Tag: britain

THE pound fell to an exchange rate of $1.77 yesterday, its lowest level for two-and-a-half years. In June sterling was trading at $2, but...

In a bid to prop up the banks and construction industry, prime minister Brown and chancellor Darling yesterday promoted a £1.6bn housing rescue package. This...

Amnesty International has called on the British government to hand over to Guantanamo Bay prisoner Binyam Mohammed’s lawyers, vital information it holds on him. Binyam...

YESTERDAY’S reports on the state of the economy reveal more about the catastrophe gripping British capitalism, part of the world crisis. • The Bank of...

‘We look forward to see what the government’s economic recovery strategy is,’ a TUC spokesman told News Line yesterday. ‘Any measures that ease the pressure...

THE Rafah crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt, which has been closed for the past five months, was opened for two days at...

In comments published yesterday, prime minister Brown called for a ‘root and branch’ review of the EU and NATO’s relations with Moscow to prevent...

‘SOCIAL injustice is killing people on a grand scale.’ This is the conclusion of the World Health Organisation’s Commission on Social Determinants of...

A damning report, the second in seven days on the British government’s practice of incarcerating children in UK removal centres was published yesterday. Excerpts follow...

AVERAGE house prices in Britain are now 10.5 per cent lower than they were a year ago, according to figures published yesterday by Nationwide,...

ON THE eve of his visit to Ukraine, Britain’s Foreign Secretary David Miliband declared that the purpose of talks with ‘international partners’ was to...

‘We must be ready to occupy Chase Farm Hospital,’ North East London Council of Action Secretary Bill Rogers told trade unionists, local residents and...

AMERICAN occupation forces carried out a bombing raid on the village of Nawabad in the Shindand district of Herat province last Friday, killing 90...

THE new Deputy Governor of the Bank of England (BoE), Charles Bean said yesterday that when the so-called ‘credit crunch’ began last August central...

TWO boats carrying humanitarian aid breached the Israeli siege of the Palestinian people in Gaza when they arrived at the main port of Gaza...

UK economic growth ground to a halt between April and June, according to the latest official data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS)...

Yesterday’s High Court ‘torture verdict strongly condemned the UK government for complicity in US crimes’, said legal charity Reprieve. Lord Justice Thomas and Justice...

THE BOURGEOIS law courts damned the Brown government yesterday for its role as an accessory to the US and its torturers. The government was told...

THE call has gone up in the Competition Commission report that three of BAA’s seven airports – two of its three in London, out...

TEN French soldiers were killed in an ambush by Taleban fighters east of the Afghan capital, Kabul, and 21 were wounded yesterday. This followed Sarkozy’s...

Jubilant Pakistanis danced in the streets, waved flags and fired shots in the air, and called for President Pervez Musharraf to be put on...

By John Coulter, Irish political journalist Religious sectarianism is alive and well and breeding viciously again in the North. As the North this month commemorated the...

THE former military dictator of Pakistan, Musharraf who came to power by a military coup in 1999, and was the main ally in the...

The Brown government was yesterday accused of building up a national DNA database ‘by stealth’ by retaining profiles of nearly 40,000 children never...

strike action against low pay was announced by Unite and the GMB unions at Gatwick and Stansted Airports yesterday. Unite head of Civil...

THE US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in Tbilisi yesterday for talks with the Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili. Her mission was to get...

BANK of England governor King’s report, on the immediate prospects for British capitalism has produced a run on the pound – so precarious is...

‘There is a feeling of economic chill in the air,’ Bank of England governor Mervyn King said yesterday. Introducing the Bank’s latest monthly inflation report,...

THE Russian government and armed forces have turned the tables on the imperialist powers and their surrogates who launched the vicious surprise attack on...

YESTERDAY’S soaring inflation figures led trade union leaders to warn the government that members are demanding action against the wage-cutting three-year pay settlements. The Consumer...

ISRAEL’S tactic in the ongoing ‘peace talks’ with the Palestine National Authority has been to carry on stalling, for the last ten years, agreeing...

THE correct intervention of the Russian army to defend the people of South Ossetia against the onslaught of the Georgian army has initially been...

THE United States has warned Russia that its ‘disproportionate and dangerous escalation’ of the conflict in South Ossetia could harm bilateral relations, the White...

By Irish political journalist JOHN COULTER IRISH republicans must re-negotiate their political relationship with unionists, the president of the North’s largest nationalist party, Sinn Fein,...

The Royal Bank of Scotland yesterday revealed a half-year net loss of £802 million, the second biggest in British banking history. This was after...

AS the Russian government explained yesterday, the attack by Georgia on South Ossetia was expected, was well prepared and was a declaration of war,...

The Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) yesterday kept interest rates on hold at 5% as the central bank struggles to deal with...

Communication Workers’ Union (CWU) leaders yesterday condemned Royal Mail’s announcement of major automated sorting centre closures affecting Liverpool, Oldham, Bolton, Stockport and Crewe...

ROYAL MAIL, acting on its brief from the government has announced the closure of major automated sorting centres which will affect Liverpool. Oldham, Bolton,...

THE HSBC bank has just declared a 28 per cent, $3.9bn fall in half year profits. It has written off another $3.7 billion...

Lebanese Information Minister Tariq Mitri has announced that the committee tasked with the job of preparing the draft policy statement that will guide the...

A group of doctors has challenged the UK government over plans to deny GP care to failed asylum seekers, saying they breach medical ethics...

JUST three members of the Labour cabinet put out a statement on Saturday supporting their leader Gordon Brown. Chancellor Darling, deputy leader Harman and skills...

SIXTEEN US troops were killed in Afghanistan in July, more than were killed in Iraq! In fact, NATO casualties are mounting rapidly as...

JUST a few months ago the UNISON leadership accepted the government’s below inflation wage cutting deal over three years. Now the union has had...