Delighted to go on BBC Politics South yesterday and talk about the @righttoroam.bsky.social amongst other things.
Sweden has had this law of “public access to land” for decades, Scotland introduced it in 2003, its time we did the same in England.
Lost in all this anti-Orban celebrating is the news that Hungarians have apparently chosen Seattle-based rapper Macklemore as their new prime minister
Can't believe a good thing has happened
Ian Crichton Smith has an essay about Gaelic-speaking islanders called ‘real people in a real place’ which is a great title www.alastairmcintosh.com/general/reso...
Scottish people reading this and thinking ‘who’s Tein?’
While I seem to be doing my unpopular takes, can I just say that I think MPs should be paid a *lot* more (but not be allowed second jobs or hold investments) and get a *much* bigger expenses allowance (to fund their offices).
'Renewables are the future of Scotland’s energy but we’re at risk of repeating the mistakes of the past. We let the profits from oil and gas disappear into the pockets of corporations. We need to see more ambition from government so it doesn't happen again.'
www.heraldscotland.com/news/2599203...
'New starters joining the university will also be employed via a subsidiary firm and prevented from being able to access the Teachers’ Pension Scheme, UCU said, adding that teaching-only staff also face losing the union’s current bargaining rights.' 2/2
“I am political,” Ms. Rachel told me of her new effort to free kids from ICE detention.
“It’s political to believe that children are worthy of love … and that our care shouldn’t stop at what we look like, our family, at our religion, at a border. Mr. Rogers was very political.”
Episode 5 of The Carrying Stream, ‘Gaelic Revival: From Czechia to the Gaìdhealtachd’, recently came out, featuring @poncarova.bsky.social
Follow the link to access the full episode: pod.link/1865430519
Labour MPs who follow me, please reel in your Home Secretary. They have gone rogue.
I wonder if our voting system and level of government centralisation get scored against other voting systems and structures
This is a beautiful essay on how important language is for knowing a place and it's people www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...
Even granted that the Home Office makes ministers at least 50% more evil, there’s something unnerving about Mahmood’s performative cruelty
This is no different from Putin saying MH17 was shot down by Ukraine or Assad saying rebels gassed themselves.
Do we know what position in the queue for EU accession Iceland are in?
A fair dook in the @thecarryingstream.bsky.social in bonnie Dunblane with @paulmalgrati.bsky.social - the resulting episode coming soon 🎧🌊
When we talk about Baby Boomers not getting off the stage: In 1997, the US president was born in 1946.
In 2007, the US president was born in 1946.
In 2017, the US president was born in 1946.
And next year in 2027? The US president will have been born in 1946.
We could do with a climbing wall near me
Very good to see Stella Creasy openly rebuking Shabana Mahmood's proposals '...because I am true Labour, not Blue Labour'.
Hannah Spencer walking into Westminster, sucking her teeth, tutting, and muttering "tell you what, you've had some cowboys in here."
obviously today is a huge embarrassment for Matt Goodwin and for Reform, which is something that we absolutely ought to celebrate, but we must also remember it's a huge embarrassment for Morgan McSweeney and Maurice Glasman and all the Blue Labour weirdos, and that's important to celebrate too :)
Why do democratic innovations remain so invisible in mainstream media? (rhetorical question) Hard to expand our public imagination about alternative ways of governing unless we overcome this politics of in/visibility
Sweeping new measures that expand Israeli control in the occupied West Bank will cement de facto annexation and bring an end to the Oslo Accords, analysts say, dashing hopes for a Palestinian state.
Grant me, indulgent Heaven, that I may live,
To see the miscreants feel the pains they give;
Deal Freedom’s sacred treasures free as air,
Till Slave and Despot be but things that were.
—Robert Burns, “Lines Inscribed in a Lady’s Pocket Almanac”
#BurnsNight #C18 #poem
Verification (establishing truth), Deliberation (arguing about it), and Accountability (binding power to it). When these work, you have substance. When they break, you slide into performance, and eventually, simulation, and people recognise this, even if they don't use a shared terminology.
I’m really quite surprised at the BBC website today. ‘Here is a video, some people say it does not show what it very obviously shows’ is not how you report this.
This was murder. Pretti did not initiate the confrontation. He didn’t strike them. He didn’t brandish his gun. They tackled him, beat him, disarmed him, and shot him.
I was on BBC News, saying the new Water White Paper does not stop £22bn going to shareholdes and banks up to 2029, raising bills + starving water from investment to stop pollution + keep the taps running.
We need to shift to modern, accountable public ownership.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpuA...
