New piece from me on Farage, and what his trial-and-error flip-flopping tells us about the new line of tolerance in British politics

For this week’s Observer I wrote about Britain’s strange relationship with plastic surgery What surprised me is that any doctor - even e.g. a psychiatrist with no surgical experience at all - is allowed to perform facelifts or liposuction in the private sector

For this week’s Observer I wrote about Britain’s strange relationship with plastic surgery What surprised me is that any doctor - even e.g. a psychiatrist with no surgical experience at all - is allowed to perform facelifts or liposuction in the private sector

Mind-boggling from @marthagill.bsky.social observer.co.uk/news/opinion...

Great piece from @marthagill.bsky.social on the state of Britain’s National Parks. Shocked highest levels of sewage discharge are on Dartmoor. Good account of historical reasons park authorities have such limited powers to manage greatest threats to park ecologies. observer.co.uk/news/columni...

I’ve got two articles in this week’s Observer. One is a big piece of reporting on lone asylum seeking kids arriving in Britain - a group is often missed out of the conversation observer.co.uk/news/columni...

The second is on a little noticed counter to the narrative that social bonds are unravelling. By almost every indicator we are becoming more isolated, polarised and antisocial. Except one. Absolutely loads of people are volunteering observer.co.uk/news/columni...

I’ve got two articles in this week’s Observer. One is a big piece of reporting on lone asylum seeking kids arriving in Britain - a group is often missed out of the conversation observer.co.uk/news/columni...

observer.co.uk/news/opinion... The anti-science obsession of British politics has done UK great harm, Good new Observer taking this seriously by @marthagill.bsky.social

Yes. Huge incentives, notably keeping your own job, in staying quiet about this stuff. Great examples in ents where various alarming individuals keep working for years after it’s known they are dangerous because the dynamic is if you speak up you will be the one who loses your job

Why do people choose to cover up scandals? My theory is that it's not 'bad apples', or 'dysfunctional institutions', as we like to pretend Every modern workplace contains the incentives for coverups

Exactly right. Any substantial organisation will be likely to circle the wagons and cover up failings. Within it there will be some people who should know better but don't recognise their own complicity. And others who do but will lose their livelihood if they speak up.

Maternity scandals, grooming gangs, the infected blood scandal, the Hillsborough disaster, the post office scandal, Grenfell, Windrush, sexual abuse by priests...... wherever we find serious harm we almost always find large numbers of people choosing to conceal it I call it "the cover-up rule"

This is very good - it skewers the way institutions' leaders will convince themselves that bad behaviour can't happen because rules. But we need to think more about how things actually work. We - especially senior managers - need to think much more in terms of who has power, and who really doesn't.

I've written about institutional cover-ups in this week's @ObserverUK . From grooming gangs to the post office scandal, wherever we find serious harm we almost always find very large numbers of people choosing to conceal it Why? I think we've been getting it wrong

Enjoyed doing @lbc.co.uk cross questions just now with @simonmarksfsn.bsky.social - great fun

Among all the groups of elites that have attracted political fury over the last decade - one percenters, Etonians, metropolitan dinner partygoers, bankers - one category has always managed to slip under the radar. Q: Which group is this?

When it comes to adoption, demand usually outstrips supply. But right now the number of kids in care is rising and the number waiting to adopt them is falling Why? observer.co.uk/news/columni...

Did you know the only listed tree in Britain is a dead one? (The stump of the Elfin Oak in Kensington Gardens - because it was decorated by a children's illustrator) While we are talking about the Sycamore Gap, we should ask why culturally important trees and landscapes aren't better protected

How is it that so many kids leave the UK education system without basic qualifications?

I wrote about how Europe's last remaining monarchies are held to account - they survive because they have twisted themselves into pseudo-democratic institutions observer.co.uk/news/columni...

Is there really a 'revival' of churchgoing among Generation Z? It's been widely reported but the evidence is shaky.... I look at the state of the church in the UK observer.co.uk/news/columni...

Is there really a 'revival' of churchgoing among Generation Z? It's been widely reported but the evidence is shaky.... I look at the state of the church in the UK observer.co.uk/news/columni...

Britain stands on centuries of Christianity but the faith no longer lives in its people Reports that young people are flocking to the church may be overstated and the wider decline in attendance raises existential questions. ✍️ @marthagill.bsky.social bit.ly/3EYw4BT

Is generation Z really flocking back to church? The evidence is slim... Meanwhile the bigger religious shift is among boomers and the silent generation I look at the state of the Church for the new Observer observer.co.uk/news/columni...

For my weekly column in the new Observer I looked at the state of Christianity in the UK Is Generation Z really flocking back to church?

We need to make a self-interested case for green policies www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

I looked into why young people are taking fewer drugs - and why some drugs are bucking the trend

Great piece my @marthagill.bsky.social on men's rights activists, social media and the chilling effect on boys, as portrayed in Netflix's Adolescence. While I generally dislike banning stuff, our children's and therefore society's futures are at stake here. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

The Pill was revolutionary in its time, but women are voting with their feet – and more can and should be done to take this unfinished revolution forward. Excellent piece from @marthagill.bsky.social in @theguardian.com www.theguardian.com/society/comm...

I helped draft a white paper which addresses this question: newgencontraception.org/contraceptio..., and which then turned into this paper: www.contraceptionjournal.org/article/S001... Some contraceptive innovation is happening, but investment has been far too scarce. cc: @marthagill.bsky.social

Our inhumane jails are promoting a vicious cycle that is criminal in itself | Martha Gill

Sorry, Lily Collins, but when people outsource childbirth, their motives really count | Martha Gill

'If some reasons for surrogacy are unacceptable, then so is the practice itself.' On the nail. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Quite aghast at some of the responses to this. There's a pretty widespread hostility to the idea there could ever be any ethical issues around surrogacy. Some supposedly progressive folks evidently have a massive blind spot when it comes to class and power. Caring about vulnerable women? 'Misogyny!'

« As with assisted dying, motives do matter. If surrogates are being coerced by financial need or by other people, that is a problem. If the rich are delegating pregnancy to others merely because they can, that is another. » réflexion très intéressante sur le recours aux mères porteuses.

“As with assisted dying, motives matter. If surrogates are being coerced by financial need or by other people, that’s a problem. If the rich are delegating pregnancy to others merely because they can, that’s another.” Thought-provoking by @marthagill.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Jane Austen’s plates or the woods near her home? I know which I’d rather save | Martha Gill

There may be something to this "hierarchy of heritage" in that it's easier to protect buildings than trees, but it's the opposite of environmental policy which favours natural landscape over historic. It all reflects the unhelpful policy division of heritage (DCMS) and environment/landscape (Defra)…

I've written about what I call our 'hierarchy of heritage'. We fetishise and protect buildings and artefacts that famous people have touched and lived in. But culturally important landscapes, trees and rivers are left undefended www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Is our obsession with buildings and artefacts blinding us to the value of nature? @marthagill.bsky.social @paulpowlesland.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Great article by @marthagill.bsky.social posing some excellent questions - why are structures and objects more valued than the resources and areas from which they were made #nature #heritage #WoodlandTrust www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

‘We fetishise anything touched by famous literary hands; why do we not work harder to preserve the landmarks they wrote about?’ Excellent by @marthagill.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/commentisfre... Jane Austen’s plates or the woods near her home? I know which I’d rather save | Martha Gill

Wondered for years why we seem to value so protect built heritage/“material assets” more than habitats & landscapes — and of course sometimes there are inseparable ties between. Thank you @marthagill.bsky.social Why not, for example Scheduled Trees, Areas of Significant Literary Interest.

The best summary I have seen about this - beautifully put @marthagill.bsky.social #autism #neurodiversity

Both sides of the assisted dying debate must acknowledge they are arguing for a brutal utilitarian compromise Either: a group of people will be left horribly suffering. Or: a group will be at risk of coercion Either way, the interests of one group must be sacrificed. The question is, which?

That assisted dying campaign ad is so bad it almost looks like deliberate self-sabotage. The only way to argue for assisted dying is to present it as the least worst of two brutal options - the other being to prolong useless suffering Not to tout it as a positive lifestyle choice

Brilliant review of Jordan Peterson book (with great ties in to culture more broadly). Thanks to @marthagill.bsky.social for this insightful review. #religion

On @bbc5live.bsky.social tomorrow morning talking about vaping Imagine we'd found a way to get people to quit alcohol for coffee But then imagine we'd got so worked up over the risks of coffee that we'd started to sabotage this public health miracle.... www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...