Say what you like, the UK has a more-or-less good record for looking after children – certainly in comparison with many other countries.
So why are Boris Johnson and Priti Patel sending refugee kids to Rwanda?
That country’s poor history regarding human rights is a matter of record. Its government wants us to think all that is behind it now – but we have no way of knowing the claim is true.
And children require more specialist care than adults – for obvious reasons.
Yes, we see pictures showing that
the Hope hostel in Kigali is building outdoor facilities that will include football pitches, basketball courts and outdoor toys
but how do we know that’s not just for show?
Even then, Boris Johnson refused to visit the facility, triggering alarm bells among some of us. He said it was because it isn’t occupied yet.
And more alarms must have been triggered when the prime minister’s spokesman, challenged on the policy of sending children to the east African country, could only evade the question with the weak response that
“I think 90% of those coming across are men.”
Brace yourself for a torrent of abuse stories – if this policy is put into full practice.
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Khan and can’t: Imran Ahmad Khan with Boris Johnson. The former committed a sex crime against a minor and, because the latter’s party couldn’t be bothered to record a complaint about him, he ended up on a Home Office panel advising the government on ways to stop the sexual exploitation of children. Think about that before voting Tory on May 5.
The Tories have said they did not know Imran Ahmad Khan had been accused of sexually assaulting an under-age boy – even though he had told their press office.
That’s the reason they’re using for giving him a position on a Home Office panel that advised the government about child sexual exploitation by grooming gangs, while his crime was being investigated by police.
Do you believe that?
Boris Johnson was cagey about the subject when he was challenged about it in Prime Minister’s Questions yesterday (April 27, 2022):
“I believe the Home Office has already made a statement about it,” he said.
Yes – as follows:
The Home Office was not aware of the allegations against him at the time and he no longer has any involvement with the department.”
This is very odd, because the MP’s victim told a court that he had made a complaint to the Conservatives’ press office days before Imran Ahmad Khan was elected as MP for Wakefield in November 2019.
The Tory Party line?
“We have found no record of this complaint.”
That could be because, as the victim stated to the court,
“I wasn’t taken very seriously.”
He said the woman he spoke to sounded “shocked” and passed him on to someone else who sounded more “stern” and asked if he had any “proof”.
“I said, ‘Yes, there’s a police report’ and she said, ‘Well …’, and that was it.
“I said, ‘I’m going to the police’, and she said, ‘Well, you do that’.”
It seems the Tories didn’t even bother making a record of the conversation and passing it on to the Whips’ office.
And it says much about the quality of Conservative MPs that Imran Ahmad Khan never bothered to mention that he was under investigation by the police and might not be an appropriate choice – or simply recused himself.
Considering the recent revelations that a Tory MP smeared Angela Rayner leading to the ‘Basic Instinct’ Mail story, that 56 MPs are accused of sexual misconduct including three Tory Cabinet ministers, and that a Tory frontbencher was caught watching pornography in the Commons chamber, we should not be surprised.
It seems the Conservative Parliamentary benches are full of sexual deviants.
And it seems they know they can get away with their perversions because nobody in their party ever takes complaints about them seriously. Am I right?
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Did you think you were hard-hit by the pandemic? Unless you’re a parent of a disabled child, think again!
Families with disabled children suffered astonishing levels of deprivation during the Covid-19 crisis (so far) as the Conservative government abandoned them to whatever fate befell them.
Read this information from a survey by Contact, the charity for families with disabled children – and weep. It found that, among almost 3,000 families:
Nearly two-thirds (61%) say that caring responsibilities mean they or their partner has given up paid work, on average losing £21,270 from their family income.
In the last 12 months, almost a third of parent carers have gone without heating (30%) and food for themselves (37%). Half have gone without toys, presents and computer equipment for their children.
55% of respondents were shielding during lockdown. As a consequence of shielding, 30% report they got into debt or borrowed money, 15% got behind with mortgage payments, 10% used a foodbank for the first time and 7% lost their job.
Nearly a quarter (23%) of respondents claim Universal Credit and 40% of those said they are worse off since claiming, despite assurances from government that no one would be worse off.
92% of parent carers say going without affects their own health and a third (34%) saying it affects the health of their child.
Almost one in five say they have increased care commitments due to the pandemic that will impact their ability to earn money in the future.
So it seems the Tories have used the pandemic to hammer the people who needed help the most – while pretending they were ensuring that everybody would be helped.
Some might describe such behaviour as lower than verminous.
Sadly, it is on the very same verminous government that these families must rely for help now.
Contact is running a campaign for action, with steps including:
• An increase in Carer’s Allowance and child disability payments under Universal Credit.
• Energy companies to introduce a special tariff for households with sick and disabled children due to the rising bills facing families this winter.
• The government to invest in specialist independent advice services, to help families with disabled children claim what they are entitled to.
The first act you can take in the campaign is simple: write to your MP. Contact has set up a template email to make speaking out quick and easy.
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Boris Johnson as he must have appeared to those kids: that’s right – This Site doesn’t have any pictures of him near children (thankfully).
On the eve of the crucial COP26 climate summit, Boris Johnson held a press conference about it for young children – and showed that they are more mature than he is.
This creates problems for the world, because he and his UK Tory government are hosting the event.
At one point, he actually suggested that we should “redress the balance” (what balance?) by feeding human beings to animals:
Days before the leadership of the entire world meets in the UK to discuss the future of the planet and the prime minister signals his seriousness by joking we should feed people to animals. The joke’s not funny, and it’s on us. pic.twitter.com/JBCcrI8qdO
Here are just a few of his other comments, according to The Mirror:
Reporting on a talk @BorisJohnson by ahead of #COP26 the Mirror – “Mr Johnson made a series of bizarre suggestions on battling climate change, including municipal toothpaste dispensers, feeding people to animals to rebalance nature and encouraging cows to stop burping”
The tweet below sums up the general feeling about his performance:
Johnson was clearly out of his depth when talking with those children.
— Fr Ian Maher SCP🏴🇪🇺💙🐝#RejoinEU (@IanMaher7) October 25, 2021
With his government in charge of COP26, we’ll all be out of our depth soon enough – as the sea level rises.
Perhaps Johnson is hoping the sewage-laden tide will cover his shame.
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“Perfectly safe”: this photo was taken on a school staircase after Boris Johnson ruled that it was “perfectly safe” for children to go back there in September 2020 – no social distancing, no PPE… not safe at all. As schools reopened THIS September, NOTHING HAS CHANGED AT ALL.
We all saw this coming for a long time, didn’t we?
Education Secretary Gavin Williamson has had a month and a half in which to install Covid-19 restricting measures – like improved ventilation – in schools.
He has done nothing.
And now, with schools across the UK reopening again for the autumn term, the dunce at the Department for Education is telling parents any increase in Covid infections will be their fault.
That’s right.
The new Conservative Government plan to deal with the coming wave of Covid-19 is…
You can read the mainstream media version of the story here:
Total and utter abdication of duty of care to citizens. We have a homicidal government. There is no other word for them. https://t.co/ZBi2l4uRK6
— CrémantCommunarde#TimeToBreakthrough 🕊️⚖️ 🟠🌤 (@0Calamity) August 30, 2021
We've had blame the NHS, the teachers, the parents and the unions, now it's blame the kids. pic.twitter.com/84Z79fYxvD
— Prof Gayle Letherby 💙 #PeaceAndJustice (@gletherby) August 31, 2021
Parents are understandably anxious – and angry
Gavin Williamson says schools might have to close again if parents did not regularly test their children for COVID.
That’s it. Blame parents who are desperately trying to keep their children safe in schools that have had all mitigations removed by your government. Just shameful.
Unbelievable 18 months into this pandemic that schools are not required to provide adequate ventilations in classrooms. And that concerned parents/children are offered support for 'anxiety', not hepa-filtered air. Under Gavin Williamson we truly are in the Dark Ages of reason. https://t.co/AeFg6WIg5D
Gavin Williamson is an arse! I have senior responsibility in a school but I am finished I intend to retire . 2 years of utter incompetence after 9 years of austerity. Kids are being thrown under a bus just as afghans, Covid victims and the country have been. #johnsonout
We are 18 months into this. There are public health measures which we know work to mitigate the spread of covid, including ventilation, masks and vaccination. The majority of our children are being denied these measures in the indoor spaces… 2/4
The impact of this are potentially disastrous. We will see cases rise in young people, but also in older age groups with all the attendant consequences (illness, hospitalisations and deaths and Long covid). For me this is totally unacceptable. 4/4
It seems clear that the plan for keeping schools clear of Covid is exactly as described in this parody account:
Lots of people are asking how schools will be kept Covid-safe this term. So I would like to assure the nation, I have no clue whatsoever, but I'm hoping for the best 👍
— Boris Johnson MP (parody) (@GetBrexit_Done) August 31, 2021
Meanwhile, the virus is spreading across the UK, with the restriction of its spread caused by the school holidays eliminated:
So, as your children succumb to infection because they’re being ordered to attend badly-ventilated classrooms before they’ve had a chance to be vaccinated, just remember that all this suffering is vital for Conservative government ministers and their friends to make a fat wad of money.
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Local authorities seem to think that driving council house tenants to starvation, or taking their belongings, as a means of clearing council tax arrears is a good idea.
How do they think taking the few possessions and the little money left to people in extremely vulnerable situations, that were worsened by Covid-19, will make everything better?
And which councils do you reckon are responsible for this behaviour? The Tory ones?
Consequences of austerity, low wages, inequality, govt cuts to local authority budgets: Councils in England referred 280,000 households to bailiffs over council tax debt. A govt of billionaires does not care, no idea how people struggle to make ends meet.https://t.co/i9Go9aZXyJ
1. Boris Johnson may be thinking of replacing Rishi Sunak as Chancellor – with Liz Truss
He would be replacing one incompetent – Sunak was responsible for the ‘Eat out to die out’ voucher scheme that did so much to spread Covid-19 last autumn – with another – Truss trumpeted a trade deal with Japan that sold Stilton cheese to a country that is lactose-intolerant.
Boris Johnson threatens to sack Chancellor Sunak as critics might rally around him. We need based policy-based politics not personality cults. Both are the architects of disastrous policies – austerity, neglect of public services, contracts for cronies.https://t.co/52iiq0OM2V
3. NHS waiting lists could top 15 million in four years, ministers are warned
They’ve been told a major increase in capacity is required but they are too busy giving cash to private companies and selling off NHS assets to pay for it.
NHS waiting lists could top 15 million in four years without major rise in capacity https://t.co/fJTaczDPOn
4. Former Chancellor is accused of breaking the ministerial code
It’s claimed that Philip Hammond broke the rules because he lobbied the government on behalf of a bank that employs him as a paid advisor – before the end of a two-year ban on using his his “government and/or ministerial contacts to influence policy” on behalf of his new employer.
This is the mark of a political party that has no regard for rules or conditions. Hammond needs to be investigated for breaking the Ministerial Code. https://t.co/3Ebd3jcqvY
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Unmasking: but would new Health Secretary ‘Covid’ Javid be so keen for us all to do the same if he hadn’t had both vaccination jabs? And will he continue to protect himself until after the vaccination programme is complete – long after his planned “Freedom Day” on July 19?
More than 100 scientists have told the government that its plan to end Covid-19 restriction on July 19 makes it #DangerDay – not #FreedomDay – for the nation.
The letter states: “Immunity will be achieved by vaccination for some people but by natural infection for others (predominantly the young). We have previously pointed to the dangers of relying on immunity by natural infection
“Implicit in this decision is the acceptance that infections will surge, but that this does not matter because vaccines have “broken the link between infection and mortality”.
“The link between infection and death… has not been broken.
“And infection can still cause substantial morbidity in both acute and long-term illness.”
Read it for yourself:
Our letter in The Lancet today: why Government policy of relaxing protections while the pandemic is surging, and ignoring the soaring infections, is both reckless and immoral. Signed by over 100 scientists an practitioners including the Chair of the British Medical Association pic.twitter.com/cwRRiDEpMz
The Tories are deliberately sentencing young people in the UK to either death or serious health problems, long into the future.
If you’re a parent, are you happy that ‘Covid’ Javid is threatening your children in this way?
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James Cleverly: He was once described as “the Tories’ go-to eejit when they need someone to tweet absolute nonsense or defend the indefensible”. Now it seems he’s not even bothering to say anything at all.
Here’s another story that should be all over the BBC’s prime-time news but, for some reason, seems to have been missed by the mostly-Tory news team there.
The information comes from Declassified UK, an independent investigative site run by Matt Kennard and Mark Curtis. This Writer follows Kennard on Twitter and I am impressed by the information he provides and the opinions he puts forward. Therefore I think his site is trustworthy.
Here’s what it says:
Middle East Minister James Cleverly may be breaking the Ministerial Code by failing to answer questions put to him in the House of Commons. The Code demands that ministers have a duty to “be as open as possible with parliament” and to “give accurate and truthful information”.
The questions were about whether military equipment from the UK was used in Israel’s bombardment of Gaza in May – which killed 66 Palestinian children.
The best response anybody appears to have received – to 14 questions that Declassified has identified – is that the UK “takes its export control responsibilities very seriously”. That is not an adequate answer.
There is an obvious conclusion to be drawn from this – and I’m sure you don’t need me to spell it out for you.
But Cleverly certainly won’t spell out the facts for all of us unless he is forced to do so.
And, given the huge prominence the Israel-Palestine conflict received in the news during May, the absence of such pressure from mainstream media outlets like the BBC is deeply disturbing.
Britain’s Middle East minister James Cleverly is regularly refusing to provide answers to written questions posed to him by members of parliament, especially on UK arms exports to Israel, contravening House of Commons rules.
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Last Saturday, May 8, This Writer put out a request on This Site for supporters of Israel – the people who set out to justify the atrocities committed by the government of that country – to explain why armed Israeli forces had invaded the Al Aqsa Mosque and were shooting worshippers there with rubber bullets and letting off stun grenades on this holy ground.
I received very few responses from such people, which is uncharacteristic for people who usually cannot be prevented from spouting their propaganda as often and widely as possible.
The best any of them could manage was a bit of whataboutery – an attempt to say that it was reasonable because of Palestinian rocket attacks and why wasn’t I bothered about them?
I am bothered about them; these screamers always miss the point that none of the violence between Israel and Palestine is acceptable.
There’s also this argument, made by a commenter on Twitter:
I think Israel's #IronDome gives Israel almost 100% protection against Palestinian rockets. So, it's rather disingenuous for news media to report Palestinian rocket attacks in a manner that is reminiscent of V2s against London. #SheikhJarrah
— John Smith (son of Harry Leslie Smith) (@Harryslaststand) May 11, 2021
Furthermore, it is entirely disproportionate for Israel to use the rocket retaliations against the attack on Al Aqsa, and the forcible emptying of the Sheikh Jarrah area of Jerusalem, as a justification for this:
Breaking news. Israeli warplanes have been just bombed Hanadi Towers where more than 80 Palestinian families live. pic.twitter.com/gyKSS3QHex
Instead of apologising for murdering civilians, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that he is escalating attacks on residential areas:
Netanyahu – “Towers (residential) will continue to crumble. This is just the beginning”
— ASB News / MILITARY〽️ (@ASBMilitary) May 11, 2021
And he meant it:
Israeli media said that 80 Israeli warplanes are getting ready to shower #Gaza with Missiles & bombing. Please keep us in ur prayers. #GazaUnderAttack#Ramadan
It seems the weapons used on these residential areas of Palestine were manufactured in the United States, whose industrialists and government may be deemed to support the murder of civilians by their provision of weapons used to kill them.
The US gives Israel $10 million a day worth of military aid so that it can do this: https://t.co/9Jk1CwrONm
— Human Rights Watch Watcher (@queeralamode) May 11, 2021
It was during the attacks on Gaza that six-year-old Rahaf al Masry was killed by a US missile, aimed by a member of Israel’s armed forces. She was one of many…
According to friends in Gaza, Israeli bombs just hit a family home in Beit Hanoun, killing 9 Palestinians. 4 were children:
– Ibrahim Youssef Atallah Al-Masry, 11
– Marwan Youssef Atallah Al-Masry, 7
– Rahaf Muhammad Atallah Al-Masry, 10
– Marwan Youssef Atallah Al-Masry, 12
— shirien (wishin I was in falasteen) (@shirien___) May 10, 2021
… and this murder of children prompted Unicef to make an appeal for sanity – which fell on deaf ears.
The escalation in the Gaza Strip has resulted in the deaths of nine Palestinian children. Four of them were siblings.
The Israeli Defence force has attempted to justify these murders – but the statement would have been laughable if it had not been about the deliberate killing of children. As it is, I think the comment on the statement that I’m publishing here is remarkably restrained:
Imagine blowing up multiple high rise apartments and refugee camps, killing children and a man in a wheelchair who couldn’t flee in time, and then tweeting this. https://t.co/IPgN2DXykM
— Rebecca Pierce #SaveSheikhJarrah (@aptly_engineerd) May 11, 2021
The only sentence in the IDF statement that strikes This Writer as in any way likely to be true is the last: “Our goal is only to strike terror.”
They’ve certainly done that. They’ve struck terror into the hearts of every Palestinian (yet again), and they have struck terror into everybody watching the development of this atrocity, who has a heart.
Condemnation has come thick and fast:
Deliberately provocative attacks on the Al-Aqsa mosque and the ongoing home invasions #SheikhJarrah have led to horrendous violence in Jerusalem. As the occupying power, the Israeli government has it in its gift to rectify the current situation and not exacerbate it. #Palestine
Those were mild words from Jeremy Corbyn who, despite the sustained and vicious accusations of anti-Semitism against him, continues to be the peacemaker. His hope here was forlorn.
Hard to fathom this barbarism. Drive a people off their land because they have the wrong religion, put the refugees and their descendants in an open air prison where you control every aspect of their lives, then massacre their children when they lift so much as a finger to resist https://t.co/4Bg3KjWhF9
Israel bombed and shot and maimed and killed and now it’s a war. This was preventable. Every single day for the last two weeks, every single Israeli escalation led to this point. Netanyahu started a totally preventable war all so he can stay in power. https://t.co/qKpS0xnYCe
The quote tweet from Haaretz refers to two Israeli deaths, caused by a Palestinian rocket that, it seems, got through Netanyahu’s “Iron Wall”. These deaths are just as deplorable as those of the many more Palestinians who have lost their lives. But who should take responsibility for them? Whoever let off the rocket, certainly. But what about the Israeli prime minister who provoked those people into doing it?
And when is the cycle of violence ever going to end?
Will it only end when Israel has used its overwhelming military superiority to destroy Palestine altogether – wipe its people off the face of the Earth – in the full view of the world and protesting that it is Israelis who are the victims all the way through?
Will it really have to go that far before the other nations of the world publicly acknowledge what is happening there and condemn it? Will they really wait until it is too late?
It seems so.
Look at Emily Maitlis on the BBC’s Newsnight, pushing the Establishment line that the violence is all the fault of the Palestinians for all she was worth, and getting very short shrift from Palestine’s ambassador to the UK, Husam Zumlot. Labour MP Clive Lewis’s choice of words to quote is right on the button:
Yesterday, in the Queen’s Speech opening the new Parliamentary session, Boris Johnson’s government announced a plan to deny UK citizens the right to protest against Israeli atrocities via BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) in what This Writer can only see as wholehearted support for the murder of Palestinian children:
The British state wants to ban its citizens from peacefully boycotting the racist power that just killed multiple children in Gaza. Why? To protect "business" and Britain's "strategic interests". https://t.co/El5WKk6Uuw
The alternative, of course, is to be labelled anti-Semitic:
What Isreali state is doing to Palestinians is a war crime. They are forcing people from their homes and killing them. Yet the world is silent too scared to criticise for fear of being labelled anti-Semitic. That’s where accepting the IHRA definition has taken us.
It’s a false accusation; Israel is not the Jewish people, nor has it ever been representative of them all. No doubt there are many Jews across the world who deplore the atrocities committed by the government of that country – including among those in Israel itself.
Taking that as true, then I agree with John Smith, son of the late Labour legend Harry Leslie Smith:
Israeli citizens have a moral obligation to speak out against their government's murder of Palestinians. #PalestinianLivesMatter
— John Smith (son of Harry Leslie Smith) (@Harryslaststand) May 11, 2021
Sadly, if such people exist in Israel, their voices are being suppressed just as much as ours will be if Johnson pushes through his ban on BDS. Instead we are shown Israelis backing the violence – including, remember, the murder of children – to the hilt:
That footage of Israelis jubilantly cheering while airstrikes are launched into Gaza is really very disturbing to watch.
I dare say it is – because those people should be offended, not elated. So should people here in the UK.
Their government is perpetuating a cycle of violence that – as Jeremy Corbyn pointed out – it could end at a moment’s notice.
And our government is implying that we all support these killings by suppressing our ability to protest against them.
How will we ever find peace with monsters like these in charge?
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Jacob Rees-Mogg, making a gesture that well defines him. He’s currently all upset that the failings of his Tory government have prompted Unicef to come to the UK and feed our starving children. It’s a job that the Tory government should have done but couldn’t be bothered to.
Where to start with the latest atrocity from this atrocious Tory?
Yesterday we learned that UNICEF, the United Nations Children’s Fund that provides humanitarian and developmental aid to children across the world, is having to help feed hungry kids in the UK for the first time since it was formed in 1946.
The non-political UN charity is providing £25,000 to two charities – Food School Matters and Food Power – who will partner with Premier Foods and local authorities to help provide breakfast boxes to 1,800 children in south London.
It seems clear that this move has been prompted by the Covid-19 pandemic and the weak response of Boris Johnson’s Tory government.
UNICEF UK spokesperson Anna Kettley told Sky News, “This is an unprecedented situation which requires everyone to roll their sleeves up, step in and support children and families that need it most at this time.”
This is happening because Johnson’s government told millions of parents they had to stop working because of the virus. In doing so, the Tories took responsibility for the well-being of those families – and threw it away.
Instead of ensuring that parents were fully compensated for their lost wages, Rishi Sunak devised a series of schemes that provided only a fraction of what was needed – to only a fraction of the people who needed them.
Now, at what is traditionally the hardest part of the year for many people, the UN’s children’s charity has had to announce that it is stepping in to help.
And how did the Tories greet this timely aid – which will help them as well as the families who will benefit directly, by preventing a human disaster driven by poverty in the world’s fifth-wealthiest country?
Jacob Rees-Mogg condemned it as a political stunt.
“It’s a real scandal that Unicef should be playing politics in this way when it is meant to be looking after people in the poorest and most deprived countries in the world, where people are starving, where there are famines and there are civil wars – and they make cheap political points of this kind, giving, I think, £25,000 to one council.
“It is a political stunt of the lowest order.”
He added: “Unicef should be ashamed of itself.”
Perhaps I should spend the rest of this article discussing the ingratitude of spoilt little rich boys.
Rees-Mogg has never suffered poverty and does not understand what it is like to be forced into starvation by the actions of others who have power over him. It is unlikely he ever will.
It does not follow that this means he cannot understand the responsibility of those who have power over other people to ensure that they do not harm those others in the exercise of that power. Other rich people have understood this necessity and acted on it.
It just seems that Rees-Mogg – and many others in the Johnson government – aren’t bright enough to understand that they do have a duty of care for people if they’re going to deny them the chance to earn a living for themselves.
This failure of intelligence has extended to the point that they cannot even understand – or at least, that’s what their behaviour suggests – that by stepping in, Unicef is helping the Tories out of a hole that they dug for themselves.
If children were to starve to death over this Christmas period, Rees-Mogg and his brethren would be blamed. And the public may be notoriously fickle but they don’t forget when a politician’s choices kill their families.
So he should be grateful.
Perhaps he just doesn’t like that fact that, rich as he is personally, he needed help from a charity.
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