Tag Archives: charge

Demonstrations at International Court of Justice as it hears genocide charge against Israel

This is what a holocaust looks like (or at least one interpretation): and as the artist intends, it might accurately refer to what Israel is visiting upon Gaza now.

Demonstrators supporting both Gaza and Israel clashed outside the International Court of Justice as it began the first of two days of hearings after South Africa charged Israel with genocide.

Palestinians marched with banners collecting the names of people known to have been killed:

Israel’s supporters set up a screen with images of some of the people they say are still being held hostage by Hamas. This is not a good enough justification for the murder of nearly 30,000 innocent people, including women and children, This Writer believes.

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Inside the court, South Africa’s representative delivered its case that Israel’s actions “are intended to bring about the destruction of a substantial part of the Palestinian national, racial and ethnical group”:

The BBC has reported:

It says Israel’s actions include “killing Palestinians in Gaza, causing them serious bodily and mental harm, and inflicting on them conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction”.

It calls for “provisional measures” to be implemented by the court as a matter of urgency, including that Israel cease all military activities in Gaza.

Israel has defended its actions in Gaza, saying it is responding to Hamas’s deadly attacks on 7 October, but speaking in court on Thursday, South Africa’s Justice Minister Ronald Lamola said no attack “can provide justification for or defend breaches of the [Genocide] Convention”.

Israel is a signatory to the Genocide Convention of 1948, which defines genocide and commits states to prevent it.

South Africa’s case has won widespread support, including from 11 national governments:

Sadly the United Kingdom is not one of them.

But UK politician Jeremy Corbyn is with the South African delegation and has published a video clip explaining the significance of what is happening, alongside former South African MP Andrew Feinstein. He also called for UK citizens to take part in demonstrations supporting Gaza on Saturday:

And while all this is going on, the slaughter in Gaza continues:

Israel will deliver its submissions to the court tomorrow (January 12).


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The news in tweets: Wednesday, July 19, 2023

Falling energy prices are not being passed on to customers and the government is doing nothing. Why?

Tory energy security minister Grant Shapps was grilled over the government’s failure to support cash-strapped households, by Martin Lewis on ITV’s Good Morning Britain. His answers were revealing:

So: we will receive no more money to help with energy bills, even though the energy companies are charging us far more than the cost of the energy itself. The government is supporting these firms as they rip us off.

Shapps’s comments about standing charges are also useful. He said these charges are for “all of the network costs, the maintenance costs and the things which happen before you get the live supply of energy to the household”. He said these costs were “not for nothing”.

This Writer certainly hopes that is true.

But let’s have a look at another privatised utility that forces you to pay standing charges: water. If standing charges on water are said to be for the same purpose as for energy – network costs, maintenance etc – then the water companies are guilty of fraud because we have learned that none of our money is being spent on infrastructure (maintenance). The pipe system still dates back to the Victorian era and some of it is made of lead, which is poison.

The water firms also borrow heavily to cover day-to-day costs. That leaves me asking what the standing charge supports. Is it just feeding into the profits of shareholders? If so, then these firms are lying to us about its purpose and should be prosecuted, forced to return that money to us and the charge abolished.

In fairness, I have read that the charge is for the cost of reading meters and sending out bills – but with smart meters installed that tell firms what you’ve used without anyone having to come to your home, and with the facility for people to receive bills by a new-fangled device called email, those costs now must be very low compared with times in even the recent past. Why are the standing charges not being reduced, then?

Taking the subject back to energy, if standing charges on water are a rip-off, how do we know that the energy firms aren’t also charging us far more than is reasonable?

Answer: we don’t.

One rule for them: MPs get up to £16,305 per year for up to three children, but restrict your child benefit to two kids and £2,080

Yes indeed.

Current salary for a backbench MP is around £84-5,000. They get expenses to pay for food, rent and bills (on the second homes they need in London, if I recall correctly), and they also receive £5,435 per year to pay bills related to their children, for a maximum of three children. That’s around £104.23 per week, per child, up to £312.69 – let’s round it up to £312.70.

If you have three children, you won’t receive any child benefit for one of them. You then get £24 per week for the eldest and £15.90 for the second child: £39.90 per week or around £2,080 per year.

Your MP thinks this is fair – even those in the Labour Party who should be demanding equality for everybody (possibly with a few exceptions).

This is why we need to think very carefully about who we allow into Parliament and what they should be elected to do.

Meanwhile, Substitute Tory (formerly Labour) Rachel Reeves can’t see how a UK government can fund free school meals for children who need them, so members of the public have been offering helpful suggestions:

Howard Beckett pointed out: “In Norway the sovereign fund stands at over $1.3trillion. Norway tax[es] fossil fuel Corporate giants at 78 per cent.”

She could also reverse some of the massive tax cuts that the Tories have handed to the richest members of UK society since 2010. There are plenty of ways to fund a better future.

One can only conclude that Pamela Fitzpatrick is right: “Reeves really cannot see where the moneys going to come from because she simply does not have the skills, talent or vision for the role she is in.”

There is a lighter side to this – if you have a certain sense of humour:

Keir Starmer was ‘consciously dishonest’ when he campaigned for the Labour leadership. Shouldn’t he be given the boot?

We may conclude from the information available to us that when Keir Starmer was telling Labour Party members that he would respect and continue the policies of his immediate forerunner Jeremy Corbyn, he was actually planning to throw away all the popular policies that Mr Corbyn had formed, as soon as possible.

He lied in order to be elected.

That is not acceptable.

He should be removed.

He won’t be – because Labour disciplinary procedures are a bad joke at the expense of rank-and-file party members. But voters should – and will – remember his betrayal, and the cynical, calculated way in which he planned it.

Defence spending rises by nearly one-third of what it was in 2019 – while all other spending falls. Why?

Defence Secretary Ben Wallace has announced that the UK government will spend £50 billion on “defence”, for the first time in its history – more than £12 billion more than in 2019.

Jeremy Corbyn asked him about his priorities:

In response, Wallace said: “I am not out looking for war. We are all out here trying to defend our nation by avoiding war, but we do not avoid war by not investing in deterrence. Sometimes we have to invest in hard power, to complement soft power. We do not want to use it and we do not go looking for it. I know the right hon. Gentleman mixes with some people who always think this is about warmongering; it is not. But if countries are not taken seriously by their adversaries, that is one of the quickest ways to provoke a war.”

So he wants to avoid wars by rattling the sabre. This Writer isn’t sure that works – and I am encouraged to doubt him by his own prediction that the UK will be at war within seven years.

Mr Corbyn’s question was an opportunity for him to explain how his spending plan would prevent the UK from being at war within seven years. He did not answer that question.

What are these Tories planning to drag the rest of us into?

£500 million public money bribe to get Jaguar Land Rover owner to build electric car battery factory in Somerset

The Tory government is paying £500 million towards the creation of a £4 billion factory by Jaguar Land Rover owner Tata, building batteries for electric cars.

Is it really great news?

As migrant-housing barge arrives in Portland: how was the contract awarded and was it carried out corruptly?

Two tweets on this:

Is the illegal Tory “VIP lane” still operating, then?

Why is the government repeating consultation on wet wipe ban? Is it looking for a different response?


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Ex-head of police watchdog charged with paedophilia | Financial Times

Michael Lockwood: accused of paedophilia.

It is hard to see how the police may ever restore their shattered reputation after this.

First we saw a string of offences committed by serving police officers including rape and murder.

Then we saw a damning report on the Metropolitan Police that said (among other criticisms) that rape might as well be legal in London.

Now we see a former head of the organisation that was supposed to guarantee that police uphold the highest standards being accused of sexual offences against an under-age girl.

We all know power corrupts. If these charges are proved, then it will once again be clear that the police have been given far too much of it.

And where is the Tory government in all this? Home Office ministers are supposed to ensure that the police bring justice to lawbreakers – not become criminals themselves.

Is this yet another example of the rot brought to the UK by the likes of Boris Johnson, who sends his lawbreaking friends to the House of Lords?

The former head of the police watchdog for England and Wales has been charged with rape and other sexual offences against a girl under the age of 16.

Michael Lockwood, 64, former director-general of the Independent Office for Police Conduct, was charged with three offences of rape and six counts of indecent assault, the Crown Prosecution Service said on Friday.

Lockwood stepped down in December after the police investigation into the historical allegations became public.

The charges will be seen as another blow to public trust in policing. They come just a week after Andy Cooke, the Chief Inspector of Constabulary, warned in his annual report that police forces in England and Wales were experiencing “one of their biggest crises in living memory” and that trust was “hanging by a thread”.

Source: Ex-head of police watchdog for England and Wales charged with rape | Financial Times


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Is government reassurance that care charges won’t swallow cost of living payment true?

Money: Rishi Sunak is offering cost of living payments of £800 for people with disabilities – but are government assurances that the payment won’t be taken by councils worth the time taken to provide them?

Are you convinced by this?

Concerns had been raised that people with disabilities will not gain any benefit from government payments of £650 for those on means-tested benefits, and another £150 for recipients of disability benefits.

This is because disabled people receiving social care provided in their own homes by their local council must make a financial contribution – usually everything above the minimum income of £94.15 per week.

So, in theory, all £800 of the cost-of-living support provided by the government could be taken by local authorities in care charges.

Challenged on this by Disability News Service, the Department for Health and Social Care has said it does not think the payment will be taken by councils.

The DHSC reckons that, because the payment is a one-off, it will not be considered as regular income and so will not be included in disabled people’s regular incomes and affect the so-called Minimum Income Guarantee (MIG).

That’s all very well – but why not simply make an announcement to that effect?

If the government stipulates that this money may not be considered in council’s calculations, then councils will have to accept that, and leave the cash alone.

Without such a rule, there is no cast-iron guarantee that this will happen. I wonder why the Tories haven’t bothered to make it already. And I wonder how many other people are in a similar situation.

Source: Government eases concerns over cost-of-living payment care charge fears – Disability News Service

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Cost of living crisis: How will prescription charge freeze help people who need it?

Sajid Javid: the eyes are open but the mind is not.

Sajid Javid’s an ignorant little… banker, isn’t he?

This entitled Tory twit has frozen prescription charges in England, saying keeping the charge at an extortionate £9.35 until next year will “put money back in people’s pockets.”

No, it won’t – certainly not for me. I live in Wales.

And it won’t even do that in England. It just won’t take any more money from people hard-pressed by the cost-of-living crisis.

And, of course, it won’t help everybody – just those who are ill…

… who aren’t among the 90 per cent who already get their prescriptions free of charge.

So that counts those on state benefits, pregnant women and new mothers, people with specified medical conditions or disabilities, the over-60s and under-16s out of having any money put back in their pockets by this change.

And of course people here in Wales, and also in Scotland and Northern Ireland, also have free prescriptions.

“The rise in the cost of living has been unavoidable as we face global challenges and the repercussions of Putin’s illegal war in Ukraine,” Javid said. “Whilst we can’t completely prevent these rises, where we can help – we absolutely will.”

But it seems the only people likely to benefit from this help with the cost of living are people who don’t need it. He’s just saving cash for his fellow Tories.

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Free parking for hospital staff to end as Javid piles insult onto the injury of NHS pay

NHS staff, already insulted by derisory pay rises inflicted on them by the Tory government, are being told they’ll have to find the cash to pay for their parking places again from Friday.*

And the cost is likely to be anything up to three times what they were paying before, because of a Tory manifesto promise from 2019.

The government pledged in their December 2019 election manifesto to provide free parking for some patients and staff on their night shifts.

We know the move has prompted at least one privately run car parking company to pass on the cost to daytime NHS workers.

At the time, I questioned why hospital car parks are run for profit by private companies in the first place. Our health care is supposed to be free at the point of use so I asked, is our useless Tory government getting around that by charging us all to get there?

The question was rhetorical; the short answer is yes.

But neither Sajid Javid nor Boris Johnson, the apparent architect of the policy, appear to have thought it through.

With hospital car park firms passing their losses from free parking on to those who still have to pay, it will soon cost staff too much to work there. Or is that the plan?

*That’s if they work in England, of course. Those of us in Wales (for example) get free hospital parking because healthcare here is considered to be a service to the public, not an opportunity to fleece us.

Source: Free parking for hospital staff to end on Friday – Javid | Evening Standard

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Two Metropolitan police officers charged with sex offences

Cressida Dick: we are slowly discovering evidence that increasing numbers of her officers have turned to crime during her tenure as Metropolitan Police Commissioner.

You have to sympathise with this tweet, I think:

Here’s the reason The Prole Star suggested all of the Met may be “rotten”:

That’s two sex crime accusations against Metropolitan Police officers, just in the last week.

They follow the kidnap, rape, and murder of Sarah Everard by then-serving Met Police officer Wayne Couzens.

And another serving Met officer – David Carrick – appeared in court on a charge of rape on October 4. That case has been adjourned and I see no reports of it since.

So the question is not only valid but urgent: How many bad apples do there have to be before we admit that the whole barrel is rotten?

And, considering that the rot must have been allowed by senior officers…

How long can Cressida Dick – recently rewarded with a two-year extension of her contract – remain Met Police Commissioner while we slowly discover how many of the so-called apples in her team are rotten?

 

Another Metropolitan Police officer is charged with rape

It seems Vox Political was right again.

I wrote, a few days ago, that after Wayne Couzens was jailed for life for the kidnap, rape and murder of Sarah Everard, a culture of fear would settle on women in the UK.

I stated that “women will be left in greater fear of violence against them than ever – not because of men, as some in politics and the media are signalling, but because of the police.”

I continued: “You can bet the Met won’t do anything to change that. If you want proof, all you have to do is wait for the reports of the next crimes committed by officers of the Metropolitan Police.”

Well, we didn’t have to wait long, did we?

David Carrick, 46, of Stevenage, Hertfordshire, was arrested on Saturday over an alleged offence in St Albans on 4 September last year.

Mr Carrick, who is based within the Met’s Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection Command, was charged with rape by Hertfordshire Constabulary on Sunday.

I am legally bound to stress that the new allegations against David Carrick, a Met police officer from the same unit as Couzens, are only allegations at this time; he has been accused but any guilt or innocence must be established after a trial.

An initial court hearing was set to take place today (October 4).

Met Commissioner Cressida Dick has put out the usual circular that she releases when claims are made that harm her organisation:

“I am deeply concerned to hear the news today that an officer from the Met’s Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection Command has been arrested and now charged with this serious offence.

“I fully recognise the public will be very concerned too. Criminal proceedings must now take their course so I am unable to comment any further at this stage.”

But we have to wonder how long she can stay in her post. The Met’s reputation has been dragged through the mud since she has been in charge and she has made no visible attempt to change its culture of abuse.

Source: David Carrick: Met Police officer from same unit as Wayne Couzens charged with rape | The Independent

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Tory Kawczynski faces second probe into his behaviour as an MP

Well, he was last time. What will be Daniel Kawczynski’s excuse if he’s found guilty of the latest accusations against him?

Daniel Kawczynski is under investigation – again – by the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards over “actions causing significant damage to the reputation of the House as a whole, or of its Members generally”.

This comes after he was found to have drunkenly bullied civil servants over an IT issue.

He was ordered to apologise, which seemed a shockingly lenient punishment for a man who is a serial offender, as This Site described in a previous article.

I wonder how voters in Shrewsbury feel about their disgrace of a Parliamentary representative.

Details of the new accusations are not clear at the moment, but bringing the House of Commons into disrepute is a serious charge against members.

What will he get if found guilty this time – a slap on the wrist?

Source: Tory MP faces second probe into his behaviour after apology for “bullying” staff – Mirror Online

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Tories plan to hit people over 60 with prescription charges

Prescription: if you’re over 60 and you need one of these – especially if it’s on a regular basis – then the price is set to skyrocket under a new Tory plan to make money for private healthcare firms.

Is this some of the government policy Lord Bethell has been discussing on his private email account, to keep it away from pesky Freedom of Information requests?

The Conservatives are planning to raise the age at which people may receive free prescriptions in England from 60 to 66, in line with the state pension age.

That’s the wrong yardstick, of course.

Firstly, prescriptions should be free to everybody because we all pay into the National Health Service via our taxes. If you are in England and you pay for prescriptions, you are literally paying twice for your medicine.

Secondly, if free prescriptions must be rationed, then in a country where many people are extremely poor, it makes sense to provide them to those who are most likely to need them – meaning, if they must be pegged to age, that they should become available at the age when most people start to suffer the illnesses associated with age.

The problem is that this is not a matter of medical need; it is about giving more money to the private companies that the Tory government has allowed to flood into the health service in order to make a profit from your pain.

That’s around £300 million per year, according to Lord Bethell – around £46.75 for an average person without need for regular medication – or £130.90 for people who need more than 12 prescriptions a year. And that’s at current prices which are sure to increase.

It’s a typical Tory back-of-a-fag-packet idea, based on a desire to rake in cash for people who don’t need it, from people who desperately do – but aren’t being given a choice about whether to give it up.

In other words: extortion.

Ministers are consulting on raising the age when people become eligible for free prescriptions in England to 66-years-old – but pharmacists branded the plan ‘unacceptable’

Source: People over 60 could be hit by prescription charges under new Government plans – Mirror Online

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