Absolutely insupportable. Labour have a massive majority. It’s a hugely popular issue. To fail to act would be a dereliction of historic proportions, and utterly inexplicable.
Why hasn't Ofcom shut down GB News?
Obama: "We are living in a time where it can be hard to hope. Each day we wake up to some new assault on our democratic institutions. Another setback to the idea of the rule of law ... but this man - Rev. Jesse Jackson - inspires us to take a harder path ... bc if we don't step up, nobody else will"
Go figure
Go figure
‘It means missile defence on data centres’: drone strikes raises doubts over Gulf as AI superpower
Something too big to be seen was passing over and over me… open.spotify.com/track/3KZRkM...
👏
Much to my surprise, I have also become a tech sovereigntist. Tech fundamental to public and security systems should be under our control (sometimes in cooperation with similar countries- not US).
The current sovereign AI strategy is shockingly weak.
open.substack.com/pub/samf/p/s...
Updated Scotland poll tracker, following @ipsosinscotland.bsky.social and Survation polls this week.
SNP 5 short of a majority.
Pro-independence majority of 15.
Seats (+/- 2021)
SNP: 60 (-4)
Ref: 20 (+20)
Lab: 18 (-4)
Grn: 13 (+5)
Con: 10 (-21)
LD: 8 (+4)
Alba: 0 (-)
1/2
“Please don’t confront me with my failures - i had not forgotten them” open.spotify.com/track/3uCkIq...
To build on this, here are the Gallagher Indices for Scottish Parliament elections, from highest to lowest, including the projected index for 2026. Higher = more disproportional.
2026 is projected to be more than twice as disproportional than the avg of the last six Scottish Parliament elections.
Russia dropped a 500kg glide bomb on central Kramatorsk overnight, wounding at least 6 people including three children. 12 apartment buildings, 5 administrative buildings, and 22 vehicles were damaged, Mayor Honcharenko said. #Ukraine
You’ve booked your place in Kirkcudbright folklore now
GSK CEO got 50% pay rise to £15.6m.
Did you?
Neoliberals moan about rise in minimum wage. Govts preach pay restraint to workers. Silence on profiteering, hikes in exec pay/perks, dividends, share buybacks.
The state devoted to welfare of the super rich.
It’s all liturgy
Megan MacInnes @communitylandsc.bsky.social presenting on Scotland in global land reform context: progressing community rights in a context of community ownership www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYAp...
Two days away from my house concert in Birmingham with the brilliant Millie Turner. Would love to see you there - deets/tix on Bandcamp:
stevelawson.bandcamp.com/merch
PEPFAR, the program to stop hundreds of thousands of children and adults from dying of HIV/AIDS, was $6.5 billion a year.
Kathleen Jamie Lochan (For Jean Johnstone) When all this is over I mean to travel north, by the high drove roads and cart tracks probably in June, with the gentle dog-roses flourishing beside me. I mean to find among the thousands scattered in that land a certain quiet lochan, where water lilies rise like small fat moons, and tied among the reeds, underneath a rowan, a white boat waits.
When all this is over I mean
to travel north, by the high
drove roads and cart tracks
probably in June,
with the gentle dog-roses
flourishing beside me…
—Kathleen Jamie, “Lochan”
published in SELECTED POEMS (Picador, 2018)
#BookologyThursday #poem #poetry 💙📚
www.panmacmillan.com/authors/kath...
"UK must double down on renewables as wars drive up energy costs, experts say"
Meanwhile, the non-experts in Reform and the Tories would have us hooked to expensive fossil fuels for decades more. Don't vote for these idiots.
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Young adults face unemployment, low wages, debt.
Govt can help, adopt Scottish policies
No university tuition fees.
No prescription charges (also in Wales)
Free bus travel for the under-22s, many on low minimum wage.
Treating young adults in England as second class is a political choice.
Big money has bought British politics
75% of Reform’s money has come from three rich white men
democracyforsale.substack.com/p/75-of-refo...
@alastairmci.bsky.social can’t see the Helen Thompson article but she is always v strong on energy/materials questions and global supply chains - need for major ‘green’ reset www.theguardian.com/world/2026/m...
Over 40% of global shipping by volume exists to move fossil fuels from one place to another.
A huge share of the world's maritime infrastructure has been built around a system that is going to change dramatically as renewable energy and electrification displace fossil fuels.
Drinkhole
One of the world’s leading authorities on autism - very important read: www.tes.com/magazine/tea...
FAFO as the kids say
Secrecy is essential to the crimes of the elite. It's what makes offshore tax havens so effective for dodging taxes, hiding dirty money & funding crime.
Public registers would allow tax authorities, police & journalists follow the money & expose corruption.
tinyurl.com/mry3htz6
