POLITICS & POWER

  POLITICS & POWER LOCAL CORRUPTION

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Why do people join local authorities in any capacity?

Mainly, it is to get their feet under the table and steer decisions. Sometimes it is to do favours for third parties, only possible because the rules are so lax as to potential conflicts of interest. For example, the term "Consultant" in politics, usually means taking a fee for representing the interests of a company or group during the normal course of voting, or even networking to help steer a decision one way or the other. Even though this is a clear conflict of interest, it is common practice in parliament. As is cronyism.

One can imagine that taking a fee or donation from an oil, coal, or property developer, is tantamount to accepting a bribe in some cases where transparency is lacking.

The politics of the nation shape what happens locally and internationally. Political will is very important when it comes to implementing climate change policies in the quest for a Circular Economy. The political parties are answerable to the electorate, where for example, the present Conservative Government in the UK is not living up to its election promises on climate change or the delivery of affordable housing as one example of what could be done to stop kleptocratic councils. This leaves the door open for Labour or Liberal policies to shine with a Green hue, if only they would bite.

Another example is that in the United Kingdom the Department of Trade & Industry (Dti) have known about instant recharging for electric vehicles and low cost service stations since at least 1992 when applications for funding were rejected all the way to 1998. We imagine that a similar situation existed all over Europe and the rest of the world, where oil and profits for those moguls is steering us to the brink of extinction according to many reports. See the correspondence from the California Air Resources Board dated 1992.

What is clear is that policy makers are unable to plan ahead where they cannot see further than their noses in terms of adaptation and urgency, lacking a vision for the future marred by fingers in pies. Indeed, they are forced to run competitions to get free ideas from the collective human brain that is our society. You might as well throw the dice, for such efforts are more luck than judgement, blurred by economic considerations - where viable solutions are ignored - if inconvenient to plutocracy.

Where they were handed some part of a solution all countries rejected it, in favour of burning more oil and profiting from their inaction. Blinkers on boys, we control everything and there is not a damn thing our children can do to stop us. Oh yeah!

POLITICS & POWER

Politicians have known about this for over 30 years but did not want to rock the economic stability of their domains and upset all their wealthy backers - hoping the problem would go away.

It is big business that is mostly to blame for backing politicians who turn a blind eye using spin and deniers to perpetuate the lie that we are not facing a climate emergency. This includes banks, oil giants, car & ship makers, and house builders - or rather those who give permits to house and factory builders.

Mmmm. All that equates to lots of lovely money for the greed driven controllers, while they kill wildlife and melt the ice caps free of blame, and milk the population for interest on more money lent than you should need to be able to live on sustainably. This means more carbon generation on your part for repayment. Interest payments = CO2. Borrowing more is the same as warming the planet more. Lenders should know better, but they want their Bentleys and Ferraris and they don't care how they get them.

PROCEEDS OF CRIME

The climate criminals get to keep their ill gotten gains. Yes, those in positions of power who do nothing are Climate Criminals. But there is no statute to convict them! And there never will be because they make the law, despite you voting for change.

Thousands of politicians and civil servants are professional liars who put spin on the facts and shroud information to control the electorate. They hate transparency and shield themselves from accountability to stay in power for as long as they can to grab as much cash as they can before they get the boot. Many are prosecuted for embezzlement. Lord Michael Nolan QC referred to these as cozy relationships in his Report on corruption in the UK. What is happening in any one country is happening everywhere.

LOCAL POLITICS

Regional policies and development is dependent on the sincerity of leadership from our Members of Parliament (jn the UK), the elected members of councils and on the efficiency of civil servant staff employed at great expense to plan ahead and provide all the services we need to survive. Where we have targets set by the Climate Change Act 2008 there is no road map as to how this will be achieved.

In an example of economics V the environment, councils in the UK have been set house building targets by central government that add to global warming. Where there is no stipulation as to sustainable features councils empire build to suck in as much rating tax as they can to squander on more bad management. It's more of the same all over the UK. This is hardly surprising since the councillors granting the permissions are the same core people with the same policy officers and the same house building contractors who only apply to build what they know will turn a pretty penny.

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