Keir Starmer’s attack on our planning system is an almost-perfect repeat of Boris Johnson’s disaster. Why can’t he see that?
By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 15th May 2025
The precedent is uncanny, and the failure to learn from it downright mystifying. Keir Starmer is rushing gladly towards the catastrophe Boris Johnson inflicted on himself in 2020. Had he set out to stymie Labour’s chances of re-election, he couldn’t be doing it better.
Dartmoor National Park is not dying; it is being killed, and these are the killers.
By George Monbiot, adapted from a Bluesky thread, 11th May 2025.
This is Piles Copse, the largest remaining fragment of high-ground temperate rainforest on Dartmoor. It’s a tiny speck of green in a dismal, human-made desert. Prepare yourselves for a story of breathtaking perversity.
The cottagecore, romantic path to starvation and environmental breakdown.
By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 7th May 2025
A remarkable before-and-after experiment provides conclusive evidence: the BBC favours the right and excludes the left.
By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 1st May 2025
This new legislation is the worst attack on England’s ecosystems in living memory.
By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 24th April 2025
It’s a cast-iron relationship: the more unequal a society becomes, the better the far right does. Here’s why.
By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 13th April 2025
It’s not disruption that’s being prosecuted in this country. It’s dissent.
By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 3rd April 2025
The faces are different, but it’s the same authoritarianism. Keir Starmer’s team might not look or sound like Donald Trump’s, but its policies on protest and dissent are chillingly similar. So is the reason: coordinated global lobbying by the rich and powerful, fronted by rightwing junktanks.
It has two main strategies, and you can see them both at work, right here, right now.
By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 28th March 2025
You can’t do it differently until you imagine it differently.
By George Monbiot, adapted from a BlueSky thread, 2nd April 2025
One of capitalism’s greatest successes is to shut down our imaginations. With the help of its favoured tools – neoliberalism and fascism – it persuades us that “there is no alternative”. Our first task is to re-ignite our moral imaginations and name our alternatives.
For the first time, the government is consulting on a Land Use Framework for England. It’s an important step, but there’s a long way to go.
By George Monbiot. This is my response to the government’s Land Use Consultation, sent on 23rd March 2025.