JuneSim63
"The UK’s Reform party, like many populist hard-right parties in Europe, frame access to public service as a zero-sum game between “native” and “migrant” populations, and attribute blame for deteriorating public service delivery to the latter. So fixing the most urgent problems in the NHS will be key to stemming the tide of the populist right in Britain"
Prof Catherine De Vries, Bocconi University, Milan
#FarRight #NHS #UKPolitics #EUPolitics #Populism #PublicServices
JuneSim63
He's given up in disgust. It's raining outside and this ex- street cat HATES rain.
#Caturday #GingerCats
JuneSim63
Thought for today:
"If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor"
Archbishop Desmond Tutu
JuneSim63
Human rights lawyer Starmer showing his authoritarian true colours.
"Expanding live facial recognition means millions of innocent Britons being subjected to automated ID checks. These are the surveillance tactics of China and Russia and Starmer seems ignorant of the civil liberties implications.”
Silkie Carlo, Director Big Brother Watch
#FarRight #Starmer #BigBrother #FacialRecognition #SurveillanceState #HumanRights
JuneSim63
Ukraine has sent 1,000 tonnes of wheat to Gaza through Jordan as part of a 7,000-tonne package for the war-battered Palestinian territory.
The shipment, announced by the Ukrainian embassy in Amman, is Kyiv's first participation in the international effort to assist more than two million people struggling with acute shortages of food, water, fuel, medical care and shelter.
#Ukraine #Gaza #Starvation
Ukraine sends wheat to relieve hunger in Gaza | The National
https://www.thenationalnews.com/news/mena/2024/07/25/ukraine-sends-wheat-to-relieve-hunger-in-gaza/
JuneSim63
"The problem is our monopolised food system. Think of it as a vast profit machine shaped like an hourglass, with many food producers at the top, millions of consumers at the bottom, and a few dominant firms – such as giant supermarkets or global food traders – clustered at its narrowing neck, siphoning a cut from the passing traffic"
Nicholas Shaxson, co-founder of the Balanced Economy Project
#FoodGiants #Farming #Agriculture #Food #RentierCapitalism #UKPolitics
JuneSim63
"According to research by the economists Jan Eeckhout and Jan de Loecker, average global markups– the prices companies charge for goods above the cost of producing them– have risen from around 21% above costs in 1980, to 61% today. So a pizza that may have cost you £12 if markets had been as un-concentrated as they were 45 years ago, may now cost £16. Think of the £4 difference as a private monopoly tax that nobody voted for."
Nicholas Shaxson
#FoodGiants #Farming #Agriculture #Food #UKPolitics
JuneSim63
The lengthy multi-year sentences handed to Just Stop Oil activists are “not acceptable in a democracy”, Michael Forst, the UN special rapporteur for environmental defenders, has said, as the government faced growing pressure to reverse the previous administration’s “hardline anti-protest” approach.
JuneSim63
I wrote to my new Labour MP, James McNaish (nephew of Alastair Campbell) about the two- child benefit cap. Here's his reply:
"On the two-child benefit cap, it is a source of great frustration for MPs that this hasn't been included in the King’s Speech; BUT it wasn't in our manifesto, so it would have been dangerous politically to start including brand new commitments less than two weeks after a general election. You can imagine the opposition narrative…...cont/
JuneSim63
cont ....
"I hope that the new child poverty taskforce provides the rapid justification for making changes ASAP, and will be making noise to this effect along with many other colleagues."
JuneSim63
"Across the world, over 800 million people spend their days hungry. More than 2 billion have limited access to food. Yet today’s global food system produces enough to feed every person on the planet"
#Food #Agriculture #Hunger #Malnutrition
The global food system is owned by an ever smaller number of companies – it’s damaging our health, our communities and the planet
https://theconversation.com/the-global-food-system-is-owned-by-an-ever-smaller-number-of-companies-its-damaging-our-health-our-communities-and-the-planet-232414
JuneSim63
Arizona's farmers have discovered agrivoltaics. This is a no brainer in such hot, dry areas.
"Some plants actually produced more with less water. Cowpea beans, for example – also known as black-eyed peas – had a higher crop yield when grown in the shade of solar panels. Full sun required twice as much water, it turned out"
#Agrivoltaics #Agriculture #SolarPanels #Drought #Heat #ClimateEmergency
Farmers turn to Solar Panels to shade Crops, Save Water and generate Power
https://www.juancole.com/2024/07/farmers-panels-generate.html
JuneSim63
"When Keir Starmer says he will govern “without doctrine”, what he is not recognising is that centrism at home and “progressive realism” abroad is a doctrine, one that excludes the sort of compassion and solidarity that means so much to others. You can agree or disagree with Labour’s approach, but it would be partisan (dare I say, sectarian), to not recognise that it is based on an ideology that excludes many.."
Nesrine Malik
JuneSim63
"During the months I have spent reporting on how Gaza has played out in domestic politics, I have never heard it mentioned without it being connected to other issues. It has become a way for communities to identify that they are not being listened to by politicians, and are on their own. It has been expressed as an indication that the [Labour] party, in its handling of the war, has displayed the absence of a crucial ethical feature"
Nesrine Malik
JuneSim63
A robotic leg that can be fully controlled by the brain and spinal cord has enabled seven people who had lost a lower leg to walk roughly as fast as people without amputations.
The bionic limb uses a computer interface that amplifies nerve signals from muscles in the remaining part of the leg and allows the wearer to move the prosthesis with their own thoughts and natural reflexes.
#Bionics #Disability #Healthcare #MedicalEngineering #Electromechanics #Prosthetics
JuneSim63
"BrewDog has a history of treating their workers with contempt, but to sack a worker of colour for objecting to members of a fascist organisation meeting in their workplace is a new low for this company"
Bryan Simpson, Lead Organiser at Unite Hospitality.
#BoycottBrewdog #Racism #Fascism #EDL
Asian BrewDog Worker Sacked After Raising Concerns About EDL Presence
https://tribunemag.co.uk/2024/06/asian-brewdog-worker-sacked-after-raising-concerns-about-edl-presence
JuneSim63
Norway's largest pension fund KLP has said it will no longer invest in Caterpillar Inc (CAT.N) because of the risk that equipment sold by the US group to Israel is used to demolish Palestinian homes and infrastructure, including in the Gaza war.
#Israel #Norway #KLP #BDS #Caterpillar
Nordic fund KLP excludes Caterpillar from portfolios due to Israel sales | Reuters
https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/nordic-fund-klp-excludes-caterpillar-portfolios-due-israel-sales-2024-06-26/
JuneSim63
@KimSJ @ChrisMayLA6 I considered Corbyn and McDonnell as the first step in a long, slow, grinding move leftwards. After all, their 2019 manifesto wouldn't have been out of place in a centre left progressive European country. Most people have forgotten how popular the policies were. Over 10m voted for them in spite of the demonisation by the media and sections of the Labour Party.
JuneSim63
@KimSJ @ChrisMayLA6 Shakes head in despair.
JuneSim63
Wealthy white men from rural areas are the UK’s biggest emitters of climate-heating gases from transport, according to a study by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR).
The richest 0.1% in Britain emit 22 times more from transport than low earners & 12 times more than average. Income is directly linked to levels of mobility.
In the UK, transport is now the largest source of emissions.
#Transport #Emissions #Pollution #UKPolitics #Environment #Inequality #IPPR
Retired researcher living in Nottinghamshire, England. Hull native.Also at @jsim63#Socialist #Politics #Environment #Cats #Gardening #Wildlife #Opera #ClassicalMusic #Refugees #HumanRights #AlcoholFree #WearAMask#ChildlessCatLadyShe/HerAvatar: Me, a white woman with short, greying brown hair. Wearing a large pair of red spectacles.Header: Climate Stripes going from blue on the left to terrifying red on the right.
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