Politics | Westminster World

Dec72020 by Alejandra Angulo, Emily Ferrier, Peiyun He and Rahul Bamane. Sub Edited by Mercy Ajisafe No Comments

Period Poverty: Scotland raised the question, will England respond?

economy, Education, Environment, Gender, Health, International, Medical, Politics, Uncategorized

Period poverty is a public health crisis across the United Kingdom according to official data. In November, Scotland became the first country in the world to make menstrual products free for those in need. What would it take for England to do the same? Westminster World talked to campaigners and experts about the inability to afford menstrual products and period stigma. Photo by Rahul Bamane According to Plan International UK (P.I. UK), a survey conducted in 2019 showed that one in five girls reported being bullied or teased, and nearly 50 percent reported missing a day of school because of their periods. The same research revealed that women in the UK spend more than £16,500 on period products or aids in their lifetime and ten per cent of girls cannot afford the sanitary p

Environmentalists react to Spending Review:’Roads? Where are we going? We don’t need roads!’

EU referendum, Premiere, TV, Uber, UK news, UK Political parties, Uncategorized

Rishi Sunak’s Spending Review was accused of undermining Boris Johnson’s vision for a green economy by focusing its budget on improving roads. Sunak announced that he was pushing ahead with a £27 billion roads programme but did not offer an increase on the £12 billion that was mobilised to tackle climate change. While the UK chancellor said he was “pursuing the nation’s priorities” with his road-building plans to ease traffic congestion and improve commute times, some environmentalists fear it will attract more traffic and increase emissions. Marcin Branowski, 21, president of pro-market environmentalism not-for-profit, British Conservation Alliance (BCA) told Westminster World he believed the level of spending allocated to roadworks cannot be justified. He said

What will the Biden/Harris administration mean for BLM?

Politics, protest, Racism

Simon Daoudi The African American vote helped Biden win the 2020 election. Pew Research’s exit polls show that 90% voted for the President-elect. Now that Biden is due to take the White House he has some division to heal, namely the relationship between police and black communities. This was the spark that ignited Black Lives Matter protests over the summer. BLM was reignited in May, while many states and other countries were in lockdown, a video circulated the internet of a police officer knelt on George Floyd’s neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds until he died. A movement that started in 2013, is still going strong thanks to activists across the globe. BLM came as a response to the Acquittal of George Zimmerman, the man who killed 17 year old Trayvon Martin in 2012

Did Boris Johnson force us into a second lockdown based on fake data?

Covid-19, economy, Law, London, News, Opinion, Politics, Student, UK news, Uncategorized

Photo By: Andrew Pearsons Prime Minister Boris Johnson is allegedly under the impression that he was fooled into enforcing a national lockdown due to ‘dodgy’ data. According to Government scientists, Covid-19 related deaths could rise to 4,000 a week; 4 times the peak we saw in April. This figure is now being discredited, with conflicting data released last week, suggesting cases were dropping, and the second wave may have peaked before the second lockdown began on November 5. Shops and businesses forced to close during second lockdown. Photo: Amelia Hallsworth Figures released last week show 20,572 cases recorded, down from the previous week’s number of 23,254. A total of 156 deaths were recorded across with the UK, compared to 162 from the week prior.&nb

Tories urge to lose restrictions as we approach December 2

Covid-19, NHS, Politics, UK news, UK Political parties

Leadenhall Market in the time of Covid-19. Photo by Stephen Richards Tory MPs have demanded an early end to the second lockdown after a minister claimed Boris Johnson is "furious" over being "bounced" into the tough new rules. Fifty Conservative MPs, including former prime minister Theresa May have rebelled against party leader Boris Johnson’s coronavirus lockdown, which came into force in England on Thursday the 5th of November. As from them, the PM was forced to sign off the national measures after Government scientists gave a worst-case scenario forecast there could be 4,000 deaths a day. Public health officials initially predicted that 4,000 deaths a day could happen without intervention - a figure that has since been revised to 1,000 fatalities per day by

Free School Meals: Necessity amidst Coronavirus?

Breaking News, Celebrity, Charity, children, Education, Food, Politics, UK news, UK Political parties, Worldnews

Marcus Rashford has persuaded the government to invest a large amount of money into the Free School Meals (FSM) scheme. Photo credited by Halima Ahcene Djaballah UK Prime Minister, Boris Johnson called Manchester United footballer Marcus Rashford to donate more than £400m for low-income families from early Christmas. So what is the FSM scheme exactly? FSM is a deal for children to receive free school meal vouchers for out of term time. This is thought to help financially deprived households through these challenging times. As well as free meals, the vouchers also consist of health start, education and holiday clubs. How will this affect hard-hit families due to Coronavirus? Omar Farooq (29), a teacher of a school in North West London, told Westminster World how he fe

Jul152020 by Editor2No Comments

Into Poland’s Lgbt-Free Zones

Law, Media, Poland, Politics, protest

"Lgbt are allowed into these areas, but these declarations are setting the mood" says Sławomir Kokol, an Lgbt activist living in Poland’s Bielsko-Biała, a small southern town. He refers to the so-called Lgbt-free zones, spread over one third of Poland. “You can feel you are not welcome” continues Aleksandra Głowacka, another activist working with him. Since April 2019, more than 100 communities voted to introduce a “charter for the rights of the family”, allegedly protecting traditional family model and marriage but slyly discriminating against Lgbts. After an ultra-conservative magazine, Gazeta Polska, distributed some stickers, showing a cross over a rainbow flag and the sentence “Lgbt free zone” in Polish, all the communities approving the family charter has been called like that.

Dec162019 by Editor2No Comments

PM Johnson assures Brexit deal by 31 January next year

Breaking News, brexit, Politics, UK news

After a historic landslide win, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has reiterated his Brexit promise and stated that Britain will retain control of their trade, money and borders. There is minimal doubt that the British PM will face any obstacle to pave a way for Britain’s exit after securing a majority in the elections. Credit: Sera Mathews Following a crushing election victory on Friday, Mr Johnson assured his Conservative backers that the UK would exit the European Union by the end of January 2020. The win was a “powerful new mandate to get Brexit done” Mr Johnson said at his victor’s speech on Friday. Deputy director general of the CBI, Josh Hardie, embraced the hope of an end to the three-year issue because “a government with a mandate and a strong majority brings a bit more c

Dec162019 by Bowen JiangNo Comments

Labour wins again in Brent despite national failure

Politics, UK Political parties

Labour MP candidates Barry Gardiner and Dawn Butler kept their seats in Brent again in the UK's general election in 2019, although the Labour Party faced a landslide failure nation-wide. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIcfPH8oNlc&feature=youtu.be Gardiner, Shadow Secretary of State for International Trade, has been the MP for Brent North for 22 years. He won 26,911 votes this year, a significant drop compared with 35,496 votes two years ago. Barry Gardiner, by Bowen Jiang Butler witnessed her vote share drop from 10 percent to 63 percent compared with what she achieved in 2017. She has served Brent Central for four years and is now Shadow Women & Equalities Secretary. Dawn Butler giving a speech after her victory in Brent Central, by Bowen Jiang Des...

Dec142019 by Laura HarmanNo Comments

What does a Conservative Government mean for the NHS?

Breaking News, Health, News, NHS, Politics, ReportingWeek2, Uncategorized

A group of doctors in scrubs (Image from Unsplash) How will the National Health Service be affected, now that the Tories are in power? In the early hours of Friday 13 December, it was announced that the electorate had voted for a majority Conservative Government. With 365 seats, the Conservative party had well surpassed the 326 seat target needed to hold a majority government. This result has many people speculating about what this will mean for the UK’s National Health Service. In his Prime Minister’s victory speech on 13 December, Johnson stated: “I’ve heard it loud and clear from every corner of the country that the overwhelming priority of the British people now, is that we should focus above all on the NHS, that simple and beautiful idea that repre