Author: Ric Lander
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What we’re saying Yes to: Public investment for the people
The UK is in dire need of new investment for housing. Credit: GWN2008 There are a lot of problems we face that we need our government to tackle. Some demand the time of effort of policy makers, like the forging of new relationshops within and outwith our borders, the provision of new rights, and changes…
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No time to waste: to fight climate change we need a Labour Government
Jeremy Corbyn speaking with Naomi Klein and others in Paris during the 2015 climate summit. Image by Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung. It’s 2017. You live in a dystopian future where tiny drone aircraft deliver pizzas, oil companies create earthquakes to get the last drops of fuel out of the earth, our fields are tilled by solar-powered…
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Defy Trump: Read, Watch, Play
Have you become incredible angry this past week? Feel like fascism and autocracy are on the rise and our leaders are simply going along for the ride? Increasingly fearful about the security of your neighbours, yourself, and your planet? When not protesting and organising, here’s a list of things that keep my spirits up and…
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Flash stuff
Friends, as this Guardian writer points out, Flash – that annoying browser plugin that enables tiresome overblown ads in the tram lines of the Independent website – is dying. This is a good thing, but made me nostalgic for some lovely Flash crap. Flash was the first time the web got properly interactive, and it…
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21 acts of defiance: Scottish people’s 10 year war against Trump and the politicians who backed him
Photo: Protestors march on Donald Trump’s half-built golf course at Menie, Aberdeenshire, 2010. Copyright Aaron Sneddon, used with permission. Scotland’s fight against Trump wasn’t about his bulging personality, but corporate power. Earlier this year Scotland was engaged, if not enthralled, in one of the more progressive parliamentary election campaigns in the wee Parliament’s short history.…
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“I began to feel a little bit shaky”: Charles Lander in the Somme, 100 years ago
Painting above: ‘We Are Making a New World’ by Paul Nash 100 years ago today began the Battle of the Somme. Few episodes in human history are remembered with such a grand sense of supreme awfulness. But with this grandeur comes distance and incomprehension. As time passes the gulf widens: we need personal stories to…
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7 things on Brexit
7 things on Brexit: chinks of light through a constitutional clusterfuck Good morning readers. Time to eat your brexit: the UK has voted to leave the European Union. There is a lot to come to terms with, a lot to think about, and a lot to do. Some things we know, and they might help…
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How the Scottish Parliament can remake banking for the common good
Following the release of a new report , Friends of the Earth Scotland finance campaigner Ric Lander explores how Scotland’s banking system could be transformed. SCOTTISH banking is virtually useless. It’s not providing current accounts to people who need them. It’s not lending nearly enough to productive businesses. Branches are closing leaving whole communities out…
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The Paris deal did not fix climate change. But we will (and here’s how)
Let’s recap. Climate change is predicted to kill 250,000 people per year from malnutrition, malaria and other effects from 2010 onwards. These people will predominantly be the poorest. Rising temperatures and changing weather patterns threaten the life support systems of vulnerable people and will cause an unprecedented global mass extinction of species. Conflicts inflamed by…
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A thriving, sustainable society needs democratic and accountable banks
By Gemma Bone and Ric Lander Bailout protests on Wall Street, New York, 2008. Image credit: Eyewash, Flickr. If we want social change we need to think about finance. To create a society that lives within natural limits we need to fit together some proposals about how we can sustain people and their communities,…