"Here is yet another victory for the hard-right Toryism that now seems to run the party, and a reminder of the financial links that connect Conservative politics with big hydrocarbon companies & devout (#ClimateCrisis) sceptics & deniers."
"It is not hard to detect the influence of the Global Warming Policy Foundation, the climate-sceptic lobby group founded in 2009 by Thatcher’s one-time chancellor Nigel Lawson, which now numbers the fantastically influential Tory backbencher Steve Baker among its trustees."
"The Global Warming Policy Foundation chair was the co-owner of a company that had donated £25,000 to Johnson’s and Jeremy Hunt’s leadership campaigns in 2019 and £100,000 to Vote Leave; this year, another firm he own gave £10,000 to Braverman’s short-lived leadership campaign.
Baker’s ERG blurs into the Net Zero Research Group: another Tory MP to watch is the latter’s chair, Craig Mackinlay, a former deputy leader of UKIP who has skilfully channelled the fierce climate denial of his former party into his new one."
"Craig Mackinlay thinks the pursuit of net zero is an “elite delusion”, which suggests a familiar sleight of hand: using a confected idea of the put-upon masses to protect the interest of fossil-fuel giants." conservativehome.com/2021/07/16/cra…
Like many of you, before today I was blissfully unaware of Winchester's grumpy pathetic whiny anti-BBC anti-gay marriage, ex-lobbyist culture war snowflake MP, Steve Brine, which calls for a quick #THREAD about him...
Predictably, Brine was one of 136 Conservative MPs who voted against the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013, claiming without evidence that 'the majority of his constituents opposed it', & anyway, like anti-abortionist Rees-Mogg, he's a "Christian". 😬
Easily offended Brine was one of 38 MPs to vote against the second national lockdown during the #COVID19 pandemic in November 2020, which is of interest because outside of his parliamentary role, he was also a 'strategic health advisor', basically a euphemism for a paid lobbyist.
TPUK promotes right-wing politics in UK schools, colleges & universities, & is linked to the far-right.
They've relaunched “Education Watch”, which aims to “document university lecturers’ political bias” by asking students to send in videos & photos which it will then showcase.
Here in the UK the founding chairman of Turning Point UK was named as former Oxford student, Bullingdon Club member & US conspiracy theorist Candace Owens' husband, George Farmer, former social secretary of the Oxford University Conservative Association.
Prior to supporting the Brexit & Reform Parties, George Farmer became the youngest-ever member of the Leaders’ Group – donors who give more than £50,000/year to the Tories who are offered privileged access to the PM & other high-ranking Cabinet ministers.
Establishing economic incentive zones (IZs) is one of the main policy instruments used here, & across the world, to attract investments.
This video is a great intro to understanding the Special Economic Zones (SEZ) across the developing world.
Regional incentive zones appear to be a key part of the UK Govt's plan for growth. While there's lots of misinformation about them, there are many legitimate concerns around eg employment rights, corporate power, democracy, environmental harm & crime.
There is plenty of expert/academic literature available. This article, for example, argues that spatially designated economic zones render countries vulnerable to crime & harm, while simultaneously diffusing & escalating these problems across the globe.
#THREAD on grotesque dinosaur Christopher Chope, who blocked a bill to make up-skirting a criminal offence, & another making it easier to protect girls from FGM, & who has been nominated to join the privileges committee & probe into #Partygate.
Chope was chairman of the Thatcherite Conservative Way Forward group, recently relaunched by climate-skeptic Steve Baker.
During the 2009 expenses scandal, it emerged that Chope claimed £136,992 in parliamentary expenses in 2007–8. This included claiming £881 to repair a sofa.
In October 2011, Chope questioned the time allotted to a debate on MPs' pensions. The debate came before a debate into the Hillsborough disaster inquiry & it was reported that Chope had threatened to delay the inquiry, leading to widespread criticism.
'Most people have had the misfortune to meet one of those piggyfaced people who says: 'Excuse me, but I find that offensive.' Often it's someone who isn't actually offended themselves. This horrible behavioural tic is extending its reach' - Douglas Murray in the, er, Daily Mail.
"To an extent barely realised outside the business, what can be written & broadcast in our media today is no longer decided just by editors & commissioners but by a labyrinthine bureaucracy open to wild abuse by anyone (like Murray) who can claim to have had their feelings hurt."
"If you don't like something you hear, you can claim to have suffered an offence - instead of just turning it off. Minority interest pressure groups encourage it, & you can be directed to things that you weren't offended by first time round via Twitter."
The inextricable link between material consumption & GDP makes infinite-growth incompatible with ecological sustainability - so how do we transition to alternative economic paradigms founded on the reconciliation of equitable human well-being with ecological integrity?
Even within mainstream economics, the growth orthodoxy is being challenged, and not merely because of a heightened awareness of environmental perils...
In “Good Economics for Hard Times,” two 2019 Nobel Prize winners in Economics, Abhijit Banerjee & Esther Duflo, say larger GDP doesn’t necessarily mean a rise in human well-being—especially if it isn’t distributed equitably—& the pursuit of it can sometimes be counterproductive.