Sunday 16-03-2025 - 14:31

Huge plans raised by Reform UK - Taxation on renewables

Richard Tice, the deputy leader of Reform UK, argued that the net-zero policies were the consequences of deindustrialisation and high energy bills in the UK. He also believed that the British people were bamboozled by the renewables industry as an unreasonably massive amount had been allocated to the subsidies for wind and solar companies. Although the party insisted that the costs that the British had been paying for had gone into their bills with a considerable proportion, they did not announce any further details about the taxation. Reform UK's energy policy platform also reflects a significant departure from the UK's current trajectory towards renewable energy and net-zero emissions, positioning the party in opposition to mainstream environmental strategies.

Source: BBC News ‘Reform UK sets out plan to tax renewable energy’

 

Another tension caused by Trump – USA and South Africa

South Africa appears to be at a crossroads in its tense relationship with the US following President Donald Trump's controversial decision last week to cut financial aid to the country. His move has shocked South Africa, with experts fearing he may go on to use this opportunity to stop the preferential access to the US market through its special US-Africa trade programme known as the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa). The tension arose after Trump’s inauguration, when South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa signed into law the Expropriation Bill, which allows the government to confiscate land without compensation in certain circumstances. Trump believed that South Africa would do something worse than that, and he commented South Africa were carrying out horrible and terrible policies through the law. After the termination, a sum of nearly $440m (£353m) was cut, but the HIV programme would not be affected. Meanwhile, Trump also accused South Africa of a "shocking disregard of its citizens' rights" and taking "aggressive positions" against the US and its ally Israel in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) case in December 2023, while South Africa attempted to filing a genocide case against Israel at that time.

 

Source: BBC News ‘Is it checkmate for South Africa after Trump threats?’