Peter Apps is right:
'If we want a functional housing market again, we need a long-term housing strategy that ends our reliance on side hustlers to meet complex housing needs & encourages an economy that treats homes as places to live, not an investment asset to replace a pension. But we are unlikely to ever see such a strategy when it is the side hustlers themselves entrusted to write it'!
Landlords governing for landlords is not the way forward!
#housing #politics
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/aug/12/private-landlords-housing-politics-thatcherite-policy
When I retired like many academics I had an office full of books (3500, now all sold on), but in the new faculty reorganisation currently being visited on my erstwhile colleagues, they are seeing their books treated as if they are just a nuisance for the movers, rather than (as a number have posted out) the tools of their trade.
It may be a 'first world problem' but is emblematic of the disrespect visited on academics by university mangers who see academics just as a cost!
#universities.
Violence against NHS A&E staff is rising, driven at least in part by frustrations with waits for treatment, but also perhaps by a breakdown in social norms of respect for health workers?
And of course, this will no be helping the NHS retain staff nor recruit new people toward in A&E.
Call me an alarmist, but this seems to be just the latest example of a creeping barbarism & decline in civility in come parts of our civil society.
#politics #health #civility
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/aug/12/ae-nurses-attacks-rise
Aha, the Tangerine Tyrant reinforces the TACO (Trump Always Chicken Out) meme by extending the 'pause' on increasing tariffs on Chinese imports by another 90 day, to allow for continued discussions.
Like all bullies, when he is confronted by real power (in this case Chinese economic dominance of some markets), he backs down but reinforces his attacks on weaker adversaries (see confirmed tariffs elsewhere).
This really has become the global politics of the playground...
#trade #politics
As Frances Ryan points out, our political class are shrugging their shoulders even as they collude with & encourage a Right narrative of dangerous asylum seekers.
If you want an example of how the so-called 'centre' (now really no such thing) is always more relaxed about the extremists on the Right, then their ambivalence about anti-migrant (anti-asylum-seeker) rhetoric would be a good place to start.
Ryan is rightly angry & so should we be!
#migrants #politics
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/aug/12/asylum-seekers-leaders-sexual-offences-women-girls
Well that didn't take long;
Looks like Yvette Cooper's claims about 'intelligence' on the dangerous character of Palestine Action, leading to the need to proscribe the organisation as a Terrorist organisation have already been contradicted by Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre’s assessment, revealed the ongoing legal challenge to the proscription, which does conclude that PA are a terrorist organisation.
No doubt Yvette will claim its not that intelligence.
#politics
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/aug/11/palestine-action-huda-ammori-ministers-claims
The Govt, says the vast majority of the nearly 750 people arrested for protesting the proscription of Palestine Action over the last two weeks are unlikely to receive custodial sentences, just community service orders & fines (or conditional discharges).
But, a conviction under the Terrorism Act can impact the ability to travel out of the country, and may preclude employment in various sectors (including education).
It will be interesting to see how this plays out.
#protest #democracy
h/t FT
More declaratory politics in the ongoing (engineered) health crisis...
The good news is that the Govt. its seeking to reduce constraints on NHS employers to hire nurses & midwives...
the bad news is it looks like such expansion in the staff complement will not be fully funded, meaning for those who want/need to empty more nurses & midwives, cuts will need to be made elsewhere!
This is not the way to solve a funding-based crisis, its just pious words
#NHS #health
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c39ddjv09vvo
Hmmm.... its clear that the Tangerine Tyrant's deportation 'boom' is a major profit opportunity for a group of US corporations contracted to carry out the policy.
If you wanted an example of how Corporate Welfare works, you could do a lot worse than this.
A toxic policy that enriches a small cadre of corporations (who no doubt at some future point will be, or have already 'rewarded' Trump for his 'support' for their businesses).
#politics #CorporateWelfare #corruption
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/aug/10/trump-immigration-companies-profit
Yesterday I wrote to my MP raising my concerns (again) about the proscription of Palestine Action.
I would urge you (if you live in the UK) to do the same.
#protest #democracy #politics
Emeritus Prof Christopher May