Cannot shake the idea that this is training specifically for those AHPs who are of short stature and/or vulnerable somehow.

And more datapoints that in the America Crisis era the Europeans should have more confidence about the resilience of the EU and worry a lot more about the stability of the US

People forget so quickly. For all the overdone talk of European decline, the EU basically integrated post-Communist states and societies over the past two decades. Remarkable. Ordoliberalism tripped it up in the 2010s but when the AI boom turns to bust in the US things will look different.

Ministerial efforts to wrest control over a vitally important component of how NICE works is a threat to its existence according to one the agency's founding directors. www.hsj.co.uk/finance-and-...

Latest monthly visa application figures are out. Skilled workers? Still dropping. Health & care workers? Still dropping. Slow clap.

On point: as.ft.com/r/e8bf4590-6... Paramount’s Warner Bros bid draws Gulf investors into rare alliance

😬

Interesting. The VPAG repayment rate will go down to 14.5% in 2026, but not due to capping instead from "a slowdown in the growth of NHS use of newer medicines across 2025". www.abpi.org.uk/media/news/2...

Whenever deprivation of citizenship rears up, it's worth noting it's been a discrete policy of successive governments albeit under more limited circumstances than what's being discussed here. Read more from @tbij.bsky.social's 10 year old project: www.thebureauinvestigates.com/projects/cou...

The Irish HSE is offering victims of its 2021 ransomware attack €750 in compensation. An additional sum of €650 per person for legal costs is also being offered by the HSE. h/t @brianhonan.bsky.social www.independent.ie/business/tec...

I've written about the Farage antisemitism allegations - and my dismay at the behaviour of some who, now that the accused is more to their political liking, seem keen to sweep this all under the carpet. www.jewishnews.co.uk/farages-scho...

The number of global deaths of children under-5 is projected to increase this year (from 4.6m to 4.8m) for the first time this century. (FT) The price of aid cuts.

FOR THE LOVE OF GOD USE HYPHENS

Funding/support from American oligarchs is a FAR more significant threat to British democracy than that from the Kremlin, which has a. a fraction of their cash and b. approximately zero popularity.

A lot of people don't realise the UK right-wing grifting circuit promises neither the riches nor longevity of the US one.

*Exactly* right. (From @rgoodlaw.bsky.social, in an explainer by @charliesavage.bsky.social.) www.nytimes.com/2025/12/04/u...

GB News now broadcasting calls to remove the ethnic minority MPs from parliament

Back in the day we could have had a 12-part podcast series on the subject. But now we’ll end up with two old farts prattling into mics paid for by Global or Gary Lineker. Oh well.

Presumably, when told, they’re thrilled about the new homes, useful civic amenity, and spaces for creative and lucrative businesses coming to their neighbourhood!

The Prime Minister and Home Secretary want to drive net migration lower than net 205k. The Chancellor could reduce borrowing £7.4 billion/year in 2029/30 using the OBR projection that it will return to net 340k later in the parliament obr.uk/box/the-impa...

He's not an MP. So it's not so much 'defecting' as 'changing a direct debit'.

The important bit for those in the UK who keep throwing around Customs Union with the EU... Brussels red lines are that goods won't move any more freely than people or the UK's financial contributions (unless it suits the EU to cherry-pick)

Maybe reconsider dressing slightly like a magician while doing the imaginary tits.

“We can create [insert public good] but it’ll cost money we don’t want to spend” does rather sum up everything right now.

Fewer workers. Fewer international students. More people leaving. A "step in the right direction" according to the PM. Impossible to take PM/govt seriously on growth if they are deliberately reducing it (and making the fiscal position worse) *as a matter of policy*. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

To quote the great thinker of our time, Bender Bending Rodriguez, “we’re boned”.

i mean not to prejudge this, but the cyber expert is likely to say 'yeah you hit publish, mate'

Good morning to Brazilian reporter Manuela Borges, who’s been waiting eleven years for this petty moment. ❤️ 🇧🇷

"having changed my mind about the OBR, my internship there has begun smoothly"

HYPNOBOOBS JOKE AT THE DESPATCH BOX

Can we have a new role alongside the Local Democracy Reporter, a Local Court Reporter? To supplement local paper/broadcast court reporting capacity, or fill in where there is none. If juries go then I have a strong feeling we'll need more people in there keeping tabs on goings on.

Finally it's here!

Ireland can’t receive messages from other country’s security services because it doesn’t have secure communications.

11 days apart. Brutal.

When they say crypto food delivery idea, do they mean crypto as in the old meaning? As in, secret or hidden. Delivery vans masquerading as FBI vehicles, teams of "agents" leaving noodles at dead drops in parks. Oh wait, maybe they tried to invent the Milk Tray Man?!

Times headline: ‘BBC failing to tackle systemic bias, says author of leaked memo’. In fact, when asked by MPs, this man, Michael Prescott, said he didn’t believe the BBC was institutionally biased. The Times failed to quote that, in an article about the issue of truthful reporting.

Watching a cloud bank descend towards the roof ridge of terrace opposite, slowly shutting out the last of the daylight and creating an early dusk. Bodes ill. Suspect Duncan's horses will be eating each other before long.

For the love of God can we please stop all this and finally start playing some cricket! www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricke...

When I arrive at the party

Such an odd picture. New Chapter 🤝 Welcome to Nvidia

Starmer’s anti-asylum policies show how utterly clueless he is about the right-wing media’s role in politics. He’s trying to fix a “problem” contrived by Farage, GB News and The Telegraph. He’ll never win, because ultimately he’s fighting a ghost – he’s fighting something that doesn’t really exist

This is reaching Truss-like levels of political insanity. The PLP needs to take action.

The French are coming! The French are coming!

AA Milne: W Michael Bond: L

Extraordinary day and historic for the wrong reasons - a cyber attack featured in the GDP figures

Sadly not a nice new plane for the trust's airborne division.

its 9 am and so far today we have learned that jeffrey epstein was advised to blackmail donald trump who spent lots of alone time with children at epsteins house

"Here's what my misreading a menu and ordering the wrong thing at a bistro in Paris tells us about the decline of the French Republic." Only on substack. Like and subscribe.

The UK government will get no acknowledgement from its left-wing critics that it is standing up the Trump Administration here and doing absolutely the right thing. If we had a Reform/Tory government this would not be happening.