The news is full of it: July set to be the warmest month on record meaning that temperatures are running away or as UN chief Antonio Guterres said the planet is entering an “era of global boiling”.
This is a result of Capitalism. Capitalists see nothing wrong with simply profiteering and disregarding the consequences of their actions: they’re more than happy to feck the planet and profit from it. That’s exactly how we’ve arrived here and – of course – why do you imagine that they’ll stop now? Capitalist scum like Lord Frost, Liz Truss, Rishi Sunak, Grant Shapps and Michael Gove will tell you that trashing the planet is a price worth paying to fatten their and their friends’ wallets.
We need to snatch power from these planet-destroying Capitalist scum to have any meaningful climate action. It’s pointless voting Capitalist Conservative or the Red Capitalist Labour variety. We need to elect Greens and we need Greens to pull their fingers out ffs!
16.25: Suggest that we abandon the electoral democratic route if the Capitalists further attack our planet. It’s a plutocracy not a democracy after all – why should we respect or be held to democratic norms?
Labour policy is shifting ever further rightwards. That won’t and can’t change as long as only tainted City money is filling the party’s empty coffers
Image of Keir Starmer sucking up to the rich and powerful at the World Economic Forum, Davos
What has happened to Britain’s opposition Labour Party under Keir Starmer? The familiar adage “follow the money” helps make sense of the party’s policy shifts ever further rightwards.
Labour plumbed new depths earlier this month when it conceded that, in power, it would maintain the government’s cap on child benefit, restricting financial help to the first two children in a family.
The cap, one of the Conservatives’ most socially regressive measures, was denounced as “heinous” and “obscene” by shadow cabinet ministers after it was introduced. Even Starmer called it “punitive” when he was trying to win over Labour members in the 2020 leadership vote.
Hundreds of thousands of children and their families are reported to have been driven below the breadline since the benefit cap came into effect in 2017.
No other country in the world has a similar policy. But in Britain, punishing children is now a bipartisan issue.
US records show Starmer met with Attorney General Eric Holder and a host of American and British national security officials in Washington in 2011, when he was in charge of Julian Assange’s proposed extradition to Sweden.
Starmer was in Washington three times while in charge of Assange’s proposed extradition to Sweden
Starmer led five-person British delegation that met with Holder for 45 minutes in Washington in November 2011
Delegation included the UK liaison prosecutor to the US, who dealt with extradition
Meeting was also attended by head of US Department of Justice’s national security division
CPS refuses to clarify to Declassified if destruction of the Washington documents is routine procedure
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), England and Wales’ public prosecutor, has deleted all records of its former head Keir Starmer’s trips to the US, it can be revealed.
Starmer served as Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) from 2008-13, a period when the body was overseeing Julian Assange’s proposed extradition to Sweden to face questioning over sexual assault allegations.
Starmer, who became an MP in 2015, is now leader of the Labour Party. Assange, meanwhile, faces imminent extradition to the US to face up to 175 years in prison under charges mostly related to the US Espionage Act.
While DPP, Starmer made trips to Washington in 2009, 2011, 2012 and 2013 at a cost to the British taxpayer of £21,603. It was his most frequent foreign destination while in post. Max Hill, the current DPP, has made just one trip to Washington during his five-year tenure.
During Starmer’s time in post, the CPS was marred by irregularities surrounding the case of the WikiLeaks founder.
During Starmer’s time in post, the CPS was marred by irregularities surrounding the case of the WikiLeaks founder.
The organisation has admitted to destroying key emails related to the Assange case, mostly covering the period when Starmer was in charge, while the CPS lawyer overseeing the case advised the Swedes in 2010 or 2011 not to visit London to interview Assange.
An interview at that time could have prevented the long-running embassy standoff.
Assange and WikiLeaks began publishing classified US diplomatic cables – in alliance with some of the world’s largest newspapers – in November 2010. In the same month, Sweden issued an international arrest warrant for Assange over allegations of sexual misconduct, leading to a protracted legal battle, in which the CPS was heavily involved.
Italian journalist Stefania Maurizi has been waging a years-long legal fight to access documents related to the CPS and Assange case. However, the role of its then head, Keir Starmer, in the episode has always remained unclear.
Labour leader Keir Starmer (centre) with then US secretary of state Mike Pompeo (R) and then US ambassador to Britain, Woody Johnson, in London, 21 July 2020. Pompeo said in 2019 “we will do our level best” to stop Jeremy Corbyn getting elected. (Photo: US State Department)
Starmer served on the Trilateral Commission alongside two former heads of the CIA without telling Jeremy Corbyn—who would have blocked it, Declassified can reveal.
Declassified discovers Starmer joined the Trilateral Commission between 2017-18 while he was Corbyn’s shadow Brexit secretary
He is one of only two serving British MPs to have been a member, according to available records
Starmer spoke at group’s London event in 2017 alongside former heads of MI5 and GCHQ
Former CIA director said in 2019 “we will do our level best” to stop Corbyn getting elected
Corbyn’s former spokesman tells Declassified that Starmer’s membership “was plainly incompatible with Labour’s then-stated policies”
Keir Starmer joined an international grouping closely linked to US and UK intelligence while he was serving in Jeremy Corbyn’s shadow cabinet, Declassified has found.
The Trilateral Commission describes itself as a “global membership organisation” which seeks “to discuss and propose solutions to some of the world’s toughest problems”. Its meetings are strictly off-the-record.
It was founded in 1973 by billionaire banker David Rockefeller as a networking group for elites from the US, Europe and Japan. Rockefeller was close to the leadership of the CIA at the time.
Membership records seen by Declassified show Starmer joined the Trilateral Commission at some point between March 2017 and October 2018. He left at some point between April 2021 and June 2022.
Starmer was a member of the Trilateral Commission alongside two former heads of the CIA, and spoke at one of its London events alongside the former heads of MI5 and GCHQ.
The current Labour leader served as Jeremy Corbyn’s shadow Brexit secretary from 2016-19. In this role, he was integral to the push for a second referendum on exiting the European Union, a position that many fault for Labour’s catastrophic performance in the 2019 election.
AS heatwaves and wildfires sweep across swathes of southern Europe, north Africa and North America, today’s report from the World Weather Attribution (WWA) rang timely alarm bells.
WWA scientists predict that highly inflammatory temperatures of up to 45°C (Palermo has just reached 47°C) should no longer be regarded as unusual.
They estimate that heatwaves of the kind we have seen this July can be expected to recur around once every 15 years in North America, every 10 years in Europe and every five years in China.
Moreover, they warn that if the planet’s temperatures rise by another 1°C, on top of the 1°C increase since the late 19th century, heatwaves and wildfires will strike even more frequently.
Underlying these projections is the certainty — supported by an Everest-sized pile of scientific evidence and shared by almost all climate scientists and their professional organisations — that human activity is by far the biggest cause of global warming.
…
Yet the Westminster government and the Labour opposition have spent the past week — of all weeks — diluting the case and the policies for meeting Britain’s net-zero emissions target by 2050.
The Conservatives favour the exploitation of new oil, gas and coal sources while blocking onshore wind developments. With Labour’s support, they are pushing ahead with a major rearmament programme. As the Scientists for Global Responsibility point out in their invaluable report, The Environmental Impacts of the UK Military Sector (2020), the production, testing and use of armaments contribute hugely to greenhouse gas emissions — yet the figures are concealed from the public and excluded from official statistics by Britain and many other states.
The Labour leadership has announced the postponement of its Green Investment Plan even before winning a general election and taking office.
Instead of explaining the need for ultra-low emission zones (Ulez) based on genuine local consultation and support for people’s jobs and living standards, Keir Starmer blames London’s Labour mayor and Ulez for the party’s defeat in a parliamentary by-election.