… on a quiet day, I can hear her breathing

Author: dizzy

  • Left Foot Forward

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    Left Foot Forward is one of this blog’s favourite blogs and is recommended. A selection of current stories from Left Foot Forward for your delectation ;)

    Transport secretary called out over rail dispute mistruths on BBC Question Time

    The transport secretary Mark Harper has been accused of “muddying the waters” by presenting misleading narratives in the rail dispute, on BBC Question Time last night.

    When answering questions on resolving the rail strikes, Mark Harper attempted to shirk responsibility by referring to train drivers pay and unused ticket offices.

    It comes as the RMT union smashed their latest mandate for strike action, meaning members working for 14 train operating companies could strike again over the next six months. 

    It is their third mandate in the National Rail Dispute, with the latest receiving a 91% yes vote.

    Mick Lynch, RMT general secretary said the mandate sends a clear message to employers of the “huge anger” amongst rail workers.

    …

    Union leader accuses government of ‘punishing’ civil servants in pay dispute

    ‘Why are they treating their own staff worse than anyone else?’

    The government has been accused of ‘punishing’ their own staff and ‘making an example’ of civil servants by the leader of the union for civil service workers.

    In an ongoing dispute over pay, job losses and redundancy terms, civil servants with the union Prospect are on strike today for a second time in what is the largest industrial action the union has taken in over a decade.

    Their members’ pay has declined by up to 26% in real terms since 2010, with civil servants on some of the worst pay settlements in the public sector, having been dealt a recent 4.5% pay offer by the government.

    The union have called for a ‘serious pay offer’ that recognises the cost-of-living crisis that their members are facing.

    …

    Rishi Sunak slammed for using taxpayer-funded helicopter for trip that would have taken just over an hour by train

    The train ticket would’ve cost Sunak £30 return, yet he opted to travel by air, at a cost to the taxpayer in the region of £6,000.

    The Tories would like you to believe that they care about climate change and the effective use of taxpayers’ money, yet their actions show the complete opposite.

    Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is fond of taking helicopters and private jets for short trips and is now once more being slammed for using a taxpayer-funded helicopter to make a journey that would have taken little more than an hour on the train.

    Sunak took a chopper to Southampton to attend a GP surgery and pharmacy to promote the government’s latest intervention to reduce the strain on GP practices.

    According to train timetables, had the Prime Minister taken the 8:35am train from Waterloo he would have arrived in Southampton at 9:50am. That Sunak decided to fly to the port city and back via helicopter has led to some Tory MPs fearing that it will cement Sunak’s image as an out of touch Prime Minister.

    The train ticket would’ve cost Sunak £30 return, yet he opted to travel by air, at a cost to the taxpayer in the region of £6,000.

    One Tory MP told the Guardian: “Is it unfair to say that the weekend was about a powerful unelected individual who is unfeasibly wealthy and lacks the common touch … and King Charles III?”

    …

    Bid launched to revoke GB News’ broadcasting licence

    ‘The segment of concern gave a wholly biased account of the verdict in the trial of Donald Trump for sexual assault’

    Ofcom has been sent a strongly worded letter from two leading Green Party politicians, calling for the media regulator to revoke the broadcasting licence given to GB News after the scandal hit channel was once again found to have breached broadcasting regulations.

    Molly Scott Cato, Green Party Speaker on Economy and Finance and Councillor Jack Lenox, Parliamentary Candidate for Lancaster, have shared a picture of their letter on Twitter, with Lenox tweeting: “Jacob Rees-Mogg’s defence of Donald Trump’s sexual abuse is disgusting. And his brazen attempt to mislead the public is a grotesque abuse of our broadcasting regulations.

    “Today @GreenPartyMolly and I have written to Ofcom asking them to revoke GB News’ broadcasting licence.”

    Ardent Brexiteer Rees-Mogg has been slammed for his GB News broadcast on the Donald Trump sexual assault trial. Rees-Mogg emphasised that Trump had been found ‘not guilty of rape’, and also questioned the US legal system. Rees-Mogg was joined on the programme by Kari Lake, a top Republican and well-known 2020 Election denier, as well as Nigel Farage.

    A jury found that Trump had sexually abused magazine columnist E. Jean Carroll in a New York department store in the 1990s. The jury also found Trump liable for defamation for calling the writer’s accusations “a hoax and a lie”.

    Reacting to Rees-Mogg’s comments on Trump, James O’Brien tweeted: “When Owen Paterson broke Parliamentary rules, Jacob Rees-Mogg attacked the rules.

    “When a jury decided Donald Trump was a sex offender, Jacob Rees-Mogg attacked trial by jury. There’s a pattern here.”

    …

  • Just Stop Oil continues to assert their right to march and protest

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    Just Stop Oil

    Just Stop Oil supporters are now in their third week of marching in central London every day to demand an end to any new fossil fuel projects in the UK.

    At 8 am, around 32 Just Stop Oil supporters began marching from Queen Victoria Street near Mansion House tube station. Just Stop Oil supporters have been marching in the capital, every day since the 24th of April. Police are on scene and currently threatening to impose conditions under the public order act (section 12) in a bid to stifle legitimate dissent. 

    A Just Stop Oil spokesperson said:

    “The Public Order Bill and specifically Section 12 notices are being used to remove the British public’s right to peacefully oppose government policies that threaten the lives of hundreds of millions of people. Marching has been an integral means of bringing about social change for centuries, be it for those seeking universal suffrage, those seeking to gain equality, or those seeking to make transport accessible for disabled people.”  

    The government continues to face criticism in the wake of the wrongful arrests of dozens of peaceful protestors during the coronation, including 19 Just Stop Oil supporters and two independent journalists. No Just Stop Oil supporters have been charged, but some have been released ‘under investigation’ meaning media organisations are unwilling to interview them.

  • Equinor offices targeted by climate protesters over Rosebank oil field

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    https://www.standard.co.uk/business/business-news/equinor-offices-targeted-by-climate-protesters-over-rosebank-oil-field-b1080069.html

    Climate protesters have gathered outside Norwegian oil giant Equinor’s London offices to oppose the company’s plans to develop the Rosebank oil and gas field.

    Rosebank, which lies west of the Shetland Islands, is one of the largest such fields in the North Atlantic, capable of producing up to 500 million barrels of oil.

    The International Energy Agency has previously said there must be no new investment in oil and gas if the world is to become net zero by 2050, while the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said emissions from existing fossil fuel infrastructure are already set to push global temperatures beyond safe limits.

    …

    https://www.standard.co.uk/business/business-news/equinor-offices-targeted-by-climate-protesters-over-rosebank-oil-field-b1080069.html

  • Rishi Sunak’s War on Freedom

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  • Morning Star: On Victory Day, oppose the erasure of the international alliance that defeated fascism

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    Pablo Picasso’s ‘Guernica’.

    …

    During the Spanish Civil War, the Republican forces were made up of assorted factions such as communists, socialists, anarchists, and others with differing goals. Yet they were united in their opposition to the Nationalists, led by General Francisco Franco, who sought a return to pre-Republican Spain based on law, order, and traditional Catholic values.[9]

    Guernica, a town in the province of Biscay in Basque Country, was seen as the northern bastion of the Republican resistance movement and the center of Basque culture. This added to its significance as a target.[10] Around 4:30 p.m. on Monday, 26 April 1937, warplanes of the Nazi Germany Condor Legion, commanded by Colonel Wolfram von Richthofen, bombed Guernica for about two hours.

    …

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guernica_(Picasso)

    There are many derivatives of ‘Guernica’ – often as public murals – since it has achieved iconic status of anti-war and anti-Fascist symbolism.

    Morning Star: On Victory Day, oppose the erasure of the international alliance that defeated fascism

    VICTORY DAY, celebrating the surrender of Nazi Germany, should be an occasion for international unity.

    Time zone differences mean a surrender effective from 11.01pm Central European Time on May 8 1945 is celebrated on May 8 in the West and May 9 in the East, but it was the same victory, won by a people’s war in which the “big three,” Britain, the United States and the Soviet Union, played the main military role.

    Victory over fascism laid the basis of the modern international system. Britain, the US, the Soviet Union and China coined the term United Nations to describe the Allies in 1942, declaring a “common struggle against savage and brutal forces seeking to subjugate the world.”

    To join the UN, a country had to declare war on Nazi Germany, fascist Italy and imperial Japan. International law as we know it flows from the anti-fascist war.

    That system is under threat as never before. The Russian invasion of Ukraine has become a proxy war, in which Nato weaponry, equipment, training and actual special forces are engaged.

    …

    On Victory Day, we should strike a light against the gathering dark. Honour the memories of all who fell to defeat fascism. Oppose the rewriting of history, and the march to war.

    Morning Star: On Victory Day, oppose the erasure of the international alliance that defeated fascism