Latest news with #Nazis
Daily Mirror
9 hours ago
- Politics
- Daily Mirror
MPs back the Mirror's campaign for a monument to honour UK terror victims
Labour's Kim Leadbeater, Lucy Powell, Andrew Gwynne and Graham Stringer all support our fight for a lasting touchstone to honour UK victims of terror and their families MPs have backed the Mirror's campaign for a monument to honour all UK terror victims. Labour's Kim Leadbeater, Lucy Powell, Andrew Gwynne and Graham Stringer all support our fight for a lasting touchstone. Last night Kim, whose sister Jo Cox MP was murdered by a white supremacist, said: "We should never forget the people we have lost to terrorism and I congratulate the Mirror on their 'Place to Remember' campaign which I am proud to support. 'Too many people have lost their lives to terrorism and extremist violence in our country and too many families have been left having to deal with their loss." The Spen Valley MP, 49, added: "We know that people grieve in different ways, but for some people having a special place to go to remember their loved ones could provide great comfort. A memorial would also serve to remind us of the life-changing impact of the actions of those who use violence to seek to divide us." The Mirror-backed Place to Remember Campaign is calling on the government to erect a monument honouring all those affected by terror attacks in the UK. We are also demanding that calls for a National Remembrance Day for Victims and Survivors of Terrorism be urgently listened to. March, Security Minister Dan Jarvis launched a consultation for a day of remembrance, which is due to close next month, but this does not include plans for a shrine. For Lucy Powell, MP for Manchester Central, the catastrophic impact of terrorism is all too familiar, having worked closely with victims of the Manchester Arena attack. Backing our campaign, she said: "As a constituency MP for Manchester Central I have seen first-hand the utter devastation and lasting trauma that terrorism causes. In Manchester, we pulled together as a city after the arena attack in 2017, and the Glade of Light memorial has provided a fitting space for remembrance and reflection in the city. 'However, a national monument to honour all those affected in the UK is perhaps overdue and would provide a central united space for remembrance. As such I support this and calls for a National Remembrance Day for victims and survivors of terrorism which would provide an opportunity for the nation to come together to remember those lost and affected.' Greater Manchester MPs Andrew Gwynne, who represents Gorton and Denton, and Graham Stringer, of Blackley and Middleton South, are also pleased to support our fight. Both leaders were heavily involved in the aftermath of Salman Abedi's blast at Manchester Arena on May 22, 2017, which left 22 dead and thousands more injured. Jo Cox, MP for Batley and Spen, was fatally shot and stabbed outside a library in Birstall, West Yorks, where she was about to hold a constituency surgery on June 16, 2016. Attacker Thomas Mair, a white supremacist who was obsessed with Nazis and apartheid-era South Africa, was handed a whole-life tariff and will likely die in prison. Jo's widower Brendan Cox, who co-founded terror victim Network Survivors Against Terror after her death, has also backed our campaign for a physical memorial.
Spectator
9 hours ago
- Politics
- Spectator
Did No. 10 clear Lord Hermer's ‘Nazi jibe' speech?
Another day, another bit of bad press for the Labour party. Attorney General Lord Hermer sparked outrage when he compared political threats to leave the ECHR to the Nazis during a speech to the Royal Institute for International Affairs (RUSI) defence think tank on Thursday – and has since acknowledged, rather begrudgingly, that his 'choice of words was clumsy'. You don't say! Mr S is rather curious about who exactly gave the rather controversial phraseology the green light – if it was approved at all. The speech appeared on the official government website after it was delivered, with the Attorney General's baffling comparison retained in black and white. The questionable passage reads:
The Sun
9 hours ago
- Business
- The Sun
Woke BBC's new period drama will tick all PC boxes & have just the right bonnets but here's why everyone will switch off
A NEW book came out this week. It's called The Spider Covenant and it's about a group of sinister businessmen using money the Nazis squirrelled away after World War Two to fund a next- generation AI project which will put Hitler sympathisers in power around the world. 5 5 I'm bound to say, for two reasons, that it's a good read. Number one: It is. And number two: It was written by Brian Klein, who directed every single one of the studio segments in both Top Gear and The Grand Tour. Certainly, it would make an excellent mini series on TV. However, the BBC has decided instead to make a drama about a dreary Victorian woman from some god-awful Jane Austen book that I was forced to study at school. And which put me off reading for ten years. Yup. It's another bloody period drama. Of course it is. Horse and carriage pulls up on some gravel outside a big house. And then nothing of any great importance happens for about 16 hours. However, the producer of this new one, Jane Tranter, says there's a reason why period dramas are usually boring. She says that as soon as you put an actor in clothes from the olden days, they start to walk slowly and talk posh. Really? Michael Elphick didn't talk posh in The Elephant Man. And the only reason they move slowly is because you can't really rush when you're wearing a bustle or a stovepipe hat. There's another issue the BBC always has. They go to immense lengths to make sure the stitching on everyone's bonnet is correct for the time and that the swords are made from period metal. But then in their 17th-century story, they cast people in wheelchairs and people with Mexican accents. BBC releases new trailer for period drama Miss Austen starring Keeley Hawes And there's usually quite a lot of talk about global warming. There is, however, one period drama that got round all of this. Heath Ledger's movie, A Knight's Tale. Chaucer was a dude In that, the actors danced to music from Queen and David Bowie. They wore prog-rock clothes. Chaucer was a dude, and the heroine was played by an ethnically diverse American. 5 It was brilliant. Mainly because behind all the period cleverness, there was a good story. Which you're unlikely to get from a book that sends most readers into a deep sleep by page four. I fear that the BBC can make the characters rush about like Usain Bolt and talk like Jamie Carragher. But it won't make a ha'porth of difference. Unless there's an actual plot we care about, we'll all carry on watching MobLand. GEARS BOXING CLEVER THE headlines this week told us that cars with manual gearboxes will soon become a thing of the past. The figures seem to back this up. Back in 2011, only a quarter of cars sold in the UK were automatics, whereas today it's 80 per cent. As a result, one in every four driving tests taken today is automatic-only. Because why bother getting qualified to drive a car with a clutch pedal and a gear lever, that you have to move about like you're stirring soup, when you're never going to encounter such a thing? Aha. But there's more to this story than meets the eye. Because while a car may have a PRND automatic gear lever, the gearbox itself, in many cases, is actually a manual. Certain Minis fall into this category. So do various VW Golfs. So you could take your test in what drives like an auto and then claim that actually you are qualified to drive a manual. Worth a try because, technically, you'd be right. Reputation of French goes up in smoke I'M rarely shocked these days by a news story but when I heard this week that France has banned smoking in parks, on beaches and even in the street, I nearly fell off my chair. France ditching its love affair with the Disque Bleu? What's next? The Germans ban people from drinking beer? The Americans ban burgers? We are to be banned from going on social media and making jokes? No, wait, hang on . . . KICK UP A STINK SADIQ KHAN, the increasingly thin Mayor of London, has backed calls for a partial decriminal-isation of cannabis. Dear God, no. I've been to various cities in America which have adopted a similarly slack attitude to weed and they smell disgusting. Right now, London's got enough problems. Crime is off the charts, there are boarded-up shops everywhere, the pavements are rammed with what look like refugee camps, and the police do nothing because they're too busy probing a potentially offensive tweet. And I can't imagine any of these things will be helped if the place smells more revolting than a teenage boy's sock. PM NOT A RISK TAKER SIR Starmer is forever telling us that he knows what it's like to work for ten hours a day because that's what his dad did. Yes. But that's like me saying I know what it's like to leave school at 14 and become a butcher's boy. 5 Sure, it's what my dad did but I wasn't there. So what's it like to pedal around the streets of South Yorkshire delivering mince to miners? No idea, I'm afraid. And it gets worse because when you're Prime Minister what you really need to know is not what it's like to work in a factory, but what it's like to run one. Business is what's going to get this country back on its feet. People taking the risk, starting out on their own, making it work, employing someone and then someone else. And then one day passing the business they've built on to their children. Starmer has absolutely no idea what it's like to do that. And neither do any of his Baldricks. Lammy. Rayner. Reeves. None of them. Which is probably why they did a speedy deal with Trump to make British-made cars ten per cent more expensive in America. They claimed they had been extremely clever and got round his new tariffs. Yes, but every other country waited. And then found out this week that Trump wasn't allowed to impose the tariffs in the first place. Honestly, this country is being run by a shower of dingleberries. SO. The struggling high-street giant WH Smith is to change its name to TG Jones. Yup. That'll make all the difference. After all, the only reason I stopped buying magazines and DVDs is because I wanted the shop to sound a bit more Welsh. I guess that's what John Lewis needs to do if it wants to return to profitability. Change its name to Dai Llewellyn.
Yahoo
9 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Labour's on the ropes and Starmer has no answers
This was the week in which Reform UK finally shattered the facade of indifference maintained by the British political establishment. It was only a year ago next week that Nigel Farage announced his return to frontline politics. As opinion polls show the upstarts leading all other parties by ever wider margins, a whiff of panic has permeated the Downing Street bunker. After its triumph over Labour and the Conservatives in the local elections and the Runcorn by-election at the start of this month, Reform has emerged as a threat to the SNP, which is defending its Holyrood seat in Hamilton next Thursday. What has brought about this sudden intensity of focus on a party that still has just five MPs in Westminster? There is no longer much doubt about Reform's ability to translate its popularity into electoral success. Labour's legions of backbenchers know that their chances of serving more than a single term depend on seeing off this unfamiliar challenge. Mr Farage is visibly morphing into a different kind of politician. The welfare and fiscal policies he has just espoused are to the Left of the Tories and, in some cases, of Labour too. Reform promises not only to restore benefits that Rachel Reeves has curtailed, such as the Winter Fuel Allowance, but to go further by removing the two-child benefit cap. This unaccustomed apparition of the Father Christmas of Clacton seems to have rattled the Prime Minister – so badly, indeed, that he turned up at St Helens on Merseyside this week to devote an entire speech to attacking Mr Farage. Sir Keir Starmer achieved nothing by this excursion apart from drawing attention to the Reform leader and his policies. Even worse, the Starmer counter-attack found itself bogged down in an unexpectedly fierce barrage of criticism from accompanying journalists, including even those who had been hitherto well-disposed. The irreverence, even hostility, of the PM's interrogation in St Helens signals a serious loss of prestige. After only a year in office, prime ministerial power is visibly ebbing away. Ironically, Sir Keir has identified the right problem: Nigel Farage and Reform really are an existential threat to Labour. But he has so far failed to come up with any plausible answers. The incoherence of the Government's policies – cutting disability benefits with one hand, while handing out big public sector pay rises with the other – is patently obvious. And the intellectual vacuity of Starmerism has just been highlighted by the absurd comparison of Kemi Badenoch's Conservatives with the Nazis by Lord Hermer, the Attorney General and Sir Keir's right-hand man. Next week the battle will shift further north to the Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse by-election for the Scottish Parliament. This has degenerated into a slanging match between the SNP and Reform, with the former accusing the latter of playing the race card, while the Labour vote is squeezed. Fresh from an appearance at a Bitcoin conference in Las Vegas, next week Mr Farage will be in Scotland and doubtless steal the show there too. If Reform were to capture Hamilton, it would be a bitter blow for the SNP: Winnie Ewing's victory there in 1967 first put them on the Westminster electoral map. Over the summer the Prime Minister hopes to regain momentum with public spending and strategic defence reviews. Yet neither of these worthy documents seems likely to deliver the relaunch that Labour sorely needs. The UK economy is struggling to generate any growth at all after the bloodletting of the Reeves Budget and the impact of Donald Trump's tariffs. Still living in denial, ministers will resist departmental cuts, thereby thwarting the boost in military investment required by the global threat level. Another spectre at the feast is the prospect of large-scale revolts over welfare reform. A growing number of Labour MPs are ready to risk the implosion of the Government rather than let down their favoured lobby groups. Labour and Reform could find themselves locked in an unedifying competition to bribe voters with their own money. The Conservatives now have an opportunity to recast themselves as the party of fiscal responsibility, national security and the work ethic. With millions living on out-of-work benefits, Kemi Badenoch could regain the initiative by showing how to bring people back into the workforce. With the country longing for strong leadership, Mrs Badenoch could well do a better job of taking on Mr Farage than Sir Keir has done so far. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Middle East Eye
13 hours ago
- Politics
- Middle East Eye
Israeli press review: MP glorifies killed contractor for ‘wiping out' Gaza homes
Killed contractor lauded for destroying Gaza The Israeli army announced on Thursday that David Libi, a 19-year-old heavy equipment operator, was killed in an explosion during a military operation in the northern Gaza Strip. Libi, from the settlement of Malachi Shalom in the occupied West Bank, was employed by the Israeli army through Libi Construction and Infrastructure, a company recently sanctioned by the UK. Zvi Sukkot, a member of the Israeli parliament from the Religious Zionist Party, paid tribute to Libi, calling him a 'friend' and praising his role in the destruction of Palestinian homes. 'He fell bravely today fighting against the Nazis in Gaza at the age of 19,' Succot wrote on X, adding: 'With God's help, the State of Israel will avenge his blood.' New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters Sukkot emphasised the importance of Libi and other heavy equipment operators in the military campaign, describing them as 'directly responsible for the greatest achievement of the war in wiping out tens of thousands of homes that endangered our fighters and changed the face of the Gaza Strip'. He noted that while they may not receive the same recognition as pilots, 'they are among the people to whom the entire nation of Israel owes the most'. Sukkot also highlighted that many of the operators come from settler communities. In a separate eulogy shared in a settler group chat, Libi and others were described as sending a message to Gaza's residents: 'You have nothing to look for here anymore. The best thing for you would be to find a boat or raft and try to sail to Greece, Europe or Morocco. Because here, you have no future.' Palestinian drivers attacked by football fans Two Palestinian bus drivers were attacked in Jerusalem by Beitar Jerusalem fans on Thursday, following their team's defeat in the Israel State Cup final. Footage of the attack circulated online, but police have yet to arrest any suspects, according to Haaretz. Israeli hooligans provoke clashes in Amsterdam after chanting anti-Palestinian slogans Read More » Ahmad Karain, one of the drivers assaulted, told Haaretz that dozens of Beitar fans 'realised I was an Arab after speaking to me and suddenly began shouting 'Death to Arabs', cursing and attacking me. More and more joined in constantly'. Beitar Jerusalem is a football club known for its association with the Israeli right wing. According to Karain, another driver, Muhammad Sayaj, came to his aid and was also attacked. 'The police only arrived after 20 minutes, maybe even half an hour, and they rescued me from there. 'I was terrified; I feared I might not survive. This isn't the first time drivers have been attacked, but it was the most brutal incident.' In recent years, and especially since the start of the war in Gaza, attacks on Palestinian drivers in Israel have increased. Koach LaOvdim, a workers' union, warned of escalating violence against drivers. 'Every day brings us closer to the murder of a driver or inspector.' Palestinian 'murdered in racist attack' by Jewish Israelis Fouad Alyan, a resident of Beit Safafa in occupied East Jerusalem, was killed last week after allegedly being run over by a Jewish driver. According to eyewitness accounts, Fouad and his cousin were attacked by two Israeli Jews while sitting in a public park in Jerusalem. How racist discourse fuels Israel's settler colonial genocide Read More » Fouad's cousin, Alaa Alyan, told Haaretz: 'Someone came with a cane and started threatening us. We left the park, but they began chasing us in a car and tried to catch us.' The two attempted to escape on Fouad's motorcycle, which was forced on to the pavement. 'The man chasing us accelerated, mounted the pavement and ran us over,' Alaa said. Fouad was critically injured and pronounced dead at the scene, while his cousin sustained minor injuries. Initially, the police treated the incident as a criminal matter rather than a racially motivated attack. Relatives of Fouad told Ynet that the two 'were sitting in a public park when Jewish individuals approached and told them Arabs were not allowed there'. They expressed their 'hope the truth will be known, and that the real story behind this murder, racism, will not be ignored'. Family members described Fouad as 'a respectable man who had good relations with everyone who knew him' and said he was 'murdered in cold blood'.
