23, May 2017
UK: Prime Minister May’s campaign falls into disarray over social care policy scandal 0
The election campaign of British Prime Minister Theresa May has fallen into disarray after she announced a U-turn on the Conservative Party’s social care policy. May made a reversal on her policy on social care costs, strangely branded as the “dementia tax,” but she claimed that “nothing has changed” since her party’s manifesto was published on Thursday.
The prime minister said she made some clarifications about her policy in response to Labour Party leader’s Jeremy Corbyn’s “fake claims.” “Since my manifesto was published, the proposals have been subject to fake claims made by Jeremy Corbyn. The only things he has left to offer in this campaign are fake claims, fear and scaremongering,” she said on Monday while launching the Welsh Tory manifesto in Wrexham, Wales.
“So I want to make a further point clear. This manifesto says that we will come forward with a consultation paper, a government green paper. And that consultation will include an absolute limit on the amount people have to pay for their care costs,” she stated.
However, according to The Guardian, Prime Minister May is wrong to say that Corbyn made “fake claims” about the Conservative social care policy. The newspaper wrote that initially Corbyn got some of the detail of the policy wrong but later on he made valid criticism.
The Conservatives were planning to make people pay for care in their own home unless they have assets of less than £100,000 including the value of their house, according to The Guardian. It created widespread fears among families who said that they could lose their homes to pay their social care costs later in life.
Labour officials warned that the Conservative policy would “leave thousands of the most vulnerable at risk of losing their homes.” First time in this election campaign, May’s character has become an issue, and at a time when the Conservative lead over the Labour Party has narrowed to single digits in several polls.
In an interview on Monday, May was asked several times why she was not being “honest” about her decision of capping on care costs. While talking to reporters in Wrexham, May refused to accept she was performing a U-turn. “Nothing has changed, nothing has changed.”
But a BBC journalist bluntly told her: “Your manifesto rejects a cap, it gives a reason why you don’t want a cap. Now you’re going to have a cap. You need to be honest, I would suggest, and tell the British people you’ve changed your mind.” May replied insisting that she’s being “absolutely honest with the British people about the big challenge that we face. And absolutely honest with them about the need for us to deal with this now, to start fixing it now.”
Culled from Presstv
24, May 2017
Kofi Annan says Trump should engage in talks with Iran 0
Former United Nations secretary-general Kofi Annan urges US President Donald Trump to engage in talks with Iran rather than retaining his current antagonistic stance towards the Islamic Republic. Trump has adopted an invariably harsh tone when talking about Tehran, calling it the “number one terrorist state” and criticizing his predecessor Barack Obama for being too soft on Iran.
During his recent Middle East tour, the new US president endorsed Saudi Arabia and Israel’s long-drawn-out practice of Iranophobia. Washington agreed to sell the kingdom USD 110 billion worth of arms to “counter” Iran. The Trump administration has also leveled sanctions against the country over its defensive missile work, which Iran asserts only serves the purpose of deterrence.
“It is important to reach out and talk to Iran,” Annan told The Associated Press on Tuesday. “Iran is part of the solution” to the conflicts in the Middle East, including Syria and Iraq, and “we cannot get away from that fact,” he added.
Iran has been lending military advisory support to the Syrian and Iraqi counter-terrorism operations. It has also been trying successfully alongside Russia, another Syria ally, and Turkey, which backs anti-Damascus militants, to bring the warring sides in Syria to the negotiating table.
Annan said what justified an open approach towards Iran was its reaching out to the world by clinching the 2015 nuclear agreement with world powers. The former UN chief described the nuclear agreement as “good” and welcomed the re-election of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, a key architect of the deal “as a sign that the Iranian people clearly desire peaceful relations with the outside world.”
Trump has described the agreement, which was negotiated under the Obama administration, as the “worst deal ever” and threatened to “tear it up” during his election campaign late last year.
Annan added that Washington’s posturing, including labeling Iran the enemy and a purveyor of terrorism, is not going to contribute to the realization of peace in the region in any way. “What is required is steps which diffuse tensions and divisions, and not steps which deepen divisions,” he said. “And we need to be very careful of what action we take, what we say, because words can soothe, they can calm but they can also provoke and they can also excite.”
Annan also recalled Trump’s comments on the possibility of a meeting with North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un. “Iran has shown more discipline and responsibility than North Korea,” he said. “I can’t understand why he can’t go to Iran, a nation that by signing the agreement is also trying to open up and reach out to the broader world — and that should be encouraged rather than be pushed the other way.”
Culled from Presstv