#uk government workers prepare to protest

[news4dzhozhar]

[notasapleasure]

Actual advice for UK marchers:

Wear comfy shoes and a warm jacket

Take water and snacks

Prepare to be bored! If you're not bored something has gone wrong, get the fuck out of there.

Mobile signal will be shot. The tube will be packed. Take a bus. If you can get WiFi, use the app citymapper to figure out creative ways of getting places!

Those people handing out the 'know your rights' leaflets? Stick with them. If you have time you can even order a little booklet of your own from Liberty setting these out!

Don't bother with the guys handing out copies of the Socialist Worker, it's a victim-blaming, slut-shaming, rapist-apologising rag.

Don't do anything extravagantly dumb like pissing on a poppy wreath or dropping a fire hydrant off a building. Don't be a fucking antisemite. Stay well away from anyone doing any of these things.

Enjoy the fact you're really upsetting the government and they couldn't do anything to stop you exercising your legal right to protest! Be glad you are in England, not Northern Ireland, where the use of water cannon is still legal.

And a final note of caution to say, if I were going, I would take care to wear a face-covering of some kind. After the event the police will be going through footage and facial recognition software is known to throw up false positives on non-white faces in particular.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

This day in history

I'm coming to BURNING MAN! On TUESDAY (Aug 27) at 1PM, I'm giving a talk called "DISENSHITTIFY OR DIE!" at PALENQUE NORTE (7&E). On WEDNESDAY (Aug 28) at NOON, I'm doing a "Talking Caterpillar" Q&A at LIMINAL LABS (830&C).

#15yrsago Campaign to get UK government to apologise for hounding Alan Turing to his death https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/campaign-to-win-official-apology-for-alan-927356

#10yrsago NYPD arrest NY gubernatorial challenger for videoing street-arrest https://web.archive.org/web/20140817215021/http://photographyisnotacrime.com/2014/08/14/new-york-governor-candidate-arrested-recording-aggressive-police-behavior/

#10yrsago EFF guide to cell phone use for US protesters https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2014/08/cell-phone-guide-protesters-updated-2014-edition

#10yrsago Life-sized nude sculpture made from typewriter parts https://cargocollective.com/jeremymayer

#5yrsago The guy who figured out Bernie Madoff’s scam now says GE is about to go bankrupt https://www.cnn.com/2019/08/16/investing/ge-harry-markopolos-interview/index.html

#5yrsago Announcement of Tumblr’s sale to WordPress classified as pornography by Tumblr’s notorious “adult content” filter https://memex.craphound.com/2019/08/16/announcement-of-tumblrs-sale-to-wordpress-classified-as-pornography-by-tumblrs-notorious-adult-content-filter/

#5yrsago Judge orders the State of Georgia to be prepared for pen-and-paper balloting by March 2020 https://apnews.com/article/primary-elections-us-news-ap-top-news-voting-voting-machines-abd2949881514e42a50f2025595c9c2a

#5yrsago Art Spiegelman pulled his Marvel Folio Society intro after Disney demanded that he not criticize Trump https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/aug/16/art-spiegelmans-marvel-essay-refused-publication-for-orange-skull-trump-dig

#5yrsago Major corporations blacklist ads on news stories that include the words “Trump,” “racism,” “gun,” “Brexit,” “suicide” and more https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2019/08/advertisers-blacklisting-news-other-stories-with-controversial-words-like-trump.html

#5yrsago In California, the 2020 elections will feature an epic battle to allow cities to reinstate property taxes https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/08/2020-property-tax-battle-in-california-could-be-epic.html

#5yrsago 1000fps video reveals the underlying action of a stinging ant’s venom injection for the very first time https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jygY-ZHPxQ

#1yrago At long last, a meaningful step to protect Americans' privacy https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/16/the-second-best-time-is-now/#the-point-of-a-system-is-what-it-does

Community voting for SXSW is live! If you wanna hear RIDA QADRI and me talk about how GIG WORKERS can DISENSHITTIFY their jobs with INTEROPERABILITY, VOTE FOR THIS ONE!

[newstfionline]

Sunday, February 12, 2023

Trudeau: US fighter shot down object over northern Canada (AP) Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Saturday that on his order a U.S. fighter jet shot down an “unidentified object” that was flying high over the Yukon, acting a day after the U.S. took similar action over Alaska. North American Aerospace Defense Command, the combined U.S.-Canada organization that provides shared defense of airspace over the two nations, detected the object flying at a high altitude Friday evening over Alaska, U.S. officials said. It crossed into Canadian airspace on Saturday. Trudeau spoke with President Joe Biden, who also ordered the object to be shot down. Canadian and U.S. jets operating as part of NORAD were scrambled and it was a U.S. jet that shot down the object. F-22 fighter jets have now taken out three objects in the airspace above the U.S. and Canada over seven days, a stunning development that is raising questions on just what, exactly, is hovering overhead and who has sent them. At least one of the objects downed was believed to be a spy balloon from China, but the other two had not yet been publicly identified.

Joyous parades and parties kick off New Orleans’ Mardi Gras (AP) A venerable fine-dining fixture on Bourbon Street helped kick off the final frantic days of New Orleans Mardi Gras season Friday—relaxing its jackets-required dress code and briefly ditching its no-pets policy for a pair of crown- and cape-wearing rescue dogs. Outside, music was already blaring from some Bourbon Street bars as the city prepared for three major parades Friday evening on historic St. Charles Avenue. Other Friday night parades were scheduled in neighboring Metairie, and there will be more than two dozen other such processions almost nightly until Mardi Gras, which this year falls on Feb. 21. Mardi Gras is the culmination of Carnival season—which officially begins each year on Jan. 6, the 12th day after Christmas, known as King’s Day, in New Orleans and closes with the arrival of Lent on Ash Wednesday.

How Lethal Is “Less Lethal”? (Wired) The U.S. is often called the “world’s policeman” due to its history of intervening in the affairs of other states, supposedly for the greater good. Now, the world’s policeman is also becoming the world’s arms dealer to police departments across the globe, as the leader of the multi-billion-dollar, global, unregulated “less lethal” weapon industry. As protests spring up across the world—Hong Kong in 2019, Minneapolis in 2020, Tehran in 2022, and Peru this year—law enforcement agencies have deployed riot police armed with rubber bullets, tear gas canisters, Tasers, and flashbang grenades. Those weapons all sound relatively harmless compared to a bullet—until you get hit with one of them. Tasers can cause cardiac arrest, and everything else on the list can break skulls, permanently affect sight and hearing, and cause concussions. Besides the actual lethality of “less-lethal” weapons, another issue is the industry’s loose regulation. The U.S. has no federal legislation regulating the production of less-lethals, and while the Geneva Protocol bans the use of tear gas in war, governments are perfectly welcome to gas their own populations. The industry is expected to grow by $3 billion over the 10 years, allowing governments to employ brutal technologies against protestors without the most basic forms of oversight.

UK economy avoids decline but cost of living pains many (AP) The small notice pinned to a wall at Union Chapel in north London is a sign of despair for charity workers dealing with the fallout from Britain’s cost-of-living crisis. The showers, it says, are reserved for the homeless. In other words, those who still have a roof over their heads but can’t afford to heat water for bathing are in essence asked to refrain. Amanuel Woldesus, who runs the Margins Project charity based at the church for people in crisis, is frustrated that he’s being forced to ration a service this way. The pressures are likely to get worse as Britain faces a prolonged economic slowdown triggered by soaring food and energy prices and compounded by tax increases and higher interest rates that authorities have unleashed as they battle the crisis. Middle-class families will see their disposable incomes fall by as much as 13%, or 4,000 pounds ($4,840), over the next financial year, according to analysis by the National Institute for Economic and Social Research. About 25% of households won’t be able to pay their food and energy bills out of their take-home income, up from 20% last year, the independent think tank estimates.

Russia Fires Major Missile Barrage at Ukraine as Combat Intensifies (NYT) Russia targeted Ukraine’s already battered infrastructure with more than 100 drones, rockets and missiles on Friday, raining explosives on cities around the country as President Volodymyr Zelensky returned from a three-day trip across Europe to ask Ukraine’s allies to send more weapons, and faster. The strikes, the first heavy aerial barrage in weeks, came as fighting on the ground intensified, in what Ukrainian officials were calling a new winter offensive. The Ukrainian air force described Friday’s aerial assault as a “massive attack” and said that it had involved 71 cruise missiles, seven Iranian-made drones and about 35 S-300 missiles, antiaircraft missiles that Russia has taken to using against targets on the ground. Ukraine said in a statement that it had shot down 61 of the cruise missiles and five of the drones.

‘They’re Hunting Me.’ Life as a Ukrainian Mayor on the Front Line (NYT) The little green van sped down the road, the Russian forces just across the river. Inside, Halyna Luhova, the mayor of Kherson, cradled a helmet in her lap and gazed out the bulletproof window. When the first shell ripped open, directly in the path of the van, maybe 200 yards ahead, her driver locked his elbows and tightened his grip on the wheel and drove straight through the cloud of fresh black smoke. “Oh my god,” Ms. Luhova said, as we raced with her through the city. “They’re hunting me.” The second shell landed even closer. She’s been almost killed six times. She sleeps on a cot in a hallway. She makes $375 a month, and her city in southern Ukraine has become one of the war’s most pummeled places, fired on by Russian artillery nearly every hour. But Ms. Luhova, the only female mayor of a major city in Ukraine, remains determined to project a sense of normality even though Kherson is anything but normal. Kherson, a port city on the Dnipro River, was captured by Russian forces in March; liberated by Ukrainian forces in November; and now, three months later, lies nearly deserted. Packs of out-of-school children roam the empty boulevards lined with leafless trees and centuries-old buildings cracked in half.

Volunteers Piece Together a Makeshift Medical System in Earthquake Zone (NYT) An ambulance pulled up to the cluster of red tents that now serves as the main hospital in the ruined city of Antakya, on Friday morning. It was bringing in a woman pulled from the wreck of her home after nearly 100 hours under the rubble. For the doctors in the field hospital, hastily constructed in a parking lot, miracles had grown nearly routine, but there were never enough of them. Given the extent of the destruction, the fact that Antakya has established a semi-functioning medical system is remarkable. Monday’s earthquake took out hospitals as well as homes, leaving emergency responders across 10 provinces unable to care properly at first for people crushed by collapsing buildings. Since then, however, a new, makeshift health care system has been constructed amid the devastation by volunteers from around Turkey and the world. While the most severely wounded were sent to undamaged hospitals in other provinces for treatment, field hospitals in the heart of the earthquake zone sprung up to stabilize the newly rescued, treat more minor injuries and manage the diseases that are flaring in the disaster’s wake. Even pets rescued from the rubble were receiving volunteer medical care at a pop-up animal hospital in Antakya.

Quake Death Toll Surpasses 23,000 Amid Struggle to Get Aid to Quake’s Victims (NYT) The death toll in Turkey and Syria from this week’s catastrophic earthquake surpassed 23,600 on Friday as relief organizations struggled to overcome an array of obstacles to deliver aid to survivors in both countries. The second aid convoy in two days, loaded with medicine, food and clothes, reached an opposition enclave in northwestern in Syria. The earthquake zone in Syria includes areas controlled by the Syrian government and others held by opposition forces backed by Turkey. Those territorial divisions, and an array of political obstacles stemming from the ongoing civil war, have created fatal delays in delivering help to Syrians. The flow of aid has also been hampered because the border crossing used by humanitarian convoys, known as Bab al-Hawa, is the only route approved by the United Nations to reach the opposition-held region in northwestern Syria. As many as 5.3 million people in Syria may have lost their homes because of the earthquake, according to the United Nations’ refugee agency. “For Syria, this is a crisis within a crisis,” said Sivanka Dhanapala, the agency’s representative in Syria, citing economic turmoil, the pandemic and now the earthquake and blizzards.

Japan’s earthquake recovery offers hard lessons for Turkey (AP) Mountains of rubble and twisted metal. Death on an unimaginable scale. Grief. Rage. Relief at having survived. What’s left behind after a natural disaster so powerful that it rends the foundations of a society? What lingers over a decade later, even as the rest of the world moves on? Similarities between the calamity unfolding this week in Turkey and Syria and the triple disaster that hit northern Japan in 2011 may offer a glimpse of what the region could face in the years ahead. A big lesson from Japan is that a disaster of this size doesn’t ever really have a conclusion. Despite speeches about rebuilding, the Tohoku quake has left a deep gash in the national consciousness and the landscapes of people’s lives. Take the death toll. Deaths directly attributable to the quake in Turkey will level off in coming weeks, but it’s unlikely to be the end. And despite hundreds of billions of dollars spent in Japan on reconstruction, some things won’t ever come back. Today, while the wreckage of the quake and tsunami has largely been removed and many roads and buildings rebuilt, there are still large areas of empty space, places where buildings haven’t been erected, farms haven’t been replanted. The long haul of rebuilding has been uneven and, at times, painfully slow, hampered by government incompetence, petty squabbling and bureaucratic wrangling. Nearly half a million people were displaced in Japan. Tens of thousands still haven’t returned home.

[sleepysera]

Sep 19 Headlines

WORLD NEWS

Afghanistan: Taliban-run Kabul municipality tell female workers to stay home (AP)

"Female employees in the Kabul city government have been told to stay home, with work only allowed for those who cannot be replaced by men, the interim mayor of Afghanistan’s capital said Sunday, detailing the latest restrictions on women by the new Taliban rulers. Witnesses, meanwhile, said an explosion targeted a Taliban vehicle in the eastern provincial city of Jalalabad, and hospital officials said five people were killed in the second such deadly blast in as many days in the Islamic State stronghold."

Australia: Defends role in security pact AUKUS amid French condemnation (BBC)

"Australia has defended its decision to scrap a multi-billion dollar submarine purchase from France in favour of a new security pact with the US and UK. Prime Minister Scott Morrison rejected accusations that Australia had lied, saying France should have been aware it was prepared to break the deal. France says the Aukus pact has led to a "serious crisis" between the allies. In an unprecedented move, it has recalled its ambassadors from the US and Australia as a sign of protest. Under the Aukus pact, Australia will be given the technology to build nuclear-powered submarines as a way of countering China's influence in the contested South China Sea."

Russia: Opposition complaints on final day of voting in election (BBC)

"Russian opposition activists have stepped up complaints they are being silenced on digital platforms, on the final day of parliamentary elections. There have also been numerous reports of irregularities, including ballot stuffing and forced voting. The electoral commission has dismissed the complaints, saying they are part of a well-financed campaign from abroad. President Vladimir Putin's United Russia party is expected to easily beat the 13 other parties taking part."

US NEWS

Biden: Pitching partnership after tough stretch with allies (AP)

"President Joe Biden goes before the United Nations this week eager to make the case for the world to act with haste against the coronavirus, climate change and human rights abuses. His pitch for greater global partnership comes at a moment when allies are becoming increasingly skeptical about how much U.S. foreign policy really has changed since Donald Trump left the White House."

Immigration: Thousands moved to processing centres in Texas (BBC)

"US officials have moved thousands of migrants away from a Texas border town that has seen an influx of mostly Haitian migrants over the past week. More than 10,000 people had gathered under a bridge connecting Del Rio in Texas to Mexico's Ciudad Acuña. Local officials have struggled to provide them with food and adequate sanitation. Some 2,000 people were moved to immigration and processing stations on Friday. The US government says it plans to fly the migrants back to where they began their journeys."

Guantanamo Prison: Biden Admin has made little progress to closing the prison (CNN)

"But months into Biden's term, 39 detainees remain housed at the prison in Cuba. 10 detainees have been cleared by the Guantanamo Periodic Review Board system and are eligible for release, but they have not been transferred to a different country and out of the prison yet. The Periodic Review Board system was set up during the Obama administration to determine whether detainees being held there were guilty or not."

[libertariantaoist]

News Roundup 6/22/20

by Kyle Anzalone

US News

San Francisco police ordered officers to turn off body cameras before raiding a journalist’s home. [Link]

California police murdered an 18-year-old boy working as a security guard. [Link]

One of three officers who fired their weapon at Breonna Taylor will be fired. [Link]

The Navy announces it will not reinstateBrett Crozier as captain of the USS T Roosevelt. Cozier was fired after a letter he wrote warning of a Covid outbreak on his ship was leaked. [Link]

UK

A terrorist in the UK killed three people and injured 12. The Libyan man used a knife in the attack. [Link]

China

China likely lost 40 soldiers in clashes with India last week. [Link]

In a blow to the protest movement, students and unions failed to gain enough support from Hong Kongers to have a strike in response to China’s security law in Hong Kong. [Link]

Afghanistan

The UN reports that healthcare workers are being targeted in Afghanistan. The UN counted 12 attacked from mid-March to May. [Link]

Middle East

Israel destroyed 70 Palestinian homes in the first weeks of June. [Link]

The US carried out airstrikes against alleged IS targets in northern Iraq. [Link]

Southern separatists in Yemen seized the Yemeni Island Socotra from the Saudi backed-Yemeni government. [Link]

Two bombings in Somalia killed seven people. [Link]

Egyptian Dictator al-Sisi says his country has a right to intervene in Libya and ordered his army to prepare for war. [Link]

Read More

[queeranarchism]

Why cover up? The case for protest anonymity

Article from netpol.org that I am going to copy paste in its entirety because it is amazing:

The campaign launched by Netpol last week, which is seeking to challenge attitudes towards greater protection of protesters’ privacy, has sparked considerable feedback about the ethics of wearing a face covering or mask.

Some have argued an established position that protest is fundamentally about making a public stand in support of individual beliefs. Wearing a face covering therefore removes, not least in the eyes of the courts, a level of personal accountability for how you act in support of those beliefs.

Others, notably some anarchists, have insisted the option to ‘mask up’ is hardly new and there is little evidence to suggest a wider group of protesters, who have repeatedly resisted ‘black bloc’ solidarity tactics and are unwilling to actively frustrate oppressive policing, will suddenly embrace it.

There are merits in both of these positions, but both assume that face coverings are intrinsically linked to public disorder – either as a protection against police violence or, conversely, somehow emblematic of the use of violence by protesters. We think, however, that the growth of police surveillance has made the need for greater anonymity a much bigger issue, for everyone who takes part in any protest.

It is certainly true that part of the philosophy of protest is standing up to be counted – but for many, this is becoming a choice about whether to risk attending a public protest or not. The increasing unpredictability of aggressive police tactics and the way mass surveillance now enables the targeting of individuals within a crowd, for intelligence-gathering or the prospect of sudden arrest, has weakened the collective sense of safety and solidarity that a rally or demonstration provides.

So too has the narrowing of what is deemed ‘acceptable’ protest (almost always a pre-negotiated march and rarely any forms of direct action or civil disobedience) and the division of protestors into ‘good’ and ‘bad’, isolating particular groups to make it easier to control crowd behaviour.

It is important to remember that public order intelligence gathering by the police is carried out with a deliberate purpose: what some criminologists have called ‘strategic advantage’ and ‘strategic incapacitation’.1 Intelligence is used to understand the structures, sustainability and strengths of protest groups, in order to develop ways to undermine them.

This is why, in incidents of harassment we have repeatedly highlighted, so-called ‘domestic extremists’ have faced visits or letters to their homes. This is why Forward Intelligence Team officers have been known to follow individuals for hours, even days, sometimes when they are with their children or families and even to their workplace. This overt intelligence gathering is undoubtedly also used to identify possible targets for undercover policing and to help ’embed’ undercover officers.

In the face of concerted attempts to undermine political protest movements, it is entirely legitimate to actively resist police surveillance. However, it is also important to remember, in rebuilding and promoting solidarity between protesters, that anonymity is not just a way to avoid becoming an entry on the ‘Crimint‘ or National Special Branch Intelligence System databases. There are many other reasons why individuals do not want to face constant surveillance.

We have spoken to protesters who are international students and who are worried about the possibility that their participation in a demonstration might impact on their studies. Education and youth workers have told us about warnings that their participation in anti-EDL demonstrations would have a detrimental impact on their careers, or even lead to dismissal. People awaiting the outcome of asylum claims may not want immigration services to know they have been politically active and, for similar reasons, young people (especially young Muslims) may be understandably wary of unwarranted attention from the government’s ‘Prevent’ programme. Others may have concerns that their faces might end up on a far-right website. In some cases, people participating in protest may worry about negative consequences for relatives in their country of origin (something Congolese protesters told us, for example, in 2011).

Rather than acting as a barrier, anonymity may in fact represent the main deciding factor for many about whether they are able to ‘stand up and be counted’ at all.

Whatever the reasons, it remains true that as long as the decision to cover up is taken only by a tiny minority, wearing a mask as a way of maintaining some degree of anonymity does increase the risk that the police will pick people out for arrest (and, on occasion, to try to deliberately fit them up). Officers do so precisely because they know the courts by default seem to perceive masked protesters as inherent “troublemakers”.

We want to change this – and we think one of the few ways to do so is to normalise the wearing of a face covering, so that it no longer perceived as a symbol of a minority.

If face masks become commonplace at protests, a choice made by an increasingly larger number of people, this can help make it more difficult for magistrates and judges to view covering your face as an aggravating factor, or as a legitimate indicator of impending disorder. Equally, the more people wear them, especially in ‘peaceful’ circumstances, it becomes harder for the police to justify a mask as ‘reasonable suspicion’ for using stop and search powers.

We have no expectations that this will happen overnight, but we also see no prospect of change unless we start to shift attitudes within UK protest movements towards greater concerns about privacy and anonymity – in ways that protesters elsewhere in the world seem to understand instinctively.

That is why we are not only crowd funding to produce hundreds of free face coverings, but also planning to hold a ‘Privacy Bloc’ at a future demonstration to highlight the issue. We hope it will become the first of many.

Ultimately, we hope that even the fluffiest, most peaceful demonstration will involved people covering their faces, often for no other reason than an act of solidarity with others who have a greater need for anonymity. We hope protesters will do so not because they are not prepared to stand up and be counted, but because they are not prepared to sacrifice their rights to privacy to a growing surveillance state in order to enjoy fundamental freedoms of assembly and expression.

https://netpol.org/2015/05/22/why-cover-up-the-case-for-protest-anonymity/

[megamikethomson]

For what reason is Stephen's Day called Boxing Day? 12 yuletide questions replied

What is Christmas?

The short answer is that it's a Christian celebration that commends the introduction of Jesus.According to the nativity story, Mary and Joseph went from their home in Nazareth (in what is presently Israel) to Bethlehem (in what is currently the West Bank) to participate in a registration. Months sooner, Mary had been visited by the Holy messenger Gabriel and advised she would bring forth a kid who she would name Jesus, and who might be the child of God. The youngster was conveyed in a stable. Shepherds and astute men brought birthday presents.

The holy book doesn't indicate the date of Jesus' introduction to the world. A few people have recommended it was in the spring due to the custom of sending sheep into the fields at that season. "What's more, in a similar district there were a few shepherds remaining out in the fields, and overseeing their herd around evening time." (Luke 2:8)

So how could it come to fall on December 25th?

In the fourth century, Pope Julius I picked December 25th as the date of the Banquet of the Nativity. It required a long time to get on. Christmas didn't arrive at northern Europe until the finish of the eighth century, and Christmas Day didn't turn into a government occasion in the US until 1870.

December 25th is the day that the Roman Catholic and Protestant places of worship observe Christmas, however numerous Conventional Christians utilize the Julian schedule, which runs 13 days behind the standard global Gregorian schedule, for strict celebrations. Christmas is commended by Universal Christians on January seventh in Russia, Ukraine, Serbia, Belarus, Egypt, Ethiopia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Macedonia, Moldova and Montenegro.

The three savvy men are said to have brought the infant Jesus presents on the twelfth day of Christmas. Photo: iStock The three shrewd men are said to have brought the child Jesus presents on the twelfth day of Christmas. Photo: iStock So there was no Christmas season before the introduction of Jesus?

Not as a celebration to commend the nativity, clearly. In any case, the motivation behind why Pope Julius I picked December 25th was to suitable agnostic midwinter celebrations and change them into a Christian event.

In Scandinavia, the Norse observed Jul (Yule) from the winter solstice (December 21st) for whatever length of time that it took for enormous logs to wear out, for the most part around 12 days. There was a lot of meat as creatures were butchered so they wouldn't require sustaining over the winter, and home-blended wine and brew was prepared for drinking at Yuletide.In Rome, Saturnalia – regarding Saturn, the divine force of agribusiness – started just before the winter solstice and proceeded for seven days. Men dressed as ladies, experts dressed as workers, and there was a lot of devouring and rambunctious conduct.

In the English Isles, druids slice and favored mistletoe to check the winter solstice.

Also, it's been "consistently Christmastime" from that point forward?

Not exactly. At the point when Oliver Cromwell and his Puritan powers took over Britain, Christmas was prohibited. Noticing that the date of Jesus' introduction to the world isn't in the Book of scriptures, the Puritans chose it was each of the an only a pseudo-Christian shine for the previous agnostic celebrations. In 1644, Christmas was banned – no designs, no mince pies and certainly no debauchery. A Mandate for Annulling of Celebrations was passed by parliament in June 1647 restricting Christmas, Easter and Whitsun.

In the US, where the Puritans were considerably progressively, well, puritan, anybody demonstrating a touch of Christmas soul in Boston confronted a strong fine of five shillings. Some alluded to Christmas as "Foolstide".

Sovereign Albert brought the principal Christmas tree from Germany to Victoria and the regal family unit during the 1840s Ruler Albert brought the primary Christmas tree from Germany to Victoria and the imperial family unit during the 1840s

Alongside the government in England, the celebration was before long reestablished, and it was the Victorians who truly molded Christmas as we probably am aware it today. They initiated hymn singing, brightening trees and the trading of cards. The principal Christmas tree was brought from Germany by Ruler Albert to the English illustrious family unit during the 1840s.

Nowadays, around 7,000,000 genuine trees are sold in the UK every year, and upwards of 30 million in the US. Spending on Christmas presents arrived at a top in 2014, at a normal of €670 per family in the UK. Common month to month family spending in the UK on nourishment increments by 20 percent in December, and liquor buys increment by 30 percent.

So it's to a greater extent an industrialist party than a Christian celebration now?

Maybe, however Christmas is likewise a blast time for chapels, with numerous individuals going to Mass over the occasion regardless of whether they don't believe themselves to be adherents. Indeed, even some solidified nonbelievers discover light lit 12 PM Mass on Christmas Eve or a youngsters' nativity administration difficult to stand up to.

Shouldn't something be said about non-Christians – those of different beliefs, or of no confidence?

Undoubtedly, there are a great deal of them. Instead of being angry of a Christian celebration, Muslims regularly focus on additional philanthropy work over the Christmas time frame, and a few mosques hold extraordinary talks about Jesus, who is considered in Islam to be a prophet. The celebration of Eid al-Fitr, which denotes the finish of the heavenly month of Ramadan, is some of the time called (by non-Muslims) what could be compared to Christmas in to the extent it is a period gone through with family and when presents are traded. Whenever Eid al-Fitr and Christmas harmonize is 2033.

The expression "Merry Christmas" has gotten ordinary in numerous parts as a catch-for Christmas, Hanukkah (the Jewish celebration which falls near Christmas), and the non-strict. "Chrismukkah" interfaith welcome cards are accessible for the individuals who need to stamp both.

Where for the sake of Jesus did mince pies originate from?

Today, they are round and sweet, yet they used to be elongated and appetizing. Mince pies go back to the thirteenth century, when they were known as sheep, minched, shrid or Christmas pies, and contained essentially meat alongside suet, foods grown from the ground.

The Victorians made them better, in spite of the fact that suet remained some portion of the "mincemeat" formula until nourishment organizations tuned into the necessities of veggie lovers and vegans.Few individuals make their own without any preparation nowadays, and for what reason would you when you can look over chocolate and cherry mince pies, gin mince pies, salted caramel mince pies, chocolate orange mince pies … ? Mince Pies: When loaded up with sheep, they're currently normally veggie lover, aside from the infrequent consideration of suet Mince Pies: When loaded up with lamb, they're presently generally vegan, with the exception of the intermittent incorporation of suet Shouldn't something be said about turkeys?

All things considered, goose, fowl, swan and peacocks were the meal feathered creatures of decision for the Christmas supper table for quite a long time. Lord Henry VIII was known to eat turkey at Christmas not long after the winged creature was acquainted with Britain in 1526, however it didn't get across the board until the 1950s.

Peacocks were at one time the meat of decision for the imperial Christmas supper table. Photo: iStock Peacocks were before the meat of decision for the illustrious Christmas supper table. Photo: iStock Who is Santa Clause Claus?

Otherwise known as Santy, Father Christmas and St Nicholas. Nicholas was a fourth-century minister, a rich man who subtly offered blessings to poor people. One recipient was a man with three girls who couldn't manage the cost of shares to wed them off. Nicholas let a pack of gold fall down the man's smokestack which fell into a stocking that had been hung up to dry.

The religious administrator was aggrieved, banished and detained for his confidence. After his demise on December sixth, the date turned into an event on which youngsters were given little blessings in his memory and, in certain nations, kids still open introduces on St Nicholas' Eve, December fifth.

Afterward, St Nicholas was usurped in pop culture by Father Christmas, Santy or Santa Clause Claus. As indicated by legend, he goes through the sky on a sledge pulled by eight reindeer decorated with jingle ringers to slide down stacks and store shows by the chimney.

St Nicholas: A fourth century cleric who furtively offered endowments to poor people. Photoraph: iStock St Nicholas: A fourth century priest who furtively offered endowments to poor people. Photoraph: iStock For what reason is St Stephen's Day called Boxing Day?

The name, for the most part utilized in the UK for December 26th, alludes to a Christmas box customarily given to workers and tradespeople, containing cash, a present and at times extra nourishment.

In any case, Christmas doesn't end there. In principle, the Christmas celebration endures 12 days, until January sixth, the day when the three insightful men turned up in Bethlehem with presents of gold, frankincense and myrrh for infant Jesus. Customarily, the festivals proceed and the enhancements stay set up until twelfth night, otherwise called Revelation.

The tune The 12 Days of Christmas, which began life as an eighteenth century rhyme before being combined with a good soundtrack by Frederic Austin in 1909, logs every one of the presents given to the vocalist by their genuine romance, running from a partridge in a pear tree to 12 drummers drumming. One UK money related administrations bunch gauges the expense of the blessings this year at more than €33,000.

How would you pay for a house cleaner a-draining?

It's not clear. You can't consider them house keepers any more, and most draining is finished by machine.

What next?

Easter! This is the Christian celebration denoting the torturous killing and restoration of Jesus. The hole among Christmas and Easter shifts somewhere in the range of three and four months, and in 2019 it's on the external edge of that range with Easter falling on the third few days of April. Or on the other hand, for the unflinchingly non-Christian, there's the spring equinox on Spring 21st.

Up to that point, Happy Christmas.

[long70s]

The Troubles, Pt 1

The low-level war in Ulster waged by nationalist Catholic and Protestant Unionist paramilitary groups and the British army began in earnest in 1969. The sectarian violence escalated dramatically in 1971-72, with over 500 casualties, mainly civilian, in 1972 alone. As Northern Ireland descended into anarchy, the British government dissolved the Northern Irish government in 1972 and instituted direct rule over the province.

The Troubles, as the bloodiest conflict in Europe since World War II was called, end officially in 1998.

This timeline of the years 1971-72 was culled from OnThisDay.

1971

10 January: Irish Republican Army (IRA) carry out a 'punishment attack', tarring and feathering 4 men accused of criminal activities in Belfast. 12 January: 2 bombs explode at UK Employment Secretary Robert Carr's home. 17 January: At a party conference in Dublin, Sinn Féin end their 65 year abstentionist policy and agree that any elected representative could take their seat at the Dáil. 19 January: Northern Ireland Prime Minister James Chichester-Clark meets British Home Secretary Reginald Maudling. 23 January: Riots break out in the Shankill Road area of Belfast, North Ireland. 25 January: The 170 delegates of the Ulster Unionist Council (UUC) call for the resignation of Northern Ireland Prime Minister James Chichester-Clark. 27 January: The body of a man who had been shot dead is found in Belfast. 3 February: A series of house searches by the British Army in Catholic areas of Belfast, resulting in serious rioting and gun battles. 4 February: Lieutenant-General Vernon Erskine-Crum becomes General Officer Commanding of the British Army in Northern Ireland. 6 February: The Irish Republican Army shoots and kills Gunner Robert Curtis, the first British soldier to die during the 'Troubles.’ Bernard Watt (28), a Catholic civilian, is shot and killed by the British Army (BA) during street disturbances in Ardoyne, Belfast, James Saunders (22), a member of the IRA, is shot and killed by the British Army during a gun battle near the Oldpark Road, Belfast. 9 February: 5 men are killed near a BBC transmitter on Brougher Mountain, County Tyrone, in a landmine attack carried out by the Irish Republican Army. 15 February:  A British soldier dies 7 days after being mortally wounded in an Irish Republican Army attack in North Ireland. 25 February: Northern Ireland Prime Minister James Chichester-Clark holds a meeting with Catholic Cardinal of Ireland William Conway, the first such meeting between men holding these offices since 1921. 26 February: Two Royal Ulster Constabulary officers are shot and killed by the Irish Republican Army while on a mobile patrol in the Ardoyne area of Belfast, North Ireland. 28 February: A British soldier dies in Derry after his vehicle had been attacked with petrol bombs (he died as a result of inhaling chemicals from fire extinguishers that were used to put out the fire).

8 March: Gun battle between Official Irish Republican Army and Provisional IRA leave 1 man killed; result of feud between two wings of the IRA developing since the split in 1970. 9 March: Three off-duty Scottish soldiers are killed by the Provisional Irish Republican Army; 4000 shipyard workers take to the streets to demand internment in response. 10 March: Three members of the Royal Highland Fusiliers (a regiment of the British Army) are killed by members of the Irish Republican Army. 12 March: Thousands of Belfast shipyard workers march demanding the introduction of Internment for members of the Irish Republican Army. 16 March: Northern Ireland Prime Minister James Chichester-Clark meets with British PM Edward Heath meet to disucss the security situation in Northern Ireland. 20 March: Northern Ireland Prime Minister James Chichester-Clark resigns in protest at what he views as a limited security response by the British government. 22 March: Brian Faulkner becomes the Prime Minister of Northern Ireland. 25 March: James Callaghan speaks at a rally of the Northern Ireland labour movement, but rejects calls for the Labour Party to open membership to those living in N. Ireland. 27 March: The Alliance Party of Northern Ireland (APNI) holds its first Annual Conference in the Ulster Hall in Belfast. 6 April: During a debate at Westminster on Northern Ireland, Harold Wilson of the Labour Party claimes that a draft Bill for the imposition of direct rule exists. 10 April: The Republican commemorations of the Easter Rising (in 1916 in Dublin) are held in Belfast, revealing conflicts between the two wings of the Irish Republican Army. 25 April: The Northern Ireland census is held.

15 May: Irish Republican Army member William 'Billy' Reid is shot dead by British soldiers in Belfast. 22 May: A British soldier is killed by members of the Official Irish Republican Army in Belfast. 25 May: The Provisional Irish Republican Army throw a time bomb into Springfield Road British Army base in Belfast, killing British Army Sergeant Michael Willetts and wounding seven officers. 13 June: In defiance of a government ban, members of the Orange Order march through the mainly Catholic town of Dungiven, County Londonderry, causing a riot. 18 June: The Social Democratic and Labour Party and Nationalist Members of Parliament refuse to attend the state opening of Stormont (North Ireland Parliament). 6 July: A member of the Official Irish Republican Army (OIRA) is killed in a premature explosion in County Tipperary, Republic of Ireland. 8 July: During street disturbances, British soldiers shoot dead two Catholic civilians in Free Derry; riots erupt, the Social Democratic and Labour Party withdraw from Stormont in protest. 11 July:The Irish Republican Army set off a number of bombs in the centre of Belfast injuring a number of people. 16 July: The Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) withdraw from Stormont (North Ireland Parliament) after no inquiry is announced into the shooting dead of Seamus Cusack and Desmond Beattie.

5 August: The British Parliament debate the security situation in Northern Ireland. 7 August:  A Catholic man is shot dead by a British soldier in Belfast. 8 August: A British soldier is shot dead by the Irish Republican Army in Belfast. 9 August: Operation Demetrius (or Internment) is introduced in Northern Ireland allowing suspected terrorists to be indefinitely detained without trial; the security forces arrested 342 people suspected of supporting paramilitaries. 10 August: During the internment round-up operation in west Belfast, the Parachute Regiment kill 11 unarmed civilians in what became known as the Ballymurphy massacre. 11 August: 14 people are shot dead in separate incidents in Belfast; three of them by the British Army, as violence continues following the introduction of Internment and Operation Demetrius. 14 August: British begin internment without trial in Northern Ireland. 15 August: The Social Democratic and Labour Party announce a campaign of civil disobedience in response to the introduction of Internment in Northern Ireland. 16 August: Over 8,000 workers go on strike in Derry, Northern Ireland, in protest at the introduction of Internment (allowing suspected terrorists to be indefinitely detained without trial). 22 August: Approximately 130 non-Unionist councillors announce their withdrawal from participation on district councils across Northern Ireland in protest against Internment (allowing suspected terrorists to be indefinitely detained without trial). 25 August: Leader of the Social Democratic and Labour Party Gerry Fitt presents a number of allegations of brutality by the security forces in Northern Ireland to representatives of the United Nations. 31 August: An inquiry into allegations of brutality by the security forces against those interned without trial in Northern Ireland is announced. 1 September: The Irish Republican Army set off a series of bombs across Northern Ireland injuring a number of people. 2 September: There are further Irish Republican Army bombs set off across the region, including one in Belfast which wrecked the headquarters of the Ulster Unionist Party. 3 September: A baby girl and an Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR) soldier are killed in separate shooting incidents in Northern Ireland. 6 September: British Prime Minister Edward Heath meets with Irish Prime Minister/Taoiseach Jack Lynch at Chequers in England to discuss the situation in Northern Ireland; William Craig and Ian Paisley speak at a rally in Belfast before a crowd of approximately 20,000 people and call for the establishment of a 'third force' to defend 'Ulster'.’ 13 September: Two North Ireland Loyalists are mortally injured when the bomb they were preparing exploded prematurely in a house in Bann Street, Belfast. 14 September: Two British soldiers are killed in separate shooting incidents in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. 16 September: A number of Unionists resign over the proposed tripartite talks involving Northern Ireland, the UK, and the Republic of Ireland. 23 September: Five members of the Official Irish Republican Army are killed in a premature bomb explosion. 26 September: MP David Bleakley resigns in protest over the introduction of Internment and the lack of any new political initiatives by the Northern Ireland government. 27 September: Tripartite talks involving the prime ministers of Northern Ireland, Britain, and the Taoiseach (Irish Prime Minister) fof the Republic of Ireland take place at Chequers, England. 30 September:  Ian Paisley and Desmond Boal launch the [Ulster] Democratic Unionist Party.<br>5 October: A new sitting of the Northern Ireland parliament at Stormont begins, though the Social Democratic and Labour Party remain absent due to its continuing protest against Internment. 7 October: Northern Ireland Prime Minister Brian Faulkner meets with British Prime Minister Edward Heath; they agree to send an additional 1,500 British Army troops to Northern Ireland. 17 October: 16,000 households withhold rent and rates for council houses as part of the campaign of civil disobedience against internment organised by the Social Democratic and Labour Party, Northern Ireland. 19 October: A group of Northern Ireland Members of Parliament begin a 48 hour hunger strike against the policy of Internment. 20 October: Senator in the US Congress Edward Kennedy calls for a withdrawal of British troops from Northern Ireland and all-party negotiations to establish a United Ireland. 23 October: Two female members of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) are shot dead by the British Army in the Lower Falls area of Belfast; Three Catholic civilians are shot dead by the British Army during an attempted robbery in Newry, County Down. 24 October: President of Sinn Féin Ruairi O'Brady, addresses a party conference in Dublin and proclaims that the North of Ireland must be made ungovernable as a first step to achieve a united Ireland; Amember of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) is shot dead by undercover Royal Ulster Constabulary officers during a bomb attack in Belfast. 25 October:  A man dies two days after being shot during an Irish Republican Army attack on the British Army in Belfast. 26 October: An assembly, attended only by Nationalist politicians, and acts an alternative to Stormont, meet in Dungiven Castle. 27 October: Gerard Newe becomes the first Catholic to serve in any Northern Ireland government since 1920; Newe was appointed to try to improve community relations. 30 October: The Irish Republican Army (IRA) explode a bomb at the Post Office Tower in London. 16 November: The Compton inquiry is published, acknowledging that there was ill-treatment of internees, but rejected claims of systematic brutality or torture. 8 November: A British soldier is shot dead by the Irish Republican Army (IRA) in Belfast. 22 November: A member of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) is killed in a premature bomb explosion in Lurgan, County Armagh. 24 November: A woman is killed after members of the Irish Republican Army carry out an attack on British soldiers in Strabane, County Tyrone. 25 November: British Labour Party leader Harold Wilson proposes Britain should work towards a withdrawa from Northern Ireland, and after 15 years; the Republic of Ireland could rejoin the British Commonwealth 27 November: Two Customs officials are shot by an Irish Republican Army sniper firinge upon a British Army patrol investigating a bomb attack on a Customs Post near Newry, County Armagh.  30 November: The government of the Republic of Ireland states that it will take the allegations of brutality against the security forces in Northern Ireland to the European Court of Human Rights. 6 December: A woman dies trying to salvage property from the Salvation Army Citadel in Belfast after bomb which started a large fire in an adjoining building. 7 December: An off duty member of the Ulster Defence Regiment is shot dead by members of the Irish Republican Army in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. 11 December: A bomb explodes outside a furniture showroom on the mainly-Protestant and loyalist Shankill Road, Belfast; four civilians (including two babies) were killed and nineteen wounded.>18 December: Three members of the Irish Republican Army die when the bomb they were transporting explodes prematurely in King Street, Magherafelt, County Derry. 21 December:  A publican is killed as he tried to remove a bomb from his pub. 30 December: A member of the Irish Republican Army is killed in a premature bomb explosion in Santry, Dublin.

[sparky373]

My Brexit Post

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/241584 Over 5 million signatures. Hopefully you've signed it already. If you haven't, hopefully this post will help persuade you.

I've debated with people and shared a lot of posts about brexit but I figured I should actually explain my views.

I believe very strongly that we are better off in the EU than not. I honestly think the best course of action would be to ask the EU for an extension of a long enough time to carry out a Peoples Vote that would hopefully come out with remain as the dominant choice.

The position we are in now is precarious to say the least. We are on the cliff edge of dropping out of the EU without a deal. Some may say that's not a bad thing. I disagree. So let’s go through this point by point:

Trade Pretty much any expert who's looked at it says leaving the EU already has and will cause economic damage. Leaving without a deal would be far worse. Just by leaving we are weakening our position in the world. We will no longer be part of a 600 million strong trading block.

For those who don't understand why this is bad think about Unions. Before they existed labour conditions and pay were much worse than now. Unions prove that banding together in collective bargaining is much more effective that trying to strike deals on your own. The EU together is able to strike much more beneficial deals than individual countries on their own. Following that logic any deal we strike post brexit will not be as good as we had in the EU. Going into negotiations with larger economies like China and the US we will be at a BIG disadvantage and will get far less favourable terms than we currently enjoy.

May's current deal has us leaving the customs union and the single market. Currently we enjoy frictionless, tariff free trade with EU countries. And an exit that takes us out of those adds expensive barriers to trading with our largest import/export partner. Fees that businesses themselves will have to pay. (Hence why a lot of small & Medium businesses are worried about this)

Movement Given there are millions of british people living abroad in the EU. Free movement is something that has benefited UK citizens. Post brexit their future is uncertain.

Ever wanted to retire to Spain or France? We leave the EU and it gets much harder. Seen a job in the EU or been offered one? Prepare to have to go through visa processes that we don't have to at the minute. Want to visit non-EU countries? All our travel agreements are as an EU country so those will have to be redone.

But it works both ways. The UK relies on EU citizens coming over here to work. The NHS? All those jobs you don't want to do or think beneath you? Seasonal workers? propped up by EU citizens. It will be harder and there will be less incentive for them to come over post brexit even ignoring the seemingly rising xenophobia.

Laws People say we don't have control of our laws. We do for the vast majority of things. Parliament forcing amendments through so May had to get approval for the deal rather than negotiating in secret and forcing through something no one agreed with? Our government did that with their sovereignty. Some stuff does come from the EU. For example the EU working hours directive that stops companies making us work over 48 hours a week without our explicit consent. Tell me with a straight face a tory government would have implemented that without being forced to. And even the stuff that comes from the EU we have a say in. We are an EU member. That means we get a seat at the table and we get to vote on and if necessary veto EU legislation Those MEPs we send over. That’s their job. If they’re not doing it (*cough* Farage) it's not the EUs responsibility. It's ours. we vote those people out and replace them with people who will do their job just like with the UK parliament.

Leaving the EU means we'd still have to follow their regulations when trading with them. If we leave but stay in the single market or customs union we still have to follow their regulations. There's just one difference: We'd no longer have a say in making those laws!

What’s the phrase? Oh yh: You've got to be in it to win it.

When Washington D.C. is asking for statehood and complaining about taxation without representation, why are we actively trying to put ourselves in that position?

People seem convinced we'll leave and be able to strike the best possible deal with the EU. The best possible deal? We've already got it. Norway model? Switzerland? Turkey? Canada? WTO? All worse than what we currently enjoy.

Am I saying the EU is this perfect utopia? No Do I think the best option is to stay in the EU, have a say, and change it for the better from within? Hell yes.

More and more people are realising that leaving is not the right thing to do. So why are we still on a course to crash out with no deal?

The referendum There are many reasons Leave took the referendum: Some people have legitimate concerns, some people are racist, others voted not for brexit but as a protest, others because of all the fearmongering and lies. The argument that the country voted for our current situation is patently false. The referendum asked leave or remain (a stupidly simple question for such a complex issue)

It did not ask do you want to leave without a deal? It did not ask do you want to leave regardless of what the deal is?

Some people have legitimate concerns about the EU, fair enough but is it not better to stay and try to fix those issues than leave and cause uncertainty and major economic harm.

Some people, by their own admission on camera, voted leave not because they wanted to leave the EU, but as a protest against the government. They did not vote for Mays deal. They did not vote for no deal.

Some people voted leave because they believed the lies peddled by the leave campaign and the media. Many, when the falsehoods were exposed, said they would have voted differently. They do not want Mays deal. They do not want no deal.

David Cameron did not promise the referendum because he wanted people to have a choice about EU membership. He promised it because he feared losing seats to UKIP. The Tories played party politics with huge generational changes, thinking Leave wouldn’t possibly win, and they lost.

The media splashed the lies all over their pages not because they thought them true but because the wanted to sell papers and rich people didn’t want to be subject to upcoming EU legislation attacking tax havens.

All the big names and CEOs that told you Leaving was the best choice? The vast majority of them are moving overseas to avoid the harm. Funny that.

Let’s take a look at the lies: £350 million a week for the nhs? Lie we can put the money we currently pay into the EU to our own people? So far what’s being promised is less than now. e.g. stronger towns fund. Lie No one’s talking about leaving the single market or the customs union? Lie Brexit will be a breeze with no downsides? Lie We'll be better off on our own? So far it looks to be a lie Britain will still be open for business? Even before we leave we are already losing jobs as companies and organisations move to other EU countries so they can maintain access to that market rather than stay here.

The leave campaigns were fined for their lies A court declared that if the referendum hadn't been advisory it would have been struck down because of the lies So why are we still ploughing ahead?

Demographics If you look at the distribution of votes in the referendum it was overwhelmingly the case that older voters voted to leave while younger people voted to remain. The people that would have to live the longest with the result wanted to stay. While the people who wouldn't have to deal with it for long wanted to leave. If you look at eligible voters a fair amount of the older people have died since the referendum, meanwhile there are a lot of people who were too young to vote then that are now eligible. These are people who are having brexit thrust upon them without having had a say. The demographics have shifted; The vast majority of polls now show that remain would win if the people were asked again. You can understand why younger people think the older generation fucked us over.

ReMOANers There's a common brexiteer argument that remainers are to blame for the current situation. 'They didn’t accept the result and get behind it', 'They're sabotaging brexit'

To them I say: Shut Up

In any other situation if you see someone putting themselves on a course that will harm people you try to stop it. Even if they don't see it as harm. It would be antithetical of me to just let someone walk off a cliff, and people would judge me if I did. So why is this any different?

Ireland The Good Friday Agreement is the treaty that has kept peace in Ireland and stopped 'The Troubles'. The UK government is legally required to uphold it. No-one wants to see it fail. But that's what brexit will cause. Part of the agreement states that there must be regulatory alignment and no hard border. It is literally impossible to leave the EU fully and honour that.

Leave the EU completely, including the customs union and single market? Hard border, regulatory differences. Agreement broken

Have a border in the Irish sea? Divides Great Britain and Northern Ireland potentially causing a breakup of the UK which no one wants and causes a whole heap of issues (after all Scotland voted remain in their independence referendum after being promised by David Cameron that we'd stay in the EU)

Stay in the single market and Customs Unions? People will complain we didn’t leave fully, we still have to follow laws & regs but have no say in them

Stay in the EU? Agreement intact, best possible deal.

There's a reason why Ireland and the backstop have been and continue to be such a difficult topic. Because it is next to impossible to reconcile leaving the EU and keeping the Good Friday Agreement intact.

Membership fees People cite the fees we pay, as reason for leaving. They think we pay in more than they pay back. And yet those same people don’t say the same about spotify, netflix, internet, TV,... Because people recognise that there are more benefits to a membership than how much investment you get. The access to trade partners, the say in law-making. The economic and political benefits we get from being in the EU are massive and if anything are more than worth the fees we pay.

Theresa May Right now Theresa May is being a gigantic hypocrite. The (non-binding advisory) referendum? once in a lifetime, the people have spoken, brexit is the will of the people and must be carried out no matter what

Her defeated deal? Brought back to parliament as many times as she can get away with until MPs vote her way. Holding the country hostage against the cliff edge of no deal. Spewing hate that is getting MPs who don't agree with her assaulted in the streets

It is not undemocratic to ask people if they've changed their mind, especially when circumstances have changed. If anything it is supremely democratic.

The people voted to leave? They voted based on lies. They did not vote for Mays deal, they did not vote for no deal so how is it wrong to go back to the country and ask if they're ok with what has been negotiated or if they want to do something else?

In fact given people had so many different views of what brexit would be, none of the options for leaving commanded a majority.

The people want you to get on with brexit? Data says they don't.

If nothing else revoking Article 50 gives us time to work things out without the cloud of uncertainty and damage hanging over us. In a situation such as this is it not better to stay in a position of safety and keep the status quo, rather than jumping off a cliff and hoping there's a land of mattresses at the bottom?

Brexit was never going to be a good thing, the people telling you it would be lied to you. It's not a bad thing to admit you were wrong or that you fell for their fantasy. What is bad is refusing to admit when you're wrong to the detriment of yourself and everyone else .

The deal that we have at the moment ceases to exist if we leave. If we get out and then decide we made a mistake and want back in, then that deal no longer exists. We go back in as a normal member. No rebate, no opt-outs, none of the extras that we have now.

Hopefully these arguments will have helped you realise that we're better off in the EU and we should revoke Article 50

If not, then I don't know what to say and I doubt anything will change your mind.

Sometimes when something goes wrong in a plane, a fighter pilot refuses to eject thinking they can fix the issue. Right until they hit the ground. Don't be that pilot.

For those of you that have, I'll link to the petition again. Given Theresa May's stubborn refusal to even entertain the idea of a People's Vote, this may be our only chance at saving the country we all love.

For those who don't want to leave but don't think signing will do anything, even if it doesn't work at least you can look yourself in the eye and say you didn't stand idly by while the country went to shit.

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/241584

[thecaffefashionblog]

Happy Independence Day Happy Independence Day Jamaica - The Colony of Jamaica gained independence from the United Kingdom on 6 August 1962. In Jamaica, this date is celebrated as Independence Day, a national holiday. The island became an imperial colony in 1509 when Spain conquered the Indigenous Arawak people. In 1655, British forces took the island with hardly a fight, and the British Empire claimed it. Over the years, escaped slaves joined the Indigenous Taino in the mountains, forming a society known as Maroons. Maroons won a war against British forces (1728–1740) but lost a second war (1795–1796). In the 1800s, slavery was abolished and Jamaicans gained suffrage, although the British still held power. Early in the 20th century, Marcus Garvey promoted Black nationalism and became the most notable Black leader of his day. During the Great Depression, workers protested inequality and fought the authorities in Jamaica and other Caribbean colonies. In 1943, labor leader Alexander Bustamante won an electoral victory and established a new, more liberal constitution. After World War II, Jamaican leaders developed the government structure to prepare for independence. In 1962, Bustamante’s party won the election and he became premier. That same year, the UK Parliament officially granted Jamaica independence, and Bustamante became the independent country’s first prime minister. @direalshaggy @thecaffefashionblogmagazine @thecaffefashionblog @thecaffefashionblogtv @thecaffefashionblogmagazine @caffefashionblogmuseum @caffefashionblogawards @caffebox_ https://www.instagram.com/p/Cg7gCwaI4Yg/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[germanydreaming]

History

·       768-814 - Charlemagne rules as King of the Franks and is crowned as Holy Roman Emperor    

·       1190    Third Crusade 3rd Crusade led by Richard the Lionheart of England, Philip II of France, and Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I. Saladin manages to unite the Muslim world and recapture Jerusalem, sparking the Fourth Crusade            

·       1200    Fourth Crusade and the French/Flemish advanced on Constantinople but the Christians fail to recapture Jerusalem            

·       1212    The Children's Crusade led by a French peasant boy, Stephen of Cloyes        

·       1270    Other crusades follow including the eighth crusade led by Louis IX of France - but the armies still fail to capture Jerusalem       ��

·       1273    Rudolf of Hapsburg crowned king of the Germans  

·       1348    The Black Death ravages Europe for the first of many times. An estimated one-third of the population is thought to have perished within the first year      

·       1499    Switzerland breaks away from the German empire    

·       1517    Martin Luther initiates the Reformation        

·       1546-1547: Emperor Charles V defeats the Protestant princes and allies          

·       1555    The Peace of Augsburg where the princes determine the religion of their territories  

·       1618 - 1648: The Thirty Years War ending with the Peace of Westphalia      

·       1701    Frederick was crowned the first king of Prussia        

·       1740 - 1748:  The War of Austrian Succession          

·       1806    The Confederation of the Rhine was established by Napoleon Bonaparte    

·       1806    Prussia declared war on France and was defeated by Napoleon Bonaparte    

·       1813    The Prussians helped defeat Napoleon Bonaparte at Leipzig            

·       1814-1815: Congress of Vienna establishes the German Confederation of 39 independent German states        

·       1815    Napoleon was defeated at Waterloo    

·       1862    Otto von Bismarck appointed prime minister of Prussia            

·       1870    Franco-Prussian War  

·       1871    January: Germany captures Paris        

·       1871    18 January: Wilhelm I was crowned the first Kaiser of the German Empire uniting all of the German states  

·       1914    28 June - Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary and his wife were assassinated in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina provoking World War I. August: Germany declares war on Russia and France. The United Kingdom declares war on Germany        

·       1918    11 November: The Treaty of Versailles ends World War I and the Rhineland was placed under Allied occupation for 15 years    

·       1919    19 January: A national assembly meets in Weimar to write a new German Constitution - called the Weimar Republic          

·       1923    The National Socialist German Workers Party (Nazis) attempt an unsuccessful armed rebellion led by Adolf Hitler            

·       1933    Hindenburg appoints Adolf Hitler as the chancellor and Nazi Germany begin persecuting Jews    

·       1934    Adolf Hitler declared himself der Fuhrer. The Nazi German government is called the Third Reich            

·       1938    10 April: Germany annexes Austria    

·       1939    16 March: Germany occupies Czechoslovakia          

·       1939    1 September: Germany invades Poland starting World War 2  

·       1940    Germany captures Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, and Luxembourg. The Allies including Russia, the UK, and the USA retaliate            

·       1945    30 April: Adolf Hitler commits suicide

·       August: The United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki

·       7 May: Germany surrenders

·       June: Germany divided into four zones of military occupation (the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and the Soviet Union)  

·       1949    May: The Allies approve a constitution for western Germany (Federal Republic of Germany) and East Germany adopts a Communist-prepared constitution

·       October - The German Democratic Republic was formed (East Germany)        

·       1955    5 May: West Germany obtains independence            

·       1961    August: The Berlin Wall was built      

·       1989    9 November: The Berlin Wall was demolished and Communist East Germans were able to travel to the West of Germany          

·       1990    3 October - East and West Germany were reunited.

 One event I wish to talk about is the Black Death which occurred in 1348. It was said that a third of the population died due to the plague. There is no doubt that the black death affected all of Europe but I am more interested in how it affected Germany. There were a few things that happened in Germany as a result of the black death. I looked up a website that highlighted some events that had occurred such as; Whipping boys, Pogrom, and the “Plague Angel”. These events all had to do with fear from the plague and it resulted in riots, folk stories, violence, and other things. One quote from the Pogrom that I thought was notable was, “In many areas, Jews became the target of this paranoia” (The Local.de). Individuals have started to turn on one another and this eventually resulted in rioting and violence. The fear of the plague caused many to turn on one another.

In 1939 Germany invades Poland and causes World War 2. I think this is a significant time in Germany. I did research and found a website that has interviewed Germans that grew up in Nazi Germany. I read that many were homeless and without food or necessities. The interviewees talk about seeing many dead people or about raids and other things. One recalled, “The glowing tip of a cigarette; the clatter of pebbles being thrown into a dead man’s mouth; two tomato plants on the balcony of a home that has been destroyed” (Culture). From this quote by an individual who grew up in Nazi Germany, it appears there were harsh conditions and many struggled significantly.

The film I found is located on YouTube and it talks about the history of Germany without only highlighting the first and the second world war. Germany can sometimes be known for the world wars and Hitler but this video also touches on German history thousands of years ago.

History of Germany - Documentary. (2018). [YouTube Video]. In YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZR9B2KIJBI

How German Lands Responded to the Black Death. (2021). Thelocal.de. https://www.thelocal.de/20140711/how-german-lands-responded-to-the-black-death/

Macdonald, F. (n.d.). How the children of Nazi Germany remember World War Two. Www.bbc.com. https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20180123-how-the-children-of-nazi-germany-remember-world-war-two

Timeline Of Germany. (2018). Datesandevents.org. http://www.datesandevents.org/places-timelines/20-timeline-of-germany.htm

[newstfionline]

Monday, May 17, 2021

Colonial shutdown shows how Americans pay the price of efficiency (Washington Post) The drivers stuck in gas lines after the Colonial Pipeline shutdown, the Texans freezing in their homes after the February grid collapse, the Californians sweltering through their own power failures last summer—all were paying the unintended and unexpected price of efficiency. The market-driven energy sector has spent a decade or more cutting costs, streamlining and digitizing. Four big oil refineries have shut down in Pennsylvania and New Jersey since 2010 because it’s cheaper to bring in gasoline by pipeline from the Gulf Coast, 1,500 miles away—as long as that pipeline stays in operation. Texas and California have driven the price of electricity down by throwing out the old regulatory structure—the structure that made sure utilities earned enough to invest in backup resources. In the name of efficiency, “resilience was assumed,” said Daniel Yergin, a historian and author of “The New Map: Energy, Climate, and the Clash of Nations.” But even as American fossil fuel producers proudly declared the country to be energy independent once more in recent years, the energy sector has stripped redundancy out of its systems, at the risk of leaving customers in the lurch when things go wrong. Some companies have declined to take the precautions needed to survive the unexpected, whether it’s bad weather or a cyberattack.

Police in Cities Across U.S. Brace for a Violent Summer (WSJ) Police departments in New York City and other large metro areas across the U.S. are bulking up patrols and implementing new tactics to prepare for what they say could be a violent summer. States lifting Covid-19 restrictions and more people out in public spaces in warmer weather increase the likelihood of more shootings, as well as less-serious crimes, officials say. Many crimes, including violent ones, normally rise in summer. Gun purchases also rose during the pandemic and cities have seen an increase in guns being used in crimes. Shootings and homicides in big U.S. cities are up this year again after rising last year. In the last three months of 2020, homicides rose 32.2% in cities with a population of at least one million, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Quarterly Uniform Crime Report. In New York City, the number of homicides has reached 146 for the year so far, an increase of 27% from 115 during the same period in 2020. In Dallas, police have counted 75 homicides this year, up from 58 during the same period last year. Chicago police have recorded 195 homicides, up from 160 in the year-ago period.

Tensions Among Democrats Grow Over Israel as the Left Defends Palestinians (NYT) With violence in Israel and the Palestinian territories forcing the issue back to the forefront of American politics, divisions between the leadership of the Democratic Party and the activist wing have burst into public view. While the Biden administration is handling the growing conflict as a highly sensitive diplomatic challenge involving a longstanding ally, the ascendant left views it as a searing racial justice issue that is deeply intertwined with the politics of the United States. For those activists, Palestinian rights and the decades-long conflict over land in the Middle East are linked to causes like police brutality and conditions for migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border. Party activists who fight for racial justice now post messages against the “colonization of Palestine” with the hashtag #PalestinianLivesMatter. With President Biden in the White House, traditional U.S. support for Israel is hardly in question from a policy perspective; he has made his support for the country clear throughout his nearly 50 years in public life. Still, the terms of the debate are shifting in Democratic circles. On Thursday, a group of leading progressive members of Congress offered a rare break from party unity, giving fiery speeches on the House floor that accused Mr. Biden of ignoring the plight of Palestinians and “taking the side of the occupation.” Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York directly challenged the president, who had asserted that Israel had a right to defend itself. “Do Palestinians have a right to survive?” she asked in an impassioned address. “Do we believe that? And if so, we have a responsibility to that as well.” “The base of the party is moving in a very different direction than where the party establishment is,” James Zogby said. “If you support Black Lives Matter, it was not a difficult leap to saying Palestinian lives matter, too.”

Bleak futures fuel widespread protests by young Colombians (AP) Thousands of young people and college students have been at the forefront of Colombia’s antigovernment protests for more than two weeks, armed with improvised shields made from garbage cans and umbrellas. They have taken the brunt of the tear gas and gunshots from security forces, and dozens have paid for it with their lives. The young men and women have become the voices for Colombians fed up with a government they say has mismanaged the coronavirus pandemic and crushed hopes of a better future. “To a large extent, we found that there was no fear of death. Sometimes it is the only thing that remains when the system is starving us and there are no opportunities,” said Yonny Rojas, a 36-year-old law student who also runs soup kitchens in one of the poorest areas of Cali, the city where the government response has been especially violent.

Pandemic triggers new crisis in Peru: lack of cemetery space (AP) After Joel Bautista died of a heart attack last month in Peru, his family tried unsuccessfully to find an available grave at four different cemeteries. After four days, they resorted to digging a hole in his garden. The excavation in a poor neighborhood in the capital city of Lima was broadcast live on television, attracting the attention of authorities and prompting them to offer the family a space on the rocky slopes of a cemetery. The same plight is shared by other families across Peru. After struggling to control the coronavirus pandemic for more than a year, the country now faces a parallel crisis: a lack of cemetery space. The problem affects everyone, not just relatives of COVID-19 victims, and some families have acted on their own, digging clandestine graves in areas surrounding some of Lima’s 65 cemeteries. The desperate lack of options comes as the country endures its deadliest period of the pandemic yet. More than 64,300 people who tested positive for COVID-19 have died in Peru, according to the Health Ministry, but that figure is almost certainly an undercount. A vital records agency estimates that the true figure is more than 174,900, counting those whose possible infection was not confirmed by a test.

UK readies for major reopening but new variant sparks worry (AP) Travelers in England were packing their bags, bartenders were polishing their glasses and performers were warming up as Britain prepared Sunday for a major step out of lockdown—but with clouds of worry on the horizon. Excitement at the reopening of travel and hospitality vied with anxiety that a more contagious virus variant first found in India is spreading fast and could delay further plans to reopen. On Monday, people in England will be able to eat a restaurant meal indoors, drink inside a pub, go to a museum, hug friends and visit one another’s homes for the first time in months. A ban on overseas holidays is also being lifted, with travel now possible to a short list of countries with low infection rates. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are following similar but slightly different reopening paths.

Turkey eases COVID-19 restrictions but keeps many curfews (AP) Turkey’s interior ministry on Sunday lifted a full lockdown that had ordered people to stay home to fight COVID-19 infections, shifting to a less-restrictive program that still involved curfews on weeknights and weekends. Shopping malls will be able to reopen. Some businesses will remain closed, including gyms and cafes, but restaurants will be able to offer take away in addition to delivery. Preschools will resume in-person education but upper grades will continue remote learning. Turks can return to their workplaces but will have to stay home from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. on weekdays and all day Saturday and Sunday, with the exception of walking to a market to buy food. Civil servants will continue working remotely or in shifts in offices. Foreign tourists and workers with special permits are exempt.

Syria’s Surprising Solar Boom: Sunlight Powers the Night in Rebel Idlib (NYT) When the Syrian government attacked their village, Radwan al-Shimali’s family hastily threw clothes, blankets and mattresses into their truck and sped off to begin new lives as refugees, leaving behind their house, farmland and television. Among the belongings they kept was one prized technology: the solar panel now propped up on rock next to the tattered tent they call home in an olive grove near the village of Haranabush in northwestern Syria. “It is important,” Mr. al-Shimali said of the 270-watt panel, his family’s sole source of electricity. “When there is sun during the day, we can have light at night.” An unlikely solar revolution of sorts has taken off in an embattled, rebel-controlled pocket of northwestern Syria, where large numbers of people whose lives have been upended by the country’s 10-year-old civil war have embraced the sun’s energy simply because it is the cheapest source of electricity around. Solar panels, big and small, old and new, are seemingly everywhere in Idlib Province along Syria’s border with Turkey. “There is no alternative,” said Akram Abbas, a solar panel importer in the town of al-Dana. “Solar energy is a blessing from God.”

India to start evacuating parts of west coast as cyclone approaches (Reuters) India is preparing to evacuate thousands of people from low-lying areas along its western coast as a powerful cyclone is expected to make landfall on Tuesday morning in the state of Gujarat. Cyclone Tauktae, which formed in the Arabian sea, is expected to cross Gujarat with wind gusts of up to 175 kmph (109 mph) and is expected to make landfall in the state the following morning. The meteorological agency warned that there could be destruction of houses and flooding of escape routes. Disruption to railway services was also expected until May 21.

Israel stages new round of heavy airstrikes on Gaza City (AP) The Israeli military unleashed a wave of heavy airstrikes on the Gaza Strip early Monday, saying it destroyed 15 kilometers (nine miles) of militant tunnels and the homes of nine alleged Hamas commanders. Residents of Gaza awakened by the overnight barrage described it as the heaviest since the war began a week ago, and even more powerful than a wave of airstrikes in Gaza City the day before that left 42 dead and flattened three buildings. There was no immediate word on the casualties from the latest strikes. A three-story building in Gaza City was heavily damaged, but residents said the military warned them 10 minutes before the strike and everyone cleared out. Gaza’s mayor Yahya Sarraj told Al-Jazeera TV that the airstrikes had caused extensive damage to roads and other infrastructure. He also warned that the territory was running low on fuel and other spare parts. The U.N. has warned that Gaza’s sole power station is at risk of running out of fuel. The territory already experiences daily power outages of 8-12 hours and tap water is undrinkable.

Ethiopia again delays national election amid deadly tensions (AP) Ethiopia has again delayed its national election after some opposition parties said they wouldn’t take part and as conflict in the country’s Tigray region means no vote is being held there, further complicating Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s efforts to centralize power. The head of the national elections board, Birtukan Mideksa, in a meeting with political parties’ representatives on Saturday said the June 5 vote in Africa’s second most populous country would be postponed, citing the need to finish printing ballots, training staffers and compiling voters’ information. The board said she estimated a delay of two to three weeks.

Sharks use Earth’s magnetic field as a GPS, scientists say (AP) Sharks use the Earth’s magnetic field as a sort of natural GPS to navigate journeys that take them great distances across the world’s oceans, scientists have found. Researchers said their marine laboratory experiments with a small species of shark confirm long-held speculation that sharks use magnetic fields as aids to navigation—behavior observed in other marine animals such as sea turtles. The study sheds light on why sharks are able to traverse seas and find their way back to feed, breed and give birth, said marine policy specialist Bryan Keller, one of the study authors. “We know that sharks can respond to magnetic fields,” Keller said. “We didn’t know that they detected it to use as an aid in navigation ... You have sharks that can travel 20,000 kilometers (12,427 miles) and end up in the same spot.”

[classyfoxdestiny]

Scottish minister demands investigation into nursery over alleged racism

Scottish minister demands investigation into nursery over alleged racism

A Scottish cabinet minister has called for an investigation into alleged racial discrimination at a nursery that refused a place for his young daughter.

Humza Yousaf, the devolved government’s health secretary, said a Dundee nursery had claimed there were no places available for his two-year-old daughter Amal.

But they said a white friend who called to check was told there were places available on three afternoons a week at the same establishment.

Mr Yousaf said applications had been tested by other family members and reporters, with “white-sounding” and “ethnic-sounding” names being accepted and rejected respectively on the same day.

A spokesperson for the owners of the Little Scholars Nursery in Broughty Ferry, Dundee, said they were “extremely proud of being open and inclusive to all” insisting that “any claim to the contrary is demonstrably false and an accusation that we would refute in the strongest possible terms”.

The spokesperson told The Daily Record newspaper, which first reported the claims: “In addition to our owners being of Asian heritage, across more than a decade we have regularly welcomed both children and staff from a range of different religious, cultural, ethnic and racial backgrounds, including two Muslim families currently.

“We have also regularly made arrangements to accommodate different lifestyles by, for example, providing a halal menu for those children who come from Muslim families.”

Mr Yousaf said he and his wife had contacted the Care Inspectorate and are also seeking legal advice on the issue.

Mr Yousaf said: “We are fooling ourselves if we believe discrimination doesn’t exist in Scotland. I believe evidence we have proves our case beyond doubt.

“As well as reporting the nursery to the Care Inspectorate we are also seeking legal advice.”

The minister, who has played a high profile role in Scotland’s response to the Covid pandemic, said that contacting the Care Inspectorate with their concerns was “not a step my wife and I have taken lightly”.

He tweeted: “After our nursery application for our daughter was refused a 2nd time, my wife asked her White Scottish friend to put in an application for a Child the same age. Within 24hrs of refusing our application my wife’s friend’s was accepted.”

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2 August 2021

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Great Britain’s Bethany Shriever and Kye Whyte celebrate their Gold and Silver medals respectively for the Cycling BMX Racing at the Ariake Urban Sports Park on the seventh day of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in Japan

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29 July 2021

Team GB’s Mallory Franklin during the Women’s Canoe Slalom Final on day six of the Tokyo Olympic Games. She went on to win the silver medal

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27 July 2021

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England’s Bukayo Saka with manager Gareth Southgate after the match

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14 June 2021

Scotland’s David Marshall in the net after Czech Republic’s Patrik Schick scored their second goal at Hampden Park

Reuters

Mr Yousaf went on to claim that “three White-Scottish applicants offered tours of nursery and spaces, often within less than 24hrs”, while at the same time that applicants with Muslim names were “being rejected, including application for my daughter”.

He added: “It doesn’t matter what my position or how senior in Govt I may be, some will always see me, my wife and children by our ethnicity or religion first.

“We have given Little Scholars nursery every opportunity for an explanation for the disparity in treatment, none has been forthcoming.”

“With no explanation from Little Scholars, we will pursue the truth and get answers we deserve.”

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[xtruss]

‘People’s PM’ Bob Hawke’s Slavish Service to US Intelligence Shows Australia Has Never Been Independent, Let Alone a Democracy

— 28 June, 2021 | RT

Australia's former prime minister Bob Hawke — Photo: Reuters/Daniel Munoz

A new report confirms how Bob Hawke, Prime Minister of Australia from 1983 to 1991, served for some time as a US intelligence informant. This clandestine relationship undoubtedly had a major impact on Canberra’s politics.

The shocking disclosure was made by academic Cameron Coventry, who analyzed diplomatic cables from official archives, and found that, while serving as leader of the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU), and President of the Labor party, the man who would later be known as the “people’s Prime Minister” passed on sensitive information about the government, the trade union movement and more to Washington over many years.

The precise points at which Hawke’s secret spell as an informant commenced and ended aren’t clear from the unearthed documents, which run from 1973 to 1979. In his analysis, Coventry notes that numerous “notable” Australians maintained clandestine ties to US officials in the same period, among them government ministers, state premiers, and political party leaders. However, the “sheer volume of cables” pertaining to Hawke’s dealings indicate that he was “especially entrenched in the practice,” to a degree that was “unusual.”

Hawke’s motivations for entering the arrangement aren’t clear from the files themselves, although the academic suggests he sought to “[persuade] the US that he could be trusted as leader” as he prepared to enter parliament, so “promised” to keep diplomats abreast of everything and anything of possible concern to Washington.

True to his word, he provided a regular flow of “reliable” intelligence to prove he could be depended upon, including advance warning and insider information on planned strikes and industrial action by workers at major US corporations operating in Australia. He even reported on meetings conducted abroad with influential figures and groups, including the UK Labour Party. Eerily, the cables make clear he was, presumably unknowingly, surveilled closely by US intelligence throughout these trips.

For their part, US diplomats saw much “potential value” in Hawke as a “possible future Labour leader and prime minister,” and a golden opportunity to cultivate him and influence his perspectives and policies along the way. They also “wanted to protect defence installations in Australia,” among other “important” interests.

Feeling he would “benefit from being exposed to some sophisticated non-labour thinking on the role of multinationals in Australian economic development,” it was proposed he be invited to Washington to meet representatives of Chase Manhattan Bank, the International Chamber of Commerce, Brookings Institution, and other organisations and be educated in the merits of the then-burgeoning doctrine of neoliberalism.

“I wish to emphasise how important proposed visit of Bob Hawke to US can be…There is little doubt that he has major potential…he has every prospect of being a major figure on political scene for next 20 years or so, and it will be worth our while to make a real effort to develop a worthwhile program for him,” a May 1974 cable states.

Three months later, another cable spoke glowingly of Hawke, predicting confidently that he would eventually be transformed into the “ideal Australian Labour leader” – news that was no doubt extremely welcome, given at that time the country was led by Gough Whitlam, a considerably less-than-ideal Labor leader from the US’ perspective.

Elected in 1972 on a wave of popular discontent, mass protests, and growing progressive sentiment, Whitlam was a maverick social democrat who made clear his country would no longer be dominated by foreign powers. Within months, he’d abolished royal patronage, recognised the People’s Republic of China, drawn up plans for Aboriginal land rights, ended conscription, and withdrawn all Australian troops from Vietnam, with his ministers referring to the ongoing US war there as “corrupt and barbaric.”

Whitlam owed his victory in no small degree to ACTU, then a highly influential organisation within Australian politics and society. As such, Hawke’s leadership of the Council was of incalculable worth to his handlers, and Coventry notes that, throughout this period, he served to “moderate” and “marshal” the movement according to US interests.

Early on, he’d cautioned diplomats that he may on occasion need to “adjust his rhetoric to the prevailing line” in response to ACTU’s left wing, but reassured them that this was purely for “political survival” – in other words, any radical statements he made would simply be for show. Hawke also maintained warm public relations with the prime minister for show, too – behind the scenes, he “used short words of emphasis not suitable for a family newspaper,” to describe the “difficult,” “stupid,” and “egocentric” Labor leader.

Whitlam’s status as a marked man was starkly confirmed in March 1973, when he instigated unexpected and unprecedented raids on the offices of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO). Launched due to the agency withholding information from the government, investigators uncovered a trove of sensitive information that had been withheld from ministers for decades – among other things, Whitlam learned of Australia’s membership of the ‘Five Eyes’ global spying network for the first time, 17 years after Canberra’s entry.

In response, James Jesus Angleton, the US Central Intelligence Agency’s notorious counter-intelligence chief, concluded the premier was a “serious threat” and unsuccessfully sought to have him removed from office via cloak-and-dagger tactics. It would not be until November 1975 that Whitlam was finally brought down, removed as prime minister upon the orders of Queen Elizabeth II’s representative, Governor General John Kerr, as a result of CIA and MI6 connivance. Plans to parachute Hawke into parliament and subsequently the Labor leadership duly “intensified” at this time, diplomats considering him to have “effectively assumed the role of opposition leader.”

Eight years later, Hawke was elected by landslide, Washington’s man in Canberra at last safely installed in power. Over his terms in office, he fully vanquished any and all vestiges of social democracy in Australia, deregulated its banking system, floated its currency on international exchanges, and became known even among his own ministers for “uncritical support for the US.”

Some details of his double life were made public in April 2013 by WikiLeaks, although they neither dented his public standing nor precipitated any debate about the degree to which foreign powers dictate Australia’s domestic and foreign policies and choose its leaders, and whether this is an acceptable state of affairs. Nonetheless, citizens may do well to consider the words of WikiLeaks’ founder Julian Assange – an Australian currently incarcerated in a high-security prison in London, awaiting extradition to Washington for exposing US war crimes.

“We should understand, Australia is part of the United States. It is part of this English-speaking empire, the center of gravity of which is the United States, the second center of which is the United Kingdom,” he has said. “Australia is a suburb in that arrangement. Our capital is Washington. The capital of Australia is DC. That’s the reality…That’s where the decisions are made.”

— By Kit Klarenberg, an investigative journalist exploring the role of intelligence services in shaping politics and perceptions.

[expatimes]

Vaccines are heading to the UK. But will everyone want them? | United Kingdom News

London, United Kingdom - Sara Saigol, a 48-year-old doctor, has lost two members of her family to COVID-19.

For her, there is no question - when the vaccine is made available, she will line up to have it.

“One was a fit and healthy 37-year-old,” she told Al Jazeera. "Not being able to breathe is a horrific way to die."

On Wednesday, the UK became the first country to approve the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for widespread use. It will be rolled out through the National Health Service (NHS) as early as next week; the elderly, residential care home workers, and front-line health and social care workers will be given the drug first.

But with misinformation swirling around online about 5G mobile networks fuelling the virus, claims of vaccine trial volunteers dying after taking the jabs, and conspiracy theories that people will be microchipped as they accept shots, the government now faces the challenging task of battling vaccine hesitancy.

There is also some scepticism over the swift procurement of the vaccine.

According to the London-based Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), social media companies allow the so-called “anti-vax” movement to spread lies on their platforms.

Since last year, the CCDH says, anti-vaxxers on social media have increased their followings by about eight million people.

Unlike Saigol, 32-year-old journalist Safeera Sarjoo is in two-minds.

"I live with my parents and grandmother who are high-risk individuals so on the face of it, it makes sense to it if it means that I won't be a risk to them", she said.

“But I am sceptical at the speed at which it's been developed and rolled out. I don't feel very informed about it and the risks associated.

“It feels like it's more of a race to who can get it out, and who can lay claim to developing a vaccine. I don't want to be collateral damage over what feels like a competition. "

People take part in a coronavirus anti-lockdown, anti-vaccine, anti-5G and pro-freedom protest near Scotland Yard, the headquarters of London's Metropolitan Police Service, in London, Saturday, May 2, 2020 [Matt Dunham/AP]

Last month, a YouGov survey for the Mile End Institute, Queen Mary University of London, asked more than 1,000 Londoners how likely or they were to take the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.

Thirty-nine per cent of ethnic minority respondents said they were likely to have the vaccination, compared with 70 percent of white people. Thirty-seven percent of ethnic minority respondents said they were unlikely to take it, compared with 17 percent of white respondents.

The UK government has access to 357 million doses of vaccines from seven different developers.

But some Britons are concerned over the varying levels of efficacy.

Barrister Zaiban Alam said she would be at the “front of the queue demanding” the vaccine for her and her family.

However, Alam added she was afraid of the risk to her elderly parents, who are from a South Asian background, a community hit particularly hard by the pandemic, if they received the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine.

That drug can protect 70.4 percent of people from becoming ill, and up to 90 percent if a lower first dose is used.

“My dad is very old, fragile and vulnerable. There is no margin for error, ”she said.

People take part in a 'Resist and Act for Freedom' protest against a mandatory coronavirus vaccine, wearing masks, social distancing and a second lockdown, in Trafalgar Square, London [File: Matt Dunham/AP]

Another survey last month by the Vaccine Confidence Project (VCP), a research group at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, tested how receptive people were to misinformation.

The poll, which surveyed 4,000 people, found 54 percent in the UK would “definitely” accept a COVID-19 vaccine. After exposure to misinformation, the number fell by 6.4 percent.

Professor Heidi Larson, who runs the VCP, said more communication campaigns were needed before the vaccine arrives.

“There should be more local community conversations, especially in communities [and] groups who were most affected by COVID-19, to listen to and hear concerns before the vaccine arrives so healthcare professionals have time to prepare some answers to questions they will surely get when it is time to vaccinate, ”she told Al Jazeera.

'Never-ending' restrictions

Black and Asian people in the UK are twice as likely to become infected compared with white people, while at least 60 percent of UK healthcare workers who have died from COVID-19 have been from ethnic minority backgrounds.

When he saw a call-out in June for ethnic minorities to sign up for vaccine trials with the US-based biotechnology firm Novavax, in Leeds, 27-year-old property consultant Haaris Ahmed signed up.

He received his first dose on October 14, and a booster jab on November 4.

He later developed a fever, flu symptoms, soreness in his arm where he had been injected, and swollen lymph nodes, but negative tested for coronavirus when he went under full observation.

“Like everyone, I'm fed up with restrictions that have been never-ending,” he said. “I'm a firm believer that a successful vaccine or vaccines will be the way that we get out of this crisis and go back to normal.

Haaris Ahmed, a volunteer for a vaccine trial, has faith that the UK will get back to normal with the help of drugs [Courtesy: Haaris Ahmed]

“That's paired with the trust that they're not trying to inject nanobots inside me, or that Bill Gates is secretly trying to sterilise me, according to [conspiracy] theories out there. ”

The vaccine trials have so far shown immunisations are effective in preventing illness. But more research is needed to determine if they prevent someone being contagious and spreading the virus.

The government has attempted to assuage any concerns over the vaccine, but is ramping up efforts amid fears of a backlash from the anti-vaxxers.

During the pandemic, thousands have marched against the government, calling the pandemic a hoax and decrying lockdown measures as a threat to their personal freedoms.

On Sunday, The Guardian reported that the NHS was planning to enlist celebrities and “influencers” with significant numbers of social media followers to convince people to have a vaccine.

On Thursday, a day after the UK announced the landmark decision over the Pfizer-BioNTech jab, health minister Matt Hancock said he would be vaccinated on live TV to prove the drug is safe, the UK's Times reported newspaper.

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