Any mention of more occupational therapists? Pound for pound the key role if the gov’t is to deliver its shift from hospital to community

60 today - peerless

Well maybe we’ll now get a health AND SOCIAL CARE secretary

Pretty much wall-to-wall ‘keep Starmer/has everyone gone mad?’ on @bbc5live.bsky.social phone-in

The underrated Twenty Twenty Six got here first - I liked the hats for players option

Truly we are where we are

Nice one @theobserveruk.bsky.social

Zia Yusuf repeatedly refusing to answer @mattchorley.bsky.social on whether Farage received any other large ‘personal’ donations in the 12 months before he became an MP @bbc5live.bsky.social

Thought my @theobserveruk.bsky.social was chunky - then found its 48-page listing of all last week’s London Marathon finishers’ times. All hail M Liu whoever you are …

Good

Should we be surprised any longer that the BBC website is leading with this opinion piece during an elections campaign?

‘Despite the dedication of our amazing volunteers and supporters, we have reached a point where closing is the only viable option’ - another vital local charity, Home-Start Staffordshire Moorlands, goes under after almost 30 years. In 2024-25 it supported 96 struggling families with young children.

Quite the obituary - includes the wonderfully euphemistic ‘During the marriage both parties had, to a greater or lesser degree, enjoyed the attentions of the opposite sex’ @thetimes.com

Record low death rates in England & Wales in first quarter of 2026, actuaries say. Mild winter, better prevention or continuing effect of abnormally high rates during pandemic? www.actuaries.org.uk/learn-and-de...

New two party system just arrived in Cliftonville. Wonder how many wards will become Green vs Reform battlegrounds in local elections next month. Suspect quite a few (plus plenty of other new two party contests springing up)

Interviews with rock gods are not what they were … Jethro Tull’s Ian Anderson in @theipaper.com

Congratulations Tony Gallagher - your mission to turn The Times into the Daily Mail is now complete

Sadly and no doubt due to pressure of space @thetimes couldn’t find a more prominent slot for this ad than p34 opposite the obituaries

‘Team Kemi or Team Miliband?’ asks Simon Jack on BBC R4 Today re North Sea drilling. It’s matey Boris all over again …

Goodness gracious he was a board member of Homes England for almost five years and its interim chair for 15 months! www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

predicting one heck of a hangover

Thomas Skinner has tweeted at the other place that he was paid £2k to appear on Question Time. Excellent use of licence fee payers’ money.

Scary @theipaper.com

The unique & irrepressible @clentonf.bsky.social battles through tech problems to tell a @local.gov.uk seminar that social care reform must be all about Place, Power (for the individual) & Possibility

What to believe in today’s @thetimes.com ??

RIP Tom Georgeson aka Detective Harry Naylor in Between the Lines - still the best TV police drama ever. I shall be taking no questions.

"and is this game plan in the room with us now?"

Maximum fine 40 shillings www.countypress.co.uk/news/2592704...

£1.80 from April

A couple of weeks ago we brought together leaders in adult social care to work out if, and how, they could help break the logjam on reform. You can now read me & @blimeysimon.bsky.social on what happened www.kingsfund.org.uk/insight-and-...

Some tough messages here for many of us in and around social care. Welcome candour.

I get that Labour is the main story but if we’re talking humiliation then the Tories losing their deposit surely merits more than one sentence of nine words buried in six pages of news and analysis

‘We’re gonna need a harp for that track.’ ‘Just book a session guy.’ ‘OK, boss’ - Warren Zevon, Sentimental Hygiene (1987)

‘Only 23 overseas care workers were granted entry in October-December 2025’. Disaster for social care. www.theguardian.com/society/2026...

Lindsay Hoyle: Master Detective. My SKETCH of Today in The Case Of the Missing Mandelson. thecritic.co.uk/hoyl...

Median average pay of social care workers now £12.60/hr - still a full £1 below NHS Band 3 health care assistants with two years’ experience. Imperative that planned Fair Pay Agreement for social care addresses pay progression not just starting rate. @skillsforcare.bsky.social

Amol Rajan’s preamble to his interview with Netflix boss Ted Sarandos on R4 Today this morning came in at 2 mins 17 secs - impressive even by his long-winded standards

London’s “worst mass eviction in recent history” is underway; hundreds of households across London told to get out of their homes this week by the same landlord, ahead of the renters rights act. The landlord? Billionaire Asif Aziz’s Criterion Capital. www.londoncentric.media/p/asif-aziz-...

Wonder if Yaxley-Lennon knows his US bankrollers laugh at him behind his back. Per Simon Kuper @ftweekend.com

FACT OF THE DAY. 21 February 1946. Aneurin Bevan announced the Labour Government’s proposals for a National Health Service. The service began on 5 July 1948. Its introduction represented one of the greatest social reforms in British History which helped every citizen.

Most confusing to read a letter responding to an article that turns out to be in the same paper. Presumably it ran online earlier? @thetimes.com

David Dimbleby magnificent on royalty here … www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

Ouch. Even before his arrest. Those whom The Times deemed worthier of listing today include model David Gandy,singer Seal and @bethrigby.bsky.social

Healthy life expectancy in UK at lowest levels since official data series began in 2011-13. Grim reading. www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopula...

Deeply touched to receive personalised special offer and free gift from, er, Pure Cremation. On Ash Wednesday too!

We are proud to launch our new interactive report, detailing the impact of the Centre for Care during our first four years and setting out our ambitious roadmap for the future of our centre. Follow this link to learn more: centreforcare.ac.uk/impact-and-p... #towardsabetterfutureforcare

Astonishing donation to @mind.org.uk www.civilsociety.co.uk/news/mind-re...

In other news … (bottom p11, @thetimes.com)

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