I WATCHED the speech made by Rishi Sunak at his party conference and was very impressed by the news management skill which I was observing. By dropping numerous hints in a carefully orchestrated way for some days previously, he managed to get most of the media to focus their (and our) attention on the abandonment of HS2 (as planned) and its replacement by a complex set of alternatives. However, without knowing the detail of that complex programme, or knowing how competently it will be carried out, ordinary citizens cannot make a meaningful contribution to any discussion of the merits of that switch over.
To my mind, however, the really worrying aspect of what he said was contained in a short passage within which he emphasised his determination to promote growth (seemingly indiscriminate growth) within the British economy. I feel that I can comment on that because it is of a general nature and the relevant data are readily available to all. I conclude that a steadily growing economy is just not compatible with progress towards net zero.
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I suspect that the trouble is that most people do not realise the complexity of the climate change system which we are currently observing. It is not a single system with a single “non-return point”. It is a very very complicated system with multitude of subsystems, some of which have their own non-return points. The alarming aspect of that is that we have already passed many of these non-return points. As a consequence, although we may be able to mitigate the consequences to some extent, we will not be able to re-establish the precise conditions which pertained previously.
An example – we cannot possibly put methane deposits back into permafrost or cold ocean floors now that some of these deposits have been released. So we are not facing some threat in future years. We are facing it NOW and we have to act NOW – and urgently.
Ironically, the problem which some commentators would have us push aside for the present is causally linked to that other problem about which the media are currently screaming – migration. To ignore that causal connection is to threaten mass murder of humanity. Let us not equivocate. To hold an anti-green position in these circumstances is to hold a pro-humanity extermination position. Where is the evidence that contradicts that? Note – a confident attitude and a patronising smile do not qualify as evidence.
Hugh Noble
Appin
WHAT an unimpressive speech at the annual Conservative Party conference in Manchester by a British PM who is clearly living on borrowed time. This is clearly another failed Unionist-Brexit leader who has no solutions to the problems that are facing many citizens in this country and is resorting to the usual “dog whistles” like his failed predecessors: David Cameron, Theresa May, Boris Johnson and Liz Truss.
I’ve become accustomed to this typical practise, at this time year, of playing to the gallery. In this case it is the Tory gallery and it is normally more shameless and downright impudent compared with the other political parties. This is a classic case of another con man asserting a new direction in political ideology when in fact nothing is really going to change anytime soon – old political ideologies still prevail while this current PM attempts to sell the jam tomorrow mantra – IT AIN’T GONNA HAPPEN!!! It’s a great pity that there are still many dimwits in our populace who are fooled by such political orchestrations.
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From a Scottish perspective, they have nothing significant to offer and all I can do is chuckle at some of the “cheap shots” fired at the likes of the Scottish Government, the SNP and even one juvenile comment against our previous First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon. The narrative of Alister Jack, angry wee Doogie Ross and their failed political master Sunak is a mixture of cheap name-calling, downright lies and ill-conceived speculative nonsense (the SNP on the brink of collapse? Laughable!) with no substance attached to it whatsoever.
In essence, they don’t like our politics and we most certainly don’t have any time for their political histrionics against Scotland either. Lets dispel, once and for all, this perception of the Scottish Government/SNP being a “political punch bag” and apply a vigorous recourse/response after listening to some of the extreme anti-Scotland comments in the past few days. Let’s take no prisoners in the forthcoming debate!
Bernie Japs
Edinburgh
AT the Conservative Party conference PM Sunak announced putting the age for smoking up by a year, each year, in England and Wales. At first glance, it looks like a good way to stop children from ever starting smoking. There was no consultation with Scotland about this.
This headline-grabbing announcement fails to address the fact that, hidden in the clouds of vaping, our children, like the smokers of the past, are now inhaling vast quantities of the highly addictive stimulant drug nicotine by using disposable single-use vapes. These vapes contain levels of nicotine far higher than many cigarettes. The World Health Organisation report that one in three child vapers are becoming cigarette smokers. Politicians have known for decades, that Big Tobacco, who own most of the vaping industry, have spent decades exploring ways to replace the quitting, adult smokers, with a new generation of nicotine addicts, and the younger the better for their business.
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In Scotland alone, it is estimated that 51,000 under sixteens are vaping. Most of them use the cheapest vapes costing £4.99 or less. If they buy two of them a week, in one year that will cost them £519. That apparently small sum, generates an income to Big-tobacco of £26.5 million, from the 51,000 young Scottish vaper’s. That translates into around £260 million in the UK.
PM Sunak’s announcement to stop children smoking failed to mention that his Conservative Party recently accepted a donation of £350,000 from one of the biggest vaping companies in the UK, Supreme 8, owned by Sandeep Singh Chadha, the chief executive of Supreme PLC. This is one of the companies that are complicit in addicting our children to nicotine. If our PM is serious about saving children from nicotine addiction, he would have completely banned disposable single-use vapes. That simple action would not have cost the government one penny. It would stop big tobacco using our children as nicotine mules to sustain their profits. It would also stop the dumping of five million hard-to-recycle disposable vapes every week in our environment.
Max Cruickshank
Glasgow
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