what would help see off “decline p*rn“ is for activists to fight that decline - fight for every universal service, every swimming pool, hospital, library, youth club - if seen as unsexy activism compared to performative “solidarity” (& social entrepreneurial niches), we cede the terrain to the fash

Web 2.0 has replaced solidarity with hashtags and hustle culture. Time to get out and talk to people instead.

cool

Good on @channel4news.bsky.social: reporting responsibly on both Belfast attack and equality laws with facts & context & without propagating far white narratives.

So this happened last night 💙💦 Having announced the indefinite closure of Stroud’s beloved 50m Lido 3 months ago, determined community action has forced a complete rethink. There’s more to do for the medium / longer term, but I am feeling good today! www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... #lidos

I turned some of my recent lido thoughts into an article savestroudlido.org/when-we-get-...

A thread about young people and about the need to protect the purpose built places they can swim - not just because its about safety (though obviously that is so important) But because, as an MP once said: "When we get down to swimming, we get down to democracy"

Lots of discussion about young people in the news, how invisible they are in our politics. Here's a few thoughts on why 🧵

really interesting point - can anyone point me to good sources of research on both fronts? particularly around the benefits of outdoors, physical activity, swimming, or any combination thereof?

on young people i think part of problem is how much everyone now gets segregated into niche funded/commercial projects, rather than protecting intergenerational public spaces (like lidos) where all ages share space in a relaxed way. & judgemental narratives used to justify closing services yp love

the single best thing about being more offline and more locally than nationally focused right now, is not having to pay attention when tony blair says something

The “digital town square” was always a fallacy www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

”politicians are either signposts or weathervanes”, as a wise man once said.. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Is it too conspiratorial to think that Labour Together… might want Burnham to lose to Reform?

Josh Simons of key right wing faction Labour Together, standing down supposedly to let soft left Andy Burnham have a chance at leadership? Make it make sense.

Who knows why the Labour Right are backing Starmer, is it because they know as well as everyone Labour is probably dead and they want to keep it moribund just long enough to enter into some death loop centrist national unity coalition party? a prize for any better answer

Presumably Alan Milburn will stay on as the actual health secretary

“The results are in”

So very many stories like this, just so that Wes Streeting could launch his bid to be Prime Minister with “the results are in” bsky.app/profile/nath...

Wes’s 20 pilot trusts in poor areas did more ”unreported removals” (ie removed from waiting lists without treatment) than elsewhere, Health Foundation tells BBC World at One. + making it harder to get referred in first place Looks like sneaky tricks to flatter Wes, as I outlined a few weeks ago:

Especially when theres quite a bit of evidence to suggest much if not all of this modest fall in NHS waiting lists, was achieved by an increase in “cleansing” people from waiting lists without actually treating them…not because Wes Streeting was an effective health secretary (he wasn’t).

at least 3 hours saved today by not trying to discern through the lens of the commentariat whether or not some rich people behind the dominant labour factions think its worth the risk of pushing their boy above the parapet yet

i feel like i'm saving hours a day at the moment, having decided a couple of months ago to pay zero attention to westminster drama.

i feel like i'm saving hours at the moment, having decided a couple of months ago to pay zero attention to westminster drama.

i rather fear Wes Streeting will be next PM, not cos he has any notable charisma /leadership skill, but cos he's spent the last few years in various love-ins with Big Tech, defending Palantir's NHS involvement, telling people to use apps & stay away from doctors, etc etc. bsky.app/profile/caro...

why indeed bsky.app/profile/caro...

Only put Wes Streeting in Downing Street if you actually want Alan Milburn running Downing Street (sadly i fear some influential Labour people probably want exactly that)

Wes Streeting thinks the NHS is like Woolworths, don't make him PM

Iykyk

I spent 80s, 90s & 00s in Haringey, Hackney & Waltham Forest. I saw Labour councils turn from a left politics that had our backs, to corporate schmoozefests. I am so delighted that @haringeygreens.bsky.social @wfgreens.bsky.social @hackneygreenparty.bsky.social have taken the reins - long overdue

grown up politics ain’t what it used to be

I grew up in Haringey and this gladdens my heart

Wrote about the elections for the paper (which went to press last night): www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Current mood

Important to remember this in the coming days and weeks Starmer was never supposed to have personality or vision, he was supposed to do what he was told Just long enough for the next biddable charisma-free corporate-bedazzled guy or gal to come along (oh hi, Wes!)

The way they asked him the question *twice*, and he was like "oh, did I not give enough examples the first time" and added more examples of how labour are not a progressive party

There’s only one argument against PR in UK elections, and it’s that you’d rather risk the hard Right taking all, than give the actual Left a chance to share a bit of power

For anti-racists: the silver lining.

me too, and I personally didn’t have a vote this time round, but they lost everywhere I’ve ever lived

I’ve lived in 4 local authority areas in my life (not counting Uni). 3 of them are now run by the Greens and the 4th looks set to be too (1 seat short of overall majority). Have to say that feels kinda nice.

Not sure a man who’ll kick untreated people off NHS waiting lists in order to burnish his own ambition is the answer the country is crying out for but what do I know, eh

meaningless “The right lesson is to listen to voters. To represent the majority who want a government that will confront the big challenges they face with real answers. Because that is when the Labour party is at its best. & that is how we will deliver the change that people are desperate for.”

Ok to be fair this has right cheered me up

William Morris would be happy

👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏

Oh I do have to have a little happy moment at seeing the Greens take Waltham Forest from Labour. It was Labour councillors in WF who told me campaigning to save libraries was patronising because working class kids “can afford to buy books, these days”. Always one of the worst New Labour councils

I missed so much major news by not being on BlueSky (or indeed any news platforms) much of late, thank heavens I somehow didn’t miss this vital gem

I’d like to hear a little more from the people who are going to be affected by this and a little less from the people whose first thought is “what does this mean for Keir Starmer”

ok that's it, back to Insta, the Lido, and reading council papers that will be the frigging death of me but someone's gotta do it

how much longer is labour going to hold on to FPTP just cos they want to be the only ones in the room with the king, or something (spoiler - just long enough for it to be farage in the room with the king)