EEEI POLICIES GB - environment

As a start, a provocative Guardian editorial (Feb 2021)...

Their critique has parallels with early criticism of President Biden's appointment of business/stock market insiders to key positions, conflicting with his high profile return to the Paris Climate Accord.

THE 2019 MANIFESTOS

Note that Labour policy is likely to shift dramatically to the right since Keir Starmer became leader, to be more like the Blairite, business-friendly 'New Labour' approach, the so-called triangulation (what President Clinton did by blending elements of right-wing free market policy with some left-wing public sector spending).

LABOUR: very explicitly pledged a green revolution:

There is a real tension between the socialist and green strands of Labour: their trade union main donors are often hostile to green policies because they can threaten jobs in industries they represent. Also, green policies often include higher taxes or green charges - which tend to disproportionately impact the poor: if air travel becomes much more expensive as a result of pollution charges

UK EEEI POLICIES - education

Placeholder for now.

Sample issue: universities, free speech, cancel culture (Feb 2021 government proposal to allow banned speakers to sue, Guardian)

NI GFA CHALLENGES the murder legacy

Another issue that threatens to blow up at any time - the many unresolved cases from the Troubles. The Johnson government has attempted to shield past and current British soldiers from facing justice - breeding outrage amongst republicans. Contrarily, any such case going to court fuels anger amongst loyalists.

The New Lodge 6 case, alleged shootings of civilians by the British Army in 1973, has been caffeinated by the ruling on a new inquest. Guardian, Feb 2021.

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DEMOCRACY v AUTHORITARIANISM Hungary and Poland

Two EU nations that have been steadily eroding basic elements of democracy under ultra-conservative (see Poland's abortion ban and both countries' homophobic laws) populist nationalists, who use EU warnings to whip up resentment against 'foreign' interference. Their attacks on democracy are striking in the weakening of judicial independence and media freedom.

Feb 2021 saw both countries take further steps to radically undermine - even force into bankruptcy - independent media. The Guardian reports:

Commercial TV channels, radio stations and web portals have gone off air in Poland in protest at tax proposals that critics say threaten independent media, a day after Hungary’s leading private radio station lost its broadcasting licence.

The European commission on Wednesday expressed concern for media freedom in the two countries, both of whose governments have been accused of acting to stifle opposition outlets and are under investigation for alleged rule-of-law violations.

Polish private media, much of which is highly critical of the nationalist ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party, ran slogans such as “This used to be your favourite show” and “Media without choice” to highlight the planned tax on their advertising revenues.

UK PARLIAMENT The Speaker

I'll start for now with (Feb 2021) the Standard on Sir Lindsay Hoyle scolding Johnson for baiting the SNP (he's been warned before for saying Scottish NationalIST Party, it's National) ... Or, if you read the very right-wing Express, it was Johnson blasting the SNP!!!

JUNE 2021 - 

BERCOW JOINS LABOUR WITH STRONG ATTACK ON JOHNSON'S' 'DISGRACEFUL' TREATMENT OF PARLIAMENT AND TRUTH

I wonder if they'll make him a Lord? He had a lot to say (Guardian)

HOYLE CONDEMNS COVID PRESS ANNOUNCEMENT BEFORE ANY PARLIAMENTARY STATEMENT

Evening Standard reports Hoyle forced the government to send someone to Parliament, but still hours after the scheduled press announcement. The Daily Mirror covers the se story but with a stronger interpretation of Hoyle's statement.

HOYLE BOTTLES OUT OF BATTLE OVER TORY AID CUT?

30+ Tory MPs were willing to rebel to force the government to reverse it's cut to overseas aid. Now they can't. (Guardian sketch article)

UN: ICC International Criminal Court

2021

SET TO INVESTIGATE WAR CRIMES IN PALESTINE DESPITE ISRAELI PROTESTS

The US often blocks censure and condemnation of Israeli action in the Occupied Territories of Palestine, but the Palestinian Authority 'used its UN observer state status, gained in 2012, to join the ICC and call for an investigation into Israeli actions'.

The Biden administration has expressed "serious concerns" over the move but hasn't tried to block it, a perhaps unexpected shift from Trump given long-term largely uncritical support for Israel's actions, including illegal settlements, part of the war crimes investigation potentially alongside the deaths of protesting schoolchildren. 

'While Israel has not signed up to the international treaty, the ICC’s mandate is to prosecute people, not countries, including those from states that are not signatories.
Netanyahu has previously called for sanctions against the court and people who work for it. Donald Trump’s administration used a similar tactic to block a separate abandoned ICC investigation into the conduct of US troops in Afghanistan.' Guardian.