This is all too real. These days, satire is just news but in teaser format.

🧵/ The NHS is about to undergo one of the most radical – and scandalous - changes in its history. From 1st April (the public are the fools in this), GPs will be contractually obliged to seek remote “advice & guidance” from hospital clinicians, making it even harder to see an NHS specialist.

"Care is being undermined from every direction – from corporate kindwashing to the tech bros’ definition of empathy as weakness, from populist politicians stoking grievance & hate to the notion that if it can’t be counted, then it doesn’t have value."

I am incredibly honoured be giving this year’s State of the Nation Lecture at Cambridge Lit Fest on Saturday 25 April, 12pm, in the beautiful setting of the Cambridge Union. My talk is entitled: “A Kindwashed Nation? Who Counts, What Counts and Making Britain Care Again” (1/4)

So it turns out Reform are laundering their donations through crypto, before converting them into cash, hiding the original source of the money. So who is really funding Nigel Farage and Reform UK? observer.co.uk/news/nationa...

Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó gave Russia inside access to EU meetings by calling Lavrov during breaks and sharing real-time updates, WaPo reports.

Thank you so much @tomgatti.bsky.social & @theobserveruk.bsky.social for showcasing the richness of non-fiction by women & the vitally important work of @womensprize.bsky.social in championing women's voices in literature. (1/2) observer.co.uk/culture/book...

What an absolute BLAST of book this is! Pure joy from start to finish. The sheer exuberance of these rollicking, riotous, fabulous pages. Francis Spufford is a storytelling genius. Thank you for giving me so much fun. Read this book, everyone - make your life sing!

Suboptimal for writing, but superlative for love #Harley 🩷

McGowan: You're saying 46 Americans died, so we should attack this country. Here at home, 68,000 Americans die a year because they don't have health insurance. So, if we're going to spend billions of dollars on something…

That's funny, I could have sworn he said something about not needing Royal Navy vessels because the war was already won. You broke it Don, you fix it.

When I said 'Kemi Badenoch is so partisan, under her the Tories would oppose puppies and kittens if Labour said something nice about them', I didn't mean it literally.

On #IWD2026, it feels fitting to sing the praises of this extraordinary book, read beautifully by Emma Thompson. If you’ve yet to read it, please do. Gisèle Pelicot’s strength, courage & basic human decency ring out from its pages - as does the grotesque misogyny of her courtroom experience...

I’m sorry, what? How can Chelsea & Westminster Hospital’s official charity *possibly* accept a £1 million ‘donation’ - meaning, in reality, an attempt to buy public credibility - from the Sacklers? Yes, those Sacklers, whose company, Purdue Pharma, caused >800k deaths from pumping out opioids. 1/3

Just a reminder that this stuff doesn’t stop until men acknowledge the problem and start calling each other out on it.

This is one of the most heart-breaking & important articles I have ever read - from someone whose voices are so rarely heard, a teenaged girl. If you want to understand online misogyny in all its devastating impact, please read this shattering piece. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Okay, this is quite outstanding from Bedford Council.

Ossoff: "You're seeing what I'm seeing, right? The president posting about the Obamas like a Klansman."

Delighted to join @nicolakellywrites.bsky.social in Oxford on Tues April 14th to discuss her vitally important new book, 'Anywhere But Here' - a powerful exposé of Britain’s broken asylum system & how it fails us all. Please join us if you can. Tickets £6 from @blackwells.bsky.social.

Tuesday 14th April, @nicolakellywrites.bsky.social will be talking about her book, 'Anywhere But Here' with @drrachelclarke.com - a powerful exposé of Britain’s broken asylum system and how it fails us all. Tickets just £6 on sale at @blackwells.bsky.social now

Overjoyed to be hearing Jackie Morris & @robgmacfarlane.bsky.social discussing the magnificent Book of Birds in May in Oxford. Avocets, yellowhammers, dippers, dunnocks, kestrels, kingfishers… I cannot wait to hear Jackie & Robert sing their marvellous praises. www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/jackie-mor...

The people who spent years defending and even lionizing Kyle Rittenhouse and Ashli Babbitt now want us to believe that an unarmed mother in her car and a disarmed nurse were domestic terrorists who deserved to be murdered by law enforcement.

The nurses are pissed

Horrified & heartbroken by the latest ICE murder in Minneapolis. Alex Pretti was an intensive care nurse & beloved son. Americans, please know how many millions of us here in the UK are sickened by Trump and his fascist thugs, and stand in solidarity with all of you resisting them 🇬🇧🇺🇸

Photo by Pierre Lavie. Yes this is me. And I threw my Leica. It landed on the bass plate with hardly a scratch. Another Photographer grabbed it along with my phone and I was able to track him later. I was held face down tear gas deployed right in front of me and pepper sprayed directly into the eye.

"Ozempic is a miracle drug, a rebuke to a century of condemnation of those who are obese, and a profound challenge to the very definition of what it means to be human." A pleasure to review Aimee Donnellan's fascinating new book for @theguardian.com 💉 www.theguardian.com/books/2026/j...

Following coverage over the weekend of Sir Paul Nurse's comments that suggested that the only reason that a Fellow should be expelled from @royalsociety.org is scientific misconduct, I have written to him to explain the risks such an attitude poses of increasing sexual harassment in STEM.

Musk's X has turbo-charged the anti-science movement & amplified misinformation, racism, misogyny & hate. It permits the creation of digital child porn at one click. If these aren't grounds to eject him from the Royal Society, then what are? Shame on them. www.theguardian.com/science/2026...

This is beyond shocking - how can this be allowed to happen? Why on earth can’t they be released on bail? They have a right to a fair trial, appropriate medical treatment, & the removal of punitive Prison Service conditions. Govt’s ban on Palestine Action is simply intolerable

As the former pandemic vaccines minister, wasn’t Nadhim Zahawi “at all bothered that Reform had given a platform to a medic who said the king’s cancer had been caused by the Covid vaccine?” Apparently not. Savagely brilliant piece @mrjohncrace.bsky.social 🔥 www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

On this day eight years ago, my dearest Dad died at home of bowel cancer. His death was a good as it can possibly be - cocooned within the love of his wife, children and grandchildren, with his symptoms palliated beautifully. 🧵

I've written this open letter to Keir Starmer & @rthonwesstreeting.bsky.social because, though I am desperately worried about NHS patients over the next 5 days, I know this strike by resident doctors is a desperate act of last resort. Please read.

The art of Saturday morning snoozing. Nobody does it quite like Queen Harley 🤎🐾

Such a treat to hear Philip Pullman read from The Rose Field tonight in Oxford's magnificent @bodleian.ox.ac.uk. The conversation beautifully chaired by @richove.bsky.social. Every word captivating 🌹

Glorious to hear the Bodley’s Librarian Richard Ovenden interview Philip Pullman tonight at @bodleian.ox.ac.uk - including this priceless anecdote about some exceptional timing from Philip’s recent anaesthetist on the small matter of Dust … 💉🩺🤣

It was an absolute pleasure to be a guest on @assocanaes.bsky.social's podcast to discuss the power of storytelling with anaesthetist Joe Pick. We talked about the essential humanity of healthcare & the need to ensure that humanity isn't stripped away by tech & spreadsheets 💙 Links below 👇

🧵/ Today a damning parliamentary report on the state of palliative care services in England was published. Services are patchy, underfunded & “ill-equipped” to address end-of-life needs. Bereavement support is “frequently inaccessible. The palliative care workforce is in a “critical” situation”.

A must read. via @drrachelclarke.com #Covid19Inquiry

I’m a past winner of the Orwell Prize & won partly because I exposed Vote Leave’s unlawful activities. Michael Gove was its co-convener & refused to answer a single q. He’s now a judge of the prize & our world is truly one that Orwell would recognise bylinetimes.com/2025/11/25/m...

I wish I didn’t have to share this. But the BBC has decided to censor my first Reith Lecture. They deleted the line in which I describe Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” /1

This article is quietly and forensically furious at the bluster and the lies. Lord knows I'd love to forget about covid but we mustn't - the lessons from this are too important for next time - and there will be a next time.

This is not a peace plan. It is a proposal that weakens Ukraine and divides America from Europe, preparing the way for a larger war in the future. In the meantime, it benefits unnamed Russian and American investors, at the expense of everyone else. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...

“Have they given up? Are they just deciding to build up herd immunity by watching us die? The government has given up, hasn’t it? They are throwing us into the slaughterhouse.” It’s not hindsight - we knew this at the time @drrachelclarke.com writes: observer.co.uk/news/nationa...

Our GP practice was trying to get masks from local DIY shops at the end of February 2020. It’s ludicrous that there are people trying to suggest that the criticism of Boris is due to hindsight

Essential reading - and add to this the ongoing toll from both LongCovid and increased Covid-driven risks of cardiac events, shingles, early onset dementia - you name it. The ongoing failure to ventilate indoor spaces and treat Covid as the airborne disease we know it is is just unforgiveable.

2020 and early 2021 were years I don’t want to think back to. We were completely abandoned. From all sides. I remember not being allowed to wear masks initially, smuggling goggles into the hospital which my neighbours donated, a self imposed decontamination before entering my home, no ppe for …

This is a searing article by Rachel Clarke. A heartbreaking read. Her rightful anger sings off the page.

‘Herd impunity’ Brilliantly scathing piece by @drrachelclarke.com on Boris Johnson’s response to covid inquiry report. He says we’re ’wangling on’ about deaths. His & others’ re-writing of history & ridiculous critique of ‘hindsight’ will not succeed. @cbffjuk.bsky.social

A powerful piece from @drrachelclarke.com "The collective amnesia of those damned by the Covid inquiry is pernicious and unforgivable..." We will never forget. ❤️