Richard N Griffiths @[email protected]

Retired lecturer, (ex-University of Brighton) and committed beardist. Don't tweet much. Likes do not necessarily signify unqualified approval.

[Richard N Griffiths @[email protected] @RNG52]

Boomer thoughts on reaching my three score and ten years (today), a brief thread:

[Richard N Griffiths @[email protected] @RNG52]

🚨WORLD’S RICHEST MAN BUYING OUR DEMOCRACY🚨Elon Musk is set to pump £78m into Nigel Farage’s party—a sum that would allow Reform to flood our politics with targeted ads. Add your name to the petition! https://t.co/bKj0oTjqWk

[Clive Lewis MP @labourlewis]

What would happen to the £60bn debt if English water companies were taken into public ownership? Ultimately it’s a matter of public support & political will.

As the economist Maynard Keynes said: “Anything we can do, we can afford.”

A thread 🧵 💧👇
1/8

[Clive Lewis MP @labourlewis]

This post is problematic for a number of reasons.

A thread…🧵

1. For those attempting to make sense of Trump’s victory and the rise of the far-right across Europe - look no further than the PMs statement below.

Whether you like it or not, the far-right has a set of common narratives. We can probably all recite them…

[Richard N Griffiths @[email protected] @RNG52]

This: https://t.co/Lcv3JXAN4O

[Richard Murphy @RichardJMurphy]

Trump has killed the neoliberal order https://t.co/VNX0PbzNNf It looks as if Trump has won in the USA. Its people appear to have rejected neoliberalism, thinking that what it has to offer is worse than the risk Trump creates. If so , this is the end of the neoliberal order. What we now need is a non-fascist alternative to it. Our futures depend on it.

[Clive Lewis MP @labourlewis]

Last month I came fourth in the Private Members’ Bill ballot. This gives me the opportunity to propose my own legislation, with guaranteed debate time.

So today, I am introducing the Water Bill to Parliament.

My bill will:

🔵Set new targets and objectives relating to water, including in relation to the ownership of water companies and to climate mitigation and adaptation
🔵Place requirements on the Secretary of State to publish and implement a strategy for achieving those targets and objectives
🔵Establish a Commission on Water to advise the Secretary of State on that strategy
🔵Require the Commission to set up a Citizens’ Assembly on water ownership

Why water?

This bill’s primary purpose is economic democracy. It’s about creating an open conversation in Parliament, which involves the public through a Citizens’ Assembly, about how our water is managed.

Water is a critical national resource. It is something on which all life and ecological health depends. It belongs to all of us. Water access and our water system are set to come under tremendous strain as the result of climate change.

This bill establishes a blueprint for democratic practice: for creating an open conversation about the state of our water and its future management – particularly in respect of the deep climate adaptation required - drawing on all expertise and ideas available to us, and which leaves no rock unturned in examining the root causes of the current failure so mistakes are not repeated. This bill does not presume a particular end point, and aims to push the public debate beyond simplistic and unhelpful narratives of privatisation vs nationalisation.

This bill puts the conversation about the future management of water where it should be – in the hands of parliament and the public. This is a conversation that must take place in broad daylight, not behind the closed doors of boardrooms, or through opaque industry lobbying. Water belongs to all of us, so how it is managed is a question of economic democracy. This should not be difficult for any government to grasp.

Half a century ago, Margaret Thatcher’s revolution ripped up and rewrote the rulebook for economic management. It was an ideology that assumed that profit-maximisation would deliver public good, even when it came to our common resources and public services. Whether or not you agree with her ideology, Thatcher proved that the world could be made differently, and that rules were there for the changing. We need to apply that same mindset now. As John Maynard Keynes “anything we can actually do we can afford”. That is what democratic and responsive adaptation to the climate crisis demands.

Politicians need to be honest, that we are struggling to find a way out of this mess. The dominant political and economic orthodoxy of what is possible has come to its limits. We have blocked ourselves on every avenue – whether that is through arbitrary fiscal rules, or failing to confront the plain reality that the profit-maximisation motive is undermining good public resource management. This is a cage we have built for ourselves. It is also one we can let ourselves out of, if we so desire.

There’s clear public outrage about how our water is being mismanaged. There’s also a clear public consensus that the current system does not work. If government fails to act, this will further undermine people’s faith in democracy. With the rise of the far right, the failure of democracy is not something we can afford.

We have to stop water mismanagement, and that can only be done through systemic change. The answers do not lie in failed regulators or tinkering. We must have the courage to change the rules and create a new political reality. This is, to some degree, already happening in other areas, whether that is rail or energy.

Let this bill be the starting point for a national and democratic conversation about water, and how this integral part of our commons is managed in the 21stcentury, with all the democratic, climate and ecological challenges that lie ahead.

[Richard N Griffiths @[email protected] @RNG52]

A privilege of retirement, lingering by the morning radio when something catches your attention. Case in point: BBC Radio 4 'Start the Week' this morning; brilliant and terrifying discussion on the social effects of AI between Yuval Noah Harari, Edith Hall and Madhumita Murgia.

[Richard N Griffiths @[email protected] @RNG52]

Sir Keir Starmer must now issue his own version of the Ministerial Code. This is an opportunity to restore integrity to the heart of government. Sign the petition @UnlockDemocracy
https://t.co/98ZBNpBkUa

[Richard N Griffiths @[email protected] @RNG52]

@clark_aviation @ProfBrianCox @MrJamesMay The delta shaped plastic aeroplane you launched with an elastic band catapult - of course!

[Richard N Griffiths @[email protected] @RNG52]

@clark_aviation Ten or so years ago I saw what I believe was the prototype at Gatwick Aviation Museum.

[Carole Cadwalladr @carolecadwalla]

So here’s a tale…

I noticed Charlotte Owen, the junior aide Boris Johnson controversially ennobled, has a new gig with - shock! - Boris Johnson. But that’s only the start. There’s also uranium, Iran, Steve Bannon..& a LOT of qs

My piece for @ObserverUK
https://t.co/KQk2TsnedZ

[Carol Vorderman @carolvorders]

Boris Johnson, lying narcissist, faces ‘serious questions’ over new firm "Better Earth" with uranium boss after he FAILED to disclose he met a uranium lobbyist while PM.

Firm employs Charlotte Owen - plonked into Lords for no reason

Nothing to see here😡 https://t.co/fcgXg16ovC

[Carole Cadwalladr @carolecadwalla]

America needs to learn the terrifying lesson of the British riots. This was Musk’s trial balloon for the US election.

The prospect of political violence is real. And Musk’s behaviour is a warning shot of what’s to come. My piece for @ObserverUK

https://t.co/2Lx8bxGh5T

[Council on Geostrategy @ConGeostrategy]

‘The armed forces, by their own admission, are rooted too narrowly in the civil society they are designed to defend...it is a glaringly noticeable opportunity for hostile states and one which they will certainly exploit.’ |✍️ @paulmasonnews
https://t.co/al8ePp1MBR

[Richard N Griffiths @[email protected] @RNG52]

If you have any responsibility for designing or purchasing digital medical systems, READ THIS. It won't take long (but it might make you squirm).

[Harold Thimbleby @haroldthimbleby]

Are you a patient or professional worried about patient safety? This brilliant booklet has been updated to cover the recent AI CrowdStrike fiasco... https://t.co/HZ7GPD6yoc

[Shayan Sardarizadeh @Shayan86]

This digitally-altered image of Kamala Harris posing alongside Jeffrey Epstein is being shared in the wake of Joe Biden's endorsement of her as the new Democratic nominee.

The real image, captured in 2015, shows Harris posing with her husband Douglas Emhoff.

[Richard N Griffiths @[email protected] @RNG52]

@clark_aviation I wonder if I was there? Remember a family day at Filton, BAC on one side of the runway, RR on the other. No one watched the Phantom (RR engines) do it's stuff. All eyes were scanning the distant horizon where Concorde was holding before it's entrance. You could feel the pride.

[Howard Beckett @mayamuskl]

Wes Streeting:

“We [NHS] need to rethink our role in Government. This is no longer simply a public service...this is an economic growth department"

Yes. He said it out loud so his mates in private health know he’s serious.

The NHS is For Sale.

[Richard N Griffiths @[email protected] @RNG52]

@RichardJMurphy https://t.co/20eM8DsNFh

[Richard N Griffiths @[email protected] @RNG52]

https://t.co/baPguDOhm1
A position I seem to have reluctantly come round to. As usual George Monbiot states it with brutal clarity.