People walking on Conic Hill, above Loch Lomond at Balmaha
THE people of Scotland have sent a “loud and clear” message that mega-resort Flamingo Land is not welcome at Loch Lomond, campaigners said today after more than 150,000 people objected.
The record number of planning complaints against the “damaging and destructive” plan to build in Scotland used a campaign portal set up by the Scottish Greens.
The Yorkshire-based theme park operator’s proposal would cram 104 woodland lodges, two hotels, a waterpark, a monorail, 372 car parking spaces, shops and more onto the banks of Loch Lomond at Balloch.
The number of objections put forward makes it the most unpopular planning application in Scotland’s history, more than doubling the previous record held by Flamingo Land’s failed first attempt, opposed by nearly 60,000 people.
Groups including the National Trust for Scotland, Woodland Trust and Ramblers Scotland as well as the local community council have also opposed the proposals.
Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves during her visit to the National Manufacturing Institute Scotland (NMIS) in Paisley, Renfrewshire, August 28, 2024
Age UK warns that two million pensioners could be in serious trouble this winter
CHANCELLOR Rachel Reeves pledged to press ahead with her winter fuel squeeze on pensioners today despite warnings that she is risking a public health crisis.
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“It’s not a decision I wanted to make, but a decision I had to make in incredibly challenging circumstances to put the public finances on a firm footing,” she said, while also not ruling out tax rises in her October Budget.
Bosses attending the talks with Energy Minister Miatta Fahnbulleh are set to increase average household bills by £149 from October following a green light for the rise in the price cap from regulator Ofgem.
At the same time, the government is looking to save £1.4 billion by axing winter fuel payments from all pensioners not in receipt of pensions credit or other means-tested assistance.
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Charity Age UK said it “strongly” opposed Ms Reeves’s benefit cut, which would mean “as many as two million pensioners who badly need the money to stay warm this winter will not receive it and will be in serious trouble as a result.”
Simon Francis, of the End Fuel Poverty Coalition, warned that “this has the potential to create a public health emergency which will actually create more pressure on the under-pressure NHS which the Prime Minister says he wants to fix.”
Keir Starmer confirms that he is continuing Tory policies and that he’s proud to be a red Tory.Keir Starmer says pensioners can freeze to death and poor children can starve and be condemned to failure and misery all their lives.
Leaders of Pacific island nations gather in Nuku’alofa, Tonga on August 26, 2024 for the 53rd Pacific Islands Forum Leaders Meeting (PIFLM53). (Photo: Pacific Islands Climate Action Network/X)
U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres stressed that “the region urgently needs substantial finance, capacities, and technology to speed up the transition and to invest in adaptation and resilience.”
As more than 1,500 delegates from over 40 nations gathered in Tonga for the 53rd Pacific Islands Forum Leaders Meeting, climate defenders on Monday urged the world’s biggest polluters to do much more to phase out the fossil fuels that are driving a planetary emergency disproportionately affecting low-lying island countries, which are among the world’s lowest greenhouse gas emitters.
“Tonga’s vision for the 53rd Pacific Islands Forum Leaders Meeting (PIFLM53) is for the Pacific to move beyond policy deliberation to implementation—to achieve transformation by building better now,” summit organizers said in a statement affirming the event’s mission to “develop collective responses to regional issues and deliver on their vision for a resilient Pacific region of peace, harmony, security, social inclusion, and prosperity.”
“We may be small island countries but we are a force to be reckoned with.”
Addressing attendees at the summit’s opening ceremony in the Tongan capital of Nuku’alofa, Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) Secretary-General Baron Waqa of Nauru called for regional unity to tackle common challenges.
“We may be small island countries but we are a force to be reckoned with,” he said. “We are at the center of geostrategic interest, we are at the forefront of a battle against climate change and its impacts.”
Speaking at Monday’s opening session, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres lamented that “humanity is treating the sea like a sewer. Plastic pollution is choking sea life. Greenhouse gases are causing ocean heating, acidification, and a dramatic and accelerating rise in sea levels.”
Humanity is treating the sea like a sewer.
Plastic pollution is choking sea life.
Greenhouse gases are causing ocean heating, acidification & accelerating rise in sea levels.
Pacific islands, dramatically impacted by the consequences of climate change, are showing the way to… pic.twitter.com/CEAjeNVpz5
Guterres—who warned in Samoa last week that low-lying island nations face the threat of climate “annihilation”—said that “Pacific islands are showing the way to protect our climate, our planet, and our ocean: By declaring a climate emergency and pushing for action, and with your declarations on sea-level rise, and aspirations for a just transition to a fossil fuel-free Pacific. But, the region urgently needs substantial finance, capacities, and technology to speed up the transition and to invest in adaptation and resilience.”
“The young people of the Pacific have taken the climate crisis all the way to the International Court of Justice,” Guterres added. “You have also rightly recognized that this is a security crisis—and taken steps to manage those risks together.”
Ouaaaa 🇹🇴 While leaders prepare for #PIFLM53, we joined 200 Tongan youth in visioning what the theme of “Build Better Now” could mean for our islands.
And what is a resilient Pasifiki without a safe livable climate and some good old island dance-offs? pic.twitter.com/YUjmNpLKGI
Mahoney Mori, who chairs the Pacific Youth Council and is the PIFLM53 youth representative from the Federated States of Micronesia, called out the international community’s failure to adequately fund climate mitigation initiatives like the loss and damage fund—which developing nations say will require an annual investment of at least $400 billion, or nearly 10 times the amount pledged at last year’s United Nations Climate Change Conference in Dubai.
“Despite the commendable pledges from the United Nations and world leaders such as the Paris agreement, the existing global finance mechanisms still hindered community-based and youth organizations from accessing critical support,” Mori said. “The Pacific’s grassroots organizations struggle to meet global standards amidst this crisis and time is running out.”
As leaders met for PIFLM53 amid torrential rains, a 6.9-magnitude earthquake rocked Tonga’s main island of Tongatapu. While there was no damage reported and no tsunami warning issued, summit attendees said the temblor underscored vulnerabilities faced by low-lying island nations.
Brilliant comment from one of Tonga's leading thinkers – what better time to have flood, wind and earthquake…. pic.twitter.com/HuVIYMP5Sa
Leaders and activists from Pacific island nations took aim at regional giant Australia—which has been perennially ranked as one of the world’s worst climate-wreckers in U.N.-backed Sustainable Development reports—for insufficient climate action.
“We recognize Australia’s desire to present itself as a climate leader and co-host the COP alongside the Pacific,” Pacific Islands Climate Action Network regional director Rufino Varea said in a statement, referring to Australia’s bid to help lead the 2026 United Nations Climate Change Conference, or COP31.
“However, true leadership must not merely be aspirational; it must be actionable,” Varea continued. “To date, Australia has expanded gas production instead of aligning its practices with the urgent needs of the Pacific. This does not reflect the leadership we need.”
“If Australia is to demonstrate genuine commitment, it must align its domestic and international climate policies with our goals and advocate earnestly for a fossil fuel-free Pacific,” he stressed. “It must also commit to ambitious climate actions, ensure effective climate finance is delivered to Pacific island countries, and contribute substantially to the loss and damage fund.”
“If these steps are not taken, we risk witnessing a COP that concedes failure—declaring that critical targets were missed, and that Pacific communities continue to be exploited as mere labor resources for the enrichment of others,” Varea added.
Fascists Mussolini and Hitler salute Angela Rayner and the Labour Party
Our ancestors fought Fascism in the Spanish Civil War and World War 2. I commit to oppose and fight Fascism. Israel and collaborators actions have been recognised as Fascism.
later: What my ancestors did is say: I object, I oppose it and I am willing to fight it and if necessary die (get killed actually) for my values.
later again: Our ancestors fought Fascism. It is our responsibility and duty now to fight and oppose Israel’s Fascism. Fascism is about disregarding human rights and treating people as less than human. Israel is behaving towards others exactly as the Jews were treated by Nazi Fascists during World War 2.
later again again: It’s a system and it is actually a very, very fragile system with vulnerable, insecure infrastructure everywhere … where if only so many (few) people decide they’ve had enough – that they’re not willing to tolerate this Fascism, they might find that they can have a serious effect without too much effort or danger … if they recognised how vulnerable cap is …
later again again again: If we’re going to oppose Israel’s Fascism we should recognise and regard Israel’s collaborators as Fascist equals. If that is accepted US, UK, Germany and very likely many more are as to be regarded as equals to Israel.
later: and should be fought just as if we were opposing and fighting Israel.
Is that understood? I am saying that countries supporting Israel’s genocide of Gaza – most notably US, UK and Germany but probably many others too – should be regarded as Fascists as much as Israel are Fascists. I am also saying that I have huge respect for my ancestors who fought Fascism in the Spanish Civil War and the Second World War – and further – that I appreciate that it now falls on me, that it is my turn to oppose and fight Fascism.
