Boycott the Sun!

The Sun newspaper  has been accused of failing to meet “basic journalistic standards” over its reporting of allegations against BBC presenter Huw Edwards.

Huw Edwards’ wife, Vicky Flind, identified him as the presenter at the heart of an extraordinary media storm on Wednesday (13 July). She said the events of recent days had worsened his “serious mental health issues”, and he had been hospitalised as a result.  It began when Billionaire mogul Rupert Murdoch’s paper ran a front page interview with a mother of a 20-year-old, on 7 July, who said their child provided explicit images to a “household name” at the BBC in exchange for money. She said their child used the money to fund a drug addiction. 

The story has taken a number of twists since. In a statement issued through a lawyer, the young person at the centre of the story described their parents’ claims as “rubbish” and insisted there was “no truth” to the stories. Crucially, the young person said they had made a statement to this effect to The Sun before it published its story, which failed to make it into the paper.

The Metropolitan Police has assessed that no crime has taken place. While The Sun has defended its reporting, which included subsequent, but less salacious, allegations from other sources, it has now said it doesn’t plan to report further claims.

Right so: Edwards did nothing illegal. The Sun and the BBC itself have worked to meld unrelated stories together into a full scale character assassination, and a man who did nothing illegal is now in hospital as a result of the ensuing emotional stress.

The Sun, Keir Starmer’s favourite newspaper, has spewed lies and hate for decades and  represent everything that’s wrong with the British tabloid industry

In 1986, the actor Jeremy Brett was admitted to a mental unit after a breakdown following the death of his wife. The Sun ran a cover story which stated ‘TV SHERLOCK IN NUT HOUSE’

Jeremy deserved his dignity. 

In 1988, The Sun and its sister News of the World harassed David Scarboro, who was the first actor to play Mark Fowler in EastEnders  He sadly died that same year aged 20 

They printed lies about Hillsborough, demonised striking workers. paid 16 year olds to pose topless, never pays Tax. fixes elections with lies, championed Brexit,  allowed rent a gob Katie Hopkins to use as a national platform to call for refugees to be machine-gunned at sea.and  hounded Caroline Flack to her death.

It's hard to believe  it has survived the horrific lies they told about the Hillsborough tragedy.The Liverpool boycott of The Sun newspaper has been ongoing since its reporting of the Hillsborough Disaster in 1989. The publication was found to have lied about LFC fans behaviour during and after the event to horrific effect and placed blame onto the victims of the tragedy. As a result of the fatal crush, 97 people died and 766 were injured. 

The Sun said fans had urinated on police officers, picked pockets of other victims and beat up people trying to give CPR. Since then, the boycott of The Sun has held firm in Liverpool, with a blanket ban on selling the publication in newsagents, providing it in libraries, or keeping it on coffee tables in local councils and institutions.  

However 34 years later the Scum  for that is what it  really should be called. is still peddling lies and with a disgraceful  hidden agenda to every story. Daily releasing a pious debasing rhetoric that is simply offensive and unacceptable to the order of the Murdoch empire, that controls the flow of media to almost half the planet.

Releasing abuse to benefit claimants, refugees, the disabled, transphobic, homophobic, islamophobic, that never shows any tolerance, decency or fairness, with a dirty right wing bias. 

Please stop buying this piece of shit, even for burning. Don’t read the Sun, Don't click its website, its fantasy football, it's  Twitter. None of it. Fuck them.Unless we say enough is enough they will continue Boycott The Sun.

The Sun and its journalists should also have to endure an inquisition by Lord Brian Leveson. If ever we needed proof that regulation of the British Press (and indeed TV) is clearly not fit for purpose, this is it.

Here's an earlier poem :

https://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.com/2020/02/please-dont-buy-sun.html

Wings Are Optional

Some people live such comfortable lives

Sober and clean, following straight paths,

Not feeling sadness or pangs of regret

Left broken by the depths of the world.

Never get mad at the state of things

Yet with pointing fingers shame,

Fail to understand others rational

The variable blemishes contained in life.

Or under the shimmering skies

Fight the war between self and mind.

Seek taste of oblivion to ease the pain

Never get lost, fall down or feel alone.

Leave damning words of condemnation

Sterile voices of coldness and unreason, 

Dimming the screams of imperfection 

Crafting perfect versions of themselves.

Others with more riotous hearts 

Refuse to surrender to blind judgement,

Find affirmation among dormant summers

In sunny rain, wait for magic to heal.

Taking thirsty gulps of whatever they need

In struggles of self preservation,

Keep searching for some inner bliss

Sip liquid courage with no remorse.

Allow creative juices to soak within 

Find a way of holding on to dreams,

With whisky kisses, finding respite

Allow clouds gaze to turn into sunshine.

In the blur of time, not quite broken

Among thunderstorms and breezy light,

Taking yesterday's sky into the unknown

From deep waters, feel lifted, buoyant even.

Talking to themselves without a care

Uninhibited, with senses euphoric

Singing to the stars and universe

Dancing with the moonlight,

Taking on board the flaws and cracks

Keep walking with well learned humility,

Not on a quest of mastering perfection 

But still in tune with other wisdoms.

Stagger forward with perseverance

Away from barriers and walls created,

Keeping strong beyond recognition

Releasing signals unquenchable.   

Word of the Day: Scab

On 5 Jul 1777 the word 'scab', a  highly derogatory and fighting  term to  describe a'strikebreaker', was used in print for the first time. One of the most important words in the working-class vocabulary! 

The term is actually derived from the Old English sceabb and the Old Norse skabb (both meaning “scab, itch”), the word “scab” had become an insult by the late 1500s, having adopted a secondary definition that meant “a lowlife“.  

With an increasing number of strikes, and therefore replacement workers, during the second half of the 18th century in England, the word “scab” was put into use as a derogatory term for strikebreakers, as noted in Bonner & Middleton’s Bristol Journal in 1777: 

 The Conflict [between labor and capital] would not been [sic] so sharp had not there been so many dirty Scabs; no Doubt but timely Notice will be taken of them.'

As one contemporary source explained in 1792;

 “What is a scab? He is to his trade what a traitor is to his country…. He first sells the journeymen, and is himself afterwards sold in his turn by the masters, till at last he is despised by both and deserted by all.” 

By 1806, the word was in  common use alongside other favorites including “blackleg,”and “ratfink.”  Blackleg may not be perfectly interchangeable with scab, though; some sources say that a scab is generally an outsider to the company hired specifically for strikebreaking, where a blackleg is a worker who predates the strike and chooses not to participate.  The etymology is pretty unclear on this one. One theory suggests that the insult might relate to rooks, birds with black legs. Rooks were distinctly disliked in some parts of the world. Other theories suggest that it references miners with pant-legs rolled up, showing coal dust or oil as evidence of work. Like scab, blackleg is also associated with disease. In modern times, it’s more commonly used to indicate a specific disease common to cows and sheep than it is organized labor or strikebreakers. It has also, at times, been associated with cheaters and gamblers.

Ratfinks has fallen in and out of use a few times, both used specifically for strikebreakers and more generally. The general insult is for tattle-tales or untrustworthy people. That as a synonym for strikebreakers makes sense then, based on the view of strikebreakers at the time. The rat part seems natural, and again associates strikebreakers with symbols of disease. It also has a tenuous link to birds, like blacklegs, in that “fink” might be based on the German word for “finch”. That would make both halves of the word reminiscent of phrases like “ratted out” or “sing like a canary”, which also refer to giving up allies to authorities for punishment.  The fear of informants wasn’t paranoia either; anti-union groups like the Pinkertons did genuinely send in spies to undermine labor organizations. This is the basis of another etymological theory for the word, which is that a linguistic shift turned “pink”, as a reference to the Pinkertons, into ‘fink’. After the labor movement settled, use of the word “ratfink” fell out of style until the 1960s, where it became more generalized in use again.

Whenever workers refuse to work in order to gain concessions, it is called a strike. Strikes were an important part of the early labor movement, which agitated for safer working conditions, better pay, and more reasonable hours. These early strikes were often brutally put down, and workers had a choice between going back to work and starving. Labor unions attempted to help with this by organizing workers, who paid dues that could be used to support them during a strike. A single scab could greatly weaken the cause of the union.

In response to more organized labor, companies started to recruit people who were willing to break the strike. These people might be existing employees or outside contractors.Also throughout the 19th century, scabs in the U.S. were frequently recruited from new immigrant and other economically challenged communities, and often had no idea they would be breaking a strike until they crossed the picket line. Regardless, scabs were  reviled, looked down upon and treated with disdain.It is common for striking workers picketing a workplace to chant the word ‘scab’ at other workers who cross the picket line.

By crossing the picket line of strikers marching and holding signs for better working conditions, the strike breaker hurts the cause of the workers. For this reason, the term “scab” started to become widespread, as this was someone who behaved dishonorably in 18th century culture. Retaliation against such workers could sometimes be brutal and can result in them  being shunned or assaulted. 

A classic example from United Kingdom industrial history is that of the miners from Nottinghamshire, who during the 1984-1985 miners' strike did not support strike action by fellow mineworkers in other parts of the country. Those who supported the strike claimed that this was because they enjoyed more favorable mining conditions and, thus, better wages and were used as pawns in Margaret Thatcher's bitter war against the organised working class of the UK. When the strike was over members of  the scab Union of Democratic Mineworkers (UDM) settled in for the long period of prosperity and security promised them by a grateful establishment. Their  UDM leader Roy Lynk was awarded an OBE for ‘services to trade unionism’ but  after paving the way for mass pit closures and privatisation, he and Nottinghamshire’s former strike-breakers. to their fury, they too were betrayed as Nottinghamshire’s pits were closed in contrast to the promises lavished upon them during the strike.

Trade Unionists also use the epithet “scab” to refer to workers who are willing to accept terms that union workers have rejected and interfere with the strike action.The term is also used to refer to workers who cave too easily to concessions offered by a company. Labor activists believe that striking is an effective tool, and that if the workers band together, they can achieve their goals. Workers who agree to partial concessions weaken the cause of the whole, as do people who work through the strike. Sometimes, striking workers are surprised when the temporary workers hired to replace them up becoming permanent.

When a strike is in progress, people who support it should refrain from crossing the picket line. Workers typically form a band in front of the company they work for to inform people that a strike is going on, and why. By crossing the picket line, scabs and consumers indicate that they are not concerned about the rights of the workers, and they weaken the case of the strikers. 

It is simply an iron law of working-class life that you never betray your fellow worker during a legitimate and official strike. You never cross a picket line and take the side of the boss. You never scab on your colleagues. It's such a crappy thing to do and simply goes against  the principles of solidarity and unity.

One of the greatest weapons that workers and oppressed people possess is  their unity. It is only by coming together in solidarity. it is only through closing ranks against the common enemy, that any victory has ever been won by the masses of people. Working-class solidarity is present in every picket, every union action, every strike and any time workers take a stand against the bosses. If workers go on strike, only a scab or a boss will cross the picket line, while all workers who feel solidarity with each other refuse. 

Workers formed trade unions and continue to organize into unions today out of the knowledge that only through banding together in solidarity can even the slightest improvement be gained in working conditions, wages, job security, and so forth.

We should have no sympathy for a scab. A “replacement worker” (to use the sanitized terminology) is helping the boss to break a strike. If the strike fails, the majority of striking workers will lose the pay they lost during the strike, face cuts, and endure victimization and potential permanent replacement by the scab workers. The “individual” right of the scab is in direct opposition to the individual right of the striker to survive. If scabs are allowed to scab with impunity we will live in a world with no workers’ rights and no unions – a bosses’ paradise where workers live under the boot of management. Never cross a picket line, the stain of being a scab lasts forever.

With an upsurge of union struggle today.With thousands on strike across the country, the power of our unions comes from the fact that all profit comes from workers. Stopping scabs is a key way to use that power.  

Far better than being a scab is to standing in solidarity with all of those who are fighting back against attacks from the state whether it be the striking postal workers, rail workers, nurses, unemployed people who are having their benefits cut, people fighting against repossessions, asylum seekers and immigrants in their daily battle against racist immigration laws and fighting deportations, black and young people in their fight against police harassment, the Palestinian resistance against occupation. I personally believe that in this moment. when Palestinians are suffering  increasing brutality from an Israeli government determined to reify ethno-supremacy and maintain their  system of apartheid .to cross the BDS picket line is to ne a scab.

The final word belongs to the American writer, journalist and socialist Jack London (1876-1916) who expertly summed up in his 1915 poem what a scab was and why you should never be one.By any definition, a scab is not someone you really want to associate with.:

Ode To A Scab - Jack London 1876 -1916 

After God had finished the rattlesnake, the toad, and the vampire, He had some awful substance left with which He made a scab. A scab is a two-legged animal with a corkscrew soul, a waterlogged brain, and a combination backbone made of jelly and glue. Where others have hearts, he carries a tumor of rotten principles. 

When a scab comes down the street, men turn their backs and angels weep in heaven, and the devil shuts the gates of hell to keep him out. No man has a right to scab as long as there is a pool of water deep enough to drown his body in, or a rope long enough to hang his carcass with. Judas Iscariot was a gentleman compared with a scab. For betraying his Master, he had character enough to hang himself. A scab hasn't.

Esau sold his birthright for a mess of pottage. Judas Iscariot sold his savior for thirty pieces of silver. Benedict Arnold sold his country for a promise of a commission in the British Army. The scab sells his birthright, country, his wife, his children and his fellowmen for an unfulfilled promise from his employer.

Esau was a traitor to himself; Judas was a traitor to his God; Benedict Arnold was a traitor to his country; a scab is a traitor to his God, his country, his family and his class."

Happy 75th birthday NHS!

Nye Bevans legacy came into the world 75 years ago this morning when, then Minister of Health in Attlee’s post-war government, Nye opened Park Hospital in Manchester at a time of rationing and shortages, when we were nearly bankrupt, a jewel  that the war generation left us with, an amazing institution for us to all to continue to share.

Nye Bevan, once wrote, “No society can legitimately call itself civilised if a sick person is denied medical aid because of lack of means.” This statement, which is at the heart of our health service, still commands support from the vast majority of the UK population. The NHS encapsulates everything which Bevan stood for, and was the culmination of a life devoted to improving the lives of men and women across the country.

For the first-time doctors, nurses, opticians, dentists and pharmacists all worked under one organisation. It was a ray of hope in that bleak time, and it remains one today. The creation of the NHS in 1948 was the product of years of hard work and a motivation from various figures who felt the current healthcare system was insufficient and needed to be revolutionised. 

Born in 1948 to a post-war Britain amidst the rubble of war and a skeptical medical profession, the NHS has had its ups and downs over the years. However, its role and importance as a symbol of our Britishness and intense pride in being able to provide universal care, free at the point of delivery, has remained throughout, out of the belief that healthcare should be available to all, regardless of wealth, with health and care as priorities – not profit, .these ideals remains one of the NHS’s core principles.

Aneurin Bevan, Minister of Health, on the first day of the National Health Service, 5 July 1948 at Park Hospital, Davyhulme, near Manchester. 

These ideas can be traced back to the early 1900s with the Minority Report of the Royal Commission on the Poor Law in 1909. The report was headed by the socialist Beatrice Webb who argued that a new system was needed to replace the antiquated ideas of the Poor Law which was still in existence from the times of the workhouses in the Victorian era. Those who were involved in the report believed it was a narrow-minded approach from those in charge to expect those in poverty to be entirely accountable for themselves. Despite the strong arguments provided in the report, it still proved unsuccessful and many ideas were disregarded by the new Liberal government.

Nevertheless, more and more people were beginning to speak out and be proactive, including Dr Benjamin Moore, a Liverpool physician who had great foresight and a pioneering vision of the future in healthcare. His ideas were written in “The Dawn of the Health Age” and he was probably one of the first to use the phrase ‘National Health Service’. His ideas led him to create the State Medical Service Association which held its first meeting in 1912. It would be another thirty years before his ideas would feature in the Beveridge Plan for the NHS.

Few now remember life before the NHS. Until 4 July 1948, every visit to a GP or hospital had to be paid for, unless covered by insurance or charity. Workers paid National Insurance but their dependents weren’t covered. Many families couldn’t afford private insurance, weren’t poor enough for ‘charity’, so suffered without health care. In some cases local authorities ran hospitals for the local ratepayers, an approach originating with the Poor Law. By 1929 the Local Government Act amounted to local authorities running services which provided medical treatment for everyone. On 1st April 1930 the London County Council then took over responsibility for around 140 hospitals, medical schools and other institutions after the abolition of the Metropolitan Asylums Board.

The idea of a state-run health service was mooted at the Labour Party Conference in 1934 by the then president of the Socialist Medical Association, Dr Somerville Hastings. Then the Beveridge Report of December  1942 called for 'Comprehensive Health and Rehabilitation Services' and set the seeds for the creation of the NHS and the creation of the Welfare State. Winston Churchill's attitude was one of ambivalence and when two years after the Beveridge report and it had become Labour Party policy, he became markedly more hostile. It was then  Aneurin Bevan who wholeheartedly embraced  and made sure  the project was implemented and delivered  after he became health minister in 1945.

Born amidst the rubble of war, opposed by churches, charities and doctors – it was a ray of hope in that bleak time, and it remains one today. The free service, based on need, not what money you have, is something that has become cherished by generation after generation. Many see it as Labour’s greatest socialist achievement. Today, we have a lot to thank the NHS for; from the introduction of polio and diphtheria vaccinations to all under 15-year olds to the success of smoking cessation services and cancer screening services, the NHS has been instrumental in many of the medical achievements the UK has seen over the last 74 years,. a shining example of what separates us from the US. 

It offered for the first time a free healthcare system in the world that offered for completely free , healthcare that was made available on the basis of citizenship rather than the payment of fees or insurance. It has  since  played a vital role in caring for all aspects of our nations health. It has been the envy of the world ever since. I am reminded that my quality of life owes more to a dead man than  a whole Tory Government ever could ,so thank you Nye Bevan.

Today, nine in 10 people agree that healthcare should be free of charge, more than four in five agree that care should be available to everyone.The NHS remains one of our most precious national assets and is the institution that the public have said makes them most proud to be British. It is built on the effort, skill, and commitment of its staff, the support of patients and service users, and strong relationships with the communities it serves.

The celebrations marking the 75th anniversary of the NHS underline the general view that despite its many challenges and crises, few organisations are as admired or respected by the public. It’s certainly hard to think of another public service that would, as it did during the Covid pandemic, get people out on the streets banging saucepans to mark their support.

The deep love we have for our health service is one of the most tremendous aspects of living in Britain. The knowledge that if you ever get ill or have an accident, you’ll get the care you need, whatever your circumstances, is one of Labour’s greatest achievements.

A recent report from  The 99% Organisation https://99-percent.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/NHS-report-for-print.pdf made clear, the UK's healthcare model is "world-class", and the fundamental structure of the NHS represents the "international gold standard" of healthcare provision. There's a reason that every politician – even the most ardent free-marketeers in British history – at least paid lip-service to its role at the heart of British society. 

That's not to say there aren't serious problems. it is remarkable that this cherished institution has endured in the UK despite it being presided over by Tory governments for the vast majority of those years. But the 99% report linked above shows that this has nothing to do with a failure of the NHS model, but a systemic, long-term underfunding and neglect of the service. Against the wishes of the public, politicians in recent years haven't invested in it. For years, they've only pretended to care, clapping for NHS staff while refusing to pay them properly. 

Thanks to the Tories, those intervening years have seen so many public institutions sold off to the private sector to the detriment of the quality and value of that service. The NHS has somehow survived. Perhaps the reason for this is the special place it has in the hearts of so many. Most families will have a personal experience of when the NHS came up trumps for them or a family member in their hour of need. I am one of those people.

It wouldn’t be possible to run a 7-day NHS, caring for millions of people day-in-day-out without the hard work and dedication of its staff. Despite all the adversity that’s thrown at them: poor pay, bursary cuts, hospital parking fines and staff shortages to name a few; they continue to become stronger and relentlessly deliver fantastic healthcare to the nation .The recent pandemic have once again highlighted the strength, professionalism , dedication and bravery of our healthcare staff. It is truly inspiring to see how amazing the staff handled the awful situation and it was a testament to every healthcare worker throughout the UK. They are a credit to our nation and we couldn’t be more proud.

The NHS  here in Wales employs close to 72,000 staff which makes it Wales’ biggest employer.The NHS in Wales carries out around 360 thousand patient consultations every month in secondary care alone (not including GP visits or diagnostics) There are 79 babies born a day in Wales / with one birth every 18 minutes On average there are over 8,500 occupied NHS beds in Wales every day In the last 12 months, more than 20,000 patients started cancer treatment in Wales,But dedicated, compassionate staff  are under increased pressure, leading to low moral. Recent figures have emerged that 2/4s of hospitals have been warned about dangerous staff shortages.

As the Tory's seek to dismantle it,  we should not forget Nye Bevan's words who said ' It will last as long as their are folk with enough faith to fight for it. From the cradle to the grave.One can only imagine what Nye’s reaction would be to the current state of his beloved creation, where large bills for dental care are routine, optometry is fielded out to Specsavers, and the decades-long creeping privatisation of hospitals and primary care services has accelerated under the Covid-19 pandemic.

Far from “stuffing their mouths with gold” – as Bevan said of the doctors employed by the NHS at its inception – successive Westminster governments of the last decade have presided over cuts that have decimated the incomes of NHS workers. According to GMB Union, long-serving NHS nurses had by April 2021 suffered a real-terms pay cut of 16.3 per-cent - a loss of just under £6,000. Paramedics and experienced mental health nurses, meanwhile, had each lost just over £7,500.

The strain of these losses has been reflected in the news, with stories of nurses using foodbanks increasingly commonplace. and skipping meals in order to save money or feed their families, along with reports citing struggles with mental health and a poor work/life balance leaving  them stressed. tired and overworked. .The Government  has also come under fire  for the rise in waiting  times  for various treatments... 

On its birthday we should  join the call for fair pay for all NHS staff that they so  clearly  need and deserve- Public sector pay has been capped for too long. This is despite rising inflation and increased living costs.  It's not OK that NHS staff like nurses are resorting to food banks to get by and we  cannot reach the day again where people make a profit out of our sickness. The NHS is a shining example of how a caring society can create  good and safe care based on social solidarity., making such a great contribution towards social and health equality.  A beacon to the world.

Thank you to all of those who have worked and who are still working tirelessly to provide the best care to over 64 million people in the UK. putting our communities and patients first - which shine through in the dedicated work of our doctors, nurses and health workers every day. The last 75 years wouldn’t have been possible without them. It is currently though in real danger, under attack from those that want to privatise it, run it down and fragment it ;

When the  Government  inevitably put out celebratory tweets today remember  they  are privatising it and with American plutocrats turning their eyes on the NHS, it's more important than ever that we continue to defend it with all we've got, Now, more than ever, it is vital that we stand together to defend our NHS from those who seek to undermine its core values. 

Our healthcare service was once ranked the best in the world, but since 2015 it has fallen to 10th place globally and is falling fast. Over the past four decades, politicians have made policy changes to the health service in England that have allowed increasing privatisation, the introduction of an internal marketplace, and the loading of enormous private finance initiative debt upon many NHS trusts. We are now in a situation where thousands of NHS services are outsourced to non-NHS providers. This has atomised the service, damaging the architecture of the system as a whole, disrupting important relationships between people and teams, and creating chaos and bureaucracy, which always accompanies the churn of short-term contracts. 

A system that was once whole is thousands of tiny fragments now, some publicly-owned, some run by non-profits and others by profit-making companies.Our public healthcare system is fast collapsing and a two-tier healthcare system is being built in its place, excluding more and more people from the care they need. This past winter the situation was so stark some patients received life-saving treatment on the floor of A&E waiting rooms, behind sheets held up by staff members in a desperate attempt to offer them dignity and privacy. 

We are now faced with hundreds of preventable and avoidable deaths happening every week. A major staffing crisis with over 132,000 staffing vacancies, and over 7 million on waiting lists, the longest waiting list in history.. No wonder staff are either leaving their professions or striking to save their pay and conditions and to stand up for the NHS itself.

The situation is not new, because successive governments have been destroying the architecture of the system in incremental ways for a long time. But the lack of investment in the service and real-term pay cuts for staff since 2010 have exposed the resulting problems. As the funding has been pulled back over the past 13 years, the cracks have become visible, sometimes literally. In England, it would cost the NHS roughly £10bn to repair hospitals and equipment, and some of the backlog is putting patients and staff at risk. There have been dozens of recent examples of sewage leaks in wards, maternity units and A&E departments.

Of course, the pandemic has made everything worse. As resources were diverted to enable staff to cope with the worst public health emergency since the NHS began, many operations and clinic appointments were delayed or cancelled. This caused waiting lists to spiral; the situation deteriorated fast. As we watch all of this unfold there are reports that more and more people are turning to private healthcare and there are tragic examples of patients being failed.

We need a fully public NHS – because this is how we protect the pay, conditions and it’s also how we protect it for patients too. It’s the only way the NHS will survive. This isn’t time to ‘reform or retreat’ , it’s time to return to founding principles.We don'r need a new system . we need a new government that wont intentionally destroy it for their own financial benefit.Healthcare must work for people not profit and should be a  basic right for everybody and  should not be determined by your bank balance. We need to  kick out the private companies and  kick out private profit. 

The situation can feel hopeless. nut we must remember that this decline was not inevitable but is the result of bad policy decisions taken for ideological (or possibly self-interested) reasons. Some see the results as a deliberate choice, intended to wreck the NHS so that an alternative, profit generating service can rise up to take its place. The silver lining is this: if the decline is the result of a deliberate choice not to invest in people, equipment, and buildings, then we can make an equally deliberate choice to mend the NHS and turn it around. it’s important to remember it is reversible, should our politicians choose to take action. 

The best way we can mark the 75th anniversary is to vow to remain true to the principles that underpinned the NHS from the beginning – treatment free from private companies and free at the point delivery.Now more than ever we need to fight for an NHS fit to work in and fit for purpose for another 75 years or more. We we must take this opportunity to hold politicians to account and should also ensure that NHS staff receive the pay and conditions they deserve if we are to reward and protect the best thing about it – the people that make it run day-in, day-out.

Under the current climate, it is vital that we stand together to protect our NHS from the proposed changes being made which will drastically affect the core values. We need private outsourcing to be eliminated. We need the PFI debt, which costs us billions every year, to be paid off. We need the staff to be properly supported in pay and in their general workplace conditions. 

And once these things are done we need to start imagining an NHS fit for the next 75 years. An NHS where the leadership mirrors the changing demographics of our population, an NHS with the facilities our communities truly need, an NHS where sustainability is at the centre of decision making.A  health service where prevention comes first, where care is closer to home, where patients have more control.  It means tackling inequality at its root so we make the country fairer and healthier for all. 

Sajid Javid has called for a royal commission on the long term future of the NHS.? The NHS is not broken, it is fit for purpose. It is actively being destroyed. 13 years ago it was the best in the world.The Tories took a fully functioning service and defunded it for over a decade.

Sajid Javid is punishing the NHS while wanting to double the salary of those who destroyed it. After years of deliberate Tory underfunding queues of privateers are lining up, rubbing their grubby, dollar-stained mitts at the prospect of making a quick profit at our expense.We see ministers accepting donations from people with clear links to US private health providers, Starmer and Streeting admitting they will use private providers to "reduce" waiting times.  Put people before profit. Keep our NHS public.Get the Tories out.

Add your name: Only the NHS trains doctors and nurses, has A&E, and doesn't cherry-pick patients. Private healthcare cannot fix the waiting list crisis. Politicians must invest in our NHS, not in private healthcare:

https://weownit.org.uk/act-now/only-the-nhs-public-letter

Sign the card to wish the NHS a happy 75th birthday!

https://act.38degrees.org.uk/act/nhs-75-th-birhday-card

Oppose the anti-boycott Bill.

The United Kingdom government’s toxic ‘Economic Activity of Public Bodies (Overseas Matters) bill,’ better known to many as the anti-boycott bill.will be debated next week in parliament on July 3rd, the latest in a growing list of measures which fundamentally undermine free speech and democratic rights in the country

While it will not prevent individuals from choosing what they purchase in the shops, or even coming together in campaigns like those to pressure companies like Barclays or Puma to change unethical practices,this bill does have the potential to impact on a wide range of campaigns for social and environmental justice.  

The legislation was first promised in the Conservative party’s 2019 manifesto and the bill effectively restricts public bodies in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland , including universities, local authorities, and government departments, from making ethical spending and investment decisions that align with their human rights responsibilities and obligations and bringing in BDS policies against controversial foreign regimes.The effect could be to hamper these groups from taking steps in business dealings to avoid causing or contributing to human rights abuses and international crimes.

For example, it could restrict public bodies from divesting from companies complicit in the Chinese government’s systematic repression of Uyghurs, Israel’s crimes of apartheid or war crimes in Israeli settlements, Saudi Arabia and UAE’s war crimes in Yemen, or the Myanmar junta’s crimes against humanity.

Many people in this country care deeply about human rights and the planet and the anti-boycott bill threatens their ability to insist that public authorities reflect their entirely justified concerns over illegal and unethical practices, but any anti-boycott laws are likely to stop  public sector bodies from doing the right thing and disentangling themselves from human rights abuses.

The right to pursue boycotts is a fundamental exercise of the freedom of expression, thought, and conscience. It is a vital nonviolent tool to enact positive social change. Boycott and divestment campaigns have been used by people around the world to pressure regimes, institutions, or companies to change abusive, discriminatory, or illegal practices. Using these tactics, ordinary women and men have helped to end the trans-Atlantic slave trade, contributed to the struggle for Indian independence, and secured civil rights by challenging entrenched racism in Britain and the USA. 

Boycotts played a key role in the struggle for African American rights in the United States and in international campaigns against apartheid in South Africa. Millions of people in Britain, including local councils, were part of the campaign to boycott and isolate apartheid in South Africa. When Nelson Mandela visited Britian in 1998, he recalled that ‘the ‘knowledge that local authorities…were banning apartheid products…and that the universities…had cut their links – was a great inspiration to us in our struggle.’ 

While almost everyone will now accept that those who opposed South African apartheid were right to do so, the Conservative government of the day under Margaret Thatcher unsuccessfully attempted to stifle these acts of solidarity. Had their anti-boycott bill been in place at the time, it could have forced local authorities and British universities to do business with that brutal and criminal regime. 

Similar attempts to silence local government – including the notorious ‘Section 28’, which banned the ‘promotion of homosexuality’ – prove that central government does not always know better than communities and their elected representatives. The public are right not to rely on ministers to uphold ethical standards.

Currently the principal target of the anti-boycott bill is campaigns in support of Palestinian rights. This week alone, Israel invaded and bombed Palestinian cities and refugee camps, killing at least 15 Palestinians and injuring hundreds more. Israeli forces also enabled gangs of armed, illegal Israeli settlers to attack 17 Palestinian villages destroying vehicles and homes, killing one Palestinian and injuring dozens.

With Israel’s system of apartheid growing ever more violent,and Israeli policy and violence growing ever more extreme, it is certainly the case that international pressure is essential to protect Palestinian life and international law. 

 As the United Nations has observed, 2022 was the deadliest year since 2006 for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem with Israel’s armed forces having killed no fewer than 170, including more than 30 children. At least one Israeli government minister has described himself as a ‘fascist’, and the mounting human rights consensus confirms what Palestinians have said for years – that Israel too is guilty of the crime of apartheid, as documented by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Israel’s own leading rights group B’Tselem. In 2021,

It is in this context that the global movement for BDS is growing, in direct response to calls from within Palestinian civil society, and with the aim of pressuring those who are complicit in violations of their rights.

The British government has a responsibility to stand up for human rights and international law.But the anti-boycott bill further exposes the extent of Britain's hypocrisy, given its stance against Russia and the range of sanctions it imposed on the country after a year of occupying Ukrainian territory.

Despite Israel's 56-year occupation and numerous reports exposing its apartheid policies, the UK government has not imposed a single sanction on the country. Instead, it seems determined to shield Israel from accountability, as well as companies complicit in its occupation, by legislating to silence those trying to achieve change through peaceful and democratic means.

The anti-boycott bill even singles out Israel alongside the ‘Occupied Palestinian Territories’ and ‘Occupied Golan Heights’, by name, as territories that the law explicitly protects from public sector boycotts. By doing so, the bill actively promotes impunity for violations of international law and well-documented discrimination against Palestinians. Despite assertions that its foreign policy is unchanged, for the first time, a piece of British legislation will require Israel and the territories it illegally occupies to be treated in the same way, a departure from decades of international consensus on the illegality of settlements.

British parliamentarians must choose whether they will support an anti-democratic bill that singles out one state for protection from any accountability. They must decide whether they will support the hypocrisy of a law supporting the illegal occupation of one land while opposing another, or be consistent in their policies.

If parliamentarians insisted that the rule of law must prevail then they will support policies that bring peace closer. But ones like this bill send a message to Israel that it can continue to act with impunity and similarly tells the Palestinians that they will neither be provided with protection from Israel's murderous policies nor supported in their peaceful resistance to them, including through BDS.

This dangerous  bill is the latest in a string of politically repressive legislation that impedes rights to strike and protest including the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act, the Public Order Act, and the Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Bill. It includes a draconian ‘gagging clause’ preventing public authorities, for instance, local councillors, from advocating for boycott or even talking about the prohibition – forbidding all those subject to the proposed law from even stating that they would support such a policy if it were legally permissible to do so. 

For its part, Israel is combating the right to boycott with all its strength because BDS is a form of nonviolent protest available to anyone in the world. The more Israel’s abuses of Palestinians continue, seemingly unaccountable to anyone, the more people choose to say no. When done collectively, this becomes a very powerful force.

Thousands of artists and cultural figures have joined the boycott for justice, recently visible as tens of artists pulled their acts from the Sydney festival due to its sponsorship by the Israeli government. Major pension funds in Norway and the Netherlands have divested from companies involved in Israel’s settlements and military, as have the Presbyterian Church (USA), the United Methodist Church, and several Quaker institutions. In most of these cases, divestment is also a tactic used more broadly to, for example, pressure climate-destroying companies. Campaigns have successfully pushed corporations such as HSBC, Orange, Veolia, and G4S to disengage from Israeli settlements and military enterprises.

So long as governments remain unwilling to hold Israel to account for its violations while companies help it maintain its occupation, people will pressure them with campaigns.

The same goes for fossil fuel giants, private military companies, mining firms, financial institutions, and countless others that seek to evade human rights or environmental standards. Boycotts and divestment campaigns enable ordinary people to force change for good. But it is exactly this kind of people power that the UK government finds so threatening.

For that reason, nearly 70 civil society groups including Unite the Union, Unison, Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Liberty, the Quakers, the Methodist Church, the Muslim Association of Britain and Na’amod: UK Jews Against the Occupation, along with many others, are calling on the government to scrap this dangerous Bill and on opposition parties to vote against it.The full Right to Boycott statement and list of signatories can be found here.

The anti-boycott bill is draconian, a severe threat to civil liberties in Britain seeking to restrict freedom of expression and undermine campaigns for social and climate justice. It is a moral and human right to conscientiously object to having our money used to buy or sell or invest in goods and arms whether in China, Myanmar, Israel or Russia, or any other countries that help contribute to rights abuses and international crimes. 

If passed, it will shield companies engaged in human rights abuse or environmental destruction by preventing public bodies from cutting ties with them over abusive or illegal actions committed in a foreign country unless permission to do so is explicitly granted by the government.

By inhibiting citizens’ ability to call for their own pension funds to be invested ethically, or for elected local authorities to make ethical choices about spending, this legislation threatens British democracy. 

That is why we must act together now to say: Defend the Right to Boycott. This bill is yet another attack on human rights. We must unite to defend them.Those who are deeply concerned about the bill are urged us to flood MPs' inboxes with messages in opposition to the Bill. Please do this by Monday if you possibly can, and encourage others to do the same 

Sign and share PSC’s petition against the anti-boycott bill here 

“The Shoes on the Danube Promenade” (Danube River Monument) in Budapest.

On 26 June 1941, Hungary formally entered World War II as an Axis power, declaring war on the Soviet Union. For two years, Hungarian troops fought on the Eastern Front against the Red Army, suffering huge losses at the River Don during Operation Little Saturn in 1943. Because of this heavy defeat, the Hungarian government began to form a secret peace deal with the Allies, to remove the country from the conflict and end the war with the Soviets. 

After learning of the planned defection, however, the Nazis occupied Hungary, sending troops into the country on 19 March 1944. After further attempts to disengage from the war, the Germans overturned the Hungarian parliament and implemented a puppet regime under the fascist Arrow Cross Party of Ferenc Szálasi, the leader of the Government of National Unity. Szálasi whose ideology closely followed Adolf Hitler’s pledged all of Hungary’s resources to the German war machine, and as a result, the country was forced to partake in the Holocaust. 

From May to June 1944, over 440,000 Jewish citizens were deported from across Hungary, many being sent to Auschwitz where they were later executed. Approximately half a million people or every third victim in Auschwitz was a Hungarian Jew. 

The Arrow Cross Party played a major role in rounding up Jewish civilians for the Nazis, and executed many Hungarians who were suspected of sheltering Jewish citizens. By late 1944, when the Soviets began their advance on Budapest, the Arrow Cross began a systematic massacre of the city’s remaining Jews, raiding the Jewish Quarter and its ghettos to exterminate the Jewish population. During this time of Arrow Cross Terror, over 3,500 Jewish citizens and Hungarians were brutally shot on the banks of the Danube River by fascist Arrow Cross militiamen.

In the humiliating and dehumanising fashion that characterised the antisemitism of the period,the victims were forced to remove their shoes at gunpoint and face their executioner before they were shot without mercy, falling over the edge into the freezing waters for the currents to wash  their bodies away. Shoes being a valuable commodity during World War II, would be be collected and traded on the black market.

The Jewish victims on the riverbank were not blindfolded. They probably recognized some of their murderers amongst the ranks of The Arrow Cross. And no doubt the Hungarian bystanders, who either approved of these murders or did nothing to prevent them, knew the victims or members of The Arrow Cross. True, the wartime Budapest was less populated and not crammed with tourists, but this slaughter along the Danube still took place in a city. These Jews were not whisked off to the camps  they were not herded into the middle of the woods. They were murdered in the open by people they knew, in front of people they knew, and in the middle of a city. The shots were fired, the bodies floated down the river, the shoes gathered up and the Arrow Cross continued to hunt for more Jews to murder.  And the friends, neighbors, co-workers who stood around and watched? They walked away in their comfortable shoes.

It was a heart-breaking, calamitous, tragic time in Budapest during the days of horror, and in the winter of 1944-45, the Danube was known as “the Jewish Cemetery”

By the 20th Century, the Jewish community had grown to constitute 5% of Hungary’s total population and 23% of the population of the capital, Budapest. However, despite the long history of Jews living in Hungary, by the interwar period anti-Jewish policies were becoming more repressive. It is estimated that by the end of world war two, 560,000 out of 825,000 Jews had been murdered as part of the Holocaust and actions perpetrated by the Hungarian government.

According to records from Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem, there is a first hand account of the horrific events along the Danube told by Zby Zsuzsanna Ozsváth, a Hungarian survivor who was saved by her nursemaid, Erzsi Fajo:

 “…I heard a series of popping sounds. Thinking the Russians had arrived, I slunk to the window. But what I saw was worse than anything I had ever seen before, worse than the most frightening accounts I had ever witnessed. Two Arrow Cross men were standing on the embankment of the river, aiming at and shooting a group of men, women, and children into the Danube – one after the other, on their coats the Yellow Star. I looked at the Danube. It was neither blue nor gray but red. With a throbbing heart, I ran back to the room in the middle of the apartment and sat on the floor, gasping for air."

Sixty pairs of  1940s-style shoes, sculpted put of iron. true to life in size and detail,.made in different sizes and styles, to depict how nobody, not even children, was spared the brutality of the Arrow Cross regime/sculpted out of iron, now line the river's bank, creating a ghostly memorial to the victims of this horrific time in history. Conceived by Hungarian film director Can Togay and later designed and created by his friend the sculptor Gula Pauer. 60’ was not just a random number of shoes to include in the holocaust memorial. It reflects the 600,000 Hungarian Jews who died during World War 2, and the memorial was created 60 years after the war. The memorial stretching for around 40 metres along the bank of the Danube was erected on 16 April 2005 and is located between the Hungarian parliament and the prestigious Széchenyi Chain Bridge and is known as 'Shoes on the Danube Promenade'  

The shoes transform this otherwise peaceful river bank into a “traumascape” They force locals and tourists to contemplate the violent history of this location. Even to visitors who are unfamiliar with the precise details of the victim’s death, the location of these empty shoes next to the river provokes an uneasy assumption that their wearers must be lost beneath the water of the river.

This memorial is simple yet chilling, depicting the shoes left behind by the thousands of Jews who were murdered by the Arrow Cross. The style of footwear - a man’s work boot; a business man’s loafer; a woman’s pair of heels; even the tiny shoes of a child - were chosen specifically to illustrate how no one, regardless of age, gender, or occupation was spared.The diversity highlights the indiscriminate cruelty perpetuated by the fascist regime. No matter your age, gender, or occupation, being Jewish was enough of a death sentence. 

What is striking is the individuality of each pair, rendering each shoe a tragedy in itself; Pauer has incorporated the history of the owner into their shoes, through the shape, where it is worn, and the imprint of the heel on the sole. Placed in a casual fashion, as if the people just stepped out of them, these little statues are a grim reminder of the souls who once occupied them.  And when viewing this sculpture, it is difficult to avoid a heartbreaking curiosity as to whom the shoes belonged to and the lives the owners might have led under normal circumstances. They may have lived long lives, fulfilling lives, lives filled with adventure or with boredom, rich lives or ordinary lives, but they lived, until they were murdered.

Despite the grimness and sheer horror of the story. the memorial acts as a beautiful place of reflection and reverence. Along bench runs behind the monument for quiet contemplation.Besides the daily visitors and tourists, the memorial is frequently visited by relatives of the fallen victims and people lay flowers and wreaths and light candles to honor those whose lives were tragically taken. At night, the sculpture is lit only by the glow of the flickering candles.

The authors have succeeded in depicting the incredible brutality while still commemorating the Jewish victims of World War II in a dignified manner. Their memorial standing as a post-apocalyptic witness of history.The monument challenges us to look at the bigger picture, and think about the mass murder of individuals, wherever it occurs, and not just to see them as mere numbers, but real, living, breathing people. 

Most of the shoes on the Danube Promenade Budapest have rusted. They are set tightly on the concrete of the embankment. Shockingly an act of vandalism of the shoe memorial occurred in 2010, when pig trotters were placed in the shoes in a willful act of desecration. The ensuing police investigation turned up no suspects. In 2014 it was reported a number of bronze shoes have been stolen from the riverside memorial. It is not known whether these incidents were racially motivated or simple theft. 

Since  replaced Shoes on the Danube Bank is a quiet reminder of a violent and oppressive past. These small, iron shoes humanise a gruesome statistic, drawing attention to the limitless cruelty of the fascist Arrow Cross and how much we need to continue to fight the current wave of fascism.

At three points along the memorial are cast iron signs with the following text in Hungarian, English, and Hebrew:

To the memory of the victims

shot into the Danube 

by Arrow Cross militiamen in 1944–45 

Erected 16th April, 2005  

Marking the 75th anniversary of Windrush

This week marks the 75th anniversary of the HMT Empire Windrush, formerly known as MV Monte Rosa arriving at Tilbury Docks in Essex carrying the first Caribbean migrants.It arrived at Tilbury Docks on the 21st June 1948 and the 492 Caribbean migrants disembarked today, 22nd June 1948 and marked a seminal moment in Britain’s history and has come to stand for the rich diversity of this nation.

Many people from British Commonwealth countries travelled to the UK between 1948 and 1971, encouraged by the 1948 British Nationality Act that granted citizenship and right of abode to all members of the British Empire.

Many of those who left sunnier climes were ex-servicemen who fought with the UK in the Second World War and had answered the British Government's call to help rebuild post war damaged Britain  Their hard work and skills would help bolster the economy, fill labour shortages and help establish our National Health Service.Their descendants have continued to enrich social, economic, political and religious life. It is estimated that around 500,000 people living in the UK are part of the Windrush Generation, who arrived between 1948 and 1971.

Many encountered overt racism, discrimination, and rejection lack of acknowledgement of their professional skills and very different living conditions. The climate of Britain was not ready to embrace anyone who was different. "The Other" This was the era of "Sorry no coloured, No Irish, or dogs" The harrowing stories of being spat at, excluded from the mainstream, not accepted, not wanted, laughed at physically and emotionally abused. The stories told are horrific.Yet, despite all this they persevered. Many were granted the right to settle in the UK by the British Nationality Act 1948. Those legal rights meant that those migrated neither needed, nor were given documents upon entry to the UK.

After a successful campaign led by Patrick Vernon, Windrush Day was introduced in June 2018 in the wake the Windrush scandal when many of those invited to Britain suddenly found themselves on the wrong side of immigration laws that, unbeknown to them, had changed around them and many people from this generation were detained and deported illegally, some were denied health care and benefits and some people lost their homes. The documentation proving their status was destroyed by the same government that invited them here in the first place. 

We mark this day to celebrate British Caribbean communities and acknowledge the sacrifices and amazing contributions the Windrush generation and their descendants, and others who have arrived  from elsewhere - have made to British society. It is a major national moment to come together and celebrate this shared history, delving into the past and celebrating the present and future. 

There were also 66 Polish refugees on board the Empire Windrush on its now historic passage from the Caribbean to England. In the summer of 1943, some 1400 Poles, mostly women and children, amongst the thousands displaced from Poland by Soviet aggressions during World War II, were transported to Colonia Santa Rosa, a refugee village near the city of León, Mexico. Four governments – Polish, Mexican, British and American – had taken part in the negotiation of their safe haven.  The group remained at Santa Maria beyond the end of the war, until, on the 27th of March, 1947,Britain passed the Polish Resettlement Act. This legislation granted Polish troops who’d contributed to the Allied war effort permanent stay and assistance to integrate in Britain.  Additionally, arrangements were made to bring their dependents in exile throughout the world to join them.  In from every continent save North America and Antarctica sailed qualified displaced persons. After the  Empire Windrush departed Kingston, Jamaica, it detoured to Tampico, a port on the coast of Mexico, to collect the Polish passengers. All except one were wives and children of Polish military men who had fought alongside the Allies against Nazi Germany.The Empire Windrush was one of over 50 ships that transported Polish displaced persons from all over the world to the UK.

The 75th anniversary of the Empire Windrush's arrival in Britain from the Caribbean is being marked across the country - as campaigners say their battle for "justice" continues. The King was among those taking part in dozens of events on Thursday when he attended a service in Windsor after describing the Windrush generation's legacy as "profound and permanent". Events are also being held at London's Southwark Cathedral and the Port of Tilbury, Essex, where the ship docked on 22 June 1948,other events include exhibitions at museums across the UK and a carnival parade through the streets of Brixton in south London, while the Windrush flag is also being flown at major landmarks such as the Houses of Parliament. 

We should not forget the infamous words uttered by Theresa May, who then as home secretary in 2012 said  “The aim is to create, here in Britain, a really hostile environment for illegal immigrants.”

Under  racist immigration  polices introduced by Theresa May then and in  2014, many of the children of the Windrush migrants found themselves hounded by the government. Further changes to already racist immigration laws in 2012 and 2014 meant migrants could be forced to prove they have the right to be here.Although many people had lived and worked in Britain for most of their lives, law changes required them to have official documents to have access to healthcare.This "hostile" immigration policy devised by Theresa May during her time as Home Secretary has been  regarded as "almost like Nazi Germany" by some ministers.

In 2018 it emerged that many who made legitimate journeys to Britain had been wrongly detained and deported, despite having the right to live in the UK. Many lost homes and jobs and were denied access to healthcare and benefits. Some of those deported later died before they were able to return to Britain. 

The scandal led to the resignation of then-Home Secretary Amber Rudd, and prompted a wider debate about British immigration and deportation policy.This gross injustice has affected many lives, highlighting the systemic racism that exists in Britain. Its impact is still being felt today.

Theresa May later apologised and an inquiry led to the establishment of a compensation scheme for victims. However, the government has been criticised for being slow to pay out, amid claims the process places an unfair burden of proof on claimants.

Earlier this year, Human Rights Watch called for the Home Office to hand over control of the "hostile" scheme to an independent body instead. Labour MP Dawn Butler said on Thursday that many were still "in limbo" and accused ministers of not caring about the fate of victims. She said: "I think the government strategy is to wait for people to die. I think they want people to die.We're talking about pensioners, in their 70s and 80s, waiting to be compensated for the life that was taken away from them - and this government is dragging their feet."

Despite the scheme being launched five years ago, as of January 2023 only 12.8% of the 11,500 eligible claimants of the Windrush Compensation Scheme has received compensation.The Home Office said it remains “absolutely committed to righting the wrongs of the Windrush scandal” but recognised there is “more to do” when it comes to the compensation scheme.  Ms Braverman said the scheme had been simplified.  She also maintained it should be kept under the Home Office remit, despite calls to have it handled independently due to a belief there remains a lack of faith in the department among victims of the scandal,as in the meantime people have died without receiving a penny.

The very week of the 75th year anniversary, Suella Braverman refused to implement all recommendations of an independent review into the government’s wrongdoing. Many of the Windrush generation have either passed or are nearing the end of their lives. It’s government strategy to wait out the victims, so as not to make good on their promise to compensate This is utterly scandulous,.

We're seeing history repeating itself. The government is again scapegoating migrants who have played a crucial part in building this country. We've seen the government create a floating prison for victims of torture and war, we've seen horrific rhetoric and an expansion of the hostile environment.https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/apr/08/tory-plan-house-asylum-seekers-barges-dickensian 

The government’s commitment to real change after the Windrush scandal has been shown to be lots of empty promises but no action.To our horror the government continues to break their promise of change. Suella Braverman has just scrapped the unit responsible for reforming the Home Office after the Windrush scandal with the Home Secrrtary saying '"it is time to move on!.https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/jun/19/unit-reforming-home-office-windrush-scandal-being-disbanded

The government has also just announced there is a new coin to commemorate the Windrush generation. The introduction of a new coin does not do justice to the suffering it has caused.The hostile environment continues to affect many people in the UK, and people in all sectors of society are still made to do the job of border guards. The Home Office must be held accountable for its mistakes and give justice to those bearing the brunt of those mistakes.

This country owes a huge debt to the Windrush generation. The injustices that the Windrush generation and their families have faced have not gone away, as they struggle to secure their status and access the compensation they deserve. The Home Office must stop furthering the pain of victims of the Windrush scandal. If the Government were sincere in their apology, it’s time for the hostile environment to come to an end and they compensate victims fairly.

We should remind ourselves that  a lot of the government's policies on immigration/ asylum/ right to stay isn't driven by actual concrete consequences. It's driven by pandering to anti immigrant / racist views. Britain can only atone for damage caused by adopting policies exactly opposite to those currently in place, welcoming the migrants who come to our country with open arms and not treat them as second-class citizens.

On the 75th anniversary of Windrush as we celebrate and acknowledge the sacrifices and amazing contributions the Windrush generation and their descendants have made to British society. It is a major national moment to come together and celebrate this shared history, delving into the past and celebrating the present and future. but we must also remember their struggle.

Today is both a celebration and a sobering reminder that here in the UK, far too many people’s lives are still blighted by discrimination, inequality and injustice.  As we honour the legacy of the Windrush generation, we owe it to them to stand up to bigotry, hate and injustice.Lets continue to show our gratitude and respect to the people of Windrush, who did nothing wrong and did not deserve the treatment experienced or continue to endure. Categorised as illegal immigrants, they've suffered years of hardship at the hands of our government. They must be compensated. It is also more than time that the Conservatives’ cruel and discriminatory Hostile Environment comes to an end too,

Midsummer (A Poem for Summer Solstice )

Among Arcadias pathways loaded with light

Where fear and pain ceases to bloom,

Following the rich gifts of mother nature

As summer returns and keeps vigil,

The wheel of the year forever turning

Allows us to feel the delicate grip of hope,

To taste joy, as seasons keep flowing

In evolving cycles of life, death and rebirth,

On fertile land, each year we celebrate

Like the ancients. dancing with revelry,

Perceptions shifting. moving with time

Feeling safety, music healing within,

On longest day, infused with transition

As Awen calls releases sweet incantation,

Feeling the protective arms of oak

Bringing peace to enable hearts to glow,

Solstice rays shining warming within 

With gratitude release rich blessings,

As eyes sparkle with magic

The days ripened with love.

World Refugee Day 2023 : Hope Away from Home

Today marks World Refugee Day which honors the strength and resilience of refugees on their journey to safety as well as their contributions to societies that welcome them.

World Refugee Day has been marked on 20 June, ever since the UN General Assembly, on 4 December 2000, adopted resolution 55/76 where it noted that 2001 marked the 50th anniversary of the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of  Refugees, and that the Organization of African Unity (OAU) had agreed to have International Refugee Day coincide with Africa Refugee Day on 20 June.

The annual commemoration is marked by a variety of events in over 100 countries, involving government officials, aid workers, celebrities, civilians and the forcibly displaced themselves. Never before have the immediate needs of vulnerable children and their families been so great. Some 20 million refugees half of whom are children, have been forced to flee violence, poverty and persecution taking perilous sea voyages over the Mediterranean. 

Only last week saw one  of the greatest migrant boat disasters in the modern history of the Mediterranean. Only 104 people have been rescued from a boat that carried an estimated 750 refugees after it capsized on June 13 in the open sea near the coastal town of Pylos in Greece.  Scores of lifeless bodies have been pulled out from the water, and many more have washed ashore. Hundreds are still missing, feared dead, many of whom are women and children, as they huddled on the lower deck of the 30-metre boat. 

The latest boat disaster tells us a story of war, poverty, inequality and despair.The identity of those who died at sea gives us clues to the origins of the story. They were Syrians, Palestinians, Afghans and more. These refugees were seeking safety, coveting mere survival. The sad irony is that the latest episode of this seemingly endless horror took place exactly one week before the United Nations was set to “celebrate” World Refugee Day, 

The theme for World Refugee Day 2023 is "Hope away from Home". The theme emphasizes the importance of including refugees in the communities where they have found safety. This includes providing them with access to education, healthcare, employment, and other essential services. It also means welcoming them into our communities and creating a sense of belonging.

When refugees are included in their host communities, they are more likely to be able to restart their lives and rebuild their futures. They are also more likely to contribute to the countries that have welcomed them. 

The theme of "Hope Away from Home" also reminds us that refugees are not just numbers, but individuals with hopes, dreams, and families. They deserve our compassion and support as they rebuild their lives. The irony of the “Hope Away from Home” theme for World Refugee Day is palpable given the news of those lost  in over-crowded boat capsizing off the Greek coast just a few days ago. This is the latest of many such tragedies in the Mediterranean, the world’s most dangerous migration route.  That sea has taken the lives of over 27,000 people in the past decade, nearly half of over 56,000 migrant deaths worldwide.while trying to reach European shores between 2014 and 2022.  The real number is expected to be much higher as there are no official records of how many people embark on these deadly journeys in the first place. 

The identity of the victims — Syrians, Palestinians, Afghans, Sudanese — should have been a major clue as to why people take such terrible risks, only to reach European countries, where they endure great hardships, including racial discrimination, just to survive.

Other notoriously deadly migration routes traverse the Sahel, originate in West Asia or cross the English Channel.  There are many more hidden casualties among the record-breaking 108 million forcibly displaced worldwide, whose numbers doubled over the past 10 years. They include 35 million refugees, 5 million asylum seekers and 5 million others requiring protection. The remaining 63 million are displaced internally within their own countries.

Decent global citizens are forgiven for not knowing the difference between these categories of desperate humanity. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) tries to explain, but distinctions without a difference occur because states interpret the 1951 Refugee Convention and 1967 Protocol in nuanced ways.  These instruments define refugees as those “unable or unwilling to return to their country of origin owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion”. 

The most crucial component concerns the principle of non-refoulement that derives from customary law dating back centuries. It prohibits returning people to a place where they face torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment and other irreparable harm.  However, only 149 (of 206 countries and territories) have acceded to one or other of the refugee agreements. Others decide on their own scope for refugee protection. 

 Adding to the confusion are some 260 regional texts concerning refugees, including the 1984 Cartagena Declaration in Latin America and the 1969 OAU Convention on African refugees. Although UNHCR is the official authority to make refugee status determinations, it is nearly impossible for humble refugees stranded somewhere to petition the mighty Geneva-headquartered agency.

In practical terms, refugee entitlements are determined by whichever country the asylum seeker can get a hearing from.  When refugee status is finally bestowed, it is a life sentence, with the average refugee spending 20 years in limbo before finding a durable solution. This is either local integration within their hosting nation, re-settlement in a third country or returning to their original home. Such solutions are rare: 

In 2022, only 114,300 refugees were re-settled, and 339,300 returned home. Most muddle along where-ever they find themselves, often getting uprooted again and again.  Forced displacement is not equally created. More than half originate from three countries – Syria, Ukraine and Afghanistan. And, of those that flee abroad, 70 per cent are hosted by precarious neighbours. These are generally low- and middle-income countries with their own challenges; the countries hosting the most refugees are Turkey, Iran, Colombia and Pakistan. Among developed nations, the US and Germany have been the most generous in receiving them.  

Currently, the world’s largest refugee settlement encompasses 33 highly congested camps in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar. This is the fire-, cyclone- and disease-prone home for nearly a million Rohingya fleeing ethnic and religious persecution in Myanmar. The Rohingya people have been described by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres as "one of, if not the, most discriminated people in the world". Having faced decades of discrimination and persecution, it was in August 2017 that violence and instability forced hundreds of thousands of Rohingya people to flee to neighbouring Bangladesh.   Today, over 943,000 Rohingya people live in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. 

Also deserving special mention are 5.8 million Palestinian refugees.Between 1947 and 1949, at least 750,000 Palestinian from a 1.9 million native population were forced out of their own land by Zionists militias who later established Israel.   At least 450 towns and villages were depopulated at the time, preventing millions of Palestinians from home lands for decades. At the time, Israeli forces ethnically cleansed and destroyed at least 530 villages and cities and killed 15,000 Palestinians, 

More than 70 massacres have been also committed by Israel since then.  According to 2020 figures, there are up to 5.6 million Palestinian refugees, with at least 28.4% scattered in 58 UNRWA-run camps in Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, the West Bank and Gaza.  While the Nakba, also known as “the catastrophe”, is associated with 1948, Palestinians on the ground still face ongoing forced dispossession by Israeli forces.  Between 2009 and 2022, Israel demolished at least 8,413 Palestinian structures,and at least least 12,491 people have been displaced during the reported period. 

World Refugee Day  coincides with Refugee Week  an annual, week-long festival from 19-25 June 2023 that celebrates the contributions, creativity and resilience of refugees and people seeking sanctuary. The theme for Refugee Week 2023 is Compassion. Compassion should be at the heart of the way we treat people seeking safety, and each of us can play our part.

Together, we should be creating an outpouring of compassion and show individual refugees that they are welcome here. but the persecution of refugees continues, whipped up by forces of racism spreading fear and misinformation. 

Persecution, conflict and war in every region of the world means that millions of people are seeking refuge outside of their home country, with tens of millions more displaced internally.  Those displaced by conflict are being joined annually by more than 20 million escaping climate and environmental disasters. This is projected to increase to a staggering 1.2 billion by 2050, on current trends.In 2022, the number of refugees and forcibly displaced people surpassed 100 million: 

The vast majority of people seek refuge in less wealthy countries. Low- and middle-income countries host 74% of the world’s refugees and other people in need of international protection.

The least developed countries provide asylum to 22% of the global total. States have committed to ease the pressure on host countries under the Global Compact for Refugees, but resettlement numbers remain negligible and the budget of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees is chronically underfunded.

In destination countries, refugees and displaced people face enormous barriers to accessing decent work opportunities. In some places, refugees cannot access labour markets because of legal restrictions or costly administrative procedures. 

In other countries without such restrictions, refugees face other challenges linked to language barriers, a lack of skills recognition, an absence of training opportunities and insufficient or absent public services for job-matching. 

Refugees are put at further risk as populist right-wing political forces, on the rise across the world, fuel xenophobia and racism. In reality, world refugees, are not “celebrated,” but mostly vilified. They are seen as a burden, not an opportunity to confront and fix the underlying problems, old and new, that led to their original displacement.

It is more than  time that  richer nations must acknowledge refugees for the victims they are, fleeing from wars they were unable to prevent or stop. History has shown that doing the right thing for victims of war and persecution engenders goodwill and prosperity for generations. And it fosters stability in the long run.

Paradoxically though refugees are not being treated in the same way, Currently  the EU offers blanket protection to all Ukrainians, but arrivals from Ethiopia or Sudan who survived horrendously abusive conflicts must prove their worthiness for asylum on an individual basis.

While white Ukrainian nationals have been welcomed as refugees, non-white nationals and non-Ukrainian nationals have been shown racism and denied access to aid and the right to cross the border safely. The treatment of Roma refugees, many of whom are Ukrainian nationals, has also been shocking. Roma refugees have often been sent to separate shelters – the Roma shelters having, in one example ,in Moldova, only one working toilet and no showers for over 100 people.

All people fleeing war, conflict or repression have a right to cross borders to seek asylum, but refugees from Africa, Asia and the Middle East are routinely refused access to relief, aid, and asylum, sometimes being placed in detention centres, despite facing persecution in their own countries. Those who are fleeing violence and seeking protection should be treated equally, no matter where they are from.

Germany is renowned for opening its borders to a million Syrian refugees. But this is a historical anachronism, as Europeans tighten their borders and squabble internally over burden-sharing. Concurrently, EU policy is externalising border control to reduce refugee entry, for example, with $6 billion to incentivise Turkey to stop refugees getting into the EU. Australia has pioneered the concept of offshoring asylum seekers to Papua New Guinea and Nauru. While the ethics of that has been fiercely debated, and condemned for it's  cruelty the UK has been inspired to make a similar agreement with Rwanda. 

Refugees are among the world’s most vulnerable people. They are protected by the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol. They are the only international legal tools that directly address the most critical parts of a refugee’s life. Refugees, according to its rules, are entitled to the same treatment as other foreign nationals in a given country, and in many situations, the same treatment as nationals. The 1951 Convention establishes a variety of rights for refugees and emphasizes their responsibilities to their host country.with the following rights: 

The right not to be expelled unless and until particular, clearly specified circumstances are met. 

The right not to be penalized for illegally entering a contracting State’s territory.

The right to housing The right to education 

The right to work 

The right to freedom of movement within the territory 

The right to public relief and assistance 

The right to access the courts 

The right to freedom of religion 

The right to be issued identity and travel documents 

All refugees have certain basic rights, including the right to be shielded from deportation. The longer a refugee stays in the host country, the more rights they are entitled to, based on the fact that the longer they stay as refugees, the more rights they require.

The world needs to renew its commitment now to the 1951 Refugee Convention and its principles that made us strong. To offer safe harbor, both in our own countries and in the epicentres of the crises, and to help refugees restore their lives. In a world where violence has forced hundreds of families to flee each day.

World Refugee Day marks the opportunity to raise awareness of the plight of refugees and to show our support for them. while at the same time celebrating their resilience and courage.Refugees have often faced unimaginable challenges and  suffered unimaginable loss, and yet are still  filled with the strength to triumph over adversity in rebuilding their lives..

The refugee crisis is a human crisis. Their story is our story. We are all human,and together, we can build a better world.We all have an important role in ensuring that refugees have the support they need. When we work together, we can help even more people feel safe from conflict, stay healthy and forge ahead to a better, stronger future.Every act of kindness makes a difference/ and we can all help to make the world a more welcoming place for refugees.

The day also  serves to remind  all humans to take action to address the root causes of displacement. The vast majority of refugees are fleeing conflict, violence, or persecution. We need to work to end these conflicts and create a more peaceful world where everyone can live in safety and security.

Those who leave everything behind for the purpose of living in peace need our support and solidarity.  We must remember that arms trade helps exacerbate the crisis, plus  poverty and inequality, war and conflict, we need to build bridges not more obstacles and borders. and confront the weapons manufacturers and political meddlers who provoke and exacerbate conflicts.

World Refugee Day sheds light on refugees’ rights, needs, and hopes, aiding in mobilizing political will and support so that refugees will not only flourish but grow. Although it is critical to protect and strengthen the lives of refugees daily, international days such as World Refugee Day also serves to draw public attention to the plight of those fleeing wars or persecution.and to commemorate the lives of thousands of migrants and refugees who have lost their lives in the Mediterranean, seeking safety on their way to Europe. 

We should be deeply saddened and disturbed by the suffering, hopelessness and death, which continues for thousands of our human brothers and sisters on the outer borders of the European Union.

Let us remember the documented, as well as the undocumented persons, who have died at our European borders, seeking safety from violence, war or economic desperation.

We must stop racism towards refugees, as we have seen happening with non-white refugees from Ukraine, and others. It is unacceptable that, in 2022, people forced to flee their homes are still being treated as second-class citizens just because they are from a different country and may have a different skin colour. This includes ending dehumanising and demeaning agreements such as the one the UK has made with Rwanda.  Global policies on refugees must urgently be decolonised, ensuring all refugees and asylum seekers are equally heard and prioritised.

In the aftermath of the tragic shipwreck off Pylos that continues to bring shock and much sorrow, we cannot but mark this Word Refugee Day without being humbled and with the profound acknowledgement that this world is tragically short on solutions for people forced to flee. On World Refugee Day, and every day, let us  stand in solidarity with the 103 million refugees around the world, who have been forced to flee their homes and are still fighting for justice. Refugee rights are human rights. Migrant Rights are human rights. Asylum seekers' rights are human rights. All displaced peoples' rights are human rights.