UK

Analysis

Pro-Israel lobby group challenges Lammy’s feeble arms licence reduction

BySKWAWKBOX (SW)

08/09/2024

Government friends of genocide’s refusal to condemn array of Israeli war crimes leaves even tiny token gesture legally vulnerable

Keir Starmer’s and David Lammy’s fearfulness and complicity in Israel’s genocide have left even their feeble token gesture of suspending a tiny fraction of licences for UK arms exports to Israel facing legal challenge from pro-Israel lawyers.

Lammy and his boss had made a show of announcing the suspension of arms licences representing only eight percent of the total, claiming that the weapons in question were at risk(!) of being used in war crimes. But UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI), a group that forced a London hospital to remove a display of art by Palestinian children and tried to make Tower Hamlets council to order the removal of Palestinian flags put up by residents, has announced that it is to make a legal challenge to the ban because of the utter spinelessness of the way in which the Red Tory team did it.

UKLFI says it will apply for a judicial review of the suspension on the sick grounds that the government claims it is doing so because Israel is not allowing enough aid into Gaza – it is imposing famine – and because Israel is ‘allegedly’ abusing – in reality it torturing – Palestinian prisoners. But neither of those clear war crimes require the

important components which go into military aircraft including fighter aircraft, helicopters and drones, as well as items which facilitate ground targeting

that Lammy said he was suspending.

UKLFI openly uses lawfare to try to serve Israel’s interests – its operations director said in 2016 that the group exists to

[stand] for Israel, and doing that as effectively as we possibly can.

It tried recently – and failed – to have British-Palestinian surgeon struck off the medical register because of his support for Palestine, quoting social media posts that he either did not make or said had been mistranslated, a common tactic of the Zionist right and their allies against supporters of Palestinian human rights.

But in this case, their point stands up: Starmer and Lammy have stubbornly refused ever to state the obvious and call Israel’s daily bombing of schools, hospitals, homes, ambulances and aid workers, and its months-long mass slaughter of tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians, mostly women and children, the war crimes that they undoubtedly are. By not giving that incontrovertible justification as the basis for the full arms ban that international law requires, they have left their spineless, inhumane gesture so wide open to legal challenge that a truck loaded with deadly missiles could be driven through it.

Perhaps intentionally, given their support for Israel’s genocide so far.

Ironically, this may well mean that Starmer’s government will be in court arguing both why they should be banning arms to Israel and should not be banning arms to Israel, because as lawyer Naks Bilal pointed out the Global Legal Action Network (GLAN) is trying to force the government to fulfil its obligations under international law and to stop equipping the genocidal occupation regime entirely:

An utter betrayal by Starmer and Lammy that is rightly making them look weak and idiotic – but is costing the lives of innocents with every day that it continues.

UK

Cardiovascular health went into decline under the Conservatives, NHS review finds

A probe into the health service is to say cardiovascular health has been going in the wrong direction, with the British Heart Foundation describing the picture as ‘extremely concerning’

Archie Mitchell
THE INDEPENDENT

Progress tackling cardiovascular diseases stalled under the Conservatives and is now in decline, a damning review into the NHS will find this week.

A “warts and all” probe into the health service ordered by health secretary Wes Streeting is to say cardiovascular health has been going in the wrong direction, with the British Heart Foundation describing the picture as “extremely concerning”.

Former health minister Ara Darzi, who has carried out the review, is expected to say: “Once adjusted for age, the cardiovascular disease mortality rate for people aged under 75 dropped significantly between 2001 and 2010.


“But improvements have stalled since then and the mortality rate started rising again during the Covid-19 pandemic.”

Health Secretary Wes Streeting (Tejas Sandhu/PA) (PA Wire)

And, in its own submission to the investigation, the British Heart Foundation said: “We are extremely concerned that the significant progress made on heart disease and circulatory diseases (CVD) in the last 50 years is beginning to reverse. The number of people dying before the age of 75 in England from CVD has risen to the highest level in 14 years.”

Lord Darzi’s review is the latest example of Labour’s tying 14 years of Conservative government to crises in the justice system, health service, public finances and other key areas.

A spokesman for the Department for Health and Social Care, which will publish the review on Thursday, said: “It’s alarming that the progress made on heart disease and stroke is now in decline. It points to a failure to help people stay healthy, and a failure of the NHS to be there for us when we need it.

“This government is acting to cut waiting times and reform the NHS, so it catches illness earlier, which is better for patients and less expensive for our health service.”

The probe has uncovered wide variations in the standard of care being offered by the NHS to those with cardiovascular problems.

While heart attack patients in Surrey are likely to receive rapid interventions to unblock arteries in less than 90 minutes, less than 50 miles away in Luton, Bedford and Milton Keynes patients wait around four hours, the probe found.

It also found the average time for the highest-risk heart attack patients to receive the procedure has risen by 28 per cent since 2013, from 114 minutes to 146.

Former health minister Ara Darzi (PA)

The report also pointed to a strong link between cardiovascular disease and health inequalities.

In 2022, people under the age of 75 living in the most deprived areas of England were 2.6 times more likely to die from heart disease than people living in the least deprived areas.


Mr Streeting on Sunday said the NHS is "broken but not beaten" and restated plans to utilise the private sector to improve outcomes.

He told Sky News: "I think what Lord Darzi, who is a very experienced clinician with decades of experience in the NHS and experience of serving both Labour and Conservative governments in different capacities, what he essentially says is the NHS is broken, but not beaten, and the investment matters, but so does reform.

"And if we don’t change the way that the NHS works as a system, then we will continue to see a heavy price for failure.

"The reason why we asked Lord Darzi to do this report was, if you don’t provide an accurate diagnosis for the patient, you’re not going to prescribe the right treatment."

Mr Streeting’s intervention came as Sir Keir Starmer accused the Conservatives of leaving the NHS in an “unforgivable” state.

In his first major TV interview since becoming prime minister, he told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg: “Everybody watching this who has used the NHS, or whose relatives have, know that it’s broken, they know that it’s broken, that is unforgivable, the state of our NHS.”

Shadow health secretary Victoria Atkins has accused Labour of using Lord Darzi’s health review as "cover" to raise taxes in the upcoming Budget.

Speaking to Sky News, Ms Atkins said: "I was clear as secretary of state that to build an NHS for the next 75 years, we have to marry reform with investment, and I tried to do that through the productivity plans, bringing tech to the frontline of NHS services, which I hear that Labour is cancelling.

"What worries me is what we’ve seen so far from the health secretary, the only thing he’s done is to give junior doctors a pay rise with no productivity reform."

Put to her by presenter Trevor Phillips that the previous Conservative government broke the NHS, Ms Atkins said she welcomed discussion about future-proofing the NHS but insisted Labour were "choosing the headlines they pick" from Lord Darzi’s review and had ignored the health situation in Wales, which is "far, far worse".

She added: "This report, I fear, is cover for the Labour Party to raise our taxes in the budget in October, and they are laying the groundwork for this.

"They weren’t straight with us about winter fuel payments, they’re not being straight with us about taxes, and we need to have a grown-up conversation about the NHS, but this is not the way to go about it."

UK

Why Grenfell survivor Edward Daffarn was right to sound the alarm

The council painted Daffarn as a left wing ‘troublemaker’

A protest outside Kensington and Chelsea council, who attacked Daffarn, the day of the inquiry 

(Photo: Guy Smallman)

By Arthur Townend
Sunday 08 September 2024

SOCIALIST WORKERS Issue

Edward Daffarn is a survivor of the fire and a vocal resident of Grenfell. The Inquiry’s portrayal of Daffarn doesn’t just reveal the vile attitude of the Tenancy Management Organisation (TMO), but also the Inquiry’s underlying ideology.

The Inquiry says that the TMO’s repression of residents speaking out “reflects a serious failure on its part to observe its basic responsibilities”. But the report treats Daffarn as a troublemaker who blocked constructive relations between the TMO and Grenfell residents.

It continues, “The TMO regarded some of the residents as militant troublemakers led on by a handful of vocal activists, principally Edward Daffarn, whose style they found offensive. The result was a toxic atmosphere fuelled by mistrust on both sides.”

“The Inquiry is reflecting this feeling of nervousness that the ruling class feels when they are challenged by working class people,” housing campaigner Paul Burnham argued. “The language that is used is the same language used against shop stewards.

“They stereotyped Daffarn as a left wing ‘troublemaker’ who breaks up and disrupts productive meetings.

“In reality he was speaking out against the developers, so they had to silence him. All this smeary language that ends up in the report—it vindicates landlords who behave exactly the same as the TMO.”

The report doesn’t “treat people like people”. “They don’t talk about anyone else—it’s just Daffarn.”

Paul said the danger of a report that attacks victims in this way is that it sets a precedent going forward. He detailed how the report made this tension personal, but in reality it was a symptom of tensions between the ruling and working class.

“It’s not about hatred—it’s about the class, it’s about the material interests of the ruling class and not allowing any obstacles for this pursuit of profit,” said Paul.

“He was an antagonism to ruling class interests, so they had to attack him. People organising is a terrible threat to the establishment, so this brings it back to class struggle—it’s not a personal issue.”

The report does not directly blame the victims of Grenfell. It says that the “responsibility for the maintenance of the relationship between the TMO and the Grenfell community fell not on the members of that community”.

Nevertheless, it singles out Daffarn, saying, “Mr Daffarn perhaps should have stood back and questioned whether his preferred methods were the only, or even the most effective, way in which the voice of the community could be heard.”

“The report claims that whether he ever spoke for the wider community is debatable and his approach to the TMO caused resentment,” Paul said.

“That’s unacceptable because Ed’s work was supported by 100 people from 55 flats. The council’s response to this was to stop holding engagement meetings entirely—a traditional management strategy.”

The report implies that, if Daffarn had acted through the “proper channels”, the TMO would have had less hostility towards him. Perhaps it might have been more inclined to listen.

It’s an excuse for the ruling class to hide behind, diverting any questions away from the class divisions and anger that existed. The attack on Daffarn arises because the report has to defend the system of profit to avoid challenging the wider capitalist system.

Grenfell: corruption, greed and social murder

The Grenfell Inquiry’s report points the finger at the government, the council and construction bosses. But housing campaigners told Arthur Townend it doesn’t go far enough

Grenfell Tower (Picture: Guy Smallman)

By Arthur Townend
Sunday 08 September 2024

SOCIALIST WORKERS Issue

The fire in the Grenfell Tower in 2017 that killed 72 residents was a social murder more than 30 years in the making. It came out of a system that puts profit above people.

The building bosses, councils and Tory government have blood on their hands. The Grenfell Tower Inquiry released its final report last Wednesday, which covered some of this.

It attacks the individual actors that killed the Grenfell residents and touches on the role of the government and deregulation in causing the deaths. But the report does not address the systemic issues and fails to get to the root causes of the Grenfell fire.

It leaves intact the structures and incentives responsible for the murder. Moyra Samuels, a housing activist in north Kensington, said, “There’s a whole issue about how council housing has been robbed by governments.


“They took funding for refurbishments out of budgets, which is why council blocks end up in states of disrepair and become dangerous. Following Grenfell, we were clear that at the heart of the fire was the question of privatisation, outsourcing and cost-cutting.

“In terms of systemic failures, all the outsourcing and privatisation was so symbolic of neoliberalism.” Deregulation is crucial to understanding Grenfell and the housing crisis in Britain.

Paul Burnham from Haringey Defend Council Housing highlighted two critical aspects of deregulation behind the murder at Grenfell. “The first is the deregulation of building control, which used to be the local authority’s responsibility.”

Building developers now pay the regulatory body to have their buildings regulated. “It has now become something that developers buy into so it means that a building never fails the inspection.

“Related to that is materials testing, which is a classic example of deregulation’s failure. The body used to be public, but it was privatised. Now, there is a private arrangement between the developer and the tester of the materials.”

This means that the results of the tests are not public. Paul said that this was a very weak point of the report, as it recommends that results should be available on request.

But this is insufficient because the report doesn’t “draw the obvious conclusion that it needs to be automatically in the public domain and there needs to be a testing authority that is not beholden to the contract with the private developers”. And the report found conclusively—the companies that produced the cladding and insulation that burst into flames on Grenfell lied.

Celotex, which produced some of the insulation, cheated the fire safety test to make its product more marketable. The other insulation manufacturer Kingspan knew for over a decade its insulation was combustible.

Arconic, which made the cladding on Grenfell, deliberately concealed the safety certification of its cladding panels to keep selling them. “If testing is done by a company trying to get money out of the product, this is the logical action,” Paul said.

But the report doesn’t properly expose this logic—of how the push for profit drove companies to make decisions that killed residents of Grenfell. “It’s an establishment report with neoliberal assumptions, so it is not prepared to draw the conclusions that would challenge the system behind these decisions,” Paul said.

One question entirely absent from the Inquiry is that of race. “On top of developers ripping through communities and building for profit, we also have the question of Islamophobia,” Moyra said.

Because it was mostly Muslims living in social housing, activists argue that the council took their concerns less seriously. If rich white people were living there, it’s likely that the council would have acted sooner.

Instead, the council of the richest borough in Britain took a dismissive attitude towards working class people and ethnic minorities, which proved deadly. “It’s institutional discrimination from the council. People want to make the case the council was in breach of the 2010 Equalities Act.”

Leaving out the question of race and Islamophobia was not an accident, but a deliberate decision. “They wouldn’t allow racism and discrimination” in the Inquiry.

“Justice4Grenfell also asked for social housing to be included in our terms of reference in the Inquiry but they wouldn’t allow it,” Moyra said. “The fact that we are not allowed to bring social housing or the issue of race into the inquiry shows the systemic failures.

“They cannot talk about these issues because it points to the wider system”—not just regulation or bad actors in specific companies. The Inquiry calls for “fundamental change” in the construction industry.

It says a regulator should oversee all aspects of the construction industry and that a government department should take responsibility for fire safety. And it demands a mandatory strategy for fire safety in high-risk buildings.

But the recommendations don’t even begin to undo the decades of deregulation and privatisation—let alone the class and racist prejudices—which led to the murder at Grenfell.
Crime and no punishment for politicians and bosses

Council and corporate bosses involved in the fire are criminals—and should be treated as such. Here are some of the top criminals.

Elizabeth Campbell took over as Tory leader of Chelsea and Kensington council in the aftermath of the disaster. At the time of the Grenfell fire, Campbell refused to apologise for the council’s actions before the fire—the council had tried to sue residents for raising safety concerns.

She remains the leader of the council. Her predecessor, Nicholas Paget-Brown was forced to stand down in the aftermath of the fire.

The disgraced Tory landed on his feet. He set up NPB Consulting, a firm to advise companies that want to do business with councils.

Rock Feilding-Mellen was the former deputy leader of Kensington Council and responsible for housing. After Grenfell, he co-founded Beckley Waves, a psychedelic therapy company.

He said taking magic mushrooms during a therapy session in Jamaica “quite literally turned my life around”. He previously said, “My heart will always ache because of their pain and suffering”—that he helped cause and has disgustingly used for financial gain.

Arconic deliberately concealed the safety risks of its cladding. Tim Myers, chief executive from 2020-23, cashed in shares of £22.3 million on top of £23.9 million in pay since Grenfell.

Chief executives Erick Asmussen and Mark Vrablec made a further £9.2 million from share sales plus £9.2 million in pay, bringing the trio’s total to almost £65 million.

Kingspan knew since 2005 that its insulation was dangerous and combustible. Eugene Murtagh, Kingspan’s founder, banked £149.3million from share sales in the seven years since Grenfell.

His son Gene Murtagh, Kingspan’s chief executive, sold a £3 million block of shares just before the damning fire test evidence emerged at the Grenfell Inquiry.

Celotex cheated fire safety exams to make its insulation more marketable. Since the fire, chief executive Pierre-André de Chalendar has taken £11.7 million, while his successor Benoit Bazin has pocketed £15.8 million since 2021.

Rydon refurbished Grenfell in 2015. Of the blocks it has built like Grenfell, 56 percent have “life critical” fire safety issues.

Michael Gove claims Treasury blocked his efforts to punish Grenfell cladding firms

‘The task now falls to others to secure the justice I sought but failed to bring,’ Michael Gove says

Andy Gregory
THE INDEPENDENT

Sept. 8, 2024

Tory former housing secretary Michael Gove has claimed that the Treasury impeded his efforts to punish firms responsible for the flammable cladding on Grenfell Tower.

The damning final report of the seven-year inquiry into the blaze which killed 72 people on 14 June 2017 this week accused the three firms – Arconic, Celotex and Kingspan – whose cladding products were installed at Grenfell of “systematic dishonesty”.


The firms “engaged in deliberate and sustained strategies to manipulate the [fire safety] testing processes, misrepresent test data and mislead the market”, the 1,600-page report by Sir Martin Moore-Bick found.

In the wake of the report’s publication, the bereaved relatives of those who died in what was the worst residential fire since the Second World War are demanding manslaughter charges for those responsible after seven years without justice.

With pressure growing on government figures over the lack of accountability for Grenfell, Mr Gove – who served as housing secretary for more than two years prior to the July election – claimed in an article forThe Sunday Times that his own efforts to punish the cladding firms were stymied.

“The task now falls to others to secure the justice I sought but failed to bring,” Mr Gove wrote. “I hope the Crown Prosecution Service and Metropolitan Police will do all they can to bring criminal prosecutions quickly.


“But pursuing a few of the most guilty individuals is not enough when these companies are still making vast profits without acknowledging their full responsibility.”

Accusing the three firms of having “willingly, knowingly, recklessly put greed ahead of decency”, Mr Gove alleged that his own attempts to restrict imports of their products ran up against the “commercial purism of Treasury Mandarin Brain”. The Treasury was approached for comment.

Former housing secretary Michael Gove apologised to the relatives and survivors of the Grenfell Tower fire (Aaron Chown/PA)

And the former Tory minister said there had been “insufficient action” from foreign governments on companies based overses.

“Because Kingspan is based in Ireland, and Arconic’s European operations and Celotex are in France, our jurisdiction was limited. But we were determined to go after them,” Mr Gove said.

He claimed to have “pressed the Irish government to act against Kingspan without success”, while receiving “only haughty froideur” from France.


Warning that “taking the necessary action will require toughness”, he wrote: “I worry that the new government may be dissuaded from doing everything necessary by those counselling caution.”

Grenfell United had called for Arconic witnesses in France to come to give evidence to the Grenfell Tower Inquiry (Kirsty O’Connor/PA)

Citing arguments in Whitehall that the cladding firms “can be partners in combating climate change”, that the UK “shouldn’t pick fights with EU neighbours when we want a closer commercial relationship” and that pursuing companies abroad could deter foreign investment, Mr Gove said: “I understand all those arguments.

“But you cannot purchase prosperity at the price of justice. You cannot build a safe home for the vulnerable on an unquiet grave. You cannot allow the unacceptable face of capitalism to be left smirking when the tears of victims are still wet. Those who are the guiltiest must pay, and pay the most.”

However, Grenfell Next of Kin – a group whose immediate family members died at Grenfell – accused Mr Gove of “historical revisionism”.

In a statement to The Independent, the group said: “Has he forgotten he was in cabinet almost continuously from 2010 onwards, and the coalition government of David Cameron with his policy of ‘bonfire of regulations’ which launched a deregulation of planning standards? The political and policy decisions that embraced the ‘unacceptable face of capitalism’ he speaks of?

“He nudges us with emotive language of ‘purchasing prosperity at the price of justice’ and ‘our wet tears’ when it was precisely these policies that created the wild west conditions that allow these manufacturers to do harm.

“It is the ashes of his government’s ‘bonfire of regulation’ that were returned to us, the ashes of our kin to be buried. Thanks for championing our justice, but we think we got this from here on.”

Members of a support group for the next of kin and families of some the 72 people killed in the Grenfell Tower fire (Yi Mok/PA)

Warning that all those to blame for Grenfell need to be punished, the group added: “The deliberate deflection of the responsibility of the state in our tragedy by Michael Gove ignoring the role of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, a Tory jewel in the crown where he and half the Tory cabinet lived at the time of the fire, and the Tory government at the time of the refurbishment of the tower, is historical revisionism at best.”

Apologising in The Times for the government’s failures, Mr Gove criticised the “many others who failed the victims of Grenfell”, including tenant managers, Kensington and Chelsea Borough Council, the Building Research Establishment, and developers


Speaking to the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg, Sir Keir Starmer said “appropriate cases should go through to court”, with the prime minister adding: “The worst we could do is say or do anything which would prejudice the outcome of any proceedings.”

Additional reporting by PA

Workplace blood pressure tests being offered

Jane Douglas
BBC News, Cornwall
BBC
Managers at Rodda's dairy complex at Scorrier recently organised free blood pressure tests for staff


Free workplace tests are being used to identify people in Cornwall with high blood pressure.

Health leaders say about a third of cases of the potentially life-threatening condition are undiagnosed - that is 4.2 million people in England.

There is a bid to raise awareness and get more people tested by arranging free sessions at places like supermarkets, music events and people's workplaces.

Managers at the Rodda's dairy complex at Scorrier recently organised the free blood pressure tests for staff.


'Handy to know'


Production area leader Sean Taylor was happy to give up a few minutes of his day, saying: "I wouldn't go to the doctors off my own back due to the time... it's hard to get an appointment.

"It's handy to know pre-emptively if there are any underlying issues."

Alex Rodda also had his blood pressure checked

Retail account manager Alex Rodda was happy to free up staff for the sessions.

"I'd very much like it to be a regular thing," he said.

"As we know all too well, you only really see the consequences when something bad happens, so I think getting those checks done and having that prevention in place, knowing what's going on, is definitely a benefit."


Carrying out the tests at Rodda's was Graham Hicks, an outreach health check practitioner with Healthy Cornwall.

He said: "You can never tell by looking at someone what their blood pressure is going to be, that's why we do what we do."

UK’s science minister declares end to Tory ‘war on universities’

Richard Adams Education editor

GUARDIAN
Sun 8 September 2024

Peter Kyle said Tory MPs who claimed too many people went to university always wanted their children to gain a degree.Photograph: Thomas Krych/Zuma Press Wire/Rex/Shutterstock


Britain’s future Nobel prizes will come from encouraging young people into university rather than making sandwiches in high street chains, according to the science secretary Peter Kyle, who declared that the previous government’s “war on universities” had ended.

Taking aim at claims that too many school-leavers went to university, Kyle said attacks on “rip-off” degrees from the former prime minister Rishi Sunak risked putting off future innovators and scientists.

“Where is the next generation of innovation going to come from? It’s not going to come out of a sandwich shop,” Kyle told the Guardian.


Kyle, the secretary of state for science, innovation and technology, was able to attend university only thanks to a dramatic intervention by Anita Roddick, the founder of Body Shop. Roddick had urged Kyle to apply to university after spotting him working long hours at her company, and when he was rejected by Sussex University she threatened to return her honorary degree unless he was admitted.

Related: English universities need tuition fees of £12,500 to break even, analysis finds

Kyle said: “The value of an undergraduate degree has been called into question by the previous government, and that is a psychological barrier.

“Not to people who come from affluent, assertive families but to people from lower incomes, for whom the consideration of money has a far more direct impact on their lives because their families live and breathe it every day.

“I don’t know a single Tory [MP] who stood up saying that too many people are going to universities, who didn’t want their own kids to go. I used to go around and ask them after I heard them say it. In one case, I asked one: ‘Which one of your three kids did you not want to go to university?’

“This is real. For me, you can imagine how personal this all feels. Because every time they say too many people go to university, that’s me.”

Kyle said Roddick was the first person who suggested he should go on to higher education after he left school in Brighton with no qualifications and joined the Body Shop after applying five times.

He said: “They gave me the lowest-paid job in the company, inputting invoices, which was the worst job in the world for me, because I only found out later in life I was so profoundly dyslexic.

“I was terrible at the job but loved the company, so I used to go in on a Sunday and work my socks off secretly so that I could stay up to date with everything. And that’s how I met Anita, because she spotted me working on a Sunday.”

After Roddick suggested he go to university, Kyle applied twice to Sussex and was rejected each time, so he returned to his old school as a 25-year-old to gain the entry qualifications that he needed.

“Then I applied and I got rejected again. But a few days later, I then got an acceptance to Sussex. I only found out some time later, because her PA told me, that Anita had called the university, and said: ‘If you don’t have Peter Kyle as a student, I’m returning my honorary doctorate.’ That is how I got in,” he added.

“When I look back at those times, I have no idea why I persisted. Most young people will take no for an answer the first time, and I feel very privileged for the education I got.”

Since 2015, Kyle has been the Labour MP for Hove and Portslade, and was appointed by Keir Starmer to cabinet as science and innovation secretary after the general election in July.

Asked how the government would improve the financial plight of universities and students, Kyle said their struggles mirrored the UK’s problems as a whole.

Related: Universities in England risk closure with 40% facing budget deficits, says report

“We have to get the fundamentals of the economy right because you can’t fix any of these problems in singularity,” Kyle said.

“There’s no way we could just put maintenance grants up by £1,500 and think that would solve the problem of renting in a place like Brighton. It won’t. The only way we solve the problem of renting in Brighton is to give more rights to tenants but also we are building more houses, which we are in Brighton, so that there are places that are tailor-made for people at all points in their lives.

“We can’t solve any of these problems in singularity because they are so interconnected.”

UK

Telegraph bidders given new deadline as £100m Spectator sale looms

The Daily Telegraph's suitors have been told to submit revised offers by 27 September as Sir Paul Marshall prepares to take control of the current affairs magazine, Sky News understands.

Mark Kleinman
City editor @MarkKleinmanSky

SKY NEWS
Sunday 8 September 2024 

The remaining bidders for The Daily Telegraph have been given a deadline for revised bids for the right-leaning newspaper as its stablemate, The Spectator magazine, clinches a £100m sale to the hedge fund tycoon Sir Paul Marshall.

Sky News understands that RedBird IMI, the Abu Dhabi-backed entity which was thwarted in its efforts to buy the media titles by a change in ownership law, has asked at least three parties to table second-round offers on 27 September.

It comes after bidders began holding talks with Telegraph bosses last week about the company's business plan.

The remaining parties are understood to include Sir Paul and National World, the London-listed media group run by newspaper veteran David Montgomery.

At least one other party whose identity has yet to be disclosed publicly is also in contention to buy the newspapers.

A separate bid orchestrated by Nadhim Zahawi, the former chancellor, is the subject of bilateral discussions with IMI, the Abu Dhabi-based venture which wanted to take a controlling stake in the British media assets before being blocked by the government.

Sky News revealed exclusively last month that Sir Paul was the frontrunner to buy The Spectator, which along with the Telegraph titles was owned by the Barclay family until their respective holding companies were forced into liquidation last year.

His deal for The Spectator, which will be implemented through Old Queen Street Ventures, will be announced this week, and potentially as early as Monday.

It will also include the art magazine Apollo.

The sale of The Spectator to Sir Paul Marshall will be announced this week

RedBird IMI, a joint venture between IMI and the American investor RedBird, paid £600m last year to acquire a call option that was intended to convert into equity ownership.

A sale of The Spectator for £100m would leave it needing to sell the Telegraph titles for £500m to recoup that outlay in full - or more than that once RedBird IMI's fees and costs associated with the process are taken into account.

Read more on Sky News:
Body Shop's remaining stores saved after rescue deal struck
Bank of London finalises capital-raising after winding-up petition

One source said the price RedBird IMI had secured for The Spectator had exceeded expectations and left it well-placed to break even on its investment.

"The original decision to pre-empt an auction has been vindicated by the level of interest since it started," the source said.

Of the unsuccessful bidders for the Telegraph, Lord Saatchi, the former advertising mogul, offered £350m, while Mediahuis, the Belgian publisher, also failed to make it through to the next round of the auction.

Lord Rothermere, the Daily Mail proprietor, pulled out of the bidding earlier in the summer amid concerns that he would be blocked on competition grounds.

Sky News recently revealed that Mr Zahawi had sounded out Boris Johnson, the former prime minister, about an executive role with The Daily Telegraph if he succeeded in buying the newspapers.

IMI is controlled by the UAE's deputy prime minister and ultimate owner of Manchester City Football Club, Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

The Lloyds debt, which totalled more than £1.15bn, was repaid by RedBird IMI on behalf of the family.

RedBird IMI's attempt to take ownership of the Telegraph titles and The Spectator was thwarted by the last Conservative government's decision to change media law to prevent foreign states exerting influence over national newspapers.

Spokespeople for RedBird IMI and Sir Paul declined to comment

UK

It’s time to stop accepting “there is no money left” excuse, say progressives

Gabrielle Pickard-Whitehead 

Today

LEFT FOOT FORWARD


‘The government can never run out of money, and claims that it can is ‘total nonsense.’

Labour’s infamous ‘no money’ note left by Liam Byrne at the end of the last Labour government in 2010, has resurfaced. Following the convention for outgoing ministers to leave a note for their successors with advice on how to settle into the job, Byrne’s note was discovered by David Laws, the Liberal Democrat MP whom the coalition government appointed to succeed Byrne as No 2 at the Treasury. Byrne said he had meant that the note was a joke and eternally regrets the move, which in his words, “helped hurt the party I love,” as the Tories have used the note ever since to attack Labour. It is even said to have helped the former Chancellor George Osborne deflect responsibility for austerity onto Labour. More recently, Greg Hands, former Conservative Party chairman, who lost his Chelsea and Fulham seat to Labour in the general election, frequently referenced the note.

In July, the new Chief Secretary to the Treasury Minister Darren Jones referred to the note, joking that the Tories’ ‘can’t afford the notepaper.’ Similarly, Rachel Reeves, acknowledging the challenges posed by the economy she inherited from the Conservatives, told the BBC in July. “I know the scale of the challenge I inherit.”

In a speech on September 27, Keir Starmer warned that “things will get worse” in the UK before they get better, saying there are no quick fixes to remedy what he will call the “rubble and ruin” left by the Conservatives.

But for many progressives, the notion that ‘there is no money left’ doesn’t wash in a country that ranks as the world’s sixth largest economy but where wealth inequality continues to rise, with the top 10 percent of the UK population owned a staggering 57 percent of wealth in 2021. By contrast, the bottom 50 percent own less than 5 percent of the wealth, as revealed in a recent report on wealth inequality by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.

A post by the Left Bible on social media reflected this sentiment, stating: “The Tories in 2010: There is no money. Labour in 2024: There is no money. Maybe, in one of the richest nations in the world, it’s time to stop accepting that excuse.”

The post garnered widespread agreement, with comments such as, “Money isn’t the problem. The distribution of it is!” and “Maybe it’s time to close the tax loopholes for the mega-rich.”

Earlier this year, Mick Lynch calmly eviscerated the ‘there is no money’ argument. During a debate with Piers Morgan on Newsnight in June, Lynch pointed out the scale of wealth inequality in Britain, arguing: “There is plenty of money in the country; it’s just a matter of whether you want to distribute it more equitably.”

“If we want to rebuild our infrastructure, our care service, our NHS, everyone knows it costs money, and people are prepared to pay for it if you deliver a better system. We need an alternative industrial and economic strategy. We need to reskill the country, get good jobs into working class communities, we need to re-equip working class housing,” said Lynch.

Political economist and former chartered accountant Richard Murphy, who authors Funding the Future, formerly Tax Research UK, supports that view. He argues that the government can never run out of money, and claims that it can is ‘total nonsense.’ Murphy contends that claims of the government running out of money are usually driven by a political agenda opposed to government spending.

“The UK government will always be able to pay its debts denominated in sterling because it can always create the means to do so,” he writes.

Two men in Zimbabwe face 14 years in prison after accidentally telling cops they’re a gay couple

The two young men called police over a money dispute. What happened next may ruin their lives.

By Greg Owen

Sunday, September 8, 2024


Photo: Shutterstock


A young gay couple in Zimbabwe inadvertently got themselves arrested when one called the police on the other over a money dispute.

The two men – one aged 28 and the other 25 – appeared before the Harare Magistrates’ Court on charges of sodomy after the dispute led to an unexpected disclosure of their relationship.

Related:

One year later, Uganda’s anti-LGBTQ+ law is destroying families, lives, & future peace

Ugandans explain how the law has reversed decades of progress, and also turned families and neighbors against one another.

Homosexual activity is illegal in Zimbabwe. The young men face up to 14 years in prison plus associated fines if they’re found guilty.

According to prosecutors, the couple began a romantic relationship in August 2023, when they moved in together and are alleged to have engaged in consensual same-sex relations. Investigators discovered video of the men engaged in sexual activity with one another taken with their mobile phones.

On August 27, one of the men accused the other of infidelity. The argument escalated, authorities said, and the 25-year-old decided to move out of their shared home. As he prepared to leave, his boyfriend noticed some of his money was missing.

Both men made a decision to call the police to settle the dispute, investigators say.

But as the young men’s story unfolded in their interview with cops, the nature of their relationship revealed itself.

Zimbabwe’s National Prosecuting Authority said in a charging document: “The accused persons inadvertently furnished the Police with details of the crime of sodomy as they narrated the issue of the missing money and their living arrangements, resulting in their subsequent arrest.”

At their court appearance, the men were released on $50 (U.S.) bail and ordered to return to court on September 6 for further hearing.

Penalties for same-sex relations are a holdover from colonial-era laws imposed on Zimbabwe, formerly known as Rhodesia, by the British. A popular sentiment in the country and many other African nations is that homosexuality is a result of Western influence and “immorality.”

As a result, the penalties for same-sex acts have grown only more draconian across the continent, with the most notorious example Uganda’s Kill the Gays law imposing the death penalty for certain same-sex acts.

In Zimbabwe, in addition to same-sex relations being illegal, same-sex marriage is banned by the country’s constitution, there are no legal protections for LGBTQ+ people in housing and employment, and gay people are barred from adoption, military service, gender or related name changes, access to IVF, surrogacy, and giving blood.

Bolivia declares national emergency due to forest fires

In a press conference, defence minister Edmundo Novillo said the national emergency would allow the country to quickly coordinate international support.  


A picture taken earlier this week shows smoke from fires fills the air in La Paz, Bolivia. (AP Photo)


La Paz, Bolivia,

UPDATED: Sep 8, 2024 
Posted By: Vivek Kumar

In Short

Bolivia witnessing largest wildfires since 2010
Around 3 million hectares of forest area burned this year
Amazon rainforest also sees fires, worst in two decades


Bolivia declared a national emergency due to raging forest fires, the country's defence ministry announced on Saturday.

In a press conference, defence minister Edmundo Novillo said the national emergency would allow the country to quickly coordinate international support.

"This will allow us to have more agile and effective support from friendly countries and from international cooperation", Novillo said.

Philippine celebrity pastor arrested in human trafficking, sex crime case

Philippine police have captured Apollo Quiboloy, the Kingdom of Jesus Christ megachurch founder who is also wanted by the FBI on charges of sex and human trafficking.

By Annabelle Timsit 
Sammy Westfall
September 8, 2024 

Filipino celebrity preacher Apollo Quiboloy, accused in his home country of orchestrating a sex and labor trafficking scheme and wanted by the FBI, was captured following a massive two-week manhunt, officials in the Philippines said Sunday.

“Pastor Quiboloy has been caught!” Department of Interior and Local Government chief Benhur Abalos wrote on Facebook, along with a selfie with the accused pastor.

Late last month, the Philippine National Police launched a search for the pastor, dispatching thousands of law enforcement officials to raid a sprawling, 75-acre compound in the southern Philippines belonging to the Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KOJC), a religious group founded by Quiboloy. On Sunday, police spokesperson Jean Fajardo told reporters he was captured inside the compound.

The megachurch founder and four others are subjects of an arrest warrant on “serious charges, including child abuse, sex trafficking, and sexual abuse of minors,” Philippine police said. Fajardo said Sunday that “a negotiation took place” for the surrender of Quiboloy and the other four after police gave them “a 24-hour ultimatum.”

Quiboloy — who refers to himself as “owner of the universe” and “the appointed son of God” — is also wanted by the FBI in a separate investigation. The pastor, who the FBI says is either 74 or 77 years old, was indicted in 2021 by a federal grand jury in California on charges including conspiracy, sex trafficking of children, and sex trafficking by force, fraud and coercion. A federal warrant was issued for his arrest in November 2021.

Quiboloy founded the Kingdom of Jesus Christ in 1985 in Davao City, Philippines, according to U.S. court records. The church has claimed to have about 6 million members in countries around the world.

In Quiboloy’s U.S. case, prosecutors accused him and his accomplices of recruiting women and girls as young as 12 to work as Quiboloy’s assistants, or “pastorals,” in an alleged sex trafficking operation that lasted from 2002 to 2018.

For over 15 years, the victims were forced to devote their lives and bodies to Quiboloy, including by regularly engaging in sexual acts with him in what he called the “night duty,” according to U.S. prosecutors. Quiboloy and his accomplices would threaten his victims and tell them that obedience to Quiboloy was “God’s will” and that “night duty” was considered a privilege and a means to salvation, court records state.

The Kingdom of Jesus Christ church did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Quiboloy and his lawyer have denied the allegations against him in the Philippines and claimed they were fabricated by critics and disgruntled former members of KOJC, the Associated Press reported. In 2021, an attorney representing Quiboloy denied both countries’ allegations against the pastor and said the 42-count superseding indictment from a federal grand jury in California was based on false testimony from former church members.

The U.S. indictment expanded on charges filed in 2020 against three church administrators. Prosecutors accused them of illegally bringing church members to the United States on fraudulent visas and forcing them to solicit money for a bogus charity that financed the megachurch’s operations and its leaders’ lavish lifestyles.

Federal investigators said some members who successfully solicited money for the church were forced into sham marriages. Leaders allegedly arranged fraudulent student visas for others so they could continue collecting money for the church, prosecutors said.

After the raid began on Aug. 24 at the Davao City compound, supporters of Quiboloy descended, heckling police and denouncing efforts to arrest him. A statement on the group’s website called the police operation an “illegal siege.” Several police and riot officers were injured in an assault by a KOJC member who attacked them with stones and a 12-inch kitchen knife, a regional police office said.

The raid was launched after police tried for almost two months to get Quiboloy to surrender into their custody, the Philippine National Police said on Aug. 25.

The embattled pastor had a close relationship with the former leader of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, that critics said afforded him a measure of protection at home. Duterte, who left office in 2022 and is known for leading a bloody war on drugs that killed thousands of people, once said that Quiboloy had gifted him a house, in which he planned to retire.

During the raid, Duterte said members of KOJC had become “victims of political harassment, persecution, violence, and abuse of authority,” local media reported.

Duterte’s daughter, Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte, called the raid a “gross abuse of police power” in an Aug. 25 statement and asked members of KOJC to “forgive” her.

A police statement said the official who led the raid, police Brig. Gen. Nicolas Torre III, was “committed to implementing the law without fear or favor.”

The Philippine Justice Department also said officers rescued two apparent trafficking victims from the compound during their raid, identified by police as a woman and a 20-year-old man. It said officers were responding to distress calls from the man’s mother, who said her son left home in 2022 with a KOJC member who promised him a scholarship, but who instead brought him to Davao City, where he was “not allowed to freely communicate with his parents or go home.”

The Philippines government’s Department of Social Welfare and Development, which assisted police in the operation, said in a statement that the allegations against Quiboloy “strike at the very core of what we stand for: protecting those who cannot protect themselves.”

Andrea Salcedo and Regine Cabato contributed to this report.


By Annabelle TimsitAnnabelle Timsit is a breaking news reporter for The Washington Post's London hub, covering news as it unfolds in the United States and around the world during the early morning hours in Washington.follow on X BelleTimsit

By Sammy WestfallSammy Westfall is an assistant editor on The Washington Post's Foreign desk.follow on X @sammy_westfall