Sophie Joanna

Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much - Oscar Wilde

I don’t want a city on Mars. I don’t want AI on every app. I don’t want data centers in space. I want clean water. I want our food to be safe. I want the bees to survive.

Landowners may be forced to sell land for new towns. "Tempsford in Bedfordshire is currently a tiny village which is home to around 600 people. There is one local pub, a farm shop, a church and, beyond that, fields." inews.co.uk/news/homeowner…

Piece by me about all the development threats faced by East Anglia eastangliabylines.co.uk/business/devel…

I’ve tabled a proposal to ban housing developers from donating to political parties. The housing crisis is too serious for big money influence. Developers profit from high prices and low standards - families pay the price. Ban developer donations. People before profit.

More small boat migrants have arrived under Starmer than any other PM. The asylum system has fallen into absolute chaos under Labour. This will have huge fiscal and social implications for Britain.

A nice picture of rural Suffolk, England. Preserve these places. Object to solar panels and ugly housing estates. And remember when it's gone, it's gone. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

This is so horrendous, please think about what you’re allowing to be done, @JBryantWales. It is #environmental vandalism of the first order. Stop it before it’s too late. #wildlife deserves a home too.

I don't understand how we are supposed to function like this The Prime Minister constantly lies Wes Streeting lies. Steve Reed lies. This is not a functioning Government.

They keep saying “save more” like we’re just bad with money. Save what? Rent is insane. Food is expensive. One small emergency wipes you out. At some point you have to admit it… this system doesn’t work for normal people anymore.

A building collapsed in the centre of Oldham on Tuesday. Five people were injured. Two were taken to hospital. Workers were inside when it came down. Members of the public were steps away. It is a miracle no one died. The building owner called the event 'unfortunate'. The property at 31 King Street is owned by a company whose director is Kamran Ghafoor. Ghafoor is a serving Oldham councillor, leader of the Oldham Group, officially aligned with @georgegalloway's Workers Party, he sits on the very council that carries enforcement responsibility for dangerous buildings in this borough. He has previously been prosecuted over housing offences connected to properties he owned. Inside the council chamber, elected members who sit alongside him branded him a slum landlord. He remained in post. Ghafoor's brother appeared on Greater Manchester Police's most wanted list. Cllr Kammy G has yet to condemn him. His Deputy Leader's brother is a convicted international drug runner. Not one councillor in the town dare raise this. No surprise then, that a convicted heroin dealer and getaway driver for a cop killer is now running for election in the town. Representing one of the poorest wards in the country. Kammy G drives around the town in a supercar. It appears as though he has a fleet of them. Previously, he was criticised for leaving his Rolls Royce parked next to the town's war memorial. He then changed his Rolls for a German Porsche and parked that there instead. No, I'm not making any of this up, he even posed for a picture with it next to the war memorial, such is his power. The Council Knew This Building Was Dangerous Before It Fell Works were underway to address structural concerns already identified before Tuesday. A neighbouring property had been demolished years earlier, leaving the exposed wall to deteriorate. The risk was known before a single worker went inside. Someone identified it, decided repairs were needed, commissioned them, and sent workers in. While those workers were inside a building already flagged as structurally compromised, it came down. Someone made a decision about that building and got it catastrophically wrong. The Law Makes Clear Who Bears Responsibility The Building Act 1984 requires dangerous structures to be made safe before anyone is put at risk. The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 places explicit legal obligations on those who commission construction works to keep workers and the public safe. These laws exist because buildings that fall on people tend to kill them. Tuesday was luck. The kind that does not come twice. Neither the HSE Nor Greater Manchester Police Have Confirmed They Are Investigating. Why? When a building collapses during active construction works in the UK, the investigation cannot sit with the local authority. The Health and Safety Executive holds primary jurisdiction. If criminal negligence is in question, @gmpolice must be involved. Neither body has publicly confirmed a formal investigation has been opened. @OldhamCouncil cannot investigate a collapse involving one of its own sitting councillors. Ghafoor cannot be permitted to shelter behind the protection that holding office in this borough affords him. The bodies with actual teeth must now use them. If the HSE has not opened a formal investigation, that decision requires a public explanation. Ghafoor Has Been Protected Long Enough The people Ghafoor represents live in the kind of housing linked to his property interests. They have no lawyers and no way to force an inquiry. They depend entirely on public institutions to enforce the law without calculating whether Ghafoor is worth protecting. The enforcement record against him does not suggest those institutions have been rushing. Prior housing prosecutions are on his record. His brother was named on Greater Manchester Police's published most wanted list. The words slum landlord were put on the public record by his own council colleagues, in his presence, and he carried on regardless. He drives a supercar through streets his constituents cannot afford to heat their homes on. A building he owns fell in the middle of Oldham and put people in hospital. The local college is yards away. The HSE and Greater Manchester Police must open formal investigations now. If they do not, the question stops being about Kamran Ghafoor. It becomes about them. _________ I’m Raja Miah MBE. For seven years, I led a campaign that exposed how senior Labour politicians helped protect Pakistani rape gangs. The people of my town helped force the national inquiry. You won’t see me on the BBC. You won’t read my work in the legacy press. That’s not an accident. I take this to a place from where there is no coming back. My work is free. No paywalls. No gatekeeping. No exclusions. Because the truth shouldn’t belong only to those who can afford it. If you can afford to do so, supporting me costs as little as 75p a week (£30 a year). Sign up here; 👉 redwallandtherabble.co.uk If you can’t commit to a regular subscription, a one-off contribution genuinely helps keep this alive. You can support me using one of these links; 👉 BuyMeACoffee.com/recusantnine 👉 paypal.me/RecusantNine We’re up against a machine, politicians, police, officials, and media, working together to shrink, sanitise, and bury the truth. This work survives because of you. If you’ve ever shared my posts, learned something, or felt less alone reading them, stand with me. I need your help. Raja 🙏

Barnet Council paid £31million to nurseries in ‘24/5.* According to Ofsted, a number of these nurseries are registered as ‘Closed’. This needs clarification; were any payments made after they had closed? ‘Play and Learn Day Nursery’ was paid £251k over 54 transactions. 🧵1/5

@danielgoyal But, but, but, but Reform will privatise the NHS! The Labour Party is a disgrace.

So, as a doctor I can’t accept a plastic pen from a pharmaceutical company because it might influence my prescribing decisions, but MPs can accept thousands in cash from those who want to privatise the NHS and it won’t affect their decision-making??? CTFO thenational.scot/news/25967768.…

****Breaking news**** The Thanet Trust Association launches Judicial Review against the use of Farmland in Birchington, left in TRUST to St Johns College Cambridge, for housing development @Coastman2024 @CommunityPlann1 youtube.com/watch?v=QI7rhI…

There’s no wealth on Earth—no oil, no gold, no fortune—that compares to the value of bees, forests, and clean water.

New EU data confirm a continued and alarming decline of the European Turtle-dove. Across the Central–Eastern flyway, 13 out of 15 countries report declines, with populations dropping by over 23%. Spring hunting in #Malta cannot be justified. Read more👇 birdlifemalta.org/2026/03/new-eu…

Why the hell is a Belgian mining company permitted to chop down a mature Oak forest in Devon?😡😡😡😡😡🤬🤬🤬 Protest letters please. justgiving.com/crowdfunding/s…

Did you know? Bats save us billions every year. It’s estimated bats save the agriculture industry up to $53 billion worldwide every year. Studies show Ecological collapse would result in a 12% loss of GDP and is a national security risk So yes, saving bats is cost effective

So where will we go ? When you bulldoze our homes,So you can put holiday chalets in place of trees,tarmac instead of grass,drown out our song with your cars and noise,pollute the night sky with your artificial lights,litter our beautiful paradise and pollute our waterways ! You can find lots of other places to stay on holiday on ynys Môn . Please don’t destroy our safe haven just for a few to get very rich! #wednesdaythoughts #naturedeservesbetter #AchubPenrhos #SavePenrhos 📸by Shirley Blease,Tim Owen ,Alan Hughes,David Vaughan Hughes

“Britain’s food supply ‘at risk of catastrophic failure by 2030’” @BenCooke135 @thetimes We hope @Heidi_Labour reflects that fragmenting BMV land & rare habitats like Coton Orchard, for a busway buses may not even use, isn’t a solution #SaveCotonOrchard thetimes.com/article/381266…

So where are your police,@YvetteCooperMP? @networkrail are breaking the law. Do something about it! What’s the point of making laws if the police choose to ignore them?