Britain: Woman in coma told to find work
鈥淎 mentally ill woman forced on to the Coalition鈥檚 Work Programme is in a coma 鈥 but is still being sent letters by benefits assessors.
"Bipolar patient Sheila Holt, 47, was sectioned in December after being taken off Income Support. Days later she had a heart attack and fell into the coma.
鈥淭his weekend, Miss Holt, of Rochdale, Gtr Manchester, was sent a letter by Atos to ask why she was not working.鈥
Britain
If you鈥檙e the sort of person who doesn鈥檛 like your kids mixing with problem families, the type who are always getting arrested, you wouldn鈥檛 want them going near Tony Blair, would you?
Five times now he鈥檚 been the subject of a citizen鈥檚 arrest. This fits with what the police often say, that the vast majority of crimes are committed by a handful of repeat-offending troublemakers.
Whenever he鈥檚 asked in interviews about the war that caused his problems, he gives an exasperated sigh and says: 鈥淥h look, I mean, huh, we鈥檝e been through this many times before.鈥
After almost four years in jail without charge, Irish prisoner of conscience Martin Corey was released from custody on January 15. But he was only freed on condition he stay away from the media and his home town or face a return to jail.
Corey was hidden from members of the press who had gathered outside the Maghaberry jail, in the six counties in Ireland's north still claimed by Britain, on the night of January 15. The 63-year-old was taken out in a blacked-out prison van directly to a train station, where he was released to his lawyer.
Hundreds of protesters held a peaceful vigil outside Tottenham police station on January 11 demanding justice for Mark Duggan, who was shot dead by police in August 2011. The killing sparked nationwide rioting.
More than 500 demonstrators gathered to protest against the 鈥減erverse鈥 inquest decision last week that found police had lawfully killed Duggan when they shot him dead.
Relatives of Duggan, including his mother Pamela, aunt Carole and brother Marlon, joined the vigil, which observed a minute's silence.
Now the centenary of 1914 has got going, we should do as British education secretary Michael Gove suggests and celebrate the First World War, instead of taking notice of 鈥渓eft-wing academics鈥, who complain it was a regrettable waste of life.
But the other day, on the radio, they played an interview with Harry Patch, the last man alive who fought for the British in the war. Harry said: 鈥淧oliticians who took us to war should have been given the guns and told to settle their differences themselves, instead of organising nothing better than legalised mass murder.鈥
More than 400 members of the Left Unity party project gathered in London on November 30 for the party's founding conference.
The fledgling project has its origins in a call earlier in the year for a new party to the left of Labour made by veteran left film maker Ken Loach. Against the backdrop of the most brutal austerity experienced in Britain for generations and with the British left fractured, the call met with strong support.
England is two countries. One is dominated by London, the other remains in its shadow. When I first arrived from Australia, it seemed no one went north of Watford and those who had emigrated from the north worked hard to change their accents and obscure their origins, and learn the mannerisms and codes of the southern comfortable classes. Some would mock the life they had left behind. They were changing classes, or so they thought.
Obama boasts he is 'really good at killing people'
鈥淭his will not go over well for the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize winner.
鈥淎ccording to the new book 'Double Down,' in which journalists Mark Halperin and John Heilemann chronicle the 2012 presidential election, President Barack Obama told his aides that he鈥檚 'really good at killing people' while discussing drone strikes ...
Anti-austerity protests hit Britain
Westminster was at the centre of a tornado of anti-austerity protest on November 5 that began in the early hours and tore across Britain as the day went on, The Morning Star said the next day.
The day of action co-ordinated by the People's Assembly movement swept small-scale guerilla activism through northern and southern England.
The growing resistance to fracking 鈥 the 鈥渉ydraulic fracturing鈥 of deep level shale rocks to extract natural gas 鈥 promises to reignite the climate movement after the failure of United Nations climate talks in 2009.
A feature of the recent march and blockades at Cuadrilla Resources鈥 drilling site near Balcombe in West Sussex was the diversity of the people involved, as well as the numbers. Local residents were central to the protests, as they have been at Fylde, near Blackpool, where two Cuadrilla fracking operations led to minor earthquakes.
Comedian, Hollywood star and former host of MTV and Big Brother's Big Mouth Russell Brand in a Newsnight interview subsequently viewed millions of times on YouTube.
The journalist, veteran of many bruising encounters with politicians of all stripes, decisively lost.
Campaigners vowed today to challenge the use of 鈥渆xtreme鈥 pressure-point tactics to break the anti-fracking blockade tagretted operations of energy giant Cuadrilla in Balcombe, Morning Star said on August 22.
Sussex Police used the 鈥渕andibular angle鈥 technique to drag people away from a peaceful sit-in on the road to the site on August 19, the article said. The martial arts-style move involves applying force to a pressure point just behind the ear and delivers excruciating pain but no lasting injury.
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