UK
-
“Credible Open Source Reporting”, the Intelligence Services and Scottish Independence
I write as somebody who held Top Secret clearance for 21 years, with extensive daily use of Top Secret material that entire time, and the highest possible specific codeword clearance above Top Secret for 11 years. I personally conducted for the FCO the largest “action on” operation in GCHQ history. (“Action on” is the process… Continue reading
-
A Matter of Citizenship: Shamima Begum, Islamic State and Natural Justice
Rarely do terms such as “Islamic State” and “natural justice” keep company. Both seem alien, uncomfortable, fundamentally ill-suited. For one, Islamic State’s own approach to natural justice, archaic and stone-age obscurantist, has tended to be distinctly unnatural and particularly brutal. But it has also invited, in response to its particular brand of terrorism, a troubling… Continue reading
-
Lockdown Deaths, Not Covid Deaths
COVID-19 has been circulating for at least a year and yet there was no notable increase in unseasonable mortality anywhere until Lockdown regimes were imposed between late February and late March 2020. Let me repeat that: everywhere, the overall or “all cause” mortality data consistently tells the same story: there was no notable deviation from… Continue reading
-
NHS Consultant Says Staff Are Being Silenced Over COVID-19
Here lies an anonymous statement from an A&E consultant in a major hospital in Surrey, in relation to the criminal gagging of all levels of NHS staff, who have been threatened that they will lose their jobs if the speak out about the COVID-1984 scamdemic. Continue reading
-
Stop and search: Defending the indefensible
Police forces across England and Wales will no doubt vigorously defend their tactics during the forthcoming Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) inquiry into possible racial discrimination in use of force and stop and search. Leaving aside the question of whether the long-criticised IOPC is the right organisation to lead such an inquiry, arguments already deployed by… Continue reading
-
Calling all NUJ Members
When a country’s main union for journalists polices the Overton window, you are in a society well on the way to authoritarianism. For four months I have been excluded from the National Union of Journalists and, despite repeated requests, the NUJ even refuses to tell me the nature of the objection. Continue reading
-
Damage to the Soul
The imprisonment of Julian Assange has been a catalogue of gross injustice heaped upon gross injustice, while a complicit media and indoctrinated population looks the other way. In a truly extraordinary twist, Assange is now being extradited on the basis of an indictment served in the UK, which is substantially different to the actual indictment… Continue reading
-
Has the UK’s “Labour anti-Semitism” probe been rigged?
The UK’s official equality watchdog is facing questions over its impartiality after it was revealed that one of its commissioners failed to declare financial links to the ruling Conservative Party. Continue reading
Campaign Against Antisemitism, Conservative Party, Equalities and Human Rights Commission, Huda Elmi, Islamophobia, James Libson, Jeremy Corbyn, Jeremy Newmark, Jewish Labour Movement, Jewish Voice for Labour, Labour Party, Labour witch hunt, Mishcon de Reya, Pavita Cooper, Sarah Sackman, Trevor Philips -
Restricted access to Grenfell inquiry for survivors and bereaved
Phase Two of the Grenfell Tower Inquiry resumed Monday after being halted in mid-March due to the coronavirus pandemic. More than three years on from the devastating fire that claimed 72 lives, the resumption of the inquiry confirms its character as a contemptible cover-up. Continue reading
-
Dominic Cummings: Money for his mates
Why do so many public contracts end up with friends of Dominic Cummings? Like us, you might have wondered. But, although reporters pick these stories up, nothing ever happens. Well, this time it’s different. Continue reading
-
‘I’m from St Raphael’s estate’: an interview with George the Poet
IRR’s Jessica Perera continues her examination of the human cost of estate regeneration by talking about pride and potential with a north-west London poet. Continue reading
-
The School That Tried to End Racism: A cruel experiment in furtherance of identity politics
Channel 4’s two-part documentary, The School That Tried to End Racism, centres on events during the filming of a group of Year 7 (eleven- and twelve-year-old) pupils over three weeks in April last year. The pupils were subjected to a cruel experiment, but this was positively described by the programme’s narrator as a “ground-breaking initiative”… Continue reading
-
EXCLUSIVE: OR Tambo’s forgotten speech at Chatham House in 1985
Oliver Reginald Tambo On October 29 1985, Oliver Tambo gave a speech at Chatham House in London. In it, he urged a reluctant British government to support the fight against apartheid — and expertly dissects the hypocrisy in not doing so. For decades, the speech was buried in the Chatham House archives. For its centennial… Continue reading
-
Israel’s new UK ambassador will expose delusions of Britain’s Jewish leaders
After years of successfully drawing attention away from Israel’s intensifying crimes against the Palestinian people by citing a supposedly growing “antisemitism crisis” in Britain’s Labour Party, Jewish community leaders in the UK are exasperated to find themselves unexpectedly on the defensive. Continue reading
-
British government reimposes welfare benefits sanctions as pandemic continues and unemployment rockets
In March, the Johnson government announced that those receiving welfare benefits including Universal Credit (UC) would not be sanctioned as they normally would if they failed to look for work or otherwise fulfilled their benefit conditionality. Continue reading
-
Coronavirus: Early June graphs from Christopher Bowyer
Reader Christopher Bowyer has once again at the digital coalface making graphs, which he has sent to me. Some are based on NHS England data, and some on the ONS week 21 release. Continue reading
-
Open letter calling for the release of WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange
On 8 June 2020, responding to a question in the House of Lords about the United Kingdom’s stance regarding the protection of journalists and press freedoms, Minister of State Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon said, “Media freedom is vital to open societies. Journalists must be able to investigate and report without undue interference”. Continue reading
-
40+ Rights Groups Call on UK to Free Julian Assange
Dozens of press freedom, human rights, and privacy rights organizations across five continents have co-signed an open letter to the U.K. government, calling for the immediate release of imprisoned WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. The publisher, who turns 49 years old today in HMP Belmarsh, is facing extradition to the United States where he has been… Continue reading
-
GM groups call on the public: Ask Ministers to reject plans to de-regulate gene editing
Three of the UK’s largest GM campaigns – GM Freeze, Beyond GM and GMWatch – have joined together to oppose an amendment to the Agriculture Bill that would give the Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs George Eustice, the power to change the definition of a GMO and re-classify many forms of… Continue reading