Responding to pressure from Tory backbench MPs who don’t want windfarms in their constituencies, George Osborne has apparently told the Treasury to prepare a plan to cut public subsidies to windfarms by 25%.
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The Transnational Institute pocket guide to the Eurozone Crisis points out that:
“Much of the so-called debt crisis was caused not by states spending too much, but because they bailed out the banks and speculators. EU government debt had actually fallen from 72% of GDP in 1999 to 67% in 2007. It rose rapidly after they bailed out the banks in 2008. Ireland’s bank bailout cost them 30% of their national output (GDP) and pushed debts to record levels.”
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An alliance of family farmers, together withs groups for the reform of the World Bank, are demanding that the World Bank stops funding land grabs and calling for states to comply with their extraterritorial human rights obligations.
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Following on from yesterday’s post about the call from accountancy firm KPMG for companies to pay for the environmental damage their operations cause, here is a video from the Network for Justice in Global Investment.
Bringing the World Bank’s International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes out of the shadows
The nine-minute videotape’s about resistance across many South American countries to the World Bank’s International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID). Transnational corporations use this little-known organisation to demand compensation from governments that have prevented them from operating in their countries, because of the environmental damage they would cause. ICSID basically provides a way for transnational corporations to override democratic decisions and economic sovereignty, overpowering governments in the pursuit of profits above all other considerations.
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In what looks like bad news for agency workers on farms, Defra is looking at ways to reduce the powers of the Gangmasters Licensing Authority, which exists to prevent the worst abuses of casual farm workers and construction workers.
This is part of the ConDems’ recently-announced plans to weaken a variety of environmental and other protective laws.
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