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liz truss
'Who Voted for This?': Campaigners Disrupt Truss Speech Over Fracking Ban 'U-Turn'
"Nobody voted for fracking, nobody voted to cut benefits, nobody voted to trash nature, nobody voted to scrap workers' rights," said one Greenpeace organizer.
Oct 05, 2022
Demanding to know "who voted for" new U.K. Prime Minister Liz Truss' reversal on fracking, Greenpeace campaigners on Wednesday prominently displayed a banner as the Conservative leader spoke at her party's annual conference in Birmingham before being forcibly removed from the meeting.
"Who voted for this?" read the sign displayed by Rebecca Newsom, Greenpeace U.K.'s head of public affairs, and Ami McCarthy, the group's policy officer.
After Truss called for the protesters to be "removed" from the conference hall, the banner was ripped from their hands by security guards, but Newsom and McCarthy quickly produced another sign.
\u201cBREAKING \ud83d\udea8\nGreenpeace activists have interrupted @TrussLiz speech at #CPC22 to denounce the prime minister 'shredding' her party\u2019s 2019 manifesto promises.\n\nThe PM is U-turning on fracking, strong climate action, and world-leading environmental protections.\n\nWho voted for this?\u201d— Greenpeace UK (@Greenpeace UK) 1664965657
The protest came two weeks after Truss announced the Conservative government will reverse the fracking ban imposed by the party in 2019, following tremors near the country's only fracking site in Lancashire.
Last week, Truss told BBC Radio that the government "will only press ahead with fracking in areas where there is local community support for that" but did not provide details on how local consent would be secured, and did not respond when an interviewer noted that members of Parliament who represent the area don't support fracking.
The Greenpeace campaigners on Wednesday said Truss' plan to return to fracking represents just part of her party's "U-turn" on policy since she took office.
"Nobody voted for fracking, nobody voted to cut benefits, nobody voted to trash nature, nobody voted to scrap workers' rights," Newsom told reporters after the pair were forced to leave the conference hall. "There's a whole host of things that the Conservative government were elected to do in 2019 that they're simply not doing."
\u201c"Nobody voted for fracking, nobody voted to cut benefits, nobody voted to trash nature, nobody voted to scrap workers' rights."\n\n"There's a whole host of things that the @Conservatives were elected to do in 2019, that they are simply not doing."\n\n#WhoVotedForThis #CPC22\u201d— Greenpeace UK (@Greenpeace UK) 1664968239
The protest followed nationwide outcry over the "mini-budget" the Conservative government released last month, including a tax cut for the wealthy which Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng announced this week would no longer be included in the plan.
"The chancellor said the government is now listening," said Newsom. "If so, they may want to pay attention to the widening chorus of leading businesses, energy experts, former Conservative ministers, and even the U.S. president telling them to go in the opposite direction."
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'Doing This for My Son': UK Climate Activist Gives Interview While Handcuffed, Hauled Off by Cops
"The government's inaction on climate change is a death sentence to us all," the Just Stop Oil protester said.
Oct 03, 2022
Climate campaigners on Monday hailed video footage of a British mother giving an interview while being hauled off by London police, with one prominent activist calling the clip "climate communication at its best."
"The United Nations has said we should have no new oil."
Hundreds of Just Stop Oil demonstrators marched through central London Sunday, where activists blocked traffic on Waterloo Bride to demand that Britain's new right-wing government address the cost-of-living and climate crises by stopping new fossil fuel projects.
Video journalist Zoe Broughton was on the scene as Metropolitan Police officers began arresting protesters on the bridge.
"I'm doing this for my son," said one woman who was arrested on the bridge as multiple officers carried her handcuffed and in a prone position. "The government's inaction on climate change is a death sentence to us all."
\u201cClimate communications at its best\u201d— Jamie Henn (@Jamie Henn) 1664827415
Noting that "the United Nations has said we should have no new oil," the activist lamented that new Conservative U.K. Prime Minister Liz Truss "wants to open 130 new oil licenses."
"That's a death sentence to this planet," she said.
\u201cHave you been to jail for justice? \n\nHundreds of @JustStop_Oil supporters block Waterloo Bridge for a second day.\n\n@GeorgeMonbiot @ChrisGPackham @GretaThunberg \n\n#JustStopOil #ClimateEmergency #ClimateAction #climatechange #protest #arrest\u201d— Zoe Broughton (@Zoe Broughton) 1664788038
Numerous other activists were also arrested. As they were led or carried off by police, a musician sang a version of the civil disobedience anthem "Have You Been to Jail for Justice?" written by the late Anne Feeney and most famously recorded by Peter, Paul, and Mary:
Have you been to jail for justice? I want to shake your hand
Sitting in and lying down are ways to take a stand
Have you sung a song for freedom, or marched a picket line?
Have you been to jail for justice? Oh, you're a friend of mine
Was it Cesar Chavez? Maybe it was Dorothy Day
Some will say Dr. King or Gandhi set them on their way
No matter who your mentors are it's pretty plain to see
That if you've been to jail for justice, you're in good company.
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UK's Truss Drops Tax Break for Wealthy, But Austerity Threat Remains Amid 'Tory Class War'
The reversal follows 10 days of financial turmoil and pushback from within the Tory Party as well as from the left, which held massive anti-austerity protests.
Oct 03, 2022
Progressives welcomed right-wing British Prime Minister Liz Truss' Monday decision to scrap a widely condemned tax break for wealthy individuals but warned of looming public spending cuts tied to planned corporate giveaways and called for a reversal of the decadeslong neoliberal model that has brought the United Kingdom to the brink of an economic calamity.
"They need to reverse their whole economic, discredited trickle-down strategy."
The proposed elimination of the U.K's top income tax rate of 45% was a small part of the regressive fiscal and deregulatory framework unveiled by Truss, who was picked by the ruling right-wing Tory Party less than a month ago to become the nation's fourth prime minister in the last six years.
Her entire "mini-budget"--an assemblage of PS45 billion ($50.7 billion) in unfunded tax cuts announced September 23 by British Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng--triggered chaos in financial markets and pushback from across the political spectrum, with the left-wing Enough is Enough campaign organizing massive anti-austerity protests this past weekend.
Even some Tory lawmakers expressed resistance to parts of Truss' package, especially the now jettisoned plan to nix the 45% tax rate--an additional levy paid by Britain's richest 1%, or roughly 600,000 citizens with annual incomes above PS150,000 ($168,390). Beneficiaries of the tax break would have gained an estimated PS10,000 ($11,275) per year, on average, while the nation's top 0.1% would have gained at least PS22,000 ($24,805) per year.
Ben Houchen, the Tory mayor of Tees Valley in northeast England, said Sunday at the party's annual conference in Birmingham that pursuing a move that so nakedly favors the rich amid a cost-of-living crisis is "very naive," while an unnamed Tory MP described it as "deranged," and former Tory cabinet minister Michael Gove called it wrong to implement when "people are suffering."
During an emergency meeting convened by Truss and Kwarteng after several Tory MPs indicated publicly that they would vote against the measure, one senior cabinet minister reportedly said that "the politics of this were just awful and I am amazed the idea has lasted as long as it did."
Less than 24 hours after Truss tried to defend the contentious policy one last time on Sunday, Kwarteng issued a statement Monday declaring that "we get it, and we have listened."
"We are not proceeding with the abolition of the 45% tax rate," said Kwarteng, who called it "a distraction from our overriding mission to tackle the challenges facing our country."
While welcoming "the U-turn," left-wing Labour Party MP Jeremy Corbyn wrote on social media that "if you really wanted to 'listen,' you'd also raise benefits, reverse cuts to [the] corporation tax, and reinstate the cap on bankers' bonuses."
"Twelve years of failed Tory economics have plunged millions into poverty," Corbyn added. "Do you 'get it' now?"
Zarah Sultana, another left-wing Labour Party MP and co-founder of Enough is Enough, told Kwarteng in no uncertain terms that he doesn't "get it" and urged him to "ditch this Tory class war."
\u201cYou don't "get it":\n\nYou're still scrapping the cap on bankers' bonuses and handing billions of pounds in tax cuts to big businesses.\n\nAnd you're threatening massive cuts to public services and benefits.\n\nListen to everyone saying #EnoughIsEnough and ditch this Tory class war.\u201d— Zarah Sultana MP (@Zarah Sultana MP) 1664796905
Truss' abandoned attempt to axe the U.K.'s top income tax rate would have cost between PS2 to PS3 billion ($2.3 to $3.4 billion), representing just a portion of the PS45 billion ($50.7 billion) in unfunded tax cuts proposed by her administration.
As the Financial Times reported:
Having retreated on the 45% tax rate plan, Kwarteng and Truss could now come under pressure to reverse other proposed unfunded tax cuts that have blown a hole in the public finances.
They include a PS13 billion ($14.7 billion) reduction in national insurance, which gives the biggest benefit to better-off voters, and a PS17 billion ($19.2 billion) plan to reverse a corporation tax rise--a policy that business leaders have said is not a priority.
Just minutes after announcing the preservation of the 45% tax rate, Kwarteng confirmed that up to PS18 billion ($20.3 billion) in annual public service spending remains on the chopping block even though economists have warned that this would have devastating impacts on the nation's public healthcare and education systems.
The level of impending public service cuts is nearly identical to the PS18.7 ($21.1 billion) billion corporate tax cut still being pushed by Truss.
\u201cThe budget's corporation tax cut will cost \u00a318.7 billion - so \u00a318 billion in public service cuts is a direct redistribution from public services to corporate profits https://t.co/Kd39QLgyzL\u201d— Jon Stone (@Jon Stone) 1664787390
The Tories' plan for a simultaneous corporate tax cut and reduction in public services is "a direct trade-off," Enough is Enough tweeted Monday. "Our pain for their profits."
At one of the dozens of Enough is Enough rallies held Saturday, Eddie Dempsey of the National Union of Rail, Maritime, and Transport Workers characterized Truss' austerity budget as a "diabolical disaster."
After having crashed the British pound, he warned, Tories are "going to massively cut expenditure on public services."
\u201c\u201cCEO and director pay going through the roof and everyone else can\u2019t afford their rent and their bills.\u201d\n@RMTunion Eddie Dempsey talking about Tory austerity for the masses\nhttps://t.co/5pmZnUKGhm\u201d— RMT (@RMT) 1664792955
"We've got to have a change in direction," said Dempsey. "We need an economy for the people with public ownership, outside of the chaos of the market, so we can have a decent standard of living rather than making this country one big trough for the corporate privateers to stick their noses in and cream off all of our wealth."
That message was echoed by Labour Party MP Rachel Reeves, who said Monday in a statement responding to Truss and Kwarteng's about-face on slashing taxes for Britain's richest households that "they need to reverse their whole economic, discredited trickle-down strategy."
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