From 3h agoKey events18m agoGreenpeace defends ‘proportionate’ protest at PM’s home3h agoTories to further privatise NHSFilters BETAKey events (2)Maria Caulfield (4)Rishi Sunak (3)18m ago07.06 EDTGreenpeace defends ‘proportionate’ protest at PM’s home
Greenpeace has defended its anti-oil protest following criticism of a “major security breach” at Rishi Sunak’s constituency manor house. Areeba Hamid, the group’s co-executive director, said the protest had been planned carefully and would not have gone ahead if the prime minister was there.
She told Sky News it was a “proportionate response to a disastrous decision” by Sunak to allow for further drilling. Hamid said the activists knocked on the door and got a response before making it clear to those present who they were.
Security is a big part of whatever we do, we planned it carefully and meticulously, we knew he wasn’t going to be there.
Updated at 07.14 EDT51m ago06.32 EDTJason Rodrigues
Suella Braverman is not the first Conservative home secretary to attempt to house asylum seekers on a vessel in UK waters.
In 1987, Douglas Hurd gave his approval for the Earl William, a former Sealink ferry, to be turned into a 120-person facility and moored at the port of Harwich, in Essex.
The plan, revealed by the Guardian, was called “appalling” by some refugee groups, as well as the Labour party.
Shirley Williams, the Social Democratic Party (SDP) spokeswoman, said the Conservative’s idea was a “throwback to the prison hulks of the 18th century”. The Home Office defended the policy, saying the vessel would be a “detention centre like any other” and that “we are very short of accommodation”.
In the summer of 1987, the home secretary went ahead with the controversial scheme, moving some Sri Lankan Tamil refugees on to the vessel. But some of them went on hunger strike, angered that their asylum appeals were taking longer to process than was promised.
They ended their protest after several weeks, claiming the media attention they got justified their actions.
The Home Office might have weathered the media scrutiny the hunger strike brought, but it was the natural force of the Great Storm of October 1987 that put paid to their floating detention centre.
Winds gusting at up to 100mph caused devastation across the UK, with ports such as Harwich impacted. The Earl William broke free of its moorings and was holed. After a 14-hour ordeal, those on board were rescued, with many offered temporary asylum on compassionate grounds. The future use of the Earl William as a detention centre was put under review by the government.
1h ago05.55 EDT
Addressing the Tory plans to further privatise the NHS, the Unite union’s general secretary, Sharon Graham, says:
We urgently need to improve NHS wait times, but we should be doing this for the long term, not by Rishi’s latest election…
2023-08-04 06:06:07
Post from www.theguardian.com
rnrn