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Anti-NATO protesters begin mass march on summit

Peace activists have set out on a three-week ‘Long March on Newport’ to protest against September’s NATO Summit. Police say they have drafted in 9,000 officers to face the protesters in one of the UK’s biggest ever police operations.

More than 20,000 activists from around the world are expected to take part in demonstrations during the summit, where a week-long peace camp and a counter summit are among some of the events planned in what has been billed as Wales’ largest protest in a generation.

Sixty world leaders from the 28-nation military bloc will meet at the Celtic Manor in Newport for the NATO summit on September 4 and 5. Previous NATO summits in Chicago and Strasbourg saw thousands protest war, austerity and global inequality.

In one of the UK’s largest-ever policing deployments, 20km of security fencing is being erected around the venues.

“This is a UK-wide policing effort and I am confident that we will be able to deliver a safe summit, for delegates and the public,” said Assistant Chief Constable Chris Armitt, who is leading the policing and security operation for the summit.

No NATO Newport is taking a 19-day route from the National Eisteddfod in Llanelli on Friday, arriving in Newport on August 29. The protest is inspired by the Newport Chartist Rising, a 19th century suffrage march where scores were killed while demanding the release of Chartists imprisoned in the town.

“Many of us are increasingly worried by the threat that NATO poses to world stability and peaceful relations,” said the organizers.

“Since the end of the Cold War, NATO has reinvented itself supposedly as a tool of the ‘international community’ to safeguard ‘freedom and security’.

“In reality it is a vehicle for US-led use of force in the interests of the rich and powerful, accelerating militarization, bypassing the United Nations and the system of international law, and escalating spending on arms,” they added.

Activists argue that the money spent on arms could be better spent on hospitals, schools and services.

The protesters want to collect messages on postcards from members of the public along the way with the aim of delivering them on the first day of the summit during planned demonstrations outside the venue.

Protesters shut down Israeli arms factory in Britain

A group of pro-Palestine activists have allegedly shut down operations in a Staffordshire factory that they say supplies arms to Israel.

Around 10 activists from the London Palestine Action Group have taken to the roof of Elbit systems, an Israeli company with a subsidiary based in Shenstone, near Birmingham.

According to the LPAG, Elbit systems is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of unmanned aerial drones, which many suspect the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have used in their ongoing offensive in Gaza.

According to the group’s Tumblr blog, the activists chained the doors of the factory shut, and are demanding the closure of the factory, along with‘all forms of military trade and cooperation with Israel.’

The blog goes on to say: “The factory that we are occupying produces engines for drones and is owned by Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest military company and the world’s largest drones producer. Drone engines manufactured at this factory have been [sic] exported to Israel in 2010, 2011 and 2012 and Elbit Systems drones are being used in Israel’s ongoing massacre. Any claims that components manufactured at this factory are not being used in Israel’s current attack on Gaza are not credible.”

The group also says that the factory is part of the ‘Watchkeeper program’ which “is leading the manufacture of a new generation of drones for the UK military.”

The protest began in the early hours of Tuesday morning, with protesters hanging a banner across the factory roof saying “UK: Stop arming Israel”.

Source: RT

British minister resigns over Gaza

A Foreign Office minister has resigned from the Conservative government in Britain, saying its policy on the crisis in Gaza is “morally indefensible”.

Baroness Warsi wrote on her Twitter feed that she was leaving with “deep regret”.

Lady Warsi, who was previously chairman of the Conservative Party, became the first female Muslim cabinet minister when David Cameron took office in 2010.

The prime minister thanked her for her “excellent work”, adding that he wanted an “unconditional ceasefire” in Gaza.

Labour backed Lady Warsi’s comments, but Chancellor George Osborne called her resignation “disappointing and frankly unnecessary”.

Lady Warsi grew up in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, and worked as a solicitor before entering politics. She was demoted from the cabinet to a middle-ranking Foreign Office post in 2012, being made minister for faith and communities at the same time.

She wrote on Twitter on Tuesday: “With deep regret I have this morning written to the Prime Minister & tendered my resignation. I can no longer support Govt policy on #Gaza.”

Several backbench Conservative MPs have called on Mr Cameron to take a more robust line with Israel amid concerns its actions in Gaza are “disproportionate”.

Source: BBC

Cameron echoes Dr Strangelove’s plea for NATO

NATO needs a huge military build-up in eastern Europe’s “front line states”, the British Prime Minister wrote in a letter to the alliance’s Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, and the 27 other NATO country leaders.

Russia is the enemy and NATO must rethink its long-term relationship with Russia and strengthen the alliance’s ability to respond quickly to the threat, David Cameron declared on Saturday.

Cameron’s plea comes as senior British military personnel in June suggested that Britain’s defence spending would soon fall below Nato’s target of 2 per cent of gross domestic product.

Only four countries spend two percent of gross domestic product on NATO defence, signalling little enthusiasm for Cameron’s cause.

“In 2014, the world is more unpredictable than ever and we meet at another pivotal moment in the history of the alliance,” Cameron wrote.

Britain and the US have ripped up the rulebook of international law with their illegal and aggressive destabilisation of Ukraine, but Cameron nevertheless aimed his rant solely at “Russian aggression”.

Britain is being accused moreover of having committed war crimes in Iraq and Libya with NATO’s blessing by various members of Britain’s parliament.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu called for Tony Blair to be treated as other alleged war criminals earlier and be tried at the International Criminal Court at The Hague.

Cameron has also drawn fierce criticism because of his support for Israel’s attacks on Palestinians, qualifying as war crimes some legal specialists say.

His latest campaign against Russia suggests a need to shift the spotlight from the mounting tide against neo-British imperialist tendencies: “To the south, an arc of instability spreads from north Africa and the Sahel, to Syria, Iraq and the wider Middle East.

Cameron continued sternly: “So we must use the [coming Nato] summit [at the Celtic Manor resort near Newport] to agree how NATO should adapt to respond to and deter such threats [as Russia]; and to ensure the continued collective defence of all its members.”

He added that NATO had to address “the risks and challenges posed by failed states, regional conflicts, terrorism and cyber-attacks”.

Cameron’s drive towards war for Europe comes after what Downing Street insiders describe as the prime minister’s unusually animated response to the downing of a Malaysian airliner.

Number 10 insiders told the FT the “Ukraine crisis has signalled to the prime minister that Russia is no longer a lucrative potential export market” after Russia provided the international community with detailed data on the crash.

The British and Americans are increasingly frustrated as they have not managed to fully incriminate Russia for what they themselves describe as a “mistaken” missile attack on flight MH17.

Cameron’s comments echo a proposal by Nato’s Europe commander, General Philip Breedlove, nicknamed “Strangelove” after a character in a Stanley Kubrick film called Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.

According to the FT Breedlove advocates stockpiling a base in Poland with enough weapons, ammunition and other supplies to support a rapid deployment of thousands of troops against Russia.

British MPs too white says David Cameron

‘MPs do not represent the people of Britain properly because they are too white’

David Cameron, the Prime Minister, said there is ‘much more to be done’ to encourage more people from ethnic minority backgrounds to enter Parliament.

The Prime Minister said there is “much more to be done” to encourage more people from ethnic minority backgrounds to enter Parliament.

Mr Cameron made the comments in a preface to a book, “Rainbow over Westminster”, which charts the increasing number of MPs who are black or from ethnic minority backgrounds.

In the preface, Mr Cameron said that the book “serves as a reminder – that there is much more to be done.

“Our Parliament is still nowhere near representative enough of the country we live in today.

“We should not presume that this will simply correct itself over time. History isn’t written for us: it is written by us.”

Mr Cameron said that he hoped the book – which is edited by the Labour MP Keith Vaz, who became the first British Indian to sit in the Commons for over 60 years when he was elected in 1987 – would help “to open up politics further”.

Since the first MP was elected 172 years ago, there have been 38 ethnic minority MPs in the Commons. Today 26 out of 650 MPs are from BME backgrounds.

In the 2010 election 16 men and women from black and ethnic minority backgrounds were elected – a quintupling on the three who were elected in 1987.

In an introduction, John Bercow, the Commons’ Speaker, said: “We need to ensure that we continue to benefit from the greater diversity of elected representatives.”

Mark Hammond, chief executive of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, said: “Parliament should be drawing from the widest talent pool so that people from a range of backgrounds have the opportunity to take part in political life and help make fair and well-informed decisions.”

Mr Cameron’s remarks come after research published last month from the Policy Exchange thinktank, which said that non-white people will make up between 20 and 30 per cent of the population by 2050. The current share is around 14 per cent.

The think-tank, which has close links to the Conservative Party leadership, also highlighted the differing political leanings of different ethnic groups, advising politicians not to treat non-white voters as a uniform group.

The coming growth in Britain’s non-white population is largely explained by a higher birth-rate among ethnic minority Britons.

A quarter of all children under 10 in the UK are from ethnic minorities.

By contrast, 95 per cent of people aged over 60 are white.

The Conservative Party is doing more to reach out to black and ethnic minority groups, although it refuses to make such moves public.

In April, Michael Gove, the Education secretary and a Tory moderniser, issued the said the Tories should reclaim the term “multi-culturalism”.

He told an audience at the Asian Business Awards told the 500-strong black tie dinner at a hotel in central London earlier this month that Britain was a “stronger country” because of its history of immigration.

He said: “The answer to how we make our country strong in the future is that we welcome talent from whenever it comes and we celebrate the fact that we are stronger together as a United Kingdom, as a multi-cultural nation than we could ever be if we looked back to the past.”

Source: The Telegraph

Britain could ban Muslim school governers

A set of rules aimed at promoting “British values” in schools could ban conservative Muslims from becoming governors, a religious rights group says. The new regulations follow allegations of a “Trojan Horse” plot to Islamisize schools in the UK.

The UK has also banned the teaching of creationism theory in free schools.

The Department of Education has introduced a new set of rules governing free schools and academies in Britain. The regulations dictate that school governors and trustees should demonstrate “fundamental British values” and give the state powers to close the schools if they do not toe the line.

“The Academy Trust must ensure that principles are promoted which support fundamental British values,” say the rules. These include respect for democracy and the democratic process, support for gender equality and tolerance of different faiths and religions.

The Muslim Council of Britain (MBC) argues the new rules are discriminatory and allocate too much power to the Department of Education to define “British values.”

Source: RT

‘It’s punch a black week’

The company has been systematically “ethnically cleansed” of non-white staff.

One of Britain’s largest military outsourcing contracts might be awarded to company facing charges of racism.

Sodexo, a multinational company, is the frontrunner to win a contract to run six military bases in the Mediterranean. The deal is worth up to £100m over three years.

The winner will be announced next month.

The company’s highly lucrative defence division is facing claims that its personnel department, which is meant to police employees’ behaviour, has been systematically “ethnically cleansed” of non-white staff.

An employee was actually hit by her director who said it was “punch a black week”.

Under public contracts regulations, a public body may exclude a bidder or reject a bid where it is found the organisation has “committed grave misconduct in the course of their business”.

At the defence department’s Colchester offices, one black employee complained she was told that certain rooms and corridors in the personnel department were out of bounds because they were for “whites only”. This she says was dismissed by executives as “banter”.

Black staff felt they were being labeled as “lazy”. The company is also accused, by at least one employee, of “creating and inciting a hostile climate of distrust against difference”.

In one instance, a white male executive allegedly had to remonstrate with a junior colleague who, upon the arrival of a black employee, said: “There is another black one, they are taking over.”

In October 2012 an African-Caribbean female manager was punched by a top executive of the defence division, who was a white man. When she asked why he had done this, he responded: “It’s punch a black week.”

Another two non-white female employees of the human resources department are currently taking the company to court over claims of racism and sexism.

In the first case, a black female personnel adviser claims she was ostracised by members of her team. During an investigation into homophobic bullying in June last year, it is alleged, a colleague bemoaned to her the fact he could not use the “n-word” any more for fear of offending people.

Source: The Guardian

Third of Britain will be black

There are currently eight million non-white people – 14% of the total – across England and Wales, according to the study by the Tory think tank Policy Exchange

Up to a third of the population will be black or from another ethnic minority by 2050, new research forecasts today.

There are currently eight million non-white people – 14% of the total – across England and Wales, according to the study by the Tory think tank Policy Exchange.

But the so-called BME (black and minority ethnic) population has doubled in the past decade and now accounts for 80% of growth while the white population has remained constant.

While ethnic minorities make up just 5% of the over-60s, they account for a quarter of under fives.

That means between 20% and 30% of people will be black or ethnic minority by the middle of the century.

And it is a time bomb for the Tories who struggle to win votes from BME communities which overwhelmingly back Labour.

The findings should act as a wake-up call for politicians to stop treating people from non-white backgrounds as one, single group, the think tank said.

Since the Second World War immigration from the Caribbean , the Indian subcontinent and Africa has produced in diverse groups with widely differing opinions, experiences and traditions, it said.

There are “clear and meaningful differences between each of these communities which need to be fully understood” but politicians are not doing that, the report says.

Author Rishi Sunak said: “These communities will continue to become an ever more significant part of Britain, especially in future elections.

“However, as our research demonstrates ethnic minorities are not one homogeneous political group.

“From education to employment, housing to trust in the police, politicians from all parties must understand the different issues affecting individual communities.”

The research draws on survey, census, academic and polling data to build up a detailed picture of the five largest minority groups in the UK – Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Black African and Black Caribbean.

With the exception of those from an African background a majority of non-white Britons describe themselves as “British-only”, the report said.

BME communities also overwhelmingly support the Labour Party “regardless of class or association with Conservative policies”.

Some 68% voted for Gordon Brown’s party at the 21010 General Election, compared with 16% for the Conservatives and 14% for the Liberal Democrats.

Last month Adam Afriyie, the first black Tory MP and once touted as a future party leader, said the Conservatives will not be able to completely detoxify its brand in the eyes of ethnic minority voters in time for next year’s general election.

He admitted that even if Prime Minister David Cameron “does everything perfectly” in the run up to the 2015 General Election, the party’s lack of support among minorities will persist.

But Mr Afriyie said the party would be making a mistake if it changed its policies to suit individual groups in a “political gamble” for more popularity.

Source: Daily Mirror

Cornish recognized as official UK minority

The residents of England’s windswept, wave-lashed southwest are Europe’s newest official minority.

The British government said Thursday Cornish people have been given the same status as Scots, Welsh and Irish — the U.K.’s other Celtic peoples — under EU law protecting national minorities.

Residents of Cornwall traditionally spoke a Celtic language similar to that of France’s Brittany region. Cornwall is famous for its seafaring heritage and for the Cornish pasty, a popular lunch food.

Some in Cornwall have long campaigned for greater autonomy, and even independence.

Dick Cole, leader of independence party Mebyon Kernow, said it was “a proud day for Cornwall,” though it is unclear what the status will mean in practice.

The measure commits Britain to preserving and promoting the Cornish identity, but does not bring extra money.

Source: Miami Herald

Scottish independence gains ground

Opponents of Scottish independence speak of pensions being lost in the potential separation from the UK. It comes after a recent poll showed that the gap between Yes and No votes is narrowing, with unionists losing ground.

The landmark ICM survey revealed Sunday a decline of the No vote from 46 per cent to 42 percent over the past month. At the same time the Yes vote remained steady at 39 percent. With the “don’t knows” excluded from the count, the No vote stands at 52 percent, just four percent ahead of the Yes vote.

It’s the highest level of support for Scotland’s independence since last August, and with only five months remaining till the September 18 referendum, the poll opened to criticism the campaigning of those wishing to keep the union in place.

“These are very encouraging polls and show the yes campaign has the momentum because it is more positive and more trusted than the no campaign,” said Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond.

“In contrast, the No campaign is in a panic because they are seen as negative and unbelievable,” he added, saying the campaign was stuck in a “rut of negativity.”

As the poll results were published, in emerged that Labour is planning to step up campaigning for keeping Scotland part of the United Kingdom.

Source: RT

White wing swan attacks students of colour

Warwick University has erected a fence around a campus lake to stop a spate of swan attacks on students.

A 4ft tall bird, which boasts an 8ft wingspan, has been accused of behaved aggressively towards foreign students as they cross over a footbridge near its nesting place at the university’s Gibbet Hill campus in Coventry, West Midlands.

The footbridge is used by hundreds of students everyday as a route between accommodation and university buildings. Undergraduates revealed that the swan only appeared to target students from ethnic minorities.

One 24-year-old student from India said: “These swans are very annoying, and the students feel as though they’re being bullied.

“I’m from India, and they attack me especially, they focus straight on me.

“We’ve been warned that the swans will be a bit feisty at this time of year, but they go for me all year round.
“I think they don’t like too many Indians in England – maybe the swans here are a little bit racist.”

Italian student Albertina Crocetti, 24, who is studying Physics with Business Studies, said: “It’s bizarre, she doesn’t seem to like foreigners and attacks them to defend her nest.

Source: The Telegraph

Aborted babies burned to power UK hospitals

Aborted and miscarried babies are being incinerated as “clinical waste,” with some being used to power hospitals in the UK, a policy that some have defended as an efficient means of sustainable recycling.

“Ten NHS trusts have admitted burning foetal remains alongside other rubbish while two others used the bodies in ‘waste-to-energy’ plants which generate power for heat,” reports the Telegraph. The revelations emerged as a result of a Channel 4 Dispatches program set to be broadcast in the UK tonight which found that more than 15,000 babies were incinerated.

The program also unveiled the fact that parents who lost babies were being treated without compassion and were not properly consulted on what would happen to their child’s remains.

the revelations, the Department of Health slapped an instant ban on the policy, with health minister Dr Dan Poulter labeling it “totally unacceptable.”

The story represents an alarming fusion of the lunacy of pro-abortion and global warming alarmist sentiment, with some even taking to Twitter to express support for the practice as an “efficient and effective” means of recycling.

Another respondent to the Telegraph story remarked, “If the unwanted remains can be used for a worthwhile purpose, such as heat generation, then they should be. That’s the very essence of sustainability,” characterizing the aborted baby as “unwanted medical waste”.

A respondent to this Prison Planet story asserted, “I don’t get what the problem is; it’s recycling and more economical than using, say, nuclear power or electricity.”

Many respondents to the Telegraph story made the point that the policy of burning babies is not surprising given that the practice of abortion itself is treated with such carefree abandon.

“Once people decide that unborn children are less than human what do you expect,” said one.

The revelations are certain to bolster arguments that the NHS should be privatized.

Source: prisonplanet.com

Britain’s private army, G4S

G4S is the world’s third-largest private-sector employer. The British multinational security services company headquartered in Crawley, United Kingdom, is the world’s largest security company measured by revenues.

Contractors from the security behemoth cleaned up after an explosion in a crowded souk in South Sudan.

G4S is based near London and is traded on the stock exchange there. Though it remains generally unknown to the public, it has operations in 120 countries and more than 620,000 employees.

The security company is engaged by the United Nations mission sometimes to handle difficult tasks.

In recent years it has become the third-largest private employer in the world, after Walmart and the Taiwanese manufacturing conglomerate Foxconn.

The fact that such a huge private entity is a security company is worrying.

Most G4S employees are lowly guards, but a growing number are military specialists dispatched by the company into what are delicately known as “complex environments” to take on jobs that national armies lack the skill or the will to do.

Pierre Booyse, an Afrikaner and ex-SADF colonel, for one, did not dwell on the larger meaning. For him, the company amounted to a few expatriates in the Juba headquarters compound, a six-month contract at $10,000 a month, and some tangible fieldwork to be done.

He felt he was getting too old to be living in tents and mucking around in the dirt, but he liked G4S and believed, however wearily, in the job.

As he set out for the west, his team consisted of seven men—four de-miners, a driver, a community-liaison officer, and a medic.

The medic was a Zimbabwean. All the others were soldiers of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army, the S.P.L.A., now seconded to G4S, which paid them well by local standards—about $250 a month.

At their disposal they had two old Land Cruisers, one of them configured as an ambulance with a stretcher in the back.

Merely two years after official independence, South Sudan was fracturing as a country, but the names of the Souk Sita victims could be inserted into the U.N. forms, and for G4S the day had been a success.

Source: Vanity Fair

Should Britain give the Falklands back?

Argentine leader Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner recalled that the UN Charter stipulates the right of people to self-determination, which means that this rule should be applied to all countries without any exception.

Kirchner compared the situation in Crimea with another event in modern history. The Falkland Islands also held a referendum a year ago. It was a disputed territory, claimed by both Argentina and the United Kingdom. In 1982, differences resulted in an open military conflict.

Britain then defended the Falklands by force of arms, and last March almost all the residents voted to stay a part of the UK in a plebiscite. The UN did not question the legality of the vote at that time, Kirchner said.

“Many of the major powers, which have secured the Falklands’ people right to self-determination, do not want to do the same in relation to the Crimea now. How can you call yourselves guarantors of world stability, if you do not apply the same standards for everyone? It looks like the Crimeans cannot express their will, but the residents of the Falklands can. There is zero logic in that,” she said.

The EU countries and the US government refused to recognize the results of the referendum in the Crimea, with region’s residents voting almost unanimously for joining Russia.

The EU imposed second-tier sanctions against Russia on Monday, as a retaliation measure to the holding of a referendum in Crimea. Financial assets freezing and a visa ban on entry into the EU countries were applied to those Russian officials, who the West calls responsible for the annexation of the Crimea.

The US sanctions have affected an even higher tier – Barack Obama signed a decree that prohibits entry into the United States and seizes US assets of seven Russian officials and deputies: the Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matviyenko, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, Presidential Adviser Sergei Glazyev, Assistant to President Vladislav Surkov, State Duma deputies Elena Mizulina and Leonid Slutskiy, Senator Andrey Klishas.

Rejecting contacts with Russia, the West harms himself, not us, the Vzglyad newspaper states. As a response to the US and European sanctions the State Duma issued a document named “On the US and EU sanctions,” suggesting that Western leaders should extend restrictions on all Russian deputies.