dave

dave, 1 hour 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, 3 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, 4 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, 4 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, 5 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, 6 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, 9 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, 9 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, 10 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, 14 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, 14 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, 16 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, 16 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

dave, 24 days ago to random

For those of you who need reminding, many of the things wrong with this country (irrespective of your political leanings) are the fault of the party that's been in charge for two thirds of the past 100 years, and all of the past 14. This website might help you to change that:

#GTTO

https://stopthetories.vote

dave, 24 days ago to random

To translate Sunak's speech, we're going to increase defence spending to 2.5% of GDP. We are going to achieve this by keeping the spending the same and reducing GDP. It's a proven technique, as demonstrated by Brexit.

dave, 24 days ago to climate

When the West Antarctic ice sheet melts, perhaps very soon, we will most likely have a million refugees all of our own. What are we going to do? Send them to #Rwanda?

I'm disgusted that our government is not tackling the real issues that we are currently dealing with and will have to deal with in the future. The Tory party are just desperately trying to grab any votes from whatever batshit crazy minority faction they can find. They don't care about this country. They only care about themselves, their jobs, and their lucrative sidelines.

#ClimateChange #ToriedDestroyingOurCountry

dave, 25 days ago to random

Today is St. George's Day and I'm frankly ashamed to be English, and I'm ashamed of what our country had become under the cruel leadership of the Tories.

In addition to being ashamed, I'm also pretty angry. I hope the Tories are obliterated at the next election. Every single Tory MP who has voted for this legislation, and has pretended that there are safe and legal routes to claim asylum in the UK, deserves to burn in the fires of hell for all eternity, as far as I'm concerned.

Guardian: UK passes bill to send asylum seekers to Rwanda
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/apr/22/rwanda-deportations-bill-passes-parliament-sunak

#RwandaBill
#RwandaNotInMyName
#ToriesDestroyingOurCountry

dave, 25 days ago to random

That's the first thing Putin has done for a long time that makes any sense!

Russia designates Meta an extremist organisation | The Independent
https://www.independent.co.uk/tech/meta-russia-ban-facebook-extremist-ukraine-b2532808.html?utm_source=press.coop

dave, 26 days ago to random

The #GMC should stick to matters of medical practice. It's them that have brought their profession into disrepute. I'm 100% behind this sadly former GP.

BBC News: Tribunal: Just Stop Oil doctor's fitness to practice 'impaired' - BBC News
BBC News - Tribunal: Just Stop Oil doctor's fitness to practice 'impaired' - BBC News
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1vw4k9qn29o

dave, 29 days ago to UKpolitics

The Conservative and Unionist Party; the party of family values.

Discuss.

#TorySleazeParty
#UKPolitics

dave, 1 month ago to random

A lovely day in Devon, waking from Brixham round to Sharkham Point. It was very windy on Berry Head though (gusts of 40-50mph).

A fishing boat battling against a strong wind and a very choppy blue sea. Lots of white horses.
A shadow of a man on a beach. The sea is close on the left, and the cliffs of the bay are ahead.
A busy harbour. A boat with a bright red hull is in the foreground. Across the harbour lines of houses reach back up the hill side. The sky is cloudless blue.
A beach with a large piece of driftwood. Blue sky with fluffy clouds. The sea is calm in the sheltered bay.

dave, 1 month ago to random

The screenshot is from an article today about the Post Office IT scandals, in the i newspaper. The fact that the author deems it's necessary to explain what a floppy disk is/was makes me feel ridiculously old.

dave, 1 month ago to random

According to the Guardian, "Labour may fail to grab target seats as young voters turn away over Gaza and climate"

I'm definitely not a young voter, and I resigned my membership over the abandoned climate policy (amongst other things), and would do so over their response to the Gaza crisis too. I understand the argument that they are better than the Tories and a step in the right direction, but I don't see how their economic and other policies are going to make any difference to this country. Austerity has been proven not to work, and it will just leave the door open for an even bigger lurch to the right in 2029. Government borrowing is not bad per se; it's what it's spent on that matters.

Tory-lite is not going to cut it.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/apr/11/labour-may-fail-to-grab-target-seats-as-young-voters-turn-away-over-gaza-and-climate

dave, 1 month ago to random

If it doesn't fit, you must acquit.

I must remember that the next time I commit a double homicide, I should take a very ill-fitting item of clothing with me and leave it at the scene. Ideally, a size 8 dress or something, to doubly confuse the feds 🤣

dave, 1 month ago to random

My local MP, Harriet Baldwin, has been awarded a damehood. However, I shall continue to afford her the same level of respect I always have, and in the unlikely event of her knocking on my door I shall take even more pleasure in telling her to F off.

It's not clear what she's received the honour for. Probably, always voting as instructed by the whips, reliably smiling when having her photo taken in front of things she's claiming credit for (regardless of the validity), and holding onto a safe seat during difficult times.

The honours system stinks.