Noel Clarke: ITV drops drama Viewpoint finale after allegations

TODAY ITV has decided to pull the final episode of the drama Viewpoint after allegations of sexual harassment were made against its star, Noel Clarke.

The broadcaster said it was 'no longer appropriate to broadcast the final episode' on Friday as planned.

Sky has also "halted" its work with Clarke, including on the fourth series of crime drama Bulletproof.

The Kidulthood and Doctor Who star, 45, has said he "vehemently" denies "any sexual misconduct or wrongdoing".

In a statement on Thursday, he said he intended to "defend myself against these false allegations".

The Guardian newspaper reported allegations from 20 women, all of whom knew Clarke in a professional capacity, on Thursday.

On Friday, ITV said it had "a zero tolerance policy to bullying, harassment and victimisation".

"We strongly believe that everyone deserves to work in a supportive and safe environment," it added.

"In light of the very serious nature of the allegations against Noel Clarke raised by 20 women in the Guardian's report, ITV has decided it is no longer appropriate to broadcast the final episode of the drama Viewpoint on ITV main channel this evening."

However, the finale will be available on its streaming service ITV Hub from Friday night for a limited time "for any viewers who wish to seek it out, and watch its conclusion".

Clarke played a surveillance detective in the show, which has been on ITV every evening this week. It was watched by 3.5 million people on Thursday.

He is also known for his role in Bulletproof, which Sky commissioned for a fourth series in January.

But following the allegations, Sky said: "Effective immediately, we have halted Noel Clarke's involvement in any future Sky productions."

The broadcaster said it had not received any reports of sexual misconduct or harassment during or since the show's production. "Sky stands against all forms of sexual harassment and bullying and takes any allegations of this nature extremely seriously," it added.

Bulletproof's production company Vertigo Films also said: "Effective immediately, Noel Clarke is removed from any Vertigo Films production."

A spokesperson for the company said it had "launched an urgent investigation to find out if any [alleged incidents] apply to any Vertigo Films productions", but that "no issues have been flagged to us".

Fellow Bulletproof actor Ashley Walters responded to the allegations against his co-star by saying he was "in shock and deeply saddened by what I have heard on a multitude of levels".

He said he "could never condone behaviour of this nature" and while "Noel has been a friend and a colleague for several years, I cannot stand by and ignore these allegations".

He added: "Sexual harassment, abuse and bullying have no place in our industry." In his statement on Thursday, Clarke added: "In a 20-year career, I have put inclusivity and diversity at the forefront of my work and never had a complaint made against me. "If anyone who has worked with me has ever felt uncomfortable or disrespected, I sincerely apologise."

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ON THE BUSES: An Apartheid of Ageism

Rochdale Bus Station Boss Pleads Data Protection

by BRIAN BAMFORD

THIS AFTERNOON a supervisor at Rochdale Bus Station faced with a chaotic circus of non-compliant crowds of students elbowing older passengers aside as they boarded the 17 bus enroute for Manchester at going-home time between 3.30pm and 4.30pm refused to give his name claiming his right to data protection. Social distancing was being ignored throughout the town centre bus station as the manager who refused to give his name claimed that he was powerless to insist that young passengers wear masks or obey the posters warning citizens that if they didn't they could be 'fined £200'.

The Rochdale supervisor told a man complaining about the prevailing swarms of young students who were intimidating other passengers in order to junp the queues that he would have him physically removed from the bus station if he coninued to protest. He said he was unwilling to bring-in the Greater Manchester Transport Police to make safe travel at the bus station possible. Security staff were present within the station but when asked by an elderly lady to intervene to ensure that the bus queues within the station were properly policed said they couldn't, and immediately moved away making themselves scarce.

When an 80-year-old man exasperated by the supervisor's dismisive attitude asked if he was impotent, muscle-bound when confronted with the chaos in the bus station with people deliberately flouting covid regulations described the supervisor's insistance that he was entitled to data protection as 'bollocks'! At that point the supervisor used the term as an excuse to switch on his camera and threaten to have the elderly man physically removed from his station, and a lady who was accompanying the man took fright that the station-master was going to have her partner removed by force.

Then the lady in earnest described how another old lady with a stick had been pushed aside at the 17 bus stop, the bus station supervisor then offered an absurd suggestion saying 'you should chose a different time of day to catch the bus!'.

It seems that Rochdale Bus Station has now surrendered control to the spirit of an ageist aparthied and mob rule under the current management who are shy about giving their names and are happy to bully old folk who have timerity to complain about the unbearable conditions of public transport in Rochdale town centre.

'Catch an earlier bus' seems to be becoming the 'general war cry' of officialdom in answer to the current covid crisis. This was the message earlier this year given to a passenger in South Manchester to which she responded as reported in the Manchester Evening News below:

'She branded their advice to catch earlier or later services as 'ludicrous and preposterous', adding: "I have to work nine to five. I cannot be getting a bus at 7am and standing in the cold outside my office waiting for my boss to arrive. I cannot leave early to get a bus at 4pm or wait in town for later services so they are quiet, especially as all cafes are shut.'

And she continued:

"I am sick of being made to travel under these conditions.

"They should be paying for the number of buses actually needed at rush hour to ensure conditions are safe for passengers who no option other than to go to work on these buses or lose their jobs."

She added: "Last night it was freezing, and there was one window open for most of the journey, but there is very little that can be done to stop passengers closing them. There was also a man sitting on the back seat with his mask on his chin."

She also claims drivers say nothing to passengers who flout mask rules, adding: "Why should those passengers complying, especially many many NHS staff using these services, be put at risk by these selfish individuals?

"This does not need encouragement, it needs enforcement, and anything less is absolutely pointless."

It seems that the authorities have abandoned all attempts at enforcement and rule is now in the hands of the mob.

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RIP Rick Sumner, ex- miner, founder of the Justice for Mineworkers Campaign

by Dave Chapple

Rick Sumner passed away peacefully at home on Saturday while watching his beloved Manchester City contest the FA Cup semi-final.

THOUGH a proud Lancastrian, Rick was for many years a miner at Shuttle Eye Colliery in West Yorkshire but also worked variously as a trawlerman fishing in the icy waters of the North Atlantic, as a scaffolder and steel erector on some of Manchester’s biggest construction sites, being a key mover behind the Building Workers’ Charter, and, later, as a community and grass roots advice worker in Manchester’s Moss Side.

His life, throughout, was that of a principled working class militant, an active trade unionist and dedicated fighter for socialism and workers’ democracy. He did not disdain politics and, for a period, joined the International Socialists.

Immediately after the end of the Great Strike of 1984/85, he and his lifelong comrade and inseparable partner, Christine, saw the need to work energetically to support the more than a thousand striking miners victimised by the National Coal Board.

In doing so, they established the National Justice For Mineworkers’ Campaign (NJMC) – with the support of the NUM – to sustain the sacked men and their families and to run a relentless campaign for their reinstatement and restoration of their pension and other rights. Parallel with this, they co-sponsored the annual, always well-attended, memorial meeting in Barnsley each March to commemorate David Jones and Joe Green, the two miners killed during the strike.

Rick and Chris – and volunteers from the ranks of the sacked miners like Ken Ambler and Keith “Froggy” Frogson who was murdered by a scab – were a firm feature of every labour movement and trade union gathering, with their mining memorabilia stall raising funds for families in truly desperate need.

From 1986 and until recently, they raised thousands and thousands of pounds for the great cause and earned the support, respect and admiration of the NUM and its activists across the British coalfields. Rick and Chris’s commitment to the miners was absolute, it was unbreakable and it never wavered.

Rick had a peerless reputation in another arena of politics: the battle against racism, antisemitism and fascism. When he and Chris lived in Manchester’s Moss Side, they started tenants’ organisations and worked with the Campaign Against Racial Discrimination to oppose racist slum landlords.

Rick’s personal courage, never flinching from direct physical confrontation with fascists, was a byword and inspiration to many young activists. He also played a key role in anti-fascist intelligence-gathering with the comrades who later launched Searchlight magazine.

Rick and Chris, before her death after a long battle against cancer, left the NJMC in good hands and retired to live by the sea on the Yorkshire coast, close to family members, but never lost contact with comrades and friends, always bidding them a warm welcome. In the circumstances of his retirement, he was able to devote more time to following Manchester City and to working hard to support the local lifeboat service.

He will be sorely missed by all who had the honour of knowing him. He is irreplaceable.

Deepest condolences to son Dan and daughter Suze.

By Graeme Atkinson

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One response on “Obituary for Rick Sumner: A miner, a trade unionist and an anti-fascist Written by Graeme Atkinson” 1. Chris Skidmore28 April 2021 at 13:15

“Selfless,Calm, Dignified and Resolute is how I would describe Rick Sumner and feel proud and privileged to have known and respected him. On behalf of my family and the Yorkshire Area NUM who I represent, I wish to add these condolences and richly deserved tributes, Chris Skidmore (Yorkshire Area NUM Chairman)

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To live in a diverse society means to live with debate. Bring it on

Sun 28 Mar 2021

No one has a right not to be offended. All of us have a duty to challenge bigotry. These two claims are not just compatible, they are often interconnected. Today, though, many view these as conflicting perspectives. To give offence to other cultures or faiths, they argue, is to foment racism; to challenge racism, one should refrain from giving offence.

It’s a belief at the heart of the controversy engulfing Batley grammar school. The facts are still unclear. A teacher apparently showed an image of the Prophet Muhammad in a religious education class. Some parents have demanded the teacher be sacked, holding protests outside the school. The school has apologised and suspended the teacher involved. At the heart of the affair, the former Tory cabinet minister Sayeeda Warsi insists, is the issue of “child safeguarding”, of protecting children from racist bullying.

It is inevitable in plural societies that we offend the sensibilities of others. Where different beliefs are deeply held, disagreement is unavoidable. Almost by definition, that’s what it means to live in a plural society. If we cherish diversity, we should establish ways of having such debates and conversations in a civil manner, not try to suppress them. A structured discussion in a classroom, properly done, seems an ideal approach.

It is inevitable, too, that in pursuing social change, we often offend deeply held sensibilities. Many groups struggling for justice and equality – women, gays, non-believers – within religious communities cannot but be blasphemous. In this context, to accept that certain things cannot be said is to accept that certain forms of power cannot be challenged. Fighting for social justice, in other words, often requires us to offend others. The boundaries of speech are different in a classroom than in the world outside. Here, a teacher is dealing with minors, building a relationship of trust with them, encouraging them to think, and to think about issues that they may not have thought about or may not have wanted to think about.

But here, too, there is nothing wrong in discussing material that may offend or be deemed blasphemous. Some commentators, including Warsi, claim that pupils were shown a Charlie Hebdo cartoon depicting Muhammad with a bomb in his turban. The problem, they say, is not blasphemy but racism.

Whether this claim is true is unclear. Given that, in Paris, Samuel Paty, a teacher, was beheaded after a schoolgirl’s false claim, we should be wary of jumping to conclusions before knowing all the facts. Even if the story is true as reported, however, it does not imply that the teacher was misguided. Nor does it show that the class discussion was a cause of racism or bullying.

One can play a clip of a Bernard Manning joke, show an antisemitic cartoon or discuss a Charlie Hebdo cover in ways that heighten racist prejudices. One can also do each of these things in ways that allow students to think more deeply about the issue at hand and reduce racial or religious tensions. What matters is the manner and context in which the subject is approached. To simply insist that showing offensive material in the classroom is to exacerbate racism is a disingenuous means of manipulating “safeguarding” to limit what can be discussed.

One of the ironies of such controversies is that they serve to silence many Muslim voices and traditions. Virtually every press report on the Batley school controversy has claimed that there is an Islamic prohibition on the depiction of the Prophet Muhammad, as, indeed, does the “agreed syllabus for religious education” in West Yorkshire.

This is historically illiterate. There have been many Islamic traditions, particularly in Persia, Turkey and India, open to depicting Muhammad. Only in the 17th century did attitudes shift, particularly among Sunnis. In recent decades, reactionaries, both Sunni and Shia, have seized on prohibition as a means of strengthening their control over Muslim communities. To claim that “Islam prohibits depictions of Muhammad” is to take the most conservative views and present them as representative of Islam.

When we say that we live in a diverse society, we mean that it’s a messy world out there, full of disagreement and debate. That is something we should welcome, not fear, for it is such disagreement and debate that allow us to break out of our culture-bound boxes, to engage in a wider dialogue that can help forge a more universal language of citizenship. The question we should ask ourselves is not how to minimise such debates, but how to create ways of engaging in them more constructively.

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Kenan Malik is an Observer columnist

Belarus plane: 'Perfect storm' prompts EU to act fast

by Nick Beake</i>

BBC Brussels correspondent

Published

2 days ago

"Had they not acted now," one senior diplomat told me, "an EU foreign policy as an instrument to project geopolitical power was pretty much buried."

The agreement reached on Belarus by the 27 European leaders last night was unusually swift, leading senior Brussels officials to claim they'd taken tough action in the face of a wholly unacceptable act.

Demanding the immediate release of dissident journalist Roman Protasevich, they agreed Belarusian airlines should be banned from European skies and that EU airlines should not fly over Belarus, with a plan for further, targeted economic sanctions.

"This was a unanimous judgement," declared European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen at an early hours press conference.

"It was an attack on democracy, freedom of expression and European sovereignty and needed a strong answer."

But, the same diplomat suggested, the crisis that Minsk had precipitated represented a "perfect storm": the circumstances were such that the EU would have been hard pushed not to secure some sort of agreement.

First, the shock that the lives of passengers travelling between two EU capitals were put at risk.

Second, the reason for their imperilment seemingly being the desire to detain a dissident journalist.

Third, EU officials were already at an advanced stage of tightening existing sanctions on the Lukashenko regime.

What happens with a military jet interception?

Some wondered whether Hungary may resist further measures against Belarus. Prime Minister Viktor Orban has continued to lend his support to the 27-year rule of Alexander Lukashenko amid allegations of vote-rigging and brutal suppression of dissenters. But it seems Mr Orban was not willing to pick a fight last night.

What difference will sanctions make?

At this point, it's hard to tell what impact the strengthened sanctions will have. EU officials are now assessing which of the individuals, companies (and therefore sectors) that have propped up the Belarusian government will find themselves targeted.

The leaders may have agreed on the principle of stronger economic sanctions, but there has been division within the bloc on the details.

Germany, Italy and France, countries with considerable commercial ties to Minsk, have reportedly been reluctant in the past weeks to embark on a path that may jeopardise their own legitimate economic interests. German media report that around 350 companies could be affected by harsher measures, including giants such as Siemens and Bosch.

In the coming days, this could become a renewed and heightened source of disagreement between the capitals.

What more can the EU do?

As had been widely trailed, the response to what has been described as "state-sponsored hijacking" and "airline piracy" focused, in part, on the aviation sector.

Here, the EU was not first out of the blocks - the UK and Ukraine had already announced a ban for Belarusian planes and called for a boycott of Belarusian airspace. But this collective action will serve to further isolate Belarus - and significantly its people, which will be of concern.

Why EU is often slow to act

To the EU's critics, foreign policy has long been the bloc's Achilles' heel: a supranational approach that all too often misses the mark. Two recent events symbolise the difficulties the bloc faces in both policy and practical terms in acting with a coherent, unified voice.

First, there was the uncomfortable visit to Moscow of Josep Borrell, the foreign policy chief, in February when he failed to defend Europe's leaders from accusations of lying.

In Ankara in April, there was the sight of Commission President Ursula von der Leyen being a denied a seat, apparently because she was a woman, while European Council President Charles Michel got the VIP treatment.

After these sleights from Putin's Russia and Erdogan's Turkey, another "strongman" in the form of Lukashenko's Belarus has stepped forward this week to present a test in the sphere of foreign policy. Brussels feels its risen to the challenge.

But if there was any hope the converging European consensus would have an immediate impact on Mr Lukashenko, it was short-lived.

As the tougher measures were being agreed upon behind closed doors at the EU summit, the leader was himself approving stricter measures - banning the live streaming of protests his government has not authorised.

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The Ha’Penny & The Gingerbread by Les May

INFAMY, Infamy, they’ve all got it in for me! is a line by Julius Caesar (Kenneth Williams) from the 1964 comedy film Carry on Cleo. But it sums up the response of recent Israeli governments and their apologists whenever they are confronted with questions about their behaviour in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT).

Apartheid is recognized as a crime against humanity in the 1973 International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid (“Apartheid Convention”) and the 1998 Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) which also sets out the crime against humanity of persecution.

Because the state of Palestine is a party to both the Rome Statute and the Apartheid Convention the International Criminal Court (ICC) ruled in February 2021, that it has jurisdiction over serious international crimes committed in the entirety of the OPT, including East Jerusalem, which would include the crimes against humanity of apartheid or persecution committed in that territory. In March 2021, the ICC announced the opening of a formal investigation into the situation in Palestine.

On 27 April the organisation Human Rights Watch (HRW) published a 213 page report which claims that the overarching Israeli government policy to maintain the domination by Jewish Israelis over Palestinians authorities amounts to the crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution.

Predictably the response of the apologists for the Israeli government has been to both reject the report and to try to muddy the water by claiming that organisations which try to bring pressure on Israel to change its policies are intent on denying its right to exist.

Legal measures such as those we may see from the ICC are necessarily directed against individuals within a state, not against the state itself, so it is difficult to see how this is a credible argument if say the Israeli Prime Minister were tried in his absence. If found guilty it would be for other states to decide what sanctions should be place on the individual concerned. It would also be a massive embarrassment for the state of Israel.

Such a case could only meaningfully be brought so long as Israel remains as the Occupying Power in Palestine and continues its annexation of East Jerusalem, which is itself prohibited by international law. If Israel does not want to be seen as a country whose rulers could face the ignominy of being declared guilty of crimes against humanity it has the option of simply ending its occupation and allowing a functioning state of Palestine to come into being.

But Israel wants both the Ha’Penny and the Gingerbread; it wants to continue its occupation and be given a Persilschein.

The HRW report is called A Threshold Crossed: Israeli Authorities and the Crimes of Apartheid and Persecution. It is available on WWW.

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Muhammad cartoon teacher fundraiser under scrutiny by Tom Belger in 'SCHOOLS WEEK'

Mon 5th Apr 2021, 5.00

A fundraising campaign for the teacher at the centre of the Muhammad cartoon row is being led by an activist accused of stirring up local ethnic tensions.

It comes as a petition demanding the teacher’s reinstatement reached almost 70,000 signatures.

The staff member’s use of caricatures of the prophet in class sparked protests outside Batley Grammar School in West Yorkshire, thrusting it into the middle of a wider row over religion and free speech.

The school has now ordered an independent investigation into its curriculum after immediately suspending the teacher and apologising “unequivocally” over the materials used in RE lessons. The teacher involved is reported to fear for his life after death threats forced him into hiding.

An online fundraising page to help the teacher fight for his “job, reputation and security” secured more than £5,600 in donations within a day of its launch on Wednesday.

Creator Paul Halloran called it the “official fundraiser,” and said he was a family friend who had been asked to set it up.

But Halloran’s involvement in past local community tensions may risk further politicising divides over the issue.

Standing as a candidate in the 2019 local elections, Halloran faced claims from opponents across the political spectrum that he was stirring up ethnic divisions.

Halloran came third in the Barley West ward for the Heavy Woollen District independent party, whose only other local candidate Aleks Lukic was a former UKIP candidate.

Lukics led a controversial campaign to stop non-stunned halal meat being served in schools, with Halloran demanding the council reveal which schools did so.

Kirklees’ Labour council leader Shabir Pandor told the local Yorkshire Live news site their motives were “extreme and dangerous” accusing the pair of trying to “sow division” by politicising the issue.

Conservative leader David Hall agreed all meat should be pre-stunned to avoid animal cruelty, but condemned “those who would try to stir up community tensions” over the issue.

Halloran has also criticised the term “Islamophobia,” saying all racism should be called out. “I don’t see a lot in the Muslim community commenting on grooming gangs and terrorism…. Let’s not invent a word that will stop us debating those things,” he reportedly said, according to the Press local newspaper. He denied accusations of racism.

But Halloran told Schools Week he “wholeheartedly” rejected ‘far-right’ labels, calling them “nonsense” promoted by his political opponents to discredit him. He said he was a respected local man who belonged to no political party, and had friends of “all cultures and religions.”

But he said he remained concerned “the word ‘Islamophobic’ is used at time to stifle reasoned and respectful debate.”

Footage of protests outside Batley Grammar’s gates quickly went viral, catapulting the area into the headlines only a few years after the murder of local Labour MP Jo Cox by a far-right extremist.

Demonstrators’ anger over depictions of Muhammad, reportedly caricatures from French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, and the school’s apology for “inappropriate” RE materials quickly sparked a backlash against the backlash.

Many appealed for calm but the row sparked not only fierce rows over blasphemy, schooling, free speech and multiculturalism but also reported death threats. Conservative peer Sayeeda Warsi warned debate had been “hijacked by extremists on both sides.”

The DfE swiftly called the protests and threats “completely unacceptable,” and defended the inclusion of controversial curriculum materials. The teacher involved is reported to have been teaching about blasphemy.

National Secular Society chief executive Stephen Evans told Schools Week school leaders “shouldn’t allow blasphemy taboos enforced through intimidation to dictate their teaching.”

The school switched to remote learning amid the protests. The independent investigation will review the “context in which the materials [which caused offence] were used, and to make recommendations in relation to the Religious Studies curriculum so that the appropriate lessons can be learned and action taken, where necessary”.

An independent investigation panel will be appointed over the next fortnight, with the probe set to begin on April 12 and report “towards the end of May.”

,

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'Fire and rehire': National day of action

TODAY, 26 April, we’re holding a national day of action, demanding the government end fire and rehire now.

While the pandemic continues to create misery, unscrupulous employers – many in profit and some even claiming government financial support — are cynically exploiting the crisis to force workers to sign up to thousands of pounds of wage cuts and worse conditions or lose their jobs.

It’s estimated that one in 10 workers have already been threatened with fire and rehire, and many more will be as furlough comes to an end.

We need Unite members to come together, up and down the country, to show solidarity with members under threat of fire and rehire and make clear to bullying bosses that we won't stand for it.

Businesses have been supported by government. Workers should be treated fairly too. Yet although some government ministers have described fire and rehire as “bully-boy” tactics, it’s still legal. That’s why Unite is calling on the government to bring legislation to outlaw fire and rehire.

We will be working with the Unite group of MPs to maximise all available opportunities in Parliament. With your support your MP will get the message loud and clear – this intimidation should be banned.

There are a number of ways that you can support this campaign:

1) A socially distanced, covid-safe group photograph with a banner/posters – materials are available in regional offices.

2) Distribution of leaflets within workplaces

3) Share images and videos on social media using #EndFireAndRehire hashtag and tag @UnitePolitics

4) Invite your local MP/Councillor candidate to visit demonstrations to show solidarity

7) Write to your local paper

8) Email your MP and get them to sign this Early Day Motion (EDM) in Parliament.

Resources such as leaflets will be available on www.endfireandhire.com

Please do get involved, and help us show that Unite members are front and centre of the fight against this abhorrent practice.

We are winning the fight in workplaces, now let’s win it in Westminster.

Workers fighting fire and rehire

Aerospace members refused to be bullied

Strikes at the aerospace parts firm SPS have been called off after a deal was reached to end ‘fire and rehire’ threats that would have resulted in staff losing up to £3,000 a year.

Read more.

Jacobs Douwe Egberts bosses acting like they’re in Victorian times

Despite a forty per cent increase in profits, bosses at coffee-makers Jacobs Douwe Egberts (JDE) are threatening their workers that they could be fired and rehired. They are now trying to stop workers from taking summer holidays to thwart industrial action taken in response to these threats. Read more.

Elections across the UK on 6 May

With last year’s elections postponed due to the pandemic, polling stations will be open across the whole of the UK on 6 May as directly elected mayors, councillors, London assembly members, the Scottish parliament, Welsh Senedd, and police commissioners are all up for elections.

This is a huge set of elections, please make sure you vote and have your say. Unite Hospitality's political power

Ahead of the Scottish parliamentary elections, our hospitality branch in Glasgow provided a great example of just what can be achieved through member-led organisation that uses politics to achieve industrial aims. They organised a hospitality hustings, inviting politicians from across the political spectrum to talk about what they, and their parties, will do if elected to support hospitality workers.

Caitlin Lee, Chair of Glasgow Hospitality and Service Industries Branch said: ‘Getting those politicians in a room and pledging support for our Charter will make the industry a safer, fairer and better industry. Organising in this way gives us so much more power and clout. As trade unionists, we should be engaging politically.

“It was so important this was a member-led, member-organised hustings. It was us, as workers, who are bringing the pro-active change towards our industry.

“Our industry is one that we struggle for equality, health and safety, and this year financially, and the only way you can get accountability for these situations is to get the stories out there and get politicians to understand. We got all six candidates to sign up to our Charter, and we can now move forward in making Glasgow a Fair Hospitality city by 2022.” Workers Memorial Day

Workers' Memorial Day, held on 28 April every year, brings together workers and their representatives from all over the world to remember the dead and fight for the living. This year’s theme is: Health and Safety is a fundamental workers' right

Read more about how to get involved on our website

Thanks for reading this month's update! For more updates, follow Unite Politics on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

Hinkley Point: Deskilling Dispute & Dodgy Training

by Brian Bamford

ON THE 1st, March this year Construction News reported on the deskilling dispute at Hinkley Point in Sommerset, that the creation of two training standards at the nuclear plant would according to the Unite union ‘undermine’ the role of electricians.

There is an industrial conflict which is ongoing at the Hinkley Point C plant after it was discovered that two training standards had been introduced by the Engineering Construction Training Board (ECITB) that would undermine the role of electricians, without Unite, the UK’s construction union, input or agreement.

The matter has been raised directly with the client of the French company EDF, who have reacted to Unite’s concerns. All training in this area has been postponed until the problem is resolved.

Dilutees & Sub-standard Training

The disputed training standards relate to cabling and containment work, which is ‘bread and butter’ work for electricians on new build construction projects.

Unite was alerted to the substandard training standards at an early stage. There are no electricians working at Hinkley Point C, currently undertaking cabling and containment work, as this phase of the project is yet to start.

Owing to the rapid intervention of Unite, the training of any worker or apprentice at Hinkley has not been disrupted as no one has begun to be trained on the ECTIB’s defective training standards.

The Unite general secretary, Len McCluskey, has said “The undermining of the role of electrician has been attempted for more than 30 years, most recently in 2011/12 when eight of the major mechanical and electrical (M&E) construction companies promoted the use of non-electrical personnel to carry out skilled electrical tasks under the so called BESNA agreement.

“Unite defeated the BESNA agreement then and we will defeat this latest attempt to deskill electricians.

“Our message to the industry is clear. Unite and its electrical membership will oppose any and all efforts to weaken the skill set of the trade which will undermine the industry by introducing non-skilled operatives.

“Any deskilling of electricians would result in a race to the bottom and would be highly damaging to industrial relations across the sector.”

From the last week in March there have been weekly pickets outside Balfour Beatty’s offices in Bromborough, on the Wirral. Balfour Beatty has been contracted with EDF on the Somerset nuclear power plant. And another implicated contractor NG Bailey, has had its offices in Salford picketed on Fridays, and its sites at Manchester University and Manchester Town Hall have faced demonstrations by local activist electricians from the Manchester Contracing branch of Unite.

An Unholy Alliance of cheap-jack training

EDF and its partners are building the Hinkley C nuclear power plant in Somerset. The firms there have introduced new installer grades that undercut industry terms and conditions.

The bosses’ MEH Alliance at Hinkley Point C is a consortium made up of Altrad, Balfour Beatty Bailey, Cavendish Nuclear and Doosan Babcock. It is calling the new rate-busting grades Electrical Support Operatives (ESO) and Engineering Construction Operative.

Their grand plan is to run short courses for electricians on how to install containment or cabling. There are 9,000 km of cable and 404 km of containment to install on the Hinkley project.

Hinkley Point C is due to open in June 2026—a year late and so far at a cost of £23 billion, some £5 billion over budget.

In February,Simon Basketter in the Socialist Worker wrote:

'Unite has enthusiastically supported the building of the nuclear plant. While it was proud to sign up to an agreement for apprentices which appears to have been broken, it also seems to have sleepwalked into the creation of ESOs.

'The dispute has echoes of the electricians’ Besna dispute in 2011. Originally eight companies had planned to impose a new agreement and grade on workers to undercut wages and organisation.

'That [dispute] saw an escalating campaign of direct action on construction sites. Electricians protested, occupied and struck unofficially for six months.'

The contracting electricians will have to be on the ball to fight off this assault on standards in the industry.

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In plain sight Putin's doing-in Kremlin's star Critic .

Who Will Save Alexei Navalny?

Michael Weiss on Yahoo News

Thu, April 22, 2021

“If you saw me now—maybe you would have a good laugh,” Alexei Navalny wrote on Facebook April 20. “Look at him! A skeleton walking, wobbling around his prison cell. In his hands he is holding his court ruling, rolled up in a tube. With that tube he fervently swings away at mosquitoes covering the walls and the ceiling of his cell. Those buzzing stinging monsters can finish up a man faster than any hunger strike.”

The tone is characteristic of the world’s most famous political prisoner: comic stoicism in the face of approaching death combined with a Gogolian fascination for all the absurdities and trivialities still imposed by a cruel Russian system responsible for its arrival.

Navalny has been starving himself for three weeks. It is a feeble protest, perhaps, against being an involuntary guest of a 21st century gulag, but at least it is wholly his own. For someone who eight months ago was almost killed with a weapon of mass destruction (Novichok), Navalny seems determined to go on being Navalny until the very end, which could be “any minute” now, according to his physician who has not been allowed to examine his patient and can only make diagnoses from afar, based on blood test results.

Navalny risks kidney failure and cardiac arrest owing to abnormally high levels of potassium and creatinine in his blood (“After Novichok,” Navalny wrote, “potassium is not a biggie”). He has been transferred from one miserable penal facility to another where he is now on a regimen of “vitamin therapy.”

No one believes Navalny is being treated; rather, he is being gradually murdered in an internationally exhibited snuff film executive produced and directed by Vladimir Putin.

“I think they will kill him,” a former senior U.S. official, someone I typically turn to for good news, not bad, told me this week. “I don’t think they’ll do a last-minute release back to Germany [where Navalny recuperated from his Novichok poisoning last August] or something like that. Their goal is to watch Navalny slowly die in prison.”

And what can the United States do, or better yet, what is it willing to do to stop “them” and this obscenity? Judging by President Joe Biden’s rhetoric, not much. Navalny’s plight, Biden told reporters last week, was “totally, totally unfair, totally inappropriate,” which is something one says of a lousy referee call on the pitch, not live-streamed, slow-motion homicide.

The messaging, however, is clear: Putin may be a soulless killer but he nevertheless runs an aggressive nuclear hyperpower with which the United States seeks to have “a stable and predictable relationship,” as the White House readout of Biden’s call with him on April 13 stated. Good luck with that, you might say, but the readout ended by telegraphing Biden’s openness to a “summit meeting in a third country in the coming months.” It made no mention of Navalny, who may well be dead by then.

The backdrop to this cautiously extended olive branch is also obvious: the Russian Army could very well be in a “third country” uninvited in the coming days: Ukraine.

As of this writing there are reportedly anywhere between 80,000 and 100,000 Russian troops currently deployed to occupied Crimea and the Russian border of the Donbas, itself occupied by undeclared Russian soldiers and intelligence officers masquerading as “separatists.” These troops are joined by a steady increase in warplanes, attack helicopters, tanks, cruise missiles and all the other matériel necessary for a conventional invasion.

Is one forthcoming or is this just a well-choreographed intimidation exercise intended more for Washington’s sake than for Kyiv’s? Russia’s Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu ordered a partial withdrawal from the border a day after Putin’s annual press conference April 21, in which the Russian president spoke of “red lines” against “insults and interference, including in elections,” and he darkly insinuated that the U.S. had just failed to assassinate his client, Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko, a claim White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said has “no basis in fact.” Last year, the fear among Russia watchers from Washington to Tallinn was that Putin might intervene militarily in Belarus, if not annex the entire country in a definitive move to quell a rising protest movement over stolen election and expand Russian hard power closer into NATO’s backyard. Now, he threatens to re-invade Ukraine.

Biden would no doubt think it more than “unfair” and “inappropriate” of his having to navigate any hot crisis in Easter Europe within the first year of his presidency. A pandemic still rages, China rises, and the U.S. has to withdraw from a 20-year campaign in Afghanistan, to say nothing of roiling domestic cultural crises.

Moreover, Biden already has his hands full with peaceful Europe. See Czechia’s recent disclosure that in 2014, a team of Russian military intelligence operatives blew up an ammunition depot in a village in the east of the country. And not just any operatives: two of them, Col. Alexander Mishkin and Col. Anatoly Chepiga, were the assassins responsible for later trying to murder Emilian Gebrev, a Bulgarian arms dealer in Sofia in 2015 and the former intelligence officer Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury in 2018. Mishkin and Chepiga’s weapon of choice in both instances was Novichok in what may have been proof of concept for the later operation to kill Russia’s opposition leader, at least the first time around.

National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told CNN there would be “consequences” if Russia eliminated Navalny in prison. What kind? Sullivan did not elaborate. Nor do we know if he relayed them to Nikolai Patrushev, the chairman of the Russian Security Council, with whom he has his own phone call this week, this one ending with “let’s keep in touch.”

Presumably Navalny would rather Sullivan got his retaliation in first, as a form of deterrence. But neither the U.S. nor E.U. seems eager to impose sanctions before Navalny’s demise. And Angela Merkel, once Navalny’s primary caretaker-in-exile, has reaffirmed her commitment to Russia’s controversial Nord-Stream 2 natural gas pipeline to Europe, which the U.S. opposes.

What about sanctioning those hemisphere-hopping Russian oligarchs Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation named when he was first arrested upon his arrival back in Moscow from Berlin in January? That list was divided in three categories, the last two consisting of Russian human rights abusers and those specifically linked to Navalny’s persecution. But the first category is the one that would rattle the Kremlin the most: “Oligarchs upon whom Putin has bestowed wealth and power, and who wield it on behalf of the regime.”

The official excuse I hear from U.S. policymakers is that designating “oligarchs for being oligarchs isn’t how sanctions work.” Washington has to establish a predicate offense. The unofficial excuse I hear is that going after foreign billionaires who act as agents or plenipotentiaries of the Kremlin abroad is embarrassing because they’re so deeply entrenched in the Western financial system—banks, media companies, sports clubs, and real estate. Doing so would only expose the West’s see-no-evil policy with respect to money-laundering, lobbying and kleptocracy, the taints of which should now be obvious to anyone who survived the Trump era.

Putting our own house in order might make it more difficult for Putin to destroy his since there’s no use stealing in Moscow what you can’t spend in London, Paris and New York. As Navalny’s aide Vladimir Milov told me recently, “You don’t have to separate the human rights agenda from realpolitik. They’re inextricable now.”

And so, all across Russia’s eleven time zones, the people have done what they can and turned out to demonstrate for the dying hunger striker who has spent a decade telling them with blog posts and YouTube videos that they deserve better. Again we have seen the stirring scenes of young and old defy riot police and arbitrary detention in an authoritarian state. The solidarity and support have already made a difference to the prisoner. “[T]here is no better weapon against injustice and lawlessness,” Navalny wrote. “This is what keeps me alive right now. Despite the very high level of potassium.”

We in the West are left to hope it will work—while secretly suspecting, like the former U.S. official, that it won’t.

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The French Connection by Les May

CONNOISSEURS of the absurd were no doubt amused by the NV articles of 5 and 6 April which told how the Kirklees branch of the National Education Union (NEU) gave £3,000 to the charity which through its Chief Executive had named the teacher accused of ‘blasphemy’, a crime that does not exist under English law, and so potentially put his life in danger from fanatics acting in the name of Islam.

Any condemnation by the NEU of either the actions of the man who did this and his demand that the teacher be removed from the school or of the attempt to reinstate the ‘crime’ of blasphemy by stealth, has been made pianissimo to say the least

.

But anyone with access to back copies of Educate the NEU print journal will remember how in the November/December 2020 copy on page 20 there was an article with the heading ‘Brutal Killing of French teacher’. It went as follows:

‘The NEU condemned the killing outside his school of French teacher Samuel Paty on 16 October. In a statement the union said: “Teachers must have the right to carry out their daily work in safety. No one should face threats for violence in the course of their working lives. Members of the NEU in the UK are deeply shocked by this brutal killing. Teaching about our human rights and inspiring students to play a positive role in society is part of the vital work teaches across the world carry out diligently every day.” The joint general secretaries sent letters of condolence and solidarity to the NEU’s sister union in France, the SNES-FSU, and to the French Education Minister.’

Humbug! Humbug! Humbug!

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NAVALNY: 'The Putin Regime Is Trying to Kill Him'!

TIME: Alexei Navalny's Ailing Health Is Worrying the World

ALEXEI NAVALNY, the Russian opposition figure and Kremlin antagonist, has been moved into a prison hospital, Russia’s state penitentiary service (FSIN) said on Monday, after doctors warned he was in extremely poor health and could have only days to live. But friends and colleagues called the transfer a Kremlin “ploy” to convince the world he was being treated, and that his life was still very much in danger.

FSIN said that Navalny’s health was “satisfactory” and that he was being examined by a doctor every day. But Vladimir Ashurkov, Executive Director of Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) told TIME that the hospital does not offer an “adequate level of care for his condition”, and that the prison authorities continue to deny independent doctors the ability to assess Navalny. “There is nothing positive about this transfer – it is a ploy by the Kremlin to convince Russians that everything is okay,” Vladimir Kara-Murza, a Russian democracy activist and chair of the Boris Nemtsov Foundation For Freedom, said.

Navalny’s health has been deteriorating since he was imprisoned, and he began a hunger strike three weeks ago to protest his lack of medical treatment. On Saturday, Yaroslav Ashikhmin, a cardiologist, published test results in a Facebook post that he said showed Navalny had heightened creatinine levels that could cause kidney failure, and high levels of potassium that could lead to a cardiac arrest at “any moment”.

His friends and colleagues say that the Russian government is denying him proper care to make a statement. “The Putin regime is trying to kill him slowly, painfully and for the whole world to see. This echoes back to some of the most horrific pages in the history of the Soviet gulag and now the modern gulag under Putin,” said Kara-Murza.

When did Navalny’s health begin to deteriorate?

Putin’s fiercest critic only recently spent five months in Berlin recovering from a poisoning that he said was ordered by Russian President Vladimir Putin. (The Kremlin denies Navalny’s claims and has said it has seen no evidence that Navalny was poisoned.) Upon his return to Moscow on Jan. 17 he was arrested and on Feb. 2, he was sentenced to two and half years in jail for violating parole from a case dating back to 2014, which he claims was politically motivated.

The sentence prompted international outrage, with President Joe Biden on Feb. 4 saying “He should be released immediately and without condition.” The E.U. and U.S. slapped sanctions on several Russian officials, including asset freezes and travels bans.

Within weeks of being imprisoned, Navalny complained in Instagram posts about pain and numbness in his back and leg. (It’s not yet clear whether the pain was connected to the poisoning.) He also said that he has experienced treatment amounting to “torture” through sleep deprivation, claiming that guards woke him up every hour throughout the night. Other inmates, he said, were banned from speaking with him or forced by prison authorities to inform on his movements.

On March 31, he announced he was starting a hunger strike to protest the prison authorities’ refusal to grant him medical attention. “I have the right to be seen by a doctor and get medicine,” he said in an Instagram post on March 31.

A dozen days into his hunger strike, Navalny said in an Instagram post that prison guards shoved candy in his pockets to tease him. Navalny’s wife, Yulia, who visited him on April 13 said that he weighed 76kg (167 lbs), 9kg (19lbs) less since he began refusing food.

Navalny’s personal physician, Anastasia Vasilyeva, and three other doctors attempted to visit Navalny on Sunday, April 18. Vasilieva posted a video on Twitter claiming that they had “stood for two hours and begged” to be let into the jail, but they were refused entry.

Ashurkov said the authorities have refused to provide proper medical treatment to Navalny in prison as punishment for his anti-corruption activism, including his YouTube investigation posted on Jan. 19, alleging that members of Putin’s inner circle spent $1.35 billion in illicit funds to build the president an opulent on the Black Sea. “We are confident that all major decisions regarding his well-being are made by President Putin. The fact that he is in prison and being denied proper medical care is, in my opinion, a direct order from the very top,” he said.

How has the Russian opposition responded?

Navalny’s FBK organization had originally planned to hold protests for the release of the Kremlin’s most prominent critic later this Spring. But in response to reports about his deteriorating, health Leonid Volkov, Navalny’s chief of staff, and Ivan Zhdanov, FBK’s director, in a YouTube video on April 18 urged people to protest in squares across the country on Wednesday 21 April, the same day as Putin’s annual state of address. “They’re murdering Alexei Navalny — in a terrifying way right before our eyes,” Volkov said in the video.

The stakes for those Navalny’s supporters who choose to protest are high. Thousands of people were detained in a vicious police crackdown during mass protests across Russia in January and February that called for the activist’s release.

The authorities appear to have accelerated their attempts to silence Navalny’s team. On April 16, Russian prosecutors asked a Moscow court to designate FBK and other organizations linked to Navalny as “extremist”. The list currently names 33 organizations, including Islamic State, The Taliban and Jehovah’s Witnesses. If approved, the move would outlaw their operations and could result in jail time for its members. The prosecutors said such organizations create conditions for “changing the foundations of the constitutional order” and called their activities “undesirable”, in a statement.

Ashurkov believes the Kremlin is trying to distract the public from the declining level of support for Putin’s ruling United Russia Party, largely driven by frustration over deteriorating living standards, ahead of parliamentary elections in September. According to a March survey by the Moscow-based independent pollster, the Levada-Center, 27% of respondents support the United Russia party, down from 31% last August. “He’s trying to eliminate his most potent political opponent and our organization,” Ashurkov said.

The Joys Of The Freemarket by Les May

MY interest in football peaked when I was eleven in 1953 and has been declining ever since. If professional football vanished from the face of the Earth I would not miss it. But I cannot help observing that the proposed formation of a European Superleague is just the logical conclusion of the ‘greedfest’ which led to the formation of the Premier League in 1992. Domestic and international television rights generates about £2 billion a year for the Premier League which is a corporation in which member clubs act as shareholders. A nice little earner one might say.

Clearly the owners of the six UK clubs which want to become founder members of the European Superleague can see the cash registers continuing to roll and even more money finding its way into their coffers. The remaining Premier League members now seem to be crying foul having themselves done much the same thing to the old Football League almost thirty years ago.

And who has stepped in to see fair play? It’s our free enterprise worshipping Prime Minister. Boris has suddenly discovered that markets sometimes need to be managed to bring about socially desirable outcomes. Though quite what he can do to block the European Superleague is still unclear.

Question: If Boris Johnson can find time to think up ways of taming the excesses of this particular market, why can’t he find time to bring some sanity to the housing market which continues to leave families homeless or living in very substandard housing while paying exorbitant rents a what is euphemistically called ‘the market rate’.

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Stop Deskilling: Liverpool Message of Solidarity

MESSAGE OF SOLIDARITY FROM UNITE LIVERPOOL 0538 BRANCH TO ELECTRICIANS PROTESTING AGAINST DESKILLING.

Unite Liverpool 0538 Branch offers full support and solidarity to the electricians who are protesting against deskilling.

If bosses get their way. 70% of work currently undertaken by skilled electricians will be carried out by ESOs (electrical service operators). Instead of a 4 to 5-year apprenticeship, there would only be a 3 to 5-week training programme. So instead of 10 qualified electricians being employed there will be 3 electricians and 7 ESOs, which would start a race to the bottom.

Workers protesting against this deskilling deserve our total support.

In solidarity,

Unite 0538 Branch

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Still Failing? by Les May

ON 7 July last year Northern Voices published an article I wrote with the title ‘Why Black Lives Matter Will Fail’. In it I suggested that the proximate factor in the murder of George Floyd was that the USA has a militarised police force. I went on to say;

‘As of 30 June 2020 a total of 506 civilians were shot in the US, 105 of whom were black. In 2018, there were 996 fatal police shootings, and in 2019 this figure increased to 1,004. For comparison the rate of shootings per million of the population was: black 31, hispanic, 23, white 13, other 4. These figures speak for themselves. By comparison the average number of fatal police shootings per year in England and Wales in the 15 year period 2004/5 to 2018/9 was less than 3 in a population of about 60,000,000, that is about 0.05 per million.’

‘Faced with a fatality rate from police shooting which is 200 to 600 times higher than in the UK one might have thought that saving lives, black, brown and white, by demilitarising US police forces, would be central to any widespread response to the murder of George Floyd. Seemingly it isn’t.’

‘Instead of attempting to attain measurable objectives like improving police training and making officers accountable every time they use a firearm, the emphasis is on "racism", something for which there is no objective measure and having all the explanatory power of asking ‘how long is a piece of string?’ It’s a popular badge to display because it allows the wearer to get a warm glow of satisfaction from ‘calling out’ racists. If by chance the murder of George Floyd causes anyone to remember their humanity and dare to say they think all lives matter, you can call that racist too!’

Anyone viewing the recent video of the events just before a female officer drew her gun thinking she was drawing her Taser, cannot fail to notice the abrasive, bullying behaviour shown by the male officer. It’s the attitude of the police to people they are arresting not the colour of the skin of the victim 20 year old Daunte Wright which led to his death.

If you still think that ‘racism’ is at the root of the problem with policing in the USA try typing the words ‘73 year old woman dementia’ into your favourite search engine. (Startpage, DuckDuckGo, Google) You’ll be presented with more than two dozen reports and a YouTube video relating to the story of a 73 year old woman suffering from dementia being thrown to the ground, and cuffed so violently that she had her arm broken and her shoulder dislocated when she was arrested in Colorado.

After the killing of George Floyd a group calling itself ‘Black Lives Matter; Activist Coalition’ received donations totalling £1.2 million from a gullible British public.

Question; Are Age Concern, Dementia UK and Alzheimer’s Society about to be beneficiaries of similar largess? I think not!

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Salisbury suspects sought for Czech bombing

Two men charged with carrying out the Salisbury poisonings in 2018 have now been linked with a bombing in the Czech Republic. The central European country is expelling 18 Russian diplomats over suspicions that Russian intelligence service GRU was involved in an ammunition depot explosion in 2014 that killed two people. Police are searching for two suspects carrying Russian passports in connection with serious criminal activity in the names of Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov. Those were the aliases used by two Russian military intelligence officers who British prosecutors charged with Russian spy Sergei Skripal’s attempted murder in Salisbury, England.

Foreign minister Dominic Raab said the UK stands in ‘full support’ of the Czech Republic. He tweeted: ‘The UK stands in full support of our Czech allies, who have exposed the lengths that the GRU will go to in their attempts to conduct dangerous and malign operations – and highlights a disturbing pattern of behaviour following the attack in Salisbury.’

In a briefing shown live on television, Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis said there was ‘well-grounded suspicion about the involvement of officers of the Russian intelligence service GRU… in the explosion of an ammunitions depot in the Vrbetice area.’

Several explosions shook the Vrbetice depot, 330 km (205 miles) southeast of Prague, in October 2014, killing two employees of a private company that was renting the site from a state military organisation. Babis called the circumstances ‘unprecedented and scandalous’, while a Russian politicians cited by Russian news agency Interfax described his allegation as absurd. Skripal and his daughter Yulia were poisoned with a nerve agent in March 2018. Both survived the attack. The attack prompted the biggest wave of diplomatic expulsions between Moscow and the West since the Cold War. Czech police said Petrov and Boshirov, whose whose birth names British government documents have given as Alexander Mishkin and Anatoly Chepigas, had also used a Moldovan passport in the name of Nicolai Popa and a Tajik one issued in the name of Ruslan Tabarov. Police said both men were believed to have been in the Czech Republic from October 11 until October 16, 2014, the day of the explosion.

They were first in Prague and later in the eastern regions, which is where the depot is based. Russia would not extradite them, Interfax said, citing an unnamed source. Czech Republic is a NATO and EU member state, and the expulsions and allegations have triggered its biggest row with Russia since the end of the communist era in 1989. Russia could now consider closing the Czech Republic’s embassy in Moscow, a diplomatic source suggested. The US embassy in Prague said on Twitter that Washington ‘stands with its steadfast ally, the Czech Republic’.

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Russian's jailed critic Navalny 'on verge of death'

A DOCTOR FOR imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who is in the third week of a hunger strike, said his health is deteriorating rapidly and the Kremlin critic could be on the verge of death.

Physician Yaroslav Ashikhmin said that test results he received from the 44-year-old’s family show him with sharply elevated levels of potassium, which can bring on cardiac arrest, and heightened creatinine levels that indicate impaired kidneys.

“Our patient could die at any moment,” he said in a Facebook post.

Anastasia Vasilyeva, head of the Navalny-backed Alliance of Doctors union, said on Twitter that “action must be taken immediately”

.

Navalny is Russian President Vladimir Putin’s most visible and adamant opponent.

His personal physicians have not been allowed to see him in prison. He went on hunger strike to protest the refusal to let them visit when he began experiencing severe back pain and a loss of feeling in his legs.

Russia’s state penitentiary service has said that Navalny is receiving all the medical help he needs.

Navalny was arrested on January 17 when he returned to Russia from Germany, where had spent five months recovering from Soviet nerve-agent poisoning that he blames on the Kremlin.

Russian officials have denied any involvement and even questioned whether he was poisoned, which was confirmed by several European laboratories.

Asked about Navalny’s worsening condition, US President Joe Biden told reporters: “It’s totally, totally unfair and totally inappropriate. On the basis of having the poison and then on a hunger strike.”

Navalny was ordered to serve two-and-a-half years in prison on the grounds that his long recovery in Germany violated a suspended sentence he had been given for a fraud conviction in a case that he says was politically motivated.

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What Are Trades Unions For? by Les May

WHY has it taken a Tory MP, Brendan Clarke-Smith to point out that the primary function of a union, in this case the National Education Union, is to defend its members? He was referring to the incident at Batley Grammar School where a teacher was suspended, then the school's headmaster seems to have made a grovelling apology and protesters are demanding his sacking of the teacher who it seems has offended their delicate sensibilities.

It should not be a problem to condemn it and say it is wrong. I would assume there is some political sensitivity and perhaps [the NEU] is reluctant to stick its neck out. Given that its primary function is to defend teachers, you would have thought it would be prepared to say that 'threats are unacceptable.'

The Daily Telegraph reports that the MP, a former religious studies teacher, also said "political sensitivity" should not stop the NEU from speaking out to defend one of its own members, adding: I think you should immediately condemn threats and intimidation and violence, wherever you are across the political divide.

The Evening Standard reports the Archbishop of Canterbury as saying; In other words, exercise your freedom of speech, but don’t prevent other people exercising their freedom of speech. How nice it would be to hear that from all our MPs.

Teachers must be wondering why they have bothered to pay their union subscriptions all these years.

I do not ask for the right to offend anyone, I do assert my right to ignore the claims of anyone who says they are offended.

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Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité? by Les May

THERE’s a line in the James Stewart film ‘The Dynamite Man from Glory Jail’ which always comes to mind whenever I hear that the leader of some religion based political party or other is making demands; ‘God uses some people and some people use God’. If you think we have problems in the UK with a few mediaeval minded God botherers outside a school, spare a thought for Pakistan’s Prime Minister, Imran Khan.

Supporters of the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) party, variously described as ‘hardline’ and ‘far right’, blocked major transport routes demanding the release of their leader Saad Rizvi who had been arrested on Monday after he gave the government an ultimatum to send the French ambassador home or face protests culminating in a march on the capital on 20 April. One protester and a police officer who was beaten by angry crowds have died.

Islamist groups in Pakistan have been enraged by France's Emmanuel Macron defending his country’s freedom of speech laws after the killing of a teacher who had shown images of the Prophet Muhammad to his class.

Khan’s problem is that last November he appears to have tried to buy off demonstrators who had organised anti-France protests demanding a boycott of French goods and the severing of diplomatic ties.

At least that is how the protesters see things, though at the time a senior government official is reported to have told AFP news agency on condition of anonymity that the "government has no intention of cutting diplomatic ties with any country" and that the situation had been 'handled accordingly' to ensure the protesters left peacefully. If true this suggests that Khan’s government may have told a ‘porky pie’ to get themselves out of a hole and now it has come back to bite them.

In this country we hear a great deal about so called ‘Islamophobia’. A phobia is essentially an irrational fear of something, so Islamophobia is characterised by a wholly irrational fear of Islam. But when we look at what is happening in Pakistan and the consequences of the demands being made by those outside a school in Batley, should we not ask ourselves if in some cases these fears really are wholly irrational?

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Nothing new about cartoons which mock religion!

Posted on National Secular Society website: Thu, 08 Apr 2021 by Bob Forder

Religious leaders have long feared irreverent drawings that could challenge their authority. We should remember that amid the latest effort to prevent the use of Muhammad cartoons, says Bob Forder.

In recent weeks there's been another furious response to the use of Muhammad cartoons – this time in an educational setting, at Batley Grammar School in Yorkshire.

There is nothing new about cartoons being used as a device to poke fun at the religious. They have been a contentious source of blasphemy prosecutions and allegations ever since technical developments enabled their mass print production.

An early example is Leo Taxil's 'La Bible Amusante', which satirised what Taxil regarded as biblical inconsistencies and absurdities. G.W. Foote latched onto the cartoons in this book when he founded The Freethinker in 1881. He would undoubtedly have been encouraged by efforts to have Taxil's book banned in this country. From the outset Foote republished some of the cartoons as 'Comic Bible Sketches', although they were supplemented by others. More than anything else it was cartoons that made The Freethinker notorious and the reason the newspaper was such an immediate success in terms of its circulation.

At the same time, the leading US freethought newspaper The Truthseeker was publishing Watson Heston's cartoons (example below), which satirised biblical passages and celebrated US secularism and secular heroes like Thomas Paine. These were later collected together in books such as 'The Bible Comically Illustrated' and 'The Freethinkers' Pictorial Textbook'. These caused quite a rumpus, although little is known about Watson Heston.

Both D.M. Bennett (who founded The Truthseeker) and Foote were clear about the purpose of their cartoons. They reasoned that if you laugh at priests or ministers you can't take them seriously and they therefore lose authority. He had a point – and the same could be said for imams as for priests. I think this accounts in large part for the furious response in Batley.

Foote was eventually prosecuted for blasphemy (partly for the special 1882 Christmas number of The Freethinker, which was a cartoonists' feast). I include a copy of the cartoon from the front page (see main image). Other contents included a cartoon strip "A new life of Christ" and a particularly contentious cartoon "Moses getting a back view" with a quotation from Exodus "And it shall come to pass that I will put thee in a clift of the rock, and I shall take away my hand, and thou shalt see my back parts". The cartoon features a rather startled Moses staring at a pair of well-filled check trousers with a tear in the rear. None of this has me rolling around with laughter, but I can understand the furious response provoked in 1882 – and Foote's courage in publishing them.

Foote got a year in Holloway Gaol and was widely regarded as a hero and martyr in National Secular Society circles. It was this that ensured he became president when Charles Bradlaugh – the NSS's founder – resigned in 1890.

The Charlie Hebdo cartoons were published for similar reasons and are part of the same tradition.

There is, however, a significant difference between now and then. Those who objected in the 19th century were largely part of an elite which held a privileged position in society as a whole, embodied and supported by the established church. In some ways those demanding retribution in Batley can be considered amongst the least privileged in society and, for them, this is an issue tightly linked to their ethnicity and sense of identity.

This makes the issue far more complex and helps explain the disappointing woolly thinking, platitudes and fudge about the need to engage and listen that has crept in amongst what might loosely be termed the liberal left. But those condoning the dangerous and over-hasty behaviour of the Batley Grammar School governors and management really need to think again.

Secularism is a fundamental liberal democratic principle. The strength and success of liberal democracy rests not only on principles such as fair elections but also on the assumption that the political system accommodates all religions and beliefs with equal respect and access, apart from those intent on its overthrow.

A failure to understand this, and the freedom of speech it entails, is the real threat to us all, particularly the less privileged. Freedom of speech must entail a right to offend, however regrettable this might seem.

Sadly, the array of religious and community leaders (some self-appointed) assembled outside Batley Grammar School purport to represent a less privileged community. But giving in will simply enhance and protect these leaders' own status and position within their community, at others' expense, and run the risk of that community becoming further isolated from society at large.

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Secular Society slams Headmaster Kibble

Editorial explanation:

Below we publish a letter sent from the Chief Executive of the NATIONAL SECULAR SOCIETY on March 26th, to Gary Kibble, the headmaster of Batley Grammar School, who confronted with a mob of Muslim parents who began protesting about a teacher at Batley Grammar School when had used a cartoon of the Islamic prophet Muhammad in a lesson on religous studies last month. This letter below draws attention to the unfortunate signal this sends out to those who wish to bully educationalists and to interfere in the culture of a free society, and to undermine the process of free expression.

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Mr Gary Kibble, headteacher

Batley Grammar School

Carlinghow Hill,

Batley

West Yorkshire,

WF17 0AD

Cc Batley Grammar School Local Governing Body

Rt Hon Gavin Williamson CBE, Secretary of State for Education

26, March 2021

Dear Mr Kibble,

We are writing in response to the school’s actions following protests regarding the use of a cartoon of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. We hope, first and foremost, that the school’s first priority is the safety and wellbeing of the staff memberin question, in addition to the safety of other staff and pupils. The situation has disturbing echoes of the killing of Samuel Paty, the history teacher murdered by a Muslim fanatic who objected to his use of cartoons from Charlie Hebdo in a class about freedom of expression. We were disappointed at the school’s immediate response, which included the suspension of the teacher; an unequivocal apology for using a “totally inappropriate” resource; and withdrawing teaching on the associated subject.

We are further concerned by claims that this statement was in part written by a representative of one of the groups protesting. The protesters are clearly seeking to attempt to impose a blasphemy taboo which will restrict the freedom to teach. The ir bullying tactics appear to have succeeded. The school’s initial response was to acquiesce to religious demands. This was unfair to the teacher in question and will further fuel a climate of censorship brought on by demands to accommodate unreasonable, reactionary religious views. By issuing an immediate apology rather than defending the principle of free expression, one of the most precious pillars of our liberal democratic society, the school is siding with religious fundamentalists. Teachers should have a reasonable degree of freedom to explore sensitive subjects and enable students to think critically. Education should open minds rather than close them. Those responsible for our children’s education must therefore place a high value on the fundament al right to freedom of expression, which is applicable to ideas that may shock and offend as well as those which are received favourably.

Your actions have sent the opposite message to students. This incident is also likely to undermine teachers’ freedom to do their jobs, on any number of sensitive subjects, both within your school gates and beyond. It is patronising to assume that all British Muslims will take offence at the use of a cartoon. We urge you to keep in mind that the protesters who shout loudest are not representative of all Muslims. We understand that your school wants to promote cohesion and inclusivity. But this cannot be achieved by pandering to religious groups who wish to dictate what can and cannot be taught within the school. We ask for an explanation of the rationale behind your decisions on this issue. And as investigations are carried out into the matter, we urge you to uphold the vital principle of free speech and not submit to the unreasonable demands of those who seek to impose blasphemy taboos on society as a whole. We look forward to your response.

We are considering this an open letter.

Yours sincerely,

Stephen Evans

Chief executive, National Secular Society

Will We Abandon The Enlightenment? by Les May

ON the first Easter Sunday we were together my wife rushed into the garden to tell me that the Pope was just about to give his address ‘Urbi et Orbi’, to the city and the world. I was baffled at her enthusiasm. Our mutual lack of understanding was because she had been brought up in the Roman Catholic tradition and I in the Anglican. It has not stopped us living in peace and harmony for 46 years. Nor has it meant that our ideas have remained fossilised in the past. But it’s a difference that had people imprisoned, tortured or burned at the stake 500 years ago.

The Reformation*, when Henry VIII broke with Rome and established himself as the head of the Anglican church, is seen by some as one of the most significant events in English history. But at this distance a more realistic appraisal is that it merely exchanged one form of intolerance for another; an insistence that one set of beliefs was the one true way, for another.

For the next 150 years the insistence that they, and they alone, knew the truth about how to worship their God drove those who happened to be in power at the time to impose their beliefs on the populace. Burning at the stake was in vogue during the reign of ‘Bloody Mary’, as she was called in my history book, but not that of my wife. During the heyday of Puritanism in the mid 17th century dancing and Christmas celebrations were forbidden, a bit like Jehovah’s Witnesses refusal to celebrate today, or the Taliban’s ban on pigeon flying.

And then it stopped; not all at once, not everywhere in the world, not even everywhere in Europe, but slowly this thing we call ‘The Enlightenment’ came into being. It wasn’t a single thing, but included a range of ideas centred on, sovereignty of reason, empirical investigation and the evidence of the senses as the primary sources of knowledge. It advanced ideals such as individual liberty, constitutional government, separation of religion and state, and toleration, including religious toleration. The countries where these conditions still do not exist are too well known for me to need to enumerate all of them; three will suffice, China, Iran and Saudi Arabia.

Although The Enlightenment has dethroned religion as the sole arbiter of truth and knowledge its ideals of individual liberty and of religious tolerance has ensured that those so inclined can hold and practice their beliefs without persecution by the state, and the state will act to ensure that they are able to do so. It is no coincidence that the Archbishop of Canterbury has said; ‘We have to speak freely, I’m much more towards the US end of the spectrum on freedom of speech than I am elsewhere towards the other end. I think we have to be open to hearing things we really dislike’.

Even if many of a religious persuasion do not, Welby is aware that his Anglican faith benefits from that ideal of tolerance which those of us who do not share his beliefs attempt to give meaning to. Tolerance of other peoples’ beliefs and their practice of them does not mean that they should be immune to critical analysis or criticism. I believe that any claims about the existence or non-existence of transcendental beings or deities have no meaning in the absence of any empirical test to determine their veracity. But it does not stop me defending the rights of Christians to express their views on God’s opinion on homosexuality, even though I think they are nonsense, or defending Asia Bibi against persecution in Pakistan.

In other words the freedom that the followers of Islam, including those who reside in Batley and are demanding that the teacher who did something they dislike should be sacked, have to practice their beliefs in this country rests firmly upon ideals of The Enlightenment. Insisting that we in the UK abandon those ideals and adopt their own stance of intolerance towards those whose views we disapprove of will not serve them well. Anyone for banning Halal slaughter?

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EDITOR'S FOOTNOTE:

* Dating the Reformation

Historians usually date the start of the Protestant Reformation to the 1517 publication of Martin Luther’s “95 Theses.” Its ending can be placed anywhere from the 1555 Peace of Augsburg, which allowed for the coexistence of Catholicism and Lutheranism in Germany, to the 1648 Treaty of Westphalia, which ended the Thirty Years’ War. The key ideas of the Reformation—a call to purify the church and a belief that the Bible, not tradition, should be the sole source of spiritual authority—were not themselves novel. However, Luther and the other reformers became the first to skillfully use the power of the printing press to give their ideas a wide audience.

Trade with EU slumps after Brexit

TRADE groups have challenged government claims that post-Brexit freight had returned to 'normal' last month following a record fall in January, saying there were 'fundemental problems' with new trade barriers that were 'real and costly'.

In Januarry after the Brexit transition period ended, according to the Office of National Statistics, UK goods exports to the EU fell 40.7% while imports deopped 28.8%. These were the biggest declines since comparable records began in 1997.

There have been no similar declines in Britain's trade with non-EU countries. This suggests what's happening is likely to be related to Brexit controls and are not down to the consequences of the coronavirus surge and the January lockdown.

David Frost, Boris Johnson's leading advisor on Europe, had claimed that factors like stockpiling before Brexit came into effect on January 1st, meant their was 'less need to move goods in January', and Covid lockdowns had also 'reduced demand' for goods.

'These effects are strting to unwind' he said, adding that freight levels had returned to 'normal levels' since the start of February.

This is now being disputed by the haulage industry, which pinpointed the rise in the number of lorries returning empty yo the continent from the UK. According to a report in the Financial Times this weekend: 'Before Brexit, about 30% of lorries returning to the EU were typically empty. French port data has suggested the figure has risen to 50% in the first two months of this year,...'

Fresh food exports were hit particularly hard. For example new border controls have resulted in the seafood industry experiencing an 83% fall of in sales to Europe, according to Scotland Food and Drink, a trade association. Shane Brennan, chief executive of the Cold Chain Federation, which represents the perishable products industry, said that while trading conditions had impoved since January, but he added: 'I wish the government spent as much time listening to business concerns as they do searching for ways to spin the trade figures.'

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Our Prime Minister is Public Enemy Number One!

by Cliff Jones

ON TODAY's date in 1998 we had the Good Friday Agreement. Have you heard of that Prime Minister? Does it mean anything to you? Might you, perhaps, ask us to stand on our front door steps and clap for it?

I do not believe that you have the remotest notion of the harmfulness of your lack of concern. Your entire life has been a self-indulgent one. For you Brexit was a jolly jape. Telling big lies and getting away with it was so much fun.

Covid 19? You gleefully told us that you shook hands with it. Have you been on the phone to the prime minister of New Zealand to ask her the number of their dead?

You keep waving the Union Flag as the Union disintegrates. In other words, the more disunity that you create the louder you shout about unity. We are, most definitely, not all in it together. The privileges of your life are unknown to the vast majority.

As for Ireland, I suppose that to you it is no more than a slight irritant. I mean, does the Republic have Trident submarines? Can't be taken seriously then.

The Telegraph paid you £275k p.a. for a weekly column that I believe you said took one and a half hours to knock up (what a phrase) on a Sunday morning. You told us that was 'chicken feed'.

You, Prime Minister, are an irrelevance, a dangerous irrelevance!

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Civic Spaces & Uncivil Councillors by Anonymous

Begging's at epicentre of a Storm of Political Controversy!

FOR a council whose entire raison d'etre and long term strategic response for the town centre regeneration appears to be to barge their way to the front of each and every available queue for cash handouts, begging bowl in hand to everyone from the European Social Fund to Westminster freebies it rankles with me they should point the finger of accusation at others less fortunate who are effectively doing exactly the same thing. Was it Goebbels who said: accuse the other side of that which you are guilty?

As for councillor expenses - let's not go there!

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Recent media coverage of councillors calling for a Crackdown on begging so close to an election was entirely expected as it was a sickening and predictable re-hash of their previous political posturing whenever totally bereft of new ideas they opt for the easy target each & every time.

Blame someone else lest that electorate blame us is a tried and tested local mantra the world over and homeless people are seldom registered so no votes lost there then comrades.

Their views are not only repugnant but positively Dickensian. At a time when child poverty levels have been revealed to be at over 50% in some electoral wards it's nothing short of astounding that we do not have beggars on every street corner and bread riots across the Township as we did at the time of Peterloo!

https://www.rochdaleonline.co.uk/news-features/2/news-headlines/140218/calls-for-crackdown-on-%E2%80%98criminal-element%E2%80%99-behind-increase-in-town-centre-begging-and-antisocial-behaviour

This Agenda Articles from the meeting in question are at:

http://democracy.rochdale.gov.uk/documents/s78129/Rochdale%20Town%20Centre%20Public%20Space%20Protection%20Order.pdf

The section from the RMBC Zoom Meeting can be found at :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=372kukolzdY

Perfectly legitimate working legislation already exists on the statute book to effectively challenge trafficked Begging separate to and totally independent of PSPO. The Vagrancy Act is also still being enforced locally despite Council saying it is not. One suspects they are hyper sensitive to the fact they are still having to resort to such antiquated legislation at all after their ' flagship PSPO ' was meant to be the ultimate solution to anti-social behaviour Town Centre. Clearly it is not or why else would there be a call for a 'crackdown' at all?

Local Anti Public Space Protection Order campaigners are currently liaising with Liberty ( who called Rochdale Councils PSPO 'unlawful' when it was introduced ) and The Manifesto Club (Manifesto Club) to formulate a formal legal challenge to this 'crackdown'. Vulnerable homeless people, the vast majority mentally ill, addicted, fleeing domestic violence, illegally evicted or complex variations of all have very limited support options due to Covid (though this is not limited exclusively to the pandemic and was a problem previously) face to face 1:1 support for drug ,alcohol, substance misuse virtually non-existent as is mental health support which has existed in digital form only since March 2020 - if at all! No internet connection or no phone then no support.

For example there is a local mental health charity which draws in hundreds of thousands of pounds in funding each year that has remained resolutely closed for over a year offering only digital support sessions (such levels funding should be able to afford and create Covid safe spaces for individual 1:1 mental health support pods in a few weeks never mind over a year!) No wonder people throw themselves off the tops of shopping centres in sheer anguish and despair!

The likes of Blundell should be targeting the total inability of many local support agencies to support those in need rather than those in need of support. As well as proactively advocating for the vulnerable and agitating for increased funding rather than indulging in shameless self promotion & cheap electioneering prior to May Elections. Some might recall our councillors have previous form on this bludgeoning of the publicly visible result of their abject failures to deliver a functioning welfare & Social Care system policies for the vulnerable when Blundell and Danczuk pulled this stunt some years ago - again as a diversionary Black Op when questions were being asked of the dodgy duos mismanagement of Town centre regeneration. Again Beggars were a convenient scapegoated for crass corporate failure & incompetence.

Blundell was at the time paying his landlord ( Danczuc) in gin to crash at his Westminster pad paid for by taxpayers dosh - allegedly! Whilst the former Mrs Danczuk left an unsightly and rotting empty business unit in the shape of Danczuk's Deli blighting The Walk for years with a far greater visible blight left behind by a high profile social climber than any downwardly mobile beggar waiting for a handful of small change from sympathetic shoppers cashing in their pensions or collecting their monthly Universal Credit payments.

The Majority of the Councils much publicised Covid response is being delivered by idealistic unpaid volunteers whilst paid staff remain safe 'working at home' (behind the lines via a laptop screen facility) totally disconnected from the reality on the ground totally and dangerously oblivious of the crisis levels needed on the ground.

Any visiting councillors to one of the numerous Soup kitchens across the Borough will educate all but the most stupid of our councillors that poverty, exploitation & socail exclusion are the primary driver of begging. Something they are clearly unwilling or unable to address as a council and one which is lacking entirely from any of their May 6 election promises. As a collective the council has also turned down 1,868 Covid support applications whilst having some of the highest child poverty & unemployment & low skilled /low waged local economy in GM plus consistently high levels of C19

Simultaneously our 'pro-business council' has all the largess and generosity of Croesus when it comes to business bailouts - especially just before May local elections ?

https://www.questmedianetwork.co.uk/news/tameside-reporter/thousands-across-greater-manchester-denied-500-covid-support-payments/

Instead of having another toddler stop and stamping his designer jackboots Blundell needs a 'crackdown' on his own aggressive begging from the public purse as well as independent scruiting of his political record on the failed town center regeneration leaving two empty Indoor Markets and virtually derelict Drake Street, a partially deserted Yorkshire Street and a defunct Outdoor market in his wake?

Two hundred and fifty million quid for this? We were robbed!

Perhaps if Councillor Blundell and those like him rolled up their delicate shirt sleeves or blouses and did some proper graft down at a local Soup Kitchen or Foodbank (we have a potential sixty strong workforce of councillors champing at the bit to play their part in supporting their Town during the Pandemic Response after all!) instead of angling for cheap media stunts or photo-bombing on the backs of those socially committed individuals and collectives doing the real community regeneration work people would have at least a little respect for the man?

Cllr. Blundell is not interested in Building Back Better, he is only interested in building his own councillor profile and political career and needs to be called out publicly for it.

Kicking someone when they are down is the dictionary and my own definition of bullying. Blundell is not only a bully but an ill informed braggart & clown who should be nowhere near public office or paid from the public purse for his ill informed and biggoted opinions. Replace the word beggar with jew, gypsy, traveller, black or woman and you might have a clearer insight into how repugnant and stereotyping his views are in actuality

Where Blundell a member of a charity rather than a council he would be on a suspension pending an independent investigation from the charity commission on breach of safeguarding policy - quite possibly by the police under potential Hate Crime legislation. That a councillor can seek to , and is allowed to do so by his Party colleges, aided and abetted by an entirely complicit local media commentariat, to criminalise and scapegoat an entire section of the community in such a way tells you all that you need to know about what lessons have been learnt from previous Rochdale safeguarding scandals from Smith to the Grooming Scandals. Once again we only have to scratch the thin veneer to see the ugly unvarnished truth beneath.

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