RISHI SUNAK’S five key promises, made shortly after becoming Prime Minister in January, have turned into five failures according to figures showing ministers’ lack of progress since then.
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Taking his pledges in turn, inflation remains the highest in the G7 –with RPI still at an eye-watering 10.7 per cent in June.
NHS waiting lists in England this week hit a new record high of 7.6 million.
And Britain’s debt pile was bigger than its economic output in June – the first time this has happened in more than 60 years.
Today’s 0.2 per cent growth in Q2 GDP was hailed as an unexpected win for Britain’s spluttering economy, which the Bank of England says will remain sluggish for years to come.
And dangerous refugee crossings not only set a new record for the month of June, but fresh arrivals on Thursday saw the total number of people risking their lives to cross the English Channel on small boats reach 100,000 for the first time since 2018.
A ship passes wind turbines at RWE’s Gwynt y Mor, the world’s 2nd largest offshore wind farm located eight miles offshore in Liverpool Bay, off the coast of North Wales, July 26, 2022
NATIONALISED energy firms could make a whopping £140 billion for the British economy by 2040, according to a TUC analysis published today.
The union body argued investment in a publicly owned clean power company could generate £3 for every £1 put in, or £5,000 per household.
The strategy would lower record-high gas and electricity bills, make the country richer, create good clean jobs and cut carbon emissions, it said.
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Oslo has raked in more than £300bn from North Sea oil in the last 40 years by investing in publicly owned energy firms, noted the TUC, which slammed Westminster for choosing to privatise oil fields and put “corporate profits over the public purse.”
The union body’s general secretary, Paul Nowak, said: “Publicly owned energy companies work – across Europe they are lowering household bills and delivering good jobs.
TUC launches blueprint to squeeze Britain’s multimillionaires for a ‘modest’ proportion of their wealth and end the country’s ‘increasing wealth inequality’
Image of loads of money
THE TUC has condemned a “tale of two Britains” which sees working people suffering “the longest pay squeeze in modern history” while bankers’ bonuses are at eye-watering levels and chief executive pay is surging.
The damning criticism came as the TUC launched a blueprint to squeeze Britain’s multimillionaires for a “modest” proportion of their wealth and end the country’s “increasing wealth inequality.”
The blueprint would raise £10 billion for the public purse and should be the “start of a national conversation about taxing wealth,” said TUC general secretary Paul Nowak.
It would affect only 140,000 individuals — 0.3 per cent of Britain’s population — and is similar to a policy that operates in Spain.
Mr Nowak said: “It’s time to start a national conversation about how we tax wealth in this country.
Greenpeace claimed Mr Sunak will “go down in history” as failing on climate change, amid fresh concern about the Tory leader’s frequent use of high-polluting travel and approach to net zero.
Rish! ‘Biggles’ Sunak: The most effective use of your time is to make a phone call or a video conference call instead of destroying the planet like the uncaring, planet-trashing cnut we all know that you are.
The wildfires offer the latest evidence that President Joe Biden must declare a climate emergency, said one progressive economist.
With weather experts pointing to unusually dry conditions on the Hawaiian island of Maui that primed the area for the wildfires that have killed at least 36 people so far, climate advocates on Thursday said the devastation offers the latest evidence that U.S. President Joe Biden must declare a national climate emergency.
Major General Kenneth Hara, the top defense official in Hawaii, said early Thursday that the wildfires had been contained, but authorities are still assessing widespread damage, displacement, and loss of life following a disaster that sent residents frantically running into the ocean for safety.
The historic town of Lahaina, once the capital of Hawaii, was decimated by the fires on Wednesday, with its oldest building apparently burned to the ground.
Theo Morrison, the executive director of the Lahaina Restoration Foundation, told The New York Times that the town had “no preparation, no warning, nothing” as the flames—directly fueled by the 80 mile-per-hour winds of Hurricane Dora south of Hawaii and dry vegetation—spread to Lahaina and razed its historic town center in a matter of hours.
This is climate change. Every day we delay cutting fossil fuels, more tragedies like this happen. So sad. https://t.co/he0sarzYrR
Kaniela Ing, a former Hawaii state representative and national director of the Green New Deal Network, expressed grief over the devastating fires and noted that while residents and local authorities were caught off-guard by the fast-moving blaze, U.S. officials have been warned for years that the continued extraction of fossil fuels is making parts of the country drier and hotter and creating conditions in which wildfires can become more damaging.
“My island is on fire. My heart is breaking at the utter devastation these wildfires are causing my friends, family, and community,” said Ing in a statement. “The extreme wildfires in Lahaina in this summer of climate disasters are yet more proof that we are in a climate emergency and this crisis is killing us. Our leaders in D.C. passed starting measures to tackle climate change—but we need legislation that is as bold and urgent as the scale of the wildfires choking Hawaii and Canada, the heatwaves suffocating Texas, and the extreme flooding drowning Europe.”
Ing suggested that Congress must pass legislation to expand investments in clean energy infrastructure and jobs, but also that Biden can and should act without Congress to significantly reduce the fossil fuel emissions which scientists have said are contributing to extreme heat and wildfires.
“How many more lives lost or families displaced in communities like mine is President Biden willing to tolerate before he declares a climate emergency and activates politicians to take further climate action?” said Ing.
The wildfires devastated Lahaina on the same day that Biden told a reporter on The Weather Channel that “practically speaking,” he has already declared a climate emergency by acting to protect some public land from certain types of mining and rejoining the Paris climate agreement.
The “apocalyptic scenes” in Hawaii, said economist Umair Haque, offer the latest proof that “practically” declaring a climate emergency is not enough.
It should go without saying seeing the apocalyptic scenes in Maui that Biden shouldn’t “practically declare” a climate emergency, he should actually declare a real one. It’s what we’re living in now.
Ing also condemned Republican politicians who continue to deny the existence of the climate crisis and that it’s being caused by the fossil fuel industry, including Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), who dismissed the call for a climate emergency declaration in a Fox News interview.
“Ron DeSantis, Tim Scott, oil companies, and anyone in power who denies climate change are the arsonists,” said Ing. “We are living the climate emergency.”
According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, more than a third of Maui was experiencing at least a moderate drought as of August 1, and nearly 16% of the island was in a severe drought the day before the flames engulfed parts of the island.
Climate scientist Michael Mann of the University of Pennsylvania said the fires are a “‘compound’ climate catastrophe”—made worse by the hurricane’s rapid winds, which interacted with the “background state” of extreme drought.
What we're seeing in #Maui is a "compound" climate catastrophe, where an immediate factor (in this case, unusually strong winds from the outer bands of a passing hurricane) interact w/ background state (extreme drought that has been in place for a month):https://t.co/YF7HXpB4TC
Gov. Josh Green, a Democrat, said an immediate issue the island is coping with is the displacement of several thousand people, and asked visitors to leave or cancel nonessential travel to Maui to ensure that hotel rooms and other accommodations are available for people in need of shelter.
