ENGLISH Labour’s pledge to spend £28 billion – really £20 billion, since it included £8 billion already spent – is gone in a poof, just like all of Starmer’s other empty promises, er, I mean manifesto pledges.
Their “Green Prosperity Plan” is now just a slogan. £20bn was never going to be enough. It was to be split between home insulation, offshore wind, grid upgrades and establishing GB Energy and a National Wealth Fund.
READ MORE: Keir Starmer urged to ‘come clean’ on impact of green energy U-turn for Scotland
Not only is the decision economically illiterate but it’s politically inept. Economics 101 tells you that slashing public investment during a downturn is the worst possible thing to do. The £28bn would easily have paid for itself because it would have stimulated substantial private investment, created jobs and raised tax revenues. An LSE study concluded that an extra 1% of GDP spent on public investment stimulates twice as much private investment, setting off a self-sustaining “growth acceleration.” In other words, it would have created real wealth for a change, putting human and capital resources to work, adding value to the economy and improving the environment and people’s lives.
Politically, the Tories probably can’t believe their luck since Starmer’s given them an open goal. They’re gleefully sharing the clip of former Blair advisor John McTernan saying, “It’s probably the most stupid decision the Labour Party’s made.” Even the Telegraph can’t believe Labour’s ineptitude.
READ MORE: Pat Kane: How much should we be spending on climate crisis?
Oh, and House of Lords reform and Gordon Brown’s endless promises for a federal constitution to subdue Scotland have both bitten the dust.
Starmer’s a weak man. He’s loyal only to the powerful vested interests who made him Labour leader. He’ll do their bidding or else...
The People of Scotland have a choice – stick with failing UK or take back their nation.
Leah Gunn Barrett
Edinburgh
YET again Keir Starmer, heid bummer of The Labour and U-turn Party, has altered course on policy to the tune of £28bn. This guy is a mess, and if he and his cohorts get elected in the upcoming General Election they will make an absolute “fujitsu” of it.
M Ross
Aviemore
YOU can’t lose some you’ve never had, and a “promise” from Labour so very often means you never will. Those 50,000 jobs in renewables were election speak. Nothing more.
Joyce Cox
via thenational.scot
A VERY significant news item last week was the observation that the 1.5 degree centigrade rise in our planet’s average temperature (the limit set by the UN Conference Of the Parties COP held in Paris in 2015) had been exceeded for the first time ever this year.
READ MORE: Ditching £28bn green pledge 'the most stupid decision Labour have made'
This limit is needed to avoid the climate chaos that brings floods, droughts, deserts and frozen wastes.
However, as an ecosocialist I was disappointed but not surprised by Labour Party leader Keir Starmer abandoning any pretence to care about our environment by dumping ecological commitments for this year’s election.
Norman Lockhart
Innerleithen
CONCERNS over President Biden’s age are centre stage following the findings about his handling of documents. No amount of Democrat hollering about his decency v Trump’s obvious criminality and moral vileness will lessen this.
Here in the UK, after the unnecessary public ditching of environmental pledges, Starmer risks narrowing perceptions of the big political difference between himself and the lame-duck Sunak.
For both the US Democrats and UK Labour, problems at the ballot box have always pivoted on voter turnout.
America’s moral identity would not survive another Trump evisceration of democracy. The UK certainly cannot survive – politically, economically or socially – another calamitous, corrupt Conservative government.
However, many of the folk who actually pay attention and go out and vote for both the US Democratic Party and the UK Labour Party are exactly the people who pay attention to other things. There is nothing, other than environmental catastrophe, bigger than the horrors of Gaza right now.
The in-full-view, barely criticised (by the US/UK) slaughter of the innocents of Gaza will have a detrimental effect on the Starmer/Biden electoral chances because some of their natural supporters will just not be able to stomach voting for them.
They may not matter to Starmer/Biden now, but the ghosts of Gaza will haunt them this autumn.
Amanda Baker
Edinburgh
RECENTLY there have been reports of cognitive problems, with ex-president Trump getting things wrong. Now we have similar claims about ex-vice president Biden. It doesn’t bode well for the future if those are the best that the USA can muster for the leadership of the Western world.
The political system in the UK leaves a lot to be desired but pales in comparison to the defects in that of the USA.
What a choice, Diaper Don or Sleepy Joe! A couple of elderly men, approaching, if not already in, their dotage!
No wonder Putin exudes confidence, who’s going to challenge him? His biggest fear must be that some old dotard will press a wrong button and inadvertently start a nuclear war. Both have limited life expectancy ahead of them and not much to lose.
Maybe the USA, and ourselves, should have cognitive tests for those aspiring to lead us after a certain age is reached.
Drew Reid
Falkirk
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