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Parliament’s security experts slate British government pandemic planning

  For the past few months, a British group has campaigned for an emergency judge-led inquiry into the pandemic.   Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK   has not got very far: nothing has been offered beyond the promise of an inquiry at some time in the future. Now, though, a parliamentary report has been published which goes some way towards that aim. It comes from the rather grandly named Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy and is called ‘ Biosecurity and National Security ’. Because of its focus, the committee concentrates on the government’s preparedness for a pandemic, so it says little about the detailed handling, including the  outsourcing ,  creeping privatisation ,  chumocracy  and all the other criticisms, but it is still a remarkable document on two counts. The first is summarised in Friday’s 18th of December press release announcing the publication of the report, which was headed ‘ Government failed to act on its security ...
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Why you should stop buying new clothes

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Alana James, Northumbria University, Newcastle The fashion industry is one of the most polluting industries in the world, producing 20% of global wastewater and 10% of global carbon emissions – and it’s estimated that by 2050 this will have increased to 25% . A staggering 300,000 tonnes of clothes are sent to British landfills each year. The fast fashion business model, first developed in the early 2000s is responsible for the increase in consumer demand for high quantities of low-quality clothing. Many fashion products now being designed and made specifically for short-term ownership and premature disposal. Clothing quality is decreasing along with costs, and the increased consumption levels of mass-manufactured fashion products are pushing up the consumption of natural resources. The pressure to facilitate consumer hunger imposes significant social and environmental pressures on the manufacturing supply chain. The UK’s consumption levels of fashion are the highest...
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Revealed: A fifth of new Tory MPs have worked as lobbyists

One in five new Tory MPs have worked in lobbying or PR for corporate interests, new openDemocracy research reveals. Opposition politicians have called our findings “deeply worrying”. The new Tory cohort includes a former head of communications for a private healthcare company, a top lobbyist for British bankers, a former staffer at Cambridge Analytica’s parent company, and former employees of firms which have represented the arms industry and the governments of Qatar and Kazakhstan. Four of Britain’s largest lobbying firms – Portland Communications, Grayling, Hanover Communications and Pagefield – now have at least one former employee in parliament. Green MP Caroline Lucas described our findings as “deeply worrying”, adding “in recent years, we’ve seen the representatives of big business take over ever-more of our politics… they will be making decisions which will shape the future of our country through Brexit”. Labour frontbencher John Trickett said: “For too long, too many ...
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