Freelance writer: joe-banks.com. See Substack for writing on Bristol.
Joined June 2010
- Tweets 5,403
- Following 4,986
- Followers 1,146
- Likes 16,754
359 Photos and videos
Pinned Tweet
May 15
New investigation into Bristol’s planning culture, the Chief Planner role and the Princess Street development.
open.substack.com/pub/temple…
@AudreySuzanne @stillawake @bristol_citizen @GeorgeFergusonx @DanicaPriest @EdPlowden @BristolTreeFora @MrDanack @martr101 @fadumofarah2023
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Joe Banks retweeted
At the height of the genocide, the government invited the head of the Israeli Airforce - General Tomer Bar - to an air show in Gloucestershire. At the time, 10 children a day were losing one or both limbs in Gaza due to Israeli air strikes.
May 31
I’ve been banned from the UK. I tried to get on a flight to London to attend SXSW London and give a speech at Oxford. I’ve been banned for criticizing Israel. Are we free anymore? This is oppression of Western citizens by our own governments on behalf of a different country!
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Joe Banks retweeted
May 27
Some time ago I presented this Channel 4 Despatches on Blair after Downing Street. Eye-watering.
youtube.com/watch?v=Tg-Dc3nm….
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Joe Banks retweeted
May 27
Some people on the Left, for many years: The last half century of economic liberalisation, privatisation, outsourcing etc. has left Britain over-financialised, regionally imbalanced, exposed to global shocks, with reduced state capacity & with a labour market defined by precarity low productivity. We should reverse this by strengthening collective bargaining, and via big public investment in infrastructure, critical industries, and by reversing the denationalisation of national assets/natural monopolies that are currently structured to benefit rentier capital.
Sensibles: LITERALLY NOBODY HAS A DIAGNOSIS OF OUR PROBLEMS. LITERALLY NOBODY IS OFFERING ANY ANALYSIS. LITERALLY NOBODY HAS A CLUE WHY NOTHING WORKS AND WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT. BUT WOW TONY BLAIR SAID AI IS BIG AND LOW GROWTH IS A PROBLEM AND WE SHOULD GO BACK TO THE 1990S, EXCEPT WITH MORE ORACLE SOFTWARE PLZ.
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May 25
“A recent UN report showed that Israel has killed more than 38,000 women and girls in Gaza during this war. A further 11,000 have sustained injuries causing lifelong disabilities.”
Read that again. theguardian.com/commentisfre…
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Joe Banks retweeted
May 25
Burnham’s vision could be public subsidies for rentier capitalism (the mayor’s fund lent one developer £700m for skyscrapers) or it could be co-operative/mutualism and public ownership.
We simply don’t know at this stage and I think it would be useful to clarify
May 24
Is Manchester(ism) going to transform towns from Grimsby to Barnsley to Shrewsbury into one big expensive, unsustainable glass tower for rentier capitalism?
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Joe Banks retweeted
May 21
Sad. Mayor of Greater Manchester celebrating gentrification, through the pushing out of established inner-city (poorer) communities through demolition, loss of social housing massive new urban developments for the urban middle class.
Evidence: sheffield.ac.uk/media/87471/…
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May 19
Aylesham Centre redevelopment rejected – it would have changed Peckham’s skyline forever and given 12 per cent affordable housing
“In his decision, the planning Inspector said that the plans breached policies around design, heritage, tall buildings, and the protection of small businesses.”
southwarknews.co.uk/area/pec…
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Joe Banks retweeted
May 19
Met police seek charges for 57 people and 20 companies over the Grenfell Tower Fire
bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1e2…
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Joe Banks retweeted
May 19
Since it is topical; here is some stuff I wrote / spoke about regarding Manchester and its economic model.
An interview with @InvisibleMapper for @Metropolitics_
metropolitiques.eu/Unleashin…
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May 15
New investigation into Bristol’s planning culture, the Chief Planner role and the Princess Street development.
open.substack.com/pub/temple…
@AudreySuzanne @stillawake @bristol_citizen @GeorgeFergusonx @DanicaPriest @EdPlowden @BristolTreeFora @MrDanack @martr101 @fadumofarah2023
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May 19
This decision by the Planning Inspectorate yesterday flatly contradicts the threats made by Bristol’s Chief Planner. Councillors should be aware.
May 18
📣 Southwark Council welcomes news that plans by Berkeley Homes for the Aylesham Centre have been rejected.
Berkeley Homes proposed to build 867 homes, including 77 affordable homes, at the site in Peckham alongside retail, leisure and commercial space.
Today a planning inspector has dismissed an appeal by Berkeley Homes, saying “benefits do not outweigh the harm to the relevant designated heritage assets important to the area”.
Cllr Sarah King, Leader of Southwark Council, said: “This is a great day for Peckham and we welcome the planning inspector’s decision to dismiss Berkeley Homes’s appeal for the Aylesham Centre.
“I’d like to personally thank the community who spoke loud and clearly about their concerns.
“We shared those concerns and strongly argued at the public inquiry that the scheme was poorly designed and our position has been vindicated.
“We will read the appeal in detail and carefully consider our next steps.”
ALT Social media slide with the words: Cllr Sarah King, Leader of Southwark Council, said: “This is a great day for Peckham and we welcome the planning inspector’s decision to dismiss Berkeley Homes’s appeal for the Aylesham Centre. “I’d like to personally thank the community who spoke loud and clearly about their concerns. We shared those concerns and strongly argued at the public inquiry that the scheme was poorly designed and our position has been vindicated. “We will read the appeal in detail and carefully consider our next steps.”
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More than 150 people, including 120 children, were killed in Iran when an airstrike hit a school in Minab.
Although a preliminary US military investigation determined Washington was responsible, the Trump administration is yet to formally accept responsibility.
Sky's ＠DominicWaghorn is the first international journalist to visit Minab.
Warning: contains distressing content.
Community note
Sky News was not the first international news team to report from the Minab school site; The Grayzone's Wyatt Reed visited and filmed on location weeks earlier. x.com/TheGrayzoneNew… x.com/wyattreed13/st…
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Joe Banks retweeted
May 1
VIDEO | Israeli occupation forces level the historic monastery and school belonging to the Sisters of the Holy Savior in the southern Lebanese border village of Yaroun.
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Joe Banks retweeted
I think we’ve got two things going on at once, resulting in an economy that has embraced the worst of both worlds: bad aspects of “neoliberalism”, or whatever you want to call it (privately/foreign owned utilities, critical industries, infrastructure etc.; virtually non-existent collective bargaining power outside the public sector; an over-reliance on financial/corporate/legal services; low levels of public [and private] investment; extremely open, low-wage, low-productivity economy addicted to imported cheap labour/FDI/imported essentials); AND bad aspects of “bureaucratic statism” or whatever you want to call it (in this case, excessive meddling in private sector on the basis on excessive judicial interpretation of equality law — an example of New Labour-era, legalistic, top-down progressivism rather than post-war social democracy/“socialism”, which was rooted in questions of ownership and institutionalised class power).
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Joe Banks retweeted
May 1
Next Wednesday sees the launch of Double Down Newswatch, a new weekly magazine programme that will showcase the best of independent media.
Here I explain why it's needed.
youtube.com/watch?v=O8OBmdrB…
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Joe Banks retweeted
Apr 24
💯 It's the sort of cosmetic policy you do when you have no real intention of fundamentally transforming the economy. The key to provincial flourishing is to promote good quality local jobs via proper regional & industrial policy, not bung them a few quid for a new lick of paint
Apr 23
The problems with Pride In Place = the same as with the Levelling Up Fund Community Renewal Fund any number of Whitehall/centrally-controlled funding pots — they attempt to treat the symptoms without addressing the fundamentals of spatial inequality:
👉0 sustained national investment in regional infrastructure/capital projects
👉most centralised state apparatus/powers in OECD
👉London/SE England locked into virtuous circle of (inter)national public & private investment & magnet for top talent & wealth, to the exclusion of ~everywhere else, resulting in massive imbalance in tax revenues/net fiscal contribution between London/SE & ~everywhere else
Rather than one-off bits of funding, we need:
👉Greater London-style integrated bus/train/tram networks for every city-regional metropole
👉radical devolution of powers away from SW1 & towards Mayors/LAs, inc. major fiscal devo
👉reversal of LA cuts that have rendered municipalities little more than Social Care delivery orgs.
👉relocation of public orgs. to major regional CITIES, not tiny, depressed towns that ~0 officials/civil servants/young graduates etc. actually want to live in
But rather than grasping the nettle of a decades-long project of renewal, we get rehashed pork barrel politics under a new name.
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Apr 23
First sensible thing Will Hutton’s said in a long time
Apr 23
I find this mesmerising. I did when I first heard it. And it has the same impact decades later…
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Joe Banks retweeted
Did you know that, in 1991, Timmy Mallett, of Wacaday and "Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini" fame, tried explaining apartheid to children? The real plot twist is... he did a pretty great job of it. An exceptional job, in fact. They should have shown this in schools.
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