We have the evidence front the Thatcher era. Triple down economics is not true
We have the evidence front the Thatcher era. Triple down economics is not true
Capitalism is not all the same. The neoliberal model is the worst and the UK version ,thanks to Thatcher, means we are fully exposed to predatory capitalism
Germany and Italy say they export lots of goods to Kyrgyzstan (black), but Kyrgyz import data (blue) show little arriving from either. Kyrgyzstan is just what it says on the invoice. This stuff obviously goes to Russia. Poland & Lithuania stopped this racket. Why won't Germany and Italy do the same?
I take your point but the word has the other meaning too
They are just poodles, following wherever Trump leads, no independent ideas.
Let's hope the paper runs a long term hostile running commentary on hoe Reform are doing
There seems to be no attempt to assess the social costs of poverty on health,health care and employment from government and the costs not just in mental health are huge
Poverty Is Driving Mental Illness Among the UK Young. Low wages, high rents, cost of living, insecure jobs, debt, poor healthcare infrastructure leading to anxiety and illness. Political parties obsessed with austerity, low wages, public service cuts; won't curb profiteering. Futures blighted.
Farage is Trumps obedient poodle, follows him everywhere
Now @justsecurity.org I join Alex de Waal (@worldpeacefdtn.bsky.social) to call on all states with any leverage at all over Israel to use it without delay to demand comprehensive, full-spectrum, sustainable, & coordinated humanitarian action. Time has run out www.justsecurity.org/117962/mass-...
The drug companies are ignoring one important advantage of the NHS for the sale of drugs. It makes marketing and distribution much easier. The US has until v. recently allowed drug companies to charge what they want. Right to change that but they are used to big margins
One ofvthe problems is that news casters start with the most recent print media when formulating their priorities for broadcast. But most of our media is very right wing. They do not seem to consider a correction to that bias
I don’t want to be too shrill about this but I think the BBC, ITV and Sky have disgraced themselves in their coverage of the anti-refugee protests. A massive failure of judgement. But now we know the next time a progressive protest “isn’t news” that it’s nothing to do with numbers
If you have a badly behaved child constantly seeking attention could take your attention away. Perhaps it would be worth trying this with Trump. Giving himalayas the attention he craves just means he does more stupid things to get more
There is something about doing the same thing again and again and expecting a different outcome. It is essential that Thames Water is allowed for to go bust so that predatory capitalism realise they can lose
Bribed?
Is there any quality research of the effects of huge pheasant numbers on our biodiversity? If not this work needs doing urgently
UK Government's Chief Veterinary Officer, Dr Christine Middlemiss claims: "Strong biosecurity is our best defence". It isn't. Not releasing 60 million gamebirds is. #AvianFlu #Ornithology raptorpersecutionuk.org/2025/08/21/d...
The right's canonisation of this women is sick beyond belief. You don't have to agree with her jail sentence to think what she did was foul.
You know nothing just making assumptions. Not a good way to form opinions. The on line safety act is to protect children. I don't know if this is the best way to do it but I certainly want them protected
Interesting but also applies to the South West in most respects. It is really the South East versus the rest. East Anglia in part being a half way house
I don't know if Palestinian Action is a terrorist organisation but what most of us hatewhat is happening to the Palestinians that they have put their trust behind Palestinian Action, in part because they reject the Government's v muted response to Israels actions. They are not terrorist
Israel itself has long sought to conflate criticism of itself as antisemitic. Labeling any su h comments as antisemitic creates a minefield for the very many who find the current Israeli government abhorrent. This creates difficulties for many including Jews not happy with Israeli government
You are trying to influence a rogue democracy, so yes collective punishment. It worked eventually in South Africa it needs to be done now
Because if there is social breakdown. 1. They think they can escape the effects. 2 then they will be able to mop up the assets. 3 our r.wing press need Labour to fail and this is one way to achieve that. They are amoral
I think it is important to describe Farage as Trumps obedient poodle or copycat, it is not a good look
The young need help and this would be a helpful step forward
Free bus passes should be given to all under 22-year-olds in England MPs say In a new report today, the Commons Transport Committee said giving free bus passes to all under 22-year-olds would improve young people's access to 'work and skills opportunities' www.mirror.co.uk/news/politic...
It would be more honest if national insurance was just rolled into income tax. I'd do it on a cost-neutral basis: retired people on higher incomes would pay more tax, but people of working age would see a tax cut.
I think Ai may need to be rationed. U have a lovely grandson experimenting with Ai to write fun poetry . This is a deeply irrational use of huge amounts of energy
Weapons are rarely about defense but offense people who carry knives are more likely to get stabbed. The defense us an illusion
One of the underlying issues is that big construction makes a lot of money, now, out of their construction. Watching Hinkley go up reinforces that . They have won before it starts operating and have no responsibility for its decommissioning
Controlling weapons is about protecting the majority. Their right to safety is bigger than a minorities right to show off with weapons
Don't forget the law protects property before people too
How is this even possible? We have a desperate shortage of GPs, patients are waiting weeks for a GP appointment yet fully qualified GPs can’t get work. Surely this needs fixing urgently www.gponline.com/huge-rise-gp...
I am calling for Parliament to be recalled immediately in light of the Israeli security cabinet's decision. We must hold the UK govt to account and secure urgent action to alleviate suffering in Gaza.
But if it reduced the amount of gambling that would be good
It may be impossible to close these firms down. But surely if the state starts building a new system it would increase competition forcing these firms to reduce margins
Access to safe abortion protects the health of women and girls. As with all other health services, women and girls should be able to access safe and respectful abortion care, when they need it, without fear of harm, punishment or recrimination. #HealthForAll
Hard to exaggerate how bad peter thiel running the uk via farage will be
I think he could also be called Trumps poodle as a his policies echo the president
I read your blog with interest but my point is on a small scale you can remove many of the problems you highlight. However I have yet to find a no carbon solution to heavy deer predation necessitating guards a d stakes for trees
I am not interested in carbon offset. What I pla t is additional trees, if you like a gift to my grandchildren. I mostly plant trees from locally harvested seed, and grown in my community nursery where peat is banned . But we can only grow about 2,900 a year.
I fully agree that the cost of installing the scheme should be evaluated and included. But that is not necessarily a bad thing. I plant trees, I grow from seed and plant locally as gift not carbon offset. I welcome information that would enable to do so better
That picture looks to have been a well planned planting. Well spaced etc. But that is only one part of the story it will look better in time and will store carbon a d homes for insects and birds but does not replace existing woodland with more biodiversity
Except it was the tories what did it, look at the time line
The headline here should say: "Number of private schools increases by 35 - showing fears of an exodus to be unfounded". (The increase is mentioned way down the article.) www.thetimes.com/article/19ef...
She still appears on the moral naze regularly it is hard to understand why
Merlin gets things wrong. It told me that in our field in rural Somerset we had a great northern diver
But we force them to only eat grass
Cows are a problem. But let's sort pheasants first, very destructive of wildlife, and supplementary feeding. Over 20 million imported each year just so a relatively small number can enjoy shooting them
No necessarily you can grow beef with trees( they like to browse) But that means it becomes an occasional treat.
I agree maize is very destructive of the soil too
That's true but, and it's a big but, what happened last year was a nation determined to remove the tories and they tactically voted every which way. So it is difficult to generalise into the future
So what it the way to combat the monster?I am beginning to think the world should just stop talking to him. He craves being the centre of attention. Not even the US can fight on all these fronts at once. Also to do so requires consistency, which he does not have
Keir Starmer’s Government Still Hasn’t Reviewed Use of Musk’s X Despite Platform ‘Amplifying Hate Speech & Misinformation’ Downing Street continues to refuse to explore communicating through alternative platforms despite role of X in last summer’s violent disorder bylinetimes.com/2025/07/31/k...
There is research that shows many y famines are about inability to pay for food.ie most famines are man made
You have fewer investments in our society because of such absurd tax avoidance. Cumulatively it matters
I assure you many are angry about level of inequality. The book The Spirit Level tells you why we should all be angry about it
Clearly looking from a particular position not to be regarded as gospel
But if the money went to individuals they would spend it and boost economic growth. Banks will juste rich themselves. If they do not face the consequences of corruption then they will do it again
But the fact of such gross inequality harms us all and reducing it will benefit us all. If you haven't,it is time to read the Spirit Level
They are apparently going to allow food to be dropped from the air and my post was in that context. You may notice that I don't think it will deliver a good outcome, but rather think its performative
Why, I don't think so
How are they going to stop Hamas or other violent groups hogging the aid. It may help a little but begs the question why they are still preventing effective aid distribution by UNRA. It looks performative to me
1/9 Steve Reed and his £100bn: a timeline. Steve Reed says he won’t nationalise the water industry, because it would cost £100bn. 👀So where does that figure come from?👀 He claims that it comes from his own department. 🚨But it looks like it came from the private water companies. #ComeCleanSteve
Starbucks’ CEO made 6,666 times more than his workers in 2024 whilst workers languish in poverty. That would not happen if workers voted on CEO pay. Corporations are private fiefdoms. Starbucks has a complex corporate structure and has long been known for profit shifting and tax dodges.
'UN agency says staff fainting from hunger as starvation spreads in Gaza'. The ‘entire humanitarian system is collapsing’, says UNRWA chief Grotesque, appalling: the UK must sanction Netanyahu, stop sending Israel weapons, & recognise the state of Palestine www.theguardian.com/world/2025/j...
Of course you can't get rich on the state pension. It is the consequences of people's life in work, index linked pensions and generous tax help then that causes both inequality and this rather wealthy group of pensioners who should be taxed more
That's true but that is only a partial picture there are many whose circumstances are different and privileged who should do more
So you want the baby boomers to escape proper contribution to the young just because it may impact you eventually
I have never said all pensioners don't pay rent, but that there is a large section who are well off and undertaxed who own their homes and did benefit from nanny tax reliefs. This group needs to be taxed more to help the young who never had the same advantages
Oh yes we are. We pay no rent or mortgage nor national insurance. For those ,and there are many, they are living v well and are under taxed. We had mortgage interest tax relief, university grants, child benefit for all children. Time to help the young
Is it good that they will as a result pay no tax and have no protections from exploitation. Also most people would want fewer illegal immigrants and for some the ability to work illegally is a pull
I agree with this post but how would the income from changed council tax banding be redistributed? Otherwise LAs in the wealthy parts of the country would have more money to spend and the North less.
I am sorry if that's your experience, mine is of people with too much money ,which then gets spent in ways that are bad for the planet. Pensioners use the NHS most,inevitably but are not contributing their fair share
But many pensioners are both. Home owners gave fewer outgoings
Yes these are now significant assets. Among the community I live in one obvious sign is the number of holidays people take. There needs to be more taxation. Merging national insurance and income tax would do it
Yet much policy ignores the fact that many current pensioners are affluent and asset rich and under taxed
Could we start by demanding comprehensive free dental care for under 18s. Could create new arrangements that could then be expanded
But it's not true there is massive private sector inefficiency too . Just the right wing slant always portrays the ps as bad and the private inefficiency seen as isolated incident
Actually the guy from Wessex water was interesting giving a complex picture of government and regulator failure. Both true and was cut short. The venal culpability of these water companies is always under stated
I trust that people here on Bluesky understand the difference between culling deer (to reduce environmental damage) and shooting massive numbers of artificially raised grouse (causing huge environmental damage by slaughtering any potential predators and burning large areas of moorland).
Indeed. Not my photo. But is is easy to become too doctrinair about solving conservation problems in only one way. We need multiple approaches
Ridiculous
You can't add hedgerows that way and hedgerows are one useful way of adding trees into the landscape. Yes natural regeneration is good but hard to assess for bureaucrats.
It is complicated. I agree that there is too much emphasis on planting sometimes inappropriately. But where I am its a question of adding new hedgerows. Improving wildlife connectivity, flood reduction, as well as other benefits. These need to be planted. We use locally grown trees from local seed
I lost respect for him when he joined Meta and defended them
How do you ensure a nation fails to cope with drought? Privatise its water system. Almost everyone wants our water renationalised. Almost everyone, that is, except the government. This week's column. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
The companies should vote Labour then
To appease corporations, people raze mountains, divert rivers, clear forests & shower gifts. Corporations have no loyalty to any place/people. Tax dodges, abuse of customers, workers, environment normalised. Govts do little to curb corporate abuses/power. Are we all going to be corporate slaves?
Don't they learn from the past
And supporting rural cycle paths. Often very necessary and can be cheaper to build
Farmers need to consider this when managing their land. Very reluctant to plant trees uf it inhibits the use of mega tractors when their livestock are going to need more shade
Numbers very small to achieve any sort jf transformation, but at keast it is the right idea
Surely you could start by giving all children access to NHS dentistry. Then hopefully expand from there
The police have to uphold the law, it is its design that is so stupid
There is a growing network of community tree nurseries in England. Mildly supported by government. Ireland can do it too. Trees locally adapted few tree miles and a far lower chance of disease
On 6 Aug 2024 OFWAT announced fines: £104m for Thames Water £47m for Yorkshire Water £17m for Northumbrian Water Amount paid - ZERO. When pressed, Minister says TW should pay by 20 August 2025. Others? Water companies have criminal convictions and are indulged Corporate capture of the state.
They are better than the tories but that is a very low bar