UK
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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Gene Editing: Scientifically indefensible, anti-democratic, and harmful to trade
An amendment has been tabled[1] in the UK House of Lords to the Agriculture Bill, seeking to change the definition of a genetically modified organism (GMO) in the UK’s Environmental Protection Act (1990) in order to exempt certain types of new genetic modification techniques, such as gene editing, from GMO regulations, within the context of… Continue reading
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Institute of Race Relations fortnightly digest (17 June – 1 July 2020)
2 July 2020 — Institute of Race Relations If you suddenly move hundreds of extremely vulnerable people, en masse, together in vans, out of safe, self-contained flats where they could cook for themselves, giving them less than an hour’s notice, to shared accommodation in hotels where social distancing is impossible, at the same time withdrawing… Continue reading
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UK: Sweet wholesaler awarded £108 million PPE contract and they had no experience with PPE
The Government has awarded an £108 million contract for the supply of PPE to a wholesaler of sweets. The enormous contract was awarded to the confectionery business seemingly without any advertising or competitive tendering process. There is no evidence that the company, Clandeboye Agencies Limited, has any experience in supplying PPE. Continue reading
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False Positives: the Prevent counter-extremism policy in healthcare
The report examines the implementation and impacts of the Prevent duty in the NHS, looking at the interaction between the duty and other professional duties. It analyses and gives a breakdown of the figures relating to the number of referrals to Prevent across a number of NHS Trusts, discussing the mental health and racialised implications… Continue reading
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Tell the government to end the rent debt crisis
In the past three months, more than half a million private renters have got behind on their rent. Housing benefit doesn’t cover sky high rents, and many of us aren’t even entitled to support. Continue reading
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UK confirms it will not align with EU chemicals agency
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has confirmed that the UK will implement its own version of the EU chemical regulatory system, REACH, at the end of the Brexit transition period on 31 December. The UK is still operating under EU REACH until then, but has no say on the regulations. Despite… Continue reading
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Pro-Israel racist group ADL moves to co-opt Black Lives Matter
For those who yearn for an end to systemic racism, these are exhilarating times as Black activists and organizations lead a global uprising against symbols and structures of white supremacy. But if you are a racist group masquerading as a civil rights organization, these days are fraught with the danger that you’ll get found out. Continue reading
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Statewatch: Open letter to Secretary-General of International Maritime Organization (IMO)
The civil liberties organisation Statewatch has today delivered an open letter [1] with hundreds of signatories to Mr Kitack Lim, Secretary-General of International Maritime Organization (IMO), calling on him to revoke the Libyan maritime search and rescue (SAR) zone [2] in order to prevent the so-called Libyan Coast Guard undertaking ‘pull-backs’ of migrants to Libya,… Continue reading
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Keir Starmer’s ‘antisemitism’ sacking is a signal that Israel is safe in his hands
Crackdown by UK Labour leader on left-wing rival will subdue critics of Israel in his party ahead of Israel’s annexation move Continue reading
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More evidence that under Westminster’s warped voting system, swathes of Britain can be written off
A shocking 68% of votes were effectively ignored in 2019: they failed to contribute to electing the local MP. Millions of voters are systematically silenced in this way – unlike countries which use proportional voting systems. Continue reading
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Starmer’s Love Affair with Zionism Could Prove Fatal for Labour
Sir Keir Starmer, whose scalp has been dangling on the lodge-pole of the Board of Deputies since Day One of his leadership of the Labour Party, has sacked his rival Rebecca Long-Bailey from his front bench for – apparently – indulging in “antisemitic conspiracy theories”. Continue reading