Politics

In recent years, Turkey has arrested thousands of academics, lawyers, journalists, civil servants and members of the military it says were part of the outlawed Gulenist movement, which it blames for a failed coup in 2016, as well as Kurdish activists and politicians the state claims have links to the banned Kurdistan Workers’ party (PKK). Many languish in lengthy pre-trial detention. There are so many prisoners, in fact, that in order to take pressure off a system already at 121% capacity, Ankara is planning to build 100 new prisons. … [Read more...] about Outrage over denial of amnesty for Turkish political prisoners

“I don’t want us to be Canada. I want us to be Great Britain. In the end this is not some political game. This is the biggest decision facing this country for 50 years. And the people that are going to be affected by that decision are not you and me – we’ll be long gone from the political stage – it will be the car worker in Sunderland, the hill farmer in Wales, the bank call centre worker in Bournemouth. Their future depends on an open and engaged Britain.” … [Read more...] about David Laws: David Cameron ‘petrified’ of Boris Johnson leadership bid

Yet we are where we are, and shortly after 5pm, Raab, flanked by the UK’s chief scientific adviser, Patrick Vallance, and the medical director for Public Health England, Yvonne Doyle, took centre stage for the daily Downing Street press conference. Complete with a new logo, on lecterns that looked like they had been knocked up out of police crime-scene tape. Presumably, Dom has picked up plenty of rolls on his travels. … [Read more...] about With Raab at the reins, things are really getting finger-lickin’ bad

The letter to the Commons’ clerk was initiated by Labour’s shadow minister for innovation, Chi Onwurah, who said: “People up and down the country have made huge behavioural changes in a matter of days and we must show we are capable of it too.” … [Read more...] about MPs call for ‘virtual House of Commons’ amid Covid-19 early recess

In 2012, he came to London as part of a Kurdish delegation to highlight the plight of Turkish lawyers who had been jailed for defending dissidents and opposition politicians, and to argue the case of Syria’s Kurds during the early months of the Syrian civil war. … [Read more...] about Selahattin Demirtaş: thumbing his nose at political convention in Turkey