George Monbiot: The UK government didn’t want you to see this report on ecosystem collapse. I’m not surprised
It took an FOI request to bring this national security assessment to light. For ‘doomsayers’ like us, it is the ultimate vindication
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When the report at last appeared, thanks to an FoI request lodged by the Green Alliance, The Times reported that it had been significantly “abridged”, I expect by the same goons. Some of its starkest conclusions had been omitted. Even so, the assessment – believed to have been compiled by the joint intelligence committee (on which the heads of MI5, MI6 and GCHQ sit) – is not exactly reassuring.
It echoes warnings some of us have made for years, only to be dismissed as nutters, doomsayers and extremists. It tells us that “ecosystem degradation is occurring across all regions. Every critical ecosystem is on a pathway to collapse (irreversible loss of function beyond repair).” This presents a threat to “UK national security and prosperity”. It says “the world is already experiencing impacts including crop failures, intensified natural disasters and infectious disease outbreaks. Threats will increase with degradation and intensify with collapse.” The results will include geopolitical and economic instability, increased conflict and competition for resources. “It is unlikely the UK would be able to maintain food security if ecosystem collapse drives geopolitical competition for food.” It also warns that “conflict and military escalation will become more likely, both within and between states, as groups compete for arable land and food and water resources”.
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But what was cut from the report is, according to The Times, even graver, including a warning that the shrinkage of glaciers in the Himalayas, causing declining river flow, would “almost certainly escalate tensions” between China, India and Pakistan, leading to the possibility of nuclear war. Again, some of us have been trying to persuade governments to focus on this threat with little success.
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The report, notably shorter than most of its kind, gives every appearance of having been hastily and crudely truncated.
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I know this government exists only to disappoint us. But its environmental failures are even more striking than its failures on other issues. When the ruling party compares unfavourably with the one that brought us Boris Johnson and Liz Truss, it’s worse than a betrayal. It’s a threat to our survival.
dizzy: It was difficult to select extracts from this article, suggest that you read the original.
‘A blow to staff, patients, and local communities’
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/blow-staff-patients-and-local-communities
A taped off section inside a school which has been affected with sub standard reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (Raac)Campaigners dismayed as government plans to replace hospitals built with Raac delayed again
FURTHER delays in replacing hospitals built with Raac concrete are a “blow” to NHS staff, as campaigners wanted to prevent the “severe risk of collapsing floors and ceilings.”
The government’s spending watchdog announced today that a pledge to deal with reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (Raac) in seven hospitals by 2030 would not be met.
A report from the National Audit Office (NAO) found that the infrastructure plans, drawn up by the previous Conservative government, would only be completed by 2032 and 2033.
Despite the new timeline, the NAO also claimed that some new building projects are already facing pressure to finish for their revised deadline.
The watchdog also said that by the end of 2025, works to alleviate the risks of Raac have already cost more than £500 million.
Campaigners and unions hit back, warning that longer delays will mean “greater risks” for patients and NHS staff, and will mean “higher costs” to fix the issues plaguing NHS hospitals.
Raac is a lightweight material which was used widely in the 1960s and ’80s to build public buildings such as hospitals and schools.
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Continues at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/blow-staff-patients-and-local-communities
Morning Star Editorial: Jenrick’s sacking highlights hard-right menace
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/jenricks-sacking-highlights-hard-right-menace
Shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick delivers a speech during the Conservative Party Conference at the Manchester Central Convention Complex, October 7, 2025THE dramatic dismissal of Robert Jenrick from his post on the Tory front bench and from the party itself is a landmark in the recalibration and reorganisation of the right in British politics.
It points, far more than the numerous other high-profile defections from the Conservatives to Reform, towards a concentration of significant political forces behind an exceptionally authoritarian and chauvinistic variant of neoliberalism.
The shadow justice secretary may have jumped slightly before he was ready because of Kemi Badenoch’s decisive move but his rightward trajectory was long headed towards destination Farage. The discovery of his draft resignation letter appears to have precipitated her dismissal of what had become a very troublesome princeling.
Jenrick’s growing alignment with Nigel Farage indicates first, that Reform is increasingly seen as the only viable game in town for the hard right and, second, that the party is intensifying its plans to form a government after the next general election.
To plausibly offer itself as a ruling party, Reform needs more experienced politicians who could step into ministerial office. Jenrick, a cynical and unscrupulous opportunist, fits that bill.
Originally a modestly liberal “Cameron Conservative” and a Remainer, he has rebranded himself as an authoritarian xenophobe.
Since losing the 2024 Tory leadership election to Badenoch, his most notable political interventions have been to bemoan the lack of “white faces” he saw during a brief visit to the Handsworth district of Birmingham, and a Conservative conference call for the wholesale sacking of judges he dislikes, to be replaced by those he prefers.
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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/jenricks-sacking-highlights-hard-right-menace
