TENS of thousands of people are expected to descend on Westminster this weekend to join Britain’s biggest ever protest against the combined climate emergency and political crisis.
The four-day action organised by Extinction Rebellion (XR), which will be joined by actors, authors, musicians, trade unionists and human rights activists, is demanding that the government takes immediate action to tackle the linked crises.
“People’s pickets” were formed outside 16 government buildings earlier today to kick off the campaign of protest, calling for urgent new policies to tackle the climate emergency affecting people and communities across the country.
On her first appearance on BBC Question Time, Green Party of England and Wales co-leader Carla Denyer dismantled a right wing argument that tackling the cost of living crisis is incompatible with rapid action to address the climate emergency.
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“The UK has the leakiest homes in Europe. People are spending so much on their energy bills only for it to blow out the windows and the doors and the gaps because they’re poorly insulated. If we had a proper, big, nationwide home insulation programme street by street, that insulated people’s homes, it would bring down their bills, it would give them warmer, more comfortable homes which are healthier, and we’ve heard all about – recently – the issues with living in cold, damp homes, and it would tackle carbon emissions. It can be done.”
OFGEM’S new prepayment meter rules “fail to deal” with the energy debt mountain facing struggling households, campaigners have warned, as the watchdog revealed a new code of practice for suppliers today.
The body said that energy firms in England, Scotland and Wales had agreed to the code, which includes a ban on forcibly installing prepayment meters in the homes of people over the age of 85.
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End Fuel Poverty Coalition coordinator Simon Francis also said the code does not go far enough, and that the voluntary aspect “undermines its objective.”
He said: “There are really vulnerable groups which have been omitted from its full protection and we have serious concerns about how it will be implemented, such as how people will prove their medical conditions without being humiliated by an energy firm health inspection.
“The plans also fail to deal with the elephant in the room — the growing household energy debt mountain.”
Mega-rich firm accused of ‘obscene profiteering’ while millions struggle to feed their families
TESCO is indulging in “obscene profiteering” during the worst cost-of-living crisis in decades, Unite the Union charged today after the supermarket giant reported a whopping £1 billion profit despite soaring food prices.
The mega-rich firm said it made the pre-tax windfall in the 12 months to the end of February as total sales rose by more than 7 per cent to £65.8bn.
The profit was less than half of the more than £2bn it pocketed a year earlier as the amount of product sold fell, but bosses admitted making up for the shortfall by charging more per item on average.
They declined to reveal how much they have jacked prices for hard-hit shoppers struggling to cope with crippling 18.2 per cent food inflation — the highest in 45 years.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “Tesco’s profits are another example of excessive profiteering fired up by astonishing corporate greed.
“It’s this rampant profiteering which is driving inflation, and cranking up the cost-of-living crisis for workers and their families.
“How can it be that at a time when millions are struggling to feed their families Britain’s biggest supermarket is profiteering as never before.
“What sort of country have we become? Frankly, these results are obscene.”
MORE than three-quarters of NHS staff are considering quitting due to stress, burnout and anxiety, according to shocking figures published today.
A massive 78 per cent of the 2,500 NHS workers surveyed by campaign group Organise reported experiencing stress and over half (55 per cent) had taken time off because of stress, anxiety or burnout as the crisis in the NHS deepens, with 25 per cent staying away from work for more than a month.
Most NHS workers pointed to the impact that this was having on patient care, with over half saying that patients had experienced “medication errors, delays in procedures and a compromised quality of care.”
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Organise head Nat Whalley said: “NHS workers are exposing a ticking time bomb at the heart of our healthcare system.
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“We don’t need empty promises, we need tangible investment in the NHS that allow workers to thrive in their roles without suffering from stress, anxiety and burnout.
“Listen to us, invest in the well-being of our NHS workforce and ensure the future of the NHS.”
