Never seen anything so relatable

George Michael is the reverse Morrissey. Effortlessly talented, graceful, soulful, multicultural, and grew in stature with his age. Never a Wham fan, I grew to love his voice, talent and humanity. A massive Smiths fan, inevitably grew up to loathe the sight and sound of god knows he's miserable now.

Wuthering Heights has the image of a love story, but it's really a brutal portrait of intergenerational trauma. So it's hard to think of a better use case for content warnings, tbh. BBC News - Wuthering Heights uni module given content warning for students www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Why I love big, dumb action RPGs, and why we'll miss them when they're gone. open.substack.com/pub/playandw...

FFS do all the political parties need to indulge in this nonsense?

Is it war? youtube.com/shorts/P_eLH...

Why I love big, dumb action RPGs, and why we'll miss them when they're gone. open.substack.com/pub/playandw...

Policy-based evidence-making again. www.linkedin.com/posts/erin-r...

Most accurate portrait of modern culture currently available

this is the future liberals want

Good, sensible policy making. The wailing from opposition parties can safely be ignored. Disappointed in the LIBERAL Democrats on this. BBC News - MPs reject call for under-16s social media ban, backing more flexible powers - BBC News www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

The reviews used to justify this excluded nearly 97% of all studies from inclusion in their analysis. This is an absolutely obscene hatchet job by the NHS specifically created to eliminate access to hormones for trans youth.

I know the NHS is fond of hard-to-complete forms, but the new habit of sending a pdf which can't be edited, so it needs to be printed, handwritten OVER THE TEXT then scanned back in... that is a doozy. FFS.

my view on this is that publishers should stop it with the 80k wordcount obsession, so many contemporary non-fic books are obviously 40-50k pieces of work stretched to the extent that they become very boring to read - just let people write cheaper, shorter books! www.theguardian.com/books/2025/d...

Really good to see this editorial, very authoritative and very clear, stating that ADHD is NOT over-diagnosed in the UK. Let's hope the government's new review will listen to *literally all the most eminent experts we have* on this question. www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

there are like 50 people in the country who want the UK to get involved in the Iran War, one of them is Kemi Badenoch, one of them is Nigel Farage, and the other 48 are newspaper columnists

Really interesting graph, suggesting a pretty tiny effect.

Jesus wept. This is the most horribly ill-conceived UK government public awareness campaign I've ever seen. And that's saying a *lot*. It could easily lead a teen to self-harm, or worse. It should be urgently and immediately pulled. What are they thinking?!

Statement from @quaker.org.uk about tonight's police raid on Westminster Meeting House. Guys, I don't think they're buying the Met's line about it all being a cover for plotting "mass shoplifting"

Because it can't possibly get any worse for them?

It wasn't an experiment with open borders, as some new research will show on Monday

Quietly, calmly and forensically, BBC just dismantled the Trump communications shitshow on Iran. No hyperbole, just laying out an unprecedented military, diplomatic and reputational shambles. Worth a watch. (🎥 BBC News/BBC Verify)

Obviously, completely understandable that this isn't top of the headlines. It is a total disgrace though. Watershed moment as Russia's sporting exile ends - www.bbc.co.uk/sport/articl...

God I would last about 15 seconds being spoken to like that before completely losing it

In our postgraduate work room we have a ‘Dark Library’ where we put dodgy or offensive books. One of Uta Frith’s books on autism is there. We take it down to laugh as most of us are neurodivergent, but it does say something about how seriously you should take her opinions on autism.

Uta Frith is a legend, but she's badly out of touch here. The fact that making Autism a spectrum has led to conceptual and practical difficulties doesn't make it collapse. This feels like an attempt to turn back the clock

I love him

Her guys, what if Clippy was the whole operating system?

"In a UK survey of over 4,000 trans people, TransActual found that 99% say media coverage has harmed their mental health, 99% have heard politicians express transphobic views, and many have been refused non-transition healthcare simply for being trans." transactual.org.uk/trans-lives-...

A reminder: Matt Goodwin lost heavily in spite of an almost total lack of tactical voting, not because of it. The combined Green/Labour vote was 66%, versus 28.7% for Reform. If Labour and the Greens split the vote 50/50 – a total coordination fail – he'd have finished third, not second.

The Talon duology by @sennydreadful.bsky.social is completely great and you, yes you, should read it. But maybe get it from a library? Let me explain... open.substack.com/pub/playandw...

Pop music is just mad at the moment, in the best possible way. This is from the BRITS for god's sake. youtu.be/7fyufPkXLbs?...

If Reform had won, Labour's statement would be that this result is a stark reminder we need to listen and learn from voters who rightly feel betrayed by modern politics. But the Greens won by a comfortable margin, so it's: these voters are stupid and also sinister and, ugh, Muslims

The Green fairytale of the past has similarities to the Reform fairytale, differing mainly on who took this Arcadia away from you. Still, Goodwin lost

Waaay ahead of you, Keir

This is so stupid and I laughed like a drain

Ooh, fun!

the "just asking questions" to "legitimate questions about fairness in sports" to "the state doesn't have to consider us as real people" pipeline working exactly as designed.

Mumsnet can do one. This is incredibly irresponsible messaging from an organisation with zero scientific credentials. They are, ironically, one of the most paternalistic, reactionary organisations in British politics

nice exploration of how right wing propaganda and "pink slime" newspapers (fake local papers built by right wing propagandists to lie to locals) propped up the whole AOC "um" non news cycle

Slightly tangential to what Stephen is responding to here but also feel referring to this as an isolated cultures misses out on how things like games stretch back through our entire history and have effected our language, our culture and more. A good read on this is The Game Changers by Tim Clare

Superb guide to the govt's SEND plans. Without Special Needs jungle, the conversation would be sorely lacking. Must-read!

Several European countries are considering social media bans for children. We must regulate platforms, not children. I urge caution: ✅ Focus on "safety by design" ✅ Demand algorithmic transparency ✅ Enforce the #DSA & #HumanRights standards Read my Shout Out👇 www.coe.int/en/web/commi...

New Substack post! The geeky, most un-Imperial joy of Concordia. I love this game. But it 1000% needs a retheme. open.substack.com/pub/playandw...

As someone not shy about saying when Hilary Cass is wrong, it's only fair to point out when she's right. For all its shortcomings, the pathways trial is the only way forward from the current log-jam around youth gender medicine. share.google/LEVxzR9s6jvj...

This research programme was recommended by the interim Cass review in March 2022. And still, no recruitment nearly 4 years later. But remind me how easy it was going to be to improve the evidence base if you just remove the gender ideologues...

"This is vibes-based policy making, not evidence-based policy making" — me talking on BBC Radio Scotland Breakfast just now about the MPs pushing for a social media ban for under 16s.

The OTHER thing that Cass gets disqualifyingly wrong is her portrayal of the “affirmative” approach in trans care. It does NOT mean *telling* kids they are trans. It means letting kids say for themselves what they are. This is so basic. That she is allowed to guide UK trans health is scandalous.

This is very good and pointed out some angles on the Online safety act which I hadn't thought of.