The video shows that Rachel Reeves intended to means test winter fuel payments in 2014. Her claims that she was forced to take this action because of the economic position inherited from the Tories is – therefore – very suspect. Labour weren’t forced to do it as she repeatedly claims – she and they intended to do it 10 years ago.
Original article by Common Dreams Staff republished from Common Dreams under a CC licence.
Tens of thousands rallied across Israel on Saturday night, demanding a hostage deal and against the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
In Tel Aviv, tens of thousands of demonstrators, including relatives of those held hostage in Gaza, gathered at the Hostages Square for a rally demanding their loved ones’ return and pled with the prime minister and negotiating team to reach an agreement before time runs out. Roving groups of right-wing activists cursed and spat on the demonstrators.
Along with the mass demonstration in Tel Aviv, large protests were held in cities nationwide, drawing thousands of demonstrators.
Later Saturday night, the Israeli Defense Force announced it had located several bodies in the Gaza Strip, which might be the remains of Israeli hostages. “At this stage, the forces are still operating in the area and carrying out a process to extract and identify the bodies, which will last several hours,” the military says.
After the IDF says it has found bodies in Gaza that possibly are of hostages, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum issued a statement calling on the public to prepare to hold sweeping protests tomorrow.
“Netanyahu abandoned the hostages. It is now a fact. Starting tomorrow, the country will tremble. We call on the public to prepare. The country will grind to a halt. The abandonment is over.”
The Forum says it will provide further details tomorrow morning.
Original article by Common Dreams Staff republished from Common Dreams under a CC licence.
Republished in full since the original authors are the copyright owners && they intended for the letter to be published.
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/new-popular-front-ready-govern
LAST July, you mobilised massively at the polls to refuse the arrival of the extreme right in power and to break with the policies pursued for seven years. We thank you for this.
And since then? Nothing. The President of the Republic is procrastinating rather than drawing the consequences of these elections. How long are we going to continue as if nothing had happened at the beginning of the summer?
You have placed the New Popular Front at the top of the poll, without giving anyone an absolute majority. This result puts obligations on us all, and first and foremost obliges the one who caused it.
Unfair and imposed policies
The inaction of the President of the Republic is serious and harmful. Because it highlights his desire to prolong the last seven years of unjust and authoritarian policies. Because it gives the impression that the vote would serve no purpose, that all this would be nothing more than a game of institutional chess.
We are measuring the extent of the distrust expressed today throughout the country, by you, citizens, leaders of unions, businesses, associations, collectives, local elected officials. Through renunciations, decisions imposed against the will of the people, such as the pension reform, many of you no longer believe in politics.
These feelings fuel the rise of the extreme right that we have fought and will continue to fight.
The choice of the next government will have very concrete consequences on the daily lives of each and every one, depending on whether it continues the austerity “cure” or decides to reinvest in our public services. Parents need to know if we will give ourselves the means to put a teacher in front of their child, and to straighten out the public school system; employees need to know when their salary will be revalued, after several years of inflation; residents need to know if their housing can be thermally renovated and if adaptation to climate change will be accelerated; patients need to know if they will be admitted to the emergency room if necessary and if the hospital will have the means to operate; our children need to know if we will offer them a habitable planet where they can grow and flourish.
Necessary break
On all these issues, a break with past policies is necessary. It has been demanded by voters. This is what a New Popular Front government will undertake from the first hours of its nomination.
To the voters who have massively mobilised around the New Popular Front, we say: we are committed to building a fairer, more united society according to each person’s ability to contribute, in which work will be better paid, hardship better recognised, public services rehabilitated and to implementing immediately the ecological shift that is essential for our common future. A society in which everyone can have a dignified life.
To the voters who did not vote for us, on the right or the far right, as well as to those who did not vote at all, we say: yes, we want to break with the logic of one camp against another and will work together to build the future of the country and finance public services.
We are convinced that we will be able to improve the lives of French women and men in a concrete and rapid manner, and that the absence of an absolute majority will not prevent us from doing so. Who will refuse the increase in purchasing power that we are proposing with the revaluation of salaries and the remuneration of civil servants?
Who will accept seeing the catastrophic situation of public hospitals continue with emergency services closed in the middle of summer? Who will resign themselves to a new school year where so many teachers will be missing in front of our children in primary, secondary and high schools? On all these key issues, parliamentarians will report their votes and citizens will be witnesses.
A new way of governing
We are aware of this: we must invent a new way of governing under the Fifth Republic. Parliament must, in a transparent manner, regain control of its calendar and calmly discuss the projects and Bills that will be submitted to it. Social partners must be listened to and respected. New forms of association of field actors, local elected officials, associations and all those who bring our democracy to life on a daily basis must be imagined.
We will also bring French diplomacy to the service of peace because we cannot accept that disputes are settled by force in Europe and in the world. We will thus work to thwart Vladimir Putin’s war of aggression, defend the sovereignty of the Ukrainian people and work towards a return to peace.
We will act to obtain an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and the release of the hostages. And since the President of the Republic himself had stated that the recognition of the state of Palestine was not a “taboo for France,” we will act for its immediate recognition, alongside the state of Israel, on the basis of UN resolutions to move towards a just and lasting peace.
Finally, we will bring civil peace to New Caledonia by returning to the reform of the electoral body and reopening a process of discussion, in the spirit of the Noumea and Matignon agreements.
We are convinced that France can still embody the values of justice, freedom and openness that have made its history. Hate speech damages it and does not resemble it.
You spoke out two months ago, now it is high time to take action: as in all parliamentary democracies, the coalition that comes out on top must be able to form a government, seek agreements within parliament and get to work.
We’ve been working on it all summer. We’re ready.
Lucie Castets, candidate of the New Popular Front as Prime Minister
Manuel Bompard, co-ordinator of France Insoumise
Olivier Faure, first secretary of the Socialist Party
Fabien Roussel, national secretary of the French Communist Party
Marine Tondelier, national secretary of the Ecologists
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/new-popular-front-ready-govern
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/scottish-public-risk-fire-services-face-years-cuts
YEARS of cuts in fire and rescue services in Scotland have left public safety at risk as emergency response times lengthen and fewer fire appliances can be mobilised.
The Fire Brigades Union said (FBU) firefighter numbers are the lowest since eight regional fire brigades merged to form the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) in 2013 — down from 4,159 full-time posts to 3,422, a loss of 737 jobs.
The number of control room staff, who take emergency calls and mobilise crews, fell from 234 to 172.
Part-time retained firefighters, who cover 80 per cent of Scotland, including rural and island communities, saw 344 front-line jobs go.
…
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/scottish-public-risk-fire-services-face-years-cuts