Category: Politics

‘Critical carbon stores, such as ice sheets, forests, peatlands, wetlands and the ocean, must take equal priority with cutting emissions’

Wera Hobhouse is the Liberal Democrats’ Climate Change and Transport Spokesperson and MP for Bath 

In May 2022, the Office for Environmental Protection (OEP) announced that key UK ecosystems are close to their tipping points. Meanwhile, the Government only hopes to stop this from getting worse by halting biodiversity loss.

Their net zero strategy also largely ignores the health of our interconnected natural systems in its plans. To name a few, the atmosphere, oceans and soil are all vital to regulating the climate.

The Stockholm Resilience Centre outlines nine boundaries that enable a ‘safe operating space’ for the survival of humanity. Climate change being just one.

Seven of the nine boundaries have now been crossed, and yet political attention to the natural world always falls short. The importance of COP15 lies here – biodiversity must take centre stage.

International cooperation to improve biodiversity is therefore essential for the survival of our planet. This year, the conference is being held in Montreal, where, unsurprisingly, Rishi Sunak is nowhere to be found.

Critical carbon stores, such as ice sheets, forests, peatlands, wetlands and the ocean, must take equal priority with cutting emissions. The Centre for Ecology & Hydrology estimates that the equivalent to 34 years of the UK’s total CO2 emissions are stored in peatlands alone. But their degradation from neglect has the opposite effect. Shockingly, the carbon this releases accounts for 4% of UK net greenhouse gas emissions.

Where peatlands store around eight times the carbon of an equivalent area of tropical rainforest, it is unjustifiable that their huge potential for reducing emissions is being ignored. With 13% of all blanket bogs being in the UK, it is a dereliction of duty for the Conservatives to ignore these effects.

The Liberal Democrats have a long history of working to protect our natural environment, including a commitment to introduce a Nature Act to restore the natural environment through large scale restorations of peatlands, woodlands, marshland and much more.

What’s more, our water ecosystems are constantly under threat from indefensible sewage discharges. Over the summer, Liberal Democrat research revealed that several sewage discharge monitors at British seaside resorts are either faulty or have not been installed. In total, one in four (24%) of sewage discharges went unmonitored last year because water companies either failed to install monitors, or the monitors weren’t working for at least 90% of the time.

These numbers are down to the Conservative government letting water companies get away with it. I am calling for a 16% sewage tax on the £2.2 billion annual profits of these companies to improve our sewage system and protect vital ecosystems.

On land, the story is similarly disappointing. Almost 50% of UK methane, 70% of nitrous oxide, and 87% of ammonia pollution comes from agriculture. Dangerous pesticides and chemical crop treatments end up poisoning our drinking water and food. Be assured that my Liberal Democrat colleagues and I will continue to oppose the use of these damaging pesticides, to protect our wild pollinators, and stop further damage to our biodiversity.  

Biodiversity loss is not just a risk to our health. This year, a report by the House of Lords Library discussed the ramifications of climate change and biodiversity loss on our food security. In it was highlighted the IPCC’s assertion that if global warming was not kept below 2 degrees it would lead to ‘malnutrition and micronutrient deficiencies, concentrated in Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, Central and South America and Small Islands. Global warming will progressively weaken soil health and ecosystem services such as pollination, increase pressure from pests and diseases, and reduce marine animal biomass, undermining food productivity in many regions on land and in the ocean.’

The Government commissioned an independent review into the economic impacts of biodiversity loss and its results were deeply worrying. Intensive farming techniques and the use of pesticides were found to be damaging the ecosystems necessary to ensure the long-term security of food production across the globe. The CCC has also raised concerns that more frequent extreme weather events will damage crops, livestock and fisheries both in the UK and around the world. This would lead to greater volatility in our food prices domestically as a result of what could be a 20% rise in food prices globally. Of course, this will impact upon us negatively as our food prices spike but also it will test our humanity.

The tragic events in the Channel we have seen recently will become only more horrifyingly frequent as people in the global South flee the worst effects of climate change, biodiversity loss and its effects on their food systems. We must also remember our compassion when dealing with climate change and treat this a global humanitarian crisis as much as a domestic, economic one. The problems this country is having with refugees and the demonisation of our fellow human beings by some politicians will become disturbingly more frequent and the rhetoric more repulsive if we do not take drastic action now.

Saving the planet is a colossal mission that can only be solved with international cooperation due to the interconnected nature of earth’s ecosystems. Working together allows us to leverage the power of collective action to make a real and lasting difference for biodiversity.

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Sunak accuses Lynch of being the “Grinch” who stole Christmas

“Rishi Sunak today accuses Mick Lynch of being a “Grinch” who wants to “steal Christmas” with his crippling rail strikes. The PM said the RMT had caused “misery for millions” with their “cruelly timed” walkouts. In his most outspoken attack on unions yet, he accused Mr Lynch of trying to hold Britain to ransom with his “class war”… Turning the screw on Sir Keir Starmer, he said Labour admit union pay demands are “unaffordable” but they will “still take union money and undermine the interests of the travelling public”. He spoke out as Britain is hit by the biggest wave of industrial unrest since the 1980s. Railway workers, hospital staff, border force guards and posties are all walking out in pay rows.” – Sun on Sunday 

• RMT run by a hard-Left cabal of activists who are plotting a general strike – Sun on Sunday
• Pubs and restaurants to lose £2.3 billion because of crippling strikes – Sun on Sunday

Military not ‘sufficiently trained’ to cover NHS strikes, unions say

“Unions have lashed out at plans for the armed forces to cover for striking public sector workers in the run-up to Christmas, claiming the military are not “sufficiently trained” to plug staffing gaps on the frontline. The government is deploying 1,200 troops from the army, navy and RAF to fill in for ambulance drivers and border staff during widespread strikes over the festive period, with more than 1,000 civil servants also drafted in to help. But while ministers have insisted their chief concern is public safety, unions have accused the government of trying to “mask” the “effectiveness” of strike action, having spent time on contingency planning that could have been “better” invested in securing a deal.” – The Observer

• We are not spare capacity for strikes, says Armed Forces head – Sunday Telegraph
• Public support for nurses’ strike divides Tories – The Observer

More:

• How our heroes are being left to freeze in squalor – Mail on Sunday
• Life as a squaddie: poor housing, low pay and now Christmas is ruined – Sunday Times

>Today: ToryDiary: Both Streeting and Javid can see the NHS emperor has no clothes. But neither will produce the fundamental reform it requires.

Prime Minister scraps Truss’s long-term energy deal taskforce…

“Rishi Sunak has scrapped a taskforce launched by Liz Truss to secure long-term energy deals for Britain. The Energy Supply Taskforce has been abolished after just three months. Ms Truss unveiled the initiative in September as part of a package to tackle soaring energy bills caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. It was inspired by the UK’s Vaccine Taskforce, which was set up during the Covid-19 pandemic with a remit to secure effective vaccines as quickly as possible… In October, the taskforce was reported to have been in talks with liquefied natural gas companies. But on Saturday a Government source said it had been scrapped because it would have committed the UK to paying historically high prices for years on end.” – Sunday Telegraph

…as Shapps launches campaign advising people how to save money this winter

“Grant Shapps has launched a public information campaign advising people how to make financial savings this winter – months after the former prime minister Liz Truss blocked it. The £18m campaign, called It Adds Up, claims people could save £230 a year by implementing what is says are simple measures. Radio and TV adverts will be rolled out and a dedicated website, Help for Households, will be launched to encourage people to restrict use of their electrical appliances. The campaign launched with a video in which the energy secretary encourages people to save money by stopping draughts and turning down boilers and while battling with a pesky Elf on the Shelf.” – The Observer

Millionaires return to the Tory fold in bid to kill off Labour with cash

“Nadhim Zahawi, the Conservative Party chairman, has boasted he expects to rake in up to £15 million in new donations, putting the party on course to overtake Labour’s fundraising efforts and create a significant election war chest. Mohamed Mansour, the Egyptian billionaire and a minister under the Hosni Mubarak regime, is understood to have made a significant donation, which some figures claim could be as much as £4 million. If made as a single donation, it would represent one of the largest such gifts in politics. Graham Edwards, the executive chairman and millionaire co-founder of Telereal Trillium, the largest privately owned property company in the UK, is also set to make a big donation, according to party figures.” – Sunday Times

• Sunak will deliver election victory like Major in 1992, vows top Tory – Sunday Express

Sunak ‘to take on Netflix’ amid Harry & Meghan accuracy row

“Rishi Sunak will give the broadcasting watchdog the power to take on Netflix for the first time, amid a row about accuracy in the Harry & Meghan documentary. Ministers are planning to pass a new law that would bring all streaming giants under the jurisdiction of Ofcom and hand it the power to impose fines of up to £250,000. Viewers would also be able to complain to Ofcom about shows on Netflix, Amazon Prime and other services and see them investigated for breaches of a new code of conduct. The plans are expected as soon as next year and will form part of the Government’s Media Bill, which will also promote “distinctively British content”, The Telegraph understands.” – Sunday Telegraph

• The plans will form part of the Government’s Media Bill and could be next year – Mail on Sunday

Town halls to be given a new legal duty to make roads safer for women

“Michael Gove is launching a massive crackdown on dark and unsafe streets after a spate of brutal murders of women after dark – including Sarah Everard. Councils will be given a new legal duty to take the safety of women and girls into account with all new housing and planning projects. It will mean new houses, streets and towns cannot be built unless they include things like street lights. The radical shake-up comes amid widespread alarm at the safety of women and girls on Britain’s dimly lit streets… The consultation for the new duty of care will be unveiled in the National Planning Policy Framework this week. It will spell out in national policy that town hall bosses must “think about the safety of women and girls in public spaces when setting planning policies and taking decisions”.” – Sun on Sunday

Braverman urges Sunak to go further on immigration

“Suella Braverman has privately urged Rishi Sunak to remove the influence of the European Court of Human Rights when considering the appeals of illegal migrants, The Telegraph can disclose. The Home Secretary has sided with Tory rebels who believe the Government’s immigration reforms announced this week do not go far enough to deal with the migrant crisis, and has proposed tougher legislation to circumvent Strasbourg rulings. Mr Sunak has said that under new rules, all illegal migrants will be placed in detention centres before being flown either to Rwanda or another designated safe country. His plan includes a new law, to be tabled within weeks, that will “make unambiguously clear that if you enter the UK illegally you should not be able to remain here”.” – Sunday Telegraph

• Britain could ignore Euro judges 11th hour orders to block deportation flights – Sun on Sunday
• Home Secretary is fuelling Farage politics, says former adviser – Sunday Times

Comment:

• Who will the Left blame when boats keep sinking under Starmer? – Dan Hodges, Mail on Sunday

Brexit freedoms will see Britain create next Silicon Valley, Hunt declares

“Brexit freedoms will allow us to create the next Silicon Valley here in the UK, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has declared. Sir Patrick Vallance, the Government’s Chief Scientific Advisor who featured regularly on TV screens during the Covid crisis, is to draw up new regulations designed to promote innovation and replace burdensome red-tape from Brussels. Leading figures from the UK’s high-tech industries will assist him to ensure Britain can lead the world in digital technology, green industries, life sciences, advanced manufacturing and the creative industries… It’s the latest in a series of Brexit reforms to grow the economy, after the Chancellor last week announced that hundreds of pages of EU laws regulating financial services industries will be repealed and replaced.” – Sunday Express

Tory members furious about ‘insanity’ of ousting Johnson, former chairman says

“Tory members are furious about the loss of Boris Johnson, the party’s former chairman has said, as he warns the Conservatives will struggle at local elections if they cannot rely on activists to knock on doors. Sir Jake Berry said grassroots campaigners had become disillusioned following the “insanity” of ousting Mr Johnson earlier this year, combined with their “perceived disenfranchisement” after Liz Truss was driven from Downing Street. In an interview with The Telegraph, he said it “should be a matter of deep concern” that membership of the Conservative Party has dropped significantly in recent years… Sir Jake, a close ally of Mr Johnson who received a knighthood in his resignation honours list, was Tory party chairman during Liz Truss’s short-lived tenure at Number 10.” – Sunday Telegraph

• Tories ‘at risk from rightwing insurgency’ warns Cruddas – The Observer

More:

• Cabinet Office scraps ‘gender inclusion’ workshops after complaints – Sunday Telegraph
• UKRI splurges £100 million of taxpayers’ cash on ‘woke’ projects – Sun on Sunday

Muslims now make up 10% of the Georgia Senate Democrat delegation.

[Order David Horowitz’s and John Perazzo’s new booklet: “Internal Radical Service: Abuse Of Taxpayer Dollars To Advance Leftwing Causes Illegally And Unconstitutionally”: CLICK HERE.]

In 2015, Ruwa Romman was enabling Oglethorpe University’s Students for Justice in Palestine to pass the first BDS resolution in the region. Around the same time the Jordanian immigrant began working with the Georgia Muslim Voter Project and became the communications director for the Georgia operation of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

CAIR was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the funding of Hamas. A year earlier an individual in Atlanta by the same name urged readers to “join the BDS movement” during the Hamas campaign against Israel caused by the Muslim Brotherhood terror group’s kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenagers, including Naftali Fraenkel, an American citizen.

“I could write chapters about what I have gone through,” Ruwa Romman, told CNN, alleging that she had faced constant discrimination and hate in America.

From CAIR she went on to the Poligon Education Fund. Poligon was co-founded by Wardah Khalid, an anti-Israel activist with UNRWA and the Friends Committee who is now working on bringing Afghans to this country as a senior policy advisor in the Office of Refugee Resettlement at the Department of Health and Human Services. Despite the fact that Poligon was specifically set up to promote the “Muslim presence on Capitol Hill” and lobby members of Congress, it operates as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit in what is a likely violation of tax codes tolerated by the IRS.

Now, Ruwa Romman is an incoming member of the Georgia House of Representatives.

Gushing media profiles depict her as the “first Muslim woman” in the Georgia House and the first “Palestinian” elected in the state. Beneath the fawning media profiles that emphasize her accomplishments are the greased wheels of a political machine that abuses its nonprofit status.

The Georgia Muslim Voter Project, where Romman worked to “increase voter turnout”, is also a 501(c)(3), despite its political agenda and involvement in elections, and partnered with CAIR’s Georgia chapter, also a 501(c)(3). In a midterms press release, CAIR Georgia congratulated Nabilah Islam and Sheikh Rahman, who were elected to the Georgia State Senate, and Farooq Mughal and Ruwa Romman, elected to the Georgia House. All four are Democrats.

Muslims now make up two members or 10% of the 22 member Georgia Senate Democrat delegation. To understand how disproportionate this is, there are 5 white and 2 Muslim Democrats in the Georgia Senate. That’s in a state with a population of 10 million where Muslims, despite frenzied growth, still amount to approximately 100,000 migrants.

Muslims make up 1% of Georgia and yet enjoy a representation ten times their number.

This disproportionate Islamic power reflects the tremendous political influence that Islamists have gained over the Democrat Party and the political machine that mobilized to elect CAIR allies. It is no coincidence that the two Georgia Democrats in the United States Senate, Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, are both opponents of Israel and have Islamist ties and backing.

Last year, CAIR touted an exit poll showing that 91% of Georgia Muslims had voted for Warnock and Ossoff. Only 6% voted Republican.

“Georgia Muslim voter turnout and preference were a deciding factor in electing Rev. Warnock and Ossoff, tipping the balance of power to Democrats in the U.S. Senate,” CAIR-Georgia boss Abdullah Jaber boasted.

CAIR, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, which is barred by tax codes from getting involved in elections, was boasting of its people electing Democrats, after having been involved in getting Muslims to the polls.

But as Internal Radical Service by David Horowitz and John Perazzo documented, the IRS has enabled the rise of a Democrat empire of nonprofits funding partisan elections. That is part of what happened in Georgia and around the country. And Islamists are taking advantage of it.

Behind the Islamist political machine was a lot of money. Much of it coming from the Left.

The Georgia Muslim Voter Project scored $110,000 from the Southern Poverty Law Center. The SPLC misleadingly described this as grants for groups led by “black people and people of color.”

The CAIR-allied project also benefited from funding provided by the Proteus Fund and the Southern Partners Fund.

Ruwa Romman had co-founded the Georgia Volunteer Hub focusing on the 2021 runoff whose members included not only CAIR and the Georgia Muslim Voter Project, but Stacey Abrams’s New Georgia Project, Bloomberg’s March for our Lives and the Young Democrats. Its goal had been training volunteers for the runoff. The Hub illegally mixed C3s like CAIR and the Georgia Muslim Voter Project with openly partisan Democrat groups while working on an election.

Having been incubated and prepped by her experience working with election nonprofits, funded at taxpayer expense, the CAIR Islamist in her hijab was more than ready for a turnout election.

Romman beat Republican candidate John Chan by 57% to 42% in the general election after beating another Chinese candidate, J.T. Wu, in a narrow Democrat primary by a mere 579 votes. District 97, with a population of 67,480 is 34% white, 14% black, 11% Hispanic and 27% Asian. Turnout for the Democrat primary was less than 5% of the overall statistical population. And turnout for the general election was at a little over a quarter.

The Islamists had used nonprofit taxpayer-funded resources to turn out their voters, focusing on voter registration in the mosques that have popped up as organizing centers across Georgia.

And the mosques are nonprofits too.

That also helps explain what happened in Georgia elections in the last few years.

Muslim migration has changed the demographics of the state. In 2010, there were an estimated 53,000 Muslims in Georgia. That number appears to have doubled. Atlanta boasts of 80 mosques and 75,000 Muslims. At the same time the number of Muslim inmates tripled.

Georgia had one of the fastest growing populations fueled by refugee resettlement. It is no coincidence that the co-founder of the Poligon Fund has gone on to work as an adviser for the Office of Refugee Resettlement which is moving 1,000 Afghans into Georgia.

With more to come.

In 2021, 3.2% of all refugees were directed to Georgia. This is part of the wave of demographic change which Islamists have harnessed, but which transcends any particular group, and yet whose overall goal is to transform conservative states like Georgia into leftist dominions.

CAIR Georgia’s government affairs director noted that they were in a “state where the Muslim population is only approximately 0.7 percent of the total population – much of it centered in the Atlanta metropolitan area.” That population is growing quickly, but more importantly it’s organized. And the organizing is funded by leftists and by nonprofits protected by the IRS.

The Georgia Muslim Voter Project is an example of a new wave of Islamist organizations which have moved beyond advocacy and into elections. The Project takes in funding from leftist groups, but also from new Islamic-leftist funding mechanisms such as the Pillars Fund, a “national nonprofit” that “amplifies the leadership, narratives, and talents of Muslims”.

Pillars, founded by a former program director for the McCormick Foundation, boasts a board of directors that includes Saleemah Abdul-Ghafur, a chief of staff for the Bill Gates Foundation, and Deana Haggag, a program officer at the Mellon Foundation. The Pillars Fund has received grants from the hijacked Doris Duke Foundation and $1.6 million from the MacArthur Foundation.

While Americans slept, Islamic organizations morphed and crept deeper into the infrastructure of the Left, capturing its election machines and its foundations. Georgia is just one of the results.

The Muslim Brotherhood, always adept at imitating the organizations and societies it wants to take over, has copied the political structures of the Left, working from within, building its own models and merging them into the originals in order to achieve greater power and influence.

“Our democracy is under attack by Republicans,” Ruwa Romman claimed. But what sort of democracy do Islamists believe in?

As Siraj Wahhaj, an unindicted co-conspirator in the World Trade Center bombing once said, “In time, this so-called democracy will crumble, and there will be nothing. And the only thing that will remain will be Islam.”

CAIR Georgia last year promoted a broadcast on the “Life and Contributions of Imam Siraj Wahhaj”.

That is its idea of democracy. And the abuse of nonprofits for election activities means that we’re funding our own takeover.

I have been thinking a lot lately about why we are so apathetic in Northern Ireland. Practically every public service is on its knees and getting worse, but all we can manage is a collective shrug of the shoulders (see Why are we so apathetic about our collapsing Health Service?)

One issue that does not get enough attention is how the people who make the decisions tend to be least affected by the decisions. Take yesterday’s demonstration against the shameful Education Authority cuts to youth services like homework clubs and youth clubs.

“We matter too.”

Today’s protest at @Ed_Authority over the prospect of cuts to services for children with special educational needs pic.twitter.com/YBs5U39Jtl

— Michael Pierse – @[email protected] (@michaelpierse) December 14, 2022

Was anyone actually in the EA building to hear the protest? Or were the people who make the decisions working from home and oblivious to it all?

The great untold story of the Troubles was how cocooned many of our middle class were. The violence was concentrated mainly in a few key areas like North and West Belfast and Derry. If you had a decent job, you could live a great life in South Belfast or North Down and not be affected at all. More than that, the Troubles actually made life easier for the middle classes: it kept house prices down, and we generally had a lower cost of living than the rest of the UK. The middle class had excellent Grammar schools for their kids and even free University places.

An economist once told me that a BMW dealership here had the highest sales figures in Europe. Our public sector had the same pay rates as the rest of the UK, but the lower cost of living meant that quite a few people here had a high disposable income and could easily afford luxury German cars and foreign holidays. Even now, you still see an abnormal amount of BMWs on our roads, mostly driven by impatient entitled people.

So we have a history of the middle classes closing the curtains when times get tough. But this trend has only been accentuated lately as society gets ever more privatised. All over the western capitalist world individualism is growing. People are less involved in groups and clubs, they are going out less and spending more time at home.

If you have teenagers you know the problem is not trying to get them home at a reasonable hour, but getting them to leave the house at all. From the Washington Post:

According to the Census Bureau’s American Time Use Survey, the amount of time the average American spent with friends was stable, at 6½ hours per week, between 2010 and 2013. Then, in 2014, time spent with friends began to decline.

By 2019, the average American was spending only four hours per week with friends (a sharp, 37 percent decline from five years before). Social media, political polarization and new technologies all played a role in the drop. (It is notable that market penetration for smartphones crossed 50 percent in 2014.)

Covid then deepened this trend. During the pandemic, time with friends fell further — in 2021, the average American spent only two hours and 45 minutes a week with close friends (a 58 percent decline relative to 2010-2013).

Similar declines can be seen even when the definition of “friends” is expanded to include neighbors, co-workers and clients. The average American spent 15 hours per week with this broader group of friends a decade ago, 12 hours per week in 2019 and only 10 hours a week in 2021.

On average, Americans did not transfer that lost time to spouses, partners or children. Instead, they chose to be alone.

The percentage decline is also similar for the young and old; however, given how much time young people spend with friends, the absolute decline among Americans age 15 to 19 is staggering. Relative to 2010-2013, the average American teenager spent approximately 11 fewer hours with friends each week in 2021 (a 64 percent decline) and 12 additional hours alone (a 48 percent increase).

I don’t have data for us but I imagine it would show a similar trend.

Newton Emerson has been having similar thoughts. Writing in Thursday’s Irish News:

The pandemic has certainly laid a path for public fatalism but an older phenomenon is also recognisable.

Northern Ireland’s comfortable classes are retreating from the political fray, as they did during the Troubles, to concentrate on looking after themselves.

Self-absorbed suburban banality was the typical experience of life during the Troubles, a fact often noted with amazement by outside observers. It has been largely forgotten because history is only interested in protagonists and nothing could be less fashionable than the survival strategies of the provincial bourgeoisie.

This society has an extraordinary capacity to endure a crisis but it does so by drawing the blinds and turning away, leaving the worst-affected to their fate. You could still be unlucky during the Troubles, of course, but people believed they could protect themselves by disengagement, respectability and a little bit of affluence.

That protection was not just from violence but from any material or psychological disturbance to a nice, normal life.

Although the Troubles are not coming back, their middle class coping mechanism could easily return as public services fall apart. People will quietly turn en masse to private medicine: medical insurance is fast becoming a standard perk of professional jobs here. School fees will arrive, one way or another. The potential for private security as policing numbers shrink is intriguing and ominous.

A resilient job market will provide a sense of protection from bad luck.

There will be respectable sympathy for the unfortunate but little empathy: they can always get a job, or a better job; they should stop voting for parties that cannot agree; we are now paying insurance and tax, so why pay more tax?

Once Northern Ireland gets into this way of thinking, it can get stuck in it for a very long time.

During the summer we took a day trip out to Seapark beach in Holywood. While junior paddled in the water I looked out over Belfast Lough towards North Belfast. It struck me that I was sitting in the richest part of Northern Ireland gazing over at the poorest part of Northern Ireland but North Belfast might as well be on Mars for all the thought our rulers give it.

In a way, I don’t blame people. If I was not involved with Slugger I would probably try my best to ignore it all as well. I have written many times before about how depressing I find the news. When the world gets overwhelming it is a natural response to go inward and shut out the noise. During winter I have been going to bed early at 9:30. Being under the warm duvet reading my kindle is the perfect relief to a particularly depressing winter.

BUT reality has a way of bursting your bubble. The African Ubuntu philosophy advocates the belief in a universal bond of sharing that connects all humanity, or in simple terms, we are all in this together. Stepping over the beggar on your way into the shopping arcade does somewhat spoil the experience. A night out in Belfast city centre is marred by the number of drug addicts roaming around. It is hard to fully embrace your life of middle-class bliss when the media is full of endless reports about people too skint to put the heating on or the increasing demands on foodbanks.

So the lesson for all those in positions of power is while it is tempting to stick your fingers in your ears and go “la la la,” eventually the misery will seep in. You are because we are.

 may throw your rock and hide your hand
Workin’ in the dark against your fellow man
But as sure as God made black and white
What’s down in the dark will be brought to the light
… You can run on for a long time
Run on for a long time
Sooner or later God’ll cut you down
Sooner or later God’ll cut you down

I help to manage Slugger by taking care of the site as well as running our live events. My background is in business, marketing and IT. My politics tend towards middle-of-the-road pragmatism, I am not a member of any political party. Oddly for a member of the Slugger team, I am not that interested in daily politics, preferring to write about big ideas in society. When not stuck in front of a screen, I am a parkrun Run Director.

The news that Ulster shipbuilding company Harland and Wolff will receive £1.6bn of ministry of defence funding is a significant and very symbolic development in Northern Ireland’s politics. 

Founded in 1861, Harland and Wolff’s shipyard, which built the Titanic and many other vessels, is a symbol of Ulster’s once formidable industrial prowess. Its giant cranes, nicknamed Samson and Goliath, dominate the Belfast skyline. But their stoicism belies Northern Ireland’s industrial stagnation. 

It is no secret that Ulster’s long and cruel economic decline has been implicated in a broader crisis of unionist identity. And thanks to the six counties’s post-Brexit political stasis, this crisis is only getting sharper. 

On Friday, during his first trip to Northern Ireland as prime minister, Rishi Sunak made a point of visiting the famous Harland and Wolff shipyard. He understood the symbolism of the moment, saying: “If you think about it, Belfast used to be home to the world’s largest shipyard so I think it is really fitting that it is going to complete the next generation of our navy support ships, which increase our security at sea”. 

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Bakers Union and MPs tell Scrooge bosses to pay workers’ redundancy before Christmas 

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Bakers Union and MP’s Tell Scrooge Bosses to Pay Workers Redundancy Before Christmas