For the second day, the BBC are running a story that presents itself as providing evidence of endemic abuse of the asylum system based on seemingly a single encounter with someone who is neither a lawyer nor a registered immigration adviser. Words fail. This is reprehensibly irresponsible.

Trans people's lives: changed for the worse. The vast majority of cis people: unchanged The small minority who have built their personalities around hating trans people: get to enjoy trans people's suffering.

Ironically the BBC stumbled on a really important story: Desperate asylum seekers being forced to turn to fraudulent fee-charging “advisors” to navigate a system that is intentionally impossibly baroque and from which all sources of free advice have been removed. But no: they chose Fake Gay Panic.

The BBC undercover investigation into false immigration claims is deeply irresponsible journalism. It does not highlight that exploitation by unregulated advisors occurs because legal aid was cut and the system is insane to navigate.

This is what we need. Both as a specific policy, and as the general attitude of politicians towards the rich.

Fascinating how the BBC has manufactured a scare story about asylum seekers and LGBTQ people, and then published the Home Secretary's response to it, during the Restricted Period of an election campaign.

NHS staff have been told they will lose their jobs if they keep criticising US spy software firm Palantir by @skwawkbox.org

BREAKING: The U.S. bishops’ Committee on Doctrine just issued a formal statement defending Pope Leo XIV's teaching authority on just war doctrine — less than twelve hours after JD Vance told a Turning Point USA crowd the pope should “be careful” talking theology. This is a serious escalation.

Hungary's prime minister elect announcing that Orbán was funding CPAC and other Trump-related political activities (also Heritage Foundation's Project 2025), and this will now end.

Official NHS transgender policy:

Have you complained to the BBC enough lately?

It's a Papal DORK TOWER TUESDAY! New strip up now at the Mothership! www.dorktower.com/2026/04/13/1... Repost/Reblog/Repet, please and blessed be!

People (both American and otherwise) trashing all American chocolate on the basis of Hershey's need to be aware that Ghirardelli exists and is in a much higher league.

This page confirms that LGBT+ Labour Scotland remains an official affiliate of Scottish Labour. But its website has been shut down, it appears to have no currently serving officers, and it hasn't made any public statements for nearly three years. So that's shit. scottishlabour.org.uk/about/affili...

Not only will Labour's hostile and inhumane immigration policies not provide the savings they claim, but they are also likely to create such massive external costs, including losses to key sectors and drops in income for the treasury as to crash the economy. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

Every candidate for Scottish Labour is running on an explicit platform of trans segregation, even the ones you like, do not vote for a single one of them

You absolutely do not have to hand it to Georgia Meloni - she's terrible - but she is at least sufficiently connected to reality to assert firmly that when the Pope calls for peace, he is absolutely doing the job that a billion people expect him to.

FUCKING LEAVE SUBSTACK NO SHIT THEY SUPPORT NAZIS IF YOU BIG PUBS LEFT SUBSTACK THEY WOULD HAVE LESS $$ FFS a lot of us already made the leap because we believe that fighting fascism is more important than doing the easy thing and complaining about it hey support NAZI-FREE liberatory writing:

You forgot: Head of the religion he converted to *and is hawking a new book about* clearly hates his guts Despairing lack of good upholstery at VP residence

Just checked and this is real - Scottish Labour’s manifesto refers to trans people using slurs and commits to a policy of explicit segregation in public life

Anyone campaigning for this manifesto, to elect candidates who are bound to implement this manifesto, cannot call themselves an ally to the LGBTQ+ community. This is a segregationist manifesto. Electing candidates on this platform is doing harm to our community. It's that simple.

With enormous regret, SLAB is today advising supporters not to vote for ANY Scottish Labour candidate in this election. There are several pro-trans Labour candidates standing on 7 May, but a vote for them would now sadly be an endorsement of explicit transphobia. #NoVotesLabourInMay #TransRightsNow

United_Left_Party_final_v3(final)_v2.2_really_final_use_this_one.docx

The wealthiest 1% own 50% of stocks and the top 10% own 87%, per Federal Reserve. The bottom 50% of Americans owns only 1%, but we hear about the stock market constantly in media (even NPR and MS NOW). Seems like we could hear more about the opportunity costs of not providing universal health care.

i don’t want my appliances to be smart or connect to the internet. i want them to do one mechanical task for 100 years

One of the key things to know if you're ever faced with anyone trying to tell you ABA is evidence-based

🚨🎉 The Green Party BEATS Reform!!! 😮 Greens came fourth here last year. 💚 Proving once again that Greens can win anywhere. 🙌🏽 Labour tanking and Greens beating Reform! 👉🏽 Join.greenparty.org.uk

"To put it bluntly, an X post today receives less than 3% of the views a single tweet delivered seven years ago." If you think it is necessary to be on Twitter to communicate your fact-based worldview, the reality is that worldview is being smothered.

Frightening Starmer is just a happy side effect!

There have been more "World"cons in the state of California than in the whole of Europe, and as many in Glasgow as in the whole southern hemisphere. Due to the 2020 one being online, WorldCon has also never been out of N America two years running.

I wonder what chats he had with granddad Oswald Mosley.

So just spitballing, but has anyone in church-y land ever done an asynchronous formation class? I'm thinking like, a private bulletin board where people can comment throughout the week on say a chapter of a book, and reply to other people's comments? Anyone done something like this? ⚓

The last 24 hours have shown what many have said for a long time. Britain's role as an accomplice to Trump's America must end. We must urgently decouple from a rogue US & seek security with allies closer to home. That starts with suspension of the US bombers on British soil.

Forced forgiveness is an an additional harm against the victim / survivor and a convenient way for the harmdoer to maintain the status quo

If you let them ban porn, they will call you pornographic when they ban you.

#tinyjoys A friend found me some KfP whole wheat matzoh, even though Passover started days ago. (For some reason most of the grocery stores don't understand that you have to eat for the whole week and disappear the Passover section the first day.)

An outlier, no doubt, but still remarkable, and along with other polls, showing a clear direction of travel. Green surge not over. The variance in Green share in different polls is very striking, some showing them nearer 11-13%. Wonder what the differences in methodologies are to produce this

In any event, the motive we impute to Bede for speculating is secondary to the fact that he *did* speculate, and admits to having done so.

The joy, the JOY of finding that the Chortlemuffin Effect has been transposed to bsky

Your regular reminder that dehumanizing the people who are dehumanizing others isn’t how we’re gonna get to liberation. We have to live into the world we want to create.

Welcome back, #headlinesthatsoundlikecrypticcrosswordclues

As well as being almost Easter, it’s also the first day of Passover, so I thought I’d post my flourless Apple and Almond Cake! www.nigella.com/recipes/appl...

Trans rights are human rights. #transdayofvisibility

Hi, on this #TDOV, I’m Rachel … the first out trans priest in a senior role in the Church of England. I am also a writer, award-winning poet and theologian, and a broadcaster. Being trans is great, ordinary, and frankly not the most interesting thing about me. I love being me! #TransDayOfVisibility

"...other than J. D. Vance" Environmental storytelling, or something.

Organizations such as ILGA-Europe recently reclassified the UK as having "no functioning legal or administrative process for legal gender recognition." This places the UK alongside countries like Hungary and Russia in European rights rankings. rainbowmap.ilga-europe.org/categories/l...

"This book has 42-carat THRILLS in it. It fairly BURBLES. Ask the man at the counter what HE thinks of it! He's seen Janice Meredith faded to a mauve magenta. He's dead wise"

can we make this the new #1 most blocked account pls

Gender-affirming healthcare is hands-down the most effective way to prevent death by suicide in LGBTQ+ youth. By a mile. (This healthcare includes therapy, because hot take #2 is that therapy is healthcare.)

Crime in the United States has dropped immensely in the last 35 years