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TORIES ARE STRIPPING & PRIVATIZING the NHS
and Taking Away OUR RIGHTS: with a never-
ending lockdown that Labour MPs support!

Neil Clark, journalist, writer and broadcaster:

''The sad and rather shocking truth, is that the

current UK Parliament could quite happily

keep us locked down indefinitely.

Remember, MPs get their £81K

annual salaries (plus perks)

paid in full, each month,

whatever happens.

And... there is no

general election

due until 2024.

''The only way the restrictions will end, is
if the public have had enough of them and

stop complying in large enough numbers.

Otherwise, what incentive is there for
the well-heeled, power-crazed, lock
down-addicted political class to
lift them, especially with the
next general election so
far away?''

________________________________

WHO Won't Support

COVID Passports

April 6th, (teleSUR)

Several countries are touting the initiative of

COVID-passports or immunity passports as

a safe means to travel and fully reopen

their economies.

The World Health Organization (WHO) rejected

on Tuesday the use of COVID passports amid

concerns it would not prevent the

virus's spread.

During a press conference, the WHO spokesperson,

Margaret Harris, said the experts “are not certain
at this stage, that the vaccine prevents
transmission."

Likewise, the official raised concerns that the use of

these passports could be discriminatory; hence the

WHO won't endorse it. Getting tested is a requisite

for an immunity passport. However, in many

countries, thousands cannot access a

test; therefore, these passports

exclude the majority.

Several countries are touting the initiative of COVID-

passports or immunity passports as a safe means

to travel and fully reopen their economies. Last

year Chile announced it intended to issue the

world´s first immunity passports. Germany,

Italy, and the U.S., have publicly backed

the alternative.

(See our Health Page, for much, much more...)

__________________________________

'Divisive and Discriminatory':

70 UK MPs Sign Pledge to

Oppose Government's

COVID Passport Plans

by Oleg Burunov

April 2nd, 5:56am (RT)

On Thursday, UK Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, said

there wlll "definitely" be a role for vaccine passports

for Britons going abroad --- and that a similar COVID

certification scheme may be "useful" within Britain.

Over 70 UK lawmakers, including 40 Conservatives, have

warned the British government over its plans to use

COVID-19 vaccine passports within the country.

On Thursday, a cross-party group of politicians signed a

pledge to oppose the move --- vowing they will oppose
"the divisive and discriminatory use of COVID status

certification to deny individuals access to

general services, businesses, or jobs".

The signatories include ex-Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan

Smith and former Cabinet ministers Esther McVey,

Andrew Mitchell, and Sir John Redwood, as well

as leading Tory COVID rebels, Mark Harper

and Steve Baker.

One more signatory is Sir Graham Brady, chair of the 1922

Committee of Tory backbenchers, who described COVID-

status certification as something that "would be divisive

and discriminatory".

"With high levels of vaccination protecting the vulnerable

- and making transmission less likely - we should aim to

return to normal life, not to put permanent restrictions

in place", Brady added.

Also signing the pledge was a 20-strong group of Labour MPs,

among them former Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott

and ex-Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell.

Labour peer Baroness Shami Chakrabarti, who also joined the

campaign, dubbed the possible introduction of internal COVID

passports "an authoritarian step too far".

The pledge's signatories included almost all Liberal Democrat

MPs, with their party leader Sir Ed Davey earlier labelling the

use of COVID passports within Britain "illiberal" and

"unworkable".

"As we start to get this virus properly under control, we should

start getting our freedoms back, vaccine passports - essentially

COVID ID cards - take us in the other direction", Davey argued.

He was echoed by another signatory, Sam Grant, of the UK-based

rights group Liberty, who asserted that any COVID passport

system may lead to a "two-tier society" as well as

"inequality and division".

The campaign comes as UK Prime Minister, Boris Johnson,

told reporters on Thursday that "there's definitely going to

be a world in which international travel will use vaccine

passports".

He also admitted that a similar COVID certification scheme to

show if someone has had a vaccine "will be useful" within

the UK. The remarks followed Johnson saying last week

that pub goers could be asked to show a COVID-19

vaccine certificate.

The Daily Telegraph has, meanwhile, reported that COVID

passports may be tested within weeks -- at several pilot

events, including the FA Cup Final, the World Snooker

Championships, and the Brit Awards.

A UK government spokesperson, however, reportedly said

that "no decisions" on the matter have been taken yet and

that "it might be a tool we look at as part of pilots, but no

more than that".

_________________________________________

Over 60 Lawmakers Urge

UK Home Secretary to

End Ban on Protests

20.03.2021 (Sputnik)

Over 60 members of the UK parliament, have written

to Home Secretary Priti Patel demanding he lift the

ban on protests during the COVID-19 pandemic

and deeming it a violation of human rights,

activists who helped put together the

letter, said Saturday.

The letter, coordinated by the campaign groups Liberty

and Big Brother Watch, was signed by Conservative

and Labour MPs, Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed

Davey & a number of peers. It quotes Articles

10 and 11 of the European Convention of

Human Rights which protect the rights

to freedom of expression and

freedom of assembly.

"We must all be able to stand up to power and have

our voices heard. In a healthy democracy, protest

is a critical way we can fight for what we believe

in. The Government’s current quasi-ban on

protest is completely unacceptable," Head

of Policy and Campaigns at Liberty, Sam

Grant said, according to a statement
by Big Brother Watch.

"A country cannot be described as a democracy if

people do not have the freedom to protest," Big

Brother Watch director Silkie Carlo added.

This comes after controversy arose last week

over police handling of peaceful protests

organised at the vigil at Clapham

Common in memory of Sarah

Everard, a woman who was

kidnapped and murdered

as she walked home

in London.

Further protests are planned for today by anti-lockdown

campaigners, even though these gatherings are not

considered as a "reasonable excuse" for leaving

the house under the current regulations.

"The Home Secretary must immediately issue guidance to
all police forces, to ensure socially distanced protests

can go ahead -- and create an explicit exemption for

protests in the current regulations. Those in power

have made clear that they want to silence dissent

and drastically curtail our right to free
expression," Grant said.

Carlo added that the "harrowing scenes" of Metropolitan

Police officers using force against women at Clapham

Common were "avoidable and wrong."

Met Police officers were criticized for arresting women

who were attending Everard's vigil last Sunday. The

Home Office said it was still illegal for people to

attend protests at a time when regulations are

in place to prevent wide transmission of the

COVID-19 virus.

Everard, a 33-year-old marketing executive, disappeared

as she walked home on the evening of March 3rd. Her

body was found hidden in a builder's bag in an area

of woodland in Ashford, Kent on Wednesday.

____________________________________________

‘Law is a mess’: UK parliament committee

blasts govt over failure to protect ‘right to

protest’ after Sarah Everard vigil outrage

March 19th, at 18:02pm (RT)

The British government failed to make it clear that

protests were still permissible under Covid-19

restrictions and confused both the public and

the police on the issue, a parliamentary

committee has concluded.

The restrictions on gatherings introduced by the

government during the pandemic have been

“confusing” and ambiguous, the parliament’s

Joint Committee on Human Rights said in a

statement on Friday, adding that protests

have never been “completely illegal”

even during lockdown, if

held properly.

The “confusing” nature of the government regulations

has left the public “unsure of their rights and at risk of

arbitrary or discriminatory decision-making,” the

statement said. The government imposed a

general ban on gatherings but failed to

make protests an exemption from this

rule – in a move that the committee

argued violated the 1998 Human

Rights Act and the European

Convention of Human Rights.

“The law on the right to protest during the pandemic
has been a mess & the right to protest has not been

protected,” the committee’s head, Harriet Harman,

said. The lawmakers looked into how different

protests in the UK unfolded since the

government started imposing

restrictions, due to the
Covid-19 epidemic.

The UK has seen quite a number of high-profile rallies

last year, including the Black Lives Matter protests,

demonstrations by the defenders of monuments

targeted by iconoclasts, as well as marches

against national lockdowns.

Most recently, the Reclaim These Streets movement

organized a number of vigils in commemoration of

Sarah Everard, a victim of apparent kidnapping

and murder. One such event in the Clapham

Common area of London, where Everard

went missing, ended up in clashes with

police, after UK law enforcement

deemed it illegal, under the

current rules.

The incident sparked public outrage and led to another

rally outside of New Scotland Yard as well as calls for

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick to

resign. The commissioner herself maintained her

position that “unlawful gatherings are unlawful

gatherings,” adding that she did not consider

resigning.

The parliamentary committee blamed the developments

on the government. “The events of last weekend show

clearly how the lack of clarity and level of uncertainty

in the law is unacceptable and must be remedied as

a matter of urgency,” Harman said.

The committee also drafted some amendments to the

regulations that would “guarantee the right to protest

in public outdoor places, if done safely” by putting it

on the same footing as picketing and communal

worship.

Earlier, a legal complaint filed by those seeking to make

organized vigils permissible under lockdown, was

defeated in the High Court, which ruled it was
up to the police to decide whether the right
to protest clashes with the broader public

health considerations - and a ban on

mass gatherings amid the pandemic.

The UK government has, so far not reacted

to the parliamentary committee’s statement.

UK could experience lockdowns

for 'SEVERAL YEARS' despite

vaccination program, SAGE

member warns

February 9th (RT)

A member of the UK government's Scientific Advisory Group for

Emergencies (SAGE) has claimed that lockdowns could be a

part of people's lives for "several years" as variants of

Covid-19 mutate.

Professor Sir Ian Boyd, who teaches at the University of St

Andrews' School of Biology, warned this week against the

frequent lifting of lockdowns because "it simply fuels a

new wave of disease" that can cause the virus to

replicate more and mutate into new strains.

"There are a lot of reasons for taking pain now, in order to

create conditions for controlled release from [restrictions]

a lot easier," he argued, adding, "Otherwise we risk just

passing through phases of various levels of lockdown

and release."

Boyd said that lockdowns "could go on for a long time," despite

the UK's mass vaccination program. "My suspicion is that we

will experience a damped oscillation of control-release for a

long time to come — perhaps several years."

Brits reacted negatively to the prospect of lockdowns

still being used in several years, calling it "madness."

"Ok. This is ridiculous now,"tweeted journalist James Melville,

while another social media user argued the country "won’t

survive" years of lockdowns.

"If you are waiting to live, love, and laugh with others again

until things get back to normal, that normal may never

come,"commented church pastor Regan Blanton

King. "Going forward, it is important that we

prioritise faith and family and lobby

for freedom."

Experts have frequently told Brits that the UK would start

returning to normal once the majority of the population is

vaccinated. Mutations of the virus, however, have led to

an increased concern over whether the vaccines will

work efficiently against new strains.

At least 147 cases of the South African variant, deemed to be

a faster-spreading strain Of Covid-19, have been recorded

in the UK, though officials fear the number could

be higher.

Brits seem to have become increasingly fed up with lockdowns,

which have been implemented in various tiers since March

2020, according to data which shows more people are

leaving their homes to go shopping. Most shops are

forbidden from opening, but stores deemed

essential like supermarkets, newsagents,

and pharmacies remain open, while

others remain open only for

click-and-collect services.

_______________________

Beijing hopes Washington will follow

China’s lead & invite WHO to the US

in search for origin of Covid-19

February 2nd (RT)

The Chinese Foreign Ministry has urged Washington

to invite the WHO to conduct traceability testing in

the US, citing the fact the American authorities

found Covid-19 antibodies in blood donations

as early as December 2019.

Speaking on Friday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman

Wang Wenbin, told reporters that Beijing has always

maintained close communication and cooperation

with the World Health Organization (WHO) on

Covid-19 traceability, and he said it was

time the US followed suit.

“I hope that the United States will adopt a positive, scientific,

and cooperative attitude on traceability issues -- as well as

maintain transparency, like China -- & invite WHO experts

to the United States to conduct traceability research
and make positive contributions to international
anti-epidemic cooperation & scientific
traceability.” Wang said.

The spokesman told reporters that traceability testing
was a very complex issue, with many clues, reports
and studies needing to be taken into account.

“I will give you an example. According to a research report

by the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention...

there were antibodies to the new coronavirus in some

American blood donations in December 2019. This

means... that the new coronavirus may have

appeared in the United States at that time,

earlier than the official US report,” Wang

stated, reinforcing Beijing’s call for

Washington to invite the WHO

to America.

Wang continued to point out that China has conducted

multiple rounds of in-depth exchanges and shared

a lot of information and research results with

international partners, including the WHO.

WHO experts are currently in China investigating the source

of Covid-19, and they visited a wet market in Wuhan on

Sunday. It has been widely suggested that a Chinese

wet market was the environment where Covid-19

first passed to humans.

Scientists are still exploring a number of

theories relating to the origins of the virus.

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____________________________________

Social Distancing May

Remain in Place All
Year in UK:

Experts Say Vaccine Would Have

to Be 85 Percent Effective to Stop
A Surge in Deaths Under Life
as Normal

January 31st FNA)

Social distancing may remain in place until the end of

the year - while coronavirus vaccines would have to

be 85 percent effective to prevent a surge in deaths

if restrictions were totally relaxed, scientists

warned on Saturday.

Modelling passed to Downing Street warns that the UK

would see a large spike in deaths if inoculation fails to

significantly cut transmission.

A paper commissioned by SAGE subgroup SPI-M and

produced by modellers at the University of Warwick

showed a "high uptake" was also vital to get the

country back to normal without risking a third

wave of coronavirus.

It also warned that even with Britain's breakneck vaccine

rollout underway, the decline in deaths is slow - and finds

that even in a best-case scenario, lockdown would have

to be kept in place until June to prevent another

significant spike in deaths, according to

the Telegraph.

The paper said, "Only vaccines that offer high infection-

blocking efficacy with high uptake in the general

population, allow for the relaxation of non-

pharmaceutical interventions, without

a huge surge in deaths."

Experts think efficacy is currently at 60 percent

but it is still an unknown.

SPI-M's other modelling groups at Imperial College London

and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

have reportedly reached similar conclusions.

Even in the best case scenario - where vaccines stop 85% of

transmissions - lockdown will have to stay in place until May.

If lockdown was lifted mid-February, a third surge of

infections would follow by April, the modelling found.

While efficacy at 85 percent would mean deaths peak at 1,000

deaths a day, at 60 percent daily deaths would rise by an

average of 500 to 1,500 a day.

Dr Sam Moore, one of the paper's authors, said, "If we get

very high infection blocking then this could almost be

what delivers us from it, but it would have to be very

high. Even vaccines with 85 percent infection

blocking, are insufficient to drive 'R' below

one on their own."

Because the R rate is now above three social distancing

measures have to stay in place for longer for the

vaccine to take effect without risking

more deaths.

If the vaccine does provide a 60 percent block against

coronavirus transmission, as experts have suggested,

lockdown could end at the end of May, according to

the Warwick model.

But a ban on large events and other social distancing

restrictions would still need to be in place until the

end of the year.

A Government spokesman said, "At this early stage in

the vaccination programme, scientists do not have

sufficient data to advise how the vaccine may

affect onward transmission."

It comes after Prime Minister Boris Johnson forced the

EU into an extraordinary double climbdown during a

dramatic late-night intervention to protect the UK's

record-breaking vaccine rollout.

During two phone calls just 30 minutes apart, the prime

minister made European Commission President Ursula

von der Leyen ditch plans to stop 3.5 million doses of

the Pfizer jab from reaching the UK from a factory in

Belgium and abandon the "nuclear option" of

imposing a hard border on Northern Ireland

to prevent them reaching the UK.

Following his diplomatic victory, Britain on Friday

recorded a daily record for first-dose jabs –

487,756 – to bring the total to almost

8.4 million.

In his phone calls, Johnson warned von der Leyen that

her actions risked denying millions of UK pensioners

their second Pfizer injections.

She immediately capitulated in a tweet sent

out shortly before midnight, on Friday.

As part of an implicit "peace deal" with the EU, No 10 Friday

adopted a conciliatory tone. Cabinet Office Minister Michael

Gove said the EU recognised that it had "made a mistake"

and both sides agreed on the need for a "reset".

Northern Ireland's First Minister Arlene Foster was less

diplomatic, branding the EU's move an "incredible act

of hostility".

___________________________________________

Halfway through this winter of Covid,

overall mortality is around normal

for this time of year. Something

doesn’t add up

January 21st (RT)

by Peter Andrews, Irish science journalist

and writer based in London. He has a

background in the life sciences, and

graduated from the University of

Glasgow with a degree in genetics

Although the numbers of deaths attributed to the virus

in the UK are higher than they’ve ever been, in total,

not many more people are dying than in any other

cold season. Is the mainstream media finally

waking up to this?

A recent article in the Telegraph is one of the first in a

mainstream outlet to even suggest a challenge to the

official coronavirus narrative. These days, that

narrative claims that the ‘second wave’ is

actually deadlier than the first. (Recently,

some Branch Covidians have been

claiming a ‘third wave’, but there
is not yet a united front on that.)

The basic reasoning of the article is sound, even if it is

long overdue. It laments how, every day, the media

solemnly reports the latest Covid deaths' figures.

Presenting this figure in isolation results in graphs

that do, indeed, seem to show that we are at the

height of a second, worse phase of a pandemic.

But, like any statistics, daily death numbers are

meaningless without context, which the media

rarely provides.

They do not provide context because, if they did, the public

might see a graph such as the one from a Telegraph article.

It quite clearly shows the spring spike in overall mortality,

which was caused by Covid (plus lockdowns). After that

ends in summer, we see… nothing. Overall mortality

ever since, even through this winter, hovers at

around the five-year average. And overall

mortality, as I’ve repeatedly pointed out,

is the only true way to know whether

you are in a pandemic or not – all

other figures can easily be fiddled.

Out of whack

So, why are the excess death data & the Covid deaths data

so out of whack? And why isn’t Covid killing lots and lots of

people this winter, as it did in spring? Even if you ascribe all

excess deaths to Covid and none to lockdown, there really

does not seem to be anything out of the normal variation

in total deaths from year to year. And surely, by now, the

toll of unnecessary deaths caused by untreated cancer,

heart disease, depression and so on, has at least

begun to register.

One reason coronavirus might not be slaying all around it this

winter is because, well, this is not its first winter. Remember: it

is called Covid-19, as in 2019. Of course, the official version of

history states that the virus didn't reach Western civilisation

until the spring of 2020, but evidence for this assertion is

based on dodgy polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests

and a profound rejection of common sense. (By the

way, how many people do you know who had a

severe bout of pneumonia-like symptoms

last winter?)

But the main reason for the disparity is obvious: mass PCR

testing. Under the current regime (science is the wrong word),

a ‘Covid death’ is someone who dies having tested positive for

Covid within the previous 28 days. When you test all hospital

patients, as the UK does, then some of them will turn out to be

positive – how many depends largely on the way you do the

tests. And the more tests you do, the more ‘Covid deaths’

you will generate. It is that simple. Dr Mike Yeadon has

written extensively on this, which he calls the PCR

false positive pseudo-epidemic.

Too little, too late

In another time, it might have been shocking that it took so long

for the science editor of a broadsheet newspaper to wonder

why, in the midst of a killer pandemic the world’s not seen

for a century or so, the number of people dying in the

country is ordinary. Better late than never I suppose,

but do not take this as a sign that reinforcements

are coming. Even this article makes absolutely

sure to pledge allegiance to Covid orthodoxy,

stating without evidence: “severe restrictions

were … clearly essential to control the
growing pandemic’’.

Most people do not get their information by sifting through

government-issued statistics on websites designed to

hinder you. But there used to be a word for someone

who got paid to do exactly that and then tell the

public, in plain English, what they found. Oh,

that’s right – we used to call those people

‘journalists’. There don’t seem to be many

of them about these days, not even at

the Telegraph.

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___________________________________________

Police chief mocked after declaring
British ‘civic duty’ is snitching on
neighbours who violate
Covid-19 rules

(RT updated October 30th, 2020)

A UK Chief constable has been deluged with mockery

and Hitler memes, after arguing it’s every resident’s

duty to turn in neighbours and local businesses for

breaking lockdown rules and complaining about

how British culture reviles snitches.

UK residents who report their neighbours and local

businesses to the police for violating the country’s

increasingly stringent Covid-19 control measures

are just doing their “civic duty” and should be

praised, not ostracized, Merseyside chief

constable Andy Cooke told the Daily
Mail on Wednesday.

“People are doing a civic duty in contacting us for the

right reasons,” he stated, insisting “the vast majority

of people across the country are really concerned

about this” and “any information that you can give

us, in relation to breaches, will save lives, and
that’s why people are [reporting to the police].”

Lamenting that the practice of turning one’s neighbour in

to the authorities for minor infractions wasn’t more widely

accepted among respectable Brits, Cooke blamed a

“sneering culture” for placing rats at the bottom of

the social hierarchy.

His remarks weren’t received well on social media, where

users were quick to pull out the Nazi pics & Orwell quotes.

“This is what Hitler and Stalin demanded

of their people,” one user pointed out.

Others suggested the cops focus on fighting real crime.

Merseyside saw a 6.3 percent increase in violent crime

over the past year, according to statistics released

in July.

A few played along, tweeting that they could “hear voices

of people having fun and not living in fear” and “even

saw two people hugging, no face masks they were

even smiling.”

Several suggested the strategy of enlisting civilians
to police their neighbours would backfire, both by

destroying trust in the police and by creating

suspicion in communities.

Cooke’s paean to the common snitch came on the heels

of similar comments by West Midlands Police and Crime

Commissioner David Jamieson, who said in a Tuesday

interview that police would not hesitate to break up

Christmas and other holiday celebrations if they

“flagrantly” violated the government’s rules

on gatherings.

National Police Chiefs Council chair Martin Hewitt also promised

“quicker enforcement” of “blatant” rule violations earlier this

week, urging members of the public to report “egregious

breaches” - like pubs being open past the 10pm cutoff -

that “put everybody at risk.” As of Wednesday, the

NPCC had issued 20,223 fines for violations of the

Covid-19 restrictions, including 980 spot tickets

for breaking lockdown.

Unlike Jamieson, however, Hewitt declined to speculate

on whether his officers would be breaking up Christmas

parties, instead merely urging the public to take heed

of the rules in whatever part of the country they

opted to spend the holiday.

Despite a steep fall in the number of deaths with Covid-19

from the pandemic’s peak earlier this year, the UK has

introduced a strict three-tier lockdown nationwide,

barring people from congregating in groups larger

than six and prohibiting home visits.

______________________________________

Britain died for me this week. It’s become

a Covid-obsessed police state, and I don’t

understand what it stands for anymore

by Chris Sweeney. November 7th, 2020

Chris Sweeney is an author and columnist who has written

for newspapers such as The Times, Daily Express, The

Sun and Daily Record, along with several international-

selling magazines. Follow him on Twitter

@Writes_Sweeney

I’ve always been proud to say I’m British – until now. The

authorities’ bloody-minded determination to implement
lockdown rules at the expense of people’s wellbeing

is not what our great country should be about.

Sometimes you can be too close. You are looking, but you

don’t see it. That’s where I found myself this week with

the current state of Britain --- amid another round of

ever tighter restrictions caused by the pandemic.

Don’t get me wrong. There are loads of things I’ve always

loved about my country – our traditional British good

manners for example. Rather than see it as a sign

of weakness, I pride myself on our reputation

for queuing in an orderly fashion. I also like

that we hold the door open for the person

behind us.

I admire our outstanding National Health Service, which

allows everyone to access medical treatment without

having to dig out a credit card or an insurance plan.

And I enjoy flying British Airways over far-flung

lands, offering me some form of attachment

– even if it is superficial.

I won’t apologise for tea being regarded as the boring

and bland equivalent to freshly ground coffee – it’s

our drink, and I love it. And the way we honour

our war heroes with the humble poppy, is

thoroughly respectful.

But this week, some of that pride in being British

died for me. It’s a very different sentiment I’m

feeling. Beyond disillusionment. Fury even.

How could Britain have fallen so far

in the way it treats its own people?

It began with the horrifying detention of a 97-year-old

grandmother by police in the Yorkshire town of Market
Weighton. Her daughter, a qualified nurse, wanted to

bring her home from a care home, to look after her

during lockdown, and quietly wheeled her out of

the home.

However somewhere along the line, a jobsworth felt

the need to justify their existence & reported what

had happened. The episode ended with her grand-

daughter in tears filming a video, showing her
own mother in handcuffs inside a squad car,
while the old woman sat in another car,
completely bewildered.

The police’s response? They were responding

to “a report of assault.” Incredible.

The horror continued, as students at the University of

Manchester’s Fallowfield ''halls of residence'', awoke

to find workers erecting fences around their facility

to ensure they couldn’t leave. They were being

installed, following government guidelines

asking students not to return to their

permanent homes.

One student said: “They're huge metal barriers, they're

connected to one another and there's literally no gaps

….it makes it feel like we're in a prison.”

In what version of the United Kingdom do we keep our

bright, young people caged like dogs? Unsurprisingly,

some of the outraged students began to rip them

down, causing even more angst.

ALSO ON RT.COM

Protests of more than two people

will be ILLEGAL under updated

rules for UK national lockdown

Another university using its power to force students

to bend to its will, is world-famous Cambridge. It

announced that anyone who leaves its halls

of residence, won’t be able to graduate or

progress to the next year. That’s despite

each paying at least £9,250 per

academic session.

Then there was the Ripped Gym in Harlow, Essex. It

opted not to close --- in breach of the government’s

latest lockdown. The morality of that is debatable,

but the gym claims it didn’t sell any long-term

memberships and offered only day passes.

Whatever you think of the decision, what

is beyond argument is that it didn’t need

four police cars and approximately 20

officers to descend in a raid-style

scenario.

Were they expecting John Gotti? Rather, it was a well-

meaning business owner & some locals on treadmills.

The owner ended up being dragged away & was still

in police custody, at the time of writing.

Contrast this with the most tragic occurrence, the death

of Corey Liversedge. This 16-year old from Aberdeen-

shire took his own life, as anxiety overcame him as

a result of the suffocating nature of lockdown.

His grieving parents summoned the bravery to raise

awareness of his plight, with his mother saying, “It’s

not just children with diagnosed mental health

conditions — it can happen to any child, and

Corey was any child.”

Britain used to be a nation that cared. But now, it seems

that the priority is treating any slight infraction of lock-

down rules like a terrorist attack, while vulnerable

people are left to struggle along on their own,

without help from the wider community.

The complete lack of emotional intelligence from

our authorities was evidenced by London police

arresting 104 people in a single night for

breaching regulations.

What happened to community engagement? Aren’t we

all supposed to be on the same side? Incredibly, it’s

now even illegal for anyone to enter or leave Wales

--- unless it is covered by the contentious term of

“essential travel.” The police, of course, are

monitoring the roads and pulling over cars

to conduct checks.

Yes, the pandemic is a serious situation and we

should not be complacent about 48,000 people

dying. Precautions have to be taken.

But what is happening across the UK is nothing short

of barbaric. Our police have turned into robots,

carrying out whatever they are asked to,

no matter how cruel or wrong.

The government has forgotten what a wonderful

population they are tasked with representing,

and are treating us all like North Korea

does dissenters.

They say you never really truly appreciate something

until it’s gone. And I’m petrified that the courteous,

courageous sprit that defines Britain, is on the

point of disappearing for good, crushed by

the uncaring iron first of the Covid-

obsessed authorities.

We deserve better than this.

Like this story? Share it with a friend!

__________________________________

Rhondda Records exists to express the Rhondda's
vision --- when it was confident, powerful, caring,
and socialist.

A Rhondda very aware of the media's poisonous
tricks -- how they con working class people into
attacking each other, or racial groups, or, often,
even their best allies and friends... instead of
seeing their real enemies:--- an elite who hate
the very idea that working people can think,
create, or achieve a fairer society.

Thatcher said her proudest achievement was
Blair and New Labour - who parachuted in
careerists and expenses fiddlers - to stop
local Labour members having a say, and
who made genuine socialist MPs leave
the Labour party in disgust and many
members and voters to despair...
and the young to stop voting.

Jeremy Corbyn was always attacked because
he was trying to reverse all that New Labour
corruption --- that's why membership was
flooding in all over the UK - watch this
video in Kilburn, London: don't believe
the dripping poison of the media and
the corrupt MPs -- and understand
Jeremy's role !

______________________________________

press

March 22nd, 2018
Karl Rogers Analysis, UK
Spread the word: Facebook Twitter

On 20 March, the Labour Party appointed Jennie Formby
as its new general secretary. The right-wing press
immediately attacked her appointment.

Ignoring her formidable record as a union organiser and
work in the NEC, Formby has been represented as
Jeremy Corbyn’s puppet - and as evidence of his
“hard-left” seizure of the Labour Party machine.

But it’s obvious why the press barons
are running scared.

Media red scaremongering

Formby barely had time to update her Linkedin profile
and Twitter feed... before the right-wing press came
gunning for her. Predictably, the billionaire-owned
propaganda machine, spun the news of her
appointment, as a sinister seizure of power
by Corbyn & Unite leader Len McCluskey.

The Telegraph ran the headline: Corbyn and McCluskey
tighten grip on Labour party as ally Jennie Formby
appointed party’s new general secretary. The
Express went with: Corbyn cements grip on
Labour as hard-left union boss Formby
named general secretary. The Sun
also framed the appointment as
an imposed “hard-left” takeover
of the Labour Party. And The
Times declared “moderates
are no longer welcome”
in the Labour Party.

Heather Stewart, political editor of The Guardian,
termed the appointment a “coronation” and
declared it the culmination of Corbyn’s
“two-year battle” to gain “complete
control of the party machine”.

She has been a member of the Labour Party for 40 years.

She was regional officer in the UK’s largest trade union
– Unite – for 17 years. In 2004, she became the national
officer for Unite’s Food, Drink, and Tobacco Sector.

Between 2013 and 2016, she was political director
of Unite, before becoming the southeast regional
secretary. She has been on the NEC for
seven years.

In other words, her appointment to general secretary of
the Labour Party, is the result of her experience and
abilities as a trade union organiser.

As Corbyn said, when he congratulated Formby:

''Her talent, experience and commitment to the Labour
and Trade Union movement, makes me confident
she will play a crucial role in building on last
year’s inspiring General Election advance
and taking our party forward to victory.''

Her predecessor, Iain McNicol, said:

''As someone who has dedicated her life to fighting for
workers’ rights, equality and social justice, I know
Jennie will put all the commitment, drive and
organising talent, into getting Labour into
government and Jeremy into Number 10.''

Running scared

The press is scared of Formby......
because she will be good at her job.

Get Involved!

______________________________________________________

Jewish Labour Movement Chair & exec
block call for investigation into Israeli
interference
5th of February 2017
by Mike Sivier

This is deeply disturbing information
from the Skwawkbox. Read:

Riverside Labour MP Louise Ellman is Chair of the JLM
(Jewish Labour Movement) and vice-Chair of Labour
Friends of Israel (LFI). The former organisation is
highly controversial because of its affiliation with
the openly pro-apartheid Israeli Labour Party
‘Havoda’ and the latter as it was specifically
mentioned by the Israeli embassy operative
filmed by an undercover Al Jazeera reporter,
in connection with his actions: in setting up
pro-Israeli groups inside the Labour party.

Supporters of both groups have been prominent
in the discredited, but persisting, antisemitism
smear against the national party.

And it appears that Ms Ellman and her allies in
Riverside CLP – in spite of the obvious conflict
of interest – have no intention of allowing
members to add their voices to the calls
for a full Labour investigation into the
infiltration of the party by a foreign
government.

Source: JLM Chair and exec block CLP call
for investigation into Israeli interference:

https://skwawkbox.org/2017/02/05/jlm-chair-
and-exec-block-clp-call-for-investigation-
into-israeli-interference/

________________________________________

REVEALED: NUS official colluded with
Israeli embassy to oust student leader
Middle East Eye
11/Jan/2017
by Mike Sivier
of Vox Political

The worms are coming out of the woodwork now.

Shall we pencil in the Union of Jewish Students
as one of Shai Masot’s “front” organisations for
the Israeli government?

A senior official from the UK’s National
Union of Students, has been covertly
filmed conspiring --- to oust the NUS
president Malia Bouattia as part of a
sting involving the Israeli embassy.

An undercover Al-Jazeera reporter – known
only as Robin – posed as a political activist
with links to the now disgraced Israeli
diplomat Shai Masot - to investigate
the influence the Israeli embassy
exerts on British politics.

“Robin” is heard discussing how to oust
Ms Bouattia from her position as NUS
president with NUS Vice President
Richard Brooks --- after Masot
introduces him as the Chair
of the Young Labour
Friends of Israel.

___________________________

RIGHTING THE
McNicol INJUSTICES

Ms Walker, a lifelong anti-racist campaigner and
socialist, was suspended from the Labour Party
in May, amidst allegations of anti-Semitism. She
was reinstated but has been suspended again,
after apparently being “set up” at a training
event organised by the Jewish Labour
Movement during the party’s national
conference in September.

She writes: “I was suspended from the Labour Party
in May of this year, amidst what appears to have
been a breach of Data Protection law, by Iain
McNicol, as General Secretary of the
Labour Party.

“I was suspended for the alleged (subsequently
cleared) charge of antisemitism. As a Jewish
person, whose partner is Jewish, this was
heart-breaking.

“Since May I have continued to be targeted by
the media, in print, online and in other places.

“Currently I am suspended for questions asked at
a training session on ‘Confronting Antisemitism
& Engaging Jewish Voters’ at this year’s Labour
Conference, after being unethically filmed by a
Jewish Labour Movement campaigns officer
who is also a Labour councillor. It seems this
training was not a ‘safe space for all Jews’
by any means.

“As soon as the first article was released before
my notification had even arrived, trolls circled
for the kill, posting spooky blacked up faces
(and worse) to my Facebook account. The
community & national newspapers led the
attacks, querying my Jewish identity (a
racist move in itself), my work as an
anti-racist activist and my political
commitment.

“When my suspension was lifted, things got worse.
Indignation at my alleged breach reached the heights
of irony, when Nigel Farage, anxious not to miss out
on the fun being had by among others, the Spectator,
a number of Labour MPs and officers of the Party...
dedicated an article in Breitbart, and a good
dose of righteous indignation on national
TV, to publicly calling me out as a racist.

“The widespread hate campaign against me, led
to public abuse, strangers shouting ‘racist’ as I
walked to the tube. With the murderous racist
political discourse now taking the place of
debate, I became conscious I was
recognisable on the street.

“My story is just one of many where Labour members
have found themselves in a similar position. While
this may not be the only case where a breach has
occurred, as I was abroad at the time, it may well
be the most provable.

“We invite anybody who has a personal interest
in this case, or the wider public, to contribute.”

Solicitor Martin Howe, representing Ms Walker,
added: “Jackie Walker has faced a barrage of
hurtful, threatening & nasty abuse since the
private details of her investigation by the
Labour Party over alleged anti-Semitism
was leaked to the press before she even
knew of her suspension by the Party.

“This apparent breach of her private data has
had a devastating impact on her public and
private well-being and has led directly to her
being pre-judged & unfairly cast as a racist
-- before she was given any opportunity to
tell her side of the story.

“Data Protection laws are there to protect all
of us and any breach is a very serious matter.”

If you would like to contribute to her fund,
details are on the web page.

Source: CrowdJustice –
Crowdfund public interest law

Join the Vox Political Facebook page.

If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget
to share it. Politics is about everybody – so
let’s try to get everybody involved!

______________________________________

Get Involved!

– If you feel you’ve been ‘purged’,
take this online survey:

https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/857YMDK

or this one:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc0du5YuhPZ8ahI
oxC_b6pvBprmGA4XFdG-0r2dOVYyc4UNFg/viewform?c=0&w=1

– Request all your own data that
the Labour Party holds on you:

http://www.labour.org.uk/pages/privacy

– Sign the petition in support of
Jeremy Corbyn, if you agree:

https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/a-vote-
of-confidence-in-jeremy-corbyn-after-brexit

_______________________________________

IF - YOU THINK you HAVE
BEEN UNFAIRLY BARRED:

“Any member who is suspended & intends
to appeal the decision should throw in a
‘Subject Access Request in accordance
with the Data Protection Act’ --- for ALL
data that the Labour Party hold on them.

The Labour Party are Data Controllers and
therefore have to, by law, provide you with
all material/information they hold on you.”

If anyone is in contact with anyone who
was barred from voting --- please can
you pass this info on:

The Labour leadership election was under the
jurisdiction of the electoral reform services.

If you were unfairly deprived of your vote you
can call them on 0208 365 8909 and lodge
your complaint, and inform them of your
Data Protection request.

https://www.electoralreform.co.uk

The notification letters barring new members
did not give a clear reason, or information on
how to appeal, so Vox Political suggests that
anyone in this situation, could also contact
Liz Davies here: http://www.whycantivote.com

She is a barrister --- who can
advise members on what to do.

**************************************

CHILCOT REPORT: SOME MAIN POINTS:

1) "Military action was not a last resort".

2) UK government "undermined the
authority" of the UN security council.

3) Weapons of Mass Destruction presented
"with a certainty that was not justified".

4) UK forces were "ill-prepared".

5a) "The government failed to
achieve its stated objectives."

5b) Post-war planning: Blair "should
have known what might happen".

6) Chilcot says Blair also "overlooked the
threat the invasion would pose to Britain."

____________________________________

Blair to Face Law

The former prime minister has been put on notice
by families of dead servicemen, that he will face
legal action, for his part in the illegal Iraq war.

They are being crowd-funded now, and
have raised so much money, that Blair
is probably heading for a big fall...

Shadow Commons leader Paul Flynn:
the Iraq Inquiry's findings are an "utter
condemnation" of his terrible decision
--- and his prosecution should now be
given "serious consideration".

Former Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond:
"I would like to see Blair investigated by
the International Criminal Court (ICC),
for the crime of a war of aggression,
and face parliamentary action to
stop him holding public office
ever again."

A former British ambassador to the UN:
"The UK was pushed into entering
this military action, too early."

Stop the War Coalition Convener Ms German:
“This is an incredibly damning report for Tony Blair.
It will not call for legal sanctions, but it says that
Blair is culpable for the war, in many ways.

“He needs to be driven out of public life. He is
still part of the Labour Party. We need to make
sure that truth & justice prevails. There must
be legal action against Blair, & he should no
longer be considered fit for any office.”

CND general secretary Kate Hudson:
“The report shows that Tony Blair had
no respect for cabinet procedure, no
respect for Parliament, & no respect
for international law.

“Chilcot reveals the evidence that must now be
used to bring Tony Blair to justice. This is our
demand. Only when justice is served, can we
prevent disasters like the Iraq war from ever
happening again.”

Iraqi journalist Juma al-Quraishi:
"Everyone who took part in the war against Iraq
should be condemned, either Britain, or others."

Baghdad resident Ali al-Saraji:
"Ex-UK prime minister, Tony Blair, destroyed
our country. From 2003, to now, our country
has been the scene of destruction, killing,
massacres, explosions and sectarianism."

A defiant Blair refuses to accept accusations
from service families that he was wrong and
reckless, and he insists that he would make
the decision again, 'come what may'.

Families of some of the 179 military personnel
killed in Iraq, say the former PM is "a terrorist".

Jeremy Corbyn has offered an apology,
on Labour's behalf, for the "stain on
our party and our country".

____________________________________

Tony Blair: Guilty In The
Eyes Of The Public
August 1st
by Steve Sweeney

Teflon Tony Blair escaped justice yet again yesterday -
after High Court judges blocked a private prosecution
against the former PM for war crimes over the
invasion of Iraq.

Campaigners accused the Establishment of a “concerted
and coordinated effort” to exonerate Mr Blair for his role
in the Iraq war, in which one million people were killed.

Stop the War Coalition convener Lindsey German branded
Mr Blair as “the most protected war criminal in the world.”
However, she said: “In the court of public opinion
he has long been found guilty.”

Iraqi General Abdul Wahed Shannan al-Rabbat had sought
a private prosecution against Mr Blair, along with then
foreign secretary Jack Straw and attorney general
Lord Goldsmith.

He accused Mr Blair of committing a “crime of aggression”
by invading Iraq in 2003 and his lawyers asked permission
from the High Court to seek judicial review to get the
Supreme Court to overturn a 2006 House of Lords
ruling that there is no such crime under the law
of England and Wales.

Gen al-Rabbat brought the case after Westminster magistrates
refused to issue summonses in November last year claiming
the trio had immunity from prosecution for decisions taken
while in government.

However the appeal was dismissed yesterday by the Lord
Chief Justice as having “no prospect” of succeeding.

But Michael Mansfield QC said that the findings of the
Chilcot Report justified the prosecution of Mr Blair.

He said that the inquiry showed Saddam Hussein did not
pose an urgent threat to British interests and that the
intelligence regarding weapons of mass destruction
had been presented with “unwarranted certainty.”

The QC said that as the international crime of a war of
aggression had been accepted at the time of the
Nuremberg trials of nazi war crimes, it was the
duty of British courts to follow the example
and prosecute those responsible for the
Iraq war.

The Nuremberg judges had said that war “is essentially
an evil thing. Its consequences are not confined to the
belligerent states alone, but affect the whole world.

“To initiate a war of aggression, therefore, is not only an
international crime; it is the supreme international crime
differing only from other war crimes in that it contains
within itself the accumulated evil of the whole.”

Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament general secretary
Kate Hudson branded the decision as “hugely
disappointing” and said that “justice had
been left undone.”

She said: “Last year’s Chilcot report showed that Blair
had no respect for Cabinet procedure, no respect for
Parliament and no respect for international law.

“Iraq was devastated by the war Blair led Britain into,
millions of innocent Iraqis were killed, British
soldiers were killed and terrorism has
spread across the Middle East.

“Chilcot revealed the evidence that must now be used
to bring Blair to justice. Only when justice is served
can we prevent disasters like the Iraq war from
happening again.”

(Source - Morning Star)

_______________________________

PONCY LABOUR MPS PROBLEM?

A huge drop in working-class Labour MPs,
caused a massive drop in support among
voters with similar backgrounds, reveals
research seeking to explain why support
has dwindled in the party’s heartlands.

The study says past leaders like Kinnock
and Blair made a concerted effort to pick
“more and more middle-class candidates
to run for office, during the 80s and 90s,
as part of an effort to rebrand” -- which
had initial successes at the ballot box.

But this “conscious electoral strategy”
stored up problems, as working-class
voters who initially, just didn’t vote in
response, now seek an alternative.

The solution? Trust each constituency to put
forward its own candidates, and don't impose
‘party-approved’ choices who can't do the job.

Now, unfortunately, there are "entryist" MPs who, for
decades, have been groomed by CIA cold war relic
organisations -- like the Atlantic Council -- and are
now trying to misdirect the Labour Party towards
cuts, a militarised police, and a US war agenda...
- and their anti-Corbyn slant is hobbling Labour.

‘How Can I Deselect My Labour MP?’ A Short Guide
to Reselection and Democratic Accountability
by Eric Sim, excellent free advice here:

http://novaramedia.com/2016/07/13/how-can-i-
deselect-my-labour-mp-a-short-guide-to-
reselection-and-democratic-accountability/

CHRIS BRYANT - SUPPORT THE MEMBERS'
LEADERSHIP CHOICE & POLICIES - OR GO!

Chris Bryant, the Rhondda's dodgy MP,
was on TV -- as soon as the PLP coup
started -- telling us that Jeremy MUST
go, because it was the ONLY way to
act in the Labour Party's interest...

Chris Bryant's voting record:
from TheyWorkForYou.com

On Tuition Fees:

On 27 Jan 2004:
Chris Bryant voted in favour of university tuition
fees increasing from £1,125 per year, to up to
£3,000 per year.

On 31 Mar 2004:
Chris Bryant voted to allow university tuition fees
to increase from £1,125 per year, to up to £3,000
per year.

On 31 Mar 2004:
Chris Bryant voted for the introduction of variable
university tuition fees (top-up fees) of up to £3,000
per year in place of the previous fixed fee of £1,250
per year.

On 31 Mar 2004:
Chris Bryant voted to allow university tuition fees
to increase from £1,125 per year to up to £3,000
per year, and to make other changes to higher
education funding and regulation arrangements.

On 14 Sep 2004:
Chris Bryant voted against: the immediate abolition
of all tuition fees, the re-introduction of maintenance
grants of up to £2,000 for students from low-income
homes, and changes to the country's higher
education system.

On 14 Sep 2004:
Chris Bryant voted to reject the Liberal
Democrat policy of abolition of tuition fees.

On 25 May 2016:
Chris Bryant was absent for a vote on Queen's
Speech - Forcing Schools to Become Academies
- Further Rises in University Tuition Fees

On Human Rights:

Consistently voted for introducing ID cards

Almost always voted for requiring the mass
retention of information about communications

Generally voted for mass surveillance of
people’s communications and activities

On the Environment:

Generally voted against greater regulation
of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) to extract
shale gas

On Special Interests:

Almost always voted against limits
on success fees paid to lawyers in
no-win no fee cases

Generally voted against a
statutory register of lobbyists

On War or Peace:

Generally voted for use of UK military
forces in combat operations overseas

Consistently voted for the Iraq war

Consistently voted against an
investigation into the Iraq war

Generally voted for replacing Trident
with a new nuclear weapons system

On 2 Dec 2015:
Voted to support UK airstrikes in Syria
[without UN authorisation]

On 2 Dec 2015:
Voted to support UK airstrikes in Syria
[without UN authorisation]

On Independence:

Generally voted for more EU integration

____________________________

Chris Bryant Labour MP
From Wikipedia

(aka 1962-1986: Mr Christopher John Bryant
1986-1991: The Reverend Christopher John
Bryant, 1991-2001: Mr Christopher John
Bryant, 2001-: Mr Christopher John
Bryant MP.)

Born in Cardiff, to a Scottish mother & a Welsh
father, Bryant grew up in Cardiff, Wales (where
his father worked for 5 years), and Cheltenham.

He was educated at Cheltenham College, an
independent school for boys in the spa town
of Cheltenham in Gloucestershire, where he
was captain of the school swimming team,
and Mansfield College at the University of
Oxford, where he graduated in 1983, with
a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in English.
This was later promoted to a Master of
Arts degree (MA (Oxon)), as per tradition.

After completing his first degree, Bryant began
training to be a priest in the Church of England
at Ripon College, Cuddesdon, in Oxfordshire.
There, he obtained a degree in theology.

Although a member of the Conservative
Party, and an elected office-holder in the
Oxford University Conservative Association,
he joined the Labour Party in 1986, after
leaving Oxford.

He was ordained deacon in 1986 and priest in
1987. He served as a Curate at the Church of
All Saints, High Wycombe, from 1986 to 1989;
then as a Youth Chaplain in Peterborough,
as well as travelling in Latin America.

In 1991 Bryant left the ordained ministry, after
deciding that being gay and being a priest,
were incompatible. Statements made by
Richard Harries, then Bishop of Oxford,
also influenced his decision.

After leaving the priesthood in 1991, Bryant
worked as the election agent to the Holborn
and St Pancras Constituency Labour Party,
where he helped Frank Dobson hold his seat
in the 1992 general election.

From 1993, he was Local Government officer
for the Labour Party; he lived in Hackney and
was elected to Hackney Borough Council in
1993, serving until 1998. He became Chair of
the Christian Socialist Movement.

He is both a member of the Labour Friends
of Israel and Labour Friends of Palestine &
the Middle East. From 1994 to 1996 he was
London manager of the leader-grooming
"charity", Common Purpose.

He was Labour candidate for Wycombe, in the
1997 general election (he lost by 2,370 votes),
and Head of European Affairs for the BBC,
from 1998.

His selection for the very safe Labour seat of
Rhondda, South Wales in 2000, shocked many
people given Bryant's background – gay, an ex-
Anglican vicar, and someone who was a Tory,
while studying at Oxford, and a member now,
of the Henry Jackson Society 'think tank' ---
described by The Guardian newspaper as
'neoconservative'. It is pro-US, pro-NATO
and pro-military intervention, as well as
being fundamentally anti-socialist.

Fifty-two people applied for the candidature
and a local councillor was hot favourite to
win, before Bryant was parachuted in.

In 2004, a photograph of Mr Bryant in his
underpants, which he had posted to a gay
dating website, was published in 'papers.

When an interviewer suggested he was
a 'disgrace to the Rhondda', he replied:
"They can't get rid of me."

His pay, allowances and some expenses:

The basic annual salary for an MP, from
April 1st, 2016 is £74,962. MPs also get
expenses: to cover the costs of running
an office, employing staff, having some-
where to live in London, plus, in their
constituency and travelling between
Parliament and their constituency.

His MP's expenses story:

Chris Bryant changed second home
twice to claim £20,000: the deputy
leader of the House of Commons,
"flipped" his second home twice,
in 2 years, allowing him to claim
almost £20,000 for renovations
and fees.

Chris Bryant, MP for the Rhondda, split over
£92,000 of expenses between 3 properties
in Wales and London --- within five years.

In 2004, he attempted to claim £58,000 to
overhaul his second home in Wales, after
allegedly complaining that properties in
his constituency were "terrace or mine
owners' houses".

Mr Bryant, a former Church of England clergyman,
wanted the money for a new bathroom & kitchen,
and to demolish his conservatory. He'd bought the
detached house for £97,500, under a year earlier.

He submitted a claim to the Commons fees office for
£58,493.26 --- almost 3 times the annual maximum.
He noted that the claim exceeded his allowance.

His alleged justification was disclosed... in
correspondence between Commons officials.
By email, an official wrote: "He had problems
finding a suitable property because in the
Rhondda there is a choice mainly of terraced
property or mine owners' houses." When
approached by the Daily Telegraph,
Mr Bryant said: "I have never said
or thought anything of the sort".

In all, he successfully claimed over £13,000
for renovations, repairs & appliances, in 2004.
Along with other bills, his annual claim was
£20,902.

In April 2005, he flipped his expenses to his flat in
west London, which he bought for £400,000 in April
2002. He also claimed £630 a month for mortgage
interest, along with other bills. After claiming over
£3,600 over 3 months, he sold the flat in July 2005
for £477,000.

Mr Bryant used his profits to buy a more expensive
flat in west London, which was valued at £670,000.
He immediately flipped his second home expenses
there, claiming almost £6,400 in stamp duty, legal
fees and mortgage fees, incurred in the purchase.

He then began claiming interest of £1,000 a month
on the mortgage. He also claimed a further £6,000
a year for the flat's service charge and ground rent.

In all, he claimed £92, 415 in second
home expenses, from 2004 to 2009.

Mr Bryant said at the time: "I moved flat in
London, so as to be closer to Parliament."

Research by Channel 4 News in 2015 found that
at least 46 MPs had this kind of system in place
– a move one Labour backbencher described as
“a new fiddle”. Channel 4 reported then:

“Our investigation found that many of the MPs
bought their London properties with the help of
the taxpayer, when a previous expenses system
allowed them to claim back mortgage payments.
But when those claims were banned, following
the expenses scandal, they switched to letting
out their properties, in some cases for up to
£3,000 a month. They then started claiming
expenses for rent and hotels in the capital.”

Among those identified was Chris Bryant, shadow
leader of the House of Commons. He had already
bought a penthouse in London back in 2005 and
claimed around £1,000 a month in mortgage
claims under the old system.

But after the expenses scandal, he started renting
the property out. It’s since been advertised by estate
agents as having a private lift and a porter, with rent
at about £3,000 a month. Meanwhile, Bryant moved
into a new flat;- claiming his own rent on expenses.

Figures released by The Office for National Statistics
(ONS) reveal that UK pensioners are 4th worst off....
out of all of the countries in the European Union.

_______________________________________

UK breakup? Welsh
independence

more popular
than ever

April 8th, 8:56pm (Press TV)

New polls suggest that support for Welsh independence

from the UK is at an all time high. This has created fear

in Downing Street, over the real threat of a Kingdom

breakup, with the Welsh parliament elections on

the way.

The idea of a Welsh breakaway from the United

Kingdom is high on the agenda, ahead of this

year's Welsh elections.

With the country’s biggest pro-independence party

Plaid Cymru, pledging to secure a vote on Welsh

independence within the next five years.

The idea of Wales going alone has traditionally been

an obscure viewpoint, however, since Brexit, public

support for an independence vote has skyrocketed.

One poll conducted this year actually suggested that

Welsh support for independence, could be as high

as 39 percent, that would be the highest level

ever recorded.

No.10 has reportedly become very aware of the growing

anti-Westminster sentiment outside of England, and are

drawing up plans to counter the trend.

The Welsh elections are taking place in May. Plaid Cymru

have been recording great successes in past votes, and

hopes are high of major gains.

Although support for independence is not yet near a

majority view, Westminster’s poor handling of the

coronavirus crisis, and the negative effects

Brexit has had for Wales, appears to have

created greater belief in the virtues of

self-government. With Scotland also

pushing hard for a UK divorce...

No.10’s concerns are growing

as fast as Welsh patriotism.

____________________________

Hello darkness my old friend
...Peter Mandelson is back

advising Labour, why not

just go the whole hog &
bring back Tony Blair?

by Chris Sweeney

February 15th (RT)

Chris Sweeney is an author and columnist who has written

for newspapers such as The Times, Daily Express, The

Sun and Daily Record, along with several international-

selling magazines. Follow him on Twitter
@Writes_Sweeney

Keir Starmer is so devoid of original ideas he is bringing back

the Prince of Darkness to help him crowbar his way into

Number 10, but if the plan is Blair 2.0, why settle for an

impersonator when the original is still available?

Lord Peter Mandelson is not a name that will resonate beyond

the UK, but he is one of Britain’s most infamous spin doctors.

The type of character who has seemingly exerted an extended

sphere of influence without it ever being clear exactly what he

does. He arrived into the Labour Party in 1985 and it’s now

been revealed he is still pulling strings today, 36 years later.

Tony Blair adored his style but some of the left-wing union

devotees had no time for the man who became known as

‘The Prince of Darkness’. So, to appease them, and to

keep his involvement in Blair’s leadership campaign

secret, he was issued a code name – 'Bobby'.

Since then, he’s inhabited a range of roles; minister without

portfolio, secretary of state for Northern Ireland, European

commissioner, business secretary --- and then Baron

Mandelson as he entered the House of Lords. After

Blair left - and was replaced by Gordon Brown -

Mandelson retained an iron-grip on the levers

of power. In that period, he was a member of

35 cabinet committees, and some referred

to him as the “unelected prime minister.”

Mandelson likes a frontman, a lead singer to shield him while

he writes the lyrics. So it’s business as usual now that’s he

back in alongside current Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer.

There is only a decade or so in age between the two, but

the level of experience in the dark arts of politics, is

heavily tipped in Mandelson’s favour. The notoriety

is why he chooses to remain in the shadows, as a

lot of voters detest him. He represents the back-

room dealmaking and media manipulation that

turns so many off politics.

Mandelson is like a lightning rod, he takes the surge and

allows his ‘stooge’ to carry on. He ended up in the public

court of shame, for spending a New Year’s Eve, on Paul

Allen’s yacht, while Microsoft was at the centre of an

EU investigation.

Another yacht trip got him in hot water, this time,
with oligarch Oleg Deripaska, as Mandelson had
been part of a decision to cut aluminium tariffs.
At the time, Deripaska owned United Company
Rusal, one of the world’s biggest producers of
the metal.

Mandelson was also friendly with Jeffery Epstein,

and has been pictured with the disgraced financier.

So for Keir Starmer to bring in a man with that amount of

baggage, proves how desperate he must be. Starmer

replaced Jeremy Corbyn - the most socialist main-

stream figure seen in British politics for decades -

but has as yet done nothing of substance. He's a

more centrist figure, but Boris has that sewn up:

he won the last election, with an affirming 80-

seat majority. The so-called Red Wall, fell to

the Conservatives, proving that the working

class heartlands, no longer had faith in

their old ally Labour. And still there’s

no spark or idea from Labour, to

turn that around.

Since Blair left office, the party hasn’t won an election. Their

last victory was in 2005 and before Blair led them to victory

in 1997 they hadn’t won an election since 1974. Blair is the

only person who has led the Labour Party to victory in the

last 47 years, and it seems they’ve simply decided to

revert to what worked then and hope it does now.

So welcome back Mandelson, who is right in his sweet spot,

without an official position but is there to “broaden the party’s

appeal.” It seems a redundant mission, as you’re asking

Mandelson to recreate the old magic. For that, he needs

his protege and the man who brought those ideas to life

– Blair. Why bother trying to copy him, when he is still

out there, sitting around not doing very much? Blair

has been quite vocal and made quite a few public

interjections into the Covid-19 effort. It was his

idea to stagger the two vaccine doses, which

Britain and other countries are now

actually doing.

If Labour's desperation is so great they need to face facts.

Starmer is keen to paint himself as a paragon of the good

and just. He created a big spectacle over the investigation

into anti-Semitism within Labour and also fired a member

of his shadow cabinet for making a remark that was

judged to slight the Jewish faith.

Starmer’s previous profession was as a barrister where he

worked on human rights cases before becoming a QC and

the Director of Public Prosecutions. He also spoke out

and protested against the Iraq war.

Yes, the same war that Blair led Britain into, after years of

working with Mandelson. So if Starmer is so willing to

embrace Mandelson, is he really as principled and

motivated by integrity as he’d like to have us think?

All of this also reflects an extremely depressing facet to

British politics. The country has suffered the most

deaths in Europe due to incompetent leadership.

The list of ludicrous decisions has been recounted many

times and if the opposition cannot muster up a feasible

counter after all these months, they really are

beyond hope.

The vaccination rollout is the only thing Boris has handled

well, but it won’t erase the number of families left to rue the

unnecessary loss of loved ones. There is also the much-

covered resurgence in support for independence in

Scotland and a growing movement in Wales. Brexit

was another shambles, with a deal agreed days

before everything went into meltdown. How is it

possible that an allegedly well-run, professional,

perceptive political party ,can’t muster up a

credible opposition?

Winding the clock back 20 years and hoping that the same

things will work is, in my view, a fantasy. Society and

attitudes have changed, there was no social media

in 1997 and simply looking plausible and playing

'Things Can Only Get Better' on a loop isn’t

going to win you 80+ seats. But let us

suppose, for a minute, that it might,

if the Labour party & it’s leadership

really believe that’s their greatest

hope and the best plan they have

for the British people is New

Labour 2.0, then why isn’t

Blair involved?

Starmer talks a bit like him, has a similar presence, they were

even both barristers before entering politics, but trying to

‘out Blair’ Blair is futile. If Starmer isn't able to lead and

create his own vision, then why did he put himself
up for the job? Trying to get Peter Mandelson to

Svengali you into some sort of Blair tribute act
is never going to work. As Queen fans know,
Adam Lambert, is no substitute for

Freddie Mercury.

Step up or step aside, don’t be a down-
market copy of your predecessor.

Think your friends would be interested?

Share this story!

_________________________________

Boris Defends Bully Patel
but Not Pensioners – His
Govt is Morally Repugnant

by Tommy Sheridan

22/11/2020 (Source - Sputnik)

Anyone surprised by BoJo’s decision to condone shameful bullying at

the heart of his government and order a “square” of defence be formed

“around the prittster” after he decided to keep Priti Patel in his cabinet

despite her being found guilty of breaching the Ministerial Code and

bullying, has plainly been sleeping over the past eleven months.

That period has exposed the rancid hypocrisy, corruption, cronyism,

and lack of integrity which characterises Johnson and the Tories

under his leadership.

Priti Patel was accused of disgraceful conduct and bullying while an

employment Minister under Theresa May in 2015, behaviour which

drove a female civil servant to attempt suicide on at least two

occasions and ended with a Department of Work & Pensions

pay-out of £25,000 in April 2017 to avoid the scrutiny of an

Employment Tribunal for unfair dismissal, harassment,

discrimination, and victimisation.

Patel the Bully Became Patel the Liar

Patel was then moved to the role of International Secretary only to be

found out as a devious liar whom May had to sack after her deliberate

misleading of the PM and Parliament over secret meetings with Israeli

officials, business representatives and lobbyists was exposed. She

lied and was caught. She had to go.

Being a dishonest bully presented no barrier to Boris Johnson’s

cabinet however and he appointed Patel as his Home Secretary

in July 2019 after he became Tory leader.

Within weeks the top civil servant in the Home Office, Sir Philip Rutnam,

felt compelled to warn her about her conduct and lack of respect for

staff before eventually resigning from his post at the end of February

this year in a move which caused shock waves in the civil service

and government. He accused Patel of lying about a “vicious”

campaign orchestrated against him and creating a climate

of fear in her department.

Patel Investigation Handicapped from the Outset

A high-level investigation was reluctantly ordered into the allegations

made by Rutnam, and he vowed to pursue a constructive dismissal

claim against the government which is yet to be concluded. It is

increasingly clear that the investigation has been less than

rigorous as the senior civil servant appointed to conduct

it was refused access to Rutnman despite him being the

best equipped to inform the investigation.

However the report that was compiled was laid on Johnson’s desk

in April and he refused to act on it for months before recently

contacting the author, Sir Alex Allan, and leaning on him to

water down the conclusions. Despite the limited access to

witnesses the investigation still found Priti Patel "shouted

and swore" at staff in actions "that can be described

as bullying" and that she had indeed breached the

Ministerial Code which is normally an automatic

resignation offence.

The fact Sir Alex Allan, former chair of the prestigious Joint

Intelligence Committee, chose to resign rather than alter his

report to save Patel’s reputation is admirable, but the full

report is being kept secret. It must be revealed in full and

the fact it was severely handicapped by the barring of

access to Rutman’s input must also be highlighted.

Johnson Willing to Protect Patel
but not Pensioners in Care Homes

Patel was ordered to issue an apology on camera on Friday but all

it did was rub salt in the wounds of the campaign against bullying

as she smugly smirked and smiled when she claimed to have no

knowledge of bullying but apologised anyway. Please watch and

remember - her conduct drove a lowly paid civil servant to

attempt suicide on two occasions and compelled a very

senior civil servant to resign. The lack of contrition for

her actions and empathy for her victims is truly

frightening.

If Johnson and his Tory gang of millionaires and spivs showed an iota

of the concern and commitment to defend elderly care residents as

they have shown to defend lying bully Patel at least 20,000 lives

could have been saved. A shocking report compiled by Amnesty

International last month received very little media attention but

condemned the Tory Covid19 response as a dereliction of duty

and care towards elderly citizens.

Read the document and understand just how complicit this Tory

government is in the deaths of thousands of senior citizens. It

presents evidence that the government’s policy of herd immunity

was responsible for mass murder. The government was entirely

aware of the probable outcome of their policy and went ahead

regardless of the risk to thousands of lives.

The report, “As if expendable: The UK government’s failure to protect

older people in care homes during the Covid-19 pandemic”, details

how, between March 2 and June 12, 18,562 residents of care homes

in England died with COVID-19. The vast majority (18,168) were

aged 65 and over, representing almost 40 percent of all deaths

involving the virus in England during this time frame. Of these,

76 percent (13,844 deaths) occurred within care homes for

the elderly.

During this brief period, 28,186 “excess deaths” were recorded

in English care homes, a 46 percent increase in comparison

with the same period over previous years.

Amnesty conclude that the Tory government together with its

agencies at national and local level have “taken decisions and

adopted policies during the Covid-19 pandemic that have directly

violated the human rights of older residents of care homes in

England—notably their right to life, their right to health, and

their right to non-discrimination”.

The report argues that the decisions and policies of the Tory

government “impacted the rights of care home residents to

private and family life, and may have violated their right not

to be subjected to inhuman or degrading treatment”.

Johnson was determined to “form a square around the prittster”

to defend his lying bully Patel at the Home Office but didn’t lift a

finger to defend thousands of pensioners in care homes. That is

the warped and putrid priorities which define this government.

A Litany of Government Failures but No Resignations

Their top advisor broke lockdown rules but there was no resignation.

They have been caught awarding contracts worth over £20 billion of

public money without proper scrutiny or tendering processes to

friends of senior Tories and companies known to donate to the

Tory party and no one has resigned.

The UK government’s late response to Covid-19 and failure to

impose lockdown measures caused the unnecessary deaths

of 20,000 --- but no one resigned from government.

International law will be broken because of the government’s

Internal Market Bill --- but no one resigns.

The Johnson government backs bullies, liars, public contract

cheats and international law breaking. It is morally repugnant

and thoroughly incompetent. No wonder Scotland is so keen

to break away as soon as possible.

_________________________________________________

Report: Patients Discharged from

UK Hospitals without COVID Test Results

October 28th, 2020 (FNA)

Almost half of hospital patients have been discharged

without receiving the results of their coronavirus test

– including some patients who were sent to care

homes, new research revealed.

Independent national patient body Healthwatch England

said it had learned many patients were discharged from

hospitals between March and August this year without

proper assessments with many vulnerable people sent

home without medication, equipment or the care they

needed, The Independent reported.

At the start of the pandemic thousands of patients were

discharged to care homes as NHS England instructed

hospitals to free up 15,000 beds ahead of the first

wave of coronavirus.

Approximately 25,000 patients were sent to care homes

with some not tested, sparking fears this helped seed

care homes with the virus. There have been around

16,000 care home deaths linked to COVID-19.

According to a survey of almost 600 discharged patients

and interviews with 60 NHS staff, Healthwatch England

said it had found serious flaws with the way hospitals

had followed NHS England’s instructions.

In joint research with the British Red Cross, shared with

The Independent, it found that 44 percent of patients were

discharged without knowing the result of their corona-

virus test - including some to care homes.

It said, “Despite the policy stating that all patients

discharged to a care home should be tested for

COVID-19, we found that 26 percent of our

survey respondents who were discharged

to a care home were not tested.”

While the numbers involved were small, only 13 out of 50

patients, the report added that this was “still a significant

proportion of people who were required to be tested

but did not receive one”.

Healthwatch added that while patients going to care homes

must have the results available and shared with the home

it was still not national policy to test everyone being

discharged. It argued this should now be an

''ambition'' for the government.

Its report also raises concerns about the wider care

of vulnerable patients sent home from hospital.

88 percent of patients reported having care needs

after being discharged that have still not been met.

82 per cent did not receive a visit or any

assessment from a health professional

Almost one in five of those who did not

receive a visit, reported unmet needs.

In total 45 percent of people with a disability and

20 percent of people with a long-term condition

had support needs that were not being met,

following their discharge.

Healthwatch England criticised the national discharge

policy put in place by NHS bosses, as “confusing” in

places which it said may have contributed to some

patients missing out on the care they needed.

Robert Francis QC, chair of Healthwatch England, said,

“In March, hospitals were asked to discharge patients

with little or no notice and the speed with which this

took place was important, but led to mistakes."

“We do not want to detract from the heroic efforts of
those on the frontline, who often put themselves at

great risk to care for their patients, but services

and system leaders have now had more time

to prepare," he said.

“It’s essential that we learn from what people have

shared with us about the impact that a poorly

handled discharge can have on them and

their loved ones. Taking action now will

not only reduce the risk to patients but

will also help improve the way people

leave hospital in the future,” he added.

The British Red Cross and Healthwatch England said

assessments for patients needed to be prioritised.

They also called for discharge checklists to make

sure patients were asked if they needed help with

transport and equipment.

Other recommendations included making sure carers

and patients had a single contact for support, which

was already national policy but still not fully adopted.

The report also said community services needed

to be boosted, to cope with increased demands.

British Red Cross Chief Executive Mike Adamson said,

“We’ve seen first-hand the huge efforts made to

improve the discharge process for patients and

their families. However, we also know, despite

good intentions and hard work, there are still

barriers to making the ideals of discharge

policy a reality."

“The Red Cross has been bearing witness to these

issues for years, and we hope that the increased

urgency of the situation will bring lasting change.

Many of the people we support are older or more

vulnerable, & fall into the higher-risk categories

for COVID-19," Adamson said.

“Simple interventions, like getting equipment and

medicine delivered, or follow-up visits, can make

the difference between a good recovery or some-

one regressing to the point of readmission -

precisely at the time we want people to

stay well, and stay at home,” he said.

Professor Stephen Powis, NHS national medical director,

said, “There has long been a wide consensus about the

benefits for patients of being able to return home as

soon as their specialist hospital care is complete,

and it is good that delays have been reduced in

recent times. While this is a very small snap-

shot survey, local hospitals will want* (sic)

to take account of the points it makes.”

(*No they won't!)

_________________________________________

By backing housing charity’s
‘Jewish only’ rule, UK court drops
the ball. Aren’t we all equal in Britain?

by Chris Sweeney October 17th, 2020 (Source: RT)

A small legal challenge has turned into a precedent-

setting case about whether someone in today’s

Britain can be prioritised or denied housing on

the basis of their religion.The law isn’t always

right and it’s not just people who can be

taken hostage.

In a disgraceful decision deemed legitimate by the UK’s

highest court, a single mother with four children was

refused social housing – because she wasn’t a Jew.

It’s that simple.

The charity Agudas Israel Housing Association (AIHA)

owns 470 houses in the London borough of Hackney.

Local authorities promised, in October 2017, the

next available home to the woman and her kids,

two of whom are autistic.

AIHA refused to hand over the keys to any

of its SIX four-bedroom, unoccupied flats.

Their argument was it makes offers “only to members

of the Orthodox Jewish community.” As Britain is a

secular nation, the woman’s legal team found this

claim astonishing and argued it had the same

sentiment as the ‘No Dogs, No Blacks, No Irish’

signs that were once displayed in some pubs.

Lord Sales stated the charity’s use of positive discrimination

was lawful, under the Equality Act 2010, in order to correct

the disadvantage faced by the community. The issue

apparently was not racism, but discrimination on

the grounds of religious observance. The court

considered the “widespread and increasing

overt antisemitism in our society.”

Intolerance or hate speech of any form is unacceptable.

But it’s hard to believe the courts and public reaction

would have been the same, if this had been Islam or

a group of Pashtuns from the Iranian border region.

Jewish affairs are treated differently. There's a 'kid gloves'

approach and they’re deemed to be culturally valuable,

while other communities are sometimes dismissed as

interlopers. AIHA’s founder Ita Cymerman-Symons,

speaking last year about the legal action, offered

the view: “Which non-Jewish person, honestly

speaking, wants to live in the midst of a

building full of Haredi men with all the

beards, and all the chanting on a

Friday night and all the children?”

A homeless single mother with four children

for one, along with many others.

Plenty of people in social housing endure noisy neighbours,

potent cooking smells and screaming kids. But isn’t that

wonderful? Diversity and living cheek by jowl with

people who see, think and believe different
things to you.

That’s a rich learning experience for anyone.

The fallacy of the AIHA’s superiority complex of viewing

Orthodox Jews above others is, every public service is

available to their members. And, of the charity’s 2019

income of £105,710, the sum of £39,716 came from

British government grants. They won’t be stone-

walled at hospital or refused entry on a bus, so

why should they be allowed to create their

small-minded kingdom with impunity?

These Jewish community leaders seem to be shutting out

anyone who doesn’t align with their beliefs. It’s unhealthy

and depressing, especially in a multicultural metropolis

like London.

The judgement also referenced issues that Orthodox Jews

don’t like to live outside of the Stamford Hill area and they

tend to be poorer than the wider Jewish community. Many

of us would prefer not to live outside of the millionaire’s

playgrounds of Kensington, Knightsbridge and Mayfair –

but we tend to be poorer, so can’t afford it. That doesn’t

mean the courts would support us founding the

Republic of Poverty Housing Association, and

letting us administer who can move in.

Even if we concede that Orthodox Jews appear to support

AIHA’s ghetto-isation, aren’t the courts supposed to rule

for the greater good? It makes no sense to encourage

people to live in self-imposed enclaves. How are they

going to progress in life, or do they never plan to

leave the streets around their homes?

There’s also a wider impact of the judgement. It raises the

hackles of the population. It hacks away at the concept of

respecting every other citizen. The far-right will jump on

this and sadly there’s no defence. It will birth more

discontentment and raise tensions.

The law lords have dropped the ball, because they are the

highest court in the land, they had the chance to set a

precedent. They seem to have been influenced by

Jewish sensitivity, that labels anyone who

disagrees with the faith an anti-Semite.

It’s hard to see how justice, fairness,

compassion and understanding are

applicable. But superiority, tokenism

and favouritism have been advanced.

Why?

Well one of the court’s final points was AIHA was "a small

housing provider, but similar discrimination by a larger one

might not be allowed.”

We’re all equal, right?

Chris Sweeney is an author and columnist who has

written for newspapers such as The Times, Daily

Express, The Sun and Daily Record, along with

several international-selling magazines. Follow

him on Twitter @Writes_Sweeney

______________________________________

Brits should be ashamed of the casual cruelty

we show towards over-60s, and shrugging it

off as ‘banter’, does nothing to excuse it.

by Damian Wilson

9th October, 2020

Two-thirds of UK over-60s say they have been abused in

public because of their age, with a fifth saying insults

come from within their own families. It seems the

idea that we should ‘respect our elders’, is no

longer in fashion.

We live in a society where everyone just loves to talk

about ‘respect.’ Even primary school children are

indoctrinated with the concept, told they are due

it by right and can demand it from others, if it’s

not forthcoming. It’s all one-way traffic.

That’s why, as they grow older, and insist on enforcing

their entitlement, it becomes increasingly evident that

while they assume that right is a given for them, they

actually don’t give a toss about it applying to

anyone else.

Every now and then, research will put this into sharp relief,

as is shown in the results of a survey undertaken by the

University of the Third Age (u3a). The study found that

the more senior members of society, basically those

aged 60 and over, are frequently insulted by younger

people, and they don’t like it.

Clueless Millennials, Zoomers and even Gen X’ers told the

u3a pollsters that they don’t mean anything by slinging

ageist insults, they were simply being “friendly” and

the name-calling was just “banter.” Everyone

does it.

The growing tendency of young people to airily dismiss their

elders as over the hill old fogeys, and to even insult them in

public because of their age, is not ‘banter,’ it’s insulting

and rude.

The misuse of ‘bants’ as a term is one of modern life’s

great irritations, because while young people have

co-opted the word to (mis)represent the sort of

behaviour that borders on bullying, with a thin

coating of vicious humour, they are

deeply mistaken.

Banter, in its traditional form, is an exchange between

two people, a battle of wits, a game of intellectual

ping-pong, like those nerdy folk on Channel 4 panel

shows. Usually, those engaging in banter finish

their jousting with a smug, self-congratulatory

smile. It’s showing off, it’s proving how clever

you are. It’s not calling someone an old fart

and shoving them out of the way.

Where’s the give and take, or clever verbal sparring, in

a teenager shouting at an elderly woman in the street,

“You dozy old biddy, move it!”. Or standing behind a

chap of a certain age at a shop checkout, as he

searches for his wallet and complaining,
“C’mon grandpa, hurry up!”?

That’s not banter. That’s something completely different.

A new sort of passive-aggressive behaviour combined

with name-calling, is increasingly common among

young Brits these days, thinking that getting one

over another person is some sort of achievement

proving their superiority, particularly if it
belittles their victim as a result.

Of those surveyed, 63 per cent of over 60s said they

had been verbally abused in public, with an ageist

insult, while others had also noticed an increase

in insults on television (65 per cent) social media

(33 per cent) and even from their own family

(21 per cent).

My 11-year-old thinks it’s funny to call me a ”boomer”

when I can’t find the TV remote. She has a very clear

idea of what the insult suggests, even if she’s

actually out of range by a few years. I’m 56 --

so borderline Gen X’er, thank you very much.

Unfortunately for me, British families in general

are not the sort of multi-generational dynasties,

such as in Italy or India, in which patriarchs

& matriarchs, are given lifelong roles at the

head of their family and afforded a respect

that other members ignore at their peril.

Break the rules in one of these families, cause offence

to an elder, and you will bring down the wrath of

generations upon your head, face humiliation

and even ostracisation. There is a sense of

honour woven into the fabric of the family.

These families are, sadly, not common

amongst the British.

So most kids and young adults have no hesitation

in freely hurling abuse at someone they consider

a geriatric, past it, a fuddy duddy, over the hill, a

fogey, a crone, an old dear, a codger, a biddy or

a fossil, which by the way, are those insults

most frequently employed, according to u3a.

This sort of casual cruelty, and the disregard

it displays towards our seniors, is hugely

disrespectful & we should be ashamed

that it’s so widely accepted as nothing

out of the ordinary.

We’re all guilty here. Causing offence like this should

provoke more concern than it does, because it is an

unwelcome sign of a breakdown in social and family

hierarchies. Ignoring the concepts of seniority and

wisdom --- we treat human beings like any other

consumable, in our consumer-driven world ---

with a finite shelf-life & built-in obsolescence.

Many people feel no qualms about calling out an older

person, in public, to remind them their time is up as a

useful contributor to society and they need to shift

it or risk being steamrolled by those behind them.

While maybe not articulated quite like that as a

traffic queue forms behind an elderly motorist

showing excessive caution at a road junction,

that, sadly, is often the underlying sentiment

and we should be ashamed.

But most often, we’re not. We’re just annoyed at

the inconvenience that someone older than us,

is causing to ourselves. Nearly 10 years ago,

Age UK made a study of ageism & identified

it as the most widely experienced form of

discrimination across Europe, affecting

164 million senior citizens at that time.

Nothing much has changed in the UK in this regard

since 2011, it seems. And if the latest study is

anything to go by, things have become

even worse.

Damian Wilson is a UK journalist, ex-Fleet Street

editor, financial industry consultant and political

communications special advisor in the UK & EU.

The statements, views and opinions expressed in

this column are solely those of the author and do

not necessarily represent those of RT.

__________________________________________

Figures Reveal 17,000 Elderly People in UK

Forced to Sell Home to Pay for Care Costs

in Just One Year

October 5th, 2020 (Fars news agency)

More than 17,000 pensioners were forced to sell their homes

to pay for social care last year, research by Money Mail reveals.

The shocking figure means that 330 elderly residents each

week are taking the desperate step despite Prime Minister

Boris Johnson’s promise to fix the social care funding crisis.

The calculations reveal the scale of the emergency, showing

that the numbers forced to sell their hard-won homes have

soared 45 percent since 2000.

Last night campaigners called for urgent action and

demanded a "national fund" to pay for social care.

Morgan Vine, of charity Independent Age, said, "The

pandemic is not a reason not to act – it is the reason

why action has never been more vital."

On his first day in No 10 in July 2019, Johnson vowed to

make social care a priority and end the crisis "once and

for all".

But he has since admitted action would be delayed and

the coronavirus crisis has made immediate reform a

remote possibility.

The cost of residential care has risen dramatically

and now stands at more than £33,000 a year.

Anyone with more than £23,250 in funds, including their

house value, is denied state help, leaving thousands

having to sell their homes to pay soaring care bills.

The Daily Mail has campaigned to end this injustice

for the families of those with dementia, as well as

other patients.

MoneyMail’s calculations, verified by Independent Age,

are based on Department of Health data indicating that

30 percent of those who pay for their residential care

have to sell their homes.

The total was produced by comparing the numbers of

self-funders in care provided by analysts Laing Buisson.

The research assumes the average stay is two-and-a-half

years, as concluded in a study by the Personal Social

Services Research Unit and Bupa.

It means around 350,000 elderly people are estimated to

have sold their homes to pay for residential care since 1999.

Caroline Abrahams, director at charity Age UK, said, "When

the threat from coronavirus finally recedes, Age UK will

certainly be holding the Government to account on its

promise to fix social care. The obvious solution is for

us all to pay into a national fund, like we do with

the NHS."

She added" |Most people dread the idea of having to sell

the family home to pay their care bills and the fact that

this is the reality for substantial numbers is very sad."

Vine, head of policy at Independent Age, said, "These latest

figures are a timely reminder of the need to fix the funding

crisis that has plagued the social care system for decades,

long before COVID-19.

"When taking office, the Prime Minister promised to solve

the crisis, including preventing people from having to sell

their homes to pay for care," Vine said, adding, ‘Although

he couldn’t have predicted the challenges we now face,

we can all predict the long-term consequences of failing

to keep his promise."

Liz Kendall, Labour’s social care spokesman, said, "The

Prime Minister said, on the steps to Downing Street, that

he has a plan to fix the crisis in social care and that no

one should have to sell their homes to pay for their care."

"Yet we have seen neither sight nor sound of

any long-term plan for reform," Kendall said.

"This must be an absolute top priority for the Government.

People who have worked hard and saved all their life have

seen their savings wiped out," Kendall added.

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said,

"We have committed to end the injustice that some people

have to sell their homes to finance care whilst others don’t.

We know there is a need for a long-term solution and are

looking at proposals."

_____________________________________________________

UK’s chief scientific adviser has
£600,000 of shares in vaccine
maker contracted by govt
– reports

UK Chief Scientific Adviser Sir Patrick Vallance reportedly

holds a bonus of tens of thousands of shares in a pharma

giant developing a Covid-19 vaccine for the government.

Yet, London says there is no conflict of interest.

Vallance, who also chairs the government’s expert advisory

panel on vaccines, appears to have retained over 43,000

shares in GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) – a UK-based

multinational pharmaceutical company –

worth £600,000, The Telegraph reports.

The shareholding appears to be the legacy of his previous

job as the head of research and development at the very

same company. Over his tenure from 2012 to 2018,

Vallance accumulated a total of 404,201 GSK

shares worth a whopping £6.1 million in his

hands, according to the British media.

However, he sold more than £5 million worth of shares

after being appointed to the government. GSK, mean-

while, has entered the global race to provide the world

with a vaccine against coronavirus – alongside some

20 other drug manufacturers and research centres.

The endeavour might prove quite lucrative, should

the company succeed.

The pharma giant working together with another drug

manufacturer – Sanofi – has already struck deals with

the UK and the US governments to supply them with

a Covid-19 vaccine in case its efforts are fruitful.

The contract would see GSK providing as many

as 60 million doses to the UK and 100 million

doses to the US. Washington has already

reportedly paid the two companies

£1.65 million to accelerate

their efforts.

Since it received the government contracts, GSK’s

share price rose by some two percent. Vallance

has meanwhile been busy ensuring that the UK

would get enough vaccine doses - if GSK is

successful and contributing to the vaccine

development efforts.

Earlier this week, he said that the first doses could

be ready as early as by the end of this year,

warning, however, that the first half of 2021

would be a more realistic prospect.The

revelations sparked suspicions of a

potential conflict of interest.

However, Health Secretary Matt Hancock denied the

possibility of this. “No, there are rules around these

kinds of things and I'm sure that Sir Patrick has

been fully advised by them,” he told LBC Radio.

“If you know Sir Patrick Vallance as I do, any

suggestion that he is doing anything other

than his level best to try and tackle this

virus is wrong,” he added.

A government spokesman confirmed that Vallance holds

a deferred share bonus that would mature in April 2021

without revealing its exact value. The spokesman also

said that “appropriate steps were taken to manage the

government chief scientific adviser’s (GCSA) interests

in line with advice provided at the time.”

He added that the chief scientific adviser also has “no input”

into the commercial decisions on vaccine procurement,

which are taken by the government following a “robust”

approval regime.

The developments come as the UK braces for a second wave

of coronavirus. The number of new cases is on the rise once

again and some places in the UK witness it increasing at a

pace not seen since the peak of the epidemic in spring.

More than 6,100 people were confirmed to have contracted

the disease overnight and Hancock said that up to 10,000

people might get ill a day. The situation prompted London

to introduce a new set of restrictions, which according to

Prime Minister Boris Johnson might stay in place for up
to six months.

Some companies, including the British-Swedish AstraZeneca

are, meanwhile, seeking emergency approval for their

vaccines from the relevant regulators.

(originally appeared in RT.)

________________________________________________________

European leaders ask US to

reduce polluting emissions

April 13th (Prensa Latina)

European parliamentarians, managers and

union leaders urged the United States to

cut greenhouse gas emissions by half

compared to 2005.

Continental authorities and industrial representatives

sent an open letter to President Joe Biden asking him

for a transatlantic alliance to combat climate change

and achieve a 'just and sustainable transition'

towards an economy with low carbon

dioxide emissions.

This request, comes a week before a summit between

environmental leaders and the president of the United

States, & is headed by the head of the environmental

committee of the European Parliament, Pascal Canfin.

According to the letter, the countries of the bloc and

the United States together account for a quarter of

the world's carbon dioxide emissions.

The European Union agreed, last year, to cut pollutant

flows by at least 55% by 2030 compared to 1990 levels.

Executives from companies, such as the French auto-

maker Renault and the German energy company E.ON

backed the letter, that expresses European concerns

about the cost of jobs, if the reduction of emissions

is achieved.

Statistics from global organizations rank the US in

second place, by country, in terms of polluting

emissions into the atmosphere.

Germany tops the list in Europe, due to its great

dependence on coal, and generates emissions

equivalent to a quarter of the continental total.

__________________________________

Amazon Lost 17 Percent to

Deforestation in 2020
- Report

April 7th, (teleSUR)

Brazil accounts for 65 percent of the loss,

followed by Bolivia, Peru, and Colombia.

The primary forest loss in Bolivia,

Ecuador, and Peru reached

unprecedented levels

last year.

The environmental organization Amazon

Conservation reported on Wednesday --

that the South American rainforest lost

17 percent of its area to deforestation

in 2020, representing 2.3 million

hectares devastated across

nine countries.

The study found that "a common phenomenon

observed in the satellite imagery through

August -- was that rainforest areas were

first deforested and then later burned

-- causing major fires due to the

abundant recently-cut

biomass."

This data explains why agricultural practices are

a significant cause of deforestation in the region.

According to Amazon satellite monitoring project

(MAAP) Matt Finer, "the primary cause of

deforestation across the Amazon

appears to be agriculture and

cattle-related, ranging from:

''larger-scale'' operations in

Brazil to the accumulation

of smaller-scale clearings

throughout the western

Amazon."

__________________________

'Guilt is Strangling': Young 'PlogMan' in

India Has Been Waking Up Pre-Dawn
for 7 Years, Here's Why

by Radhika Parashar

15.03.2021 (Sputnik)

Last week, in the city of Faridabad in India’s Haryana state, a

pregnant cow died on a busy road. Upon evaluation, it was

revealed that the cow had grazed on 71 kilograms of

garbage – with the plastic, iron nails, and glass

pieces it had consumed injuring it internally.

The sad case highlighted how unsorted

waste is choking India.

Meet Vivek Gurav who lives in Pune city in Maharashtra and is

famous by the name of “PlogMan” on social media. At 25 years

of age, Gurav is a software engineer by profession, but before

and after his nine-to-five job, the young techie jogs or walks

around Pune, cleaning its streets and disposing off garbage

littering the roads.

Talking to Sputnik, the public speaker revealed that he, along

with a bunch of his friends, has “adopted” a small river named

Indrayani to keep its water and banks from getting strangled

with garbage. The Indrayani River flows just 4.2 kilometres

before joining into a larger water body, and not too long ago,

like Delhi’s Yamuna River, Indrayani also began to froth with

toxins on its banks.

“The river Indrayani near my college was a place where I went for

a daily walk with my friends in the evening. We observed people

who carelessly dumped a lot of trash and plastic in the river

body as well as surrounding areas. Me and my friends

initially blamed the local body and government for all

these actions. But I personally felt it was the moral

duty of citizens including me to follow cleanliness

norms and keep the city clean. That was the

moment I felt a very close belonging to

nature”, Gurav said while recollecting

how dead fish were seen floating
in the water as stray animals

consumed them, as well

as the polluted water.

Gurav believes that it takes a sudden epiphany for youngsters

to decide for a lifetime of giving back to nature and

the environment.

“I appealed to my friends to join me in cleaning Indrayani. Initially

some were quite resistant, some people even ridiculed the idea,

completely dismissing it, but I took up this challenge and started

the cleanup journey solo four years ago. In some time, a few of

my friends started supporting me and we adopted the River

Indrayani for a mega cleanup mission”, the engineer and

environmental enthusiast added.

The efforts of Gurav and his friends have been going on for seven

years now and on a routine basis they clean the river region and

areas around it in Pune. The river is healthier and safer for

animals now, the techie adds.

“After my college days we took up the charge to not only clean

rivers but all the public spaces in the city. For the last seven

years, I have been waking up at five in the morning, and

randomly taking on a jogging route, on which I pick-up

trash as well for around 45 minutes. The realisation of

knowing that you’ve done your little bit to benefit the

air around you and survival resources for the stray

animals – sleep comes sooner and deeper”, Gurav

said, with a shy smile.

Recently, a rather touching video from the Himalayan valley

of Jammu and Kashmir in India created a buzz around

environmental conservation on social media. The

video showed some foreigners collecting roadside

trash in the market area of Lalchowk in Srinagar city.

Locals who shared the footage on their social media handles

acknowledged that the video testified to how their own

negligence towards maintaining cleanliness in public

spaces has ruined the beauty of their city.

In recent years, the roadside garbage situation in cities in India

has been overshadowed by ignorance despite numerous

incidents like the death of stray animals crying for

immediate attention.

In 2017, a survey, co-researched by Chintan, the Delhi Environment

Department and German NGO GIZ, claimed that India's capital Delhi,

inhabited by over 30 million residents, generates over 9,100 metric

tonnes of garbage on average each year. The report also said that

nearly 76 percent Delhiites wrongly believe that glass and metal

are biodegradable, dump it on the roadside, and need more

education on the subject.

While several individuals like Gurav, NGOs, and government

programmes like the Swachh Bharat (clean India) mission

are working on cleaning India, the new trend of “plogging”

is seemingly picking up pace in the country. The term

“plogging” was coined in Sweden in 2016 and defines

the activity of “picking trash while jogging”.

“Youngsters are getting more sensitive about environment

conservation in India, for sure. I am the founder of a

community called Pune Ploggers, which is a group

of individuals like me who all pick-up trash while

jogging or walking.

“We have more than 4,000 ploggers across India and we are now

setting up city-wise communities. Collection of more than 250

tonnes of waste in the last one year is a remarkable

achievement due to the efforts of this community.

With over 280 plogging drives across 22 cities in

India, our community of environment enthusiasts

has grown exponentially”, Gurav said.

The PlogMan from Pune has appealed to all potential climate

activists in India to work every day towards passing on a

greener and cleaner planet to the generations to come.

“Go zero-waste, avoid littering, manage household waste, use

green alternatives for all the daily essentials, and buy only

what we really need could be some simple changes we

can add to all our lifestyles”, Gurav added.

The climate enthusiast noted that while India is emerging as a

leader in sustainable practices like solar and electric ways of

producing energy, Indians are far from fixing the real problem

- accepting the crisis.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), ambient air

pollution causes 4.2 million deaths every year. 91% of the

world's population lives in places where air quality

exceeds the WHO guidelines' limits.

Bangladesh, Pakistan, Mongolia, Afghanistan, and India

make for the world’s five most polluted countries,

according to a report by the World

Population Review.

______________________________

Post-Brexit 'Loophole'

Lets UK Keep Sending

Plastic Waste to Poorer

Countries, Report Says

12.01.2021 (Sputnik)

The United Kingdom is facing a backlash
from environmentalists over a post-Brexit
"loophole" that allows it to ship plastic
waste to developing countries --- in
disregard of its previous pledges,
The Guardian reported Tuesday.

From January 1, the European Union banned exports

of non-recyclable plastic waste to countries outside

the Organisation for Economic Co-operation

and Development.

The UK, which left the EU’s single market and customs

union on December 31, will continue the practice,

despite Tory commitments that post-Brexit

regulations would not undermine

environmental standards, the

British newspaper said.

The country, which is the 2nd-biggest producer of plastic

waste after the United States, will now reportedly export

plastic waste, under a procedure of prior informed

consent, in accordance with which the importer

can agree or disagree to take in

such shipments.

Greenpeace political campaigner Sam Chetan-Welsh,

quoted by the newspaper, slammed the UK

government for creating a "loophole to
allow the dumping of our plastic trash

on environments and communities"

in poorer countries, arguing that

"this is not leadership, it’s failing

to do the bare minimum."

_____________________________

Biden’s climate advisor has ties

to oil and gas industry: Report

November 21st, 2020 (Press TV)

US President-elect Joe Biden’s senior advisor on climate change

has faced strong criticism from environmental advocates over

his ties with the oil and gas industry, according to a report.

Cedric Richmond, a Louisiana congressman who has played a

key role in Biden’s presidential campaign, was named as a

senior adviser to the president-elect and will become

director of the White House Office of Public

Engagement, The Guardian reported.

Richmond will advise Biden on climate change --- and help

advance the federal response to the coronavirus pandemic.

At a press conference this week, Richmond – who has

represented a south Louisiana district for 10 years –

announced that he would resign from Congress

to assume his new position.

“I look forward to changing not only Louisiana but the

entire south and empowering its citizens,” he said.

The Democrat has been under criticism from both local

constituents and climate activists for receiving

generous donations from the oil, gas and

chemical industries.

He has also exhibited a degree of indifference to local air

pollution, with his congressional district being home

to seven of the 10 most air-polluted census tracts

in the US.

Richmond pledged greater public engagement

to address the issue.

Some advocates said while they were worried about

Richmond’s track record on the climate, they were

cautiously optimistic about his new appointment.

“I think he’s in a position now to be able to better serve the

constituents of his district,” said Robert Taylor, president

of the Concerned Citizens of St John Parish, a community

group in one of the most polluted parts of the region.

“I’m happy to see him get the appointment, I just hope he

uses it to help us,” he told the paper. Taylor added: “I

would like to see him hold these chemical plants

accountable because they are getting away

with murder.”

Biden has signaled his intent to put climate change on top

of his administration's policy agenda. However, concerns

persist about the degree to which the Democrat is willing

to challenge the power of the fossil fuel industry.

Apart from Richmond, environmental activists are worried

about Ernest Moniz, another individual with ties to the oil

and gas industry who is widely speculated to have been

picked to lead the Department of Energy.

Moniz was Secretary of Energy in the administration of

former President Barack Obama from 2013 through to

2017 and played a critical role in mustering support

for the controversial use of fracking to produce

natural gas.

Moniz is currently a director of Southern Company, the

second-highest carbon-polluting energy company

in America.

During the 2020 campaign, Biden unequivocally rejected

calls to ban fracking, which experts say is harmful to the

environment and people’s health.

___________________________________________

Obsession with consumerism will
destroy the world of our children
by Ken Livingstone
December 24th, 2018.

Ken Livingstone is an English politician, he served as
the Mayor of London between 2000 and 2008. He is
also a former MP and a former member of the
Labour Party.

Amid growing climate change concerns, what politicians
fear most, is not standing up to the coal and oil
industries, but having to tell the people that
they need to buy and consume less.

As two hundred nations gathered in Poland to discuss
climate change, the opening comments of David
Attenborough, went global across the
world’s media.

“Right now, we are facing a man-made disaster of global
scale, our greatest threat, in thousands of years…
climate change… If we don’t take action,
the collapse of our civilisations, and
the extinction of much of the natural
world, is on the horizon… Leaders
of the world, you must lead. The
continuation of civilisations and
the natural world, upon which,
we depend, is in your hands,”
said Attenborough.

He went on to recommend that ordinary people make a
change every day by using public transport and other
measures to reduce carbon emissions.

Yet, for all Attenborough’s warnings, we have seen the
election of a climate change denier to the White
House, in the form of Donald Trump, and the
recent election of a Brazilian president
who also denies climate change.

So, what is the truth?

The simple fact is that the twenty warmest years in
our history have been in the last twenty-two years
and the four warmest years have been the last
four years on our planet.

Scientists are now warning that we need to increase
our actions to tackle climate change by at least five
times, merely to stop the increase in temperature
going above 1.5 centigrade.

It’s not just temperatures that threaten our existence.

Since 1970, we have wiped out 60 percent of birds,
mammals, reptiles and fish across our planet. This
information comes from a World Wildlife Fund
report, which drew on the evidence of 59
scientists around the world.

The report warns that the rapid increase in the waste
of food and other resources is wiping out the web of
life ,on which our society depends, for clean air and
water. The director of science and conservation at
the WWF, Mike Barrett, warned that we “are
sleepwalking towards the edge of a cliff.”

He pointed out that a similar 60 percent wiping out of
the human population, would be the equivalent of
killing every human in Europe, China, Africa and
the Americas. He went on to warn, that nature
is not just nice to have, but it is our life
support system.

The simple fact is, we are running out of time and,
unless we find ways to restore our eco systems
and tackle climate change, we face the prospect
of humanity’s extinction, by the end of
the century.

. Since the dawn of civilisation, we have destroyed
eighty-three percent of all mammals and half of
all plants, and it could take millions of years
for the world to recover.

The WWF report pointed out that the main cause of wildlife
loss is the destruction of natural habitats, mainly to create
new farmland. Three quarters of all the land on our planet
has now been affected by our activities. Here in Britain,
we have seen the loss of most of our wildlife, and we
have less biodiversity, than 189 other nations.

Although politicians at their conferences keep agreeing
to limit the rise in the earth’s temperature to 2 degrees
centigrade and, if possible, just 1.5 degrees by the end
of this century. This would still mean the destruction
of all our coral reefs, which play a vital part in
sustaining the population of fish. There will
also be rising sea levels and increasing,
violent weather events.

This year’s storms have devastated South Korea, Vietnam,
the Philippines and Tonga. Hurricanes also caused wide-
spread damage in the USA and wildfires erupted in
California, Canada and Greece, claiming many
lives. In Kerala, India nearly one and a half
million people were forced out of their
homes by violent floods, which also
occurred in East Africa and Japan.

In the last one hundred years the amount of carbon dioxide
in our atmosphere has gone up by a third. The increase in
greenhouse gas emissions has doubled since 1971,
mainly caused by industrial activity.

The UK’s Met Office [national weather service] has warned
that rising sea levels and climate change threaten over
one and a half million homes --- with the prospect of
farmland being turned into marshes and beaches
washed away, by the end of the century.

The UK Climate Projections recent report predicted the sea
around our shores will have risen by between three and
four feet by the end of the century, putting 1.7 million
homes at risk.

Many coastal towns will have to be abandoned, with large
parts of the counties of Kent, Somerset and Essex, being
submerged under the sea. The worst example is that the
sea could now extend so far into Britain, that it could
overwhelm the city of Cambridge.

The rise in sea level would leave 100,000 coastal homes
and other buildings at risk, with another 100,000
vulnerable to collapse from landslides.

The report warns that, unless we reduce our emissions,
the temperature will have risen by 4 degrees centigrade
by the end of the century, with melting glaciers and
ice caps overwhelming the Thames Barrier and
flooding London.

But it’s not just here in London that we are at risk. Houston,
Shanghai and Jakarta, are increasingly vulnerable to
storms and flooding. The charity Christian Aid
warned in its recent report that city planners
are failing to prepare for what is coming.

Most of our biggest cities are built close
to the coast or by large rivers and all
are now at risk.

In 2015, 195 countries meeting in France agreed to
keep global warming below two degrees. But the
US has now announced it intends to withdraw
from this agreement, and here in Britain, one
of the first actions of the newly elected Tory
government, back in 2010, was to reduce
funding for green energy and it has now
unleashed a new strategy: for a vast
increase in fracking across
the country.

Even the Tory MP Zac Goldsmith has warned his
government, of the risk of a political backlash.
The fracking - near Blackpool - caused several
minor earthquakes which forced the company,
Cuadrilla, to halt operations, after a 0.8
magnitude tremor.

In 2017, we saw fifteen deadly weather disasters:
heatwaves, floods and droughts. If I think back
to the 1960s, there would be one or two violent
weather events in the year: now, it’s become
a regular part of our news coverage.

In September, Indonesia was struck by a tsunami
and an earthquake that killed thousands and left
many missing. Given the thousands of lives lost
this year, with just a one degree increase, I
dread to think how many more are going
to die, even if we cap the increase at
1.5 centigrade.

Even to meet that target, carbon emissions have to
be cut by forty-five percent, by 2030, but they’re
still going up and most of the difficult decisions
- that should have been taken at the Poland
conference - have been deferred to the
next meeting.

Although the US has a climate change denying president,
latest opinion polls show that 80% of Americans believe
climate change is happening, including a majority
of Republicans.

Nicholas Stern, who cooperated with me when I was mayor
of London and is author of a landmark report on climate
change economics, said: “It is clear that the progress
we are making is inadequate, given the scale and
urgency of the risks we face… a much more
attractive clean and efficient path for
economic development and poverty
reduction, is in our hands.”

It was 26 years ago - in 1992 - that the UN Framework
Convention on Climate Change was signed, binding
governments to a commitment to reduce the level
of carbon emissions. Yet now, a quarter of a
century on, even if we achieve the target
set by those governments, the world’s
temperature will increase by more
than three degrees centigrade.

It’s not just that politicians lack the courage to stand up to
the coal and oil industries, but what they fear most, is
having to tell all of us, that we need to buy and
consume less. A third of all the food used in
Europe and North America ends up wasted
and thrown away. More and more of the
things we buy, are just left in our cup-
boards and drawers, until they are,
eventually, thrown out.

I grew up in that post-war world where nothing was wasted
and our pleasure came from the time we spent with our
friends and family, but, over these last fifty years, the
Western world has switched to an obsession with
shopping and consumption and we spend less
time with our friends and our family. We can
either go back to that world without waste,
or we are going to destroy the world of
our children.

(Source - RT)

_____________________________________________

Japan finds itself
buried in plastic waste
after China stops
importing world’s trash
21st of October, 2018, at 4:11am

Nations across the globe are beginning to suffer from
waste build-up, after China stopped importing
recyclable garbage this year. Japan has
become the latest country reporting
severe recycling industry overload.

China’s ban on imports of 24 types of solid waste materials,
such as soda bottles, mixed paper, recycled steel and
newsprint, has impacted the recycling chain across
the globe. Japan, which, last year, exported about
half its 1.5 million tons of annual plastic waste,
is now piled, higher and deeper, in its own
garbage, with many local governments
struggling to cope with the problem.

About a quarter of 102 local governments surveyed
reported seeing accumulated plastic waste, which
in some cases overreached sanitary norms, the
Environment Ministry data showed, this week.

At least 34 municipalities noted that they are failing to
find new destinations to outsource their plastic, after
the domestic costs of processing waste, shot up.

China’s refusal to accept more garbage is overstretching
the Japanese recycling industry, with 34.9 percent of
companies limiting or considering restricting the
quantities of plastics they can accept. To deal
with the problem, the Japanese ministry said
it will expand domestic capacity to process
plastic waste. The government also wants
to introduce measures to prevent illegal
dumping and to expand the use of
bioplastics, which are
biodegradable.

A similar problem was reported this weekend in the UK,
which last year exported roughly two-thirds of its
recyclables. The Local Government Association
(LGA) blamed the Chinese ban for the change
in councils’ recycling methods, which are
forcing the local authorities to add an
extra £500,000 a year, in costs.

“It’s clear that the ban by China on imported waste, which
could, soon, be implemented by other countries, could
have a marked impact on councils’ ability to recycle,”
said Martin Tett, the LGA's environment spokesman.

China, which over the last 25 years was taking in 45 percent
of cumulative plastic imports, without a doubt made a huge
impact on the global recycling system. While many Chinese
companies relocated their operations to Malaysia, the Asian
country does not have the capacity to replace China, and,
this week, imposed a three-month ban on imports. We
"will do our very best to ensure that Malaysia not be
the plastic rubbish bin of developed countries,"
Science, Technology and Environment and
Climate Change minister Yeo Bee Yin said.

Vietnam, which once welcomed foreign shipments, is also
finding it hard to cope with recyclables, imposing a new
temporary ban on imports, between June & October.

Thailand, the other world destination of plastic
goods, reportedly, will ban imports, by 2021.

The closure of Asian countries to plastic, will also
affect the US, which, in the first six months of
this year, exported its recycling to Thailand,
Malaysia and Vietnam.

__________________________________________________

Clock is ticking: Planet
has only TWELVE years to
avert global climate chaos,
UN warns
October 8th, at 11:59am

The world’s nations should unite in an “unprecedented”
effort --- to curb the global rise of temperatures by a
larger-than-agreed margin, a UN climate-change
panel said. This would limit the damage
caused by industrialization.

The consequences of global climate change will be less
severe for our planet, if countries across the world
managed to curb the rising of temperatures to
1.5 º C above pre-industrial levels, instead of
the 2º C benchmark targeted today, the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change (IPCC) said on Monday.

Reaching this objective is possible, the study noted, but
will require revolutionary changes to power generation
methods and the phasing out of fossil fuels, coal in
particular. A major transformation will also be
required to the transportation network, as
well as to human lifestyles, especially
when it comes to growing food.

The half-degree difference could stop the almost complete
eradication of corals and would ease pressure on the
Arctic, which is seeing a steady meltdown. Sea level
rises would be 10 cm lower, with a 1.5º C rise
compared to 2º C by 2100. “Every extra bit
of warming matters, especially since a
warming of 1.5ºC or higher, increases
the risk associated with long-lasting
or irreversible changes, such as the
loss of some ecosystems,” said
Hans-Otto Pörtner, Co-Chair of
IPCC Working Group II.

“Limiting global warming to 1.5°C compared with 2°C
would reduce challenging impacts on ecosystems,
human health and well-being, making it easier to
achieve the United Nations Sustainable
Development Goals,” Priyardarshi
Shukla, Co-Chair of IPCC WG III
#ipcc #sr15

''Our top-level politicians should
make tackling climate change
their utmost priority,
before it's too late''
(Op-Ed by Ken Livingstone)
https://on.rt.com/9fll

The report, based on more than 6,000 scientific works,
noted that consequences such as water scarcity,
extreme weather, the spread of diseases and
food shortages will be less severe at 1.5 º C
rather than 2 ºC. If humanity passes the
1.5º C threshold, humans will need to
rely on technologies to remove
carbon from the atmosphere.

However, “the effectiveness of such techniques
is unproven at large scale and some may carry
significant risks for sustainable development,”
the report notes.

Monday’s report is a follow-up to the 2015 Paris Climate
Change Agreement, under which 195 nations pledged
to hold global temperatures “well below” 2º C above
pre-industrial levels. Whether or not the goal is still
attainable, remains questionable, after President
Donald Trump pulled out of the agreement,
claiming it was unfair to his country.

So far, the planet has witnessed a 1º C rise in temperature
compared to pre-industrial levels. National commitments
to cut emissions will not limit global warming to 1.5 º C,
the report warns, stressing that 1.5 º C warming will be
witnessed, sometime between 2030 and 2052, if the
current trends continue.

(Source - RT)

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Fantastic news from Wales –

the Planning Inspectorate has rejected plans
for an opencast coal mine at Nant Llesg
near Merthyr Tydfil.

This historic victory comes after years of tireless
campaigning by the local community campaign
United Valleys Action Group, alongside our
local group in Merthyr and the team at
Friends of the Earth Cymru.

If given the go-ahead, the mine would have seen
6 million tonnes of coal extracted over the next
14 years – causing huge harm to local residents,
wrecking our beautiful countryside, and
contributing to runaway climate change.

But yesterday’s decision is a true testament to
what we can achieve together when we put
our minds to it. Alyson Austin, from the
local group, summed it up perfectly:

"Words can't express how pleased and relieved we
are, that communities in Rhymney, Pontlottyn
and Fochriw, have been spared this
horrendous experience – they
deserve this outcome."

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Ukrainian chemical factory
triggers ecological disaster
in Crimea
September 6th, at 11:41am

The work of the Crimean Titanium factory was suspended
for two weeks, because of emissions of sulfur dioxide. A
state of ecological disaster was declared, in the town
of Armyansk.

More than 4,000 children are being evacuated, schools in
the town of Armyansk, were closed for two weeks, as a
result of the accident. Emissions of harmful substances
into the atmosphere occurred, due to the negligence of
both the owner of the factory and the local authorities.

Crimean Titanium belongs to Ukrainian oligarch, Dmitry
Firtash. Accidents have occurred at the factory before
too, although they were on a smaller scale.

"The emission of chemicals into the atmosphere, led to
an increase in atmospheric air temperatures. They also
resulted in the sustainable absence of precipitation,
and a lower water level in the acid storage facility,"
Deputy Prime Minister of Crimea, Igor
Mikhailichenko, said.

This term 'acid storage facility' designates a diked part
of Sivash Lake, also known as the "Rotten Lake." The
owner of the factory continued with the dangerous
production, knowing that there was not enough
water to neutralize acid, and did not report
the emergency to the authorities.

As for the local authorities, supervisory bodies seem to
have ignored the fact that there was no water running
on the blocked North-Crimean channel to the factory.
The authorities were supposed to close the factory,
but they turned a blind eye on the problem and
preferred to let the chips fall, where they may.

Residents of Armyansk started complaining on August 23,
but the authorities set up a commission only on Aug. 28.
At first, most of the patients were diagnosed with ARVI
(acute respiratory viral infection), but they later
developed allergic conjunctivitis, allergic
pharyngitis and Quincke's edema.

Meanwhile, the head of the Crimea, Sergei Aksenov, continues
to say that people's lives are out of danger and there is no
threat to their health, although it was Aksenov, who
ordered children to be evacuated from the
affected region of the peninsula.

Crimean Titanium is the largest producer of titanium dioxide
in Eastern Europe. The company also produces red iron
oxide pigment, mineral fertilizers, sulfuric acid,
aluminum sulfate, liquid sodium glass, and
iron vitriol.

(Source - Pravda.Ru)

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China builds an
‘Ecological Civilization’
while the world burns
August 31st, 2018
by Denis Etler

Like the Soviet Union in the 1930s with its accelerated push
to industrialize, China in the 1990s and 2000s threw caution
to the winds, and industrialized at break neck speed. The
Soviets realized, that if they didn’t rapidly industrialize,
the Western capitalists, both of the liberal and fascist
variety, would direct all their fire at the first worker’s
state and try to destroy it. That Soviet drive to
industrialize had many negative consequences,
but if they hadn’t done so, the Nazi onslaught
in 1941, may well have succeeded.

Such a result would have been an unprecedented disaster for
the entire world. Instead, the Soviet Union was able to repel
and defeat German imperialism, a victory of unparalleled
importance. The industrial foundation laid down by the
Soviet Union prior to and during, WW2, allowed for a
swift recovery from the devastation visited upon
her. After the war, the Soviet Union become a
bastion of peace and socialism, serving as
a bulwark --- against the spread of US
imperialism and a steadfast ally of
newly emerging nations fighting
for liberation from European
colonialism.

With the demise of the USSR and the collapse of the Soviet
bloc - in the late 1980s and 90s - China found itself in the
cross-hairs of US imperialism. While disputes with the
USSR had protected the PRC from attempts by the US
to destabilize and sabotage her, once the Soviet
Union was no more, China became the next
target. The Chinese leadership realized it
had to quickly industrialize, under the
new conditions of US global
hegemony.

Like the Soviets before them, China threw caution to the
winds --- and put all her efforts into a vast program of
industrialization, come hell or high water. As a result,
China experienced severe environmental damage.

The Chinese people saw their country surge ahead
to become an industrial power, the factory to the
world, and they put up with environmental
degradation and pollution.

But, many soon realized that the path taken, while
expedient, was unsustainable. With the advent of
XJP, corrective measures were taken, which are
turning things around, and setting China on a
course of sustainable development, towards
an ecological civilization. John Bachtell,
national chair of the Communist Party
USA, has written an incisive essay,
that recounts the history of China’s
industrialization, its trials and
travails, and its new march
- towards sustainability.

In remarks to the CPC leadership in 2013, President Xi Jinping
said, “We will never again seek economic growth, at the cost
of the environment.”

More recently, Xi stressed “To protect the ecological environment
is to protect [the] productive forces. To improve the ecological
environment is to develop the productive forces. A good
ecological environment is the most just public product,
one that most fully promotes the well-being of all
the people.”

China has committed to a sustainable path and building an
“ecological civilization” as a national strategy, since the
17th CPC Congress, in 2007. The goal is, to form “an
energy and resource efficient, environmentally
friendly structure of industries, pattern of
growth, and mode of consumption.”

The concept of “ecological civilization construction” was
added to the CPC constitution, during the 18th CPC
Congress, in 2012. It was placed on a par with
“economic, political, cultural and
social progress.”

The adoption of several reforms, in 2015, to accelerate
the process, addresses many of the country’s major
environmental issues. “The proposals cover
the protection of natural resource rights; the
establishment of a national parks system;
better, stricter systems for the protection
of arable land, and water resources
management; the establishment of
a green financing system; and the
improvement of environmental
compensation mechanisms.”

Only an eco-socialist oriented society can move with such
unity, purpose and speed, toward sustainability. It helps,
that government and CPC leaders are deeply committed
to building the ecological civilization and driving the
process, including President Xi and Premier
Li Keqiang.

Consequently, the CPC initiated a “war on pollution” just like
its “war on poverty”, which will be eliminated entirely, in the
next 3-5 years. With an overall economic slowdown, the
priority has moved from quantity to quality: in
production, environmental protection, and
becoming a global leader in the fight
against the climate crisis.

A law passed in 2014 to reduce CO2 emissions from coal
power plants, has resulted in a 14 percent reduction, as
of June 2018.

New measures adopted in May 2018 will result in the
“comprehensive recycling” of hard waste materials.

China is one of a few countries to pass laws and
develop a strategy to create a circular economy
(reuse, recycling and remanufacturing).

The ministry of Ecology & the Environment has identified
9 million sources of pollution, 7.4 million of them, being
from industrial sources.

China is doubling the previous target for solar power
production, by 2020, and is the largest producer of
solar panels, in the world.

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Campaigners accuse government
of silencing opposition to fracking
Friday, August 16th, 2018.
by Will Stone

Environmental campaigners accused the government today
of silencing public opposition to fracking by removing
questions about the unpopular practice from its
quarterly opinion poll.

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
has announced that it will be reducing the frequency with
which it surveys public opinion on fracking,
to once a year.

Its decision to omit fracking questions from the quarterly poll
was revealed in the department's latest public attitude
tracker on energy.

However, Green Party MEP Keith Taylor accused
the department of trying to silence criticism.

He said: “Ministers have been asking the public whether
they support fracking on a quarterly basis, for over
four years.

“But, despite a huge PR push, opposition has always
outstripped support, which has never exceeded 30%
and long languished below 20%.

“How have the Conservatives responded to such a
consistent rejection of the climate-destructive
industry?

“By stopping asking what we think so often, and
giving fracking the green light, in the meantime.”

The government said that, following analysis of data,
it found “there is little change over the years” in
public opinion on certain questions, including
fracking, from one season to another.

Other topics removed from its quarterly poll include
trust in energy suppliers, knowledge of radioactive
waste and support or opposition to nuclear energy.

Friends of the Earth campaigner Tony Bosworth said:

“The government’s very own survey, consistently
showed climbing support for renewable energy,
while support for fracking was really low.

“Perhaps, having recently tried to change planning rules
so that fracking companies could drill more easily,
they were just scared of a record bad survey
result for them this time, so have stopped
even asking, any more.”

Greenpeace UK energy campaigner Nina Schrank added:

“The government needs to catch up with the electorate,
who can already see that our future is renewable.”

Fracking company Ineos, was granted permission by
the government's planning inspectorate, yesterday,
to launch the first shale gas exploration scheme
in Derbyshire.

(Source - Morning Star)

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Global Tree Cover Has Increased
7 Percent Since 1982,Says Study
August 10th, 2018

Prensa Latina - A team of US researchers has found that
new global tree growth over the past 35 years, has more
than offset global tree cover losses.

In their paper published in the journal Nature, the group
describes using satellite data to track forest growth
and losses over the past 35 years and what they
found by doing so.

There has been a growing consensus in recent years
that because humans cut down so many trees (most
particularly in the rainforests) that global tree cover
is shrinking. In this new effort, the researchers have
found that not to be the case. They contend that
global tree cover, is actually increasing.

The researchers report that most of the new tree cover
occurred in places that had previously been barren,
such as in deserts, tundra areas, on mountains,
in cities and in other non-vegetated land.

They further report that much of the new growth came
about due to efforts by humans (such as reforestation
efforts in China, and parts of Africa) and because of
global warming, warmer temperatures have raised
timberlines in some mountainous regions, and
allowed forests to creep into tundra areas.

Other areas of new tree growth resulted from large farm
abandonments in places like Russia and the U.S. The
researchers report that their calculations showed
that human activities have directly caused
approximately 60 percent of new global
tree growth.

They suggest their technique for monitoring tree cover
could be used to predict tree cover changes in the
future, due to global warming.

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The bloody slaughter
goes on and on
by Peter Frost
Friday, August 3rd, 2018

A sad PETER FROST discovers that despite
a little good news, the slaughter of whales
still continues.

It seems incredible, and very sad, that every year
we have to return to the subject of the bloody
slaughter of whales and other sea mammals.

Japan, Iceland, and Norway still think it is OK to
ignore worldwide public opinion, and even the
increasing anti-whaling views of their own
populations.

One bit of recent news cheered me up a little.
Holiday giant Thomas Cook has announced
it will stop selling trips to aquariums and
animal parks that keep killer whales,
orcas, in captivity.

The tourism giant said it had made the decision
because more than 90 per cent of its customers
were concerned about animal welfare, hence
they will no longer sell tickets to SeaWorld
in Florida and Loro Parque in Tenerife.

“When so many of our customers are so clear in
their view, I could not allow our business to
ignore them,” Peter Fankhauser CEO of
Thomas Cook said.

Less good news has just arrived with the return of
the Icelandic whaling fleet after killing a very rare,
threatened - and supposedly legally protected -
blue whale.

The Icelanders rushed to find DNA evidence
that it was only a blue whale hybrid.

After viewing the photographic evidence of the dead
whale being winched aboard the ship, most experts
agreed --- the corpse had all the features of the
largest animal that has ever existed on Earth.
Mottled blue skin, black baleen, tiny hooked
dorsal fin — a blue whale.

The Icelandic fleet had resumed its whale hunt in June,
after a three-year break -- caused by the Tokyo
government being unhappy with the standard
of the meat Iceland was seeking to sell
to Japan.

Others suggested that the real reason was that
the demand for whale meat in Japan, was
falling dramatically.

This year Iceland set itself a target of 191 fin whales
and early reports suggest it has met this target.
Most meat will be heading for the sushi bars of
Japan, the Icelanders hope, but the
international freight shipping
market - and many ports -
refuse to have anything
to do with this bloody
trade.

A recent poll by Iceland itself, shows that, even in Iceland,
support for whaling continues to drop. Only 34 per cent
of Icelanders now support continued commercial
whaling, while another 34 per cent of Icelanders
say they are opposed to whaling - 31 per cent
say they are neutral.

As recently as five years ago a solid majority of Icelanders
supported whaling. A 2013 poll found that 60 per cent of
Icelanders supported it, while only 18% opposed it.

Another whaling nation, Norway, hasn’t just continued
whaling, but has angered environmentalists, by
provocatively announcing a 28 per cent
increase of its annual whaling quota
to 1,278 whales.

This, despite the fact that, in recent years, Norway’s
whalers have failed to catch the quotas set by Oslo
- and the number of whaling ships has plummeted.

The Norwegian government hopes that, by raising the
quota, more whalers will join the fleet — there were
just 11 Norwegian whaling ships in 2017 and that
was just half of the previous year’s number.

Norway, says it only hunts the minke whale,
which it kills, using explosive harpoons.

In both Norway and Iceland few people actually eat
whale any longer. In Iceland most is consumed by
tourists curious to sample the exotic, if
contentious, novelty.

Most of the Icelandic whale meat is sold to Japan
but over the last few years the Icelandic whalers
have had great difficulty finding ships or transit
ports prepared to handle the bloody cargo.

Which brings us to Japan itself. When three Japanese
whaling vessels returned to port from a controversial
trip to Antarctica earlier this year they had caught
333 minke whales. Tokyo claims the slaughter is
for scientific purposes.

Japan is a signatory to the International Whaling
Commission moratorium on whale hunting, but
makes use of a loophole, that allows the
mammals to be killed for scientific
research.

Commercial hunting of whales was banned in 1986, but
Japan would like to see it permitted once more. Tokyo
makes no secret of the fact that slaughtered whales
often end up being eaten.

After tiny samples go to the laboratory, the rest ends up on
Japan’s dining tables, or feeding Japan’s many lap dogs.

Tokyo’s insistence on continuing with whale hunts, draws
regular protests worldwide and Japanese ships have
clashed at sea, in the past, with animal rights
campaigners. This season there appear to
have been no such protests at sea.

The most recent hunt killed 120 pregnant female whales
among the 333 total. The International Whaling
Commission said that, apart from the pregnant
whales, another 114 were immature.

The Japanese proudly displayed pictures of the
slaughtered pregnant whales, each slit open
to reveal a fully developed foetus.

In 2014, the International Court of Justice ruled that
the annual whale slaughter programme was for
commercial purposes, which is illegal.

The Japanese government scrapped the illegal
whaling programme and began a new one in
2015, described as having a scientific
purpose, but, again, it is clearly just a
cover, to continue whaling for profit.

Even in Japan, eating whale becomes less and less
popular. Much of the whale harvest ends up in
expensive treats for pet dogs. Still, Japan’s
legendary pride won’t let it fall in to line
with the rest of the world and ban the
slaughter of whales forever.

Only a continued political campaign, against Iceland,
Norway and, most of all, Japan, will end this murder
forever. Are you playing your part, in saving
the whale?

(Source - Morning Star)

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Pope Francis tells top oil executives
world ‘must convert to clean fuel’
May 9th, at 9:56am

Pope Francis, addressing top oil company executives,
has said that the world must convert to clean fuel,
Reuters reports.

“Civilization requires energy but energy use must not
destroy civilization,” he told the group at the end of
a two-day conference in the Vatican on Saturday.

He also noted that climate change was a challenge of
“epochal proportions,” saying that the world needs to
come up with an energy mix that combats pollution,
eliminates poverty, and promotes social justice.

The pope wrote a major document on protecting
the environment from global warming, in 2015.

(Source - RT)

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