dave

dave, 1 day ago to random

Our "100 miles in May" walking challenge is complete, with our last 5.5km walk today happening to pass the Brewers Arms in West Malvern (okay, it was deliberate). We went out every day except one, and the 161km didn't include walks we would have done anyway (such as our regular 2.5km round trip walk to the shops).

With some diet changes, I've lost 3kg, and I'm sleeping better and feeling fitter. Mrs R has done equally well. We just need to maintain the momentum into June.

dave, 1 day ago to UKpolitics

Apparently Nigel Farage will be appearing on BBC Question Time tomorrow night. What could possibly go wrong? Has the BBC learned nothing from the debacle that was Brexit, in no small part fuelled by the supposedly impartial organisation giving disproportionate air time to racists and xenophobes?

Arguably, Reform is doing a great job of splitting the right-wing vote, but conversely it's their over-inflated presence that has pushed the Tories this far to the right in the first place.

#GE2024 #GeneralElection2024 #UKPol #UKPolitics

dave, 3 days ago to climate

Do you think there's any prospect of the #LabourParty actually mentioning the #ClimateEmergency during the next 5½ weeks?

dave, 4 days ago to random

Quiz of the day. Full in the missing words from this article in the Guardian. No prizes will be given:

<i>The [missing words here] drew heavy criticism on Sunday after claiming Rishi Sunak had allowed “more people into the country who are going to fight British values” than any UK leader before him.</i>

dave, 5 days ago to random

Get a free poster for your window, demanding an end to the first past the post system:

https://actionnetwork.org/forms/2024-general-election-window-poster

#PRNow #GeneralElection2024

dave, 6 days ago to random

If you live near the Malvern Hills, please consider signing and sharing this petition. We need a proper publicised and completely transparent process in place before this goes any further.

#Malvern #MalvernHills

https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/stop-the-bill-as-proposed-by-the-malvern-hills-trust-conservators

dave, 8 days ago to UKpolitics

Nigel Farage has confirmed he won't be standing in the election on 4th July. However, I can confirm that he will be appearing on BBC Question Time at least 17 times between now and election day.

#UKPolitics #UKPol #GeneralElection2024

dave, 9 days ago to random

A study reported in the Guardian has concluded that the dismal weather over the past year is 10 times more likely thanks to global heating, and we're heading for one year in three following that pattern. To quote the end of the article:

Dr Friederike Otto, a climate scientist at Imperial College London and co-founder of WWA, said: “To put it bluntly, climate change is already making life shittier. Wetter winters are flooding farms, cancelling football matches, overflowing sewage systems and [making] groceries more expensive.

“Thankfully, we know the solutions. Replace oil, gas and coal with cleaner, cheaper renewable sources of energy; insulate homes, and restore nature. All this will make life cheaper and better for all, not more expensive.”

So why isn't our government doing anything, given that all the experts say that it's essential and will save us money (and possibly our very existence)? Too many vested interests in oil and gas, I fear.

#ToriesDestroyingOurCountry
#ToriesUnfitToGovern
#GeneralElectionNow
#GreenPartyUK

Full article:
‘Never-ending’ UK rain made 10 times more likely by climate crisis, study says
https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/may/22/never-ending-uk-rain-10-times-more-likely-climate-crisis-study

dave, 9 days ago to random

So there you go. #Sonos have just launched their first ever pair of headphones. Just as I suspected, the reason they launched their new app a couple of weeks ago was because it's a pre-requisite for using the headphones.

The new app is a disaster - the average rating on the Play Store is now 1.1 stars out of 5, entirely because it's impossible to give zero. Rather than roll back to the previous app, or offer the new one as optional, Sonos have chosen to weather the storm of protest with a series of rolling updates.

I shall not be buying these headphones. In fact, I probably won't be buying Sonos ever again. They have ridden roughshod over their existing customers in a way that Google would be proud of.

dave, 10 days ago to GooglePixel

Having literally just discovered it's #WorldBeeDay, I'll repost this photo I took (completely obliviously) earlier this evening. #GooglePixel

dave, 11 days ago to random

Please help ensure the any changes to the stewardship of the Malvern Hills receive property scrutiny and public consultation:

https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/stop-the-bill-as-proposed-by-the-malvern-hills-trust-conservators

dave, 12 days ago to UKpolitics

Petrochemicals billionaire and Brexiteer, Sir Jim Ratcliffe, is now backing Labour, having been seen with Starmer at Manchester United last week. I can understand why Starmer thinks he needs abhorrent people like Ratcliffe on his side; however, it shows there's no limit to how low he will go to gain power. It's ridiculous, given that Labour are going to win the next election by a country mile. There is no need to get people like Ratcliffe and Elphicke backing labour.

This sentence from today's Sky News article (link below) caught my eye:

"The country was designed for 55 or 60 million people and we've got 70 million people and all the services break down as a consequence."

He's doing his bit by living in Monaco. Maybe he could pay UK tax instead? What a [insert favourite pejorative here].

https://news.sky.com/story/sir-jim-ratcliffe-scolds-tories-over-handling-of-economy-and-immigration-after-brexit-13139088

#UKPolitics #Labour

dave, 13 days ago to random

From the Guardian's Marina Hyde:

"Whether it would be realistic is another matter. It’s hard to escape the idea that in this country (and others), there is a class of people who go to jail and a class of people who get directorships, and there is close to zero crossover. If you are a little post office operator who steals a relatively tiny amount of money – or doesn’t, as it turned out – you can end up in prison. If you are the big person in charge of everything when many of these post office operators were getting wrongly banged up, you get paid relatively vast amounts of money and can end up on the board of Dunelm."

She's absolutely right. So often the rich and powerful simply walk away from their wrongdoings, often into another lucrative position.

Full article:

Into Britain’s angry pulpit steps Rev Vennells, who ran the Post Office – to explain why it sent honest people to jail
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/may/17/britain-rev-paula-vennells-post-office-inquiry-jail

dave, 16 days ago to random

LKT in great form again. When what's actually happening in Gaza is explained using satire, you realise how ridiculous the position of most of the so-called democratic West is. Israel must be held to account. #StopGenocideInGaza

https://open.substack.com/pub/normalislandnews/p/un-worker-dies-from-unknown-causes

dave, 17 days ago to random

Greenwashing at its finest.

UK ‘net zero’ project will produce 20m tonnes of carbon pollution, say experts
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/may/14/uk-net-zero-teesside-project-produce-carbon-pollution

dave, 17 days ago to climate

This article in the i newspaper falls to mention that the one in six species in the UK facing extinction includes, in the worst case scenario which we are currently on course for, us! #ClimateCrisis

dave, 18 days ago to random

This is a heartwarming story, not. Although I'm not religious, they all deserve to burn in the fires of hell in my opinion.

Trump Asked Oil Execs for $1BN to Rollback Environmental Policies: Report
https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-asked-oil-execs-for-1bn-2024

dave, 19 days ago to climate

This BBC graph of average sea surface temperatures since 1979 should have (but hasn't) spurred our politicians into action to actually do something. Clearly there was a tipping point in May 2023, which has certainly been evident in the UK due to the last 12 months of even more unusual weather.

Where are our leaders when we actually need them? We need a general election, a hung parliament, and some #Green representation in government.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-68921215

#ClimateEmergency #ToriesDestroyingOurPlanet #GeneralElectionNow

dave, 22 days ago to random

What a load of absolute nonsense from the Labour Party chair, as reported by the Guardian. Good fit for Labour, my arse!

---

The Labour party’s chair has defended the decision to admit a staunchly rightwing MP while Diane Abbott has remained suspended and under investigation for more than a year.

Anneliese Dodds said she believed Elphicke was a good fit for Labour because her remarks on border security and housing were “absolutely fundamental to the Labour party”.

But she refused to “go into detail” about why Abbott’s complaint process had taken more than year while Elphicke had been allowed into the party.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/article/2024/may/09/labour-chair-defends-decision-admit-natalie-elphicke-diane-abbott-anneliese-dodds-

dave, 22 days ago to climate

The Guardian and a consensus of 380 IPCC members are painting an accurate but very depressing picture of the #ClimateEmergency.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/may/08/world-scientists-climate-failure-survey-global-temperature

The world, especially its politicians, needs to wake up to what is inevitably going to continue to unfold over the next few decades. It's not about having a bit more rain and some uncomfortably warm summers, and a few islands we can't afford to visit disappearing under water. It's about floods, fires, storms, food insecurity, mass migration and in the worst case scenario societal collapse.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/may/08/world-scientists-climate-failure-survey-global-temperature

#KeepItInTheGround #ClimateChange

dave, 23 days ago to climate

The BBC are reporting that April was the warmest ever, making it the 11th month running, and that the global average ocean temperature is increasing literally every day. However, they really need to ram some of the following points home, and they need to hold politicians to account:

• even if we stopped emitting CO2 right now, this is the coolest it will be for many generations.

• achieving net zero by 2050 is intended to limit average global temperature rise to 1.5°C; however, we've probably already exceeded that 25 years early, so 1.5° is impossible.

• an average is an average… some parts of the planet will be much hotter, and some areas may become practically uninhabitable, including large parts of southern Europe.

• even once net zero is achieved, temperatures will continue to rise for a few decades.

• to achieve net zero at all we have to cut emissions very rapidly. The last 20% of savings are always harder than the first 20%, so Sunak kicking the can down the road is absolutely criminally negligent.

• large parts of the most fertile areas of Britain could be underwater well before 2050.

• it will cost a lot more to do nothing, not only in financial terms, but in terms of human lives, social upheaval, and the favourite subject of the British right, mass migration.

We have to act now.
#ClimateEmergency
#ClimateChange

dave, 27 days ago to random

To quote the excellent Richard Murphy @RichardJMurphy...

"Reform has failed. I think it has two seats. It is doing nothing like as well as UKIP did. It is annoying the Tories. It is giving racists and headbangers something to do. But it is not winning support. Its only real achievement seems to be to keep the Greens off the BBC."

https://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2024/05/04/labour-is-not-as-out-of-touch-with-reality-as-the-tories-but-it-has-only-a-vague-relationship-with-it/

dave, 27 days ago to UKpolitics

Why is Reform UK, aka The Farage Fascist Party, getting so much air time? The screenshot of the total number of councillors elected (from the BBC) shows them a distant last. #UKPolitics #GeneralElectionNow #GTTO

dave, 29 days ago to random

It's sad to hear about the death of one of my Wild West Midlands heroes. The light shines on. #ELO

Richard Tandy, ELO keyboardist who shaped band’s futuristic sound, dies aged 76
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2024/may/02/richard-tandy-dies-aged-76-death-elo-electric-light-orchestra-keyboardist

dave, 29 days ago to random

I know I'm a pedant, but I've seen a couple of news outlets using the words "sent to Rwanda" in this context. If the person knew the destination in advance, and went voluntarily, they haven't been "sent" anywhere? #RwandaNotInMyMame