These damning stats tell you everything you need to know about Tory Britain

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UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Energy Security and Net Zero Secretary Grant Shapps.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Energy Security and Net Zero Secretary Grant Shapps. Credit: Simon Dawson / 10 Downing Street, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

https://leftfootforward.org/2023/09/these-damning-stats-tell-you-everything-you-need-to-know-about-tory-britain/

A new report from the National Federation for Education Research (NFER) has exposed the shocking scale of child poverty in England. The NFER surveyed senior leaders and teachers at state funded primary and secondary schools, and the results were staggering:

  • 90 per cent of all schools were found to be providing uniforms and clothing to pupils
  • 70 per cent of schools were found to be providing food through parcels, food banks, food vouchers or subsidised breakfasts.
  • 84 per cent of senior school leaders report that the cost of living crisis has increased the numbers of pupils requiring additional support and the level of need they have.
  • More than a quarter of pupils in mainstream school require additional support for mental health and wellbeing.
  • 80 per cent of school leaders agree that cost of living pressures have increased safeguarding concerns and/or incidents in their schools.
  • More than three fifths of mainstream school leaders report that 50 per cent or more of pupils receiving additional support are not eligible for pupil premium (a scheme that provides additional funding for disadvantaged pupils).

https://leftfootforward.org/2023/09/these-damning-stats-tell-you-everything-you-need-to-know-about-tory-britain/

Continue ReadingThese damning stats tell you everything you need to know about Tory Britain

Former oil executive Mark McAllister lined up to be next Ofgem chair

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Just Stop Oil protesting in London 6 December 2022.
Just Stop Oil protesting in London 6 December 2022.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/sep/06/former-oil-executive-mark-mcallister-lined-up-to-be-next-ofgem-chair

Government’s choice of energy regulator boss criticised as ‘putting the fox in charge of the hen house’

A former North Sea oil and gas boss has been lined up to chair Great Britain’s energy regulator, Ofgem, in a move criticised as “putting the fox in charge of the hen house”.

The government said Mark McAllister, who founded two oil and gas companies, Fairfield Energy and Acorn Oil & Gas, had “vital expertise” that would help him in the role.

The Lib Dems said it was not a suitable choice given McAllister’s history in the oil and gas industry at a time when companies have been criticised for making huge profits on the back of high energy prices. At the same time, households have been struggling with record gas and electricity bills over the last year, with the government providing about £40bn in support for consumers and businesses.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/sep/06/former-oil-executive-mark-mcallister-lined-up-to-be-next-ofgem-chair

Continue ReadingFormer oil executive Mark McAllister lined up to be next Ofgem chair

Morning Star: The next election will allow no radical changes — in either direction

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

https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/e/the-next-election-will-allow-no-radical-changes

THE battle lines are being drawn for the next general election — but guess what? There is no real battle.

The British people are living through a masterclass in the nature of bourgeois democracy — that is, a system with democratic forms but capitalist-class rule.

Such a regime can only allow choices within fairly limited parameters: the needs of capital accumulation and the maintenance of the rate of profit push all governmental decisions in one direction.

That is not to say that competing parties offer no choices at all. Priorities can be reshuffled within limits, and occasionally strategic questions — like Britain’s membership of the European Union — are thrown up for decision.

But the imperatives of the Establishment are, at any one given time, firmly set. Capitalists hate unpredictability more than almost anything else, and so a major change of course at the will of the electorate every few years cannot be countenanced.

As a result, at the next general election, there will be no change in the main lines of government economic and social policy. Call it “Stunakerism” if you think this beast — public austerity in search of privately profitable growth — deserves a proper name.

Rishi Sunak has steadied the capitalist ship following the Truss squall; Keir Starmer has pledged that his Labour government will neither spend nor raise any more money.

https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/e/the-next-election-will-allow-no-radical-changes

Continue ReadingMorning Star: The next election will allow no radical changes — in either direction

Campaigners take to Westminster Bridge to block Rosebank

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Fossil Free London set off flares and dropped a 15-metre banner Image: Fossil Free London
Fossil Free London set off flares and dropped a 15-metre banner Image: Fossil Free London

ENVIORNMENTAL activists have demanded MPs block a “reckless and absurd” climate time-bomb.

MPs returning to Parliament today were welcomed by Fossil Free London, who set off flares and dropped a 15-metre banner from the nearby bridge demanding development of the Rosebank oil field be dropped.

The decision to develop the field has been repeatedly delayed but, if granted, the licence could see oil giant Equinor benefit to the tune of £3.7 billion in tax breaks as the Tory tax giveaway to big oil — costing £10.6bn so far — continues apace.

Fossil Free London’s Joanna Warrington said: “Rishi Sunak wants to give billions of pounds of public money to a giant oil company in exchange for the climate time-bomb, which will do absolutely nothing to lower our energy bills.

https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/b/campaigners-take-westminster-bridge-block-rosebank

First Minister Humza Yousaf ‘not convinced’ by Rosebank

In a conversation with the Daily Record, Scotland’s first minister said: “My starting position on Rosebank is I’m not convinced it should go ahead and I’ve said as much publicly, for a number of reasons.

“First and foremost, for example, the majority of Rosebank is oil as opposed to gas – that oil, of course, then gets exported.

“Any suggestion that helps us in terms of our domestic energy security, I think, doesn’t quite stack up.”

Humza Yousaf added: “Unlimited oil and gas extraction is not Scotland’s future,” when asked about the controversial Rosebank oil field.

Continue ReadingCampaigners take to Westminster Bridge to block Rosebank

Sadiq Khan: The bogus war on the motorist is sign of Tory desperation

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Mayor of London Sadiq Khan. Image:  	DAVID HOLT from London, England  Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.
Mayor of London Sadiq Khan. Image: DAVID HOLT from London, England Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/sep/03/sadiq-khan-ulez-motorists-conservative-party

The Conservatives have overseen 13 years of decline – with soaring rents and mortgages, devastated public services, sky-high bills and the highest tax burden on working people in a generation. They have nothing to offer.

That’s why they are desperate to confect a bogus war on the motorist. Division is both their strategy and overriding priority.

Regrettably, fostering this type of damaging politics is more important to Rishi Sunak right now than the harm being done to our children’s lungs by air pollution or the decline forced on our economy because of their recklessness and incompetence.

Serious, robust, reasoned discussion is essential in any democratic society, and something I have always welcomed.

My objection is not to good-faith debate, but to the Tories sowing discord and division, in a desperate attempt to distract from the mess they’ve made of our country.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/sep/03/sadiq-khan-ulez-motorists-conservative-party

Continue ReadingSadiq Khan: The bogus war on the motorist is sign of Tory desperation