Helen

'Just getting started': Zack Polanski reacts as Greens SECOND in new poll ZACK Polanski has welcomed a new poll putting his party in second place at Westminster.

So either Labour need to ask candidates to step aside for the Greens to take on Reform....

Or actually bring in a fair democratic process where everyone's votes count equally.

It's time for Proportional Representation.

www.thenational.scot/news/2558507...

Children must NEVER choose between EDUCATION and LIVES.

Both are human rights.

#EducationANDlives

The COVID-19 pandemic did take peoples rights away… and it is still taking people’s rights away.

Even if you don’t realise it. Your right to safer air and better health has been taken away.

Poor indoor air quality costing the country a billion dollars each year, researchers say A public health expert says polluted air is costing the country about a billion dollars each year in healthcare costs and decreased productivity.

A national agency is called for in New Zealand to assess and improve indoor air quality. We need this awareness and action throughout the world.
www.rnz.co.nz/news/nationa...

Why universal COVID-19 vaccine guidance offers stronger protection than high-risk-only policies The US Scenario Modeling Hub’s nine-team ensemble projected COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths for April 2024 to April 2025 under six policy and immune-escape scenarios. Burden was similar to the pr...

'Independent modelling teams demonstrate that maintaining a universal COVID-19 vaccine policy yields consistent population-level benefits, reducing hospitalizations & deaths beyond hi-risk-only strategies, even as immune escape shifts timing of seasonal peaks.'
👇
www.news-medical.net/news/2025092...

Just to say, autistic people (as opposed to 'people with autism') is the preferred term by the majority of autistic people, so please use this as the default wherever possible (individuals may have different preferences but this is the default as preferred by the majority of the autistc community) 🙏

"There is no 'autism epidemic.' Autism is a developmental difference that has existed as long as human beings have." -ASAN executive director @colinkillick.bsky.social.

Spread the word: Tylenol does not cause autism. But reproduction sure does!

www.usatoday.com/story/opinio... #neurodiversity

disabled people deserve to live fulfilling lives no matter their productivity to society

It's genetic, natural, and an equally valid way of being. Yes, we just need to have our needs met and for society, environments, communities, and systems to be more inclusive 🙏

We have people in power making broad claims around certain drugs and autism that have been continuously disproven.

Painting with significant symbols, including circular motifs and lines in multicolours

Collaborative artwork, 2019 by the senior Indigenous women artists of Amata in the APY Lands of Australia, who founded a women's art centre #WomensArt

A drawing of a sparkling kitsune sleeping in a meadow. The caption reads, "it's not laziness; you're overwhelmed and recharging"

Monochrome photograph featuring a woman, upper half, leaning over a dock to place her hand in the ripples of a river

Frida Kahlo, Xochimilco, Mexico, 1937 #WomensArt

Call me picky if you will, but I would suggest someone who has been accused of arguing in favour of transphobic ideology, among many other things, as well as being opposed by the women and equalities committee and the joint committee on human rights is possibly not the right person to run the EHCR.

Motherfucking wind farms…

Want to import toxic chemicals into Britain with scant scrutiny? Labour says: go right ahead | George Monbiot Jacob Rees-Mogg’s Tory fantasy of a post-Brexit bonfire of regulations is coming true. Our bodies and ecosystems will pay the price, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot

Sorry to burden you with another jaw-dropping scandal. But what the government intends to do to chemicals regulation in the UK is chilling. Its consultation was slipped out so quietly that most of us missed it. When I read it, I saw why.
This week's column:
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Couldn't be clearer. Climate action is essential to protect human rights.

This means the UK has a legal duty to speed up the transition to a cleaner, greener economy and block any new licences for the extraction of fossil fuels.

This ICJ ruling should be the moment we draw a line.

Healthy environment a human right, UN court says in landmark climate ruling Court’s decision expected to be used in future litigation and to support political negotiations by vulnerable states

🚨BREAKING🚨 ICJ ruling that a healthy environment is a human right could be a real turning point in setting out governments’ legal responsibility to tackle #climate crisis 👇

Feargal Sharkey explains that this £100bn figure everyone keeps quoting for the cost to renationalise the water industry comes from a report by the private companies!

Feargal then outlines why nationalising the water industry wouldn't cost us a penny #GMB

Solar tops EU power mix for first time in June, Ember says Solar power was the European Union's largest source of electricity for the first time in June, overtaking nuclear and wind while coal's contribution fell to an all-time low, data from energy think tank Ember showed on Thursday.

"Solar power was the European Union's largest source of electricity for the first time in June, overtaking nuclear and wind while coal's contribution fell to an all-time low."

☀️💪

Almost 5 million disabled people already are living in poverty, 75% of people referred to foodbanks are disabled - and yet this Bill will push 50,000 more people into poverty.

This bill penalises those most at risk, in order to avoid taxing those who are not. Even the "concessions" given to get it through just postpone the pain and hardship it will deliver on so many other disabled people. It is a cruel and inhumane bill, and economically illiterate to boot.

Richard Burgon, "What we're voting on tonight is whether or not to take £2 billion people away from 750,000 people who are on low incomes who are sick and disabled"

"That's not what I got into politics to do"

"A wealth tax of 2% on wealth over £10 million would raise £24 billion"

Hi Keir, just dropped off some reading material for you.

Despite what you keep claiming our manifesto is fully costed and it shows how we can invest in schools & hospitals, climate action and support for the most vulnerable.

When…

1 in 5 people on UC and disability benefits used a food bank last month.

The Disability price tag is £1,095 a month.

The basic rates of UC don’t cover essentials.

A #WealthTax could address our deeply unequal society.

We must do better than this Bill. #TakingThePIP

I’m ashamed to live in a country that just passed a welfare bill condemning hundreds of thousands to deeper poverty and despair.

I’m ashamed of a Labour government that refused to work WITH disabled people to build a benefits system based on dignity, not punishment.

#BinUCBill

A letter on United Nations Human Rights letterhead, dated July 7, 2025. The UN Committee requests information from the UK government about the Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill and the Pathways to Work Green Paper. It asks for details on impact assessments, effects on disabled people, tightening eligibility for benefits, the risk of poverty, consultation with disabled people, limited scrutiny of the Bill, and public statements portraying disabled people as frauds or burdens. The deadline for the UK to respond is August 11, 2025

Continuation of the UN letter. It recalls previous reports and recommendations, including the 2017 Concluding Observations and the 2016 Inquiry, which found grave and systematic violations of disabled people’s rights. The Committee reminds the UK to carry out cumulative impact assessments, consult disabled people, and ensure reforms uphold human rights. It highlights that little progress has been made to improve the situation

The final page of the UN letter. It states that credible information suggests the proposed Bill will deepen regression of disabled people’s rights. The UN Committee requests a response by August 11, 2025, ahead of the Committee’s 33rd session in Geneva. Contact information for the Secretary of the Committee is provided

🇺🇳 BREAKING: The UN is demanding answers from the UK over welfare reforms.

The Universal Credit Bill risks breaching disabled people’s rights—again.

No impact assessment. Cuts called “regression.” Demonising disabled claimants.

Deadline for U.K to respond: 11 Aug
#BinUCBill

LET YOUR MPs KNOW PLS

And the Universal Credit bill has passed. Some of the sickest people in the country will suffer needlessly more now. There is no justification, no excuse. Just ugly, cruel choices by ministers too cowardly to tax the wealthy rather than cut the poor. A shameful day for Starmer’s Labour.

The Texas Floods Were Made Worse by Climate Denialism Elected officials must be held accountable, now and in the future, for the lives lost in disasters brought on by increasingly extreme weather.

Not every life can be spared from climate change, unfortunately, but many more could be saved if elected officials stopped pretending that climate change isn’t happening or that they’re powerless to do something about it.

Government faces battle over Send overhaul as campaigners voice fears MPs and parents worry shake-up may abolish vital education, health and care plans that SEN children rely on

There are some fairly serious issues with EHCPs, but most relate to who doesn't get the support they need. This government's plans for reforming then would only see more young people denied the support they need, all to make short term savings at long term cost.

www.theguardian.com/education/20...