Jon Moses

Screen shot from Paul Embery’s X account: Respect to this police officer. Confronted by radicals demanding the arrest of a Christian preacher on the grounds that Whitechapel "is a Muslim area" she was calm and professional and gave them short shrift. Let's see more of this from the police. Has a video of a woman police officer talking to a group of Muslim men

This clip is all over the other place and has made its way onto GB News and Talk TV so I’ll do a bit of an explainer here too!

The clip doing the rounds is of a fantastic police officer telling a group of Muslim men that a Christian preacher nearby is entitled to freedom of expression.

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Stiles are a nuisance on public rights of way. It doesn't take much of a disability for them to become a real hazard. My case in point - I was able to walk the whole Vanguard Way with dodgy knees, but the one thing that made it tricky was the endless fkn STILES!!

Labour commissioned the Browne report. Would you have disavowed it's proposals if you were in power?

You're in government now - what are you going to do about it?

That sucks if you were an academic who worked your ass off during COVID. It sucks for a beleaguered sector now.

But you're expecting charitable behaviour from people the sector decisively shafted, in full acknowledgement that's what it was doing.

I was there! I protested! Universities were told!

The students claiming uni Covid compensation 'for the principle' Dozens of universities have received legal letters over what students say they missed out on during Covid.

Lots of academics, perhaps understandably, taking this personally.

But it's... not about you?

The sector, led by its senior managers, built their business model on chronically indebting the most shafted generation for decades.

It was a mercenary calculation! Now students are returning the favour!

The irony is that if government did start legislating for more of the things rural communities support - which they should - then the Countryside Alliance would brand many of those a "culture war" too: rewilding, species reintroduction, rights of access.

The CA does not speak for rural people.

Even the Countryside Alliance must be getting tired of this nonsense.

The hunt has little to do with the 'rural way of life'. The vast majority of rural people object to it.

There is no culture war. If the hunt hadn't spent two decades flouting existing laws trail hunting wouldn't be in focus now.

Still no travel warnings from the Foreign Office about visiting the US?

It was proper dark arts of PR stuff. Commission your own report and make sure it includes a Russian hacking claim. Don't bother with evidence or any expert consultancy. Don't need them.

Pass that report to GCHQ. Then you say GCHQ are looking into claims of Russian involvement. You made sure of it.

This was a brilliant & galvanising listen: the power of giants & storytelling, the stars ARE ours, & so much more - so many things connected & woven together! A joyful listen @joevaughan.net @olliedouglas.bsky.social Ruth Webb & @lisaschneidau.bsky.social #RadicalRural @themerl.bsky.social

The ‘rural culture war’ is a myth The issues over which we’re told we’re most divided, are often the ones on which we actually most agree.

Some collated polling for them... national.thelead.uk/p/the-rural-...

and... www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

and... lordslibrary.parliament.uk/the-rural-ec...:

"key issues affecting rural communities"

You're lobbyists for the wealthiest landowners in the country cosying up to racists to get a tax break.

"Every person who learns to identify purslane growing from sidewalk cracks... every city that legalizes gathering fallen fruit, chips away at a system designed over 150 years ago to keep people dependent and hungry. And it can all be done through the simple act of reaching for what’s already there."

The Racist Reason Why You Can’t Eat Nature’s Free Food A forgotten history of how America criminalized foraging—and how those laws still enforce hunger and dependency.

Great piece by Kahlil Greene on the racialised history of anti-foraging laws in the US.

thepreamble.com/p/the-racist...

Thoughts and prayers for the Countryside Alliance, who will be needing a new Labour grandee to promote their talking points.

Absolute Units podcast - The Museum of English Rural Life Come for the big sheep. Stay for the history of rural England and its people.

A spirit watches over Dartmoor. His face is granite grey. His eyes are dark as peat pools. His name is Old Crockern. And today he’s at The Museum of English Rural Life.

Learn Crockern's story on Absolute Units, w/ Ruth Webb & @lisaschneidau.bsky.social, out now!

merl.reading.ac.uk/explore/abso...

Didn't Starmer... Basically have to be forced by his own MPs to abolish the two child cap?

And didn't he pull the whip on seven MPs for supporting an amendment to abolish it?

Where is the moral centre of his government?

it's compiled in this report on the State of the Monnow: afonyddcymru.org/wp-content/u...

Original source is NRW / EA RNAG (reasons for not achieving good) assessments of ecological status tests in 2021 / 2024.

This is the 2021 data: cyfoethnaturiolcymru.sharefile.eu/share/view/s...

But that's the point isn't it. Many university VCs wanted to turn the sector into a marketplace and students into consumers. Well, be careful what you wish for.

I suspect this all feels like a kick in the teeth for lecturers and PGTAs who no doubt did their absolute best in trying circumstances.

Can hardly blame the students for being mercenary about it either.

Addendum to this: will these legal cases explore the uneven allocation of online provision and learning support during COVID towards courses enrolling international students paying the highest fees? That could get spicy.

Students in England and Wales launch legal action over Covid-hit studies More than 170,000 seek compensation after UCL Covid settlement opens door to claims across university sector

The irony here is that UCL's senior management (not its staff or students) were early cheerleaders for the shift to the fee-based, market model of higher education.

Well, force students to become consumers and they might just start acting like them...

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

Chuffed that @righttoroam.bsky.social will be featuring in this new @themerl.bsky.social exhibition on the Radical Rural, marking the centenary of @cprecountryside.bsky.social alongside other Absolute Units of countryside campaigning.

Was at the game today (free tickets!)

I'm pretty sure there were more French fans in the stadium (and in the streets) than Welsh home supporters.

Crazy times for Welsh rugby.

'Bid to buy Rothbury Estate as divisive as Brexit' Funds are being raised to buy the Northumberland estate - but the plans have split opinion.

The worst kind of fake-balance from the BBC in this headline, and to a lesser extent the article.

One person has said the purchase is divisive, but it's their words that have been used for the headline.

One person. Along with his photo.

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

UK ban on Palestine Action unlawful, high court judges rule Protest group’s co-founder wins legal challenge against decision to proscribe it under anti-terrorism laws

Welcome but no surprise. This affair has been a disgrace from start to finish.

Yvette Cooper must resign.

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

Presumably that they consult with the farmers they're already consulting with. Still, always good to chat...

Still, I'm glad to see the FUW are concerned about ecological harms.

Below are the stated reasons for each river body in my catchment failing to meet its legal targets.

I look forward to hearing the FUW's strategy for addressing these persistent, extensive and escalating harms to our environment.

Especially funny as 'people from London telling Wales what to do' is the go-to refrain of anti-rewilding...

Except when their prejudices are convenient for one's own worldview, it seems.

Still, good to see the FUW offering engagement – a better tone. I'm sure Tir Natur will be happy to oblige.

'The FUW states it agreement with the Telegraph’s [...] Patrick Galbraith, who wrote that rewilding is “a nebulous radical political movement, riding a wave of nostalgia and soul-searching in an intensely urban epoch”.'

Funny to see the same charlatan deployed in such disparate contexts...