Police officers ahead of a demonstration outside the former Bell Hotel in Epping, July 27, 2025
ASYLUM-SEEKERS are to be removed from a hotel in Essex after the High Court today granted a “terrible concession” to racist protests organised by the far right.
Epping Forest District Council was granted a temporary injunction blocking migrants from being housed at the Bell Hotel in Epping after arguing that owner Somani Hotels Limited was in breach of planning rules.
The court heard that the site has been the centre of a series of protests in recent weeks after an asylum-seeker who was staying there was charged with sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl.
Mr Justice Eyre said that while the council had not “definitively established” that Somani Hotels had breached planning rules, “the strength of the claimant’s case is such that it weighs in favour” of granting the injunction.
His judgment added that the “risk of injustice is greater” if a temporary injunction was not granted.
Stand Up to Racism co-convener Sabby Dhalu said: “This is a terrible concession to racist protests organised by fascists. It will embolden the far right and encourage yet more protests to close down more hotels housing refugees.
“People have the right to seek asylum. Britain takes a minority of the world’s refugees and those that come here must be able to live in peace and not be threatened with racist violence.”
Nigel Farage explains the politics of Reform UK: Racism, Fake anti-establishmentism, Deregulation, Corporatism, Climate Change Denial, Mysogyny and Transphobia.Keir Starmer chases Nigel Farage’s racist bigot vote.UK Conservative Party leader Kemi ‘not a genocide’ Badenoch explains her reality that the Earth is flat, the Moon is made of cheese and that she was born from
Unicorn horn dust
The UK Labour Party is obsessively focusing on a tiny fraction of small boats carrying migrants arriving from France, which stands in stark contrast to its sluggish responses to other far more urgent crises. (Dan Kitwood / Getty Images)
Though small-boat crossings account for a tiny and shrinking share of UK immigration, the Labour Party has made them a central issue, all the while ignoring deeper crises like the slow erosion of the country’s National Health Service.
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[B]ehind these political sound bites lies a profound human tragedy. These are desperate people fleeing war, persecution, and unimaginable hardship, seeking safety and dignity. Policies aimed solely at deterrence, and the toxic media narratives that sustain them, reduce human lives to nothing more than political bargaining chips. This relentless framing not only dehumanizes asylum seekers but also turns their suffering into political ammunition, eroding public sympathy.
Perhaps most disappointing of all is Labour’s obsessive focus on small boats, which stands in stark contrast to its sluggish, half-hearted responses to other far more urgent crises. The country’s National Health System’s waiting lists have hit record highs while Starmer has prioritized his anti-migrant campaign; over seven million people, 10 percent of the country’s total population, are stuck in long waits for vital treatment. Homelessness has surged by 20 percent in the past year alone, leaving thousands without shelter or hope. In this context, the government’s fixation on a relatively small migration issue is not just misguided — it’s a deliberate distraction from the nation’s real challenges.
Labour must break free from this cycle of fear-mongering. It’s time to lead with courage, compassion, and above all, truth. Only by rejecting division and embracing evidence-based, humane policies can the UK protect vulnerable lives and restore integrity to its immigration debate.
Protesters march with an anti-fossil fuel banner during the demonstration in London on January 15, 2023. (Photo: Vuk Valcic/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
“The only sensible thing to do is to pivot the North Sea to something we have an abundance of, and something that will never run out—wind,” argued one climate advocate.
As the United Kingdom on Monday faced the onset of its fourth heatwave of this summer, climate campaigners continued to call out BP for its decision to plow ahead with reopening the Murlach oil field in the North Sea, despite fossil fuels pushing up global temperatures and the U.K. government’s efforts to limit extraction in the region.
“This is climate vandalism, pure and simple,” Kate Blagojevic, Europe team lead at the group 350.org, said in a Monday statement. “BP is putting its profit margins above the survival of communities, ecosystems, and future generations. Every barrel of oil from this project pushes us closer to climate breakdown, more floods, more fires, more heatwaves.”
“The era of fossil fuels is over, and BP’s desperate attempts to wring out the last drops of oil from the North Sea are a reckless betrayal of the public and the planet. They should be winding down, not doubling down,” she declared.
Greenpeace U.K. policy director Doug Parr was similarly critical, saying in a statement that “the North Sea is on death’s door. Reserves are drying up, and what’s left and untapped is barely enough to keep it on life support.”
The Telegraph on Sunday noted recent research from the government’s North Sea Transition Authority that found there were over 3 billion barrels of oil and gas in fields already in production, 6 billion barrels in known potential developments, and 3.5 billion barrels in identified exploration zones.
According to the newspaper, BP said the Murlach field contains 20 million barrels of recoverable oil and 600 million cubic meters of gas, and is “expected to produce around 20,000 barrels of oil and 17 million cubic feet of gas per day,” due to new technologies that weren’t around when it was shut down over two decades ago.
Parr said that “3 billion barrels wouldn’t last more than a few years at current rates of consumption, and even that assumes it is economic to extract. Whatever the political rhetoric, the oil and gas is pretty much gone, and soon, so too will the jobs of thousands of workers.”
“Unless we want to remain dependent on overseas imports and watch an entire industry collapse with no plan for workers,” he added, “the only sensible thing to do is to pivot the North Sea to something we have an abundance of, and something that will never run out—wind.”
Although the U.K’s current Labour Party leaders have pledged to avoid new licensing for fossil fuel projects in the North Sea, “BP won agreement to reopen Murlach, 120 miles east of Aberdeen, under the previous government and has since been installing equipment, with production potentially restarting next month,” The Telegraph explained.
A spokesperson for Ed Miliband, U.K. secretary of state for energy security and net zero, said Sunday that “we are committed to delivering the manifesto commitment to not issue new licences to explore new fields because they will not take a penny off bills, cannot make us energy secure, and will only accelerate the worsening climate crisis.”
“We are delivering a fair and orderly transition in the North Sea, with the biggest ever investment in offshore wind and two first-of-a-kind carbon capture and storage clusters,” the spokesperson added.
Miliband in June announced new guidance for environmental impact assessments of proposed oil and gas projects in licensed fields, which came in response to last year’s landmark U.K. Supreme Court ruling. After that decision, Judge Andrew Stewart of Scotland’s Court of Session ruled in January that Equinor and Shell, which are respectively behind the Rosebank oil and gas field and the Jackdaw gas project, can’t move ahead with extraction.
The June guidance means offshore developers can now submit applications for extractions in fields that are already licensed, including Rosebank and Jackdaw. In response to that development earlier this year, Mel Evans, Greenpeace U.K.’s head of climate, said that “it’s only right for the government to take into account the emissions from burning oil and gas when deciding whether to approve fossil fuel projects currently pending.”
“Since Rosebank and other drilling sites will pump out a lot of carbon while providing little benefit to the economy and no help to bill payers, they should fail the criteria ministers have just set out,” Evans added. “Real energy security and future-proofed jobs for energy workers can only come through homegrown, cheap renewable energy, and that’s what ministers should focus on.”
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 RichardsDonald Trump urges you to be a Climate Science denier like him. He says that he makes millions and millions for destroying the planet, Burn, Baby, Burn and Flood, Baby, Flood.Nigel Farage urges you to ignore facts and reality and be a climate science denier like him. He says that Reform UK has received millions and millions from the fossil fuel industry to promote climate denial and destroy the planet.
The videos I prefer are definitely under 20 minutes duration, under 10 is better still. If you’ve made a longer one, make a condensed shorter version too?
Nigel Farage urges you to ignore facts and reality and be a climate science denier like him. He says that Reform UK has received millions and millions from the fossil fuel industry to promote climate denial and destroy the planet.Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities,mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.Keir Starmer says that the Labour Party under his leadership all feel a small part of Scunthorpe.
Police officers ahead of a demonstration outside the former Bell Hotel in Epping, July 27, 2025
