Grahame Lloyd

Oligarchy (noun):

A government of and by a few at the top, who exercise power for their own benefit. Their power and wealth increase as they make laws that favor themselves, manipulate financial markets, and create monopolies that put more wealth into their pockets.

@auschwitzmemorial.bsky.social

Went to Auschwitz and Birkenhau camps today during a week's visit to Poland.
Moving and informative three-hour guided tour.
Harrowing and tiring but definitely very worthwhile.

Trump-proof Britain's Trade Liberal Democrats want to turbocharge our economy by forming a Customs Union with the EU, tearing down the trade barriers and red tape holding us back.

www.libdems.org.uk/trade

I’ve just joined the @libdems.org.uk - On fundamental issues like constitutional and electoral reform, on Europe, on social care, on tax, on Trump, on Musk, on climate change etc they are aligned with my beliefs. Time to get involved.

Dec 5, 2024 - remember that date. We, the journalists of Guardian & Observer, were on 2nd day of our strike.

As Harding welcomed fossil fuel execs - inc Dudley - to Tortoise's forum.

We didn't know this. Or that later that same day, the Scott Trust would vote to gift Observer to Tortoise Media.
7/

This deal stinks - and it's time for me to call it a day as a reader - with a very heavy heart. I covered football for both papers back in the day and consider The Observer to the finest newspaper in Britain. Its journalists are first class; its Scott Trust sadly anything but...

Labour won the General Election on only 33%of the vote. Reform came second in 98 seats, 89 of which are held by Labour. It’s time to build a progressive alliance to defeat the far right and to reform our ridiculous voting system which could give Reform a majority next time on a minority vote.

Today Guardian and Observer journalists are on strike over plans to sell the Observer to a loss-making digital start up and put its journalism behind a paywall. 🧵

How can you support us?
SHARE our posts
WRITE to guardian.readers@theguardian.com
JOIN US - there's cake!

MPs have backed Sarah Olney’s bill on proportional representation. This is a historic moment in the campaign for a fairer voting system.



Today, as we have done for a century, Liberal Democrats are leading the fight for fair votes and making sure that no one can be ignored in our democracy.

Bob Dylan remains a defiant artist forging new ideas This November, Bob Dylan performed the final concerts of his Rough and Rowdy Ways tour at the Royal Albert Hall in London. The tour picked up where Dylan left off just before the COVID pandemic – endl...

www.rte.ie/culture/2024...

Alex Sobel

Labour MP and @appgfairelections.bsky.social Chair, Alex Sobel: "Unchecked, social media encourages misinformation and disinformation... Look at what happened this summer, large scale disinformation not checked quickly enough by those social media companies, led to violence in the streets"

Former First Minister of Wales, Mark Drakeford: “Here is a system that delivers inflated majorities on a shrinking minority of votes cast. It drives down participation, when people know, however much you may say to them otherwise, that their vote really doesn't count"
@appgfairelections.bsky.social

A poem by Langston Hughes titled "Tired". It reads as the following: "I am so tired of waiting, Aren't you, For the world to become good And beautiful and kind? Let us take a knife And cut the world in two -- And see what worms are eating At the rind."

I've been thinking about this poem by Langston Hughes recently and although it was published in 1931, it remains relevant as ever.

#books #reading #booksky #poetry

Labour can no longer hide from the cost of Brexit Weak growth and a Trump trade war could force the party to change its Europe policy.

“Labour can no longer hide from the cost of Brexit. Weak growth and a Trump trade war could force the party to change its Europe policy”
By David Gauke
www.newstatesman.com/comment/2024...

The Home Game review – sweet and heartwarming story of Iceland’s footballing underdogs This plucky documentary tells of the small town whose residents created its first football pitch, and the years that followed chasing their goal

Well worth a watch - a feelgood film about the importance of football to local communites #thehomegame

www.theguardian.com/film/article...

Just picked up my card yesterday 📚👍

The most important thing in writing is to finish. A finished thing can be fixed. A finished thing can be published. A finished thing can be made into a movie.

An unfinished thing is just a dream. And dreams fade if you don't hold on tight enough.

So finish the thing.

Pleased to have replaced Twitter with Bluesky 👍