Tag: united kingdom

British gallery may lose prized £500,000 Renoir over claim Seated Nude is Nazi loot seized from original Jewish owners

A British gallery may be forced to give up a prized £500,000 Renoir after claims it could have been seized from its original Jewish owners by the Nazis.

The Mail on Sunday can reveal that Manchester Art Gallery is now treating the Impressionist painting – known as Seated Nude, from around 1897 – as a potential looted or ‘spoliated’ object.

The gallery has been approached by claimants who believe they may be the rightful owners of the oil painting.

If their claim of ownership is proved, the gallery could be forced to hand over the artwork.

Details of the investigation are included in a document obtained by the MoS under freedom of information laws.

It states: ‘This painting is under investigation as a spoliated object, which means it may have been stolen from or sold under duress by its Jewish owner during the period of Nazi power in Europe.’

Both sides agree that the artwork was once the property of Richard Semmel, a German-born Jewish art collector and entrepreneur.

Semmel and his wife Clara, who fled Germany for Holland in 1933, managed to arrange for the sale of about 70 of their artworks to pay for their living expenses.

It is believed the Renoir nude was offered up for the sale but did not sell.

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UK doctors who challenge vaccine safety feel the GMC has helped to put a target on their backs

A group of health professionals have expressed concern to the General Medical Council (“GMC”) about the use of GMC referrals against doctors speaking out about the safety of the covid-19 injections.

They highlighted cases of doctors facing fitness to practise investigations and job losses due to their public expression of safety concerns.  And they urged the GMC to protect whistle-blowers reporting covid-19 vaccine harms.

In response, GMC Chair Professor Carrie MacEwen said that healthcare needs a culture where doctors can feel they can speak out about concerns for patient safety. 

However, in their response to Prof. MacEwen, the group expressed the lack of reassurance among doctors regarding protection when raising patient concerns and raised the online harassment and death threats that doctors receive for raising concerns about the safety of covid injections – which is a concern for patient safety. 

These concerns are often expressed online because doctors are being ignored when they raise them through the official channels.  And, despite a doctor’s right to freedom of expression being upheld in the High Court, the GMC continues to investigate reports referred to them of doctors who express concerns about vaccine safety online.

Prof. MacEwen responded again but failed to adequately address the points raised by the doctors.

“It is hard to dispel the feeling among dissident doctors that there is a target over their heads, with certain hostile actors itching to find any excuse for a GMC referral,” the HART Group said.

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Royal College of Nursing is encouraging nurses to refuse to treat “racists”

Abandoning longstanding ethical principles, the Royal College of Nursing in the UK has issued new guidelines that justify refusal to treat or withdrawal of care in cases of discriminatory behaviour, including racism.

The Solicitor’s Regulatory Authority (“SRA”) is also following a totalitarian ideology.  Solicitor, Lois Bayliss, has been accused by the SRA of acting “against mainstream science” because she sent out “anti-vaccine” letters. The SRA claims to have a “body of evidence” against her anti-vaccine beliefs but refuses to allow her to bring in medical expert witness evidence to defend herself in her final hearing. How Orwellian is that, remarked Jonathan Engler who is a healthcare entrepreneur, qualified in medicine and law.

The first is The Royal College of Nursing (“RCN”), which says (of the recent protests):

These scenes around the country are nothing short of despicable racism – they have no place in our society. As an anti-racist organisation, the RCN will take a lead part in tackling this hatred.

So, they have issued new guidelines which state that “where there is discriminatory behaviour, including racism” a refusal to treat or the withdrawal of care may be justified.

The RCN announcement can be found HERE. The new guidance is HERE.

Aside from the concerns – expressed in THIS article – over a professional body essentially acting as a social justice organisation (as well as simply parroting the government position that anyone who expresses any concern whatsoever about unfettered immigration must automatically be a racist), this represents an egregious abandonment of longstanding ethical principles.

Who is to judge what is racist? And how? Are 95-year-olds who don’t keep up with the latest approved language and use outmoded words such as “coloured” to be refused treatment because they are “racist”? According to these guidelines that could well be justified.

What about a cheeky laddish comment by a male adolescent towards an attractive female nurse? Well, that’s misogyny, which is discriminatory – so no treatment?

It’s all very well responding, “Don’t be silly, nurses will exercise discretion,” but the whole point of sacrosanct ethical principles (and inalienable rights for that matter) is that they don’t depend on the prevailing circumstances, since the consideration of such leaves far too much room for post-hoc justification of – well anything, really – leaving patients frighteningly vulnerable to the ideological whims of their carers.

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“It’s Not OK Any More”: UK Free Speech Crack-Down Targets “Extremist Ideologies”

The crackdown on free speech continues in the United Kingdom as officials use recent rioting to justify a roundup of citizens who they view as “pushing harmful and hateful beliefs.”

The government is ramping up arrests of those with “extremist ideologies” in the latest wave of arrests. 

The crackdown includes those accused of misogynist views.

In my book, “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage,” I discuss how difficult it is to get a free people to give up freedoms. They have to be afraid, very afraid.

For that reason, governments tend to attack free speech during periods of public anger or fear.

That pattern is playing out, yet again, in the United Kingdom.

The recent anti-immigration riots have given officials a renewed opportunity to use anti-free speech laws to target those with opposing views.

For years, I have been writing about the decline of free speech in the United Kingdom and the steady stream of arrests.

A man was convicted for sending a tweet while drunk referring to dead soldiers.

Another was arrested for an anti-police t-shirt. 

Another was arrested for calling the Irish boyfriend of his ex-girlfriend a “leprechaun.”

Yet another was arrested for singing “Kung Fu Fighting.” 

A teenager was arrested for protesting outside of a Scientology center with a sign calling the religion a “cult.”

Last year, Nicholas Brock, 52, was convicted of a thought crime in Maidenhead, Berkshire.

The neo-Nazi was given a four-year sentence for what the court called his “toxic ideology” based on the contents of the home he shared with his mother in Maidenhead, Berkshire.

While most of us find Brock’s views repellent and hateful, they were confined to his head and his room.

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‘Can’t Make This Up’: Journalist Arrested Under UK Anti-Terror Law Hours After Criticizing It

Richard Medhurst, a Syrian-British independent journalist who defends Palestinians’ right to resist Israeli apartheid, occupation, and other crimes, said this week that he was recently arrested at London’s Heathrow Airport and held for nearly 24 hours for allegedly running afoul of a highly controversial anti-terrorism law critics say is used to silence legitimate dissent.

Medhurst – who is known for his work opposing U.S., British, and Israeli war crimes in the Middle East and for his advocacy for formerly imprisoned WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange – said on social media Tuesday: “I criticized the Terrorism Act before getting on the plane, then got arrested under the Terrorism Act upon landing. Can’t make this up.”

In a nearly nine-minute video posted Monday night on X, the social network formerly known as Twitter, Medhurst said that “on Thursday, as I landed in London Heathrow Airport, I was immediately escorted off the plane by six police officers who were waiting for me at the entrance of the aircraft.”

“They arrested me – not detained – they arrested me under Section 12 of the Terrorism Act of 2000 and accused me of allegedly ‘expressing an opinion or belief that is supportive of a prescribed organization,’ but wouldn’t explain what this meant,” he continued.

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US, UK, Poland Took Part in Preparing Ukraine’s Operation in Kursk – Russian Foreign Intel

On August 6, Ukrainian forces launched an incursion into Russia’s Kursk region, which was slammed by President Vladimir Putin as a large-scale provocation. The Kiev regime planned the attack with the participation of the US and NATO, Russian presidential aide Nikolai Patrushev earlier said.

Ukraine’s operation in Russia’s Kursk region was prepared with the participation of the US, UK, and Polish intelligence services, the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) said.

“According to available information, the operation of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Kursk region was prepared with the participation of the US, British, and Polish intelligence services. The units involved in it underwent combat coordination in training centers in the UK and Germany. Military advisers from NATO countries are providing assistance in managing Ukraine’s units that have invaded Russian territory, and in using Western weapons and military equipment,” the agency told Russian media.

NATO countries are also providing the Ukrainian military with satellite reconnaissance data on the deployment of Russian troops in the area of ​​the operation, the SVR added.

As the situation on the front deteriorates for Ukrainian troops, Kiev’s Western handlers have been pushing it to move combat operations deep into Russian territory in recent months, Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service said. One of the goals was to provoke an upsurge in anti-government sentiment and influence domestic policy in the country.

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Taxpayer-Funded Posters in London Proclaim “Hey Straight White Men Pass The Power!”

A taxpayer-funded group is once again putting up posters around London that say, “Hey Straight White Men Pass The Power!”

Yes, really.

The posters, which originally appeared in Southwark, London and other areas of the UK in 2022, appear to have popped up once again, with an image posted to X showing one in Acton, London.

They are the work of an art project called the Artichoke Trust and were designed by a black artist from Marseille called Nadina who previously produced ‘street art’ that proclaimed, ‘Never forget George Floyd’ and ‘Nobody is free until Palestine is free’.

“Research from the Taxpayers’ Alliance claimed (the group) had been given £3million from a government art grant,” reported the Daily Mail.

Respondents questioned precisely what ‘power’ straight white men were supposed to give up in a society where they are already disenfranchised to the extent that large, partially government-funded billboards in major cities scream at them for merely existing.

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UK to release criminals early from jail to accommodate ‘keyboard warriors,’ protesters arrested after riots over school girl murders

Britain’s prisons are set to release prisoners in order to make room for those locked up due to the recent riots that took place after three school girls were stabbed to death by the son of Rwandan immigrants. Many of those who are facing prison terms were convicted over social media posts. Some 460 people have been arrested due to the riots so far. 

“The UK is turning into a police state,” Elon Musk said. “Keyboard warriors” are facing specific scrutiny from the judiciary, with one man facing jail time for posts said to have “instigated” riots. A 53-year-old woman who posted “burn the mosque down” and is the only caretaker for her disabled husband was sentenced to 15 months in prison. 12-year-old boys are also among those convicted.

The prisoner release plan, called Operation Early Dawn, was “triggered for a week in March,” The Times reports, and it requires police to release suspects on bail if confinement space is lacking. In this case, the plan will be enacted in the North East and Yorkshire, Cumbria and Lancashire, and Manchester, Merseyside and Cheshire regions.

The riots are being blamed for the expansion of these measures and it’s believed, per a senior government source cited by The Times, that “the large numbers of people imprisoned for their role in the riots will probably lead to emergency early release measures staying in place for longer than expected.” 567 new prison cells have been opened ahead of schedule to cope with the demand.

“From September 10, thousands of prisoners will start being released 40 percent of the way through their sentence as part of the emergency measures announced last month,” The Times reports.

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Government to introduce ban on machete and zombie-style knives – as Brits urged to surrender their weapons

Machete and zombie-style knife owners are being urged to surrender their weapons ahead of a government ban on owning them next month.

A nationwide scheme will be run at police stations across England and Wales for four weeks from August 26 to September 23.

People who hand over the potentially dangerous knives before it becomes illegal to own them on September 24 will not face repercussions.

After then, the weapons will be added to the list of dangerous prohibited items already banned – including butterfly knives, Samurai swords and push daggers.

Anyone caught with a zombie-style knife or a machete after this time faces time behind bars.

People can also dispose of the weapons using surrender bins by contacting their local police, council or an anti-knife crime charity.

Individuals are being encouraged to contact their designated police station first to get advice on how to package up any weapons and bring them into the station.

Policing Minister Dame Diana Johnson urged the public to ‘do the right thing’ to make streets safer.

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Yvette Cooper vows to crack down on promotion of ‘hateful beliefs’

The home secretary, Yvette Cooper, has vowed to crack down on people “pushing harmful and hateful beliefs”, including extreme misogyny, as she announced a new approach to fighting extremism.

The Home Office has commissioned a rapid review to inform a new government counter-extremism strategy on how best to tackle the threat posed by extremist ideologies online and offline.

The review will assess the ideological spectrum and is intended to address “gaps in the current system” that leave the country exposed to hateful or harmful activity that promotes violence or undermines democracy.

Officials will assess “the rise of Islamist and far-right extremism” alongside “ideological trends” that have gained traction including extreme misogyny. The scheme also aims to assess the causes and conduct of radicalisation of young people online and offline.

Cooper has previously said the last government’s counter-extremism strategy was nine years out of date. She believes the review will lay the foundations for Labour to deliver on its manifesto promise of preventing people from being drawn towards hateful ideologies.

It comes after a decade of warnings from the police and former government advisers about the need to address the rise of hateful extremism and the proliferation of dangerous material online.

Responding to concerns that treating misogyny as extremism could criminalise free speech, the Home Office minister Jess Phillips told LBC: “You just use the exact same test you would with far-right extremism and Islamism, wouldn’t you.

“The same test would have to apply.

“People can hold views about women all they like, but it’s not OK any more to ignore the massive growing threat caused by online hatred towards women and for us to ignore it because we’re worried about the line, rather than making sure the line is in the right place as we would do with any other extremist ideology.”

The MP for Birmingham Yardley, who has been open about the misogynistic hate she has received online, said social media companies “are undoubtedly going to have to be part of the solution”.

She said: “With the previous government’s online safety bill, that still hasn’t come into fruition yet but we’re going to have to make sure that is as robust as possible because if my teenage sons watch something on the television, there is a far, far greater place for me to have that regulated and to know that can be trusted than when they’re in their bedrooms and I have no idea what they’re looking at and the level of regulation is considerably lower at the moment.”

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