It's been 3 years since I abandoned my blog. I'm not planning to revive it on any regular basis, especially as the two previous posts resulted in disciplinary charges at work (mostly beaten). However, I thought I'd post the text of my letter to Warrinder Juss MP and Ed Miliband explaining why I've finally left the Labour Party.
As I live in England, I'll vote Green with some reservations; how I wish I could choose between Plaid Cymru, or as in Ireland, People Before Profit.
Dear Warrinder, cc Ed Miliband and XXXXXXX as constituency secretary
having resigned from Labour after nearly 20 years this morning I felt I should have the courtesy of letting my CLP and the Environment Secretary (whose past leadership I enthusiastically supported) know why. Although I’m not spotted at meetings often, I’ve done my share of leaflet delivery in the rain, and turned up at picket lines whenever needed. I stayed in the party despite strong reservations about various leaders on the basis that solidarity should endure. I still think Warrinder is doing a fine job as a constituency MP.
I”m resigning due to two major recent decisions, and the manner in which they have been communicated.
1. The government’s endorsement of a third runway for Heathrow and expansion of other airports. This means that the government is actively denying clear scientific evidence that expanded flights actively damage the lives of working people, that flights and their associated emissions should decrease not increase and that the government has no serious intention of reaching its legally-required carbon reduction targets. As an academic I am committed to evidence-based policy. Talk of electric planes, sustainable aviation fuels and carbon capture are nothing short of magical thinking generated by industries that would rather delay the inevitable, and amount to climate change denial.
2. I’ve seen Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves speaking about ‘bats’ and ‘newts’ as the enemies of growth, - directly and deliberately echoing Boris Johnson’s 2020 claim that '“Newt-counting delays are a massive drag on the prosperity of this country’. This just isn’t serious politics, and it certainly isn’t serious science. It may give the speech-writers a kind of populist, workerist thrill, but it won’t actually help workers in a rapidly deteriorating environment.
3. The appointment of Doug Gurr, formerly of Amazon UK to the Competition and Markets Authority is a clear signal that the needs of British workers and the British economy have been set aside. Amazon is one of the most anti-worker companies on the planet, a global tax-avoider, and one of the most monopolistic entities in existence. Prioritising businesses that make little or no contribution to the country will only reduce wages and tax income.
4. The government’s enthusiasm for AI demonstrates a lack of understanding about what AI (mostly Large Language Models) actually is, and ignores yet again the enormous environmental impact - across the world coal and gas power stations are being reopened to meet the chips’ massive power requirements, while water sources are being drained to cool them. Again as an academic, I’m also concerned by their demonstrable insertion of hallucinatory claims into public and professional discourse, and shocked that a government is endorsing AI companies’ clearly illegal abstraction of copyrighted material for training and data-generation purposes. The party is very keen to crack down on individuals committing theft, but apparently fully behind corporations doing it.
I know that these kinds of resignation letters are tedious and pompous, but these decisions have pushed me to the point where I can’t justify giving subscription money and donations to a party that’s consciously and deliberately aligned itself with the interests of hostile oligarchs. I’m aware the withdrawal of my vote, tiny sums and support won’t make the slightest difference, but it’s become a matter of conscience.
Yours, with regret
No comments:
Post a Comment