These false beliefs do not arise in a vacuum. Yet we seem collectively incurious about their origins.

A wonderful, entertaining evening yesterday listening to Robin Ince robinince.bsky.social talk to Plymouth Humanists

A lighthearted but also insightful thread

Yet, on a personal level, most people don’t feel negatively impacted by immigration So how come they feel that it is such a massive issue at Government/ National level (at least right now)? (Staring hard at the media and Farage and Labour’s stupidity at feeding their toxic messaging)

Despite their popularity, honeybee hives harm efforts to protect wildlife www.theguardian.com/environment/...

"People have the right to peaceful protest. It is core to our country's values" - Keir Starmer, Sunday.

This, from The Londoner yesterday, also features people on the march who claim not to be racists. Though the things they say prove otherwise

Shot, chaser Young men more likely to vote Green than Reform. Young men second most progressive group of any demographic. Combined right-wing vote barely bigger than Green vote alone for young men

Well played.

I don’t want to be too shrill about this but I think the BBC, ITV and Sky have disgraced themselves in their coverage of the anti-refugee protests. A massive failure of judgement. But now we know the next time a progressive protest “isn’t news” that it’s nothing to do with numbers

63% of people think net migration rose in the last 12 months 8% of people think it fell Yet it fell by 400,000 in 2024 vs 2023 [It is falling further in 2025] Public service broadcasters are doing a core part of their job on this topic badly if that 8% is not closer to 30% at least

This is like telling those about to die on the Titanic to stop crying because they're contributing to the ship's flooding. www.thejournal.ie/uk-governmen...

No one sums up the utter shamelessness of the British press and the ugly politics of Farage quite like Private Eye.

Nighttime thoughts - when Just Stop Oil protesters threw some soup at a painting or whatnot, we were very sternly told that this was counter-productive and made people less likely to support them. Has anyone revised their opinion on this now that it's very clear ...

Can't fault the clarity of Labour's message on protest. There are BAD protesters who must be punished (Irish musicians, anti-genocide vicars) and there are GOOD protesters whose views deserve respect (masked thugs with petrol bombs trying to start a pogrom)

BBC framing racist rioters as the victims here

Violent or destructive left wing protest is framed as delegitimising the protesters' stated cause. Violent or destructive right wing protest is framed as emphasing the need for urgent action on the protesters' stated cause. As always, right wing men are treated as elemental forces without agency.

The light musical comedy guy is here to warn us off talking about Gaza. “The more you know, the harder it is to speak clearly about [it], and the more you suspect that maybe you're not the right person to speak about it." Weirdly, humanitarian & human rights organisations don’t have that trouble.

Oh so disagreeing with the Supreme Court IS allowed then

Oh boy, $150,000!

Now that performative wokeness is no longer mainstream they can go back to being publicly evil

The right-wing press is going mad over votes at 16 ("a naked attempt to twist democracy in Labour’s favour", an "election-rigging move"...) Oddly, they said the same 100 years ago when the voting age for women fell from 30 to 21. Let's revisit the Mail's campaign to"Stop the Flapper Vote Folly"...

The police (wrongly) inform a peaceful protestor that holding a Palestinian flag and signs deploring genocide is an offence under the Terrorism Act. This is the deranged policing environment the government has created.

incredible collection of sentences www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Climate change going to destroy the planet, but sure let’s keep writing articles like this you utter pricks.

It's boomtime for ticks...and so the risks of being infected with devastating Lyme Disease are high. Thank you to nature photographer @carlbovisnature.bsky.social for sharing his story and issuing a very timely warning. westcountryvoices.co.uk/vital-tick-a...

On another hot day, it's worth thinking about where we'll be in another forty or fifty years (and by 'live' this article is being a bit coy, as ‘living' is not what people will be doing without good air conditioned buildings in the predicted temperatures) www.weforum.org/stories/2020...

Fascinating story: devout British Muslim studies evolution expecting to find lies/flaws, but loses her faith when it’s clear the evidence is overwhelming, now an evolutionary biologist fronting a TV series. A tough struggle.

If this stands it will fundamentally redefine this country. You can't walk back conceptual overreach like this; the chilling effect alone is enormous. Shame on UK Labour. An absolute disgrace. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Surprise, surprise, Reform are slavishly flowing the Trump playbook and demonising trans people

These numbers are staggering. Some lives really don't matter...

motorists will *never* notice cuts to fuel duty (which they permanently be convinced is too high, and in fact actually purposefully being set to victimise them), but the state will bleed itself dry for their discount that doesn't touch the sides, in a way they never would for public transport users

Who could have guessed it: Shabana Mahmood and Wes Streeting.

A cutting analysis by Ian Dunt of how the EHRC has been transformed by the Tories into an organisation that, despite its name, is being used to undermine rather than protect the rights of trans people iandunt.substack.com/p/judgement-...

While governments across the world seem to have (at best) shifted their focus on to other things or (at worse) actively oppose efforts to address climate change, more evidence emerges to show that the crisis we face is getting more and more serious www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Mullein Moth caterpillars seem to be having a good year (happy to sacrifice my plant for the greater good!)

When the Greens said this, nothing. When the LibDems spoke up about how bad it was Labour were dropping this, nothing. Reform back it and its even a headline in the fucking Guardian. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Analyzed 30 years of UK trans media coverage across 12,000+ articles. Found coverage exploded after 2016, with public support dropping 18% as stories shifted from rights-based to threat-based narratives. Shows manufactured controversy, not grassroots concern.

A horrible story, and one we’re likely going to hear with increasing frequency given the current climate in the UK around trans people

Bloody hell I did it for a decade

A huge, quiet success: violence has fallen 75% in a generation:

Thank God for immigrants open.substack.com/pub/iandunt/...

I cannot state this strongly enough: If you are upset about the way this government is treating trans people and immigrants, and you have a Labour MP, for God sake write to them.

this is not an exaggeration

The proposal that your unhappiness can be cured by blaming a minority and treating them cruelly is made afresh to each new generation. It has never worked but that never seems to stop people falling for it.

Happy 80th anniversary of Hitler killing himself in his bunker to all who celebrate, which, as I now understand it, is not everybody

1/12 Tony Blair Institute have released a report which is getting a lot of coverage in UK today It says the drive for net zero emissions is flawed and some media outlets have gone to town However it’s a bit odd By odd, I mean there’s a lot of bollocks in it and shouldn't be taken seriously 🧵🧵

Grotesque

When the BBC has become so terrified of the right wing press that it's banning its presenters from talking about heating systems, then something's gone terribly wrong

Sudan is suffering from the largest humanitarian crisis globally and its civilians are continuing to pay the price for inaction by the international community, as the war enters its third year. “The sheer numbers are just mind-boggling.”