Cllr Peter Gilbert

What if the national debt is not a burden at all? What if it is simply the nation’s savings? Any sensible analysis shows that this so-called debt is no such thing: it's just a massive savings bank operation. That sounds like a contradiction, but it is not. In fact, understanding this point changes almost everything about how we think about government finance, public spending, austerity and economic policy. In this video, I explain why every pound of government debt is also somebody else’s financial asset. I show why government bonds are not like household debt, why they function as savings accounts with the state, and why the financial system depends upon them. Pension funds, insurance companies, banks and many of the world’s largest investors all rely on UK government bonds as a safe place to hold wealth. I also explain why governments that issue their own currency are fundamentally different from households, why the UK government cannot run out of pounds, and why the idea that Britain must one day “pay off the national debt” makes little economic sense. The national debt exists because people and institutions want somewhere secure to save their money, and the government has a duty to accept those savings. Along the way, I challenge some of the most common myths in economics. Are bond markets really in control of governments? Do bond vigilantes dictate public policy? Does rising government debt automatically create a crisis? Or have politicians, economists and commentators misunderstood the role that government bonds actually play in a modern economy? The answers matter because misunderstanding government debt has helped justify decades of unnecessary austerity, underinvestment, and fear about public spending. If we get the nature of government bonds wrong, we get much of economic policy wrong as well. If the national debt is actually national savings, then the debate about government finance needs to start in a very different place. youtu.be/rMfCrIhlAm8?si…

Four fifths of the world’s rivers are “choking” - losing oxygen - because of climate change, a big new study concludes. It’s worst in the tropics where oxygen levels are already low. scitechdaily.com/climate-change…

The first duty of any Government is to keep the public safe. That means recognising that national security is changing. Alongside traditional threats, we need resilience against flooding, extreme heat, and food, water and energy insecurity.

Zack Polanski, "What is your vision for affordable secure energy for all Londoners" Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, "The issue of supply and also insulation" Something about this exchange sounds like two grown ups discussing a problem which needs to be solved. So very different to the jeering and shouting in parliament

Now 33.5C at Heathrow airport - 34 to 35 expected But just wait 'til August bbc.co.uk/news/live/c1w2…

An Israeli strike captured on camera has killed three paramedics in Lebanon. Just 12 hours earlier, four other medics were killed. Sky's @AlexCrawfordSky reports trib.al/B9TiHnU

@paulpowlesland Well done 👏 all involved!

An historic day, as the River Wye becomes the first river in the UK to have its rights recognised by local authorities across its catchment. Hundreds of people gathered on the banks of the river to watch as representatives from Monmouthshire, Forest of Dean & Powys Councils, Herefordshire County Council, the Wye Valley National Landscape & Bannau Brycheiniog National Park signed the pledge recognising the rivers rights and then spoke about why they had done so what it would mean for the relationship of their organisation to the river. It went beyond legal formalities into something of a service of thanks & honour to the river, with poetry, a choir singing songs, & offerings to the river. It has been a real honour to witness & be part of the surging movement towards river rights & guardianship on the Wye. Four years ago I met & advised Herefordshire Councillor Elissa Swinglehurst, who wanted to put a voice of the river on the Wye Nutrient Management Board. A year ago I sat around a fire on the banks of the river with other Wye guardians & Earth lawyers as the idea of a charter was first mooted. To see it become a reality, & supported by 6 public bodies, in just a year is astonishing. Now, of course, comes the hard work of making those rights a reality. But given the hundreds of active river guardians, & increasing public pressure to protect & restore the river, if it can be done on any river, it will be done on the Wye.

It’s striking how much wildlife can live in even quite small gardens. Plenty of damselflies emerging from the pond at the moment, & three species too.

THE WATER RIP-OFF IS NOT ADDING UP. Barry Gardiner MP has exposed the great trick at the heart of Labour’s position on water. Environment Secretary Emma Reynolds says bringing water back into public ownership would cost an “enormous amount of money”. But when challenged, her department’s own response admitted it has not assessed the cost of continuing with privatisation against the cost of public ownership. Read that again. The Government insists public ownership is too expensive, while refusing to do the maths needed to prove it. Water is a natural monopoly. People cannot shop around for a better pipe to their home. Yet billpayers are trapped in a system where their money must cover not only clean water, functioning infrastructure and sewage treatment, but the financial interests of private owners, creditors and shareholders. Public ownership is not some wild luxury. It is common sense. Remove the need to extract profit from an essential service and put billpayers’ money back into pipes, reservoirs, sewage works and lower bills. The question is no longer whether the privatised water model has failed. We can see and smell that failure in our rivers and on our beaches. The question is why a Labour Government is defending it without even calculating the public alternative. Come clean, Secretary of State. Publish the full comparison. Let the public see who this broken system is really serving. Labour Heartlands #LabourParty #PublicOwnership

By the time he was announced as Reform UK's candidate against Andy Burnham in the #Makerfield by-election, Robert Kenyon's previous Reform UK X account had been mysteriously suspended. We found the archive. 419 tweets. Here's what they reveal. 🧵 1/12 bylinetimes.com/2026/05/20/rea…

#Glyphosate and #AMR - we are powering up resistance in multiple ways on this #PoisonedPlanet earth.com/news/glyphosat…

No Mow May - reaping the benefits. This is my first post on 'No Mow May' impacts & opportunities with more to follow in due course on my blog 'ianonthewildside'. There's plenty of good stuff happening but still too many missed opportunities, & we are paying for these too!

I pointed out that our Govt chose not to debate Nature, our environment, biodiversity, or Climate Change, in the Kings Speech.

More on 'No Mow May' Just easing off on the mowing for a few weeks can turn a green desert into a rich pollinator plot...... This is just a neighbour's short-grass front lawn. Not a bad result & it is attractive too!!

In Britain we’ve essentially privatised care for kids with complex & high risk needs. Dysfunctional, wildly expensive. Basically insane. This is how so much outsourcing works. It’s deranged some still defend this.

Another problem with the controversial, probably carcinogenic, herbicide, glyphosate? Could it be that exposures this increases antibiotic resistance? It would have seemed a stretch, but now research suggests it does. nhm.ac.uk/discover/news/…

Au revoir coastal nuclear. From the East Riding of Yorkshire, where the soft cliffs of boulder clay at Holderness are retreating at rates of up to 4.5 metres per year – some of the highest rates in Europe – to the north Norfolk coast, to Suffolk and down to the Isle of Wight, communities are at the forefront of an eroding coastline, the retreat accelerated by the climate crisis. More than 10,000 properties, rising to 20,000 according to some calculations, are at risk from coastal erosion in the next 80 years, as well as at least 3.7 miles (6km) of railways and 114 miles of roads – of which the Slapton Line is a recent dramatic example. Across the country, work has been taking place over several years to predict where and when the worst erosion will take place, but there is no national adaptation strategy ready to roll out. theguardian.com/environment/20…

I’ve written for @guardian on how the closure of the Strait of Hormuz and a forecast strong El Niño risk a major global food crisis - and why a new approach is needed to how Britain runs its own, exposed, food system (link below)

My latest article on UK free zones. From Freeports to AI Growth Zones, Britain is quietly being transformed into a network of deregulated corporate enclaves where democracy is replaced by private governance. tribunemag.co.uk/2026/05/free-z…