Hope Not Hate’s official advice to the “refugee and migration sector” is to state that “there is no evidence to suggest that men from particular racial, ethnic or religious groups are more likely to be perpetrators of gender-based violence” and that “to suggest otherwise is racist.” Multiple independent reviews and the government’s own work disagrees…
In a 2023 guide “aimed at organisations or individuals in the refugee and migration sector who are concerned about allegations of gender-based violence being linked to anti-migrant sentiment in the community” the prominent activist organisation – with links to Labour – gives very specific advice if migrants are accused of crime:
Baroness Casey’s major audit this year, for example, found that police and council authorities covered up the scale of Asian grooming gangs since 2009 because they were scared of being called racist. As Guido has revealed, this organisation has penetrated the highest levels of the Labour government…
The UK services sector has now clocked up a full year of pessimism, according to the Confederation of Business Industry’s latest survey of 400 businesses. For four straight quarters optimism about the general business situation has continued to decline. Just more than a year into Labour…
Profitability crashed last quarter (-42%) at the fastest rate since August 2020. Headcount in business and professional services fell again (-16%, down from -28% in July). Firms are braced for hefty cutbacks in land and building investment. The finger of blame is pointing squarely at Reeves’ tax raid. CBI Deputy Chief Economist Alpesh Paleja said:
“Our latest survey paints a grim picture of the services sector. Rising employment costs continue to drive cost pressures higher, while subdued demand conditions are holding pricing power in check. The impact is being felt in lower hiring, investment and profits, with companies increasingly shifting focus to short-term fire-fighting.”
The CBI is also urging Rayner to rethink her (un)employment rights bill, warning it will clobber businesses even harder. And this is before the next budget does its worst…
Sadiq Khan has today linked protests outside asylum hotels with “hate crime and extremism.” To think Guido was worried Khan might not stick his foot in it this week…
In a press release this morning the London mayor announced “fresh investment to fight hate crime and extremism in London.” Khan is allocating £875,000 for various projects and learning initiatives on the topic. That includes funding for “Tech Against Terrorism” to “deliver schools-based workshops helping students to recognise harmful and radicalising content online.” In the press release Khanm adds:
“The action comes as anti-migrant hotel protests are becoming more common place in the capital and arrests for those aged 17 and under for terror related offences in the UK remained high, with 43 arrests in the last year.”
Khan goes on to attack X for failing “to act on 97 per cent of posts calling for violence against migrants or Muslims that are reported to the platform” and claims “the Mayor’s investment encourages Londoners to continue to celebrate our diversity and reject hateful and divisive narratives.” Susan Hall, leader of the City Hall Conservatives, said he should apologise:
“This tells you everything you need to know about the Labour Party’s attitude to illegal migration and stopping the small boats – it is disgraceful to conflate peaceful protest and freedom of speech with extremism. Clearly the Mayor should apologise.”
The campaign against migrant hotel protests in full swing…
US tech firms 4chan and Kiwi Farms are now suing Ofcom with a U.S. federal lawsuit. They dub the regulator “The UK’s Industry-Funded Global Censorship Bureau”, accusing it of targeting them for “overtly political reasons.” The online safety act getting quite the reception across the pond…
Ofcom fined 4chan £20,000 for breaching the act last month. Law firms Byrne & Storm and the Coleman Law Firm have been engaged to file suit. Tech lawyer Preston Byrne said:
“American citizens do not surrender our constitutional rights just because Ofcom sends us an e-mail. In the face of these unlawful foreign demands, our clients have bravely chosen to assert their constitutional rights. The Act is a brazen attempt by a foreign country to hobble American competitiveness and suffocate American freedom by exporting the UK’s censorship laws to our shores.”
Meanwhile, Trump is threatening “substantial” tariffs on countries that “discriminate” against US tech with taxes and regulation. Time to fire up those VPNs…
Ed Davey has declared he’s boycotting President Trump’s state banquet in mid-September, saying it’s the “only way to send a message to both Donald Trump and Keir Starmer that they cannot close their eyes and wish away the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.” An odd way to make yourself heard – by not turning up…
Unsurprisingly, Tories have accused him of “disrespecting the King”. Davey pushed back on the Today Programme:
“I’ve written to [the King] personally and the fact, as I say, that I’ve had to wrestle with it shows that no disrespect is meant to the King at all. I’ve thought and prayed about this, I really have.”
So after much soul-searching, Davey’s protest amounts to an empty seat at dinner. That’ll show the President…
Rumours coming from government sources pen a reshuffle in for as early as Monday. The fact one is close is confirmed by the sacking of Starmer’s PPS Nin Pandit this morning…
More movement could take place today. Downing Street sources say a reshuffle would include SpAd personnel and junior-to-middling ministerial ranks. Rushanara Ali’s ministerial role has yet to find a new occupant, for example…
The long-briefed about promotions of Labour’s new intake – who have grown more restless since Christmas – are expected. For political staff the focus of the Downing Street personnel reshuffle will be to get political director Claire Reynolds out of her current role. Reynolds was blamed for the welfare defeat and was up for the chop after a flurry of briefing against Morgan McSweeney calmed down. Back to school…
Lucy Powell on LBC, asked by Tom Swarbrick for her reaction to Labour MP Samantha Niblett’s call for a ‘summer of sex’ debate in Parliament: “I personally don’t own any sex toys, but each to their own… I’m not really sure that’s the right place for it, no.”