UK

SCAS prepares for an escalation of industrial action

 5 March 2023 industrial action

FOR the first time since the industrial action began in ambulance trusts, South Central Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust will see members in two additional unions – Unite and Unison – join members of the GMB union in taking industrial action planned for March.

To date, only members of the GMB and RCN unions have undertaken industrial action across the SCAS footprint. However, a new ballot amongst members of Unite and Unison employed at SCAS has passed the legal threshold for action to take place.

The dates where industrial action will be taking place in March are as follows:

March 6, GMB and Unite;

March 8, Unison;

March 20, GMB and Unite/

The addition of Unite and Unison to GMB members means that a greater number of the Trust’s workforce has now voted in favour of industrial action. The action is being undertaken in relation to a dispute between the unions and government, not directly against SCAS as an employer.

Mark Ainsworth, Director of Operations at SCAS, said: “The escalation of the industrial action in SCAS now means it is at a level that has already been experienced by other NHS ambulance trusts during this dispute. We have been liaising closely with colleagues in those trusts to help ensure that SCAS as an organisation is as prepared as possible to continue prioritising our services to patients with immediately life-threatening or time critical conditions when industrial action is taking place.

“We have seen on previous days where significant industrial action in the NHS outside of SCAS has taken place, that the public have heeded our pleas to only call 999, or go to A&E, for immediately life-threatening or serious emergencies. I would urge people in our region to help us – and more importantly help those people who really need us in a life or death situation – to please keep doing this on 6, 8 and 20 March.

“We need people to seek help and advice from alternatives to 999, such as their own GP or local pharmacy where services are unaffected. For urgent help for people aged five or over, use NHS 111 online at 111.nhs.uk. Outside of normal GP hours, call 111 for children under five and only call 999 if it’s a life-threatening emergency.”

Ahead of this month’s planned industrial action, SCAS has been working closely with the Trust’s GMB, Unison and Unite branches, as well as with all staff, to ensure the impact on patients is minimised as much as possible. However, because of the potential increase in the number of staff rostered on duty on 6, 8 and 20 March taking industrial action, it is likely that most people calling 999 without a life-threatening or immediately serious need, will not be sent an ambulance resource and will be directed to alternative, local services.

All three days of industrial action will see this significant impact on SCAS’ services, but it will be most severe on Wednesday, March 8.

Mr Ainsworth added: “From our conversations with other ambulance trusts, where this level of industrial action has taken place, we know it is vital to ensure that we have sufficient clinicians in our clinical co-ordination centres to be able to assess, triage and help callers with urgent, but not emergency needs, find the most appropriate alternative care to an ambulance response.

“This will ensure that where we have less people and resources than we expected to be able to respond to calls due to industrial action, they will be protected as much as possible to ensure they are only available for patients calling 999 with the most serious or life-threatening emergencies.”

SCAS has been planning for this phase of industrial action for a number of weeks. As well as the preparations already mentioned, the Trust has:

• Cancelled most training in the week leading up to, and on, the days of industrial action
• Ensured that clinical managers are freed from management duties to respond if needed to 999 and 111 operational demand on strike days
• Requested an additional 50 military personnel to support 999 operations on industrial action days
• Agreed derogations with union colleagues in advance to ensure staff taking industrial action can be recalled to duty if there is an unacceptable risk to a patient

On days of industrial action, patients within the South Central region calling 111 may also be impacted. SCAS is expecting that calls to 111 may take longer to answer than usual and is advising patients to use the online service at 111.nhs.uk in the first instance. By answering a few simple questions online about your main symptoms, patients can get the advice and help they need, as well as be called back by a healthcare professional where appropriate.

There will also be disruption to SCAS’ patient transport service due to the industrial action and the Trust will endeavour to notify patients in advance of an issue about their bookings on 6, 8 or 20 March. If patients do not hear from the patient transport service, they should expect any planned transport to go ahead as scheduled. However there could be isolated problems and delays across operational areas on the days of industrial action.

Further information for the public is available from NHS England here: https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/information-for-the-public-on-industrial-action/

PICTURED: An SCAS Ambulance, one of many likely to be affected by the industrial action

Free trade is dead

by IAN OAKLEY

President Trump has just released a new trade plan, as part of his campaign to return to the Presidency in 2024. It does not make easy reading for the supporters of global free trade: it wishes to see universal tariffs introduced on US imports and a virtual end to trade with China by 2029. At the same time Republicans in the House of Representative propose a bill to ban the Chinese social media app Tik Tok. Meanwhile the EU mulls vast subsidies to industry to compete with the US in green technology. In the UK the Truss idea of rolling trade deals has turned to dust. Where did it all go wrong for the free traders? The turning point was 2016, the year the free trade dream began to die.

In the heart of a certain type of Brexiteer, leaving the EU was the key to Britain returning to its free trading nineteenth century roots. Free of the dead hand of Brussels, the UK would set sail across the world and sign trade deals here, there, and everywhere. The USA? Yes. India? Definitely. China? Why not? Of course, as with most utopian projects, this did not happen. There is a (bad) trade deal with Australia, trade deals rolled over from our EU membership and an Indian trade deal that never seems to quite happen.

The first step to the collapse in the free trade order was the Brexit referendum, which led to the severing of the European Single Market into the UK and the rest of Europe. The next step — and the one with the most global significance — was the election of Donald Trump as the 45th President of the United States in November 2016.

Trump’s first act as President was to withdraw from the Trans-Pacific Partnership — a trade deal that would have covered 40% of the world’s GDP. This deal has continued as the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, but without the giant US economy, it is rather like the EU without Germany. The horrible truth is there are not that many New Zealanders that Vietnam can sell cheap manufactured goods to. The fact that Bernie Sanders and Trump had both attacked this deal early in 2016 showed the protectionist turn US politics was taking.

The true nature of this shift is reflected in the Biden administration ruling out any new trade deals, maintaining the Trump tariffs on China and continuing the Trump era policy of blocking nominations to the appellate court of the World Trade Organisation (WTO). This obscure technical move has huge implications, as without a functioning appellate court the WTO cannot enforce any rulings. For example, the WTO ruled against American tariffs on steel and aluminium imports from China in December 2022. But the USA can appeal the ruling to the appellate court and as this court can’t sit due to American actions, the WTO can’t authorise other countries to respond to the American tariffs. This is true of any other country who now wishes to impose trade limitations. The WTO’s role as a trade referee has just collapsed.

The Chinese have set a path for world trade that others are now following. They saw trade as a means to an end, nothing else. They used the world’s openness — notably their accession to the WTO in 2000 — to become an export powerhouse, growing their economy at a breakneck pace. This went hand in hand with exploiting the greed of Western multinationals, desperate to access the growing Chinese market. China would let certain Western firms in, on their terms, extracting their technology expertise in the process. The firms they let in, such as Apple, contributed directly to China by building the iPhones they sold to Chinese consumers in China, paying Chinese workers. The Chinese were too sensible to ever let American social media into their market. The various half-cocked attempts by Western governments to limit or ban Tik Tok shows that they are following the Chinese approach and that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

The truth is that China and the USA both have such vast home markets that the global trading system is an optional extra that can be sacrificed in their battle to be the dominant global power of the 21st century. Every other major economy or trading bloc, even the EU, will be helpless bystanders, caught in the trade war crossfire, forced to take protectionist measures to protect their economies and firms. This is not surprising to anyone familiar with history. Those Brexiteers who wished to return to the nineteenth century liberal free trade should have remembered that Britain ultimately sacrificed free trade and even the Empire to stop German hegemony in Europe. History goes in cycles and the current period of global free trade is rapidly coming to an end.

UK

Judge sentences climate activists for mentioning ‘fuel poverty’ and ‘climate crisis’ in courtroom
By Dorset Eye
-4th March 2023

Two Insulate Britain supporters were today jailed for seven weeks after being found in contempt of court and refusing to apologise for telling a jury that fuel poverty and the climate crisis had motivated them to join the 2021 roadblock campaign.

Giovanna Lewis, 65, a town councillor from Portland, Dorset and Amy Pritchard, 37, a horticultural worker, from Walthamstow, London defied Judge Reid’s gagging order on Monday during the ninth jury trial relating to Insulate Britain’s 2021 campaign of nonviolent civil resistance demanding that the government Insulate Britain’s cold and leaky homes [1]

Today they appeared again before Judge Reid at Inner London Crown Court – the same judge who in February sent David Nixon, a care-worker, to prison for eight weeks, also for for telling a jury that fuel poverty and the climate crisis had motivated him to join the 2021 campaign.[2]

At a brief hearing this afternoon at which she refused to apologise to the court, Cllr Giovanna Lewis told Judge Silas Reid:

“I continue to be astonished that today in a British court of law a judge can, or would even want to, ban and criminalise the mention of the words “fuel poverty” and “climate crisis”.

“I blocked roads to bring the public’s attention to the scandal of thousands of deaths in the UK from fuel poverty and the thousands of deaths around the world due to climate change, which will soon be millions.

There is no choice but to give voice to the truth and not be silenced. I had always believed our courts and judges would encourage truth and thus just and fair criminal trials. I now see how naive I have been.”

Giovanna’s son Stewart said:

“After decades of campaigning all over the country for our children’s futures my 65 year old mother is finally sent to prison.A woman that single-handedly kept Portland Hospital open, that’s one of the main faces keeping the incinerator off the island, who regularly helps out in food banks and with the homeless who has spent her life helping other people out has just got 7 weeks for ignoring a judges gagging order which took away her right to explain the reason why she did what she did.”

Amy Pritchard also declined to apologise saying:

“When the situation is so dangerous, and so called leaders are neglecting their basic duty, to protect life, it’s more important for me to speak up than to follow your ruling. History has shown us that the law is not always in line with justice, and I will not blindly follow your rules.

How can you allow lengthy explanations about traffic data go on, but prevent young people from talking about the threat to their future and their global family?

There will potentially be billions of people in the tropical parts of the world on the move and unable to live during in my lifetime. We are treating large parts of the world as sacrifice zones. I can’t keep quiet about that.

Fuel poverty is part of the same behaviour, where the lives of the poor and vulnerable are sacrificed, for the priorities of those currently in power. And you want me to keep quiet about all that?”

Cllr Giovanna Lewis and Amy Pritchard were today sentenced to seven weeks in prison, of which it is likely they will serve three and a half before being released. They are to be taken directly to Bronzefield prison.

Judge Reid’s gagging order prompted a small demonstration by lawyers outside the court today. Tim Crosland, Director of the climate justice charity, Plan B, said:

“The British courts are clearly conflicted by climate protest. Juries apply their common sense and (if allowed to hear the ‘whole truth’) acquit. Some judges speak openly and praise the protestors. Others ban mention of ‘climate change’ and send the disobedient down to the cells. This can’t go on.”

Yesterday Judge Silas Reid dismissed the jury at Inner London Crown Court after they were unable to reach a verdict on whether Cllr Giovanna Lewis, Amy Pritchard and a third Insulate Britain supporter, Paul Sheeky were guilty of causing a public nuisance by blocking the junction of Bishopsgate and Wormwood Street in the City of London on 25 October 2021. [3]

The Crown Prosecution Service indicated that they will ask for a retrial. A decision will be made on that at a hearing on 31st March.

Four other trials relating to the very same roadblock have already taken place. In December three defendants were acquitted of public nuisance charges, while so far this year twelve defendants have been found guilty. [4]

In the eight previous Insulate Britain jury trials for public nuisance charges, two trials so far have resulted in acquittals, four have resulted in a guilty verdict and two have been deferred. The first Insulate Britain jury trial was deferred until June 2023 after Judge Reid dismissed the jury and asked the Crown Prosecution Service to consider whether proceeding with the trial was in the public interest. [5][6]

The Crown Prosecution Service has chosen to summon a total of 56 supporters to answer at least 201 charges of Public Nuisance across at least 51 jury trials the last of which is scheduled to begin on 4th December 2023. These trials are planned to be heard across Inner London, Hove, Lewes and Reading Crown Courts and we estimate will take up around 1428 hours of court time.

Establishment and Corporate media have been lying about the climate crisis for decades:

High quality photos and video footage available here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Kucq-NfhnZLGJWwLx1HX03cWR7M9Y2-m

Website: https://www.insulatebritain.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/insulatebritain

Twitter: https://twitter.com/insulatelove

More info:[1] Insulate Britain is a campaign group that is calling on the UK government to put in place policy and funding for a national home insulation programme starting with all social housing by 2025, and create a meaningful plan to insulate the entire UK housing stock by 2030.

Further information about Insulate Britain and our demands here:
https://insulatebritain.com/

Technical Report on home energy efficiency here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jt5FI-kinEXoqZtPDrCvnAVQ2EFn8Aea/view

Insulate Britain ‘Blue Lights’ policy: our policy is, and has always been, to move out of the way for emergency vehicles with ‘blue lights’ on.[2] https://insulatebritain.com/2023/02/07/insulate-britain-supporter-jailed-for-eight-weeks-for-telling-the-truth-in-court/ [3] https://insulatebritain.com/2023/03/02/breaking-hung-jury-in-latest-insulate-britain-trial-after-two-defy-judges-gagging-order/ [4] http://insulatebritain.com/2021/10/25/breaking-we-wont-stand-by-while-the-government-kills-our-kids/ [5] https://insulatebritain.com/2022/12/09/breaking-three-insulate-britain-supporters-vindicated-after-jury-returns-unanimous-not-guilty-verdict/ [6] http://insulatebritain.com/2022/11/25/breaking-first-trial-by-jury-of-insulate-britain-supporters-deferred-as-judge-questions-whether-the-case-is-in-the-public-interest/

A 'paranoid' president, US 'abandonment'— new report on why Afghan forces collapsed after American withdrawal

KabulWritten By: Mukul Sharma

Updated: Mar 01, 2023,

The Taliban "victory rounds", including the one seen at the centre, following the hardliners' retake of power in August 2021, was made possible by 'paranoid' presidential decrees for appointments in the Afghan army, and a collective sense of abandonment that prevailed among Afghan armypersons after the US-Taliban deal was signed in Doha in February 2020. Photograph:(Reuters)

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

The "abrupt and uncoordinated" withdrawal of the US forces led to a collective sense of abandonment in the Afghan armed forces — a sentiment which was further amplified by the appointments of former President Ashraf Ghani's loyalists in the Afghan army, often on the ethnic lines.

The dramatic collapse of Afghanistan's armed forces in 2021 which allowed the tumultuous Taliban takeover of Kabul was made possible by ethnic divisions in the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) and the lack of US airstrikes targeting Taliban leadership after 2019, the latest report by Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) revealed on February 28. 

The report reviewed why Afghan security forces collapsed after the US and allies began withdrawing forces from Afghanistan. Instead of squarely attributing the Taliban's comeback to former President Ashraf Ghani's lack of control over the nation's security affairs, the report pointed out that Washington failed in its "stated goal of creating a self-sustaining Afghan military" in nearly two decades that its forces were stationed in the country in the aftermath of the 9/11 terror attacks of 2001. 

Since 2002, the United States allocated nearly $90 billion in security assistance to the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF), with the goal of "developing an independent, self-sustaining force capable of combating both internal and external threats." The goal fell flat shortly after the US signed an agreement with the Taliban in Doha in February 2020, while blindsiding the Afghan stakeholders. The agreement stipulated that the United States would withdraw all its military personnel and contractors from Afghanistan by May 2021. 

In return, the Taliban promised not to attack the United States or allow attacks from Afghanistan on the United States or its allies, and to enter into intra-Afghan peace negotiations.

Abrupt, uncoordinated US withdrawal and instability in Afghanistan

Several former Afghan and senior United States officials told SIGAR that the Biden administration's withdrawal process was "abrupt and uncoordinated—in particular, the withdrawal of contractor support for the ANDSF."

"The United States perpetuated pre-existing ethnic and regional tensions rather than achieving stated mission goals of force diversity and unification," the report added. 

ALSO WATCH | US left $7 billion of military gear in Afghanistan

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One former US commander in Afghanistan told SIGAR, "We built that army to run on contractor support. Without it, it can’t function. Game over…when the contractors pulled out, it was like we pulled all the sticks out of the Jenga pile and expected it to stay up."

When Ashraf Ghani failed Afghanistan — the country and its people

The report said that former President Ashraf Ghani frequently changed Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) leaders and "appointed loyalists, often on the basis of ethnicity". This, the report added, "weakened chains of command, morale, and trust in the ANDSF."

The leadership changes in the ANDSF often came by presidential decrees, the report revealed. 

The report said that following the US-Taliban agreement in Doha in February 2020, President Ghani began to suspect that the US wanted to remove him from power. Ghani feared a military coup and became a "paranoid president... afraid of his own countrymen" and of US-trained Afghan officers.

The former president had an "undeniable belief in ethnic superiority, and among the political and military elites he trusted only those who agreed with him," a former Afghan army commander, General Farid Ahmadi, was quoted as saying in the report. According to another Afghan official, Ghani believed that "in a tough time in Afghanistan, you need to really control the security forces, and that loyalty [from] those security forces only comes if most of the soldiers…are from your own tribe." 

By the time Kabul collapsed, Pashtuns headed most of the Afghanistan National Army and Afghanistan Air Force corps, including several from Ghani’s Ahmadzai tribe, the report said. 

The US conducted 7,423 airstrikes in 2019 — then stopped anti-Taliban air raids abruptly

The report said that in 2019, the United States conducted 7,423 airstrikes in Afghanistan, "the most since at least 2009", targeting Taliban and Islamic State leadership hideouts and supply lines. But the US military support to the ANDSF came to an "abrupt end" after Washington signed Doha agreement with the Taliban on February 29, 2020. 

In only 30 days, the Taliban captured all 34 provinces in Afghanistan—33 of the 34 within a 10-day period starting on August 6. By August 15, 2021, the Taliban did chilling  "victory rounds" in Kabul to mark their return to power. By this time, President Ghani fled the country and the United States completed its military withdrawal, giving away the fate of over 40 million Afghan citizens to Taliban hardliners.

Victimhood is essential to the fascist worldview
Thom Hartmann
March 04, 2023

Marjorie Taylor-Greene (R-GA) (L) fist-bumps Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) (R) during a hearing before the House Oversight and Accountability Committee.

 (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)


Today’s Republican Party, intentionally or unwittingly, is following a script.

Pastor Martin Niemöller’s famous poem begins with, “First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out because I was not a socialist.” But, in fact, first they came for the queer people.

A year before Nazis began attacking union leaders and socialists, a full five years before attacking Jewish-owned stores on Kristallnacht, the Nazis came for the trans people at the Institute for Sexual Research in Berlin.

In 1930, the Institute had pioneered the first gender-affirming surgery in modern Europe. It’s director, Magnus Hirschfeld, had compiled the largest library of books and scientific papers on the LGBTQ spectrum in the world and was internationally recognized in the field of sexual and gender studies.

Being gay, lesbian, or trans was widely tolerated in Germany, at least in the big cities, when Hitler came to power on January 30, 1933, and the German queer community was his first explicit target. Within weeks, the Nazis began a campaign to demonize queer people — with especially vitriolic attacks on trans people — across German media.

German states put into law bans on gender-affirming care, drag shows, and any sort of “public display of deviance,” enforcing a long-moribund German law, Paragraph 175, first put into the nation’s penal code in 1871, that outlawed homosexuality. Books and magazines telling stories of gay men and lesbians were removed from schools and libraries.

Thus, a mere five months after Hitler came to power, on May 6, 1933, Nazis showed up at the Institute and hauled over 20,000 books and manuscripts about gender and sexuality out in the street to burn, creating a massive bonfire.

It was the first major Nazi book-burning and was celebrated with newsreels played in theaters across the nation.

The Party leaders said, by burning books and literature about gay, lesbian, and trans people that dated back centuries and even millennia, they were consigning to the flames “the intellectual garbage of the past” and were “protecting Germany’s youth from deviance.”

It wouldn’t be the last book burning.

Fascists always start by declaring themselves the victims of others. Victimhood is essential to the fascist worldview; it’s at its core. And it’s their excuse for destroying other peoples lives.

They then cast the weakest and least popular minorities in a society as the victimizers of the fascists. Fascism is never directed against the rich or powerful, but always against those least able to defend themselves. It’s bullying turned into a political movement.

When fascists throughout history have looked for victims, they almost always begin with queer people. That minority has the smallest circle of people (compared to racial and religious minorities) who personally know and accept them, who will stand up and defend them, and who will speak out against their persecution.

From there, fascists move on to demonizing and politically disenfranchising racial and religious minorities, suppressing the rights of women, celebrating masculinity and guns, the seizure of major political parties and the courts, and then the takeover of the nation itself.

The formula is documented as far back as ancient Rome: in 326 CE, Constantine the Great, who converted the nation to Christianity, put into place the death penalty for homosexual acts. Long before Mussolini invented the word in the 1920s, fascism was a well-known and well-established way of seizing power over a nation.

And now it’s here and following the same well-trod path.

Yesterday, Kevin McCarthy tried to federally one-up Ron DeSantis on the previously state-based queer-hating fascist-meter by introducing a “parental rights” bill of his own.

In Texas and Florida today, state authorities are coming for the parents of trans kids. Red states that have been seized by fascist demagogues are purging libraries and schools of books, banning drag shows, and outlawing women’s rights to abortion and contraception.

Sexuality, race, and religion are universally weaponized by fascists. But it usually begins with sexuality/gender.

The ACLU is tracking 371 anti-trans bills across the United States: every one was introduced by Republicans. Most all include draconian criminal penalties. Erin Reed has compiled a map of them on Substack. Many are promoted as being necessary to “protect the children.”

That would be the same children who die by bullets every 2 hours and 26 minutes every day in America. Are injured every 10 to 15 minutes.

No laws to regulate the bullets or guns, though. Fascists love guns. Displaying weapons in public makes them feel more masculine, more powerful, less frightened. Wielding the ultimate power, the ability to control life or death with the tiny motion of a finger inside a trigger guard.

After Florida passed their “Don’t Say Gay or Trans” law, Human Rights Watch reported a 400% surge in social media-based hate speech directed at queer people nationwide. What starts in Florida doesn’t stay in Florida.

The FBI released a report in 2021 showing a shocking sevenfold increase in hate crimes against lesbians; crimes against gay men and trans people were up as well. Given how aggressively they’re being demonized by Republicans for political gain, by the end of this year there will be reports of a new explosion of documented hate crimes against trans people.

Suicide among queer youth is exploding with 45% reporting last year they’d considered that final act. Republicans know this, but don’t care; they’re reveling in the current fascist climate. Every new law brings more wannabee fascist voters to their side.

And they’re doing things that were unimaginable just a decade ago.

Republican or Republican-associated fascists have tried to murder the Governor of Michigan, the Vice President of the United States, and the Speaker of the House. They’ve sent bombs to dozens of high-profile Democratic politicians. They’ve killed multiple police officers and civilians in several states, as well as at the Capitol on January 6th. They’ve infiltrated the FBI and police agencies across the country.

The largest slaughter of American Jews in modern history was carried out by a fascist right-winger after Donald Trump said:

“Hillary Clinton meets in secret with international banks, to plot the destruction of U.S. sovereignty in order to enrich these global interest powers, her special interest friends, and her donors.”

You don’t even need the special Nazi decoder ring to know what Trump was talking about. Like when Republicans constantly mention George Soros and “international” Jews, as they are this week in ads running on TV and Facebook about the Wisconsin Supreme Court race.

We learned just this week that another American fascist was planning to murder Jews in the Midwest including Michigan’s openly lesbian Attorney General. Five people in a fascist group from Fresno were also arrested this week for seven terrorist bombings in that area.

Meanwhile, the hottest topic among Republicans is starting a second Civil War through Red states seceding from the union. A national divorce. And if they can’t get that, they’ll just rig elections. It’s what fascists do.

Republican-controlled states across the nation are aggressively purging Black voters from their rolls — an estimated 17 million before five Republicans on the Supreme Court legalized the practice in 2018 and tens of millions more since — to hang onto power in Red states with large Black populations.

In Florida and Texas the governors of those states have had Black ex-felons who thought they could legally vote arrested and paraded before news cameras to intimidate other Black people considering voting.

Billboards saying “Voter Fraud Is A Felony!” with pictures of white police officers or a judge’s gavel popped up across Red states in both 2020 and 2022, leading to a drop in Black voting in many places, particularly Florida.

Fascists, after all, think of democracy as old-fashioned and quaint: something to give lip service but not to seriously practice.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump recently proposed legislation outlawing trans people altogether, his very own Paragraph 175.

It’s become an unending parade of horribles, that are accelerating.

A married woman in Florida with a deformed fetus can’t get an abortion because Ron DeSantis has successfully intimidated every doctor in the state: she’s being forced to give birth to a baby that will die in minutes.

And in Florida, Channel 8 News reports:
“Florida Sen. Jason Brodeur (R-Lake Mary) wants bloggers who write about Gov. Ron DeSantis, Attorney General Ashley Moody, and other members of the Florida executive cabinet or legislature to register with the state or face fines.”

These are not isolated events that exist separate from each other. They’re part of a whole.

And we all must speak up, before it’s too late. We must call this what it is: fascism.

Today’s Republican Party, intentionally or unwittingly, is following a script. And Americans damn well better wake up soon, or there won’t be a recognizable America in the next few years.

Rishi Sunak's 'half-baked' immigration plan 'will punish desperate refugees'

Critics have warned proposed legislation banning people who come here on small boats from making asylum claims will bring chaos while failing to end the dangerous Channel crossings

Legislation aimed at stopping Channel crossings will be unveiled this week 

By
John Stevens

Political Editor
5 Mar 2023

Rishi Sunak’s “half-baked” plans to tackle illegal immigration will punish desperate refugees rather than criminal gangs, it has been warned.

Ministers will unveil legislation next week banning people who cross the Channel on small boats from making asylum claims here.

But critics have warned the proposals will bring chaos while failing to end the dangerous crossings.

Mr Sunak has vowed to put an end to "immoral" illegal migration, while Home Secretary Suella Braverman said "enough is enough".

A proposed new law would see a duty placed on the Home Secretary to remove "as soon as reasonably practicable" anyone who arrives on a small boat, either to Rwanda or a "safe third country".

Arrivals will also be prevented from claiming asylum while in the UK, with plans also to ban them from returning once removed.


Boris Johnson flogs London home for £200k under asking price as he buys country mansion

Jonathan Ashworth accused ministers of failing to stop smuggling gangs (
Image: PA)

Labour’s Jonathan Ashworth cast doubt on whether the government’s latest plans to change the law will tackle the problem of dangerous Channel crossings.

The Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary said: “We were told in the past that they've got plans and legislation that was going to deal with this problem and their promises came to nothing.

"Actually, we've seen more boat crossings and the criminal gangs getting away with more and more.”

Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said: "The Conservatives are responsible for an abysmal failure to tackle the huge increase in dangerous small boat crossings and the criminal gangs who are putting lives at risk and undermining border security.

“Ministers have made countless claims and promises yet the facts show their last law badly failed and made things worse. Instead of learning lessons, it looks like they are still recycling the same rhetoric and failure.

“Labour is calling urgently for a major new cross-border police unit to go after the criminal gangs, fast track asylum decisions and returns, and a new agreement with France and Belgium that can stop the dangerous crossings.”

Almost 3,000 people have already arrived across the Channel this year 

(Image: AFP via Getty Images)

Alistair Carmichael of the Liberal Democrat said: "This is another half baked plan that will punish the victims of human trafficking instead of the evil gangs who profit from these crossings.

"We all want to see these dangerous crossings stop, but there are currently no safe and legal routes for asylum seekers. Creating these needs to be the priority.

The latest Home Office figures show 2,950 migrants have crossed the Channel already this year.

Today it emerged deportation flights to Rwanda, which are central to the plan, may not happen until March 2024.

The controversial scheme has been mired in legal challenges and so far no planes have departed.

Advice provided to the Home Office by the Government Legal Service has warned it is "most likely" it will be tied up in the courts for more than a year.

Yvette Cooper accused the Tories of recycling old ideas (
Image: Getty Images)DON'T MISS

It came as trade unions warned that ministers are “complicit” in far-right organised violence and intimidation against refugees.

Protests outside hotels housing asylum seekers have been held in recent weeks.

In a statement organised by the Fire Brigades Union, the leaders of 14 unions said "the answer is solidarity, not scapegoating" to help deprived refugee communities.

"The Government is complicit in these attacks,” they warned. “The Rwanda policy does not make sense as a means of stopping small boat crossings - and it is failing on its own terms - but it fits with a long-running campaign of rhetoric and demonisation.

"Anti-migrant politics are an attempt to divide working class people against each other."

Signatories included Matt Wrack of the FBU, Unison president Andrea Egan, Mary Bousted and Kevin Courtney of the National Education Union and Mick Lynch of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union.

UK plans to tackle Channel crisis pushes 'boundaries of international law’

New law will see anyone who arrives in the UK on a small boat removed to Rwanda or a 'safe third country'

Migrants are taken ashore in Dungeness, Kent, after being rescued while crossing the English Channel in November 2021. AFP

Soraya Ebrahimi

Mar 06, 2023

New legislation to deal with small boats carrying migrants across the Channel has “pushed the boundaries of international law”, Home Secretary Suella Braverman has said.

Plans to remove and ban asylum seekers from re-entry if they arrive in the UK through unauthorised means are set to be unveiled by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Ms Braverman on Tuesday.

The new Bill is one of Mr Sunak's five priorities for his premiership.

READ MORE

UN says UK's asylum-seeker policy must comply with international law

But critics have warned that the proposals are “unworkable” and will leave thousands of migrants in limbo by banning them from ever claiming British citizenship again.

Despite plans such as forcibly removing asylum seekers to Rwanda being mired in legal challenges, ministers were expected to approach the limits of the European Convention on Human Rights with the new legislation.

“We must stop the boats and that’s what our bill will do," Ms Braverman wrote in The Telegraph. "No more sticking plasters or shying away from the difficult decisions.

“Myself and the Prime Minister have been working tirelessly to ensure we have a bill that works — we’ve pushed the boundaries of international law to solve this crisis.

“If you come here illegally it must be that you cannot stay.

A life boat returns to the Port of Dover in England amid a rescue operation of a missing migrant boat. Reuters

A duty will be placed on the Home Secretary to remove “as soon as reasonably practicable” anyone who arrives on a small boat, either to Rwanda or a “safe third country”.

And arrivals will be prevented from claiming asylum while in the UK, with plans also to ban them from returning once removed.

Mr Sunak spoke to Rwanda’s president Paul Kagame before unveiling his plans, and pledged to continue working with him to ensure their stalled project works.

The government has paid more than £140 million ($168m) to Rwanda but no flights forcibly carrying migrants to the capital Kigali have taken off because of legal challenges.

“The leaders committed to continue working together to ensure this important partnership is delivered successfully," a Downing Street spokeswoman said.

Mr Sunak will meet French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday to discuss further co-operation that will be required to reduce boat crossings.

Migrants at immigration processing centre in Manston - in pictures





A person gestures through a fence at the immigration processing centre in Manston, Kent in southern England. Reuters

Mr Sunak admitted voters “have heard promises before” without seeing results, but insisted his legislation “will mean that those who come here on small boats can’t claim asylum here”.

“This new law will send a clear signal that if you come to this country illegally, you will be swiftly removed,” he wrote in The Sun.

Mr Sunak said it was a plan “to do what’s fair for those at home and those who have a legitimate claim to asylum — a plan to take back control of our borders once and for all”.

The Immigration Services Union representing border staff said the plans were “quite confusing” and did not seem “possible” without the Rwanda policy functioning.

Lucy Moreton, the union’s professional officer, also suggested on BBC Radio 4 that smuggling gangs will tell people “quick, cross now before anything changes”, risking an increase in the number of crossings.

Labour leader Keir Starmer raised doubts about the legality and feasibility of the plans after the last one failed “to get us very far”.

“Now we’ve got the next bit of legislation with almost the same billing, I don’t think that putting forward unworkable proposals is going to get us very far,” Mr Starmer told LBC radio.

Asked if the plan was legally feasible, the Labour leader said: “I don’t know that it is and I think we’ve got to be very careful with international law here.”

Afghan migrant documents dangerous journey across Channel - video

Afghan migrant documents dangerous journey across Channel

Mr Sunak has been under pressure to tackle the issue amid dire polling figures for the Conservatives.

Almost 3,000 migrants have made unauthorised crossings of the English Channel this year.

Refugee Council chief executive Enver Solomon said the plans “shatter the UK’s long-standing commitment under the UN Convention to give people a fair hearing, regardless of the path they have taken to reach our shores”.

“The government’s flawed legislation will not stop the boats but result in tens of thousands locked up in detention at huge cost, permanently in limbo and being treated as criminals simply for seeking refuge,” he added.

“It’s unworkable, costly and won’t stop the boats.”

How D.C. Swamp Money Made Trains More Dangerous

I CHOO-CHOOSE YOU

The Norfolk Southern crash has brought renewed focus on how the rail industry has evaded some regulations. That story has been playing out for decades.


Roger Sollenberger
Political Reporter
Updated Mar. 05, 2023

Photo Illustration by Erin O’Flynn/The Daily Beast/Getty Images, James St. John/Wikimedia Commons, and Public Domain

After the catastrophic Norfolk Southern train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, it didn’t take long for the supercharged partisan atmosphere in Washington to morph the disaster into a political blame game.

Republicans castigated President Joe Biden’s administration for falling asleep at the switch. Biden officials pointed to deregulation under former President Donald Trump. And all the while, the rail industry knew that, even though new safety regulations would seem like an obvious response to the crash and subsequent release of toxic chemicals into the air, new regulations were far from a given.

Although it’s far from the most influential lobby in Washington, the rail industry has spent more than $700 million in the last 25 years, according to data maintained by OpenSecrets. And it’s those hundreds of millions spent pushing back against government safety regulations—primarily but not exclusively through Republicans—that has purchased considerable influence in the U.S. Capitol.

A review by The Daily Beast of lobbying and campaign finance filings tells a story of a decades-long ideological push and pull. The review shows that, while it’s sometimes difficult to draw straight lines between an acute event and its cause, entrenched corporate and political cultures still have an overwhelming influence.


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For instance, one major requirement now on the books—an automated braking technology called “positive train control” (PTC)—debuted on the National Transportation Safety Board’s “most wanted” list in 1990. But under industry pressure, PTC wasn’t fully implemented for 30 years.

As the dust, debris, and various poisons settle from this Norfolk Southern crash, it appears the Trump administration’s specific anti-regulatory moves may not be directly responsible for the wreck, which the National Transportation Safety Bureau’s preliminary report blamed on an overheated wheel bearing.

But that finding itself doesn’t necessarily shift the blame back to Biden. In fact, it puts more pressure on Republicans to do something they’ve resisted for years—expand rail safety regulations, such as updating outdated track detection technology.

That’s perhaps the most profound revelation to emerge from the financial data: meaningful changes are almost always reactive, in response to catastrophes instead of anticipating and preventing them before they happen.

In the wake of the crash, federal regulators disclosed that there have been five similar derailments since 2021, two involving Norfolk Southern, the American Journal of Transportation reported on Thursday. The article also said that current track monitoring relies on “antiquated technology” with “a mixed record of preventing accidents.”

But it’s difficult to rein in an industry that’s as vital to everyday American life as railroads are, let alone convince the industry to support forward-looking regulations that would eat into its bottom line. It’s hard to overstate the leverage that this special interest group wields—if railroads stop working, America stops eating.

And yet, the railroad industry’s culture of resistance is most immediately and easily identified in the money.

Over the years, the industry has poured hundreds of millions of dollars into blocking and stalling new rules and legislation, including measures designed to strengthen and modernize rail safety. But a side-by-side comparison of rail lobby spending and government action also suggests that money alone doesn’t explain everything. Instead, the larger baked-in political ideology of the governing party appears to have carried the day on key issues.

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This is reflected in the fact that the rail industry’s lobbying expenditures soared under Barack Obama—most specifically his first term—and then fell, most notably after Obama unilaterally enacted key safety regulations in 2015. The spending stayed at those same lower levels after Trump took office, and have continued at that rate under Biden.

According to OpenSecrets data, the railroad industry shelled out nearly $185 million on lobbying during Obama’s first four years. During Trump’s one term in office, that spending totaled around $107 million. (Rail lobbying during Obama’s second term was about $127 million, according to OpenSecrets.) And railroad lobbyists are far more likely to have direct connections to Capitol Hill than almost any other group

Filings further show that the money was largely aimed at blocking government regulation.

The Association of American Railroads—the industry’s top lobbying group—spent heavily to push back against safety, labor, and antitrust proposals during the Obama years, according to an OpenSecrets database of lobbying disclosures. Under Trump, the partisan winds became friendlier, and spending tailed off.

While Obama didn’t exactly stick it to the railroads—his early visions of overarching antitrust and labor reforms never came to fruition—he did use his executive power to impose some key safety regulations in the face of all that cash. But Trump quickly scrapped those rules with the stroke of a Sharpie, and the railroad companies apparently didn’t feel they had to kick up their spending to convince him and his allies to act in their favor.

That’s not to say they stopped spending. Lobbyists know they have to maintain their relevance, and over Trump’s term, the rail lobby—led by AAR—spent millions of dollars renting the ears of lawmakers.

Many of those expenses went to combat the Safe Freight Act. That bill would have enshrined the two-member crew minimum into law, and was introduced in 2017 by a Republican—the late Rep. Don Young of Alaska, who’s the longest serving Republican in Congress of all time.

Norfolk Southern alone spent about $4.5 million on lobbying between 2017 and 2018, according to the company’s federal lobbying disclosures.

A Norfolk Southern representative referred The Daily Beast to “our extensive Government Relations’ Political Activity and Political Contributions overview” and their statement on the NTSB findings.

“We are taking further actions to improve the safety processes and technology we currently have in place while we await the final results of the NTSB investigation,” the representative said, pointing to $1 billion annual investments in safety technology, equipment, and infrastructure and several corporate commitments.

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Asked for comment, an AAR spokesperson sent a 228-word statement saying that “any assertion that railroads broadly opposed increased safety regulations is patently false,” pointing to a “a long, consistent record.” The spokesperson gave one concrete example, “pushing the Department of Transportation” in 2015 to raise standards for tank cars carrying flammable liquids, including a petition on the matter to the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration. (Those negotiations were more nuanced, according to the DOT’s final rulemaking and the PHMSA’s response to the petition.)

The statement also directed The Daily Beast to the AAR’s statement this week on newly released Federal Railroad Administration safety data, and touted “$20 billion in annual private investments” towards broadly “maintaining the network” and “deploying technology to enhance safety.”

When Trump landed in the White House, he quickly tanked several of the targeted Obama policies. One rule—which briefly came back into the news after the Norfolk Southern derailment—mandated new brake technology for trains carrying volatile and hazardous materials. Trump also killed a rail safety audit program, along with another proposed Obama rule requiring trains to operate with two-man crews, which had already begun to languish. Those repeals and others under Trump appear either minimally or entirely unrelated to the Norfolk Southern derailment, according to a Washington Post fact check.

Generally speaking, the rail industry’s political giving has always favored the GOP. According to OpenSecrets, the industry has spent about $108.6 million to influence elections since 1990, with PACs giving more than individual employees.

Republicans have received the majority of those donations in every election, with two exceptions—the 1990 and 2010 midterms. And some of the recent top GOP recipients, such as Sens. Sam Graves, Jerry Moran, and John Thune, hold leadership positions with influence over that industry.

Contributions from Norfolk Southern employees and its corporate PAC have also historically curved towards Republicans, the data shows, though the company favored Democratic candidates in both 2020 and 2022.

In one curious case, the money went the other way.

Between 2017 and 2021, then-Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO) rented office space from Norfolk Southern for both his campaign committee and leadership PAC, FEC records show. Over that period, Blunt’s committees paid Norfolk Southern approximately $76,000 in rent. (In 2015, Blunt introduced a bill with bipartisan co-sponsors that would extend the deadline for adopting PTC.)

Still, it’s clear that Obama’s actions—no matter how debatable their relevance to the Norfolk Southern disaster, or the Democrats’ failure to deliver on antitrust issues—appear to have overcome an onslaught of cash. But he and liberal allies also weren’t able to rally enough support to fully overcome Republican and industry resistance.

It’s instructive to note that the anti-regulatory lobbying push actually started the year before Obama took office, under a Republican administration.

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That year, the railroad industry spent almost $43 million lobbying inside the beltway as Congress negotiated the bipartisan Rail Safety Improvement Act of 2008, which introduced positive train control. President George W. Bush signed it into law that October.

But the pendulum quickly swung the other way.

After the RSIA was passed, the industry dug in hard against some of those new rules, including the PTC requirement, which at that point had already been on the government’s wishlist for 18 years.

Over the next several years, the rail lobby successfully convinced lawmakers on both sides of the aisle to delay the mandate, citing cost and time constraints.

Obama himself signed a bill delaying PTC in 2015—the same year he put forward the new braking requirement that Trump tossed—and the rule was only fully adopted at the end of 2020.

The biggest revelation in the data is still not about money’s effect on the speed of progress, or even partisanship per se. Again, it’s that the most significant advancements are almost never proactive. Industry interests are powerful, and it takes a catastrophe like East Palestine to sharpen the focus on safety.

For instance, the RSIA of 2008, with its long-awaited PTC mandate, came only after a commuter train collision in Southern California killed 25 people. At the time, the Association of American Railroads put out a press release backing the bill. But according to the Internet Archive, the page disappeared from the organization’s website sometime between 2012 and 2013.

Around that same time, the industry convinced the Obama administration to extend the timeline for the PTC rule. Three years later, however, a fatal Philadelphia Amtrak wreck brought rail safety front and center again. In response, Obama enacted federal regulations without the help of Congress, while agreeing to delay PTC. The next year, however, another deadly passenger train crash put the heat back on the railroad lobby.

The Norfolk Southern freighter that derailed last month had positive train control. According to the NTSB’s preliminary report, the train’s PTC system was not to blame, as it was “enabled and operating at the time of the derailment.”

That’s put a new albeit reactive focus on another safety mechanism: old detection technology that may not be up for the task.

At a press conference addressing the report, NTSB chair Jennifer Homendy told reporters that track monitoring is “something we have to look at.”

“Roller bearings fail,” Homendy said. “But it’s absolutely critical for problems to be identified and addressed early so these aren’t run until failure.”