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Don’t prolong war in Ukraine, peace activists warn Starmer

https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/dont-prolong-war-in-ukraine-peace-activists-warn-starmer

Prime Minister Keir Starmer returns to 10 Downing Street, London, after attending Prime Minister’s Questions at the Houses of Parliament, February 12, 2025

PRIME Minister Sir Keir Starmer has been warned off making “ludicrous long-term commitments” that prolong the war in Ukraine ahead of an emergency summit with European leaders today.

The Prime Minister has vowed to “work to ensure we keep America and Europe together” prior to discussing how to respond to US President Donald Trump’s push for an end to the war in Ukraine at the summit called by French president Emmanuel Macron.

The UN estimates 12,456 civilians have been killed during the war that is set to begin its fourth year on February 24.

Sir Keir said: “This is a once-in-a-generation moment for our national security where we engage with the reality of the world today and the threat we face from Russia.

“It’s clear Europe must take on a greater role in Nato as we work with the United States to secure Ukraine’s future and face down the threat we face from Russia.

…

A Stop the War spokeswoman said: “Instead of increasing defence spending and making ludicrous long-term commitments to Zelensky, the government should be assisting the peace negotiations and spending our money at home, on restoring the winter fuel allowance, lifting the two-child benefit cap and generally fulfilling its commitments to improve the living standards of the working people of Britain.

“Continuing to push for Ukrainian membership of Nato and pouring money and arms into the country in order to keep an unwinnable war going is utterly reckless and will certainly fail.”

…

Original article at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/dont-prolong-war-in-ukraine-peace-activists-warn-starmer

Continue ReadingDon’t prolong war in Ukraine, peace activists warn Starmer

Badenoch and Farage to vie for attention of Trump allies at London summit

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/feb/17/badenoch-farage-trump-allies-london-rightwing-arc-summit

Badenoch (right) will give a welcome address at the conference, with her party under increasing pressure from Farage (left) and Reform UK. Composite: PA

Event co-founded by Jordan Peterson will bring together global rightwing figures including senior US Republicans

Influential rightwingers from around the world are to gather in London from Monday at a major conference to network and build connections with senior US Republicans linked to the Trump administration.

The UK opposition leader, the Conservatives’ Kemi Badenoch, and Nigel Farage of the Reform UK party, her hard-right anti-immigration rival, will compete to present themselves as the torchbearer of British conservatism.

Conservatives from Britain, continental Europe and Australia attending the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship (ARC) conference will seize on the opportunity to meet and hear counterparts from the US, including those with links to the new Trump administration. The House speaker, the Republican Mike Johnson, had been due to attend in person but will now give a keynote address remotely on Monday.

Other Republicans due to speak include the US Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Vivek Ramaswamy – who has worked with Elon Musk on moves to radically reshape the US government – and Kevin Roberts, the president of the US Heritage Foundation, the thinktank behind the controversial “Project 2025” blueprint for Trump’s second term.

The conference, which is intended to be a gathering of influential intellectuals shaping global rightwing thinking, has a distinctly anti-environmental and socially conservative theme. It pledges to build on “our growing movement and continue the vital work of relaying the foundations of our civilisation”.

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Article continues at https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/feb/17/badenoch-farage-trump-allies-london-rightwing-arc-summit

dizzy: Jordan Peterson is a renowned climate change denier

Continue ReadingBadenoch and Farage to vie for attention of Trump allies at London summit

Poorest UK households pay rising share of income on council tax, study finds

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/feb/17/uk-poorest-households-income-share-council-tax-resolution-foundation

The poorest fifth of households paid 4.8% of their income on council tax or domestic rates in 2020-21, up from 2.9% in 2002-03. Photograph: Martin Godwin/The Guardian

Resolution Foundation report says failure to reform has ‘slowly recreated the issues that undid the poll tax’

Britain’s poorest households are paying an increasing share of their income on council tax, according to new analysis that likened it to the poll tax that contributed to the downfall of Margaret Thatcher.

The poorest fifth of households paid 4.8% of their income on council tax in England, Wales and Scotland and on domestic rates in Northern Ireland in the 2020-21 financial year, up from 2.9% in 2002-3, according to research by the Resolution Foundation.

Council taxes are one of the few levies on wealth in the UK, with different systems applied in each of the four countries.

However, they are seen by economists as deeply flawed, not least because the tax in England and Scotland is levied based on the value of properties in 1991, despite huge changes in the spread of wealth over the past three decades. Wales has updated its system to use 2003 valuations, while Scotland raised the rates on higher-banded properties in 2017. Northern Ireland still has a system of domestic rates, which predates council tax.

Highlighting the “regressive” nature of the tax, meaning poorer households pay more of their income towards it than richer ones, the Resolution Foundation said the failure to reform council tax had made it progressively worse.

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Article continues at https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/feb/17/uk-poorest-households-income-share-council-tax-resolution-foundation

Continue ReadingPoorest UK households pay rising share of income on council tax, study finds

Calls mount for public ownership of Thames Water as it launches ‘blatantly greedy’ bid to hike bills

https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/calls-mount-public-ownership-thames-water-it-launches-blatantly-greedy-bid-hike-bills

GREED: Thames Water’s chief executive Chris Weston defended bosses getting £770,000 in bonuses

CAMPAIGNERS mounted further calls for Thames Water to be permanently brought into public ownership today [Friday] after the firm launched a “blatantly greedy and desperate bid” to hike bills yet again.

The firm has already been allowed to increase bills by 35 per cent over the next five years by regulator Ofwat.

Thames Water originally lobbied for a 59 per cent increase and is now asking the Competition and Markets Authority to review the decision.

On the verge of financial collapse, Thames Water sits on £19 billion of debts.

Despite this, it paid out £158.3 million in dividends last March, and attempted to award its CEO and CFO £770,000 in bonuses using customer money before being blocked by Ofwat.

Thames Water is currently waiting for a court decision on whether it will be allowed a £3.3bn creditor bailout to avoid falling into special administration at the end of March.

The loan will cost a mammoth £800m in interest and fees alone, which campaign group We Own It argues will add an extra £250 a year to household bills.

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/calls-mount-public-ownership-thames-water-it-launches-blatantly-greedy-bid-hike-bills

Continue ReadingCalls mount for public ownership of Thames Water as it launches ‘blatantly greedy’ bid to hike bills

Vance Faces Backlash Over Embrace of Germany’s Far-Right Just Ahead of Election

Original article by Jake Johnson republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

U.S. Vice President JD Vance speaks at the Munich Security Conference on February 14, 2025. (Photo: Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

Rebuking the U.S. vice president, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that “a commitment to ‘never again’ is not reconcilable with support for the AfD.”

U.S. Vice President JD Vance faced growing backlash on Saturday after scolding the European political establishment for shunning far-right parties and subsequently meeting with the leader of the neo-Nazi Alternative for Germany, just a week ahead of the country’s general election.

While Vance did not explicitly mention Alternative for Germany, or AfD, during his remarks Friday at the Munich Security Conference, he declared that “there is no room for firewalls”—a reference to mainstream German political parties’ refusal to work with AfD or include it in governing coalitions.

The Guardianreported that “a whisper of ‘Jesus Christ’ and the squirming in chairs could be heard in an overflow room” during the U.S. vice president’s remarks, which he delivered a week after hundreds of thousands took to the streets of Munich to protest far-right extremism.

Following his speech, Vance met with AfD leader Alice Weidel, who praised the vice president’s Munich address as “excellent” in a post on X—a social media platform owned by billionaire Elon Musk, who has also expressed support for AfD as he works to dismantle agencies throughout the U.S. government.

Reutersreported that Weidel—whose grandfather was a Nazi judge appointed directly by Adolf Hitler—met with Vance at his hotel “for about 30 minutes and discussed the Ukraine war, German domestic policy, and freedom of speech.”

Vance was the highest-ranking U.S. official to ever meet with the leader of the AfD, which is seen as the most extreme of Europe’s far-right parties.

On Saturday, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz rebuked Vance and said that “we will not accept outsiders intervening in our democracy,” even “friends and allies.”

“Never again fascism, never again racism, never again aggressive war,” Scholz said in his speech at the Munich Security Conference. “That is why an overwhelming majority in our country opposes anyone who glorifies or justifies criminal National Socialism.”

“A commitment to ‘never again’ is not reconcilable with support for the AfD,” said Scholz.

Original article by Jake Johnson republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.
Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.
Climate Science Denier Donald Trump says Burn, Baby, Burn.
Climate Science Denier Donald Trump says Burn, Baby, Burn.
Continue ReadingVance Faces Backlash Over Embrace of Germany’s Far-Right Just Ahead of Election