I was just talking to a friend today about Dolly Parton's Imagination Library - new books every month, totally for free, for kids ages 1-5. My son was part of the program - this is a copy of the letter that came with his last book, right after his 5th birthday.

Abominable, completely indefensible.

US Military: if POTUS orders you to commit war crimes, you don’t have to obey. Let’s not take as read that whatever the criminal threatens *has to* be followed through by others. There’s a choice. You don’t have to be complicit in atrocities. That goes for everyone in the US administration too.

You see the darnedest things on the tube.

'You cannot disconnect the health service of today from what happened during the pandemic.' So good from @drkevinfong.bsky.social, (who gave some of the most powerful testimony in the whole of the UK covid-19 inquiry).

This is HUGE mistake. I would understand continuing with the visit, despite humiliating circumstances, if it had any genuine chance of restoring transatlantic relations. But it won’t. Trump will bask in the spotlight, and go back to slagging off the UK one day later. www.nbcnews.com/world/united...

I'm not into gesture politics but I think this visit should be cancelled, actually because it would be a gesture that it doesn't matter that in recent months Trump has repeatedy insulted Britain. But it does. The counter-argument is that it'd keep him sweet: it won't. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Strikes me as an absurd threat, either we need the 4000 new training places or we don’t

It isn’t a tough job. It’s an easy job they refuse to do.

The answer is simple. The Home Office and the anti-immigration lobby in the media know perfectly well that the actual argument for these proposals has been comprehensively lost and they need therefore both to misrepresent what they mean *and* public attitudes. (1/2)

Changing the rules for migrants already here is wrong and unfair but only affects a finite group of people. Extending default settlement to 10 years or more for everyone is a social policy disaster. open.substack.com/pub/wewanted...

"Act of domination" latest

I

Marches and demonstrations stretched across the country, from above the Arctic Circle (Kotzebue, Alaska: population 3,000) to the tropics, with Puerto Rico holding multiple events. There were also 39 international No Kings rallies, according to organizers.

@writersguildgb.bsky.social @togetheralliance.bsky.social march against the far right in London today… #Together #StanduptoRacism

Half a million strong. Together. The biggest march against the far-right in British history.

This is what unity against the far right looks like. Half a million people coming together to march for love, hope + unity.

Biggest march against the far-right in British history. 📍 Happening now: Park Lane to Whitehall. You won't want to miss it. #Together

We are at the HUGE @togetheralliance.bsky.social march with our gorgeous banner. We are proud to be anti-racist & anti-fascist #feminists – we are not free until ALL our Sisters are free! ⛔️ No to racism ⛔️ No to the far right ♀️ Yes to #Sisterhood & #Solidarity #Together #FeministsAgainstRacism

🧵The Covid Inquiry’s latest reports have made one thing brutally clear: the first year of the pandemic - and especially the second Covid wave in winter 2020/21 - was devastating. Much of that devastation was avoidable. This 🧵: impact on NHS, impact on bereaved, and avoidable harm. 1/19

Badenoch & 4 family members spent 6 days at a residence owned by Neil Record, who chairs Net Zero Watch, is life vice-president of the Institute of Economic Affairs, and sits on the advisory board of the Prosperity Institute, a think tank founded by the Legatum Group, the firm that co-owns GB News.

Reform UK said I was 'bullying' when I pointed out their colleague was jailed for beating up his former partner. Now, they're trying to sneak him back into their party. So I'll say it again: James McMurdock was jailed for beating up his former partner. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

News coverage about the UK’s meningitis outbreak is misleading the public via @bonniehuval.bsky.social open.substack.com/pub/bonniehu...

Tomorrow! Channel Premiere Series begins Saturday 21st March, 8pm #GemmaJones is THE DUCHESS OF DUKE STREET (1976-77) featuring #JohnWelsh #VictoriaPlucknett #RichardVernon #JohnCater classic drama #TPTVsubtitles

“The evidence is overwhelming: Brexit has been a disaster for London and the UK. Rejoining the EU is now clearly in our national interest. The option to rejoin should be on the ballot at the next General Election” Sir Sadiq Khan

“Welcome. But we may kill you, so best not come…” 🙄

“The Feb. 28 strike on the Shajarah Tayyebeh elementary school building was the result of a targeting mistake by the U.S. military.” At least 175 were killed, many of whom were just little children. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/11/u...

BREAKING NYT: An ongoing military investigation has determined that the United States is responsible for a deadly Tomahawk missile strike on an Iranian elementary school, according to U.S. officials and others familiar with the preliminary findings. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/11/u...

Just a shout out to magnolias. Aren't they the most magnificent blooms?

New in PN: The bombing of Iranian children is an unforgivable crime "American disinterest in the lives of people abroad is a resource politicians use to justify cynical wars. It's hard to see on what moral grounds we claim a right to decide the fate of those about whom we clearly care so little."

The enthusiasm of most billionaire media outlets in the US and UK for Trump’s illegal assault on Iran is another reminder of how deranged, perverse and frankly psychopathic these organisations are.

Um, Fort Campbell middle school would like a word. We have many schools on bases, and Bolton knows it. More ghoulish nonsense from war Hawks to justify the murder of little girls.

Those saying ‘has Farage even considered war with Iran will result in more asylum seekers arriving by small boat?’. Of course he has. He doesn’t really want to stop the boats. He needs them for his grievance politics and to persuade the population to support policies which will harm them.

I wrote this for International Women's Day about our experiences facing down fascists over the last seven months. It's half the length it originally was (submission guidelines). There's so much more to say about the casual misogyny built into Unite The Clans and their friends.

Americans posting about yr experiences having difficulty getting out of the Middle East: I’m sorry for your trauma, no-one should have to go through that; but if your gov had made plans to evacuate you, would you otherwise have been happy for the citizens, who have nowhere else to go, to be bombed?

The United States killed all these children last Saturday. 170 of them. Every. Single. One.

Absolutely right Again, as with Guardian article, Mahmood's reliance on false/deliberately misleading claims about her "earned settlement" proposals suggests that she knows she can't defend them on the merits, in principle or in practice.

America might have stopped being the world's policeman, but it's now the world's drunk – staggering around wildly at closing time, taking a swing at whoever comes near.

Right now govt is making up an obviously false “saving” to justify its imm, while ignoring the obviously true cost of that policy (treasury projections assume a level of net migration Home Sec opposes and which is unlikely to happen). And these ppl wonder why trust in politics is declining.

I worked for years on a campaign to end the handcuffing of children in the care system. This is in breach of the UN convention of the rights of child, and is simply, truly evil, and I don’t use the word lightly.

This is pretty disgraceful.

Not for the first time, see also denial of citizenship for refugees based on manner of entry for example, Labour appears to have forgotten that Article 34 of the Refugee Convention exists. It very explicitly was the intention of the framers that refugee protection would lead to naturalisation.

Months after Thailand-based businessman Christopher Harborne gave Reform £9m – the biggest single donation to a political party from a living person in UK history – he gave an additional £3m donation in November last year, the Electoral Commission said. www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/poli...

If I was @zackpolanski.bsky.social, I would be pointing out to the BBC that whatever model they use to justify giving Farage & his boot-lickers season tickets for every BBC show under the sun must surely now treat Green Party politicians in exactly the same way. Might even be one for the lawyers...

Ooooh yes

Torpedoed by the US. It's a war crime as it's outside combat area. But then it was a war crime when they killed people on boats in the Caribbean.

It’s being said a lot that the shadow of Iraq is hanging over Keir Starmer and the Labour Party during this Iran crisis. It absolutely should. What’s remarkable is how little much of the British media and the rest of politics seem to be thinking about it at all, or learning its lessons.