conservatives

George Monbiot: Britain is becoming a toxic chemical dumping ground – yet another benefit of Brexit

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https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/mar/18/britain-toxic-chemical-dump-brexit-europe

 Illustration: Nathalie Lees/The Guardian

Perhaps our government imagines bulldog spirit will protect us from the dangerous substances that Europe rules unsafe

It’s a benefit of Brexit – but only if you’re a manufacturer or distributor of toxic chemicals. For the rest of us, it’s another load we have to carry on behalf of the shysters and corner-cutters who lobbied for the UK to leave the EU.

The government insisted on a separate regulatory system for chemicals. At first sight, it’s senseless: chemical regulation is extremely complicated and expensive. Why replicate an EU system that costs many millions of euros and employs a small army of scientists and administrators? Why not simply adopt as UK standards the decisions it makes? After all, common regulatory standards make trading with the rest of Europe easier. Well, now we know. A separate system allows the UK to become a dumping ground for the chemicals that Europe rules unsafe.

While negotiating our exit from the EU, the government repeatedly promised that environmental protections would not be eroded. In 2018, for example, the then environment secretary Michael Gove, in a speech titled Green Brexit, claimed “not only will there be no abandonment of the environmental principles that we’ve adopted in our time in the EU, but indeed we aim to strengthen environmental protection measures”. Such pledges turn out to be as dodgy as a £3 coin with Boris Johnson’s head on it.

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https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/mar/18/britain-toxic-chemical-dump-brexit-europe

Continue ReadingGeorge Monbiot: Britain is becoming a toxic chemical dumping ground – yet another benefit of Brexit

Morning Star: Defending democracy – how can we beat back Gove’s dangerous authoritarianism?

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/e/defending-democracy-how-can-we-beat-back-goves-dangerous-authoritarianism

Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, Michael Gove speaking during the Scottish Conservative party conference at the Event Complex Aberdeen, March 2, 2024

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The left cannot confine ourselves to condemning what the government does. We need strategies to undo it. This applies to the toxic new definition of extremism announced by Michael Gove last week, which could have catastrophic long-term consequences.

The new definition — and its associated practice, the labelling of certain organisations as extremist by ministerial decree — must not be allowed to bed in. We need mass refusal to accept it, declarations by devolved and local government, trade unions, charities and campaigns that we wholly reject it.

The joint statement by key organisers of the mass street movement for Gaza that Gove’s “redefinition of extremism … is in reality an assault on core democratic freedoms” is the right approach.

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Our defence must be to go on the attack against the extremism definition, to campaign publicly for its reversal and to sign up every organisation that cares for its democratic image to officially oppose it.

The next government should inherit a policy that is already utterly discredited and unworkable because its right to define extremists is universally rejected.

https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/e/defending-democracy-how-can-we-beat-back-goves-dangerous-authoritarianism

Continue ReadingMorning Star: Defending democracy – how can we beat back Gove’s dangerous authoritarianism?

Government accused of ‘conjuring up culture war with energy policy,’ as Rees-Mogg calls for ‘indefinite’ postponement of Net Zero targets

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https://leftfootforward.org/2024/03/government-accused-of-conjuring-up-culture-war-with-energy-policy-as-rees-mogg-calls-for-indefinite-postponement-of-net-zero-targets/

‘Another step backwards on the critical road to Net Zero.’

Conservative MP Jacob Rees-Mogg has called for Net Zero targets to be postponed ‘indefinitely.’

The comments were made after Rishi Sunak announced that Britain needs to build new, gas-fired power stations to ensure the country’s energy security. The stations would replace many aging existing plants. However, the plans do not include climate-change measures, which critics say could threaten a legally binding commitment to cut carbon emissions to Net Zero by 2050.

Shadow energy secretary Ed Miliband accused the Tories of “persisting with the ludicrous ban on onshore wind, bungling the offshore wind auctions, and failing on energy efficiency.”

Liberal Democrat energy and climate change spokesperson Wera Hobhouse said that announcement was “another step backwards on the critical road to Net Zero.”

But for Jacob Rees-Mogg, who has a long record of climate denialism, the government’s announcement to build new gas-fired power stations is a good first step against what he referred to as the Net Zero ‘obsession.’

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https://leftfootforward.org/2024/03/government-accused-of-conjuring-up-culture-war-with-energy-policy-as-rees-mogg-calls-for-indefinite-postponement-of-net-zero-targets/

Continue ReadingGovernment accused of ‘conjuring up culture war with energy policy,’ as Rees-Mogg calls for ‘indefinite’ postponement of Net Zero targets

Conservatives, Extremism, and the Ghost of Enoch Powell

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https://leftfootforward.org/2024/03/conservatives-extremism-and-the-ghost-of-enoch-powell/

Subjecting protestors to greater demonisation through the redefining of ‘extremism’ is just another chapter in the Tories’ painful history of hypocrisy.

If you paid much attention to Rishi Sunak’s speech outside No. 10 on March 1, you would think our country had been overrun by anarchists and fanatics. Extremist groups are ‘trying to tear us apart,’ said the PM, decrying a ‘shocking increase in extremist disruption and criminality’ in Britain since October 7. Michael Gove has been at it too. Some pro-Palestinian events have ‘been organised by extremist organisations,’ claimed the Communities Secretary. These are the same protests incidentally that have been acknowledged by the Metropolitan Police as disciplined, orderly, and professionally-managed.

The anarchy-obsessed Conservative government now has Gove announcing a new definition of extremism. As part of Sunak’s drive to crack down on Islamist extremists and far-right groups, the revised definition identifies extremism as an ideology that “undermines the rights or freedoms of others.” It differs from the old definition in that there has been a shift in focus from action to ideology. The previous definition, which was introduced in 2011, said extremism was the “vocal or active opposition to fundamental British values, including democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect and tolerance of different faiths and belief.”

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The same week that Gove announced his controversial new anti-extremism measures, a revelation hit the press that suggested the Tories’ biggest donor is an extremist himself, who upholds the most abhorrent views. Claims were made that Frank Hester, the healthcare technology business magnate who has donated £10m to the Tories in the past year, had said Diane Abbott made people “want to hate all black women” and “should be shot.”

The alleged comments mark a depressing new low for British politics. And the story gets worse. When asked whether the Tories should hand back the £10m donation, energy minister Graham Stuart told reporters that it would be wrong for a businessman to be ‘cancelled’ for his comments, and that the party should ‘welcome’ such donations.

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https://leftfootforward.org/2024/03/conservatives-extremism-and-the-ghost-of-enoch-powell/

Response to Rishi Sunak's extremism speech at Downing Street 1 March 2024.
Response to Rishi Sunak’s extremism speech at Downing Street 1 March 2024.
Continue ReadingConservatives, Extremism, and the Ghost of Enoch Powell

Politicians call on Labour to reinstate Diane Abbott at packed show of support in Hackney

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https://www.hackneycitizen.co.uk/2024/03/16/politicians-labour-reinstate-diane-abbott-show-of-support-hackney/

Diane Abbott surrounded by supporters at last night’s rally. Photograph: Maya Sall

Hundreds of people gathered outside Hackney Town Hall last night for a rally in support of Diane Abbott, MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington.

On Monday, the Guardian revealed that the Conversative party’s largest donor, businessman Frank Hester, told colleagues that looking at Abbott makes you “want to hate all Black women” and that the MP “should be shot”.

At the demonstration, crowds chanted ‘We stand with Diane’ and heard speeches from people including independent Islington MP Jeremy Corbyn and a representative of Sistah Space, a domestic violence charity for Black women.

The speakers called for Labour to restore the whip to Abbott after it was removed in May last year.

Abbott has been MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington since 1987, making her the first Black female MP and the longest-serving Black MP.

Addressing the crowd, she thanked local residents: “It is Hackney that work to get me elected in the ’80s, and it is Hackney people who have stood by me year after year, decade after decade.”

“What I want to say is this: this is not about me,” the MP continued. “This is about the level of racism that there is still in Britain. This is about the way that Black women are disrespected.”

Abbott talked about the institutional racism faced by her mother after she emigrated to Britain in the 1950s, and said that racism is still embedded in our society today.

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Image of Jeremy Corbyn MP, former leader of the Labour Party
Jeremy Corbyn MP, former leader of the Labour Party

Corbyn praised Abbott for her “steadfastness in coping with the personal stress that goes with the abuse”, and criticised the fact that she was unable to defend herself in parliament this week.

During Wednesday’s Prime Minister’s Question Time, Abbott stood up 46 times in 35 minutes to ask for an opportunity to address the Commons.

It is tradition that if an MP is embroiled in a particular issue, or is in the news, the Speaker will call on them to address parliament. However, Abbott was never called.

In a post on X, Abbott wrote: “I don’t know whose interests the Speaker thinks he is serving. But it is not the interests of the Commons or democracy.”

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Cllr Adejare spoke passionately about Abbott’s legacy. “She paved the way for so many of us. Without her, it’s more likely than not that people like me would not be in politics.”

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Commenting on how quickly the rally was organised, she added: “It’s about making sure that when we look back in history, we know as a community that we stood up in solidarity against the oppression that’s Diane Abbott has experienced.”

https://www.hackneycitizen.co.uk/2024/03/16/politicians-labour-reinstate-diane-abbott-show-of-support-hackney/

Continue ReadingPoliticians call on Labour to reinstate Diane Abbott at packed show of support in Hackney