Alba rename UK Government energy department in protest over job losses

Party leader Kenny McAskill slammed the 'unjust transition', adding that Labour has 'failed to deliver' on the promises it made at the General Election.
Alba held the protest outside of the offices of the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) on Friday.
McAskill was pictured holding a sign with the department's name, with red pen highlighting the changes in a dig at the Government's energy policy.
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Speaking outside the offices, McAskill said: "We are here today outside the UK Government Office in Aberdeen to highlight the 'unjust transition' taking place.
'Labour has failed to deliver on the promises made before the UK Election to make Aberdeen and the North East an energy power house.
"Keir Starmer promised to put Scotland at the 'beating heart of the UK.'
'Instead we are facing the prospect of losing 400 jobs, the equivalent of Grangemouth closing, every fortnight and the loss of 115,000 jobs over five years.'
(Image: Alba) McAskill then pointed to claims that jobs were promised as part of plans to establish GB Energy, but have not come to fruition.
'The lack of activity is startling,' he added.
'This should be renamed the Department of Energy Insecurity and Net Job Losses.
"The suits are coming into Aberdeen, a few dozen, maybe even a few more than that but what we are seeing are thousands of workers laid off in the North Sea.
'It's suits in, boiler suits out under this Labour Government.
"The oil in the North Sea should be Scotland's resource.
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'The North Sea should be booming, Scotland requires it and yet what we are seeing is the North Sea being shut down with Aberdeen and the North East paying the price and few suits in will not replace the tens of thousands of boiler suits being lost.
'It's time for Independence. It's time we controlled our own North Sea oil and it's time we got the North Sea booming once again.'
Ann Joss, RMT regional organiser, said: "What we have in real terms is what feels like total abandonment of a highly skilled workforce who feel badly let down and the continuous job losses are a reflection of that, not just directly in the sector but across the supply chain and our communities.
'A lot of focus needs to be on the progress of the skills passport, the new jobs in green energy, collective bargaining rights across the whole sector, so in a way we are talking about advancement in all of these things for our workers in the North Sea.'
DESNZ have been contacted for comment.
We previously told how £2.5 billion of investment that was due to go to clean energy projects via GB Energy was to go to funding nuclear energy instead.
UK energy minister Michael Shanks refused to apologise after the funding cut emerged.
Labour politicians have refused to confirm how many, if any, jobs GB Energy has created.

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Opponents of assisted dying vow to fight on as MPs back Bill

North Wales Chronicle

3 hours ago

North Wales Chronicle

Opponents of assisted dying vow to fight on as MPs back Bill

Ms Leadbeater's Bill passed what could be its final Commons hurdle by 23 votes, down from the majority of 55 it secured when MPs first voted on it in November. The Spen Valley MP declared 'thank goodness' after the result while Rebecca Wilcox, daughter of campaigner Dame Esther Rantzen, said it was 'wonderful' the result had come ahead of her mother's birthday. But opponents vowed to fight on against what they called a 'deeply flawed Bill'. A group of 27 Labour MPs who voted against the legislation said: 'We were elected to represent both of those groups and are still deeply concerned about the risks in this Bill of coercion of the old and discrimination against the disabled, people with anorexia and black, Asian and minority ethnic people, who we know do not receive equitable health care. 'As the Bill moves to the House of Lords it must receive the scrutiny that it needs. Not about the principles of assisted dying but its application in this deeply flawed Bill.' But Ms Leadbeater told the PA news agency she hoped there would be no 'funny games' in the Lords, as her Bill faces further tough hurdles in the upper chamber. She added: 'I would be upset to think that anybody was playing games with such an important and such an emotional issue.' Meanwhile, one of the leading opponents of the Bill, Conservative Danny Kruger, described its supporters as 'enemies', saying he felt 'like Evelyn Waugh at the time of the Nazi-Soviet Pact in 1939'. In a series of tweets on Friday night, the East Wiltshire MP accused assisted dying campaigners of being 'militant anti-Christians' who had failed to 'engage with the detail of the Bill'. He added: 'It's the revenge of the middle-aged against their dependents.' Ms Leadbeater's Terminally Ill Adults (End Of Life) Bill will now proceed to the House of Lords, where it will undergo further scrutiny before becoming law, should peers decide to back the legislation. But some peers have already spoken out against the legislation, with the Bishop of London, Dame Sarah Mullally, saying they 'must oppose' the Bill as 'unworkable and unsafe'.