29 APRIL

INDIAN SOLDIERS REFUSE ORDERS TO USE CARTRIDGES GREASED WITH PIG AND COW FAT [ 24 April 1857 ] On 24 April 1857, eighty five Indian soldiers of the Third Bengal Light Cavalry stationed at Meerut, a town 40 miles north east of Delhi, refused orders to use cartridges covered by paper greased with pig and…

THE IRISH FAMINE VICTIMS REMOVAL AND PUNISHMENT ACT BECOMES LAW [ 21 June 1847 ] On this day in 1847, the Poor Law Removal Act became law, allowing municipal authorities in England and Scotland to send any paupers claiming poor relief back to their place of origin with the minimum of legal formalities.  MINISTER –…

BRITAIN STRIKES SECRET DEAL WITH AMERICA TO EXPEL THE INHABITANTS OF DIEGO GARCIA. On this day in 1966 a secret plan was agreed between Britain and the United States, by which Washington would cancel $14 million in military debts and in return London undertook to take “administrative measures” required for “resettling the inhabitants” of the…

“NO SAUDI ATROCITY TOO MUCH” TO HALT UK’S LUCRATIVE ARMS EXPORTS. On this day in 2018, Emily Thornberry, Labour’s shadow foreign secretary, reminded parliament of British collusion with Saudi Arabia’s bombing campaign against Yemen which had created what the United Nations described as the world’s worst humitarian crisis. She told members of the House of…

HOME SECRETARY JACK STRAW LIES OVER THE UK’S INVOLVEMENT IN RENDITION AND TORTURE. 13 December 2005 – Home Secretary Jack Straw lied to the House of Commons Select Committee on Foreign Affairs, telling MPs that “there simply is no truth in the claims that the UK has been involved in renditon, full stop.” It was…

THE LORD MAYOR OF CORK DIES ON HUNGER STRIKE IN BRIXTON PRISON [25 October 1920 ] Terence MacSwiney, the Lord Mayor of Cork, died at 5.40 am on Monday 25 October 1920 on the seventy fourth day of his hunger strike at Brixton prison.  His biographer, Francis Costello, remarked that the MacSwiney’s ‘solitary protest would…