Michelle Lester

Ditto

DC J6: 1.500 arrests
DC No Kings: zero

Tell me again which side is violent?

I used to work in Plymouth too. Again, when I tried to share what the SEZ could mean there (with mineral-rich Dartmoor and a nuclear submarine base) I was met with the same looks I got when I countered that, yes, Brexit really would be ‘that bad’. Won’t stop trying to share EP’s work though.

I know. I keep trying to tell my family (some of whom live in Cornwall where there are already housing developments being put up with the local council ‘unable’ to answer who’s behind them) but there’s such a sense of ‘we’re all doomed, anyway, and nothing we can do will stop it’.

UK Free Zones are the most underreported transformations of democratic governance in modern British history. I think what’s happening in the UK with free zones represents one of the most significant, and underreported transformations of democratic governance in modern British history.

Literally just read this excellent (thoroughly depressing) article open.substack.com/pub/european...

Happening in Portugal too

It was the one bit that kept me hanging on in there!

Agree! Feels like Disney trying to do ‘Peaky Blinders’. Only bit I liked was the scene where the family walk down the staircase to Fontaines DC but then it just looked like an old school music video.
No. Accents are off. Horrible stereotypes. Disappointing.

If we can’t speak, why live? The Taliban is trying to erase women. But last year, a group of countries vowed to hold Afghanistan accountable, possibly even at the world’s top court. Join the global call for justice now – urge the...

Pleas sign. We mustn’t take our eyes off what’s happening to the women and girls of Afghanistan 😢

secure.avaaz.org/campaign/en/...

Petition: Call time on corporate courts The UK's new trade strategy says it will continue inserting controversial corporate courts into its trade deals. At this very moment, the government is negotiating an investment treaty with India that...

SEZes or freeports are putting large areas of the country into the hands of (mostly US) corporations.

UK's new trade strategy says it will continue inserting corporate courts into its trade deals.

Sign petition: Call time on corporate courts. #StopISDS

act.globaljustice.org.uk/petition-cal...

Octopus massacre They're building the world’s first octopus farm. Here's how we can stop them:

secure.avaaz.org/campaign/en/...

In all but name: is Gaza Britain’s undeclared war? Britain isn’t just watching Gaza burn – it’s helping fuel the fire, with weapons, intelligence, and silence

🔥 The UK govt is deeply complicit in the Gaza genocide.

Here’s why...

As Keir Starmer hires former Sun editor David Dinsmore as his new communications chief, a quick reminder of the sorts of communications Dinsmore helped to put out in his former job

Looks amazing - added to my wishlist

"Perhaps I will write—not to immortalize the pain, but to say that we were here… loving, dreaming, planting, drawing, singing, reading, writing… before our lives were reduced to a passing news bulletin or a cold political statement."

Nearly half of Brits only £100 away from being overdue on their rent or mortgage: 'On a knife edge' 'When nearly half of people are so financially fragile that they are living in fear of a £100 bill, something has gone very wrong'

'When nearly half of people are so financially fragile that they are living in fear of a £100 bill, something has gone very wrong'

www.bigissue.com/news/housing...

Cruel cuts to disability support: the Work and Pensions Secretary needs to hear from your MP Our social security system should be there for us all, especially when we need it most. But the UK government has proposed huge cuts to disabled people’s support when they’re already three times more ...

You can help by using @trusselluk.bsky.social’s handy tool to email your MP and asking them to call on the Work and Pensions Secretary to rethink the government’s cruel & irresponsible planned cuts to social security

action.trussell.org.uk/disability-c...

World Central Kitchen | WCK Forced to Halt Cooking in Gaza as Supplies Run Out After serving more than 130 million total meals and 26 million loaves of bread over the past 18 months, World Central Kitchen no longer has the supplies to cook meals or bake bread in Gaza.

World Central Kitchen has run out of food to serve in Gaza. Its bakery ("recently the last working bakery in Gaza") is out of flour. There are 100,000+ tons of food in staging areas within driving distance of Gaza, and Israel refuses to let them in wck.org/news/gaza-up...

Live in Porto and did all three today!

Power (and phones) finally back on in Gaia (Porto) after 9 hours but supply is inconsistent across the city

Michelle Lester on Substack I’ve just finished reading Olivia Laing’s “The Garden Against Time”, in part to satisfy my yearning for a garden to call my own. While the level of botanical detail is beyond my reach, I love how she ...

substack.com/@michelleles...

Dom Luís bridge, Vila Nova de Gaia, Porto

Not a bad place at night #Porto #pontededomluis #vilanovadegaia

@adrian62.bsky.social

Tempered by steel – the ignominious end of a metal history in Wales The long and storied history of Welsh steel is apparently to be allowed to end with a whimper, while tables are banged in Westminster to save ’British’ steel

Tempered by steel – the ignominious end of a metal history in Wales

The long and storied history of Welsh steel is apparently to be allowed to end with a whimper, while tables are banged in Westminster to save ’British’ steel.

bylines.cymru/politics-and...

Palestinian Scholarship

Please share in your networks. Goldsmiths, UoL are offering 5 scholarships in Undergrad & MA courses for Palestinian students. The scholarships include: tuition fee waiver, £19,550 allowance, return trip to & from the UK.
Eligibility details & further info at link👇🏽
www.gold.ac.uk/fees-funding...

Number of people who go bankrupt every year because of medical bills or illness-related work loss:

Australia 0
Canada 0
Denmark 0
Finland 0
France 0
Germany 0
Iceland 0
Ireland 0
Italy 0
Japan 0
Netherlands 0
Norway 0
Portugal 0
Spain 0
Sweden 0
UK 0
United States 530,000

There’s a lesson there.

It sounds like trying to have your cake and eat it

the emperor’s favorite concubine fired one of his top internal security officers while rumors abound that the household eunuch has lost the emperors favor

I wonder who’d win in a game of chess? 🤔

We take tariffs on our beautiful Heard Island very seriously. We will be consulting all mammals and flightless birds and will make an announcement in the near future detailing our response. #heardisland #tariff #mcdonaldisland #trumptariff