Keir Starmer

Gerry Adams: Starmer Waives the Rules

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By Gerry Adams

Keir Starmer is determined to deny compensation to Gerry Adams and others. (Credit: Getty)

It’s difficult to quote sections of this article, the original article is recommended. https://tribunemag.co.uk/2025/01/gerry-adams-starmer-waives-the-rules

Keir Starmer is looking at ‘every conceivable way’ to block compensation for myself and over 300 people wrongly imprisoned in the 1970s — an arrogance in full keeping with the British establishment’s imperial mindset.

According to British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, his government is looking at ‘every conceivable way’ to prevent me and at least 300 other people from receiving compensation for wrongful arrest and imprisonment in the 1970s.

This issue of compensation arises from the decision by the British Supreme Court in May 2020 that the Interim Custody Order (ICO) or internment order issued against me was unlawful.

Internment was demanded by the Unionist government in 1971 and imposed by the British on 9 August of that year. It had been used in every decade since partition in 1920. Internment saw thousands of armed troops smash their way into nationalist homes to arrest 342 men and boys.

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The Supreme Court quashed my two convictions. But the Department of Justice in the North decided in 2021 that I was ineligible for compensation. I challenged this decision. In April 2023 Justice Colton concluded that it was ‘beyond reasonable doubt that there has been a miscarriage of justice, that is, the applicant is innocent of the crime for which he was convicted.’ He added: ‘I am satisfied that the applicant meets the test for compensation under the Criminal Justice Act 1988.’

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Mr Starmer’s stated intention to subvert the laws he is supposed to uphold will come as no surprise to those in Ireland and in countless other states around the world who have experienced British colonial law. The self-proclaimed leading British counter-insurgency expert Frank Kitson described it well in his 1971 manual, Low-Intensity Operations: Subversion, Insurgency & Peacekeeping:

‘The law should be used as just another weapon in the Government’s arsenal, and in this case it becomes little more than a propaganda cover for the disposal of unwanted members of the public.’

So I will continue to pursue this case. I have no personal interest in compensation for myself. If any comes to me at the end of this process, I will donate it to good causes.

It’s difficult to quote sections of this article, the original article is recommended. https://tribunemag.co.uk/2025/01/gerry-adams-starmer-waives-the-rules

Continue ReadingGerry Adams: Starmer Waives the Rules

Look at Labour’s acts of environmental vandalism and ask: did I vote for this?

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I am only able to quote small sections of this copyrighted article by George Monbiot published in the Guardian. The whole article is here.

A plane comes into land at Heathrow airport, London. Photograph: Avpics/Alamy

Our rivers, our wildlife, the air we breathe: the government is sacrificing all to the insatiable god of GDP – and mocking our objections

I can scarcely believe I’m writing this, but it’s hard to dodge the conclusion. After 14 years of environmental vandalism, it might have seemed impossible for Labour to offer anything but improvement. But on green issues, this government is worse than the Tories.

The last prime minister to insist that growth should override every other consideration, and to fling insults at anyone who disagreed, was Liz Truss. She called those of us seeking to defend the living world an “anti-growth coalition”, “voices of decline” and “enemies of enterprise” who “don’t understand aspiration”.

Now Keir Starmer has picked up her theme and run with it. Those who challenge government policies that might promote GDP growth, however destructive and irrational, such as the planned expansion of Heathrow, Gatwick, Luton and Doncaster Sheffield airports, are “time-wasting nimbys”, “zealots” and “blockers”, engaged in “self-righteous virtue-signalling”.

After all, these are the kind of people who might send “congratulations to the climate campaigners” whose legal challenge stopped plans to build a third Heathrow runway at the court of appeal. Or who insist that Heathrow expansion should be blocked because “there is no more important challenge than the climate emergency”. Oh, hang on, that was Starmer, writing in 2020. You know, the one you voted for, not the new model, channelling the worst Tory prime minister of modern times.

Now his chancellor, Rachel Reeves, insists that growth “trumps other things”, including the government’s environmental commitments. The verb is unfortunate. The government’s new rhetoric is horribly reminiscent of the convicted felon: monomania, slogans and insults take the place of nuanced and complex policy.

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I am only able to quote small sections of this copyrighted article by George Monbiot published in the Guardian. The whole article is here.

Orcas comment on killer apes destroying the planet by continuing to burn fossil fuels.
Orcas comment on killer apes destroying the planet by continuing to burn fossil fuels.
Continue ReadingLook at Labour’s acts of environmental vandalism and ask: did I vote for this?

UK has been ‘active participant in Israel’s genocide in Gaza’, new report claims

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https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20250128-uk-has-been-active-participant-in-israels-genocide-in-gaza-new-report-claims

The UK has been an active participant in Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza for the last 15 months, a new report published by the British Palestinian Committee (BPC) reveals today.

The 22-page document entitled ‘British military collaboration with Israel’ says: “The UK has not simply failed to meet its third-party responsibilities to uphold international law, including its duty to prevent genocide, but has been an active participant in Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza for the last 15 months.”

Cataloguing evidence of the “many layers of collaboration between the UK and Israel in this genocidal project”, the report details the UK’s active involvement in the Israeli arms industry, British provisions of logistical support and weapons transfers to the Israeli military, British protection of Israel’s military infrastructure, direct military intervention from the UK in Yemen to support Israel’s goals and repeated, ongoing intelligence provision from the UK to Israel via surveillance flights.

BPC Director, Dr Sara Husseini, said: “This report shows that UK complicity in Israel’s crimes goes far beyond arms sales.”

Highlighting the International Court of Justice (ICJ)’s ruling that Israel’s actions in Gaza amount to “plausible genocide”, Husseini added: “As the world looked on in horror, Israel continued its genocidal aggression in Gaza for a further 12 months. The UK has provided active military assistance to Israel throughout.”

This, she continued, implicates “its institutions and officials in the gravest breaches of international law.”

READ: Israel transfers military equipment to Syrian demilitarised zone

This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

UK Foreign Minister David Lammy confirms that UK government and military are active participants in Israel’s genocides and that the F-35 parts that they suspended from supplying to Israel are instead simply diverted via the United States. He says see https://youtu.be/QILgUHrdWRE
UK Foreign Minister David Lammy confirms that UK government and military are active participants in Israel’s genocides and that the F-35 parts that they suspended from supplying to Israel are instead simply diverted via the United States. He says see https://youtu.be/QILgUHrdWRE
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 ReadingUK has been ‘active participant in Israel’s genocide in Gaza’, new report claims

Minister mulls ‘unprecedented privacy intrusions’ to tackle benefits fraudsters

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/totally-unprecedented-privacy-intrusions-and-punishments

Campaigners warn DWP proposals could be counterproductive and create a two-tier justice system

PLANS to ban benefit fraudsters from driving and seize money from their bank accounts will create a two-tier justice system that destroys innocent lives, campaigners warned today.

The elderly, disabled and hard-up families would face “totally unprecedented privacy intrusions and punishments” under proposals by the Department for Welfare and Pensions (DWP).

Employment minister Alison McGovern insisted that banning benefit cheats from driving would be a “backstop” used in “extreme” cases ahead of the Public Authorities (Fraud, Error and Recovery) Bill’s introduction to Parliament today.

But director of privacy and civil liberties campaign group Big Brother Watch Silkie Carlo said: “We must be extremely cautious about the government creating a second tier justice system, reserved for people who rely on welfare, that side-steps fair hearings in courts to take away people’s funds and freedoms.

“The public and Parliament will rightly be very sceptical about empowering the government to go directly into anyone’s bank accounts to take our money and even our driving licences, least not to target the elderly, disabled and people on the poverty line whose lives could be destroyed by mistaken punishments.”

Public and Commercial Services (PCS) national president Martin Cavanagh said: “While PCS understands the government’s desire to deal with benefit fraud, it should not be their main priority right now, and these proposals will be counterproductive.

“The reality is that is public funds lost to benefit fraud are a drop in the ocean compared to revenues lost through tax avoidance and evasion. This should be the government’s focus if they are serious about boosting the economy and bringing monies into the Exchequer.

“PCS is at a loss to understand how taking away driving licenses, thereby reducing opportunities to work, can help achieve their stated aims.”

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The original article gets better, see for yourself at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/totally-unprecedented-privacy-intrusions-and-punishments

Continue ReadingMinister mulls ‘unprecedented privacy intrusions’ to tackle benefits fraudsters

Morning Star Editorial: Benefit fraud hysteria demonises the sick – and threatens all our rights

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/editorial-benefit-fraud-hysteria-demonises-sick-and-threatens-all-our-rights

Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall speaking to the media outside the Department for Work and Pensions in Westminster, London, December 17, 2024

LABOUR’S repeated attacks on disabled people are cynical, cruel and, in providing an excuse to legislate for ever-greater state intrusion into private citizens’ lives, a threat to all our freedoms.

Liz Kendall chases headlines with the latest gimmick (banning those found guilty of benefit fraud from driving). More sinister is the resurrection of Tory plans to make banks share information from private accounts and powers for the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to seize funds without a court process.

The state already has ample power both to detect and punish benefit fraud: it can make banks share clients’ financial information if there is suspicion of fraud, while those found guilty can be jailed for up to 10 years (courtesy of Keir Starmer in a previous iteration, as director of public prosecutions egging on the then Conservative-Lib Dem coalition’s war on welfare).

This is not about fighting crime. Nor even about cutting costs: benefit fraud amounts to less than 3 per cent of social security spending, and ministers say the new legislation is aimed at saving £1.5 billion over five years, an almost irrelevant sum given annual spending on social security excluding pensions is over £130bn.

It is about creating a climate of fear.

The approach echoes that toward immigration, where endless scaremongering about “small boats” obscures the rarity of such arrivals compared to immigrants who arrive legally.

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Original article continues at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/editorial-benefit-fraud-hysteria-demonises-sick-and-threatens-all-our-rights

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.
Continue ReadingMorning Star Editorial: Benefit fraud hysteria demonises the sick – and threatens all our rights