38 Degrees Petition Against Voter ID Laws

‘Last year, voters in England and Wales cast their votes in local elections. When it comes to our right to vote, the results are trickling in and it’s not looking good, David. [1] Voting shouldn’t be difficult. But we’re already hearing story after story of people being denied their right to vote and it’s estimated that across the country, the new rules stopped many from voting. [2] The millions of missing voters, and those most often turned away are more likely to be from already underrepresented groups. [3]

At the next general election, the whole UK will be subject to Voter ID. The Government knows this isn’t working, even Jacob Rees-Mogg admitted it. [4] But they’re not committing to do anything about it. So it’s up to us, David. A HUGE number of politicians, democracy organisations and election expert insiders have already called for a different approach. [5]

We’re not just saying no to voter ID. We’re providing them an alternative – one that has been proven to work in encouraging people into registering to vote, not putting them off. [6] Anyone with the right to vote in this country should be able to do so.

That’s why we’ve joined forces with the UK’s leading democracy organisations and expert insiders to encourage politicians to scrap the unworkable voter ID laws and instead introduce an easier alternative, like Automatic Voter Registration. Will you join us? It only takes 30 seconds to sign:

Yes, I’ll join 

No, I won’t 

Automatic Voter Registration (AVR) is already used in dozens of countries around the world and has proven itself to be effective in improving registration rates. [7] AVR would automatically register eligible citizens through interactions with public services, removing the need for separate registration processes.

This simple approach ensures that everyone who is eligible to vote is registered, removing unnecessary barriers to participation which are denying people their right to vote. [8]

Our 38 Degrees community votes for all parties and none, but we’re united in our belief that every eligible voter should be able to make their voice heard.

So today we’re asking if you’ll join us in calling on politicians to make voting easier, not harder to make sure that no one is locked out at the next election? It only takes a few seconds to sign:

Yes, I’ll join 

No, I won’t 

Thanks for all you do,

Amoke, Jonathan, Tom and the 38 Degrees team

NOTES:

[1] BBC News: Boris Johnson turned away from polling station after forgetting ID
The Independent: Veteran in Army for 27 years turned away at polling station as military ID not allowed
The Guardian: Voter ID: 14,000 were denied vote in England local elections, watchdog finds
[2] See note 1

[3] The Electoral Commission: Voter ID demographic analysis research

[4] Sky News: Jacob Rees-Mogg suggests requiring photo ID to vote was attempt to ‘gerrymander’ which ‘came back to bite’ Tories

[5] Electoral Reform Society: Voter ID rules criticised by MPs, election watchdog and election administrators

ICDR: VOTER ID SCHEME IS A “POISONED CURE” AND MUST BE REFORMED FINDS PARLIAMENTARY INQUIRY

[6] The Brennan Center for Justice: AVR Impact on State Voter Registration

[7] Institute for Responsive Government: AVR Reduces Racial and Economic Disparities in the Election Process

[8] See note 7′

Norman Finkelstein: Israel Isn’t a Jewish State. It’s a Lunatic State

Okay, here’s a bit of politics and it’s going to be highly controversial. Norman Finkelstein is a Jewish-American scholar and critic of Israel and its slow motion ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians. In this video from YouTube, he gives his perspective as a Jew on Israel. He states very clearly that it isn’t a Jewish state, but a lunatic state. A type that goes against everything he believes is Jewish. He points to how proud Jews were that four of the leading intellectuals that created the modern world were Jewish – Einstein, Marx, Freud, and some would say Jesus – were all Jews. Jews surged with pride at this fact. The life of the mind loomed large for Jews. Standing behind a perimeter fence to target double amputees has nothing to do with a Jew or Jews. This is why he doesn’t believe that Israel constitutes a Jewish states according to what he grew up to understand as a Jew.

He’s not alone. This is why many Jews have taken part in the protest marches waving placards with the slogan ‘Not In My Name’ and ‘Not Again For Anyone’. Among those attacking Netanyahu for his war crimes are Holocaust survivors, who clearly deserve to be listened to because of their experience of genocide. Not that you would know this from right-wing news organisations like GB News and various internet commenters, who want you to believe that the only people marching against the ethnic cleansing of Gaza are fanatical Muslims with a genocidal hatred of the Jews and the desire to turn Britain into a Muslim state under sharia law.

Bernie Sanders Explains Why It Is Not Anti-Semitic to Criticise Netanyahu’s War Crimes In Gaza and Demand He Be Held Accountable

Yay for Bernie Sanders, the Democratic Senator for Vermont. If we lived in a just universe, he’d be in the Whitehouse now, just as Jeremy Corbyn would be in 10 Downing Street. He’s a secular Jew, but he understood the hardships and problems of America’s ordinary working Joes and Joannas. Clips of his presidential campaign showed him being embraced, and comforting all kinds of people, including theologically conservative, blue-collar Christians from the American south, worried about unemployment, healthcare and the destruction of the domestic industries that were their livelihoods.

In this video, addressed to Benjamin Netanyahu, Bernie tells him clearly not to insult the intelligence of the American people, and states, over and again, that it is not anti-Semitic or pro-Hamas to

point out that in a little over six months that his extremist government has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians and wounded over 78,000, 70 per cent of whom are women and children.

point out that his bombing has destroyed more than 221,000 housing units in Gaza, leaving almost a million people, half the population, homeless

To note that his government has obliterated Gaza’s civilian infrastructure, electricity, water and sewage.

To realize that his government has annihilated Gaza’s healthcare system, knocking 26 hospitals out of service and killing 400 healthcare workers.

To note that his government has destroyed all of Gaza’s 12 universities and 56 of its schools, with hundreds more damaged, leaving 625,000 students with no educational opportunities.

To agree with virtually every humanitarian organisation in saying that your government, in violation of American law, has unreasonably blocked humanitarian aid coming into Gaza, creating the conditions in which so many thousands of children face malnutrition and famine.

He states clearly that anti-Semitism is a vile and disgusting form of bigotry that has done unspeakable harm to many millions of people. But please, he says to Netanyahu, do not insult the intelligence of the American people by attempting to distract us from the immoral and illegal war policies of your extremist and racist government. Do not use anti-Semitism to distract attention from the criminal indictment you are facing in the Israeli courts.

It is not anti-Semitic to hold you (Netanyahu) accountable for your actions.

The Megaphone on a Memorial Day for Workers

‘Dear David,

Every year people lose their lives at work.

Most don’t die of mystery illnesses, or in tragic “accidents”. They die because a boss took a shortcut and put them at risk.

Workers Memorial Day (IWMD) 28 April commemorates those workers. 

We’re getting in touch because there’s a memorial event happening in your area this weekend. Click on the map to find it.

Take me to the map

Workplace deaths are preventable deaths. Trade unions fight for a future where no worker must risk their health or life while doing their job.

Can’t make it to an event?

Share with your friends, family and colleagues: click to tweet, share on Facebook or WhatsApp
Take a look at the resources on the TUC website

In Solidarity,

Lois,Megaphone UK’

This is why we need the health and safety legislation the right-wing press is always telling us is crippling British industry. If you look at the stats, the figures for the number of people injured or killed at work dropped significantly when these laws were introduced in the 1970s.

Rejoin EU Party Interview SODEM’s Steve Bray

I found this on the Net this morning. I’m not a member of the Rejoin EU party, put I’ve been advising people on this channel to look at the alternative parties if they’re unsatisfied in the direction Labour has gone. By which I means Starmer’s transformation of the party into another version of the Tories. Steve Bray and SODEM, the video tells us, have been campaigning around the country against Brexit for the past eight years. Rejoin EU’s man asks Bray what he has noticed change in this time, and his reply is a sharp reminder how democracy and the right to protest has been undermined by the Tories in this time. Bray states that it began under Johnson and is now worse with Sunak telling the police to arrest protesters. The attitude to protests vary from police force to police force. In London they’ll arrest protesters, but in Liverpool they won’t. But they will in Manchester. The Rejoin EU fellow and Bray joke about that grand city being the next place the Tories will hold their conference. Bray states that the government has been telling the police to crack down on protests. This isn’t democracy, but authoritarianism.

This is all true, although I think the attacks on public protests began under David Cameron. Cameron passed legislation against them under the pretext of protecting residents from the noise and nuisance caused by demonstrations in their areas. And both Blair and Cameron have supported the legislation setting up courts where you can be tried in secret without knowing the evidence against you if this is considered necessary for national security. Open Britain has also described the way the Tories are nobbling the Electoral Commission to allow their infractions of the rules governing elections and the conduct of political campaigns, as well as the pernicious influence of corporate donations and dark money.

As for the EU, despite the attempts by right-wingers like Michael Heaver and Jacob Rees-Mogg to present it as a glowing success, Brexit has done much to wreck this country’s economy. And despite the claims of the anti-migrant Tory lobby that it would it would halt mass migration, it has clearly done no such thing as the continuing arrival of the Channel migrants shows.

Reform Party Attack AD on the Broken Pledges of Keir Starmer

This came up for me the other day on YouTube. Before I start, I am definitely not a member of the Reform Party and won’t vote for them in the coming election. They’re just the Tory right on steroids, who want, as well as an end to immigration, the further privatisation of the NHS and the dismantlement of the welfare state. They did say something a few months ago about partially renationalising the electricity companies, but still wanted it open to investment by the financial sector. As this has been one of the causes of the failure of utilities privatisation in the first place, especially in the perilous financial position imposed by the hedge funds on care homes which resulted in the collapse of so many of them, this is another reason not to vote for them. A few weeks ago I ended up listening to their party conference. This had Ben Habib attempting to convince his audience that we hadn’t really left Europe, because we were still bound by their regulations when trading with them, and Anne Widdecombe. Widdecombe wanted us all to believe that Reform could bring back the days when you could walk in to your doctors’ surgery and see a doctor. Yes, I remember those days from when I was at school. This system vanished because of the privatisation and underfunding introduced by Maggie and the Tories, who included Anne Widdecombe. She declared that this return to proper NHS service could be done. Yes, it can, but not by her, Ben Habib and Richard Tice.

I’m putting this video up, however, as it’s a succinct summary of Keir Starmer’s Lies and broken promises. These include his initial opposition to private healthcare in the NHS, tuition fees and international freedom of movement. It also includes his contradictory statements supporting and condemning Jeremy Corbyn, the return of Shamima Begum, the ISIS bride and how he dumped his previous commitment to the nationalisation of the railways and the utilities. It concludes with an audience member asking Starmer at a Labour party conference how they could ever trust him after so many broken promises. This is followed by a clip of Stalin himself saying that if you can’t keep your promises you shouldn’t make them in the first place. The video concludes with the statement that can’t trust Keir Starmer. Which is absolutely true.

Open Britain on GB News as a Vehicle for Tory Government Propaganda

‘Dear David,

If you pay taxes in the UK, your money is helping fund disinformation, division and conspiracy theories. Nigel Farage, Jacob Rees-Mogg, Lee Anderson, and a host of other right-wing propagandists are benefitting from taxpayer-funded government support. A recent investigation from Byline Times revealed that the government is by far the biggest spender on GB News advertising.

Granted, it’s more subtle than the blatant state propaganda you’ll find at Russia Today or China Central Television. But THIS Conservative government is pouring OUR cash into a “news” channel that pumps out ugly propaganda to give the impression that this THIS government’s heartless, right-wing policies have widespread support.

A number of the channel’s flagship programmes are hosted by Conservative Party MPs and close allies. Their presence lends credibility to falsehoods and bonkers theories concocted to justify ill-advised and unworkable government policies…policies that are only supported by a very small minority of the population. It’s a textbook propaganda operation.

You’re probably wondering why the government would choose to pump our money into a channel that has been repeatedly investigated and reprimanded by Ofcom for spreading fake news and for presenting politicians as newsreaders. Here’s a clue: It’s owned by Paul Marshall, Dubai-based billionaire and Conservative party mega-donor. See it now?

We made clear in our Functional Democracy Goals report that the media is a key component of a working democracy. A free press is fundamental to the information environment that guides the decisions of voters and law-makers. This corrupt nexus of billionaires, government, and media companies is skewing the field on which our democratic debate plays out. That can’t be allowed to continue.

Functional democracy is impossible without truth, and truth is elusive without a free and fair information system. UK laws on media regulation – from newspapers to TV to social networks – have been neglected for decades and now fall woefully short of being fit for purpose. As with so many of our democratic safeguards, we are now paying a heavy price for that neglect.

Our report includes recommendations drawn from the work of seasoned press reform campaigners, HackedOff. Those recommendations show how we can begin to address the disrepair in the system. The first thing we must do is take press reform seriously. We must open our eyes to the dire state of the UK media environment and pick up where the Leveson inquiry left off. If we don’t, we will become an Orwellian state in which none of us has the information we need to make proper democratic decisions. (Read thereport for full details of our recommendations.)

Many British people believe that the UK has some natural immunity to authoritarianism and that our democracy is a given. It doesn’t and it isn’t. Democracy, freedom, and fairness only survive if enough good people are prepared to engage in the constant struggle required to maintain them. The right-wing ghouls over at GB News may have the advantage now, but by working together, by organising and mobilising, our movement, nearly 300,000 strong, will turn the tide.

Best wishes,

The Open Britain Team‘

Have GB News Revealed Their Real Views on Democracy?

A day or so ago pro-Palestinian protesters painted graffiti over the Labour party’s headquarters, doubtless in protest at Starmer’s continuing support for the Israeli state and its ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians. GB News has posted a video about this, and the response of Lord Walney. Walney has blamed the far left, of course, and according to the blurb for the video said it shouldn’t be allowed. I haven’t watched the video, but I was struck by its thumbnail. This had the line ‘Democracy has failed!’ Well, I always had the suspicion that GB News didn’t believe in democracy. This is the broadcaster that flouts Ofcom regulations against employing politicians as news presenters. And it has been described by one Labour MP as having two points of view: right, and far right. With this latest headline from them, I’m left wondering if they’ve got a portrait of Oswald Mosley down in the basement. I suppose it’s a good thing that there’s no longer a TV closedown, as there was when I was growing up in the 1970s. The TV companies went off at about 10.30 or so. Just before then, there was the Epilogue, which I think consisted of a clergyman or other spiritual person giving us his thought for the day. Then I think you had the national anthem and that was it. Programmes are over, it’s time for bed. If GB News ended its broadcasting like that, I wonder if instead of ‘God Save the King’, we’d have the Nazi anthem, the Horst Wessel Song, and a photo of Mussolini.

But I think they have a point – democracy has failed. It’s failed because the three main parties don’t believe in it. Leaving aside the controversy over Scotland’s hate crime laws for a moment, neither Labour nor the Tories actually want to give the British public what they want. Poll after poll shows that severely normal Brits want a fully nationalised NHS and trains and the public utilities taken back into public ownership. A majority of Brits also want arms sales to Israel to stop. But neither party wants to enact such policies. Despite the massive profiteering of Thames Water, one of the Tory ministers appeared on TV the other day to say that nationalisation wasn’t the answer. Well, of course not. It would prevent their corporate chums from screwing their customers and then screwing the British taxpayer to bail them out. The Tories have been passing legislation after legislation to make public protests and demonstrations difficult, and both Blair and the Tories also set the legal foundations for secret courts. These are tribunals where, if it is deemed in the interest of national security, the trial may be held behind closed doors with the defendant not informed who his accuser is or the evidence against him.

Democracy is being stifled thanks to Labour and the Tories. It’s time to consider voting for the other parties, like the Greens and Independents, who may offer the voting public what they really want and need.

Open Britain Asks: How Many Brexit Lies Is That Now?

Dear David,

Back in 2016, Nigel Farage adamantly claimed that getting Brexit done means making food cheaper. Three years later, the Brexit party desperately tried to woo voters with promises of affordable groceries. Just last June, Jacob Rees-Mogg boldly assertedthat Brexit would cut fees and “allow us to lower food prices.” Despite how often that lie has been repeated by Brexit hardliners, it’s remained just that – a lie.

Yesterday, DEFRA revealed that a new flat fee – the “common user charge” – will apply to animal and plant product imports starting on April 30th. The government, who, true to form, announced the changes at the very last minute, claimed that the proceeds will go to “world-class” border detention facilities. Where is their mandate to make consumers pay for their red-meat election fodder?

Once again, we’re hit with the harsh reality that our rights have been traded away for nothing other than a pack of lies. Students and professionals have lost their ability to roam Europe, the institutions protecting our human rights are under siege, and the “red tape” (the laws that once protected UK consumers) has been slashed. Quite a heavy price to pay for empty promises and delusions of grandeur.

Of course, the zealots of the Brexit cult already have a different spin. The Conservatives’ chums at TheExpress and GB News are giddy today, celebrating imaginary victories from their alternate reality. As Upton Sinclair once said, “It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it.”

The Brexit cult has spread its evangelical fervour throughout government and media. Lies debunked years ago – currently being disproven once again before our eyes – are still being repeated. It’s no accident or anomaly: broken political systems produce broken political results.

We need to build a political environment where lies like these carry consequence. Where mechanisms exist to hold politician’s feet to the fire. Where the voice of the majority triumphs over powerful extremists and cultish demagogues. It’s not impossible – we have the blueprints. We just need to start building.

Yours,

The Open Britain Team‘

Campaign Update from Richard Burgon

I’ve left the Labour party, but still have immense respect for Labour MPs like Richard Burgon who are still campaigning for socialist solutions in the party, and I wish he and they the very best.

‘Dear Friend

I hope you are well and looking forward to the Easter break.

Below is an update on my key campaigning in recent months, including for a real ceasefire in Gaza, an end to austerity and for Julian Assange to be freed.

In the coming weeks, I’ll be presenting a new Climate Change Bill in Parliament to stop MPs being able to take any funding from the oil and gas companies driving the climate crisis – so keep your eye out for that!

In solidarity,

Richard

CAMPAIGNING AGAINST ISRAELI WAR CRIMES IN GAZA

Israel’s war on Gaza has left over 32,000 dead, most of them women and children. Famine is hitting Gaza, hospitals cannot get the medical supplies they need, and aid is not getting in. The situation is catastrophic.

Although the recent UN Security Council ceasefire resolution is incredibly welcome, it is already being ignored and, as I said in Parliament this week, our Government must now take action to ensure it is enforced and Israel respects this ceasefire vote and international law.

I have been working in Parliament for our Government to end arms sales to Israel and to hold the Israeli Government to account over its war crimes in Gaza.

This has included hosting a series of evidence sessions attended by dozens of MPs with leading global experts. I will be presenting evidence from these sessions to the International Criminal Court in the coming weeks and demanding that justice is done.

I have also been campaigning on the very real possibility that UK military exports were used in an Israeli military airstrike on a compound housing British doctors volunteering in Gaza. You can watch my question on this in Parliament here.

I’ve written to Foreign Secretary David Cameron demanding the Government launches an investigation into whether UK-supplied military equipment was used in the bombing of British doctors volunteering in Gaza.

NO MORE CUTS, NO MORE AUSTERITY

This month Chancellor Jeremy Hunt delivered his budget with no real solutions to the deep crisis facing our communities and that plans yet more austerity.

Austerity has driven down wages, stagnated our economy, and shattered our public services, including pushing our NHS to breaking point. Over 300,000 people have died as a result of Tory austerity.

We need to build the movements to ensure austerity is ditched for good.

In Parliament, I recently called for an urgent debate on the damage caused by austerity economics. You can watch my speech here.

We need a wealth tax on the super-rich

Deep inequality scars our economy. The rich are getting ever richer, while the vast majority are losing out. Ahead of the Budget, I organised a meeting with leading campaigners for economic justice to look at how we build an economy that serves the 99% not the top 1%.

I will keep campaigning for wealth taxes on the super-rich so that we tackle inequality and to get the resources needed to rebuild our broken public services.

FREE JULIAN ASSANGE

Julian Assange could spend the rest of his life in a US prison for his journalistic work including for exposing war crimes in US-led wars on Afghanistan and Iraq.

Extradition would strike a blow against press freedom. It would set a dangerous precedent for other journalists and media organisations the world over.

I have been campaigning in Parliament and beyond for Julian Assange to be freed. Ahead of the High Court ruling on Assange’s case, I spoke at the demonstration there demanding that Assange is not extradited to the US, making it clear that exposing war crimes is not a crime.

I also spoke to Left Foot Forward on the huge implications his extradition would have for human rights and press freedom around the world.

Following the High Court’s decision, It is welcome that Julian Assange will not be extradited immediately. But the danger to Julian Assange and to wider press freedoms remains.

HELP ME TAKE ON THE TORIES

A general election could happen any time. As part of my campaign to get re-elected, I’ll be contacting tens of thousands of constituents before the election. But to do so takes time, resources and support from activists.

The Tories may have their dodgy donors but we have a movement of people wanting to make a real difference in these difficult times.  

I know times are very hard for many of you but for those who wish to, and can, make a donation to my local campaigning ahead of the General Election, you can do so here. Every penny will be used towards my re-election campaign.

Thanks, as always, for your continued support.

Richard Burgon