CRUMBRIA: 05.09.2025: EXCLUSIVE
By Arthur Sleep
A klaxon call last month by the Labour leader of Crumberland Council to pull local government pension funds out of companies doing business with Israel appears to have fallen flat on its arse.
To a fanfare of uncritical headlines, supreme leader Cllr Mark Fryer of the Demokratic People’s Republik of North & West Kumbria fired off a boycott demand to the council’s chief executive.
He demanded a “deep dive” into council pension investments linked to Israel or the Palestinian territories and urged the Cumbria Pension Fund Committee — custodians of a multi-billion-pound pension pot — to follow suit.
This was treated as brave. Historic, even. One small problem. Since then, nothing has happened.
No update. No outcome. No awkward follow-up from the same local “newspapers” that splashed the demand all over their pages, particularly The Crumbling News.
So the Chronic asked the question they didn’t.
The Cumbria Pension Fund Committee’s reply is polite, legal, and terminal.
It says it has a duty to act in the best financial interests of the scheme and will not do anything that risks financial detriment to the fund.
It also states that investing in a company is too remote to constitute “assisting” alleged war crimes — even if that company supplies military equipment.
And it does not consider it appropriate to divest from any specific area, including Israel or Israel-linked companies.
That’s it. The pension fund carries on.
And the county media quietly lost interest the moment the answer stopped being “dramatic”.
Funny how that works!
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READ MORE: 06.08.2025: Council Leader: Boycott Israel
READ MORE: 13.08.2025: Foreign Desk In Disarray
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