Simon Duffy
@simonduffy.bsky.social
Philosopher and social activist with interest in self-directed support, basic income, neighbourhood democracy, neighbourhood care and anything else that helps create a world where everyone matters (and chippy Northerner). https://citizen-network.org
Nearly 200 years ago ordinary folk in the UK organised a petition for profound democratic reforms that mobilised millions. We need the same pressure for change now. What are your 6 Demand? @unlockdemocracy.bsky.social @compassoffice.bsky.social citizen-network.org/news/a-new-c...
A New Citizens' Charter
Citizen Network, Unlock Democracy and Compass are formulating a new Charter – have your say.
citizen-network.org
And thus true individual freedom cannot exist without unconditional basic income and universal healthcare.
Robert Reich@rbreich.bsky.social · 3d ago"True individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made.” —FDR, 1944
An utterly splendid Community Picnic at Meersbrook Park in Sheffield today to celebrate the reopening of Meersbrook Hall by the Friends of Meersbrook Hall in partnership with @sheffieldcouncil.bsky.social it’s was our first and very successful event and raised much needed funds for the hall
Income tax punishes you for working. Let's replace it with something better.
Turns out that being born with a basic income of $333/mo and living with it for the first 4 years of life results in slightly slower biological aging. Because slower aging predicts longer, healthier lives in adults, this suggests UBI from birth could mean longer lives and lower healthcare costs.
Scientists Gave Cash to Low-Income Moms, And It Altered Their Babies' Aging
We usually think of aging as something that catches up with us later in life.
sciencealert.com
The reason for UBI predates the first electric light bulb let alone robots. Robots are just the next gate of enclosure. The next of example of shouldn't we be all doing better for all the work we've done?
Basic Income Action ↗️@basicincomeaction.org · 5d agoIn 1797, Thomas Paine proposed a national fund to pay every person compensation for the natural inheritance lost when land became private property. That's basic income, two centuries before the term existed.
Annie Kenney was born on this day 1879.
Brian Groom@groomb.bsky.social · last yr.Made in Saddleworth, Oldham and Manchester: Annie Kenney (1879-1953), born in Springhead, started working in cotton mills at age 10 and became a leading suffragette in the Women's Social and Political Union. She was jailed 13 times and repeatedly force-fed. 1/9
This is the crazy times we live in. Politicians know ordinary people are screwed over, but they explicitly reject basic income as policy but then promise to deliver it as Trump dividend. A whiff of national socialism.
Scott Santens@scottsantens.com · last wk.I'm holding out for the lifelong monthly $1,500 counteroffer.
How do you get from Barcelona to London comfortably in a day? By train of course See @seatsixtyone.bsky.social for details
Whether you're a farmer or grower looking for take-home practical knowledge, a passionate food sovereignty activist, or want to find out how we can build a better food system that nourishes people and planet - you can join ORFC online from anywhere 🌱 orfc.org.uk/book-orfc-20...
Not sure how many citizens of #NetherEdge there are on BlueSky but if any please join us. For others have a think about the possible value of neighbourhood democracy. Why does power always seem to be somewhere else? Power is something we make together. www.netheredgefestival.co.uk/event/bringi...
Bringing Democracy to Nether Edge | Nether Edge Festival
netheredgefestival.co.uk
What a surprise, NOT. US #BigTobacco funding Reform. "The stand is operated by We Vape, a group funded in part by US pro-tobacco pressure group Consumer Choice Center." We need to get #BigMoney out of politics www.mirror.co.uk/news/politic...
Reform UK gives vape lobbyists funded by US group prime spot at conference
EXCLUSIVE: A stand bearing the slogan "Labour's inconvenience store" was placed at the entry of the conference, seen by thousands of people on their way in and out of the event
mirror.co.uk
The GOP has always cheated...and harmed Americans in order to gain and hold power.
A few years ago I listed relatives (4th cousin of grandparents or closer) who were murdered by the Nazis. Far from complete but more than 80 at Auschwitz and 100 more at Bergen Belsen, Buchenwald, Chelmo, Dacauch, Izbica, Kaunas, Łódź, Majdanek, Mauthausen, Minsk, Mungersdorf, Ravensbrück etc etc
Gerard@groverxv.bsky.social · 2w agoI follow this account to remember this horror. In my parent's lifetimes. So that I never forget. So the MILLIONS who died in these camps are never forgotten. There is no more important memorial on earth the than the soil, bricks, fences and walls of the Nazi camps.
#Privatisation - a few profit and the most vulnerable - children in care - pay. I put down an amendment to the Children's Wellbeing Bill to end this. Unfortunately the Labour government rejected it www.theguardian.com/society/2026...
Private equity owns 11 of England’s 20 biggest children’s care providers, research finds
Investigation comes amid growing calls for an end to ‘obscene’ profit-making in care sector
theguardian.com
The Just World fallacy is a helluva drug. The rich love getting passive income and feeling they earned everything they get, and feeling the poor deserve to be poor because they aren't making good choices. Meanwhile, many of the poor and working class go along with this in the hope they too will WIN.
Katie Mack@astrokatie.com · 2w agoThere are endless studies showing this and also the financial and societal benefits of universal basic income and or housing-first policies but the U.S. never goes for any of it because it would require allowing the poor to receive benefits that the rich consider “undeserved”
I spent happy years as volunteer @britishmuseum.bsky.social & knew quite a few staff. Bet they, & today's volunteers, are rightly _really_ unhappy. "It is understood the museum chair, George Osborne, was aware of the viewing". One thing to say: #OsborneOut www.theguardian.com/culture/2026...
British Museum hosted Palantir founder Peter Thiel in private viewing of Bayeux tapestry
Concern among staff that fragile artwork’s scarce ‘light hours’ given to someone with no known interest in museum
theguardian.com
I finally got around to watching this video by @barryseconomics.bsky.social about UBI and it's superb. It feels like a video informed by multiple articles I've written, especially my rats in cages one. I'd go so far as to say it's among the best UBI videos ever made. A++. Watch and share widely.
Why The Rich Think The Poor Are Lazy
YouTube video by Barry's Economics
youtu.be
Urgently need to #Unlearn hubris We know so little: Genomes are not 'machine blueprints'; biology is far richer & more complex than acknowledged. "Genetic diversity is shaped not only by inherited factors but also biological processes that vary from person to person" phys.org/news/2026-08...
Unexpected source of genetic diversity found in human sperm
Scientists have identified an unexpected source of genetic variation in human sperm that occurs earlier in sperm development than previously thought. Published in Nature, researchers at the Wellcome S...
phys.org
"Research shows that for every dollar distributed, $2.50 of economic activity is created over the next 30 months and prices only rise marginally... Other benefits include a fall in child mortality, as pregnant women can pay for transport to clinics and stop working in the weeks before childbirth."
What Happens If You Give Everyone $700? A Local Economy Thrives
A project in Malawi, one of the world’s poorest countries, aims to demonstrate how aid might work in future.
bloomberg.com
"I wouldn't have to do crime, and steal to eat." Quote by someone released from incarceration who was polled about the idea of unconditional basic income. And here's another quote you may already know. It's a line from Bertolt Brecht's Threepenny Opera: "First comes food. Then comes morality."
Recent events have brought this classic debate to mind. James Baldwin puncturing philosopher Paul Weiss’s arrogant complacency on the Dick Cavett show. youtu.be/-jIlK6oDyWo?...
The Most Powerful Debate on Race in TV History | The Dick Cavett Show
YouTube video by The Dick Cavett Show
youtu.be
Looks like an amazing decolonisation event coming to #Sheffield next week. www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/sacred-gol...
Sacred Golden Pod Breaking Ceremony
Witness the Sacred Golden Pod-Breaking Ceremony. A unique ceremony, honouring memory, migration, resilience & liberation through cocoa.
eventbrite.co.uk
Wrote a new article for the Forward Future newsletter about Gina Raimondo's ridiculous belief that UBI would end America and her new extremely well-funded nonprofit built to spend $1 billion on job retraining pilots that don't work instead of basic income—despite its 200+ successful pilots.
Gina Raimondo Says Basic Income Would End America. Her New Billion-Dollar Org Is How She Plans to Stop It.
RAISE US bets on retraining as an alternative to UBI—but the evidence suggests AI displacement demands a bigger solution.
forwardfuture.com