Oil and gas giants brazenly profiteer with total impunity while worsening climate catastrophe. It'd be more surprising if they didn't take advantage of war in the Middle East. Beyond time these corporations were dismantled, and held criminally accountable for their wilfully destructive actions.

Data shows you're 11% more likely to die in a crash while *driving* an SUV, largely because the false sense of indestructibility leads you to drive more recklessly around others. Antisocial behaviour is baked into the design of these monstrosities.

George Monbiot@georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 3d ago

Climate science denial in physical form. The Land Rover Defender X (yup - they've gone full Musk). Price: £103,460, plus a few kids' lives. 🧵

In many cases, the US and its allies allowed these "new core" countries to use state-led industrial policy for development - an approach that was denied to the rest of the periphery. The East Asian "tigers" are a clear example. The final line by Amartya Sen here is a banger:

Should schools teach critical thinking, encourage joy in learning, and the capacity to thrive wherever someone finds themselves? Or should they be assembly lines, creating workers for the benefit of (changing, contingent) industry? The latter is miserable. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Burnham to tell schools in England to adapt teaching to local business needs

PM wants curriculums for students aged 14 and above to be more responsive to local jobs market

theguardian.com

NEW | One woman seems to represent *all* of Britain’s pensioners… OMNIBUS WANKERS AND THE BRITAIN’S ONLY PENSIONER The big problem with BBC vox pops on buses and a case study on VAT. brokenbottleboy.substack.com/p/omnibus-wa...

Omnibus wankers and Britain's only pensioner

Vox pops in the BBC's coverage of Burnham's bus fares policy and VAT cuts highlight the problems with attempting to represent the public's view on any given issue.

brokenbottleboy.substack.com

Spain already look like the best team in the world, but if they can overcome Argentina's total impunity they'll prove it beyond doubt.

I won't say that this was enjoyable to record because talking about how my queer community is being demonised is always awful, but it is an important conversation with people whose company I value and enjoy. Thanks to @sandraduffy.bsky.social, @senthorun.bsky.social, and @adrienneringin.bsky.social

Douglas Guilfoyle@djag2.bsky.social · 3w ago

New #CalledToTheBar episode! How did the UK become a focal point for escalating anti-trans policy? What role have law, human rights, activism and the media played? @pagingdrpaige.bsky.social is joined by Sandra Duffy, Senthorun Raj and Adrienne Ringin. soundcloud.com/calledtotheb...

I was asked yesterday what neoliberalism is. This is the answer:

As a decolonial, critical international law scholar, I find the Argentine obsession with a small, previously uninhabited island group they have never possessed and failed to take in a war of aggression instigated by an unpopular junta, frankly, quite weird.

This point needs to be made over and again: The main purpose of wealth taxes should not be to raise revenue. That's a small and secondary benefit. The main purpose should be to *reduce the fortunes of the ultrarich*. Why? Because those fortunes present a massive threat to democracy and public life.

Does Farage really believe this rambling nonsense is a good look?

If we're now at the stage where parents are being warned posting images of their children leaves them open to abuse, *maybe* the answer isn't a social media ban, but rigorous action against an unregulated industry and maybe, finally, recognition that the existence of billionaires is actively bad?

The UK needs to reduce its car dependency for a host of climate, environmental, and health reasons, but this week has clearly shown that the sheer volume of concrete infrastructure needed to store and move cars is devastating during extreme heat events. Cities need more trees and fewer roads.

"I inherited a party that was electorally, financially, and morally bankrupt." Still gaslighting us even in resignation.

Keir Starmer lied through his teeth to become Labour leader. He justified Israeli war crimes, arrested opponents of genocide, attacked pensioners, disabled people and migrants, pocketed freebies, crushed dissent and threw others under the bus to save himself. History damns him

Worth taking a moment to reflect on just how monumentally Starmer has managed to fluff what was, relatively speaking, a pretty easy hand.

The UK has given up any pretence of defining terrorism through anything other than political expediency.

I’m so glad that he is no longer in charge. Birmingham deserves better. We need a serious approach to saving lives and transforming the city’s roads.

Adam Tranter@adamtranter.bsky.social · 3mo ago

This is the former Birmingham Labour Transport Cabinet member, responsible for declaring a “road safety emergency” and reducing 40mph urban main roads to 30mph, now immediately calling for his *own* policy to be reviewed. Deeply unserious and, worse, actually dangerous.

No one expected Keir Starmer to solve our pressing problems overnight. But what we did expect – and had every right to expect – was that he would lay out a clear vision and roadmap for doing so. Instead, we’ve had drift, appeasement and a startling absence of ideas, values and ambition. 🧵1/6

This is a great piece. The backlash against veganism from what should be natural allies on the left isn't about coloniality or privilege but comfort and familiarity, and to suggest otherwise is disingenuous and actively detrimental to minority, indigenous, and gender-based struggles.

Kenny Torrella@kennytorrella.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Gift link: www.vox.com/future-perfe...

Just to bring you up to date, here's a recent photo of every candidate but one in Birmingham's upcoming municipal elections saying to the father of a child killed while walking ON THE SIDEWALK of a dangerously designed road that they wouldn't support even modest measures to slow drivers down.

Gravel Influencer@gravelinfluencer.bsky.social · 3mo ago

This is an absolutely horrific "road safety" ad from the 1980s in the UK. Our approach has not changed much since then. If our roads are designed such that one "false move" can get a child killed by a driver, then maybe we should re-think our infrastructure? Source: playingout.net/files/resear...

One small(!) point: the reason Reform’s hideousness is targeting the Greens is because the Greens are the first to properly challenge the Reform bollocks about immigration head on.

Are Villa playing with a beach ball?

BBCs coverage isn't just misleading, it is inflammatory. It has predictably been latched onto by the far right and others, including this government, to call for even more restrictions on those seeking asylum. Along with others, I explain here how wrong it is 👇 www.thenational.scot/news/2602505...

Experts condemn 'appalling' BBC story that 'raises risk of far-right attacks'

THE BBC has come under heavy fire after publishing a “misleading” report on asylum seekers which experts allege will put vulnerable people “at…

thenational.scot

If the crux of anyone's argument is "We aren't spending enough on defence because there's too much welfare", you know to immediately disregard their argument as economically illiterate, reactionary conservatism, rather than simply self-serving.

The fragility of a food system reliant on synthetic, industrially-produced inputs for export-driven production again laid bare. Yet another reason to expedite our transition away from fossil fuels, and from our destructive, unjust global agricultural system.

Gangsterism as geopolitics.

Israel's flagrantly racist death penalty law for Palestinians in the West Bank is simply legislating to finish any job left incomplete by police or settlers. It's the natural progression of a state given total impunity to commit genocide by the 'international community'.

We really need to do away with the 'hardship' defence when dealing with dangerous thugs acting with total impunity in their vehicles. Its only considered acceptable because, ultimately, vehicular crime isn't treated with the same seriousness as any other violent offence.

Real Gaz on a proper bike: gazza_d@toot.bike@gazza-d.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Violently assualted for doing nothing more than obeying the legal speed limit. Yes, the attacker should be in jail. Driving and employing others shouldn't be a freedom ticket. Also needs licence removing for good. He's clearly psychologically not to be trusted. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

A reminder that humans in cars - notably omitted from this thanks to motonormativity - kill 1.2m people every year

Our World in Data@ourworldindata.org · 5mo ago

One and a half million people are killed by animals every year. Almost one million by other animals, and more than half a million from direct conflict among ourselves. Almost all of these deaths from other animals are caused by just two types: mosquitoes and snakes.