What was BadEnoch saying about "cultures that don't respect women"?

Casual reminder that the myth of “pulling yourself up by your bootstraps” is a cruel hoax designed to convince poor people from all walks of life that the injustices they face are a result of their own actions, rather than an oppressive system rigged against them.

Adding to this of course is problem that right wing brains are currently being boiled in racist Twitter frog sauce, with many noisy and not very astute right wing politicians, journos think tankers etc genuinely seeming to think that the median voter is Tommy Robinson adjacent on race. They aren’t.

This is something that more healthcare professionals need to understand. Neurodivergent people often present with very different symptoms, body language and descriptions or pain compared to neurotypical patients. This often leads to important diagnoses getting overlooked or dismissed.

Physical pain and autism don’t always mix the way people expect. For many autistic adults, it’s not that pain is worse, it’s that it’s processed differently. And that changes everything. 1/6

Who would have thought that trusts cutting costs by replacing health professionals by less experienced staff with lower qualifications would have negative consequences for patients? See also: GPs, physiotherapists, consultants, etc etc etc

The main thing to conclude from this Labour strategy to compare the Greens to Reform is that they don’t understand the threat that Reform pose. They’re not bothered by fascism.

The answer to this seems reasonably obvious....

Leaving aside the comedy value of an MP in Starmer's Labour Party complaining about division, this is also just nonsense. The interests of the extremely rich are at odds with those of the rest of the population. Objectively. The division is real, material, structural. You can't just wish it away.

I feel similarly. I think an essential prerequisite to acceptably safe assisted dying laws is to make high quality palliative & social care accessible to everyone and free at the point of use. Anything short of this risks people feeling coerced into ending their lives to avoid being a "burden".

Twice in one weekend? 2025, you are spoiling us. Bread might be expensive, but at least the circuses are delivering.

The thing I've always appreciated about combat sports - I think one of the things that drew me to it - is that sooner or later bullshit bumps hard up against reality. You really do have to actually put your money where your mouth is. In politics that's just not the case, which is a terrible shame.

Green switchers: “We don’t think Labour listens to us or cares about progressive priorities” Labour: “Youse are just like Farage” Also Labour: bsky.app/profile/nwyl...

There's a powerful illustration here regarding "influencers" vs. "experts".

According to the Equality Trust, unelected membership of the Lords has expanded from 676 to 803 in the past 20 years – the same period that political donations above £250,000 have jumped from £7.6m to more than £47m. buff.ly/fIca6aK

At some point you have to accept that Labour isn't "combatting Reform" they are actively enabling Reform's growth by embedding Reform's narrative in the public consciousness, and setting the precedent for a potential Reform government to go even further.

There's a whole thing in internet culture of "other people - whose lives, I assume, are shaped roughly like my own - should-" that feels like it's become increasingly prevalent the last few years

I've just been blocked for pointing out that Labour are "cutting waiting lists" by incentivising NHS trusts to take people off waiting lists or deny them treatment in the first place. So I'll just point out that of my friends who liked this post, at least 7 are healthcare professionals in the NHS.

UK public has paid £200bn to shareholders of key industries since privatisation. In public ownership that would have gone into infrastructure, lower bills. Privatisation delivered low investment, high bills, no tax on dividends to foreign investors. No end to nightmare without public ownership.

Video clip of Natasha Devon raising concerns about Simon Wessely being involved in the government’s ADHD review. She says it feels like a foregone conclusion because Wessely has already made comments about young people “overdiagnosing” their own mental health.

Why should young people participate in an economy that offers them no hope for the future? The inter-generational bargain that kept British capitalism afloat has collapsed - and Labour is too busy listening to corporate lobbyists to do anything about it. graceblakeley.substack.com/p/generation...

Psychiatrist Penelope Campling implores us to acknowledge how our mental health is so utterly bound up with our social and material circumstances. Wes Streeting and all in government need to acknowledge this. midpsy.uk/2025/12/04/m...

So Labour can moan about Greens being unrealistic as much as they want, but who is the bigger fantasist: the people who know the house is on fire and something radical is needed? Or the people saying "this is fine" as the roof falls in?

If you believe this, I've got a Brexit to sell you.

Wait... Starmer "never worried about the future of our country under a Tory government"...?!? Where has he been for the last ten years?

A talk I gave earlier this year has, unfortunately, become relevant again this week so I've published it here. open.substack.com/pub/neurodiv...

Also: talking about MH symptoms can be hard. We know a large proportion of GPs are likely to be unsympathetic or not believe us. Having to play locum roulette with who you get to disclose your (say) trauma history to put a LOT of people off seeking help. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Lots of things we seek healthcare for are normal reactions to abnormal situations. Like falling downstairs. A broken leg can be a normal response when you're exposed to forces that exceed your body's safe operating limits. That doesn't mean you don't need healthcare. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

'Life being stressful is not an illness' - technically speaking neither is breathing in coal dust for a 12 hour shift but we still recognise blacklung as an illness. Life in a harmful environment makes you ill and people who don't know that shouldn't be doctors.

'There is growing evidence that it is cost-effective for the NHS to provide welfare advice and thereby help maximise people’s incomes.' In her latest blog - Julia Cream looks at the ways maximising people's incomes, could help reduce costs for the NHS. https://bit.ly/3KtQ4iu

If only we could have seen this coming.... 🙄

Clearly we have a crisis of overdiagnosis of eye problems requiring expensive and life long medical intervention (glasses). We need to crack down on Specsavers.

Facial recognition, scrapping juries, and mandatory digital ID. This Labour Government is creating a toolkit for the far-right. The EU has already put strong controls on this intrusive technology, MPs must pass legislation to do the same. www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crim...

Really terrific piece by @joxley.jmoxley.co.uk this. Poses really difficult questions for governments of left and right about how provision works:

I love this piece. ❤️ As a neurodivergent healthcare professional, I speak to so many neurodivergent people who have been harmed by the biases baked into our healthcare system, and its increasing inaccessibility to brains that feel the world differently from the norm.

The last 25 years has seen a perpetual goldilocks dance in policy and perception around mental ill-health. Under diagnosis and lack of support is seen as a scandal until the costs of treating this seriously are manifest, then it's 'there's too much, there must be mistakes somewhere in counting'

Always amused (not amused) at how regularly the idea that there is a 'right' amount of mental ill-health in British society and that we must somehow return there. Declaring the correct amount of mental ill-health based on what you are prepared to pay to mitigate its effects isn't how reduction works

Streeting to next launch inquiry into “over-diagnosis” of left-handedness. “Never used to be like this,” he insists.

Migrants, trans and non-binary individuals, disabled individuals, and now neurodivergent individuals. Does Labour have a check list of which already marginalised and vulnerable groups they will go after on any particular day?

Can we talk about the ways in which society is increasingly hostile towards neurodivergent people, and the effect this almost certainly has on driving the numbers of people seeking support?

This is off the top of my head. These sorts of inefficiencies happen on quite literally a daily basis. Everybody in the system knows this. Everyone. Yet what is the government’s diagnosis? “Juries. They are the problem. Get rid of juries.” It is absolutely mind-boggling.

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. 🧵👇

"How could I, a very sensible journalist for a left-leaning publication, have views on a particular subject that are many times more extreme than those held by the Conservative government when it was led by Theresa May? oh and also we should stop kids having smartphones."

I'm hearing criticisms of the end to the two child limit, because it was done just to mollify Labour backbenchers, at a cost of £billions. I remember another govt delivering a referendum on EU membership, just to mollify restive backbenchers. That's costing way, way more... A little perspective?

This is a massively dumb way to fund things. Just fund local government properly through fiscal devolution, council tax reform, and social care reform. Oh, wait, you ducked all of those again....

...if we add up the cost of all the council worker hours wasted on failed applications for the "Treasury Happy Press Release Fund" type gimmicks, I suspect more often than not the net benefit to the country overall will be minimal or negative

The government can stick to this plan, or the government can get re-elected. Unlikely it can do both. Therefore either the government has a death wish or the 27-29 figures are yet another budgetary fairy tale. Remember when this government promised to be serious and not to duck the hard choices?

Oh, PLEASE can we try the coalition of chaos this time around?

Many of you have been hoodwinked or bamboozled into thinking that tax is bad or evil. It’s literally the dues we pay for living in this big clubhouse we call civilization