Researchers warn UK has a “finance curse” – an oversized sector extracting wealth instead of creating it. If Britain wants to feel better off again, we need a financial system that invests in the real economy – not one that gambles with it. Andrew Curry explains @eastangliabylines.co.uk

Yet another huge contract, awarded without any competitive bidding process, to Wes Streeting's favourite NHS supplier, the Hard Right US surveillance tech specialists Palantir, for military decision making capability.

It’s like saying my neighbour’s house is a fire hazard, breaking in to “protect the street,” and then wheeling their TV, sofa and patio heater out the front door.

While many try to justify the actions and they 'shed no tears' for the toppling of Maduro, TS Eliot said it best: "The last temptation is the greatest treason: To do the right deed for the wrong reason"

If you want a sense of how MAGAworld sees the motivations behind Venezuela and what might be next, my full interview with Angie Wong might help. Must confess, parts left me pretty stunned. youtu.be/7F9N4eLP0uc?...

Oh look, a leader with a backbone… Spanish PM Sánchez has stated that Spain will neither recognize the govt of Nicolás Maduro nor support any U.S. military intervention in Venezuela, warning that such action would violate international law and endanger regional stability.

Lewis Goodall grills Labour’s Darren Jones on the UK’s repsonse to the US capture of Nicolás Maduro.

The White House would like us to forget this, but we will not.

The pollution threat from bio-beads was known after Cornish disaster 15 years ago | Rick Dillon

The more you know…

Sonnette valley - original oil on canvas 30cm x 30 cm 2025 For sale - 250 € (including global p&p) This is my favourite time of year, the low light, deep shadows and bare branches reveal such beauty. DM for details

In case you missed our in interview with @anatosaurus.bsky.social on the Practivist Pod, hosted by @bluesboysteve.bsky.social and @jesscraven101.bsky.social 🇺🇸💙 LISTEN ➡️ tr.ee/f3Ky6Pi6nm

but Driscoll gets dropped as mayoral candidate while Blairite clansman Doyle gets elevated to the Lords. like, come the fuck on already

Sudan’s civil war is now the world’s worst humanitarian crisis as the UK sanctions RSF commanders over mass atrocities | Peter Sagar

"These men risked their lives to speak with us. We have a moral and professional obligation to the sources who entrusted us with their stories. Abandoning them now is a betrayal of the most basic tenet of journalism: giving voice to the voiceless."

With the multilateral system all but defunct, we need to fling the Overton window wide open and create space for new policy ideas across multiple domains, writes @dianecoyle1859.bsky.social. bit.ly/490QIMU

Galaxy Quest - a perfect movie, just a wonderful love letter to actors, sci-fi, Star Trek in particular, and to fandom - really deserves a proper physical release with decent extras. Think Weaver's right that releasing a R-rated cut would be fun, too.

Their demands are reasonable, their treatment is disgraceful. The government's intransigence is killing the #PalestineAction hunger strikers. Just as its complicity has assisted the genocide in Gaza. It needs to wake up right now to the moral consequences. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

More from Led by Donkeys This time Farage’s relationship with Putin youtube.com/shorts/WixMz...

Lisa Nandy should read this.

Very sad that I felt I had no choice but to resign from The Infinite Monkey Cage - a victory for the transphobes and other bigots - I did it because so much of the media has chosen to believe the kind and empathetic people are a fiction - they are real and so often unrepresented.

Incredibly brave. Imagine the faceless bores the BBC will have making their programmes if they continue down this path.

And back in 2011 we published this. Calls for a moratorium were backed by cross-party group, one of whom went on to be Lord Speaker & another currently running for that role Cameron in particular overappointed. But Starmer's rate is similar ⤵️ www.ucl.ac.uk/social-histo... bsky.app/profile/conu...

So all the far right talking points then. Bingo! She was appointed by Kemi Badenoch who tweeted out she was put in post to spread transphobia so that is a fact on the record

And ever thus…

#assisteddying Illness trajectories explain why a prognosis of 6 months is flawed. Most people need terminal care 2 to 5 years. They cannot be “reasonably expected to die within 6 months”. They are likely to be alive 18 months later. Evidence ignored bmj.com/content/388/...

www.sciencedirect.com:5037/science/arti... 10 yr analysis of growth of harmful product industries on high streets split by income helpful analysis More deprived areas were more likely to gain health harming amenities. More deprived areas were more likely to lose health conducive amenities

On Radio 4’s Any Questions? last week, Conservative MP Graham Stuart claimed employment has gone down and unemployment has gone up “every single month” under Labour. That’s not quite right according to ONS data on the number and rate of people who are employed and unemployed. (1/2)

'We know what works. Physiotherapy-led falls and frailty interventions save lives, maintain independence, and economists forecast they will save the NHS £534m over the next 5 years.' - Rob Yeldham A National Audit Office report highlights the key role of physiotherapy in frailty care

Consultation on earned settlement. Should settlement process be made more restrictive, punitive and longer than five years? I don’t think so. www.gov.uk/government/c...

Humans who ‘contribute’ valued only as money making machines is also quite degrading.

“Moving to a situation where cars are not considered the fastest and most convenient mode of transportation will take ambition and imagination. But the alternative is a very expensive dependency, which clogs up the UK economy.” theconversation.com/how-the-uks-...

My dad abhors any negative comments about immigrants. Asked him recently why he’s so strong on it: ‘Because we’re always happy to take the rich and clever ones. Which means it’s not about disliking immigrants. It’s about disliking the poor and vulnerable. And that’s a bad human instinct.’

This is so disgusting.

New post just out from @ldfreedman.bsky.social "Whatever happened to the Gaza peace plan?" With levels of violence rising again is the ceasefire doomed or can it be made to work? (£/free trial) open.substack.com/pub/samf/p/w...

"The media should stop burying their heads in the sand.” @alastaircampbell2.bsky.social Why are @carolecadwalla.bsky.social and @peterjukes.bsky.social sidelined on mainstream media? Why does this story still get avoided?

It’s really simple… - Cap all political donations - Ban foreign donations - Strict conflict‑of‑interest & anti‑corruption laws with penalties - No titles, honours or peerages for donors - No govt contracts for donors - Publish every donation/lobby meeting …that’ll do it.

The government should have acted to regulate appointments through its House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill. Amendments to limit new peers and cap the chamber's size at 650 (the size of the Commons) were proposed, but rejected. Change is badly needed. constitution-unit.com/2025/07/01/1...

And HEEEERE it is!! The REAL solutions to fix immigration for all - for a system we can be proud of! bsky.app/profile/anot...

What a repellent nation we become due to the relentless kowtowing and appeasement of the worst humans - those who define themselves by hate and so many of these media gatekeepers who carefully guard and woo the bigots

left platforms Ischenko (and fine, he deserves to be heard) while ignoring the leftists who disagree with the STW line. Don't ignore them. This isn't about me pushing my article, but about ensuring Ukrainian left wing voices are listened to, not spoken over. www.opendemocracy.net/en/from-fron...

If it were steel works we would have a government bailout plan, yet losing thousands of jobs at unis is met with a shrug. & unlike steelworks universities were profitable when they had foreign students. You are killing the golden goose… one of our best exports… HOW IS THIS HELPING GROWTH?!

It’s now official: Trump has pardoned one of the world’s most notorious drug traffickers. Former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández was convicted of drug trafficking last year in the U.S. and sentenced to 45 years in prison. 1/

You re going to love the show

So sad to see our flags hijacked like this, to engender division and exclusion. Absolute opposite of patriotism.

Is welfare spending ''out of control''? Total welfare spending in Britain in 2025-26 is estimated to be 10.8 per cent of GDP. That's just 0.8 per cent of GDP higher than in 2007-08, and total welfare spending has actually fallen fallen by 1.2 per cent of GDP since 2012-13⤵️ buff.ly/s5mz97u

'The weight of the evidence has tipped heavily in favor of HPV vaccination" @hildabast.bsky.social but we now need to deal with growing vaccine hesistancy! absolutelymaybe.plos.org/2025/11/24/t...