Catherine548

Concerned citizen, despairing at what rampant neoliberalism has done to society. Democratic socialist. Save the NHS, Disability Rights, Environment.

[Aaron Bastani @AaronBastani]

It's not about supermarkets vs family-owned business.

It's about whether the high street should have florists, cafes, bookshops, pubs, restaurants and small businesses - rather than infinity vape shops, mini marts and shops turned to bedsits under permitted development.

[Adrian Ramsay MP @AdrianRamsay]

Defra's answers to my questions on climate adaptation and ecosystem collapse have been woefully lacking.

Now we know why.

It's astonishing that only 20 Defra staff work on climate adaptation, while we're seeing some of the devastating droughts and wildfires.
https://t.co/ZNAgmb4oCS

[William Dalrymple @DalrympleWill]

Finally a serious British broadsheet bothering to cover this outrage: "How Israel is making southern Lebanon ‘unliveable’" https://t.co/S5FHeG0g0t via @FT

[The Green Party @TheGreenParty]

Why has Andy Burnham’s Labour approved a water and energy guzzling data centre in Brick Lane when:

🏠️ 30,000 people in Tower Hamlets are currently awaiting housing
💧 London is in a period of extreme drought and residents in Tower Hamlets have already been left without water
🌡️ Brick Lane is already one of the UK’s hottest places

In Burnham's Britain, do the pockets of rich City traders count for more than housing ordinary working people, providing running water and tackling climate change?

[Gina Miller @thatginamiller]

Not enough people are aware that Cambridge Analytica and Peter Thiel’s Palantir worked side by side, mining Facebook data in 2016 re the Leave /Brexit campaign

The same Palantir is now in charge of our government's AI system! Also - A new report on NHS costs for the Palantir platform shows lifetime charge rises to £1.1bn on ‘increased delivery at scale’ while forecast benefits fall to £808mn.

Pressure needs to be put on the govt to trigger a 2027 break clause in Palantir’s contract due to concerns about its effectiveness, use of NHS data & their ties to the Trump administration

https://t.co/IOuuihFgK1
@FT

[Clive Lewis MP @labourlewis]

Nothing represents “business as usual” and “neoliberalism” quite like the oil industry: an extractive model that has generated trillions in profits while helping push the planet towards an increasingly uninhabitable future.

If the PM is serious about his stated ambitions, then allowing further extraction while the world quite literally burns would send the opposite message to the British public. It would suggest that, when confronted with the power and interests of the fossil fuel industry, those ambitions are negotiable.

If we believe oil still has a strategic role during the transition, then nationalise it and treat remaining reserves as a strategic national asset. Better still, leave as much of it in the ground as possible. But allowing new oil to be extracted and sold on international markets for billions in private profit, while doing little to lower UK household bills, is incompatible with any government claiming to be serious about the climate crisis, particularly if it wants to retain credibility on the international stage.

[Novara Media @novaramedia]

Health secretary Yvette Cooper has accepted almost £500,000 from a businessman with commercial ties to the NHS, an analysis by the BMJ has found.

Cooper, who was appointed to the new role by prime minister Andy Burnham on 20 July, received the donations from medical recruitment entrepreneur Peter Hearn and two of his firms.

According to her parliamentary financial disclosures, she received £248,619 directly from Hearn, as well as a further £220,623 over the past ten years from two companies: MPM Connect and OPD Group.

Hearn, who died recently, held a significant stake in Odgers Berndtson, a recruitment firm that worked extensively with the NHS.

Odgers has also acted as a recruitment partner for a number of senior NHS appointments. It headhunted former TalkTalk boss Dido Harding to oversee the controversial Test and Trace programme during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Cooper's donations were declared and there is no suggestion that she breached parliamentary rules. But doctors and campaigners have raised concerns about the perception of a conflict of interest.

“NHS doctors are prohibited from accepting small gifts from pharmaceutical companies, such as a pen or a notepad, because of the risk of the perception of influence.” Steve Taylor of the Doctors’ Association UK told the BMJ. “Ministers responsible for the NHS should be held to at least the same standard.”

“Political donations from individuals or companies with commercial ties to the NHS... inevitably raise questions about whose interests are being served,” said GP Emily Ball, director of the anti-privatisation group EveryDoctor.

“Mr Hearn kindly donated money to fund Yvette’s office staff, which has all been fully declared and is compliant with all the rules,” a spokesperson for Cooper told the BMJ.

Hearn was a major Labour party donor, with former health secretary Wes Streeting also receiving more than £285,000 from the mogul and his companies between February 2019 and February 2026.

Novara Media approached Odgers Berndtson for comment.

[Feargal Sharkey @Feargal_Sharkey]

"Why has my Thames Water bill been hiked by 30% overnight?"

Easy. Because the owners have taken over £3bn in dividends out of the company, over £2.2bn in loans, left the company almost £14bn in debt & with a pension fund deficit of nearly £400mn.

https://t.co/J5WxwrKkg0

[Zara Quinn @_Zaraquin]

Mark Zuckerberg owns 2300 acres of land in Hawaii
Jeff Bezos owns 462,000 acres across the country
Elon Musk owns thousands of acres of land in Texas

If they want data centers, build them in their own yards.

[Tanita Tikaram💙 @tanita_tikaram]

Sometimes I think about how Michael Gove was able to dismiss the Tories £ 10 billion PPE waste & industrial scale corruption as an ‘ honest ‘ error & UK media said ‘ Oh that sounds credible ‘ 🙄 & the story disappeared after 2 days .

[National Emergency Briefing @nebriefing]

A big thank you to everyone who’s been promoting the petition for a televised emergency briefing on the climate and nature crisis. It’s now jumped up to over 58,000.

https://t.co/w18We3tI4e

#NationalEmergencyBriefing #TimeToStepUp

[Catherine548 @Marisa_81]

@Feargal_Sharkey Two leaks near me, just continuously running water into the roadside. Both not fixed for months, but we're under a hosepipe ban.

[Feargal Sharkey @Feargal_Sharkey]

So while 26 million people in England and Wales are living under a hosepipe ban last night this is happening on a golf club in north London.

What am I missing?

[Dr. Abdul El-Sayed @AbdulElSayed]

Couldn’t have said it better myself.

[Catherine548 @Marisa_81]

@rpp_man @arianajasmine__ @JeanJacquesDes7 In Iran they have state funded healthcare... just saying ���

[Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez @AOC]

Congratulations @AbdulElSayed on securing the Democratic nomination for the United States Senate!

Now we get to work. 90 days till
Election Day starts now. 🗳️

We've got a world to win.
Sign up and give today:
https://t.co/qBrjyNSUQn

[Matthew Todd 🌏🔥 @MrMatthewTodd]

The reason why most media focuses on celebrity gossip and whether it’s bad Andy Burnham is having a holiday etc is so the public never talks about things like this

[Feargal Sharkey @Feargal_Sharkey]

Southern Water want to rob the River Test of 1/3 of its flows.

“Southern Water is arguing yet again that corporate greed and ineptitude should surpass the needs of the environment,”

Me in today’s @FT

https://t.co/TmdBGhotfT

[Bernie Sanders @BernieSanders]

Elon Musk spent $290 million to elect Trump.

His investment worked. He is now $438 billion richer.

Now, he wants to buy Congress by spending $100 million to keep Republicans in control.

We must fight oligarchy. Defeat Musk. Preserve democracy.