Compare and contrast. NY City Hall and the White House ….

A genuinely big announcement on English devolution from Rachel Reeves today! As we at @instituteforgovernment.org.uk alongside others have argued fiscal devolution was a missing piece of the puzzle in the government's devolution white paper.

NIHR Clinical Lectureship in Primary Care @lshtm.bsky.social Post is open to fully qualified GPs with a PhD and an academic track record. 4 Years of funding to develop your portfolio at one of the UKs leading Public Health and Primary Care research institutions. Apply by 13th April 2026.

🧵1/ Our new @eupha.bsky.social & European Journal of Public Health editorial warns that war in Iran is creating invisible health frontlines, with civilians, health workers, and health systems bearing burden. W/ @tiagocorreia.bsky.social @charlottemar.bsky.social @talbreht.bsky.social & Neil Squires

There’s a real danger that the media promote narrative that victory for extreme right is inevitable across Europe, yet lots of evidence that well led centre left parties are prevail in many places, like Spain here. But not if they copy far right. www.politico.eu/article/pedr...

Another reason to love living in London - the wildlife. Last year a fox raised 5 cubs in our garden. And not just foxes and parrots

There’s basically no way that USAID would have survived Trump/Musk by being a better development agency. A better development agency did not interest them. The same goes for public health: MAHA wouldn’t be deterred by better CDC science, they don’t want CDC science!

The government wouldn't have to make so many u-turns if they stopped to think before rushing ahead with bad decisions. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

No technology can compensate for having blithering imbeciles in charge.

When the UK formally left the EU on 31 January 2020, it stupidly ditched being in the Erasmus+ programme open to all ages and abilities, locking us out of freedom to roam opportunities our peers in EU, like us pre brexit, enjoy. We want that Mobility again.

“Our closest ally”?

Not even the Nazis expressly announced they were committing war crimes. Indeed, at Nuremberg war crimes were denied. But here, openly, the US Secretary for Defense is explicitly admitting to committing war crimes.

Updated quote for this year "They were careless people [Donald & Pete] —they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made" The Great Gatsby

Darren Jones is due to announce a citizens' assembly as part of the government's consultation on digital ID cards What is a citizens' assembly and how have they been used before? See our handy @instituteforgovernment.org.uk explainer ⬇️

This 18-year-old Afghan girl had offers from York and Reading – thanks to Shabana Mahmood, she will now never escape the Taliban | The Independent www.independent.co.uk/news/people/...

There’s a reason for the international rules-based order. Without it, every country needs their own nuclear weapons. (Actually there are lots of other reasons too)

It’s cool that this generation gets to find out the answer to “what would you have done when we started interning the Japanese?” and “what would you have done when we invaded Vietnam?” and “what would you have done in Watergate?” all at the same time.

Breaking: SC newspaper verifies portions of Trump accuser's story. Textbook journalism. Local journalism. Support your local news outlets. www.postandcourier.com/news/epstein...

Our new bird feeder has some visitors

Unlike some others, I strongly support public inquiries (and gave evidence in person to COVID inquiry). But only if we learn from them. We @independentsage.bsky.social showed many COVID failures due to forgetting Philips inquiry into BSE. Now history repeating itself with Chilcot 👇

Please please read this from the archbishop of Chicago www.archchicago.org/statement/-/...

Staff at the nation’s largest Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility have placed bets on which detainee will be the next to die by suicide, according to new reporting from the Associated Press based on 911 calls and detainee accounts.

RUSSIA GETS: -Higher oil prices -Reduced US economic pressure -Bogged down US military -Air defense assets not sent to Ukraine US GETS: -Indefinite war in pursuit of undefined outcome -Weaker economy -Frayed international partnerships -Combat deaths

Much being made of deployment of a US B-1B bomber at RAF Fairford. Maybe worth reflecting on the challenges and cost of actually using it. Text from Wikipedia www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Is anyone asking what is the structure that is coordinating UK and other forces in the Mediterranean and the Gulf? What is the chain of command? Is it a free for all? Or is the US involved?

An excellent thread from my colleague @meganbryer.bsky.social ahead of #IWD2026 this Sunday Lots below including quotes from some of the women who have served as government ministers, reflecting on their time in office

Every time a Labour politician tries to present their party as middle of the road, between extremes of Green and Reform, they make it much more difficult for progressives to support them. Do they have no-one who can interpret polling data?

There seems to be a widespread view that adherence to international law is somehow optional. Reminds me of Russian friends who described their situation as “the law is like a gate in the middle of a field. You can use it if you want but don’t have to”. And we know where that went.

Even before the illegal attack on Iran, I was preparing a talk on how climate change, and especially AMOC collapse, could lead to UK population becoming refugees. Little did I know that some of the most xenophobic Brits would be fleeing Dubai just so soon. Always remember, it could be you

New data from @whoeurope.bsky.social sets out the scale of the challenge we face in tackling Big Tobacco. We in @eupha.bsky.social stand with WHO in urging much stronger action. eupha.org/articles/eup...

Voting opens today for @rcphysicians.bsky.social elections. I am standing for Vice President for Education and Training. It's the first elections where Members will also be able to vote. Please encourage all eligible to exercise their franchise. More about me here: tinyurl.com/22j7nypk

Iranians listening to calls to rise up against the regime today would do well to look at what happened in Warsaw in August 1944

When Starmer says the Greens and Reform are equally extreme, just as when Labour make the same comparison between SNP and Reform, it causes a visceral reaction in me. Not just because it’s stupid. But because it shows a fundamental triviality about the existential threat posed by the far right.

Interesting that the total vote for Labour, Greens and LibDems in the Gorton & Denton by-election was 68% - just as it was in 2024 So, Labour is haemorrhaging votes to the centre and left, not to the right

So is @martinnicholls.bsky.social Allister Heath headline generator now covering all Telegraph writers? stirring-fox-7e1fab.netlify.app

On BBC R4 Today, chair of Reform suggests Hannah Spencer, victor in Gorton & Denton, may struggle with “nuts and bolts” of the constituency. She’s a qualified plumber FGS

What we have seen in Gorton and Denton is what we saw in Caerphilly in October. A lot of people really don’t want the hateful politics of Reform and will work hard and smart to try and keep them out. Labour must now listen to this and stop the grim attempts to mimic Farage.

67.9% voted progressive

No doubt, media coverage of Gorton & Denton will focus on Labour coming third. But surely the most important message is the Reform was thoroughly rejected. We need proportional representation now more than ever.

Disabled Rohingya refugee Nurul Amin Shah Alam was found dead after being abandoned by U.S. Border Patrol five miles from his home in Buffalo. This is horrifying. It cannot happen in America. It must stop now.

Follow the money … on a long and circuitous route from the American public to Chinese exporters. You really couldn’t make it up. Not, of course, that the Democrats will make any capital from this madness.

They just don't get it. The Home Office clearly has not engaged with dual nationals affected by this move on passports. If they had, they would never have imposed a £589 fee simply to make an electronic linkage to your other passport. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Those of us who have tried to research public-private partnerships will, I suspect, read these words by @davidallengreen.bsky.social and say Amen

So. new rules on British dual nationals come in tomorrow. I have had hundreds of emails from Brits overseas impacted. Including a few tonight saying a Canadian airline will not accept expired passport. Do email [email protected] if you know D.N. stopped from boarding flight from 2moro

Suggest Congress closes the door in the President's face so as to remind him not to seek to arrest politically opposed members of Congress. It's what we do, over here, at our equivalent annual address to the legislature.

You really would think that a government that has gained a reputation for monumental screw ups bringing bad publicity might heed warnings when another looms. But no. Cue (more) horror stories at borders. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Athletes representing EU nations have earned a total of 164 medals at the 2026 Winter Olympics, delivering outstanding performances across a wide range of disciplines. Congratulations to all competitors on their dedication and this achievement! #MilanoCortina2026

*30%* ffs. I wonder what that figure would be by now if our media weren’t still almost exclusively populated by intellectually indolent wankers too pompous to admit that they never had the first idea what they were encouraging everyone else to vote for. (With a side of plums who deployed ‘balance’.)

There is a simple, and obvious, solution to this idiocy on U.K. dual nationals. Slash price of certificates of entitlement from almost £600 to a few pounds (or free). But then, Home Office can’t get out of the habit of ripping people off. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...