Majority describe the UK Labour government as sleazy





https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/labour-plans-to-sell-gp-data-to-private-sector-make-no-sense
HEALTH Secretary Wes Streeting’s plans to sell GP data to the private sector “make no sense,” warned experts raising fresh privacy concerns yesterday.
Campaigners also warned Labour’s “pro-business approach to data” had the potential for further loss of public trust in the health service.
…
Mr Streeting in October said that data “is the future of the NHS” and Britain “could lead the world in medical research.”
He plans to create a “single access system” for information from GP surgeries, hospitals and other care settings after NHS England awarded a controversial £330 million contract to US spy tech giant Palantir in 2023 to develop a new platform.
Today Keep Our NHS Public co-chair Dr John Puntis said: “The Data Use and Access Bill currently going through Parliament illustrates Labour’s pro-business approach to data as a valuable resource, and highlights the potential for further loss of public trust.
“It aims to make data, including our personal heath data, widely available to public authorities and the private sector.
“The Secretary of State will be given power to erode safeguards over use of personal data for research.
“Labour intends to reduce the regulatory burden on businesses at the expense of safeguards for citizens.
“An alternative vision would include investment in a publicly owned national digital infrastructure aimed at storing and managing NHS data currently being processed through cloud computing services that are owned by large technology companies.
“There must be safeguards against the private sector gaining access to data for profit, and the public should be fully informed about the use of people’s health data and the right to protection and privacy.”
A spokesman for Momentum said: “Selling off patients’ data is no way to fix the NHS.
“We must fully renationalise our healthcare system and defend it from corporate interests, not welcome them.”
…
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/labour-plans-to-sell-gp-data-to-private-sector-make-no-sense
There are news reports that Jeremy Corbyn and Diane Abbott have been urged to apologise for backing gangster Chris Kaba after criticising police following his death. [ed: uncertain that he should be called a gangster.]
He was unarmed and police didn’t know who he was when he was killed. There were claims following his inquest that he had shot somebody 6 days previous to him getting killed by police. He was never tried of this alleged crime of course because he was dead. You can’t retrospectively justify his killing when an unarmed, unknown man was killed by armed police.
Mainline media are being fundamentally dishonest in presenting the killing of Chris Kaba. There is a concerted attempt to further excuse armed police from killing people, that is what it’s about. For example, a hard traffic stop is presented as a traffic stop. A hard traffic stop is an intentional crash to sandwich a car between 2 others front and back. If I was subjected to a hard stop, I would then expect to be killed by armed men (police or army) and it’s certainly not unreasonable or unexpected to try to escape.
You already don’t need to be armed to be killed by armed police in UK. It helps no end if you’re black but I’ve know people to be killed because of their names. I don’t regard myself as black but can get a very deep tan. My father was once told to “Get back to where you came from” to which he replied “What, Ely?”. Ely is an area of Cardiff.
It’s not that difficult to ram hard into the back of the car in front – it happens many times every day.
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/a-failure-for-all-those-affected-by-police-violence
CAMPAIGNERS were left outraged today after the police marksman who shot and killed Chris Kaba was cleared of his murder.
Martyn Blake, 40, had been on trial at the Old Bailey in London since October 2 after shooting the 24-year-old black man through the front windscreen of his car in Streatham in 2022.
The jury deliberated for about three hours today to clear Mr Blake as the family of Mr Kaba listened to the verdict in silence.
…
Campaign group Save Our Citizenship called the verdict “another prime example of the extent of how deep-rooted racism manifests within the British injustice system.”
And the Women’s Equality Party said it is “both terrifying and outrageous to hear politicians say the police should be scrutinised less after they kill unarmed members of the public.”
Since 1990 there have been 1,904 deaths recorded by campaign group Inquest in or following police custody or contact.
In that time only one officer has been found guilty of manslaughter, in 2021, and none for murder.
In the 34 years, a total of 83 people were fatally shot by police in England and Wales.
Only three murder or manslaughter prosecutions were made, none with a guilty verdict.
Full article at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/a-failure-for-all-those-affected-by-police-violence
Labour Deputy Leader Angela Rayner will be pleased that an innocent, unarmed man has been killed by police. That’s what she was calling for unless there’s a hidden meaning to her statements. [ed: That’s what she was calling for even if there is a hidden meaning to her statements.]
It’s disappointing that mainline media is promoting the idea that the killed man was a dangerous gunman. He was unarmed and trying to escape before he was killed by armed police.