Fifth Gaza Aid Convoy to Leave London 18th September

Saturday 24th July 2010

The Viva Palestina Lifeline 5 aid convoy to Gaza will leave London on Saturday 18th September. This is the fifth aid convoy involving Viva Palestina. This one will have three separate convoys leaving from London, Casablanca and Doha and all of them joining together in El Arich in Egypt. The London convoy will travel across Europe, down through Turkey and Syria where they will then be joined by the convoy from Doha and be shipped from Latakia to El Arish. At El Arish they will be joined by the convoy from Casablanca. They will then enter Gaza through the Rafah crossing,

All aboard for Viva Palestina 5

Monday 19th July 2010

"All changed, changed utterly."

So wrote the great poet William Butler Yeats in the wake of the execution by Britain of Irish freedom fighters following the 1916 Easter Rising in Dublin.

Those words resonate today following the massacre aboard the Mavi Marmara on bloody Monday - 31 May 2010. And we may add that "a new phase of struggle is born" in the movement to bring justice and freedom in Palestine. But it has come at a terrible price.

Nine volunteers aboard the aid ship shot dead by Israeli Special Forces, dozens more wounded. The desperate attempts by the Israeli government and its supporters to blame the victims of terror for what is an act of state terrorism are sickening and depraved. But they show little sign of success.

Lansley's Sick Lullaby

Wednesday 14th July 2010

Andrew Lansley, the Conservative Health Minister, has blown the trumpet call for the privatization of the National Health Service. Using the fear that has been well-stoked by the ConDem government, a major attack on the principles of free health care in the UK has been announced. Without an ounce of shame, Lansley declared a complete dismissal of the promises made by both Conservatives and Liberal Democrats during the general election campaign. In other words, no-one voted for this but the government wishes to do it anyway.

Are we all in the same boat together?

Monday 5th July 2010

Gideon Osborne, our aristocratic Tory Chancellor, insists that the level of 'public debt' means we all have to tighten our belts and make hard choices. He fails to mention that a very small group of British society created this huge debt with banking speculation. He also ignores the twenty year period of continuous tax cuts and evasion for the richest that explains so much of the debt.

While the majority has faced wage freezes and job losses since 2008, there is one group of wage militants who have seen their income rise dramatically. UK top executives receive an average of £3.1 million per year as a salary, according to figures released today. This represents a 5% wage rise since 2008. This seems obscene enough in a period of mass unemployment created by the very executives paying themselves such huge amounts.

Nothing 'progressive' about this government

Friday 25th June 2010

The government's description of the budget as 'progressive' is an example of doublespeak that is truly Orwellian.

Yesterday's edition of the Sun, that renowned flag bearer for progressive causes, trumpeted what they saw as its high points. These included freezing child benefits for the next three years, ending the Health in Pregnancy benefit given to all mums-to-be at 25 weeks pregnant, restricting housing benefit and introducing a new medical test for those claiming disability living allowance. In total the welfare benefit bill is to be slashed by £11bn over the next four years. And that is just for starters. While government ministers were saying that subsidies for bus travel, winter fuel and television licences for older people were going to be protected their minions were briefing the press that such cuts were inevitable. Throw into the mix VAT increasing to 20% plus freezing public sector pay, and plans to increase the retirement age to 70 and the regressive nature of the budget is clear.

A sympathetic noose: Gideon shows his colours

Tuesday 22nd June 2010

The ConDem government claims to be 'progressive'. It is nothing of the kind. Led by no less than three public school boys in Cameron, Clegg and Osborne, this is rule by bankers and the rich in the interests of bankers and the rich. Gideon Osborne, the 18th baronet of Ballentaylor (old Anglo-Irish aristocracy), has unveiled an 'emergency budget' that strangles the poor while delivering handouts to the rich.

Sympathetic

This budget is sprinkled with minor measures that seem to help the poorest. State pensions are to be linked to earnings or rise by 2.5%. This is welcome but goes nowhere near addressing the poverty that pensioners are in after more than 20 years of pensions getting smaller. Those earning under £7,475 per year will now be exempt from income tax.

The only way that these can be considered 'progressive' is by reference to the appalling record of New Labour in tackling poverty while in government.