WUFOOB … (Jul – Sep 2016)

Corbyn appeals for unity after re-election

Evening Mail, Wednesday 28th September 2016
A complaint about bullying has been made to Labour’s chief whip after Jeremy Corbyn’s team issued a roll call of MPs it claims have abused the leader and his allies. Leading figures in the party were name-checked over their alleged behaviour since Mr Corbyn took the party’s top job. An MP said: “With one breath Jeremy calls for unity and for the party to come together and with the next they publish this hit-list. I think members will be really dismayed.”

Royal Yacht Britannia to be recommissioned as symbol of global Britain

Daily Mail, Friday 16th September 2016
Royal Yacht Britannia could be used to conduct UK trade deals post Brexit and plans are already being discussed to recommission the vessel 20 years after retirement. Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson is considering returning the yacht to the waves as a ‘great symbol of global Britain’.

Hinkley: Chinese-funded “unproven technology”

Telegraph, Friday 16th September 2016
Theresa May met Chinese president Xi Jinping at the G20 conference for bilateral talks at which Hinkley Point was discussed. Days later, on September 15, the government has given the green light to the controversial scheme following a “new agreement” with EDF. Hinkley Point C has been the subject of fierce controversy in the UK because of its cost and its unproven technology, but cancellation of the project would have led to a diplomatic rift with China and France.

Keith Vaz quits as Home Affairs Committee chairman

BBC News, Tuesday 6th September 2016
Labour MP Keith Vaz has stepped down as chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee.It follows newspaper claims he paid for the services of two male sex workers.

Libyan people smugglers

Al Jazeera, Tuesday 30th August 2016
On Monday, around 6,500 refugees and migrants were saved off the Libyan coast in 40 separate rescue missions by the Italian coastguard. Traffickers are taking advantage of the calm summer weather, piling refugees on to flimsy boats when the sea is more placid so that the southern wind can push them into international waters. More than 400,000 have successfully made the voyage to Italy from North Africa since the beginning of 2014, fleeing violence and poverty.

CNN, Monday 29th August 2016
France’s highest administrative court ruled that mayors do not have the right to ban burkinis. But several French mayors have reportedly maintained their bans despite Friday’s ruling concerning the town of Villeneuve-Loubet, near Nice.

In April 2011, France became the first European country to ban wearing in public the burqa, a full-body covering that includes a mesh over the face, and the niqab, a full-face veil with an opening for the eyes. And much like the recent burkini bans, opinion in the country is divided between those who see the laws as an infringement on religious freedom, and those who view the Islamic dress as inconsistent with France’s rigorously enforced secularism.