🔴 NEW: Larry Ellison’s £257m bet on Tony Blair Our investigation with @lighthousereports.com reveals how the Tony Blair Institute has been accused of pushing the interests of tech tycoon Ellison — Trump’s “CEO of everything” — and his company Oracle democracyforsale.substack.com/p/inside-the...

i am seriously begging democrats to bring the same smoke to this story that they brought to jimmy kimmel being indefinitely suspended

It’s not clear what these changes will concretely consist of but this is an appalling proposal from Mahmood, ignoring the challenges that asylum seekers face in accessing legal advice and undermining protections for trafficking survivors

This does not look like “impartiality”. It looks like propaganda. www.thelondoneconomic.com/politics/how...

Our friends at @takeoneaction.bsky.social kick off their festival in Edinburgh this week. See the programme at www.takeoneaction.org.uk

My latest, on how concepts like the populist hype and reactionary centrism can help us understand how our media and political system normalises dangerous far right talking points and policies shado-mag.com/articles/opi...

Few countries have been privatised as deep or as far as in Britain. This failed experiment has shaped your life. To learn how, explore our new project — Who Owns Britain? — at the link below. www.common-wealth.org/interactive/...

Power Station is screening tonight at @filmhouseedinburgh.bsky.social - and then you can come along to this brilliant workshop tomorrow with filmmaker Dan Edelstyn. All pay what you can!

The solar revolution means that power can be decentralized, democratized, distributed far more justly. So it makes perfect and hideous sense, given the nostalgia of authoritarians for a golden age (of exclusion, exploitation, and inequality ), to tie themselves to all fossil fuel's problems.

We're excited to launch a new survey exploring Gender Equity in the Scottish Film Exhibiton sector, in partnership with @filmhubscotland.bsky.social. If you work or volunteer in film exhibition, please fill out the survey. We welcome responses from all genders: www.surveymonkey.com/r/FilmEquity

This is the stark testimony of former BBC journalist Mohamed Shalaby, who quit the corporation over its reporting on Gaza Read the full interview 👉 www.thenational.scot/news/2...

Excited to moderate this at @filmhouseedinburgh.bsky.social on Sat as part of our Real Utopias festivals. Come along if you like weird but brilliant shorts exploring the frontiers of tech, and brilliant-post screening conversations with @karengregory.bsky.social, @foxglovelegal.bsky.social and YOU

Draft EHRC guidance on Equality Act is unworkable for businesses 👇👇👇 www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/poli...

"There's quite a lot of evidence that facts alone don't necessarily change people's minds. You need to get to people's emotions as well" @takeoneaction.bsky.social, Scotland's film festival for social change is back – we talk to director Rachel Hamada

In an era where trans kids are spoken over and spoken for, NIÑXS sparkles with confidence, wit, and magic: a joyous demand that trans youth get to narrate their own stories. Presented in collaboration with @sqiff.bsky.social www.takeoneaction.org.uk/film/ninxs/

👁️FILM SPOTLIGHT: NIÑXS 👁️ In the rural small town of Tepoztlán, Mexico, fifteen-year-old Karla gets to tell her own coming-of-age story as she navigates the joys and complexities of trans adolescence. Book your tickets: www.takeoneaction.org.uk/film/ninxs/

🎥Film Spotlight: POWER STATION (2025) Two artists and activists are on a mission to power their street with solar energy, one home at a time. We'll be showing POWER STATION in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Inverness and Dundee! 👉 TICKETS: www.takeoneaction.org.uk/film/power-s...

Really excited to announce the launch of our 2025 film festival programmes - hope to see many of you at one of our events! #RealUtopias2025

👋 We’re BACK! Real Utopias will be coming to screens and community spaces near you this autumn: 〰️ #Edinburgh (17-21 Sep) 〰️ #Glasgow (25-28 Sep) 〰️ #Inverness (28-30 Oct) 〰️ #Dundee (7-8 Nov) We’re excited to share our gorgeous poster for this year’s festivals, designed by Maddie Lennon!

Today! Last chance to get free tickets for this event exploring videogames, their place in our culture and how they could be key to imagining alternative futures - exhibition with @marijamdid.com, discussion with @adrianhon.bsky.social, and short film screening bit.ly/resistanceingames

This is utterly shameful.

Edinburgh folk! A fantastic Videogames + Art + Politics event is taking place tomorrow. What a treat, do NOT miss! 💚

Tomorrow's front page 📰 Convicted US felon to arrive in Scotland

This Saturday is Resistance in Game Space, an evening looking at how videogames are key to imagining alternative futures. We'll be at Sett Studios in Leith, Edinburgh, from 6-9pm and tickets are free! Find out more about what's planned and sign up at bit.ly/resistanceingames

I am not a member of any political party but holy shit it's refreshing to finally hear some clear political narrative about the state of the UK and what has brought us here. More please!

We’re on Letterboxd! Give us a follow to find out what we’ve been watching… boxd.it/2SAqr

🌱Our first Beans on Screen event was a delicious success! On the hottest day of the year, we were so lucky to be in the coldest room in Platform Glasgowfor our film screening and Living Table with artist Désirée Coral.

“In immediate danger of starving to death”

OK I didn't come back until July. I sadly wasn't hibernating all of that time...

This Saturday in Edinburgh I'm speaking at Resistance in Game Space, a free event including an exhibition around @marijamdid.com's writing, short film screenings, and a talk by @josephdelappe.bsky.social. Huge thanks to @rachelhamada.bsky.social for putting this amazing event together! Come along!

Last chance to get tickets for @theferret.scot 10th Birthday AGM and a cracking panel talking about what the implications are of the second Trump regime for Scotland

Taking the rest of January off for some much needed rest and hibernation, see you in February! 🌱

“They aim to create suspicion and fear and to convince the people that liberal democracy, with its respect for individual human rights, is a less attractive political option than majoritarianism and authoritarian rule” https://theferret.scot/orban-conservative-think-tank-scotlands-culture-war/

This is devastating. Bristol Old Vic is historically one of the best drama schools in the country. Reduced to this. Our industry is becoming unrecognisable oldvic.ac.uk/news/an-impo...

This may be a long shot but can anyone recommend any affordable, interesting online courses as I’d like to get my Mum one for her birthday? She did a public history one and enjoyed it, possibly one of UCL’s. History, art, literature, design, architecture all possible areas of interest. Thank you

Ooft

The Labour Party, who are currently forming the government of a G8 country, made this:

What a wild, wild ride

This is sick 🤮 Zuckerberg sucks up to Trump and the fash while creating fake black women for profit. Enough.

Citi, Bank of America, and Morgan Stanley have all pulled out of the Net-Zero Banking Alliance this week. The global alliance, which is backed by the UN, is committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Goldman Sachs and Wells Fargo also left the group last month.

Clearly this is correct as far as it goes, but a) it’s not just Tories/Reform who are obsessed with immigration, is it, & b) whilst X is a cesspit, only today the BBC’s yet again vacuously counting small-boat arrivals, so Tory focus on immigration helped stoke riots, equalities committee chair says

It is entirely within our power to make 2025 a year where not one single person drowns attempting to cross the channel. It is up to us to demand it, in these people’s names.

This looks great: The World After Amazon A project to support workers to reclaim the power of future-making afteramazon.world

If you can help with a small item I know Ahmad and Samar would be very grateful

interestingly, the oxford literary festival has many participants and sponsors, any of which you could contact to express your disgust at its hosting a cosy chat between two hideous bigots oxfordliteraryfestival.org/about

Given the brazen mass murder of journalists in Gaza it's a little astonishing how little solidarity they've had from journalists in the west who continue to make up excuses and downplay the scale of the war crimes Israel is committing every day

"Children as agents of cultural adaptation" - very interesting. www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

At risk of repeating myself: The Luddites weren’t against technology. They were against getting put out of work by a technology that did a version of their job faster but worse, in the service of increasing profits for their bosses.

This is the lash photograph of Dr Hussam Abu Safiyeh, taken as he walks, unflinching, towards the Israeli tanks. An absolutely harrowing image.