United Kingdom

G7 summit escalates new Cold War

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The leaders of the most powerful capitalist empires gathered in Japan over the weekend to hold a summit of the “G7” powers – the United States, UK, France, Canada, Italy, Japan, and Germany. While their deliberations, held in Hiroshima, touched on a wide range of issues, there was one common goal present throughout the meeting – intensify the new Cold War atmosphere in world politics by recklessly deepening key conflicts. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was the de facto guest of honor at the summit. Arriving on Saturday, Zelenskyy held a flurry of meetings and events to solidify his standing among the main sponsors of the proxy war that pits his country against Russia. In his main speech, Zelenskyy reminded his patrons how they are all effectively co-combatants in the war, “For almost 15 months of full-scale war, we’ve made hundreds of security decisions together. These include the formation of coalitions of defense support, sanctions against the aggressor, protection of markets, including the energy and food markets, and protection of Ukraine’s financial stability.” 

The day before Zelenskyy landed in Hiroshima, the Biden administration unveiled a massive escalation of the war. The Pentagon will now seek to facilitate the transfer of highly sought-after F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine, and the training of Ukrainian pilots to fly them. For months, even the U.S. government resisted aggressive lobbying by Ukraine to secure these jets. But as the eve of the G7 summit opened, this was reversed in a move that takes the world even further down the path towards catastrophe. 

Biden met with Zelenskyy and pledged, “Together with the entire G7, we have Ukraine’s back and I promise we’re not going anywhere.” An official statement from the summit promised that “Our support for Ukraine will not waver.” Host of the summit, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, assured that the G7 will provide “strong backing for Ukraine from every possible dimension.”

While imperialist diplomacy played out in the comfort of the summit, dramatic events were unfolding on the battlefield in Ukraine. The town of Bakhmut was captured by the Russian military after months of intense fighting that became the focal point of the war. But at the same time, the Ukrainian armed forces were conducting final preparations for a highly-anticipated counter-offensive that could see the greatest risk yet of the war escalating into a direct clash between NATO and Russia.  

Hostility to China a central theme

China, which along with Russia is the principal adversary in the U.S. government’s new Cold War, was also a top target at the summit. The official declaration pledged that the G7 would, “address the challenges posed by China’s non-market policies and practices, which distort the global economy” and “counter malign practices.” It also expressed that the leaders were, “seriously concerned about the situation in the East and South China Seas” and echoed separatist talking points on Taiwan, Tibet and Xinjiang. These issues are related to the territorial integrity of China, something that is of the utmost importance to the country’s government and could be the basis for a direct military clash. 

A spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry responded to this hostility by noting, “the G7 used issues concerning China to smear and attack China and brazenly interfere in China’s internal affairs … gone are the days when a handful of Western countries can just willfully meddle in other countries’ internal affairs and manipulate global affairs. We urge G7 members to catch up with the trend of the times.”

Along the sidelines of the G7 meeting, leaders of the “Indo-Pacific Quad” countries also held a meeting. The Quad was established in 2017 as part of the U.S. strategy to encircle and contain China, and is made up of the United States, Japan, India and Australia. While it stopped short of naming China, the joint statement issued by the Quad countries all but accused the country of “destabilizing or unilateral actions that seek to change the status quo by force or coercion.” Of course, it is actually the U.S. government that for generations has based its entire foreign policy on unilateral action employing force or coercion. 

China was especially alarmed at the rhetoric coming out of the G7 summit because of several recent geopolitical developments. Last month, the right wing president of South Korea Yoon Suk Yeol traveled to the White House to meet with Joe Biden and issue the “Washington Declaration.” This aimed to solidify South Korea’s subordinate role to the U.S. war machine by deepening military coordination, including the regular deployment of U.S. submarine-based nuclear weapons to the Korean peninsula. Then, less than two weeks later, Japanese Prime Minister Kishida went to South Korea for talks aimed at bringing the two countries closer together for the sake of mutual confrontation with China and North Korea. Last December, Kishida’s government announced the country would embark on its largest military build-up since World War Two. 

It is a true irony that this gathering took place in Hiroshima – the place where the U.S. military criminally carried out the first attack in history using nuclear arms. While the leaders visited the city’s Peace Park dedicated to the bomb’s victims and spouted hollow rhetoric about disarmament, their actions at the summit brought the world closer to the brink of a catastrophic global confrontation where this type of weapon could bring about the end of life on Earth as we know it. 

Source: The Liberation

Trends we cannot ignore?

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Continued market volatility has put constant pressure on individuals and businesses, not only in the UK but also worldwide. This strains resources, slows productivity and growth. Fortunately, the growing maturity and prevalence of common sense and balance among other reasons, makes our daily affairs or duties more bearable.

Feeling torn between the desire for more patience and more understanding and the need to figure out details, we see new ways of doing things, coping with reality, According to some, the prevalence of new technology including AI and Machine Learning (ML) have established ways that can help navigate uncertainty while accepting the unique complexities of life today. What do we need to trade in its place?

How do we choose the trends that align best with our needs? How do we develop a short and long term roadmaps, that align our living to evolving trends? How do we prepare the skills and organisational culture, where people and machines seamlessly collaborate? Is this possible or practical?

Technology and Change?

How do we stay ahead of the game by anticipating changes rather than succumbing to them, say ChatGPT, AI, and Automation.

“ChatGPT is a sibling model to instruct GPT which is trained to follow an instruction in a prompt and provides a detailed response”. The first peak of ChatGPT is coming directly to Windows 11- with no browser.

With AI we are told there are deeper ethical and moral concerns – since the AI models have neither?  

Without delving into the “New Tech” suffice to state, we must be weary of where they are leading us?

The Tech sector has seen explosive growth in the past two years. The Pandemic saw a dramatic rise in the hybrid working model as employees left the office to work from home. This saw major firms like Amazon and Facebook hire thousands of workers, doubling their headcounts in a matter of months. Now with a potential recession looming, Tech companies are laying off workers. In the last year more than 70,000 people globally have been laid off by Big Tech Companies?

What has led to this shake up?

Rising inflation and rising interest rates drag on economic growth. Faced with this additional intense pressure on already stretched finances, UK wage growth has remained high in the three months, according to data from the UK Office of National Statistics (ONS).

“Pay and wages strikes” have continued “over the winter of discount,” with the latest Royal College of Nursing members rejecting, the pay offer agreed by their Union. There is talk of a demand of 35% increase, which the Government will hardly consider. Junior Doctors are on strike, but the big question is, “Will there be coordinated strikes” that threaten people’s lives?

Will inflation eat away at pay growth? “Who is the loser?”

When adjusted to inflation “Real Pay” fell by 2.3 %, while “Total Pay” fell 3%. CPI inflation has unexpectedly ticked up to 10.4% in February, after a fall in January 2023.

Economic uncertainty is weighing heavily on the labour market. UK economy has remained largely stagnant since the end of 2022. According to reports, GDP was “flat last month”. Though the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Jeremy Hunt expects the UK will avoid a recession this year, the IMF’s outlook is far less rosy. Indeed, the IMF expects the UK economy will shrink by 0.3% this year.

A bleak outlook awaits the Conservative Party as expected at the Local Government elections in May, with as many as 1000 Local Council lost.

Cambodia’s looted treasures returned home from Britain

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Seventy-seven pieces of lost Cambodian ancient jewelry, handed over by the family of the late antique collector Douglas Latchford, had been returned to Cambodia from Britain, said a press statement from the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts on Monday.

Arriving in Cambodia last Friday, gold and other precious metal pieces, made during the pre-Angkorian and Angkorian periods, included crowns, necklaces, bracelets, belts, earrings and amulets, the statement said.

A number of them had been featured in the book Khmer Gold: Gifts of the Gods, co-authored by Emma C. Bunker and Douglas A.J. Latchford (2008), the statement said, adding that many of the objects had never been seen by the public before.

The statement said this returned collection was in addition to other stone and bronze artifacts already returned from Britain to Cambodia in September of 2021.

Cambodian Minister of Culture and Fine Arts Phoeurng Sackona said peace and political stability had given an opportunity for Cambodia to reclaim those invaluable treasures which had been looted from the kingdom during war decades ago.

“The repatriation of these national treasures opens a new era of understanding and scholarship about the Angkorian empire and its significance to the world,” she said.

Sackona also called on private individuals, museums and other institutions around the world that are in possession of Cambodian artifacts to return them to the Southeast Asian country.

“We consider such returns as a noble act, which not only demonstrates important contributions to a nation’s culture, but also contributes to the reconciliation and healing of Cambodians who went through decades of civil war,” she said.

On Sept. 18, 2020, the family of Latchford agreed to give his entire extraordinary collection of Cambodian antiquities back to Cambodia after three years of negotiations, according to the ministry.

PHNOM PENH, Feb. 21 (Xinhua)

Sunak at No 10: Scotland’s Bombshell

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Nicola Sturgeon,52,surprise resignation as Scotland’s First Minister on 15 February 2023, was expected after the fortunes of Scottish Independence was dealt a death knell in November 2022 by the UK Supreme Court judgment blocking her bid to hold a second referendum. But, the question is why did she not soldier on until the next election?

She was a charismatic personality who after 8 long years in office as the first woman Scottish National Party Leader and the second leader of her party after Alex Salmon, had acknowledged the job was “rightly hard”.

She described her time in office as a “privilege beyond measure”. She insisted her decision was “not a reaction to short-term pressures, but came from “a deeper and longer-term assessment,” perhaps, a strategic assessment. She also said in her hastily convened televised press conference, that “the time was right for her to step down”.

What has shocked the British public?

It was the same day that former British Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn decided to stand down as a Labour MP at the next General Election. There has been rumour doing the rounds that Nicola Sturgeon’s resignation was possibly a move to curry favour with the Labour Party’s lead in the polls, to get some sort of arrangement with Sir Keir Starmer“to
make an accommodation for Scotland”. We are not to know what was in her mind, but there was indeed something more than meets the eye?

Who will be Scotland’s next Leader?

It is not the public but the British and Scottish Press which has made many assumptions on who would follow her in the days, weeks and months ahead.

The Scottish Herald stated; “Just two weeks ago Sturgeon said there was still plenty in the tank!”

The Independent stated: “What does Nicola Sturgeon’s resignation mean for Scottish independence?”

The Telegraph stated:” By quitting, Nicola Sturgeon is leaving her trans (gender) mess for someone else to clear up”.

Public opinion felt her steady decline of late, most notably over the next UK General Election, which she pledged to turn it into a “de-facto” referendum on Scottish independence. Whilst the independence card played well for Sturgeon, the tide of politics has turned. Recent polls in Scotland gave a signal that the tide has turned in Scotland supporting a second referendum, following the first in 2014, especially after the energy crisis and the cost of living sky rocketing around the UK and most of all her failing initiatives on health care, after her brilliant handling of the COVID-19 pandemic vaccinations.

The debate over the Gender Recognition Bill has been a thorn in the side of those in Scotland not agreeing with Nicola Sturgeon’s incarceration of double rapist Isla Bryson.

What did Nicola Sturgeon contribute to Scotland?

Nicola Sturgeon’s dynamic campaigning led the SNP to a historic landslide victory in the Scottish constituencies as its share of seats in Westminster swelled from a mere 6 to 56, with nearly all of its gains at the expense of the Labour Party, for which Scotland had been its stronghold. Who knows, whether now the tide has turned back for Labour with Sturgeon’s exit? Nicola Sturgeon’s charismatic personality led the SNP to its third straight victory in the Scottish Parliamentary elections in May 2016, but failed to obtain an outright majority at the last election, but chose to form a minority government instead.

Her legacy for the younger generation of Brits will be remembered, as she made University
Education is free for those wanting to enter and study at Scottish Universities.

Sturgeon and PM Rishi Sunak did not agree on the Gender Bill as Sunak said the law would undermine UK-wide legislation, a blow to residents in other parts of the UK do need to undergo a medical examination to change their gender. Sunak used that argument to prevent the bill which narrowly passed in Scotland’s Parliament from becoming law. Sturgeon will be forever remembered for stating that Sunak’s decision undermined Scotland’s democracy,

The shelf life of a politician around the world is limited. This is unlike in Sri Lanka, where Prime Ministers end up as Presidents, and cling on to power?

The Survival Instinct: What does it feel to be Prime Minister of 100 days in UK?

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Prime Minister Rishi Sunak marked 100 days in 10 Downing Street on Thursday, February 2, 2023 pleading to restore trust, confidence, and integrity in politics. But how does it feel to be first among equals as Prime Minister of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, today?

Mr Sunak’s premiership began on October 25, 2022 after former Prime Minister Liz Truss resigned after just six weeks. He was the runner-up in the summer Tory leadership race and was the only candidate to receive 100 supporting MPs in the second contest. Despite support among the Tory party, he has no public mandate, many state. “The Southampton-born former investment banker had served as an MP for his Yorkshire constituency of Richmond since 2015 and been a cabinet member for two years before becoming the youngest British Prime Minister in over 200 years and the first of Asian descent”.

The most pressing issue upon entering office was to stabilise the economy after Ms Truss left it in a volatile state, wiping £30 billion from it in less than three months. Alongside his Chancellor Jeremy Hunt, Mr Sunak has lowered inflation, despite its remaining high, and worked to increase growth and get public finances back on a sustainable path. Mr Sunak promised to clear up Tory sleaze but has still been faced with several issues. Last week Mr Sunak sacked his Party Chairman Nadhim Zahawi over his tax affairs after an independent investigation. Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab is also the subject of a formal investigation into bullying”. This is called the “balancing act”.

He also is finding it hard to unite the Conservative Party, as there are rumblings within and outside.

Politics and Position in Britain

Being Prime Minister for 100 days today in Britain, is like being “top dog” for 100 years. Or so it seems?

 Many feel the position of Prime Minister of Great Britain is a poisoned chalice? Economically, the UK is viewed by some abroad “less a poisoned chalice and more a poisoned barrel”. By some assessments, the UK is already in recession with a massive hole gaping in its public finances. Soaring inflation is hitting the public and the Bank of England has raised interest rates to keep pace from 3.5% to 4% on 2 February, to bring inflation down to BOE official target of 2%. But it is a far cry, as inflation is in double figures today and not expected to come down until December 2023.

Higher energy costs are starting to hit households hard this winter. Gas meters have been compulsorily installed in homes of “the vulnerable” unable to pay their bills and there is a big hue and cry by Labour.  Meanwhile, there is nationwide industrial unrest, including in postal services and transport, nurses, ambulance drivers, doctors, even Civil Servants.

Like many fellow Conservatives, Sunak is suspicious of China. He considers it “the biggest threat, more than Russia” to the UK and has called for the shutdown of Confucius Institutes in Britain. Whether he will prosecute policies against the world’s No 2 economy as Prime Minister, remains to be seen.

No one will believe it if I say, a lucrative future awaits him in the United States, at any time of his choosing? That does not mean, he will jump ship anytime now, as he has many friends in the “business world,” who would egg him on to stay on at least until the next General Election in 2024.

Being Prime Minister is a stepping stone to returning to United States at some foreseeable future as he is quite young, capable, enthusiastic and willing to work to the bone.

Meanwhile, Boris Johnson, is watching and waiting in the wings to take it on, “as the “empire strikes again,” and if and when it becomes vacant?

The Unions v The Government of UK

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The strikes up and down the country in the cold winter at end of 2022 and early 2023 as many would state, is to test the nerve of the Conservative Government.

It has been seen to be coming for many months, but Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, like his predecessor Margaret Thatcher, has painted the Trade Unions, as well as the Labour Opposition for supporting picket lines, as the enemies of ordinary hard working Brits, blaming them for causing the chaos in the run up to Christmas.

It has in one sense worked as 49% of the British public is opposed to some of the Unions, particularly, the RMT Rail Union as greedy. Some other unions like the Transport Salaried Staff (TSSA) last week voted to accept Network Rail’s offer of at least 9% for this year and next with Network Rail promising to make no compulsory redundancies until 31 January 2025.

Private Contractors have agreed pay offers with Unions

Other Unions, like Unite have also accepted an improved pay offer for the Ground Handling Staff at Heathrow Airport from their Private Contractor, Menzies. So have planned strikes by Security Guards on Eurostar to Paris on December 16 and 18th were similarly suspended while they considered a fresh pay offer from Contractor, Mities.

We read that Rolls Royce, a unit of Germany’s BMW, had agreed a very generous pay offer with the Union, Unite, on 16 December 2022, worth 14.8% and up to 17%, the largest single pay deal in the history of the factory at Goodwood, West Sussex,Southern England.

Another well-known name, EasyJet agreed to raise base pay by 7.5% in France and averted a French Cabin crew strike over Christmas.

While many Private Companies have seen it constructive to make peace with their Unions,

The British Government has been holding firm, even with the Royal College of Nursing (RCN).

Is Nurses Pay more important in today’s political scene?

The two professions, one the Train Drivers (RMT) on an average salary of £59,000 pa with fewer vacancies and Nurses on just under £35,000, with 45,000 odd nursing vacancies across England, there is public sympathy (66% at a recent poll) with the Nurses.

The Sunak Government is left with little choice but to make a climb down in his fight with the Nurses, who are willing to also come to a reasonable deal.

It may be a “U Turn,” the second time in his recent six weeks that P.M.Sunak would have to cave in, similarly to his change on his housing agenda, on the building of onshore wind farms.

With MP’s salaries on £84,000 and some “moonlighting” there is a hue and cry to help the Nurses. The Big Issue is who deserves a pay rise at present, a Nurse or a Train Driver?

Can you compare Train Drivers to Nurses?  Train Drivers have six (6) months training inside the train cab, while Nurses need up to six (6) years training on the hospital floor. However, in a sense it is not comparing like with like and here is the difficulty from the Government’s standpoint.

We all know the NHS needs a major overhaul and an efficiency drive. But look at it another way, the average Nurse’s salary is four (4) times the State Pension. But, will we be better off rapidly reaching the “Cost of Insurance” based Health Care, like the United States, or Germany.

The main question on people’s minds is: “Will Private Medicine be a more effective service than the NHS, we have got used to over decades?

I leave it to you to decide, which is better?

Why is there a winter of discontent in UK?

The widespread industrial unrest in the run up to Christmas and into January 2023, is nothing new, as workers all over Britain demand better pay and working conditions. Their leverage is to cause the most amount of tolerance, inconvenience and resilience.

We’ve just come out of summer and autumn with rail and postal strikes, now we face strike action planned by Nurses, Teachers, Train drivers, Emergency services, Ambulance drivers, Civil Servants, all jumping on the bandwagon. After a decade of wage stagnation workers across the country are now calling for pay rises that match inflation. However, it is fair to say, that during the past decade inflation was below 2 %, but has now overshot expectation.  

The last time there was a winter of discontent that I can remember?

I reckon it was during the days of Labour Prime Minister James Callaghan.

I can remember the winter between November 1978 and February 1979 when rubbish on the streets piled up, not cleared for days, perhaps, weeks as “Bin men” Council workers went on strike. First, it was the private and later the public sector Trade Union workers, demanding Pay rises greater than offered by the Labour government. It was no joke, when lights used to flicker as power cuts made us to keep candles at the ready. Domestic services in hospitals were on poverty wages of £39.50 per week at that time.

We cannot of course, compare today’s scenario to either the days of the General Strike of 1926 or the strike in 1978/79. But, a picture is building of what this winter 2022/23 will look like.

Why the strikes in NHS, in particular?

How many of you know that 25,000 Nursing staff left their job in the past year, with staff shortages affecting patient safety?

How many know there are 47,000 unfilled NHS Registered Nursing posts in England alone?

Has this shortage anything to do with the minimum 5, sometimes 10 hour wait at A& E wards in hospitals up and down the country?

Nurses in UK are going on strike for the first time, the first official strike in their 106 year history, on 15 and 20th December 2022. The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) announced it has reluctantly called a national strike over pay and patient safety. It said their action will be as much for patients as it is for nurses.

Emergency care will still be provided, under a “life–preserving care model,” but routine services are expected to be affected by the strike. RCN stated the level of service during walk outs will be that dialysis and planned surgery cancelled.

Nurses are paid according to their level of seniority and how many years’ experience they have. The Nursing career is not a bed of roses, but a bed of patience?

For those who hope to apply to fill these empty nursing posts, almost all nursing staff are on contracts under a system introduced in 2004 to bring together different pay scales across the NHS.

A newly qualified Nurse under 2 years’ experience earns £27,055 in England, topped up by London Weighting Allowance rising to £32,934 after four (4) years. A Senior Nurse – Matron earns £48,526 to £54,619 after five (5) years.

RCN Nursing Union is asking for 19 % pay rise. This Union wants a rise of rise of 4.5% above the Retail Price Index (RPI); a pay hike of 19.2%, which the Government says is unaffordable and unacceptable. National inflation is currently at 12.6%,

The Government accepted the Independent Pay Service body recommendation for 1 million workers a pay rise of at least £1,400 this year equivalent around 4 to 5% for most nurses.

The Government also states that for every one (1) percent rise it costs £700 million taking the total demand to £10 billion or 6.5 % of the total NHS Budget.

When are some of the other Unions on strike?

Railways, 40 million RMT members –

Walk out on December 13-14; 16-17; January 3-4; 5-7, 2023.

Postal Workers, 120 million CMU members –

Walk out on November 30; December 1, 9, 11, 13-15; 17, 23-24.

Buses in London, Unite Members –

Almost 1000 bus drivers to stage a series of strikes for 10 intermittent days in December.

Teachers   750,000 NEU and NASUWT members –

Balloting for strike action voting closing on 9 and 13th January 2023.

Emergency Services – 15 million Ambulance Staff/ Para Medic members, also thinking of strike action, of some sort, perhaps, a work to rule.

Will strikes cripple Britain?

The Unions believe that the wave of strikes hitting “every sector of the economy” this winter, will help get a square deal for their members.

But neither the Government, nor the General Public believe, that other being greatly inconvenienced, they will not be “broken”?

The Government wants a fair deal to keep the economy afloat; while “what the people expect, is that they get at least a square meal in a round can,” this Christmas, at an affordable price.

UK Backbenchers’ Political Survival through Sri Lanka

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Editorial

The UK House of Commons spent hours yesterday discussing the human rights and economic situation in Sri Lanka. Although they say they are talking about Sri Lanka, they seem to have taken it as an opportunity to express their “overwhelming love” for the Sri Lankan Tamil people living in the United Kingdom in order to preserve their political clout. It is quite ironic how a new generation born to a generation of ancestors who plundered countries including Sri Lanka psychologically, physically and in every other aspect for hundreds of years is not only bragging about human rights but also commanding other nations who are poor just because their wrongdoings how to protect human rights. We were watching carefully the fake performance that was carried out yesterday by that group of hypocrites calling it a debate but in the real sense, they have ridiculed the principles of humanity.  However, we should be glad to watch such entertaining plays of this nature especially in a socio and political context, where a man who has represented an ethnic group which was largely discriminated against by the common psyche of the United Kingdom was finally chosen as their new “Raj”. Their “overwhelming love” for the Tamil people to retain their political power is clearly visible through such dramas. We suggest that it should be capitalized very well by the Tamil community in the UK because, in another ten years or so, a person of Sri Lankan origin can open the path to rule the United Kingdom.

The so-called debate held by British politicians yesterday was a pathetic attempt to offer a legal framework for the alleged genocide in Sri Lanka that should be carefully looked at. No Genocide, but yes, there were some violations from both sides that should be investigated and prosecuted domestically. The real genocide was committed by the British colonialists. They have not yet paid compensation for that. At least they should return stolen valuables. Who can say that it is wrong to vanquish a brutal dictator and his gang who were oppressing unarmed civilians, expelling fellow folks of ethnicities who lived harmoniously within 24 hours and forcing their children into child soldiers? Do you know that we have experienced this heinous reality in our real life, Right Honourable Members? Tell us, will you allow someone to grab your kids and install them on war fronts? Tamil people contributed the most to this humanitarian operation because it was right. That is the truth. That is why these ladies and gentlemen who shed crocodile tears about human rights should stop betraying the noble principles of these subjects for their political survival. They talked about Sri Lanka at length based on secondary information and rhetoric. Anyone who has a simple understanding of the situation in the country will understand that these backbench MPs are continuously trying to fabricate blatant lies for their political survival.

The basic idea presented by a young politician was that since Sri Lanka is a member country of the Commonwealth of Nations, strict measures should be taken against Sri Lanka. We have no idea what the common in wealth of those members of the so-called “commonwealth” is, but we see the wretched inequality between us and them. They robbed us to enrich themselves. Then they tell us, you are a part of “the commonwealth”.  Truth is there is nothing in common, but we are a substantive part of their wealth.  Not only Sri Lanka but many other nations were deceived by the nominal commonwealth until the power of the degenerate colonial master faded in recent times. The inconsistency here is that this whole event is labelled a “debate”. From school we are taught that debate is about at least one side opposing the other side’s point of view and letting the public/jury decide who does better. The irony is that the British taught us the culture of debate in the formal education system implemented during the period when they administered Sri Lanka as a subordinate state. But in this so-called debate, nothing was said that contradicted any point that one was trying to establish for his or her political existence. No opportunity for other side of the story. Is it fair in democracy? What is important is accurate data, not rhetoric based on assumptions. So do we need commentary to understand this usual fake play?  Do they really worship the principles of democracy or the legacy of Joseph Goebbels? Over to you, Right Honourable Members?

Exclusive: Let us Work as Partners – Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister to UK

Commenting on the scheduled debate on the human rights situation and economy in Sri Lanka to be held tomorrow in the UK parliament, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Sri Lanka asked the UK to work as partners.

“My message ( to the UK) is very clear, let us work as partners and not be misled by a few who have ulterior motives and hidden agendas for their political gains. Let’s work together,” Minister Ali Sabry PC told the Sri Lanka Guardian in an exclusive interview at his residence in Colombo.

“Sri Lanka’s relationship with the UK is longstanding. We have a lot of similarities among us. We are requesting the new Prime Minister look at the larger picture of Sri Lankan democracy. Sri Lanka has thrived in democracy since 1931. Our elections are free and fair. None of the government leaders stays beyond their mandate,” he added. 

The full interview with the Minister is to be published soon.

UK to debate on human rights in Sri Lanka Tomorrow

The parliament of the United Kingdom will hold a debate on Wednesday 9th November on the UK’s response to the human rights and economic situation in Sri Lanka.

The UK Parliament said the Backbench Business Committee which consider requests for debates from any backbench Members of Parliament has organized the debate.

MPs Elliot Colburn, Sarah Olney, Sir Stephen Timms and Theresa Villiers have put forward this debate.

A full transcript of the debate will be available three hours after the debate on Commons Hansard, UK parliament said.

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