George Monbiot

Extreme heat has scorched British farmland as simultaneous crop failures, wars and disruptions to major shipping routes threaten the reliability of global food supplies. George Monbiot argues that the UK’s reliance on just-in-time retail logistics and international trade has left it dangerously exposed, despite warnings that the food system could face catastrophic failure by 2030. He calls for strategic government food stockpiles, criticizes successive governments—particularly the current Labour administration—for refusing to clarify whether reserves exist, and condemns official assurances that recent dry weather will not affect national food security.

George Monbiot argues that despair over climate breakdown is irrational and politically disempowering because societies can undergo rapid, unpredictable social tipping points. Drawing on Ireland’s transition away from Catholic theocracy, the collapse of state communism and the end of empires, he suggests that fossil-fuel dominance could likewise shift from appearing inevitable to becoming impossible. Falling renewable-energy costs, expanding green employment, technological advances, political exposure and worsening heat shocks may indicate that a climate-action tipping point is approaching. Independent, fact-based journalism is presented as essential to informing the public and building pressure for change. The central challenge is whether society can reach positive social tipping points before environmental tipping points, including possible Atlantic-current collapse and Amazon rainforest failure, become irreversible.

George Monbiot argues that the radical right’s call for Britain to abandon net zero and adapt to a Mediterranean climate is nihilistic and dangerously detached from the effects already visible in Mediterranean wildfires, English drought and worsening heat. He disputes claims that climate action is futile, noting that renewable energy is increasingly cheaper than fossil fuels and that international cooperation depends on wealthy countries reducing emissions. He also warns that climate disruption could produce extreme cold as well as heat, and contends that fossil-fuel profitability and elite investment help sustain opposition to climate policies. Although a few rightwing commentators support stronger action, he portrays them as a minority within the conservative press.

George Monbiot argues that fundamental rights in the UK and elsewhere are being eroded by authoritarian politics, billionaire and corporate lobbying, and restrictive legislation. He highlights US efforts under Donald Trump to target the political left, the prosecution of lawyer Rajiv Menon for reminding jurors of their right to acquit, limits on jury trials, expanded terrorism definitions, and the sentencing of protesters under terrorism-related provisions they were not able to contest at trial. He warns that anti-protest laws and coordinated model legislation are making dissent increasingly punishable and urges immediate resistance to prevent the permanent loss of civil liberties.

Industrial poultry farming is described as a major driver of river pollution in the UK, with criticism directed at government ministers accused of weakening planning constraints and prioritizing corporate interests. Emma Reynolds and Angela Eagle are portrayed as advancing industry-backed reforms, including efforts to expand poultry production and disregard climate targets. The government’s new Farming and Food Partnership Board and proposed deregulation plans are presented as further entrenching industry influence. Concerns are raised over declining nature protection and the potential impact of upcoming regulatory reforms, with Andy Burnham positioned as a key figure who could halt these approaches.

The UK’s carbon capture and storage programme could cost up to £264bn by 2050, with as much as £198bn ultimately passed to consumers through energy levies, alongside potentially uncosted hydrogen subsidies. The programme is criticized for relying largely on fossil-fuel-based power, gas-derived hydrogen and imported LNG, which could increase emissions and costs compared with renewables and battery storage. Lobbying by BP, Equinor and ExxonMobil is presented as a key reason governments continue supporting CCS, while the technology’s record includes abandoned UK projects and repeated cost and feasibility failures. Cancelling the programme is presented as a way for Andy Burnham’s government to avoid substantial public expenditure and reduce climate harms.

George Monbiot argues that rightwing newspapers are minimizing the health dangers of extreme heat and using nostalgia for the 1976 heatwave to oppose warnings and school closures. He cites evidence that warnings save lives, that children and vulnerable people face heightened risks, and that heat significantly harms classroom cognition and exam performance. The column links these dangers to class inequality: poorer households and state schools are less able to cool their buildings, while the government sets no maximum school temperature and offers inadequate guidance. Monbiot concludes that calls for individual toughness disproportionately expose poorer people and children to risks that wealthier groups can avoid.

George Monbiot argues that racist riots in Belfast and Southampton meet the government's definition of terrorism more clearly than Palestine Action's property-focused protests, yet far-right perpetrators have not faced terrorism charges while thousands supporting Palestine Action have been arrested. He criticizes the Court of Appeal's decision to uphold the group's proscription, the use of enhanced sentencing for protesters who were not tried as terrorists, and restrictions on presenting conscientious motivations in court. The article concludes that Britain has developed a system of two-tier justice in which far-right violence is treated more leniently than left-wing dissent.

The UK’s net-zero economy already employs more people and generates greater economic value than the declining oil and gas sector, with further growth expected through green-energy investment. George Monbiot argues that Reform UK and the Conservative Party’s support for North Sea fossil fuels and opposition to renewable-energy contracts would destroy hundreds of thousands of jobs, particularly harming workers who could transition into renewables and advanced manufacturing. He portrays Reform’s claims about future gas supplies and climate science as misleading, and argues that the party’s fossil-fuel stance serves wealthy donors and industry interests rather than its working-class voters.

England’s children’s care system is portrayed as a highly profitable and poorly regulated market in which private providers charge councils hundreds of thousands of pounds per child annually, with some fees exceeding £1m or even £3m. A shortage of publicly provided placements has led councils to send vulnerable children far from home, often to unregistered or unsuitable homes, increasing disruption and risks of exploitation. The article argues that profit-making provision is associated with worse outcomes and higher costs, criticizes both Labour and Conservative governments for maintaining the model, and calls for public ownership of children’s homes and expanded local-authority provision.

George Monbiot argues that Labour’s approach to Britain’s green transition is undermining the broad public consent needed for climate action. He criticises the government’s failure to communicate the urgency of climate breakdown, proposed restrictions on legal challenges to critical energy infrastructure, and continued limits on climate protest. The judicial review of the Vanguard offshore wind farm is presented as a legitimate and consequential challenge that exposed flaws in the project’s environmental assessment, while the later shelving of the Boreas project highlighted the infrastructure concerns raised by objectors. Monbiot concludes that imposing green infrastructure without meaningful public participation will generate resentment, weaken climate policy and benefit the fossil-fuel industry.

Political accountability often fails because voters struggle to attribute responsibility for complex or external conditions, allowing leaders who helped create crises to benefit from the resulting insecurity. George Monbiot argues that Brexit and austerity enabled Nigel Farage and Reform UK to channel public anger toward scapegoats, meaning Farage could potentially become prime minister despite Brexit’s consequences and poor local-government performance. He also criticizes Keir Starmer’s Labour government for restrictive fiscal rules, attacks on environmental protections and benefits, anti-immigrant rhetoric, and hostility toward its own left-wing base, arguing that this strategy deepens hopelessness and could help Farage rather than prevent his rise.

George Monbiot argues that antisemitism must be confronted consistently across the political spectrum. He accepts criticism of the Green Party, including antisemitic remarks by candidates and Zack Polanski’s contested response to attacks on synagogues and Jewish emergency services, but condemns the decision to invite Nigel Farage to an antisemitism rally while excluding Polanski. Monbiot accuses The Times, Telegraph, Daily Mail and Sun of using antisemitic imagery in caricatures of Polanski and criticises their failure to apologise. He also cites alleged antisemitic comments by Reform representatives and Farage, arguing that right-wing politicians and media receive far less scrutiny. He warns that selectively invoking antisemitism to attack the left both trivialises the issue and harms British Jews.

George Monbiot argues that conventional political campaigning fails because it speaks at voters rather than listening to them. He highlights deep canvassing, in which volunteers hold extended, nonjudgmental conversations that can make political attitudes more open and durable. He also describes Common Ground in South Devon, a small nonpartisan initiative that uses public polling boards and attentive discussion to engage deprived communities. Participants often express progressive views on the NHS, climate, compassion and inequality despite voting or intending to vote for Reform UK. Monbiot concludes that widespread “radical listening” could reduce alienation, counter far-right politics and help heal Britain’s divisions.

George Monbiot argues that large political donations undermine democratic trust even when no illegality or direct quid pro quo can be proved. He highlights Reform UK’s dependence on Christopher Harborne, the influence of wealthy donors over climate and financial policy, weakened UK electoral oversight, and loopholes involving foreign funding and cryptocurrency. He proposes replacing all private political donations with a system in which parties receive a fixed state match for each standard membership fee, contending that this would make funding transparent, reconnect parties with voters, and remove billionaire influence at relatively low public cost.

Scientists have reassessed the risk that human-caused climate change could trigger a collapse of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation, with Stefan Rahmstorf suggesting the probability may now exceed 50% by mid-century. Such a shutdown could bring extreme cold and storms to northern Europe, disrupt UK agriculture, accelerate sea-level rise along the US east coast, alter Amazon rainfall and intensify global climate feedbacks. George Monbiot argues that billionaire influence, fossil-fuel interests and economic models that minimise catastrophic risks have kept this threat from receiving adequate public and governmental attention.

George Monbiot argues that the US attack on Iran and the resulting fossil-fuel price shock have exposed the insecurity and volatility of oil and gas, potentially accelerating global demand for electric vehicles, solar panels, heat pumps and advanced batteries. He contends that Trump’s hostility to environmental policy may unintentionally strengthen the case for renewable energy, while urging the UK to rapidly electrify its economy, expand grid storage and improve energy efficiency rather than develop marginal North Sea fossil-fuel reserves. The article also links fossil-fuel wealth and Russian influence to right-wing political movements, concluding that the unintended consequences of Trump’s war could weaken Trumpism and the fossil-fuel industry.

George Monbiot argues that global food security increasingly depends on international trade because countries cannot reliably meet their needs from domestic production alone. He warns that the system has lost resilience through dependence on fertilizers, global supply chains and other critical inputs, making it vulnerable to an unpredictable tipping-point event. He compares the situation with the global financial system before the 2008 crisis and suggests that a war involving Iran could trigger a severe disruption to food supplies.

The UK is facing an expanding organised waste-crime industry, with an estimated 8,000–13,000 illegal waste sites containing hazardous materials. Weak enforcement, regulatory underfunding and deregulation have allowed criminal gangs to profit from dumping waste on farmland, nature reserves and near communities, while sites such as Bickershaw, the River Cherwell and Hoad’s Wood have caused serious environmental and social harm. Cleanup costs fall on taxpayers and may reach tens of billions of pounds, yet the government’s new waste-crime action plan provides only £15 million a year for enforcement—an amount comparable to the cleanup cost of a single major site.

The global food system has become dangerously fragile because production and trade are concentrated among a small number of corporations, rely on just-in-time supply chains and pass through vulnerable chokepoints. War involving Iran, attacks on shipping, climate-related harvest failures, financial speculation or major corporate failures could trigger cascading breakdowns, panic buying, food spoilage and potentially mass starvation. Monbiot argues that governments should break up large corporations, strengthen regulation, diversify diets and production, reduce dependence on major exporters and establish strategic food reserves. He particularly supports a shift toward plant-based diets, while condemning UK policy for promoting domestic poultry production that still depends on imported feed.

The 1953 British- and US-backed coup against Iran’s democratic government, carried out to protect oil interests, helped produce the shah’s dictatorship and the 1979 revolution, Monbiot argues. He broadens this history into a critique of capitalism, claiming that fossil-fuel wealth sustains coercive economic systems, authoritarian leaders, militarism and climate denial. Reducing oil dependence, he says, could weaken these power structures while delivering a cheaper and more secure energy system. He calls for an emergency-scale transition to net zero, despite opposition from fossil-fuel interests and restrictions on climate activism.

Rising UK energy bills are primarily attributed to fossil-gas prices and the marginal-cost electricity-pricing system, not to renewable energy or green levies. The piece argues that expanding North Sea gas would not reduce household bills because gas is sold at international prices, domestic reserves are costly to extract, and most reserves have already been depleted. It contrasts the UK’s gas dependence with Norway’s hydroelectric system, calls for better energy storage and continued investment in a carbon-free grid, and criticizes rightwing politicians, the Institute of Economic Affairs and parts of the press for promoting fossil fuels as a solution to the energy crisis.

George Monbiot argues that Shabana Mahmood’s proposed extension of the qualifying period for indefinite leave to remain, along with restrictions on permanent refugee status, echoes measures introduced by antisemitic Home Secretary William Joynson-Hicks in the 1920s. He compares contemporary accusations against Muslims and immigrants with earlier antisemitic claims about Jewish refugees, arguing that rightwing media continue to fuel fear, conspiracy theories and social division. Monbiot cites the Daily Mail’s 1930s support for Oswald Mosley and its eventual retreat after pressure from advertiser J Lyons & Co as evidence that media outlets can be challenged. He concludes that the government is worsening polarization by appeasing the press, undermining public services and alienating Labour voters, while warning that minorities remain increasingly vulnerable to far-right hostility.

George Monbiot argues that Labour should have been expected to dominate the Gorton and Denton byelection but has squandered its advantage through unpopular policies, attacks on the left and an increasingly rightward approach to immigration and social issues. He says polling now places the Greens ahead of Reform UK and Labour, making the Greens the strongest apparent challenger to Reform candidate Matt Goodwin, whom he portrays as deeply unsuitable and politically controversial. Monbiot contends that Labour’s claim to be focused on defeating Reform is unconvincing because it refuses electoral reform and avoids attacking Reform’s links to wealthy and fossil-fuel interests. He concludes that Labour’s decline has created an opening for the Greens and risks enabling the far right.

The review praises George Monbiot and Peter Hutchison’s book as a concise but forceful account of how neoliberalism spread from Friedrich Hayek’s intellectual circle through thinktanks, wealthy donors and political networks. It argues that the ideology’s emphasis on free markets, deregulation, privatisation and globalisation has become dominant across mainstream politics, while producing greater inequality, weaker public services and slower growth than the postwar period. The book proposes finance reform and a participatory “politics of belonging” as alternatives suited to the climate crisis, though the review notes little evidence of reform in the UK, where electoral spending limits have risen and donor transparency has declined.