After a summer marked by drought, massive wildfires and the war in Ukraine, French President Emmanuel Macron delivered a stark speech on Wednesday at the first cabinet meeting following the summer holiday break, warning of tough months ahead as the world faces a possible “end of abundance”.
“I believe that we are in the process of living through a tipping point or great upheaval. Firstly because we are living through… what could seem like the end of abundance,” said Macron, 44.
The speech appeared designed to prepare the country for what promises to be a difficult winter ahead, with energy prices rising sharply and many families struggling with inflation.
“The moment we are living … may seem to be structured by a series of crises, each more serious than the other,” Macron said, referring to the drought, fires and storms that have hit France during the summer as well as the Ukraine war and disruptions to global trade.
“Freedom has a cost,” Macron said, urging his ministers to be ambitious and the French to accept new policies adapted to current circumstances. “The battles we have to fight … will only be won through our efforts.”
Activists have taken part in a second day of protests to demand the Government end the cost-of-living and climate crisis by stopping new oil and gas.
The Just Stop Oil (JSO) group said that 250 of its supporters held marches through central London on Sunday where they disrupted traffic in shopping districts and tourist hubs before carrying out a sit-down protest on Waterloo Bridge.
A JSO spokesman said: “We will continue in civil resistance until this government takes immediate steps to meet our demand to end the cost-of-living and climate crisis by stopping new oil and gas.
Thousands of supporters of Just Stop Oil have blocked four bridges across the Thames.
Protesters blocked Waterloo Bridge, Westminster Bridge, Lambeth Bridge and Vauxhall Bridge with sit-down protests after marching from 25 points around the centre of London.
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The climate activists took to the streets in London as cost of living campaigners Enough Is Enough also held rallies.
The protests come as 200,000 union members walked out of work, with rail unions RMT, Aslef and TSSA, and postal workers’ union the CWU, striking over pay and conditions.
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Just Stop Oil has come into the autumn after a spring and summer of non-violent civil disobedience protests against England’s fuel distribution network.
As part of a coalition of groups, including Insulate Britain, Animal Rebellion, and Jeremy Corbyn’s Peace and Justice Project, it has broadened its demands from an end to all new oil infrastructure to include more taxes on the rich and support with energy bills.
Keir Starmer commits to play the caretaker role for Capitalism through the “hard times”.
11/9/24 Image added 10/9/24. This article has proved to be prophetic. It may continue to be prophetic in 20 or 30 years.
[Responding to applause] Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Here we are at the Labour Party conference 2022 - and thanks to the Tory party appointing simple maths misunderstanding incompetents - on the cusp of being elected the UK's government.
I'll let you into a secret conference. I am the Establishement's man (more on that later). What I want to tell you right now is that I will govern, WE will have a Labour govenment looking after the Capitalists' interests through the hard times ahead until the Conservatives can take over again, after the hard times ahead, with an almost sane leader.
Yes, I promise to you conference that you can depend on me to look after the rich and powerful just as the Tories do while they take a break and duck out of the total chaos that they've caused. And I say clearly to you conference, that I am proud to do this work for the rich and powerful, to be their servant, to keep them safe while I perform my caretaking role for Capitalism.
It has been a long road for me to achieve power and I want to thank those that have helped me. I particularly want to thank the Labour officials who were so hostile to and totally undermined the previous leader. And I particularly want to thank the Zionists.
I know that all of you in this hall, in this party can't say that word Zionist - that ist forbidden - but I can because I'm leader. So thanks to all the Zionists that hounded out the previous Labour leader and his supporters so that I was able to expell them for being opposed to Zionist apartheid, for being Socialists and anti-racist.(2) We can't have any of them in this party, this is a new era, we are at the centre of UK politics, we are New Labour, the New Red Tories.
We are in a new era conference. You will be aware that I thanked the Zionists by installing a former Israeli spy into the centre of Labour Party activities, actually a member of 8200 Unit, to spy on you members and pursue the interests of Israel.(1)
I am in thrall to Israel - but don't you dare call me a Zionist - dat is forbidden. As I said I am an Establishment man but unfortunately, what I have yet to realise is that the Establishment moves very slowly but ever so occasionally has seismic shifts. I still have yet to realise that the UK establishment may not be too pleased with me being so in thrall to a foreign state and installing a former Israeli spy in my office.
As I finish this sermon, I ask you all to join me in singing the National Anthem ...
(1) Also responsible for rapid rebuttal according to the job description.
(2) This is all well documented by al Jazeera in their 2 investigative reports 'The Lobby' and 'The Labour Files'.
Liz Truss has replaced Boris Johnson as prime minister of UK. The first obvious step intended to show the direction the new government intends was a budget presented by new Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng on Friday. Kwarteng fired the Treasury's permanent secretary in the preperation of this budget.
There is a cost of living crisis in UK driven by runaway inflation and massive increases in energy bills. Despite this, Truss and Kwarteng's budget benefitted the already stinking rich. The top rate of income tax of 45% for the highest earners was abolished so that the highest rate is now 40%. Clearly that's going to benefit the rich and the very rich most.
Despite denials, this is trickle-down economics with the idea being that the economy will be stimulated by the highest earners and that benefits will trickle-down to all. There is a simple, logical argument against trickle-down economics. It is that the rich already have money that they can spend to stimulate the economy and they're not doing it, if they're already not spending their wealth, why should they now start?
There is also an alternative, logical argument that to stimulate the economy it's best to instead help the poor. The argument is that the poor are desperate and that any money they receive to alleviate their wreched situations will be spent and therefore stimulate the economy.
It appears that Liz Truss and her Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng are pursuing outdated, discredited and abandoned economic theories which are the exact opposite to what is needed. Markets responded poorly to the budget.
