Pete George

🔥 Might be a good time to drive this over 100,000.

Link —> petition.parliament.uk/petitions/75...

Take eg minimum wage - it has gone up year on year (through the Tory years too). Asking someone if it is a good policy for Labour to increase it (as this poll does) is pointless.
I don’t think anyone is arguing that Labour haven’t done some things - they are just pretty useless on the big stuff

Fair enough 🙂

The 2024 manifesto policy was to stay in NATO but reduce reliance on USA nuclear weapons - seems fairly pragmatic? (Albeit unacceptable to folks who believe in Trident)

More recently, Polanski has emphasised the weakness of NATO being dependent on Trump’s USA - seems sensible, today particularly

US and Israeli strikes on Iran are hugely dangerous: irresponsible, provocative and illegal. Starmer must call out these so-called ‘allies’ - who are acting as rogue states - and use all UK levers to uphold international law.

Hannah Spencer’s victory speech is currently being cast as populism, and therefore marginal, in the UK. The problem is that it echoes the complaints of people in the bottom four income quintiles in every western liberal democracy www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

This 'correction' from @lewisgoodall.com regarding accusations from Reform and the Conservatives that the Greens engaged in sectarianism, deserves to be widely read.

#c4news

At the heart of this though is that Labour supporters haven’t abandoned Labour per se - it’s the current Labour leadership that have abandoned the values that those supporters feel are
essential
Burnham is perceived as being proper Labour (as will other figures be), but Starmer is clearly not

Gordon Brown was confronted by a woman with questionable views - but he never challenged her on them. He went back to his car and had a tantrum about how his staff should have protected him from the “bigoted woman” - forgetting he had a microphone on
The media rightly called out his insincerity

Apologies to all of Hannah's customers!

Something exciting is happening. Be a part of it ⤵️

That’s something to wake up to 🙂

What are you looking at? Greens have been favourites from day one

This election is an appeal for trust, a battle against fear and a straight fight between Greens and Reform | Hannah Spencer Thursday’s stakes could not be higher. We know Labour has failed and Farage’s Reform is poisonous. I want to win Gorton and Denton as a fresh start, says Hannah Spencer, the Green party candidate in t...

Good, solid, basic, no-nonsense piece from Hannah Spencer.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

The world’s 280 million electric bikes and mopeds are cutting demand for oil far more than electric cars Electric vehicles get all the press – but it’s the smaller unsung two wheelers cutting oil demand the most.

Wait what
theconversation.com/the-worlds-2...

Apologies if it appears patronising - that wasn’t intended.
I was merely adding my thoughts on the subject - to be taken on board or disregarded as the reader wishes (I kind of thought that’s the point of this kind of forum?)

It seems a vote for Labour is a lose-lose.
Say you vote Lab and they win or come second, it will be seen as an endorsement for Lab to become even more Reform-lite.
More likely, if you vote Lab it will split the vote and Reform wins.
Greens = the bookies, polling and tactical voting favourite now

Labour lost three by-elections yesterday - all to different parties mobilising disaffected voters on their liberal left flank: Greens (see below), Lib Dems and Plaid Cymru.

Starmer/McSweeney strategy of marginalizing the left flank to go after socially con Reform curious continues to backfire

What’s the state of this Starmer-led nation? Speak to angry voters in Gorton and Denton and it all becomes clear | Owen Jones I had so many conversations with people fed up with all the chaos, deceit and U-turns. Politics must respond to this disenchantment, says Guardian columnist Owen Jones

What’s the state of this Starmer-led nation? Speak to angry voters in Gorton and Denton and it all becomes clear | Owen Jones

Goodwin comes over as a big egotist though - it’s feasible that challenging and (in his head) destroying the biggest threat would fit his mindset better.
If he thought Labour were also a threat, the last thing he’d want to do is cause Green voters to move to Labour (the result he would expect)

I wasn’t trying to be cryptic - I took it as read that Owen is supporting the Greens

Owen is well known for his Left Wing views so I can’t imagine that he would go to support Labour

So quaintly ‘Guardian’ to think that Oasis matters to anyone

“Sad, arrogant loser trying to blame their deficiencies on everyone else” perfectly sums up the Reform mindset

How long are we going to hear about “legitimate debates and concerns about immigration?” It’s time we told the truth and deal with it. Net migration is low, we need more migrants, we are an ageing population. Highly skilled and low paid jobs are dependent on migrants. We need safe and legal routes.

“Re-join the EU as soon as the political conditions are right.”
In the 2024 manifesto under “A fairer, greener world” (obviously you’d expect the manifesto to be updated by the next election, but it’s unlikely to change)

It’s in the 2024 Manifesto, so it’s safe to assume it will remain policy - something like “rejoin EU when the conditions are right”

The rise of vice-signalling: how hatred poisoned politics Over the last 10 years, the terms of political debate have changed completely – and week by week they seem to get worse

This by @zoesqwilliams.bsky.social is really worth a read, in spite of the fact that it mentions me in passing. She's convinced me, anyway, that vice-signalling really is a thing - and a phenomenon/technique we need to take very seriously.

NEW ANALYSIS: China's CO2 has now been 'flat or falling' for 21 months

* Down in 2025
* Still below Mar 2024
* Clean energy wave a key factor

If this is China's peak (TBC) it's the climate story of the century so far…

www.carbonbrief.org/...

Which bit of the animal is the “sausage”?

Because they are sausage rolls, just not made out of animal flesh.
If you didn’t call them “vegan”, people who don’t like eating animal flesh, like vegans for example, wouldn’t know they could eat them.
Some people like the taste of sausage rolls, just not killing animals.
Hope that helps 🙂