‘Home Desk’: The Foreign Office’s covert propaganda campaign inside Britain

The Home Desk’s modus operandi was to collect information on “subversive” individuals and organisations from open and secret sources, ranging from newspaper clippings and books to MI5 moles and classified material.

It would then pass this information to trusted contacts in the British press, parliament, think tanks, universities, and other private networks in an effort to discredit the activities of “subversive” leftists in Britain.

The Home Desk was kept entirely hidden from the public, and its funding was not subject to parliamentary oversight. Outside of a small clique of high-ranking British ministers, diplomats, and intelligence agents, the Home Desk simply did not exist.

Its ultimate target was the British public. The recently declassified record allows us to peel back a layer of these secret operations. — https://www.declassifieduk.org/home-desk-the-foreign-offices-covert-propaganda-campaign-inside-britain/
#uk #homeoffice #homedesk #foreignoffice #attlee #InformationResearchDepartment #IRD #anticommunism #history ">

Rwanda asylum flight cancelled after legal action | BBC News

The first flight scheduled to take asylum seekers from the UK to Rwanda on Tuesday has been cancelled after a last-minute legal battle.
Up to seven people had been expected to be removed to the east African country.
But the flight was stopped after an intervention from the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR).

#politics #UK #refugees #AsylumSeekers #HumanTrafficking #Rwanda #ForeignOffice #PritiPatel

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-61806383