Month: February 2025

  • Starmer’s latest con job

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    https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/starmer’s-latest-con-job

    SELF-DECEPTION: A 245-tonne steel dome is lifted onto Hinkley Point C’s first reactor building, at Bridgwater, Somerset on December 15 2023 – note the slogan on the banner

    The government’s nuclear power expansion plan is a hollow betrayal of working people that panders to wealthy corporations and will rip off consumers, writes LINDA PENTZ GUNTER

    …

    The restriction on building new reactors on existing nuclear sites is to be lifted so they could be built anywhere and everywhere and people who “hadn’t thought there’s going to be anything nuclear near me” will simply “get used to the idea of it,” Starmer said.

    …

    The whole thing is of course a massive con that would, if such a plan ever materialised, dramatically raise electricity rates, further fleece taxpayers, impede real progress on climate by diverting money away from already available renewable energy solutions, and put countless communities in danger.

    And of course, what will become of the radioactive waste these “small” reactors would still produce? A recent Stanford study found that small modular reactors will actually generate more radioactive waste than conventional nuclear power plants.

    Unions should not be fooled. Promising jobs that will likely never materialise and would be better created immediately in industries such as renewable energy that are here now and have a long-term future, isn’t a boon to working people, it’s yet another betrayal.

    Further, nuclear power, as the industry has itself demonstrated over and over, is the slowest and most expensive energy choice among the so-called low-carbon options.

    No nuclear reactor, small or otherwise, will ever be built in time, affordably or in enough quantities to address the climate crisis that is already upon us.

    …

    https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/starmer’s-latest-con-job

    Keir Starmer warns against following the https://onaquietday.org blog.
    Keir Starmer warns against following the https://onaquietday.org blog.

  • Don’t prolong war in Ukraine, peace activists warn Starmer

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    https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/dont-prolong-war-in-ukraine-peace-activists-warn-starmer

    Prime Minister Keir Starmer returns to 10 Downing Street, London, after attending Prime Minister’s Questions at the Houses of Parliament, February 12, 2025

    PRIME Minister Sir Keir Starmer has been warned off making “ludicrous long-term commitments” that prolong the war in Ukraine ahead of an emergency summit with European leaders today.

    The Prime Minister has vowed to “work to ensure we keep America and Europe together” prior to discussing how to respond to US President Donald Trump’s push for an end to the war in Ukraine at the summit called by French president Emmanuel Macron.

    The UN estimates 12,456 civilians have been killed during the war that is set to begin its fourth year on February 24.

    Sir Keir said: “This is a once-in-a-generation moment for our national security where we engage with the reality of the world today and the threat we face from Russia.

    “It’s clear Europe must take on a greater role in Nato as we work with the United States to secure Ukraine’s future and face down the threat we face from Russia.

    …

    A Stop the War spokeswoman said: “Instead of increasing defence spending and making ludicrous long-term commitments to Zelensky, the government should be assisting the peace negotiations and spending our money at home, on restoring the winter fuel allowance, lifting the two-child benefit cap and generally fulfilling its commitments to improve the living standards of the working people of Britain.

    “Continuing to push for Ukrainian membership of Nato and pouring money and arms into the country in order to keep an unwinnable war going is utterly reckless and will certainly fail.”

    …

    Original article at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/dont-prolong-war-in-ukraine-peace-activists-warn-starmer

  • Badenoch and Farage to vie for attention of Trump allies at London summit

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    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/feb/17/badenoch-farage-trump-allies-london-rightwing-arc-summit

    Badenoch (right) will give a welcome address at the conference, with her party under increasing pressure from Farage (left) and Reform UK. Composite: PA

    Event co-founded by Jordan Peterson will bring together global rightwing figures including senior US Republicans

    Influential rightwingers from around the world are to gather in London from Monday at a major conference to network and build connections with senior US Republicans linked to the Trump administration.

    The UK opposition leader, the Conservatives’ Kemi Badenoch, and Nigel Farage of the Reform UK party, her hard-right anti-immigration rival, will compete to present themselves as the torchbearer of British conservatism.

    Conservatives from Britain, continental Europe and Australia attending the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship (ARC) conference will seize on the opportunity to meet and hear counterparts from the US, including those with links to the new Trump administration. The House speaker, the Republican Mike Johnson, had been due to attend in person but will now give a keynote address remotely on Monday.

    Other Republicans due to speak include the US Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Vivek Ramaswamy – who has worked with Elon Musk on moves to radically reshape the US government – and Kevin Roberts, the president of the US Heritage Foundation, the thinktank behind the controversial “Project 2025” blueprint for Trump’s second term.

    The conference, which is intended to be a gathering of influential intellectuals shaping global rightwing thinking, has a distinctly anti-environmental and socially conservative theme. It pledges to build on “our growing movement and continue the vital work of relaying the foundations of our civilisation”.

    …

    Article continues at https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/feb/17/badenoch-farage-trump-allies-london-rightwing-arc-summit

    dizzy: Jordan Peterson is a renowned climate change denier

  • Poorest UK households pay rising share of income on council tax, study finds

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    https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/feb/17/uk-poorest-households-income-share-council-tax-resolution-foundation

    The poorest fifth of households paid 4.8% of their income on council tax or domestic rates in 2020-21, up from 2.9% in 2002-03. Photograph: Martin Godwin/The Guardian

    Resolution Foundation report says failure to reform has ‘slowly recreated the issues that undid the poll tax’

    Britain’s poorest households are paying an increasing share of their income on council tax, according to new analysis that likened it to the poll tax that contributed to the downfall of Margaret Thatcher.

    The poorest fifth of households paid 4.8% of their income on council tax in England, Wales and Scotland and on domestic rates in Northern Ireland in the 2020-21 financial year, up from 2.9% in 2002-3, according to research by the Resolution Foundation.

    Council taxes are one of the few levies on wealth in the UK, with different systems applied in each of the four countries.

    However, they are seen by economists as deeply flawed, not least because the tax in England and Scotland is levied based on the value of properties in 1991, despite huge changes in the spread of wealth over the past three decades. Wales has updated its system to use 2003 valuations, while Scotland raised the rates on higher-banded properties in 2017. Northern Ireland still has a system of domestic rates, which predates council tax.

    Highlighting the “regressive” nature of the tax, meaning poorer households pay more of their income towards it than richer ones, the Resolution Foundation said the failure to reform council tax had made it progressively worse.

    …

    Article continues at https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/feb/17/uk-poorest-households-income-share-council-tax-resolution-foundation

  • Calls mount for public ownership of Thames Water as it launches ‘blatantly greedy’ bid to hike bills

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    https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/calls-mount-public-ownership-thames-water-it-launches-blatantly-greedy-bid-hike-bills

    GREED: Thames Water’s chief executive Chris Weston defended bosses getting £770,000 in bonuses

    CAMPAIGNERS mounted further calls for Thames Water to be permanently brought into public ownership today [Friday] after the firm launched a “blatantly greedy and desperate bid” to hike bills yet again.

    The firm has already been allowed to increase bills by 35 per cent over the next five years by regulator Ofwat.

    Thames Water originally lobbied for a 59 per cent increase and is now asking the Competition and Markets Authority to review the decision.

    On the verge of financial collapse, Thames Water sits on £19 billion of debts.

    Despite this, it paid out £158.3 million in dividends last March, and attempted to award its CEO and CFO £770,000 in bonuses using customer money before being blocked by Ofwat.

    Thames Water is currently waiting for a court decision on whether it will be allowed a £3.3bn creditor bailout to avoid falling into special administration at the end of March.

    The loan will cost a mammoth £800m in interest and fees alone, which campaign group We Own It argues will add an extra £250 a year to household bills.

    …

    https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/calls-mount-public-ownership-thames-water-it-launches-blatantly-greedy-bid-hike-bills