crap pretend Labour

UK care agencies accused of exploiting foreign workers caught in debt traps

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https://www.theguardian.com/society/article/2024/jun/02/uk-care-agencies-accused-of-exploiting-foreign-workers-caught-in-debt-traps

Many foreign care workers in the UK say they are lured over on false promises that cause them to amass serious debts. Composite: Guardian Design/Getty Images/Alamy/PA/Reuters.

Guardian Exclusive: Experts raise alarm over ‘national scandal’ that has hallmarks of trafficking and modern slavery

British social care agencies have been accused of exploiting foreign workers, leaving people living on the breadline as they struggle to pay off debts run up while trying to secure jobs that fail to materialise.

Dozens of people working for 11 different care providers have told the Guardian they paid thousands of pounds to agents to secure jobs working in UK care homes or residential care, with most finding limited or no employment when they arrived.

Many are now struggling to pay off huge debts in their home countries and having to work in irregular jobs for below the minimum wage.

Labour and the Conservatives are now under pressure to tackle the issue if they win next month’s election. The Tories recently banned foreign care workers bringing their dependents to the UK with them, a ban Labour said last week it would keep in place in an effort to bring net immigration down.

But experts say the ban has failed to tackle the deeper issue of exploitation of the workers themselves, many of whom are still in the UK and living in poverty, afraid to leave their employers for fear of losing their visa status.

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has now written to the leaders of all three major national parties to demand a full government inquiry into treatment of migrant care workers when parliament returns.

Prof Nicola Ranger, the acting general secretary of the RCN, said: “The exploitation of migrant care workers is a national scandal but little has been done to tackle it.

“A chronically understaffed social care sector has supercharged its recruitment of staff from overseas and a lack of regulation and enforcement has allowed some employers to profit from the mistreatment of migrants.”

She added: “An urgent government investigation into exploitation across the social care sector must be a priority for whoever wins the general election. Lives are being ruined daily and this work has to start as soon as possible.”

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Article continues at https://www.theguardian.com/society/article/2024/jun/02/uk-care-agencies-accused-of-exploiting-foreign-workers-caught-in-debt-traps

Continue ReadingUK care agencies accused of exploiting foreign workers caught in debt traps

Anti-poverty charity urges politicians to set out plan to tackle ongoing hardship for low-income households

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https://leftfootforward.org/2024/06/anti-poverty-charity-urges-politicians-to-set-out-plan-to-tackle-ongoing-hardship-for-low-income-households/

‘We need our politicians to set out how they will bring an end to this relentless reality of hardship in the general election campaign.’

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) has called on all politicians to urgently address the reality of years-long hardship for families on low incomes.

The call was made following research conducted by the anti-poverty charity which found that the bottom 20 percent of low-income households are facing the same levels of hardship as they were last year, despite inflation falling.

The findings of the Savanta survey of 4,092 adults in the UK in low-income households were scaled by the JRF to population level.

From May 2022 to May 2024, the number of households going without essentials, such as showers, heating, and adequate clothing, ranged from 6.9 million to 7.3 million. Around 5 million households continue to go hungry, skip meals and cut back on food.

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On May 24, during his general election campaign launch in Scotland, Keir Starmer said the party will not be able to afford to scrap the two-child benefit cap if Labour wins the next general election.

The policy was introduced by the Tories in 2017, and prevents parents from claiming child tax credit or universal credit for third or subsequent children. It is said to be one of the biggest drivers of rising child poverty – up from 3.6 million children below the poverty line in 2010/11 to 4.2 million in 2021/22.

Starmer said that while he was committed to ending child poverty he would not make promises he couldn’t afford. The announcement caused disquiet among senior Labour politicians. Andy Burnham, the Greater Manchester mayor, said he should promise that “when there is the headroom to do something, this clearly should be at the front of the queue.”

https://leftfootforward.org/2024/06/anti-poverty-charity-urges-politicians-to-set-out-plan-to-tackle-ongoing-hardship-for-low-income-households/

Image of Keir Starmer and a poor child.
Zionist Keir ‘Kid Starver’ Starmer. Image thanks to The Skwawkbox.
Continue ReadingAnti-poverty charity urges politicians to set out plan to tackle ongoing hardship for low-income households

How climate experts have rated parties’ green policies ahead of the election

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https://leftfootforward.org/2024/05/how-climate-experts-have-rated-parties-green-policies-ahead-of-the-election/

How do Labour, Conservatives, Greens and Lib Dems compare on their promises for the environment

Groups and campaigners have called on parties to make climate and nature a core issue at the general election as meticulous scrutiny begins on party policies ahead of the general election.

Party manifestos are yet to be published, however environmental experts at Friends of the Earth have scored Labour, the Conservatives, Greens and the Lib Dems on their green commitments so far.

It comes as no surprise that the Conservative Party have come in a dismal last, scoring pretty disastrously on most of the ten policy areas analysed. Campaign group Greenpeace recently slammed the Tory Party for leaving the country, “crumbing, bereft of hope, and its climate record in tatters” after the last 14 years.

Most alarmingly the Tory Party scored the only 0 out of 10 in the category of ‘defending democracy’ based on its recent introduction of draconian legislation clamping down on protest. 

Also unsurprisingly the Green Party came in top, with the Lib Dems second and Labour third. Labour’s commitment to creating Great British Energy has been praised by green campaigners. However Friends of the Earth has said the party must go further, as its score lagged behind the Lib Dems and Greens and “falls well short of what’s needed to deliver on the climate and nature emergencies”.

Friends of the Earth stressed that the ratings are a snapshot of the current moment, and policies published in the coming weeks will better reveal how the party’s commitments shape up in real terms. 

Overall, the environmental group scored the Conservatives 27/100, Labour 51/100, the Lib Dems 68/100 and the Green Party 82/100.

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Article continues at https://leftfootforward.org/2024/05/how-climate-experts-have-rated-parties-green-policies-ahead-of-the-election/

Continue ReadingHow climate experts have rated parties’ green policies ahead of the election

Coming soon …

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I need to write an article about why Keir Starmer’s Labour Party needs to be actively opposed.

Zionist Keir Starmes is quoted "I support Zionism without qualification." He's asked whether that means that he supports Zionism under all circumstances, whatever Zionists do.
Zionist Keir Starmes is quoted “I support Zionism without qualification.” He’s asked whether that means that he supports Zionism under all circumstances, whatever Zionists do.

There are 2 critical, urgent issues – Israel’s Gaza genocide and the climate crisis – and many secondary issues.

Keir “I support Zionism without qualification” Starmer is a passionate Zionist very supportive of Israel’s genocide. I have briefly argued that Israel are contemporary Neo-Fascists, committing crimes created at the end of WW2 to address and prevent Fascist atrocities from ever happening again.

The Muslim Vote campaign can provide direction for others in opposing Starmer & Co. Us non-Muslims can support them with our votes.

Experienced climbers scale a rock face near the historic Dumbarton castle in Glasgow, releasing a banner that reads “Climate on a Cliff Edge.” One activist, dressed as a globe, symbolically looms near the edge, while another plays the bagpipes on the shores below. | Photo courtesy of Extinction Rebellion and Mark Richards
Experienced climbers scale a rock face near the historic Dumbarton castle in Glasgow, releasing a banner that reads “Climate on a Cliff Edge.” One activist, dressed as a globe, symbolically looms near the edge, while another plays the bagpipes on the shores below. | Photo courtesy of Extinction Rebellion and Mark Richards

The climate crisis needs an immediate transition to renewable energy from fossil fuels i.e. no new fossil fuels. Anything less than that is not addressing the issue. Labour has said that there will be no more new oil and gas licences. We need North Sea’s Rosebank to be stopped too.

Just Stop Oil protesting in London 6 December 2022.
Just Stop Oil protesting in London 6 December 2022.

There are still few details of Labour’s proposed Great Bristish Energy’s proposal. We’ve learned that it’s not an energy company and has got a very cheap logo. It’s an investment vehicle instead of an energy company putting public money at risk in promoting bullshit technologies like carbon capture and Hydrogen. It’s clear that Labour are listening to the fossil fuel bullshitters.

Labour are staying with the notion of incessant growth when we need universal human rights and a habitable planet.

There are further issues: privatisation of the NHS, the suggestion of a return to PFI, attacks on welfare benefits, the refusal to tax the filthy rich.

Hopefully soon.

Continue ReadingComing soon …

LUKE AKEHURST: ARCH ISRAEL LOBBYIST PICKED FOR LABOUR SAFE SEAT

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https://www.declassifieduk.org/luke-akehurst-arch-israel-lobbyist-picked-for-labour-safe-seat/

Luke Akehurst (far right) on a trip to Israel last year. (Photo: LFI)

‘One of the best in the inside’: Israel’s point man in Labour set to become an MP after selection stitch-up.

Keir Starmer’s Labour party has parachuted a professional lobbyist for Israel into the safe seat of North Durham for the UK general election. 

Luke Akehurst, the director of We Believe in Israel, has spent over a decade working as a campaigner for that country’s interests and has close ties to the Israeli embassy in London.

An Israeli diplomat was secretly recorded praising Akehurst as “a great campaigner” who was “one of the best in the inside” of the Labour party.

Akehurst, who is not Jewish, was once described by a fellow Israel lobbyist as “outrageously pro-Zionist”.

His selection comes just weeks after the International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor applied for warrants to arrest Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and defence minister Yoav Gallant.

Akehurst, who has deleted over 1,000 tweets in recent days, has repeatedly defended Israel’s assault on Gaza in his social media posts.

He also sits on Labour’s National Executive Committee, which currently has emergency powers to pick candidates. Akehurst apparently lives in Oxfordshire, about 250 miles away from North Durham.

Labour has held the constituency by a large majority since its creation in 1983.

On the same day his candidacy was announced, Faiza Shaheen was suddenly deselected as a Labour candidate for Chingford over liking posts on social media.

One of the posts described how “professional organisations” mobilise pressure on people who are “even mildly critical of Israel”.

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“It was almost my dream job to run a pro-Israel campaigning organisation”, he told one journalist.

Since then, Akehurst has been among the most vociferous supporters of Israel in British public life.

He has fought strongly against the Boycotts, Divestments, and Sanctions (BDS) campaign, and consistently defended Israel’s military onslaughts against Palestinians.

Akehurst has particularly close ties with the Israeli embassy in London.

He has spoken at conferences alongside Israeli officials, and travelled with embassy staff to campaign events across the country.

In 2017, Al Jazeera’s ground-breaking documentary The Lobby showed Israeli embassy official and suspected intelligence officer Shai Masot discussing Akehurst in glowing terms.

“He’s a great campaigner”, Masot said. “He’s one of the best in the inside… in all the party. Seriously, there is not a lot of people like him”.

…

Article continues at https://www.declassifieduk.org/luke-akehurst-arch-israel-lobbyist-picked-for-labour-safe-seat/

Keir Starmes is quoted "I support Zionism without qualification." He's asked whether that means that he supports Zionism under all circumstances whatever Zionists do.
Zionist Keir Starmes is quoted “I support Zionism without qualification.” He’s asked whether that means that he supports Zionism under all circumstances, whatever Zionists do.

Continue ReadingLUKE AKEHURST: ARCH ISRAEL LOBBYIST PICKED FOR LABOUR SAFE SEAT