In some ways I'm philosophical about The End these days. It is what it is. But for the final wave to hit because of the crisis when we worked the hardest we possibly could, we nearly broke ourselves, and did exactly what the govt told us to do? It seems.. painful.

The hospital waiting list in England has dropped to its lowest level in nearly three years. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Just for a little bit of context - I work in NHS pathology & our workload has increased significantly (understatement of the year), yet we have *no* money. Staff haven’t been replaced, we can’t recruit new ones & we can’t buy new tech to increase capacity. Waiting lists are just one factor

Interesting reporting from @peterwalker99.bsky.social on the way Keir Starmer is so viscerally loathed. Public persona plus blunders & u-turns = Truss-like ratings. What could it have been minus those missteps and abandoned pre-election pledges -or McSweeney? www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

This is pretty menacing. Sarah Pochin wrote to Bangor's university student run debating society requesting that she attend to "answer questions from students." When they said "no" Reform rolled all it's tanks onto the lawns and said they'll cut funding to the entire university if they win.

NEW: Rare earths are often in the news, with nations vying over access to rare earth mines. But many countries, including the US, have many or all of the rare earths they need at home. In waste. I wrote about how to harvest rare earths without traditional mining... www.bbc.co.uk/future/artic...

Hard to remember today that Keir Starmer is only the fourth Labour leader to win a majority at a general election (after Attlee, Wilson and Blair).

Actually, if this government is going to follow through on its policies shouldn't an AI LLM be the new Number 10 Chief of Staff?

The only precedents I can think of a PM losing the confidence of the House of Commons on an issue of national security or similar are Chamberlain and Eden. Not good for Starmer. Yes, we have had weak PMs drag on, but not when they have lost the confidence of MPs on national security.

McSweeney going makes no difference to the quoted point below. Starmer has lost the confidence of the House of Commons on a matter of national security. It is difficult to see any PM surviving that easily. And now there's the Mandeson document disclosure exercise over which he has no control.

The thing with everyone having a substack is not just that the market couldn’t work but you don’t want everything to be personality driven. You want a space for reporters not to be the story. Like how is the pipeline for expert commentators going to grow anyway?

Here is a list of reasons why some of my hearings and trials this year have been delayed and kicked off into the long grass, stuck in our record court backlog. Serious allegations which will now be tried *years* after the event. 🧵👇

one of the coolest things about ChatGPT is how you can actually just never use it. you can fill your whole entire life with simply not once using it. it's incredible.

It beggars belief that Labour are taxing universities’ most lucrative revenue streams at a time when three quarters of them are in the red

Have been thinking about “immigration has been tearing this country apart.” Surely I’m not the only person to think that it isn’t true, but inflamed rhetoric about immigration by politicians is what is tearing this country apart and so statements like that only makes it worse.

Can we go back to the days when politicians said that they really wanted to help people but it’s very hard and takes time, rather than saying that they want to hurt people and can do it quickly?

‘Government sources said rules that mean most asylum seekers are not allowed to have jobs will not change.’ It’s absurd that the govt chooses to continue with a rule that puts asylum seekers in a situation of dependency, then attacks then for needing ‘handouts’ www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Interesting to see so many great British patriots right now begging an American president to bankrupt one of Britain’s last remaining truly national institutions.

With the ending of permanent asylum, taxes on foreign students, two U-turns on income tax, a refusal to listen to business concerns about hiring costs, again I ask ‘who are Labour for?’ What is the vision underlying all these choices other than responding to last week’s polls?

Thinking about my own father, who arrived in 1946 with the Free Polish Army - when would Labour have sent him back to communist Poland? How could he have done anything to build a life and have children in the UK if he had had to beg to stay every two years? Disgusting. www.bbc.com/news/article...

the video goes on and on about illegal immigration and yet the new proposal will target legal migration by confirmed refugees

When asylum seekers are demonised I feel the need to point out that people like me are the children of asylum seekers (in my case my father came to England on the Kindertransport and my mother’s family fled pograms in Poland and Ukraine). Go home when safe? Hmmmmmmm….

The main thrust of the proposal is about what should happen those who the UK government agrees have a valid claim for protection under UK and international law once they have been here 2-3 years (and 4-6 years and 6-9 years). The effects on integration are as/more important as on arrivals

If we accept someone is a genuine refugee and they build a life here, perhaps have children born here, what is the advantage to us of expelling them once we’ve persuaded ourselves that their country of origin is safe?

"The era of permanent protection is over" Is this Labour government really saying it was wrong in principle to let these refugees of the last 75 years to stay, settle and become British - and they believe that should NEVER happen again in principle or practice? www.youtube.com/watch?v=TiuR...

Is the Telegraph finally acknowledging that Thatcher wrecked British society?

Chasing the xenophobic vote has destroyed the Conservative Party, why would Labour think it will work for them?

Every single time I think we’ve hit rock bottom with this government, down we go. Never felt so betrayed by those who should at least know what power is for. I can just about take the incompetence, but the fumbling performative callousness cuts me deep. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

If you're a member of the National Trust remember to vote for council members by midnight tonight. Use the Quick Vote option. Entryist pressure group Reform Trust is trying to seize control. Stop them Voting is quick and easy if your membership card is at hand secure.cesvotes.com/V3-3-0/nt25/...

Calling English a 'rip-off degree' is one of the most blatant exhibitions of personal barbarism I've ever seen. You've demonstrated nothing but the poverty of your own mind.

My rule of thumb is that a protest is not newsworthy if it draws a smaller crowd then I would get at a Lib Dem event for a session titled 'Why the British Standard for letterboxes is a failure'. But looking at the news, I see my rule of thumb is once again failing.