Debs B

Enthusiastic grower of wonky veg. Liberal remainer, with more than a hint of green.

[Amnesty UK @AmnestyUK]

For the first time ever in our country's history, a barrister is facing contempt proceedings over the content of their closing speech. It is seriously concerning and entirely disproportionate.

Rajiv Menon KC is facing up to two years in prison for the way he defended his client.

Even though the case was adjourned on Friday - the threat isn't over. This is only a delay and not an end to the proceedings against Rajiv Menon.

Barristers cannot fearlessly defend their clients while worrying that doing so will get them sent to prison.

The judge in the trial of the Palestine Action defendants issued a series of orders tightly restricting what could and couldn’t be put to the jury, something that is happening more and more in protest cases.

This is part of an ever-rising clampdown on people coming together to demonstrate, one of the most effective tools we have to hold our leaders to account. Prosecuting a defence barrister for contempt of court would mark a new low in the attacks on our right to protest.

[Sama Hoole @SamaHoole]

The last overseas shearers Britain intends to let in are on the fells right now, working out the final weeks of their leave.

The door shut on 30 June. No vote, no debate, no announcement, just a date passing quietly in a summer when everyone was looking elsewhere. Those still working the Borders this week are here on leave that expires on 1 October, and when they fly out that is the end of it.

Understand what is walking out.

Six New Zealanders spent three months in one Northumberland valley last year and sheared nearly 90,000 sheep. Fifteen thousand head each, across farms from the Scottish Borders down to County Durham. They have been coming into Coquetdale for over thirty years. Since 2011 a concession has let up to 75 of them in each spring, and between them they take the wool off one and a half to two million British sheep in a window a few weeks long.

The Home Office rejected the application on 2 February. Twenty-six days of farmers writing to their MPs got it reinstated on 10 March for one final year, with a line about the sector having had fourteen years to train British workers and now being expected to transition to domestic labour.

Here is what that sentence is standing on. British Wool trains over 800 people a year, most of those courses are basic level, and most of the people on them are sheep farmers learning to do their own flock. Training was never the bottleneck. A top shearer clears a ewe in two or three minutes, calm hands, no panic in the animal, hundreds a day for weeks on end, and reaching that standard takes years of conditioning and a place in a global trade that follows the season around the planet.

Fourteen million breeding ewes. A few weeks to do them all. A sheep left in fleece gets eaten alive by maggots, so the job is not optional and the date is not negotiable.

Next spring those farms make phone calls that nobody answers.

Seventy-five shearers, once a year, and a government that could not find room for them.

[Bernie @Artemisfornow]

110 acres of prime agricultural land, 42% of the entire farm has been stripped away from a 2nd generation farm tenant with a 3 generation lease legally! … for a SOLAR factory!

Under the lease land could be reclaimed by the landlord if they could get non agricultural planning permission. The local council refused but Ange overruled the decision.

Leaving the farm unviable, with little compensation and losing food producing prime land forever.

All for the greater good.

[We Own It @We_OwnIt]

The climate crisis may have caused the excessive heat, but it is NOT the reason for the hosepipe ban

Privatisation is the one true cause of the hosepipe ban

Scotland - where water is in public ownership - has not had a hosepipe ban since the great drought of 1995

Public ownership of water NOW

[Alexandra @Alexandr4Denman]

Devon and Cornwall police are keen to speak to anyone with information over a 81 lambs going missing , they are marked with red and number with black and green dye marks , the farmer said he noticed a massive drop in numbers one day whilst out to feed them on his farm in Kenn near Exeter
The farmer said the missing livestock are Suffolks, Charollais and Texels and crosses between these breeds and would be considered larger than most commercial lambs.
Anyone with information, relevant dashcam footage, CCTV, or who witnessed anything unusual is asked to contact Devon & Cornwall Police on 101 or via the force website here, quoting reference 50260193233.
PLEASE SHARE ESPECIALLY IF YOU ARE IN THE AREA AND CAN ALERT OTHER FARMERS !

.

[Silkie Carlo @silkiecarlo]

Live facial recognition cameras now in my local @sainsburys 😱

An insane privacy invasion and dangerous way to treat our data without our permission.

We’ll fight this. The day this software gets ripped out couldn’t come soon enough.

🚨 Use the tool below to email @sainsburys

[Nadira Ali🇵🇸 @Nadira_ali12]

In 1947, ships filled with thousands of Jewish refugees arrived on the shores of Palestine. They had been rejected by the entire world, fleeing the horrors of Europe, begging for a place to survive.

The people of Palestine opened their doors, shared their land, and welcomed them with open arms. Decades later, that very kindness was met with complete betrayal. The descendants of those who were given shelter turned the homes of their hosts into ash.

[Archaeo - Histories @archeohistories]

Nolan’s ‘The Odyssey’ sparked unexpected controversy when one of the Viking ships used during production, an authentic, hand‑built replica owned by a small maritime heritage non‑profit, was returned with significant structural damage. The vessel, normally maintained through volunteer labor and modest donations, had been loaned out under the assumption that a major studio would treat it with care and cover any repairs. Instead, the organization found cracked planks, warped ribs, and a ruined sail system that would cost more than their annual operating budget to fix.

The non‑profit reached out to the production team repeatedly, hoping for a straightforward reimbursement or at least a conversation. What they encountered instead was silence. Emails went unanswered, calls were redirected, and the studio’s representatives insisted the damage was “pre‑existing,” despite photographic documentation taken before filming. For a group dedicated to preserving Viking‑age craftsmanship, the dismissal felt not just financially devastating but deeply disrespectful.

As the story spread among local historians and maritime enthusiasts, frustration grew. Volunteers who had spent years restoring the ship felt betrayed, watching a Hollywood epic profit from their work while leaving them with a broken artifact they could no longer sail or display. The incident became a symbol of the imbalance between massive film productions and the small cultural institutions they rely on, raising uncomfortable questions about responsibility, preservation, and the true cost of cinematic authenticity.

The damaged Viking ship had actually been restored using traditional clinker‑building techniques, meaning every plank was hand‑shaped and overlapped the next, so repairing even a “small” crack requires a specialist craftsman and days of labor. That’s why the non‑profit wasn’t just upset about the cost; the damage erased work done with skills that only a handful of artisans still practice today.

#archaeohistories

[dave lawrence 🐟🐟🐠 @dave43law]

So current investigations are I believe

Farage
- Standards x 3
- possible HMRC
- Electoral Commission

Jenrick
- Electoral Commission
- Police

Tice / Reform
- Electoral Commission x2
- NCA
- Police

All in respect of finances involving a number of different donors

[The potting shed @GardenerFliss]

Every sheep in the UK has to be shorn for its welfare. There is no choice. Yet the heartbreaking reality is that it often costs more to shear a sheep than the fleece is worth.
So tonnes of beautiful British wool are treated as waste, burned, buried or composted, while we fill our wardrobes with synthetic fibres made from oil that shed microplastics into our rivers and seas.
It feels as though somewhere along the way we’ve forgotten the value of the things nature gives us so generously.
British wool is warm, breathable, biodegradable, renewable and grown every single year by animals already grazing our countryside. It deserves to be treasured, not thrown away.
Perhaps the answer isn’t to produce more. Perhaps it’s to remember what we’ve always had, and start valuing natural materials, skilled craftsmanship and the people who produce them once again.

[sarah @sahouraxo]

Israel is committing genocide in Lebanon.

They didn’t just wipe out 20,000+ civilian homes. They went after Lebanon’s vital water infrastructure.

107 wells — destroyed.
16 pumping stations — destroyed.
185 water towers — destroyed.
43 km of pipelines — destroyed.

You don’t do this by accident. You do this to make a country unlivable.

[BladeoftheSun @BladeoftheS]

Hosepipe bans are in place in South and South West England.

Meanwhile 'Data Centres' there are still using more than 3m litres of water a day.

And they pay 1/10th per litre for water you do, so you are subsidising them too.

[Michael Rosen 💙💙🎓🎓 NICE 爷爷 @MichaelRosenYes]

The steady daily killing and brutalising of Palestinians in the West Bank has nothing to do with 'fighting terrorism' or 'security' and everything to do with grabbing land by killing and scaring the people living on that land. Where's the international condemnation and ACTION?

[Clive Lewis MP @labourlewis]

Here’s as good a place as any to start to ‘end neoliberalism’.

Public ownership. Not more control.

Pretty simple.

[The Observer @ObserverUK]

The Coca-Cola factory in Morpeth, Northumberland, sits above a natural underground reservoir of fresh water. It produces enough bottled water every year to fill 30 Olympic-size swimming pools.

But The Observer can reveal Coca-Cola is paying the Environment Agency (EA) just £6,070 in annual charges for a licence to extract up to 674m litres of water for its production line at Morpeth. It extracted about 125m litres last year. @JonUngoedThomas investigates
https://t.co/cl6a9smJwO

[Tom London @TomLondon6]

A barrister is facing prison just for reminding a jury they have the right to vote with their conscience. This historic right has existed since 1670. We can't let it be silenced now. Please join me in asking the government to protect our juries

https://t.co/vetwRJ21uE

[sarah @sahouraxo]

BREAKING: Israeli invaders are entering civilian homes across South Lebanon, rigging them with explosives — then blowing them up.

Not military targets. Homes.

This is happening every single day during a so-called “ceasefire.”

No justification. Just pure terrorism.

[Prem Sikka @premnsikka]

Thames Water lenders offer 'golden share' to head off nationalisation.

Govt has golden share in Royal Mail. It delivered high prices, poor service, exec bonuses.

With golden share TW will still pay dividends, hike bills, dump sewage.

Must nationalise.
https://t.co/mwyxN4nIQb

[Prem Sikka @premnsikka]

Most of the sewage spills into England's waterways in the last two years may have been illegal but gone unpunished.

Tells a story about useless regulators, appeasement of capital creating health hazards.

People are treated as cash cows.
https://t.co/a17ATuUVw3

[James Walker @James_L_Walker]

🚨EXCLUSIVE: Newly appointed Defence Secretary Wes Streeting has taken tens of thousands of pounds from donors with links to arms firms and controversial US tech firm Palantir, The National can reveal👇

https://t.co/JRHJma8qBR