claire-james.bsky.social
Looking for some nice content to break up the doomscrolling. Londoner. Climate campaigner (see @campaigncc.bsky.social)
298 posts
115 followers
194 following
Getting Started
Active Commenter
comment in response to
post
But do you think a fair solution is to remove benefits from people who need assistance to cut up food, wash their hair and body below the waist, use the toilet, and also to dress/undress their lower body? They won't be eligible for PIP under new rules. Nor will family members get Carers Allowance.
comment in response to
post
Finally, you can also send your MP this report by Citizens Advice Bureau (or any of the many other reports by disability and poverty organisations detailing the impact the cuts will have)
🙏
comment in response to
post
The consultation on the cuts has just been window dressing, not even including the major changes. Disabled people in Manchester had to resort to direct action to have their say.
comment in response to
post
Losing PIP can mean losing other benefits such as Carer's Allowance for a family member, or the health element of Universal Credit. People already struggling could lose over £10,000 of their annual income.
comment in response to
post
As a Londoner working from home in the outskirts I like going into the centre. I miss having more free time in my 20s when I used to go for walks all over.
But I'm not going to e.g Leicester Square!
comment in response to
post
Interesting, but I was expecting it to show more of a dramatic difference between UK and the north-west European coast, and the rest of Europe. Maybe that's there but I can't see it at a glance.
comment in response to
post
You may think the standard seatbelt is fine, but car safety is designed around male body shape, driving position etc. Women are less likely to be in crashes but much more likely to be injured in them.
So thinking along these lines might be a good thing. Or maybe it is just enshittification!
comment in response to
post
But political interference is a built-in part of the US electoral process, isn't it? In the UK, we're not perfect but our boundaries are drawn by an independent commission. A new rule on showing ID to vote is 😞 but we don't have anything like the massive voter suppression in some US states.
comment in response to
post
If you like some properly ancient history, I recommend this, if you've not read it:
comment in response to
post
Fascist salutes aren’t great, but causing mass starvation by blocking food aid and cutting off HIV medication so there will be another epidemic of children orphaned by AIDS ranks higher on the evil-o-meter. And still stands even if he walks away.
comment in response to
post
That's a bit unfair - they are quite nice images, and hand painted signs are a lot more photogenic than someone sitting at a laptop on a zoom meeting... #ClimateActivistLife
comment in response to
post
Sorry for petition plug but…
Swifts are far less common in the UK than when this picture was painted. Populations have more than halved in just 20 years.
Putting nesting bricks in new homes would cost developers just £35/house, but the government has U-turned on making it compulsory.
comment in response to
post
No.
comment in response to
post
As well as the obvious contempt for human rights, South Sudan? Seriously? It already has 330,000 refugees, mainly from Sudan, plus 2 million internally displaced persons from conflict and climate change impacts (mainly massive floods). And cholera. And USAID just pulled out.
comment in response to
post
Sadly, needing a wheelchair would probably have a greater impact on US electability than dementia. This is an electorate that chose the incoherent Trump over a woman. It’s all about macho vibes not competence.
comment in response to
post
So this ‘glitch’ has been removed, but what about the climate denialism talking points being churned out when people ask Grok about climate change? (think it was probably you who posted this - can’t find it now!)
comment in response to
post
Also five years may be a long time in politics but loads of the key workers in Covid were immigrants - care staff, NHS, bus drivers, shelf stackers. We all realised how important the jobs these people do are, keeping us safe and fed. And then some of us <Starmer> promptly forgot.
comment in response to
post
A fully comprehensive list would be a bit of a challenge within the character limit 😕
comment in response to
post
Given that he’s effectively told us all* to fuck off from a great height, that seems justified.
* immigrants
disabled people
anyone who voted Labour in the hope they’d return some sanity and humanity to politics
(oh and bats and newts can apparently fuck off too according to Reeves)
comment in response to
post
Not fair, it missed us here in West London and I am going to have to make a special trip to water the allotment after all.
comment in response to
post
Coral reefs are so vital not just for humans but for the wider ocean ecosystem, but we have almost certainly gone beyond the point of being able to save any but a tiny fraction from climate change: www.carbonbrief.org/last-refuges... (we’re at about 1.5C and rising)
comment in response to
post
Lefty/green types saying ‘maybe we could burn less fossil fuels to import vast quantities of plastic shit that goes straight to landfill and made with slave labour?’ get so much grief.
Who knew all it would take was a Republican president crashing the US economy to achieve it?
comment in response to
post
Easy. Dandelion. Next round, dandelion or buttercup?
comment in response to
post
Is the idea that if he only spends one or two days a week gutting welfare, research, healthcare and taking food from starving children that will detoxify his brand and make Teslas more popular again? Yup, that should definitely work.
comment in response to
post
I did not know that. Do they attempt to justify it?
comment in response to
post
Train drivers…?
comment in response to
post
Replying just to plug @womensartbluesky.bsky.social because we could all do with some beautiful art in our Bluesky feeds.
comment in response to
post
Here in London, it's the middle classes who 'pack like cattle' from the suburbs - who the hell wants to drive into central London when you don't need a car to get around. We are a bit shit at cycle lanes though.
Poor people are less likely to have cars and more likely to suffer from air pollution.
comment in response to
post
Hmm. I just read
@tessakhan.bsky.social's comprehensive thread in response on North Sea oil. And just from the intro I can see he applauds the plan for massive airport expansion - a climate disaster.
Climate collapse is still an existential threat to humanity, even if commentators ignore it.
comment in response to
post
It’s even worse as they will presumably have hardly any genetic diversity, so the population would metaphorically fall over in a strong breeze.
comment in response to
post
How good a lawyer do you have to be to successfully argue that a Real Madrid tattoo is proof of criminality?
comment in response to
post
So many places in Covid Times put hand sanitiser next to the soap. Completely unnecessary - soap and water is better at cleaning your hands - and so many times I ended up trying to wash my hands with gloopy not-soap by mistake…
comment in response to
post
Google suggests unfertilised eggs
comment in response to
post
It's more than a distraction from the rest of us cutting emissions - Trump's administration are doing everything they can to ramp up emissions and push us over climate tipping points.
comment in response to
post
...and that cutting disability benefits across the board is actually pretty unsuccessful in getting people into work?
I need to get off Bluesky now, but there's loads of info from experts & disabled people and carers themselves about the harm this will cause - maybe read some of that evidence?
comment in response to
post
...and that applying for disability benefits is a gruelling process, lots of people are already turned down at the first go but appeals have a success rate of around 70% (i.e. they should have been eligible but denied)?
comment in response to
post
Some people - probably a lot fewer than those who 'could work' but can't find employers prepared to make reasonable adjustments.
Do you understand that the cuts will cause hardship to disabled people who can't work and disabled people already in work?
comment in response to
post
'Swing voters' defined as 'possible Tory/Reform voters' not 'possible Lib Dem/Green voters' obviously.
It's also about the policies they choose to headline - lots of 'we will bring economic growth' and benefit-bashing. Very little promoting how they'll improve public services and the left-behind
comment in response to
post
"Painful income shocks" for disabled people and carers - making people poorer not helping them into work.
comment in response to
post
If there are more sick and disabled people does that make giving them inadequate support acceptable? It's not just an item on a budget we're talking about, it's people needing to skip meals.
Lots of people who need financial support now won't be eligible, e.g.:
www.rightsnet.org.uk/forums/viewt...
comment in response to
post
Even if a lot of the electorate do think disabled people are scroungers that doesn't make it true. They are being thrown under the bus and a lot more people will be driven into poverty.
comment in response to
post
Actually - horrified is a strong word, disabled people themselves are certainly horrified, but most voters probably just greyly depressed that 'this lot' are no better than 'the other lot' and that the promised change is not coming - if anything things will get worse.
comment in response to
post
She's the public face of the planned 'worst cuts since Tory austerity', in particular harsh benefit cuts to the sick and disabled, on top of the earlier winter fuel allowance means testing.
Lots of Labour voters are pretty horrified by the targeting of disabled people rather than raising taxes.