Duncan Brack

… while also building a broad consensus.

1 New minister for X (cabinet mi sister if X is really important)
2 X Delivery Authority
3 Statutory duty on local authorities to deliver X
4 Empower local communities to deliver X
…
5 If all else fails, more research

Two weeks to go! Liberals, Europe and the people - Liberal Democrat History Group discussion meeting, 6.00pm, 30 June, with @robertsaunders.bsky.social, @morganj0nes.bsky.social and @nickalito.bsky.social - mailchi.mp/e87f8af44d0f...

Ditto

It’s time for a bolder approach to the UK’s relationship with the EU. I know many Labour colleagues agree. I hope they will work with the Lib Dems to make it happen. A deeper trade deal would bring growth, help households and improve the public finances.

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

Apple’s new sci-fi series “Murderbot” to make global debut May 16, 2025 Today, Apple TV+ unveiled a first look at “Murderbot,” created by Chris and Paul Weitz and starring Alexander Skarsgård

I have been so excited since I found out this would be announced today! RIP any ability for me to concentrate: www.apple.com/tv-pr/news/2...

YouTube video by Apple TV Murderbot — An Inside Look | Apple TV+

attn please, here is some further Murderbot footage to enjoy incl the definitely best little moment in All Systems Red

thinking about the amount of context necessary to explain to someone from 2010 what people are protesting with signs reading "cheap eggs not measles" or "tax the rich, not the penguins"

I stand with the penguins of Heard and McDonald Islands!

A while ago a lovely German man appeared at our church. He came a few times to look around during our Saturday opening hours, before asking if the piano abandoned in the corner worked.

I told him it was horrendously out of tune, and the cathedral piano tuner had deemed it not worth sorting out.

Screenshot of polling data from Jan 2025

The UK would now want to rejoin the EU by 55% to 33%

Removing those that don’t know - that’s a 62.5% to 37.5% breakdown.

@syonist.bsky.social Happily I was able to identify the problem and the speech is now available on the same URL.

Thanks for asking! I don't, I'm afraid, but I'm trying to find out whether it might be available somewhere.

Fix the two-party system before someone turns it into a one-party system and it's game over.

PR is like a seatbelt. You don't think you need it, until you're heading through the political windscreen at 60mph.

And once that dawns on you, it's the last realisation ever.

Background photo of wood pellets burning. Red good news icon on a screenshot of a headline from Solutions for Our Climate reading “[Statement] South Korea to reduce government support for biomass energy, sending ripples across Asia”.

GOOD NEWS! 🙌 🎉 🌲

South Korea announced it's cutting subsidies for #BigBadBiomass starting this month, signaling a shift away from burning imported wood pellets for energy, which is linked to deforestation in Southeast Asia.

#GreenSky #ClimateSky

This article is more than 2 years old Lord Geidt letter says request from Boris Johnson put him in ‘odious position’ This article is more than 2 years old Ethics adviser who quit says PM asked him to consider matter that risked deliberate breach of ministerial code Read Lord Geidt’s letter Jessica Elgot Chief political correspondent Thu 16 Jun 2022 14.53 BST Share Boris Johnson placed his ethics adviser in an “impossible and odious” position by asking him to “risk a deliberate and purposeful breach of the ministerial code”, letters from the adviser show. Johnson revealed in his reply that he had asked Christopher Geidt to consider plans by the government to continue some steel tariffs – a move that could break World Trade Organization terms – but hinted he was unsatisfied with the explanation. Lord Geidt’s resignation letter said he was “tasked to offer a view about the government’s intention to consider measures which risk a deliberate and purposeful breach of the ministerial code. This request has placed me in an impossible and odious position”.

This article is more than 4 years old Boris Johnson adviser quits after being overruled on Priti Patel bullying report This article is more than 4 years old PM’s backing of home secretary criticised as No 10 fails to deny reports he tried to get findings toned down Heather Stewart and Simon Murphy Fri 20 Nov 2020 19.12 GMT Share Boris Johnson drove his own ethics adviser to quit on Friday as he ripped up the rulebook by refusing to sack Priti Patel despite a formal investigation finding evidence that she bullied civil servants. After a Cabinet Office inquiry, Sir Alex Allan said the home secretary’s conduct “amounted to behaviour that can be described as bullying” – noting instances of shouting and swearing, and finding that she had breached the ministerial code, even if unintentionally. Johnson seized on that caveat, seemingly dismissing the report, by insisting he judged the code had not been breached – and he had full confidence in Patel.

Contrast today - a minister going for the mere possible perception of conflict, despite no finding - with Johnson forcing out two (2) ethics advisors, one for finding Patel breached code and a second for refusing to clear a likely breach, after which none (0) was appointed for two (2) years. ~AA

This is such a key point. Some senior people within Labour are at risk of making a grievous error in how they perceive climate action. It’s not woke, it’s popular, and it’s key to their economic strategy. www.businessgreen.com/blog-post/43...

Democracy does not matter to Labour The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) is now, as it was in Blair’s days, Labour’s favoured think tank. Half of its leadership from a year ago now seems to be in Downing Street. Those that ar...

Democracy does not matter to Labour www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/01... IPPR is the think-tank most listened to by Labour. In a new report on voting it says it will not consider proportional representation because Labour does not want it. No wonder politics and our democracy are in a mess.

UK inflation hits eight-month high, adding to pressure to hold interest rates Annual rate increases to 2.6% in November, driven by rising cost of groceries and hike in tobacco duty in budget

There’ll be a lot of focus on national insurance, but it was also predicted there would be inflationary pressure on food prices this autumn because we’ve just had a historically bad harvest because of all the wet weather. It’s climate change, innit.
www.theguardian.com/business/202...

Tank with vegetables for sale piled on it

Repurposed Assad tank in Syria.

John Prescott was passionate about ocean protection – he nearly risked his life for it The former Deputy PM cared deeply about the environment and ocean protection, as he demonstrated on trip to the Maldives for a BBC report on coral bleaching in 1999, recalls journalist Roger Harrabin

This is a lovely read from Roger Harrabin on the time John Prescott almost got in a lot of trouble scuba diving with the BBC to try and highlight the plight of corals impacted by global warming.
www.businessgreen.com/feature/4382...

Good thread & hi Torsten! More on this sort of thing here…

bsky.app/profile/guys...

Out by Tim Shipman review — a tale of Tory arrogance, narcissism and incompetence The fourth book in Tim Shipman’s Brexit saga is a detailed chronicle of the Conservatives’ self-destruction — “a bleak cavalcade of some of the worst people to infect Britain’s body politic”

This review of Shipman’s latest by @samfr.bsky.social is really astute because it says what so many people miss about Sunak - he was an “ideologue in technocrat clothing”

Out by Tim Shipman review — a tale of Tory arrogance, narcissism and incompetence

www.thetimes.com/article/16a6...

Most people don’t know this:

The most heat pumps per capita were installed in some of the coldest countries in the world.

In the top right corner you find countries with cold winters and lots of heat pumps.

Source is www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Kurt Vonnegut! Presumably not Taylor Swift …

Government is again reiterating “growth is the No.1 priority.” The OBR report its quoting from says Brexit is on course to cut UK trade by a staggering 15% - a huge reduction in the country’s potential economic performance when every penny counts. We have to be able to talk openly about this