UK
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British care home scandal deepens By Mark Blackwood and Ajanta Silva
In a letter to the Daily Telegraph on May 30, the families of those abused in Winterbourne View said, “Today we have seen the appalling failure of the Government, the NHS [National Health Service] and Local Authorities to meet their own deadline for moving people with a learning disability out of places like Winterbourne View. Continue reading
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Labour embraces UK Independence Party’s right-wing nationalism By Jordan Shilton
The victory by the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) in the May European elections in Britain and its strong gains in local elections have prompted the Labour Party to move even further to the right and adopt many of UKIP’s core positions. Continue reading
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Vodafone Reveals Existence of Secret Wires That Allow State Surveillance By Juliette Garside
Vodafone, one of the world’s largest mobile phone groups, has revealed the existence of secret wires that allow government agencies to listen to all conversations on its networks, saying they are widely used in some of the 29 countries in which it operates in Europe and beyond. Continue reading
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Slaney Street: Birmingham’s new co-operative media project
Slaney Street is a new Birmingham-based co-operative media organisation. Initially starting as a modest blog last year, it has just held its official founding conference and is gearing up for its fourth print edition to be distributed free across the city. Continue reading
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Rewriting history at George Orwell’s ‘Ministry Of Truth’ By Tony Gosling
Britain has been stunned this week by yet another stride a morally bereft Westminster has taken towards totalitarianism. In a process begun by Bilderberg steering group member Kenneth Clarke while he was Lord Chancellor and Justice Secretary, the Justice and Security Act through “closed material procedures” has opened the way for criminal trials not just… Continue reading
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UK Chilcot Inquiry: cover-up continues over war against Iraq By Robert Stevens
The most critical documents regarding the preparation and instigation of the illegal war against Iraq will never be seen by the Chilcot Inquiry. The Inquiry was authorised by the previous Labour government, fully five years ago. It is now 11 years since the invasion of Iraq. Continue reading
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UK SEP National Secretary interviewed on BBC Daily Politics
On Monday Chris Marsden, the National Secretary of the Socialist Equality Party (SEP) in the UK, was interviewed on the BBC 2’s Daily Politics show. The interview, with journalist Jo Coburn, was in response to the SEP’s official complaint that a previous May 21 interview with Marsden on the show ended with interviewer Giles Dilnot,… Continue reading
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“Appalling” service by private firm leaves NHS patients without drugs By Melanie Newman
Healthcare watchdogs and patient groups slam private equity owned ‘Healthcare at Home’ whose failures are leaving frightened patients waiting for desperately needed drugs. Thousands of NHS patients, some seriously ill, have not received vital medicines on time because of problems at the company contracted to deliver the drugs to these patients in their own homes. Continue reading
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UK referred to International Criminal Court for war crimes in Iraq By Jean Shaoul
International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, has accepted the complaint lodged in January alleging that UK military personnel committed war crimes against Iraqis in their custody between 2003 and 2008. She has ordered a preliminary investigation. Continue reading
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British Government Coverup and Whitewash of Iraq War Crimes: The Chilcot Inquiry By Felicity Arbuthnot
Amidst howls of “whitewash” from media commentators and interested observers of all political hues, it seems the findings of the Chilcot Inquiry in to the Iraq war are finally to be published by the end of this year. Continue reading
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Sixteen-year-olds recruited to British Army By Julie Hyland
More than 1 in 10 new recruits to the British Army are just 16 years of age, according to figures released by the Ministry of Defence (MoD). It makes Britain one of the few countries in the world, and the only country in the European Union, to recruit child soldiers. Continue reading
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One year after Snowden drops NSA bomb, UK citizens demand more privacy
A year after the National Security Agency’s spy program was uncovered, a UK poll reports that more than 8 out of 10 internet users want their browsing history to remain confidential, while 12 percent say they don’t mind government’s prying eyes. Continue reading
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Britain: Behind the strong vote for far-right UKIP By Dave Kellaway
Despite a strong support for the far right, the radical anti-austerity left maintained and increased its votes in some countries such as Greece, but also Spain and Portugal. Continue reading
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Unease in UK’s political elite after Prince Charles compares Putin to Hitler By Julie Hyland
The row over Prince Charles’s comparison of Russian President Vladimir Putin with Adolf Hitler continues to rumble. Charles is not the first to make the comparison. The false and provocative analogy was also used by former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble, among others. In fact, the modern-day equivalent… Continue reading
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Major UK parties given drubbing in local elections By Robert Stevens
The local council elections in England saw an overwhelming rejection of the UK’s three major parties, the Conservatives, Liberal Democrats and Labour. Many abstained from voting, with turnout estimated to be around 36 percent. In many wards turnout was around 20 percent and less. Continue reading
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The new aristocracy in Britain By Jordan Shilton
Remarking on social conditions at the end of the 18th century, Thomas Paine wrote, “The contrast of affluence and wretchedness continually meeting and offending the eye is like dead and living bodies chained together.” More than 200 years later, Paine’s scathing critique of social inequality can be applied even more forcefully to modern day Britain,… Continue reading
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The No2EU electoral alliance in the UK: An enemy of the working class and socialism By Michael Barnes
No2EU seeks to exploit the impact of the global economic crisis and the EU’s hated austerity measures to direct growing opposition in the working class into a nationalist dead end. Continue reading
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‘Zombie parliament:’ British MPs set for 223 days off work in 2014
MPs have just started a 19 day early summer holiday, right after they had an 18 day Easter break, RT’s Sara Firth reports. They’ll then sit for seven weeks before a six week fully paid summer holiday. And if that’s not enough they get a month off in the autumn for party conferences. Continue reading
The New Dark Age 