Sharing this on the eve of tomorrow's vote. I am a palliative care doctor who is not opposed to AD. But enshrining in law a state-funded right to die, while not enshrine a similar right to the palliative care that might make life worth living, is so very wrong. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Some Karen’ being the battlecry. Pathetic ⬇️

I hope Aquafresh are paying them for this

I have at least 30 pairs of reading glasses. Except none of them appear to be anywhere in the house. Cross.

I do love a tin. Cannot wait for today’s online order. An almost unheard of event to have my husband’s ‘is it functional’ *and* my ‘is it a lovely old tin’ both ticked at once www.bakerybits.co.uk/triple-pack-...

📣 📣 NEW EDITORIAL @theguardian.com "As well as the insidious conduct of individuals, the series sheds light on the systemic nature of the abuse and the tenacity of the women who uncovered the truth." #spycops www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Bracing myself for watching the first of three programmes on #SpyCops tonight inews.co.uk/culture/tele...

no shit. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Today’s excitement …

Civilised society imprisons over 2k people in these brutal long stay warehouses, people who are not criminals. ‘Kasibba’ was locked up for 45 years from age 7, in long term segregation for half the time. Years of evidence, years of broken promises by different govts www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

V spent her childhood regressing, w/out a genetic diagnosis. Her MRI & chromosomes tested as ‘normal’ at 4; it took us years to get whole genome sequencing. She was diagnosed at 19. We celebrate her determination every day & hope that genetic screening is more routinely offered to families like ours

'It saddens me that #Unison which has 75 per cent female membership, has as its first motion at its Women’s conference one that seeks to undermine Equality Act protections for women.' @unisontheunion.bsky.social #TradeUnion #UNWC25 #UWomen25 #WomenInUnison www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/02...

Compare the performances of schoolboys with international female athletes. And compare them year on year on year. You can say that you want to prioritise inclusion over fairness in sport. But it is a choice. It is an indication that women's sport doesn't matter to you.

Ah yes, the whole Nazi thing. I scrolled through both sites on the evening of Trump’s inauguration. Seventeen zillion posts about Musk’s arm gesture. Virtually none about antisemitic graffiti and firebombing of a daycare centre in a Jewish suburb of Sydney which happened at around the same time

You can't make this shit up www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

"We have to acknowledge that black women are three times more likely to die in childbirth. It’s gone down from 4 times because more white working class women are now more likely to die in childbirth, so we’re closing the gap in the wrong way." @rthonwesstreeting.bsky.social #FabianNYC25

Less than 1% of refuge spaces in the U.K. are accessible for wheelchair users, new data shows. That’s particularly scandalous considering disabled women are more than twice as likely to experience domestic abuse than non-disabled women. news.sky.com/story/amp/le...

Low-to-middle income households in the UK have much lower incomes than their European counterparts. Despite having a similar GDP per capita, typical households in the UK are 9% poorer than French households, and our low-income households are 27% poorer than their French counterparts.

Yes!!!! www.theguardian.com/fashion/2025...

Might be one of the most important, urgent things I've ever written: 50% of social care spending is on disabled people, but that part of the mounting care crisis is completely ignored www.theguardian.com/uk/commentis...

10 kilos of blood oranges delivered via crowdfarming www.crowdfarming.com/en?fbclid=Iw... and a substack for f what to do too from @nicmiller.bsky.social too - both of these are on my list of what keeps me grounded as the mum of a profoundly autistic (late) teen

There is already 25 minutes more daylight than the shortest day and by the end of this week it will be around 45 minutes.

Today’s, probably 2025’s SEND must read …

‘When a child is already in care and is being failed by their corporate parents, anyone raising the alarm has to raise the alarm with the corporate parent. A failing corporate parent marks its own homework. There is no independent regulator of Local Authorities’ Children’s Services’ RIP Tash 💔

Useful summary, as ever, from Sex Matters. This is big news.

When my daughter was at nursery (she was two) we found out from one of her classmates (who was three) that she was never included in fire drills. When I queried this with the manager, she said it was because it was a moving & handling risk. May this father and son RIP 💔

A 67 year old amputee and wheelchair user lived with his son who had cerebral palsy. They were killed in the Eaton fire while waiting for an ambulance that never arrived. Many disabled people can not evacuate on their own. They need to be included in evacuation plans (yet almost never are)

I will never, ever get over this.

i don’t understand how, psychologically, a person gets to a place where they interpret sign language as some kind of attack or imposition on their life. like, what the fuck is wrong with you?

Next Sunday (19th) it is. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Introducing Gig Buddies 👋 our befriending project which pairs up adults with learning disabilities and/or autistic people with volunteers based on their shared interests. This can be music, theatre, art, sport - anything you love! This reconnects people with their community & combats isolation 👍👍👍

A Pellegrin Ice Cream Car, Germany 1980s #BMWIsetta

A ground of her own: How a retired Indian policewoman built a playground for women in Kerala The uniqueness of the women-only playground lies not only in its assertion that women have the right to safe public spaces, but that women have the right to playful leisure.

‘The Mexican family has been housed since June ‘21 in various hotel rooms at a Best Western, that they successfully argued does not provide for the child’s medical and care needs. He suffers from conditions including epileptic encephalopathy, experiences multiple seizures a day & is fed by a tube’

‘he is now 18 … a door will be slammed when he reaches his early 20s, and we will find ourselves in a make-do-and-mend reality of day centres and occasional trips out. Surely, after all these years of increasing knowledge of autism … we can do a bit better than that’ ⬇️

6 January 1945 | A German Jewish woman, Edith Frank, the mother of Anne and Margot Frank, died at the German camp #Auschwitz from exhaustion. It happened 3 weeks before the Red Army liberated the last prisoners of the camp and 10 days before Edith's 45th birthday.

The economic cost of Brexit to the UK now exceeds what it paid into the EU over its entire 47 years of membership. A colossal, unprecedented act of economic self-harm sold to a nation by grifters and snake oil salesmen.

We require three key transitions: From ‘caring for the vulnerable’ ➡️ to nourishing personhood and wellbeing From coal-powered production-line commissioning ➡️ to helping to grow renewable ecosystems of neighbourhood support From delivering services *to* people ➡️ to scaffolding agency *by* people

As Sonia Sodha says on social care:" if you’re not going to spend political capital meeting the big challenges facing the country using the social democratic principles you hold dear, what’s the point of winning an election in the first place"? So true. For the common good. Country first.

This lovely Hellenistic mosaic glass bowl looks so modern, yet it was made over 2,000 years ago! Ancient glassmakers created the tiny flower pattern using a technique now known as ‘millefiori’ (thousand flowers). A timeless design still made by glassmakers today! British Museum 📷 me #Archaeology

Please read this blog. Adult social care for my daughter started when she turned 18. It will provide the carers & services that ensure she flourishes. It must only ever be forward-thinking and forward-looking: it is not end of life. Not when you are eighteen. Or ever, really.

Have written a longer version of this, including on the history of social care and how we got here. Enough of acting timidly when you have the largest majority in memory. To govern is to choose. So, choose something. benansell.substack.com/p/profiles-i...

Every time I hear Billy Bragg sing A New England, all I can think is "Thank goodness for Kirsty MacColl".

My God this salary. I love the British Library, I really do. I worked in the Dept. of Medieval Manuscripts as a curatorial fellow & then as a research associate; I have spent hundreds of hours there as a researcher. And I get it, this is the going rate for such positions in the UK. But Jesus Christ.

Going to ask Louise Casey to investigate my recent weight gain. Hoping to hear back in 2028 and then look to implement her recommendations at some indeterminate point in the future subject to consultation with key stakeholders such as Mr Kipling and Papa John.

Since 1997 there have been no less than 25 commissions, select committee inquiries & white papers on social care. Labour - who admit social care is in crisis, & that the NHS cannot be fixed without it - just responded by... ... announcing the 26th one 😳

#BoycottTheICC Women of Afghanistan need everyone's support, don't look away

You've still got a few days to put a response in to the EHRC consultation. Tell them Chapter 13 is just not good enough! sex-matters.org/posts/update...