{"id":20189,"date":"2021-12-29T20:22:17","date_gmt":"2021-12-29T20:22:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/?p=20189"},"modified":"2021-12-30T17:07:02","modified_gmt":"2021-12-30T17:07:02","slug":"global-britain-levelling-up-strengthening-the-union","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/2021\/12\/29\/global-britain-levelling-up-strengthening-the-union\/","title":{"rendered":"Global Britain, Levelling up, Strengthening the Union"},"content":{"rendered":"

The following article by Allan Armstrong (RSP) was first posted by bella caledonia<\/em>. It looks at the political significance of the appointment of Sir Tony Radakin to Chief of Defence Staff, using his speech to the Royal United Services Institute. This version also included a link to that speech and other references.<\/strong><\/p>\n

GLOBAL BRITAIN, LEVELLING UP, STRENGTHENING THE UNION<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
In Brexit Britain, Sir Tony Radakin, new Chief of Defence Staff, has something to smile about<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Boris Johnson chooses a new Chief of the Defence Staff <\/strong><\/p>\n

On 8th<\/sup> November, Sir Tony Radakin, KCB, ADC, First Sea Lord, was appointed Chief of the Defence Staff.\u00a0 This appointment was a personal decision by Boris Johnson.\u00a0 It overrode the Ministry of Defence\u2019s first choice, General Nick Carter, GCB, CBE, DSO.[1]<\/a><\/p>\n

On 7th<\/sup> December, Radakin gave a speech to the Royal United Services Institute.[2]<\/a>\u00a0 He is politically aware enough not to behave and speak in Johnson\u2019s usual couldn\u2019t-care-less manner.\u00a0 With Johnson\u2019s own political future now far from sure, Radakin wants his thinking to be taken up by any possible successor.\u00a0 Thus, he does not use Johnson\u2019s type of language.<\/p>\n

Radakin looks to a UK \u201cstriving to do better… \u00a0That includes reflecting the diverse nation we serve\u2026 \u00a0This is not about wokefulness. \u00a0It is about woefulness. \u00a0The woefulness of too few women. \u00a0The woefulness of not reflecting the ethnic, religious and cognitive diversity of our nation. \u00a0And the woefulness of not following our own values, whether respect for each other or the simple integrity of claiming expenses.\u201d \u00a0Certainly not Johnson talk, even if he was Johnson\u2019s first choice.<\/p>\n

Radakin\u2019s use of the term \u2018Global Britain\u2019 shows he is savvy enough to avoid the language of the Hard Right \u2013 \u2018Empire2\u2019.\u00a0 He is careful not to directly invoke any democratic mandate for the actions of \u201cGlobal Britain\u201d.\u00a0 He merely points out that \u201cmore people live in democracies now\u201d.\u00a0 This sleight-of-hand formulation means he can ignore the historical role of \u201cGlobal Britain\u201d in holding back national self-determination in its Empire and Union; and its alliance with the US, with its long and continuing record of toppling or attempting to overthrow democratically elected governments, (including Chile, and more recently Honduras, Haiti and Venezuela).<\/p>\n

And when it comes to democracy, we can remember Johnson\u2019s attempt to prorogue parliament on 28th<\/sup> August 2019 (and the UK Supreme Court\u2019s mildest of rebukes). Whilst Johnson\u2019s key ally, Donald Trump\u2019s attempted Capitol Hill coup on 6th January 2020, still hasn\u2019t seen him brought to trial, never mind being sentenced. \u00a0(In Weimar Germany\u2019s already strongly contested parliamentary democracy, after Adolf Hitler attempted his Beer Hall Putsch in Munich on 8-9th November 1923, a trial was initiated within three months and Hitler was sentenced to 5 years in jail).<\/p>\n

Instead of a direct appeal to a defence of democracy, Radakin justifies an increased role for British armed forces, by conjuring up a familiar list of threats.\u00a0 These include imperial competitors – Xi Jinping\u2019s rising China and Vladimir Putin\u2019s declining, but still nuclear-armed Russia. \u00a0It includes \u2018rogue states\u2019 – Iran and North Korea.\u00a0 But the brutal actions of Russia in eastern Ukraine and Syria, and China in Xinjiang and Hong Kong can be matched by those two major recipients of US and UK military \u2018aid\u2019 \u2013 apartheid Israel and autocratic Saudi Arabia, as the Palestinians and people of Yemen know only too well.<\/p>\n

Radakin outlines his preferred justification for an increased role for the armed forces in a section of his speech, entitled, The Pursuit of British Interests.<\/strong> \u00a0In today\u2019s \u201cGlobal {or Brexit} Britain\u201d, this amounts to the promotion of the British ruling class\u2019s new authoritarian order.\u00a0 And to counter the shrinking basis for popular Britishness and the Union, the Tories are planning to remove existing citizenship (read subjecthood) rights for many long-term residents.\u00a0 They also hope to reduce the Westminster electoral franchise.\u00a0 Such measures were first trialled in the 2016 Brexit referendum and the 2019 EU elections.[3]<\/a><\/p>\n

But this is of no concern to Radakin.\u00a0 He worries instead about the threats posed to \u201cGlobal Britain\u201d and the Union by \u201cclimate change, population pressure and resource competition.\u201d \u00a0\u201cOur security outlook is far more complex and dangerous than at any time over the past 30 years.\u201d\u00a0 In the face of all of these challenges, Radakin looks eagerly to a British military response.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Mapping out a ruling class full-spectrum state response to the challenges facing \u2018Global Britain\u2019 <\/strong><\/p>\n

Radakin can see a British ruling class political continuity beyond Johnson.\u00a0 If they no longer require Johnson to front their \u201cBritish Interests\u201d, his replacement, whether it be Liz Truss, Rishi Sunak, or even Sir Keir Starmer, all accept the following three key features outlined in Radakin\u2019s speech.\u00a0 \u201cIt must be recognised that our {and \u201cour\u201d always means \u2018their\u2019} interests at home and abroad are linked. \u2013 Global Britain. Levelling Up. Strengthening the Union.<\/strong> \u00a0They are the policy of the Government\u201d and the official \u2018opposition\u2019 too.<\/p>\n

The majority of the British ruling class now adheres to a shared post-Brexit strategy.\u00a0 The role of other UK state functionaries – police and immigration officials – in \u2018Brexit Britain\u2019 has already been laid out in the draconian Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts, and the Nationality and Border bills.\u00a0 But clearly, with Radakin\u2019s appointment, the British armed forces also have a central role to play. \u00a0So Radakin has stepped in to highlight their role in buttressing \u201cGlobal Britain\u201d, \u201cLevelling Up\u201d and \u201cStrengthening the Union\u201d.\u00a0 \u201cThe state is back with a vengeance.\u201d \u00a0His call to recognise the role of the British armed forces contributes to a full spectrum state response to any challenges the British ruling class faces.<\/p>\n

Radakin begins with the Tories\u2019 proclaimed commitment to \u201cLevelling Up\u201d.\u00a0 For those of us in Scotland and Wales, this was always a dubious proposition.\u00a0 Instead of more money for national (and EU)-flagged, devolved Holyrood and Cardiff Bay initiatives, Westminster has pushed ahead with Union Jack-flagged, Tory backed private projects.\u00a0 But Johnson\u2019s suggested North Channel bridge\/tunnel link between Scotland and Northern Ireland was always a fantasy.<\/p>\n

But even the promises made to the Tory-targeted, former Labour-held, \u2018Red Belt\u2019 seats in England, are beginning to look a bit hollow.\u00a0 The much-hyped HS2 railway to Leeds has been shelved.\u00a0 Labour\u2019s own US style, city mayor-led links with corporate business, particularly in Andy Burnham\u2019s Manchester City Council, were meant to be side-lined by direct Tory supporting private businesses.\u00a0 But many of those companies, which offered bribes to the Tories before the 2019 Westminster election, have revealed themselves to be incompetent. \u00a0They have been little concerned about their ability to deliver, provided they can pocket government largesse.\u00a0 This has been shown over Covid.\u00a0 Far from \u201cLevelling Up\u201d, the gap between the richest and poorest has grown ever wider.[4]<\/a><\/p>\n

So how does Radakin see the military\u2019s role in \u201cLevelling Up\u201d?\u00a0 \u201cOur air stations and garrisons, our dockyards and training schools, are the life blood of so many communities. \u00a0We invest billions into aviation, shipbuilding and other high-tech industries, in every region and every community across all of these islands. \u00a0We\u2019re the experts at levelling up. \u00a0We\u2019ve been doing it for centuries and we\u2019ll be doing it long into the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yes, there is a lot that can be done with such \u201cbillions\u201d.\u00a0 But in a world threatened by pandemics, global warming and ever more severe environmental degradation, then military spending, leading to more wars with their many deaths, destruction and possible nuclear annihilation, is not the best use of such spending.<\/p>\n

But to associate the armed forces of \u201cGlobal Britain\u201d with \u201cLevelling Up\u201d, Radakin points to Barrow-in-Furness. This is \u201ca community whose very identity is rooted in a sense of purpose that comes from building nuclear submarines – and the feelings of pride and accomplishment are palpable inside and outside the factory gates.\u201d\u00a0 Barrow became linked with the UK\u2019s armaments industry, and Vickers, in the1890s – the heyday of \u2018Empire1\u2019.\u00a0 Barrow had the highest Scottish-born population of any urban area in England.\u00a0 Vickers built the Royal Navy\u2019s first submarine in 1901[5]<\/a>. \u00a0Radakin wants this imperial legacy to carry over to a wider ruling class backed \u201cGlobal Britain\u201d today, although it is\u00a0 not incompatible with the Hard Right\u2019s \u2018Empire2\u2019 should any of their number follow Johnson as PM.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
BAE (successor to Vickers) nuclear submarine base at Batrrw-in-Furness<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>Levelling down and \u2018defence\u2019 hypocrisy<\/strong><\/p>\n

However, Radakin\u2019s feelings about Barrow\u2019s \u201cpride and accomplishment\u201d go along with the denial of other intimately associated features of its military economy.\u00a0 Barrow\u2019s submarine yard lies only a few miles from another nuclear institution, Windscale.\u00a0 This was originally built to produce plutonium for nuclear weapons, including those found on Barrow\u2019s nuclear submarines.\u00a0 But after an earlier major accident, a renamed Windscale later became the controversial Sellafield nuclear reprocessing plant.\u00a0 It has had its own litany of \u2018accidents\u2019, and it will take a further 100 years to decommission and 10,000 years for the radioactive waste material to degrade.[6]<\/a>\u00a0 Thus, any \u201cLevelling Up\u2019 has to be weighed against such \u2018levelling down.\u2019<\/p>\n

And Radakin also has to disconnect his \u201cLevelling Up\u201d, brought about through better paid skilled jobs in the arms industry, from the \u2018levelling down\u2019 associated with the arms deployment by British armed forces – e.g. the 179 British soldiers killed in Iraq and the 459 in Afghanistan.\u00a0 And this of course also ignores British armed forces\u2019 contribution to the much wider \u2018levelling down\u2019 in both countries.\u00a0 This has left an estimated 200,000 direct civilian deaths in Iraq[7]<\/a> and over 46,000 direct civilian deaths in Afghanistan[8]<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The last war, in which it could persuasively be argued that British armed forces were involved in the defence of UK territory, was with Nazi Germany.\u00a0 All wars since then have been waged upon other countries or peoples, none of whom posed any immediate threat to people living in the UK.\u00a0 However, Radakin\u2019s job description, the Chief of the Defence Staff, uses the notion of \u2018defence\u2019 to disguise the overriding imperial purpose of the UK\u2019s armed forces.\u00a0 \u2018Defence\u2019 was also invoked in the carefully contrived lie of Saddam Hussein\u2019s \u201cweapons of mass destruction\u201d.\u00a0 And there is every reason to believe that the neo-Blairite, Starmer would resort to such duplicity if the British ruling class felt that his time had come.<\/p>\n

Radakin got his initial officer training at the time of the Iraq War.\u00a0 His speech recalls the influence of Tony Blair and his \u201cChicago Speech {advocating} the moral and intellectual rationales for liberal interventionism.\u201d\u00a0 Neither Blair nor his children were anywhere near the frontline.\u00a0 Nor too were many senior British military officers.\u00a0 Within the armed forces, it is mainly those drawn from the working class, who bear the brunt of the actual fighting.\u00a0 This was highlighted by Rose Gentle, from Pollok, a founder member of Military Families Against the War, following the death of her 19years old son Gordon in Iraq.[9]<\/a><\/p>\n

Despite the failure of the Iraq and then the Afghanistan wars, even on their initial supporters\u2019 own terms, the relatively safely placed Radakin still wants to press ahead.\u00a0 \u201cOur withdrawal from Afghanistan is grist to the mill for those who subscribe to a narrative around the decline of the West\u201d. \u00a0He chillingly concludes, though, by saying, \u201cWe have the opportunity\u2026 to be more lethal\u2026 And to become Global Forces for Global Britain.\u201d\u00a0 Clearly his vision for \u201cGlobal Britain\u201d involves even more deaths and destruction, albeit not for the British ruling class.<\/p>\n

But with their new Armed Forces Bill (2021-22) the Tories are offering some protection to the ranks of British armed forces, which, under such circumstances, will inevitably become involved in further war crimes. Senior officers and their political masters have always been exempted from any such scrutiny.\u00a0 This was shown by the outcome of the 2010 Saville Enquiry into Bloody Sunday in Derry, when 14 people were killed by the Parachute Regiment in January 1971\u00a0 The enquiry \u00a0confining its\u00a0 blame to the most junior officers and ranks[10]<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Radakin\u2019s move from \u201cGlobal Britain\u201d to \u201cStrengthening the Union\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

The 2016 Brexit referendum, led to the majority of the British ruling class ditching neo-liberal for authoritarian populist politics.\u00a0 And Brexit\u2019s \u2018Bring back control\u2019 to the British ruling class, has seen the Tories pursuing a reactionary unionist offensive throughout these islands.\u00a0 This is designed to roll back the very limited national self-determination associated with the post-1998 \u2018Devolution-all-round\u2019 and its associated \u201cUnion of Equals\u201d and \u201cParity of Esteem\u201d.\u00a0 These were the earlier buzzwords, promoted by Gordon Brown and David Cameron, up until the shock of \u2018IndyRef1\u2019.<\/p>\n

For those of us living in Scotland (and in Wales and Ireland too), the prospect of Radakin\u2019s military \u201cStrengthening the Union\u201d is disturbing. \u00a0So far, the Tories have only used some of the anti-democratic powers of the Crown-in-Westminster set-up, to curtail the post-1998 liberal unionist institutions at Holyrood and Cardiff Bay (in Stormont though, they are mainly challenged by the even more reactionary unionist DUP).\u00a0 In this they have had the overwhelming backing of the media.\u00a0 The British Broadcasting Corporation has taken the lead, falling back on the defence of the \u2018British\u2019 in its title.\u00a0 Thus, in Scotland many have come to understand the BBC\u2019s British unionist bias.\u00a0 This was shown by one banner on All Under One Banner\u2019s demonstration in Edinburgh on 25th<\/sup> September \u2013 BBC = Boris\u2019s Bullshitting Corporation.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

But the BBC\u2019s unionist partisanship was taken considerably further in Northern Ireland during \u2018The Troubles\u2019.[11]<\/a>\u00a0 As yet though, in Scotland, the role of other state agencies, e.g. MI5, although no doubt active, has not drawn the opprobrium generated by the BBC amongst Scottish independence supporters.\u00a0 MI5 have no such visible presence in Scotland as they do in their Palace Barracks HQ in Holywood, County Down, just outside Belfast.<\/p>\n

In 2016, at the height of Jeremy Corbyn\u2019s political challenge, The Times <\/em>quoted an unnamed, acting British general, who had \u201cserved Northern Ireland in the 1980s and 1990s.\u201d \u00a0\u201cIf Corbyn proved as militarily radical a premier as promised, \u2018the army just wouldn\u2019t stand for it. \u00a0The general staff would not allow a prime minister to jeopardise the security of this country and I think people would use whatever means possible, fair or foul, to prevent that. \u00a0The Ministry of Defence took no action, describing the \u201cgeneral\u2019s remarks as \u2018not helpful\u2019\u201d[12]<\/a>\u00a0 Or to put it another way, it would be better if senior military officers did not reveal their possible intentions in public.<\/p>\n

However, Corbyn, although an advocate of radical policies, which have been strongly opposed by the British ruling class, is also deeply moulded in a very British Labourism.\u00a0 This does not challenge the institutions of the UK state but sees them as an adequate vehicle for pursuing social democratic polices.\u00a0 Thus, Corbyn just ignored the threats coming from an \u201can unnamed, acting British general\u201d.\u00a0 And this constitutional conservatism was also underscored by Corbyn\u2019s 2017 and 2019 general election manifestoes, emphasising Labour\u2019s role in defending the Union.\u00a0 This followed Gordon Brown\u2019s defence of the Union in \u2018Better Together\u2019 during `IndyRef1\u2019, and preceded Sir Keir Starmer\u2019s recent appeals to British patriotism.<\/p>\n

Radakin\u2019s appointment has made it quite clear that the ruling class intends to mobilise the full panoply of UK state forces to \u201cStrengthen the Union\u201d.\u00a0 Without mentioning Scotland, Radakin highlights his first two priorities.\u00a0 \u201cThe rest of the world see us for who we are. \u00a0A permanent member of the UN Security Council. \u00a0A nuclear power.\u201d\u00a0 Scotland\u2019s secession from the Union could see the removal of the UK from the Security Council, whilst the closure of Faslane could end the UK as a nuclear power.\u00a0 Scotland is in the frontline of \u201cStrengthening the Union.\u201d and \u201dGlobal Britain.\u201d<\/p>\n

Radakin was already Director of Force Development in November 2012 and was further promoted to Rear Admiral in November 2014.\u00a0 This was the time of \u2018IndyRef1\u2019.[13]<\/a>\u00a0 He was no doubt fully aware of, if not a key advocate for, the MOD\u2019s secret plan for Faslane to secede from Scotland in the event of a \u2018Yes\u2019 vote[14]<\/a>.\u00a0 But notice that, at the time, despite their preparations for a British extra-territorial \u2018Guantanomac Bay\u2019, a still liberal unionist supporting British ruling class could live with the SNP\u2019s \u2018IndyLite\u2019 Scotland – under NATO, the Crown, the City of London and the British High Command.\u00a0 With reactionary unionism in the ascendency today, this is no longer the case.<\/p>\n

If Corbyn could ignore some unnamed military source, then the failure of Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP leadership (and just as revealingly Alex Salmond and Alba) to challenge Radakin\u2019s much more public threat to anti-Unionists shows that they also have no effective strategy to deal with the British ruling class today. \u00a0SNP opposition to the BBC and the House of Lords leaves unquestioned far too many of the UK state\u2019s other agencies which can be mobilised against Scottish independence.\u00a0 And Joanna Cherry\u2019s belief in the British Supreme Court is every bit as na\u00efve.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

The history of British armed forces and \u201cStrengthening the Union\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

In Scotland, most people associate the role of British armed forces in \u201cStrengthening the Union\u201d with distant history – the Redcoats and their adversaries, the Jacobites, particularly in the 1715 and 1745 Rebellions.\u00a0 Strictly speaking though, this was a clash between two unionist forces – those supporting the 1707 Union of Parliaments and the Williamite and Hanoverian dynasties, and those who supported the 1603 Union of the Crowns and the Stuart dynasty.\u00a0 And both championed Empire.<\/p>\n

Since the triumph of the Hanoverians, British armed forces (with considerable Scottish regimental backing) have served \u201cGlobal Britain\u201d or \u2018Empire1\u2019 and also Strengthening the Union\u201d in Ireland.\u00a0 It was only in 2007, when the last non-local, British troops were removed from the streets of Northern Ireland and the frontline of defending the Union there was handed over to MI5 at Palace Barracks.\u00a0\u00a0 British troops (with Scottish regiments enjoying particular notoriety) had been stationed in Northern Ireland for 38 years.[15]<\/a>\u00a0 During this period they lost around 500 men and killed 156 civilians (as well as 128 Irish Republican forces, plus others).[16]<\/a>\u00a0 And the most brutal repression from 1969 to 1997 was overseen by both Labour and Conservative governments.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Black Watch in Northern Ireland<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

So, the use of armed forces to \u201cStrengthen the Union\u201d is not confined to some long bygone historical events.\u00a0 The MOD\u2019s own preferred choice for Chief of Staff, General Nick Carter (praised in Radakin\u2019s speech) began his officer\u2019s job in Northern Ireland.\u00a0 The thinking of senior military officers in Northern Ireland from 1969 was moulded by their recent experience in defending the British Empire.\u00a0 They transferred their racism and contempt to the \u201cbogwogs\u201d in Northern Ireland.\u00a0 The more recent senior activities of \u00a0military officers in Northern Ireland will also colour their current thinking as they try to \u201cStrengthen the Union.\u201d\u00a0 Maybe Johnson\u2019s own term for Scots, \u201ctartan dwarves\u201d,[17]<\/a> is already floating around senior officers\u2019 messes. \u00a0Although Radakin is smart enough not to use such offensive language.<\/p>\n

SNP official policy is continued support for the Union of the Crowns. Alex Salmond has long been one of the most vociferous supporters of Queen Elizabrit, and he decides what is acceptable or not in Alba.\u00a0 So, Scotland\u2019s constitutional nationalists wish to end the 1707 Act of Union but defend the 1603 Union of the Crowns!\u00a0 However, a united British Crown no longer plays the same role today in buttressing monarchical power.\u00a0 The Crown merely acts as a (very privileged) front for use of the UK state\u2019s Crown Powers.\u00a0 These are usually wielded behind-the-scenes in the interests of the wider British ruling class.\u00a0 The UK constitution is unwritten, so this class can make it up as they go along, using their non-elected senior judges and the Privy Council.\u00a0 They can bypass Westminster, never mind Holyrood, Cardiff Bay or Stormont.<\/p>\n

The ranks of Scottish independence supporters probably contain an anti-monarchist majority. \u00a0They look forward to the possibility of abolishing the monarchy after Scottish independence has been won.\u00a0 But Scottish independence is unlikely ever to be won without challenging the Crown Powers, in the here and now.\u00a0 This understanding marks the difference between sentimental anti-monarchism (a bit like Labour\u2019s sentimental Clause 4 \u2018socialism\u2019) and democratic republicanism.<\/p>\n

Radakin\u2019s speech was wrapped in non-Johnsonite packaging, designed to reassure the more nervous sections of the British ruling class and the dwindling liberal sections of the media.\u00a0 Scottish independence supporters should not be so easily taken in by the seriously anti-democratic intent behind Radakin\u2019s \u201cStrengthen the Union\u201d.<\/p>\n

This is why the \u2018Break-up of the Union\u2019 movement throughout these islands needs to develop its own \u2018Internationalism from Below\u2019 strategy and tactics to deal with the \u2018Brexit Britain\u2019s reactionary unionism.\u00a0 At the moment, Scotland is in the frontline of this challenge, so we have a special responsibility. \u00a0With Radakin hiding his real aims behind the UK\u2019s anti-democratic mask of the sovereignty of the Crown-in-Westminster, our political starting point needs to uphold the democratic republican principle of the sovereignty of the people and its associated right of national self-determination. \u00a0Or as Scottish internationalist, Hamish Henderson pithily put it \u2013 \u201cFreedom Come All Ye\u201d.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

22.12.21<\/strong><\/p>\n

References<\/strong><\/p>\n

[1] \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Tony_Radakin#Naval_career<\/a><\/p>\n

[2] \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/speeches\/chief-of-the-defence-staff-speech-to-the-royal-united-services-institute<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n

[3] \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/politics\/2019\/may\/25\/eu-citizens-denied-vote-in-european-elections-to-sue-uk-government<\/a><\/p>\n

[4] \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/business\/2021\/jul\/12\/uk-wealth-gap-widens-in-pandemic-as-richest-get-50000-windfall<\/a><\/p>\n

[5] \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Barrow-in-Furness#History<\/a><\/p>\n

[6] \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 https:\/\/www.mub.eps.manchester.ac.uk\/science-engineering\/2020\/03\/12\/what-does-the-future-hold-for-sellafield\/<\/p>\n

[7]<\/a> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Casualties_of_the_Iraq_War#Tables \u2013 Iraq Body Count project<\/p>\n

[8]<\/a> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Civilian_casualties_in_the_war_in_Afghanistan_(2001\u20132021)<\/p>\n

[9]<\/a> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Rose_Gentle<\/p>\n

[10]<\/a> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 https:\/\/www.opendemocracy.net\/en\/opendemocracyuk\/bloody-sunday\/<\/p>\n

<\/a>\u00a0[11] \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/media\/greenslade\/2015\/oct\/22\/how-the-bbcs-journalists-fought-to-cover-the-northern-ireland-conflict<\/a><\/p>\n

[12] \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/uk-news\/2016\/jan\/25\/corbyn-trident-military-revolt-unfriendly-fire<\/a><\/p>\n

[13] \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Tony_Radakin#Naval_career<\/p>\n

[14]<\/a> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/uk-news\/2013\/jul\/10\/mod-trident-scotland-independence<\/a><\/p>\n

[15] \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/uk\/2007\/aug\/01\/northernireland.military<\/p>\n

[16]<\/a> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Operation_Banner#Casualties<\/a><\/p>\n

[17] \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/boris-johnson-published-poem-friendly-fire-james-michie-extermination-of-scottish-people-2019-6?r=US&IR=T<\/p>\n

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also see:-<\/p>\n

1. Terrible step, press freedom in danger s UK court clears the way for Julian Assange extradition \u2013 Amy Goodman, Democracy Now<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

“Terrible step”: press freedom in danger as UK court clears the way for Julian Assange extradition<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n