A roundup of progressive news....

‘New Left’ group sparks debate over divisions among left MPs– LabourList

LabourList reports on fears that divisions within the Socialist Campaign Group of Labour MPs could be deepening, amid rumours of a New Left collective forming in parliament.

LabourList has been told that the new group includes Labour backbenchers Lloyd Russell-Moyle, Clive Lewis, Nadia Whittome, Rachael Maskell, Dawn Butler and Kim Johnson, and frontbenchers Sam Tarry and Olivia Blake.

It is understood that others were invited to join the group, including Paula Barker, Beth Winter, Nav Mishra and Rachel Hopkins, but ultimately they did not become members and are not currently involved.

2. Families’ plea over ‘barbaric’ indefinite prison sentences for minor crimes –openDemocracy

An exclusive report in openDemocracy shares the desperate pleas of families over ‘barbaric’ indefinite prison sentences for minor crimes. The story looks at how imprisonment for public protection (IPP) sentences is destroying lives and families,  with some 8,000 IPPs given out by judges in England and Wales between 2005 and 2012, when they were abolished.

However those already serving IPPs have not seen any change in their circumstances, even if they have completed their minimum sentence.

The story notes that “IPP sentences were introduced in 2003 by the then justice secretary, David Blunkett. They came into law two years later. Blunkett has since expressed regret, saying he “got it wrong”.

3. So Long, Cressida Dick –Novara Media

A piece in Novara Media by Ash Sarkar looks at former Met Commissioner Cressida Dick’s time in office and how far standards in public life have dropped, with Dick remaining in post despite a number of failures. Those failures include institutional corruption as well as institutional racism and homophobia, as well as presiding over a culture of misogyny. Dick was also commander during the operation which led to the fatal police shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes.

Sarkar notes that while Dick has departed, questions over the Met’s institutional culture remain.

4. Home Office’s ‘cold-hearted’ asylum reforms could cost taxpayers billions of pounds, study estimates –Morning Star

The Home Office’s “cold-hearted” asylum reforms could cost the taxpayer billions of pounds a year, the Morning Star reports.

The stark warning is based on a new report from the Together with Refugees coalition, which warns that five key policies in the Bill could cost £2.7 billion a year.

Plans to set up large detention facilities to house up to 8,000 people seeking asylum, rather than accommodate them in communities, is estimated to cost £717.6 million a year.

The most expensive policy, estimated to cost £1.4bn a year, is the provision to set up offshore processing centres for refugees while their claims are processed.

5. How Private Profit Destroys Social Care –Tribune Magazine

Augustus Bambridge-Sutton writes for Tribune Magazine about how the profit motive has destroyed social care, while allowing corporations to prosper.

‘According to the Nuffield Trust, as of May 2020, around seventy-eight percent of adult residential and nursing care homes in the UK are privately run. This isn’t an inevitable situation—the public sector used to provide much of adult social care, with privatisation taking off significantly in the last forty years thanks to the free-market fanaticism of the Thatcher government’, writes Augustus.

Arguing for a nationalised care sector, the piece concludes: “The private alternative is fundamentally disempowering to those it pledges to help: put simply, profit should never be a priority when there are lives at stake.”

Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward

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