Kevin Smith

Two in five arrested for last summer’s UK riots had been reported for domestic abuse Police data indicates overlaps between public violent disorder and domestic violence and abuse

The reality under the racist rhetoric of "protecting women and children". www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

I worked in oil industry for 30 years, and there's no future in it. But we can make one for workers We need to invest in renewables and stop pretending that oil and gas will save us, writes John Bolland

Powerful piece from an ex-North Sea oil & gas worker:
"There is no future in oil. But there is a future for the people who work in it...We should be building infrastructure for the future, not squeezing the last drops of profit from a dying system."

www.scotsman.com/news/opinion...

Legitimisation of the far right happening in real time.

Palestine Action co-founder wins permission to challenge ban Huda Ammori argued that home secretary’s decision to proscribe group under terrorism laws was ‘abuse of power’

Great news. Not just for Palestine Action, but for anyone who cares about terrorism legislation being used like a sledge hammer against protest groups. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Helsinki goes a full year without a traffic death A city traffic engineer credits the success to lower speed limits and smarter design.

Urban air pollution, congestion, traffic deaths - none of these are inevitable. We make and regulate our own built environments
yle.fi/a/74-20174831

Police investigate station assault as video appears to show Tommy Robinson Transport police are investigating an incident at the London station it says left a man with serious injuries.

"Robinson, 42, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, was contacted by a female BBC reporter for comment.
Robinson responded with a message that said "slag"."
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Starmer and Reeves should prepare UK for wealth tax, say top economists PM could raise ‘tens of billions’ while positioning Britain as progressive, say Thomas Piketty and others

So many calls across so many different sectors for a wealth tax in the UK www.theguardian.com/business/202...

A certain part of advocacy comms is about manifesting things. If you want the renewables revolution to happen, you talk about it happening.
All the columnist and punters now hyping up the possibility of more racist riots and violence against migrants - they are manifesting that.

Scottish coverage of Trump visit

I see that the Daily Mail has commissioned...

*checks notes*

...a viscount who inherited a landed estate (est: 1698), privilege, access and titles to lecture its readers about "transfers of wealth"

Incredible

Some asylum seekers misusing payment cards for gambling More than 6,500 payments in gambling settings were attempted by asylum seekers in the past year.

This is such an infurating, rage-baiting and disgusting headline by the BBC. Gambling is a scourge on the entire populus and thousands of people are addicted to the point of financial misuse, poverty and starvation. Why single out asylum seekers? (I mean, we know why but still...)

It costs £0 to make a failed water co. public. Privatised water will cost £22bn in the next 5 years.

We must fulfil Keir Starmer's 2020 pledge to make water public, not be blocked by the Treasury saying there's no money. No more bailouts for shareholders, banks + polluters. @skynewsrss.bsky.social

Back Zack and crack open the possibility of more humane politics in the UK.

Genuinely gobsmacked at what public transport provision looks like in the USA

Peaceful protesters continue to be arrested following the #PalestineAction ban.

Partner, Raj Chada speaks to @shelaghfogarty.bsky.social on @lbc.co.uk to argue that proscription law is unclear, incoherent & nonsensical.

It is a sign of authoritarianism & abuse of power. 1/2

Ofwat to be abolished, government confirms, as water industry urged to address ‘Great Stink moment’ – business live England and Wales’s water industry requires ‘fundamental reform’ to address the problems that have dogged the sector, Independent Water Commission says

Public ownership campaign group We Own It has calculated that, since privatisation in 1989, £85bn has been extracted from the water sector in dividends and other payouts to shareholders. Systematic looting from the public sector to private pickets. www.theguardian.com/business/liv...

Queer people who legitimise these sorts of Labour events right now are throwing our trans family under the bus.

I don't think that anyone who was involved in the "island of strangers" speech has any kind of moral right to sit in judgement of a lifelong anti-racist campaigner like Diane Abbott.

We found that Reform's plans to attack renewable energy industries could wipe £92bn off the UK economy and destroy 60,000 jobs by the end of the decade.

These plans would damage our economic health and the health of our climate. 1/2

Yes to lowering the voting age - more democracy please.
Now let's abolish the unelected House of Lords.

Armed police threatened to arrest Kent protester for holding Palestinian flag Officers accused Laura Murton who also had a sign saying ‘Free Gaza’ of supporting a proscribed organisation

"In the encounter, which she filmed, one officer told her: “Mentioning freedom of Gaza, Israel, genocide, all of that all come under proscribed groups, which are terror groups that have been dictated by the government.”" www.theguardian.com/world/2025/j...

Went to see a late night screening of Wong Kar Wai's "In The Mood For Love" at the Prince Charles last night - I feel like a proper London twat.

The super-rich live in a different world to you and me - the same rules don't apply.

School was often a terrifying and confusing experience for me - and some kind of acknowledgement of my identity would have meant the world to me. My heart goes out to all the trans young people in the UK who will also be denied this.

The police (wrongly) inform a peaceful protestor that holding a Palestinian flag and signs deploring genocide is an offence under the Terrorism Act. This is the deranged policing environment the government has created.

Gary Stevenson, "We currently have a tax system which taxes ordinary people 30%, 40%, 50% while billionaires like the Duke of Westminster inherit £10 billion and pay nothing"

"We need to change the tax system so we tax ordinary people like your viewers less and tax the rich and super rich more"

Its the year of our lord 2025, and purportedly left wing politicians are still pushing the myth of the trickle down economy.

Beefheart's 'Observatory Crest' on #6music right now - a perfect start to the morning

No one is being tricked. People know exactly what they are doing with these placards - supporting a group that has practiced non-violent direct action. What's immoral here is the government legislating this as an act of terrorism.

The key dividing line in politics right now is empathy vs sociopathy. The right has been waging an aggressive war on empathy ("virtue signalling", "woke") and too many outside of the right have been stupid enough to go along with it.