Good morning Bluesky ☀️ My grandad told me he saw the Titanic - from the outset he warned all the people that the ship would sink, but nobody listened to him. He knew he was right and didn't give up. He warned them again & again, until eventually they kicked him out of the cinema.

Here a compilation of stupid things library consultants have said to me in solidarity with library pals at Lambeth Libraries where genius consultants has decided that a qualified head of library service post isn't really essential.

Private equity firms made up 50% of the largest US corporate bankruptcies with $1bn+ in liabilities Jobs, communities destroyed for short term profit PE has devoured UK high street; controls vets, supermarkets, care homes, pubs, housing, restaurants. Shadow banking wreaks havoc, govts do nothing.

Private equity continues disproportionate role in 2026 bankruptcies

Since 2024, PESP has tracked and analyzed corporate bankruptcies, identifying the disproportionate role that private equity-owned firms have played in bankruptcy filings. This trend continued in the…

pestakeholder.org

BP quarterly profits up from $2.5bn to $5.73bn as Iran war sends oil prices soaring. Shell doubled its net profit to almost $10bn. High bills fuelling poverty and misery for households and businesses. Boon for execs and shareholders. Must levy 100% windfall tax on oil, gas, energy companies.

BP profits more than double as Iran war sends oil prices soaring

Energy company’s $5.73bn quarterly profits come after Shell posted second highest quarterly earnings on record

theguardian.com

Business Rate avoidance is rarely reported in MSM. Here is one scheme declared unlawful by the Courts. Its promoters claim it resulted in loss of £500m revenue to local councils. It involves shuffling boxes with redundant contents in unoccupied properties. The enablers face no penalties.

Suella Braverman, Priti Patel, Kemi Badenoch, Keir Starmer, David Lammy, Robert Jenrick support this… Imagine Palestinians doing this to the Israelis, what the response be?!

Paul Eric@pauleric70.bsky.social · 2d ago

Israel blocks ambulances in the West Bank again. Shoots Palestinians, then seals off medical access so they bleed out and die. Deliberate. Sadistic. State policy. 🤬🤬🤬🤬🇮🇱🤬🤬🤬🇮🇱♾️

As Rod Liddle has died, I notice this column I wrote in 2019 about his attacks on people with M.E. is on the most read again. Rebekah Brooks, of News UK, described Liddle today as “provocative”. In reality, he spread lies about very sick people for cash. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Rod Liddle vilifies disabled people. I’m tired of the hate. We all should be | Frances Ryan

Whether it is ME patients or another target, huge swathes of the media have normalised hatred of minorities for years, says Guardian columnist Frances Ryan

theguardian.com

Brilliant letter from Stuart Thompson to Jeremy Clarkson about his comments that benefit claimants should write weekly thank you letters to tax payers detailing how they spend their benefits each week.

In late 2023, the Society spent a day with Hertfordshire’s historians. We saw the quality, creativity and distinctiveness of teaching, research and engagement. We were told by a (now departed) senior manager that History was ‘a portfolio the university will guard very carefully’. bit.ly/4hLediN

Glen O'Hara@gsoh31.bsky.social · 3d ago

So it's farewell to the History subject area at the University of Hertfordshire, not the first nor the last to go. One of the best departments in the country, just extinguished like a snap of the fingers. Think of the waste. (1/2)

What's it gonna be? #BurnhamsChoice

On all but one car journey I have taken, seat belts have been pointless.

Jess O'Thomson@jessothomson.co.uk · 4d ago

A more general point but people are also bad at thinking about how risk works. Something can have turned out to be unnecessary or even harmful and still have been the correct decision based on the information you had. Results do not prove the quality or otherwise of your decision-making.

#MAGA_Moron mantras.

Graeme Souness pictured with his chickens, Southport, 1982.

www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/motorin... It’s really disappointing to see Bristol Post taking commission from products that support life-taking, illegal behaviour. Can we expect balanced reporting of @bristolcouncil.bsky.social proposals to bring in more 20mph limits? @tristancorkpost.bsky.social

Here we go, if anyone is wondering why the UK is in a never ending financial crisis and nothing ever gets better, here's the reason why. No government since 2010 has done anything other than austerity. It's like permanent groundhog day at the Treasury. #MMT

HT4Ecosocialism@ht4ecosocialism.bsky.social · 4d ago

Fed up with having to repeat this but when politicians and the MSM say "there is no money” they are LYING to us. The UK is a sovereign government with its own bank. It can create as much money as it needs. No money is the excuse for unending #Austerity. #LearnMMT

“If Elon Musk ran the GPS system, you’d hear abt it nonstop, valorizing this great man who built something so remarkable and valuable. But since it’s govt invented, owned, and operated, it just works, quietly and without fanfare… that’s…ideology, not so much what you hear about, but what you don’t.”

Google Maps, Uber, and Wall Street Run on Socialism: How the U.S. Government Built the Global Positioning System

The Federal government built a global navigation system, nicknamed "Lighthouses in the Sky" on which Google Maps, Wall Street, and shipping rely. Just don't call it socialism.

thebignewsletter.com

Applications are now open for Round 3 of our Microgrants! We’re funding innovative research in #19thC periodicals by providing seed grants for archival travel, digital access to subscriptions or repositories, or digital tools to support your research. Apply by 1 September here: buff.ly/7r9cM50

#OtD 1 Aug 1938 the Hilo massacre took place in Hawaii, when police opened fire at an unarmed, multiracial group of striking dock workers, injuring 50. They were fighting for equal pay with dock workers on the US West Coast stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/8051...

'A map of the depopulated Palestinian village of Jimzu جمزو (ancient Gimzo) hand-drawn from the memory of native Ahmad Ibrahim after its destruction in 1948. Ibrahim labels the names of streets and individual neighbours where they once were.' www.thecitizen.in/world/civili...

For the 5th consecutive year child casualties have flat-lined at around 13,000 road casualties of age 16 and under. In what other area of life would the death or injury of 13,000 children be "acceptable"? The government has a Road Safety Strategy that aims to reduce child KSIs by 70%.

Checking final proofs of vol 2 (1891-1912) of The Diaries of Anthony Hewitson, provincial journalist They'll be published open-access with @openbookpublish.bsky.social next month (August) www.openbookpublishers.com/books/10.116...

And #RSVP2027 will be hosted next year at…the Carleton Dominion-Chalmers Centre of Carleton University in downtown Ottawa! 🇨🇦

Morning all. Photographer Eric de Maré. St Edward's, Brotherton, with Ferrybridge B power station behind, 1960s.

New blog for The Women's Library at 100 by Grace Parker, student at LSBU on environmental activism and the Women's Institutes. Thank you Grace! blogs.lse.ac.uk/lsehistory/2...

Women and environmental activism: the National Federation of Women’s Institutes - LSE History

The WI is the UK's largest women's organisation, and has been campaigning to protect the environment since the 1920s. Grace Parker explored its archives at The Women's Library, to find out more.

blogs.lse.ac.uk

I think I need contact with anyone else who's gone through the breast cancer rollercoaster recently. I've no family, nor anyone else I know that has been through it. I appreciate that you may not want to discuss this, but if you do I'd appreciate it x

I’ve known this was coming and so has everyone else. It doesn’t exist, keep burning, it doesn’t exist, keep burning, oh, it *does* exist but it’s too late to do anything, so keep burning. The sheer cynicism should carry a jail sentence.

Roland Smith@rolandmcs.bsky.social · 7d ago

Nighty night.

#OtD 30 Jul 1950 the Grâce-Berleur shooting took place in Belgium. During a 600-person march in Wallonia against the return of King Leopold III, police opened fire and ultimately killed four workers, including three anti-Nazi resistance veterans stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/1029...

"There is a country in the Middle East, whose name begins with an 'I' that has not just nuclear power, but nuclear weapons... Israel. It doesn't allow inspectors in." Nice to be back on @msnownews.bsky.social, with @velshi.com, discussing Israel's actual nukes vs Iran's imaginary ones.

After 17 and a half years today is my last day working in the NHS. I've worked under 12 Health secretaries. Every single one made it harder for us to look after patients and pursued an agenda of privatisation and outsourcing. The NHS thrives in spite of, not because of it’s political leadership.