Simon Fordham

[Sam @SamCKx]

A democratically elected British Prime Minister has been driven from office by a relentless campaign of propaganda and misinformation; funded, amplified and perpetuated by foreign billionaires and elites whose interests bear zero resemblance to those of ordinary working people.

A noble gesture from an emotional Keir Starmer, entirely consistent with his conduct in office.

A truly sad day for British democracy.

His full resignation speech:

[Anish Moonka @anishmoonka]

In England, you're allowed to clear about 20 metres of silt and rubbish out of a river on your own. Anything past that needs a permit from the Environment Agency. Paul Powlesland's volunteers cleared a 250-metre stretch of the River Roding with a hired digger, which is why a barrister who hauled out 200 bags of trash is now under criminal investigation.

The Roding runs through east London. Powlesland lives on a boat moored on it, and for years he and a group of volunteers have pulled out shopping trolleys, needles, old appliances, even weapons. Kingfishers, herons and dragonflies came back to water that used to be buried under junk. This one job took 10 days and a digger that cost £1,000 to hire.

The rule that caught him is oddly specific. Under England's water rules, scooping silt off the bottom of a river the agency officially manages counts as a "flood risk activity", and the law treats that the same as building a structure in the water. Do it without a permit and the offence carries up to two years in prison. The agency says it is also looking at waste the volunteers left on the floodplain. Powlesland is an environmental lawyer who has used these exact laws to protect rivers and trees, and a conviction could cost him his licence to practise.

The agency's reasoning isn't unreasonable. Dredging done badly can push flooding onto people downstream and wreck the habitat that protected animals need, which is what the permit is meant to prevent. The 20-metre allowance is there for small jobs. And no decision to prosecute has actually been made.

While investigators were knocking on a volunteer's door within a week of his cleanup, water companies discharged raw sewage into England's rivers and seas for a combined 3.6 million hours in 2024, more than 400 years of spilling packed into a single year. Only 14% of English rivers are in good health. Between 2015 and 2025, the Environment Agency investigated water companies for pollution 11,474 times. Fifty-eight of those ended in a prosecution. For serious pollution over the last five years, the number of water companies actually taken to court and convicted is zero.

So the message comes out backwards. Spend ten days and a thousand pounds making a river cleaner and an officer turns up within the week. Pump sewage into that same river for years and the chance of seeing a courtroom is close to zero.

[Paul Powlesland @paulpowlesland]

“What’re you in for mate?”

“Cleaning a river without a permit. What about you?”

@EnvAgency is really plumbing new depths of malevolent uselessness here.

[George Sessions @GeorgeSessions]

Genuinely crazy that the two English people to ever achieve this feat were both born in Whipps Cross Hospital in Leytonstone, attended Chingford Secondary School and played for Ridgeway Rovers 🤯

[Joe☭🔻 @ScottishCommie]

After watching you lot whitewash a genocide for almost 3 years its no wonder.

[Mukhtar @I_amMukhtar]

Big up Ian Wright, Gary Neville, and Roy Keane for calling out what the US is doing to the World Cup. They didn’t shy away and condemned it all, including the decision to ban Omar Artan.

Officials have always had freedom of movement, and FIFA guaranteed it.

[Zack Polanski @ZackPolanski]

Elon Musk can say what he likes about me but I won't stay silent whilst foreign tech billionaires, money earned off the backs of real workers, try to interfere in our democracy, incite violence in our communities and tear apart our country.

Time for him to pipe down.

[dave lawrence 🐟🐟🐠 @dave43law]

This needs posting everywhere

[BladeoftheSun @BladeoftheS]

13 workers left Palantir and issued this statement.

"Palantir is increasingly complicit, normalizing authoritarianism under the guise of a 'revolution' led by oligarchs. We must resist this trend."

[Zack Polanski @ZackPolanski]

This man is a threat to our democracy. He backs violence and extremism.

Blaming a group of people for the awful actions of an individual leads us to a very dark place.

Musk, Lowe, Farage, Robinson - these men don't give a shit about this country, they want to rip us apart.

[Zack Polanski @ZackPolanski]

Brilliant news and not a moment too soon! 👇🏼

[Don McGowan @donmcgowan]

Dear the BBC Politics.

I think I can safely speak for approx 89.43% of the UK population when I tell you that Zia Yusuf is not wanted on our TV screens. Again.

He's an unelected party donor using up a seat that could be offered to a credible alternative.

[Feargal Sharkey @Feargal_Sharkey]

"Water firm faces £44.7m 'enforcement package' for sewage failings."

Yet more BS from Ofwat, these companies have illegally being dumping sewage they should loose their operating licences, directors should be going to jail.

Govt needs, could and should fire the entire board of Ofwat today.

https://t.co/6CGmzWtLzo

[Craig Murray @CraigMurrayOrg]

The BBC make me physically feel sick.

BBC News is running a strapline: "Israel and Lebanon agree ceasefire if Hezbollah stops attacks".

Which is astoundingly dishonest framing.

[Malcolm Gate @MalcolGate]

BBC: We're discussing Henry Novak's tragic case so let's have far right grifter Matt Goodwin on to stoke division and call out 'racism to white people.' Well done BBC. You've promoted the rise of the far right and now you're determined to enable a Reform govt. #PoliticsLive

[Helena Horton @horton_official]

More accurate headline: failed infrastructure, mismanagement and lack of investment by water companies leave parts of England without water

[Feargal Sharkey @Feargal_Sharkey]

Yet another glaring example of how utterly failed the water industry is. All it took was one hot weekend and not one but two water companies have been brought to their knees, incapable of doing the most basic job possible, supplying their customers with water.

And we tolerate this nonsense.

[Jonathan Brash MP @JonathanBrash]

Hi @RobertJenrick when you were the Minister of State for Immigration 532,000 emigrated from the UK. How many Watfords was that?

[Hamja Ahsan @HamjaAhsan]

Huge Jewish Bloc for Palestine at #Nakbah London

[Carole Cadwalladr @carolecadwalla]

So listen.

@thenerve_news has the receipts.

A comprehensive timeline of Nathan Gill & Nigel Farage’s pro-Kremlin influencing activities & 2 other MEPs, David Cobourn & Jonathan Arnott.

Please read & share.