Month: April 2024

Ukraine needs western munitions badly but it remains unclear how much more artillery the UK is prepared to produce

* UK politics – latest updates

Two years and two months after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine started the biggest war in Europe since 1945, and Rishi Sunak has announced that the UK’s own defence industry should be placed “on a war footing”. Speaking on a trip to Poland, the prime minster noted that one of the central lessons of the Ukraine conflict was the need for deeper stockpiles and for the arms industry to “replenish them more quickly”.

Ukraine’s leaders will be too polite to point it out but this has been evident on the battlefield for some time, although Sunak is not the only European leader to take time to grasp the scale of what is required to fight off sustained Russian aggression, the bombing of civilians and infrastructure every day. With US military aid on pause for four months, and only now poised to restart, the combined result is that Russia is gaining ground. Continue reading…
http://dlvr.it/T5vqgx

UK News: Mayors say ‘cynical’ changes to ID requirements risk disenfranchising thousands of voters at local elections

Thousands of voters in the May local elections are at risk of being disenfranchised because of “cynical” rule changes that make photo ID compulsory, Labour’s metro mayors argue.

Mayors including Sadiq Khan in London, Tracy Brabin in West Yorkshire and Andy Burnham in Greater Manchester have come together to raise awareness of changes they say are a “brazen assault on our democracy”. Continue reading…
http://dlvr.it/T5sD1g

Stephen Dymond was found dead at his flat in Portsmouth in 2019, seven days after filming for ITV programme

A man who died after appearing on the Jeremy Kyle Show felt that “life was not worth living” and had considered jumping out of the taxi on his way home, an inquest has heard.

Steve Dymond was found dead at his flat in Portsmouth, Hampshire, seven days after filming for the ITV programme in May 2019.

In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counselor. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org. Continue reading…
http://dlvr.it/T5sCgL

UK News: Chris Stark, head of the Climate Change Committee, says Tories’ decision to dilute key green policies has had huge diplomatic impact

Rishi Sunak has given up Britain’s reputation as a world leader in the fight against the climate crisis and has “set us back” by failing to prioritise the issue in the way his predecessors in No 10 did, the government’s green adviser has warned.

Chris Stark, the outgoing head of the Climate Change Committee (CCC), said that the prime minister had “clearly not” championed the issue following a high-profile speech last year in which he made a significant U-turn on the government’s climate commitments. The criticism comes after Sunak was accused of trying to avoid scrutiny of Britain’s climate policies by failing to appoint a new chair of the CCC. Continue reading…
http://dlvr.it/T5pqdk

Mayors say ‘cynical’ changes to ID requirements risk disenfranchising thousands of voters at local elections

Thousands of voters in the May local elections are at risk of being disenfranchised because of “cynical” rule changes that make photo ID compulsory, Labour’s metro mayors argue.

Mayors including Sadiq Khan in London, Tracy Brabin in West Yorkshire and Andy Burnham in Greater Manchester have come together to raise awareness of changes they say are a “brazen assault on our democracy”. Continue reading…
http://dlvr.it/T5pqNY