Heating oil suppliers are using the war in Iran to rip off families in rural communities. Ed Miliband needs to get a grip on price gouging by suppliers who are taking advantage of vulnerable families. My letter to Ed Miliband👇🏾

🚨 It looks like the UK government is gearing up to upend copyright law in favour of AI companies, legalising the theft of their work. This is despite creatives' huge protests, and despite previous proposals being roundly rejected by the public. There are rumours it is considering introducing a 'commercial research exception' for AI training. This would be disastrous. It would mean handing the life's work of British creatives to AI companies for free, to train their models on. In the House of Lords today, a government minister refused to rule this out. To be clear, this would amount to legalising theft. It would fly in the face of public opinion on what is fair, and would mean a surrender of British creatives' work by this Labour government. It would mean the lobbying by big US tech firms had succeeded, and the protests of the UK's creatives had been ignored. People's work is not the government's to give away. If you're in the UK and you care about creatives and the creative industries, please write to your MP!

Freelance journalists, tomorrow (23 Oct) is the deadline to tell the government how major news organisations’ bad business practices are affecting you. This explains why it matters, how to have your say, and includes our submission for inspiration: nuj.org.uk/resource/last-cha…

Tim Dawson, NUJ freelance organiser, said: “Members often tell me they have not been paid for a year, or are not paid at all for significant work that is commissioned but not used. This consultation provides a golden opportunity for freelances to raise these kinds of issues.”

MASSIVE NEWS!!!! #ExcludedUK are absolutely delighted to announce that we have been asked to contribute to an impact video, to be played at the Covid Inquiry at the start of the Module 9 Economic Response hearings. This is huge for our members and the other 3.8 million excluded UK taxpayers who were left without fair and equal Covid-19 Financial Support, some received zero! 40 suicides later and complete financial devastation for too many, the pandemic is still not over for us! This is an amazing opportunity to get our stories heard by a wider audience... and hopefully, with the help of our 'Gaps in Covid-19 Financial Support' APPG, once step closer to righting the wrongs of the pandemic. This is will obviously not bring back those who we have lost along this fight, but hopefully will bring comfort to the loved ones of those who felt no other way out. DID YOU GET LITTLE OR NO FINANCIAL SUPPORT DURING COVID? Were you excluded from fair and equal Covid-19 financial support? If so, join some of the other 3.8 million UK taxpayers who were, as we campaign for this scandal to be put right: bit.ly/3UunLTY Dutifully paid in, deliberately left out! Lives & livelihoods ruined! 40 suicides and hundreds of attempted suicides! Website: excludeduk.org Facebook Group: bit.ly/3UunLTY Sign up to our mailing list: bit.ly/4bdpB0U Justgiving donations link: bit.ly/4gpBJzp Easyfundraising link: bit.ly/4plPqTV There are over 20 categories of exclusions including: ·New starters ·New Businesses ·PAYE freelancers ·Newly self-employed ·Those denied furlough ·Directors paid in Dividends ·Directors paid PAYE Annually ·Made redundant before 19 Mar 2020 ·Directors of Companies not in Profit ·Self-employed with £50k trading profits ·Businesses ineligible for Business Grants ·Those in maternity/parental/adoption leave ·Those earning less than 50% income from self-employment ·Those whose personal circumstances have affected entitlement to support e.g. pensions, bereavement allowance, carer’s allowance, students, armed forces veterans… and more… ExcludedUK are asking for: (1) An apology from government so this injustice is recognised and assurance that it will never happen again. (2) Parity of support (3) Acknowledgement of loss of earnings/profit and consequential loss.

Meta stole EVERY BOOK I’ve written to feed their Llama AI program. I’m joining with @Soc_of_Authors today to demand #Meta pays for the work it stole. I call on the UK Government @SoniaKumarMP @UKParliament to support authors and uphold copyright. Please share! #MetaBookThieves

DID YOU GET LITTLE OR NO FINANCIAL SUPPORT DURING COVID? Were you excluded from fair and equal Covid-19 financial support? If so, join some of the other 3.8 million UK taxpayers who were, as we campaign for this scandal to be put right.. bit.ly/3UunLTY Dutifully paid in, deliberately left out! Lives & livelihoods ruined! 37 suicides and hundreds of attempted suicides! Website: excludeduk.org Facebook Group: bit.ly/3UunLTY Sign our petition petition.parliament.uk/petit… Sign up to our mailing list: bit.ly/4bdpB0U There are over 20 categories of exclusions including: ·New starters ·New Businesses ·PAYE freelancers ·Newly self-employed ·Those denied furlough ·Directors paid in Dividends ·Directors paid PAYE Annually ·Made redundant before 19 Mar 2020 ·Directors of Companies not in Profit ·Self-employed with £50k trading profits ·Businesses ineligible for Business Grants ·Those in maternity/parental/adoption leave ·Those earning less than 50% income from self-employment ·Those whose personal circumstances have affected entitlement to support e.g. pensions, bereavement allowance, carer’s allowance, students, armed forces veterans… and more… ExcludedUK are asking for: (1) An apology from government so this injustice is recognised and assurance that it will never happen again. (2) Parity of support (3) Acknowledgement of loss of earnings/profit and consequential loss. #ExcludedUK

RT @gregsmith_uk: Hideous scenes in the White House. We must continue to stand with Ukraine in their fight to defeat Putin and get their co…

If we’re not careful, all of the information available to us will be the thoughts of tech-bro billionaires force-fed to us all by their machines. #makeitfair

🤖AI & Copyright - last chance to respond to the consultation on proposed changes to copyright law. Closes 25 Feb. Here are our notes attempting to decipher the "consultationese" language to help you respond. Please share with freelance friends. buff.ly/4gMyf8C

Dear @gregsmith_uk I would appreciate you representing many of your constituents who were impacted by prejudiced policy decisions that excluded them from financial support during COVID at this APPG launch next week. @ExcludedUK have campaigned tirelessly for justice for all.

Thank you @EmmaLewellBuck for your support of @ExcludedUK.

STARTING THE NEW YEAR WITH POSITIVE NEWS… Covid Inquiry Firstly, this lunchtime Karen and Jennifer, from the ExcludedUK team, joined a call with the team dealing with communications for the Covid Inquiry to discuss how we can encourage our members to provide input into the financial module (module 9) that is scheduled for October this year. Baroness Hallett (Chair of the Covid Inquiry) made explicitly clear at the beginning of the Inquiry that everyone should have a chance to have an input, and is the reason they have come specifically to us given how relevant the financial module is. The Inquiry is absolutely the way to get our stories across and the more we can share the greater the chances are of having the government held to account and gaining that acknowledgement it shouldn't have been the way it was and reassurance that measures will be put in place to ensure it doesn't happen again in the future. They are really keen to get as many responses as possible through the ‘Every Story Matters’ submissions, hence them approaching us to work with them to make sure as many of you get your voices heard. More details to follow… New ExcludedUK APPG Secondly - there IS going to be a new APPG. Thanks to the sterling efforts of @DaviesSteve, Ken Law and @JenniferG2902 and the conversations that started as far back as last July, MP Steve Witherden @switherdenMP (who has always been super supportive) has agreed to instigate this APPG! Stephen and Karen had a kick off call with one of his team shortly before Christmas. The IGM is next Tuesday afternoon, and the invite was sent round to all MP's yesterday. 🔥🔥🔥So today our CALL TO ACTION is to please email your local MP and encourage them to attend. Please do this now so that your MP can slot it in their diary. 🔥🔥🔥 Thank you all #relentless DID YOU GET LITTLE OR NO FINANCIAL SUPPORT DURING COVID? Were you excluded from fair and equal Covid-19 financial support? If so, join some of the other 3.8 million UK taxpayers who were, as we campaign for this scandal to be put right.. bit.ly/3UunLTY Dutifully paid in, deliberately left out! Lives & livelihoods ruined! 37 suicides and hundreds of attempted suicides! Website: excludeduk.org Facebook Group: bit.ly/3UunLTY Sign up to our mailing list: bit.ly/4bdpB0U There are over 20 categories of exclusions including: ·New starters ·New Businesses ·PAYE freelancers ·Newly self-employed ·Those denied furlough ·Directors paid in Dividends ·Directors paid PAYE Annually ·Made redundant before 19 Mar 2020 ·Directors of Companies not in Profit ·Self-employed with £50k trading profits ·Businesses ineligible for Business Grants ·Those in maternity/parental/adoption leave ·Those earning less than 50% income from self-employment ·Those whose personal circumstances have affected entitlement to support e.g. pensions, bereavement allowance, carer’s allowance, students, armed forces veterans… and more… ExcludedUK are asking for: (1) An apology from government so this injustice is recognised and assurance that it will never happen again. (2) Parity of support (3) Acknowledgement of loss of earnings/profit and consequential loss. #ExcludedUK @Keir_Starmer @UKLabour @AngelaRayner @RachelReevesMP @davidlammy @YvetteCooperMP @patmcfaddenmp @ShabanaMahmood @JohnHealey_MP @wesstreeting @bphillipsonMP @Ed_Miliband @leicesterliz @jreynoldsMP @peterkyle @SteveReedMP @lisanandy @hilarybennmp @IanMurrayMP @JoStevensLabour @LucyMPowell @LadyBasildon @alancampbellmp @darrenpjones @debmattinson @JWilliamsComms @EdwardJDavey @LibDems @StephenFlynnSNP @theSNP @carolvorders @AndyBurnhamGM @andyverity @MetroMayorSteve @JohnDCaudwell @MartinSLewis @SadiqKhan @MayorofLondon @thatginamiller @TonyRobinsonOBE @JohnMartinComic @PeterStefanovi2 @snb19692 @Sacha_Lord @Philmoorhouse76

I am delighted to hear Lucy has been appointed as editor of The Observer. She is brilliant, experienced, visionary, decisive, trusting of her team’s ability and judgment - and wonderful to work with. None of the tyrannical ‘Editor Ego’ found elsewhere, just inspiring leadership.

THREAD: 1. PERSONAL NEWS: Today BBC News has announced plans to close @BBCHARDtalk after 3 decades holding the world’s politicians and powerbrokers to account. This is sad news for me personally, but much more important, I think it’s depressing news for the BBC🧵

“Exposure doesn’t pay the bills.” @NUJofficial pay freelancers what they’re due #TUC2024 #TUC24

I unlocked £25 Rush tickets for The Motive and the Cue on @TodayTixUK! todaytix.com/london/shows/31…

Greta Gerwig: Made a critically acclaimed, culturally profound, feminist movie about Barbie and the patriarchy that made a billion dollars at the box office. Oscar nomination goes to … Ken. #Barbie  #Oscars2024 x.com/margotposts/status/170…

The River Misbourne gets headline position on BBC London News last evening, for all the wrong reasons. The Gerrard's Cross Sewage Treatment Works has been discharging into the Misbourne for most of this calendar year. bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0… @Chilternstreams @SarahGreenLD

It is outrageous that our local rivers (this time The Misbourne) continue to be polluted by sewage.