#JustStopOil targets think tank over role in protest crackdown

Activists targeted Policy Exchange after #openDemocracy revealed it received Big Oil funding and helped draft law

https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/policy-exchange-just-stop-oil-exxon-mobil-rishi-sunak/

Want to see media truly holding power to account? Check out openDemocracy's recent annual report - highlights include getting the govt's secretive anti-FOI unit disbanded. All made possible by commitment to independence and high standards of journalism.

#KnowTheMedia #openDemocracy #independentmedia #FOI #investigativejournalism

http://cdn2-opendemocracy-production.s3-website-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/media/documents/openDemocracy_annual_report_2022.pdf

#OpenDemocracy | NHS paid private firms £500m to ‘ease backlog’. Fewer patients got seen

More #NHS #Privatisation through the backdoor. Instead of properly funding the service, and training and hiring more medical professionals, the government are encouraging more private contracts to ease the backlog.

https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/nhs-waiting-list-backlog-private-health-500m/?utm_source=SEGMENT%20-%20Newsletter%3A%20oD%20weekly&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=NHS%20paid%20private%20firms%20%C2%A3500m%20to%20%E2%80%98ease%20backlog%E2%80%99&_kx=mLrXjWIYeC27gMXEtG7qOUeOGysYBSFJPaDZ_5D_pPsY3_No-YuxQ4SjiRyVi_0n.YjCYwm

#Tories

For all the talk about Russian and Chinese interferences – and I'm not denying they exist – it's still Rupert Murdoch who calls the shots. some democracies we live in. #OpenDemocracy

Adam Bychawski at #OpenDemocracy: the attacks on charities supporting refugees. Sickening.
'Charity workers told openDemocracy they had identified multiple occasions where inflammatory comments by ministers and MPs triggered a deluge of hate towards them. The remarks, blaming charities and human rights lawyers for delays in the asylum system, have led to staff having their addresses made public and being harassed in the street.' https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/suella-braverman-refugee-asylum-charities-government-illegal-migration-bill/?utm_source=oD%20Daily%20SEGMENT&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=How%20the%20UK%20went%20to%20war%20on%20refugee%20charities&_kx=v-YmJgbKVorbk94Aee76r1jcXlt9EWItboTQvgZszu4%3D.YjCYwm

#UkrainianJournalists share their stories of war

"Hear Igor Burdyga and Kateryna Semchuk explain what it's like working in a homeland under threat. Plus British author Oliver Bullough and chair Daniel Trilling."

#Ukraine #RussiaUkraine #RussiaUkraineWar #WarInUkraine #media

#openDemocracy

https://youtu.be/gX2ziEDpjx8

Webinar:

#UkrainianJournalists share their stories of war

February 22 2023 5pm GMT 12pm EST

with:

#IgorBurdyga Correspondent for Deutsche Welle Ukrainian service

#KaterynaSemchuk #Ukraine correspondent at oDR, #openDemocracy's post-Soviet space project

#OliverBullough Journalist & author of ‘Butler to the World'

Chair, #DanielTrilling Journalist & author based in London

#RussiaUkraine #WarInUkraine #RussiaUkraineWar #media

https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/live-discussions/ukrainian-journalists-share-their-stories-of-war/

registration:

https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/5216674705632/WN_9ruVpGffSsK6_mXOnDH7Nw

#OpenDemocracy | We deserve better than #Starmer’s #Blairite government. Here’s how we get it

This article gives a reasonably clear analysis, but it ends with an idea to create some sort of #app to allow voters to exchange votes and vote tactically.

But apart from that, there's no solution. Saying 'we should create an online resource' is all very well, but that's not the same as doing it, getting people to use it, and stopping #SocialMedia sites #ShadowBanning it.

https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/keir-starmer-labour-general-election-2024-need-radical-change-green-left/?utm_source=oD%20Daily%20SEGMENT&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=We%20deserve%20better%20than%20Starmer%E2%80%99s%20government&_kx=mLrXjWIYeC27gMXEtG7qOUeOGysYBSFJPaDZ_5D_pPsY3_No-YuxQ4SjiRyVi_0n.YjCYwm

#Paramedics open up about why they are on strike | #openDemocracy

"There's more of us than there are of them!" (we need to be active)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvSe50kRA1Y

#Paramedic #Paramedics #ParamedicStrikes #strikes

Adam Ramsay at #OpenDemocracy on the #UCU strike -- cheers @adamramsay Here on mastodon I am preaching to the converted -- good luck to those of you supporting and talking with colleagues. Those on precarious contracts need information and support; or may not be in the union. Ask them how they are doing and tell them it's ok to do childcare or laundry or the trip they need to do; try to get regular low-pressure chats going. https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/ucu-strike-university-higher-education-unite-unison-tuition-fees/

‘🚨#rishisunaks #treasury helped #Putins top warlord sue #bellingcat #journalist #eliothiggins in London

How did the notorious #wagnergroup chief get a 'special licence' from #uk #govt when he was already on the #Sanctions list?

Massive #opendemocracy #scoop:’

https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/prigozhin-government-russia-ukraine-hack-libel-slapp/

Here is Adam Ramsay @adamramsay of #OpenDemocracy. Picture: Be like Bloomsbury, not Westminster. https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/5050/scotland-trans-rights-gender-recognition-reform-future-of-uk-rishi-sunak-keir-starmer/?utm_source=oD%20Daily%20SEGMENT&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Westminster%E2%80%99s%20attack%20on%20trans%20rights&_kx=v-YmJgbKVorbk94Aee76r1jcXlt9EWItboTQvgZszu4%3D.YjCYwm

This
#openDemocracy
article from last year catalogues the failures of Hunt WRT to the #NHS and should be shared far and wide:
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/jeremy-hunt-tory-leadership-boris-johnson-nhs-junior-doctors/

#2022: war, drought, inflation and a lot of elections | #openDemocracy

https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/2022-round-up-global-events-trends-statistics/?utm_term=Autofeed&utm_campaign=Echobox&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1672391095

To qoute - The Common Ground analysis includes 1800+ pieces of data on the problems we face, the concerns we have and the solutions we prefer - with 250+ common ground policies identified in total. For example:

75% of all voters want a #Green New Deal for green #jobs and infrastructure

65% want a £15 minimum #wage

74% want #rent controls to help with the cost of living crisis

Between 65 and 69% of voters want #nationalisation of #energy #water #rail #buses and #mail .

78% want the NHS run in the public sector and 65% support tax rises to #boost #NHS funding

83% want free social care for the over-65s. https://citizen-network.org/news/the-common-ground-we-share

FYI, some will say that, to paraphrase, "we can't afford X, Y or Z". But, bare in mind that some will say we can't afford to mitigate climate change.

Let's *not* listen to ignorance, corrupt & foolish thinking. We can afford, and more, all aforementioned policies. " All", we need to do is to have policies that redistribute our resources more fairly.

So, don't vote for the rich & corrupt salespeople whom made their wealth by "investing" in dark money thats associated with degrading ecology.

Research how they made their money. Is that a conflict of interests when "serving" the people as a politician?

#CommonGood #cooperation #cooperative #CitizenNetwork #OpenDemocracy #UK #politics

To qoute - The Common Ground analysis includes 1800+ pieces of data on the problems we face, the concerns we have and the solutions we prefer - with 250+ common ground policies identified in total. For example:

75% of all voters want a #Green New Deal for green #jobs and infrastructure

65% want a £15 minimum #wage

74% want #rent controls to help with the cost of living crisis

Between 65 and 69% of voters want #nationalisation of #energy #water #rail #buses and #mail .

78% want the NHS run in the public sector and 65% support tax rises to #boost #NHS funding

83% want free social care for the over-65s. https://citizen-network.org/news/the-common-ground-we-share

#CommonGood #cooperation #cooperative #CitizenNetwork #OpenDemocracy #UK #politics

#OpenDemocracy | What is Labour for the Long Term, the mysterious group funding Labour MPs?

Quite interesting. The article is really about 'Effective Altruism' and 'Long-termism'

"... leads the movement to spend countless millions or billions on research into the risks of AI, or think tanks exploring nuclear disarmament, as they are seen to pose bigger threats to the existential future of humanity than, say, poverty – or even, in some EA circles, than climate change."

https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/labour-long-term-effective-altruism-wes-streeting/?utm_source=oD%20Daily%20SEGMENT&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=The%20mysterious%20group%20funding%20Labour%20MPs&_kx=mLrXjWIYeC27gMXEtG7qOUeOGysYBSFJPaDZ_5D_pPsY3_No-YuxQ4SjiRyVi_0n.YjCYwm

Social media - the tabloid press, TV chat shows that talk about the news in the tabloid press, people on #twitter #facebook etc that talk about the news they read in newspapers, magazines or heard in TV.

What if a majority of all the social media information is nothing more than only hype & gossip?

Of course there are real events that real journalist report. There is real science that genuine science journalist report. But, in today's social media age what sells is hyped up social narratives ("click bait", headlines that sell newspapers, etc).

TV chat shows that are gossiping about the gossip of what the tabloid news says some celebrity did or said. TV chat shows of adults seeming to believe every word of a "celebrity said or did" headline.

And yet, the British tabloid press is regularly sued for intentionally spreading disinformation. Of course, they always deny it. But, the wealthy social celebrities that can afford a lawyer, their legal action against, for example, the mail on Sunday, is used by that newspaper paper to make more "headlines". So, the tabloids profit if people try to sue them, because its another way to sell a story.

Whether it's disinforming readers about the science of climate change or spreading celebrity gossip - many "news" papers are now in the business of making money out of spreading disinformation.

And how many of the, for example, British public consume the industrial amount of disinformation, misinformation or simply misinformed opinion articles - the majority of people!

To reiterate, of course there are social media news outlets that still do honest #journalism #guardian #TheConversation. And of course, there are very important investigative journalist that uncover disinformation & corruption in general #OpenDemocracy

But, some people simply have not developed a healthy form of scepticism - they have faith in those social media news sources that simply sell a lot of bullshit. For instance, in #Britain that bullshit can be simply reporting what some conservative politician said. Especially when the subject is about their environmental policies.

Its as if many of the conservative voters must be either extremely ignorant or are aware that the Conservative politicians are full of bullshit. Maybe they're voting for people they like because they are like them. The conservative party has an extremely poor track record regarding it's environmental mismanagement practices. As does the general British public (they evidently do)

The conservative party regularly displays "green" moral grandstanding (virtue signaling) & climate "blah blah blah" behaviours - as do many of the people in Britain (they evidently do - have you seen their actual environmental actions? Degrading ecology they're)

A con artist choosers a "mark" based on a certain quality. The "mark" wants to believe in something. The British public want to believe they can solve climate change by, for example, continuing to fill up their fossil fuel burning vehicles. They want to believe in the disinformation from the fuel industries & politicians.

The greenwashed are also the greenwashers.

#news #england #politics #SocialMedia #celebrity #royalty #opinions #misinformation #disinformation #FossilFuels #pollution #AirPollution #corporations

#science #climate #nature #wildlife #CleanAir #RenewableEnergy #EcologicalRestoration #Rewilding #biodiversity

#ClimateChange #ClimateEmergency #extinction

'the formal equality of opportunity that unweighted lotteries promise tends to result in assemblies skewed to the socially advantaged, the partisan, and those most confident in their practical and cognitive abilities, whatever the reality' - ecellent article #OpenDemocracy

RT @SortitionNow@twitter.com

Some of the issues we face in recruitment - and are continually trying to improve - are discussed here...

https://theconversation.com/citizen-assemblies-and-the-challenges-of-democratic-equality-189353

🐦🔗: https://twitter.com/SortitionNow/status/1601698521379442690

#UK government takes #openDemocracy to court to avoid handing over "lessons learnt" #COVID review: The Department of Health and Social Care has appealed to a #tribunal to avoid having to hand over the documents https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/department-health-social-care-covid-lessons-learnt/ #COVID19 #DHSC #FOI