"This is what anti-racism looks like. Equal opportunities are not handed down from on high by Westminster bureaucrats; they have been fought for by ordinary men and women. Even at its peak, the BNP never spoke for anywhere near the majority of working-class white people – in Dagenham, or anywhere else. Daniel Trilling, in
The Guardian on
Ten myths of the UK's far right.
[more inside]
posted by MartinWisse
on Sep 17, 2012 -
26 comments
Atos Healthcare is a French company that's a contractor to the UK department for Work and Pensions, hired to test disabled benefits claimants on whether they're fit to work. If they are, they'll lose their disability benefits and are back on normal unemployment benefits. It is a controversial company, as its standards for declaring people fit to work are very low, as
The Daily Mirror has been showing. By design or through incompetence, quite a few people who are clearly incapable of work are declared fit for work anyway, lose their benefits and
some of them even die because of it, either through suicide or through the stress and healthcare problems caused by losing their benefits. (
previously.)
[more inside]
posted by MartinWisse
on Aug 29, 2012 -
35 comments
"What are you f**king playing at?” Mr Murdoch asked Mr Kelner in a loud voice and in front of dozens of bemused journalists."
This week, 300,000 copies of the UK's
Independent newspaper were distributed for free advertising the paper's claim to editorial independence stating, "Rupert Murdoch won’t decide this election – you will".
According to the Financial Times, Murdoch's son James subsequently stormed
into the Independent's newsroom brandishing a copy of the edition, protesting it besmirched his father’s reputation. "
Lively times," the
Guardian observes.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane
on Apr 22, 2010 -
62 comments
sex for visa racket The Home Office today announced that it is to investigate claims of a sex for visas racket at its main immigration centre in Croydon, south London.
According to the Sun newspaper, a former employee at the centre, Anthony Pamnani, alleged that corrupt officials gave women leave to remain in return for sex. He claimed more attractive female applicants were given preferential treatment.
posted by Stars Kitten
on Jan 3, 2006 -
38 comments
The UK local elections
have taken place, and for the first time ever forced the ruling Labour government into third position, with
their worst showing in history. Is this just a mid-term blip, or the culmination of the huge Iraq backlash that will topple the government? With Bush in trouble too, will any of the warring leaders be left come November? And can the
Big Intervention website topple Blair himself?
posted by wibbler
on Jun 11, 2004 -
13 comments
The Hutton Enquiry on-line. Terms of Reference: "...urgently to conduct an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the death of Dr Kelly."
Hearing transcripts and documentary evidence for your perusal.
posted by Frasermoo
on Aug 18, 2003 -
14 comments
The Push For War (by Anatol Lieven). "The most surprising thing about the Bush Administration's plan to invade Iraq is not that it is destructive of international order; or wicked, when we consider the role the US (and Britain) have played, and continue to play, in the Middle East; or opposed by the great majority of the international community; or seemingly contrary to some of the basic needs of the war against terrorism. It is all of these things, but they are of no great concern to the hardline nationalists in the Administration....The most surprising thing about the push for war is that it is so profoundly reckless....What we see now is the tragedy of a great country, with noble impulses, successful institutions, magnificent historical achievements and immense energies, which has become a menace to itself and to mankind."
Excecutive summary:
Lord Acton foretold all fruit of "military superiority".
posted by fold_and_mutilate
on Oct 4, 2002 -
44 comments
Archer sentenced to 4 years... This may not mean much to those from outside the UK but there will be celebrations in much of England tonight as the 'Teflon Tory' finally takes fall. Sometimes justice
is done, even to politicians with immense arrogance, money and no apparent morals. The scale of the web of deceit is fascinating and the
ending quite poetic.
posted by Mr Ed
on Jul 19, 2001 -
19 comments
A Day at the Races: PM Tony Blair calls for the General Election on June 7. What will the next month of campaigning be like? Well,
Trimble has already threatened to resign his post in N. Ireland.
posted by ahughey
on May 8, 2001 -
6 comments
How to get elected without promising a huge tax-cut. In short, don't have an opposition. Gordon Brown gives the "we're going to win anyway" Budget, promising the kind of fiscal policy Gore claimed to offer the US. The language is even the same: "pay off the debt, reward working families". And since we're more or less guaranteed a Labour government till 2005 (barring the intervention of "events"), it'll a good time for the crudest of comparisons. (more inside...)
posted by holgate
on Mar 7, 2001 -
4 comments
"States' Rights" hit the UK? First abolishing tuition fees, now providing long-term care for the elderly: the Scottish Executive is making life, um, "interesting" for its progenitor in Westminster. The downside of an unwritten constitution?
posted by holgate
on Jan 25, 2001 -
7 comments
