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. ❤️

FTA: "if NHS nurses can have the courage to walk towards Covid patients in paper masks and bin bags... And if NHS doctors are willing to speak out about the dangers to patients... then a prime minister should surely be capable of more than deadly vacillation."

"My NHS colleagues & I weren’t willing to let the bodies pile high in their thousands. Boris no longer mentions them at all." My piece on the responses to the UK Covid-UK Inquiry report that try to airbrush the dead away. Sincere thanks, @theobserveruk.bsky.social. observer.co.uk/news/nationa...

Powerful piece by @drrachelclarke.com on the COVID inquiry. Those who say it’s easy to be wise in hindsight are being utterly disingenuous. Many of us spoke out at the time, and it’s in the public record. @independentsage.bsky.social observer.co.uk/news/nationa...

Than you @martinmckee.bsky.social - hugely important thread 👇

Tomorrow is a hugely important day. At 4pm, the UK Covid-19 Inquiry will publish its report into the UK’s pandemic decision-making & political governance. I dearly hope our political leaders & decision-makers will listen, learn &, above all, act on the findings. Because there will be a next time.

"We are not surrounded by cretinous, vicious imbeciles but mostly by careful, thoughtful people who may disagree with us but usually have good reasons for doing so." Fascinating & wise piece from @naomialderman.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/books/2025/n...

Delighted to share this video of my conversation with @cnn.com's Isa Soares about The Story of a Heart 🫀 edition.cnn.com/2025/11/13/w...

Huge thanks to Rob Delaney, the Kiln Theatre & @intelligence2.bsky.social for last night’s conversation about love, grief, hope, loss, altruism & The Story of a Heart. We spoke in front of Max’s parents, Emma & Paul, and Keira’s sisters, Katelyn & Keely – what an honour to have them all there 🧡

"More & more, the nature of high-profile public service is repelling the best & the brightest. That is the great tragedy of our age – & the great opportunity for those who were never in it to serve the public in the first place." 🔥🔥 🔥 as ever from Marina Hyde www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

"The hard truth about underfunding palliative care is that people who are at their most vulnerable – the dying – suffer more pain, more indignity, less choice & less autonomy than they might have." Incredibly, only 30% of hospice care is NHS funded. Pls read my piece in today’s @theguardian.com.

"There are soiled sheets, unvoiced fears, missed doses of morphine. The hard truth, in short, about underfunding palliative care is that people who are at their most vulnerable – the dying – suffer more pain, more indignity, less choice & less autonomy than they might have." Please read this piece:

The reaction to the Panorama edit has been nothing short of hysterical. Yes the BBC has some impartiality problems. But its biggest isn't the one you think. New piece from me. open.substack.com/pub/goodalla...

"We would never tolerate a government that chose to defund 70% of neonatal services, gambling that charities would fill the gap. Yet this is exactly the situation for end-of-life care." Please read my piece on the travesty of NHS palliative care underfunding 🙏 www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Amazon is helping fund a $300 million build of a ballroom for the White House. Independent bookstores are donating to food banks and organizations that help with food insecurity. They are not the same.

Just disgusting from 3p Lee - who wants to stigmatise, shame and risk the lives of people with disabilities. Truly gutter politics.

Heartbroken to read today’s National Audit Office report describing the postcode lottery of care faced by palliative care patients. Two thirds of hospices are in debt. Hospices are being forced to cut their staff & beds. 300 beds closed in 2024 alone. 🧵 www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

“Science is never settled” sounds reasonable—but it’s often a rhetorical trick to undermine consensus on issues like vaccines or climate change. Science evolves, but some things are overwhelmingly supported by evidence. My latest for Live Science www.livescience.com/... 1/10

Lab in surf and seals in sea. Could anything be more joyful? Harley goes wild in Norfolk 💚🐕🐟

Hugely looking forward to discussing UK maternity care, women's bodies, birth trauma & how we make things better for women with two deeply courageous campaigners & authors, former MP Theo Clarke & NHS midwife @leahhazard.bsky.social. 📆 Sun 9 Nov, 10.30am 📍 Stroud 🎟️ @stroudbookfestival.bsky.social

Of course she has. The small matter of owing £122 million to UK taxpayers for her disgusting profiteering in a global pandemic means nothing to Michelle Mone. NHS staff died in my hospital from the Covid they caught there - her dodgy PPE racket was vile.

Such a joy to discuss Max, Keira & The Story of a Heart in the company of Max's mum, Emma, & his extraordinary transplant surgeon, Asif Hasan, at Newcastle's Freeman Hospital this month 💙🫀🫁 #organdonation www.mirror.co.uk/news/tears-s...

Absolutely cannot wait to join Rob Delaney to discuss our books & what The Story of a Heart tells us about compassion, care, medical innovation & the NHS 🫀💗🩺 Thank you @intelligence2.bsky.social for arranging this dream conversation. Please join us! 📆 13 Nov 📍 Kiln Theatre, London ⏰ 7pm

Dear athletic (or less athletic, as in *me*) friends & followers… might you be up for running next October’s Oxford Half Marathon in aid of @hospiceukraine.com? 🇺🇦 We are a small charity supporting palliative care teams in Ukraine doing amazing work under ongoing conditions of war...

Yay. Priceless. The right column at the right time. And a gleefully English two fingers to the haters.

Hospital medicine in perfect pocket canine form today 💙💙💙🐕🐕🐕

Absolutely cannot wait to join Rob Delaney to discuss our books & what The Story of a Heart tells us about compassion, care, medical innovation & the NHS 🫀💗🩺 Thank you @intelligence2.bsky.social for arranging this dream conversation. Please join us! 📆 13 Nov 📍 Kiln Theatre, London ⏰ 7pm

This is Trevor Fisher, speaking to @channel4news.bsky.social from Arthur Rank Hospice in Cambridgeshire this week. As a palliative care specialist, Trevor’s interview has devastated me. His hospice has just been told Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Trust is withdrawing £800k of funding. 🧵

"The people who jostled their way into this lane for a grotesquely outsize cash bonanza and then boasted about helping the nation were profiteering, plain and simple." Brilliantly & appropriately savage from the peerless Marina Hyde 💥 www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

On @lbc.co.uk now - please tune in...

Is there a reason I ask that the Times are using a picture of asylum seekers in a boat to describe rules for migrants who came on legal routes such as skilled worker visas for doctors?