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.
This is not new, and we will not be silenced,”“By signing this letter I am not inviting support for any proscribed organisation – people can make their own minds up – but I am making a clear and strong stand against the abuse and misuse of terrorism laws to malign direct action protest,”A ban on Palestine Action, which uses direct action to mainly target Israeli weapons factories in the UK and their supply chain, was voted through by parliament this month,Being a member of, or showing support for the group is now a criminal offence after a last-minute legal challenge to suspend the group’s proscription failed,The open letter states: “Peaceful protest tactics which damage property or disrupt ‘business-as-usual’ in order to call attention to the crimes of the powerful have a long and proud history.
They are more urgent than ever in response to Israel’s genocide against the Palestinian people.”Other signatories to the letter include the environmental and human rights campaigner Angie Zelter, who was acquitted after disarming a BAE Hawk Jet and who also destroyed infrastructure supporting Britain’s Trident nuclear weapons system.She said: “Effective protest often disrupts ‘business as usual’.Halting the cruel arms trade and the dangerous militarisation of our society is really important to me.I have been involved in peaceful civil resistance for decades.
I am in full support of civil resistance and of people involved in upholding international law.”Elected representatives who have signed the letter include James Dornan, the Scottish National party MSP for Cathcart who last week put a motion to the Scottish parliament calling for the proscription of the Israel Defense Forces as a terrorist organisation.It was also signed by Gerry Carroll, the socialist activist and member of the legislative assembly for West Belfast, along with Plaid Cymru, Labour and Co-operative councillors.A spokesperson for Glasgow Trades Union Council, which is collectively backing the letter, said: “As the UK government is attacking our civil liberties, we must ask ourselves if not now, then when?”One of the organisers of the letter was Anne Alexander, a researcher and UCU activist at the University of Cambridge, who said more than 900 people had signed.She said: “The response to this open letter shows that people up and down the country want to stop arms going to Israel and that they don’t agree that a direct action group are ‘terrorists’ because they tried to disrupt the supply chain fuelling a genocide.
”Other signatories include Leanne Wood, the former leader of Plaid Cymru, and Suresh Grover, the veteran civil rights and anti-racist campaigner who was a founder of the Southall Monitoring Group and led campaigns to help the families of Stephen Lawrence, Zahid Mubarek and Victoria Climbié.The draft order to amend the Terrorism Act 2000 and proscribe the group, laid by the home secretary, Yvette Cooper, passed the Commons on 2 July by 385 votes to 26.The order also bans two neo-Nazi groups, the Maniacs Murder Cult and the Russia Imperial Movement.Some MPs and human rights organisations critical of the government’s position suggested that bundling Palestine Action with the white supremacist groups had put political pressure on MPs to back the measure.
Pound drops after Bank of England says it could cut interest rates more if jobs market slows
The pound dropped to a three-week low after the governor of the Bank of England said it could make bigger cuts to interest rates if the job market slows too quickly.Andrew Bailey said “slack” was opening up in the UK economy, as higher taxes have squeezed employers.He told the Times: “I really do believe the path is downward” for interest rates. The bank rate stands at 4.25%, after four quarter-point cuts in the last year, and the Bank is next scheduled to make another decision on 7 August
Thames Water announces hosepipe ban as dry weather depletes reservoirs
Thames Water has announced a hosepipe ban as a record dry spring and summer has severely reduced water supplies.Households in Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire, Berkshire and Wiltshire will be banned from using hosepipes to wash cars or water gardens from Tuesday 22 July.The ban will affect all OX, GL and SN postcodes, as well as RG4, RG8 and RG9.The recent hot weather has caused a large surge in demand as people water their gardens and keep cool in the heatwave.Nevil Muncaster, strategic water resources director at Thames Water, said he did not “anticipate the situation will improve any time soon”, adding: “We have to take action now
Tax pubs on profit not turnover, urges Greene King boss
The boss of the pub chain Greene King has called for changes to business rates to remedy “unfairness” that he said added to financial pressures on the struggling pubs industry.Nick Mackenzie, Greene King’s chief executive, said the business rates system of property taxes should be changed to a tax on profits.The British pub industry has complained that it is under pressure from a series of increasing costs. The trade body the British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA) said last week it expected pub closures at a rate of more than one a day during 2025, adding to the 350 net closures during 2024. It said business rates were a factor in those closures
Sales of UK country houses rise as buyers tempted out by lower prices
Sales of expensive UK country houses rose in June, signalling a possible recovery in demand as buyers are tempted out by lower prices after an extended slump.The estate agency Knight Frank said the number of exchanges of contract for sales of country houses – defined as a rural home worth more than £750,000 – was up 7% in June compared with last year as the number of properties for sale rose while prices fell.Second-home owners are driving the increase in properties coming to market, the agency said, after recent council tax changes designed to level the playing field for local people living in popular holiday spots. Councils in Wales have the power to quadruple taxes on second homes, while English councils can double taxes.The number of country houses coming on to the market was 9% higher in the second quarter of the year compared with last year
Number of UK job hunters rises at fastest rate since Covid pandemic
The number of people hunting for jobs in Britain surged in June at the fastest rate since the height of the Covid pandemic, industry figures show, amid growing business fears over tax rises and the economic outlook.The snapshot from the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) and the accountancy firm KPMG showed the number of new candidates looking for work rose at the sharpest rate since November 2020, when the UK entered the second nationwide lockdown.The trade body representing Britain’s recruitment industry blamed the “scar tissue” left by tax rises introduced in April by the government, including a £25bn increase in employer national insurance contributions (NICs).In a survey of 400 UK recruitment and employment consultancies, the REC found that permanent placements had dropped at the fastest pace in 22 months, alongside weaker levels of pay growth and reports of redundancies and reduced appetite for staff.The chancellor, Rachel Reeves, is under pressure to reboot Britain’s economy after output unexpectedly shrank for a second consecutive month in May, fuelled by a downturn in construction and manufacturing
Turn empty London office blocks into ‘late-night party zones’, report suggests
Could the future of Canary Wharf lie in thumping beats and dancefloor raves? Could the City of London become a global hub of nocturnal revelry?With financial districts struggling to bounce back to full capacity post-Covid, and the nightlife industry facing an existential crisis, there are suggestions clubs could move into deserted office blocks at evenings and weekends.In its annual eccentric report on the future of leisure, the creative studio Bompas and Parr says it envisions “a future where financial districts in London and the world over are transformed into world-class late-night party zones”.“By day, the city bustles with suits and stocks. By night, it’s reborn as a pulsating rave arena,” the report says. “With few residents to file noise complaints, organisers capitalise on the empty, echoing canyons of glass and steel
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