Claire Laila Dines
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freedomtodoubt.bsky.social
Claire Laila Dines
@freedomtodoubt.bsky.social
Ecologist fighting 4 nature; Watches Earth like hawk or Small Blue; Wanders in South Downs; Wildlife photo-recorder; Hove plot holder 4 nature; Brit/Norwegian/European; Art, Science, Politics;
Take bus or walk while I can ere I'm dust in the ground.
Pinned
Welcome to Hove on #CleanAirNight & more specifically the shopping hub 7 Dials that despite being well served with a great & frequent bus service, on most days is stuffed w private cars, & quite a few diesel SUVs.
Here goes, I thought, get these posters onto as many shop windows as you can. 🧵1/7
Reposted by Claire Laila Dines
My grandsons have a facsimile of him, He is called Crazed Gnasher.
One of the Lewis Chessmen

Currently on display at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh.

Found in 1831 on a beach at Uig on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides, the Chessmen dates to the late 12th or early 13th century.

#History #HistoryMatters
February 7, 2026 at 10:26 PM
No shortage of jobs in them days then ..
Other leet officials included Bread Weighers responsible for ensuring the quality of bread, Carniters or 'flesh tasters' to prevent the sale of rotten or unsafe meat, Ale Tasters who made sure ale was good, Searchers & Sealers of leather who ensured the quality of leather goods.

6
February 7, 2026 at 9:30 PM
Reposted by Claire Laila Dines
Other leet officials included Bread Weighers responsible for ensuring the quality of bread, Carniters or 'flesh tasters' to prevent the sale of rotten or unsafe meat, Ale Tasters who made sure ale was good, Searchers & Sealers of leather who ensured the quality of leather goods.

6
February 7, 2026 at 1:21 PM
Humans, it seems, have always needed laws and fines to keep them in line ..
And, if people were found to be selling shoddy goods, polluting water, causing floods, not meeting their responsibilities to maintain bridges, weirs, walls or roads, there was the Affeerer, who decided how much to fine then.

7
February 7, 2026 at 9:23 PM
Reposted by Claire Laila Dines
And never forget that Dame Hilary Cass belittled as "shroud wavers" those of us asking, begging, for a regime that would keep trans children alive.
One of the wickedest things Wes Streeting has ever done is push politically convenient falsehoods about suicide rates amongst young trans people. We have new data from the National Child Mortality Database that exposes the truth he tried to cover up.
New data shows surge in trans kids’ suicides following healthcare rollbacks | Good Law Project
A freedom of information request by Good Law Project has found that deaths by suicide of trans young people under 18 surged following the withdrawal of gender-affirming healthcare
goodlaw.social
February 7, 2026 at 8:07 PM
Reposted by Claire Laila Dines
Read our new joint letter about this issue and join us in acting to protect inclusion:

www.transsolidarityalliance.com/protectinclu...
February 7, 2026 at 6:01 PM
Reposted by Claire Laila Dines
"For years, a cottage industry of political observers has contorted itself to obscure and occlude the obvious. That regardless of what others see in him, Trump’s entire political career...cannot be understood outside the context of his bitter, deep-seated racism." (gift link)
Opinion | This Is Just Who Trump Is
www.nytimes.com
February 7, 2026 at 4:49 PM
Seen in a barbers in Glasgow ..
February 7, 2026 at 6:33 PM
Reposted by Claire Laila Dines
If we found microscopic life on Mars the media would go ballistic with excitement
Yet here on Earth species after species the likes of which we will never see again are on the verge on extinction and all we get from the media is
deadly silence
Bengal #SlowLoris are shy wide-eyed beauties who are #nocturnal and live in 🇲🇾 #Malaysia 🇹🇭 #Thailand. They face multiple threats including #palmoil #deforestation. Help them when you shop! #Boycottpalmoil 🌴🪔🔥☠️🩸🙊⛔️ #Boycott4Wildlife @palmoildetect.bsky.social palmoildetectives.com/2021/02/08/b...
February 7, 2026 at 6:00 PM
Thanks for this Glasgow!
@mrjamesob.bsky.social
A much needed laugh 😆
This Turkish barbers in Glasgow got fed up with Nigel Farage’s comments about businesses like theirs, so
👇🤣👏
February 7, 2026 at 6:27 PM
Reposted by Claire Laila Dines
And another #spawnwatch video, this one from around 3.30pm, 18 or 19 clutches present. This exceeds the total 2025 count (17) and still at least one more week of spawning to go...
February 7, 2026 at 3:39 PM
Reposted by Claire Laila Dines
Channel 13 news is the only TV channel in Israel which is consistently critical of the Netanyahu government. (Not as remotely as it should be, but still).

Blavatnik is now effectively helping Netanyahu to shut down the channel.
UK billionaire Len Blavatnik is selling Israeli TV channel 13 to a Natanyahu ally.

In the UK, Blavatnik puts his name on the Tate, Oxford School of Government, and as producer of "Zone of interest"

In Israel, he is helping Netanyahu to kill a TV channel critical of the government.
February 7, 2026 at 5:39 PM
Reposted by Claire Laila Dines
If anyone connected to Blavatnik is reading this, they should tell him that he should expect even bigger protests against him in London this time.
February 7, 2026 at 6:00 PM
Reposted by Claire Laila Dines
The problem with so many of our top politicians - from Johnson, Mandelson, Farage - is that they all want to join the oligarch class. Whatever you think of Gordon Brown he is financially unbiddable www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
We owe it to Epstein’s victims and to British democracy to demand historic change | Gordon Brown
The abuse of women by figures such as Epstein, and of political power by the likes of Mandelson, must be confronted. As far as I am able, I will play my part, says former UK prime minister Gordon Brow...
www.theguardian.com
February 7, 2026 at 1:25 PM
Reposted by Claire Laila Dines
London lichenology & bryology on the walls on the Barbican. Designed by Chamberlin, Powell and Bon in pick-hammered concrete (1965 and 1982). An ideal substrate for cryptograms. Lecanora muralis, Orthotrichum anomalum, and Grimmia pulvinata
February 7, 2026 at 10:44 AM
Reposted by Claire Laila Dines
Angela Smyth, contemporary artist & illustrator #womensart
February 7, 2026 at 3:48 PM
Reposted by Claire Laila Dines
But without science underpinning it, it's just Victorian-style 'grey squirrels and muntjac' again, isn't it, where those with the money and lobby/political connections can basically release what they like? Lines are already blurred with storks/pelicans, and clearly crossed with the push for bison.
February 7, 2026 at 3:28 PM
Reposted by Claire Laila Dines
If a bridge were damaged, it could make transport & trade impossible in the area. Local ratepayers & landowners would have to negotiate between them to fund repairs - not always amicably, particularly if the bridge were on a parish boundary.

4
February 7, 2026 at 1:21 PM
Reposted by Claire Laila Dines
Hamlet of Sampford Spiney, Devon, once the centre of one of the many courts leet across England. The courts regulated some of the systems that made daily life work, employing officials including my favourite ever job title, the 'Brook Looker' - responsible for maintaining waterways + bridges.

🧵 1
February 7, 2026 at 1:21 PM
Reposted by Claire Laila Dines
Sampford Spiney is high in the hills, with brooks descending from it. Its name derives from 'sandy ford'. Still today, streams in the area pass under walls, roads, hedges, over weirs, past houses. Historically, they would also have powered mines + mills.

2
February 7, 2026 at 1:21 PM
THIS .. is what brings out the fight in Schumer .. the Orange President's vanity projects .. while Ice continues to harm and kill Americans without legal consequences .. retire old man .. you are not useful at all in these times!
February 7, 2026 at 3:47 PM
Reposted by Claire Laila Dines
Suggesting a slight headline tweak:
“Epstein revelations have toppled top Europeans while fallout is more muted in the US, whose president is a sex predator and was Epstein’s pal”
February 7, 2026 at 3:15 PM
Harris, by using too many unnecessary words, tucking transgender Americans under the bus.
Words and how many, are our thoughts made public.
"Do you believe that transgender Americans should have access to gender affirming care in this country?"

"I believe we should follow the law."

Seven words when one "yes" would suffice.
Kamala Harris on whether transgender Americans should have access to gender-affirming care
YouTube video by NBC News
youtube.com
February 7, 2026 at 1:53 PM
Not surprised in the least that Wes Streeting was an acolyte of Mandelson.
In these dark days of February, a little something to look forward to.
February 7, 2026 at 1:46 PM