Met police officer jailed for attacking a Black man who was visiting his partner’s grave
The Canary UK

Met police officer jailed for attacking a Black man who was visiting his partner’s grave

Charlie Harrison, a Metropolitan police officer, has been jailed for breaking a Black man’s knee in a ‘clear case of racial profiling’. Harrison fractured Carl Abrahams’ knee while Abrahams was visiting his partner’s grave with his children. Southwark crown court found Harrison guilty of causing grievous bodily harm. He has been jailed for two years and three months. The incident On 31 December 2018, Abrahams – a 47-year-old Black man – was visiting his partner’s grave in east London “with his two teenage sons”. Harrison – part of the Metropolitan police’s violent crime taskforce – approached the family after getting out of an unmarked police car. The plainclothes…

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15 April 2021
You will never walk alone: the Hillsborough disaster remembered
The Canary UK

You will never walk alone: the Hillsborough disaster remembered

It’s 32 years since 96 men, women, and children died at an FA Cup semi-final on 15 April 1989. It became known as the Hillsborough disaster. The tragedy would come to symbolize Thatcher-era Britain – a byword for class war, corruption and gutter press lies. All of those who died that day were Liverpool fans. In the aftermath, the right-wing gutter press and other sections of the British establishment launched a war of slander and obfuscation against the city and its people. This included false accusations that fans had tried to steal from those who lay injured and dying. And that a police officer trying to administer first…

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15 April 2021
BBC coverage of death of Philip Windsor breaks UK TV complaints record
The Canary UK

BBC coverage of death of Philip Windsor breaks UK TV complaints record

The BBC’s coverage of the death of the duke of Edinburgh has drawn 110,000 complaints, the highest number ever published in the UK about television programming. Philip Windsor died at Windsor Castle on 9 April at the age of 99, prompting the corporation to clear its schedules across both BBC One and BBC Two to run a series of mirrored special programmes. The coverage also took over the news channel and BBC radio stations. Journalist Martine Croxall announced the news on the BBC (BBC/PA) According to the BBC’s fortnightly complaints bulletin, some 104,010 people complained about the coverage within the first three days. At time of publication on…

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15 April 2021
Equality watchdog warns of ‘two-tier society’ with vaccine passports
The Canary UK

Equality watchdog warns of ‘two-tier society’ with vaccine passports

Introducing coronavirus status certificates (vaccine passports) could create a “two-tier society” which discriminates against certain groups, the equalities watchdog has warned. Tiers The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) said vaccine passports could be a “proportionate” way of easing restrictions, following the “significant curtailment” of freedoms due to lockdown measures. But in a submission to the Cabinet Office following a call for evidence, it raised concerns about “unlawful discrimination” against people from disadvantaged or ethnic minority backgrounds by restricting access to jobs and services. The warning came after the Department of Health and Social Care launched a consultation on making vaccination a condition of deployment for staff at…

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15 April 2021
Civil servants’ new jobs must be approved after Greensill affair – ex-mandarin
The Canary UK

Civil servants’ new jobs must be approved after Greensill affair – ex-mandarin

A former Home Office boss has said he was “absolutely amazed” to learn a top civil servant was allowed to work as a part-time adviser at Greensill Capital while still in Whitehall. He called for more scrutiny of civil service hires. Sir David Normington, who led the department for five years until 2011, said it is “essential” for the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (Acoba), which scrutinises appointments of top civil servants when they leave Whitehall, to sign-off on new moves. It comes after it emerged that former head of government procurement Bill Crothers began working for Greensill as a part-time adviser to the board in September 2015…

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15 April 2021
Tory government’s ridiculous claim that it’s a ‘world leader’ on climate is proven wrong, again
The Canary UK

Tory government’s ridiculous claim that it’s a ‘world leader’ on climate is proven wrong, again

The UK government loves to describe itself as a ‘world leader’ on tackling the climate and biodiversity crises. Its actions, however, rarely live up to its rhetoric. A new report from the Woodland Trust is a case in point, as lays bare the dire state of the UK’s trees and woods. One of the worst in Europe The Woodland Trust’s report is called State of the UK’s Woods and Trees. As the title suggests, it’s a comprehensive assessment of the scale, condition and life-supporting capacity of the country’s woods and trees. It focuses primarily on native woods and trees because those are of the highest value in terms…

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14 April 2021
Call to support Kevan Thakrar, held in the ‘most restrictive’ conditions in the UK prison system
The Canary UK

Call to support Kevan Thakrar, held in the ‘most restrictive’ conditions in the UK prison system

Campaigners are calling for action to support a vulnerable prisoner at HMP Full Sutton. Kevan Thakrar has been imprisoned for over 13 years, 11 of which have been spent in the UK’s Close Supervision Centres (CSC), where prisoners face the “most restrictive conditions” seen in the UK prison system. CSCs are prisons within prisons, where people are kept isolated for years with very little human contact. Over a decade of trauma Thakrar was placed in the CSC system after he defended himself against a racist attack by prison guards in 2010. These shocking pictures show Thakrar’s injuries after the 2010 attack: Thakrar was taken to court in 2011…

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14 April 2021
What you don’t see with seafood
The Canary UK

What you don’t see with seafood

We need your help ... The coronavirus pandemic is changing our world, fast. And we will do all we can to keep bringing you news and analysis throughout. But we are worried about maintaining enough income to pay our staff and minimal overheads. Now, more than ever, we need a vibrant, independent media that holds the government to account and calls it out when it puts vested economic interests above human lives. We need a media that shows solidarity with the people most affected by the crisis – and one that can help to build a world based on collaboration and compassion. We have been fighting against an…

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14 April 2021
Police want Twitter to stop people sharing videos of them
The Canary UK

Police want Twitter to stop people sharing videos of them

An organisation that represents police officers is kicking off about people sharing videos of arrests and other police interactions on social media. It’s calling for platforms like Twitter and YouTube to do something. But the group’s claim that cops are somehow the victims here doesn’t exactly ring true. Stop sharing cop videos, says cop The Metropolitan Police Federation (MPF) is the Met Police’s “staff association”. It represents more than 30,000 cops. And it’s recently hit back at people sharing videos of its officers’ conduct on social media. The MPF said in a statement that its leader Ken Marsh: has called for the government and force leaders to tackle…

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14 April 2021
New polling says it’s time for a coup against Keir Starmer
The Canary UK

New polling says it’s time for a coup against Keir Starmer

Keir Starmer has been leading the Labour Party for just over a year. And judging by the latest opinion polls, this means that a coup is incoming – well only if you judge him by the standards Labour MPs held Jeremy Corbyn up to – obviously. Starmer: approval shot to pieces As Stats for Lefties tweeted, Starmer is now facing his worst approval rating ever: On whether Starmer is doing well or badly: Well: 26% (-6)Badly: 50% (+5)[Net rating: -24] This is Keir Starmer's worst net approval rating in any opinion poll, ever. In September his net rating was +20. Now it's -24. Via @YouGov, 12 April (+/-…

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14 April 2021