'‘Scandalous’ £3.4bn #UK state spending on #PrivateConsultants last year

New figures reveal that public bodies paid out at least 60% more to consultancies in 2023-24 than it did pre-pandemic
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/article/2024/aug/31/uk-government-private-consultants-spending
#ToryLegacy

‘Scandalous’ £3.4bn UK state spending on private consultants last year

^{Andrew Kersley (The Guardian)}

British #climate protesters who plotted highway shutdown given record harsh #prison sentences

Source: https://apnews.com/article/britain-climate-protesters-record-prison-sentences-7b8b7e56a4611ccfdf4896edf9ea2c67

“The plain fact is that each of you some time ago has crossed the line from concerned campaigner to fanatic,” Hehir told the group. “You have appointed yourselves as sole arbiters of what should be done about climate change.”

#court #law #protest #uk #politics #fail #Problem #activism #future #humanity #justice #news

British climate protesters who plotted highway shutdown given record harsh prison sentences

Five climate activists who planned a protest to cause gridlock and block traffic over four days on a major highway circling London have been sentenced to as much as five years in prison.

^{BRIAN MELLEY (AP News)}

Content warning: #GAZA Peace Quote - There's something of a conspiracy against the voices for peace and ceasefire for withdrawal from this war Reveal/hide

“There is a real possibility that the UK, or individuals herein, are guilty of aiding and assisting Israel’s proven and alleged breaches of international law. The truth lies in the information about arms sales, intelligence sharing, trade, and legal advice that the government still keeps secret from the public. Paradoxically, only the government knows for sure whether the UK is breaching international law.”

https://www.inkl.com/a/vpLZrVTzxXz

#Israel #genocide #Gaza #Palestine #UK #UnitedKingdom

It seems clear the UK has assisted Israel’s breaches of international law. Surely Labour can do better than deny it

The new foreign secretary has access to data not available to the public – and has a duty to model respect for the law, says barrister Sam Fowles

^inkl

*A prisons crisis, or an opportunity?*

"If Starmer wants to avoid overcrowding he could start by reversing the drive to hand multi-year sentences to non-violent activists which was, in the first place, an obscene clunking boot to bring down on civil liberties in response to relatively mild levels of disruption."

https://freedomnews.org.uk/2024/08/26/a-prisons-crisis-or-an-opportunity/

[Pictured: Black and white drawing of elements of the prison-industrial system]

#prison #anarchism #uk

Journalists in the UK are being detained under the Terrorism Act for reporting on the Israeli-American genocide of the Palestinian people.

This is fascism.

Under “Labour”, no less.

(Not surprising, of course, for one colonialist to support another.)

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2024/08/20/pkif-a20.html

#Israel #Palestine #Gaza #genocide #apartheid #settlerColonialism #UK #UnitedKingdom #Labour #USA #UnitedStates

Journalist Richard Medhurst arrested under Britain’s Terrorism Act

Medhurst revealed that six police officers were waiting for him at the entrance to the aircraft when it landed at London’s Heathrow Airport.

^{World Socialist Web Site}

"Commentary defending the right of Palestinians under international law to resist foreign military occupation and genocide is being defined as support for terrorism."

#Fascism has come to the #UK soaked in the blood of #genocide.

Journalist Richard Medhurst arrested under Britain’s Terrorism Act - World Socialist Web Site
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2024/08/20/pkif-a20.html

Journalist Richard Medhurst arrested under Britain’s Terrorism Act

Medhurst revealed that six police officers were waiting for him at the entrance to the aircraft when it landed at London’s Heathrow Airport.

^{World Socialist Web Site}

#Britain takes #emergency action to prevent prisons in northern #England from becoming overcrowded

Source: https://apnews.com/article/britain-riots-prison-overcrowding-jail-5b5d30315e6b700825398eecb80748f1

The recent civil #disorder has heaped pressure on prisons in England and #Wales, which were already running out of room amid #budget constraints, a growing population and tougher sentencing guidelines.

#news #uk #jail #prison #crime #justice #finance #problem #politics #riot #protest #fail

Britain takes emergency action to prevent prisons in northern England from becoming overcrowded

Britain has taken emergency action to prevent prisons from becoming overcrowded as hundreds of people are sentenced for their roles in the civil unrest that gripped the country earlier this month.

^{AP News}

Here is a fun one, or at least one with more effort put into it than your average coin. @MAJ1 lamented that his coins were unremarkable, and it prompted me to pull this one out. What you see everyday which may seem unremarkable, might be wondrous and new to someone else, so here's a new take on an old threepence from #Britain / #UK: https://coinofnote.com/1936-uk-painted-threepence/

#SaturdayNightCoinShow #Painting #Art #CoinArt #Numismatics #History #Coins #HIstodons @numismatics @histodons

#SeaLevelRise #ForestFires #TippingPoints
(1/n)

Thank you, Ruth.
I will read it.

From all I have been reading, my aggregate "gut feeling" is that we still underestimate the rate of #ClimateChange, as well as the interconnectedness of #TriggerPoints:

“Triggering one tipping point 👉could trigger another in a kind of dangerous domino effect👈,” says #TimLenton at the #UniversityOfExeter in the #UK, the report’s lead author.
“But also 👉these tipping points in the Earth...

Here's what we're reading today:

The #UK disallowed the use of Storm Shadow missiles in the #Kursk incursion.

#Ukraine could use them to hit airfields and logistic hubs used by #Russia to fight back.

Around 1,000 square km of Russian territory is already under Kyiv’s control.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/08/12/ukraine-invasion-russia-could-end-putins-rule-zelensky/

Zelensky: Let me use British missiles to end Putin's rule

Ukrainian president speaks out as his forces continue cross-border push into Russia

^{Joe Barnes (The Telegraph)}

This Common Blue Butterfly is tiny, one of our smallest here in the UK. Was nice to capture it with its wings open.

#nature #Insects #Wildlife #photography #NaturePhotography #InsectPhotography #InsectsOfMastodon #UK #butterfly

First one of the summer for me...this beauty is a Brown Angus Butterfly

#nature #Insects #Wildlife #photography #NaturePhotography #InsectPhotography #InsectsOfMastodon #UK #butterfly

Time for a longer hike whilst the weather's nice enough.

We plotted out a 10km hike in Ribblesdale, around the villages of Stainforth and Langcliffe. Along the way, you have to stop at Catrigg Force, always an epic place regardless of water levels.

There's plenty more photos from this day, plus a bonus, right -> https://www.iancylkowski.com/blog/2024/8/4/ribblesdale-yorkshire-dales-summer 👍

#landscape #nature #travel #summer #yorkshiredales #uk #britain england #photography #photographie #photo

The next time #ElonMusk sets foot in the #UK or on #BritishCommonwealth territory, Prime Minister #KeirStarmer should have him arrested for violating the new #OnlineSafetyAct and put him in the exact same cell holding #JulianAssange until recently. https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/business/money-report/elon-musk-accountable-to-no-one-britains-tech-minister-says-after-x-owners-comments-on-uk-riots/5679819/

To regain his #freedom , #Musk must agree to content regulation on #Twitter aka X(itter).

Elon Musk ‘accountable to no one,' UK tech minister says amid disinformation during riots

Elon Musk can’t be held to account by anyone, the U.K.’s technology minister said, adding to criticisms of the billionaire from government…

^{Ryan Browne,CNBC (NBC New York)}

If you've been playing Fallout London, you might like to watch the original secret government films that helped inspire its imagery:

https://fedi.video/w/5cnR7hvcT87VPPRcgiTWZ2

The videos were intended to tell people what to do in the event of a nuclear war, and would only have been shown on TV if an attack was imminent. They were made in secret and never officially released.

However, they were leaked to the media in 1980 and became part of pop culture as they were simultaneously absurd and horrifying.

#FalloutLondon #Fallout #NuclearWar #ProtectAndSurvive #UK

Protect and Survive (1980) (UK government series about what to do in a nuclear war)

Protect and Survive was a series of public information films, radio spots and leaflets made by the UK government in the period 1974-1980. The films were probably made in 1975 but there has never be...

^Fedi.Video

#DePol #Antisemitismus #Terrorismus
#Büttner
(1/3)

Man kann nur hoffen, dass zum einen Herr Büttner auf Staatskosten voll entschädigt wird.

Zum anderen sollte er für eine gewisse Zeit Personenschutz erhalten.

Des Weiteren sollte dringlich über einen neuen Straftatbestand mit beschleunigten Prozessen wie im #UK nachgedacht werden. Attentate auf und Einschüchterungsversuche von Mandatsträgern sind direkte Angriffe...

@ZEITONLINE @be-bb-nachrichten-aus-berlin-und-brandenburg-ZEITONLINE

Scotland, 2011
Memories. Peace.

#ThrowBackThursday #Photography #Photo #Picture #Pic #Scotland #UK #Water #Clouds #Reflections

#Cdnpoli #Uk #Uspoli #Uspol #Gaza #Genocide #Palestine #Israel #Russia #Apartheid #Starvation

As always the US fully supports and funds Israel's super special criminal right to starve children

Canada, Western allies slam Israeli minister's suggestion that starving Palestinians may be justified

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/israel-smotrich-starvation-palestinians-1.7288716

Rotherham, #UK

#Police dogs attack a man during an anti-immigration riot on Sunday

Photograph: Hollie Adams/Reuters

@photography

UK probes whether ‘state actors’ stoked far-right riots

https://www.politico.eu/article/uk-probes-whether-state-actors-stoked-far-right-riots/

#uk #ukriots #riots

UK probes whether ‘state actors’ stoked far-right riots

False claims about the identity of a murder suspect have spread far and wide online.

^{Matt Honeycombe-Foster (POLITICO)}

#UK probes whether ‘state actors’ stoked far-right riots

#News #Russia #Musk

https://www.politico.eu/article/uk-probes-whether-state-actors-stoked-far-right-riots/

UK probes whether ‘state actors’ stoked far-right riots

False claims about the identity of a murder suspect have spread far and wide online.

^{Matt Honeycombe-Foster (POLITICO)}

"The riots that have spread across the UK from Southport since Tuesday are the effect of a cocktail of anti-immigrant, far-right views mixed with lies about a traumatic news event, gulped down by violent thugs. It is hard to unpick precisely how falsehoods, including that the attacker was a Muslim asylum seeker, were invented and spread. But there is no doubt about the malign role of public figures including Nigel Farage."

~ The Guardian

#UK #riots #violence
/1

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/aug/04/the-guardian-view-on-the-online-far-right-thugs-have-brought-devastation

The Guardian view on the online far right: thugs have brought devastation

Editorial: A cocktail of anti-immigration politics and misinformation about viscerally upsetting news has led to riots

^{Editorial (The Guardian)}

#Violent Protests fueled by #FarRight #Disinformation Grip #UK in Wake of KnifeAttack at Dance Class

Far-right groups & #AntiImmigration protesters have taken to the streets after a mass stabbing in the town of Southport was followed by a wave of disinformation about the identity of the attacker.
#Security #Cybersecurity #Moderation #Extremism #racism #WhiteSupremacy #ElonMusk #AndrewTate #TommyRobinson
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/03/world/europe/southport-stabbing-uk-riots.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&sgrp=c-cb

Are Nazis bringing gang members to fight anti-fascists? And cause maximum damage?

Look at the physical body proportion of fascists vs anti-fascists. They attacked hotels housing asylum seekers (in some places failed, in other places succeeded), attacking shops of minorities, …

Fascists can never be controlled if anti-fascists cannot control street.

Other than the celebrations people on left have engaged, in fascists have done lot more damage.

Will add more videos of fascist violence to this thread.

Video source: Hell site (posted by fascist accounts)

#anarchy #anarchism #farright #uk

#Britain’s nuclear #submarine #software built by Belarusian engineers

Source: https://www.pressreader.com/uk/the-economist-eu/20240803/284253830558970

#military #uk #news #security #fail #wtf #omg #defence #belarus #russia