Journalist for nearly 60 years in UK. Newspapers, TV, Radio, Crisis PR. Socialist, atheist, republican. Now sharing the life stories of my generation on YouTube.
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Immediate and non reversible renationalisation is the only way to protect the public from these greedy cowboys. This is what happens when you put a city banker in charge at the Treasury. BBC News - Thames Water bidders ready to clear out top managers www.bbc.com/news/article...
Realising Denmark was much more Anglo-Saxon than Viking makes us more likely to have crossed the Northern Sea soon after the end of Roman rule. The past always enlightens the present, if we only listen.
When Williams explained there were set trading ports doing business with Scandinavia, and one of them was Ipswich, it all made a lot more sense. So too did our family's genetic marker, bent little fingers, which apparently stem from one small village in modern Denmark.
Viking Britain by Thomas Williams on Audible suddenly added to my understanding. As a native of Orford, within spitting distance of Sutton Hoo, I have always been a bit puzzled how an Anglo Saxon Leader, like Redwald got so rich and sufficiently important to warrant a big ship burial.
Reform UK, the right leaning think tank Policy Exchange, and some Labour grandees, are all pushing for us to either leave the ECHR, or disapply parts of it temporarily or permanently. This puts me, you and everyone at risk, not just those seeking sanctuary.
@samcoatessky.bsky.social hi Sam, this morning you stated “…the main opposition parties, the Cons and Reform UK…” Unless I missed 67 Parliamentary by-elections since July, the Lib Dems are very much the main opposition party with the Cons, not Reform. Do we have to keep doing this?
Nice. Where is Steve Reed? MIA www-devonlive-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.devo...
Tories pledge to drown your grandchildren in desperate bid for the gammon vote. BBC News - Tories pledge to get all oil and gas out of North Sea www.bbc.com/news/article...
The MAHA (Make America Healthy Again) anti-vaccination conspiracy movement, led by RFK Jr., is in control of the U.S. government’s health agencies, including the CDC. MAHA is already causing health crises, and it will cause more in the coming months. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/27/h...
Multiple CDC leaders have resigned in the wake of layoffs and a shooting at the agency’s headquarters this month.
Lunatics are running the American Asylum
The newly ousted director of the CDC refused to fire top agency leaders or approve changes to vaccines from RFK Jr.’s hand-picked panel of advisers.
Starbucks CEO pay: $96 MILLION Starbucks worker pay: $15,000 Coca-Cola CEO pay: $28 MILLION Coca-Cola worker pay: $14,000 CEOs used to make like 20x the average worker. In 2024, the average CEO earned 632x more. The system is rigged.
Love this from Humanists UK! #Thatshumanism is the perfect introduction to the humanist approach to life, featuring four animations narrated by Stephen Fry, and brand new posters all about humanism for schools. Have a look for yourself! humanists.uk/thatshumanism/
Only the incompetent and the crooked hide from public scrutiny. Perhaps Reform have things to hide? BBC News - Reform UK Nottinghamshire council leader bans local newspaper's reporters - BBC News www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
This is how a dictatorship functions - and it's a million miles from democracy and an open democracy with freedom to criticise. BBC News - US disaster agency suspends workers who criticised Trump cuts, reports say www.bbc.com/news/article...
Genocide by Israel's government while Starmer and his cronies watch and tolerate their actions. BBC News - Gaza City evacuation inevitable, Israeli army warns Palestinians www.bbc.com/news/article...
Rachel Reeves just gave a top government job to a Thames Water crony Jenny Scott's appointment isn’t an isolated lapse. It is from a Labour government drowning in scandal and political sewage. www.thecanary.co/uk/analysis/...
"FIVE FUN FAR-RIGHT FARAGE FACTS! In true (pun intended!) Bank Holiday spirit, here are some enlightening & amusing ‘Farage Facts’ – 5, to be precise: 1. His surname is German: ‘ein Farägefahrt’ ..." via Allan Todd www.facebook.com/allan.todd.1...
How can I be happy? Narrated by Stephen Fry, #Thatshumanism explores where meaning in life comes from – not a cosmic plan, but what we create through relationships, creativity, and the world around us. Watch the video: humanists.uk/thatshumanism/
The BBC determination to pretend this tiny bunch of bigots are a government in waiting has reached ridiculous levels. And that's quite an achievement. www.bbc.com/news/article...
Such a devastating and insightful response from the gentleman way to my right. I am crushed by your wisdom. Honest......
With food prices a major cause of inflation why are the economists and politicians not pointing at ever-growing supermarket profits as a cause of our misery? Or is shareholders' greed another forbidden topic? BBC News - www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cp...
Cooper's sad defence of her kneejerk, authoritarian attack protest, has all the signs of half truths and lies cobbled together to protect a politician in trouble. Dodgy Dossier anyone? www.bbc.com/news/article...
"Disastrously wrenching our country out of the European Union was a cranky obsession of relatively few plastic patriots who hoodwinked a minor majority subsequently regretting the giant con." Spot on by Kevin Maguire. ~AA www.mirror.co.uk/news/politic...
You can quote stats showing crime is down. You can debunk every lurid claim. But fear works better than facts - and Reform UK knows it. My latest on the “Britain is Lawless” fear factory:
NEW: In June, ProPublica reported that the FDA has given more than 20 foreign factories a special pass to send drugs to the U.S. even though they were made at plants the agency had banned. Today, we’re publishing a list of those exempted drugs.
He’s using the military against US citizens while gerrymandering democrats out of existence. The time to fight is now.
Aluminium - the metallic roots of a Black Country business youtu.be/O9crwy8INk0
Speeding through history youtu.be/LFBp-Quo9KE
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a... We are at a significant moment with regards to our rights - rights we thought had been embedded.
Tossers will be Tossers BBC News - Rupert Lowe mistakes charity rowers for 'illegal migrants' - BBC News www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Shugborough's Squadrons youtu.be/zw37UfTTrJA
Moseley Old Hall - Centuries of Gentry youtu.be/T4K4U_xE5wg
Is this Government going to put the nail in the coffin of the joy of digging ground for potatoes on a cold, wet February Sunday afternoon? The battle for the grass roots is on! www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/202...
"He sows division in our communities, and like last summer race riots, it puts the lives of people seeking sanctuary in danger"
Scandal-hit Lord Dannatt now caught lobbying for arms industry against Palestine Action Mate of David Cameron Lord Dannatt launched a smear campaign against Palestine Action for an arms company he was an adviser to www.thecanary.co/uk/analysis/...
Excellent letter from experts from the People's Commission contesting the Government's figures on bringing water back into public ownership. The appropriate value would actually be closer to zero. www.theguardian.com/business/202...
"The environment secretary should not use figures that are clearly misleading and have no bearing on the actual costs of public ownership." Sadly he is carrying on doing so. @ewanmg.bsky.social @beckymalby.bsky.social @weownit.org.uk @sophieconquest.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/business/202...
Brexit is putting bills up and water quality down. It's time for a UK-EU partnership on Energy, Climate and Environment. #OneEarthOneTeam www.europeanmovement.co.uk/one_earth_one_team
Thank god for sketch writers… Welcome scorn for the sinister clownshow that is Farage and his entourage of frothing halfwits. “Don’t believe the stats that show violent crime is going down, says Farage: just turn the graphs the other way up and use your own data” www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
Yorkshire Water slammed by @greenparty.org.uk local councillors as it pours sewage into our rivers and money into the pockets of Directors and shareholders in return for failure www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/news/2532384...
What we should really tax if we want the rich to pay more youtu.be/Y6dzBpfIli8?... Taxing the wealthy sounds easy. But what happens when we don’t actually know what they own or what it’s worth?
BBC News - More than 150 farms in England caught using local water illegally www.bbc.com/news/article...
🚨 No More First Past the Post Elections. 5 parties polling strongly, chaotic results, millions left unrepresented. We need Proportional Representation — NOW. ✍️ Sign the petition: actionnetwork.org/petitions/20...
Unite cut Starmer's Labour government massive amounts of slack, giving them every possible opportunity to get things right. Workers, not just at Birmingham Council, but everywhere, have had more than enough of these politicians' duplicity and betrayal. This marks a defining moment.
✍️ How Britain privatised itself into failure Britain outsourced its state – now private firms profit while public services crumble. In Failed State, Sam Freedman explains what went wrong By John Cole
Our privatised water system is broken - and water lobbyists have worked hard to shut down alternatives.In July the People’s Commission is launching a people-first vision for our water in Parliament.Your MP needs to hear about it: actionnetwork.org/letters/ask-...
Poverty isn't inevitable. It's a political choice. Lower rents. Cheaper bills. Tax the rich. A fairer future is within reach. Let’s build it together. Join us: join.greenparty.org.uk
Exclusive: Health service estimated to be spending £50bn a year on effects of deprivation and child poverty Austerity is the real enemy. www.theguardian.com/society/2025...
In a less imperfect world, Musk and Trump would be forever cast as killers of children, and this would be front-page news for months and the subject of Sunday sermons in every church.
As a Jew I am far, FAR more alarmed by our institutions equating me and other Jews with the IDF, who are responsible for the murder of over 80,000 Palestinians, by dint of framing any critique against the IDF as ‘antisemitism.’ Linking all Jews to the IDF is *actual* fucking antisemitism.
Sanctions worked on apartheid. Why not sanction Israel, then? youtu.be/PLhkJLy2hzo?... The Co-op has banned Israeli goods. The UK government remains silent. This silence is complicity. Real leadership in the face of genocide would require that the UK sanction Israel.
Disabled people could face extra costs of almost £15,000 a year by the end of the decade, grim research shows, as the row over the Government’s welfare cuts continues www.mirror.co.uk/news/politic...
If only there were half the outrage over Israeli soldiers shooting starving people queuing for food as there has been towards some rappers mouthing off at Glastonbury, we'd be in a very different place
Jackie Walker passionately sums up the anger toward the media and political establishment over attempts to subvert free speech at Glastonbury!! youtu.be/HUq8038H23k?...
This is an excellent but necessarily enraging article. If your blood is not boiling to the point of full evaporation by this government's plans for disabled people then you're not paying attention. And if you think this doesn't/won't ever affect you or the people in your life, think again.
Pundits are framing the welfare bill chaos as Downing Street’s failure to communicate the moral case for cuts - but there is no moral case. That’s the problem. These plans are staggering assaults on support that won’t help disabled people into work. No one can sell that.
Today, the UK government intends to ban the non-violent protesters Palestine Action as a "terrorist" group, exposing anyone supporting them to terrorism charges. In 2 days, 380,000 people have watched this video on YT alone. You're going to need a bigger prison. www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECkV...
UPDATE: Senate Republicans made Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill even worse. Now, this bill rips health care coverage away from 17 MILLION people—that’s an additional 1 MILLION people. Health care cuts now total over $1 TRILLION.
Left: Louise Haigh, "I will support the government on Tuesday in recognition they've made significant progress, and protecting the incomes of 400,000 disabled people across the country" Right: Rosie Jones, "They're not thinking about the millions of people who will become disabled in the future"
Not just excess, it’s a system built to keep people hungry so the rich can keep feasting. But the masses are waking up. Powerful video…
If you are not concerned by the proscription of Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation because you think it doesn’t impact you, you are wrong. This is an authoritarian abuse of power by the government & it curtails all of our civil liberties #r4today
Holding people to ransom Thames Water lenders demand govt block campaigners from legal action. Their demands: Exemption from environmental laws. No fines, prosecutions for abuses. Rocketing customer bills. Continue with sewage dumping, cash extraction. Let TW collapse. Nationalise for £1.
“We cannot have nuclear proliferation” says Foreign Secretary. Yet recent Govt decision to upgrade UK’s own nuclear weapons is precisely nuclear proliferation. Breaking terms of non proliferation treaty ourselves means we have no moral authority to tell others not to do the same #bbcr4today
Project Here.
via @huddersfieldtuc.bsky.social
The verdict, nine years on: “an unambiguous stagnation in investment.” “A large chunk of [tax rises] would not have been necessary if the UK had voted to remain in the EU or chosen a softer form of Brexit.” ~AA www.thetimes.com/article/346e... #BrexitMemorial
Nigel Farage's new non-dom policy "would provide a very large and expensive tax windfall to a small number of very wealthy people who are already here... [that] would amount to £34bn of lost Government revenue over five years" taxpolicy.org.uk/2025/06/23/b...
And they have the nerve to describe this plan to rob everyone and give to the rich as a "Robin Hood" policy. ~AA
👨⚖️ A number of trans and intersex people are suing the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), and the Minister for Women and Equalities, Bridget Phillipson. https://www.wearequeeraf.com/ehrc-faces-judicial-review-which-could-overturn-its-instruction-to-segregate-trans-people/
2 wks ago we heard lots of bluster from Labour about how awful & unacceptable situation in #Gaza was but the concrete action pledged by KeirStarmer hasnt materialised. Its time for action not more words – Israel has crossed too many red lines say @greenparty.org.uk greenparty.org.uk/2025/06/03/a...
Labour Friends Of Genocide support the slaughter of little children. Of course they'll deny it, but that's effectively what they have done. #LabourFriendsOfGenocide
We’ve truly lost our way in this country. An 80-year-old vet who fought for this country just got arrested protesting Trump‘s parade. He deserves respect, not handcuffs.
#WelfareNotWarfare Join DPAC on Monday 30th June 4.30pm at Parliament Square for a mass protest at Parliament as thd consult-a-sham on disability benefit cuts ends & for a National Day of Action on Thursday 3rd July when MPs will vote on disability benefit cuts youtube.com/shorts/gopEQ...
This is what happens when an ignorant and corrupt President gives power to a dangerous fruitcakes conspiracy theorist. BBC News - RFK Jr sacks entire US vaccine committee www.bbc.com/news/article...
A remarkable honest and balanced report from Jeremy Bowen which makes it clear Starmer is complicit in genocide by Israel. BBC News - Israel is accused of the gravest war crimes in Gaza - BBC News www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
🔥 Well said these MPs. This government now appears to be deliberately misleading the house on their position on Israel & Gaza. Everyone write to your MPs and ask where their voice is.
Extending the entitlement for Free School Meals from 25% of pupils to 29% of pupils (2.6million) is welcome. But it's not enough. @greenparty.org.uk would scrap the 2 child benefit cap and give all children a daily free meal. That is what tackling child poverty really looks like.
What in the absolute f*cking sh*tstorm of manipulative, doom-scrolling, clickbait journalism is this garbage Crerar calls an article? Who from the oil lobby got to her? She clearly swapped journalistic integrity for industry access. We need the truth, not this Labour hating sludge. #ukpolitics
Labour's attempts to blame rising small boat numbers on the weather are "pathetic" says Shadow Conservative Home Secretary Chris Philp In other news, here's Chris Philp, when he was Immigration Minister, blaming rising small boat numbers on the weather
No money for people with disabilities. No money for the elderly. No money for children in poverty. Always money for war.
This interview was thoroughly worth watching. Great words as always from @zackpolanski.bsky.social. It time to join the Greens and have a voice. People and planet first. Take a look @greenparty.org.uk and fight the right.
Starmer's Labour Party expels leftwingers for the tiniest perceived infractions. Yet it welcomes people who are basically Trumpists into the very heart of its operations. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
Failed pandemic-era PPE contracts cost the British taxpayer £1.4billion. The Covid counter-fraud commissioner uncovered the figure in the first phase of his probe into wasteful Tory spending during the pandemic www.mirror.co.uk/news/politic...
Dear Keir Starmer & co, You could stop the small boats, smash the gangs, and take back government control over entry to the UK, very quickly if you took up the French offer of a centre to process claims in northern France. If it was the boats and the deaths you wanted to stop. #r4today
The Blue Labour group of Labour MPs consisted of four named members last time I checked. They claim it’s now actually in the double digits but until they’ve got a serious membership list of people who will openly associate with the brand, they deserve to be treated as a fringe of a fringe.
No money for teachers, nurses or doctors, but there is money for war No money for the NHS, but there is money for war No money for the disabled or elderly, but there is money for war. We should be planning for peace, not war. www.theguardian.com/politics/liv...
via @theleftbible.bsky.social
Israel so-called 'aid' programme for Gaza isn't about feeding the survivors. It's just another phase in its genocide. New post 👇 www.owenjones.news/p/israels-ai...
Nigel Farage wants to dismantle our NHS and replace it with this ... meme via Clare Underhillhead
👇🏼Badenoch says “I won’t lie to get votes. We need to be honest” That’s the same ‘Honest Kemi’ who claimed as Trade Secretary that the UK was in Trade talks with Canada Which they very publicly👇🏼and angrily refuted as a barefaced lie 🤥 Her supreme arrogance is only outshone by her utter stupidity❗️
British surgeon Dr Victoria Rose on BBC News "Children in Gaza are so malnourished that they're actually wasting away" "It's shocking to see this degree of malnutrition" "And it's because of Israel's blockade"
“We can, and must, do better than continuing to award contracts to organisations with a proven history of deploying flawed large-scale IT systems”, writes Lord Bellingham 🗣️ Why is Fujitsu still bidding for government contracts? www.politics.co.uk/comment/2025...