Some things I like
2024
| Where | What | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| ECFR | The Orbanisation of America: Hungary’s lessons for Donald Trump |
Nowadays this is always a part of th right-wing songbook, take over institutions. Trump's takover of the Supreme Court in the US was on the back of a Republican block on Obama's nomination for a replacement for Antonin Scalia in the form of Merrick Garland. Subsequent nominees were inadequetly vetted by the Senate and indeed turned over the law on Abortion in place for decades. It is no coincidence that Johnson, when he became UK PM tried to change things by preventing parliamant from doing its job - he prorogued them - as it turns out illegally. However the damage was done. |
| The Guardian | The message to Democrats is clear: you must dump neoliberal economics - Joseph Stiglitz |
It seems to me it has been clear for the past 40 years that this whole idea of ultra right-wing economic politics of letting "business" decide much of the way we live our lives has been a massive wrong turn. The general population (at least in the UK) seems to have woken up. There are areas which private money and interests should never be allowed, while at the same time there are others where it is essential. |
| Youtube | George Monbiot breaks down why we need to destroy animal farming |
Looking at this I suggest it's already too late. The greed of humans has done it to the planet. |
| Youtube | This One Thing Is Making Your Life More Expensive | Robert Reich |
One of the major spurs of the financialisation of our world, and they are now buying domestic housing en masse. And we just let it happen. |
| The Guardian | How to survive the broligarchy: 20 lessons for the post-truth world - Carole Cadwalladr |
Scary stuff. The point I find key is the way a whole generation has been essentially robbed by capitalism while at the same time Russian Oligarchs and broligarchs have assended to fabulous wealth and dominance. |
| BBC Sounds | Privatised Industry and Public Services. WHat a mess. | |
| Channel 4 | A good watch, information is only new in part. There is enough information available to make anyone who is not a rabid royalist see the RF is such a bad idea. | |
| Tic Toc | Just about covers it. It sounds like a list of all the bad things right-wingers and others who usually use "I" and not "We" seem to carry around in their heads. | |
| Committee for the Abolution of Illigitamate Debt | This has risen just recently (though it's been around for many years) because of a documentary in the UK's Channel 4. Long overdue. I wonder how the preditors will (eventually) respond? Can't be doing their PR image much good. About time too I say, as a staunch Republican. | |
| The Nation | JKG on the issue of debts, specifically for currency-issuing governments. The media is doing the public a huge disservice when it generates hype about a country's debt. | |
| Youtube | The James MacTaggart Lecture 2022: Emily Maitlis | Edinburgh TV Festival 2022 |
Things are not well in the land of UK journalism and the BBC board. |
| Youtube | James was simply terrific, so interesting and still relevant today! | |
| The Guardian | Labour have completely lost the plot. Probably to do with party funding - well rich donors. Money in politics will ruin both us humans and the planet. Labour, before the election, had a plan to spend £28bn on renewable energy. This was then dropped and are now saying they will spend £21bn on CCS. Absolute madness for so many reasons. |
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| Youtube | Autocracy, Inc: Anne Applebaum and Ruth Ben-Ghiat in Conversation |
Another great video - we have taken our eyes off the dictators. There is and will continue to be a price to pay. |
| Youtube | What have we allowed to happen? Ann Applebaum is superb. | |
| taxresearch | There seems to be very little understanding of what MMT is and is not.. Much to the detriment of the UK economy as being "managed" by UK governments over many years. | |
| Ben James | Very interesting - how the electric energy market might develop. | |
| The Guardian | There will still be some people who don't listen. | |
| taxresearch | How refreshing. Quote: A new road will get funding if the BCR (Benefit Cost Ratio) is above 1:1 – i.e. for every £1 spent, £1 is delivered in benefit to society. Indeed I’ve seen some roads approved with BCRs below 1. By contrast, the BCR for putting in new cycleways and pedestrian routes, segregating walkers, wheelers and cars has a BCR of over 35:1." |
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| taxresearch | What a mess Labour has created, and so quickly. And the second video is enlightening too. | |
| Youtube | Economist deconstructs Keir Starmer’s speech and economic policy |
Just about covers the gaps that the new Labour government has created.What an unholy mess it would seem. Austerity once more. |
| Youtube | The Alternative MacTaggart: Carol Vorderman | Edinburgh TV Festival |
The class system is alive and well in the UK. |
| fryrsquared | We are being misled. Just the idea of running a country's economy like a household economy is a massive falsehood. | |
| DDN | A very dangerous man. | |
| Cleantechnia | Agrivoltaics — Use It Where It Works, Don’t Use It Where It Doesn’t |
This stuff is really taking off. Makes perfect sense. |
| BBC News | Look how the BBC follows the right-wing response to taxing the very rich - which arguements are used - straight out of the Turton Street lobby factory. | |
| ABC News | 'Neoliberal capitalism' has contributed to the rise of fascism, says Nobel laureate |
I guess the message is finally getting across? Watch the video here. |
| Spotify | Special Edition - The Disaster of PFI, especially under Labour |
Banned in the EU and in England - taking money in chunks from the population for Public Infrastructure. |
| LBC | Yep, makes sense - not "I" but "We", communities. | |
| RTE | Ah, the basis of their religion was - Love? Religion makes me shudder. The man was a criminal who professed to being a representative of some "higher power". | |
| Tic Tok | Orborne should be prosecuted, as should the right-wing media. | |
| The Guardian | Five Just Stop Oil activists receive record sentences for planning to block M25 |
The UK legal system has gone Awol. How absurd. The Tories have done this and it must be reversed. Even the UN has made a statement. |
| Youtube | Carbon conspiracy: How shadowy think-tanks went to war on net zero |
Ah, secret money. So-called free market. (Of course there isn't any such thing.) From The Good Law project. |
| Youtube | The UK has a similar set of issues. | |
| The Guardian | A summary of what we have done and where we stand - not at all good. | |
| Youtube | A very long list. They have stuffed the UK. | |
| The Guardian | An (incomplete) list of every terrible policy the Conservatives have inflicted on Britain since 2010 |
This is absolute horror story of dogma, class warfare and incompetence. |
| The Guardian | We are allowing the rich to take over our economy entirely. And there is more here. | |
| The Guardian | ‘Here comes the sun’: Zadie Smith on hope, trepidation and rebirth after 14 years of the Tories |
I hope voters don't forget the littany of failures... |
| The Guardian | It it's not direct lies, then it's mis-information or distraction. | |
| The Guardian | Our incredible win could change the future of oil and gas in the UK |
This has the potential to be a game changer. |
| The New European | Right on the money. | |
| The Guardian | General elections are a travesty of democracy – let’s give the people a real voice - George Monbiot |
A miserable situation |
| Utube | A good outline of the issue from JP. | |
| BBC Radio | A good way to go. Having a written constitution makes sense. | |
| Utube | Monbiot is spot on. The politics in the Uk are messed up. | |
| Patreon | Have we given up on the system which gives us as individuals livable? | |
| The Guardian | Factcheck: no, Richard Tice, volcanoes are not to blame for climate change |
Climate deniers - practically all right-wingers. And yet, there are plenty of folk qzuite content to turn of their powers of reasoning, and especially their understanding of science (well the little they may have). |
| Tax Research | So much gone and going wrong on Prison Island. Anti-democratic. The report comes from a man who is backed by big business, those who dislike dissent. | |
| Youtube | The failure of Neoliberalism and how to solve it | George Monbiot interview |
Neoliberalism has stuffed the UK in so many ways. |
| Youtube | Harrison Butker | Commencement Address 2024 | Benedictine College |
Hogwash in überfluss. One can see how there are individuals on our small rock who still refuse to use their brains. Oh deary me..... |
| The Guardian | The UK seems to still be unable to admit empire was dreadful for those it suppressed. | |
| UTube | BBC presenter giving middle finger at start of live broadcast. It's was a countdown |
I really love this. Her confidence is expressive. Well Done. It's been used all over the internet. |
| New Statesman | Not only the public good sold by the UK governments, but also so many private assest too. Well done UK! | |
| Huff Post | The Oxford-Trained Chemist-Turned-Journalist Defending Climate Capitalism |
Capitalism and Climate. Private funds follow government investment. |
| Utube | Stephanie Kelton - “Finding the Money” & “The Deficit Myth” | The Daily Show |
Why government budgets are not like a household and how money is created - by laws. |
| Utube | Professor Mary Beard addresses 'Who owns the past?' An Octavia Hill Lecture with the National Trust |
Sensible perspective on Colonialism and Slavery. |
| X | Arbitary... Highlighting the sad state of the NHS given the lack of funding and privatisation. | |
| LBC | Great rant! | |
| The Guardian | She was fired after not endorsing Splenda-filled salads to people with diabetes. Why? |
Corporate corruption. |
| Utube | Sabine Hossenfelder describes how Academia has been corrupted - by money. | |
| The Guardian | World’s biggest economies pumping billions into fossil fuels in poor nations |
This is simply criminal... |
| Youtube | The harsh reality of ultra processed food - with Chris Van Tulleken |
And there we have it.... |
| Youtube | A wonderful man. | |
| Youtube | Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski at the UN Security Council on Ukraine |
These are dangerous times when a major (military) power tells lies. |
| The Guardian | Loss of inclusion, So-called think tanks, money in politis and a lack of real policies. So much wrong with the UK. | |
| The Guardian | Do electric cars really produce fewer carbon emissions than petrol or diesel vehicles? |
This is one in a series of articles revealing the crap that right-wing and lobbyists say about EVs. It's quite depressing that they get away with their untruths and mis-representations, which can be put down to a pliable media and lack of interest in the general population combined with a propensity to be mislead. |
| The Guardian | I've thought for many years there is a big difference between people who use "I" most of the time and those that use "we". The last 40 years have seen the dominance of the former. There is a reason why the "IPhone" has it's name. I do wonder if things are finally on the rebound? Given the current state of Western politics as we have seen very recently from the situation in Gaza maybe there will be a change. Monbiot says it takes a minority of about 25% to get change moving. | |
| LBC | Four minutes of Ann Widdecombe and Matthew Wright going at each other about Brexit | LBC |
That woman is a piece of work, even beyond her weird, religious views. Staunce intransigence, right on the money. |
| The National | Yet another example of the mis-information being produced by the UK media. All now just standard stuff. | |
| Youtube | We have known about politicians stuffing the HoL with unsavory people. The UK system is beyond repair, needs a clean sweep, which should include the influence (if not the actual people) of the monarchy. | |
| Tik tok | Nothing to add here. There is no evidence for religions. As a consequence looking at why they exist and who benefits makes perfect sense. He gets even better in another video. | |
| The Guardian | UK super-rich would be ‘bored to death’ in tax havens – survey |
This is a recenty study which largely dismisses the idea that high earners and the wealthy would leave the UK if tax rates were "high". (Remembering that in the days of The Beatles the highest rate was 95% - George Harison "Taxman" - one for you 19 for me.) Then another article on the issue of "how much is enough" and which proposes a ceiling. |
| Youtube | Ian Hislop's appearance on Peston, wherein he hands Jake Berry his arse... |
He doesn't often rant, but he's right... |
| Youtube | So many major issues of injustice which have been around for decades. | |
| Youtube | Much to be grateful for. "The most sucessful political party in UK history. |