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Government ‘showing disregard for the law’, Liberty warns in anti-protest legal challenge

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Keir Starmer confirms that his government is cnutier than Suella Braverman on killing the right to protest.
Keir Starmer confirms that his government is cnutier than Suella Braverman on killing the right to protest.

https://www.libertyhumanrights.org.uk/issue/government-showing-disregard-for-the-law-liberty-warns-in-anti-protest-legal-challenge/

  • Home Office continues appeal against Liberty’s successful legal challenge to anti-protest rules, which the High Court had previously found unlawful
  • Legislation gave police ‘almost-unlimited’ powers to impose conditions on protests that caused ‘more than minor’ disruption.
  • Liberty said “We will ensure a government is not allowed to wilfully ignore the rules at the expense of our fundamental human rights” 

The human rights organisation Liberty has questioned the new Government’s “concerning disregard for the rule of law” as the Home Office has instructed lawyers to proceed with an appeal against a recent High Court ruling that anti-protest legislation had been created unlawfully.

The legislation, which significantly reduced the threshold at which the police could impose almost-unlimited conditions on protests to anything that they deemed caused ‘more than minor disruption’, had been brought in by then Home Secretary Suella Braverman in June 2023. Previously the threshold had been set at anything that caused ‘serious disruption’.

Liberty challenged the legislation in court, arguing that it was unlawful since it had already been democratically rejected by Parliament just a few months earlier, and was subsequently brought in “via the back door” through ‘secondary legislation’, which required less Parliamentary scrutiny and debate.

In May 2024, the High Court agreed with Liberty’s arguments, ruling that “more than minor cannot mean serious”. The Court also found that the Government had failed to undertake a fair consultation period, instead only inviting thoughts from those it knew would be supportive of its proposals, such as the police but not protest groups.

The previous Government had lodged an appeal against the ruling, and despite requesting an adjournment and meeting to discuss the regulations, the new Government has now decided to continue the appeal. The appeal hearing is expected to take place later in the year.

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https://www.libertyhumanrights.org.uk/issue/government-showing-disregard-for-the-law-liberty-warns-in-anti-protest-legal-challenge/

Continue ReadingGovernment ‘showing disregard for the law’, Liberty warns in anti-protest legal challenge

Israel lobby funded 15 new MPs before election

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https://www.declassifieduk.org/israel-lobby-funded-15-new-mps-before-election/

A Labour Friends of Israel trip last year. (Photo: LFI)

Parliamentary candidates went on paid-for trips to Israel ahead of the general election, Declassified has found.

Over a dozen new MPs accepted funding from pro-Israel lobby groups before they were even elected to parliament.

The donations were provided by the Labour and Conservative Friends of Israel groups, which aim to promote Israel’s interests in Britain but do not disclose their own sources of funding.

Twelve successful Labour candidates and three Conservatives travelled to Israel with these organisations in the year leading up to Britain’s general election.

The total cost of the trips was over £30,000, with some of them taking place amid Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza and being described as “solidarity” missions.

The revelation comes in the first MPs’ register of interests for the new parliament, which was released this month.

Andrew Feinstein, an arms trade expert who stood as an independent candidate against Keir Starmer, told Declassified: “It is deeply disturbing that the Friends of Israel organisations are attempting to cultivate politicians in Britain even before they are elected”.

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https://www.declassifieduk.org/israel-lobby-funded-15-new-mps-before-election/

Continue ReadingIsrael lobby funded 15 new MPs before election

‘A bleak vision of Britain’

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Keir Starmer says pensioners can freeze to death and poor children can starve and be condemned to failure and misery all their lives.
Keir Starmer says pensioners can freeze to death and poor children can starve and be condemned to failure and misery all their lives.

https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/a-bleak-vision-of-britain

Left MPs and trade unionists accuse Sir Keir of choosing austerity, pain and poverty instead of taxing the super-rich

LEFT MPs warned today that pain and poverty are on the way after Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer told the country that “things will get worse.”

Responding to a keynote speech by the PM warning of a “tough” Budget coming in October, the group of five independent left MPs warned that “politics is about choices — and the government is choosing to inflict pain and poverty across the country.”

And Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said “a bleak vision of Britain is not what we need now. It is time to see the change that Labour promised.”

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The left MPs, including former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, ridiculed this stance, pointing out that when “the government said it would lower energy bills, it cut winter fuel allowances for pensioners instead.

“The government said it wanted to reboot our economy, it wants to cut public investment instead.

“The government said it would put an end to 14 years of Tory failure, it voted to keep the two child benefits cap instead.”

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Perfecting the State

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Returning to the racist riots, Starmer said that these were unmistakably inspired by the far right (but no words on those who fanned the flames), but there was an element of opportunism at work – an opportunism born of the Tories’ dereliction of duty. Those who rioted knew the criminal justice system was teetering on the brink and prison places were at a premium, and acted as though there wouldn’t be any arrests, let alone jail terms. Thanks to Tory recklessness. And, to a degree, Starmer corrected his reluctant earlier response by condemning efforts at trying to burn down hotels full of human beings (a rare moment of humanising asylum seekers in British politics) and praising communities who came together in the riots’ aftermath to rebuild. Note he didn’t go as far as the King, but again thanked the police and first responders for their service. Starmer therefore condemns the riots as a failure of Tory statecraft, passes over the role of communities and anti-fascists in defending themselves, praises the spirit of resilience, and then returns to the agents of the state as the legitimate saviours of the situation.

The second part was focused on the state itself. Starmer talked a lot about the £22bn “black hole” in state finances which, in reality, only exists because of how the Chancellor has chosen to frame public spending. Hence the tough decision of scrapping the Winter Fuel Allowance for all pensioners not in receipt of pension credits. This is being taken away so the NHS can be fixed. Likewise, when challenged on above inflation pay rises for public sector workers and railway workers, Starmer’s defence owed nothing to the injustices these deals partly correct and everything to economic efficiency, getting the health service working, and so on. It was the right decision not by the workers, but by the state.

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Continue Reading‘A bleak vision of Britain’

Tories ask who authorised Labour donor’s No 10 pass

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https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4gxk0gz3zdo

Lord Alli was made a Labour peer by Sir Tony Blair and is a significant Labour fundraiser

The Conservatives are demanding to know who authorised a Downing Street pass for Labour’s biggest donor, despite him having no formal job at the premises.

The Sunday Times revealed that Lord Waheed Alli had been issued with a temporary pass for Number 10.

Downing Street confirmed that he did have a pass but that it was “temporary” and “given back several weeks ago”.

In a letter to Cabinet Secretary Simon Case, the Tories said it was “deeply concerning” the pass had been issued at all.

The letter from shadow paymaster general John Glen asks whether the PM or his chief of staff, the former civil servant Sue Gray, had requested the pass for Lord Alli.

He has also asked for details on whether any other donors have received security passes for Number 10 and if other temporary passes have been issued.

“A Downing Street pass should be a privilege reserved for those that require access for work, including civil servants and special advisers, not those requiring occasional access,” he wrote in his letter.

“It is therefore deeply concerning that a pass was granted to a Labour donor providing unfettered access to the heart of government after significant cash and non-cash donations were made to the Labour Party.”

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https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4gxk0gz3zdo

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Unite calls for 1% wealth tax on super-rich to fund UK public sector pay rises

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https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/article/2024/aug/24/unite-calls-for-1-wealth-tax-on-super-rich-to-fund-uk-public-sector-pay-rises

Sharon Graham, general secretary of the Unite trade union, leads steel workers down Whitehall last year to demand more support for the industry. She says the British economy is broken. Photograph: Guy Smallman/Getty Images

The demand from Britain’s second biggest union will test truce with Labour at next month’s TUC conference

Britain’s second biggest trade union is calling on the new Labour government to introduce an emergency 1% wealth tax on the assets of the super-rich to pay for 10% pay rises for public sector workers and fill more than 100,000 NHS vacancies.

The demand from Unite is in one of several motions to the Trades Union Congress, which meets in Brighton next month, that will expose tensions between Keir Starmer’s government and sections of the union movement. It comes as Rachel Reeves is preparing for her first budget as chancellor, on 30 October.

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Other key trade unions are preparing to press for further policy changes from Labour, including abandoning the two-child benefit cap, which Starmer has so far resisted, and the reversal of the recent decision to end winter fuel payments for millions of pensioners, which has been causing a serious backlash among Labour backbenchers.

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Unite’s plan is for a tax of 1% to be applied on the assets of those worth more than £4m, which it says would raise £25bn a year to fund investment in public services and avoid a return to austerity. Under the plan, someone with assets worth £6m would face a 1% tax on the £2m above the £4m threshold. These assets would include property, shares and bank accounts but would not include mortgaged property.

Unite points to research showing that the richest 50 families in the UK now have assets worth nearly £500bn.

Sharon Graham, the general secretary of Unite, said: “Unite’s resolution to the TUC on the economy calls things by their real name. The British economy is broken.

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https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/article/2024/aug/24/unite-calls-for-1-wealth-tax-on-super-rich-to-fund-uk-public-sector-pay-rises

Continue ReadingUnite calls for 1% wealth tax on super-rich to fund UK public sector pay rises