UK
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Police State UK: Democratic rights under attack in Scotland By Steve James
An unprecedented police and legal clampdown is underway in Scotland. Primarily directed against young people, an escalation of stop and search measures has been unearthed by a recent report from Edinburgh University. According to the Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research, the rate with which particularly youth are stopped in working class areas of… Continue reading
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Police State UK: GCHQ secret unit uses DDOS attack tactics against Anonymous – Snowden leak
British intelligence has its own hacker subdivision that uses questionable practices for hunting down enemies of the state, reveals a new leak from Edward Snowden. GCHQ is fighting Anonymous and LulzSec hacktivists with DDoS attacks and malware. Continue reading
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UK “bedroom tax” leads to record requests for emergency assistance By Mark Blackwood and Paul Mitchell
More than 200,000 people requested emergency assistance from local councils in the six months after the bedroom tax and other cuts to benefits were introduced in April of last year. Continue reading
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The London Underground strikes
The Mayor of London, who campaigned for election on the promise of keeping ticket offices open, now plans to close every London Underground ticket office as part of this budget cut. The first tranche of cuts will also see the loss of nearly 1000 front line, safety critical and customer facing station jobs. Continue reading
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Should David Cameron be Prosecuted for Recruiting Brits to Fight in Al Qaeda Ranks in Syria? By Prof Michel Chossudovsky
According to the London Evening Standard, a top British prosecutor has “warned that Britons who travel to join the Syrian conflict will face prosecution and potential life sentences on their return.” What the British prosecutor fails to address is that the British “freedom fighters” are being recruited with the full support of the British government… Continue reading
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85 billionaires rule the world: rich elite robs the poor By Rob Sewell
In Britain, a handful of super-rich plutocrats control our lives. On a world scale, according to Oxfam, a mere 85 top billionaires, who could all comfortably fit into a double-decker bus, own more wealth than half of the world’s population put together. Continue reading
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‘Maybe we haven’t been clear enough about med records opt-out’, admits NHS data boss By Kelly Fiveash
NHS data chief Tim Kelsey admitted today that the health service had failed to adequately inform patients about how they can opt out of having their GP medical records shared throughout England. Continue reading
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Police State UK: Making UK citizens non-persons By Alice Ross and Patrick Galey
Last week at Westminster, the home secretary introduced a late amendment to an immigration-control bill which would allow her to make UK citizens stateless—without first requiring recourse to the courts. MPs voted last week at Westminster overwhelmingly in favour of giving the home secretary, Theresa May, powers to make people stateless if she felt they… Continue reading
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UK police marksman will not be charged for killing Anthony Grainger By Trevor Johnson
Within days of a London jury’s decision January 8 that the police killers of unarmed father of four Mark Duggan were acting within the law, the UK government’s Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) pushed through a similar decision in regard to the killing of Anthony Grainger. Continue reading
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Spy Agencies Work On Psychologically Profiling Everyone
Newly-released documents from Edward Snowden show that the NSA and other spy agencies are tracking people’s psychological and lifestyle traits such as sexual preference, extroversion-versus-introversion, and whether people are leaders or followers. Continue reading
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Will transatlantic trade treaty really boost wages and growth, asks TUC By Owen Tudor
As Davos trade negotiators announced they would ‘consult’ over one part of the controversial deal, the TUC met them to ask if the deal would really benefit ordinary people – or just offer up our public services to multinational investors. Continue reading
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‘Doing more with less’, the low paid and the unpaid By Shibley Rahman
Re-engineering the health system has become a hobby of thinktankers, in the best spirit of the blind watchmaker. But policy wonks are still unable to escape from the fact that the NHS is not a widget factory. The management school of Frederick Taylor is unfit for purpose in considering outcomes rather than outputs. It can… Continue reading
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New chief executive calls for “opening up” of Britain’s National Health Service By Ben Trent
Incoming National Health Service chief executive Simon Stevens has called for the “opening up” of healthcare and “reshaping our care system”. Continue reading
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UK Labour pledges itself to legally binding savage cuts By Julie Hyland
The United Kingdom’s opposition Labour Party has pledged to introduce laws to enforce “tough” fiscal rules if it wins the election in 2015. Continue reading
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Video: The UK Doubles Down on Austerity
John Weeks: The UK announces tens of billions of dollars of cuts to social programs despite a poor economic recovery Continue reading
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Osborne’s Britain: poverty, insecurity and cuts
Few people, other than the rich and the ruling elites, celebrated when some faltering growth crept back into the economy in the latter part of last year. This was because few could feel any benefit from it in any part of their lives. As the growth was talked up wages and living standards continued to… Continue reading
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Campaigning Lewisham GP to stand in Euro elections for new National Health party By Caroline Malloy
London GP Louise Irvine, who led the successful ‘Save Lewisham Hospital’ campaign, is standing for European parliament for the National Health Action Party in a bid to stop privatisation and NHS cuts. Continue reading
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UK gets carte blanche to expand nuclear power, fracking under new EU energy goals
New energy goals set out by the European Union for 2030 will allow Britain to meet emissions targets by building more nuclear power plants instead of wind farms and expand fracking operations, despite criticism by green campaigners. Continue reading
