‘Between 2015 and 2024, nearly a billion pounds of public money was lent on favourable terms to developers who built almost no affordable housing – almost two-thirds of it to one company.’ @harrystopes.bsky.social on Manchester, from the blog. www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/au...

Harry Stopes | Manchesterisms

Bev Craig, leader of Manchester City Council before she was comfortably elected last week to replace Andy Burnham as...

lrb.co.uk

One simple message - we could afford to do this everywhere, if we stopped pretending every council had to fund it out of their back pocket.

Hetan Shah@hetanshah.bsky.social · last wk.

This is interesting on Hammersmith and Fulham Council’s provision of free elderly home care. This is partly as they have a good tax base and relatively smaller number of older people. But by intervening earlier it also keeps costs down… www.thetimes.com/article/5aaa...

How Palantir captured the British military — a timeline How we fight back: citizensreunited.substack.com/p/palantirs-...

second verse on this is one of the funniest things i've ever heard

Rules and norms about war crimes are a global public good. If you or anyone in your family is between 16 & 60, male, & walks, you have a direct personal interest in it not being legitimate for them to be assinated for walking within any undeclared 3km radius around any combatant.

And *deliberately* being obstructive with community energy projects, which could have played a big role in making the coming shock a lot less severe.

Ewan Gibbs@ewangibbs.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Britain was ‘dependent on energy imports’ through the 14 years of Tory rule from 2010-24. Their policies actually made us *more* dependent on oil and gas imports, not least of all Osborne’s decision to ‘dash for gas’ fired power stations and the ban on English wind farms.

Tory Legacy 14.2m Britons live in poverty, highest in 30 yrs. 6.8m in "very deep poverty". 34% of universal credit claimants are in work. No curbs on profiteering. Poorest 20% pay higher proportion of income in taxes than the richest 20%. 1% have more wealth than 70% of the population combined.

Number of people in 'very deep poverty' at highest level in more than 30 years, charity warns

Very deep poverty is defined by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation as earning below 40% of the median household income. According to its latest report, 6.8 million people - almost half of all of those in ...

news.sky.com

TIL about a memorial ceremony in Iceland in 2019 to mark the end of a glacier, changing the place name from Okjökull to Ok (jökull = glacier). Uncompromising wording on the bronze plaque: "This is to acknowledge that we know what is happening and what needs to be done. Only you know if we did it".

It's not the only reason to oppose the language of takers and shirkers and all that, but people have been warning with good reason: when you establish the existence of a subclass of despised, worthless people it's acceptable to hate and abuse, everyone ends up in there eventually.

Colin Yeo@colinyeo.bsky.social · 8mo ago

The “Labour” Party finds itself arguing ordinary workers, carers and others are “takers”.

Shabana Mahmoud is showing Labour’s contempt for democracy as they, once again, clear the path for a fascist government. If Farage ever gets elected he will have most of his oppressive powers already created for him by Labour. We must fight these ghouls.

Peter Walker@peterwalker99.bsky.social · 10mo ago

NEW: Home Office announces planned new anti-protest powers, mainly aimed at pro-Gaza protests like those for Palestine Action. Police will be able to consider the "cumulative impact" of repeated protests and potentially order that they be relocated.

No correct aspect ratio upload to be found on YouTube, and I could be more rigorous about my editing, but I genuinely think this is some of the funniest 106 seconds in comedy history, and definitely in my top five Simpsons jokes.

There are very few industries in which Britain can genuinely still claim to be a world leader - two of them are the creative sector and higher education. You'd never know it from listening to the Tories, lol.

"Power not protest" is a truly fatuous formulation. Would you rather be MLK or Trump? Gandhi or Stalin? These people are so convinced of their own inherent goodness that they see their mere attainment of high office as a good thing. Even when they're using their precious power to enable a genocide

Farrukh@implausibleblog.bsky.social · 11mo ago

Protestor interrupts Rachel Reeve's speech "We understand your cause and we are recognising a Palestinian state" Reeves then mentions some of the things she's achieved and says, "That is the difference we make in power, not through protest"

Apart from the unnecessary hardship this will inflict on individuals, this will be bad for integration and social cohesion, bad for the economy, and will increase irregular migration. [And, as @robfordmancs.bsky.social has shown, it's hugely unpopular and out of step with the British public]

Paul Brand@paulbrand.bsky.social · 11mo ago

Mahmood says she will introduce new conditions for indefinite leave to remain: Lived here 10 years not 5 Being in work Not taking a penny in benefits No criminal record Giving back to community eg volunteering

And if you're wondering whether someone getting killed is what it will take for the media and political class to come to their senses, I would just remind you that Jo Cox was murdered in a similar moment of demagoguery and hysteria 9 years ago, and if anything things have got far worse since then.

Minnie Rahman@minnierahman.bsky.social · 12mo ago

People’s homes are being stormed by far-right groups. The govt. Is saying nothing about how violence like this will not be tolerated. Where is Starmer’s “law and order” now? They’ve no control and we are moments away from someone being killed. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Thank you to those who have bought/downloaded Classifieds so far! See the link below to get your copy now (free digitally) CLASSIFIEDS is a poster-zine featuring the stories of the citizens of Parving, told through twenty unique classified ads taken from The Parving Echo. ko-fi.com/actualwillsm...

I just don’t think it’s unreasonable to say the public should be worried when a former senior Labour MP, who famously helped General Augusto Pinochet evade facing trial for crimes against humanity including torture, argues that Britain should ‘decouple’ from the European Convention on Human Rights.

A political-media class capable of colluding in genocide has *already proven* itself capable of the dehumanisation of Others that can sustain fascism at home. Aimé Césaire wasn't kidding about the imperial boomerang.

Jonathan Portes@jdportes.bsky.social · 12mo ago

The Times editorial line: "sieve" the entire population so we can put 100s of thousands of people into camps. "Removing a city’s worth of people would be an extended exercise. Identity cards would be a must if the population was to be sieved into legitimate and illegitimate camps" archive.ph/78dcP

Classifieds is now live! Please follow the link in my bio or below for the shop. Classifieds is available for free or pay what you can as a digital download and available as an A4 print for a minimum of £3.50 + shipping. ko-fi.com/actualwillsm...

Classifieds is now live! Please follow the link in my bio or below for the shop. Classifieds is available for free or pay what you can as a digital download and available as an A4 print for a minimum of £3.50 + shipping. ko-fi.com/actualwillsm...

CLASSIFIEDS: Flight School A tutor teaches pigeon domestication for a reasonable price. See you there? This story and more will be available 22.08.25 as a digital download (free/pwyc) and in print format (paid). Watch this space for links to the store and more stories to come.

CLASSIFIEDS: Rehearsal A young woman seeks an actor to play her father in a pivotal conversation. Do you fit the role? This story and more will be available 22.08.25 as a digital download (free/pwyc) and in print format (paid). Watch this space for links to the store and more stories to come.

CLASSIFIEDS: Big Hole A lonely man invites strangers to dig. Will you return his call? This story and more will be available 22.08.25 as a digital download (free/pwyc) and in print format (paid). Watch this space for links to the store and more stories to come.

Israel has killed approximately 200 journalists in Gaza in just 22 months, which is more than the combined number of journalists killed during WWII and the entirety of the Vietnam War.

A lonely man invites strangers to dig. A young woman seeks an actor to play her father in a pivotal conversation. A tutor teaches pigeon domestication for a reasonable price. See thread below for more information on CLASSIFIEDS...

Israel destroyed a Palestinian seed bank today. This is such a specific kind of evil, targeting literal hope for the future. Attempting to further alienate Palestinians from their home and land. So much destroyed just for the sake of destroying. It's awful.

WCK can use your donations. They are on the ground in Gaza, doing what they can in the face of a staggering and ongoing crime against humanity.

World Central Kitchen@wck.org · last yr.

After a five-day halt due to a lack of supplies, our team at WCK’s Deir al-Balah Field Kitchen has resumed limited hot meal service in Gaza. #ChefsForGaza (1/3)

Holding important meetings, lamenting bad things, urging people to do good things. The same routine for 20 months. And all the while the arms exports continue, the surveillance flights continue, trade and investment continues, normal diplomatic relations continue. Complicity in genocide continues.

Josiah Mortimer@josiahmortimer.bsky.social · last yr.

Statement from PM Starmer just now on Gaza

I'm grimly fascinated by the human capacity - as cogs within systems of power - to participate in great evils such as genocide. And in this case, I'm fascinated by David Lammy's capacity to maintain his characteristic demeanor of pomposity and self regard, even as he follows Israel into the abyss.

Saul Staniforth@saulstaniforth.bsky.social · last yr.

Kit Malthouse to Lammy "can he not see his inaction & cowardice is making this country irrelevant? Can he also not see the personal risk to him, given our intl obligations, that he may end up at the Hague because of his inaction?" Lammy tells Malthouse his language is unbecoming