Petra Meier

my great-grandparents arrived in the UK in the 1890s with nothing.
they sold pickles from the front room window, took in laundry, worked as tailors.
their children were nurses, teachers, salesmen.
their grandchildren were professors, designers, opticians, doctors, magistrates, entrepreneurs.

Take Big Money Out of Our Politics British politics is awash with money from super rich donors. In 2023, two-thirds of all private donations came from just 19 people. These so-called ‘mega donors’ enjoy privileged access to political p...

Private donations, election interference and risk to the democratic process. I've just signed this petition from 38 degrees. Sharing in case it’s of interest and you want to sign too
you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/ta...

Shaping Healthy and Equitable Futures: Reflections for World Futures Day on 2 December Each year, World Futures Day invites individuals, institutions, and communities around the world to pause and consider the longer-term trajectories shaping our shared lives. Originating as a global in...

I’d like to share a short reflection I wrote for World Futures Day yesterday - and to mark a year in post as Healthy & Equitable Futures lead at University of Glasgow @uofgshw.bsky.social shorturl.at/SoNmG

Reuse and return schemes could help eliminate plastic waste in 15 years – report Pew Charitable Trusts finds plastic pollution will more than double globally by 2040 unless action taken The 66m tonnes of pollution from plastic packaging that enters the global environment each year could be almost eliminated by 2040 primarily by reuse and return schemes, significant new research reveals. In the most wide-ranging analysis of the global plastic system, the Pew Charitable Trusts, in collaboration with academics including at Imperial College London and the University of Oxford, said plastic, a material once called revolutionary and modern, was now putting public health, world economies and the future of the planet at risk. Continue reading...

Reuse and return schemes could help eliminate plastic waste in 15 years – report

Iain Banks: the final interview Iain Banks died last Sunday, just before the publication of his final novel The Quarry. Last month he talked to Stuart Kelly about writing, politics and all the things still left to do . . .

“I mean, your society’s broken, so who should we blame? Should we blame the rich, powerful people who caused it? No let’s blame the people with no power & no money & these immigrants who don’t even have the vote, yeah it must be their fucking fault.”

—Iain Banks
www.theguardian.com/books/2013/j...

Shaping Healthy and Equitable Futures: Reflections for World Futures Day on 2 December Each year, World Futures Day invites individuals, institutions, and communities around the world to pause and consider the longer-term trajectories shaping our shared lives. Originating as a global in...

🌎 Today we celebrate World Futures Day (WFD), adopted by the @unesco.org General Conference in November 2021.

💭 To mark the day, @pmeierprof.bsky.social shares her thoughts on shaping healthy and equitable futures and reflections from Dubai Futures Forum.

🔗 shorturl.at/SoNmG

North Sea drilling restrictions to be relaxed in new Labour plan The chancellor will unveil the North Sea Strategy in her Budget speech, the BBC understands.

The BBC manages to report on this without mentioning climate crisis, netzero commitments, or highlighting that there might be issues with such commercial lobbying pressure.

North Sea exploration rules to be relaxed in new Labour plan www.bbc.com/news/article...

If this is the public statement then imagine what was being said in private channels. The drafting of this is so careful, the signatures so universal, you don’t have to be a diplomat to read between the lines.

COP30 in Brazil fails to secure new pledges to cut fossil fuels - follow live

A failure we can’t afford. COP30 does what it was designed to do: nothing. Key voices missing, corporate capture … predictable but tragic outcome

www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cg...

Iran president says capital move now a necessity as water crisis deepens Iran’s capital must be moved because the country “no longer has a choice,” President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Thursday in remarks carried by state media, warning that severe ecological strain has mad...

'Iran’s capital must be moved because the country “no longer has a choice,” President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Thursday in remarks carried by state media, warning that severe ecological strain has made Tehran impossible to sustain'

#Iran 🇮🇷

At some point, for the love of God, will someone ANYONE at long last take the council funding crisis seriously?!?

Because THIS is what will break down a society, not some poor soul escaping incredible dangers, arriving on our shores.

Fossil fuel lobbyists outnumber all Cop30 delegations except Brazil, report says One in every 25 participants at 2025 UN climate summit is a fossil fuel lobbyist, according to Kick Big Polluters Out

More than 1,600 fossil fuel lobbyists granted access to the Cop30 climate negotiations in Belém (Brazil), 12% up from last year’s talks in Baku, Azerbaijan.

What should be the most serious, urgent talks on the planet continue to be a farce.
www.theguardian.com/environment/...

📢Excited to say that registration is open for Prevention Research 2026, 4-5 March, Birmingham. Visit preventionresearch26.co.uk to book your place and explore the latest research and strategies for preventing non-communicable diseases and reducing health inequalities across the UK.

A densely packed hillside community with many small, colorful houses built closely together, surrounded by scattered trees and greenery

As Brazil prepares to welcome global leaders for COP30, research led by Prof Joao Porto de Albequerque @uofgussp.bsky.social is aiming to reduce climate change impacts on health and wellbeing in the country’s favela urban communities.

More: gla.ac/3LJDhbW

You might have thought Question Time was biased.

But you never realised how much.

UKIP never even had a single MP.

Cutting aid for disease fund would be moral failure, Labour MPs tell Starmer UK expected to reduce contribution to Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria by 20%

If this is true and U.K. Government really is planning to cut its contribution to the Global Fund, at a time when Trump’s action will cause deaths on a massive scale, it is moral bankruptcy.
@friendseurope.bsky.social

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

The Shutdown of U.S.A.I.D. Has Already Killed Hundreds of Thousands The short documentary “Rovina’s Choice” tells the story of what goes when aid goes.

One analytical model shows that, as of November 5th, the dismantling of U.S.A.I.D. has already caused the deaths of 600,000 people, two-thirds of them children. https://newyorkermag.visitlink.me/jUzNSc

UK university halted human rights research after pressure from China Exclusive: Leading professor at Sheffield Hallam was told to cease research on supply chains and forced labour in China after demands from authorities A British university complied with a demand from Beijing to halt research about human rights abuses in China, leading to a major project being dropped, the Guardian can reveal. In February, Sheffield Hallam University, home to the Helena Kennedy Centre for International Justice (HKC), a leading research institution focused on human rights, ordered one of its best-known professors, Laura Murphy, to cease research on supply chains and forced labour in China. Continue reading...

UK university halted human rights research after pressure from China

Any time anyone starts talking about taking us out of the ECHR, ask them two questions:

1. Which of these rights don't you believe in?

2. What exactly would you replace it with. And don't take any vague promises like Brexit benefits.

This is a hugely important editorial that sets out how UK Government proposals to reform alcohol licensing will undermine the entire purpose of the licensing system. It will explicitly move the focus from protecting public health and social order to promoting economic goals and business priorities.

It is way past time for the UK government & the BBC to get off X & for Musk to be treated as a threat to national security.

The world's richest man is using his site to promote civil war, ethnic violence & the overthrow of an elected government.

You won't win him over with another conference on AI

I wrote a piece last week about how the Far Right since Trump/Brexit have normalised discussing in public previously unacceptable things.

Tonight’s Peston show: “Is the Reform MP who says she’s driven mad by TV adverts full of Black and Asian people a racist or realist?”

A reminder that this is the same Rishi Sunak who when he was Prime Minister raised taxes to their highest level in more than 70 years

UK Statistics Authority Official statistics play a vital role in supporting society and the economy - informing government policymaking and evaluation, guiding economic and

Recruitment has begun for a new National Statistician (£200k). Important role as the strategic head of the UK statistical system. There is less operational work as there is now a Perm Sec for ONS. So they are seeking an ‘internationally recognised leader in statistics’
www.saxbam.com/appointment/...

Apropos of nothing, I really do think UK journalists and politicians need some reminding that mass deportation of LEGAL immigrants, particularly those with permanent status, is far more extreme than even Trump's America and would basically place Britain completely on its own among democracies.

She Made Sure That Tsunami Warnings Reached the Public

The @nytimes.com climate section is profiling federal scientists who have been terminated and their work.

I spoke with tsunami expert Corina Allen, who worked to ensure tsunami alerts made it to the public. She was fired in February.

Read her story and others':

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/23/c...

Trump Opens Pristine Alaska Wilderness to Drilling in Long-Running Feud

Trump Opens Pristine Alaska Wilderness to Drilling in Long-Running Feud

By @maxinejoselow.bsky.social

The Trump administration...announced a plan to allow oil and gas drilling in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, one of the largest remaining tracts of pristine wilderness in the U.S. Gift!

Seasonal affective disorder support programme returns to East Dunbartonshire libraries - East Dunbartonshire Council

www.eastdunbarton.gov.uk/news/2025/oc...

The insulin patent was sold by Frederick Banting for $1.

The Canadian who discovered insulin everyone to be able to access life saving medication.

In the US it’s financially out of reach for many people.

California is changing that.

I hope other states follow suit.

Letter to the editor: A civilised society does not withhold care based on citizenship Letter to the editor

Letter to the editor: A civilised society does not withhold care based on citizenship eastangliabylines.co.uk/immigration/...