UK Politics

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/17357147

Junk food TV advertisements are to be banned from airing before the 9pm watershed as part of the government’s drive to improve public health.

In addition, online ads for products that are high in fat, salt and sugar will be banned altogether, Andrew Gwynne, the public health minister, told the Commons on Thursday. Both measures will come into force on 1 October 2025.

Health campaigners welcomed the move as an overdue restriction on firms’ ability to bombard children with ads for their unhealthy food and drink products.

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The previous, Conservative government pledged to bring in the TV watershed ban from January 2023. But a month before its introduction, Rishi Sunak decided to delay it until 2025, prompting a wave of criticism that he had put the interests of big business ahead of improving children’s health.

Nearly a year into the world’s first live-streamed genocide - which began in Gaza, and is rapidly expanding into the occupied West Bank - the establishment western media still avoid using the term “genocide” to describe Israel’s rampage of destruction.

The worse the genocide gets, the longer Israel’s starvation-blockade of the enclave continues, the harder it gets to obscure the horrors - and the less coverage Gaza receives.

The worst offender has been the BBC, given that it is Britain’s only publicly funded broadcaster. Ultimately, it is supposed to be accountable to the British public, who are required by law to pay its licence fee.

This is why it has been beyond ludicrous to witness the billionaire-owned media froth at the mouth in recent days about “BBC bias” - not against Palestinians, but against Israel. Yes, you heard that right.

We are talking about the same “anti-Israel” BBC that just ran yet another headline - this time after an Israeli sniper shot an American citizen in the head - that managed somehow, once again, to fail to mention who killed her. Any casual reader risked inferring from the headline “American activist shot dead in occupied West Bank” that the culprit was a Palestinian gunman.

And it is the supposedly “anti-Israel” BBC that last week sought to stymie efforts by 15 aid agencies known as the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) to run a major fundraiser through the nation’s broadcasters.

No one is under any illusions about why the BBC is so unwilling to get involved. The DEC has chosen Gaza as the beneficiary of its latest aid drive. The committee faced the very same problem with the BBC back in 2009, when the corporation refused to take part in a Gaza fundraiser on the extraordinary pretext that doing so would compromise its rules on “impartiality”.

Presumably, in the BBC’s eyes, saving the lives of Palestinian children reveals a prejudice that saving Ukrainian children’s lives does not.

The reason Israel is able to carry out a genocide, and western leaders are able to actively support it, is precisely because the establishment media constantly pulls its punches - very much in Israel’s favour.

Readers and viewers are given no sense that Israel is carrying out systematic war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, let alone a genocide.

This may seem a strange thing to say: Democracy isn't actually about finding out what the people want and just trying to do it. Democracy is about setting out a vision and a plan for the country and persuading people to follow it.

In an interview posted on her account on X, Wilkinson said: “The bail conditions have been removed… Six of the seven bail conditions are completely inhumane and disabled me from being able to sort of live in this area. All the bail conditions have been removed, apart from I cannot talk about the Palestinian resistance but I can use social media.”

At the end of August Wilkinson’s house was raided by Counter Terrorism Police and she was arrested. According to reports she was asked to give up details of her contacts in Gaza.

“They had absolutely no intention of this going to court,” she said of the police’s actions. The police raid by officers wearing balaclavas “terrorised this end of town. Was it really worth it?”

Delegates at Green Party conference in Manchester have voted for HS2 to be funded and completed in full, including the entire Eastern leg and an underground through station at Manchester Piccadilly. The policy development comes as phase one of HS2 between London and Birmingham is well under construction.

Commenting on the revised Green Party policy, co-leader Carla Denyer MP, said:

“The Green Party has long supported the principle of a new north-south high-speed rail line but had serious concerns about the specific route of HS2 and the environmental impacts of this route.

“However, this first phase of HS2 between London and Birmingham is well under way and most of the environmental impacts of construction are already baked in. So this is a pragmatic decision by the Green Party. It moves us on.

“Crucially, we have also acknowledged that the northern leg of HS2 was always the most important in terms of tackling capacity issues on our railways as well as addressing regional inequalities. So the line must be completed in full.

“We also say loud and clear that our railways have to be built right – for habitats and wildlife, for local transport users, for affected neighbours and for government coffers. Greens will not support blank cheques or offer uncritical endorsement.

“We need to move at great speed to shift travel away from cars and flights to public transport. HS2, in full, can play an important role in achieving this shift.”

The vote passed with 345 for and 318 against.

News that the picture - commissioned by Gordon Brown - had been removed was first reported in The Herald last month.

Politicians on the right were furious at the decision.

Former first minister of Northern Ireland and DUP leader Baroness Arlene Foster described it as “vindictive and petty."

Asked why he had relocated the portrait, Sir Keir said: “I use the study for quietly reading most afternoons where I have got to have… where there is a difficult paper that I need to.

“This is not actually about Margaret Thatcher at all. I don’t like images and pictures of people staring down at me.

“I’ve found it all my life. When I was a lawyer I used to have pictures of judges. I don’t like it. I like landscapes.

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“I might tolerate Thierry Henry on the wall, but that's about as far as I go.”

THE BBC has been accused of “blocking” a major humanitarian appeal for Gaza as it has been revealed the broadcaster has “delayed” the launch of a campaign.

All other channels have agreed to broadcast the appeal, the Guardian has reported.

Insiders at the DEC, the BBC and aid agencies told the news agency they were dismayed at the delay with some accusing the broadcaster of “blocking” the appeal because of fears over a backlash from Israel supporters.

Employees have lost out on holiday pay worth £2bn, according to new trade union research

Buses were privatised under Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s

But since 2017, metro mayors have had the power to run their own bus networks.

Manchester mayor Andy Burnham launched the hugely successful Bee Network last year - which increased reliability, introduced 24/7 services and boosted passenger numbers.

He’s pledged to complete the process of taking Manchester’s buses under public control by next January (2025).

Similar plans are underway in the Liverpool City Region and West Yorkshire.

It’s understood Labour’s rule changes, to be tabled in the Commons on Tuesday, would lift the ban on local councils setting up community bus companies, allowing more local leaders to take more services into public control.
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Thousands of vital routes have been axed - that's what happens when control is handed to those who put profit above passengers

By Louise Haigh, Transport Secretary

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I’ve heard countless stories from people let down, of communities cut off, about opportunities missed, all due to poor bus services. I know how much this matters.

That’s why this Government was elected. To deliver on our mission to repair and rebuild Britain. To return our country to the service of working people. To fix what is broken.

And I am not wasting any time. My pledge to Mirror readers is simple: better buses are around the corner.

I promised to move fast and fix things, and next week I will be setting out the first stop on the journey to better buses, with steps to take back control of our buses.

For too long Private operators have been allowed to pick and choose whatever routes they want, regardless of what communities need. We want to see every area have the power to build their own public transport network in a way that works for them
[…]
Four decades of deregulation has seen thousands of vital routes axed, and a staggering 1.5 billion fewer bus journeys taken each year.

This wasn’t inevitable. It is the result of political choices.

It is what happens when control of services is handed to those who put profit above passengers.

When whole communities are cut off and isolated, without a thought to the damage this does to local economies.

he Green Party of England and Wales is set to vote on a motion to declare Israel's actions in Gaza a genocide, as its three-day annual conference begins.

The mood was buoyant and energised at the party's conference in Manchester on Friday, which comes after the party enjoyed unprecedented success at the July general election, winning four seats in parliament - up from one in previous years.

Bora wants the party to go further than it has so far, saying she and others plan to table a motion to have the party declare Israel's actions in Gaza a genocide.

Chris Williams, who ran the recent election campaign, told journalists: "Gaza was a big issue in the election. A quarter of all Green voters named it as the reason they voted Green."

People of colour were increasingly feeling disillusioned with major political parties' policies towards Gaza, he added