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Tag: critical national infrastructure

  • Labour rejects Zack Polanski’s call to ‘slam brakes’ on building AI datacentres

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    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/aug/28/labour-green-party-zack-polanski-ai-datacentres

    Equinix datacentre under construction (right) and an operational datacentre (left) in Slough. Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images

    Government says Green leader’s proposed moratorium on ‘energy-guzzling’ AI projects would be disaster for economy

    Labour has rejected calls to pause construction of major AI infrastructure in Britain after the Green party leader, Zack Polanski, said it was time to “slam the brakes on these energy-guzzling, water-guzzling datacentres”.

    The government hit back at the opposition party’s proposal of a “moratorium other than [for] local-scale datacentres for the local community”, saying it “would be a disaster for jobs and national security”.

    The Greens’ call for a pause comes amid one of the UK’s worst droughts in years and predictions that datacentres’ electricity use, now standing at about 2.5% of the UK’s supply, will rise fourfold by 2030.

    Datacentres contain the processing chips that power billions of AI prompts every day and Labour has designated them as critical national infrastructure, a decision Polanski called “outrageous”. “To most people critical infrastructure means hospitals, water, electricity,” he said. “It doesn’t mean artificial intelligence.”

    He added: “Right now the government is putting our communities, our water security and our climate ambitions second to the demands of tech giants.”

    …

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/aug/28/labour-green-party-zack-polanski-ai-datacentres

    Experienced climbers scale a rock face near the historic Dumbarton castle in Glasgow, releasing a banner that reads “Climate on a Cliff Edge.” One activist, dressed as a globe, symbolically looms near the edge, while another plays the bagpipes on the shores below. | Photo courtesy of Extinction Rebellion and Mark Richards
    Experienced climbers scale a rock face near the historic Dumbarton castle in Glasgow, releasing a banner that reads “Climate on a Cliff Edge.” One activist, dressed as a globe, symbolically looms near the edge, while another plays the bagpipes on the shores below. | Photo courtesy of Extinction Rebellion and Mark Richards
    Greenpeace activists display a billboard during a protest outside Shell headquarters on July 27, 2023 in London.
    Greenpeace activists display a billboard during a protest outside Shell headquarters on July 27, 2023 in London. (Photo: Handout/Chris J. Ratcliffe for Greenpeace via Getty Images)
    Donald Trump urges you to be a Climate Science denier like him. He says that he makes millions and millions for destroying the planet, Burn, Baby, Burn and Flood, Baby, Flood.
    Donald Trump urges you to be a Climate Science denier like him. He says that he makes millions and millions for destroying the planet, Burn, Baby, Burn and Flood, Baby, Flood.

    Climate Breakdown is here: Why won’t governments act?

  • ‘It’s time for a grown-up conversation about taxing wealth’

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    https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/its-time-grown-conversation-about-taxing-wealth

     model houses on a pile of coins and bank notes

    TUC hits back at banking boss who suggested public-sector pay should be curbed because the economy falling

    …

    TUC general secretary Paul Nowak said that while the government has “taken the right approach” by investing in public services and infrastructure, “the job of securing growth is far from over — and more support is needed to see that investment sustained in the long term.”

    “That’s why it’s time for a grown-up conversation about taxing wealth and financial institutions,” he said.

    “It’s only right that banks, gambling companies and the wealthiest in our society contribute their fair share to fund our schools, hospitals and local authorities.

    “The government needs to ensure it can repair and rebuild our vital public services along with wider critical national infrastructure.”

    Mr Nowak also called on the Bank of England to further Bank of England to “ease the pressure on household budgets and to make it more affordable for businesses to invest.”

    …

    Ooriginal article at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/its-time-grown-conversation-about-taxing-wealth