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Category: UK

  • Landmark court cases sees Palestine Action’s ‘Elbit Eight’ acquitted on 12 charges – but there’s a catch

    In a landmark case, eight Palestine Action activists who used direct action to shut down the Israeli weapons trade have been acquitted of a total 12 charges which included criminal damage, burglary and encouraging criminal damage. The trial, which commenced on 13 November, related to a series of actions taken during the first six months of Palestine Action’s existence from July 2020 to January 2021.

    Palestine Action: a landmark legal case

    Richard Barnard, co-founder of Palestine Action, was convicted by a 10-2 majority of one count of criminal damage, for an action at the now-closed Elbit Ferranti factory in Oldham. At least one member of jury later asked if they could change their verdict, but were prohibited from doing so. Lawyers will be considering appealing this conviction.

    The jury failed to reach a majority decision regarding the remaining 23 charges. The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) have until 18 January 2024 to decide if they will retry on those counts due to political pressure. Two of the Elbit Eight, Genevieve Scherer and Jocelyn Cooney, were unanimously acquitted on all charges faced. If the trial returns, the #ElbitEight will instead be the #ElbitSix.

    Exposing Elbit in the dock

    Palestine Action said in a statement:

    This trial has come at a time of intensive state monitoring, harassment, and prosecution of pro-Palestinian voices and actions – with Palestine Action having been operating under the pressure of the state since our inception. Our activists – hundreds of whom have faced arrest across the three years – have been jailed, held on remand, censored (both in the dock and with stringent bail conditions), have had their homes raided and been surveilled.

    Activists have spent time in prison for convictions relating to against weapons and parts manufacturers Teledyne, APPH, and Israeli-owned Rafael, while dozens of others are currently awaiting trial. And we know that there has been Israeli interference in these cases – both through pressure applied by the Embassy onto the attorney general, and through top-level diplomatic meetings between Israeli and British government Ministers.

    The public gallery was full on each day of the trial, with protestors assembled outside and daily mobilisations which saw musicians, choirs, supporters, and unions gather in support of Palestine and Palestine Action, along with visits from Defend Our Juries, and activists including rapper Lowkey and Colm Bryce of the Raytheon 9.

    Palestine Action also offer our thanks and appreciation to CAGE and MPAC for their support throughout the trial. This case was intended to be the Crown’s flagship prosecution to bring down the activists who launched our movement. Having pursued these activists for over three years, and having initially brought draconian, overbearing charges, it will be a disappointing Christmas gift for the prosecutor Sally Hobson.

    Palestine Action will greet a retrial as our activists greet every court appearance: another opportunity to expose Elbit in the dock, to prove to the British public that this company has no place in our country. Keep an eye out for an announcement of a scheduled date for the #ElbitSix trial – along with all upcoming cases.

    Multiple Elbit sites targeted

    The charges related to an occupation of Elbit Systems drone factories in Shenstone and Oldham, actions at its weaponry factory in Kent, Elbit’s London offices, and the offices of Elbit’s landlords, Jones Lang LaSalle. These actions were taken in order to challenge Elbit’s operations and presence in Britain, to prevent their manufacture of weapons bound for Israel.

    The current, unrelenting genocide against Palestinians in Gaza has now martyred over 20,000 Palestinians. Even before the trial commenced, the Eight and all other Palestine Action activists had been vindicated: leaving the court having shown that Elbit is guilty, and that we have a moral and legal obligation to shut them down.

    The Eight had originally been charged with counts including blackmail, conspiracy to commit criminal damage, and burglary.

    The indictment was amended after the commencement of the trial, with the CPS eventually bringing 13 counts against the eight activists: seven counts of damaging property (criminal damage), three counts of burglary with intent to commit criminal damage, one count of possessing articles with intent to damage property, one count of threatening to damage property, and one count of encouraging others to commit the offence of criminal damage.

    The lattermost charge, encouraging others, was introduced as a replacement charge for ‘blackmail’, after Huda Ammori and Barnard discussed direct action on a private Zoom meeting. The jury rejected this accusation.

    Most Palestine Action legal defences ruled out

    Prior to the trial beginning, the judge had ruled out various defences which, Palestine Action maintain, are directly relevant to the actions and the context of Palestine Action more widely.

    The European Convention rights of freedom of expression (Article 10) and freedom of assembly and association (Article 11) were ruled out, on the basis that no protest that includes damage to private property can be considered ‘peaceful’. The defences of necessity and the preservation of life were immediately ruled out, while protection of property was ruled out after evidence was heard.

    The defence argument therefore relied on consent – that, if those who owned the relevant buildings were aware of the heinous crimes which rely on Elbit products for their commission, they would consent to the Eight’s interventions.

    “The duty of people is clear”

    At the start of the trial, the Eight were offered a plea deal, if Ammori and Richard Barnard were to plead guilty, the others would be acquitted. All Eight defendants immediately rejected the deal, and spent the following six weeks in Snaresbrook Crown Court, pleading not guilty to all charges on the basis that Elbit and Israel are the guilty party, not Palestine Action.

    Ammori commented that:

    After pushing back our case for two years, the state have failed again to deter an ever-growing global direct-action movement. Everyday we’ve been on trial, more Palestinians have been massacred using Elbit’s weaponry. The duty of the people is clear – to take all direct action possible to Shut Elbit Down wherever you are. Justice will be complete when Palestine is free.

    Featured image via Palestine Action

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Long Covid patients slam the UK Medical Research Council’s lack of response to billboard campaign

    In December campaigners from Not Recovered UK – who all either live with long Covid, myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME, sometimes known as chronic fatigue syndrome, CFS), or are impacted by them – launched a major new campaign about these disabling chronic illnesses. However, the response to the campaign from the UK’s main medical research organisation has been slammed by the group as ‘disheartening and upsetting’.

    Long Covid and ME: destroying lives

    Across the country, Not Recovered UK is taking out billboard adverts. The group has put them in Bournemouth, Southampton, Havant, Swindon, Portsmouth, Manchester, Leeds, Bradford, and Glasgow:

    A long Covid and ME billboard in Southampton

    A Long Covid and ME billboard in Southampton

    The billboards are highlighting that for millions of people, there are currently no effective treatments for long Covid and ME. They also state that doctors often leave these patients without help. Overall, the billboards point to the fact there is still no cure for either of these conditions, too. All of this is partly due to the medical community’s poor understanding of long Covid and ME:

    The image of a long covid and ME billboard. It reads "Long covid and ME/CFS destroy lives. No help. no treatments. No cure. We demand clinical trials now. www.notrecovereduk.org"

    The public have been funding the campaign via a crowdfunder. Many people living with long Covid or ME have donated themselves. You can donate to the crowdfunder here.

    Aaron Campbell founded the campaign. He has lived with long Covid since July 2022. Campbell said he launched the billboards project out of:

    Desperation. ME patients have been left to suffer for decades without any appropriate treatments and it is very likely that long Covid patients (50% of these patients are meeting the criteria for ME) will have a similar fate unless there is an urgent and drastic change in the level of research and funding they are both currently receiving.

    Not Recovered UK hopes that by taking out such prominent adverts, the campaign will start breaking down the stigma that surrounds long Covid and ME patients.

    Campbell said:

    Aside from raising awareness and calling for appropriate research and treatments, the billboards and their messaging are a push back on the minimising and harmful narratives surrounding them that these patients will be cured by exercise, diet or mindfulness techniques.

    It is time that attitudes towards ‘invisible illnesses’ are changed and follow the actual scientific literature regarding abnormalities found in these patient groups and acknowledge that these people are truly, genuinely sick who desperately need medical treatments.

    However, one billboard especially was of importance.

    In Swindon, Not Recovered UK placed it near to the head office of the UK’s Medical Research Council (MRC):

    The Medical Research Council: waiting for comment

    The group hoped it would prompt a response from the MRC – with people on social media asking it to take notice:

    However, the MRC was not forthcoming. So, Not Recovered UK reached out to the organisation. It said:

    even though this billboard location was selected specifically for capturing the attention of the Medical Research Council within the UKRI building in Swindon, we have unfortunately had no acknowledgement from them even with our community tagging them in various Tweets over the last week.

    The group noted to the MRC that it has:

    had to witness a great deal of inaction from the UK government when it comes to biomedical research for Post Covid and ME… little has been allocated to researching the stated conditions, much of which has not been spent on biomedical research but rather on – at best – ineffective and due to post-exertional malaise (PEM) often even harmful therapies such as Graded Exercise Therapy (GET) and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT).

    Most importantly, as of today, there are still zero approved treatments for both conditions. Given the amount of suffering as well as economic costs these severe illnesses cause, this is unacceptable.

    We would like to kindly request an official comment from the UK Medical Research Council on our billboard campaign as well as on the – in comparison to other (similar) diseases – chronically low funding allocated to Long Covid and ME/cfs.

    ‘We are funding long Covid and ME research’… but only just…

    The MRC did actually respond to Not Recovered UK. Dr Jonathan Pearce, director of strategy and planning at the MRC, said:

    UK Research and Innovation (UKRI)’s Medical Research Council (MRC) funds research across the research and development pathway to improve human health, including fundamental and mechanistic biology, and translational research through to early phase clinical trials. Applications are judged in open competition and the primary considerations in funding decisions are scientific quality and importance to human health.

    MRC has prioritised research into Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) for a number of years, co-funding a Priority Setting Partnership to identify research priorities in this area and maintaining an open highlight notice to encourage ME/CFS research. In addition, in 2020, we joined the National Institute of Health and Care Research (NIHR) to support research into Long-COVID.

    Since 2020, MRC and NIHR have collectively awarded over £50 million for research on ME/CFS and Long-COVID. This includes:

    • Four studies to identify the causes of Long-COVID and effective therapies to treat people who experience chronic symptoms of the disease.
    • DecodeME, which aims to find genetic risk factors of ME/CFS to better understand the disease and ultimately to find treatments.

    In addition, MRC has supported a study to investigate the long-term impacts of lung damage after COVID-19 and the role of autoantibodies in ME/CFS.

    We continue to encourage high-quality research proposals across all our funding opportunities for these important areas.

    Of course, £50m for research is a miniscule amount of money compared to other diseases.

    For example, from 2007 to 2015 the UK government and UK research bodies spent £82.20 per patient, per year on multiple sclerosis. The equivalent figure for ME was £4.40. Between 2015 and 2021 MS funding increased to £164 per patient, per year. For long Covid, between October 2020 and May 2023 the equivalent of just £10.75 per patient, per year, was spent on research. 

    This lack of parity in funding for both conditions is one of the main points of the campaign. So, Not Recovered UK is calling for the government and research bodies to release £100m a year to fund long Covid and ME research. 

    ‘Disheartened and upset’

    Pearce and the MRC’s response left Campbell disappointed and angry.

    He told the Canary:

    I’m really disheartened and upset for myself and everyone in the community that even though these patients are fighting for their lives and literally self funding their own billboards in a cry for help, the MRC can’t specifically acknowledge these efforts or address concerns that patients have with the lack of research funding and allocation of these funds.

    If expensive billboards in public spaces aren’t enough to show how desperate we are for their acknowledgement and understanding then what is it going to take?

    For the MRC to effectively do a copy and paste job from its website as a response to chronically ill people paying for their own campaign because, in part, of the MRC’s lack of funding for research is staggering.

    It shows that, despite the warm words, the attitudes from medical organisations towards post-viral illnesses haven’t changed – which is exactly why Not Recovered UK’s billboards are so important and desperately needed. However, it’s sad that chronically ill people are having to pay for their own awareness campaign in the first place.

    Featured image and additional images via Not Recovered UK

    By Steve Topple

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • The so-called ‘cost of living crisis’ has created a health inequalities ‘timebomb’ for HALF the poorest households

    With the winter solstice bringing the longest night of the year, think tank the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) is warning that a chronic sleep deficit affecting people on low incomes could exacerbate existing and profound health inequalities affecting the UK. It is, of course, down to the so-called cost of living crisis.

    Cost of living: impacting people’s sleep

    The JRF has run a research project on poverty, which included looking at how deprivation affected people’s sleep. It found that:

    • 46% of respondents in low-income households said the cost of living crisis had a negative impact on their sleep, according to the JRF’s latest cost of living tracker.
    • Almost two-thirds (63%) of those who said they were going without the essentials such as food, clothing or toiletries between May and October 2023 reported that the cost of living crisis was negatively affecting their sleep.
    • In contrast, 18% of respondents in households not going without essentials said their sleep was negatively affected by cost-of-living pressures.

    Moreover, the latest findings from the JRF’s cost-of-living tracker raise fears of future health effects for the millions going without essentials such as food, cleaning products or the ability to keep warm.

    • Over three quarters of respondents who reported a negative impact on their mental (77%) and physical health (80%).
    • Respondents living in private or social rented housing (58% and 61%) were also almost twice as likely to have their sleep negatively affected than those who owned their homes outright (31%).

    Wide-reaching effects

    Grounded Voices, a research programme developed to better understand the day-to-day reality of people across the UK struggling to afford what they need, heard from a number of participants about the negative impact of the cost of living on their sleep.

    One participant said:

    If I’m worrying about money it will affect my sleep and how my day runs. It will affect how I take pride in myself, I might wake up in the morning and I’m not able to do like my makeup or my hair and things like that. It’s easy to get in a rut when you’re worried about money – everything else kind of is like outside noise.

    Another added:

    No question it has an impact on your mental health and your ability to process information and deal with other tasks, essentially because it dominates your thoughts.

    You can sometimes run away with these negative thoughts and it can have a huge impact on life and long-term effects on your mental health.

    ‘Health inequalities are a shameful fact of life in the UK’

    Maudie Johnson-Hunter, economist at the JRF who led on the research, said:

    The cost of living has been high for a sustained period but recent years have also seen rising destitution and a fall in the real value of the benefits that are supposed to protect us when we fall on hard times. We have all experienced a bad night’s sleep and found it harder to get through the day afterwards, but for many families cold homes, worries about keeping food on the table and the lack of a secure income makes this an all too common occurrence.

    Being on a low income already makes you more likely to experience worse mental and physical health than people who are comfortably off, and poor sleep is likely to compound this problem and make it harder to improve your health and that of your family.

    Health inequalities are a shameful fact of life in the UK but the cost of living is adding a potential timebomb for the nation’s health. Official figures show that women in the least deprived areas are living more than nineteen years longer in good health than women in the poorest. This is wrong. Our social security system needs to be strengthened so that everyone is able to at least afford the essentials.

    Lisa Artis, deputy CEO of the Sleep Charity, said:

    These results come as no surprise. We have long been witness to rising levels of sleep poverty and sleep problems due the cost-of-living crisis. Amidst the silent struggles of those with the lowest incomes, sleep problems echo the harsh disparities of our world, where sleep should be a right and not a luxury. In the quiet desperation of restless nights, we find a call to action, urging us to build a society where the basic human right to peaceful sleep knows no economic boundaries.

    Featured image via Rawpixel – Envato Elements

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Far-right extremist and Islamophobe Hotovely should be nowhere near the Labour Party

    The Labour Muslim Network has written to leader of the Labour Party Keir Starmer outlining an expectation “that no further engagements be made or platforms shared by Labour Party representatives with the current Israeli ambassador Tzipi Hotovely”.

    Hotovely: an extremist and an Islamophobe

    Israel’s ambassador to the United Kingdom Hotovely made clear in a Sky News interview last week that Israel will never accept a Palestinian state. When pressed on the question of an independent Palestinian state in the future, Hotovely answered without equivocation “the answer is absolutely no.” A two-state solution has been the policy of the Labour Party, the UK, and has had international consensus, for decades.

    Moreover, Hotovely is considered to be far-right politically by many people. She has repeatedly denied Israel is causing a humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Hotovely also repeated the lie that Hamas had beheaded 40 babies on 7 October. Moreover, as Middle East Eye wrote:

    Hotovely’s comments are not new. In 2013, when she was a member of the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, Hotovely previously wrote a policy paper titled “The five-stage plan for the Greater Land of Israel“, outlining the steps Israel should take to prevent a Palestinian state.

    “The long years of propaganda for the vision of ‘two states for two peoples’ have obstructed the most basic desire harboured by a majority of Israeli citizens – not to give up territory that was conquered through blood,” Hotovely wrote in the essay translated by Na’amod, a UK-based Jewish organisation that opposes the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land.

    Labour Muslim Network said in a statement:

    It is clear for all to see, the ambassador is no partner in peace.

    The right of self determination for Palestinians and an independent Palestinian state has been a long standing position for the Labour Party, for the United Kingdom and for the international community. To deny the right of Palestine to exist as an independent state is not only Islamophobic, but also completely contrary to international consensus.

    It is difficult to read this report and reach any other conclusion than there being institutional Islamophobia within the Labour Party.

    Any Labour representatives that shares engagements and/or platforms with Ms Hotovely would not only be legitimising her extreme positions, but could also be violating our Islamophobia code of conduct.

    So far, it appears neither Starmer nor the party has responded.

    You can sign a petition calling on the UK government to expel Hotovely here.

    Featured image via UK government – Flickr

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • A minute’s silence is being held for a worker killed in Leytonstone, London

    A minute’s silence will be held at 11am on Thursday 21 December at the building site in Pevensey Rd, Leytonstone where a construction worker lost his life when a roof collapsed during a house refurbishment there last week on 12 December.

    Leytonstone: construction worker killed by collapsing roof

    As the Waltham Forest Echo reported:

    The man, whose identity has not yet been revealed, was found trapped under rubble by firefighters attending the Pevensey Road end-of-terraced house shortly after 5pm. He was pulled out and received emergency treatment from London Fire Brigade (LFB). He was later pronounced dead at the scene by ambulance crews.

    The incident also left a second man in hospital with “minor injuries”, police said. Emergency services have not reported any other injuries stemming from the incident.

    There are scant details available of the person who died. Locals in Leytonstone report that police are releasing no information until his family have been informed. They are overseas and as yet haven’t been contacted.

    Kevin Parslow, Secretary, Waltham Forest Trades Council (WFTC) said:

    We will hold a respectful vigil at the site and mark the deceased’s passing with a minute’s silence. We have a long history of marking those who die at work and the preventable nature of most of this. Our thoughts will be with the deceased’s family and friends and for all those who die at or because of their work.

    Our ‘de-regulated, anti-health and safety society’

    Every year on 28 April WFTC marks Workers Memorial Day – remembering those historically killed working in the borough and all those millions killed every year around the world.

    Parslow added:

    Sadly we now have another person to add to the list of those killed in Waltham Forest we remember every April 28.

    The victim’s death comes after the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) reported a massive rise in construction worker deaths – up to 45 in 2022/23 from 29 in 2021/22.

    Parslow concluded:

    In our de-regulated, anti-health and safety society where our safety police are shackled to virtual inaction by the government we call for an urgent change of policy from government and HSE that will see preventative, pro-active actions that will lead to an end to all deaths at work.

    Featured image via Google Maps

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Peace and Justice Project adds another concert to its Music for a Ceasefire campaign

    The Jeremy Corbyn-founded Peace and Justice Project has announced another concert as part of its “Music for a Ceasefire” action – calling for an end to Israel’s bombardment of Palestine.

    Peace and Justice Project: using music to make change

    As of 9am on Wednesday 20 December, Israel had killed 19,667 people in Gaza – the majority of them being women and children. The UN estimates Israel’s assault has displaced 1.9 million of Gaza’s 2.4 million residents. Aid agencies have growing concerns about their limited ability to help. Gazans are facing a perilous winter, and the UN children’s agency warned that “child deaths due to disease could surpass those killed in bombardments”.

    So, Corbyn’s organisation has been trying to show solidarity with Palestinians while also calling for a ceasefire. With this, the Music for a Ceasefire project has announced another fundraising gig.

    The Peace and Justice Project said:

    We’re delighted to announce the London leg of Music For A Ceasefire will be taking place at The Dome on Thursday 11 January!

    Join us Lambrini Girls and special guests Enola Gay for a great night of music to raise absolutely vital funds for humanitarian aid on the ground in Gaza. We will also be joined on the night by our founder Jeremy Corbyn!

    Tickets for this event are on sale and selling fast, so make sure you get yours from the link below before they’re all gone.

    You can book tickets here.

    It follows the Music for a Ceasefire concert in Manchester on 20 December. The event included performances from Witch Fever and Shrill Carder. Moreover, the gig in London comes as over 1,000 artists signed the Peace and Justice Project’s open letter also calling for a ceasefire.

    As the Canary previously reported, Sam Fender, The Libertines, Paloma Faith, and Rag N Bone Man are among over 1,000 artists who are backing Jeremy Corbyn’s call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. The musicians have all signed the Peace and Justice Project-led open letter Music For A Ceasefire calling for Israel to end its bombing of Gaza and hostilities in the Occupied Territories.

    Music for a Ceasefire in Gaza

    Corbyn, alongside the Peace & Justice Project, has launched the ‘Music For A Ceasefire’ open letter, bringing together a diverse coalition of artists, musicians and performers demanding the UK and US governments to call for immediate ceasefire in Gaza.

    The letter states:

    We the undersigned call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and an end to the bombardment of Palestine that has already taken the lives of over 10,000 innocent civilians, aid workers and journalists.

    The United Nations secretary general António Guterres has said Gaza is becoming “a graveyard for children”, and whilst the devastation continues, the UK and US governments fail to stand up for humanity, condemn the collective punishment of the Palestinian people and advocate for peace instead of bloodshed.

    A ceasefire would allow for unhindered humanitarian aid in Gaza, where the World Health Organisation has said the level of death and suffering by the 2.2 million civilians caught up in this conflict is “hard to fathom”.

    The Peace and Justice Project said:

    Since launching the Music For A Ceasefire open letter, we have been overwhelmed by the phenomenal response in the music and arts community and look forward to announcing further shows up and down the country to support grassroots music venues and the cause of peace.

    We hope you will be able to join us for an incredible night to raise vital funds for humanitarian aid on the ground in Gaza.

    MUSIC FOR A CEASEFIRE: LIVE IN LONDON

    Date: Thursday 11 January.

    Doors open: 7:30pm.

    Location: The Dome, 2A Dartmouth Park Road, Tufnell Park, London N19 5QH.

    Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse

    Featured image via the Peace and Justice Project

    By Steve Topple

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • No food for up to 17 hours: life onboard the Bibby Stockholm, according to its quasi-detainees

    Refugees on board the Bibby Stockholm barge have told campaign group One Life To Live that access to food is heavily restricted. Additionally, portions are child-sized and canteen queues take up to an hour – with those at the end likely to be disappointed.

    A significant amount of food is wasted because the quality is poor. It can also be unhygienic; for example, dirty salad leaves and hair regularly found in the food. And it is often culturally inappropriate. According to one individual, a group of men have been on hunger strike.

    This picture is particularly disturbing because the Home Office pays the company which runs the barge, Corporate Travel Management, £44,369 by for each asylum seeker on board, which includes the provision of food (figures based on a maximum eventual cohort of 506 people). A year’s place at Eton would not cost much more.

    No food is available for almost half of every 24-hour period

    The asylum-seekers cannot get anything to eat between the canteen closing at 8pm and when it reopens for breakfast at 7am the following day – that’s 11 hours. If an individual returns to the barge after 8pm, which can happen and may be unavoidable, they will miss their evening meal and will have no food for 17 hours.

    Furthermore, they have been told that packed lunches will not be provided if anyone will be away from the barge during the day. They cannot afford to buy their own meals when off the barge, because the asylum-seekers’ allowance is just £1.37 per day to cover all living expenses other than accommodation and on-board food.

    So if someone is off the barge over lunchtime, which is quite feasible, they will have no food between breakfast ending at 9am one day and reopening at 7am the next – which means no food for 22 hours.

    Promises made – and not kept

    On 21 July 2023, before the first asylum-seekers arrived on the barge, the Home Office offered tours of the Bibby Stockholm for journalists. ITV News, for example, reported several commitments about catering arrangements. These do not correspond to what the asylum-seekers are experiencing:

    Home Office statement:

    Outside normal meal times, soup and bread will be available 24/7.

    Reality according to an asylum-seeker on board on 16 December:

    After 8pm the door is closed for dinner time, after that they clean for one hour. It’s open [again] at 10pm with just hot drinks. [So] when I get hungry… at night I must sleep hungry, for we are indeed imprisoned. I don’t even have access to any supermarket to get food for myself.

    Asylum-seekers don’t have access to supermarkets because they are not permitted to leave the barge except by the buses provided, which only make one stop on Portland and two in Weymouth, and do not operate 24/7. Plus, they cannot afford to buy food.

    Home Office statement:

    Each meal will be served over a two-hour window to prevent overcrowding.

    Reality according to a local supporter in November 2023:

    The men queue for up to an hour for food, and apparently there isn’t much left for those at the end of the queue.

    That was when there were 200 people on board; there are now around 350, rising to 506. According to an asylum-seeker on board in November:

    The capacity of the dining hall is 120 people. There are 20 tables and 6 chairs for each table.

    Furthermore, one asylum-seeker reported that portion sizes were inadequate:

    The amount of food they give us is suitable for a 10-year-old child… they are stingy in the amount of food.

    Home Office statement:

    The menu is culturally sensitive.

    Reality according to various asylum-seekers, as told to One Life To Live:

    • “Food is of poor quality and more than 70 per cent of the people waste their food. They do not eat because no one likes the food”.
    • “Some days the food is so awful that we can’t eat [and] sleep hungry at night”.
    • “We don’t have anywhere to prepare food for ourselves and there is no snack at all”.
    • “I haven’t had any necessary [sic] food for two weeks”.
    • “Several times I found hair in the food”.
    • “quality of [the food’s] cleanliness is very low” – with a photo of a salad leaf with dirt on it.
    • “The poor quality of the food… this place feels like a prison”.

    ‘Grandiose statements’ versus the reality of life on the Bibby Stockholm

    In February 2023, Corporate Travel Management (CTM) was awarded a £1.6 billion contract over two years to run an unspecified number of vessels and hotels.

    Following his appearance before the Home Affairs Select Committee on 29 November, permanent secretary Sir Matthew Rycroft told Dame Diana Johnson, the committee’s chair, via a letter dated 12 December that the value of the vessel accommodation services portion of the contract is £22,450,772.

    There is only one vessel – the Bibby Stockholm – and One Life To Live has been unable to identify any hotels operated by CTM.

    In that session before the committee on 29 November, Simon Ridley (interim second permanent secretary, Home Office) was asked whether it was an appropriate use of public-sector funding for companies housing asylum-seekers to be making ‘so much profit’.

    Nicola David of One Life To Live said:

    It’s extremely disappointing that all kinds of grandiose statements were made to the media during the press tour in July. The reality for the asylum-seekers is very different; people are reporting real hunger. Yet taxpayers are forking out over £22 million for board and lodging for just a few hundred men.

    Where is the money going?

    The Home Office and its subcontractors – CTM and Landry & Kling – have serious questions to answer. Not just about the treatment of the asylum-seekers in their care, but also the abuse of the public purse.

    Featured image via Wikimedia

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Labour leftists looking for a win should embrace the big green elephant in the room

    These days you’d be hard-pressed to find a left-leaning Labour Party member who’s happy with the direction their party is taking. Keir Starmer’s leadership campaign pitched him as Corbyn-lite, but three years on he’s positioned himself to the right of the Conservatives. Long gone are the pledges of nationalised utilities, freedom of movement and a foreign policy based on peace and justice. Instead, Starmer’s Labour is a party of big business, harsh immigration rules, and war in the middle east. So, what about the Green Party?

    Abandoning Labour – but where to?

    Understandably many left-wing activists have abandoned Labour and cancelled their memberships, while others choose to stay inside the party machine and criticise Starmer from the sidelines. In both camps we see great swathes of disaffected but passionate activists promising to boycott the next election entirely, resigned to five more years of misery.

    These people have more power than they think. They’re still following politics, tweeting tweets, writing letters, signing petitions, and attending protests. Under Corbyn they were the whirlwind force of door knockers and leaflet posters who delivered the stunning upset of the 2017 general election.

    If all of that energy could be channelled into a focused political movement, a truly left-wing party with progressive policies and grassroots decision-making at its core, Rishi Sunak and Starmer could face their own shock at the ballot box next year. This movement, this fantasy political party already exists: the Green Party.

    Overlapping policies

    The overlap between Corbyn’s Manifesto – even Starmer’s ten broken pledges – and Green Party policy is immense. Economic justice through higher taxes on the rich, abolishing tuition fees, promoting peace instead of war, public ownership of utilities, defending migrants’ rights, strengthening trade unions, and of course bold action on climate change. These are all staples of Green Party policy.

    Not only do they exist and share the Labour left’s top priorities, the Green Party are clearly capable of winning enough votes to break the Labour/Tory duopoly. Currently polling at an average of 6%, the Greens peaked at 12% in a national election as recently as 2019, convincing nearly two million voters to back them at the European Parliament elections. All this with a mere fraction of the funding and membership numbers of Labour or the Conservatives.

    With the addition of thousands of former Labour members, the Greens could see a surge in voting intention similar to the leftward shift we saw in the summer of 2017. What the Greens lack in balanced media coverage, a problem Corbyn’s Labour also faced, can always be overcome with people power.

    And it’s not like this new influx of members would be outsiders working for a rival party. They would have agency and ownership within the party. Unlike Labour or the Conservatives, the Green Party’s policies are made by the membership, local parties choose their own MPs and leadership elections happen automatically every two years. If a Starmer-style Thatcherite ever lied their way to the Green leadership, they would not be able to purge the left, overhaul party policy, or impose right-wing MPs on local parties.

    Leftists should embrace the Green Party

    With a strong Green Party as a left-wing option on the ballot paper, with the right number of passionate activists to make them a viable force in British politics, this country doesn’t have to face five more years of Red or Blue Conservative government. We can have real, meaningful change for the better.

    Leftists should embrace the Green Party with open arms and set off the political earthquake this country desperately needs.

    Featured image via the Green Party

    By Daniel Johnston

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Bristol Labour’s Christmas buffet disrupted by protestors reminding them ‘Gaza is a graveyard for children’

    On Friday 15 December, Palestine protesters unveiled a giant banner and played sounds of bombs exploding outside St Werburghs Community Centre in Bristol. The Community Centre was booked for a Bristol-West Labour Party “Christmas Quiz and Buffet”.

    A quiz for Labour members over Palestine

    Reportedly in attendance were Thangam Debbonaire (MP for Bristol West), together with Dan Norris (Labour West of England Mayor), Clare Moody (Labour Police and Crime Commissioner), plus local Labour councillors.

    The banner read:

    BRISTOL LABOUR QUIZ

    GAZA IS BECOMING A GRAVEYARD FOR CHILDREN

    DO YOU:

    A) VOTE FOR CEASEFIRE?

    B) ABSTAIN FROM VOTING?

    Protest outside a Labour event in Bristol

    Local people are shocked that in November their MP Debbonaire, together with the three other Bristol Labour MPs, abstained from the vote for a ceasefire on Gaza. In addition, Dan Norris is known to be a member of “Labour Friends of Israel”.

    Over the last two months Bristol has come out in force over the shocking death toll and destruction in Gaza.

    Bristol: widespread solidarity with Palestinians

    There have been fortnightly marches through the city with numbers up to ten thousand people attending.

    The Arnolfini, a prestigious arts venue, closed after protests about their decision to cancel a long-established Palestine arts festival.

    There have been school and university strikes, plus pressure on local universities over their links with arms companies. The anti-Zionist Jewish group Na’amod, who hold weekly vigils in the town centre, clashed with the Bristol Mayor.

    Meanwhile, a Bristol City councillor presented a five-thousand signature petition and resigned from the Labour group:

    Plus, campaigners projected a giant Palestine Flag onto the front of Bristol’s City Hall:

    Also on 15 December there were vigils by doctors and other health professionals outside the Bristol Royal Infirmary Hospital, a rally, plus a vigil by journalists and media workers.

    A Gaza-born man in Bristol is on hunger strike and is currently hospitalised.

    On Saturday 16 December there was a fourth local demonstration with people marching through central Bristol and calling out boycott targets – including supermarkets, banks, and Zara in the shopping centre:

    ‘Utterly shameful’

    Rowland Dye of the Bristol Palestine Solidarity Campaign said:

    Bristol has seen repeated marches with thousands showing their shock over the horrific carnage in Gaza.

    As secretary I contacted all four local Labour MPs, plus Marvin the elected Mayor, asking them to speak at our rallies or to send a message. None of them, including Thangham Debbonaire, have ever replied. I’m sure many Bristol people think as I do that’s utterly shameful.

    Another protester, who identifies as a former member on Bristol-West Labour Party, said:

    Tonight they’re enjoying their quiz night and their £15 buffet. Meanwhile people in Gaza have been starved for over two months, have been slaughtered in their thousands, and right now men, women, and children will be lying crushed dying under the rubble of their bombed homes. I’m shocked and tearful at their heartless disregard for humanity being shown by our elected representatives.

    A third protester pointed out that:

    Thousands of Bristol people have been marching through the centre of our city showing their compassion for the people of Palestine. Yet it’s shocking the people we vote for are junketing here then hiding their faces from us.

    Bristol Palestine Alliance was formed in response to the horrific events happening in Gaza. Acting as an umbrella group, it brings members from organisations and groups and communities in the city together to respond collectively to organise marches and other events to call for a ceasefire in Gaza and an end to Israel’s brutal occupation of Palestine. It is based on the network of solidarity that has been successfully built in this city over many years.

    Featured image via Bristol Palestine Alliance

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • The UK is breaching UN rules on people’s access to justice – not that the corporate media’s noticed

    Campaigners have criticised the Scottish Civil Justice Council (SCJC), for its lack of transparency in undertaking a review of legal expenses after Scotland and the rest of the UK breached the UN’s so-called “Aarhus Convention” rules on this. Sadly, there’s barely been a murmur in the corporate media on this.

    The Aarhus Convention: breaches in the UK

    In July 2022, the SCJC, with oversight of Scotland’s civil justice system, was tasked by the Scottish Government to review legal expenses (court rules). This is required because Scotland is in breach of the UN Aarhus Convention’s access to justice requirements. Scotland must meet the recommendations set by the governing bodies so that legal expenses are ‘not prohibitively expensive’ by 1 October 2024.

    The Aarhus Convention enshrines citizens’ rights to defend the environment in a court of law. Article 9 of the Convention requires that access to the courts is fair, equitable, timely and not prohibitively expensive. The United Kingdom ratified the UNECE Aarhus Convention in 2005.

    However, the UK is in breach of the Aarhus Convention’s access to justice requirements and only has one year left to meet the recommendations set by the governing bodies, so that citizens can uphold their right to a healthy environment and use legal mechanisms to hold public bodies and polluters to account.

    The UK Progress Report on its Action Plan published on 1 July 2022, was supposed to outline progress towards achieving full compliance by the deadline of 1 October 2024. Yet environmental campaigners from the RSPB, Friends of the Earth, and the Environmental Rights Centre for Scotland (ERCS) criticised the lack of progress and only vague commitments.

    Aedán Smith, Head of Policy & Advocacy at RSPB Scotland, said:

    The UK’s first progress report confirms that the Scottish Government and other UK administrations have made negligible progress on making legal action more affordable for people and environmental NGOs following the Committee’s findings in 2010. In fact, in England and Wales there have even been targeted efforts to make the process of Judicial Review less accessible for those wanting to rely on it as a measure of last resort.

    Scotland: action is needed

    Scotland itself is obliged to ensure that its legal system is compliant with the Convention, due to devolution.

    But this is only possible if access to justice is accessible and affordable, and under Scotland’s current court costs regime, legal expenses can often run into tens of thousands of pounds.

    Campaigners have argued that the current system of Protective Expenses Orders (PEOs) remains unaffordable and unfair and requires radical overhaul, but fear that without wider input and public scrutiny, reforms will be weak and inadequate.

    The Environmental Rights Centre for Scotland (ERCS) previously submitted a freedom of information request seeking details of the review of court rules, and was informed that there would be a consultation on the revised rules ‘later in 2023’. Last month ERCS followed up with another freedom of information request seeking details of the public consultation.

    The SCJC have responded that there will be no consultation for new PEO rules for the Court of Session ‘to avoid undue resource impacts for potential respondents’, but new rules will be enacted in Spring 2024.

    A further breach likely

    ERCS has now written to the SCJC asking them to reconsider producing new rules without a consultation. ERCS believes that this will breach Article 8 of the Aarhus Convention’s public participation requirements, and it will consider a formal complaint to the Convention’s governing body.

    Ben Christman, in-house Solicitor at ERCS, said:

    The SCJC is tasked with making court rules compliant with the Aarhus Convention. Article 8 of the Convention requires effective public participation in the preparation of those rules. The SCJC has decided to exclude the public from participating in its review. The process intended to resolve non-compliance instead looks likely to result in a further breach of the Aarhus Convention. We are concerned that the SCJC is planning to worsen Scotland’s already poor compliance record.

    Featured image via Wikimedia 

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Fat cat bosses are still earning grossly higher wages than workers – even during the cost of living crisis

    New research published on Monday 18 December by the High Pay Centre think tank, funded by the abrdn Financial Fairness Trust, shows that CEO to employee pay gaps at Britain’s biggest companies remained stable in 2022 after narrowing during the Covid pandemic and then widening again in 2021. However, bosses still earn 75 times more than the lowest paid workers.

    High Pay Centre report reveals CEO-worker pay ratio stalled

    The High Pay Centre report has found that:

    • The median CEO/median employee pay ratio across the FTSE 350 was 57:1 in 2022, slightly up from 56:1 in 2021.
    • 2022 saw a slight decrease in the median CEO/lower quartile (25th percentile, or lowest paid) employee pay ratio for the FTSE 350, at 75:1 compared to 78:1 in 2021.
    • In the FTSE 100, the median CEO/median employee ratio was 80:1 and the median CEO/lower quartile employee ratio was 119:1 (83:1 and 111:1 in 2021).

    The companies with lowest-paid UK employees (based on pay at the 25th percentile) were retailer JD Sports, where the lower quartile threshold was £11,240, pub chain Mitchells & Butlers (£15,161) and retailer WH Smiths (£18,850)

    Over a fifth of FTSE 350 companies (21%) had a CEO to median employee pay ratio of over 100:1 and 3% had a ratio of over 200:1. In addition, 35% had a CEO to lower quarter employee ratio of over 100:1 and 7% over 200:1. The ratio reporting requirements exclude lowest-paid workers but the High Pay Centre estimates (based on living wage accreditation) that the median CEO to lowest paid worker (as opposed to employee) across the FTSE 350 would be around 165:1.

    Previous High Pay Centre research found that 76% of people think top earners should not be paid more than 20 times their low and middle earning colleagues, while just 3% thought that it was right for CEOs to make more than low and middle earners.

    Companies still not doing enough

    The report argues that while the pay ratio disclosures have major limitations and imperfections that ought to be addressed, they have filled a gap in corporate reporting. Even though annual reports are typically now over 200 pages long and remuneration reports average 29 pages in length, the pay ratios are the only reporting requirements that provide investors, workers, and other stakeholders with consistent, comparable data on pay levels of workers outside the boardroom.

    The High Pay Centre recommends that:

    • Companies should provide more detailed information on how many jobs they provide at different pay levels
    • Outsourced workers, who often carry out very low-paid work, should be included in the pay ratio calculations
    • Companies should be required to communicate information on CEO to worker pay gaps directly to their workforce, as well as publishing the figures in their annual report.

    High Pay Centre director Luke Hildyard said:

    We need a fairer, more equal, more inclusive economy where companies create lots of well-paid jobs for all their workers, rather than a handful of obscenely paid roles for those at the top.

    The pay ratio trends highlight a moment of solidarity during the pandemic when CEO to employee pay gaps narrowed, but that seems to have been lost as gaps have widened to pre-pandemic levels over the subsequent two years.

    ‘Failing to share pay more fairly’

    Mubin Haq, CEO of abrdn Financial Fairness Trust, said:

    Our biggest companies have failed to share pay more fairly during the cost of living crisis. Warm words did not translate into the narrowing of pay inequalities. Instead, pay gaps have remained stubbornly high, with a third of FTSE 350 CEOs earning more than 100 times the lowest paid quarter of their employees. With millions struggling to pay for essentials there is a need for companies to do the right thing and ensure rewards are distributed in a fairer way.

    Trades Union Congress (TUC) general secretary Paul Nowak said:

    Workers deserve a fairer share of the wealth they create. Too many firms are guilty of feather-bedding those at the top at the expense of the wider workforce.

    At a time when food and energy bills are sky-high there is simply no justification for such huge pay inequality.

    Corporate excess is bad for businesses and bad for Britain – often encouraging short-term risk-taking and greed over longer-term success.

    That’s why it is vital to have workers on company boards to inject some much-needed common sense – and fairness – into boardrooms.

    Featured image via Antony Robinson – Envato Elements

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Confessed liar Michelle Mone tells Laura Kuenssberg she doesn’t know what she’s done wrong

    Baroness Michelle Mone has achieved what few politicians have – by becoming embroiled in a corruption scandal so laughable that even the British media can’t cover up for her. This is so much the case that even Laura Kuenssberg – the worst journalist to have ever existed – is now dunking on the woman:

    PPEgate

    Mone has links to PPE Medpro, a company which supplied Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to the government during the Coronavirus pandemic. While that doesn’t sound too bad, don’t worry – it soon will. According to the BBC:

    PPE Medpro is being sued by the UK government for £122m plus costs for “breach of contract and unjust enrichment”.

    It is also being investigated by the National Crime Agency (NCA).

    As reported by the Canary, a lot of companies did dodgy PPE deals during the pandemic. The issue around PPE Medpro is that Mone got the company fast-tracked onto their contract, and was subsequently owed tens of millions in compensation.

    The Guardian revealed in 2022:

    The Conservative peer Michelle Mone and her children secretly received £29m originating from the profits of a PPE business that was awarded large government contracts after she recommended it to ministers, documents seen by the Guardian indicate.

    Lady Mone’s support helped the company, PPE Medpro, secure a place in a “VIP lane” the government used during the coronavirus pandemic to prioritise companies that had political connections. It then secured contracts worth more than £200m.

    Oh, and she did all this secretly – you know – like you do when you know you’re ethically and legally in the right. The Guardian reported at the time:

    Asked by the Guardian last year why Mone did not include PPE Medpro in her House of Lords register of financial interests, her lawyer replied: “Baroness Mone did not declare any interest as she did not benefit financially and was not connected to PPE Medpro in any capacity.”

    Except. That. Wasn’t. True.

    Shocked?

    You shouldn’t be.

    Mone herself revealed she’d been telling porkies a week ago, as reported by the BBC:

    Michelle Mone says she “regrets” not being more transparent about her links with a company that had UK government contracts during the pandemic.

    The outlet added:

    The Scottish businesswoman has now spoken publicly for the first time – in a Youtube documentary – since the story emerged.

    The production is funded by PPE Medpro – the company at the centre of the controversy.

    This was a bit late given that in 2021:

    the UK government revealed that Baroness Mone was the “source of referral” for the company getting a place on the so-called “VIP lane” for offers of personal protective equipment for the NHS.

    Given all the lying, you’d be forgiven for thinking that Mone had done something wrong. According to the woman herself, though, she actually hasn’t. Other than the lying, of course, although that isn’t illegal – not according to Mone, anyway.

    Nothing wrong

    In the interview with Kuenssberg, Mone insisted:

    I don’t honestly see there is a case to answer. I can’t see what we have done wrong.

    She added:

    we’ve only done one thing, which was lie to the press to say we weren’t involved

    Paradoxically, she also said:

    I wasn’t trying to pull the wool over anyone’s eyes

    I don’t think she understands what that phrase means – that or she’s lying (again).

    Unsurprisingly, the interview has not gone down well with those who had the misfortune of watching it:

    A Tory apart?

    Anna Soubry – either the stupidest or most dishonest MP the Tory Party has ever produced – questioned how Mone ended up in the House of Lords:

    Soubry was a Tory MP for nine years – a role which required her to wade through waist-deep sleaze and corruption on a daily basis. She can’t genuinely be surprised about what Mone did. Or maybe she can be, and she’s thick as shit?

    In reality, Mone isn’t any more corrupt than the rest of our political class; she’s just unfortunate enough to have committed one of the few dodgy acts that our capricious media and legal systems deem worthy of further investigation. She does deserve it, of course, and as such we here at the Canary wish her a legally culpable Christmas and an incarceratory new year.

    Featured image via BBC

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Labour’s position on Israel-Gaza is now somehow even worse than the Tories’

    First and foremost, let’s make one thing clear: the Tories’ position on Israel and its indiscriminate terrorising of Gaza is not good. It ignores many realities – not least of all what the Israeli government is now openly admitting:

     

    However, as bad as the Tories’ position is, Labour’s is somehow even worse.

    So what’s the Tory position?

    Lord David ‘Greensill-scandal #PigGate’ Cameron – foreign secretary – has called for a ‘sustainable ceasefire’. As reported in the Times:

    Lord Cameron has joined forces with his German counterpart to call for a “sustainable ceasefire” in the Middle East and warn that “too many civilians have been killed” in the Hamas-Israel conflict.

    In a marked change of tone by the government which piles pressure on the Israeli government to end the bloodshed, the foreign secretary has united with Annalena Baerbock, the German foreign minister, to demand “a sustainable ceasefire, leading to a sustainable peace”.

    In a joint article, they write: “The sooner it comes, the better. The need is urgent.”

    There is, however, a catch – as Cameron and Baerbock also said:

    But let us be clear. We do not believe that calling right now for a general and immediate ceasefire, hoping it somehow becomes permanent, is the way forward. It ignores why Israel is forced to defend itself: Hamas barbarically attacked Israel and still fires rockets to kill Israeli citizens every day. Hamas must lay down its arms.

    This is pretty confusing. They seem to suggest a ceasefire cannot happen until Hamas ‘lays down its arms’. What exactly do they think a ceasefire is? Because my understanding is that a ceasefire means when both sides stop shooting. Cameron and Baerbock’s strategy seemingly suggests we need a period in which Israel continues to commit war crimes and the Palestinians just don’t fight back.

    In other words – as said already – it really isn’t a good position. As the Times notes, though, it is a position that’s in keeping with political opinion moving away from blanket support for Israeli aggression:

    the change of tone, which echoes a shift in the United States, is clearly intended for the Israelis, whose offensive in Gaza has caused an escalating humanitarian crisis and led to the deaths of more than 18,000 Palestinians. President Biden last week warned President Netanyahu that Israel’s “indiscriminate bombing” of Gaza was eroding international support for the war against Hamas.

    So what’s Labour’s position?

    Labour’s position remains to call for a ‘humanitarian pause‘. What is a ‘humanitarian pause’? Basically, it’s when the fighting stops for long enough for supplies to get in, and then the indiscriminate bombing starts again.

    In real terms, the two positions aren’t functionally that different. The key difference is the Tories’ are now openly using the word ‘ceasefire’. While they aren’t calling for the immediate ceasefire that’s sorely needed, they have moved themselves closer to it. Putting the old analysis hat on, it seems clear that Israel has gone too far too quickly, and now the governments who supported their atrocities want to extract themselves from this toxic situation without losing any more face.

    So what exactly has Israel done to squander the undeserved support it’s enjoyed?

    Really, what haven’t they done?

    According to Al Jazeera:

    Speaking at a news conference on Wednesday, Volker Türk, UN high commissioner for human rights, urged Israel, Hamas, and international actors with influence to prevent “atrocity crimes” as Israel’s advance into southern Gaza leaves displaced Palestinians with nowhere to run.

    “Palestinians in Gaza are living in utter deepening horror,” Türk continued, describing the displacement and the systemic deprivation of millions of Palestinians, who are surviving in unsafe, overcrowded and unsanitary conditions with no security.

    “My colleagues describe the situation as ‘apocalyptic’. In these circumstances, there is a heightened risk of atrocity crimes,” he stated.

    The latest potential war crime is perhaps the most visceral in terms of cutting through to those who continue to support’s Israel’s invasion efforts. Specifically, they shot dead three released Israeli hostages who were shirtless and carrying white flags:

    A grim situation

    Let’s remind ourselves what Cameron and Baerbock said:

    Hamas must lay down its arms

    As journalist Caitlin Johnstone notes, the known reality paints a bleak picture of what that would mean:

    Given the situation, it’s entirely predictable that Palestinians would take up arms. Even if you could press a button which instantly killed every Hamas member, if the oppression continued as is, we’d end up with Hamas 2.0 within a few years. Saying a situation is predictable is not the same thing as supporting it, but it is a first step towards solving the problem.

    The Tories have now moved closer to an actual solution. They’re still a long way away – and unlikely to get to where they need to be – but they’re not so far away as Labour.

    Featured image via Labour Party – Facebook

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Just Stop Oil went Christmas caroling outside Keir Starmer’s house. It wasn’t a ‘silent night’, though…

    Just Stop Oil supporters gathered outside Keir Starmer’s house to sing ‘climate-criminal’ Christmas carols. They were demanding that, as the likely leader of the next UK government, Starmer commits to cancelling all new oil and gas licences, including those already greenlit by the current government.

    Silent night, oily night

    At around 8:30pm on Thursday 14 December, a group of nine supporters of Just Stop Oil gathered outside Starmer’s London residence to deliver a letter and to sing re-imagined versions of Christmas carols and popular songs – calling on him to end all new oil, gas, and coal projects in the UK. The supporters could be seen holding signs saying “Revoke Rosebank” and “Arrest the real criminals”:

    Police ordered the group to disperse under Section 42 of the Criminal Justice and Police Act and ordered them to leave the vicinity of the premises for three months or they would be arrested:

    Although Starmer has stated that Labour will end new oil and gas projects in the UK, Labour has so far refused to cancel the new fossil fuel projects approved by Rishi Sunak’s government. This includes Rosebank, a project that is destined to emit more carbon into the atmosphere than 28 whole countries combined.

    The carolers delivered a letter to Starmer which can be read here. Part of it stated:

    You appear to have wavered in your commitment to show real leadership on this issue. Your refusal to cancel the new oil and gas licences that are being approved by the current government… is nothing short of a crime against humanity…

    How do you want to be remembered Keir? As the ghost of Christmas past? Or as the man who gave us a future? It’s time for action, not words.

    Starmer: complicit in another crime against humanity

    One of those serenading Starmer was Rory from London, who works as a secondary school teacher. He said:

    Beyond the culture wars and political point scoring, our world is at a crisis point. Our homes and our families are under threat. Our political system is failing us. At a time where bold leadership is required to deal with the multiple crises we face, Labour are promising more of the same.

    Failing to revoke new oil licences would be tantamount to ‘rubber-stamping’ the last ditch, ‘slash and burn’ actions of the current Tory leadership, who are hell-bent on enriching themselves and those they serve in the oil and gas lobby. This complicity is nothing short of a crime against humanity.

    Another of those ‘singing for Starmer’ is Rosie, who works as an editor. She said:

    Starmer knows he needs to do the right thing for his children, and that is to cancel all new oil and gas licences if he gets to number 10. He is a former human rights lawyer, he should know the difference between right and wrong.

    History will not be kind to those who knew how bad the situation was with the climate, but allowed the extremists in the Tory party and oil lobby to destroy everything for their own selfish enrichment- killing millions in the process. The Tories have no mandate to issue these licences, and as PM, Starmer’s obligation is to serve the public who want action on the climate crisis now.

    Governments are the real criminals

    There have been 670 arrests of Just Stop Oil supporters since 30 October. There are currently three Just Stop Oil supporters in prison, two of which have been imprisoned for peacefully marching in the road. They join Marcus Decker, who has been imprisoned for over a year of his two years seven months sentence. Fourteen Just Stop Oil supporters are currently under electronic tag surveillance.

    Just Stop Oil said:

    Continued expansion of new oil and gas will bring about the wholesale destruction of ordered society and an end to the rule of law. We are not prepared to watch while the government continues to serve the interests of a few, at the expense of everyone else. It’s up to all of us to come together and resist. It is the will of the overwhelming majority of people that we take the actions necessary to ensure our survival and together we can make it happen.

    Our government are the real criminals – imprisoning peaceful people for taking proportionate action to protect their communities, whilst licensing more than 100 new oil and gas projects, which will destroy everything we value. We’re coming together to demand an end to new oil and gas. It’s not a case of ‘if’ we will win; but ‘when’.

    Featured image via Just Stop Oil

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Following PUMA ditching Israeli football, Cardiff will be urging further BDS this Saturday

    Cardiff Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) is ramping up its campaign to boycott Israel this weekend with a march and rally on Saturday 16 December. This comes in the aftermath of the third biggest sportswear brand worldwide, PUMA, dropping its sponsorship of the Israel Football Association following pressure from campaigners over the years.

    Puma: finally ditching Israeli football

    Following years of campaigning by the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Movement, global sports brand PUMA has been forced to end its sponsorship of the Israel Football Association (IFA). The IFA includes football clubs in illegal Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. Israeli settlements are built on land stolen from Palestinians, and are considered war crimes under international law.

    First agreed in 2018, PUMA’s decision to sponsor the IFA has been meet with widespread criticism. Over 200 Palestinian sports teams have called on PUMA to end its sponsorship, describing how its “sponsorship of the IFA legitimises and gives international cover to Israel’s illegal settlements” and helps “whitewash Israel’s human rights abuses” including its routine violence against Palestinian footballers.

    Israel’s current bombardment of Gaza has killed more than 18,000 Palestinians, including thousands of children. The global outcry over the indiscriminate killing of civilians and attacks on infrastructure including hospitals has put unprecedented pressure on corporations associated with Israel’s violations of international law, including its illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank.

    PUMA has lost millions of pounds in lucrative contracts because of pressure applied by the campaign. PSC branches have been part of this sustained campaign, organising regular pickets, protests and vigils for several years outside PUMA stores and at PUMA events all over the UK.

    ‘Unprecedented violence’

    Ben Jamal, PSC Director, said:

    Palestinians are currently facing unprecedented violence at the hands of the Israeli military. As the world calls for a permanent ceasefire, corporations continue to profit from the killing and destruction. We need to end this complicity.

    PUMA’s decision is an important victory that shows the power of the solidarity movement. We’ve sent all corporations a powerful message: if you choose to be complicit in Israeli apartheid, you will face the strength of the solidarity movement. We will continue to grow our BDS campaigns against banks like Barclays and corporations like JCB, who are complicit in Israel’s system of apartheid.

    Veteran campaigner and Wales-based Honorary President of PSC, Betty Hunter, said:

    After five years, PUMA bowing to relentless pressure shows boycott campaigning can work. We won’t be satisfied until others still trading with Israel also decide to join us in isolating apartheid Israel, however.

    Cardiff: demanding more BDS for Palestine

    So, campaigners will be back on the streets of Cardiff this on 16 December with three calls:

    • An Israeli ceasefire in Gaza
    • Supermarkets not to stock Israeli goods
    • Disinvestment from arms companies by Barclays Bank, a major supporter of the arms trade with Israel.

    The march will assemble at the Nye Bevan statue, Queen Street, at 12pm followed by a rally at Cardiff Library, where Palestinian speakers will relate the horror of life in Gaza under Israeli occupation and bombing.

    Cardiff PSC actions will be in alliance with the Muslim Council for Wales, Black Lives Matter, Palestine Social Club, Stop the War, and Syrian Welsh Society. They will be mirrored by protests across Wales.

    Events are happening very frequently all over Wales. You may find it useful to join the Facebook group here.

    Featured image via PSC

    By Steve Topple

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Refugees have tried to set themselves on fire in a UK immigration detention camp

    Content warning: this article contains discussion of self-harm and attempted suicide that some people may find upsetting.

    The Helen Bamber Foundation (HBF) and Humans for Rights Network (HFRN) have gathered first-hand evidence that the government’s use of RAF Wethersfield airfield as a large ‘open-prison camp’ for refugee men seeking asylum for the last five months has already caused irreparable and profound harm to the residents. Some people have tried to take their own lives – with several people attempting to burn themselves to death.

    Wethersfield: ‘no different to Libya’

    HBF’s clinicians have carried out 10 detailed assessments and HFRN has conducted casework with over 140 individuals since the camp opened in July 2023, and have found that the men have displayed symptoms of worsening mental health following transfer to Wethersfield, including low mood, loneliness, flashbacks, reduced appetite, weight loss, feelings of despair and difficulty sleeping, and a worsening in symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.

    Men held there have reported anxiety and depression, suicidal ideation, intense desperation and fear, self-harm, and acute sleep deprivation. When one man shared his suicidal thoughts with members of staff at the site, he was simply told that it was “normal in this environment”.

    Nasser, who like many of the men held in Wethersfield travelling through Libya when fleeing his country, said:

    The hardest part for me after what I have been through in Libya, is what I am going through now in Wethersfield. People screaming at night, gunshots can be heard. When someone wakes up screaming, I don’t know what to do. I came through Libya this place is no different.

    Salman, who came from Iran, said:

    I have attempted suicide personally because of the conditions of the camp. Once I tried to hang myself and once there was a group of us six or seven people tried to set ourselves on fire, they didn’t let us in the camp and extinguished the fire, I had a part of my T-shirt burnt, many others as well, it has affected our mental health in a very bad way… We were told you only stay for two weeks here; it was a lie; it’s been two months nothing happened.

    Unlawful detentions?

    By the end of October 2023, 508 men had been placed in Wethersfield – the top countries of origin being Afghanistan (29%), Iran (20%) and Eritrea (16%). Many of them are survivors of torture and trafficking and those with severe mental health issues.

    This is despite Home Office guidance making clear that these groups should not be placed there – in the first three months of being open, a quarter of residents were moved out of Wethersfield because they did not meet the camp’s ‘suitability criteria’ and had unlawfully been placed there. At least 11 children wrongly assessed to be adults have been identified in the camp.

    The camp is extremely isolated, has overcrowded living conditions, and lacks the necessary healthcare provision, causing additional pain and trauma to people who have already endured conflict, oppression, abuse, torture and trafficking. The camp’s resemblance to a prison, with barbed wire and surveillance, triggers traumatic experiences among residents, many of whom have had experiences of other ‘camps’, in Egypt and Libya for example.

    Wethersfield was initially proposed as a temporary site for 12 months, but the Home Office intends to extend the use of the site for a further three years. This would be a terrible development and the Home Secretary should instead act urgently on his recent commitment to close the site.

    Wethersfield: nothing more than a prison

    Maddie Harris, Director of Humans for Rights Network, said:

    The most commonly used word by the men held in Wethersfield when describing their experience there is ‘prison’. The camp’s isolated setting, cutting these men off not only from their own communities but from society as a whole is causing profound distress and re-traumatisation amongst all those we have spoken to.

    By placing men in Wethersfield, this government is ghettoising people seeking asylum in the UK, preventing them from accessing justice and other vital entitlements such as adequate medical care.

    This government has a legal obligation to provide them with safe, secure accommodation. Wethersfield is unsafe, for both the mental and physical health of the men held there and must be closed with immediate effect as. It is our belief that it is only a matter of time before someone dies in Wethersfield.

    Kamena Dorling, Director of Policy at the Helen Bamber Foundation, said:

    The government claims that these horrific camps on former military sites are necessary to manage the record number of people arriving in the UK to seek asylum. But the real problem is the Home Office failure to efficiently process asylum claims in time, which would allow those who have been granted refugee status to move on and live independently.

    Instead, hundreds of thousands of people seeking asylum are stuck in an ever-growing asylum backlog, dependent on Home Office temporary accommodation and financial support. The answer to that problem is not the creation of asylum camps that clearly and deliberately cause people seeking protection additional suffering and harm.

    Featured image via GB News – YouTube

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Bristol protest for Palestine will also see people urge an activist to end his six-week hunger strike

    On Saturday 16 December, a March for Palestine in Bristol will demand an immediate ceasefire, that Israel ends the blockade, and ends its occupation. However, the march will also call on Bristolian Wael Arafat to end his six-week long hunger strike for the Palestinian people.

    Israel: relentless bombardment while the world watches

    As the UK hopes for white snow to fall on Christmas Day, Palestinians will be hoping that white phosphorus doesn’t rain down on them. The weapon burns through human flesh to the bone. It’s continued illegal use in Gaza by the IDF is one of many war crimes that the world has turned a blind eye to.

    Last week, the US blocked a UN Security Council resolution calling for an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza”. 13 of the council’s 15 members voted in favour, leaving 2 nations isolated; the US (resorting to using its veto) and the UK (abstained). The US has consistently vetoed international calls for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire.

    UN chief Antonio Guterres had earlier stated that it is time to act as “the eyes of the world and the eyes of history are watching”.

    In 67 days, Israel killed more than 17,177 innocent people, including 7,112 children and 4,911 women. The number of women and children murdered so far is 70% of the total killed by Israel using weapons supplied by the US and UK.

    So, Bristol will not remain silent.

    Bristol protest on 16 December

    Bristol Palestine Alliance is an urgent and organic response to the horrific events happening in Gaza. Acting as an umbrella group, it brings members from organisations and groups and communities in Bristol together to respond collectively to organise marches and other events to call for a ceasefire in Gaza and an end to Israel’s brutal occupation of Palestine. It is based on the network of solidarity that has been successfully built in this city over many years.

    In response to the ongoing crisis in Palestine, concerned Bristolians, activists, and community leaders will gather for a peaceful protest march on 16 December. The demonstration will demand an immediate ceasefire, an end to the blockade, the release of all illegally held prisoners, and an end to the occupation in Palestine – advocating for justice and peace in the region.

    Amidst the grave humanitarian crises, the march will assemble at Castle Park at 12pm, bringing together voices from diverse backgrounds to call for an end to the violence that has afflicted the region for far too long. At 12.30pm, people will then march along Broad Weir, down Union Street, through Broadmead, back up along Broad Weir, across Baldwin Street, and culminate in a gathering at College Green.

    At College Green, there will be a number of speakers including the adoptive mother of Wael Arafat. Wael Arafat, who is originally from Gaza, arrived in Bristol when he was a teenager. He was brought up by his grandmother in Gaza, when he lost both parents at age five. On October 22 he stopped eating when he learnt that Israeli bombs had killed his family and friends.

    ‘I don’t want to die’

    The 28-year-old is calling for a ceasefire and has only been living off two tablespoons of apple juice and very small quantities of water for weeks. He is currently in hospital. As Middle East Eye reported:

    “I know I might die. I know something could happen to my health,” Arafat told Middle East Eye from a hospital in Bath, southwest England, where he is being treated.

    “I don’t want to die. I’m doing this for my own people who are suffering. Every person in Gaza is my brother and sister,” he said…

    He stopped eating and drinking on 22 October, after learning that his sister and her four children had been killed by an Israeli air strike on their home in Gaza City…

    “[My family] were telling me they’re at home and they’re safe,” he said. “They told me they might have to evacuate. I asked them, where will you go? They said we don’t know.”

    Two weeks into the war, Arafat spoke to his sister for the last time.

    “My sister called me to tell me they’d stayed at home and they might die. That was the last call I had with her,” he said. “I never got to meet her.”

    Immediate action is needed for Palestine, Bristol will demand

    Bristol Palestine Alliance said in a statement:

    We will all raise his voice. And it will be loud enough for all the local MPs to hear. Loud enough to echo in Westminster. And we will call on Wael to end his hunger strike.

    The situation in Palestine demands urgent attention and action. The continued occupation and violence have inflicted immeasurable suffering on the Palestinian people, disrupting lives and undermining peace efforts. This march stands as a symbol of solidarity with those affected and a plea for immediate action toward a sustainable and just resolution.

    Organisers emphasise that the protest – as all the previous protests – will be conducted in a peaceful and respectful manner, aiming to raise awareness and encourage dialogue around the critical issues affecting the region.

    The objectives of the march include:

    • Urging an immediate ceasefire to halt the violence and prevent further loss of life.
    • Calling for an end to the occupation and the implementation of measures leading to a just and lasting peace in the region.
    • Raising awareness about the humanitarian crisis and advocating for the rights and dignity of the Palestinian people.

    All participants are encouraged to join in a spirit of peace and unity, fostering an atmosphere of solidarity and understanding.

    Featured image via Middle East Eye

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Over 1,000 leading artists have refused to work with a British venue that censored Palestine

    Over 1,000 artists have announced their refusal to work with Bristol’s Arnolfini international arts centre after its censorship of Palestinian film and poetry

    Arnolfini faces boycott over Palestinian censorship

    Portishead’s Geoff Barrow and Adrian Utley, Massive Attack’s Robert del Naja, writers Alice Oswald, Nikesh Shukla, Shon Faye, Travis Alabanza, and Rachel Holmes are among many of Bristol’s artists who have written an open letter accusing the iconic Arnolfini International Centre for Contemporary Arts of “censorship of Palestinian culture”.

    The letter comes in response to Arnolfini’s cancellation of scheduled film and poetry events programmed by Bristol Palestine Film Festival. Leading Bristol artists, including Lawrence Hoo, Batu, Giant Swan, Tom Marshman and Verity Standen point to:

    an alarming pattern of censorship and repression within the arts sector

    citing a series of recent cancellations and threats to artists advocating for Palestinian rights in Britain and beyond.

    Ukraine = good, Palestine = bad

    The publicly funded arts centre claimed it cancelled the film and poetry events because it “could not be confident that the events would not stray into political activity”. But the centre’s statement was widely derided when it appeared on Arnolfini’s Instagram account.

    Arnolfini has organised numerous events with overtly political themes. Last year Arnolfini hosted an event that opposed Russia’s war crimes in Ukraine, with part of the ticket sales going to the Disasters Emergency Committee Ukraine.

    Hundreds of British & international artists including Brian Eno, writers Raymond Antrobus, Isabel Waidner, Lola Olufemi, and Huw Lemmey, performance artist Colin Self, and actor Juliet Stevenson joined Bristol artists in signing, stating that after the killing of more than 17,000 Palestinians in Gaza and the destruction of more than 100 heritage sites in a matter of weeks:

    to silence Palestinian voices and narratives at this exact moment is not merely a betrayal of the fundamental principles of pluralism and freedom in the arts, it is also inhumane.

    Visual artists Jasleen Kaur, Ben Rivers, Paul Purgas, Tai Shani, Jumana Manna and Erica Scourti agree that Britain’s hard-won legacy of freedom in the arts:

    cannot be allowed to fall prey to authoritarianism, racism and censorship… Anyone who cares about the democratic functioning of our cultural institutions should be deeply concerned.

    Blames bosses, not the workers

    The artists vow to take collective action and urge other artists and audiences to join them, saying:

    we must, reluctantly, refuse cooperation with the arts centre and will not participate in any of its events

    until Arnolfini:

    publicly commits to consistently uphold freedom of expression, with no exception for Palestine, and genuinely engages with Bristol’s arts community to rectify the harm it has caused.

    Bristol artist and composer Nik Rawlings, who was in talks with the gallery to undertake a residency at Arnolfini, announced that they are no longer willing to do so. They added:

    We want to make it clear that we stand fully behind workers at Arnolfini who’ve had no say in this. Our message is addressed to those in the management who made this damaging decision; the signatories of this letter expect better integrity, transparency and cultural leadership from Arnolfini.

    Featured image via the BBC – screengrab

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • A sobering Christmas reality: cocktail of hazardous pesticides in wine has tripled

    Official statistics analysed by Pesticide Action Network UK (PAN UK) reveal that the presence of harmful pesticide mixtures in wine has increased by over threefold since 2016.

    Wine: a ‘pesticide cocktail’ in the UK

    Findings from the testing programme conducted by the UK government indicate a significant rise in the percentage of wine with multiple pesticide residues, surging from 14% in 2016 to 50% in 2022.

    The analysis of 72 wine samples in PAN UK’s report reveals residues of 19 pesticides, nine of which are linked to cancer. A single wine sample was discovered to contain six different pesticides.

    Nick Mole, PAN UK’s policy officer, mentioned:

    This massive rise in ‘pesticide cocktails’ should be of grave concern because we know that chemicals can become more harmful when combined, and yet we continue to set safety limits for just one chemical at a time. Wine lovers shouldn’t have to risk exposure to an array of hazardous pesticides when they fancy a tipple. The organic wine sector is flourishing, proving that it is 100% possible to produce wine without relying on toxic chemicals.

    The excessive use of pesticides in the production of wine not only poses a threat to the health of consumers, but also endangers the wellbeing of individuals living and working in wine-producing regions.

    Workers in the industry at risk

    In a study conducted in France in October, it was found that children living near vineyards had a higher likelihood of contracting leukemia. Additionally, Canadian research revealed that individuals employed in the wine industry were at a higher risk of developing illnesses, attributed to their exposure to elevated levels of pesticides.

    A French nationwide study published in the Environmental Research journal suggested that agricultural practices and pesticides used in vineyards could have been linked to the occurrence of Parkinson’s disease.

    According to PAN UK’s findings, there seems to be a rising trend in the occurrence of pesticide combinations in the food consumed by Britons. The total percentage of fruit and vegetables with residues from multiple pesticides has consistently stayed below 48%, but this year it unexpectedly spiked to an astonishing 53%.

    Mole added:

    This year’s results show that, just like our rivers, much of our food is increasingly contaminated with pesticide cocktails. We have no idea what his ongoing exposure to tens – or even hundreds – of different chemicals is doing to our health over the long term.

    Pesticides: a problem across the food industry

    In a report by PAN UK and the Soil Association, it is highlighted that despite the prevalence of pesticide cocktails and the evidence pointing to their potentially greater harm compared to individual pesticides, the UK’s regulatory system continues to assess the safety of each chemical independently. Safety evaluations for pesticide residues in our food are conducted based on the analysis of individual chemicals.

    On Wednesday 13 December, PAN UK launched its yearly ‘Dirty Dozen‘ list, identifying the fruit and vegetables with the highest likelihood of being contaminated by multiple pesticides:

    Dirty dozen - including fruit in wine

    Source: data presented based on PAN UK analysis of the UK Government’s Expert Committee on Pesticide Residues in Food (PRiF) four quarterly data spreadsheets for 2022.

    PAN UK’s analysis revealed that among 134 different pesticide residues found in all produce, 50% fall under the category of ‘highly hazardous pesticides.’ Furthermore, 45 of these are carcinogens, 25 act as endocrine disruptors, impacting hormone systems and leading to birth defects, developmental disorders, and infertility.

    Additionally, 14 are considered developmental or reproductive toxins, affecting sexual function, fertility, and potentially causing miscarriages, while 10 are cholinesterase inhibitors capable of impairing the respiratory system.

    The government says…

    A Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) spokesperson said:

    In Great Britain, we set strict limits on the pesticides residue levels that are allowed to remain in both food for consumers and feed for animals. These limits are set to protect public health and are set below the level considered to be safe for people to eat. The limits apply to both food produced in the UK and those imported from other countries.

    In 2018, the UK government committed in its 25 Year Environment Plan to decrease pesticide usage and reassess the UK National Action Plan for the Sustainable Use of Pesticides (NAP) by the year’s end. However, the publication of the NAP is still pending.

    The DEFRA spokesperson continued:

    In line with Defra’s 25 Year Environment Plan, the forthcoming National Action Plan on the Sustainable Use of Pesticides (NAP) will se out our ambition to support pesticide users to maximize non-chemical control approaches. The NAP will be published in due course.

    Pesticides have to be approved by the Chemicals Regulation Directorate (CRD) and authorised by the Health and Safety Executive before they can be sold, distributed, stored or used in the UK.

    Inaction when action is needed

    However, Mole concluded:

    Rates of chronic diseases such as cancer and Parkinson’s are rising. We urgently need to take a precautionary approach and do everything we can to tackle pesticides in our food chain. But the UK government’s key strategy on pesticides is almost six years late now, and their proposal to introduce pesticide reduction targets never happened.

    Our new environment secretary, Steve Barclay, must do better than his recent predecessors and finally make good on the government’s promise to better protect human health and the environment from pesticides.

    Featured image via FoToArtist_1 – Envato Elements 

    By Monica Piccinini

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • 30% of people in Wales are set to spend Christmas in ‘Dickensian’ conditions

    Around three-quarters of a million people in Wales (30%) are living in cold damp homes; exposed to the health complications that come from living in fuel poverty. 

    Wales: an acute problem with cold, damp homes

    The latest data from the Warm This Winter campaign reveals that the 30% of people in cold, damp homes in Wales is double that of the UK average – which is 16% of adults or 8.3 million people in total. 

    As well as the most vulnerable being more affected – such as those aged over 75, under six, or with a pre-existing health condition or disability – there are stark differences based on the type of energy bill households have. 

    Across the whole of the UK, a third of smart meter customers who have a prepayment meter (PPM) setting (32%) say they live in a cold damp home with 27% of those on traditional PPMs saying the same. Almost a quarter (22%) of standard credit customers are in cold damp homes, yet just 11% of direct debit customers live in such conditions. 

    The NHS warns that people with damp and mould in their homes are more likely to have respiratory problems, respiratory infections, allergies, or asthma. Damp and mould can also affect the immune system while living in such conditions can also increase the risk of heart disease, heart attacks or strokes. 

    Cold homes can cause and worsen respiratory conditions, cardiovascular diseases, poor mental health, dementia and hypothermia as well as cause and slow recovery from injury. 

    Get involved: sign a petition or join a campaign

    Petitions with over 800,000 signatures have been handed into the prime minister calling for more action to bring down bills now and end energy debt to help end the cold damp homes crisis now facing the country – especially Wales. These include:

    • Over 88,000 signatures here asking for support on energy bills this Winter.
    • Debt Justice – Over 17,000 signatures demanding the government urgently act by bringing down bills and help families get out of debt. You can sign that here.
    • Fuel Poverty Action – over 660,000 signatures demanding #EnergyForAll – Everyone has a right to the energy needed for heating, cooking, and light. That petition is here.
    • Warm This Winter – Over 41,000 signatures here demanding the Treasury introduce an Emergency Energy Tariff to keep people warm this winter.

    You can also get involved with campaign group Fuel Poverty Action. It has recently run a series of Warm Up protests across the UK – highlighting the appalling conditions people are living in, due to the government and energy companies’ unwillingness to control energy costs.

    Fiona Waters, spokesperson for the Warm This Winter campaign, commented:

    It is no wonder that the public are now signing petitions in droves and pointing the finger of blame for the crisis on Ministers who have failed to act to protect the public from this crisis. 

    Instead of help in the form of an Emergency Energy Tariff for vulnerable households and a Help To Repay scheme for those in energy debt, the public will instead be faced with increasing energy bills on 1 January 2024.

    Simon Francis, coordinator of the End Fuel Poverty Coalition, commented:

    The UK Government needs to get a grip on the cold damp homes crisis now facing the country, with people spending the festive period in Dickensian conditions and unable to stay warm this winter.

    Without immediate action, the cost of this crisis will be felt by increased demand on the already overstretched NHS. 

    Ultimately, a failure to protect people from living in cold damp homes will cost lives.

    Cold, damp homes: a risk to people’s health

    Dr Isobel Braithwaite said: 

    This data shows a shockingly high prevalence of cold and damp homes in the UK, which poses a grave risk to the public’s health. These conditions are severely harming the health of the most vulnerable in society: from young children; people with heart and lung conditions; to older people, and this situation is unconscionable in 2023. 

    These impacts are being driven by political choices, and action is urgently needed to address the causes of this health crisis, both to protect vulnerable households with the campaign’s proposed emergency measures, as well as longer-term action with home retrofit schemes.

    Kay Ballard from Debt Justice who was part of the petition hand in said:

    Lack of government support and energy company profiteering means that this Christmas I have a choice between going into debt or living in a cold damp home. It is an impossible choice and only government action can solve the crisis.

    Stuart Bretherton from Fuel Poverty Action said: 

    Over 660,000 people have endorsed our demand to ensure everyone’s essential energy needs are met, it’s not radical. There’s more than enough money in energy firm profits and subsidies to guarantee an adequate level of Energy For All to keep everyone warm and safe.

    Featured image via KYNASTUDIO – Envato Elements

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Covid Inquiry: Sunak “brutally” abandoned millions and left them exposed to the pandemic

    The Trades Union Congress (TUC) has slammed Rishi Sunak after his ‘evidence‘ to the Covid Inquiry. The union body said that the PM – at the time of the pandemic the then-chancellor – “left millions brutally exposed” to coronavirus; that he failed to recollect “vital details” on over 20 occasions, and refused to accept mistakes on sick pay and Eat Out to Help Out after ignoring government advisers.

    Sunak: ignoring the science

    The Covid Public Inquiry heard that chief medical officer Chris Whitty called in May of 2020 for “an accessible offer of financial support” to help reduce the risk of “no adherence” to Covid rules.

    But according to chief scientific officer Patrick Vallance’s diary, Sunak was responsible for “blocking all notion of paying people to isolate despite all the evidence that this will be needed”.

    In a further diary entry in July 2020, Vallance provided further evidence that Sunak also sought to push back against the scientists’ advice. In one economics-based meeting, Sunak said “it’s all about handling the scientists, not handling the virus”, the entry said.

    Lack of decent sick pay

    At just £94 a week at the start of the pandemic, the average worker faced a £418 drop in earnings if they had to self-isolate on Statutory Sick Pay (SSP).

    In addition, the Covid Inquiry heard Sunak refused to fund reforms that would have extended SSP to nearly two million low-paid workers who did not qualify for it.

    The government belatedly introduced a self-isolation support scheme that would allow low-paid workers to claim a £500 lump sum if they were unable to work.

    However, this scheme was poorly administered, unfunded, and hard to access – with two thirds of low-paid workers who did apply for support from the scheme turned down.

    Covid Inquiry: Sunak ‘brutally exposed’ millions

    Responding to the PM’s evidence, TUC assistant general secretary Kate Bell said:

    Sunak said under oath that it was important to learn the lessons of Covid. Yet he failed to recollect vital details of public interest on more than 20 occasions.

    And he refused time and again to take any responsibility for his actions.

    Sunak was repeatedly warned by government scientists and advisers that people could not afford to self-isolate. But he dismissed their concerns.

    The failure to provide decent sick pay and a timely and practical system of financial support for self-isolation massively undermined the UK’s public health effort. And it left millions brutally exposed to the pandemic.

    Without proper candour and accountability from our leaders, we risk making the same mistakes again.

    Featured image via the Daily Mail – YouTube

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Just Stop Oil directly responds to Met Police’s ‘£20m protest policing bill’ media campaign

    Two Just Stop Oil supporters visited Scotland Yard to deliver a letter inviting Met Police boss Mark Rowley to a formal meeting. The letter was in response to the cops pushing the story in the corporate media that the group’s protests cost £20m. It comes as the Met also received a letter of complaint from several human rights groups over its policing of pro-Palestine marches.

    The Met and Just Stop Oil: a battle of words

    The group’s action came after the Met Police launched a media campaign against it – pushing the line that it has cost the public £20m to police the protests. Predictably, the corporate media widely ran with the story:

    So, Just Stop Oil responded. However, when two activists tried to deliver it in person, it was refused by the staff at Scotland Yard:

    However, Just Stop Oil are also in touch with the Metropolitan Police by email and social media. The group hopes to arrange a meeting with the commissioner as soon as possible.

    The letter from Just Stop Oil also came in response to a request from commander Kyle Gordon that “Just Stop Oil come forward and speak with us, so we can actually work with them”.

    It reads:

    Dear Sir Mark Rowley,

    Recent statements from the Met Police indicate that policing Just Stop Oil actions has cost the police nearly £20 million. What a waste, and as you point out, arresting non-violent grandmothers, teenagers, vicars, medics, engineers is not the best use of your resources. We have previously reached out to you, and various police federations earlier this year. Just Stop Oil representatives would be able to meet with you, at your Scotland Yard office, in the week commencing 11th December 2023. If this is not convenient please provide us with an alternative date.

    Previously, Just Stop Oil has repeatedly attempted to open dialogue with the Metropolitan Police, but have received no response. In October 2023, a Just Stop Oil supporter delivered an open letter to Rowley, which can be read here.

    ‘Just following orders’

    A Just Stop Oil spokesperson said:

    We understand that the vast majority of officers serving in the Metropolitan Police have stepped into their role out of a profound sense of duty and a desire to protect and serve their communities. Despite our obvious differences, that desire to protect our communities is something that we all share. However, objectively, at the present time, the leadership of this country are making decisions that threaten our homes, our families, our communities and our entire way of life.

    Continued expansion of oil and gas, against the advice of the entire scientific consensus, is leading to crop failure, food shortages and will eventually lead to mass civil unrest, social collapse and an end to the rule of law. I would ask those serving in the police force to consider the actions that they take at this time very seriously.

    How will you answer your children in the years to come, when they ask you ‘what did you do’ to stop this crisis unfolding? Did you follow the orders of the people directly profiting from the industries ravaging our shared home? Did you facilitate the actions of people that future generations will come to regard as criminals of the highest order? Or did you make another choice? Did you follow through on your commitment to protect and serve your community and to protect the interests of your children and of generations to come?

    One of those who delivered the letter was Pippa Cowtan, a recent politics graduate from London. She said:

    I have been arrested numerous times by the Metropolitan police for nonviolent acts of civil resistance. I have had friends as young as 18 imprisoned, without trial, for trying to demand the government protect them instead of only serving the interests of corporations and billionaires.

    Meanwhile, the powerful men profiting off the destruction of my home and my future are walking free. I just graduated, and in my lifetime scientists are predicting major ecological and social collapse. How can I plan for a future that is in such jeopardy? The police must act and hold the real criminals to account.

    Not just Just Stop Oil complaining about the Met

    Just Stop Oil’s intervention follows twelve British human rights and media organisations also writing to Rowley, to protest about the force’s handling of pro-Palestine demonstrations in the capital.

    They accuse the Metropolitan Police, which has been beset recently with allegations of racism, of bias in the way they have policed the almost weekly demonstrations that have been held all over London since the Israeli assault on Gaza began in early October.

    The letter says that the Met has allowed itself to be influenced by the highly inflammatory and politicised representation of these demonstrations by their detractors in the media, government, and “Zionist lobby”. This has led to the implementation of a biased policing strategy which is heavy handed and excessive for pro-Palestinian demonstrators but overly indulgent towards pro-Zionists who appear to be breaking the law.

    Featured image via Just Stop Oil

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Labour’s criticism of the Tories’ Rwanda policy missed the point entirely

    The Tory government’s plan to deport refugees to Rwanda has been criticised for many things – not least of all the policy’s abject lack of humanity. Looking at Labour’s response, however, you’d be forgiven for thinking that the issue is that the Tories haven’t deported anyone yet:

    Rwanda: the great distraction

    Before we get into this, there’s a couple of points to be made about the government/media focus on immigration, both in terms of refugees and people who – for some unimaginable reason – want to live in Britain – a.k.a. ‘dog shit island’ – a.k.a. the birthplace of the world’s most moaniest cunts.

    While immigration and refugees are distinct issues, they’re treated as being the same thing in the media because the people who get het up see the as the same thing – i.e. foreign invaders who want to steal the culture we barely have.

    Point one is that the worse the cost of living crisis becomes, the more immigration in all its forms becomes an issue. Rarely do you look at the newspaper front pages without it being among the biggest stories of the day. Despite this – in my own experience – I’ve heard a lot less from people about immigration in real life.

    At the same time, I can’t remember the last time I had a conversation in which the cost of living didn’t come up. In other words, it seems quite clear that the noise over immigration is to some degree an effort to distract people from the abysmal state of their lives. Don’t believe me? Then explain the next point.

    The Tories have been in power for nearly 14 years, and despite their constant, public criticism of immigration, the figures have reached their highest point ever. Given that the Tories could have cut immigration at any point, the only realistic conclusion is that they haven’t wanted to.

    Even the Tories need immigration

    There are good reasons why they wouldn’t want to cut immigration under our current economic system – chiefly the reliance businesses have on people who’ll work for cheap, and the pension systems’ inability to function if the number of retired people falls out of balance with the number of working aged adults.

    While refugees are a different thing to immigration, the visibility of people entering the UK on dinghies is more pronounced, and the Tories have seemingly focussed on it to distract from the ‘legal’ migration they’ve failed to align with their supposed ambitions.

    The problem the Tories have made for themselves is that they’ve made immigration such an issue that they can’t get away with talking out of both sides of their mouth any longer. For those who care, nothing less than walling the entire country off will do, and so the Tories are becoming increasingly extreme in their public displays of anti-immigration rhetoric – whether its deporting refugees to Rwanda or putting a hard cap on authorised migration.

    What the opposition should be doing is explaining the reality of the situation – namely that refugees are human beings who deserve care, and that if this country wants to continue with all this capitalism malarkey then we need to keep feeding working aged people into the system (that or implement an economic system which isn’t reliant on the majority of adults working themselves to the bone).

    Instead, Labour are following the Starmer strategy of agreeing with everything the Tories say besides their ability to deliver on their horrible policy platform.

    Backlash

    People had broadly similar criticisms of Labour’s stance (‘stance’ might be too strong a word, to be fair – it’s more a case of ‘fence-sitting with vaguely insinuated purpose’):

    Some questioned the party’s humanity:

    The Green Party’s Zack Polanski said:

    Actress and write Nadine Barr said this (while it feels like an age ago, Starmer’s praise of Margaret Thatcher was actually only the other week):

    Labour for Rwanda?

    The big question now is what will Labour do in power?

    The problem with questions is that the Labour Party are seldom willing to answer them:

    So, Labour will replace the policy with something else, but they won’t say what – only that their priority is on efficiency. In a sensible world, this would mean replacing it with a policy with some humanity to it; the worry is that Labour will instead find a way of cramming twice as many refugees on to every deportation plane.

    Featured image via Ciphr – Flickr (cropped to 770 x 403)

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Labour’s Wes Streeting just used the winter crisis to argue AGAINST more NHS funding

    Labour’s shadow health secretary Wes Streeting has been heavily criticised for his support of NHS privatisation (among other things). His latest attack on the public health service is possibly the most disturbing yet, however, as he’s used the predictable winter health crisis to argue against more funding.

    Much like his boss Starmer last week, Streeting’s words where hidden behind a paywall.

    Streeting’s NHS tirade: has he thought this through?

    There are two main points to Streeting’s argument. The first is unarguably true; the second is moronic if you want to improve the first:

    1. The NHS is in a sad state of affairs and needs to improve in every way imaginable.
    2. “The NHS is going to have to get used to the fact that money is tight”.

    Now, Streeting may be an oily little turd, but he hasn’t got turds for brains, so what’s his game here? It’s the same game as ever – a neoliberal politician claims public health is inefficient because of the ‘public’ element, and they use that as cover to syphon off lucrative work to private health contractors.

    Councillor/doctor/all-round busy boy David Nicholl pointed out the clear contradiction by highlighting it’s not simply technology that propels, for example, Singapore’s health system; it’s spending more money:

    Who would have guessed that technology cost money to implement and operate?

    However, one doctor had an even more comprehensive take down of Streeting’s plan.

    ‘Many thanks, Wes’

    Rachel Clarke is a palliative care doctor, writer, and founder of Hospice Ukraine (where do these greedy, workshy doctors find the time for all this?). In her response to Streeting, she began with the areas on which they agree:

    Yes, of course the NHS needs to innovate. Better & more creative use of tech, logistics & patient-centred approaches are vitally needed.

    And some of the ideas you outline in your interview, below, are fascinating.

    With the agreement out of the way, she got on with basting oily Wes in his own juices:

    However, you also say the NHS is “the worst of all worlds, which is poor outcomes alongside poor value for taxpayers”.

    Though that might play well with some of the Sunday Times readers whose votes you crave, it is not exactly true.

    Clarke went further too:

    In fact, expert consensus is that the NHS does remarkably well with its below-average overall funding, woeful levels of capital investment & excessively low numbers of doctors & hospital beds per capita.

    None of this is to say we can’t do better with the resources we have.

    Ah, but have you considered that giving the NHS even less money and sellotaping a £1,000 iPad to the end of every hospital bed might actually enhance efficiency? Given his reliance on magical thinking, it’s unsurprising that Streeting has also been criticised for defending Harry Potter scribe J.K. Rowling (to be fair to Rowling, there’s nothing in her books as fantabulous as Streeting’s plan for the NHS).

    Clarke continued, noting that Streeting has gone way beyond simply calling for improvements to the service:

    But when you insinuate to the public that NHS staff “use” the grotesquely awful winter conditions we – patients & staff alike – endure every year to demand more funding, you are quite openly & deliberately undermining public trust in the NHS.

    Are you really OK with that?

    Even more damagingly, whether you intended it or not, with that insinuation you’ve given NHS staff the most massive kick in the guts .

    Do you have any idea how hellish it is to work in an NHS A&E over winter? How much staff give in those horrific conditions?

    Clarke ended by calling out Streeting’s barely concealed cynicism:

    Other people had things to say – some of them concise:

    Others quite funny:

    But money is tight!

    Let’s return to what oily Wes had to say on this front:

    The NHS is going to have to get used to the fact that money is tight

    Tight is it? Tight for who?

    Where I live, more and more shops are boarded up, but in one place they recently opened a Porche dealership. My mum was confused by this, so I explained that while things are getting progressively worse for an increasing majority, for the shrinking minority, things have never been better.

    Money isn’t tight for them – not unless you ask them for a bit more in taxes, anyway; a move Starmer’s Labour is chronically adverse to. Instead, we’re going to get austerity for the many and private healthcare contracts for the few.

    It’s not the NHS which is using the failing state of this country as an excuse to beg for more money; it’s the rich.

    Featured image via Chris McAndrew (Wikipedia) – cropped to 770 x 403

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Human rights groups challenge the Met over ‘biased’ policing of pro-Palestine marches

    Twelve British human rights and media organisations have written to the head of the Met Police, sir Mark Rowley, to protest about the force’s handling of pro-Palestine demonstrations in the capital.

    Pro-Palestine demos: bias in the Met’s policing?

    They accuse the Metropolitan Police, which has been beset recently with allegations of racism, of bias in the way they have policed the almost weekly demonstrations that have been held all over London since the Israeli assault on Gaza began in early October.

    The letter says that the Met has allowed itself to be influenced by the highly inflammatory and politicised representation of these demonstrations by their detractors in the media, government, and “Zionist lobby”. This has led to the implementation of a biased policing strategy which is heavy handed and excessive for pro-Palestinian demonstrators but overly indulgent towards pro-Zionists who appear to be breaking the law.

    The Met has made dozens of highly questionable arrests, many of them of people holding banners that express strong political views. These include:

    • Yael Kahn, a Jewish demonstrator, for carrying a sign that likened Israel to Nazi Germany and the bombardment of Gaza to the Holocaust.
    • The arrests on 25 November 2023 of two Muslim females outside the Egyptian embassy for carrying placards in the Arabic language. By their own admission, the police didn’t know what these signs read but they arrested the women anyway. Both were later released without charge.
    • A Muslim female at a demonstration in Lewisham on Sunday 26 November 2023 under the Public Order Act for carrying a sign that said “Zionists are Nazis”.

    The letter’s signatories contrast this overzealous approach with the kid-glove treatment given by police to pro-Israel marchers who directed Nazi slurs at anti-Zionist Jews during the national March for anti-Semitism on 26 November 2023. Video footage of this demonstration shows pro-Israel protestors shouting “Judenrat” at their anti-Israeli co-religionists. Judenrat is a slur used by Jews to describe Nazi collaborators.

    It states:

    There is an evident inconsistency in your policing when pro-Palestinian demonstrators are being harassed and arrested for comparing Zionism with Nazism but Zionists who accuse Jews of Nazi-esque behaviour are allowed to do so with impunity. It would appear that your force is operating a double standard whereby it is subjecting pro-Palestinian marchers to a lower criminal threshold than their political rivals.

    The signatories also draw attention to the unprecedented presence of the Home Secretary’s Special Lead Advisors for Hate Crime and Media and Communications in the Met’s Special Operations Room.

    20 years and nothing has changed

    These Special Advisors have had weekly access to the Special Operations Room, where senior members of the Metropolitan Police’s leadership monitor pro-Palestine protests and issue commands to officers on the ground, share intelligence and make decisions over whether to proceed to arrest. The Metropolitan Police have also provided senior prosecution lawyers from the Crown Prosecution Service their own operational desk inside the Special Operations Building to work from during these protests.

    The front-loading of the charging and prosecution process gives rise to serious concerns about political influence in the Met’s operational decision-making, as does the presence of CPS lawyers in the building. According to the signatories, this is the first-time measures such as these have been put in place by the Metropolitan Police.

    Policing the demonstrations through a hate-crime lens also reinforces the false image being created by politicians and pundits of the demonstrations as inherently hateful and problematic whereas in reality they have been extremely law-abiding and peaceful.

    It would appear that some 20 years since the Islamic Human Rights Commission highlighted two-tier policing of pro-Palestine protests in its report “Muslim Profiling“, the Met is still profiling these protests as Muslim, thereby racialising them and discriminating against those who participate in them.

    Read the letter in full

    The full letter is available to read here.

    The signatories to the letter are:

    • Islamic Human Rights Commission
    • Jewish Network for Palestine
    • Convivencia Alliance
    • Ahlulbayt Islamic Mission
    • 5 Pillars
    • CAGE
    • Muslim Public Affairs Committee
    • Scotland Against Criminalising Communities
    • InMinds Human Rights Group
    • Fight Racism, Fight Imperialism
    • No2NATO
    • Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign

    Featured image via Palestine Solidarity Campaign

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • UDHR@75: occasion for US, UK and Canada to put sanctions on human rights abusers

    The UK, US and Canada are announcing a sweeping package of sanctions targeting individuals linked to human rights abuses around the world, ahead of the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on 10 December. 

    UK targets forced labour operations in Southeast Asia, and government-linked officials in Belarus, Haiti, Iran, and Syria complicit in repressing individual freedoms.

    The first set targets 9 individuals and 5 entities for their involvement in trafficking people in Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar, forcing them to work for online ‘scam farms’ which enable large-scale fraud. Victims are promised well-paid jobs but are subject to torture or other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment…

    The second is aimed at a number of individuals linked to the governments, judiciaries and prosecuting authorities of Belarus, Haiti, Iran, and Syria, for their involvement in the repression of citizens solely for exercising fundamental freedoms in those countries.

    Included in the USA sanctions are two Afghanistan government ministers accused of repressing women and girls, by restricting access to secondary education; two Iranian intelligence officers who the Treasury says plot violence against Iranian regime opponents beyond the nation’s borders and two Chinese officials accused of torturing Uyghur ethnic minorities in the Xinjiang region of China.

    https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-and-allies-sanction-human-rights-abusers

    https://thehill.com/homenews/ap/ap-u-s-news/ap-u-s-sanctions-officials-from-afghanistan-to-china-on-declaration-of-human-rights-anniversary/

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

  • Cornwall is set to turn out again in solidarity with Palestine

    Residents of Cornwall will take part in a second ‘national’ demonstration in solidarity with Palestine on 9 December in Truro.

    Kernow: in solidarity with Palestine

    The protest, organised by Palestine Solidarity Cornwall (PSC), will meet outside the cathedral at 1pm to highlight the ongoing genocide the Israeli government is perpetrating against Palestinian people. The protest will demand accountability from Cornish MPs who voted against a ceasefire, and highlight the complicity of the UK arms trade in war crimes committed by the Israeli government.

    The protest follows hundreds gathering in Truro on 18 November for the first Cornish national protest:

    It also comes after two months of regular demonstrations, stalls and awareness raising events in Falmouth, Truro, Newquay, and Penzance. Campaigners have raised £2,270 for Medical Aid for Palestinians during these events.

    Half a billion in UK arms to Israel

    To date, over 21,000 people have been killed in Israel’s attacks on Gaza, including 8,697 children. At least 1.7 million more have been displaced, and people are running out of places to flee as Israel continues its invasion in the south of Gaza. On 7 November, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said “Gaza is becoming a graveyard for children”. Despite a temporary pause in the onslaught, things have only deteriorated since then.

    Since 2015, the Conservative government has licensed £474m worth of arms to Israel through single issue licenses. The real figure, however, is much higher as this does not include open licenses where there is no transparency over how much military equipment is sold. The F35 combat aircraft that Israel is currently using to bombard Gaza are covered by one of these open licenses. 15% of each F35 is made by UK industry.

    According to research by Campaign Against The Arms Trade, UK companies have made £336m since 2016 from these sales. BAE Systems, the lead partner in the F35s, saw its share prices reach record heights following the escalation of the conflict.

    ‘We will keep protesting in Cornwall’

    A spokesperson for Palestine Solidarity Cornwall said:

    We wish it wasn’t necessary for us to be taking to the streets again, but while the UK government and the UK arms trade is complicit in genocide, we will keep protesting. It is easy to feel powerless – but we know from our members who are in contact with Palestinian people that our solidarity, and the solidarity of people across the UK does make a difference. We must keep up the pressure – both on this government and on the UK arms trade.

    Companies such as a BAE Systems and Elbit systems are drenched in the blood of Palestinian children. During the Christmas period, there are always platitudes about peace on earth. But there can never be peace while arms companies make millions from death and destruction.

    All of our MPs in Cornwall voted against a ceasefire. All of our MPs voted to allow Israel to continue killing, maiming and displacing Palestinian people. We must show that the public does not support them and that we will hold them to account for their actions.

    Feature image via Cornwall Resists

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Israel has just given BP licences to drill for gas off the coast of Gaza. So, people blockaded its head office.

    On Wednesday 6 December, dozens of activists from Fossil Free London assembled outside BP’s London headquarters to protest Israel’s approval of 12 new licences for natural gas exploration off the west coast of Gaza to six companies, including BP:

    London, UK. 6 December 2023. Fossil Free London protest outside BP's London office, against Israel's awarding of licences to explore for gas off the coast of Gaza to BP, one of six companies awarded licences to explore there. Credit: Andrea Domeniconi/Fossil Free London

    London, UK. 6 December 2023. Fossil Free London protest outside BP's London office, against Israel's awarding of licences to explore for gas off the coast of Gaza to BP, one of six companies awarded licences to explore there. Credit: Andrea Domeniconi/Fossil Free London

    BP: dirty deals with Israel for Gaza’s gas

    BP not only received this licence but is also set to acquire 50% of the Israeli Delek Group-owned NewMed, who have also been granted a licence. NewMed owns 45% of Leviathan, the largest gas field in the Mediterranean, situated off the coast of Israel.

    Israel’s occupation of the Gaza Strip denies the besieged population access to natural resources within its waters, in violation of international law.

    Activists held signs linking the oil and gas company to Israel’s continued bombardment of Gaza and shouted “stop fuelling genocide” as well as “profits from oil but none from aid, Gazan genocide is British made.”

    Some activists shouted “shame on you” as BP staff left their office buildings after work, while others spoke to the passing public:

    London, UK. 6 December 2023. Fossil Free London protest outside BP's London office, against Israel's awarding of licences to explore for gas off the coast of Gaza to BP, one of six companies awarded licences to explore there. Credit: Andrea Domeniconi/Fossil Free London

    London, UK. 6 December 2023. Fossil Free London protest outside BP's London office, against Israel's awarding of licences to explore for gas off the coast of Gaza to BP, one of six companies awarded licences to explore there. Credit: Andrea Domeniconi/Fossil Free London

    The protest is part of a series of actions by Fossil Free London that seek to highlight the link between the climate crisis, fossil fuel companies, and the occupation of Palestine.

    The grassroots group have protested Ithaca Energy, owned by Israeli petroleum conglomerate Delek Group, which is part of a UN blacklist of companies complicit in illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank, as well as previously protesting BP at the end of November, by blocking the doors to office workers at the start of the day.

    Big oil sweeping in upon the wreckage of Palestine

    Joanna Warrington from Fossil Free London said:

    The chant ‘in our thousands, in our millions we are all Palestinians’, rings truer in a climate crisis than ever before. People in Gaza are right now being denied their land, safe water, and secure homes.

    This is what is happening to all of us worldwide due to the climate crisis.

    It comes as no surprise that big oil is now sweeping in, upon the wreckage, using this humanitarian crisis to dredge out profits from more oil and gas, just as they are doing in this global humanitarian crisis of climate collapse.

    We all deserve safety, security and clean air. This is the fight for climate justice. Free Palestine!

    Previously, Fossil Free London also blockaded BP’s London HQ on 20 November.

    Featured image and additional images via Andrea Domeniconi

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • More Than 1,000 UK Union Workers Blockade 4 Weapons Factories That Arm Israel

    More than 1,000 union members with Workers for a Free Palestine blockaded four weapons factories in the United Kingdom Thursday that make components for planes being used by Israel to bomb Gaza. The workers, who include teachers and healthcare and hospitality professionals, said they had shut down plants in Bournemouth, Lancashire, Brighton, and Glasgow. “As healthcare workers, we are tired of…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • Don’t just blame Boris ‘the liar’ Johnson for Long Covid. Blame the crooked psychiatrists who fomented his beliefs, too.

    Boris ‘the liar’ Johnson’s non-apology to people living with long Covid at the Covid Inquiry has angered many people. The former PM’s dismissal of the disease as “bollocks” arguably led to the epidemic of debilitating chronic illness we’re now witnessing. However, is he solely to blame? Or was he a victim of psychiatric propaganda of the highest order that we now need to consign to the dustbin of medical history?

    Johnson: sorry/not sorry

    As the Canary previously reported, on his first day at the Covid Inquiry, Johnson couldn’t apologise properly to long Covid patients for calling their disease ‘bollocks’. Instead, the inference was that he was sorry that he got caught doing it. Johnson said:

    I regret very much using that language and I should have thought about the possibility of future publication.

    ‘Thought about the possibility of future publication’? Translate that from ‘Johnson doublespeak’, and you get ‘I should have thought about whether I’d get caught‘.

    However, while Johnson is undoubtedly a nasty, arrogant, and condescending piece of work – is he really solely to blame for the stigma around long Covid? Not really. We need to think of Johnson more as the monkey – because there are organ grinders who have directed him to this point of view in the first place.

    ME: ground zero of ‘all in your head’

    Myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) is one of the ‘ground zeros’ when it comes to the ‘all in your head’ slander around chronic illness. Some people refer to ME as chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). It is a debilitating and poorly-treated chronic, systemic neuroimmune disease that affects every aspect of the patient’s lives. You can read more about ME symptoms here.

    The disease has been at the centre of various scandals for decades. These include medical professionals saying it was a psychological illness – that is, that it’s ‘all in people’s heads’. Spoiler alert: ME is in no way psychological. You can read the endless articles I’ve written showing this fact here.

    However, these narrative have stuck – and entered the psyche of people like Johnson. This is partly because the idea of psychomatic illness is entrenched in the medical profession. However, it is also because of just who is pushing the ‘all in your head’ junk science. I say junk science because the fraudulent PACE Trial, which cemented the idea that ME was psychosomatic, was a near textbook case of it; that is:

    faulty scientific information or research, especially when used to advance special interests.

    PACE Trial: a hotbed of scientific crooks

    In the case of PACE Trial, the Canary has reported extensively on how:

    Overall, patients, advocates, politicians, and many medical professionals believe the PACE Trial was a con to keep ME as a psychological illness, and to deny people benefits and private health insurance. However, it is who is behind PACE Trial that is key to understanding just why people like Johnson lap up the ‘all in your head’ agenda for post-viral illness.

    The people at the centre of PACE Trial were:

    • Michael Sharpe – emeritus professor of psychological medicine at Oxford University.
    • Trudi Chalder – professor of Cognitive Behavioural Psychotherapy at King’s College, London.
    • Peter White – former professor of psychological medicine at Queen Mary University of London, adviser to the Ministry of Defence and the government’s Chief Medical Officer.

    Elitism versus hysterical patients

    These three have been virulent in their defence of their junk science – even after it was widely debunked. Yet still, they get away with it in some circles like the Guardian. Why? It’s elitism. Sharpe, Chalder, and White have positions at some of the best universities in the UK; in the case of White, they’ve had the ear of government at times, and in the case of Sharpe their peers have repeatedly awarded them for their endeavours.

    So, if it came down to the junk science of esteemed professors versus ‘hysterical’ patients – the junk scientists will always win. PACE Trial has directly and indirectly instructed the thinking of countless medical professionals, from consultants to local GPs – to the severe detriment of chronically ill patients whose symptoms they perceive as ‘medically unexplained’. This include ME, but also countless other conditions where a part-psychiatric approach is now considered normal.

    However, there are plenty of respected medical professionals who don’t believe ME (and long Covid for that matter) are ‘all in people’s heads’. Therefore, this still doesn’t entirely explain Johnson’s views. So, how is it that the former PM has lapped up this narrative hook, line, and sinker?

    Wessely: the high priest of junk science

    Enter Simon Wessely. Now, him and Johnson don’t appear to be acquainted. However, Wessely is one of the highest-profile medical professionals in the UK. He reviewed the Mental Health Act for Theresa May’s Tory government; the NHS recently appointed him to its board, and David Cameron’s coalition government awarded him his ‘sir’ for services to military healthcare. It is that last point which is crucial.

    Johnson’s ‘Gulf War syndrome stuff’ comment about long Covid didn’t come from his Eton-addled brain by itself. Wessely is of course the person who (with Chalder, no less) perpetuated the myth that Gulf War syndrome was somehow psychomatic – in the same way the pair helped ME to become ‘all in people’s heads’. As he said himself:

    the transmission of rumour was a significant part of the very construction of the condition itself.

    We now know this is – to coin a phrase – ‘bollocks’. Gulf War syndrome was caused by the release of Sarin gas, as researchers concluded in May 2022. Yet for over 30 years, high priest Wessely and his junk science acolytes perpetuated the falsehood that the disease was ‘all in people’s heads’ – and it stuck in Johnson’s, too. Again, we have to ask the question why?

    Elitism pervades the establishment – both political and medical

    It’s elitism, once more. Wessely is a world-renowned psychiatrist who has had a glittering career for decades. Gulf War syndrome has been one of the most highly-publicised yet unexplained diseases in living memory, making repeated newspaper headlines. Wessely gave the military, governments, veterans, and the wider public, revelatory answers – and hope.

    Combine these things, and mud sticks. It would seem impossible that a man like Wessely could have built a career off the back of demonstrable nonsense. Therefore, his opinions must be correct.

    Ironically, it is the phrase that Wessely used himself to describe Gulf War syndrome that, when adjusted, best describes his affect on the medical profession, and wider society’s, opinion of chronic illnesses that have no known cause:

    the transmission of rumour was a significant part of the very construction of the… [falsehood] itself.

    As a society, we are conditioned to believe that those who have reached the pinnacle of education and careers are somehow better than us mere mortals. We’re supposed to celebrate them and their alleged achievements. However, in the case of Wessely – and Johnson (and arguably many other leaders in their respective fields) – these people should not be revered.

    Misplaced beliefs leaving the rest of us screwed

    Their self-serving self-importance, coupled with a misplaced yet arrogant belief in their own abilities and ideas, make them dangerous to the rest of us. ME and Gulf War syndrome patients can testify to this – and sadly now, long Covid patients can, too.

    However, Johnson is really only the monkey of the long Covid ‘bollocks’ trickery. Wessely was one of the most instrumental organ grinders of the now-failing notion of psychomatic illness – and clearly, even former PMs were dancing to the tune.

    That’s not to say Johnson isn’t guilty of leaving millions of people disabled by long Covid through inaction, lies, and prejudice. However, his views are just another symptom of an illness that crooked psychiatrists have spent years fomenting. If one things comes out of the Covid Inquiry, it’s that the idea that illness can be ‘all in people’s heads’ is consigned to the dustbin of medical history.

    Featured image via the Telegraph – YouTube

    By Steve Topple

    This post was originally published on Canary.