Expanding gay sex pardons to women won't help most prosecuted lesbians


Caroline Derry, Senior Lecturer in Law, The Open University

THE CONVERSATION
Fri, 23 June 2023 

Stephm2506/Shutterstock

More than a decade after launching a scheme to disregard and pardon convictions for historic “gay sex” offences, the government has now announced the scheme will apply to women. But a look at the history of lesbians and bisexual women convicted for same-sex activity shows that this will do very little to right historic wrongs.

When the scheme was created in 2012, it was limited to cautions and convictions for buggery (anal intercourse) or gross indecency between men. Neither offence applied to sex between women. Anyone convicted of other offences on the basis of same-sex activity could not obtain a pardon or disregard. A disregard means that the offence is deleted from official records and is not disclosed during criminal record checks. Since 2017, a pardon has automatically been granted at the same time.

The new scheme includes any offence which has been abolished or repealed, where the “criminal” conduct was same-sex sexual activity. However, it does not do much to help women, because sex between women has never been a specific offence. (The exception is armed forces veterans convicted under military laws, which were interpreted as prohibiting homosexual acts.)

Instead, prosecutors were inventive in their use of non-sexual offences, many of which remain in force today. I’ve detailed many of these cases in my book on lesbianism and criminal law.

Before same-sex marriage became legally recognised in 2013, some couples’ attempts to marry ended in court. They were charged with perjury, for making false statements to obtain a marriage certificate. A couple who attempted to marry in 1954 were convicted of this offence. The bridegroom was in fact a trans man, but the magistrates’ court considered the couple as lesbians and condemned their “unnatural passions”. Since perjury is still an offence today, they would not be entitled to a pardon.

Read more: Pardons for historic homosexual offences are welcome - but we still need to address the legacy of criminalisation

Less serious offences were rarely reported in the press, so there have probably been many more cases than we are aware of. In particular, minor displays of public same-sex affection have come before the courts as breaches of public order.

Breach of the peace has been used for centuries and as recently as 1980, a lesbian couple who kissed goodbye at a railway station were detained by police. They were later released without charge, but if they had been prosecuted, they would not be entitled to a pardon.

Breach of the peace has not been abolished, and is technically not a conviction since a person is not punished, but is “bound over to be of good behaviour” – meaning they agree to behave for a set period, and will be punished if they do not.

An alternative is conviction under public order offences, whose broad definitions have been used to criminalise same-sex affection. In 1986, two men were convicted of “nuisances in thoroughfares” under the Metropolitan Police Act 1839 after kissing at a bus stop. This has been partially repealed, but similar offences under the Public Order Act 1986 are still in force so pardons would not be available.

One sexual offence which was used to convict women has been repealed: indecent assault. The Sexual Offences Act 2003 replaced it with sexual assault offences. However, a woman would only be convicted of “indecent assault of a female” if the other person was under 16 or did not consent. Rightly, such behaviour remains criminal today.

Before 2004, lesbians’ attempts to marry often ended in court. 

Pressmaster/Shutterstock

This exclusion of women is not just an unfortunate oversight. It is part of a long history of silencing the possibility of sex between women as a way of repressing it. In other words, legislators did not just forget to make it a crime or decide to tolerate it. They were vehemently opposed to it, but feared that if women heard about it then their own wives and daughters might try it.

For example, in a 1921 debate on criminalising “gross indecency between females”, Lieutenant Colonel Moore Brabazon MP insisted that rather than execute or imprison lesbians (both “very satisfactory”), it was better “to leave them entirely alone, not notice them, not advertise them. That is the method that has been adopted in England for many hundred years.” Parliament has arguably continued “not noticing” women in the newly expanded disregard and pardon scheme.
A flawed scheme

The lack of consideration of women’s legal position is not the only problem with this scheme. Despite thousands of eligible convictions, there have been only 208 successful applications by men.

The strict eligibility criteria poses many barriers for applicants, and as a result, two out of three applications have been rejected. To benefit from the scheme, applicants must provide documents and share details of often traumatic events. A caseworker then considers the case records and makes a decision.

But establishing the circumstances of a conviction can be difficult decades after the original events. Records may be missing or incomplete. T

hey might omit details confirming that the activity would not be criminal today (for example, whether the other party was over 16 and consented). As the guidance to caseworkers makes clear, applications can be rejected because of that missing information.

Access to a disregard and pardon is important in practice since criminal convictions can blight people’s lives. It is important in principle because it acknowledges the injustice of convictions based upon legal discrimination.

However, the scheme does not adequately meet these needs – and for women in particular, the recent reforms will not change that.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

The Conversation

The Observer
LGBTQ+ rights

Life inside the wild London club where lesbians were free to be themselves

A new documentary takes viewers back down the rickety stairs to the trailblazing Gateways in Chelsea


Beryl Reid (as Oliver Hardy) during the filming of The Killing of Sister George. 

Photograph: David Newell Smith/The Observer


Ginny Dougary

Sat 18 Jun 2022 

This article is 1 year old

The Gateways is back. The longest-running lesbian club of all-time – the one whose actual clientele appeared in the 1968 film The Killing of Sister George; the one where Mick Jagger tried to talk the owner into letting him crash in a frock; the one that was a sanctuary to every class and sort of woman, from well-known figures such as the writer Patricia Highsmith and the artist Maggi Hambling (then an art student) to swimming-pool attendants at the Tooting Bec lido – has been given a new lease of life in the first full-length documentary film to celebrate its history, and ensure that it is not erased.

Behind a dull green door on the corner of King’s Road and Bramerton Street in Chelsea, down some rickety steps to the basement lay the dive, a former strip club. The lease had been won in a bet at a broadcast boxing event at the Dorchester hotel by course bookie Ted Ware in 1943, and initially he offered it as a hang-out to a group of his lesbian pals who had been kicked out of their old Soho haunt the Bag O’ Nails pub after new owners took over and banned them.

Ted married an Italian actress, Gina Cerrato, in 1953 (they had a daughter, also named Gina, a year later) and the couple ran the club with Gina’s right-hand woman, Smithy, a former member of the US Air Force from California. They turned it into a women-only venue in 1967. After Ted’s death in 1979, Gina kept the club running but its last night was in 1985. She died in 2001.

I first met Gina Jnr (as she was never called) in Bristol in 1975 when she stood out as someone striking in a wide-striped black-and-gold form-fitting men’s suit with a Louise Brooks bob. Growing up, she says she had no idea of what sort of club her parents ran.

Family home life in the leafy mock-Tudor suburbia of Isleworth, West London, was unusual … but not to her. As well as her parents, Smithy had been invited to move in by Ted shortly after his daughter’s fourth birthday. He explained to Gina that it was in recognition of the kindness shown to him in New York as an illegal immigrant when he had been offered safe harbour by a black woman, and then a Jewish family.

There was no flamboyant atmosphere of bohemian chaos. The decor was monochrome: “My mother was never into chintz.” Bedtimes were strict; meals were served at the same hour every day; homework was not to be shirked; a neighbour would take her to church every Sunday. But Gina was aware that her family was more fun than her friends’ families, and if most of the people who visited were pairs of women friends, this seemed perfectly normal.

“When I went to other people’s houses I would find them extraordinarily suffocating and conventional. There’d be this ghastly father who was a boring old fart and a mother who was terribly uptight,” she recalls. “I was glad to go home to the laughter and fun. There was a lot more conversation, and I had a lot more access to my parents than my friends did to theirs. I could say what I wanted as well.”

Even as small children, she and her friends helped with jobs for the club: counting threepenny bits and sixpences from the till for the cigarette and fruit machines, and wiping down bottles of tonic water that were stored in the garage.

The Gateways around 1953.

She was 13 when she discovered for the first time about the club’s clientele and purpose. “It was Sunday lunchtime and my mother and I were washing up after lunch. She said: ‘I want to talk to you about something because you’re going to hear about this at school. You do know what the club is, don’t you?’ I said: ‘What do you mean?It’s a club,’ and she said: ‘It’s a lesbian club, Gina.’

“I said: ‘What?’ And she said: ‘Lesbians! You know, women with women.’ So I was, like: ‘Really? Really?’”

“I think I then said: ‘Does Dad know?’ And she said: ‘He started it! It’s his club!’”

Neatly, it was a story in this newspaper about The Killing of Sister George and the club that persuaded Gina’s mother to explain.

In her mother’s final three weeks, there were a few astonishing revelations. The two Ginas were watching television together when Mick Jagger appeared and Gina Snr asked for the remote to turn the volume up, saying: “Oh, it’s Mick – such a lovely boy.”

He lived in Cheyne Walk, and would pass by the Gateways to get to the King’s Road. “And my mum would be outside, taking deliveries, doing the laundry or whatever, and she said that he used to stop and talk quite often.

“And I was, like: ‘You mean, you knew Mick Jagger?’ And she said: ‘Oh yes, and he was always so kind and respectful. He wanted to come into the club but I wouldn’t let him. He said: ‘Gina, please let me – I’ll wear a dress’, and I said: ‘Darling, I can’t – it’s women-only.’”


There was always speculation about the relationship between her mother and Smithy. On her death bed, her daughter finally asked her about it. “I said: ‘People always ask me, Mum, and I hate to ask you but were you and Smithy lovers?’ And she said: ‘Everybody always assumed that Smithy was madly in love with me and that I was playing her along. But no we weren’t, and the reason for that was that Smithy didn’t want it.’

“That was my first inkling that my mother must have been bisexual.”

The two Ginas and Ted Ware in the 1970s.

Regardless of their lack of intimate relations, Smithy and Gina Snr loved each other deeply. As did Gina and Ted, who was 25 years older than his wife. “Despite their age difference, they had fun together, and there was an intellectual bond because they both had very fast, sharp minds and were clever, charismatic people.

“We lived as a family. Smithy and my mother were both with my father when he died – all holding hands and taking care of him.”

When the club closed, Gina was very sad but knew that she couldn’t take it over by herself. The documentary Gateways Grind is a way of restoring its history, which is enmeshed with her own, and to see her parents again.

It is presented by Sandi Toksvig, who recalls her own visits to the club, and has interviews with former members. It is sharp, snappy, sassy and sexy – oh, and of course, very sapphic, too. The Gateways Grind, we learn, was a particularly popular dance there where tightly meshed groin action became literally orgasmic.

Gina says she feels “immensely proud and impressed by the work and the commitment [behind the documentary] and still astonished by the interest and love that people have for the Gateways and how they remember it.


“Because we didn’t always have that. There was a time when we were out of favour because we weren’t ‘the right sort of lesbians’.” The club was subjected to demonstrations by the likes of the Gay Liberation Front who disapproved of the secrecy of the club, at a time when women could lose their children for being gay. The indomitable Gina Snr’s response was to call the police on them.

“Gateways wasn’t about being political. Being lesbian was its default position. People coming who were ‘terribly lesbian’ and ‘terribly activist’ were shocked by the fact they weren’t considered special,” says Gina.


Lesbian nightclub the Gateways is celebrated in new show

In January 2020, an application was made to English Heritage for a blue plaque next to what was the dull green door in Chelsea. It is supported by many prominent lesbians but the outcome is still pending.

Gina’s reaction? “It is very emotional for me in the sense that I loved all those people dearly. I know what they went through. It wasn’t all fun and games. There was a lot of sorrow, a lot of harshness, life was not a bed of roses for them.

“So, yes, it’s important to have that blue plaque because it’s a location that means an awful lot to people and something genuinely happened there.”

Gateways Grind will be on BBC4 on 21 June, and screened at the Barbican cinema on Sunday 3 July along with a ScreenTalk with director Jacquie Lawrence and actors Victoria Broom and Lu Corfield

The Killing of Sister George : the Gateways club

  

Dir. Robert Aldrich (1968). Beryl Reid plays June Buckridge, an actress on a popular tv show. In this scene June and her girlfriend (Susannah York) are celebrating because they think June's character (Sister George), who was to be killed off on the show, is going to be spared and June will get to keep her job after all. They do a Laurel and Hardy routine and then one of the executives who produces the show (Coral Browne) arrives with some news. The scene was shot on location at the Gateways club in London, which was a popular lesbian club in the 1940's-60's. You can read more about the club here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gateways... and its proprietor Gina Ware here: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obi... Ware is briefly in this scene playing herself. She's wearing a sparkly black dress — when the Coral Brown character enters the club she asks her if she's looking for anyone.

TRAILER

 

Lesbian Central: A Conversation with Kate Millett and Sarah Schulman

CANADA

‘The books of a country reflect the health of a democracy’: Q&A with author Annahid Dashtgard


Hamid Jafari
Local Journalism Initiative
Fri, June 23, 2023

In her book ‘Bones of Belonging: Finding Wholesomeness in a White World’, author Annahid Dashtgard dives into the complex and multifaceted nature of belonging, racial justice, and the intricate messiness of human existence.

Dashtgard, an Iranian-Canadian woman who fled her homeland, Iran, after the 1979 Revolution, unravels the complexities and nuances of navigating multiple cultural and societal spheres. Her book, which features a collection of poignant essays, explores the impact of systemic inequities and calls for a collective effort to dismantle oppressive systems.

Her efforts for raising these discussions has not been limited to this book. With a master’s degree in education and an undergraduate degree in psychology, Annahid is also the CEO and co-founder of Anima Leadership — a Toronto-based diversity and inclusion consulting company. Her previous book, ‘Breaking the Ocean’, addresses the long-term impacts of immigration, discrimination and racial trauma.

“I’m using story as a way of making accessible the experience of racism,” Dashtgard said. “The books of a country reflect the health of a democracy, and there’s a big gap between the health of the democracy that a lot of people believe we have and what is really the case.”

New Canadian Media caught up with Dashtgard to learn more about her process and experiences.

Note: The following Q&A interview has been edited and condensed for clarity and brevity.

What motivated you to write “Bones of Belonging” and explore the experiences of racialized immigrant women in Canada?

Well, I wanted to write the book that I did not see growing up, and I think book worlds are how we make meaning of our lives and experiences. I always did [that] through reading books by white authors, which was OK, but it didn’t help me make sense of parts of my life. I wanted to write from a perspective that I think is missing. I jokingly sometimes say that it’s the Brown version of ‘Eat, Pray, Love,’ the book that became famous by Elizabeth Gilbert.

Canada is a multicultural country, and Canadians like to talk a lot about how we’re so multicultural and accepting of our differences, except when you go to your local bookstore or library. You look at the voices that are getting published, and they’re still mostly by white people born in Canada. I think that’s a problem because our stories are reflective of who is visible in a nation, and who is visible means who’s opinion or who’s realities we take into account when we make decisions and pass laws and policies.

The books of a country reflect the health of a democracy, and there’s a big gap between the health of the democracy that a lot of people believe we have and what is really the case. So, I think it’s essential we have more stories reflective of the realities of many communities in Canada that are still not being represented.

How did your personal experiences shape the content and direction of the book?

When I moved to Canada as a child, I was nine. I grew up with the myth that everything that was available to white Canadians born in Canada would be available to me, and that certainly wasn’t true. But I believed it because I had to, and there was always a struggle between what I believed and what was true.

I grew up thinking that I must be the problem and, as a lot of immigrants do, work[ed] harder and harder trying to simulate and change aspects of who I was, like my physical body. I’m proud to say I’m one of the few Persian women I know that did not have a nose job, which I’m so glad about as an adult. But I think it’s one of the things that, especially a lot of Persian women do because they think if they do, it’ll make them more acceptable and attractive.

I’m conscious of the code-switching thing of going into white environments where I lower my voice. I’m more polite, and I’m not as opinionated. I dropped a number of those things as an adult, but I can still feel the pressure of them.

It wasn’t until adulthood where I started to realize it’s not about me being the problem. The problem is that we still have a single version of what it means to be Canadian, a single version of what it means to be successful. The version of those stories is still written from the perspective of a white male, upper-class person. It has taken a lot of work throughout my adult life, from age 21 to now that I’m 50, to unlearn what I learned… from the perspective of feminism, anti-racism, and anti-oppression and to understand there are other stories. The impact of that story has harmed me, and I have harmed myself because I’ve been trying to live up to that. That unlearning has been the fuel to write my own story and stories.

A lot of the stories in this book are really about what it means to exist in the in-between. I exist in the in-between of being born in a foreign country but also being Canadian in so many ways. I’m Persian by birth but my father is Persian and my mother is British so there’s also cultural in-between. There is the reality of exile but also feeling home.

How can storytelling provide insight into the challenges of belonging in a society grappling with issues of race and whiteness?

Stories are the universal access point. As humans, our brains are wired to understand the world through stories in a way that statistics and facts and research do not provide. I see this every day in my work as a consultant and educator, teaching people about inclusion and anti-racism. I can go through a PowerPoint and go on and on about facts and the most up-to-date statistics, and I see people’s eyes start to glaze.

I tell one story from my own life or from what I’ve witnessed or experienced or seen in my work, and I watch people’s eyes light up, and the story reaches way deeper than anything else I might say in a two-hour session. It’s also how I learn, I can remember what happened in the book ten years later, whereas I barely remember what I learned in that webinar that I went through 10 years ago. It’s what sticks!

We’re in a time when this conversation about difference, especially racial difference, has become so polarized, and I think that’s a real problem. [It] is the first step towards increasing violence, and that’s what’s happening: verbal violence in the workplace, people stonewalling, passive-aggressively ignoring, and being violent to each other. Most folks living their lives are not going to pick up an academic book on anti-racism and educate themselves… but I think they will pick up a book like “Bones of Belonging.”

I’ve had a lot of feedback on this book already by people going, “I picked this book up, and it was really relatable.” So, I wrote a book that I hope is accessible, and I hope it acts as a bridge.

How do you envision the book impacting its readers, particularly those who may have had similar experiences or identities?

Oh, I love that question because the one thing I wanted more than anything else is for people to go, “I’m so glad you wrote this because I see myself in these stories.” There’s been a lot of messages like that. We people in these identities who are non-white, who are immigrants, who share identities that I talk about, have a hunger to be visible and see ourselves represented in the stories.

I’m just one voice. I think we need many more, and they’re starting to come, but it’s a very slow trickle. I think there’s a real hunger for people to see themselves represented, and that was my biggest hope and the biggest reception, which I’m grateful for.

Were there any challenges you faced while writing the book? How did you overcome them?

I see the biggest challenges at the beginning. I had an agent and I had feedback that the book didn’t fit neatly into one genre. The feedback I got was [that] it’s sort of a blend of nonfiction and also political analysis. I understood that the elements of race and immigration that I talked about are termed political. But for people that are in these identities, this is “everyday life.” What we term political is very much dependent on who is calling that out.

So I had to do a lot of fighting and advocating and educating in the early stages for why this book is needed, who it would reach, and why it’s important. I ended up firing my agent. I chose one of the few publishers that is a black man. When I reached out to him, he immediately sent me an email within five minutes saying [he would] publish this without even reading the whole thing because [he] had read my first book and said [he knew] that this will be important. His name is Kwame Scott Fraser, and he’s an amazing guy that’s done a lot at Dundurn Press in Toronto.

Could you elaborate on the term “Bones of Belonging” and its significance within the context of the book?

I would say that the truest stories are the ones that live in the bone, and when we speak those stories, they resonate. That’s the version that other people relate to and resonate with because they can feel its truth, but it’s the hardest one to dig for.

In one of the stories in the book, I talk about my own experience of making an assumption.I really wanted to expose different elements of what felt true. People can start to excavate their own skeletons.

The structure of the book came very early on, and I envisioned it as a human skeleton-like body. The larger essays are bigger bones in the body that form the bigger skeleton, and then the little in-between vignettes are like the smaller bones. I envision the book in a way that you could just read one limb, or you could read the whole thing and put it all together.

Have there been any surprising or particularly impactful reactions to the book?

We’re not at a time where a book like this is going to get a major plunk of money by Penguin Random House because it’s too “political.” It’s gone out for a Goodreads campaign and has been sent out to a group of influencers in the US, and the response has been wonderful.

What has surprised me is having conversations with people in the literary world, like festival organizers and independent booksellers, who I don’t think have a lot of vision, they tend to just go with the flow, and I’ve been surprised that a number of them have not heard of the book. That seems quite lazy and disappointing to me. In the Canadian publishing world, there’s a lot of talk about diversity, but I don’t think there’s as much action happening, and that’s been disappointing but not surprising. I’m now on the board of the Writers Union of Canada — I just joined — so I am going to put my efforts [into] what I’m talking about.

I was really proud of what the book became. It was listed on a Canadian bestseller list in its first week, and there’s been pieces published in Shadow Lane and the Walrus magazine and CBC books. So that has been wonderful. The disappointing element is when I walk into my local bookstore and they don’t have any copies available and I have to think, ‘What does it take, then, for a book to get noticed by you?’

Hamid Jafari, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, New Canadian Media

UK
Glastonbury couple seal marriage during intimate handfasting ceremony

Sarah Ping
Fri, 23 June 2023 a

Stuart Beauchamp and Anna Stevens took part in a handfasting ceremony at Glastonbury to ‘seal their marriage’ (Tom Leese/PA) (Tom Leese/PA)

A couple from Birmingham, who have been to every Glastonbury for the last nine years and met through music, say they have “finally sealed our marriage” in a hand-tying ceremony at the festival, calling it the “icing on the cake” to their marriage.

Stuart Beauchamp, 49, a finance director, and his wife, Anna Stevens, 44, have been married for four weeks but decided to seal their marriage at a handfasting ceremony, which is an ancient practice that sees couples tie their wrists together with cloth to declare their commitment to each other.

The couple, who have known each other for more than 25 years, said they felt “blessed” to be able to “put our own stamp” on their married life together.

“It was really good. I didn’t know what to expect, but it was amazing,” Ms Stevens told the PA news agency.

Mr Beauchamp added: “It’s sealed our marriage because we’ve only been married for four weeks, so this is officially our honeymoon. It was a great opportunity to do something different and just make us put our own stamp on it.”

Ms Stevens said she felt “quite emotional” after the ceremony.

“We’ve been together for nearly 25 years and we try and come to Glastonbury every year, so this is the icing on the cake,” she said.

The couple, who first met in a Birmingham nightclub in 1998 for the memorial night for DJ Tony De Vit, who died in the same year, have attended the world-famous festival every year over the last decade, which they dub “the best festival of all time”.

“It’s a place to be free and just do what you want… no-one bats an eyelid,” Mr Beauchamp said.

The pair carried out the ceremony in style, fitted in clothing suited for the Day of the Dead festival held in Mexico every year to remember loved ones who have passed away.

Mr Beauchamp was dressed in a black suit with white details, an oversized bowtie and a large, black sombrero, while Ms Stevens donned a black corset with a red skirt, a flower headpiece and a black veil.

“We dressed as Day of the Dead a couple of years back at Glastonbury so we thought it (would) be fitting to do bride and groom Day of the Dead,” Mr Beauchamp said.

The couple were advised by the celebrant to keep the cloth tied around their wrists for as long as possible, but when asked how long they might wear it, Mr Beauchamp joked: “Until she needs a wee.”

The celebrant, Glenda Procter from the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, has been doing handfasting at Glastonbury for more than a decade to offer a personalised and “very intimate” ceremony for couples.

“I think couples truly experience something very intimate, and very personal. And for them this ceremony is all about love,” the 71-year-old told PA.

“Having a hand tie, for many couples, that’s all they need because, actually, nobody can marry them except themselves.

“I say in the ceremony when they sit here that the union is made in their hearts and it’s a union of body, mind and soul.”

Ms Procter began handfasting after becoming a marriage registrar and felt there was “something lacking in a registration ceremony”.

Now, she hosts proposals, ceremonies and creates a space for couples to declare their commitment where many become overwhelmed with emotions.

“All sorts of things happen at Glastonbury and it’s a very special place for couples,” she said.

“My first ceremony here was a couple that had been married five days, so for them, this was what meant the most to them.”

Ms Procter also spoke of a “remarkable” and intimate ceremony between a couple in their 70s who completed their handfasting ceremony with “no guests, no witnesses, just the two of them”.

“They said their vows and their pledges and for them that was all they needed to have that surety that they would not be abandoned, that they were together forever,” she said.

Russia is 'training combat dolphins' in Crimea: UK


AFP
Fri, 23 June 2023 

The Soviet Union previously used dolphins in the military (Vyacheslav Oseledko)

British military spies on Friday said Russia appears to be training combat dolphins in the annexed Crimean peninsula to counter Ukrainian forces.

In its latest update on the conflict, UK Defence Intelligence said the Russian Navy had invested heavily in security at the Black Sea Fleet's main base at Sevastopol since last year.

"This includes at least four layers of nets and booms across the harbour entrance. In recent weeks, these defences have highly likely also been augmented by an increased number of trained marine mammals," it added.

"Imagery shows a near doubling of floating mammal pens in the harbour which highly likely contain bottle-nosed dolphins."

The animals were "likely intended to counter enemy divers", it added.

The Russian Navy has used Beluga whales and seals for a range of missions in Arctic waters, the update said.

A harness-wearing whale that turned up in Norway in 2019, sparking speculation it was being used for surveillance, reappeared off Sweden's coast last month.

Norwegians nicknamed it "Hvaldimir" -- a pun on the word "whale" in Norwegian (hval) and a nod to its alleged association with Russia.

Hvaldimir's harness had a mount suitable for housing an action camera, and the words "Equipment St. Petersburg" printed on the plastic clasps.

In 2016, Russia's defence ministry sought to buy five dolphins as part of attempts to revive its Soviet-era use of the highly intelligent cetaceans for military tasks.

Both the Soviet Union and the United States used dolphins during the Cold War, training them to detect submarines, mines and spot suspicious objects or individuals near harbours and ships.

A retired Soviet colonel told AFP at the time that Moscow even trained dolphins to plant explosive devices on enemy vessels.

They knew how to detect abandoned torpedoes and sunken ships in the Black Sea, said Viktor Baranets, who witnessed military dolphin training in the Soviet and post-Soviet eras.

The US Navy used sea lions deployed to Bahrain in 2003 to support Operation Enduring Freedom after the 9/11 attacks in New York and Washington.

phz/jit/ach

Swiss museum probes 'king of clowns' Nazi links


Agnès PEDRERO
Fri, 23 June 2023 

Born in 1880, Grock -- real name Adrien Wettach -- grew up in the Bernese Jura mountains above the city of Biel in northern Switzerland (Fabrice COFFRINI)

Grock became known as the "king of clowns" but the Swiss entertainer who made the world laugh is now in the spotlight over his connections with Adolf Hitler.

A Swiss museum, which has recently acquired Grock's archive, is researching links between the performer -- considered by peers to be the greatest musical clown of his time -- and the dictator of Nazi Germany.

In the first half of the 20th century, Grock's success rivalled that of Charlie Chaplin. But while Chaplin satirised Hitler, Grock seems to have welcomed him into his dressing room.

Last month, the Neues Museum Biel took possession of around a thousand items from Grock's collection.

Sound recordings from shows, letters, photographs and musical scores were donated by Grock's 74-year-old great-nephew Raymond Naef.

Via Naef, Grock's stage costumes and musical instruments were donated by Switzerland's Knie family circus dynasty.

But the Neues Museum Biel did not want to put on a Grock exhibition without first exploring the artist's life off-stage, where he developed a reputation as a shrewd businessman.

"It's the museum's responsibility. It's absolutely necessary," the art and history museum's director Bernadette Walter told AFP.

- Hitler telegram -

Wettach published several autobiographies and his great-nephew Naef wrote a book and curated a 2002 exhibition about Grock's career -- but until now, no historian has investigated the nature of his Nazi connections.

"Grock says in his autobiography that Hitler came to his dressing room, and that Hitler saw his shows 13 times," said Walter, though the museum has not yet verified the claim.

The museum did not consider turning down his archive, which entails conducting lots of research -- something Walter compared to the investigations that cultural institutions carry out into artworks looted by the Nazis.

"A museum must also tell stories that are not always spotless," the director said, arguing that the past should not simply be forgotten.

At a May 12 online auction, the museum tried to buy, for research purposes, a seasonal greetings telegram that Grock sent to Hitler in 1942.

"We know that he met Hitler and (Joseph) Goebbels," the Nazi propaganda chief, and that he performed for wounded German soldiers, said Walter, but whether he had any political allegiances remains a mystery.

Grock performed in Germany before the Nazis came to power in 1933, and the museum wants to see whether he adapted his stage show afterwards.

Grock always said he was apolitical and his autobiography mentions his shows in Britain, France and the United States, said Walter.

"He played when he was paid. We know that Grock was opportunistic, but that cannot be used as an excuse."

- No joke -

Laurent Diercksen, who wrote the 1999 book "Grock: An Extraordinary Destiny", said the acrobat, juggler and multi-instrumentalist "didn't give a damn about politics" and focused on "success".

"We cannot judge him on a single letter, an isolated act or one revelation taken out of context," the journalist told AFP, finding it a shame that the great music hall artiste might primarily be remembered for his "so-called Nazi sympathies".

Born in 1880, Grock -- real name Adrien Wettach -- grew up in the Bernese Jura mountains above the city of Biel in northern Switzerland.

He chose his pseudonym in the early 1900s, when he replaced Brock in Brick and Brock, a famous duo of the time.

Grock died in 1959 aged 79, with his sketches known to audiences around the world.

"He brought laughter to an era when there wasn't much to laugh about," said his great-nephew, who nonetheless recalled that Grock's connections with the Nazis had caused family disputes.

But he wanted Grock's collection to be publicly accessible for historical research and potentially be exhibited, adding that people needed to distinguish between the art and the artiste.

"We do not destroy the houses built by the architect Le Corbusier simply because he was also a bit of a fascist," Naef concluded.

apo/rjm/rox/ach

UK
Inspirational mother who recently battled cancer, covid and norovirus reaches 100


Jessica Barnes
Fri, 23 June 2023 

Louisa Langley will celebrate the milestone birthday this Saturday (Image: Supplied)

FORMER Rylands Wire worker says she must reach her 100th birthday because she has ‘just renewed her fridge-freezer insurance’.

Born on Halifax Close in Padgate back in 1923, Louisa Langley is described as ‘an inspiration to all her family’.

One of four siblings, and having grown a flourishing family of her own, Louisa will soon be expecting a letter from King Charles III and Queen Camilla, as she celebrates her milestone birthday this Saturday.


Starting work in the office at Rylands Wire Works as a teenager, this is where Louisa eventually met her beloved husband and the father of her children, Walter.

Warrington Guardian: Louisa Langley and Walter met when they were eighteen while working at Rylands Wire works in Warrington

Louisa Langley and Walter met when they were eighteen while working at Rylands Wire works in Warrington (Image: Supplied)

A whirlwind romance, the 18-year-olds met and fell in love but only three months later Walter was called up for the Army.

Louisa’s daughter, Maureen Baxter-Smallwood said: “Dad was called away to Burma during the war and was away for three years, he was not allowed to come home.”

“Mum waited for him. He used to write poems and letters to her all the time. She still has the book of poems he wrote to her.”

Upon Walters return to Warrington after the end of the Second World War, the pair got married in 1947 at St Mary’s Church and their first child Dave was born a year later.

Warrington Guardian: Louisa and Walter married after he returned from Burma during the Second World War

Louisa and Walter married after he returned from Burma during the Second World War (Image: Supplied)

Their second child, Maureen was born a few years after that in 1953 and Louisa stayed at home to look after the children until they were of school age, when she went back to work as a cleaner at Boots in Warrington.

As a family, Maureen said how both her and her brother have ‘extremely happy childhood memories’ visiting different holiday locations across the country.

“All the holidays we went on were in this country. One of my first memories was in a Butlins Chalet.

“We used to go to Wales a lot and we had lots of happy memories.”

Maureen said how in later life, Louisa and Walter would enjoy visiting the St Stephen’s Club in Orford every weekend and would play bingo and listen to live music.

“They also loved going walking around the shops in Birchwood and they would go and use the toning tables together. They were both very active together up until their 70s and 80s.”

Sadly Walter died in 2011 and Maureen said the family did not know how their mum would continue without him.

Warrington Guardian: Louisa will celebrate her 100th birthday on Saturday surrounded by family and friends

Louisa will celebrate her 100th birthday on Saturday surrounded by family and friends (Image: Supplied)

“When dad died, we did not know if she would cope without him. He took good care of her and looked after her for all of their life together,” she said.

But as the admirable figure head she is known to be, Louisa has continued to surprise her family with her strong will and strength.

Maureen said the last decade has been particularly testing for Louisa.

“She survived cancer of the womb eight years ago. She got through it no problem.

“She said to me ‘I am not going anywhere because I have just renewed my fridge-freezer insurance for another five years’.”

After battling cancer Louisa suffered a fractured spine, before then contracting and overcoming Covid and a spout of norovirus.

“After everything that she has been through, she has come back smiling,” Maureen added.

Warrington Guardian: Louisa has battled cancer, covid and norovirus in the last 10 years of her life but has 'still come out smiling'

Louisa has battled cancer, covid and norovirus in the last 10 years of her life but has 'still come out smiling' (Image: Supplied)

Lousia now lives in a bungalow in Culcheth and receives full time care by a team of ‘adoring’ carers who are continuously caught off guard by Louisa’s impeccable sense of humour.

“The carers love her and are so good to her. She is always making them laugh.”

Summarising her mum’s character, Maureen said: “She is very tough and an inspiration to all the family.”

Louisa will be joined by her two children, six grandchildren, five great grandchildren and her great-great grandchild, along with all her family and friends and carers to celebrate her 100th birthday at the Village Club in Culcheth.

Maureen added that Louisa’s secret to living a long and healthy life is her ‘little tot of whiskey she enjoys of a night’.

AUSTERITY KILLS
UK
Opinion
I watched Cameron and Osborne at the Covid inquest. They are still in denial about the damage they inflicted on Britain

Andy Beckett
Fri, 23 June 2023 

Photograph: UK Covid-19 Inquiry/PA

David Cameron’s government feels so long ago. Seven years of almost constant Tory turmoil, upheaval in all the other parties, huge strikes and economic crises, the war in Ukraine and the pandemic catastrophe: together, they make Cameron’s calm resignation statement outside 10 Downing Street in 2016, and his jaunty humming afterwards, seem like something from another, less frightening era.

In some ways, the worse things get in this country, the better it is for Cameron’s reputation. Even the most damaging acts of his six-year tenure – from calling the Brexit referendum to imposing austerity to the military intervention in Libya – are steadily disappearing behind the subsequent disasters under Theresa May, Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak. The social liberalism of Cameron’s premiership can be overstated: he only overcame Tory opposition to same-sex marriage with Labour support. But his liberalism seems more of an achievement now that his party has reverted to being reactionary.

Meanwhile, some voters and journalists have simply lost interest in his government. When he gave evidence at the Covid inquiry this week, half the seats in the modestly sized hearing room for reporters and members of the public were not occupied. Given how unpopular the Conservatives are currently, being semi-ignored is arguably a kind of victory.

And yet, the dividing line between the Toryism of the Cameroons, as they were once a little indulgently known, and the more obviously nasty and chaotic Conservatism that has followed is not as solid as anyone tempted to be nostalgic for the Cameron years might imagine. To a significant, yet increasingly forgotten extent, Cameron’s premiership was not a contrast to today’s Conservatism but its origin.

It was as his home secretary that Theresa May said in 2012: “The aim is to create, here in Britain, a really hostile environment for illegal immigrants.” At the same year’s Tory conference, held when half those in poverty were in working families, the chancellor, George Osborne, chose to speak instead about people “sleeping off a life on benefits”. Putting people into crude, socially divisive categories for political advantage was not something the Cameron government invented, but it was a strikingly aggressive practitioner of the strategy. The Conservative victory in the 2015 election, their first outright win for 23 years, ensured that the party would continue to divide and rule.

Both Cameron and Osborne have earned a lot of money, while millions made poorer by their policies have continued to suffer

Osborne is a less polite kind of elite Englishman than Cameron, and so during their government he often played the aggressive role. Yet Cameron’s own politics have long mixed mildness with harsher elements. In his Downing Street memoir, defensively titled For the Record and published during Johnson’s premiership, there are some indirect criticisms of unnamed Tories for making the party “less liberal” and less of “a broad church”. But there are also passages that may surprise Cameron’s centrist admirers, such as Tony Blair and Keir Starmer’s speechwriter Philip Collins. On austerity, Cameron writes: “My assessment now is that we probably didn’t cut enough … The job we started still needs to be finished.” In that crucial respect at least, he thinks his successors have not been rightwing enough.

Since being forced from office by their Brexit blunder, at the young political ages of 49 and 45 respectively, Cameron and Osborne have tried to reinvent themselves. Osborne has become a political commentator on TV, who smiles and laughs knowingly to signal his distance from the partisan scowler he used to be. Cameron, blamed more for Brexit, perhaps because of his apparent insouciance after the result, has been more low-profile, except when exposed in 2021 for lobbying the government on behalf of the disgraced financier Lex Greensill. Both Cameron and Osborne have earned a lot of money since leaving parliament, while millions made poorer by their policies have continued to suffer.

The duo’s appearance before the Covid inquiry was a rare chance, it seemed, to hold them to account for their overconfident government. It has been widely concluded by authorities on the NHS and public health that austerity worsened the pandemic, and in the hearing room Cameron sometimes seemed nervous. He took frequent sips of water, and punctuated some of his answers with small coughs and stutters.

Osborne was more prickly, listening to one question from the inquiry’s lawyer with his arms tightly folded, and talking over others. But the interrogation of each politician lasted little more than an hour, and neither lost their composure, or conceded that austerity had been an error in any way. On the contrary, they both claimed that it had made the pandemic bailouts possible, by rescuing the government’s finances. It was just the kind of move that Johnson would have made: presenting a contentious or discredited policy as a triumph.

Tories are usually confident in public. But since Cameron’s haughty premiership, despite often being unpopular and apparently out of their depth, and despite presiding over a national decline with few parallels in the rich world, this self-regard has thickened further, into a disdain for scrutiny. It frustrates the party’s enemies, and anyone else who wants to probe the government. “Please, just let me ask my question,” said the Covid inquiry’s lawyer to Osborne, as he talked over her once again.

Time may finally be running out for this version of Conservatism. As Johnson recently discovered, cocky and slapdash Tories may thrive in the theatrical parts of our political system – such as a parliament where members are usually forbidden from calling each other “liars” – but the more patient and factual world of select committees and official reports can be a much less hospitable environment.

The Covid inquiry hopes to publish an interim verdict on Britain’s “preparedness and resilience” for the pandemic in 2024, also likely to be when the next election is held. The report may make it impossible to continue to insist, as Osborne did this week, that public spending cuts had “no connection whatsoever” to the inequalities exploited by the virus.

Yet understanding how the Cameron government left us vulnerable to Covid ought to be just the start. From failing to tame the City after the financial crisis to appeasing the Tory far right, from fragmenting England’s school system to making Truss a minister for the first time, the Cameroons’ mistakes have haunted us for years. Whenever this Tory era ends, they should not be allowed to saunter away from the wreckage.

Andy Beckett is a Guardian columnist

UK
Private firm to be awarded £1m health contract at new asylum accommodation site


Lizzie Dearden
Fri, 23 June 2023 

(AFP via Getty Images)

A private company is to be awarded a £1.1m contract to provide health services at one of the government’s controversial new large asylum accommodation sites.

The NHS trust covering the disused RAF Wethersfield site in Essex said it was making the agreement without any competition “for reasons of extreme urgency”, after being told 1,700 asylum seekers would be moved there.

Immigration minister Robert Jenrick announced the plan in March, but it has been delayed by legal challenges launched by the local council and residents, as well as refurbishment work and safety checks.


The transformation of Wethersfield is part of a wider government scheme to reduce the £6m-a-day cost of housing asylum seekers in hotels by using military bases, a former prison and vessels.

But costs are rapidly mounting, with The Independent previously revealing a £1.6bn contract had been handed to barge operator Corporate Travel Management, while separate funding is paid to police forces, ports, private contractors, councils and health bodies.

A new contract published on Wednesday said Commisceo Primary Care Solutions would be providing health assessments for people arriving at Wethersfield and a dedicated medical centre on-site.

It said the NHS Mid and South Essex Integrated Care Board was extending and expanding an existing contract with the firm, and that the total estimated value was £1.1m over 18 months.

A document seen by The Independent said the contract was negotiated without a prior call for competition because of “extreme urgency brought about by events unforeseeable for the contracting authority”.

“The authority was informed by NHS England in Q4 2022-23 of the likely siting of asylum accommodation and support centre at Wethersfield,” it added.

“The authority was required to identify a provider of this service at pace as the initial go live was planned for April.”

The NHS trust said normal competitive procedures “could not be complied with” in the time period before it was told Wethersfield would open start housing people, adding: “As such, the authority have undertaken an analysis of the market and deemed Commisceo to be in the best position to ensure delivery of primary medical services.”

Although the notice was published on the government’s website as an “awarded contract”, NHS Mid and South Essex Integrated Care Board said the document was a notice of intention and the contract had not yet been awarded.

A spokesperson said: “Arrangements are being established to meet the primary health and care needs of asylum seekers expected to be housed at Wethersfield.

“The Integrated Care System will continue to work closely with colleagues to make sure that we are able to provide appropriate care for those in need.”

Commisceo Primary Care Solutions has been operating since 2014 and already provides services for several NHS trusts, including a GP surgery at Basildon University Hospital and an urgent treatment centre in Chelmsford.

The contract said the “earliest potential start date” for Wethersfield had subsequently moved to 1 July, but the High Court will not hear a legal challenge against the government’s plans until 12 July.

Councils covering RAF Wethersfield and a Lincolnshire military base being turned into asylum accommodation launched the case after Suella Braverman declared an “emergency” to bypass normal planning permission.

They are arguing that the situation does not meet the threshold for an emergency under planning law, and that the sites are not suitable for vulnerable people in light of the pressure on local services and community impact in rural locations.

The former Wethersfield RAF base is in a rural area (PA) (PA Wire)

Ministers have argued the new sites are necessary to reduce spending on hotel places for asylum seekers, which are currently costing £6m a day, and avoid the risk of homelessness if supply runs out.

A National Audit Office report released last week said that by the end of April, the Home Office was accommodating 109,000 destitute asylum seekers, including 48,000 in hotels, because of a lack of proper accommodation and soaring decision backlogs.

While being grilled by parliament’s Home Affairs Committee, the home secretary said the new sites would “be delivered very soon, and we will be seeing asylum seekers relocated to those sites in the next few months”, and that she aimed to procure more locations for large-scale accommodation.

The Home Office said the first asylum seekers would be moving into military sites this summer, with a spokesperson adding: “Delivering accommodation on surplus military sites will provide cheaper and more orderly, suitable accommodation for those arriving in small boats whilst helping to reduce the use of hotels.

“We are continuing to work extremely closely with local councils, the local NHS and police services, to manage any impact and address the local communities’ concerns, including through substantial financial support.”

UK
Prisons ‘a potential time bomb’, Commons committee finds


Flora Bowen, PA
Fri, 23 June 2023

The prison service is a “potential time bomb”, a senior MP has said as a survey finds half of operational staff do not feel safe at work.

Discontentment with pay, working conditions, and senior management is high among the 6,582 prison officers working in England and Wales who were surveyed by the House of Commons Justice Committee.

The survey, which was carried out between February 10 and March 6 2023, was conducted as part of a wider inquiry into the staffing of prisons by the Justice Committee, with a full report due later this year.


Nearly two thirds of Band Two staff, who support prison officers with administrative tasks, said they do not feel valued for the work they do, while three quarters of staff in bands three to five, who deal directly with prisoners, agreed with this statement.

A general view of HMP Liverpool (Peter Byrne/PA)

Concerns around harassment and safety were highlighted by the survey, with 50% of staff in bands three to five agreeing they do not feel safe at the prison they work in, and less than a quarter of bands two to five staff agreeing that physical working conditions at their prison are adequate.

More than 70% of staff in band two and more than 80% of personnel in bands three to five said that staff morale is not good at the prison they work in.

Nearly three quarters of staff in bands three to five and 40% of band two staff experienced verbal abuse from prisoners in the last three months, with around one in five staff in bands two to five saying they had experienced bullying and/or verbal abuse from a colleague in that period.

These findings correlated with officers’ reported stress levels at work, with seven in ten staff in band three to five and 50 % of band two staff saying they are stressed a few times a week or more at work.

Responding to the results of the survey, chairman of the Justice Committee and Conservative MP for Bromley and Chislehurst Sir Bob Neill said: “This is a shocking survey.

“We’ve known as a committee for some time that there are severe staff shortages in prisons and that many prison officers are unhappy with their lot.

“They don’t feel they can carry out vital rehabilitation work with prisoners.

“But when I learn from this survey that fully half of our prison staff do not feel safe at work, that is still deeply concerning.

“This position is not acceptable.

“The Government risks failing in its duty of care to prison staff and prisoners alike.

“We are sitting on a potential time bomb.

“It must be defused.”

HMP Lincoln (Joe Giddens/PA)

Financial resources and management were also considered inadequate, with around two in three staff across bands two to five agreeing they do not have the tools and resources to do their job effectively.

Attitudes towards salary and benefits received were largely negative, with the large majority of staff in bands two to five saying their salary does not accurately reflect the roles and responsibilities of their job.

Similarly, around eight in 10 staff in bands three to five and six in 10 staff in band two said they were not satisfied with the benefits package they receive.

The survey’s findings also showed a lack of confidence in senior management, with nearly two thirds of staff in bands three to five saying they do not trust senior managers concerning decisions about the prison they work in.

Asked whether they planned on leaving the prison service, around one in three band two staff, and over two in five staff in bands three to five said they intended to quit in the next five years.

These reported intentions highlight an ongoing staffing issue in the service, following a loss of 600 staff in prison officer and custodial manager roles between November 2021 to November 2022, according to the Justice Committee.

A Prison Service spokesperson said: “Our hardworking frontline staff work day-in, day-out, to rehabilitate offenders and protect the public – and it is vital they have the right tools and equipment to keep them safe.

“That’s why we’re further improving safety in our jails by investing in PAVA spray and body worn cameras, as well as x-ray body scanners to keep out the dangerous contraband that fuels violence behind bars. We’re also boosting training on the job and prison officer pay to help us hire and retain the best people.”

UK
Local businesses 'named and shamed' for not paying minimum wage


Fintan McGuinness
Fri, 23 June 2023 

202 businesses were "named and shamed"

(Image: PA/Department for Business and Trade)

Two businesses with a WD postcode have been named and shamed by the government for not paying minimum wage.

The Department for Business and Trade has released a list of more than 200 employers that have failed to pay their lowest paid staff the minimum wage.

The companies have since paid back what they owe to their staff and faced financial penalties after an investigation between 2017 and 2019.

McNicholas Construction Services Limited, based in Elstree, failed to pay the minimum wage to 704 workers, meaning a total of £170,517.57 was owed.

The average arrears per worker was £242.21, owed from between January 2013 and March 2018.

Of the 202 businesses named following the investigation, McNicholas had underpaid workers by the seventh highest total, with WHSmith owing the most followed by Lloyds Pharmacy, Marks and Spencer, and Argos.

All Day Recruitment Limited, based in Rickmansworth, failed to pay £4,896.57 to 25 workers.

The average arrears per worker was £195.86 between April 2016 and January 2017.

Deducting pay from wages, failing to pay workers correctly for their working time, and paying incorrect apprenticeship rates accounted for 99% of the ways the businesses underpaid workers.

The government acknowledged not all minimum wage underpayments are intentional, but added that there is “no excuse for underpaying workers”.