Britain’s Foreign Secretary David Lammy gives a press conference in Abuja on 4 November, 2024 (AFP/Kola Sulaimon)
Scottish National Party MP Chris Law accuses David Lammy of exposing UK to ‘significant risk’
British Foreign Secretary David Lammy has been warned that the UK as a state, “alongside individual ministers and government officials as individuals”, is at “significant risk of future legal action for complicity in acts of genocide”.
In a letter to Lammy on Monday, seen by Middle East Eye, Scottish National Party MP Chris Law accused the foreign secretary of failing to “demonstrate any responsibility of the UK government to prevent genocide”.
“Do you accept that the UK’s obligations [under the Genocide Convention] should have been triggered from the moment the government became aware of a serious and imminent risk that genocide could be perpetrated,” Law asks in the letter.
The Scottish politician goes on to accuse the foreign secretary of appearing to “diminish the very definition of genocide”, after Lammy suggested last month in parliament that Israel’s actions in Gaza do not constitute genocide because fewer than millions of people have been killed.
Lammy said that terms like genocide “were largely used when millions of people lost their lives in crises like Rwanda, the Second World War, the Holocaust, and the way that they are used now undermines the seriousness of that term.”
Original article republished from Memo under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Palestinians, including children, who escaped from the attacks of the Israeli army and took shelter in the Khan Yunis, located in the south of the Gaza Strip and who are struggling with hunger due to the embargo imposed on the region by Israel on the Gaza Strip, wait in line to receive meals distributed by charities while Israel’s attacks on the Gaza Strip continue uninterruptedly in Khan Yunis, Gaza on December 01, 2024 [Hani Alshaer – Anadolu Agency]
The UN, on Monday, said that local food systems in Gaza have been “devastated” by Israel’s land and air strikes, highlighting access to food as one of the most pressing concerns, Anadolu Agency reports.
Our humanitarian partners are also warning that local food systems have been devastated by military ground operations, the bombardment of civilian areas and the presence of unexploded ordnance
said UN spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, during a news conference.
He stated that “access to food remains the most critical concern raised by community members across all groups”.
Dujarric emphasized that food insecurity in Gaza is “worsening” daily, leaving people “more vulnerable”.
Describing the bakeries in Gaza as a “lifeline”, he said they are unable to remain operational due to a lack of fuel and flour.
Responding to Anadolu’s question on World Central Kitchen suspending its aid operations as well as UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) recently halting aid via Karm Abu Salem Crossing due to security concerns, Dujarric referred to his previous comments about the ongoing lack of food, UN’s inability to distribute aid and said “the facts are pretty clear, and they’re pretty horrific”.
Original article republished from MEMO under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Israeli security forces demolish buildings and mosque in the Bedouin village of Umm al-Hiran, where an evacuation and demolition order has been issued for the construction of Israeli settlements, in Negev Region, Israel on November 14, 2024 [Mostafa Alkharouf/Anadolu Agency]
Israeli occupation forces have demolished more than 1,500 Palestinian structures in the occupied West Bank since the start of the year, resulting in the displacement of over 3,600 Palestinians and affecting nearly 164,000 others, according to the United Nations.
Data from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reveals that between 1 January and 29 November, Israeli forces destroyed 1,528 structures, including 700 inhabited homes, 118 uninhabited homes and 398 agricultural facilities.
The demolitions have primarily targeted vulnerable Palestinian communities, displacing 3,637 people and severely impacting 163,769 others. The most affected area was the Tulkarm Refugee Camp in the northern occupied West Bank where 171 structures were destroyed, followed by the Nur Shams Refugee Camp which witnessed 118 demolitions, Jenin Refugee Camp, Jericho and other parts of the West Bank.
The Israeli government justifies these demolitions by claiming the structures were built without permits, although obtaining such permits is nearly impossible for Palestinians under the occupation’s restrictive policies.
Israeli demolition policies have escalated recently in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem. They are intended to displace the Palestinians and expand illegal Jewish-only settlements amid the ongoing genocidal war against the Palestinian people in the occupied Palestinian territories.
It comes despite a landmark opinion by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on 19 July, which declared Israel’s decades-long occupation of Palestinian land unlawful and called for the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves hosting an investment roundtable discussion with BlackRock CEO Larry Fink and members of the BlackRock executive board at 10 Downing Street | Frank Augstein – WPA Pool/Getty Images
Jonathan Reynolds told the investment bank that he looked forward to working together to “change the face of our UK”
Senior executives from BlackRock, one of the world’s most controversial companies, last week sat down opposite Keir Starmer and chancellor Rachel Reeves in Downing Street.
The government’s laser-focus on private investment as the key means of driving economic growth has inevitably led to a reliance on the world’s big money machines, such as BlackRock. But this is a relationship that Labour initially developed in opposition – and which has only become cosier since the party entered government.
The meeting on Thursday between Starmer, Reeves, investment minister Poppy Gustafsson and several members of BlackRock’s board was not the first time that senior figures from the world’s largest asset manager have met with ministers in recent months.
BlackRock CEO Larry Fink also made a star turn at Labour’s investment summit in October and posed for pictures with the prime minister when he visited New York in September. Senior BlackRock figures also attended a summer reception for business leaders at No 10, as openDemocracy revealed previously.
‘On a personal note’
As Starmer’s cabinet ministers were appointed in July, hundreds of companies contacted them to offer their congratulations, pitch their value to the government, and request meetings. Inevitably, some had more success than others in obtaining access to their targets. BlackRock was one of them.
With around $10tn (yes, trillion) under its management, BlackRock is among the most powerful financial institutions on the planet. To many, it is also among the most “evil”, because it continues to pump billions into fossil fuels and arms companies, and its reach extends into almost every aspect of the economy and society.
At 5pm on Monday 8 July, a managing director at the investment giant emailed Jonathan Reynolds, who’d been appointed the UK’s new secretary of state for business and trade just a few days earlier.
“Dear Secretary of State,” the executive wrote, “on behalf of all of us here at BlackRock, please find attached a formal letter of congratulations from myself and our UK Chair, Sandra Boss.
“And may I add, on a personal note, it is a pleasure after all these years to address you as such!”
The BlackRock executive was Anthony Manchester, a former senior civil servant who held roles across various government departments between 2001 and 2015, including the Treasury and Cabinet Office.
The attached letter began with the same pleasantries and congratulations expressed by Manchester, before highlighting BlackRock’s broad range of clientele and the scale of their footprint across the breadth of the UK economy, name-dropping British Airways, Rolls Royce and AstraZeneca as investments.
Next came the key point:
“As you know, we also share the government’s view that infrastructure investment can play a critical role in improving economic growth and productivity. We believe infrastructure is poised to become one of the fastest-growing segments in private markets globally.
“As our Chairman and CEO Larry Fink has recently written, private capital market financing, combined with policy pragmatism, are necessary to meet countries’ infrastructure needs and thereby enhance economic growth and productivity.
“We would welcome the opportunity to meet with you to discuss our work on funding the projects and enterprises that drive the economy and building the UK’s case as an investment destination. We will work with your team to get this meeting in the diary.
“Until then, congratulations once again on your appointment.”
Cutting through the corporate glaze, we can roughly understand the point being made here. In effect, BlackRock is highlighting that Labour’s entire political project rests on the willingness of companies like BlackRock to plough private capital into the foundational components of our society (and extracting massive profits in the process).
Reynolds’ reply to BlackRock, when it eventually came in August, gushed with praise for the firm and the wider financial services sector.
“Partnership with the Financial Services sector will be critical to developing and delivering on our industrial strategy and supporting small businesses. The sector underpins UK investment and trade, and its continued success is critical to lay the strong foundations for economic growth that this country needs.”
Reynolds added: “I would like to thank you for your long-standing investment in the UK, and partnership in driving growth, jobs and innovation. Blackrock has an impressive reach driving investment into the UK across sectors of our economy and your work is vital to economic growth. Funding our priority projects and investment in infrastructure is an important part of this…”
“We do not underestimate the importance of the UK’s Financial Services sector to the wider economy, or its potential to help deliver social value and the clean energy transition. To succeed we need everyone to play their part. I am looking forward to working with you in this common endeavour of national renewal.
“Together, we will change the face of our United Kingdom for the better.
“Thank you for your kind offer to meet. I would be delighted to accept this invitation. My Private Office will be in touch with you to arrange a suitable time. Thank you once again for writing and I look forward to working with you.”
‘Getting BlackRock to rebuild Britain’
In the asset management space, BlackRock has historically been a fairly hands-off investor, the bulk of its holdings being significant but typically not controlling shares in many of the world’s biggest companies – generally between 5-10% – according to Brett Christopher’s survey of the industry, Our Lives in Their Portfolios: Why Asset Managers Rule the World.
Think of an industry, then think of the top companies within it, and there’s a fairly good chance that BlackRock has shares in it. Christophers notes that, as a proportion of its overall holdings, investments placed in infrastructure – things like the electricity grid, water systems, and toll roads – were relatively small.
But in January this year, the firm announced it would purchase Global Infrastructure Partners, which controls around $170bn worth of assets worldwide, including Gatwick Airport and Hornsea 1, a project to build the world’s largest offshore windfarm in the North Sea. This purchase, which was completed last month, reportedly makes BlackRock the second largest asset manager in the infrastructure space, after ‘the vampire kangaroo’, Macquarie.
Critics will argue that when asset managers own significant chunks of infrastructure, their priority is their investors (including sovereign wealth funds and pension funds), rather than society, or even the planet. The primary purpose of infrastructure, the argument goes, becomes the generation of profit, rather than providing a working, reliable service. In practice, this might mean cutting investment while raising prices.
BlackRock and its ilk buying up the UK’s infrastructure would be controversial enough, but the way in which Labour is seeking to encourage this process is even worse. Writing in The Guardian ahead of the general election, economist Daniela Gabor said Labour’s plan for getting back into government amounted to: “get BlackRock to rebuild Britain”.
She wrote: “Labour’s strategy raises a bigger set of questions about the type of state we want. Starmer’s vision for government-by-BlackRock reduces the question of state capacity to ‘how do I get BlackRock to invest in infrastructure assets?’ This model involves the state in effect subsidising the privatisation of everyday life.”
In simple terms, the government’s plans to use public funds to ‘derisk’ private investment means that the taxpayer takes on much of the risk involved, while the private sector stands to reap most of the benefits. This is particularly true of essential infrastructure, which the government cannot let fail and so must step in to cover losses in the event that something goes wrong.
Gabor continues: “This doesn’t only make it harder to bring public goods back into public ownership; it also allows big finance to tighten the grip on the social contract with citizens, and to become the ultimate arbiter of climate, energy and welfare politics, which will have profound distributional, structural and political consequences.”
Immediately after the Downing Street meeting yesterday, Starmer took to social media to trumpet his sitdown with BlackRock. His message echoes the tone and substance of BlackRock’s letter to Reynolds months prior.
He wrote that the government’s mission, to “deliver growth, create wealth and put more money in people’s pockets” can “only be achieved by working in close partnership with businesses and investors”.
The prime minister continued: “BlackRock has a big footprint in the UK, and supports thousands of jobs across the country. Their insight on how we can put the UK on the world’s stage as a top investment destination and turbocharge growth is invaluable. Delighted to welcome them to Downing Street today to continue my government’s partnership with leading businesses.”
Exactly which people’s pockets are about to be filled with more money remains unclear.
Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves wear the uniform of the rich and powerful. They have all had clothes bought for them by multi-millionaire Labour donor Lord Alli. CORRECTION: It appears that Rachel Reeves clothing was provided by Juliet Rosenfeld.
The temperature control of a radiator in a domestic home
DEMANDS for more energy support for vulnerable households intensified today as temperatures are expected to plummet this week.
Some areas rose above 16°C on Sunday, but the Met Office forecast a sharp drop by last night, with temperatures potentially plunging to -8°C in parts of Scotland.
Meteorologists warned that the cold spell would continue tomorrow, with parts of England becoming as chilly as -3°C.
The cold snap comes just over a month after energy regulator raised the price cap by 10 per cent, while 6.5 million households remain trapped in fuel poverty.
Peter Smith of National Energy Action said: “Millions of people will endure these freezing conditions at the same time as unaffordable energy bills and unmanageable energy debt.
“At this exceptionally difficult time for vulnerable households, we see a desperate need for a larger energy discount or a new social tariff to provide long-term protection.
