So well put by George Monbiot. Applies to our tepid Labor government here in Australia too. People don’t want to be regarded only as economic units, and if you block leftist reform they reach for hard-right chaos.

"The democratic recession does not begin when a far-right party takes office. It begins when a centrist party crushes hope in democracy. When Keir Starmer’s government takes a chainsaw to people’s aspirations for a fairer, greener, kinder country, he cuts off not just faith in the Labour party but faith in politics itself. The almost inevitable result, as countries from the US to the Netherlands, Argentina to Austria, Italy to Sweden show, is to let the far right in."

#UKpol #USpol #auspol https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/mar/28/fascism-britain-neoliberalism-opened-door-for-it-labour

How has fascism in Britain got this far? Neoliberalism has opened the door for it

We need a new politics of belonging, not Labour’s craven appeasement of capital, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot

^{George Monbiot (The Guardian)}

I've still not heard back from my MP Steve Reed, about the letter I sent to him about this.

Shower of bastards.

#Labour #Ofcom #OnlineSafetyAct #UKPOL #UKPolitics

Saddling small sites with the same duties as huge platforms means many will shut down in a hammer blow to net plurality.

We'll be left with the Sophie’s choice of monopoly services; the incubators of online harms.

URGENT: The UK government must change the Online Safety Act to protect safe, non-commercial blogs, forums and fediverse.

Write to your MP to #SaveOurSites 🌐

https://action.openrightsgroup.org/save-our-sites-write-your-mp

#onlinesafetyact #onlinesafety #fediverse #ukpolitics #ukpol #activitypub #mastodon #netplurality

Save our sites - Write to your MP

Small UK websites, user-to-user services and even computer games that are completely safe and well managed, are faced with difficult paperwork, risks assessments, registration and fines thanks to the Online Safety Act.

^{Open Rights Group}

🚨 BREAKING 🚨

The UK is rogue in trying to order a backdoor to Apple encryption.

US lawmakers slam the UK's secretive order, calling it what it is:

🔥 'Dangerous' for global cybersecurity
🔥 'Effectively a foreign cyberattack'

The Home Office must back off ✋

#encryption #surveillance #e2ee #cybersecurity #ukpolitics #ukpol #Apple #privacy

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2025/02/13/apple-uk-security-back-door-adp/

It couldn't be clearer: Encryption is online safety.

It keeps our data secure from hackers. Our systems secure from global bad actors. Our rights secure from State oppression in a digitalised society.

Sign and share our petition to save Apple encrypted data ⬇️

#encryption #surveillance #e2ee #cybersecurity #ukpolitics #ukpol #Apple

https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/keep-our-apple-data-encrypted

Keep our Apple data encrypted

It is reported that the Home Office has ordered Apple to build a backdoor into its encrypted services so that they can get hold of content that any Apple user has upload to the cloud. Encryption keeps our private information safe and secure.

^{38 Degrees}

Turns out ecologists and entomologists around the world have been warning about declining insect numbers for years. The culprits are climate change, habitat loss, light pollution, intensive farming, pesticide and fertiliser use. But it’s a struggle to get people to act.

It’s not just about bees and butterflies, the poster children of the pollinator world. Other, less photogenic pollinators such as hoverflies, moths, wasps, soldier beetles and earwigs are also showing declines. Several of these species don’t just pollinate. They also eat the pest insects that ruin crops.

Already, in the apple and pear orchards of south-west China, depleted populations of pollinators have forced farmers to hand-pollinate their trees, carrying pots of pollen and paintbrushes with which to individually pollinate every flower. If it sounds labour-intensive and time-consuming, that’s because it is.

#green #ukpolitics #uspol #ukpol #climate #environment #insects #agriculture #farming

https://archive.ph/tvnld#selection-1659.0-1668.2

Cash-strapped councils may seek to put disabled people in residential care to save costs, without regard for their wishes

https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/disabled-rights-social-care-independent-living-budget-cuts-campaign/?utm_source=Mastodon&utm_medium=Mastodon

#ukpol #UKPolitics #disability

Care cuts threaten Disabled people’s right to independent living

Cash-strapped councils may seek to put us in residential care to save costs, without regard for our wishes

^{Mikey Erhardt (openDemocracy)}