Tag Archives: United Kingdom

UK’s Tory government to explain to the UN why it violates disabled people’s rights

A cartoonist’s view of government sickness and disability assessments [Illustration: Andrzej Krauze].

This is a heads-up – and a diary marker:

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United Kingdom corruption officially at its worst in modern times | Central Bylines

Backhander: the Tories have repeatedly insisted that apparent corruption that we’ve all observed really isn’t; will Labour do the same if Keir Starmer gets into Downing Street?

The UK is sinking into a mire of political corruption:

2023’s Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), recently published by Transparency International, shows that the UK has fallen from the 11th cleanest country for corruption in 2021, to 18th in 2022 and is now 20th in 2023 – its lowest ranking since records began in 1995.

In recent times, and unable to gain the support of Conservative moderates, the party has instead chosen to close the gap between itself and UKIP to leverage more radical support. For the sake of balance, I would happily concede that Labour also went off in search of more support from the left. These are not honest attempts to better represent their constituents but cynical attempts to capitalise on emerging power bases – in the case of UKIP, inflamed by the careful stoking of a culture war.

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The neo-liberals of the noughties – with a little help from their friends – started to see just what the possibilities were when it came to flexing the tolerances of our political system and leveraging new technology to influence voters.

For example, Matthew Elliott worked hard as founder of several organisations over years, determined to make the case for a new type of conservatism. Part of the Tufton Street furniture, he founded the TaxPayers’ Alliance (2004), Big Brother Watch (2009) and possibly the most clear red flag of all of his real intentions, the Conservative Friends of Russia (2012).

And – true to form – despite many senior Conservatives’ mysteriously close relations with dozens of Russia’s oligarchs, the Conservative Friends was just re-branded.

They all seem to share a common trait – lack of clarity over how they are funded. Each time a Tufton St associate appears on our screens or writes their next column, this lack of transparency can only lead to questions about the abuse of our trust in the institutions of our country; and each incursion into our democracy (whether as think tanks, research groups, trade groups or even cultural exchanges) creates a new opportunity for corruption.

With the political, business and romantic affairs of so many politicians mixed up with each other, it is difficult to see how we could ever be really sure that entrusted power is not being used for private gain.

So the Central Bylines article quoted above suggests that the Tufton Street “think tanks” are stoking corruption.

We’re also hearing that corruption is being boosted by corporate influence over political parties – with firms currently infiltrating election front-runners the Labour Party in order to persuade or bribe its leaders to follow their lead rather than lift a finger for the people who may actually elect them.

This Writer would suggest the billionaire-owned mainstream media, along with social media platform owners, as another source of corruption.

Can you think of any other sources of corruption?

Source: United Kingdom corruption officially at its worst in modern times – Central Bylines


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BBC besieged – over support for TORIES

“Blatantly Backing Conservatives”: the malady seems to have spread from BBC news and is now affecting all its departments. But can the Corporation bow to public demand and restore its tattered claim to impartiality?

Who would have thought that one little tweet would rock the world’s biggest public service broadcaster to its foundations?

That’s what Gary Lineker seems to have done with this message:

He was referring, of course, to the language used by Suella Braverman when she introduced her silly Illegal Migration Bill to Parliament last week – and he was right.

Subsequently, we learned that the measures in the Bill, and the language around it, would be more appropriately compared to the UK’s own treatment of Jews fleeing Nazi Germany in the 1930s – politicians of that time sent more than half a million back to Europe where an unknown number ended up being killed in extermination camps as part of the Holocaust.

Everybody should think very hard about that – and about the way politicians in both the Conservative Party and Labour condemned Mr Lineker and denied that the current Bill, or the way it was described, bore any resemblance to what happened in the 1930s.

The BBC reacted to Tory pressure the way it usually does – it caved in.

Mr Lineker was removed from his position as host of Match of the Day – and the Corporation lied about the circumstances. First we were told he was “stepping back” voluntarily until he could reach an agreement with the BBC over how he conducts himself on a social media account that is nothing to do with his employment and over which his employers should have no influence at all. Then we found out that he had been forced out.

And then the effluent hit the air conditioner.

Mr Lineker’s co-presenters on MOTD walked out in solidarity with him and everyone asked to be a possible stand-in host refused on principle.

Now, we are learning that sports coverage at the Beeb is suffering even more:

And the backlash has spread into other parts of the BBC.

  • Question Time, which actually discussed both the Illegal Migration Bill and Mr Lineker’s tweet about it, has come under fire after host Fiona Bruce played down the significance of Stanley Johnson beating his wife, in a discussion of his son Boris’s nomination of that man for a knighthood.

Here’s what she said (with apologies for the strong language used by the person tweeting it):

The charity Refuge, which supports women and children who are victims of domestic abuse – and for whom Ms Bruce is an ambassador, made its position abundantly clear:

“Domestic abuse is never a ‘one off’, it is a pattern of behaviour that can manifest in a number of ways, including physical abuse. Domestic abuse is never acceptable.”

In a parallel with the BBC’s treatment of Mr Lineker, the charity said it had also been in talks with Ms Bruce: “She is appalled that any of her words have been understood as her minimising domestic violence. We know she is deeply upset that this has been triggering for survivors.

“Like the host of any BBC programme, when serious on-air allegations are made about someone, Fiona is obliged to put forward a right of reply from that person or their representatives, and that was what happened last night. These are not in any way Fiona’s own views about the situation.

“Fiona is deeply sorry that last night’s programme has distressed survivors of domestic abuse. Refuge stands by her and all survivors today.”

Sadly, the BBC did not see fit to support the charity’s assertion that Ms Bruce was “appalled” and “deeply sorry” for “triggering” and having “distressed” survivors.

Instead, it merely defended what happened on the programme: “When serious allegations are made on air against people or organisations, it is the job of BBC presenters to ensure that the context of those allegations – and any right of reply from the person or organisation – is given to the audience, and this is what Fiona Bruce was doing last night. She was not expressing any personal opinion about the situation.”

Not good enough.

  • A BBC decision not to broadcast an episode of Sir David Attenborough’s new series Wild Isles for fear that its its themes of the destruction of nature would risk a backlash from Tory politicians and the right wing press has provoked a huge backlash – not just from environmental groups but, again, from within the Corporation itself.

The sixth episode will appear only on BBC iPlayer. All six episodes were narrated by Attenborough, and made by the production company Silverback Films, which was responsible for previous series including Our Planet.

Chris Packham, presenter of Springwatch, told The Guardian: “At this time, in our fight to save the world’s biodiversity, it is irresponsible not to put that at the forefront of wildlife broadcasting.”

Green Party MP Caroline Lucas said: “For the BBC to censor of one of the nation’s most informed and trusted voices on the nature and climate emergencies is nothing short of an unforgivable dereliction of its duty to public service broadcasting. This government has taken a wrecking ball to our environment – putting over 1,700 pieces of environmental legislation at risk, setting an air pollution target which is a decade too late, and neglecting the scandal of our sewage-filled waterways – which cannot go unexamined and unchallenged by the public.”

The Guardian added that “senior sources at the BBC [said] that the decision not to show the sixth episode was made to fend off potential critique from the political right.

Again, the BBC’s response was cowardly. The broadcaster claimed the six-part series was only ever intended to have five episodes: “Wild Isles is – and always was – a five part series and does not shy away from environmental content. We have acquired a separate film for iPlayer from the RSPB and WWF and Silverback Films about people working to preserve and restore the biodiversity of the British Isles.”

If this sixth film is part of a package of such films – a series, if you will – all made by the same organisations and narrated by the same person, and all to be available together on iPlayer, then it seems clear that it is an episode of that series and the BBC is again being economical with the truth.

This behaviour – and the decision over Mr Lineker – drew the following comment from economist Richard Murphy;

He’s right, isn’t he?

  • Finally (for now), the BBC has faced a backlash against its continued employment of Lord Sugar on The Apprentice, whose own political tweets – particularly attacking former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn – have gone unquestioned by the Corporation.

Here’s an example:

Mr Corbyn found an unlikely defender – on a BBC news programme – in Alastair Campbell. And the former New Labour press secretary didn’t pull his punches when referring to any of the scandals mentioned above:

I’m aware that Campbell himself is a controversial figure but he’s absolutely right here.

The BBC is in serious trouble over these politically-motivated decisions. Its claim of political impartiality lies in tatters.

The only way out is to apologise and reform.

But, as Beth Rigby stated above, when crises blow up like this, climbdowns become very hard to do.

What next?


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Mother COLLAPSES FROM HUNGER after two mile walk with toddlers to food bank

Food bank: Parents who have jobs are being forced to visit food banks because they aren’t being paid enough – at a time when the Conservatives are pushing wage increases well below inflation. The result is that people who are fully-employed are passing out due to lack of food, on the way to the food banks.

The only thing that could make this worse for the Tory government is if the mum was also an NHS nurse.

A mum collapsed of exhaustion and hunger after walking two miles with a pair of toddlers to reach a South Tyneside food bank.

The team from Hospitality and Hope in Hampden Street, South Shields, arranged for the family to be taken home and emergency food support to be provided.

As part of the Household Support Fund administered by South Tyneside Council, the family was also given access to support for gas so they could stay warm.

It turns out that both parents have jobs.

But the cost of paying their bills has now overtaken their collective income. The parents had been going without food in order to keep the children nourished.

All this in the sixth-richest country on the planet, due to Conservative Party government.

And it’s nearly two years until we can change the UK’s direction of travel with a general election.

My only hope is that people take it a little more seriously next time – especially everybody who didn’t think politics had anything to do with them – if they survive the current freeze and don’t starve.

Source: Mum collapses from hunger after walking two miles with toddlers to South Tyneside food bank | Shields Gazette

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Ignorant Truss branded people outside London as not ‘hard workers’

Trash talker: if Liz Truss thinks people in the UK don’t work hard simply to make a living, she needs to get her head out of whatever dark cavity it has been inhabiting for the last 12 years.

This woman is a disgrace to the United Kingdom. She should not be in politics, let alone in the running to be prime minister.

I refer, of course, to Liz Truss, a co-author of the infamous Britannia Unchained, a book that claimed the British were “among the worst idlers in the world”.

She has disowned that passage, even though her status as co-author suggests endorsement of it, laying the blame for it on Dominic Raab, who at the time it was published was among the worst idlers in Parliament, with one of the lowest attendance records of any MP. He’s now Deputy Prime Minister, indicating that scum rises.

But she can’t disown the words she spoke in a leaked audio recording from a few years ago, when she was Chief Secretary to the Treasury:

In the clip, leaked to The Guardian, Ms Truss said those outside London were less likely to be hard workers.

She said British workers as a whole also lacked the “skill and application” of foreign rivals, specifically those in China.

Ms Truss said it was “partly a mindset or attitude thing” and there seemed little desire to change the working culture so the UK could become more prosperous.

At the time she spoke those words, the UK’s economy was the second most prosperous in Europe. The money just didn’t trickle down to the people who created it (the workers) due to Tory policies.

This Writer can’t speak for large masses of UK-based workers; I can only really discuss my own experience of working here.

So let’s see: before I set up Vox Political, I spent three and a half years working for a local daily newspaper while also acting as carer for Mrs Mike who (famously, to long-term readers of This Site) has long-term illnesses and disabilities.

I have continued to act as her carer throughout the nearly 11 years that VP has been running. At its height, the site had more than 178,000 hits in a single day and I would suggest achieving that required a certain application.

During the time I was caring for Mrs Mike and running Vox Political, I have also helped run two charities, being vice-chair of one for several years, and I am currently the chair of another, that runs a cultural festival here in Mid Wales.

I spent two years on a successful campaign to force the Tory government to publish figures showing that thousands of people who had claimed sickness benefits but were thrown off them had subsequently died, indicating that the decision to sanction them was wrong.

I also had to work hard to prevent the Department for Work and Pensions from cutting off Mrs Mike’s benefit. Its representatives eventually admitted that they had mis-categorised her.

Oh, and I’ve also been a member of several local bands. Well, everybody has to relax somehow – and local audiences seem to enjoy the music.

Does that little list suggest a “lack of application” to you?

If I was feeling as uncharitable as Truss, I would suggest the reason she has spent so long sh*t-talking working people is because she’s had her head stuck where the sun doesn’t shine.

Source: Truss said British workers needed ‘more graft’ and lacked skill of foreign rivals, leaked audio reveals

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Slaver statues may fall but Boris Johnson – and the structural racism he embodies – goes on and on

The echoes of the thud with which Edward Colston’s statue hit the slabs probably hadn’t even died away before a Downing Street spokesman was telling us Boris Johnson is convinced the UK is not racist.

The country doesn’t have to be; he alone is racist enough for all of us:

We all can.

Prominent among the tweets on my Twitter timeline (TL) today was a link to a 2016 article in which Johnson suggested that then-US President Barack Obama may have an “ancestral dislike” of the UK.

Writing a column for The Sun newspaper the outgoing Mayor of London recounted a story about a bust of Winston Churchill purportedly being removed from White House.

“Some said it was a snub to Britain. Some said it was a symbol of the part-Kenyan President’s ancestral dislike of the British empire – of which Churchill had been such a fervent defender,” he wrote.

One cannot imagine him suggesting that Donald Trump’s part-German ancestry gives him a similar “ancestral dislike” of the UK, though. Can you?

And the decision to invoke Winston Churchill may be considered a mistake, in hindsight. But then, look at the way others mention him:

(Incidentally, if anyone sees that hypocrite Finkelstein getting on his high horse about anti-Semitism about this, just remind him that he was happy to praise the racist Churchill.)

The fact that the UK state endorses racism is proved by a simple fact: even though we have laws to prevent racial antagonism from being stirred up, the police will not use them against the Prime Minister – he is literally above the law, despite all claims by the Establishment that nobody is:

https://twitter.com/RedRadicals/status/1269928734863351809

This Writer has experienced the same frustrations when reporting other members, of previous governments, for law-breaking. The police either say it’s somebody else’s problem or flat-out refuse to consider it.

In the case of a government minister – or indeed the Prime Minister – displaying racism, this becomes an example of not just institutional, but structural racism:

“Multiple institutions” – in this case the police and Parliament – “collectively uphold racist policies and practices.”

So Johnson is completely wrong.

The United Kingdom is racist. Perhaps the prime minister can’t see it because he’s such a damned racist himself.

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Will the UK send more riot gear to a despotic Trump? Of course. It makes a profit

Sacrilege: Donald Trump had people tear-gassed so he could have this picture taken, outside a church, with a Bible. It seems he hasn’t read the New Testament… and if he stepped inside the church, would he disappear in a puff of brimstone?

Tou Thao, J. Alexander Kueng, and Thomas K. Lane

UK prime minister Boris Johnson is being urged to ban the sale of riot control equipment to the United States in response to shocking images of police attacking peaceful protesters against the killing of George Floyd.

Trump seems to be entirely out of control. He had peaceful protesters tear-gassed so he could take part in a photo shoot in front of a church, clutching a Bible, in what many people (including myself) may describe as a blasphemy.

This is symptomatic of the attitude he has displayed since public opinion boiled over in the wake of George Floyd’s killing. Many – including media pundits – believe he has turned the corner into dictatorship:

His attitude to the classes seems to support this:

For clarity, let’s have a look at some video clips of what has been going on:

https://twitter.com/LowkeySinistra/status/1267109420955086848

We need these clips by members of the public, too. If we didn’t have them, Ice T would be right:

Look at how news reporters have been targeted:

There have been exceptions, though – and it is important to note them. Not all in the police or the military agree with Trump that peaceful demonstrations should be put down with an iron fist:

It seems US police have been learning “brutality and repression” in specially-funded trips abroad. I make no comment about the country providing the training.

The good news is that, after Derek Chauvin was charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter for the killing of Mr Floyd, the three other officers involved are also to face criminal charges. It has been said that Tou Thao watched while J. Alexander Kueng and Thomas K. Lane helped hold the victim down:

And a civil rights investigation has been launched into the activities of Minneapolis police.

Back with the president, it seems the affair has killed Trump’s approval rating among US citizens. Now 54 per cent of them disapprove of him – the highest disapproval rating for any US president.

Trump should be happy – he’s always trying to say he’s top at something, and now he is.

All of this takes us back to the UK’s response to all this. Boris Johnson has been urged to stop exporting arms and riot equipment to the United States, so it cannot be used to harm peaceful protesters in the way we’ve seen in the videos (above):

According to the Independent article, neither Johnson nor any government spokesperson has yet commented on the issue.

This Writer’s opinion? There won’t be any cessation of arms trading with the US – it makes Tory-donor UK firms a fortune every day.

And Trump supporters can’t help shooting themselves in the foot (if only metaphorically). After Piers Morgan tweeted critically about the depths to which Trump has dragged his country, a US Twitter user made it clear that they did not want people from the UK to be involved in that country’s business. The response from a Brit was well-deserved and entirely appropriate:

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Coronavirus: Countries that relaxed lockdown are suffering second spikes – and Johnson’s talking about copying them


What a timing malfunction: on the day Boris Johnson tried to talk the UK into accepting his plan to relax lockdown restrictions, countries that have already made this choice reported increased infections and reimposed them.

Strangely enough, This Writer was only discussing the issue last week – with a guy who was saying that places like Germany have relaxed restrictions and nothing bad happened:

https://twitter.com/ricoforest30/status/1258431809135808513

https://twitter.com/ricoforest30/status/1258433256267137025

Well, I don’t know about Austria and Denmark, but as for Germany

New coronavirus infections are accelerating again in Germany just days after its leaders loosened social restrictions, raising concerns that the pandemic could once again slip out of control. The Robert Koch Institute for disease control said in a daily bulletin the number of people each sick person now infects – known as the reproduction rate, or R – had risen to 1.1.

Germany isn’t the only country having difficulties.

In South Korea

The South Korean government issued an emergency order on Friday for the closure of all bars in Seoul after a single clubber infected at least 40 people and exposed over 1,900 more to the coronavirus. The closure is indefinite.

The authorities were forced to trace the contacts of the 29-year-old man, who has not been named, after his night out in the Itaewon district of Seoul – and have so far found at least forty people confirmed with the infection. The country had previously been free of domestic transmission of the virus after an extensive and rigorous programme of testing, tracing and isolating as recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

And in China

An untraced coronavirus outbreak in a Chinese city near the Russian border and a spate of new cases in Wuhan has prompted fears of a fresh wave of infections in China.

On Sunday, Chinese authorities reclassified Shulan, a city near the Russian and North Korean borders, as high risk, after a cluster of cases connected to a woman with no known history of travel or exposure to the virus.

It came just a week after China designated all regions in the country as low or medium risk. On Sunday the country’s national health commission reported 17 new cases, its second day of a double-digit rise and its highest number in nearly two weeks.

These are all countries that were thought to have got their Covid-19 outbreaks under control – only to see them flare up again.

Now Boris Johnson is telling the UK everything is under control – just as the leaders of those other countries probably said to their citizens.

Considering what happened there, what do you think is going to happen here?

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Now it is time to ridicule Brexit

The deed is done. The UK is no longer part of the European Union. We are our own country (not that we were ever anything else).

Can you feel the difference?

No?

Well, you shouldn’t – because nothing has materially changed. We are in a transition period in which we will negotiate deals on our future trading relationship with the EU.

The deadline is ridiculously short so any deal is likely to be rubbish – or we may leave with no deal at all, as many believe Boris Johnson is secretly hoping.

The event has, unsurprisingly, led to ridicule on the social media:

Still, we can all rejoice in our refound Britishness and the British things that make our country great – right?

Well…

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Standards on environment, safety and human rights to be slashed for a grubby trade deal with Trump

Boris Johnson and Donald Trump: Enemies of the UK?

The Tory minister who once complained that the UK imports too much cheese is set to abolish the UK’s environmental safeguards – to get a food import deal with Donald Trump.

Theresa May promised that the UK would keep within EU rules on the environment, safety standards and human rights after Brexit.

But Boris Johnson will get rid of all these rules – that protect you – so he can sign a grubby deal with Donald Trump, to import genetically modified, inferior US food products at a high cost to the UK.

He describes this a way of gaining “flexibility”.

It seems responsibility for scrapping our protections will fall to cheese-loving international trade secretary Liz Truss.

This will require a huge admission of hypocrisy on her part – the woman who said importing two-thirds of our cheese was a “disgrace” –

– now seems perfectly happy to lower standards across the country in order to import all kinds of junk.

EU officials say that British negotiators are particularly keen to jettison EU restrictions on genetically modified foods – a key demand of American trade negotiators.

One EU official with knowledge of the Brexit talks suggested US trade officials appeared to have been in contact with British negotiators and told them standards would need to be slashed if there was any chance of a US trade deal.

Liz Truss, the international trade secretary, said scrapping the protections was “vital for giving us the freedom and flexibility to strike new trade deals and become more competitive”.

And of course rejecting EU standards means there can be no free trade deal with the bloc after the UK leaves it.

The intention seems to be to put the entire country at Donald Trump’s mercy – and he doesn’t seem to have much of that.

It seems clear that this plan is in the interests of nobody in the UK – apart from, possibly, Boris Johnson.

He certainly seems not to be interested in his duty to act in the interests of the people of this nation.

Of course, none of this can happen while the UK remains in the EU – and without an exit deal that MPs and MEPs can support, the UK will do just that.

Source: Brexit: Boris Johnson moves to scrap environment safeguards to get deal with Trump | The Independent

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