25 July 201822 December 2022 4WardEverUK

The Guardian view on police and child spies: ends don’t always justify the means

source: The Guardian
published: 20 July 2018

Downing Street tells us that child spies are used very rarely by British police and intelligence agencies, and only when it is judged really vital. How reassuring. We would not know they were being used at all were it not for government plans to relax the controls on their use.

The House of Lords committee on secondary legislation has revealed that children are being used in covert operations against terrorists, gangs and drug dealers, and child sexual exploitation (and in doing so, incidentally, demonstrated parliament at its best and most useful, in a week where it has often looked at its worst).

6 July 201822 December 2022 4WardEverUK

Thirty two women die following restraint

sources: Mental Health Today
published: 3 July 2018

Thirty two women died after experiencing restraint over a five year period, according to new figures obtained by Agenda, an alliance for women and girls at risk.

The data, on patients detained under the Mental Health Act, suggests women were more likely to have restraint-related deaths than men between 2012/13 and 2016/17.

Younger women made up a large number of the restraint-related deaths – 13 were aged 30 and under, compared to four men in that age range.

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6 July 201822 December 2022 4WardEverUK

Darkness at the heart of the British state

sources: Socialist Worker
published: 3 July 2018

Revelations that the British state is complicit in torture destroy the lie that Britain is more “civilised” or progressive than other countries.

Two reports last week said that British intelligence agencies MI6 and MI5 have been involved in hundreds of torture cases. They also had a hand in dozens of rendition cases, where suspects are removed to other countries to be tortured.