The Budget and Claimants.
The Budget was yesterday.
How does it affect claimants?
Here is the Official View:
Here is the Resolution Foundation’s view.
“The reduction in the taper rate in Universal Credit will bring an additional 400,000 families into the benefits system next year. Around 75 per cent of the 4.4 million households on Universal Credit will be worse off as a result of decisions to take away the £20 per week uplift despite the Chancellor’s new Universal Credit measures in the Budget.”
The Boris Budget (from the Summary)
Resolution Foundation analysis of Autumn Budget and Spending Review 2021
From the full report: The Boris Budget
For some, this change will be significant: a family with two adults in work (one working full-time with earnings at the 25th wage percentile and one working part-time on the National Living Wage for 20 hours a week), who have two children, will gain £42 a week from these Budget day changes, more than offsetting the £20 per week reduction made to the benefit earlier this month. But, overall, these changes will be overshadowed by last month’s £6 billion cut to entitlement: three-quarters of families on UC will lose more from he £20 cut than they gain from the Budget changes. Even if we also take into account the impact of the faster-than-average-earnings increase to the National Living Wage, the fifth of households will still be an average of £280 a year worse off overall.
Here is the real Tory view of claimants:
Then there is this:
It seems equally obvious to mention that if gas and other prices are going up what about increasing benefit levels from their present misery rates?
Next year we will begin paying Council Tax, which even at the reduced rate of Council Tax Relief can be an extra burden, and far from minimal in many areas.
Our contributors remain concerned about the way ‘schemes’ for the unemployed, outlined in ‘Plan for Jobs’ operate. Here is one Restart. Plan for Jobs: skills, employment and support programmes for jobseekers
At the 2020 Spending Review, the chancellor allocated £2.9 billion for the new Restart Scheme, which will give Universal Credit claimants who have been out of work for between 12 to 18 months enhanced support to find jobs. The Restart Scheme will break down employment barriers that could be holding them back from finding work. Providers will work with employers, local government and other partners to deliver tailored support for individuals.
Referrals will be made over a 3-year period and the Restart Scheme will benefit more than 1 million Universal Credit claimants who are expected to look for and be available for work but have no sustained earnings. The scheme will provide up to 12 months of tailored support for each participant. Early access can be considered on a case by case basis where conversations with a work coach suggest this is the most appropriate route for the individual.
It has been quite some time since the media was interested in what is happening on these ‘schemes’ but our contributors are already reporting serious difficulties with them.
Ipswich Unemployed Action. 
Not only is the cost of living rising but I think I’m right in saying that National Insurance contributions have increased too.
It’s not long since Labour were saying they would tinker with the UC taper rate to let people keep more earnings, though they had previously said they would scrap UC.
I am still in receipt of ‘legacy’ JSA and daren’t do anything that would trigger a transfer to UC, so am avoiding temporary work and daren’t move to another address even though the flat I’m currently in has a problem with damp that the landlord is ignoring.
trev
October 28, 2021 at 10:24 am
Universal Credit’s success is in it’s failure. Sounds like IDS again.
Stepping Razor Sound Plate System
October 28, 2021 at 10:32 am
Autumn Budget 2021: Increased support, but not for everyone
https://policyinpractice.co.uk/autumn-budget-2021-increased-support-but-not-for-everyone/
trev
October 28, 2021 at 11:57 am
27 October 2021
PCS responds to the spending review
Chancellor Rishi Sunak delivered his spending review and budget promising to level up, grow the economy and lift the public sector pay freeze.
However, Mr Sunak who has been trailing the news the freeze would end for the last few days, produced few details, saying it would be “fair and affordable” and that there would be a “return to the normal independent pay setting process.”
Responding to the Spending Review, PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: “For all the talk of lifting the public sector pay freeze, when it comes to the crunch, the Chancellor has shown his promises are merely fake news.
“It is an empty gesture to announce you are ending a pay freeze without providing extra money from the Treasury.
“And with inflation running at 3.1%, with some forecasts predicting 5% by early 2022, any lifting of pay below that level, is akin to real terms cut.
“Civil and other public servants have been living the reality of a pay freeze for over a decade.
“None of today’s rhetoric will do anything to alleviate the real economic hardship our members are experiencing every day.
“PCS will now consider all our options including working with other public sector unions on a joint response.”
There was also a change to Universal Credit following the controversial and unpopular scrapping of the £20 uplift.
The Tories claimed Universal Credit claimants will now be able to keep more of the benefit as they earn more with the taper rate cut by 8% “within weeks”, bringing it down from 63% to 55%.
On changes to Universal Credit, Mr Serwotka added: “This partial U-turn on Universal Credit is an attempt to deflect the heavy criticism levelled at the government for punishing the low paid and the vulnerable by scrapping the uplift in the first place.
“The crumbs being thrown at claimants will do little to ease the burden of rising prices and inflation on people who were already in a precarious financial position.
“Only a complete overhaul of our social security system, which prioritises the welfare of claimants, instead of punishing them, can begin to tackle the deep inequality in our society.”
superted
October 28, 2021 at 1:37 pm
What’s funny is Serco, Atos, Maximus, G4S & all the other Corporate Companies workers have joined the PCS Union. G4S Civil Servants. Yet the Private Sector can get into a Union & think they have workers rights. Well you don’t.
Stepping Razor Sound Plate System
October 28, 2021 at 2:13 pm
Now the competition of who to blame Covid or Brexit yet it could never be the Tory Party. First of all we will feed the Tory Politicians to the animals aka Tory Voters.
Stepping Razor Sound Plate System
October 28, 2021 at 2:15 pm
Reblogged this on Tory Britain! .
A6er
October 28, 2021 at 3:18 pm
This also won’t help anyone like me who is too scared of claiming UC! And the NI rise will leave me even less to subsist on, while I’m still have to pay for prescriptions and glasses etc as well as food clothes and cat stuff…..
kattyrehman
October 28, 2021 at 3:19 pm
@kattyrehman: Once you’re on Universal Credit, it’s like being a puppet with the DWP up above pulling the strings. No suprise that nobody wants to be on it.
George M
October 28, 2021 at 3:57 pm
How the labour movement reacted to Rishi Sunak’s 2021 autumn Budget
Elliot Chappell
https://labourlist.org/2021/10/how-the-labour-movement-reacted-to-rishi-sunaks-2021-autumn-budget/
trev
October 28, 2021 at 3:27 pm
“It may have been a ‘Boris Budget’ – but this was not a Labour Budget”
Sienna Rodgers
https://labourlist.org/2021/10/how-did-labour-respond-to-rishi-sunaks-bigger-than-expected-budget/
trev
October 28, 2021 at 3:30 pm
Millions to be worse off due to rising taxes and inflation, says IFS
“The Institute for Fiscal Studies said the outlook for living standards does not match the Chancellor’s upbeat tone.”
https://www.independent.co.uk/business/millions-to-be-worse-off-due-to-rising-taxes-and-inflation-says-ifs-b1946972.html
trev
October 28, 2021 at 3:34 pm
Hopes that Sunak’s Budget would see him go green were dashed – instead he saw red
“The chancellor has morphed from a Thatcherite darling into a big spender and he’s stuck two fingers up at the prime minister’s efforts to save the planet.”
Cathy Newman
https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/rishi-sunak-budget-labour-b1946856.html
It’s been dubbed a Labour Budget – but what would Rachel Reeves really have done differently?
Rishi Sunak is pursuing New Labour policies the shadow chancellor agrees with, writes John Rentoul
https://www.independent.co.uk/independentpremium/voices/rachel-reeves-budget-labour-rishi-sunak-b1947033.html
trev
October 28, 2021 at 3:37 pm
We now have a ruthless challenge system of benefits, and a government that is unconcerned about hardship and injustice. Their blank refusal to uprate the legacy benefits in line with Universal Credit, is a total disgrace. But sadly typical of this gang of Tory privateers and profit-merchants.
Jeff Smith
October 28, 2021 at 3:50 pm
And a New Labour Opposition.
trev
October 28, 2021 at 4:54 pm
Fuck those fucking Tories,
Everyone of them is a twat,
As Nye Bevan said,
They’re lower than vermin,
And you can’t get much worse than that.
Fuck those fucking Tories,
For the dreadful things they’ve done,
The cruelty of their policies,
The misery they’ve caused everyone,
Fuck those fucking Tories,
For the way they try to rule,
With the arrogance of their money,
Their class, and public school.
Fuck those fucking Tories,
For the way they just don’t care,
As they pose about in parliament,
With their noses in the air.
And fuck those fucking Tories,
With their profit driven greed,
That puts business rates and tax cuts.
Above people dying in need.
Random Poet
October 28, 2021 at 4:23 pm
Now we’re talking.
trev
October 28, 2021 at 4:49 pm
Fucking brilliant bravo !!!
Cloverleaf
October 28, 2021 at 5:47 pm
Brilliant!
Andrew Coates
October 28, 2021 at 6:29 pm
A+++ Random, You really are the master of welfare poetry .
George M
October 28, 2021 at 5:52 pm
Soon the Tories can say what a great success Universal Credit was still waiting for the full roll out.
The introduction of New Style ESA, New Style Income support, New Style JSA at the start of the covid pandemic is Legacy Benefits with a New Style Twist New because Universal Credit could not cope. So once again Universal Credit & the DWP are relying on the paper system aka legacy benefits. What a wonderful success Universal Credit was.
Stepping Razor Sound Plate System
October 28, 2021 at 5:57 pm
Ban all Politicians off Social Media & get back to doing some work. The Politicians already have their own websites to communicate.
Stepping Razor Sound Plate System
October 28, 2021 at 6:01 pm
Don’t mention Poll Tax.
Stepping Razor Sound Plate System
October 28, 2021 at 6:03 pm
Looks like the pain and misery is set to go on for years and years. With inflation set to increase to 4% or more for a good while longer than a year this should mean the biggest increase in benefits next April for yonks unless Sunak decides to pull and Osborne and freeze benefits or increase them blow inflation rates across the board or selectively, which would be catastrophic given how much value social security other than the state pension has lost over the last decade.
The red wall could well fall at the next general election if Labour play their cards right,
Not that an event like that would necessarily set the world to rights but surely must be a better outcome than another Tory government led by Johnson or possibly even a Sunak premiership for five years when the real Thatcherite Rishi would come to the fore in full force.
Stephen
October 29, 2021 at 9:03 am
“The red wall could well fall at the next general election if Labour play their cards right”
But the real Thatcherite/Blairite Starmer might come to the fore in full force instead!
trev
October 29, 2021 at 2:23 pm
Given a choice I’d happily take a chance on ANYBODY other than the modern Conservatives. Better to gamble on the unknown than ruled indefinitely by a bunch of well known Tory arseh0les and wank3rs.
Stephen
October 29, 2021 at 3:23 pm
New Labour isn’t unknown, and I for one (of many) won’t be voting for it. I’ll vote for the Monster Raving Loony party, or Green, even LibDem (and God knows I hate those bastards), or maybe not vote at all ever again, but I sure as hell won’t vote for Starmer’s Labour party.
trev
October 29, 2021 at 4:09 pm
It’s not ‘Starmer’s Labour Party’ it’s the Labour Party. I will vote Labour, firstly because I have confidence in the Labour councillors here – confidence based on their actions, like building new Council houses, keeping public services intact (we even have Municipal buses) and keeping the amount of council tax we on council tax relief pay as low as possible, and because I saw what a local coalition between Tories and Liberals to run the Borough did to services when they were in power here ,
Ipswich: Face to face with the realities of coalition
John Harris 2010: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2010/may/03/ipswich-coalition-election-tory-lib-dem
Next, it’s no secret that those on the left who voted for Starmer, including myself, somebody who worked with him when he was on the radical left in the late 1980s, are not happy about the way Labour is acting now. But there is absolutely no better alternative around. We hope, by maintaining a Labour left (with a very broad definition of left) that we may be able to get them back on course.
This might not work, and that’s the way of the politics of parties. Those of us who tried to get Corbyn committed to serious policies on improving the lot of the unemployed had little success either, apart from a vague promise to replace Universal Credit and even vaguer ideas about Universal Basic Income.
Andrew Coates
October 29, 2021 at 6:06 pm
Thing is, trev, when the next general election comes around it’ll be Labour or the Conservatives who will form the next government. There is absolutely no other possible outcome. So I will be voting Labour, whoever is leader of the party at that time, because, as I see it, any flavour of Labour has to be better than any flavour of Tory. If Labour get elected I am as sure as death that I won’t see happen everything that I want to happen but reckon that under Labour the UK is way more likely to resemble the country I want to see than it would after five more years of arrogance, neglect, failure and decline under a Johnson or Sunak led Tory administration. Maybe Starmer won’t even be leading the Labour party in 2024. Who knows? But whoever the Labour leader happens to be it will be his/her party I will be supporting, hoping against hope NOT to be forced to remain living under yet another Tory government until 2029! – assuming that I live that long of course!
Stephen
October 29, 2021 at 5:40 pm
Yes you are right of course. It’s just that I’ve lost all hope of ever having the sort of Labour party I would want, and all hope in general. I’ve resigned myself to the Tories being in power probably for the rest of my life. And have resigned myself to a life of misery and poverty and an early death. The country is fucked beyond all and any possible hope of recovery and by the looks of it the world may end anytime soon.
trev
October 29, 2021 at 6:40 pm
I have not had only happy experiences in my life either, but the fact that you keep contributing through your voluntary work, and standing up for what is right, is lot more than many people do.
My mum and dad were Labour activists in Suffolk Coastal, near Leiston, after retiring and moving from North London.
They had to put up with Thatcher!
Andrew Coates
October 29, 2021 at 7:04 pm
Cheers Andrew. My folks were Labour members active in Yorkshire long before Mrs. T. My dad remembered Harold Wilson at junior school in the Colne Valley among the soot of the mill chimneys back in the 1920s. I’m just letting things get me down I suppose.
trev
October 29, 2021 at 7:45 pm
@trev- I’d never vote Liberal Democrat, they’d go into coalition with the Idiot’s Party if it meant getting into government.
Jeff Smith
October 30, 2021 at 2:23 pm
£3,770,400,000
Its estimated 2 million people receive the National Living Wage. If all of these people worked 37.5 hours then the above number would be the around the total amount of tax/NI deductions (year 2021 to 2022) taken.
Now if we took every National Living Wage employee out of the system somehow that they would benefit by around £36 a week or 96p an hour.
Our government made between 2018 to 2019 £187 billion in income tax liabilities and overall with regard all taxes between 2019 to 2020 took approximately £633.4 billion.
So around 0.5/6% of total taxes taken would be all that’s needed to make this a reality.
This is just a dart in the idea of improving our lowest s working income and as such just a glimpse rather than a path.
Doug
October 29, 2021 at 9:47 am
The money taken away from universal credit is from the unemployed who labour don’t care about. They are now on a par with the rest of us on legacy benefits.
Will Sunak raise legacy benefits to cover inflation?
Rob
October 29, 2021 at 12:14 pm
Had to go to the jokeshop yesterday I’ve been shoved on the restart crap pimps are ringing me next week, I’ve a good mind not to answer the phone I can’t be bloody bothered with them.
Cloverleaf
October 29, 2021 at 5:35 pm
Are you on UC or legacy JSA? Is it just those on UC who are getting referred to Restart? I thought you were already on something called Jets (whatever that is?)
trev
October 29, 2021 at 6:32 pm
@trev: Looking at what you said above Trev, remember that’s the last thing you have got, hope. Don’t let them take that away from you, and don’t give it up. Because if the good guys like you, volunteering and standing up for what is right give up – then we really are fucked.
George M
October 30, 2021 at 2:28 pm
I’m on UC trev have been for over four years. It looks like it’s only us lot on UC who are getting put on restart God knows why, I was on JETS for a short time which I hated because I was getting bullied over the phone so I asked coach if I could come off it so was taken off provision, which wasn’t mandatory anyway, restart is mandatory so I’ve had it now 💤💤💤🙄.
Cloverleaf
October 29, 2021 at 6:53 pm
a phone call or attend providers office is mandatory but signing for the induction pack and action plan is no and you can refuse.
they need both to be signed for otherwise they cant register a start with the dwp prap system and only have 4 weeks to do so.
and dont forget they get £400 per month for the delivery fee and many thousands if they get the job outcome fee on top.
these corporations are what is destroying the planet with there greed and using us as profit units.
https://pw.unblockit.kim/tv/1370170-watch-while-the-rest-of-us-die
While the Rest of Us Die
From the Cold War to COVID, the secret history of the government’s Doomsday plans. Based on the book by Garrett M. Graff, the six-part series exposes the U.S. government’s flawed plans to protect its citizens. The show unpacks America’s national security spending on hidden underground cities, a secret air force and a plan to suspend democracy in order to serve the interests of the elite class. The series features interviews with political figures including former Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson and former National Coordinator for Security, Infrastructure, Protection and Counter-terrorism Richard Clarke, and national security experts Malcolm Nance, Elizabeth Goitien and Paul Rieckhoff. It will be narrated by “Westworld” star Jeffrey Wright
superted
October 29, 2021 at 7:07 pm
Oh well, at least they’ve found Bigfoot’s DNA now, I saw it last week on Monsterquest (Blaze), it’s a primate, not fully human and nit fully chimpanzee, sounds like could be the ‘missing link’.
trev
October 29, 2021 at 7:49 pm
it is not that sort of documentary it shows you how the corporations have taken over since the 1970s pay no tax and are so big and have governments in there pockets.
the processed food we buy kills us because the way it is made and with sugar in everything and the governments fork out 1 trillion a year in hospital treatment while these company’s make 650 billion and pay no tax.
you can never win it is all a lie the poor and middle class will get kicked to the floor while the 1% try’s to take everything and control everyone.
superted
October 29, 2021 at 8:57 pm
Something I’ve become aware of since diagnosed as ‘pre-diabetic’ is that not only do they put sugar in everything but if you want the low-sugar or no-added-sugar version of products then you have to pay a lot more – baked beans, tomato ketchup etc. the sugar free version is at least twice the price!
trev
October 29, 2021 at 9:12 pm
@superted
Christ almighty! Are you telling me the pimp gets 400 smackeroos a month. Talk about money for old rope. That’s a 100 notes a week for them doing eff-all except terrorising claimants into applying for a series of low paid, shitbag jobs just so they can get a major bung.
jj joop
October 30, 2021 at 10:31 am
that 3 billion has to get spent and they pay the pimps more a month than you get in benefits just to hide the unemployment numbers.
the ppl that work at these places are on 20-30k a year so a one of fee of 400 quid is not going to last a year and a half is it.
so yeah 100 quid a week and a nice lump sum if they get there job outcome fee on top.
restart is the work programme with a customer satisfaction survey slapped on top to stop them parking ppl that’s it.
so they can still send you on mandatory work activity for 6 months down pound land as still a option.
all this crap should have been scraped ten years ago when all they got is 1 person a job out of 28 it was worse than useless and this time round wont be any different.
superted
October 30, 2021 at 12:15 pm
@superted
I thought MWA’s had been knocked on the head ages ago. Who runs them anyway, is it the Jobcentre or do they refer you to a provider who places you on the activity? I am guessing you could avoid this as well by declining to sign their contracts.
jj joop
October 31, 2021 at 6:31 am
Oh shit, sorry to hear that Cloverleaf. I think a Restart scheme right now would be enough to push me over the edge, or at least would result in a Sanction.
trev
October 29, 2021 at 7:51 pm
@Cloverleaf
You’ll have had it for sure if you sign their contracts, work plans, etc.
jj joop
October 30, 2021 at 10:33 am
Yeah I know that’s why I won’t be signing them they can f right off I’m not going to be used as a cash cow by those w⚓s.
Cloverleaf
October 30, 2021 at 11:13 am
@Cloverleaf- If you haven’t been vaccinated, will they even take you on the Restart course ? My local Restart provider, like our Jobcentre, is insisting on masks in the offices and vaccinations.
Jeff Smith
October 30, 2021 at 3:43 pm
Thanks trev.
Cloverleaf
October 29, 2021 at 9:55 pm
Jeff I doubt if I’ll be taken on the restart scheme as I don’t intend to sign their paperwork.
Cloverleaf
October 30, 2021 at 5:53 pm
superted
October 30, 2021 at 1:28 pm
I’m not ashamed to be British, what I am ashamed of is the way this fckd up ‘government’ has kicked the poor into the dirt. They care more about climate change than the welfare of their own people.
Cloverleaf
October 30, 2021 at 3:28 pm
Cloverleaf, it’s only fairly recently that Conservatives have been forced to address climate change (“get rid of all this Green crap” – David Cameron), whereas ‘small State’ and leaving people to fend for themselves is an ingrained part of their ideology. Environmentalism doesn’t rest easy with the proponents of business and industry, hence polluting rivers and seas with sewage to save money for the Water companies.
trev
October 30, 2021 at 5:05 pm
Talking about useless employment courses, I remember one a few years ago, held over 3 days . Day 1 was a general talking shop about what it took to get a job, suit & tie, intelligent questions etc. Plus not doing any unpleasant personal items like nose-picking / scratching in the interview. Day 2 was CV Day, general talking shop about CV, people who already had them split off into another group and talked amongst themselves until lunchtime.Then were allowed to read outdated newspapers and ‘imagine’ we were applying for jobs, and then were let go early. Day 3 was a half-day really, another talking shop about making repeat applications, shoving your new CV through doorways etc. Then we were again let go early about lunchtime, as they had run out of things to say. ( But we were told not to return to the Jobcentre before 4pm ) . Cost was £345 per claimant as I remember. And of course the usual morning register of names , and papers to be signed everyday for the training provider’s money.
Jeff Smith
October 30, 2021 at 2:46 pm
@Jeff Smith : It’s a total waste of time Jeff, just poking the claimant until they give up their claim. The DWP would like nothing better than fixed-term benefits. Like they have in America. So after 99 weeks or whatever, you are fucked, there is no more money paid. Only foodstamps. Then it’s Skid Row or Tent-City.
George M
October 30, 2021 at 3:29 pm
msm cant even report the news anymore this did not happen and not worth reporting because government say no!
superted
October 30, 2021 at 10:03 pm
“protesting about what is going on…”
What IS going on? There’s always someone protesting in London about something or other every week. I get the feeling these are Covidiots and anti-vaxxers who believe that Bill Gates and the Reptilians are trying to implement the New World Order.
trev
October 30, 2021 at 10:14 pm
watch it and find out lol
there not going to pay a penny in tax and screw the poor country’s haha pmsl
superted
October 30, 2021 at 10:25 pm
I tried but couldn’t stand to listen to more than the first few seconds. It’s Rightwing bullshit. Anti-Lockdown, anti-vax, Covid-denial, Climate change denial.
trev
October 30, 2021 at 10:32 pm
I reckon Russell Brand must be one of the last people on earth anybody should listen to pontificating about anything because every single thing the man says happens with his tongue wedged firmly in his cheek. Here is a man who revels in trolling and taking the piss out of people and an audience, which is why his career crashed to earth with a bump after many a scandal and he’s reduced to posting drivel on social media trying to big up his profile and try to stay relevant. I admit to laughing at his outspokenness and crude wit, once-upon-a-time when he actually had a career, but never took him seriously and can imagine how anybody could.
Stephen
October 31, 2021 at 9:57 am
it is not a vaccine it is a treatment it does not stop you getting it or transmitting it the sole purpose was to take the strain of the nhs.
what have they done to increase volume of the nhs since nothing as gets worse every winter and been the same for the last ten years yet 38 billion on track and trace and it is useless yet cut the 20 a week to uc.
as for climate change half the planet dont give a shit and china is building one coal power station a week to make all our shit what you going to do about that and produce 28% of the worlds pollution and the uk 1%
so go throw everything out in your house that was made in china and see how far you get without those items.
why do you think it is all made in china in the first place for more profit of course to the corporations and cheap labour.
you cant fix a problem when you are the cause of it in the first place driven buy corporations and profit.
why do you think elon musk wants to fuck off to mars because that will be the new corporation hq planet to fuck us all and mine our planet to make mars a better place for them.
slavery never ended they just replaced it with debt and interest payments 😉
superted
October 30, 2021 at 11:00 pm
Well superted all I can do is my own little bit, I’m not a massive consumer of anything (on JSA no one can be!), I don’t own a vehicle, I walk everywhere, I’ve only flown a few times in my life, last time was 2003. I’ve been a vegetarian for 50 years. I recycle all my plastic bottles and whatever else, tin cans, paper/card/cardboard, glass. I don’t litter or fly-tip. I live in a flat with very little in the way of heating, and it is double glazed.
trev
October 31, 2021 at 10:07 am
Climate change is real and massive changes will have to be made for the world not to be convulsed, the only questions are when and how quickly these massive changes take place. If we begin to act now alterations can happen over a longer period, more slowly and much more economically than later; if they are delayed until the stability of societies, even the existence of humanity itself, is obviously threatened and civilisation finally panicked into action to save itself the changes will have to be begun immediately, done much more quickly and so be hugely disruptive, be less effective and involve massive loss of flora and fauna, loss of huge areas of arable land which used to produce food, huge reductions in available water supply and natural resources on previously unseen scales, resulting in war between threatened countries breaking out and mass emigration as populations are forced to compete and battle each other for what resources remain.
So the two choices before us are:
(1) Move to zero emissions more slowly and economically, over a longer period, immediately.
(2) Wait until things become unbearable and nature forces us to do more later, much more quickly, much more expensively and suffer a shitload of desertification, diaspora, disruption, destruction, suffering before we try to do so and end up with a much more hostile, uglier, lonelier and less hospitable planet to inhabit than the one we have now.
Given what I know about human beings I reckon (2) is the most likely outcome, but one of the two options HAS to happen sensibly and in a managed way now or hysterically in a panicked way later. That’s that!
Stephen
October 31, 2021 at 9:47 am
As of October 20, the covid pass and vaccines will be abolished throughout the EU.
https://tapnewswire.com/2021/10/as-of-october-20-the-covid-pass-and-vaccination-will-be-abolished-throughout-the-eu/
Cloverleaf
October 31, 2021 at 12:28 pm
Covid passes set to stay as Europe heads for winter
BBC News
“There have been protests and complaints of restricted freedom, but much of Europe is now using Covid passports to enter bars, restaurants, cinemas and museums.
Italy also requires a Covid pass to enter a workplace and Austria is about to follow suit.”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-58973334
trev
October 31, 2021 at 1:12 pm
Are you looking forward to using yours?
Cloverleaf
October 31, 2021 at 3:45 pm
It doesn’t really affect me personally all that much as I don’t visit any museums, restaurants, pubs, night clubs, sports events, concerts. I have no social life whatsoever. If they require a Covid passport to enter the library or the jobcentre that’s ok I can get one, a printed version as my phone is too old for new apps, it’s no big deal.
trev
October 31, 2021 at 8:37 pm
Budget: Millions of poor families hit, analysis finds
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-59182277
trev
November 6, 2021 at 1:25 pm
Budget 2021: Millions will be worse off in 2022, says IFS
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-59076532
trev
November 6, 2021 at 1:28 pm
What are you doing hiding here, there’s a new post up 👍
Cloverleaf
November 6, 2021 at 3:01 pm