National News
Sharp rise in ambulance call-outs to police custody
THE NUMBER of ambulances called out to Metropolitan Police (Met) custody suites has more than doubled over the last four years, from 2,374 in 2012 to 5,018 in 2016.
The Met police blame a serious shortage of specialist nurses meaning that detainees requiring medical attention or assessment have to be taken to accident and emergency (A&E) units, each escorted by at least two police officers who have to remain with the detainee/patient, often for many hours.
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Anti-deportation protest closes Stansted airport
PROTESTERS from three different groups last Tuesday succeeded in invading the runway at Stansted Airport in Essex to prevent a charter flight carrying eight asylum seekers about to be deported to Nigeria and Ghana from taking off.
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Statue for suffragist Millicent Fawcett
SUFFRAGIST and campaigner Millicent Fawcett will be honoured with a statue in Parliament Square next year. She will be the first woman to appear there and the sculpture will celebrate 100 years since British women gained the right to vote.
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Stunning turnout for PCS pay protests
MEMBERS of the civil service union PCS were out in force last Friday 31st March to send a clear message to the Government to break the one per cent public sector pay cap.
Thousands of members turned out throughout the day, to support the call for a rise of five per cent or £1,200, from Oban to Exeter, Lochinver to London and Aberdeen to Cardiff, for the events organised by hundreds of branches across many different employer groups.
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Homeless families pushed out of capital
THERE has been a big increase in the rate at which homeless families in London are being placed in temporary accommodation outside the capital, with some being sent as far away as Manchester, Leeds and Newcastle, according to figures released last week by London Councils (LC).
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Scotland’s exhausted bus drivers ballot for strike
BUS DRIVERS employed by the company Stagecoach at the Cumbernauld depot in Scotland are balloting for strike action over shift patterns that are leaving them exhausted at the wheel.
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Heat danger to firefighters’ heart health
FIREFIGHTERS have higher heart attack risk “because of heat” according to new research published last week, which found that working in high temperatures increases the risk of suffering a heart attack.
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No trust in ‘cruel’ disability tests
A DAMNING independent review published last week showed that high appeal rates indicate an increasing lack of trust in the disability assessments linked to Personal Independence Payments (PIPs) that are meant to tailor the payments a claimant gets to their needs to live an independent life.
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Scottish Political News
by our Scottish political affairs correspondent
THE SCOTTISH PARLIAMENT, known by some disrespectful critics as the “Shortbread Senate”, has closed down for the Festival of the Veneration of the Holy Chocolate Egg and the Easter bunnies.
To mark the occasion First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has gone on her travels again, this time on a five-day visit to the United States. Although the Scottish Parliament has no responsibility for foreign affairs, she and other ministers get round this annoying barrier to staying in five-star hotels by claiming that their trips have some vague relation with matters that are within the powers of the Scottish Parliament such as trade and the environment.
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Housing benefit cuts endanger young people
by New Worker correspondent
PROTESTERS gathered in Parliament Square last Saturday 1st April, to demand the Government restore housing benefit rights to young people between the ages of 18 and 25
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The militarisation of youth
by Ray Jones
LAST Friday evening Conwy County Peace Group hosted an evening on the militarisation of youth in Britain today.
Michael Elstub (an ex-services officer) from Veterans for Peace told the audience of about 30 that militarisation in general was about people adopting militaristic values, seeing military solutions as being most effective in a dangerous world.
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Remembering a Great Korean
by New Worker correspondent
FRIENDS of the Korean people returned to the Chadswell Centre in central London last weekend to celebrate the 105th anniversary of the birth of great leader Kim Il Sung, the Korean communist who led the guerrilla struggle that broke the bonds of Japanese colonialism to build the people’s republic which now stands as a bright red bastion of socialism in north east Asia.
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International News
CIA engaged in St. Petersburg terror act?
Pravda.Ru
At least 11 people were killed and 51 more injured after a powerful explosion ripped through the St Petersburg metro on Monday. Pravda.ru asked Christoph R Hörstel, a consultant and peace activist, about the background to this terrorist act.
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Former south Korean president grilled on corruption charge
by Xiang Bo
SOUTH Korean prosecutors on Tuesday grilled former President Park Geun Hye, who has been taken into custody over corruption allegations. She has been held at a detention centre outside Seoul since 31st March, when a Seoul court issued an arrest warrant for the former leader.
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Lenin Moreno wins Ecuador election
by Pavel Jacomino
LENIN MORENO of the ruling Alianza Pais party was declared the winner of the run-off presidential election, held last Sunday in Ecuador. Moreno won with more than 51 per cent of the vote, defeating right-wing banker Guillermo Lasso, who gained just over 48 per cent.
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Blood money and war crimes in Yemen
Telesur
AS THE Saudi military campaign against Yemen enters its third year, many air-strikes directly target civilians, which the United Nations (UN) calls war crimes.
As Saudi Arabia’s jets continue to bomb Yemen for the third year in a row, killing more than 10,000 people, the Saudi Cabinet announced a pay increase of up to 60 per cent for air force pilots on Monday.
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Trump: just another head of the US hydra
by Finian Cunningham
AMERICAN militarism under President Donald Trump is raising its ugly head like never before. US air strikes are slaughtering civilians in Iraq and Syria with a blood-lust that is taking even hardened observers by surprise.
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Features
No triumph for ultra-right in Netherlands; French vote looms
by G Dunkel
POLLS PREDICTED that the Islamophobe Geert Wilder’s Party of Freedom (PVV), a racist, xenophobic party that also opposes the European Union (EU), would win big in the 15th March Dutch election. It didn’t. Its vote rose from only 10 per cent to 13 per cent.
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Making America great — for the top one per cent!
by Rob Gowland
DONALD Trump rode to the White House on wave of discontent and fear, as Americans watched their economy and their institutions decline, and their jobs disappear along with their faith in the future and in the ‘American dream’. Perhaps most disconcerting of all was the collapse of the carefully fostered belief that the rest of the world envied Americans their prosperity and their ‘freedom’. Rather than envy, the prevailing sentiment in other countries was revealed to be a combination of fear and hatred, fuelled by constant deadly US attacks on poor countries.
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Filipino Communists reaffirm people’s war on US imperialism
Telesur
THE COMMUNIST Party of the Philippines (CPP) released a statement last week reaffirming its commitment to fighting US imperialism in the Southeast Asian country. The statement comes almost two months after Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte shut down peace talks with the insurgents.
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