On a case about the lawfulness of waiting lists approaching four years to access *triaging* for a time-sensitive treatment, the BBC chose to go, not to an expert doctor, but to the LGB Alliance. Goodness knows why, but here is some stuff you need to know about the LGB Alliance.
One of its founders says LGBT+ clubs – a safe space for many LGBT+ schoolchildren to accept their sexuality – shouldn’t exist because of “predatory gay teachers”. pinknews.co.uk/2020/01/23/lgb…
Another of its founder/activists - Gary Powell - has links with the Heritage Foundation, a conservative, anti-abortion think-tank in the US that opposes same-sex marriage. pinknews.co.uk/2020/06/03/lgb…
Although purporting to care about LGB issues, the lobbying of the LGB Alliance reveals it to be what it is: an anti-trans group. pinknews.co.uk/2019/11/13/lgb…
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If you want to know how power works in the UK contrast the press interest in (1) the £1,500 of capital gains tax Angela Rayner is said to have evaded with (2) the tens of millions Lord Ashcroft denies having evaded. 🧵
Lord Ashcroft set up the Bermuda based Punta Gordon trust. A financial statement in the leaked Paradise Papers reported it as holding assets of $450m. But the Paradise papers didn't just reveal the value of the trust.
They also revealed that Appleby, a firm of solicitors that was acting as trustee of the trust, complained vigorously about the fact that Lord Ashcroft dealt with some of the assets in the trust and then invited the trustees to rubber stamp his dealings.
The Charity Commission has, with extraordinary haste, dismissed our complaint about the Institute for Economic Affairs. It said: "the Commission... will rarely intervene when allegations of political bias are made, from whatever angle" - a troubling gloss on Charity law which we are considering with our lawyers.
Imo, the Charity Commission cannot properly be understood as a regulator. Its purposes include the channelling of public money to organisations friendly to the Tory party. And the regulatory harassment of those whose activities are inconvenient to the Tory Party.
Found myself debating @benhabib6 on BBC on whether Reform is Far Right. He didn't repeat @TiceRichard's threat to sue those who said so. But he did intimate I might hear from Farage's lawyers for saying I thought he was anti-semitic (cited by me as a reason Reform is Far Right).
The other reasons I gave: Reform's desire that the UK join Russia and Greece after a military coup in becoming only the third country ever to find intolerable the international human rights norms in the Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.
In April the United Nations described the Public Order Bill as "deeply troubling legislation that is incompatible with the UK’s international human rights obligations regarding people’s rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association." shar.es/agpsHs
Last month, the UN Rapporteur said the crackdown on environmental protest in Britain with “draconian” new laws, excessive restrictions on courtroom evidence and the use of civil injunctions is having a chilling impact on fundamental freedoms. theguardian.com/environment/20…
And in November the UN said the (now) Public Order Act "appears to be a direct attack on the right to the freedom of peaceful assembly" and criticised the long sentences given to environmental protestors. bbc.com/news/articles/…
The Katharine Birbalsingh case is a great case study in the racism and hypocrisy of the right wing press.
Whilst it goes off the rails about a ban on *optional* prayers for Muslim schools...
Local Authority grant maintained schools remain formally *obliged* to hold daily acts of religious worship with a wholly or mainly Christian character...
... about a quarter of all primary schools, 4,630, are Church of England Schools, publicly funded, and about a million children attend them...
"Posturing MPs are suddenly passionate about the Post Office" says The Times. And indeed they are - but not just MPs.
So what is the record of that self-appointed moral high-water of the Fourth Estate, The Times? 🧵
Well, it has been very quick to point the finger at senior Opposition figures. There are multiple articles about a junior Minister in the Coalition Government over ten years ago, Ed Davey.
And The sagacious Times has also carried several pieces suggesting Keir Starmer is to blame.