Sign in

Alastair Harper

@alastairharper.bsky.social
310 followers 289 following 386 posts

Veteran of various UK squabbles on housing, climate, nature, refugee rights.

PostsRepliesMedia
Alastair Harper @alastairharper.bsky.social · 13h
I’m never getting over the takes in the main UK politics newsletter, saying it’s ok to commit to a £10bm unworkable military tool openly at the cost of the most vulnerable in our society because it opens “a debate”
120
Alastair Harper @alastairharper.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
So much of this speech is very personal for me- but the amazing thing is I think it will be as personal and touching for millions of other people around the country. That was a moment.
000
Alastair Harper @alastairharper.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Guys. This isn’t how we do politics. We’re meant to be a bit crap. We’re not meant to think “I’m going to be watching this for years.”
010
Alastair Harper @alastairharper.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
And we can see what it delivers already - from hopper bus fares at £1.75, to cleaner air, to free and healthy school meals, Mayors beyond London should have the power and responsibility to make their region better
000
Alastair Harper @alastairharper.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
And as a carer for a child with an EHCP and in EOTAS… this is getting absurdly close to home at this point. Rather glad I made those trips to Makerfield, tbh lads
010
Alastair Harper @alastairharper.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Burnham the first PM to recognise prevention is better than a cure? We know it works - it’s not a theory. @sadiqkhanlondon.bsky.social already showed we can reduce the burden on A&E wards like the one toxic air put my daughter in www.theguardian.com/environment/...
theguardian.com
Ulez led to better lung size and function among London children, study finds
Researchers find capacity stunted by pollution restored after introduction of ultra-low emission zone
010
Alastair Harper @alastairharper.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
I’m not in Liverpool because I’m balancing caring for a 100 year old today before driving across the country tomorrow to care for a 84 yr old with dementia. So, yeh, here for Burnham’s speech
030
Alastair Harper @alastairharper.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Burnham committing to big change over ten years while trailing that change with immediate policy that lead to it. No VAT on energy bills …. renewables not tied to gas price. Everyone In …… A new generation of social homes ending child homelessness 👌
010
Alastair Harper @alastairharper.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Somewhere on the internet is a 6 yr old video of Burnham and I discussing how Everyone In was working and how we needed a new era of social homes as the permanent solution. And I can’t find it for love nor money.
101
Alastair Harper @alastairharper.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Someone’s being transferred to Slough House
081
Alastair Harper @alastairharper.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
People haven’t clocked that Sadiq has released the most ambitious plan for cleaning London’s waterways in its history. Like, Bazalgette wishes.
000
Alastair Harper @alastairharper.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
The first party I went to after lockdown had all three of these people in attendance and never had I wanted the plague to come back more
020
Alastair Harper @alastairharper.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
writing about adhd reminded me to get my adhd meds sent to the pharamacy near where I'll be visiting as I will run out while I'm up there... this is such a perfect short story I should get the Booker
010
Alastair Harper @alastairharper.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
I’m dreading when the Times columnists find out about Demand Avoidant Autism and Wes thinks he needs a take
110
Alastair Harper @alastairharper.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Was relieved when an employer shared he’d also been diagnosed l, starting the meds before I had and understood the benefits and challenges for us having adhd in the work we did.
010
Alastair Harper @alastairharper.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Hard same. And my family even more grateful for mediated me than I am.
110
Alastair Harper @alastairharper.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
A decade of delivering 450km of cycleways is far more useful for us Londoners than debating how many runways Heathrow might or might not have
042
Alastair Harper @alastairharper.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Thomas Edison in 1910. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves on this net zero business, lads
Someday some fellow will invent a way of concentrating and storing sunshine to use instead of this old, absurd Prometheus scheme of fire.
I'll do the trick myself if someone doesn't get at it....
This scheme of combustion in order to get power makes me sick to think of—it is so wasteful.... We should utilize natural forces and thus get all of our power. Sunshine is a form of energy, and the winds and the tides are manifestations of energy. Do we use them? Oh no; we burn up wood and coal, as renters burn up the front fence for fuel.
We live like squatters, not as if we owned the property. There must surely come a time when heat and power will be stored in unlimited quantities in every community, all gathered by natural forces. Electricity ought to be as cheap as oxygen, for it cannot be destroyed.
Now, I am not sure but that my new storage battery is the thing. 167
213860
Alastair Harper @alastairharper.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Look, I think we all need tk tell Home Office Tommo also wants to insulate some homes so they actually take him off our streets
010
Alastair Harper @alastairharper.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Guys, commentators think Net Zero isn’t popular so i’m afraid we have to turn this off, ok? www.theguardian.com/environment/...
theguardian.com
‘Jaw-dropping’: Super El Niño bursts through temperature record months ahead of peak
The ‘Godzilla-level’ phenomenon is supercharging the climate crisis and will heavily impact communities across the world
093
Alastair Harper @alastairharper.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
I really was just hoping you'd tell me the slow roast pork recipe
000
Alastair Harper @alastairharper.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Next article - "Orwell was quite right to write to defy the woke in his celebration of Big Brother"
100
Alastair Harper @alastairharper.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Donate here - rnli.org/support-us/g...
010
Alastair Harper @alastairharper.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Hello. I finished Furious last night on Disney+ and it is probably my favourite drama in years. Like Promising Young Woman pretended to be but was not. The Wire meets Talented Mr Ripley meets the best bits of Gone Girl. Thanks you for your attention to this matter.
010
Reposted by Alastair Harper
Stephen Collins @stephencollins.bsky.social · 09/03/2025
Cartoon by Stephen Collins for The Guardian. Script as follows:

[scene is Winston Churchill in a bbc studio, giving his 'finest hour' speech]

1
CHURCHILL:
The whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned on us. 

2
CHURCHILL:
Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this Island or lose the war.

3
CHURCHILL:
If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be free 
and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sun-

BBC PRESENTER:
Thank you prime minister 

4
BBC PRESENTER:
Mr hitler, your response?

5
HITLER [in the studio]:
Vell zis is hysterical woke nonsense as usual from mr Churchill

6
HITLER:
What we are proposing -

CHURCHILL:
Hang on

7
HITLER:
Let me finish - what we are proposing eez a simple power-sharing arrangement -

8
CHURCHILL:
What's he doing here

BBC PRESENTER:
It's important we hear both sides of the debate

9
CHURCHILL:
This isn't a debate 
You don't debate fascists

10
HITLER:
Oh here we go with ze Godwins law!

11
HITLER:
Why must you people always compare ze things you don't like to 'fascists, Nazis, Hitler'...

CHURCHILL:
Because you are a fascist Nazi Hit-

12
HITLER [standing up, saluting]:
RAUSS!

BBC PRESENTER:
*Please* Mr Churchill let him speak

[ends]
6062032976
Reposted by Alastair Harper
Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan @london.gov.uk · 08/09/2026
Three years on from the ULEZ expansion, the evidence is clear: cleaner air, healthier children, fewer lives cut short.
35893217
Alastair Harper @alastairharper.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
nominative determinism - it a thing
A women’s safety campaigner with the surname Whybro
010
Alastair Harper @alastairharper.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
Since no one asked, it’s the Betsey Trotwood (any era) , the Jerusalem Tavern (up to about 2015) and the Bank of Friendship (now)
000
Alastair Harper @alastairharper.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
010
Alastair Harper @alastairharper.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
A supposedly English public school educated banker doesn’t know what black velvet is?This should have been the “doesn’t count like a German” scene. Farage deserves what he gets
010
Alastair Harper @alastairharper.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Will they please just let Binface have a rest!
010
Alastair Harper @alastairharper.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Guys. The vehicles in London are compliant with ULEZ. And the voters in London with vehicles know this as they don’t get fined. This wins over nobody who can vote in London.
010
Alastair Harper @alastairharper.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Issue 1. We did it. It worked. Vehicles driving through London are now 98% compliant. It polls positively in inner and outer London. Issue 2. No one in London reads the Telegraph. Not even the editor.
000
Alastair Harper @alastairharper.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
The dude didn’t blink. Now these kids have a brighter life ahead of them. Some will have a future life when they wouldn’t have. Political choices matter
16415
Alastair Harper @alastairharper.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
Politics really matters. Political choices really matter. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
Children's stunted lungs show recovery in ultra low emission zone
Children's lung capacity caught up with their peers in less polluted areas once a clean air zone came in, a study shows.
100
Alastair Harper @alastairharper.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
Show me you don’t know much about energy and climate policy by 1. Not knowing what the shadows minister’s title is 2. Only repeating hot takes that think we can stop North Sea being deported and 3. (From a few weeks ago) assuming the acronym ICE meant magic snow sledges
000
Alastair Harper @alastairharper.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
My aging parents have a little woodland behind them which is very, very dry right now. If a buzzy buzz noise helps someone learn they shouldn’t fire up the bbq, that’s fine by me
000
Alastair Harper @alastairharper.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
Such a magic set up for a show that can run until it runs out of homes. The building my flat is in has been in has been up and down the class register in the 100 and odd years it has existed
010
Alastair Harper @alastairharper.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
Eclipses are bollocks. A bus drove by and did a better job of blocking the sun
000
Alastair Harper @alastairharper.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
Anyone thinking our economy is helped by back to 19th century technologies is not serious about our society or growth - this is spot on by @london.gov.uk www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
theguardian.com
This burning summer is the proof: the voices of climate denial aren’t just delusional, they’re deadly | Sadiq Khan
Look at our blazing forests and parched cities. Green policies aren’t a ‘luxury’, and we can’t burn more oil and gas. People need the truth, says London mayor Sadiq Khan
000
Alastair Harper @alastairharper.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
Successful regionalism will need evolution as much as devolution
000
Alastair Harper @alastairharper.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
In other news, Ted Bundy promises second will be “way better”
000
Alastair Harper @alastairharper.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
I’m making up my adhd. You’re only a grown up if you keep us chained to fossil fuels. Trans rights are unaffordable in the current legal market. Ok I’m depressed and am putting down my phone and going for a swim.
000
Alastair Harper @alastairharper.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
I don’t know anyone unfathomably rich, but if the people I do know were, i can’t imagine a single one of them investing in making vulnerable people’s lives harder
110
Alastair Harper @alastairharper.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
Could they kindly ask my social construct to stop making me forget two to three items to make me constantly 15 mins late before deciding at 2am i really need to know everything about Fergus Henderson’s training in architecture
040
Alastair Harper @alastairharper.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
Things are so bad they’re stealing plot ideas from the Rise of Skywalker
000
Alastair Harper @alastairharper.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
That was ages ago. They were just chilling being working class children in Scottish, Lancastrian and Yorkshire small towns waiting for wars that would introduce them to each other
000
Alastair Harper @alastairharper.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
This is a leader of the Conservative Party who would not allow in her party Theresa May, Boris Johnson, David Cameron and (based on her views on climate change needing an urgent response) Margaret Thatcher
031
Alastair Harper @alastairharper.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
“I firmly believe access to nature is an issue of social justice” - ten years of ambition to clean and open up London’s precious waterways. Everyday bold ambition from @london.gov.uk and @metecoban92.bsky.social launched at the West Reservoir www.london.gov.uk/mayor-launch...
121
Alastair Harper @alastairharper.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
James, my friend, will the @lrb.co.uk take my essay on how Oppenheimer misinterpreted our 2020 concept album American Prometheus? www.jezusfactory.com/shop/extradi...
jezusfactory.com
Extradition Order - American Prometheus - Jezus Factory Records
Extradition Order’s “American Prometheus” album is a co-release between five labels: Gare Du Nord, Blang, Jezus Factory, Helen Llewellyn Product 19, and I Blame The Parents. “A Northern Soul album ab...
110