Also the collective GDP of the EU + UK + Norway is around $24 trillion compared to $2 trillion for Russia. We have vastly more resources if we choose to use them.

A fascinating & hopeful river-moment: Lewes District Council agrees to recognise a Charter of Rights for the River Ouse. “The Ouse has long been taken for granted…this is the beginning of a journey to give the river a voice & ensure its wellbeing for future generations.” elflaw.org/news/histori...

Just feeling we’ve broken the back of winter

The 5 W questions BSL signs

How do the cochlear implants work 👇🏻

This is not only morally reprehensible, but a breach of the UN Refugee Convention. No refugee should be discriminated against on the basis of how they entered the country www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Having gone through a full year of 'voluntary' redundancies (read 'voluntary' as 'strongly encouraged under the looming threat of compulsory severances'), which have seen >5% of staff leave my uni, it's good to see this issue finally getting some press. www.theguardian.com/education/20...

Did you know the Orient Express built for Kenneth Branagh's film Murder On The Orient Express is now parked up by Bassenthwaite Lake in England's Lake District? And you can have a meal or cream tea there... www.basslakestation.co.uk

Dorothy B. Porter changed libraries 💜 The Dewey Decimal System used to only have two classifications for Black people: 325 (colonization) & 326 (slavery). Each book by a Black person was put into one of these classifications. A book of poetry? Classified as colonization. Enter Dorothy B. Porter 🧵

The BBC describes Trump's press conference performance as "combative" How long has combative been a synonym for bonkers, insane, deranged.....?

The usuals celebrating 5 years of Brexit while they squeeze their eyes shut and close their ears to the crappy reality of their stupid ideology. Taking a showy bow for being awarded a national Darwin Award 5 years on the run. Meanwhile, the rest of the country agrees it’s been utter rubbish.

😂

At aged 68 and having worked for 51 years. If there was one piece of advice I could give anyone still working it would be: Join a Union GMB and Unite both cover all workers if you don’t have your own specialist Union.

"We need closer ties with the EU and now they are letting us know the door is ajar. All we have to do is push it open. And yet we cannot even find the strength to do it” www.theneweuropean.co.uk/why-are-we-s...

Rejoining - while administratively tricky - would be a big win for Labour. Boost the economy, force Tories and Reform to vocally support something unpopular that keeps people poor, and improve UK trade and security. It's barmy that Labour refuses to try.

The £45bn cost of Labour bailing out RBS is held to be a once-in-a-generation economic calamity that the nation barely survived. Brexit cost us just as much every five-and-a-half months.

To the crowds cheering Trump's withdrawal from the Paris Agreement: Do you think you live on a different planet, which climate breakdown does not affect? Do you imagine only greens and progressives will be harmed by Earth systems collapse? Do you believe you can win an argument with physics?

I don't want Starmer to turn towards the US, now headed by a climate denier and ecosystems destroyer whose closest ally just jack-in-a-boxed himself out of the fascist closet. Trump and Musk are determined to destroy this Labour Govt. Musk has made it crystal clear. Our future lies with the EU.

Elon Musk and the new world order: the hijacking of the global conversation

The German government is in ongoing discussions about whether to delete its presence on the X platform due to concerns over its algorithms, a spokesperson said reut.rs/3DMCzqp

57 companies are responsible for 80% of global greenhouse gas emissions since 2016. These companies include fossil fuel giants like Chevron, Shell, and BP, who have been raking in record profits. The profits of Big Oil should not be more important than the future of our planet.

New The coming battle between social media and the state Behind the alignment of X and Meta with Trump is a cold business logic — and a position of weakness rather than strength By me, in todays @financialtimes.com www.ft.com/content/917c...

I wrote a thing, because these fires are in the increasingly common category of shocking but not surprising. Neither unprecedented nor unforeseen by those who study the subjects..... www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

It's lovely to have an excuse to post lots of wintery images! This one, titled 'As the Crow Flies', was painted by mixed media and acrylic artist Jo Grundy More of Jo's delightful winter images here... jogrundyart.co.uk/winter #winter #art #landscape

Wherever you look, whatever poll, survey or opinion piece you read the underlying theme is the same. Brexit is a disaster. buckslegal.co.uk/how-brexit-h...

The other way around. Trump and Musk were always insane and America's mistake was to give them so much power.

Company established by Musk in the UK 3 weeks ago on December 12th!! Why we wonder!! Pull your finger out @uklabourparty.bsky.social, grow some balls and stop even more "corruption" destroying what's left of our democracy Right now you have a majority the likes of which you might never see again

Brexitwang. A total shitshow. But no… Let’s not talk about it Let’s not face up to how the Tories ballsed up an already idiotic idea Let’s not fix the ruinous consequences of turning prejudice and ignorance into policy Let’s just slide into a perma-state of resentful crappiness and ‘move on’. FFS.

The Farage-athon in our media has to stop.All he represents is the weaponisation of prejudice to keep people angry and uninformed. But headlines about him go on and on, building up a myth instead of exposing him for the nasty little con artist he is. Years of this shit. Please can 2025 be different.

The problem with Politics is there is no punishment for lying or failure, and you can take as much money as you like off anybody. Anyone else in any other job would be fired or in jail. That is the problem.

Sir Keir Starmer has been invited to attend an informal “retreat” with EU leaders in February. It will be the first time since Brexit that a British prime minister gets to sit around the table exclusively with the EU’s 27 heads of states and govt Focus will be on security and defence

On this (Boxing) day of walks, some good walking/access news: c. 40,000 miles of historic rights-of-way in England & Wales have been reprieved from deletion from the “definitive map” of such paths. Great work @ramblers.org.uk & other campaigners on this. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

When Britain was in the EU, Britons were also EU “citizens”. Why EU directives always speak of “citizens”? Because we can vote.

Through the lens of a fallen leaf in Autumn.🍁 📷 by William Smith

Since Brexit, we effectively swapped hundreds of thousands of EU immigrants for non-EU immigrants. But although all immigrants on average make a positive contribution to government coffers, not all contribute equally. For each EU to non EU immigrant swap, Britain has effectively foregone £50,000.

It's not just Farage. There are so many Reform and Tory supporters who are clamouring to come out of the ECHR. Thus depriving themselves, their families, and everyone else, those human rights safeguards.

There's quite an attack coming on this: from the right wing press, from Badenoch, from Farage. Those who want a closer relationship with Europe should make their voices heard and make sure there is pressure on the other side.

‘Betraying Brexit’ Such a moronic accusation. What does it even mean? Having a functioning relationship with our own continent? Not being diplomatically incontinent? Finding ways to collaborate and improve opportunities, travel and trade? Great. Brexit betrayed us Very happy to betray it right back.

This is worth reading carefully. Faced with the full force of the Sun's BREXIT BETRAYAL bullshit, Starmer works to reassure and neutralise the attack - but he doesn't give ground on youth mobility or dynamic alignment. Keeps the door firmly open. www.thesun.co.uk/news/3236603...

Susanna Reid, "Successive governments have failed to tell a positive story on immigration" "We rely on immigration to run our public services, to grow our economy"

Campbell’s witty response to this homophobe makes me want to enjoy some of their delicious chicken noodle soup right now! 🍜 🏳️‍🌈

So there we have it, folks. Exactly what we suspected. There seems no integrity at all.

"And once you come to this conclusion you cannot remain silent." Location: Parliament Square, London (sound on) youtu.be/WMwqhdVV5as

40,000 people are liable for the Farmers Inheritance Tax. 0.06% of the UK. Such a small group they aren't even worth mentioning once. Except of course it has 21 billionaires and 1500 people with £100m+.

Farmers protesting to help preserve an inheritance tax loophole that’s led to them having to compete with the ultra-rich for farmland, at the expense of tenant farmers. The new system gives them a vastly more generous inheritance tax system than everyone else, plus ten years to pay.

Left: Kemi Badenoch criticises Keir Starmer for supporting freedom of movement with the EU Right: Keir Starmer points out that migration to the UK when we were in the EU was four times lower, than migration to the UK when the Conservatives took us out of the EU

Debates about migration are often simplistic and dominated by ignorance. This fascinating chart provides wonderful depth of data to help us understand the complex dynamics of migration. The Commons Library is a great resource.