Venetia Caine

UK slashes climate aid programmes for developing countries Exclusive: Schemes worth hundreds of millions of pounds to protect biodiversity and oceans likely to be substantially reduced

"The cuts have not been publicly revealed and are hidden amid a chronic lack of transparency in climate aid spending." As the article reveals, these cuts started in 2020 under the previous government. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

20 years a negotiating position? - with their own backbenchers?

Very glad they can't source real whale bones - but... £60,000?!

A PSA from Thomas Massie:

I’ll just leave this here…

Sometimes that's just another way of saying, 'Go away.'

You forgot potholes.

‘Ocean in Concert’ David Attenborough’s film ‘Ocean’ was released on 8th May, 2025, his 99th birthday. In his latter years he has gone no holds barred on the damage we are doing to the natural world…

'Ocean in Concert' musiewild.wordpress.com/2026/02/25/o... In case anyone's interested in what I made of this event.

Ukraine is the biggest and most consequential of all the American betrayals | Simon Tisdall As the war enters its fifth year, it’s time for Europe to take the fight to Putin on its own terms and tell Trump to get lost, says Guardian foreign affairs commentator Simon Tisdall

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

The bogus four-day workweek that AI supposedly ‘frees up’ Business leaders tout AI as a path to shorter weeks and better balance. But without power, workers are unlikely to share the gains

"If the five-day workweek with five days of pay shrinks to four days with four days of pay, and to three,... perhaps one, AI will supplant most people’s work and drive down our take-home pay. We may see a dazzling array of products and services spawned by AI, but few of us will be able to buy them."

Robert Jenrick announces Reform UK will keep the OBR and Bank of England independence, with an emphasis on fiscal discipline, signified by restoring the two child benefit cap.

The speech is essentially the same as every Tory chancellor's conference speech in the last 10 years.

It’s up to all of us to now step up and call this absolute bull**** out

The EU is working on a blanket ban of ‘forever chemicals’. Why isn't Britain? | Pippa Neill I met people living with dangerous levels of Pfas, including in their food. The government is failing them, says environmental journalist Pippa Neill

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

The real Lord of the Flies: what happened when six boys were shipwrecked for 15 months When a group of schoolboys were marooned on an island in 1965, it turned out very differently to William Golding’s bestseller, writes Rutger Bregman

A real - and very different - story.

Wait for it.. 😂

OK, no-one now forgets to say, '..and we must remember the women and girls who were abused...'. But what are they DOING about it?!

I think "the prime minister's allies" may have missed that the way to help the PM is to float sensible ideas, not risible ones.

Post-Brexit sales of British farm products to EU fall by 37% NFU warn it could take years to restore Brexit losses despite efforts to smooth negotiations on farming and other elements of UK-EU reset

"Analysis of HMRC data by the National Farmers’ Union shows the decline in sales of everything from British beef to cheddar cheese has dropped by 37.4% in the five years since 2019, the last full year before Brexit."

MPs should override Lords on assisted dying, says former top UK judge David Neuberger says the unelected House of Lords should be circumvented to pass the controversial bill if it runs out of time.

In answer the Lords filibustering the #AssistedDyingBill, the Parliament Act is a long-standing constitutional safeguard designed to prevent the unelected House of Lords from indefinitely blocking legislation supported by the elected House of Commons.

www.politico.eu/article/mps-...

The blunt truth is that if Karen Pierce had been a man, then she would still be US ambassador now and Keir Starmer's government would not be on the brink of death.

'...scared of losing the next election'. Pity that they were so scared of losing a Greater Manchester by-election that they pretty well put paid to winning GE 2029.

What a ​four-​year-​old ​taught ​us ​about the ​magic of ​baking​ a chocolate ​cake In a kitchen ruled by ​a t​iny, adorable dictator, even the most familiar recipe becomes an adventure – filled with dragons, sprinkles and unexpected wisdom

A delightful account of making a chocolate cake with a four-year-old

Could you make it easier please to find the original post that someone you follow is commenting on. It's a bit convoluted at present. Love Bluesky!

Weird to think sane Tories of the Gauke and Grieve stripe were an extant species as recently as 6½ years ago. Nowadays they seem as historically remote as Disraeli.

More please on Bluesky!

D. Self-interest.

Nigel Farage attended Davos on a pass sponsored by the family office of Iranian billionaire Sasan Ghandehari, which told the World Economic Forum that the Reform UK leader had advised the company since 2018. ft.trib.al/V138xDu

I've done My Week: Donald Trump (again) for tomorrow. My first draft genuinely had a joke about Trump thinking there were penguins in Greenland but I took it out because it seemed too stupid.

Emily Thornberry MP:

"How dare this man, who's never seen any action, who somehow or other, when there was a draft for everybodyelse in the United States, managed to avoid it"

"And yet now is commander in Chief and knows nothing about how it is that America has been defended."

'Second of all'