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Sunday, July 24, 2022

Covid, Zika, Swine Flu, Ebola and Monkeypox: When does WHO trigger highest alert

The World Health Organisation (WHO) headquarter in Geneva.

The WHO has declared the surge in monkeypox to be a PHEIC after experts reviewed the situation at an emergency committee meeting two days earlier

A Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) is the rarely used top alert available to the World Health Organization to tackle a global disease outbreak.

The WHO on Saturday declared the surge in monkeypox to be a PHEIC after experts reviewed the situation at an emergency committee meeting two days earlier.

Here is a look at how the decision is made and previous PHEIC declarations:

What is a PHEIC?

The conditions which must be met are set out under the 2005 International Health Regulations (IHR) -- the legal framework defining countries' rights and obligations in handling public health events that could cross borders.

A PHEIC is defined in the regulations as "an extraordinary event which is determined to constitute a public health risk to other states through the international spread of disease and to potentially require a coordinated international response".

The definition implies that the situation is serious, sudden, unusual or unexpected, carries implications for public health beyond an affected country's border, and may require immediate international action.

Emergency committee

The WHO's 16-member emergency committee on monkeypox is chaired by Jean-Marie Okwo-Bele from the Democratic Republic of Congo, who is a former director of the WHO's Vaccines and Immunisation Department.

The committee brings together virologists, vaccinologists, epidemiologists and experts in the fight against major diseases.

It is co-chaired by Nicola Low, an associate professor of epidemiology and public health medicine from Bern University.

The other 14 members are from institutions in Brazil, Britain, Japan, Morocco, Nigeria, Russia, Senegal, Switzerland, Thailand and the United States.

Eight advisers from Canada, the DRC, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland and the United States also take part in the meetings.

Decision

The emergency committee provided WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus with an assessment of the risk to human health, the risk of international spread and the risk of interference with international traffic.

But it was unable to reach a consensus on whether or not to trigger the highest alert, Tedros said Saturday, so the WHO chief then had to decide himself.

Six previous PHEICS

The WHO has previously declared a PHEIC six times:

2009: H1N1 swine flu

The pandemic was first detected in Mexico and then quickly spread across the United States and the rest of the world.

May 2014: Poliovirus

Declared following a rise in cases of wild polio and circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus. Besides Covid, it is the only PHEIC still in place.

August 2014: Ebola

Outbreak in western Africa which spread to Europe and the United States.

February 2016: Zika virus

The epidemic began in Brazil and heavily affected the Americas. The only PHEIC declared over a mosquito-borne virus.

July 2019: Ebola

The second Ebola PHEIC was over the outbreak in Kivu in eastern DRC.

January 2020: Covid-19

Declared when -- outside of China where the virus first emerged -- there were fewer than 100 cases and no deaths.

Covid-19 frustrations

The Covid-19 PHEIC declaration came after a third meeting of the emergency committee on the spreading virus. Meetings on January 22 and 23, 2020 decided that the outbreak did not constitute a PHEIC.

Despite the declaration, it was only after March 11, that Tedros described the rapidly worsening situation as a pandemic, leading many countries to wake up to the danger.

The sluggish global response still rankles at the WHO's headquarters and raised questions about whether the PHEIC system under IHR was fit for purpose.

By March 11, the number of cases outside China had soared, with more than 118,000 people having caught the disease in 114 countries, and 4,291 people having lost their lives, following a jump in deaths in Italy and Iran.

"The warning in January was way more important than the announcement in March," WHO emergencies director Michael Ryan said on the second anniversary of the pandemic declaration.

"People weren't listening. We were ringing the bell and people weren't acting, added Ryan.

Monkeypox: US confirms first cases of virus in children, CDC begins probe

The disease has been spreading largely among men who have sex with other men during the current outbreak, outside the central and west Africa where it is endemic.

Written by FE Online

July 23, 2022

India has confirmed three monkeypox cases — all from Kerala. (File)

The United States has recorded the first cases of the viral monkeypox disease in children. On Friday, two children were diagnosed with the disease, officials of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (US CDC) said.

One of the children is a California toddler and the other an infant who is not a US resident. The US CDC described the children as being in good health and undergoing treatment. It is still being investigated how the two children caught the disease, but the officials think it was through household transmission.

Monkeypox causes flu-like symptoms and skin lesions. The disease has been spreading largely among men who have sex with other men during the current outbreak, outside the central and west Africa where it is endemic, The Guardian reported. The disease spreads mainly through close contact.

This year, 14,000 cases have been recorded in more than 60 countries, including those that historically don’t see the disease. Africa has also recorded five deaths. The vast majority of the infections have happened in the US and Europe. Europe has witnessed at least six cases among children 17 years old and younger. This week, a report by doctors in The Netherlands said a boy who was seen at an Amsterdam hospital with 20 red-brown bumps across his body. He had contracted monkeypox and the doctors said they could not determine how.

The CDC’s Deputy Director in the Division of High Consequence Pathogens and Pathology Dr Jennifer McQuiston said during a conference call it was not a surprise that paediatric cases had emerged, but added “there is no evidence to date that we are seeing this virus spread outside” the communities of gay, bisexual and other men who had sex with men.

She said 99% of the 2,891 monkeypox cases in the US involved men who had sex with men, but a handful of women and transgender men who had also become infected.

White House Covid-19 Response Coordinator Dr Ashish Jha said on the same call the US government had delivered 300,000 doses of a vaccine and was working to expedite the shipment of more doses from Denmark.

The fatality rate during previous outbreaks in Africa of the current strain was about 1%, but this outbreak seems to be less lethal in non-endemic countries.

India has confirmed three monkeypox cases — all from Kerala. On Friday, a 35-year-old man, who had returned from the United Arab Emirates earlier this month, tested positive for monkeypox.

Kerala Health Minister Veena George said the Malappuram native was undergoing treatment at the Manjeri Medical College and his condition was stable.

The Greenland Ice sheet lost 18 billion tons of water in 3 days after unusually warm temperatures between July 15 and 17.

Arctic Sea Ice extent is declining on its way to the September annual minimum

By: Author Renato R. Colucci
Published: 23/07/2022
Categories Global weather

Between 15 and 17 July, Greenland’s north-western ice sheet lost 6 million tons of water per day. This exceptional melting was caused by exceptionally high temperatures which particularly affected the northernmost area of Greenland. Meanwhile, the Arctic sea ice extent continues to decline at moderate rates with slightly higher values than in recent years.

Off the coast of northwest Greenland, the water is perfectly still but puddling on icebergs indicates a transformation is on the way. Rapid melting triggered by unusually warm temperatures affected a large part of NorthWest Greenland in the last few days. In northern Greenland the temperature top nearly ten degrees higher than normal forcing 45% of Greenland’s ice sheet surface to melt.

Katalin Savlan, Research Scientist at the University of Texas-Austin says “it definitely worries me, we are at 67 latitudes and we can hang around in t-shirts”. At a research site in northeast Greenland near melt, conditions occurred at an elevation of nearly 9000 feet.

Aslak Grinbsted reported as they had their mini heatwave at Egrip field station INTERACT in the middle of the Greenland ice sheet with -1.6°C reported. Their planned planes have been postponed because their skiway is not safe when it is this warm.

The National Snow and Ice Data Center in Colorado Boulder tell from July 15th through July 17th alone a melt surge in northern Greenland caused ice sheet runoff of about 6,000,000,000 (billions) tons of water per day. That’s about the volume of 2,400,000 (millions) Olympic-sized swimming pools. Put in another way enough water to flood the entire state of West Virginia in the U.S. with one foot of water in three days.

Melting Ponds over northwestern Greenland Ice Sheet on July 15th.

Photo Renato R. Colucci

This extensive melt in north Greenland this past week is quite unusual and will contribute to global sea level raise which impacts coastal communities half a world away.

Soaring temperatures during the summer of 2019 caused the island to lose more than 530 billion tons from its ice sheet, which was the largest loss in a year since record-keeping began in 1948. This caused the global sea levels to rise 1.5 millimeters. And since the late 1990s, a combination of Greenland and Antarctic ice loss has raised sea levels by 1.8 centimeters (0.7 inches).

ARCTIC SEA ICE MID-SUMMER 2022

The Arctic sea ice extent on July 18, 2022, continued its summer decline and was 8.42 million square kilometers (3.25 million square miles) according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center. The decline rate of the extent through the first half of July was near the 1981 to 2010 average.

Although this extent is the highest in the last 13 years in the satellite record according to the Arctic Data archive System NIPR, roughly 0.2 million square kilometers above the 2010s average, and very close to that one of 2018, it is actually more than 2.0 million square kilometers (0.16 million square miles) below the 1980s average and 1.5 million square kilometers (0.16 million square miles) below the 1990s average. the 16th lowest extent ever recorded on this day of the year.

The most notable area of ice loss so far is in the Laptev Sea. This is similar to the pattern of the last two years, but much less extreme than detected in 2020 and 2021 when the Laptev Sea ice extent was at or near record low levels in June and July. Extent continues to be below average in the Barents Sea.

WHAT IS SEA ICE

Sea ice means all sorts of ice that form when seawater freezes. Sea ice that is not fast ice refers to drift ice, and, if the concentration exceeds 70%, it is called pack ice. When sea ice concentration is lower than 15% this is considered as open water, and the boundary between open water and ice is called the ice edge.

Sea ice cover in the Arctic grows throughout the winter and peaks in March. In September the sea ice extension reaches its minimum, which is generally only around one-third of its winter maximum. In order to get a proper picture of the sea ice state, there is a need of determining both extents and volumes. Such numbers primarily include the ice thickness, generally linked to the age of the ice. In the image below, Arctic sea ice climatology from 1981-2010 by the Snow and Ice Data Center, University of Colorado, Boulder.

Winter ice extent is generally a weaker indicator of what the ice extent will look like in September when we will face the annual minimum. The seasonal cycle of Arctic sea ice is characterized by the maximum annual extent in March, decreasing through spring and summer to an annual minimum extent in September.

Since 1979 it has been possible to monitor sea ice by satellite. At present, We have 44 years of reliable information on the extent of the sea ice cover. The sea ice had continuously diminished and particularly since the end of the 1990s. Nevertheless, the winter trend is different from the summer trend.
In the image below the Arctic sea ice extent develops at the end of the winter season (March maximum) and by the end of the summer (September minimum)

HOW WAS THE FIRST PART OF THE SUMMER IN THE ARCTIC

The daily mean temperature of the Arctic area north of the 80th northern parallel is estimated from the average of the 00z and 12z analysis for all model grid points inside that area. The ERA40 reanalysis data set from ECMWF has been applied to calculate daily mean temperatures for the period from 1958 to 2002. From 2002 to the present the operational model (at all times) from The ECMWF is used for mean temperature calculations.

The ERA40 reanalysis data, has been applied to calculate daily climate values that are plotted along with the daily analysis values in all plots. The data used to determine climate values is the full ERA40 data set, from 1958 to 2002. From the plot below is pretty evident as summer temperatures in the Arctic are following the average without any important deviation from mean values.

The first half of July 2022 saw high thermal regional contrasts. On the Eurasian side of the Arctic, particularly in the Laptev and Barents Seas, spreading toward the North Pole, air temperatures at the 925 mbar level (about 2,500 feet about the surface) were three to six degrees Celsius (5 to 11 degrees Fahrenheit) below average.

On the North American side of the Arctic, air temperatures were as much as eight degrees Celsius (14 degrees Fahrenheit) above average, remarkably in the western Canadian Arctic Archipelago and the southeast Beaufort Sea. The synoptic pattern was controlled by low pressure over the Laptev Sea sector, centered near the North Pole.

Enhanced melt pond formation and evolution were mainly triggered by Warm conditions in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. A region of low concentration ice appeared near the North Pole in the Laptev and Kara Seas sector. Low pressure over this region in early July, often results in the departure of the ice cover and likely helped form the low sea ice concentration area.

925 hPa Air temperature in June over the Arctic was close to the long-term average. Most of the high-latitude Arctic Ocean was within a degree of the 1981 to 2010 average temperature. Temperatures in Scandinavia, Svalbard, and northern European Russia were instead definitely warmer and generally two to three degrees Celsius (4 to 5 degrees Fahrenheit) above average.

The Hudson Bay reported temperatures of four to five degrees Celsius (7 to 9 degrees Fahrenheit) above average. Temperatures over central Greenland, the northern Yukon and North Slope, and easternmost Siberia were on the contrary much colder, generally two to four degrees Celsius (4 to 7 degrees Fahrenheit) below average.

The synoptic pattern in June at the sea level was characterized by robust high pressure over the Beaufort Sea and a large low-pressure area near Iceland. This pattern is consistent with the warmth over Scandinavia and relatively colder conditions over the Baffin Bay.

A broad area of low pressure also controlled northwestern Eurasia. The strong high pressure over the Beaufort Sea, and generally high pressures over much of the Arctic Ocean, is consistent with a dominance of sunny weather.

Since June is the month with the highest sun elevation, clear skies allow more solar energy to reach the ice surface, leading to increased and intense surface melting. Particularly, a large area of the Beaufort Sea started to show the development of extensive melt ponds between June 20 and 26.

Melting Ponds over northwestern Greenland Ice Sheet on July 15th.

Photo Renato R. Colucci

In response to such a weather situation, the mean Arctic sea ice extent for June 2022 was 10.86 million square kilometers (4.19 million square miles), ranking tenth lowest in the satellite record. Total ice loss for June was 2.50 million square kilometers (965,000 square miles).

The 2022 June extent was 900,000 square kilometers (347,000 square miles) below the 1981 to 2010 average. The ice edge in the Barents Sea was far north of its usual location for this time of year and the area was nearly ice-free. The Hudson Bay also lost ice unusually early. Sea ice extent in the Chukchi, East Siberian, and Kara Seas was somewhat below the long-term average.

The opening of a large polynya in the Laptev Sea near the New Siberian Islands represented the most remarkable feature along the Russian coast. The Baffin Bay had a close-to-average sea ice extent, and at the beginning of June, the North Water Polynya opened.

WHAT IS A POLYNYA

Polynya is a geographical name describing an area of unfrozen seawater within the otherwise contiguous pack ice or fast ice. The word derives from the Russian language and refers to a natural ice hole. It was first adopted in the 19th century by polar explorers to describe navigable portions of the sea. We were talking extensively about Polynya also here

Polynyas occur within sea ice stretches even though the air temperature is below freezing. Such gaps in the thick ice pack provide direct interaction between the ocean and the atmosphere, which is important for wildlife. There are two main types of polynyas: coastal polynyas, and mid-sea or open-ocean polynyas.

Although coastal Polynyas are mainly created by strong winds pushing the ice away from the coast, they are subdivided into two different types: Sensible-heat polynyas, and Latent-heat polynyas.

In 2020 a Polynya formed in the last thick sea ice area (below) In the image below the evolution of the Polynya observed in May 2020

A sensible heat polynya is thermodynamically driven and usually occurs when warm water upwelling keeps the surface water temperature at or above the freezing point. This cuts ice production and may stop it altogether.

A latent heat polynya forms through the action of strong katabatic winds. Winds act driving ice away from a fixed edge such as a coastline, fast ice, or an ice bridge. The polynya forms primarily when first-year (young) sea ice is driven away from the coast. This leaves an area of open water within. The new ice is then piled up downwind toward the first-year pack ice.

WHAT IS HAPPENING IN ANTARCTICA

The Arctic and Antarctic are geographic opposites, and not just because they stand on opposite ends of the Earth’s globe. They also have opposite land-sea arrangements. In the Arctic, continents surround an ocean, while in Antarctica the continent is surrounded by oceans.

These differences in the arrangement of land and water contribute to differences in each polar region’s climate, oceanic and atmospheric circulation patterns, and sea ice.

Antarctic sea ice normally peaks in September or October and reaches a minimum in February. In some places, sea ice melts completely in the summer. In the NASA Earth Observatory maps below by Joshua Stevens, using AMSR2 data supplied by GCOM-W1/JAXA, sea ice extent in Antarctica in the season 2015-2016

The cold waters around Antarctica allow rapid sea ice formation in winter. At its maximum extent in September, sea ice cover is around 16 million square kilometers or 6.2 million square miles, shrinking to about 2 million square kilometers or 0.77 million square miles in February. This is a much larger fluctuation than in the Arctic, where the configuration of the continents encourages the retention of ice for longer periods.

Antarctic sea ice extent was 14.80 million square kilometers (5.71 million square miles) on July 17, 2022, roughly 240,000 square kilometers (92,700 square miles) below the previous record daily low set in 2017 and 1.14 million square kilometers (440,000 square miles) below 1981 to 2010 average extent for this day.

Nearly all regions of coastal Antarctica are below the average extent for mid-July, with the Amundsen and Bellingshausen Seas showing the largest gaps. Ice extent along the northern edge of the Weddell and Dronning Maud sectors, and the region near the Amery Ice Shelf, are also well below average. A few areas of the Ross Sea and Wilkes Land have near or slightly above average extent in the satellite record.

Antarctic sea ice evolution so far in 2022 edited by Zachary Labe

Temperatures at the 925 hectopascal level are three to six degrees Celsius (5 to 11 degrees Fahrenheit) above average for a large part of the Antarctic Peninsula and West Antarctic coast, and the Weddell Sea ice edge region is two to three degrees Celsius (4 to 5 degrees Fahrenheit) above average. The remaining coast is near- or slightly below average.

Both the Arctic and Antarctic Seas Ice extent push the global anomaly to –2,071 million square kilometers. In the image above the current sea ice extent anomalies for the Arctic and Antarctic, source NSIDC, DMSP SSM/I-SSMIS F-18 edited by Zachary Labe. Anomaly is based on 1981-2010 climatology.

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M25: Five arrested as demonstrators climb motorway signs

By Immy Share @ImmyShare 21st July,2022Digital Audience and Content Editor

Screenshot issued by Just Stop Oil of a group of their activists who have climbed motorway signs on the M25 in response to the extreme temperatures in the UK (photo: PA)

Five people have been arrested after protesters climbed motorway signs on the M25 in response to the extreme temperatures and what they describe as the Government’s “inadequate preparations” for climate change.

Five demonstrators scaled gantries which support overhead motorway signs in three places on the M25, causing police to close sections of the road.

Protesters climbed signs at junction 10 eastbound near Cobham, Surrey, the Poyle interchange at Heathrow between junctions 14 and 15, and in Dartford between the Queen Elizabeth Bridge northbound and junction 30.

On Wednesday afternoon, Surrey Police said a woman had been arrested on suspicion of causing a danger to road users, causing a public nuisance, and for being a pedestrian on the motorway.

News Shopper: Traffic on the M25 as a group of protestors from Just Stop Oil have climbed motorway signs in response to the extreme temperatures in the UK and what they describe as the Government's "inadequate preparations" for climate change (photo: @Bangers173/ Twitter) Traffic on the M25 as a group of protestors from Just Stop Oil have climbed motorway signs in response to the extreme temperatures in the UK and what they describe as the Government's "inadequate preparations" for climate change (photo: @Bangers173/ Twitter)

The force said: “Officers were called just after 7am this morning following reports of a protest on the M25 just past junction 10 of the anti-clockwise carriageway.

“Officers attended the scene and located a female protester sitting on top of a gantry over the motorway.

“Three lanes needed to be closed while we worked to safely remove the woman, which involved a specialist team trained in dealing with incidents at height.

“A 22-year-old woman from London has been arrested on suspicion of causing a danger to road users, causing a public nuisance, and for being a pedestrian on the motorway.

“We appreciate this caused significant disruption this morning and want to thank drivers for their patience while we dealt with the incident.”

Police said all lanes had since been reopened on this part of the M25.

Essex Police also said a woman had been arrested.

The force said: “We responded to reports of someone on a gantry above the clockwise section between junctions 30 and 31 shortly after 11am today

“Our officers attended and worked to resolve the situation quickly and safely and this required specialist resources.

“The road was closed for a time but we worked to put a diversion in place to release traffic. A woman has now been arrested and the road is being reopened shortly.”

Later, Scotland Yard said officers arrested a further three people – two women and a man – on suspicion of causing a public nuisance.

The Metropolitan Police said officers were called at 8:42am to reports of people on a gantry over the M25 between junctions 14 and 15.

Specialist officers, who are trained to work at height, went onto the gantry to bring the people down safely.

A spokesman for Just Stop Oil said: “The main thing is, we’ve just seen 40C temperatures, which have been predicted for decades, maybe it’s happening a bit faster. But it has just revealed how inadequate the Government’s preparations for climate change are and their entire policy, and basically we’re just saying it’s evident now we cannot continue.

“As we’re going on, we need to stop new oil. It’s the first step to ensuring we have a liveable future, and maybe it’s already too late.

“This is something we definitely need to do.”

The group chose the M25 as the site of the action as it is “the place where we confront the carbon economy headlong and bring our resistance into full public view”.

It added: “The M25 has a kind of iconic status as the motorway from hell, doesn’t it? So it’s a reference to that”.

Temperatures reached 40C in the UK for the first time ever on Tuesday, which led to major incidents announced by fire brigades in London, Leicestershire and South Yorkshire as fires broke out across the country in the heat.

The group is demanding the Government makes a “meaningful statement” that it will commit to stop licensing and consents for the exploration, development and production of fossil fuels in the UK, which it says is “the necessary first step to ensuring a liveable future”.

It added that it plans to hold further actions against oil infrastructure in coalition with trade unions, environmental groups and civil society organisations in the coming months.

A spokesperson for the National Police Chiefs’ Council said: “The ability to protest peacefully in a democracy is important and where lawful, forces will seek to facilitate protests – but even if a protest is peaceful and non-violent, this doesn’t always mean the actions taken by protesters are legal.

“We are concerned by the fact protesters are taking significant risks to their own safety and to the safety of others on the roads. Forces are working together, sharing information, and will take action against anyone acting illegally.”

Extinction Rebellion stage 'die-in' protest

following UK heatwave

Activists lay on the ground in Glasgow covered in white

sheets with placards that read their 'cause of death'.

STV News
By Victoria Pease
18 hours ago

Extinction Rebellion Scotland have staged a ‘die-in’ protest after a record-breaking heatwave swept across the UK.

Activists lay on the ground in Glasgow’s Central Station and on Buchanan Street covered in white sheets while a single drumbeat was cast.

The ‘bodies’ were surrounded by placards which recorded their ‘cause of death’, including famine, heat stress and war.

The protest follows a period of record-breaking temperatures in the UK, with the mercury soaring past 40C in some areas.

STV News

Protestors staged a ‘die-in’ at Glasgow Central Station

Scotland saw its hottest-ever day on Tuesday, with the temperature rising past 35C at Floors Castle in the Borders.

Experts have warned that Scotland could see ‘volatile weather’ like heatwaves more frequently, alongside record rain and snowfall due to the effects of climate change.

Alex Cochrane from Extinction Rebellion Scotland told STV News: “Record high temperatures have finally come to the UK and a lot more people are beginning to realise that the climate crisis is going to hit us.

“We really need to be acting now, I know scientists do say this, but the next two or three years are probably crucial. We’re in an emergency now. It’s happening all around us.

“Finally, it’s come to the UK and that’s what we’re trying to protest about.”'

Tax-cut stunts can’t cover up the disaster that is Brexit

Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak feel bound to talk lower spending to party members, but the former chancellor at least must see the folly of losing billions off our GDP

Liz Truss’s loathing for the EU is not lost on Brussels and Dublin.

Photograph: Toby Melville/Reuters

William Keegan
Sun 24 Jul 2022

‘They are trying to hide the failure of Brexit behind policy stunts.” This observation about the fiasco of the Conservative party’s leadership contest came from an economist friend and neatly sums it up.

Liz Truss, who voted Remain but is now an ardent Brexiter, cannot admit to herself that she was right first time, and that the trade deals she goes on about that are supposed to have made up for our crass departure from the European Union do not amount to a hill of beans.

Sunak, who was always a Brexiter, must surely have learned from his time as chancellor that the Treasury’s hostility to Brexit was right all along. He is an intelligent man but, like Truss, is fantasising about Brexit “opportunities” that the Treasury and other Whitehall departments know are chimerical.

Whichever contender succeeds the worst prime minister in living memory will have to come to terms with two fundamental consequences of Brexit. One is that the Office for Budget Responsibility’s estimate of a 4% annual loss to gross domestic product not only makes the country poorer but severely limits their tax-cutting ambitions – hers now, his later. Foolishly losing tens of billions of potential tax revenues through Brexit is not a good start to either of their ambitions.

The second is the devaluation of the pound by up to 12%, which the financial markets attribute to, yes, Brexit. This has not only made the country poorer but has also severely aggravated the inflation problem the government and Bank of England now face – with price growth running significantly higher than in most other European and G7 nations.
The truth that dare not speak its name in rightwing circles is that improvements to public services require tax increases

Because they are not facing up to the consequences of Brexit, the leadership contenders have resorted to promising major tax cuts – Stunt Truss; and to a “Thatcherite” approach to the public finances – Stunt Sunak.

This tax-cut business is holy writ among rightwing Tories, and a classic illustration of the cloud cuckoo land in which they reside. They may not have noticed, but most UK citizens are not only suffering from a severe squeeze on real incomes, but are also only too aware of the dilapidated state of so much of our infrastructure and public services.

Public services need to be paid for. The truth that dare not speak its name in rightwing circles – and the modern Tory party is dominated by the rightwing tail that wags the dog – is that improvements to public services require tax increases, not decreases. There has been much fuss recently about our historically high levels of taxation, but in those European countries – not least Scandinavia – whose public services we in Britain tend to admire, public spending and taxation are much higher as a proportion of gross domestic product.

Sunak’s obsession with his putative Thatcherite credentials is worrying. But is he paying enough attention to the social implications of the budget cuts now affecting the public sector? Many experts think the industrial troubles on the railways are only the start. Even former Treasury permanent secretary Lord Macpherson recently observed that although “public expenditure must be controlled” it is worth remembering the 1931 Invergordon mutiny. He points out that “HMG is currently seeking much bigger real pay cuts” than those that caused such social disturbance all those years ago.

Brexit and other offensive words starting with the letter B
William Keegan

When Jack Kennedy was running to be US president (in 1960) he said: “I do not run for the office … with any expectation that it is an empty or an easy job.” He was running because it was “the centre of action, and in a free society the chief responsibility of the president is to set before the people the unfinished business of the country”.

Sunak and Truss are not standing to be president, but whoever wins will face almighty problems at home and abroad. So far one could be forgiven for thinking they were vying to host a game show. What they should be doing is facing up to unfinished business, recently described by Spain’s El Pais as time to “sow the seeds of reversal” of Brexit.

Of course the immediate problem is that our candidates feel obliged to pay obeisance to the pro-Brexit prejudices of so many of their members. For Truss, this is no problem. She has developed a loathing for the European Union that has not been lost on Brussels and Dublin. It is not just the economic damage of Brexit that needs to be repaired. For obvious geopolitical reasons, we need to get as close as we can to the EU.

Frankly, I think Truss is beyond the pale. One must hope that Sunak wins, and is then able to make a serious assessment of where the country’s interests lie. This would involve learning the lesson of the failure of Brexit, and recognising that the Thatcher “miracle” was not all it was cracked up to be.

Entire arena sing ‘f**k the Tories’ following UFC bout

"The Tory government are destroying my city. I've got kids and families living on food banks while they're getting f***ing bonuses."

by Jack Peat

2022-07-24

SCOTLAND THE BRAVE

SNP to apply to intervene in Supreme Court independence case

The SNP’s ruling body said the party has the 'legal standing' to put forward its political case.

Indyref2: Lawyers are now being instructed to prepare the application.

By PA Media
19 hours ago

The SNP is to submit an application to intervene in the Scottish Government’s Supreme Court case on an independence referendum.

The party’s national executive committee (NEC) unanimously agreed the decision on Saturday – on the recommendation of leader Nicola Sturgeon.

The SNP’s ruling body said the party has the “legal standing” to put forward its political case.

Lawyers are now being instructed to prepare the application and it is expected to be filed with the court in due course.

It comes as Lord Advocate Dorothy Bain QC referred a prospective referendum Bill to the UK Supreme Court to determine if it is within Holyrood’s powers.

The latest court document filed by Scotland’s top law officer said on Friday that the case for holding an independence referendum leaned heavily on the vote being “advisory”.

In a 51-page filing, the Lord Advocate argued the Bill would not be “self-executing” and would have no real effect on the union – which is reserved to Westminster – but would simply be to “ascertain the wishes of the people of Scotland on their future”.

The arguments are expected to be heard by the court on October 11 and 12.

Kirsten Oswald, the SNP’s business convener, welcomed the reference to the Supreme Court.

She said: “It is important that there is clarity as soon as possible on whether or not a referendum without a Section 30 order is within the competence of the Scottish Parliament.

“That clarity will, we hope, pave the way for a referendum on October 19 next year, and this is what the SNP is actively planning for.

“Given the importance of this case to the future of Scotland, the NEC has decided that it is appropriate for the party to make an application to intervene.

“The NEC wishes to give full support to the argument that an advisory referendum is within the power of the Scottish Parliament, and also make the case that Scotland has a right to self- determination, which – as things stand with Westminster’s democracy denial – can only be upheld through legislation in the Scottish Parliament under its current powers.”

The SNP will be able to put forward its political case if the application is approved.

Oswald continued: “As the largest independence-supporting party – which has won every election in Scotland in the past decade – we consider that the SNP has legal standing to represent the interests of the very significant proportion of the population who support Scotland becoming an independent country.

“We also have an important perspective on the legal issues that the court will consider and, in particular, the importance of these matters being decided in a way that upholds the right of the people of Scotland to have their say and express their democratic will.

“Whether or not to grant the application is, of course, a matter for the court.”

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