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Monday, November 23, 2020

Young voters in the US turned out in record numbers in 2020, powering Biden's presidential victory

At the University of Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, students organized get-out-the-vote campaigns through signs, stickers, and text messages.

Aaron Jackendoff/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

Over half of all voters under the age of 30 voted in the 2020 elections, a record figure, according to data from the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement at Tufts University.

The surge in turnout greatly benefited President-elect Joe Biden, who won this demographic by 24 points (60%-36%) over President Donald Trump.

Hoping to avoid the voter enthusiasm pitfalls that plagued Democrats in 2016, Biden's campaign sought to engage with young voters throughout the presidential campaign.

Over half of all voters under the age of 30 voted in the 2020 elections, a record figure, and the demographic powered President-elect Joe Biden's victory over President Donald Trump, according to data from the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement at Tufts University.

The data revealed that 52% to 55% of registered voters under 30 cast ballots. In the 2016 presidential election between Trump and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, roughly 42% to 44% of voters in this age group voted.

This year, the voters under 30 who cast ballots this year overwhelmingly supported Biden over Trump by a 60% to 36% margin, according to Edison Research. In 2016, many of these same voters supported Clinton over Trump by a narrower but still significant 55% to 36% margin.

Early data from Colorado, Georgia, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington state showed a huge increase in youth turnout, according to The Hill.

Tom Bonier, chief executive officer at the Democratic data firm TargetSmart, told The Hill that "the increase in turnout among younger voters was greater than the increase overall."

While Biden was able to win the Democratic presidential primaries en route to his win in the general election, his early pathway was compromised by the popularity of Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who had cultivated a huge following with younger voters from his 2016 campaign against Clinton.

With the Biden campaign aware that turnout dropped for Clinton in many major cities in 2016, Biden pushed to prioritize issues that many younger voters cared about, including student loan debt, health care reform, and environmental regulations.

"In the key battlegrounds, those younger voters likely netted Biden enough votes to carry the Electoral College," The Hill reported. "Based on turnout and exit poll data, the Tufts center estimates voters under 30 gave Biden enough net votes to carry Arizona, Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Michigan."

Biden did especially well with young Black voters, with 87% of them backing the president-elect, compared to 10% supporting Trump. Young Asian and Hispanic voters also overwhelmingly backed Biden, with 83% and 73%, respectively, while young white voters supported Biden overall with 51% of the vote.

Climate Change Is Sending Some Species the Wrong Way

Not every animal has the power to migrate to cooler climes.

The threeline mud snail is one of many species that is being forced to migrate into warmer water, against its best interest.

Photo by David Wrobel/BluePlanetArchive.com

by Michael Allen
November 23, 2020

As the oceans warm, many marine species are heading poleward in search of cooler water. But in the northwest Atlantic, researchers have discovered that some invertebrates are shifting the wrong way—their range is moving into warmer, less hospitable water. It’s a head-scratcher with important implications for our changing world.

Heidi Fuchs, a marine biologist at Rutgers University in New Jersey, says she was studying the changing distributions of two species of snails on the east coast of the United States when she realized they had shifted into shallower water.

This migration is baffling because shallow water is often warmer, and warmer water can be lethal for these invertebrates. If they’d simply stayed put, the cooler water offshore should have provided a refuge from temperature increases. Working to figure out what was going on, Fuchs found that while the snails’ spawning habits are changing because of climate change, their adaptations are actually making things worse.

Like many benthic invertebrates, the spawn timing for these snails is temperature dependent. Normally, the snails would spawn in the summer when wind patterns drive currents that send the larvae offshore into cooler, deeper water. But with the water warming, the snails are spawning earlier in the year, when a combination of wind and high river discharges drive strong onshore and southward currents.

Unlike many fish and marine mammals, the larval snails are at the mercy of these currents—which are carrying them to less hospitable habitat.

By estimating the snails’ spawning times using known spawning temperatures and ocean temperatures, and mapping them against the seasonal currents, Fuchs and her colleagues confirmed that they matched the shifts in species distributions.

Even worse, these species may be trapped in a feedback loop. Warming-induced early spawning exposes the larvae to ocean currents that push them south and inshore. But as their new home is warmer still, this causes them to spawn even earlier, sending the next generation of larvae yet farther south.

Fuchs says it is hard to say how widespread this kind of backward migration will be “because the transport processes are so complicated.” It really depends on the oceanography, the physics, and the temperature changes over time, she says.

But when Fuchs and her team examined six decades of data on 50 invertebrate species in the northwest Atlantic, such as shellfish, sea stars, and worms, they found that around 80 percent had shifted southward, westward, and into shallower water—away from the deeper, colder water of the outer continental shelf. Of the species studied, two-thirds had seen the temperature of their range increase.

Antony Knights, a marine ecologist at the University of Plymouth in England who was not involved in the research, says the work shows that physical ocean processes are driving where these organisms are moving to. “It would suggest that it is not a behavioral response,” says Knights. “Those ocean current systems are actually overcoming any abilities for these individuals to potentially mitigate against ocean warming.”

Greta Thunberg spoke zero words to anyone outside her family for 3 years before becoming the face of the youth climate movement, a new film reveals

Aylin Woodward

Environmental activist Greta Thunberg speaks at the 'Friday Strike For Climate' on March 6, 2020, in Brussels, Belgium. Thierry Monasse/Getty Images

Greta Thunberg, a teenage activist from Sweden, is the face of the youth climate movement.
A new documentary reveals that Thunberg didn't speak to anyone outside her family for three years before her rise to the world stage.

Since 2018, Thunberg has addressed the United Nations, US Congress, and UK Parliament, and met with countless powerful world leaders.

Thunberg has Asperger's syndrome, which she partially credits for her fierce activist nature.

Greta Thunberg, one of the world's most prominent climate activists, has spoken at United Nations summits, and addressed parliaments in the UK, France, and other countries. She's met Barack Obama and the Pope.

But a new documentary called "I Am Greta" reveals that Thunberg didn't speak to anyone outside her family for three years.

"They call it selective mutism," Thunberg's father, Svalte, says in the film, which came out on Hulu November 13. "She didn't speak to anyone but me, my wife, and her little sister maybe for three years."

Thunberg has Asperger's syndrome, which she calls her "superpower." Young children with Asperger's may develop selective mutism, speaking only to people they are comfortable with, like their families, but not strangers.

"I don't like making small talk with people or socializing," Thunberg says in the documentary, adding, "sometimes I go quiet for hours simply because I can't talk."
'I was sick. I almost starved to death'

Thunberg and her father, Svante, at a press conference during the COP24 summit in Katowice, Poland, in December 2018. Janek Skarzynski/Getty Images

Since 2018, Thunberg has become the face of a youth climate movement more than 4 million strong. She started the "Fridays For Future" movement — or School Strike for the Climate, as it says in Swedish on her now famous sign. In March 2019, Thunberg led more than 1 million students around the world in walking out of Friday classes to protest inaction on climate change.

Then in September of that year, she led a worldwide climate strike that included 4 million people across 161 countries — the biggest climate-change protest in history.

Thunberg had been thinking about climate change — and the lack of action to curb it — since age 8. Three years later, she says, she became depressed by the seemingly impossible task of saving the planet.

"We saw a film in school. There were starving polar bears, floods, hurricanes, and droughts," Thunberg says in the documentary. "And the scientists said that we didn't have much time left to change our behavior."

That's when anxiety and illness set in.

"I stopped eating. I stopped speaking. I was sick. I almost starved to death," she says.

Thunberg's father said she stayed home from school for a year during that time.

From there, it took "many years" for her to start feeling better, she says in the film. Her desire to fight for climate action played a role in her recovery.

"I felt that why should I give up when there an infinite number of things you could do to make a difference," she says.
A voice for the youth movement

Thunberg began her youth climate strike movement in Stockholm, Sweden in 2018. Anders Hellberg

The genesis of Thunberg's activism career came in May 2018, when she won a climate-change essay competition for the Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet.

In December of that year, Thunberg was invited to speak at the United Nations climate-change conference in Katowice, Poland.

It was the beginning of a public-speaking career.

Thunberg speaks during a hearing in front of the US House of Representatives, September 18, 2019. Alastair Pike/Getty Images

One of her most famous speeches was an impassioned call to action at the UN Climate Action Summit in September 2019, a few days after the global climate strike.

Thunberg chastised world leaders with tears in her eyes: "You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words," she said.

Time Magazine named Thunberg its 2019 Person of the Year.

'It feels like I'm speaking a completely different language'

Thunberg says in the documentary that despite the many invitations she's gotten to address policymakers, her frustration has mounted as world leaders continue not listen to her.

"I honestly do not understand why I am invited," she says, adding, "it feels like all they want is to be spotlighted to make it look like they care, as if they are doing something."

Thunberg speaks at the UN Climate Action Summit in New York, September 23, 2019.

Spencer Platt/Getty Images

During one meeting highlighted in the documentary, Thunberg spoke to members of the European Economic and Social Committee about the need to limit carbon emissions. Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the European Commission, spoke after Thunberg, but he didn't address the science she'd laid out. Instead, he floated the possibility of regulating toilet flushes across Europe.

"It feels like I'm speaking a completely different language, or as if the microphone isn't even on," Thunberg says in the film. "Sometimes when they just sit there and talk, I wonder to myself what would happen if I just stood up now and screamed."

Biden's climate change policies are better than Trump's, but they still aren't enough to prevent a climate catastrophe
Marianne Dhenin , Opinion Contributor

NOV 23, 2020

Climate activists protest in New York. Don Emmert/AFP

American voters rejected Trump's climate-change-denial-as-federal-policy approach and showed their commitment to a greener future at the ballot box this month by voting on key state issues.

The Biden administration promises a return to certain Obama-era climate and energy policies — but it's a far cry from the aggressive action favored by experts and activists.

Time is running out to prevent a catastrophic climate future.
Marianne Dhenin is a freelance writer covering social justice, politics, and the Middle East.

The Trump administration has been a disaster for the environment.

On just his fourth day in office, President Trump signed executive orders reviving the Keystone XL and Dakota Access Pipelines after construction on both had been halted, meeting the demands of Indigenous activists and other protestors who argued that the projects had not undergone requisite environmental review and would threaten local water sources and increase carbon emissions. Trump also barred the Environmental Protection Agency from sharing its research with the public less than a week after his inauguration.

Trump later announced the United States' withdrawal from the Paris Agreement. And last month, judges heard arguments in what The New York Times called Trump's "biggest climate rollback" — an attempt to replace Obama-era regulations on planet-warming emissions from coal plants with much weaker rules, which the American Lung Association claims violate the Clean Air Act. Altogether, Trump's rollbacks are estimated to increase carbon pollution in the United States by 1.8 tons between 2020 and 2035.

But on election day, voters rejected Trump's dangerous climate and energy policy reversals and outright climate change denial and showed that they're committed to a greener future. And this backlash didn't just come in the form of the presidential vote.

How Americans voted this year

Voters in Michigan committed to increasing spending on restoration and conservation of public lands with Proposal One, the Use of State and Local Park Funds Amendment, which was backed by a broad coalition of local and national environmental groups, including the National Wildlife Federation and the Nature Conservancy.

Those in Nevada approved Question Six, a constitutional amendment requiring utilities to draw at least 50% of their electricity from renewable resources in the next ten years. Voters passed the amendment not once but twice because, in Nevada, any amendment to the state Constitution has to be approved in two consecutive elections. The success of Question Six means there's now a constitutional amendment and a bill mandating 50% renewables after Governor Steve Sisolak signed SB358 on Earth Day last year.

Even in Louisiana, where Trump garnered nearly 60% of the vote, grassroots organizers prevailed over Big Oil as voters rejected a constitutional amendment that would have saved the oil and natural gas industry billions of dollars.

As in Louisiana, voters elsewhere made clear that they will not be swayed by the fossil fuel industry interfering in their politics and backed candidates committed to climate action.

Candidates who support the Green New Deal, including the original members of the Squad — Reps. Ilhan Omar, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ayanna Pressley, and Rashida Tlaib — and others, like Rep. Mike Levin, in swing districts, kept their seats. Young progressives who ran on climate justice platforms also made their mark in places as diverse as the South Bronx — where 29-year-old Amanda Septimo beat out three-decade incumbent Carmen Arroyo for a seat in the New York State Assembly — and Grants Pass, Oregon, a rural Republican stronghold where 28-year-old Vanessa Ogier flipped a seat on the city council.
Will a Biden administration follow suit on climate action?

While voters showed that they are eager for climate action, it is difficult to know if a Biden administration will honor their mandate. Of course, Biden claims he supports "a clean energy revolution and environmental justice." And during his first speech as president-elect, he emphasized the role that his administration would have to play in a "battle to save the climate."

In a speech on the campaign trail in May, Biden boasted that he backed one of the earliest climate bills in US history — which is true! But as Zoya Teirstein wrote for Grist, between Biden's early senate days when he supported the Global Climate Protection Act of 1986 and now, "Biden's most notable climate-related accomplishment was serving as Barack Obama's sidekick for eight years." (And, remember, the Obama administration's climate record isn't perfect either.)

The truth is, Biden's record on climate has had environmentalists worried since he launched his campaign last year. It seems they were right to be concerned. Throughout his campaign, Biden has waffled on the Green New Deal — while his website calls it a "crucial framework for meeting … climate challenges," he said in the first presidential debate that he does not support it. He also spent the last few weeks of his campaign defending fracking, which is perhaps unsurprising considering Biden is being advised on climate policy by bigwigs with connections to the fossil fuel industry. On Tuesday, news broke that Biden had selected Rep. Cedric Richmond, another ally of the oil and gas industry, to lead the Office of Public Engagement and act as a special adviser within his administration, further angering climate activists.

So, what can Americans expect from the 46th President of the United States, who is slated to lead the nation for what could be half of the world's remaining years to prevent an irreversible climate catastrophe? Likely a return to Obama-era policies of regulating emissions and coordinating with other nations (Biden has already promised to re-enter the Paris Agreement).

While that may be leagues better than what Trump has accomplished on climate issues, it is not the kind of decisive action that experts and activists are calling for, nor that Americans voted for in down-ballot races this month.

If Americans want the Biden administration to take aggressive action against climate change, they may need to take their demands from the ballot box out into the street. The young climate activists who have galvanized the climate movement in recent years are already planning on it.

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Marianne Dhenin is a freelance writer covering social justice, politics, and the Middle East. She holds a master's degree in human rights law and justice and is earning a doctorate in Middle East history. Follow her on Twitter: @mariannedhe.

This is an opinion column. The thoughts expressed are those of the author(s).Read the original article on Opinion Contributor. Copyright 2020.

#EV

Autonomous delivery startup Gatik just raised a $25 million Series A and will now work with Canadian retail giant Loblaw, in addition to Walmart
Joe Williams

Gatik and Loblaw joined forces to launch Canada's first autonomous delivery fleet. Gatik

Canadian retail giant Loblaw and startup Gatik are teaming up to launch an autonomous delivery fleet as the startup raises a $25 million Series A.

Loblaw, which operates over 2,000 stores in Canada, will initially deploy Gatik five vans that will drive roughly 186 miles per week and still include a human companion.

While Gatik CEO Gautam Narang declined to comment on the size of the Loblaw deal, he said the bulk of the firm's agreements are "multi-year partnerships" worth "multi-million dollars" each.

Canadian grocery giant Loblaw is partnering with startup Gatik to deploy the country's first autonomous delivery fleet, according to an announcement Monday.

Silicon Valley-based Gatik also has an ongoing partnership with Walmart and has raised roughly $30 million to-date, including a $25 million Series A round led by Wittington Ventures and Innovation Endeavors, also announced on Monday. Gatik declined to release its valuation, but PitchBook last pegged it at $58 million.

Loblaw operates over 2,000 stores in Canada and pulled in nearly $12 billion in revenue last year. Initially, the company will deploy five Gatik vans, which will each drive roughly 186 miles per week to deliver goods from a distribution center to physical retail stores. The vans operate autonomously as much as possible, though humans are still onboard.

The partnership pushes Gatik's total number of vehicles on the road for customers to 15. Overall, the startup's fleet has completed more than 30,000 revenue-generating autonomous orders since its founding in 2016.

While Gatik CEO Gautam Narang declined to comment on the size of the Loblaw deal, he said the bulk of its agreements are "multi-year partnerships" worth "multi-million dollars" each.

For Loblaw, the partnership could improve logistics operations, making it easier, for example, to get goods to stores, enabling faster pickup for the end-customer. The need for speed became apparent this year when consumers flooded retailers at the start of the pandemic. In fact, Gatik says the outbreak led to as much as a 90% increase in e-commerce orders among its customers.

Because of COVID-19, clients "wanted us to deploy these vehicles ahead of schedule. They wanted us to deploy more vehicles," said Narang.

The venture also helps Garik test its vans in a vastly different climate compared to the weather around Walmart's headquarters in Arkansas. Like other autonomous vehicle companies, the underlying technology supporting Gatik's fleet is shared, meaning that something a van learns on the road in Canada is shared with those in other parts of North America.

"The kind of conditions that we have in Canada are really attractive for us just from a winterization standpoint," Narang said.

The goal for Gatik is to perfect its tech to handle fixed, repeatable routes so that eventually humans won't need to ride along. While that strategy ultimately won't work for pedestrian vehicles, where there is too much variability, it could for Gatik because enterprises are often shipping items from brick-and-mortar distribution centers on the same paths each time. For Loblaw, the vans will use its automated picking facility in Toronto as a hub before exiting across five different spokes.

"This is our way of constraining the autonomy problem," Narang said. "By over-optimizing our technology on these routes, we can basically get to the market faster."

Gatik is targeting middle-mile delivery, so between where the goods arrive at the distribution center to the location where it will be delivered to the consumer — what Narang says is a segment that "was hugely underserved and it's very expensive for the retailers."

"These retailers are deploying multiple trucks with multiple drivers ... that's very costly," he added. "We are making their supply chain more efficient."

This Swedish startup created an electric, autonomous freight vehicle that it says will hit roads next year
Brittany Chang

The Next Gen Pod. Einride

Einride has created what it calls the world's first electric autonomous heavy cargo transport vehicle that has been driven on public roads: the Pod.

The Pod comes in four variations for four different uses, and two of the variants will be delivered to customers next year.

The Sweden-based company has now worked with names like Oatly, Coca-Cola, Lidl, and DB Schenker.

"What sets us apart is our full-scale approach to sustainable autonomous freight development that's based on the needs of our customers, allowing us to tailor these solutions for real-world use," Einride's CEO and Robert Falck told Business Insider in an email interview.

Einride created the Pod, an autonomous electric heavy cargo transport vehicle.

There are, of course, other automakers and startups venturing into the autonomous cargo delivery segment. However, according to Einride's CEO and founder Robert Falck, unlike other companies, Einride's Pods are "customer and use-tailored."

"What sets us apart is our full-scale approach to sustainable autonomous freight development that's based on the needs of our customers, allowing us to tailor these solutions for real-world use," Falck wrote to Business Insider in an email interview. "We believe the strongest business case is to remove the driver from the vehicle to operate it remotely, and operate only with electric drivetrains to improve sustainability and reduce costs."

Read more: Tesla has released 'full self-driving' in beta — here's how experts rank it, Waymo and 16 other power players in the world of self-driving cars

And unlike other makers, the Sweden-based company's Pod is the world's first electric autonomous transport vehicle to be driven on public roads, according to its maker.

According to Einride, the Pod lineup and the company's "Freight Mobility Platform" offers several benefits, such as a slash in emissions and operational costs, and an increase in safety. The use of Einride's Pod and platform — which will be available in US — also provides a 200% productivity boost compared to the diesel vehicles that companies use today, according to Einride.

Reservations are now open for the autonomous electric transport (AET) vehicles, which can be be mass produced and "commercialized."

According to Einride, the exterior design and its rounded edges make the vehicle aerodynamic without decreasing its interior storage capacity.

The Next Gen Pod at the Top Gear track. Einride

“We designed the Pod from the ground up to present the best possible business case for road freight utilizing autonomous and electric technology,” Falck told Business Insider in the email interview. “If we’re going to make transport both sustainable and cost-competitive, AET solutions like the Pod are the only way forward.”

The Next Gen Pod at the Top Gear track. Einride

The road-legal Pod has no cab for a driver. According to Falck, not having a driver's area reduces costs and the impact on the electric drivetrain, making the price of the Pod comparable to diesel trucks.

The Next Gen Pod. Einride

"With our recent brand identity project, a central focus was on the symbiotic relationship between software and hardware in freight mobility," Einride's CMO and co-founder Linnéa Kornehed said in a statement. "It's a symbol of our accomplishments in pioneering the category of AET, but also emphasizes our commitment to developing software solutions that make the transition to sustainable freight seamless."

The Next Gen Pod. Einride

Einride is offering four different Pod types that all have varying uses.

The Next Gen Pod at the Top Gear track. Einride

For example, AET 1, the "fenced' level, is good for use in "closed facilities" with set operational routes and times. The AET 1 can reach up to almost 19 miles-per-hour, has a range between about 81 to 112 miles, and has a payload of 16 tons.

The Next Gen Pod. Einride

Source: Einride

The AET 2, designated for "nearby" use, is good for the aforementioned closed spaces, as well as travel on public roads between two close locations. The AET 2 has the same payload, range, and miles-per-hour specs as the AET 1.

The Next Gen Pod at the Top Gear track. Einride

Source: Einride

The pre-orders for AET 1 and AET 2 are now available, and Einride will begin shipping the vehicles to customers next year. The other two Pod types, the AET 3 and AET 4, are also available for reservations, but Enride will not begin shipping these two until 2022 to 2023.

The Next Gen Pod at the Top Gear track. Einride

The AET 3, classified for "rural" use, can be operated on less crammed main and back roads between two locations. This vehicle can travel at almost 28 miles-per-hour, has a range between 124 to 186 miles, and has a payload of up to 16 tons.

The Next Gen Pod at the Top Gear track. Einride

The AET 4, labeled for "highway" use, is faster at almost 53 miles-per-hour and can be operated on freeways and "major roads." The AET 4 has the same aforementioned specs as the AET 3.

The Next Gen Pod. Einride

Source: Einride

Each AET level has different "operational fees" at varying costs. For example, the vehicles all cost $10,000 to reserve, but the AET 1 has a monthly $18,000 operational charge, and the AET 4's monthly fee is higher at $22,500.

The Next Gen Pod. Einride

These additional monthly fees allow customers to use Eirnride's "freight mobility platform which will plan and operate the Pods, overseen by Einride-certified remote operators," according to the company. The platform also provides information like the vehicle's location, route, and energy.

Einride's platform. Einride

Source: Einride (1) (2)

Customers like Oatly, Bridgestone, Coca-Cola, and Lidl have already expressed interest in Einride's line of products, which also includes "traditional" electric trucks.

The Next Gen Pod at the Top Gear track. Einride

More: autonomous vehicle electric vehicle Einride

PM's defence of Priti Patel sparked Home Office fury, union says

Civil servants angry at ‘double standards applied to home secretary over bullying report’

Peter Walker Political correspondent
THE GUARDIAN
Mon 23 Nov 2020 04.37 GMT

The home secretary, Priti Patel. Photograph: Dominic Lipinski/PA

Top Home Office civil servants are furious at Boris Johnson’s decision to keep Priti Patel as home secretary despite an internal report that concluded she had bullied officials, their union has said.

As the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, defended Patel on Sunday, saying ministers sometimes had to be “direct” in pushing forward change, the FDA union said members in the Home Office had complained about what they felt were double standards.

Sir Alex Allan, the prime minister’s adviser on ministerial standards, quit his post on Friday after Johnson contradicted his report by vigorously defending the home secretary and keeping her in her role.

In a published summary of the long-delayed report, Allan said Patel’s conduct had “amounted to behaviour that can be described as bullying”, and highlighted instances of shouting and swearing. He concluded she had breached the ministerial code, even if unintentionally.

The FDA’s general secretary, Dave Penman, said members had stressed that they would lose their jobs if they were officially found to have to have breached their equivalent code of conduct.

“They are contractually bound by the civil service code, and they would be sacked if they broke it,” Penman said. “And here’s the ministerial code, the one thing that governs the conduct of ministers, and despite the fact that she was found to have broken it, the prime minister gives no sanction. A lot of people are furious at what they see as double standards.”

One of the justifications Johnson used for defending Patel was the element of Allan’s report that said she had been unaware of the impact of her behaviour because no Home Office official had complained about her.

Play Video
0:30 Priti Patel: I'm sorry that my behaviour has upset people – video

Sources have said, however, that Allan sought to interview the former top Home Office civil servant Sir Philip Rutnam, who resigned after clashing with Patel, but government officials blocked him.

Johnson has ordered ministers and MPs to defend Patel. Asked about her behaviour on BBC One’s Andrew Marr Show, Sunak said: “I don’t think shouting is an effective way to get the best out of people. But it is necessary sometimes to be direct in order to drive progress in an organisation, particularly under stressful circumstances.

“On a personal level, I’ve worked closely with Priti and found her to be entirely kind and very focused and passionate about what she does.”

In an interview with Sky, Sunak defended Johnson’s decision to overrule the report’s conclusions. “It is right that the prime minister, as the person who is in charge and runs the government, is able to receive that report, go through the findings and make a decision that he think is right, weighing up all the considerations,” he said.

“That’s what he’s done. The home secretary has offered a full and unreserved apology for what’s happened and I think at that point we can move on and focus on the things that people want us to do, which is keeping their streets safe and that’s what the home secretary is doing, that’s what the government is doing.”

Integrity is supposed to keep British ministers in line. It’s clearly not enough
Alex Thomas

Read more

Labour said Patel could not remain in her post. The shadow business minister, Lucy Powell, said: “She has been found by an independent inquiry of breaking the ministerial code and I think if you are found to be breaking the ministerial code, your position is completely untenable.

“I think it’s appalling that the prime minister has decided to back her instead of sacking her, and that’s what he should have done.

“It’s not that bullying can’t exist in all political parties, of course it can and it does – believe me it does – but it’s how you deal with it, it’s how you tackle it and it’s whether you show the leadership and the tough decisions that you need to take to root it out.”

Donald Trump's refusal to concede reveals hidden danger facing America
23 Nov, 2020

US President Donald Trump. Photo / AP
news.com.au
By: Alexis Carey

Donald Trump's antics in the wake of the November 3 election have kept even those with only a passing interest in politics entertained for weeks on end.

But while it's easy to be sucked into the spectacle of the Trump circus, it masks a very real threat that could come back to bite America in the future.

According to a string of experts, including Griffith University political scientist Professor John Kane, voter fraud allegations had been part of the Trump campaign's game plan well before Americans headed to the polls.

But while it's now all but certain the 74-year-old will be prised from the White House on January 20, his actions have exposed serious cracks in the system – and could pave the way for a savvier and more destructive player to take advantage of the chaos to seize power down the track.

DANGEROUS GAME PLAN

Kane said the Trump campaign began laying the groundwork for its so far baseless election fraud allegations well in advance.

"When all the polls started going against him and it was clear he would not win unless he had another strategy, he started to attack mail-in voting, which they had lots of because you've got a Covid crisis on your hands," Kane told news.com.au.

"There was absolutely no evidence at all, but he started hammering on and on and on about his rigged election mantra, and he was clearly setting the stage for when he did lose."

Kane said the Trump team also initially pursued the "crazy" strategy of demanding counting be stopped early in some areas when Trump pulled ahead because of the so-called "red mirage".

That was created as the majority of Republican supporters tended to vote in person, while Democrat votes trickled in later via mail-in ballots.

Kane believes Trump now privately accepts that it's game over, but that he continues to push the election fraud conspiracy theory in an effort to save face.

Meanwhile, most Republicans are sticking by him as they do not want to offend their supporters who back the outgoing President.

"It's getting increasingly uncomfortable for Trump himself and you can see from his attendance at the G20 Summit that he has mentally checked out," he claimed.

"He knows it's all over but he has a reputation to maintain."

'VAST THREAT'

But while it's tempting to view the ongoing Trump saga as little more than an entertaining spectacle, Kane argued that Trump's behaviour was creating a potential future hazard in a post published on Medium this month.

Supporters of President Trump protest against the results of the election at the Capitol in Austin, Texas. Photo / AP

"Trump's relative triviality may lead us to think he cannot pose such a vast threat," he wrote.

"Perhaps, yet he has exposed chinks and vulnerabilities in the constitutional fabric of the American politics that, if left unaddressed, may be ruthlessly and devastatingly exploited by some future demagogue more astute and more determined than Trump."

He told news.com.au Trump's "attempted coup" exposed the cracks in America's political system, and that a savvier player with an agenda could potentially take advantage of those very cracks to seize power in future.

"There's no getting around it – he's trying to rob an election from the person who won it," Kane said.

"Trump is incompetent and bumbling … but what he has done is shown up the cracks in the system and he has shown that things many people thought were impossible are not.

"If you have someone with real political talent and an agenda, Trump has shown how far you can push the system."

He said Trump's behaviour proved a great deal of the political system was built on "honour" and that if a leader chose not to do the honourable thing, there was "no comeback".

"It's concerning for all American people – the situation is hilarious on one level, but it's actually genuinely scary," Kane said.

'FANATICAL FOLLOWING'

So what would it take for a future tyrant to take advantage of Trump's groundwork?

According to Kane, there would need to be several key factors at play – an economic crisis, disillusioned masses and a "charismatic character willing to do practically anything" who had the military on side.

"The kind of fanatical following Trump did achieve is very rare and it grows out of dissatisfaction with the system," he said.

President-elect Joe Biden, accompanied by Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, speaks at The Queen theatre in Wilmington. Photo / AP

"We see this kind of scenario in coups around the world, and it's one a determined autocrat could make use of.

"When opportunities come around, ruthless people grab them, and all it would take would be for someone with some political nous to challenge (the system) after Trump."

Kane said Trump's repeated "lies" and support of conspiracy theories was also "a worry" as it encouraged the public to disregard reality and eroded trust in institutions and processes without justification, although he hoped the "fake news" hysteria would fizzle out once Trump was removed from office.

WHAT NEXT?

Meanwhile, President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris are quietly preparing to take over the leadership, with Biden previously describing Trump's refusal to concede "an embarrassment".

Once the votes are certified in each state, the Biden administration will commence on January 20 at noon during an inauguration ceremony which will take place in Washington DC – with or without Trump's blessing.

Rishi Sunak says public sector pay freeze is not a return to austerity (OF COURSE IT IS)

Chancellor says plans will mean more money for health, education and police, as unions refuse to rule out strikes

Trade unions have asked Rishi Sunak to abandon his intention to clamp down on the state’s wage bill.

Photograph: Tolga Akmen/AFP/Getty Images

Richard Partington, Peter Walker and Larry Elliott
Sun 22 Nov 2020 22.30 GMT

Rishi Sunak has rejected accusations that his planned public sector pay freeze amounts to a return of austerity and insisted that spending plans to be announced on Wednesday will result in more money for health, education and the police.

With trade unions demanding that the chancellor do a last-minute U-turn over his clearly signalled intention to clamp down on the state’s wage bill and refusing to rule out strikes, Sunak said there would be significant increases in spending on public services next year.

The Guardian has learned that Sunak’s plans include an additional £151m to tackle rough sleeping and prevent homelessness on top of the £103m that he announced in his March budget.

The extra cash to combat the UK’s homeless crisis – along with a reconfirmation of funding for 40 new hospitals, 20,000 additional police officers, the refurbishment of further education colleges and a 10-year school rebuilding programme – will be used by the chancellor to fend off criticism of the public sector wage restraint.

Sunak said on Sunday: “This has been a tough year for us all. But we won’t let it get in the way of delivering on our promises – the British people deserve outstanding public services, and we remain committed to delivering their priorities as we put our public services at the heart of our economic renewal.”

Also featuring in Wednesday’s package will be:

New forecasts showing the economy on course to shrink by more than 10% this year.

A public sector pay freeze for all workers outside the NHS.

An extra £3bn for the NHS to tackle a backlog in operations caused by the Covid-19 crisis.

Confirmation of funding for 50,000 more nurses and 50m additional GP appointments.

A cut in the UK aid budget from 0.7% to 0.5% of national income.

Plans for a new national infrastructure bank and a northern campus for the Treasury.

A warning from the chancellor that the unlimited spending to cope with the twin health and economic emergencies is coming to an end.

In a private letter to the chancellor seen by the Guardian, senior leaders from 18 of the country’s biggest unions warned pay controls during the health emergency would damage the economy, hurt frontline workers and cause a staffing crisis.

The union chiefs called instead for pay rises to be awarded to recognise the unique role played by public sector staff during the Covid outbreak.

The letter says a pay rise is a “matter of justice” for firefighters, teaching assistants, care workers, refuse collectors and other key public sector staff to reward them for their efforts during the crisis.

The letter was signed by the leaders of the UK’s three biggest unions – Unison, Unite and the GMB – as well as the NEU teachers’ union and representatives from prisons and healthcare.

Asked if about the possibility of going on strike over the issue, the head of the TUC federation of trade unions, Frances O’Grady, refused to rule it out.

She told Sky’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday: “I’m really conscious of the feeling out there that governments only seem to recognise the true value of labour when it’s withdrawn ... Nobody can rule anything out at the moment but what I am saying and asking for is that the government stands by key workers, respects the contribution they are continuing to make and recognises that this is absolutely the wrong time to be talking about pay cuts.”

Figures from the Centre for Policy Studies, the rightwing thinktank led by Robert Colvile, an author of the 2019 Conservative manifesto, suggest a three-year pay freeze could save a cumulative £23bn for the exchequer, and Sunak did nothing to quash speculation that action was imminent.

The chancellor told Ridge: “I can’t comment on future pay policy in advance of the spending review, but what I would say is, when we launched the spending review, I did say to departments that when we think about settlements it would be entirely reasonable to think about those in the context of the wider economic climate. That’s a reasonable thing to do.

“Secondly, I think it would be fair to also think about what’s happening with wages, with jobs, with hours across the economy, when we think about what the right thing to do in the public sector is.”

Sunak denied this amounted to a return of austerity, which the government has said is over.

“You will not see austerity next week,” he said. “What you will see is an increase in the government’s spending on day-to-day public services, quite a significant one, coming on the increase we had last year. So there’s absolutely no way in which anyone can say that’s austerity.”

Anneliese Dodds, the shadow chancellor, will say in a speech on Monday : “The British people shouldn’t have to pay the price for a government that doesn’t know the value of public money, splurging it on outsourced contracts to Tory-linked firms that don’t deliver.”

In a speech to Reuters, Dodds will add: “The chancellor’s irresponsible choices and unacceptable delays are damaging the economy. That’s why we’re in the grip of a jobs crisis – and it’s got Rishi Sunak’s name all over it.”

Sunak told not to ‘grind frontline workers down’ after a decade of pay austerity

According to research by union GMB public-sector employees outnumber new MPs’ majorities in 43 out of the 54 seats that the Conservatives won from Labour last year.

by Jack Peat
November 23, 2020

Chancellor Rishi Sunak has been warned against imposing a public sector pay freeze on millions of workers to cover for his “irresponsible choices and unacceptable delays” in a move that could jeopardise the UK’s economic recovery.

His Labour shadow Anneliese Dodds is expected to lay the blame for a coronavirus “jobs crisis” squarely with Mr Sunak as she urges him not to go ahead with a widely-expected cap on the salaries of millions of workers.

The shadow chancellor will use a speech on Monday to call for Mr Sunak to use his spending review this week to treat frontline workers “decently, rather than grinding them down”.

Pay freeze

Mr Sunak hinted on Sunday that he could impose the freeze by arguing it would be “entirely reasonable” to consider pay policy in an economy ravaged by the coronavirus pandemic, though it is said to exempt NHS nurses and doctors.

He is due to announce a multibillion-pound plan to invest in long-term infrastructure projects on Wednesday and fund the fight against the coronavirus pandemic.

And he is understood to be preparing to announce £1.25 billion of new funding for prisons, extra money for police recruitment and that the Government’s 10-year schools programme will approve 50 new schools a year.

The Treasury also said nearly £220 million of funding will also go towards the post-Brexit points-based immigration system.

“Irresponsible choices”

The shadow chancellor is expected to say in a speech to Reuters that a freeze for frontline workers including firefighters, hospital porters and teaching assistants will “make them worried about making ends meet ahead of Christmas”.

The result, Ms Dodds will argue, is “they’ll cut back on spending and our economy won’t recover as quickly”.

“And they shouldn’t have to pay for a Chancellor who’s had to come back week in week out to change his plans, blocked a circuit-breaker leading to a longer, more painful lockdown and still hasn’t acted to fix Britain’s broken safety net,” she is expected to say.

“The Chancellor’s irresponsible choices and unacceptable delays are damaging the economy. That’s why we’re in the grip of a jobs crisis – and it’s got Rishi Sunak’s name all over it.”
“An outrageous attack on workers who have sacrificed the most”

According to research by union GMB public-sector employees outnumber new MPs’ majorities in 43 out of the 54 seats that the Conservatives won from Labour last year.

Despite the loss of almost one million public-sector jobs since 2010, on average public-sector workers outstrip the incumbent MP’s majority by 3,400 in seats won by the Conservatives from Labour in the Midlands and the North.

National officer Rehana Azam said: “A new pay freeze would be an outrageous attack on some of the workers who sacrificed the most during the Covid pandemic.

“Public-sector workers’ wages have never recovered from a decade of pay austerity, which forced thousands of key workers to depend on debt and food banks.

“Eight months ago, Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak promised to put their ‘arms around every single worker’ – now they are coming for the wages of teaching assistants who earn under £14,000 a year and are already finding it difficult to make ends meet.

“The politics of pay austerity has already been rejected by the electorate once before. Public-sector workers are already underpaid and exhausted, and recruitment and retention problems will inevitably be made worse by a pay freeze.

“GMB will not rest in campaigning for pay justice for all public service workers and if Conservative MPs insist on pushing this cruel and counterproductive measure through then it will not be forgotten at the next election.”
“Shameful”

Unite assistant general secretary Gail Cartmail said: “It is clear that any public-sector pay freeze will bear down hardest on female employees, who make up the majority of the public-sector workforce, such as nurses, teaching assistants and those who care for our most vulnerable.

“Already women have been badly affected by the pandemic as they juggle childcare responsibilities, their work commitments and worries about elderly relatives, and now the chancellor Rishi Sunak appears to be going to make their financial situation a lot worse, which is shameful.”

Low-paid women will bear the brunt of the public sector pay freeze

Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak

LOW-PAID female workers will bear the brunt of the public-sector pay freeze Chancellor Rishi Sunak is expected to announce on Wednesday, union Unite has warned.

Mr Sunak is expected to announce a three-year freeze on public-sector wages, which would cost public-sector workers an estimated £15 billion, according to financial analysts.

He hinted yesterday that he could impose the freeze by arguing that it would be “entirely reasonable” to consider pay policy in an economy hard-hit by the coronavirus pandemic.

The freeze will not be applied to NHS front-line staff but will affect other key workers including firefighters, hospital porters and teaching assistants.

Unite assistant general secretary Gail Cartmail said: “It is clear that any public-sector pay freeze will bear down hardest on female employees, who make up the majority of the public-sector workforce, such as nurses, teaching assistants and those who care for our most vulnerable.

“Already women have been badly affected by the pandemic as they juggle childcare responsibilities, their work commitments and worries about elderly relatives, and now the Chancellor Rishi Sunak appears to be going to make their financial situation a lot worse, which is shameful.”

General union GMB said a wage freeze to pay for the government’s botched handling of the coronavirus pandemic could cost the Tories 43 of the 54 seats they took from Labour in 2019.

GMB national officer Rehana Azam said: “GMB will not rest in campaigning for pay justice for all public service workers and if Conservative MPs insist on pushing this cruel and counter-productive measure through then it will not be forgotten at the next election.

“A new pay freeze would be an outrageous attack on some of the workers who sacrificed the most during the Covid pandemic.

“Public-sector workers’ wages have never recovered from a decade of pay austerity, which forced thousands of key workers to depend on debt and foodbanks.”

Local Government Association chairman James Jamieson said: “The coronavirus crisis has highlighted the exceptional commitment of council staff and care workers who, alongside NHS health workers, have been on the front line in the battle against Covid-19 and are true heroes of this pandemic.”

He called for more government funding for local councils “to support their employees as much as possible and recruit and retain the staff needed to provide the local services that are delivered every day by our hard-working staff, alongside care workers and NHS colleagues.”

Labour’s shadow chancellor Anneliese Dodds will say in a speech today that taxpayers “shouldn’t have to pay the price for a government that doesn’t know the value of public money, splurging it on outsourced contracts to Tory-linked firms that don’t deliver.”

And Communist Party of Britain (CPB) northern district secretary Martin Levy said that Tory incompetence and corruption over the handling of the pandemic meant that “many thousands more people have lost their lives, jobs are being destroyed and small businesses are going to the wall.”

He said at an online meeting of the CPB executive at the weekend: “Faced with the prospect of mass unemployment, our economy urgently needs a boost in demand and production, not a public-sector pay freeze.”

Written by Beckie Smith on 23 November 2020 in News

Management experts and trade bodies are reportedly providing pro bono advice on plans to establish an in-house Crown Consultancy

Credit: Pixabay

The Cabinet Office has called in management consultants to give advice on how government can reduce its reliance on consultants, it has been revealed.

The department has called on consultancies and trade associations to inform the government’s plans to set up an in-house “Crown Consultancy”, emails leaked to The Telegraph show.

In the emails, civil service chief people officer Rupert McNeil outlined plans to set up a “brand and platform” to provide capacity and skills to government bodies where it is needed, according to the newspaper.

The Cabinet Office aims to “launch an alpha pathfinder for a new Crown Consultancy capability” sometime between January and August next year, the report said. Trade bodies and consultancies are offering input to the project but are not being paid for their work, a source told The Telegraph.

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment

Monday, November 23, 2020

Government taps consultants to consult on consultancy plans

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