Ollie Crookwood

I think with some radical legislation we could vastly improve things for British farmers & for the British consumer - public sector procurement is a great place to start, one area we could take inspiration from the danish in a much more ethical way…!

Effectively if you own almost any other business then the inheritance tax is on what the business that youve created is worth - not what the business could be worth if you bulldozed the whole thing and built a village on top of it.

I think the main difference is that farm land prices have been inflated due to their potential value for development, whereas the actual value of the land for use in agriculture is tiny. Small local farms will struggle with the tax, whereas giant agricultural businesses won’t pay it.

Living alongside nature: humans must get better at it The first of two articles inspired by COP30 explores some problems and the need to seek inclusive and nature-aligned solutions.

We need to rethink how we build in this country - having worked alongside ecologists in the construction industry, all of the incentives are to not find rare species.

We need to find a way of building and developing that encourages biodiversity, rather than destroying it.

Utterly unsurprising, every day we grow closer to a US style system where money can buy anything, and democracy means less and less. It’s time for radical change.

Rachel Reeves is living on another planet A country in crisis and a government in denial.

“Minor tweaks to taxation and spending, or cuts to corporate regulation and ministerial budgets, aren’t going to un-break Britain.”

More essential reading from the brilliant @graceblakeley.substack.com

Openness and transparency is the key to a functioning democracy.

Please sign & share.

Zack telling it like it is… Looks like more minor technocratic fiddling in this budget, when we are in dire need of systematic change.

Don’t believe Nigel Farage’s denials. He targeted me for being Jewish – and it hurt | Peter Ettedgui Now that my former classmate has finally spoken about the allegations of his behaviour at school, I feel compelled to address his points directly, says Peter Ettedgui, a film director and producer

Don’t believe Nigel Farage’s denials. He targeted me for being Jewish – and it hurt | Peter Ettedgui

Would have been very interesting to see what came out about this at trial. Surely it is time for an inquiry into Russian interference in UK democracy…

If I’m understanding this correctly, X is owned by a white nationalist who pays poor people of color in developing countries to pretend to be working class white Americans to scare other white Americans into being afraid poor people of color from developing countries are going to ruin America?

Increasing economic growth: some modest proposals Commodify, enshittify, skillify.

“Paul Samuelson famously said that when a man marries his maid he reduces GDP. So let’s do the reverse.”

Entertaining and accurate piece by @chrisdillow.bsky.social :

Social Democrats in Denmark suffer sweeping election losses PM Mette Frederiksen’s centre-left party loses control of Copenhagen for first time in more than 100 years

“Among the reasons cited by analysts for the Social Democrats’ decline in Copenhagen were voter fatigue over the prime minister’s hardline policies on issues such as integration and immigration”

Someone in no10 needs to get this message. Pandering to the far right doesn’t work.

Power or prosperity? China's dilemma in an age of overproduction.

“It’s strange for western audiences to hear about China’s problems of deflation and overproduction – because they’re almost the exact opposites of the problems our economies seem to be facing.”

Fascinating reading from @graceblakeley.substack.com - interesting parallels comparing east to west.

Cruel, immoral, inhumane ... For the Labour party to pander to racism instead of confronting it is a disgrace.

Nail on the head here from @robinlustig.bsky.social - this policy will only intensify an already toxic debate, without helping in any meaningful way.

A little bit of context always helps. When it's omitted you know someone has an agenda.

Don’t forget the fact that currently they are struggling with a massive backlog of undecided claims - I struggle to see how making people reapply repeatedly will help with that!

Outrageous news from my home town - freeholds are outdated and in dire need of reform. This behaviour ought to be illegal.

As someone who has managed a waste water treatment system - yes. The fibres will not break down quickly enough, even if they do biodegrade over time, and it will cause issues.

At the very least there needs to be a ban on “flushable” labelling.

“We are scapegoating asylum seekers for the failures and political divisions caused by successive governments in the last 15 years – the failures of successive governments to address wealth inequality, funding for education, the cost of living and primary healthcare and infrastructure.”

The fact that Nigel Farage is presenting Reform as a realistic party of governance is laughable, and the fact that the Daily Mail/Sun etc are cheering him on is insane.

The only positive thing about Starmer’s current immigration policy is that it’ll give a huge boost to the Greens, from all of the people in this country who didn’t vote for policies designed to punish some of the most marginalised people in our country.

#bbcqt

Zack Polanski is a breath of fresh air.

Stewart Lee: Traitors on the inside, Trump on the outside ... who’d want to run the BBC now? Actually, I would I may seem like an unlikely candidate. But at least I understand that the first step to facing down the organisation’s malevolent opponents is to stop appeasing them

“it is true that the licence fee presents ethical problems. I would suggest that it is scrapped and replaced by levies paid to the BBC by Netflix, Amazon, Apple, Paramount, Disney and Sky, which frequently appropriate talents nurtured by the BBC”

@thenerve.news

How anyone can believe accepting donations of this size isn’t damaging to our democracy is beyond me.

Big vibes from @zackpolanski.bsky.social - politics of hope are the way forward!

Siân Berry, Lord James Bethell, Lucy Harris & Matthew Stadlen

Great to hear @sianberry.bsky.social on LBC’s Cross Question last night. A ray of clarity against some outrageous views. Glad to hear someone arguing back against the “people on benefits struggling to afford their holidays to New York”.

It was apparent from the start that the BBC resignations were due to an attack from the right, however it wasn’t clear just how deep it went. This reporting is critical for the future of journalism in the UK, and for our democracy.

Would you not agree that the most effective way for Polanski to protect the environment would be to become prime minister? And that to do so would require him replacing Labour?