Colombia government weakened by 'truce' mishap: analysts


Thu, 5 January 2023 

National Liberation Army (ELN) FLAG

In announcing a "bilateral" ceasefire before it existed, Colombian President Gustavo Petro may have weakened his government in ongoing peace talks with armed groups, experts say.

Petro's New Year's Eve declaration was hailed by the United Nations and others as a step towards the "total peace" Colombia's first-ever leftist president has vowed to bring to the country.

But the ELN guerrilla group poured cold water all over Petro's declaration just three days later, denying the group had entered into any such deal, and the government conceded that nothing was signed.

Whether a calculated ploy to pile pressure on the ELN or mere miscommunication, Petro's move was a "mistake" that harmed "the legitimacy of the peace negotiations," conflict expert Laura Barrios of Rosario University told AFP.

"The biggest challenge here will be how the government will regain the trust of the ELN," she said.

For analyst Felipe Botero of the University of The Andes in Bogota, the events "revealed inexperience and political clumsiness."

It was a "setback for the government," said Botero, but would not necessarily compromise the talks themselves.

- 'Renewed hope' -

On December 31, Petro announced that a ceasefire had been agreed with the country's five largest armed groups, including the National Liberation Army (ELN), from January 1 to June 30.

The government subsequently said the ceasefire would be monitored by the United Nations, Colombia's human rights ombudsman and the Catholic Church.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said the supposed deal brought "renewed hope for comprehensive peace to the Colombian people as the New Year dawns."

But then on Tuesday, the ELN said it had "not discussed any bilateral ceasefire with the Gustavo Petro government, therefore no such agreement exists."

The group added that "a unilateral government decree cannot be accepted as an agreement."

This prompted the government to concede Tuesday that a proposed ceasefire decree had not been signed, and the following day to announce a suspension of a truce that never existed in the first place.

Petro, an active social media user, has been quiet in recent days.

- 'More expensive' -

Both the government and ELN have said the question of a ceasefire will be raised again in Mexico when talks resume later this month.

Negotiations between the government and the ELN, the country's last recognized rebel group, have been underway since November.

A first round of peace talks since Petro came to power in August concluded in Caracas, Venezuela on December 12 without a truce being agreed.

The ELN has already accused Petro of acting just like former "traditional governments" with which previous attempts at peace negotiations had failed.

Political commentator Andres Mejia Vergnaud said a ceasefire agreement has just become "more expensive."

"The government needs it a lot more, and the other side will get more in return," he said.

Petro's announcement had also included two dissident splinter factions of the disbanded FARC guerrilla group, the Gulf Clan narcotics outfit and the Self-Defense Forces of the Sierra Nevada, a right-wing paramilitary group.

The ELN, which has an estimated 3,500 members, is the only group to have refuted the existence of a truce, though the others will be watching closely what happens next.

"We can imagine a scenario in which these actors say 'look at what they've done with the ELN, we’d better take a break,'" in negotiations, said Barrios.
- 'Lies' -

Colombia's right-wing opposition, still reeling from electoral defeat last year, has meanwhile jumped on Petro's apparent misstep.

Petro's "lies put Colombians in danger," charged Senator Miguel Uribe of the Democratic Center party.

For his part, defeated conservative presidential candidate Federico "Fico" Gutierrez said Petro's announcement of something that was "not true" was a blow for security in a country in the grip of decades of violence.

"The most serious aspect of this is that the government has manacled the security forces and the civilian population is defenseless," tweeted Gutierrez. "This is delivering the country to criminal groups."

For Leon Valencia, director of the Peace and Reconciliation Foundation think tank, the apparent blunder has given the opposition a "huge" opening for hammering the executive.

"The opposition can say with reason that 'these people are very disorganized, they are not on the same page,' and that harms the image of the government," he said.

bur/mlr/mdl/tjj/mca

USDA approves vaccine for honeybees, biotech company says

Story by Simrin Singh • 

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has approved a conditional license for a vaccine that protects honeybees against American Foulbrood disease, Dalan Animal Health, the biotech company behind the drug, announced Wednesday.


Honey bees fly to the hive© Wolfram Steinberg/picture alliance via Getty Images

The disease, which is caused by Paenibacillus larvae, infects the bee's larvae. Traditionally, when bees get sick with American Foulbrood disease, their hives, as well as any equipment in contact with the infected hives, must be incinerated, the statement said. This in turn, reduces the honeybee population, and in turn, affects the world's food supply.

This new vaccine is the first of its kind to prevent this from happening, the biotech company said.

The vaccine, which contains a dead cell of the virus, is administered to the bees through the queen feed that worker bees consume. The worker bees then transfer the vaccine into the royal jelly and feed it to the queen. As a result, the vaccine gets deposited into her ovaries, giving larvae immunity when they hatch.

The drug is non-GMO, Dalan Animal Health said, and can be utilized in organic farming.

Honeybees are an important part of agriculture as they pollinate crops needed to supply the world's food supply, Dalan Animal Health explained.

"This is an exciting step forward for beekeepers, as we rely on antibiotic treatment that has limited effectiveness and requires lots of time and energy to apply to our hives," said Trevor Tauzer, a board member of the California State Beekeepers Association, in the news release. "If we can prevent an infection in our hives, we can avoid costly treatments and focus our energy on other important elements of keeping our bees healthy."

Dalan Animal Health develops immune treatments for invertebrates to prevent harmful diseases from spreading amongst honeybees, shrimp, worms and other insects.

New Indonesia capital imperils ancient Eden with 'ecological disaster'


Marchio Gorbiano with Dessy Sagita in Jakarta
Thu, 5 January 2023 


The twisting road that leads to Indonesia's future capital is lined with dense rainforest and pockets of plantations, punctuated every so often with monkeys enjoying a laze out on the tarmac.

Located in eastern Borneo -- the world's third-largest island -- Nusantara is set to replace sinking and polluted Jakarta as Indonesia's political centre by late 2024.

But the two-hour drive from Balikpapan city to the sweeping green expanse of Nusantara's "Point Zero" reveals the scale of the new capital's potential impact on a biodiverse area that is home to thousands of animal and plant species.


With construction set to ramp up this year, environmentalists warn building a metropolis will speed up deforestation in one of the world's largest and oldest stretches of tropical rainforest, estimated to be more than 100 million years old.

"It's going to be a massive ecological disaster," Uli Arta Siagian, forest campaigner for environmental group Walhi, told AFP.

The island that Indonesians call the "lungs of the world" -- shared with Malaysia and Brunei -- is home to long-nosed monkeys, clouded leopards, pig-tailed macaques, flying fox-bats and the smallest rhinos on the planet.


But by 2045, the Indonesian government says Nusantara will host 1.9 million residents, more than twice Balikpapan's population, importing a wave of human and industrial activity into the heart of Borneo.

The relocation to the 2,560-square-kilometre (990-square-mile) area follows capital moves by Brazil to Brasilia -- considered an urban utopia failure -- and Myanmar to the ghost town of Naypyidaw.

Drastic changes to the land's topography and the man-made disasters that could follow "will be severe and far more difficult to mitigate compared to natural disasters", said Siagian.

Indonesia also has one of the world's highest rates of deforestation linked to mining, farming and logging, and is accused of allowing firms to operate in Borneo with little oversight.

The government, however, says it wants to spread economic development -- long centred on densely populated Java -- around the vast archipelago nation, and to move away from Jakarta before the city sinks due to excessive groundwater extraction.

- 'Working with nature' -

Indonesian President Joko Widodo has pitched a utopian vision of a "green" city four times the size of Jakarta where residents would commute on electric buses.

His city authority chief, Bambang Susantono, presented the initial plan to journalists in mid-December, pledging carbon neutrality by 2045 in what he dubbed the world's first-ever sustainable forest city.

Architect Sofian Sibarani is in charge of creating a master plan for the new city, outlining everything from road maps to a transit system. He insisted that his plan envisaged "minimum changes to the environment".

Sibarani spoke of a metropolis that appears out of the jungle, rather than replaces it.

"We are trying to create (a city that is) working with nature instead of working against it," he said.

Initial projects include a parliament, workers' homes, a dam, a grand mosque and a presidential palace shaped as the towering mythical bird Garuda.

Experts, including Sibarani, however have warned authorities against breakneck building.

"My concern is if you rush this, we may compromise," he said.

- 'Erased our traces' -

Nusantara could also displace generations-old Indigenous communities.

Sibukdin, a local Indigenous Balik tribe leader who goes by one name, sat in a wooden house on land marked for the city as he expressed fears the development will drive away his people.

Like other Indigenous groups in Borneo, thousands of Balik tribe members rely on the forest to meet their daily needs.

More than 90 percent of the forest the tribe uses for hunting and foraging has already been lost to commercial activity since the 1970s, Sibukdin said.

A nearby tribal cemetery was demolished because of the dam project, leaving him "heartbroken".

"It erased our traces," he said.

While officials have vowed to respect Indigenous rights and compensate those affected by Nusantara, provincial officials said they would verify all land claims and only accept ownership proof.

Sibukdin said not all Balik tribe areas had been formally recognised.

"When the new capital comes, where else can we go?" he asked.

- Threat to animals -

While Susantono said the first stage would be finished by next year, the city will not be completed for decades.

The project will cost 466 trillion rupiah ($30 billion), with taxpayer money expected to cover about 20 percent, according to a government estimate.

Jakarta has been wooing potential investors, including Saudi Arabia and China, with hefty tax breaks to cover the cost.

It has secured the backing of three property developers to fund housing worth 41 trillion rupiah ($2.6 billion), Nusantara authority secretary Achmad Adiwijaya told AFP.

But funding has proven elusive, with few commitments announced. Japanese tech conglomerate SoftBank pulled its backing for the project in March without elaborating.

That left Indonesia with an uphill battle to swiftly relocate and find the money to open Nusantara's doors by the time Widodo leaves office, raising fears Jakarta could cut corners.


Eka Permanasari, urban design professor at Monash University Indonesia, warned that there was still a lot of "homework that needs to be done".

Life is already changing for the worse for some of the area's animal inhabitants.

At an orangutan sanctuary home to around 120 apes on land marked for Nusantara's future expansion, illegal encroachments have intensified since the capital's location was announced.

"Mines, land speculators, they encroach on our place," said Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation (BOSF) chief executive Jamartin Sihite.

Around 40 percent of the BOSF-run sanctuary's 1,800-hectare reforested area has been damaged in recent years, including by an illicit mine built there, Sihite said.

The rise in activity threatens all sorts of animals and vegetation in this ancient forest.

Agus Bei, who runs a mangrove reserve, warned cutting down these green stretches for profit would leave an indelible mark.

"The next generation will only be able to hear about their stories," he said, standing in the shade of the mangrove trees he protects.

mrc-jfx/aha/pbt

How Scotland is leading efforts to reduce whale fishing net deaths

Caroline Wilson
Thu, 5 January 2023

Commercial creel fishermen from all around the Scottish coast were interviewed for the study which aims to help reduce marine deaths (Image: SAMS)

At least 36 whales become trapped in fishing equipment in Scottish waters every year, putting them at risk of death or serious injury, new research has found.

Entanglement is the biggest identified cause of death due to human activity for minke and humpback whales, and the extent of the issue has not been well understood.

However, it is hoped a groundbreaking new study, involving Scots fishermen, could help reduce the death toll, after possible solutions were found.


Whales and other marine animals can become entangled in fishing equipment, including the ropes linking creels (also known as pots), which are set around Scotland’s coasts to catch prawns, crabs and lobsters.

READ MORE: Green MSP calls for Loch Leven to become Scotland's first wild swimming hotspot

If whales become caught, they often cannot escape, which can lead to injury and even death.

Not all entanglements are fatal, however even those which are not fatal can potentially pose a serious welfare problem.

There is now a legal obligation in Scotland for fishers to report entanglements.

READ MORE: Call for extra monitoring as beach pollution soars by 42%

A study involving the Scottish Entanglement Alliance (SEA), the Scottish Government, and academics, estimated that in Scottish waters, approximately six humpback whales and 30 minke whales become entangled in creel fishing ropes each year

HeraldScotland:

Other marine species such as basking sharks and dolphins were also recorded to have been entangled.

Commercial creel fishermen from all around the Scottish coast were interviewed and their contribution allowed the researchers to better understand the nature and extent of entanglements in Scotland’s waters.

The study showed that a high proportion of entangled whales had become caught in the groundline, the rope that links creels together on the seabed.

As groundline is usually made from rope which floats, it can form arches in the water between creels in which basking sharks or whales can get caught by their mouths, flippers or tails.

READ MORE: Scottish marine scientists on the hunt for 'alien' sound of elusive dolphins

Researchers said this key finding led to a possible way forward in addressing this problem.

If the groundline is made of rope which sinks rather than floats, it will lie on the seabed, and will not pose an entanglement risk.

This has shown the way for a new plan to trial sinking groundlines in the Scottish fishing industry.

Russell Leaper, from the International Fund for Animal Welfare, lead author on paper, said: “Our current understanding of the extent of entanglements in Scottish waters only became apparent through this study and the valuable contribution made by the fishermen who participated.

“There are many cases globally where the problem of marine animals becoming accidentally caught in fishing gear is very hard to solve. But here in Scotland, we can see a way forward, and the key to our success is working together with fishers.”

Susannah Calderan, a research fellow at the Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS) in Oban and report co-author, said: “Whale and Dolphin Conservation (WDC) have now received funding from the Scottish Government’s Nature Restoration Fund, managed by NatureScot, to facilitate trials of sinking groundline in Scottish creel fisheries, and understand how it might be implemented in a way that’s practical for fishers and beneficial for the marine environment.

“This wouldn’t be possible without different organisations including the creel fishing industry working together, and I’m optimistic that we can progress solutions in this fishery, which otherwise has a relatively low environmental impact.”

Bally Philp from the Scottish Creel Fisherman’s Federation (SCFF), a SEA partner, added: “It’s great to see Scotland’s fishermen are at the forefront of understanding and addressing the issue of marine animal entanglement.”

Capricorn ready to clash with NewMed critics

Kristy Dorsey
Thu, 5 January 2023 

Simon Thomson, chief executive of Capricorn Energy

Capricorn Energy is getting set for a showdown with one of its biggest shareholders over its proposed merger with Israel's NewMed Energy.

Edinburgh-based Capricorn has rejected plans by Pallister Capital to scrap the deal, which Pallister says undervalues the independent energy company. In an open letter to shareholders, Capricorn's board of directors said Pallister's financial analysis was based on "several outdated and incorrect facts and assumptions" that overstate the value of Capricorn on a stand-alone basis.

"We have real concerns that shareholders who rely on the plan [from Pallister], without understanding the material risks and errors in its analysis, will likely be voting for value destruction," Capricorn said.

READ MORE: Investor rebuffs Capricorn proposals

Pallister has a 6.6 per cent stake in Capricorn, making it the company's third-largest shareholder. Other investors have joined Pallister in opposing the deal with NewMed.

Pallister has called for a general meeting to vote on its proposals to remove seven Capricorn directors from their supervisory roles, including chief executive Simon Thomson. They would be replaced by six nominees from Pallister who would be expected to terminate the deal with NewMed.

Capricorn said it will issue a notice next week for that meeting to be held on February 1, with a vote on the NewMed deal to be "on or around" the same date.

READ MORE: Capricorn ditches Tullow merger for Israeli gas specialist NewMed

Detailing its version of the financial circumstances, Capricorn said the merger with NewMed would deliver up to $920 million in fair market value to shareholders versus $866m under Pallister's plans. Pallister rejected this claim, saying the board appeared intent on "talking down" Capricorn's prospects to justify the "flawed" NewMed deal.

Capricorn agreed the deal with NewMed at the end of September, scrapping a previously-proposed merger with Tullow Oil in the process.

Shell to be hit by £1.7bn in UK and EU windfall taxes

Fri, 6 January 2023 



Windfall tax payments are to hit Shell by around $2bn (£1.7bn), the oil and gas company has estimated.

The cost of the UK's energy profits levy and the EU's recently announced solidarity contribution will reach $2bn (£1.7bn) in tax liabilities in the final three months of its financial year, the firm said in a fourth quarter 2022 update.

As a result the company is expected to pay taxes in the UK for the first time since 2017.

It did not specify how much of the tax liability was due to the UK and EU policies, separately.

It told investors on Friday it will face a hit to earnings for the final quarter of 2022 due to the increased UK energy profits levy and additional EU taxes.

The UK windfall tax, announced under Rishi Sunak as chancellor, means oil and gas firms will pay a 25% levy on profits, which will be phased out when energy prices return to normal - but companies will get tax breaks worth 91p for every £1 invested.

Windfall taxes are one-off taxes imposed by government, targeting firms that have benefited from sky-high global energy costs.

Energy costs soared particularly after Russia's invasion of Ukraine as countries rushed to wean themselves off Russian gas.

Most recent figures for Shell show the company reported operating profits of $9.5bn (£8.19bn) in the third quarter of this year. The October numbers were lower than that of the three previous months, but still more than double the figures for the same period in 2021.

Bosses at the London-listed oil giant said at the time that they had not paid any UK windfall taxes due to heavy investment in the North Sea.

The former chief executive of Shell had previously called on the government to tax oil and gas companies in order to protect the poorest people in society from soaring energy costs.

Speaking at the Energy Intelligence Forum in London last year, Ben van Beurden said: "One way or another there needs to be government intervention that somehow results in protecting the poorest.

"That probably may then mean that governments need to tax people in this room to pay for it."

His comment was in reference to companies rather than individuals, a Shell spokesperson later said.

The UK's windfall tax payment is being paid in the final quarter of 2022 as the tax impact is deferred, Shell added.

There will be no impact on adjusted earning for the three months, it said, and will have limited cash impact in the quarter given the expected timing of payments.

The company also warned that prolonged outages at two liquefied natural gas plants in Australia had hit production.

As part of the November autumn statement, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt said the government was to introduce a new temporary 45% levy on electricity generators as part of an aim to raise £14bn in 2023.

Britain produced record amount of wind power in 2022 –National Grid

Fri, 6 January 2023 

Wind turbines are seen at Mynydd Portref Wind Farm near Hendreforgan in South Wales

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s wind farms contributed a record 26.8% of the country’s electricity in 2022 although gas-fired power plants remained the biggest source of power, National Grid data showed on Friday.

Britain has a target to reach net zero emissions by 2050 which will require a huge scale-up of renewable power generation such as wind and solar.

The share of wind power in Britain’s electricity mix last year was up from 21.8% in 2021, the data showed, as more wind projects came online.

The world’s largest offshore wind farm, Hornsea 2 off the Yorkshire coast in the North Sea, became fully operational in August 2022.

The wind farm can generate enough electricity to power around 1.4 million homes.

Britain’s gas-fired power plants produced 38.5% of the country’s electricity last year, up from 37.8% in 2021, the data showed.

GRAPHIC : Britain's electricity mix 2022 - https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/ce/zjpqjeqjxvx/Pasted%20image%201673005016393.png

The rise came as the country imported less electricity, with imports making up 5.5% of the total down from 10.3% in 2021.

Britain typically imports electricity from France but this year issues with France’s nuclear fleet mean the European country which traditionally was a large exporter of power, turned a net importer in 2022.

(Reporting By Susanna Twidale; Editing by Tomasz Janowski)

UK

NHS STRIKES

Nurses’ union suggests Government meet it halfway on 19% pay rise demand

Ben Hatton
Fri, 6 January 2023 

Nurses’ union suggests Government meet it halfway on 19% pay rise demand

The Royal College of Nursing could be willing to accept a 10% pay rise, with the union’s leader calling on the Government to meet it “halfway”.

The general secretary of the Royal College for Nursing (RCN), Pat Cullen, has previously said the union’s demand for a 19% rise, dismissed by the Government as “unaffordable”, is simply a “starting point”, and that she would put any new offer to her members.

It is thought the union could be willing to accept a pay rise of about 10%.


In an interview with Times Radio’s Past Imperfect podcast, reported by The Times, Ms Cullen said: “There is a rhetoric out there that says the Royal College of Nursing is unrealistic, it’s looking for something that’s totally unachievable, it’s looking for 19%.

“Now, I could sit here all day and tell you nurses’ pay has dropped by 20% over the last decade.

“Do I believe those nurses are entitled (to 19%)?

“Absolutely, I believe they’re entitled to 19%.

“But we also understand the economic climate that we’re working in.

“And what I would say to (Health Secretary) Steve Barclay and to the Prime Minister is get into a room and meet me halfway here and do the decent thing for these nurses.”

Thousands of nurses walked out on December 15 and 20, and the RCN has said its members will strike again on January 18 and 19 unless negotiations are opened.

The planned action would take place at more NHS employers in England than the previous strikes, increasing from 44 to 55 trusts, according to the RCN.

The union has also warned that strike action could continue over the next six months unless an agreement can be reached.

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “The Health and Social Care Secretary wants to have an honest conversation with the RCN about what is affordable in pay settlements for next year during these challenging times, and is keen to meet for discussions as soon as possible.

“We have accepted the recommendations of the independent NHS Pay Review Body in full and have given over one million NHS workers a pay rise of at least £1,400 this year. This is on top of a 3% pay increase last year when public sector pay was frozen and wider Government support with the cost of living.”

Junior doctors set to go on three-day strike in March if industrial action approved

Fri, 6 January 2023 


Junior doctors will go on strike for the second time ever in March - if they vote for industrial action in a ballot beginning next week.

The British Medical Association (BMA) has today set the potential strike action for March ahead of a ballot starting on Monday.

Junior doctors - any doctor below consultant level - in England will walk out for 72 hours and will not provide emergency NHS care during the strike, the BMA said. It added that trusts will need to arrange emergency cover to ensure patient safety.

It is not yet clear whether the strike will go ahead, but it is understood the threshold of 50% of those balloted to strike is likely to be met.

If the strike goes ahead, it will be the second time junior doctors have walked out over pay and conditions.

The first-ever strikes happened in 2016, when Chancellor Jeremy Hunt was health secretary.

Junior doctors are calling for better pay after they were excluded from an NHS pay rise this year because their contract is subject to a multi-year pay deal that gives them a 2% rise for 2022/2023.

They have also said junior doctors in England have seen a real-terms pay cut over the past 15 years, which amounts to a 26.1% decline in pay since 2008/9.

And the BMA says the risk to patients caused by the low pay means it has been left with no option but to ballot junior doctors for strike action.

The BMA has urged Health Secretary Steve Barclay to sit down with doctors to negotiate to avoid industrial action.

Both Rishi Sunak and Mr Barclay have said their doors are open for unions to talk with them and the prime minister said all unions have been invited to sit down with them on Monday.

But the BMA says Mr Barclay is "the first health secretary for over 50 years to continue to ignore all invitations" to meet with doctors.

Read more: Who is striking and when this month?

Dr Vivek Trivedi and Dr Robert Laurenson, co-chairs of the BMS junior doctors committee, said: "When we are faced with such resolute ongoing silence, and there is no agreed settlement on the table, then we are left with no choice but to act.

"Junior doctors are not worth a quarter less than they were 15 years ago nor do they deserve to be valued so little by their own government.

"Pay erosion, exhaustion and despair are forcing junior doctors out of the NHS, pushing waiting lists even higher as patients suffer needlessly.

"The government's refusal to address 15 years of pay erosion has given junior doctors no choice but to ballot for industrial action.

"If the government won't fight for our health service, then we will."

Ambulance workers, auxiliary NHS staff and nurses all went on strike in December over pay and conditions.

Nurses are set to go on strike again on 18 and 19 January, but that could be avoided after the Royal College of Nursing indicated on Thursday it would accept a pay rise of around 10%, instead of 19%, to end its ongoing dispute.

UK

Ministers could help the patients dying in NHS hospital corridors right now – they just choose not to

Rachel Clarke

The Guardian
Fri, 6 January 2023 

Jeremy Hunt, British Conservative politician
Steve Barclay British politician

With NHS staff being forced to witness our patients dying in corridors, in cupboards, on floors and in stranded ambulances, we can only thank our lucky stars that the country’s second most powerful politician is the man who last year published Zero: Eliminating Unnecessary Deaths in a Post-Pandemic NHS.

Because the chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, cannot possibly stand back and permit these crisis conditions to continue, can he? He knows better than anyone – having written 320 pages on precisely this fact – that avoidable deaths are the very worst kinds of death, the ones that sicken families and clinicians to their core.

Let’s remind ourselves of how strongly Hunt feels about this subject. The blurb of his book, published only last May, rings out with moral righteousness. “How many avoidable deaths are there in the NHS every week?” he asks. “150. What figure should we aim for? Zero. Mistakes happen. But nobody deserves to become a statistic in an NHS hospital. That’s why we need to aim for zero.”


He even offers a road map towards achieving that end that, unusually for a politician, centres on radical candour. Don’t lie. Don’t deflect. Don’t spin. Don’t cover up. Be honest and open about mistakes and failures because this is the first, essential step to fixing them.

To the collective despair of frontline staff, the government’s actual, as opposed to rhetorical, response to the humanitarian crisis gripping the NHS is a perverse inversion of everything the chancellor purports to hold dear.

First, Downing Street tried to ignore it. The day after the president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM), Adrian Boyle, estimated that between 300 and 500 people were dying avoidable deaths every week as a result of the total collapse of emergency services, the health secretary, Steve Barclay, was chirpily tweeting about the merits of parkrun.

Next, the government tried denial, with one of Rishi Sunak’s spin doctors flatly refusing to accept the assertion that the NHS was in crisis. Perhaps to them, political spinning seems like a game. But as someone who has to hear the moans and face the anguish, I would say that attempting to dismiss real people’s avoidable deaths – their actual, unnecessary experiences of misery, indignity and terminal suffering – is a form of dishonesty so stone-cold disgraceful it shouldn’t come within a million miles of government.

Mercifully, for sheer no-nonsense, evidence-based pushback against the facile denials churned out by the government, Boyle and the RCEM vice-president Ian Higginson – both of whom are frontline emergency consultants – have been outstanding.

Take Higginson’s recent turn on Times Radio immediately after the government’s efforts to discredit those figures for avoidable deaths. The association between delayed inpatient admission and increased mortality is well established. One study shows that for every 82 patients whose inpatient bed transfer is delayed beyond six to eight hours from arrival in the emergency department, approximately one extra death occurs. So Higginson rightly condemned the unedifying “battle of machismo and denial going on” before politely posing the following – devastating – question: “Is there an acceptable number [of avoidable deaths] that our colleagues in NHS organisations and politicians are seeking? Or do we simply accept that right now patients are dying waiting for ambulances, in car parks, outside hospitals?… This is a real problem that affects real people every day of the week.”

Hunt, of course, has already provided the answer to Higginson’s first question. Zero. Zero is the acceptable number of avoidable deaths in the NHS. So how – why – are we here yet again in the wretched situation of frontline staff trying to tell the truth about patient harm while political leaders with the power actually to do something about those harms focus instead on managing optics?

The government claims it has given the NHS all the funding it needs. It hasn’t. Sunak stated in his new year speech this week that since September, “we’ve put half a billion pounds into what’s called early discharge, to help move people into the community this winter”. He hasn’t. Only £200m – 40% – of that emergency funding has actually been given to the NHS and local authorities. The remaining £300m has not materialised and will not be disbursed until, possibly, late January.

With one in seven hospital beds across England occupied by medically fit patients without the care packages they need to safely leave hospital, that is unforgivable. Because every bed space we can possibly release is quite literally a matter of life and death for the patients at home with heart attacks and strokes waiting for ambulances that never come.

Be under no illusions. If it wanted to, the government could reduce the avoidable death toll this minute. It could fund the block booking of care home beds – as it did during Covid – to discharge thousands of medically fit patients from hospitals. It could mobilise an emergency crisis force of volunteer carers to help support patients at home after discharge. It could end the insanity of the pension trap for senior doctors that forces consultants to cut back their hours unwillingly or else face punitive six-figure tax bills. Above all – if it cared about the endemic burnout and hopelessness that propels so many desperate staff these days into quitting the NHS they used to cherish – it could once, just once, break its 12-year obsession with curating NHS headlines, and tell the truth.

Because the chancellor is right. Nobody deserves to become a statistic in an NHS hospital. Yet through their collective inaction at a time when so many patients’ lives are actively imperilled, Hunt, Barclay and Sunak have all made it perfectly clear that when push comes to shove, only the right type of avoidable death really matters. The ones caused by political choices? Come on. Not only are those ones irrelevant, they don’t even exist at all.

Rachel Clarke is a palliative care doctor and the author of Breathtaking: Inside the NHS in a Time of Pandemic

UK

Here's What The Government Has Said About Its Own Anti-Union Strike Laws

Alexandra Rogers
Fri, 6 January 2023 

Under the new laws, employers will be able to sue unions and sack workers who go on strike in certain sectors.

Under the new laws, employers will be able to sue unions and sack workers who go on strike in certain sectors.

The government is currently pledging to push through new laws that would make strikes illegal if unions failed to provide a minimum level of safety to the public.

It is a response to the crippling wave of industrial action that is gripping the UK, as nurses, ambulance staff and rail workers all walk out in a dispute with the government over pay and working conditions.

Under the new laws, employers will be able to sue unions and sack workers who go on strike in six sectors, including the health service, rail, education, fire and border security.

It has already been condemned as undemocratic and a threat to the fundamental right to strike.

Unions have already warned that they will challenge the plans in court if they are pushed through parliament.

And it seems that even government figures have expressed reservations about legislation, which could actually increase the number of strikes and exacerbate the staffing crisis that is forcing some workers on the picket line in the first place.

Transport secretary Mark Harper told the Transport Select Committee in December that the legislation would not provide a “solution” to the current wave of strikes we are seeing due to the time needed to get it through parliament.

He said that the legislation, “however quickly it is progressed...is not a solution to dealing with the industrial action we see at the moment”.

And he added: “The other thing I would say is that while that legislation may well improve the service that passengers receive on strike days, my priority is to try to ensure we resolve the industrial dispute, so that passengers don’t have strike days.

“That is how you get better service to passengers. You resolve the disputes, rather than have a slightly better service on strike days.”

Meanwhile, Andrew Gilligan, the influential former transport adviser to Boris Johnson, has said the plans are not a “game-changer — at least in rail” and could trigger “more action short of strikes” — including a refusal to work overtime or take on additional duties that keep the railways running.

The department for transport’s (DfT) own impact assessment also makes these warnings, suggesting that minimum service levels plans could in fact “increase the frequency of strikes” and industrial action short of a strike that could prove damaging.

Finally, the DfT warns that in the event that staff are sacked for failing to clock on to work on strike days, employers “may find that they are low on staff to run normal services if the situation becomes extreme”.

Labour’s shadow transport secretary, Louise Haigh, said: “The government openly accept this damaging, counter-productive legislation could increase disruption and strike days on the rail network.

“And the transport secretary himself admits it is no solution.

“Rather than forcing through legislation that could exacerbate disruption and undermine workers’ rights, the government should show some responsibility, get around the table and start negotiating to find a deal.”

A DfT spokesperson said: “We undertake a comprehensive assessment of risks in preparing impact assessments but this does not mean that these are likely. Identifying these risks allows us to improve the design and operation of the policy.”

“We continue to believe minimum service level legislation will be a valuable tool in minimising the impact of strike action — ensuring that those who rely on the railway to work, get to school and access healthcare still can.”
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UK PM Sunak hopes for 'constructive' talks with trade union leaders


Fri, 6 January 2023 

FILE PHOTO: British PM Sunak delivers his first major domestic speech of 2023 at Plexal


LONDON (Reuters) -British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said on Friday he was hoping for constructive talks with trade union leaders next week, as thousands of workers in industries from rail to healthcare take strike action in disputes over pay.

"We want to have a grown up, honest conversation with all union leaders about what is responsible, what is reasonable and what is affordable for our country when it comes to pay," Sunak told reporters during a visit to a school in London.

"We think that those conversations should happen. That's why we've invited everyone in to have those talks on Monday and I'm hopeful that those talks can be constructive."

The government has called on unions to cancel strikes while it holds talks, but also plans to bring in legislation to make key public services like ambulances maintain minimum safety levels during industrial action by staff.

Late on Thursday, Unite, one of Britain's largest trade unions, criticised the government's offer of talks as "game-playing and gimmicks" and said its planned strikes, which include ambulance workers in Wales this month, would go ahead.

Tens of thousands of workers across several sectors have taken strike action over the last few months as they demand pay rises that better reflect double-digit levels of inflation.

Among the latest to resort to industrial action are workers at the government's Environment Agency. A union representing junior doctors in England on Friday said they would walk out for 72 hours in March if a ballot for strikes is successful.

Some 40,000 rail workers began another 48-hour strike on Friday in a long-running dispute, while nurses are due to walk out again on Jan. 18 and 19.

(Reporting by William James, writing by Sachin Ravikumar, Editing by Kylie MacLellan



Mick Lynch threatens 'work to rule' if anti-strike laws come into force

Jack Maidment
Fri, 6 January 2023 

Mick Lynch, the general secretary of the RMT union, is pictured at a picket line outside Euston station in central London on January 4 - Kirsty O'Connor/PA

Rishi Sunak's new anti-strike laws will make industrial action "worse" and force unions to adopt other disruptive methods like "work to rule" to make their point, Mick Lynch has suggested.

The general secretary of the RMT union said the Government's decision to bring forward minimum service legislation to curb the impact of mass walkouts risks making "a bad situation even worse" and could result in disputes becoming "completely entrenched".

He told BBC Breakfast: "It will make them worse. We will have to resort to work to rule, we will have to resort to long term overtime bans, partial strikes that will mean that disputes will become intractable probably and it may have completely the opposite effect that this Government is saying."

Work to rule is a form of industrial action which involves employees only performing duties to the strict letter of their contracts.

Under the Government's new anti-strikes blueprint, employers would be able to enforce a basic degree of coverage in key public sectors during strike action and dismiss staff who refuse to turn up to work when ordered to.

You can follow the latest updates below.

08:33 AM
Good morning

Good morning and welcome to today's politics live blog.

Rishi Sunak's new anti-strike laws which were unveiled yesterday afternoon continue to dominate the agenda in Westminster as union bosses continue to digest what the measures could mean for future industrial action.

Mick Lynch, the general secretary of the RMT union has just been on BBC Breakfast, giving his response to the proposals while Labour's shadow chief secretary to the Treasury Pat McFadden is also on the morning round to give his opinion.

I will guide you through the key developments.

08:37 AM
'They are going to conscript our members'

Mick Lynch, the general secretary of the RMT union, said the Government's new anti-strike laws would effectively mean workers would be forced to cross a picket line against their wishes.

He told BBC Breakfast: "What they are saying is that they will sack our members if they don’t go to work, they are going to conscript our members.

"We have to name who will go to work and if those members in a lawful ballot don’t want to cross that picket line they can be dismissed individually and the union can be fined.

"We will have to see what the law says but it is not as described."

08:44 AM
Mick Lynch: Government's anti-strike laws will make industrial action 'worse'

Mick Lynch, the general secretary of the RMT, said the Government's anti-strike laws will "make a bad situation even worse" and likely force unions to take other action.

He told BBC Breakfast: "I don’t think it would be implausible, it will make strikes and industrial action completely entrenched.

"It will make them worse. We will have to resort to work to rule, we will have to resort to long term overtime bans, partial strikes that will mean that disputes will become intractable probably and it may have completely the opposite effect that this Government is saying.

"We have got colleagues from France today and they are saying that the legislation in France is not as described, the way that Mr Shapps is describing it, and in fact it has never been enforced and it is the union that sets the minimum service that they want to provide.

"They need to think again about this before they make a bad situation even worse."

08:57 AM
Union boss: Anti-strike laws 'could be completely illegal under the Human Rights Act'

Mick Lynch suggested parts of the Government's new anti-strike laws "could be completely illegal under the Human Rights Act".

The general secretary of the RMT said: "We will have to see what it says. The devil will be in the detail. They are saying it will affect every public service, they are going to target the railways it seems at the first level.

"But I think it will mean that many of our members will not have the right to strike because if you are operating a signalling system you have got to operate the whole system so they will say you have to go to work.

"Now we will have to see if that is compliant with international law. We don’t think it is. We have got QCs’ opinion that tells us that much of what they have got in mind could be completely illegal under the Human Rights Act and under the international labour convention.

"It is up to them what they put into their drafts and we will have to see what we can do about it when it comes forward."

09:07 AM
Curbing strikes will 'make the British people less free'

New anti-strike laws will make the British people "less free", according to Mick Lynch, the general secretary of the RMT union.

Told that the Government's proposals will make his life harder, Mr Lynch told BBC Breakfast: "Well, that is what it is designed to do but it will also make the British people less free.

"It is really important in a democratic society that we have free trade unions that can represent working people and represent the biggest democratic force in this country."

He added: "If they have their rights suppressed, all of us have our rights oppressed. What this is a symbol of is the Government losing the argument."