Sadderp 🇮🇪 🇪🇺💚

Irish/English. Socialist. Republican. Left of UK Labour. Anti-Tory/Reform.
Ireland has 32 counties.
Like Irish folklore & anything Irish
Independent Scotland.
Genealogy & DNA enthusiast.
Keen roadie cyclist. Dog lover. Coffee nerd. Garden lover.
Ex pro photographer &
retired IT/Media Lecturer in SW England.
Live in Finistère, France.
UK voting Green, never Tory or Red Tory.
Irish citizenship allows UK, EU & Mayor votes.
Trying not to be all politics here.

#RoadieCyclist: Upset with UK Labour. Just another Tory party.
#Cyclist: Dry weather only roadie.
#Photography: Ex pro photographer of live events. Mainly rock bands and theatre. Ex IT & media lecturer.
https://www.despard.eu/photography/index.html:

Last Notes

2025-08-10 06:59:02 UTC

Imagine playing monopoly:
https://a.mindlycdn.com/media_attachments/files/115/003/161/950/225/391/original/cabb71a004860160.jpg

2025-07-22 16:09:51 UTC

#Gaza #IsraelWarCrimes
https://a.mindlycdn.com/media_attachments/files/114/897/746/638/260/579/original/492a90fc583303a1.jpg

2025-07-21 08:53:29 UTC

From @npub1j79…rc5v
How much would it cost to nationalise the UK's water industry?
The number that is bandied around is £90 billion. You'll also hear them saying it's going to be paid for by taxpayers' money.
There are issues with their claims.
£90 billion was an estimate by a very right wing think tank who thought if you nationalise water you would have to repay all the debts owed by the water companies to the loan financiers who have kept them in business and profited heavily by doing so.
That's total nonsense. If a company is bust, you don't pay off the loan financiers to it. You pay a fair value for the business, and that is it.
What's the fair value of the water companies right now, given that they are both actually financially insolvent in some cases, like Thames Water, or environmentally insolvent in the sense that they can't actually deliver us clean water without it being full of, let's be blunt, shit, in most cases.
Well, their value is nothing. Literally, precisely pounds zero, or maybe £1 each.
That's the price we should pay for the water companies.
Would we have to pay taxpayers' money to bail these companies out? Let's not talk nonsense here. We have nationalised companies in the past, & what do we use to nationalise companies? We issue new debt to nationalise companies.
Not a single penny raised from taxpayers is involved in any way at all, because firstly, there will be almost nothing to pay. And secondly, bonds will pay for it. #uk_politics #ukwater

2025-07-10 14:44:13 UTC

@npub1j79…rc5v
#Gaza #antisemitism
https://a.mindlycdn.com/media_attachments/files/114/829/459/007/873/447/original/1a8fae772c573a76.jpg

2025-03-30 08:40:51 UTC

How has fascism in Britain got this far? Neoliberalism has opened the door for it
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/mar/28/fascism-britain-neoliberalism-opened-door-for-it-labour?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other
Why seek to nix the financial regulations inspired by the 2008 crash, when the likely result is a repeat performance? Why reject a wealth tax, when a 2% levy on assets of over £10m could raise £24bn a year? Why not adopt the measures proposed by Patriotic Millionaires, generating £60bn a year? Or those suggested by political economist Richard Murphy, worth £90bn in tax revenue? Why abandon plans to tax non-doms properly? Why not demand an end to the Bank of England’s destructive quantitative tightening?
#ukpolitics #uklabour #rachelreeves
https://a.mindlycdn.com/media_attachments/files/114/250/470/615/773/575/original/c52c33831ad2c47d.jpg

2025-03-19 08:22:19 UTC

Does Rachel from accounts not know any other way of raising money?
How about reducing the private pension relief for 40% tax payers to 20%?
This will recoup around £36b.
No need to hit the poor and disabled.
#ukpolitics #rachelreeves #uklabour

2025-03-05 08:12:43 UTC

I hate #BBC news.
Just now economics BBC journalist:
"Spending cuts are necessary as the markets lend money to the government to allow it to spend on essential services".
No they don't.
The UK creates money when it needs it from thin air. More info from lots of sources including the Bank of England's own website!
The "market" saves with the government as it is the safest place to invest.
#ukpolitics #uk #ukpol

2025-01-29 10:22:27 UTC

https://a.mindlycdn.com/media_attachments/files/113/911/132/696/553/168/original/1346bdfbdd050ca2.jpg

2024-12-23 09:09:04 UTC

Clement Attlee said: “Charity is a cold grey loveless thing. If a rich man wants to help the poor, he should pay his taxes gladly, not dole out money at a whim.” As we hurtle towards 2025, perhaps it is time our society edged towards such progress. Modern Britain should not be run like the final pages of A Christmas Carol, in which Tiny Tim must rely on Scrooge waking up in a good mood to be permitted to live. Donate to a good cause this Christmas, please. But don’t forget the unseasonal truth: every time a charity helps a person find food or clothes, it is a sign of government failure.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/dec/23/britain-victorian-christmas-charity-state-social-economic-problems?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other
#foodbanks #povertyisapoliticalchoice

2024-12-23 09:04:10 UTC

As of last month, more than 16 million people are living in poverty, or a staggering 24% of the UK population – the highest since records began. Over 9 million of these are in deep poverty, meaning they’re struggling to afford enough food or pay energy bills. More than a million children don’t even have their own bed. It’s no surprise that a survey of voluntary organisations by the CAF found that 86% say demand for their services has increased over the past year, with poverty-relief charities reporting the biggest rise. Goodwill alone cannot fix the holes in the safety net.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/dec/23/britain-victorian-christmas-charity-state-social-economic-problems?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other
https://a.mindlycdn.com/media_attachments/files/113/701/332/063/240/829/original/10586be76527ccb2.jpg

2024-12-19 09:32:35 UTC

Newsletter from Roy Lilley
NhsManagers.net
The NHS is the world’s fifth largest employer.
The world's first universal healthcare system funded by taxation.
With over 1.4 million staff, the NHS is the largest employer in Europe and the fifth largest globally.
In the wider UK economy, as a whole, 9.5% of the workforce are managers.
In the NHS just 2% of the workforce are managers.
Of the total NHS workforce 52% are clinically trained
Of the remaining 48%, almost half are support staff such as cleaners, porters and canteen staff who keep the service running.
The average local general hospital will;
Deliver over 9,000 babies
Take half a million calls to the switchboard
Produce 1.4 million meals
Carry out 2,000 cataract operations
Look after 1,500 people in 'virtual wards'
Carry out 60,000 maintenance jobs
Porters will walk 6 miles a day
Housekeeping will produce 500,000 items of laundry, use 90,000 mop heads and clean 40,000 sqm of floor every day.
https://a.mindlycdn.com/media_attachments/files/113/678/788/840/670/910/original/07da22e4e1309812.jpg

2024-12-01 20:44:12 UTC

Jonathan Cook:
At each mention of Hamas, the BBC informs us that it is "designated a terrorist organisation by the UK government".
In the interests of balance, at what point will the BBC inform us at each mention of Netanyahu's name that he is "wanted on suspicion of committing crimes against humanity"?
#bbcbias

2024-10-11 07:16:35 UTC

Labour’s carbon-capture scheme will be Starmer’s white elephant: a terrible mistake costing billions
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/oct/11/labour-carbon-capture-climate-breakdown?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other
https://a.mindlycdn.com/media_attachments/files/113/287/559/310/492/671/original/70ae6cb13570c79a.jpg

2024-09-16 07:14:38 UTC

News & comment from Roy Lilley:
Starmer became labour leader four years ago last April. He’s had four years to commission a Darzi report and four years to get ready for office.
Four years to hit the ground running with a plan. Instead, he’s hit the ground. Now he's deep in a crater of his own making.
He was elected on a tide of hope and optimism, talk of black-holes and cutting yer granny's winter allowance means we might as well have stuck with the other lot...

2024-08-20 10:19:20 UTC

Ian Tresman:
Clement Atlee’s government created the NHS & welfare state, nationalised the railways, & started building 4.5 m homes (80% were affordable housing), despite Britain being effectively broke after the war.
If they could do it in then, a more prosperous Britain could do it now, ending the need for foodbanks, ensuring people had affordable housing, shorter waiting lists ,free dental health, and so on. The government chooses not to, not because it can’t, but because it wants austerity.