Leonid Furr

The greatest symbol of this disastrous conference....

Pollution kills all Tees Estuary seal pups Harbour seal pups in Tees Estuary suffer 100% mortality in 2025, prompting MPs to demand a Defra inquiry into the deaths

Harbour seal pups in Tees Estuary suffer 100% mortality in 2025, prompting MPs to demand a Defra inquiry into the deaths | Julia Mazza

Former Observer big-hitters launch new title with redundancy payouts Five former Observer journalists including Carole Cadwalladr have launched their own culture publication using their redundancy money.

Coming soon…

pressgazette.co.uk/news/former-...

Just heard about @thenerve.news via @carolecadwalla.bsky.social 's newsletter and that is some genuinely exciting news

Starmer asks Conservative peer to write planning bill to block judicial reviews Exclusive: One option could be to leave treaty that allows legal claims against projects such as Heathrow expansion

This is utterly horrific. Literally blocking the ability of people to object to nature being trashed and destroyed. What a lovely govt we have!!

www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

In the early 1960s a senior Conservative minister, John Profumo, resigned and inflicted perhaps decisive damage to the electoral prospects of his party for a decade ….. for far less than this

Only an administration intent on committing war crimes in the present and future would stoop to calling Wounded Knee a "battle" rather than what it truly was: a massacre of over 250 Lakotas, mainly women, children, and the elderly. 1/

the post office is a public service. it doesn’t need to make money. public transit doesn’t need to make money. the library doesn’t need to make money. some things exist for the public good and we desperately need lawmakers to stop thinking about them in terms of capitalism. these are not businesses.

Volume of US YouTube shows ‘weakens UK children’s ties to their own culture’ BBC’s head of children’s TV says YouTube’s algorithm takes children to US-based content, rather than UK shows The amount of American content children are consuming on YouTube risks weakening their connection to British culture and language, the BBC’s head of children’s television has warned. Patricia Hidalgo, the director of children and education at the BBC, said the algorithm of the all-conquering video-sharing site diverted British children on to US-based content, rather than “nourishing” British programming that helps cement their cultural identity. Continue reading...

Volume of US YouTube shows ‘weakens UK children’s ties to their own culture’

A flyer for the Waldy and Bendy podcast; a cartoon drawing showing two people in headphones, sitting beside a microphone.

The world's most indispensable arts podcast is back, with a new episode out now on all your usual platforms. Another episode out tomorrow, then weekly.

IMPORTANT 🧵

We've been seeing how RFK Jr & anti-vax lobby has been steadily and effectively reducing access to vaccines in the US.

But it could happen in UK too.

It's a threat worth considering given Malhotra's speech at Reform conf & big overlap between anti-vax and RW populsim.

Read on!
1/11

To ‘ultra-crepidate’ (19th century) is to lecture others on subjects you know very little about.

Imagine paying the slightest bit of attention to this drivel

Yes, the world needs a new podcast. Or rather, an old one resurrected. Just finished recording - dropping next week.

This is why it was completely insane for Dems to laugh off the Twitter purchase. We created a forum with practically every single political and media elite all in the same room together hearing the same things, and then we turned it over to a far-right oligarch

I don't think it's wise of the Lib Dems to promote the idea that asylum constitutes a national emergency, justifying use of the Civil Contingencies Act.

That Act bestows enormous powers on ministers, to be used only in "the most serious of emergencies".

Would Davey want Farage having those powers?

Statement by Faversham Town Council's Community Committee Faversham is a warm and welcoming town which, throughout its long history, has always proudly opened its arms to those who seek refuge. We as a town are rightly proud of our embodiment of fundamental principles of British values such as democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, and tolerance for the beliefs of others. However, over recent weeks it has been noted that tensions within our community have arisen linked to unauthorised placement of flags on public lampposts and abusive behaviour when questioned. This has led to many residents reporting feeling afraid and intimidated, and shamefully others have reported they have experienced racist abuse within the past few weeks. Faversham Town Council strongly condemns any acts of racism, intimidation and bullying for any reason.

We recognise that many residents display the St George cross and other national symbols as a positive expression of pride, and this is entirely welcome on private property or where permission has been sought. Faversham Town Council's own flag policy dictates that the flags of our nation are flown regularly from our public buildings. However, we also recognise that these same symbols of national pride can also be used to intimidate and cause division, and we call upon KCC, Kent Police and Swale Borough Council to work with us and the wider community to restore community harmony and a sense of street safety, mutual respect, and the shared pride we all have in our town and wider nation,

Measured, sensible, and much welcomed statement from Faversham Town Council on the idiocy of the moronic flag pandemic.

"HURRAH FOR THE BLACKSHIRTS!"

Headline from the New York Times, 1939: “Goebbels ends careers of five “Aryan“ actors who made witticisms about the Nazi regime.”

www.nytimes.com/1939/02/04/a...

"Stop giving power to people who don't believe in science or worse than that, pretend they don't believe in climate change for their own self-interest." Harrison Ford

There is no time to wait. #ActOnClimate

#climate #energy #biodiversity #dumptrump

!!39!!

Is the FT being edited by AI? Strange stuff in this report on an upcoming AI meeting between HMG and Big Tech bosses. LLMs perhaps? www.ft.com/content/522c... @data.ft.com

Badenoch is a spineless craven narcissist but her predecessors need to take so so much of the blame.

They turned the Tories into a radical right-wing party.

They purged the moderates and turned their party in a poor imitation of Farage. This is their mess.

Kemi Badenoch refusing to acknowledge that Tommy Robinson is "far-right", now on LBC, and refusing to condemn Elon Musk's words. In fact she says what Musk said *isn't* incitement. So what would be incitement then? How violent would his words have to be before he was deemed a threat to this country?

This really shouldn't even need saying, let alone agitating for. It is a truism more than a proposition.

Labour Party spokesperson on Danny Kruger MP’s defection to Reform UK: "Every Conservative who defects to Reform ties Nigel Farage more closely to their record of failure. Nigel Farage can recruit as many failed Tories as he likes – it won’t change the fact that he has no plan for Britain."

Bbe front page showing stories of Qe will never surrender our flag. Says Kier Starmer.

Also shows the power the prime ministers office has!
One statement and the narrative of BBC website completed changed.
Earlier today it was far right rally turn out and more questions about Mandelson. One statement and the government has a chance to be on the front foot.

This is fine, but Keir Starmer surrounded by violent, foreign money funded bigots waving flags

Hat tip @clownf1st.bsky.social

This is what the govt should be reading. Not whatever bullshit is on X.

I walked with a friend from the US all around south bank on Fri night - it was glorious as ever.
She lives in Texas and says she's lost her free speech, has become silent in her community to avoid reprisals.