Link to this page: https://www.socialistparty.org.uk/issue/1121/32036
From The Socialist newspaper, 17 February 2021
Cumbria mine: How can we fight for jobs and stop climate change?
Brent Kennedy, Carlisle Socialist Party
The government and the Labour-led Cumbria County Council have finally had to take notice of the obvious contradiction between talking warm words about fighting climate change and opening a new coal mine.
It was pointed out that if the government gave approval for the mine, its credibility as host of the World Climate Conference in Glasgow this autumn would collapse. The Tories don't really care about charges of hypocrisy, but this would harm their 'soft power' in the world.
Tory lies
The public has been told lies about this mine. Cumbrian Tory MPs and councillors claimed that this 'coking coal' was necessary to supply steelworks in Britain to build windparks, etc. This would supposedly be environmentally friendly, because it would cut diesel output on ships transporting coking coal from other continents.
This greenwash has now been exposed. 85% of the Cumbrian coal will be exported.
There is also suspicion that this mine could become a depositary for the nuclear waste that has built up here since the 1950s. A previous plan was rejected by the council, because Cumbria is geologically unsafe.
The promise of 500 jobs, 400 of them for local folk, has won support for the mine from some locals desperate for permanent, well-paid jobs. As if the mine owners and local Tories care about workers!
This government destroyed 20,000 skilled jobs by cutting the subsidy for installing solar panels.
And more Tory lies
The government made a big announcement of a £2 billion 'green homes grant' to help 600,000 householders cut carbon emissions, cut energy bills and create 100,000 green jobs. But only 5% of that has materialised. Installers are laying off workers because the government owes them tens of thousands of pounds.
I was one of those poor pensioners who, incredibly, didn't meet the limited qualification set by the American consulting firm hired to administer the scheme. The government will now keep the money instead of extending the scheme. But they'll repeat the 'made available' propaganda in the next elections.
Now is the time to invest in creating well-paid skilled jobs and apprenticeships, on Cumbria's much-vaunted 'Energy Coast', by building wind, solar and tidal renewable-energy projects and transforming our energy-inefficient housing stock.
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In The Socialist 17 February 2021:
News
Tory consultation on home-use abortion pills
Tory cladding money will not make us safe
Sham inquiry into 'progressive extremism' will not stop movements against capitalism
Cumbria mine: How can we fight for jobs and stop climate change?
Cryptocurrency bubble: Insanity of capitalism
NSSN meeting
Online workers' rally: Taking fight to the bosses
Scotland
SNP's independence referendum 2 'roadmap'
NHS
NHS white paper: no solution to failed Tory policies
Boot private companies out of our NHS
Workplace safety
Derby Toyota plant Covid crisis
Workplace News
Hackney teaching assistants strike against cruel and unnecessary job cuts
Manchester Go North West bus drivers in all-out strike over fire and rehire dispute
London bus drivers set to strike over pay and conditions
Socialist Students
Strike back for free education
Socialist Students conference - Sunday 28 February
Campaigns
Socialist Party Black and Asian caucus
Remembering Mohamud Hassan - continuing the fight against police brutality
How you can amplify the Socialist's voice - Help us build subscriptions to the Socialist
Swarming the London Mayor's question time
Southern new members meeting - a vivid illustration of the appetite for socialist ideas
Doing all we can to fund the anti-cuts stand at the ballot box
Readers' Opinion
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