Far-right group visit to mosque site condemned
The visit of a far-right group to the construction site of a mosque has been condemned, including by the MP who said such groups were "not welcome" in the area.
A group of Muslim doctors at Barrow's Furness General Hospital spearheaded plans for the South Lakes Islamic Centre in Dalton-in-Furness because the nearest mosque was 50 miles away.
Britain First held a demonstration outside the Ulverston Road site, where the co-leaders held a banner reading "no mosque here".
The group's petition to revoke planning permission received more than 70,000 signatures but Anti Racist Cumbria urged the local community to "stand against" misinformation about the development and Muslims as a group.
Labour MP for Barrow and Furness, Michelle Scrogham said: "Britain First, which emerged from the old British National Party, are not welcome in Barrow and Furness where, for generations, we are proud to have a community which supports one another."
Westmorland and Furness Council Conservative deputy leader Matt Brereton said there was a "sizeable Islamic faith community" in the wider Furness area.
"I don't really see there should be an issue in terms of them having somewhere they can celebrate their faith," he said.
The South Lakes Islamic Centre charity believes the prayer rooms and community centre in Dalton would prove beneficial for local Muslim families and visiting tourists.
Planning approval was originally granted in December 2022 with the group previously stating the space would cater for the 40 to 50 practising Muslim doctors at Furness General Hospital and their families.
Managing director of Footprint Design Architects Yaqoob Malik said the controversy had led to some local suppliers pulling out of the project.
Mr Mailk said: "Supply chains were hesitant being involved in such a project.
"I don't believe there was any discrimination from their own part, I think more so they were concerned about the repercussions that it may have to their business."
The site has also been subject to misinformation, including that it is a "mega mosque in the Lake District" - when it is a 33ft (10m) tall and 98ft (30m) long building, an hour's drive from Windermere.
Misinformation prompted Westmorland and Furness Council to release fact-checking guidance.
It was never the case that an application for a children's home had been turned down at the site, the local authority said.
The council said the then Barrow Council received 47 responses to the proposals at the time.
Of those 21 were objections, 18 were in support and eight were neutral comments.
A council spokesperson added: "Our role as the statutory planning authority has been to determine whether the application aligned with planning policy and to make a decision in accordance with planning rules.
"This procedure was followed correctly, democratically and legally, and there are no grounds to rescind this planning application.''
Additional reporting by Dan Hunt, Local Democracy Reporter
Follow BBC Cumbria on X, Facebook, Nextdoor and Instagram.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
UK ministers delay AI regulation amid plans for more ‘comprehensive' bill
Proposals to regulate artificial intelligence have been delayed by at least a year as UK ministers plan a bumper bill to regulate the technology and its use of copyrighted material. Peter Kyle, the technology secretary, intends to introduce a 'comprehensive' AI bill in the next parliamentary session to address concerns about issues including safety and copyright. This will not be ready before the next king's speech, and is likely to trigger concerns about delays to regulating the technology. The date for the next king's speech has not been set but several sources said it could take place in May 2026. Labour had originally planned to introduce a short, narrowly drafted AI bill within months of entering office that would have been focused on large language models, such as ChatGPT. The legislation would have required companies to hand over their models for testing by the UK's AI Security Institute. It was intended to address concerns that AI models could become so advanced that they posed a risk to humanity. This bill was delayed, with ministers choosing to wait and align with Donald Trump's administration in the US because of concerns that any regulation might weaken the UK's attractiveness to AI companies. Ministers now want to include copyright rules for AI companies as part of the AI bill. 'We feel we can use that vehicle to find a solution on copyright,' a government source said. 'We've been having meetings with both creators and tech people and there are interesting ideas on moving forward. That work will begin in earnest once the data bill passes.' The government is already locked in a standoff with the House of Lords over copyright rules in a separate data bill. It would allow AI companies to train their models using copyrighted material unless the rights holder opts out. It has caused a fierce backlash from the creative sector, with artists including Elton John, Paul McCartney and Kate Bush throwing their weight behind a campaign to oppose the changes. This week, peers backed an amendment to the data bill that would require AI companies to disclose if they were using copyrighted material to train their models, in an attempt to enforce current copyright law. Ministers have refused to back down, however, even though Kyle has expressed regret about the way the government has gone about the changes. The government insists the data bill is not the right vehicle for the copyright issue and has promised to publish an economic impact assessment and series of technical reports on copyright and AI issues. In a letter to MPs on Saturday, Kyle made a further commitment to establish a cross-party working group of parliamentarians on AI and copyright. Beeban Kidron, the film director and cross-bench peer who has been campaigning on behalf of the creative sector, said on Friday that ministers 'have shafted the creative industries, and they have proved willing to decimate the UK's second-biggest industrial sector'. Kyle told the Commons last month that AI and copyright should be dealt with as part of a separate 'comprehensive' bill. Most of the UK public (88%) believe the government should have the power to stop the use of an AI product if it is deemed to pose a serious risk, according to a survey published by the Ada Lovelace Institute and the Alan Turing Institute in March. More than 75% said the government or regulators should oversee AI safety rather than private companies alone. Scott Singer, an AI expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said: 'The UK is strategically positioning itself between the US and EU. Like the US, Britain is attempting to avoid overly aggressive regulation that could harm innovation while exploring ways to meaningfully protect consumers. That's the balancing act here.'
Boston Globe
10 hours ago
- Boston Globe
Israel vows to stop aid ship from reaching Gaza
Israel imposed the blockade on Gaza, with Egypt's help, after Hamas, the Islamic militant group, took over the coastal strip in 2007. Israeli officials have said the blockade is necessary to prevent weapons smuggling into the enclave. Conditions in Gaza have worsened considerably since the deadly Hamas-led attack on Israel in October 2023, which ignited the current war, now in its 20th month. Israel recently banned the entry of any humanitarian aid for 80 days, bringing the territory to the brink of famine, according to international aid organizations. Advertisement The Madleen is probably carrying only a symbolic amount of humanitarian aid. The coalition said in a statement that it was bringing urgently needed goods, including baby formula, flour, rice, diapers, medical supplies, and children's prosthetics. But Israel's defense minister, Israel Katz, said he had instructed the country's military to prevent the vessel from reaching Gaza. Advertisement In a blunt statement, he said, 'To Greta the antisemite and her friends, propagandists for Hamas — I say clearly: You would do well to turn back, because you won't get to Gaza. Israel will act against any attempt to breach the blockade or aid terrorist organizations by sea, air or land.' Thunberg has been an outspoken opponent of Israel's naval blockade of Gaza and its actions in the enclave. 'We are doing this because, no matter what odds we are against, we have to keep trying,' Thunberg said last week. 'Because the moment we stop trying is when we lose our humanity. And no matter how dangerous this mission is, it's not even near as dangerous as the silence of the entire world in the face of the livestreamed genocide.' Israel's military has blocked past attempts by pro-Palestinian activists to bring aid to Gaza by sea, including by force. In 2010, nine passengers aboard the Mavi Marmara, part of a flotilla carrying aid from Turkey to Gaza, were killed in an Israeli commando raid, stirring international outrage and damaging Turkish-Israeli relations. A 10th passenger died from his wounds years later. Israel said at the time that its soldiers, some of whom had rappelled onto the ship from helicopters, fell into an ambush and were attacked with clubs, metal rods, and knives. The Freedom Flotilla Coalition has described the interception of the Mavi Marmara as 'an unlawful and deadly attack' and said the Madleen's mission is 'a continuation of that legacy -- a refusal to surrender to silence, fear or complicity' in the face of the siege of Gaza. Another recent attempt by the coalition to challenge the blockade was thwarted. A ship called Conscience left Tunisia in late April carrying human rights activists and aid and was scheduled to stop in Malta to pick up more people, including Thunberg. But the ship was rocked by explosions off the coast of Malta, setting it on fire. Advertisement The passengers and crew were not harmed, but the mission was abandoned. Israel has since lifted its total ban on the entry of humanitarian aid and, in recent weeks, has backed a new system aimed at getting help to Palestinians without Hamas being able to divert or benefit from it. The effort got off to a troubled start as Israeli forces fired at hungry and desperate Palestinians on their way to collect boxes of food at a distribution site in southern Gaza, killing and wounding scores of them. The distribution sites are being operated by American security contractors under the auspices of a new organization, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. That effort has been boycotted by the United Nations and other prominent aid groups, which accuse Israel of using aid as a weapon. The foundation said it had distributed more than 1.1 million meals Sunday across three distribution sites. In addition, the group said it had delivered 11 truckloads of food directly to community leaders through local merchants as part of a pilot project aimed at easing crowding at the existing distribution points. On Saturday, the foundation said it was 'impossible to proceed' with the distribution of aid that day, accusing Hamas of threatening its operations. A group spokesperson Sunday shared a written warning he said local staff members had received, threatening them with 'serious consequences' if they continued working for the program. Advertisement This article originally appeared in
Yahoo
11 hours ago
- Yahoo
Could Merthyr Tydfil be set for an electoral revolution?
"Come check the streets where normal people live. "Kids are smoking, drugs available 24/7. "When you got time check my area condition. "My invitation to the politician." Daljit Singh is the owner of Gurnos sports and social club and also a part-time songwriter - that one is destined for YouTube. "I want to express the situation from here to any leader out there. Please come and have a look," he said. Spend new defence billions in Wales, companies say Miners' strike designs help Welsh fashion find voice Senedd election could be seismic, expert says Last year he put words into action and brought Nigel Farage to Merthyr Tydfil to launch Reform's general election manifesto. Mr Singh wanted to get politicians out of their bubble and speak to people who felt left behind and neglected. The club is the sort of place Nigel Farage would have had in mind, albeit not geographically, when he recently challenged Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer to a debate in a northern working men's club. When we visited, Mr Singh and his colleagues were preparing the venue for actual, not verbal, fisticuffs - a 300-seat sell out white collar boxing night. While Reform did not win any Welsh seats in last year's general election, it did come second in 13 of the 32 constituencies. Mr Singh thinks Reform will do well at next year's Senedd election because "people have had enough of being let down on so many things. Why not try something new?" He added people who were struggling to get by found it "unfair" to see money being spent on migrants who had crossed the English Channel. Outside the club, in front of a parade of shops, we met Steve Collins, a builder from Troedyrhiw, who had been at the Farage speech. He said he wanted change. "We've had too many promises and nothing coming forward - Labour and the Conservatives are both the same in my opinion," he said. "This has always been a Labour town, but people are getting fed up now... the state of Merthyr," he added. Another woman told us Farage was "straight", that she had voted for him in the past, but that she would probably stick with Labour next year. Recent polling suggests Reform has a chance of becoming the biggest party in the Senedd, although it might struggle to find someone willing to do a post-election deal to form a government. It still does not have a Welsh leader and has not named any candidates. Polling also suggests that Plaid Cymru could be the party to end 27 years of Labour dominance in Cardiff Bay. A local Labour source admitted the party faced a fight but said it needed to shout more loudly about its achievements, mentioning the completed Heads of the Valleys road, the new Metro and improvements at Prince Charles Hospital. Merthyr has long been one of Labour's heartlands and has had a long history of political change and controversy. It returned the first Labour MP in a Welsh constituency, Keir Hardie, in 1900. It was scene of a Jeremy Corbyn leadership rally in 2016, a Yes Cymru pro-independence March in 2019 and has had its share of recent controversies, including delays over armoured vehicles for the Army which are built in the town and issues with an opencast coal mine. It is also one of the areas with the highest benefits claimant rate so is likely to be disproportionately hit by UK Labour government welfare reforms. Most famously Merthyr was where workers rose up against appalling conditions and poor pay in 1831 - a rebellion which became known as the Merthyr Rising. As next May approaches are we looking at another revolution at the ballot box? Across town at Merthyr Tydfil College, a lively politics and governance class left you in little doubt that more political upheaval could be on the way. "We are seeing the overturn of that sort of Labour Welsh order of this guarantee that Wales will always be Labour until the cows come home," said 17-year-old Zack. "I do think Labour takes it for granted with their traditional safe seats. These aren't iron strongholds anymore of Labour," he added. Aaron, also 17, agreed. "We've seen the start of Labour's downfall," he said. "They've become too comfortable with the fact that they've always been voted in in Wales and we're now getting to the point where we're seeing other parties gain support like Plaid Cymru." He added: "I'm seeing a lot of people who have been lifelong Labour supporters and they've now decided that they're going to vote Reform or Plaid because Labour's not in the best interests for people anymore in Wales." While not necessarily supporting Farage, 16-year-old Isobelle and 17-year-old Amber-Rose recognised the Reform leader's appeal. "Whatever Reform say people might gravitate towards them because it is so new and Nigel Farage is so 'in his own way' that it will appeal to people. "We do have strong Labour and Conservative leaders but Nigel Farage does seem to be more prominent," they said. Other topics that cropped up included the "betrayal" of the working class over benefits reform, and the question of fairness. Why did Scotland have powers over the Crown Estate, justice and policing when Wales did not? For these young voters the principle rather than the policy area appeared to count for more. Wales had moved with the times, they argued, and politicians needed to move too. They also thought that Plaid Cymru and Reform were better at getting through to younger voters on social media than Labour. The students agreed that you could sum up next year's election with one word - change. The slogan that propelled UK Labour to a landslide win at the general election last year could be exactly what costs its Welsh colleagues at the Senedd in 2026. In two very different parts of town, predictions for next year were very much the same. What's your Senedd constituency? What does the Senedd do? How do you vote in the Senedd election?
