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- Title - String
- Author - String
- Date - String
- Text - Text
- Link - URL
- Reviewed - String
- Publication - String
- Created - Datetime
- CreatedBy - String
This table has 101 rows altogether.
| Page | Title | Author | Date | Text | Link | Reviewed | Publication | Created | CreatedBy |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CF000006 (edit) | Workers from the MoJ and BEIS go on strike and take to the streets | Shabbir Lakha | 22 January 2019 | Receptionists, security guards, cleaners at the Ministry of Justice represented by the UVW Union and support staff at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy represented by the PCS union organised a joint two-day strike beginning 22 January, demanding a London Living Wage, an end to outsourcing and parity of sick pay and annual leave with civil servants | Yes | Counterfire | |||
| CF000011 (edit) | National school students' climate strike in pictures | Jago Corry | 15 February 2019 | The hugely inspiring national school students' strike against climate change should be the start of a coordinated, international campaign, reports Jago Corry The national youth strike for climate change saw thousands of students all around the country walk out from school on strike and protest in their town and city centres. Upon asking the multiple groups of school, college and university students, it is clear the issue of climate change is at the centre of their concerns. Young people will be the most affected if climate change is not reversed. | Yes | CounterFire | 2019-02-17 7:25:48 PM | Michaeldakin | |
| CM000014 (edit) | British Security Service Infiltration, the Integrity Initiative and the Institute for Statecraft | Craig Murray | 13 December 2018 | The British state can maintain its spies’ cover stories for centuries. Look up Eldred Pottinger, who for 180 years appears in scores of British history books – right up to and including William Dalrymple’s Return of the King – as a British officer who chanced to be passing Herat on holiday when it came under siege from a partly Russian-officered Persian army, and helped to organise the defences. In researching Sikunder Burnes, I discovered and published from the British Library incontrovertible and detailed documentary evidence that Pottinger’s entire journey was under the direct instructions of, and reporting to, British spymaster Alexander Burnes. The first historian to publish the untrue “holiday” cover story, Sir John Kaye, knew both Burnes and Pottinger and undoubtedly knew he was publishing lying propaganda. Every other British historian of the First Afghan War (except me and latterly Farrukh Husain) has just followed Kaye’s official propaganda | Yes | Craig Murray | |||
| CM000019 (edit) | The Blog That Reaches The Parts | Craig Murray | 19 February 2019 | Delighted to be back in Edinburgh after a fascinating three weeks in Pakistan. I left Pakistan two days after the Kashmir flare-up and just as Mohammed Bin Salman arrived, and you will be hearing my thoughts on this much neglected but vital country further over the next few days. As I return, the Corrupt Seven are leaving the Labour Party and being much feted for their general Toryness, a quality they hold in common with the large majority of remaining Labour MPs, who calculate staying on is a better bet to preserve their incomes at present. I have missed an appalling official report from Frances Cairncross, who advocates that in order to ensure that we get our proper dose of official propaganda we should be obliged to pay with our taxes to subsidise newspapers which nobody wants to buy. This ties in with the report yesterday by MPs advocating more governmental control of Facebook to tighten the permitted narrative still further. Much for me to get my teeth into; just give me a chance to unpack | Yes | Craig Murray | 2019-02-19 7:05:34 PM | Michaeldakin | |
| DI000001 (edit) | Democracy – not for me? | disidealist | 8 February 2019 | In 2017, I was the candidate for Labour here on the Isle of Wight. One day I may share some anecdotes, but to be honest, John O’Farrell got there first, and he’s much funnier than me. Since the election, I’ve been the main spokesperson for the CLP, and since June last year, the Chair, trying to maintain our profile in the local media, and to keep the Tory council and Tory MP honest. Or at least as honest as Tories get. If Theresa May were to go for another walk and call an election, then I may well throw my hat into the ring to be considered as Labour candidate once more. I may not be selected by the CLP though. They may choose someone else to try and topple the Tories. The last two years have not been without difficulty. I’ve been the target of some fairly horrible abuse from some individuals on social media and email. Nothing which would make an actual MP bat an eyelid in terms of quantity, obviously, but when someone publicly calls you “a cancer”, your first reaction isn’t “oh well, at least it’s not as bad as what Jeremy Corbyn gets”. We’re all human. Except Jacob Rees-Mogg. Although there have been some threats, they’ve been relatively unthreatening threats, if that makes sense: I’ve not taken to checking under my car. Nonetheless, it’s fair to say I haven’t had this much anglo-saxon directed towards me since the last time I refereed a rugby league game. | Yes | Disidealist | 2019-02-09 5:22:20 PM | Michaeldakin | |
| DI000003 (edit) | Flattening The Grass: the endpoint of Govianism | disidealist | 15 February 2019 | This week, both the TES and Schoolsweek rather courageously put their heads above the parapet by running stories on what has become known as the “Flattening The Grass” scandal. Essentially, some academy chains -much praised by Ofsted- have been deliberately employing a policy of humiliating their pupils, often to the point of those pupils experiencing trauma and breaking down in tears. I wrote about this spread of deliberate emotional abuse of children in a previous blog. What is worth looking at in this case, is the way the “flattening the grass” case highlights how several different strands of Govian education policy have converged to deliver the outcome which is currently appalling those adults who believe children should be safe from abuse when they attend school | Yes | Disidealist | 2019-02-15 10:37:39 PM | Michaeldakin | |
| DI000004 (edit) | Notes From The Cult: After EU. No, After EU | disidealist | 28 May 2019 | Someone I know rather well is very much of the opinion that, unless there’s some sort of discomfort or self-denial involved in any activity, it’s not worth doing. There’s a puritanical streak in this philosophy which I recognise from teaching about the 17th Century, but initially, coming from a frankly hedonistic “if there’s chocolate on the table, eat it before anyone else does” background, I found it a bit weird and annoying. Actually, who am I trying to kid? I still find it a bit weird and annoying. However, the one advantage it offers is that events which cause intense irritation to the rest of us, make her feel nobler, even happier. So a thunderstorm on a day out is ‘bracing’; forgetting snacks on a long walk makes the food at the destination all the more deserved and enjoyable; spending hours stuck in a miserable airport somehow makes the holiday that much more fun. I have to tell you, however, that even she is struggling to find much of a redeeming silver-lining of godly sacrifice in the almighty kicking Labour got in yesterday’s EU elections. | Yes | Disidealist | 2019-08-26 9:33:37 PM | Michaeldakin | |
| DNS000060 (edit) | Two years on from Supreme Court bus ruling, protesters call for overdue action | John Pring | 24 January 2019 | '''Campaigners have protested outside the Department for Transport (DfT) to call for new laws that would protect the rights of wheelchair-users to use buses, on the second anniversary of a ground-breaking Supreme Court victory.''' Two years ago (on 18 January), the Supreme Court ruled that First Bus had breached its duty to make reasonable adjustments for disabled people under the Equality Act through its “first come, first served” policy on the use of wheelchair spaces. It was the first case of disability discrimination in service provision to be heard by the country’s highest court, and the victory followed a five-year legal battle by accessible transport activist Doug Paulley | Yes | Disability News Service | |||
| DNS000062 (edit) | MPs’ online abuse report: ‘Government ignored disabled people in safety probe | John Pring | 24 January 2019 | '''A government examination of online safety almost entirely ignored the needs of disabled people, despite them facing “horrendous, degrading and dehumanising” abuse when they try to use the internet, a committee of MPs said this week.''' The Commons petitions committee said this week that it was difficult to see how the government could tackle this abuse – which it said was even a “life and death issue” for some users – if it failed to consider or consult disabled people. It called on the government to admit that the current model of self-regulation of social media had failed disabled people and to take steps to ensure that social media companies “accept their responsibility for allowing illegal and abusive content on their sites and the toxic environment this creates for users” | Yes | Disability News Service | |||
| DNS000063 (edit) | MPs’ online abuse report: Disabled people ‘exposed to horrendous abuse’ | John Pring | 24 January 2019 | '''An inquiry by a committee of MPs has revealed the “horrendous, degrading and dehumanising” abuse that disabled people are exposed to when they use the internet.''' The inquiry heard from disabled people who face abuse not just on social media but also through online games, web forums, and comments on news stories on media websites. The House of Commons petitions committee has now published its final report on this abuse, and has concluded that self-regulation of social media has failed disabled people | Yes | Disability News Service | |||
| DNS000064 (edit) | Care watchdog criticised over abandoned bid to replace service-user contracts | John Pring | 24 January 2019 | '''The care watchdog is facing heavy criticism after being forced to abandon a year-long attempt to find organisations to run a programme that sends expert service-users to assist on inspections of care homes, hospitals and care agencies across England.''' The Experts by Experience (ExE) programme is currently run by two contractors, Choice Support and Remploy, but disabled people and other service-users who take part in the scheme have been pushing the Care Quality Commission (CQC) for years to dump Remploy because of its poor performance. A process to find new contractors began in August 2017, with an invitation to tender released in August 2018, but CQC decided to terminate the process last November | Yes | Disability News Service | |||
| DNS000065 (edit) | Rudd accused of misleading MPs on universal credit by exaggerating jobcentre visits | John Pring | 24 January 2019 | '''The new work and pensions secretary has been accused of misleading MPs about her government’s under-fire universal credit benefit system, after she was caught exaggerating the number of jobcentres she had visited since her appointment.''' Amber Rudd told the House of Commons earlier this month that she had visited “many” jobcentres since being appointed to replace Esther McVey as work and pensions secretary in November. She used this reference to her frequent visits to justify her claim that jobcentre staff were “enthusiastic about universal credit” | Yes | Disability News Service | |||
| DNS000066 (edit) | Lobby aims to persuade MPs that DWP must First Do No Harm on assessments | John Pring | 24 January 2019 | '''Disabled activists are hoping to use a parliamentary meeting next month to persuade more MPs that action must be taken to prevent further deaths caused by the government’s much-criticised fitness for work test.''' The First Do No Harm lobby on 13 February aims to expose the continued harm caused to disabled people by government social security reforms. And it will focus on the repeated failure of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to ensure that the “further medical evidence” needed to demonstrate a disabled person’s eligibility for out-of-work disability benefits is always collected, particularly for claimants with mental health conditions | Yes | Disability News Service | |||
| DNS000067 (edit) | DWP refuses to reveal police forces that share information on disabled protesters | John Pring | 24 January 2019 | '''The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is refusing to say which police forces have passed it video footage and other information about claimants of disability benefits who have taken part in anti-fracking and anti-austerity protests.''' DWP’s attempt to hide its links with police forces has caused fresh anger among activists, who have this week called on disabled people to complain to their MPs, as well as police forces and DWP itself. They have also called for disabled people to support those activists affected by such police actions | Yes | Disability News Service | |||
| DNS000068 (edit) | Last-ditch appeal to new Welsh first minister over independent living scheme | John Pring | 31 January 2019 | A disabled campaigner has sent an 80-page dossier of evidence to the new first minister of Wales in a last-ditch bid to persuade him to abandon plans to close the Welsh government’s independent living grant scheme. Nathan Lee Davies has written to Mark Drakeford with just two months left until the planned closure of the Welsh Independent Living Grant (WILG), which was itself set up as an interim scheme following the UK government’s decision to close the Independent Living Fund in June 2015 | Yes | Disability News Service | 2019-01-31 10:16:31 PM | Michaeldakin | |
| DNS000069 (edit) | DPAC warns Labour to rethink support for universal basic income | John Pring | 31 January 2019 | Campaigners are warning the Labour party to rethink its support for a radical new benefit system because of risks that its introduction would further isolate and impoverish disabled people. In a new report, UBI: Solution or Illusion? The Implications of Universal Basic Income for Disabled People in Britain, Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC) says support for universal basic income (UBI) has been growing steadily among those both on the left and the right of politics | Yes | Disability News Service | 2019-01-31 10:18:25 PM | Michaeldakin | |
| DNS000071 (edit) | MPs praise campaigners who received threats and abuse over access court cases | John Pring | 31 January 2019 | MPs have heard how disabled campaigners were abused and threatened, while one was even reported to the police, after taking legal actions against service-providers for disability discrimination. Esther Leighton and Doug Paulley (pictured) were praised by MPs for their campaigning work, after giving evidence yesterday (Wednesday) as part of an inquiry by the Commons women and equalities committee into enforcement of the Equality Act 2010. The committee is particularly looking at the enforcement role of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), which was criticised by both Leighton and Paulley in their evidence | Yes | Disability News Service | 2019-01-31 10:21:06 PM | Michaeldakin | |
| DNS000073 (edit) | Minister seeks recruits for new disability network… but refuses to pay them | John Pring | 31 January 2019 | The minister for disabled people is refusing to pay the chairs and members of nine new regional groups she is setting up to bring the views of disabled people and their organisations closer to government. The refusal to pay for their work and time has angered disabled people’s organisations (DPOs) and follows a string of embarrassing failures to engage with disabled people and their user-led organisations in what critics say is a clear breach of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD). When the Office for Disability Issues (ODI) announced last month that it was setting up a new Regional Stakeholder Network, it said it wanted to “provide a channel for disabled people and their organisations to share their views and experiences about policies and services that affect them” | Yes | Disability News Service | 2019-01-31 10:23:20 PM | Michaeldakin | |
| DNS000074 (edit) | Cross-government suicide prevention plan ignores DWP | John Pring | 31 January 2019 | Ministers have failed to include the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) in a new cross-government plan aimed at reducing suicides, despite years of evidence linking such deaths with the disability benefits system and social security reforms. The Department of Health and Social Care’s (DHSC) first Cross-Government Suicide Prevention Workplan details how it will work with a string of government departments and other organisations to cut the number of suicides | Yes | Disability News Service | 2019-01-31 10:24:35 PM | Michaeldakin | |
| DNS000075 (edit) | New charter aims to put dignity and respect at heart of local services | John Pring | 7 February 2019 | '''Disabled campaigners have launched a new charter that aims to persuade organisations – and individuals – in their local area to treat people with dignity and respect.''' Ken and Tracy McClymont have spent four years working on the Dudley Dignity Charter, which lists 10 key principles for how people should be treated, focusing on areas such as communication, privacy, choice, control, advocacy and fairness. The McClymonts, both key figures in Dudley Centre for Inclusive Living (Dudley CIL), have worked on the charter with another local disabled people’s organisation, Disability In Action, with support from Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council and Healthwatch Dudley | Yes | Disability News Service | 2019-02-09 7:02:54 PM | Michaeldakin | |
| DNS000078 (edit) | Newton forced to apologise after misleading MPs in WOW debate | John Pring | 7 February 2019 | '''The minister for disabled people has been forced to apologise to MPs after Disability News Service (DNS) caught her misleading MPs about support for disabled people for the fourth time in less than a year.''' The misleading comments by Sarah Newton (pictured) about disability poverty came in December when she was responding to a House of Commons debate on the impact of eight years of cuts to disability support. But it was only on Tuesday this week, four days after DNS had drawn the attention of her press officers to her misleading comments, that she sent a letter apologising to MPs | Yes | Disability News Service | 2019-02-09 7:07:08 PM | Michaeldakin | |
| DNS000081 (edit) | Parents who home educate disabled children ‘scapegoated’ by commissioner | John Pring | 14 February 2019 | Families forced into home educating their disabled children because of the lack of support from mainstream schools are among parents who are being “scapegoated” by the children’s commissioner, according to a disabled mum and campaigner. Anne Longfield, the children’s commissioner for England, published a report last week that calls for action to address the lack of knowledge about the standard of education and safety of the tens of thousands of children currently being home educated | Yes | Disability News Service | 2019-02-14 8:37:58 PM | Michaeldakin | |
| DNS000084 (edit) | MP speaks of pride at being dyspraxic at launch of Neurodivergent Labour | John Pring | 14 February 2019 | A disabled MP has spoken of her pride at being able to speak openly about being dyspraxic, after having to hide her diagnosis from employers for years before she entered parliament. Emma Lewell-Buck (pictured) was previously a social worker but was “acutely aware that if there were any job cuts that would come around, it would be used against me and I would be the first one in the dole queue”. She said she used to take work home with her at weekends, work late into the evening and start early in the morning because, like many other disabled people, she felt she had to “go the extra mile” and “work that little bit harder to prove yourself or keep up” | Yes | Disability News Service | 2019-02-14 8:41:31 PM | Michaeldakin | |
| DNS000087 (edit) | Ministers block release of ‘no deal Brexit’ social care recruitment plans | John Pring | 14 February 2019 | Ministers are refusing to release information that would show what extra plans – if any – the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has put in place to deal with an adult social care recruitment crisis in the event of a “no deal Brexit”. With just 43 days until Britain faces the possibility of leaving the European Union without a deal in place, DHSC claimed that “premature” release of the information could put at risk “effective policy formulation and development regarding our exit from the EU”. Instead of releasing its records, it has pointed to “high level” plans published just before Christmas, but they suggest that ministers have no plans in place to deal with an adult social care recruitment crisis | Yes | Disability News Service | 2019-02-14 8:45:36 PM | Michaeldakin | |
| DNS000092 (edit) | Call for urgent probe into police passing DWP information about protesters | John Pring | 21 February 2019 | There are growing concerns and calls for an urgent investigation into admissions by two police forces that they have shared information about protesters with the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). Both Lancashire and Greater Manchester police forces have now admitted passing on information to DWP about people taking part in protests. The admissions originally came following claims reported by Disability News Service (DNS) that police forces had been targeting disabled people taking part in peaceful anti-fracking protests across England | Yes | Disability News Service | 2019-02-21 10:43:36 PM | Michaeldakin | |
| DNS000096 (edit) | Disability Labour crowdfunds costs for conference access hub after party ‘snub’ | John Pring | 22 August 2019 | Disabled delegates who are providing free access and mental health advice and support to delegates at next month’s Labour conference have had to launch an “embarrassing” crowdfunding appeal after they say the party refused to pay for any free accommodation. At last year’s annual conference in Liverpool, the “disability hub” run by Disability Labour provided support for numerous disabled delegates, with the party paying hotel costs for one volunteer. | Yes | Disability News Service | 2019-08-24 9:36:52 PM | Michaeldakin | |
| DNS000105 (edit) | Trio of disabled peers pledge to fight off no-deal Brexit ‘time bomb’ | John Pring | 5 September 2019 | Three disabled peers have pledged to do all they can to avert the significant impact on disabled people of a no-deal Brexit, with one warning of a “time bomb” that is now likely to “detonate”. They spoke out this week as MPs and peers returned from their summer recess, facing the threat of the UK being forced to leave the European Union (EU) without an agreement at the end of next month. The disabled crossbench peer Baroness [Tanni] Grey-Thompson told Disability News Service (DNS) last night (Wednesday) from the House of Lords that a no-deal Brexit would be “disastrous” for disabled people. | Yes | Disability News Service | 2019-09-07 6:09:47 PM | Michaeldakin | |
| DNS000112 (edit) | Months of PIP distress ‘hastened my brother’s death’ | John Pring | 3 October 2019 | The brother of a disabled man who was denied disability benefits when he was dying has launched a petition calling on the government to scrap the outsourcing of all face-to-face assessments to private contractors. James Oliver, from Hastings – the constituency of former work and pensions secretary Amber Rudd – spent the last few months of his life in despair over the refusal of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to grant him personal independence payment (PIP) | No | Disability News Service | 2019-10-07 2:17:02 PM | Michaeldakin | |
| FINK000004 (edit) | When the stench of corrution reeks to high heaven: Sorcha Ryder, Niamh Lynch, and Truth | Norman Finklestein | 25 January 2019 | WHEN THE STENCH OF CORRUPTION REEKS TO HIGH HEAVEN An Open Letter to Students, Faculty and Staff at Trinity College (Dublin) If one’s olfactory organ comes under assault from the foul stench of official corruption, then what’s to be done: cover one’s nose or clear the air? I’ve opted for the latter civic course of action. | No | Finklestein | |||
| JC000010 (edit) | Palestinians in Israel face uncertain political future amid Joint List split | Jonathan Cook | 25 January 2019 | A political coalition representing Israel’s Palestinian minority – currently the third biggest faction in the Israeli parliament, the Knesset – has been plunged into crisis by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to call for a surprise general election for April. Long-simmering ideological and personal tensions within the Joint List, comprising Israel’s four main Palestinian parties, have erupted into a split over who should dominate the faction | Yes | Jonathan Cook | |||
| JC000014 (edit) | Anti-semitism is cover for a much deeper divide in Britain’s Labour party | Jonathan Cook | 21 February 2019 | Breakaway MPs hope that smearing Corbyn will obscure the fact that they are remnants of an old political order bankrupt of ideas ''Middle East Eye – 20 February 2019'' The announcement by seven MPs from the UK Labour Party on Monday that they were breaking away and creating a new parliamentary faction marked the biggest internal upheaval in a British political party in nearly 40 years, when the SDP split from Labour | Yes | Jonathan Cook | 2019-02-21 4:24:42 PM | Michaeldakin | |
| JC000017 (edit) | Sur Baher home demolitions illustrate a vicious spiral of oppression in Palestine | Jonathan Cook | 28 July 2019 | Recent events have shone a spotlight not only on how Israel is intensifying its abuse of Palestinians under its rule, but the utterly depraved complicity of western governments in its actions. The arrival of Donald Trump in the White House two-and-a-half years ago has emboldened Israel as never before, leaving it free to unleash new waves of brutality in the occupied territories. Western states have not only turned a blind eye to these outrages, but are actively assisting in silencing anyone who dares to speak out | Yes | Jonathan Cook | 2019-09-07 7:19:20 PM | Michaeldakin | |
| ML000018 (edit) | The Shaving Kit - Manufacturing The Julian Assange Witch-Hunt | Editor | 20 June 2019 | Last week, UK Home Secretary Sajid Javid signed the US extradition request to hand over Julian Assange, who is charged with 18 counts of violating the US Espionage Act. Assange's immediate fate now lies in the hands of the British justice system. Javid 'consistently voted for use of UK military forces in combat operations overseas', including war on Afghanistan, Syria and the catastrophic 2011 assault on Libya. In other words, he is a key figure in precisely the US-UK Republican-Democratic-Conservative-Labour war machine exposed by WikiLeaks. | Yes | Media Lens | 2019-08-25 6:22:26 PM | Michaeldakin | |
| ML000021 (edit) | ‘Can I Keep You Safe? Your Future Is Uncertain’: Climate And The Fate Of Humanity | Media Lens | 31 March 2020 | In the face of the coronavirus pandemic, the most immediate objective is to slow its spread, minimise the death toll and help people through the crisis. But, despite government promises to support citizens who are now losing their jobs and income, the underlying establishment concern will be as it always has been: to preserve the global inequitable system of wealth and power. Private interests, including airlines, fossil fuel industries and sinister-sounding ‘businesses crucial to national security’, have been busy lobbying governments for taxfunder-paid bailouts. Notoriously, Richard Branson’s Virgin Atlantic even asked its employees to take eight weeks of unpaid leave, while hundreds of thousands in the UK are struggling to access benefits after becoming unemployed | No | Media Lens | 2020-04-10 1:06:17 PM | Michaeldakin | |
| MS000064 (edit) | Labour calls for landlords still using Grenfell-style cladding to be named | Ceren Sagir | 22 January 2019 | LANDLORDS continuing to use dangerous cladding on high-rise buildings should be named and shamed by ministers, Labour’s shadow housing minister John Healey told the government today. In an urgent Commons question, he asked Housing Secretary Kit Malthouse to update MPs on what action has been planned and taken by the government in relation to high-rise residential blocks with flammable cladding. | Yes | Morning Star | |||
| MS000065 (edit) | Labour warns of ‘culture of short termism’ in British industry after Dyson move to Singapore | Marcus Barnett | 23 January 2019 | LABOUR urged the government to tackle the “culture of short termism” in British industry today after Dyson announced its intention to move its headquarters to Singapore. The technology company’s head offices will be moving from Malmesbury in Wiltshire to Singapore this year, it announced today. Dyson boss Jim Rowan told the BBC that the decision was to establish Dyson as a “global company.” | Yes | Morning Star | |||
| MS000067 (edit) | Tories face fresh High Court legal challenge over ‘irrational’ universal credit reform | Ceren Sagir | 23 January 2019 | THE GOVERNMENT faced a fresh legal challenge over its “irrational” universal credit (UC) welfare reform today. Supporters gathered outside the High Court in London as the court heard that the key Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) policy has had a “disproportionately adverse effect” on disabled claimants | Yes | Morning Star | |||
| MS000068 (edit) | Retail industry lost 70,000 jobs in the last three months of 2018 | Peter Lazenby | 24 January 2019 | BRITAIN’S retail crisis accelerated in the last three months of 2018 with 70,000 jobs axed in the sector, research revealed today. The number of employees in the sector fell by 2.2 per cent in the final quarter of last year when compared with the same period in 2017, said the British Retail Consortium (BRC) | Yes | Morning Star | |||
| MS000070 (edit) | Cops call for an end to Tory cuts as figures show a rise in violent crime | MS | 24 January 2019 | POLICE forces are calling for the reversal of government cuts to allow “more boots on the ground” after the latest figures revealed today that reports of violent crime rose by 19 per cent in one year. Police Federation of England and Wales (PFEW) chair John Apter said forces are “swimming against the tide and it is the public who are being let down.” He added that the government’s Violent Crime Strategy had omitted to mention that there are 22,000 fewer police officers since 2010 — with 80 per cent lost from the front line | Yes | Morning Star | |||
| MS000075 (edit) | Glasgow protest planned after Home Office tries to deport Sudanese refugees | Phil Miller | 25 January 2019 | OVER 150 people will rally in Glasgow’s George Square tomrrow afternoon to highlight the dire human rights situation in Sudan. On the eve of the protest, rally organiser Aala Hamza told the Star that two Sudanese asylum-seekers in Glasgow had been picked up by the Home Office this week. The pair, who were taken to Dungavel Immigration Removal Centre in South Lanarkshire, face deportation despite the ongoing violence in Sudan | Yes | Morning Star | |||
| MS000078 (edit) | Decision to deport father of five and former soldier to Jamaica branded ‘an absolute disgrace | Ceren Sagir | 28 January 2019 | A DECISION to deport a former solider with PTSD and bipolar was branded “irresponsible” by campaigners today amid an investigation into the Windrush scandal. Former British army Commonwealth soldier Twane Morgan, who served in Afghanistan, has been booked on a Titan Airways flight along with around 50 others to be deported to Jamaica on February 15. The father of five was detained last Wednesday when he went to his weekly sign-in and transferred to Colnbrook Immigration Removal Centre without his vital medication | Yes | Morning Star | 2019-01-28 11:31:15 PM | Michaeldakin | |
| MS000080 (edit) | Number of black kids in custody reaches record high | Phil Miller | 29 January 2019 | “SHAMEFUL” new evidence reveals today that over half of children behind bars are from black or other minority backgrounds – the highest level since records began in 2001. Campaigners are warning that institutional racism, cuts and private prisons have fuelled this disproportionate number of non-white kids being incarcerated. | Yes | Morning Star | 2019-01-29 7:54:37 PM | Michaeldakin | |
| MS000083 (edit) | Labour frontbencher Ashworth backs striking lecturers | Peter Lazenby | 29 January 2019 | LABOUR frontbencher Jon Ashworth threw his weight behind striking lecturers today as pickets began a 48-hour walk-out at 13 colleges over pay. The shadow health secretary sent a message of support to members of the University and College Union (UCU) in his Leicester South constituency. Mr Ashworth said: “I fully support and express my solidarity with UCU staff at our colleges, fighting for fair pay. Investing in our staff is vital to improving further education and means a better quality of education for students. | Yes | Morning Star | 2019-01-29 8:00:25 PM | Michaeldakin | |
| MS000089 (edit) | Corbyn leads tributes to Jeremy Hardy | Marcus Barnett | 1 February 2019 | JEREMY CORBYN led tributes today to socialist comedian Jeremy Hardy, who has died at the age of 57. The Labour leader spoke of his “dear, lifelong friend,” saying: “He always gave his all for everyone else and the campaigns for social justice. “You made us all smile. You made us all think.” | Yes | Morning Star | 2019-02-03 9:52:20 AM | Michaeldakin | |
| MS000091 (edit) | Oxfordshire residents urged to fight mental health underfunding | Marcus Barnett | 1 February 2019 | OXFORDSHIRE’S 700,000 residents were urged today to fight against “serial underfunding” of their mental health services. Unite called on the county to lobby their six MPs about consistent underspending by Oxfordshire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG). The CCG spent far below the national average of 13.9 per cent of its commissioning budget on mental health services in the past year, the union said | Yes | Morning Star | 2019-02-03 9:55:24 AM | Michaeldakin | |
| MS000094 (edit) | Liberty slams MoD and it’s ‘second-rate’ military justice system | Phil Miller | 1 February 2019 | BRITAIN’S Ministry of Defence (MoD) runs a “second-rate” military justice system that systematically fails rape victims, a scathing new report released today by human rights group Liberty claims. It found “significant flaws” in the way the armed forces deal with “some of the most sensitive and serious criminal cases involving service personnel.” | Yes | Morning Star | 2019-02-03 10:00:24 AM | Michaeldakin | |
| MS000097 (edit) | Tories sacrificing British shipbuilding to ‘the free market,’ unions charge | Conrad Landin | 7 February 2019 | TORIES are letting British shipbuilding “die out in the name of the free market,” unions charged today as 150 job losses were announced at Babcock’s Rosyth shipyard. The company said it had deemed “around 150 specific roles” as “no longer needed” after it had “assessed our current workload and medium-term opportunities.” | Yes | Morning Star | 2019-02-09 9:20:25 PM | Michaeldakin | |
| MS000101 (edit) | Less than a quarter of Cambridge colleges pay living wage | Marcus Barnett | 8 February 2019 | LESS than a quarter of Cambridge University colleges pay their staff the real living wage, a damning study revealed today. Only seven out of the 31 university colleges pay their staff the £8.75 wage | Yes | Morning Star | 2019-02-12 12:29:11 PM | Michaeldakin | |
| MS000107 (edit) | Tory report slammed for slashing foreign aid proposal | Lamiat Sabin | 12 February 2019 | CAMPAIGNERS and charities condemned a Tory report published yesterday for proposing to “effectively abolish” Britain’s international development programme post-Brexit. The report by Conservative MP Bob Seely and James Rogers, of the right-wing Henry Jackson Society think tank, suggests cutting the overall aid budget from 0.7 per cent to 0.5 per cent. The document, which includes a foreword by the former foreign secretary Boris Johnson, is set to contribute to a Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) review of Britain’s global role after leaving the EU. | Yes | Morning Star | 2019-02-12 12:42:38 PM | Michaeldakin | |
| MS000112 (edit) | Unite call for TGI Friday's to be investigated over how restaurant treats its workers | Marcus Barnett | 12 February 2019 | TAX inspectors are being asked to investigate alleged workplace abuses at branches of TGI Fridays across the country. The Unite union is calling on HM Revenue and Customs to urgently investigate a series of complaints over how the US restaurant chain’s senior management treats its workers. The alleged abuses include a failure to pay staff for undertaking compulsory training in their time off | Yes | Morning Star | 2019-02-13 8:05:50 PM | Michaeldakin | |
| MS000121 (edit) | Youth strike for climate change across Britain | Ceren Sagir | 15 February 2019 | THOUSANDS of schoolchildren across Britain walked out of their classes today to demand immediate action against climate change. Organisers from Youth Strike 4 Climate called for a change in the attitude towards the “ecological emergency” and demanded a reform in the national curriculum to accurately inform pupils of the climate disaster. Protests took place in over 60 cities, according to organisers, including Brighton, Cambridge and London | Yes | Morning Star | 2019-02-15 10:25:03 PM | Michaeldakin | |
| MS000124 (edit) | Former miners warn the government: Hands off our pension funds | Peter Lazenby | 15 February 2019 | EX-MINERS have gathered more than 100,000 signatures in a petition calling on the government to stop raiding their pension funds to the tune of billions of pounds. Former miners from South Wales, protesting over the rip-off, will take the petition to Downing Street on March 6. The Tories struck a deal with pension fund administrators following the privatisation of the coal mining industry in 1994, which meant the government would underwrite any losses the pensions’ investments suffered in the future | Yes | Morning Star | 2019-02-15 10:29:44 PM | Michaeldakin | |
| MS000126 (edit) | Plans to reform rail tickets ‘won’t halt rip-off prices | Peter Lazenby | 18 February 2019 | PLANS to reform the way rail passengers buy their tickets will do nothing to curb privateer operators’ price rip-offs, rail union RMT said yesterday. The Rail Delivery Group, which represents profiteering rail operators, announced yesterday that it intends to change the current chaotic ticketing system. Currently passengers are often unable to buy a single ticket to travel from A to B, but instead have to purchase a selection of tickets to get the cheapest deal | Yes | Morning Star | 2019-02-19 6:29:45 PM | Michaeldakin | |
| MS000128 (edit) | Extinction Rebellion hold 'disruption march' outside London Fashion Week | MS | 17 February 2019 | CLIMATE demonstrators blocked roads outside London Fashion Week today to protest against the “unsustainable” industry. More than 100 campaigners joined the Extinction Rebellion group’s disruption march as they urged fashion brands to tackle a global “ecological emergency.” Demonstrations began when a small crowd rallied outside Victoria Beckham’s morning event at the Tate Britain and blocked fashion week cars travelling to the show | Yes | Morning Star | 2019-02-19 6:33:39 PM | Michaeldakin | |
| MS000129 (edit) | Funding pledge for parks ‘will not solve crisis’ | MS | 18 February 2019 | A GOVERNMENT announcement of £13 million for parks is not enough to reverse “chronic underfunding,” critics warned yesterday. Councils will be handed money to repair playgrounds, create new parks and redevelop derelict land. Communities Secretary James Brokenshire said the cash will provide “precious spaces for all of us to get together, to exercise and to play | Yes | Morning Star | 2019-02-19 6:35:18 PM | Michaeldakin | |
| MS000131 (edit) | The Tories' hostile environment policy is increasing child poverty, new report claims | Ceren Sagir | 19 February 2019 | '''Project 17 finds youngsters are being treated like ‘second-class citizens’ as the government denies their parents benefits''' THOUSANDS of children are growing up in poverty and being treated like “second-class citizens” because of the government’s hostile environment policy, a report has claimed today. Many children of parents whose immigration status means they are not entitled to mainstream benefits are living in “appalling conditions,” according to the charity Project 17. Their plight leaves them feeling socially isolated, distressed, ashamed and unsafe, according to the group, which works with migrant children in destitution | Yes | Morning Star | 2019-02-19 6:39:39 PM | Michaeldakin | |
| MS000133 (edit) | Over 3,000 jobs under threat in Swindon | MS | 19 February 2019 | MORE than 3,000 jobs are under threat after Honda announced yesterday it is to close its Swindon plant in “a shattering blow” to Britain’s economy. The car manufacturer declined to comment on the announcement by local Tory MP Justin Tomlinson, who said the move is “based on global trends and not Brexit as all European market production will consolidate in Japan in 2021.” He said: “Honda will be consulting with all staff and there is not expected to be any job losses, or changes in production until 2021.” | Yes | Morning Star | 2019-02-19 6:48:55 PM | Michaeldakin | |
| MS000135 (edit) | Rail depot workers in Glasgow call on MSPs to save their jobs and ‘160 years of railway history’ | Conrad Landin | 19 February 2019 | WORKERS at Glasgow’s famous Springburn rail depot lobbied MSPs today to save their jobs and “160 years of railway history.” Ahead of a debate led by Labour MSP James Kelly, members of the RMT and Unite unions gathered at Holyrood to call on the Scottish government to intervene. The Springburn depot carries out servicing, maintenance, repairs, overhauls and upgrades of ScotRail trains | Yes | Morning Star | 2019-02-19 6:52:39 PM | Michaeldakin | |
| MS000138 (edit) | Scrapping care cost cap has cost old and disabled £2bn | MS | 21 February 2019 | ELDERLY and disabled adults are nearly £2 billion worse off in paying for social care since plans for a cap were shelved three years ago, according to Labour analysis of government data. Around 534,000 additional people would have received state support from 2016 to 2026 were the cap implemented by the Department of Health and Social Care as was planned, the party said. Financial transfers to older and working-age adults would have exceeded £1.26bn, or nearly £1.3bn when factoring in inflation, by March this year | Yes | Morning Star | 2019-02-21 4:14:10 PM | Michaeldakin | |
| MS000140 (edit) | Arms company celebrates profit rise as Yemen starves | MS | 22 February 2019 | ARMS manufacturer BAE Systems’ profits soared by £186 million last year, the company revealed yesterday. Its latest accounts record a total operating profit of more than £1.6 billion. The bumper financial results prompted campaigners to accuse the firm of cashing in on the bombing of Yemen | Yes | Morning Star | 2019-02-22 11:05:09 PM | Michaeldakin | |
| MS000144 (edit) | Government failed to prevent ‘systemic breaches’ of human rights in private prisons, High Court rules | Mark Tobin | 22 February 2019 | THE government failed to prevent “systemic breaches” of the human rights of inmates who were unlawfully strip searched at a privately run prison, the High Court ruled today. Four inmates at HMP Peterborough claimed the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) was required to ensure adequate and effective safeguards against breaches of their right to privacy were in place at the jail. Sodexo, which runs the prison, admitted it was responsible for a “systemic failure” to follow MoJ rules on strip searches because it failed to properly train its staff | Yes | Morning Star | 2019-02-22 11:12:22 PM | Michaeldakin | |
| NM000021 (edit) | The UK Needs a Green New Deal, And It Stands Within Our Grasp | Clare Hymer | 21 January 2019 | 2018 saw Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a 29-year-old former bartender from the Bronx, dance her way onto the US political stage and into our hearts. Trouncing one of the country’s most senior politicians to become the Democratic candidate for New York’s 14th congressional district, Ocasio-Cortez continued to make waves before she’d even taken office by joining protesters from the Sunrise Movement in a march on House speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office on her first morning in D.C. The demand? The creation of a new select committee on climate change as part of a ‘Green New Deal’ (GND) | Yes | Novara Media | |||
| NM000022 (edit) | What Is Going on in Venezuela? | Aaron Bastani | 28 January 2019 | ''Last week the US recognised Juan Guaidó, head of Venezuela’s National Assembly, as the country’s rightful president. It was quickly joined by countries across the Americas including Canada, Brazil and Colombia in demanding Nicolas Maduro step aside.'' The EU abstained from immediately joining such calls, saying instead that it supports the National Assembly as the “democratically elected institution” and that Maduro had eight days to call fresh elections. In the absence of that, it would have little choice but to follow Washington and recognise Guaidó as the country’s legitimate leader – something already explicitly stated by the UK, Spain, France and Germany. The reasons for such a sudden shift are wide-ranging and often ambiguous, with Maduro’s critics highlighting democratic shortcomings, human rights abuses and economic mismanagement as adequate grounds for regime change – as if all three were somehow equivalent | Yes | Novara Media | 2019-01-28 11:53:42 PM | Michaeldakin | |
| NM000025 (edit) | Another Lewisham Is Possible: Overcoming Housing Crisis and the Democratic Deficit | Franck Magennis | 9 February 2019 | Local democracy in the London Borough of Lewisham is completely broken. The Labour Party occupies every one of the council’s 54 seats, and there is no effective opposition. Power is concentrated in an executive mayor. Local people find it exceptionally difficult to have their voices heard over powerful development companies bent on gentrifying the local community. Unwilling to tolerate this democratic deficit, local people are organising to do something about it. Lewisham council is right wing. Its conservatism has driven it to partner with Peabody to pursue the immensely unpopular Reginald/Tidemill development against the wishes of local residents. Spuriously claiming to care about housing, the council is demolishing a vital community garden along with 16 council flats. The garden has been shown to significantly reduce pollution in an already over polluted borough. The local authority refuse to ballot residents of the 16 council flats due for demolition. Many local residents now know their councillors by name and are deeply critical of their handling of the project | Yes | Novara Media | 2019-02-09 9:31:38 PM | Michaeldakin | |
| NM000026 (edit) | Catalonia: As Independence Leaders Stand Trial, Is Spain Heading Towards Constitutional Crisis? | Tommy Greene & Eoghan Gilmartin | 12 February 2019 | ''A dozen leaders of Catalonia’s failed 2017 independence bid have gone on trial in Madrid, charged with rebellion, sedition and misuse of public funds.'' Some of the accused, who are mostly ex-officials of the Catalan regional government, face up to 25 years in prison, in a trial that has aggravated Spain’s worst constitutional crisis since the country’s transition to democracy more than 40 years ago. The defendants were arrested in autumn 2017 following an outlawed referendum on 1 October and a unilateral independence proclamation later that month. The breakaway bid was suppressed by Mariano Rajoy’s central Spanish government which imposed direct rule on the region. Key political leaders were rounded up and arrested shortly afterwards and nine of the 12 have been in “preventative detention” ever since, awaiting this week’s trial | Yes | Novara Media | 2019-02-13 8:18:29 PM | Michaeldakin | |
| NM000027 (edit) | Youth Strike 4 Climate: ‘We are challenging the systemic exclusion of young people from climate dialogue’ | Novara Reporters | 15 February 2019 | ''Thousands of students are expected to walk out of school at 11am today in an unprecedented youth action against climate crisis.'' Strikes are taking place in at least 60 towns and cities across the country and take inspiration from similar successful actions in Australia, Belgium, Switzerland and Germany. Organised by the UK Student Climate Network (UKSCN), the protest demands the government declares a climate emergency, takes active steps to achieve climate justice and communicates the severity of the crisis to the general public | Yes | Novara Media | 2019-02-15 10:32:30 PM | Michaeldakin | |
| NM000032 (edit) | Tackling the Climate Crisis Means Transforming British Foreign Relations | David Wearing | 15 August 2019 | If global warming is the product of capitalism, then it is the product of imperialism as well. The world’s major fossil fuel reserves were first incorporated into the global economy under terms dictated by Anglo-American imperial power. Britain’s modern relations with the fossil fuel producers of the Middle East are a direct legacy of that period, and play an important role in sustaining our neoliberal economic model and militaristic foreign policy today. Combating global warming will force us to untangle these relationships, the effect will be transformative, and we need to think seriously about what it will involve | Yes | Novara Media | 2019-08-26 9:01:55 PM | Michaeldakin | |
| NM000035 (edit) | Stop DSEI: the People Disrupting the ‘World-Leading’ Arms Fairs | Francesca Mills | 7 September 2019 | One of the world’s largest arms fairs will open in the UK on Monday. For a week, state of the art weapons will be exhibited to select buyers at the DSEI Fair, held at London’s ExCel Centre. The annual event is attended by governments from all over the world, at the official invitation of the British government’s Defence and Security Organisation. In the week running up to the arms fair demonstrators mobilised by activist group Campaign Against the Arms Trade (CAAT) set up camp outside of the ExCel Centre and made their opposition to the arms trade known through a series of workshops, performances, speeches and direct actions – including blocking roads and climbing on top of lorries in an attempt to halt deliveries. A collective prayer led by quakers was interrupted by police, who arrested 33 people in an effort to clear the road | Yes | Novara Media | 2019-09-12 10:28:22 PM | Michaeldakin | |
| OD000098 (edit) | Will the new Environment Bill really deliver Gove’s “Green Brexit”? | Amy Hall | 24 January 2019 | “We will not weaken environmental protections when we leave the EU,” said Environment Secretary Michael Gove in 2018, as the government promised the first Environment Bill in over 20 years. This was the Bill to prove a Green Brexit was what we are headed for, and to get those of us who have been speculating otherwise to pipe down. Finally, Gove managed to get out a draft Bill (or part of one) a few days before Christmas. These draft clauses on environmental principles and governance cover England and non devolved matters in the rest of the UK. They will be included in a broader Environment Bill to be set out in 2019 and include measures on air quality, nature conservation and waste and resource management | Yes | openDemocracy | |||
| OD000099 (edit) | Cuts are causing stress and heartache in the family courts | Frances Judd QC | 24 January 2019 | '''The legal aid cuts mean that most people struggling with family breakdowns must represent themselves in court. The impact on children and ordinary people is enormous.''' In the UK we are lucky enough to have a fair and impartial judicial system. But judges can only do their jobs properly if they have the right evidence and if the cases are properly presented. They also need enough time to listen to people, and to make and record their decisions. Most barristers in the family courts will tell you that this is happening less and less. On April 1 2013, new rules in England and Wales abolished legal aid for private law family cases (cases which do not involve the local authority), save where an individual is able to produce evidence of domestic violence, or under the exceptional funding scheme. Domestic violence needs to be proved by hard evidence (such as a criminal conviction, civil injunction, or a letter from social services or a refuge) and exceptional funding is very, very difficult to obtain. The consequence of this is that the number of unrepresented parties (or litigants-in-person) going through the family courts has soared. Statistics reveal that by 2017 both parties were represented in only 20 per cent of these cases, and in 35 per cent nobody was | Yes | openDemocracy | |||
| OD000100 (edit) | Why the NHS Plan needs to be far more ambitious to tackle inequality | Al Aynsley-Green, Brian Fisher, and Michael Dixon | 24 January 2019 | '''Inequality is a national disgrace that affects the health and wellbeing of us all, especially our children. Bolder action is needed to tackle it.''' ‘In the bleak mid-winter’ - never has the opening line in the much-loved Christmas carol seemed more appropriate than now as 2019 gets underway. Bleak for the poverty, inequality, hopelessness and despair affecting too many people in this, one of the richest countries in the developed world. Why is this the case – and what’s to be done about it – are two questions that politicians need to answer. 14 million people (22% of the population) live in the UK on incomes below the poverty line after housing costs, many trying to survive without income in the chaos of implementing Universal Benefits. Demands for food from the Trussell and other food banks is soaring, with many former middle-income families now seeking help | Yes | openDemocracy | |||
| OD000101 (edit) | Don't be fooled: Britain's social ills can definitely be blamed on rising inequality | Guy Standing | 25 January 2019 | '''Why the FT's economics editor is wrong to dismiss concerns about inequality.''' In a dismissive and sarcastic review of a book Economics for the Many, edited by Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell, the Economics Editor of the Financial Times, Chris Giles, claimed that its messages were based on a false premise of growing inequality. According to him, ‘in fact UK wealth and income gaps have been stable for a generation’ (1). Earlier in 2018, in an article headed ‘Britain’s social ills cannot be blamed on rising inequality’, he elaborated on this claim, adding that ‘wealth inequality has also been stable for a decade’. This opinion would not merit particular comment were it not for the fact that the FT is the most reputable newspaper dealing with economic issues in the country and probably in the world. The opinion of the Economics Editor would be taken seriously by a lot of people, here and abroad. And we may anticipate that the topic of changes in inequality will figure prominently in any General Election that may come in 2019 | Yes | openDemocracy | |||
| OD000104 (edit) | Why our leaders urgently need to ditch the Machiavelli and read some peace philosophers | John Gittings | 28 January 2019 | '''The League of Nations, inspired by centuries of thinking on peace and justice, was born a hundred years ago this February, and later came the UN. But the promised post-Cold War 'Peace Dividend' never arrived...''' It is the "new abnormal", says the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, announcing that the Doomsday Clock for 2019 will stay at two minutes to midnight. World leaders have not only failed to deal adequately with nuclear and climate threats but they have allowed them to increase, while their citizens are lulled into "a dangerous sense of anomie and political paralysis". CNN puts it bluntly: "It's almost the end of the world as we know it". Meanwhile at Davos, the World Economic Forum has been warned (if it was listening) about the new abnormal in global inequality and poverty and worsening human rights as well as climate change. Are we sleepwalking into another world disaster, this time perhaps terminal, and do we have the imagination and energy with which to confront it? Three times in the last century the world has had to deal with the consequences of catastrophe, and lessons should be learnt from how far it succeeded or failed | Yes | openDemocracy | 2019-01-28 11:18:46 PM | Michaeldakin | |
| OD000106 (edit) | ‘They were planning on stealing the election’: Explosive new tapes reveal Cambridge Analytica CEO’s boasts of voter suppression, manipulation and bribery | Paul Hilder | 28 January 2019 | “I worked at Cambridge Analytica while they had Facebook datasets. I went to Russia one time while I worked for Cambridge. I visited Julian Assange while I worked for Cambridge. I once donated to WikiLeaks. I pitched the Trump campaign and wrote the first contract. All of these things make it look like I am at the centre of some big, crazy thing. I see that, and I can’t argue with that. The only thing that I’ve got going for me is that I didn’t do anything wrong. So they can search everything that they want!” It was May 2018. Brittany Kaiser, the second Cambridge Analytica whistleblower to go public, had just heard she was being subpoenaed by the Mueller investigation, in a moment captured in ‘The Great Hack’ (a documentary which premiered at the Sundance film festival this week). The media were reporting her February 2017 visit to Assange, another piece of circumstantial evidence supposedly connecting her to the controversies around the successes of Donald Trump and Brexit. Kaiser continued to protest her innocence, and to cooperate fully with investigations. And today we can reveal more about what she knew | Yes | openDemocracy | 2019-01-29 7:46:58 PM | Michaeldakin | |
| OD000108 (edit) | The NHS Ten Year Plan neglects the human side of healthcare | David Zigmond | 1 February 2019 | Early in this new year, on 7 January, the Prime Minister proudly announced a hopeful tonic for these troubled times: a Ten-Year Plan for our NHS, to transform it into a ‘world class service’. More money, better systems and state-of-the-art technology will all assure this, she said. On the news channels doubt and dissent soon followed. Opposition spokespeople portrayed the extra funding as illusory; not even compensating for recent years of austerity, nor matching previous levels of funding nor, currently, those of comparable European nations | Yes | openDemocracy | 2019-02-03 9:33:34 AM | Michaeldakin | |
| OD000111 (edit) | Three ways to stop the global economic system working for only rich white men | Stephen McCloskey | 5 February 2019 | '''Women’s unpaid work is worth $10 trillion annually. Amazon's Jeff Bezos’s personal wealth dwarves the health budget of most countries. These facts are linked – and a new report from Oxfam suggests answers.''' A new report by Oxfam suggests that a generation of reckless financial deregulation, wealth accumulation by the world’s richest one percent and the rolling back of essential State services has resulted in extreme levels of social and economic polarisation. The report headline is that in the decade since the 2008 global financial crisis the number of billionaires has nearly doubled and their wealth has increased by $900bn in the last year alone, or $2.5bn a day. In the same period, the wealth of the poorest half of humanity, 3.8 billion people, has fallen by 11%. Put another way, this means that just 26 billionaires – down from 43 in 2017 - own the same wealth as the poorest half of humanity. To quantify this wealth in development terms, the report says that Jeff Bezos, owner of Amazon, has amassed a fortune of $112 billion. Just 1% of this sum equates to the entire health budget of Ethiopia. In summary, rich and poor are becoming increasingly polarised and wealth is concentrating in fewer hands | Yes | openDemocracy | 2019-02-06 9:02:34 PM | Michaeldakin | |
| OD000113 (edit) | FGM in the UK will only end if attitudes shift from within communities | Aisha K. Gill | 6 February 2019 | '''A landmark FGM conviction last week heralds a welcome change. But ending this practice requires both criminal and civil remedies.''' The mother of a three-year-old girl became the first person in the UK to be found guilty of female genital mutilation (FGM) last week. The jury heard that the mother used witchcraft to try preventing police, social workers and lawyers from investigating the case. The mother, who remains anonymous for legal reasons, awaits sentencing on 8 March. Until this, no successful FGM prosecutions had been made in the UK, although criminal justice agencies had been working to address this for several years | Yes | openDemocracy | 2019-02-06 9:08:04 PM | Michaeldakin | |
| OD000114 (edit) | Five behaviors that perpetuate toxic capitalism | Suzannah Weiss | 7 February 2019 | This summer, I spoke with a therapist about my issues with workaholism and compulsive saving. I was working 17 hours a day, making ten times the money I needed to survive, and depriving myself of doctors’ appointments, food, and other necessities out of fear of seeing the number in my bank account go down. “How do I stop?” I asked. | Yes | openDemocracy | 2019-02-09 7:00:14 PM | Michaeldakin | |
| OD000118 (edit) | The left has quietly won the debate about EU regulation. Now we must do the same for migration | Christine Berry | 12 February 2019 | '''Since the EU referendum the left has successfuly shifted the terms of the debate on regulation. Now we must have the courage to defend freedom of movement against the anti-immigration politics of Brexit.''' One of the fascinating and under-remarked twists in the topsy-turvy course of the Brexit debate has been the quiet rehabilitation of regulation in general, and EU regulation in particular. In the Commons debate of 29 January, Theresa May stood up and said: “The government will not allow the UK leaving the EU to result in any lowering of standards in relation to employment, environmental protection or health and safety." | Yes | openDemocracy | 2019-02-13 5:06:28 PM | Michaeldakin | |
| OD000120 (edit) | Why a focus on "fake news" and Facebook misses the internet's real problems - and solutions | Jennifer Cobbe | 19 February 2019 | '''MP's new 'fake news' report largely ignores other platforms like Google and YouTube, and surveillance capitalism itself – and risks sending regulation in the wrong direction''' Yesterday morning, the House of Commons Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee published its long-awaited final report into disinformation and ‘fake news’. The report – which follows a long and at times dramatic investigation – is full of interesting and insightful details about political microtargeting (the targeting of political messaging to relatively small groups of people) and the spread of disinformation. But the report’s myopic focus on one company – Facebook – means that it misses the bigger picture – including the internet’s dominant variety of capitalism. It is of course welcome that attention is being paid to these problems, and there is much in the Committee’s report that’s good. The report is undoubtedly right to find that Britain’s electoral laws are woefully inadequate for the age of the algorithm and are badly in need of reform. Its recommendation that inferences drawn from analysis of other data about people should be more clearly considered to be personal data likewise seems eminently sensible | Yes | openDemocracy | 2019-02-19 6:15:29 PM | Michaeldakin | |
| OD000127 (edit) | Democracy is being dismantled by a “cabinet of horrors” – an interview with Molly Scott Cato MEP | Brendan Montague | 10 September 2019 | “I feel like I have fallen into a John le Carré novel,” she reflects. “I hate spy movies, but I’m now thinking we are living in one. I hate all these lies. These people are worse than spies: spies believe in their country and have a code of honour. With these people it’s always about self-interest”. Molly Scott Cato is the Green MEP for South West England, an Oxford alumna, a Quaker, and a former professor of strategy and sustainability at the University of Roehampton. She is also on the front line, defending democracy | No | openDemocracy | 2019-09-12 11:18:35 PM | Michaeldakin | |
| RN000021 (edit) | Time to hold our nerve | David Rosenberg | 17 January 2019 | Luciana Berger, Ben Bradshaw, Louise Ellman, Mike Gapes, Margaret Hodge, Liz Kendall, Chris Leslie, Jess Phillips, Joan Ryan, Angela Smith, Owen Smith, Wes Streeting, Chuka Umunna… Do these names look at all familiar? They have been at the heart of campaigns against Jeremy Corbyn in the Labour Party, not least on the very largely concocted allegations of antisemitism in the Party, and they have sought to undermine the leadership on several other issues too. | Yes | Rebel Notes | |||
| RN000022 (edit) | Who will challenge the Tories’ links with antisemites? | David Rosenberg | 25 January 2019 | Last February the Polish ruling Law and Justice Party (PiS) passed a law outlawing accusations of complicity by Poles in the Holocaust. A month later the Polish Prime Minister laid a wreath at the Munich grave site of the Holy Cross Mountains Brigade, a Polish underground military unit who collaborated with Nazi Germany against communists during the Second World War. That same month the Latvian National Alliance party took part in an annual event commemorating the Latvian Waffen-SS. In Bulgaria, every February, the Bulgarian National Movement holds a march through the centre of Sofia to honour Hristo Lukov, an army general who led the pro-Nazi Union of National Legions during the war. The march ends next to the house where Lukov was assassinated by anti-fascist partisans. What connects these three parties? | Yes | Rebel Notes | |||
| RN000028 (edit) | When the people of Stockton fought back | David Rosenberg | 8 September 2019 | In September 1933, the people of Stockton-on-Tees had a famous anti-fascist victory when around 100 members of Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists attempted to march and rally there, but they were chased out of town by socialists and communists in a violent physical confrontation. Last year a plaque was unveiled to honor this battle. I spoke at last year’s event and returned today. This is what I said: I’m honoured to be here, and so honoured to follow Laura (Pidcock MP), who I have heard speak on several platforms but not had the privilege to share a platform with yet | Yes | Rebel Notes | 2019-09-12 10:34:33 PM | Michaeldakin | |
| RR000039 (edit) | Labour movement supports "anti-capitalist" climate strike | Tom | 18 February 2019 | Students in Glasgow skipped school on Friday joining thousands across the UK to protest for urgent action on climate change. The campaign group "Schools 4 Climate Action" organised the demonstrations, demanding the UK government declare a climate emergency and lower the voting age to 16. Despite the issue of climate change being perceived as the territory of the “middle class”, many young socialists were amongst those who took to the street | Yes | Red Robin | 2019-02-19 6:55:32 PM | Michaeldakin | |
| RR000045 (edit) | Scots critical care units lose 7000 days to delayed discharges | Alasdair Clark | 13 August 2019 | Units designed to look after Scotland's sickest patients lost some 1000 patient stays in 2018 because of delayed discharge, new figures have revealed. New analysis by Scottish Labour of figures released today show nearly 7000 'bed-days' were lost due to delays elsewhere in the system. Bed shortages elsewhere in hospitals mean patients often can't be moved out of intensive care onto general wards once they are well enough | Yes | Red Robin | 2019-08-26 8:52:07 PM | Michaeldakin | |
| RR000047 (edit) | 'Constitutional outrage': Thousands expected to take to streets in protest over Commons shutdown | Alasdair Clark | 28 August 2019 | Thousands are set to take to the streets across the UK on Wednesday evening after Boris Johnson said he would proroge parliament Approved by the Queen this afternoon, the plan will see the Commons shutdown for five weeks between 9 September and 14 October. It has been strongly criticised by Jeremy Corbyn and other opposition leaders as a "constitutional outrage", and several backbench Tory MPs have also attacked the plan | Yes | Red Robin | 2019-09-01 1:53:59 PM | Michaeldakin | |
| RR000049 (edit) | SNP Twitter comment 'patronising' to supermarket workers - union official | The Red Robin | 5 September 2019 | Glasgow SNP branch has deleted a tweet mocking Labour's Paul Sweeney for drawing on experience from the frontline of supply chains. Sweeney had made the point that he had seen first hand how fragile fruit and vegetable supply chains could be whilst working in a supermarket. Many of the fruits and vegetables British shoppers buy all year round are transported efficiently from other European countries | No | Red Robin | 2019-09-07 6:36:40 PM | Michaeldakin | |
| TLE000051 (edit) | CCHQ put on election footing and told it needs to have ‘resources in place’ if PM is defeated | Jack Peat | 22 January 2019 | Sir Mick Davies has briefed the Conservative Campaign Headquarters to be on election footing, according to emerging reports. The Telegraph’s political reporter Steven Swinford says the Tory Part’s chief executive told campaign HQ to have the ‘resources in place’ in event PM is defeated again. But it is thought that the party are struggling to get donors to back another Theresa May campaign, which could lead to a leadership contest | Yes | The London Economic | |||
| TLE000052 (edit) | Sony to move headquarters from UK to Netherlands to avoid Brexit disruption | Jack Peat | 23 January 2019 | Sony has become the second major brand within two days to announce it is to move its headquarters out of the UK. The company will move its European HQ from Weybridge to the Netherlands to help it avoid customs issues tied to Britain’s exit from the EU. It is the latest Japanese company to flag a move to the continent in response to Brexit and it comes after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe raised concerns over a no-deal Brexit | Yes | The London Economic | |||
| TLE000053 (edit) | Airbus chief slams Government over its handling of Brexit | Joe Mellor | 24 January 2019 | Tom Enders, the head of Airbus, a major UK employer has not held back over his thoughts on the Government’s handling of Brexit. Enders slammed the Government branding it a “disgrace” and said the business might be forced to leave these shores, post-Brexit, to ensure they can compete in the global marketplace. Airbus, which employs more than 14,000 people in the UK with around 110,000 more jobs connected in supply chain | Yes | The London Economic | |||
| TLE000058 (edit) | Deprived communities bear the brunt of austerity cuts | Jack Peat | 28 January 2019 | The north of England has borne the brunt of austerity cuts imposed since 2010, with the most deprived communities taking the biggest hit. A new study by the Centre for Cities thinktank shows communities which are enduring the highest poverty rates and weakest economies are facing cuts twice that of their counterparts in the more affluent south. The report also points to a “city and country” divide, with urban council areas having shouldered cuts to services such as street cleaning, road repairs and libraries, which, are, on average, twice as deep as those borne by leafier authorities. | Yes | The London Economic | 2019-01-28 11:40:16 AM | Michaeldakin | |
| TLE000062 (edit) | Tributes as comedian Jeremy Hardy dies of cancer aged 57 | Ben Gelblum | 1 February 2019 | Award winning comedian and News Quiz favourite Jeremy Hardy has died after battling cancer his publicist has announced. Tributes from the greats of broadcasting, comedy and social activisim have poured in this morning (see below). The Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said: ''“Jeremy Hardy was a dear, lifelong friend. He always gave his all for everyone else and the campaigns for social justice. You made us all smile. You made us all think. Rest in peace, Jeremy.”'' | Yes | The London Economic | 2019-02-03 9:42:36 AM | Michaeldakin | |
| TLE000065 (edit) | Average earnings in London 15.5% lower than in 2007 after inflation | Jack Peat | 5 February 2019 | Average earnings in London are 15.5 per cent below the real value of earnings in 2007 after inflation, new research has revealed. A study of official data by GMB has shown that in London, full-time workers’ mean gross annual pay in 2018 was just 84.5 per cent of what it was in 2007. In 2007 the mean gross annual pay of full-time workers was £42,226. In 2018 that figure was £48,604, which when you factor in inflation at 36.17 per cent, saw a decrease in pay of 15.5 per cent | Yes | The London Economic | 2019-02-06 9:14:10 PM | Michaeldakin | |
| TLE000068 (edit) | Last year was the world’s fourth warmest on record – just behind 2015, 2016 and 2017 | Joe Mellor | 6 February 2019 | Last year was the world’s fourth warmest on record – just behind 2015, 2016 and 2017, according to new research. It means the planet really is hotting up – leaving experts with little hope of limiting climate change to global targets. Temperatures are now at levels not seen for 115,000 years – making cyclones, floods and droughts increasingly likely | Yes | The London Economic | 2019-02-09 7:17:27 PM | Michaeldakin | |
| TLE000069 (edit) | Sterling slides as Bank of England slashes growth forecasts | Joe Mellor | 7 February 2019 | The Bank of England has downgraded its growth forecast for 2019 growth to 1.2%, which would be the smallest rise since 2009. Sterling tumbled on the news and was trading 0.6% down versus the US dollar at $1.285. Against the euro, the pound was down 0.3% at €1.134. The PM flew to Brussels today to push for concessions from EU leaders on the divorce deal agreed with them last year, which has been rejected by Parliament | Yes | The London Economic | 2019-02-09 7:19:58 PM | Michaeldakin | |
| TLE000073 (edit) | Social entrepreneurs are helping the homeless – by transforming shipping containers into homes | Joe Mellor | 9 February 2019 | A group of social entrepreneurs are helping the homeless – by transforming shipping containers into homes for rough sleepers. The metal units are among dozens of old storage containers being turned into living spaces as part of a project by social enterprise Help Bristol’s Homeless. The containers-turned-homes will provide accommodation for a rough sleeper for an entire year | Yes | The London Economic | 2019-02-12 12:18:59 PM | Michaeldakin | |
| TLE000081 (edit) | May gets a bullet for her Valentines | Jack Peat | 15 February 2019 | Theresa May received a dose of her own medicine last night after suffering yet another defeat at the hands of a hostile parliament. With a threatening Home Office tweet sent out on her watch making the rounds on Twitter the former Home Secretary went into hiding as her motion urging MPs to back attempts to strike a new withdrawal agreement with the EU was beaten by 303 votes to 258. Many hard-line Brexiteers abstained from the vote, which highlighted the momentous task the PM has ahead of her | Yes | The London Economic | 2019-02-15 10:17:55 PM | Michaeldakin | |
| TLE000083 (edit) | It would take 100 years for black & minority ethnic police officers to be representative of London population | Guest Contributor | 19 February 2019 | It would take 100 years for black and minority ethnic police officers to be representative of the London population, it was revealed today. Twenty years on from the inquiry into the investigation of Stephen Lawrence’s murder, black and minority ethnic people are still less likely to be successful applicants to the Met Police. And when they are recruited they have significantly higher grievances at their treatment in the force | Yes | The London Economic | 2019-02-19 6:26:39 PM | Michaeldakin | |
| TLE000095 (edit) | Our government has invited a roll call of human rights abusers to sell them their deadly tools at DSEI | Andrew Smith | 3 September 2019 | Recent weeks have seen a further intensification of the violence being inflicted on pro-democracy campaigners in Hong Kong. The police crackdown has only got worse, with clouds of tear gas becoming a regular sight on the streets. There is no doubt that some of that tear gas was made here in the UK, with images of UK-made canisters emerging across social media. Despite the brutality and repression it has inflicted, the Hong Kong authorities will be one of many human rights abusing regimes that are coming to London next week for Defence & Security Equipment International 2019 (DSEI), one of the biggest arms fairs in the world | Yes | The London Economic | 2019-09-07 6:18:21 PM | Michaeldakin |