Charlotte Church joins unions and campaigners in opposing ban on Palestine Action

The singer Charlotte Church and veteran peace campaigners are among hundreds who have signed a letter describing the move to ban the group Palestine Action as “a major assault on our freedoms”.Trade unionists, activists and politicians have also added their names to the letter opposing the group’s proscription under anti-terrorism laws last week.Church said: “I sign this letter because history shows us that when people stand up to injustice, those in power often reach for the same old playbook: label dissent as dangerous, criminalise protest, and try to silence movements for change by branding them as extremists or terrorists.“From the suffragettes to the civil rights movement, what was once condemned as radical disruption is now celebrated as moral courage. We must remember this pattern – and refuse to let our rights be eroded by fear

UK government announces £63m funding for EV charging infrastructure

The transport secretary has promised to make it “easier and cheaper” to buy electric cars, as the government announces £63m worth of funding to help build charging infrastructure.Heidi Alexander said on Sunday she wanted to make it more affordable to switch to electric vehicles as she announced new money for councils and other bodies to spend on facilities to charge cars.She announced £63m worth of funding for EV charging, with officials also finalising plans for a £700m package of subsidies to bring down the cost of buying a new electric car.The money still falls short of the £950m pledged by the Conservatives for motorway charging points, however, which the Labour government scrapped last month, accusing the previous government of having failed to set aside funding for it.UK-made EVs are expected to receive the most generous subsidies under the scheme, which would probably benefit the Japanese carmaker Nissan, which is gearing up to produce a new version of its Leaf electric car in Sunderland

Why Labour should target happiness alongside economic growth | Heather Stewart

Every parent who battled their way through home schooling during the long months of lockdown, and every vulnerable person forced to shield themselves away, can have had little doubt that the Covid pandemic was an unhappy time.But research by the non-profit consultancy Pro Bono Economics (PBE), suggests that the nation’s wellbeing has never fully recovered from the plunge it took in mid-2020.Happiness – or wellbeing, or life satisfaction – seems a slippery concept to measure, but economists have been studying and tracking how the public are feeling about their lives for decades.In the UK, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has done this since 2011 by asking four questions, including: “Overall, how satisfied are you with your life?” and: “Overall, how anxious did you feel yesterday?”As the first lockdown took hold, the anxiety measure spiked, not surprisingly, while the other three, which track respondents’ satisfaction, happiness and sense of purpose, all had marked declines.Given the shadow the pandemic cast over so many people’s lives, it feels intuitively right that on none of these four metrics has wellbeing in the UK returned to the pre-Covid equilibrium

Most people in France, Germany, Italy and Spain would support UK rejoining EU, poll finds

A decade after MPs voted to hold the referendum that led to Britain leaving the European Union, a poll has found majorities in the bloc’s four largest member states would support the UK rejoining – but not on the same terms it had before.The YouGov survey of six western European countries, including the UK, also confirms that a clear majority of British voters now back the country rejoining the bloc – but only if it can keep the opt-outs it previously enjoyed.The result, the pollster said, was a “public opinion impasse”, even if there seems precious little likelihood, for the time being, of the UK’s Labour government, which this year negotiated a “reset” with the bloc, attempting a return to the EU.YouGov’s EuroTrack survey showed that at least half of people asked across the four largest EU nations – France, Germany, Italy and Spain – supported the UK being allowed to rejoin, with percentages ranging from 51% in Italy to 53% in France, 60% in Spain and 63% in Germany.Asked whether Britain should be allowed back in on the conditions it enjoyed when it left, however, including not having to adopt the euro currency and remaining outside the Schengen passport-free zone, the numbers changed significantly

Reform wants to cut council diversity roles. The problem is there are already barely any

Councils run by Reform UK have an average of fewer than 0.5 diversity and equality roles each, it has emerged, calling into question the party’s stated aim to save significant sums of money by cutting such jobs.According to freedom of information requests, across the 10 Reform-run English councils there was a combined 4.56 full-time equivalent (FTE) jobs connected to equality and diversity, not including roles required by law such as those for inclusion in education, including for pupils with disabilities.Even using an assumed average full-time salary of £50,000, cutting all the roles would save the Reform-run councils slightly less than 0

Unite attacks Angela Rayner over ‘abhorrent’ handling of Birmingham bin strikes

Angela Rayner has been accused of handling the Birmingham bin workers’ strike in a “totally and utterly abhorrent” way by the Unite general secretary, Sharon Graham.Graham told BBC Radio 4 Today’s programme: “Angela Rayner refuses to get involved, and she is directly aiding and abetting the fire-and-rehire of these bin workers, it is totally and utterly abhorrent.”In a heated interview, Graham said the deputy prime minister had also failed to turn up to a recent meeting with Graham at an event, saying: “She doesn’t want to talk about this issue, because she knows that what is happening is abhorrent, but she does not want to intervene.”A party source told the Guardian that Rayner had to attend an urgent statement in the house led by the prime minister instead of going to the event and described Graham’s claims as “baseless”.Graham added that Rayner had been a member of the union for 10 years but may have left of her own accord over the last quarter because “she’s seen the mood music”