UK
Tory mayoral candidate 'unfit to represent London' over social media activity

Ben Raza
Sat, 16 September 2023 

Susan Hall (Image: PA)

The Conservative London mayoral candidate's social media activity means she "is unfit to represent London", a charity has claimed.

Susan Hall, who was leader of the Tory group on Harrow Council for seven years, has had her history on Twitter exposed by anti-fascist organisation Hope Not Hate.

After its review, the charity says this includes endorsing Enoch Powell, Islamophobic tropes about Sadiq Khan, and supporting the lie that the 2020 American election was stolen from Donald Trump.

A spokesperson for Ms Hall's campaign said: "Susan engages with many people on Twitter without endorsing their views.

"Londoners want a mayor who listens to people and deals with the bread-and-butter issues that matter to them - making our streets safer and putting more money back in people's pockets. As mayor, Susan will deliver that."

Georgie Laming, director of campaigns at Hope Not Hate, said: "Susan Hall is not fit to represent London and all its diversity.

"Susan Hall must be suspended immediately and ultimately, she must be removed as a candidate."

Ms Hall was selected as Conservative candidate to be Mayor of London in July.

She has been councillor for Hatch End ward on Harrow Council since 2006, and was council leader for eight months in 2013-14. She was also leader of the Conservatives on the London Assembly until May.

This is not the first time a Conservative mayoral candidate has been accused of racism.

In 2016, Zac Goldsmith was criticised by fellow Conservative politician Baroness Warsi for using an image of the bus destroyed in the 7/7 terrorist attacks to illustrate an article he wrote that described Sadiq Khan as being "friends" with terrorists.

The 2021 Tory candidate Shaun Bailey received similar criticisms. This included the discovery of a booklet he had written in 2005 entitled No Man's Land, which reportedly said that celebrating Muslim and Hindu festivals "[robs] Britain of its community" and risked turning the country into a "crime riddled cesspool".

S.Africa holds state funeral for divisive Zulu leader Buthelezi


AFP
Sat, 16 September 2023 

Thousands of people, some dressed in traditional warrior clothes, on Saturday attended the funeral of South Africa's divisive Zulu leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi, who was implicated in a wave of deadly violence that marked the country's emergence from apartheid.

Mourners crowded a small stadium in Ulundi, the ancient capital of the Zulu kingdom in eastern South Africa, to pay tribute to the founder of the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), who died on September 9 aged 95.

"The sun has set on an era and on a life that witnessed and had an impact on much of our country's modern history", President Cyril Ramaphosa said in a eulogy.

Earlier, family members dressed in black led a coffin covered by an animal skin and an IFP flag across a red carpet before it was placed under a black canopy on the pitch.

Around it sat mourners, some wearing traditional leopard skins and holding spears and shields made from cow hides, others in white IFP t-shirts bearing a portrait of the late leader.

"He treated all of us Zulus as one person. That is why I am here," said Bonga Makhoba, 31, who said he drove 150 kilometres (90 miles) and slept in his car to attend the service.

"I just respect him and I want him to... rest in peace."

During the ceremony, which started in the morning and continued well into the afternoon, the IFP Women's Brigade chanted "he has led us this far" in Zulu while other mourners paid tribute to "Shenge", as Buthelezi was known after his clan name.

Guests sitting under white marquees opposite an altar included former presidents Jacob Zuma and Thabo Mbeki.

Buthelezi was once a rival of Ramaphosa and his former boss Nelson Mandela, as the pair led negotiations to end white rule in South Africa. For years, he was locked in a bitter rivalry with the ruling African National Congress (ANC).

The party had been his political home until he broke away to form the Inkatha movement in 1975.

Born of royal blood, he was to some the embodiment of a proud and feisty Zulu spirit, while to others he often acted as a warlord.

- A contested legacy -

As premier of the "independent" homeland of KwaZulu, a political creation of the apartheid government, Buthelezi was often regarded as an ally of the racist regime.

He was dogged by allegations of collaborating with the white government to fuel violence and derail the ANC's liberation struggle -- a claim he furiously denied.

Violence between Inkatha supporters and rival liberation groups claimed about 12,000 lives, as unrest between the ANC and IFP escalated in the run-up to the democratic elections in 1994.

Ramaphosa conceded he and Buthelezi "did not always agree" but speaking of the violence said it was "not the day to point fingers and cast blame".

"South Africa might be a vastly different place today" had Buthelezi not taken an 11th-hour decision to participate in the vote, Ramaphosa said.

He was later appointed home affairs minister in the national unity government led by Mandela.

Admired as a charismatic speaker, Buthelezi went on to become one of the country's longest-serving lawmakers, widely recognisable with his slender silhouette and distinctive rectangular glasses.

But while considered a cultural protector for the more than 11 million Zulus, his legacy remains contested.

Buthelezi's epitaph should read "Chief apartheid collaborator and mass murderer", wrote Mondli Makhanya, editor of the City Press newspaper.

The Sowetan, a daily paper born out of the liberation struggle, wrote that "For his supporters, who worshipped the ground he walked on, he is held in high regard as a hero".

However he would "remain a despised figure in the eyes of those who suffered brutality and violence in the hands of his party henchmen".

The Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi Foundation rejected such criticism as "unspeakably evil" and "old lies".

At the funeral, current IFP leader Velenkosini Hlabisa, described Buthelezi as a "giant of Africa" who was "unjustly vilified" for standing by his convictions.

"Everybody has their past but Buthelezi to me, he was the best," Fisokhule Buthelezi, 45, a distant relative sporting a black IFP beret, who sat on the stands.

After the ceremony, the body was taken for burial in the family homestead.

ub/jj

WOMEN, LIFE, FREEDOM

Iran stops family marking Mahsa Amini death anniversary: rights groups

Stuart Williams
Sat, 16 September 2023 

The hijab is one of the ideological pillars of Iran's system of government (photographer)

Iranian authorities on Saturday prevented the family of Mahsa Amini from holding a ceremony to commemorate the first anniversary of her death, confining her father under "house arrest", as sporadic protests erupted nationwide despite heavy security, rights groups said.

Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurd, died a few days after her arrest by religious police for allegedly violating the strict dress code for women in force since shortly after the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Her family says she died from a blow to the head but this is disputed by Iranian authorities.

Anger over her death rapidly expanded into weeks of taboo-breaking protests which saw women tearing off their mandatory headscarves in an open challenge to the Islamic republic's system of government under supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.


Mahsa Amimi's father Amjad was detained early Saturday a he left the family home in the western town of Saqez, and then released after being warned not to hold a memorial service at her graveside, the Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN), 1500tasvir monitor and Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR) said.

"Amjad Amini is under house arrest... Security forces are preventing him from visiting his daughter's grave," said IHR.

Official news agency IRNA denied the reports of the father's brief detention, and later said security forces had foiled an assassination attempt against him.

Amjad Amini was already summoned by intelligence officials last week after his announcement he planned to hold a memorial ceremony. One of Amini's uncles, Safa Aeli, was detained in Saqez on September 5 and remains in custody.

- 'Chokehold on dissent' -

Rights groups said security forces had blocked access to the cemetery in Saqez where Amini is buried and Kurdish-focused group Hengaw said a young man named Fardin Jafari was in a critical condition in hospital after being shot in the head near the cemetery. It was not immediately possible to confirm the report.

The protests sparked by Amini's death lost momentum after several months in the face of a crackdown that saw security forces kill 551 protesters, according to IHR, and arrest more than 22,000, according to Amnesty International.

Iranian authorities say dozens of security personnel were also killed in what they describe as "riots" incited by foreign governments and hostile media.

Seven men have been executed after being convicted in protest-related cases.

Campaigners say the authorities have renewed their crackdown in the runup to the anniversary, putting pressure on relatives of those killed in the protests in a bid to stop them speaking out.

New York-based Human Rights Watch said family members of at least 36 people killed or executed in the crackdown had been interrogated, arrested, prosecuted or sentenced to prison over the past month with authorities imposing a "chokehold on dissent".

With additional security forces sent to the area, Hengaw said people in western Iran were expressing discontent through a general strike, with shops closed in a dozen towns and cities including Saqez.

One of Iran's most high-profile prisoners Narges Mohammadi, a prize-winning rights activist, and three other women prisoners meanwhile burned their headscarves in the courtyard of Tehran's Evin prison to mark the anniversary, Mohammadi's Instagram account said.

The New York-based Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) said a fire broke out at Qarchak prison for women outside Tehran when security forces quelled a protest by inmates.

- 'Take back Iran' -

Witnesses in Tehran said there was a heavy security presence, with anti-riot police and security vehicles on the main streets and squares.

Persian-language channels based outside Iran, including Iran International, broadcast footage of residents shouting "Death to the dictator" and the main protest slogan of "Woman, Life, Freedom" from apartment blocks in Tehran and its satellite city of Karaj overnight.

Monitor 1500tasvir posted footage of dozens of people staging a daylight protest on Saturday on a street in the Gohardasht district of Karaj shouting "we will take Iran back!" and other slogans.

Similar gatherings were reported in the central city of Isfahan and the southern city of Shiraz. Hengaw published images of fires being lit on roads in the western city of Sanandaj and said security forces fired on protesters in Mahabad to the north.

Under the slogan "Say her name!", Iranian emigres were holding commemorative rallies from Sydney to Toronto, with thousands in Place de la Bastille in central Paris chanting protest slogans and waving pre-revolutionary flags.

sjw/kir

UK

Judge urges Home Secretary to reconsider visa for daughter of Gurkha war hero

Sarah Limbrick
Sat, 16 September 2023 

Gurkha recruits pass out as they complete their military training at Helles Barracks at the Infantry Training Centre in Catterick North Yorkshire - Ian Forsyth/Getty Images Europe

A judge has urged Suella Braverman to allow the daughter of a Gurkha soldier to visit her father in the UK.

Captain Ram Kumar Serpuja Pun served five tours in Afghanistan for the British Army and wants his daughter, Sushma, 24, to join him in the UK from Nepal.

Sushma, who has lost three legal challenges to join her father, has spent her life in Nepal with her extended family after her mother abandoned her when she was three, and her father joined the army.


Captain Pun joined the Royal Gurkha Rifles in 1999, two years before his wife abandoned the family.

Cpt Pun, who had sole custody, wanted to bring Sushma to join him in the UK, but this was not practical, as he was a serving soldier living in barracks and serving abroad for much of the time, so he arranged for her to live with his extended family in Nepal.

He married again in 2020 and has a fifteen-month-old daughter with his wife. Now he wants his other daughter, who has a degree in business and wants to study for a Master’s degree, to join him.

Sushma’s initial claim was refused in January 2022 because she was 22 when she made the application, rather than under 18, and because the Home Office said she was not related to her father.

Her appeal against this decision was refused, and although the judge accepted she was related to her father, found that her right to family life was not protected by the Human Rights Act in this case, and there were no exceptional circumstances that would allow her to join her father in the UK.

Britain's Home Secretary Suella Braverman has been urged to accept the High Court's recommendation on behalf of a serving officer in the Gurkha Rifles - Kin Cheung/AP

‘Judge erred in law’

Upper Tribunal Judge Hugo Norton-Taylor found the judge had materially erred in law by failing to resolve the tension between the Home Office position on family life, her findings, and the conclusion there was no family life.

But he refused Sushma’s application to join her father in the UK, saying she had failed to show that the refusal of her human rights claim would lead to unjustifiably harsh consequences.

However, he did urge the Home Secretary to use her discretion to allow Sushma into the country, saying her father was a single parent who did all he could, with undoubted success, to ensure that she had a secure upbringing in Nepal.

The court heard that to study for a Master’s degree, Sushma would have to move from her home in Pokhara to Kathmandu, a nine-hour drive away, and faced uncertain job prospects in the future, even with a degree. Furthermore, her father worried about her safety in Kathmandu.
Significant emotional burden

The judge said that Cpt Pun had borne a significant emotional burden for almost twenty years, since assuming sole parental responsibility for his then three-year-old daughter, who effectively grew up without a parent being physically present in her life.

In a postscript to his judgment, Judge Norton-Taylor said that judges would occasionally make recommendations where, although appeals were dismissed, there were circumstances that might lead the respondent - in this case, the Home Secretary - to consider exercising her residual discretion and grant a form of leave to enter or remain.

“I would urge the respondent to at least consider exercising her residual discretion in this case,” he said. “At the very least, I would urge any future decision-maker to consider any application for entry clearance as a visitor, which may be made by the appellant very carefully indeed.

“Ordinarily, an unsuccessful application for settlement would be likely to count against the success of a visit visa application. However, it rather seems to be as though the appellant does have strong ties in Nepal, and her sponsor (father) has impeccable credentials. It would seem to be extremely unlikely that the sponsor would permit his daughter to overstay any leave to enter.”

Judge Norton-Taylor said that Captain Pun, who intends to remain in the Army until 2026, has “provided a very significant public service to the United Kingdom over the years. This has included no fewer than five tours of duty in Afghanistan.”

STATIST LAW ENFORCEMENT
Britain’s broken justice system revealed as prisoners trapped in jail for five years before trial

INNOCENT UNTIL PROVEN GUILTY IS BS


Andy Gregory and Adam Forrest
Sat, 16 September 2023

Prisoners are being forced to wait five years behind bars before trial as the number on remand soars to a record high fuelled by a growing court backlog.

Some 15,523 people were languishing in overcrowded jails before being convicted as of 30 June – a 50-year high and up 16 per cent compared to the previous year, according to Ministry of Justice figures.

At least 150 people – all male – had spent five years waiting to face a jury, as of 31 December, with Black men making up 33 per cent of those facing the longest waits, data obtained under freedom of information laws by the charity Fair Trials shows.

Close to 2,000 prisoners on remand had been held for over a year. Another nearly 2,500 people were locked up for over six months – after which time a judge must approve an extension.

A top lawyer warned that some defendants were pleading guilty to crimes despite insisting their innocence because they would be released from prison sooner – as the crown courts cases backlog also reached a new record high, having doubled in four years.

It is the latest shocking indictment on the state of Britain's justice system as prisons come under the spotlight following the alleged escape of terror suspect Daniel Khalife from HMP Wandsworth last week, amid wider concern over chronic overcrowding and understaffing.

Jack Straw, Labour home secretary between 1997 and 2001, said it was “preposterous” and “just extraordinary” to leave people languishing so long in prison without a trial, accusing the Tory government of “presiding over the most serious crisis in the criminal justice system I can remember”.

Tory MP Robert Buckland, who served as justice secretary for two years until September 2021, called for the cases to be “examined and clearly explained”, warning that “people should not be on remand for years without a proper reason”.

A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said cases involving the longest waits were mainly complex fraud or trials with a large number of defendants, that ordinarily take a long time to prosecute.

The remand system is ‘a runaway s***show’, HMP Wandsworth’s former security chief said (PA)

Lambasting the years-long remand waits as “totally and completely unacceptable”, Blair-era justice secretary Lord Charlie Falconer said: “The government needs an emergency plan because we can’t have these long delays continue.”

He called for the greater use of tagging for non-violent suspects and temporary “nightingale courts”, while Mr Straw said ministers “could do a great deal more to bring more courts into operation – including using retired and part-time judges”.

The overcrowding crisis “is most acute” in jails housing prisoners awaiting trial, said Rob Preece, of the Howard League for Penal Reform. He likened lengthy “Kafkaesque” remand times to indefinite prison sentences, which were abolished in 2012 and criticised last month by the UN’s special rapporteur on torture.

As of June, more than a fifth of those held on remand were accused of drug offences, with theft charges accounting for 12 per cent in June 2020, official figures show. Just 32 per cent awaiting trial were remanded for alleged violent crimes, according to the most recent data.

Ian Acheson, the former security chief at HMP Wandsworth, said the under-pressure category B London jail was just one of those struggling to cope with the added pressure of the growing backlog of remand cases.

Twenty-two per cent of those remanded in prison while awaiting trial were accused of drug offences (Ian Waldie/Getty Images)

He said the remand system was “a runaway s***show” and locking up non-violent suspects for five years is “an unacceptable use of state power”. He warned that those on remand “are often at far greater risk of self-harm because of their uncertain status”.

Tory justice committee chair Sir Bob Neill warned that the “churn” of record numbers of remand inmates was putting further strain on prison officers.

It “can only increase the risk of violence” when innocent people are locked in prisons without family visits or rehabilitation schemes, often “in some of the worst conditions”, said Sir Bob.

The situation “has led to a mental health crisis, with levels of suicide and self-harm among remand prisoners skyrocketing as people become hopeless”, said Griff Ferris, Fair Trials’ senior legal and policy officer.

Remand inmates are often among those locked in their cells for 23 hours a day in “harrowing” conditions amounting to solitary confinement, “forced to choose between calls to family and loved ones, exercise or showering, and denied access to education and other rehabilitative programs” Mr Ferris said.

Remand waits have ‘led to a mental health crisis’, said Griff Ferris (Danny Lawson/PA Wire)

He criticised the government for “actively contributing” to the remand crisis by “shredding infrastructure and legal aid” and said he believed Labour had “avoided taking any meaningful action” to challenge ministers over fears of being seen as soft on crime.

Claiming that the government “simply cannot get to grips with its basic duties”, shadow justice secretary Shabana Mahmood insisted Labour would “take immediate action” to increase the number of crown prosecutors by at least half, and build prison places pledged but not delivered by the Tories.

“Our prisons are unsafe and unable to provide basic levels of care,” warned Dita Saliuka, whose brother Liridon, 29, died by suicide in HMP Belmarsh on 2 January 2020, weeks after his trial was pushed back six months, having already spent five months waiting.

A senior officer told the inquest he had discounted Liridon Saliuka’s disabilities because he was ‘a big character’ and ‘not wasting away’ (Justice4LiridonSaliuka)

Ms Saliuka warned that those who see their remand custody limits extended, like her brother, “wait and wait and lose hope”.

Speaking of those eventually acquitted, she added: “You’re in prison for years and then you get found not guilty – what happens after that? You might lose your family, your job, house, employment, relationships. You don’t get any of that back, you don’t get anything at all.”

Conversely, Law Society deputy vice president Richard Atkinson said “there are certainly cases” where defendants will have spent longer on remand than their potential sentence – with some opting to plead guilty to get out sooner, despite lawyers advising otherwise.

“You have to say to clients” that “you are probably looking at six to eight months” before they are tried, to which they may take the “pragmatic” but inadvisable position that “I might as well just plead now … it’s a lose-lose”, Mr Atkinson said.

The court backlog fuelling the crisis also soared to a record high of 64,000 cases in July, figures published this week show – despite a government pledge to slash it to 53,000.

A senior legal source told The Independent that the caseload is instead likely to increase by the same margin, hitting 75,000 in March 2025.

Alex Chalk was appointed justice secretary in April, having previously served as solicitor general and the prisons and probation minister (Lucy North/PA Wire)

While there were 100,000 sitting days at crown courts last year, the highest level since 2017-18, the legal source said this remains “woefully short” of the 110,000 days recommended by the justice select committee last April – and noted that the backlog is now twice as large as it was back in 2018.

Steve Gillan, general secretary of the Prison Officers Association said the resulting long remand periods were “totally unacceptable”. He pointed to the government’s decision to close half of all courts in England and Wales between 2010 and 2019, adding: “Justice delayed is justice denied.”

In comments echoed by Sir Bob, Mr Atkinson warned that a push for more police officers and calls for tougher sentences at a time when the courts are in crisis shows “a lack of joined-up thinking” in government.

“If you’re going to shove more into the pipe, you’d better make the pipe a bit bigger,” said the Law Society barrister. “You need more resources, but we’ve had decades of cuts in court numbers, in investment in remaining court buildings, in legal aid.”

The MoJ said it was working hard to deliver swifter justice through unlimited court sitting days, increased remote hearings, and keeping nightingale courts open.

“Judges make remand decisions independently of government, based on their risk of reoffending or absconding, but this government has done more than any other to tackle discrimination in the criminal justice system, including diverting ethnic minority youngsters away from criminality, to increasing diversity in our world-leading independent judiciary,” the statement added.

Chief inspector of prisons Charlie Taylor: ‘Why should prisoners watch television all day?’

TYPICAL RIGHT WING TROPE

Charles Hymas
Sat, 16 September 2023 

Charlie Taylor, HM Chief Inspector of Prisons, believes that prisoners should be ‘busy, working hard, working properly, getting education’ - Andrew Crowley

It is a photograph that Charlie Taylor shows everyone who works in jails: a 10-year-old boy, his arms wide open on stage and singing at the top of his voice at an end-of-term school concert. “He liked to perform,” says the country’s chief inspector of prisons.

The boy is now a man, serving 10 years for serious assault. Taylor, who was his head teacher at Willows, a special school for troubled children before he became the nation’s prisons watchdog, has kept in contact with him.

Like a guardian angel, Taylor, 58, has some head-teacherly advice. Seated in a whitewashed conference room in the basement of the Ministry of Justice, he says: “Get your head down, do your time and try to take advantage of everything that’s on offer. If you’re a prisoner who’s quite savvy, you can do that. You can manoeuvre or you can find work that is meaningful.”


The story tells you something about Taylor, a quietly spoken Old Etonian who has devoted his life to rebuilding the lives of those on the fringes of society, at risk of being lost to drugs, drink, criminality or family turmoil.

Since starting as a teacher, he has been driven “to piece together the jigsaw”, as he describes it, of why children misbehave and end up in trouble as adults. For the boy in the photo who was “probably brighter than average with loads of potential,” Taylor explains that “he had an incredibly complicated home life that was certainly pulling him in the direction of offending”.

The story also reflects Taylor’s own career trajectory. From a classroom trainee to special school headteacher, he has graduated to adviser to ministers, youth justice expert and now the chief prisons inspector charged with helping to sort out Britain’s crisis-hit jails at a time when spotlight on them has never been more intense.

Nothing could have epitomised the problems more than the break-out this month from HMP Wandsworth in south London by 21-year-old terror suspect Daniel Khalife, who is accused of spying for Iran.

He exploited security flaws at the jail to strap himself underneath a food delivery truck and sneak out. It has exposed what Taylor describes as the “chaotic” underbelly of too many creaking and cramped local jails, built more than 100 years ago by the Victorians.

In an ideal world, says Taylor, Wandsworth prison would be shut down. It not only houses 70 per cent more prisoners in shared cells than it was originally designed for, but has been struggling with rising violence, staff absence rates of 30 to 44 per cent, and inexperienced officers lacking “prison craft”, according to watchdogs. Most have less than two years in the job.

Yesterday it emerged that nearly 40 per cent of staff were absent on the day of Khalife’s escape.

“Prisoners regularly tell me that staff don’t know what they’re doing and that they have to tell them sometimes. Of course, that’s fine if you ask the right prisoner but if it’s not, it’s not going to go so well,” says Taylor. “What we also find is inexperienced staff being supervised by not that much more experienced staff.”

It is not just Wandsworth. The jail is among a third of the entire 140-strong prison estate rated as a cause of “serious concern” or “concern” by Taylor’s inspectors. Reasons include poor leadership, overcrowding, violence, self-harm and, perhaps most importantly for him, the lack of “purposeful” work, training or education that could help rehabilitate and rebuild the lives of prisoners.

Taylor believes prison staff ought to be imbued with the belief that rehabilitation is the ‘right thing to be doing’ - Andrew Crowley

As chief inspector, he is, literally, the holder of the keys. A big bunch of them that enables him to go anywhere he wants in any prison at virtually any time. He can open any cell and speak to any prisoner. And he does so, especially in jails where he knows his way round to get a worm’s eye view from the people who know: the prisoners.

“Prisoners always spin things a little bit, particularly when talking about their own personal circumstances. But if you find the right prisoner, you just get a brilliant assessment of the jail that can be really helpful. ‘This stuff is working well, this isn’t good enough, this needs to improve,’” says Taylor.

When he arrives at a prison for an official inspection, he explains: “I will stop a prisoner and say: ‘Which is the worst wing to be on? And then when I get on that wing, I find a prisoner and say: ‘Where are the worst cells?’ Because they will always know the worst wing and the worst cells.

“It’s about finding the prisoners who are locked away on the fourth landing right at the end of the corridor. Those are the ones you want to talk to, who haven’t been out of their cell for the whole day. Because then you get the full picture of what it’s like.”

Has he ever felt scared? “No, I’ve never felt that. In three years, I’ve come across just two prisoners who didn’t want to talk,” says Taylor, who, as a previous special school teacher, is trained in restraint. “Prisoners see us, to some extent, as someone who’s got their interests in mind.”

The Russian writer Fyodor Dostoevsky famously said the “degree of civilisation in a society can be judged by entering its prisons” and, presciently given this month’s events, that “The best way to keep a prisoner from escaping is to make sure he never knows he’s in prison.”

Those adages have their modern corollary in a quote which Taylor cites from a “fantastic” prison governor John McLaughlin, “sadly” now retired from HMP Oakwood, the country’s biggest jail with 2,000 inmates.

He ran a successful jail where prisoners were “trusted,” offered “more responsibilities” and given a “sense of purpose” through rehabilitative work, mentoring and training. “He once said to me: ‘If you show me the crime, I’ll be as shocked as anybody else, but if you show me the man, I’ll walk with him.’ And that was certainly what you felt about that jail,” says Taylor.

The antithesis to that is what Taylor cites as the old adage “that happiness is door shaped – that it is riskier to unlock prisoners and send them to work than to keep locked in their cells.”

Taylor sums up his philosophy: “Why should someone who’s in prison just be allowed to spend their day sitting on their bed watching television? They ought to be out there being busy, working hard, working properly, getting education. They ought to be being asked to take responsibility. And I think sometimes we take the path of least resistance to some extent with prisoners.”

Taylor, who lives in west London with his wife, a primary school teacher, and three teenage children, was a contemporary of former prime minister David Cameron at Eton. Taylor admits he felt “incredibly privileged” by his education with “amazing teachers,” but acknowledges it was “tough” being at boarding school from age 13.

His father was a management consultant who helped develop youth training scheme courses for difficult children, his mother worked in catering, and took tours abroad.

After graduating in English from Cambridge University, he trained as a teacher “because I wasn’t sure what I was going to do”. His first job was at Emmanuel Church of England Primary in Camden, north London. “To my surprise, I really enjoyed it.” It was where his interest was sparked into why children misbehave.

“Why was it that some children could cope, and were fine, and some children, even from the same family, would seem to always get themselves into trouble? It just became an interest that developed over time,” he says.

After moving to a secondary school, he gravitated to heading up Willows – during his time there, the school received two “outstanding” ratings from Ofsted.

“There was a huge amount of physical restraint of children. It was really about just stopping the whole place descending into chaos. The morning mission every day was stopping the children from running out into the playground and jumping over the fence and disappearing into Tesco,” he recalls.

Despite their tender ages, there was violence. “I remember one boy, he was only 10 but he was a southpaw. He was one of the few children who could really box properly. And if he hit you, it really hurt. The other thing I particularly remember is being spat at.

“It is one thing being hit but when someone spits in your mouth, and it is someone with a really bad cold, you never really forget that.”

In 2011 Taylor shot to national prominence after he was recruited as an advisor to the Department for Education (DfE), then headed by Michael Gove. His role there included writing two reports after the 2011 riots on school attendance (or truancy), and alternative provision (what to do with children kicked out of mainstream schools).

“One of the things that we found was that attendance of children in nursery is really critical. If you don’t get children to nursery in their first year of school they are going to struggle. If there is already a gap between their learning and the learning of others, it just begins to grow. They then begin to get disillusioned with school, they don’t make progress and quite often, they vote with their feet,” he says.

For Taylor it was a natural progression from the DfE and special education to working with young offenders as chair of the youth justice board in 2017 before taking up his current post in November 2020.

Although Taylor could be fairly described as a prison reformer, he is not someone who you would characterise as liberal. Asked, for example, if he supported former justice secretary David Gauke’s plan to end the use of short sentences of up to six months, he says it has the “potential for thought” but would be hard to sell to a public demanding justice is done and is “seen to be done.”

The argument from many governors is that they have too little time to rehabilitate drug-addicted, low-level criminals who steal to feed their habit and drop in and out of jail for just a few months at a time. The alternative, it is suggested, could be community-based and electronically tagged sentences linked to treatment and education.

“The public need to be convinced that it is fair, reasonable and not a cop-out way of dealing with people. I think something really important has to be done there because otherwise people will understandably just feel resentful when they see the person who did whatever they did out of prison and you don’t feel anything changed for that person,” he says.

Nor is it in Taylor’s psychological make-up to get depressed by the nature of his work, he says, even though he regularly sees “depressing things”. “You come across prisoners in a really desperate state or you meet members of staff who’ve been subjected to violence. Your heart goes out to those people and their courage. There is self-harm, deaths. You talk to officers who have had to cut down someone [after a suicide]. That is an experience that will never leave them.”

With a general election next year, it is unlikely, however, that either Tories or Labour are going to change tack with a “softer” approach to justice. If anything, policies on crime and punishment are likely to harden. Which means Taylor, who has powers to sanction failing prisons and force them to improve, will have to work within the constraints of the current system.

Ministers have committed to spend £4 billion on new jails to deliver 20,000 extra places by the mid-2020s. Two have opened but, for Taylor, spanking new jails alone are not the answer. “Too many prisoners, even at those jails with really good facilities, are just loafing around on the wing with nothing proper to do,” he says.

Taylor cites, as an example, what is known as wing cleaning “work” which up to a third of inmates can be allocated at jails. It is a job that “can be done in an hour or maybe a couple of hours,” but is sought after because it means they can avoid trouble by staying on their wing rather than coming into contact with other prisoners, or they might act as a “fulcrum for contraband,” and “they get all the gossip”.

“There are an awful lot of made-up jobs in prison that aren’t going to help anyone when they come out.”

Yet, it is not just about inculcating a 9am to 5pm “purposeful” work culture within a prison that Taylor advocates – there are also the basics like reading, he says. “Teaching reading and making sure that prisoners can read has been neglected for many years,” he says. “They come in unable to read, do a four-year sentence and leave unable to read.”

The other “cog,” he adds, is more focus on the quality of leadership within prisons where governors “drive” improvement and prison staff are imbued with a “belief” that rehabilitation is the “right thing to be doing” rather than “locking prisoners in their cells all day.”

He was particularly impressed with how the Dutch invested in staff training and the activities that prisoners were expected to take part in when he visited a jail in the Netherlands – although it was also notable the Dutch spent £100,000 per inmate to our £50,000.

Unlike head teachers, who have been given freedom to recruit their own staff and commission contractors, Taylor says prison governors are weighed down by bureaucracy which means they are “unable to buy a pot of paint without going through a procurement exercise as opposed to going down to the local B&Q to buy it.

Taylor warns that the ‘bath is going to start overflowing’ when it comes to prison capacity - Andrew Crowley

“What governors tell me is that they spend huge amounts of their time chained to their computers, looking at HR issues, chasing up contractors, whether it’s the education or health provider, or the company that does the works in the prison.

“They have to chivvy them to try to get stuff done without really having the levers because the contracts are set elsewhere in the Ministry of Justice.”

Looming even larger, however, is the overcrowding crisis as the MoJ struggles to find enough prison places to meet the demand generated by longer jail sentences (there are now around 7,000 lifers), 20,000 extra police officers expected to catch and lock up more criminals and courts clearing the record backlogs of cases.

Asked to paint a picture, he identifies Brixton prison which he says has some of the smallest cells in the entire prison system (around 6ft by 12ft). “What is particularly nasty about them is that the lavatory is in the middle of the room,” he explains.

“So you have a bunk bed and opposite the bunk bed is a lavatory halfway down the wall and then a sink. The level of squalidity and crampedness for prisoners is pretty astonishing.”

Brixton is not even the most overcrowded in a prison league table topped by Leeds, which has 72 per cent more prisoners than it was designed for. Durham has 71 per cent and then Wandsworth 70 per cent, according to the Howard League for Penal Reform.

In fact, the prison estate is only some 600 short of capacity. Taylor believes that at some point in the next three years England and Wales will run out of space to jail criminals. The MoJ already has police cells on permanent standby to pick up the overflow and is understood to have a secret crisis contingency plan if even this proves not enough. One option may have to be the early release of more prisoners on electronic tags.

Taylor sounds an ominous warning: “It seems at the moment that the prison service is just a bit about able to keep the show on the road i.e they have just about enough places for people who are sent from the courts and occasionally using police cells, but if the projections [of demand] are right, or even close to being right, then the bath is going to start overflowing.”

After nearly three years in the job, Taylor’s tenure is up for renewal. His reputation for forceful but reasoned counsel to Government, clearly focused advice to governors and an almost horse whisperer-like understanding of prisoners’ needs means he is widely expected to be appointed to a second term within weeks.

It will provide a dose of welcome stability to a criminal justice system that some claim is on its knees with public confidence in the police at its lowest ebb, the courts wracked by delays and backlogs and prisons plagued by overcrowding and staff shortages.

Trudeau Takes Aim at Corporate Canada as Inflation Sinks His Popularity

Brian Platt, Laura Dhillon Kane and Mathieu Dion
Sat, 16 September 2023 

(Bloomberg) -- Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s proposed reforms to competition law are being welcomed by some advocates as a step toward making Canada’s corporate sector more competitive. Whether his move will quell voters’ frustration about prices is another matter.

Trudeau pledged on Thursday to give the Competition Bureau more power to force companies to hand over information for investigations, and to act against firms that are trying to co-operate with each other in ways that “stifle competition and consumer choice.” It’s a response to months of sinking poll numbers that show many Canadians blame the government for inflation.

Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne called grocery executives to Ottawa for a meeting on Monday, where he’ll demand a plan for curbing food inflation by Oct. 9 — under the threat of unspecified tax measures if they don’t.

The government also plans to change the law to eliminate a clause that, in rare circumstances, has allowed companies to push through mergers that were harmful to competition.

“These are positive steps,” said Keldon Bester, a former Competition Bureau adviser who now leads the Canadian Anti-Monopoly Project. “We’re not going to wake up tomorrow to a capitalist paradise, but these are important fixes to some of the problems that have been in our law for a long time.”

The grocery industry has become a political target in Canada because of elevated food inflation — made worse in some cases by a weaker Canadian dollar, which drives up the cost of imported US goods. Canada has three large national grocers — Loblaw Cos., Empire Co. and Metro Inc. — that compete with Walmart Inc. and regional chains.

“Most people just don’t trust food companies,” said Sylvain Charlebois, a food professor at Dalhousie University, who will take part in Monday’s meeting. “According to one of our recent surveys, 82% of Canadians believe that greed is behind higher food prices.”

The government said there have been situations where large grocers got together “to prevent smaller competitors from establishing operations nearby,” without giving specifics. A Competition Bureau report in June found that independent grocers struggle to find real estate. It also said consolidation makes it tougher for new stores to stay in business and that many independent grocers are forced to buy products from their competitors.

Bloomberg Poll: Canadians Blame Government, Firms for Rising Prices

Canada’s largest supermarket chains have denied allegations of profiteering. Dan Wasiolek, an analyst at Morningstar, said Trudeau’s comments come across as politically driven. While Loblaw and Metro are generating record earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, “they are far from gouging citizens,” he said.

‘We’re Going to Pay for It’

The overall impact of competition-law reforms will depend on the details of the legislation, said Michael Osborne, chair of the Canadian competition practice at law firm Cozen O’Connor LLP. Giving the bureau the power to compel information from companies has the potential to raise costs, as those orders can cost millions to comply with, involving lawyers, investigations and discovery.

“This is money that they will have to spend complying with yet more government regulation. And that’s going to get passed on to consumers in the end. We’re going to pay for it,” Osborne said.

The government’s proposal to limit “collaborations” among rival firms is vaguely worded, he added.

Bloomberg Businessweek

Meloni tells EU to blockade migrants and save ‘future of Europe’


Giovanni Legorano
Sun, 17 September 2023 

Ursula Von Der Leyen and Giorgia Meloni speak during the migrant crisis in Lampedusa - Anadolu/Anadolu

Giorgia Meloni said the future of Europe depends on how the bloc handles a growing migration crisis, as she demanded EU leaders create a naval blockade in the Mediterranean to stop the flow of small boats.

The Italian prime minister’s remarks were directed at Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president, who was visiting the tiny island of Lampedusa, off North Africa. More than 10,000 migrants arrived there last week alone, more than the entire 6,000-strong population of the island.

“What is at stake is the future of Europe because the future of Europe depends on its capacity to deal with the huge challenges of our time,” Ms Meloni said, speaking to reporters with Mrs von der Leyen.


She said that the only “serious” way to address the issue is to stop the migrants from departing from North African countries, especially Tunisia.

In return, Mrs von der Leyen pledged the swift return of “irregular” migrants and a crackdown on the “brutal business” of migrant smuggling.

During the visit Ms Meloni repeated her calls for the EU to support the launch of a naval mission to block migrants from reaching Italian shores.

The leaders went to see dozens of small boats, on which hundreds of migrants have arrived in recent weeks in Lampedusa - FILIPPO ATTILI/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock/Shutterstock

European leaders have been at odds for years over how to address the surge in arrivals of irregular migrants to the continent.

If the current trend continues at the pace seen so far this year, arrivals in Italy could overtake the 160,000 record seen in 2016. As of Friday, 126,000 migrants had entered Italy since the start of the year, nearly double the arrivals in the same period of 2022.

Showing she can curb the arrivals of migrants in Italy is a particularly urgent political issue for Ms Meloni. She promised to crack down on the traffickers and stop the boats, telling supporters that for migrants “the gravy train is over” and she pledged a naval blockade to protect Italy’s coasts. None of that has happened.

Instead, Italians saw continuous arrivals of migrants, most of them to Lampedusa, straining care and reception efforts and forcing the government to race against the clock to transfer them to other parts of Italy, amid street protests by many residents in Lampedusa.

Immigration is a serious political issue for the Italian prime minister - YARA NARDI/Reuters

In response to the disastrous situation that built up last week on the tiny island, some European allies softened their stances on migration.

France’s President Emmanuel Macron expressed his solidarity in a phone call with the Italian prime minister on Saturday, as the two agreed on the need for a “European-level” response. French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin, who in May branded Ms Meloni and her government as “incapable” of solving the migration problem for which they had been elected, said he will visit Lampedusa in the coming days to meet his counterpart.

Migrants on the deck of a rescue vessel in a harbour on Lampedusa - ZAKARIA ABDELKAFI/AFP

Germany’s Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said on Friday her country had decided to keep taking in migrants and refugees arriving in Italy, two days after it announced the suspension of a voluntary agreement with Rome to receive new arrivals.

After visiting Lampedusa, Mrs von der Leyen tried to reassure Ms Meloni that the EU would step up efforts to help Italy.

“Italy can count on the European Union,” Mrs von der Leyen said, speaking in Italian.

The EU Commission’s chief presented a 10-point action plan to help Italy manage the wave of arrivals and fight against human traffickers.

The plan included some short-term measures, such as helping Italy transfer migrants from Lampedusa, moving them to other European countries and helping Italy with the registration and fingerprinting.

Mrs von der Leyen also pledged efforts to negotiate at European level the repatriation of irregular migrants with the governments of their countries of origin, promising the swift return of “irregular” migrants and a crackdown on the “brutal business” of migrant smuggling.

In particular, she promised to step up efforts to implement a deal with Tunisia, from where most of the irregular migrants depart. The deal promises funds to the North African country in exchange for cracking down on departures.

Migrants queue at a camp in a harbour on Lampedusa - ZAKARIA ABDELKAFI/AFP

Ms Meloni said she was “optimistic” that the EU naval blockade mission would be discussed at the upcoming meeting of Europe’s heads of governments in October.

Meanwhile, at a rally of the hard-Right party League, its leader Matteo Salvini was joined by French hard-Right leader Marine Le Pen.

“You in Italy and us in France are fighting the same battle, the battle for freedom, for the motherland,” she told Mr Salvini, the deputy prime minister in Ms Meloni’s coalition.

“We defend our ports, like Matteo did with so much courage and combativeness when he had the power to do it,” she said, alluding to the many occasions in which Mr Salvini stopped charity ships from taking migrants rescued in the Mediterranean to Italy.

“At the time, the whole of Europe looked at Italy with admiration and we as allies were proud of Salvini and the League,” she said. “We are waiting for that moment to return.”

Critics lambast Giorgia Meloni’s ‘failed’ strategy after migrant influx


Nick Squires
Sat, 16 September 2023

Migrants wait in the sun at the port in Lampedusa from which they will board a ferry to Empedocle - Chris Warde-Jones

Haruna Manneh shudders at the memory of the journey he took to reach this far-flung outpost of Europe.

Starting out in March from his family home in Gambia, he travelled through West Africa and across the Sahara to Tunisia, where he paid smugglers 50,000 Gambian dalasi (£670) to take him by small boat across the Mediterranean to the island of Lampedusa.

“In Mali and Algeria, I was very scared. In each place we reached, we worked to earn money. We washed dishes, we cleaned houses. When you see that your family doesn’t have enough to eat, when you know that there is not enough money for school fees or rent, you cannot sit around and do nothing.”

Travelling alone, he hopes to make a new life in Italy, or maybe Britain. He is 16 years old.

A huge surge in the number of migrants reaching Lampedusa this week has put the sun-baked island front and centre in the debate over migration, exposing the failure of the Right-wing government of Giorgia Meloni to tackle one of Italy’s biggest challenges.

Hundreds of people took part in a candle-lit vigil in memory of a five-month-old baby boy who drowned earlier this week - Chris Warde-Jones

Dozens of small boats, many of them made of crudely welded together sheets of iron, have delivered thousands of migrants to Lampedusa this week. At one point, there were around 8,000 asylum seekers, outnumbering the island’s 6,000 inhabitants.

The island’s migrant reception centre, which has an official capacity for 400 people, is totally overwhelmed.

On Thursday night, hundreds of people took part in a candle-lit vigil down the main street in memory of a five-month-old baby boy who drowned earlier this week.

Another tragedy struck on Saturday when a newborn died on a migrant boat shortly after its mother gave birth. The tiny infant was brought ashore by the Italian authorities in a miniature white coffin.

Lampedusa is both blessed and cursed by geography.

It boasts sandy beaches, turquoise coves and some of the best scuba diving in the Mediterranean. But it is closer to Africa than to Sicily, making it an obvious stepping-stone for asylum seekers trying to reach Europe.

The migrant exodus from Africa has boomed, Italy’s foreign minister said on Friday.

“The situation in Africa is not just explosive, it has already exploded,” said Antonio Tajani. “Measures are needed to stop migratory flows. We need to move forward with repatriations. Europe cannot pretend that nothing is happening.”

Giorgia Meloni has been criticised for failing to tackle Italy’s migrant challenge - Attila Kisbenedek/Getty

So far this year, more than 127,000 asylum seekers and economic migrants have reached Italy. The number of unauthorised migrants entering the EU in the first eight months of this year was the highest for that period since 2016, according to Frontex, the EU’s border agency.

“I don’t know if it’s an act of war, but what we’re facing, with 127,000 immigrants entering the country since the beginning of the year, is an invasion,” said Roberto Calderoli, another minister in the Meloni government. “A peaceful invasion, but an invasion nonetheless.”

There was so little space available inside the reception centre this week that many migrants slept outside on camp beds provided by the authorities or on strips of cardboard on the ground.

Tucked down a single-lane road, the place is a shambles – the dusty scrub littered with discarded plastic bottles, broken flip-flops, survival blankets and biscuit wrappers.

“Look at the bloody mess they make,” said an elderly man who owns a florist shop on the road leading from Lampedusa’s only town to the reception centre. Rubbish has been dumped between the rows of yuccas, cacti and lemon trees that he has carefully laid out for sale. “Take a photo and send it to Meloni.”
An acute challenge

The dramatic influx of asylum seekers presents an acute challenge for Ms Meloni, the prime minister, who will visit Lampedusa along with Ursula von der Leyen, European Commission president on Sunday.

She promised to crack down on the traffickers and stop the boats, telling supporters that for migrants “the gravy train is over” and pledging a naval blockade to protect Italy’s coasts. None of that has happened.

Under pressure to address the situation, she issued a video message to the nation on Friday night, calling for urgent help from Brussels and saying the EU should consider launching a “naval mission” to block the boats leaving North Africa.

The Italian cabinet will meet on Monday to pass emergency measures, including the construction of larger reception centres to house illegal immigrants and an extension to the time limit for which they can be detained, she said.

Her hardline ally in the government, Matteo Salvini, accused the EU of being “deaf” and said that Italy was having to defend its frontiers without any help from Brussels.
Free croissants for migrants

Many islanders are still deeply sympathetic to the plight of the migrants. Restaurants give out free meals to the many Africans who wander Lampedusa town with nowhere to go and nothing to do. The owner of a café said she hands out free croissants to migrants, particularly the young boys travelling alone.

But other islanders are exhausted by the constant arrival of the boats and the impact on their daily lives, particularly those who work in tourism.

“It would be better to send millions of euros in funds to Africa and tell these people they should stay at home. That way, they won’t die at sea. Otherwise, within two generations, they will be the majority in Europe,” said Christian Plescan, a taxi driver.

“The latest arrivals have ruined the summer tourist season. The number of flights is down by 70 per cent. Tourists are afraid to come here. We feel abandoned by the rest of Europe,” he said.

In the middle of Lampedusa town, a large banner is strung between a palm tree and a pole. “EU and Rome – Absent” it reads.

“My father passed away so now I have to help my family by earning money,” said Yunus Ceesay, a 17-year-old boy from Gambia. “I have six brothers and sisters.”
Not working very well

With the vast majority of boats now arriving from Tunisia rather than neighbouring Libya as in the past, Ms Meloni forged a deal in July in which Tunis will receive €100 million in EU funding in return for stopping the boats from leaving its shores.

So far, it is not working very well. In the two months since the accord was signed, more than 30,000 migrants have reached Italy from Tunisia, which is 60 per cent more than the two months prior to the deal being agreed.

The Tunisians have intercepted an estimated 50,000 migrants so far this year but the authorities are either not able, or not willing, to intercept more.

Italy found itself increasingly isolated this week as it tried to deal with the wave of boat arrivals. France announced it would beef up police patrols along its border with Italy, Germany pulled out of a voluntary EU scheme to accept migrants who land on Italian shores and Austria is tightening controls at the Brenner Pass, the arterial road and rail link between the two countries.

Ms Meloni cannot even expect help from her friends in Europe – the governments of Poland and Hungary, which share a political kinship with her Brothers of Italy party, are fiercely opposed to the idea of having to accept EU quotas of migrants for resettlement.

“The Meloni government’s policies have been a resounding failure,” said Giusi Nicolini, who, as mayor of Lampedusa from 2012 to 2017, knows the migration issue better than most.

With drought and Islamist extremism in the Sahel and conflict in the Horn of Africa and Sudan, she is not surprised at the huge number of arrivals.

“It was entirely predictable, but the government failed to foresee it,” she said. “Even if the deal with Tunisia was a success, the smugglers will just adapt and use different routes. People-smuggling is one of the biggest and most lucrative illegal businesses after arms and drugs.”

She believes the only way to tackle the phenomenon is to undercut the traffickers by offering migrants legal routes of entry. “Europe needs labour. We need to start making courageous choices,” she said.
Squalid conditions

In roasting temperatures, hundreds of migrants, some of them barefoot, were taken by bus from the squalid conditions in the reception centre to a quayside where they were eventually loaded onto a large ferry, bound for a port in Sicily.

Ordered to wait in the glaring sunshine, one man fainted and had to be taken away on a stretcher. Others got into a scuffle, prompting intervention by Italian police. A few hundred yards away across the harbour, tourists sunbathed on a beach and kids played in the shallows.

In the space of just over 24 hours, the Italian authorities moved 5,000 migrants off the island, according to the UNHCR.

“Europe’s not interested in these poor wretches,” said a Red Cross volunteer who asked not to be named. “International criminal networks are behind the migrant flows. They’re making billions.”

From Sicily, the arrivals will be distributed to migrant centres across Italy. Many will simply walk out of the front gate and head to other European countries, as has happened for years.

Among the migrants waiting to be shipped off the island was Jonh Cok, 23, a member of the Dinka tribe from South Sudan.

He says he fled his homeland because of militia fighting. It took him two years to reach Lampedusa, by way of stints in Sudan and Libya. He hopes to start a new life in Europe.

“For us African migrants, whichever country colonised you, that’s the country you head for. If you’re from a place that was colonised by the French, then you want to go to France. We Sudanese were colonised by the British, so I want to go to Britain.”

Millions clueless about 'blue carbon' - which could aid battle against global warming


Sun, 17 September 2023

It could be a major weapon in the ongoing battle against global warming – but most people have never heard of ‘blue carbon’, according to research. More carbon is stored in coastal and marine marshes and seagrass meadows than in the world’s rainforests. But 92 per cent of UK seagrass meadows, which provide habitats for endangered species, promote flood resilience and help fight coastal erosion, have vanished over the last century. Seagrass beds, found in sheltered areas such as harbours and lagoons, are home to fish, snails, periwinkles, seahorses and jellyfish. The study of 1,000 parents with primary school children, carried out by Zurich Municipal, found almost seven in 10 (69 per cent) had never heard of the term ‘blue carbon’ and 55 per cent don’t know what seagrass is. The OnePoll research also reveals 58 per cent of primary school parents want to see sustainability on the national curriculum. They believe children need to learn more about climate change. Although it is currently in the curriculum, it features across a range of subjects - not in its entirety. Now insurers Zurich have teamed up with TV presenter, Paralympic medallist and climate champion Ade Adepitan to launch the children’s book ‘The Secret Garden Under The Sea’ [https://www.zurich.co.uk/sustainability/our-planet/seahorse] to raise awareness about seagrass and sustainability, and help parents and their children to learn about climate change and marine eco-systems. The book, which is available to download for free as an ebook or audio, tells the story of Seanna the Seahorse and her friends living in the sea. It brings to life the importance of seagrass, using characters such as ‘the murky monster’ to depict pollution, and the ‘emerald sea queen. Ade said: “Primary school is a really important time to educate children about all aspects of our planet and sustainability in a positive way.” “Sustainability wasn’t something I had the privilege to learn about at school, so I feel passionately that we must take the opportunity to educate this generation to truly understand the topic." Marine Conservation Society CEO Sandy Luk said: “For the health of our planet, and to tackle the effects of a changing climate, ocean recovery is vital. “Seagrass is one example of an ocean habitat with incredible power, but few people are aware of this ocean superhero. “Education is key to ensuring the next generation understand the importance of our seas and how we can all make a difference. "We hope Seanna’s adventures in the secret garden under the sea inspire a whole new generation of ocean enthusiasts.” Zurich Municipal MD Amy Brettell said: “I’m thrilled that we can now offer such positive materials to help primary school children understand the importance and benefits of seagrass to biodiversity and our own world.” Labour MP and Shadow Cabinet Office Minister Florence Eshalomi said: “It’s great to see public figures like Ade and businesses like Zurich working with schools to provide valuable resources that positively raise awareness with children of our marine habitats and their role in protecting the environment.”

ETHIOPIA'S WAR IS GLOBALIZED
Dozens are injured at an Eritrean event in Germany, including 26 police officers

Associated Press
Sun, 17 September 2023 

A man is taken away by police officers in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany, on Saturday, Sept. 16, 2023, after clashes at a gathering of Eritrean groups. (Jason Tschepljakow/dpa via AP) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)


BERLIN (AP) — German police said dozens of people, including at least 26 officers, were injured during unrest surrounding an Eritrean cultural festival in the southwestern city of Stuttgart.

Shortly before the event was set to begin Saturday afternoon, around 200 protesters gathered in the area outside and began throwing stones, bottles, and other items at police officers and participants of the event. Six of the 26 injured police officers were treated in a hospital for their injuries, police said. Four event participants and two protesters were also injured, according to police, although information wasn’t immediately available about the severity of their injuries.

Saturday’s protests were the latest in a string of unrest surrounding Eritrean cultural events in Germany and elsewhere. In July, a clash at an Eritrean festival in the western German city of Giessen left 22 police officers injured. A fight between Eritrean government supporters and opponents in Tel Aviv in early September led to one of the most violent street confrontations among African asylum seekers and migrants in the city’s recent memory.

The event Saturday was organized by several groups considered close to the government of Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki.

Tens of thousands of people have fled Eritrea for Europe, many alleging they were mistreated by Afwerki’s repressive government. The conflicts surrounding gatherings like Saturday’s highlight the deep divide among members of the Eritrean diaspora, those who remain close to the government and those who have fled to live in exile and strongly oppose Afwerki.

On Saturday, Stuttgart police vice president Carsten Hoefler condemned the protesters' actions and said in a statement that “neither the extent nor the intensity of the violence was apparent in advance.”

City officials said there had been no reason to ban the gathering in advance, but that they will take steps to prevent similar unrest in the future.

“We must take decisive action against the emergence of conflicts from other states on German soil,” said Stuttgart Mayor Frank Nopper, according to German news agency dpa.