catherine bristow

[catherine bristow @k8bristow1]

@Biggreenbooks @raytom81 Thanks anyway. Great initiative.

[Maxi @AllForProgress_]

On a stretch of the River Roding in Barking strewn with waste and detritus, a barrister named Paul Powlesland did something the British state has spent decades failing to do: he cleaned it and made it look like a river again. He now faces legal action.

Yep. He and a group of volunteers hired a digger for £1,000 of their own money and hauled more than 200 bags of filth out of the water - packaging, broken appliances, used needles, even weapons. By any sane reckoning it was a small act of public good, civic spirit at its most potent and wholesome.

For his trouble, he received a letter from the Environment Agency informing him that he is under investigation for working without a permit, an offence that carries up to two years in prison.

The same Environment Agency that found the will to come after a volunteer for cleaning a river without the right paperwork has not, on that same river, prosecuted a single one of the illegal sewage spills that have fouled it for years. Not one. It's too fat, scrofulous, and indolent to fight the sort of people who'd do this. But it has energy to spare for the man with the digger and the bin bags because they expect he's likely to be a reasonable sort of Englishman who pays his taxes and honours procedure, however unreasonable it may be, when levied upon him.

Protecting rivers? They have no interest in that.

This is the thing about our institutions that the public grasps in its bones and the people who run them never will. Our institutions fail, and the manner of their failing is the worst part of it - the bloodless, box-ticking, permission-withholding callousness of bodies that have forgotten they exist to achieve anything at all.

They should all be cleared out; every decision-making body in the building responsible for the dereliction of duty, and for daring to persecute a member of the public, must be hollowed out. The whole thing started from scratch.

Better yet, I'll tell you what an outfit like Progress will do once it gains power; we'll put people like @paulpowlesland in charge of the very body now threatening to jail him. The institutions meant to look after this country - the Environment Agency and a dozen like it - are dying of exactly the defensive, do-nothing culture that sent that letter. They need to be run by people like him who actually give a toss. People with the brains to understand the problem and the plain human instinct to go and fix it themselves, while the rest stand on the bank writing their little sociopathic missives to the ones who already did.

I don't know the first thing about Paul. I've never met him. I don't know what his political preferences are, the shape of his beliefs, what else we would agree or disagree on. None of that means a thing to me. He's a good man, and the right kind of man to make things work; and Progress is an attempt to make the country work, not a club made to serve a certain type or belief profile. A country is made to work by the people who, whatever their politics, cannot walk past a problem without trying to solve it. There are such people everywhere in Britain - on the rivers, in the schools, the wards, the workshops - and almost none of them are running anything, because the institutions have been built to keep that exact kind of person out.

Drop the case against him. Then go further: find the hundred other Paul Powleslands the country is currently ignoring or threatening, and give them the keys. Put the responsibility and the authority, together, in their hands. Britain will be cleaned up - its rivers, and a great deal besides - in no time. It will be done by the people willing to get in the water, not by the ones writing letters about permits from the bank.

[Just me - Thomas @TomSoede]

Open letter to Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer

Dear Prime Minister,

I am writing as a Labour supporter who is deeply concerned by the growing pressure surrounding your leadership, but also as someone who has developed a genuine admiration for the way you conduct yourself.

What I respect most about you is your seriousness.

You are not a political showman. You do not rely on constant drama, easy slogans or theatrical promises. You come across as disciplined, intelligent, decent and deeply conscious of the responsibility that comes with leading the country.

In an age when politics is increasingly dominated by noise, outrage and personality cults, your calmness is a strength.

Your resilience is also admirable. You have faced relentless criticism, personal attacks and an often hostile media environment, yet you have continued to behave with dignity. You rarely lash out. You do not appear consumed by ego. You keep returning to the work.

That matters to me.

Britain has already endured years of political chaos, revolving-door prime ministers and governments more interested in internal warfare than governing. The country does not need another leadership contest. It needs stability, seriousness and delivery.

You were elected with a mandate to govern. You inherited damaged public services, weak growth, overcrowded prisons, an NHS under enormous pressure and public trust worn down by fourteen years of Conservative government. None of that can be repaired overnight.

I hope you will remain Prime Minister and continue the work until the next general election in 2029.

Labour MPs should understand that removing you now could trigger weeks of division, uncertainty and damaging promises made during a leadership contest. The press would feed on the chaos, financial markets could react, and Nigel Farage and Reform would be handed exactly the political instability they want.

This is not the time for Labour to imitate the Conservative Party.

I also believe your personality is better suited to this difficult period than many people appreciate. You are methodical rather than impulsive, measured rather than reckless, and focused on governing rather than performing.

Those qualities may not always generate exciting headlines, but they are the qualities a serious Prime Minister needs.

Leadership is not only about popularity. It is about character.

It is about remaining calm when others panic, showing discipline when others chase attention, and continuing the difficult work when the noise becomes unbearable.

Please hold the line.

Many Labour supporters still believe in your integrity, your determination and your sense of duty. Britain needs less political theatre and more delivery, and you deserve the opportunity to complete the job the country elected Labour and you to do.

Yours sincerely,

Thomas Soede

[Carl Bovis @CarlBovisNature]

A Great White Egret in flight at RSPB Ham Wall in Somerset recently. 😊🐦

[Yorkshire girl @helloKi30596224]

I am so disappointed in the Labour MPs calling for a change of leadership. We are 2 years into government and they are just playing into the right wing media's hands and paving the way for Reform.

[Viviane: RNLI supporter, no Burnham fan @LaindonFEMINIST]

Things I know.

Keir Starmer would never take a £5m bung.

Keir Starmer would never have had Parties during Covid.

Keir Starmer would never crash the economy.

Keir Starmer would never join an illegal war.

And all of that is good enough for me. Today. And every day.

[catherine bristow @k8bristow1]

https://t.co/HW84KDOATe

[The Bee Guy @the_beeguy]

Sometimes this #planet just demands you stop.

And look.

And feel.

And listen.

And remember.

What you knew as a kid.

How awesome and wondrous and astonishing she is.

And in that, how pathetic and sad and disgusting we are to spend our time here looking for reasons to kill and hurt and hate and harm and warmonger.

Stop.

[Urbanponds101 @urbanponds101]

You didn't ask for more Frog content, but it seems a shame not to share spring golddust like this

[Atheist Girl @iamAtheistGirl]

i am so angry with the fact that people who have had 80 years of life are destroying a planet for people who have their entire lives ahead of them 😮‍💨

[Deborah Meaden 🇺🇦 @DeborahMeaden]

I am deeply relieved we have a cautious, pragmatic PM in office in these tumultuous times and I think it dangerous and ridiculous to expect him to do anything other than monitor an evolving situation before making a move that could , indeed would put British lives in the line of fire. Can we just let him do his job please…

[Paul Powlesland @paulpowlesland]

A new public fountain has appeared in central London, but look closer & you’ll see that it’s a actually a fountain of filth. The water is black, the human victims of the sewage crisis are vomitting streams of liquid, whilst surmounted by a smug water executive with a briefcase stuffed with cash.

The fountain commemorates one of the biggest environmental crimes in British history, where water companies stole tens of billions of pounds that was supposed to be spent on our sewage system, gave it to shareholders and executives and illegally poured billions of lites of sewage into our rivers, lakes and seas instead. The channel 4 docudrama about the sewage crisis, #dirtybusiness, starts at 9pm tonight. Watch it, get sad, get angry and then join the thousands of people around the country demanding an end to the sewage crisis.

[Darth Craven @CrazyCraven01]

Just in Blackpool, saw a guy & woman shouting then fighting. A copper turned up but instead of calming things down he starts twatting the guy with a baton! The guy gets the baton and starts hitting the copper AND his wife! Then this crocodile turned up and stole all the sausages.

[Science girl @sciencegirl]

This is awesome

[catherine bristow @k8bristow1]

@MyStoriesAndI #dedication

[Carl Bovis @CarlBovisNature]

8 photos will soon become 4, thanks to you all! 😀
Those 4 will go into tomorrows final poll to find the winner of my best bird photo of 2025!🐦😊
Please vote and share! 🙏
#BestOfBovis2025 🐦

[Carl Bovis @CarlBovisNature]

We have our final 16 photos! 😀
Thank you for all your votes so far! 😍
Again, please vote for your favourite photo in the next 4 groups below.🐦
Underneath each group will be a poll.
Please RT! 🙏😊
#BestOfBovis2025 🐦⬇️

[catherine bristow @k8bristow1]

@JohnCleese You will live forever on my tiles ! Loony walk

[John Sutherland @policecommander]

To all the Coppers - and every other Emergency Services worker - on duty this Christmas, thank you x