The horrors of the online “Rape Academy” If you thought the rape of Gisèle Pelicot was a unique story, you were wrong

If you thought the rape of Gisèle Pelicot was a unique story, you were wrong

✏️ @jamieklingler.bsky.social

The Mandelson-Epstein emails – what do they reveal about Britain’s broken lobbying system?

❌ The Mandelson-Epstein emails again highlighted how the UK's lobbying transparency regime is woefully inadequate.

Poor transparency allows well-connected individuals and companies with deep pockets to influence decisions that should be made in the public interest.

More below ⤵

How do I register to vote in the May 2026 elections? Here’s what you need to know about how you register to vote and when.

🗓️ TODAY is the last day you can register to vote in the local elections!

Your council has the power to improve housing standards in your local area and weed out criminal landlords.

With thousands of seats up for grabs, make sure you vote on 7th May.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

When Angela Rayner underpaid £40,000 in stamp duty, Richard Tice said it was "morally completely indefensible” and she should resign if she had “any moral decency”.

Now we learn he set up four shell companies that let him avoid paying £100,000 he owed in tax and to then transfer the cash to Reform

Who’d have thought a fossil-fuel shill like Trump would be the one to spark a green revolution? | George Monbiot The US attack on Iran has made the need for renewable energy inarguable, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot

"Greens who were long dismissed as “idealistic” and “unrealistic” now look like hard-headed pragmatists...demanding a transition that makes sense on every level: environmental, economic and political."

#VoteGreen
join.greenparty.org.uk

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

However, we also found that the program improved participants’ artistic output, including the time they could dedicate to their art and their satisfaction with the quality and the impact of their work.” ‘What art could we produce as a society if our artists could invest more time and money in their craft?’ Stephen Roll The GI program was found to reduce financial stress and debt; increase artists’ ability to invest time in their art; increase motivation and productivity; and improve mental health, while showing no reduction in other sources of income.

2,400 artists in NYC got $1,000 per month in basic income for 18 months beginning in 2022. Same as in Ireland, the results were overwhelmingly positive. Artists spent more time on their art and became more satisfied with the quality and impact of their work.

DO UBI

source.washu.edu/2026/04/guar...

This is outrageous

More than 13 million living in poverty, government figures show The level rose slightly on the previous year while the number of children living in poverty has remained steady.

13.4 million people in the UK are living in poverty.

That’s not inevitable. It reflects how our systems are designed and the choices made about wages, housing and social security.

Poverty is a human rights issue. Everyone should be able to rely on the basics to live well.

Want to know capitalism’s endgame? Just look at private equity – it has captured our everyday lives | Hettie O'Brien These companies now own everything from nurseries to care homes, squeezing vital services for profit while we foot the bill, says Hettie O’Brien, author of The Asset Class: How Private Equity Turned Capitalism Against Itself

Want to know capitalism’s endgame? Just look at private equity – it has captured our everyday lives | Hettie O'Brien

Iran’s Wealth Is Parked on London’s Billionaires’ Row Several mansion plots make up a chunk of the extensive London property holdings funded by money that officials link to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

🗣️“You name a jurisdiction where people have earned a lot of money through questionable means, it ends up in London property”.

@stevejgoodrich.bsky.social speaking with the @wsj.com on the extensive London property holdings linked to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

More ⤵️

New research from Women’s Aid finds two-thirds of women fleeing domestic abuse could not access refuge in 2024-25 due to national accommodation shortages.

livingunderpatriarchy.org/2026/03/30/w...

A billionaire can get what they want with one donation to a political party. The rest of us must fight for years to get even the most basic rights recognised. Money destroys democracy, more than any other cause. The first step towards a better world is to stop the rich buying political outcomes.

Green line shoots up

NEW POLL: Greens continue to surge. 🚀

Let's go! 💚🙌🏽

inews.co.uk/news/politic...

UBI is a freedom dividend to citizens as shareholders of the economy.

Trump's Iran War Is Pushing the Post War International Order to Breaking Point The US President's reckless actions risk destroying the global political order, but could something good emerge from the wreckage, asks Alexandra Hall Hall

🔴Trump’s Iran War Is Pushing the Post War International Order to Breaking Point

The US President’s reckless actions risk destroying the global political order, but could something good emerge from the wreckage, asks @alexhh.bsky.social

bylinetimes.com/2026/03/20/t...

Tonight, on the Senate floor, I will call up my War Powers Resolution to withdraw U.S. forces from this reckless and unauthorized war of choice with Iran.

The Senate must do its job and hold this administration accountable.

Quote graphic from Green Party Leader Zack Polanski: “We live in rip-off Britain: an economy built to reward the few off the work of the many. A country where people work so hard and try to do the right thing but still struggle to afford the basics, and find themselves constantly cutting back. And today I’m going to share my plan with you for how we end rip-off Britain."

“Today I’m going to share my plan with you for how we end rip-off Britain”
@zackpolanski.bsky.social outlines bold measures to make life affordable again, end managed decline and increase resilience ahead of his first major economic speech @neweconomics.bsky.social today.

I think just going through the motions is kinda Starmer’s specialty though

This headline is atrocious. Young people with disabilities and chronic health conditions face so much gaslighting + scapegoating for a broken economy they never voted for…

This has massively cheered up my day

I think we should use the term “unpaid care workers” instead of “unpaid carers”. The DWP’s treatment of these people is diabolical.

I don’t have children, but if I did, I certainly wouldn’t “dump them” on anyone. If a relative wanted to help with childcare, I’d welcome this (as long as they’re a safe caregiver + the child is happy with them) or I’d pay for childcare for days when both parents are working.

Hmmm. If I later found out, as an adult, that my grandparents had to be paid to spend time with me when I was a child, I think that would harm my relationship with them…

At the root of all our problems stands one travesty: politicians’ surrender to the super-rich | George Monbiot There are many excuses for failing to tax the ultra-wealthy. The truth is that governments don’t tackle the problem because they don’t want to, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot

It is THE fundamental problem. To survive and prosper we must make billionaires history. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

The chart shows that childless Britons losing employment will see less of their vanished wages replaced by benefits than those in any other comparable country, aside from Australia and the US. Even for a lone British parent with two children, the so-called ‘replacement rate’ is 16 percentage points lower than the OECD average, representing the fourth-lowest level of relative support for such a family across the entire rich-country club.

The safety net for Britons is far lower than most of their counterparts.

Many other benefits systems around the world hardwire in a specific link between typical wages and general benefit rates, or what an individual's previous earnings and the payments they are entitled to.

More➡️ buff.ly/a300OG4

New research out from 38 Degrees: "Despite much public discussion on the threat of Reform UK, for every 10 voters Labour is losing to Reform or the Conservatives nationally, they are losing 16 to the Greens, Liberal Democrats, Plaid or SNP; a group of voters labelled ‘progressive defectors’"

I’ve spent years, decades, obsessing over the Bush Administration’s Iraq WMD lies, writing about them, debunking them.

I can think of no lie about Iraq WMDs told by Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld et al that comes even close to the enormity and absurdity of this lie from Donald Trump.

Unsurprising.

How democratic is the UK? The UK has a crisis of democracy

Who benefits the most form the UK's current form of democracy?

Did you vote for this?

24m people live below the minimum living standard.

Unchecked profiteering – energy companies made £125bn profit since 2020. 120,000 people a year die in fuel poverty.

Who/What governs the UK.

Greens Storm Ahead of Labour in National Poll As Second Most Popular Party The Green party is now polling second behind Reform, according to a poll carried out in the wake of new Green MP Hannah Spencer’s win at Gorton and Denton.

Green Party are now the most popular party for anyone under 50 and women of any age. Half of 18-24 year olds support the Greens.

novaramedia.com/2026/03/03/g...