Fair taxes on private jets and superyachts could have raised up to £2bn last year, Oxfam finds
FAIR taxes on private jets and superyachts could have raked in £2 billion last year to help communities devastated by climate change, an Oxfam report revealed today.
Britain has the second-highest number of private jet flights in Europe, trailing only behind France.
Oxfam found that there were 192,052 private jet flights to and from Britain last year, not including those for medical, government, or military purposes.
According to climate charity Possible, flying by private jet can be up to 30 times more polluting than standard flights.
Oxfam also found that Britain is also home to 450 fuel-guzzling superyachts.
Indiana University academics found that a superyacht with a permanent crew, helicopter pad, submarines and pools emits an estimated 7,020 (US) tonnes of CO2 a year. In comparison, petrol cars produce about 1,749kg a year.
Oxfam is calling on Chancellor Rachel Reeves to increase taxes on the super-rich using these modes of transport, and redirect the funds to help tackle the climate emergency, while preventing lower-income families from shouldering the burden.
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‘Let there be no doubt, lives will be lost’
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/let-there-be-no-doubt-lives-will-be-lost
More than 1.7 million households plan on keeping their heating off this year, survey reveals
LIVES will be lost, campaigners warned today after a survey revealed that more than 1.7 million households do not plan on turning on their heating this year.
The number of those who said they will keep the heating off in polling for Uswitch is nearly double the 972,000 who said they did not heat their homes last year.
Fifty-five per cent of those blamed the continued rise of the cost of living, while 25 per cent of those over 65 said their decision followed the loss of winter fuel payments.
Another one million households will not turn on the heating until December to keep costs down, according to the poll.
About 43 per cent of households said they will only turn the heating on if they are too cold while 31 per cent will only heat some rooms in their home.
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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/let-there-be-no-doubt-lives-will-be-lost
Charities demand to meet UK ministers as 1.6m disabled OAPs set to lose winter fuel payments
Call comes after government forced to reveal that 71% of pensioners with disabilities will lose entitlement despite dependence on warmer homes
Groups representing disabled people are demanding urgent meetings with ministers after it was revealed that 1.6 million pensioners with disabilities will lose their winter fuel payments because of government cuts.
The figures were released by the Department for Work and Pensions on Friday evening, in answer to a freedom of information request, despite the government having said it had done no official impact assessment on the policy. The internal DWP analysis also suggested that nine in 10 pensioners aged between 66 and 79, and eight out of 10 over-80s would lose their allowance.
Since those over 80 receive a higher payment – £300 as opposed to £200 – they would take the greatest financial hit, the document said.
The analysis revealed that although people with disabilities were more likely to retain the payment, 71% – 1.6 million – would still lose their entitlement, despite their greater dependence on heating their homes.
The analysis also estimated that of the 880,000 pensioners entitled to pension credit but who do not claim the benefit, only 100,000 are expected to sign up to it as a result of a government campaign now under way, meaning about 780,000 pensioners on low incomes would continue to miss out.
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Morning Star Editorial: Change or die: Starmer must abandon Treasury orthodoxy or face oblivion
“CHANGE or die” was Keir Starmer’s message to the National Health Service.
But it could as well apply to his own government, which already appears locked in a downward spiral.
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Labour secured the election with the smallest share of the vote for a new government in history and on a low turnout to boot. Barely one eligible voter in five chose Labour on July 4.
Starmer himself, moreover, saw half of his 2019 vote — and that was not a good year for Labour — disappear in his north London constituency.
But the only conclusion he has apparently drawn is that more misery must be piled on the public.
First, he maintained the cruel two-child benefit cap, and suspended from the Parliamentary Labour Party those MPs who had the temerity to vote to lift children out of poverty.
Then he appeared in the Downing Street garden to announce that things were only going to get worse for the foreseeable future, preparing the way for that new round of austerity he had pledged to avoid during the election campaign.
His pretence is that “tough choices” are needed because of an unexpected “black hole” left behind in the public finances by the Tories.
But the choices made by Chancellor Rachel Reeves and Starmer are always “tough” at the expense of the poorest.
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In 2017 Labour estimated that means-testing the winter fuel allowance would lead to nearly 4,000 extra fatalities. Today, following exactly that policy, the government conceals the possible consequences, having either not commissioned an assessment of the policy’s impact, or determined to hide it.
It is said that you only get one chance to make a first impression. The first impression of this government is now set in stone — it is of callous cost-consciousness compounded by concealment.
This is not “fixing the foundations” as Starmer claims. It is fracturing them, and many Labour MPs know it.
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