Keir Starmer’s spokesman asked about Israel detaining British citizens who were on the Gaza aid flotilla, while in international waters, replies that it is a “matter for the Israeli Government”

People recognised as refugees fleeing persecution & granted the right to live in the UK to be denied the right to be joined safely by their spouse & children. This Labour govt is a moral void, a stinking darkness, an empty hollow of cowardice & contempt. #r4today www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

The ten year policy in particular is abysmal, as is the mandatory volunteering idea, which has the additional benefit of being absurd. You can imagine them thinking they're bring terribly clever and mapping a middle way. I suspect it'll just make everyone hate them.

Excellent piece on basic income for the arts by Mick Gallen. One of the most talented and hardest working artists I've ever had the pleasure of knowing. Amazing to read what the scheme did for him. www.thejournal.ie/readme/opini...

'The relative lack of media interest in the drone attacks on the aid flotilla heading to Gaza says a lot about the warped priorities of Western journalism' @mathildamall.bsky.social @bylinetimes.bsky.social bylinetimes.com/2025/09/12/g...

Moral failure. "(Cooper, Lammy, Starmer)..act as they do because, although they understand the core values of freedom & democracy, and understand the significance of international law & human rights, they are quite content to exercise the power of their office in a way that dishonors those values."

Today is the 5th anniversary of David Graber's death. And with everything happening in the world, his work is now more relevant than ever before.

Up the attempted urban-rural revolutionary synthesis with an incipient metabolic municipalism!! Sounds weird but I think it might be a bit like what we're trying to do here at @middcooperating.bsky.social

"You don’t fight Reform UK by making its strongest issue the national priority. Nor, as countless political-science research projects have illustrated, do you effectively combat the radical right by accommodating them."

Every day this Summer has been a record of how Nigel Farage already runs the country. An endless cycle of hate & racism. One day boat arrivals, the next releasing ethnicity data for crimes, so we can know whether to riot if they’re brown or shrug if they’re white. Back to the 70s🤦‍♀️ #r4today

CWB strikes me as not that different from the other trendy economic system change frameworks. Yes, "we must root change in everyday lives and take real action" but that's not obvious in CWB's 5 pillars. Needs less on technocracy, more on community power as a way to rebuild the foundational economy.

"Too many renters are stuck in damp, dangerous, and insecure homes. While rogue landlords go unchallenged and enforcement teams are stretched to breaking point" - Christian Jaccarini, co-author w/ @drabioconnor.bsky.social & @hollies.bsky.social of new NEF report: neweconomics.org/2025/07/deta...

So fascinated by wealth and capital that extraction and poverty and the reality of most people's daily lives are almost invisible. Maybe there are follow-up articles planned on inequalities across GM, and lessons to be learnt from the cities referenced by Bev Craig?

Latest from me: on why learning disability is the frontier of human liberation, & how so much of its history is still ignored and overlooked. This is all about @stephenunwin.bsky.social's landmark new book Beautiful Lives www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

On this last day of term for many English schools, giving a MASSIVE shout out to all the parents of children with SEND, who spend day in day out battling totally broken systems; and trying their best to support children who are being failed by our public realm. Wishing you all a restorative summer.

This is nonsense. The impact assessment starts from an imaginary baseline incorporating reforms planned but never implemented by the previous government In the real world, the cuts that remain in the Bill will push around 50,000 disabled people into poverty www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

Politicians taken so thoroughly to the cleaners here they’ll have to declare it as their residence.

"Empowering local people" is crucial as Steve Coogan - interviewed at #CoopCongress - explains why he is championing #coops in this Manchester Evening News piece👇 manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater... @rosemarley.bsky.social

Exclusive: zeteo.com/p/exclusive-...

"The government’s own impact assessment suggests that 250,000 disabled people (and 50,000 children) will be driven into poverty. "Ultimately, any MP that votes to do that deserves to lose their seat at the next election." My new @insidecroydon.bsky.social column insidecroydon.com/2025/06/26/v...

Huge kudos to the New Yorkers who worked tirelessly for this. Another city is possible ❤️‍🔥

Sky News reporting Zohran Mamdani's victory in New York. We're told it shows the further polarisation of politics in the states. Maybe what it actually shows is that New Yorkers want free childcare, a rent freeze, proper affordable housing and free buses.

In the words of Nelson Mandela: it always seems impossible until it’s done. My friends, it is done. And you are the ones who did it. I am honored to be your Democratic nominee for the Mayor of New York City.

This could be the fatal blow these cuts-posing-as-reforms deserve Supporting more disabled people into work is a welcome aspiration, but cutting benefits for this group to meet an imposed savings target, with no meaningful consultation, is neither supportive of nor justified by that objective

Read David Graeber. If more of us did this, we could make the world a better place. Properly.

This is a good overview of how Eritrea got to where it is today. Sometimes it's helpful to just stand back and register the major developments over the decades. Isaias, who once represented change, has become a hoary old African cliche. www.bbc.com/news/article...

Here's something I post from time to time. My answer to a reader who asked me: what could journalists do NOW to break with some of their more corrosive habits.

Francesca Albanese: "Israel has absolutely no authority to intercept and stop a boat like this, which carried humanitarian aid.. to the people of Gaza. You know, there should be state navies breaking the siege instead of a boat of volunteers risking their lives". Spot on.

Latest from me: www.theguardian.com/commentisfre... It’s crunch time for Starmer and Reeves: either build social housing or lose the next election

Great to see this extension to FSM, which was called for in yesterday's @changingrealities.bsky.social @ippr.org brief. But if we are to actually get more pounds into parents' pockets we need investment in social security & the end of the 2CL & benefit cap. changingrealities.org/writings/get...

Vital reading: What families in poverty think needs to be in the Government's child poverty strategy ⤵️

GMCA agenda today includes agreement in principle on the establishment of a Mayoral Development Corporation for Middleton followed by a note on the allocation of capital from the Brownfield Housing Fund. Key lessons for both in this report from @drabioconnor.bsky.social at @neweconomics.bsky.social

Article by @johnharris1969.bsky.social We all need good systems of care, housing and social security - and yet our politics/economics just seems to damage them. After decades of scandal after scandal and no change, it's hard to feel hopeful but are the narrative and the politics starting to shift?

"Labour/Co-op mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham also spoke at the event. He expressed his support for the campaign, stating that a living income 'should be there for every single person, whoever they are, wherever they come from, in Greater Manchester.'" Fire Keir Starmer and hire this guy.

🔴The Founding Myth of Morgan McSweeney Why reports of Keir Starmer's chief adviser's supposed campaigning genius do not appear to match up with the facts www.adambienkov.co.uk/p/the-foundi...

New DWP research gives a clearer picture of why PIP claims have been rising than government & media rhetoric about the need for cuts People with complex poor health, driven in part by financial hardship to seek additional support to meet their basic costs www.gov.uk/government/p...

Simply this.

🎉 Join us for our Greater Manchester Living Income Campaign Launch Party to learn more about how we're building a powerful movement together. 📆 Date: 13th May ⏰ Time: 11.30am - 2pm 📍 Venue: Friends Meeting House, Manchester,Mount Street, M2 5NS 🔗Sign up here! actionnetwork.org/events/gm-li...

If you're based in Manchester don't miss the launch party for the Greater Manchester Living Income campaign! It's sure to be lots of fun and a chance to get involved in this powerful campaign. Sign up here: t.co/tJBbW4FzIC

📣 Kneecap statement repost from X:

Put aside the lies and the open defiance of the Supreme Court, as well as the cruelty, and ask yourself: who talks like this? This is the *official* account of the *White House* - is it being run by a six year old?

In renewing its Rwanda sponsorship, Paris Saint Germain just signalled to the world that it doesn't a give a fig about what's happening in Congo. The sheer cynicism of sports organisations whenever money is involved is always impressive. en.psg.fr/teams/club/c...

Too edgy for Private Eye? We recently ran the 1st of 3 ads in Private Eye magazine. But after our 1st they told us they wouldn't run any more. Did they give in to pressure from the shooting industry or another vested interest? Private Eye- too establishment for Wild Justice!

Helpful scary thread on Trump's tariffs in their wider context.

The sun is shining. The birds are singing. Le Pen's career is coming crashing down around her as a result of her brazen corruption. It's a good day.

Steve Coogan explains the reason we have sewage in our rivers & lakes is because of a 35yr failed experiment with water privatisation, its a broken system & the private companies have extracted over £80bn in that period. "It should be taken back into public ownership". Spot on!

Latest from me, with a question for Labour MPs & ministers: Aneurin Bevan's landmark collection of essays was called In Place Of Fear. Even before these cruel benefit cuts arrive, millions of disabled people are now terrified. What on earth are you doing? www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Sunday Morning Live today is asking "is it time for a wealth tax?", and they point out 78% of the public support it. The public is right. Tax the rich.