flamingos

Opinion piece by the TUC General Secretary:

There’s no sugar-coating it: Thursday was a tough night for Labour.

Voters sent a clear message — the same one they sent at the General Election. They’re fed up with the status quo and desperately want real change. The government must listen. But it must not panic.

Labour still commands a huge parliamentary majority and a powerful electoral mandate. That mandate was won on a promise to rebuild Britain, fix broken public services, and raise living standards after 14 years of Tory failure.

That’s where the focus must remain. Now is the time to deliver — and show the country whose side Labour is on.

The Employment Rights Bill offers a powerful opportunity to do just that. This landmark legislation will transform millions of lives by banning exploitative zero-hours contracts, ending fire-and-rehire, and guaranteeing sick pay from day one.

These aren’t just good policies — they’re popular ones. They reflect the public’s deep appetite for change and stand in direct opposition to the politics of division. New polling for the TUC shows the Bill doesn’t just make moral and economic sense — it makes political sense too. Passing it will boost Labour’s standing and help cut through Nigel Farage’s hollow posturing.

Farage likes to pose as a “man of the people,” but his record tells a very different story. He ordered his MPs to vote against the biggest upgrade to workers’ rights in a generation.

He supports NHS privatisation. And he idolises dangerous strongmen like Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin — whose agendas threaten British jobs and security. Let’s take the fight to Farage where he’s weakest and expose him for what he is: a plastic patriot offering nothing but chaos and division.

Labour has nothing to gain from trying to out-Reform Reform. It will just bleed votes in both directions. But this government will be rewarded if it delivers the change working people are crying out for.

That means an unrelenting focus on the cost of living, rebuilding the NHS, improving schools, investing in skills and delivering an industrial strategy that brings good, secure work to every corner of the country.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission has published interim guidance following last week's Supreme Court decision. It instructs organisations that manage public spaces and workplaces to create segregated mixed-sex bathrooms, washing and changing facilities for Trans+ people to use.

It does this on the basis that same-sex spaces can only be used by people that align with the Supreme Court's definition of 'biological sex', while also saying that Trans+ perceived to be of the wrong gender can't use bathrooms that match their biological sex.

If taken beyond interim guidance and made statutory, it would be the biggest human rights disaster since racial segregation and apartheid.

The guidance covers workplaces, schools, and services open to the public, such as hospitals, shops and restaurants.

It stipulates that, where possible, mixed-sex toilets, washing and changing facilities should now be provided. In an interim period, it sets out where this is not possible, trans people should not be put in a position where there are no facilities for them to use.

A British Transport Police spokesperson said: “Under previous policy, we had advised that someone with a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC) may be searched in accordance with their acquired sex, however as an interim position while we digest yesterday’s judgement, we have advised our officers that any same sex searches in custody are to be undertaken in accordance with the biological birth sex of the detainee.

“We are in the process of reviewing the implications of the ruling and will consider any necessary updates to our policies and practices in line with the law and national guidance.”

Archive

At the beginning of January, the Instagram account FutureRiderUS was posting AI videos of a motorcycle riding through futuristic landscapes – hence the name. Those videos usually would get anywhere from 20k to 30k views. But then, the fires started.

The next day, FutureRiderUS posted its own flaming Hollywood sign video. That one got a million views.
[…]
How much money did they make? It's hard to say exactly, but we can estimate.

Instagram pays people through programs where creators earn money based on how many views their Reels receive. The more viral a video, the longer users stay on the app, which allows Instagram to show more ads. Instagram then passes on some of the profit to the creator. How much? Meta doesn’t publish those numbers, and it varies depending on the audience that is looking at them. But I asked a few influencers, and the recent rate seems to be around $100~$120 per million views. Jason’s reporting shows that Facebook was paid out a few hundred dollars for single viral AI generated images, and Meta has paid out more than $2 billion through programs like Ads on Reels.

Just look at FutureRiderUS’s most popular posts from a roughly 24 hour stretch starting Jan 10:1m + 24m + 6m + 6m + 45m + 4m + 8m ≈ 94 million views.

That’s 94 million views, from typing in some prompts. Conservatively, this is likely worth thousands of dollars. Not a bad day’s work.
[…]
In the comments section of their most viral post (45 million views) featuring a firefighter carrying two baby bears to safety, they posted a response to angry commenters [about the AI-generated content]. Three days after the initial post, they commented, admitting that the post is AI-generated. They said, in part:

“In this video, I aimed to shed light on the reality of what is happening. These problems are very real—animals are dying, homes are being destroyed, and firefighters are risking their lives to save others. They don’t have the time to produce visually stunning and powerful footage to raise awareness about these issues. That’s why I took the initiative to create something that could help people see and truly think about these tragedies. […]

Through art, even when created by AI, we can evoke emotions, raise awareness, and inspire change.”

[…]
This sort of defensive, it-doesn’t-matter-if-it’s-fake stance is something that we are starting to notice more, as it’s used to justify the posting (and monetization) of everything from Palestinians to flood victims. But we shouldn’t lose track of the context: the main purpose of this account is to make money. It says so right on the page.

On January 18th, as the fires were still burning, FutureRiderUS posted a Reel advertising their $19.99 course on how to create viral content online by posting AI videos: “Earn $5000 a Month with Viral Videos - Zero Experience Needed - Start Today and Watch Your Life Change.”

[…] And for the account owner to suggest that they are motivated by something other than money seems disingenuous. There are no donation links, no mention of local organizations. Instead, the only call to action is to click the link to buy their viral video course.

Upgrading us to 0.19.11 (well 0.19.11-feddit). It should be less than 2 hours at the maximum.

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