SOLOMON HUGHES reveals how six MPs enjoyed £400-£600 hospitality at Ditchley Park for Google’s ‘AI parliamentary scheme’ — supposedly to develop ‘effective scrutiny’ of artificial intelligence, but actually funded by the increasingly unsavoury tech giant itself
Climate crisis: governments must act, but so must we
PAUL DONOVAN argues that Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report demands grassroots-led conversion to a more sustainable way of living — and that means normal people not waiting for the state and big business to start living differently
Caroline Darian, daughter of Gisele Pelicot, took part in a conversation with Afua Hirsch at London’s Royal Geographical Society. LYNNE WALSH reports
As the regime in Iran continues to face international pressure to reduce its nuclear programme, workers continue to struggle for wages they can live on despite harsh repression of trade unionists, reports JAMSHID AHMADI
JEAN SILVAN EVANS pays tribute to the social campaigner who sang the Welsh national anthem to Khrushchev in Moscow and became Rhondda’s communist mayor in 1979
As summer nears, TOM HARDY explains how unions are organising heat strikes and cool stations while calling for legal maximum workplace temperatures — because employers currently have no duty to protect workers from dangerous heat
European Central Bank chief Christine Lagarde sees Trump’s many disruptions as an opportunity to challenge the dollar’s ‘exorbitant privilege’ — but greater Euro assertiveness will also mean greater warmongering and militarism, warns NICK WRIGHT
KEITH BARLOW examines the 1975 referendum that saw Britain vote to stay in the EEC, revealing how Tony Benn understood that EU free-market principles and capital movement rules would tie the hands of any government putting people’s interests before corporate profits
THE warnings from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change of pending environmental disaster made for sobering reading.
They should cause everyone to take stock, especially the parents and grandparents: what sort of a hellish future is being created for our children and grandchildren?
The danger of floods and heatwaves is becoming ever more real, yet the world continues largely to continue with business as usual.
Since the Paris Climate Agreement in 2015, the rhetoric has grown ever louder but action has sadly lagged behind.
Now, it seems we really are in the last chance saloon — action is needed immediately, not when it can be afforded or is politically convenient.
The pandemic has shown how immediate and drastic action can be taken to counter a crisis. In terms of climate, the Covid crisis saw a reduction in emissions for a short period, due to a drop in emitting activities like driving and flying.
But also note how so many people saw the need to get back to these modes of travel as a key part of “getting back to normal” — a “normal” that of course spawned both Covid and the climate crisis.
The climate and biodiversity crises are different to Covid but demand a similarly urgent response.
Polling has shown most people recognise the threat of the climate crisis, however, when it comes to drastically changing the way in which we all live, there is resistance.
People want to live sustainably but also to be able to drive and fly everywhere at will. There has to be change — this is an emergency.
Governments need to act at all levels to counter the threat of climate and biodiversity breakdown. The funding must be provided to back up the rhetoric — but the real impetus must come from the grassroots.
Pressure has to be applied to politicians to act, but people must be ready for a wholesale conversion in the way that they live. This will mean driving and flying less, recycling and reusing more, creating less waste growing food locally and reducing meat from the diet.
There will be sacrifice but also gains — it will be a different world but one where we can all live more sustainably together.
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