Last Straw

Sharp decline in public’s belief in climate threat, British poll reveals:

The proportion of adults who believe climate change is “definitely” a reality dropped by 30% over the last year, from 44% to 31%, in the latest survey by Ipsos Mori.

What I don’t understand is that we’ve been here so often before. Why do people listen to the propaganda of oil companies and the like over scientific evidence? How many times do you have to have the wool pulled over your eyes by propagandists denying that smoking causes cancer, denying that CFCs lead to ozone depletion, denying that certain pollutants cause acid rain or denying that climate change is manmade (or, originally, that it even existed)?

This is a great time to be born, a great time to be alive. This generation gets to completely change the world we live in. We have a chance here to reimagine every single thing we do. But, no, perhaps we’d rather go down with the ship and listen to rich old men trying to squeeze every last dollar, euro and yen from their investments in outdated industries.

Great piece by George Monbiot on the campaign to arrest Tony Blair:

Already the campaign has borne fruit. Outside the Chilcot inquiry a woman called Grace McCann, inspired by the website, tried to apprehend Mr Blair, before she was restrained and removed by the police. She qualifies for the first bounty: one quarter of the total pot at the time of her attempt. She has pledged to give the money to relevant charities. The fund will remain open until Blair is officially prosecuted, and we will keep paying out to those who follow Grace’s example.

You can donate here.

No Right Turn on Labour’s electoral reform announcement:

After a decade of broken promises, the UK’s Labour government is finally moving on electoral reform, announcing that they will pass a law before the election requiring a vote on the electoral system within two years. Of course, New Labour being New Labour it is being done for all the wrong reasons…

There have been a number of inquiries into the 2003 invasion of Iraq but as someone commenting on the European Tribune website put it, they

… are not intended to reach a finding that the public find credible, they exist to provide a smokescreen for a few years to cover the establishment for a few years in the hope everyone forgets about it.

Jacqui Janes believes her son is dead because the war in Afghanistan is under-resourced.
He’s not. He’s dead because he was fighting an unjust war.
The stated aim of the invasion of Afghanistan was to find Osama bin Laden and other high-ranking Al-Qaeda members. On 14 October, 2001, the Taliban publicly offered to hand over Osama bin Laden [...]

Labour (UK) have had twelve years to do this:
A fierce debate within the government on how to tackle entrenched wealth inequality … is to be ignited by a report ordered by Harriet Harman, the Labour deputy leader and the minister responsible for equalities.

As part of negotiations with Iran over nuclear fuel Mohamed ElBaradei of the International Atomic Energy Agency recently proposed that Iran transfer about 70 percent of its low-enriched uranium to Russia for further enrichment by the end of this year, then to France for conversion into fuel plates for medical use, effectively negating its use in alleged [...]

Channel 4’s Dispatches last night: Do You Know What’s in Your Breakfast? A reminder that, in capitalism, it’s not the job of the food industry to provide good healthy food. Their job is to make as much money by whatever means necessary, even if that means sneaking copious amounts of saturated fat, sugar and salt into [...]

Guardian gagged from reporting UK parliament:
The Guardian has been prevented from reporting parliamentary proceedings on legal grounds which appear to call into question privileges guaranteeing free speech established under the 1688 Bill of Rights.
Update: Trafigura drops bid to gag Guardian over MP’s question.

‘No credible evidence’ of Iranian nuclear weapons, says UN inspector:
The UN’s chief weapons inspector, Mohamed ElBaradei, said today he had seen “no credible evidence” that Iran is developing nuclear weapons, rejecting British intelligence allegations that a weapons programme has been going on for at least four years.
Anyone surprised by this is just a fucking plonker.