Tag Archives: Hilary Benn

Diversion tactics: The ‘political declaration’ on Brexit is a disaster – why is nobody talking about it?

Hilary Benn: Why is he apparently the only MP demanding clarity on BoJob’s political declaration?

While MPs have decided to take the extraordinary measure of sitting on a Saturday to decide whether to support Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal, it seems no-one wants to talk about a document that is just as dangerous: Boris Johnson’s political declaration, setting out the future relationship the Tory government wants to have with the EU.

Fortunately, Labour’s Hilary Benn has tweeted about it:

As I type this, Theresa May – formerly the worst prime minister in the history of the UK – is saying there should not be a new referendum just because people don’t like the result of the first. That is misleading.

The intention of any new referendum would be to ensure that the people of the UK are getting what they want.

The information trickling like molasses from Downing Street suggests strongly that we are not.

Is that why Boris Johnson wants to deny us the democracy that would provide clarity on this?

Have YOU donated to my crowdfunding appeal, raising funds to fight false libel claims by TV celebrities who should know better? These court cases cost a lot of money so every penny will help ensure that wealth doesn’t beat justice.

https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/mike-sivier-libel-fight/


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If Angela Eagle or any other Labour MP is deselected, it’s because they’re NOT good at their job

Oh dear: Maybe Angela Eagle wishes she had spent a little less time falsely accusing Wallasey’s followers of Jeremy Corbyn of vandalising her office and more time standing up for the Labour Party.

Let’s get something perfectly clear: Labour’s reselection process is not about stabbing good MPs in the back; it is about getting the best possible election candidates.

If Yvette Cooper’s constituency party decides to let her go, then that’s the prerogative of the members.

That goes for Hilary Benn – he can’t dine out on his father’s reputation forever; Margaret Beckett; Jess Phillips; Margaret Hodge; Angela Eagle; Louise Ellman or whoever.

And if it means 70 sitting Labour MPs get replaced on the orders of their constituency parties, then that’s what will happen.

The fact that some Corbyn loyalists may also get the push shows that this isn’t some leftie conspiracy, despite what some of the sore egos in the party are telling the news-hacks.

Apparently, incumbents have until July 8 (Monday) to tell the Labour executive whether they want to stand for election again. One or two have already said they won’t – and it would probably be more dignified for some of the others if they did the same.

After Monday, the process moves on to the members; if one-third of a constituency’s branches vote to remove their MP, then the matter will be decided by a “trigger” ballot.

To be honest, many MPs who are “triggered” probably won’t lose their chance to be re-elected, because one-third of branches is not a majority of members; while incumbents may have to stand for re-selection, that doesn’t mean it won’t happen.

It seems some are trying to organise a way of manipulating the system to prevent de-selection. But in light of the above, this seems over-the-top.

So when the i online quotes MPs as saying

“It’s another example of how they [the Corbyn leadership]aren’t going to take their foot off our throats until they’ve choked us.”

or

“People are really angry about it. It could mean a lot of really good, hard-working MPs are affected.”

it’s likely to be hyperbole.

This is about clearing the wheat from the chaff – not about divesting Labour of talented representatives.

Source: 70 Labour MPs including Yvette Cooper and Hilary Benn face deselection before next election

Tory liars suggest MPs can’t be trusted with Brexit impact assessments. So what? THEY DON’T EXIST

Robin Walker: Very well-groomed but he talks a load of codswallop.

David Davis and his Brexit gang have made fools of themselves with the claim that MPs can’t be trusted with the 58 sectoral “impact assessment” documents they have been ordered to release to the Commons’ Brexit committee.

After all, who lied to the Commons that these papers existed in “excruciating detail” (in a dig at Theresa May on October 26) – and then had to admit that they didn’t at all? David Davis.

So the implication by John Whittingdale today (November 28) that the full facts should not be shared because “leaks are not without precedent” is risible – Parliament has already proved itself to be far more trustworthy than a government whose minister lied about the form these documents took.

And Brexit minister Robin Walker’s attempt to justify the pig’s ear his department has made of the matter simply made it worse.

“The problem with the motion that was passed is it referred to sectoral impact analysis,” he said. “We were clear from the start that the motion did not exist in the form that was requested, therefore what we have done is to pull together sectoral analysis for the select committee and its scrutiny and I think that will prove valuable.”

Not true. DExEU was forced to go back on the claim that the assessments exist in “excruciating detail” once it became clear that Parliament was going to see exactly how “excruciating” that “detail” was. If the Commons hadn’t voted – unanimously – to have the reports delivered, in full, to the Brexit committee, David Davis, Robin Walker and their cronies would still be telling us that lie.

Now, despite having demanded time in order to “prepare the information” – by which some of us thought DExEU might actually try to divide the information into the 58 sectoral impact assessments we all expected – ministers have delivered to the Brexit committee a single 850-page document … with some of the details removed.

They’ve made a proper dogs Brexit breakfast out of it.

Tory David Davis was blasted today for suggesting members of Parliament’s Brexit committee could not be trusted with his secret Brexit papers.

The Brexit Secretary failed to hand over unredacted papers examining the possible impact of Brexit on sectors of the economy.

Labour MP Hilary Benn, who chairs the Commons Exiting the EU Committee, fumed in the Commons after ministers argued the full papers were not handed over as assurances of confidentiality were not given.

Mr Benn said he objected to “any suggestion” that he or the committee could “not be trusted” to handle the papers.

Source: David Davis blasted for suggesting MPs can’t be trusted with his secret Brexit papers


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It isn’t that John McDonnell WON’T intervene if Hilary Benn is deselected as an MP – he CAN’T

John McDonnell and Hilary Benn together at an event supporting the remain campaign in June [Image: Dylan Martinez/Reuters].

John McDonnell and Hilary Benn together at an event supporting the remain campaign in June [Image: Dylan Martinez/Reuters].

It’s bizarre to have to point this out – especially in response to reports by newspaper journalists who should know this – but John McDonnell has NOT refused to intervene over Hilary Benn’s future as a Labour MP.

The Shadow Chancellor simply has no power to do so. As he made perfectly clear in his Radio 5 Live interview, Parliamentary candidates are chosen by Constituency Labour Parties.

So Rajeev Syal’s article in The Grauniad, for example, is misleading. I’d like to say I hope this is not deliberate, but it still reflects on the professionalism of the author.

It doesn’t matter whether close allies of Jeremy Corbyn remain angry with Mr Benn after he sided with the Conservative Government over air strikes and Syria, or any involvement of his in the attempted ‘Chicken Coup’ over the summer.

If it is true that supporters of Mr Corbyn have been elected as officers in Mr Benn’s constituency party, Leeds Central, then they can propose any action they see fit – within party rules.

That includes deselection of the incumbent MP, so he may not stand as a candidate in a future election (it would not affect his position as an MP in the current Parliament).

And it is important to clarify that, if anyone has “taken over” positions in Leeds Central CLP, they would have done so by democratic means.

I question why Rajeev Syal mentions that Patrick Hall, a vice-chair of Leeds Central CLP who has spoken against Mr Benn, is a national executive member of the Labour Representation Committee, described as “a radical grouping” chaired by McDonnell.

What’s the implication?

Mr McDonnell will not influence any decision on Mr Benn’s future in any way. If Leeds Central CLP deselects Mr Benn, it will be because Leeds Central Labour members wish it.

That’s democracy.

Source: John McDonnell won’t intervene if Hilary Benn faces deselection fight | Politics | The Guardian

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The jingoism that betrayed MPs’ ignorance over Syria – Corbyn


From Jeremy Corbyn’s Huffington Post interview:

The UK’s recent decision to join the US and other states in bombing ISIL in Syria was fiercely opposed by Corbyn – and still is. The House of Commons voted by a big majority to join the coalition, and 66 Labour MPs backed military action after an impassioned speech by Shadow Foreign Secretary Hilary Benn.

But the Labour leader makes clear he unhappy at the reaction on the night. “What I was appalled by was the end of that debate, with mainly Conservative MPs waving their order papers around, clapping and cheering,” he says.

“Sorry, we were voting to send bombers in to bomb targets, putting servicemen and women at risk, civilians at risk, you can’t cheer when you’re going to war. That is 1914 Jingoism, that is past.”

Corbyn adds: “I think we rushed into something without enough thought. I made my point in my own speech to Parliament, very carefully. I asked a series of questions and I don’t believe I had proper answers to those questions. Even the Daily Mail said that the questions I’d put – which we thought about very carefully in my office – were relevant questions and have not actually been answered.

The Sun newspaper has reported that not a single one of the RAF’s much-hailed Brimstone missiles has been fired in Syria because of a lack of targets. Does that help his own case on Syria?

“It proves something doesn’t it? The Brimstone missiles I was told never miss a target, sorry if you get a target wrong and we all make mistakes.”

“I quote in my speech a Syrian family who live in this constituency. They are not lovers of the regime, they are not lovers of the Opposition, they are lovers of their family and life and they said our family is at risk.”

Source: Jeremy Corbyn Interview: On His First 100 Days, Leadership, Donald Trump, Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton And Tyson Fury

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The integrity of Hilary Benn

Hilary Benn: Betraying his principles.

Hilary Benn: Betraying his principles.

Here at Vox Political, we love a politician with principles.

What a shame Hilary Benn doesn’t seem to be one of them.

Only a couple of weeks ago, he was arguing that, after the Paris attacks, the UK should concentrate on peace talks and helping refugees.

One is led to consider whether those who applauded his speech in support of air strikes were really supporting his ‘principled’ view – or whether they were simply happy to see him abandoning whatever principles he had.

An interview published on 15 November in which Hilary Benn said he did not advocate bombing Isis in Syria has been shared widely on social media in the aftermath yesterday’s Syria debate in Parliament.

The interview saw renewed interest after the shadow foreign secretary … advocated the bombing of Syria.

In the previous interview, given to the Independent on Sunday… Mr Benn was asked whether the Government should bring forward a vote on bombing Isis in Syria, which was at that time not planned. He replied:

“No. They have to come up with an overall plan, which they have not done. I think the focus for now is finding a peaceful solution to the civil war.

The comments contrast with the view stated by Mr Benn in his speech two weeks later. In that speech he urged Labour MPs to vote for bombing.

Source: Hilary Benn argued against bombing Syria in an interview two weeks before voting for it

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Syria air strikes: A day of shame for the UK – but not for the Labour leadership

The OTHER big issue at the 'air strikes' debate: David Cameron refused to apologise for insulting everybody who disagreed with his cockeyed scheme. Here's Guardian cartoonist Steve Bell on the subject.

The OTHER big issue at the ‘air strikes’ debate: David Cameron refused to apologise for insulting everybody who disagreed with his cockeyed scheme. Here’s Guardian cartoonist Steve Bell on the subject.

So British warplanes are on their way to Syria – by the time you read this, they may even have completed their first raid, which means that about half a million pounds of our money wasted already.

David Cameron will get his war, after MPs voted in favour of air strikes against Daesh (IS if you like) in Syria by a majority of 174. This means the votes of the 67 or 68 (at the time of writing the total isn’t certain) Labour MPs who sided with the Conservatives were totally irrelevant.

Some Twits are already suggesting the result could trigger the ejection of Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader, putting forward the pro-air strikes speech by Hilary Benn as possibly the start of a leadership campaign. This is silly.

First, Corbyn is in no danger as a result of this vote. The number of rebellions has already been compared (favourably) with the number suffered by former Labour prime minister Tony Blair when he called for war against Iraq, and he went on to win another general election afterwards. Labour MPs enjoyed a free vote, meaning they were not whipped to support a line held by the leadership, so nobody rebelled against Mr Corbyn. And, as already mentioned, the low number of Labour MPs siding with the government means their choice did not make a scrap of difference.

Mr Benn’s speech was widely praised, but a pro-war speech from the son of Tony Benn is not cause for celebration. As Rhiannon Valentine tweeted, “Hilary Benn was not applauded because his speech was historic, he was applauded because he is supporting the Tory Government.” His illustrious father, whose pro-peace speech of 23 years ago has been widely publicised in the run-up to the ‘air strikes’ debate, was no doubt spinning so fast in his grave he may have drilled his way to Syria himself. There has been widespread disgust at Mr Benn’s rhetoric. In that context, it seems unlikely that the Labour Party at large will support any attempt by him to usurp the leadership.

I’m not going to rehash the arguments against air strikes that we have all heard too many times already. It seems to me, though, that the best thing Jeremy Corbyn can do now is carry on exactly as he is, and wait for Cameron’s strategy to fall apart.

Will Cameron avoid killing civilians? No. While some have used Iraq as an example of airborne warfare that has not cost civilian lives, the actual number of deaths is 369 (at the time of writing), I’m reliably informed.

Will Cameron reduce the chances of terrorist strikes in the UK? No. The terrorist attacks in France on Friday 13 November were hatched by European citizens and it is likely that any attacks here will be home-grown. The vote for air strikes makes you less safe, because people will believe it is actually doing some good.

Will Cameron end the threat of Daesh? No. But having planes over Syria alongside many other countries means someone else might strike a decisive blow – for which he would then take the credit.

It is Corbyn’s place to ensure the public is fully informed of the collateral damage caused by Cameron’s campaign. He should also keep a watchful eye on those of his own MPs who voted with the Conservatives, in order to make sure they understand what they have supported.

Those MPs are:

Heidi Alexander (Lewisham East),
Ian Austin (Dudley North),
Adrian Bailey (West Bromwich West),
Kevin Barron (Rother Valley),
Margaret Beckett (Derby South),
Hilary Benn (Leeds Central),
Luciana Berger (Liverpool Wavertree),
Tom Blenkinsop (Middlesbrough South & Cleveland East),
Ben Bradshaw (Exeter),
Chris Bryant (Rhondda),
Alan Campbell (Tynemouth),
Jenny Chapman (Darlington),
Vernon Coaker (Gedling),
Ann Coffey (Stockport),
Yvette Cooper (Normanton, Pontefract & Castleford),
Neil Coyle (Bermondsey & Old Southwark),
Mary Creagh (Wakefield),
Stella Creasy (Walthamstow),
Simon Danczuk (Rochdale),
Wayne David (Caerphilly),
Gloria De Piero (Ashfield),
Stephen Doughty (Cardiff South & Penarth),
Jim Dowd (Lewisham West & Penge),
Michael Dugher (Barnsley East),
Angela Eagle (Wallasey),
Maria Eagle (Garston & Halewood),
Louise Ellman (Liverpool Riverside),
Frank Field (Birkenhead),
Jim Fitzpatrick (Poplar & Limehouse),
Colleen Fletcher (Coventry North East),
Caroline Flint (Don Valley),
Harriet Harman (Camberwell & Peckham),
Margaret Hodge (Barking),
George Howarth (Knowsley),
Tristram Hunt (Stoke-on-Trent Central),
Dan Jarvis (Barnsley Central),
Alan Johnson (Hull West & Hessle),
Graham Jones (Hyndburn),
Helen Jones (Warrington North),
Kevan Jones (Durham North),
Susan Elan Jones (Clwyd South),
Liz Kendall (Leicester West),
Dr Peter Kyle (Hove),
Chris Leslie (Nottingham East),
Holly Lynch (Halifax),
Siobhain McDonagh (Mitcham & Morden),
Pat McFadden (Wolverhampton South East),
Conor McGinn (St Helens North),
Alison McGovern (Wirral South),
Bridget Phillipson (Houghton & Sunderland South),
Jamie Reed (Copeland),
Emma Reynolds (Wolverhampton North East),
Geoffrey Robinson (Coventry North West),
Joan Ryan (Enfield North),
Lucy Powell (Manchester Central),
Ruth Smeeth (Stoke-on-Trent North),
Angela Smith (Penistone & Stocksbridge),
John Spellar (Warley),
Gisela Stuart (Birmingham Edgbaston),
Gareth Thomas (Harrow West),
Anna Turley (Redcar),
Chuka Umunna (Streatham),
Keith Vaz (Leicester East),
Tom Watson (West Bromwich East),
Phil Wilson (Sedgefield) and
John Woodcock (Barrow & Furness).

My final thought is that this vote – and many of the speeches during the debate – shows that the quality of our democratic representatives has fallen to a depressing depth.

The electorate really needs to raise its standards in choosing, not only MPs, but candidates to be MPs.

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Corbyn appoints his shadow cabinet

John McDonnell, the new Shadow Chancellor.

John McDonnell, the new Shadow Chancellor.

Congratulations to John McDonnell, in particular, on his appointment as Shadow Chancellor.

Mr McDonnell is a close ally of Jeremy Corbyn and a man who is not afraid to stand up for his beliefs. Reports state that Angela Eagle could have been offered the job, but This Writer is glad that Mr McDonnell took it instead – even if it has led to gripes that nobody in the ‘top four’ jobs is a woman.

Instead, Ms Eagle has been named Shadow Business Secretary and Shadow First Secretary of State, meaning she will stand in for Mr Corbyn at Prime Minister’s Questions when David Cameron is away.

According to the BBC:

Defeated leadership rival Andy Burnham is shadow home secretary, while Hilary Benn remains shadow foreign secretary. Other confirmed appointments are:

  • Lucy Powell, who was Ed Miliband’s general election coordinator, will be shadow education secretary
  • Lewisham MP Heidi Alexander will take over from Mr Burnham as shadow health secretary
  • Lord Falconer, a former flat mate of ex-PM Tony Blair, will continue as shadow justice secretary
  • Seema Malhotra is shadow chief secretary to the Treasury
  • Diane Abbott is made shadow minister for international development
  • Shadow Northern Ireland secretary is Vernon Coaker
  • Rosie Winterton to continue as chief whip
  • Ian Murray to continue as shadow Scottish secretary.

This Writer – and no doubt readers of This Blog – will be particularly interested to see who is chosen as Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary.

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Government’s ‘troubled families’ programme is failing; we knew it would

[Image: historyextra.com]

[Image: historyextra.com]

Remember back in April last year, when Vox Political said the Coalition government’s plan to stop children in ‘troubled’ families from playing truant, while finding work for the adults and stopping both from committing crime, was doomed to failure?

If you don’t, it’s not surprising (our readership back then was around a quarter of its current level) – and you haven’t missed much, because the scheme is back in the news as it is (again, unsurprisingly) failing.

The VP article pointed out that the government had been fiddling the figures in its bid to make it seem that 120,000 such families exist in the UK; in fact, “the number came from Labour research on disadvantaged families with multiple and complex needs, rather than families that caused problems,” according to ‘trouble families tsar’ Louise Casey at the time.

The article pointed out that local councils, offered a £4,000 bonus for each ‘troubled’ family they identified and helped (for want of a better word) were shoehorning families into the scheme – whether they qualified or not – just to make up the numbers.

It was doomed from the start.

So today we have figures obtained by Labour’s Hilary Benn, showing that around 106,500 families have been identified for the scheme (according to averages worked out from councils that responded to a Freedom of Information request). Of these, only around 35,500 were engaged by the scheme, which then failed in three-quarters of cases (around 26,600 families).

That leaves 8,878 families who actually came back to the straight-and-narrow – less than one-thirteenth of the target figure.

A success rate this low could have been achieved if the government had done nothing.

(That seems to be a running theme with the Coalition. What else does it remind us of? Ah, yes… The Work Programme. In this context it is extremely interesting that Mr Benn said the biggest obstruction to the scheme was the Work Programme’s failure “to deliver jobs to the poorest people in society”.)

According to The Guardian, “Data from 133 councils out of the 152 participating in the scheme found that almost one in seven families that had been “turned around” were either still on drugs, had children missing from school or involved in criminal acts.

“Another 60 per cent of households deemed to have been successfully helped by the scheme in March still had adults on unemployment benefits after leaving the programme.”

Bearing in mind the £4,000 ‘carrot’ that was waved in front of councils as encouragement for them to take part, you’ll enjoy the revelation that each local authority claimed to have found an average of 812 troubled families – 20 per cent more than central government had estimated.

Again, this is hardly surprising. Government-imposed council tax freezes have starved local authorities of money and £4,000, multiplied by 812, brings an average of £3,250,000 into each local authority that they would not, otherwise, have had.

So much for David Cameron’s plan to “heal the scars of the broken society”.

The Guardian also tells us that the ‘troubled families’ programme was launched by Cameron as a Big Society (remember that?) response to the riots of summer 2011.

In fact it doesn’t matter what the Coalition government does – or, indeed, what Labour plans to do if that party comes into office in 2015; schemes that are imposed on people from above will never succeed.

The problem is that the United Kingdom has become an increasingly unequal society, with money and privilege bled out of the majority of the population (who do most of the work for it) and into the hands of a very small number who have power and – it seems – no responsibility at all.

The vast majority of us are seen as disposable commodities by these exploiters – whose number includes a large proportion of MPs with interests in private business; they use us to make their huge profits and then throw us into unemployment.

Is it any wonder that such betrayal breeds families that turn away from the system and take to crime instead?

When David Cameron slithered into Downing Street he said he wanted to “re-balance” society. In fact, he over-balanced it even more in favour of privilege and wealth.

Now we need a proper re-balancing of society. The only way to solve the problem of ‘troubled families’ – a problem said to cost us £9 billion every year, by the way – is for people to be born into a society where everybody is valued and receives a fair (in the dictionary sense of the term, rather than the Conservative Party definition) reward for their contribution.

That will mean a fundamental shift in attitudes that should be taught to everybody from the cradle upwards.

You won’t get it under the Conservatives or any other right-wing government because they are exploiters by definition.

Will you get it under Labour?

Possibly. But a lot of right-wing Blairite dead wood will have to be cleared out first, and Hilary Benn is not the man his father was.

Follow me on Twitter: @MidWalesMike

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Will you support the day of action against Atos?

disabilitysuicides

Ordinary people around the UK will gather outside centres where Atos administers its work capability assessments on benefit claimants next month – to demand an end to the system that is continuing to cause the deaths of thousands of innocent people across the country.

They will gather at 144 of the locations used by Atos to carry out the discredited assessments, under a contract written by the Department for Work and Pensions, on February 19.

It is known that 10,600 ESA/Incapacity Benefit claimants died within six weeks of their claim ending after Atos assessments between January and November 2011, although the DWP seems unwilling to divulge the percentage of those claims that ended because claimants were found fit for work by ATOS. Currently roughly one in four ‘fit for work’ decisions by ATOS is overturned at tribunal.

In July 2013, ATOS whistleblower Greg Wood lifted the lid on the toxic culture that existed within the organisation – carrying out assessments that were not fit for purpose, with huge pressure on assessors to fail ESA claimants. Dr Wood was shocked by the ineffectiveness of the assessment procedure.

A report from the Centre for Welfare Reform showed that informal targets were being set by ATOS which had assessors under pressure to fail around 65 per cent of claimants (Vox Political has estimated 70 per cent in the past).

A petition set up by campaign group WOW (The campaign against the ‘War on Welfare’), calling for an immediate halt to the Work Capability Assessment and an independent, committee-based inquiry into welfare reform – including the ATOS contract, excess claimant deaths and the disregarding of medical evidence in decision-making, gained more than 100,000 signatures. The WOW campaign is currently supported by 57 MPs and there is a commitment to debate the issue in the House of Commons.

Labour MP Hilary Benn said: “As the Labour opposition we have called ATOS a disgrace and said they should be sacked… The system needs to change.”

Labour Councillor Alison Lowe said simply, “I have no problem supporting this. The Government are evil and they don’t care about people who are poor.”

At the demonstrations on February 19, ordinary people will demand an apology from Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith and Thierry Breton, chairman of Atos – not just the disabled, or opposition politicians, but anybody who believes that the Atos-run, DWP-devised assessment system is leading to the deaths of innocent people.

In particular, demonstrators will demand an apology to the families of benefit claimants who took their own lives following decisions made by ATOS, including: Iain Caress, Brian McArdle, David Coupe, Edward Jacques, Tim Salter, Nick Barker, Helen and Mark Mullins, and Paul Wilcoxson.

In Mid Wales, where Vox Political is based, the event will be at the Newtown Assessment Centre, St David’s Business Centre, St David’s House, New Road, Newtown, starting at 11am. Details are on Facebook here.

For readers elsewhere in the UK, details of events closer to you are on the UK Rebellion site and the Atos national demo Facebook page.

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