Only days before it was due to come into force, the education secretary said she had decided to “stop further commencement of the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act 2023, in order to consider options, including its repeal”.

Bridget Phillipson also announced major changes to the work of the higher education regulator in England, the Office for Students (OfS), in order to prioritise financial stability in the sector, as many universities struggle in the face of a mounting financial crisis.

The legislation, which faced bitter opposition from the point of its inception, required universities and student unions to take “reasonable steps” to promote free speech, or face sanctions by the regulator including possible fines.

Phillipson said the legislation was not fit for purpose and risked imposing heavy burdens on institutions. “For too long, universities have been a political battlefield and treated with contempt, rather than as a public good, distracting people from the core issues they face.”

She said the government remained “absolutely committed” to freedom of speech and academic freedom, adding: “This legislation could expose students to harm and appalling hate speech on campuses.

“That is why I have quickly ordered this legislation to be stopped so that we can take a view on next steps and protect everyone’s best interests, working closely with a refocussed OfS.”

Phillipson’s decision was welcomed by many in the sector who disputed the previous government’s narrative of a freedom of speech crisis in universities, and its claims that “cancel culture” and “no platforming” were undermining academic freedom. In sharp contrast to Tory claims, a survey of students by the OfS last year found nearly nine in 10 students in England felt free to express their opinions and beliefs.

The education secretary’s announcement coincided with the publication of an independent review of the OfS that concluded the regulator must reduce its strategic objectives to focus on monitoring financial sustainability in the sector, while also ensuring quality, protecting public money and regulating in the interests of students.

The lead reviewer, Sir David Behan, who was formerly the head of the Care Quality Commission, was also confirmed as the new interim chair of the OfS after the departure earlier this month of James Wharton, a former Conservative MP who ran Boris Johnson’s Tory leadership campaign in 2019.

Archive

[L]ast week, the Socialist Campaign Group, the caucus of left-wing MPs set up by [Tony] Benn to keep alive the flame of his 1981 bid for the deputy leadership, was ready to relaunch itself into relevance in this new era of Labour hegemony. Partly inspired by The Squad of radical Democrats on Capitol Hill, what’s left of the parliamentary left had designs on a much closer relationship with the trade unions — and a programme of vigorous campaigns on the policies disavowed by Sir Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves, but supported by the wider labour movement and (in their hearts and minds, if not their tweets and press releases) a lot of Labour MPs. Top of the list: the two-child benefit cap.

There goes another best-laid plan for Corbynite revival, crushed beneath the prime minister’s ploughshare. What he did to the Labour left this week is pretty much unprecedented. Seven MPs have lost the whip for at least six months and I would be surprised if all of them got it back. Indeed, the comrades they left behind are not so confident either. No other leader of the Labour Party has suspended so many MPs at once after a disagreement on domestic policy. […]

So, booting out so many MPs for supporting an opposition party’s amendment to a King’s Speech is an extreme example of party discipline. That’s not “extreme” as a pejorative, by the way. It’s a fact cabinet ministers readily acknowledge. Trade union leaders had urged Starmer to abolish the two-child cap when they met at Downing Street on Tuesday, and still he ploughed on. A leader with deeper roots in the institutional ecosystem of the left might have blinked for fear of upsetting such important stakeholders. But not Starmer. […]

[…] Last week [John] McDonnell predicted (probably rightly) that a majority of Labour MPs wanted the two-child limit abolished and (wrongly) suggested there would be many more rebels than just seven.

There were contributing factors to the smallness of that number: new MPs giving a new prime minister the benefit of the doubt, convenient absences, strategic patience, conciliatory noises from the cabinet on a child poverty strategy. Much more decisive was fear. As their comrades outside the Commons often complain privately, the left of the parliamentary Labour Party is scared. Don’t mistake radicalism in rhetoric for strength of resolve. Like Benn and even the Jeremy Corbyn of old, they are deeply sentimental about their party and their place as the socialists in it. Few want to give that up — and it takes a lot to defy whipping as heavy as that deployed on Tuesday. Apsana Begum, the newly independent MP for Poplar and Limehouse, says she was reminded that her party had supported her through domestic abuse and expected loyalty in return.
[…]
Yet beneath [the Left] the ground of parliamentary politics is shifting. Luke Akehurst and Gurinder Josan, two new backbenchers who spent the past four years purging the Corbynites from their seats on the party’s ruling national executive committee, have already recruited 150 like-minded MPs into a WhatsApp group and are mulling a new parliamentary caucus of their own, a counterweight to the Campaign Group and soft-left Tribunites that will delight strategists in No 10. Clive Efford, the chairman of the Tribune group, could muster only 70 votes when he stood against Jess Morden, Downing Street’s handpicked and successful candidate, for the chairmanship of the PLP this month.

Starmer’s Commons is a cold house for the hard left. They now whisper of building their own. After Corbyn’s suspension in 2020, his advisers began to discuss the idea of a new party and concluded the election of a Labour government like this one would give them their opportunity. After their unexpected success at the ballot box, they are ready to seize it. Here’s the argument as made by an influential trade unionist: “I wouldn’t be sitting there so giddy with 33.7 per cent of the vote when a left coalition of Greens, independents and trade unionists could easily get 20 per cent or more in five years.” From a cabinet source comes an unconscious echo: “We could have kicked them out over Nato rather than poor kids, banked a bounce in the polls and avoided this. I’m fretting about winnable and defendable seats with Green splitters.” Get ready for another party with socialists in it.

Disclaimer: Article is by Workers For a Free Palestine, the ones doing the blockade

Over 1,000 workers and trade unionists shut down access to the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office headquarters in central London this Wednesday morning, demanding that the new Labour Government immediately halt all arms exports to Israel. To try to break the blockade, police dragged protesters across the floor at the Whitehall entrance and arrested six people.

The action comes as Israeli forces launched an assault on, and ordered the evacuation of, parts of a designated humanitarian zone in Khan Younis, killing nearly 100 people in one day, wounding several hundred more and forcing over 150,000 people to flee since Monday. It also follows one of the deadliest weeks in aerial attacks on Gaza since the onslaught started nine months ago and a damning new International Court of Justice ruling about Israel’s occupation clearly violating international law.

After Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Alicia Kearns accused the Foreign Office of hiding legal advice that Israel is breaching International Humanitarian Law in Gaza in March, David Lammy – now Foreign Secretary – demanded the UK Government publish the advice and “suspend the sale of those arms” if the advice shows there is a “clear risk that UK arms might be used in a serious breach of international humanitarian law.”

Today trade unionists are calling on the Foreign Secretary “to practice what he preached in opposition” and “meet his own demands” by immediately publishing the advice and suspending the sale of arms. They are also calling on the Foreign Secretary to withdraw the UK’s legal bid to block the International Criminal Court issuing an arrest warrant for Netanyahu. In Opposition, David Lammy called on David Cameron to drop this, accusing the Conservatives in May 2024 of “U-turning on one of Britain’s most fundamental principles: respect for the rule of law.”
[…]
The ICJ has ruled that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories – the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and East Jerusalem – is a clear violation of international law. It ruled earlier this year that Israel’s actions in Gaza plausibly amounted to genocide and ordered Israel to comply with provisional measures, which it has failed to do. Even before the latest ICJ ruling, some 600 lawyers, legal academics, and former judges, including former Supreme Court justices and the Court’s former president Lady Hale, warned that the UK government is breaching international law by continuing to arm Israel.

Today’s blockade has been organised by Workers for a Free Palestine in support of civil servants and members of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) . The Foreign Office and the Department for Business and Trade are involved in granting arms export licences, thus playing a fundamental role in the continued sale of UK weapons used by the Israeli army. Civil servants have requested to “cease work immediately” on arms export licences to Israel over fears they could be complicit in war crimes in Gaza, and their union PCS is considering bringing legal action to prevent their members from being forced to carry out unlawful acts.

Archive

Video games—and the people who make them—are in trouble. An estimated 10,500 people in the industry were laid off in 2023 alone. This year, layoffs in the nearly $200 billion sector have only gotten worse, with studios axing what is believed to be 11,000 more, and counting. Microsoft, home of the Xbox and parent company to several studios, including Activision Blizzard, shuttered Tango Gameworks and Alpha Dog Games in May. All the while, generative AI systems built by OpenAI and its competitors have been seeping into nearly every industry, dismantling whole careers along the way.

But gaming might be the biggest industry AI stands poised to conquer. Its economic might has long since eclipsed Hollywood's, while its workforce remains mostly nonunion. A recent survey from the organizers of the Game Developers Conference found that 49 percent of the survey’s more than 3,000 respondents said their workplace used AI, and four out of five said they had ethical concerns about its use.

Like, the fuck YouTube?

Archive

GB Energy will be headquartered in Scotland and have £8.3bn in capital to invest – and [I] understands that among its first commitments will be a pledge to order a cluster of nuclear plants called small modular reactors (SMRs).
[…]
Asked about the timeline last week, Mr Miliband told Sheffield MP Clive Betts: “Our manifesto made it clear that we support new nuclear, including at Sizewell, and we also support the SMR programme.

“Part of our challenge is to examine the legacy left to us by the last government, but he [Mr Betts] should be in no doubt about my absolute support for the SMR programme. It is important, and we will strive to keep to the timetable set out.”

While renewable energy sources such as wind, solar and tidal will have their place in meeting the UK’s future demand, the nuclear sector appears to have won the argument that the 24/7 power it provides must be in the mix in order to reduce carbon emissions to net zero by 2050.
[…]
Proponents argue these mini-reactors are cheaper, easier to manage and safer than a much larger site such as Sizewell in Suffolk or Hinckley Point in Somerset.

In theory, once the first SMR proves to be a success, they can be prefabricated at scale, driving down cost. Future governments would then have the flexibilty [sic] to have them dotted all over the country in their hundreds, or even thousands, in order to meet their energy needs.

Rolls-Royce has said it hopes to build its first SMR for around £2bn and then subsequent reactors could cost as little as £1bn.

By comparison, the final cost for Hinckley Point could be as much as £46bn.

[I] understands Mr Miliband is set to order two sets of three SMRs, though they will not be operational until 2030 at their earliest.

Rolls-Royce also has memorandums of understanding in place with Estonia, Turkey and the Czech Republic.

“Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was a real turning point in how nuclear was seen for the positive,” said Mr Evans, [Rolls-Royce director of corporate and government affairs.] “I spend a lot of time talking to overseas governments, who are all looking to do SMRs.

“The energy security argument is really strong at the minute, I’ve definitely seen a shift and a change.”

Challenges remain, however. Nuclear plants have often gone way over budget and faced years of delays, while critics remain unconvinced that concerns over safety and disposal of nuclear material have been overcome.
[…]
A new report shared exclusively with [I] by lobby group the Northern Powerhouse Partnership (NPP) claims that every £1 in public investment in the net zero transition will be worth £2.65 from the private sector and create an extra 168,000 jobs.

NPP argues that the North of England, which produces nearly half of the UK’s electricity, and is home to half the country’s most carbon-intensive clusters, is “uniquely vulnerable” to a botched transition to net zero.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/25421967

The first “multibank” in London, distributing everything from basic foods to baby products and toiletries, will be officially launched this week, amid continued concerns about levels of poverty as the school summer holidays begin.

The opening of Felix’s Multibank, which has the backing of former prime minister Gordon Brown and London mayor Sadiq Khan, is the latest in a growing network of multibanks.

Brown said the new project was opening at a time when the country’s approach to the problem of destitution would change. There have been continued calls from within Labour for Keir Starmer to take stronger action on child poverty.

Brown said: “The London Felix Multibank is the fourth of six that will be opened by the end of this year across Britain. It is opening at a time of transition from a Britain where child poverty has risen dramatically to one where we wish to see child poverty falling.

Very little is known as to why this happened, even by people deep within the GNOME project, so try to avoid wild speculation.

She's written exclusively in The Sun, which I've left out the URL field because it's The Sun. Here's what she wrote:

We cannot pretend everything is OK. Not when criminal gangs are making millions out of dangerous small boat crossings that undermine our border security and put lives at risk.

We have directed Immigration Enforcement to intensify their operations over the summer, with a focus on employers who are fuelling the trade of criminal gangs by exploiting and facilitating illegal working here in the UK – including in car washes and in the beauty sector.

And we are drawing up new plans for fast track decisions and returns for safe countries.

Most people in this country want to see a properly controlled and managed asylum system, where Britain does its bit to help those fleeing conflict and persecution, but where those who have no right to be in the country are swiftly removed.