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Westminster ‘increasingly antagonistic’ towards human rights, inquiry finds

https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/b/westminster-increasingly-antagonistic-towards-human-rights-inquiry-finds

THE Westminster government has adopted an “increasingly antagonistic” approach towards human rights, a European inquiry has found.

Moves by ministers to replace the Human Rights Act with a new Bill of Rights was singled out as a particular cause for alarm by the Council of Europe’s commissioner for human rights, Dunja Mijatovic, who warned such a move would weaken human rights in Britain.

Ms Mijatovic also raised concerns about the government’s series of anti-protest Bills, treatment of asylum-seekers, police strip-searching of children and the emergence of a “harsh political and public discourse” against trans people.

The 47-page report follows a four-day visit to Britain by Ms Mijatovic and her team, and comes ahead of international human rights day on Saturday.

Releasing the report yesterday, the commissioner said: “Both the overall system for protecting human rights, and the rights of specific groups, are currently under pressure in the United Kingdom (UK). The authorities should spare no effort to reverse this trend.”

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Guardian: Watchdog criticises UK ministers’ ‘antagonism’ towards human rights

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The UK government has “an increasingly antagonistic attitude” towards human rights that is weakening instead of strengthening protections for the public, a European inquiry has found.

Inflammatory language used by MPs and officials to describe lawyers could put their safety at risk, according to the Council of Europe’s commissioner for human rights, Dunja Mijatović.

She said the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts (PCSC) Act would have a chilling effect on the right to peaceful assembly, which would be worsened if the public order bill is adopted.

Plans to repeal the Human Rights Act and replace it with a bill of rights would weaken the rights of individuals in the UK, Mijatović said.

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Continue ReadingWestminster ‘increasingly antagonistic’ towards human rights, inquiry finds

NHS faces ‘crisis of the government’s making’

https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/b/nhs-faces-crisis-of-the-governments-making

The lying EU bus promoting money for the NHS when all the anti-EU shites are anti-NHS Neo-Liberal shites.
The lying anti-EU bus promoting money for the NHS when all the anti-EU shites are anti-NHS Neo-Liberal shites.

Austerity-hit services are ‘bursting at the seams’ as waiting lists balloon to record high of over seven million

THE NHS is facing a “crisis of the government’s making,” the labour movement stressed yesterday after official figures showed treatment waiting lists have ballooned to a record high of more than seven million people.

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Unison slammed the numbers, saying they “paint a bleak picture of the state of the NHS.

“There are too few staff to provide safe patient care, and as more leave for better paid work, so waiting times and delays worsen,” head of health Sara Gorton stressed.

“The government must get a grip and start talking to unions about pay.”

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Continue ReadingNHS faces ‘crisis of the government’s making’

The solution is resistance

Now is the time to be joining demonstrations, occupations and the picket lines writes JOHN MCDONNELL MP

(Socialist) Labour MP John McDonnell Image: John McDonnell, Shadow Chancellor 21-25 September 2019
Brighton by Socialist Appeal at Wikimedia  Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license

https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/f/blackrock-power-behind-throne

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We need to be out there in the streets, taking every opportunity we can to hold this government to account and linking up all the forms of resistance taking place.

As well as the large numbers of people taking industrial action to try and secure decent wages, there are renters campaigning against eviction, people with disabilities campaigning to ensure their benefits are not cut, climate justice campaigners and a whole range of social movements saying no to the Tories’ agenda.

So, what way forward for our movement? The solution is deepening this resistance at all levels, and that means joining demonstrations, occupations and the picket lines — and it also means discussing the alternatives we need around a socialist policy programme.

This programme must be based on redistributive taxation that will fund our public services and address the poverty and inequality that scar our society. And it must include securing stable, long-term investment in our infrastructure and in our people — including through extending public ownership — so we can mobilise our whole economy to tackle the challenges ahead and the rising challenge of climate change.

Follow John on Twitter @johnmcdonnellmp.

Continue ReadingThe solution is resistance

Just Stop Oil activists disrupt traffic calling for U-turn on coal decision

Just Stop Oil disrupt traffic. Image: Just Stop Oil

Just Stop Oil supporters have disrupted traffic on key routes in Central London today to demand that the government halts all new oil and gas licences and consents and reverses yesterday’s decision on a new coal mine.

15 Just Stop Oil supporters wearing hi-vis vests walked onto Whitechapel Road, East London at 8.15am and proceeded to march slowly east and then west causing delays to traffic.  The march continued onto Commercial Road.

Sophie Holland, 51, a mum of three and NHS speech therapist  from Bristol said:

“My concern for the future of everything has reached the point it seems reasonable, responsible even, to be in the streets demanding change. Why is our government not listening to Sir David King, Sir David Attenborough, the many 1000’s of scientists and the UN Secretary General who can’t make it any clearer: either we change, or we perish. Still the government plans for more oil, gas and now coal. They are killing us, our natural world,  our children’s futures.   

“I work with people with severe asthma and long Covid, who struggle to breathe. Air pollution will get worse, as will fires, floods, hunger. It is beyond contention. A liveable future is possible, but only if we stop new oil and gas. I’m terrified. I want my children to die of old age. What I can’t understand is why isn’t everyone on the streets, shouting for change?

Teresa Garlake, 59, a former teacher and mother of 2 young adults from Oxford said:

“As a teacher I worked to help children believe in themselves and their power to be good citizens. What future do they have now? Our government knows full well that allowing the extraction of new oil and gas resources in the UK will destroy everything we hold dear. Yet it continues to subsidise the fossil fuel industries with billions of pounds every year. 

“I don’t want to be here causing disruption, but the fact is that the real disruption is being caused by a government that continues to support a fossil fuel industry that is bringing about an unliveable future. Morally, who are the criminals?    We are here to do all we can to bring about a future for all children. We can’t have that unless we stop all new oil and gas” 

The action follows yesterday’s announcement by the government that it has given the greenlight to the UK’s first new coalmine in 30 years at Whitehaven in Cumbria.

A Just Stop Oil spokesperson said “The government has just ripped up any pretense of global climate leadership and signed the death warrant for millions of people and for what? Coal that no British company wants or needs, whose credentials rest on dangerous lies about jobs and carbon capture and storage. 

“Their toxic plans will lead to social collapse and the destruction of everything we hold dear. This cannot stand. We need everyone out on the streets now to take back what is rightfully ours: the chance of a livable future.” 

Continue ReadingJust Stop Oil activists disrupt traffic calling for U-turn on coal decision