David De Smet

Starving Gaza students 'left to die in warzone' as UK sets impossible test

A starving midwife living in a refugee camp is one of dozens of hopeful Palestinian students blocked from UK universities by government bureaucracy.

The stories we tell matter. I know this not from watching but from memory. I was just a child, held behind barbed wire in a U.S. internment camp, when an atomic bomb obliterated Hiroshima—killing members of my family.

Pushing airport expansion while rail travel languishes – so much for Labour’s green agenda | Polly Toynbee The climate damage done by avoidable flying is huge, yet the government continues to see planes as the answer to its economic woes, says Guardian columnist Polly Toynbee

Airport expansion won't deliver the economic growth the chancellor is hoping for, but it will wreck our climate commitments. See NEF research in this article from @pollytoynbee.bsky.social.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

‘Self-termination is most likely’: the history and future of societal collapse An epic analysis of 5,000 years of civilisation argues that a global collapse is coming unless inequality is vanquished

For thousands of years, we have been parasitised, exploited and destroyed by elites. Our survival depends on overthrowing them.
Fascinating article by @dpcarrington.bsky.social
www.theguardian.com/environment/...

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

Starmer/Reeves should prepare UK for wealth tax, say top economists.

Long overdue.

Top 1% have more wealth than 70% of population combined.

Laws bent to help the rich - privatisations, PFI, corporate subsidies, capital gains and dividends taxed at lower rates than wages, unchecked profiteering.

How Britain privatised itself into failure Britain outsourced its state – now private firms profit while public services crumble. In Failed State, Sam Freedman explains what went wrong

How Britain privatised itself into failure

Britain outsourced its state – now private firms profit while public services crumble

yorkshirebylines.co.uk/politics/the...

⏳Final week to sign up to the Green Party.

🗳️ Vote for Bold Leadership on August 1st.

A quiet climate policy that was working has been axed The Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme (PSDS) was cutting public building emissions, but has been quietly axed by the government

A quiet climate policy that was working has been axed

The Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme (PSDS) was cutting public building emissions, but has been quietly axed by the government

By Terry Noctor

@yorkshirebylines.co.uk

Labour are right to lower the voting age.

But if they're truly serious about creating a fair democracy:

Time to abolish the unelected House of Lords.

And time for Proportional Representation for all elections.

High water bills, filthy rivers – and now drought. This is England's great artificial water crisis of 2025 | George Monbiot In its refusal to nationalise water, it’s clear the government operates in the interests of private capital and not of the country, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot

How do you ensure a nation fails to cope with drought? Privatise its water system.

Almost everyone wants our water renationalised. Almost everyone, that is, except the government.

This week's column.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Join the Green Party Join the Green Party from just £6 a year. Become a member today - join the only party with the policies needed to tackle the climate crisis.

Speak out for Disabled people?

Keir Starmer will suspend you.

Labour once again showing where their values lie.

Join.greenparty.org.uk

What you're hearing here is a Labour whip shouting "object" in order to block the bill that would bring in the Hillsborough Law

You can hear John Mcdonnell say what a disgrace it is. Starmer promised he'd bring in the Hillsborough Law. He hasn't, & now he blocks this bill

Breaking news: First Past the Post to be scrapped for mayoral elections. Now time for Westminster!

WE DID IT!!!

The government has just announced that it´s scrapping FPTP for mayoral elections.

In May, this absurd system resulted in some Mayors being elected on as little as 25% of the vote.

This is a victory of communities around the country. But it's just the beginning...

7500 staff made redundant this year of a total UK electrification workforce of 10000, and those retained have been on the promise of wires continuing up the MML.

This announcement is catastrophic.

This article was close to getting it, but misses the point massively.

The problem isn’t the tree planting. The photos in it show 50% survival rate.

The problem is consistently building massive damaging roads, shoving in some empty ponds full of tyre particles, and pretending that’s net gain.

This 83-year-old priest has just been arrested for holding a sign which read:

“I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action.”

According to Starmer’s new law, this puts her in the same category as an ISIS or Al-Qaeda terrorist, with a prison sentence of up to 14 years.

Reject plans for a mandatory BritCard (digital ID) Sir Keir Starmer is considering a mandatory digital ID scheme called “BritCard” that would make us all reliant on a digital pass to go about our daily lives. Mandatory digital IDs give the state enor...

The Government is planning to roll out mandatory digital ID. It’s invasive and could mean millions of people unable to go about their daily lives. Right now it's just an idea - we need to stop it becoming a reality. Join me and sign the petition now! you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/re...

Nothing to see here. Just the Israeli media reporting testimony from Israeli soldiers that for weeks they've been ordered to kill unarmed, starving Palestinians trying to reach Israel's so-called "aid hubs".

If only we could find some proof that Israel's committing genocide.

More: archive.ph/fRhtB

PETITION: Defend the right to protest: no proscription of Palestine Action

Please sign this urgent petition!

Ancient trees are shipped to the UK, then burned – using billions in ‘green’ subsidies. Stop this madness now | Dale Vince The evidence against the Drax power station is damning, yet the government wants to continue its massive public funding, says campaigner Dale Vince

Why have I tabled a motion against the continued funding of Drax to burn US trees, to be heard on Monday in #HouseofLords?

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

"144 Killed, 560 Injured in Gaza Over Past 24 Hours"
"Since March 18, when Israel unilaterally broke the ceasefire and resumed attacks, its forces have killed an additional 5,334 Palestinians and injured 17,839 more."
via Principles NOT Parties

I was a Labour member for 13 years. Today I left to join the Greens and @greensorganise.bsky.social.

@zackpolanski.bsky.social's leadership bid is a chance to build an insurgent left alternative.

Read about my reasoning, the alliances we need to build, and the need to root it all in struggle here:

Madleen freedom flotilla crew

Photo of the crew holding their hands up after being intercepted and attacked by the genocidal Israeli navy — and kidnapped

Every person aboard the Madleen is a hero.

The genocidal Israeli state's attack on unarmed activists aboard a UK-flagged vessel delivering aid to Gaza is a flagrant breach of international law.

The UK must sanction Israel, end all arms & surveillance, & expel its ambassador.

Revealed: 5,000 English nature sites at risk under Labour’s planning proposals Exclusive: Planning bill includes mechanism for developers to ‘pay to pollute’ valuable ecosystems, experts warn

What did we do to deserve this government? It promised change, and many people voted on that basis, in good faith. But the change is from bad to worse. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Lives of quiet desperation: what the government doesn’t get Voters hoped for real change, but face more cuts, broken promises, and politics-as-usual – despair deepens across the UK

Lives of quiet desperation: what the government doesn’t get

Voters hoped for real change, but face more cuts, broken promises, and politics-as-usual – despair deepens across the UK

By Barbara Morrison

@yorkshirebylines.co.uk

They found ourselves made strangers in their own country. Enoch Powell. We risk becoming an island of strangers. Keir Starmer.

Starmer's Britain.

Not even subtle.

FUN FACT: Since 2019, Nigel Farage's Reform has taken more than £2.3 MILLION from oil and gas interests - making up an astonishing 92% of the party's donations.

Reform are NOT for ordinary people.

They're in the pockets of the big oil lobby.

You’re telling me that right wing voters that Labour was trying to appeal to voted for a right wing party anyway and left wing voters decided not to vote for Labour because they’re too right wing now? Who could have possibly predicted this.

Morgan McSweeney's ‘plot without precedent in Labour history’ A new book chronicles how Labour strategist Morgan McSweeney used ‘any means necessary’ to destroy Corbyn as leader and install Starmer.

👉 NEW — Morgan McSweeney's ‘plot without precedent in Labour history’

By Richard Sanders

A new book chronicles how Labour strategist Morgan McSweeney used ‘any means necessary’ to destroy Corbyn as leader and install Starmer.
www.declassifieduk.org/morgan-mcswe...

Petition: Take our trains into public ownership | We Own It The government is taking railway operators into public ownership, but the trains themselves will remain in private hands. The government must take our trains into public ownership.

Private shareholders made dividends of £3.6 billion from owning our trains in the last decade. Yet the government is leaving our trains fully privately owned. Sign We Own It's petition to demand they take our trains into public ownership:

weownit.org.uk/act-now/take...