Plan to turn IRA into old boys' club one of many in bid to entice Provos to disarm, state papers reveal
A top British diplomat argued the British and Irish governments in conjunction with the US should be urging the 'IRA to (transform) themselves into a retired servicemen's league', newly released state papers have revealed.
Sir Ivor Roberts believed the move could form part of the process to progress Provo decommissioning and get the republican terrorists to formally end their armed campaign as part of peacebuilding in Northern Ireland.
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Glasgow Times
2 hours ago
- Glasgow Times
Bangladeshi anti-corruption officials give evidence against UK MP Tulip Siddiq
Ms Siddiq, who is Ms Hasina's niece, resigned from her post in Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer's Government in January following reports that she lived in London properties linked to her aunt and was named in an anti-corruption investigation in Bangladesh. The Labour MP represents the north London district of Hampstead and Highgate and served as economic secretary to the Treasury – the minister responsible for tackling financial corruption. The trial at the Dhaka Special Judge Court-4 formally began on Wednesday (Mahmud Hossain Opu/AP) She is being tried together with her mother, Sheikh Rehana, brother Radwan Mujib and sister Azmina. Ms Siddiq has been charged with facilitating their receipt of state land in a township project near the capital Dhaka. They are out of the country and being tried in absentia. Ms Siddiq's lawyers have called the charges baseless and politically motivated. Muhammad Tariqul Islam, a public prosecutor, disputed a claim by Ms Siddiq that she is not Bangladeshi, saying the anti-corruption watchdog through investigations found that she is a citizen. The prosecutor said if Ms Siddiq is convicted she could be sentenced to three to 10 years in prison. Public prosecutor Muhammad Tariqul Islam, wearing a tie, spoke to reporters after the hearing (Mahmud Hossain Opu/AP) Ms Siddiq in an interview with the British newspaper The Guardian recently referred to Bangladesh as 'a foreign country' and called the charges against her 'completely absurd'. She asserted to The Guardian she was 'collateral damage' in the longstanding feud between her aunt and Bangladesh's interim leader Muhammad Yunus. Ms Hasina had a frosty relation with Mr Yunus, and during her rule Mr Yunus faced a number of cases including for graft allegations. Courts overturned those charges before he took over as interim leader days after Ms Hasina's ousting last year in a student-led uprising. Separately, the anti-corruption investigation has alleged that Ms Siddiq's family was involved in brokering a 2013 deal with Russia for a nuclear power plant in Bangladesh in which large sums of money were said to have been embezzled.
The National
2 hours ago
- The National
Gers figures give anti-indy press something to write about
IT'S Gersmas Day, when British nationalist Santa puts supporters of Scottish independence on the naughty list and the anti-independence Scottish media, which is to say almost all of it, crows triumphantly about how much of an economic basket case Scotland supposedly is. That's thanks to the annual release of the Government Expenditure and Revenue Scotland (GERS) figures, which purport to show Scots the extent to which they depend on the largesse of the UK Treasury. Apparently, it's a testament to the success of Westminster rule that a literal power house like Scotland is incapable of supporting itself financially. It's an odd definition of success, but with the GERS figures we long ago passed through the mirror into the topsy turvy world of Westminster Wonderland. Gersmas Day has been going on so long that it has developed its own rituals. The Scottish Secretary makes an announcement about the cash amount which each individual Scottish person allegedly benefits from Westminster's munificence. This year it's £2669. Oh goodie! Can I get mine in National Lottery scratch cards please? You've got a much better chance of financially benefiting from a lottery ticket than you do from the Westminster government. Meanwhile anti-independence campaigners who view GERS as Holy Writ denounce heretical "GERS deniers" who have their own Gersmas ritual, which is the temerity to point out that the GERS figures tell us absolutely nothing about the finances of an independent Scotland. As financial services consultancy Deloitte noted in 2017: "Commentators suggested that, under these conditions [the global slump in oil prices that year], Scotland would struggle to operate as an independent country. However, GERS data is produced for Scotland as part of the UK - it does not model scenarios for an independent Scotland in which the Scottish government would be enabled to make its own fiscal choices." Independence supporters also point out every Gersmas that this annual charade was instituted in 1992 by then Conservative Scottish Secretary Ian Lang as a tool to use against his political opponents who were arguing in favour of greater Scottish self-government. 33 years later the figures are still performing the same job. In a leaked memo written at the time Lang wrote: "I judge that [GERS] is just what is needed at present in our campaign to maintain the initiative and undermine the other parties. This initiative could score against all of them." The campaign to which Lang was referring was the campaign for the creation of a Scottish Parliament which the Conservatives vigorously opposed, mounting a scaremongering campaign which alleged that the creation of a Scottish Parliament would lead to massive tax rises and the decimation of Scottish public services. Decades later, the Westminster parties are still deploying scare stories from the same playbook to argue against greater Scottish self-government. The reality is that the GERS figures have long since ceased to make a credible or meaningful contribution to Scotland's constitutional debate, opponents of independence still view them with veneration as though they were chiseled on tablets of stone by God himself and handed down to his faithful on Mount Sinai, while supporters of independence see them as discredited political tools which only distort and mislead the debate, but we continue to go through this annual farce every August as it is politically useful to the Westminster government. It also supplies the anti-independence Scottish press with something to write about during the silly season when there's otherwise a dearth of political news. Vacay Vance scheduled to infest Scotland Vacay Vance, the American Vice President who is now on his sixth holiday since taking office in January, including a trip to Ohio during which Vance had the Army Corps of Engineers raise the level of the Little Miami River in order to improve his kayaking experience, is currently in the UK, staying at a luxury mansion in the Cotswolds, and is reportedly scheduled to infest Scotland later this week. All that performative cruelty and milking the public purse is exhausting and the poor dear needs a break. Vance is only following the example of his boss Trump, who has spent approximately a quarter of his time since taking office in January on golf trips. While Vance takes one holiday after another paid for by the American taxpayer and inflicts costs on Scottish taxpayers too, who have to foot the not inconsiderable bill for his police protection, his Republican party colleagues in Missouri have just voted to strip any rights to sick leave from workers in the state. The US is the only OECD country without a nationally mandated minimum standard for paid employee leave. On average US employees get just ten days annual leave, many get less than this and millions have no paid leave at all. As an Ayrshire resident I am starting to suspect that the county is cursed. We were inflicted with Donald Trump and his spawn at the end of July, and now Ayrshire is due to become the latest stop off in Vance's perma-holiday with Vance and his entourage staying at the luxury Carnell Estates near Hurlford, which played host to Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie when Pitt was in Glasgow filming the zombie horror movie World War Z in 2013. Vance is also expected to pay a visit to Trump's golf estate at Turnberry. The visit has once again highlighted Vance's lies about Scotland earlier this year when he falsely claimed that Scotland's abortion buffer zone laws criminalise Christians praying privately in their own homes. Today, the annual US State Department assessment, which analyses human rights conditions worldwide, also hit out at what it described as 'serious restrictions' on freedom of expression in the UK. The report specifically said laws limiting speech around abortion clinics, pointing to 'safe access zones' curbed expression, including silent protests and prayer. Scottish Greens MSP Gillian Mackay – who spearheaded the abortion buffer zones legislation said: 'JD Vance has made a career of spreading misinformation and sowing mistrust in order to gain power and influence. The Vice President's absurd lies haven't just been about eating cats and dogs in Ohio; he has lied about Scotland. 'Earlier this year, JD Vance made false claims on an international stage about Scotland's buffer zones law, which prevents harassment and intimidation of patients outside abortion clinics, a bill proudly passed by the Scottish Greens.' She added: 'Now, whilst his extremist government is attacking LGBTQ+ and women's rights, illegally arresting innocent civilians on the streets, arming Israel's genocide in Gaza and wrecking our climate, he thinks that he can peacefully run away from it all to enjoy a holiday in our country. 'Let's set this clear: the toxic misinformation of JD Vance is a threat to democracy and freedom around the world.'
North Wales Chronicle
2 hours ago
- North Wales Chronicle
Human rights ‘worsened' in UK over the past year, says US
The annual US State Department assessment, which analyses human rights conditions worldwide, flagged what it described as 'serious restrictions' on freedom of expression in the UK. 'The government sometimes took credible steps to identify and punish officials who committed human rights abuses, but prosecution and punishment for such abuses was inconsistent,' the report read. The report specifically said laws limiting speech around abortion clinics, pointing to 'safe access zones' curbed expression, including silent protests and prayer. 'These restrictions on freedom of speech could include prohibitions on efforts to influence others when inside a restricted area, even through prayer or silent protests,' the report read. In the wake of the 2024 Southport attack, the report said government officials 'repeatedly intervened to chill speech'. Criticism over the handling of free speech was also directed at the governments of Germany and France. A UK government spokesperson told the BBC: 'Free speech is vital for democracy around the world, including here in the UK and we are proud to uphold freedoms whilst keeping our citizens safe.' Sentiments echoed those previously made by vice president JD Vance. In February, Mr Vance criticised the UK over a legal case in which a former serviceman who silently prayed outside an abortion clinic was convicted of breaching the safe zone around the centre. In a wider attack on what he suggested is a shift away from democratic values across Europe, Mr Vance claimed the 'basic liberties of religious Britons, in particular' are under threat. He referred to the conviction of Adam Smith-Connor, 51, who had denied doing so but was found guilty last year of failing to comply with a public space protection order at the centre in Bournemouth in November 2022. Speaking at the Munich Security Conference, Mr Vance said that the US' 'very dear friends the United Kingdom' appeared to have seen a 'backslide in conscience rights'. 'A little over two years ago, the British government charged Adam Smith-Connor, a 51-year-old physiotherapist and an Army veteran, with the heinous crime of standing 50 metres from an abortion clinic and silently praying for three minutes, not obstructing anyone, not interacting with anyone, just silently praying on his own,' he said. The report also said the Government 'effectively' enforced laws around freedom of association and the rights of workers. The UK Government has been contacted for comment.
