dailey wrote for the Big Issue in April, the DWP posted jobs for surveillance officers “to snoop on benefit claimants”.

    Then, also in April, the Canary reported on the department’s £1.5m in awards to obscure AI and tech companies.

    Ostensibly, the surveillance “snoops” jobs furnish the DWP’s work to curtail so-called benefit fraud. Meanwhile, the AI services appear to be part of the government’s drive to push people into work. Together, the two exhibit the Tory’s two-pronged approach to demonising poor, sick, and disabled people receiving state welfare.

    So predictably, DWP boss Mel Stride said that the latest updates were part of the government’s overall strategy for:

    scaling up the fight against those stealing from the taxpayer

    Universal Credit: a “lifestyle choice”

    Of course, the government’s fixation on alleged benefit claimant fraud doesn’t stand up to the facts. Nor is it the taxpayer money-saving scheme the Tory’s avow it to be.

    Firstly, this is because a sizeable portion of the DWP’s fraud figures isn’t from actual claimants. As the Canary’s Steve Topple previously pointed out:

    much of the £8.3bn the DWP promotes as fraud (and that the media dutifully laps up) is just based on assumptions and guesswork. In 2020/21, 152,000 claims the DWP valued at £1.9bn were not even real claimants.

    Then, there’s the fact that its overall strategy will purportedly save a grand total of £1.3bn. Of course, as I raised for the Canary before, this pales in comparison to the multiple billions in Covid PPE fraud the government has written off.

    Regardless, the Tories have continued this pervasive benefit claimants “stealing from the taxpayer” strapline.

    Notably, in an article for the Times, Stride teamed up with Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt to double-down on this.

    Unsurprisingly, they dredged up the Tory’s age-old benefits as a “lifestyle choice” guff. This buttressed a reference to the number of people out of work due to long-term sickness. In other words, the Tory’s are hell-bent on pushing chronically ill and disabled people into work.

    Tories “punching down”

    However, as the Guardian reported, Trade Union Congress’s (TUC) general secretary Paul Nowak called out the Stride and Hunt’s comments:

    Unemployment shot up by over 160,000 over the last quarter and record numbers of people are becoming economically inactive because they are too sick to work.

    Instead of punching down, the Tories should be tackling our sky-high waiting lists and improving access to treatment. And they should be laser-focused on improving the quality of work in this country.

    People need jobs they can build a life on. But under the Conservatives we have seen an explosion of low-paid and insecure work that has led to eye-watering levels of in-work poverty.

    Before handing out lectures, Jeremy Hunt and Mel Stride should try surviving on a zero-hours contract.

    Essentially, their flippant and stigmatising remarks entirely overlook the reasons for the rising rates of unemployment through chronic illness.

    Recent analysis from the TUC for instance, highlighted that economic inactivity from chronic illness has risen by more than 500,000 for women in just five years. Similarly, separate figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) in April revealed that long Covid rates are soaring over 2 million people – and on the rise.

    Both analyses pointed to the pandemic and its role in a mass disabling of the population. However, the TUC went further and laid blame at the feet of “overstretched” public services, insecure work, and low pay.

    Ultimately, it’s easier to pin blame on people pushed into poverty, sickness, and disability than the state of the UK’s exploitative, abusive labour market, and broken healthcare system. At the end of the day, fixing the public’s attention on the non-issue of benefit fraud is the perfect diversion from the Tory corruption and incompetence.

    Feature image via Facebook – Sky News

    By Hannah Sharland

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • After Tory dither and delay, parliament FINALLY passes Animal Welfare Bill to protect farmed animals

    On Tuesday 14 May, the UK House of Lords passed a landmark new bill on animal welfare. Of course, it’s a major win for animal rights. However, it likely could have happened a lot sooner if not for Tory wrangling on previous bills.

    Animal Welfare Bill passes through parliament

    The Animal Welfare (Livestock Exports) Bill prohibits the export of cattle, goats, pigs, and horses for slaughter, and fattening for slaughter.

    It aims to improve animal welfare in farming by ending long, arduous journeys to other countries. These journeys regularly put animals through overcrowding, exhaustion, dehydration and stress.

    However, on 14 May, the House of Lords passed the new bill that will bring this appalling practice to a close. It will now head for royal assent before becoming law.

    Activists have been calling for the ban for decades. Emma Slawinski, director of policy, prevention and campaigns at the RSPCA animal charity, described it as “an extraordinary achievement” that activists had campaigned on for 50 years. She said that:

    Back in the 90s we had more than a million animals going out from the UK. It’s an abhorrent trade. The suffering is intense and it goes on for a long time.

    Some of those journeys were measured in days, not in hours, and they’re never going to happen again.

    Activists launched particularly fierce and dedicated campaigning during this time. Notable among this was a coordinated wave of protests and direct action against the practice at the port of Brightlingsea in Essex in 1995. UK media dubbed the event “The Battle of Brightlingsea”.

    In tandem with this, on February 1, 1995, Jill Phipps was one of a few dozen animal rights activists who broke through a police line at Coventry Airport in central England. She was crushed to death under a lorry as she protested against the export of live calves for veal in 1995.

    Political “stumbling blocks”

    While the bill marked a step forward for animal welfare, it could have come into effect sooner. Compassion in World Farming’s CEO Philip Lymbery noted how:

    It has been a very difficult journey to get this policy over the line with many stumbling blocks along the way.

    The legislation is part of the Conservatives boon of Brexit branding in which it promised to centre animal welfare. Specifically, the party first proposed the ban in 2017 and touted it as a benefit of Brexit because European Union trade rules prevent member states from banning live exports to other countries in the bloc. As a result, the live exports ban became a pillar of its “action plan for animal welfare” which it launched in 2021.

    The Tories first had the chance to put this into action through a Commons bill in 2021. Notably, the Kept Animals Bill previously contained these provisions. In June 2023, the Tories shelved the bill at the final hurdle.

    Alongside banning live animal exports, the Kept Animals Bill had offered a range of measures to improve the situation for farmed animals, non-human primates, and other species kept as pets. However, as the Canary’s Glen Black reported, the Tories mothballed the bill. Naturally, they did this to appease their friends in the hunting industry. As Black explained, the government said that instead they would:

    unbundle the bill’s various measures and push them through as single-issue legislation. As HSI/UK said, this likely means through private members’ bills (PMBs).

    However, as he also detailed at the time:

    However, as the Electoral Reform Society recently pointed out, PMBs’ rates of success are low. And it seems it was done to protect the vile ongoing abuse of wildlife.

    In other words, the private member’s bills like the Animal Welfare (Live Exports) Bill has laid cover for the Tories pander to an abusive, abhorrent, animal-killing industry.

    A “truly momentous day” for animal rights

    Despite the delay and diversion, this key facet of animal rights protections will now become law.

    Given this, animal rights charities have celebrated the success. Compassion in World Farming’s patron Joanna Lumley said:

    Finally, finally, finally, we can celebrate the news that live farm animals will never again be exported on long, horrendous journeys from our shores only to be fattened or slaughtered. For decades, we at Compassion in World Farming have worked tirelessly to bring this campaign to everyone’s attention.

    The organisation called it a “truly momentous day” for farmed animals. Moreover, Kent Action Against Live Exports’ (KAALE) Yvonne Birchall hailed it as a testament to the committed work of long-term campaigners. She said:

    For 29 years, KAALE and their supporters have demonstrated outside UK ports as live export shipments have been loaded on vessels bound for Europe. It has been truly heartbreaking to witness these animals crammed into trucks.”

    Whatever the weather, whatever the time of day, KAALE have attended these sailings, and our members are the last friendly faces millions of animals will have seen before being exported. We are delighted that the law will finally ban this cruel trade and the people of Kent will no longer need to stand up in opposition to it.

    Feature image via Compassion in World Farming

    Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse

    By Hannah Sharland

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • DWP boss caught lying TWICE to lay cover for latest assault on disabled people

    In the past couple of weeks, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) boss Mel Stride has lied not once, but twice about disabled people’s benefits – specifically, PIP. Naturally, the DWP boss that the Canary’s Rachel Charlton-Dailey has aptly branded a “human wet wipe” now refuses to apologise. Of course, it’s just another day in the life of ableist Tory scapegoat politics.

    DWP boss lying through his teeth

    First, in an interview with the BBC on 29 April, Stride claimed that those accessing the disability benefit Personal Independence Payment (PIP) get “thousands of pounds a month”.

    However, people were quick to point out across X that the claim was verifiably bullshit. In fact, the highest amount people can actually receive on PIP is a measly £798.63 a month.

    On top of this, the DWP gives many claimants much less than this, as a poster on X highlighted:

     

    Yet, why would a Tory hell-bent on demonising disabled people concern himself over a small thing like the facts?

    What’s more, people on X slammed his hypocrisy when the duplicitous secretary himself claims thousands on MP expenses:

    More to the point, PIP is about making the cost of living equitable – or in other words, attempting to somewhat level the playing field for disabled people financially. Disability activist Paula Peters underscored this:

    Ultimately, Stride wasn’t worried about the truth. Benefits costing the taxpayer “thousands a month”? His goal is visibly to whip up hatred towards disabled people.

    So why stop there?

    Well naturally, he didn’t.

    Spinning a web of untruths

    Stride followed up this bare-faced lie with another. Disability News Service (DNS) picked up that during the same interview, he:

    also told the BBC on Tuesday that PIP was “a benefit that has not been reviewed for over a decade”.

    This was also untrue. There were two high-profile independent reviews of PIP, with the first published in 2014 and the second reporting in 2017, just seven years ago.

    So once again, Stride was caught out spinning his web of untruths. Ostensibly, the only thing with more holes than his BBC interview was the social security safety net he’s been carping on about.

    His fallacious comments to the BBC come amid the DWP’s rancid plans to scrap PIP for a voucher scheme.

    For more on why that’s an astoundingly terrible and vile idea, you can read the Charlton-Dailey’s scathing take-down here. But in short, it’s the Tory’s latest diabolical proposal to punch down on disabled people.

    Pitching to his ableist voter base

    Predictably, Stride has made no apologies for his falsehoods. As DNS reported:

    When approached about the two comments, DWP only responded to the first one, claiming that Stride “misspoke” and had meant to say “thousands of pounds a year”, which he said during other interviews that morning.

    The department refused to explain why he had wrongly claimed there had been no review of PIP for over a decade, and refused to say if Stride would apologise for either statement.

    Naturally, these weren’t his first offences. DNS also pointed out that:

    It took him just six days after he was appointed in 2022 to claim wrongly that there were 2.5 million people who were “long term sick” and “economically inactive” and who wanted to work.

    In fact, the Office for National Statistics figures he was quoting did say there were 2.49 million working-age people who were economically inactive and described themselves as “long term sick” in the latest quarter of that year (June to August 2022), but those figures also showed that only 581,000 (23 per cent) of this group wanted a job.

    So essentially, Stride has been a serial liar on television interviews since he took up the role. He could walk back these missteps, but ultimately of course, the damage is done.

    At the end of the day, his lies and glaring lack of apology either suggests the latest DWP incarnation of evil shitfuckery doesn’t know his brief.

    Or, more likely, he’s deliberately dishing out deceit to drum up support from the Tories’ racist, ableist, classist gammon voter base.

    My money – including every paltry penny of my PIP – is on the latter.

    Featured image via Sky News – YouTube

    By Hannah Sharland

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Labour Wins Landslide in Local UK Elections Amid Tory Crackdown on Migrants

    Nearly two weeks after the British Conservative Party pushed through a proposal to deport asylum-seekers to Rwanda in what one lawyer called “performative cruelty” in the name of winning the general election expected later this year, the local election results announced throughout the day Friday made increasingly clear the ploy hadn’t worked. Elections expert John Curtice projected the Tories…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • The Tories have broken the law AGAIN over their climate crisis response

    For the second time in less than two years, the High Court has found the UK government’s inadequate climate crisis strategy to be unlawful.

    Tories breaking the law on the climate crisis AGAIN

    In today’s landmark High Court judgment, which followed legal challenges by Friends of the Earth, ClientEarth and Good Law Project, the government was once again found to have breached the Climate Change Act when it adopted the Carbon Budget Delivery Plan.

    The Secretary of State is expected to now have to draw up a revised plan within 12 months. This must ensure that the UK achieves its legally binding carbon budgets, and its pledge to cut emissions by over two thirds by 2030, both of which the government is off track to meet.

    In today’s judgment the High Court agreed with ClientEarth and Friends of the Earth that the:

    • Secretary of State was given “incomplete” information about the likelihood that proposed policies would achieve their intended emissions cuts. This breached section 13 of the Climate Change Act which requires the Secretary of State to adopt plans and proposals that she considers will enable upcoming carbon budgets to be delivered.
    • Plan’s central assumption that all its policies would achieve 100% of their intended emissions cuts was wrong. The judge said the Secretary of State had acted irrationally, and on the basis of an incorrect understanding of the facts.
    • Emissions savings relied on by the Secretary of State needed to be adjusted to reflect any expected shortfalls in savings due to risks and barriers to delivery. In other words, the quantified savings for each policy and proposal must represent what officials realistically expect to be achieved rather than just aspirational targets.
    • Government had breached its duty on sustainable development. This duty requires the Secretary of State to be satisfied that the policies adopted “must contribute to sustainable development”. The Secretary of State had applied a test of “likely” which the court held was a lower threshold than required under the CCA.

    As a result of the three legal challenges, key information on the risk associated with the policies in the plan has now been released to the public and Parliament, which make clear that the plan is high-risk and reckless.

    Reckless and insufficient

    The Government refused to publish documents known as risk tables, but Good Law Project and Friends of the Earth published them in full after they were mentioned in court so they can now be scrutinised by Parliament, experts, journalists and the public.

    The Carbon Budget Delivery Plan is the government’s strategy for meeting legally binding carbon budgets (a cap on the amount of greenhouse gases emitted in the UK over a five-year period) – as well as meeting the UK government’s international pledge to cut greenhouse gas emissions by over two thirds (68%) by 2030.

    However, progress on meeting both the UK’s domestic climate targets, and its 2030 international goal is currently way off track and these crucial commitments are unlikely to be met based on current government policies.

    The three organisations are calling for a new plan that ensures the UK’s national and international climate targets are met and that the huge economic benefits that building a greener future will bring are fairly shared across society.

    Two legal breaches

    This is the second time the government’s climate action plan has breached the Climate Change Act. Its previous plan, the Net Zero Strategy, was also ruled to be unlawful following legal challenges by the same three organisations in July 2022.

    The Climate Change Committee’s assessment last year was that the government only has credible policies in place for under 20% of the emissions cuts needed to meet the sixth carbon budget. In an unprecedented intervention, former Climate Change Committee chair, Lord Deben, provided a powerful written statement in support of Friends of the Earth’s legal challenge.

    His evidence is referred to in the judgment and was highly critical of the process by which the CBDP was adopted – including the underlying assumption that everything would go to plan and all the policies would deliver their intended carbon cuts in full.

    The court case also revealed that by its own assessment of its policies, government officials had “low/very low confidence” in their achievement of around half of the emissions reductions required to meet the sixth carbon budget and the 2030 pledge.

    “Embarrassing”

    Friends of the Earth lawyer, Katie de Kauwe, said:

    This is another embarrassing defeat for the government and its reckless and inadequate climate plans.

    It shows the strength of the Climate Change Act – brought into force after a successful campaign led by Friends of the Earth and the backing of an overwhelming majority of MPs – to hold the government of the day to account for meeting its legal requirements to cut emissions.

    We’ve all been badly let down by a government that’s failed, not once but twice, to deliver a climate plan that ensures both our legally binding national targets and our international commitment to cut emissions by over two thirds by 2030 are met.

    Cutting emissions isn’t only essential to avert the worst of climate breakdown, it will create long term jobs in green industries of the future, boost energy security, bring down our bills and end our reliance on costly fossil fuels.

    We urgently need a credible and lawful new action plan that puts our climate goals back on track and ensures we all benefit from a fair transition to a sustainable future. Meeting our domestic and international carbon reduction targets must be a top priority for whichever party wins the next general election.

    “Not fit for purpose”

    ClientEarth Senior Lawyer Sam Hunter Jones said:

    The courts have now told the UK government not once, but twice, that its climate strategy is not fit for purpose. This time the court made it emphatically clear: the government cannot just cross its fingers and hope for high-risk technologies and uncertain policies to plug the huge gaps in its plans.

    No more pie in the sky – this judgment means the government must now take credible action to address the climate crisis with a plan that can actually be trusted to deliver and with numbers that can be relied on.

    The good news is that with crisis comes opportunity. As its own expert advisors have repeatedly said, the government has a golden opportunity to reduce emissions with actions that will also create jobs, improve services and bring down household bills.

    Actions such as public transport investment and a home insulation roll-out will create new jobs, lower costs and provide energy security now and for generations to come – as well as putting us on track to meet our legal targets.

    Another climate crisis failure from the Tories

    Emma Dearnaley, Legal Director of Good Law Project, said:

    This is yet another climate failure from this government – it’s the second time in two years that its flagship net zero strategy has been found to be unlawful by the court because of our joint legal action.

    This builds upon our earlier success in the legal challenge, where we released key information that Ministers tried to keep under lock and key, revealing significant risks of their climate policies not meeting vital targets.

    This welcome ruling shows that the law is our best – and often last – line of defence against a government that is failing to act as it must to address the climate emergency. And we will continue to use it to push for accountability and greater ambition.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • NZ Foreign Minister Peters accused of ‘entirely defamatory’ remarks about ex-Australian minister

    By Jo Moir, RNZ News political editor, and Craig McCulloch, deputy political editor

    New Zealand’s Labour Party is demanding Winston Peters be stood down as Foreign Minister for opening up the government to legal action over his “totally unacceptable” attack on a prominent AUKUS critic.

    In an interview on RNZ’s Morning Report today, Peters criticised the former Australian senator Bob Carr’s views on the security partnership between Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States.

    RNZ has removed the comments from the interview online after Carr, who was Australia’s foreign minister from 2012 to 2013, told RNZ he considered the remarks to be “entirely defamatory” and would commence legal action.

    A spokesperson for Peters told RNZ the minister would respond if he received formal notification of any such action. The Prime Minister’s Office has been contacted for comment.

    Speaking to media in Auckland, opposition Labour leader Chris Hipkins said Peters’ allegations were “totally unacceptable” and “well outside his brief”.

    “He’s embarrassed the country. He’s created legal risk to the New Zealand government.”

    Hipkins said Prime Minister Christopher Luxon must show some leadership and stand Peters down from the role immediately.

    ‘Abused his office’
    “Winston Peters has abused his office as minister of foreign affairs, and this now becomes a problem for the prime minister,” he said.

    “Winston Peters cannot execute his duties as foreign affairs minister while he has this hanging over him.”


    Labour leader Chris Hipkins on AUKUS and the legal threat.  Video: RNZ

    Peters was being interviewed on Morning Report about a major foreign policy speech he delivered in Wellington last night where he laid out New Zealand’s position on AUKUS.

    Hipkins told reporters he was pleased with the “overall thrust” of Peters’ speech compared to recent comments he made while visiting the US.

    “I welcome him stepping back a little bit from his previous ‘rush-headlong-into-signing-up-for-AUKUS’,” Hipkins said. “That is a good thing.”

    Hipkins said the government needed to be very clear with New Zealanders about what AUKUS Pillar 2 involved.

    Luxon praises Peters
    Speaking to media in Auckland on Thursday afternoon, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, when asked about Peters’ comments, said as an experienced politician Carr should understand the “rough and tumble of politics”.

    Luxon said he would not make the comments Peters made, and had not spoken to him about them.

    Peters was doing an “exceptionally good job” as foreign minister and his comments posed no diplomatic risk, Luxon said.

    Last month, Carr travelled to New Zealand to take part in a panel discussion on AUKUS, after Labour’s foreign affairs spokesperson David Parker organised a debate at Parliament.

    Former Labour Prime Minister Helen Clark was also on the panel, and has been highly critical of AUKUS and what she believes is the coalition government moving closer to traditional allies, in particular the United States.

    Clark told Morning Report today she had contacted Carr after she heard Peters’ comments, which she also described as defamatory.

    This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Disabled Charlie Chaplin in COURT over parliament protest for Gaza where cops NICKED him in his wheelchair

    I go on trial at Westminster Magistrate’s Court on May Day, having been nicked protesting the genocide in Gaza, blocking the entrance to parliament dressed as Charlie Chaplin.

    This is what I hope to tell the judge.

    Gaza protest: Why I did what I did

    I had been feeling increasingly distressed by the tragic events unfolding in Gaza. Israel, with one of the most sophisticated arsenals and surveillance systems in the world, had launched a sustained attack against one of the poorest and most densely populated places on Earth, indiscriminately firing on defenceless and innocent people, many of whom were children.

    Cutting off all water and electricity from 2 million people as a form of collective punishment. Using disturbing language to describe the Palestinians, such as likening them to, ‘human animals’. Ordering more than a million people, 80% of the population, to evacuate their homes within 24-hours before a barrage of near ceaseless bombing would begin.

    A million people on the move in one day. Too many with just the clothes on their backs and a couple of carrier bags. Ordered to walk to one spot, Rafah, nearly 20 miles from Gaza City, where apparently it would be safe.

    Hope and sanity seemed to be draining from the world, so I welcomed the ceasefire vote in parliament. But MPs voted 293 to 125 to reject the call. With the vast majority of MPs not even bothering to show up.

    The final straw for me was seeing a video on LBC, three days before my Gaza protest. Headed, ‘They’re bombing the bit they told people to go to,’ a reference to Rafah. They were actually bombing the safe haven.

    Amnesty International said that at least 95 civilians, nearly half of them children, had been killed in four rocket strikes.

    This was not Israel defending itself or trying to rescue hostages. LBC’s James O’Brien said it well, ‘You can’t call it anything other than a massacre now. And you can’t justify it, frankly, on any level, unless you are prepared to accept the untold killing of innocent people, in the spurious pursuit of the guilty,’ he said, spurring me into action.

    Mime activism: What I did

    I arrived at Westminster on Wednesday 6 December, around the time PMQs would have been finishing up. The busiest time for both Parliament and the media who report on it. I positioned my mobility scooter outside the Carriage Entrance. My plan was to attract a swarm of police officers and elevate my protest to news-worthy-ness, and I’d do it dressed as Charlie Chaplin, with the hat and tails and full make-up:

    For 18 years, I have inhabited a character that I have called Charlie X, a form of mime activism based on Chaplin’s the Little Tramp.

    I held aloft a placard showing a powerful image of a young Israeli boy, and Palestinian girl tending a sapling, that was growing amidst the rubble. I’d added the words ‘Peace’.. ‘Shalom’ in Hebrew, and ‘Salaam’ in Arabic:

    Disabled solidarity with music and art

    40% of Gaza’s population is aged 14 and below. Save The Children says there’s about 610,000 children, or one for every 2 adults. That’s tens of thousands of babies, tens of thousands of toddlers, tens of thousands of kids of primary school age. Children trying to survive devastating injuries sustained in airstrikes and sniper attacks, their stories painting a harrowing picture of the human consequences of Israel’s prolonged hateful indiscriminate onslaught.

    I’m disabled, but enjoy the support of family, friends and the NHS, so I can’t imagine how difficult it must be for a crippled toddler to survive the extreme trauma of terrible excruciating injuries? An estimated one thousand children in Gaza have become amputees since October 2023, have lost one or more limbs, often operated on without the use of anaesthetic, with no family, and no health service. A child who has to somehow survive their wounds on the streets of Gaza, with 24 bombed hospitals and 400 murdered healthcare professionals.

    On the back of my placard was a little music box that played ‘Hey Jude’, when you turned the handle, it chimes, ‘Take a sad song and make it better.’ There is nowhere sadder than Gaza right now.

    I also held a large sign showing a section of Picasso’s powerful painting ‘Guernica’, depicting the bombing of a Spanish market town in 1937. One of the first acts of genocide committed by the Nazis. Someone had filled it in with Palestine’s national colours, drawing a direct link to the bombing of Gaza:

    Never again: from the Blitz to the Nakba

    In one corner I had added in a Remembrance Day poppy to connect to Britain’s experience of war. My Great Grandparents were bombed out twice during the Second World War. The family archive has this newspaper clipping that says, ‘BOMBED OUT TWICE – Now couple celebrate diamond wedding’

    Their son, my grandfather, was in the fire service, stationed at Lewisham. He never spoke about his wartime experiences, but it must have been extremely tough. He was probably on duty in July ‘44, when Lewisham market, was bombed, destroying a Marks and Spencer’s, killing 59 people, and seriously injuring hundreds of others.

    My father, who was 7, fled London with hundreds of thousands of other kids. Somewhere between 1.5 and 2 million people fled the capital in near panic during this period.

    So, you see, the Blitz is very much part of my family history. It’s in my DNA. It’s partly why I think I have a natural affinity to the plight of the Palestinians today. Like them, my family knew what it felt like to be hated and hunted by a genocidal regime. Like them, my family knew what it felt like to face death at any moment, to lose everything, to have to flee their home, to run for their lives. In Britain we called it ‘The Blitz’. In Gaza they call it Nakba, which means – ‘Catastrophe’.

    Charlie Chaplin getting busted for Gaza

    I felt calm, empowered, exactly where I should be. I was soon approached by a police officer who told me to move, motioning towards the pavement beyond the cordon, saying I was free to carry out my protest ‘over there’. But ‘over there’ I was just another tourist attraction, and they would have no doubt already seen another and better Charlie Chaplin on the South Bank. My version was more ‘Modern Times’ than ‘do the box’. Defiant, political, prone to getting into trouble, wave a red flag, and recite the Speech from the Great Dictator at the top of my lungs. That has always been my version of the little tramp, and it was like the tourists expected to see Charlie Chaplin getting busted on their big day out in London. Hundreds of people from all around the world took pictures, and video, and many showed their approval:

    At one point, an officer asked me if I would be prepared to move out of the way if an ambulance needed to enter parliament in an emergency. I gestured ‘yes’.

    I don’t think that it can be properly said that I was blocking the gates. At no time was I aware of a vehicle needing to enter or leave Parliament. The double gates remained shut the whole time. The width of my scooter is 68cms, and judging by the Body Cam footage of my arrest, you can clearly see that there was still enough room for a vehicle to pass:

    So, you could describe my obstruction as more than minor, but less than major, well targeted in terms of the time and place, and designed to attract media and by extension government attention to an immediate and dire situation, to warn about the moral jeopardy that the UK will find itself in if it continues to turn a blind eye to genocide. And to British companies that are currently facilitating it:

    After my arrest

    In Charring Cross police station, at midnight, a detective came to my cell and offered me a caution to effectively forget the whole thing, and drive away. And after being in a cell for 9 hours, I have to say it was tempting. But I just thought of all those dead and injured Palestinian children being collectively punished for something they had nothing to do with. And so I thought, ‘No, let’s see this through.’ Let’s get my day in court and hopefully get a chance to say what I think needs to be said.

    On the 29th December, about a week before my plea hearing, South Africa reported Israel to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for the crime of genocide, alleging that Israel’s actions in Gaza amounted to a deliberate policy of extermination against the Palestinian people. And on 26 January, with reportedly 1% of Gaza’s population, some 25,700 people, mostly women and children then killed, the ICJ delivered its interim judgement, with15 of the 17 judges finding plausibility in South Africa’s case.

    I felt vindicated. On the right side of history. My little act of defiance justified. Happy that I hadn’t allowed myself and, by extension, my Charlie X character, to lose our humanity, our ability to act when it matters by taking a stand, and then to stand by those actions. I stand by my actions, my civil disobedience on the grounds of conscience, and am more than willing to vouch for the sincerity of my beliefs, and the world I want to live in, and accept any penalties imposed by law as a price worth paying.

    Featured image and additional images via Christine Ongsieg and videos via Paul

    By Neil Goodwin

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Colonial UK and France ramp up racist migrant rhetoric with Rwanda plan and detention centres

    Once again, the violence of colonial ‘fortress’ Europe is on full display as the UK ramps up its racist refugee policies. Meanwhile, across the Channel, a new report has exposed France’s abusive migrant detention regime.

    Rwanda plan: Tories set their immoral scheme in motion

    The UK government has begun its appalling assault on migrants living across the country.

    On Monday 29 April, the Home Office launched a spate of detentions. As the Guardian reported:

    Detainees will be immediately transferred to detention centres, which have already been prepared for the operation, and held until they are put on planes to Rwanda. Some will be put on the first flight due to take off this summer.

    Now, the government has confirmed that it has detained a number of these migrants ready for deportation.

    A Supreme Court ruling last year that ruled that sending migrants to Rwanda in this way would be illegal because it:

    would expose them to a real risk of ill-treatment

    Moreover, numerous rights groups, the UN Refugee Agency, and the UN’s human rights office have slammed the government’s scheme. In February, UN human rights chief Volker Türk issued a scathing statement on the plan, saying that:

    It is deeply concerning to carve out one group of people, or people in one particular situation, from the equal protection of the law – this is antithetical to even-handed justice, available and accessible to all, without discrimination.

    Immigration tyrannising migrants

    Naturally however, this hasn’t stopped the racist Tory government from ramming it through parliament. On 22 April the House of Commons passed the abhorrent new law which greenlights the Tory’s flagship asylum policy.

    So, following this, a new Home Office document has now revealed that the government plans to deport 5,700 migrants to Rwanda this year.

    Specifically, it detailed that Rwanda has “in principle” agreed to accept 5,700 migrants already in the UK.

    Under the government’s new plans, it can deem asylum claims inadmissible for migrants who arrived in the UK between January 2022 and June last year.

    So of course, it has already started its foul campaign tyrannising migrants.

    Calling it “another major milestone” in the Rwanda plan, the ministry released photographs and a video of immigration enforcement officers detaining several migrants at different residences.

    Violence in France’s detention centres

    Meanwhile, across the Channel, the violent racist architecture of colonial borderisation has also been in full swing.

    A new report by migrant rights groups including SOS Solidarity and France Terre d’Asile (“France Land of Asylum”) has revealed that migrant detention in France is also on the rise. Worse still, the report documented a rise in violence towards migrants inside these detention facilities.

    Specifically, it found that France had incarcerated more undocumented migrants in detention centres in 2023 than in 2022.

    French authorities held 46,955 migrants in the detention centres across the country and in overseas territories in 2023. This was compared to 43,565 the previous year.

    In mainland France, the large majority were men, 5% were women and 87 individuals were children accompanied by their parents. More than 120 said they were under-18 but French authorities had declared them to be adults. Most migrants were Algerian, Tunisian and Moroccan, in that order.

    On average detention centres held them 28.5 days out of a maximum allowed of 90 days. Notably, this was a week longer than the previous year. Given this, the report noted how the incarceration had impacted the mental health of the detainees. Detention had sometimes led to suicide attempts, self-mutilation, tensions and violent incidents with people working with them.

    Crucially, the report noted:

    Never have our associations witnessed so many violent acts as in 2023

    While some detainees sometimes clashed with others held with them, the report also identified police violence towards migrants.

    For example, at one centre in the Paris region, more than 40 migrants officially complained of:

    physical violence, threats or insults of racist or homophobic character, (and) sexual assaults

    Notably, this violence was specifically from police inside the facility.

    Trash ‘deterrent’ and ‘detention’ rhetoric

    Predictably, both colonial governments have bandied about bullsh*t about ‘detention’ and ‘deterrent’.

    The Tories xenophobia-fueled argument is that the threat of being deported to Rwanda will deter tens of thousands of annual cross-Channel arrivals.

    Of course, this isn’t what the official statistics show. Instead, arrivals have increased by more than a quarter in the first third of the year compared to the same period in 2023.

    Similarly, France has held up its detention scheme as a major pillar of its deportation plans.

    However, the nonprofit report found that of those held in detention centres, it had expelled 15% fewer detainees from the country last year compared to 2022, despite an increase in deportations overall.

    Ultimately, it’s all bluster and demonstrates the dangerous end point of scapegoat politics. People seeking safety from persecution, poverty, and violence should be welcomed into our communities. Instead, vile governments continue their immoral, racist colonial project without a shred of conscience.

    Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse

    Feature image via Wikimedia/Youtube/the Canary

    By Hannah Sharland

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Tories AGAIN accused of killing disabled people after UNCRPD’s “damning verdict”

    A UN committee – the UNCRPD – has slammed the UK government’s abhorrent treatment of disabled people. Now, Deaf and Disabled People’s Organisations (DDPOs) across the UK have spoken out about the damning verdict.

    UNCRPD reports “grave and systemic” rights violations

    On Wednesday 24 April, the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) ruled that the UK government had failed to halt the “grave and systemic” violation of the human rights of disabled people across the country.

    This report followed the UNCRPD’s inquiry in March, where, as the Canary’s Rachel Charlton-Dailey detailed:

    the government absolutely showed itself up by trying to make it sound like it cared about disabled people – and the UN special rapporteurs consequently dragged them over the coals.

    So now, the UNCRPD has issued its scathing conclusions on a litany of government failures and deliberate discriminatory policies against disabled people. Charlton-Dailey explained again that:

    The UNCRPD report pulls the government up on many things – including benefits deaths, Work Capability Assessment (WCA) reforms, the institutionalisation of disabled people, and British Sign Language (BSL).

    It lambasted everything from indefensibly low benefits, to the government’s callous Work Capability Assessment reforms, and its plans to snoop on disabled people’s bank accounts with AI.

    Crucially, at both the inquiry and in the subsequent report, the UNCRPD dragged the government over the coals for failing to follow up on recommendations from the last time. Specifically, as the Canary’s Steve Topple articulated in March, this wasn’t the first time the UN had hauled it in front of the committee:

    Every so often, the UNCRPD monitors countries to see if they are acting in line with the CRPD’s articles or not. The last time the committee looked at the UK was in 2016 – and the report was damning. Then, in August 2017, the UNCRPD followed up on its report; this included its chair accusing the government of creating a “human catastrophe” for disabled people. Yet in 2018 the government effectively whitewashed the UNCRPD report.

    DDPOs provided much of the vital evidence the committee used at the inquiry and to collate the report. Now, they are speaking out about its conclusions, and the government’s shameful conduct throughout the process.

    DDPOs speak out

    Andy Greene is a disability rights activist on the national steering group of Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC). The group triggered the UNCRPD’s special inquiry. He said that:

    The process of evidence gathering, taking witness testimony and objective scrutiny of policy and its impact, is one that’s very difficult to ridicule or dismiss. The facts speak for themselves. As such, the inquiry vindicates the experiences of Deaf and Disabled people whose voices are too often ignored.

    Meanwhile musician, campaigner and fellow DPAC steering group member John Kelly said the report is:

    damning on the lack of this government listening to our real lived experiences as Disabled people and doing anything to support what we really need which is to live and contribute in our community as equal citizens along with our peers.”

    Spokesperson for DPAC Northern Ireland Dermot Devlin said:

    DPAC NI thank the UN Committee for their work and due diligence on our behalf and call on the Westminster Government to properly implement the recommendations of the 2016 inquiry and the current report.

    The absence of Government in Northern Ireland has failed Disabled people here. With the Executive now restored, bringing forward a Disability Strategy that addresses the Committee’s recommendations must be an absolute priority.

    Svetlana Kotova is director of campaigns and justice at Inclusion London. In a press release she said that:

    This report is a damning verdict on the government’s track record in upholding our human rights…It is shocking that our country that positions itself as a world leader is yet again found to breach our rights on a systematic level.

    It is also shocking that the government has failed to listen to the UN in the past and has actively dismissed the previous recommendations….Inclusion London welcomes the report and urge the government and the opposition to take it seriously and develop policies on welfare reform, employment and independent living that comply with the UK’s obligations under the UNCRDP.

    As a result, Kotova argued that:

    The report shows that the current system is not fit for purpose and the government cannot carry on punishing Disabled people.”

    UNCRPD hears of institutionalisation and benefit deaths

    Notably, DDPOs underscored the reports clear findings that the current environment the government has fomented for disabled people in the UK contravenes their human rights.

    Among the many areas where the committee expressed it was “deeply concerned” were:

    • the social care recruitment crisis follow EU withdrawal.
    • the inadequacies of social care support provision to cover anything more than “bare subsistence”.
    • incarceration of Disabled people “in secure psychiatric facilities due to a lack of community-based support”.
    • “disabled people who are housebound due to inadequate support to access the community”.
    • “abuse, mistreatment and the increasing use of restraints, restrictive practices and… unexpected deaths in the mental health care system”.

    Dorothy Gould is founder of grassroots organisation Liberation. People with personal experience of mental distress and trauma lead the group. On the report’s identification of medical abuse and the carceral response to people in mental health distress, Gould said:

    it is an utter disgrace that many of us are forced into institutions, continue to be locked up against our will in places such as psychiatric hospitals and continue to be forcibly treated and abused, in complete breach of human rights which other citizens hold.

    Of course, the UNCRPD also drew attention to the horrendous and appalling scale of benefit deaths that the government has repeatedly caused. Notably, the report called for the government to appropriately “redress” its legislation and policy that are causing these tragic deaths. Alongside this, it said the government should implement appropriate “reparation measures for the victims’ families”.

    Alison Turner is daughter-in-law of Errol Graham, who starved to death after the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) stopped his benefits. On the findings of the report she said:

    I am pleased that the report highlighted the need for proper review and monitoring of the deaths of benefit claimants… It shows that this government has learned nothing and cares not for its direct actions to cause harm.

    Government “contempt” is “wilful and calculated”

    DDPOs also called out the UK government’s appalling last-minute back out of the original session. Initially, the UNCRPD had scheduled the meeting for 28 August. However, just six days before the deadline for written evidence submissions to the inquiry, the government pulled out.

    By this point, many cash-strapped DDPOs had already booked their flights and accommodation to attend.

    The result was that the committee, which is made up of Deaf and Disabled members from around the world, had to split the oral evidence section of the inquiry into two separate sessions.

    CEO for Disability Wales Rhian Davies slammed the government’s evasive behaviour:

    The UK Government’s approach to this review has been utterly disrespectful and matches the contempt shown to Disabled people for over a decade. We deserve better and we demand better.

    Echoing this, UK Coalition co-ordinator and disabled activist Ellen Clifford said:

    The government’s attitude towards the UN special inquiry is evidence that their treatment of Deaf and Disabled people is wilful and calculated. This is reflected in the damning findings of the report.

    The limitations of the inquiry process are that there are just too many deliberate rights violations to include in one report.

    However, the report validates the experiences of Deaf and Disabled people across the UK and is a much-needed counter to government rhetoric claiming they are “protecting the most vulnerable” when they are doing the exact opposite.

    UK media “drowned out and demonised” disabled people

    While the DDPOs largely directed their criticisms at the UK government, disabled president of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) Natasha Hirst took aim at the press.

    Specifically, she made a call to all journalists to reflect on the evidence in the report. Crucially, she pulled them up on their role perpetuating inaccurate and harmful government rhetoric:

    There has never been a more important time for journalists and the wider media industry to tackle harmful negative rhetoric against disabled people.

    I call on journalists to take time to understand the concerns raised by the UN Committee and scrutinise why the Government is so keen to dismiss their failure to uphold disabled people’s human rights.

    Deaf and Disabled People’s Organisations have thoroughly evidenced the harm caused by policy changes and cuts to services and yet the UK Government is intent on pushing this even further.

    Disabled people’s voices need to be heard and not drowned out and demonised by people who have never experienced the sharp end of the social security system.

    As journalists, we should report ethically to hold power to account, and not be complicit in the scapegoating of disabled people.

    Naturally, the mainstream media were predictably doing exactly that in March. As the Canary’s Steve Topple documented, the BBC acted as a mouthpiece for the government, effectively whitewashing the inquiry.

    Tory’s “onslaught” of harm

    Of course, since the inquiry in March even, the Tories have ramped up their war on disabled people. So, some DDPOs honed in on the government’s latest machinations to punch down on them.

    Disability Rights UK CEO Kamran Mallick said:

    Under this Government, the UK has lost its status as a nation that leads in disability rights to one that is actively attacking Disabled people.

    In just the last week we have seen an onslaught of new policy proposals and legislation which will not only harm us but also lead to avoidable deaths…

    At a time when we’re all struggling to make ends meet and cannot access the healthcare and support that we need, the Government are scapegoating Disabled people for a failing economy.

    We are not at fault for simply existing. The Government are at fault for their complete disregard for international treaties and contempt for Disabled people’s rights.

    In tandem with this, spokesperson for the Black Triangle campaign in Scotland John McArdle stated that:

    To proceed with the plans announced by Conservative Prime Minister Sunak last Friday will definitely lead to a surge in deaths by suicide and other avoidable harm which falls short of death but is nonetheless catastrophic.

    The U.K. has abrogated the Convention on the Rights of Disabled People by its treatment of Deaf and Disabled people in the UK.

    Feature image via UN Web TV

    By Hannah Sharland

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Kate Osborne just made history in the ‘gayest’ parliament in the world

    Kate Osborne MP made history this week – leading the first ever debate in parliament to mark Lesbian Visibility Week.

    Kate Osborne: making history during Lesbian Visibility Week

    The Jarrow MP made history on Thursday 25 April by leading a debate in the main chamber in parliament marking the importance of Lesbian Visibility Week – expressing solidarity with LGBTQIA+ Women and Non Binary people.

    Last Monday night the MP held the first ever parliamentary reception for the week, saying it was the most Lesbians in parliament at the same time ever.

    The debate focused on the issues Lesbians still face today including discrimination and unequal access to IVF as well as highlighting and celebrating iconic women.

    Osborne stated:

    I’m proud to have made history today for holding a debate on Lesbians in the gayest parliament in the world.

    Weeks like this matter, they show solidarity, they enable us to support each other and help us celebrate our differences, embracing the whole LGBTIA+ community. I’m really proud that 40 years after coming out to my family, I was able to stand in the main chamber in Parliament to lead this debate – it’s something an 18 year old me could never have imagined.

    It was disappointing that in this debate, which was celebrating the diversity of LGBTQIA+ women, that the SNP spokesperson used problematic language and sought to sow division.

    In a debate that was unified and joyful with constructive commitments on IVF from the Government for the SNP opposition to behave this way is disappointing.

    Too often people seek to divide us, but we are here today to show that we are unified – not uniform.

    I will continue to make sure there is LGBTQIA+ visibility – lifting up and celebrating all achievements, as we continue in the fight for equality.

    Until we have won equality for all – the fight goes on.

    Kate Osborne MP debate saw cross party MPs share their own experiences, celebrating all things LGBTQIA+, and the government commit to writing to Osborne to follow up on her asks re IVF:

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Long Covid rates hit TWO MILLION as Tories ramp up the war on disabled and chronically ill people

    New government statistics have confirmed what millions of people already knew. Specifically, this was that cases of long Covid across the UK are rampant and ever on the rise – now up to two million people. Of course, for people living the daily realities of this devastating chronic illness especially, the news didn’t come as a surprise.

    Long Covid widespread and rising

    On Thursday 25 April, the UK government’s Office for National Statistics (ONS) released the results of its ‘Winter Coronavirus (COVID-19) Infection Study’.

    Predictably, these latest figures showed that long Covid cases are soaring. According to the survey, at least two million people – 3.3% – of England and Scotland’s population are currently living with long Covid.

    The ONS also broke its data down by age group. In particular, it showed that the percentages for different age demographics self-reporting long Covid ranged from between 1% to 5%. Specifically, it found that long Covid is affecting:

    • 1% of people aged 3 to 17
    • Over 3% for those aged 18 to 34
    • 4% of people aged 35 to 44
    • 5% of people aged 45 to 54 – the demographic with the highest percentage of reports.
    • Closely following this, 4.9% of 55 to 64 year olds reported long Covid
    • Over 3% for those aged 65 to 74
    • 2.8% of people aged over 75

    Perhaps most significantly, the ONS data estimated that the largest proportion of people in these cases had been living with the devastating chronic illness for over three years.

    It detailed that 30.6% – nearly a third – of people had lived with long Covid or over 156 weeks (more than 3 years). On top of this, over 20% have lived with it for over two years – the next highest percentage. Taken together, it shows that at least one million people across England and Scotland are still battling the post-viral fallout from the devastating coronavirus pandemic.

    However, the huge number of people living with long Covid didn’t come as a surprise to some. Despite this, the figures did also leave others scratching their heads.

    Long Covid – the pandemic is “not over”

    Long Covid groups and people living with the post-viral chronic illness took to X to highlight the ramifications of the new statistics.

    As Long Covid Support said, the ONS figures are clear on one thing in particular: that the “pandemic is not over”:

    Notably, Long Covid Support pointed out these figures were also greater than the ONS had previously estimated. In March, it had calculated long Covid cases at 2.9%. What this means is that 100,000 more people are suffering the debilitating impacts of the chronic illness than it had thought back in March 2023.

    Long Covid Support told the Canary:

    It’s not ‘sick note culture’ Rishi – it’s Long Covid. Long Covid is not a historical problem, it continues to claim new victims We need preventative action

    However, some people pointed out that it was likely an underestimate anyway:

    Astutely, some highlighted the problems with the ONS data relying on self reports of long Covid. In other words, people won’t always be aware that they are living with it, despite new symptoms:

    So as one X poster underscored, the study might simply show the number of people who know they have it:

    Medical and media gaslighting

    Another poster on X pointed out that the ONS use of self-reported cases was unsurprising, given the uphill battle patients face to get a diagnosis:

    Of course, this isn’t even to mention the medical gaslighting and abuse doctors routinely mete out against long Covid patients.

    The chronic illness community on X weren’t going to let the corporate media off the hook either. Vitally, one poster expressed how the low rates of self reporting are thanks to the media blitz to downplay long Covid and its failure to connect the dots between the rising rates of other health conditions:

    For a masterclass in this, look no further than the Long Covid Awareness Day gaslighting from all the usual junk science corporate media shills.

    Suspiciously low figures?

    Alongside this, Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC) Sheffield raised their eyebrows at the figures. It referenced the fact that cases of long Covid had only risen from 1.9 million to 2 million in a year, prompting it to question the integrity of the data:

    Moreover, as one person on X noted the ONS prevalence rates were suspiciously lower than estimates in other countries. For instance, in March the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) calculated long Covid rates in the US as 6.8%. So, he suggested the low comparative figures might just have something to do with the abysmal state of the UK’s long Covid testing, and rife denial:

    Such as the fact the NHS has deprioritised treatment targets for long Covid, perhaps?

    Of course, people shouldn’t have to spell out the obvious: that the pandemic is still here. However, as others pointed out the UK government has been doing fuck all to stop this ongoing mass disabling event:

    People highlighted myriad of ways the government COULD be preventing cases. Or you know, helping people with long Covid. Long Covid Advocacy put out a statement with some very practical ideas:

    Callous Tory agenda

    Of course, actually helping people with long Covid isn’t on the government’s priority list. Instead, as the Canary’s Rachel Charlton-Dailey recently pointed out, it’s a bit pre-occupied gaslighting the whole chronically ill and disabled community back into work.

    The irony wasn’t lost on the good folks of X either:

    So, as the government’s latest infantilising plan smears millions of chronically ill people for “pulling a sickie”, is it the latest ONS figures that’s actually pulling a fast one?

    It seems likely.

    By contrast to the ONS 3.3%, a separate study found the prevalence of long Covid much higher. Specifically, a November 2023 study in the journal Nature estimated the true rate at between 6.6–10.3%. Notably, the analysis trashed an earlier 2.7% figure the ONS had put out.

    At the end of the day, millions of people across the UK are dealing with the devastating day-to-day reality of life with long Covid. Ultimately, the new statistics do nothing to stop the gaslighting, abuse, and appalling lack of care.

    If even the conservative ONS data shows the cases creeping up, alarm bells should be blaring. From the government’s disastrous pandemic response to its ongoing callous agenda for sick and disabled people, it’s simply more evidence of the obvious. That is, that the Tories are signing off a gargantuan mass disabling event, and they don’t give a shit.

    Feature image via AFP News Agency/Youtube

    By Hannah Sharland

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • UK: Rwanda Bill passes


    This content originally appeared on Human Rights Watch and was authored by Human Rights Watch.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Walls come down for dual-use tech trade through AUKUS

    Organisations developing dual-use technologies like quantum computing, lasers, sensors, aerospace and propulsion systems will gain easier imports from the US after Australia received a licencing exemption from American regulations. But wider defence trade exemptions have been delayed by up to four months, with US President Joe Biden yet to endorse the reciprocal efforts of Australia…

    The post Walls come down for dual-use tech trade through AUKUS appeared first on InnovationAus.com.

    This post was originally published on InnovationAus.com.

  • The work of Prisoners Of Conscience (PoC), a UK-based charity

    On 9 April 2024, Michael Morrison in Human Rights Centre Blog of the University of Essex wrote a post “Standing Strong: Supporting Human Rights Defenders Worldwide” about the work of Prisoners Of Conscience (PoC), a UK-based charity,

    In a world where human rights are not universally respected, there are courageous individuals who face persecution, silencing, torture, and forced displacement just for standing up for their beliefs. Prisoners Of Conscience (PoC), our UK-based charity, stands in solidarity with these brave people, offering both financial and practical support to those who defend human rights worldwide.

    Prisoners Of Conscience operates on a simple yet powerful belief: no one should be persecuted for protecting or advancing human rights. We recognise that while we enjoy the freedom to express ourselves, many others around the world are not so fortunate. These individuals face unimaginable challenges for their beliefs, often enduring imprisonment, torture, harassment, violence, or being forced to flee their home countries.

    Our mission is clear: supporting those who stand for rights. Our charity provides rapid financial assistance through grants; ensuring immediate relief, resettlement, and requalification during a recipient’s time of greatest need. These grants are not just about providing temporary relief; they are a lifeline for those who have sacrificed their freedom for the principles they believe in. Financial assistance includes covering legal fees, medical expenses, and basic living costs for individuals and their families.

    Moving towards holistic support, we have developed various programs to empower our beneficiaries beyond financial aid. Our employability panel offers guidance and opportunities for career development, including job placement services and vocational training. Additionally, our web-based forum provides a platform for networking and collaboration, where individuals can connect with like-minded activists and organisations. We also collaborate with other parties to offer signposting to practical support, such as mental health services, legal advice, language classes, and integration support for those seeking asylum.

    Yuzana* for example, is a writer, surgeon, and founding member of PEN Myanmar. Yuzana faced a daunting 20-year sentence for her role as a campaigns assistant for the National League of Democracy (NLD) and her unwavering commitment to human rights. Despite enduring almost six years of imprisonment in one of Myanmar’s most notorious prisons, Yuzana’s determination remained unyielding. After being released on humanitarian grounds due to her declining health and international pressure, she continued her advocacy work.

    Yuzana

    In the wake of the military coup in Myanmar in February 2021, PEN Myanmar continues to monitor and share critical information despite grave risks to their safety. Several members of the organisation have been detained, and tragically, four poets are among the unarmed civilians killed. Yuzana, concerned for her safety, was compelled to leave Myanmar and seek refuge in another country. With the assistance of Prisoners Of Conscience, Yuzana was able to cover her travel expenses and basic living costs while she establishes herself in a new environment.

    Our recent research indicates that at any one time there are tens of thousands of prisoners of conscience who are persecuted and in need of our support. The impact of our work is evident in the numbers: in the past year alone, Prisoners of Conscience awarded 130 grants to over 420 individuals from 28 countries. This vital support reached a total of 424 individuals, offering crucial assistance during times of adversity. We are profoundly grateful for the generosity of our donors, whose unwavering support enables us to continue our mission of empowering those who defend human rights.

    The challenges of the past year, compounded by the pandemic, have prompted us to adapt and innovate, and right now, April is all about #RightsRealityCheck.

    Not everyone has access to even the most basic of human freedoms, so we launched the #RightsRealityCheck campaign. This April, human rights champions are undertaking a series of challenges to raise awareness of the rights that many take for granted – basic rights and freedoms which prisoners of conscience risk their life to uphold and protect. Whether it’s reading 5 books throughout the month, writing a blog post each week, or walking in public each day without wearing a head covering, our kind-hearted fundraisers are standing in solidarity with those who face persecution for these simple acts. If you would like to join others who have taken on this commitment to an everyday right, you will not only be standing with prisoners of conscience, but also raising crucial funds to help keep those who defend human rights, and their voices, alive. It’s easy to get started:  Simply download our fundraising pack by signing up here (it’s packed with tips and resources to make your challenge a success). Then, share your challenge with friends, family, and colleagues to gather sponsorship. Every pound raised goes directly to supporting human rights defenders and prisoners of conscience around the world. Or alternatively, see what we’re up to and support someone on their challenge by heading to the link here: #RightsRealityCheck Challenge – JustGiving. Let’s turn our everyday actions into a powerful force for change. Together, we can make a difference in the lives of those who need it most.

    Standing Strong: Supporting Human Rights Defenders Worldwide

    This post was originally published on Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards.

  • An ME inquiry? Not likely when a pillar of the psychologising establishment has access to the halls of power

    Guardian journalist George Monbiot has been calling out the continued appalling abuse of people living with myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME, also known as ME/CFS). However, there’s one prominent, powerful psychiatrist standing in the way of justice via an ‘ME inquiry’ over the “biggest medical scandal of the 21st century”: Simon Wessely.

    Calls for an ME inquiry

    Right now, the NHS is abusing – and killing – (at least) two women living with severe ME. Meanwhile, the spin-doctor-to-corporate media shill machine has continued to churn out the junk science that manufactured this unconscionable situation for people living with the devastating disease.

    So, Guardian journalist George Monbiot is the latest to join people living with ME, their carers, and campaigners in calling for the UK government to conduct an inquiry:

    Given this, it’s fair to ask why exactly the government hasn’t instigated an inquiry? Some people from the ME community on X had a good suspicion as to why this might be. Specifically, they pointed out that a chief scientist who promoted the quack PACE study has a convenient position over the levers of power.

    Psychiatrist Simon Wessely started on the JAC in September 2017, and the JAC reappointed him again in 2020. Crucially, the Judicial Appointments Commission (JAC) decides who would head up inquiries. In other words, Wessely – a instrumental actor in the medical scandal – would get to choose who would oversee an inquiry on it.

    However, when it comes to Wessely weaseling into all the worst places to influence the discourse surrounding ME, this is just the tip of the iceberg.

    Wessely – psychologiser-in-chief

    Firstly, of course, Simon Wessely played a central role in the sham PACE trial itself.

    As the Canary’s Steve Topple has previously explained:

    It was a study, part-funded by the UK government, into treatment for ME. It found that people could recover from the disease by having cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). In other words, people living with a very-real, viral-based illness should just ‘think themselves better’. Essentially, the trial pushed the notion that the disease was part-psychosomatic or ‘made up’ by patients.

    While Wessely wasn’t among the principal investigators, he supported and shaped the study in a number of critical ways. For one, his previous research on ME influenced the way in which the scientists carried out the study. On top of this, he was also directly involved. In particular, he sat as a centre manager for one of the trial centres, and was on the PACE Trial Management Group. The trial credited the group as one of the authors of the study.

    Perhaps most significantly, Wessely was central to pushing out the PACE trial through the media.

    However, psychologising physical illnesses has been Wessely’s modus operandi writ large. In short, he has long hawked in this type of psychosomatic junk science.

    For one, Wessely started his glittering career peddling junk psychosomatic science studies on hysteria. Ostensibly, this notion has long dismissed women’s health conditions and cemented a pervasive misogyny throughout medical science.

    Unsurprisingly then, it was also Wessely and his band of biopsychosocial science chums who first started tarring ME as something psychological. Specifically, in the 1980s, he and his colleagues began pumping out articles that promulgated the cognitive behavioural model of ME.

    This entrenched its psychosomatic origin and pushed cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) and graded exercise therapy (GET) as the dominant treatment methods.

    Moreover, as the Canary’s Steve Topple previously pointed out for example, Wessely gave Gulf War syndrome the psychologisation treatment in the 1990s too. As he explained:

    Wessely is of course the person who (with Chalder, no less) perpetuated the myth that Gulf War syndrome was somehow psychosomatic – in the same way the pair helped ME to become ‘all in people’s heads’.

    Punching down for a living

    Of course, the medical establishment and state have lapped this up. Notably, elite medical bodies have lavished Wessely with multiple awards and memberships. Naturally, the prolific pillar of the psychosomatic bent was also knighted for his “services to military healthcare and psychological medicine”.

    Alongside this, he has a stupefying number of influential roles in the medical establishment itself. He was president of the Royal College of Psychiatry, as well as the Royal College of Medicine. On top of this, the Queen and King’s College London (KCL) awarded Simon Wessely the first regius professor in psychiatry. Essentially, this is a special title bestowed by a monarch.

    So, how did a psychiatrist with a history of pushing contentious studies and dubious science get these glamorous accolades on lofty titles?

    Well, it probably can’t hurt when you rub shoulders with all the right people.

    In Wessely’s case, he’s been a trustee and now sits as a vice-president to non-profit Combat Stress. It is the “UK’s leading veterans’ mental health charity”. As psychologiser-in-chief of a serious physical war-related condition, Wessely is of course right at home in a non-profit focused solely on the psychosomatic impacts of war. But significantly, King Charles has been the charity’s long-time patron.

    More to the point however, Wessely has worked wonders for successive neoliberal government agendas. In short, stripping people of social security is a hell of a lot easier when the science (purportedly) is behind you.

    Of course, this has been precisely the impact of his many years seeding the biopsychosocial model of ME. Therefore, if you want acclaim in medical and political circles – it helps if you push out studies to abet the neoliberal capitalist state in painting millions of people as so-called ‘malingerers’ and benefit ‘scroungers’.

    Cosying up in the halls of power

    So, Simon Wessely has moved in all the right circles to cosy up to the organ grinders in the halls of power.

    Therefore, it was not surprising in 2017 when Theresa May’s Tory government asked him to review the Mental Health Act.

    A coalition of Disabled People’s Organisations railed against this. They raised their significant concerns about his role, stating in a letter at the time:

    A review is needed to address mental health injustice, yet Wessely’s body of work on ME (or “chronic fatigue syndrome”) demonstrates his lack of honesty, care and compassion for patients. His unsubstantiated claim that ME is driven by “false illness beliefs” has led to patients being labelled as hypochondriacs, treated with contempt by some in the medical profession and stigmatised by society. His recommended treatment regime of Graded Exercise Therapy caused deterioration in function for nearly 50% of ME patients surveyed, yet he dismisses their evidence as unreliable and labels all critics of this work as irrational and extremist.

    Predictably then, Wessely punched down on mental health patients in this too. As Topple explained:

    In it, he pushed the emphasis on the patient leading what treatment they had; ‘self-management’ if you like. This seems good on paper. But in reality, it could leave patients vulnerable. Because if treatments don’t work, then the blame for this can be pushed onto the patient for ‘not trying hard enough’. This absolves medical professionals, and ultimately the system, of responsibility.

    So, to make matters worse, this hasn’t been the end of Wessely’s rise to alarming positions of prominent influence. In January 2023, the NHS appointed him to its board. As the NHS website explains, the board is:

    the senior decision-making structure for NHS England. It has reserved key decisions and matters for their own decision, including strategic direction, overseeing delivery of the agreed strategy, the approach to risk, and establishing the culture and values of the organisation.

    In other words, Wessely has a central role in dictating the direction of NHS services – which will of course include how the NHS treats people with ME. Additionally, the Canary previously noted that Wessely’s appointment coincided with the NHS deprioritising services for long Covid.

    Crucially, it could signal the trajectory of treatment for ME, long Covid and other chronic illnesses under Wessely’s direction.

    Wessely mingling with the media

    Ultimately, people living with ME, scientists, some independent media, campaigners, and others have been meticulously researching and documenting this sordid medical scandal for many years. Yet the corporate and mainstream press has offered a cesspool of mockery, maligning, and gaslighting these same people at every turn.

    So why hasn’t the corporate and mainstream media – including Monbiot’s own outlet – kicked up a fuss about this?

    It’s the usual story. As the Canary’s Steve Topple has consistently reported, this is largely thanks to the ostensible “corporate industry spin doctor” the Science Media Centre (SMC)

    Of course, one of its founders was none other than, you guessed it, professor Simon Wessely. He was also a director of the SMC between 2015 and 2019. In addition, the Maudsley Charity, under the NHS trust where Wessely works, has funded the SMC to boot.

    Given this, it’s little wonder the SMC has littered his quotes and views across press releases on ME research. Invariably, it shows that Wessely is comfortably well-connected with the corporate media too.

    Justice for people living with ME

    In light of all this, Simon Wessely’s grip on the science and future for people living with ME seems almost unassailable.

    What we have is a high-profile medical professional and biopsychosocial proponent poised in all the right places to obstruct scrutiny of the “biggest medical scandal of the 21st century”. In other words, cronyism has obfuscated the truth and scapegoated a whole group of people. Sound familiar?

    The Chronic Collaboration – a group fighting for people living with ME and other chronic illnesses – highlighted the uncanny parallels to the recent Post Office Scandal. Crucially, it ran a campaign to call for ITV to expose the post-viral scandal of ME. Of course, one outcome could be to force the government’s to set up an inquiry, as Monbiot said.

    However, while an inquiry would be a good start – it must end with all those who’ve delayed and hampered action on ME being held accountable.

    Most important of all, it needs to pave the way for justice, and nothing short of a revolution in medical care for all those living with ME, long Covid, and other chronic illnesses the psychologising lobby has long harmed.

    Featured image via Kings College London – YouTube

    By Hannah Sharland

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • UK Conservatives Are Channeling Trump in a Desperate Bid to Retain Power

    Eight years have passed since 2016 — the fateful year when U.K. voters delivered a political earthquake by voting to leave the European Union later, and when U.S. voters delivered a second earthquake by electing Donald Trump as president. Now, both countries are again facing critical elections. In the U.S., Trump is making another bid for power despite facing four criminal trials and huge fines in…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • Nothing to see here – just TWO Tory plants for the price of one in the crony BBCQT audience

    BBC Question Time (BBCQT) is not known for a) balance on its panels, nor b) balance in its audience. So it comes as little surprise that on Thursday 21 March’s episode an audience member who praised a Tory mayor was in fact mates with said Tory mayor – with her husband being a business associate of his.

    BBCQT: another day, another plant

    If you watched 21 March’s episode of BBCQT from Middlesborough, you couldn’t have missed the woman in the shocking pink scarf. Not only was her scarf shocking – but her comments on Tory Mayor of Tees Valley Ben Houchen clearly shocked the audience into hysterics, too:

    However, all was not what it seemed – with eagled-eyed activists on X rumbling pink-scarf woman fairly promptly:

    Yes, that was indeed Dawn and Brian Robinson. Brian is one of the trustees of the Teeside Airport Foundation. He is also a director of a company called Goosepool – which is a holding company for the airport. Teeside Airport is the pet project of Houchen. Ergo – Tory plant in the BBCQT audience.

    Houchen and Teeside Airport

    However, the story is much more complicated than that. It appears to be a tale of public money going to private companies also under the guise of a charitable foundation – with Houchen at the centre of it (and Brian Robinson not too far away).

    Tees Valley Monitor and North East Bylines have done some excellent investigative work into this – which you can read here and here.

    The point being, that Dawn Robinson’s waxing lyrical of Houchen on BBCQT was little more than propaganda for a mayor who has a seeming scandal rumbling in the background and skeletons waiting to come out of the closet.

    This is par for the course with BBCQT – whether it be not-so-ordinary members of the ‘public’ in the audience, or the same, unbalanced guest on the panel – as the Canary has repeatedly documented.

    A man of out time? BBCQT nailed it.

    However, perhaps the scandal with shocking pink scarf lady and Tees Valley mayor Houchen might be a bit bigger than just the local airport. For some reason, Houchen’s wife got a job in government – given to her by a Tory Lord who had also donated to Ben Houchen:

    A “man of our time”, Dawn Robinson cooingly declared on BBCQT. She was ironically right – given Houchen is allegedly up to his neck in dodgy business practices and nepotism.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Steve Topple

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Lord ‘Woodcock’ Walney prompts a furious response from Liberty as the backlash to his nonsense continues

    Three of Britain’s leading civil society organisations – including Liberty – have issued a statement calling for a rejection of Lord ‘Woodcock’ Walney’s advice to political party leaders to ban their MPs from engaging with Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC). It comes after the former Labour Party MP mounted a clear attack on some protests and campaign groups – or rather, ones he doesn’t agree with.

    Stop calling Woodcock ‘Lord Walney’

    ‘Lord’ Walney is actually former Labour MP John Woodcock. He was a critic of the then-Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, and actively worked to undermine the party at the time. Woodcock even went so far as to imply Corbyn was a threat to national security; said Labour “tolerated” antisemitism, and noted the party had been ‘taken over by the far-left’.

    As the Morning Star noted:

    As a Labour MP, he was best known for his strong support for British nuclear weapons and the Saudi assault on Yemen. He did a shift as chair of Labour Friends of Israel — “a great nation rooted in progressive liberal values,” he said.

    In 2019 he backed the Tories in the general election and was subsequently ennobled by Boris Johnson in a move few would regard as coincidental and which made him a legislator for life.

    Woodcock PSC: ‘political violence’ – or rather, people he doesn’t like

    Now, Woodcock is working as the Tories’ extremism advisor. As the Morning Star reported, he is now:

    the government’s official adviser on political violence and disruption. It is in that role that he has emerged in the van of the mounting threat to democratic and civil rights.

    He has gone into overdrive with the Israeli attack on Gaza, which he fully supports, and the development of a huge mass movement against that genocide and British political complicity in it.

    Almost every week… [Woodcock] proposes a new way of stopping the pro-Palestinian protests.

    He has recommended making organisations responsible for the demonstrations pay for their policing, without any suggestion of giving them a say in how they are policed.

    He is unbothered by protest thus becoming the preserve of the rich, who have little to protest about.

    He has urged a ban on protests outside “democratic” locations, including the House of Commons, MPs’ surgeries and Town Halls…

    Most recently, he has said that ministers and MPs should be prohibited by their parties from engaging with a range of groups, including the Palestine Solidarity Campaign.

    Over on X, and people were pointing out ‘who the hell does Woodcock think he is’?

    Others were wondering why Woodcock had not published a report he was supposed to:

    Declassified UK reminded us that Woodcock, while slamming the PSC, has also taken donations from the Israel lobby:

    PSC: an ‘essential element of our democratic system’

    So, in response to Woodcock’s PSC attacks, three groups have issued a joint statement over the PSC.

    The statement has been issued by Liberty, Friends of the Earth, England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, and Amnesty International UK. It comes in response to Woodcock’s recommendation that political parties instruct their MPs and elected officials to shun PSC.

    In their joint statement the three organisations declare that:

    The activities of organisations like PSC are lawful, legitimate, and nonviolent, and are essential elements of our democratic system.”

    They also state that:

    Any suggestion that the government or political parties should ban all meetings or engagement with legal civil society organisations or sections of the electorate, is profoundly anti-democratic and sets a dangerous precedent.

    At a time when civil society and human rights defenders are under attack around the world, the British government should be upholding our core human rights, not seeking to remove them from those with whom it has political disagreements.

    Last week an open letter signed by nearly 50 civil society organisations including PSC, Amnesty International, Liberty, Greenpeace and Oxfam condemned the government’s announced intention to place further limits on the right to protest in specific democratic locations including MPs offices and council chambers.

    The letter also condemned the smearing of the movement led by PSC, which is calling for an immediate ceasefire to stop Israel’s mass killing of civilians in Gaza.

    Woodcock PSC: ‘profoundly anti-democratic’. Quelle surprise.

    PSC is the largest organisation in Europe campaigning in support of Palestinian rights with a network of around 100 branches across Britain, and hundreds of thousands of members and supporters from a broad cross section of British society. As the statement underlines:

    the scale of its recent demonstrations calling for a ceasefire show PSC is supported by a substantial body of public opinion in Britain.

    Ben Jamal, director of PSC, said:

    The recent demonstrations organised by PSC reveal a huge democratic gulf between the majority of the British population on the one hand, which opposes Israel’s violence, and most politicians on the other. Polling has consistently shown that that between two thirds and three quarters of the public supports an immediate ceasefire.

    Politicians should be listening to the wishes of the public and put pressure on Israel to end its murderous assault, rather than trying to shut down democratic engagement and debate.

    To suggest that MPs should be banned from engaging with PSC – an organisation that speaks for a massive body of opinion on this issue – is profoundly anti-democratic.

    Featured image via GB News – YouTube

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Al Jazeera’s Bishara says ICJ critics ‘demolished shameless defences’ of Israel occupation

    Pacific Media Watch

    The International Court of Justice (ICC) has held its last day of hearings examining the legality of Israel’s decades-long occupation of Palestinian lands.

    Fifty two countries and three international organisations have addressed the court in the hearings that ended on Monday.

    Most called for Israel’s occupation to be declared illegal and for it to end, with some calling for reparations to be paid by Israel to the state of Palestine.

    Only the representatives of the United States, United Kingdom and Fiji claimed the occupation was legal while non-government organisations and opposition politicians in Fiji condemned their country’s surprise position.

    Marwan Bishara, Al Jazeera’s senior political analyst and a Middle East expert, said the final legal arguments had “demolished the shameless defences” of Israel’s illegal occupation.

    “Ireland, Algeria and South Africa . . . projected their own experience, their own narrative, their own history, their own struggle with [colonial] occupation, and their own experience with liberation as well,” he said.

    “Hence it was both instructive, if you will, not I mean liberating, not depressing.


    ICJ hearing: Final Israeli occupation arguments.  Video: Al Jazeera

    “I want to say it was instructive that they did share with us that but then we had this disingenuous, selective, mind boggling, if not, you know, mind insulting presentations by the United States and the United Kingdom that I think set everyone back.

    “You know they were trampling over international law, expropriating international law, confiscating international legality in order to fit their own little geopolitical calculus on behalf of their little client Israel.

    “So it was a bit shameful, it was a bit shameless to be honest and that’s why today we’ve heard from the Arab League and the [Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC)], legal opinions that were basically set or apparently revised in order to counter the arguments of the UK and the US and in that way I thought it was brilliant and it was entertaining almost.”

    The African Union lawyers argued that “occuopatiion” and “self-determination” could not exist in the same place at the same time.


    This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Bristol to protest ‘educide’ in Gaza as pro-Palestine demos happen across the UK again

    On Saturday 10 February, Bristol will see the seventh local Palestine march organised by “Bristol Palestine Alliance” (BPA). This time, the theme is ‘educide’ – as Israel deliberately wipes out Gaza’s education infrastructure, denying hundreds of thousands of children a future. It comes as local UK rallies will be happening again.

    Israel: carrying out educide in Gaza

    Times Higher Education reported that academics have accused Israel of deliberately targeting schools, universities and academics in Gaza as part of a strategy branded educide. 90% of Palestinian Authority schools have been subject to damage. Centres of higher education, including universities, have been completely shut down. Twelve higher education institutions in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed.

    Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor said Israel is systematically destroying every university in Gaza. Israa University, located in the south of Gaza city, was mined and deliberately demolished by Israeli forces.

    231 teachers and administrators have been killed along with 94 university professors.

    In the occupied West Bank, which is not controlled by Hamas, students are attacked by the army and armed settlers so schools and universities have had to shift to an e-learning model with online classes.

    So, in Bristol this is the focus of 10 February’s action.

    The march and rally

    People will assemble for preliminary speeches and placard-making workshop at 12.00pm on College Green, BS1 5RT and the march will move off at 12.30pm

    The march will make its way through the Centre leaving via Baldwin Street. At Bristol Bridge it will turn left onto High Street and then Wine Street before descending Union Street into Broadmead. The march will loop around the shopping centre and finish at the Bandstand BS2 0HQ in Castle Park for the rally.

    Speakers will include:

    • Professor David Miller, who this week won a landmark case against University of Bristol.
    • Noor Khashaba, chair University of Bristol Friends of Palestine.
    • Dr Eldin Fahmy, senior lecturer in Policy Studies at University of Bristol.
    • Aisha, young school pupil-activist.
    • Tom Bolton, Bristol National Education Union (NEU) branch secretary.
    • Muneera Pilgrim, poet.

    A spokesperson for Bristol-Palestine-Alliance said:

    The death toll in Gaza has passed 27,500. The UN says 100,000 people in Gaza have been killed, injured or are missing. Israeli troops are destroying every aspect of life, housing, infrastructure, health services and education. After seeing the deliberate blowing up of the university buildings in Gaza we have to add the word ‘Educide’.

    Featured image via Times Now – YouTube

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • The government has quietly hit disabled people with a 33% real-terms cut to a crucial grant

    Charities the Spinal Injuries Association and Aspire are calling on the government to think again after it quietly dropped a commitment to increase the amount of money that chronically ill and disabled people in England can claim to adapt their homes via a little-known grant – the Disabled Facilities Grant – that crucially doesn’t affect people’s benefits.

    Disabled Facilities Grant: a stealth real-terms cut on top of benefits

    The Disabled Facilities Grant is used to fund alterations aimed at easing living at home, such as installing wet-rooms or stairlifts. The maximum amount a person is entitled to claim has been capped at £30,000 since 2008.

    An external review commissioned by the government in 2018 recommended that the upper limit of the Disabled Facilities Grant should rise in line with inflation, with further allowances made for more expensive areas. A commitment to increase this figure has been shelved despite this £30,000 sum now being worth around a third less due to inflation and increased building costs.

    According to charities, the consequences of living in accommodation that is not suitably adapted to your needs can be devastating. Crucially, the grant does not affect people’s benefits entitlements.

    Kenny’s story

    Kenny Hughes, who has been supported by Spinal Injuries Association, sustained a spinal cord injury 18 months ago and is paralysed from the waist down. The father from Rochdale is currently living in a ground floor flat which is totally unsuitable for his needs. It means everyday tasks like washing himself can be difficult and dangerous.

    Kenny said:

    Maybe once every three weeks I will have a shower. Then I just use wipes in bed, clean myself off using wipes. I don’t have carers and I can’t afford to pay for carers, so I just have one every now and again.

    It is too dangerous, I can fall and my feet get tangled up behind the sink, in between the feet of the chair, and it takes the scabs that I’ve got on my ankles, which are pressure sores, and it rips them off. They are dressed by a district nurse twice a week but they’re not getting better because of where I am living.

    The benefits of these grants

    Charities say these grants are meant to help prevent these situations, to give people the chance to live independently and get on with their lives – even if they claim benefits.

    Laura Hagan, Housing Manager at Aspire explains how making do in a property that hasn’t been adapted to meet your needs is degrading:

    Aspire’s research shows that such situations rob people of their independence, significantly reducing their chances of getting work, and affecting both their physical and mental health. The long-term impact is immense, on the individual and on their family.

    All too often the funding available is too small to make the changes that are needed, leaving people in limbo; many of the people Aspire works with are unable to access their bathroom, their kitchen, or even to actually leave the house. That the already insufficient grants are being eroded over time, making them even less fit for purpose, is a disgrace.

    The government says…

    A spokesperson for the Department for Health and Social Care said:

    Our programme of social care transformation is working to ensure that people can access the right care, in the right place, at the right time and we are focused on the priorities in our ambitious 10-year reform programme.

    The Disabled Facilities Grant helps around 50,000 people each year to adapt their homes to help them live more independently.

    Last March we announced an additional £100m over two years for the Disabled Facilities Grant, on top of the more than £500m already available annually for grants – so that more people can benefit.

    However, Dharshana Sridhar, campaigns manager at Spinal Injuries Association, believes this is having a knock-on effect, making the crisis in social housing worse as people are forced to sell their homes if they cannot afford to adapt them:

    The amount being capped at £30,000 since 2008, despite rising costs and inflation, has already forced many disabled people to sell their homes and go on the social housing register, where there is already a lack of accessible homes for disabled people.

    It is imperative the government addresses this urgently and updates the means testing, or we will see many more forced to sell their homes. Many people with disabilities are currently on long waiting lists for suitable housing and feel trapped with nowhere suitable to live.

    “It’s like we don’t matter anymore”

    Kenny summed the situation up:

    It’s like we don’t matter anymore, I’m just shocked. With inflation everything should be going up and now the cost of building work is huge compared to even three years ago. Everyone’s wages are going up but I am stuck in this property now as if I don’t matter.

    It’s really important to stay in your own home if you can, the upheaval you have to go through following a spinal cord injury and then on top of that coming back to a strange place that isn’t your home is devastating when you feel you have lost so much already.

    Featured image via Rawpixel – Envato Elements

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • The government has quietly hit disabled people with a 33% real-terms cut to a crucial grant

    Charities the Spinal Injuries Association and Aspire are calling on the government to think again after it quietly dropped a commitment to increase the amount of money that chronically ill and disabled people in England can claim to adapt their homes via a little-known grant – the Disabled Facilities Grant – that crucially doesn’t affect people’s benefits.

    Disabled Facilities Grant: a stealth real-terms cut on top of benefits

    The Disabled Facilities Grant is used to fund alterations aimed at easing living at home, such as installing wet-rooms or stairlifts. The maximum amount a person is entitled to claim has been capped at £30,000 since 2008.

    An external review commissioned by the government in 2018 recommended that the upper limit of the Disabled Facilities Grant should rise in line with inflation, with further allowances made for more expensive areas. A commitment to increase this figure has been shelved despite this £30,000 sum now being worth around a third less due to inflation and increased building costs.

    According to charities, the consequences of living in accommodation that is not suitably adapted to your needs can be devastating. Crucially, the grant does not affect people’s benefits entitlements.

    Kenny’s story

    Kenny Hughes, who has been supported by Spinal Injuries Association, sustained a spinal cord injury 18 months ago and is paralysed from the waist down. The father from Rochdale is currently living in a ground floor flat which is totally unsuitable for his needs. It means everyday tasks like washing himself can be difficult and dangerous.

    Kenny said:

    Maybe once every three weeks I will have a shower. Then I just use wipes in bed, clean myself off using wipes. I don’t have carers and I can’t afford to pay for carers, so I just have one every now and again.

    It is too dangerous, I can fall and my feet get tangled up behind the sink, in between the feet of the chair, and it takes the scabs that I’ve got on my ankles, which are pressure sores, and it rips them off. They are dressed by a district nurse twice a week but they’re not getting better because of where I am living.

    The benefits of these grants

    Charities say these grants are meant to help prevent these situations, to give people the chance to live independently and get on with their lives – even if they claim benefits.

    Laura Hagan, Housing Manager at Aspire explains how making do in a property that hasn’t been adapted to meet your needs is degrading:

    Aspire’s research shows that such situations rob people of their independence, significantly reducing their chances of getting work, and affecting both their physical and mental health. The long-term impact is immense, on the individual and on their family.

    All too often the funding available is too small to make the changes that are needed, leaving people in limbo; many of the people Aspire works with are unable to access their bathroom, their kitchen, or even to actually leave the house. That the already insufficient grants are being eroded over time, making them even less fit for purpose, is a disgrace.

    The government says…

    A spokesperson for the Department for Health and Social Care said:

    Our programme of social care transformation is working to ensure that people can access the right care, in the right place, at the right time and we are focused on the priorities in our ambitious 10-year reform programme.

    The Disabled Facilities Grant helps around 50,000 people each year to adapt their homes to help them live more independently.

    Last March we announced an additional £100m over two years for the Disabled Facilities Grant, on top of the more than £500m already available annually for grants – so that more people can benefit.

    However, Dharshana Sridhar, campaigns manager at Spinal Injuries Association, believes this is having a knock-on effect, making the crisis in social housing worse as people are forced to sell their homes if they cannot afford to adapt them:

    The amount being capped at £30,000 since 2008, despite rising costs and inflation, has already forced many disabled people to sell their homes and go on the social housing register, where there is already a lack of accessible homes for disabled people.

    It is imperative the government addresses this urgently and updates the means testing, or we will see many more forced to sell their homes. Many people with disabilities are currently on long waiting lists for suitable housing and feel trapped with nowhere suitable to live.

    “It’s like we don’t matter anymore”

    Kenny summed the situation up:

    It’s like we don’t matter anymore, I’m just shocked. With inflation everything should be going up and now the cost of building work is huge compared to even three years ago. Everyone’s wages are going up but I am stuck in this property now as if I don’t matter.

    It’s really important to stay in your own home if you can, the upheaval you have to go through following a spinal cord injury and then on top of that coming back to a strange place that isn’t your home is devastating when you feel you have lost so much already.

    Featured image via Rawpixel – Envato Elements

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Thousands of people cancel their bank accounts with Barclays in mass boycott over Israel support

    More than 1500 people collectively closed their Barclays accounts on Friday 9 February, vowing not to bank with it until it ends its complicity with Israeli genocide and apartheid in Gaza and the Occupied Territories. Thousands more also pledge never to bank with Barclays, in echoes of the South African anti-apartheid struggle.

    Barclays: end the complicity with Israel

    UK banking giant Barclays is once again the target of mass boycott campaign, organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC). More than 1500 people have closed their accounts in protest at its bankrolling of Israel’s genocidal attack on Palestinians.

    Thousands more have signed a pledge never to bank with Barclays while it remains complicit with Israel’s apartheid system. The bank faced a similar boycott campaign over its financial support for South African apartheid before eventually being forced to divest in 1986. You can join the boycott here.

    Barclays Bank holds over £1bn in shares and provides over £3bn in loans and underwriting to nine companies whose weapons, components, and military technology are being used by Israel in its genocidal attacks on Palestinians.

    This includes General Dynamics, which produces the gun systems that arm the fighter jets used by Israel to bombard Gaza, and Elbit Systems, which produces armoured drones, munitions, and artillery weapons used by the Israeli military.

    By providing investment and financial services to these arms companies, Barclays is facilitating the provision of weapons and technology for Israel’s attacks on Palestinians.

    Banking is actively killing Palestinian people

    9 February’s mass account closures are part of an on-going campaign aimed at highlighting Barclays toxic banking policies that make it complicit with Israel’s war crimes.

    Barclays will be the target of social media campaigns, pickets, and sit ins until it is forced to prioritise humanity over profit. PSC started by targeting a Barclay’s branch in Whitechapel, London:

    Saturday 10 February sees an eighth national day of action for Palestine, with events from Abergavenny to Wolverhampton – several of them being held at Barclays’ branches.

    Ben Jamal, PSC director, said :

    Nobody with a conscience would bank with Barclays in the 1970s and 80s when we fought to stop it supporting the brutal, racist system of South African apartheid. Nobody with a conscience could now bank with Barclays knowing it helps facilitate Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza.

    That’s why more than 1500 people are closing their Barclays accounts en masse today, in a clear message that there can be no business as usual during a genocide.

    More than 27 000 Palestinian men, women and children have been killed by Israel in what the International Court of Justice has accepted is a plausible case of genocide. And to its eternal shame, Barclays is complicit. We forced Barclays to stop supporting apartheid before, and we’ll force it to stop supporting genocide and apartheid now.

    Featured image via PSC

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • ‘Pledge for the NHS’ campaign launches with Frankie Boyle, Ken Loach, and Rosie Holt in support

    Frankie Boyle, Stephen Fry, Rosie Holt, Ken Loach, and other celebrities are throwing their weight behind a new campaign which calls on candidates at this year’s general election to take a ‘Pledge for the NHS’.

    Pledge for the NHS

    The campaign, coordinated by We Own It, which campaigns for public services for people not profit, calls on candidates to promise that, regardless of which party forms the next government, if elected they will demand investment in the NHS to match equivalent European countries:

    A study by the Health Foundation suggests that Britain spends £40bn less per year on the NHS than is spent in the French healthcare system in the same time. Compared to Germany’s spend on healthcare, the same study suggests the NHS’s budget is £73bn less.

    In a statement in support of the campaign, former host of BBC’s New World Order Frankie Boyle said:

    The NHS has been strategically underfunded by successive governments to facilitate its gradual privatisation. The NHS works best as a public service: it’s a monopoly, and functions best when able to take advantage of this.

    The NHS should be robustly protected from those who seek to turn medical needs into profits. We only need to look to the US to see the life altering medical bills people can be landed with under a privatised system. Health provision should be entirely nationalised, and markets should have no place in something as important as healthcare provision.

    You can get involved

    The campaign also calls for the reinstatement of the health secretary’s legal duty to provide healthcare to all, which was scrapped by the 2012 Health and Social Care Act. Campaigners say this would enable families who have lost loved ones to hold the government to account in court.

    An email-writing tool allows members of the public to call on their parliamentary candidates to sign up to the pledge, which also calls for NHS services that are outsourced to for-profit companies to be brought back into the NHS as contracts end. You can do that here.

    In support of the campaign, former host of the BBC Two’s QI Stephen Fry said:

    Send the We Own It letter to all parliamentary figures in your area. It really matters. Tell them that you demand that they take care of our NHS for the future, for the future of everyone in our country.

    ‘For God’s sake, fight for the NHS!’

    On Thursday 8 February, We Own It held a live launch of the campaign:

    As Loach summed up:

    Johnbosco Nwogbo, lead campaigner at We Own It, said:

    The NHS is a key election issue. Right now we have a short window of opportunity to shape election manifestos and show political candidates that ending privatisation and protecting our NHS as a fully public service is a priority for voters.

    Politicians don’t always do what they promise, but they hardly ever do good things that they didn’t promise. That’s why we must push for bold commitments to end wasteful outsourcing, fund our NHS in line with the rest of Europe, and protect it for future generations.

    Let’s send a clear message that we’ll be voting for politicians who take the Pledge for the NHS.

    Featured image via We Own It

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Would Shakespeare still call England a ‘blessed plot’, given the state of the NHS and public services?

    This royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle,
    This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,
    This other Eden, demi-paradise,
    This fortress built by Nature for herself,
    Against infection and the hand of war,
    This happy breed of men, this little world,
    This precious stone set in the silver sea,
    Which serves it in the office of a wall,
    Or as a moat defensive to a house,
    Against the envy of less happier lands,
    This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England.
    William Shakespeare; Richard II
    Great Britain, Grande Bretagne, Rule Britannia.

    Were Shakespeare to be reborn, hopefully in one of the NHS hospitals with a safe maternity unit, would he grow up to write these same words again? Those of an unquestioningly patriotic disposition toward the UK should skip this article.

    ‘Great’ Britain: a continuing insouciance towards humanity

    Great Britain is no longer truly great, or the envy of less happier lands. Perhaps it never really was. The UK is the remnant of an empire whose significant wealth and global prestige has been built on battle, blood, conquest, sweat, enterprise, ingenuity, exploitation, and no shortage of abject human misery.

    When the words of the iconic, ironic, and patriotic sing along, Rule Britannia were being penned almost three-hundred-years ago, a ditty still sung alongside Land of Hope and Glory at the finale of the Proms each year, Britain was one of the most active slave trading nations on the face of the earth.

    Its insouciance toward humanity exceeded only marginally by Portugal. And in truth, the forced transport of slaves and their subsequent exploitation was to the privileged entitled and ruling classes of the time, merely a logical extension to the treatment of their own lower classes.

    The indentured conditions of the poor and disenfranchised who worked in many of Britain’s coalmines, especially those in Scotland that were owned by the English nobility, were a legitimised form of slavery in all but name. Whilst the wilfully blind middle and upper classes might have found it rousing to sing that Britons never, never, never would be slaves, in reality many Britons already were.

    Slavery and exploitation have never been selective.

    Engels and Marx: turning in their graves?

    In 1845 as a direct result of seeing the horrendous conditions in which the English working classes lived and worked in Manchester in the early Nineteenth Century, Friedrich Engels published his seminal and shocking work The Condition of the Working Class in England. The book had a huge influence on the thinking of Karl Marx and the development of what became known as Marxism.

    The communist manifesto itself, the literary blue touch paper that lit the flames of some of the most seismic radical global socio-political bonfires in recent history, was conceived, created, and written by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.

    If British entrepreneurialism created the steam engine and gave birth to the industrial revolution, unrestrained amoral British capitalist greed supplied the narrative that fuelled the creation of communism. Britain is a nation with an incredible and interesting past and an uncertain future. We have a lot to dwell on and still more to work out.

    In recent times the collective mental health of our country has been so battered by the artificially generated demands of modern-day life that this sceptered isle is now one of the few nations on Earth that boasts a Minister for Suicide Prevention; and that was before the pandemic and cost-of-living crisis. It’s a staggering state of affairs that things have gotten so undeniably bad for some amongst this happy breed, that we have a minister whose job it is to stop us killing ourselves.

    Can you get your head around that?

    The state of the NHS, and UK, in 2024

    We have more foodbanks and charities per capita than any other country in mainland Europe. The certainty of constant improvement and a better future that was so forcefully sold to us and that we once took for granted, has evaporated. We are the birthplace in which the great railways of the world were first created, yet now we seem unable to even run them on time.

    It increasingly feels as if the very physical and emotional infrastructure of Britain is eroding.

    Our public services [including the NHS] are crumbling and imploding around us.

    The institutions of the state are morally bankrupt.

    Parliament is an amoral muddy pool of mendacity, filled with vacuous self-serving bottom feeders more interested in their second incomes than their constituents’ concerns.

    Our elections are tampered with by foreign powers while the House of Lords plays host to the offspring of Russian Oligarchs and former KGB officers.

    The venal and corrupt occupy and abuse the offices of power they hold and think nothing of plundering the public purse in the midst of a global pandemic for their own gain.

    The democracy we were once told we could be so proud of is openly, brazenly, self-interestedly, and unashamedly rotting to its core. So much so that Roberto Saviano, a journalist, screenwriter, and one of the world’s leading authorities on the mafia cited the UK as one of the countries and economies most open to corruption and bribery.

    And even before the arrest and eventual prosecution of the serial rapist David Carrick in January 2023, less than one in ten women had full faith in our Police and Crown Prosecution Services.

    The land of smoke and mirrors

    But what we on this island of hope and glory do remain genuinely great at, the arena in which we shine and excel, the craft we seem to have perfected, is the art of telling ourselves and every other nation how great we are at everything.

    The land of smoke and mirrors is most definitely a great and glorious public relations triumph. Which other nation would have the chutzpah to strut the global stage so visibly when its own arse is showing through the threadbare seat of its pants and the very developments it brought to the rest of the world are falling into decay within its own boundaries?

    We are like the child that’s been moved to a new school who tells everyone that the tired decrepit flat they are living in is just a temporary second home, and their dad is never around to pick them up from the playground because they are working abroad on an important and well-paid adventure, when in reality, they are serving a sentence in Millom Prison for petty theft.

    In the course of my life and work [some for the NHS] I have travelled the length and breadth of the United Kingdom and though there is undoubtedly a great deal to be proud of, to be curious about, to marvel at, and to celebrate, there is also a great deal to feel sad about. Our past successes are no guarantee of our future flourishing. And whatever history, glorious and otherwise, we might have will not heal the ills that currently beset us.

    Nostalgia will not pay the bills. An uneven economy and an increasingly unjust society is eroding our humanity, and a booming economy will not make us whole.

    No wealth but life: how the NHS, and society, should be

    But what might greatness and great look like if we were to define them now?

    How should the greatness of a nation, a society, a civilization be defined in the 21st century, and by whom?

    If a nations ambition is a reflection and therefore an extension of the ambitions of its people, shall we continue to stoke the perception of greatness at the individual level as greed, indifference, striving, and the constant selfish insatiable appetite for more and more material growth? Or can we begin to value kindness, tolerance, patience, curiosity, understanding, and emotional intelligence, over excess and affluence?

    Is a great nation a healthy nation and if so, what might a healthy population [and NHS] look like?

    Is it an absolute measure, a relative measure, and again, who decides?

    Presumably, a nation’s health is nothing more than the aggregate sum of the health, wellness, and wellbeing of all its citizens. And our health and wellbeing and how we feel about it is as unique as our fingerprints and DNA.

    If there is no wealth but life, and the purpose of our lives is for each one of us to decide, then the only legitimate role of the state and its institutions is to create the conditions in which options, choice, and opportunity are available to all and in which we can be healthy and well enough to capitalise on them.

    This article was reworked from the first chapter of Tom’s book, No Wealth But Life – What’s Gone Wrong with Healthcare in Britain & How We Can Save the NHS. You can purchase it via Amazon here, or via Tom’s own website, here. Read more about the NHS from the Canary here.

    Featured image via Art UK

    By Tom Bell

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Somerset council meeting forced to stop as pro-Palestine activists call out its genocide complicity

    At the executive meeting of Somerset council on 7 February, seven residents and supporters of Palestine Action took it in turns to call out the council’s role in assisting Israel‘s genocide in Gaza – and demand the council evicts Elbit Systems from its property, Aztec West 600.

    After the second resident spoke, the council leader Bill Revans called for the meeting to be brought to a halt, leading to a 15 minute disruption.

    Somerset council: propping up Israel’s genocide?

    Somerset council is the landlord of Aztec West 600, the Bristol headquarters of Elbit Systems UK. Due to financial concerns, the council has made plans to sell the property as part of a wholesale move to dispose of its commercial investments.

    However, residents made it clear that simply disposing of the property does not absolve the council of its responsibility and demanded the public body terminate the lease before selling the freehold of the property:

    One of the residents told council leaders:

    As a Somerset resident who has been to Palestine and seen Israel’s war crimes first hand I feel sick that you have made me complicit in that.

    In December, you voted to call for a ceasefire. How can you claim to want a ceasefire whilst you’re harbouring the war criminals which makes the genocide possible?

    You’ve made the people of Somerset participants in the war crimes taking place against the Palestinian people and we will not allow this to happen in our name.

    The people of Somerset never wanted this and selling off the property doesn’t absolve us of our responsibility. The least you can do now is terminate the lease. Evict Elbit now.

    Sedgemoor district council (which later became part of Somerset council) first purchased the property in 2020. The leasehold of the property shows that both Elbit Systems UK and Elbit Systems Ltd (based in Haifa, Israel) are named parties to the lease.

    Elbit: directly complicit

    Elbit Systems is Israel’s largest weapons manufacturer, which supplies the majority of Israel’s military drone fleet, land based equipment, bullets, munitions, and missiles – which are used to commit genocide in Gaza. Elbit’s CEO Bezhalel Machlis stated himself how crucial the company is to the ongoing genocide. Elbit has been thanked for the Israeli military for its services.

    Somerset council has previously responded to similar complaints by claiming there is no legal route to terminate the lease.

    In response, third party commercial lawyers felt this response was dubious and offered their services to make evicting Elbit possible, to which the council did not respond. Other councillors claimed the reason the council would not evict Elbit was due to the potential benefit of selling the property with a sitting tenant.

    The action in Somerset came the day after six activists pleaded not guilty to allegedly damaging Elbit’s factory in Tamworth:

    You can read about the Tamworth action here.

    Shut them all down for Palestine

    Recently, Japan’s Itochu corporation cut a contract with Elbit Systems citing the recent ruling by the International Court of Justice [4]. This follows on from several other companies ending their links with Elbit following a targeted campaign. You can read the Canary‘s coverage here.

    Palestine Action have consistently targeted Elbit’s Bristol HQ and other landlords of Elbit’s sites. The direct action network promise to continue to do so with any current or future landlord of Aztec West 600, unless Elbit is immediately evicted from the property.

    Featured image via Palestine Action

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • UK snow: does your boss have a cold-weather policy in place?

    With the Met Office issuing yellow and amber warnings for UK snow in parts of north Wales and northern and central England on Thursday 8 February, the Trades Union Congress (TUC) has called on employers not to force their staff to take any risks by making dangerous journeys to work.

    In short, the TUC says employers must show understanding and not punish workers by withholding pay or making them use their holiday.

    UK snow: bad weather policies

    The TUC suggests that all employers have clear weather policies to set out what staff should do when snow and ice, or a lack of public transport, prevents them getting to work.

    For example, when the snow causes problems on the UK’s transport network it makes sense for employers to encourage and enable staff to work from home if they can, rather than struggle with a lengthy, risky, and difficult commute to and from work.

    The union body says that these policies should also cover what parents should do if schools close and they have no alternative childcare.

    UK snow has been falling across much of the central and northern parts of the country:

    As Sky News reported, the government has issued yellow cold health alerts in parts of the UK. Plus, one county council in Wales has shut every school ahead of the UK snow forecast.

    Minimum temperatures are needed in workplaces

    So, the TUC is also reminding employers to keep their workplaces safe during the UK snow snap.

    Official health and safety law says the temperature should normally be at least 16°C  (or 13°C  if much of the work indoors involves severe physical effort). Bosses should also ensure entrances to workplaces are gritted and not slippery.

    TUC general secretary Paul Nowak said:

    Some of us may be excited as UK snow falls around the country this week.

    But others will be left worrying what to do about getting to work if trains and buses stop running – or if schools are closed.

    Employers must show understanding and not force staff to make dangerous journeys. And workers shouldn’t be docked pay or holiday if they can’t make it in.

    Good bosses will already have bad weather policies in place so staff know where they stand and recognise the difficulties those with children face when schools are forced shut.

    So, if UK snow is going to make it difficult for you to get in to work, or your children to get in to school, make sure your bosses are doing their jobs too and accommodating this.

    Featured image via the Independent – YouTube

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Why haven’t I got the cost of living payment yet?

    ‘Why haven’t I got the cost of living payment yet’ is a question on millions of people’s minds at present. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has been rolling the payments out since 6 February. However, not everyone is entitled to them. Moreover, the department has not said just why it pays some people immediately, while making others wait. So, here’s the Canary‘s breakdown of the situation.

    DWP payments: a brief history

    As the Canary has documented, the DWP’s cost of living payments have been controversial. There have been two rounds of them. The most recent one saw the department give people £900, split into three payments. It paid the first one in April 2023, the second payment of £300 in October/November, and the third payment of £299 will be made from 6 February.

    People have argued that firstly the money doesn’t even cover the real-terms cuts the government has made to benefits. Secondly, the payments haven’t reflected the rising price of everything (inflation).

    However, the DWP has continued with the payments, anyway – with the one that is arriving from 6 February being the last.

    Why haven’t I got the cost of living payment yet?

    Let’s cut to the chase.

    The DWP says it has started paying people the cost of living payment from 6 February. However, it has given a date of 22 February as the final day on which people may receive them. If you are entitled to it, it will be paid – but the DWP has never made clear just how it works out the order in which it pays people.

    If you still haven’t received the payment, then you can report it as missing here.

    However, there has been controversy over just who is entitled to the cost of living payment. The DWP has repeatedly claimed that “most people on DWP benefits” will get the payments. However, this is not accurate.

    Not entitled? You’re one of at least 1.6 million.

    Many Universal Credit claimants will get the money. However, if you only claim one of the following benefits, you will not get the cost of living payment:

    But how many people is this in total? In April 2023, the Canary worked out this was at least 1.6 million people. So, if you’re on any of these benefits and wondering ‘why haven’t I got the cost of living payment yet?’ then this might be your answer.

    So, what did the government do for some of the 1.6 million people it didn’t support? Well, it gave them a cost of living payments worth £150. This was if they were claiming certain benefits like Personal Independence Payment (PIP). The DWP made these payments in 2022 and 2023. However, since then it has not given chronically ill and disabled people any more support – particularly those not entitled to the main cost of living payment.

    Not enough in reality

    This has been devastating for many. Chronically ill and disabled people face far higher costs than non-disabled people – on average a staggering £1,122 per household, per month. Plus, inflation (how much the price of things we buy rises by) has outstripped benefit increase – meaning they’ve actually been real-terms cuts.

    As the Canary previously reported, between April 2021 and September 2023:

    • Prices in general have risen 36% more than benefits have.
    • Food prices in particular have risen 107% more than benefits have.
    • Energy prices have risen 471% more than benefits have.

    So, in reality the main payments were a drop in the ocean for many chronically ill and disabled people – let alone the £150. However, they were at least something – hence a petition is calling on the government to reinstate them.

    Reinstate the disability cost of living payment

    Tom Howard is a disability rights campaigner. In December 2023, he started a petition calling on the government to reinstate the £150 cost of living payment. The petition states:

    The rising cost of living, especially the rise in energy bills, disproportionately affects disabled people. For example, someone with a chronic lung condition may require a set temperature in their home. This may mean that they have their heating on more than a comparable household. Furthermore, some may require specialist and/or medical equipment to be plugged in and active throughout the day. This, in turn, can lead to higher energy usage and therefore higher energy bills. This point is even more pertinent as energy bills are set to increase further at the start of January 2024.

    The petition calls on the government to:

    to acknowledge the plight of disabled people and reinstate the Disability Cost of Living Payment. The payment should also be reviewed and increased to effectively support disabled people in the UK. It is a matter of basic human rights and social justice.

    You can sign the petition here.

    So, if you’re wondering ‘why haven’t I got the cost of living payment yet’, then either hold tight – or sign the petition.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Steve Topple

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • The Tories just ‘ducked’ the issue of AI’s impact on workers – surprise, surprise from Agent Sunak

    The Tories are still “ducking the issue” of regulating to protect workers in the face of AI. that’s the verdict of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), as the government released its response to a White Paper consultation on the issue. Clearly, Rishi Sunak would fail the test of Isaac Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics – as the PM appears hellbent on defending AI over actual humans.

    AI: Tories say blah, blah, blah

    As Computer Weekly reported, the government ran a public consultation on its White Paper proposals over regulating AI last year. This included:

    “pro-innovation” proposals for regulating AI, which revolve around empowering existing regulators to create tailored, context-specific rules that suit the ways the technology is being used in the sectors they scrutinise.

    It also outlined five principles that regulators must consider to facilitate “the safe and innovative use of AI” in their industries, and generally built on the approach set out by government in its September 2021 national AI strategy which sought to drive corporate adoption of the technology, boost skills and attract more international investment.

    There were hundreds of submissions to the consultation. Now, the government has responded. Computer Weekly noted that:

    the government generally reaffirmed its commitment to the whitepaper’s proposals, claiming this approach to regulation will ensure the UK remains more agile than “competitor nations” while also putting it on course to be a leader in safe, responsible AI innovation.

    “The technology is rapidly developing, and the risks and most appropriate mitigations, are still not fully understood,” said the Department of Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) in a press release.

    “The UK government will not rush to legislate, or risk implementing ‘quick-fix’ rules that would soon become outdated or ineffective. Instead, the government’s context-based approach means existing regulators are empowered to address AI risks in a targeted way.”

    However, there was a gaping hole in the government’s response. It put forward little-to-nothing on regulations to protect workers’ rights over that of AI. So, the TUC has hit back.

    ‘Leaving workers at risk of exploitation and discrimination’

    TUC General Secretary Paul Nowak said:

    AI is already make life-changing decisions about the way we work – like how people are hired, performance-managed and even fired. That’s why we need employment-specific legislation to ensure AI is used fairly in the workplace.

    But the government is still ducking this issue by refusing to pass new laws and to give workers and business the certainty they need. A minimalist approach to regulating AI is not going cut it. It will just leave many at risk of exploitation and discrimination.

    Commenting on the need to involve unions in AI policy-making after the government excluded them from November 2023’s AI Summit, Nowak added:

    Working people must be given a seat at the table.

    In America’s unions have been put at the heart of AI policy-making. But in the UK unions have been marginalised along with broader civil society.

    Over on X, people were also critical. An interesting thread is below:

    So, the TUC is taking matters into its own hands. In September it launched a new AI taskforce to safeguard workers’ rights and to ensure the technology benefits all. The taskforce has brought together leading specialists in law, technology, politics, HR and the voluntary sector. It will publish an expert-drafted AI and Employment Bill this year and will lobby to have it incorporated into UK law.

    It’s unsurprising that the Tories are putting the interests of big tech over that of workers. So, in reality their approach is less Asimov – and more Skynet. Or maybe Sunak is actually an Agent Smith:

    Sunak AI Safety Summit

    AI enhanced image of Rishi Sunak as Agent Smith at the AI safety summitFeatured image via Rory Arnold/No 10 Downing Street – Flickr, with additional AI editing by deepai.org 

    By Steve Topple

    This post was originally published on Canary.