The Thin End

Insulate Britain is back on the roads after a ten-day break.  Protestors block three locations across The City of London, including Upper Thames Street, Bishopsgate, and Limehouse Causeway. They are demanding that the government gets on with the job of insulating Britain’s homes, starting with the homes of the poorest people in the country.    This is the fourteenth time Insulate Britain has caused disruption on motorways and A-roads as part of its campaign of nonviolent civil resistance over the past six weeks.  Frustrated drivers will get angry with Insulate Britain protestors, and some no doubt will violently pull them from the road and hurl abuse at them.  But what do they want, and when do they want it? Of course, it can be annoying to be delayed in one's journey, and it may also have fatal consequences in emergencies. It is difficult to balance ethically.  That is true for all such forms of protest. However, stopping traffic is not a new form of prote...

The problem with the UK government’s Net Zero Strategy is that it isn’t backed up by the government’s own actions.  It is a ‘wish’ without a will to act.  We really need bold action, yet we get timid attempts to solve the problem through broken markets.  So, we go on investing in fossil fuels while extolling the virtue of carbon-free energy.  We seek more trade deals that are likely to destroy rainforests and increase the carbon footprints of our daily lives.  Politicians want us to go on behaving as if nothing needs changing.   This is not to say there are no good points in the UK government strategy.  Of course, there are.  But we are so far behind the curve on what needs to be done that half measures and ‘incentives’ are no longer sufficient.   We need a bold strategy to insulate our homes, which requires funding, particularly for older houses. If we do that, then the costs will be returned in energy savings.  This should be rolled ou...

Is the UK government serious about action on climate change? Recent decisions suggest not.   Over one hundred fires have been reported on carbon-rich peatland in Northern England in the last four days despite a new government ban and just weeks before the UK is due to host a major climate summit, COP26. Most of the fires have taken place inside the North York Moors, Peak District and Yorkshire Dales national parks. Wild Moors, the campaign group that collected the data and shared it with Unearthed, has recorded 109 peatland fires as of 10 October, raising questions about the effectiveness of the government ban. Dramatic drone footage captured by Unearthed s hows vast smoke clouds rising from moorland in North Yorkshire. Peatland is the UK’s largest natural carbon store on land, ‘locking in’ an estimated 3.2 billion tonnes, as well as providing nesting and feeding grounds for many wading birds and important habitats for rare insects and plants. Landowners deliberately started Peatla...

SAN FRANCISCO— Farmworker groups, environmentalists, and health organizations represented by Earthjustice are legally challenging the Environmental Protection Agency for approving the continued use of the deadly pesticide paraquat, which has been linked to Parkinson’s disease. Paraquat is currently banned in 32 countries, including member states of the European Union, where the chemical is manufactured and exported, and China. In July, the US EPA reapproved the pesticide’s registration for another 15 years. “This paraquat registration puts EPA on the wrong side of science, history and the law,” said Jonathan Kalmuss-Katz, a senior attorney at Earthjustice. “With dozens of countries banning paraquat because of its severe health effects, there is no excuse for leaving farmworkers and agricultural communities exposed to extreme risks.” All major agricultural states are hot spots for paraquat use, according to the latest government data. But communities in Kansas, Texas, and southern state...

The bells toll louder now, but will we listen and act?  The UK is hosting the climate summit, the 26th UN Climate Change Conference, COP26, at the end of October. No doubt it will set new targets or reiterate old ones, but more is needed.  Politicians need to face reality.  We need to set new goals for our economy and the way we live. It will require the most massive investment, probably bigger than the bail-out of the banking system.  If we can bail out the banks, we can save the environment from a cataclysmic global crisis. But governments need to be honest with their citizens.  Trading emissions is no longer an option.  It simply allows the wealthy and rich countries to park their responsibility onto the shoulders of others.  No doubt, the UK will boast about approaching its targets in reducing carbon emissions.  Sadly this is all a sleight of hand.  The UK has, in large part, achieved that by exporting its carbon emissions.  If the U...

There are good reasons why the UK government needs to do more to roll out testing for coronavirus. First, because without doing so, we are working in the dark about the spread of the virus in the population.  Second, because those who have been infected with the virus and recovered would have built up immunity, and it would prevent unnecessary confinement. The more we get a grip on that kind of knowledge, the more people we can get back to work. The WHO was right at the outset to call for widespread testing: test, test, test.   We should not be making plans in the dark. Testing played a vital role in South Korea in their apparently successful attempts to gain control of the virus. The South Koreans introduced testing tents in the streets.   Testing wasn't an add on.  It was a vital plank of the Korean strategy. Testing can save lives.  If people are sure they are infected with the virus, then they could get treatment at an early stage and increase ...

For the first time since WW2, we are reminded of how facing a major crisis we must pull together as a society. The coronavirus pandemic has exposed how fragile our social infrastructure has become after a decade of austerity.  Whilst not making the response to COVID-19 party political, the Tory government must acknowledge the need to invest in our communities, in social care, and other key services.  These are just as vital to our economic well-being as any factory. But this requires the government to ensure there is support for our key services.  We must never again allow our social support system to become so fragile. Just as bridges and roads, rail-links and ports are vital to our economy, so also is the fabric of our health and care system.  The government must once again start investing in people and communities. Much will be done by volunteer support groups, and that is a wonderful thing.  Indeed, we must all consider what it is we are doing fo...

The coronavirus is a nightmare for any government, and the UK Health Secretary has difficult choices to make.  The worst-case scenario is worrying.  The government should be preparing for the worst.  To date, the UK is in a containment phase of the crisis.  Other countries have already moved to measures to prevent the virus from spreading.  Managing the spread of the virus means drastic social and political action as evidenced in Italy. One wonders why the government is waiting.  There is no reason to suppose that the virus is not spreading in the UK just as it is in France, even if it has not reached the levels seen in Italy. Stopping the spread would mean taking strong measures that would impact adversely on the economy.  The government will also be mindful of the risks of panic in the population. Many experts are warning that the UK has only a few days if it is to take action that would prevent the virus spreading as it has done in Italy, ...

Boris it appears is about to compromise on the backstop to do a deal on Brexit.  Such a compromise is good and should be encouraged because leaving the EU without a deal would be catastrophic, and, despite his rhetoric, Boris Johnson knows that to be so.  But an agreement must be put back to the people to decide. Accounts running in the press today suggest he is willing to reproduce Mrs May's former compromise on a Northern Ireland customs union with the EU. This is a deal Brexiteers, such as Rees Mogg,  described as “completely cretinous, impractical, bureaucratic and a betrayal of common sense.” But let's not stop Boris compromising.  It is far better for the country that a deal is done.  But such an agreement must be put back to the people. A deal put forward by those in government who once described it as cretinous, impractical, bureaucratic and a betrayal of common sense needs to be approved by the people. Is it really what people tho...

If we do remain in the European Union, then it cannot be based on an "ever closer union".   One thing Brexit has done is alter the aspirations for Britain's membership of the Union forever, even if by some miracle we now decided to remain. The "ever closer union" was at the heart of David Cameron's "negotiation" with the EU.  In a statement to the House of Commons he made clear this objective: “we do not want to have our country bound up in an ever closer political union in Europe.” An ever closer union has been precisely what the UK has signed up to time and time again. During the 2016 referendum, it was often said by the Leave side that we only signed up to a Common Market in the referendum of 1975.  But this is disingenuous.   An "ever closer union" was incorporated into the preamble to the 1957 Treaty of Rome setting up the European Economic Community (common market): "DÉTERMINÉS à établir les fondements d'une uni...

Brexit negotiations have begun?  That seems an odd question after three years of negotiation and a deal that was struck.  Prime Minister Boris Johnson talks of non-existent reopening of these talks.  Yet, nobody in Brussels has seen any plan.  No details have been offered, other than a demand that the EU 'drop the backstop' for the Irish border, and this is all typical of the deception that is Boris Johnson.   He blusters in the House of Commons accusing others of 'betrayal' or 'surrender'. The problem is not that politicians lie to us. The problem is that they have not the courage to tell us what we don't like to hear. The government knows Brexit will hurt millions of people in the UK, but they won't acknowledge it. They know it is set to seriously harm our economy and competitiveness in the world but won't tell us. They can't tell us the reality because it would destabilise the markets. So we are stuck in fantasy land. We go on with the b...

In an editorial in The BMJ , published today, editor in chief of BMJ Sexual & Reproductive Health, Sandy Goldbeck-Wood, on behalf of her editorial board colleagues, calls on British premier, Theresa May, to decriminalise abortion in the UK.   This follows the recent decisions to liberalise abortion laws in the Republic of Ireland and the Isle of Man. Abortion law in UK The UK 1967 Abortion Act was introduced to provide a legal defence against the criminal law passed in 1861,  but the Offences Against the Person Act remains on the statute book. The women of Northern Ireland are the most vulnerable to this 150 years old, anachronistic piece of Victorian criminal law,  because under the law in the Province allows for no defence,  even in cases of rape or fatal fetal abnormalities. As a result, women who have an abortion in Northern Ireland still  face a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. The UK government has argued that this is a matter for the d...

Women in England should be allowed to take both the pills required for an early medical abortion at home, just like their peers in Scotland and now Wales, argue healthcare leaders, in an editorial published online in BMJ Sexual & Reproductive Health. Currently in England, women who have an early medical abortion take one drug, mifepristone, in the clinic then need to return to take a second drug, misoprostol, 36-48 hours later. In Scotland, and soon in Wales, misoprostol can be taken by the woman at home, but in England it must be administered within a licensed hospital or clinic. Developed in 1973,  misoprostal is commonly used in labour induction and is regarded by the WHO as safe and effective. Leading clinicians call for change in regulations The heads of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, the Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare, and the British Society of Abortion Care Providers now call on health and social care secretary, Jer...

The EU referendum campaign is drawing to a close. It hasn’t been a good campaign. Yet the consequences of this vote are enormous – much is at stake. We have heard arguments from the sublime to the downright ridiculous. The Tories have turned on each other in a bitter fight to the finish, which says more about the Tory party than it does about the real issues. This has been a fundamental problem because it has distorted the case for Britain remaining an active member of the EU. Tory internecine warfare threatens the stability not just of their party, but also of the United Kingdom. Whatever the outcome, wounds opened by the campaign will be difficult to heal. The future of the Tory government is in question with the potential for political chaos if Britain votes to leave. So, it has been left to Labour to make the substantive case for remain. Their case is a good one. It is idealistic, pragmatic, economic and social. Labour with Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership set out to make a disti...