Daily Archives: 27 April 2024

Conservation slowing biodiversity loss, scientists say

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https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-68897433

Cuban crocodiles at a breeding sanctuary – one of a number of conservation actions studied

Conservation actions are effective at reducing global biodiversity loss, according to a major study.

International researchers spent 10 years looking at measures, from hatching Chinook salmon to eradication of invasive algae.

The authors said their findings offered a “ray of light” for those working to protect threatened animals and plants.

One out of every three species monitored is currently endangered because of human activities.

In the first study of its kind, published in the journal Science, scientists from dozens of research institutes reviewed 665 trials of conservation measures, some from as far back as 1890, in different countries and oceans and across species types, and found they had had a positive effect in two out of every three cases.

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https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-68897433

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Work and pensions committee chair tells ministers to fix carer’s allowance issues

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https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/apr/27/work-and-pensions-committee-chair-tells-ministers-to-fix-carers-allowance-issues

Stephen Timms says DWP letting unpaid carers incur ‘enormous accidental overpayments’

Ministers have been told to “immediately” fix the issues causing tens of thousands of unpaid carers to incur “enormous accidental overpayments” amid growing anger over the carer’s allowance scandal.

An older man waits at a pedestrian crossing pushing a person in a wheelchair

Stephen Timms, the chair of an influential parliamentary committee, said he was “very troubled” that scores of carers were being forced into financial distress as a result of the government’s mistakes.

He said the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) should be “helping them not harassing them” and added: “It does sound to me as though things are going quite badly wrong at the moment.”

Timms, the chair of the Commons work and pensions committee and the Labour MP for East Ham, told BBC Radio 4’s Money Box programme that the DWP seemed to “completely ignore” the notifications it received when an unpaid carer earned more than the £151-a-week limit.

Instead, he said, the department was allowing people to incur “enormous accidental overpayments”, often over several years. In dozens of cases these bills have totalled more than £20,000.

The Guardian revealed this week that 156,000 unpaid carers are now repaying severe penalties – pushing many into debt or financial distress – for often unwittingly overstepping the small earnings limit while caring for a loved one. Roughly one in five unpaid carers in part-time work breached the earnings limit last year.

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https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/apr/27/work-and-pensions-committee-chair-tells-ministers-to-fix-carers-allowance-issues

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Politicians are blaming disabled people for the inequalities they face

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https://leftfootforward.org/2024/04/politicians-are-blaming-disabled-people-for-the-inequalities-they-face/

It’s time the Government gives disabled jobseekers and employees the support they need – rather than demonising people who can’t work.

On Friday, Rishi Sunak pledged to tackle Britain’s so-called ‘sick note culture’. Saying that the ‘spiralling’ benefits bill was unsustainable, he promised to ‘control welfare’ if re-elected.

This rhetoric is nothing new. Disabled people have faced an ongoing onslaught of negative headlines over the past few months.

The Prime Minister has previously spoken about ‘[squeezing] benefits to fund more tax cuts for workers’, pitting disabled people against the rest of society. Commentators, too, have taken to arguing that our benefits system ‘invites abuse’.

And this harmful attitude towards welfare is not partisan; Labour too have implied that there are too many people claiming disability benefits.

But disability benefits are not a problem that needs to be ‘controlled’. At its best, our welfare system enables disabled people to lead more independent and meaningful lives, offering them vital support to overcome the barriers they face. That is something people across the political spectrum should celebrate.

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https://leftfootforward.org/2024/04/politicians-are-blaming-disabled-people-for-the-inequalities-they-face/

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Public ownership campaigners urge Labour to go further and commit to renationalising rolling stock companies

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https://leftfootforward.org/2024/04/public-ownership-campaigners-urge-labour-to-go-further-and-commit-to-renationalising-rolling-stock-companies/

Image of an East Coast train
An East Coast train at King’s Cross station

Labour announced this week that it will renationalise the railways, if elected. The party referred to the move as the ‘biggest overhaul to our railways in a generation.’

Under Labour’s proposals, train companies would be brought back into public ownership and run by a new body, Great British Railways, as their privatised contracts expire.

While the announcement has been broadly welcomed, with RMT general secretary Mick Lynch saying a publicly owned rail network is in the “best interests of railway workers, passengers and the taxpayer,” public ownership campaigners We Own It warn it doesn’t go far enough.

Following Labour’s announcement, Johnbosco Nwogbo, lead campaigner at public ownership campaign group We Own It, said it was time to “decommission the gravy train.”

“With delays and cancellations rife and some of the most expensive fares in Europe, polls show that over two thirds of us want our railways to be brought into public hands. Labour have rightly identified that the ownership of our public services will be a key issue for voters at this election.

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https://leftfootforward.org/2024/04/public-ownership-campaigners-urge-labour-to-go-further-and-commit-to-renationalising-rolling-stock-companies/

Continue ReadingPublic ownership campaigners urge Labour to go further and commit to renationalising rolling stock companies