We’re close to recession and yet the BBC picks on benefits claimants

by Sue Marsh    
November 3, 2011 at 3:24 pm

So at a time of the worst recession for a generation, the BBC make another programme about benefit cheats?

With Sickness benefit fraud at just 0.5%, the BBC make another programme about benefit cheats?

With Disability benefit fraud at just 0.3% the BBC make another programme about benefit cheats?

With government overpayments actually costing the country more than sickness/disability benefit fraud, the BBC make another programme about benefit cheats?
continue reading… »

It’s time to challenge the power of the Corporation of London

by Guest    
November 3, 2011 at 10:51 am

contribution by ‘Reclaim the City‘

The economic experiment of the last thirty years was catastrophically discredited when the banks bought the world to its knees in 2008. Public anger against the finance industry is huge, but why don’t we see radical change?

There are powerful non-democratic forces working in the opposite direction. Perhaps the most important of these is the power of Corporation of London.
continue reading… »

Day of action against fracking attracts dozens

by Sunny Hundal    
November 3, 2011 at 9:30 am

At 5.30am yesterday morning, nine members of anti-fracking network ‘Frack Off’ halted work at Cuadrilla Resources drilling site in Hesketh Bank.

They ran on to the fracking site and climbed up the 30-meter high drilling rig using climbing equipment. Two of the climbers were later given cups of tea by the workman at the drill as they were sat on top of the drill. [short video of the action]

The actions coincided with the publication of Cuadrilla Resources, pioneers of hydraulic fracturing in the UK’s final report on earthquakes. The report confirmed that their test well did cause the earth-tremors in Blackpool earlier this year.

The morning action was meant to set the stage for a bigger action planned later in the day.

Nearly a hundred activists staged a ‘frack mob’ outside a hotel in London with gas masks, protective suits, and noise makers in the afternoon.

(more pictures here)

They were protesting at the £1,500-a-ticket Shale Gas Environmental Summit, which they argue that the event is a blatant piece of ‘Greenwash.’

Hydraulic Fracturing, or ‘fracking’ is a controversial method of natural gas extraction, in which a mixture of water, sand and chemicals is injected into the ground at high pressure, cracking shale rock and releasing the gas.

It has been the subject of much contention due to numerous reports linking the method to water contamination, health problems and earthquakes. The industry is in its infancy in the UK, and there are plans for up to 800 wells in Lancashire alone.

Frack Off is a national grassroots anti-fracking network who launched their website by unfurling a banner 500 feet up Blackpool tower earlier this year.

A plan to attack Iran? Really?

by Flying Rodent    
November 3, 2011 at 8:45 am

Forced by circumstances to invade and occupy Afghanistan; driven beyond their will to invade and occupy Iraq by the urgent threat of imminent destruction; compelled by humanitarian necessity to destroy large tracts of Libya; pressured into hammering holy hell out of Pakistan, Lebanon, Somalia, Yemen…

…it’s time to make plans for a massive assault on Iran just in case, you know, they back us into a corner. If, like, we’re forced to do it, with sorrow in our hearts and a tear in our collective eye.
continue reading… »

Petition on Babar Ahmad also reaches 100k

by Sunny Hundal    
November 3, 2011 at 8:30 am

An e-petition calling for British citizen Babar Ahmed to be put on trial here has become the latest to gather a hundred-thousand signatures.

The petition reached its milestone just days before the closing date after a strong push by Muslim organisations across the UK and activists such as Mark Thomas.

Aimed at the Home Office, the petition states:

Babar Ahmad is a British Citizen who has been detained in the UK for 7 years without trial fighting extradition to the USA under the controversial no-evidence-required Extradition Act 2003. In June 2011, the Houses of Parliament, Joint Committee on Human Rights urged the UK government to change the law so that Babar Ahmad’s perpetual threat of extradition is ended without further delay.

Since all of the allegations against Babar Ahmad are said to have taken place in the UK, we call upon the British Government to put him on trial in the UK and support British Justice for British Citizens.

Last week the Muslim Council of Britain supported a call by UK mosques to get their congregations to sign the petition.

Supporters of the petition say that whatever his alleged crimes – Ahmad should be put on trial in the UK than extradited to the USA.

Shadow justice minister Sadiq Khan supported the call, saying: “As Babar’s Member of Parliament, I have worked with his family and legal team for a number of years arguing that any trial should be held in the UK.”

He added: “This petition is a good way to raise public awareness of Babar’s case.”

British Muslim organisations now hope to pressure the government to raise the issue in Parliament.

Osborne plans huge cut to benefits again

by Sunny Hundal    
November 3, 2011 at 12:48 am

George Osborne is planning another massive cut in benefits tonight, it was revealed.

Soon after the Chancellor took power, he changed the inflation rate to which benefits were linked to: from RPI to CPI.

Retail Price Inflation is a higher and more accurate rate and currently stands at 5.6%. Consumer Price Inflation stands at 5.2%.

This means that when the rate of benefits is changed every year in April to reflect inflation, the rise will be lower than in the past – further eroding benefits.

But now Osborne is planning to go further by scrapping inflation-linked rises entirely.

The Financial Times reports tonight that:

The FT has learnt that Mr Osborne has asked officials to provide models for a range of alternatives models, including raising benefits in line with average earnings growth of about 2.5 per cent or even freezing some payments altogether.

Iain Duncan Smith, work and pensions secretary, is said to be highly concerned about some of the proposals, especially if it appeared that the government were picking an arbitrary new model or unfairly hitting poor households.
…
“There are no firm proposals on the tables yet, but the issue has become very live,” one government official said. “Iain is not at war with George, but he is worried. It’s highly unlikely we will have a 5.2 per cent across-the-board increase.”

As the paper says, the change will further hit struggling families the hardest.

Worth noting – this proposal was first floated a few weeks ago when the higher inflation figures came in. Osborne is entirely serious about this.

Silvio Berlusconi has become the Hosni Mubarak of Europe

by Guest    
November 2, 2011 at 5:51 pm

contribution by David Malone

Berlusconi has become Europe’s Mubarak. There always comes a time when the ‘Strong Man’ becomes an embarrassment for those who have supported his grip on power and whose interests he has protected. It happened with Mubarak. He gradually became a crisis waiting to happen.

The problem is always that as his grip on power becomes more publicly detested and evidently corrupt and dysfunctional, it also happens in parallel that only he can keep a lid on the powers that oppose him.
continue reading… »

Rowan Williams: It’s time to challenge banks

by Newswire    
November 2, 2011 at 5:40 pm

The Archbishop of Canterybury Rowan Williams has written a hard-hitting article in the Financial Times today, arguing it’s ‘Time for us to challenge the idols of high finance‘

Referring to the #occupy protests, he writes:

The protest at St Paul’s was seen by an unexpectedly large number of people as the expression of a widespread and deep exasperation with the financial establishment that shows no sign of diminishing. There is still a powerful sense around – fair or not – of a whole society paying for the errors and irresponsibility of bankers; of impatience with a return to ‘business as usual’ – represented by still-soaring bonuses and little visible change in banking practices.
…
But before we indulge in yet more satisfying indignation, we should keep two things in mind. First, the Church of England is a place where the unspoken anxieties of society can often find a voice, for good and ill. If the Church cannot find ways through, that is not an index of its incompetence so much as of the sensitivity of such matters. Second, we are at risk of forgetting the substantive questions that prompted the protest.

The Archbishop then makes three recommendations:

1) ‘Routine banking business should be clearly separated from speculative transactions.’

2) If banks are to be recapitalised with public money, they should be ‘obliged in return to help reinvigorate the real economy’.

3) Joins backing by the Vatican of a Financial Transaction Tax (aka ‘Tobin Tax’ or ‘Robin Hood Tax’)

He ends by saying: “If religious leaders and commentators in the UK and elsewhere could agree on these three proposals, as a common ground on which to start serious discussion, questionings alike of protesters and clergy will not have been wasted.”

Two weeks to speak up for human rights in the UK

by Robert Sharp    
November 2, 2011 at 2:30 pm

I attended an event run by the British Institute of Human Rights today, encouraging the charity and voluntary sector to submit to the UK’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) at the United Nations. Every country in the UN has its human rights record examined every four years, and the UK will be reviewed again in 2012.

The key message from the seminar was that the UPR process relies on the evidence submitted by NUGOs. However, during the last review in 2008 only 19 civil society organisations sent submissions to the Office for the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). This seems incredibly low to me.
continue reading… »

Why both the Labour left and #occupy are running out of time

by Emma Burnell    
November 2, 2011 at 11:05 am

There are some issues on which I can genuinely see both sides of the argument. #Occupy is one of them.

The political [Labour] left have – in several places – criticised the Occupy movement for the lack of clarity in their aims. For me, this misses the main point the movement is trying to make.

The civic [non-aligned] left are quite right to highlight the complete political failure that led not only to the credit crunch and the global financial crisis, but to the political paralysis in its wake.
continue reading… »

RECENT OPINION ARTICLES

Diane Abbott resigns from abortion panel 19 Comments Watch: Chicken chases Boris Johnson 33 Comments Does Priti Patel MP care for human rights? 59 Comments Watch: funny spoof explains benefits cuts 18 Comments UKuncut to join disabled to oppose Welfare bill 15 Comments Lawson’s GWPF faces questions over funding 25 Comments Shock poll shows public indifferent to Labour’s new cuts line 38 Comments Watch: NHS report “vindicates Labour” 7 Comments Daily Mail writer: Hurrah for French fascists! 64 Comments Save our pensions! Unite slams Unilever in video 11 Comments

LATEST COMMENTS » Sunny Hundal posted on Revealed: govt to restrict abortion counselling despite Nadine Dorries vote » Sally posted on Even by economic standards Hester's £1m bonus is unworthy » Flowerpower posted on Diane Abbott resigns from abortion panel » Tom (iow) posted on The benefits of being a "burden" on society » Anne posted on Revealed: govt to restrict abortion counselling despite Nadine Dorries vote » Ian M Davies posted on Week of action against Atos begins Monday » Robert2012 posted on The benefits of being a "burden" on society » G.O. posted on Would raising the tax threshold actually help the poorest? » Dave posted on Revealed: govt to restrict abortion counselling despite Nadine Dorries vote » Schmidt posted on Even by economic standards Hester's £1m bonus is unworthy » Link: “govt to restrict abortion counselling despite Nadine Dorries vote” | Help Me Investigate Health posted on Revealed: govt to restrict abortion counselling despite Nadine Dorries vote » Planeshift posted on Would raising the tax threshold actually help the poorest? » Makhno posted on The benefits of being a "burden" on society » Trooper Thompson posted on Would raising the tax threshold actually help the poorest? » ukliberty posted on Does Priti Patel MP care for human rights?