alanjjohnstone
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Stephen, those “budget” flights has been a race to the bottom.
Not just for the passengers who have witnessed comfort sacrificed and check-in and luggage costs introduced but also for the flight and cabin crews, as airlines adopted a similar business model and worsening conditions of employment.
Virgin Atlantic went to court on technical grounds and banned a festive season strike by pilots.
Dave made the point about air travel, but shipping also has been identified as a major contributor to global warming.
Of course, it is still to be determined who was responsible. Certainly not Extinction Rebellion. And no it seems the couple who had been arrested who now have been released
Maverick eco-warriors? Perhaps but we do have a history of police agent provocateurs embedded within the environmentalist movement? But that is just another conspiracy theory
Many unions do target the dates of industrial action to maximise disruption.
My own union often used the Xmas period as a lever by threatening strikes and go-slows. Other unions do so too. It is purposeful, not accidental. Unions aim to make their industrial muscle effective as possible. Easter break is often used by the transport unions, isn’t it?
The risk of an air collision is indeed an important factor to consider and not lightly dismissed. It was reckless and stupid and i have no compunction in saying when found the culprits should face a lengthy jail sentence.
we have had many examples of laser pens being used, dazzling pilots and each November pilots complain of the close proximity of fireworks.
I’ll stick to my original guess – and guess it is – idiots. The simplest explanation
But my concern with ALB’s approach to direct action is that he initially condemned ER obstructing road traffic as a protest tactic that alienated the public. And later chided them for not risking Polish jails. Rather unsympathetic attitude, imho. I suggest it is a legitimate form of non-violent demonstration not too different from sit-ins or sit-downs or chaining oneself to railings.
British Yellow Vests – Far Right Front
ALB’s case was presented by him in his first post on this thread.
“I am not convinced that this particular stunt was a good idea. Blocking bridges and disrupting the travel arrangements of ordinary workers. More likely to be counter-productive. In fact, if as originally envisaged, we had tried to get the stall from Head Office (south of the river) to the BBC (north of the river) by car we would have been prevented from doing so. They need to chose better stunts if that’s what they want to do.”
And i answered very much the same as you have, Dave.
And ER have indeed chosen different tactics and targeted their protests as i indicated earlier about the anti-BBC protests but these inconvenienced the likes of Annika Rice.
Was that a price too heavy to pay?
Another health warning about veganism…but the vegans explain why.
https://www.scotsman.com/news/taking-meat-off-the-menu-could-damage-health-1-4848084
The professor forms part of the Meat Advisory Panel (MAP) – a group of healthcare professionals, scientists and researchers who provide independent information about red meat and its role as part of a healthy balanced diet. MAP is supported by an unrestricted educational grant from the red meat industry.
Go Vegan Scotland said MAP cannot be “independent” or “objective” as it was funded by the meat industry and described them as a “voice box” for that body.
“There’s an awful lot of scaremongering going on. The meat and dairy industries can see as well as anyone else the exponential increase in plant-based eating and they’re openly throwing a lot of money at campaigns to try to put people off. The meat and dairy industries can’t address the moral argument, that we shouldn’t be using and killing animals, and they can’t undermine the environmental case for switching to plant-based production, because the evidence is coming thick and fast and from the most credible sources that we must move away from animal agriculture if we’re to have any hope of halting climate change. Therefore, they have opted to attack the health side of things.”
https://www.scotsman.com/news/taking-meat-off-the-menu-could-damage-health-1-4848084
Another resignation
“The recent decision by the president came as a shock and was a complete reversal of policy that was articulated to us,” McGurk wrote, according to the paper. “It left our coalition partners confused and our fighting partners bewildered….I ultimately concluded that I could not carry out these new instructions and maintain my integrity.”
I think its Ryanair…overbooked seats for the festive season and came up with this plot to cancel flights…But it will all come out in the [white] wash.
https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/israel-allowed-criminalise-bds-181211090832254.html
Proposed US legislation, known as the Israel Anti–Boycott Act, would criminally penalise individuals, including companies or their employees who participate in international boycotts of Israel and the occupied territories. In addition to the proposed federal legislation, 26 US states have enacted anti-BDS laws, with legislation pending in 13 states.
An example of its application in Texas
More on the background of the withdrawal and why Mattis resigned.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/dec/21/james-mattis-resignation-trump-erdogan-phone-call
Nice thing about being a socialist, is you learn something new everyday.
So i’m pleased that at least they are sticking to what Marx actually said. Maybe, it will be worth a watch after all. A special showing at HO with discussion afterward
And also for deep relationships, apart from Karl and Jenny, isn’t Marx and Engels perhaps one of the greatest bromances of all time.
I wonder if it will depict the Helene Demuth affair or does that spoil the Disney-esque image
Did Marx ever say “weapons of criticism cannot replace the criticism of weapons”?
Sounds very Maoist to me
And Karl and Jenny is perhaps a great untold love story
Trump is also cutting half the troops in Afghanistan.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/20/us/politics/afghanistan-troop-withdrawal.html
These decisions have resulted in the resignation of defense sectretary Mattis, some say.
The Europeans and the Kurds are not too happy with the withdrawal, announced shortly after Turkey declared a new offensive
But which now has been postponed
(i’m guessing it is to give time to the Americans to move out from being embedded with the Kurds…but it only a guess)
And i am sure the police are also investigating Islamic terror groups too. Me, i think it is near xmas and some idiots are out flight testing their new presents.
But it seems ER are busy elsewhere with a more relevant campaign of protest
The BBC’s central London headquarters has been put on lockdown due to a protest by climate change campaigners who are demanding it uses its status as national broadcaster to declare a “climate and ecological emergency”.
Extinction Rebellion, a direct action group that has recently shut down key London roads, has demand the BBC makes the environment its “top editorial issue”.
Broadcasting House was locked down early on Friday afternoon, with BBC staff and guests unable to enter or leave the building while security kept the peaceful but noisy protesters away from the entrance.
Extinction Rebellion activists, who are demanding a meeting with the BBC director general, Tony Hall, said the corporation had a duty to broadcast about climate change with “the level of urgency placed on informing the public about the second world war”.
Extinction Rebellion also organised protests on Friday at BBC offices in Glasgow, Cambridge, Birmingham, Truro, Sheffield, Bangor, and the broadcaster’s Berlin bureau.
