And here in Preston we see Transgender Jones making her first attempts at transition. Nobody is going to deadname her, right?

Oh god the Christmas Markets are now here in Manchester. Prepare yourselves for an onslaught of tourists. I'll have to review them at some point when they're not absolutely swamped. 🤣 The last few years have been disappointing so let's hope that this year they're a bit better.

It's all fucked at Manchester Piccadilly.

Overhead line issues at Platform 13 and 14 at Piccadilly, everything to Blackpool North has been cancelled. I'm not giving up 🤣

Looks like the train network has stopped. Nothing is moving.

Things are being cancelled again at Manchester Piccadilly.

Seems to be mostly delays now at Manchester Piccadilly.

Track seems to be fucked around St Peter's. Never have I seen a more defeated tram driver.

Seems that anything going up to Wigan is fucked due to a line obstruction and disruption is continuing at Victoria. Manchester Piccadilly services seem to be coming back up. Tram driver is now moving the track switches manually, he's literally jumped out of the tram. Nightmare.

Looks like trams are being diverted to ensure service on the Victoria line and things are still going.

The tram at Martinscroft has just gone out of service and has fucked up the Victoria line. Ticket acceptance on local buses in place. DO NOT TRAVEL UNLESS ESSENTIAL.

I'm currently going up north. The tram just lost lights for a minute and was stopped completely. Almost all the trains have been cancelled. We're now going again, but my god it's like this is a horror movie. If I don't reply later today assume I've been blown away by the wind. 🤣 DO NOT TRAVEL.

Bit windy innit.

Here's another FOIA, this time looking into the quality of GMMH services. www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/gmmh...

I have just seen the Wythenshawe hospital footage. I will be taking a few days' break from journalism and the website. I am contacting a solicitor first thing tomorrow. I am not ok. I am deeply, deeply fucked by what I just saw unfold. I am being supported by a lot of friends at this time.

I know people that were getting the healthcare they needed at the Tavistock Clinic before Emily Maitlis got it closed down. And now they're not getting any at all.

The Olympics have a long and deep seated history of racism, sexism, and homophobia, and in ancient Greek times only men were allowed to participate. Trans womens' achievements in sport are actually more impressive than cisgender athletes' as any win would come in spite of institutional transphobia.

Imagine training all your life for a sport you love, only to be punished due to transphobic political wankery. The Olympics should be a celebration of human achievement first & foremost. Let's be honest, these bans are more about pleasing sponsors and chasing money, rather than fair competition.

Additionally, it is unacceptable that at this point I've had to send my entire mental health medical record to Maximus so that they call off the assessment. This process has been intrusive and invaded my privacy. I shouldn't have to expose every difficulty to this level to get financial assistance.

The Indigo gender clinic has formally accepted my complaint regarding prescribing progesterone, deadline is 20th January & I'll get an email from the Chief Executive. It should be your choice if you take progesterone or not. That's why I made the complaint so we don't have to DIY from the internet.

It has come to my attention that I now have over 1,000 followers on Bluesky. Thank you all for believing in me and my madness. I'm surrounded by a team of queers who are now working with me on the new website. Let us not forget today is also Polish Remembrance Day. War is a terrible, awful thing.

www.queerloveriot.com/p/the-direct... I don't think this comes as a surprise to anyone. We have seen the BBC platform the far-right constantly & show it as legitimate public discussion. I explore how far journalism has fallen as a profession, and how the working class have been shut out from it.

I just ate too much cheese. I'm suffering.

It's 3:28am, it'll get published later today. To give a bit of a sneak peak, in this article I talk about the downfall of the mainstream media, and why it has failed in light of threats such as Reform, and the far-right. This one comes out of frustration, with hopes that we can turn things around.

One more Substack article out tonight, and that'll be it until the website's done in a few days. Been through some very difficult times lately but things should get better from this point.

For crying out loud, I have told the ambulance service to cancel the ambulance several hours ago, and I just got yet another call. The DWP has now wasted the time of one NHS GP and THREE ambulance dispatchers. I think the welfare cuts could be made by cutting out DWP's management. I'm 25, not 12.

Also, to give an update on the DWP saga regarding myself, at this point my GP has intervened and will be writing a detailed letter to the DWP to stop the insanity as she can clearly see that I'm unwell because of it. I really hope I can soon get back to not writing about my bloody JCP appointments.

Gonna work on more QLR stuff for website & I have been invited to the Wythenshawe Central Network meetings about regeneration but also to have a chat. I'm super excited! It will be wonderful to see people being proud about their local area. There's more to Wythenshawe than being an overflow estate.

I've bought John Pring's excellent book on benefit claimant deaths. www.plutobooks.com/product/the-... My plan is to quote the book in future JCP appointments. I wonder if the DWP will stop the useless appointments as a result? Everybody on UC should do this. It'll lead to change in the system.

I'm basically now expected to wait for two weeks for the assessment, where they haven't told me what extra information they need & will be ascertaining my invisible disabilities over the phone. Basically, at this point, I'm waiting for a rejection, because what is the point of the assessment here?

Maximus has now decided, based on the evidence presented to them for my Work Capability Assessment, that I need a telephone assessment, as it's not enough! I have made yet another complaint. I am currently attempting to not go berserk, and I will now be attaching every medical file I have by email.

For readers who are not familiar with the Wythenshawe Hospital saga: www.queerloveriot.com/p/an-open-le... I got banned and almost arrested by the GMP thanks to Wythenshawe Hospital for having an allergic reaction & a PTSD flashback simultaneously. I'm now fighting to see the actual CCTV footage.

The Wythenshawe Hospital Head of Trust Security has realised that if he let me use a toilet at the hospital or god forbid, I had a sudden medical emergency, this would be too much of a security risk. We're now meeting at MRI. This ban is absolutely farcical & is now resulting in complete stupidity.

I've made a formal complaint to the Indigo Gender Clinic about not prescribing progesterone and I have made this complaint based in the Human Rights Act 1998, as well as the NICE guidelines, and the NHS Constitution. ✉️ View the letter below & send your own to Indigo: drive.proton.me/urls/KWQMHB8...

when you spend five days straight inside a windowless office doing software development

www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopula... New data from ONS. 53.4% of trans people having experienced child abuse doesn't surprise me in the slightest, with similar numbers for gay, lesbian & bisexual individuals. In other words this would mean half of any room of queers would have experienced child abuse.

Of course, shout out to @mikekanemp.bsky.social for being absolutely useless in my situation as I didn't even get an auto-reply to my email. If he can't even solve this issue which would have been a simple conversation with the DWP, then you start wondering what the hell he's doing for Wythenshawe.

To give you an idea the manager who finally intervened at the Sensitive team at Maximus was shocked, gave me her work number & was entirely unsurprised I wanted to complain further with the DWP. The gov.uk page needs to be far clearer on how it interacts with government procedures. I'll email them.

And it only took ten phone calls to Maximus, a breakdown and a complaint to the Jobcentre, seventeen emails to the Maximus Head Office, and emailing a fucking journalist and my MP to finally have to look over my UC file tomorrow. I'm not satisfied. I want there to be training for this situation.

So for future reference, if anyone finds themselves in a crazy situation where neither the Jobcentre or the assessment provider can see your UC health claim due to a Gender Recognition Certificate, you call HMRC's Special Section D to unrestrict your DWP record temporarily to avoid an extended wait.

Several months after being banned from Wythenshawe Hospital and being told that I would need to go to MRI to view the security footage; Wythenshawe Hospital has decided that I can now go into their building to view it. Ridiculous. Let's hope I don't get arrested due to the Head of Trust Security.

Another sneak peak at the development efforts of the reading experience on the new Queer Love Riot website. It'll be done in a few days, and will provide an infinitely better place to read than Substack! Those already on my Substack mailing list will be automatically migrated to the new website.

I tried calling the Gender Recognition Team at the DWP, but this a) leads me to only pension-only GRC queries, and b) leads me straight to voicemail. My FOIA about WCAs and GRCs should be interesting, as it will likely reveal their complete lack of process. www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/grc_...

Call #9 to the assessment provider for my disability benefits (WCA), Maximus, has revealed a call centre agent who has said the truth. There's only a handful of people working on sensitive cases. This means that trans people get indirectly discriminated on as these cases don't get enough assessors.

I sometimes have chats with NHS managers about how to “restore trust” and it’s amazing how poorly they react to the suggestion that people who harm patients should lose their jobs.

NHS Sussex are forcibly detransitioning trans people. These patients need full restoration of their healthcare, and everyone involved in doing this needs to be sacked.

Progress on the Queer Love Riot site. I think it looks pretty great.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... No matter how it's spun, the Trump administration is preparing for war. Just because China and Russia are testing their weapons, doesn't mean you get to start World War 3. We have to stop this. We need Republicans to intervene, and follow the example of John McCain.

🔴Nigel Farage Says Minimum Wage Should Be Cut for Young People The Reform leader said cutting the minimum wage for young people would boost business, as he attacked plans to raise taxes on the wealthy bylinetimes.com/2025/11/03/n...

A great example of how a change in case definition can result in a substantially different measured reality. It makes sense to take account of housing costs when measuring poverty levels. www.theguardian.com/society/2025...