British Warmongering Is Making Sure Escalation Is The Only Way Forward

Palestinian Children Abused In Israeli Detention.
Palestinian minors arrested by Israeli forces face immense emotional and physical abuse, according to the rights group Save the Children, which has revealed the tragedy minors go through as detainees in a new report.
In the report, the group said some of the former child detainees it spoke to reported violence of a sexual nature, while many others were beaten, handcuffed and blindfolded in small cages in detention centres and upon being moved between centres.
The report says: “The main alleged crime for these detentions is stone-throwing, which can carry a 20-year sentence in prison for Palestinian children.”
It is estimated that between 500 and 1,000 children are held in Israeli military detention each year.
( Aljazeera, 10.07.2023 )  ..  aljazeera.com

The UK Government Is Wasting £Billions Of Taxpayers’ Money On Private Defence Companies That Pay £Billions To Their Shareholders.
The UK government is wasting billions of pounds of taxpayers’ money on “corporate welfare” for arms manufacturers that is siphoned into massive shareholder returns, a new report claims.
The study, by think-tank Common Wealth, suggests that long-term purchase orders and direct subsidies, which sometimes paid for more than 90% of private defence firms’ research and development budgets, were allowing leading defence companies to give billions of pounds to their shareholders.
( Andrew Kersley, 09.07.2023 )  ..  theguardian.com

A Dramatic Rise In Violence Against Palestinian Civilians By Illegal-Israeli Settlers.
There’s been a dramatic rise in violence carried out by extremist illegal-Israeli settlers against Palestinian civilians in the illegally-occupied West Bank, with more than 100 incidents reported a month according to the UN.
It warns that some 400 people have been driven from their land since the start of 2022.
Most of the world sees settlements as illegal under international law, though Israel disagrees.
Already, 2023 has set an all-time record for settlement construction in the West Bank.
( Yolande Knell, 28.08.2023 )  ..  bbc.co.uk

UK Government Fraud Has Almost Quadrupled Under Rishi Sunak From £5.5billion To £21billion.
The Commons’ Public Accounts Committee compares the two years before the 2020 pandemic under Theresa May’s Government with the two years that followed when Rishi Sunak was Chancellor under Boris Johnson.

HM Revenue and Customs, which was the direct responsibility of Sunak, contributed enormously to the rise in fraud after the then Chancellor approved £97billion to be spent on the pandemic furlough scheme, the bounce back loan scheme, and his ‘Eat Out to Help Out’ scheme to combat the downturn in the economy during the Coronavirus crisis.
Fraud and error reached its highest ever known figure at DWP.
This was almost entirely due to the expansion of Universal Credit payments during the pandemic.

The Department for Health and Social Care is also listed as a “department for concern” because of the huge sums wasted on ineffective personal protection during the pandemic and the fact its agency, the UK Health Security Agency,  which ran the hugely expensive test and trace programme, could not provide enough figures to allow the National Audit Office to audit its accounts.
( David Hencke, 06.06.2023 )  ..  bylinetimes.com

British Warmongering Is Making Sure Escalation Is The Only Way Forward.
It’s hard to ignore the extent to which the UK is playing an outsize role in Ukraine.
Last year (2022), shortly after the start of the war, the then-prime minister, Boris Johnson, hurried to Kyiv, presumably on Washington’s instructions, apparently to warn Zelensky off fledgling peace talks with Moscow.
At around the same time, the Biden administration made clear it favoured an escalation in fighting, not an end to it, as an opportunity to “weaken” Russia, a geo-strategic rival along with China.

Since then, the UK has been at the forefront of European efforts to entrench the conflict, helping to lobby for the supply of weapons, training and military intelligence to Ukrainian forces.
British tanks and thousands of tank shells, including, controversially, some made from depleted uranium, are being shipped out.
The UK also added hundreds of long-range attack drones to the inventory.
And an unspecified number of £2million-a-blast Storm Shadow cruise missiles, with a range of nearly 300km, have started arriving.

Ben Wallace, Britain’s defence secretary, said the missiles were already in use, adding that Kyiv alone was deciding on the targets.
Storm Shadow allows the Ukrainian military to strike deep into Russian-annexed parts of Ukraine, and potentially at Russian cities too.
Britain now pays little more than lip service to the West’s claim that its role is only to help Ukraine defend itself from Russian aggression.
The supply of increasingly offensive weapons has turned Ukraine into what amounts to a proxy battleground on which the Cold War can be revived.
( Jonathan Cook, 24.05.2023 )  ..  declassifieduk.org

A Without Competition £1.6Billion Contract For Asylum Seeker Prison Barges.
An Australian travel firm previously slammed for its handling of Covid quarantine hotels has been quietly handed a £1.6billion contract covering the UK’s new asylum seeker “accommodation ships”.
Corporate Travel Management (CTM) was put in charge of the lucrative two-year arrangement in February 2023, weeks before the government revealed it would use a barge as its first offshore accommodation for asylum seekers.
The contract was awarded directly to CTM without competition.
Ministers have repeatedly refused to detail the projected cost of PM Rishi Sunak’s controversial asylum vessels, while insisting they will be cheaper than using hotels.
( Lizzie Dearden, 16.06.2023 )  ..  independent.co.uk

Tories Cost British Taxpayer £3Million In Severance Payouts.
The chaos at the heart of government last year (2022) cost the British taxpayer more than £3million in severance fees, because of the huge turnover of ministers and advisers over the course of three prime ministerships.
The government spent hundreds of thousands of pounds paying off senior ministers, including the former prime ministers Liz Truss and Boris Johnson, and another £2.9million in payouts to their advisers.
( Kiran Stacey and Aubrey Allegretti, 20.07.2023 )  ..  theguardian.com

Half Of Local Bus Routes Have Been Axed Since 2010.
Since the Tories came to power, many small towns no longer have adequate public transport and residents are forced to use cars, if they can.
Pensioners have been left stuck and entire communities are stranded, with people struggling to go shopping or getting to GP and hospital appointments.

Figures show there has been a dramatic fall in the number of services operating across England since the Tories came to power.
Many small towns are now “transport deserts” with inadequate public transport options for residents to be able to travel conveniently without driving.

Official data from the Traffic Commissioners shows there were a total of 17,394 registered bus routes in 2010.
But this has plummeted with just 8,781 now remaining.
Around 2,160 services were lost in just the last year alone.
The West Midlands has been the hardest hit region, with the number of registered routes falling from 2,221 to 702 since 2010, a drop of more than two thirds.
( Lucy Thornton and John Stevens, 07.08.2023 )  ..  mirror.co.uk

Israel Is Holding Over 1,200 Detainees Without Charge Or Trial.
Israel is holding over 1,200 detainees, nearly all of them Palestinians, without charge or trial, the highest number in over three decades, an Israeli human rights group said.
The detainees, 99% of whom are Palestinians, are held under Israel’s policy of “administrative detention,” without trial and under allegations that Israeli authorities keep secret.

The detentions can range from a few months to years, and authorities often extend them for unknown reasons.
This makes it nearly impossible for detainees or their lawyers to mount a proper defence.
Israeli authorities can renew administrative detentions indefinitely.
While detention orders are usually set for periods of three or six months, the administrative detainees in Israel spend a year in detention on average.
( Julia Frankel, 01.08.2023 )  ..  apnews.com