12 NOVEMBER

FATHER OF AN IRAQI PRISONER TOLD HIS SON DIED FROM TORTURE BY BRITISH TROOPS. 21 September 2003 – Dr Ian Hill, an experienced British pathologist explained to the distressed father of an Iraqi hotel receptionist, how his son Baha Mousa had died at the hands of British troops, and felt obliged to be brutally honest,…

3 July 1937 – During a speech to his constituents at Wanstead, Churchill reminded the crowd of his then well known admiration for fascism. “If I had been an Italian,” he confessed, “I should have been on Mussolini’s side fifteen years ago when he rescued his country from the horrible fate of sinking into violent…

785 REFUGEES DROWN AFTER BRITAIN INSISTS TURKEY REFUSE THEM OVERLAND PASSAGE [ 24 February 1942 ] On 24 February 1942, the S.S. Struma, a small 240 ton vessel crammed with 786 Jewish refugees, including over one hundred children, was sunk by a torpedo in the Black Sea. All but one of the passengers drowned. JOURNALISTS FORBIDDEN…

BRISTOL CELEBRATES THE DEFEAT OF BRITAIN’S FIRST ANTI-SLAVERY BILL [ 19 April 1791 ] On this day in 1791, the House of Commons, many of its members having close business ties to the trade and the West Indies plantations, overwhelmingly rejected a bill proposed by William Wilberforce to outlaw the slave trade. The margin of…

THE FIRST LIVERPOOL SLAVE SHIP SETS SALE [ 3 October 1699 ] On 3 October 1699, the first slave ship set sail from Liverpool. The Liverpool Merchant, under the command of Captain William Webster, sailed down the Mersey headed for the coast of West Africa where she picked up her captive human cargo. BRITISH SPECIAL NIGHT…

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