On this day in 1981, #SoftCell released their debut studio album, "Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret". The album's success was bolstered by the popularity of the cover version of #GloriaJones song "Tainted Love", which topped the charts worldwide and became the second best-selling British single of 1981.

Beautiful day here at the Red House and its archive; fingers crossed we get the same for Britten's birthday tomorrow. (If you're around Aldeburgh on Saturday, drop in - it's free, there's cake, and I'm doing Stories from the Archive talks several times in the day.)

This story about a Reform councillor in Northumberland has about three different massive stories in it. He's accused of ripping off his constituents to the tune of £140k. He owes his own council nearly £40k in unpaid tax. His own council is suing him.

Well another depressingly dull and grey rainy day, so here's a few more photos from a few weeks back, of autumn colours at Sefton Park, Liverpool. 🍁🍃🍂

🗣️“Cutting support does not lead to people getting work. Those of us pushed into work by cuts will end up in precarious jobs, we will be there for a few months before the work has made us even sicker.” DR UK campaign Mikey quoted in @theipaper.com today 👇 inews.co.uk/news/politic...

The only compensation the Waspi women should receive is an apology from the bullshitters who have strung them along for years on the promise of extra cash to which they have never been entitled. www.newstatesman.com/politics/202...

Ive written a blog about why responsibility for equality law compliance should move from Human Resources to Risk Management audreyludwig.com/why-equality...

I am proud to be a free speech, free association, freedom of belief ( and lack of belief) universal human and equality rights bore. Yes it means defending some horrible and even offensive stuff. But the authoritarian, undemocratic alternatives are way, way worse .

I didn’t take any pictures but the Lee Miller exhibition of her photography at Tate Britain is outstanding. I’m definitely going back as so comprehensive

Disabled activist tells conference meeting: Hostile rhetoric under Labour has left me feeling hounded and unsafe #LabConf25 @nadiawhittomemp.bsky.social @owenjones.bsky.social @starrelliott.bsky.social @amnestyuk.bsky.social @kwajo.bsky.social www.disabilitynewsservice.com/activist-tel...

I stand with the Jewish community today and always

I have written a Checklist for UK Managers: Disability Related Reasonable Adjustments. Hope you find it useful audreyludwig.com/checklist-fo...

Advocates of the UK Home Office/ministers getting more or less unlimited discretion to decide deportation cases, free from any real substantive judicial scrutiny, should be asked about this case. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

I like this very much as an approach to creative writing

Hilma af Klint : No. 113, Group III, The Parsifal Series, 1916

Is George Abaraonye, the president-elect of the Oxford Union. having relatively poor A levels results but getting into Oxford University because of direct race discrimination? I look at Equality law and the need to consider alternative explanations audreyludwig.com/alternative-...

To assess people’s integrity, check out how they respond after the murder of a disliked political opponent.

See the last post www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-engl...

It was as recent as 2012 that the man who satirically wrote he would bomb an airport had his conviction rightly quashed by the High Court. He was supported by Stephen Fry and Al Murray. Where are the noble defenders of satirists now? bbc.co.uk/news/uk-englan…

Ive written a blog about Equality Law and the University: An Illustration of Complexity audreyludwig.com/equality-law...

Usually I aim to post positive things and examples of good practice, but today I'm breaking the self imposed rule because a) the sex discrimination against teenage girls is so shocking and b) it's happening on my doorstep, which is Frome in the SW of England. Furious 🧵

US artist Elizabeth Catlett's 1946 print honours Phyllis Wheatley (1753-1784), who was sold into slavery at the age of seven and later became the first published African-American female poet #womensart

As some activist groups have been quite misleading about relative legal importance of Equality Act Statutory Code of Practice on Services, Public Functions & Associations I have done general explainer on statutory codes of practice & their legal significance. Link in first reply

I am afraid I have hot takes about this. I really wish we hadn’t ended up in this world where being a regulator is a profession, with people pursuing it as a career flitting between the BSB and HM Inspector of Constabulary. The expertise should be in the underlying area not Regulation itself.

Ive written a blog about why I disagree, unsurprisingly, that the Equality Act is reinforcing identity politics audreyludwig.com/is-the-equal...

I am banging on again about equality law compliance again… www.linkedin.com/posts/audrey...

The Impact of the For Women Scotland case for Women’s Charities www.wrc.org.uk/Blog/supreme...

Good morning from the Masai Mara breakfast table

Leave aside the NIMBYism: am I the only one who thinks wind farms look great? Always find it oddly awe-inspiring seeing fields of those huge turbines up in the hills. Certainly better than a fossil-fuel power plant.

This is an excellent analysis of the Leveson Review (and not only because it mirrors my own view as I wade through the report). The biggest problem in the courts, as any criminal barrister will tell you, is that things just don’t *work*. So much time is lost to systemic inefficiency.

Self-Portrait, 1790 by French artist Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun, most famous female painter of the 18thc in Europe #womensar

Great tip for those considering policy making in a Equality Act compliant way: "Before I built a wall I’d ask to know What I was walling in or walling out, And to whom I was like to give offence." Robert Frost, Mending Wall

Born on this day in 1593, in Rome, Artemisia Gentileschi. One of the great painters of Baroque Italy. Endured shit and painted about it. Here, herself as a martyr, Saint Catherine, 1616.

Women messing with men’s heads du jour: Judith slicing off head of Holofernes. No prettifying this story from Artemisia Gentileschi in 1611. Today is her day.

Mary Magdalene. Not penitent. Just Melancholy. Or just wanted a nap. Painted in the 1620s by Artemisia Gentileschi, whose day was today.

Self-portrait as a Female Martyr, c,1615 by Artemisia Gentileschi, one of the most accomplished of Italian Baroque painters #womensart

Magnificent portrait of a woman, 1620, by Artemisia Gentileschi. She was born on this day in 1593.

The government has announced it will increase #LegalAid fees for housing and immigration work. This will be the first pay rise for legal aid lawyers in nearly 30 years! More is needed to bolster this vital public service. Read our response: 🔗 www.lawcentres.org.uk/news/lcn-res...

“Books won’t stay banned. They won’t burn. Ideas won’t go to jail. In the long run of history, the censor and the inquisitor have always lost.” — A. Whitney Griswold

Tell me your company has no Brits without telling me

Happy birthday to #astronomer Henrietta Swan Leavitt (1868-1921) who set the scale of our Universe. 🧪🐡👩🏼‍🔬🎢🔭#histsci Behind her in my portrait is a line showing stellar luminosity (capital L with subscript sun-symbol, a circle with a dot) as a function of time (t). She is printed over constellations 🧵

'Kensington High Street' (1930) by Tirzah Garwood

Alison Bailey wins first gender critical belief discrimination case in provision of services to the public #Equality www.linkedin.com/posts/audrey...

This depressing story seems to indicate a need for cultural change within MI5. IPCO (which was itself misled) will no doubt comment in the report ordered by the Court. Two points made in the judgment show why this is indeed quite serious: /1

Universities ‘failing to protect gender-critical staff’, report finds. Universities have failed to protect their gender-critical staff from bullying and harassment, according to a report investigating barriers to research on sex and gender identity. www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-u...

This is from the newly published Sullivan report on academic freedom. I wonder on what grounds anyone would defend this.

Matt Goodwin having a moral panic about [checks notes] 38 babies.

Things which grow tiring very quickly. No. 1 in an occasional series: Being lectured on patriotism and the evils of immigration by rich people living abroad to avoid paying taxes.