The Issues That Affect The Lives Of The Vast Majority Living In The Real World Are Ignored

The Tory Promise Of The Northern Powerhouse Project Has Been Halted.

Five years after the government launched its northern powerhouse concept, 200,000 more children in the north of England are in poverty, foreign investment has plummeted and the number of late or cancelled trains in the region has more than doubled, new analysis shows.
Research by the think-tank IPPR North also found there had been a £3.6billion cut in public spending in the north since 2010, compared to a £4billion rise in the south.
In interviews to mark five years since George Osborne, then chancellor, unveiled his plan to rebalance the UK’s economy, the north’s political leaders said the project had “halted” with little sign of it being revived.
( Josh Halliday and Helen Pidd, 21.06.2019 )  ..  theguardian.com

The Hidden Global Network Supporting Tommy Robinson.

The British far-right activist ‘Tommy Robinson’ (real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon), is receiving financial, political and moral support from a broad array of non-British groups and individuals, including U.S. think-tanks, rightwing Australians and Russian trolls, a Guardian investigation has discovered.

Robinson, an anti-Islam campaigner, has received funding from a U.S. tech billionaire and a think-tank based in Philadelphia.
Two other U.S. think-tanks, part-funded by some of the biggest names in rightwing funding, have published a succession of articles in support of Robinson, who has become a cause célèbre among the American far right.

A Philadelphia-based think-tank, the Middle East Forum (MEF), acknowledges it has spent about £47,000 on Robinson’s legal fees and demonstrations staged in London.

A U.S. tech billionaire, Robert Shillman, financed a fellowship that helped pay for Robinson to be employed in 2017 by a rightwing Canadian media website, the Rebel Media, on a salary of about £5,000 a month.

A small Australian rightwing group, Australian Liberty Alliance, says it has helped fund Robinson, but did not disclose how much.

A New York City-based think-tank, the Gatestone Institute, has published a succession of articles supporting Robinson’s cause.

The David Horowitz Freedom Center (DHFC), a California-based think-tank that describes itself as a “school for political warfare”, has published a series of pieces defending Robinson, and has lobbied for him to address U.S. politicians.
( The Guardian, 07.12.2018 )  ..  theguardian.com

Local Councils Are Selling Thousands Of Public Buildings And Open Spaces Mostly To Private Developers.

More than 4,000 council-owned public spaces and facilities are being sold off by local authorities each year, with the majority purchased by private developers, according to the UK local communities charity Locality.

Locality’s report, titled The Great British Sell Off, revealed that 20,651 public buildings or spaces were sold off between 2012/2013 and 2016/2017, an average of 4,131 per year.
The council assets sold off include sites such as public parks, libraries, swimming pools and youth centres.

The southeast of England sold the highest number of public facilities, offloading an average of 872 every year to the private sector to be used for private profit and short-term speculation.

The study also reported the number of buildings identified as surplus by local authorities over the next five years.
Some 1,602 buildings in the Yorkshire and Humber region of England were identified by councils as surplus and therefore likely to be sold off, the highest figure in England, out of a total of 7,280 across the country.
The report noted that this figure is almost certainly a significant underestimation of the number of sales that will actually take place.
( Alice Summers, 30.07.2018 )  ..  wsws.org

A Pro-Israel Lobbyist Created A Fake Facebook Profile And Used It To Post Anti-Semitism Online.

Edward Sutherland, a pro-Israel lobbyist in Scotland and a leading figure in the Confederation of Friends of Israel, is being investigated by the Scottish teaching regulator.
Sutherland is head of religious and moral education at the Belmont Academy in Ayr, and may lose his teaching job over a series of anti-Semitic posts he has admitted making.
Sutherland created a fake Facebook profile and used it to post anti-Semitism online.
Using the profile, he posed as a Palestine solidarity activist.

This is far from the first time Israeli and pro-Israeli groups have fabricated anti-Semitism.
In 2016 the Mossad-linked Israeli law firm Shurat HaDin admitted posting a series of violently anti-Semitic comments to Facebook in order to frame Palestinians and solidarity activists.
In 2019, an investigation by The Electronic Intifada exposed a network of fake Twitter trolls systematically posting violent anti-Semitism in order to frame Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party and the Muslim community.
( Asa Winstanley, 18.08.2020 )  ..  electronicintifada.net

A Lawyer And A Teacher, Both Friends Of Israel Activists, Fabricate A Graffiti Attack And Use A Fake Facebook Account.

A pro-Israel lawyer helped fabricate a graffiti attack on his home in Glasgow, Scotland.
Using a fake “pro-Palestinian” persona, a fellow pro-Israel activist claimed on Facebook that there had been an attack on Matthew Berlow’s home.

“A certain Jewish lawyer woke up this morning to find ‘Free Palestine’ spray painted rather prominently.
No idea who was responsible,” the imposter wrote under the fake name “Stevie.”

Smearing the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Berlow replied in a comment underneath that the graffiti was “Typical SPSC behavior. Criminal.”
But Berlow has now admitted the attack never took place, and that he knew the “Stevie” poster was fake at the time.

The “pro-Palestinian” poster was in fact Confederation of Friends of Israel convenor and school teacher Edward Sutherland.
Both Berlow and Sutherland are “friends of Israel” activists in Glasgow.
( Asa Winstanley, 08.09.2020 )  ..  electronicintifida.net

A Country Made Poorer And Less Civilised.

Twisted words, half-truths and outright lies are the weapons that have kept this country locked in a state of arrested­ development for the past three years as all political energy has been spent on failing to deliver an imaginary freedom from invented tyrants.
Meanwhile, the issues that affect the lives of the vast majority living in the real world are ignored, leaving the weakest to go to the wall.

Hence the mass use of food banks becoming an acceptable part of life in the world’s sixth biggest economy.
I was one of 16 reporters who spoke to some of the thousands of people forced to live on our freezing streets every night.
The reasons behind their soaring numbers are complex but the scourge is beatable.
And surely every rich and civilised country wants it beaten?

But what happens when your country is made poorer and less civilised due to devoting its resources to solving one political party’s insoluble dilemma?
In the past three months alone, the Cabinet Office has handed £14.6million to outside consultancy firms helping them with Brexit.
How many people could that have taken off our streets?
( Brian Reade, 08.02.2019 )

The Situation In Yemen Has Been Described By The UN As The World’s Worst Humanitarian Disaster.

A United Nations report has projected that the death toll from Yemen’s war will reach 377,000 by the end of 2021, including those killed as a result of indirect and direct causes.
In the report, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) estimated that 70% of those killed would be children under the age of five.
The report says that 60% of deaths would have been the result of indirect causes, such as hunger and preventable diseases, with the remainder a result of direct causes like front-line combat and air raids.

Yemen has been mired in conflict since 2014, when the Houthi rebel movement seized much of the northern part of the country, including the capital, Sanaa, as the government fled.
In March 2015, a coalition of Arab countries led by Saudi Arabia intervened in the war with the aim of restoring the government.

The conflict has been deadlocked for years, with Yemen teetering at the brink of a famine, and tens of thousands of people killed.
The situation in the country has been described by the UN as the world’s worst humanitarian disaster.
At least 15.6 million people are living in extreme poverty.

The report also found that the number of those experiencing malnutrition would surge to 9.2 million by 2030, and the number of people living in extreme poverty would reach 22 million, or 65% of the population.
( Al Jazeera, 23.11.2021 )  ..  aljazeera.com

Leading Brexiteer And Conservative MP Benefits From Brexit.

Leading Brexiteer and Conservative MP Jacob Rees-Mogg is estimated to have earnt £7million from one of his investments since the referendum.
He refused to disclose the precise amount he received in dividends from Somerset Capital Management (SCM), the investment firm he set up in 2007.

Rees-Mogg owns at least 15% of the firm which according to one financial expert’s estimate could have put him in line for a pay-out of around £7million since 2016.
Asked if the figure of £7million is accurate, Rees-Mogg said: “The amount that I received is not for public disclosure. I’m entitled to the same privacy in my affairs as anyone else in parliament is.”

Rees-Mogg declares in his House of Commons Register of Interests that he is paid £500 an hour for his work at SCM and takes home around £15,000 a month on top of his MPs salary.
Mr Rees-Mogg denied that the increase in SCM’s earnings was related to Brexit.
He also rejected claims that SCM’s decision in the past year to open two new funds in Dublin rather than London had anything to with Brexit.
( Channel 4 Dispatches, 11.03.2019 )  ..  channel4.com