DESNZ spent £64,376 flying ministers around the world in just three months, burping out around 22 tonnes of CO2 equivalent into the atmosphere. Almost all of it was on trips to climate conferences. That is the ministerial bill alone. As the Mail revealed, the full cost of the department’s COP30 delegation came to more than £800,000, with 73 officials making the trip to Brazil. Their flights cost £210,450, with another £6,091 spent on carbon credits to ‘offset’ the emissions…
Ed Miliband flew to Brazil twice in a single month, first for the COP World Leaders’ Summit and then again for the main conference a week later, at a combined ministerial cost of £25,750. His two return flights produced roughly 4.6 tonnes of CO2, the equivalent of nearly a full year of average UK household emissions…
The biggest single ministerial bill belonged to climate minister Katie White, whose seven-night COP30 trip cost £30,551. The flight was £11,078, but White also billed the taxpayer £19,473 in accommodation and expenses on the ground, nearly £2,800 a night.
Across the five ministerial trips, DESNZ ministers clocked up roughly 11.5 tonnes of CO2 from flights alone. Applying DEFRA’s own recommended “radiative forcing multiplier” for aviation bumps the total up to around 22 tonnes of CO2 equivalent. The average UK household produces about six tonnes a year. The department responsible for cutting emissions burned through nearly four years’ worth in a single quarter…
Former Google executive Matt Brittin is the new Director General of the BBC. He starts on the 18th May. His statement:
“Now, more than ever, we need a thriving BBC that works for everyone in a complex, uncertain and fast changing world. At its best, it shows us, and the world, who we are. It’s an extraordinary, uniquely British asset, with over 100 years of innovation in storytelling, technology and powering creativity. I’m honoured and excited to be asked to serve as Director-General.
“Working alongside so many talented journalists, creatives and technicians, across the country and around the world, I join with humility, to listen, to learn, to lead, and to serve the public, working hard to earn their trust every day.
“This is a moment of real risk, yet also real opportunity. The BBC needs the pace and energy to be both where stories are, and where audiences are. To build on the reach, trust and creative strengths today, confront challenges with courage, and thrive as a public service fit for the future. I can’t wait to start this work.”
A tall order…
No mention that he happened to be the Prime Minister’s Chief of Staff…
Call handler: Police, what’s your emergency?
McSweeney: Oh, hello, someone just robbed my phone.
Call handler: Did they actually take it from you just now?
McSweeney: Yeah
Call handler: How did they get away?
McSweeney: So he’s on a bike. He’s come onto the pavement to grab my phone and cycled off on a bike.
Call handler: And where did this happen?
McSweeney: It happened in Belgrave Street in Westminster.
Call handler: And whose phone are you using now?
McSweeney: I’ve got two phones. I’m using my personal one. That was my work one.
Continue reading “READ IN FULL: McSweeney’s Call Transcript to Police After Phone Theft”
Ed Miliband scores the cover interview for this week’s New Statesman. He finally joins the ever-growing list of Labour MPs who have, by pure coincidence, decided now is the time for a puff piece in which they pontificate about Labour’s problems, speak wistfully about their childhoods, and pose for weird pictures. If you want a job in the real world, you usually submit a CV. In Labour, you give a War and Peace-length interview to the New Statesman…
Miliband is careful not to mention his personal ambitions specifically. Luckily the New Statesman does it for him:
“Some of those who know Miliband are clear he has his eyes on becoming chancellor. Nigel Farage has told friends privately in recent weeks that he expects Miliband to become prime minister by 2027.”
Oh no, don’t put that in there…
He does at least admit he wants to smash the ming vase to pieces:
“We won on a modest, relatively safe platform,” Miliband went on. “That’s not meant as a criticism. It’s just a description of the facts.” Miliband mounts a defence of the government. Good things are happening, he promises.”
Most notable, however:
“Should Andy Burnham or Angela Rayner become the leader of Labour this year, they will not deviate from the script that Miliband has written.”
In other words: don’t forget who’s really running the show. He is even described as having “liquid charm“. The only line he might take issue with is his “remarkably enormous oblong of a head”…
Starmer has confirmed to the Commons that the government will follow the recommendations from a review by Philip Rycroft to cap foreign donations to political parties at £300,000, and temporarily block all donations received via cryptocurrency:
“I can tell the house, we will act decisively to protect our democracy. That will include a moratorium on all political donations made through cryptocurrencies.”
It just so happens that Reform received £12 million from Thai-based Christopher Harborne last year, and now accepts crypto donations…
Sarah Pochin at Reform Scotland’s manifesto launch event: “I really wanted to come on in a Reform tartan burka, but apparently I wasn’t allowed… One day let’s do one of these events not live-streamed. We’ll do all the naughty stuff…”