Hubbub

BORIS AND TORIES OUT OF TOUCH, more than ever before, article in Guardian Newspaper.Asked about Elsie, a 77-year-old who has cut back on meals and uses buses to stay warm, he responded: “The 24-hour freedom bus pass was actually something that I introduced.” Asked what more Elsie could cut back on, he said he “didn’t want her to have to cut back on anything”.Speaking to LBC’s Tonight with Andrew Marr on Tuesday night, Reid said Elise was “disappointed” with Johnson’s response to her plight. ... See MoreSee Less

Support Greenpeace petition to tax mega profits of fossil fuel companies action.greenpeace.org.uk/OilandGasPayUp ... See MoreSee Less

As scandals of billions squandered on corrupt PPE procurement and domestic energy costs shoot up, its worth remembering that fuel for air travel is untaxed: see graphic. Remind your MP that a jet fuel tax or aviation emissions price could raise £10bn a year in the UK if the same tax is applied to jet fuel as paid by motorists for petrol/diesel at the pump.Regular reminder, as energy bills rise for everybody, that jet fuel is still tax free and the emissions are barely priced at all.A jet fuel tax or aviation emissions price (which could include CO2 and non-CO2 emissions) could raise £10bn a year in the UK if the same tax is applied to jet fuel as paid by motorists for petrol/diesel at the pump.This would predominantly target the top 10% of earners. Indeed the top 1% of earners would pay massively more than anybody else.See graph from:zoe-institut.de/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/ZOE_1-5-Degree_Policy_Equitable_Lifestyles_WEB_211221_... ... See MoreSee Less

Laissez fayre Boris/Tory Govt, will we soon have Chlorinated chicken on the supermarket shelves, fresh from a USA trade deal ... See MoreSee Less

Interesting reading Yuval Noah Harari in '21 Lessons for the 21st Century' - not really the most comforting of books - because one chapter he writes centres on 'Community' and almost entirely (as an example) using Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg as the protagonist for good or ill (so there can be irony in using that very medium to comment!). And much of the theme of his book is the way the internet and algorithms, technology and Artificial Intelligence will inevitably drive, are driving, the future. Yet he returns to the undoubted truth that society for us individually really only functions on the small rather than large scale; our sense of place and community, the stories and future we envisage, presumably the resonances that cross between us, our shared skills and abilities, hopes and dreams - just as much online really as offline if the attempt is made to illustrate and analyse these.So is the American Stock Market and the Federal Reserve and the almighty dollar the root of all trust, as he describes (quote: “Money is the most universal and most efficient system of mutual trust ever devised.”), and "At this point, it’s hard to wonder what, if anything, will truly unnerve investors..."?www.vox.com/business-and-finance/22421417/stock-market-pandemic-economyOr does trust more lie somewhere else at the heart of, even as the root and branch, of any society? How do we discover it coming out of a pandemic: "In a year of scientific breakthroughs — and political failures — what can we learn for the future?"www.ft.com/content/f1b30f2c-84aa-4595-84f2-7816796d6841 ... See MoreSee Less

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