Enjoying this

Welcome to slot-machine Britain! Our cover this week is on First Past the Post, the voting system that turns multi-party politics into a lottery. Featuring our new modelling of British elections: www.economist.com/interactive/...

The Chancellor missed a lot of opportunities to turn the corner in today's budget. Freezing tax thresholds will hurt families already struggling, Sussex businesses should have been backed, and crucially Brexit damage is still being ignored. My reaction to the budget👇

I'm passionate about working cross-party to achieve a fair voting system with #ProportionalRepresentation so it was a delight to join the Make Votes Matter Sussex stall at Lewes Labour's Ideas Market "Transformations" today. #ProportionalRepresentationNOW

What a busy day! Thanks to everyone who visited our stall to talk about the urgent need for #ProportionalRepresentation in UK elections - including Stella Creasy MP who stopped for a quick chat on the importance of keeping local representation in the voting system. #MakeVotesMatter

Happy to be joining the Make Votes Matter Sussex team for our stall at Lewes Labour's Ideas Market - calling for #ProportionalRepresentationNow!

We're all set up at Lewes Labour's Ideas Market #Transformations. Come and have a chat with us and add your voice to our poster on why we need #ProportionalRepresentationNow !

Want to know why we need #proportionalRepresentationNow #makevotesmatter Come to #lewes town Hall now !

A firework of a flower.

Mast year in Sussex.

Our politics and media have become viciously obsessed with immigration. Farage has made sure of it. And in that obsession, they’ve all lost sight of the people they target. Fellow human beings trying to live and belong somewhere. Shame on everyone responsible for this daily inhumanity (Letter,Times)

IMPORTANT 🧵 We've been seeing how RFK Jr & anti-vax lobby has been steadily and effectively reducing access to vaccines in the US. But it could happen in UK too. It's a threat worth considering given Malhotra's speech at Reform conf & big overlap between anti-vax and RW populsim. Read on! 1/11

Right now, Donald Trump is at a lavish banquet at Windsor Castle, while in Gaza a genocide is unfolding. He alone can stop the assault on Gaza City, end the aid blockade and secure the release of hostages - Keir Starmer must make that clear to him before this visit ends.

Over 35,000 women were hospitalised with HG in 2023/24 according to Pregnancy Sickness Support with up to 2,000 pregnancies being terminated due to inadequate care. Yet, the govt is not including HG in its Maternal Safety Review - I am pressing them to change this absurd decision. 5/6

Hyperemesis gravidarum (HG) is extreme pregnancy sickness. It is hugely debilitating and misunderstood. My partner and I spoke about our own experience following my question on it to the Prime minister. It is time for change. 🧵1/6 www.thetimes.com/article/5e39...

A hosepipe ban has started in Mid Sussex — yet leaks have been running for months in places like Chanctonbury Road in Burgess Hill. I spoke to ITV Meridian about why South East Water must act 📺 Watch the clip: www.itv.com/news/meridia...

Our brains love the colour gradation in rainbows, maybe due to our ancestors searching for sources of water. Looking at plants helps us recover from stress & looking at something we think is beautiful causes dopamine release. I've posted this photo to alter your brain biochemistry for the better 🌿

Quick COVID update from me discussing latest variants and prospects for summer here. open.substack.com/pub/christin...

The Beaker People are a warning from history that in thousands of years’ time we’ll be known as The Plastic Bottle People

A reminder that when the Sycamore Gap tree was cut down people immediately started blaming immigrants and teenagers... It was neither. It was two white Englishmen in their 30s.

“We’re now the biggest APPG in Parliament and the public supports our call for a National Commission for Electoral Reform by a margin of five to one. The government should listen and act.” 💬 @alexsobel.co.uk, Chair of @appgfairelections.bsky.social 🧵 1/3 www.politics.co.uk/news/2025/05...

1. Because this issue is critical, but has received remarkably little coverage, here's a thread pulling out the key themes from my article yesterday, on the Planning and Infrastructure Bill, which puts decades of environmental protections to the torch. 🧵 www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

"The government’s planning and infrastructure bill is the worst assault on England’s ecosystems in living memory. It erases decades of environmental protections, including legislation we inherited from the EU, which even the Tories promised to uphold." www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

You want to know the truth about why there are so many cases of autism, ADD, ADHD today? It's the same reason why there are more planets and stars today compared to decades ago. You're all caught up now. Leave the kids alone.

The stages in a Donald Trump deal: 1. Lie about something being a problem 2. Do something to "fix" it, which causes an actual problem 3. Say you won't reverse what you've done 4. Reverse what you've done 5. Say "Art of the deal"

"When was the last time you said 'thank you,' Mr. Penguin?"

So the Ammonite Order of architecture exists just enough to get its own Wikipedia page. This is from Gideon Mantell's house Castle Place on Lewes High St, designed by Amon Wilds.

Brexit a key factor in worst UK medicine shortages in four years, report says

Simple and powerful little video

Thousands of people are ditching Tesla. Here’s one of them with a message you can see from space. Location: Black Rock Sands, Wales, UK Led By Donkeys is 100% funded by small donations.

KLAXON 🚨: Indie SAGE has come out of retirement to release a new short report standing up for diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in the sciences! DEI is not just the right thing to do, it *improves* the quality of the science. Please read and share. independentsage.org/wp-content/u... 1/2

It’s a very good point.

This stance is for the birds. Ignoring the scale of US and global shifts is a threat to our own national interest. Trump’s evolving oligarchy is hostile to UK values—our future lies with Europe.

🇺🇸🇪🇺🇬🇧London, US Embassy

European leaders are stepping forward to tonight to show their support for President Zelensky 👏

Absolutely @eddavey.libdems.org.uk

Dear Volodymyr Zelenskyy, dear Ukrainian friends, you are not alone.

Asked if he still thinks Zelensky is a dictator Trump replies “Did I say that? I can’t believe I said that” Yes you did👇

"The Beam" Sunset tonight in Glastonbury.

The US just voted alongside Russia, Belarus and North Korea against a UN resolution to support Ukraine. This is a wake-up call for all those cheerleading Trump in our country.

This is how our government has been corrupted:  1) Donors give huge sums to elect politicians to office.  2) Elected officials rewrite the rules in the donors' favor.  3) Donors make a huge profit.  4) Repeat. For the sake of democracy, we must get Big Money out of politics.

This is exactly why we need to make @bsky.app the biggest social media platform on the planet. We need to do it at pace and with urgency. We need share the truth & the facts far & wide - & then, at the earliest opportunity, send those truth twisting & lying charlatans, wherever we find them, packing

🧵"So this is how liberty dies..." Trump’s first 3 weeks have been a relentless flood of actions. It's incredibly hard to keep up. I’ve gone through 69 actions & mapped out the pattern - showing how they fall within 5 broad domains consistent with authoritarian states 1/9

Today we've been out hearing from Uckfield voters disappointed at the cancellation of county council elections for East Sussex. With @benedictdempsey.bsky.social @tim-murray.bsky.social @zel-ouse.bsky.social @kwrightwrites.bsky.social

Good to be getting those steps in, campaigning for the #LibDems in Uckfield today! With @benedictdempsey.bsky.social, @tim-murray.bsky.social and @zel-ouse.bsky.social 🔶

Now is not the time to take a step back on mental health. We do not believe that the government will deliver on its health and growth missions without a transformative mental health plan that improves the speed and quality of care and tackles the root of the country’s growing mental health needs.

Incredible from Bishop Budde: "We don't have to go to the highest extremes of contempt when we are in a position of disagreement. I think if we could get that back as a country, we would go a long way in being able to work together to address the many problems that we face." ~AA @maddow.msnbc.com

They have finally admitted to not just illegality, but that the past 10 years have been Murdoch's papers essentially gaslighting victims and the public. Leveson 2 is needed now!

🚨 "Ministers have rejected calls for the UK to move closer to the EU in order to boost economic growth, insisting that Brexit has brought “opportunities” and some benefits for the British economy.” Imagine the shock when they see this

More Britons would rather have the EU than the US as Britain's closest trading partner The EU: 53% (+2 from 2 Mar 2020) The US: 21% (+4) Neither: 7% (-3) yougov.co.uk/topics/inter...