UK
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What archives? UK ordered destruction of ‘embarrassing’ colonial papers
Britain systematically destroyed documents in colonies that were about to gain independence, declassified Foreign Office files reveal. ‘Operation Legacy’ saw sensitive documents secretly burnt or dumped to cover up traces of British activities. Continue reading
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Join Susan George Discussing the Class War
Susan has a world wide reputation as a searing critic of capitalist globalisation and as an activist for international social justice. Her latest book, titled How to Win the Class War, is the sequel to her popular Lugano Report. Continue reading
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What lies behind Hunt’s message of the ‘bad, cruel’ NHS? By James Lazou
Hunt’s message is not about spreading hope or building a culture change in the NHS. These comments come from a minister who is only too willing to run down the NHS and its staff, ‘liberated’ as he now is of any legal duty tosecure a comprehensive health service. Hunt’s message on cruelty is yet another… Continue reading
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What does the NHS’s new IT plan really want to extract from us? By Jane Fae Ozimek
The theory behind care.data is straightforward enough. Data from all (non-dissenting) UK patients is to be lodged in a central database, from where it may be used for admin purposes, for statistical analysis by the NHS or sold on to select research companies. Continue reading
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UK Prime Minister Cameron plays the anti-immigrant card By Robert Stevens
Prime Minister David Cameron announced a raft of anti-immigrant measures this week in advance of new European Union rules coming into effect that will end restrictions on Bulgarians and Romanians entering the UK. Continue reading
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Discovering the power of people’s history – and why it is feared today By John Pilger
England is two countries. One is dominated by London, the other remains in its shadow. When I first arrived from Australia, it seemed no one went north of Watford and those who had emigrated from the north worked hard to change their accents and obscure their origins and learn the mannerisms and codes of the… Continue reading
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‘Enemies within’: the Justice and Security Act 2013 By Rod Jones
The act originated in a consultative or green paper introduced by the then justice secretary, Kenneth Clarke, in 2011. This was an over-the-top affair, proposing to make secret procedures available in all types of civil proceedings—not just those cases involving national security and even when the government itself was involved. It further proposed that the… Continue reading
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The Gagging Bill: Criminalising peaceful participation in public debate By Ian Leggett
The Gagging Bill is an attack on the foundations of our democracy. Far from supporting the “Big Society”, Cameron and Clegg are crushing it. The legislation has been paused in the Lords. Now it must be abandoned, says Ian Leggett. Continue reading
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Media Diversified: An Interview with Samantha Asumadu By Alice Bell
We talked to Samantha Asumadu, a documentary filmmaker, former journalist and campaigner about her project Media Diversified, which tackles the lack of diversity in UK media and the ubiquity of whiteness it both reflects and perpetuates. Continue reading
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UK government moves to clamp down on Internet, citing child pornography By Julie Hyland
A new clampdown on the internet has been authorised by the British government under the guise of the fight against child pornography. Continue reading
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NSA hacked over 50,000 computer networks worldwide – report
The US National Security Agency hacked more than 50,000 computer networks worldwide installing malware designated for surveillance operations, Dutch newspaper NRC reports citing documents leaked by Edward Snowden. Continue reading
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UK Government Set to Support Monsanto in EU Court
The UK Government has confirmed that it will support Monsanto in a European court case brought by European civil society groups. In a written Parliamentary Answer today, Earl Howe stated that the Government will intervene in the European Court of Justice to support the biotechnology giant, which wishes to import a GMO soy variety called… Continue reading
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NHS funding changes will worsen inequality
The government is planning funding shifts that will reduce access to NHS services where they are needed most Continue reading
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Northern Ireland 1972: A ‘model’ of sectarian ‘divide & rule’ By Tony Gosling
The secret Military Reaction Force (MRF) was tasked with conducting plainclothes ‘drive-by’ shootings of Republican IRA suspects. Revelations about the British Army’s collusion with Loyalist terrorists during the Northern Ireland ‘troubles’ went one step further this week with TV testimony from former soldiers that they had been part of a secret unit. Continue reading
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Neither working at a kebab shop, nor intending to blow up a plane By Gunes TAVMEN
When I first read Les Back and Shamser Sinha’s influential work on the texts that the UK Border Agency has been sending to ‘immigrants’ advising them it was time to leave the UK, and then their article on racist vans, I thought, “At last! The ways UKBA treats overseas people are finally made public!” I… Continue reading
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G4S & Serco fraud: Oops, we couldn’t tell the difference between right and wrong By Ellie Butt
British outsourcers cheated taxpayers out of tens of millions of pounds. Yesterday they said sorry. So that’s all right, then. All eyes were on the representatives for G4S and Serco, companies that charged taxpayers tens of millions of pounds for doing absolutely nothing. Continue reading
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Former UK Labour Home Secretary David Blunkett’s anti-Roma rant By Liz Smith
David Blunkett, Sheffield Brightside MP and former Labour Party Home Secretary, has launched a vicious attack on Roma families from Slovakia. Continue reading
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US, UK hammered secret deal on all Britons’ private data in last days of Blair
The US National Security Agency has subverted an international agreement in order to save and examine the phone, internet, and other communication records of UK citizens not suspected of any wrongdoing, according to a new report. Continue reading
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Cuts to legal aid deny hundreds of thousands access to justice in the UK By Dennis Moore
The cutting of legal aid funding and the denial of access to justice are integral to the ever-increasing attacks on civil liberties and the denial of democratic rights, amid escalating attacks on the living conditions of millions of people in the UK. Continue reading
