It took Caroline Lucas just seconds to tear the Autumn Budget apart

Philip Hammond and Caroline Lucas


Support us and go ad-free

Green MP Caroline Lucas took just a matter of seconds to destroy the Autumn Budget. But before she could get any further, the speaker cut her off.

The budget: nailed

Lucas was speaking after chancellor Philip Hammond had delivered his budget. And she raised maybe the most important point of the entire debate:

Not one single word from this chancellor about climate change. Nothing about clean energy. Nothing about green energy.

Indeed, looking at the government website, there are no budget announcements on the climate breakdown we face. The nearest thing is Hammond’s pledges on single-use plastics. But as Lucas noted, there were plenty of tax breaks for fossil fuel companies:

And as she also pointed out, this is despite scientists recently giving their starkest warning yet about the world’s climate breakdown.

Climate catastrophe

As The Canary has documented, the climate and ecological breakdown we face takes many forms. From fracking to the food industry, via plastic pollution and Heathrow’s third runway, we’re on a collision course with disaster.

Most recently, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released a report on the climate breakdown. As the IPCC warned, we could cross the threshold into climate catastrophe as soon as 2030. And it noted that trillions of dollars in investment are needed to stop this.

So the budget was a disaster for the planet, to say the least. But some people are not letting the government get away with ignoring the catastrophes we face. Campaign group Extinction Rebellion, for example, will be doing various of acts of civil disobedience during November. It is demanding the government takes drastic action now (you can read more about the group here). In the meantime, we can all demand that more MPs join Caroline Lucas in holding the government to account for its woeful approach to climate chaos.

Get Involved!

– Write to your MP to demand meaningful government action to fight against climate change.

– Read more from The Canary on the Autumn Budget.

– Join us so we can keep holding the powerful to account.

Featured image via Steve Topple – YouTube and parliament.tv 

Support us and go ad-free

We need your help to keep speaking the truth

Every story that you have come to us with; each injustice you have asked us to investigate; every campaign we have fought; each of your unheard voices we amplified; we do this for you. We are making a difference on your behalf.

Our fight is your fight. You’ve supported our collective struggle every time you gave us a like; and every time you shared our work across social media. Now we need you to support us with a monthly donation.

We have published nearly 2,000 articles and over 50 films in 2021. And we want to do this and more in 2022 but we don’t have enough money to go on at this pace. So, if you value our work and want us to continue then please join us and be part of The Canary family.

In return, you get:

* Advert free reading experience
* Quarterly group video call with the Editor-in-Chief
* Behind the scenes monthly e-newsletter
* 20% discount in our shop

Almost all of our spending goes to the people who make The Canary’s content. So your contribution directly supports our writers and enables us to continue to do what we do: speaking truth, powered by you. We have weathered many attempts to shut us down and silence our vital opposition to an increasingly fascist government and right-wing mainstream media.

With your help we can continue:

* Holding political and state power to account
* Advocating for the people the system marginalises
* Being a media outlet that upholds the highest standards
* Campaigning on the issues others won’t
* Putting your lives central to everything we do

We are a drop of truth in an ocean of deceit. But we can’t do this without your support. So please, can you help us continue the fight?

The Canary Support us

Comments are closed