Far from addressing the causes of ill-health and disability, Starmer, Reeves and Kendall are committed to unleashing more misery for disabled people, argues Dr DYLAN MURPHY
In 2016 the UN Committee for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities conducted an investigation into the treatment of disabled people in Britain.
It produced a damning report, which concluded that disabled people in this country faced systematic discrimination on multiple levels.
In 2024, following the submission of evidence by Disabled People Against Cuts and other disability rights groups, the UN investigated Britain for a second time.
In late April the UN committee for disabled people issued a 14-page report which concluded that Britain “has failed to take all appropriate measures to address grave and systematic violations of the human rights of persons with disabilities and has failed to eliminate the root causes of inequality and discrimination.”
It also called on Britain to take measures to prevent disabled people on benefits from killing themselves. At the UN committee hearing in March 2024 it noted how hundreds of disabled people had killed themselves due to sanctions and other repressive measures of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), which really should be called the Department for War on the Poor.
Since this UN report Labour has been elected with a landslide majority. Yet in the many Bills announced for the new parliament not one addresses the serious issues raised by the United Nations.
Sadly, both Liz Kendall, new boss of the DWP, and Rachel Reeves the Chancellor, between them have made it clear that people on sickness benefits are a burden on our society and that the money spent on sick people claiming universal credit, employment support allowance (ESA) and personal independence payments (PIP) could be better spent on more “important things” in our society. They have repeated reactionary Tory propaganda which the UN cites as a reason for a spike in disability hate crime which is massively under reported and rarely investigated by the police.
Keir Starmer confirms that he’s proud to be a red Tory continuing austerity and targeting poor and disabled scum.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.
Sir Keir Starmer has called the current benefits system unsustainable, indefensible and unfair, and said the government could not “shrug its shoulders and look away”.
Addressing Labour MPs on Monday evening, the prime minister said the current welfare system was “the worst of all worlds”, discouraging people from working while producing a “spiralling bill”.
The comments come as Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall prepares to set out changes to the welfare system and cut the benefits bill in the coming weeks.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves has earmarked several billion pounds in draft spending cuts to welfare and other government departments ahead of the Spring Statement.
There is unease over the plans within the party, with Labour MP Rachael Maskell warning against “draconian cuts” that risk “pushing disabled people into poverty”.
Maskell told the BBC she had picked up “deep, deep concern” among Labour MPs.
Keir Starmer confirms that he’s proud to be a red Tory continuing austerity and targeting poor and disabled scum.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.
A screenshot from footage showing Palestine Action Activists outside Allianz Commercial offices in London, March 10, 2025
CAMPAIGNERS targeted the offices of insurance giant Allianz in the City of London today over the firm’s complicity in the Gaza genocide.
Palestine Action activists scaled the premises’ main entrance and doused it in red paint, rebuking the firm for insuring and investing in Elbit Systems, Israel’s biggest weapons manufacturer.
A spokesperson for Palestine Action said: “By providing insurance, Allianz is directly enabling the production of Israeli weapons in Britain which are ‘battle-tested’ on Palestinians.
…
Today also saw the launch of the Boycott Bloody Insurance campaign, with a groundbreaking report showing how major global insurers actively enable Israel’s ongoing assault on Palestinians.
The report, Ensuring Genocide: The Insurance Industry and Israel’s War Machine, reveals that insurers including Allianz, Aviva, AXA, Zurich, and RSA collectively invested over $1.7 billion (£1.3bn) in companies supplying military equipment used by Israel since October 7 2023.
“Insurance giants claim to protect communities, but they’re funnelling our money into war, exploitation, and violence,” said Monika Nielsen, lead researcher at the new campaign, which “demands accountability from insurers profiting from human suffering.”
Campaigners from Police Spies out of Lives speak to the media after the publication of first part of the report from the Undercover Policing Inquiry, at Blackfriars Settlement, south east London, June 29, 2023
MORE than 100 victims have threatened to walk away from the long-running “unfair” spycops inquiry.
A total of 92 individuals and 20 activist groups have signed an open letter alleging mistreatment by the probe which began in July 2015.
They have threatened to withhold giving evidence to the next stage of the inquiry covering abuses by the Metropolitan Police’s political undercover units between 1993 and 2014.
The non-state “core participants” called for “full disclosure and reasonable timetables” and that “witnesses must not be excluded as a result of insufficient time to prepare — we seek assurances our evidence will be heard.”
A water treatment plant in Deir al-Balah, Gaza is on the verge of shutting down due to Israel’s order to cut electricity flow on March 10, 2025. (Photo: Moiz Salhi/Anadolu via Getty Images)
One expert noted that “this collective punishment of civilians” violates the Geneva Convention as well as a preliminary injunction from the International Court of Justice.
Outrage over the Israeli government’s decision to cut off electricity to a water treatment plant in the decimated Gaza Strip mounted on Monday.
As Common Dreams reported Sunday, Israeli Energy Minister Eli Cohen said that he “signed an order for the immediate halt of electricity to the Gaza Strip” as part of a policy to use “all of the tools that are at our disposal to ensure the return of all the hostages” taken by Hamas on October 7, 2023.
The Times of Israel noted that the new move by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government “was mainly expected to affect a single desalination plant, the only facility in the strip still running on a power line supplied from Israel.”
Responding on social media Monday, the Peace & Justice Project—founded by Jeremy Corbyn, an Independent member of the U.K. Parliament—condemned the cutoff as Israel’s “latest act of genocidal collective punishment against the Palestinian people.”
“This latest despicable act must be condemned by all governments and Israel must be sanctioned,” the group added.
Also speaking out on social media, Francesca Albanese, United Nations special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, declared, “GENOCIDE ALERT!”
“Israel cutting off electricity supplies to Gaza means, among others, no functioning desalination stations, ergo: no clean water,” Albanese said. “STILL NO SANCTION/NO ARMS EMBARGO against Israel means, among others, AIDING AND ASSISTING Israel in the commission of one of the most preventable genocides of our history.”
Unconscionable, and immoral:Israel stops electricity supply to Gaza to ratchet up pressure on Hamas | The Times of Israel www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_ent…
Izzat al-Rishq, a member of Hamas’ political bureau, called the move “a desperate attempt to pressure our people and their resistance through cheap and unacceptable blackmail tactics,” according to The Times of Israel.
He tied the decision to Israel halting all humanitarian aid into the Palestinian enclave last week, saying that “we strongly condemn the occupation’s decision to cut off electricity to Gaza, after depriving it of food, medicine, and water.”
Clean water has been a key issue in Gaza since October 2023. Oxfam said last July that Israel had systematically reduced the water available by 94%, with just 4.74 liters per resident obtainable each day—less than a third of the recommended minimum amount in emergencies.
A Human Rights Watch report from December accuses Israel of “extermination and acts of genocide” in Gaza “by intentionally depriving Palestinian civilians there of adequate access to water, most likely resulting in thousands of deaths.”
Netanyahu said that last week’s block on aid was done “in full coordination” with U.S. President Donald Trump, who proposed an American takeover of Gaza—a plan that Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said Sunday “is taking shape.”
Israel and Hamas reached a fragile three-part cease-fire and hostage-release deal in January. Stage one expired on March 1, and negotiators have not yet agreed to terms for the second phase, but talks are being held in Qatar this week.
“Food cut off, almost all electricity cut off, with the remaining energy now cut off too, in order to cut off water supply. This is a ‘cease-fire’ Israel-style,” said Nick Dearden, director of the U.K.-based group Global Justice Now. “Barbaric collective punishment. Stop all weapons, suspend trade deals, economic sanctions now.”
Since we made this statement Israel has announced it is cutting off electricity to Gaza. We say again: the threat of starvation and denial of vital humanitarian aid and services should never be used as a tool of war or a bargaining chip in negotiations. www.quaker.org.uk/news-and-eve…
University of Michigan professor Juan Cole wrote Monday on his website, Informed Comment, that “the Israeli government is cutting Palestinian civilians in Gaza off from staples as a means of pressuring Hamas to release all Israeli hostages with no quid pro quo so that Netanyahu can start bombing again.”
“This collective punishment of civilians violates the Geneva Convention and other elements of internationally agreed on laws of war to which Israel is signatory,” noted Cole. “It also violates the preliminary injunction of the International Court of Justice, in which Israel also has membership.”
Israel faces an ongoing genocide case at the Hague-based court over its deadly blockade and assault of Gaza—assisted by billions of dollars in U.S. weapons. Like his predecessor, Trump’s administration is working to send even more arms to Israel.
Zionist Keir Starmer is quoted “I support Zionism without qualification.” He’s asked whether that means that he supports Zionism under all circumstances, whatever Zionists do.
Neo-Fascist Climate Science Denier Donald Trump says Burn, Baby, Burn.
