Michael Lambert: Feeble Sunak Unable to Fix Tory Chaos

Jul 29, 2023 | The prime minister Rishi Sunak is weak and pathetic. He is afraid of his backbenchers, the Home Secretary and the press.

With the next general election to be held within the next fifteen months the Tories appear to have decided that having no successes to boast about, their strategy will be to make negative claims about Labour. Rishi Sunak has claimed that Labour are on the side of criminal people smuggling gangs.

In response to the Uxbridge byelection result the Tories announced that they would be modifying their green policies to woo voters whilst Keir Starmer asked Sadiq Khan the mayor of London to reconsider his ULEZ policy.

There are huge problems facing the country, including the economy, interest rates, highest taxes for 70 years, massive public debt, NHS, productivity etc and yet the main story on all channels and the press last week has the bank account of Nigel Farage , the man without whom Brexit would never have happened.

The Home Secretary #suellabraverman continues to persist with her authoritarian policies of making asylum seekers as unwelcome as possible. She and Jenrick appear to enjoy being cruel to unfortunate asylum seekers whilst Sunak says nothing.

My (Michael Lambert’s) book is available from my website. The bucket hats will also be available in a few weeks’ time.


A brilliant synopsis. Thank you!

It has become increasingly obvious to me that I have lived through the best years that I am ever going to live through in my life. I am pretty sure that those good years will never be replicated; they will never return in my lifetime.

I am one of the baby-boomers; so, I had the privilege of growing up in the post-War years, a period which was filled with hope, optimism, increasing openness and tolerance. Most of my parents’ generation who had had to live through the Second World War were determined that their children would never have to live through the dire circumstances and deprivations that so many had had to live through during the War years.

It cannot be said that in post-War Britain life was rosy for everyone; of course, it wasn’t. But I write here about outlook and attitudes rather than material standards. The post-War years is a period I remember well; and what I remember was a general openness and tolerance of others – even foreigners. People lived and let live. What I find so alarming today is observing the very opposite. These days, despite the increased levels of education for so many, everyone thinks they know best how others should lead their lives. In other words, it’s my way or the highway!

I believe that these attitudes manifest themselves in the attitudes of many Brexiteers and modern-day Conservatives. Their mentality is such that they believe that everything British is better (when clearly it is not) and they also have the desire to pull up the drawbridge when clearly, because of working mothers our birthrate is way too low to provide industry and commerce with the manpower industry and commerce so desperately need.

Why Brexiteers had such a problem with Europeans coming to live and work in the United Kingdom defies my comprehension. At least Europeans generally share a very similar heritage to Brits.

All this, of course, would probably go over Rishi Sunak’s head. It will be of no concern to him that Europeans coming here to live and work will be more conducive to social harmony than people from totally different and alien cultures, many of whom are anti-feminism, anti-LGBT rights and anti- other minority rights.

Moreover, that Rishi Sunak is so fabulously wealthy means that he has absolutely no understanding of the needs and tribulations of everyday life for ordinary folk. Furthermore, that he is supposed to be such a clever, intelligent and well-educated man, especially in banking and commerce, makes it all the more difficult for me to understand why and how he could be so pro-Brexit, wishing to turn this country’s back on the biggest single market in the world: the Single Market – a market which is on our doorstep. Sunak must be far more blinkered than many people probably realize.

Further, Sunak has been praised by many for his handling of the furlough scheme during the pandemic. Not by me, however. As far as I am concerned, he could have done a far better job of helping people than he did. His way of dealing with it gave some people huge financial benefits whilst depriving many others of any benefits at all. He didn’t seem to realize that all Brits had to live through the pandemic, not just his Tory cronies.

Increasingly, it is becoming apparent that Rishi Sunak is probably afraid of his own shadow! – © Mark Alexander

What Is Supercharging the Global Heat?

Jul 19, 2023 | The planet is being hit with a double whammy of global heating in 2023: on top of the rise in global temperature caused by greenhouse gas emissions is an emerging El Niño.

This sporadic event is the biggest natural influence on year-to-year weather and adds a further spurt of warmth to an already overheating world. The Guardian's environment editor, Damian Carrington, explains what El Niño is and how it affects extreme weather.

Some July Heat: ‘Virtually Impossible’ Without Climate Change, Analysis Finds

THE NEW YORK TIMES: The latest study from World Weather Attribution scientists predicts that extreme heat waves will return more frequently.

Some of the extreme temperatures recorded in the Southwestern United States, southern Europe and northern Mexico at the beginning of the month would have been “virtually impossible” without the influence of human-caused climate change, according to research made public Tuesday.

During the first half of July hundreds of millions of people in North America, Europe and Asia sweltered under intense heat waves. A heat wave in China was made 50 times as likely by climate change, the researchers said.

World Weather Attribution, an international group of scientists who measure how much climate change influences extreme weather events, focused on the worst heat so far during the northern hemisphere summer. In the United States, temperatures in Phoenix have reached 110 degrees Fahrenheit, roughly 43 Celsius, or higher for more than 20 days in a row. Many places in southern Europe are experiencing record-breaking, triple-digit temperatures. A remote township in Xinjiang, China, hit 126 degrees, breaking the national record.

“Without climate change, we wouldn’t see this at all,” said Friederike Otto, a senior lecturer in climate science at Imperial College London and co-founder of World Weather Attribution. “Or it would be so rare that it basically would not be happening.” » | Delger Erdenesanaa | Tuesday, July 25, 2023

Summer Heat Waves Killed 61,000 in Europe Last Year, Study Says

THE NEW YORK TIMES: Researchers suggest that strategies to cope with higher temperatures aren’t keeping pace with global warming.

More than 61,000 people died because of last year’s brutal summer heat waves across Europe, according to a study published on Monday in the journal Nature Medicine.

The findings suggest that two decades of efforts in Europe to adapt to a hotter world have failed to keep up with the pace of global warming.

“In an ideal society, nobody should die because of heat,” said Joan Ballester, a research professor at the Barcelona Institute for Global Health and the study’s lead author.

This summer is likely to be even worse: On top of climate change, the Earth has entered a natural El Niño weather pattern during summer for the first time in four years, bringing about conditions that will turn up the heat in many parts of the world. The season is already shattering various global temperature records. » | Delger Erdenesanaa | Monday, July 10, 2023

Floods, Dought and the Consequences of Extreme Weather | DW Documentary

The Guardian View on the Warming of the Alps: A Challenge for Tourism

THE GUARDIAN – EDITORIAL: Higher temperatures mean less snow snow and ice, more rockfalls and more fatalities on Europe’s overcrowded mountains. This cannot go on

The collision between industrial tourism and the climate crisis is destroying some of the very environments that have attracted so many to the high mountains in the first place.’ Photograph: Westend61/Getty Images
The Victorian writer and mountaineer Leslie Stephen – the father of Virginia Woolf – called the Alps “the playground of Europe”. And so they have been, in winter and summer alike, for many generations. But with excessive warming now placing some of the Alps’ most iconic summits out of bounds, for how much longer can the freedom of Europe’s playground continue?

The basic problem is the warming of the Alps. Snowfall this past winter – especially in the southern Alps – was down by two-thirds from what was once considered normal. The loss of snowmelt is a direct cause of this summer’s brutal drought in the Po valley. Last month, Swiss scientists found that weather balloons were having to rise to 5,184 metres (over 17,000ft), well above the very highest peaks, before they finally reached freezing point. » | Editorial | Monday, August 1, 2022

Brexit, Covid, COP26 and Boris Johnson - What Could Possibly Go Right?

Oct 31, 2021 • In the last week, the Public Accounrs Committee has described the £37 billion budgeted for the Test & Trace programme set up and run by Didi Harding as “eye watering” whilst new cases reported continue the be the second highest in the world, day after day. The government's own Office for Budget Responsibility has estimated that, whilst the cost of the pandemic to the economy will be a reduction in GDP of 2%, the cost of Brexit will be a 4% fall.

COP26 is about to start in Glasgow and, under Boris Johnson's leadership, the opening of a major new oilfield and a new coal mine are being considered and may well be sanctioned after COP26.

We are seeking trade deals with countries on the other side of the world whilst doing everything possible to make trade with our nearest neighbours as difficult as possible.

Rishi Sunak in his budget last week reduced the Airline Passenger Tax for internal UK flights, a move which can only be an incentive for more people to fly rather than take the train. This is another move to raise doubts about our commitment to solving global warming.

In the meantime, Johnson told a group of children in Downing Street that recycling is a 'red herring'. The treatment of sewage by mostly foreign-owned companies has become a major scandal which could have been avoided had the prime minister acted quickly. Images and descriptions of sewage in rivers and the sea have been seen all over the world thanks to social media doing even more damage to our reputation worldwide a few days before COP26.

Finally a fishing dispute with France which could have been resolved quickly and easily has resulted in angering both France and the EU, the very nations we and Johnson will be asking for support at Glasgow this week.

Post Brexit ‘Global Britain’ to Help Threaten China’s World Domination with 3 New Submarines!

Sep 18, 2021 • Post-Brexit Britain's influence in the world is much diminished. Whilst Global warming is clearly the greatest challenge we face, inequality is also becoming a big problem all over the world.

But the other great challenge we face is the historic and unprecedented expansion of China. I have been visiting China for thirty-five years and have witnessed the astonishing transformation of China from being a very poor and backward nation to being the richest and most powerful nation on earth.

This poses challenges for the rest of the world and especially for a weak and declining economy such as the newly liberated 'Global Britain'. Sending an aircraft carrier to the South China Sea is ridiculous and humiliating. And now, with the help of the U.S. we are to help Australia to build three new nuclear powered submarines to 'keep China in check'.

CORRECTION: SINCE 2008 CHINA HAS BUILT 25,000 MILES OF HIGH SPEED RAIL, NOT 45,000 AS I INCORRECTLY STATED – APOLOGIES.

Th richest cities in the world according to number of resident billionaires are the following:
Beijing – 100
New York - 99
Hong Kong - 80
Moscow – 79
Shenzhen - 68
Shanghai - 64
London - 63

‘No One Is Safe’: Extreme Weather Batters the Wealthy World

THE NEW YORK TIMES: Floods swept Germany, fires ravaged the American West and another heat wave loomed, driving home the reality that the world’s richest nations remain unprepared for the intensifying consequences of climate change.

Some of Europe’s richest countries lay in disarray this weekend, as raging rivers burst through their banks in Germany and Belgium, submerging towns, slamming parked cars against trees and leaving Europeans shellshocked at the intensity of the destruction.

Only days before in the Northwestern United States, a region famed for its cool, foggy weather, hundreds had died of heat. In Canada, wildfire had burned a village off the map. Moscow reeled from record temperatures. And this weekend the northern Rocky Mountains were bracing for ye/>t another heat wave, as wildfires spread across 12 states in the American West.

The extreme weather disasters across Europe and North America have driven home two essential facts of science and history: The world as a whole is neither prepared to slow down climate change, nor live with it. The week’s events have now ravaged some of the world’s wealthiest nations, whose affluence has been enabled by more than a century of burning coal, oil and gas — activities that pumped the greenhouse gases into the atmosphere that are warming the world. » | Somini Sengupta | Saturday, July 17, 2021

European Floods Are Latest Sign of a Global Warming Crisis

A church and cemetery after flooding in Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler, Germany.Credit...Friedemann Vogel/EPA, via Shutterstock
THE NEW YORK TIMES: Floods like these, which have left more than 100 dead, had not been seen in perhaps 1,000 years. For many, the warnings came too late, raising questions about lapses in Germany’s flood alert system.

BERLIN — Days before roiling waters tore through western Germany, a European weather agency issued an “extreme” flood warning after detailed models showed storms that threatened to send rivers surging to levels that a German meteorologist said on Friday had not been seen in 500 or even 1,000 years.

By Friday those predictions proved devastatingly accurate, with more than 100 people dead and 1,300 unaccounted for, as helicopter rescue crews plucked marooned residents from villages inundated sometimes within minutes, raising questions about lapses in Germany’s elaborate flood warning system.

Numerous areas, victims and officials said, were caught unprepared when normally placid brooks and streams turned into torrents that swept away cars, houses and bridges and everything else in their paths.

“It went so fast. You tried to do something, and it was already too late,” a resident of Schuld told Germany’s ARD public television, after the Ahr River swelled its banks, ripping apart tidy wood-framed houses and sending vehicles bobbing like bath toys. Extreme downpours like the ones that occurred in Germany are one of the most visible signs that the climate is changing as a result of warming caused by greenhouse gas emissions. Studies have found that they are now happening more frequently for a simple reason: A warmer atmosphere can hold more moisture, generating more, and more powerful, rainfall. » | Melissa Eddy, Jack Ewing, Megan Specia and Steven Erlanger | Published: Friday, July 16, 2021; Updated: Saturday, July 17, 2021

US Pacific North-west Braces for ‘Unprecedented’ Sweltering Heatwave

THE GUARDIAN: Oregon, Washington and Idaho could surpass their all-time heat records for June in unusual weather event

The Pacific north-west is gearing up for a potentially record-setting heatwave this weekend and into next week, with temperatures in some areas expected to heat up to the triple digits and beyond.

The blazing heat is highly unusual in a region typically known for its moderate climate.

“It’s going to be unprecedented,” said Nick Bond, a Washington state climatologist. “Probably both in terms of the maximum temperatures that are reached, especially Sunday and Monday, the minimum temperatures that are going to occur for a few nights like that, and then the duration of extremely high temperatures.”

Last week, the National Weather Service issued excessive heat warnings for Washington, Oregon and Idaho. In a statement Friday, the agency cautioned that “the hot daytime temperatures, combined with warm overnight lows, will result in high heat risk and heat related stress.”

All three states could surpass their all-time heat record for June (113F for Washington and Oregon, and 114F for Idaho), according to the National Weather Service. » | Hallie Golden in Seattle | Friday, June 25, 2021

Western US in Grips of Hottest, Driest Summer in 1000 Years? | DW News

Jun 21, 2021 • It may be the first day of summer in the Northern Hemisphere, but for some 50 million people in the US summer has arrived early and hotter than ever before. In just the last week, high temperature records have been shattered all across the western half of the US. Salt Lake City, Utah, just saw its hottest day since record keeping began in 1870: 107 degrees Fahrenheit. 42 degrees Celsius.

Wyoming also saw new records. In Nevada, Las Vegas continues to flirt with its all-time high of 47 degrees Celsius.

But the US city melting most is Phoenix, Arizona, which just set an all-time record of five consecutive days of 115 degrees or higher. That is 46 degrees Celsius.

The heat is making severe droughts across the western US go from bad to worse. The federal government is already planning to declare an official water shortage at Lake Mead in August. Lake Mead's waters power Hoover Dam. As of last week, Lake Mead's water level is at a record low, and there is no relief in sight.

The Western US is in what scientists describe as a climate-change induced megadrought. Some even say this summer could be the hottest and driest in a millennium. And less water means more fire. 2020 saw a record number of wildfires in California, Oregon and Washington. 2021 is expected to be worse.

Hurricane Irma: What Lies behind the Extreme Weather in the Caribbean?

The Debate - Storm of the Century? Hurricane Irma Leaves Massive Destruction across the Caribbean

The Debate: After Harvey, Are Record-breaking Storms the New Normal?

Opinion: The Planet Can’t Stand This Presidency

THE NEW YORK TIMES: Trump is in charge at a critical moment for keeping climate change in check. We may never recover.

President Trump’s environmental onslaught will have immediate, dangerous effects. He has vowed to reopen coal mines and moved to keep the dirtiest power plants open for many years into the future. Dirty air, the kind you get around coal-fired power plants, kills people.

It’s much the same as his policies on health care or refugees: Real people (the poorest and most vulnerable people) will be hurt in real time. That’s why the resistance has been so fierce.

But there’s an extra dimension to the environmental damage. What Mr. Trump is trying to do to the planet’s climate will play out over geologic time as well. In fact, it’s time itself that he’s stealing from us.

What I mean is, we have only a short window to deal with the climate crisis or else we forever lose the chance to thwart truly catastrophic heating. » | Bill McKibben | Thursday, April 20, 2017

Noam Chomsky on Donald Trump

As the World Warms, the Ice Melts

It may no longer attract news headlines, although it should. Global warming is accelerating, and its effects are being felt around the globe.

Australia's Climate Warming at Alarming Rate, Report Warns
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Australia's climate is warming at an alarming rate and oceans around the continent have been rising by as much as a centimetre a year, according to a new government report.

The snapshot, produced by the national science and weather agencies, found climate changes have been occurring at an increasingly rapid pace. It predicts fiercer storms, increased drought and more intensive periods of rainfall over the coming decades.

According to the report, based on observations and peer-reviewed research by government scientists, Australia has recorded its 13 hottest years on record since 1997 – and average day and night-time temperatures are now almost a degree higher than they were a century ago. Sea-surface temperatures increased by about 0.8C since 1910 and hit a record high in 2010. Each decade in Australia has been warmer than the previous decade since the 1950s.

The report, by the Bureau of Meteorology and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation [CSIRO], says the changes appear to have been mostly caused by human-induced carbon emissions and are not due to nature alone. Following a dip in carbon emissions during the financial crisis, carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere reached 390 parts per million last year, the highest level in 800,000 years. Read on and comment » | Jonathan Pearlman | Sydney | Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Mocked Meteorologist Gets Last Laugh
Piers Corbyn predicted Europe's winter

WeatherAction (Piers Corbyn) >>>