National News
Panorama inquiry into Comic Relief shelved
THE BBC has shelved an edition of its documentary programme Panorama that reportedly was about to expose failings in BBC’s annual charity appeal Comic Relief, according to a report in the Telegraph last week.
The planned broadcast of the controversial edition, due to be screened later this month, was cancelled after a string of BBC executives ruled themselves out of making decisions about it.
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Permanent tribute to the ‘lions’ of Grunwick
FOUR decades after an initially unremarkable local dispute over working conditions in a small north-west London factory exploded into one of longest, bitterest and most influential industrial showdowns in British industrial history, the so called ‘lions of Grunwick’ have been immortalised in major new public artworks.
Led mainly by Asian women, the iconic Grunwick dispute of 1976—1978 challenged not just stereotypes but also the ethos of the predominantly white, male trade union movement of the day and, in the process, inspired a generation to speak out against injustice.
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Students demand free education now
THOUSANDS of students gathered in Malet Street, Bloomsbury for a protest march to Parliament Square to demand free higher education, to be paid for by taxing the rich.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has backed the students’ demands and called for free education “from the cradle to the grave”.
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Operator’s safety breaches highlight vital role of guards
THE RAIL UNION RMT last week wrote to the Office of Road and Rail (ORR), setting out a series of serious safety breaches during last week’s strike action on South Western Railway.
The incidents, which occurred on Wednesday 8th November, all involve the use of poorly trained ‘contingency guards’ in an effort to break the RMT strike action and highlight again how the safety regulator the ORR — which is funded to the tune of £2.3 million by South Western Railway co-owner, First Group — is failing in its statutory duty to maintain public safety during industrial action.
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New NHS cuts
DOZENS of Accident and Emergency (A&E) units, GP surgeries and walk-in centres have been earmarked for closure because of the NHS’s money problems, understaffing and modernisation plan, a new report revealed on Wednesday.
They include maternity units and a raft of community hospitals. The latter are meant to take the pressure off acute hospitals, which often struggle under the weight of patient demand.
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Straight down the fairway...
by our Scottish Political correspondent
THE AMERICAN president is not known for his concern for the environment so it is not surprising to note that the spectacular dunes habitat in Aberdeenshire is likely to lose its legal protection because Donald Trump’s golf course has ruined the site.
BBC Scotland has revealed that Donald Trump’s Scottish golf resort may cause 4,000-year-old dunes to lose their conservation status as a result of damage from resort’s construction. The resort is situated on part of the Forvan Links, an historic sand dune system classified as a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) by Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH). Trump International Golf Links Scotland has been accused of not fulfilling business promises that would have offset the cost of potential dune damage. This has been denied by the company that had won local support by promising huge investments and job opportunities which, so far, have not come to pass.
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Media News
by our Scottish Political correspondent
Not content with his five pensions, failed First Minister Alex Salmond has recently made two indications that he is embarking on a new money-making career in the media. These have gone down well with neither friend nor foe.
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More Media News
by our Scottish Political correspondent
Contrary to the obsessive claims of the SNP and their followers that the media is wholeheartedly biased against them, they have many supporters in print and broadcast media.
The best-selling newspaper in Scotland is an especially tailored edition of Rupert Murdoch’s Sun. This organ called for a No vote in the 2014 referendum but for many years has regularly supported the SNP at election time, peddling the same sort of anti-Labour diatribes that are daily spewed out in the Mail and Guardian, although the latter titles use bigger words and longer sentences.
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Soviet centenary at the Centre!
by New Worker correspondent
LAST WEEK communists held events all around the world to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Great October Russian Revolution — and last Saturday comrades and friends joined them at the NCP’s annual tribute to the 10 days that shook the world.
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They will never be forgotten
by New Worker correspondent
A NEW Communist Party (NCP)delegation paid tribute to the sacrifice of millions of working people to defeat fascism during the Second World War at the annual remembrance day ceremony at the Soviet War Memorial in Southwark on Sunday.
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International News
The super rich: a world apart
by Lena Valverde Jordi
THE SCANDAL provoked by the emergency of the so-called ‘Paradise Papers’, a re-edition of the already known Panama Papers, has reaffirmed the idea that the richest of the rich in our planet have created a separate environment, where they manage their finances at will and without any supervision or interference, divorced from the financial and juridical stipulations of governments and international law.
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Legendary Soviet spy calls for renewed fight against the enemy
Sputnik
RENOWNED Soviet intelligence officer George Blake, an earnest anti-fascist who was known for his work in Britain, turned 95 last weekend. On the eve of his birthday, he addressed the officers of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service, defining the top priorities and key mission of Russian spies, and revealing what gives him the power to live.
“You are facing an arduous and challenging mission — to save the world in a situation when the danger of nuclear war and the resulting self-destruction of humankind have been put on the agenda by irresponsible politicians once again. When terrorism has lifted its head and is leaving its bloody traces in many corners of the planet, when there is a real battle between Good and Evil. I believe in you; in your unselfish and self-sacrificing service of our common goal; in your professionalism. I believe in the final victory over the villainous enemy. And this belief gives me power to live on,” George Blake said.
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Have the Saudis kidnapped the Lebanese premier?
Sputnik
A NEW political crisis gripping the Middle East has destroyed the relative peace of Lebanon’s coalition government, ruled — until just days ago — by Prime Minister Saad Hariri, after his stunning 4th November resignation that was announced from within Saudi Arabia, where he remains as of this moment.
Michel Aoun, Lebanon’s president, has formally asked the Saudi monarchy as to why, exactly, Beirut’s Prime Minister has not been allowed to return home, raising fears that Hariri has been detained, or worse, kidnapped.
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Chinese communists bring wisdom and opportunities to world
Xinhua
THE RECENT 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) has brought the world China’s wisdom and opportunities, Chinese Ambassador to Britain Liu Xiaoming said last week.
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Features
Russophobia: The acceptable form of ‘liberal’ racism
by Neil Clark
WE LIVE in an age where racial prejudice is rightly regarded as a Quite Awful Thing. Celebrities publicly declare their support for ‘anti-racist’ campaigns, and those who make what are deemed to be ‘racist’ comments face severe career consequences. The trouble is though, ‘anti-racist’ standards are not applied equally.
Some forms of prejudice are completely acceptable in ‘progressive, anti-racist’ western society — and indulging in them will actually boost — and not hinder your career. One of them is Russophobia.
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Shootings: America, you have a problem
by Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey
BELIEVING in the notion that all Americans are fat and stupid is a sign of stupidity, a form of racism, classifying the exponent as a worthless waste of time and space. Yet how come 300 million people cannot see the obvious when it is staring them in the face? And is Trump afraid of the NRA [National Riffle Association]? America, you have a problem.
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One year of risk to our lives
by Lena Valverde Jordi
ON 9th November 2016 the world awoke to the news that magnate Donald Trump had been selected as the 45th President of the United States, a fact that opened up a period of uncertainty both within and outside the USA as the realisation grew that humanity might explode at any moment and disappear from the planet.
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