ALAN SIMPSON
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What a mess we are in. Labour loses the Hartlepool by- election with a 16% swing to the Tories. A new North-South divide is opening up. With the exception of London, Labour no longer holds the hearts and minds of its conventional heartlands. So much for new leadership, new vision. What on earth is going…
Labour is lost. I say this in sadness more than anger. Anger is no substitute for answers. It clouds the fact that the Left could be just as lost as the Right. Boris Johnson has bought himself some ill-deserved credibility; slowly loosening the lockdown rules and stepping up the vaccination programme. Both are welcome. But…
I find it hard to accept it is 7 years since Tony Benn died. I miss his wisdom, foresight, kindness and humour. Worse still, whether the country realises it or not, we are all the poorer for the loss of Benn’s political acumen and vision. Faced with some of the biggest existential challenges in human…
We do ourselves no favours by treating the current Policing Bill just as an outrageous assault on a public right to protest. It is…Of course it is. But the violence targeted towards the police in Bristol (and the preceding violence by police themselves towards peaceful protesters) masks the scale of the assault on civil liberties…
Do not underestimate the scale of the democratic crisis facing Britain. Don’t kid yourselves either that it isn’t going to get a lot, lot worse. Brexit opened up wounds that will not easily heal. Mythical claims, wrapped up in sovereignty and identity politics, looked a lot different when viewed from the rotting mounds of…
Radical constitutional reform is no longer an option, it is an unavoidable necessity. The internal conflicts within the structure of the UK must be resolved. This paper is a contribution to the start of that debate, and sets out the reasons for reform, the principles upon which any future reform should be based, and the process for getting there.
Transformation Moment
My pamphlet 'Transformation Moment' is intended to support the case for a radical shift in energy thinking; as much about democracy as technology, and about 'systems' rather than just supply.
The level of UK self-delusion is breathtaking. If you want free access to a single market you play by single market rules. You can’t expect to make these up as you go along. If you opt out, you opt out and take the consequences. Suck it up, Britain.
@AlanSimpson01 That's the whole Brexit myth, Alan, "cake & eat it". Spolit child politics.
"The best we can expect is something like a 2 degree rise by the middle of the century, unless we rapidly change our behaviors on a global level. ..." @KevinClimate
Great podcast @MCRGND_POD⬇️
#ClimateEmergency #ClimateAction #ClimateCrisis #ClimateChange
You can’t be in a club and not in it at the same time. The UK must decide where exactly it wants the EU border to be. On land or at sea, that’s where the customs checks have to be.
thought we agreed to stop banger-ing in about Europe
It’s World Environment Day. You would barely know it from the press. Current CO2 reduction commitments won’t avoid climate breakdown; an unedifying illusion. At least the orangutan (and photographer) offer more heartening illusions.
Optical illusion of orangutan wins award
A photo of an orangutan reflected in water has won the Nature TTL Photographer of the Year competition.
www.bbc.co.uk
NEW: Billionaire donates £500,000 to Tories - days after Boris Johnson makes him a Lord
PM overruled Appointments Commission to put Peter Cruddas in Lords after he failed vetting.
Now it has emerged he gave largest ever cash contribution just days later
Makes our Eurovision Song Contest entry look like a real triumph.
UK ranked last in Europe for bathing water quality in 2020 https://t.co/HRMQXZFiCk
Since this was on his watch, should we now be referring to the first Covid outbreak as the Trump variant?
US was funding coronavirus research at that Wuhan lab. Whoops.
French health workers who died in the pandemic to be awarded ‘died in service of the Republic’ status that guarantees state financial and moral obligations to their children. Health workers got a 10% pay rise.
The UK? 1%, the clap, debt.
France to honour health workers killed by Covid-19 with special status
France will confer a special honour on health workers who die from Covid while fighting the pandemic, President Emmanuel Macron said on Friday.
f24.my