Genocide prevention could become legal priority for UK government

Clearer legal obligations on the British government to prevent genocides, and to determine if one is occurring rather than leaving such judgments to international courts, are to be considered by a cross-party group of lawyers, politicians and academics under the chairmanship of Helena Kennedy.The new group, known as the standing group on atrocity crimes, says its genesis does not derive from a specific conflict such as Gaza or Xinjiang, but a wider concern that such crime is spreading as international law loses its purchase.The move will also be seen as part of a wider drive to push back against those trying to downgrade the status of international law in the UK, often using criticism of the attorney general, Richard Hermer, as a lever.The aim is also to encourage the government to make atrocity prevention a clearer priority for the Foreign Office. The Foreign Office has established an atrocity prevention unit but its profile and funding are small

‘It’s very personal to me’: Darren Jones on his £500m plan to fight child poverty

Darren Jones has spent much of the past few months doing the traditional, hard-nosed job of a Treasury chief secretary – fighting line-by-line budget battles with ministers. But with last month’s fraught spending review over, he has turned his attention to an issue closer to his heart for his latest policy.“The council estate I grew up on was one of the neighbourhoods that was picked by the New Labour government because it was so deprived, essentially, in terms of income and educational outcomes,” he says.The 38-year-old MP for Bristol North West grew up in a flat on the Lawrence Weston estate. His mother was a hospital administrator and his father a security guard, and he has previously spoken about how money was sometimes tight at home

Charlotte Church joins unions and campaigners in opposing ban on Palestine Action

The singer Charlotte Church and veteran peace campaigners are among hundreds who have signed a letter describing the move to ban the group Palestine Action as “a major assault on our freedoms”.Trade unionists, activists and politicians have also added their names to the letter opposing the group’s proscription under anti-terrorism laws last week.Church said: “I sign this letter because history shows us that when people stand up to injustice, those in power often reach for the same old playbook: label dissent as dangerous, criminalise protest, and try to silence movements for change by branding them as extremists or terrorists.“From the suffragettes to the civil rights movement, what was once condemned as radical disruption is now celebrated as moral courage. We must remember this pattern – and refuse to let our rights be eroded by fear

UK government announces £63m funding for EV charging infrastructure

The transport secretary has promised to make it “easier and cheaper” to buy electric cars, as the government announces £63m worth of funding to help build charging infrastructure.Heidi Alexander said on Sunday she wanted to make it more affordable to switch to electric vehicles as she announced new money for councils and other bodies to spend on facilities to charge cars.She announced £63m worth of funding for EV charging, with officials also finalising plans for a £700m package of subsidies to bring down the cost of buying a new electric car.The money still falls short of the £950m pledged by the Conservatives for motorway charging points, however, which the Labour government scrapped last month, accusing the previous government of having failed to set aside funding for it.UK-made EVs are expected to receive the most generous subsidies under the scheme, which would probably benefit the Japanese carmaker Nissan, which is gearing up to produce a new version of its Leaf electric car in Sunderland

Why Labour should target happiness alongside economic growth | Heather Stewart

Every parent who battled their way through home schooling during the long months of lockdown, and every vulnerable person forced to shield themselves away, can have had little doubt that the Covid pandemic was an unhappy time.But research by the non-profit consultancy Pro Bono Economics (PBE), suggests that the nation’s wellbeing has never fully recovered from the plunge it took in mid-2020.Happiness – or wellbeing, or life satisfaction – seems a slippery concept to measure, but economists have been studying and tracking how the public are feeling about their lives for decades.In the UK, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has done this since 2011 by asking four questions, including: “Overall, how satisfied are you with your life?” and: “Overall, how anxious did you feel yesterday?”As the first lockdown took hold, the anxiety measure spiked, not surprisingly, while the other three, which track respondents’ satisfaction, happiness and sense of purpose, all had marked declines.Given the shadow the pandemic cast over so many people’s lives, it feels intuitively right that on none of these four metrics has wellbeing in the UK returned to the pre-Covid equilibrium

Most people in France, Germany, Italy and Spain would support UK rejoining EU, poll finds

A decade after MPs voted to hold the referendum that led to Britain leaving the European Union, a poll has found majorities in the bloc’s four largest member states would support the UK rejoining – but not on the same terms it had before.The YouGov survey of six western European countries, including the UK, also confirms that a clear majority of British voters now back the country rejoining the bloc – but only if it can keep the opt-outs it previously enjoyed.The result, the pollster said, was a “public opinion impasse”, even if there seems precious little likelihood, for the time being, of the UK’s Labour government, which this year negotiated a “reset” with the bloc, attempting a return to the EU.YouGov’s EuroTrack survey showed that at least half of people asked across the four largest EU nations – France, Germany, Italy and Spain – supported the UK being allowed to rejoin, with percentages ranging from 51% in Italy to 53% in France, 60% in Spain and 63% in Germany.Asked whether Britain should be allowed back in on the conditions it enjoyed when it left, however, including not having to adopt the euro currency and remaining outside the Schengen passport-free zone, the numbers changed significantly