by Martin Odoni

I have received a comment on the article I put up yesterday. I am unsure whether the person who posted it – an Israeli Jew and presumably a Zionist – was aware of the irony, but in posting it, he demonstrated precisely the point the article was making.

NB: I considered concealing the name of the commenter from this screenshot, but then I thought, “What would be the point? He was happy singing out his name when making the comment in the first place, and he hardly deserves his privacy to be protected anyway.”

(Where Jacobs says “he”, he means Jeremy Corbyn.) The Jews to which Jacobs refers were the group ‘Jewdas’ and the fact that he put speech marks around the word “jews” shows that he cannot tolerate the idea that ‘Jewdas’ are Jewish people at all. They are “the wrong kind of Jew”.

Then, there…

Last week’s anniversary of the triggering of Article 50 was marked, as you’d expect, by many column inches and much airtime, including a BBC Radio 4 programme that caught our attention here at Green Alliance.

by Martin Odoni

The ridiculous furore over ‘anti-Semitism-in-Labour’ has been fuelled by wall-to-wall coverage. Any remotely objective assessment of the actual evidence would demonstrate that a mountain is being made out of a Labour molehill, while a molehill is being made out of a Conservative mountain.

Now, it is not the suggestion that there are anti-Semites in the Labour Party that is the problem for me. Of course there are. In a party of over six hundred thousand, there are bound to be a fair few who were not filtered out at the entry stage. Yes, they should be exposed and expelled, and yes, by law of averages, many of the accusations of anti-Semitism are certain to be genuine.

My frustration is on several levels though. For one, according to SKWAWKBOX, another investigation a little over a year ago by MPs, all of whom were outside the Labour…

UN Climate Change News, 5 March 2018 – Meeting the objectives of the Paris Climate Change Agreement by investing in low emissions technology would save governments around USD 54 trillion in health care costs by mid-century, leading medical experts say in a new report.

Investing in the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions would be far cheaper than paying the health costs associated with polluted air, and would also result in millions fewer premature deaths, write the authors ofa study published in the Lancet Planetary Health.

According to the World Health Organization, 92% of people who live in cities do not breathe safe air, and 6.5 million people die each year due to poor ambient air quality.

The report also outlines basic climate policy options which would have an immediate and positive impact both on the health and economies of the world’s societies.

“Removing fossil fuel subsidies and implementing…

Emissions From Fracking 5 Times Higher Than Reported

Steve Hanley

Natural gas is not a “bridge fuel to the future.”

It is a death sentence for humanity.

Think that is too strong?

Think again.

A new study by the Environmental Defense Fund finds that methane escaping from fracking operations in Pennsylvania “causes the same near term climate pollution as 11 coal fired power plants” and is “five times higher than what oil and gas companies report” to the state.

A previous assessment by EDF last November found methane emissions escaping from oil and gas wells in New Mexico are “equivalent to the climate impact of approximately 12 coal fired power plants.”

In its executive summary of the study, the EDF says, “The analysis — based on peer-reviewed research and emissions data collected at Pennsylvania well sites — examines both the total amount of methane and volatile organic compounds emitted from…

Third Energy’s site at Kirby Misperton waiting for final fracking approval. Photo: Kirby Misperton Protection Camp

The Infrastructure Act unexpectedly made news last week with the closure of a loophole on fracking consent. Fracking in the UK now looks unlikely in 2017. But 2018 could be very different, with fracking now expected at two sites and shale gas companies looking for new locations. In this guest post, barrister Paul Stafford examines the consequences for landowners of the Infrastructure Act provisions on fracking.