The climate crisis isn't about the end of the world. It's whether you can get the basics at the end of the month. When drought hits, shelves empty and food prices rise. Climate action isn't a nice-to-have. It's essential to the living standards of working families.

Britain could face food shortages as drought continues, farmers warn

Farmers battle to salvage what they can of their crops as heatwave set to continue

theguardian.com

Britain must prepare for El Niño. The UK is built for a climate which no longer exists. We need to grow more of our own food and prepare towns and workplaces for extreme heat. When climate shocks hit, public power must protect people so profiteers can't exploit crises.

Planting trees up and down our streets = good growth and essential for tackling inequality in a heating world.

Heatwaves are killing thousands. Nature could help us save lives - but only if we let it | LBC

Our new Prime Minister needs only to reflect on the last three bouts of baking heat for a timely reminder of why nature matters, write the UK's top nature charity bosses

lbc.co.uk

The absurdities of trying to get profit motivated developers to solve our housing crisis just keep growing. We've now got thousands of new flats lying empty because they are so expensive and come with so many strings attached with their leaseholds, no one wants them.

Environmental limits are real and we have to stop pretending we can avoid difficult choices about them. With the country already running short on water, new data centres should only be going ahead if they can prove they aren't going to make the situation worse. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Not enough water for UK’s datacentre plans, trade body says

Industry says government’s failure to address cooling demands means AI growth plans are ‘fatally flawed’

theguardian.com

🧵 The Prime Minister’s decision to prioritise lowering energy bills sends the right message to the country. Moving away from an unpopular vanity project like Digital ID and getting to work making life easier for families is a good place to start. 1/10

73 million birds gone. England's dawn chorus silenced. Our national inheritance squandered. Our daily lives impoverished. This is where "greed is good" leads. Time to face the truth: A society endlessly exponentially consuming more and more isn't just a con; it's a death cult.

Listen to Britain’s dawn chorus of 1976: the dramatic loss of birdsong in 50 years

Guardian recreates audio landscape of past filled by loud morning symphony before 73m wild birds were lost

theguardian.com

Welcome honesty. 👀 Let's ban developer donations to politics and focus on genuinely progressive reforms. That means building 000s of council houses, strengthening democracy, recognising environmental limits, and delivering happy, healthy, beautiful communities.

David Lawrence@davidlawrenceuk.bsky.social · last mo.

YIMBYism promised to be the next big thing in progressive politics. But a couple of years after the PM declared himself a YIMBY, housebuilding has stalled, and YIMBYs have found themselves on the side of killing newts. Where did 'build baby build' go wrong? 🧵

We need the Government focused on improving lives. Developers donate millions to UK politics and lobby against decent energy efficiency standards. They shouldn't be able to buy influence to lower living standards. Think we should ban developer donations? Sign my petition. 👇

MPs in a side‑room just voted to strip back democracy. Elected councillors and local people will be side-lined in shaping their own future. Nobody voted Labour to lose power over shaping the place they live. We promised to empower people - this does the opposite.

Local democracy is under threat. Elected councillors are about to lose their say over the communities they represent. More decisions behind closed doors. Less say for local people. This Labour Government should be giving communities more power, not taking it away.

The Government needs to get the basics right, including regular, affordable bus services. We spend too much on expensive low-value vanity projects. Spend £3 BILLION on a road and you’d expect it to be lined with gold. Imagine if that went into thousands of buses for rural England. 🚏

This Labour Government has three years left to deliver real change: 🏘️A council housing revolution and real action on high rents ⚡️Affordable energy bills for families and small businesses 💧Water in public ownership - improving services and bringing down costs 🔗 www.socialism26.co.uk

Feeling the heat? Climate change is a threat to our way of life. If a hostile state was posturing toward wrecking our infrastructure and ecosystems, the Government would find billions overnight. Treat climate change as a national security risk.

My statement on today's news. 👇

There’s a BIG hole in water policy. It’s our small waters. Ponds, streams and small lakes are teeming with life - yet ignored. I’m backing action to properly protect these vital ecosystems. My letter to the Minister for Water and Flooding. 👇

There’s a nature-loving majority in this country. Those in power must listen and stop trashing our environment. There are far more of us than there are developer lobbyists. They have the millionaires. We are the millions. We need a bold campaign to get our nature back.

I’m backing the Curlew Action Plan. Species decline and extinctions aren’t inevitable. We have the evidence, the solutions and the plan. Now we need action. I’ll be supporting @curlewaction.bsky.social in the months ahead to help bring this iconic bird back from the brink.

Anti-nature policies are a dead end for Labour. You don’t secure lasting growth by risking long-term harm to the ecosystems we rely on. The public knows this. There’s no need for the Government to pick a fight with voters on nature. It’s bad policy and bad politics.

I’ve campaigned hard for a fairer deal for our family farms. That can’t stop with changes to inheritance tax. We must back farmers by ensuring the public sector buys local, British produce!

Justice by the people, for the people. Juries are the cornerstone of democracy and the rule of law. Last night I joined legal experts to hear concerns about proposals to limit the right to trial by jury. We must improve the criminal justice system without compromising justice.

No backwards steps for nature! We can't build homes or infrastructure because Tory cuts bled our planning system dry. Putting our Habitats Regulations through a shredder isn't the answer. I've tabled a Parliamentary Motion asking the Government to rethink its plans.

The global energy transition is progressing too slowly: 1️⃣ Record high CO₂ emissions from energy in 2024. 2️⃣ Fossil fuel use reached a new peak. 3️⃣ Demand is still growing faster than renewable supply. We have to find a better way to secure a prosperous future for everyone.

Labour promised a council housing revolution. Many housing associations are becoming too corporate and forgetting their roots. Our Government must grab the bull by the horns and get local authorities building again. Council housing means council housing.

Environmental limits on river water abstraction exist. Pretending they don’t for developers to boost profits won't magic away reality. It means dirtier water, water shortages, and failing crops. Developers profit. The rest of us pay the price. See how it works yet?

Flowing Chalk Streams have been turned into shallow dribbles. They're irreplaceable habitats. Once gone, they’re gone. Companies over-abstracted our rivers. Our inheritance vandalised for money. Our planning system must protect the nature people love over short-term profit.

Water scarcity is a major challenge. New reservoirs alone won’t solve it. Our projected deficit is 5 BILLION litres a day. A sustainable water system for drinking, agriculture and thriving rivers must come before tech giants’ quenchless thirst for their data centres.

I'm deeply sceptical about the proposals around Digital ID, and I share the concerns of many of my constituents. This week I raised these concerns in Parliament and said the Government must prepare to drop the plans in response to public feedback from its consultation.

Trashing nature is wrong and hugely unpopular. The public are right, too many politicians are out of touch and failing our environment. England’s biodiversity is in serious danger. Blaming nature for market failures won't help build anything—it will ruin precious habitats.

Wildlife is at risk. Habitats disappearing. Species declining. Ancient Woodlands threatened. This is the result of political choices over decades. It's time to bin off spurious anti-nature narratives peddled by terminally online lobbyists.