THE CLIMATE protester who disrupted Sir Keir Starmer’s speech has said he “won’t be silent” about the threat of environmental catastrophe.
Student Dieudonné Bila, from the group Green New Deal Rising, spoke after challenging the Labour leader over his watering down of the cash pledge to transition to a green economy.
Bila, and fellow protester Fatima Ibrahim, unfurled a banner saying ‘No more u-turns. Green New Deal!’ behind Starmer as he was giving an education speech in Gillingham this morning.
Starmer responded: “We did that last month”, referring to a previous speech on the environment.
Speaking afterwards, Bila said: “I disrupted Keir Starmer’s speech because I desperately want to see a future government committed to protecting people here and all over the world from the climate crisis.
“We won’t stand by and allow private companies to continue making billions as heating becomes unaffordable, or be silent in the face of extreme heat, flooding and droughts.
“If Keir Starmer wants the support of young people like us he needs to set out a bold vision for the future that gets to the root causes of the problems we are facing.
“That means public ownership, wealth taxes for the one percent, permanent and progressive windfall taxes for polluters, green jobs for everyone and a National Nature Service in the first 100 days of a new Government.”
Last month, Labour backtracked on a pledge to invest £28 billion a year in green jobs, saying that the party now wants to reach that figure by the end of the first parliament.
The U-turn dismayed green activists and party members, who argued that the investment would pay back in economic growth, and a future Labour government needed to inject cash immediately as the ‘green transition’ would take time.
Britain is off-target in its goal to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050, and the world is currently heading towards a global temperature rise of over 2 percent, well above the 1.5 percent “tipping point” of irreversible climate breakdown.
At the event this morning, Bila asked Starmer to “reinstate your pledge for the £28 billion per year.” The Labour leader responded: “I gave that… on the mission on green power, we did that last month. We’ve done that one.”
As Bila and Ibrahim continued to protest, Starmer added: “We are on the side of economic growth. Will you just please let me get on with this, thank you very much.
“Look, my last speech was about that, will you please… there’s lots of people who want to hear this [education speech]. Please don’t drown them out. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you.”
After the protesters were ushered away, Starmer said: “On Just Stop Oil… I think they need to just stop”
He added: “There’s a huge arrogance involved, that they’re the only people that understand the argument.
“And when I put what they’re doing against what we set out in our mission about clean energy, about net zero, you can see the difference between protest and power.”
Tuesday this week was the hottest day on record across the world on land, while ocean temperatures have been rocketing even faster, escalating deoxygenation which threatens to kill sea life and absorb less carbon dioxide from the atmosphere which could speed up global temperatures even faster.
Scientists are predicting the worst El Nino global weather system in the next few months, which could ramp temperatures up even further.
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The extended Caribbean Family structure was created by English slaveholders; to benefit the institution of African Slavery.
My extended Caribbean family, despote great historical fealty to England, cannot easily visit me in England today, because of the economically punishing Visa Requirements imposed in 2003, by Sir Tony Blair’s New Labour Government.
Labour’s support for Green and electric vehicles has caused savage and brutal exploitation of junior-school aged Congolese children: who are forced to “mine” for the coltant, which is essential for electric vehicle production, smart phones, and computers.
Labour Local Authorities continue to ignore the pandemic of peer-to-peer violence, that has become the chief cause of death for His Majesty’s African, African-Caribbean, and Dual-heritage youth.
However, these real issues which have specifically targeted, and impacted, and harmed African-heritage people are ignored by African-heritage men; women and youth, and the Labour and Green lobbyists and campaigners.
Despite this catalogue of Labour supported injustice against African-heritage men; women and children, a African-heritage youth was motivated to interpret Labour’s Sir Kier Starmer on behalf of the Green Party’s manifesto, and “climate” concerns.
Am I correct to believe the majority of His Majesty’s African, African-Caribbean, and Dual-heritage men; women and youth are so bamboozled: deceived, politically incompetant, and led astray by Labour and Green policies, that Labour and Green policies which hurt: harm, and limit life for African, African-Caribbean and Dual-heritage English Subjects, are completely ignored by this youthful African-heritage protester; and England’s Labour and Green supporting African-heritage voters generally?
Perhaps you shouldn’t speak on matters you don’t have any knowledge of: labour rights in the supply chain of coltan and cobalt are intrinsically linked to our modern way-of-life. They are to be found in nearly all electronics: from a smartphones to microwaves. Your conspicuously ill-thought attempt to discredit my opinion piece with your comment – riddled with racial-innuendos and nonsensical sentences that only someone who utters claptrap often would only understand – is undeniable expression of stupidity.
The protesters are right.
Labour and Tories are joined at the hip. They were both born out of the industrial revolution and have their roots in the 19th century.
It is pathetic that Labour seem intellectually unable to project themselves as anything else than an edulcorated version of toryism, only slightly more socially progressive. We all know that the Tories have no green agenda because it has always been in their nature to support moronic values of ‘free market’ and unregulated economy. But where is Labour when it comes to changing society?
They are such a carbon copy of the Tories that young people have every right to be annoyed with them. It is time for radical new thinking and a complete overhaul of the capitalist ‘model’. A green revolution is urgently needed. Labour are as irrelevant as the conservatives. What they want first and foremost is power, and they’ll be hopelessly tinkering at the edges with a few tokenistic green policies. Sadly Labour are the most likely to form the next government, more thanks to the Tories’ ineptitude than anything else. And they’ll be kicking any idea of a ‘green new deal’ in the long grass.
A third force needs to emerge and blow the old two-party system apart. We are in the 21st century and should know better than listen to those Labour/Tory dinosaurs. Their thinking is obsolete.