This. @hcrichardson.bsky.social and @jbf1755.bsky.social do in a podcast what 20 years of Sunday morning shows have failed to do: discuss current events in an informed historic context and proposed actionable ways forward. Well worth listening to. And thank you, Professors.

I’ve been staring, somewhat open mouthed at this map all week. One of these motorways was indeed meant to roar right past my house! An absolutely fascinating map that simultaneously makes way more sense than the London we ended up with, and shows an absolutely unthinkable parallel universe.

UK electricity bills up 163% since 2008. Wages haven't. 6.1m households in fuel poverty, £4.43bn debt Profiteering: Energy sector average profit margin 23%, grid sector 38%, gas extraction 58%. Profit last year £30bn. 128,000 a year die in fuel poverty. No govt checks profiteering.

Exclusive: Officials are urgently trying to establish whether a £36m purchase of Russian aircraft breached the UK's sanctions regime The government only discovered it had happened after being alerted by @theobserveruk.bsky.social observer.co.uk/news/nationa...

The moon is looking pretty this morning.

"To find something of this magnitude, you’d have to go back to the population transfers in the years just after the Second World War." www.thebulwark.com/p/tories-con...

This week's column is on Billionaire Brain: the condition which seems to prevent extremely rich people from perceiving the utterly bleeding obvious. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

I'm sure this is entirely unrelated to Reform's anti-net zero stance www.politico.eu/article/dona...

Just sent out this piece--maybe the most depressing I have written (sorry). The future of war is emerging in front of our eyes, and its terrifying. It is a combination of ranged fires in mass and a willingness to commit war crimes. open.substack.com/pub/phillips...

The government will struggle to solve the crisis in special educational needs and disabilities support or close the disadvantage-related attainment gap under its current spending plans, a new policy analysis warns www.tes.com/magazine/new...

Lots of thought-provoking stats in this release from the Institute for Government, not least: "In 2023–24, there were an average of five suspensions in every secondary school class, more than double the highest rate seen pre-pandemic." www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/press-releas...

Lowe doesn't need the money but the 'thrill' of engagment can be just as corrupting as the love of cash & if engagement/cash increase according to the extremity of the opinions expressed then you need integrity to resist the temptation to become ever more offensive. This is what Musk has engineered.

We need nothing less than a profound humbling - a change of mindset and values, and a service relationship with Nature and each other if we are to survive. I don’t say this lightly. www.ipsnews.net/2025/11/the-...

I wish UK progressive people understood how dangerous the current Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill is and that you can get away with as much authoritarianism as you like if you just say to the bourgeois "but think of the children".

I Have a dream, a fantasy to help me through reality and my destination, makes it worth the while. Pushing through the darkness, still another mile. This morning in Glastonbury.

I home educate in the UK so I know an *enormous* number of kids who left school following degrading and abusive toileting situations like the below. Stories like this are very common. Btw teachers were replying to this thread "tell you're not a teacher without telling me you're not a teacher 🤣".

November 6, 2025

No it’s important to listen to this. Because then you understand that many of them will do ANYTHING to keep power. Remember Musk got involved in the 2024 election after saying to Tucker “if she wins” I am definitely going to prison. So we need to move knowing that nothing is off the table for them.

11. Regaining the freedom we’ve lost is much harder and less likely than defending the freedom we already possess. We must do all we can to stop governments with autocratic tendencies from winning elections and reasserting the old order. Lose it once, and it might be gone forever.

Elon Musk's $1tn pay deal approved by Tesla shareholders. Musk used his wealth to incite violence, hatred in the US & UK. How long before UK execs demand more for mediocre performance. The ultra rich buy political system, bribe politicians, create pollution and inequity. Tax them.

The black hole in Britain’s economy isn’t in the Treasury youtu.be/XZhZzCOIHUw?...

21 out of 33 Conservative shadow ministers in the Lords have paid jobs outside Parliament. Shadow ministers paid to ‘advise’ the same industries they’re meant to scrutinise. Conflict of interest institutionalized. Paymasters served. Can't get good society without ending political bribery.

Tory leader Kemi Badenoch to relaunch exclusive ‘advisory board’ for high-value donors. Donors will have direct access to senior ministers, shape public policy. What can the low/middle income households do? Receipt/Payment of political donations must be criminalized.

ITV in talks to sell television business to Sky. Sky is owned by US-based Comcast, largest shareholders include Vanguard Group, BlackRock. CMA must block the takeover. No one must own more than one major media outlet. Need diversity and competition.

'Standing Strong' St Michael's Tower on Glastonbury Tor against a textured sky this morning.

@popovaprof.bsky.social on how to handle Russian propaganda & lying:

Pregnancy became far more dangerous in Texas after the state banned abortion, according to our analysis, which found the sepsis rate for women hospitalized as they miscarried in the 2nd trimester shot up by more than 50%. (Published February)

November 5, 2025

Reeves considers cut to green levies to reduce cost of energy bills. Cut bills by cutting profiteering, change Ofgem's marginal pricing method, improve housing, nationalise energy. Fund green levies through general taxation. Take equity stake for govt subsidies. There must be no free cash.

Corporate Welfare Drax receives subsidies for burning wood to produce electricity. £869m last year. £458.6m a year for 2027-2031. UK Govt not taken equity stake. In 2024, paid £97m dividend, £300m share buyback Drax electricity is the most expensive. It is the biggest single UK carbon emitter.

Does Nationalism Help or Hurt Us? youtu.be/1BoQijWkuLA?...

Sat in a room last week with human rights defenders from Gaza and Sudan saying how to get, transmit and verifiably archive video of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide People are risking their lives to report on drones wiping out families as GenAI destroys the ability to believe them.

9. We will stop the billionaire autocracy only if these revenants make way for a radical, inspiring, lively politics, that doesn't wait for the other side to “crumble”, but gives people a reason to overthrow it. May Mamdani’s victory begin a new era of life-giving and life-affirming politics.

This is a genuinely fascinating piece of research done by Sky on the sewer previously known as Twitter. Having been largely off it for a bit over a month, and having jumped on yesterday for a half an hour to search for insane right wing responses to Mamdani’s win, I can’t tell you just how 1/

The 2025 Curriculum and Assessment Review Final Report was meant to “build a world-class curriculum for all.” In reality, it signals something quite different: the closure of curriculum reform in England. 🧵

13. Curriculum should be a public conversation about how we live together, not a delivery system for inherited abstractions. The Final Review turns that conversation off.

There are lots of great thoughts in this thread from @drleatongray.bsky.social and this one is particularly spot on.

Numbers don't lie: rates charged by investor-owned utilities are more than those those of publicly owned electricity providers. “Public power is simply more affordable."

Any time you hear people make a dismissive reference to "DEI," take a moment to reflect on what that says about their character and values. Apparently they're opposed to the very idea of diversity (vs. homogeneity) or equity or inclusion. (Or else they just mean "I'm a racist bigot.")

📒 Government published Sir Charlie Mayfield's ‘Keep Britain Working’ report today. An ambitious framework for how employers can support workers in ill-health. Focus must be here to shift the dial on employment of disabled people & benefit spend, not cutting people's benefits. 🧵

Since 2000, the richest 1% of the world's population has taken 41% of new wealth, the poorest half has received only 1%. Rich buy political parties, media, means of production, cause corruption, climate crisis, make mockery of democracy. Poor die early. Must redistribute or risk social disorder.

A mythical creature flying high over Glastonbury Tor.

The Magpie Inkcap is a toxic mushroom found in deciduous woodlands. Its cap is initially egg shaped before opening into a dark bell with white flakes resembling magpie plumage. The white gills turn black and deliquesce into ink, historically used for writing. Mothyandthesquid.com #yarnmarket 🧶

Oldest victim of Post Office scandal, 92, receives final compensation payout. At last. But ruined lives can't be restored. £1.2bn paid to 9,100 victims from public purse. Not a penny from PO execs, Fujitsu, lawyers, accountants, advisers who benefited from persecution of the victims.

East Herts residents.... last day to have your say....

The frustrating thing about this is that the idea is right, absolutely yes to more enrichment, but the idea that you just set targets to achieve it is the error. What this will mostly do is advantage schools in already advantaged areas because this stuff costs £! schoolsweek.co.uk/another-expe...

I think this @schoolsweek.bsky.social interview demonstrates how the focus of the curriculum review was subject related and secondary focused. I don't think it actually deals with key issues around young people's engagement and wellbeing within the English system. schoolsweek.co.uk/interview-be...

November 3, 2025

South Korea has passed a law such that car parks with more than 80 spaces will be required to install solar canopies and carports. And it will be RETROSPECTIVE Should our politicians follow suit rather than cover East Anglia's agricultural land?

Anglian Water received 5 of the investigate enforcement notices relating to toxic 'forever chemicals'. Amid growing worries about PFAS, water companies have been required since 2021 to test for 47 of the most concerning ones in aquifers & reservoirs & water supplied to customers' homes.