Should The Climate Be The Concern of Fund Managers?

Everyone has a responsibility to fix the weather, or at least make sure the world still lasts for as long as humanity can thrive. Fund managers, on the other hand, are concerned about fixing growth, or rather, making things grow. One can argue that fund managers must only concern themselves about looking for businesses that would help grow funds.

It would be up to the business to make sure their methods are climate-risky, to say a term.

But it's not always the case. If fund managers continue to help companies with bad climate records 

thrive, we may find ourselves in a drier, hotter and unhealthy earth.

ClientEarth and other such companies have successfully made their voices heard against world governments especially regarding illegal levels of air pollution and urging mining companies to publish honest reports on climate change risks to their business.

Investors should be mindful that their money guarantees longevity for the earth and human life and not shortening it. New laws should be made that would disallow fund managers to fund companies with opaque records on environmental and climate risks.

But maybe we're getting too ideal here. We just want fund managers to invest somewhere where we'll be sure we still have an earth left to live in the next day.

Scotland Should Have Voted For Their Independence With This Outcome

Last, last year, Scotland had the power of voting themselves out of the UK. They could have earned independence in 2014. If only they knew what would happen early 2016.

Britain was also complaining about Scotland's existence in the first place. The "English votes for English laws" thing will very much allow both states to manage their own legal systems very well. That is, if Scotland still has a voice in the legislation.

SNP's Pete Wishart had it right the first time. He said English MPs were dominating. They were "driving Scotland out of the door".

While it's right that Scottish MPs shouldn't vote on English troubles, the matter is that everyone is affected by the changes.

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It feels much like Scotland earned its independence. Much like, but not "has earned independence completely."

If Scotland will complain about not having a voice with English issues, they should have agreed to Britain's traditional terms.

But maybe there's another upcoming independence referendum. Or maybe not.

It's just that everything turned out the same. With nothing changing and well, at least 

Scotland keeps the pound sterling while voting on their own issues.

The UK's Personal Injury Claim Right May Just Be Removed

The UK is well-known as the "whiplash capital of Europe" because anybody can get guaranteed recompense if they can prove they have whiplash injuries. The number of personal injury claims for whiplash had increased in the UK, forcing the insurance industry to pay more than £2bn yearly, which passes down to legitimate consumers who are paying £90 in addition to their premiums.

Chancellor George Osborne had decided towards eliminating the right to claim personal injury on soft tissue "minor" injuries from motor road accidents as well as whiplash. The Chancellor also aims to introduce a higher limit to the Small Claims Court from £1000 to £5000.

However, this was met with criticism from the Select Transport Committee, who said that individual victims may not represent themselves properly in court. The voice was second-motioned by the Law Society.

The Treasury said that the amount paid per policy was "out of proportion to genuine injury suffered." The Chancellor intends to make a system to avoid exaggerated claims and to end the right to cash compensation.

The STC also condemned the proposal for only consulting with insurers and not the victims of personal injuries, particularly whiplash injuries.

The UK Is In Trouble Over Renewable Energy

The environmental group Friends of the Earth intends to file a legal challenge against the UK government because of its failure to install a viable plan to meet its renewable targets. With the UK's increasing carbon footprints are not doing the country a favour.

Yes, I've been hearing about lots of health issues surfacing, especially with children and the elderly.

Add to this the issue of Volkswagen, whose vehicles a hefty number of the UK population drive, and the environment is having its own party indeed.

About to Miss Its Target

Friends of the Earth will send a formal letter to Energy Secretary Amber Rudd expressing its concerns this week. This follows after the UK revealed it can miss its legally-bound target to generate 15 per cent of its energy from renewable by 2020.

According to Friends of the Earth campaigner Alasdair Cameron:

“Without serious additional action the UK is on course to miss its legally binding renewable energy targets for 2020 – and recently proposed cuts to support for wind and solar technologies will make matters worse.

“We will be writing to the government to set out our concerns and warn of the potential legal consequences if its renewable energy action plan is inadequate. Renewable energy is the future – the government must get on board and help build the low carbon, affordable economy we so urgently need.”

A formal reply from the government said:

“Renewables make up around 25% of our electricity generation and we are on track to meet our ambition for 2020. We continue to make progress to meet our overall renewable energy target.”

Dutch Investigators Accuse Murder on Ukrainian Rebels Of MH370 Incident For The Right Reasons

Last March 2014, a Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777 went falling from the sky. It carried Asian and majority of Dutch and European travellers coming from the Netherlands to Singapore. Passing over some European states, it went down.

Claims it was shot down by a missile proved true after the remnants indicated a head-on explosion far away from wing engines. To shed further light, Dutch-led investigations begun as majority of the 298 who died on board were Dutch travellers.

After 15 months, the thought that all the passengers died immediately after the incident is far from the truth. While comforting, proper authorities, even the UN, couldn't even administer proper justice for those who had died.

The Horrifying Conclusion

According to the investigators, a Buk missile from the Soviet era had downed the passenger plane March last year. An explosion shattered the cockpit area of the plane. The cockpit crew, including all of its pilots, died immediately.

The same fate wasn't shared by passengers.

Data revealed the passengers were conscious as the hulls were destroyed. However, due to the sudden decompression and the lack of oxygen at 33,000 feet, they saw the aftermath for about 60-90 seconds on air.

Terrifying, at the very least.

Political Motive

Russia had denied involvement with the Ukrainian rebels and said the missile angle was a "biased investigation with a political motive."

The Buk Missile manufacturer had denied its involvement with Ukrainian separatists and the Russian government.

The UN, still trying to use peaceful methods, has garnered very low results.

It seems justice couldn't be served for these innocent lives that have died in the hands of a careless, fatal human error. 

Tories Confirm Scrapping the Human Rights Act in Parliament.

Conservative MPs had confirmed it would scrap the Human Rights Act and have a British Bill of Rights take its place. The House of Commons Justice Minister Dominic Raab said the scrapping is to be done immediately.

Meanwhile, Scottish MPs voiced their opposition against the proposal.

The scrapping of the Human Rights Act meant the UK can persecute and deport any terrorist, war criminal or any human rights offender from their country without the jurisdiction of the ECHR. This also meant it would withdraw its membership from the ECHR.

Data indicates that the ECHR had cleared almost every case involving terrorists, international crime organizations and war criminals.

According to analysts and critics, the scrapping of the Human Rights Act meant further difficulties in criticizing Russia's human rights laws. It would also mean Russia can just disregard its human rights laws and replace it with possibly stringent laws.

Tories stand firm with the idea that there is any weakening of human rights. British Prime Minister David Cameron intends to have the ECHR as an advisor and leave the final decision to Britains' supreme court regarding rulings on terrorists, criminals and others. According to Prime Minister David Cameron, politicians had the duty to restore the 'distorted' reputation of human rights in the United Kingdom.

New Extremism Laws Could Go Too Far

The new legal crackdown on "extremist" ideology and calls for its remit to be extended far beyond what was thought to be its purpose could prove to be too harsh. The new measures will introduce Extremism Disruption Orders that can put down preachers and teachers who talk of Jihad and may also increase anti-Western attitudes among young Muslims.

However, the government said it will apply to "all extremist views". According to Conservative MP Mark Spencer, this could mean that teachers who talk about gay marriage being wrong could be criminalised.

According to his assessment, anybody who holds an orthodox, traditionalist view can be considered a criminal.

The trouble with any legal system is that by introducing new laws for one purpose and not considering the balance of power it give the government, it does not retain the balance. 

Sadly, it is also in the field of counter-terrorism that most of these incidents bear fruit.

In the United States for example, the country has scaled down its powers to identify and stop and search people without reasonable suspicion due to widespread abuse nationwide. Police had extensively used the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act to investigate sources for newspaper "whistle-blowers".

And the UK's new legal crackdown on "extremist" ideology is not exempted here.