Posts
Britain
faces the biggest crisis of democracy in its history. It’s time to
take power back
Nafeez Ahmed
14
July, 2016
EDITORIAL
Welcome
to prime minister Theresa May’s new regime: it represents perhaps
the most authoritarian, racist and austerity-obsessed government in
British history.
Britain
is now being run by an unelected leader presiding over a draconian
surveillance-state, hell-bent on accelerating war on the poor
and vulnerable, at home and abroad. And if that wasn’t bad enough,
the official opposition to this regime is falling apart.
The
fight to reclaim our democracy must be ramped up. Now.
Austerity on steroids
May
launched her premiership on Wednesday with a grand speech that would
not have sounded out of place if spoken by a leader of the Labour
Party.
But
even though she sacked George Osborne, she has already made
clear she
has no intention of reversing the former chancellor’s core
policies. In fact, while Osborne had begun to slow down his own
commitments to austerity as the economy failed to meaningfully
improve, May refuses to back down from the government’s commitment
to:
]…] continue with its intention to reduce public spending and cut the budget deficit.
May
has given lip-service to building a “better Britain” that “works
not for a privileged few but for everyone” – but plans to
continue brutally cutting public services and even basic welfare
benefits that are hitting the poorest, hardest.
As
an MP, the new PM has supported the
discredited ‘bedroom tax’, voted against higher benefits for
people who cannot work due to disability or illness, and voted
against public spending to create guaranteed jobs for young people.
She
doesn’t want to increase tax against people with incomes over
£150,000, voted against a banker’s bonus tax, generally voted to
reduce taxes on giant corporations, and overall wants to
strangle the power of workers by neutering trade unions.
Police-state
And
that’s just one element of what May stands for.
In
her previous incarnation as home secretary, the new PM presided over
the controversial ‘Preventing Violent Extremism’ (Prevent)
programme, which as The
Canary exclusively
reported appears
to have been influenced by far-right anti-Muslim extremists with ties
to neo-Nazis. The programme disproportionately targets ordinary
Muslims, and singles out those who criticise government foreign
policies and Prevent itself.
Added
to that, there is May’s notorious Investigatory Powers Bill.
So
far, covert mass surveillance has continued without any legal basis.
If May’s Bill is passed, the intelligence services will have
wide-ranging legal
authority to hack and infiltrate all
electronic systems for the purposes of spying. That means covertly
installing malware on computers, using keyloggers to monitor all your
keystrokes, tapping into telecommunications cables, installing
malware on smartphones and so on.
Particularly
worrying is that “bulk” surveillance – that is, surveillance of
groups, communities and whole societies – can be justified on three
simple grounds: national security; preventing or detecting serious
crime, and threats to “the economic well-being of the UK”. In
other words, basically anything.
A
Corbyn-led Labour party, for instance, could be construed as
“threatening” the profits of corporate lobbies with a
stranglehold over the government.
If
anyone has doubts about the dangerous implications for democracy,
check outthis
essay by
British intelligence expert Robin Ramsay, delivered to various Labour
party branches in 1996. He uses a wealth of declassified
documents to show how Britain’s national security state has for
decades sought to subvert and manipulate the British left, including
the Labour party – even using “surveillance down to the level of
trade councils and union branches.”
Kill the environment
Sources
inside the Tory party have told Paul Goodman, editor of
ConservativeHome, that May plans to fold the Department of Energy and
Climate Change (DECC) into the Department of Business, Innovation and
Skills (BIS).
The
DECC has already been watered down under David Cameron, focusing less
on tackling climate change, and more on shilling for the shale oil
and gas industry.
But this
would ring the death-knell on DECC’s environmental
credentials, making the department entirely subsidiary to more
important considerations of big business and corporate power.
The
new PM’s contempt for the environment is further obvious from her
own voting
record.
She has generally voted against measures to prevent climate change,
supported selling off England’s state-owned forests,
opposed regulations on fracking, and never even bothered
voting on financial incentives for low carbon electricity generation.
Deport the foreigners
Wherever
you stand on Brexit, its primary campaign promise was proper
immigration controls. Even Nigel Farage promised that the Vote Leave
campaign was not targeting Europeans who had already made their homes
in Britain.
But
May took that further by effectively threatening
to deport the
three million EU nationals already living in Britain – the same
policy advocated by the neo-Nazi BNP.
The
alarming undertones of this shouldn’t be underestimated. In times
of economic crisis, as we saw in the 1930s, fascism invariably rears
its ugly head.
I’m not racist, I just like making jokes about black people
May’s
lurch to the far-right is mirrored in her selection of Boris Johnson
as foreign secretary. But the former Mayor of London, now the face of
Britain on the world stage, has a long history of openly racist
statements.
Here’s
a brief round-up from The
Mirror:
Visiting Uganda, Johnson cheerily said to UN workers and their black driver: “Right, let’s go and look at some more piccaninnies.” (The Observer, October 5 2003)
He also wrote: “The Queen has come to love the Commonwealth, partly because it supplies her with regular cheering crowds of flag waving piccaninnies.” (Daily Telegraph, January 10 2002)
Of Tony Blair’s trip to Africa he said: “The pangas will stop their hacking of human flesh and the tribal warriors will all break out in watermelon smiles to see the big white chief.” (Daily Telegraph, January 10 2002)
And he defended colonialism for boosting Africa’s economy saying: “Left to their own devices, the natives would rely on nothing but the instant carbohydrate gratification of the plantain.” (Spectator 2 February 2002)
More
recently, Johnson declared that US President Obama has an “ancestral
dislike” of Britain because he is “part-Kenyan.”
Although
he has apologised for some of his previous racist ‘jokes’, he has
never retracted this appalling statement. In case it’s not
blindingly obvious: if you think making jokes about black people is
okay and non-racist because you’re joking, you’re racist.
The new colonialism
Adding
insult to injury, May’s new trade secretary is none other than
the disgraced
former Defence Secretary, Liam Fox,
who was forced to resign from the Cabinet in 2011. Fox had allowed
his friend Adam Werritty to masquerade as an official government
advisor, while taking vast amounts of money from special interest
groups eager to capture government defence policy.
One
vehicle for these interests was Fox’s ‘Atlantic
Bridge’, a sham charity – later investigated and exposed by the
Charity Commission – with close
ties to
the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), the main lobbying
arm behind the Tea Party movement in the US, funded by Big Oil, Big
Guns, and Big Pharma.
As
trade secretary, Fox is well-placed to apply his expertise in
corruption and subterfuge to molly-coddle the web of imperial power
exposed in a new
report by
British charity, War on Want. The report, The
New Colonialism: Britain’s scramble for Africa’s energy and
mineral sources,
reveals that a network of British firms now controls over $1 trillion
of oil, gas, coal, diamonds, gold and other resources across Africa
through mining operations.
The
British government facilitates these operations with trade policies
that oppose African efforts to regulate and protect their
economies from foreign corporate power. The result? While reaping
massive profits for British corporations, local democracies and
worker rights have eroded.
Fox
is already plugged into this web of power. One donor to his joint
ventures with Werritty is Mick Davis, who was CEO of the
transnational mining firm, Xstrata Plc, until its merger and
absorption by Anglo-Swiss giant Glencore in 2013. Glencore Plc is one
of the main firms exposed in the War on Want report.
Messing up Brexit
As
if this wasn’t bad enough, the Brexit plan is not going to mean
less austerity because we’re out of the EU. The priority of May’s
government is to protect London’s big financiers.
May’s
new chancellor, Philip Hammond, has insisted that austerity remains
the right answer to the 2008 financial crash, but promises “a new
phase” for the economy.
What
does that mean?
In
the words of
the Financial
Times,
the new chancellor has:
promised to defend the interests of the City of London in the EU exit negotiations, admitting there was ‘no room for complacency’… Although he said other EU countries had an interest in a strong City, he added: ‘We need to ensure access to the EU single market for our financial services industry in London.’
Observers
in the City recognise that
the chancellor is not implying a shift away from
austerity. Sources at major bank, BNP Paribas, said that
Hammond’s comments didn’t mean “fiscal prudence” would be
abandoned, but merely revised in terms of timelines.
Market
analyst Jasper Lawler of CMC Markets agreed Hammond’s appointment
would reassure big financiers previously worried by May’s earlier
suggestions that she might reduce austerity.
David
Davis, May’s Brexit Minister, is also no enemy of austerity.
Whatever his shambolic plan to leave the EU will be, he is committed
to empowering corporate finance in the UK.
His
MP voting
record is
similar to that of his new boss. He consistently opposes public
spending to create jobs, wants reduced corporation tax, likes
astronomical banker bonuses, and wants to weaken trade unions. Davis’
Brexit negotiations won’t be about a “better Britain” for all
of us: they’ll be about a “better Britain” for banks and
corporations.
Shambolic opposition
As
this new regime consolidates itself, the opposition is in
increasing disarray. The Labour party faces an escalating mutiny
against its own democratically-elected leader. And ironically, one of
the chief mechanisms is to suddenly rig
the rules so
that the party’s new membership has to pay £25 just to vote in the
leadership elections.
The
chief instigators of the coup against Jeremy Corbyn, whatever you
think of him, invariably fail to offer any meaningful alternative to
the mix of policies being pursued by the Tories: hawkish military
interventionism, support for mass surveillance, fundamental agreement
that austerity is the only option, to name a few.
To
make matters worse, the entire media-industrial complex has united
against the incumbent opposition leader.
A new
study from
the London School of Economics Department of Media and Communications
warns that the British media can no longer meaningfully call itself a
“watchdog” of political power. It has, instead, become a
“bloodthirsty attackdog” against the main opposition leader. This
systematically biased reporting, based on “snarling and barking”
at a politician that “happens to challenge the status quo”, say
the authors, is “unworthy of a democracy.”
So
we now find ourselves in the extraordinary position of watching
British democracy crumble before our eyes.
An
emboldened Tory regime is preparing for a future of
intensifying privatisation, austerity for the poor, welfare for
the wealthy, extreme nationalism, institutional racism, and arrogant
militarism abroad.
The
most popular opposition leader in decades is facing an unrelenting
onslaught not only from those in his own party who barely differ from
the Tories they claim to oppose, but also from the entire
establishment media.
The Tory
machine’s ability to pursue an agenda at odds with the interests
of the vast majority of the British public is therefore more
powerful than ever.
This
means that the fight to take back British democracy from regressive
vested interests must be stepped up, now. Apathy is not an
option. Apathy is what got us here in the first place.
Call to action
Now
is the time to take action: action to get educated about our
politics, our economics, our societies, our different communities,
our environment.
Action
to get engaged in all these areas at a grassroots level – no, not
just stepping out to the polling booth now and again, or even just
joining a party. Action by engaging critically and constructively
with the institutions that claim to represent us at multiple levels –
whether through turning up, joining, writing, speaking.
Action
to show our faces at obscure meetings where vested interests would
rather we don’t appear. Principled, ethically-consistent action
designed not merely to show a broken system that we will not be
ignored, but even more importantly to showcase the vision and values
we stand for.
Along
with action that creates change outside those institutions, and
forces them to look and listen.
Action
to change realities at a local level here and now, so we can begin
empowering our communities in a way we never thought possible before:
growing our own food, collectively; pooling our resources and
developing local community investment funds; forming local
collectives to facilitate the education of our children; and
challenging the increasing encroachment of unaccountable
state-corporate power in all areas of life.
We
must begin mobilising both within and beyond the existing system.
These
actions won’t change our predicament overnight, but they are the
baby steps we must take to begin rebuilding British democracy from
the ground-up.
Climate
change department axed by
new British PM in ‘plain stupid’ and
‘deeply worrying’ move
‘This
is shocking news. Less than a day into the job and it appears that
the new Prime Minister has already downgraded action to tackle
climate change.’
http://www.desdemonadespair.net/2016/07/climate-change-department-axed-by-new.html
Ian Johnston
14 July 2016
(Independent) – The decision to abolish the Department for Energy and Climate Change has been variously condemned as “plain stupid”, “deeply worrying” and “terrible” by politicians, campaigners and experts.
One of Theresa May’s first acts as Prime Minister was to move responsibility for climate change to a new Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy.
Only on Monday, Government advisers had warned of the need to take urgent action to prepare the UK for floods, droughts, heatwaves and food shortages caused by climate change.
The news came after the appointment of Andrea Leadsom – who revealed her first question to officials when she became Energy Minister last year was “Is climate change real? – was appointed as the new Environment Secretary.
And, after former Energy and Climate Change Secretary Amber Rudd announced in November that Britain was going to “close coal” by 2025, Ms Leadsom later asked the coal industry to help define what this actually meant. […]
Craig Bennett, chief executive of Friends of the Earth, pointed out that a major report into the effects of climate change on Britain had made clear that it was already happening.
“This is shocking news. Less than a day into the job and it appears that the new Prime Minister has already downgraded action to tackle climate change, one of the biggest threats we face,” he said. [more]
14 July 2016 (NEF) – In response to the merging of departments, Stephen Devlin, Environmental Economist at the New Economics Foundation (NEF), said:
“Abolishing the Department of Energy and Climate Change is a terrible move by our new Prime Minister and signals a troubling de-prioritisation of climate change by this government.”
“Tackling climate change is an era-defining challenge that must direct and determine what industries we develop, what transport infrastructure we construct, how we manage our land and what our diets look like. It requires a central co-ordinated strategy; if we leave it to the afterthoughts of other departments we will fail.”
“This reshuffle risks dropping climate change from the policy agenda altogether – a staggering act of negligence for which we will all pay the price.”
“Theresa May must reaffirm her government’s commitment to the 2008 Climate Change Act. This world-leading piece of legislation commits us to an 80% reduction in emissions by 2050 and is one of few remaining silver linings in UK environmental policy."
"The government must reassure businesses and civil socie
change department axed by new British PM in ‘plain stupid’ and ‘deeply worrying’ move – ‘This is shocking news. Less than a day into the job and it appears that the new Prime Minister has already downgraded action to tackle climate change.’
Posted by Jim at Thursday, July 14, 2016Theresa May has raised fears about her Government's attitude towards global warming. One of Theresa May's first acts as Prime Minister was to move responsibility for climate change to a new Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. The decision to abolish the Department for Energy and Climate Change was variously condemned as 'plain stupid', 'deeply worrying', and 'terrible' by politicians, campaigners, and experts. Photo: Getty Images
By Ian Johnston
14 July 2016
(Independent) – The decision to abolish the Department for Energy and Climate Change has been variously condemned as “plain stupid”, “deeply worrying” and “terrible” by politicians, campaigners and experts.
One of Theresa May’s first acts as Prime Minister was to move responsibility for climate change to a new Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy.
Only on Monday, Government advisers had warned of the need to take urgent action to prepare the UK for floods, droughts, heatwaves and food shortages caused by climate change.
The news came after the appointment of Andrea Leadsom – who revealed her first question to officials when she became Energy Minister last year was “Is climate change real? – was appointed as the new Environment Secretary.
And, after former Energy and Climate Change Secretary Amber Rudd announced in November that Britain was going to “close coal” by 2025, Ms Leadsom later asked the coal industry to help define what this actually meant. […]
Craig Bennett, chief executive of Friends of the Earth, pointed out that a major report into the effects of climate change on Britain had made clear that it was already happening.
“This is shocking news. Less than a day into the job and it appears that the new Prime Minister has already downgraded action to tackle climate change, one of the biggest threats we face,” he said. [more]
Climate change department killed off by Theresa May in 'plain stupid' and 'deeply worrying' move
14 July 2016 (NEF) – In response to the merging of departments, Stephen Devlin, Environmental Economist at the New Economics Foundation (NEF), said:
“Abolishing the Department of Energy and Climate Change is a terrible move by our new Prime Minister and signals a troubling de-prioritisation of climate change by this government.”
“Tackling climate change is an era-defining challenge that must direct and determine what industries we develop, what transport infrastructure we construct, how we manage our land and what our diets look like. It requires a central co-ordinated strategy; if we leave it to the afterthoughts of other departments we will fail.”
“This reshuffle risks dropping climate change from the policy agenda altogether – a staggering act of negligence for which we will all pay the price.”
“Theresa May must reaffirm her government’s commitment to the 2008 Climate Change Act. This world-leading piece of legislation commits us to an 80% reduction in emissions by 2050 and is one of few remaining silver linings in UK environmental policy."
"The government must reassure businesses and civil society that the targets under the Climate Act are not up for negotiation.”
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