new authoritarianism

‘If government cared about security, it would end child poverty and pursue peace’

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/if-government-cared-about-security-it-would-end-child-poverty-and-pursue-peace

 Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer speaks during a visit to BAE Systems in Govan, Glasgow, to launch the Strategic Defence Review, June 2, 2025

Anti-war campaigners warn Britain is on course to become more militaristic as Starmer unveils massive programme of new arms spending

BRITAIN is on course to become a militaristic society with a war economy as Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer unveiled his government’s strategic defence review today.

Sir Keir pledged that Britain is becoming a “battle-ready, armour-clad nation with the strongest alliances and the most advanced capabilities, equipped for the decades to come.”

And he unveiled a massive programme of new arms spending, setting the military budget to soar to 3 per cent of GDP over the next 10 years.

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Arms monopolies shares soared on the news of the spending boost, which will come at the expense of welfare and overseas aid, with tax rises also possible.

Equally chilling was Sir Keir’s claim that society must be put on a war footing. “Every part of society, every citizen of this country has a role to play,” he said.

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Sir Keir stressed that Britain was prepared for conflict. “We are moving to war-fighting readiness as the central purpose of our armed forces,” he said, with Nato the central commitment.

His plans were rejected by veteran left Labour MP Diane Abbott, who said: “It is not true that more military spending will boost the economy.

“It is a terrible waste when public services and our basic infrastructure need funds. It is a scandal when welfare is being cut.”

And former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn argued: “If the government cared about people’s security, it would reverse cruel cuts, end child poverty and pursue an agenda for peace. Let’s fund welfare, not warfare.”

…

https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/if-government-cared-about-security-it-would-end-child-poverty-and-pursue-peace

UK Labour Party government ministers Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves explain that they are partners complicit in Israel's Gaza genocide. The UK has provided Israel with arms, military and air force support. They explain that they don't do gas chambers but do do forced marches, starvation, destroy hospitals, mass-murders of journalists and healthcare workers.
UK Labour Party government ministers Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves explain that they are partners complicit in Israel’s Gaza genocide. The UK has provided Israel with arms, military and air force support. They explain that they don’t do gas chambers but do do forced marches, starvation, destroy hospitals, mass-murders of journalists and healthcare workers.
Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.
Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.
Continue Reading‘If government cared about security, it would end child poverty and pursue peace’

Pathways to poverty: dissecting Labour’s cuts to disability benefits

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/pathways-poverty-dissecting-labours-cuts-disability-benefits

A devastating new 44-page report reveals Labour’s cuts will push 400,000 into poverty and cost disabled people up to £10,000 annually, while the government refuses to make savings by cutting spending on war instead, writes Dr DYLAN MURPHY

THE Citizens’ Advice Bureau (CAB) has just issued a hard-hitting report entitled Pathways To Poverty, which condemns the government’s Pathways To Work green paper. This well-researched 44-page report totally undermines the many flimsy arguments put forward by the “red Tories” to justify their killer cuts.

The report goes through the effects of restricting Personal Independence Payment (PIP) eligibility, cutting the universal credit (UC) health element and making PIP daily living the gateway to UC health. As the CAB points out, over 1.6 million people, which is nearly half of those currently receiving the daily living element of PIP, stand to lose out with an average loss of £4,500 a year.

Its opening paragraph blasts Keir Starmer and company for their sham consultation over the £7 billion worth of proposed cuts: “By refusing to properly consult on its plan to cut billions from disability benefits, the government is choosing not to ask questions it doesn’t want the answers to.

“The cuts will have a devastating impact on disabled people (and their children), sending hundreds of thousands into poverty, and many more into deeper poverty. This will result from a series of arbitrary reforms that have been designed around savings targets rather than improving outcomes, inflicting hardship on people in ways that the government doesn’t yet fully understand.”

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As the CAB report notes: “A DWP survey of disability and incapacity benefit claimants found that 41 per cent of respondents were on a waiting list for treatment for their health problems, and 50 per cent who were currently out of work felt their ability to work was dependent on receiving treatment.”

Finally, the CAB report makes the point that cutting billions from disability benefits is a false economy as it will merely make many disabled people even more ill, dramatically increasing the demands on the NHS, social services, education and voluntary sector. Besides this, there will be a growing number of disabled people made homeless by these cuts, never mind the increase in the suicide rate which will inevitably follow.

The CAB report concludes with a call on Labour to abandon its cuts, which are a devastating attack on some of the most vulnerable people in our society: “The government must reconsider its current approach. We are calling on the government to cancel proposed cuts to disability benefits.

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/pathways-poverty-dissecting-labours-cuts-disability-benefits

Keir Starmer confirms that he's proud to be a red Tory continuing austerity and targeting poor and disabled scum.
Keir Starmer confirms that he’s proud to be a red Tory continuing austerity and targeting poor and disabled scum.
Keir Starmer explains that he feels no shame or guilt benefitting personally from gifts from the rich and powerful while insisting on policies of severe austerity causing suffering and death.
Keir Starmer explains that he feels no shame or guilt benefitting personally from gifts from the rich and powerful while insisting on policies of severe austerity causing suffering and death.

Continue ReadingPathways to poverty: dissecting Labour’s cuts to disability benefits

Charities warn welfare cuts will push more people into homelessness

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/charities-warn-welfare-cuts-will-push-more-people-homelessness

 A homeless man in a tent in the centre of Liverpool, April 1, 2025

INFLICTING welfare cuts will push more people into homelessness, charities warned today.

Disability groups also accused the government, which aims to cut £5 billion a year from welfare spending by 2030, of “playing with fire by risking the lives of disabled people to meet arbitrary fiscal goals.”

Central to Labour’s welfare cuts is the tightening of eligibility criteria for personal independence payments (PIP) — a key disability benefit for working-age adults both in and out of work.

Those under 22 with long-term illnesses or disabilities will also no longer be able to claim the health top-up to universal credit under the plans.

Westminster’s own analysis shows the cuts risk pushing 250,000 people into poverty, including 50,000 children. 

A letter co-ordinated by St Mungo’s, co-signed by 13 other homelessness organisations, is urging Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall to rethink the changes.

Cuts designed to get people back into work will actually “push people further away from the labour market, increase homelessness and put excessive pressure on statutory services,” the charities warn.

…

Article continues at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/charities-warn-welfare-cuts-will-push-more-people-homelessness

Keir Starmer says that the Labour Party under his leadership all feel a small part of Scunthorpe.
Keir Starmer says that the Labour Party under his leadership all feel a small part of Scunthorpe.
Continue ReadingCharities warn welfare cuts will push more people into homelessness

John McDonnell calls for grassroots leadership challenge to Starmer government

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The original article at the Guardian is recommended. I can’t help missing important parts by only quoting excerpts.

John McDonnell in central London protesting against redundancies and education cuts. McDonnell was among seven Labour MPs suspended last July for defying the whip on a Commons vote to end the two-child benefit cap. Photograph: Krisztián Elek/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock

John McDonnell: Starmer and co are trashing Labour’s legacy. We must take back control of our party – before it’s too late

The suspended Labour veteran John McDonnell has called for a grassroots leadership challenge to the Labour government, warning that unless party members, unions and MPs “stand up and assert themselves to take back control of our party”, Labour risks losing not just its power: “We could lose a party.”

The former shadow chancellor accused Keir Starmer’s government of “callousness and political incompetence”, criticising its hesitance in abolishing the two-child limit on benefits, and what he calls a “brutal launch of an attack on benefits of disabled people”.

Writing for the Guardian five decades after joining Labour as a young trade unionist, McDonnell said the movement he had devoted his life to had “instigated a series of policies that fly like a knife to the heart of what we believed the Labour party above all else stood for when we joined the party”.

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“Unless the party members, our affiliated unions and members of the parliamentary Labour party stand up and assert themselves to take back control of our party, in the next period, in the Labour party’s history we may not just lose a government, we could lose a party”, he said.

The original article at the Guardian is recommended. I can’t help missing important parts by only quoting excerpts.

Keir Starmer says that the Labour Party under his leadership all feel a small part of Scunthorpe.
Keir Starmer says that the Labour Party under his leadership all feel a small part of Scunthorpe.
UK Labour Party government ministers Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves explain that they are partners complicit in Israel's Gaza genocide. The UK has provided Israel with arms, military and air force support. They explain that they don't do gas chambers but do do forced marches, starvation, destroy hospitals, mass-murders of journalists and healthcare workers.
UK Labour Party government ministers Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves explain that they are partners complicit in Israel’s Gaza genocide. The UK has provided Israel with arms, military and air force support. They explain that they don’t do gas chambers but do do forced marches, starvation, destroy hospitals, mass-murders of journalists and healthcare workers.
Experiencing issues with this image not appearing. I suspect because it's so critical of Zionist Keir Starmer's support of and complicity in Israel's genocides.
Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpA
Continue ReadingJohn McDonnell calls for grassroots leadership challenge to Starmer government

UK government withholding details of Palantir contract

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https://democracyforsale.substack.com/p/uk-government-withholding-details

KPMG is being paid £8 million to promote Peter Thiel’s tech in NHS hospitals – but we’re being forced to fight for information about this public contract.

It’s been a good week for Palantir. The controversial spy-tech company, co-founded by Trump donor Peter Thiel, looks set to secure even more UK government work after the defence secretary pledged to expand the role of AI in the military.

Palantir already holds a £330 million NHS data contract. But as Democracy for Sale revealed last week, most hospitals in England are not using the software, with many complaining that it simply isn’t up to scratch.

To encourage hospitals to take it up, the government signed an £8 million deal with consultancy giant KPMG to “promote the adoption” of Palantir’s tech in the NHS.

We wanted to know more about how this money is being spent. How exactly has KPMG been promoting Palantir’s software to hospitals? And has it worked?

So, we submitted a Freedom of Information (FOI) request to the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), asking for reports produced by KPMG under its contract, as well as briefings prepared for Health Secretary Wes Streeting, who publicly supported the deal.

The government’s response? Silence. They’re refusing to release the information—so now we’re fighting for transparency.

Sue Hawley, executive director of Spotlight on Corruption, told us the government’s “impulse to secrecy around public money and public contracts” is “deeply concerning.”

“KPMG’s contract raises a real question: if [Palantir’s] software is so good, why does the government need to give £8 million of taxpayers’ money to a management consultancy to encourage NHS hospitals to use it?,” she added.

…

Article continues at https://democracyforsale.substack.com/p/uk-government-withholding-details

Continue ReadingUK government withholding details of Palantir contract