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16 Dec, 12 tweets, 3 min read
It's now looking quite likely that Brexit will coincide with both a third lockdown and - if the longterm forecasts are correct - severe flooding.
Any one of these events would be a national crisis.
Together they could amount to a national catastrophe.
God help us.
Our government has a track record of:
- ignoring warnings
- leaving the necessary action to the last possible minute
- then bungling it
- using a crisis to enrich its friends and advance its political agenda
- leaving the poorest and most vulnerable to sink or swim
These tendencies, in combination with a possible concatenation of crises, present a severe threat to our wellbeing. We are not in good hands.
So once again we will have to rely on each other. It's going to be a hard grind in early 2021, perhaps the hardest many people in the UK will ever have experienced.
To the greatest extent possible, we'll have to support each other - materially and psychologically.
Of course, there's no complete substitute for good governance. The ideal combination is a strong society and a responsible government. But as we don't have the latter, we'll need to be as strong together as we can.
Look out for your neighbours.
Look out for your friends.
Look out, in particular, for those with no friends.
theguardian.com/environment/20…
In the fifth richest nation on Earth, where scarcely-taxed billionaires build palaces and the government scatters £100m contracts among its friends like confetti, this happens.
news.sky.com/story/covid-19…
Alongside a class culture of extreme entitlement and a cavalier disregard for other people's welfare ....
independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-n…
.... while abandoning any pretence of equal rights ....
... as the rich use the opportunity provided by another Tory government to enrich themselves still further.
theguardian.com/business/2020/…
And lobby groups use it to undermine public protections, accelerating the greatest crisis of all: the gathering collapse of our life support systems.

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More from @GeorgeMonbiot

George Monbiot Profile picture
16 Dec
Goodbye soil.
Maize is the greatest threat to soils in the UK.
Yet it is expanding rapidly, largely for biogas production in anaerobic digestion plants.
Prime land is being trashed in response to a perverse incentive created by the government.
Biogas was sold to us on the basis that it would be produced from slurry, sewage and food waste. But, as some of us warned, you can make more money by growing crops specifically for producing it.
Far from heeding the warnings, the govt actually encouraged this.
And @NFUtweets called for a massive expansion in crops for biogas (generally on Grade 1 arable land), taking this land out of food production.
At they same time, it opposes rewilding even of the least productive land, because it would, er, take this land out of food production!
Read 5 tweets
George Monbiot Profile picture
14 Dec
I’m being targeted by some conspiracy theorists, because I called for a "Great Reset" a month before the World Economic Forum did.
But all this shows is how misplaced the theory is.
Thread/
theguardian.com/commentisfree/…
I spelt out what I meant in that article: putting more emphasis on ecology and environmental issues in education, re-engaging with the living world, moving towards an economy that stays within planetary boundaries. All deeply sinister, I’m sure.
For the record, I’ve never had any contact with the World Economic Forum. As @NaomiAKlein explains, its own version of the Great Reset is basically a cynical rebranding of capitalism as a force for good. It’s hypocritical and self-serving. But not satanic.
theintercept.com/2020/12/08/gre…
Read 7 tweets
George Monbiot Profile picture
13 Dec
The government is suddenly instructing supermarkets to stockpile. But how, when UK warehouse capacity is more or less maxed out? I warned about this a few weeks ago, but couldn't get anyone in government or the media to take an interest.
theguardian.com/commentisfree/…
It's classic Johnson.
Ignore the warnings.
Panic.
Blame someone else.
Because Johnson has never done the work himself, but tells other people to 'make it happen', he has no idea what is and isn't realistic. The time to tell businesses to stockpile was 9 months ago, accompanied by a major warehouse building and logistics programme.
Read 4 tweets
George Monbiot Profile picture
11 Dec
This is massive, and horrific. @NFUtweets is secretly lobbying the government to allow #neonicotinoid pesticides to be reintroduced after Brexit.
It tells its members: "Please refrain from sharing this on social media."
On the contrary, please RT.
campaigns.nfuonline.com/page/72051/pet… Image
Here's the letter it sent to sugar beet growers across the UK. The link seems to be members-only. It is closed to the public, for obvious reasons. Image
In public, the National Farmers Union claims to be defending our food and farming standards from a US trade deal. In private, it's secretly using Brexit as an opportunity to undermine them.
Read 16 tweets
George Monbiot Profile picture
7 Dec
Just remember everyone. The real reason for Brexit is NOT the culture war Farage and the billionaire press fomented.
It's the pursuit of ruthless economic interests by a particular faction.
Don't take your eye off that.
theguardian.com/commentisfree/…
There's an iron law of 21st Century politics:

Whenever rich and powerful people want a nation to adopt an economic policy that's helpful to them and harmful to us, they disguise it as a culture war.
Farage and his ilk are simply the billionaires' stooges, providing a smokescreen of xenophobia and sovereignty, behind which their masters pursue their political and economic interests.
Read 5 tweets
George Monbiot Profile picture
6 Dec
It's a simple matter.
Crimes against humanity are wrong.
Denying them is wrong.
But so effective has Syrian and Russian propaganda been, and so much confusion has it caused, that stating these simple truths attracts a thousand trolls.
Every time Bashar al-Assad launches a chemical weapons attack, his apologists claim
a. It never happened.
b. It was an accident or
c. It was a ‘false flag’ attack.
When these claims are debunked, they simply transfer them to the next attack.
Next time you see someone denying a chemical weapons attack by Assad’s forces, asked them which of his CW attacks they agree *have* happened.
Read 8 tweets

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