Having Johnson & Cummings in Downing Street when Covid struck was, just like Brexit, an entirely avoidable disaster caused largely by utterly appalling journalism. And now exactly the same clowns, arses & bigots with bylines are rolling out the red carpet for Farage. www.thetimes.com/article/1b15...

Key points include: High exit rates among carers and early to mid-career workers: Professionals aged 35 and under are significantly more likely to leave & Those with caregiving responsibilities - often women - face disproportionate challenges of low pay, out-of-hours work and limited flexibility.

Buckle up - because this now amounts to a direct and deliberate attack on our country and its cultural sovereignty. Which side our politicians take - Trump's or the BBC's - over the coming days and weeks will speak volumes about their patriotism.

The idea of a $1 billion lawsuit from Donald Trump is utter nonsense www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cd...

There’s no screening for ovarian cancer and it’s really difficult to spot: you can’t squidge your ovaries in the shower to check for lumps. Also it’s very good at masquerading at other things, like IBS and diverticulitis. Please take a look at this list of symptoms - and share if you can.

"The data shows no evidence to suggest that younger men are more inclined than other demographic groups to support the British far right" ✍️ @turnbulldugarte.com & @emiliabelknap.bsky.social analyse the demographics of Reform voters and argue the gender gap is marginal ukandeu.ac.uk/most-british...

This is disastrous; hospices do such important work, not only to give people a good death, but to provide pain management and other services to people with terminal conditions. The staff in hospices work so, so hard and the fact that these institutions depend on charity to operate is a scandal.

Chatbots — LLMs — do not know facts and are not designed to be able to accurately answer factual questions. They are designed to find and mimic patterns of words, probabilistically. When they’re “right” it’s because correct things are often written down, so those patterns are frequent. That’s all.

Elon Musk is once again inciting violence on British streets because the government has taught him there are literally no consequences for doing so. They even carry on using his far-right social network to promote government policy as he does it. The absence of backbone is *astounding*.

Asylum seekers, housed in hotels in Manchester, are reaching out in their own words to address the concerns of the local community. Please take a minute to read their letter, & share it with the people in your life who need to hear the truth about the people they are protesting.

This is an important book from my friend @ubertherapy.bsky.social looking at the business models of mental health companies and platforms. When mental health support is so necessary for an increasing number of us, this concerns us all

This made me laugh because I wrote the speech she’s referring to. I inserted the line about Chicken Tikka Masala after I noticed a supermarket survey listing it as by far the most popular purchase among consumers. Gill is wrong. The British people have voted with their stomachs.

Chaotic neutral mainly. I like the happenstance of it, and it links the reading of the book with what was going on at the time.

🧵🚨 The UK’s independent scientific bodies are highly vulnerable to politicisation - over the past 5 months I've been working with @martinmckee.bsky.social to map out their vulnerabilities and it's not good news. Today our report is published! www.ucl.ac.uk/policy-lab/n... 1/11

I spoke to British Future's Sunder Katwala, who was a refreshing antidote to all the far right rhetoric on immigration, flags, etc. Britain is not nearly as divided as extremists suggest, he says, and we're "a generation ahead" when it comes to multiculturalism. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...

Amazing nuggets in the PPE Medpro High Court ruling The company was incorporated on 12 May 2020 and referred to the Covid "VIP lane" by Michelle Mone *the same day*, despite having no track record in manufacturing PPE Who could have predicted that anything would go wrong?

The govt wants to get more disabled people into work, but isn't making full use of the tools at its disposal In my new report for @citizensadvice.bsky.social I've looked at how our social security system could do more to make sure that when disabled people want to work, work really does pay /1

"The overwhelming weight of evidence still supports paracetamol as the safest option for pregnant women when used as recommended. The real danger isn’t the medicine – it’s oversimplified claims that create fear and undermine trust in healthcare."

The best opponents of misinformation are not political journalists because they see it as part of a power game. It takes expert journalists to expose the lies and also how dangerous they are.

Autism is back on the front pages. Why not read the book that my excellent @manchester.ac.uk @manchstm.bsky.social colleague Dr Bonnie Evans has published on the history of autism? It's open access and you can read it online for free. www.manchesterhive.com/display/9781...

It is 20 years since Conor Gearty gave the Hamlyn Lectures on Can Human Rights Survive? As a mark of respect following the dreadful news of his, Cambridge University Press & Assessment has made these lectures Open Access for the remainder of the year. You can find them here: lnkd.in/e5Xrt2G5

Clickbait headlines are a major source of misinformation and misrepresentation. Useful headlines would have been: 1. Young men support Reform less than other men. 2. Age is much more important for Reform support than sex. 3. Reform is most popular party among 50+ men and women.

UK government report based on internal civil service trial finds Copilot doesn’t increase productivity, and indeed makes Excel take longer and with more errors, and requires Powerpoint users to have ‘corrective action’ applied to their outputs. www.theregister.com/2025/09/04/m...

Brilliant lads, we're getting roasted for not being normal about flags by the Northern Irish

The Government is doing its best at the moment to imply it has no problem with the ethnonationalism now rearing its ugly head. And I don't understand why. 1/5

The Afghan women's football/soccer team, who relocated to the UK to escape the Taliban's removal of female rights, including exclusion from all public life #WomensArt #AfghanWomen

OF COURSE I WOULD

I am one of the 14 authors who chose to leave the Polari Prize, and I find myself frustrated and saddened at the way this entire story has been represented. 1/

As more of us (and our universities) migrate to Bluesky, early research by @mikethelwall.bsky.social finds it is not only being used to share research but is hosting 'more meaningful scholarly dialogue' than its predecessor arxiv.org/pdf/2507.18840

On holiday, I notice that there are wind turbines on the shore of Lake Garda, which very much makes me think that residents with a view of some incredibly mid Cotswold or other can put a sock in it.

😂😂😂

David Runciman’s extended essay series on BBCRadio4 charting the victory, achievements, challenges & demise of the 1945 Labour Government is 1 of the best ever contributions to this strand. Essential listening for understanding where Britain is today www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p...

🧵 In February, I got a message from Anna*, a female police officer. She was a domestic abuse specialist, responding daily to calls from women abused by their partners. But she was also in an abusive marriage herself, for more than a decade - and her abuser was another officer.

🥵 Hot in #London? Find cool spaces 🥶 and water fountains 💧near you, with our interactive map: apps.london.gov.uk/cool-spaces/ 👍

New pre-print: The pursuit of equity in COVID-19 policy and policymaking: A qualitative systematic review open-research-europe.ec.europa.eu/articles/5-1...

The Unvirtuous Circle @sekip.bsky.social explores the record of different far-right political parties on immigration policy, arguing that their policy failure feeds into further populist rhetoric on migration. #migration #immigration #populism #governments isrf.org/blog/the-unv...

Today, the Government launches plans to fast-track driverless vehicle trials in the UK. One of the companies involved says London presents a big challenge: “It has seven times more jaywalkers than San Francisco.” Except… it doesn't. 🧵

Culture is bad for you! Live! @edbookfest.bsky.social 19th August, all welcome, tickets here www.edbookfest.co.uk/the-festival...

Delighted to welcome @gracehuckins.bsky.social as the fifth @ninedotsprize.org winner today! Many congratulations 🎉 More here: ninedotsprize.org/winners/grac...

Honoured to speak at this vital and urgent conference of the UKPRP VISION Consortium on 'Mobilising a cross-government response to violence prevention' - highlighting the cost of violence. Failing to invest in tackling sexual violence is not just morally indefensible – it’s economically reckless.

Delighted to welcome @gracehuckins.bsky.social as the fifth @ninedotsprize.org winner today! Many congratulations 🎉 More here: ninedotsprize.org/winners/grac...

Beautiful everyday Ladybird things. The best seat on the bus (1964) Artist: Harry Wingfield

The quant analysis found only a very small impact on fertility, Headline conclusion: the two-child limit's main impact is to push up child poverty (something we've sadly seen in technicolor in recent years) [analysis w/ @jdportes.bsky.social & Mary Reader] www.iza.org/publications...

More generally, this is a moment where we need a _lot_ more social scientists writing clear explainers in the public space. There is enormous value in turning social science abstractions into practical frames for explaining the complexities of the world and what is changing to regular citizens.

I had to read this several times as “prioritise growth” and “hit universities over the head” are so mutually contradictory

We are just two weeks away from announcing the winner of The Nine Dots Prize 2024/25. Be sure to keep an eye out on our social pages for the winner announcement and sign up to our newsletter. ninedotsprize.org

New briefing out today from me + @craigpberry.bsky.social shows government's claim disabled people affected by cuts will be better off in work is false For many, full-time work would only bring a small income boost + in some cases, leave people worse off www.citizensadvice.org.uk/policy/publi...

Researchers paid $9 billion over 5 years for their findings to be freely accessible. This is based on a study of the global expenditure on article processing charges (APCs) paid to six publishers for open access between 2019 and 2023. arxiv.org/abs/2407.16551

We’ve had an incredible range of entries to the Prize this cycle, full of originality and out of the box thinking. We’re excited to share that the winner of this year’s prize will be announced on Tuesday 3rd June. Don’t miss the announcement, sign up to our newsletter today.