Author: dizzy
Water company bosses enjoy £15m bonuses despite sewage dumping
Campaigners gather on Fistral Beach, Newquay, as they take part in a National Day of Action on Sewage Pollution. Picture date: Saturday April 23, 2022. WATER company bosses were paid almost £15 million in bonuses last year despite overseeing 825 unlawful sewage discharges a day, leaving every river in England and many coastal waters polluted.
Labour vowed today to “hold water bosses to account for negligence over unlawful discharges” and a campaign group is gathering tens of thousands of signatures on an online petition calling for the bonuses to be scrapped.
The petition has been launched by pressure group 38 Degrees, whose name derives from the angle at which fallen snow turns into an avalanche.
The group said: “Despite sewage being pumped into our rivers and seas 825 times a day last year, water company CEOs received nearly £15 million in bonuses.
…
Reporters Without Borders denied access to visit Julian Assange in Belmarsh prison
Earlier today Reporters Without Borders’ (RSF’s) Secretary-General Christophe Deloire and Director of Operations and Campaigns Rebecca Vincent arrived to visit Julian Assange inside Belmarsh prison but were denied access at the last minute.
RSF’s representatives had been granted permission to visit Assange before the four-year anniversary of his imprisonment in Belmarsh, where he has been held since 11 April 2019.
Christophe Deloire, RSF Secretary-General, said: “We are deeply disappointed by the arbitrary decision of the Belmarsh Prison Governor to prevent us from visiting Julian Assange, despite following all relevant prison procedures and rules. Julian Assange has the right to receive visitors in prison, and we are legitimate to visit him as a press freedom NGO. We call for an urgent reversal of this decision and to be allowed visitation access without further delay.”
Rebecca Vincent, RSF Director of Operations, said: “This is the latest in a long series of ludicrous obstacles that we have faced over the past three years in campaigning for the release of Julian Assange. At every level, British authorities have defaulted to secrecy and exclusion rather than allowing normal engagement around this case – from refusing to accept RSF petitions, to making it nearly impossible to access court, and now this. What do they have to hide? Regardless, we continue our campaign to #FreeAssange.“WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Kristinn Hrafnsson commented on the news: “A press freedom NGO barred from visiting a political prisoner and a journalist (after visit had previously been confirmed). This is not Russia, China or North Korea but the United Kingdom. Remember this next time the UK Government tries to lecture you on lack of press freedom elsewhere.”
50 wounded and 350 arrested as Israeli police storm al-Aqsa mosque
ISRAELI police stormed the al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem today, firing stun grenades at Palestinians inside who responded by throwing stones and firecrackers.
Outside the mosque’s gate, police dispersed crowds of young men with stun grenades and rubber bullets.
People arrested and later released from the compound said police had burst in and attacked worshippers, using truncheons, rifles and even chairs to strike men, women and children, with video footage appearing to confirm their accounts.
…
Calls for lobbying crackdown after we expose £13m ‘backdoor’ to MPs
Original article by Ruby Lott-Lavigna republished from openDemocracy under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International licence.
Standards committee demands tighter rules after openDemocracy uncovers lobbying by firms including weapons makers
Unofficial parliamentary groups should face tighter rules, a new report has recommended after openDemocracy revealed that they are easy prey for private firms and lobbyists wanting to buy access to politicians.
On Tuesday, the Committee on Standards called for tighter rules for All-Party Parliamentary Groups (APPGs) – informal groups run by MPs and peers, which are often funded by or closely linked to external organisations.
The committee warned that there “remains a significant risk of improper access and influence by commercial entities or by hostile foreign actors”.
It comes a year after an openDemocracy transparency investigation found that weapons makers and private healthcare firms were among companies to have donated £13m to APPGs for exclusive access to politicians. The subsequent backlash led 1,500 people to contact their MPs demanding “more transparency” for the groups.
Now, in a report published this week, the Committee on Standards has demanded stronger regulations for the groups, which have been revealed by this website to lobby for big tobacco, fuel companies and arms companies.
The report called for a ban on APPG secretariats being supplied by foreign countries and a requirement that all groups produce an annual income and expenditure statement.
It also said that MPs should be allowed to join no more than six APPGs, and that when reports are published and funded by external organisations, this must be made transparent.
“When communicating with ministers, public officials, public officer holders or outside organisations,” the report says, “APPGs and their officers must declare their sources of funding.”
Sometimes one questions whether a group really is an APPG or just a personal campaign or a money-making venture
Chris Bryant MPLast year, openDemocracy revealed that MPs who successfully lobbied the government to introduce for a controversial ‘greener’ petrol were part of an APPG funded by the fuel industry. The APPG for British Bioethanol, supported by various fuel companies, met with ministers and urged the government to roll out E10 petrol “as swiftly as possible”.
openDemocracy uncovered that the APPG for British Bioethanol’s influential report on E10, published in 2019, had been paid for by a bioethanol company, Ensus Ltd. We found that staff from Ensus provided “assistance” with researching and writing the report, which mentions Ensus numerous times and includes quotes from the firm’s commercial director, Grant Pearson.
Writing for openDemocracy in the wake of our investigation, Labour MP Chris Bryant, who chairs the Committee on Standards, said MPs should “run a mile” from APPGs that feel like “front of house for a direct commercial interest,” “a cover for free trips to exotic locations” or “the brainchild of a lobbying company”.
Bryant added: “Sometimes [APPGs’ AGMs] are so poorly attended as to make one question whether the group really is an APPG or just a personal campaign or a money-making venture masquerading as a parliamentary affair.”
Original article by Ruby Lott-Lavigna republished from openDemocracy under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International licence.
Whatever you’re interested in, there’s a free openDemocracy newsletter for you. HAVE A LOOK
