"I have never welcomed the weakening of family ties by politics or pressure" - Nelson Mandela.
"He who travels for love finds a thousand miles no longer than one" - Japanese proverb.
"Everyone has the right to respect for his private and family life, his home and his correspondence." - Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
"When people's love is divided by law, it is the law that needs to change". -
David Cameron.

Sunday 22 January 2023

'‘They just vanish’: whistleblowers met by wall of complacency over missing migrant children' (Guardian)

This is horrific.

'As scores of youngsters are disappearing from hotels run by the Home Office and being trafficked across the country, sources claims warnings over their safety were ignored'

...

'“Most of the children disappear into county lines,” he said, referring to the predatory gangs who run drugs from a city to other parts of the country. “The Albanian and Eritrean gangs pick them up in their BMWs and Audis and then they just vanish.”'

More :

Why isn't this a much bigger scandal?

'Is life in the UK really as bad as the numbers suggest? Yes, it is' https://archive.ph/Cv74A#selection-1361.0-1361.66 (FT)
Quotes :
'The British economy is in a generation-long slough of despond, a slow-burning economic catastrophe. Real household disposable income per capita has barely increased for 15 years.
This is not normal. Since 1948, this measure of spending power reliably increased in the UK, doubling every 30 years. It was about twice as high in 1978 as in 1948 and was in touching distance of doubling again by 2008, before the financial crisis intervened. Today, it’s back at those pre-crisis levels.'
'... There are also subtler indicators of chronic economic disease. Consider the public finances. In an ideal world, governments offer their citizens low taxes, excellent public services and falling national debt. In normal circumstances, we can’t have it all. Right now, we can’t have any of it.'
... A large survey conducted by the Resolution Foundation in late November found that about a quarter of people said they couldn’t afford regular savings of £10 a month, couldn’t afford to spend small sums on themselves, couldn’t afford to replace electrical goods and couldn’t afford to switch on the heating when needed. Three years ago, only an unlucky few — between 2 and 8 per cent — described themselves as having such concerns over spending. More than 10 per cent of respondents said that at times over the previous 30 days, they’d not eaten when hungry because they didn’t have money for food.'
Also :
'Revealed: Brits are paying the highest electricity bills in the entire world' https://www.cityam.com/revealed-brits-are-paying-the-highest-electricity-bills-in-the-entire-world/  (City AM)
'Ambulance response times worst on record as A&E waits hit new highs' https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/jan/12/ae-patients-in-england-waiting-over-12-hours-top-50000-for-first-time (Guardian)
'Excess deaths in 2022 among worst in 50 years' https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-64209221 (BBC)
'Half of NHS trusts providing or planning food banks for staff' https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/jan/08/nhs-trusts-hospitals-food-banks-for-staff-nurses (Guardian)


Monday 16 January 2023

Human Rights Watch Issues Damning Verdict for UK

'...Human Rights Watch highlighted several laws introduced in 2022 that had the effect of significantly weakening human rights protections. The UK government introduced laws that stripped rights of asylum seekers and other vulnerable people, encouraged voter disenfranchisement, limited judicial oversight of government actions, and placed new restrictions on the right to peaceful protest. '

Speaking of which, from this year UK voters will need ID to vote. If you have it, don't lose your right to vote! - More info on the Electoral Commission website. 


Thursday 12 January 2023

Voter id

'From 4 May 2023, voters in England will need to show photo ID to vote at polling stations in some elections.

This will apply to:

Local elections
Police and Crime Commissioner elections
UK parliamentary by-elections
Recall petitions 
From October 2023 it will also apply to UK General elections'

Monday 9 January 2023

Some small green shoots.

Visit visa processing times seem to be improving. 

And priority may be introduced soon as an option for all new applications according to emails seen by me and reliable contacts close to the source.

Tuesday 3 January 2023

Call to action - candidates

Thanks to all those who have lobbied so far! If you haven't, read our Call to Action here : https://britcits.blogspot.com/2022/12/call-to-action-in-light-of-recent-media.html

Just a quick note. Not all the candidates are announced yet so a lot of this is case by case and may require some research in some cases, but LabourList are maintaining updates here : https://labourlist.org/category/seats-selections/
 

Thank you!

Monday 2 January 2023

NHS spending dropped off a cliff

On another note but not unrelated, actually very related - We still hear both the media and individuals (sometimes unfortunately on social media) attempting to blame the state of the NHS on bureaucracy, or 'too many managers', 'woke'/diversity/inclusion, or 'elf n safety', or foreigners using it (despite the dependance of the NHS on foreign workers), or whatever else is the scapegoat de jour. 

The reason is actually much simpler: lack of investment as a government policy in the last 12 years as the numbers show, eroding the UK's state capacity - penny wise and pound foolish, leading to inevitable further costs (human and financial) down the line. Capital investment fell off a cliff.

Charts via the revolutionary lefties at the Financial Times  : https://www.ft.com/content/b2154c20-c9d0-4209-9a47-95d114d31f2b 





Sunday 1 January 2023

Snap election this year?

According to the Guardian, ( https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/jan/01/welsh-labour-general-election-mark-drakeford-interview ), Labour is readying for a possible snap election this year - i.e. possibly within months :
'Mark Drakeford claimed the Conservative government in Westminster was “staggering”, and that at any moment it could be “overwhelmed” and forced to call a snap UK election.'

This adds to the urgency and need to engage opposition parties who may form the next government soon - hopefully before Braverman has time to put any plans to increase MIR into action. Please lobby them!

Thank you so so much for those who have responded to the BritCits call to action so far. Looking at the spike in views, it has been quite a few people.


At this point nothing is guaranteed - but doing nothing isn't an option either.

Please lobby them!

Thank you. Happy New Year.