Thread by @terry_barker21

#Budget2023 and #NetZero a thread. The UK is lagging behind in its commitment to achieving a drastic reduction in GHG emissions & protecting us against climate change.

#Budget2023 has an industrial strategy. However, it is clear that it will be insufficient to meet the requirements of #NetZero in the right place, in a timely manner in order to reach the target by 2040, not 2050. We are in war-time crises of an unprecedented kind.

Russia has been waging a cyber war against the West for at least 10, if not 15, years. Now due to #Brexit, #COVID19 , & #WarInUkraine, prices, especially energy & food, are spiking, but the Tory govt is either inadequate or absent in response.

Their free market ideology relies on the charity sector to fill the gaps, but the charities are starved of cash, since of course “charity begins at home” in our #CostOfLivingCrisis

Not only has the country been consumed by divisions within the ruling party, but the govt has actively weakened the public’s perception of urgent action by allowing eg, coal production plans to go ahead in Cumbria.

This crisis spreads by the day. We need #ClimateActionNow no doubt. #GeneralElectionNow would help by providing a fresh start & a clean slate, dropping the toxic Tory ideological baggage.

But some of the #BrexiteerMPs seem to be traitors, cowards, liars, or ner-do-wells, who put themselves before country. Maybe they fear the electorate, maybe they fear for their pensions, maybe they like the power to shock.

Maybe Ministers want to traumatize the nation with outrage at their cruelty, lack of compassion, stupidity & the hopelessness of their policies & proposals (criminalizing the young). The #Woke #UnWoke debate is being used remorselessly to divide & conquer.

Maybe, and this is the reality in my view, they are simply distracting us from seeing their failures, their irresponsible behavior, the absence of any commitment to duty or public service. It is indeed the #PostTruthSociety in action.

The problem is that the market does not reward public service or, apparently, good behavior. It should so so, but the regulations have been eroded over the #Neoliberal pursuit of private profit at public expense.

Money & power are dangerous bedmates, too often breeding greed. And greed too often leads to underhand dealing, and then hidden crime. This process saps the body politic such that good governance is lost.

In the UK now, govt policies are not being properly assessed for #NetZero or to ameliorate the #CostOfLivingCrisis . Ministers are consumed by short-term firefighting. PM Sunak does his best, but his Party is fractured, his Cabinet is in disarray, & he is hostage to #Brexit.

In addition, the strikes are undermining the institutional infrastructure of the country. Health, education, transport, local government, farming, industry are all at risk. The #SecondGFC threatens us all.

And, topping all this, the UK’s diplomatic efforts have to be focused not only on mitigating climate change, but on ensuring that we avoid isolation as the EU & the USA protect their domestic markets from international competition.

The time for debate & discussion is over, #ClimateActionNow

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