Some of London’s poorest areas could see their share of the children’s services funding formula halved under Labour’s plans to reform local government grants. By me, for Politics Home: www.politicshome.com/news/article...

Me in August: I think we'll see news articles fairly soon about the weird grades students got in their English Language GCSEs. Something's gone wrong. The Observer in October: observer.co.uk/news/nationa...

There's something obscene about this kind of rhetoric. North Korea has endured periods of mass starvation, has thousands of political prisoners and carries out brutal executions of those who fall foul of the regime. It ignores the horrific reality for North Koreans to compare it to the UK.

Read our detailed response to the #BertinReview here and look out for the FOI report by our #WomenFirst project team, which will be shared in full very soon, on our Women First page: filia.org.uk/women-first 🔗 www.filia.org.uk/latest-news/...

FiLiA’s #WomenFirst FOI report on Local Authority response to prostitution recommended prostitution should be part of Gov't & LA VAWG strategies. In yesterday's Westminster Hall debate on porn, prostitution & its impact on VAWG, we were glad to hear @jessphillipsmp.bsky.social confirm it would be.

Will be digging into the weeds of these results some more in coming days, here's one graph to ponder - average shares for Reform and Lib Dems by share of graduates in the wards. The education divide looms ever larger...

David Cameron destroyed the UK’s place in Europe to try to prevent this, less than a decade ago. Amazing.

A county council has reimbursed a total of £26,475 to parents who used private educational psychologists due to a backlog. Surrey County Council paid out to 27 families of children with SEN who had to go private between the 2023 summer term and May 2024. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

I am on a train. Listening to someone playing I-spy. Truly a game designed to make boredom more boring.

'Yet the voices advocating for better daycare and housing for mothers faded away as the anti-abortion movement tightened its alliance with the Republican party.' #abortion #TrumpsAmerica #AbortionIsHealthcare #abortionrights #ReproRights www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...

Ive written about the risk of "taking sides" when approaching equality act compliant decision making www.linkedin.com/posts/audrey...

One of the most shocking things I have read for a while: t.co/lg46ijHLDF

"In an earlier post, she wrote: "As for the inevitable death, if I die, I want a loud death, I don't want me in a breaking news story, nor in a number with a group, I want a death that is heard by the world, a trace that lasts forever, and immortal images that neither time nor place can bury."

I feel so impressed that she is not standing for this kind of abuse and at the same time I am furious on her behalf that after everything she has been through she now has to go through this too.

Likely to lose PIP: 23,000 with cancer, 38,000 with MS & neuropathic diseases, 214,000 with arthritis, 38,000 with cardiovascular disease, 45,000 with respiratory diseases, 11,000 with cerebral palsy & neurological muscular diseases And their unpaid (family) carer will lose Carer's Allowance

NEW: Thousands of people with cancer, cardiovascular diseases and respiratory diseases, and more than 200,000 people with arthritis are among the 1.3 million whose disability benefits are at risk from planned cuts, according to FOI data By me, for @bigissue.com www.bigissue.com/news/social-...

Screaming headlines about avocado toast and lattes followed by screaming headlines about how you should embrace debt. The media embraces so much idiocy on its way to working for clickbaits.

Certainly worth some thought.

Absolutely brilliant thread. I particularly like the changing blue. Nice work.

Adolf Hitler's “Mein Kampf” is still on U.S. Naval Academy shelves. “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” and “Memorializing the Holocaust” are not. An order by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s office led to a purge of books that are critical of racism — but preserved volumes defending white power.

💥 We're hiring! We are looking to fill two exciting new roles here at NPC. Including: 👉 Principal Consultant: Systems Change 👉 Principal Consultant – Effective Philanthropy Would like to help individuals and organisations maximise their impact? Learn more: www.thinknpc.org/about-npc/wo...

A serving Met police officer has been charged with four counts of rape, two counts of assault by penetration and one of sexual assault. PC Dion Arnold, now suspended, was remanded in custody and will appear at Guildford crown court on 1 May.

It’s a month since the administration detained and disappeared a green card holder, a lawful permanent resident. We cannot allow this to be normalized or forgotten.

Concern is growing among public health experts that anti-vaccine sentiment within federal and state governments may derail emerging and cutting-edge vaccines that are now awaiting regulatory approval in the United States – essentially leaving those vaccines in limbo

The Supreme Court has paused a court-imposed midnight deadline to return a Maryland man mistakenly deported to El Salvador back to the US

October ‘24: he’s not serious about the tariffs February ‘25: he’s not serious about the tariffs, it’s too crazy March ‘25: ok now there is a date but it is just negotiating leverage April ‘25: ok he did it but he’ll roll them back right May ‘30: these tariffs can’t last forever, that’d be insane

This thread is making my head ache

Two stories coming in the newsletter tonight: - North Carolina is proposing a total abortion ban (just two years after passing their 12-week 'compromise') - The new solicitor general believes that some kinds of contraception are 'abortifacients'

Everyone raised on the AP Style Guide is having a moment with this one, thank you @ellecordova.bsky.social

Every line in this article is horrifying. www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

75%

And none of this is a surprise. We knew this is what he does. And he still got voted in.

WHAT THE F**K!

Brexit has never looked quite so ruinously insane as it does right now. And it’s always been idiotic. Alone, outside the EU, needing to improve our relationship with our own continent but also terrified of the wrecking-ball lunatic in the White House. Cornered by our own ‘sovereign’ stupidity.

I spoke to a South Carolina woman today who is miscarrying - her fetus has no heartbeat - but the state's ban is preventing doctors from taking action. She has to walk around with a dead fetus for another week so she can get a FOURTH ultrasound. This is what bans do.

“There is no such thing as an ‘illegal immigrant’” My myth-busting piece for The Guardian today arguing that it is factually inaccurate & totally, utterly wrong to say that undocumented people are ‘illegal’ & are automatically ‘criminals’. I bring receipts:

A third former South #Yorkshire police officer has been arrested as part of an investigation into child sexual exploitation in #Rotherham. The ex-constable, aged in his 50s, was arrested on Monday on suspicion of raping a teenage girl in the town in 2004. 🔗⬇️ www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

This Texas bill wouldn't just make it a felony to take a teen out-of-state for an abortion—but to "fund" an out-of-state abortion for a teen. In other words, giving your 17 year-old niece gas money could land you in prison. legiscan.com/TX/text/SB23...

The organization that serves all of Mississippi had their funding frozen because they put out a statement opposing racism in the wake of the murder of George Floyd. Millions of dollars for low-income patients - gone today because they opposed racism

Laughing at the new Monopoly "expansions" being marketed with the catchphrase "shorten the game with Monopoly Expansions" Even they know it's a boring game.

"I don't want a Disney vacation of our history! I don't a whitewashed history, I don't want a homogenized history. Tell me the wretched truth about America, because that speaks to our greatness" -- 20 hours into his speech, Cory Booker is spitting absolute 🔥

Really looking forward to this online event launching the FiLiA TU Women's Network this Thursday and discussing how we make sure unions are fit for women. Tickets available in the link. #UnionsForWomen #WomenOrganising

Well this is a far cry from using dark humour to cope with stressful situations. Appalling.

Am not currently persuaded that fairly enforcing the law against corrupt politicians heralds the end of democracy, but am impressed by the reaching on display. Solid effort, 9/10 all round.

A Paris court has found French far-right figurehead Marine Le Pen guilty of embezzlement, in a decision that could yet see her barred from the 2027 presidential election.

Victoria Smith being bloody brilliant as usual.

NEW: Labour MP Naz Shah tells me: “The assisted dying bill is not fit for purpose”. Having been through the legislation line-by-line, Shah says it contains many ‘loopholes’, harms women, fails to provide a safety net & is weaker now than at Second Reading www.newstatesman.com/politics/soc...

That's one hell of a headline. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

‘Official gov't analysis shows just over 370,000 people who currently claim PIP will lose the benefit... Figures also suggest that 250,000 people could be pushed into poverty through the cuts, inc 50,000 children.’ #SpringStatement #DisabilityBenefits 🔗⬇️ www.heraldscotland.com/news/2503982...

Running tally of Labour MPs opposing the disability benefit cuts: labourlist.org/2025/03/spri...