The UK ‘Labour party’ government is defending it’s decision to continue granting licences to sell F-35 fighter jet components and other weapons to Israel in the High Court tomorrow. I doubt that there’s any chance of arguing that it’s not genocide, the Israeli government has all but admitted it, proud to murder children and other civilians, attack hospitals, mass-murder journalists and health workers. I wonder if it will be covered by corporate media.
I’ve been helping a disabled friend with her billing troubles with British Gas. I feel a little responsible because I advised her to go with a fixed deal with British Gas.
So for her first week British Gas charged for 4756 kWhs of gas. We complained and asked for a proper review. Their review wasn’t clever enough to realise that Ofwat’s average gas use for 1-2 people in a flat or house is 7500 kWhs a year or that my friend’s only gas appliance – a combination boiler rated at 24 kW max – is simply not capable of using that much gas in a week. There are also mistakes on the bill, in statements of gas used and transactions.
So I rang up to ask about these issue, put on hold many times and disconnected at 27 minutes and 5 seconds. British Gas has a poor reputation for dealing with complaints apparently.
We will be threatening legal action.
So there you go British Gas, my review ;)
13/5/25: I don’t have the figures to hand and think that the 4756 kWhs was instead just short of 5000kWhs for a week, more like 4986.
Palestinians carry the bodies of those who were killed by an overnight Israeli air strike, during their funeral in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, May 11, 2025HISTORY will record British military support for Israel as “complicity with genocide,” Communist Party international secretary Kevan Nelson said at the weekend.
Recent reports indicate that Britain has sent 14 shipments of bombs, grenades, torpedoes, mines and F-35 fighter jet parts to Israel since October 2023, while the RAF has carried out more than 500 surveillance flights across Gaza, defended Israeli installations from retaliatory missile attacks and bombed Houthi targets on land and sea.
“The stated intention of the Israeli cabinet is to launch a full-scale offensive to occupy the whole of Gaza permanently, while settler extremists and the misnamed Israeli Defence Force wage war against native Palestinians on the West Bank,” Mr Nelson told his party’s executive committee.
“Israel appears exempt from all international and humanitarian law, while the US, EU states and Britain lecture the rest of the world about human and maritime rights, sending warships and warplanes to enforce Western interests from the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean and South China Sea.
”He called on the Labour government to follow the example of the Irish Republic, Spain and 145 other countries and recognise Palestine as a sovereign state.
The Communist Party leadership branded Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s refusal to condemn Israeli genocide as “one of the most shameful episodes in Labour’s long and bloody record of supporting British and US imperialism around the world.”
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Article continues at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/britains-communists-condemn-government-complicity-gaza-genocide
Food retailers have seen a “massive” increase in pensioner shoplifters over the last year, according to a leading store security firm, amid the rising cost of living.
John Nussbaum, director of service for retail at Kingdom Services Group, has said his staff were seeing a “different sort of shoplifter now” as the cost of living “pushes people to something they’ve never done before”.
Kingdom, which provides services for hundreds of stores across the country, including supermarkets, convenience stores and shopping malls, has received 20 to 30 reports of shoplifting a week from across the UK involving “people who just can’t afford to buy food”, Nussbaum said.
He told PA Media: “We’ve seen a massive increase in pensioners shoplifting, putting a jar of coffee in their bag and one in the trolley, that sort of thing.”
He estimated that 5% of all those caught shoplifting by Kingdom staff on a weekly basis were aged over 50.
“For us over the last 12 months, we’ve got this different level of crime now. We’re now experiencing something different – pensioners, people who don’t normally shoplift,” Nussbaum said, adding: “We’ve had instances of mothers caught shoplifting when they’re with their kids.
“We’re used to seeing the organised gangs, that’s the norm, but the types of people being caught now has changed.
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Article continues at https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/may/12/uk-food-shops-report-massive-rise-in-pensioner-shoplifting
