The science is crystal clear - there can be no new oil and gas drilling in the North Sea. Andy Burnham must stop Rosebank, stop Jackdaw and make polluters pay for the destruction they are causing.
Stuart White
@stuartgwhite.bsky.social
I am an academic interested in political theory, anti-oligarchic political economy, and democracy. I post in a personal capacity and reposting does not necessarily mean agreement. He/him.
The EHRC’s Code of Practice comes into force today — a dark day for trans people in the UK. For last month’s @leftlion.bsky.social column, I wrote about why this new guidance is so deeply harmful and where I think we go from here.
Nadia on… the new guidance on single-sex spaces
Labour MP for Nottingham East Nadia Whittome discusses the Government's latest guidance on single sex spaces
leftlion.co.uk
I can’t believe we’re still having a debate about whether there’s a trade off between job creation and measures to green the economy. There isn’t. The evidence was clear years ago - a green economy creates far more jobs than the fossil fuel economy it replaces. Come on Labour, catch up …
Government contracts to require job creation instead of green targets under new rules
Louise Haigh says taxpayer money must benefit local communities amid backlash from environmental groups
theguardian.com
A terrible day for trans people in Britain and a shameful one for the EHRC and government
Equality and Human Rights Commission@equalityhumanright.bsky.social · 11h agoOur code of practice for services, public functions and associations comes into force today. It provides practical guidance on how the Equality Act 2010 applies to services, public functions and associations. Find out more: https://ow.ly/alIf50Zwrkx
This is what climate failure looks like. Nature, homes and livelihoods are being destroyed. The Government must act now.
I recall we had a period of time where the response of Starmer and Cooper to concerns about these groups was ‘I like flags’
Oxford Clarion@oxfordclarion.bsky.social · yesterdayLeaders of flag-raising group Raise the Colours Oxfordshire placed trackers on highway workers’ cars to find out their home addresses, the High Court has heard. RTC then attempted to intimidate the highway staff into no longer removing flags by repeating their addresses to them.
Opportunity right now to unite around the notion of the public: Public life (get off the internet and do stuff, even for fun) Public employment (defense of the sector as dynamic and essential to democracy) Public goods (housing, new social programs, taxing the rich)
'A survey of 381 members of the Society of Radiographers revealed a “noticeable” rise in instances of overt racism experienced and witnessed by radiographers across the health service over the past 18 months.' This has been actively enabled by politicians and media. That's a choice being made.
NHS radiographers report rise in overt racist abuse by patients
Survey reveals medics were called ‘monkeys’ and ‘dirty foreigners’, and patients refused to be seen by black or Asian staff
theguardian.com
A first year above 2C in the mid-2030s now looks plausible. 0.5C was first passed in 1980, 1.0C in 2010 and 1.5C in 2024. The 15-year trend runs at 0.42C per decade. The 2026 and 2027 points for the current El Nino are estimates. We're not remotely ready!
Come ON. He’s going to leave office and we’ll discover a whole new level of fraud. This ‘deal’ is unacceptable
Kyle Griffin@kylegriffin1.bsky.social · 2d agoFLAG: Trump gets to keep tax immunity for himself, his sons, and the Trump Organization under the new 'deal' struck by Todd Blanche. The new order also reaffirms that Trump won't have to pay any taxes he might have owed the IRS.
There's a fully solar train in Argentina that connects high Andean communities to the lowlands along a UNESCO-recognized trade route that's been in use for 10,000 years. electrek.co/2026/08/03/a...
Argentina's solar train brings zero-emission travel to an ancient trade route
Latin America's first solar-powered passenger train is carrying tens of thousands of travelers through a UNESCO World Heritage trail.
electrek.co
I know this would be closing the barn door after he horse has been reelected president, but if Democrats win both chambers I'd really like to see a concurrent resolution deeming January 6 an insurrection under 14(3). 1/
The concentration of wealth is harming our economy and democracy, but those arguments rarely get made when the super-rich are challenged, so they often get a free pass. Will Snell on how to have a better conversation about wealth👇 🔗 www.faircomment.co.uk/p/why-is-no-...
A neglected feature of UK politics: sidelining of a major ideological tradition. "Disraeli-ism", One-Nation" etc. no longer has a home; younger activists are consequently leaving the Party. Hard to see how it comes back but it leaves a hole in the political culture (no, Blue Labour can't fill it).
LBC (@LBC) on X
‘What point is there staying in the Conservative Party, if you’re compromising so many values you don’t recognise yourself anymore?' Cody Butler explains to @Lewis_Goodall why he resigned as chairma...
x.com
I spoke to the BBC about @righttoroam.bsky.social and the legacy of the Kinder Mass Trespass. "We're trying to propose a more positive idea of what it means to belong, which is about having the right to connect to that land, but then also to care for it, to act as an environmental guardian" 🔓🥾🌳
Retracing the defiant walk that changed Britain
Seventy-five years after the Peak District became Britain's first national park, visitors can retrace the mass trespass that helped open the countryside to everyone.
bbc.co.uk
One of the deep cultural and policy differences between Ireland and England (not UK) is the punitive, often borderline or actually abusive secondary school system run by privatised 'trusts' with no local control. To an Irish person it really feels like a government that hates/fears its children.
Andrew Sissons@acjsissons.bsky.social · 3d agoThis is a harrowing - though not surprising - read. It’s probably hard to quantify, but I think we need to know how widespread this approach is, and what impact it has on young people’s mental health
It's a sign of British backwardness, provincialism and ignorant belief that we are 'Greece to America's Rome' and together define the limits of the possible, that anyone here thinks a written constitution means being like the USA.
John Cotter@drjohncotter.bsky.social · 3d agoI obviously welcome the idea in principle, but am on holiday so won’t have the time nor the energy to point out continuously that there are models other than the US and those models do work fine if conditions x, y, and z are also in place.
Worth reading because there’s a depressing amount of lockdown revisionism floating around in 2026.
Prof Christina Pagel@chrischirp.bsky.social · 5d ago🧵On @thenewsagents.co.uk yesterday, school closures and the lab leak theory were offered as two examples of legitimate questions that were hard to ask. Both have in fact been asked constantly since 2020. But here's a thread on why I think they were wrong and dangerous on school closures 1/12
🧵On @thenewsagents.co.uk yesterday, school closures and the lab leak theory were offered as two examples of legitimate questions that were hard to ask. Both have in fact been asked constantly since 2020. But here's a thread on why I think they were wrong and dangerous on school closures 1/12
Isabella Ford (1855–1924): Quaker, Socialist & advocate for animal welfare. She founded the Leeds branch of the Independent Labour Party, was Chair of Leeds RSPCA, & set up a branch of the Women’s Peace Crusade. She was a friend of Edward Carpenter & corresponded with Walt Whitman. #YorkshireDay 🏵
Labour has not ridden to the rescue, or even shown very much concern over past two years, but nobody could seriously compare Starmer's impact on HE to Trump's
Here is my assessment of the Greater Manchester mayoral election kellnerp.substack.com/p/relief-for...
Relief for Labour: trouble for Reform
Lessons from Britain’s biggest ever by-election
kellnerp.substack.com
Glad someone senior from the sector is pushing back. Labour MPs need to understand the serious real anger from graduates and the people who produce them. And the dangerous financial situation they have allowed to fester, or indeed worsened, in one of Britain’s leading sectors.
Labour has harmed universities as much as Trump, London School of Economics head says
LSE vice-chancellor Larry Kramer points to domestic student fees freeze, international student limits and rise in employers’ national insurance
ft.com
🚨New paper Like most things in democracies, achieving climate action in the form of sustainable policy needs a significant amount of political mobilization. We investigate when & where this is more likely to happen across places on the climate frontline: the Global South🧵 📌 osf.io/preprints/so...
Coincidentally, the article linked below on 'power shifting' - designing public policy to build popular associations and reduce oligarchic power - came into my feed at same time as Burnham's devolution proposals. How far does - or could - AB's devo involve power shifting in this article's sense? 1/2
Henry Farrell@himself.bsky.social · 5d agoI remember seeing someone (very reasonably) complaining here a few days ago that there seems to be next to no visible thinking on left and center about how to join the dots on administration and democracy. This is the beginnings of an answer to that complaint donmoynihan.substack.com/p/rebuilding...
I remember seeing someone (very reasonably) complaining here a few days ago that there seems to be next to no visible thinking on left and center about how to join the dots on administration and democracy. This is the beginnings of an answer to that complaint donmoynihan.substack.com/p/rebuilding...
Rebuilding Democracy Requires Rebalancing Power
What does a power-shifting agenda look like?
donmoynihan.substack.com
I've been seeing a lot of people responding to this with "there ought to be a law," but importantly, we haven't needed a law for this sort of thing because no prior president wanted to be known as a leader who would literally kill people in their hour of need for not voting for him
Seth Masket@smotus.bsky.social · 7d agoThis is honestly one of the most shocking images coming out of this administration and that’s saying something
Burnham urgently needs to engage on this. Retaining Mahmood as Home Secretary is a disastrous start. Let's hope he sees sense. Nothing is safe from the billionaire assault on humanity. None of our rights, however ancient & familiar, are impregnable. Fight for them now or lose them, perhaps for ever.