Decarbonising our homes

A special issue of The Ecologist, examining the Warm Homes Plan. I argue that insulating the housing stock and switching from gas boilers to electrified heating is a vital decarbonisation priority that could help tackle climate change while also making people's lives better, now. But the government's plan may squander that potential

In Mexico, people fear one imperialist aggressor. In Estonia, it’s a different one

My talk at a Green Left meeting, June 2026, proposing that we can support resistance to Russian imperialism while opposing NATO

Russia's antiwar prisoners are outcasts in their own land

In Jacobin, May 2026: A focus on protesters who have used their right to the "last word" before sentencing in court to denounce Russia's war on Ukraine. If you hit a paywall, there's a free version here.

Try Me For Treason: the film

I co-wrote the script for this film, featuring speeches made by anti-war protesters in Russian courts. Released on Youtube, May 2026: free to watch and download.

Speeding towards climate breakdown

In the Ecologist, March 2026: London is missing its own greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets, and road-centred transport policy is a big part of the problem.

Burn, baby, burn

 In the Ecologist, March 2026: a carbon capture project in north Kent is greenwashing waste incinerator expansion

‘Bread, peace, democracy.’ The Turkish miners’ strike of 1991

One for the archives. Thirty-five years ago, Turkey was shaken by strikes. An eight-week stoppage by mineworkers, between November 1990 and January 1991, won support from other workers, and took up political demands. It was a turning point for the workers’ movement. At that time I was working for the North East Area of the National Union of Mineworkers here in the UK, editing their newspaper. With their support, I travelled to Turkey, and then published a pamphlet about the workers’ movement. Here's the introduction to my pamphlet, posted on my blog, and a link to a downloadable PDF.

Caution: high-voltage networks. Polemical cheap shots may cause damage

Some thoughts on the politics of electricity networks, in response to Matthew Huber, who, in a long-delayed response to my comments on his work, avoids the substance of our disagreement and opts for misrepresentation.

Raging against Putin's war machine

In Russia and occupied Ukraine, many thousands of civilians have been jailed or forcibly disappeared for speaking out against the invasion. The numbers reflect a crackdown on dissent worse than at any point since the 1950s. My article in Jacobin.

Dave Temple, mineworker and militant

Dave Temple, who died on 13 September aged 81, was a lifelong militant in the labour movement. He worked as an electrician at Murton colliery, county Durham, and played a leading part in the mineworkers’ union for several decades. We worked closely together for much of that time, and Dave’s family asked me to write part of the eulogy read out at his funeral on 7 October by the celebrant, Nichola Reeder. With the family's agreement, I published it here.

Technological transition, the ideology of capital

My review, on People & Nature, of More, More and More: an all-consuming history of energy, by Jean-Baptiste Fressoz

Voices Against Putin's War: protesters' defiant speeches in Russian courts

I edited, and helped to translate, this collection of speeches, made in court by anti-war protesters in Russia, most of whom are now serving long jail sentences imposed by the Kremlin dictatorship. Published in October 2025 by Resistance Books. All the thanks are to the brave people whose words are featured, who have made such great sacrifices to call on their fellow citizens to resist the Putin regime's horrific onslaught on Ukraine. More about it here on People & Nature and here on Posle.Media.

Climate change is an injustice multiplier

My review, in the Ecologist, of Climate Injustice: Why We Need to Fight Global Inequality to Combat Climate Change, by Friederike Otto  

Ukraine: the ups and downs of workplace organising

My review of Oleg Dubrovsky's memoir of his activism among industrial workers in Dnipr, Ukraine, on the Commons.com.ua web site

Rooftop solar can be torn out of capital's hands

It has the potential to support co-operative, municipal and other forms of community ownership and control. The Ecologist, 7 May

Rooftop solar: glints of light in the darkening climate crisis

A global overview of rooftop solar. China has the biggest fleet; most of it is owned by corporations; in the rich world household ownership is widespread. Nevertheless, I argue, it has potential as a weapon for social justice and action on climate change. On People & Nature, 24 April.

The Silvertown tunnel is now open - and it is a terrible backward step for clean air in London

My comments in the London Evening Standard, on the day the Silvertown tunnel opened. I was involved in a years-long campaign to try to stop it, and we still call for it to be turned over to non-motor-vehicle uses, e.g. public transport and active travel

Support Ukrainian resistance, not monstrous rearmament plans

Abandon Ukraine, or cut public services to pay billions for arms spending, is a "typical neoliberal false choice". My talk at a Solidarity with Ukraine event in Brussels on 26 March, published by Labour Hub

Pakistan's rush for rooftop solar brings dreams and nightmares

Steep increases in fossil fuel prices, and a glut of cheap Chinese-made solar panels, produced a rush for solar panels by businessses and better-off households in 2023-24. That has exacerbated electricity companies' money problems, but the heaviest burden is borne by poor households who can not afford panels. My comments on People & Nature, 7 February. 

Labour embraces Saudi Arabia's dystopian energy transition

The UK's Labour government is helping Saudi Arabia dress up its criminal fossil fuel expansion drive in "green" colours. On People & Nature.