Robin
robinmcghee.bsky.social
Robin
@robinmcghee.bsky.social
Environmental advocate. Check out my podcast >>> @ministryoffilmpod
Reposted by Robin
this is some real Les Mis shit
Portland is completely blocked off between 34th and 35th and has been since the early morning, residents of the area and activists are monitoring car traffic in and out to give the community room to grieve and process the events of yesterday
January 8, 2026 at 8:47 PM
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When some people cannot cover the cost of daily life, and cuts to support services and benefits are compounding this harm, what kind of Govt even considers demanding further billions to pay for a deeply unpopular digital ID scheme that threatens our basic rights?

www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
UK Government Asks Departments to Make Savings to Fund ID Plan
The UK government has asked ministers to find reductions in their departmental spending in order to fund a controversial new digital ID program.
www.bloomberg.com
January 8, 2026 at 3:17 PM
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Jeez. This just gets worse. Minister now admits jury trials would be curbed regardless of courts crisis

www.lawgazette.co.uk/news/ministe...
Minister admits jury trials would be curbed regardless of courts crisis
MPs call out comment by courts minister Sackman during fiery debate on jury reforms.
www.lawgazette.co.uk
January 8, 2026 at 4:35 PM
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New: we've obtained material explaining how an ICE surveillance system, called Webloc, works. Draw shape on a map, see all phones available there, follow them home. All without warrant

“This is a very dangerous tool in the hands of an out-of-control agency.” www.404media.co/inside-ices-...
Inside ICE’s Tool to Monitor Phones in Entire Neighborhoods
404 Media has obtained material that explains how Tangles and Webloc, two surveillance systems ICE recently purchased, work. Webloc can track phones without a warrant and follow their owners home or t...
www.404media.co
January 8, 2026 at 2:03 PM
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Essentially every country in the world in a party to the UN Convention on Climate Change. Including autocracies, coal and oil producers

All except one, now

Hard to have better evidence that the USA has become a rogue state

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Trump withdraws US from key climate treaty and dozens of other groups
The White House says the decision was taken because those entities
www.bbc.co.uk
January 8, 2026 at 8:30 AM
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Great time to watch FALL OF EAGLES if you haven’t already. The entire show is on YouTube. Patrick Stewart plays Lenin. I’ve seen the whole thing four times.
January 6, 2026 at 10:12 PM
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If the Palestine Action hunger strikers die - which they could do at any moment, as they are now very close to the end - it will be the government that killed them. Today’s column explains why. Please share, and write urgently to your MP.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Let’s be clear: if the Palestine Action hunger strikers die, the government will bear moral responsibility | George Monbiot
The three remaining hunger strikers have been convicted of nothing. Yet with astonishing cruelty, ministers refuse to listen to their reasonable demands, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot
www.theguardian.com
January 7, 2026 at 8:07 AM
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Crockett: "Everyone wants to talk about how Maduro was illegitimate. As we sit here on January 6, I do want to be clear: somebody else was trying to be a Maduro of the United States. Somebody else wanted to do the exact same thing. The difference is Maduro was successful."
January 6, 2026 at 7:38 PM
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The relentless, whinging, self-pity of the Reform voter is the political muzak of our times.
Reform UK voters stand out for their firm belief that white men are victimised & that minorities are subject to positive discrimination.

Had missed this blog by @benansell.bsky.social last year.
benansell.substack.com/p/odd-ones-out
January 6, 2026 at 9:59 AM
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This is basically the view of the world that Plato sets out to refute in the Republic. One of the core questions asked therein is: why do powerful people think the mere fact of them exercising dominion makes it good for them to do so? Sure, you *can* get away with stuff if you're powerful - so what?
Here is the Trump Doctrine, as articulated by Stephen Miller in his truly frightening interview with Jake Tapper this afternoon. It is very much like the doctrine of the dictators we fought and defeated in World War II and of Putin today. It is un-American at its very core.
January 6, 2026 at 10:37 AM
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Starmer has said that what has been allowed to happen at X is "outrageous" and that those responsible should face the "full force of the law," calling their tactics "pathetic" no wait sorry, I got confused, that was him describing Just Stop Oil protesters who put some cornflour on Stonehenge.
Ofcom, which enforces the UK's Online Safety Act, says it is aware of "serious concerns" about Grok undressing people including children on X

“We have made urgent contact with X and xAI to understand what steps they have taken to comply with their legal duties to protect users in the UK," it says
January 5, 2026 at 4:12 PM
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Crucifixion faced by (figured by) the Brazen Serpent in the amazing Farnese Hours, by Giulio Clovio. Today is his day.
January 5, 2026 at 8:29 PM
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British public opposes the US action to capture Venezuela's President.

21% support (8% strongly)
51% oppose (34% strongly)

By party
Labour: 12-63 oppose
LibDem: 12-69 oppose
Green: 5-77 oppose
Conservative: 31-47 oppose
Reform (49-22 support) are different, with half supporting.
January 5, 2026 at 5:15 PM
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‘A silent majority’: Politicians strongly underestimate support for green policies, study reveals

- From solar subsidies to meat taxes, minority rightwing voices appear to drown out the consensus

Research by Lisa-Maria Tanase et al
Story by me
#climatecrisis
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
‘A silent majority’: MPs underestimate support for green policies, study reveals
Exclusive: From solar subsidies to meat taxes, minority rightwing voices appear to drown out the consensus
www.theguardian.com
January 5, 2026 at 12:58 PM
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And on this kind of garbage hang the fates of nations
January 5, 2026 at 4:07 AM
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It’s sobering to look back on the run-up to the Iraq war—a period of unceasing chattering-class debate, elaborate official lies, media complicity, unavailing global protest, in the end a giant stitch-up—and have it seem like some sort of paradise of public deliberation compared to these gangsters.
January 3, 2026 at 9:51 PM
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I feel like I haven’t even been properly lied to about the purposes of this war
January 3, 2026 at 9:13 AM
The government’s response to Trump’s barbaric imperialism is exactly as bad as you’d expect.
Govt minister Darren Jones is asked what element of international law gives the US the right to abduct the leader of another country.

Jones says he's not qualified to answer that question and he's not a spokesperson for the US administration.
January 4, 2026 at 9:28 AM
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This report in Nature on the costs of competing for & administering scientific grants is shocking: "In other words, European taxpayers will have spent more on the funding process than on the funding itself, and the scientific ecosystem has been drained." www.nature.com/articles/d41... 🧪
Point of no returns: researchers are crossing a threshold in the fight for funding
With so little money to go round, the costs of competing for grants can exceed what the grants are worth. When that happens, nobody wins.
www.nature.com
December 19, 2025 at 6:46 PM
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The London NHM has committed to overhauling it's dinosaur exhibit sometime in the next decade. Just for fun, here's a doodle of how I might do it.

I don't have detailed specs on these spaces but this should be approximately to scale.
December 31, 2025 at 6:47 AM
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Life folded Death; Death trellised Life; the grim god wived with youthful Life, and begat him curly-headed glories.
January 1, 2026 at 1:47 PM
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I think this generalises further: a maxim I have developed is that as a society we should treat children a bit more like adults, and adults a bit more like children.

So for example I think we can stand to be more paternalistic with adults, but give children more decision making autonomy
January 1, 2026 at 10:12 AM
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This is a great read.
I sense that a lot of people are feeling like this. 2015 was when things started to go wrong and the past decade has been a nightmare. 10 years on, it’s time for something else.
January 1, 2026 at 9:13 AM
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This was the year that they needed to do something. The year that could have set the path for their first term, and instead they went from dismissing Kemi's push to extend ILR in February to implementing it in November whilst continuing to fail on tax and spend.

Worthless, incompetent, immoral.
December 31, 2025 at 11:03 AM
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It is happening with zero scrutiny. The government will not push back. The broadcasters will not interrogate. It is unbelievable how easily it is all sliding away.
You can joke about this but, as things stand, the likelihood is it will happen. We should be absolutely terrified. We are three years or so away from our democracy coming to an end.
Fashy Bob off again
December 30, 2025 at 8:46 PM