Is climate change denialism really on the rise in the UK?
contribution by Alice Bell
The latest British Social Attitudes survey was released earlier this week, and it wasn’t exactly rosy for those who campaign on environmental issues.
The Guardian ran with “Public support for tackling climate change declines dramatically; the Daily Mail: Rise of the climate change sceptics.
I’m really not convinced by the narrative of a rise in scepticism, especially the BSA’s own focus on the impact of Climategate.
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Help us stop Conservatives from time-limiting disabled benefits
It seems that the Conservatives are simply not willing to give an inch on Time Limiting ESA.
Just to be clear, this means that if you have worked and paid national insurance contributions you will face an assessment. If that assessment finds that you are indeed unwell, but may be able to do some work at some point, you will only qualify for support for a year.
At the end of that year, no matter how ill you remain, if you have a partner who earns just £7,500 or more, or limited savings, you will lose all ESA. All of it.
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10 reasons why Cameron might gain from the EU deal.
David Cameron by vetoing the a prospective EU treaty last night has taken one step closer to winning the General Election of 2015 for lots of reasons.
1. British Trade With Europe will not be affected.
Those who invest in the EU, trade with the UK, or decide to locate here will be no more moved by the UK’s actions last night than they were by our decision not to enter the EURO. Business will continue as normal.
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Europe: Ed Miliband should push the nuclear button
The UK is now politically isolated over Europe, the centre-right alliance that Cameron dreamed of is in tatters, and the long-term damage to our economy by being in the outer-rim of a two speed Europe will be significant. But all that is irrelevant for now.
The way the news is being spun and digested by the right-wing media, Cameron will be able to claim a significant victory and unite Tory Eurosceptics behind him. The latter would like nothing more than isolationism so in fact their jubilation is unsurprising. I’ll admit, I called it wrong when I thought he’d be humiliated..
But this leaves Ed Miliband with only one real option: to push the nuclear button.
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Le Monde: ‘UK more isolated than ever’
The French newspaper Le Monde today published an editorial titled ‘Great Britain is more isolated than ever‘, in French, highlighting how the UK is seen across Europe.
Here is the article, translated from French (via @mattzarb)
These columns like Great Britain. France does not forget it did during the war. One respects its history, one admires its culture. One knows that it is democratic. We should not dismiss all that we admire: the BBC, Elizabethan poetry, rock and roll in the sixties, London concerts, Wimbledon, playing against Liverpool FC – there is an infinite list of good things across the channel, not to mention fish and chips. But on the dawn of Friday December 9th Germany, France and most of the other members of the European Union had a reason to say not to London.
The matter was, once more, to save the Euro. The plan was to change the treaty governing the rules of the current 27 member states in Europe.
The project sought to ensure budget discipline was adhered to. London recoiled at the possibility that it would lead to stricter regulation in the financial sector. The British Prime Minister, David Cameron, threatened to veto alterations to the treaty if it did not include a clause of exemption for his country.
Most of the Europeans at the meeting in Brussels refused to accept the request of London. There will not be any change to the treaty and – without the United Kingdom – a “treaty of 17” will be established with half a dozen of the other States among the ten non-members of the Eurozone.
Let’s be fair. The British are not in favour of a crisis in the Euro. They do not carry any responsibility for the impotence of the leaders of the zone to resolve their problems of sovereign debt.
But there is a reason why the British distanced themselves from a movement towards more economic integration. They do not believe in it. They do not believe in the European idea. Today, they are isolated from this project, but it appears to be more essential than ever to forge a unique entity that can compete with other centres of power in the 21st century.
There can be no regrets over what happened in Brussels. There was ambiguity at the start. At the end, the British – who entered in 1973 in what was the then European Economic Community – are no longer interested in a unique market. The remainder of the European project is of no concern to them.
The summit of Brussels traced the big lines of a better budget governance of the Eurozone. This is good, but it is not sufficient. There must compensation: directly or indirectly, and the European Central Bank must be more active in solving the crisis.
The agreement has to be finalised on Friday. Let’s wait before we judge. For, as we learned from Britain, the devil is in the detail.
Europe: the last touchstone issue in British politics
Opposition to the European Union resonates with the Conservative right to a degree that no issue seems to excite any section of the Labour Party anymore, in ways that are essentially unfathomable to those that stand outside the tribe.
For that reason alone, David Cameron’s decision to veto treaty changes designed to prop up the eurozone could prove a pivotal moment in Britain’s domestic politics. Nothing he could have done or said could be better calculated to restore his faltering standing among his activist base. This is Thatcher’s Bruges speech, all over again.
Obama: trickle down economics doesn’t work
This week President Obama finally tried to break one of the key tenets of the Reagan/Thatcher consensus.
In a speech in Kansas he said:
Now, just as there was in Teddy Roosevelt’s time, there’s been a certain crowd in Washington for the last few decades who respond to this economic challenge with the same old tune. “The market will take care of everything,” they tell us. If only we cut more regulations and cut more taxes – especially for the wealthy – our economy will grow stronger. Sure, there will be winners and losers. But if the winners do really well, jobs and prosperity will eventually trickle down to everyone else. And even if prosperity doesn’t trickle down, they argue, that’s the price of liberty.
It’s a simple theory – one that speaks to our rugged individualism and healthy skepticism of too much government. And that theory fits well on a bumper sticker. Here’s the problem: It doesn’t work. It has never worked. It didn’t work when it was tried in the decade before the Great Depression. It’s not what led to the incredible post-war boom of the 50s and 60s. And it didn’t work when we tried it during the last decade.
It’s time to put this lie to a rest. Obama has at least made a start.
Official figures show a rise in homelessness across England
The latest National Statistics on homelessness for England show that the number of homeless families and the number in temporary accommodation have started rising.
Though it is too early to say whether this is a trend, there was a 6% rise in the number of homeless households over the last year.
There was a large increase in the number of families in bed and breakfast accommodation – up from 2,660 to 3,370 compared to the same quarter last year.
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Boris launches world’s most expensive bus
So much for being interested in saving money for London taxpayers.
London Mayor Boris Johnson is accused of building and launching the “world’s most expensive bus” today – on the eve of the last bendy bus journey in London.
Boris launches the new Routemaster bus next week, at the a cost of nearly £1.6 million per bus – eight times the cost of a conventional £190,000 double-decker.
Worse still, after all the time and effort put into introducing the new buses – they will cover just 12 out of 700 bus routes across London.
Meanwhile, Boris has hiked fares by 50% in four years.
Labour candidate Ken Livingstone has latched onto the issue and is asking what justified the massive cost of replacing one kind of bus for another.
In an interview with the website Mayor Watch a few weeks ago, Libdem candidate Brian Paddick also questioned the value of spending so much money on a new bus type.
Nat. Community Service could now cost £50m
Earlier this year a report by the Education Select Committee said that a total of £37 million had been set aside by the government to fund a National Community Service programme, due to launch in 2012.
However, a Freedom of Information request by myself for Liberal Conspiracy has found that the estimated costs for this scheme has jumped by 35% to £50 million.
The same FOI response says the government is planning to use a “commercial process” to outsource the running of the NCS scheme. This potentially points to private, profit-driven companies running the National Community Service.
The involvement of private companies in running the NCS also hinders transparency on the project itself.
Information on funding for the NCS beyond 2012 was withheld from the FOI response.
Section 43 (2) protects information which would, or would be likely to, prejudice the commercial interests of any person (including the public authority holding it).
Even Parliamentary Committees are having a tough time trying to find out more about the NCS.
An Education Select Committee report also said earlier the government’s response was “vague about public funding” for the NCS scheme.
Cost of providing the National Community Service places in 2012 now could be as high as £50m, admits the government in the FOI request.
FOI REQUEST RESPONSE
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