Some awesome framing from the PM in the Guardian today to accompany the ambitious policy on community energy After a summer of wildfires, extreme heat and poor harvests, we can't afford to see climate as only a threat, we must make sure UK is making most of opportunities of the clean transition

This is sad - tragic for many who will now be forced to suffer against their will - but not surprising. MPs & (often opaquely funded) lobby groups opposed the bill they feared, not the actual bill & religious fundamentalists of all stripes united against it. 1-0 to reactionary peers.

The Guardian@theguardian.com · 3w ago

MPs vote against legalising assisted dying in England and Wales

This German comedy sketch (with English subtitles) perfectly captures so much of what is going on right now in the UK, the US, and across Europe. "Playing the 'Nazi Card' in the Third Reich", by Browser Ballett.

Well done to @laurenedwardsmp.bsky.social for a great speech on the Assisted Dying Bill, standing up for personal choice and parliamentary democracy. I hope that if the Commons vote in favour again, the government will get behind the bill & resist Lords' filibustering.

It is absurd for Kemi Badenoch to suggest that Russia might invade us if we spend 2.9% on defence but not if we spend 3%. This debate (if it can be called a debate) has become so trivial. #r4today

If you would like to add your voice to tens of thousands of people thanking RNLI volunteers for their work, 38 Degrees have organised this open letter to express public support (at a time when a hateful fringe have been intimidating & abusing RNLI volunteers) act.38degrees.org.uk/act/rnli-tha...

An open letter in support of the volunteers and staff at the RNLI

This is a disgrace. Brave RNLI volunteers being called scum for risking their lives to save others at sea is just plain wrong. So I've signed an open letter of thanks for the RNLI letting them know th...

act.38degrees.org.uk

Fascinating thread. I’m with the politicians of 90 years ago!

Robert Saunders@robertsaunders.bsky.social · 3w ago

90 years ago, Parliament responded to the rise of Oswald Mosley's Blackshirts by passing the Public Order Act, which banned political uniforms, private militias and the threat of force for political objects. The debates make very resonant reading today. Here's the Liberal Robert Bernays. (Short 🧵)

Delegates at the Reform conference are currently jigging along to Dexys Midnight Runners. I'm not sure Kevin Rowland will like that...

If this is true (& I hope it isn't) it's imperative that the government sticks to the Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) Mandate & does more to clean home heating (heat pumps). Both are essential to meeting net zero & tackling climate change - and to the UK's credibility as a climate leader.

The Guardian@theguardian.com · 4w ago

Jackdaw gasfield set to be approved by ministers this month, sources say

Big Reform stories on the Telegraph website this evening.

Interesting to hear Robert Jenrick to pick on Natural England as his first quango for the chop. I’d guess that Reform voters love nature (“our green and pleasant land”) and would love an even more natural England.

Basil Liddell Hart: “The Romans coined the maxim: ‘If you wish for peace, prepare for war.’ But the many wars they fought, and the endless series since their day, show that there was a fallacy in the argument.... A truer maxim would be: ‘If you wish for peace, understand war.’"

On the PM's "series of wrong turns" since the 1980s, let's add the fact that the state went from spending 80% of its housing budget on building social homes (1975) to devoting 85% to helping tenants pay their rents, often to the private landlords of former council homes (2000). A big wrong turn!

This is good from Angela Eagle: the climate crisis is real & serious; we need to tackle it & build resilience, not least by restoring nature. The amazing thing is that this needs saying. It shouldn’t be politically contentious… but it is.

Guardian Environment@environment.theguardian.com · last mo.

A Britain of wildfires and flood risks: be sure, the climate crisis is real, and we will deal with it | Angela Eagle

The government’s continuing support of a business that wants to take it down is one of the mysteries of our time. The same applies to the BBC. They should leave X. Others would follow.

Vigorous love in between Andrew Bowie & Justin Webb on #r4today (Webb’s assumption that target dates are ‘arbitrary’, that rising costs are caused by net zero , that net zero is the cause of deindustrialising). Please could the BBC give its presenters a proper briefing on energy policy & net zero.

.@gabyhinsliff.bsky.social is right that so far the PM has been weak on the climate crisis. But she's wrong on the ZEV mandate. It's not "rigid". Targets are being met & EV sales are booming. The only future for the UK car industry is in embracing the transition to electric vehicles.

The Guardian@theguardian.com · last mo.

Burnham is choosing jobs over climate security. That’s a big risk | Gaby Hinsliff

Many thanks to the Medway #RepairCafe which did a brilliant job today fixing a couple of floor lamps - they prevented waste but also (a secondary thought, of course!) saved me a fortune.

This would be, er, an odd response to the growing climate crisis & the rising cost of petrol & diesel. It would also be very bad news for the UK car industry & British consumers . www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Andy Burnham moves to cut new EV sales targets

Possible cut from 80% down to as little as 50% could add millions of tonnes of CO2 to emissions and comes amid UK heatwaves

theguardian.com

In 2009, @cprecountryside.bsky.social produced a vision for the countryside in 2026, its centenary year. Now we've reached 2026, I've looked back at the vision in 3 short LinkedIn posts. A lot has been achieved but a lot more needs to be done. lnkd.in/p/euPJ2sjX

It’s the Campaign to Protect Rural England’s centenary year. Twenty odd years ago, when I was CPRE’s chief executive, we put a lot effort into producing a vision for the countryside in 2026 and I… | S...

It’s the Campaign to Protect Rural England’s centenary year. Twenty odd years ago, when I was CPRE’s chief executive, we put a lot effort into producing a vision for the countryside in 2026 and I thou...

lnkd.in

“The bigger questions will obviously come at the right moment in time.” Bah! In the face of an assault on climate action from Reform & the Conservatives, Andy Burnham should talk about what’s causing the extreme weather & make the case for climate action & net zero.

This is good. The PM should also be making the case.

Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan@london.gov.uk · 2mo ago

Climate denial is getting louder. Reality is getting harder to ignore. When parks are brown, rivers are shrinking and firefighters are battling blazes across the globe, governments must accelerate climate action, not slow it down.

.@zackpolanski.bsky.social is right: the PM and most of his ministers have been remarkably quiet about the growing climate crisis. They should rebut the arguments of the Conservatives & Reform, whose response to the crisis has been to say that we need to rely even more on fossil fuels! #Wato

Blimey, Amol Rajan really taking Daily Telegraph/ Reform UK talking points on net zero! #r4today

Latest blog is on how Kemi Badenoch can insist she’s not a climate denier, but she clearly doesn’t understand the nature of the threat, fails to comprehend why net zero was adopted, and currently has no plan on how to cut emissions. www.businessgreen.com/blog-post/45...

A hot messy summer

As the wildfires rage, what passes for climate discourse on the right of British politics is plumbing depressing new depths

businessgreen.com

Interesting #r4today interview with Louise Haigh - but extraordinary for Dharshini to trash her argument in linking to the next item. Perhaps Today should ditch the guests & just give the presenters’ views.

Does anyone know if Badenoch, Farage et al have said anything about the extreme weather and what they'd do to prevent ever more extreme weather in the future? It should be one of the first questions interviewers ask.

Shaun Spiers@shaunspiers1.bsky.social · 2mo ago

When Kemi Badenoch, Claire Coutinho, Nigel Farage, Richard Tice and all the other climate sceptics & climate deniers (spot the difference) read stories like this in the Telegraph, I wonder what they think. Mind you, the Telegraph story doesn't mention climate change at all. So that's all good.

When Kemi Badenoch, Claire Coutinho, Nigel Farage, Richard Tice and all the other climate sceptics & climate deniers (spot the difference) read stories like this in the Telegraph, I wonder what they think. Mind you, the Telegraph story doesn't mention climate change at all. So that's all good.

#r4today seems to have become an arm of the defence industry (moonlighting for oil and gas on the side).