Steve Parkes

Maragaret Thatcher selling off all British industry to her mates at cut price was the biggest theft from the Britsh people since the Enclosure Acts.

Just listened to former CEO of M&S and Tory peer, Stuart Rose, telling @BBCPM that people are going to have to get used to being colder as a result of the energy crisis caused by the US and Israel's illegal war on Iran and by NATO's proxy war in Ukraine. He was on with @ClareMoriarty who is the CEO of @CitizensAdvice. Both agreed that the country couldn't afford to bail people out if energy bills significantly increase. But that is completely false. For a start, if @ofgem did its job properly, electricity bills would be 25% cheaper, and if the govt nationalised the profiteering  energy companies, bills could be slashed still further. Even in the absence of the energy regulator doing its job properly, and the govt failing in its duty to renationalise the utilities, the govt could still make sure than everyone is assisted with their energy bills, because it issues the currency. And contrary to what Stuart Rose asserted the govt wouldn't need to borrow to do so (which is a misnomer anyway because "govt borrowing" is actually the value of govt bonds, AKA gilts, that it sells to provide risk free savings accounts for wealthy elites  banks, foreign investors, pension funds and insurance companies etc).  The only limit on govt spending isn't the availability of money, it's the availability of real resources in the economy such as workers, infrastructure, machinery, materials etc. So short term assistance with energy bills could be made available by the govt, but the better option would be to instruct ofgem to do its job properly, or better still renationalise the energy companies. Furthermore, if the govt stopped facilitating Israel's genocide of the Palestinian people and its illegal war on Iran, British oil tankers could traverse the Strait of Hormuz unimpeded.

I can no longer hold my tongue seeing the utter lies being spread about Britain, our history of migration, and how this country was built into what it is today. For those so deeply buried in fake news, manufactured outrage and billionaire‑funded propaganda, I’m going to lay out the truth – and exactly why you’re being fed all this poison. Britain was never a sealed white island. From Roman times there were African soldiers stationed on Hadrian’s Wall and living in British towns, people from across the empire walking these roads nearly 2,000 years ago. Through the Middle Ages and Tudor England you still find Black people in the records – sailors, craftsmen, servants, musicians – even Black musicians at the royal court and Africans being baptised, marrying and being buried in English parishes like anyone else. This isn’t some modern experiment; it’s older than half the castles people visit on their bank‑holiday tours. As Britain went out into the world, the world came here. Sailors and traders from India, Yemen and beyond were arriving in British ports from the 1600s. Some of those men were practising a new faith to most Britons at the time, praying quietly in boarding houses near the docks while they worked brutal shifts in the engine rooms of British ships. Over the centuries, more people from North Africa, the Middle East and South Asia passed through and settled, bringing their languages, foods and beliefs into port cities that were far more mixed than today’s nostalgia merchants like to admit. After two world wars, the truth is simple: this country asked the Commonwealth to come and rebuild it. People from the Caribbean, Africa and South Asia didn’t sneak in; they were recruited. They came to drive buses and trains, staff the NHS, work in mills and foundries, clean offices, run corner shops, open takeaways and small businesses, and yes, build prayer spaces and community centres alongside churches and temples in the neighbourhoods everyone now pretends were always “traditional” and “unchanged”. They did the work that kept Britain going while being told to go home, refused housing, and treated as permanent outsiders. And what have they been paid back with? Scandals where people who’ve lived, worked and paid taxes here for decades get told they don’t belong. Policies designed to make life so hostile that some give up and leave. A media that uses their names, accents, clothes or places of worship as props in endless scare stories. The message is always the same: you might toil for this country, but you will never fully be of it. So when you hear that “Britain was white until recently” or that the country has been “overrun”, understand that you don’t arrive at that belief by accident. You get there because your history has been deliberately ripped out and replaced with a comforting myth: that “real” Britain is white, homogenous, and constantly under siege from people who look, speak or pray differently. Now look at when this myth has been turned up to max volume. Wages frozen. Housing a sick joke. Energy and food prices out of control. Public services hacked to pieces. At the same time, the number of people hoarding unimaginable wealth at the top has exploded. Funny, isn’t it, how every front page is about boats and “swarms” and “our culture”, and almost never about the landlords, hedge funds, private equity and offshore trusts quietly buying up your city and your future. That’s because this isn’t just prejudice; it’s a strategy. If you’re sitting on a mountain of wealth, the last thing you want is ordinary people – of every colour and background – realising they have the same problems and the same enemy. Much safer if the factory worker is furious at the new family down the road. Much safer if the person who can’t see a doctor blames the nurse with an accent instead of the minister who cut the funding. Much safer if a man who can’t afford his rent spends his rage on the woman in a headscarf at the bus stop instead of the billionaire who owns half his city. Racist rhetoric, religious dog‑whistling, all of it, exists to break solidarity. It turns neighbours into enemies and stops people seeing that Black, brown and white working‑class communities have far more in common with each other than any of them will ever have with the people flying in on private jets. It keeps you so busy policing skin colour, passports and prayer mats that you never get round to asking why your kids can’t afford a home, why your parents can’t get a hospital bed, why you’re working harder and standing still. The real story of Britain is this: a crossroads, not a fortress. Africans on Hadrian’s Wall. Black people in Tudor courts and city streets. Sailors, traders and workers from South Asia, the Middle East and beyond in the ports. Caribbean, African and Asian workers rebuilding the country after the war, staffing surgeries and hospitals, driving cabs, running shops, cooking food, teaching kids. Today’s multi‑ethnic, multi‑faith working class is not a glitch; it is Britain. It built this place and it keeps it running. If you’re genuinely angry about what’s happening to this country, good. You should be. But aim it where it belongs. Britain was never pure, never untouched, never “theirs” to take back. The people ruining your standard of living are not the ones risking their lives to get here, or the ones whose names you struggle to pronounce. They’re the ones buying politicians, owning media outlets, writing the story of this country so you never learn your own – and never realise who is standing beside you.

@ColeFusionHQ Over the years I have worked with Speedy, Pugwash, Angry, Piggy, Onslow, Grabber, Shifty, No balls, Fingers, Slurp and many more. It’s amazing how these names stick for 20 or 30 years until no one really remembers why.

British nicknames are an unregulated industry. a 5'6 tradesman called Anthony is professionally known as Shetland Tony. a man who lost an eye is called Keth. a quiet man wore a yellow jumper once and became Mumblebee. what's the best nickname you've ever heard

RT if you would never vote Reform UK!

Anyone on benefits in this country. Pause for a second. There is a reason those benefits exist. Because life broke somewhere. Illness. Disability. Caring. Redundancy. Wages that do not cover rent anymore. That is reality not failure. Now listen to what Reform are actually saying. Not dog whistles. Not rumours. Out loud. They want to charge you for things you do not currently pay for. They want austerity back. They want to tighten. Cut. Squeeze. Again. Even lower wages. Did you miss that bit? Many people on benefits already use food banks. Many already sit in the dark watching the meter tick down. Many already skip meals. That is now. Before Reform touch anything. So picture it. Same life. Same bills. Same stress. Then extra charges on top. Less support. More punishment dressed up as discipline. How are you meant to survive that. Honestly. This is not theoretical. They are not hiding it. They are proud of it. Things are bad right now. Reform are openly promising to make them worse for you. So the question is simple. Are you okay with that. Are you genuinely okay voting for people who are telling you they will take more from you when you already have nothing left. I struggle to understand it. Then I stop pretending. Because if you are choosing this anyway it means something else comes first. Anger. Blame. Racism. Someone to point at while your own plate gets emptier. If that is the choice then own it. Say it. Do not pretend this is about helping ordinary people. They are screaming what they want to do to you. Loud. Proud. No shame. And still some of you cheer. That is not being ignored. That is choosing your own harm. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🇬🇧💷☕️🫖🍰

On this day in 1834 (18th March) the Tolpuddle Martyrs were sentenced. Six agricultural labourers from the small Dorset village of Tolpuddle; George Loveless (the leader and a Methodist lay preacher), his brother James Loveless, Thomas Standfield and his son John Standfield, James Brine, and James Hammett, were convicted at Dorchester Assizes and sentenced to seven years transportation to the penal colonies in Australia. They had formed a branch of the Friendly Society of Agricultural Labourers in late 1833 to resist repeated wage cuts (their pay had already fallen from around 9–10 shillings a week to 7 shillings, and they were threatened with a further drop to 6 shillings). Entry involved a simple oath of secrecy and solidarity, sworn in the traditional manner of friendly societies and benefit clubs. The authorities, alarmed by rural unrest after the Swing Riots and fearing any organised labour activity, charged the men not with “forming a trade union” (unions had been legalised since 1825) but specifically with administering unlawful secret oaths under the old 1797 Unlawful Oaths Act (originally passed to prevent naval mutiny). The real target was their collective attempt to protect their wages through organised solidarity. The sentences caused a national scandal. Huge petitions (one with 800,000 signatures) and mass demonstrations, especially in London, forced the government to act. The men received a full pardon in March 1836 (two years after sentencing). They returned to England between 1837 and 1839 (George Loveless in June 1837; the others in 1838–39; James Hammett last, in August 1839). Most later emigrated to Canada; James Hammett alone returned to live out his days in Tolpuddle and is the only one buried in the village (he died in Dorchester workhouse in 1891). Their story became a foundational symbol of the British trade-union and labour movement. The annual Tolpuddle Martyrs’ Festival is still held in the village on the third weekend of July (organised by the Trades Union Congress), with a parade of union banners, speeches, music, and a wreath-laying ceremony at James Hammett’s grave. Memorials include the 1934 shelter, a later monument, and a sculpture in the village. The Tolpuddle Martyrs remain a powerful reminder of the right to organise peacefully.

@SuellaBraverman Well you let it go on when you were in Government remember?

The Guardian reports, with an entirely straight face, that billionaire Matthias Dopfner, CEO of Axel Springer, promises to guarantee the Telegraph's "editorial independence" even as it also notes staff must sign on to a corporate constitution requiring their support for Israel. Billionaires don't own papers so they can foster journalistic excellence, or to ensure a full panoply of views are represented. They own media to shape our understanding of the world, so we regard anything that benefits billionaires as in our interests too. That's why it seems normal to have a world where profits come first – whether from fossil fuels, AI or the war industry – even if it means our species commits suicide in the process.

Blaming asylum seekers for homelessness? What about the 720,000 empty homes in England, and the 1,627,450 second homes in England alone. Blaming asylum seekers for expensive food shops? What about the £3,100,000,000 profit Tesco made last year? Blaming asylum seekers for expensive energy bills? What about the £438,000,000,000 made by just 20 energy companies in profit? Blaming immigrants for not getting an NHS appointment? What about the 260,000+ migrant workers keeping the NHS going? And what about the 25% real term cut in NHS funding, think that could do it? Blaming people on welfare for a lack of money to fund the NHS? What about the £36,000,000,000 tax gap due to avoidance and evasion by the elite? It's time to realise it's not immigrants, asylum seekers or people on welfare causing you any harm, it's capitalism and the mega rich hoarding all the wealth.

In 1348, the Black Death reached England. By 1350, somewhere between a third and a half of the English population was dead. What happened next was, from the perspective of the English nobility, a disaster that had nothing to do with plague. Labour was suddenly catastrophically scarce. Peasants who had survived the decimation found themselves in possession of something they had never previously held: leverage. Lords needed workers to bring in harvests, to tend livestock, to maintain estates. Workers could demand pay. They could demand conditions. They could, in the chaos that followed, demand food. And what they demanded, when they had the power to demand it, was meat. The historical record here is specific and striking. Post-plague wage contracts from the 1350s and 1360s frequently include food provisions as part of the payment, and the food provisions include meat. Fresh meat. Multiple times per week. Not the feast-day and harvest-time access that had previously defined peasant protein consumption. Regular, weekly, contractual meat. Within a generation of gaining access to adequate animal protein, the skeletal record shows measurable change. Average height among the labouring classes increases. Bone density improves. The markers of chronic nutritional deficiency that define pre-plague peasant remains begin to appear less frequently. A well-fed labouring class is a productive labouring class, which is good. It is also, however, a physically capable labouring class, which is rather more complicated. The English nobility was alarmed. In 1349, Parliament passed the Statute of Labourers, attempting to freeze wages at pre-plague levels and prevent workers from demanding "excessive" compensation. The Statute was widely ignored because the economic reality overwhelmed the legal intention. Labour remained scarce. Workers remained able to negotiate. The Peasants' Revolt of 1381 brought a well-fed army of common people to the gates of London. They burned the Savoy Palace. They beheaded the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Lord High Treasurer. They presented a list of demands to Richard II that included the abolition of serfdom and free access to the land. Richard, who was fourteen years old, rode out to meet them at Smithfield. His advisors had the rebel leader Wat Tyler killed during the negotiations. The revolt was suppressed. The lesson the ruling class drew was not that they should keep feeding people adequately. The lesson they drew was that they should never again allow the conditions that had produced an adequately fed peasantry. The Forest Laws tightened. Sumptuary legislation was introduced: laws dictating what foods the lower orders were permitted to consume, framed in the language of moral propriety. Religious fasting requirements were enforced more rigorously. The experiment in meat equity lasted approximately thirty years. The nobility shut it down as quickly as they were able. The Peasants' Revolt is taught as a failed rebellion. It might more accurately be taught as proof of what happens when you feed people properly.

I’ve said it too many times, but Keir Starmer & this hijacked Labour Governments only purpose, was a single term, to pave way for Fascism & obliterate all routes of opposing it. Removing Jury Trials is another unforgivable measure No one asked for, & serves *No One* but them.

@FBAwayDays We went to Grimsby away in a builders van (Derby fans) around 1982. The lad who owned it said he’s cleaned it out but when we emerged into the sunshine of Cleethorpes we all had a grey tinge from the cement dust. If we’d of got wet we’d of been like the Terracotta warriors.

This is what travelling to away games in the 70’s and 80’s were like… 👊

South West Water admits criminal offence over Devon parasite outbreak. Water unfit for human consumption, 150 people fell ill. SWW already has nearly 200 criminal convictions. Licence not cancelled, no exec prosecuted, dumps sewage in rivers. theguardian.com/business/2026/…

And just so you know what kind of scumbags you're dealing with here over recent months South East Water have been in the High Court twice, trying to keep their activities secret. Turns out they had been illegally abstracting water without a licence, 52.3 million litres of it. And were trying to suppress the fact they were about to be fined for not supplying water. No doubt major shareholders @NatWestGroup will be able to confirm that they approved of the company trying keep all of this secret from their customers and the public.

🇬🇧 Magna Carta had a twin. It was law for 754 years. You've never heard of it. After 1066, the Normans claimed the forests of England. Not just the trees... Villages, farmland, rivers. One third of the country. Land ordinary people had farmed for centuries. Taken. Hunt a deer to feed your family? They blinded you. Cut down a tree to heat your home? They took your hands. 1215. The barons forced King John to sign Magna Carta. The most famous document in English history. But Magna Carta was for the barons. Not for the people in the forests. Two years later. 1217. A second charter was sealed. The Charter of the Forest. This one was for everyone. The right to gather firewood. The right to graze your animals. The right to fish the streams. No more blinding. No more mutilation. For gathering wood. For the first time in English law, ordinary people had rights to the land. Not given by the king. Taken from him. 754 years. It was law until 1971. Every common in England. Every village green. Every right of way. The idea that land belongs to everyone... It started here. 🇬🇧 They taught you Magna Carta. They never taught you this. Be Proud Of Us. 🇬🇧

And there you have it, welcome to the water industry. South East Water get fined £22 million which I guarantee will never get paid and certainly not by the shareholders and meanwhile they've put up water bills by 7% which will generate £42 million this year alone.

In 1953, MI6 and the CIA overthrew Iran's democracy. British officials wanted "a non communist coup d'état" in Iran to install a "dictator" who would promote UK oil interests, declassified files show👇 declassifieduk.org/iran-1953-mi6-…

Unhappy with your bank, phone provider, or electricity supplier? Switch. Unhappy with your water company? Tough. No competition. No price control. No opt out. A state-protected cartel profiteering from ecological ruin with total impunity. #DirtyBusiness