We Should Be Horrified By How Fragile Reproductive Rights Have Become In The UK
The Handmaid's Tale may be a work of fiction, but with increasing attacks on women's reproductive rights, the message it sends about fighting for these rights – before it's too late – is timely.
It seems incredible, but police have been issued guidance on how to check a woman's phone after an unexpected pregnancy loss to establish her 'knowledge and intention in relation to the pregnancy'. This includes checking for menstrual cycle tracking apps, internet search history and messages.
They've also been advised on how to search her home for 'drugs that can terminate pregnancy', in cases involving stillbirths.
There's been an explosion in investigation and prosecutions of women and girls for having abortions in England in recent years. That's because abortion isn't actually legal in England and Wales – you are only exempt from prosecution if you have an abortion under certain conditions.
In the US, where abortion rights have rolled back since the overturning of Roe v Wade, VP JD Vance has criticised buffer zones outside abortion clinics, designed to allow women to attend them without harassment. Here in the UK, Nigel Farage has begun talking about these issues, likely sensing a chance to repeat the success of US politicians in using abortion to gain votes.
Whether he's arguing there should be more 'debate' around reducing the time limit for terminations or supporting those who say it's free speech to protest outside clinics, his interest in these tactics should worry anyone who recognises that bodily autonomy is the foundation of equality.
American groups have been running training events for anti-abortion activists in the UK, and money and activists from these networks are flooding into the country. Anyone who thinks we can be complacent about abortion freedom in this country isn't paying attention to the threats we now face. That's why it's time to put the right to choose into law. To do this, we need to look to Northern Ireland, where abortion is a human right. In the coming weeks we will be arguing to introduce the same laws in England and Wales, which would mean every woman would have a right to abortion regardless of who is in power.
Crucially, we are also seeking protections to prevent ministers overturning this law without democratic consent. If any future Prime Minister wanted to remove a woman's right to abortion, under our proposals they would have to get the agreement of every MP, meaning every one of us could ask our local representative to intervene.
Every MP can choose to support this plan if they co-sign the Creasy amendment to the forthcoming Policing Bill. Ask your MP to do this, to ensure abortion access is healthcare, not a criminal matter. It's time to create a human rights framework to guarantee no woman has to live 'under his eye', or in fear of what harm the ballot box might bring when it comes to her basic human rights.
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The Guardian
2 hours ago
- The Guardian
Farage's 'leftwing' pose is flimsy – but so are Labour's own governing fantasies
In a much-publicised press conference last week in London, Nigel Farage invited Keir Starmer to a one-to-one debate at 'a working man's club' anywhere 'in the red wall'. The suggested location was more noteworthy than the debate-me machismo. Its message was clear: having trampled over the Tories in the recent local elections, Reform UK is coming for Labour and nowhere is safe. 'Let's go to one of the former mining communities, let's go somewhere that Labour has held the seat pretty much consistently since 1918,' Farage said, and then let's 'test' whether Labour or Reform is the real 'party of the workers'. If Starmer felt brave enough, they could even 'enjoy a few beers with the lads' – a nod to what has always been Farage's favourite interpretation of what 'standing with workers' entails. Farage's speech made waves for, among other things, calling for the two-child benefit cap to be overhauled and for Starmer's restrictions to the winter fuel allowance to be reversed. For the Thatcherite fanboy and former City trader, these were unusual positions, and the Westminster lobby lapped up the controversy – suggesting that, for parts of the Tory press, deviations from austerity will only be permissible when delivered with Farageist chutzpah. 'How Farage's fiery speech signals a seismic shift in UK politics – and the end for Starmer,' the Daily Express declared. 'Nigel leans left and hits the bullseye,' Tim Stanley cooed in the Daily Telegraph. The Sun wondered whether they should now call Farage 'Red Nigel'. But in reality, rather than represent an unprecedented reconfiguration of British politics, the speech was a typically opportunistic and cynical intervention from Farage: he noisily supported two policies that mounting reports suggested Labour were set to implement anyway, within a broader message that was far more George Osborne than Jeremy Corbyn. 'The great divide that is opening up in British society,' Farage claimed, was between those who wake up early and go to work and those who stay in bed and enjoy a similar quality of life. Workers and shirkers, in other words – same as it ever was. How worried should Labour be by Reform's overtures to the left? Farage's star is clearly rising and Reform has already surpassed Ukip's electoral achievements. After triumphing in the recent local elections, with more than 670 new council seats and a third of the vote, Reform now leads the pack in many national opinion polls. But Labour should first and foremost be worried by itself. Starmer's government appears to be in a permanently defensive state, commanding an enormous majority in parliament and yet rarely seeming to do more than react to events around it – sometimes left, often right. The prime minister's personal approval rating has suffered the consequences of this hapless strategy, reaching record lows with 38-point drop since last year's election. Meanwhile Red Nigel circles like a vulture. The two-child cap is illustrative. Since entering government with the promise of 'change', Labour maintained it would have to keep the policy – a transparently cruel inheritance from Osborne that made child poverty levels soar. Now the party appears increasingly likely to lift the cap, but what could have been a historic moment of rupture with Cruel Britannia – a move that will lift half a million children out of poverty, according to the Resolution Foundation – may easily be seen by the public as a reluctant concession to various Labour MPs and now Farage: not an empowered rebuttal of Tory austerity and the dawn of a new era, but yet more flip-flopping and an affirmation of Farage's influence. In his speech, Farage claimed that Reform represented the biggest revolution in British politics since Labour overtook the Liberal party in the 1920s – and there are some parallels. Back then, the Tories saw Labour as both an existential threat and an opportunity: Labour was a foreboding movement, but the Tories could take fleeting comfort in the knowledge that it was the Liberals who would suffer the severest blow. Labour now treats Reform with a similar ambivalence: worried yet reassured that the Tories will be the main victim. But an irreverent and vengeful Farage, powered by grievances and resentment from both deindustrialised Britain and the elite will have a far more corrosive effect on British politics and wider society than Labour ever threatened. For now, after the fallout of his 'island of strangers' speech, Starmer's strategy to deal with Reform will be to call out its economics as a fantasy. Farage's economic programme – binning net zero, waging war on asylum seekers and abolishing inheritance tax – is indeed reminiscent of Liz Truss. But it is not enough for Labour to play the role of the miserly Tories, saying to Reform what the Tories have historically said to them: we can't afford that, we must live within our means, and so on. Labour needs its own positive vision of the country. For now, the party indulges its own set of fantasies: that it can outflank the Tories and even Reform on the right without being outflanked on the left; that it is enough to be the least unpopular party, no matter how uninspiring one is; and that you can break with the harsh inequities of Tory Britain, as promised, without upsetting anyone important. Before Starmer's podiums were emblazoned with dispiriting slogans like 'fixing the foundations' and 'securing Britain's future' they carried various versions of a more optimistic one: 'it's time for change.' A major reason for its massive majority in 2024 was that, after 14 years of joyless Conservative misrule, Labour better embodied that spirit of feeling than any other party. But unless Labour can show they are that change from the Tories – and that will involve taking Britain beyond its overfed interests in tightening immigration controls and the welfare state – this spirit of feeling will only endure and deepen, and the answer to it will no longer be Labour. Samuel Earle is the author of Tory Nation: How One Party Took Over
Telegraph
3 hours ago
- Telegraph
Starmer's unpopularity in Scotland fuels support for independence
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Scottish Sun
3 hours ago
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Scots inmates watching US telly hit Prison Break and other X-rated movies behind bars
Read on to discover some of the other titles available to cons NICK FLICK FIASCO Scots inmates watching US telly hit Prison Break and other X-rated movies behind bars Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) THE Scottish Prison Service has come under fire for allowing inmates to watch X-rated content behind bars. Lags are permitted to rent from a catalogue of thousands of 18-rated DVDs, which include films about serial killers and sex beasts. Sign up for Scottish Sun newsletter Sign up 4 Inmates at Glasgow's HMP Barlinnie have been watching X-rated DVDs Credit: Alamy 4 American telly hit Prison Break depicts a complex jailbreak plan Credit: Fox Broadcasting 4 Raunchy flick Fifty Shades of Grey is available to rent Credit: Alamy And cons can even borrow 2005 crime drama Prison Break - which tells, in detail, the fictional story of a US jailbreak. Other titles available include serial killer classic Silence of the Lambs and psychological thriller Dexter - a series about a killer police forensic officer. A source said: 'Some of the depraved crimes this lot have committed could easily be adapted into a Hollywood blockbuster. 'The last thing they need is to be given any twisted ideas - they shouldn't even be allowed TVs in the first place.' Also available for prison movie nights is Fifty Shades of Grey, Brokeback Mountain and American Pie. Lags can also kick back and watch a documentary about real-life child killers Fred and Rose West. But critics have basted the film fiasco and are urging prison bosses to review the rules. A spokesman for the Prison Officers' Association told MailOnline: 'Given all the factors such as overcrowding, drug use, bullying and organised crime gang activities inside our prisons, the last thing we need is anything else adding to the tension or temperatures. 'It is something that the SPS should be reviewing as a priority with a view to limiting the availability of these films.' Elsewhere, the Scottish Conservatives are urging SNP ministers to order jail chiefs to remove the X-rated flicks. Shadow justice secretary Liam Kerr MSP said: 'Ordinary Scots will be appalled that inmates are being provided with X-rated movies by prisons. 'England and Wales banned 18-rated movies and TV shows from their prisons 12 years ago and it is about time that the Scottish Prison Service followed suit. 'Many of the prisoners at Barlinnie will be behind bars for violent crimes, so it is common sense they should not be able to access graphically violent material about serial killers and torturers. 'Prisoners trying to get clean will also not be helped by having access to content that promotes drug use. 4 Scottish Conservaites shadow justice secretary Liam Kerr blasted the SNP Credit: Alamy 'SNP Ministers must intervene and immediately direct the SPS to remove violent or sexual films from our prisons.' A Scottish Prison Service spokesperson added: 'Access to watching DVDs is a privilege not a right, and is available at the discretion of the Governor.'
