#New Minister in MP Cabinet

[uttarakhand-jagran]

मुख्यमंत्री धामी ने स्व. हेमवती नन्दन बहुगुणा की जयंती पर जनसेवा ,कृषक महोत्सव कार्यक्रम में किया प्रतिभाग

अल्मोड़ा:-  मुख्यमंत्री पुष्कर सिंह धामी ने अल्मोड़ा में पूर्व मुख्यमंत्री स्व. हेमवती नन्दन बहुगुणा की 104वीं जयंती पर जनसेवा आधारित बहुद्देशीय शिविर एवं कृषक महोत्सव कार्यक्रम में प्रतिभाग करते हुए 256.75 करोड की विभिन्न विकास योजनाओं का शिलान्यास एवं लोकार्पण किया। मुख्यमंत्री ने कहा कि स्व. बहुगुणा जी का स्वतंत्रता संग्राम से लेकर आजादी के बाद देश को और विशेष रूप से अविभाजित उत्तर प्रदेश को…

[allthecanadianpolitics]

A cross-partisan group of MPs voted to kill a bill Wednesday that would have allowed parliamentarians to opt out of swearing an oath of allegiance to King Charles — a victory for monarchists eager to preserve the Crown's standing in Canada.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's cabinet and most Liberal and Conservative MPs on hand voted down the private member's bill, while Bloc Québécois and NDP MPs joined some members from the two largest parties — many of them Quebec-based — to vote in favour of legislation that would have diminished Charles's role in Parliament. The final result was 113-197.

The vote keeps Canada's Constitution as originally written. Section 128 requires that every newly elected or appointed parliamentarian swear they will be "faithful and bear true allegiance" to the reigning monarch.

Under Canada's founding document, a member cannot legally assume his or her seat in Parliament until they've taken that oath. [...]

John Fraser is the president of Institute for the Study of the Crown in Canada and a prominent monarchist. He has called the legislation "a stupid idea."

He said Canada's longstanding link to the Crown, an institution above the whims of partisan politics, is something to celebrate.

Continue Reading.

Tagging: @newsfromstolenland, @vague-humanoid

[newsfromstolenland]

Longtime Trudeau loyalist Chandra Arya says it's time for the prime minister to step aside — and he believes the majority of Liberals in caucus feel the same way.

"There is no alternative but to have the leadership change now," Arya told CBC chief political correspondent Rosemary Barton on Sunday.

He was responding to a question about what was discussed at a virtual meeting of the Ontario Liberal caucus on Saturday morning.

Sources told CBC News that more than 50 Liberal MPs came to a consensus that Justin Trudeau needs to step down as party leader during a meeting of the party's largest regional caucus.

The abrupt departure from cabinet on Monday of former deputy prime minister and finance minister Chrystia Freeland prompted a growing tide of MPs to call for Trudeau to go. The public count is currently at 21.

Full article

Tagging: @allthecanadianpolitics

[stillnaomi]

EveryDoctor pored through Starmer’s cabinet ministers’ declarations on the ‘Register of Members’ Financial Interests’. It explored this for the period between 2023 and 28 May 2024.

What the group found was a sprawling network of corporate capitalist donations from across private healthcare. Crucially, EveryDoctor uncovered that collectively, cabinet ministers had taken more than £500,000 in donations from firms with links to the sector.

Notably, these didn’t all simply come as direct monetary donations or freebies. Some of Starmer’s new cabinet had seconded free staff direct from lobbying firms or think tanks.

https://www.thecanary.co/uk/analysis/2024/09/05/labour-private-healthcare-donations-nhs/

the public want the NHS brought back into public management but Labour's already announced an intention to bring more private contractors in. this is liberal "democracy", where "your" MPs are bought and paid for

[feckcops]

Starmer’s so-called “landslide victory” is built on sand

A deeply unpopular leader, Starmer has not secured the resounding endorsement his 412 seat tally would suggest, while record numbers of Green and independent MPs could pose a robust leftist challenge to Starmer’s Government ­– if they get organised

Keir Starmer, an ersatz Blair without a hint of his charisma or vision, is now Prime Minister, despite securing a vote share six percentage points lower than Jeremy Corbyn in 2017. These results expose the widespread disillusionment, if not outright resentment, towards both Labour and the Tories. Smaller parties and independents had a great showing, with shock wins for Greens and pro-Palestine independents, but also Farage's Reform Party (if indeed you can call a limited company with a CEO and no membership a party). However, a large minority of eligible voters chose not to vote at all, with turnout dropping to 60 percent. This matches the record low set in 2001, when everyone knew Blair was set to be re-elected on a landslide. In elections expected to produce a new government, turnout usually rises – but not so this time. Shockingly, Labour’s mantra of “false hope is worse than no hope” failed to inspire any hope for real change.

It is a damning indictment of our voting system that a party can win over two thirds of seats and celebrate a “landslide victory” after winning over just one in five eligible voters. (Out of the 60 percent who voted, Labour only won a third of the vote.) Thanks to our twee unwritten constitution, this technical win grants Keir Starmer the right to form an electoral dictatorship for the next five years. However, the results do offer some silver linings...

Corbyn won his seat as an independent with a 7,250 vote lead over Labour, after he was blocked from running as Labour’s candidate in Islington North, a seat he'd held for 40 years. Labour also lost Chingford and Woodford Green to Ian Duncan Smith, after Faiza Shaheen was similarly blocked by Labour on dubious grounds and continued her campaign as an independent – ultimately this helped IDS win with around 17,200 votes, compared to Faiza Shaheen and the Labour candidate who each got around 12,500 votes. Shadow cabinet minister Jonathon Ashworth lost his seat to a pro-Palestine independent, along with three other Labour MPs, while another pro-Palestine independent left prominent Terf and shadow health minister Wes Streeting clinging on by a thread. Israel's brutal escalation of its 75 year-long genocide in Palestine has not only dismayed Muslims and anti-Semites, as the media love to imply, but a diverse coalition of people united by their outrage at leading politicians excusing, if not actively cheerleading, such barbarity. These results prove there is an electoral cost for enabling rogue states to commit crimes against humanity.

Beyond the three largest parties, the balance of power in Parliament now lies with a socialist, environmentalist, pro-Palestine left. The Greens won all four of their target seats – not only in the young, urban constituencies of Brighton Pavilion and Bristol Central, but also in the rural, once solidly Tory constituencies of Waveney Valley and North Herefordshire – an achievement few really thought possible. (Greens and pro-Palestine independents also came second in a record number of constituencies, laying the ground for more gains next time.) Those four Green MPs, along with Corbyn and the other four pro-Palestine independents, make up nearly double Reform’s five MPs. As such, we will have a principled leftist grouping in Parliament, not beholden to the Labour whip, to hold Starmer to account.

There is hope the new pro-Palestine independents can put aside subtle philosophical differences and work together to offer a robust left opposition to Starmer. We could see Corbyn and other independents join the Green Party. This would be a strategic move; they could still reasonably claim to be independent voices for their constituents as Green MPs, as the Green Party does not whip its MPs like other parties. Meanwhile, they would benefit from this established party’s resources, networks and mass membership. The highly democratic structure of the party means, if they brought a lot of their voters with them, new Green MPs could even secure a change to any Green policies they disagreed with. As for socialist Labour MPs, we could even see some defect to the Greens now they've secured their seats, especially if Labour remains a deeply hostile environment for them. Defections from Labour seem unlikely at this stage, but they cannot be ruled out.

More than anything, we should take heed that our best chance of enacting real change lies in our communities, through grassroots organising and direct, solidaristic action. Green and pro-Palestine independents only won by rooting themselves in their communities, engaging with the voters they hoped to represent, and inspiring masses of people to join their campaigns. We cannot rely on career politicians, whose class interests are diametrically opposed to ours, to protect us and our interests.

There's more to politics than elections, which only come around every few years and, all too often, seem to yield no real change. Real progress does not come from above. It is not gifted to us by the powers on high. It is fought for, from the ground up. In the words of Frederick Douglass, power concedes nothing without a demand. We must keep faith, keep fighting and keep organising. This election shows us that hard work can bear fruit. We know a better world is possible, but we won't achieve it by just voting. It’s on us to bring it about.

[mariacallous]

The Catholic Church in Hungary has been engulfed by a series of high-profile sex scandals and child abuse investigations. The situation isn’t just a crisis for the church, but also a challenge for Viktor Orban’s Christian-nationalist government.

“Perhaps we should not refer to these merely as ‘scandalous cases’, but rather as the painful, inhumane, traumatizing injuries suffered by minors, which go far beyond ‘scandalous news’,” read a statement on December 4 by the editors of the independent Hungarian religious affairs magazine Szemlelek, reflecting on a crisis that has recently engulfed Hungary’s Catholic Church.

Since September, a series of scandals relating to sexual misconduct, pedophilia and cover-up in the Catholic church has wrecked the public reputation of five high-profile clerics and occasioned the suspension of a rising, but as-yet unconfirmed, number of their colleagues. Some see echoes of the crisis in the US Catholic church sparked by the 2002 Boston Globe ‘Spotlight’ investigation into child abuse in the city’s archdiocese – a story (and later movie) that plunged American Catholicism into a crisis from which it’s still recovering.

The close government ties of the priests implicated heighten concerns about overlaps between political power, religious networks and child sexual abuse in Hungary. These concerns were first raised earlier this year in February, following the exposure of a successful intercession by Reformed Church bishop (and former Fidesz cabinet minister) Zoltan Balog with then-president Katalin Novak, a fellow Calvinist, to pardon a church member convicted as a pedophile accomplice. News of the pardon led to Novak’s resignation.

Attention is now turning away from the Reformed community and towards the Catholic Church.

From local to national

In early September, the storm started rumbling with the public disgrace of Father Gergo Bese, a priest of the Kalocsa-Kecskemet archdiocese and a prominent social media influencer identified with the governing Fidesz party via its satellite KDNP (Christian Democratic Peoples’ Party). In 2022, Bese conducted a ‘house blessing’ of Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s office in the former Carmelite monastery beside Buda Castle.

On September 6, Hungarian outlet Valasz Online revealed that Father Bese, a vocal supporter of Fidesz’s anti-LGBTQ+ agenda, had been living a double life as a gay porn movie actor. He was also (against church law) receiving a stipend from the KDNP for communications work without permission from his bishop. He is now under disciplinary suspension.

While Father Bese’s activities involved only consenting adults, their discovery, however, prompted revelations about other forms of misconduct by Kalocsa priests, including those involving minors. Two clerics – Gabor Ronaszeki and Robert Hathazi – both with strong ties to Hungary’s ruling parties, are now being prosecuted by secular authorities for alleged child molestation.

In 2023, Ronaszeki underwent a church disciplinary process during which he admitted the offences, and was removed from the priesthood. He’s understood to have offered money and gifts in exchange for sex to underage boys attending his Religious Education group over a three-year period.

Ronaszeki is the brother-in-law of former Fidesz MP and ministerial commissioner Monika Ronaszekine Keresztes, as well as being an associate of the KDNP leader Zsolt Semjen, who is currently serving as the deputy prime minister and minister for church affairs in the Orban government.

Hungarian media reported that Semjen had been a personal guest at Ronaszeki’s remote “recreational farm” near the small town of Janoshalma in Southern Hungary. Responding to the reports, Semjen claimed that “to the best of my recollection” he has not “visited the place in question”.

Handing matters over swiftly to police and prosecutors reflects improvements in practice following recent reforms across the Catholic world. Even so, the scandal has continued to grow numerically and geographically.

In a November 15 interview with Valasz Online, the archbishop of Kalocsa-Kecskemet, Balazs Babel, said public awareness of the two court cases had led to more complainants bringing allegations against other clerics.

“In recent months, the Archbishop’s Office has received many more reports than before,” he admitted, adding that several other Kalocsa priests have now been suspended pending investigation.

Major Pajor problem

The issue has morphed from a diocesan scandal into a national crisis. That’s partly because the outcry about Kalocsa was heard from early on in the national media, and partly because first central church institutions and then other dioceses became implicated in related misconduct stories.

First came the resignation on October 25 of the national Bishops’ Conference Secretary Father Tamas Toth, amid allegations of serious impropriety in mishandling communications relating to Kalocsa.

And then on December 5 the scandal reached the archdiocese of Esztergom-Budapest, led by Hungary’s primate, Cardinal Peter Erdo.

On that day, news broke of canonical and police investigations into Budapest priest Father Andras Pajor, a prominent face of Fidesz’s ‘political Christianity’. In 2023, Father Pajor received Hungary’s Knight’s Cross of the Order of Merit from Deputy Prime Minister Semjen for his “role in youth education”.

Father Pajor has repeatedly urged Christians to vote for Orban. He has also, latterly, become notable as a spreader of Russian propaganda, claiming in a YouTube video about the Ukraine war that, since 2022, some 35,000 Russian children had been kidnapped “for pedophiles in the West”.

Former altar boys from his parish, speaking anonymously to Valasz Online, tell a rather different story, however. They claim Father Pajor himself frequently made them strip naked, inspected their genitals intimately with his hands, and gave them full body massages.

Anticipating the next day’s announcement concerning Father Pajor, on December 4 the Bishops’ Conference finally acknowledged the pedophilia issue as a national problem in a statement: “The scandalous news concerning our Church in recent months has caused many to feel uneasy and disappointed… for sins committed, we must pray, fast and make atonement.”

The text continued: “The Catholic Church stands with the victims and communities affected. We pray for them and support their healing.”

Political reverberations

In a letter to fellow bishops obtained by the independent news outlet Telex, Archbishop Babel observed that the impact of the successive scandals was greater “because they are interwoven with politics”.

The political dimension magnifies the spotlight on the church, but the connection of religion and pedophilia is a huge challenge for Fidesz – a party that portrays itself at home and abroad as a protector of family values.

The party’s domestic alliance with historic churches long predates its international communication about Hungary as a bulwark of Christian civilisation against Muslim migration and rising woke-secularism.

Churches have vigorously supported government messaging regarding the supposed dangers that, Fidesz alleges, the LGBTQ+ community poses to children, especially ahead of 2022’s ‘child protection’ referendum, which was timed to boost turnout at that year’s general election. Around 75 per cent of Hungary’s state-funded children’s homes are run by churches.

“Orban’s government constantly seeks endorsement from the churches for its Christian credentials,” religious affairs commentator Janos Reichert tells BIRN. This is because, Reichert continues, there are three overlapping themes closely connected in the minds of many Hungarians: “Hungarian nationalism, anti-Communism and Christianity”.

These three motifs organically support each other such that, Reichert says, “criticism of any one of them cannot be tolerated by Fidesz for fear of danger to the other two”.

Thus, anyone who criticises even one of them is “attacking the ideological basis of the regime”, he adds.

Reichert’s take is shared by political journalist Balazs Gulyas. The government’s flagging support amid economic turbulence and the rise of opposition challenger Peter Magyar means that, in his view, Fidesz is paradoxically more, not less likely to double down reflexively on its traditional talking points, including political Christianity.

“Hungary’s governing parties are grappling with a sharp decline in popularity, making it politically expedient for them to cling to their (overstated) role as the primary political patrons of the churches,” Gulyas tells BIRN. “I find it highly unlikely that they’d abandon the program of political Christianity.”

Such views seem to be borne out by the government’s responses to the crisis to date. Far from distancing itself from the churches, Fidesz has rushed to their defence.

In November, the left-wing opposition party DK proposed a parliamentary motion calling for Hungary to follow the example of Ireland and Australia in establishing an independent enquiry into child sexual abuse in the church. The government used its parliamentary super-majority to defeat the proposal.

And addressing parliament’s justice committee on November 14, Deputy Prime Minister Semjen, speaking in his capacity as minister for church affairs, dismissed suggestions that the situation in the churches represented a particular concern. “The number of church cases is a hundredth of the number of secular cases, there is no reason to single out the church world,” he declared.

[fission-mailure]

So, Esther McVey is a Tory MP and former Cabinet minister (she was 'the Minister for Common Sense,' a new position the Tories made to 'combat wokeness,' so ... not exactly a real Cabinet minister), and she tweeted this well known poem, and I've blanked out the ending.

And I bet you can't guess what the blanked out section is. Just, if you don't already know what it is, take a moment to form a guess in your mind. What might Esther McVey be comparing to the Holocaust here.

Okay, have you got it? Here goes.

Oh. Oh, no.

[mythologeekwriter]

Our new government haven't been in power long, with Starmer formally becoming prime minster on Friday, but what have they done in that time? This is basically just me collecting as many articles as possible, honestly in large part for my own reference, but maybe it can help someone else too. This is a non-exhaustive list.

For reference, Here is Labour’s manifesto. If that feels a bit long, here is a BBC summary of it.

Starmer gave his first speech as prime minister on Friday 5th July.

A new government means lots of new faces. The BBC have done short biographies of the cabinet. And here is some discussion of all the new MPs from the Guardian.

James Timpson was made minister for prisons.

Here is a BBC analysis of Labour’s plans. And a discussion of their first day in power.

David Lammy, the new foreign secretary, visited Germany, Poland, and Sweden.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper plans to tackle small boat crossings.

Migrants will no longer be sent to Rwanda.

Starmer met with First Minister John Swinney.

Starmer spoke to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and his Israeli Benjamin Netanyahu about the need for peace. [1], [2]

Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson has begun work on recruiting more teachers.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves has brought back house building targets.

Starmer is meeting with political leaders at Stormont. Labour lifts the effective ban on onshore windfarms.

[head-post]

France on verge of political crisis: Everyone wants Macron’s resignation

French President Emmanuel Macron will on Thursday seek a way out of France’s political crisis after Michel Barnier became the first prime minister to be removed from power by parliament in six decades.

Barnier’s resignation

Lawmakers voted on Wednesday to dismiss Barnier’s government after just three months in power, approving a vote of no confidence proposed by the left but backed by the right-wing led by Marine Le Pen.

President Emmanuel Macron will now be forced to accept Barnier’s resignation (albeit with the possibility of re-election) and France will once again be ruled by an interim government. New early parliamentary elections can only be called by the president, according to the Constitution of the Fifth Republic, one year after the last election, which was held in July. This is the second such case since 1962, when the government of Georges Pompidou was resigned.

The vote of no confidence was prompted by disagreements between the country’s political forces that arose during the negotiation of the 2025 budget. In order to reduce the budget deficit, Barnier’s cabinet proposed to cut spending by €40bn, as well as to raise taxes for large corporations and wealthy Frenchmen (this would bring the treasury another €20bn). However, a number of his proposals were opposed by the RN, which threatened a vote of no confidence.

Barnier’s record-breaking ouster came after snap parliamentary elections this summer, which left parliament in limbo, with no party gaining an overall majority and the right holding the key to the government’s survival. It was the first successful vote of no confidence since the defeat of Georges Pompidou’s government in 1962, when Charles de Gaulle was president.

Appeals to Macron

Macron flew to Paris just before the vote, having completed a three-day state visit to Saudi Arabia, and appeared to be far from a domestic crisis.

Earlier on Wednesday, he had walked the desert sands in the oasis of Al-Ula, marvelling at ancient sites. After landing in Paris, he headed straight for the Elysee Palace.

“We call on Macron to leave,” Mathilde Panot, head of the parliamentary faction of the left-wing France Unbowed (LFI) party, told reporters, calling for “early presidential elections” to resolve the deepening political crisis. But while trying not to exult over the government’s downfall, Le Pen said in a television interview that her party – after appointing a new prime minister – would “let them work” and help create a “budget acceptable to all.”

Laurent Wauquiez, the head of right-wing MPs in parliament, said the far right and extreme left were responsible for the vote of no confidence, which would “plunge the country into instability.”

Candidates for prime minister

There are few candidates for prime minister, but loyalist Defence Minister Sebastien Lecornu and Macron’s centrist ally Francois Bayrou are possible contenders. On the left, Macron may turn to former prime minister and Socialist interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve, who was a contender in September.

Barnier became the fifth prime minister to serve under Macron since he took power in 2017, with each prime minister holding office for increasingly shorter periods. Given the turbulent environment, the new candidate risks lasting even less than Barnier, whose term was the shortest of any administration since the start of the Fifth Republic in 1958. Macron intends to appoint a new prime minister quickly, several sources told AFP.

A source close to Macron said the president, who has been slow to make appointments in the past, had “no choice” but to name a new prime minister within 24 hours. 

Crisis heats up

With markets nervous and France bracing for strikes by civil servants threatening cuts that will close schools and hit air and rail transport, there is a growing sense of crisis.

Unions called for civil servants, including teachers and air traffic controllers, to strike on Thursday over separate cost-cutting measures.

Meanwhile, Macron is due to host a major international event on Saturday – the reopening of Notre-Dame Cathedral after the 2019 fire. Among the guests will be Donald Trump, making his first foreign trip since being elected as the next US president.

The head of France’s National Rally party Marine Le Pen has demanded that French President Emmanuel Macron resign, French media reported. She said:

“He [Macron] will take responsibility and do what reason and conscience tell him to do. But there is no doubt that he bears primary responsibility for the situation.”

Petition against Macron

A petition demanding the resignation of the country’s president Emmanuel Macron has been launched in France after a vote of no confidence in the government.

“He has been doing incredible damage to the country for seven long years: dividing it, making it insecure, humiliating it internationally, throwing it into war, weakening its position worldwide, silencing its voice in the European Union and NATO, implementing disastrous policies demanded by the EU that are leading us to collapse in all sectors of the economy. He must go,” the text of the petition reads.

The petition was launched by the Patriots party and posted on its website. The party’s founder Florian Philippot also called for a demonstration demanding Macron’s resignation on Saturday.

According to an Elabe poll for BFMTV, 63 per cent of French people wanted Macron’s resignation in the event of a vote of no confidence in his government.

Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, leader of the right-wing Debout la France (France Arise), wrote on X:

“Censorship is good, Macron’s departure is even better. In the meantime, let’s hope that the new prime minister will actually respect the French.”

Read more HERE

[workingclasshistory]

On this day, 1 March 1968, the racist Commonwealth Immigrants Act 1968 came into force in the UK. In Britain's East African colonies after independence, like Uganda and Kenya, the new governments were pursuing various policies to Africanise, which threatened tens of thousands of South Asian settlers: mostly British passport-holders. So the Labour government passed the act to prevent them coming to Britain, despite the fact that the country had net emigration at that time. Labour claimed that the law wasn't racial, but secret papers released decades later showed that it purposely targeted "coloured immigrants," and cabinet was even advised that the bill would breach international law. A confidential memo to prime minister Harold Wilson said that they could argue "the Asian community in East Africa are not nationals of this country in any racial sense and that the obligations imposed, for example, by the European Convention on Human Rights do not therefore apply." Though most Conservative MPs voted for the law, even the conservative Times newspaper described it as "probably the most shameful measure that Labour members have ever been asked by their whips to support." Tory Lord Ian Gilmour, who opposed the bill, described its purpose very straightforwardly to journalist Mark Lattimer: “to keep the Blacks out." (At the time in the UK all people of colour were considered "Black.") In our podcast episodes 33-34 we talk about the experiences of Asian migrants in Britain and how they fought against racism: https://workingclasshistory.com/2019/09/18/e28-29-asian-youth-movements-in-bradford/ Pictured: Kenyan Asian refugees at this time https://www.facebook.com/workingclasshistory/photos/a.296224173896073/2220765034775301/?type=3

[i-wear-the-cheese]

Look if I was going to do a like Random UK Politics News generator for the past couple of years I would only need a 4 sided die and it would be like

Letter/vote of no confidence in Tory prime minister

The cabinet has a reshuffle

Serving Tory MP turns out to have committed A Crime

Tories revealed to have done A Bad Thing during height of Covid Crisis

Bonus action applicable to all options: Keir Starmer does nothing

It's not even original anymore. They're just rehashing over 18 months of news with different names and more national incredulity.

When in the FUCK will we actually get to VOTE for our fucking government again!?

[georgefairbrother]

On 18th September 1972, BBC News reported that the first 193 Ugandan refugees, fleeing persecution by the country’s military dictatorship, had arrived at Stansted Airport, Essex. Over half of the arrivals had British passports, and housing and immediate needs would be overseen by the Ugandan Resettlement Board.

Uganda’s Asian community, numbering around 55 000, many of whom ran family businesses and small enterprise, were ordered in August 1972 to leave the country within 90 days by President Idi Amin. Amin had publicly denounced Ugandan Asians as ‘bloodsuckers’, threatening that any who had not left by the arbitrary deadline of November 8th would be interned in military detention camps.

Many of the initial flight of refugees had endured frightening experiences prior to their departure from Uganda, at the hands of Amin’s troops. "On the way to the airport the coach was stopped by troops seven times, and we were all held at gun point," one refugee told reporters. Another stated that he had been robbed of personal valuables and Ugandan currency on the way to Entebbe airport.

News reports at the time cited some opposition within the UK over the acceptance of the Ugandan Asians. The Leicester local authority mounted a newspaper campaign urging refugees not to come to their region seeking jobs and housing. The BBC asserted that, in hindsight, the resettlement programme was seen as ‘a success story for British Immigration’.

The loss of the hardworking and successful Ugandan Asian community devastated Uganda’s agriculture, manufacturing and commerce. Idi Amin was deposed in 1979 and died in Jeddah in 2003, having been responsible for the deaths of as many as 300 000 Ugandan civilians during his reign of terror as President. In 1991, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni invited the expelled community to return home to help rebuild the economy.

The Wilson Labour government also had to grapple with a refugee crisis from a former African colony.

In February 1968, BBC news reported;

"…Another 96 Indians and Pakistanis from Kenya have arrived in Britain, the latest in a growing exodus of Kenyan Asians fleeing from laws which prevent them making a living…"

Many Asian people living in Kenya had not taken up Kenyan citizenship following the country’s independence from Britain in 1963, but possessed British passports. Under Kenya’s Africanisation policy, non-citizens required work permits, and were being removed from employment in favour of Kenyan nationals. There was growing public demand for laws to prevent non-citizens from owning businesses or even operating as street and market traders. As a result, British passport holders were leaving Kenya at the rate of 1000 per month, leaving a huge deficit in skills and experience within the business community and civil service.

Fearing a backlash over the large numbers of Asian immigrants, Home Secretary, and future Prime Minister, James Callaghan, rushed through the Commonwealth Immigration Act, which made it a requirement that prospective immigrants must have a 'close connection' with Britain.

This led to disagreement in Cabinet, with Secretary of State for Commonwealth Affairs, George Thomson (1921-2008) arguing;

"…To pass such legislation would be wrong in principle, clearly discrimination on the grounds of colour, and contrary to everything we stand for…"

In 1971, the Heath government made further legislative changes that would mean that (some) immigrants from Commonwealth countries would be treated no more favourably than those from the rest of the world, and that tightened restrictions on those who stayed by linking work permits to a specific job and location, requiring registration with police, and reapplication to stay in Britain each 12 months.

The Patrial Right of Abode lifted all restrictions on those immigrants with a direct ancestral connection with Britain.

Home Secretary Reginald Maudling (later famous for being smacked in the face by Irish MP Bernadette Devlin, and for having to resign over a corruption scandal linked with disgraced property developer John Poulson) denied that this was, in effect, a 'colour bar', telling the BBC;

"…Of course they are more likely to be white because we have on the whole more whites than coloureds in this country, but there is no colour bar involved…"

Unsurprisingly, not everyone was convinced.

Vishna Sharma, Executive Secretary of the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants, described the bill to BBC News as, "basically racially discriminatory, repressive and divisive," and added, "It will create divisions amongst the Commonwealth citizens already living in this country on patrial and non-patrial basis. It will create day-to-day bureaucracy and interference on people living in this country. It will create more hardship for people wanting to enter into this country."

(Source; BBC reporting and history.com. Photo Credits; BBC News)

[allthecanadianpolitics]

A Liberal MP who has called on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to resign says the “vast majority” of caucus colleagues he’s spoken to feel the same way. Trudeau’s leadership has been on shaky ground for months, but it became more unstable Monday after his longtime ally Chrystia Freeland resigned from cabinet, throwing the government into chaos. A growing number of Liberal MPs have since publicly called on Trudeau to step aside and make way for a new Liberal leader ahead of a likely early election. One of those MPs is Anthony Housefather, who says there’s “a number of reasons” why he feels Trudeau’s time is up.

Continue Reading.

Tagging: @newsfromstolenland

[generallemarc]

YES!!! This is huge with a capital Y!!!!

Back in 2021 there was an international, inter-legislative group formed called the International Parliamentary Alliance on China, or IPAC, a group dedicated to opposing the spread of Chinese influence, raising awareness of its genocide against the Ugyhurs, oppression of the Tibetans and minority religious groups, crackdowns on Hong Kong and Macau, and general tyrannical behavior towards its entire population. This might seem like business as usual for countries like America, but for some states with legislators involved like Italy, New Zealand, or especially the Solomon Islands, it very much isn't. The group consists of legislatures from nearly two dozen countries and the European Parliament, and makes a point of appointing two legislators from the two biggest opposing parties of each country as co-chairs whenever possible. So the two British co-chairs are a Labor MP and a Tory MP, the two Canadian co-chairs are a Liberal and a Conservative, and the two American co-chairs are a Democrat and a Republican. Those last two were Senator Jeff Merkely of Oregon and Senator Marco Rubio.

The alliance never had much in the way of heavy-hitters; a Belgian who used to be Prime Minister but is now an MEP(Member of the European Parliament), a leader of a minor Norwegian political party and a mid-sized Danish one(both in opposition), a Czech MP who was Minister for Science and Research for a few years. But this? This changes everything. It would be huge for any country to appoint a member as their foreign minister, but for America? It's a godsend. Much as you might not believe me, there's a handful of Democratic representatives and senators who'll likely be celebrating this, because one of their fellow IPAC members now has Trump's ear. I'd always been disheartened that there weren't even 15 total American members from both houses compared against dozens of British and Canadian MPs, but, if you'll forgive the pun, in this case quality trumps quantity. Fuck Matt Gaetz, all my homies hate Matt Gaetz, but our foreign policy is now locked in to make what Trump's first term treated China as look tame. Hell, maybe even how Biden treated them, and despite his numerous other failings Biden was no slouch on China. I could not be happier about this pick-despite all his other picks' failings, this could potentially make up for all of them combined. Maybe SEATO 2.0 isn't possible now, but as they say, the best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago, and the second best time is today. Let's start laying that groundwork, Mr. Secretary.

[ukrfeminism]

Three female MPs have been given taxpayer-funded bodyguards and cars as concerns over politicians’ safety are escalating.

The women – who have not been named but include representatives of the Conservative and Labour parties – have had their security upgraded as MPs are said to be “petrified” at the abuse they are facing.

In an overhaul of safety measures in place for MPs, Security Minister Tom Tugendhat has been working with the Home Office, the police and the parliamentary authorities, as well as the royal and VIP executive committee (Ravec), a secretive organisation responsible for the security of senior politicians and the royal family.

The new process, launched following a referral by police or parliamentary authorities, comes as the threat level faced by British politicians has shot up in recent weeks.

A senior security source told The Sunday Times: “Many MPs are petrified by the abuse they are facing.”

The newspaper understands the three female MPs have been given close protection from private companies, as well as chauffeur-driven cars, which are usually only limited to senior members of the cabinet and the leader of the opposition.

“We’ve taken a front-footed approach to co-ordinating action against the people or suspects that intelligence suggests most threaten MPs,” said a senior Whitehall source.

Other MPs’ security is also under review if they are deemed at risk, while, for those not needing the highest level of protection, thousands of security measures have been put in place in London and at hundreds of constituency offices and homes. 

Private security operatives have been used at thousands of members’ surgeries and hundreds of events, alongside a police presence if required. MPs also have access to security advice, including via advisers based throughout the UK.

Ravec’s membership and decisions are mostly opaque, although insiders do say it has a budget of hundreds of millions of pounds.

It comes after the Palestine Solidarity Campaign defended the right to lobby MPs “in large numbers”, amid reports the group wanted so many protesters to turn up that Parliament would “have to lock the doors”.

The group said the issue of MPs’ security was “serious” but should not be used to “shield MPs from democratic accountability”.

The organisation’s director Ben Jamal said thousands of people were “shamefully” denied entry into Parliament on Wednesday as they attempted to lobby MPs to vote in favour of a ceasefire in Gaza in what he described was one of the largest physical lobbies of parliament in history.

The Times reported that Mr Jamal told a crowd of demonstrators in the build-up to the protest on Wednesday: “We want so many of you to come that they will have to lock the doors of Parliament itself.”

Sir Lindsay Hoyle, the Commons Speaker who has faced calls to resign after going against convention during the SNP’s Opposition Day debate on a ceasefire, said his motivation for widening Wednesday’s discussion was fuelled by concern about MPs’ security because of intimidation suffered by some parliamentarians.

Mr Jamal said the group “does not call” for protests outside MPs’ homes and believed parliamentarians have a right “to have their privacy respected”.

The government’s political violence tsar has said police should have the powers to “disperse” protests around Parliament, MPs’ offices and council chambers that they deem to be threatening.

Baron Walney, the Government’s adviser on political violence and disruption, said on Friday that the “aggressive intimidation of MPs” by “mobs” was being mistaken for an “expression of democracy”.

The crossbench peer, who in December submitted a Government-commissioned review into how actions by political groups can “cross into criminality and disruption to people’s lives”, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme he was calling for police forces to act “uniformly in stopping” protest outside MPs’ homes.

[colonelrajyavardhanrathore]

हर घर तिरंगा अभियान - कर्नल राज्यवर्धन राठौड़

Cabinet Minister Colonel Rajyavardhan Rathore will launch every home tricolor campaign in Jhotwara. 🗓️ 8 August 2024 🕣 8:30 am 📍ward number- 48, Ramlaya Watika, Jhotwada #Rajasthan

Col Rajyavardhan Rathore, Rajasthan’s Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports, and two-time MP from Jaipur Rural. Get the latest news and speeches | Official website rajyavardhanrathore.in.