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Guy Shrubsole

@guyshrubsole.bsky.social

21K followers 700 following 1.5K posts

Environmental campaigner & author, The Lie of the Land (William Collins, 2024), The Lost Rainforests of Britain (2022), & Who Owns England? (2019). Forthcoming: The Ghosts of Chalk Country (2027). Agent: @jmlockhart.bsky.social

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Guy Shrubsole @guyshrubsole.bsky.social · 16d

Very excited to share that I'm writing a new book, THE GHOSTS OF CHALK COUNTRY - about the loss of England's chalk downland: a tale of flowers, fascism & freedom.

To be published by @wmcollinsbooks.bsky.social in April 2027:
www.thebookseller.com/rights/willi...

Website: ghostsofchalkcountry.org

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💀Skulls and Sheets👻 @skullsandsheets.bsky.social · 8h

Taken myself to the Downland Exhibition at the Wiltshire museum. Lovely work from Julian Trevelyn, Paul Nash, Henry Moore and Norman Ackroyd

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Guy Shrubsole @guyshrubsole.bsky.social · 9h

‘“Faragism” is neoliberalism at its most inhumane, more destructive even than [Thatcher’s] monetarism, and vindictive far beyond austerity.’

Good analysis by Gordon Brown - and why progressives should attack Farage on economics above all:

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Don’t fall for the authoritarian hype – Reform and the hard right can be stopped in their tracks | Gordon Brown

From the US to Europe and Asia, grievances are being exploited to gain power. But moderate voices are still in tune with the majority, says former prime minister Gordon Brown

www.theguardian.com

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Zack Polanski @zackpolanski.bsky.social · 12h

Ever since I finished Question Time, Reform have massively been on the attack.

Including a rant from Richard Tice entirely designed to distract from Reform and Russia.

Everyone should know about Nathan Gill, the bribes from Russia and the link to Reform.

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Best for Britain @bestforbritain.org · 21h

Finally, someone is saying it.

🔴 NEW: "The message is simple: Farage is ultimately to blame as the man who delivered Brexit with 'easy sloganeering' then walked away from the aftermath rather than putting in the hard yards."

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Guy Shrubsole @guyshrubsole.bsky.social · 1d

Farage's deputy Richard Tice accepted stay at French Riviera home of Lubov Chernukhin, listing the purpose as “discussing gas power in the UK”

Reform are wining & dining corporate fossil fuel interests with their pledges to smash climate policy:

www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Richard Tice accepted stay at French Riviera home of Tory donor

Reform deputy leader’s trip, worth £1,4000, to Lubov Chernukhin’s property was for ‘discussing gas power in UK’

www.theguardian.com

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Guy Shrubsole @guyshrubsole.bsky.social · 1d

Cheers Annie! Didn’t realise you were in the audience! 😃

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Annie Leymarie @annieleymarie.bsky.social · 1d

Excellent panel yesterday on "pathways to a biodiverse future". @guyshrubsole.bsky.social started with a celebration of what we can experience as abundant nature, despite all the bad news and shifting baseline. Sights of (here Devon) temperate rainforest fragments & lichens always cheer me up!

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Zack Polanski @zackpolanski.bsky.social · 1d

I called this out on #BBCQT last night and I'm calling it out again now.

He is gaslighting a nation.

The Guardian @theguardian.com · 1d

Farage insists ex-Reform UK Wales leader convicted of bribery is ‘bad apple’

Farage said he was shocked by Nathan Gill’s admissions relating to pro-Russia statements Nigel Farage has insisted his party’s former leader in Wales who was convicted of taking pro-Russian bribes was a “bad apple” who betrayed him. The Reform UK leader was in Caerphilly campaigning for his candidate in a forthcoming Senedd byelection when he was asked about his links to Nathan Gill. Continue reading...

www.theguardian.com

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Guy Shrubsole @guyshrubsole.bsky.social · 1d

If a party wishes to make the case for higher taxation on most people, in order to pay for Scandinavian style welfare state etc - by all means, bring it on.

In the current populist moment, however, the debate about taxing wealth is just as much about defining who you’re for & who you’re against.

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Guy Shrubsole @guyshrubsole.bsky.social · 1d

Sighs. The ‘wealth tax debate’ isn’t simply about raising revenue, it’s about a party showing whose side it’s on.

Nor is it about ‘where most wealth resides’. It’s about a small number of people being disproportionately wealthy (see Piketty, Zucman ad nauseam)

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Guy Shrubsole @guyshrubsole.bsky.social · 1d

I mean, that too!

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Anne Applebaum @anneapplebaum.bsky.social · 1d

Congratulations to Maria Corina Machado, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize - her incredible optimism has already changed her country. I spoke to her, and wrote about her, at the beginning of this year:
www.theatlantic.com/internationa...

The ‘Anthropological Change’ Happening in Venezuela

Maduro is still in place, but a pro-democracy movement is transforming the beleaguered country.

www.theatlantic.com

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Dr Alex Bond @thelabandfield.bsky.social · 1d

It's also not "just another" extinction, it's the first from mainland Europe in centuries. CENTURIES.

And there will be others within our lifetime.

That's biodiversity loss.

We'll never hear this sound, ever again xeno-canto.org/398794

XC398794 Slender-billed Curlew (Numenius tenuirostris)

Awful wind noise in the original! See sonogram and notes of the recording circumstances on p12 of Gretton A. (1991) The ecology and conservation of the Slender-billed Curlew (Numenius tenuirostris). ...

xeno-canto.org

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Dr Alex Bond @thelabandfield.bsky.social · 1d

Well, it's official. After our paper last year (onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....), the Slender-billed Curlew is officially declared Extinct today.

Scientists dream of describing new species, not writing their obituary and epitaph, knowing that they are gone forever #ornithology

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Guy Shrubsole @guyshrubsole.bsky.social · 1d

"Make ownership of large landholdings public"

Great report from the @digitalcommons.bsky.social with key recommendation that HM Land Registry should make the ownership of landholdings above a certain area threshold publicly available:

digitalcommons.coop/content/file...

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Otto English @ottoenglish.bsky.social · 2d

Twelve Jobs Nigel has earned over £1 million in additional income since the general election.

To understand the scale of it, since the July 2024 election he's earned roughly £100k more as a brand ambassador for Direct Bullion than Starmer gets as PM.

www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news...

Nigel Farage earns over £1m from 12 'second jobs' - check how much your MP earns

The Reform UK leader's most lucrative second jobs include hosting on GB News, serving as a brand ambassador for Direct Bullion and recording videos for Cameo

www.mirror.co.uk

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The Green Party of England & Wales @greenparty.org.uk · 1d

“You can’t blame austerity on one hand, but then say it’s the immigrants. The immigrants haven’t caused austerity.”

Zack Polanski takes on Reform’s Zia Yusuf over spreading of misinformation on #BBCQT

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Ellie Mae O'Hagan @elliemaeohagan.bsky.social · 2d

The Director of E3G's UK Programme (and my boss) @edmatthew.bsky.social has unpacked why the Conservatives' announcement that they would scrap the Climate Change Act is an act of national sabotage:
www.e3g.org/news/pledge-...

Pledge to axe UK Climate Change Act backfires

The attempts to turn the British public against climate action does not only make no scientific or economic sense, it makes no political sense.

www.e3g.org

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Guy Shrubsole @guyshrubsole.bsky.social · 2d

And the public can and must be allowed to challenge laws that are improperly made, or contravene other laws. Commentators like to talk about the ‘activist lawyers’ but it’s usually members of the public who initiate such cases, because they care about an issue, place or community

Guy Shrubsole @guyshrubsole.bsky.social · 2d

Wrong in so many ways, I’m afraid. The public rightly gets to be consulted (after all - companies do). We’re signatories to the Aarhus Convention on access to environmental data & justice. MPs rightly talk to their constituents - unless they want to get booted out again. Scrutiny makes better laws.

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Guy Shrubsole @guyshrubsole.bsky.social · 2d

I’d love politicians to be political and have political philosophies - I’d also like them to make laws consistently and for those laws to be subject to oversight by the judiciary and public

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Guy Shrubsole @guyshrubsole.bsky.social · 2d

They are - just didn’t get that from the tone of your extract. Hope the full piece wholeheartedly rejects the government’s desire to limit Judicial Review - most pieces about ‘lefty activist lawyers’ are simply cover for that objective

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Guy Shrubsole @guyshrubsole.bsky.social · 2d

Exactly. Given that the *Supreme Court* found in @sarahfinch.bsky.social’s favour, what’s the issue here Duncan? Should inconsistent application of law not be tested? Perhaps we shouldn’t have an independent judiciary? If judges don’t think JRs have merits they don’t grant hearings

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Guy Shrubsole @guyshrubsole.bsky.social · 2d

Sad to see that two No10 advisors, Muneera Lula & Carys Roberts, have left Downing Street - both champions of the environment & equality:

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article...

Two more Keir Starmer aides exit troubled No10

Muneera Lula and Carys Roberts have both quit as policy advisers to the Prime Minister, it has been revealed.

www.dailymail.co.uk

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Miles King @milesking.bsky.social · 2d

Same story - 2 very different takes.

Reeves claims she unblocked a development being held up by a "microscopic snail or something", while Natural England claim they and the EA negotiated an agreement with Southern Water, to reduce water abstraction from the snail's habitat.

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