Rishi Sunak

Just Stop Oil activist handed shocking six-month prison sentence for slow marching

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/just-stop-oil-activist-handed-shocking-six-month-prison-sentence-slow-marching

Just Stop Oil protesters as they take part in a slow march protest through London as part of the group’s campaign to convince the government to end all new oil and gas projects in the UK, April 24, 2023

THE government’s draconian anti-protest laws have been used to give a shocking six-month prison sentence to a climate activist for taking part in a peaceful slow march.

Just Stop Oil supporter Stephen Gingell, 57, was sentenced at Manchester magistrates’ court on Thursday.

The father-of-three was arrested on November 13 after taking part in a slow march in north London for about half an hour.

Mr Gingell pleaded guilty to breaching section seven of the Public Order Act, which bans any act “which interferes with the use or operation of any key national infrastructure in England and Wales.”

Passed in May, the widely condemned legislation allows police to ban peaceful protests merely on the grounds that they might become disruptive.

“It seems this government has now made walking down the road, walking on the public highway, an illegal act that is worthy of imprisonment,” a Just Stop Oil spokesperson said.

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/just-stop-oil-activist-handed-shocking-six-month-prison-sentence-slow-marching

Continue ReadingJust Stop Oil activist handed shocking six-month prison sentence for slow marching

About TRANSFORM

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https://transformpolitics.uk/about/

This is an era of crisis: climate change, the cost of living, the erosion of democracy and the spread of war.

We urgently need an answer. But in Britain, while the Tory party fuels these crises, the Labour Party is failing to provide an alternative.

The right wing has regained control of Labour. Jeremy Corbyn, and his politics that inspired millions across our society, have been cast out.

Labour now opposes a ceasefire in Gaza, doesn’t support strikes, rejects nationalisation, refuses to defend refugees, and won’t scrap student fees – or even the two-child benefit cap.

Keir Starmer has overseen the driving out of 200,000 Labour members. ‘The many’ who supported Labour politics from 2015 to 2019 are denied a political voice.

We need a political organisation that offers a real solution: one that challenges the system at the root of every crisis we face.

Over recent months, organisations and individuals from the labour and trade union movement have come together to discuss a way forward. These include existing left parties, Breakthrough, Left Unity and the Liverpool Community Independents, together with others who were in the Labour Party and more from across the left.

Now we’ve taken the next step: founding a new party of the left.

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https://transformpolitics.uk/about/

16/12/23 Link to X/twitter not working for some strange reason. Here’s the video

Continue ReadingAbout TRANSFORM

Rwanda plans are an affront to democracy and human rights, say Greens  

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Image of the Green Party's Carla Denyer on BBC Question Time.
Image of the Green Party’s Carla Denyer on BBC Question Time.

Responding to the government publishing plans to disapply sections of the Human Rights Act to get around a Supreme Court ruling banning the deportation of people seeking asylum to Rwanda for processing, Green Party co-leader Carla Denyer said: 

“The fact that the government is going to try to use its parliamentary majority to over-ride established human rights protections is an affront to democracy. 

“We need a system that welcomes refugees through clear, open, safe and legal routes, that offers quick and efficient determinations and support for resettlement into local communities with properly funded local services.” 

“Instead of creating an asylum system that works, the government is deliberately making it chaotic and inaccessible to put people off using their right to seek asylum.  

“It is the use of cruelty and inhumanity as a tool of public policy and cannot be allowed to go unchallenged. 

“Everyone deserves to be treated in a way that is fair and humane. This new legislation will remove fundamental legal protections designed to protect us all from the arbitrary power of the state.”

Continue ReadingRwanda plans are an affront to democracy and human rights, say Greens  

UK likely to miss Paris climate targets by wide margin, analysis shows

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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/dec/05/uk-miss-paris-climate-targets-emissions

Exclusive: Under current policies, Britain could fall short of internationally agreed goal of 68% cut in emissions by 2030

The UK government is likely to miss its targets under the Paris climate agreement by a wide margin, analysis shows, dealing a devastating blow to Britain’s standing on the international stage.

Under current policies, the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions are likely to be 59% lower in 2030 than they were in 1990 – but the country’s internationally agreed target is for a 68% reduction by the end of this decade. The gap is likely to leave Britain in breach of these commitments.

The 2030 emissions goal was agreed at Cop26, the UN climate summit hosted by the UK in Glasgow in 2021, and has been reaffirmed at Cop28, taking place in Dubai this week.

Failure to meet the UK’s commitments would hinder international efforts to limit global temperature rises to 1.5C (2.7F) above pre-industrial levels.

The estimate comes from analysis of publicly available and government data carried out by Friends of the Earth. It found that current policies would achieve just over half the emissions cuts needed by 2030.

The gap had grown significantly under Rishi Sunak’s leadership, Friends of the Earth found.

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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/dec/05/uk-miss-paris-climate-targets-emissions

Image of UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak reads 1% RICHEST 100% CLIMATE DENIER
Image of UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak reads 1% RICHEST 100% CLIMATE DENIER
Continue ReadingUK likely to miss Paris climate targets by wide margin, analysis shows

Chris Packham launches legal challenge over UK’s watering down of climate policies

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Chris Packham by Garry Knight from London, England - People's Walk for Wildlife 2018 - 04, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=76235680
Chris Packham by Garry Knight from London, England – People’s Walk for Wildlife 2018 – 04, CC BY 2.0.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/dec/04/chris-packham-launches-legal-challenge-over-uks-watering-down-of-climate-policies

Chris Packham has filed a high court legal challenge to the UK government over its decision to weaken key climate policies.

The broadcaster and environmental campaigner has applied for a judicial review of the government’s decision to ditch the timetable for phasing out petrol and diesel powered cars and vans, gas boilers, off-grid fossil fuel domestic heating and minimum energy ratings for homes.

A Department for Energy Security and Net Zero spokesperson said it rejected Packham’s claims and would “robustly” defend the challenge. The measures and their schedule had been set out in the government’s carbon budget delivery plan, which was put before parliament in March this year.

In September, Rishi Sunak announced he would delay the ban on selling new diesel and petrol cars from 2030 to 2035 and that 20% of households would be exempt from a new gas boiler ban among other changes, arguing that he did not want to burden ordinary people with the costs.

Following the announcement, Packham wrote to Sunak, the energy secretary and the transport secretary to challenge the decision, arguing that the prime minister did not have the legal right to change the timeline of carbon budget pledges at will, since the actioning of the carbon budget delivery plan was governed by statute.

Packham said he did not receive a satisfactory response to his letter and therefore filed the judicial review application.

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Image of UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak reads 1% RICHEST 100% CLIMATE DENIER
Image of UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak reads 1% RICHEST 100% CLIMATE DENIER

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/dec/04/chris-packham-launches-legal-challenge-over-uks-watering-down-of-climate-policies

Continue ReadingChris Packham launches legal challenge over UK’s watering down of climate policies