Rob Hattersley

Honestly can’t believe what the Bank of England is putting on our great British fiver

BBC headline: Huge fire engulfed Kuwait City tower as Trump accused Starmer of seeking to 'join wars after we've already won'.

Well done, BBC headline writer 👏

UK must stockpile food in readiness for climate shocks or war, expert warns Prof Tim Lang says country produces far less food than it needs to feed population and is particularly vulnerable

Britain is *shockingly* vulnerable to starving www.theguardian.com/global-devel...

Pace of global warming has nearly doubled since 2015, reveals study - Carbon Brief An acceleration in human-caused global warming could see the Paris Agreement’s 1.5C limit breached before...

I'm not suggesting this is an open secret within the climate science community, but it's remarkable how little impact this sort of research is generating. Because if the rate of warming really has *doubled* then you can kiss goodbye to 2°C. www.carbonbrief.org/pace-of-glob...

The Representation of the People Bill contains some useful measures, but it must go further – put proportional representation on the statute books, shut loopholes that let dark money in, and modernise media platform oversights to stop misinformation and disinformation.

What would Winston Churchill make of war with Iran? Donald Trump has said Keir Starmer is ‘no Churchill’, but his dismissal is based on a simplified version of history.

Donald Trump has said Keir Starmer is ‘no Churchill’, but his dismissal is based on a simplified version of history.

Might have to give up @thenewworldmag.bsky.social if they don’t stop putting vomit-inducing images on the front cover. This one will be stored upside down.

🚨 "Large groups of permanently unrepresented voters create fertile ground for anger and extremism."

🗯️ Powerful speech by @rozsavage.bsky.social about the dangers of sticking with FPTP in our current, fragmented and polarised reality.

👉 The Representation of the People Bill needs to address this.

We need “a more honest and collaborative way of doing politics”.

Healthy spaces trust you to think. Controlling spaces, fear that you will.

Labour MP Clive Lewis doesn’t hold back on the Gorton and Denton result in this interview with ITV

Six planets due to parade across night sky in rare celestial spectacle Jupiter, Saturn, Venus, Mercury, Neptune and Uranus will all be visible at same time in curved line across sky Six planets are set to parade across the sky this weekend in a rare celestial spectacle, experts have said. For the next few days, Jupiter, Saturn, Venus, Mercury, Neptune and Uranus will all be visible at the same time in the night sky – although binoculars or a telescope will be needed to spot the latter two planets. Continue reading...

Six planets due to parade across night sky in rare celestial spectacle

That's the way to do it. So good to see progressive politicians pushing back hard on Reform's messaging. Highly effective and so refreshing and Labour could learn a lot from Polanski in this regard. Take the attack to the Faragists - don't let them get away with it.

FULL VICTORY SPEECH: Hannah Spence Addresses After Historic Green Party Win in Gorton & Denton| AC1Z YouTube video by DRM News

Hannah Spencer victory speech
youtu.be/Tf7wVpDEvho?...

"We have shown that we don't have to accept being turned against each other. We can demand better without hating each other"

With the polls so close, many voters in Gorton & Denton won't feel free to vote for who they believe in.

That's the unfair choice First Past the Post gives voters: risk your vote counting for nothing, or vote tactically to block someone else.

That’s not real choice. That's not real democracy.

Utterly ridiculous.
(Electoral) reform now!

It’s a three-horse race! First Past the Post isn’t fit for purpose in Gorton and Denton The Gorton and Denton parliamentary by-election, scheduled for Thursday 26 February, has garnered much media attention. The outcome will be closely scrutinised by commentators for what i

The debate in Gorton and Denton has been dominated by tactical questions around which party is best placed to stop another party from winning. All because we have a voting system that fails when more than two candidates stand a chance. buff.ly/gUjPNaQ

Frankenstein chicken, that’s what these people serve - genetically bred, prone to disease - finger licking good?

And these Frankenchicks have far more fat in them than chicken used to have.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

If I was still setting exam questions I’d just find quotes from tech bros and write ‘Discuss’ after.

I just did the dumbest thing of my entire career to prove a much more serious point.

I tricked ChatGPT and Google, and made them tell other users I’m a competitive hot-dog-eating world champion

People are using this trick on a massive scale to make AI tell you lies. I’ll explain how I did it

Over 50 Academics Warn That Voting System Is Not Fit For Multi-Party Politics Dozens of academics have written to the government to warn that the current voting system risks producing distorted results on an 'unprecedented' s...

Over 50 academics have written to the government warning them about the likely impact of First Past the Post at the next election. General elections shouldn't be a random government generator.

Is No 10 seeking its own destruction? Why else would it botch its council plans and hand a victory to Farage? | Polly Toynbee Labour promised ‘ambitious reforms’, but it was fixing things that were not broken. And the moral: focus on what matters and stop making stupid mistakes, says Guardian columnist Polly Toynbee

We need a more local, local democracy - we already have many fewer local elected representatives than most similar countries and England's local councillors have been vanishing fast “from 75,000 in 1965, to only 11,000 that will be left after this" www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Is No 10 seeking its own destruction? Why else would it botch its council plans and hand a victory to Farage? | Polly Toynbee Labour promised ‘ambitious reforms’, but it was fixing things that were not broken. And the moral: focus on what matters and stop making stupid mistakes, says Guardian columnist Polly Toynbee

Very good from Polly Toynbee on Labour’s perverse messing with local government structures - pointlessly disruptive, costly and a boost for political opponents when there’s so much that actually needs fixing: SEND, social care etc. Do better.

UK bank bosses plan to set up Visa and Mastercard alternative over Trump fears Exclusive: First meeting to be held over domestic payments system aimed at reducing reliance on US networks UK bank bosses will hold their first meeting to establish a national alternative to Visa and Mastercard, amid growing fears over Donald Trump’s ability to turn off US-owned payment systems. The meeting, chaired by Barclays’ UK chief executive, Vim Maru, will take place this Thursday and bring together a group of City funders that will front the costs of a new payments company to keep the UK economy running if problems were to occur. Continue reading...

UK bank bosses plan to set up Visa and Mastercard alternative over Trump fears

Cliff collapse at Stonebarrow closes South West Coast Path Dorset Council says it has closed the coast path and is working on a diversion.

Holy moly, that’s a big cliff fall near Charmouth #Dorset www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

A great thread relevant to Dorchester, our town centre and @reconnection.org.uk

A grass covered ramparts of an Iron Age hillfort with a road bottom right and trees behind

Abbotsbury Castle is a roughly triangular multivallate Iron Age hillfort encircling 1.8ha of a limestone outcrop overlooking the Jurassic Coast betwixt Bridport and Weymouth in Dorset

We love it 😍

Here looking NE dominating the B3157 coast road

📷 © Jo and Sue Crane 2016

#HillfortsWednesday

The view the other way towards Lyme Regis is stunning! What a place to ‘fort’.

If Reform ever wins power in Westminster, it will be because of Labour’s cowardice | George Monbiot Starmer could improve our unfair electoral system to stop the hard right, but he won’t. All the party has left are threats about ‘splitting the vote’, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot

Regardless of which party you support, this is a key point by @georgemonbiot.bsky.social:

"With Proportional Representation, no one would ever need to worry about splitting the vote again. We could vote for the parties we actually wanted."

Wouldn't that be nice? To vote with hope, not fear?