Ian Kenway @iankenway@qoto.org

@fencoul @fbpe

How the U.K. Became One of the Poorest Countries in Western Europe
Britain chose finance over industry, austerity over investment, and a closed economy over openness to the world.

https://www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/archive/2022/10/uk-economy-disaster-degrowth-brexit/671847/?s=09

The English often thought English and British meant the same thing. This though is a deliberate attempt to obliterate the identity expressed by the Welsh and Scottish governments. https://toot.wales/@NationCymru/109557817664462370 #WelshNotBritish

@bitterwhiteguy @blackmastodon@a.gup.pe @BlackMastodon@chirp.social

My priorities are reproductive rights, fighting climate change, ending poverty & reforming immigration & gun laws. I was elected 3 times to the Midland City Council and while Mayor Pro Tem served as President of the Texas Municipal League representing 1,000 Texas cities and towns standing up for their ability to solve problems locally and without undue interference from the Texas Legislature.

The Tories quietly pushed back the target for cleaning up English inland waterways by 36 year. YES 36 YEARS.

Anyone might be forgiven for assuming they care more for the foreign owners of English water companies more than their own population.

For the ever diminishing number of 'Conservative' voters in Scotland, look at what they are doing in England - expect the worst for anywhere else they take power.

https://environment.data.gov.uk/catchment-planning/v/c3-plan/England/objectives

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/dec/22/target-date-for-cleaning-up-waterways-in-england-is-moved-back-by-36-years

#pollution #WildSwimming #Independence

Who Cares About #Copyright? Everyone Should, Because It Impacts So Many Aspects Of Modern Life - https://business.express/who-cares-about-copyright-everyone-should-because-it-impacts-so-many-aspects-of-modern-life/ and that's really bad news; here's why - https://walledculture.org/the-book/ #ebook #free

Can we all reflect on what amazing work has happened in terms of housing rights and law in Cymru this year?

It's now far harder to evict people, there are named resolutions for common housing problems and people with multiple properties are being forced to sell them because of costs!

This means more houses, cheaper houses, paths for conflict resolution when landlords fail to provide livable housing and lower chances of eviction!

A senior German official said Twitter should be directly monitored by the European Commission, joining other tech firms, saying the company's erratic behavior under Elon Musk posed a threat to free speech https://reut.rs/3WBE5zR

🌟 I will be taking 2 weeks off over Christmas, and will be away from my screens to have a bit of a digital detox 🌟

Back to the office in January! Have a Nadolig Llawen everyone.

#Aberystwyth #Ceredigion #Wales #Cymru

JUST IN: We just passed in the House an #Omnibus #budget, BOOSTING public investments by more than 9% in

✅️ Clean energy
✅️ K-12 education
✅️ Higher education
✅️ Election security
✅️ Immigration
✅️ Labor
✅️ Mental health
✅️ Public health
✅️ Puerto Rico
✅️ Veterans.

FOR THE PEOPLE!

Share the news far and wide.

Are we clear now extreme disparities of income—and particularly subsidizing billionaires—is not great for a healthy, stable society?

🇷🇺 Monthly polling. Note how many now want to skip awkward question

“Russia against Putin.
A thread on what's going on with the public opinion of the Russian society.
(A lot. It changes rapidly, and definitely not in the way Putin would like it to change).

But before we start: where does the data come from and how could we expect it to be accurate?
There is a public opinion research department at the Anti-Corruption Foundation @ACF_int since 2013. “

#TheSpecials - #Gangsters (Official Music Video) [HD] - YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgCZN1rU5co

#TerryHall

Even England’s police want to decriminalise hard drugs. Why won’t our posturing politicians listen - https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/dec/20/england-police-decriminalise-hard-drugs-home-office why, indeed? #drugs #decriminalisation

Female students have been banned from Universities in Afghanistan with immediate effect, the Taliban has said.

Women’s rights being disregarded, yet again. I’m incandescent with rage for Afghan women & girls, they deserve equal access to education 😡

https://news.sky.com/story/taliban-bans-female-students-from-universities-in-afghanistan-12772113

"The planet does not need more successful people. The planet desperately needs more peacemakers, healers, restorers, storytellers and lovers of all kinds"

Dalai Lama

Wednesday's Front Page 📰

SICKENING
🟥As nurses and 999 crews fight to earn enough to pay their bills, PPE scandal peer Michelle Mone is on luxury break at £6k-a-night hotel in the Alps.

#TomorrowsPapersToday

Brexit = tax rises

“In March 2022, when he was chancellor, Rishi Sunak tacitly accepted the OBR’s projection that the economy would be around 4% smaller, and as a result raised tax by £46 billion to ensure public services would be funded.

"According to my analysis, almost all of those tax rises wouldn’t have been needed if Britain had remained in the EU.”

#Brexit #UKPolitics
https://www.itv.com/news/2022-12-20/brexit-costs-government-40-billion-a-year-in-lost-tax-revenue

I’m seeing some about the fediverse along the lines of “we welcome our new venture capitalist and Big Tech overlords… what could possibly go wrong?”

What could possibly go wrong? Oh, I don’t know… take a look at the whole damn web. Take a look at email. Take a look at any resource that was part of the commons but was enclosed/captured by corporate interests. Read up on embrace, extend, and extinguish.

1/2

#fediverse #mastodon #corporateCapture #slowlyBoilingFrogs

The group of people who are trying to divide the fediverse seem to have reached a new low.. They have a tool that lists how many instances block a particular instance, but it is highly manipulative.

For starters it is hand curated.. so they exclude blocks against their own instances and only includes instances they actually dislike.

Worse yet they curate a list ordered by "most blocked".. problem is they use the number of instances that block. They game the system by having large number of single-user instances. So instances in the top 50 may only be blocked by a few hundred people but still appear as if the blocks are significant....

This is why we need transparency, its why we need the https://UFoI.org

#mastoadmin #fediblock @ufoi #UFoI