“We think we’re so clever and brilliant wading into countries, plunging in and firing missiles. But we don’t think of the absolutely catastrophic effects that they can have many decades down the line.”
On BBC Question Time, George Monbiot explains that the Islamic Republic was partly established in response to British and American imperial action.
In 1953, Western powers overthrew a democratically elected Iranian government in the process of nationalising Iranian oil, paving the way for an Islamic Republic hostile to Western powers.
The world emits around 50 billion tonnes of greenhouse gases every year.
Energy use dominates, as most people know. But agriculture and land use contribute a great deal. There are no small problems at this scale.
I appear in a new documentary, All The World Is Green by @pinchmediafilm , which examines the impact of food systems on our ecosystems.
The film will be available from the 20th May on Vimeo On Demand.
Link in bio ⬆️
#emissions #pollution #foodsystems #agriculture #farming
BREAKING - RAJIV MENON KC WINS APPEAL
Following an attempt by Mr Justice Johnson to prosecute Palestine Action barrister for “contempt of court” after his closing speech mentioned the legal principle known as
“jury Equity”, Rajiv Menon has won his appeal.
What is Jury Equity? If a jury decides that the person who stands accused of a crime made the morally correct choice in their actions, the jury can find them “not-guilty”, even if the evidence shows that they did carry out the actions they are on trial for. This has been a legal principle since 1670.
Rajiv Menon is believed to be the first barrister in British legal history to be pursued over the contents of their closing speech. He did what every defence barrister should be free to do - in discharging his duty to his client: he told a jury the truth about their own rights.
Today, The Court of Appeal ruled that Mr Justice Johnson had no jurisdiction to refer Rajiv Menon KC directly to the High Court. This was unlawful.
It is no coincidence that this attempt to silence a barrister is connected to activists who disrupted Israel’s genocidal war crimes.
Rogue judges are attempting to remove any mention of this principle to jurors, blocking their lawful rights. Labour is attempting to heavily restrict jury trials, preventing access to fair justice.
The attack on juries is an attack on everyone.
Join us: defendourjuries.net
…Deep canvassing works only if you have a large army of volunteers, ideally from the community you’re trying to reach. Instead of delivering a message then scuttling away, as conventional canvassers do, their role is to connect and listen. Across conversations that might last for 10 or 20 minutes, they let people discuss their feelings. Then, without arguing or judging, they share their own experiences and ask questions (“have you ever been treated unfairly?”) that might reveal common ground.
The technique was developed by LGBT activists in Los Angeles after same-sex marriage rights were not voted into law in a state referendum. They wanted to find out why and to see whether people could change their minds. They were amazed by the response, and asked researchers to study the technique. The effects turned out to be significant.
Read my full article in the @guardian
Link in bio.⬆️
#election2026 #canvassing #inequality #deeplistening #neoliberalism
Half of all habitable land on Earth is used for agriculture. That single fact reframes almost every conversation about the environment — about wildlife, about carbon, about water, about what we have left.
These numbers changed how I see the food system — and once I’d seen them, I couldn’t look away.
All The World Is Green is a documentary I’m part of that takes land as its starting point — and keeps going. Into the emissions, the water systems, the supply chains, the politics, the diseases. The full picture of what industrial food production is doing, and what it will keep doing unless something changes.
Watch the documentary, out on 20th May on Vimeo On Demand.
Link in bio ⬆️
@pinchmediafilm
📢 It’s time to cut the chemicals from our food and fields.
✍️ SIGN THE PETITION - LINK IN BIO.
🚜 What happens right before harvest?
In the UK, some crops are sprayed with glyphosate to dry them out - a process called pre-harvest desiccation. It helps meet food system demands for speed and uniformity, letting farmers plan harvests in advance.
But spraying this close to harvest means residues can end up in the food we eat - in everyday staples like bread, cereals, and beer. Glyphosate also puts pollinators, wildlife and waterways at risk.
Farmers can’t change this alone - they need support.
It’s time for government action.
✊✊ Sign our petition to demand:
1. A ban on using glyphosate to dry crops before harvest
2. Stronger protections on pesticide residues in food
3. Support for farmers to transition to more nature-friendly farming practices.
✍️ Link in bio
Film credits:
@thenest_uk@tayo.rap
#Glyphosate #cutthechemicals
Since we shared 93-year-old Dorothy’s story, it’s been viewed hundreds of thousands of times. And today, Dorothy and her fellow elderly care home residents, made it onto the front page of The Daily Mirror!
They’ve just launched their open letter urging the public to vote in the May 7 local elections, stand up for elderly care, and stop Reform winning more council seats in England. Let’s do it for Dorothy — vote on 7 May.
Read the full article - link in bio!
How do we know whether political funding is corrupt? Mostly, we don’t. A plutocrat delivers a sack of cash to a political party. A few weeks later, it announces a policy that happens to favour the donor’s business. Are the events linked? We might suspect it; we cannot prove it. But the suspicion itself is corrosive and demoralising.
… Like the Tories, Reform has also taken lavish funding from very rich people who are hostile to climate action. Both parties now evince the same hostility. Which came first, the hostility or the funding? Does it matter? Whether a party changes its policy in response to donations or attracts big donors because of its policy, it’s equally damaging to democratic trust.
The same applies to Labour’s relationship with City donors, which might help explain its newfound enthusiasm for deregulating finance, despite the warnings of 2008. As Transparency International has documented, political parties in the UK “are increasingly becoming dependent on a small number of very wealthy donors”. “Dependent on” can easily mean “beholden to”. In very few cases has corruption been demonstrated. But that’s not the point. The problem isn’t that such relationships are illegal. The problem is that they are not.
Read my full column in the @guardian
Link in bio ⬆️
#elections2026 #corruption #ukpolitics #localelections #neoliberalism
