Keir Starmer

The climate credentials of Rishi Sunak’s cabinet :: Labour policy indistinguishable from Grant Shapps ‘bonkers’ policy

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Keir Starmer’s Labour Party are positioning themselves as the new red Tories and have committed to continuing whatever the Tories do about energy. Labour have adopted the Tories energy policy exctly, there is no difference between them.

https://labour.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Mission-Climate.pdf [my emphasis in bold].

Labour and the country value the contribution of all those working in energy, including oil and gas, to powering the UK now and into the future. That is why, as part of our approach, Labour will ensure a phased and responsible transition in the North Sea, partnering with business and workers to manage our existing fields for the entirety of their lifespan. As the North Sea Transition Authority (NTSA) itself indicates, oil and gas production in the North Sea will be with us for decades to come. The charts below show that the significant majority of proven gas in the North Sea lies in existing fields. In the case of oil, there are more potential new fields, but 80 per cent of our oil production is exported abroad.

Under Labour’s plans, North Sea oil and gas will continue for decades to come. We will not revoke licences. But we will also build alternative opportunities for workers that transition out of oil and gas, in decommissioning, carbon capture and storage, hydrogen, and renewables like offshore wind. Labour has committed to not handout new licences to explore new oil and gas fields, which we believe would not offer the right answer for the economy or the environment. We will act to ensure continued investment in our offshore infrastructure and workforce as the North Sea becomes home to new forms of energy production. Labour will work with offshore communities and trade unions to avoid a repeat of the mistakes of the past. As oil and gas workers consider the future of their industry, they should be in no doubt about Labour’s commitment to prevent a transition akin to the Tories’ closure of the coal mines of the 1980s. We will not let that happen again.

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This is Grant Shapps bonkers policy. Bonkers, insane, mad because there can be no new oil or gas without trashing the planet.

https://www.ipcc.ch/2022/04/04/ipcc-ar6-wgiii-pressrelease/

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Limiting global warming will require major transitions in the energy sector. This will involve a substantial reduction in fossil fuel use, widespread electrification, improved energy efficiency, and use of alternative fuels (such as hydrogen).

“Having the right policies, infrastructure and technology in place to enable changes to our lifestyles and behaviour can result in a 40-70% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. This offers significant untapped potential,” said IPCC Working Group III Co-Chair Priyadarshi Shukla. “The evidence also shows that these lifestyle changes can improve our health and wellbeing.”

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Climate protestors march in Washington DC
Climate protestors march in Washington DC
Continue ReadingThe climate credentials of Rishi Sunak’s cabinet :: Labour policy indistinguishable from Grant Shapps ‘bonkers’ policy

The climate credentials of Rishi Sunak’s cabinet :: Keir Starmer

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While Keir Starmer is leader of the UK Labour Party and therefore notionally supposedly opposed to Rushi Sunak’s cabinet and government, he’s a Tory pretending to be a Socialist, a red Tory.

https://youtu.be/DDEdFxUZ01s

Keir Starmer has abandoned every one of his Socialist ‘pledges’ on taking over the Labour Party. Included in these pledges is

3. Climate justice

Put the Green New Deal at the heart of everything we do. There is no issue more important to our future than the climate emergency. A Clean Air Act to tackle pollution locally. Demand international action on climate rights.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/feb/23/keir-starmer-denies-abandoning-labour-leadership-pledges

… He denied that the 10 promises he made during the 2020 race to succeed Jeremy Corbyn had been abandoned and insisted they remained “important statements of value and principle”.

However, Starmer refused to confirm that he stood by several of them, including public ownership of utilities and rail services and the abolition of university tuition fees.

He has been repeatedly criticised by some on the left of the party who accuse him of shifting away from the platform he stood on three years ago.

Challenged on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme over whether voters could trust him to deliver the five new national missions, Starmer said the pledges made during his Labour leadership bid “haven’t all been abandoned by any stretch of the imagination”.

He said: “What I’ve had to do is obviously adapt some of them to the circumstances we find ourselves in. Since I ran for leader, we’ve had Covid. Since I ran for leader, we’ve had the conflict in Ukraine. Since I ran for leader, we’ve had a government that’s done huge damage to our economy.” …

On climate commitments specifically,

9 Jun 2023 Labour postpones £28bn green plan as it seeks to be trusted on public finances

… Labour has scaled back plans to borrow £28bn a year to invest in green jobs and industry as the party’s leadership looks to review its spending in an attempt to prove its fiscal credibility.

The shadow chancellor, Rachel Reeves, delayed plans for a green prosperity fund to start in the first year of a Labour government, saying it would “ramp up” by the middle of a first parliament.

She said the decision had to be taken as a result of the poor economic backdrop and rising interest rates, after Liz Truss’s short premiership crashed the markets last autumn. …

18 Jun 2023 Keir Starmer to ‘throw everything’ at plan to get UK to net zero

… Keir Starmer will pledge to “throw everything” at net zero and the overhaul of the UK’s energy system and industries, promising new jobs in “the race of our lifetime” to a low-carbon future.

The Labour leader will seek to regain the initiative on his plan for green growth on Monday, having rowed back earlier this month on a pledge to invest £28bn in a green industrial strategy, a figure that will not now be reached until the second half of a Labour parliament, as well as damaging rows with trade unions over the future of the North Sea.

Announcing a package of policies designed to decarbonise the energy system and industry, Starmer will say: “We’re going to throw everything at this: planning reform, procurement, long-term finance, R&D, a strategic plan for skills and supply chains … Pulling together for a simple, unifying priority: British power for British jobs.” …

This is when the Tories started accusing Labour of pursuing Just Stop Oil policies. “Grant Shapps, the energy secretary, accused the Labour leader of being “the political wing” of Just Stop Oil.” There’s also actually a suggestion of terrorism in Grant Shapp’s comment … that phrase.

His team also rebuffed suggestions of a U-turn on the North Sea oil ban. Rescinding permission for projects that have cleared all regulatory hurdles before the general election would be costly and legally complex, so the party’s proposed ban on new oilfields will not cover projects that have achieved all three levels of consent, for exploration, development and production.

It is unlikely that many of the more than 100 North Sea licences the government is mulling would fall into that category, though one of the biggest – the Rosebank oil and gas field – could clear the final regulatory hurdles soon.

It’s not possible to get to Net Zero if Rosebank is permitted. Just like everything else, Keir Starmer and the Labour party can’t be trusted on the climate.

Which is why he gets heckled by climate protestors

Continue ReadingThe climate credentials of Rishi Sunak’s cabinet :: Keir Starmer

Business as usual as Starmer proves his loyalty with every rightward move

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Image of Keir Starmer sucking up to the rich and powerful at the World Economic Forum, Davos
Image of Keir Starmer sucking up to the rich and powerful at the World Economic Forum, Davos

https://www.counterfire.org/article/business-as-usual-as-starmer-proves-his-loyalty-with-every-rightward-move-weekly-briefing/

Lindsey German on … [Keith Starmer] , the establishment’s friend …

The fate of Thames Water should be the end of the privatisation model pioneered by Thatcher in the 1980s. The major utilities and public companies were sold off at undervalued prices, their shares rapidly snapped up by big corporations and investors, prices for consumers rose rapidly, and profits went to shareholders, not to investment. That’s why today the common refrain about most parts of public life in Britain is that nothing works. And it is epitomised by Thames Water drowning in debt and likely to be taken back into public ownership temporarily.

But any form of nationalisation is going to be resisted to the bitter end, not just by the greedy privatised companies themselves, but by the Tories and the increasingly right-wing Labour Party under Keir Starmer. The cheek of the privatised companies was illustrated when the head of another, Severn Trent, convened a meeting of all the water firms to explicitly discuss ways of resisting nationalisation. And it’s no use going to the supposed regulators for help. As the Observer reported, ‘27 former Ofwat directors, managers and consultants [are] working in the industry they helped to regulate, with about half in senior posts.’ So a number of those regulating the industry have moved over to take lucrative positions in…. the privatised water companies.

While investors take the money and run, working class people are left with dire and expensive services that fail frequently because there is no investment. The water companies are publicly disgraced because of their dumping of sewage in rivers and seas, rather than invest in new treatment plants. But in London (and no doubt elsewhere) there have been several burst water mains, risking lives as they cause disruption sometimes for months, because of lack of investment. In the southeast of England, drinking water supplies have failed ‘because of the hot weather’, in what must be the lamest excuse from a company supposed to provide just that.

The answer from government and industry alike is that future investment will have to be paid for by us, through much higher bills and higher taxes. Already gas and electricity is beyond affordable for millions. But the energy companies will set the benchmark for other industries as profits are protected. No wonder nearly 13 million adults struggle to pay bills.

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https://www.counterfire.org/article/business-as-usual-as-starmer-proves-his-loyalty-with-every-rightward-move-weekly-briefing/

dizzy: Under Capitalism failing companies would normally go bankrupt so that the companies’ debts would be transferred to it’s creditors. This is not the case with the banks in the banking crisis of 2008, the energy companies failures of recent years and it looks like failing water companies now. Instead of the companies creditors shouldering the debt as part of the normal process, the poor public is instead burdened with it. This is great for the banks of course because it means that they can borrow without any risk of default, knowing that they will profiteer from the public regardless.

Dianne Abbott: The idea of renationalisation refuses to die

Take Thames Water into public ownership petition amasses tens of thousands of signatures

Continue ReadingBusiness as usual as Starmer proves his loyalty with every rightward move