… on a quiet day, I can hear her breathing

Author: dizzy

  • ‘Devastating’: Right-Wing Swedish Government Shutters Environment Ministry

    Spread the love

    “It is impossible to describe more clearly how little this government values ​​the environment and the climate,” said the leader of the Swedish Greens.

    This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is jake-johnson-200x200.jpg

    JAKE JOHNSONOctober 19, 2022

    In one of its first moves after taking power Tuesday, Sweden’s newly elected right-wing government scrapped the country’s environment ministry, drawing outrage from opposition lawmakers who say the step threatens to undermine the nation’s chances of meeting its climate targets.

    “They don’t care about our common future. Expect huge cuts in green funding.”

    Per Bolund, the leader of the Swedish Greens, wrote on social media that the axing of the environment ministry shows “how little this government values ​​the environment and the climate.”

    “This is a historic decision with devastating consequences for environmental issues,” Bolund added, noting that Sweden will now be without a separate environment ministry for the first time in five decades.

    Pär Holmgren, a Swedish meteorologist and member of the European Parliament, also expressed outrage on Twitter.

    Following the change announced by right-wing Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, new environment minister Romina Pourmokhtari will work under the minister for energy, business, and industry, Ebba Busch.

    Busch is the leader of Sweden’s Christian Democrats, part of the right-wing coalition now governing the country after winning a slim majority in September’s elections. The bloc includes the Sweden Democrats, a far-right xenophobic party.

    Bloomberg reported Tuesday that “Kristersson’s government is heavily dependent on the nationalist Sweden Democrats, the only party in parliament that doesn’t back the country’s target of having net zero emissions by 2045.”

    “The four-party alliance that agreed on forming the new government last week said they would seek to lower fuel prices, partly by reducing the percentage of biofuels that has to be mixed into gas and diesel to the minimum level required by the European Union,” Bloomberg noted. “That would make it more difficult to reach a target of reducing transport emissions by 70% by 2030.”

    Kristersson is also pushing for an expansion of nuclear power, aiming to reverse earlier efforts to dismantle the country’s reactors.

    The Associated Press reported Tuesday that Kristersson said “Sweden’s goal on electricity production would change from ‘100% renewable’ to ‘100 percent fossil-free,’ which leaves room for nuclear energy.”

    Republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) licence.

    Apologies for bad news Sunday, this blog doesn’t do denial of reality.

  • ‘A real and present danger’: NHS cuts will put lives at risk, health leader warns

    Spread the love
    The lying EU bus promoting money for the NHS when all the anti-EU shites are anti-NHS Neo-Liberal shites.
    The lying anti-EU bus promoting money for the NHS when all the anti-EU shites are anti-NHS Neo-Liberal shites.

    https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/oct/23/a-real-and-present-danger-nhs-cuts-will-put-lives-at-risk-health-leader-warns

    Raiding the NHS budget or scrapping plans to rebuild crumbling hospitals would plunge the health service into its deepest crisis in decades. This was the stark warning this weekend from Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, who said the government is “living in a fantasy land” if it believes it can cut funds to the NHS without endangering patients.

    Jeremy Hunt promised spending cuts of “eye-watering difficulty” last week after becoming chancellor of the exchequer. Yet he also did not reverse his predecessor Kwasi Kwarteng’s decision to scrap the £7bn health and social levy that had been earmarked for the NHS.

    Taylor, whose organisation represents hospitals, ambulance trusts, mental health care, community care and GP services, said his members were issuing the “starkest warning” about “the huge and growing gulf between what the NHS is being asked to deliver and the funding and capacity it has available”.

    …

    https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/oct/23/a-real-and-present-danger-nhs-cuts-will-put-lives-at-risk-health-leader-warns

    Apologies for bad news Sunday, this blog doesn’t do denial of reality.

  • Guardian Exclusive: 90% of schools in England will run out of money next year, heads warn

    Spread the love

    https://www.theguardian.com/education/2022/oct/22/exclusive-90-of-uk-schools-will-go-bust-next-year-heads-warn

    Nine out of 10 schools in England will have run out of money by the next school year as the enormous burden of increased energy and salary bills takes its toll, the Observer can reveal.

    Early data from the National Association of Head Teachers – results of a survey of its members are due later this month – shows that 50% of heads say their school will be in deficit this year, with almost all expecting to be in the red by next September,when their reserve run out. This comes as Jeremy Hunt has made clear that all departments, including education, will be expected to make cuts as part of the government’s debt reduction plan, to be announced on 31 October.

    Headteachers and academy leaders are warning that further spending cuts will push many schools and academy trusts over the cliff, and result in most schools having to lose essential teaching and support staff. “There are no easy fixes left,” said Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the NAHT. “Schools are cut to the bone. This will mean cutting teaching hours, teaching assistants and teachers.”

    …

    https://www.theguardian.com/education/2022/oct/22/exclusive-90-of-uk-schools-will-go-bust-next-year-heads-warn

    Apologies for bad news Sunday, this blog doesn’t do denial of reality.

  • Historic Failure

    Spread the love
    Led by Donkeys: A historic failure

    Jeremy Corbyn: A warning to Truss and Hunt: people see the chaos and unfairness – and they won’t accept it

    …

    In my 39 years in parliament, I cannot remember a fiscal plan so reckless, arrogant and out-of-touch. More than one in five people – and one in three children – are in poverty in the UK. A quarter of a million people in England are homeless. This October, millions of people will struggle to heat their homes or feed their children. But will nobody think of the bankers?

    It doesn’t matter which remnants of neoliberal economics this government tries to rescue from the rubble. Nor does it matter how many chancellors they use to try to resuscitate them. The Tories will never be able to fix the economy until they reckon with the fact that they’ve spent the past 12 years destroying it.

    By preparing for another wave of austerity, the new chancellor is not just in denial about the scale and severity of the cost-of-living crisis. He is in denial about the very economic policy that engendered it. The last round of cuts to public services – which has been linked to 330,000 excess deaths by a recent report – did not just plunge millions into poverty. It stole resources from the poorest people in society and transferred them to the richest: as child poverty was heading towards its highest levels since 2007, Britain’s billionaires more than doubled their wealth. Far from rectifying this act of social robbery, the government is intent on helping the 1% steal even more.

    …

    As the Tories plunge themselves into electoral oblivion, those in opposition have a precious opportunity: to redistribute wealth, ownership and economic power. To end insecurity, exploitation, poverty and homelessness. To build a society grounded in compassion, creativity and care.

    …

  • Thank you climate activists

    Spread the love

    Thanks to climate activist. Thank you Morgan and Marcus of Just Stop Oil.

    Queen: We are the Champions for climate activists

    Tory MPs and even Essex Police have taken to call climate activists selfish just recently. It’s totally ridiculous – how on Earth can they be selfish while risking prosecution and imprisonment? Those making these accusations are on the side of those destroying the climate for private profit. It’s them that are selfish of course, these assoles have no fekking idea.