the rich

George Monbiot: How is Reform’s charmless candidate still a contender in Gorton and Denton? Ask Labour

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https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/feb/25/reform-matt-goodwin-labour-gorton-and-denton-byelection-greens

Reform UK’s Gorton and Denton byelection candidate, Matt Goodwin, attends a campaign event in Manchester with Nigel Farage, 5 February 2026. Photograph: Adam Vaughan/EPA

This byelection should have been a stroll for Keir Starmer’s party. Instead, all hope of defeating Matt Goodwin now seems to lie with the Greens

Every barb Labour has directed at the Greens can now be returned with interest. “It’s a wasted vote.” “Do you want to see Reform in power?” New polling ahead of the crucial Gorton and Denton byelection this week, while by no means decisive, puts the Greens first on 22%, followed by Reform UK (20%), then Labour (18%), with 31% undecided. But still Keir Starmer falsely claims that “only Labour can beat Reform”. Does he want to see Reform in power?

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A survey of 6,000 people by the group Persuasion UK found that by far the most effective message of five options was focused on corporate interests and went as follows: “Nigel Farage says he’s on people’s side – but when you take a closer look it’s pretty clear who he’s really fighting for, isn’t it? It’s the rich, the powerful, his mates in big business.” It explained that Reform UK has taken vast donations from fossil fuel investors and climate science deniers. This, Persuasion UK said, is why Farage wants to cut public services, workers’ rights and taxes for the richest. “He’s not smashing the system. He and his rich friends basically are the system.”

None of the other attack lines came anywhere near this for efficacy. So why doesn’t Labour use it? Because that might alienate the people Starmer seems keenest to appease: Labour’s own corporate backers and the billionaire proprietors of the rightwing press. The leadership’s key objective is not stopping Farage, but frightening people into voting Labour. Quite frankly, it has nothing else left.

One by one, it has destroyed the hopes that people vested in it, alienating potential voters on everything from Gaza to benefits to its self-destructive apeing of Reform’s rhetoric on immigration; from its vicious factional warfare against leftwingers in the party to its tearing up of environmental protections and attacks on wildlife, which, in a country of nature lovers, is utter, self-defeating madness. Disgust and disillusionment among former supporters is everywhere palpable.

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See the original article at https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/feb/25/reform-matt-goodwin-labour-gorton-and-denton-byelection-greens

Nigel Farage urges you to ignore facts and reality and be a climate science denier like him and his Deputy Richard Tice. He says that Reform UK has received £Millions and £Millions from the fossil fuel industry to promote climate denial and destroy the planet.
Nigel Farage urges you to ignore facts and reality and be a climate science denier like him and his Deputy Richard Tice. He says that Reform UK has received £Millions and £Millions from the fossil fuel industry to promote climate denial and destroy the planet.
Keir Starmer refuses to be outcnuted by Nigel Farage's chasing the racist bigot vote.
Keir Starmer refuses to be outcnuted by Nigel Farage’s chasing the racist bigot vote.
Nigel Farage explains the politics of Reform UK: Racism, Fake anti-establishmentism, Deregulation, Corporatism, Climate Change Denial, Mysogyny and Transphobia.
Nigel Farage explains the politics of Reform UK: Racism, Fake anti-establishmentism, Deregulation, Corporatism, Climate Change Denial, Mysogyny and Transphobia.
Continue ReadingGeorge Monbiot: How is Reform’s charmless candidate still a contender in Gorton and Denton? Ask Labour

‘The rich are on course to destroy all our lives’

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/the-rich-are-on-course-to-destroy-all-our-lives

A firefighter battles the Palisades Fire as it burns a structure in the Pacific Palisades neighbourhood of Los Angeles, January 7, 2025

World’s wealthiest 1% have already burned through their share of the entire annual carbon limit, Oxfam warns

THE world’s wealthiest 1 per cent have already burned through their share of the entire annual carbon limit, a damning analysis of super-rich climate destruction has revealed.

A new study by charity Oxfam has analysed the “global carbon budget” — the amount of CO2 that can be emitted without exceeding the international target of limiting global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.

Its findings showed that while the richest capitalists had already exceeded that limit in the first 10 days of 2025, it would take someone from the poorest half of the global population nearly three years to use up their share.

Inaction will continue to have deadly consequences, the charity said — and eight in 10 deaths from heat will occur in low and lower-middle-income countries.

Oxfam estimated that by 2050, emissions by the 1 per cent will cause crop losses that could have provided enough calories to feed at least 10 million people a year in eastern and southern Asia.

Emissions from the ultra-wealthy are also causing trillions in economic losses -– the impact on low and lower-middle-income countries over the past three decades has been three times greater than the total climate finance provided by wealthy nations.

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A spokesperson for Just Stop Oil also issued a rallying call, saying: “We live within a system that serves the few over the many, and the rich are on course for destroying all our lives if they carry on unopposed. We must get organised and resist.

“We need a revolution in politics and economics, and we need to reclaim Parliament from the corporations and billionaires, whilst prioritising the interests of ordinary people.”

https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/the-rich-are-on-course-to-destroy-all-our-lives

Keir Starmer warns against following the https://onaquietday.org blog.
Keir Starmer warns against following the https://onaquietday.org blog.
Continue Reading‘The rich are on course to destroy all our lives’

Flying shame: the scandalous rise of private jets

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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jan/26/flying-shame-the-scandalous-rise-of-private-jets published 26 Jan 2023

Rishi Sunak boards an RAF plane to travel from London to Leeds. Photograph: No 10’s Flickr account

Last week, Rishi Sunak flew from London to Blackpool – his third private jet trip in 10 days. He’s far from the only one using air travel for short journeys. Just how much damage is this doing?

It was a Labour spokesperson who said the prime minister was behaving “like an A-list celeb”, after Rishi Sunak made his third trip by private jet in 10 days. Last week, he flew from London to Blackpool in a 14-seat RAF jet – a 230-mile journey that would have taken about three hours by train. The week before, he did the same to Leeds, which he could have done in two and a half hours by train, but which wouldn’t have looked nearly so glamorous – to go by the ludicrous photograph of him looking important and being saluted as he boarded the aircraft.

Private planes are up to 14 times more polluting, per passenger, than commercial planes and 50 times more polluting than trains, according to a report by Transport & Environment, a European clean transport campaign organisation. “It goes against the fact that the government has committed to net zero by 2050,” says Alice Ridley, a spokesperson for the Campaign for Better Transport. “They have said they want to see more journeys by public transport, walking and cycling. Taking a private jet is extremely damaging for the environment, especially when there are other alternatives that would be far less polluting and would also be cheaper.”

Private planes carry far fewer passengers, while about 40% of flights are empty, simply getting the aircraft to the right location. Flying short distances also means planes are less fuel-efficient.

“A private jet is the most polluting form of transport you can take,” says Matt Finch, the UK policy manager for Transport & Environment. “The average private jet emits two tonnes of carbon an hour. The average European is responsible for [emitting] eight tonnes of carbon a year. You fly to the south of France and back, that’s half a year in one trip.”

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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jan/26/flying-shame-the-scandalous-rise-of-private-jets published 26 Jan 2023

Continue ReadingFlying shame: the scandalous rise of private jets

Activists block private jet terminals around the world to protest ‘super rich mega polluters’

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Activists and scientists got on the runway to protest private jets at Malpensa Private Airport in Italy.   –  Copyright  Stay Grounded Network

https://www.euronews.com/green/2023/02/14/activists-block-private-jet-terminals-around-the-world-to-protest-super-rich-mega-polluter

Climate scientists have blocked private jet terminals around the world today in protest of ‘luxury emissions’.

London Luton Airport, Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam and Bromma Airport in Stockholm are among those being disrupted by activists from Scientist Rebellion, Extinction Rebellion (XR) and Stay Grounded.

It follows actions against private jets in Brussels and Seville yesterday, and one in Los Angeles on 11 February, with more protests expected in the coming months.

“It is time to ban private jets and tax frequent flyers to the ground”, says NASA climate scientist Dr Peter Kalmus from Scientist Rebellion.

“We cannot allow the rich to sacrifice our present and future in the pursuit of their luxury lifestyles.”

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https://www.euronews.com/green/2023/02/14/activists-block-private-jet-terminals-around-the-world-to-protest-super-rich-mega-polluter

Continue ReadingActivists block private jet terminals around the world to protest ‘super rich mega polluters’