Well I know loads of churchgoers and priests who will be entirely fine with Sarah Mullally's appointment, or even delighted. People like Britain First carrying their stupid white crosses treat Christianity as a battle cry rather than as a call to reflection, repentance, love and service.

Alongside her heroic portrayals of Kitty and others, Patricia Routledge was a great advocate for the arts, founding a song competition supporting young singers, and speaking movingly about her friend Janet Baker in the wonderful 'In Her Own Words' documentary. She just exuded integrity. RIP.

I just thought I would check how @skynewsrss.bsky.social reported the previous announcement in 2012. Unsurprisingly it wasn’t “Man named as Archbishop of Canterbury”. And it made no note in the article of his wife or six children. Bravo!

This article manages to name her husband before it names… her.

After clashing with Maurice Glasman recently, I've come to realise just how pernicious he and his Blue Labour movement are. We could discuss his chumminess with Steve Bannon and JD Vance, endless pandering to the far right and evident hatred of the Labour left. But there's something even worse. 🧵

Imagine being the leader of the party which delivered Brexit going into a filmed interview with a Northern Ireland journalist at a time when your competence is being questioned, and not thinking to check how Northern Ireland voted in the EU referendum beforehand.

"It’s quickly apparent that what should be symbols of unity and pride are being used to represent a divisive and exclusionary agenda, with asylum seekers being used as a scapegoat." www.oxford.anglican.org/news/lets-re...

This is really excellent from @lewisgoodall.com. A 'proper' analysis of Starmer's speech and general approach. open.substack.com/pub/goodalla...

Keep this in mind when people claim cars mean business — closing Central #Madrid to cars over holidays resulted in a 9.5% boost in retail spending on its main shopping street: STUDY. There was also a 71% drop in air pollution. Via @carltonreid.com in @forbes.com. #citymakingmath #citiesforpeople

The Royal Society has met to discuss Elon Musk – and they’re NOT removing his fellowship. They are criticising him publicly, but stopping short of actual removal. This feels like the kind of compromise that will please *absolutely nobody*.

So @royalsociety.org expresses disapproval, but apparently no decision to exclude Musk from membership. Weak.

You don’t actually have to both sides this. The Jewish community in the UK is not the Israeli government. You can just condemn the murder of two British Jews killed in their place of worship and you don’t have to say a single other thing.

Love this One action hero to another The Terminator tells us we can terminate pollution

"You'll be alright, what are you complaining about" first of all, I am allowed to be concerned for others, thank you very much, second of all, what makes you think I'm safe?

Oh for goodness sake. Get a grip, Labour.

Jane Goodall's gentle wisdom will be missed, her work will be remembered, and she will remain deeply loved by all who care for the planet and the beings on it — even in her absence. 🕯️One good heart can change the world.

Labour has a chance now to turn a corner and win support from people who want it to succeed. Or it can continue with this type of vicious populist filth and alienate everyone. It's your call guys. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Day after day, he's still not letting up. You can't say Reform is racist and then do exactly the same "blame the foreigners" and "let's scare off the boat people" stuff. If it's racist it's racist. (NB it is racist, and that means it's not British).

The US is forcing American universities to turn away international students. It is illegally conditioning Congressionally-mandated federal research funds on their elimination of foreign students to meet a made-up quota of 15%. Part of a wide ranging policy to slash lawful, high-skill immigration.

Thanks for letting us know, Kemz.

It never ceases to amaze me how much crockery people used to throw away back in the days when our local nature reserve was a rubbish tip. This patch has recently been cleared of nettles to plant a more diverse lot of seeds

Here I am in 2020 in the flimsiest, most pitful PPE - like so many other NHS staff, some of whom died from the Covid they caught in their hospitals. Tory peer Michelle Mone - who today lost her legal case & must repay the govt £122m - dares to claim she’s been ‘scapegoated’. What, Michelle? 🧵

It's a huge upset, and a brilliant match from Sonay Kartal. It's not like Mirra Andreeva was playing badly, and it was great to watch.

To add to this: Sadiq Khan took a big political risk by doing this, and it appears to have paid off - or rather, the policy has worked as intended. London Labour will be (quite reasonably) hoping voters notice...

The Home Office doesn't lose as many asylum & deportation cases as it does because of some supposed marginal differences between the application of Art 8 in UK courts and the ECtHR view, it loses so many cases because it's caseload has long been woefully mismanaged... www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

This is why we fund scientists to study things like oyster slobber even if you don’t think it sounds important

Oof, look at those glum faces

That thing that always happens has happened again

Appreciation post coming up🙏 Have just been called for a routine NHS test. We are so, so lucky to have our #NHS with its free screening services for all manner of ailments. We need to fight to keep it, because we won't know what's hit us when it's gone @keepournhspublic.bsky.social

My main response to this is that we had an all staff email go out today because one staff member spat at another one and told them that they had to “go back to where they came from.” Make of that what you will.

For what it may be worth, current and former senior military are among the people I've met who take climate change most seriously: they're the ones who'll lose wars if they don't adapt to shifting physical and geographical environments.

Sums up this most dismal moment.

I'm getting really really fed up at constant reassertion that welfare spending is "out of control" when it is the same as the average for the past few decades. One reason disability benefit costs have risen is because core support has fallen.

Let there be war crimes

Nowhere does the 'anonymous memo' mention the oligarchs and press barons whose media and money drives the rise of racist, right wing populism. Like all autocrats, they hate, fear and seek to destroy them intelligencia which resists them.

Will they be required to wear new Hugo Boss uniforms?

Blue Labour also holds an incredibly poisonous view of the diverse, tolerant and open-minded Working Class in Britain. It's true the Labour Party is quite middle class these days but more working class organisations like Trade Unions are actually more socially progressive than Labour.

It's fascinating how much of English analysis of class get reduced to 'what do you have for your dinner?' I like to think that were my mining ancestors alive they'd be thinking 'fair play to folks these days there's loads more choices of what to eat and where than i had'.

This is truly awful. I mean, "The left, dominated by the professional middle classes and public sector, is the defender of the status quo." What?? Aren't we the people saying "charge us more tax, invest in public services, take stuff back into public ownership"? Blue Labour is just plain wrong.

And to reiterate, Labour voters who have gone to Reform are very different from rest of Labour AND are only 8% of 2024 Lab voters. 20% have gone to DK, 20% to LDs and Greens. The choice seems obvious to me. Though I am transgressing on Blue Labour orthodoxy. 19/n

On the morning of Keir Starmer's conference speech here's a new post on an odd psychopathology in British politics - our main parties don't like the people who vote for them - the dreaded Professional Managerial Class. And so they are acting out like a divorced dad seeking cooler voters. 1/n

There’s no easy answers for Starmer’s government confronting Reform. But it should understand the opposition. Not ‘ordinary Britons with legitimate grievances’, but a trans-national, far right propaganda machine built patiently over decades with Russian & US funders among others.

It really isn’t.

go go go #london

Numbers really matter. Remember, Oxford, to turn out in force on 5 October, 11.30am at Holiday Inn Express, Guelder Rd, near the Kassam. Show them we are more than them.

Tried to persuade my mum and sister to get their UK citizenship over lunch (both on settled status). They both couldn't believe there would be a risk, and that they've been here for 50+ years. Even though they admit Farage said what he said, they couldn't take it seriously. I think they should.

TL:DR- patients having operations that started between 1300 and 1800 had statistically significant increases in postop complications, compared to pts with operative starts before 1300. Next question- I'd love to know the results for ops starting after 1800. 🤔 #MedSky

The pro-EU Party of Action & Solidarity has crushed the pro-Russia Patriotic Electoral Bloc in the Moldovan election. It won 51 seats - an outright majority. Moldova is now on a trajectory towards EU membership. A very bad night for Putin, who targeted Moldova with a wave of election propaganda.

Netanyahu to Fox News: “We are taking a lot of care not to hurt civilians.”

Lotta talk about Lowry and Hatton but really it was Ludvig Aberg who made it happen on the day more than anyone else