MichaelLondonSF
@michaellondonsf.bsky.social
1.7K followers 880 following 1.5K posts
semi-retired / activist on London housing and planning / UCL Bartlett / grandfather JustSpace.org.uk michaeledwards.org.uk I don't follow people with empty bios.
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Reposted by MichaelLondonSF
Reposted by MichaelLondonSF
Started Korean class last week. I think my honeymoon period peaked on Friday when I read the soy sauce bottle label.
Reposted by MichaelLondonSF
Israel is blocking a Turkish delegation with rescue teams and heavy equipment from entering Gaza, saying:

“Hamas can immediately return the bodies of abducted individuals; there’s no reason to let the Turks in.”
Gavin Parker lecturing on neighbourhood planning. Interesting stress on how crucial the interaction/ deliberation among people is far more important than additive yes/no attitudes.
Reposted by MichaelLondonSF
Reposted by MichaelLondonSF
Banks make $26bn in a decade of financing deforesting companies.

Destruction of the world’s forests reached the highest level - agricultural expansion, mining, infrastructure, logging.

Profits before climate change, human lives and the planet.

The cult of deregulation will make matters worse.
Banks make $26bn in decade of financing deforesting companies
US, EU and UK banks have made over $10 billion in income since Paris Agreement by financing companies involved in deforestation, new analysis ahead of COP30 reveals
globalwitness.org
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UK banks oppose tax rise.

Falsely claim to be paying 46.4% tax rate.

The PwC generated number includes PAYE, employee national insurance which is paid by workers. VAT which is borne by customers.

it is extrapolated from a sample, can't be verified

Why do media reports not expose this sham claim?
Banks step up lobbying over threat of Reeves tax hikes
The gap between the tax burden on British banks and their international rivals is widening, even before the imposition of any further levies in next month's budget, according to a report seen by Sky N...
news.sky.com
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As I was scurrying along a Leeds street I heard the sound of a key in a lock and it made me turn to look …
Where was I?
BTW I wasn’t lost. As if.
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This Friday!

Come along to the livestream!
On Friday, we will host a discussion with Michael Hudson, Steve Keen and Ann Pettifor.

The topic will be Debt, Empire and the Future.

It will be streamed on our Youtube channel. Here is the link: www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLAT...
Michael Hudson in Conversation with Steve Keen & Ann Pettifor
YouTube video by Institute of David Graeber
www.youtube.com
Reposted by MichaelLondonSF
The government says it is “driving forward private finance efforts for Gaza's reconstruction.”

As if enabling a genocide wasn't enough. Now, they are allowing private companies to make some money out of it as well.

Have they no shame?

www.middleeasteye.net/news/british...
'No shame': UK invites private firms to compete for Gaza reconstruction contracts
As Britain positions itself as key player in the rebuilding of territory devastated by Israel's genocide, MPs point to its role in its destruction
www.middleeasteye.net
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Although civil servants would protest that this is very complicated, in effect we just need around 0.5% of the Social and Affordable Housing Fund budget in the form of revenue grants or revolving loans/equity to capitslise our sector and make 100s of projects like Yorpace's possible.
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Explanation...

Yorspace used Community Housing Fund grants worth ~£160k to bring this collective custom build project forward, which then enabled them to access mainstream funds like a £516k brownfield grant from the combined authority and commercial borrowing.
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They're moving in! Lovely to drop in to catch up with James, his is the first family to move into @yorspace.bsky.social 's almost-finished first co-op housing project. If only @matthewpennycookmp.bsky.social could unlock the funding for many more projects like these...
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Meta has removed a Chicago ICE-tracking Facebook page.

The move follows Apple and Google removing ICE activity tracking apps from their app stores.

The removals came after a demand from Trump’s DOJ.

Once again, Big Tech is bending the knee to our tyrant-in-chief to protect its bottom line.
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Soon to be a big and very positive moment for renters and landlords.
My sincere thanks to Peers for completing their scrutiny of the Renters’ Rights Bill yesterday.

With no Lords amendments coming back to the Commons, the Bill will soon receive Royal Assent allowing us to transform the experience of private renting for millions of tenants.
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We have big rage about how China is a great threat to the UK.

But almost all your clothes, cheap electrical goods, childrens toys, Apple Products and much more was made in China.

If they are such a great threat then why is the UK literally stuffed with things they have made?
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Modern capitalism has more in common with Feudalism and the oldstyle slave-system than most people realize.

From: davidgraeber.org/articles/tur...
"In the case of slave mode of production, 
the exploiters directly own the primary 
producers; in feudalism, both have complex 
relations to the land, but the lords use direct 
jural-political means to extract a surplus; in 
capitalism, the exploiters own the means of 
production and the primary producers are 
thus reduced to selling their labor power. 
The state, in each case, is essentially an 
apparatus of coercion that backs up these 
property rights by force."
.
  - David Graeber
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Corporations should not be able to post any profits until they have given all their employees an annual pay rise that exceeds the inflation rate.
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Letter to the editor:

If Germany stripped British residents of healthcare, the UK would be outraged.

So why tolerate such proposals here?

From Camilla Cucinotta
Letter to the editor: A civilised society does not withhold care based on citizenship
Letter to the editor
eastangliabylines.co.uk
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According to a new study
by Yale researchers
Covid-19 continues
to be driving a large number
of work absences,
which is an important reminder
that it is not the case
that people are “quiet quitting,”
rather it’s the case
that this virus just won’t quit.