This one is resonating today. #Andor

I think this is tone deaf, showing they don’t get it, this paragraph shows why. In reality too many people just want to be able to comfortably pay their bills, being richer is a different subject altogether. Deprivation and destitution won’t be improved by focussing on making people “richer”.

The last time my TL was this united in 'Wtf?' it was when Putin launched the war on Ukraine. Which bodes well....

This early into 2026 can we just turn it off and on again….

If the US is at war then that’s the excuse they need to stop elections. It’s not all about oil.

There is, to my mind, no justification for the continued use by the UK Government of X as a platform for official comms. There hasn't been for some time, in fact, but if the latest developments around AI-generated image abuse and CSAM don't change the policy I really don't know what will.

Going through old photos and this one popped up from autumn 2020. No, I didn't really enjoy the NHS COVID-19, thank you very much.

It’s crazy the UK has not yet rejoined the EU's roaming area. Another example of us being left behind

It's New Year, so time to look back and forward. These are 10 things I think we need to recognise in 2026. It’s a response to what I think are profoundly damaging mistaken assumptions I’ve heard and read from practitioners, journalists, and analysts in 2025. Warning: very long🧵

Excitingly* we’re now in Q2 of the 21st century, well done to all of us on that. *Yes it is exciting, shush

FACT OF THE DAY. 1 January 1973. UK officially became a member of the European Economic Community (EEC). The Daily Mail was very enthusiastic about Britain’s entry at the time.

2025, my summary. Yep, that time of year again where people post threads about their year with a vain hope that other people read them. I've kept mine to 3 short posts below on my 2025 split into personal, work, and wider. A mixed bag. 1/4

If you change the system so a young adult has to take on a six figure personal debt to get a medical degree then you have no ethical or moral right to complain where they go once they qualify.

This is not the main cause of long waits for admission, or overcrowding and is not the fault of GPs. However, they try to spin the story www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

This is what happens when your policies are not far off what the BNP were proposing in the 1990s and try to convince Labour voters to accept it.

Frankly folks, if you can’t see this, you really do need to go have a very hard look at yourself in the mirror.

When they say “Britons should be born in Britain,” they don't think of Boris Johnson, Prince Philip, Freddie Mercury, Joanna Lumley, Rudyard Kipling. We know what they mean. The headline should be: More Britons believe you can only be British if you’re white. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

The most concise and accurate assessment of 2025 you’ll read:

Jess is absolutely right. The Court of Appeal’s decision in the Begum deprivation of citizenship case, and the Supreme Courts reasons for not hearing an appeal, are two of the worst legal judgments of recent years. There are other bad decision, but these were awful.

A classic #WTAF? from the NHS. They have spent serious money deploying a tool to solve a problem that doesn't exist: www.theguardian.com/society/2025... ...

Bluesky is generally one hell of a lot nicer than t'other place, but just sometimes someone posts something that really makes me want to bite. Anyway, shrug, delete, move on, and hope they get a really annoying dose of boils on the backside.

The Conservative Party is simultaneously arguing people shouldn’t be jailed for social media posts directly calling for violence, but also that people’s citizenship should be revoked over social media posts they don’t like. Make it make sense.

I always get a raised eyebrow for a second or two when I get this email each year, wondering what I've done, before I remember that it really is just the annual email reminding me of their codes of ethics and conduct.

I think in 2026 I’ll automatically assume anyone I don’t physically know on LinkedIn who tries to connect is an AI bot until introduced by someone I do physically know. AI taking us back to pre-LinkedIn contacts/networking one rubbish bot at a time. I suppose that’s one thing.

Overnight last night in GP OOH & on call this week. Urgent primary care is available throughout with many GPs working all around 🇬🇧. They will of course be joined by 1000s of hospital, community and paramedic colleagues who will all keep the NHS going. 🥼🩺🚑 #MerryChristmas

Posting this from insta. If you’re North or East London based and #alone this #christmas pop by the wonderful Dusty Knuckle Dalston, for a warm welcome, cuppa and pastry #christmasday 10-1.

Why does Bisto Gravy have palm fat in it? Same with quite a lot of the chocolates these days and palm oil. Out of principle, I tend to add products with it to my “not buying that again” list.

I saw this on Instagram last night and I now really want to try it. A top grade fusion food idea if ever I've seen one... www.instagram.com/reel/DPjH0k7...

Registrars delay qualifying as GPs amid 'bleak' job market

It's Christmas Eve, so it's time for a repost of An NHS Christmas Carol that I did for last year and kindly hosted by that nice Andy Cowper. www.healthpolicyinsight.com/an-nhs-chris...

What would really be the implications of taking Santa Claus seriously? It's the time of the year to review the current state of the physics of Santa Claus 1/12

Happy Christmas, all. I wish my (temporarily unpaywalled) final thoughts on the English NHS in 2025 could have been more positive, but reality is what it is. www.healthpolicyinsight.com/cowpers-cut-...

Back in the days when spotting enemies was still very much line of sight, a monster gun platform was the right thing to have. As soon as you get spotted multi-hundred miles away by aircraft it becomes a big fat target. Far better to have smaller mission oriented ships that aren’t as easy to see/hit.

You read some stories and just wonder what planet the people were on who authorised this. The conflicts of interest alone in the CEO and CFO rewards stink like a rotten fish and have no semblance of objective fairness or credibility.

Either officials knew this was the error rate and thought it was acceptable, or thousands of families would have lost their benefit, no-one would have known why and this flawed system might have run on and on and on. Excellent investigation.

An interesting time for a major Govt politician to call for breaking that idiot pledge to appease the massive failure that is Brexit. It is a very welcome thing. www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/...

Pretty sure that this won’t stop until someone loses all their academic privileges as a consequence of using AI to make up shit and not bothering to even check it’s right.

My favourite Patton quote is one that a whole pile of senior leaders will not learn because it doesn’t suit them, and that makes them unfit to lead. “There is a great deal of talk about loyalty from the bottom to the top. Loyalty from the top down is even more necessary and much less prevalent.”

🚨 EXCLUSIVE: English hospitals that cut registered nurses saw more deaths while those hiring nurses saw more patients survive. Even when hospitals tried to fill gaps with non-nurses, deaths still went up. Major new study exposes dangerous NHS variation: www.thetimes.com/article/7eed...

Christmas main shop being delivered this morning. The price of some stuff is astonishing and would have been unbelievable even 3 years ago. It’s not the biggest food shop we’ve ever done, but it is the most expensive.

Happy with that Strictly outcome, just seemed right. Not sure about the band at the end though, did the actual band not show and they got five blokes from the street to do some karaoke?

Major things like this, I love just leaving on in the background to enjoy, and tend to get engrossed in secondary sports more than the headline stuff. I won't pay for it though on a subscription channel. Just encourages them.

This is the one new movie I want to see in 2026. www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VYs...

Go to any deprived part of the UK, look at the healthy life expectancy, especially of those with physically demanding jobs. It's frankly wrong to expect these people to do MORE work. I'm reaching the age where I'm seeing friends stop work because of ill health and be harassed by the state for it.

Unless the original contract was written to guarantee payment (I’d hope they weren’t that stupid), bin it, suck up your pride and buy the quite good stuff the Europeans are making that fits the modern needs we’ve been shown by Ukraine and modern combat scenarios.

YouGov snap poll found rejoining Erasmus UK-EU study exchange scheme is 65-12 Labour 81-4 (+77) LibDem 85-4 (+81) Cons 57-21 (+36) Reform 40-33 (+7) By 2026, specific "closer cooperation" proposals generate a positive "wedge" effect for Labour: unite centre-left, split elites from voters on right

NEW. Major report on Investigating the Investigators examines whether NHS workplace investigations are fair, effective, often unnecessary, cause harm, and are often themselves a form of punishment. Author: Roger Kline www.rogerkline.co.uk/investigatin...

Investigating the Investigators 0 the good, the bad and the unnecessary. A major new report on NHS investigations www.hsj.co.uk/workforce/st...

Major update to our map of Anglo-Saxon London... we've now added etymologies for each place name, so you can find out what your bit of London used to be called.... and why londonist.substack.com/p/mapping-an...