Loved working on this film about a Luton you never see, with the brilliant @tajali1.bsky.social @maeveshearlaw.bsky.social and all the big hearted Lutonians we met along the way working tirelessly to build up their communities.
Fun town, even better food.
youtu.be/eArGP8CdIXA?...
New video from me (and @christophercherry.bsky.social) looking at the resistance to The government's welfare bill and the continuing fight for disabled people
www.theguardian.com/news/video/2...
Gutted at the death of Peter Krykant. Spent days with him at his safer consumption van, making a film. Service users told us how he saved their lives. Stood up for the ones in society nobody cares about. That’s some legacy. Always a hero Pete. RIP
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
“We would not be here if western reporters and Joe Biden hadn’t manufactured consent for the genocide by repeating the incendiary lie that Hamas had beheaded babies.”
A column filled with exhausted rage at what we’ve witnessed for more than a year and a half.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Bertolt Brecht’s War Primer never more relevant. Read by Jesse Welles.
youtu.be/cs9osSYa1FA?...
‘Send Warrior Mums’: The exhausted parents fighting England’s schools crisis.
Our film (and a riposte to Farage’s ignorant comments yesterday about how easy SEND kids / parents have it). A colossal crisis without depth in the UK.
With the mighty Rich Sprenger reporting:
youtu.be/K21bENDSd8A?...
An image being shared a lot on Chinese social media:
Crazy to think China could be bullied when CCP’s entire legitimacy is built around resisting foreign bullying. 百年国耻 (Century of National Humiliation) is taught to every kid, part of every museum exhibit, nationalist movie etc. The first line of the national anthem is 起来, “stand up” ffs.
Seeing infinitely more outrage about the leaked planning of military attacks by bungling politicians than outrage around slaughter of innocent kids by such attacks. Has to be new to be news.
By Labour’s own estimates today, they are about to force yet another 50,000 kids into acute poverty, the impact of which will last a lifetime. This in a country where 1 in 4 kids are already growing up in poverty. Astonishing this story doesn’t lead every broadcast, every newspaper.
New video form me and colleagues @christophercherry.bsky.social @kyrievangelou.bsky.social and Noah Payne Frank
God knows the media needs working class representation. Now more than ever. A Guardian paid scheme that’s a start:
workforus.theguardian.com/entry-level-...
A terrifying time for disabled people, with rumours swirling / ground being rolled for cuts. We made a film with the brilliant punk singer John Kelly recently… awful just to get smallest glimpse of the dread a phone call from the DWP and a needs assessment brings:
Always a joyous day when a new Anywhere But Westminster lands out of the blue. @johnharris1969.bsky.social
youtu.be/XJFgewA3FA0?...
This is excellent on rise of Andrew Tate, blaming brute individualism and the shattering of communal working class cultures.
“WC solidarity functioned like a street barricade—erected in protection but with the effect of binding a community as one.”
www.dissentmagazine.org/article/mr-l...
Scotland (and the UKs) 1st Overdose Prevention Centre opens in Glasgow today. But of course, it’s the not the 1st. That was opened by the heroic Pete Krykant who bought a van and let people inject heroin and cocaine safely inside as an act of civil disobedience. Our film:
youtu.be/PPM_TOFMM-8?...
Happy retirement to the mighty Mick Lynch… An absolute WC legend, so needed as a sure-footed, authentic voice in broadcast circles (and briefly a media phenomenon thanks to how little they platform such figures). 20 more Micks and we could really be somewhere.
youtu.be/809-KxuhVeU
Honoured to share that our investigation into Press House Gaza by Guardian + ARIJ + Forbidden Stories has been shortlisted for the True Stories award. A reminder that Palestinian journalists continue to die in record numbers. #Gaza
Next year will see the UK’s first sanctioned drug consumption room open in Glasgow after a decade of work - and experts and campaigners hope it might change drugs policy across the UK.
I spoke to some of those involved for today’s Observer:
www.theguardian.com/society/2024...
What a photograph.
Earl Charlton is one of most powerful, urgent voices out there on misery of homelessness (a crisis that has soared by 14% in past year). Someone’s Daughter, Someone’s Son full documentary:
youtu.be/vhiwguIxoyA
Please do call today or otherwise donate to our 2025 Guardian and Observer charity appeal, raising money for War Child, Médecins Sans Frontières and Parallel Histories
www.theguardian.com/society/2024...
@billybragg.bsky.social and the multimedia crew on the Guardian pickets. Striking in support of our Observer colleagues. Cheers Billy!
Made with the mighty @maeveshearlaw.bsky.social
and big thanks to @paulapeters19.bsky.social and DPAC for all their help.
New film on the MIGHTY John Kelly, a punk musician and disabilities activist fighting endless gvt cuts to disabled services and the right to an independent life.
“They just want me to sit in my wheelchair and do nothing. Which I ain’t gonna do, obviously.”
www.theguardian.com/society/vide...
A Channel 4 documentary that claimed to expose the “scandal” of the disability benefits system has been described as an “atrocity” and an “insult” to the millions of disabled people in poverty.
“There are, it seems, endless uses to which a politician can put a poor child.”
Great, miserable read on the Scottish budget yesterday announcing “ending” the two-child benefit cap and the political games behind it.
thejaggythistle.substack.com/p/the-politi...
A week ago, I joined 12 parents from @changingrealities.bsky.social for a meeting at No 10 with Bridgit Phillipson & @alimcgovern.bsky.social
It felt symbolically important. We need a child poverty strategy that works with the grain of everyday lives
www.bigissue.com/opinion/chan...
The mighty Mick Lynch joining the Guardian and Observer picket line outside offices. 2 days of strike action this week and next.
Thanks amigo.
