The UK Spends More Of Its Military Budget On Nuclear Weapons Than Any Other State

The UK Government Continued Arming Israel During Its Onslaught On Gaza.
Data shows Rishi Sunak’s Tory government approved 42 military export licences to Israel between October 7, 2023 and May 31, 2024 while no licences for military goods were refused or cancelled.
A further 66 licences were for items classed as “non-military”.
These include “telecommunications equipment, chemical manufacturing equipment, and imaging cameras” which could be used by Israel’s military.
The UK government’s decision to greenlight more than 100 such export deals with Israel could open up British ministers to international arrest applications over complicity in war crimes.

Emily Apple from Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT), said:
“These figures show that it’s business as usual for arms dealers to break international law and continue arming Israel’s genocide. The Conservative government and the UK arms trade are complicit in the horrendous war crimes that Israel is committing against Palestinian people in Gaza. Despite overwhelming evidence of the atrocities Israel is perpetrating, this data release shows that the government has not refused or revoked a single licence”.

The new figures further show that Britain had 345 active arms export licences with Israel as of May 31, 2024 most of which were approved before October 7, 2023.
These licences cover “components for military aircraft, components for military vehicles, and components for combat naval vessels”, as well as non-military equipment such as “technology for spacecraft”.
A further 155 standard and 27 open licences to Israel are categorised as “in-progress”.
The data does not offer any information on the value of the arms transfers, or the specific items that have been licenced for export.
( John McEvoy, 11.06.2024 )  ..  declassifieduk.org

UK Children Living In Poverty.
4.3 million children in relative poverty after housing costs (30% of all children in the UK).
826,000 children live in households that have used foodbanks in the last year.
34% children in poverty live in lone parent households.
43% of children in poverty live in a household where someone has a disability.
35% of children in poverty live in a household headed by someone from an ethnic minority (defined as non White British).
50% of children in poverty live in a household with 3 or more children – affected by the sibling tax (two child limit).
Absolute poverty has also risen. There are now 3.6 million children in absolute poverty compared to 3.3 last year.
Figures from:
Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), released 21 March 2024, GOV.UK website, statistical release

“These shocking figures should be an urgent wake up call to all of us, especially the UK Government. We cannot go on like this. There is no reason children should be going without food, heating, toys, or beds. Families need an adequate social security system that keeps children out of poverty, and provides them with a basic level of safety and security. The UK Government must scrap the unfair two-child-limit, and introduce a ‘child lock’ on children’s social security to protect children from hardship and suffering.”
( Meghan Meek-O’Connor, senior child poverty policy adviser at Save the Children UK )
savethechildren.org

Fifteen new MPs accepted funding from pro-Israel lobby groups before they were even elected to parliament.
The donations were provided by the Labour and Conservative Friends of Israel groups, which aim to promote Israel’s interests in Britain but do not disclose their own sources of funding.
Twelve successful Labour candidates and three Conservatives travelled to Israel with these organisations in the year leading up to Britain’s general election.
The total cost of the trips was over £30,000, with some of them taking place amid Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza and being described as “solidarity” missions.
( John McEvoy, 27.08.2024 )  ..  declassifieduk.org

Since the start of the October 2023 Israeli onslaught on Gaza, there has been an acceleration in illegal-settlement growth in the illegally-occupied West Bank in Palestine.
Extremists in Israel’s government boast that these changes will prevent an independent Palestinian state from ever being created.
There are fears, too, that they seek to prolong the war in Gaza to suit their goals.
Since the outbreak of the attack on Gaza, settler violence against Palestinian civilians in the West Bank has surged.
Between October 7, 2023 and August 2024, 589 Palestinians were killed in the West Bank – at least 570 by Israeli forces and at least 11 by settlers, according to the UN.
In July 2024, when the UN’s top court found for the first time that Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, was illegal, it said the country should halt all settlement activity and withdraw as soon as possible.
( BBC INDEPTH, 27.08.2024 )  ..  bbc.co.uk

The UK spends a larger portion of its military budget on nuclear weapons than any other state, a major report reveals.
The Conservative government put 12% of defence expenditure – equivalent to £12,000 every minute – towards the UK’s arsenal of at least 225 nuclear warheads.
Sunak and his Tories increased spending on nuclear weapons in 2023 by 17% to £6.5 billion – a greater increase than any other nuclear power except the U.S.
Over the last five years UK expenditure rose by a staggering 43%.

The Liberal Democrats’ policy is identical to those of the Conservatives and Labour, saying they will “maintain the UK’s nuclear deterrent with four submarines providing continuous at-sea deterrence”.
The Scottish National Party has a long record of being opposed to nuclear weapons, which it says are “wrong strategically, morally and financially.”
They say it supports long-term investment in the Trident submarine base in Faslane but as a conventional military base.
The Green party says it would “dismantle Britain’s entire Trident nuclear deterrent and remove all foreign nuclear weapons from UK soil.”
( Richard Norton-Taylor, 17.06.2024 )  ..  declassifieduk.org

Both The U.S. President And The U.S. Secretary Of State Were Being Untruthful.
During a press conference in Doha, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was less than honest about a United States-proposed Gaza ceasefire deal.
During the course of his opening remarks and the question and answer session, Blinken made several statements that are either transparently untrue or deeply misleading.
First, Blinken insisted that the three-phased ceasefire deal announced by U.S. President Joe Biden on May 31, 2024 was an “Israeli proposal” and that Israel fully backs it.
When asked during the question and answer session whether the U.S. was attempting to put pressure on Israel to accept the proposal, Blinken said there was no need to do so because Israel had already accepted it.
But Blinken was being untruthful.

Biden proposed the deal because he was desperate to get out from under his disastrous Gaza policy before the start of the Democratic National Convention.
Biden’s proclamation that it was an “Israeli proposal” simply isn’t true.
In the two weeks since Biden made his announcement, Israeli officials have not come forward and announced their acceptance of the deal.
In fact, they’ve done the opposite.
Israeli officials have made clear that they oppose the Biden draft proposal.
( Mohamad Elmasry, 14.06.2024 )  ..  aljazeera.com

King Charles, When Prince Charles, Received An Award From A Nazi Collaborator.
A photograph has been discovered of the then Prince Charles receiving an award from a former member of the Waffen-SS.
Charles was given an honorary law degree during a ceremony at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada in 1983.
In his acceptance speech, Charles praised those who had “sacrificed their lives 40 years ago” in the fight against Adolf Hitler.
Yet the award was conferred on him by a Nazi collaborator – the university’s chancellor Peter Savaryn.
Originally from Ukraine, he served in the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS – the so-called Galicia division – during World War Two.
Savaryn was among thousands of Waffen-SS Galicia men who escaped to the West after 1945, often with British assistance.
He included a photo of himself on stage with Charles in his Ukrainian-language autobiography ‘From Ternopil to Alberta’ published in 2007, a decade before his death.
Princess Diana was also pictured with Savaryn several times, with one photo still hosted on the University of Alberta’s website.
( Hunter Pauli, 28.05.2024 )  ..  declassifieduk.org

The Unlawfulness Of Israel’s Presence In The West Bank.
The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) calls on the international community to intervene and protect Palestinian communities after Israeli settler violence in the northeast of the West Bank caused the largest wave of forcible transfers of Palestinian communities since the weeks following October 7, 2023.
Three communities comprising 119 Palestinians have been forced out over the past 10 days after Israeli settlers attacked community members in their homes, erected new settler outposts and blocked access to water.

Allegra Pacheco, chief of the NRC-led West Bank Protection Consortium (WBPC), said:
“We are urgently appealing to the international community, including to the United States and the European Union, to intervene with the Israeli authorities and protect these vulnerable communities. Those that left want to return to their lands and livelihoods as soon as it is safe. Israeli authorities, as the occupying power, bear direct responsibility for the actions of violent settlers. These attacks, occurring in broad daylight under the watching eyes and the protective force of the Israeli military, highlight the unlawfulness of Israel’s presence in the West Bank, as recently ruled by the International Court of Justice. Palestinians are being forced to leave their land in what clearly constitutes a grave breach of international humanitarian law.”
( Norwegian Refugee Council, 21.08.2024 )  ..  nrc.no/news

Over 21,000 asylum seekers have gone missing in the UK in the past 5 years.
Figures obtained from the Home Office show that officials have been unable to locate at least 21,107 foreign nationals who claimed to be refugees.
The vast majority of those who have disappeared have no right to remain in the UK because their claims have been refused or withdrawn – and the true figure will be far higher as the data covers only the five years up to September 2023.
( MailOnline, 06.05.2024 )  ..  dailymail.co.uk

A British Spy Squad Has Been Assisting Israel On The Bombing Of Gaza.
A senior Israeli official has said that a British spy team has been deployed to Israel since it began bombing Gaza in October 2023.
The new information came in a New York Times article about Israel’s rescue of four hostages during a raid that also killed hundreds of Palestinians.
Israel is currently being investigated for genocide at the World Court while the International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor seeks arrest warrants for Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his defence minister Yoav Gallant.
British ministers could be legally vulnerable as more information comes to light about their supporting role in Israel’s war on Gaza.
The New York Times article noted that “intelligence collection and analysis teams from the United States and Britain have been in Israel throughout the war”.
It continued that the British personnel were “assisting Israeli intelligence in collecting and analysing information related to the hostages, some of them citizens of both countries”.
The Israeli official said “the outside intelligence” provided by Britain had given them “added value”.
( Matt Kennard, 11.06.2024 )  ..  declassifieduk.org

Senior Conservative MP Robert Jenrick registered a £5,000 donation from a company that is inactive – in what could constitute a breach of electoral rules.
He received the donation from ‘Firefly Digital Limited’, which has been registered as ‘dormant’ since 2017, according to filings with Companies House.
Electoral rules in the UK are explicit that donations can only come from permissible sources – which for firms means that they must be “carrying on business in the UK”.
In other words, they must be actively trading.
This rule prevents shell companies being used to funnel improperly cash to political figures, for example, non-Brits living overseas.
Firefly Digital Limited, however, has filed dormant company accounts for seven years, with the latest records showing assets of just £1 and no profits.
This strongly suggests that it is not actively conducting business within the UK.
Firefly Digital Limited is ultimately owned by Hilton Nathanson, a British-Australian hedge fund manager.
Nathanson also donated £5,000 to Levelling-Up Secretary Michael Gove last year.
Jenrick was forced to resign as Housing Secretary in 2020 amid a donations scandal, when it emerged that he had overturned a planning inspector’s decision to award planning permission for a £1billion property scheme by media tycoon Richard Desmond – just a fortnight before he donated £12,000 to the Conservative Party.
( Josiah Mortimer, 20.05.2024 )  ..  bylinetimes.com

The UK All-Party Parliamentary Group For The Prevention Of Genocide Show No Urgency To Save Lives In Gaza.
There remains little appetite among Britain’s political class to end the genocide in Gaza.
But the indifference to Palestinian suffering does not appear confined to individual politicians and vested party interests.
Rather, it is a culture across Westminster.
One example is the All-Party Parliamentary Group for the Prevention of Genocide (APPG).
This is a cross-party group which apparently aims to ensure Britain does all it can to stop genocides and crimes against humanity.
Yet the group has shown no urgency to save lives in Gaza.

Its chairwoman is Fleur Anderson, an opposition MP for Putney.
She is also listed as a parliamentary member of Labour Friends of Israel (LFI).
Can her APPG really be committed to preventing genocide while she also participates in a lobby group that white-washes settler colonialism and ethnic cleansing in Palestine?
Just in January 2024, LFI organised its largest solidarity delegation to Israel in over a decade and proudly posed with president Isaac Herzog.
They went there even as Israel was on trial for genocide at the World Court and Herzog himself was singled out for his dangerous language as evidence of incitement.
In November 2023, during parliament’s vote for an immediate ceasefire, 56 Labour MPs defied the party whip and voted for it.
Anderson was not one of them.

This degree of dissonance appears to be a running theme among the other officers at the APPG.
Brendan O’Hara MP, the Scottish National Party’s foreign affairs spokesperson has been fervently calling for a ceasefire.
However, he attended a reception hosted by ADS Group, which represents arms companies directly linked to Israel’s bombardment of Gaza, like Elbit Systems.
Another officer listed on the website is distinguished human rights barrister Baroness Helena Kennedy KC.
In an interview with Prospect magazine in late October 2023, she argued unwaveringly that Israel has a right to self-defence.
Two days after the publishing of that article, as Israel’s violence in Gaza intensified, an open letter was signed by more than 1,000 UK lawyers.
They called on the government to fulfil its international obligations and ensure de-escalation.
Kennedy was not among the signatories.
( Hamza Yusuf, 13.05.2024 )  ..  declassifieduk.org

The Lack Of Political Will To Address Unfairness And Inequality In The UK.
A report from the Fairness Foundation says that Britain will become more unfair and unequal over the next five years, with growing inequality in health, housing, poverty and the north-south income divide.
More than 30 people from business, academia and civil society have backed the report’s findings in a letter to all party leaders which expresses their dismay at the “lack of political will to address unfairness and inequality” in the UK.
“We believe that this is not only morally wrong, but is causing deep damage to our society, economy and democracy, and undermining the fight against the climate crisis,” they say.
“Failure to act now will make us less healthy, productive, efficient, resilient and cohesive.”
The new report, Canaries, warns that the number of children in relative poverty is set to rise from 30% to 33% by 2028, due to a freeze in housing benefit, the end of cost of living payments and the two-child benefit cap.
( James Tapper, 30.06.2024 )  ..  theguardian.com

Britain’s military has flown 60 aircraft to Israel since it began bombing Gaza in October 2023.
Most of the flights have gone from RAF Akrotiri, the UK’s sprawling air base on Cyprus, which is being secretly used by the U.S. Air Force to transport weapons to Israel.
The vast majority of the British flights went in the first four months after Israel began bombing Gaza.
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) previously admitted that 48 flights had gone from October 2023 to February 2024.
In the following three months to May 8th., a further 11 flights went.
There is no record of any flights from RAF Akrotiri to Israel in the six months before October 7, 2023.
The purpose of these flights remains unclear.
The need for transparency has grown since the International Criminal Court issued an application for arrest warrants for Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his defence minister Yoav Gallant.
( Matt Kennard, 29.05.2024 )  ..  declassifieduk.org