We recently returned to the UK. I did have a lovely garden in Sweden, loaded with wildlife, lavish with space - Home to birds! Now I need to achieve the same oasis vibe, smaller scale & in a new build. Pay back for being new & taking greenspace. The start point is here.

Dartmoor's hill ponies have grazed those commons for longer than there has been a country called England. Fewer than a thousand are left, down from six thousand a generation ago. The United Nations listed them as endangered in 2023. So, naturally, the body charged with protecting nature has decided to get rid of nine in ten of the survivors. There is a process, obviously. Natural England's new grazing contracts now count the ponies in the same bucket as the cattle and sheep. A commoner with a fixed quota has a choice: keep a semi-wild pony worth nothing at market, or use the slot for a lamb he can sell. Guess which one survives the spreadsheet. The rest are gathered in the autumn drifts, and with nowhere to put thousands of unhandled moorland ponies, the next stop is the abattoir. Natural England would like it noted that it has not ordered a cull. It has merely built a machine whose only output is a cull, switched it on, and handed the bolt gun to a farmer so the fingerprints land elsewhere. Very tidy. And now the funny part. The pony is the best tool on the entire moor for eating Molinia, the coarse purple grass strangling Dartmoor into a brown monoculture. Cattle and sheep won't touch it. The ponies hoover it down and clear the ground for the orchids, the wildflowers and the insects behind them. Remove the ponies and the moor chokes into precisely the lifeless scrubland the contract was meant to prevent. So the conservation strategy, in full: protect the habitat by deleting the animal that maintains the habitat. A masterclass. Better still, Natural England's own Fursdon review looked at this exact question and told them, in plain English, not to lump ponies in with cattle and not to cut pony numbers. They read it, praised it, said they fully supported it, then did the precise opposite. Four thousand years these animals have run Dartmoor with no committee and no contract. They could be gone within one, and the people who did it will write it up as a win for nature.

Updated. Friends of Israel in the UK government: CABINET Prime Minister Deputy Prime Minister Chancellor Foreign Secretary Defence Secretary Education Secretary Business Secretary Work & Pensions Secretary Science Secretary Treasury Secretary N.Ireland Secretary Chief Secretary OTHER MINISTERS Cabinet Minister Foreign Minister Home Office Minister Housing Minister Health Minister Energy Minister Business Minister Transport Minister Environment Minister Culture Minister Solicitor General

A) This a properly brilliant piece of investigative journalism by BBC & @hopenothate. Huge kudos to all involved. B) The Kremlin operative who BBC names as directing arson attacks against Keir Starmer was taught his tradecraft by…drumroll…Sergei Nalobin !!! Pictured here with Boris Johnson. Also: the star of our podcast series, Sergei & the Westminster Spy Ring! Wtaf

The more I think about this, the more shocking it gets. A government minister asked a political opponent a question, knowing that if he answered "yes", he would be arrested and potentially imprisoned. That's thanks to his government's unhinged law. It is so disturbing!

Excellent investigative journalism by BBC Panorama, showing Russian involvement not just in arson attacks on Starmer’s house but also in anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim attacks. bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c8r2…

Iran brought the US to its knees - no nukes needed.

When Andy Burnham served as a Labour government minister, his most senior special adviser was Jennifer Gerber. According to Companies House, Gerber now serves as a director of Labour Friends of Israel. Until today, LFI refuses to reveal its donors.

"This verdict will have a gigantic chilling effect on our wider rights to protest." Siân Berry MP on the Court of Appeal upholding the proscription of Palestine Action

The fact that your government has made it illegal for me to answer yes is a damning testament to your flagrant disregard for civil liberties. This may be targeted at those taking action against the genocide, but it sets a very dangerous precedent that puts everyone at risk.

🚨 BBC exposé: Russia set up fake far-right groups like Direct Action UK and Islamist fronts. They paid people to smash up mosques, spray “remigration” graffiti and even torch properties linked to Starmer. All to stir up chaos here. The vicious pile ons on X from VPN accounts outside the UK, obsessed with our politics! Same lot. One goal only to destabilise Britain. Don’t do their dirty work for them. Full story: bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c8r2…

Guess mask is off!! They'd rather the war continue. Israelis across political spectrum unite to condemn US-Iran deal news.sky.com/video/share-135…

BREAKING: The Court of Appeal has backed the government's appeal against the High Court and reinstated the proscription of Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation. As I've been noting for some time, this was always going to happen. The police ignored the High Court's ruling of proscription as unlawful and continued arresting people as terrorists for holding placards stating: "I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action." On Friday, Judge Johnson upgraded the criminal damage convictions of the Filton Four to terrorism offences in his sentencing, even though at the time of sentencing Palestine Action was not, in the eyes of the courts, considered a terrorist organisation. It was as though the High Court decision never happened. We have been subjected to legal threatre to make it look as if the judiciary have carefully weighed our most cherished and basic rights against the interests of the British state in continuing its complicity in the Gaza genocide. This has all been a stitch-up to keep the focus on the faux-illegality of opposing a genocide rather than the very real illegality of the British state colluding in atrocities that have killed many tens of thousands – and more likely, hundreds of thousands – of civilians in Gaza. Anyone who has supported this dangerous farce should hang their heads in shame.

Dear Lush (cc Chelmsford City Council), As a woman who had half a breast removed last year due to cancer, I am writing to raise my concerns about your “Proud of My Stripes” window display. I am also, on behalf of other women who have experienced breast cancer, respectfully requesting its removal. Because mastectomies are not a fashion statement, an identity marker or something to be celebrated. They are something women undergo because they are ill, because they are frightened, because they are trying to stay alive. Around 59,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer in the UK every year. Many will undergo surgery - a mastectomy, lumpectomy or other procedure. Others choose preventive mastectomies because they carry a high-risk BRCA gene mutation. If a woman chooses to have her breasts removed to affirm a gender identity, that is her personal choice. I honestly don’t know the number of women who have elective mastectomies for this reason. What I do know is that it is a tiny number compared with those for whom breast surgery is medically necessary and not something to be celebrated. I think I speak for many women who have experienced breast cancer - and for their families - when I say this: Breast removal surgery is not something I regard as cute, playful or empowering. Nor is it something I believe retailers should be celebrating. For that reason, I am requesting that the display be removed and that @ChelmsCouncil apologise for promoting it on social media. Yours sincerely, Janet Murray

Miriam Margolyes "When you go to Israel and you see how Palestinians are treated, that for me was the door opening, the blind being lifted. I saw if people can treat people like that they are shits"

REPUBLICANS ARE TOTALLY SILENT AFTER THEY FOUND OUT THAT TRUMP'S IRAN WAR WILL COST THE AMERICAN PEOPLE AT LEAST 325 BILLION DOLLARS 🤷 THE SAME REPUBLICANS CALLED IT A HUGE FUCKING SCANDAL AFTER THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION RELEASED 1.7 BILLION DOLLARS TO IRAN 🙄

That is what I call community spirit.

Charlie Kirk's video accusing Netanyahu of having 'let the October 7 events happen' to remain in power has been deleted from YouTube Kirk asks: 'Was an order issued to withdraw and retreat on October 7?' (The answer: Yes, the borders remained empty for hours) 🕳️🇮🇱 They delete the video because they fear the truth... and Netanyahu fears the trial even more. 💀📛 The army withdraws... the borders are empty... and the massacres pave the way for the tyrant's survival. Who believes this is a coincidence?

Woken up nice and early to be bombarded with US versions of the Iran 'deal'. Except it's not a deal, it's a Memorandum of Understanding with a 60-day working period towards a deal. The US are paying $300M to Iran for reconstruction fees, alongside $40M to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. And ALL sanctions on Iran to be lifted. In essence, Trump has paid hundreds of millions of US taxpayer's money to put Iran in a far stronger position than it was 107 days ago. And there's still not technically a deal. Oh, and Israel are already ignoring it and bombing Lebanon. Art of the deal?

Israel destroyed the mausoleum of Simon Peter, apostle of Christ, in the village of Shama in southern Lebanon 1,925–1,995 years years old . Christians of the world, Wake up!!

This would penalise the NHS & care services who rely overwhelmingly on foreign born labour. Good luck with the fallout from such poorly thought out ideas.