Image: The Spring Budget is due to be delivered on 6 March 2024 | Credit: iStock
MPs from Labour, Lib Dems, Green Party, SNP, Plaid Cymru, and Alliance have jointly called for a green investment-friendly Spring Budget on Wednesday
A group of cross-party MPs and peers have called on the Chancellor to prioritise new public investment in net zero infrastructure and skills in this week’s Spring Budget, in a move they argue would help to “futureproof our economy and our energy system”.
In a letter addressed to Jeremy Hunt on Friday, Parliamentarians from across political divides urged the Chancellor to “use the forthcoming Spring Budget to address the ongoing underinvestment crisis the UK is facing” by funnelling more public spending to help deliver on net zero goals.
It also calls on the government to publish a Net Zero Investment Plan in order to “identify and close the gap between actual and required financial flows” and help catalyse increased investment from the private sector.
And the letter calls on the Treasury to work with the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) to set out a plan to ensure “every household has access to energy efficiency measures and fossil-free heat via a combination of grants and low-cost loans”.
Green Party Co-leader Adrian Ramsay. Wikipedia CC.
The Green Party has repeated calls for water companies to be brought into public ownership in response to the latest State of Our Rivers report. This has found not a single waterway in England is in good overall health. The Rivers Trust study reveals that the impact of pollution from treated and untreated sewage and agricultural and industrial runoff means rivers are in a worse condition than ever.
Green Party co-leader Adrian Ramsay said:
“The state of our rivers is a national scandal. Despite public outcry over our polluted waterways and coastline the latest State of Our Rivers report shows things haven’t improved since the last report in 2021.
“For too long water companies and consecutive governments have failed to act. Taking our water companies into public ownership, so they work for people, not profit, will be a clear Green Party manifesto commitment.
“For decades, money that should have been invested in improved infrastructure has been siphoned off to water company executives and shareholders. It’s time to flush this failed experiment with privatisation down the drain and for a service as vital as water and sewage to be run for the public good.
“It should also be acknowledged that agricultural pollution contributes to 62% of waterways in England failing to meet good standards. We need to learn from the many innovative farmers who are using regenerative and organic farming methods that prevent chemical runoff into rivers.
“Our rivers should be havens for wildlife and biodiversity and healthy places for people to enjoy. In too many cases they more closely resemble open sewers. Green MPs will make cleaning up our act on water pollution a key priority.”
Rishi Sunak offers huge fossil fuel subsidies to develop fossil fuel extraction in UK.
Concerns over corruption in government have been rising over recent years.
In yet another damning poll for Rishi Sunak’s government, almost half of voters believe that the current Tory government is more corrupt than previous UK governments.
The poll, carried out by Savanta, found that 47% of voters think the current government is more corrupt than previous governments. Only 7% of voters thought it was less corrupt.
57% of 25-34 year olds say that they think the current government is more corrupt than previous governments, while the figure drops to 41% for those aged 65 and over.
When it comes to party affiliation, while only 27% of Tory voters think that the current government is more corrupt, that figure jumps to 67% among Labour Party voters and 57% of Lib Dem voters.
Concerns over corruption in government have been rising after it was found that 1 in 5 government Covid contracts awarded between February and November 2020 contained one or more red flags for possible corruption and require urgent further investigation, according to Transparency International.
LFF’s poll shows the sheer scale of dissatisfaction with the Tory government in a general election year.
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Exclusive polling carried out for Left Foot Forward by Savanta, of 2260 voters, found that 66% of voters believe that Britain is now in a worse state than in 2010, compared to just 14% who say things have got better.
While half of 18-24 year olds say that Britain has got worse since 2010, the figure rises to 72% among those aged 65 and over. 71% of those aged 55-64 say they also think things have got worse, as do 66% of those aged between 35-44.
When it comes to party affiliation, even a majority of Tory party voters, 61%, say that Britain is now worse than in 2010, along with 68% of Labour Party voters, 67% of Lib Dem voters and 70% of Green Party voters.
The Tories and Labour competing over hardline immigration policies only helps to mainstream far-right ideas
Rishi Sunak conducts a press conference in December 2023 | James Manning (WPA Pool)/Getty Images
Standing at a lectern with the familiar slogan, “STOP THE BOATS”, Rishi Sunak evoked the “will of the people” as the so-called Rwanda Bill made its fractious passage through the Commons last week.
The prime minister’s summoning of “the people” to push through an inhumane and unpopular policy smacks of the misuse of populism that we have come to associate with this government. The insistence that stopping people seeking asylum is “an urgent national issue” deliberately ignores that the priority issues for the British public remain the cost of living and the NHS.
We have seen both main political parties eagerly trading punches for the prize of who can appear most punitive on blocking people seeking asylum. Not only does this stale consensus manufacture a sense of crisis that is a distortion of public opinion, but it also pretends it has nothing to do with racism. And yet whether it’s warning about a “hurricane” or “invasion” of migrants and the failures of multiculturalism, or condemning Britain’s “immigration dependency”, the messaging relies on innuendo and euphemism that stoke racial tensions.
The Runnymede Trust, where I am the interim co-CEO, has today published a report warning of the dangers of this rotten politics that helps mainstream far-right, racist political ideas. Political debate on immigration, based on racialised ideas of who is welcome and who belongs, has become the norm. Whether directly or indirectly, historic and contemporary migration policies are predicated on the exclusion of people of colour. As exemplified by the Windrush scandal, this cheap politics has a high cost – and it is people of colour, regardless of their citizenship status, who bear the ugly consequences.
These toxic anti-migrant policies are coupled with a sustained assault on our democratic infrastructure. In 2022, the government passed the Elections Act, which made it a requirement that voters present ID at polling stations. There was strong opposition about the impact on people of colour. The first UK elections to use them – the May 2023 local elections – confirmed these fears. The Electoral Commission reported about 14,000 people were turned away, and that people of colour and disabled people were most likely to be impacted. The commission predicts 800,000 people could be blocked from voting at the next general election – an incredible price to pay when there were just six cases of voter fraud in 2019.
It’s not just legislation, but also through rhetoric that politicians have persistently attacked the right to protest. Indeed, former home secretary Suella Braverman labelled pro-Palestine marches “hate marches” and compared them with wicked vexation to Black Lives Matter protests – both causes which have high levels of support among communities of colour.
And dare I even mention the ‘culture war’ and the injuries it has inflicted on the strength of civil society? In recent years we have seen the vilification of organisations across the arts, heritage, charity sector and our higher education spaces. The targets have often been those that have dared to embark on progressive racial justice work, who have been demonised with the absurd inversion of the term ‘woke’.
The fact it is the likes of Braverman and her replacement James Cleverly – ministers of colour – who have designed and executed these policies, shows diversity at the top does not protect against racist impact, nor does it mean people in those positions won’t have divergent or indeed opposing political interests to those with whom they may share some points of affinity.
The politics of representation may prioritise superficial visibility, but we mustn’t forget people in positions of power have always designed and inflicted policies that have harmed those they are deemed to share some interest with.
As we prepare for the 2024 general election, we must act to stop the rot of our democracy. Pandering to far-right politics by creating a crisis around small boats and invoking the “will of the people” to implement punitive and racist policies while ignoring the needs of the very people they invoke is unacceptable. On every count, it is people of colour that lose.
