22 February 2019 — True Publica
There have always been lobbyists and PR people involved in politics. We have always had think tanks that have leaned in a certain direction and provided research and speakers partial to their side of the debate. So what are the special concerns that cause us to claim that our system is developing in such a way that we no longer have free and fair elections?
Category: UK
UK parliament committee demands sweeping social media censorship By Robert Stevens
22 February 2019 — WSWS
Parliament’s Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee (DCMS) has called for the sweeping censorship of Facebook and other social media.
Reporting its 18-month investigation into “Disinformation and ‘fake news’,” the select committee’s explicitly anti-Russian agenda was clear from the outset, with a remit to tackle accusations of foreign interference in the 2014 Scottish independence referendum, the 2016 referendum on the UK’s European Union membership and the 2017 general election.
Anti-semitism is cover for a much deeper divide in Britain’s Labour party By Jonathan Cook
21 February 2019 — Jonathan Cook
Breakaway MPs hope that smearing Corbyn will obscure the fact that they are remnants of an old political order bankrupt of ideas
Middle East Eye – 20 February 2019
The announcement by seven MPs from the UK Labour Party on Monday that they were breaking away and creating a new parliamentary faction marked the biggest internal upheaval in a British political party in nearly 40 years, when the SDP split from Labour.
Joan Ryan, MP who fabricated anti-Semitism, quits Labour By Asa Winstanley
20 February 2019 — The Electronic Intifada
Leading anti-Palestinian MP Joan Ryan has left Labour. (via Facebook)
Lawmaker Joan Ryan quit Labour on Tuesday, citing party leader Jeremy Corbyn’s supposed “demonization and delegitimization” of Israel.
Ryan is the leading member of Parliament in Labour Friends of Israel – an Israeli embassy front group.
She notoriously fabricated a charge of anti-Semitism against Labour member Jean Fitzpatrick at the UK opposition party’s 2016 annual conference.
Statewatch News Online, 18 February 2019 (04/19)
18 February 2019 — Statewatch
Also available as a pdf file: http://www.statewatch.org/news/2019/feb/email-18-feb.pdf
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STATEWATCH ANALYSIS
EU: New criminal records database for non-EU nationals is “disproportionate and discriminatory”.
Seven Blairite MPs resign from UK Labour Party By Robert Stevens and Laura Tiernan
19 February 2019 — WSWS
On Monday, seven right-wing MPs resigned from the Labour Party at a press conference held in London’s County Hall at Westminster.
Chuka Umunna, Luciana Berger, Mike Gapes, Chris Leslie, Ann Coffey, Angela Smith and Gavin Shuker announced they would sit as independents in Parliament and be known as The Independent Group (IG). Their website was already up and running.
Britain: Bye bye Blairites! Now show the rest the door By Adam Booth
19 February 2019 — In Defence of Marxism
Seven right-wing MPs have split away from the Labour Party, much to the relief of grassroots members. But many of their treacherous ilk have been left behind. They must be replaced at the first opportunity.
The desecration of Marx’s grave: A warning
19 February 2019 — WSWS
There have now been two attacks on the grave of Karl Marx in Highgate Cemetery in the space of just two weeks. The first and most damaging was an attempt to obliterate with a hammer Marx’s name from the original headstone marking the burial place of Karl and his wife Jenny, which was incorporated into the monument erected in his memory in 1956. The second was this weekend’s daubing of anti-communist slogans on the plinth supporting the monument’s bronze bust of Marx.
DWP tells GPs not to support benefit claimants with sick notes By Sue Jones
16 February 2019 — Welfare Weekly
“This callous and unjustified approach to social administration is destroying people’s lives”, writes Sue Jones.
Yesterday on Twitter, I posted one of my previous posts –Jobcentre tells GP to stop issuing sick notes to patient assessed as ‘fit for work’ and he died–in which I discuss a letter addressed to a GP regarding a seriously ill patient. It said:
“We have decided your patient is capable of work from and including January 10, 2016.
Britain’s Dire Economic Situation is of Little Concern for Theresa May By Grete Mautner
17 February 2019 — New Eastern Outlook
It seems that the most haunting question in Britain today is: What future awaits its citizens after Brexit?
A phenomenal anti-war movement?
17 February 2019 — LIbcom.org
As per the Daily Mail, “Blair dismissed London anti-war march as ‘millions of liberal-minded people taking to the streets to defend the most illiberal regime on earth’”. One million people expressed their voice and were cavalierly ignored.
New study reveals more details on deadly flammable cladding used on Grenfell Tower By Alice Summers
14 February 2019 — WSWS
Flammable cladding similar to the material which had covered Grenfell Tower is still being widely used across the UK. The combustible cladding used on Grenfell was a significant factor in allowing the rapid spread of a small fire and creating toxic smoke with deadly consequences on June 14, 2017.
