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Byline Times is an independent, reader-funded investigative newspaper, outside of the system of the established press, reporting on 'what the papers don't say' - without fear or favour. To support its work, subscribe to the monthly Byline Times print edition, packed with exclusive investigations, news, and analysis. Help us build the better media Britain deserves Keir Starmer's Government's response to calls to clean up the lobbying industry has so far been even weaker than the last Conservative Government, according to analysis by independent experts at Spotlight on Corruption. The anti-corruption campaigners' assessment shows that on two out of eight recommendations on improving Government transparency, which had been accepted by Rishi Sunak's Government, the new Labour Government has either backtracked or made no concrete commitment to further reform. The non-profit group has assessed whether the Government plans to implement recommendations made by the Committee on Standards in Public Life (CSPL), which have been backed up by parliament's Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee (PACAC). The reports followed a raft of lobbying scandals under previous Governments. These include "significant" commitments made by the last Government to create a new central database of Government lobbying data, and moving from quarterly to monthly releases of information on who ministers are meeting. The last Government agreed to move to monthly reporting, though didn't implement this in time for the General Election. Don't miss a story SIGN UP TO EMAIL UPDATES On four further recommendations made by watchdogs, on improving transparency reporting by the Government, there has been no concrete commitment made by the new Government. These include ensuring informal lobbying activity is properly declared, and stronger sanctions for failing to release information on time and accurately. Four other recommendations to bolster the current Lobbying Register have also yet to be committed to by Starmer's government, including on closing significant loopholes that allow foreign lobbyists to avoid scrutiny, and requiring more details about what meetings with senior politicians were about. Since coming to power however, the Government has tightened rules on the second jobs MPs can do, including fully banning MPs taking part in paid lobbying work. That fulfilled a manifesto pledge to immediately "ban MPs from taking up paid advisory or consultancy roles". Labour says it plans to enforce restrictions on ministers lobbying for the companies they used to regulate "with meaningful sanctions for breaching the rules." The Commons leader Lucy Powell has also launched a new Modernisation Committee which is looking at further restrictions on MPs' outside work, which could include clamping down on paid media gigs with the likes of GB News or LBC. Currently, the "revolving door regulator" ACOBA has no power to enforce its recommendations or implement sanctions if former politicians ignore their advice, as has happened repeatedly with Boris Johnson. Last week, Nick Thomas-Symonds, the Paymaster General, told Parliament that the new Government is: "Committed to transparency around lobbying. That is why we will have regular transparency updates. The approach that we take will frankly be in stark contrast with that of the Government who preceded us." However, in October, Baroness Twycross for the Government told the House of Lords that "transparency data for ministerial meetings and overseas travel, special advisers and senior officials will continue to be published quarterly as it has been under previous administrations." ENJOYING THIS ARTICLE? HELP US TO PRODUCE MORE Receive the monthly Byline Times newspaper and help to support fearless, independent journalism that breaks stories, shapes the agenda and holds power to account. PAY ANNUALLY - £39.50 A YEAR PAY MONTHLY - £3.75 A MONTH MORE OPTIONS We're not funded by a billionaire oligarch or an offshor...

Byline Times is an independent, reader-funded investigative newspaper, outside of the system of the established press, reporting on 'what the papers don't say' - without fear or favour. To support its work, subscribe to the monthly Byline Times print edition, packed with exclusive investigations, news, and analysis. Help us build the better media Britain deserves When Keir Starmer was Director of Public Prosecutions, he decided to prosecute Kay Gilderdale for the attempted murder of her daughter, Lynn. Gilderdale confessed how she helped her daughter end her "unimaginably wretched" life in 2008 after discovering she had made a failed attempt to do so herself, having lived with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME) for over 16 years. The case made national headlines and Starmer's decision was publicly questioned by three judges amid debate over why he had pursued a charge of attempted murder, rather than assisted suicide. Gilderdale was found not guilty of attempted murder in January 2010. The case reignited the debate on assisted dying, but it did something else too: it shone a spotlight on the realities of severe ME. That, one would hope, would have given the current prime minister some insight into a disease that is even more pressing today. ME had left Lynn Gilderdale bedridden, unable to speak or eat and having to live in a quiet and darkened room, and in unrelenting pain that meant she required increasingly high doses of morphine. Despite often being seen as 'rare' or simply causing 'chronic fatigue', the illness varies in severity and by long-outdated estimates, it afflicts around 250,000 people in the UK - more than Parkinsons or multiple sclerosis - with one quarter thought to be severely ill. But that overall figure has massively increased since the pandemic - now thought to be 1.3 million if those (like myself) with Long COVID who have ME symptoms are included. Some may ask: is it any wonder the number of people off work with long-term sickness has increased by 500,000 since 2019? It now sits at nearly three million. The Government's Final Delivery Plan 'Should be a Watershed Moment for ME and Long COVID sufferers' A long awaited plan for ME and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome sufferers is due to be published this winter. Tamsin Flower So perhaps Starmer's "basic proposition" that "people need to look for work, but they also need support" sounds reasonable - on the surface. But what about underneath that? ME is characterised in part by a hallmark symptom little seen in other diseases: post-exertional malaise (PEM). It refers to the worsening of symptoms after even minimal energy use - so what someone can manage one day, they can't necessarily keep up with the next. Not only that, but an activity that feels doable in one instance can in turn make someone deteriorate, especially when that deterioration can take hours or days to show itself and the warning signs of exceeding their energy envelope aren't immediate. It's why charities like Action for ME emphasise the importance of pacing to reduce the chances of PEM. For some, simply concentrating on a conversation or sitting upright at a desk could cause a worsening. But for the most severe, mere movement or sensory stimulation - the vibration of nearby footsteps, the touch of a familiar hand, or the slightest bit of light - can push someone who's already severely ill into a more dangerous level of sickness. Decision to Limit COVID Vaccines Will 'Amplify Health Inequalities and Lead To More Hospitalisations' The decision to further restrict access to vaccines "will leave many vulnerable people unprotected" warn academics and health professionals Karam Bales According to occupational therapist Kirsty Stanley who works for the Long COVID Kids charity, the importance of understanding PEM is "huge - it's the invisible aspect". But almost every aspect of the disease - its existence, its symptoms, its causes, how to treat it - has long been debated, and sufferers still struggle to get ap...

Byline Times is an independent, reader-funded investigative newspaper, outside of the system of the established press, reporting on 'what the papers don't say' - without fear or favour. To support its work, subscribe to the monthly Byline Times print edition, packed with exclusive investigations, news, and analysis. Help us build the better media Britain deserves Israel's Government is accelerating its plans for complete annexation of the Israeli-occupied Palestinian West Bank in the wake of a new, incoming sympathetic American administration under President Donald Trump. Simultaneously Tel Aviv is providing military support for settler attacks on Palestinians, aimed at destroying Palestinian property and driving them off their land, as the world's attention focuses on the exploding regional violence and the degradation and collapse of neighbouring militias and powers, including Hezbollah and former Syrian President Bashar Assad's Government which are and were both supportive of Palestinian rights and statehood. On Monday, Israel's Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich told a meeting of the Religious Zionist Party (RZP) that "The time is now" for seizing control of the Gaza Strip and for taking decisive action in the West Bank by strengthening Jewish settlements and creating facts on the ground to prevent a Palestinian State. "2025: the year of sovereignty in Judea and Samaria," wrote Smotrich on X. Another Knesset member from the RZP also proposed a bill that all Israeli legislation officially replace the name of the West Bank to Judea and Samaria, the old biblical names for the occupied territory. Smotrich has also ordered preparations for the annexation of the occupied West Bank ahead of Donald Trump taking office in January 2025. The finance minister, who lives in an illegal Israeli settlement in the West Bank, is also a minister within Israel's Defence Ministry where he oversees the Israeli Civil Administration of the West Bank and its settlements. In a statement released on Monday he voiced hopes that the new administration in Washington would recognise Israel's push for "sovereignty" over the occupied territory. Trump was behind the 2018 move of the American embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem - despite Israel's occupation of East Jerusalem being illegal under international law - and also the 2019 recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the illegally occupied Syrian Golan Heights. The Urgent Challenges Facing Syria Following the Fall of Bashir Assad The fall of the Syrian dictator poses a whole series of new challenges for the country, says chemical, biological, and radiological weapons expert Dan Kaszeta Dan Kaszeta Smotrich also announced the confiscation of 24,000 dunums (5930.5 acres) of the occupied West Bank, the largest confiscation of Palestinian land since the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993, classifying them as state land. "More than 23,000 dunams of land for the benefit of the settlement in Yosh. We determine facts on the ground and thwart the establishment of a Palestinian state!" he said. Israeli human rights organisation, Peace now, said the government in addition to completing the annexation moves, by transferring power from the army to an administration under Smotrich, was also legalising settlement outposts (which were previously illegal even under Israeli law) by providing them with financing, infrastructure and bypass roads. Furthermore, the Israeli authorities are strengthening enforcement laws against Palestinian construction and promoting settlement growth and the building of new settlements, said Peace Now. In an effort to ethnically cleanse the West Bank the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) have also accompanied and protected Israeli settlers who carry out daily and nightly attacks on Palestinians, their property and their land. Should Palestinians retaliate with stones they are shot, sometimes killed, and arrested. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported that duri...

Byline Times is an independent, reader-funded investigative newspaper, outside of the system of the established press, reporting on 'what the papers don't say' - without fear or favour. To support its work, subscribe to the monthly Byline Times print edition, packed with exclusive investigations, news, and analysis. Help us build the better media Britain deserves The brutal dictator Bashar Assad has fallen and taken refuge in Russia. The Soviet Union and then Russia has long been an ally of Assad and, before him, his brutal father Hafez Assad. Assad's ignominious flight to Moscow has deprived a lamppost of a cameo appearance in history, but has also seen the doors of horrible prisons flung open, leading to joyous reunions and the revelation of disgraceful crimes against humanity perpetrated by Assad's enforcers. I've been an observer of this wretched conflict since 2012 when I first started helping Eliot Higgins with reports on chemical weapons, in what eventually grew into the phenomenon known as Bellingcat. The situation in Syria is still evolving, but there are already some key observations and lessons that we must learn from this Dictators Are In Power Until They Aren't As recently as 10 days ago, people were talking about Assad like he was a permanent fixture. Then he wasn't. These things can go very quickly. The collapse of the Assad regime happened faster than the fall of Kabul. One wonders how this is being observed in Pyongyang and Moscow. Or in the Georgian Dream party HQ. The Immediate Return of Refugees Would Be Unwise Certainly, no Syrian refugee should be denied the opportunity to return to their home. Many are doing this right now. But now is not the time to end asylum for the numerous refugees abroad. Uprooting people and dumping them in a country with a wrecked economy, no jobs, and hundreds of thousands of destroyed homes is a recipe for increasing chaos when we should, in fact, be striving to reduce chaos. Pro-European Protests Sweeping Across Georgia Stir Memories of a Darker Past Huge numbers of protesters are demonstrating their resistance to their disputed Government's Putin-pleasing decision to suspend the country's bid for EU membership Will Neal, Nicholas Pearce and Guga Chomakhidze We Need to Chase the Paper Trails Assad's car collection or family photos of Assad's relatives in Nazi-themed T-shirts are certainly worthy of remark, but what the world really needs to see the paper trail. One hopes to find many interesting things left on paper and hard drives. The world needs to see the supply chain that kept both his conventional and chemical weapons programme going. Suppliers and those that handled the money to pay the suppliers need to be identified and investigated. While it may be mildly amusing to see how Asma Assad managed to buy things from Harrods while under sanctions, it is of deep interest to see where certain lots of chemicals came from. And it will be useful to see the connections between the regime and the long list of people who were loud advocates for it in the West. Assad's fellow travellers have much to answer for. But if some of them took money or direction from his regime, they have even more to answer for. What to Do With Stranded Russians and Their Arms Russian military forces are now stranded in Syria. This is an interesting situation. Perhaps now that Syria is no longer a combatant nation, these forces need to be interned. Their weapons and ammunition need to be impounded. Certainly, the world should think twice about letting combatants go back to Russia where they can aid the unlawful invasion of Ukraine. Why Did We Leave Any Chemical Weapons in Syria? The world vowed to rid Syria of chemical weapons in 2013 after the Assad regime's brutal murder of civilians in Ghouta with rockets filled with the nerve agent Sarin. Much money and effort were spent pulling chemical weapons-related materials out of Syria and disposing of them, only to have further chemical weapons attacks occu...

Byline Times is an independent, reader-funded investigative newspaper, outside of the system of the established press, reporting on 'what the papers don't say' - without fear or favour. To support its work, subscribe to the monthly Byline Times print edition, packed with exclusive investigations, news, and analysis. Help us build the better media Britain deserves Last Wednesday, Members of Parliament voted in favour of a bill to introduce proportional representation for elections to the House of Commons. It was symbolic - it was the first stage of a no-hoper, backbench bill - but it was historic. Why? Because, by my reckoning, it was the first time that MPs had ever voted in favour of a bill to introduce proportional representation for elections to the Commons. In 1917, the House of Commons rejected a move to proportional representation, despite a cross-party Speaker's Conference recommending it. The move fell by just seven votes. British history might be very different had a few Conservative MPs skipped the vote. Then in 1931, the House of Commons backed a Bill which would have introduced the Alternative Vote system, to let voters rank candidates by preference. But it wasn't PR. And at any rate, the Government fell before the law could be passed. A world war was fought and empires have fallen since. Don't miss a story SIGN UP TO EMAIL UPDATES But Westminster's winner-takes-all voting system has remained, despite Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland all rejecting it. Its warping effects are more visible than ever. Six months on from this year's General Election, the Electoral Reform Society has crunched the numbers, and found that the General Election in 2024 was "not only the most disproportional election in British electoral history but one of the most disproportional seen anywhere in the world." In other words, MPs elected do not represent voters' preferences, by a long stretch. It is obvious to anyone who saw the outcome: Labour securing 411 seats on 34% of the national vote - "a lower vote share than their election loss in 2017," as the authors point out. "Underneath this headline lies a story - one of a volatile electorate, fragmenting party system and an electoral system that cannot keep up. The result for voters, and for parties, is a system out of step," writes chief exec Darren Hughes in the democracy group's latest report. ENJOYING THIS ARTICLE? HELP US TO PRODUCE MORE Receive the monthly Byline Times newspaper and help to support fearless, independent journalism that breaks stories, shapes the agenda and holds power to account. PAY ANNUALLY - £39.50 A YEAR PAY MONTHLY - £3.75 A MONTH MORE OPTIONS We're not funded by a billionaire oligarch or an offshore hedge-fund. We rely on our readers to fund our journalism. If you like what we do, please subscribe. They highlight some stark findings: 1. Nearly 78% of votes did not directly affect the local outcome in 2024 - 21.2 million votes in total. That means they were either surplus to requirements (e.g. Labour votes above the winning total, in a super-safe Labour seat), or for parties and candidates that didn't get any representation locally 2. 554 constituencies (85% of all seats) elected their representative on less than 50% of the vote. 3. The Conservative's vote share was just 27%, making it their lowest ever recorded. The previous low was in 1832 (29.2%). 4. 72 MPs is a new record haul for the Lib Dems. But their vote share was barely four points higher than the 8% of votes they received in 2015 - when they recorded their lowest ever number of MPs (a rump of eight). 5. Nearly 43% of votes went to parties (and independents) other than Labour or the Conservatives, a record high. 6. The sub-60% turnout was the second lowest voter turnout since universal suffrage was introduced, only narrowly beating the 2001 low of 59.4%. 7. One in three voters said they made a tactical vote instead of voting for their preferred party, according to polling for the democracy group 8. ...