Much of debate on the social media ban overlooks what that could mean for privacy, censorship and LGBTQIA+ communities.

Today marks nine years since the Grenfell Tower fire. Nine years without justice. 72 people lost their lives in a tragedy that was entirely preventable. And yet not one person has faced criminal accountability. Not one prosecution. Not one conviction. Not one person behind bars.

Today is 9 years since Grenfell. Despite clear evidence (both before, during and since the disaster) of premeditated crimes, criminal negligence, and misconduct in public office, survivors and bereaved family are still waiting for justice.

English commentators need to stop analysing Northern Ireland through an English lens! When you see anti-immigrant riots in Belfast, Ballymena or Larne and immediately reach for "Britain's far-right problem", you're missing half the story. This isn't just racism. It's loyalist terrorism. 1/

Always instructive when far right fash get a free pass to do whatever they want, whilst pensioners get arrested for holding up a bit of cardboard calling out a genocide.

There's no debate which is improved by the intervention of Tony Blair. This is ableism. It frames anxiety, depression and ADHD as things people just need to get on with, with no acknowledgement of how damaging that attitude is, or how hard it can be to be recognised and diagnosed in the first place.

Check your Sertraline if you're on it in the UK www.gov.uk/government/n...

The wonderful Lavender Menace in Edinburgh are doing a fundraiser to support their operating costs! They've been able to do so much as a staffed organisation - it will be so good for queer life in Scotland if they can keep going: www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/save-laven...

Many vital links in the Glasgow arts scene - including Project Ability, a haven for people with learning difficulties and mental health challenges - are affected by this threatened eviction. Sign the petition and, if you’re in Glasgow, contact your councillor.

PROPERTY WANTED URGENTLY! Our charity finds itself having to identify a new community hub/workshop in Edinburgh (& funds) ASAP due to an eviction notice with other charities. We are reaching out to our wonderful community of supporters- plz contact if you have any leads [email protected]

If ever there was a time for the Scottish Government to take action and kick Trump’s troops out of Prestwick, it is now.

New paper. Recording the female experience of UK archaeology 1990-2010. Anne Teather and I document how an industry EDI agenda evolved in the 1990s and was dismantled, uncovering the ramifications of that for women archaeologists over the next decade. www.cambridge.org/core/journal... #openaccess✅

It’s already happening. Iran attacked a desalination plant in Bahrain. This war has to end immediately. If it turns into a water war we will be dealing with a whole different level of a humanitarian catastrophe across the region. aje.news/64yl8m?updat...

Today is a dark day for anyone who believes in sanctuary in the UK. People who've fled war and torture should be able to rebuild their lives in peace and security - not live under a constant threat of removal. We must not stop fighting these appalling anti-refugee laws.

I am pro Iranian people. I stand with them against their own government’s repression AND against the imperial violence in the form of bombs dropped from the sky from Israel & the US who have already killed hundreds. I support neither imperialism or dictatorship. Sahar Delijani said it best:

The death toll rises and two realities collide: imagine headlines if 148 schoolgirls were massacred in New York, London or Paris. After this and Palestine, the asymmetry of grief in our so-called world order is brutal and impossible to unsee.

Really concerned to hear the Defence Secretary refuse to rule out UK's involvement in future strikes on Iran. Iraq lessons must be learned. Further escalation in the Middle East makes us all less safe. Starmer must rule out UK involvement immediately.

The Department of Languages at @heriotwattuni.bsky.social is facing serious cuts with a proposal to make 11 of its staff redundant, stop offering undergraduate Chinese and German and eliminate intercultural studies courses. Please sign this petition: heriotwatt.web.ucu.org.uk/2026/02/05/s...

Tressa Burke, chief executive officer of the Glasgow Disability Alliance says she turned down an MBE because the recent budget “supercharged the inequalities and unfairness disabled people face”. “It is fuelling misinformation. It is fuelling hatred. It is fuelling blame and scapegoating." Bravo ⭐

Absolute bullshit, and authors, if Harlequin has your foreign rights, you should also complain.

Girl Guiding and the Women’s Institute have announced that they will now exclude trans women and girls after legal threats – but organisations can and should remain inclusive: https://goodlaw.social/cpfx

Starmer CHOSE to keep the Supreme Court misjudgment despite its obvious flaws and its injustice. It allows him to deniably harm trans people. It is a mixture of political cowardice, gratuitous oppression, lack of principle and hypocrisy which defines the content of his character.

New ILGA-Europe data shows how stigma, discrimination & economic insecurity push LGBTI people into hidden homelessness across Europe. Change is possible with inclusive policies, trauma-informed services and action on structural discrimination. www.ilga-europe.org/press-releas...

This is just one “news” paper - The Times. They are OBSESSED with attacking trans people! 😖 They will absolutely KNOW that it’s TDoR today, and will have published this transphobic bilge as a gesture of power and provocation. It is pure, malicious, propaganda! 😣

I’ve written a piece on the curious lack of media and political interest in the issues faced by our national @britishlibrary.bsky.social. This is strange given we live in a world where ideas, knowledge and research are a long-term source of innovation and insight www.cityam.com/the-british-...

This is also still ongoing, to fund English translations of African novels written in non-colonial languages! (which do not get translated very frequently!)

Let's take a ride... My next book is coming out with @faberbooks.bsky.social. Tales of the Suburbs: LGBTQ+ Lives Behind Net Curtains will be published March 12 2026. Preorder links in profile, and lots more on the book and the remarkable stories people told me to come over the next few months...

Tonight I was talking to a friend about this and she told me, this is one more major milestone in the decline of German democracy. For many people, it will be the thing that makes them decide to pack their bags, in anticipation of what is coming.

Wtf is a TEST of a ceasefire?!?!??!?

Brilliant short play on #BBCRadio4Extra today: #Autumn by #SusanHill. A couple tries to escape their past by moving home. Stars #JuneBrown and a classic telly fave, #BernardHepton. And today is centenary of his birth. Something for @secretarmypod.bsky.social fans? www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

Excellent, wide-ranging long thread on the state of the UK... Thank you @tanjabueltmann.net

And while you are visiting @edinburghprints.bsky.social be sure to leave plenty of time check out Robert Powell's astonishing Hall of Hours installation with working clock and gorgeous copper ornaments.

Such a moving, thought-provoking and vibrant exhibtion @edinburghprints.bsky.social reflecting on and exploring Asqa Arif's lived experiences of seeking asylum, housing injustice, culture/art-washing and maintaining and negotiating cultural heritage in Glasgow. Highly recommend!

Queer and neurodivergent people are biological facts. We are stable parts of the human genome. “Human cognitive diversity exists for a reason; our differences are the genius – and the conscience – of our species.” —Carol Black, A Thousand Rivers stimpunks.org/philosophy/b...

We asked the EHRC whether they consulted any trans, intersex or LGBTQ+ groups before intervening in the 2024 Supreme Court case For Women Scotland v Scottish Ministers. Their answer? They didn’t. 1/

Shameful, the UK arresting people for wearing T-Shirts and holding signs. Where are the people who scream for the right to Free Speech?

don't forget to donate to individual fundraisers too. here is a site that tracks individual campaigns and boosts the ones with little or no donations: lifeline4gaza.com

This is an important thread & piece about the negative impact of AI on the translation sector - sobering & illuminating #xl8

Absolutely perfect! 👏 #TransRightsAreHumanRights

A devastating critique of an uncurated, uncatalogued collection @profdanhicks.bsky.social A new museum/archive/warehouse in London with 'at least a thousand unlabelled items sitting on the shelves. There’s no way of finding out what they are'. Extraordinary! artreview.com/what-isnt-at...

More than half of Glasgow's high schools found out today that they will have ZERO library staff when the school year starts tomorrow. Full story from @heraldscotland.bsky.social www.heraldscotland.com/news/2538717...

It has been six years since the Gender Autonomy Act was passed in Iceland. In those six years, none of the usual fears that anti-trans advocates warn against have manifested - and trans people, non-binary people and intersex people have enjoyed increased rights and protections.

We're now at a point where MSPs are lodging complete and utter bollocks at Holyrood as part of the wider campaign against trans people. The report this MSP wants to welcome is complete pish, rooted in the so-called "LGB Alliance" *asking their own supporters* views. It represents nobody but them.

Exactly one hundred years ago - EJ MacRae was appointed Edinburgh's City Architect - Here is a short piece on the work of MacRae and his team. blog.historicenvironment.scot/2025/07/eben...

Scottish friends! I am at Edinburgh International Book Festival on 13th August to talk about my new book, #Refuge: Stories of War (and Love). Please do come. And please spread the word 🙏🏽 www.edbookfest.co.uk/the-festival...

This is so simple to use. You can't ask for more....

Hungary banned anything that “promotes homosexuality,” which means Pride. However, today over 500,000 people in Budapest told the government to fuck off. 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

Bombing for peace is like burning books to promote literacy.

The “welfare reform bill” is out and let’s be clear: this is not reform - it is devastating cuts. Disabled people will be made poorer, sicker, and more isolated as a result. That it is a Labour government causing this misery will be a mark of shame on the party for years to come.