HUNDREDS of renters protested outside letting agents in six London boroughs on Saturday to demand Britain implement an emergency rent freeze similar to that of the Scottish government.
The renters from the London Renters Union (LRU) were also highlighting the “human cost of the rental crisis” the “key role” letting agents play in “gouging rents well above inflation,” the LRU said in a press release.
The organisation has reported an average rent increase of 20.5 per cent or £3,378 per year. Those numbers are based on 150 rent rises which have been reported to the union since September 20.
Matt Hancock, former Health Minister and twat. Image: Crown copyright
MATT HANCOCK’S attempts to deny responsibility for the tens of thousands of Covid-19 deaths in care homes were slammed as a “deluded version” of events today.
National Care Association chairwoman Nadra Ahmed said the recollections of the former health secretary, who was forced to resign last year after breaking his own social distancing rules, “bear no resemblance to the facts.”
The West Suffolk MP, who now sits as an independent after being thrown out of the Tory Party over his widely criticised appearance on ITV’s reality show I’m a Celebrity, said that the virus was primarily brought into care homes by infected staff members.
The claim came despite the ex-Cabinet minister allowing untested hospital patients to be discharged into care settings in the early days of the pandemic in spring 2020.
RISHI SUNAK’S decision to reappoint Suella Braverman just days after her resignation over security breaches sets a “dangerous precedent,” a damning report by MPs has warned.
The Tory-led public administration and constitutional affairs committee released its latest report on government ethics today, singling out the PM for particular criticism over the decision.
The Home Secretary was forced to resign after sending official documents via her private email to a Tory backbencher and accidentally copying in an aid.
But soon after Mr Sunak took over the premiership, he reappointed her, sparking widespread anger and concerns that Ms Braverman’s return could pose a risk to national security.
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We’ve heard very little from Sue-Ellen Braverman since she was bullied recently apparently. If you can’t take it … Her remarks about the Guardian-reading tofu-eating wokerati and the anti-groth coalition while she was Home Secretary under Liz Truss were a bit mad I thought.
The Guardian has a series of articles looking at UK’s water industry. Looks like it’s a cash cow for foreign investors with prices to consumers inflated to service debt and excessive payments to shareholders. Well worth a look (and tofu-eating is not mandatory ;) …
England is one of the few countries in the world where water is fully owned by private companies. These companies answer to investors based thousands of miles away from their customers.
“What we have here is just a crazy system,” said Kate Bayliss, from the department of economics at SOAS University of London and author of several papers on England’s privatised water. “We are managing our water in the interests of offshore investors.”
These offshore investors include private and state-owned international funds, banks, multinationals and billionaires headquartered outside the UK, and they control at least 72% of English water, new Guardian research has found.
Here’s how England’s profitable water system has been sold off around the world:
Foreign investment firms, private equity, pension funds and businesses lodged in tax havens own more than 70% of the water industry in England, according to research by the Guardian.
The complex web of ownership is revealed as the public and some politicians increasingly call for the industry to be held to account for sewage dumping, leaks and water shortages. Six water companies are under investigation for potentially illegal activities as pressure grows on the industry to put more money into replacing and restoring crumbling infrastructure to protect both the environment and public health.
More than three decades after the sector was sold off with a promise to the public they would become individual small shareholders or “H2Owners”, control of the water industry has become dominated by overseas investment vehicles, the super-rich, companies in tax havens and pension fund investors. The ownership structure is such that transparency and accountability are limited, according to Dr Kate Bayliss, a research associate with the department of economics at Soas University of London.
In the 30 years since England’s water was privatised by Margaret Thatcher, water companies have set up a system in which billions of pounds leave the network in an average year.
It’s money that could have gone towards building a more resilient water system, say academics. Among them, Dieter Helm, an Oxford professor of economic policy specialising in utilities, went as far as saying in 2021 that England’s water system was “a scandal of financial engineering”.
Just Stop Oil (JSO) activists in UK have been imprisoned for Thoughtcrime and being woke tofu-eating Guardian-readers. Posing with an expensive Chinook helicopter Parody Home Secretary Sue-Ellen Braverman said “Of all those arrested – although they had not committed any actual physical crime – there is indisputable evidence that they had thought about it. There are claims that they had sworn an oath to take action to get arrested protecting the planet within a month. I will be totally over the top at every opportunity.”
Braverman posing with a ‘Chinook’
She continued “I will use all the power of the state to intimidate and isolate individuals who dare not agree with me. I want to make quite clear that we’re talking about political activists here, usually but not necessarily men, people of different ages who meet and come together – yes totally voluntarily and without any duress – we will not have adults mingling and cavorting with each other. Through our extensive covert intelligence activities we know that one of the most vocal Just Stop Oil supporters was intending to meet one particular ‘youngman’ through a gay dating website. As I say, through our extensive covert operations, we have prevented that from happening and made clear our threats to stifle any such legal behaviour. I will not have people getting on with their private lives and enjoying themselves when they oppose us.”
ed: 7 Nov 22 To clarify: It’s a threat to interfere of course, that a prospective contact has been identified and the very reference to his nick (since altered) is threatening. It’s common knowledge that things work that way. There should be absolutely no interference in my private life. There is absolutely no reason why the Home Secretary should even be aware of my contacts who are absolutely nothing to do with activism. I call on the Home Secretary to resign.
[9/11/22 Braverman landed her Chinook on 3rd November. My message to ‘youngman’ on 2nd November ended “have respect for yourself and expect respect from other people even if we never meet. X”]
later: It’s more than just reference to his nick on this one occasion.
The Metropolitan Police said it had made arrests on Sunday evening and this morning as part of an operation to identify and arrest climate activists suspected of planning the motorway disruption.
Three people suspected of planning public disruption were arrested on Sunday, Assistant Commissioner Matt Twist said.
The force said that another four had been arrested at 8am today at an address in south London for alleged conspiracy to cause public nuisance.
All the arrests were for suspected offences under the new Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act.
Campaign group Liberty has previously criticised the legislation for “stifling our freedom to protest and setting a dangerous precedent for the future.”
