Save Merrow Downs

A local group working to protect the beauty and wildlife of this area of the Surrey Hills from the threat of development - please RT and follow

[Geoffrey Lean @GeoffreyLean]

Superb piece by @fionaharvey on how narrow conventional #economics is at the root of our failure adequately to tackle the climate crisis. The #Stern report convincingly exploded it 20 years ago, but how governments still follow the old discredited ways.

https://t.co/h0UwKYRUjB

[Save Merrow Downs @Merrowdarkskies]

@markrwilliamson Sounds good, so far. Those 'tests' need to address not just security and safety, but also water and energy requirements.

[Cat Hobbs @CatHobbs]

Chancellor John Healey says the government is spending more on the NHS #Budget2026

But an average of *2,300 patients a day* are subjected to “corridor care” stuck on trolleys 👇

🏥FUND THE NHS - beds, staff
🏥END WASTEFUL PRIVATISATION
@keepnhspublic

https://t.co/hUyj9fx8xr

[Caroline Lucas @CarolineLucas]

If Chancellor includes tax revenues from not yet approved #Rosebank oil field to fund his budget it’s environmentally ruinous & morally obscene. As the planet burns, claiming emissions won’t “count” because the oil is burned overseas is reckless & cynical
https://t.co/KsF60DZfCN

[Liz Webster @LizWebsterSBF]

‼️ This FT chart tells the energy story.

Britain has transformed its electricity mix. Coal has virtually disappeared. Wind and solar have surged.

Yet gas still plays an outsized role and because gas often sets the marginal electricity price, a geopolitical shock in the gas market can still push up bills across the whole system.

🔥 This is the trap.

We have partly decarbonised generation without fully decarbonising price formation.

@JohnHealey_MP now appears to understand that.

Removing standing charges may help at the margin, but the bigger prize is breaking Britain’s exposure to volatile global gas prices, investing in grids, storage, renewables and secure domestic generation, and ending the absurd situation where cheap renewable power can still be priced off expensive gas 👉 and reconnecting to the EU’s Internal Energy Market.

Energy reform is cost-of-living policy, industrial policy and national security policy - and climate policy.

[Liz Webster @LizWebsterSBF]

Michael Gove sold his Brexit agricultural policy as a Green Brexit.

Much of the environmental movement embraced leaving the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy because of the promise of public money for public goods, paying farmers to deliver for nature.

Now environmentalists recognise that those nature schemes are chronically underfunded.

Meanwhile, the replacement for the CAP is failing farmers and weakening the food system on which both humans and wildlife depend.

The entire premise created a false divide. Nature and farming were always synonymous.

Healthy soils. Hedgerows. Pollinators. Grazing livestock. Water. Wildlife. Food.

They aren’t separate systems competing for the same piece of land. They are the same living system.

Destroy the viability of farming and you don’t save nature, you lose the people who manage it.

[Dr Jill Belch @JillBelch]

Important scientific point: Methane is responsible for approximately 30% of global warming experienced so far. Because it is relatively short-lived, reducing methane leaks can produce #climate benefits much sooner than reducing CO₂ alone.

[Bill McGuire @ProfBillMcGuire]

"A terrible deal"

Indeed. Some of us have been saying this for a very long time

Sizewell is an open black hole for hard-earned taxpayer money, a white elephant, and a vanity project that harks back to the 1960s and '70s

https://t.co/1feQ1JBl6R

[NoR3Coalition @NoR3Coalition]

Aircraft at Heathrow will still be pumping out nitrogen oxides and ultrafine particles into the 2070s.

Heathrow is set to become the largest single source of NOx pollution in London.

#Heathrow #AirQuality #NoThirdRunway

[Jan Rosenow @janrosenow]

Solar has overtaken nuclear. A decade ago it supplied 1% of the world's power. In 2025 it met three quarters of global demand growth.

Almost nobody saw it coming. I spoke to Jocelyn Timperley at BBC Future about why.

https://t.co/Phvo1qJO8F

[Liz Webster @LizWebsterSBF]

🚨 Scrapping green levies may shave bills now.

But the real problem is still Britain’s exposure to volatile gas prices.

The fix is cheaper renewables, storage, grid reform and reconnecting to the EU’s Internal Energy Market.

Energy security is the route to permanently lower bills.

[Cat Hobbs @CatHobbs]

How can @andyburnham take back Thames Water?

Easy

1) Stop creditors approving *another* bailout on Thursday 29th by removing its licence - 2 DAYS TO GO
2) ZERO COMPENSATION for shareholders
3) SLASH THE DEBT (part of special admin process)

Then transfer to PUBLIC OWNERSHIP

[Paul Holden @pauleholden]

"Government insiders have told the Guardian the project can be approved on a strict reading of Britain’s climate obligations, in part because once the oil is exported, the emissions from burning it no longer count against domestic targets. “Miatta has more latitude than you might think,” said one."

This is insanity masquerading as creative accounting.

[NEF @NEF]

Buying back ex-private rentals is often cheaper and faster for councils than building homes from scratch.

Acquiring these homes is part of how we solve the housing crisis - but councils need funding to do it. @helendennis80 explains in a new blog

[Bill McGuire @ProfBillMcGuire]

The wrong decisions on Rosebank, Heathrow expansion, heat pumps and EV targets would result in getting on for half a billion extra tonnes of CO2 being added to the atmosphere

Truly insane as drought, wildfire, storm and flood continue to hammer the UK

https://t.co/gyiBFZLvCI

[We Own It @We_OwnIt]

"It's time for this government to show some energy and some bravery and put the water companies into special administration - and then, of course, into public ownership".

💯@GreenJennyJones. It's time to end the rip-off and take private water companies in England back into public hands.

[Bell Ribeiro-Addy MP @BellRibeiroAddy]

Pleased to sign this cross-party letter opposing Rosebank and Jackdaw licences.

The long term costs of new drilling far outweigh any short-term gain.

We cannot credibly urge other countries to leave fossil fuels in the ground while greenlighting new oil and gas projects.

[Cat Hobbs @CatHobbs]

Privatisation has failed

This Thursday 29th Oct shady Thames Water execs will meet dodgy US hedge funds to agree a £2.4 BILLION bailout that *households will pay for through increased bills*

@andyburnham has 3 DAYS to step in and STOP THE BAILOUT, take back Thames Water

[Paul Holden @pauleholden]

@EndCorruptionUK https://t.co/gCwgOVlvz5

[Paul Holden @pauleholden]

Excellent and disturbing new report from @EndCorruptionUK based on over 40 FOI requests.

Spotlight has found that UK govt ministers have held 137 meetings about Data Centres and AI growth zones between June 2024 and June 2026... but they didn't meet a single environmental group.

Government met only two community groups - but only AFTER the government had approved growth zones in their communities.

At the same time, Spotlight found that 38 government officials had left to take positions at AI and tech firms.

Spotlight is (correctly) calling for a halt on the approval of new AI and Data Centre Development zones until there has been a proper national consultation on community and environmental impacts. In other countries, these consultations have led to important new regulations to enforce environmental protections.