Showing posts with label Anti-democratic. Show all posts
Australian court’s gagging order condemned as ‘abuse of legal process’
Australian court’s gagging order condemned as ‘abuse of legal process’
‘A sweeping gagging order issued by an Australian court to block reporting of bribery allegations involving several international political leaders has been attacked by journalists and lawyers as “unacceptable” and “an abuse of legal process”.
The extraordinary prohibition emerged from a criminal case in the Australian courts and relates to part of an ongoing investigation by prosecutors across three continents into allegations of multimillion-pound bribes paid in the banknote-printing industry.
Business executives at a company called Securency are alleged to have conspired to win lucrative contracts to print plastic notes in several south-east Asian countries allegedly by paying bribes to high-ranking politicians and officials between 1999 and 2005.’
Wirral’s Labour Council and bedroom tax sophistry by joehalewood
Wirral’s Labour Council and bedroom tax sophistry
by joehalewood Picture displayed by Street Democracy UK
The Labour run Wirral Council is patting itself on the back in the local newspaper the Liverpool Echo tonight for finding £75,000 to help the most deserving bedroom tax cases. This is the same council who received £995,795 in discretionary housing payments (DHP) funding from central government and COULD have added £1,493,692 to this....yet it […]
Shameless – Workfare Exploiting Charities Slam The Benefit Sanctions They Are Responsible For by johnny void
Shameless – Workfare Exploiting Charities Slam The Benefit Sanctions They Are Responsible For
by johnny void
In an act of breath-taking hypocrisy, the Salvation Army, along with the YMCA, have both signed a letter to The Times calling the current benefit sanctioning regime unfair and counter-productive.
This comes despite both organisations being involved in 'Mandatory Work Activity' and therefore responsible for reporting unemployed people to the Jobcentre to face sanctions if they don't turn up for unpaid work placements.
The Salvation Army has even been praised by the DWP for 'holding the line' on workfare after scores of charities distanced themselves from the scheme. When peaceful anti-workfare campaigners visited the Salvation Army in protest at their use of workfare, the charity locked them inside and attempted to have them arrested with fabricated stories of staff being man-handled.
The Salvation Army have repeatedly defended their involvement in mandatory welfare-to-work provision and also their operation of a Work Programme sub-contract. Claimants on this scheme, including those on out of work sickness or disability benefits, can be 'mandated' to almost any job search related activity that the charity can dream up, including workfare. If their victims fail to do what they are told then it is the Salvation Army's job to report them to the DWP to have their benefits sanctioned.
Not for the first time some charities are pretending to care about the poor in public whilst stopping their benefits behind the scenes. If the Salvation Army and the YMCA think sanctions are unfair then perhaps they should stop sanctioning people. Until then, these grubby attempts to white wash their own workfare crimes should be treated with the contempt they deserve.
To join the fight against workfare visit Boycott Workfare's website.
Charities and voluntary organisations opposed to workfare can sign the Keep Volunteering Voluntary agreement.
The Salvation Army are on twitter @salvationarmyuk and facebook at:https://www.facebook.com/
YMCA are on twitter @YMCA_England and facebook at:https://www.facebook.com/YMCA.
Follow me on twitter @johnnyvoid