Labour News

 

 

Stories of the week

 

 

Brexit

Reports this week claimed that dozens of millionaires, many of whom supported the referendum, are leaving the UK because of Brexit.  Rats and sinking ships come to mind. Speaking of which, a crowdfunded campaign to launch a prosecution against Boris Johnson for lying about the £350m per week payments to the NHS on the side of the bus? Remember that bus?  It looks like it’s coming back for Boris.

Cross-Party talks appear to be coming to an end with no compromise or agreement in sight. This puts the potential for a second referendum or people’s vote right back on the table which is the option becoming increasingly favoured by the public.

 

 

Politics

Threats and abuse of MPs is reaching record and unacceptable levels in a clear indication of what Brexit has dome to public order and public decency in the UK.

As polls show the Brexit Party going ahead of the Conservatives in the forthcoming European elections, party leader Nigel Farage decided to stick to his Leaver values and left the site of a road traffic accident. Nothing like showing your true leadership credentials by ‘legging it’ from an accident scene before the police arrive.

 

 

Society

In shocking news for the UK, a Dutch court has refused extradition of an accused drug dealer to the UK because of the inhuman conditions in UK prisons. The cuts to funding and privatisation conditions have become intolerable and now UK prisons are considered unsafe and inhumane.

 

 

Environment

Almost every country in the world apart from the US has signed up and agreed to reduce plastic pollution. Scientists are looking at ways to reflect sunlight away from earth to reduce heat. Labour are also considering de-listing major polluting organisations from the FTSE 100 as part of their New Green Deal as toxic air pollution in the UK doubles the threat of lung disease and is currently affecting nearly 3m children.

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Science

This week saw a major and historic breakthrough in the fight against the growing threat of antibiotic resistant superbugs and the lack of any real investment in the next generation of antibiotic drugs. In a world first, a teenage girl in the UK was the first person to have a deadly superbug infection successfully treated with a genetically modified virus treatment. An amazing breakthrough offering hope to humanity.

 

Stories of the week 3 March

 

 

Brexit

It turns out that Brexit really does leave a bad taste in the mouth. Trump and the US are demanding chlorinated chicken and other such delicacies are part of any post Brexit trade deal. It seems that the real Brexit Betrayal is the health of our nation.

Yet more Westminster splits this week as this time Conservative MPs joined the New Independent Group. There were further rumours of strife within. Hard line Brexiters were biding their time in return for a timetable of when Theresa May would quit to crown Boris as king. At the same time, a senior Minister approached the Independent Group with many more defections to come.

The Press couldn’t be more divided over this. Having seen its version of Brexit rejected, it moved, as it stated it would, to an option of a second referendum and came up with an ingenious method of moving the log jam. If Parliament would accept Theresa May’s deal, Labour would abstain as long as it was put to a People’s Vote with an option to Remain.

 

 

Politics

The new Billion pound man Chris Grayling or ‘Failing Grayling’ has been once again charged with more gross incompetence. Eurotunnel took the Government to court over their handling of the ferry contracts, costing the tax payer £33 million. Labour say that Grayling’s sheer incompetence across a long list of disastrous endeavours has cost the country a staggering £2.7 billion.

 

 

Environment

MPs debated recent climate strikes by school children but no-one turned up. In an almost direct response, 2000 sites across the UK were found to have toxic air. Air pollution is known to radically reduce intelligence and also severely affect health outcomes to those exposed long term.

The UK Heatwave continued to astonish climate researchers as the UK recorded the warmest ever winter’s day and almost 200 wild fires set the countryside light.

 

 

Middle East

The Shamima Begum story continued to hit the news this week. With her poof family continuing to suffer, Shamima and her baby were spirited away from the refugee camp with claims there was a price on her head. A nation still failed to do anything.

 

 

NHS

Under continuing Government cuts and underfunding, almost 50 % of GPs are considering quitting or retiring in the next five years. The Government continues to claim the NHS is safe in their hands.

 

 

World

Hostilities between Pakistan and India broke out over Kashmir. Tension mounted as the two nuclear powers faced up to each other. Planes were shot down and a pilot returned in a gesture of peace by Pakistan.

A UN court rejected the UK’s claims of sovereignty over the Chagos Islands outright and ruled its decolonisation unlawful and Britain should remove itself immediately.

Michael Cohen accuses ‘racist, conman’ Trump of criminal conspiracy and maintains he broke the law in the Oval Office.

Stories of the week 24 February

Politics

Brexit pressure blew Westminster wide open this week with both parties suffering major splits and defections.  The new Independent Group formed this week as the clock counts down to leaving. A group of Labour MPs left to seek a new referendum and a group of Conservative MPs left because of the ‘Ukipisation’ of the Party and the continuing Tory threat of No Deal. The Press, unlike the MPs, didn’t know which way to turn. Brexiter Press were running scared of the new group whilst more liberal, remain Press hoped for some kind of breakthrough.  There were recriminations, denials and accusations flying around as the various newspapers tried to come to terms with the fast-forming new political landscape. You can see how all sides of the Press lined up on the issue right here.

Brexit

In other news, it was still a pretty bad week for Brexit. Aviva moved assets worth £9bn out of the UK to Ireland. The US will support Ireland and not the UK over the issue of a hard border.  Tariffs on food will send prices soaring in the event of No Deal and the former World Trade Organisation boss warned that Brexiter No Deal trade plans are nonsense.

In more devastating news, Honda announced it was closing its Swindon plant. Brexiters immediately took their usual position of denial and denied it had got anything to do with Brexit. Remainers pointed to the recently signed free trade agreement, the largest ever made, between Japan and the EU as the final nail in the coffin for the UK car industry. Within seven years Japan will be able to import cars directly into the EU with zero tariffs making their investment in Brexit Britain redundant.

Middle East

The troubling case of Shamima Begum, the UK ISIS bride now with child, hit the headlines this week.  The Press, as you would expect, tried to ramp up the anti-Islam sentiments. The Government was accused of running away from the issue by removing Shamima’s UK citizenship. A move that was seen as dangerous, racist and illegal.

World

In moves harking back to the Cold War, Putin has threatened to target both the US and Europe with nuclear missiles if Trump deploys intermediate range missiles to the EU.

Environment

In continuing harrowing environmental news this week, Australia will let toxic sludge be dumped near the Great Barrier Reef, the biggest threat to health in the UK is air pollution and plummeting biodiversity will severely damage food production.

Science

And in our favourite headline of the week, a 12 year old created a nuclear reaction in his playroom lab.

 

 

Stories of the week 9 September

 

 

Austerity

‘Father battling cancer whose benefits were cut because he was ‘well enough to make a cup of tea’ died aged 56 with just £8 to his name, his family says’. The headline says it all.  There are many kinds of austerity wrapped up in this from universal credit to NHS cuts in finding.  Again, the headline says so much more than we could ever say.

 

 

Brexit

‘Brexit’ became associated with unexpected and exciting situations this week.  None of them were what Theresa May or arch-Brexiters might have wanted or expected.

EU Chief Negotiator, Michael Barnier, rejected May’s Chequers plan and suggested a counter-proposal himself. He was not the only one to reject May’s Brexit plan.  Apart from Labour, DUP leader Arlene Foster, David Davis and other hard-line Brexiters rejected it too.

All this against the backdrop of millions of Leave Voters switching to Remain since the referendum in more compelling evidence for another vote.

To make matters even worse for optimistic Brexiters, China called the UK ‘Washington’s sharksucker’ and accused it of provocation by sending the Royal Navy into the South China Sea.  The UK’s support of the US put any post Brexit trade deal at risk, Chinese state authorities confirmed.

 

 

 

Politics

With continuing calls for a Scottish Independence vote and a second referendum, the Scottish National Party (SNP) have more paying members than the Conservatives for the first time. Labour still have the largest paying membership.

Membership of the Conservative party wasn’t the only thing that wasn’t growing. After the summer heatwave, farmers became increasingly unhappy with Michael Gove and the government’s inaction with any support.

 

 

 

NHS

Just at a time when the NHS faces a severe shortage of nurses, figures show a large percentage of student nurses are dropping out before graduating their courses. This at a time when there are increasing job vacancies and increasing reliance on agency nursing support.

 

 

 

Environment

Two environmental stories this week focussed on the letter ‘H’ – humans and hedgehogs.

Humans. We may become extinct. Since every major rise or fall in temperature in the earth’s history has resulted in mass extinction, climate change could be the time for human beings to be no more according to biologists.

Hedgehogs are disappearing fast.  In fact most of the countryside is devoid of any at all according to scientists.

 

 

 

Technology

If you can’t beat them, join them.  Addicted to smartphones?  Can’t stop swiping. Road signs could be put on the ground so people looking at their phones can see them and reduce the smart phone accident syndrome.