Mark Elliott @MarkElliott@qoto.org

UK to loosen post-Brexit chemical regulations further | Pollution | The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/nov/14/uk-to-loosen-post-brexit-chemical-regulations-further

Seneca believed religion was regarded by the poor as true, the wise as false, and the powerful as useful.
There is no doubt the Tories use this to their advantage.

Perhaps we should make the Royal Family subscription-based. I don't know about you, but I never use them.

So our unelected head of state has just given a position in Britain's unelected House of Lords to an unelected foreign secretary, on the recommendation of an unelected prime minister.

Thank goodness we took back control from unelected bureaucrats.

For the last few months I've been trying to get an itemized bill from the giant "non-profit" hospital system that patched me up in February. Despite it being required by law, they've done everything to make it impossible to get. Me in the Daily Beast: https://www.thedailybeast.com/getting-an-itemized-hospital-bill-is-basically-impossible

Sunak has tried his best to torch the UK's climate agenda & drag us into a toxic culture war. Here are 5 Bills he *should* announce in
https://nitter.cz/search?q=%23KingsSpeech
today - to reduce cost of living, tackle
https://nitter.cz/search?q=%23climateemergency
, transform our economy & restore nature. Our country & planet can’t wait.

🐦🔗: https://nitter.cz/CarolineLucas/status/1721845312455672319#m

[2023-11-07 11:01 UTC]

While you were sleeping, #windEnergy reached 31% of the National Grid's electricity demand. https://winderful.uk

One of the few Americanisms I’m not okay with is LEGOs, the plural is LEGO, the singular is LEGO brick. And as a result yesterday’s toot has become a rod for my own back.

BBC News - Chris Packham: Glen Coe is broken and needs fixing
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-67204307

It’s time to wind down the reliance on fossil fuels.

Wind energy is renewable and abundantly available in the EU and its industry creates economic growth and green jobs.

This is why today we proposed a Wind Power Action Plan to maintain wind power a European success story.
It will:

→ speed up permitting procedure for projects on wind energy
→ help the industry access finance
→ ensure a fair international environment for our companies
→ train skilled workers

#EUGreenDeal #EuropeanUnion

It was lovely to see cardiothoracic surgeon Magdi Yacoub interviewed on C4 News this evening. He radiates a beauty that must come from very deep inside.

#MagdiYacoub #c4news #medicine #surgery

I missed this, but @openDemocracy notes that while #SuellaBraverman & her unsavoury band of #migrants hating #Tories were decrying the inability of some migrants to speak English, a programme the govt. was going to launch that would have targeted aid to help migrants learn to speak English had been dropped...

words fail me..... (for once)

https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/esol-national-strategy-promise-broken-suella-braverman-lee-anderson/

"Am I pro-Israel or pro-Palestine? I have no idea.

I'm pro-not-killing-civilians.

I'm pro-not-trapping-millions-of-people-in-open-air-prisons.

I'm pro-not-shooting-grandmas-in-the-back-of-the-head.

I'm pro-not-flattening-apartment-complexes.

I'm pro-not-raping-women-and-taking-hostages.

I'm pro-not-unjustly-imprisoning-people-without-due-process.

I'm pro-freedom and pro-peace and pro- all the things we never see in this conflict anymore.

Whatever this is, I want none of it."

Isaac Saul

10 October 1922 | An Ukrainian, Anton Sas, was born. A farmer.

In Auschwitz from 24 July 1942.
No. 51496
He perished in the camp on 22 February 1943.

#Auschwitz #Birkenau #ww2  #Poland #Nazis #Germany #NeverForget #education #history #histodons #Remember #otd #facts #Ukraine #prisoner

Sur le plateau d'Emparis, face à la Meije et au glacier de la Girose, 120 personnes se réunissent pour défendre les glaciers. Prises de parole de Fiona Mille pour Mountain Wilderness, de Fabienne Grebert pour les élus écologistes, du collectif la Grave autrement, des Soulèvements de la Terre..

La vache et la Meije

Swiss glaciers lose 10% of their volume in two years | Glaciers | The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/sep/28/swiss-glaciers-lose-tenth-volume-in-two-years-climate-crisis

Apparently George Galloway says that Russell Brand is a self-obsessed narcissist. I wouldn't normally pay any attention to anything George says but I acknowledge his lived experience in this area.

As I was cycling round the #LuneValley, it suddenly struck me that Britain is like someone at the end of a family tree, burning through the last of the assets they gained (inherited) from previous generations' exploitative activities & unwilling to admit that some serious changes are needed to their household if its not just going to crumble away... we are a Dowager Aunt, watching (fearing) the world passing us by