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• Post #4492912

  Thanks to @Npars01@mstdn.social this popped into my timeline... and very interesting it is/was too.... so here it is: #politics https://www.desmog.com/2025/01/21/mapped-donald-trump-transatlantic-anti-green-network/

• Post #4482037

  My favourite paintings, No.9 Gabriele Münter. Portrait of Marianne von Werefkin (1909) Gabriele Münter is a (sadly) lesser known German Expressionist, but a fabulous painter nonetheless. This portrait oscillates between representation & abstraction, offering both a depiction of a close friend & a pleasing abstract collision of colours. The vibrancy is typical of an expressionistic approach & what I like most is it resolves into a portrait through pattern. #art #TodaysPainting #exp...

• Post #4480982

  Might the social care crisis be eased by a reform to life insurance? Could it be refocused to pay out prior to death where the funds were needed for social care? Of course, this would still require expanded social provision for those unable to afford life insurance, but might reduce the cost(s) of reform. But unless mandatory there is the moral hazard of people deciding to risk relying on public provision... but if mandatory isn't this a privatised tax? #SocialCare #politics h/t FT

• Post #4480270

  Can you believe the UK's Foreign & Commonwealth Office is complaining about a 'hardline' approach to post-Brexit residency rules by Sweden; have they no idea what the Home Office is doing with EU citizens? Its a classic case of the UK's diplomatic problem; a skewed politics that looks like hypocrisy to anyone outside the UK's entitled political class who think the UK should just be allowed to act as it sees fit. But the Guardian makes *this* link! #politics #Brexit ht...

• Post #4480036

  Palantir are ripping off the NHS: Using revised estimates on the benefits to the NHS of Palantir's software (which you recall NHSE misrepresented) the benefits are lower than the (now revised & higher) costs of deploying the technology. In other words the use of Palantir's software imposes a cost on the health service (costs are now projected at over £1bn, while projected benefits have fallen to less that £900m) leaving a clear logic for ending the contract! #Palantir #NHS #politi...

• Post #4467466

  When the 'feelings' of financial insecurity of the relatively well-off middle classes are seen as a more important shaper of economic policy than the actual financial insecurity of the poor.... then we know we are in a class-defined political environment. #class #politics #economics

• Post #4463868

  Plagiarism has been in the news (due to the case of Jason Arday).... so its worth noting: Much academic work is mostly 'inter-textual', it builds on & responds to previous academic work (published in the area of research). So, apparent plagiarism is often just referencing failure! Missing or incomplete references end up looking like unattributed use. This is why when I taught undergraduates I was very hard on bad referencing; my view is you *cannot* over reference. #universities...

• Post #4445348

  My favourite paintings, No.7 Mary Cassatt. In the Loge (At the Opera)(1878) Mary Cassatt's paining has often been used by feminist art historians discussing the male gaze & its female counterpart (see the man gazing at the subject from a distant opera box). But it also demonstrates her command of the moment; a women (albeit a bourgeois woman) seemingly in command of her surroundings. Her focus on the life of women told stories seldom seen in the art of her time. #art #TodaysPainting #...

• Post #4443784

  Taking their prompt from the tangerine Tyrant's playbook, I see the Fascist Frog & his familiar Richard Tice (for ReformUK Ltd) are suing the National Crime ASghency for damages for revealing (leaking?) details of their finances during an ongoing investigation.... Hilariously, their claim for damage is only £25k, a drop in the ocean given the donations coming the Frog's way... this looks more like an attempt to browbeat the NCA rather than a serous legal case. #politics #NigelFara...

• Post #4443705

  There are many ways the university system is failing, but one (almost mandated by Govt. it sometimes seems) is to make 'widening participation' harder while proclaiming it as a policy aim. Many parents expect to & do help finance students years at university, topping up student loans to pay for food, rent & other living expenses; for poorer families in society this isn't just hard, its impossible - once agin limiting their children's educational opportunities. #univers...

• Post #4440493

  BP's infamous focus on the 'carbon footprint' to switch focus on to individuals rather than the climate impact of fossil fuels, continues to shape climate politics: 'rather than asking whether climate change caused a heatwave, we should be explaining that greenhouse gases released by burning fossil fuels are accumulating in the atmosphere, trapping heat & amplifying extreme weather. This makes all heatwaves hotter, more likely & more dangerous' #ClimateChange #polit...

• Post #4427183

  Stuart Neilson (LinkedIn) points out the social hypocrisy that confronts people in their 50s & 60s: Their state pension age is receding into the late 60s, while employers seem to regard them, too often, as too old to work. Either we reverse the moves in pension age (lowering back towards the early 60s) or we move much more significantly to combat ageism in the labour market. But we cannot in good faith as a society combine a high pension age & ageism! #workers #employment #ageism

• Post #4425162

  What's behind the accelerating trend for older technologies; from the revival of vinyl to the spread of smartphone refuseniks (with a dumbphone; confession, I have one)? Chine Mcdonald (FT) thinks its partly a nostalgia for a quieter, slower time (of analogue technologies), but also it is a rejection of the increasingly dominant narrates of a future shaped by AI & its associated technologies - that is the future any of us just don't want. Its a revolt into analogue. #A...

• Post #4423642

  If the Tangerine Tyrant does removes the financial damages aspect of his defamation claims against the BBC (currently paused while his lawyers try to find a way to avoid the requirement to reveal his financial records, hence the likely re-focus on reputation only).... I wonder if the BBC's lawyers next line of defence would be that whatever damage to his reputation might have been caused by their documentary, it is dwarfed by the damage he has done to his own reputation? #USPol

• Post #4414050

  One would think that given the UK's high levels of recidivism, reducing the prison population would focus on repeat offenders, specifically: youth work to try & reduce the number of young people embarking on a 'life of crime' (from which few escape); rehabilitation & education in prison to help the convicted change their post-release opportunities. But, the political 'logic' remains build more prisons, underfund youth work & cut prison education staff. #crime...

• Post #4411202

  AI & associated technologies often (always) treat a range of sources of information as equally useful & reliable.... in a sense they aggregate a view from a range of sources that often included misinformation or biased advocacy. So @openDemocracy have looked at how this general observation plays out in one area; abortion advice... and what they found was a worryingly biased mix of anti-abortion advocacy & misinformation sitting with health advice! #AI #health https://www.opendemoc...

• Post #4409652

  Its a popular rhetoric of business representatives that extending better conditions to workers reduces economic activity (increases unemployment); our political class often repeat this argument; But, 35 years (up to 2018) of labour market research across Europe offers no support for this conclusion; revealing it to be once more about managers seeking maintain their power dynamic over workers. Andy Burnham should (must) resist such rhetoric. #workers #politics https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/politics...

• Post #4398117

  Noah Gordon (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace) argues: 'It’s a wonderful thing to have clean energy progress driven by economic self-interest [home solar; EVs etc.] and the need for energy security. But there’s still no avoiding the need for states eventually to force fossil-fuel operations to shut down & mandate carbon removal'! So, shut down fossil fuels (good luck with that) & develop an actual efficient carbon capture technology (not the current scams). #GreenTra...

• Post #4390858

  Well, well, well, who'd have thought. Palantir is avoiding UK taxes by accounting for its profits in the US (using transfer pricing & exploiting its US tex shelter) despite making significant profits in the UK, not least from its highly contentious public sector contracts. This is likely to (rightly) further increase pressure on Andy Burnham's Govt. to at the very least use the break clauses in Palantir's contract(s) to end them. #palantir #politics https://www.theguardian.co...

• Post #4390652

  The Scottish Green are demanding the Burnham administration halt the prosecution of peacefully protesting Palestine Action supporters: Burnham's 'government should end the prosecutions of peaceful protesters & undertake an urgent review of how counter-terrorism and public-order laws are being used against political dissent'! The proscription of PA has been a clear continuity with Starmer's Govt. & Shabana Mahmood is unlikely to be an agent of change. #politics #protest...

• Post #4390364

  That bell-weather of middle class consumerism, John Lewis is warning of lower sales & falling profits in the coming six months, partly driven by the economic impact of the US attacks on Iran. This offers further evidence that the cost-of-living crisis, rather than easing is working its way up the income scale. This may merely confirms the breadth of the UK's economic doldrums, but might it be indicative of something deeper? Fears of technological unemployment? #economics #politics h...

• Post #4390320

  Unsurprisingly water utilities are keen to see abstraction rates (the limitations of how much water they can take from underground sources) eased during the current (and future) heatwaves. The problem, is this is classic water utility short-termism; those limitations are there to ensure water tables remain sufficiently high for future use(s). This is the same short-termism that has seen pipes not repaired & leaks continuing, to save money to pay quarterly dividends. #water #politics h/t...

• Post #4383534

  The BBC's defence of the case against it brought by the Tangerine Tyrant is a great example of how a bully's bluster and hyperbolic threats can unwind rather seriously once exposed to the legal process... in this case the BBC's discovery process for defending their claim has backed Trump & his lawyers into a corner. Here's @davidallengreen@mastodon.green clearly setting out the details. It's giving to make you smile.... #Trump #RuleOfLaw #politics https://theemptycity...

• Post #4382609

  First Secretary of State Louise Haigh has said that the Burnham administration will be 'stripping back' public procurement rules to make the only requirements focussed on creating jobs, skills and opportunities in Britain. You might think,' well less bureaucracy, that's going to be good'; but don't forget what happened last time a Govt. radically reduced public procurement rules, we got the fraud & corruption scandal around PPE in lockdown. Not the same you? Hmm......

• Post #4373354

  The further consolidation of the pharmaceutical sector looks likely, making the epithet 'BigPharma' even more apposite: UK-based AstraZenica are in talks with US Bristol Myers about a merger into a likely $400bn capitalised mega corporation (making it the fourth largest global drug maker). Is this a further sign that UK corporations are under-valued, or an indication of a pivot away from the UK drugs market, or both? We can bet it won't *reduce* drug prices! #BigPharma #economics...

• Post #4373215

  This week I've been mainly reading, no. 319. Rachel Joyce's novel of family tensions amid grief, The Homemade God (2025) is a breathless (and at times a little to frantic) tale of how the death of their father (loosely modelled on artist Jack Vettraino) causes the breakdown of a group if sisters & brothers. Overall while uneasily paced overall its a great read & tells the story of how one person can catalyse events. Its a not unusual family melodrama, but well told. #art #book...

• Post #4371142

  My favourite paintings, No.3 Artemisia Gentileschi. Judith Beheading Holofenes (1620) Artemisia Gentileschi painted two similar versions of this subject (this one's in the Uffizi). I used to use this in lectures, contrasting it with Carravagio's more static composition, to argue a women painting this subject came to it with a different view of female agency (feminist standpoint). Its shockingly visceral painting, but actually that's what the subject demands! #art #TodaysPainting...

• Post #4366897

  Watching the Fascist Frog tie himself in knots as he shifts & changes his story about circumstances around the £5m donation from Christopher Harborne, and other financial irregularities around ReformUK Ltd, one cannot but hope that we are seeing the beginning of the end of his corrosive influence over UK politics (not that there aren't other equally loathsome people waiting to step into his shoes, though thankfully, foe now, they're a lot less media savvy). #ReformUK #NigelFarage #p...

• Post #4364798

  RE: https://mastodon.energy/@Sustainable2050/117033128339794681 Many in the UK will find a striking similarity with the conduct of the UK police.... although (in addition to XR protests) here we might want to contrast peaceful protestors supporting Palestine Action, with Farmers disrupting the road in London #politics #protest

• Post #4359716

  And so the Tangerine Tyrant's 'slush fund' that was part of a much derided settlement on the treatment of the President's tax affairs, has finally officially been withdrawn.... to allow Todd Blanche to gain the support for his nomination as Attorney General (he's 'acting' at the moment) from two hold-out Senators. However, its unlikely this marks the end of Trump's attempts to 'compensate' his supporters prosecuted for the January 6th invasion of Congress...