Peter McDade

National Government - struggling finances. Local governments - going bankrupt. Households - struggling to make ends meet. 6th richest country in the world…so who has all the wealth that exists in our society?

The challenge is now for those who - rightly - talk about oligarch media in places like Hungary to now start talking about oligarch media in the US (and elsewhere in ‘the West’)

Musk is unelected and hasn’t been confirmed by the Senate to any official position. His aides are not government employees.

What the hell is going on here? Oligarchy is a big understatement at this point.

Every single aspect of human life is being reoriented around the pursuit of attention, the MSNBC host @chrislhayes.bsky.social writes. And “the constant pursuit of others’ attention is no longer just for professionals like myself.”

For self styled masters of the universe, the tech bros really are incredibly craven

Exhibit #3624

Hugh Grant calls for police to investigate Sun owners He also wants to see the government launch part two of the Leveson Inquiry into press standards.

Hugh Grant urges POLICE to investigate Sun owners

And he’s absolutely right

www.bbc.com/news/article...

Wealth of world’s billionaires grew by $2tn in 2024, report finds Rate of wealth growth last year was three times faster than 2023, Oxfam inequality research reveals

Wealth of world’s billionaires grew by $2tn in 2024, with UK leading the way in G7!

Number of billionaires rose by 204 to 2,769.Their wealth jumped from $13tn to $15tn – the second-largest annual increase since records began.

TAX THE SUPER RICH

www.theguardian.com/news/2025/ja...

‘Jeff Bezos sat there next to Donald Trump junior’.

America’s tech/political oligarchy complex in a line

Dartmoor jail that pays Duchy £1.5m a year may never reopen Riddled with rats, HMP Dartmoor, which closed in August over toxic gas fears, has 24 years left on its lease

Why is our taxpayer's money going to the Royals in so many ways?

Empty Dartmoor prison pays Prince William’s Duchy £1.5m a year & has another 24 years left on its lease

Charities which the Royals are patrons of also pay millions to them in rent

Make it make sense
www.thetimes.com/article/ddf3...

Breaking: British people want ill-informed, foreign, destructive, abusive rich blokes to stay out of the UK’s politics. Great British Common Sense prevails.

Farage describing how young people think Musk is really ‘cool’ about 100 times in an interview the other day was almost comedic. If he wasn’t a billionaire he’d just be someone’s very embarrassing uncle who has lost the plot and is roundly ignored.

Takeaway from crazy news day: need to relearn lessons of Trump 2016

Ignore vast swathes of what passes for ‘news’

Trump wanging on about Greenland and Panama is noise. Ditto Musk’s latest disorientation post on X.

Zuckerberg gutting content moderation and kissing the ring is signal though.

The state of this. The Tories introduced voter ID specifically because they believed they’d help them (spoiler they didn’t)

Idea that making it easier for people to vote is ‘rigging’ an election is ridiculous

Elon Musk turns on Nigel Farage and calls for new leader of Reform It is unclear what prompted Musk to post message on X saying Farage ‘doesn’t have what it takes’ to be Reform UK’s leader

Another argument for political finance reform - not having five years of this from Musk.

www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Kemi Badenoch defends the right to speak freely and air a different point of view, by insisting those who disagree must stop.

You have to admire how on brand the Musk-Farage storyline has been today.

Basically a morality tale illustrating the danger of letting far-right, unstable, billionaires control a major worldwide communications network.

U.K. government and public bodies should all close their X/Twitter accounts. Immediately.

Let’s clean-up our rivers👇

✅New harsher penalties, including imprisonment for water executives when companies fail to co-operate

✅Ban bonuses for CEOs unless high standards are met

✅New cost recovery powers for regulators

✅The largest review into the sector since privatisation

2025 is going to be a crucial year in fight against dark money and hidden influence - can you help?

Democracy for Sale is fundraising to bring in another investigative journalism so we can dig up more cronyism, corruption and dodgy donors.

Thanks! 🎉

democracyforsale.substack.com/p/we-need-mo...

Oxfam says wealth of richest 1% equal to other 99% The richest 1% now has as much wealth as the rest of the world combined, according to Oxfam.

The concentration of wealth in fewer & fewer hands is a major (probably the main) factor in why investment in the western world is obscenely below the level it should be. Health services, energy production, transport, everything is suffering as a result.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/busines...

🙏🏻 💪🏻

Morning BlueSkyers

If any of you enjoy The Trawl @thetrawl.bsky.social please can you repost this request to @bsky.app for a bookmark tab

Would hugely help not having to look at the hellhole that is X

🙏🏻

Difficult to describe what a dangerous moment we are in.

The owner of Twitter/richest man in the world/closest adviser to the next US president is promoting a far-right Tommy Robinson (!) documentary to his 200 million followers.

This is the mainstreaming of violent, Islamophobic fascism.

Climate multilateralism clings on, just COP29 has produced a new global finance deal against considerable odds

Climate multilateralism clings on, just

https://www.ft.com/content/0559f24a-bfc1-4758-9adc-56f78b3639c7

Protecting Trump's Thin Skin: The New GOP Push to Regulate Network Television in the US Trump wants to make Brendan Carr, who wrote for Project 2025, the head of his FCC – and Carr wants to go after NBC and the other big broadcasters.

They're such whiny victims, even when they have all the power they still complain about being supposedly victimized, so now they're trying to rig the rules of broadcast TV to protect themselves, and promote themselves, further.

Brian Lowry for Zeteo:

Biden aims to Trump-proof his legacy with policy blitz in final days Outgoing president makes last push on Ukraine and seeks new judicial appointments and manufacturing subsidies

Biden aims to Trump-proof his legacy with policy blitz in final days

https://www.ft.com/content/31429c63-70ef-4213-9732-f05ef4422dae

Very much looking forward to being part of this tonight. Stories and music giving a voice to prisoners.

Started this starter pack with energy justice & climate justice folks. Let me know who I should add to it. go.bsky.app/HXiuKJ5
(P.S. yes this is my way of finding my friends that migrated to bluer skies)

@costasamaras.com @menrywy.bsky.social @leahstokes.bsky.social @sidersadapts.bsky.social

NEWS: Ofgem Price Cap rises 1.2% on 1 Jan (on top of 1 Oct 10% rise). So each £100 paid now, will cost £101.20. The rise is via higher unit rates

New avg direct debit
ELEC: Standing charge 61p/day Unit rate 24.9p/kwH
GAS: Standing charge 31.7p/day Unit rate 6.3p/kwH
Varies by region & pay method