General Election

Green surge in Bristol makes them main challenger to Labour now

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https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/green-surge-bristol-makes-main-9390990

Green Party’s Carla Denyer arrives at the count (Image: PAUL GILLIS / Reach PLC) [Ani Stafford-Townsend is immediately to the right of Carla Denyer.]

As well as Bristol’s first-ever MP, the party finished second everywhere else

A Green surge right across Bristol not only saw the party’s first-ever MP in the city, but also saw voters put them in second place in every single other constituency.

The Green Party are now officially the main challengers to Labour in all five of Bristol’s constituencies – after Carla Denyer’s victory in Bristol Central was followed by strong support right across the city. A total of 65,762 people voted Green in the five Bristol constituencies.

In Bristol East, the Green Party candidate Ani Stafford-Townsend won more than 30 per cent of the vote to cut Labour’s majority down to just 6,606, while in Bristol South and Bristol North West, the Greens leapt from fourth place last time around to second.

Victorious Green MP Carla Denyer, the party’s co-leader, showed that her success – which was matched by Green wins in three other constituencies around the country – meant that people could vote Green and potentially get a Green MP.

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https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/green-surge-bristol-makes-main-9390990

The article is from a Bristol newspaper. The “the party finished second everywhere else” refers to everywhere else in Bristol.

Comments by dizzy: These comments may get extended and elaborated.

This article highlights a recurring theme in many analyses of the 2024 General Election: That the Green Party are the ruling Labour Party’s main threat.

The Green Party were mistaken in restricting their ambitions i.e. targetting only 4 seats. This article suggests that another 4 were within reach and to succeed in your goals suggests that those goals were too lax.

The rest of these comments is difficult because there are so many unknowns.

I would expect the Greens to do extremely well at the next General election. That’s assuming that general elections in the same way will be held in 4 or 5 years time.

The World is warming at a seriously alarming rate. Climate change is now and needs immediate action. The action needed is to stop burning fossil fuels and transition to renewable energy that doesn’t damage the climate. There are also other necessary measures: basically stop the rich trashing the planet with their ridiculously climate expensive lifestyles.

People are going to get very angry when they realise how their climate and future has been destroyed by a few rich cnuts.

later: The next few years are going to be extremely demanding, certainly beyond the capabilities of prospective presidential candidates.

… to be continued, elaborated, extended

Continue ReadingGreen surge in Bristol makes them main challenger to Labour now

Jeremy Corbyn wins Islington North as independent; Labour secures victory in general election

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Original article republished from peoples dispatch under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.

Labour secures landslide victory in UK general election, but triumph marred by centrist program and stance on Gaza

Jeremy Corbyn has been re-elected to the British Parliament, this time as an independent candidate. Corbyn won in his long-standing constituency of Islington North with a margin of over 7,000 votes over Labour candidate Praful Nargund. According to Corbyn, the result in Islington North is “a warning to the incoming government that dissent cannot be crushed without consequences. That ideas of equality, justice, and peace are eternal.”

Labour leadership blocked Corbyn from standing as a party candidate in this election following years of a campaign against him within party structures and in corporate media. Like other Labour members leaning explicitly towards the left, Corbyn faced extreme pressure and attacks against his policies, even during his tenure as Labour leader, despite receiving widespread support among the public.

The incoming government Corbyn referred to will be a Labour one. Keir Starmer is set to become the next prime minister after the party secured one of its biggest electoral victories in history, winning 412 seats. In comparison, the Conservatives, who held power for almost 15 years, struggled to reach 121 seats. These results align with pre-election polls, which predicted that former prime minister Rishi Sunak and his party would be punished for failing to address crucial issues such as the cost of living crisis, struggling public services, including the National Health Service (NHS), and more.

Election night brought some surprises, even for the triumphant Labour. The party lost to independent candidates running on an explicitly pro-Palestine platform in several constituencies in addition to Islington North. Starmer’s stance on Israel’s attacks on the Gaza Strip since October last year, as well as Labour’s unwillingness to adopt a decisive call for a ceasefire early in the war on Gaza, alienated a significant part of the Labour voting base. Despite their eagerness to oust the Tories, thousands of voters made clear that the next government would be held accountable for its international alliances, including support for Israel.

Gains were recorded by the Green Party, which secured four seats in Parliament, and Nigel Farage’s right-wing Reform UK, which obtained the same number of representatives despite joining the campaign at the last minute. The Liberal Democrats increased their representation to over 70 seats, while the Scottish National Party (SNP) suffered a major blow, keeping only 9 seats, down by 37 from the last election.

Despite widespread relief being reported at the Tories being ousted from power, many voters remain uncertain about what to expect from Starmer’s new cabinet. Labour’s campaign manifesto was described by many on the left as insufficient to represent a decisive break from the path set by the Tories, including the continued commodification of essential services such as healthcare. Speaking after the announcement of election results, Corbyn described the Labour manifesto as “thin, to put it mildly,” and emphasized that public demands for improvements will be huge.

Although the measures currently proposed by Labour are far from enough to get the UK on the right track, the presence of Corbyn and other progressive voices like Diane Abbott, who is likely to be re-elected as a Labour MP, will ensure the new administration is held accountable for its decisions.

“Tonight’s results in Islington North give us a glimpse of a different future, which puts the interests of the many ahead of those of the few,” Corbyn said in his post-election statement. “Tonight, we celebrate. Tomorrow, we organize. The energy we have unleashed will not go to waste.”

Original article republished from peoples dispatch under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.

Additional comments by dizzy dissident: I regard Keir Starmer as a thoroughly dishonest politician of the Tony Blair and Boris Johnson tradition. He has claimed to be a Socialist while intending to pursue a thoroughly conventional NeoLiberal and Zionist agenda. Despite campaigning on the inane slogan of “change” the reality is no change. Diss ent cannot be crushed without consequences.

Continue ReadingJeremy Corbyn wins Islington North as independent; Labour secures victory in general election

‘Historic’ Category 5 Hurricane Beryl Offers Terrifying View of Future

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Original article by JESSICA CORBETT republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

John Cangialosi, senior hurricane specialist at the National Hurricane Center, inspects a satellite image of Hurricane Beryl on July 1, 2024 in Miami, Florida.
 (Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

“Beryl isn’t ‘unbelievable,'” one expert said. “it’s what happens when you heat up the planet with fossil fuel pollution for decades.”

As Hurricane Beryl barreled toward Jamaica on Tuesday after killing at least four people in the Caribbean’s Windward Islands, climate scientists warned the record-breaking Category 5 storm is a present-tense example of what’s to come on a rapidly heating planet.

Even before the Atlantic hurricane season began on June 1, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted an 85% chance of above-normal activity and 17-25 total named storms this year. Matthew Cappucci, a meteorologist for The Washington Post‘s Capital Weather Gang, highlighted some records Beryl has already broken.

“There is a strong, well-documented link between the effects of human-induced climate change and the development of stronger, wetter storms that are more prone to rapidly intensify,” he wrote Tuesday. “Beryl sprung from a tropical depression to a Category 4 hurricane in just 48 hours, the fastest any storm on record has strengthened before the month of September.”

Beryl is also the earliest Category 4 and 5 hurricane on record in the Atlantic, Cappucci pointed out. Previously, the earliest storm to reach the top level of the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale was Emily, in mid-July of 2005.

The Capital Weather Gang reported that Beryl “strengthened more Monday night, its peak winds climbing to 165 mph. It has surpassed Emily (2005) as strongest July hurricane on record. It’s early July but Atlantic is acting like late August.”

Certified consulting meteorologist Chris Gloninger emphasized that “the climate crisis has led to well-above-average ocean water temperatures and helped this storm explode.”

As Stefan Rahmstorf of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and Potsdam University explained: “The heat in the upper ocean is the energy source for tropical cyclones. This heat is at record level, mainly caused by emissions from burning fossil fuel. That’s why an extreme hurricane season has been predicted for this year. It’s off to a bad start!”

Colorado State University meteorologist Philip Klotzbach on Monday shared graphics showing that “Caribbean ocean heat content today is normally what we get in the middle of September.”

While some expressed disbelief over the storm, CNN extreme weather editor Eric Zerkel stressed that “Beryl isn’t ‘unbelievable’ or ‘defying all logic,’ it’s what happens when you heat up the planet with fossil fuel pollution for decades. The oceans store roughly 90% of that excess heat. The ocean is as warm as it typically is… when Category 4 storms form. June is now August.”

Acknowledging Beryl’s strength, Steve Bowen, a meteorologist who serves as chief science officer at the global reinsurance firm Gallagher Re, concluded that “this is a massive warning sign for the rest of the season.”

Looking beyond this hurricane season, which ends in November, University of Hawaii at Mānoa professor and [C]Worthy co-founder David Ho said, “Let’s remember that things are just going to get [worse] as we continue to consume nearly 100 million barrels of oil every day.”

The “historic” storm is sparking calls for action to phase out fossil fuels across the globe. Noting how Beryl “is breaking records and leaving a trail of destruction throughout the Caribbean,” the U.S.-based Sunrise Movement argued that “we must prosecute Big Oil for their role in causing devastation like this.”

In response to a climate scientist who shared a photo of some damage Beryl has already caused, Rahmstorf expressed hope that people around the world won’t “wait with voting for climate stabilization until extremes hit their homes.”

Beryl made landfall Monday as a Category 4 hurricane on Carriacou, a Grenada island, and also affected St. Vincent and Grenadines. According to The Associated Press, at least four people were killed.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Tuesday afternoon that on its current path, “the center of Beryl will move quickly across the central Caribbean Sea today and is forecast to pass near Jamaica on Wednesday and the Cayman Islands on Thursday. The center is forecast to approach the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico on Thursday night.”

Original article by JESSICA CORBETT republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

Continue Reading‘Historic’ Category 5 Hurricane Beryl Offers Terrifying View of Future