Beardy, lefty, aviatory... Retired university lecturer in computing. My likes do not necessarily signify unqualified - or even any - approval.
35 followers 82 following 16 posts
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The UK can’t run out of pounds any more than it can run out of inches or centimetres. In this response to Gary Stevenson, I explain why money is a public good, created by the state, and why it’s wrong to claim the government is broke. youtu.be/2aaKGm9zZlU?...
Behind every draconian decision, there's secret evidence ("detailed security assessments") we're not allowed to see. We should just suck it up and believe them. Sorry, Yvette Cooper, that's not how democracy should work. When you make a decision of such consequence, we need to see the basis for it.
Why do so many people feel completely alienated from politics? And when did politics on the left stop being about helping them with the fundamentals in their lives? I sat down with Labour's Greater Manchester Mayor @andyburnham.bsky.social to find out how he thinks the hard-right can be defeated 👇
Selling England by the pound www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/07... Why is England (and I do mean England, in particular) in such decline? That's because the City put up a 'For Sale' sign over it in the 1980s, and the logic still is that everything must go.
The Email That Exposes Everything When Rachel received an unexpected screen on her HMRC Corporation Tax return, she unknowingly stumbled upon evidence of the largest peacetime transfer of British sovereignty to foreign corporations in modern history. open.substack.com/pub/european...
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 Review by John Cole @yorkshirebylines.co.uk
As @premnsikka.bsky.social has said before, the UK's 'East India Company' moment is here. Corporations like US Blackrock are now in partnership with Starmer’s changed Labour Party. Blackrock's ambitions are evolving; they view public services as ‘small potatoes’, so what is Blackrock up to? Thread
Please take a moment to sign this important petition! ✍🏻 Started under the Tories and now continued under Labour, these obscure Freeports and “Special Economic Zones” will have profound consequences for all of us.
"If you’re going to get politically organised, it’s more likely to be because your neighbour asked you to come along to a local protest than because you saw a bunch of allegedly intelligent people debating policy on TV." Read: graceblakeley.substack.com/p/why-i-stop...
Who do politicians think they are talking to on Radio 4, early in the morning? Stephen Kinnock just gave a master class in evasion, obfuscation and sycophancy to Starmer. Left me spluttering into my muesli.
RAF squadron targeted for a repaint by Palestine Action does not belong to the RAF. ultimately owned by Polygon Global Partners LLP, a Hedge Fund. How much of the RAF is owned by hedge funds, private equity? Finance sector benefiting from wars? A nation's defence outsourced without any debate.
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-...
Thames Water is now controlled by two US credit powerhouses: Silver Point Capital and Elliott Management. Their game - asset stripping, profiteering, slick PR, devour; to get high returns. Govt can put an end by bringing water into public ownership, but refuses. People's misery to deepen.
According to this flat-out terrifying article, 500 million people are using ChatGPT. And it’s in schools now. This is so dangerous, and governments are miles behind on any kind of meaningful regulation. In fact, most of them seem to be in thrall to it.
www.theguardian.com/business/202...
I’m past breaking point, my 15 year relationship has ended, I have been diagnosed with PTSD over past events that my therapist described as horrific. I’m on paid sick leave, and need a place to live in the middle of a housing crisis here in The Hague, the waiting list for a house is 11 years. 1/2
This is an absolutely must-read piece. Do it now. 👇
Young people, most especially, are struggling to find reasons for hope in the world neoliberal politics has created, and who can blame them? youtu.be/oLCNwTlgFrY?...
Thought this was about Labour until I got to the bottom....
Here’s what Angela Rayner and the rest of the Labour Party are not disclosing to the public about Bristol and 86 other regions of the UK that fall within SEZ and Freeport status. I’ll explain in detail what is going on and how it’s part of UK zone Fever. @carladenyer.bsky.social Thread
"We are already living inside the architecture of totalitarianism." Chilling talk. Do watch.
This is outrageous. What sort of country have we become? www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
Owen Jones continues to hit the nail directly on the head: www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Private companies are polluting our rivers, hiking up bills, and failing to deliver. 82% of us want public ownership – let’s make it happen! Sign the open letter now & demand action! 👉 you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/pu...
Almost thrillingly good. Quite rightly dismantles #Starmer / #Reeves / #Labour. But more importantly the wider enemy - #neoliberalism. theguardian.com/commentisfre... @georgemonbiot.bsky.social
Blackrock has just bought 3 British Freeports, Felixstowe, Thamesport, and Harwich for $22 billion in a deal via Hong Kong pushed by Donald Trump. Did you hear about this in the MSM?
Today, The Invisible Doctrine: The Secret History of Neoliberalism, is published in the UK in paperback. The timing, as the government disastrously follows the neoliberal script to the letter, could scarcely be more appropriate. www.penguin.co.uk/books/455534...
Did you know ISDS is written into the UK's post-Brexit CPTPP free trade deals? Did you know that LCIA is written into the licenses of 86 deregulated free zones which are currently being rolled out across the UK? 1/2 www.theguardian.com/environment/...
The London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA) is an equivalent secretive corporate justice court to Investor State Dispute Settlement (ISDS). These corporate courts can bypass domestic courts and the sovereignty of nations. The UK is in serious shit.
The elephant in the Labour Party's room clearly addressed: www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
We were warned! en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6...
1. A few years ago, people like me were widely attacked in the media for “declinism”. How could we fail to see that we were heading into a capitalist utopia, in which everything would keep getting better? This is a thread about what we could see that our critics could not. 🧵
In this week's column, I explore what I see as a very real prospect of systemic collapse, caused by Trump's actions, and suggest we start preparing. I try to explain how complex systems fail, and suggest some of the failure paths we could be on. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
1. A common mistake is to look for ideological consistency on the far right, and to become confused when some of the things it claims to stand for sound positive and even progressive. Here’s a thread on how to understand this. 🧵
The jury is in, water privatisation has failed. So I'm introducing a bill to Parliament that would democratise water ownership. On 28th March, MPs can put public ownership of water on the table by backing my bill. Ask your MP to be there. actionnetwork.org/letters/ask-...
Why Populists Are Winning: The Broken Promise of Liberal Democracy www.socialeurope.eu/why-populist...
It's World Logic Day! wld.cipsh.international
I'm not any more. I just have a thin scraping occasionally as a treat. 😋
AI is a general purpose technology the likes of which humanity has never experienced. Whilst ‘containment ’ of this technology is hugely difficult, simply throwing open the doors to it for a competitive advantage seems premature. There needs to be careful scrutiny and a public say on these plans.
A puzzle though, as I wasn't a heavy drinker. A bit of research as to the causes of gout and I found a list with Marmite on it. I am a masive Marmitophile and spread it on my morning toast with a trowel. Stopped doing that - with regret - and the pain went away.
You can overdose on that too! I had a blood test a few years ago. Dr said"It's spectacularly uninteresting, apart from you have high uric acid." Suddenly the pain in the joint of my big toe made sense - gout!
Unless... en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_for_A...