#politics

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So Greta Thunberg has ben arrested in London for holding a placard that said:

'I support the Palestine Action prisoners. I oppose genocide.'

It will be interesting to see if Thunberg's case get to caught because its far from clear that this specific wording articulates support for a proscribed organisation... it may well be a case of [edit] City of London Police over-reach!

In any case its another arrest of a peaceful protestor..

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/dec/23/greta-thunberg-arrested-london-palestine-action-prisoners-placard

Many of the Palestine Action linked hunger strikers are on remand, so while incarcerated have yet to be actually convicted of the crime they're accused of... while those accused of other crimes, notably rape or violence are left to roam free while the slow moving justice system delays their trials, the PA accused are left to use the one pressure prisoners can deploy; using their bodies as a battleground!

David Lammy & Keir Starmer's indifference is appalling!

So many headlines lately seem like satire, but they're NOT.

really did announce a version of the Hunger Games.
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/12/trump-patriot-hunger-games-usa-250-anniversary/

Trump sycophants really are changing the name of the to the Trump/Kennedy Center.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-kennedy-center-board-votes-rename-kennedy-center-rcna249948

And Sen Mike Lee and Rep Tim Burchett really are suggesting that the should commission privateers "to seize cartel property and persons on land or sea."
https://www.lee.senate.gov/2025/12/patriots-of-the-caribbean-lee-bill-authorizes-american-privateers-to-seize-cartel-assets-with-president-s-approval

Headline and text from US Senator Mike Lee's official government website. Headline: Patriots of the Caribbean: Lee Bill Authorizes American Privateers to Seize Cartel Assets with President’s Approval December 18, 2025 Text: WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) introduced legislation today that would allow private entities to stop drug cartel smuggling and violence. The Cartel Marque and Reprisal Authorization Act authorizes President Trump, as provided under the Constitution, to commission American operators under letters of marque to seize cartel property and persons on land or sea. Representative Tim Burchett (R-TN) introduced the House version of the legislation.

Meanwhile in the USA, the failure to roll forward the subsidies in the Affordable Care Act, means that for many medical insurance premiums could double, leading to many down-grading their car & a largish group of poorer Americans going without health insurance at all.

Anyone looking at the USA & thinking we can learn from that system, should see this and take the only lesson possible: it is a system to be avoided at all costs!

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/dec/14/aca-obamacare-expires

It's so American how the Sackler family caused a national which ultimately led to the crisis, & instead of imprisoning them the eventually went "Hang on, we can use this as an excuse to start a war with a country that doesn't even produce fentanyl."

So the UK has agreed to raise the price it pays for US-supplied medicines as part of a deal to avoid tariffs on UK pharmaceutical exports to the USA.... but the Treasury is not allowing for this price rise in its NHS budgetary settlement.

So, its one more mechanism to transfer NHS spending to the private sector while worsening the budget pressures on the health service.

Resident Doctors might also ask: if you can find £1.5bn for this, where's our money?


h/t FT

"In the dual digital enclaves of tech advocacy and political justice, the hope was that the two would come together at some point and champion digital and economic freedom for everyone.

I feel, with the interview of Cory Doctorow on a Novara Media IRL downstream event, finally the good ideas have gravitated toward each other! "

https://spelk.online/posts/magic-kingdom

Really good interview with @pluralistic and one that reassures me that there is a possibility of a better future!

The very fact that Keir Starmer can suggest that the European Convention on Human Rights should be modified to deal with the immigration 'crisis' is the very reason it shouldn't; the whole point of human rights is they recognise that humans should have rights that transcend & are more important than the day-to-day disputes that pattern politics.

Starmer either chooses to ignore this or has forgotten this & more importantly how such protection is key to the Rule of Law!

So qualified good news on the recruitment of new teachers, perhaps reflecting the more negative news across other areas of graduate employment...

However, expanding (this year, beyond targets) the recruitment of trainee teachers is only half the battle.

The Govt./DofE also need to resolve the crisis in retention of teacher beyond (around) five years.... and that is all around term, conditions & the management (both local & national) of teaching.

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2025/dec/04/surge-in-graduates-becoming-teachers-boosts-recruitment-for-maths-and-sciences

Drawing together two themes from recent discussions in my timeline, its worth re-emphasising that:

In-work & housing benefits are not (in the last instance) policies that help the poor rather they are a mechanism to funnel state fund into supporting profits for low-wage employers, and landlords (whose rents are higher than they would be without housing & other benefits being paid to the poor).

So when people talk about 'benefits cheats' you might want to point this out...

I'm a Google Workspace admin, and a team member sent me a screenshot showing that a message they wanted to send was being blocked because it violated an organizational policy-- which was news to me-- I hadn't put in place to block messages based on their content.

Turns out Google Workspace now warns by default when the message content mentions gender identity.

Screenshot of Google Workspace content rules, Gender Identity among them.