What happened on 26th April 2023 - with your comments

On Wednesday, the Guardian brought forth a revelation that the UK government has been helping to fund the work of a virulently homophobic religious organisation in Uganda, whose leaders have backed a proposed law that would make identifying as gay a criminal offence.

Redditors ironically reacted on this news: "I can’t be certain, but I’d guess it’s very hard to give aid to anyone in Uganda that doesn’t have some level of homophobia / anti-LGBTQ within themselves. That being said, the point of these reports is to find out if the aid is being used to push homophobia/anti-LGBTQ. That kind of funding should be stopped."

 

"I'm sure there must be alternative charities that aren't also hate groups."

"A quick google search reveals multiple charities operating in Uganda that don't appear to be overtly religious in their output so it can't be that impossible. I appreciate it may be difficult to totally separate them out when an issue is endemic but there is a difference between directly handing money & resources to what is an overtly authoritarian discriminatory group and a group that may need to interact with some of these groups to get help where it needs to go. Control of aid has always been used as a means of power in these countries and putting it into the hands of those who we fundamentally disagree with in terms of values is at least in part defeating the reason for aid as a means of influence."

 

The question whether our government chose that very anti-LGBTQ+ organisation remains open.

Another governmental scandal of Wednesday was about the Tories have been condemned after sending out an election leaflet wrongly telling voters they do not need photo ID.

It was contained in a leaflet sent out by Conservative canvassers in Norwich ahead of the local elections on May 4. Party officials blamed a “printing error” for the misleading information.

 

Twitter users had various versions, "Deliberate, or a blunder, using outdated text?"

 

"They just seem to have failed to edit their leaflet template."

 

and their own proposals, "Anyone that isn’t a Tory or super engaged would’ve put it straight in the bin. Any Tories that do read it hopefully get very angry and rebel."

 

"I wonder if such direct misinformation is grounds for legal action."

 

"What makes this story completely ridiculous is that the MP for North Norwich (where these mis-informative leaflets have been distributed) is Chloe Smith, who when in her role at the cabinet office was responsible for leading the voter ID bill through Parliament."

 

Also on Wednesday, new anti-strike laws in the UK have been blasted as "draconian" across Europe. 

The legislation was condemned by 121 politicians from 18 countries, including Germany, France, and Ireland, in a joint letter published on Tuesday. 

“We reject the UK government’s attempt to limit workers’ rights and its attempt to justify it with comparisons to international norms,” they wrote.

“The UK already has some of the most draconian restrictions on trade unions anywhere in the democratic world and workers in the UK are faced with disproportionate regulatory hurdles before participation in a strike can be considered legal.”

“This [letter] is a damning verdict on the [government's]... abhorrent anti-strike legislation which punishes workers for... taking action over poor working conditions and pay," commented a Scottish MP Chris Stephens.

 

British redditors agree with the European politicians.

 

"As it should be. We already have fairly horrific strike laws in the UK. To pass such a law without consulting major trade unions and getting specifics sorted is absurd."

 

"Never known a government to hold its own people in so much contempt. They seem to literally hate everyone in Britain. It's about time they heard their master's voice again. May 4th."

 

"The Tories have manufactured an "immigration crisis" by letting the backlog build up to an unprecedented level and will use this as an excuse to remove us from the ECHR and council of Europe.

They will remove us from existing treaties on human rights and worker protections so they can go to a system like the USA's 'fire at will' and child labour laws that are currently used in republican controlled states.

Welcome to North Korea on Thames."

"I really dont understand why the government want to ban strikes. It seems like they've forgotten that strikes were a compromise so we don't riot or burn them in thier beds..."

On the same day we've become to know that almost a quarter of people aren’t aware of changes to voting laws - – with younger voters and ethnic minority voters disproportionately more likely to be unaware. .

 It means that up to 10 million people across the UK could miss out on their right to vote.

The attitudes in the Web show that many Britons regard coming election a great Tory voting fraud.

"With how much exposure this has had through advertising, media and social media, it’s surprising that a quarter of people surveyed are saying that they were unaware of it.

From the turnout in recent elections, it’s clear that many people don’t actually vote in elections, so it’d be interesting to see what proportion of those that say they were unaware of the change in the survey fell into that category."

 "I knew that there were voter ID laws coming in, I wasn't aware that it was for this local election, I thought it was for the next general election.

Thankfully a BBC news alert on my phone let me know a day before the deadline and I was able to apply for a Vote Authority Certificate in time."

"Only reason I know is because of reddit. Haven't had anything through the post. Also never received any warning about the emergency alert, and only found out when talking to my parents. Apparently they both got texts telling them it was coming."