The UN global goals

The UK Column returned after its summer break and briefly mentioned the campaigning organisation Extinction Rebellion.
Mike Robinson referred to Ian R Crane`s remark that Extinction Rebellion `are absolutely campaigning for citizens assemblies to take over from parliament, and, in fact, they`re involved with an organisation which is aiming to replace the House of Lords`."

There were other examples of how representative democracy is being undermined by what has been called `participatory democracy`. These organisations include NGOs and charities which push forward their own political agendas outside of parliament. 

Brian Gerrish remarks: "The House of Lords deliberately collapsed, but don`t worry we`ve got the solution here. Right? "

"Right," agrees Mike Robinson.  "OK, so let`s move on to this then. So #100 Ways AidWorks and this is all about international aid and this is, apparently, according to the International Development Secretary Alok Sharma, `is all about developing infrastructure in emerging countries - emerging markets. So he has decided to set up a new commission which is going to bring together leading experts to turbocharge quality infrastructure projects in developing countries. The commission is going to be made up of UK and international business `- common purpose [?] - `the very best of British expertise and will make recommendations to improve the planning, delivery and financing of infrastructure projects`."

"Well, so why doesn`t Britain just join the Belt and Road initiative then? Because surely that`s what that`s doing, because that seems to be quite successful at building infrastructure projects in developing countries at the moment. But no, that`s the wrong type of infrastructure project, of course. What this is all about is the UN global goals and the 2.5 trillion dollar funding gap that there is to fulfill the global goals. So this commission which is being established is going to make sure that the UK gets involved in financing and developing infrastructure and promotes inclusive growth, while meeting the Paris climate commitments."  

"So that`s what it`s all about. And so he said an extra 2.5 trillion dollars is needed every year to end poverty in developing countries and the UK must mobilise private-sector investment to overcome this challenge. `Alongside the life-saving work of UK aid we need to boost infrastructure projects that form the backbone of economic growth.` That`s fantastic stuff," says Mike Robinson sarcastically.

"Well in the meantime then, the G7 has been going on and well let`s just have a brief look at some of the headlines from the media on this. This is the Guardian. `We need to cancel the next G7. Let`s resume them when Trump is gone.` [Michael H Fuchs] We`ve got Business Insider. `Trump`s G7 performance shows how he`s living in a totally different reality and isolating the US from the rest of the world.` And the Guardian again. `Birritz was an empty charade. The G7 is a relic of a bygone age.` [Simon Tisdall]. And what are the sort of views that are being expressed in these articles ?...Trump is a problem. The G7 is not equipped to work towards its goals and the biggest obstacle is the US president, Donald Trump."

"This is one of the Guardian articles. `The goal of G7 is to bring together some of the world`s most prosperous democracies to coordinate on the most important issues of the day whether on climate change or responding to Russia`s invasion of Crimea or making gender equality a reality. The G7 countries are supposed to lead, crafting policies that can foster global peace and prosperity in ways that uphold democratic values`."

"And if everybody has managed not to throw up in the nearest bin over that, then it goes on to say that Trump wants America to work alone to destroy the current global trading system/foreign assistance that helps address transnational challenges, ignore human rights and doesn`t believe climate change is real. `The G7`s an annual long weekend of toddler daycare for Trump` - it`s the language ... but in the meantime then the other focus was all about Emmanuel Macron, what a brilliant global leader he is, and, of course, he was leading the way to agree to help Brazil to fight the Amazon fires. This is, you know, the fact that the Amazon allegedly is burning and we`ve all got to get together globally and intervene in... Brazil ."

"So that was the Rio Times. `G7 Agrees to Help Brazil Fight Amazon Fires, Says French President Macron.` Well Brazil didn`t like that very much. They`ve rejected the 22 million dollar aid package and this is really what it`s about, Balsonaro saying `Other heads of state sympathised with Brazil after all respect for the sovereignty of any country is the least that can be expected in a civilised world.` So really what he`s complaining about is that G7 was attempting to ride roughshod over his decisions about... how he was going to deal with this problem and he went on to say this: `Thanks for Donald Trump. We are having great success in fighting fires. Brazil is and will continue to be an example for the world in sustainable development. The fake news campaign fabricated against our sovereignty will not thrive. The US can always count on Brazil.` So he`s seeing it as an attack on him. and on his government and so on."

"So the question I wanted to ask was, you know, what is the situation with these fires? And in fact if we look at NASA`s Earth Observatory website and their section on the fires in Brazil it says: `In the Amazon, fire season has arrived. In the Amazon region, fires are rare for much of the year because wet weather prevents them from starting and spreading. However, in July and August, activity typically increases due to the arrival of the dry season. Many people use fire to maintain farmland and pastures and to clear land for other purposes, typically activity peaks in early September and mostly stops by November. As of August 16 2019, an analysis of NASA satellite data indicated that the total fire activity across the Amazon basin this year has been close to the average in comparison`."

" Now anybody looking at the mainstream media coverage of this would think that the entire Amazon rainforest was burning down. But NASA here quite clearly saying that... `the level of fires at the moment is about average for the last 15 years. They say the
Amazon spreads across Brazil, Peru, Colombia, and parts of other countries. Though activity appears to be above average in the states of Amazonas and Rondônia, it has so far appeared below average in Mato Grosso and Pará, according to estimates from the Global Fire Emissions Database, a research project that compiles and analyses NASA data`."

"And then we have this. This is Forbes which is attempting to put a bit more clarity on the situation and I recommend this article because it`s actually quite detailed and ...what`s interesting is that the main expert that they`re talking to is somebody from the International Panel of Climate Change. [United Nations, IPCC] and what he`s saying - well first of all, he`s talking about the claim that the Amazon is the lungs of the world and he says - this is his language - it`s bullshit. There`s no science behind that. The Amazon produces a lot of oxygen but it uses the same amount of oxygen through respiration. ... and the article goes on to say neither is the Amazon forest burning down"

"So this is Daniel Nepstad, the environmentalist they have got to, and he said `we don`t know if there are any more forest fires this year than in past years which tells me there probably isn`t. I`ve been working on and studying these fires for 25 years and our `on the ground ` networks are tracking this.`  So he`s quite clear about that and the sort of claims that are being made about the whole thing and it is clearly an attack on the sovereignty of Brazil."

Returning to Extinction Rebellion and its attack on the globe:    

"As Thunberg’s yacht rounded the Statue of Liberty, it was met by a flotilla of 17 support boats, each with its sail printed with a message spelling out a recommended sustainable development goal, as promoted by the United Nations. These included combating discrimination and promoting peace, as well as using less plastic, not wasting food or water, using public transportation and vaccinating children against diseases ."

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/aug/28/greta-thunberg-arrival-in-new-york-delayed-by-rough-seas?

Children`s cereals

Cancer

"In Great Britain, children’s cancer incidence has increased by more than 40% since the late 1960s."

"The reasons for this are poorly understood, though improvements in diagnosis and registration are likely to have played a part."

Managed Service Network for Children and Young People with Cancer

See `The Business of Cancer`

`Ignorant codswallop` from Belgium

"Doctors in Belgium have called for parents who raise their children as vegans to face prosecution after a number of deaths in schools, nurseries and hospitals."

"It is estimated that 3 percent of Belgian children are forced to follow the strict diet, which rules out any animal products, including dairy and eggs."

"The Royal Academy of Medicine of Belgium published a legal opinion on Thursday, which could influence future court judgments and is the first time a health authority has taken a position on veganism in the country..."

"Professor Casimir warned that such a strict regime would now legally qualify as `non-assistance to a person in danger`, a crime which carries a sentence of up to two years and fines in Belgium."

"A person cannot be convicted of the 1961 offence if he is unaware the person is in danger but the legal opinion now made it common knowledge that a vegan diet can kill, he told Le Soir..."

"Dawn Carr, of PETA, said, `What a load of ignorant codswallop! NHS nutritionists confirm that while a meat- and dairy-based diet is what strikes people down in adulthood – as it can lead to hardened arteries that cause stroke, brain aneurysms, and heart attacks – a well-planned vegan diet is perfect for babies and children."

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/video/

Plant Pure Nation - spreading the word about the health benefits of a plant based diet:

Limiting the children of the poor

Is this eugenics for the working poor and those out of work? 

"Tory MSP Michelle Ballantyne suggests other parties attempts to paint the Conservatives as unreasonable means they fail to consider the real drivers of poverty and inequality." 

"She criticises the previous tax credit system introduced by Labour, saying it `allowed debt to spiral both for the individual and the government`. " 

"Responding to an intervention on the two child limit, Ms Ballantyne says this policy is about fairness." 

"She insists it is fair that people on benefits cannot have as many children as they like while families who don't claim benefits have to make decisions about the number of children they can have."
[BBC]

While driving more to poverty ? 

"SNP Christine Grahame MSP has tabled a motion in the Scottish Parliament condemning those comments. She also claimed Mrs Ballantyne`s position as patron of a Borders foodbank `where she will have come face-to-face with people driven into hardship by Tory welfare cuts` as the `height of hypocrisy`."

https://www.thesouthernreporter.co.uk/news/michelle-ballantyne-msp-bites-back-at-calls-for-her-resignation-1-4822587

And hypocrisy is coming from all directions ?

"The Scottish Government is totally to blame for this scandal as they were warned repeatedly, from August 2011, that Westminster planned to devolve the DWP Social Fund to councils in England and the government in Scotland, with a recommendation dump the poor on councils to spread the DWP social fund (and all responsibility) across councils and just send people for food parcels at your own discretion instead."

"MP's and MSP's from every single political party in Scotland knew full well this would mean millions being sent for food parcels across the UK if they did not give small interest free crisis loans in their replacement system, as the DWP did, once the DWP Social Fund was devolved."

Read more https://melkelly60.wixsite.com/whatthepapersdontsay/single-post/2018/07/13/1365-million-Scots-26-ate-from-food-parcels-in-20178?fbclid=IwAR32N6Ibq9D2MbKWWxM0iFeesVlaM3xc4EFhI422XBkEbTNkB2SMlApTXkk

The risky interdependent world

Mike Robinson speaks on UK Column News, 26 July 2018.

"We`re starting with trade today," he says. "International trade, because that`s something that Theresa May`s been talking about a lot. Well, Liam Fox was talking about it yesterday at the Heritage Foundation in Washington. He was making the case for free trade."

"And he said, `In my first speech as the secretary of state for international trade I set out the case for an open and liberal trading environment, and the speech was in Manchester, home of the Industrial revolution and a city with iconic associations with free trade. That was nearly two years ago when trade barely registered on the radar of most of our media. Now of course it`s right at the top of NAFTA and all the rest of it, but he said: `It`s therefore a good time for us to examine our attitudes to trade from first principles and to measure them against our domestic priorities and international obligations`. And he started talking about Adam Smith and David Ricardo and he said, `Now of course since those days, since 1817, the world has changed beyond all recognition yet the experiences of globalisation and of technological advances, unimaginable in Ricardo`s time, have only served to validate his theory. The principles of free and open trade underpinned the multilateral institutions, rules and alliances, and helped rebuild post war Europe and the world beyond. It helped usher the fall of communism and tear down the iron curtain facilitating seventy years of global prosperity and have raised the living standards of hundreds of millions of ... human beings across the world`. `Indeed,`  he said, `free trade has allowed us to take one billion of our fellow human beings out of poverty in just one generation, one of the great achievements of history`. " 

"Well, what a liar ! Because let`s look at the Guardian. Here, this is some time ago. `UK government warned over sharp rise in child and pensioner poverty`."

"So Britain the bastion of free trade is experiencing the benefits of free trade, and poverty is rising as a result."

Brian Gerrish. "And that`s precisely what we`re exporting to the rest of the world... as resources are hoovered out of these countries."

"Absolutely. Well any parts of the world that we have any influence over, but if we contrast that with China, `China has almost wiped out urban poverty`...They haven`t done that through free trade ....mainly through having a development agenda."

"So let`s go back to Liam Fox again. `But effect of protectionism is as close to settled science as anything in economics will ever be: it means reduced productivity gains and lost economic growth`."

"So of course Britain being the bastion of free trade is not into protectionism but unfortunately Britain has falling productivity. So not quite sure where he`s going with that one either."

"So let`s get back to Liam. He said: `The global economy continues to rebound from the dark days of the financial crash and ensuing recession experienced by many large economies`."

Mike Robinson then points to another article in the Financial Times: `Nomura profits tumble 91% on fixed income, equities slump`, and then to the Wall Street Journal: `Prolonged Slump in Bond Liquidity Rattles Markets`.

"I don`t think you`re too right about that one either, Liam, but anyway we go on. He said: `In areas such as steel production we have seen new technologies enable us to produce the same output with far fewer employees`. That`s really good stuff there. Yes fantastic`."

"And in a separate part of the speech he said: `And worse, in a world of globalisaton where interdependence is increasing and where disruptions in one part of the world can quickly ricochet around the rest, our ability to act unilaterally with impunity is diminishing by the day`. "

"So this is supposed to be a speech about promoting free trade and here is the key point:  because globalisation and the British model of free trade, as is currently perceived, is one where we are absolutely interdependent on everybody else in an equally collapsing western world... because it`s the first world countries that we`re interdependent upon. So I wanted to highlight this in particular because, of course, as Brian mentioned yesterday Dominic Raab has been talking about the government stockpiling food and the excuse for the requirement to stockpile food was Brexit and the potential for No Deal and the issue of: `would we be able to import food any more from the European Union?`  And so I thought I`d have a little bit of a look at this in the context of Liam Fox`s comment about us being `increasingly in an interdependent world, and there being risks in that`."  

 
"So the quote on screen there: `It would be wrong to describe it as the government doing the stockpiling. And, of course, the idea that we only get food imports into this country from one continent is not appropriate`."

"Well, is that true? Well it turns out that Britain imports 50% of its fruit and vegetables, but on top of that, we are only able to produce 25% of the fruit and vegetables we consume in this country. So only 25% of what we eat is produced in the United Kingdom. Thirty percent of the fruit comes from Europe. Eighty percent of our vegetables comes from Europe. So I`m not quite sure how that ties in with Dominic`s idea that `we only get... imports ...from one continent is not appropriate`... Because of course the point here is that thirty percent and that eighty percent is all seasonal. So supermarkets import fruit and vegetables from Europe when it`s appropriate to do so and they import fruit and vegetables actually from other parts of the world, but south America in particular, during the winter months when it`s not being produced in Europe."

"So 50% of our fruit and vedge imported and we only produce 25% of what we consume in this country but Theresa May has a big plan, Brian. We don`t need to worry about it because she`s going to deal with farming and she`s going to deliver a farming policy which supports agriculture and improves the environment. So this is what she had to say:..."

"Scrapping the Common Agricultural Policy ... provides funds in return for public goods, like improving water quality, reducing emissions and planting wild flower meadows ... are fundamental to our new approach."

"So the fundamentals to Theresa May`s approach, bearing in mind that what has been highlighted by this is the issue of the potential of a No Deal Brexit, is the issue of food imports and the lack of independence in our capability of food production. We`re not going to produce more food because she`s going to scrap the Agricultural Policy and then she`s going to divert the funds into what has been described as public goods which is about turning farmland, productive farmland, into wild meadows."

Brian Gerrish: "Which of course is all Millenium Goals and Agenda 21..."

"Absolutely. So my question then comes down to this: why would we not want to be producing our own food? Is it that we`re not going to need food in the coming decades? I`m just going to remind everybody of the outstanding debt graph that we show from time to time and the key aspect of this on the right hand side of the doughnut there is ...[the] black hole ... in the ability to pay state pensions. Again, is the British government not expecting there to be too many old people left to pay pensions to in the coming decades?"

Brian Gerrish: "I think that`s exactly where they`re going, Mike, and I know at the moment we have a vast amount of information coming into the UK Column which is back on the subject of the deaths of particularly elderly people in the NHS. Of course an increasing number of people worried about the death statistics, Sir Brian Jarman being one of those people. Euthanasia is coming in which, unfortunately, we will be moving on to in a moment. So yeah I think the government`s agenda is there will be less people. David Cameron was talking about two million people diagnosed with dementia in 2050 I think the deadline for that. It could have been 2040 ... And the inference is we need to get rid of those people."

Mike Robinson: "So if we take everything that Liam Fox is saying and we put it with what Dominic Raab was saying and also with the realities of food production in this country, and pension provision in this country, the picture`s not looking too good and well maybe we should be having more serious conversations about this because this is a result of government policy and not something which is unavoidable. It`s absolutely avoidable and if we were looking at productivity and developing our farming industry in this country and our food production in this country we`d be in a much better position."

Brian Gerrish. "Absolutely. Well as we move through the news today I think we`ll be looking at some of those policy areas. But let`s come in with just this statement. We decide who lives and dies and only we. Now I took this headline because I was going to talk about Boris Johnson in a minute. But somebody else flagged up a headline which we really have to cover and it`s this one. Dutch doctor reprimanded for `asking family to hold down euthanasia patient` This is truly truly disgusting. And it gives us a glimpse of where we`ll be going in this country because there`s many people pushing to follow Holland on this. But the story is a doctor has been formally reprimanded by the Dutch medical complaints board for carrying out euthanasia on a 74-year-old woman with dementia, despite her resistance."

"The woman refused a cup of coffee containing a sedative and when she struggled, the doctor asked her husband and daughter to hold her down so she could insert a drip containing the lethal injection."

"The case is the first time since the Dutch euthanasia law was passed in 2002 that a practitioner has been formally censured. According to the Dutch NOS broadcaster, the public prosecutor will announce after the summer if the doctor will face criminal prosecution."

"So we`re now into the heart of it. We have euthanasia whether you like it or not. It`s coming into western European policy and, of course, the Dutch lead on this has already been pushed and pushed to come in through the UK system. MM, the lady had dementia; she`s held down and she`s effectively, in my terms, murdered. For whose benefit? Well presumably the state, because the state, ultimately, didn`t have to pay for her care."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E833ooQPvMo

Bottled water giant takes more water

Two hours from Flint, Nestle is bottling millions of gallons of Michigan's water for just $200 a year. pic.twitter.com/eGAS15j4uc

— AJ+ (@ajplus) June 3, 2018

Research articles for free

The cruel facts about the `rich` diet

A launch with a double meaning: 

"This week saw the launch of Guy`s and St Thomas` Charity` report `Bite Size Breaking down the challenge of inner city childhood obesity.` Rising childhood obesity is often seen as a classic wicked issue, rising inexorably around the world year after year. It also varies by geographical area and social class, cruelly concentrated in the most disadvantaged areas and populations – a hollow irony for a so-called ‘disease of affluence’."

"The new report, which BIT contributed to, stresses that most of our daily decisions are automatic. Deciding what we eat, whether that quick pre-meeting lunch or late supper, are classic examples of this automatic or "fast" thinking..."

"With many families suffering from a lack of time, money and headspace, the ineffectiveness of effortful interventions is hardly surprising. Perhaps the most important message in the report is that we must make healthier choices as easy as possible for children and their parents."

http://www.behaviouralinsights.co.uk/health/tackling-inner-city-childhood-obesity/

Deprivation, lack of rationality, not having the head space to make healthy decisions are linked together in the video. This may be Guy`s and St Thomas` Charity video, but they did work alongside the Behavioural Insights Team which does know what it is doing. BIT studies know how to influence people. That is why I suggest that there is a subliminal message here. The message is that deprivation, lack of rationality, not having the head space to make healthy decisions are problems of the poor, not problems of the more affluent.

So on one level, this article and the video appear to be about nutrition and a willingness to help the less fortunate, but actually, on another level it is merely a reinforcement of an attitude that is being constantly encouraged. The poor have only themselves to blame. After all they are totally irrational (stupid) but not to worry we (fill in the blanks) are here to help.

Those who truly want to understand obesity and the reason it is increasing globally should look at the food industry. How has it changed?  Why is it that wherever the western food industry goes in the world, so does obesity?

There lies the answer. Inner city childhood obesity is an obfuscation and part of another agenda.

Meat industry considers health risks of processed meats

"What was the meat industry’s response to leading cancer charities’ recommendation to stop eating processed meat, like bacon, ham, hot dogs, sausage, and lunchmeat? The industry acknowledges that the most recent international cancer prevention guidelines now urge people to avoid processed meat."


"`It is evident that…such a statement represents ‘a clear and present danger’ for the meat industry,` reads one response in the journal Meat Science.  Processed meat, it continues, is `a social necessity.` (How could anyone live without bologna?) The challenge for the meat industry, the response outlines, is to find a way to maintain the consumption of these convenience products while somehow not damaging public health."

"We’re still not sure what in processed meat is so carcinogenic, but the most probable educated guess for explaining the damaging effect of processed meats involves heme iron, along with nitrosamine and free radical formation, ultimately resulting in carcinogenic DNA damage. To reduce the nitrosamines, they could remove the nitrites, something the industry has been considering for decades because of the long-known toxic effects they cause. The industry adds them to keep the meat pink. There are, evidently, other coloring additives available. Nevertheless, it’s going to be hard to get industry to change `in view of the positive effects` of these substances as preservatives and in achieving a `desirable flavour and red colour developing ingredients.` No one wants green eggs and ham..."

"According to the World Health Organization’s IARC, processed meat is now a Group 1 carcinogen—the highest designation. How is it that schools still feed it to our children?"

In health,
Michael Greger, M.D.

https://www.care2.com/greenliving/meat-industry-reacts-to-new-cancer-guidelines-calling-processed-meat-carcinogenic.html?utm_content=buffer0ee32

McDonald`s destroys health says Putin

"Russian president Vladimir Putin's fight against unhealthy GMO food has stepped up a gear as he moves to designate US fast-food chain McDonald's, as 'foreign agents' who destroys peoples health. Following the new legislation, Putin will also be able to use the same classification for international mainstream media news outlets like CNN and CNBC. Boris Chernyshov, a 26-year-old Moscow lawmaker in the federal Russian Assembly, said that US fast food advertisements are `highly manipulative` and are not transparent about the long-term effects on peoples health. "

"The State Duma deputy also claimed that the decline of traditional Russian cuisine was the result of widespread McDonald's chains throughout the country. `The food sold by American fast food restaurants, according to some studies, negatively affects the body and human health,` Chernyshov explained. `In advertising, a positive image of consumption of these products is presented.`

"Russia recently became the worlds leading exporter of organic foods as Europe opts to publicly support GMO."

Read more at: http://www.neonnettle.com/news/3491-putin-to-list-mcdonald-s-as-foreign-agent-that-destroys-people-s-health
© Neon Nettle

Plant based meals to be introduced into schools

"Plant-based eating could be sweeping through a most unlikely school system. In a recent interview with publication L’Obs, French Environment Minister Nicolas Hulot stated that French schools should implement a 100% plant-based menu at least once a week."

"He revealed that he intends to introduce the policy shortly, as he considers meat-free eating a `matter of education`."

"French publication Club Sandwich reports that some schools in the South West of France have already tested plant-based menus, which opens `the possibility of choosing a menu without meat every day`. According to the publication, these movements follow a pledge taken by the city of Paris to reduce meat in restaurants by 20%."

"The idea of meat-free eating in schools is a promising one. As information on the negative effects of meat and dairy continues to grow, more organizations are leaning toward veganism as a solution. This year, a US children’s hospital removed hotdogs from its menu due to health risks associated with meat consumption."

https://www.livekindly.co/france-vegan-school-lunches/

The battle for seeds

Junk food affects cognitive abilities

Processed meat

See video HERE

The World Health Organisation came out and said that processed meat is a class one carcinogen...

"We know that processed meat causes cancer as much as we know that smoking causes cancer, asbestos causes cancer, radiation causes cancer. Yet people continue to send their kids to school with these lunch meat products, chicken nuggets, these processed meat products. We regulate tobacco. There are warning labels on tobacco. There should be similar regulations to protect people from processed meat."

Dr Michael Greger

Kids who can`t afford lunch

Monsanto promotes the benefits of GM crops to the UK

 

Colin Todhunter [before the Glasgow visit]

 

"Monsanto is preparing a fresh effort to promote genetically modified (GM) crops to the UK public, according to a piece in the Scottish Farmer. The article notes the company recently appointed former World Bank communications strategist Vance Crowe as its ‘Director of Millenial Engagement’, a job that involves convincing the public about the benefits of GM."

"In March, Vance will be in the UK to give a series of talks, including one in Glasgow as a guest of Glasgow Skeptics, an organisation committed to `promoting science and critical thinking.` However, according to the article, it seems that organiser Brian Eggo may have already made up his mind on GM. He talks about public fear of GM having held back the technology and says the ban on the growing of GM crops in Scotland was a decision based more on ideology than any actual risk to public health..."

"When he visits the UK, perhaps Vance Crowe would like to address the people of Wales and say something about the poisoning of the population that his company has played a major part in. However, the standard company defence mechanism is to try to convince people that the ‘new’ Monsanto is not like the ‘old’ Monsanto, even though Dr Rosemary Mason shows that Welsh adults and children continue to suffer and the company still profits from the massive amounts of glyphosate (the active ingredient in Roundup) being sprayed there."

http://rinf.com/alt-news/editorials/monsantos-communications-guru-visit-uk-instead-promoting-gm-take-responsibility-companys-actions-wales/　

Sanctions at Christmas

"A Department for Work and Pensions whistleblower has told how mean-spirited bosses have demanded staff focus solely on handing out benefit sanctions over Christmas rather than sorting out appeals."

"Hundreds of staff at the Northgate DWP centre in Glasgow have allegedly been asked to only give out sanctions until January 9th and not to process mandatory reconsiderations - where a claimant has asked for a decision, such as a sanction, to be looked at again - until next year."

"Anne McLaughlin MP, whose constituency of Glasgow North includes the centre, has asked Work and Pensions Secretary Damian Green to explain the reasoning behind the cruel guidance and called for all benefit sanctions to be halted at Christmas time."

"Anne McLaughlin MP said: `I have never heard anything so mean-spirited in my life and I am absolutely gobsmacked by the callousness of the directions being given to DWP staff just before Christmas`."

"Nobody should have to endure the misery of having their benefits stopped at Christmas let alone face an increase in the likelihood of a sanction."

"For someone struggling to make ends meet, Christmas is always going to be a difficult time with lots of added financial pressure such as presents, festive activities and food but if a person is sanctioned in December they will be left with absolutely nothing - unless they can face going to the local foodbank."

"For someone to have their benefits stripped from them is bad enough but at this time of year it is truly wicked - they won’t be able to take their kids to see the Christmas lights because they won't have the bus fare."

http://www.thehighlandtimes.com/news/2016/12/20/dwp-staff-told-to-focus-on-benefit-sanctions-over-christmas/

Scrooge is alive and well:

http://www.pagebypagebooks.com/Charles_Dickens/A_Christmas_Carol/Stave_1_Marleys_Ghost_p1.html　

Police attack peaceful water and land protectors

"Dramatic video from Intercept reporter, Jihan Hafiz, was released this week from the Dakota Access Pipeline protests showing a full on assault by militarized police on peaceful people. The video is from Saturday but took several days to be released as cops confiscated the camera used to film it."

"The video was taken as water protectors and reporters covering the protests marched toward the construction site. However, their peaceful walk was swiftly interrupted by militarized shock troops armed with massive cans of pepper spray, batons, rubber bullets, and assault rifles."

http://theindigenouspeople.com/2016/10/27/watch-police-viciously-attack-arrest-peaceful-protesters-at-dapl-including-children-and-the-elderly/

The International Monsanto Tribunal

(NaturalNews) "An initiative is underway to cast a spotlight on agri-business giant Monsanto in a bid to expose the corporation's multi-decade effort to harm the environment and destroy the world's food chain."

"As noted by The Food Revolution Network, in the past 100 years, Monsanto and other multinational agri-business behemoths have promoted and profited from chemical-laced methods of food production that have poisoned both the Earth and its people, all while demolishing biodiversity and crushing small farmers. The stain such corporations have left on the land and the environment is indelible, and in many cases, irreversible."

"Now, the network noted, people are standing up and collectively saying, "Enough!"

"The International Monsanto Tribunal will be held in The Hague, Netherlands, Oct. 14–16, according to an announcement on the organization's website. The tribunal `is an international civil society initiative to hold Monsanto accountable for human rights violations, for crimes against humanity, and for ecocide,` the organization says."

"The group says that `eminent judges` will be on hand to hear victim testimonies. They plan to deliver advisory opinions following the testimonies, using established procedures of the International Court of Justice."

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/055607_Monsanto_international_tribunal_ecocide.html#ixzz4MugNiizQ

"Judging by the absence of published data in peer-reviewed scientific literature, apparently no human clinical trials with GM food have ever been conduced."

"From the results, the conclusion seems inescapable that the present crude method of genetic modification has not delivered GM crops that are predictably safe and wholesome."

Arpad Pusztai, Ph.D

`Genetically Modified Foods: Potential Human Health Effects` (2003)

"[Dr Arpad Pusztai] shared his concerns about GMOs and was a hero for about two days ... The press was going wild. He was a main scientist who was saying we should not treat the people as guinea pigs; and he personally would not eat GMOs from what he understood."

"The Director of the Institute received two phone calls from the UK Prime Minister`s office. The next day Dr Arpad Pusztai was fired from his job after 35 years... His team was disbanded..."

They set out to destroy his reputation in order to protect the reputation of biotechnology.

See also: http://www.psrast.org/pusztblair.htm