Toilet access and other questions

 After October eye tests reception questions and hand sterilising in Maylord Street, Hereford, I asked my own waiting room question: “The toilet?”

Answer: “Our customer toilet is currently out of bounds — no-one to clean it at present. If you are desperate, you could nip over to the toilet at M&S and then get back here for your appointment.”

Map showing Hereford's toilet hotspot plus Maylord Street
plus Widemarsh Street, which is a falls hotspot

Customers’ mobility and other requirements vary, as do toilet queue lengths with or without ‘social distancing’. (And nearby Widemarsh Street is a notorious falls hotspot.) So it’s better that we ask our own questions before we are desperate.

Even before a dodgy post-Brexit US-USA trade deal wipes out our NHS, how about these questions affecting more people than those of us going for free eye tests:

What toilet provisions have been accounted for in the planning of Hereford GPs’ ‘Super Surgery’ on which construction has already begun?

What impacts does Post-Covid-19 lockdown bring to Planning considerations?

And before the UK is "taken to the cleaners" by global profiteers, what about the working conditions of cleaners?

The deadline for responses to the UK Government’s Planning White Paper is October 29th, while that White Paper is oriented to central government overruling local democracy. Whose interests does it serve, and therefore what institutions are more likely to devote staff time to responding while local democracy is starved of cash while laundered money from abroad further damages UK democracy?

PS: From my e-mail inbox, fresh in today:

"oh golly, toilets are such an issue for me. at present, it is difficult to escape hereford. i would like to catch bus to ross just for a change of scene but am anxious that i won't find a convenience in ross! with my elderly female bladder, i don't travel far from sanctuary of my own bathroom these days!

"another unexpected result of covid restrictions!"

Liberty petition against the Coronavirus Act

From: Martha Spurrier, Liberty <comms@liberty-human-rights.org.uk>Sent: 03 July 2020 14:53To: Subject: Scrap the Coronavirus Act
Dear _______
This weekend the lockdown is easing in most of England.
But while the end might appear to be in sight, the lockdown of our rights and freedoms has no firm time limit.
Exactly 100 days ago, the Government passed legislation – the Coronavirus Act – that was the most drastic reimagining of our civil liberties ever seen.
Since the start of the coronavirus outbreak people everywhere have shown they are willing to adapt to protect one another.
Liberty has always supported proportionate action to protect lives. But the Coronavirus Act has failed to uphold people’s rights while leaving the most marginalised worst affected.
This law harms human rights and puts our civil liberties in danger because the Act has no firm end date.
When this pandemic passes this law will still be on the statute books and some of its powers can be triggered at any time.
This means your civil liberties are in danger unless this law is scrapped.
Sign the petition to get rid of the Coronavirus Act and force the Government to instead focus on a response to the pandemic which protects human rights.
The Coronavirus Act was central to the Government’s pandemic response and was rushed through Parliament in just one day.
Some facts about the Act – and why it must be repealed:

• It gives the police broad new powers to detain anyone who could be infectious. But the Crown Prosecution Service has said that every single charge made under the Act has been wrong. 

• Our investigative journalism unit, Liberty Investigates, found that under regulations accompanying the Act, people of colour are 54 per cent more likely to be fined than white people. 

• It makes it legal for local councils to strip back social care. At least seven councils stopped providing even the most basic care services for disabled people in their areas.

• It threatens our right to protest.

• It failed to protect the most marginalised and the hostile environment has remained operational, even in the pandemic. 

• It allows the Government to suspend some elections. 

Remember, the Act has no firm end date. These powers could remain in place well beyond the pandemic.
But there is some hope. Thanks to Liberty and others, MPs can vote on whether to keep the Act or repeal it entirely. The Government will be reluctant to do this. But we must use this review as an opportunity to show how poor the Government’s response has been and why the Act must be repealed.
It is dangerous legislation that should never have been passed. The stranglehold on our civil liberties will remain until it’s scrapped.
Sign the petition to ask Government to get rid of the Coronavirus Act and focus on a response to the pandemic that protects our rights and freedoms.
Stay safe and stay well.

https://liberty.e-activist.com/page/63721/petition/1

Martha Spurrier
Director

See also
Liberty’s submission to the Joint Committee on Human Rights inquiry: The Government’s response to Covid-19: Human rights implications  – June 2020



Alan notes: Unjust laws go hand in glove with racist policing, etc. Would those responsible for the publication of the murder victims in the Fryent Country Park murders really be able to say to the families of the victims: "We are sorry for your loss"?

Criminal Charges

Jacqueline Henry started this petition to Cressida Dick / IOPC

Formal criminal charges should be brought against the two Metropolitan police officers who allegedly took and distributed photographs of the two Fryent Country Park murder victims, Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman

As a family we were assured that every respect would be shown to our beloved girls, and this disgraceful breach of their duty cannot be punished with just a disciplinary or the loss of a job.

These police officers have allegedly fallen woefully short of the high standards of integrity and behaviour that the public should be able to expect from the police service. They should face formal criminal charges of Misconduct in Public Office and under the Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015. It is an offence for a police officer to exercise power or privileges improperly. Distributing photographic material of murder victims outside of the confidentiality of the formal murder investigation is a clear abuse of power amounting to criminal misconduct.

The family are struggling to come to terms with the loss of the two beautiful bright lights  that have been taken from us, and we have to pray and believe that we will receive justice for their murders....

Continue reading at

https://www.change.org/p/cressida-dick-criminal-charges-6a88b520-e872-4b7e-ae32-cb81f4c2cb80

Are you registered to vote? Guest posting by [Labour supporting] TrixXxie of Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group, who has a Labour MP who supports Britain Remaining in the EU

Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group itself is non-party-political.
Whatever your party political preferences this General Election,
make sure you are registered to vote.

 

The day before the 2017 election a national newspaper predicted the largest Tory majority since Thatcher. Nearly every pollster predicted a Tory landslide. They had us down by up to 13 points - and a day later *we proved every single one of them wrong.*

This time around? An earthquake is happening. *Yesterday 300,000 people registered to vote.* More than 1.5 million young people have registered to vote since the start of the election.

We've got one more days to sign people up. *Share this link everywhere.*

https://www.gov.uk/register-to-vote

LB Camden to hold its own rally vs UK Parliament shut down

Originally published at Camden New Journal

Camden to hold its own rally against parliament shutdown

Demo to be staged in Russell Square on Saturday

29 August, 2019 — By Richard Osley





A RALLY against Boris Johnson’s decision to shut down parliament – a move widely seen as a measure to make it harder for MPs to oppose a no deal Brexit – is to be held in Camden this weekend.

Labour council leader Georgia Gould said this evening (Thursday) that opponents to a crashing divorce from Europe and the Prime Minister’s prorogation tactics were uniting for the event in set up for  Russell Square.

Cross-party speakers will take over the park on Saturday for the ‘Camden Defends Democracy Rally’ from 10,30 am with organisers urging residents to show the strength of feeling by joining them there.
Cllr Gould will be joined by Hampstead and Kilburn MP Tulip Siddiq, Holborn and St Pancras MP Sir Keir Starmer, Camden Unison branch secretary Liz Wheatley, Sian Berry, a councillor in Camden and also the Green Party’s national co-leader, and representatives from the Liberal Democrats.


After the rally, campaigners will head to a national protest outside Downing Street.

---

SEE ALSO ‘OUTRAGE’ AS BORIS JOHNSON SHUTS DOWN PARLIAMENT IN BREXIT BATTLE

---

“Camden will not stand by and watch an unelected Prime Minister trample on our democracy to force through a ‘no deal’ Brexit,” said Cllr Gould. “Camden is proud of our diverse community, our connections to Europe, our EU citizens, our openness and we stand in solidarity with our allies across the UK and EU making their voices heard..”

Around three quarters of Camden residents who took part in the 2016 EU referendum voted to remain in the union.

What might be included in Boris Johnson' 'bold new agenda' for the UK Parliament?

A local Green Party colleague sent me pdf [Portable Document Format] e-copy of what Boris Johnson had written MPs today toward suspending UK Parliament.

Boris Johnson's 'Dear Colleague[s, I'm suspending Parliament] letter, p1

Boris Johnson's 'Dear Colleague[s, I'm suspending Parliament] letter, p2

My colleague noted,

see attached for his dreadful letter, which unsurprisingly fails to mention climate change, inequality and child poverty  in his list of what needs to be done (add your own 'burning injustice)

 I responded:

I don't generally get around to read BoJo's literary output, and now I feel more justified in that omission.
Re Bojo's "bold new agenda," I guess that with Gove as Brexit Secretary, Gove's back story as Education Secretary

https://www.communitycare.co.uk/2013/11/12/gove-slams-social-work-education/#.UoNAveIqvKc

and as Justice Secretary

https://kilburnunemployed.blogspot.com/2017/07/did-tory-war-on-poor-weed-out-magistrates-opposed-to-push-button-mass-destruction-in-the-name-of-debt-recovery.html

gives us a foretaste of how being more Trump-trade deal friendly might fit in with such a 'bold agenda'.

Beyond that, I append text from my reply to someone's rather misinformed reference to Blair's welfare reforms being worse than his Tory predecessors got up to.

Best Wishes

Alan

[Someone wrote]

----extract starts----

i know the torys have taken things to extremes but it was labour that started the welfare reforms and a lot of the people are still there in the background

----extract ends----

"The people still there in the background" include senior Civil Servants, ex-Civil Servants, and a continuum of Government ministers and opposition spokespersons, as can be deduced from this article outlining the research of a medically retired RAF veteran, Mo Stewart.

Disabled researcher’s book exposes ‘corporate demolition of welfare state’

Disabled researcher’s book exposes ‘corporate demolition of welfare state’ A string of activists, academics, politicians and journalists have welcomed the publication of a new book by a d...

Eg,

----extract starts----

Disabled researcher’s book exposes ‘corporate demolition of welfare state’

By John Pring

John Pring the country's only news agency specialising in disability issues

on 15th September 2016

A string of activists, academics, politicians and journalists have welcomed the publication of a new book by a disabled researcher which exposes how successive governments have planned the “demolition of the welfare state”.

Mo Stewart has spent eight years researching the influence of the US insurance giant Unum over successive UK governments, and how it led to the introduction of the “totally bogus” work capability assessment (WCA), which she says was designed to make it harder for sick and disabled people to claim out-of-work disability benefits.

Stewart’s book, Cash Not Care: The Planned Demolition Of The UK Welfare State, published this week, argues that the assessment was modelled on methods used by Unum to deny protection to sick and disabled people in the US who had taken out income protection policies.

She says in her book that the WCA was “designed to remove as many as possible from access to [employment and support allowance] on route to the demolition of the welfare state”, with out-of-work disability benefits eventually to be replaced by insurance policies provided by companies like Unum.

She warns that the UK is now close to adopting that kind of US-style model.

Stewart is a former healthcare professional and a female veteran and self-funded her six years of research, which has been repeatedly referenced in parliamentary debates, and has been highlighted by Disability News Service (DNS) for nearly five years.

She describes in her book how Peter Lilley, secretary of state for social security in John Major’s Conservative government, hired senior Unum executive John LoCascio to advise the UK government on how to cut the number of claimants of long-term sickness benefits.....

----extract ends----

Further on there having been a continuum of Tory and Labour politicians involved in the corporate demolition of the welfare state, the changed 'descriptors' for disability benefit assessment tests that the Tories piloted in 2011 had actually been signed off by Yvette Cooper as DWP Secretary in April 2010, as this article shows:

Even harsher new ESA Medical approved''(warning very bad news inc)

Even harsher new ESA Medical approved''(warning very bad news inc) Even Harsher New ESA Medical Approved Tens of thousands of claimants facing losing their benefit on review, or o...

Yvette Cooper is the kind of Labour MP who would come more to the fore again if Labour right wing MPs managed to oust Jeremy Corbyn as that Party's Leader.

UK's minority government PM attempts to suspend Parliament. Avaaz petition site responds

From Mike Baillie of Avaaz

Dear friends,

It's a Brexit coup.

28 Aug at 12:19

It's a Brexit coup! Boris is suspending parliament so he can ram through his catastrophic No-Deal Brexit. We can't let it happen! Let's make this biggest, loudest call to protect our democracy and give MPs all the firepower they need to block the Brexit coup!  SIGN NOW!

Boris just announced he's SUSPENDING parliament, right as MPs agreed a plan to save Britain from a catastrophic no-deal Brexit.

It's an extreme, all-out assault on our democracy -- and we can't let it happen.

We have to respond right now with a GIANT public backlash, calling on MPs to do everything in their power to stop Boris and save our democracy. Sign urgently and pass it on:

MPs: Block the Coup!

This is our democracy being butchered for Brexit.

It's parliament's duty to oversee something as fundamental as Brexit -- and yet now it could be shut down precisely to prevent MPs from playing that role. Shut down by a government that was never elected, has no mandate, and all for a break-neck Brexit that people never voted for.

We have to be fast.

Let's give MPs all the firepower they need to stop Boris. Legislation, legal routes, even toppling the government -- whatever it takes to stop this ruthless attack on the heart of our country. Sign now and tell everyone! 

MPs: Block the Coup!

Avaaz was built for moments like this: those gaps in history when the voices of passionate, caring people roar in the face of unjust power. We are the very expression of democracy, and now it's under attack right under our noses -- and so we rise, louder and stronger than ever!

With endless hope and determination,

Mike, Nick, Sarah, Bert, Alaphia and the whole team at Avaaz


More information:

Government asks Queen to suspend Parliament (BBC)
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-49493632

Boris Johnson asks Queen to suspend parliament as John Bercow calls it a 'constitutional outrage' (The Telegraph)
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2019/08/28/brexit-latest-news-boris-johnson-no-deal/


------------
Promoted by N Flynn on behalf of Avaaz Campaigns UK, a company incorporated in England & Wales under company registration #09475510, and whose registered address is at 49-51 East Rd, London, N1 6AH.

Avaaz is a 51-million-person global campaign network that works to ensure that the views and values of the world's people shape global decision-making. ("Avaaz" means "voice" or "song" in many languages.) Avaaz members live in every nation of the world; our team is spread across 18 countries on 6 continents and operates in 17 languages. Learn about some of Avaaz's biggest campaigns here, or follow us on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.

Disability News Service updates, Thursday 22 August 2019

Wednesday, 14 August 2019

Disability News Service output Thursday, 8 August 2019

Disability News Service (DNS) aptly describes itself as "the [UK's] only news agency specialising in disability issues." It is run by John Pring, "a disabled journalist who has been reporting on disability issues for nearly 25 years," and updated by every Thursday evening.

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Anne Novis holding a copy of Greenwich Council's proposals on care charges

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22nd August 2019

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Vote for Policies and Make Votes Matter for true, informed debate, democracy

Yesterday morning, I blogged Government's funding proposal for Sizewell C proposed nuclear reactor exemplifies 'government by market forces'.

Reflecting on this and its 'silly season' timing exacerbated by the 'no deal Brexit' smokescreen of a 'debate', I came up with the heading for this blog post. One of the great tragedies of the FPTP (First Past the Post) voting system's unfairness in the UK is that it bolsters an alienation between the electorate and the political establishment. In the backdrop of such alienation, paid political lobbyists and the megabucks funders of the mainstream political parties dominate, as do the lobbyists of the big UK 'charities' that only purport to support the disadvantaged people they are supposed to represent. Do political pollsters reflect public opinion or manipulate it? And what about the prospect of Voting for Policies?

And I note that Energy Minister Andrea Leadsom's brother-in-law, one family step removed from her husband, is a major funder of the Tory Party.  

Opposing FPTP and its hangers on is the cross-party campaigning organisation, Make Votes Matter: The Movement for Proportional Representation.