Theo Frixou

Poll showing labour and greens neck and neck.

When I said we weren't here to be disappointed in Labour but to replace them. I meant it.

Join.greenparty.org.uk

Last month I did a little experiment.

I wanted to see how the exact same post would perform on both X (Twitter) and Bluesky.

The results were...interesting...

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Ministers have 'moral' duty to cut benefits spending, Labour MPs say Labour is anxious to reduce the rising welfare bill as it plans boosting defence spending at a time when the Chancellor is perilously short of extra cash

That must be one of the most Orwellian statements ever. It’s bad enough to cut people’s benefits. To pretend some kind of higher “moral” duty while you’re doing so is insulting and offensive

YouTube video by Clive Lewis Climate breakdown means the cost of living crisis is here to stay. How should progressives respond?

We need to think outside of the box about inexorably rising prices. Here's why.

youtu.be/tWHsU8seftQ

Just FYI, this is the development—record temperatures despite La Niña conditions—is what scientists said might portend something quite bad getting underfoot.

I know it's all too much, but please don't look away. We're fighting for literally everything right now.

Trump's right-wing disinformation also had a very specific emotional effect — or at least intent - which gave it power as political speech: it tried to turn people's horror over what was happening in LA - indeed, over the big, amorphous climate crisis - into anger. And Trump directed that anger towards Democratic elected officials. In this way, he transmuted feelings of helplessness into an emotion that can increase perceptions of agency and he used that emotion to his political advantage. In the face of terror, anger is a comfort, and scapegoating people as Trump scapegoated LA mayor Karen Bass and Gavin Newsome (who he called Gavin "Newscum") is a time-honored way to redouble that sense of agency and create social cohesion to boot. Meanwhile, voices on "our side" were reduced to repeating bland facts. Trump repeatedly turns climate-change disasters into events in which Democrats supposedly hurt the American public. He did it this past summer with Hurricane Helene, and he did it again with the LA blazes. And the right-wing propaganda machine surrounds that false narrative with a barrage of lies. Yet the way to combat and overcome this strategy is not by fact-checking or even just by connecting climate disasters to climate change. It's to clearly and repeatedly — in every venue and across all platforms - to tell a story of our own: climate change is caused mostly by our use of fossil fuels, and Trump's plan to expand fossil fuels and suppress clean energy is the kind of policy responsible for the loss of people's homes, the destruction of their communities, and even their very deaths. Could you imagine Democratic politicians saying such a thing? Could you imagine mainstream journalists writing it? It seems almost impossible to believe they ever would. The introduction of this discourse into the public sphere would be

📢 Trump's top-line climate disinformation strategy combines 4 tactics—Sleight-of-Hand, Fossil Fuel as the Main Character, Gaslighting, and Flood the Zone with Shit—to construct the lie that Democrats (not climate disasters) are killing people.

Find out more👇

www.endclimatesilence.org/newsletter

1. Sir David King, former Chief Scientific Advisor to the government says:

"On our current path, civilisation as we know it will disappear. If we meet current commitments only – net zero by 2050 – perhaps some form of humanity will survive ... " Guardian 27 May 2024.

Wildfires offset the increasing but spatially heterogeneous Arctic–boreal CO2 uptake - Nature Climate Change How the carbon stocks of the Arctic–Boreal Zone change with warming is not well understood. Here the authors show that wildfires and large regional differences in net carbon fluxes offset the overall ...

Meanwhile, the Arctic's carbon sink is flipping to a carbon source.

I constantly marvel* at industry and govts' assumption that Everything is Going to Go Perfectly to Plan, as if events and Nature won't overwhelm our efforts to pull back from the brink

*Shudder

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Welcome to the party pal!

It beggars belief he is saying this now - given what he and his wing of the Democrats have done to funnel wealth & power to said oligarchs and the military-industrial complex.

Sleepy Joe indeed.

Screengrab from BBC. Text reads: UK economy grows for first time in three months

Tiny GDP changes offer little to the millions that continue to struggle to afford life's essentials. The govt's focus on growth is clearly at odds with the Bank of England's reluctance to cut interest rates. This is making life harder for people and slowing down the economy. 1/2

An illegal betting festival currently at the King Power, where Leicester City and Crystal Palace are respectively promoting BC.GAME (declared bankrupt, unlicensed in the UK) and Kaiyun (also unlicensed), a brand set up by Yabo, the criminal organisation which was dismantled in China in 2020-21.

Robertson aside..

UK low- to middle-income families far poorer than OECD counterparts – study Britons 39% worse off than Dutch equivalent due to housing costs 44% higher than western European average

UK low- to middle-income families far poorer than OECD counterparts.

UK prices 8% higher, housing cost 44% higher.

Low income families - German families 21% or £2,300 a year better off; Dutch 39%.

Yet no curbs on profiteering, exploitation institutionalized.
www.theguardian.com/business/202...

BlackRock Leaves Major Climate Group Amid Wall Street Exodus BlackRock Inc. is parting ways with one of the world’s biggest climate-investor groups after being targeted by Republican politicians for its efforts on global warming.

They’re not doing it on video with $900k watches, like Zuckerberg, but the way corporate US is running away from its climate commitments now Trump is in office is really significant.

www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

We're the better for it.

I’ll message you!

@tonyevans92a.bsky.social

World’s richest use up their fair share of 2025 carbon budget in 10 days Emissions caused by wealthiest 1% so far this year would take someone from poorest 50% three years to create

Yes the super rich have horrendous emissions

But they also make unsustainable lifestyles look desirable, use their social and cultural power to perpetuate the idea that everything's fine, and wield their political and financial power to maintain and worsen the status quo

I have a ticket for Liverpool vs Accrington today in the Kop today that I’d like to give away for free to someone who doesn’t normally go (and because it’s last minute).

I don’t know how easy that is for people to see on Bluesky. Please can you help with a repost? @theanfieldwrap.bsky.social

Hydroclimate volatility on a warming Earth - Nature Reviews Earth & Environment Rapid transitions between extreme wet and extreme dry conditions — ‘hydroclimate whiplash’ — have marked environmental and societal impacts. This Review outlines observed and projected changes in hydr...

Quite the telling publication day for this study, which found a dramatic increase in the amount of "hydroclimate whiplash"—the vacillation between wet and dry that fuels wildfires as well as flash floods, landslides, and disease outbreaks—on our hotter planet
www.nature.com/articles/s43...

Been meaning to pick this up for so long considering the topic of my PhD research. A walk into Stoke Newington Bookshop this afternoon and there it was. Can’t wait to start @doctorvive.bsky.social

Is Labour listening?

Beautiful. NYD for me then!

Where in the Peaks is this Rory?

I need someone to explain to me why it’s always “if you can’t pay rent, buy fewer lattes and avocado toasts” and not “if you can’t pay your employees a living wage, buy fewer yachts and real estate”.

Explain it to me like I’m in kindergarten.

The Hague First in the World to Outlaw Fossil Fuel Advertising The move comes months after UN chief Guterres called on countries to ban fossil fuel advertising in the same way they restricted tobacco.

Starting Wednesday, all forms of advertisement promoting fossil fuel products and services will be banned in The Hague. The Dutch city is the first in the world to enforce such ban, acting as a potential catalyst for similar actions worldwide.

earth.org/the-hague-be...

License revoked - josimarfootball.com Declared bankrupt by a court in Curaçao, Leicester City FC sponsor BC.GAME is about to lose its licence. Josimar has discovered that the operator is running one of the largest illegal betting networks...

So it looks like a result. But it's only a start. A month ago, we exposed another illegal(*) operator, BC.GAME, who then deactivated their UK operation. Yet Leicester City players still wear shirts bearing that name. The PL remains an enabler of illegal entities. josimarfootball.com/2024/11/28/l...

Walmart pushes back climate change targets World’s largest company by sales acknowledges progress is delayed and it expects to miss its 2030 goals

Company makes climate pledge, spends lots on PR to tout its environmental commitment. Co. reneges on climate commitment. Rinse and repeat. www.ft.com/content/6e73...

“A slap in the face” FIFA Saudi World Cup choice — Cool Down FIFA’s decision to host 2034 World Cup in Saudi Arabia “is a slap in the face to fans, players and anyone who puts this sport at the centre of their life”

The inevitable has happened - Saudi Arabia has been announced as the 2034 World Cup host to widespread condemnation.

Here's our take on FIFA's bid blunder with thoughts on the announcement from climate leaders and athletes, @djwheeler7.bsky.social and @tesselmiddag.bsky.social. 🌏⚽️

This will probably come as no surprise to anyone but…

www.thelondoneconomic.com/news/media/o...