Parliament News - January 2022 Edition

NEWS PARLIAMENT PARLIAMENTARY SOCIETY FOR ARTS FASHION AND SPORTS MAGAZINE

QUEEN ELIZABETH II, FIRST BRITISH MONARCH TO CELEBRATE A PLATINUM JUBILEE TAKING A CLOSER LOOK INTO THE UK’S HUMAN TRAFFICKING

ELON MUSK THE RICHEST MAN ON EARTH

ISSUE

WINTER/22

PTSD IN FEMALES WHO HAVE GONE THROUGH MODERN DAY SLAVERY

Happy

2022

"Find a group of people who challenge and inspire you, spend a lot of time with them, and it will change your life."

– Amy Poehler

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QUEEN ELIZABETH II, FIRST BRITISH MONA TO CELEBRATE A PLATINUM JUBILEE

BY REBECA RIOFRIO

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I, ARCH

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Few years ago, in London I had the pleasure to accept the prestigious Queens Award for Business and Enterprise on behalf of the company I work for the last 21 years. On that day I had the privilege to meet and talk to Her Majesty the Queen Elizabeth II, a conversation I will always treasure as one the highlights of my life.

Understanding Her Majesty’s extraordinary life and reign: from a young girl who did not expect to be Queen, to an iconic and celebrated figure who has ruled for almost 70 years is very significant to us all.

This year Her Majesty the Queen will become the first British Monarch to celebrate a Platinum Jubilee, seventy years of service, having acceded to the throne on 6th February 1952 when Her Majesty was 25 years old.

Throughout the year, Her Majesty and members of the Royal Family will travel around the country to undertake a variety of engagements to mark this historic occasion culminating with the focal point of the Platinum Jubilee Weekend in June.

An extended bank holiday, from Thursday 2nd to Sunday 5th June, will provide an opportunity for communities and people throughout the United Kingdom to come together to celebrate the historic milestone. The four days of celebrations will include public events and community activities, as well as national moments of reflection on The Queen’s 70 years of service.

ABOUT OUR QUEEN The Queen has ruled for longer than any other Monarch in British history, becoming a much loved and respected figure across the globe. Her extraordinary reign has seen her travel more widely than any other monarch, undertaking many historic overseas visits. Known for her sense of duty and her devotion to a life of service, she has been an important figurehead for the UK and the Commonwealth during times of enormous social change.

Her Majesty continues to carry out a full programme of engagements, from visits to charities and schools, to hosting visiting Heads of State, to leading the nation in Remembrance and celebratory events - all supported by other members of the Royal Family.

The Queen sees public and voluntary service as one of the most important elements of her work. The Queen has links - as Royal Patron or President - with over 600 charities, military associations, professional bodies, and public service organisations. These vary from well-established international charities to smaller bodies working in a specialist area or on a local basis only.

Her patronages and charities cover a wide range of issues, from opportunities for young people, to the preservation of wildlife and the environment. Having Her Majesty as Royal patron or president provides vital publicity for the work of these organisations and allows their enormous achievements and contributions to society to be recognised.

Her Majesty supports and encourages achievement in all walks of life through the annual programme of Investitures (at which she presents members of the public with their honours), Garden Parties, receptions and other awards given in her name, which allow her to say ‘thank you’ to all those who have contributed to the life of the nation and the Commonwealth.

The Queen carries out all her duties against the backdrop of a full personal life which has seen her raise four children and welcome grandchildren, and now great-grandchildren to the Royal Family. The Duke of Edinburgh was – in her own words – her ‘strength and stay’ during her reign, whilst other members of the Royal Family continue to offer vital support through their work in the UK and overseas.

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HM QUEEN ELIZABETH II AND REBECA RIOFRIO CHAIRWOMAN FOR THE PARLIAMENTARY SOCIETY FOR ARTS BUCKINGHAM PALACE UK

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'I DECLARE BEFORE YOU ALL THAT MY WHOLE LIFE WHETHER IT BE LONG OR SHORT SHALL BE DEVOTED TO YOUR SERVICE.' ON HER TWENTY-FIRST BIRTHDAY, IN A SPEECH BROADCAST ON THE RADIO FROM CAPE TOWN, THE QUEEN (THEN PRINCESS ELIZABETH) DEDICATED HER LIFE TO THE SERVICE OF THE COMMONWEALTH.

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PLANS ANNOUNCED FOR THE QUEEN’S PLATINUM JUBILEE CENTRAL WEEKEND 2022 An extended bank holiday, from Thursday 2nd to Sunday 5th June, will provide an opportunity for communities and people throughout the United Kingdom to come together to celebrate the historic milestone. The four days of celebrations will include public events and community activities, as well as national moments of reflection on The Queen’s 70 years of service.

Thursday 2nd June The Queen’s Birthday Parade (Trooping the Colour): Over 1,400 parading soldiers, 200 horses and 400 musicians will come together in the traditional Parade to mark The Queen's official birthday, usually held on the second Saturday in June.

Beginning at Buckingham Palace, the Parade will move down The Mall to Horse Guard's Parade, joined by Members of the Royal Family on horseback and in carriages. The Parade will close with the traditional RAF fly-past, watched by The Queen and Members of the Royal Family from the Buckingham Palace balcony.

Platinum Jubilee Beacons: The United Kingdom’s long tradition of celebrating Royal Jubilees, Weddings and Coronations with the lighting of beacons will be continued to mark the Platinum Jubilee. Beacons will be lit throughout the United Kingdom, Channel Islands, Isle of Man and UK Overseas Territories.

For the first time, beacons will also be lit in each of the capital cities of the Commonwealth countries to celebrate The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.

Friday 3rd June Service of Thanksgiving: A Service of Thanksgiving for The Queen’s reign will be held at St Paul’s Cathedral. Further events will be announced in due course.

Saturday 4th June The Derby at Epsom Downs: Her Majesty the Queen, accompanied by Members of the Royal Family, will attend the Derby at Epsom Downs.

Platinum Party at the Palace: The BBC will stage and broadcast a special live concert from Buckingham Palace that will bring together some of the world’s biggest entertainment stars to celebrate the most significant and joyous moments from The Queen’s seven-decade reign. Members of the public will be invited to apply to attend this special event and details of the ballot for UK residents to secure audience tickets will be released in due course.

Sunday 5th June The Big Jubilee Lunch: Every year since the idea began in 2009 The Big Lunch has encouraged communities to celebrate their connections and get to know each other a little bit better, coming together in a spirit of fun and friendship. In 2022 The Big Lunch will bring the Jubilee celebrations into the heart of every community.

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People are invited to share friendship, food, and fun with neighbours as part of the Platinum Jubilee celebrations. A Big Jubilee Lunch can be big or small - street party or picnic, tea and cake or a garden barbecue. The Big Lunch provides tips and ideas for hosting an event.

The Platinum Jubilee Pageant: A pageant featuring over 5,000 people from across the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth will take place against the backdrop of Buckingham Palace and the surrounding streets. It will combine street arts, theatre, music, circus, carnival and costume and celebrate the service of Her Majesty’s reign, as well as honouring the collective service of people and communities across the country.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE VISIT WWW.ROYAL.UK

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IN THE NAME OF

A QUEST FOR CONSCIOUSNESS, MEANING A

Part 2

SOARING THE SK SOLACE AND SOL DOMESTIC VIOLE THROUGH THE AR

BY DR DESIREE SADDIK

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F LOVE:

AND SOLUTIONS TO DOMESTIC VIOLENCE.

KIES, SEEKING LUTIONS TO ENCE RTS.

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In the wake of the murder of Sarah Everard, Boris Johnson suggests a law against misogyny. Surely such a law would cause the devil domestic violence to work more cannily. Since ‘In the Name of Love’ Part 1(Spring 2021 see https://www.parliamentarysociety.com/post/in-the-name-of-love-aquest-for-consciousness-meaning-and-solutions-to-domestic-violence), awareness and recognition of domestic violence has grown.

Many women politicians have come forward with stories of their own harassment, and domestic violence contact systems have been put in place for government workers in the NHS. Despite a burgeoning awareness, domestic violence continues to be a social disorder, the casualty of the quest for love. People unwittingly repeat destructive relationship patterns, creating situations similar to those that caused them harm and distress in early life.

Films, plays, opera, literature, fairy stories, poetry, soaps and even Netflix allow us to skinny-dip into the darker divided parts of ourselves. All arts work a certain magic. An art experience can be instructive and curative, transporting us to a place of reflection and self-dialogue, where we can safely ponder on our own and other’s behaviour. An art experience offers a chance for personal metamorphosis. It’s a space where we can suspend judgement, empathise with others, and most of all stop a cycle of self-blame and self-destruction. Art is about life and human experience; ’All the world is a stage and all men and women merely players’[1].

Art offers us a chance to understand ourselves, our love choices, our purpose and existence.

Brancastle’s ‘The Mechanism of Suspended Time’, is a film about love[2]. When time is suspended and the planets align, there is an antidote to the darker side of human nature - violence, avarice, greed and vice. The mechanism is a cluster of processes that happen simultaneously when one is exposed to art and culture, like those moments in a theatre where you can hear a pin drop, where the desire to judge or punish is arrested. This magical mechanism, includes several inextricable processes: purging, reflecting, polarity, triangulation, identification and being one with the art form.

Such processes may be common to the theatre scholar; but they have not been applied to the domestic violence conundrum. Jean Cocteau’s avant-garde film ‘Beauty and the Beast’ and the story of ‘Bluebeard’ are used to illustrate such mechanisms, for the purposes of personal growth and transformation. Such stories were written to school young girls in their thoughts about behaviours towards arranged marriages.

In Cocteau’s ‘Beauty and the Beast’, Beauty’s father is sentenced to death for picking a rose from Beast’s garden. Beauty offers herself in return, and lives in captivity within Beast’s castle. Beast falls in love with her and proposes marriage to her each night, though Beauty duly refuses. The castle is full of magic. In captivity, Beauty’s tears become diamonds, showing the value of purging and catharsis. Since Aristotle[3], drama gained popularity amongst the masses as it served to purge unwanted emotions. DeMonaco’s series and film ’The Purge offers Americans one day a year to violate without consequence in order to maintain a crime free society. Though keeping violence to one day a year did not save society, ‘The Purge’ does show that the desire and need to purge still remain a part of human plight.

Mirrors appear in fairy stories. A child could reference the mirror on the wall in 'Snow White’, a poet, the love of ‘Narcissus’ for his reflection. In these myths and stories, the mirror represents the quest for idealised beauty or love respectively. Perpetrators will often idealise women and expect them to fit a certain formula of the feminine ethereal idealised beauty (the ‘Barbie’ doll or character Gretchen in Faust I). Any woman that doesn’t maintain this aesthetic is fit for punishment. Women

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Jean Cocteau’s (1946) avant-garde film ‘Beauty and the Beast’.

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DR DESIREE SADDIK CONSULTANT LEAD CHILD, ADOLESCENT, FAMILY AND ADULT CHARTERED CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGIST, ASSOCIATE FELLOW OF THE BRITISH PSYCHOLOGICAL SOCIETY AND FOUNDER OF ‘THE PINK COUCH’ AT 10 HARLEY STREET LONDON. ‘THE PINK COUCH' IS A PSYCHOLOGICAL CONCIERGE SERVICE OFFERING PSYCHOLOGICAL CONSULTATION AND TREATMENT FOR THOSE WHO FIND THEMSELVES IN DIFFICULTY. THE PINK COUCH MOTTO IS ‘THIS COUCH CHANGES EVERYTHING’. IT PROVIDES PSYCHOLOGICAL SERVICES ACROSS THE LIFESPAN, CRADLE TO GRAVE. CONTACT: DRDES@THEPINKCOUCH.ORG

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learn to perform femininity, through icons like Marilyn Monroe, as a protective force against male vengeance, and in avoidance of conflict and violence[4]. Performing such an idealised and typified female role continually reinforces beliefs such as “I am a victim in a hostile world’, feelings of abandonment and a lack of self-worth - part of the domestic violence labyrinth. The path out of domestic conflict is not through idealisation of love and beauty, but through the capacity to reflect.

In Cocteau’s film, Beauty is given an ‘enchanted mirror’. In this way she sees Beast as an ordinary, not idealised beast, as he goes about his day, violent and abusive, with ‘smoking hands’. Yet it is through the mirror that she empathises with Beast, and no longer fears him or her captivity. Cocteau uses the enchanted mirror in a reflective capacity, victim and perpetrator, Beauty and Beast become one.

Through the mirror image, each can recognise the shortcomings of themselves and the qualities of the other, creating a clearing in the labyrinth of domestic violence.

In me there are two souls…their division tears my life in two[5] Every good drama has its twists and turns. The ‘tug of war ’ between good and evil, love and hate, care and violation, love and abuse. In Cocteau’s ‘Beauty and the Beast’, conflict is ignited by polarity, Beauty and Beast are portrayed as polar opposites. Further, Beast is a murderer who is kind and empathetic. Beast saves Beauty from her complex family life, where she was treated like a servant.

Beauty lives under the captivity of the Beast: she has to remain within the castle’s walls but the magical glove, allows her the freedom to soar the skies, to go where she desires. The audience identifies with Beauty’s ascent, as she learns to trust Beast. This is not a journey that is idealised, it is one of uncomfortable predicament.

A love triangle, often an acting out of an intense inner conflict or experience of divided or conflictual selves, creates the ultimate learning space. The choice of love object can often reflect unresolved early relationships and triangulation that occurs in our own families. Beauty is the favoured child of her father. Beauty choses captivity to save her father’s life in the first instance.

Triangulation is further created by Beauty’s beloved father falling critically ill whilst she is still in Beast’s captivity; visiting her father puts Beast’s life in jeopardy because he will die without her after some days; both Beast and her father will die without her. In this way Cocteau plays with the victim/ perpetrator constellation. Beast, once a perpetrator, is now a victim. Through the juxtaposition of a magical and a mundane world - the world of Beauty’s family and her mortal betrothed, Cocteau’s ‘Beauty and the Beast’ make up a complex fairground of quests and dream like liminal experiences.

The struggle is valued over the fleeting sense of redemption and idealisation. When Beast turns into the handsome mortal prince, he loses his glitter.

A tale about domestic violence would not be complete without considering ‘Bluebeard’, and the descent of Judith, his bride[6]. Count Bluebeard lives in a castle and has a habit of murdering his wives. A new bride, Judith, enters his castle of doom. He shows her several of the castle’s chambers, including the torture chamber, and other bloody chambers. In his usual fashion, as with the wives before her, Bluebeard tells her that she can have any riches she desires, but she should not open a certain chamber. He departs, leaving the key to this chamber in her possession. Bluebeard returns and discovers that the bride has opened his chamber of secrets, and murders her as punishment.

Other endings involve a victorious heroine who escapes and instead has Bluebeard killed for his crimes, disabling him from murdering future wives.

Bluebeard is a tale that initially schooled young women against curiosity and the use of their feminine wiles, punishing initiative or breakout of a social chastity belt. Judith’s descent symbolises a woman’s plight and her journey through victimhood. In some interpretations[7], the blood

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represents the woman’s deceit and the man’s experience of not being understood in an intimate situation. Bluebeard has a lure and a dread; we enter the doom and deep freeze of a relationship that is dysfunctional and disturbing at its core, chambers of domestic violence and serial murder.

Identification is considered an unconscious process, a little like falling in love where we emulate the behaviours of the love object. It is the secret to a good story, and insures a cathartic ride. Through identification we learn about ourselves and others and how to do or not do things. The social resonance and identification with Judith’s descent is so strong that the term ‘bluebearding’ has entered popular culture, describing the crime of a man who marries and divorces/kills off one wife after another, or the crime of a man who seduces and abandons one woman after another.

Common behaviours of ‘Bluebeard’ including ‘love bombing’ and ‘gaslighting’ in order to coercively control the other in relationships.

‘Bluebeard’[8] schools us in breaking coercive control, and unlocking every inner chamber of our own minds, to follow curiosity and intuition, to remain alive and awake and open to the dark, but not to idealise and golden braid our way into the fairy castle, to not be agreeable, to not submit.

Cocteau, in ‘Beauty and the Beast’, allows us to hold both our faith and scepticism, to suspend belief and disbelief, as though these are the arms of the candelabra that pave Beauty’s way out of the labyrinth of confusion creating plain sight. Through the process of enchantment we become one with the art form. Cocteau set a preamble to his film: ‘Children believe what we tell them. They have complete faith in us. They believe that a rose plucked from a garden can plunge a family into conflict. They believe that the hands of a human beast will smoke when he slays a victim…they believe a thousand simple things’.

Cocteau wants the audience to suspend disbelief, to watch as a child would without judgement or preconception, aided by the magical opulence of film. Beast’s castle is a place of enchantment, an inner world. Beauty has a magic mirror, a magic glove and a magic key. In contrast to ‘Bluebeard’, this key allows Beauty to unlock the chambers of inner riches that allows her to see anything; even the beast committing acts of murder. Beast changes Beauty’s fate, and brings her psychological riches, saving her from an impoverished family life plagued by her father’s mistakes and her envious sisters, where she is forced to work as a maid and very likely to be sold off in marriage, to support the family coffers. Beast is a beautiful villain, and when Beauty breaks the spell on him through love alone, he becomes a more conventional prince, but a part of her still mourns Beast.

I wish for a society like the one Jung[9] and Goethe spoke of, with an alchemical apothecary on every street corner, that conjures quests and cures for conflict, divided selves and metaphysical conundrums, all of which contribute to the origins and perpetuation of domestic violence. It is my view that opportunity for alchemical transformation is hiding in plain sight, available in every screen, bookshop and theatre. Each of us needs to enter what those resources offer with awareness and curiosity, with a trembling willingness to be transformed, and to be freed from circumstances of terrible suffering and tedium.

As awareness of domestic violence grows, ‘In the Name of Love’ encourages us to consider our own ‘victim’ and ‘aggressor’ parts, to value our need to purge, to show patience with inner turmoil, love triangles, double binds and divided selves - marking these as fundamental riches for the quest for transformation and as a way out of the victim-perpetrator cycle and the labyrinth of violence.

William Shakespeare ‘As You Like It’.

Mechanism of Suspended Time’ coined by film maker and visionary Stefana Brancastle IMDb 2016 [3] Aristotle’s ‘The Poetics ’ 335 B.C.E [4] Mary Wild’s Projections: Marilyn Monroe’s Screen Persona 2021 at the Freud Museum, London.

[5]’Faust’ I Goethe [6] Judith from Bela Bartok’s one act opera ‘Bluebeard’s Castle’, one of many narrative variations.

[7] For example in ‘The Uses of Enchantment: the meaning and importance of fairy tales’ by Bruno Bettleheim [8] In the version where Bluebeard is a conquest of Judith, who remains victorious [9] ‘I regard my work on alchemy as a sign of my inner relationship to Goethe’ from Carl Jung ‘Memories, Dreams and Reflections’.

[1]

[2]‘The

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HOUSE OF PARLIAMENT STATEMENT

POLICE AND CRIME COMMISSIONER REVIEW

BY PRITY PATEL HOME SECRETARY UNITED KINGDOM

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I am pleased to set out to the House findings from the first part of our two-part Review into the role of Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs).

The Government’s manifesto committed to strengthening the accountability of PCCs and expanding their role. The public want to see a reduction in crime and PCCs are elected to deliver on the people’s priorities. Eight years on from their introduction, it is the right time to step back and consider how we can better ensure that the public can hold PCCs to account for the performance of their force.

In delivering the recommendations from Part One of the Review, we will make it easier for the public to make an informed decision about the record of their PCC at the ballot box by strengthening accountability and improving transparency. The recommendations set out below apply to PCCs and mayors with PCC functions.

Part One of our internal Review began in late July and collated views and evidence from stakeholders across policing, fire and local government as well as voluntary and community organisations. Through polling and focus groups the Review also took account of public views and opinions. We focussed on changes required to sharpen the model which, where possible, can be delivered ahead of the 2021 PCC elections.

On policing, the Home Office will bring forward a range of measures which will: strengthen PCC accountability; improve their transparency to the public; clarify the relationship between PCCs and Chief Constables; bring more consistency to the PCC role; raise professional standards; and improve the checks and balances currently in place.

The Review concluded there was more to be done to explain the role of PCCs and make their record on crime more transparent to the voting public, thus enhancing their accountability. To help achieve this: •

The Home Office will amend the Specified Information Order to require PCCs to provide a narrative on their force’s performance against the Government’s crime measures, and Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS) force performance reports. The Specified Information Order currently places a duty on PCCs to publish certain information within specified timeframes, to ensure the public have the information they need to hold their Commissioner to account at the ballot box.

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In line with the Government’s manifesto position in favour of First Past the Post, which provides for strong and clear local accountability, and reflects that transferable voting systems were rejected by the British people in the 2011 nationwide referendum, the Home Office will work with the Cabinet Office and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to change the voting system for all Combined Authority Mayors, the Mayor of London and PCCs to First Past the Post. This change will require primary legislation, which we will bring forward when Parliamentary time allows.

We concluded there are clear steps we can take to sharpen local accountability and ensure the framework guiding the relationship with Chief Constables is clarified:

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The Home Office will work with the College of Policing, Association of Police and Crime Commissioners and National Police Chiefs’ Council to build on the Accountability Guidance already in place, including in relation to the performance management of Chief Constables, to help to promote and embed a positive relationship between Chief Constables and PCCs.

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The Home Office will consult on potential changes to the Policing Protocol Order 2011 to provide a ‘brighter-line’ on the boundaries of operational independence and reflect changes in the relationship between the parties to the Protocol which have taken place over time. The Protocol sets out how the policing governance relationships should work, including that of the Home Secretary, and clarifies the roles and responsibilities of PCCs, Chief Constables and Police and Crime Panels.

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The Home Office will also legislate to amend Section 38 of the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011, to make the Chief Constable dismissal process more rigorous and transparent, by requiring a PCC to give the Chief Constable written notice (including grounds), as the first stage of the dismissal process; allowing for the Chief to provide HMCIC a response to those grounds; and introducing some form of time limit or review interval on a Chief Constable’s suspension from office. The Home Office will also work with the College of Policing, NPCC and APCC to develop a framework for the use of independent mediation in appropriate circumstances.

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We will also seek to address the HMICFRS recommendations included in its ‘Leading Lights’ (September 2019) report, looking into the role of the College of Policing in the senior recruitment process. We will work with stakeholders to address the issues raised through this review in relation to fixed term appointments.

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•

To improve scrutiny, the Home Office will work with the Local Government Association (LGA) to develop a good governance training package for Police and Crime Panels.

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Part Two of the Review will also allow us to consider the role of the Independent Office of Police Complaints (IOPC) with respect to their handling of complaints made about the conduct of PCCs and their deputies.

The Review concluded more should be done to ensure that all PCCs adopt best practice and, given our later recommendations on fire, there is now a need to improve the resilience of the Office of the PCC: •

We recommend that the APCC works with the College of Policing to build on the policing Knowledge Hub to develop a ‘what works’ compendium for PCCs.

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The Home Office and APCC will jointly develop a comprehensive set of non-statutory guidance on the core elements of the PCC role. In conjunction, the APCC should deliver a formal programme of induction for new and returning PCCs post-elections in May 2021.

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To enhance resilience and capacity of PCCs, given our intention to expand the role into fire, the Home Office will bring forward legislation to mandate that each PCC must appoint a Deputy (of the same political party where the PCC represents a political party). In the interim, we will issue guidance to PCCs’ offices requesting that a formal succession plan is put into place to deal with vacancy and incapacitation, involving the Police and Crime Panel in those discussions as necessary. This will not apply to mayors with PCC functions, where legislation already mandates that a Deputy Mayor must be in place.

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To ensure PCCs have the levers they need to tackle crime, in Part Two of the Review, the Home Office will consult on giving a General Power of Competence (as afforded to Local Authorities) to all PCCs, to potentially help PCCs with the role they play in the wider crime and criminal justice landscape, and will consider partnership arrangements more fully.

On fire, the Government is clear that further reform of fire and rescue is required in order to respond to the recommendations from Phase 1 of the Grenfell Tower Inquiry, the Kerslake Review and to build on the findings from Sir Thomas Winsor’s State of Fire and Rescue Report. Our reform agenda will focus on three key areas: people; professionalism; and governance. Taken together, improvements in these areas will help deliver higher standards and greater consistency across fire and rescue services.

The Review kick-started our work on fire service governance and the findings signalled strong support for a directly elected individual taking on fire functions to help simplify and strengthen the governance of fire and rescue services across England. The Home Office will be launching a

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consultative White Paper on fire reform later this year. The White Paper will be used to set out our reform agenda in further detail and explore the Review proposals on fire governance which include: •

Consulting on whether to mandate the transfer of fire and rescue functions to the Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner model across England where boundaries are coterminous, unless there is an option to transfer fire governance directly to an elected Mayor.

•

Consulting on how to address coterminosity challenges, including in the South West.

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Legislating to create operational independence for Chief Fire Officers and to clearly separate and delineate strategic and operational planning for fire and rescue.

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Considering options to clarify the legal entities within the PFCC model.

With regard to mayoral devolution, this Review has cemented our view that the join up of public safety functions under a combined authority mayor has the potential to offer wider levers to prevent crime. We will take steps to remove barriers to more mayors taking on these functions and will work with MHCLG to develop the forthcoming Devolution and Local Recovery White Paper with that longer-term trajectory in mind.

Part Two of the Review will begin after the 2021 elections and will allow us to consider further ways to strengthen and expand efforts to help cut crime. It will focus on longer-term reforms and the potential for wider efficiencies to be made, with a view to implementation ahead of the 2024 elections. Terms of reference for Part Two of the Review will be published in this House at the appropriate time.

I would like to put on record my thanks to our Advisory Group which supported the first part of this Review, comprising senior external stakeholders with expertise in the policing and fire sectors.

Statement from HOUSE OF PARLIAMENT - Statement UIN HCWS849

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TAKING A CL INTO TH HUMAN TRAFF 28

LOSER LOOK HE UK’S FICKING CRISIS

BY MILAD SHOJAEI

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Human trafficking is a grave violation of human rights that impacts almost every country globally. It involves the recruitment, transfer, or receipt of victims domestically or overseas, exploited for personal or financial gain. The Palermo Protocol established the first internationally recognised definition of human trafficking and defines exploitation as; “the exploitation or the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or removal of organs".

In the UK, the Modern Slavery Act 2015 (the Act) effectively consolidates all existing offences of human trafficking and modern slavery. Although the Act has increased policy activity surrounding slavery and trafficking, the problem remains underestimated in the UK. According to the National Crime Agency (NCA), human trafficking in the UK is a rapidly growing issue and has increased by more than 80% in 2016-2017. Many of those trafficked are overseas, but others are UK-born nationals trapped in vicious cycles of domestic abuse, homelessness, and neglect.

According to UN estimates, approximately 136,000 people were trafficked in the UK in 2018. A report referred into the National Referral Mechanism (NRM) outlined that 61% of potential victims claimed to have been exploited in the UK, while 25% claimed that they were exploited overseas. The report further revealed that individuals trapped in modern slavery in the UK are now increasingly likely to be British than any other nationality.

THE DEVASTATION CAUSED BY TRAFFICKING GANGS OPERATING IN BRITAIN Many human trafficking gang leaders wanted by law enforcement in Europe reside in the UK. Trafficking gangs prey on a range of vulnerable victims, including children, economic migrants, and refugees. They manipulate people with promises of greater prosperity and opportunity, advertising substantial wages and security assurances. Tricked by false hope and ambitions for a better life, vulnerable migrants discover that the marketed jobs do not exist and inevitably become trapped by “debt bondage”. This tragic reality forces victims of human trafficking to work under duress to pay the debt accrued by accepting the transit.

In July 2019, the UK’s most considerable modern slavery investigation dismantled a human trafficking ring that earned £2-million by exploiting more than 400 people. Led by a well-organised polish gang, the Brzezinksi family forced vulnerable victims to work for almost nothing after luring them to the West Midlands. Investigators have asserted that it was the largest criminal prosecution relating to modern slavery in Europe to date.

Victims of the Brzezinksi trafficking ring were manipulated into believing they would earn reasonable wages in Britain but were instead forced to work long hours on farms, rubbish recycling centres and poultry gutting factories for as little as 50p an hour. The investigation revealed that victims were housed in overcrowded and vermin-infested properties without heating, furniture and working toilets. The victims were aged between 17-60 and treated as commodities, offered nothing but out-of-date food, and no water access during long periods of hard labour.

In some cases, the criminal organisation recruited released prisoners, stripping them of their humanity and dignity while forcing them to endure a life of oppressive deprivation and anguish. Hope For Justice and West Midlands Police exposed the inhuman treatment of victims, revealing that gangs often resorted to violence to motivate victims. Eight gang members were ultimately sentenced for trafficking, conspiracy to require another to perform forced labour, and money laundering. From June 2012 till October 2017, the conspiracy ran as the most prolific and ambitious human trafficking network in the UK. It underlined the horrific and true extent of the human trafficking crisis in the UK. As the Judge in the case, HHJ Mary Stacey stated; “the hard truth is that the practice continues, here in the UK, often hiding in plain sight”.

RISING CASES OF SEX-TRAFFICKING IN THE UK Sex trafficking is a form of modern slavery where vulnerable victims are coerced into sexual exploitation for profit. Almost 66% of the human trafficking economy is from commercial sexual exploitation, and the global sex trade exploits two million children worldwide. In 2010, the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) reportedthat approximately 30,000 women were involved in off-street prostitution in England and Wales and that 2,600 were trafficked. The Home Office estimates that there are up to 4,000 victims of trafficking for sexual exploitation in the UK at any one time.

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Milad is a current pupil barrister at 33 Bedford Row. Before pupillage, he worked as a legal advisor at the Ministry of Justice and was completing a period of recognised training at Willesden Magistrates' Court. He is also increasingly passionate about legal technology and has worked with CASEDO as a Strategy & Engagement Director and consultant for over two years.

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Sexual exploitation in the UK has increased significantly from 2017-2020. Recent data released through Freedom Of Information requests (FOI) suggest cases rose from 158 in May 2017 to 543 in April 2020. Escaped victims reveal that they are beaten, forcibly injected with narcotics, and pressured to watch their own families' physical abuse.

The NRM discovered that the most prevalent type of exploitation for children was sexual, including forced prostitution. Although many children forced into exploitation are from vulnerable backgrounds, the issue of child trafficking is not limited to any particular demographic or socio-economic boundaries. Human traffickers operate at a specialist level, routinely manipulating children and recruiting them by targeting insecurities. Sex traffickers prey on vulnerabilities and use incline classified advertisements and social media platforms to lure and sell young women. In 2017, Michael Miller, a sex trafficker who recruited young girls online and prostituted them in New York, admitted to using Backpage.com to advertise his illegal operations.

Online platforms like Backpage face increasing scrutiny and criminal liability as traffickers move to mainstream social media sites. However, more must be done to prevent human trafficking from thriving on online platforms. Websites should explicitly state in terms of service that any use of the platform to exploitative means is prohibited, and enforced strictly by routinely reviewing user activity. Identifying highrisk users and business pages, coupled with proactive risk checks against national sex offender registries, human trafficking convictions and business complaint sites will help isolate suspicious activity.

IMPROVING THE RESPONSE TO TRAFFICKING CRIMES Siloed law enforcement agencies cannot combat the human tr afficking cr isis alone .

Strengthening coordinated policing efforts has been pivotal to the dismantling of trafficking rings. In 2019, a British and Romanian police operation targeting international human trafficking gangs led to the rescue of 29 women who were victims of sex trafficking. It is imperative that the NCA continues coordination and collaboration across the UK and improves communication with countries where trafficking gangs are based.

It is equally crucial that the voluntary sector, private sector, and the UK's wider Inter-Departmental Ministerial Group work closely together to improve victims' care and enhance the ability to act early. To achieve this, the CPS must continue to strengthen engagement with victims by providing more extensive support and protection to those minded to engage.

Criminal organisations go to great lengths to conceal trafficking from the authorities, however, when victims do surface the process of identifying them as victims of trafficking is challenging. The fear of retribution by gangs and the impact of trauma on memory provides significant “grey areas” which are difficult to navigate.

Moreover, a report published by the Anti-Trafficking Monitoring Group identified notable differences between groups in the identification rates as victims of human trafficking. The referral rate for non-British nationals identified as having been trafficked was 11.9%, while 76% were UK citizens. The research indicates that the NRM is potentially endorsing a narrow view of the definition of trafficking, impeding victim identification.

Under the NRM, decisions about who is a victim of trafficking are made by trained specialists in designated competent authorities. Although this system has identified crucial trafficking trends and data, it must become more accessible. As it stands, the system has created a “hierarchy” of victims, enabling discrimination against specific categories of trafficking victims. By allowing more organisations to refer potential victims to the NRM, we can bolster its reliability and achieve a unified data collection system. This will not only assist identifying victims of trafficking but also minimise the risks of re-trafficking, effectively supporting prosecutions of trafficking gangs in the process.

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BUSINESSES MOST IMPACTED BY OMICR VARIANT TO BENEFIT FROM OVER £700 MIL AS GOVERNMENT DELIVERS FUNDING LOCAL AUTHORITIES STATEMENT BY THE DEPARTMENT FOR BUSINESS, ENERGY & INDUSTRIAL STRATEGY, HM TREASURY, THE RT HON KWASI KWARTENG MP, AND THE RT HON RISHI SUNAK MP

BUSINESSES IN ENGLAND MOST IMPACTED BY COVID-19 AND THE OMICRON VARIANT TO BENEFIT FROM £700 MILLION IN GOVERNMENT GRANTS DELIVERED BY LOCAL COUNCILS HOSPITALITY, LEISURE AND ACCOMMODATION BUSINESSES WILL BE ABLE TO APPLY FOR ONE-OFF CASH GRANTS OF UP TO £6,000 BUSINESSES ARE URGED TO ENGAGE WITH THEIR COUNCIL AND APPLY FOR FUNDING

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RON T LLION

TO S

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Businesses in England most impacted by the Omicron variant will be able to tap into a multimillion-pound support package in the coming weeks, as the government today (7 January) delivered funding to councils across the country.

Firms in the hospitality, leisure and accommodation sectors, many of which have seen a decline in footfall and increased cancellations due to the Omicron variant, will be able to apply for one-off grants of up to £6,000 per premises depending on rateable value: • businesses with a rateable value of £51,000 or above: £6,000 • businesses with a rateable value between £15,000 and £51,000: £4,000 • businesses with a rateable value of £15,000 or below: £2,667 • In addition, more than £100 million worth of discretionary funding is also being made available for local authorities to support other businesses.

Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said: All through the pandemic we have stood by the side of business to ensure they are supported at every stage.

The spread of the Omicron variant is presenting new challenges, particularly for the hospitality and leisure sectors, so it’s only right that we are stepping up with an urgent £1 billion support package.

I urge businesses to come forward, engage with their local council and tap into these cash grants, which will help to cover costs and protect jobs as we double down on our efforts to get boosted and defeat this virus.

The grant funding forms part of a £1 billion support package which includes an additional £30 million for the Culture Recovery Fund and reintroducing the Statutory Sick Pay Rebate Scheme - reimbursing eligible businesses for the cost of Statutory Sick Pay for COVID-related absences.

Rishi Sunak, Chancellor of the Exchequer said: We know the Omicron variant has hit our hospitality and leisure businesses – which is why, as we have throughout the pandemic, we stepped in to help.

From today, local councils will be able to distribute this £1 billion package of support to the hundreds of thousands of pubs, restaurants and theatres in need – protecting the millions of people they employ.

Businesses are encouraged to apply to their council for grant funding which will be administered over the coming weeks. Find your local authority on GOV.UK. Businesses eligible for grants are those that offer in-person services, where the main service and activity takes place in a fixed rate-paying premises, in the hospitality, leisure and accommodation sectors. For example, this includes businesses whose main function is providing a venue for the consumption and sale of food and drink, those that provide facilities linked to recreation and entertainment, as well as businesses whose main premise is used for holiday accommodation.

The government has chosen to provide generous grants that are the same size as the monthly cash grants provided to hospitality businesses when they were fully closed earlier this year – despite businesses now being still able to trade.

Other businesses impacted by Omicron, such as those that supply the hospitality and leisure sectors as well as personal care services, are also able to apply for grants with the government allocating more than £100 million to the Additional Restrictions Grant (ARG) fund for local authorities in England.

Local authorities will have discretion to allocate this funding to businesses most in need.

The Business Secretary has written to those local authorities who have more than 5% left over from previous ARG funding rounds, instructing them to disburse their remaining funding.

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ADDITIONAL INFORMATION The £1 billion support package consists of: • £635 million for targeted grants for hospitality and leisure businesses in England • £102 million top-up for the Additional Restrictions Grant • £30 million for Culture Recovery Fund • £154 million of Barnett funding covering all three above • Funding for the Statutory Sick Pay Rebate scheme will be additional to these amounts Further information will be available in the published factsheets.

The one-off grants of up to £6,000 for eligible businesses in the hospitality, leisure and accommodation sectors, depend on rateable value: • businesses with a rateable value of £51,000 or above: £6,000 • businesses with a rateable value between £15,000 and £51,000: £4,000 • businesses with a rateable value of £15,000 or below: £2,667 • The additional funding is the third top-up to the ARG scheme. The most recent data on local authority payments to businesses is to 28 November 2021 and so does not capture any recent spending. As of this date 88% of the funding available prior to this third top-up had been spent • note that local authority funding allocations for the Omicron Hospitality and Leisure Grant have been calculated using the latest available data (31 March 2021) on business numbers provided by the VOA • figures by local authority are available on request

PLEASE VISIT WWW.GOV.UK FOR FURTHER INFORMATION

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A ROYAL MISHAP:

POST-TRUTH, PALESTINE, A OF THE MEDIA LANDSCAPE

BY GEORGIA TINDALE

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HM Queen Elizabeth II and HRH The Duke of Edinburgh arrive in Kuwait 14 - 14 Feb 1979 Photo file from the Royal Collection Trust - Central Office of Information: London

AND THE SHIFTING SANDS E 39

‘NEVER LET THE TRUTH GET IN THE WAY OF A GOOD STORY’ The 19th-century American writer, Mark Twain is typically attributed as the author of the above aphorism. Rather fittingly, as noted in a 2017 article by the New York Times, this quotation may well not have come from Twain at all and could be one of the many pithy truisms, aphorisms and witty comments which have been falsely attributed to the humorist in the century following his death.

The question of what ‘truth’ means within the 2022 media landscape is an undeniably hot topic. With the ever-increasing prevalence of unreliable news sources online, (which can primarily be found online), alongside the continued usage of social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter as increasingly popular vehicles for transmitting information, various allegations of election hacking and the use of bots to promote misinformation and influence elections by foreign powers, it can be harder than ever to distinguish fact from fiction. As a consequence, curtailing or even slowing the spread of misinformation in an age of instant reaction, tweeting and sharing can feel like a thankless and nigh impossible task.

MEETING OTHMAN AL-OMEIR

One man who has experienced what it is like to be at the thick end of misinformation on a deeply personal level is the Saudi-born and London based businessman, publisher, journalist and editor, Othman Al-Omeir. Now 71, Al-Omeir has a prestigious and wide-ranging journalistic career under his belt and still remains influential in high profile media and political circles today. Al-Omeir’s career highlights include becoming the youngest Saudi editor of a major daily newspaper, Al-Yum in 1980, founding the first Arabic independent online daily publication, Elaph, in 2001 – reported by Forbes in 2012 as the tenth most visited website in the Arab world – and being awarded both ‘Media Personality of 2006’ by the Arab Media Forum ‘for his contribution to the industry in the Arab world,’ as well as the ‘The New Media Future Prize’ by the Anna Lindh Foundation in 2009.

That said, however, Al-Omeir’s early career was not without its challenges. Speaking to him from his penthouse apartment, which contains a balcony overlooking the iconic Fleet Street, where he started his career 40 years ago and is appareled like a modern gallery, decorated with eye-catching paintings, rare books, manuscripts, vintage photographs and much more, AlOmeir describes one significant incident which happened when he was a young correspondent at Al Jazeera in 1979. The incident took place after it had been reported that AlOmeir would be included in a group of journalists accompanying HM Queen Elizabeth II during her 1979 visit to Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf, representing the first time that an Arab journalist had ever been invited to join the royal delegation.

Following the announcement, the media began preparing to cover this historic occasion, with the British tabloid, The Daily Star taking the opportunity to publish its own unique take on Al-Omeir’s inclusion in the trip.

A BAFFLING ALLIANCE Splashed across two columns on the newspaper’s front page, and with both a grainy headshot and a misspelling of both his surname and first name providing the icing and cherry on the cake respectively, The Daily Star published a story containing damning accusations against Al-

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Omeir, describing him as ‘An Arab with terrorist links’ and making claims that he was a ‘close friend of members of the Palestinian Liberation Organization.’

As Al-Omeir explains, “I woke up one day to find myself labelled a terrorist. Without any introductions ever having been made, I had suddenly become a fully-fledged member of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and a signed-up member of its ‘terrorist arm’, as it is referred to in Western media speak.

“As I seemingly could not recall this for myself, I wanted to know for how many hours, how many times, and for how long I had met with the villains of that time, whether that was Abu Nidal, George Habash and Wadie Haddad. Had I had a clandestine meeting with someone from the Baader-Meinhof Group at a backstreet corner in Frankfurt, or carried a bomb that was too light to notice in my inside pocket? No matter how many times I rebooted my mind to try and recall this information, I failed to find the relevant files.”

And the evidence behind The Daily Star’s claims? It all basically boiled down to a meeting and a handshake with a PLO representative which was photographed. Notably, the PLO was still viewed with suspicion by some parties at the time, despite having enjoyed observer status at the United Nations since 1974.

As Al-Omeir highlights: “Al-Jazeera newspaper held an annual party to which it invited PLO’s London representative, Dr. Nabil Ramlawi. It also invited the Saudi ambassador to London, Sheikh Faisal Al-Hujailan. Also present were ambassadors of Arab and friendly states. Since meeting with the PLO’s representative is a sort of terrorism, according to some British mindsets, the handshake and the meeting revealed my ties to terrorism.”

Al-Omeir recalls Cathy Couzens, The Daily Star reporter, paying him a late visit in his Hilton Kuwait room during the tour, and asking him about the whole issue of handshaking a Palestinian in London, asking how he had managed to “join this tour”. At this point, Al-Omeir realized that she was just playing him to get information, so he referred her to his London based lawyer.

SEX, SCANDAL AND ARABS Even taking into the contexts of the uncertainty towards the PLO and the unprecedented inclusion of an Arab on the royal trip, the publication and tone of these accusations by The Daily Star can seem extraordinary when viewed from a 2022 perspective. There is another important context to factor in, however: the desire to make a splash by certain portions of the media at the time.

As Al-Omeir explains wryly, “An Arab journalist was joining the royal delegation for the first time. He comes from a country that tickles the imagination of Europeans. Certain newspapers at the time were interested in fanfare and suspense by any means, be it sex, Arabs, scandals and so on. In terms of yellow journalism, Europe tops us no matter how hard we, in the Arab media, try, and the process is very tempting.”

“In my case, The Daily Star tried to elbow in between other tabloids and take its place next to The Daily Express, The Daily Mirror and The Sun. And it had the ability to be at the forefront, especially when the subject was ‘Arab’. Arabs were attractive because they were seen as rich, sexually capable and sparked the imagination. In this case, however, it was a sensational story from a sensational paper – no other paper would touch it.”

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PHOTOGRAPH OF HM QUEEN ELIZABETH II ALONGSIDE KING KHALID WHO GREETED HER AND HRH PRINCE PHILIP WHO WALKS BEHIND, AS THEY ARRIVED AT RIYADH AIRPORT, SAUDI ARABIA. AIRPLANE IN BACKGROUND Queen Elizabeth arrives in Saudi Arabia. [Royal Tour of the Gulf, 1979] Photo file from the Royal Collection Trust - Central Office of Information: London 42

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AL- JAZEERA NEWSPAPER, 17 FEB 1979 [ROYAL TOUR OF THE GULF, 1979/PRESS COVERAGE] Headline translation / Front Page • • • •

British Queen Talks to Al-Jazira about Her Visit to Saudi Arabia HM Says: My Visit Will Be a Good Milestone in Bilateral Relations and Close Cooperation.

British FM Tells Al-Jazira: Saudi Arabia’s Domestic and Foreign Policies Are Governed by Great Wisdom.

Manama-Othman Al-Omeir by Phone.

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DAILY STAR NEWSPAPER 14 FEB 1979

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THE STORY FIZZLES OUT Despite the best efforts from the Star, however, the fireworks which could have been launched from these accusations became a damp squib. “A member of the scandal club told the authorities in question about the accusation”, says Al-Omeir, “They described how ‘this Saudi journalist will sabotage the Queen’s trip because he could be a veteran terrorist and has ties with terrorist groups around the world’. The authorities did their job, looked into it, and concluded that the story was a complete joke.”

Indeed, when subjected to scrutiny, the article soon ran out of steam, largely as a result of the comparatively small, and therefore containable, media landscape at the time, which stands in contrast with today’s sprawling dissemination of stories across social media platforms and countless news websites. Journalists from the other major publications in the 1970s – the Daily Express, the Daily Mail, the Mirror and so on – were able to ascertain the veracity or otherwise of the story by speaking to Al-Omeir directly, and then neglected to run the story once they had established the facts (or lack of them).

A ROYAL SUCCESS Following the dismissal of the story by all relevant parties, it became a source of humour for those attending the much-awaited Gulf trip. “In the delegation, it was a joke. Many peers asked me if I carried a pistol or a bomb. The tallest and biggest member of the delegation, Malt Fullerton Flirton from the US ABC, even bought a toy pistol from Kuwait City Market and presented it to me,” Al-Omeir recalls.

Norman Luck, The Daily Express reporter, knocked on his door the same evening Couzens visited him. Al-Omeir describes him as a “troublemaker just like his newspaper: he is lively and violent”. Luck stormed in, demanding of Al-Omeir: “Is it true that you have links with terrorists?

Would you allow me to search your room?”, and they both roared with loud, unrestrained bursts of laughter.

As for the trip itself, it was a major positive milestone in UK-Gulf relations. Speaking through Buckingham Palace’s Press spokesperson at the time, Michael Shea, Her Majesty described to Al-Jazeera, how her visit to Saudi Arabia – which took place as part of the tour – represented a “new milestone in bilateral relations and close cooperation between the two countries.”

For his part, Dr David Owen, the British Foreign Secretary at the time who accompanied HM Queen Elizabeth II on her visit, told Al-Jazeera that Saudi-British ties were “excellent”, hailing the “great wisdom” with which Saudi Arabia’s domestic and foreign policies were being administered, and adding that his discussions in the Kingdom would focus on the further strengthening of these ties.

AFTER EFFETS Although Al-Omeir unsurprisingly kept Mr Hard, his lawyer, closely informed about the whole sorry series of events, he was not able to pursue any legal action for ‘slander’ against The Daily Star due to their careful wording of the story. “The lawyers told me that they were very clever in their choice of words, such as accusing me of having terrorist ‘links’ which could not lead to legal action on my part as it is much more difficult to prove.”

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HM Queen Elizabeth watches Folk Dancing during visit to Kuwait. [The Queen's Tour of Eastern Arabia, 1979] 13 - 13 Feb 1979

Finally, however, it is clear that this unfortunate incident did not tarnish relations between HRH Queen Elizabeth II and Al-Omeir, who describes how Her Royal Highness made the Gulf trip a success, thanks, in part, to her “great knowledge” of the region. He describes how she seemed to enjoy the trip, which was a “very historical moment for the Gulf people.”

Fast forward to 2022, and Al-Omeir has had the pleasure of meeting HRH Queen Elizabeth on several occasions since, describing her as “very kind”, thanks to her care in taking the time to speak personally to everyone present. And, with his tongue planted firmly in his cheek, AlOmeir also has some advice to impart for readers keen to avoid the same situation occurring to them: “I warn you against shaking hands with any Palestinian. That means terrorism.”

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ELON MUSK

THE RICH MAN ON E

BY DAN BLYSTONE •

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HEST EARTH 49

Recent figures in 2022 shows Elon Musk as the richest man on earth with an estimated total net worth of $304 Billion. The Visionary entrepreneur Elon Musk is the fascinating co-founder of PayPal (PYPL) and Tesla (TSLA), as well as the founder of SpaceX, Neuralink, and The Boring Company. He serves as CEO of Tesla and CEO/lead designer of SpaceX. His astounding success has given rise to comparisons to other visionary businessmen, such as Steve Jobs, Howard Hughes, Henry Ford, and Bill Gates. After an often-difficult childhood, Musk developed a relentless work ethic (he is known to work as many as 80 to 120 hours per week) and a tenacious, single-minded vision.

Let's look briefly at the life of the man behind a string of companies that have disrupted multiple industries.

EARLY LIFE AND EDUCATION

Elon Reeve Musk was born in 1971 in Pretoria, one of South Africa’s three capital cities. His father was an engineer, and his mother a model and nutritionist. He is the oldest of three children, all high achievers: His brother, Kimbal Musk, is a venture capitalist and environmentalist. His sister, Tosca Musk, is an award-winning producer and director.

After his parents divorced in 1980, Musk lived primarily with his father. He would later dub the man a terrible human being… almost every evil thing you could possibly think of, he has done." “I had a terrible upbringing. I had a lot of adversity growing up. One thing I worry about with my kids is they don’t face enough adversity,” Musk would later say.

BULLIED AS A CHILD

By his own account, Musk a self-described bookworm and something of a smart aleck—he read voraciously, everything from encyclopaedias to comic books. But Musk’s intellectual aptitude did him few favours as a child. He found few friends in the tough-minded Afrikaner culture he encountered in school.

Musk attended the private, English-speaking Waterkloof House Preparatory School—he started a year early—and later graduated from Pretoria Boys High School. The years were lonely and brutal, from his descriptions.

“They got my best friend to lure me out of hiding so they could beat me up. And that hurt,” Musk said. “For some reason, they decided that I was it, and they were going to go after me nonstop.

That’s what made growing up difficult. For several years, there was no respite. You get chased around by gangs at school who tried to beat the (expletive) out of me, and then I’d come home, and it would just be awful there as well.”

EARLY ACCOMPLISHMENTS

If there was a point of bright escape for Musk; it was technology. When he was only 10, he became acquainted with programming via the Commodore VIC-20, an inexpensive home computer.

Before long, he had become proficient enough to create Blastar—a video game in the style of Space Invaders. He sold the BASIC code for the game to a magazine called PC and Office Technology for $500.

In one telling incident at that time, Musk, along with his brother, planned to open a video game arcade near their school. Ultimately, their parents nixed the plan. But apparently, the only thing stopping them was the need for a city permit, for which an adult had to apply.

Musk's College Years At 17, Musk moved to Canada to avoid serving in the South African military, whose main duty in

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the late 1980s was enforcing apartheid. He would later obtain Canadian citizenship through his mother.

After emigrating to Canada, Musk enrolled in Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario. It was there that he met Justine Wilson, an aspiring writer. They would marry and have five sons together, twins and triplets, before divorcing in 2008.

ENTERING THE U.S.

After two years at Queen’s University, Musk transferred to the University of Pennsylvania. He took on two majors, but his time there wasn’t all work and no play. With a fellow student, he bought a 10-bedroom fraternity house, which they used as an ad hoc nightclub.

Musk graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Physics, as well as a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from the Wharton School. The two majors speak to the direction Musk’s career would take later, but it was physics that made the deepest impression. “(Physics is) a good framework for thinking,” he would say later. “Boil things down to their fundamental truths and reason up from there.”

NOTABLE ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Musk was 24 years old when he moved to California to pursue a Ph.D. in applied physics at Stanford University. But, with the Internet exploding and Silicon Valley booming, Musk had entrepreneurial visions dancing in his head. He left the Ph.D. program after just two days.

X.com In 1995, with $28,000 and his younger brother Kimbal at his side, Musk started Zip2, a web software company that would help newspapers develop online city guides. In 1999, Zip2 was acquired by Compaq’s AltaVista web search engine for a whopping $340 million. Musk used his Zip2 buyout money to create X.com, which he intended to shape into the future of banking.

X.com was merged with a money transfer firm called Confinity, and the resulting company came to be known as PayPal. Musk was then ousted from the company before it was bought by eBay for $1.5 billion, though he left with $180 million worth in stock.

In 2017, Musk purchased the X.com domain name back from PayPal, citing its sentimental value.

TESLA

First, he contributed funding—about $70 million. Then, in 2004, Musk joined engineers Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning to help run Tesla Motors, where Musk was integral in designing the Tesla Roadster, an electric car. Although After Eberhard was ousted from the firm in 2007, following a series of disagreements, Musk seized management control as CEO and product architect. Under his watch, Tesla has become one of the world’s most popular and coveted car brands.

In addition to producing electric vehicles, Tesla maintains a robust presence in the solar energy space, thanks to its acquisition of SolarCity. Founded in 2006, this clean-energy-services company currently produces two rechargeable solar batteries, mainly used for stationary energy storage purposes. The smaller Powerwall was developed for home backup power and off-the-grid use, while the larger Powerpack is intended for commercial or electric utility grid use.

SPACEX

Musk used much of the proceeds of his PayPal sale to found Space Exploration Technologies Corporation, commonly known as SpaceX, an interstellar travel company. By his own account, Musk spent $100 million to found SpaceX in 2002.

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With SpaceX, Musk landed several high-profile contracts with NASA and the U.S. Air Force to design rockets and conduct military missions. Musk has been vocal about his plans to send an astronaut to Mars by 2025 in a collaborative effort with NASA.

PERSONAL ECCENTRICITIES

On Sept. 7, 2018, Musk appeared to be smoking marijuana while being interviewed for a podcast.

Coupled with the exit of two Tesla executives—its head of human resources and its chief accounting officer—that news saw the stock drop in trade. This was just another addition to the string of bad news for the company that year, which included a shareholder lawsuit against Musk and Tesla for his infamous tweet on Aug. 7, 2018. Musk had tweeted that he was considering taking Tesla private. The company later decided against the move.

During his 8th of May 2021 appearance on the TV show Saturday Night Live, Musk revealed that he has Asperger's syndrome, a mild form of autism spectrum disorder. "I'm actually making history tonight as the first person with Asperger's to host SNL. Or at least the first person to admit it," he said. How does neurodevelopment condition manifest itself? "I don't always have a lot of intonation or variation in how I speak, which I'm told makes for great comedy," Musk explained.

THE BOTTOM LINE

Musk’s early interests in philosophy, science fiction, and fantasy novels are reflected in his sense of idealism and concern with human progress—and in his business career. He works in the areas that he has identified as crucial to our future, specifically the Internet, the transition to renewable energy sources, and space colonization. He has defied critics, disrupted industries, and made advances in all three of these frontiers, via his creation of PayPal, Tesla Motors, SolarCity, and SpaceX—game-changers all, despite their sometimes-rocky performance.

Sources https://www.investopedia.com/articles/personal-finance/061015/how-elon-musk-became-elon-musk.asp

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Sustainable Thinking!

THE FUT OF FASH

By Felipe Tadd

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TURE HION 55

Those who follow the trends in the fashion industry would be familiar with the term sustainable fashion! As the global challenge of climate change threatens the whole world, people have started supporting those businesses that prioritise sustainability. The textile industry is one of the major contributors to global warming, and hence clothing brands are trying to be responsible these days. To curb the challenges associated with global warming, the demand for ethically manufactured clothes are rising every day. Every brand in the industry competes to promote itself as sustainable and eco-friendly.

However, people aren't sure which brands are authentically into sustainable clothing manufacturing and which are not! So, to recognise truly sustainable brands, essentially, people should have an understanding of the concept, sustainability in clothing manufacturing and production. Recycled yarns, organic fibers, controlled supply chain and creative reuse: fashion is also becoming sustainable, in line with a need shared worldwide and loudly requested above all by consumers.

According to a recent survey launched by Trustpilot and London Research, four out of five customers say they are ready to give up on clothing from a brand that does not adhere to ethical standards. At the same time, 67% of respondents admit they are more likely to buy an item made with materials ecological. At present, several major fashion players have made green needs a priority. From Prada to Maison Margiela, from Stella McCartney to Vivienne Westwood, the aim is to guarantee greener productions, naturally without sacrificing style.

Naturally, the idea behind green projects has already taken hold worldwide and has made it possible to show off high fashion products made with raw materials destined for waste. This is the case of tights obtained from the reuse of plastic, underwear from recycled yarns, and bags and shoes made with apple peel, completely indistinguishable from items produced according to canonical processes.

In this new era of complexity, uncertainty, and systematic questions, great transformations are taking place even in the fashion sector. Consumption paradigms are changing; business models are changing; we are moving towards an eco-sustainable vision of fashion. The evolution of the sector and the advent of sustainability had already begun but have been made central during the pandemic we are experiencing. Sustainability reveals itself through new meanings and key factors by redesigning the fashion industry, which is thus heading towards its fourth industrial revolution in a green key. It is a radical and permanent change, not a seasonal trend, and new themes appear for the world's future and of fashion: environment, circularity, collaborative consumption, optimisation, savings, reuse, traceability and transparency.

The awareness of the need to rethink the value chains is born by looking at the new trends deriving from the concept of circular fashion. Consumers and younger generations have new expectations: Generation Y and Generation Z of digital natives. We are at the dawn of a transition from Fast Fashion to Slow Fashion, with greater attention to the sector's environmental, cultural, economic, and social impact.

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Sustainability is an essential driver of this structural change, digital transformation, and new technologies. In fact, this area includes fundamental elements for the "new" fashion, including transparency and traceability of the supply chain, circularity, collaborative consumption. Talking about sustainability in fashion is equivalent to taking a journey to discover these themes. A journey that begins with the awareness of the need to look to the future of fashion as a future that is sustainable, thanks to the digital transformation that becomes a real enabler of change.

Felipe Tadd has also joined creative recycling to prioritise this trend by producing a fine line of clothing obtained from parts of fabric and leather otherwise destined for disposal. The brand has focused its attention on fabric, the element that has the greatest impact on the environment in the production of garments. As an emerging brand based in the UK, Felipe Tadd tries to bring in as many changes as possible to reduce the climatic challenge. Given that a truly sustainable fashion brand is the need-of-the-hour, Felipe Tadd is trying to bring in a real change in the sector's production is required by the climate emergency and by consumers, who are increasingly attentive to the issue. The analyses show that the pandemic has affected the consumer's purchasing approach, making them feel more responsible and prudent to the impact of their actions. As a sustainable clothing manufacturing brand, Felipe Tadd strives to induce eco-friendly values and concepts in every process involved in fabric sourcing, production, and distribution. The budding brand is set to gear up the sustainable fashion world to beat the climate challenges.

FELIPE TADD FELIPE TADD IS A SUSTAINABLE CLOTHING MANUFACTURER WITH A HEAD OFFICE IN LONDON, WHOSE FOCUS IS TO KEEP UP WITH THE FASHION TRENDS WHILE STAYING STEADFAST TO THE PRINCIPLES OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT.

FELIPE TADD WEBSITE: WWW.FELIPETADD.CO.UK FELIPE TADD ADDRESS: :70 CHARING CROSS RD, LONDON WC2H 0NE FELIPE TADD CONTACT: 020 4539 9378 AND INFO@FELIPETADD.CO.UK

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4 BARONESSES COMMISSIONE WOM

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ES AND A HIGH ER INSPIRING MEN

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On the 1st of December the Conservative Foreign Commonwealth Council hosted a fantastic event at the House of Lords.

Chaired by the Baroness Hodgson the event commenced with an exceptional panel of extraordinary women whose careers, ranging from diplomacy, defence, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, politics, and business.

House of Lords with Rebeca Riofrio Chairwoman for the Parliamentary Society for Arts, Fashion and Sports and Doctor Sophia Bouzian, lawyer Julia Muller, Jeweller Anastasia Iva and Award winner actress Lili Rich.

The first one to talk was the HE Gaitri I. Kumar, High-Commissioner of India followed by Baroness Pauline Neville-Jones, Baroness Fiona Hodgson, Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne and Baroness Jenkin of Kennington.

Each of them was very inspirational as they shared their own their own experiences, about their careers and, in sectors where women have often been underrepresented, they discussed how this has evolved over the course of their careers and what has or can be done to further increase representation.

Rebeca Riofrio member of the CFCC also the chairwoman of the Parliamentary Society for Arts, Fashion and Sports attended the event with members of the society, Doctor Sophia Bouzian, lawyer Julia Muller, Jeweller Anastasia Iva and Award winner actress Lili Rich.

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Baroness Pauline Neville-Jones, E Gaitri I. Kumar, High-Commissioner of India, Baroness Fiona Hodgson, Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne and Baroness Jenkin of Kennington.

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PTSD IN FE WHO HAVE THROUGH MODERN D SLAVERY

BY STEPHANIE SOWAHA

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EMALES E GONE

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How is Modern-day slavery still a significant issue and impact in this society? In the last decade, we have seen the female movement grow, impacting many women to stand firm together, allowing them to build a voice for themselves while creating a feminist movement. However, somewhere between equality and unfair trade, females struggle to gain complete freedom currently. As reported by the End Slavery Today organization, an estimated 21 million to 45 million people are trapped in some sort of modern-day slavery. "Human Trafficking" is another term used to define this horrendous act, either way, it is slavery at its core. As explained by the United Nations, individuals who are victims of human trafficking will end up in one of the following forms: Domestic servitude, Sex trafficking, forced labour, bonded labour, child labour or forced marriage.

The international labour office (ILO) recorded 11.4 million women and girls trapped in one of the above forms of human trafficking. Trafficking is a local and global issue; many victims are trafficking inside their own country or neighbouring countries. 70% of females and girls are globally trafficked, 49% of which are women and 21% of girls, demonstrating many female victims are adults. ILO discussed that sexual exploitation is the primary purpose of human trafficking, 97% of them being females. It can take different forms: visible ones, street prostitution or operating brothels or private homes. Public venues such as strip clubs and massage parlours are other forms of sexual exploitation. Violence is a powerful tool used by the traffickers to control their victims, and sometimes victims are raped and drugged to prevent them from escaping.

Females who experience human trafficking, especially sex trafficking, will be tragically impacted mentally and physically, mainly causing them trauma. Psychologists who researched and worked with females victimized in sexual exploitation explain that they often experience extreme reactions because of the trauma they endured during their captivity. These reactions are often diagnosed as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Like many other people who have PTSD, human-trafficking survivors may experience one or all the following symptoms: intrusive memories, flashbacks and nightmares, physiological reactions to stimuli that trigger memories, detachment and loss of trust, pessimistic thinking and behaviour, memory loss, anger, guilt or shame, hyper-vigilance, insomnia, feeling detached from reality, reckless or self-destructive behaviour, problems with concentration, depression, and more.

Due to PTSD symptoms, victims have a low life expectancy; as their health deteriorates quicker, some individuals may result with physical body pain, causing them pain in different parts of their body, and in due course can be diagnosed with fibromyalgia. There is a high rate of Suicide as females with PTSD cannot deal having to face their traumas and don’t end up seeking professional help.

As a result of PTSD symptoms, most females can make bad relationship choices, entering one toxic relationship after another. Many victims end up with an abusive partner, controlling them, not letting them leave the relationship and inflicting domestic abuse upon their partner. They normally assure to seclude their victim until they have no friends or someone to turn to for help, making them the hero and abuser at the same time. Some sexually exploited victims end up dating their capturers and become accomplices, helping them recruit and lure young girls into sexual exploitation. After the trauma the females they believe it is the correct action to sexual exploits other girls to obtain a happy relationship with their capturer.

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STEPHANIE IS A LONDON BASED PSYCHOLOGIST, AN ASSOCIATE OF THE BRITISH PSYCHOLOGIST SOCIETY. WORKED FOR THE NHS TREATING AND HELPING CLIENTS WITH PSYCHOSIS, SCHIZOPHRENIA, AND PTSD. SHE IS NOW COMPLETING HER MASTERS IN MENTAL HEALTH AND WILL CONTINUE TO FINISH HER STUDIES IN COUNSELLING. 67

LIKE MANY OTHER PEOPLE WHO HAVE PTSD, HUMAN-TRAFFICKING SURVIVORS MAY EXPERIENCE ONE OR ALL THE FOLLOWING SYMPTOMS: INTRUSIVE MEMORIES, FLASHBACKS AND NIGHTMARES, PHYSIOLOGICAL REACTIONS TO STIMULI THAT TRIGGER MEMORIES, DETACHMENT AND LOSS OF TRUST, PESSIMISTIC THINKING AND BEHAVIOUR, MEMORY LOSS, ANGER, GUILT OR SHAME, HYPER-VIGILANCE, INSOMNIA, FEELING DETACHED FROM REALITY, RECKLESS OR SELF-DESTRUCTIVE BEHAVIOUR, PROBLEMS WITH CONCENTRATION, DEPRESSION, AND MORE.

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It has been showcased how PTSD can physically change the method of how the brain functions; it affects the communication between the amygdala and the ventromedial prefrontal cortex breaks down, allowing the amygdala to continue "running wild", meaning the victims will mainly experience flight and fight mode. Therefore, victims will at times have erratic behaviours which can affect their family setting, can have an impact in their work performance and issues with colleagues etc.

It is possible to successfully treat PTSD with psychotherapies such as cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) or Eye Movement Desensitisation Reprogramming (EMDR). Those are the two most common therapists used to help individuals with PTSD. Some are done in a group setting to start the therapy sessions so the victim does not feel pressured to share their story and can slowly integrate themselves into a therapy setting. Everyone is different in healing; therefore, not one therapy type fits all; some may decide to avoid the clinical method and go for the holistic approach. Holistic methods can include message therapy helping reduce stress and promote overall health and wellness, Acupuncture, yoga, and meditation. Mixing the clinical and holistic approach can also help, as it gives the client more options to discover what works for them in their healing journey. No matter how many years after the traumatic event occurred it is never too late to seek help and start the healing journey. It can take years to heal, and some may never heal completely but can function at a better level.

IF YOU JUST NEED TO TALK, ANY TIME OF DAY OR NIGHT FREE LISTENING SERVICES These services offer confidential support from trained volunteers. You can talk about anything that's troubling you, no matter how difficult: • Call 116 123 to talk to Samaritans, or email: jo@samaritans.org for a reply within 24 hours • Text "SHOUT" to 85258 to contact the Shout Crisis Text Line, or text "YM" if you're under 19 If you're under 19, you can also call 0800 1111 to talk to Childline. The number will not appear on your phone bill.

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Tony Hudgell

BRAVE HEART

TONY HUDGELL, 7, LOST HIS LEGS AFTER BEING ABUSED BY HIS BIRTH PARENTS - WHO ESCAPED JAIL UNTIL HIS ADOPTIVE FAMILY FOUGHT FOR JUSTICE

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Tony was rushed to hospital with life changing injuries in 2014 when he was 41 days old, following horrific abuse from his parents, Jody Simpson and Tony Smith. The pair were found guilty of child cruelty in 2018 and are both currently serving a ten-year prison sentence.

In 2017, Tony had both legs amputated due to the injuries he sustained as an infant, and he's currently learning to walk on prosthetic legs without crutches After his incredibly difficult start in life, Tony was adopted by Paula and Mark Hudgell of West Malling, Kent, who have successfully campaigned for longer sentences for anyone who seriously harms a child and are now calling for a register of abusers in the wake of the murder of Arthur Labinjo-Hughes.

Tony was taken to hospital in 2014 with multiple organ failure, several fractures and sepsis, brought about by being swung around by his ankles, with doctors battling for almost six weeks to save his life.

They decided to stop treatment just before Christmas 2014 but were unable to because Tony was a ward of court, and they couldn't get permission. However, they had inflicted a horrific ordeal on their little boy during which they swung him by his ankles and broke his legs in eight places.

They left him in agony with no medical treatment for ten days, which they later said was because they were waiting for someone to come and fix their boiler.

And the abuse continued during their scheduled visits with Tony; they pulled down his cast and snapped the splint in his leg, leaving it unsupported. The Child Protection Service dropped the case against Jody and Tony due to a lack of evidence, but the Hudgells petitioned police and their local police crime commissioner, and Smith and Simpson were charged with child cruelty and jailed in February 2018.

Mark and Paula took Tony in even though they have seven other children, Ben, 32, Ryan, 30, Chloe, 27, Kyle, 20, Jessica, 15, Jayden, 14, and Lacey, nine.

When Tony was four, doting Mother Paul told newspapers his injuries seldom hindered him from 'getting on with things’.

'Nothing stops him now. He's fast getting around and he's caught up cognitively with all his peers. He is very determined,' she said.

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'It's amazing to see how he is now. An anaesthetist who treated him during his first Christmas met him again in hospital recently. She thought he had died.

'She was over the moon when she saw him again and couldn't stop hugging him. He's been a very lucky boy who touched many hearts.'

Tony's determination to help other children has seen him undertake an amazing fundraising effort in 2020.

He set out to raise £500 for the hospital that saved his life by walking 10km in 30 days in 2020 after being inspired by Sir Captain Tom Moore, who raised more than £33 million walking in his backyard.

But Tony's incredible efforts captured the hearts of tens of thousands of people, with a staggering £1,073,121 raised for Evelina London Children's Hospital in just a month.

The total has now surpassed £1.8 million in donations.

Tony Hufgell has raised more than £1.5 million for charity, met the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge at Westminster Abbey's Together At Christmas carol concert

The Duchess of Cambridge wrote to Tony after he completed his walk in 2020.

'I wanted to send you my congratulations following your amazing fundraising efforts last month for Evelina Children's Hospital,' she wrote.

'It was wonderful to hear how you were inspired by Captain Sir Tom Moore's story to carry out your own walk.

I am very impressed that you carried on even after reaching your target of 10km!

'I know that your efforts have been hugely appreciated by Eveline, and we are all so proud of what you have achieved.

'I hope that you manage to have a very well-deserved rest before starting on your next adventure - whatever that may be! Catherine.'

On November 30, it was announced tougher sentences for child cruelty were to be introduced under Tony’s Law, which increased the maximum penalty for causing or allowing serious physical harm to a child from ten to 14 years, while causing the death of a child will rise from 14 years to life.

The amendment to the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill followed a campaign by his adoptive parents, Paula and Mark.

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In a statement Ms Hudgell said: "We are delighted that Tony's Law is being backed by the Government.

It's been our hope since those who abused our son were jailed in 2018 that more could be done to protect other children, the most vulnerable members of our society. I can't thank the public enough for the support they have shown through this nearly four-year campaign, but especially thanks to Tom Tugendhat who has worked tirelessly with me, also my friend Julia Roberts, a court reporter and my friends and family it was definitely a team effort."

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TONY'S LAW: AN AMENDMENT TO POLICE, CRIME, SENTENCING AND COURTS BILL THAT INTRODUCED TOUGHER SENTENCES FOR CHILD CRUELTY Tony’s Law is an amendment to Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill that was voted by ministers on November 30 2021.

It is named after Tony Hudgell, who was abused by his parents as an infant and suffered life-changing injuries.

His parents, Tony Smith and Jody Simpson, were both jailed for ten years, which was the maximum sentence at the time.

The amendment will increase the maximum penalty for causing or allowing serious physical harm to a child from ten to 14 years, while causing the death of a child will rise from 14 years to life.

The tougher planned sentences could mean that anyone who causes or allows the death of a child or vulnerable adult in their care will face up to life imprisonment, rather than the current 14-year maximum.

FOR MORE INFORMATION PLEASE VISIT WWW.TONYHUDGELLFOUNDATION.ORG Photos and article material provided by Stuart Watts PR and Co-Founder of the Tony Hudgell Foundation 75

THELang Lang FOUNDATION MUSIC MAKES LIFE BETTER. IT HEALS, UNITES, AND INSPIRES, AND IT MAKES US BETTER PEOPLE

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ABOUT FOUNDATION Lang Lang foundation aims for every child to have access to music experiences that ignite something wonderful inside of them, just as music delivered something incredible for its founder Mr. Lang Lang.

ON HIS OWN WORDS: “My hope with the Foundation is to find a way to capture the potential that I see music has. Music can positively transform lives and provide inspiration to kids around the world in a meaningful and sustainable way. I hope that my Foundation can help to carry on my passion for music and encourage kids to engage, with any genre of music am passionate about music, and I have dedicated my life to it. I would love to inspire the next generation of classical music lovers and performers – to study piano and those who experience live performances for the first time to get motivated to follow performing arts as careers. Giving is much more gratifying than receiving and is the feeling I get during every interaction I have with kids. Seeing smiles on young people faces motivates me to spend more time and energy creating unique experiences for them”

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Lang Lang

LONDON INAUGURAL GALA DINNER

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IN THE PRESENCE OF THEIR ROYAL HIGHNESSES PRINCE AND PRINCESS MICHAEL OF KENT, THE LANG LANG INTERNATIONAL MUSIC FOUNDATION GATHERED FOR THEIR FIRST OFFICIAL LONDON GALA DINNER DECEMBER 9TH AT LONDON’S SPENCER HOUSE UNDER THE PATRONAGE OF AMY LAM POON, LANG LANG FOUNDATION BOARD OF DIRECTOR. LANG LANG WITH HIS WIFE GINA ALICE GREETED GUESTS INCLUDING BIANCA JAGGER, TINIE TEMPAH, DAME ZANDRA RHODES, DAVID SASSOON, REUBEN JAMES AND 60 MORE OF THE GREAT AND GOOD. THE EVENT MARKED THE FOUNDATION’S OFFICIAL LAUNCH IN T H E U K , C E L E B R AT I N G PA RT N E R S H I P S W I T H C H I L D BEREAVEMENT UK AND RICHARD HOUSE CHILDREN’S HOSPICE AS WELL AS BRINGING THEIR FLAGSHIP PROGRAM KEYS OF INSPIRATION TO LONDON SCHOOLS. FOLLOWING A CANDLELIT DINNER, LANG LANG AND HIS WIFE PERFORMED AN IMPROMPTU CONCERT FOR ALL THE GUESTS. WWW.LANGLANGFOUNDATION.ORG

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TINIE TEMPAH & HIS WIFE EVE DE HAAN

Lang Lang Foundation

LESZEK BARWINSKI-BROWN, GINA ALICE, LANG LANG, AMY LAM POON AND GUEST

London Inaugural Gala

LANG LANG AND HIS WIFE GINA ALICE

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DAME ZANDRA RHODES AND LANG LANG

Lang Lang Foundation

London Inaugural Gala

MARTINA FUCHS, GINA ALICE, LANG LANG, TINIE TEMPAH AND GUEST

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GINA ALICE, AMY LAM POON AND LANG LANG

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PRINCE AND PRINCESS MICHAEL OF KENT AND LANG LANG Lang Lang Foundation

London Inaugural 83

British Fash 84

shion Awards

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Gabrielle Union In neon-green Valentino Haute Couture.

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Monday 29th of November 2021 was the biggest night in Britain’s fashion calendar.

Hundreds of celebrities, models and designers acceding the incredible red carpet outside the Royal Albert Hall.

The ceremony was initiated by paying tribute to Virgil Abloh, who passed away aged 41 after a long private battle with a rare form of cancer. Hosted by award-winning actor extraordinaire Billy Porter the British Fashion Awards commence announcing their winners.

Designer of the Year: Kim Jones for Dior Men and Fendi BFC Foundation Award: Nensi Dojaka Independent British Brand: Simone Rocha for Simone Rocha Special Recognition Award for Culture Commentary: Dylan Jones Leaders of Change: The 15 designers, brands, creatives, and individuals who created positive change within the fashion industry this past year under three categories: Environment, People and Creativity.

Creativity: Recognises designers and brands who made a global impact in the past years through their creativity in design, campaigns, collaborations and firm business foundation as well as defined the shape of global fashion.

• Alessandro Michele for Gucci • Demna Gvasalia for Balenciaga • Jonathan Anderson for JW Anderson and Loewe • Kim Jones OBE for Dior Men & Fendi • Virgil Abloh for Louis Vuitton Men and Off-White Environment: Celebrates those who have made a significant contribution towards reducing the environmental impact of our industry to create positive change. They are the leaders and are setting the bar by exploring new business models, design principles, production processes, consumption, and disposal.

Bethany Williams for Bethany Williams • Gabriela Hearst for Chloé and Gabriela Hearst • Phoebe English for Phoebe English • Priya Ahluwalia for Ahluwalia • Stella McCartney OBE for Stella McCartney • People: Recognises those who have led change by encouraging equal, diverse, empowered workforces from head office to supply chain and shop floor. It focuses on the impact fashion has on communities.

Edward Enninful OBE • Harris Reed • Kenya Hunt • Samuel Ross • Telfar Clemens • Outstanding Achievement Award: Tommy Hilfiger Isabella Blow Award for Fashion Creator: IB Kamara Trailblazer Award: Alessandro Michele for Gucci Fashion Award for Metaverse Design: cSapphire Chanel was recognised for its pioneering commitment to arts and culture.

The Fashion Awards also paid tribute to Fashion East, and its talent and community from the past 20 years. Fashion East and Lulu Kennedy have cemented London’s tradition of being ahead of the curve; incubating, mentoring and platforming new design talent as they launch their brands while creating a space with no divisible lines between fashion, nightlife, and art, as well as conversations on gender, race, and sexuality.

MORE INFORMATION ON THE BRITISH FASHION AWARDS https://www.britishfashioncouncil.co.uk/

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Rebeca Riofrio In Micaela Oliviera 90

Misty Bailey & Hassan Rees In Malan Breton Photo by Monika Schaible 91

BALLET ICONS GA STAGE - CELEBRA

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ALA 2021 -BACK ON ATION OF DANCE

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At the London Coliseum a superb evening of world class ballet happened on Friday 26h November - BACK ON STAGE - CELEBRATION OF DANCE The annual BALLET ICONS GALA, presented by Ensemble Productions, celebrated coming back on stage at the Coliseum with a thrilling programme of world class ballet.

The programme, which celebrates unique styles, quality, and sheer calibre of international dancers.

The Ballet Icons Gala presented global ballet stars including Sergio Bernal, Daniil Simkin (Staatsballett Berlin/ABT), Liudmila Konovalova (Vienna State Ballet), Julian MacKay (San Francisco Ballet), Giuseppe Picone (Teatro di San Carlo), Jeffrey Cirio (English National Ballet), and many more.

The Gala ‘s 2021 programme was an exciting celebration of classical and contemporary ballet performed by principal dancers from the UK and around the world and included much loved ballet repertoire, such as The Sleeping Beauty, The Swan Lake, Don Quixote, Le Corsaire, Paquita, inspiring works by leading contemporary choreographers, and four UK premieres.

The annual Ballet Icons Gala in London has been organised by Ensemble Productions since 2006. The Gala’s programme pays tribute to the traditions of this beautiful genre of art – its old and contemporary masters.

The Ballet Icons Gala 2021 was accompanied by the English National Ballet Philharmonic orchestra under the direction of Jonathan Lo and performed by Aitor Arrieta (English National Ballet), Léonore Baulac (Paris Opera Ballet), Sergio Bernal (formerly the National Ballet of Spain), Filipa de Castro (National Ballet of Portugal), Jeffrey Cirio (English National Ballet), Jakob Feyferlik (Dutch National Ballet), Francesco Gabriele Frola (English National Ballet), Matthew Golding (formerly the Royal Ballet), Katja Khaniukova (English National Ballet), Maria Kochetkova (English National Ballet), Liudmila Konovalova (Vienna State Ballet), Lucía Lacarra (formerly the Bavarian State Ballet), Julian MacKay (San Francisco Ballet), Maia Makhateli (Dutch National Ballet), Nicoletta Manni (Teatro alla Scala), Vadim Muntagirov (The Royal Ballet), Yasmine Naghdi (The Royal Ballet), Marianela Núñez (The Royal Ballet), Ksenia Ovsyanick (Berlin State Ballet), Giuseppe Picone (Teatro di San Carlo), Carlos Pinillos (National Ballet of Portugal), Marcelino Sambé (The Royal Ballet), Daniil Simkin (Berlin State Ballet / ABT), and Denis Vieira (The Bavarian State Ballet).

The gala was followed by an exclusive dinner at Corinthian Hotel which was attended by TRH Prince and Princess Michael of Kent, Prince and Princess Auesperg, Prince Janek Zylinski, Prince Nikita Lobanov-Rostovsky, Russian Ambassador Andrei Kelin, designers Stephen Webster and Ozwald Boateng, songwriter Gary Kemp, model Yasmine Le Bon, dancer Wayne Sleep, writer Lady Colin Campbell, director of the Royal Ballet, Kevin O’Hara among the others.

IF YOU WISH TO KNOW MORE INFORMATION ON THIS PRODUCTION VISIT https://linktr.ee/ensembleproductions

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ICON GALA

Fashion

ICON GALA NIGHT – FASHION DIRECTION: REBECA RIOFRIO PRODUCER: ENSEMBLE PRODUCTION PHOTOGRAPHER: KIM MURALI FASHION: MICAELA OLIVIERA STYLED BY: MICAELA & ALFREDO OLIVIERA JEWELLERY: IVA JEWELS MODEL: SAIDA MICKEVICIUTE 98

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ICON GALA NIGHT – FASHION DIRECTION: REBECA RIOFRIO PRODUCER: ENSEMBLE PRODUCTION PHOTOGRAPHER: KIM MURALI FASHION: MICAELA OLIVIERA STYLED BY: MICAELA & ALFREDO OLIVIERA JEWELLERY: IVA JEWELS MODEL: ANASTASIA IVA

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ICON GALA NIGHT – FASHION DIRECTION: REBECA RIOFRIO PRODUCER: ENSEMBLE PRODUCTION PHOTOGRAPHER: KIM MURALI FASHION: MICAELA OLIVIERA STYLED BY: MICAELA & ALFREDO OLIVIERA JEWELLERY: IVA JEWELS MODELS: JULIA MULLER – SAIDA MICKEVICIUTE – ANASTASIA IVA

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ICON GALA NIGHT – FASHION DIRECTION: REBECA RIOFRIO PRODUCER: ENSEMBLE PRODUCTION PHOTOGRAPHER: KIM MURALI FASHION: MICAELA OLIVIERA STYLED BY: MICAELA & ALFREDO OLIVIERA JEWELLERY: IVA JEWELS MODELS: JULIA MULLER

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ICON GALA NIGHT – FASHION DIRECTION: REBECA RIOFRIO PRODUCER: ENSEMBLE PRODUCTION PHOTOGRAPHER: KIM MURALI FASHION: MICAELA OLIVIERA STYLED BY: MICAELA & ALFREDO OLIVIERA JEWELLERY: IVA JEWELS MODELS: JULIA MULLER – SAIDA MICKEVICIUTE

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ICON GALA NIGHT – FASHION DIRECTION: REBECA RIOFRIO PRODUCER: ENSEMBLE PRODUCTION PHOTOGRAPHER: KIM MURALI FASHION: MICAELA OLIVIERA STYLED BY: MICAELA & ALFREDO OLIVIERA JEWELLERY: IVA JEWELS MODEL: SAIDA MICKEVICIUTE 105

THE BALLET ICON PERFORMANCES WAS FOLLOWED

BY AN EXCLUSIVE DINNER AT CORINTHIAN HOTEL WHICH WAS ATTENDED BY THE PRINCE AND PRINCESS MICHAEL OF KENT, PRINCE AND PRINCESS AUESPERG, PRINCE JANEK ZYLINSKI, PRINCE NIKITA LOBANOV-ROSTOVSKY, RUSSIAN AMBASSADOR ANDREI KELIN, DESIGNERS STEPHEN WEBSTER AND OZWALD BOATENG, SONGWRITER GARY KEMP, MODEL YASMINE LE BON, DANCER WAYNE SLEEP, WRITER LADY COLIN CAMPBELL, DIRECTOR OF THE ROYAL BALLET, KEVIN O’HARA AMONG OTHERS.

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BALLET ICON Gala

Dinner

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Prince and Princess Michael of Kent & Olga Balakleets

Prince Janek Zylinski, Dr Desiree Faust, Rebeca Riofrio and Micaela Oliviera 108

Rafael Porzycki and Olga Balakleets 109

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THE EVENING HAD PERFORMANCE BY A RISING STAR SONGWRITER SOPHIA ELIDE AND A FASHION DISPLAY WITH CREATIONS BY MICAELA O L I V E I R A K I N D LY P R E S E N T E D B Y T H E PARLIAMENTARY SOCIETY FOR ARTS, FASHION AND SPORTS AND ITS CHAIR, REBECA RIOFRIO.

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Photo by : Frame Force 112

Bulgaria THE BUSINESSWOMAN OF THE YEAR AWARD

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The Businesswoman of the Year Awards is one of the most prestigious events in the business calendar in Bulgaria. Directed successfully for over 25 years by international television star Evgeni Minchev. Every year the Businesswoman of the Year Award counts with politicians as their patrons and guests of honour.

This year the award ceremony took place on Thursday 27th of January at the Luxurious Balkan Hotel in Sofia. Concurred by hundreds of people among them business personalities, celebrities, national and international Politicians.

The Businesswoman of the Year Award counted as Patron of honour, the Vice President of Republic of Bulgaria Mrs. Iliyana Yotova and as their Guest Honour Ms Rebeca Riofrio - UK Chairwoman for the Parliamentary Society for Arts, Fashion and Sports.

The Awards had over 20 categories and one of the nominees was Todor Zhivkov’s granddaughter, Evgeniya Jivkov, Todor Zhivkov was the longest-serving non-royal ruler of Bulgarian history. Among the many winners - the main award was to Mrs. Vaska Penkova - owner of the Security Company Scorpio and the Businesswoman of the Year Award - Europe was given to Rebeca Riofrio Charwoman for the Parliamentary Society.

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Vice President of Republic of Bulgaria Mrs. Iliyana Yotova and Evgeni Minchev

Evgeni Minchev and Rebeca Riofrio - Chairwoman for the Parliamentary Society for Arts UK 115

Evgeni Minchev and Rebeca Riofrio Chairwoman for the Parliamentary Society for Arts UK RECIPIENTS OF AWARDS

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The Businesswoman of the Year Award

The Businesswoman of the Year Award

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The Businesswoman of the Year Award

The Businesswoman of the Year Award

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The Businesswoman of the Year Awards Rebeca Riofrio & Ralitza Dzhambazova both wearing couture by designer Malan Breton 119

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FOREIGN & COMMONWEALTH COUNCIL EVENT Lord Rami Range CBE and the Conservative Foreign Commonwealth Council had an informative event with the High Commissioner of Sri Lanka at the Churchill Room, Carlton Club in London organised by Melissa Crawshaw-Williams.

Members of the CFCC and the Parliamentary Society for Arts attended the event, among them their chairwoman Rebeca Riofrio, Elvijs Plugis, David Valle, Sofia Bouzian, Julia K Muller and Pamela Rustem.

The event was preceded by Rt Hon Lord Taylor of Holbeach CBE who introduced the Sri Lankan High Commissioner, Her Excellency Saroja Sirisena. She spoke widely about Sri Lanka, the Commonwealth and Global Britain.

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Julia K Muller and Sri Lankan High Commissioner Saroja Sirisena 122

Rebeca Riofrio, Elvijs Plugis and Pamela Rustem

Rebeca Riofrio and Sri Lankan High Commissioner, Saroja Sirisena

David Valle, Sri Lankan High Commissioner Saroja Sirisena and Sofia Bouzian

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SPEECH BY H.E. SARO HIGH COMMISSIONER AT THE CARLTON CLU CONSERVATIVE FORE & COMMONWEALTH C 124

OJA SIRISENA, R OF SRI LANKA UB FOR THE EIGN COUNCIL (CFCC) 125

SAROJA SIRISENA HIGH COMMISSIONER OF SRI LANKA DEMOCRATIC SOCIALIST REPUBLIC OF SRI LANKA 126

As you know, relations between Sri Lanka and the UK are bound by historical ties dating back centuries.

In recent times, these ties have been reinforced with the exchange of regular high-level visits, strong relations spanning political, trade & investment, and cultural spheres and most importantly, people to people contacts. Most recently President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Foreign Minster Prof G L Peiris visited the UK whilst Lord Ahamad of Wimbledon is scheduled to visit Sri Lanka shortly.

Sri Lanka - UK relations have expanded both bilaterally and in the context of Sri Lanka’s membership in the Commonwealth. Sri Lanka being a founding member of the Commonwealth, attaches a great deal of importance to the values of the Commonwealth family and the close cooperation, solidarity and the unique Commonwealth spirit that it has created among its members.

Sri Lanka has pioneered certain Commonwealth projects recently and is proud of its role in championing the Mangrove Ecosystem Livelihood Action Group under the Commonwealth Blue Charter and pleased to have hosted its First Meeting in October 2019 with the support of the Commonwealth Secretariat. Sri Lanka has also dedicated a forest area of 10 hectares in Trincomalee District in honour of The Queen’s Commonwealth Canopy Initiative.

We look forward to our active participation at the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations, CHOGM in Rwanda and the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham later this year.

With Brexit, I believe the relevance and importance of the Commonwealth has further increased. It has paved the way for the United Kingdom to strengthen its partnerships with Commonwealth nations. The Commonwealth is the crystallisation of commonalities of 54 countries, and it has thereby created a solid foundation that has been in existence for over 7 decades. This makes the Commonwealth a natural launch pad of Global Britain which Sri Lanka could be a significant partner from Asia.

Due the shared history of our two countries, there is compatibility in many spheres. This compatibility has not been achieved overnight but a result of policies adopted by successive Sri Lankan Governments to developing its human capital, one of its most valuable assets.

Sri Lankan value system does not differ from that of the UK. We follow the same traditions of democracy and rule of law. Sri Lanka is regarded as one of the oldest continuous democracies in Asia, with Universal Adult Franchise being extended since 1931, before its independence and far ahead of many other countries.

Sri Lanka is one of the few countries in the world that offers free education, free but quality education.

We have a pool of educated human resources with transferable skills. We have a high literacy rate (92.5%) and high school enrolment ratio higher than most of developing countries and these indicators are on par with those of developed countries. One of the key features of our education system and examinations is that it is uniform across the country and does not vary geographically as in some countries in the region or globally. Our education system is compatible with that of the UK and it is the reason why those educated in Sri Lanka adapt to the UK education system and employment market with ease. Our human capital has proven its ability by excelling even with the modest resources available to them.

The UK is one of the most popular destinations for higher studies for Sri Lankan students. There are two British Council offices in Sri Lanka. We have for generations kept faith in education offered by the UK, continue to do so and want to see more Sri Lankans being educated in the UK. We also encourage British universities to enhance twinning programmes, establish affiliated colleges and explore opportunities of establishing overseas campuses catering to the Asia Pacific region. In this connection we believe that the UK can do much to assist the Commonwealth family by restoring certain concessions given to Commonwealth nations such as reduction of tuition fees at UK universities for students from the Commonwealth.

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The UK’s stated policy of promoting gender equality, working with women’s rights organisations to tackle discrimination, violence and inequality that hold women back is very much aligned with Sri Lanka’s goals in this sphere. Sri Lanka has been at the forefront of women’s empowerment and a regional leader in girls’ education and women’s status in the society. It is gratifying to note that in Sri Lanka girls outnumber and outsmart their male counterparts in all fields except engineering and Information Technology.

Sri Lanka is making advances in science and technology sectors and its scientists are contributing to science and technology and innovation in other countries. The UK is a global leader in medical research, as demonstrated recently in the Oxford University/ AstraZeneca vaccine development. Research collaboration has already been established between Oxford University and Sri Jayewardenepura University. There is scope for further expanding this collaboration. There is also cooperation between our two countries in the field of climate change and renewable energy.

Three years after the UK created the National Health Service in 1948, Sri Lanka introduced its free health policy (in 1951). For us, healthcare is a priority. It’s also a right that shapes the progress of the country and increases the quality of life of its people.

The World Health Organisation has acknowledged that ‘Sri Lanka has invested in a robust public health system, which ensures access to free health care for the population’. Sri Lanka’s public health system is a model for many developing nations thanks to which Sri Lanka has successfully eliminated Lymphatic Filariasis as a public health problem and reduced the number of indigenous malaria cases to zero. It is also due to the efficient and effective COVID-19 vaccination programme implemented by Sri Lanka’s public health system, with the assistance of other agencies that Sri Lanka has now been able to fully vaccinate 85% of the eligible population (over 16). We are ready to join the UK in their global initiatives to build health resilience for the benefit of all mankind.

Sri Lankans are working in the UK in sectors such as healthcare, financial services, education, hospitality and information technology. They already contribute to ‘Global Britain’. I need to highlight that more than 6000 Doctors educated in Sri Lanka are contributing to the NHS. We do not see our professionals coming to the UK as a brain drain but an essential element of the long-standing people to people contact between our two countries as well as Sri Lanka’s contribution to the UK’s role as a science, technology and innovation superpower.

The economic consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic that has engulfed the world for more than 2 years have presented host of challenges for all nations and converting these challenges into opportunities is critical. Despite these challenges Sri Lanka has elevated from 94 (in the year 2020) to 87 in the year 2021 in country ranking in Sustainable Development Goals.

In terms of Sustainable Development Goals, Sri Lanka is ‘On track or maintaining SDG achievement’ in three SDGs: ‘No poverty’, ‘Quality education’ and ‘Climate action’. And also ‘Moderate improving’ can be seen from the categories of ‘Zero Hunger’, ‘Good Health and Well Being’, ‘Clean water and sanitation’, ‘Affordable and clean energy’, ‘decent work and economic growth’ and ‘Industry innovation, and infrastructure’. We are ambitious to obtain 75% of our energy sources through renewable energy by 2030 and make Sri Lanka a carbon neutral country by 2050. Sri Lanka along with the UK and several other countries became co-lead of the energy compact for ‘No New Coal Power’ to commit to halt construction of new coal-fired power plants by the UN Climate Summit COP26 to keep the 1.5-degree Celsius goal within reach.

As proven by the SDG achievements, Sri Lanka is championing climate action. Sri Lanka also pioneered in the Colombo Declaration on Sustainable Nitrogen Management. Sri Lanka’s progressive initiatives to mitigate climate change impacts, also includes President H.E. Gotabaya Rajapaksa's initiative “Towards a Green Socio-Economic Pattern with Sustainable Solutions to Climate Change”.

In the multilateral context, our two countries could demonstrate benefits of cooperation by establishing common approaches and influencing multilateral debates in areas of seeking multilateral solutions for climate change and biodiversity loss and trade related matters since both countries being founding GATT members are committed to strengthen the global trading system (WTO).

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Sri Lanka too envisions prosperity through its policy framework ‘vistas of prosperity and splendour’ which focuses on an efficient country free from corruption, a safe and a secure country for all, a productive citizen and a happy family, people-centric economy, a technology-based society, new approach in national spatial system, a sustainable environmental policy, a righteous, disciplined and lawabiding society, and “dialogue with the village” approach.

As you may be aware, Sri Lanka is currently facing an economic crisis as an immediate impact of the Covid pandemic and the decrease in exchange earning sources such as remittances by expatriate workers, tourism and the apparel industry. However, we are doing the best we can to come out of the crisis. We are a nation that has overcome challenges successfully and resiliently. It has been proven throughout history; the most recent ones being the end of the terrorist conflict in 2009 and building back after the huge devastation caused by Tsunami in 2004. Each time, to use the words of Prime Minister Johnson ‘we have built back better’. I am certain that we can come out of this too and regain our position as one of South Asia’s most resilient economies. For this, Sri Lanka’s trade partnership with the UK would be of paramount importance. Because, Sri Lanka is the UK’s 69th trading partner and for Sri Lanka the UK is its 4th with a total trade of nearly 1 Billion GBP. Furthermore, the UK is also the second export market for Sri Lankan products and a main source for FDIs and inbound tourism. However, 70% of exports to the UK comprise of apparels and related products and opportunities for product diversification and exploring niche markets prevail. In the pursuit of policies in the vision statements of both countries, many opportunities avail in the fields of commerce and investments that could be pursued through partnership, collaboration, and economic cooperation.

Sri Lanka, being a beneficiary of the Enhanced Framework of the UK GSP Scheme and more robust economic partnership would enable both countries to harness the desired objectives in respective vision statements.

The UK’s quest to be a digital and data hub, global leader in financial services and innovation & research; and Sri Lanka’s interest to be the supply hub in South Asia which includes ICT, logistics services etc, are potential areas for investment and joint venture collaborations.

For the successful implementation of the Global Britain policy framework, the UK would need partners and Sri Lanka would be a natural and like-minded partner in this endeavour. This aligns with the UK’s objective of deep engagements with Asia as a partner with the broadest, most integrated presence in support of mutually beneficial trade, shared security and values.

I wish to conclude by drawing attention to Sri Lanka’s Victoria project implemented with UK assistance.

This project was inaugurated in 1978 and was commissioned in 1985 by Her Majesty the Queen. At that time, it was said to be the biggest project implemented by the UK in any foreign country, which was undertaken by the then Conservative government led by Prime Minister Thatcher. The magnificent Victoria Reservoir stands today as a symbol of Sri Lanka-UK friendship serving the electricity and irrigational needs of Sri Lanka. Since 1985, which is more than 35 years ago, the UK has not undertaken any such large-scale projects in Sri Lanka and we believe that time is now opportune, for the UK to consider a new project in Sri Lanka of the scale of Victoria which is reminiscent of the Thatcher era, particularly given that Sri Lanka will be commemorating its 75th anniversary of the independence in 2023.

On that note, I invite you to envisage another such golden era of Sri Lanka-UK partnership.

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NATALIA KAPCHU PARLIAMENTARY SOCIETY MAGAZINE CAUGHT UP WITH LONDON BASED ARTIST NATALIA KAPCHUK TO DISCUSS THE SUCCESSFUL DEBUT OF HER FIRST SOLO EXHIBITION, THE LOST PLANET. AN ARTIST SPECIALISING IN THE TECHNIQUE OF MIXED MEDIA A S S E M B L A G E , N AT A L I A K A P C H U K I S A N AMBASSADOR HERE AT THE PARLIAMENTARY SOCIETY OF ARTS, FASHION AND SPORTS (UK), AS WELL AS AN AMBASSADOR FOR THE BETTER WORLD FUND (BWF) AND A PHILANTHROPIST, SUPPORTING CHARITIES AND ORGANISATIONS DEDICATED TO PROTECTING NATURE AND THE OCEANS OF THE WORLD. CREATING ENVIRONMENTALLY CENTERED A RT W O R K S , K A P C H U K H I G H L I G H T S M A N Y ECOLOGICAL PROBLEMS FACING THE WORLD WE SEE TODAY.

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NATALIA KAPCHUK WITH HER ARTWORKS HEART OF THE OCEAN, 2021 AND ICE SHELTER, 2020 FROM HER EXHIBITION, THE LOST PLANET AT UNIT X ART SPACE IN LONDON 131

1) Natalia, a pleasure to be with you again. Last we spoke, you were gearing up for the debut of your solo exhibition, The Lost Planet in London, focusing on the crucial subject matter of environmental protection and conservation—can you give us some insight on how the installation went?

Thank you for having me. The installation was truly magical, and I couldn’t have asked for a better turnout for my first solo exhibition. In creating The Lost Planet series, I had two essential goals that I wanted to accomplish: one, to garner and maximise awareness of the state of our home here on Earth, and two, to instill a sense of urgency and hope in all those who bear wit- ness. Free and open to the public, I contrasted beautiful scenes with harsh realities. I wanted the viewers to understand that with much-needed changes, both personal and legislative, we as humans can change the trajectory of our declining planet, preserving the innate beauty of the world for generations to come.

To thoroughly convey and express the messages behind my art project, my exceptional team and I planned many activities within the two-week exhibition. They included an opening night for influencers, collectors, famed art critics, and special guests. As well, a press breakfast and an ad- joining panel discussion for reporters, journalists, and media, featuring keynote speakers for an open dialogue focused on the current state of our planet, the problems that fuel its destruction, and the solutions we as people can implement to bring about change.

2) In an age of exclusivity, you made it a point to have your exhibition be free and open to the public, why was that?

Yes. To your point, exclusivity, especially in the arts, I find, has a negative impact on society. Art has a long history relating to its lack of acceptability, predominantly catering to those with a certain level of privilege, leaving those less than fortunate to observe from afar— this is detrimental, especially when subjects like mine are the main points of focus. Understanding this, I wanted to make sure that any and every person, regardless of financial status, could attend my exhibition.

With many restrictive factors at play, like the continued presence of Covid-19 and worldwide travel restrictions, I needed to become innovative with ways the audience could experience The Lost Planet exhibition, immersing themselves in the mission behind its creation. That is why I implemented the expert panel discussion and The Lost Planet animated video artwork.

3) Strikingly titled: “Is This Planet Earth’s Dying Century?” what was your reasoning for the incorporation of the panel discussion you hosted as a part of your exhibition?

My reason was simple, I believe group discussions are a fantastic way of bringing together different perspectives on a wide range of matters. It is in the mixture of viewpoints that shape a dialogue and expands understanding in ways that wouldn't be possible with just one speaker's input. I constructed the panel discussion to further speak to the pressing issues plaguing the Earth as a result of destructive human activity and behaviour.

The invited guest speakers and experts were former Shadow Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, Politician Barry Gardiner MP, Director of The Royal Geographical Society Professor Joe Smith, Director of Philanthropy at Earthwatch Europe Dr. Neil Bailey, and Assistant Director of Plastic Oceans Europe Juan Castaño Vilas. The moderator for the panel was TV Presenter and BBC Journalist, Samantha Simmonds.

The panellist expounded on a range of topics that include pollution, global warming, waste disposal, deforestation, the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference, the role of China, ozone layer depletion, loss of biodiversity, and much more.

4) The aforementioned animated video artwork you created— can you speak more to its contents and what prompted its addition to The Lost Planet series.

Absolutely. The world is always in a state of evolution, and too, so is art and modes of expression. In keeping with the times, I decided to join the growing surge of digital art and develop a compelling animated video installation complementing the physical pieces I constructed.

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ARTIST NATALIA KAPCHUK AND MODERATOR SAMANTHA SIMMONDS AT THE LOST PLANT PANEL DISCUSSION AT UNIT X ART SPACE IN LONDON 133

As presented, I address society as the voice of The Universe, closely monitoring the state of the planet—The plot of the video illustrates a portrayal of the world, reflective of chapters, exploring the mysterious abyss of the Milky Way and our Galaxy— a symbol of the cyclical movement for all life of the Universe. Also, the pristine ecosystems of planet Earth, its flora and fauna, and the primal energy of the natural elements.

I express the theory of dualism manifesting itself in the origins of spiritual and physical matter, life on Earth, and the religious-philosophical dogma of an immaterial entity. Concurrently, after a fleshly death, the viewer is revealed many truths. The video chronicles the life of planet Earth as science, technology, and consumerism develop, steadily following the increase of needs and habits in a post-industrial society, displaying the negative after-effects in the absence of change. I end with words of encouragement and glimmers of hope that this dramatisation is avoidable with rigorous and collective actions.

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ARTWORKS THE WINNER TAKES IT ALL, 2019 AND THE PLANET MADE OF GOLD, 2019 FROM THE LOST PLANET EXHIBITION AT UNIT X ART SPACE IN LONDON

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W1 CURATES PRESENTS THE LOST PLANET ANIMATED VIDEO ARTWORK OF ARTIST NATALIA KAPCHUK AT THE HEART OF LONDON’S OXFORD STREET 136

5) What can the addition of this digital artwork do that your physical works cannot?

Echoing back to our conversation about accessibility, unlike my physical pieces, my digital works can be in more than one place at a time, in a matter of mere minutes even. For example, my animated video installation will showcase in Dubai, South Korea, at Château de Crémat and the Trophy of Augustus in France while also being featured by W1 Curates, at the heart of Lon- don’s iconic Oxford Street.

So, versatility in access and representation is essential in my mission of spreading much-needed environmental awareness— where my physical pieces require much more planning, digital art- forms have more flexibility.

6) Since the completion of The Lost Planet exhibition in London, many of your pieces have found new homes in museums and private collections. Is it sad to say goodbye to your works of art?

Oh, of course. When you spend so much time gathering inspiration, mentally and physically constructing pieces (for this series, a whopping 31), it is hard to so goodbye. I’m not ashamed to admit that a tear or two...or hundreds rather, may have been shed in the process of these works finding new homes. But as the sadness dissipates, I always find that I’m engulfed with an overwhelming sense of joy knowing that my creations will live on. I created these pieces with the goal of spreading awareness, joy, and hope to all those who have the pleasure of experiencing them—I believe I achieved this. And besides, with my pieces finding new homes, this provides me opportunity and space to focus on my next collection of masterpieces.

7) What is next for The Lost Planet series of works?

Currently, I’m in the UAE for Expo 2020, which will be in the emirate city of Dubai until Mar 31, 2022. I have the honour to be featuring a few of my artworks for the Antigua and Barbuda Pavilion this year.

The Caribbean nation took notice of my activism and hard stance in the fight against plastic pollution and sustainability, which they echo having implemented strict laws, restrictions, and bans of the use and importation of various plastic and styrofoam items. These non-biodegradable items have a detrimental effect on the nation’s lands and sea.

My artworks GPGP. Fragment No98203, 2020, Ocean’s DNA, 2019, Coral Maze, 2020, Plastic Network, 2019, Self-isolation, 2020, etc, reflect this sentiment.

The expo takes place until March. After the event closes, select pieces from The Lost Planet series will travel to South Korea to the Czong Institute for Contemporary Art - CICA Museum in Gyeonggi-do.

8) Are you working on any new pieces?

Aside from special requests and recreations of past works, I am always experimenting in the studio, trying out fresh mediums and concepts for my new art pieces. Even when I’m away from my studio, I find myself in moments when I have time, jotting down ideas and sketching potential creations that my mind dreams up. So, the short answer is yes, I have some things in the works, so definitely stay tuned.

9) As always Natalia, can you provide any sustainable tips and practices for our readers that can be incorporated into their everyday lives?

My favourite part. One, keep in mind the classic saying: “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.” Simple yet amazingly effective in the fight against plastic population and waste. To this point, be mindful and avoid using plastic items like single-use utensils and grocery bags at all times when possible.

Two, try and move to a more plant-based diet, even if it is just once or twice per week. Meat production is very destructive on the planet, as it requires vast amounts of water while producing pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, and habitat devastation. And finally, simple changes in the home can make a drastic impact on the environment. Switch to LED lightbulbs for more efficient lighting. Investing in energy-saving innovations like window installations and utilising programmable thermostats for more efficient heating and cooling can be of major benefit to our foot- prints and preserving our home here on Earth for generations to come.

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WOMEN RISKING THEIR LIVES TO PURSUE THEIR PASSION AND GENDER EQUALITY Photography by Violet Butler

Couple of months ago at the Houses of Parliament, Flick Drummond Conservative MP co-chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Women, Peace and Security and film producer Tony Klinger hosted a special event and screening of the film SISTERS. The event was concurred by Rosalynn Try-Hane Journalist, Dr Ewelina U. Ochab IBAHRI Programme Lawyer, Rebeca Riofrio Chairwoman for the Parliamentary Society for Arts, Jane Hunt MP, Derek Thomas MP, Julius Just PR, Flick Drummond MP and Baroness Fiona Hodgson of Abinger CBE. SISTERS was filmed in Afghanistan prior the Taliban took over the country and yet women were suffering unimaginable circumstances.

Tony Klinger highlighted the difficulties they had during the production of this film as the project portrayed young women musicians in Kabul.

ABOUT SISTERS ‘SISTERS’ follows UK musician and director Dan Blackwell to Kabul to meet Afghanistan's first ever female orchestra, 'ZOHRA'.

‘SISTERS’ looks into the lives of the 'ZOHRA'. members and their two young leaders, Negin Khpalwak and Zarifa Adiba. Negin sticks with and leads Zohra as the country's first female conductor despite multiple death threats and family disputes. Zarifa is nowhere to be seen until Dan tracks her down. Discovering her precarious situation, Dan stays with her as she prepares to flee Afghanistan leaving close friends and family behind.

Rosalynn Try-Hane Journalist, Dr Ewelina U. Ochab IBAHRI Programme Lawyer, Rebeca Riofrio Chairwoman for the Parliamentary Society for Arts, Jane Hunt MP, Derek Thomas MP, Tony Klinger Film Producer, Julius Just PR, Flick Drummond MP and Baroness Fiona Hodgson of Abinger CBE

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TONY KLINGER FILM PRODUCER AT HE SCREENING OF SISTERS AT THE HOUSE OF PARLIAMENT

For more information on this film please contact ‘SISTERS’ Media enquiries and press tickets* please contact Julius Just M +44 (0) 79 66 88 25 10 julius@justassociate.com

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Baroness Fiona Hodgson of Abinger CBE, Julius Just PR and Flick Drummond MP

Dr Ewelina U. Ochab IBAHRI Programme Lawyer, Julius Just PR, Rebeca Riofrio Chairwoman for the Parliamentary Society for Arts 141

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