Monthly Archives: May 2024

Trade unionists block 4 sites involved in arms supplies to Israel on International Workers’ Day

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https://leftfootforward.org/2024/05/trade-unionists-block-4-sites-involved-in-arms-supplies-to-israel-on-international-workers-day/. Many articles feeatured from LeftFootForward today.

‘If arms company bosses and Britain’s political elite won’t impose an arms embargo, we, the workers, will enforce it from below’

This May Day, over 1,000 workers across Britain have mobilised to blockade four sites involved in the supply of arms to Israel, in a response to calls from Palestinian trade unions.

In solidarity with Palestinian workers as the onslaught on Gaza reaches its 208th day, trade unionists in Britain have blocked entry to the UK Department of Business and Trade in London and three BAE Israeli arms factories in Scotland, Wales and Lancashire to protest the government’s refusal to suspend the sale of UK arms to Israel. 

BAE Systems has been targeted as the UK’s leading military goods manufacturer which profits from arming Israel, while workers have blocked the UK Trade Department in support of civil servants who have expressed fears that they could be complicit in war crimes in Gaza if Israel is found to have broken international law. 

Civil servants’ union PCS is considering bringing legal action to prevent their members being forced to carry out potentially unlawful acts, after staff requested to “cease work immediately” on arms export licences to Israel. 

Canada, the Netherlands, Japan, Spain and Belgium have suspended the sale of arms to Israel, while the British government continues to refuse. It comes as a legal challenge over the British government’s role in allowing weapons to be sent to Israel has been given the go-ahead to be heard in the High Court later this year.

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https://leftfootforward.org/2024/05/trade-unionists-block-4-sites-involved-in-arms-supplies-to-israel-on-international-workers-day/. Many articles feeatured from LeftFootForward today.

Continue ReadingTrade unionists block 4 sites involved in arms supplies to Israel on International Workers’ Day

David Cameron slammed for ‘swanning around’ in £42m luxury jet as Tories prepare to slash sickness benefits

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https://leftfootforward.org/2024/04/david-cameron-slammed-for-swanning-around-in-42m-luxury-jet-as-tories-prepare-to-slash-sickness-benefits/. Many articles from LeftFootForward today.

The foreign secretary travelled on the hired Embraer Lineage 1000 for a five-day visit to Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and Mongolia last week

The Tories have been slammed for their rank hypocrisy, after former Prime Minister David Cameron hired a £42 million private jet to travel around Asia, costing the taxpayer hundreds of thousands of pounds, while the government prepare to slash benefits for people suffering from depression or anxiety.

The foreign secretary travelled on the hired Embraer Lineage 1000 for a five-day visit to Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and Mongolia last week, the Mirror reported.

The shadow attorney general, Emily Thornberry, posted on X: “I get that David Cameron may need to charter a plane when travelling to multiple countries in one week, but that does not justify spending hundreds of thousands of pounds at taxpayers’ expense to hire one of the most luxurious private jets on the market.”

The taxpayer is footing the bill for the private jet at the same time as the Tories cut benefit payments for those with disabilities and physical and mental health conditions.

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https://leftfootforward.org/2024/04/david-cameron-slammed-for-swanning-around-in-42m-luxury-jet-as-tories-prepare-to-slash-sickness-benefits/

Continue ReadingDavid Cameron slammed for ‘swanning around’ in £42m luxury jet as Tories prepare to slash sickness benefits

24 MPs sign motion calling to reconsider two-child benefits limit

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https://leftfootforward.org/2024/04/24-mps-sign-motion-calling-to-reconsider-two-child-benefits-limit/. Many articles featured from LeftFootForward today.

The motion expresses ‘incredulity’ that the government hasn’t assessed correlations between the two-child limit and child poverty levels

A motion signed by 24 MPs has called on the two-child limit to be reconsidered while expressing disbelief that the government has not assessed the correlation between child poverty and the Tories benefit cap as new research came to light. 

Tabled by Labour MP Mary Kelly Foy, the Early Day Motion highlighted research from the End Child Poverty Coalition which revealed how some of the most vulnerable families are those hardest hit by the two-child limit. 

Introduced in April 2017 by the Tories supposedly as an incentive to get parents into work, the policy prevents households from claiming universal credit or child tax credit for a third or subsequent child.

Concerns were raised by the government’s own Work and Pensions Committee in 2019 which recommended that the policy be abandoned, warning that the limit would increase the number of children in poverty and disproportionately affect minority groups.

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https://leftfootforward.org/2024/04/24-mps-sign-motion-calling-to-reconsider-two-child-benefits-limit/. Many articles featured from LeftFootForward today.

Continue Reading24 MPs sign motion calling to reconsider two-child benefits limit

‘Where are those 40 hospitals?’: Tory Health Secretary in car crash interview over failed election pledge

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https://leftfootforward.org/2024/04/where-are-those-40-hospitals-tory-health-secretary-in-car-crash-interview-over-failed-tory-election-pledge/. Many articles from LeftFootForward featured today.

Tory Health Secretary Victoria Atkins endured a car crash interview on LBC earlier today, after being grilled on yet another failed Tory pledge.

In the run-up to the last general election, the Tories had promised to build 40 new hospitals in their 2019 manifesto under Boris Johnson, yet no one in the government seems to know how much progress has been made towards the target.

On LBC earlier today, presenter Nick Ferrari asked Atkins: “I know it was a number of years ago and I know it was under a previous leadership, but where are those 40 hospitals?”

Atkins replied: “Well we are making progress and we will be opening, I think, four of these hospitals this year and there will be many other sites around the country.

“I’ve been to visit one or two of them that are not completed but very much rising out of the ground. Alongside that we have the programme of works to upgrade existing hospitals.”

Ferrari hit back: “Of the 40, how many will be built by the time we come to a general election?”

A clearly frustrated Atkins replied: “We’re opening four more this year, so depending on when the election is … we will have around four this year, we’ve already opened a few more.”

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https://leftfootforward.org/2024/04/where-are-those-40-hospitals-tory-health-secretary-in-car-crash-interview-over-failed-tory-election-pledge/. Many articles from LeftFootForward featured today.

Continue Reading‘Where are those 40 hospitals?’: Tory Health Secretary in car crash interview over failed election pledge

Tory plans to update NHS Constitution ‘made in a parallel universe’ says nurses’ union 

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https://leftfootforward.org/2024/04/tory-plans-to-update-nhs-constitution-made-in-a-parallel-universe-says-nurses-union/. Many articles from LeftFootForward featured today.

Part of the proposals include divisive plans to treat trans people in separate rooms

Proposals announced by the UK Government to adjust the NHS Constitution in England have been ‘made in a parallel universe’ to the realities of NHS workers, the UK’s leading nurses’ union has said. 

New government plans which could see transgender people treated in separate rooms in hospitals in England have been taken apart by the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), as equality organisations raised concerns about how the proposals will impact trans patients and healthcare professionals and NHS bosses accused the government of dragging the NHS into “pre-election culture wars”.

Under the proposed NHS Constitution changes, trans people may be treated in single rooms if patients request single-sex wards. RCN Chief Nursing Officer and Deputy Chief Executive, Nicola Ranger, said patients are already able to request intimate care from staff of the same sex, however this is “nigh-on impossible to accommodate with any consistency” due to a staffing crisis seeing a shortfall in tens of thousands of nursing staff. 

“Much of this announcement sounds like it was made in a parallel universe to the everyday experience of nursing staff working in the NHS,” said Ranger. 

“Nursing staff are caring for people in corridors, doorways and even store cupboards. They will have little faith in ministers’ supposed commitment to the ‘privacy, dignity and safety’ of patients.  

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Amnesty UK said today: “No one’s health should suffer because of who they are or where they live. The government must strengthen the NHS constitution to ensure everyone’s right to healthcare.

“We need real solutions, not distractions from government failures that have left people waiting too long for care.” 

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https://leftfootforward.org/2024/04/tory-plans-to-update-nhs-constitution-made-in-a-parallel-universe-says-nurses-union/. Many articles from LeftFootForward featured today.

Continue ReadingTory plans to update NHS Constitution ‘made in a parallel universe’ says nurses’ union