By Bev Haigh-Jones
It’s difficult to categorise when everything is so interlinked, but I will do my best to keep them in relevant sections.
Snippets – UK politics including Reform UK Ltd
Despite world events and the consequences of the Iran war caused by our orange friend across the pond, there isn’t much of note to report as far as the UK government is concerned that you won’t have already seen or heard. There are a couple of things of interest, though.
Firstly, when you probably thought that we had heard the last of the Covid scandals, The Sunday Post provides some disturbing facts about two companies involved in the “VIP lane” for PPE suppliers. Needless to say, there isn’t much recompense for the UK taxpayer, nor much in the way of consequences for those involved.
Bringing things up to date, Keir Starmer has faced much criticism from opposition parties, as well as from the US, about his stance on the Iran war. The situation was raised by Ed Davey in parliament, and Starmer declared that he would stand firm and not change his stance. The Prime Minister also seems to be taking a tougher line with Putin, and recently issued orders for the UK’s commandos to seize vessels from Russia’s shadow fleet.
I’m afraid that the remainder of this section relates to Reform UK Ltd, and there’s plenty that could be said about them. It seems, though, that things aren’t going all their way and The Independent asks “Is the shine finally coming off Nigel Farage?” This question was prompted partly by the ban on crypto currency donations, but they have other woes. Reform Watch, a group set up to monitor the party and its activities, reported that “Reform UK is now the most unpopular party in Britain”. Perhaps people are beginning to realise who is funding Farage: fossil fuel companies that are benefiting from the Iran war, a donor with business ties to a since-sanctioned Iranian conglomerate, or the unpaid aide with a string of indictments in the US for fraud, money laundering, blackmail and extortion, whose mother has donated £750,000.
Not that Mr Farage is a stranger to financial and legal controversy, of course. He recently made a £2m purchase of bitcoin from a new crypto company whose chair is Kwasi Kwarteng. Reform UK is also currently under investigation over an energy raffle which may have breached the Representation of the People Act, but which also seemed more of a data collection exercise. And finally, one of Reform’s new defectors from the Tories lost a court case recently for trying to retain access to his constituency office in the local Conservative Association building.
Snippets – Brexit, Europe and the EU
Bit by bit, and slowly but surely, Keir Starmer seems to be setting the scene for an ever-closer relationship with the EU. Richard Corbett, who took part in a webinar for us recently, has produced an article for Encompass asking “Is Britain considering a return to the EU?” It seems a very valid question when on 1 April Keir Starmer was telling the BBC “The UK will pursue closer economic ties with the European Union in light of the war in Iran”, and on 9 April inThe Guardian, the comment was“Britain must build resilience – at home and with our allies in Europe.”
Meanwhile, the European Commission isn’t dragging its heels and has launched AGILE – a new multi-million euro funding tool for disruptive defence technology. The best news to come from Europe recently, though, was the defeat of Viktor Orbán in the Hungarian elections. I won’t comment on the event itself, as I know that Ann has covered it in her article “While we were sleeping”, but this evaluation by Liam Byrne of the election, and what it could mean for other countries fighting authoritarian populism, makes for an interesting read.
Snippets – Trump and the US
Every month I hope to avoid a section on Trump and the US, but it isn’t to be! I won’t bore you with the better known, daily antics that appear on our TV screens, but here are a few gems that you may have missed, beginning with a session with his spiritual advisor. Apologies if you are feeling somewhat nauseous after watching, but perhaps this was the motivation for the Jesus post on Truth Social.
Moving on to more political issues, many people believe that Trump has been defeated by the Iran war, and Robert Reich goes a stage further by suggesting that it’s happened before, and could easily happen again. As Robert Reich suggests, Canada seems to have the measure of the man, and it seems that a very high value order for US fighter jets may be in jeopardy as a result.
There were some encouraging signs just recently, when The Independent produced an article stating that the Democrats were drawing up impeachment articles against both Trump and Hegseth over the Iran war. Sadly, though, the article concluded that the process was very unlikely to come to fruition. Perhaps they need more ammunition, and this article relating to what appears to be missing billions could maybe provide that.
Snippets – the environment
We have already touched on Keir Starmer’s comments about the UK needing resilience, but this has come in for criticism from Caroline Lucas as he has not included the need to protect our fragile, threatened ecosystems. There was more bad news for the environment from across the Atlantic in this report stating that Donald Trump was planning to allow radio-active coal ash to be released into the water system.
There is positive environmental news, though. There are tidal turbines in Scotland, bladeless turbines on French highways, and hydrogen powered cargo ships on their way in Norway.
