UK Politics

The deal to transfer the Indian Ocean archipelago to Mauritius includes the tropical atoll of Diego Garcia, home to a military base used by the UK and the US that plays a crucial role in the region's stability and international security.

Under the agreement, the base will remain under UK and US jurisdiction for at least the next 99 years.

The UK government said that the treaty would "address wrongs of the past and demonstrate the commitment of both parties to support the welfare" of Chagossians - the native people of the islands.

Several leading Conservatives have called the decision "weak", with former securities minister Tom Tugendhat saying it is a "shameful retreat undermining our security and leaving our allies exposed".

Since 1971, only Diego Garcia has been inhabited - by US military employees - after the UK expelled the Chagossians at the request of the US. Some moved to Mauritius and some have lived in the UK, in Crawley, West Sussex, since 2002.

The islands had been a dependency of Mauritius when it was a French colony, but both were handed to the UK in 1845. Mauritius gained independence from the UK in 1968 and has since claimed the Chagos archipelago as Mauritian.

The primary internal opposition to a full-blown youth mobility scheme is coming from Starmer’s top interior minister Yvette Cooper.

Wut 😒... Yvette Cooper? The fuck?

Sir Keir, who was on the phone with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when the assault was launched, said the rockets were aimed at civilian targets and it is "too soon to assess the impact fully".

"I utterly condemn this attempt by the Iranian regime to harm innocent Israelis, to escalate this incredibly dangerous situation and push the region ever closer to the brink," he said.
[…]
Sir Keir called on Iran to "stop these attacks", saying it had "menaced the Middle East for far too long".

"I am deeply concerned that the region is on the brink, and I'm deeply concerned about the risk of miscalculation," he added.
[…]
Asked if the UK would be prepared to use British military capabilities to help Israel defend itself against Iran, which backs the militant group, the prime minister said: "This, as you'll appreciate, is an evolving situation.

"But what I will say is that we stand with Israel and her right to self-defence. And any relevant updates will be provided in due course."

A few hours after that statement, Mr Healey confirmed the involvement of British forces tonight - though it is not clear in what capacity or whether personnel were involved in shooting down the Iranian missiles, as US forces did.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) is not yet confirming what kind of support it gave Israel, but RAF Typhoon jets, operating from an air base in Cyprus, were deployed to help Israel during Iran's previous attack in April.
[…]
"My calls have been about the importance of creating the space and the conditions for that de-escalation, and to find that political route forward," the prime minister told reporters after his televised address.

He added that with Mr Netanyahu he was able to "make the case for a ceasefire in Gaza", which has been under siege for the past year following the Hamas attacks on 7 October 2023.

The prime minister also repeated the advice for Britons in Lebanon to leave immediately, saying "we're doing everything we can to get people out, but the situation is extremely volatile".

Briefing notes, obtained through freedom of information (FoI) requests by Palestine Action, show details of government meetings, predating the 7 October Hamas attacks and Israel’s response in Gaza, intended to “reassure” Elbit Systems UK, an Israeli arms manufacturer, which is subject to a direct action campaign by the campaign group.

As well as Home Office ministers attending meetings with Elbit Systems representatives, the heavily redacted briefing notes show that one was attended by a director from the Attorney General’s Office said to be representing the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS). They also show that Home Office officials contacted the police about Palestine Action.

Tim Crosland, a coordinator of Defend Our Juries, which claims that jurors’ absolute right to acquit a defendant according to their conscience is being eroded by judges placing limits on what defendants can say about their motivations, said: “These disclosures, despite the extensive redaction, are the smoking gun on what has been obvious for a while: the government has been trying to put a stop to juries acquitting those who expose and resist corporate complicity in violations of international law and mass loss of life.

Documents previously revealed through FoI requests suggested Israeli embassy officials in London attempted to get the Attorney General’s Office to intervene in UK court cases relating to the prosecution of protesters.

She's back! And she's learned NOTHING.

Why is anyone listening to this woman? I couldn't watch the whole video, she's mad!

Abdul Hai, acquitted of murder over the death of Richard Everitt in 1994, said social media sites must be held accountable

Universities UK ‘holding back’ on requests to restart Erasmus programme, but hopeful amid talks on youth mobility

Robert Jenrick has defended being handed a £75,000 donation from a company which had received money from a firm registered in the British Virgin Islands (BVI), despite criticising Labour over the freebies row.

Questions have been raised over the ultimate source of the funds from The Spott Fitness, which gave Mr Jenrick three separate £25,000 donations in July.

As first reported by Tortoise Media, the company received a loan from a firm based in the BVI.

The Tory leadership contender told Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips that The Spott Fitness "as I understand it... is a fitness company that operates in the UK", and the donation was "perfectly legal and valid".

...

Pressed for details on who owns the company and who works for it, the former immigration minister said this would be set out "on Companies House in the normal way" and he has "obviously met people who are involved in the company".

According to Companies House records, The Spott Fitness has no employees and net current liabilities of £330,000. It has two directors - Mark Dembovsky and Benjamin Hodson.

Earlier this year it registered a loan from Centrovalli, a firm based in the British Virgin Islands, though the amount borrowed has not been declared.

...

However, Steve Goodrich, head of research and investigations at Transparency International UK, said that when companies fund politicians via offshore loans "it raises serious questions about the money's provenance".

He added: "Electoral law was supposed to only allow businesses with a substantive UK presence to make political contributions, yet examples like this show it permits anonymous cash from anywhere in the world into our democracy."

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/17987102

The AstraZeneca vaccine was, at the time, at the heart of a cross-Channel row over exports, and Johnson believed the EU was treating the UK “with malice”.

Johnson said that he “had commissioned some work on whether it might be technically feasible to launch an aquatic raid on a warehouse in Leiden, in the Netherlands, and to take that which was legally ours and which the UK desperately needed”.

The deputy chief of the defence staff, Lt Gen Doug Chalmers, told the prime minister the plan was “certainly feasible” and would involve using rigid inflatable boats to navigate Dutch canals.

“They would then rendezvous at the target; enter; secure the hostage goods, exfiltrate using an articulated lorry, and make their way to the Channel ports,” Johnson wrote.

However, Chalmers told Johnson it would be difficult to carry out the mission undetected, meaning the UK would “have to explain why we are effectively invading a longstanding Nato ally”.

Johnson concluded: “Of course, I knew he was right, and I secretly agreed with what they all thought, but did not want to say aloud: that the whole thing was nuts.”

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/20833084

By Imran Mullah in Liverpool, United Kingdom
Published date: 27 September 2024 16:35 BST

I admit I haven’t paid a lot of attention to the leadership contest. But when it got down to the last 4, I read a brief description of each of the cunts.

James Cleverly seemed like the least bad option.

Not only is Robert Jenrick far-right, he is also fashionably far-right. What I mean by that is that he seems to have leaned to the far-right because it seems to be a popular position at the moment.

A bit like Boris. Writing two essays for and against Brexit.

Now I’m not against immigration, but I think it’s a bit of a fucking joke that the former IMMIGRATION minister should be the one in charge of a far right, anti-immigration movement. Like wasn’t that your job? And didn’t immigration keep going up under you? To record levels?

He’s also (unsurprisingly I suppose) in favour of Farrage joining the party. Although I suspect he may be looking to Nick his job if he does get in. He could Robert straight from under his feet.

So are the Tories officially a far right party now then? It definitely seems like it. And this is really dangerous. I mean it’s dangerous if they get in for obvious reasons but even when they’re not in power, it’s still moving the Overton window (that Corbyn really helped to move left) further to the right.

Giving Labour absolutely no excuse to move further left than they currently are. Which they definitely need to do in my opinion.

The Tories look to have become Reform UK and Labour are somewhere around Cameron style conservatism.

What do you guys think? Am I wrong? Is there anything that might make me a little more optimistic about the future? Anything positive that might come out of this? Cos I can’t see it currently.

I wonder what the Lib Dem’s are doing these days. I really haven’t paid attention to them since the coalition (although did tactically vote for them this past election).

But I haven’t had any strong left wing vibes off them like I used to get. Vibes lol. Sound like a moron but ye know what I meaaaaaan. The Greens for instance I also don’t pay attention to, yet I know from “vibes” in reality probably various news, that they are decently far left.

But then I’ve liked the greens forever really. It’s just they don’t stand a chance of winning. But I do wonder how many other people are like me? I suspect any previous Corbyn supporters are.

It’s like maybe if we all actually voted for who we really wanted then it might actually get them elected.

Labour really need to take this opportunity to change to PR. But you know they won’t. I mean French style PR anyway. To hopefully keep out the likes of Retarded UK and their cult members.

But yeah, what say ya’ll, as the yanks say?

Labour is to revive the hated Tory plan to force banks to carry out surveillance on claimants’ accounts and give the DWP police type power to search premises and seize possessions.

The Tory provisions were contained in the Data Protection and Digital Information Bill, but this failed to be passed into law before the general election and was therefore scrapped.

Now, however, Labour have announced that they are to include what appear to be very similar provisions in a new Fraud, Error and Debt Bill.

According to the DWP, the new law will give the DWP powers to:

• Better investigate suspected fraud and new powers of search and seizure so DWP can take greater control investigations into criminal gangs defrauding the taxpayer.

• Allow DWP to recover debts from individuals who can pay money back but have avoided doing so, bringing greater fairness to debt recoveries.

• Require banks and financial institutions to share data that may show indications of potential benefit overpayments

The Tory bank surveillance provisions would have forced banks to monitor the accounts of all means-tested benefits claimants and report every time an account went over the capital limit or was used abroad for more than four weeks.

In late 2023, it was estimated that almost 9 million claimants would be caught in the Tory surveillance net, including:

• 8 million universal credit claimants

• 6 million employment and support allowance claimants

• 4 million pension credit claimants

That number is likely to have increased by now, especially with the push to get more people to sign-up for pension credit.

Labour’s new bill will also give the DWP the power to search premises and seize evidence, such as documents, laptops and phones.

The Tory Bill contained similar powers.

It would have allowed designated DWP staff to arrest claimants, search premises and seize any evidence they found without needing to use the police. The DWP said this would put them on a par with HMRC and the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority (GLAA).

In an attempt to reassure claimants, the DWP today claimed that:

“The Bill will also include safeguarding measures to protect vulnerable customers. Staff will be trained to the highest standards on the appropriate use of any new powers, and we will introduce new oversight and reporting mechanisms, to monitor these new powers. DWP will not have access to people’s bank accounts and will not share their personal information with third parties.”

Labour claim that these powers will only be used against criminal gangs. But, until we see the text of the bill, we will have no way of knowing whether the law will actually prevent the DWP using their new powers against individual claimants if they so choose.

The outline of the new bill was published today by the DWP to coincide with Kier Starmer’s first speech as prime minister to a Labour party conference.

In his speech, Starmer made only a brief reference to the new bill, saying, “If we want to maintain support for the welfare state, then we will legislate to stop benefit fraud and do everything we can to tackle worklessness.”

Back in April of this year the then prime minister, Rishi Sunak, outlined his plan to give the DWP police powers. He did this whilst setting out his five point plan for welfare reform in a speech at the right-wing think tank, the Centre for Social justice, founded by Iain Duncan-Smith.

Just five months later, Keir Starmer has announced similar measures, this time in a speech to the Labour party conference.

The other four Sunak points were:

• The WCA to be made harder to pass

• GPs no longer to issue fit notes

• Legacy benefits claimants to move to UC sooner and work requirements to be increased

• PIP no longer always a cash benefit and fewer people to be eligible

We will now have to wait for Labour’s welfare reform white paper to see whether any of the four remaining points will also be adopted as Labour policy.

The media chorus goes like this: Israel is attacking Lebanon to stop Hezbollah rocket fire and allow the residents of Israel’s most northerly communities to return home. Or in the blunter, Orwellian language of Israeli officials framing this horror show: Israel must "escalate to de-escalate".

Why? Because, says Israel, Hezbollah has hidden its cache of rockets in their homes. Those homes must therefore be destroyed. Strangely, Hezbollah seems to have forgotten that it has extensive rocky terrain across south Lebanon where it could more safely and wisely hide its arsenal.

Then, as now, the media subjected us to Israeli CGI-generated propaganda videos of underground "control and command centres" supposedly under hospitals and other vital infrastructure Israel wanted destroyed.