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Paddy Hillyard

@paddyzemia.bsky.social
815 followers 554 following 94 posts

Emeritus Professor of Sociology. Human Rights and climate activist, former chair of Independent Water Review Panel, Zemiologist. Latest book: Decades of Deceit: The Stalker Affair and its Legacy. www.beyondthepalebooks.com

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Paddy Hillyard @paddyzemia.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
15% of children are growing up in poverty in Northern Ireland and thousands of households are struggling with the cost of living. Yet a group of ageing men demand the right to march down a road which they know will be contentious. It has already cost £3 million in policing. Wise up!
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Claire Mitchell @clairemitchell.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
🚨 Open letter from people of Protestant backgrounds concerning the Garvaghy Road 🚨 We feel compelled to speak publicly about what is happening in Portadown 🚨Over the past few hours we have collected over 140 signatures
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Paddy Hillyard @paddyzemia.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
The Pat Finucane Inquiry heard today that it will investigate "the extent to which his killers were encouraged, assisted, protected or directed by the British state". It will also consider the role of state agents in MI5's counter insurgency strategy. For more details see my book: Decades of Deceit
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Paul Macdonald @paulmac.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
www.counterpunch.org/2026/09/11/u... #Cryosphere #Glaciers #Thwaites #Antarctica #SeaIce #IceShelves #OceanHeat #Currents #Albedo #DestructiveWinds #ExtremeWeather #LandIce #IceSheets #TippingPoints #SeaLevelRise #HumanDisplacement #Oil #Coal #Gas #FossilFuelPollution #AnthropogenicGlobalWarming
counterpunch.org
Up-Close: The World’s Most Terrifying Glacier
“Thwaites demise is inevitable” (Inside Antarctica’s Doomsday Glacier, PBS, August 19th, 2026). Aboard the South Korean icebreaker Araon: “This is
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Paddy Hillyard @paddyzemia.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Farage asked the young woman being violently assaulted at his party conference what she was studying. 'Tell us love, is it sociology?' He is obviously afraid that sociology can provide an explanation for the rise of fascism.
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Robert Reiner @waylon18.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
theguardian.com
Is Burnham trying to appease Trump? Or Reform? What other reason is there for these North Sea oil plans? | George Monbiot
Climate catastrophe is on our doorstep – yet Labour’s impending approval of further drilling will bring more pain for negligible gains, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot
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Paddy Hillyard @paddyzemia.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
After the Nepal disaster will there be similar disasters in the Alps as glaciers and permafrost melt? In 1987, after heavy rain the mountain collapsed in Valdisotto, cutting off the valley. The avalanche buried some villages. The rock dammed the river, creating a lake that threatened downstream.
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Paddy Hillyard @paddyzemia.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
A great family occasion. Lammas Fair Ballycastle Firework Display.
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Dr David Mckendrick @davidmckendrick.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
paulddf.substack.com/p/who-killed... This is well worth reading
paulddf.substack.com
Who Killed Jason Arday?
Earlier this afternoon, my oldest boyhood friend, a distinguished international lawyer who received his doctorate at Cambridge, called me to share the tragic news that Jason Arday, the Black British a...
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Prof. Eliot Jacobson @climatecasino.net · 06/08/2026
Breaking News! Code: y-Axis Alert! As of August 5th, global sea-surface temperatures just set a new preliminary record high of 21.20°C. This breaks the previous record high of 21.17°C set on April 24, 2024. And yes, I had to extend the y-axis to plot this.
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Margaret Ward @marg50.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
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Jessica Elgot @jessicaelgot.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
We are in the third drought in five years. We have the National Trust and NFU - those radical types - sounding the alarm on unprecedented temperatures. But so little from any single figure in politics talking about the climate crisis.
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John Marsham @johnmarsham.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
Really worth a listen
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Media Tell The Truth @mediatellthetruth.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
A former tabloid journalist lays out the receipts: BBC News are more or less openly campaigning for new oil and gas drilling in the North Sea - under the influence of the billionaire-owned media. 🧵🛢️🍿 Part 1 of 4.
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Richard Murphy @richardjmurphy.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
Andy Burnham will fail unless he breaks the economic rules youtu.be/XtZ1gc6_fDQ?... But will he? Or will we get more of the same?
youtu.be
Andy Burnham will fail unless he breaks the economic rules
YouTube video by Richard J Murphy
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Paddy Hillyard @paddyzemia.bsky.social · 11/07/2026
MI5’s secret counterinsurgency strategy which allowed agents to commit murder with impunity will cost British government £10m in payments to relatives killed by the IRA nutting Squad. A number of state agents were involved in the killings including Scappaticci. ereader.irishnews.com/2026/07/10/b...
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The Guardian @theguardian.com · 08/07/2026
The great carbon capture con: behold the wasted billions Burnham could claw back | George Monbiot
theguardian.com
The great carbon capture con: behold the wasted billions Burnham could claw back | George Monbiot
There are far better ways to tackle climate breakdown, but successive governments have chosen to listen to the fossil fuel companies instead, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot
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Margaret Ward @marg50.bsky.social · 22/06/2026
At last. Justice for two very brave women. We now need our society and all institutions to look again at how it can meaningfully respect and protect girls and women and listen to them when they speak up. We believe them.
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The Guardian @theguardian.com · 20/06/2026
You may not sympathise with the Elbit four’s methods. But you should be outraged by their treatment under the law | Geoffrey Robertson
theguardian.com
You may not sympathise with the Elbit four’s methods. But you should be outraged by their treatment under the law | Geoffrey Robertson
The jurors who found the pro-Palestine activists guilty of criminal damage had no idea their verdict would be treated as a verdict on terrorism, says Geoffrey Robertson KC
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Paddy Hillyard @paddyzemia.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
Launched tonight in No Alibis. Ware shows in a meticulous analysis how the NCND dogma was used to cover up the impact of MI5’s 1981 counterinsurgency strategy in which state agents were allowed to murder and we’re protected, corrupting the rule of law and the administration of justice.
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Colin Murray @colinmurray.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
When you get an emergency school closure message and have to sprint at the end of giving parliamentary evidence to find the children, you know you live in what should not be normal times. My heart in the last twenty minutes of that committee session. Wired.
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Paddy Hillyard @paddyzemia.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
The Finucane family’s barrister in his opening statement to the inquiry said his death: ‘was catastrophic for the rule of law. The undoing of law, and the traducing of democracy, came not from below, from lawless and disaffected groups, but from above - from the State, its agencies and its agents.’
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Paddy Hillyard @paddyzemia.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
The Pat Finucane inquiry opened today. It will explore the role of state agents involved in his murder. Ironically, they were drawn from the loyalist communities, the same communities who created mayhem last night. The ‘legalised lawlessness’ of the past continues to have consequences today.
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ECIU @eciu.net · 27/05/2026
Net zero is more than the only credible way to tackle climate change. It's also a boost to economic growth: high skill, highly productive, higher pay jobs, the majority (90%) small and medium Scottish businesses. @jessralston.bsky.social asks: "Can clean industies scale up faster to meet demand?"
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Paddy Hillyard @paddyzemia.bsky.social · 27/05/2026
‘Legalised lawlessness’ (Elkins, 2022) in Ireland continues. How MI5’s 1981 deadly agent strategy was secretly put beyond the rule of law. ‘UK security services helped devise act that gave amnesty over Troubles killings’ The Guardian: share.google/xBvGAo05uHgy...
share.google
UK security services helped devise act that gave amnesty over Troubles killings
Revelation that policing and state agency figures were in secret policymaking group angers victims’ groups
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Paddy Hillyard @paddyzemia.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
The inquiry into the murder of Belfast solicitor in 1989, which involved paid state agents, will open on June 10. It should, at last, shed light on MI5’s agent strategy and the British state’s deadly role in the conflict. For more, see my book: Decades of Deceit: The Stalker Affair and its Legacy
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Colin Murray @colinmurray.bsky.social · 14/05/2026
My take on the UKSC's Dillon judgment - it is a combination of regressive and dubious reasoning. It radically reduces the range of cases in which Art 2 is applicable, in reasoning which flies in the face of the UK Government's promises over the provision: ukconstitutionallaw.org/2026/05/14/c...
ukconstitutionallaw.org
Colin Murray: Hollowing out Northern Ireland’s Post-Brexit Rights Protections in Re Dillon [2026] UKSC 15
The Good and Faithful Servants One of the foundational assertions of judicial approaches to legislation in the UK comes from Willes J in Lee v Bude and Torrington Railway Co: We sit here as servant…
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PM2.5 Kills ~9 Million People Each Year Worldwide @tkovach.bsky.social · 03/05/2026
"This first phase of the Monarch Compute Campus will be a 2.16-gigawatt natural gas-fired off-grid facility. It will rely on 864 reciprocating internal combustion engines and associated equipment. Another 120 engines six burning natural gas and the others using diesel fuel for other uses."
wvgazettemail.com
Point Pleasant data center: 3 buildings, nearly 1,000 natural gas, diesel engines
Developers of the proposed data center along W.Va. 62 north of Point Pleasant, West Virginia, have submitted their application for a construction permit to the West Virgnia Department of Environmental...
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PM2.5 Kills ~9 Million People Each Year Worldwide @tkovach.bsky.social · 03/05/2026
Based on the specs for the Caterpillar G3615B, 864 of these machines would emit up to 9.15 MMTCO2e per year. There doesn't account for the 120 gas & diesel backup gens or the additional phases of this project. When fully developed, this data center could emit 25.55 MMTCO2e annually.
fastcompany.com
One Microsoft data center in West Virginia could raise the company's emissions 44%: report
Microsoft’s use of 1.35  gigawatts of processing power in West Virginia will be entirely powered by emissions-producing natural gas.
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Colin Murray @colinmurray.bsky.social · 01/05/2026
That there is no deep push back or outrage over this just speaks to how profoundly NI is othered in GB politics. There are no votes in it. There's only forget and move on. share.google/PbXA5GOlxyQO...
share.google
Kemi Badenoch criticised over use of Bloody Sunday footage
The footage of soldiers on Bloody Sunday appeared in a Conservative Party video opposing reforms to the Legacy Act.
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PBS News @pbsnews.org · 19/04/2026
March's persistent unseasonable heat was so intense that the continental United States registered its most abnormally hot month in 132 years of records, according to federal weather data. to.pbs.org/3Ogo4AX
to.pbs.org
The U.S. smashed heat records in March. Just wait for El Niño this summer
March’s persistent heat was unseasonably intense, and the next year or so looks to turn the dial up on global warmth even more, as some forecasts predict a brewing El Niño will reach superstrength.
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Olga Nesterova @onestpress.onestnetwork.com · 19/04/2026
EU: The European Union will require sale of mobile phones with “user-replaceable and longer-lasting batteries” starting in 2027. The regulation demands “availability of spare parts and manuals for 10 years to curb planned obsolescence”.
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John @j-m-moore.bsky.social · 04/02/2026
Is the Empire coming home? This 2014 paper examines the relationship between neoliberalism and the increased use of incarceration in the British state, incorporating colonial experiences into the discourse. It contends that current punitive measures are not a new phenomenon but rather a…
jmmoore.org
Is the Empire coming home?
This 2014 paper examines the relationship between neoliberalism and the increased use of incarceration in the British state, incorporating colonial experiences into the discourse. It contends that current punitive measures are not a new phenomenon but rather a continuation of historical strategies rooted in colonial practices, impacting marginalized populations today.
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Prem Sikka @premnsikka.bsky.social · 31/01/2026
UK child poverty up 34% in a decade. Families can't afford the cost of food, rent, childcare, heating, essentials. 72% of poor children live in working families. Secure jobs, universal basic income/services, curbs on profiteering, free school meals would help. Must eradicate parental poverty.
bigissue.com
Why are four million children still going hungry in the UK in 2026?
Hunger in the UK is the scourge that ceases to abate. It's time to build a road map to meaningful and lasting change.
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Patrick Bresnihan @pbresnihan.bsky.social · 25/01/2026
So much talk about Ireland (and EU) dependency on the US but so little examination of what that means in material terms. Investing in LNG does not just hasten climate disaster but deepens Ireland's (and the EU's) dependence on the US. www.irishtimes.com/environment/...
irishtimes.com
LNG ‘can’t happen fast enough’, says Taoiseach as Cop30 grapples with ending fossil fuels
Martin indicates that liquefied natural gas a security imperative for Ireland
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Benn Jordan @bennjordan.bsky.social · 17/01/2026
Grok is so much worse than you think.
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Paul Macdonald @paulmac.bsky.social · 08/01/2026
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026... #ClimateCriminals #ClimateNuremberg #FollowTheMoney #CrimesAgainstHumanity #Ecocide #Genocide #Omnicide #MediaAsGenocidalCorporateFascism #AusPol #Auspol2026 #TheyKnew #FossilFuelPollution #AnthropogenicGlobalWarming
theguardian.com
Outrage as Trump withdraws from key UN climate treaty along with dozens of international organisations
Experts decry move to leave UNFCCC as ‘embarrassing’ as president orders withdrawal from 66 international groups
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Jill Belch @jillbelch.bsky.social · 11/01/2026
This, I believe, sums up exactly what we, & the Americans we know & love, are thinking. Why isn't Congress supporting their own people?
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Paddy Hillyard @paddyzemia.bsky.social · 08/01/2026
ICE faced ‘an act of domestic terrorism’ in Minneapolis’ and in UK over 1000 peaceful protestors arrested under terrorism law. Humpty Dumpty Madness! “When I use a word it means just what I choose it to mean.” See my arguments against the use of the word: What Is Terrorism? | Cato Unbound
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Prof Christina Pagel @chrischirp.bsky.social · 05/01/2026
🚨🧵on Venezuela While the final US military operation last weekend might have been under cover of darkness, the build-up to it was out in the open for all to see. I've constructed some timelines of the immediate build-up covering both the strikes and the supporting actions... 1/11
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Jon Levy @jonlevybu.bsky.social · 22/12/2025
This is madness. Freezing offshore wind projects in progress will waste money, cost jobs, make electricity less reliable and more expensive, and will cause health harms given that fossil fuels will be used instead. www.politico.com/news/2025/12...
politico.com
Interior pauses construction of all offshore wind projects, citing national security concerns
The halts of five projects is a major ramp up of the administration's hostility toward the industry in the United States.
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Prof Bill McGuire @profbillmcguire.bsky.social · 30/12/2025
THIS is climate breakdown www.theguardian.com/world/2025/d...
theguardian.com
Iceland has hottest Christmas Eve ever with temperature of 19.8C recorded
Meteorological office reports high temperatures across country and record measured at Seyðisfjörður in east
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Wear The Peace @wearthepeace.bsky.social · 27/12/2025
Georgetown’s removal of UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese comes after relentless pressure aimed at silencing voices consistently standing with Palestinians under occupation. This is a dangerous precedent for academic freedom and human rights advocacy.
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Paddy Hillyard @paddyzemia.bsky.social · 18/12/2025
UK Supreme Court Thompson decision will lead to further cover-up of killings by state agents in the conflict in N. Ireland. Shockingly, just 4 are now known to have been involved in over 160 murders in MI5’s secret policy of running agents without a legal framework. See my book: Decades of Deceit.
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Patrick Bresnihan @pbresnihan.bsky.social · 15/12/2025
I had to re-read this a few times because it is hard to believe. Demand from proposed new data centres might be as high as 5.8GW, equivalent to *peak electricity demand for the entire country*. www.irishtimes.com/politics/202...
irishtimes.com
New data centres may need additional electricity supply close to Ireland’s peak demand
Expected new demand for data centres of 5.8GW would exceed Ireland’s 2030 offshore wind target of 5GW
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Mike Tomlinson @miketqub.bsky.social · 09/12/2025
Fiduciary Duty out the window then.
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Thomas Leahy @thomasdmleahy.bsky.social · 09/12/2025
On BBC Radio Wales after 6pm talking about the Kenova report
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Paddy Hillyard @paddyzemia.bsky.social · 09/12/2025
Kenova Report notes that MI5 tried to cover up truth over 'Stakeknife' spy in IRA. For background detail see my Decades of Deceit: The Stalker Affair and its Legacy.
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Prem Sikka @premnsikka.bsky.social · 08/12/2025
Reeves’ £150 cut in energy bills will be nuked by Sizewell costs. Levies on bills to fund gas pipelines, electricity grid to rise. Customers to pay years before construction even begins. Companies raise capital from customers, shareholders keep profits. Privatisation facilitates rip off practices
independent.co.uk
Reeves’ cut in energy bills will be nuked by Sizewell costs, ex-Labour donor claims
Dale Vince’s claims over the impact of paying for Sizewell C on energy bills is one of a number of hidden costs which could see consumers pay higher bills - instead of £150 less
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