Nurses, universities and some Labour MPs criticise Government's new immigration rules
"What that really recognises is that without ways in which we've got common ties that bind us together, the way in which we can communicate well with each other, neighbours can talk to each other, people can play a part and play a role in their communities, that we risk being communities that live side by side, rather than work and walk together," she told BBC Radio 4's World at One programme.
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The Herald Scotland
03-06-2025
- The Herald Scotland
Hunger-striking mother of jailed activist prepared to die to ‘get Alaa out'
She said if she did not survive, her death should be used as a leverage to set her son free. Speaking to the Today programme on BBC Radio 4 from St Thomas' Hospital in London, Mrs Soueif said: 'My message is: use my death as leverage to get Alaa out. 'Don't let my death be in vain.' Mrs Soueif, who has lost 42% of her bodyweight and weighs 49kg, has not eaten for more than eight months and doctors say she is at risk of sudden death. She told the broadcaster: 'It's something that I passionately don't want to happen. 'Children want a mother, not a notorious mother – whether the notoriety is good or bad – but if that's what it takes to get Alaa out of jail and to get all my children and grandchildren's life back on track, then that's what I'm going to do.' In December 2021, Mr Abd El-Fattah was sentenced to five years in prison on charges of spreading false news, and should have been released last year. In a conference outside the hospital on Tuesday, Sanaa Seif, Mrs Soueif's daughter, said her mother's blood sugar was still very low but that she was conscious. Sanaa Seif speaks to the media outside St Thomas's Hospital, central London (Yui Mok/PA) She said: 'She is fighting and I hope the Foreign Office uses this time her body has given us well.' Mis Seif said she was supposed to have flown to Cairo on Tuesday to see her brother but stayed to be with her mother. She had received two letters from Mr Abd El-Fattah – one of which was 'very confused and short', saying simply 'Take care of yourself'. 'I am really worried about him,' she said. She also said she wanted to save her mother's life but understands her position 'as a mother'. Ms Seif said: 'The only reason she cares about staying alive is us. She doesn't want to go on living life like this and I understand that.' Ms Seif accused the Foreign Office of not working fast enough and claimed no one from the Prime Minister's office had been in touch directly about the state of negotiations for around three weeks. She said: 'We are going by the hour; they were measuring her vitals by the hour, at some point every 15 minutes. 'I expressed my frustration how it is insane that they (the Government) are taking weeks. They have not told me they have changed their pace.' Ms Seif added: 'I imagine that means they don't have much to say.' She also urged Foreign Secretary David Lammy to follow through on what he said when in opposition and limit the Egyptian ambassador's access to Whitehall. Conservative former minister Sir John Whittingdale, who is a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, told the Today programme Mr Abd El-Fattah was a 'political activist' who had not committed 'any crime that we would recognise'. He said Mr Lammy was 'outspoken' in opposition but that his action in Government since then 'simply hasn't had an effect'. Sir John also called on the Foreign Office to change its travel advice for Egypt to warn Britons there is a risk they could 'fall foul of the Egyptian authorities'. 'Egypt gets a huge income from tourism, a lot of that tourism comes from Britain and I think that might well put the pressure on that is obviously needed,' he said.
Powys County Times
25-05-2025
- Powys County Times
Nobel Prize author did not pick literature A-level as it did not feel ‘useful'
Nobel Prize-winning author Abdulrazak Gurnah has said he did not pick literature as an A-level as it did not feel 'useful'. The Tanzanian author, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 2021, was born in 1948 on the island of Zanzibar, now part of Tanzania, and moved to Britain as a refugee in 1968, fleeing a repressive regime that persecuted the Arab Muslim community to which he belonged. His A-level subjects, however, consisted of maths, physics and chemistry after being 'led' to take science courses to help contribute to his country. Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs, he said: 'We grew up during the campaign for decolonisation, and it was kind of drummed into us, and perhaps it didn't need that much drumming, that if you get an opportunity to study, then you must do something that's going to be useful to your country. Whoever thought that reading literature was going to be useful to anybody? 'So, really, we were all kind of being led towards either doing science subjects, if you got the opportunity, or possibly law or something like that. And so when we came here, we chose to do A-levels in those subjects. I worked pretty hard, especially when my cousin was still here with us, and he just made sure we we did all the homework.' He later changed courses to study literature and took evening classes, going on to obtain a Bachelor of Education from Christ Church college Canterbury and then a PhD. Gurnah added: 'I thought, this is what I should have done from the beginning. I should not have listened to that hectoring voice that was saying, be something useful. I should have done this because this is something I get pleasure from doing and that I know I can do well.' The award-winning writer was praised by the Swedish Academy for the 'uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism' reflected in his 10 novels including Memory of Departure, Paradise and By The Sea. Gurnah arrived in Britain in the 1960s after persuading his father to let him and his brother travel out of the country through 'illegal' means, although they did not tell their mother they were leaving. He said: 'It was difficult to organise because it was not possible to have travel documents. The security advisers for the government were from the GDR, East Germany, and they were, as you know, obsessed with making sure people don't travel, don't leave, so it meant that we had to leave in rather, well, really rather illegal ways, which I'll leave at that. Speaking about whether he got his mother's blessing to leave, he said: 'No, we couldn't tell her. 'The first thing I thought when I was on my own after having been picked up from the airport by the cousin and taken to the place where we were staying, and I was lying in bed and thinking, 'What have I done?'' It was another 17 years before he was able to see his family again, after leaving his parents and four siblings to study in Britain, and paid for the flight using insurance money he received for a roof leak in his house in Balham, stuffing the hole in the ceiling with newspaper. In the episode, which asks guests to share the soundtrack to their lives, Gurnah selected a range of music including songs from his Zanzibar heritage, the Beatles and Hit The Road Jack by Ray Charles. His fifth song for the programme was The Beatles' A Day In The Life, which he explained reminds him of his first Christmas in the UK after a family hosted him and his brother. He said: 'We were invited to spend Christmas day, our first Christmas in England with this family, if I remember correctly, there was two sons and a daughter. The eldest son was possibly about 18 or 19, something like and one of his presents was Sergeant Pepper. And so he put it on in a record player. And so that's the first time I heard this, but every time I listened to this opening, I remember that family and that Christmas.' In March he published his first book since winning the Nobel Prize, Theft, which follows the lives of three young men in Tanzania at the turn of the twenty-first century.
Glasgow Times
25-05-2025
- Glasgow Times
Nobel Prize author did not pick literature A-level as it did not feel ‘useful'
The Tanzanian author, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 2021, was born in 1948 on the island of Zanzibar, now part of Tanzania, and moved to Britain as a refugee in 1968, fleeing a repressive regime that persecuted the Arab Muslim community to which he belonged. His A-level subjects, however, consisted of maths, physics and chemistry after being 'led' to take science courses to help contribute to his country. Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs, he said: 'We grew up during the campaign for decolonisation, and it was kind of drummed into us, and perhaps it didn't need that much drumming, that if you get an opportunity to study, then you must do something that's going to be useful to your country. Whoever thought that reading literature was going to be useful to anybody? Tanzanian writer Abdulrazak Gurnah in Canterbury, Kent, after he was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature (Steve Parsons/PA) 'So, really, we were all kind of being led towards either doing science subjects, if you got the opportunity, or possibly law or something like that. And so when we came here, we chose to do A-levels in those subjects. I worked pretty hard, especially when my cousin was still here with us, and he just made sure we we did all the homework.' He later changed courses to study literature and took evening classes, going on to obtain a Bachelor of Education from Christ Church college Canterbury and then a PhD. Gurnah added: 'I thought, this is what I should have done from the beginning. I should not have listened to that hectoring voice that was saying, be something useful. I should have done this because this is something I get pleasure from doing and that I know I can do well.' The award-winning writer was praised by the Swedish Academy for the 'uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism' reflected in his 10 novels including Memory of Departure, Paradise and By The Sea. Tanzanian writer Abdulrazak Gurnah won a Nobel Prize in 2021 (Steve Parsons/PA) Gurnah arrived in Britain in the 1960s after persuading his father to let him and his brother travel out of the country through 'illegal' means, although they did not tell their mother they were leaving. He said: 'It was difficult to organise because it was not possible to have travel documents. The security advisers for the government were from the GDR, East Germany, and they were, as you know, obsessed with making sure people don't travel, don't leave, so it meant that we had to leave in rather, well, really rather illegal ways, which I'll leave at that. Speaking about whether he got his mother's blessing to leave, he said: 'No, we couldn't tell her. 'The first thing I thought when I was on my own after having been picked up from the airport by the cousin and taken to the place where we were staying, and I was lying in bed and thinking, 'What have I done?'' It was another 17 years before he was able to see his family again, after leaving his parents and four siblings to study in Britain, and paid for the flight using insurance money he received for a roof leak in his house in Balham, stuffing the hole in the ceiling with newspaper. Tanzanian writer Abdulrazak Gurnah (Steve Parsons/PA) In the episode, which asks guests to share the soundtrack to their lives, Gurnah selected a range of music including songs from his Zanzibar heritage, the Beatles and Hit The Road Jack by Ray Charles. His fifth song for the programme was The Beatles' A Day In The Life, which he explained reminds him of his first Christmas in the UK after a family hosted him and his brother. He said: 'We were invited to spend Christmas day, our first Christmas in England with this family, if I remember correctly, there was two sons and a daughter. The eldest son was possibly about 18 or 19, something like and one of his presents was Sergeant Pepper. And so he put it on in a record player. And so that's the first time I heard this, but every time I listened to this opening, I remember that family and that Christmas.' In March he published his first book since winning the Nobel Prize, Theft, which follows the lives of three young men in Tanzania at the turn of the twenty-first century. Abdulrazak Gurnah's episode of Desert Island Discs is available on BBC Sounds and BBC Radio 4 from Sunday at 10am.
