Poison Pen: Elliott Sends Open Letter To Southwest Investors Attacking Airline Leadership

By Rytis Beresnevičius

Summary

Elliott Investment Management, which has amassed an 11% shareholding in Southwest Airlines, has continued to push a leadership change at the airline.

While Southwest Airlines has attempted to make changes, the investment firm brushed them off, continuing to call for the resignation or removal of the carrier's top executives.

The proxy battle has been brewing since early June, when Elliott announced its Stronger Southwest plan, which outlined the needed changes at the airline, including the removal of its chairman of the board and CEO.


Elliott Investment Management (Elliott) has continued criticizing Southwest Airlines' current and former chief executives, with the investment firm addressing the carrier’s shareholders and reiterating its plans to change the leadership at Southwest Airlines.
Continuous criticism

Continuing to publish letters on the Stronger Southwest platform, Elliott has once again critiqued Bob Jordan, the president and chief executive officer (CEO) of Southwest Airlines, and Gary Kelly, the current chairman of the board and former CEO of the airline.

Photo: Southwest Airlines

Blaming the two executives for years’ long mismanagement, the investment firm outlined that over the course of three years before it announced its 11% position in Southwest Airlines in June, the airline’s share price has fallen by more than 30%.

“Shareholders are demanding better, and as one of the Company’s largest investors, we are leading an effort to arrest Southwest’s decline and return it to its rightful place as an industry leader.”

Elliott stated that after it had announced its intentions to initiate a leadership change at the airline, Jordan indicated his desire to fight Elliot’s efforts, which has included a poison pill that was armed in July.

Furthermore, the investment firm pointed out that the airline has falsely claimed that the two warring sides have not met, adding that in addition to a meeting in June, Elliott intended to meet with Southwest Airlines’ representatives on September 9.

Elliott Strategy Is Wrong For Southwest: Former United Airlines CEO Explains Why

The former United CEO advises Southwest to stick with its new course.

No leadership changes

Elliott pointed out that Kelly has led a process to add new directors to the airline’s board. At the same time, the investment firm was adamant that this was an effort to “entrench its current leadership.”

“We have no doubt that Southwest will attempt to portray our decision not to participate in this sham process absent a comprehensive solution as further evidence of our unwillingness to engage.”

Photo: Markus Mainka | Shutterstock

However, Elliott pointed out that Southwest Airlines’ executives were willing to talk openly only if “the most critical question,” namely the change of the carrier’s leadership, was taken off the table.

The company added that while it was willing to engage with the carrier’s board, it would only do so if it agreed to remove both Kelly and Jordan.

Otherwise, it preferred that shareholders, including itself, had a direct say in Southwest Airlines' future leadership.

Elliott Investment To Push For 10 New Boardroom Directors At Southwest Airlines

The firm wants big changes at the airline


Meeting with proposed directors

After Elliott announced ten independent directors to the airline’s board in early August, Southwest Airlines’ representatives have attempted to meet with the proposed executives.


“Neither Elliott nor its independent director candidates see the benefit to Southwest or to us of participating in this Company-controlled process.”

When Southwest Airlines has underperformed so much, no process conducted by its current leadership could be considered credible, Elliott noted.

Photo: Angel DiBilio | Shutterstock



The investment firm reiterated that another firm, Artisan Partners, has joined in its efforts to change the leadership at the airline, with several other unidentified shareholders expressing the same desire.
Related

SWAPA President Backs Call For Change As Elliot Responds To 'Poison Pill'

Southwest Airlines' pilots reiterated that whatever will happen in the next few months, changes will be coming to the airline and its business model.
2



Embracing the company’s culture

At the same time, while reiterating that leadership had to go, Eliott stated that it believed Southwest Airlines' current culture was vital to its success and had no intention of changing it.


“But the underlying message of Mr. Jordan’s recent rhetoric is that the culture of Southwest, which has powered its success for half a century, now seems to solely depend on the continued employment of its two top executives… who happen to be Mr. Kelly and Mr. Jordan.”

The recently announced changes to the boarding process and additional revenue initiatives were also criticized, with the investment firm saying that rapid and ad-hoc decisions could impede the long-term stability of Southwest Airlines.




“We have seen this movie before, and it rarely ends well, because there is no one more short-term-oriented at the expense of future value than a beleaguered CEO trying to preserve his or her job.”

Elliott concluded its letter by saying that it has continued to assume it would meet with the airline on September 9.

Photo: F Armstrong Photography | Shutterstock

At the same time, Southwest Airlines will attempt to distract shareholders by using various measures to avoid engaging with them.

The investment firm has hoped that some members of the board will look past the personal interests of Jordan and Kelly and do what was in favor of Southwest Airlines and its stakeholders.

China’s Budget Spending Drops as Land Sales See Record Fall


Bloomberg News
Mon, 26 Aug 2024, 

(Bloomberg) -- China’s broad budget expenditure contracted and income from land sales for local governments fell at a record pace, a sign of fiscal weakness that may further increase calls on Beijing to add stimulus to support the $17 trillion economy.

The combined spending in the general public budget and the government fund account was about 19.7 trillion yuan ($2.8 trillion) in the first seven months of the year, down 2% from the same point in 2023, according to Bloomberg calculations based on data released by the Ministry of Finance on Monday.

Behind the decline was a 8.9% decrease in land-related expenditure that includes payments for primary land development and compensation for existing rural infrastructure in preparation for a potential sale. Local governments have been cutting spending as their budgets come under strain from a severe housing downturn that’s made developers reluctant to purchase land.

The property fallout on public finances is becoming increasingly evident on the balance sheets of indebted local governments. Their revenue from land sales in July shrank just over 40% on year to 250 billion yuan, according to Bloomberg calculations, the sharpest fall since comparative data became available in 2016.

Total revenue under the two budgets came in at 15.9 trillion yuan in the first seven months, down 5.3% on year. That translated into an augmented deficit — a broad measure of the fiscal gap — of 3.8 trillion yuan.

“We see significant downward pressure for fiscal funding this year from falling tax and land sales revenue, besides the multi-year” deleveraging by state-owned companies known as local government financing vehicles, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. economists including Lisheng Wang wrote in a note after the data release. It’s a reference to Beijing’s campaign to curb local governments’ exposure to off-balance-sheet debt risks.


On Monday, six government departments including the Ministry of Finance issued measures to strengthen oversight of municipal infrastructure projects to prevent hidden debt. The actions bar local governments from selling bonds to fund projects with zero or little returns.

Policy at Crossroads

The spending contraction came during a month when China’s ruling Communist Party convened for its most important economic policy meetings for the second half of the year. The country’s top leadership pledged to make boosting consumer spending a greater focus but fell short of outlining decisive new measures.

At a regular meeting on July 31, China’s cabinet vowed to study additional steps that would be strong enough to reach companies and households.

The Goldman economists estimate fiscal expenditure growth rebounded in July, citing a broad deficit metric of their own that combines major on- and off-budget channels. They also expect government bond net issuance to increase “notably” in coming months to support fiscal spending and government-led investment.

Calls are meanwhile intensifying for the Chinese authorities to ramp up fiscal stimulus. Domestic demand has struggled to pick up as the persistent real estate crisis, price competition between companies and a gloomy job market weigh on business and consumer confidence.

A growing chorus of state-linked economists has urged Beijing to raise this year’s official deficit ceiling to allow more central government borrowing. Late last year, China lifted the ratio to 3.8% of gross domestic product from the original 3% with the sales of an additional 1 trillion yuan of sovereign bonds.

Among the challenges facing local governments is finding quality infrastructure projects to invest their special bond funds. In response, the economists have proposed using part of the money raised from any additional government borrowing this year to pay for subsidies for less well-off households as well as address the local debt risks and help rescue the property market.

A shift in the use of government bonds has already started. China is tapping some of the 1 trillion yuan of ultra-long special sovereign bonds it’s selling this year to subsidize purchases of new equipment by companies and consumers — Beijing’s key initiative aimed at boosting consumption.

Policymakers are also considering a proposal to let local authorities use these bonds to fund their purchases of unsold homes as part of efforts to prop up the housing market, Bloomberg reported last week.

The issuance of local special bonds — mostly meant for infrastructure investment — accelerated in August after staying slow earlier this year, partly as large amounts of sovereign debt hit the market. Sales of new local special notes have reached 632.7 billion yuan so far this month, already the largest volume since June 2022.

--With assistance from Ailing Tan, Jing Zhao and Lucille Liu.

UK 

Plumbers, fitters and welders to strike next month

Updated / Monday, 26 Aug 2024 

Unite said that talks with the MEBSCA aimed at averting 

industrial action broke down this morning

By Brian O'Donovan
Work & Technology Correspondent


Plumbers, fitters, welders and apprentices on construction projects, who are members of the Unite trade union, are to take strike action next month in a dispute over travel allowances.

The union said action will begin with a full day of work stoppages on Friday 6 September, with pickets placed at sites around the country.

Unite said that talks with the Mechanical Engineering and Building Services Contractors' Association (MEBSCA) aimed at averting industrial action broke down this morning.

Earlier this month, Unite members voted overwhelmingly for industrial action in pursuit of restoration of the first hour of 'travel time'.

The decision to ballot for industrial action came after initial talks with MEBSCA broke down at the beginning of July.

Unite said that the payment of the first hour of ‘travel time’ was originally cut as a ‘temporary measure’ following the 2008 financial crash and that it was meant to be reviewed after a year.

"If MEBSCA wants to avoid significant disruption to construction sites around Ireland, they must return to the table and engage meaningfully with Unite regarding restoration of the first hour of 'travel time'," said Unite regional officer James McCabe.

"Otherwise, there will be a further escalation in this dispute," Mr McCabe said.

MEBSCA has said that the first hour of 'travel time' has been incorporated into hourly rates since 2011 as part of an agreement reached with Unite.

"An agreement was entered into with Unite in 2011, which incorporated the first hour of travel into hourly rates," a MEBSCA spokesperson said.

"This agreement had the effect of increasing the hourly rate which also resulted in a higher rate being paid for overtime and holidays."

"Unite is now seeking to maintain the higher rate of pay while also seeking to reverse the agreement that was freely entered into by Unite at that time," MEBSCA said.

Scotland and Wales have promised Free School Meals to all primary school children, why can’t England, campaigners ask?

Gabrielle Pickard-Whitehead 

Yesterday

LEFT FOOT FORWARD


As calls grow for the government to implement the policy nationwide to help lift children out of poverty, Labour continues to face criticism for its controversial decision to maintain the two-child benefit cap.



As the new school year approaches, calls for free school meals for all primary school children in England are mounting. Thousands have signed a letter addressed to the Prime Minister, entitled “Free School Meals for All.”

The letter, initiated by No Child Left Behind – a campaign focused on breaking down the barriers that poverty creates around equal access to education – and the National Education Union (NEU), highlights the severity of the situation, how, in 2023, four million children in the UK lived in households where food was scarce. It describes child hunger in schools as an “epidemic.”

The authors argue that providing free school meals for every child would relieve financial pressure on parents, allowing them to afford other essentials for their children, such as heating, food at home, hobbies, and after-school activities. The letter goes on to explain how teachers and support staff witness firsthand the positive impact of a healthy school lunch. “When children are hungry, they can’t learn. It’s hard for them to concentrate and harder for them to reach their potential. Free School Meals for all would mean every child can learn and succeed,” the letter states.

The campaign also points out that while Wales and Scotland have already committed to providing free school meals for all primary school children, England is lagging behind. In 2020, Scotland pledged to extend free school meals to all primary school children, and Wales followed suit in 2021. “It is time for England to catch up,” it states.

The campaign has gained support from numerous celebrities, including Olivia Colman, Brian Cox, and Ed Sheeran, as well as hundreds of civil society leaders such as Michael McGregor, CEO of 38 Degrees, and Cathy Evans, CEO of Children England. Additionally, over 40 different faith communities, numerous councillors and mayors, more than 40 MPs and Lords, various sports bodies, and public health organisations have backed the initiative.

Keir Starmer is facing increasing pressure to adopt the free meals policy nationwide, especially since London Mayor Sadiq Khan announced that all primary pupils in the capital will receive free school meals for a year starting in September. But Starmer has so far refused to commit to supporting free school meals for all primary school children.

As calls grow for the government to implement the policy nationwide to help lift children out of poverty, Labour continues to face criticism for its controversial decision to maintain the two-child benefit cap. This policy, originally introduced by David Cameron’s Conservative government, was intended to discourage families on benefits from having more children than they could financially support, based on the idea that “hard-working families” often struggle to afford larger families. Many see Labour’s decision to uphold the cap as a betrayal of traditional Labour values and human rights principles.

In a strong critique of the government’s continuation of the policy, Dr. Emily Ball, a lecturer in Social Policy and Social Research Methods at the University of Birmingham, argues that the cap is just one of “many strands of welfare reform that are sold to the public as fair, when in reality they do little more than sit pretty on an ideologically conservative soapbox.” Dr Ball writes: “The continued shedding of Labour’s image as the ‘spending party’ should not take precedence over the cruelty of the two-child cap and the responsibility for helping a generation of children who will grow up with their needs not being met.”

South London cleaners strike against elite school bosses

James Allen’s Girls’ School in Dulwich charges £24,000 a year per student

Night cleaners at Harrods won, and so can Dulwich school strikers (Picture: UVW)

By Charlie Kimber
Friday 23 August 2024

SOCIALIST WORKER Issue

Class struggle is alive and well in south London. Workers who clean the private James Allen’s Girls’ School in Dulwich, south London, are set for a three-day strike.

It was the Times newspaper’s Independent Secondary School of the Year 2024—and charges £24,000 a year per student.

The UVW union members plan to be out on 2, 3 and 5 September. It will see migrant workers take on an elite school’s bosses.

The union says, “Outsourced migrant cleaners have had their hours cut and pay unlawfully slashed by 12 percent.”

The cleaners were told to accept a cut in five weeks of work and pay per year in order to be granted the London Living Wage of £13.15 per hour. These changes left them worse off because they were employed for fewer hours.

When the cleaners refused—and voted unanimously to strike—their pay was returned to the lower rate of £11.55 per hour. The cleaners are employed directly by contractor DB Services.

Cleaner Gloria Chalaco said, “They didn’t consult us at all—they just started implementing cuts and changes, ignoring our voices.

“We can’t just find another job to make up for such a significant income loss, especially with scattered weeks off throughout the year. Our bills and rent don’t stop. On top of that, we don’t have sick pay.

“When we get sick, we either work while ill or lose our pay. They don’t respect us, the cleaners, as people with the same needs and rights as everyone else, yet we ensure the environment is healthy and safe for the pupils.”

The head of the school earns over £200,000 a year. There are also 38 other employees of the school with salaries between £60,000 and £90,000 and several others who earn over £100,000.

Striker Nelsa Jimenez said, “I can’t believe they have cut our pay. It is blackmail what they’re doing—forcing us to agree to a cut in hours or a cut in pay.

“I don’t feel valued. I feel outraged. We will fight back with everything, for our rights and the rights of anyone else who ever works in this company.”

Workers are demanding a yearly pay rise in line with the London Living Wage, no cuts to pay or hours, the same sick pay scheme as teachers and no contract changes.

The school boasts income of £25 million a year. Yet the five-week cut in hours management requested will save just £20,000 a year on the backs of the lowest-paid workers there. The school claims to profess values of inclusion, diversity, and equity.

The school strike comes as night cleaners at posh store Harrods in the UVW voted to strike and forced bosses to scrap restrictive new annual leave policy. It would have severely restricted workers’ ability to take time off to visit families abroad.

The union said it was a “racially discriminatory” holiday policy that particularly hit black and Asian workers. These inspiring struggles deserve full support.Picket at 144 East Dulwich Grove, London SE22 8TE from 7.30-8:30am, Monday 2, Tuesday 3 and Thursday 5 Sept
To donate to the strike fund and to write to the head go to tinyurl.com/Jags0824

TATA/TALBOT STEEL WALES

Starmer’s promise to save steel jobs has melted away

Only struggle—at all of the steel companies’ sites—will force the bosses to back off from a jobs massacre

By Charlie Kimber
Saturday 24 August 2024

SOCIALIST WORKER Issue



Sharan Graham, general secretary of Unite the union, on a march to defend steel jobs (Picture: Guy Smallman)

Labour’s election promises to save steel jobs are falling apart. It hammers home that the union leaders were wrong to run away from strikes in July and rely on Keir Starmer—and should call walkouts now.

Unless there’s a fight, thousands of steel workers are set to be laid off just before Christmas. British Steel last week brought forward plans to close its blast furnaces in Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire.

The GMB union said on Friday that at least 2,500 jobs are at risk. The owner, multinational Jingye, has insisted that no decision has yet been made.

But the Telegraph newspaper says Jingye is in talks with the government over plans to cut imports of coal needed for its steel blast furnaces in October. That’s almost two years earlier than initially planned.

The three million tonnes of steel currently produced from the furnaces would potentially be replaced by steel imported from China.

Jingye remains in discussions with the government for a £600 million state handout so it can modernise its plants.

British Steel has previously announced it would be building an electric arc furnace (EAF) as part of its decarbonisation plans. The company had said it would keep its current operations running until the transition had been made to electric arc steelmaking.

Meanwhile, the jobs slaughter continues at Port Talbot steel works in South Wales, owned by the Tata conglomerate.

Last week Starmer said his ministers will do “everything we can”. But he added, “I’m not going to pretend it’s anything other than tough.”

He said he didn’t want to give “false hope” to workers ahead of the imminent closure of the town’s last blast furnace next month.

Labour’s Welsh secretary Jo Stevens is also admitting jobs will go. “We want to make sure there are as many jobs protected as possible,” she said recently. “We don’t want to see compulsory redundancies.”

That leaves the door open for mass cuts—and Tata bosses are pressing ahead with their plans. The firm has already pushed workers to “volunteer” for redundancy and says it will close the second of two blast furnaces in September.

Huw Thomas, BBC Wales business correspondent commented, “Since the steelmaker announced its original proposals at the beginning of this year, barely any changes have been made to the overall plan.”

Its plan will “cut 2,800 jobs and shut the heavy end of Port Talbot’s operation by the autumn”. “With just weeks remaining, the blueprint for Tata Steel’s restructure seems unlikely to change,” he said.

“Any additional investment or job creation is likely to be secondary, and small in scale, compared with what’s being lost.”

The key moment came just before the general election in July. Unite union leaders crumbled in the face of bosses’ threats and called off a scheduled strike by 1,500 workers in south Wales.

The union claimed Tata Steel company bosses had offered new talks.

In reality, the firm had threatened to start shutting down two blast furnaces immediately unless Unite called off an indefinite strike. And, unwilling to defy the company, Unite dropped the strike and an overtime ban.

Disgracefully, the Community union which had not called strikes—despite its members voting for them—revelled in Unite backing off.

It’s not too late to launch strikes and a wider battle throughout the working class movement for jobs and for more sustainable production.

Only struggle—at all of the companies’ sites—will force the bosses to back off. There should be no agreement to any moves that lead to a shutdown—and workers must not perform them.

“Greener steel” doesn’t have to mean devastation for working class people.

It’s right to move away from the polluting processes that presently dominate the industry. But that should be done with workers at the centre of decision-making—and not with profits dominating.

Workers should organise for an occupation of the threatened sites and demand Labour nationalise the industry under democratic control.

DECRIMINALIZE  DRUGS

Scotland’s drugs deaths are a public health emergency

People in Scotland are dying from drug use at a rate higher than in any other European country.

By Yuri Prasad
Sunday 25 August 2024

SOCIALIST WORKER Issue



Opioid drugs, such as heroin, are behind around 80 percent of Scottish drug-related deaths

People in Scotland are dying from drug use at a rate higher than in any other European country.

National Records for Scotland last week showed that 1,172 people died as a result of drug use in 2023—an increase of 12 percent over the pre­vious year.

And opioid drugs, such as heroin, morphine and methadone, are impli­cated in around 80 percent of the deaths.

Opioids relax muscles and the brain, including the parts that con­trol breathing, meaning that many drug-related deaths happen because of respiratory failure.

Poverty plays an important part in this story, with the poorest areas of Glasgow, Inverclyde and Dundee being among the worst affected.

Poor people with bad physical and mental health are far more likely than those who are healthy to turn to drugs to ease their pain. They are also more likely to die from an overdose. But poverty alone doesn’t explain what is happening.

The numbers of drug-related deaths in the poorest areas of England and Wales don’t come close to those of Scotland—even though poverty levels are similar.

Instead, Scotland appears to be trapped in a public health emergency.

Trauma is a well-known factor in problematic drug use. And there are now generations of drug users that experienced childhood trauma because their parents were addicts.

Many of them lost family to overdoses or drug-associated diseases and are now themselves vulnerable to the same tragedies.

There are ways to break out of the crisis, but they depend on a massive increase in funding into holistic ser­vices for drug users. And they require a break with the moralism behind state drugs policy.

Despite the Scottish government having formally signed-up to the full range of treatments demanded by experts and users, what services exist are often overwhelmed.

Clinics that help people break from opioid dependency by offer­ing a controlled alternative, such as methadone, are a vital part of a treat­ment strategy.

But a recent report from the Scottish Drugs Forum showed that many people wait months to start treatment, while others have to travel miles to reach a clinic.

One service user reported that her clinic was “just ridiculous. It was just wholeheartedly inaccessible to begin with. I was genuinely phoning up in tears begging for this help, for months.”

And its not just preventative ser­vices that are affected. People who have overdosed can be saved if a medical professional gets to them fast and injects them with a reversal drug, such as Naloxone.

But these long-promised rapid reaction teams are still thin on the ground, with not enough funding to make them truly effective.

There are an estimated 60,000 people in Scotland thought to be at risk of a drugs overdose, but just 40 percent have access to this kind of lifesaving treatment.

If the state is going to tackle the ever-rising number of drugs deaths in Scotland it must treat them as a public health emergency.
‘Expand Glasgow services’

Britain’s first official consumption room for illegal drugs will open in Glasgow in October. Keir McKechnie, a mental health worker in the city, told Socialist Worker the move is long overdue.

“The arrival of synthetic opioid drugs—which can be far stronger than heroin—means there has to be a massive expansion of all drug user services,” he said.

“It’s vital that we take drug users out of the criminal justice system and get them in the public health system instead.

“We need more investment in drug addiction teams, and we need a full range of mental health services that people can access quickly. Problematic drug use cannot be separated from wider mental health problems people are experiencing.

“At the moment, it can take months, and even years, for someone that wants to deal with their addiction to get access to a rehab centre.”

Keir adds that the new consumption rooms must be just the start of a radical change in healthcare for drug users.

“The onset of an opioid crisis means we urgently need drop-in centres where people can have the drugs they’ve bought properly tested,” he says.

“That will at least give people an understanding of what’s in the drugs they plan to take.”

For that to happen, the state must abandon the criminalisation of addiction.
Criminalising drugs—and drug users—doesn’t work

The number of people dying from drug overdoses in Scotland has risen fairly consistently since 1996.

But state attempts to deal with the increase have made little progress for one key reason—the drugs in question are illegal.

The safest way for people to take drugs is for the NHS to offer medical grade substances for free and an environment in which to take them.
Illegality forces users to buy drugs from dealers who cut their products with other substances to make up the weight or increase the high.

And that same illegality creates a stigma that pushes people to administer their drugs behind closed doors, where medical services can’t get to them if they overdose.

The state insists on criminalisation for ideological and financial reasons. By making drugs illegal, it designates drug users as “criminals”. It suggests that it is drug users’ individual failings that are responsible for the harm that comes to them.

That helps the state duck the question of why the poverty, inequality, abuse and pain behind drug use are built into its system. And most of our rulers oppose the higher health spending required to properly treat people who are addicted to drugs.

So it suits them to label drug use as a problem of a “criminal minority”.

‘It’s as if he got away with it’: how a loophole can leave child abusers walking free in England and Wales

Haroon Siddique Legal affairs correspondent
Sun 25 August 2024
THE GUARDIAN

Lucy (not her real name) said reporting her abuse to police was ‘exhausting and traumatic’. Photograph: Jonny Weeks/The Guardian

Lucy (not her real name) was groomed by her friend’s father, who was 22 years older than her, and he began sexually abusing her at the age of 13. When she was 15, she became pregnant and had an abortion. She said when the abuse took place in the 1980s, because of her age she did not realise that it was wrong and her parents were concerned about the effect that reporting it would have on their family.

Now aged 51, she still struggles to come to terms with what happened and has suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety and depression. It was only when she began therapy that she began to come to terms with the abuse and made the decision, last year, to contact the police. She was also persuaded to act by the death of her parents, which meant that she no longer had to worry that speaking out would distress them. And she was being harassed by the partner of the perpetrator, who lived close by.

“It took me a long time and even when I’d spoken to the police, I still had to decide if I definitely wanted to go ahead with it,” she said. “I decided that I would because there was nothing stopping me now.”

She said the process of reporting the offence to the police had been “exhausting and traumatic”, particularly reliving her past experiences during the video interview.

Lucy felt “relieved and pleased” when officers told her that her abuser had admitted in a police interview to having sex with her when she was 14 and 15. However, about six weeks later she was told the news that, because prosecution oe offence of sexual intercourse with a girl under 16 under the Sexual Offences Act 1956 had to begin within 12 months of the alleged offence, he could not be charged.

“I was devastated,” said Lucy. “I thought, I’ve finally decided to go ahead with it and he’ll be prosecuted – it just felt more positive. But then, when I learned that he wouldn’t be prosecuted, it was like that had all just gone and we were back to where we were.”

While the legislation dictating the 12-month limitation period was changed in 2004, it was not made retrospective and so Lucy and hundreds of other women have been left without recourse to justice.

“It just doesn’t seem right that if it’s before a certain date he can’t be prosecuted or if I didn’t report it within a certain time,” she said. “People have mental health issues or other reasons why they can’t always report it straight away.”

She said her mood and self-esteem had suffered as a result of the decision not to bring charges, especially as she is back living in the area where she grew up and where her abuser still lives.

“I think there’s still some people that think it was partly my fault and it was almost like an affair or something,” she said. “But they’re not taking into account that I was 13 when it started.

“It’s still hanging over my head. They [he and his current partner] are still acting like normal and carrying on with their lives – it’s as though he’s got away with it.”

The curious tale of Kamala Harris and the Irish slave owner

The US presidential candidate is believed to have links to a town in County Antrim but whereas transatlantic ties are normally a cause for celebration, in the town of Ballymoney there is a strange unwillingness to embrace its most famous daughter.

Stephen Murphy
Ireland correspondent @SMurphyTV
Sunday 25 August 2024 


In the heart of Ballymoney, a small town in Northern Ireland's County Antrim, bike leather-clad tourists seek out a well-manicured memorial garden.

Astride his motorbike, a life-sized statue of champion racer Joey Dunlop leans back, arms folded, a victorious grin engraved for eternity. The late King of the Roads, a local legend, still commands pilgrimage from around the world.

There are statues too of his brother Robert, and nephew William, all three men taken before their time, snatched away by one of the world's most dangerous sports.

Down the street, drinkers sip pints in the sunshine outside Joey’s Bar, beneath his smiling image. This place knows how to celebrate its sons.

Statue of Joey Dunlop, motorcycle racing legend from Ballymoney

Yet there is a strange reticence to embrace the ancestral ties that might see Ballymoney blood in the Oval Office. A reluctance to acknowledge the town’s most famous daughter. “You'll not get them to talk on that," one man told me. And I soon found out how right he was.

Five years ago, Donald J Harris, father of Kamala Harris, revealed his belief that he is descended from Hamilton Brown, born in Ballymoney around 1776. Brown emigrated to Jamaica and ran sugar plantations. He owned scores of slaves, some treated harshly.

In an essay by Harris, published by the Jamaica Global Online website, the Stanford University professor wrote: "My roots go back, within my lifetime, to my paternal grandmother Miss Chrishy (nee Christiana Brown, descendant of Hamilton Brown who is on record as plantation and slave owner and founder of Brown’s Town)." Donald J Harris emigrated to the US from Jamaica in 1961.

Donald J Harris with his baby daughter Kamala. Pic Kamala Harris

That story has been given fresh impetus since Joe Biden paved the way for Kamala Harris to become the Democratic presidential candidate. In recent weeks, a County Antrim historian said he had found documentation shedding further light on Hamilton Brown.

Stephen McCracken told the local newspaper, the Ballymoney Chronicle, that he had discovered letters connecting Brown to his birthplace in Bracough, a townland just outside Ballymoney. He told the newspaper that Brown was "a seriously bad man, who travelled to London a few times to campaign against the abolition of slavery".

The Irish Times picked up on the story, as did the Belfast Telegraph and the Daily Mail.

"I've been getting a wee bit of abuse over it," McCracken told the Irish Times. "People have been asking me why I've publicised it."

The local Ballymoney newspaper ran an article on Harris's links to the town

When I asked him for an interview, he declined, citing an abusive backlash via social media, including Kamala Harris supporters accusing him of trying to wreck her campaign.

Right-wing and pro-Trump memes have circulated since 2019, painting the Harris family as "descended from slave owners", without any context. These tropes deliberately ignore the ugly explanation that slave owners commonly raped their female slaves, explaining why many black Jamaicans have European genes.

In the ultra-polarised world of American politics, Kamala supporters were allegedly hitting out at those publicising her heritage, seeing it as ammunition for further MAGA propaganda.

Meanwhile, the Ballymoney Chronicle carried a follow-up piece practically debunking the original claim of lineage. A qualified genealogist told the paper that the links were "unproven", and said Hamilton Brown was not recorded as getting married or having children.

Depiction of slavery in British West Indies, most likely Jamaica, 1800. Pic slaveryimages.org,

When I asked that genealogist for an interview - they agreed. The next day they abruptly cancelled, calling the story "a pile of nonsense".

I asked McCracken for further details of his research. He stopped replying.

A third historian told me he didn't think existing documentation would ever prove the link. "You'd need DNA testing," he said.

I felt like I was encountering a wall of silence from others in Ballymoney. Multiple phone calls, messages and emails to a high-profile local DUP councillor went unanswered. A Sinn Fein colleague seemed unaware of the story and not overly interested in an interview. Ballymoney business owners declined to arrange interviews, or were not returning calls.

Repeated attempts to visit Ballymoney were abandoned due to rioting in Belfast. Another journey was aborted after the Sky News satellite van suffered a blow-out on a particularly inhospitable stretch of road.

The story was starting to feel a bit cursed.

This bronze sculpture welcomes visitors to the Barack Obama Plaza. 

Photo by Adrian Langtry/Shutterstock

When we did belatedly arrive, the contrast to other US presidential "hometowns" in Ireland was stark. Long before they received the imprimatur of an actual visit, Ballina in Co Mayo and Carlingford in Co Louth were abuzz with Bidenmania.

You can’t visit the "Barack Obama Plaza" motorway service station outside Moneygall, Co Offaly, without a sense of the faintly ridiculous Irish enthusiasm for presidential heritage. Petrol and a chicken fillet roll downstairs, Obama visitor centre upstairs.

Yet, half a decade on from Donald J Harris’s revelation, there isn’t a solitary sign of the transatlantic connection in Ballymoney. Not a mural, a sign, a US flag or an enterprising cafe with a Kamala-themed name.

On Main Street, pedestrians were bemused. Most simply hadn’t heard the tale. It'd take more than Kamala to brighten up "this dreary town", one woman ventured, a bit unkindly.

There is a seeming reticence to discuss Kamala Harris's links to Ballymoney

But some locals were happy to talk.

In the W & J Walker hardware shop, paint brushes from both the "Hamilton" and "Harris" brands hung serendipitously side-by-side.

"People around here like family trees," said worker Joanne Donnell. "They like to go back to the original people."

"It’ll bring a bit of excitement to the town," her sister Rhonda Lafferty said. "We get a lot of visitors here from America, this summer especially."

Rhonda Lafferty and Joanne Donnell, sisters who both work at the W & J Walker shop in Ballymoney

Neither woman seemed concerned that Hamilton Brown was a slave owner. "People take these things with a pinch of salt," said Joanne. "It was a long time ago."

Winifred Mellot owns the bustling The Winsome Lady clothes shop. A popular figure, she is also the long-serving president of the Ballymoney Chamber of Commerce. She doesn't think Brown's slave-owning past should sour any future celebrations.

"I don’t think so," she said. "I mean let's face it, we all have ancestors we're not happy with, and you can't blame Kamala or her family for what Hamilton Brown did. No, we don't approve of it but it's history."

Winifred Mellot, owner of The Winsome Lady clothes shop and president of Ballymoney Chamber of Commerce

County Antrim's White House credentials are also history. Incredibly, nine US presidents (with varying degrees of certainty) claim lineage from The Saffron County, from Andrew Jackson right up to Ronald Reagan (shared with Co Tipperary).

Can Kamala Harris make it 10? That depends firstly on the US electorate, and a willingness in Ballymoney to embrace the story.

Not far from the town you'll find the Dark Hedges which portray the "King’s Road" in Game Of Thrones. A certain darkness too, may lurk within the branches of the Harris family tree. But while historians bicker, Kamala’s own father knows his truth. And that roots the family as surely in Antrim soil as those storm-battered beeches.

'Prisons are for rehabilitation, not punishment'

Jonathan Holmes & Caroline Martin
BBC News, West of England

Bishop Rachel Treweek said 'locking people up for a long time' wasn't always the solution

The Church of England Bishop for Prisons has called for greater rehabilitation for inmates in the wake of recent disorder.

The Right Reverend Rachel Treweek, who is also Bishop of Gloucester, said: "Those people who have rioted and caused damage on our streets, we as taxpayers contribute £50,000 per person per year to put them in prison.

"If at the end of that there is no transformation and change then what do we think we are doing?

"Within a year of release, around 50% of prisoners are re-offending - what we're doing is not working."

So far, hundreds of people have been jailed for their part in the disorder, which saw protesters targeting mosques and hotels housing asylum seekers.

The longest sentence handed out so far is three years and three months' imprisonment.

The violence across England broke out after the killings of three young girls at a dance workshop in Southport.

Bristol was one of the locations that saw disorder break out in early August

"Prisons are not there to punish people," said Bishop Treweek in an interview with Caroline Martin on BBC Radio Gloucestershire.

"The removal of your liberty should be your punishment, and prison should be a place where you can address the underlying issues with rehabilitation so people can contribute to community when they leave.

"Our prisons are full of people who have experienced real trauma in their lives.

"You would be shocked to see how many people fell out of education very young, or had bad experiences in the care system, or who didn't have stable relationships in their lives.

"When you come out of prison, you have a label of an ex-offender, which makes it hard for you to gain employment, and people just drift back into re-offending," she added.

Bishop Treweek said most prisoners go on to re-offend after being released

Bishop Treweek said she wanted to make it clear she didn't condone crime, and there are consequences to criminal behaviour, but called for more to be done to help people once they are incarcerated.

"When I go to prisons, there isn't that much rehabilitation going on because prisons are too overcrowded.

"People say there aren't many work opportunities in prison, and they have no purpose.

"The public narrative is that locking people up for a long time makes our streets safer, but the truth is the evidence does not support that," she added.