Home News

The graffiti appeared across two locations in east Belfast – a wall in the Belvoir Street area and on a commercial building in the Newtownards Road area.The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) launched the investigation on Wednesday, with the south’s Garda Síochána being kept in the loop – particularly the teams who provide protection for tánaiste Mr Varadkar and foreign affairs minister Mr Coveney.Mr Varadkar’s name and address were displayed next to a loyalist sign depicting two gunmen and the words: “The prevention of the erosion of our identity is now our priority. East Belfast Battalion.”Various loyalist logos, including those of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) and Protestant Action Force (PAF), can be seen on the mark too. It is the latest in a string of graffiti threats in Belfast as anger over the Northern Ireland protocol, implemented as a result of Brexit, continues to grow. Read more:In January, a smear titled “an ode to Leo Varadkar” was painted in the Belvoir area of south Belfast, warning the ex-taoiseach he would be hanged if he “set foot in Ulster”. A PNSI spokesperson said in a statement “officers are aware of the graffiti … and inquiries are ongoing”. While no arrests have been made for any of the offences yet, the graffiti is thought to be part of a campaign by unionists who feel the protocol – which effectively creates a border in the Irish Sea for goods moving between Britain and Northern Ireland – cuts them off from the rest of the UK.On a visit to Belfast last week, Boris Johnson admitted the measure was not operating as he envisaged and promised to address the concerns being raised by MLAs and their constituents. A number of Northern Ireland politicians have spoken out to condemn the latest graffiti threats, with East Belfast MP Gavin Robinson labelling them “pathetic”. He told the Belfast Telegraph that he had contacted Belfast City Council, which confirmed that the sinister message would be removed on Wednesday.Meanwhile UUP leader Steve Aiken described the graffiti as “absolutely despicable”.“Nobody should be doing this sort of thing. It’s very clear that all politicians and everybody in society should call out these sorts of activities,” the South Antrim MLA told the newspaper.“Whether it’s Michael Gove, Simon Coveney, Leo Varadkar or whoever it happens to be, it’s completely unacceptable.”Neither Mr Varadkar nor Simon Coveney have commented on the situation yet, though it is understood they are being kept up to date on developments.The Independent has contacted their representatives for comment. More

New powers to crack down on protests are not needed and go “too far”, senior police and crime commissioners have said.MPs will vote on the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill, which would lower the threshold at which police can impose legally-binding restrictions on protests, and make it easier to prosecute people for violating them.Human rights groups have called the plans “an all-out assault on our right to protest”, and demonstrations were being mounted outside parliament ahead of the vote.Read more:“These are local matters for chief constables in consultations with PCCs, and I was concerned to see the draft clauses in the bill,” he said.“I think politicians would be wise to leave decisions to the responsible people … they’ve got to leave people to make local decisions in local circumstances.”Martin Surl, vice-chair of the APCC, said police “have the laws needed already”.“When you make these laws, you can’t pick laws for the protests you like and don’t like,” he added. “If you’re protesting about Me Too, climate change, racism, the laws have got to be the same. Police constables are operationally independent and don’t have an agenda, which some politicians do.”Mr Surl, who is the politically independent PCC for Gloucestershire, said: “I don’t like law for law’s sake, especially on freedom of protest. More

The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill entered parliament last week, and will be debated by ministers on Monday and Tuesday. It contains a number of proposals which the government itself has conceded will have a disproportionate impact on Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) people in equality assessments.The government has justified this inequality as “a proportionate means of achieving the legitimate aim of protecting the public”. However, in another official document, the government admits there is “limited evidence that the combined set of measures will deter offenders long term or reduce overall crime” and therefore cannot be guaranteed to actually benefit society.The organisations call for the ministers to withdraw the elements of the bill it acknowledges will increase racial inequality and launch a public consultation around the changes to avoid discrimination.Nina Champion, Director of the Criminal Justice Alliance, said: “These unnecessary and discriminatory changes to sentencing and police powers will deepen existing racial inequalities, sweeping more Black, Asian and minority ethnic people into the criminal justice system for increasing periods of their lives.Read more:“They will also miss out on the more positive proposals in the Bill. Initiatives to divert people from the criminal justice system into community rehabilitation will depend on a guilty plea, and we know Black, Asian and minority people are less likely to plead guilty due to distrust in the system. Rather than reducing racial inequality, as the government has committed to do, this Bill does the complete opposite.”In a policy paper relating to the the bill, the Ministry of Justice admitted: “By virtue of the overrepresentation of these groups in the cohort of offender to which this policy applies, we acknowledge that any adverse impacts arising from these changes will be more likely to affect male and Black offenders.”“While the available data shows that Black children are disproportionately represented in the youth custodial remand population, the evidence that BAME offenders may be perceived as a higher risk suggests they may be less likely to benefit from these changes,” it added. More

Metropolitan Police commissioner Dame Cressida Dick has defied calls to resign, insisting she is not considering her position as officers’ actions at a vigil for Sarah Everard provoked criticism across the political divide.Dame Cressida’s intervention came after the London mayor Sadiq Khan summoned her to a meeting at City Hall, and later issued a statement saying he was “not satisfied” with her explanation of events at Clapham Common on Saturday evening.The Home Office said Priti Patel believed there were “still questions to be answered” after receiving an official report from the commissioner into “upsetting” scenes during which four arrests were made and at least one young woman was restrained on the ground by officers.The department added that the home secretary had also ordered Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary to conduct a “lessons learned” review into policing at the event – a move welcomed by Dame Cressida.Speaking moments after a government source suggested Ms Patel still had “full confidence” in the commissioner, and as demonstrators gathered in Parliament Square, Dame Cressida was asked whether she was considering her position. “No, I’m not,” she replied.The commissioner said what had happened to 33-year-old Sarah Everard, whose body was found in woodland in Kent last week, appalled her, adding: “As you know, I’m the first woman commissioner of the Met – perhaps it appals me even more because of that.”Dame Cressida said events had made her “more determined, not less, to lead my organisation”, and said she was focused on “our streets being safer than they are now and feeling safer than they are now” for women.She added that officers at the vigil were placed in an “invidious” position when crowds grew in south London on Saturday evening, and described their task as “fiendishly difficult policing” due to the government’s draconian coronavirus restrictions.Quizzed on what she thought when she saw the pictures of the policing at the vigil, Dame Cressida said: “I wouldn’t have wanted to see a vigil in memory of Sarah end with those scenes. Crowds gather outside of Scotland Yard to mourn Sarah Everard“That’s why this morning I said – I wasn’t there, but from what I can tell – my officers [were] in a very difficult position, as they have been again and again in the last year, policing within coronavirus restrictions, having to uphold the law, having to be impartial, having to be fair.“But of course, trying to apply common sense and discretion – and if people don’t understand the law, trying to help them to understand and engage and speak before we ever turn to any enforcement. But that is why I said we didn’t want it to end like that: let’s have a review.”The prime minister said on Sunday he had spoken with Dame Cressida, adding: “The death of Sarah Everard must unite us in determination to drive out violence against women and girls and make every part of the criminal justice system work to protect and defend them”.Earlier, the Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey had doubled down on his call for the commissioner to stand down, saying scenes were “utterly disgraceful and shame the Metropolitan Police”. The Labour MP for Streatham, Bell Ribeiro-Addy, said that Dame Cressida’s position was “untenable”.“Lessons must be learned from last night,” she added. “At the very least, we need a Met leader [who] is actually willing to learn them.”The Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said he was “very disturbed” at the police action on Clapham Common, and said women should have been given permission to hold the vigil “in peace”.Asked whether the commissioner should resign, however, the Labour leader said: “I don’t think Cressida Dick should resign – we need to see the reports that have now been called for.”Dame Vera Baird, the victims’ commissioner for England and Wales, told Sky News the decision of police to “push people away” at the vigil “seems to me to be a dreadful piece of misjudgement”, as she described the circling of the bandstand in Clapham Common as “quasi military”.And she said: “Are they really improving the chances of Covid not spreading by putting their knees in the middle of the backs of young women, and putting their hands in handcuffs? It didn’t seem to me to be the right thing to do.”Reclaim These Streets had organised the vigil before being forced to cancel it following consultation with the Metropolitan Police, which said it would be in breach of coronavirus restrictions. The group has asked Dame Cressida for an urgent meeting so that she can “explain the actions taken by the police last night, before she reports to the home secretary”. More

The director of the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) at University of London has accused critics of “politicizing the issue” after coming under fire for using the N-word in a video call with students.Adam Habib, who is of Indian descent, uttered the slur during a webinar discussion with students in response to concerns about lecturers historically saying the word without facing repercussions.During a short clip circulated on twitter, the 56-year-old said: “The issue around that is …. firstly, even N****r , somebody making that allegation … I don’t know the case. This is the first i’ve heard of it.”When a student took offence, Mr Habib is heard to reply: “You do? Well, I don’t actually. I come from a part of the world where we actually do use the word (…). The context matters.” A student commented: “You’re not a black man, you cannot use that word. You have not faced the trauma and oppression of black bodies what we go through 24/7 for the last 500 years.“You do not embody our history so therefore you cannot use the word.”The student continued: “Many writers, even our own alumni, have written as to why – peers, non-black peers – should not use the N-word because when it comes from that perspective then it means a whole different story than when it comes from our own perspective which is the autonomy, agency and reclamation of our own history.”Mr Habib then apologised “if he caused offence”.However, Mr Habib has since justified his use of the slur in a 17-part thread posted on Twitter on Friday, accusing critics of attempting to “politicize the issue”.“The question is why is it that after this apology, some are still politicizing the issue?” he wrote.“So why don’t I think it was problematic to use the word when I did. Well, because context matters and I was arguing for taking punitive action. You cannot impute maligned intention without understanding context. Do I believe that only blacks can verbalize the word. No, I don’t.”Mr Habib told The Independent: “A student did indeed pose a question that SOAS was not responsive to anti-black racism and suggested that a staff member who used the word is still on the payroll.“I did indeed use the word and said the following: ‘If someone used the word against another staff member, then it would violate our policy and the case should be brought to my attention’. I also said that this is the first that I had heard of the incident.“Another student objected, making the argument that only those who were ‘black‘ (or what I in South Africa would describe as ‘black African’) could actually verbalise the word. I was taken aback by this because the case was being argued devoid of any understanding or explanation of immediate context. “I did say that I am surprised by the reaction because I could have easily made the same statement in the same context back home without provoking this reaction.“I then did apologise saying that no offence was intended, and I again said that if the word was used by a member of staff against another human being, then it would be a disciplinary offence as it would violate our policies.”He added: “I did not say we use the word in South Africa. This is a deliberate distortion.”The Independent has queried what Mr Habib meant in the recording when he said the slur is used in the “part of the world’ he comes from.The director was born in South Africa and was appointed as SOAS director in January 2021.The Economic Freedom Fighters, a South Africa-based campaign group, has called on the University of London to sack Mr Habib. More

MPs have warned there is an “epidemic” of violence against women in the UK which is not taken seriously enough after a woman disappeared in south London.Sarah Everard, a 33-year-old marketing executive, went missing after leaving a friend’s flat in Clapham last week and police are now questioning a male police officer on suspicion of kidnap and murder. Human remains were found in Kent woodlands on Wednesday. The case has sparked an outpouring of anger as women have told of instances where they were threatened or sexually harassed by men while walking home alone and MPs have noted the daily fear many women feel on the streets after dark.Jess Phillips, Shadow Minister for Domestic Violence and Safeguarding, told Radio 4’s Today programme, random attacks on the street were a “rarity, if that is what this was”, before adding: “The reality is that it’s not a rare crime. Since last week since when Sarah first went missing, six women and a little girl have been have been reported as being killed at the hands of men.“So it’s not particularly rare and the fear that women live with is an everyday thing. For most women, they have had some form of experience that they feel frightened of and the message that they [the Metropolitan Police] should be sending out is not one about what women should or shouldn’t do.“It is about how serious violence against women and girls is and how it is an epidemic that we have to put far more attention and resource into.”The politician will be speaking at the annual International Women’s Day debate in parliament on Thursday where she will pay tribute to all the women murdered by men over the last year by reading out their names.Dawn Butler, the Labour MP for Brent Central, tweeted: “I may have had three hours sleep. Getting ready to go into Parliament. For #IWD2021 debate. I’m thinking about the police officer who patrolled the corridors of Westminster with guns and now he has been arrested. It totally blows my mind.”The former Shadow Women and Equalities Minister added: “And to think that the man, a policeman who is supposed to make people feel safe may have done this has shaken people to their core. I have cried for Sarah today. A life so brutally taken.”Stella Creasy, Labour MP for Walthamstow, tweeted: “We don’t know true scale of violence and harassment women face on our streets because it is underreported, to know whether it is ‘thankfully rare’. It’s time all police force’s treated women as equally worthy of protection and started recording hate we face.”PC Wayne Couzens, a serving officer, has been arrested on suspicion of murder and a separate allegation of indecent exposure. The 48-year-old serves in the Metropolitan Police Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection Command with his chief role being uniformed patrol of diplomatic sites.Caroline Nokes, a Conservative MP who is chair of the Women and Equalities Committee, said: “We must be safe to walk home alone, without needing our keys in our hand, with our headphones on if we choose, wearing what we like.”Charlotte Kneer, who runs Reigate and Banstead Women’s Aid refuge for domestic abuse victims at risk of murder in their own homes, told The Independent: “Women are dying in their own homes regularly in the UK and I have been calling for too many years for more investment in this huge issue.“We need investment in early education about equality and healthy relationships. We need investment in supporting victims of male violence against women and girls. We need to stop telling women how to protect themselves and start telling men to stop hurting them.“You don’t need to look very far to find examples of misogyny in everyday life and everyone, especially men should be calling that out whenever they hear it.”Ms Kneer, a domestic abuse survivor whose violent partner was jailed for seven years in 2011, called for sentencing in the criminal justice system to show violence against women and girls “will not be tolerated”. She added: “Men, instead of saying not all men do this, start saying I’m going to do everything in my power to stop those that are doing it.”Two women a week are killed in England and Wales by a current or ex-partner, while one in four women will suffer domestic abuse at some point during their lives.Farah Nazeer, chief executive at Women’s Aid, told The Independent: “Violence against women and girls is a crisis of global proportions, which is driven by women’s inequality in society. The pandemic has shone a light on the fact that women are not safe at home, and… they are not safe in public either.“The £165 million that the government has announced for domestic abuse support services in 2021-22 falls far short of the £393 million that Women’s Aid estimates is needed for domestic abuse alone.”Ms Nazeer said the government needs to include domestic abuse within the Violence Against Women and Girls strategy, otherwise we will be “put in reverse.” She added: “We need a joined-up strategy that tackles these crimes as a cause and consequence of women’s inequality.“Her comments come after a study this week found nearly all young women in the UK have endured sexual harassment including being groped, followed and coerced into sexual activity.YouGov, who surveyed more than 1,000 women aged between 18-24 for UN Women, found 97 per cent said they had been sexually harassed, while 80 per cent reported experiencing sexual harassment in public spaces. More

Anti-racism campaigners are calling for the royals to lose their exemption under race equality law and be “brought into line with the rest of the public sector” following Meghan and Harry’s racism allegations.The Equality Act, introduced in 2010,  protects people from discrimination within the workplace and across wider society. All organisations within the public sector have a legal obligation to adhere to this legislation, from the government and charities to major companies and political parties. However, the royal household, which is funded by the taxpayer through the sovereign grant, is exempt from those rules.Patrick Vernon OBE, a prominent equalities campaigner, told The Independent that this needs to change.“We need to consider changing race equality legislation to ensure that royal family and also private members’ clubs are brought in line with the rest of society so that the Equality and Human Rights Commission could investigate the allegations raised by Meghan and Harry in the Oprah interview or at least undertake an independent review on race equality,” he said.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle – in picturesShow all 55 More

UK councils are being urged to lobby their Polish counterparts to stop the spread of “LGBT-free zones” which have sprung up across the country, as part of a new campaign led by the Liberal Democrats.Half a dozen local authorities in the UK have official or informal twinning arrangements with towns in Poland that are considered by equality campaigners to be under significant pressure to implement resolutions targeting LGBT+ people.Polish authorities have already passed resolutions in more than 100 districts declaring them “free of LGBT ideology” – moves which activists say are discriminatory and have led to a rise in hate crime.Although they appear not to have been followed by legislation to discriminate against gay residents, anti-LGBT+ resolutions have fuelled concern across Europe about a drift in Poland towards illiberalism led by the Law and Justice government under president Andrzej Duda.Lib Dem MP Layla Moran, who is leading the campaign, is urging councils in the UK with links to the country to write to the mayors of their Polish “twins” to show support for the local LGBT+ community. One such area is Radomsko, one of the oldest cities in Poland, which has been twinned with Lincoln since 2007. Polish ultra-conservative group Ordo Iuris held a meeting there under the guise of “protecting family rights and children against demoralisation”, but which campaigners say amounted to efforts to establish another “LGBT-free zone”.Ordo Iuris was also behind a meeting titled “How to protect the family against the threats of the modern world” in Szczecin – a sister city of Hull.Other parts of the UK, including Antrim and Newtownabbey near Belfast and Heywood near Rochdale, are twinned with Polish districts which campaigners say are facing pressure to adopt anti-LGBT+ resolutions. The Independent has contacted the councils named, and Ordo Iuris, for comment. More