Mar 28, 2019 08:49 PM
Grenfell: tenants voice health fears in wake of contamination report (UK community)
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019...ion-report
INTRO: Residents living in the shadow of Grenfell Tower have said they fear for their health after an independent study found cancer-causing chemicals near to the 24-storey block, which was destroyed by fire in 2017. The study published on Wednesday identified “significant environmental contamination” from toxins collected 17 months after the blaze from a flat 160 metres from the site. Tenants living on the Lancaster West estate, of which Grenfell Tower is part, said they are being kept in the dark about potential harms. Many spoke of symptoms suffered by family members, which they fear might be linked to the pollutants. (MORE)
Four million kids living in poverty as earnings fall (UK community)
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/...nings-fall
INTRO: More than four million children are in poverty, new government statistics show as household incomes “ground to a halt” and absolute poverty rose last year. And nearly three quarters (70 per cent) of children on the breadline had at least one parent in work. according to new data revealed today by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). The total number of people living in relative poverty in 2018 stood at 14 million — a slight decrease from 14.3m in 2017 — but the number in absolute poverty rose. Two hundred thousand more children were recorded in absolute poverty.
And the proportion of children in poverty whose parents are in work has grown. Shadow work and pensions secretary Margaret Greenwood said that it is a “national scandal” when 14m people are classed as poor in one of the richest countries in the world. She said: “The government must wake up to these figures, end the benefit freeze and stop the roll-out of universal credit which is pushing people into poverty.” (MORE)
How Theresa May Went From "The New Iron Lady" To The Leader Who "Betrayed Brexit" (UK community)
https://www.buzzfeed.com/alexspence/ther...t-betrayal
EXCERPT: . . . In an emotional closed-door meeting in the House of Commons, May told Conservative colleagues she will stand down if her Brexit deal passes, acknowledging a painful reality that had become increasingly clear in recent weeks: The ruling party will not allow the leader who negotiated a withdrawal agreement with the European Union that many of them regard as a national humiliation to be the one to shape Britain’s post-Brexit future.
It’s still far from certain when exactly May will leave. She did not give a date in her announcement to Tory MPs, and her departure appeared contingent on her controversial Brexit deal passing. It’s unclear what she will do if that does not happen. But there’s no doubt that the clock is fast ticking down on her premiership and it seems highly unlikely that she could now cling on if she tried.
May could still leave Downing Street with at least one substantial achievement, if her last-ditch admission persuades enough of her mutinous colleagues to change their minds about her deal. She would be the prime minister who guaranteed a phased withdrawal from the union and left a solid foundation for the next phase of the negotiations. But that is far less than the transformative legacy May envisaged when she took over from David Cameron three years ago.
[...] When she entered Number 10 amid the chaotic fallout from the EU referendum in the summer of 2016, May portrayed herself as a steely, competent, pragmatic leader who would unite a bitterly divided country, put Brussels in its place, and steer the UK into a bright future as an independent trading nation. More than that, she promised a transformational programme of social and economic reforms that would address the grievances that led more than 17 million people to vote to leave. She would be the Tory leader who repositioned the party as that of the hard-working “just managing” masses who felt that modern life had left them behind.
Brexit means Brexit. No deal is better than a bad deal. Strong and stable leadership. The platitudes turned out to be hollow, and breezy promises about the UK’s prospects were crushed by the grinding reality of the withdrawal process. Disentangling the UK from its biggest trading and security partner while reconciling the contradictory expectations of a profoundly divided nation was already a monumental task, and May made it worse through her own mistakes: triggering Article 50 before there was a plan, calling an early election when she didn’t have to (throwing away her majority), and a secretive negotiating strategy that seemed designed to wear down her opponents rather than to build consensus. It crippled her government.
The final months of May’s premiership will be remembered as some of the most turbulent a prime minister has endured in modern times. With no majority, Parliament gridlocked and her own back benches in open rebellion, she could barely squeeze legislation through the Commons. Domestic policy achievements were few and far between. Cabinet discipline broke down, there was a steady stream of ministerial resignations, and MPs voted down her Brexit policy by a historically large margin — twice. Hopes of national rebirth gave way to talk of betrayal and humiliation. The country was angrier, more divided than ever, and no closer to an agreement on what it wants its relationship to Europe to be after it leaves the union.
And May’s personal authority was shredded. A leader who once appeared to be so commanding that the Tory-supporting Daily Mail proclaimed her a new Margaret Thatcher has instead been accused by her own MPs of selling out the millions who voted Leave. In one particularly low moment, a senior backbencher accused her in a Commons debate this week of presiding over “the most shameful surrender by a British leader since Singapore in 1942”. To many disgruntled Tories, the prime minister herself had become an obstacle to resolving Brexit, and new leadership is now the price of their capitulation... (MORE)
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019...ion-report
INTRO: Residents living in the shadow of Grenfell Tower have said they fear for their health after an independent study found cancer-causing chemicals near to the 24-storey block, which was destroyed by fire in 2017. The study published on Wednesday identified “significant environmental contamination” from toxins collected 17 months after the blaze from a flat 160 metres from the site. Tenants living on the Lancaster West estate, of which Grenfell Tower is part, said they are being kept in the dark about potential harms. Many spoke of symptoms suffered by family members, which they fear might be linked to the pollutants. (MORE)
Four million kids living in poverty as earnings fall (UK community)
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/...nings-fall
INTRO: More than four million children are in poverty, new government statistics show as household incomes “ground to a halt” and absolute poverty rose last year. And nearly three quarters (70 per cent) of children on the breadline had at least one parent in work. according to new data revealed today by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). The total number of people living in relative poverty in 2018 stood at 14 million — a slight decrease from 14.3m in 2017 — but the number in absolute poverty rose. Two hundred thousand more children were recorded in absolute poverty.
And the proportion of children in poverty whose parents are in work has grown. Shadow work and pensions secretary Margaret Greenwood said that it is a “national scandal” when 14m people are classed as poor in one of the richest countries in the world. She said: “The government must wake up to these figures, end the benefit freeze and stop the roll-out of universal credit which is pushing people into poverty.” (MORE)
How Theresa May Went From "The New Iron Lady" To The Leader Who "Betrayed Brexit" (UK community)
https://www.buzzfeed.com/alexspence/ther...t-betrayal
EXCERPT: . . . In an emotional closed-door meeting in the House of Commons, May told Conservative colleagues she will stand down if her Brexit deal passes, acknowledging a painful reality that had become increasingly clear in recent weeks: The ruling party will not allow the leader who negotiated a withdrawal agreement with the European Union that many of them regard as a national humiliation to be the one to shape Britain’s post-Brexit future.
It’s still far from certain when exactly May will leave. She did not give a date in her announcement to Tory MPs, and her departure appeared contingent on her controversial Brexit deal passing. It’s unclear what she will do if that does not happen. But there’s no doubt that the clock is fast ticking down on her premiership and it seems highly unlikely that she could now cling on if she tried.
May could still leave Downing Street with at least one substantial achievement, if her last-ditch admission persuades enough of her mutinous colleagues to change their minds about her deal. She would be the prime minister who guaranteed a phased withdrawal from the union and left a solid foundation for the next phase of the negotiations. But that is far less than the transformative legacy May envisaged when she took over from David Cameron three years ago.
[...] When she entered Number 10 amid the chaotic fallout from the EU referendum in the summer of 2016, May portrayed herself as a steely, competent, pragmatic leader who would unite a bitterly divided country, put Brussels in its place, and steer the UK into a bright future as an independent trading nation. More than that, she promised a transformational programme of social and economic reforms that would address the grievances that led more than 17 million people to vote to leave. She would be the Tory leader who repositioned the party as that of the hard-working “just managing” masses who felt that modern life had left them behind.
Brexit means Brexit. No deal is better than a bad deal. Strong and stable leadership. The platitudes turned out to be hollow, and breezy promises about the UK’s prospects were crushed by the grinding reality of the withdrawal process. Disentangling the UK from its biggest trading and security partner while reconciling the contradictory expectations of a profoundly divided nation was already a monumental task, and May made it worse through her own mistakes: triggering Article 50 before there was a plan, calling an early election when she didn’t have to (throwing away her majority), and a secretive negotiating strategy that seemed designed to wear down her opponents rather than to build consensus. It crippled her government.
The final months of May’s premiership will be remembered as some of the most turbulent a prime minister has endured in modern times. With no majority, Parliament gridlocked and her own back benches in open rebellion, she could barely squeeze legislation through the Commons. Domestic policy achievements were few and far between. Cabinet discipline broke down, there was a steady stream of ministerial resignations, and MPs voted down her Brexit policy by a historically large margin — twice. Hopes of national rebirth gave way to talk of betrayal and humiliation. The country was angrier, more divided than ever, and no closer to an agreement on what it wants its relationship to Europe to be after it leaves the union.
And May’s personal authority was shredded. A leader who once appeared to be so commanding that the Tory-supporting Daily Mail proclaimed her a new Margaret Thatcher has instead been accused by her own MPs of selling out the millions who voted Leave. In one particularly low moment, a senior backbencher accused her in a Commons debate this week of presiding over “the most shameful surrender by a British leader since Singapore in 1942”. To many disgruntled Tories, the prime minister herself had become an obstacle to resolving Brexit, and new leadership is now the price of their capitulation... (MORE)