This is exactly why I always said “austerity” was a con-trick of a term, popularised by Murdoch hacks & Alistair Darling, fwiw. Designed to evoke a cosy 1950s “we’re all in it together” era, when in fact it was a massive transfer of wealth from poor to rich.

alinsky or paolo freire? (i mean, if you're not preoccupied with other stuff rn)

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

Where would you go for well written criticism of urban “regeneration”? What are the classic texts? (context - having conversations with older people from East Ham to Stroud, really hearing how many assets that urban communities have treasured, rich with memory, have been neglected &/or torn down)

Anyone wondering what might happen if Count Binface wins Clacton may find the election of H'Angus the Monkey as Hartlepool Mayor in 2002 instructive. After the election, H'Angus revealed himself as Stuart Drummond and became Mayor. He was reelected twice.

If you’re a van dweller or other person without fixed address, you can get on the electoral roll of anywhere you have a local connection, fyi #BinfaceVsBungface www.theguardian.com/politics/201...

🤣🤣🤣

A political gamble looks like it has spectacularly backfired. https://cnn.it/3RuKKyV

NEW - Rachel Reeves said she will "accept Nigel Farage’s request to be appointed Steward and Bailiff of the Manor of Northstead." "It is a farce and a desperate distraction, and the people of Clacton deserve better. "But if he wants to spend the summer arguing with a bin, I won't stop him."

It would be good if @weownit.org.uk did this for the Clacton byelection. Because the people who own our failing, underinvested infrastructure are Farage’s crowd, so why not vote instead for the guy who wants cheap kebabs & better pay for nurses m.youtube.com/watch?v=xRu-... #BinfaceVsBungface

Apparently he’s only a space Count and not a Count in the UK that’s ok, we don’t have to invoke the Tony Ben law

If Count Binface wins will he have to relinquish his Counthood before he can take his seat in the Commons

Binface Vs Bungface

Odds currently 6/1, policies include tying nurses pay to that of MPs, banning speakerphones on public transport, and bringing back ceefax…

LOTS of questions about this. If we're to have ANY confidence in it, we need to see the algorithm published in full, & peer reviewed (just like existing NHS decision-making & advisory protocols). Also, some of the claims in this story rely upon metrics that/ www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

i'm quite serious

🤔 it's not just the US pharma companies holding the NHS over a barrel, but UK biosciences companies too 😮 using 'trade deal' as an excuse to secretively ratchet up the prices the NHS will have to pay firms for drugs 😡 'trade deal' really only in the sense of 'let's not have parliamentary scrutiny'

What is obviously outrageous is that the UK-US pharma deal has received no particular parliamentary scrutiny when it may be the first such corporate-government coercion of the UK where others could follow e.g. on digital taxes. This matters for more than traditional trade deals.

US Big Pharma always hated the NHS's ability to hold drug prices down (due to its huge purchasing power) Streeting, Starmer & Mandelson caved in to Trump's pressure & signed a deal to make the NHS pay way more New analysis suggests it could lead to 229k deaths. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

my job was to write “just transition/green jobs” policies for Unite 15 years ago, & it was a battle even then, but things have gone backwards because of Graham’s avowed disinterest in big P Politics, which just lets entrenched interests go unchallenged.

So who would @unitetheunion.bsky.social‘s Sharon Graham prefer as chancellor than Miliband? Anti-union-McDonalds-defending Wes Streeting? Sad to see the union leadership awake itself from political slumber to come in to bat on the wrong side. morningstaronline.co.uk/a-491b-labou...

we need a system where you can access X but only if your device blasts out a loud signal saying “warning, entering Elon Musk‘s worldview” so that people can stage interventions (In the pre digital age if you were seen reading Mein Kampf this is what would happen, after all)

it's still the only thing i want to know about @andyburnham.bsky.social, is anyone asking him?

I missed this at the time - I need to remember it if i'm ever tempted to feel sorry for Starmer

Pat McFadden would be an atrocious chancellor, he is the archetypal technogullible technocrat - talks shite about AI - argues the government has a mandate for whatever it liked, especially cutting things, because “change was a word in our manifesto” - learned how to be a minister from Mandelson.

some lovely nuggets in this new report, about the importance of proper investment in Lidos for health, climate mitigation & civic pride. (tho i don't think i agree that water companies should be responsible for outdoor swimming infrastructure, well, unless its as part of them being renationalised!)

hi @gregrosen.bsky.social @thefabians.bsky.social - enjoying your Lidos report but it's not quite accurate about Stroud, where the Lido (originally slated to close) is now due to open this summer (though later in the season than usual) after a community-led campaign. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

sounds good - would also probably be the best way of regenerating poorer areas by creating jobs

Humans should not be forced off pavements by delivery robots, but that's exactly what's happening. The people who pay the price are those with the least room to give it up.

'willful destruction of the HE sector' is another answer to "why do people hate Starmer" question. Those are all "labour voters" [generally] and they are being fucked.

Is there swimming pool researcher bluesky?

I read recently somewhere that it’s predicted Europe will heat more than other parts of the world, is that true?

I love this so much (Now wondering if I can persuade Stroud’s town mayor (who played an important role in the campaign to get our outdoor pool opening this summer after all) to follow suit…)

’m a bit tired of campaigning to save state-run stuff only to be asked “ok do you want to run it then” - like, didn’t we *already* invent a model where people pool resources to provide services, you know, called democracy? Why do we have to reinvent it on a shoestring?

Hm, probably BlueSky is peak “but what’s wrong with booking days in advance on an app“ territory… I just notice that youngsters now can’t use many outdoor pools (unless they are lucky enough to have organised parents to book for them). Queuing used to work fine IIRC. Quite sociable!

Anything good I could read on the democracy/social benefits of in-person queuing (vs advance online or phone booking) I read Sandel and Eubanks but I’d quite like more in that vein / more recent, post COVID writings

People saying why does Labour have no new generation of leaders just the old Blairite team & obviously there *are* lots of possible leaders (just a bit too left for the Labour donors) - but I do think what’s been done to local authorities (& ofc unions) in my lifetime is an under-remarked factor

Seen lots of “don’t swim without lifeguards” messages - this is *exactly* why Lidos were built in ‘30s - til then kids & w/class folk swam in canals. The decline of Lidos is a public health scandal & we need public support to restore @simonforstroud.bsky.social savestroudlido.org/when-we-get-...

While everyone was getting excited about Andy Burnham GPs have decided to vote on whether to ditch their unsustainable NHS contracts and take on more private work because Wes Streeting's imposed contract is utterly unworkable.

Same, as it goes. I'm thinking about this piece I wrote about Burnham (and Ed Miliband) and the NHS in 2015 - and how beyond the soundbites, Burnham was pretty relaxed about running the NHS as a series of contracts with heavy private sector involvement www.opendemocracy.net/en/100-hours...

I think the children of Blair (like Burnham & Purnell) honestly don't know what else government is for, after nearly 5 decades of neoliberalism, other than to respond to the whims of business, what they want to get paid to do, & what (& who) they're happy to ignore.

it’s the last of these that worry me most, Purnell reportedly saw platforming Farage as his key strategy to show that the BBC wasn’t elitist any more but was reaching out to working class voters. that plus his welfare stuff - really grim populist right political instincts, no class analysis at all

Me, let’s do a bit of my own research about this guy before I make my mind and…. Oh. Oh. Ohhhh dear

This is a very good piece written by @mehdirhasan.bsky.social in 2010 on James Purnell www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

James Purnell? oh joy… 😕one of Mandelson‘s favourites 😬corporate lobbyist 😳 ultra Blairite who tried to topple Brown (with Burnham’s support) reportedly because Brown wouldn’t slash benefits 🤯 ex-head of BBC strategy & allegedly initiator of the “let’s invite Farage on every 5 minutes” strategy

This also shaped politician’s responses to the internet age - perturbed at the ease with which the public could lobby them to actually do stuff, as opposed to just dish out contracts - and rather late to thinking about the much greater power the internet gave to corporations and what action needed.

Hm, Streeting has backed Burnham, I guess we can assume that means Alan Milburn stays on as the *actual* health secretary, busy shovelling contracts & data across the Atlantic (Burnham’s supposedly pro-NHS credentials were always a bit overblown, for those of us who looked closely enough)

Who would Burnham pick for Home Secretary? That would probably give us a big clue as to whether he would be subservient to the same military-industrial complex crowd as Starmer, or if he has hopes of preserving civil liberties and improving democracy.

All I really want to know about Burnham is where does he stand on turning civil disobedience into terrorism, and will he reverse the current approach in which inciting damaging military hardware is punished far more severely than inciting far right riots? www.thekeymagazine.com/p/palestine-...

every journo should be doing this - or, even better, leaving #twitter entirely