Antiwork DessertStorms • 4 months ago • 76%

www.youtube.com

Jimmy ate my yogurt now he's putting it back Used to ignore but I'll plain attack Drop the defence now I've got you in my scope Jimmy walk away from the fridge slowly Got your email Jimmy, you sent it at night You expect a response but I'm tucked in tight I'm different now Jimmy, I'm in my power I'll respond to your email at a reasonable hour At a reasonable hour At a reasonable hour At a reasonable hoooouuuur Self care, bad *removed*, I'm a villain, I'm a villain, out of office email saying zero fucks given x4 You ask me to work late, but I'm all done Off the clock punched out time for fun! You ask me where I'm going so I tell you the truth Jimmy boy I'm going to a spin class! Kind regards, best wishes, EAT SHIT Yours truly, sincerely, THIS *removed* I'm different now Jimmy, I'm in my power I'll respond to your email at a reasonable hour At a reasonable hour At a reasonable hour At a reasonable hoooouuuur Self care, bad *removed*, I'm a villain I'm a villain, out of office email saying zero fucks given x6

British Telly DessertStorms • 4 months ago • 100%

Will have to upload that new song, it was a banger!

Documentaries DessertStorms • 4 months ago • 80%

www.youtube.com

Documentary portrait of the trail-blazing activist, poet and writer Maya Angelou. Born in 1928, she enthused generations with her bold and inspirational championing of the African-American experience that pushed boundaries and redefined the way people think about race and culture. Maya Angelou was captured on film just before she died in 2014, and this documentary celebrates her life and work, weaving her words with rare and intimate archival photographs and videos. It reveals hidden episodes of her exuberant life during some of America's defining moments, from her upbringing in the Depression-era south to her work with Malcolm X in Ghana and her inaugural speech for President Bill Clinton, the film takes us on an incredible journey through the life of a true American icon.

British Telly DessertStorms • 4 months ago • 100%

I wasn't expecting quality tv, but was still taken aback when I realised one of the people on this show, traveling across the globe alone to meet the online "love of their lives", is a 17 year old, who met a woman 11 years his senior when he was **15**. How this ever made it past not one, but probably several brainstorming-new-shows and then production meetings, to actual air, is infuriating, especially since "duty of care" is a joke to these people.. I feel dirty having watched that.

artporn DessertStorms • 4 months ago • 95%

400 Years Ago a Prudish Aristocrat Censored This Artemisia Gentileschi Nude. Using Tech, an Italian Museum Has Revealed the Stunning Original Work [https://news.artnet.com/art-world/censored-artemisia-gentileschi-female-nude-revealed-2375778](https://news.artnet.com/art-world/censored-artemisia-gentileschi-female-nude-revealed-2375778) [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegory\_of\_Inclination](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegory_of_Inclination) Her other work is also well worth a look: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemisia\_Gentileschi](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemisia_Gentileschi)

Alternative Nation: The Fediverse's Alternative and Indie Music Community DessertStorms • 4 months ago • 85%

www.youtube.com

Such a chill little trip

Movies DessertStorms • 4 months ago • 100%

www.imdb.com

An eye opening movie based on the realities of the for-profit rehab/addiction treatment complex (though the text at the end, as well as revealing some horrific related statistics, also makes it clear that this is a at least partly promotional material for the 12 step programs, which have their own issues). A pretty depressing watch, but important if you want a better understanding of the tip of the iceberg of reasons why profit and care (health, social, communal, any care really) should never mix.

Alternative Nation: The Fediverse's Alternative and Indie Music Community DessertStorms • 4 months ago • 84%

www.youtube.com

I shine to make you smile, I try to save you one more time, for your lonely place, you need a friendly face, when your option's low, I lift you from below

British Telly DessertStorms • 4 months ago • 100%

www.imdb.com

The first season was *amazing* and I was so frustrated when it wasn't certain there would be a second, so this is massively exciting news. Promo said "coming soon", and I can't fucking wait!!! \*happy dance\*

Documentaries DessertStorms • 4 months ago • 88%

www.imdb.com

Praying for Armageddon is a political thriller that explores the power and influence of American Evangelical Christians as they aim to fulfil the Armageddon prophecy. The film observes American believers as they prepare for what they call The Holy War and exposes the powerful megachurch pastors who call for the 'final battle' that they believe will trigger the Second Coming of Christ. Completed before the current crisis in Israel and Gaza, it also unveils how politicians driven by faith embrace the State of Israel as the key to their prophetic vision for the end of days Watch in UK on [BBC](https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001z96s/storyville-praying-for-armageddon)

Movies DessertStorms • 5 months ago • 100%

www.imdb.com

A documentary about a young deaf Kurdish boy and his family who move to the UK so he, and they, can learn to communicate. It quite delicately touches on so many themes from family, community, acceptance, self determination, pride, to ableism, displacement, hostile immigration policy, and other systemic barriers. I cried throughout.

Trees DessertStorms • 5 months ago • 92%

www.youtube.com

I’m a little emotional, gotta be rational, being ok is optional, I’m in a phase, ani mevushal... Ani mevushal = I'm baked (literally - cooked) Ani metugan = I'm fried Ani meturlal = I'm crazed Ani mechushmal = I'm electrified Mechin megulgal, ve tas lachalal = I roll one up, and fly to space

Alternative Nation: The Fediverse's Alternative and Indie Music Community DessertStorms • 5 months ago • 100%

One of my favourite ever albums, never fails to get some rage out of the system

www.youtube.com

The Intruder (1962) full movie. AKA "Shame" is a low budget Roger Corman film that deals with early integration in the south. William shatner portrays a carpet bagger from the North? Who just shows up to cause trouble. The film is way ahead of its time when you consider the strife we are encountering in 2020. Watch it! - Broken Trout -

UK Politics DessertStorms • 5 months ago • 100%

**Emergency Social Security Campaigns Meeting Sunday 21 April 2024 3 – 4.30pm** Join Zoom Meeting [https://us06web.zoom.us/j/88958156364?pwd=ah3dyMFY3y20G1HajLzZaLNVa3wKag.1](https://us06web.zoom.us/j/88958156364?pwd=ah3dyMFY3y20G1HajLzZaLNVa3wKag.1) Meeting ID: 889 5815 6364 Passcode: 069808 We have called this meeting to bring together all those worried by and/or wanting to fight back against the Tories’ current all out assault on Disabled people, culminating in Rishi Sunak’s announcement today with plans to cut access to social security for millions of people. For anyone who is worried, please remember that some of these changes may take time to roll out and others will only affect new claimants not existing ones. For accurate information on what the key changes announced this week are see: [Tory plans: PIP no longer always cash, WCA harder to pass, UC migration sooner, no GP sick notes, DWP power to arrest and fine (benefitsandwork.co.uk)](https://www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/news/tory-plans-pip-no-longer-always-cash,-wca-harder-to-pass,-uc-migration-sooner,-no-gp-sick-notes,-dwp-power-to-arrest-and-fine)

Anarchism DessertStorms • 5 months ago • 90%

**Emergency Social Security Campaigns Meeting Sunday 21 April 2024 3 – 4.30pm** Join Zoom Meeting [https://us06web.zoom.us/j/88958156364?pwd=ah3dyMFY3y20G1HajLzZaLNVa3wKag.1](https://us06web.zoom.us/j/88958156364?pwd=ah3dyMFY3y20G1HajLzZaLNVa3wKag.1) Meeting ID: 889 5815 6364 Passcode: 069808 We have called this meeting to bring together all those worried by and/or wanting to fight back against the Tories’ current all out assault on Disabled people, culminating in Rishi Sunak’s announcement today with plans to cut access to social security for millions of people. For anyone who is worried, please remember that some of these changes may take time to roll out and others will only affect new claimants not existing ones. For accurate information on what the key changes announced this week are see: [Tory plans: PIP no longer always cash, WCA harder to pass, UC migration sooner, no GP sick notes, DWP power to arrest and fine (benefitsandwork.co.uk)](https://www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/news/tory-plans-pip-no-longer-always-cash,-wca-harder-to-pass,-uc-migration-sooner,-no-gp-sick-notes,-dwp-power-to-arrest-and-fine)

UK Politics DessertStorms • 5 months ago • 95%

morningstaronline.co.uk

NEW analysis has found that over £23 billion worth of welfare benefits went unclaimed in the last year. The report, by Policy in Practice, found that the number had risen from £19bn the year before and that figures could be closer to £30bn if it were to analyse disability benefits and discretionary support. Universal credit is the most unclaimed benefit at £8.3bn, with an estimated 1.4 million missing out on this type of support. This is followed by carer’s allowance (£2.3bn), pension credit (£2.2 bn) and child benefit (£1.7 bn). The analysis said that most claimants are simply unaware that certain benefits exist and cited navigating complex criteria as a serious barrier. The report comes as household debt rises to £8.8bn a year. Policy in Practice managing director Jade Alsop said: "Our findings show that as a society, we can’t afford not to consider these measures to prevent further costs to our health, education and social care services. “It is estimated that, by improving pension credit take-up alone, the cost of social care will decrease by £4bn a year.” Claire Atchia McMaster, director of income and external affairs at anti-poverty charity Turn2Us, said that feedback they receive indicates that accessing benefits is “complicated, inaccessible and emotionally draining.” She said: “This complexity prevents millions from claiming vital support, exacerbating financial insecurity and impacting wellbeing.” Ms McMaster called for clearer action from the government to ensure support reaches everyone who needs it. Benefit calculators can be accessed on the Turn2Us and Policy in Practice websites.

A Boring Dystopia DessertStorms • 5 months ago • 95%

morningstaronline.co.uk

NEW analysis has found that over £23 billion worth of welfare benefits went unclaimed in the last year. The report, by Policy in Practice, found that the number had risen from £19bn the year before and that figures could be closer to £30bn if it were to analyse disability benefits and discretionary support. Universal credit is the most unclaimed benefit at £8.3bn, with an estimated 1.4 million missing out on this type of support. This is followed by carer’s allowance (£2.3bn), pension credit (£2.2 bn) and child benefit (£1.7 bn). The analysis said that most claimants are simply unaware that certain benefits exist and cited navigating complex criteria as a serious barrier. The report comes as household debt rises to £8.8bn a year. Policy in Practice managing director Jade Alsop said: "Our findings show that as a society, we can’t afford not to consider these measures to prevent further costs to our health, education and social care services. “It is estimated that, by improving pension credit take-up alone, the cost of social care will decrease by £4bn a year.” Claire Atchia McMaster, director of income and external affairs at anti-poverty charity Turn2Us, said that feedback they receive indicates that accessing benefits is “complicated, inaccessible and emotionally draining.” She said: “This complexity prevents millions from claiming vital support, exacerbating financial insecurity and impacting wellbeing.” Ms McMaster called for clearer action from the government to ensure support reaches everyone who needs it. Benefit calculators can be accessed on the Turn2Us and Policy in Practice websites.

Anarchism DessertStorms • 5 months ago • 100%

www.theguardian.com

**PM criticised for personal independence payment review amid ‘spiralling’ disability welfare bill** Rishi Sunak is considering withdrawing a major cash disability benefit from some people with mental health conditions, prompting claims he has launched a “full-on assault on disabled people”. The prime minister announced fresh curbs on disability benefits on Friday, saying he wanted to explore whether some cash payments to claimants with mental health conditions could be replaced by treatment or access to services. In a speech on welfare, Sunak said he was launching a consultation on the personal independence payment (Pip), a non-means-tested benefit paid to disabled people to help with the extra living costs caused by long-term disability or ill health. He said that in addition to reviewing payments to people with mental health conditions, the government would look at whether some other disabled people should get help with one-off costs rather than continuing payments. The announcement triggered an outcry from disability charities, which said the rates of people being signed off work and claiming benefits were being caused by crumbling public services, poor-quality jobs and high rates of poverty among disabled households. Mind, the mental health charity, said services for mental health conditions were “at breaking point”. There are 1.9 million people on a waiting list for mental health treatment in England, meaning the treatment they should be able to access through the NHS is not currently available to them. Sunak said Britain was proud to have a strong safety net of welfare payments to those who needed them, but he also said the country had a “sicknote culture” that needed to be tackled. He said “something has gone wrong” since the pandemic to increase the number of economically inactive people who are long-term sick, especially with mental health conditions. “Most worrying, the biggest proportion of long-term sickness came from young people … parked on welfare,” Sunak said. He said the country could not afford the “spiralling” disability welfare bill of £69bn, which was now more than the core schools budget, and claimed the Pip budget was forecast to increase by 50% in the next four years. Other measures he set out included: * Shifting responsibility for issuing fit notes, formerly known as sicknotes, away from GPs to other “work and health professionals” in order to encourage more people to return to work. * Confirming plans to legislate “in the next parliament” to close benefit claims for anyone who has been claiming for 12 months but is not complying with conditions on accepting available work. * Asking more people on universal credit working part-time to look for more work by increasing the earnings threshold from £743 a month to £892 a month, so people paid below this amount have to seek extra hours. * Confirming plans to tighten the work capability assessment to require more people with “less severe conditions” to seek some forms of employment. On the review of Pip, Sunak said it may be right to pay one-off costs for adaptations, but that the payments may not need to be ongoing. The prime minister said the government would look at whether more medical evidence about conditions should be provided, as some payments were made on the basis of “subjective and unverifiable claims”. He said some people with mental health conditions may be better served by treatment and access to therapies rather than cash payments. Sunak also warned about the “the risk of over-medicalising the everyday challenges and worries of life” when it came to paying benefits to people with mental health conditions. His comments were echoed by Mel Stride, the work and pensions secretary, who told Sky News on Friday: “If you go to the GP and say you are feeling a little bit depressed, and you’re signed off, in 94% of occasions, a box is ticked that says you’re not capable of work whatsoever. “What we want to do is change the system so that that individual will be referred to – the government is setting up something called Work Well – where they will get both the healthcare support they need, but also a work coach who will be involved to either help them stay in work if they are in employment, or to help them get into work if they’re not.” Ed Davey, the Liberal Democrat leader, said: “Millions of people are stuck on NHS waiting lists, unable to get a GP appointment or struggling to access mental health support. Rishi Sunak is attempting to blame the British people for his own government’s failures on the economy and the NHS and it simply won’t wash.” Matthew Pennycook, the shadow housing minister, said Sunak had been pursuing a “cheap headline” over his claims that Britain has a “sicknote culture”. “There has been a long-term rise for many, many years under this government in people who are on long-term sickness benefits, either because they can’t get the treatment they need through the NHS, which is on its knees after 14 years of Conservative government, or they are not getting the proper support to get back into work,” he said. Charities warned that the benefit curbs would make people’s problems worse. James Taylor, the director of strategy at the disability equality charity Scope, said the speech “feels like a full-on assault on disabled people”. “These proposals are dangerous and risk leaving disabled people destitute,” he said. “In a cost of living crisis, looking to slash disabled people’s income by hitting Pip is a horrific proposal. “Calls are pouring into our helpline from concerned disabled people. Life costs more for disabled people. Threatening to take away the low amount of income Pip provides to disabled people who face £950 a month extra costs isn’t going to solve the problem of economic inactivity … Much of the current record-levels of inactivity are because our public services are crumbling, the quality of jobs is poor and the rate of poverty amongst disabled households is growing.” Dr Sarah Hughes, the chief executive of Mind, said the mental health charity was “deeply disappointed that the prime minister’s speech today continues a trend in recent rhetoric which conjures up the image of a ‘mental health culture’ that has ‘gone too far’. “This is harmful, inaccurate and contrary to the reality for people up and down the country,” she said. “The truth is that mental health services are at breaking point following years of underinvestment, with many people getting increasingly unwell while they wait to receive support. Indeed the Care Quality Commission’s latest figures on community mental health services show that nearly half of people (44%) waiting for treatment found their mental health deteriorated in this time.” Iain Porter, a senior policy adviser at the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, said the prime minister had launched an “irresponsible war of words on people who already aren’t getting enough support, which the government would rather not talk about”. “Many people want to work, as the prime minister says, but have their hopes dashed by woeful health and wellbeing support and job centres unfit for purpose,” he said. The British Medical Association said the prime minister should focus on getting people access to the medical help they needed to get back to work rather than “pushing a hostile rhetoric on ‘sicknote culture’”.

UK Politics DessertStorms • 5 months ago • 93%

www.theguardian.com

**Minister told London conference that Glorious Revolution of 1688 paved way for economic certainty** It would be wrong to attribute the UK’s wealth and economic success to its [colonial history or racial privilege](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/dec/06/eu-must-face-legacy-of-colonialism-and-support-reparations-say-meps), the business and trade minister, Kemi Badenoch, has told an audience in the City. Addressing financial services bosses at TheCityUK’s international conference in [London](https://www.theguardian.com/uk/london), the business secretary said the UK’s past exploitation and oppression of other countries and groups of people could not sufficiently explain the country’s economic trajectory. Badenoch said: “It worries me when I hear people talk about wealth and success in the UK as being down to colonialism or imperialism or white privilege or whatever.” Instead, she said the Glorious Revolution of 1688 – which led to the development of the UK constitution and solidified the role of parliament – should be credited for providing the kind of economic certainty that paved the way for the Industrial Revolution. Any other interpretation could derail efforts to increase growth at home and abroad, Badenoch said. “It matters, because if people genuinely believe that the UK only grew and developed into an advanced economy because of exploitation and oppression, then the solutions they will devise will make our growth and productivity problem even worse,” she said. “It matters in other countries too, because if developing nations do not understand how the west became rich, they cannot follow in its footsteps. “And it matters when, as your trade secretary, I go to the World Trade Organization conference negotiating on the UK’s behalf, and some of my counterparts spend the entire time in meetings [talking about colonialism](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2023/sep/25/white-savior-complex-documentary-tv-show-hbo-renee-bach), blame the west for their economic difficulties, and make demands that would make all of us – not just in this country, but around the world – poorer.” Her comments come nearly a year after the UK prime minister, Rishi Sunak, [refused to apologise for the UK’s role in the slave trade](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/apr/26/rishi-sunak-refuses-to-apologise-for-uk-slave-trade-or-to-pledge-reparations) or to commit to paying reparations. That was despite descendants of some of Britain’s wealthiest enslavers calling on the government to apologise for slavery and begin a programme of reparative justice in light of the “ongoing consequences of this crime against humanity”. “Its after-effects still harm people’s lives in Britain, as well as in the Caribbean countries where our ancestors made money,” [a member of the Heirs of Slavery campaign group said](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/apr/24/descendants-of-uk-slave-owners-call-on-government-to-apologise). A report published by the University of the West Indies last June concluded that the UK alone owed $24tn (£18.8tn) in reparations for transatlantic slavery in 14 countries, including $9.6tn to Jamaica. The report used calculations made by the Brattle Group, which factored in the [wealth and GDP amassed by countries that enslaved African people](https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2023/aug/21/dont-listen-to-the-critics-reparations-for-slavery-will-right-historical-wrongs).

A Boring Dystopia DessertStorms • 5 months ago • 98%

www.theguardian.com

**Demand for private treatment booms as NHS waiting lists remain long, while more people also sign up for dental cover** Britain’s health cover market has grown by £385m in a year as the NHS crisis [prompted more people to seek out private medical treatment](https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/mar/07/avivas-profits-rise-as-demand-for-uk-private-health-insurance-booms) and demand for dental insurance increased, according to a report. The total health cover market, including medical and dental insurance and cash plans, grew 6.1% to £6.7bn in 2022, the latest year for which figures are available, according to the health data provider LaingBuisson. About 4.2 million people were subscribed to medical cover schemes. Including dependants on the policies, 7.3 million people were covered – the highest number since 2008. Since the market’s Covid-driven drop in 2020, when it declined by 2.2%, it has grown considerably faster than historical norms. Average annual growth was 6.1% between 2020 and 2022, compared with 1.7% between 2008 and 2019. The [NHS waiting list in England continued to lengthen](https://www.england.nhs.uk/2024/03/nhs-waiting-list-continues-to-fall-as-staff-continue-to-tackle-covid-backlog-amid-strikes/), to a peak of nearly 7.8m last September. In February, it was still 7.5m and half of the patients had been waiting for 18 weeks or longer. Private medical insurance, the largest part of the health cover market, grew by 6% year on year in 2022 to £5.3bn, more than triple the average annual growth rate of 1.8% between 2008 and 2019. After a decade of decline until 2018, more people signed up, particularly in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic which led to a [backlog of major procedures such as hip and knee replacements](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK576854/#:~:text=Overall%2C%20106%2C922%20(48.8%25)%20fewer,hip%20replacements%2C%20see%20Table%201.). Tim Read, author of the report, said: “Demand began to increase in 2018, as the [NHS](https://www.theguardian.com/society/nhs) waiting list began to rise out of control. A new Labour government is likely to aim to tackle it but will have limited fiscal headroom to make substantial progress. “With people still struggling to access NHS services and the waiting list remaining stubbornly high, there is little likelihood that demand for health insurance is going to fall any time soon.” Read added: “Growth is led by company-backed schemes, which may suggest an increased awareness of the impact of employee ill-health on a business – and possibly frustration at the impact that an inaccessible NHS is having on productivity.” [Growing numbers of people are also paying out of their own pockets](https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/sep/18/private-hospitals-profit-from-nhs-waiting-lists-as-people-without-insurance-pay-out) for medical treatment, despite the high cost of some procedures, such as knee operations which typically cost between £12,000 and £15,000. Dental insurance and capitation plans (fixed monthly payments) have shown the highest growth of the market, up 9.7% year on year in 2022. However, most people who see a dentist privately pay for treatment without any cover. [The emergence of “dental deserts”](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-62253893) – swathes of the UK where NHS dentists are not taking on new patients – means [hundreds of thousands of people have turned up in hospitals or at GPs with severe tooth decay](https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/jan/30/pliers-abscesses-and-agonising-pain-britains-dental-crisis-as-seen-from-ae). skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotion The average health insurance premium went up to £1,225 in 2022 from £1,203 in 2021, according to LaingBuisson. Premiums on work policies went up to £975, while individual premiums rose to £2,252. Insurers have flagged premium rises of more than 10%, with one placing them as high as 40% this year and possibly beyond. This reflects a rise in claims and higher medical costs. Some people who could not get what would have been a cheaper treatment option during the pandemic are now suffering from more expensive conditions to treat, Read said. The UK health insurance market is dominated by Bupa, France’s Axa Health, Aviva and Vitality [Health](https://www.theguardian.com/society/health), which is owned by South Africa’s Discovery. In dental insurance, the main players are Bupa, Simply Health and Unum, after Cigna left the UK market. Read said: “I don’t think that the NHS is going to fall apart overnight or that the private sector is going to run rampant overnight. But I do think as people as customers, rather than people as taxpayers, are beginning to reconceptualise the value of paying additionally for healthcare entitlements, which technically they should get on the NHS.”

UK Politics DessertStorms • 5 months ago • 94%

www.theguardian.com

**Demand for private treatment booms as NHS waiting lists remain long, while more people also sign up for dental cover** Britain’s health cover market has grown by £385m in a year as the NHS crisis [prompted more people to seek out private medical treatment](https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/mar/07/avivas-profits-rise-as-demand-for-uk-private-health-insurance-booms) and demand for dental insurance increased, according to a report. The total health cover market, including medical and dental insurance and cash plans, grew 6.1% to £6.7bn in 2022, the latest year for which figures are available, according to the health data provider LaingBuisson. About 4.2 million people were subscribed to medical cover schemes. Including dependants on the policies, 7.3 million people were covered – the highest number since 2008. Since the market’s Covid-driven drop in 2020, when it declined by 2.2%, it has grown considerably faster than historical norms. Average annual growth was 6.1% between 2020 and 2022, compared with 1.7% between 2008 and 2019. The [NHS waiting list in England continued to lengthen](https://www.england.nhs.uk/2024/03/nhs-waiting-list-continues-to-fall-as-staff-continue-to-tackle-covid-backlog-amid-strikes/), to a peak of nearly 7.8m last September. In February, it was still 7.5m and half of the patients had been waiting for 18 weeks or longer. Private medical insurance, the largest part of the health cover market, grew by 6% year on year in 2022 to £5.3bn, more than triple the average annual growth rate of 1.8% between 2008 and 2019. After a decade of decline until 2018, more people signed up, particularly in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic which led to a [backlog of major procedures such as hip and knee replacements](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK576854/#:~:text=Overall%2C%20106%2C922%20(48.8%25)%20fewer,hip%20replacements%2C%20see%20Table%201.). Tim Read, author of the report, said: “Demand began to increase in 2018, as the [NHS](https://www.theguardian.com/society/nhs) waiting list began to rise out of control. A new Labour government is likely to aim to tackle it but will have limited fiscal headroom to make substantial progress. “With people still struggling to access NHS services and the waiting list remaining stubbornly high, there is little likelihood that demand for health insurance is going to fall any time soon.” Read added: “Growth is led by company-backed schemes, which may suggest an increased awareness of the impact of employee ill-health on a business – and possibly frustration at the impact that an inaccessible NHS is having on productivity.” [Growing numbers of people are also paying out of their own pockets](https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/sep/18/private-hospitals-profit-from-nhs-waiting-lists-as-people-without-insurance-pay-out) for medical treatment, despite the high cost of some procedures, such as knee operations which typically cost between £12,000 and £15,000. Dental insurance and capitation plans (fixed monthly payments) have shown the highest growth of the market, up 9.7% year on year in 2022. However, most people who see a dentist privately pay for treatment without any cover. [The emergence of “dental deserts”](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-62253893) – swathes of the UK where NHS dentists are not taking on new patients – means [hundreds of thousands of people have turned up in hospitals or at GPs with severe tooth decay](https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/jan/30/pliers-abscesses-and-agonising-pain-britains-dental-crisis-as-seen-from-ae). The average health insurance premium went up to £1,225 in 2022 from £1,203 in 2021, according to LaingBuisson. Premiums on work policies went up to £975, while individual premiums rose to £2,252. Insurers have flagged premium rises of more than 10%, with one placing them as high as 40% this year and possibly beyond. This reflects a rise in claims and higher medical costs. Some people who could not get what would have been a cheaper treatment option during the pandemic are now suffering from more expensive conditions to treat, Read said. The UK health insurance market is dominated by Bupa, France’s Axa Health, Aviva and Vitality [Health](https://www.theguardian.com/society/health), which is owned by South Africa’s Discovery. In dental insurance, the main players are Bupa, Simply Health and Unum, after Cigna left the UK market. Read said: “I don’t think that the NHS is going to fall apart overnight or that the private sector is going to run rampant overnight. But I do think as people as customers, rather than people as taxpayers, are beginning to reconceptualise the value of paying additionally for healthcare entitlements, which technically they should get on the NHS.”

Alternative Nation: The Fediverse's Alternative and Indie Music Community DessertStorms • 5 months ago • 85%

www.youtube.com

One of those tracks where Duvdev's background in rock really shines through. Great mood boost.

A Boring Dystopia DessertStorms • 5 months ago • 100%

www.theguardian.com

**There were 830,000 unwanted moves in England over the past 12 months, meaning 40% have been forced to relocate** Unwanted home moves cost renters more than half a billion pounds a year, with tenants coughing up an average of £669 every time they are forced by landlords to leave their home, a survey has revealed. Analysis by the homelessness charity Shelter estimated that there had been 830,000 unwanted moves in England over the past 12 months, meaning 40% of renters who move house are doing so because they have been compelled to look for other accommodation. An unwanted move is defined as a fixed-term tenancy coming to an end, or tenants being priced out by a rent increase, being served an eviction notice or being informally asked to leave by the landlord. [Renters collectively](https://www.theguardian.com/money/2023/may/18/renters-in-england-how-will-the-pet-proposals-in-the-renters-reform-bill-affect-you) spend £550m a year on moving costs, often paying rent and bills on two properties during the moving period, along with hiring removal vans, paying for stopgap storage and buying new furniture, Shelter estimates. Natalie, 47, has moved 12 times in the past 21 years, and has been served with two no-fault evictions in the past 18 months. Although she has been in her new home for seven months, she still cannot relax and feels traumatised by her moving experiences. “I haven’t even unpacked properly,” she said. “I’m worried that as soon as I do, I’m going to have to move again. “I’ve downsized to a studio. Most of my stuff is stored in a garage nearby that I’m renting for £75 and I had to shell out £750 on removal van hire alone. It took me 18 months just to pay back all the debts accrued from the last move, and then it happened all over again. “There is nothing worse than being forced to move home,” she added. “Without a stable foundation, how can you lead a fruitful life?” “This is money that renters will never see again,” said Tarun Bhakta, policy manager for Shelter. “It’s not a deposit that you may or may not get back at the end of your tenancy, it’s not money for your rental, it’s simply costs down the drain. Money for a removal van, for packing boxes, for new furniture; these are avoidable expenses that tenants are having to make against their will. “Because of an abnormally and unreasonably unstable rental system, tenants are having to cough up millions and millions of pounds each year in moves that could otherwise be avoided, if the government had a backbone and delivered a strong, watertight renters’ reform bill.” In April, the government signalled that it would make amendments to the long awaited bill, [delaying the ban on section 21 evictions](https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/feb/08/renters-in-england-face-rising-no-fault-evictions-as-reform-bill-delayed-again) – the two-month notice, [“no fault” compulsory orders](https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/oct/08/living-in-fear-the-renters-in-england-facing-two-month-no-fault-evictions) to leave the property – and reneging on the promise to overhaul fixed-term tenancies. [New figures](https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/inflationandpriceindices/bulletins/privaterentandhousepricesuk/april2024) released by the Office for National Statistics show that average rents have increased by £107 a month nationally, and by £207 a month in London over the past year. Polly Neate, the chief executive of Shelter, said: “Tenants are coughing up millions in unwanted and unwarranted moves, while the government runs scared of a minority of its own MPs. Instead of striking dodgy deals with backbenchers to strangle the renters’ reform bill, ministers should defend renters’ best hope of a stable home. “With protections from eviction so weak and rents so high, we constantly hear from people forced out of their homes and communities at huge personal cost. It’s impossible for renters to put down roots knowing a no-fault eviction could plunge them back into chaos at any moment.” A Department for Levelling Up, Housing and [Communities](https://www.theguardian.com/society/communities) spokesperson said: “The renters (reform) bill will deliver the manifesto commitment to abolish section 21 evictions. It will be returning to the House of Commons shortly.”

UK Politics DessertStorms • 5 months ago • 100%

www.theguardian.com

**There were 830,000 unwanted moves in England over the past 12 months, meaning 40% have been forced to relocate** Unwanted home moves cost renters more than half a billion pounds a year, with tenants coughing up an average of £669 every time they are forced by landlords to leave their home, a survey has revealed. Analysis by the homelessness charity Shelter estimated that there had been 830,000 unwanted moves in England over the past 12 months, meaning 40% of renters who move house are doing so because they have been compelled to look for other accommodation. An unwanted move is defined as a fixed-term tenancy coming to an end, or tenants being priced out by a rent increase, being served an eviction notice or being informally asked to leave by the landlord. [Renters collectively](https://www.theguardian.com/money/2023/may/18/renters-in-england-how-will-the-pet-proposals-in-the-renters-reform-bill-affect-you) spend £550m a year on moving costs, often paying rent and bills on two properties during the moving period, along with hiring removal vans, paying for stopgap storage and buying new furniture, Shelter estimates. Natalie, 47, has moved 12 times in the past 21 years, and has been served with two no-fault evictions in the past 18 months. Although she has been in her new home for seven months, she still cannot relax and feels traumatised by her moving experiences. “I haven’t even unpacked properly,” she said. “I’m worried that as soon as I do, I’m going to have to move again. “I’ve downsized to a studio. Most of my stuff is stored in a garage nearby that I’m renting for £75 and I had to shell out £750 on removal van hire alone. It took me 18 months just to pay back all the debts accrued from the last move, and then it happened all over again. “There is nothing worse than being forced to move home,” she added. “Without a stable foundation, how can you lead a fruitful life?” “This is money that renters will never see again,” said Tarun Bhakta, policy manager for Shelter. “It’s not a deposit that you may or may not get back at the end of your tenancy, it’s not money for your rental, it’s simply costs down the drain. Money for a removal van, for packing boxes, for new furniture; these are avoidable expenses that tenants are having to make against their will. “Because of an abnormally and unreasonably unstable rental system, tenants are having to cough up millions and millions of pounds each year in moves that could otherwise be avoided, if the government had a backbone and delivered a strong, watertight renters’ reform bill.” In April, the government signalled that it would make amendments to the long awaited bill, [delaying the ban on section 21 evictions](https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/feb/08/renters-in-england-face-rising-no-fault-evictions-as-reform-bill-delayed-again) – the two-month notice, [“no fault” compulsory orders](https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/oct/08/living-in-fear-the-renters-in-england-facing-two-month-no-fault-evictions) to leave the property – and reneging on the promise to overhaul fixed-term tenancies. [New figures](https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/inflationandpriceindices/bulletins/privaterentandhousepricesuk/april2024) released by the Office for National Statistics show that average rents have increased by £107 a month nationally, and by £207 a month in London over the past year. Polly Neate, the chief executive of Shelter, said: “Tenants are coughing up millions in unwanted and unwarranted moves, while the government runs scared of a minority of its own MPs. Instead of striking dodgy deals with backbenchers to strangle the renters’ reform bill, ministers should defend renters’ best hope of a stable home. “With protections from eviction so weak and rents so high, we constantly hear from people forced out of their homes and communities at huge personal cost. It’s impossible for renters to put down roots knowing a no-fault eviction could plunge them back into chaos at any moment.” A Department for Levelling Up, Housing and [Communities](https://www.theguardian.com/society/communities) spokesperson said: “The renters (reform) bill will deliver the manifesto commitment to abolish section 21 evictions. It will be returning to the House of Commons shortly.”

A Boring Dystopia DessertStorms • 5 months ago • 97%

www.theguardian.com

**Officials at Department for Work and Pensions accused of ‘threatening and cruel’ tactics over repayment orders** Government officials have been accused of using “threatening and cruel” tactics towards unpaid carers by saying they could face even greater financial penalties if they appeal against “vindictive” benefit fines. This month a Guardian investigation [revealed](https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/apr/07/unpaid-carers-allowance-payment-prosecution-earnings-rules) that thousands of people who look after disabled, frail or ill relatives have been forced to pay back huge sums after being chased by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) over “honest mistakes” that officials [could have spotted years earlier](https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/apr/07/unpaid-carers-allowance-payment-prosecution-earnings-rules). Dozens of unpaid carers have said they feel powerless to challenge the penalties, which often run into many thousands of pounds, even when the government is at fault. Now the Guardian has learned that the DWP is warning carers that their fine may increase if they appeal against a repayment order. In one letter in June 2023, the government department said that if the unpaid carer challenged the order “the entire claim from the date it started will be looked at, which could potentially result in the overpayment increasing, if there are more periods where your earnings exceeded the allowable limits”. This carer, whose husband has dementia and Parkinson’s, had been ordered to repay nearly £4,000 for unwittingly exceeding the weekly earnings threshold of £151 by calculating her zero-hours job on a monthly basis – as she believed the rules required – rather than on a four-weekly basis. The former council worker said the penalty had “destroyed” her confidence and left her feeling unable to challenge the DWP. “I can’t afford this bill but I can’t afford to argue with them because if I do I’ve made these mistakes already, chances are I’ve made other mistakes,” she said. Cristina Odone, head of family policy at the centre-right thinktank the Centre for Social Justice, described the DWP tactic as “threatening and incredibly cruel”. She said: “Again and again, if you talk to ordinary people, the DWP raises their hackles and their fears because it is the state possibly coming to claw back benefits. “It is the most hostile bit of the state for so many people. This just confirms their wariness of the DWP as the bit of government that is the least sympathetic, most faceless and most heartless.” Unpaid carers are entitled to a carer’s allowance of £81.90 a week – the smallest benefit of its kind – providing they care for someone for at least 35 hours a week. They are allowed to work but must not make more than £151 a week after tax and expenses. People who make more than the £151 weekly limit, even as little as 1p more, must pay back the entire week’s carer’s allowance for the whole period in which they were in breach of the rules, in what has been described as a “cliff edge” approach. Tens of thousands of carers have unwittingly fallen foul of this rule and have not been alerted by the DWP until years later, even though the government has real-time technology that means it can spot and stop these infractions much sooner. Carers have been [plunged into debt](https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/apr/10/fined-6000-for-tiny-mistake-carer-penalised-for-extra-shift-at-supermarket), [forced to sell their homes](https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/apr/12/carers-allowance-benefit-error-30p-a-week-dwp) and [given criminal records](https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/apr/07/dwp-carer-allowance-benefit-payment-case) over what they say were “honest mistakes” that should have been spotted much sooner by the DWP. Three former work and pensions secretaries, including Iain Duncan Smith, have called on the government to pause investigations into unpaid carers and launch a review of its failings. Debbie Abrahams, a [Labour](https://www.theguardian.com/politics/labour) MP on the Commons work and pensions committee, has called the DWP’s approach “simply vindictive”. Jolyon Maugham, director of the Good Law Project, a campaign group supporting unpaid carers, said the DWP’s attempt to dissuade people against appealing was “quite troubling and quite unsavoury”. Maugham said: “Parliament has set up an appellant system to enable appeals against demands that people repay carer’s allowance. For the DWP to take steps to discourage people from using this very important safeguard is itself quite troubling.” Emily Holzhausen, director of policy at [Carers](https://www.theguardian.com/society/carers) UK, said unpaid carers feel “stuck in a place where they feel unable to challenge decisions – even though they have a legal right to do so”. The DWP said: “Carers across the UK are unsung heroes who make a huge difference to someone else’s life and we have increased carer’s allowance by almost £1,500 since 2010. “We have safeguards in place for managing repayments, that’s why visiting officers are available to provide support and assistance to customers when attending their homes, particularly for those deemed vulnerable. “Claimants have a responsibility to inform DWP of any changes in their circumstances that could impact their award, and it is right that we recover taxpayers’ money when this has not occurred.”

UK Politics DessertStorms • 5 months ago • 92%

www.theguardian.com

**Officials at Department for Work and Pensions accused of ‘threatening and cruel’ tactics over repayment orders** Government officials have been accused of using “threatening and cruel” tactics towards unpaid carers by saying they could face even greater financial penalties if they appeal against “vindictive” benefit fines. This month a Guardian investigation [revealed](https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/apr/07/unpaid-carers-allowance-payment-prosecution-earnings-rules) that thousands of people who look after disabled, frail or ill relatives have been forced to pay back huge sums after being chased by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) over “honest mistakes” that officials [could have spotted years earlier](https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/apr/07/unpaid-carers-allowance-payment-prosecution-earnings-rules). Dozens of unpaid carers have said they feel powerless to challenge the penalties, which often run into many thousands of pounds, even when the government is at fault. Now the Guardian has learned that the DWP is warning carers that their fine may increase if they appeal against a repayment order. In one letter in June 2023, the government department said that if the unpaid carer challenged the order “the entire claim from the date it started will be looked at, which could potentially result in the overpayment increasing, if there are more periods where your earnings exceeded the allowable limits”. This carer, whose husband has dementia and Parkinson’s, had been ordered to repay nearly £4,000 for unwittingly exceeding the weekly earnings threshold of £151 by calculating her zero-hours job on a monthly basis – as she believed the rules required – rather than on a four-weekly basis. The former council worker said the penalty had “destroyed” her confidence and left her feeling unable to challenge the DWP. “I can’t afford this bill but I can’t afford to argue with them because if I do I’ve made these mistakes already, chances are I’ve made other mistakes,” she said. Cristina Odone, head of family policy at the centre-right thinktank the Centre for Social Justice, described the DWP tactic as “threatening and incredibly cruel”. She said: “Again and again, if you talk to ordinary people, the DWP raises their hackles and their fears because it is the state possibly coming to claw back benefits. “It is the most hostile bit of the state for so many people. This just confirms their wariness of the DWP as the bit of government that is the least sympathetic, most faceless and most heartless.” Unpaid carers are entitled to a carer’s allowance of £81.90 a week – the smallest benefit of its kind – providing they care for someone for at least 35 hours a week. They are allowed to work but must not make more than £151 a week after tax and expenses. People who make more than the £151 weekly limit, even as little as 1p more, must pay back the entire week’s carer’s allowance for the whole period in which they were in breach of the rules, in what has been described as a “cliff edge” approach. Tens of thousands of carers have unwittingly fallen foul of this rule and have not been alerted by the DWP until years later, even though the government has real-time technology that means it can spot and stop these infractions much sooner. Carers have been [plunged into debt](https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/apr/10/fined-6000-for-tiny-mistake-carer-penalised-for-extra-shift-at-supermarket), [forced to sell their homes](https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/apr/12/carers-allowance-benefit-error-30p-a-week-dwp) and [given criminal records](https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/apr/07/dwp-carer-allowance-benefit-payment-case) over what they say were “honest mistakes” that should have been spotted much sooner by the DWP. Three former work and pensions secretaries, including Iain Duncan Smith, have called on the government to pause investigations into unpaid carers and launch a review of its failings. Debbie Abrahams, a [Labour](https://www.theguardian.com/politics/labour) MP on the Commons work and pensions committee, has called the DWP’s approach “simply vindictive”. Jolyon Maugham, director of the Good Law Project, a campaign group supporting unpaid carers, said the DWP’s attempt to dissuade people against appealing was “quite troubling and quite unsavoury”. Maugham said: “Parliament has set up an appellant system to enable appeals against demands that people repay carer’s allowance. For the DWP to take steps to discourage people from using this very important safeguard is itself quite troubling.” Emily Holzhausen, director of policy at [Carers](https://www.theguardian.com/society/carers) UK, said unpaid carers feel “stuck in a place where they feel unable to challenge decisions – even though they have a legal right to do so”. The DWP said: “Carers across the UK are unsung heroes who make a huge difference to someone else’s life and we have increased carer’s allowance by almost £1,500 since 2010. “We have safeguards in place for managing repayments, that’s why visiting officers are available to provide support and assistance to customers when attending their homes, particularly for those deemed vulnerable. “Claimants have a responsibility to inform DWP of any changes in their circumstances that could impact their award, and it is right that we recover taxpayers’ money when this has not occurred.”

Anarchism DessertStorms • 5 months ago • 84%

www.thecanary.co

**Sick of the press and govt constantly talking crap about disabled people? So is journalist Rachel Charlton-Dailey...** [Click to [listen](https://www.thecanary.co/opinion/2024/04/12/rachel-charlton-dailey/) to the article, and [support the Canary](https://www.thecanary.co/support/)] I’m often asked what needs to change to make the world a better place for disabled people. It used to be a complex answer for me. It depended on the context I was being asked, who was asking, or what had been happening recently. But now it’s simple: the world needs to stop hating disabled people and being so fucking ableist. Ableism has always been rife in society, [media](https://www.thecanary.co/topics/corporate-media/), and politics. It feels like it’s been ramped up in recent years, but especially in the last few months. A big reason for this is that the government are intent on demonising us to cover for the fact they and their rich mates are stealing from taxpayers. **How the poison of ableism trickles down** This feeding of hate from the government and media to the common man is easily done when [75% of the British media](https://pressgazette.co.uk/media-audience-and-business-data/media_metrics/who-owns-the-news-uk-news-media-owbership-analysed/) is owned by the same two, rich, Tory-supporting men. The click-driven nature of news now means government ministers can call disabled people anything they want without the press challenging it. After all, “[languishing on benefits](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/03/21/labour-is-betraying-its-core-mission-on-work/)” is a much punchier vox pop than ‘minister claims people don’t want to work but they’re actually just trying to survive’. These views are then repeated as fact by right-wing pundits on chat shows. Eventually, it becomes the public opinion that people on sickness and [disability](https://www.thecanary.co/topics/disability/) unemployment benefits are lazy and taking the taxpayer for a ride. **What the hatred manifests into** This awful rhetoric contributes to the centuries-old stereotype that disability is something to be ashamed of. Except now, they’ve made our lives so miserable that if you dare to attempt to live a happy disabled existence you MUST be faking it to rinse those hard-working taxpayers. It means [photography companies](https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/apr/04/school-photos-disabled-children) think it’s perfectly acceptable to leave disabled kids out of school photos. Young lads feel comfortable sitting on their shit podcasts and laughing about how they [wouldn’t date a “mangled” woman](https://twitter.com/faithcathmary/status/1774484864328187990?s=46) in a wheelchair cos they’d be worried their equally shit mates would laugh at them. Heaven forbid they consider getting better friends. It means cunts like Matthew Parris can week in and week out call disabled people lazy fakers who drain the taxpayer and when you, for example, co-ordinate 400 complaints against him the press regulator can come back with ‘[Well that’s just his opinion as a journalist](https://twitter.com/RachelCDailey/status/1772558169547403283)‘. Well isn’t it a good job that I get to have my opinion too? **And so The Week in Ableist Bullshit was born** If the last few weeks have proven anything, it’s that there’s simply too much ableism to keep track of and the media can’t be trusted to hold all of it to account – especially when they create a great chunk of it. One thing I have always striven to do in my work is hold those making life harder for disabled people accountable. That’s why I’m delighted to be writing this new weekly column here at the Canary. In it I will collate and dissect the barrage of crap disabled people are facing from the government, media, social media, organisations, and society. But I also want to celebrate the great things disabled people do too, so at the end of each column will be my disabled joy of the week. Come for the ableists bashing – but stay for the hidden pockets of joy. This week’s is a much more condensed version but from next week expect no stone to go unturned. So, shall we? **Shakespeare’s Globe doesn’t give a fuck if disabled people hate them** A few months ago it was announced that in the Globe’s latest incarnation of the ableist classic, Richard III will be played by a non-disabled performer. In my opinion, the play and role have always been an awfully over-exaggerated portrayal of the disabled villain trope. However, the Globe lost me when it [released a statement](https://twitter.com/search?q=richard%20iii%20from%3Arachelcdailey&src=recent_search_click) following pushback from disabled people in which they almost claimed that there was an abundance of roles for disabled people to play. The artistic director Michelle Terry, who is taking up the role, stated “it will come around again”. Many hoped that our voices would be heard and the Globe would change its mind, but today the full cast was announced and Terry remains in the role. When I visited a couple of years ago I found their access to be exceptional. But access doesn’t matter when the historic theatre refuse to cast us in stories about us. **The government is trying to fuck over disabled students even more** Being a disabled student is already hard, but now the Department for Education (DfE) is proposing to abolish a huge chunk of disabled students’ allowance funding. The cuts would apply to “specialist non-medical help” which could mean students lose funding for interpreters, note-takers, and more. It will mean disabled students will be put at an even bigger disadvantage. The consultation closes on 3 July and is open to disabled students, providers, and higher education staff. You can have your say [here](https://consult.education.gov.uk/disabled-students-allowance-team/non-medical-support-for-disabled-students-in-he/). **Daily Mail is back on its ‘ADHD is fake’ bullshit** There are so many stories about different ways in which ADHD doesn’t exist that I fear ‘ADHD lies of the week’ may become a permanent feature here. I swear at times it feels like the Daily Mail and the Times are having a competition to see who can whip up the most hate about people with ADHD. This time they’re aided by exercise bore Joe Wicks who is [blaming processed food for the increase in ADHD](https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-13292511/Joe-Wicks-blames-ultra-processed-junk-explosion-children-ADHD-reveals-ran-sugar-kid-thinks-love-Sunny-Delight-Wagon-Wheels-jam-sandwiches-caused-behavioural-issues.html) diagnosis. The fact this has been disproven many times didn’t bother the rag though. I know the realities of being neurodivergent all too well. Swapping my safe food – chicken nuggets – for some veggies won’t make my life any easier. But these ignorant fools not speaking on issues they have no idea about will. **Disabled Joy of the Week – Keedie** In amongst all the hatred towards neurodivergent women and girls, Elle McNicoll is a constant force for good. The author’s latest offering Keedie is a prequel to her behemoth A Kind of Spark. The book is about standing up to those who try to make you feel small and celebrating the brilliance of autistic and neurodivergent people. Attending the Autistic Girls Network online event celebrating Elle felt like a balm for my soul that had been destroyed by all the abuse we’ve endured these last few weeks. Neurodivergent women and girls loudly being ourselves and refusing to be made small in a world that wants to make us ashamed of who we are. You can buy Keedie [here](https://www.waterstones.com/book/keedie/elle-mcnicoll/9781913311988). **And finally…** I wanted to leave you with something my pal told me when I was feeling guilty about treating myself. As someone who comes from poverty, the idea of frivolously spending money on myself feels wrong. Enter T with some excellent wisdom: > > > When you don’t treat yourself the Tories win a little bit. > > In this terrible world it’s important that, when we can, we celebrate who we are – even if that’s by buying the cute boiler suit. Until next week, fuck the Tories and don’t believe all you read.

196 DessertStorms • 5 months ago • 100%

alt text: "stop normalising the grind and start normalising whatever this is" above a painting of a forest where two bear cubs are up on their hind legs dancing together and two other bears are chilling under a tree watching them

UK Politics DessertStorms • 5 months ago • 98%

www.theguardian.com

**Single people with long-term disability that stops them working will be much poorer after rollout, Resolution Foundation says** The rollout of universal credit is on course to make thousands of working-age disabled people significantly poorer, according to a report showing that more than 7 million people will be covered by the six-into-one benefit change before the end of the next parliament. A single person with a long-term disability that prevents them from working is £2,800 a year worse off when they transfer to universal credit (UC), the Resolution Foundation said, adding that all single people with long-term disabilities will suffer this loss of income when the rollout of UC is completed by 2030. The report – [In Credit?](https://www.resolutionfoundation.org/events/in-credit/) – gives an overview of the huge change to the benefit system championed by the former work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith during the coalition government. Previous benefits, including income support, housing benefit and tax credits, were merged into a single payment. The rollout of UC since 2013 has been characterised by technical delays that several parliamentary committees have criticised for driving up the cost of the changes and causing hardship for claimants. Funding cuts after the Conservative party general election victory in 2015 added to concerns that many claimants were being pushed into poverty. “By 2028, entitlements to UC will total around £86bn a year,” the thinktank said. “But this is £14bn less than if the government had kept the 2013-14 benefit system. “As a result, seven in 10 working-age families eligible for means-tested benefit support will be worse off under ‘universal credit Britain’ than with the pre-reform system,” it added. A funding boost for UC in recent years has limited the cut in income for many claimants and given a boost to others. The main group to benefit from funding increases have been working-age households who rent, though much of the increase in weekly payments has covered soaring rent bills. “A renting single parent who works 30 hours per week on the national living wage will be nearly £3,800 per year better off in 2024-25 than if they were on the old system,” the report found. “Across the 2.7 million families in the private rental sector that are eligible for UC, the average gain compared to the old system is £1,200.” Alex Clegg, an economist at the Resolution Foundation, said UC was conceived in an era of high unemployment, and was ill-equipped for a post-pandemic age when many claimants were suffering from long-term illnesses and disabilities. “Compared to the old system, universal credit offers greater support for renters and stronger incentives to enter work,” he said. “But its original design did not anticipate there being over 2 million claimants with poor health or disabilities. “Alongside efforts from the NHS, education, and labour market policy to address the drivers of ill-health, UC will need to change to tackle Britain’s new challenge of long-term sickness.” A Department for Work and Pensions spokesperson said: “Universal credit has proven itself as a modern benefits system fit for the future, providing a vital safety net to millions while helping people move into work faster. “We boosted benefits by 6.7% this month, worth £470 for 5.5 million households on universal credit. “Work is the best path to long-term financial security and through universal credit, our £2.5bn back-to-work plan will help over a million people – including those with long-term health conditions – find, stay and succeed in work.”

Climate - truthful information about climate, related activism and politics. DessertStorms • 5 months ago • 98%

www.theguardian.com

**Amy Westervelt and Kyle Pope have covered climate disinformation for a combined 20-plus years – here’s their guide on how to decode it** Increasingly sophisticated and better-funded disinformation is making climate coverage trickier both for journalists to produce and for the public to fully understand and trust. But telling the story, and understanding it, has never been more urgent with half of Earth’s population eligible to vote in elections that could decisively impact the world’s ability to act in time to stave off the worst of the climate crisis. Swayed for 30 years by fossil fuel industry propaganda, the media has been as likely to unknowingly amplify falsehoods as they were to bat them down. It’s only in recent years that more journalists started to shy away from “both-sides-ing” the climate crisis – decades after scientists reached an overwhelming consensus on the scope of the problem and its causes. The good news is that while the fossil fuel industry’s PR tactics have shifted, the stories they’re telling don’t change much from year to year, they are just adapted depending on what’s happening in the world. When politicians talk about how much it will cost to act on climate change, for example, they almost [always refer to economic models](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09644016.2021.1947636) commissioned by the fossil fuel industry, which leave out the cost of inaction, which rises with every passing year. When politicians say that climate policies will increase the cost of gas or energy, they count on reporters having no idea how gas or energy pricing works, or how much fossil fuel companies’ production decisions, not to mention lobbying for particular fossil fuel subsidies or against policies that support renewable energy, impact those prices. **1. Energy security** From fueling wars to preserving national security, the fossil fuel industry loves to trumpet its role in keeping the world safe, even when it is engaging in geopolitical brinksmanship that makes everyone decidedly less so. In the context of national security, it’s worth noting that the US military started funding net-zero programs back in 2012 and listing climate change as a threat multiplier in its Quadrennial Defense Review a decade ago. But oil companies and their trade groups ignore that reality and instead insist the threat is in reducing fossil fuel dependence. We’ve seen this recently in the industry’s messaging around the Russia-Ukraine war, when it mobilized [even before Putin](https://theintercept.com/2022/05/25/fossil-fuels-disaster-capitalism-russia-ukraine/) to push the idea that a global liquified natural gas (LNG) boom was [a fix](https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/feb/22/us-oil-gas-lng-contracts-russia-ukraine) to short-term energy shortages in Europe. The industry has been noticeably quiet on the Israel-Palestine war, but is pushing general “[we keep you safe](https://vimeo.com/847444227?share=copy)” messaging that emphasizes global instability. In the US, energy security narratives often have nationalistic undertones, with messages pushing the [global environmental and security benefits](https://www.pagecoalition.com/irrational-energy-policy-puts-u-s-national-security-in-jeopardy/) of US fossil fuel over that from countries like Qatar or Russia. It is true that energy self-sufficiency contributes to any nation’s stability, but there’s no rule that says energy has to come from hydrocarbons. In fact, it’s well-documented that depending on an energy source vulnerable to the whims of world commodity markets and global conflicts is a recipe for volatility. **2. The economy v the environment** In 1944, when it looked like the second world war would end soon, PR guru Earl Newsom pulled together his corporate clients–including Standard Oil of New Jersey (ExxonMobil today), Ford, GM and Procter & Gamble – and crafted a [top secret post-war strategy](https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24451465-newsom_wwii_freeenterprise) to keep the US public convinced of the “worth of the free enterprise system”. From [school curricula](https://www.documentcloud.org/app?q=%2Bproject%3A214213#add-ons/runs) to [Hollywood-crafted animated shorts](https://archive.org/details/4050_Destination_Earth_01_47_33_28) to [industry presentations](https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23904175-spe-108830-dl4) to media interviews, the fossil fuel industry has hammered these themes repeatedly for decades. And, in a classic move, industry spokespeople point to studies that industry groups, like the American Petroleum Institute, commission as proof that taking care of the environment is bad for the economy. In 2021, a peer-reviewed paper entitled “[Weaponizing Economics](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09644016.2021.1947636)” tracked the activity of a group of economic consultants who were hired by the petroleum industry for decades. “They produced analyses that were then used by both companies and politicians … to tell the public that it would just be way too expensive to act on climate, and that in any case, climate change was not going to be a big deal, so the best thing to do would be to do nothing,” the paper’s co-author Ben Franta, head of the Climate Litigation Lab at Oxford University, said. These tactics also show up in ads that remind us to balance a desire for reduced emissions with the need to keep the economy going. [One BP ad](https://vimeo.com/910655139?share=copy) recently running on NPR, New York Times and Washington Post podcasts states that oil and gas equals jobs and argues for adding renewables, rather than replacing fossil fuels. **3. ‘We make your life work’** The fossil fuel industry loves to argue that it makes the world work – from keeping the lights on to keeping us riveted by smart phones and TV, and clothed in fast fashion. It’s genius: create a product, create demand for the product, and then shift the blame to consumers not just for buying it but also for its associated impacts. “Basically it’s a propaganda campaign,” said Brown University environmental sociologist Robert Brulle. “And you don’t have to use the words ‘climate change’. What they’re doing is they’re seeding in the collective unconscious the idea that fossil fuels equals progress and the good life.” Advertisements like Energy Transfer Partners’ “[Our Lives Are Petroleum](https://vimeo.com/857015552)” campaign, which has been running since 2021, also serve the purpose of shaming people into keeping quiet on climate unless they have successfully rid their own lives of hydrocarbons. The logic goes: if you use a phone or drive a car, or really, if you live in the modern world at all, you’re the problem. Not the companies that have worked for decades to make their products seem indispensable and block any alternatives to them. **4. ‘We’re part of the solution’** Nothing keeps away regulation like promises of voluntary solutions that make it seem like the fossil fuel industry is really trying. In a 2020 exposé, Greenpeace’s investigative newsroom, Unearthed, [caught an Exxon lobbyist](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNFBjcrU5Pc) on camera explaining this tactic had worked with a carbon tax to head off emissions regulations and how the company was [pursuing the same strategy with plastic](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nywkw5jV7Jk). Working with the American Chemistry Council to roll out voluntary measures like “[advanced recycling](https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/may/11/exxon-advanced-recycling-plastic-pollution-investigation)”, the lobbyist, Keith McCoy, said the goal was to “get ahead of government intervention”. As with climate change, McCoy explained, if the industry can make it seem as though it was working on solutions, it could keep outright bans on single-use plastics at bay. Today, this narrative shows up in the industry’s push for carbon capture, biofuels, and methane-based hydrogen solutions like blue, purple, and turquoise hydrogen. We also see it in the industry’s embrace of the term “low carbon” to describe not only fossil fuel–enabling solutions like carbon capture, but also “natural gas”, which industry lobbyists are successfully selling to politicians as a climate solution. **5. ‘The world’s greatest neighbor’** Just in case people still aren’t accepting of dirty air, dirty water and climate change, the fossil fuel industry funds museums, sports, aquariums, and schools, serving the dual purpose of cleaning up its image and making communities feel dependent on the industry and thus less likely to criticize it. Both journalists and their audiences have more power to combat climate disinformation than it might feel when they’re awash in it. Understanding the industry’s classic narratives is a good starting point. Debunking false claims is a critical next step. * *Amy Westervelt is an award-winning investigative climate journalist, founder of Critical Frequency, and executive editor of Drilled Media* * *Kyle Pope is executive director of strategic initiatives and co-founder of Covering Climate Now, and a former editor and publisher of the Columbia Journalism Review*

UK Politics DessertStorms • 5 months ago • 97%

www.theguardian.com

**Hundreds of thousands could lose out in England and Wales under disability benefit reforms after general election** Hundreds of thousands fewer disabled people could receive [cold weather payments](https://www.gov.uk/cold-weather-payment#:~:text=You'll%20get%20a%20payment,Payment%20scheme%20has%20now%20ended.) under the Conservatives’ planned post-election disability benefit reforms, according to an internal government report seen by the Observer. The briefing, by civil servants at the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), says that under the plans, new applicants for disability benefits in England and Wales would only qualify for cold weather payments if they passed a much harsher assessment than exists at present. “We recognise that this recommendation will result in fewer low-income people being eligible for [cold weather payments],” the briefing says, adding that some higher-income people will gain access to them. Cold weather payments worth £25 for every week of freezing weather between November and March are automatically given to people on certain benefits. Working-age disabled people qualify for the payments via the work capability assessment (WCA), which decides whether people are sufficiently sick or disabled to get disability payments through universal credit. The [Conservatives intend to abolish the WCA](https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/mar/15/hunts-disability-plans-put-1m-at-risk-of-losing-350-a-month-ifs-says) after the next general election. Instead, universal credit disability payments will go to people who qualify for the separate personal independence payment (Pip) disability benefit. The WCA became notorious in the 2010s for unfairly refusing disability benefit. But it has softened in recent years and now about 80% of applicants qualify for higher benefits or reduced requirements to look for work. By contrast, the Pip benefit assessment rejects nearly half of new applications. The DWP briefing, which was written in October, recommends that once the WCA is scrapped in 2026, newly disabled people will need to pass the Pip benefit assessment in order to qualify for cold weather payments. The briefing rejects the creation of a separate new qualifying test, as it claims it would add complexity to a system that has just been simplified. “This is further proof of the brutal impacts that the government’s proposed overhaul of the disability benefits system will have on disabled people unable to earn an adequate income through paid employment, yet consigned to poverty through denial of social security payments,” said Ellen Clifford of Disabled People Against Cuts. “Many disabled people are unable to work full-time hours and are much more likely to be in low-paid employment than non-disabled people.” It is likely that in the long run, hundreds of thousands of disabled people who would previously have qualified for cold weather payments will no longer do so. The briefing says that, as of February 2023, there were 850,000 claimants who qualified for benefit through the WCA and did not have a Pip. However, the changes will not affect existing claimants until 2029 at the earliest, and at least some of them will receive transitional protection for an unspecified period after that. The immediate impact from 2026 will be on those applying for benefits for the first time. skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotion Under the changes, about 460,000 existing Pip claimants would qualify for cold weather payments for the first time. These claimants are less likely to be on the lowest incomes, and overall the changes are predicted to cut spending on cold weather payments by about £12m. Peter Smith, director of policy at fuel poverty charity National Energy Action, said: “The additional energy costs faced by households with long-term disabilities is well evidenced, as is the mental and physical strain this brings. “If these changes are made and eligibility is narrowed, the impact could be life-threatening – with fewer very vulnerable households able to access this lifeline during exceptionally cold weather or made to jump through ever more hoops. “The UK government should be looking to increase support for energy bills for the most vulnerable, not restricting it for people who desperately need help.” The DWP briefing also recommends other government departments apply the same changes in eligibility to entitlements such as free childcare, warm home discounts and help with healthcare costs, although disabled people may be able to qualify for these through other routes. The DWP said: “While we do not comment on speculation, we have been clear that our structural reforms will be rolled out gradually from 2026 and transitional protection will ensure nobody experiences a financial loss at the point of moving onto the new system. We will always ensure our welfare system supports the most vulnerable, having made over 1.1m cold weather payments this winter, and will set out full details on any further reforms in due course.”

www.theguardian.com

**Lori and George Schappell were joined at the skull with separate bodies and lived on their own since the age of 24** The world’s oldest living conjoined twins have died at the age of 62 in their native [Pennsylvania](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/pennsylvania). Lori and George Schappell died on 7 April at the hospital of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, according to an obituary. A cause of death was not disclosed. The Schappell twins were born on 18 September 1961 in Reading, in southern Pennsylvania. They were joined at the skull with separate bodies, sharing 30% of their brain and essential blood vessels. George had spina bifida and used a mobility device. Lori pushed and steered George’s wheeled stool so the two could move around. The twins represented the rarest form of conjoined twinning, which affects only 2% to 6% of conjoined twins, NBC [Today reported](https://www.today.com/health/health/worlds-oldest-conjoined-twins-die-rcna147643). George transitioned in 2007, with the Schappells becoming the first same-sex conjoined twins to identify as different genders, [Guinness World Records reported](https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/news/2024/4/worlds-oldest-conjoined-twins-lori-and-george-die-aged-62-768511). George discussed his decision to come out with [the Sun newspaper](https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/776690/we-have-normal-lives/) in 2011 when the siblings visited London to celebrate their 50th birthday and vowed to “continue living life to the full”. He said: “I have known from a very young age that I should have been a boy.” He added: “It was so tough, but I was getting older and I simply didn’t want to live a lie. I knew I had to live my life the way I wanted.” The Schappells graduated from the Hiram G Andrews Center, a technical institute in Elim, Pennsylvania. They both worked for Reading hospital for a number of years. The Schappells had distinct hobbies and interests. George performed as a country music singer, traveling to several countries including Germany and Japan, according to [Guinness World Records](https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/news/2024/4/worlds-oldest-conjoined-twins-lori-and-george-die-aged-62-768511). Meanwhile, Lori was a lauded tenpin bowler. The siblings lived on their own since the age of 24. They previously lived in an institution for people with intellectual impairments, despite not being mentally disabled, following a court order, New York Magazine reported. Later, the two shared a two-bedroom apartment. Each sibling had their own room, alternating which room they would sleep in each night. The Schappells said that, despite being conjoined, they were able to have privacy in the shared apartment. “Just because we cannot get up and walk away from each other, doesn’t mean we cannot have solitude from other people or ourselves,” Lori [said](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmxUXZIb1RM) in a 1997 documentary. For example, when George needed to rehearse his country music, the pair would go to his room, where Lori would remain quiet and allow George to practice. While some conjoined twins have opted to be separated via surgery, such procedures weren’t available when the Schappells were born. The twins also rejected the idea of separation. “Would we be separated? Absolutely not,” George said in a 1997 documentary. “My theory is: why fix what is not broken?” “I don’t believe in separation,” Lori said to the [Los Angeles Times](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2002-sep-21-me-twins21-story.html) in a 2002 interview.

News DessertStorms • 5 months ago • 87%

www.theguardian.com

**Lori and George Schappell were joined at the skull with separate bodies and lived on their own since the age of 24** The world’s oldest living conjoined twins have died at the age of 62 in their native [Pennsylvania](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/pennsylvania). Lori and George Schappell died on 7 April at the hospital of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, according to an obituary. A cause of death was not disclosed. The Schappell twins were born on 18 September 1961 in Reading, in southern Pennsylvania. They were joined at the skull with separate bodies, sharing 30% of their brain and essential blood vessels. George had spina bifida and used a mobility device. Lori pushed and steered George’s wheeled stool so the two could move around. The twins represented the rarest form of conjoined twinning, which affects only 2% to 6% of conjoined twins, NBC [Today reported](https://www.today.com/health/health/worlds-oldest-conjoined-twins-die-rcna147643). George transitioned in 2007, with the Schappells becoming the first same-sex conjoined twins to identify as different genders, [Guinness World Records reported](https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/news/2024/4/worlds-oldest-conjoined-twins-lori-and-george-die-aged-62-768511). George discussed his decision to come out with [the Sun newspaper](https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/776690/we-have-normal-lives/) in 2011 when the siblings visited London to celebrate their 50th birthday and vowed to “continue living life to the full”. He said: “I have known from a very young age that I should have been a boy.” He added: “It was so tough, but I was getting older and I simply didn’t want to live a lie. I knew I had to live my life the way I wanted.” The Schappells graduated from the Hiram G Andrews Center, a technical institute in Elim, Pennsylvania. They both worked for Reading hospital for a number of years. The Schappells had distinct hobbies and interests. George performed as a country music singer, traveling to several countries including Germany and Japan, according to [Guinness World Records](https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/news/2024/4/worlds-oldest-conjoined-twins-lori-and-george-die-aged-62-768511). Meanwhile, Lori was a lauded tenpin bowler. The siblings lived on their own since the age of 24. They previously lived in an institution for people with intellectual impairments, despite not being mentally disabled, following a court order, New York Magazine reported. Later, the two shared a two-bedroom apartment. Each sibling had their own room, alternating which room they would sleep in each night. The Schappells said that, despite being conjoined, they were able to have privacy in the shared apartment. “Just because we cannot get up and walk away from each other, doesn’t mean we cannot have solitude from other people or ourselves,” Lori [said](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmxUXZIb1RM) in a 1997 documentary. For example, when George needed to rehearse his country music, the pair would go to his room, where Lori would remain quiet and allow George to practice. While some conjoined twins have opted to be separated via surgery, such procedures weren’t available when the Schappells were born. The twins also rejected the idea of separation. “Would we be separated? Absolutely not,” George said in a 1997 documentary. “My theory is: why fix what is not broken?” “I don’t believe in separation,” Lori said to the [Los Angeles Times](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2002-sep-21-me-twins21-story.html) in a 2002 interview.

Anarchism DessertStorms • 5 months ago • 94%

www.theguardian.com

**At least six people lock themselves in Grade II-listed York and Albany next to Regent’s Park and post notice** Squatters have taken over a pub in London leased by [Gordon Ramsay](https://www.theguardian.com/food/gordonramsay) that is up for sale with a guide price of £13m. A group of at least six people locked themselves inside the Grade II-listed York and Albany hotel and gastropub, next to Regent’s Park, boarding up the windows and putting up a “legal warning” defending their takeover, the Sun reported. In photographs taken before the windows were further boarded up, a person could be seen sleeping on a sofa in the bar, surrounded by litter. On Saturday morning, two masked people wearing black tracksuits and carrying backpacks and carrier bags exited the property, running away from reporters before they could be approached for comment. A notice taped to a door said the group had a right to occupy the venue, which they said was not a “residential building” and was therefore not subject to 2012 legislation in England and Wales that made squatting in a residential building a criminal offence. The piece of paper, signed by “the occupiers”, also said: “Take notice that we occupy this property and at all times there is at least one person in occupation. “That any entry or attempt to enter into these premises without our permission is therefore a criminal offence as any one of us who is in physical possession is opposed to such entry without our permission. “That if you attempt to enter by violence or by threatening violence we will prosecute you. You may receive a sentence of up to six months’ imprisonment and/or a fine of up to £5,000. “That if you want to get us out you will have to issue a claim for possession in the county court or in the high court.” Ramsay called the police on Wednesday but was unable to have the people removed, it is understood. Another notice asked passersby for “food and clothes donations or anything else you no longer want or need”. The occupation of a person’s non-residential property without their permission is not a crime in England, though police can take action if crimes are subsequently committed, including damaging the property or stealing from it. The Metropolitan police said in a statement: “Police were made aware of squatters at a disused property in Parkway, Regent’s Park, NW1 on Wednesday 10 April. This is a civil matter and so police did not attend the property.” In 2007, the film director Gary Love bought the freehold of the former 19th-century coaching inn. He subsequently leased the property to Ramsay on a 25-year term with an annual rent of £640,000. The Kitchen Nightmares host unsuccessfully attempted to free himself from the lease in a legal battle at the high court in 2015. The venue went on sale at the end of last year with a guide price of £13m. According to government guidance, squatters can apply to become the registered owners of a property if they have occupied it continuously for 10 years, acted as owners for the whole of that time and had not previously been given permission to live there by the owner.

UK Politics DessertStorms • 5 months ago • 97%

www.theguardian.com

**Observer investigation finds that private companies made £105m despite not being registered with Ofsted** Hundreds of extremely vulnerable school-age children in [England](https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/england) are being sent to illegal, unregulated homes every year because of a chronic shortage of places in secure local authority units. An Observer investigation has established that councils placed 706 children, the majority of them under the age of 16, in their care in homes that were not registered with [Ofsted](https://www.theguardian.com/education/ofsted), the children’s social care watchdog, in 2022-23. Most of the providers that staff or operate unregulated homes are private companies. The investigation found that providers received nearly £105m from English councils last year – equating to almost £150,000 a child. It is an [offence under the Care Standards Act 2000](https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/how-to-open-a-childrens-home/introduction-to-childrens-homes#about-registration) to operate a children’s home without an Ofsted registration, which the watchdog says prevents unsuitable people from owning, managing or working in homes. But the Observer has discovered that Ofsted did not prosecute a single provider in 2022-23, despite launching 845 investigations into suspected illegal children’s homes. The children’s commissioner for England, Rachel de Souza, said she was appalled by the findings. “Some of these children will have experienced the worst trauma, abuse and neglect, with multiple and complex needs requiring genuine care – but instead they are placed in inappropriate settings which do not meet their needs, with little say in what happens to them, often miles from loved ones and sometimes denied basic rights like education.” The illegal care system has expanded in recent years as local authorities have [struggled to accommodate increasing numbers of vulnerable children](https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/jan/06/vulnerable-children-housed-unsupported-in-bedsits-and-bed-and-breakfast), who pose a risk to themselves or others, or are being criminally or sexually exploited. Many of these children, who often have troubled, traumatic pasts and histories of running away and getting into dangerous situations, are subject to court orders restricting their freedom, in order to keep them safe. However, there is a shortage of secure local authority-run homes that can provide therapeutic care in locked buildings. There are [typically about 50 children](https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/childrens-social-care-data-in-england-2022/main-findings-childrens-social-care-in-england-2022) each day awaiting a place. As a result, family courts are having to authorise severe restrictions on children in unregistered homes, which range from rented properties and short-term holiday lets staffed by agency workers and security guards to supported accommodation designed for older children with minimal care needs. The staff, who are frequently required to restrain children, are not checked by Ofsted. The new figures, compiled by the Observer and the charity [Together Trust](https://www.togethertrust.org.uk/), show a 277% rise in numbers placed in illegal children’s homes in England between 2020 and 2023. De Souza is particularly worried about children deprived of their liberty in unregistered placements: “These are the children with the highest level of need, in the country yet I often hear from children placed in makeshift, rented flats with no appropriate care in place.” Few councils were prepared to name the companies involved, but the Observer obtained payment records from a handful of local authorities. Swindon borough council placed a child in a rented Airbnb property for a “short time” in 2022-23. The council said it placed the child there, with qualified staff, while it looked for suitable accommodation. Another council hired staff that year from two security companies to work alongside care workers in illegal children’s homes. Ofsted said it needed new powers to take action against illegal providers, as it remained concerned that children were “at risk of harm” in unregistered homes. “The government promised additional powers in 2021 that would enable us to take action against illegal providers more quickly – these powers are urgently needed in the interests of children,” said a spokesperson. Together Trust said council funding cutsleading to decline of community services, coupled with long delays for children in accessing mental health and disability support, have led to increased levels of need. “There remains a national shortage of safe, regulated homes for children in care, particularly those with complex needs,” said Lucy Croxton, the charity’s public affairs and campaigns manager. The government has pledged to increase funding for secure children’s homes in recent years, including the building of two new secure homes in London and the West Midlands. The chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, [announced in the March budget](https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/spring-budget-2024-speech) that the government would invest £165m over the next four years to increase the capacity of the children’s homes estate. The Association of Directors of Children’s Services welcomed the funding but warned that it was a “drop in the ocean”. Andy Smith, its president, said councils were forced to use unregistered homes because of the lack of suitable places. “We know that 15 secure homes have closed since 2002 … there is a need for more than just two homes.” The Department for Education said that all children in care deserve to live in settings that meet their needs and keep them safe. “Local authorities are responsible for providing safe, appropriate homes for children, and are held to account for the quality of care they provide,” said a spokesperson. The department added that all providers of care for children under 18 must be registered with Ofsted, which it said had powers to prosecute. It said that the funding announced in the budget built on £259m previously announced by ministers to “expand the capacity of children’s homes”.

Anarchism DessertStorms • 5 months ago • 95%

www.thecanary.co

**Neil Goodwin was charged over his protest outside parliament in 2023. However, a judge saw it for nonsense - and here, Neil tells all.** [Click to [listen](https://www.thecanary.co/opinion/2024/04/10/disabled-man-wins-case/) to the article, and [support the Canary](https://www.thecanary.co/support/)] Last week the Canary ran my story [A disabled man is being PROSECUTED for blocking parliament with his MOBILITY SCOOTER](https://www.thecanary.co/opinion/2024/04/02/disabled-activist-scooter-prosecuted/) just before my trial at Westminster Magistrate’s Court. Here’s the full story. **The climate crisis: very real, and very now** On July 19 2023, exactly a year on from the hottest day on record, and the devastating Wennington wild fire in East London which completely destroyed four houses, I had travelled up to parliament to raise the alarm about the effects a climate catastrophe will have on the disabled community and vulnerable groups, the old, and the frail. I have multiple sclerosis (MS) and the hottest day in 2022 really drained what little energy I usually have. I felt like the plants in my garden, completely wilted, my leaves turning brown. It was the first time that I’d had to be pushed into my garden in a wheelchair. We rescued an exhausted robin, unable to even fly up to the bird bath, cooling off in a tub of rancid water. It was truly horrifying. In early July 2023, I attended a talk at the Southbank Centre with Greta Thunberg and was shocked to learn that the government was preparing to sign new, and very significant, oil and gas licenses. I learnt that the [Rosebank](https://www.thecanary.co/?s=rosebank) project, the UK’s biggest untapped oilfield 80 miles off the Shetland coast in the North Atlantic, would have the potential if it were burned to produce as much carbon dioxide as running 56 coal-fired power stations for a year. So, at a time when the UN Chief António Guterres started using the term ‘Global Boiling’, to describe the acceleration of terrifying climate impacts, Rishi Sunak was preparing to effectively tear up our commitment to Net Zero and the Paris Agreement and block our only escape route from global catastrophe. **Warnings from the 1990s** I am a documentary film maker. In the late 90’s, when ‘[Global Warming](https://youtu.be/C4hLcbugIMw?si=gPU78xYhEX6QRTll)’ was very much considered to be junk science, I made a film called ‘Turned out Nice Again – Britain under climate change’, which set out to show what life would be like in the-near-future, about 2060, if we failed to curb our use of fossil fuels. Stuff I thought I’d never have a front row seat to witness: [Turned Out Nice Again - Britain under Climate Change](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoEOAtBVZ-E) It was during that time that I learnt that CO2 emissions take a while to affect the climate. Estimates range from between 10 to 30 years. So, the impacts we are experiencing today relate to past emissions, say the invasion of Iraq, and present emissions will affect the atmosphere roughly 10 to 30 years from now. So, I knew that with CO2 it wasn’t simply a case of just turning off the tap. Phasing out needed to happen gradually and consistently, allowing the economy and society the time to adjust. It couldn’t be business as usual right up to the 2050 deadline, the deadline stipulated in the Paris Agreement, and then bother. It most certainly couldn’t involve utilising new oil and gas fields. **Disabled people taking a stand** So, extremely angry, I had travelled up to Westminster on a Wednesday, as I say, exactly one year on from the hottest day and the Wennington wild-fire, and at around the time PMQ’s would have been winding up and parked my mobility scooter right outside the Carriage Entrance to parliament. I had dressed up the basket on the front to look like it was on fire, with a warning sign showing a wheelchair bound person caught between a fire and a flood; referencing the Wennington wildfire: [Image](https://www.thecanary.co/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Flaming-basket-scaled.jpg) Also, the danger from flash flooding, which was tragically emphasised in the run up to my plea hearing by the death of an 83-year-old Chesterfield woman called Maureen Gilbert, who drowned in her home during Storm Babet, as she was unable to escape the rapidly rising water inside her terrace home owing to mobility problems. **‘I cannot run from a climate emergency’** I had carried a placard with fake flames coming out of the top that said, ‘I cannot run from a Climate Emergency’. Neither run literally, because of my disability, nor run from what I felt was my social responsibility to try and spotlight the implications of a climate emergency, not just for the disabled community, but for all vulnerable people – the old and the frail. I had asked the first police officer who approached me, I believe my arresting officer, to turn on his body cam and record a safety announcement. Me detailing my various disabilities. I also have ankylosing spondylitis (AS), an arthritic like condition that fuses your joints, that has left me with a completely fused neck, and completely fused lower spine, called a bamboo spine. I explained exactly why I was there, and I was told that I was liable to be arrested: [Image](https://www.thecanary.co/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Gareth-3-scaled.jpg) I remember asking him to see it not as an arrest, but a demonstration in how difficult it would be to save someone like me from a fire at a moment’s notice and to carry me to the safety of a police cell. To see it as an exercise in preparedness. To which, I remember him saying, ‘If you were in a burning building, I’d throw you over my shoulder and carry you out.’ And I remember thinking, if you threw me over your shoulder, it would be like throwing a 13 stone ironing board over your shoulder, as my back and neck are almost entirely fused, and you’d probably drop me and/or break my neck in the process. It certainly wouldn’t be that quick and easy. **Surrounded by cops** My plan was to attract a swarm of cops around me, then use them as bait to attract the press, thereby elevating my protest into newsworthiness, then get nicked. No D locks, no superglue, no seriously pissed off commuters, just a very uncooperative seriously disabled man on a ‘burning’ mobility scooter, a potential public relations nightmare, saying, ‘come and have a go if you think you’re strong enough’. Or indeed, only if you’ve got suitably accessible police infrastructure. Which I had hoped to find out. I was given every opportunity to leave, invited on numerous occasions to carry out my protest along the pavement, away from the entrance. But it felt right to remain just where I was. Right in the middle of what they like to call, ominously, The Sterile Zone: [Image](https://www.thecanary.co/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Gareth-2-scaled.jpg) It’s strange, but I felt both my strongest and weakest at the same time. Surrounded by cops, one of whom apparently had a best friend with MS. None of whom could lay a finger on me, through fear of breaking something. Who knew that fragility could become a super-power? Through-out, the burning issue of climate change held aloft, perhaps barring the way of the Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, who’s motorcade would have usually swept past right about then. One of the police mentioned a secret tunnel right through to Downing Street and a short journey by golf cart. **Finally nicked** I was arrested under the 143 Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011, which I thought was quite apt, as I sincerely believed that I was acting socially responsibly raising these urgent issues, especially for the disabled, the vulnerable and the frail. Those who would be shoved onto the front line of the government’s war against the weather. I later found out that that particular law had made it illegal to carry a sleeping bag in Parliament Square, in answer to Brian Haw’s more than a decade of dissent and Occupy. Unfortunately, I wasn’t plucked to safety from my flaming mobility scooter. So, no dodgy optic of me being carried away. I waited eight months for my day in court. With countless sleepless nights, abject terror and righteousness slugging it out all through the winter, fretting over fines, and legal costs, and the bailiffs seizing my stuff. You can take the tele, but don’t take my Penny Black! **Preparing for court** So, I had done myself a favour and talked to Andy at Green & Black Cross, who straightened me out on quite a few things. Stuff like, the district judge that I would be getting at my trial last week, having a better understanding of the law than your ordinary magistrate, preferring to be addressed as ‘sir’ or just plain ‘Judge’ to ‘Your Honour’, and that he doesn’t wear the silly Les Misérables head gear. Unlike my nightmares, where he’s also wearing a black hankie. The good news was that I wouldn’t be getting the dodgy hanging judge [Silas Reid](https://www.thecanary.co/uk/analysis/2024/03/22/judge-reid-protest/), the one who is trying to take away jury trials, basically redact that last little bit of the Magna Carta, and does you for contempt for even mentioning the word ‘climate’. He’s terrorising Just Stop Oil in the Crown Court. I’d decided to represent myself, as, even though legal stuff just goes right over the top of my head, I’d learn on my feet and try and blag my way through the proceedings. Apparently, you get more leeway. Plus, I’d have a great McKenzie friend, called Josh, courtesy Green & Black, to whisper advice. **Climate change and the impact on disabled people** On the day, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) got off to a very bad start by disclosing crucial documents a quarter of an hour before the hearing. Very shoddy, I must say. But understandable, considering the mountain of paperwork Just Stop Oil is generating. No wonder the guy looked depressed. This apparently pissed-off the judge big time. Before we got underway, there was just time to take the plea of a Met police officer accused of groping a colleague. Right from the off, the judge began by making it clear that the existence of a climate emergency was not in question. So, all that evidence I’d gathered, and helpfully stuffed into a ‘bundle’ for the judge and CPS, couldn’t be heard. I’d spent a lot of time looking at the government’s National Adaptation Programme (NAP,) particularly an outlook from Stephen Belcher, the Chief Scientist at the Met Office: > > > Climate change is happening now… Heavy rainfall events that can lead to flash flooding are expected to become more frequent and intense across the country. Summer temperatures above 40oC, seen for the first time in July 2022, will become more commonplace by the end of the 21st century. > > Also the ‘UK Climate Change Risk Assessment’ (CCRA), the latest one published in January 2022, six months before the Wennington wild fire. Its Executive Summary sounding like an Extinction Rebellion leaflet: > > > Climate change is happening now. It is one of the biggest challenges of our generation and has already begun to cause irreversible damage to our planet and way of life. We have clear evidence demonstrating the pace of warming in recent decades and the impacts we will face should this continue. As we redouble our efforts to achieve net zero, we must also continue to raise ambitions on adaptation to ensure the UK is resilient to the challenges of a warming world. > > CCRA3 landed on cabinet desks in January 2022, six months before the Wennington wild fire, giving us a snapshot of what the government knew about the seriousness and challenges of climate change at that point in time. So the case would almost entirely revolve around Article Ten of the Human Rights Act 1998, and The Freedom of Expression, and how reasonable I was acting in pursuing this right. **Eight hours of cops bleeding their hearts** The prosecution set out the issues. I was arrested blah blah blah… and showed the body cam footage of my arrest. Me looking almost sullen. Even rude. Not saying a word, as my arresting officer cautioned me. By that time, I had had two hours of eight cops worth of near constant questions and pleading and befriending and guilt trips. ‘My best friend has got MS.’ ‘I’m a lesbian.’ ‘My dad is dying of cancer and I was planning on visiting him.’ That kind of thing. So, I looked exhausted: [Image](https://www.thecanary.co/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Gareth-Morris-Photo-3-1-scaled.jpg) My arresting officer took the stand. I counted five mentions of Just Stop Oil, who were being mass arrested on Parliament Square at the time of my action. Sorry JSO, but I was keen to distance myself from you. The judge asked me what if there was any campaign group that I was connected to. I told him I was loosely affiliated with DPAC, Disabled People Against the Cuts, although my placard had said DPACC, Disabled People Against Climate Change. It turned out that the Met had just the one suitably modified van to transport disabled people to the nick, codenamed Pixie1 (my old road protestor mates will [appreciate the name](https://youtu.be/LPVf-ClHw2Q?si=LnQAZ8UIaKUkYPaK)). And that had been on its way to Croydon that day with part of the latest Just Stop Oil mass arrest. JSO had been having their last big bash before the summer recess and had pretty much used up every available van and cell inside the M25, including Pixie1. I’d heard of the arrest of a disabled JSO protestor called Ari, who had been arrested, and witnessed the police practically begging a black cab to take her to the station, and had often wondered whether the cops could possibly handle a group action. **CPS trying their best to smear a disabled man** The CPS and the judge went to great lengths to try and ascertain the size of the gap I had left at the entrance, which they agreed was a double gate. Did I block anyone? No. Would I block anyone? Perhaps. Slowly they scrolled through the grainy, partly obscured Body Cam footage looking for the right angle. Looking to see if I had completely blocked the highway, or whether a vehicle could still get by. Once I realised what they were doing I couldn’t help but give a little chuckle. I had the perfect photo taken by my mate Gareth Morris, where you could clearly see the gap. When I showed them Gareth’s pic, and that there was plenty of space, the prosecution argued that a vehicle still wouldn’t be able to pass by safely. Whereupon the judge gave me my second spontaneous chuckle of the day, pointing out there were plenty of policeman there to stand between me and a vehicle, to make sure it was safe. He really had it in for the CPS that day. **‘Doing my bit’** I trundled my wheelchair up to the stand, where I dropped my notes, and made a futile attempt to pick them up. I told the court that according to the MS society’s website: > > > excessive heat can often make MS worse. Which when you consider that we already suffer greatly from fatigue, often mentioned as one of the worst symptoms of MS, the promise of more days, perhaps entire weeks, of 40-degree heat, would make life impossible and intolerable. > > I broke down twice on the stand. Once when I spoke of my devastated garden on 19 July 2022, and once when I spoke of the tragic and terrifying drowning of Maureen Gilbert, during Storm Babet, one of the people I said the government had thrown onto the front line of their war against the weather. I told the judge that I saw this as doing my bit as a 58-year-old man and decried the 20 somethings who were being imprisoned for demanding a future. A future that I felt that I could at least now look in the eye. **A judge sees sense** We waited for the verdict for about half an hour. Me convinced that, whilst the judge might say nice things about my convictions, his hands would be tied legally. When he came back, after the usher had demanded ‘All Stand’, and according to my friend Saskia’s excellent notes, he mentioned ‘reasonable excuse.’ That ‘The defendant was there to protest under Article 10’. That it had been about ‘Government failure and the granting of new fossil fuel leases.’ About ‘How this would affect people with disabilities. How high temperatures directly affect people with MS.’ The risk of fires, and ‘on the anniversary of the Wennington fire.’ I was so made up that I’d been successful in linking all these elements together on my day in court. I was, ‘peaceful and dignified.’ And, crucially, there were doubts that it I ‘can be properly said to have been blocking the gates.’ That, ‘Not one vehicle entered or left’ whilst I was demonstrating, so there was ‘no evidence of obstruction.’ I was ‘fully cooperative’ and moved once I had secured my day in court. I was “passionate, articulate and honest in everything that [I] said’. I was proper blushing by this stage, but still expecting the words, ‘but’ or ‘unfortunately’. He went on. Exploring ‘the balance of rights under Article 10’, and ‘reasonable excuse’, about ‘Zeigler’, which gets mentioned a lot. To be honest, there were loads of legals that just went over the top of my head, including the classic what the hell does that mean? line ‘The occupation was more than minor but less than major.’ **I fought the law…** Whereupon, he suddenly blurted out ‘Not guilty. You are free to go.’ Leaving me to just stare into space, until the usher finally chucked me out. So yes, I can now say that I fought the law, and the law… lost. No guesses as to what tune I first played when I finally got home. Featured images and additional images via Gareth Morris

Climate - truthful information about climate, related activism and politics. DessertStorms • 5 months ago • 100%

www.thecanary.co

**Neil Goodwin was charged over his protest outside parliament in 2023. However, a judge saw it for nonsense - and here, Neil tells all.** [Click to [listen](https://www.thecanary.co/opinion/2024/04/10/disabled-man-wins-case/) to the article, and [support the Canary](https://www.thecanary.co/support/)] Last week the Canary ran my story [A disabled man is being PROSECUTED for blocking parliament with his MOBILITY SCOOTER](https://www.thecanary.co/opinion/2024/04/02/disabled-activist-scooter-prosecuted/) just before my trial at Westminster Magistrate’s Court. Here’s the full story. **The climate crisis: very real, and very now** On July 19 2023, exactly a year on from the hottest day on record, and the devastating Wennington wild fire in East London which completely destroyed four houses, I had travelled up to parliament to raise the alarm about the effects a climate catastrophe will have on the disabled community and vulnerable groups, the old, and the frail. I have multiple sclerosis (MS) and the hottest day in 2022 really drained what little energy I usually have. I felt like the plants in my garden, completely wilted, my leaves turning brown. It was the first time that I’d had to be pushed into my garden in a wheelchair. We rescued an exhausted robin, unable to even fly up to the bird bath, cooling off in a tub of rancid water. It was truly horrifying. In early July 2023, I attended a talk at the Southbank Centre with Greta Thunberg and was shocked to learn that the government was preparing to sign new, and very significant, oil and gas licenses. I learnt that the [Rosebank](https://www.thecanary.co/?s=rosebank) project, the UK’s biggest untapped oilfield 80 miles off the Shetland coast in the North Atlantic, would have the potential if it were burned to produce as much carbon dioxide as running 56 coal-fired power stations for a year. So, at a time when the UN Chief António Guterres started using the term ‘Global Boiling’, to describe the acceleration of terrifying climate impacts, Rishi Sunak was preparing to effectively tear up our commitment to Net Zero and the Paris Agreement and block our only escape route from global catastrophe. **Warnings from the 1990s** I am a documentary film maker. In the late 90’s, when ‘[Global Warming](https://youtu.be/C4hLcbugIMw?si=gPU78xYhEX6QRTll)’ was very much considered to be junk science, I made a film called ‘Turned out Nice Again – Britain under climate change’, which set out to show what life would be like in the-near-future, about 2060, if we failed to curb our use of fossil fuels. Stuff I thought I’d never have a front row seat to witness: [Turned Out Nice Again - Britain under Climate Change](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoEOAtBVZ-E) It was during that time that I learnt that CO2 emissions take a while to affect the climate. Estimates range from between 10 to 30 years. So, the impacts we are experiencing today relate to past emissions, say the invasion of Iraq, and present emissions will affect the atmosphere roughly 10 to 30 years from now. So, I knew that with CO2 it wasn’t simply a case of just turning off the tap. Phasing out needed to happen gradually and consistently, allowing the economy and society the time to adjust. It couldn’t be business as usual right up to the 2050 deadline, the deadline stipulated in the Paris Agreement, and then bother. It most certainly couldn’t involve utilising new oil and gas fields. **Disabled people taking a stand** So, extremely angry, I had travelled up to Westminster on a Wednesday, as I say, exactly one year on from the hottest day and the Wennington wild-fire, and at around the time PMQ’s would have been winding up and parked my mobility scooter right outside the Carriage Entrance to parliament. I had dressed up the basket on the front to look like it was on fire, with a warning sign showing a wheelchair bound person caught between a fire and a flood; referencing the Wennington wildfire: [Image](https://www.thecanary.co/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Flaming-basket-scaled.jpg) Also, the danger from flash flooding, which was tragically emphasised in the run up to my plea hearing by the death of an 83-year-old Chesterfield woman called Maureen Gilbert, who drowned in her home during Storm Babet, as she was unable to escape the rapidly rising water inside her terrace home owing to mobility problems. **‘I cannot run from a climate emergency’** I had carried a placard with fake flames coming out of the top that said, ‘I cannot run from a Climate Emergency’. Neither run literally, because of my disability, nor run from what I felt was my social responsibility to try and spotlight the implications of a climate emergency, not just for the disabled community, but for all vulnerable people – the old and the frail. I had asked the first police officer who approached me, I believe my arresting officer, to turn on his body cam and record a safety announcement. Me detailing my various disabilities. I also have ankylosing spondylitis (AS), an arthritic like condition that fuses your joints, that has left me with a completely fused neck, and completely fused lower spine, called a bamboo spine. I explained exactly why I was there, and I was told that I was liable to be arrested: [Image](https://www.thecanary.co/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Gareth-3-scaled.jpg) I remember asking him to see it not as an arrest, but a demonstration in how difficult it would be to save someone like me from a fire at a moment’s notice and to carry me to the safety of a police cell. To see it as an exercise in preparedness. To which, I remember him saying, ‘If you were in a burning building, I’d throw you over my shoulder and carry you out.’ And I remember thinking, if you threw me over your shoulder, it would be like throwing a 13 stone ironing board over your shoulder, as my back and neck are almost entirely fused, and you’d probably drop me and/or break my neck in the process. It certainly wouldn’t be that quick and easy. **Surrounded by cops** My plan was to attract a swarm of cops around me, then use them as bait to attract the press, thereby elevating my protest into newsworthiness, then get nicked. No D locks, no superglue, no seriously pissed off commuters, just a very uncooperative seriously disabled man on a ‘burning’ mobility scooter, a potential public relations nightmare, saying, ‘come and have a go if you think you’re strong enough’. Or indeed, only if you’ve got suitably accessible police infrastructure. Which I had hoped to find out. I was given every opportunity to leave, invited on numerous occasions to carry out my protest along the pavement, away from the entrance. But it felt right to remain just where I was. Right in the middle of what they like to call, ominously, The Sterile Zone: [Image](https://www.thecanary.co/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Gareth-2-scaled.jpg) It’s strange, but I felt both my strongest and weakest at the same time. Surrounded by cops, one of whom apparently had a best friend with MS. None of whom could lay a finger on me, through fear of breaking something. Who knew that fragility could become a super-power? Through-out, the burning issue of climate change held aloft, perhaps barring the way of the Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, who’s motorcade would have usually swept past right about then. One of the police mentioned a secret tunnel right through to Downing Street and a short journey by golf cart. **Finally nicked** I was arrested under the 143 Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011, which I thought was quite apt, as I sincerely believed that I was acting socially responsibly raising these urgent issues, especially for the disabled, the vulnerable and the frail. Those who would be shoved onto the front line of the government’s war against the weather. I later found out that that particular law had made it illegal to carry a sleeping bag in Parliament Square, in answer to Brian Haw’s more than a decade of dissent and Occupy. Unfortunately, I wasn’t plucked to safety from my flaming mobility scooter. So, no dodgy optic of me being carried away. I waited eight months for my day in court. With countless sleepless nights, abject terror and righteousness slugging it out all through the winter, fretting over fines, and legal costs, and the bailiffs seizing my stuff. You can take the tele, but don’t take my Penny Black! **Preparing for court** So, I had done myself a favour and talked to Andy at Green & Black Cross, who straightened me out on quite a few things. Stuff like, the district judge that I would be getting at my trial last week, having a better understanding of the law than your ordinary magistrate, preferring to be addressed as ‘sir’ or just plain ‘Judge’ to ‘Your Honour’, and that he doesn’t wear the silly Les Misérables head gear. Unlike my nightmares, where he’s also wearing a black hankie. The good news was that I wouldn’t be getting the dodgy hanging judge [Silas Reid](https://www.thecanary.co/uk/analysis/2024/03/22/judge-reid-protest/), the one who is trying to take away jury trials, basically redact that last little bit of the Magna Carta, and does you for contempt for even mentioning the word ‘climate’. He’s terrorising Just Stop Oil in the Crown Court. I’d decided to represent myself, as, even though legal stuff just goes right over the top of my head, I’d learn on my feet and try and blag my way through the proceedings. Apparently, you get more leeway. Plus, I’d have a great McKenzie friend, called Josh, courtesy Green & Black, to whisper advice. **Climate change and the impact on disabled people** On the day, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) got off to a very bad start by disclosing crucial documents a quarter of an hour before the hearing. Very shoddy, I must say. But understandable, considering the mountain of paperwork Just Stop Oil is generating. No wonder the guy looked depressed. This apparently pissed-off the judge big time. Before we got underway, there was just time to take the plea of a Met police officer accused of groping a colleague. Right from the off, the judge began by making it clear that the existence of a climate emergency was not in question. So, all that evidence I’d gathered, and helpfully stuffed into a ‘bundle’ for the judge and CPS, couldn’t be heard. I’d spent a lot of time looking at the government’s National Adaptation Programme (NAP,) particularly an outlook from Stephen Belcher, the Chief Scientist at the Met Office: > > > Climate change is happening now… Heavy rainfall events that can lead to flash flooding are expected to become more frequent and intense across the country. Summer temperatures above 40oC, seen for the first time in July 2022, will become more commonplace by the end of the 21st century. > > Also the ‘UK Climate Change Risk Assessment’ (CCRA), the latest one published in January 2022, six months before the Wennington wild fire. Its Executive Summary sounding like an Extinction Rebellion leaflet: > > > Climate change is happening now. It is one of the biggest challenges of our generation and has already begun to cause irreversible damage to our planet and way of life. We have clear evidence demonstrating the pace of warming in recent decades and the impacts we will face should this continue. As we redouble our efforts to achieve net zero, we must also continue to raise ambitions on adaptation to ensure the UK is resilient to the challenges of a warming world. > > CCRA3 landed on cabinet desks in January 2022, six months before the Wennington wild fire, giving us a snapshot of what the government knew about the seriousness and challenges of climate change at that point in time. So the case would almost entirely revolve around Article Ten of the Human Rights Act 1998, and The Freedom of Expression, and how reasonable I was acting in pursuing this right. **Eight hours of cops bleeding their hearts** The prosecution set out the issues. I was arrested blah blah blah… and showed the body cam footage of my arrest. Me looking almost sullen. Even rude. Not saying a word, as my arresting officer cautioned me. By that time, I had had two hours of eight cops worth of near constant questions and pleading and befriending and guilt trips. ‘My best friend has got MS.’ ‘I’m a lesbian.’ ‘My dad is dying of cancer and I was planning on visiting him.’ That kind of thing. So, I looked exhausted: [Image](https://www.thecanary.co/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Gareth-Morris-Photo-3-1-scaled.jpg) My arresting officer took the stand. I counted five mentions of Just Stop Oil, who were being mass arrested on Parliament Square at the time of my action. Sorry JSO, but I was keen to distance myself from you. The judge asked me what if there was any campaign group that I was connected to. I told him I was loosely affiliated with DPAC, Disabled People Against the Cuts, although my placard had said DPACC, Disabled People Against Climate Change. It turned out that the Met had just the one suitably modified van to transport disabled people to the nick, codenamed Pixie1 (my old road protestor mates will [appreciate the name](https://youtu.be/LPVf-ClHw2Q?si=LnQAZ8UIaKUkYPaK)). And that had been on its way to Croydon that day with part of the latest Just Stop Oil mass arrest. JSO had been having their last big bash before the summer recess and had pretty much used up every available van and cell inside the M25, including Pixie1. I’d heard of the arrest of a disabled JSO protestor called Ari, who had been arrested, and witnessed the police practically begging a black cab to take her to the station, and had often wondered whether the cops could possibly handle a group action. **CPS trying their best to smear a disabled man** The CPS and the judge went to great lengths to try and ascertain the size of the gap I had left at the entrance, which they agreed was a double gate. Did I block anyone? No. Would I block anyone? Perhaps. Slowly they scrolled through the grainy, partly obscured Body Cam footage looking for the right angle. Looking to see if I had completely blocked the highway, or whether a vehicle could still get by. Once I realised what they were doing I couldn’t help but give a little chuckle. I had the perfect photo taken by my mate Gareth Morris, where you could clearly see the gap. When I showed them Gareth’s pic, and that there was plenty of space, the prosecution argued that a vehicle still wouldn’t be able to pass by safely. Whereupon the judge gave me my second spontaneous chuckle of the day, pointing out there were plenty of policeman there to stand between me and a vehicle, to make sure it was safe. He really had it in for the CPS that day. **‘Doing my bit’** I trundled my wheelchair up to the stand, where I dropped my notes, and made a futile attempt to pick them up. I told the court that according to the MS society’s website: > > > excessive heat can often make MS worse. Which when you consider that we already suffer greatly from fatigue, often mentioned as one of the worst symptoms of MS, the promise of more days, perhaps entire weeks, of 40-degree heat, would make life impossible and intolerable. > > I broke down twice on the stand. Once when I spoke of my devastated garden on 19 July 2022, and once when I spoke of the tragic and terrifying drowning of Maureen Gilbert, during Storm Babet, one of the people I said the government had thrown onto the front line of their war against the weather. I told the judge that I saw this as doing my bit as a 58-year-old man and decried the 20 somethings who were being imprisoned for demanding a future. A future that I felt that I could at least now look in the eye. **A judge sees sense** We waited for the verdict for about half an hour. Me convinced that, whilst the judge might say nice things about my convictions, his hands would be tied legally. When he came back, after the usher had demanded ‘All Stand’, and according to my friend Saskia’s excellent notes, he mentioned ‘reasonable excuse.’ That ‘The defendant was there to protest under Article 10’. That it had been about ‘Government failure and the granting of new fossil fuel leases.’ About ‘How this would affect people with disabilities. How high temperatures directly affect people with MS.’ The risk of fires, and ‘on the anniversary of the Wennington fire.’ I was so made up that I’d been successful in linking all these elements together on my day in court. I was, ‘peaceful and dignified.’ And, crucially, there were doubts that it I ‘can be properly said to have been blocking the gates.’ That, ‘Not one vehicle entered or left’ whilst I was demonstrating, so there was ‘no evidence of obstruction.’ I was ‘fully cooperative’ and moved once I had secured my day in court. I was “passionate, articulate and honest in everything that [I] said’. I was proper blushing by this stage, but still expecting the words, ‘but’ or ‘unfortunately’. He went on. Exploring ‘the balance of rights under Article 10’, and ‘reasonable excuse’, about ‘Zeigler’, which gets mentioned a lot. To be honest, there were loads of legals that just went over the top of my head, including the classic what the hell does that mean? line ‘The occupation was more than minor but less than major.’ **I fought the law…** Whereupon, he suddenly blurted out ‘Not guilty. You are free to go.’ Leaving me to just stare into space, until the usher finally chucked me out. So yes, I can now say that I fought the law, and the law… lost. No guesses as to what tune I first played when I finally got home. Featured images and additional images via Gareth Morris

Movies DessertStorms • 5 months ago • 100%

www.theguardian.com

**Not long after the 1994 film became a smash hit, the titular bus disappeared. Where did it go? Who had it? And could it be recovered before it was too late?** Thirty years ago, a humble silver bus was transformed into a cinematic icon when the low-budget Australian film [The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert](https://www.theguardian.com/film/the-adventures-of-priscilla-queen-of-the-desert) became a heart-warming, Oscar-winning smash hit. But for years, no one has known where the bus used in Stephan Elliott’s film went. Not long after the 38-day shoot finished in 1993, it seemingly vanished without a trace. This did not stop countless Australians from claiming they either owned it or knew who owned it, or that they had spotted it somewhere up and down the country. The story of where she ended up, and how she was found, is worthy of a film in itself. ‘We were a bit suspicious at first’ In the 1994 film, Priscilla is home to drag queens Mitzi Del Bra (Hugo Weaving), Felicia Jollygoodfellow (Guy Pearce) and transgender woman Bernadette Bassenger (Terence Stamp) as they drive from Sydney to Alice Springs. In reality, Priscilla is a 1976 Japanese model Hino RC320. It was owned by Sydney company Boronia Tours before it was sold to a couple who leased the bus to Latent Images, the film’s production company, for the duration of the shoot in September and October 1993. Afterwards, the couple hired it out occasionally, including to the Australian band the Whitlams, who used it as a tour bus for six months in 1994. But after that, Priscilla vanished without a trace. For years, the bus was the white whale for curatorial staff at the History Trust of [South Australia](https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/south-australia), who hoped to acquire it for the National Motor Museum in Birdwood, SA – home to several famous cars from cinema, including the Mad Max Bigfoot buggy. So when a man called Michael Mahon got in touch with the History Trust in 2019 claiming Priscilla was sitting on his property in Ewingar, [New South Wales](https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/new-south-wales) (population: 67), no one really believed him. “Michael sent a message saying he had the bus and wanted to sell it. I felt like I was in The Castle – I said, ‘tell him he’s dreaming’,” says Paul Rees, head of museums at the History Trust and former director of the National Motor Museum. “We were a bit suspicious at first, to be honest. But we put our Sherlock Holmes hats on and soon realised it wasn’t a joke, so we started our investigation.” Curators spent months determining if the bus was truly Priscilla. “A few things really made us confident: it had the right number plates, the distinctive animal print curtains and dashboard cover, and the original name roller,” says Adam Paterson, manager curatorial at the History Trust. Complicating matters were the many pretenders to the throne: there are many copies of Priscilla, including the bus that was driven around the 2000 Olympics closing ceremony in Sydney; another was made for the talent show I Will Survive; and the one used in the Priscilla stage show, now displayed in Broken Hill. In the film, the bus is famously painted bright pink partway through – but because the film-makers could only afford one bus, [they painted just half of it pink and left the other side silver](https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2015/jun/17/the-adventures-of-priscilla-five-things-you-didnt-know) so they could shoot out of sequence. Crucially, some old pink paint hadn’t been removed from a hinge. “What convinced everyone in the end was the pink paint scrapings,” says Rees. “Curators are fantastically conservative - they will not jump until they’re absolutely sure. But I was jumping all over the place.” Some facts and dates remain a little murky, but what everyone agrees on is this: the couple who owned Priscilla eventually broke up and one of them got the bus in the separation. That person drove it to their new partner’s place in Ewingar sometime around 2006, where it was eventually abandoned when that relationship ended. When the owner of that house in Ewingar died, it was sold – complete with Priscilla – to Mahon in 2016. “I’d been here in Ewingar for about six months when I went down to the community hall to say hello to everybody, and they said, ‘G’day! What are you going to do with the bus?’” says Mahon. “I said to the bloke behind the bar, ‘Why is everyone asking me about the bus?’ and he went, ‘That’s Priscilla!’ ‘Strewth,’ I said.” Mahon did some research online and rewatched the film, then looked over the bus with fresh eyes. Everything matched, down to the number plates. He went on Facebook for advice on bus restoration, but “everyone thought I was an idiot and a liar because they thought she had been stolen or destroyed”. Eventually he made friends with a few enthusiasts, who told him the rusting vehicle outside his house was known by two names in the bus-loving community. “One was ‘The Hunt for Red October’ because they’d been looking for it for years,” says Mahon. “The other was ‘the Holy Grail’.” By that time, the bus had been languishing outdoors for a decade. In the years following, it survived multiple bushfires and floods. In October 2019, when huge flames came within centimetres of the bus, a water bomb struck it and saved it. “The fire went right alongside Priscilla and took out a van, a boat and two cars right next to it,” Mahon says. “You wouldn’t believe it. It was 2,000-degree temperatures. The fire went straight over the roof of the house, the fireball was 50 feet above the treetop. But Priscilla survived.” Right after the 2019 fires came floods, which made finding a new home for Priscilla even more urgent. “With all the rain, it started to really rust because it copped a lot of heat,” says Mahon. “Thankfully, the museum was in the same frame of mind as me – it is a true blue, ridgy-didge Australian icon. It’s got to be saved.” “I’ve heard it so many times – ‘I’ve got the bus!’ – that it gets boring,” says Stephan Elliott, the director and writer of The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. When the History Trust got in touch to see if he could help verify the bus’s authenticity, he was sceptical. “But I was astonished when they showed me the photos,” he says. “I said, ‘There’s two things I need to see: the carpet and if there is a side-railing on the roof.’ They sent more photos and I immediately said, ‘That’s it. You got her.’ My jaw was just on the ground.” The side-railing was installed on the bus’s interior so a camera could be hung from it “like a little cable car”, to allow for moving shots inside the bus while it was on the road. “It’s so odd, no one else would think to put it there,” says Elliott. The director, who fondly calls Priscilla “the old bus and chain”, wrote the film at the same time as his 1993 comedy Frauds, which ended up being made first. The experience was “terrible, the whole Hollywood nightmare … I was completely ruined by the end, I was literally a dribbling wreck.” “We were having an early production meeting for Priscilla and I said, ‘I can’t do this. I don’t want to ever make a film again.’ Everyone was shocked. But Owen [Paterson, the production designer] said, ‘Well, there’s something that I’ve found and it’s about to pull up. Come and have a look.’ “So we’re sitting there in Paddington and around the corner she came. It was a very weird moment where I got inside the bus and I put my hand on the wall. I turned to everyone and said, ‘I think I can do this.’” Elliott estimates he has seen 50 different copies of the bus over the years, “at premieres, Mardi Gras and daggy things”. “So to hear that the original was still alive, it was very special,” he adds. “I don’t understand how it is. It is just extraordinary.” Given the complex nature of who actually owned Priscilla, having been abandoned on a deceased estate, the History Trust applied to the NSW courts to buy the vehicle as abandoned property in 2021, 18 months after Mahon first contacted them. This process required them to wait another whole year for someone to come forward to claim it as their own. But no one did. Mahon was finally deemed the legal owner of the bus and sold it to the History Trust in May 2023. In September, “a whole army of very experienced mechanics and engineers” turned up to Ewingar to move her for the first time in at least 16 years. “I was actually on leave but I drove myself all the way to NSW to watch it be moved – this is what a project like this does to you,” says Rees. The bus’s flat tyres were carefully filled with air; if they couldn’t be filled or burst, it would become a much more complex operation. Everyone held their breath as the bus was wriggled “inch by inch” out of a tight spot on a slope, then down the hill on to a truck. Just as it went on, one tyre popped. Ten or so Ewingar locals gathered to watch her go. (“Word started to spread and as the bus drove out, they all sort of waved goodbye,” says Paterson. “That was pretty cool.”) Was Mahon sad to see Priscilla go? “Yes and no,” he says. “I believe museums are important, so it was going to the right place.” But long after she was taken, he felt a pang when he looked over the spot, “like something was missing”. “Part of me was gone,” Mahon says. “But if it stayed where it was for another 12 months, it probably would have been unrepairable.” Priscilla is now at a restoration business in Queensland, ready to be glammed up – but not too much. “We are restoring it to the state it was in during the making of Priscilla because the film is why it is significant,” says Rees. “So if the crew say it was a bit manky then, then it’s going to be that way when we’re done with it.” But Priscilla was almost 20 years old when she featured in the film and will turn 50 in two years’ time, so she needs a lot of work. [The History Trust is hoping people around the world will help raise A$2.2m (US$1.4m/£1.1m)](https://shoutforgood.com/fundraisers/savethequeen) – a total that includes A$750,000 for an extensive restoration, including possibly making the bus roadworthy again. The rest will go to building an ambitious “immersive” exhibit, fit for a queen, in the National Motor Museum in South Australia. (The SA government has already committed $100,000.) “She’s not in good shape, she’s not been loved and cared for. But she’s very, very salvageable – if you’ve got money to throw at it,” says Rees. “We want the exhibition to be fabulous. If we’re taking her on the road to Mardi Gras, we want that to be a fabulous experience. All those things cost a lot of money, as do the decades of care we will provide her with. “It’s survived flood, fires, 16 years out in the open,” he adds. “But the film is all about survival – and somehow, the bus survived.”

British Telly DessertStorms • 5 months ago • 83%

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I really hope they get a series 2 going because I need to know what happened next..