Chris Rivers
@chrisrivers50.bsky.social
Ex-Manchester🇬🇧 now resident Almeria🇪🇸 ~follow only ACTIVE posters & block porn Centre left, Labour, NetZero g’dad. Pro 🇪🇺 & 🇺🇦. NO DMs Past: Child protection social work~family courts Interests: Politics of EU/UK/US, sociology, economics, history, 🎾 & film
In the UK until now they have had regular rain. My panels never needed washing despite regular callers: “Wash your panels, sir?” <Why? They’re clean. Have you seen the weather recently?>
Winston Smith@winstonsmith2019.bsky.social · 11h agoDaily Telegraph: solar panels get dirty then lose 40% or more of their efficiency. China: hold my beer
On the one hand, if the polls are accurate, 'Are Nige is on track for a "landslide victory" in Clacton! On the other hand, he's winning against a Bin, AND he's going to be investigated again for dodgy deals which could result in him losing his seat.
Kemi Badenoch certainly seems to be advancing with her agenda to turn the Conservatives into Reform.
Badenoch Slammed After Former Neo-Nazi Activist Chosen As Tory Election Candidate
Joshua Bonehill-Paine is the creator of the Crewkerne Gazette.
huffingtonpost.co.uk
Richard Tice appears to have used more than half a million pounds he received from the mother of Nigel Farage’s long-term aide George Cottrell to convert loans he had made to Reform UK into donations. ft.trib.al/YwfH2uZ
It’s always useful when events cause people to pay attention to the serious and compounding effects of climate change, but … the last time the UK was self-sufficient in food, its big geopolitical worry was a Napoleonic invasion. www.theguardian.com/environment/...
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
“On average across elections in 32 countries, polls the month before an election overstated the left by about 1.4 points”
Chris Prosser@caprosser.com · 19h agoNew working paper from Stuart Perrett, @drjennings.bsky.social , @jonmellon.bsky.social , @cbwlezien.bsky.social and me: Do polls underestimate support for right-wing parties? Assessing variation in polling error by party family osf.io/preprints/so...
"China’s best years as a growth market for autos are behind it — it still has a bright future in exports. Rather than fight over domestic drivers for whom competition has become cutthroat, China’s own car companies have spent the past few years rushing to sell EVs to every other spot on the planet."
David Fickling@davidfickling.bsky.social · 6h agoAs China and the world pivots to EVs, the Chinese arms of European carmakers have actually been cutting their production of EVs, quite radically. www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...
Tory press urges Labour prudence. The biggest taxpayers giveaway was by the Tories, during Covid. As ever, they feel entitled to expect prudent economic management from other people.
Political Cartoon Gallery@politicalcartoon.bsky.social · 6h agoElla Baron @EBaronCartoons on #JohnHealey #Chancellor @Thetimes – political cartoon gallery in London original-political-cartoon.com
“Where is our public service broadcaster? Among its 5,500 journalists it has a single defence correspondent – and tried to get rid of even this post a few years ago. Many newsrooms focus on daily death tolls. It cannot be a good thing that the BBC’s output on defence & conflict is so slim”
Mark Urban@markurban.bsky.social · 10h agoI’ve been thinking about the coverage of defence and conflict - who’s stepping up, and who isn’t markurban.substack.com/p/making-sen...
When you stake your entire reputation as UK Conservative leader on a Neo-Nazi: He quits because he can’t stand the heat so Badenoch gives him a job as a Tory adviser instead.
Ex neo-Nazi activist withdraws as Tory election candidate
It follows a backlash against the party's decision to pick Joshua Bonehill-Paine as a council candidate in Somerset.
bbc.co.uk
This is why I think Kemi is extremely high-risk. There is every chance she will step on a rake during the election and then spend two scarce campaigning days insisting that being hit in the face by a rake handle is great actually and part of the plan. And then find another rake.
Will Reid-Tong@willthong.com · 20h agoSomehow Kemi on R4 has just backed herself into the utterly farcical line "come on now it's not a *national* platform - he's only gonna be a Tory councillor, not a Tory MP!"
To be fair, “Councillors and council elections don’t matter” are a load-bearing part of the “Kemi Badenoch is doing well and the Conservative party’s prospects under her are looking good” thesis.
Chris Terry-Enescu@cjterry.bsky.social · 19h agoIt's OK for criminal ex-neo Nazis to run your bins is a hell of a line.
NSS!
YouGov@yougov.co.uk · 11h agoReform UK voters are the most likely to say it was acceptable for the Tories to select reformed neo-Nazi Joshua Bonehill-Paine as a council candidate Reform: 36% acceptable / 44% unacceptable Con: 28% / 57% Green: 23% / 62% Lab: 20% / 62% LD: 19% / 70% yougov.com/en-gb/daily-...
Agreed. A double-lock is sufficient.
Resolution Foundation@resolutionfoundation.org · 14h agoPensioner incomes had caught up with non-pensioner incomes by the time the triple lock was introduced. The triple lock, then, can take no credit for the dramatic fall in pensioner poverty in the 2000s. Read more in our latest spotlight➡️ buff.ly/FY93tV6
Patients deserve dignity, not a public gauntlet. Safe-access buffer zones protect confidential healthcare from harassment. Religious freedom ends where intimidation begins. #BufferZones #SafeAccess #ProtectHealthcare #ClinicSafety grandad68.substack.com/p/harassment...
Harassment Is Not a Holy Right
Stop Framing Clinic Intimidation as "Religious Freedom"
grandad68.substack.com
The USA has helped maneuver Ukraine into this position, where the Russians will murder masses of Ukrainian civilians. Thanks to America! www.reuters.com/business/aer...
EXCLUSIVE: North Korean missile unit deploys in Russia for Ukraine war, Kyiv says
The missile unit could be equipped with 120 ballistic missiles and six launchers.
reuters.com
Gaucin, Andalucia, Spain. Crocheted umbrella street decorations which also create shade made by local women's groups #WomensArt #Summer
EU to transfer €1.4B in profits from frozen Russian assets to Ukraine The latest transfer follows another deadly night of missile attacks on Kyiv.
EU to transfer €1.4B in profits from frozen Russian assets to Ukraine
The latest transfer follows another deadly night of missile attacks on Kyiv.
politico.eu
@ashoro.co.uk @mrjamesob.bsky.social What a Pyrrhic Victory for the USA & it's Arab allies.
Nicholas Grossman@nicholasgrossman.bsky.social · 12h agoIran and Oman have reportedly agreed that all ships transiting Hormuz have to go through an Iran-controlled corridor, and are finalizing tolls of 3, 5, or 7%. This would close off the path outside Iranian waters the US encouraged ships to use during the MOU, then started bombing again to keep open.
Report at: landing.focaldata.com/hubfs/Market...
landing.focaldata.com
Chris Rivers@chrisrivers50.bsky.social · 17h agoPatrick Flynn - a decade of fact-checking has failed to move the needle, and the public increasingly see it as ‘a tool for the powerful to silence inconvenient views’ not as a defence of the truth.
Patrick Flynn - a decade of fact-checking has failed to move the needle, and the public increasingly see it as ‘a tool for the powerful to silence inconvenient views’ not as a defence of the truth.
Unbelievable! The NHS and the Welfare State were created … during a time of austerity. Just saying...
OTD in 2016. It has not improved. “Large private foster agencies are offering cash incentives to recruit foster carers working for English local authorities - and then charging councils more for the same service, Directors of Children's Services say. www.bbc.co.uk/news/educati...
Foster carers 'poached with golden hellos'
Local authority foster carers are being recruited by private agencies with cash incentives, councils say.
bbc.co.uk
OTD - 2016. This weird hand gesture is the "thumb of power" and is taught to professional politicians by image consultants, to dissuade politicians from pointing with their index finger…
Traffic chaos at Dover, pre-EU. May 1966 Seamen’s Union strike. Is it now renamed as Seafarers Union?
