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Bowing to a dead dictator: pipelines, personality cults and the US Ambassador
Azeri democracy activists were enraged when in September, the new US Ambassador to Baku bowed down in front of the memorial to the late dictator Heydar Aliyev, father of the current dictator Ilham Aliyev. The State Department initially tried to claim that Richard Morningstar had only laid a wreath of flowers at the memorial to…
5 Oct 2012 admin -
Shell Classic International: A musical mask and a social licence
A guest post from musician Chris Garrard. Tonight, the new season of the Shell Classic International concert series will open at the Southbank. The first piece of this first concert is Benajmin Britten’s ‘plea for peace’, the Sinfonia da Requiem. The unpleasant irony is that Shell, the sponsor of these concerts, have now spent in…
3 Oct 2012 admin -
Revealed: Vince Cable, ‘Minister for Shell’
Documents obtained by Corporate Watch show that Vince Cable has been acting as “Contact Minister for Shell”. In a letter to Vince Cable, dated 19 March 2012, Malcolm Brinded, (who, at the time of writing, was Chief Executive of Shell Upstream International) thanks Vince Cable for attending a Shell strategy presentation; adding that he hopes…
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Divide and fall? Total criticise Arctic oil drilling
As Andy Rowell wrote this morning, “this is big news”. Total are the first major oil company to publicly state that companies should not be drilling for oil in the Arctic. A divide amongst the oil majors will only increase pressure on companies, like Shell, who despite having to abandon this years drilling plans, still…
26 Sep 2012 admin -
“An unexpectedly engaging tale” – The Oil Road reviewed in the FT
This weekend the Financial Times featured a great essay by Ed Crooks on some accounts of the oil industry. We were thrilled that Crooks led with Fuel on the Fire and Platform’s new book The Oil Road, as well as Jeff Rubin’s The Big Flatline. Fuel on the Fire, published in 2011, reveals the oil…
24 Sep 2012 admin -
Better Banking in Action: A Credit Union Open Day – Sat 6th October 2012
This is a guest blog by Danni Paffard, one of the fabulous people at Move Your Money – the campaign for people to switch accounts from dirty banks to more ethical or community finance institutions. As scandal after scandal blows up in the papers, and the behaviour of our big banks goes from bad…
24 Sep 2012 admin -
An ill wind blows
We know there is a vocal minority of anti-wind campaigners out there, who still cannot see the irony in their statements that wind turbines will destroy their local environment, even in the face of serious flooding across the UK being the latest in a series of ‘funny weathers’ that have gripped the globe this year…
23 Sep 2012 admin -
As BP’s “Contract of the Century” comes of age, new book reveals untold story of corruption & power
Today, BP’s Baku mega-oil project – one of its largest in the world – comes of age, 18 years since the Contract of the Century was signed in September 1994. To mark the anniversary, Verso Books and Platform are releasing a new book detailing its hidden story of geo-political manipulation, imprisonment of critics and environmental…
20 Sep 2012 admin -
MPs find government support for Arctic drilling ‘reckless’
The UK government’s support for Arctic Oil drilling was labelled ‘reckless’ today by the Environmental Audit Committee (EAC). The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) has been quietly supporting oil companies’ Arctic ambitions but this is the first time there has been public scrutiny of the department’s actions in relation to Arctic drilling. The Committee published…
20 Sep 2012 admin
