In Aberdeen, the warning sirens are no longer coming from offshore rigs but from the unions themselves. A recent study cited by the GMB union paints a stark picture: the North Sea’s offshore workforce, roughly 115,000 strong today, could be slashed to around 57,000 by the early 2030s if Britain’s headlong rush to Net Zero continues. For a city already bleeding skilled jobs — some 18,000 lost since 2010 — this is not an abstract climate model but the prospect of a living community turned into another deindustrialised ghost of Britain’s past.
The GMB’s Scotland Secretary, Louise Gilmour, has broken ranks with the political class by calling Ed Miliband’s policies “delusional” and warning that they risk “arguably the most destructive industrial calamity in our nation’s history”. Yet her intervention raises an uncomfortable question: how did a movement born to defend the English working class against economic dispossession become complicit in the very policies that now threaten to hollow out Aberdeen just as surely as coal-mining towns were once gutted across England and Wales?
From there, the story must go backwards before it can go forwards.
From Chartism to Labour
The English working class was not dreamed up in Marx’s study: it was forged in the mills, furnaces and pits of the early Industrial Revolution, then politically awakened through Chartism in the 1830s and 1840s. Chartism’s six demands — universal male suffrage, secret ballots, equal constituencies, annual Parliaments, payment of MPs and the abolition of property qualifications — were radical only
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hear hear. If only we had Trump in number 10. Roll on the next election.
What an excellent common sense article, in years not decades to come when we as a nation are finished I hope the one’s that voted for this(ie Liebour supporters) are proud of themselves.First coal of which there are literally tonnes left, gas and now finally oil, how very short sighted people really are, meanwhile in China, US, India etc they prosper.
Because most organisations that last 70 years or more get overtaken by the private concerns of the organisation’s bosses or leaders, and bogged down by the preferred practices of the organisation’s workers.
James Ramsay MacDonald was the first Labour Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, serving from January to November 1924. Tony Blair – served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007.
70ish years from ‘old’ Labour to New Labour.
With Tony Liar came champagne socialism where getting rich was far more important than the grubby workers. Look how Lord Sleaze of Mandelson could not resist rich people to the extent that he became bum chums with Epstein. The union leaders decided beer and sandwiches were no longer for them and preferred champagne and caviar. Then after Broon came the champagne socialist Tories led by Call Me dave and the move to become a member of the Uniparty which brings us to where we are now with Reform our only hope of change.
As for following Norwegian prudence with a sovereign wealth fund for the country – when we had Dumb and Dumber in Broon and Balls in charge they wrecked our company pension schemes and flogged off our gold on the cheap as this week’s price is heading past £4000 an ounce, so how long would they have kept their hands off the fund?
The impressive forward thinking / long term planning of the Norwegians is quite something compared to our myopic politicians. As you say, even if we had similar, they’d be dipping into it every 5 minutes until the pot was depleted
“Ed Miliband’s policies “delusional” and warning that they risk “arguably the most destructive industrial calamity in our nation’s history”
Destroying industry is Ed Miliband’s policy, that’s the whole point. Net zero is a means to an end, and that end is the total destruction of the consumer society.
Mad Ed’s decision to pour concrete into the fracking wells was pure childish spite. I’m almost certainly guilty of a hate crime where he’s concerned.
Recanting decades too late. All foreseeable on the fateful day when only 5 MPs dissented against the 2008 Climate Claptrap Act. Convenient Untruth abounds.
Union members do themselves no favours by voting for the kind of people who run their unions – generally Communists/extremist lefties, who have an Agenda which doesn’t include looking out for the individual interests of their members because they’re far more concerned with creating the conditions for a Communist revolution.
“How did a movement born to defend the English working class against economic dispossession become complicit in the very policies that now threaten to hollow out Aberdeen just as surely as coal-mining towns were once gutted across England and Wales”?——Because they have all been manipulated and brainwashed by the group think Climate politics that is everywhere you look—–All of the Political Class, all of the media, all institutions are CAPTURED by the climate scaremongering that masquerades as science and concern for the planet. The Unions no doubt fell for all of this evidence free garbage as well and for the promises of “Green Jobs”. ——Perhaps now they will switch allegiance away from supporting the destroyers of our Industrial Base—–LABOUR, and support any party that will put a stop to this phoney planet saving eco socialism that has only one goal —Not to save the planet, but to impoverish us all because according to the UN and their Sustainable Development Politics we in the wealthy west have too much of everything and should make do with LESS, and that all starts with ENERGY.
Pit closures from 1964 pre-dated the climate nonsense. Harold Wilson, closed 253 pits and Mrs T, 115. and closures were brought about primarily for economic reasons. Home coal was heavily subsidised and thus expensive, whilst Poland mined high grade coal, and shipped it at lower cost.
Surprised there hasn’t been comparison to the pit closures – that was a bad time but largely made financial sense… the craziness of netzero makes no sense
The only jobs the Union bosses care about are their own.
Shame about the thousands of ordinary workers jobs lost to the shrine of Net Zero.