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Sanders' Green New Deal: A Realistic Response to the Emergency That Will Define Our Lifetimes
On November 14th, the New York Times published an article which discussed the Green New Deal as proposed by Senator Bernie Sanders, claiming to speak for ‘experts,’ and framing the article around what readers were led to believe were authoritative opinions. As Common Dreams reported, the Times – without input from a single climate scientist or relevant academic – instead based their article on opinions from “an adviser to South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg, a business professor and maxed-out Hillary Clinton donor, and a Democratic strategist who does public relations work for the chemical industry.” This assembled cast took a predictably dim view of Sanders’ massive, dual-purpose environmental and…
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One useful thing parliament could do NOW to protect us from a Trumpian trade deal
It often feels like the media have given us wall-to-wall coverage of every single aspect of Brexit. But there is a key issue which has hardly been mentioned: the Trade Bill. The Trade Bill governs arrangements for future trade deals: with the EU, USA, Japan, India, or wherever. The next big argument after Brexit itself will be around the Government’s efforts to get a trade deal with Donald Trump. Whatever is in the law on trade agreements at that point is going to be crucial. If Prorogation had gone ahead, the Trade Bill would just have been dropped. But the Supreme Court judgement opens up the possibility of continuing with…
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Time for a government of national unity — and for citizens assemblies!
The Supreme Court’s definitive demolition of the PM’s illegal prorogation of Parliament means that Parliament will now return with immediate effect. If Boris Johnson does not do the decent thing and resign with immediate effect, then it is likely that Parliament, whose sovereignty the Supreme Court have affirmed, will look for a way of getting rid of him. There is a clear Parliamentary majority against him now that he has kicked 21 Conservative MPs out of the Party, a majority against him that will surely now look to find a way of working together to create a caretaker government that can find a way forward. Probably more Conservative (or ex-Conservative?)…
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Britain’s democratic structures are broken: Citizens Assemblies could fix them — and more.
Boris Johnson’s planned suspension of parliament has highlighted just how fragile and unfit for purpose Britain’s ‘democratic’ structures are. The decision to prorogue parliament for 5 weeks – the longest prorogation since 1945 – is a transparent attempt to block parliamentary scrutiny of the Conservative leadership’s Brexit plans or lack thereof. The fact that some of their media defenders have tried to paint this as in anyway normal is laughably absurd. This is an abuse of a parliamentary instrument that by convention has been used only for short breaks preceding a Queens Speech. Politicians, the public, and much of the commentariat are rightly outraged by this cynical exploit. But while…
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A memo to Extinction rebels: on the need for truth-telling and its possible needful consequences
Telling the truth Extinction Rebellion’s (XR’s) first demand is for the Government to tell the whole truth about the gravity of the climate and ecological emergency. The time is now because everything is not going to magically sort itself out, everything is not going to be ok. What we are currently witnessing is climate spiralling out of our reach while ecosystems are already thoroughly degraded with the sixth extinction crisis under way. Climate disasters are coming, inevitably, and the climate situation will worsen for at least a generation, probably far longer, whatever we do. This is because of the time-lags built into the system: CO2 stays in the atmosphere for…
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What is actually wrong with WTO rules?: Why they are significantly worse than the EU
For the first time in 40 years, the UK has to re-consider its trading policy. At the moment, there is plenty of talk about “falling back” onto World Trading Organisation (WTO) rules in the event of a no-deal Brexit, an outcome which Theresa May’s giant game of ‘chicken’ makes dangerously likely. And indeed, if this is what happens, the UK will find itself solely under the minimalist rules-based trading system of the WTO. As this remains the legal default position, in the event of a no-deal Brexit we will find ourselves in a position in which tariff-free trade between the UK and the EU ceases and the agreements held in…
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The Lords standing up for environmental standards
Last week, the upper House inflicted a historic defeat on the Government’s Trade Bill. This article explains the reasons for and the significance of the defeat, in the context of the struggle over Brexit and in defence of a precautionary approach to environmental- and public-health- protection. In a time of rising anxiety with the possibility of a no deal Brexit looming, there must be assurances made in law that our future trading arrangements are not going to expose us to gross potential damage to our ecology. This is one of the key reasons why the House of Lords last week inflicted a remarkable defeat upon the Government’s Trade Bill. This…
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Extinction Rebellion beyond London
The Extinction Rebellion (XR) has rapidly made a name for itself – by way of unleashing an unprecedented scale of non-violent direct-action (NVDA) in London. The first phase of protests came to a head with Rebellion Day 2, in which we marched on Downing Street and Buckingham Palace. The movement is internationalising. But what next for XR in the UK? XR is starting to facilitate actions everywhere. Of course, the thing about the climate is that it is under threat by all manner of human activities. Most obviously, the way we grow our food, what industry does, and the way we travel. Common future The rebellion challenges oligarchy and neoliberal…
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Extinction Rebellion: I’m an academic embracing direct action to stop climate change
Not heard of the “Extinction Rebellion” before? Then you heard it here first. Because soon, everyone is going to have heard of it. The Extinction Rebellion is a non-violent direct action movement challenging inaction over dangerous climate change and the mass extinction of species which, ultimately, threatens our own species. Saturday November 17 2018 is “Rebellion Day” – when people opposed to what they see as a government of “climate criminals” aim to gather together enough protesters to close down parts of the capital – by shutting down fossil-powered road traffic at key pinch-points in London. I’m a Reader in Philosophy at the University of East Anglia and I have…
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The ‘Progressive Alliance’ re-assessed, post-General-Election: a failed strategy
The think tank I chair, Green House published a report, in which I was a prominent author, in favour of the ‘Progressive Alliance’ concept, last year. A year on, and it is clear that we live in interesting times. This election may have gone relatively well for Corbyn – but we must be honest enough to accept that it has gone pretty disastrously wrong for g/Greens. Ecology was virtually entirely absent from the election campaign. The Conservatives, now governing once again, ‘won’ (sic) the election with a manifesto promising less than zero, eco-wise. Labour, the main beneficiaries of the election, promised “faster economic growth” as the linchpin of their manifesto: an idea…
