UK

Rishi Sunak Criticised Over Private Jet Picture After Axing HS2 Line

TONE DEAF

The prime minister was accused of a “breathtaking lack of self-awareness”.

By Kevin Schofield
07/10/2023 

Rishi Sunak on his private jet

DOWNING STREET


Rishi Sunak has been accused of a “breathtaking lack of self-awareness” after posting a picture of himself on board his private jet days after axing the HS2 line to Manchester.

The prime minister is shown working on board his plane in a post on X (formerly Twitter).


He said he had taken “long-term decisions” to, among other things, “boost our transport”.

In his speech to last week’s Tory conference, Sunak announced that he was scrapping the HS2 line between Birmingham and Manchester and using the £36 billion saved to boost transport links around the country.

The decision has been widely criticised, including by former Tory prime ministers David Cameron and Boris Johnson.


Reacting to his private plane post, shadow transport secretary Louise Haigh said: “A perfect image to accompany the announcement you’re scrapping High Speed rail, flying home on your private jet.


“A breathtaking lack of self-awareness. And utter contempt for the millions who never voted for you or this.”

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Other users of the social media platform also criticised the PM’s choice of picture.

HuffPost UK revealed last month that Sunak was switching to the same private plane used by Manchester City.

The PM swapped his Airbus 321 for a slightly older model operated by private jet specialists Titan Airways.

The new plane, flying under the call sign G-POWT, will also be used by members of the Royal Family.

It was most recently used last month to fly Man City’s stars to Greece to play in the Uefa Super Cup Final, where they beat Sevilla on penalties.

UK
‘Detached from reality’: anger as Rishi Sunak plans to restrict solar panels

Helena Horton
Sat, 7 October 2023

Photograph: Tim Ireland/PA

Rishi Sunak plans to restrict the installation of solar panels on swathes of English farmland, which climate campaigners say will raise bills and put the UK’s energy security at risk.

Last year, then prime minister Liz Truss attempted to block solar from most of the country’s farmland. The plans were deeply controversial and unpopular, and were dropped when she left office.

However, solar panels in the countryside are disliked by many rural Conservative MPs, and the Observer can reveal that Sunak and environment secretary Thérèse Coffey have revived plans to put new restrictions on this form of cheap renewable energy.


This is the latest weakening of green policies ahead of the general election, which started when the Conservatives won the Uxbridge byelection, a result widely attributed to anger around Labour mayor Sadiq Khan’s ultra low emissions zone.

Sunak recently announced that the 2030 phase-out of new petrol and diesel cars will be pushed back to 2035, as well as weakening the 2035 gas boiler phase-out, confirming it will apply to far fewer homes. The government also plans to scrap pollution rules for housebuilders in sensitive areas, where they are currently not able to add to sewage pollution without paying to improve nearby wetlands.

It has also faced criticism for its record on renewables, with its stance on onshore wind referred to by industry as an effective block, and the recent government renewable energy auction failing to sign up any offshore wind.

Sunak will further dilute green policies, say campaigners by giving new powers to planning officials in the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF). These would allow officials to block any solar project that can be argued to “put food security at risk” – that is, anywhere food is grown.

Ministers are understood to believe that food security should be on par with energy security and will use recent climate breakdown-related food shortages in Europe and the war in Ukraine as justification for the change.

Rishi Sunak has revived plans to put new restrictions on solar panels. Photograph: Juan Medina/Reuters

The framework amendment to the NPPF was drafted by Greg Smith, the MP for Buckinghamshire, who has long campaigned against solar panels on farmland. He said: “This is a clear, straightforward protection that planning authorities up and down the land can use to say this development on this farmland isn’t going to hit our food security in this area, or this one over here is and therefore use that as a good reason to turn down applications.”

Coffey confirmed the NPPF will be coming out later this year and that “the first purpose [of farmland] must have to be about food production”.

Energy experts have strongly criticised the plans. Lydia Collas, senior policy analyst at Green Alliance, said: “Solar energy will help us move away from polluting fossil fuels, and in the long term protect UK farming from climate breakdown. Restricting ground-mounted solar would be gravely short-sighted. ”

Alethea Warrington, senior campaigner at climate charity Possible, added: “It is mindblowing that as the UK faces yet another winter of unaffordable energy costs caused by reliance on dirty gas, the government would make it still more difficult to build the clean, cheap energy we desperately need.

“The idea that solar power could interfere with the UK’s food security is utterly detached from reality. Solar power generated over 8% of all our electricity this spring, but takes up less land than golf courses. This is part of an abysmal streak of energy policy from the government, including failing to properly unblock onshore wind, failing to get any new offshore wind, and trying to press ahead with incredibly dangerous new oil drilling.”

A Department for Levelling up, Housing and Communities spokesperson said the NPPF consultation aimed to prioritise food production but no decision on the wording has been made. “We received thousands of replies to our consultation and are considering these before responding.”

The Who's Pete Townshend takes aim at the Tory party: “I would line them all up and shoot them”

MUSIC

Jordan Potter

SAT 7TH OCT 2023 

As the guitarist and creative leader of The Who, Pete Townshend is nothing if not progressive in his outlook. 

After his work on the groundbreaking 1969 rock opera Tommy, Townshend was hungry for more, hoping to further his rock opera concept in the audacious and ultimately abandoned multimedia project Lifehouse. 

The Lifehouse project was only abandoned because it pushed the creative marvel to the brink of sanity, and he, of course, persevered to find the innovative pastures of ‘Baba O’Riley’ and the famously adapted rock opera Quadrophenia.

His open and progressive mindset has also been long applied to the dicey topic of politics. In a recent interview with The Independent, the rock star admitted to feeling the lure of the political right some years ago. 

“I don’t know about Rishi Sunak,” he said, revealing his scepticism for the UK’s current leadership. “I don’t know about the Tory party, per se. They say when you get older, you drift from being on the left to on the right. I suppose there was a gentle drift with me.”

“I’m 78, and between 60 and 70, I think I was starting to drift slowly to the right, but… fuck! I would line them all up and shoot them,” he added candidly. 

Elsewhere in the conversation, Townshend addressed the assertion that his convoluted Lifehouse project was prescient of the rise of the internet and the digital age. “If there’s any prescience there, it was certainly the tech stuff,” he said. “That, really, I have to hand over to the teachers I had at Ealing Art School.”

UK

'The bile-soaked Tory conference has gifted Keir Starmer an open goal ahead of election'

Keir Mudie says we learnt nothing from Tory Conference apart from they are unravelling, out of ideas and some of them stand on dogs - and now it's time for Labour to act

This is peak time for Labour, says Keir Mudie

OPINION By Keir Mudie

7 Oct 2023

Let’s get Tory conference out of the way first. Not one to dwell on, that one. I was getting hourly updates from Manchester that were becoming increasingly desperate.

“I just want to go home, it’s too weird,” that kind of thing. And it was. Utterly bizarre from beginning to end. From Penny Mordaunt’s bizarre fist-pumping, finger pointing rallying cry to a roomful of bewildered – slightly frightened – octogenarians to Rishi Sunak’s equally bizarre giveaway of things he’s already given away.

It was probably the best speech of his to date. It just, you know, didn’t make any sense. None of it did. Who comes to Manchester to deliver the news they’re going to scrap the rail link to, well, Manchester? Bizarre.

This column, which prides itself on not making any predictions, last week predicted Suella Braverman would continue her unhinged of appearances – and she delivered. Nothing but bile. A “hurricane” of immigration on the way. Clearly positioning herself as the right-wing option next time the Tories have a leadership contest. Horrible speech, dripping in poisonous nonsense.




Angela Rayner promises to prioritise affordable housing if Labour win election

Leader of the House of Commons Penny Mordaunt delivers a speech during the Conservative Party annual conference (Image: PA)

Went down a stom, of course. Immediately after – as if to demonstrate her credentials as pure evil – she went outside and, I kid you not, stood on a guide dog. Anyways. Too much time wasted on that debacle. Labour MP Chris Elmore summed it up perfectly, saying: “Chaos. The End.” Right on both counts.

Now on to Liverpool. Mr Starmer and co roll into town – on low-speed rail – with it all to play for. There is an open goal here. More than open, come to think of it. The openest of goals. We learnt nothing from Tory Conference apart from they are unravelling, out of ideas and some of them stand on dogs. And we knew the first two of those anyway.

This is peak time for Labour and surely they can’t mess it up. Although, having said that, Thursday’s policy drop was terrifying. Assisted toothbrushing. It did not bode well.

Poll predicts landslide Labour election victory with 12 cabinet ministers losing their seats


Michael Savage Policy Editor
Sat, 7 October 2023 at 5:04 am GMT-6·5-min read


Photograph: Murdo MacLeod/The Guardian

Labour is currently on course to win a landslide victory on the scale of 1997, according to dramatic new modelling that points to the Conservatives losing every red wall seat secured at the last election.

The Tories could also lose more than 20 constituencies in its southern blue wall strongholds and achieve a record-low number of seats, according to a constituency-by-constituency model seen by the Observer. Deputy prime minister Oliver Dowden, defence secretary Grant Shapps and leadership contender Penny Mordaunt are among those facing defeat. Some 12 cabinet ministers face being unseated unless Rishi Sunak can close Labour’s poll lead.

According to the model’s central projection, which takes into account the new boundaries that the next election will be fought on, Labour would win 420 seats – equating to a landslide 190-seat majority. The Tories would take just 149 seats and the Lib Dems 23. The results mirror the 1997 landslide, when Tony Blair’s party secured a majority of 179 with 418 seats. The new analysis also suggests that the cost of living and the state of the NHS continue to be the clear priorities for voters.

The huge study, commissioned by the 38 Degrees campaign group, has been carried out by the Survation polling company using a mega poll made up of more than 11,000 voters. A modelling technique called multilevel regression and post-stratification (MRP) has then been applied to reach constituency-level findings. Pollsters using the method successfully detected the swings ahead of the 2017 election.

While a 190-seat Labour majority is its average estimate, the modelling – based on polling carried out shortly before the Tory conference last week – suggests Labour could have between 402 and 437 seats. The Tories could have between 132 and 169 seats. The results suggest a Labour majority between 154 and 224 seats.

Every one of the 44 red wall seats that the Tories won at the last election would return to the Labour party, the analysis found. A further 22 so-called blue wall seats – defined as those held by the Tories in 2019, have a majority of Remain voters and a higher than average number of graduates – are also lost by the Conservatives.

Voters will want real guarantees of action to bring the dual cost of living and NHS crises under control for all of us

Matthew McGregor, 38 Degrees

The findings will be controversial among both parties’ members. Many Labour insiders are expecting the polls to close over the coming months as the election approaches. Senior figures in Sunak’s team also believe they can target Labour leader Keir Starmer, whom they don’t believe has been embraced by the public.

Despite Sunak’s attempts to switch focus to his plans to ban smoking, overhaul A-levels and ditch the northern leg of HS2, the analysis suggests that voters remain overwhelmingly focused on the cost of living and the state of the NHS.

In every single constituency, these two issues were most important to voters. Across the country, a third said they are “getting by, but making cutbacks” and 8% described themselves as “financially desperate”. More than two fifths (42%) said they had struggled to get a GP appointment in the past six months.

In a major blow for Sunak, Labour has some significant leads in red wall seats. In Blyth Valley, the first red wall seat to be declared for the Tories in 2019, large Labour majorities are predicted. In Blyth and Ashington, Labour are ahead 49% to 22%. In Hartlepool, whose predecessor seat was won by the Conservatives for the first time in a 2021 byelection, Labour have a 38-point lead. In both constituencies, a quarter of voters said they were “worried about their financial future”.

Bassetlaw, whose predecessor seat saw the country’s largest swing from Labour to the Tories in 2019, is predicted to return to Labour. The model suggests a 23-point lead with 12% of residents reporting they are “financially desperate”. Meanwhile, North Dorset – whose predecessor seat last elected a non-Conservative MP in 1945 – is predicted to fall to the Liberal Democrats. At 64% the NHS was a top issue for the highest proportion of this constituency.

Matthew McGregor, chief executive of 38 Degrees, said the findings suggested voters were “crying out for change” and warned Labour against being overly cautious. “With the spotlight this week on the Labour party’s conference pledges, it’s clear what voters will be looking for: real guarantees of action to help those most in need and bring the dual cost of living and NHS crises under control for all of us,” he said. “If they can’t deliver that, there’s no promise these polling results will hold.

“These are the issues which will dominate at the next election. Parties who are unconvincing, out of touch or distracted on these issues will rightly suffer at the polls.”

The results make it even less likely that Sunak and his team will opt for a spring election. Figures close to the PM are said to be opposed to a May vote, despite many MPs believing it may be in the party’s interests to go for an earlier vote. Meanwhile many figures in the Labour party accept that a lack of clarity over Starmer’s vision for power remains a vulnerability.

Damian Lyons Lowe, chief executive of Survation, said: “Red wall seats, which were crucial to the Conservative’s Brexit coalition, are all predicted to return to Labour. Furthermore, it is in seats with the highest proportion of Leave voters that the swing back to Labour is largest. Even traditional Conservative strongholds in the south-east and south-west are under threat from the Liberal Democrats and Labour.”

Survation polled 11,793 people between 11-25 September

Environmentalists unimpressed by German climate summit's £7.6bn pledge for developing world


Sultan Al Jaber, COP28 President-Designate and UAE's Special Envoy for Climate Change, talks during the Climate Future Week at Museum of the Future in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Saturday, Sept. 30, 2023.

ENVIRONMENTALISTS have expressed disappointment at a German climate summit that pledged $9.3 billion (£7.6bn) to help developing countries tackle climate change on Thursday.

The pledges will help replenish the South Korea-based Green Climate Fund, established in 2010 as a financing vehicle for developing countries. It’s the largest such fund aimed at providing money to help poorer nations in reducing their emissions, coping with impacts of climate change and boosting their transitions to clean energy.

But forthcoming Cop28 climate summit president Sultan al-Jaber of the United Arab Emirates said “the current level of replenishment is neither ambitious nor adequate to meet the challenge the world faces.”

Climate Action Network International head of global political strategy Harjeet Singh said the “Green Climate Fund, envisioned as the lifeline for climate action in developing nations, is held back by the indifference of wealthy countries.”

The Cop15 summit back in 2009 pledged wealthy countries to provide $100bn a year to assist developing countries tackle climate change by 2020, a sum which has never been reached.

Afghan rescuers work through the night after deadly quake

By AFP
Published October 7, 2023

Afghan men sit in the rubble of their flattened homes in Sarbuland village in Herat province following Saturday's earthquake - Copyright AFP Genya SAVILOV
Mohsen KARIMI

Desperate rescuers scrabbled through the night searching for survivors of an earthquake that flattened homes in western Afghanistan, with the death toll of 120 expected to rise Sunday as the extent of the disaster becomes clear.

Saturday’s magnitude 6.3 quake — followed by eight strong aftershocks — jolted areas 30 kilometres (19 miles) northwest of the provincial capital of Herat, toppling swathes of rural homes and sending panicked city dwellers surging into the streets.

Herat disaster management head Mosa Ashari told AFP late Saturday there had been “about 120” fatalities reported and “more than 1,000 injured women, children, and old citizens”.

A spokesman for the national disaster authority said they expect the death toll “to rise very high”.

As night fell in Sarboland village of Zinda Jan district, an AFP reporter saw dozens of homes razed to the ground near the epicentre of the quakes, which shook the area for more than five hours.

Men shovelled through piles of crumbled masonry as women and children waited in the open, with gutted homes displaying personal belongings flapping in the harsh wind.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said more than 600 houses were destroyed or partially damaged across at least 12 villages in Herat province, with some 4,200 people affected.

“In the very first shake all the houses collapsed,” said 42-year-old Bashir Ahmad.

“Those who were inside the houses were buried,” he said. “There are families we have heard no news from.”

– ‘Everything turned to sand’ –

Nek Mohammad told AFP he was at work when the first quake struck at around 11:00 am (0630 GMT).

“We came home and saw that actually there was nothing left. Everything had turned to sand,” said the 32-year-old, adding that some 30 bodies had been recovered.

“So far, we have nothing. No blankets or anything else. We are here left out at night with our martyrs,” he said as darkness began to fall.

The WHO said late Saturday “the number of casualties is expected to rise as search and rescue operations are ongoing”.

In Herat city, residents fled their homes and schools, hospitals and offices evacuated when the first quake was felt. There were few reports of casualties in the metropolitan area, however.

Afghanistan is already suffering in the grip of a dire humanitarian crisis, with the widespread withdrawal of foreign aid following the Taliban’s return to power in 2021.

Herat province — home to some 1.9 million on the border with Iran — has also been hit by a years-long drought which has crippled many already hardscrabble agricultural communities.

Afghanistan is frequently hit by earthquakes, especially in the Hindu Kush mountain range, which lies near the junction of the Eurasian and Indian tectonic plates.

In June last year, more than 1,000 people were killed and tens of thousands left homeless after a 5.9-magnitude quake — the deadliest in Afghanistan in nearly a quarter of a century — struck the impoverished province of Paktika.

Death toll from strong earthquakes that shook western Afghanistan rises to over 2,000

ISLAMABAD (AP) — The death toll from strong earthquakes that shook western Afghanistan has risen to over 2,000, a Taliban government spokesman said Sunday. It's one of the deadliest earthquakes to strike the country in two decades.

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FILE - An aerial view of the outskirts of Herat, Afghanistan, Monday, June 5, 2023. Two 6.3 magnitude earthquakes killed dozens of people in western Afghanistan's Herat province on Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023, the country's national disaster authority said. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd, File)

ISLAMABAD (AP) — The death toll from strong earthquakes that shook western Afghanistan has risen to over 2,000, a Taliban government spokesman said Sunday. It's one of the deadliest earthquakes to strike the country in two decades.

A powerful magnitude-6.3 earthquake followed by strong aftershocks killed dozens of people in western Afghanistan on Saturday, the country's national disaster authority said.

Recommended reads for you:

• Two 6.3-magnitude earthquakes kill dozens and injure many more in western Afghanistan
• Death toll from strong earthquakes that shook western Afghanistan rises to 2,000

But Abdul Wahid Rayan, spokesman at the Ministry of Information and Culture, said the death toll from the earthquake in Herat is higher than originally reported. About six villages have been destroyed, and hundreds of civilians have been buried under the debris, he said while calling for urgent help.

The United Nations late Saturday gave a preliminary figure of 320 dead, but later said the figure was still being verified. Local authorities gave an estimate of 100 people killed and 500 injured, according to the same update from the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

The update said 465 houses had been reported destroyed and a further 135 were damaged.

“Partners and local authorities anticipate the number of casualties to increase as search and rescue efforts continue amid reports that some people may be trapped under collapsed buildings,” the U.N. said.

Disaster authority spokesperson Mohammad Abdullah Jan said four villages in the Zenda Jan district in Herat province bore the brunt of the quake and aftershocks.

The United States Geological Survey said the quake's epicenter was about 40 kilometers (25 miles) northwest of Herat city. It was followed by three very strong aftershocks, measuring magnitude 6.3, 5.9 and 5.5, as well as lesser shocks.

At least five strong tremors struck the city around noon, Herat city resident Abdul Shakor Samadi said.

“All people are out of their homes,” Samadi said. “Houses, offices and shops are all empty and there are fears of more earthquakes. My family and I were inside our home, I felt the quake.” His family began shouting and ran outside, afraid to return indoors.

The World Health Organization in Afghanistan said it dispatched 12 ambulance cars to Zenda Jan to evacuate casualties to hospitals.

“As deaths & casualties from the earthquake continue to be reported, teams are in hospitals assisting treatment of wounded & assessing additional needs,” the U.N. agency said on X, formerly known as Twitter. “WHO-supported ambulances are transporting those affected, most of them women and children.”

Telephone connections went down in Herat, making it hard to get details from affected areas. Videos on social media showed hundreds of people in the streets outside their homes and offices in Herat city.

Herat province borders Iran. The quake also was felt in the nearby Afghan provinces of Farah and Badghis, according to local media reports.

Abdul Ghani Baradar, the Taliban-appointed deputy prime minister for economic affairs, expressed his condolences to the dead and injured in Herat and Badghis.

The Taliban urged local organizations to reach earthquake-hit areas as soon as possible to help take the injured to hospital, provide shelter for the homeless, and deliver food to survivors. They said security agencies should use all their resources and facilities to rescue people trapped under debris.

“We ask our wealthy compatriots to give any possible cooperation and help to our afflicted brothers,” the Taliban said on X.

Japan's ambassador to Afghanistan, Takashi Okada, expressed his condolences saying on the social media platform X, that he was “deeply grieved and saddened to learn the news of earthquake in Herat province.”

In June 2022, a powerful earthquake struck a rugged, mountainous region of eastern Afghanistan, flattening stone and mud-brick homes. The quake killed at least 1,000 people and injured about 1,500.

The Associated Press