While obviously Lammy's proposal of scrapping many jury trials is getting the headlines, it seems odd how little attention his proposal to scrap the automatic right to appeal is getting. That seems like quite a big thing to be honest, especially for poorer and more marginalised defendants. #r4today

Partly the problem is "party people already suspect might be racist is led by someone suspected of racism" is less of a story than "party which tells everyone else not to be racist doesn't deal with racism in its own ranks". Left wing parties are inevitably going to be held to a higher standard.

Previously on Bylines Scotland...

For the first time, scientists have shown that mechanoluminescence can occur in the absence of a crystalline phase and polymer matrix, using amorphous solids made from copper complexes.

1) I don't give a shit that Farage was a racist wanker as a kid, he's a racist wanker NOW and that is enough. 2) I was at boarding schools in the 80s. I was on the receiving end of daily racist abuse. Psychological, physical, and sexual abuse too. Let's stop pretending Farage is an outlier.

Good morning, while everyone is waiting for the budget to be announced it’s a good time to say that immigration is a source of prosperity for the UK and painting Britain as a hostile state is sabotaging the country. Thanks!

me: dating is hard me on a date: what if rice krispies are allergic to milk that’s why they sound like that

crab-bage patch kids: thread

I have felt for quite a while that at least a part of anti-migrant, anti-refugee behaviour from successive governments is pulling the drawbridge up ahead of an increase in climate-caused refugee movement. And you know what? It's not gonna save us, lads

I guess one difference between me and Elon Musk is that, if I was gaming an AI to say these things about me, and everyone could see that I had done this, I'd have simply no choice but to set myself on fire.

Erin is the reason we CAN have nice things. Brilliant. Again.

#ChemSky #ChemChat

Reflection as we begin #WorldAntimicrobialAwarenessWeek #WAAW 🔴 #AMR is a growing global emergency 🔴 Solutions must go beyond prescribing #diagnostics #access #prevention 🔴 No one is safe until everyone is safe, solutions must reach all www.thelancet.com/journals/lan... #episky #microsky @msf.ca

too real lol

Labour policy is being celebrated by Tommy Robinson. That's it. That's all you ever need to say to explain who Labour are.

🎼 Mama, just made a bond Put some ligand in a flask, palladium, now it’s done Mama, i cleaned it up But now I've gone and thrown it in the waste Mama, ooh, I really think I’m gonna cry If I can’t make it this time tomorrow We can’t publish as if nothing really matters🎵 #ChemSky #ChemChat

DAD: Babe, I think the kid has Ovid MOM: What? Covid? CHILD: Rose darke and full of foggye mist. And now they were within A kenning of the upper earth, when Orphye did begin DAD: To dowt him lest shee followed not, and through an eager love Desyrous for to see her, he his eyes did backward move.

I am genuinely pleased that the first time my private correspondence was entered into the public record without my knowledge, it was both grammatically correct and morally unimpeachable

The problem with the rugby is I genuinely support the game ahead of any team, but I have friends from New Zealand/Aotearoa, Australia, Wales etc. Although I am at best tangentially English by habit and long residence, the fact that male friendships are typified by persiflage means I have some fun.

MAKE YOU THINK.

youtube.com/shorts/al_v2... This woman speaks for us all.

“But where will it end?” was the handwringing question about Me Too. A question asked by people who didn’t want it to begin.

It’s been pretty clear for a while but brought to rack focus today, that successful people are encouraged to view rape as a perk of success and a great many successful people need no encouragement at all.

Today is a good day to remember, and to say, that the #MeToo movement was right, and was righteous, and has been vindicated over and over again. There was no overreach. There was no excess. There was no they-went-too-far. So much work remains to be done.

THIS is the thing. THIS is what we need every government in Europe to wise up to and act against. The chances of our UK government doing anything to inconvenience the international far right by defending & bolstering our institutions against it? Roughly zero.

1) The left: "Here is a way in which we think we can improve things for all <insert non-bigoted policy>" The media: "Ho ho, how naïve!" 2) The right: "Here is a way in which we think we can improve things just for us <insert bigoted policy>" The media: "Yes, we must take this very seriously"

And today it's the turn of The Times to try and patronise us all. Every single day the right wing establishment tries to close ranks. And every day we are growing. Join.greenparty.org.uk

Apropos of nothing, why on God's Green Earth does anyone think that replacing one pie-faced Tory fuckwit (Starmer) with a worse pie-faced Tory fuckwit (Streeting) is good and/or popular?

I love the BBC's left wing bias. I love hearing about the workers controlling the means of production, how dialectical analysis of class oppression is the only route to liberation, and how wearing a beret, smoking Gauloises, and trying to shag American tourists on the Champs Elysee is praxis.

Am I the only one who thinks Farage is an ungrateful f***er? I mean the BBC platforms him all the time and rarely calls him to account (Left wing bias? Don’t make me laugh!). Yet he slags the BBC off at every opportunity and wants to abolish the very media outlet that has made his career.

@effinbirds.com Right on the money as always. Unfortunately, I am frequently dumb enough. but one day at a time I try to be better. One day at a time. P.S. Get out of my brain and just take my money, Effin Birds. You own me now.

"Far from draining our welfare system, migrants are supporting the British state’s solvency." New analysis by @lgilbert.co ukandeu.ac.uk/lower-migrat...

Facts are essential, but this cannot be fought primarily on facts. Such spooky tales take root in deeper recesses. Progressives must find an emotionally astute response; one that tells a different tale, promises a better future, soothes the same triggered instincts and returns people to reason. 7/7

The societal breakdown that pressing this button has the capacity to cause, is not some collateral damage to the political objectives of those pressing it. It IS their political objective. The only way a gov't with a majority of 150 seats can be dislodged, is via violent means. Wise up to this. 6/7

This peaked with sexual exploitation gangs. It is linked to other dark currents: reproductive rights, women as property, gender identity, racial purity, parental paranoia - all regressive ideals, pushed by the far right, in any case. The combination of the two issues is frighteningly effective. 4/7

The power of this track reached its peak during the Southport riots, which targeted "asylum hotels". (Its flip-side, of course, is the building of a tribal "in group" through synthetic patriotism, flag-shagging, grievance, riots, etc.) The second element is sexual interference with "our" women. 3/7

The first is the conflation of anyone in the "out group" with asylum seekers - specifically, undocumented asylum seekers who entered irregularly. They are now the proxy for anyone brown/Muslim/foreign AND the sole defining cause of those who support equality, diversity, fairness, and compassion. 2/7

This is what is happening. It is cynical. It is strategic. It is organised. It is well funded. And we need to pay attention. The far right - and their cheerleaders, mimics, tribute acts, and handmaidens have identified two presentational frameworks that give them cut-through and traction. 1/7

Oh, you’re a big Ramones fan? Name 5 of their t-shirts

**CRISIS UPDATE** Coffee has now been consumed in sufficient quantities to produce the required neurochemical and psychological outcomes. I am using Stata. Some Excel has occurred. The staff have disposed of some bodies. All is right with the world. You are free to go about your business.

Word of the Day is ‘catchfart’ (17th century): an obsequious individual who sucks up to the boss and always follows the political wind.

Ok, this has to be the worst/best NMR acronym I've ever seen: "MIChI StAndard foR ReportinG Liquid-StAte NMR ExperIments of SmAll MoleculeS (MARGARITAS)" (Source: www.nfdi4chem.de/uv-vis-michi...) #chemsky

Also - if you have to constantly flex your supposed intelligence, then really, there should be immediate alarm bells ringing. All the smartest people I've ever known wear their genius lightly. Cummings sports his like it's a pair of cheap, fluorescent leg warmers.

Dominic Cummings was always an absolute arsehole. The Conservative right loves to talk up imagined genius among their ranks when in truth there's nothing there but attitude, flex, and pose. Mogg, Johnson, Gove, Cummings. All tiresome little nobodies trotting out rehashed nonsense. Often nasty.

**ALERT** IMPORTANT SAFETY MESSAGE As of 09:26 today the human species has been warned that there is a Red Warning in effect. Multiple independent security organisations have confirmed that: 1) I have not had coffee yet 2) I am properly In A Mood Mitigation factors have been put in place.

It boggles my mind that some people object to their taxes being used to help feed hungry children, but they are absolutely fine with paying more tax because billionaires don't want to pay their share.

Someday I will not have to write about Sarepta Therapeutics and their ineffective drugs that never should have been approved by the FDA in the first place. This is not that day.

FUCKING TRANSPHOBES! (A despairing cry, not an instruction). An Rant. At my son's school the issue of inadequate toilets has been raised in typically transphobic fashion. The first post on that most terrifying of fora, the parents' WhatsApp, has been done with direct transphobia. 1/n

Only people who have only ever known peace and safety; who have zero sense of the chasm that yawns beneath us, would pull stunts like this. Like the generals who plunged us into WW1 because they wanted baubles like their granddads.