Westminster statues graffitied at London trans protest
Several statues in Parliament Square, including one of women's votes campaigner Dame Millicent Fawcett, were vandalised during a protest on Saturday.Transgender campaigners gathered in front of Parliament to protest against the ruling by the Supreme Court on Wednesday that biological sex defines a woman for the purposes of the Equality Act.The Metropolitan Police said seven statues were damaged and they are investigating the incidents as criminal damage. No arrests have been made.A statue of World War One South African leader Jan Smuts was graffitied with the words "trans rights are human rights".
The Supreme Court ruled that transgender women with a gender recognition certificate can be excluded from single-sex spaces if "proportionate".The judges unanimously ruled that the terms woman and sex in the 2010 Equality Act "refer to a biological woman and biological sex" rather than "certificated sex".Protests against the ruling also took place on Saturday in Reading, Edinburgh and Glasgow. The Met said its officers were in the area policing Parliament Square "but did not witness the criminal damage take place as the area was densely populated with thousands of protestors and it was not reported at the time".It confirmed it is investigating the graffiti as criminal damage and no arrests have been made so far.
Ch Supt Stuart Bell, who was leading the policing operation for the protest, said: "It is very disappointing to see damage to seven statues and property in the vicinity of the protest today."We support the public's right to protest but criminality like this is completely unacceptable."The statue of Dame Millicent Fawcett by artist Gillian Wearing is the only statue of a woman in Parliament Square, where others honoured include international statesmen like Nelson Mandela and Mahatma Gandhi, and former prime ministers Sir Winston Churchill and David Lloyd-George.Unveiled in 2018, it is also the only statue by a female artist in the square, and was erected following a campaign and petition by the feminist activist Caroline Criado Perez.
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BBC News
16 minutes ago
- BBC News
Met Police funding fears: Warning half of buildings could close
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'Austerity scar tissue' In a report presented to the London Policing Board last month, Sir Mark said that, unless the Met received more money in the government's Spending Review on Wednesday, London could experience "sustained increases" in knife crime, violence against women and girls, and warned this meant the government's key pledges to halve knife crime and violence against women and girls in a decade, and to boost neighbourhood policing, were also at Mark added that the Met would be forced to close up to half of its buildings over the next decade "due to them being no longer habitable or legally compliant".In November, the commissioner warned the Met faced "eye-watering cuts" to services and a £450m funding gap, although he's since acknowledged that extra funding from the Home Office and City Hall means its final settlement is "nearly £100m better" than last week, he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that police forces across the country were carrying the "scar tissue of years of austerity cuts" and said they needed more money to meet government ambitions on policing. The government has promised thousands of neighbourhood police officers and nearly 400 police community support officers will be recruited for forces in England and Wales over the next 12 months, as part of the target to hit 13,000 by London has asked repeatedly for an interview with Sir Mark ahead of the Spending Review and has approached the Home Office for comment."You'd normally refurbish a building every 25 years," Mr Mathieson tells me. "Our budget is now once every 125 years."The Met says it's already shrunk from 620 buildings in 2010 down to 260, in order to find money for front-line police station closed to the public in 2017, when London Mayor Sir Sadiq Khan said government cuts meant he had no choice but to make although the shutters are down, the building is still operational, as a base for the Hackney Safer Neighbourhood team and as a training facility for officers learning to use Tasers. Mr Mathieson takes us on a grim tour, pointing out how the sewage leak has gone right through the building, into the instructors' lockers on the lower floors - now replaced by a red bucket - the missing ceiling panels along the corridor, and the single boiler providing heat and hot water."We should have two but we didn't have the budget," he tells us, adding that the building will have to close completely if the boiler tells me that four defunct boilers - which he thinks date back to the 1960s when the station was built - have been kept so they can "cannibalise them for parts around the other bits of the estates".The upstairs women's bathroom, which was flooded in March, remains out of order, with parts of the ceiling taken down simply to make the building across the corridor, on the back of the locker-room door, is a poster encouraging officers to "take pride in your workplace". In April, the Met detailed a list of savings it would need to make in order to protect front-line services such as neighbourhood policing and public protection teams, which tackle sex offences and domestic plans include scrapping the Royal Parks Police and Safer Schools officers, along with cuts to forensics and mounted police and potentially taking firearms off the Flying commissioner has said he wants the force to grow in size to 38,000 officers and 19,000 civilian staff, but said the Met was expected to have just 31,248 officers and 10,972 staff by the end of the predicts the force will lose about 1,700 officers, PCSOs and staff, but that additional funding may allow the force to reduce the losses by speeding up recruitment. 'It's really cold in the winter' In the face of protecting front-line services, it might make sense that refurbishing buildings is less of a priority, but Mr Mathieson tells me it's clear that it's having a terrible impact on officer morale. "The quality of the space you live and work in is absolutely intrinsic to your sense of self worth... your sense of being valued," he opens another door, revealing a locker room with peeling paint and stained flooring."Imagine this is your first day as a Met officer, and you're being asked to get changed in here." Insp Ryan Rose, who works on Taser training, agrees, telling me that thousands of students pass through the base and often comment on the poor conditions. We watch as some trainees line up in front of us on the indoor target range, and an instructor tells the group to "listen, react, engage," before they fire."One of the core principles of Taser training is we try and instil professionalism in how you handle the weapon," Insp Rose explains, "and we are doing that in a very non-professional environment."It's really cold in the winter, it's really hot in the summer."He says the students are currently having to go to another part of the building to find working toilets, which is disruptive."It slows down the training... leaks on the range and leaks in the toilets... sometimes we need to shut down training." "The perfect thing to do with this building is to completely gut it and start again," says Mr Mathieson. "It needs a complete, thorough refurbishment, but that will probably cost £30m, and that means we can't spend £30m on any of the 259 other buildings in the rest of the estate."I'm always having to judge where are the biggest, most critical problems and put the funding into those." Technology Secretary Peter Kyle told the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg that police forces are being given £1 billion extra funding this year, and said other public services were struggling "because of the inheritance that we had as a country and as a government." "We expect the police to start embracing the change they need to do, to do their bit for change as well. We are doing our bit," he said. A spokesperson for the mayor of London said the previous Conservative government had "chronically underfunded the Met"."Sadiq has done everything in his power to support the police and recently announced record £1.16bn investment for the Met to protect neighbourhood policing in our communities, secure 935 front-line police officer posts and significantly reduce the level of cuts the Met had been planning."
The National
an hour ago
- The National
Kenny MacAskill: SNP losing by-election was unforgiveable
The town's name is seared in Scotland's soul from Winnie Ewing's victory there in the UK Parliament by-election in 1967. I was a child then but was aware of its seismic effect on not just Scottish politics but Scottish society. Many stalwarts told me how a movement viewed as marginal and romantic came alive with that triumph. Scottish politics was changed irrevocably, with independence becoming a possibility, not just a dream. More recently, when I was justice secretary, I worked with Christina McKelvie, an assiduous and popular MSP, as she sought to address knife crime in her community. READ MORE: SNP candidate calls out Tory rival for being in 'lockstep with failed ideology' The seat's loss a bitter blow to the efforts of those stalwarts and countless others. Alba stood aside, calling on supporters to 'max the Yes vote'. Just what the Scottish Greens think they achieved by standing is for them to explain, with their total of votes barely greater than the very small Labour majority. Unionists are now crowing and the impact will be felt by the wider independence movement. It's a tragedy which will require work and change to come back from. It wasn't the fault of the SNP candidate any more than success can be attributed to her spectacularly poor Labour opponent. The polish of New Labour was forsaken, with Davy Russell a throwback to Labour candidates from days of yore when the party reigned across huge swathes of Scotland, its dead hand lying across the land. Under Alex Salmond's leadership, that Tammany Hall power was broken and Scotland was transformed for the better. We cannot allow those dark days to return. Remember that this was also a defeat for what little remains of the Labour left and those who still think Scotland can be transformed within the Union. Last week's result will be taken as an endorsement of Starmerism, legitimation of the austerity agenda and Labour's attacks on the poor and vulnerable. Those who have bravely spoken out will be hounded and party loyalists empowered. Responsibility for the defeat rests with the SNP leadership for both its lamentable by-election strategy, and its actions and failings over recent years. Circumstances had changed from last year and were favourable for SNP. The tidal clamour for change last July, which saw myself and my Alba colleague swept out of the UK Parliament along with numerous SNP MPs, had well and truly ebbed. Starmer's Labour were and are deeply unpopular. At the same time independence was polling well above 50% and even higher when the spectre of Farage and Reform was posed. All good, you'd think, for pushing the case for independence. READ MORE: SNP must turn support for independence into 'real political action', says Swinney That was what, after all, was done by Winnie Ewing all those years ago and decades before we even had our Parliament restored. She gave a vision of the land Scotland could be, contrasting it with the country it was, as pits and shipyards started to close and emigration continued. But independence wasn't mentioned by the SNP. It was the policy notable only for its absence in literature, on the doorsteps and in debate. Yet it was the unique selling point for the SNP. It was the one thing that carved them out from their principal opponents, Labour and Reform, and, even more than that, was backed by well over half of voters. That failure's not just inexplicable but unforgiveable. Instead, a strategy of 'stop Reform' was pushed. Just what was that meant to express other than avoiding having to answer for failings in their Scottish Government administration is hard to fathom. In politics, saying what you're for is always better than arguing what you're against. It motivates those who share your beliefs and can even earn respect or at least legitimation from opponents. Besides, Reform are not going to take power in Scotland – but only independence can ensure they are not foisted on us by being in the Union. The SNP leadership treated independence supporters in Hamilton with the same arrogance and disdain that they've treated the wider movement over recent years. A simple assumption that they'd have to vote for them and the backing of others could safely be pursued. Do what 'yer telt' and 'wheesht for indy'. But, as in 2017, where there's neither motivation nor articulation of independence, many simply stayed at home. The SNP did not lose support to Reform in Hamilton, instead they saw independence supporters say: 'What's the point of voting?' That compounded growing contempt for their failings in office and their lack of vision for the country. An obsession with gender and identity when what is wanted is an improvement in public services, whether health or housing, jobs or justice. Focusing on individual rights rather than the collective good at a time when communities are struggling. There has to be a coming together of the independence movement but that requires a recognition by SNP that they are only a part, albeit a major part, of it. The growing gap between support for independence and support for SNP tells a story and a bit of humility would go a long way. It also means that Holyrood 2026 has to be a plebiscite election and that to 'Max the Yes', it has to be vote Alba on the list.
Reuters
2 hours ago
- Reuters
South Korea President Lee's election law violation hearing postponed indefinitely, court says
SEOUL, June 9 (Reuters) - A Seoul court said on Monday it will indefinitely postpone a trial of President Lee Jae-myung on charges of violating election law in 2022. South Korea's Supreme Court ruled in May, before Lee was elected, that Lee had violated election law by publicly making "false statements" during his 2022 presidential bid, and sent the case back to an appeals court. The Seoul High Court, which had scheduled a hearing for the case on June 18, said on Monday that it will postpone the hearing "to be decided later" without a date, a court spokesperson confirmed. Lee's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The court said its decision to postpone the hearing was due to "Constitution Article 84", without elaborating. South Korea's Constitution, Article 84, says a sitting president is "not subject to criminal prosecution while in office" for most crimes. However, legal experts are divided on whether that applies to ongoing trials that were already prosecuted before a president was elected. The National Court Administration under the Supreme Court gave as its opinion that judges of each court where Lee's trials are being held will have to decide whether to stop or proceed, according to its statement to a lawmaker in May. "The court in charge of hearing the case will determine whether Article 84 of the Constitution should be applied to a criminal defendant who was elected in the presidential election," the statement said. Lee's ruling Democratic Party, which controls parliament, is planning to pass a bill this week which suspends ongoing trials for the incumbent president, local broadcaster KBS reported on Monday. The Constitutional Court may be asked to rule whether the bill is unconstitutional, legal experts have said.
