Inflation is at a 40-year high, fuel prices have repeatedly hit record levels and a global recession is a real threat. While the prime minister urges restraint on worker pay, at the top of the pyramid the bosses’ bonuses are back.

The average pay of FTSE 100 bosses has sprung to pre-Covid levels. Chief executives were paid £3.62m on average in 2021, rebounding from £2.78m in 2020.

The Restaurant Group chief Andy Hornby, best known for leading Halifax Bank of Scotland before its state bailout, landed a £578,000 bonus in May.

 Next chief, Tory peer Lord Wolfson, received £4.4m, his highest payout since 2015.

Last year, defence giant BAE Systems handed its CEO, Charles Woodburn, a pay rise and a £2m “golden handcuffs” share deal after miner Rio Tinto tried to poach him.

The National Grid infrastructure boss, John Pettigrew, has just scooped his biggest pay packet since taking charge in 2016 as energy bills soar.

Total annual pay 2021-22 £6.5m (2020: £5.4m)

Pay ratio 105 times more than the average worker

Dominic Blakemore, the Compass catering giant chief’s pay tripled, bouncing back after taking a salary cut for the first six months of the pandemic. His firm’s subsidiary Chartwells was rebuked by Manchester United footballer and campaigner Marcus Rashford after providing “unacceptable” school meals.

Total annual pay 2020-21 £3.2m (2019-20: £1.2m)

Pay ratio 138 times more than the average worker

Simon Roberts of Sainsbury’s raked in millions but has rejected calls to pay all workers in its store the “real living wage”.Total annual pay 2021-22 £3.8m (2020-21: £1.3m)

Pay ratio 183 times more than the average worker

The text for the leaflet  for the TUC rally in London Saturday 18 June

Want better?

So do we! But capitalism isn’t there to make our lives better.

It’s there to serve the interests of the rich.

We do all the useful work in society, while they constantly try to drive down our pay and worsen our conditions.

That’s how they get rich – by keeping the rest of us poor.

Not only that, capitalism is and always will be unstable and who bears the brunt of its economic crises? Us, of course!

There’s no point trying to reform the chaos and inequality out of capitalism because they are built into it.

So if you’ve really had enough, if you really want better…

Better get rid of capitalism.

We’ve got the technology to run society as a giant sustainable co-op, where everything is free and there are no rich or poor.

That’s got to be better than letting capitalism and its rich hooligans trash our lives.

The text for the leaflet  for the TUC rally in London Saturday 18 June

Want better?

So do we! But capitalism isn’t there to make our lives better.

It’s there to serve the interests of the rich.

We do all the useful work in society, while they constantly try to drive down our pay and worsen our conditions.

That’s how they get rich – by keeping the rest of us poor.

Not only that, capitalism is and always will be unstable and who bears the brunt of its economic crises? Us, of course!

There’s no point trying to reform the chaos and inequality out of capitalism because they are built into it.

So if you’ve really had enough, if you really want better…

Better get rid of capitalism.

We’ve got the technology to run society as a giant sustainable co-op, where everything is free and there are no rich or poor.

That’s got to be better than letting capitalism and its rich hooligans trash our lives.

The text for the leaflet  for the TUC rally in London Saturday 18 June

Want better?

So do we! But capitalism isn’t there to make our lives better.

It’s there to serve the interests of the rich.

We do all the useful work in society, while they constantly try to drive down our pay and worsen our conditions.

That’s how they get rich – by keeping the rest of us poor.

Not only that, capitalism is and always will be unstable and who bears the brunt of its economic crises? Us, of course!

There’s no point trying to reform the chaos and inequality out of capitalism because they are built into it.

So if you’ve really had enough, if you really want better…

Better get rid of capitalism.

We’ve got the technology to run society as a giant sustainable co-op, where everything is free and there are no rich or poor.

That’s got to be better than letting capitalism and its rich hooligans trash our lives.

The text for the leaflet  for the TUC rally in London Saturday 18 June

Want better?

So do we! But capitalism isn’t there to make our lives better.

It’s there to serve the interests of the rich.

We do all the useful work in society, while they constantly try to drive down our pay and worsen our conditions.

That’s how they get rich – by keeping the rest of us poor.

Not only that, capitalism is and always will be unstable and who bears the brunt of its economic crises? Us, of course!

There’s no point trying to reform the chaos and inequality out of capitalism because they are built into it.

So if you’ve really had enough, if you really want better…

Better get rid of capitalism.

We’ve got the technology to run society as a giant sustainable co-op, where everything is free and there are no rich or poor.

That’s got to be better than letting capitalism and its rich hooligans trash our lives.

The text for the leaflet  for the TUC rally in London Saturday 18 June

Want better?

So do we! But capitalism isn’t there to make our lives better.

It’s there to serve the interests of the rich.

We do all the useful work in society, while they constantly try to drive down our pay and worsen our conditions.

That’s how they get rich – by keeping the rest of us poor.

Not only that, capitalism is and always will be unstable and who bears the brunt of its economic crises? Us, of course!

There’s no point trying to reform the chaos and inequality out of capitalism because they are built into it.

So if you’ve really had enough, if you really want better…

Better get rid of capitalism.

We’ve got the technology to run society as a giant sustainable co-op, where everything is free and there are no rich or poor.

That’s got to be better than letting capitalism and its rich hooligans trash our lives.

 Wednesday saw the fastest rise in petrol prices for seventeen years, and on Thursday the cost of filling a typical family car passed £100 for the first time, piling costs on motorists.

 NHS workers received a 3% pay deal in 2021. Ministers have asked the NHS pay review body to recommend a similar award for this year.

However, inflation has soared to 9% – the highest level since the early 1980s – as Russia’s war in Ukraine exacerbates soaring wholesale energy prices. The Bank of England expects inflation to peak close to 10% later this year.

Should ministers push through a 3% settlement for NHS workers, the TUC said nurses and paramedics would suffer a £2,000 cut in the inflation-adjusted value of their pay. For maternity care assistants it would represent a real-term cut of £1,200 and for hospital porters a £1,000 reduction.

 The TUC calculates nurses are £5,200 poorer compared with 2010 when pay is adjusted for inflation.

Christina McAnea, the general secretary of the Unison trade union, said soaring inflation had “made a nonsense” of a 3% pay deal.

“Overworked, demoralised and experienced staff need much more if they are to be persuaded to stay and see the NHS through the worst crisis in its history,” she said.

Frances O’Grady, the TUC general secretary, said: “Our brilliant key workers in the NHS helped get Britain through the pandemic. But many are now at breaking point – struggling to afford the basics and put food on the table. Any offer that falls below the cost of living will be a hammer blow to staff morale – especially as staff shortages continue to cripple vital services – and many NHS workers may choose to vote with their feet.”

Nurses in England face £1,600 real-terms hit if NHS pay rises 3% | Public sector pay | The Guardian

Research by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue and the Climate Action Against Disinformation coalition, found that although outright denials of the facts of the climate crisis were less common, opponents were now likely to focus on “delay, distraction and misinformation” to hinder the rapid action required. It shows that the climate emergency – and the measures needed to deal with it – are in some cases being conflated with divisive issues such as critical race theory, LGBTQ+ rights, abortion access and anti-vaccine campaigns.

The report looked at social media posts over the past 18 months and particularly around the Cop26 climate summit in Glasgow last year. It found that the urgent need for wide-ranging mitigation and adaptation strategies were continually downplayed or condemned as unfeasible, overly expensive, disruptive or hypocritical.

“Our analysis has shown that climate disinformation has become more complex, evolving from outright denial into identifiable ‘discourses of delay’ to exploit the gap between buy-in and action,” said Jennie King, head of climate disinformation at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue. 

It identified a number of specific “discourses of delay”, including:

Elitism and hypocrisy: these posts focused on the alleged wealth and double standards of those calling for action, and in some cases referenced wider conspiracies about globalism or the “New World Order”. The study identified 199,676 mentions of this narrative on Twitter (tweets and retweets) and 4,377 posts on Facebook around the time Cop26 took place

Absolution: it found 6,262 Facebook posts and 72,356 tweets around Cop26 which absolved one country of any obligation to act on climate by blaming another. In developed western countries this often focused on the perceived shortcomings of China and, to a lesser extent, India, claiming they were not doing enough so there was no point in anyone acting.

Unreliable renewables: over a longer period – from 1 January to 19 November 2021 – the study found 115,830 tweets or retweets were shared, alongside 15,443 posts on Facebook, that called into question the viability and effectiveness of renewable energy sources.

Analysis of 16 accounts “super-spreading” climate misinformation on Twitter revealed 13 sub-groups that largely converged around anti-science and conspiracy communities in the US, UK and Canada.

It said many “influencers” in this group originally came from a scientific or academic background and some were previously involved in the green movement.

It added: “This allows them to present as ‘rationalist’ environmentalists and claim greater credibility for their analysis, while continually spreading the discourses of delay and other misinformation or disinformation. It also gives them significant appeal online and the potential to galvanise far broader audiences, since they are frequently invited by conservative media outlets as ‘climate experts’.”

Climate policy dragged into culture wars as a ‘delay’ tactic, finds study | Climate crisis | The Guardian

Pakistan is facing an acute water shortage, with experts saying the country could run out of water by 2040 if authorities don’t take long-term measures to deal with the problem. According to a 2018 report by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Pakistan ranked third in the world among countries facing acute water shortage. Reports by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources (PCRWR) also warn the authorities that the South Asian country will reach absolute water scarcity by 2025.

In 2016, PCRWR reported that Pakistan touched the “water stress line” in 1990 and crossed the “water scarcity line” in 2005. If this situation persists, Pakistan is likely to face an acute water shortage or a drought-like situation in the near future, according to PCRWR. Pakistan has the world’s fourth-highest rate of water use. Its water intensity rate — the amount of water, in cubic meters, used per unit of GDP — is the world’s highest.

Pakistan is among the top ten countries in the world that are vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, according to Mome Saleem, an environmental activist.

“The agriculture land is being used for housing projects, which has resulted in the loss of trees and extreme heat waves. No attention is being paid to depleting water, which is already scarce,” she added. “Pakistan must have at least 25% of the forest cover, but we are also not doing well on this front. The government is not preventing the cutting down of trees, which is happening on a massive scale. A dilapidated public transport system and low-quality fuel cause a significant rise in carbon, but unfortunately the government is not taking measures to mitigate the hazard,” she added.

Saleem believes the reason behind the country’s negligence towards such existential crises is its fixation on economic growth.

Experts say that degradation of natural resources, soil erosion, deforestation, unbridled and unplanned urbanization, and contamination of ground water are some of the many serious issues that need immediate attention from the government.

Tariq Banuri, a leading environmental expert, believes that the most crucial challenges for Pakistan include the impacts of climate change — floods, heat waves, drought, crop losses and diseases — whose frequency has increased rapidly over the past couple of decades.

“Air pollution has also emerged as a big problem in large parts of the country, affecting health as well as transport and mobility, while water pollution is killing thousands of people every year. Around 80% of Pakistan’s population do not have access to clean drinking water.”

Environment specialist Rahat Jabeen writes that every year Pakistan loses almost 27,000 hectares of natural forest area, explaining that almost three-quarters of the country’s population use forest resources for a lack of alternative energy resources.

Is Pakistan paying attention to existential environment crises? | Asia | An in-depth look at news from across the continent | DW | 31.05.2022