Milwaukee’s Archbishop Grob: “I feel a heavy sadness, not only over the pain I caused, but also for the fact that something so sacred to a group of religious leaders, prayer to our Heavenly Father, would be manipulated in that way. We came in good faith to try to work for the betterment of our fellow human beings, to ease their suffering, to build up the common good, and to pray with a president, not to pose for a political photo opportunity to benefit the few. We should never have been put in that position by the White House. I did not go without reservations. I wish I had heeded them. Please know that I have heard these concerns, understand how I caused them, and I apologize for any damage my actions have done.” archmil.org/posts/a-public-a…

'In all literature there is nothing that touches or resembles the Prologue. It is the concise portrait of an entire nation, high and low, old and young, male and female, lay and clerical, learned and ignorant, rogue and righteous, land and sea, town and country, but without extremes.' Nevill Coghill

Good morning, John @JohnTizard & thank you, as always. The #clocksgoback always seem to cause chaos in our household! With #StormBoelo in the news today, here's one which might be appropriate: "Storm, Lyme Regis" by John Cooper from 1934. #JohnCooper #LymeRegis #EastLondonGroup

What about those that don't have a freezer or cupboards full of tinned goods ? I'm glad you can survive for 10 days, but there are many families who won't be able to.

Concert at Bury St Edmunds Quaker Meeting House on 25 October at 2pm given by Bures & Sudbury Mandolin Ensemble. Includes late 19th/early 20th century Italian mandolin repertoire, waltzes and other dances, traditional tunes and contemporary pop favourites. Everyone is welcome.

Hancock belongs to a political class that never allows egregious failures to hamper their careers or their wealth...

Nobody spoke. Gregory tried to leave the ballroom, but the CEO asked him to remain while the company began a formal review of the evidence. Security escorted him to a private meeting room, and the awards dinner was temporarily suspended. I sat there feeling ashamed. I had worked in HR. I knew the importance of fair procedures, documentation, and giving employees an opportunity to respond to allegations. Yet when Mr. Carter stood outside our office holding that cardboard box, I hadn’t asked a single question. I had watched him walk away and convinced myself there was nothing I could do. The following week, an independent investigation began. The company reviewed access logs, internal emails, and the original complaint Mr. Carter had submitted. The investigation found evidence that Gregory had used his position to access restricted records without authorization. His termination decision was also found to have bypassed the company’s required review process. Gregory was dismissed following the investigation. The company also reviewed its treatment of contract workers and introduced a formal process for escalating complaints without interference from direct supervisors. But the moment I remember most happened after the investigation concluded. Mr. Harrison invited Emily to his office. He apologized for how her father had been treated and offered to cover the remaining balance on her college tuition. Emily thanked him, but she made one request. She asked the company to establish a scholarship for the children of its cleaning, maintenance, and security staff. She wanted it named after her father. The CEO agreed. Six months later, the first James Carter Scholarship was awarded to the daughter of one of our maintenance workers. At the ceremony, Emily stood beside the scholarship recipient and held a framed photograph of her father. She looked around the room and said: “My father used to tell me that a person’s job title tells you what they do for a living, not how much respect they deserve.” I cried. So did several people who had laughed at her when she first walked into the ballroom. As for me, I learned something that I wish I had understood much earlier. Sometimes, the person with the least power in a room is the one who sees the most. And sometimes, the people we overlook are the very people who remind us what integrity actually looks like. I still think about Mr. Carter whenever I see someone being dismissed because of their job title. I wonder whether I could have made a difference while he was still alive. Perhaps I could have asked questions. Perhaps I could have insisted on a proper review. Perhaps I could have simply told him that someone in that building saw his worth. I’ll never know. But I know I won’t make the same mistake again. If you had been in my position and knew a manager was treating a hardworking employee unfairly, would you risk your own career to speak up, or would you stay silent and protect your job?

This latest article from Thomas Pikkety, the renowned French economist and leading authority on wealth inequality, should be essential reading here in the UK. His argument is simple. France has never been wealthier. Yet education funding per student has fallen by 20% since 2017, public services are struggling, and inequality is deeply embedded in the system. Sound familiar? The problem isn't that our countries have run out of wealth. It's how that wealth is distributed, who controls it, and the political choices made to protect it. For decades, we've been told that austerity, declining public services and falling living standards are unavoidable consequences of economic crises, yet those same decades have seen extraordinary concentrations of private wealth. Socialise the costs. Privatise the gains. This is the reality we all need to wake up to. These aren't inevitable economic outcomes. They're the consequences of political choices, made over time, that have prioritised the accumulation of private wealth over the needs of society. And as public anger grows, we're seeing a deeply concerning response: The rise of the far right, directing that anger towards immigrants, disabled people, those claiming welfare and other vulnerable groups, rather than towards the economic structures responsible for the inequalities people are rightly furious about. As @NaomiAKlein describes fascism, "it's capitalism's most ferocious threat response. A way of directing public anger downwards at the vulnerable, rather than upwards at the system." Fascism doesn't challenge the status quo. It protects it by giving people someone else to blame. The fundamental question isn't whether our societies can afford something better. It's why, when we've never been wealthier, we're repeatedly told we must accept less. We need to fundamentally rethink an economy built around extraction, exploitation and wealth concentration, and start building one that delivers equitable, sustainable prosperity for everyone. And with the UK Budget next week, this should be a serious warning to @UKLabour. If the Budget fails to acknowledge this fundamental reality, and instead offers another round of "difficult decisions" that protect concentrated wealth while asking ordinary people to shoulder the burden, then @andyburnham really hasn't understood what's happening across Europe. What's unfolding in France isn't an isolated protest. It's a warning of what happens when people stop accepting that a society growing ever wealthier somehow can't afford to give them a better life. This isn't something politicians can keep kicking down the road. The warning signs are everywhere. The question now is whether those in power are prepared to confront the causes, or continue defending the very system that's driving the anger. @ZackPolanski @jeremycorbyn @KemiBadenoch @Nigel_Farage