toxic air News

Stories of the week 14 July

The big stories this week in Politics are all around the Conservative Leadership race.

Boris Johnson was accused by the Press of being a spineless coward as he refused to support UK Ambassador to the US, Kim Darroch and threw him under a bus. Despite Brexiteers accusing Remainers of making the UK a vassal state of the EU, the Press say that Johnson has done exactly the same thing with Brexit making the UK a vassal state of the US. ‘Ordered by Trump, sacked by Johnson’ and ‘Trump said jump, Johnson said how high. MPs from all sides, including a host of Tory MPs condemned Johnson for his lack of leadership.

It also seems that Conservative Party members are completely out of step with the rest of the country. Johnson has a huge lead over Jeremy Hunt with Party members according to Polls. However, Hunt is far more popular with the rest of the country with voters saying Johnson is an ‘irresponsible, self-serving buffoon’. But the real bad news for Conservatives is that the majority of voters polled say that neither Johnson nor Hunt would make a good Prime Minister.

MPs passed an historic and long overdue vote this week when they voted to bring the same level of human rights to Northern Ireland as enjoyed by the rest of the UK. MPs voted to allow abortion and same sex marriage in a landmark step.

Very bad news for the Brexit Party this week. Polls show that the party’s popularity is in sharp decline. Perhaps that may be something to do with outbursts such as these when a Brexit Party MEP said that the Royal Navy should attack EU fishing boats. A national embarrassment.

There was more dreadful news on the potential fallout from a No Deal Brexit this week. BMW is moving engine manufacturing; Ireland say that the Northern Irish backstop debate is being badly and irresponsibly handled by both Hunt and Johnson; the UK faces decades of decline and Brexit will signal the end of the Union. Project Fear was the usual unbelievable Leaver reply. Even the Head of the World Trade Organisation stated that Johnson is not grasping the truth of what post-Brexit trade looks like. Trouble ahead.

Environment

This week saw massive shock waves on the environmental front as big hitters and big events hit the headlines. David Attenborough likened the fight against the climate emergency to the fight against slavery and warned of civil unrest in the face of our climate crisis. Prince Charles even warned that we have 18 months to save the planet. The UN revealed that we have one major climate event every week and a report found that city dwellers have billions of toxic are particles lodged in their hearts.

Violent protests continue in Hong Kong. Carrie Lam has said the extradition bill is dead but it’s not withdrawn as Joshua Wong, leader of the protest groups, states that the British police commander should face the consequences and pay the price for police action.

It seems it’s worth taking a gamble on Artificial Intelligence. A robot beat top poker players in a major breakthrough for AI.

Stories of the week 14 April

The big news this week is that the UK didn’t leave.

A ‘flextension’ was granted by the EU in an act of kindness and common sense to save the bedraggled and confused from No Deal. As you might expect, the Press were deeply divided. Some asked how taking back control ended up as begging the EU to let the UK stay. As Donald Tusk advised the UK ‘don’t waste time’, the Leaver Press saw this as the end for Theresa May as Prime Minister and the end of her proposed deal.

Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn continued their talks to find some kind of compromise but to no avail. Conservatives were horrified that Labour was being consulted and that a customs union was being discussed. On the other hand, Labour negotiators were disappointed with the lack of movement on the Government’s Brexit red lines.

In more depressing Brexit news, the enormous cost of the Brexiter fantasy threat of No Deal was revealed. No Deal preparations were stood down with £4bn already spent. Billions that could have been spent on the NHS, Education or Social Care.

In good news for Remainers, Switzerland overturned the result of a referendum because voters were poorly informed. A Remain Labour MP won a local election in a Leave constituency as the appetite for a second referendum continues to grow.

Alarmingly UK voters appear want to embrace authoritarianism according to the Hansard Society.

The Brexit extension requires the UK to hold European elections. This along with holding cross-party talks with Labour has well and truly split the already bitterly divided Conservative party. Expected to take a bashing in the local and European elections, the race for party leadership is definitely on with Boris Johnson in rumoured talks with the DUP.

Conservative Adviser, Roger Scruton was dismissed from Government for his ‘white supremacist’ views after claiming Islamophobia is a propaganda invention, all Chinese people are ‘replicas’ and George Soros has an empire in Hungary.

Julian Assange was arrested and removed after seven years of refuge in an Embassy in London. Complex arguments are now on-going on the question of extradition to the US or to Sweden.

Environment

Vehicle pollution is causing more than 4m cases of child asthma each year. The UK is the worst in Europe with up to 30% of cases directly linked to toxic air.

‘At least you’ll die from old age’ stated a poignant banner carried on more Youth Climate Strikes this week as the young valiantly try to remind their elders of their responsibility to the planet and future generations.

Middle East

More news this week on how UK arms sales are leading to civilian atrocities and death in the Yemen.

New proposed online laws could threaten the freedom of speech in Britain.