Class system is alive and well in Oz

Some peace, calm and prayer for you wherever you are from an outdoor grotto in Ransk, nr Antwerp, Belgium.

This weekend I dreamt of Cheryl. Today I heard the sad news of my long time friend and colleague Revd Dr Cheryl Dibeela. Rest in peace, rise in power. A force to be reckoned with and full of the spirit of life, solidarity and justice.

This Halloween, don't let conservatives scare you into thinking that any public spending for the common good is "socialism." https://youtu.be/xq02yuY4wDQ?si=1pZ3aUVE7u452gtr

📉 When people can’t afford food, fuel or housing, it’s not just hardship, it’s a failure of justice. Join us and the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights on 9 December for our online event - 'The future of human rights and justice in the UK' 🎟️ Tickets here

Kemi Badenoch is absolutely right about this. At the time she hacked Harriet Harman's emails it was an offence carrying a prison sentence of up to five years

NEWS: CBS News gutted its climate team as part of the big Paramount layoffs this week. These journalists had been doing incredible reporting on extreme heat, flooding, clean energy investments and more. I've got details for Climate-Colored Goggles: www.climatecoloredgoggles.com/p/cbs-news-g...

Good morning.

Ministers have dumped plans for a major white paper containing a swathe of further cuts and reforms to disability benefits, following months of activism by disabled people and allies that forced the government into a major U-turn this summer. www.disabilitynewsservice.com/dwps-plans-i...

Really looking forward to this conversation on Thursday about my new book on empathy and politics. You can find out more and register below 👇🏻

Good news from Netherlands. By no means a great victory -- a small one, incomplete -- but a step in the right direction at a time when the wrong direction exerts so much gravity. Gift link. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/29/w...

Decades of economic growth have failed to end #poverty, exacerbated inequalities & driven environmental collapse. Today #EndPovertyDay 17 Oct, I present the ‘Roadmap for Eradicating Poverty Beyond Growth’ — an urgently-needed rethink in the fight against poverty: www.youtube.com/watch?v=7htI...

Social protection is a human right. In a new report, UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights @deschuttero.bsky.social warns that weakening social protection fuels the rise of far-right populism. Read more:

The administrative incompetence and disregard for reality and people’s right to social security are staggering. www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

📢 Applications are open for the Sociology (SOC) and Work, Employment and Society (WES) Editorial Boards! Both welcome ECRs, with Sociology offering mentoring for those newer to reviewing. 🗓️ Deadline: 30 Oct 2025, 17:00 GMT 👉 Apply or nominate: www.mi-nomination.com/britsoc

"There’s now a seven-percentage point difference in financial wellbeing between genders, a divide that has grown even larger since last year.” #Inequality www.thetimes.com/article/cost...

Join @trusselluk.bsky.social and I in calling on the chancellor to end this cruel policy. It only takes a moment 🙏 action.trussell.org.uk/tell-your-mp...

BEYOND, the UK's leading conference for creative R&D, comes to Greater Manchester, November 24-26! Join us for three days of inspiration, innovation and connection. Explore the ideas shaping the future of the creative industries and meet the people making it happen. beyondconference.org/tickets

Block-Bridge-Build is a framework rooted in theory & practice of conflict transformation, civil resistance, & democratic renewal & aims to resist harm (block), facilitate dialogue across divides (bridge), & construct more inclusive, resilient futures (build) nonprofitquarterly.org/block-bridge...

In our church we celebrate refugees. We believe God wants us all to live in safety not fear. In our United Reformed Churches in the UK we acting in solidarity with people seeking asylum and with refugees. We are doing this in Manchester and Salford. Where are you doing solidarity work? @urc.org.uk

Cooking up community with magical ingredients of creativity, care & colours of autumn! This is what inclusive neurodivergent children & family work looks like today with tots to teens, connection & space to be together @urc.org.uk

Join @stevelevitsky.bsky.social & me for the first episode of our new series The Breakdown. Register here to join us live on Monday, 10/20 at 4pm ET: ash.harvard.edu/events/the-b...

I talked with @reallandsend.bsky.social on @deathpanel.bsky.social about Read This When Things Fall Apart and helping each other stay in the struggle. ❤️

To be effective, protest must be noisy, obstructive, annoying. No longer is this allowed. Now the last attribute of effective dissent – persistence – is also to be banned. But the moment protest ceases to be effective is the moment democracy dies. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Join us on 28 October at 5:30pm (GMT) for a lecture by Henrike Lähnemann (@hlaehnemann.bsky.social) entitled '1525 and All That: How Nuns’ Letters and Reformation Pamphlets Shaped German History'! 📅 1/6

“Take milk and make a clear Posset thereof with white wine, then take some sliced Pearmains, and boil them in your Posset; being boiled enough, strain them as long as the Apple will run, then set it on the fire again with blades of large Mace, then thicken it with the yolks of Eggs, and ….

‘Pearmain’ dates back to medieval times and is usually associated with apples that have a pear (or heart)-like shape. The 'Summer Pearmain' as shown here was first recorded in 1817 but the name 'Summer Pearmain' was used by John Gerard in his 1597 Herball. #heritageorchard

The Occasional Hundertwasser, Kunst Haus Wien

My publisher’s been very patient. I’m not doing everything I said I’d do to promote this book (out in a few weeks) because I’m an organizer in a city under federal attack. My days are full and emotionally exhausting. Any help getting the word out means a lot. It's a book people need right now.

Autumn conversations about #Wythenshawetowncentre redevelopment with Leader of Manchester City Council Bev Craig, developers MUSE and Wythenshawe Housing Association Andrea Bowman at the lovely Open Space at Civic, Wythenshawe

Celebrating! First girls tweenagers 9-12yrs session at crafty club offered for 5 girls - a box of sensory items to play with and a wooden box the girls started decorating. Lots of creativity, ideas, calming music and some stretches to reset our nervous systems to finish!

Energy requirements for AI mean that the only way for the bubble not to burst would require companies to multiply their carbon footprint to an unimaginable degree. Right now, while AI is barely functional and mostly a novelty for the lazy, it requires so much energy that data centers rival cities.

Some of London’s poorest areas could see their share of the children’s services funding formula halved under Labour’s plans to reform local government grants. By me, for Politics Home: www.politicshome.com/news/article...

News that shocks no one: Carbon offsets do nothing for climate.

Special Section in The GJ: 'Legacies of Austerity', edited by @smhall.bsky.social & @sanvanlan.bsky.social This #OpenAccess collection explores how the lens of legacies can be applied to understand austerity's effects in Europe. Available here⬇️ rgs-ibg.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/toc/10.1...

BREAKING: Reports of spontaneous protests erupting in European cities tonight in solidarity with the Global Sumud Flotilla, which was illegally attacked by Israel an hour ago. Demonstrations have been seen in Berlin🇩🇪 & Rome🇮🇹 - and these are the current scenes in Brussels🇧🇪 👇

Kemi Badenoch has vowed to repeal the UK’s Climate Change Act, a move so reckless it demands more scrutiny than polite debate. This matters not just for polar bears or coral reefs, but for our people, our economy, our very future. #ClimateChange #ClimateEmergency www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Great news! JSTOR now have a free account with an Independent Researcher category. You can access 100 documents per month www.jstor.org/action/showL...

The musician, known for his political activism, speaks to Josiah Mortimer about why progressive patriotism isn’t about flags and how the absence of Brexit in political debate worries him

See also Bragg's book The Progressive Patriot www.hive.co.uk/Product/Bill...

Celebrating a 50 year anniversary of faith communities uniting and acting to offer sanctuary to a teenager and family who the home office tried to deport, marking Black Lives Matter & being and being an inclusive church in Manchester!

#Appreciation #Hope #Inspiration 🌸

Congratulations to Zoe Marlowe who is now elected as the new Green Party councillor for Woodhouse Park, Wythenshawe, Manchester! Prayers for your work for the community from The Dandelion Community- church and community hub. @greenparty.org.uk

@manmetuni.bsky.social is inviting Expressions of Interest for the Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellowship scheme: #AcademicSky @leverhulme.ac.uk www.mmu.ac.uk/research/fel...

This is NOT just america. This is happening here. Local coverage of it, if you can bear the pop up ads.... www.dorsetecho.co.uk/news/2548259... #UKKidlit #Edusky

Membership of the Green Party of England and Wales has 'surged' past 75,000. I'm told there was a huge rise yesterday... Leader Zack Polanski: "Hitting 75,000 members is more than just a milestone; it’s proof that people are hungry for bold politics...We're only just getting started."

Louise Vincent, Addict Who Led Harm Reduction Movement, Dies at 49 f the nyt gift link

What's wild about this: railing against the social gospel is — I kid you not — a more than *century-long campaign* by conservative evangelicals. Some theological debates never get old, it seems.