Replied in thread
#ukpol
54 posts26 participants7 posts today
Well this seems as grubby as fuck...
To reappropriate a term we need to "drain the swamp"!
Aristo-fraudster who raised millions for Farage sets up opaque new company:
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/dark-money-investigations/george-cottrell-nigel-farage-reform-geostrategy-international-unlimited-company-donations/
The UK Online Safety Act is exactly the sort of unhinged bullshit you would expect to get from raving authoritarians who hate other people just going about their business.
It is fuck all to do with safety (because the real bad people will simply work around it) and everything to do with control.
Trying to imagine what it must be like to be a Labour MP - 14 years out of power and within less than a year of being back you've:
- shat all over disabled people and people with mental health issues that they can't get any help or support for
- shat all over pensioners
- shat all over civil servants and the NHS
- used the violent rhetoric of far-right extremists against asylum seekers and other minorities
Thankfully I didn't have to vote for this complete fucking shite.
Continued thread
Footage release by Gazan's on the ground showed dead childred, many toddlers and infants, lying motionless on the ground and at medical stations.
Palestinians say they several entire families were killed in these strikes which went on for hours.
I know I post a lot of photos of clouds but honestly, I think we should all spend more time looking to the skies. They speak a rare and valuable truth to us all.
*nods wisely*
GIF
I lay in bed last night and suddenly this thought popped into my head:
Imagine being a politician who goes after THE PHYSICALLY AND MENTALLY DISABLED'S money before it goes after the money of BILLIONAIRES.
Take a billion from a multi-billionaire and they have effectively lost nothing. They won't notice it. But take £10 from a disabled person and they certainly will miss it.
The physically and mentally disabled have it hard enough as it is. WHY PICK ON THEM?
Continued thread
The powerful and wealthy group of fascists who carried Trump to the presidency are now trying to do the same in Europe.
Please Europe, fight them better than we did!
Mental health conditions are overdiagnosed, Streeting says:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cd7ejvr3y0zo
Absolutely fuming!
There are lots of people suffering without help because of the stigma around mental health. By effectively saying that people diagnosed with mental health are on the scrounge, the mental health crisis will worsen.
But I don't think that the red-Tories really give a fuck.
The UK Online Safety Act burdens small sites with duties and penalties that they can't shoulder. They'll shut down instead, stripping us of net plurality.
There’s a simple solution:
Exempt small, safely run blogs, forums and fedi instances The government can do this now
The duties start TOMORROW – Write to your MP 
https://action.openrightsgroup.org/save-our-sites-write-your-mp
Open Rights GroupSave our sites - Write to your MPSmall UK websites, user-to-user services and even computer games that are completely safe and well managed, are faced with difficult paperwork, risks assessments, registration and fines thanks to the Online Safety Act. Even personal blogs with comments are forced to undergo these difficult tests and compliance tasks. Getting it wrong or ignoring them could cost an operator their house – as fines can be imposed for failing to do them. As a result, many small websites in the UK are deciding to close down.
Wes Streeting: there is overdiagnosis of mental health conditions
Imagine the level of self confidence you need to have to have a degree in history and say such a thing.
Wes Streeting should resign. He is no position to make such a statement as Health Secretary and he should be rebutted by the GMC right away.
The Guardian · Wes Streeting: there is overdiagnosis of mental health conditions
"The NHS buck stops with Wes Streeting"
Focus all your energy on that one point then.
Continued thread
Will you join over 1.9k people who’ve signed our petition to keep what’s stored on Apple iCloud encrypted?
The UK government is gambling with our security and playing into the hands of hackers and criminals.
Send a message: save encryption before more services are hit with technical notices.
Sign and share now
https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/keep-our-apple-data-encrypted
38 DegreesKeep our Apple data encryptedIt is reported that the Home Office has ordered Apple to build a backdoor into its encrypted services so that they can get hold of content that any Apple user has upload to the cloud.
Encryption keeps our private information safe and secure. It’s essential for being safe online when sending messages, shopping, doing online banking – and for storing things safely in the cloud. With the Cabinet Office estimating the cost of Cyber Crime at £21BN a year to our economy, we can’t afford to make our...
‘Absurd’
When you have the press and civil society camped outside the courtroom, the secret might be out 
Even so, we’re still denied the reasons why the UK government wants to take a battering ram to our security and privacy.
It shows contempt for the public interest in the Apple encryption case.
"There is still time for the Labour cabinet to act like a cabinet, and for its members to stand up to the Treasury to halt the cuts in benefits to the sick and disabled, and to insist on a more flexible interpretation of the fiscal rules and a limited set of tax measures."
John McDonnell
Benefits cuts now? What’s the point of a Labour MP who votes for something so cruel, tin-eared and short-sighted? | John McDonnell | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/mar/15/benefit-cuts-labour-mps-disabled-sick
#UKPol #Labour #welfare #austerity
The Guardian · Benefits cuts now? What’s the point of a Labour MP who votes for something so cruel, tin-eared and short-sighted?
Saddling small sites with the same duties as huge platforms means many will shut down in a hammer blow to net plurality.
We'll be left with the Sophie’s choice of monopoly services; the incubators of online harms.
URGENT: The UK government must change the Online Safety Act to protect safe, non-commercial blogs, forums and fediverse.
Write to your MP to #SaveOurSites 
https://action.openrightsgroup.org/save-our-sites-write-your-mp
Open Rights GroupSave our sites - Write to your MPSmall UK websites, user-to-user services and even computer games that are completely safe and well managed, are faced with difficult paperwork, risks assessments, registration and fines thanks to the Online Safety Act. Even personal blogs with comments are forced to undergo these difficult tests and compliance tasks. Getting it wrong or ignoring them could cost an operator their house – as fines can be imposed for failing to do them. As a result, many small websites in the UK are deciding to close down.
"Rayner raised #Labour MPs’ worries about the depth of the cuts to the #benefits system — which include radical reforms that the former Conservative government blanched at during the “#austerity” period a decade ago.
https://www.ft.com/content/befa195d-0977-4a07-ad9d-881056472860