An excellent editorial. “But can Trump’s megaphone that misinformed the world be silenced by a carefully conducted study published in a medical journal? The odds appear slim.” www.bmj.com/content/391/...

The ‘Groyperfication’ of the G.O.P.: a deeply depressing conversation… “If, by the stroke of good fortune or by just being a normal person, you had not heard of Nick Fuentes before this month, chances are you’ve heard of him now.” www.nytimes.com/2025/11/14/o...

Labour has shredded its claim to competence: “If the Budget backfires, the prospect of a near-term rebellion will mount.” It arguably already has… a case of too clever by half thinking by advisors with little practical/political experience? on.ft.com/4nZWdke

Fantasy to think a new leader gets a clean break “Even if Streeting somehow won over Labour’s left-leaning membership, he’d end up in the same trap that ensnares Starmer: a structural inability to govern.” www.thetimes.com/article/23cf...

NS&I overestimated its ability to deliver its digital transformation programme leading to significant cost and time increases. Our latest @nao.org.uk report shows digital transformation needs careful planning www.the-independent.com/news/busines... (full report: www.nao.org.uk/reports/nati...)

Yes, I think this is what the “it’s smart not to do income tax” stuff is missing. If you remove salary sacrifice on someone’s pension contributions you are increasing their income tax! If you freeze thresholds you are increasing their income tax!

In charts: Is the NHS on the ‘road to recovery’? “Marginal Gains” “Wes Streeting on Thursday declared the NHS is “on the road to recovery” after official data showed a marginal improvement” on.ft.com/3WZ9DC2

Young adults are growing increasingly economically dislocated “Transitioning from long-term joblessness into the world of work has never been easy, but it will be especially hard for a group that struggles with anxiety and has grown increasingly socially isolated.” on.ft.com/4o6wBCw

Absolutely. This is also the story of the Starmer project, such as it is. The habit of talking to everyone else like they are babies has led to a project unable to grasp trade-offs or think in horizons of longer than a week.

“A report this week from the HEPI suggested another route, training up fewer super-specialist consultants but many more training places for doctors and GPs in the community..Generalists would solve more problems of elderly people with multiple conditions.” www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Politicians really do take the public for fools! “The FT reported Reeves may now look at thresholds at which people pay tax, which is likely to be seen as an income tax rise by stealth.” A cowardly decision.. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Tiny chips hitch a ride on immune cells to sites of inflammation - jaw dropping. wonderful piece of interdisciplinary science… arstechnica.com/science/2025...

Civil war is brewing in the wasteland in Fallout S2 trailer - “We now have the official trailer, with all the deadpan humor, explosions, and mutant atrocities one could hope for” bring it on…. arstechnica.com/culture/2025...

“My core political conviction for many years now is MASA: Make America Sane Again.” www.nytimes.com/2025/11/13/o...

Caroline Dineage: Chair of the Culture, Media and Sport Committee The BBC has put itself in a very difficult position and to survive needs to face some hard truths | Conservative Home conservativehome.com/2025/11/13/c...

“End-of-life care is often neglected, but we need care and support for dying as much as for living. We need more palliative care teams and funding for services.” www.bmj.com/content/391/...

“Leadership that relies solely on competence risks becoming managerial… … leadership that combines competence with courage, clarity and connection becomes transformational.” One for everyone interested in how to be effective.. myemail.constantcontact.com/Transformati...

Let the Mind-Control Games Begin! “Every four years at the Cybathlon, teams of researchers and technology “pilots” compete to see whose brain-computer interface holds the most promise.” How to accelerate innovation … fascinating.. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/12/s...

Neural data may be the most precious commodity of the century “If data is the oil of the 21st century, then “brain” data is the crude oil. We need to guard it more jealously.” on.ft.com/4hWPHJL

“End of life is not what the population of the country values,” Let’s reflect for a moment on this statement… on.ft.com/47EffrD

Starmer in leadership crisis as he denies authorising ‘attack’ “Sir Keir Starmer on Wednesday denied that he had authorised a “kneecap” Why not a foot to the nuts! on.ft.com/3JPSCav

If you’re going to tease… do it right. EPIC ! www.theguardian.com/film/2025/no...

Your reminder why we all dislike lawyers ! “After Starmer dodged a question” www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Great lunch at Andrew Edmonds with Tim Bliss and Mick Errington. Many thanks to the team. I am the eternal grad student 🤣 www.andrewedmunds.com

More Teens Are Taking Antidepressants. It Could Disrupt Their Sex Lives for Years. “Research on adults who take S.S.R.I.s shows they tamp down sexual desire. Why aren’t we studying what that could mean for adolescents who take them?” www.nytimes.com/2025/11/12/m...

Steve Bannon Thinks Zohran Mamdani Is a Genius. It’s Not a Feint. “Modern politics now is about engaging low-propensity voters, and they clearly turned them out tonight, and this is kind of the Trump model. This is very serious.” www.nytimes.com/2025/11/11/o...

I @&£& hate manspreaders on the train. A dignified crossed ankle is surely better! Likewise elbows a neatly tucked in pair is surely the way forward…

An astonishing number of people in the Labour party have forgotten that the modal Labour member is a socially concerned current or retired middle class public sector worker in their mid-50s who dislikes being referred to as 'cis' but also thinks you should respect people's pronouns.

“Peer review should be a serious and core part of an academic’s work, and contribute to reward, recognition and career progression. It’s time for the “publish more” mentality to perish.” on.ft.com/440ZlFl Letter: A call to arms to protect peer review from the threat of AI

“Households hit by the two child limit” and “households who will be disproportionately hit by taxing salary sacrifice” are both “Labour 2024” voters. Keir Starmer managed to get “the dream electoral coalition for Blairism” but he is too embarrassed by success to govern for and with it.

“The system has to be seen as a collective investment for mutual advantage, not expropriation and transfer to strangers.” www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

I’m a Psychoanalyst. This Is What Technology Is Doing to Us. “One constant I’ve found is how technology brings a kind of alexithymic fog — alexithymia being the condition of having difficulty identifying or being able to express one’s emotions.” www.nytimes.com/2025/11/11/o...

Streeting has to “own” this ! NHS redundancies | “Treasury has instead allowed DHSC to overspend its allotted budget by about £1bn this financial year. But this is on the understanding that it will have less money in 2026-27 – and no new cash overall.” www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

Correct “I wouldn’t want a board that’s guilty of groupthink, but the opposite of groupthink is different points of view. That makes the job of the chair challenging to try & organise & get consensus, but it’s important that people have a diversity of opinion” www.theguardian.com/media/2025/n...

stop Wes” shorthand for save the NHS !? www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Accuracy not activism … “there is a stronger case than ever for British content and for journalism that serves the people of the UK – with some of those old-fashioned things such as honesty, accuracy and truth.” www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

A great public figure rehabilitated? “In 1932, the then chancellor Neville Chamberlain pulled off a similar feat: cutting debt costs by 0.6% of GDP and bolstering spending by the equivalent of £17bn a year today.” www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

“the UK and China had agreed to work together in the “uncontroversial” areas of health, climate, planetary sciences and agriculture.” on.ft.com/488maJC UK scales back scientific collaboration with China

The Young Women Grappling With an ‘Old Man’s Disease’ “It’s relatively rare for young women to develop A.L.S., but unfortunately it’s not impossible — it can strike at any age,” “Most physicians have never seen A.L.S. in a young woman,” www.nytimes.com/2025/11/11/h...

“When democracy struggles to deliver, people turn to strongmen, authoritarians & now algorithms, hoping for competence over chaos. But replacing democratic deliberation with algorithmic efficiency doesn’t solve the underlying crisis.” www.nytimes.com/2025/11/11/o...

“Some scientists working with animal experiments, such as Prof Robin Lovell-Badge, are deeply concerned about what they fear may be a premature push toward alternatives, and its potential negative consequences for science and medicine” www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

“Like Farage before him, Polanski is staggeringly underqualified for Downing Street – the highest elected office he has held is on the London Assembly – but he has the storytelling skills and creative political imagination” www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Make Medical School Three Years: “the onus falls on medical schools to rethink how education can be more affordable and effective. The smartest, fastest and most pragmatic solution is simple: shorten medical school to three years.” www.nytimes.com/2025/11/10/o...

Excellent another male leader for Labour #progress Angela Rayner could be ‘kingmaker’ in picking next Labour leader www.thetimes.com/article/27c2...

“The immediate priority is to appoint a tough and independent director-general capable of pushing through reforms to cement public trust.. It is far from clear, however, that the current board and chair are capable of installing such a candidate” on.ft.com/3WQmPJr

Raises interesting questions regarding the “biases” of the sources - time to speak in an attributed way. “sources raised concerns about the editorial experience of many of the other members. Some newer board members were said to have agreed with Gibb,” www.theguardian.com/media/2025/n...

DHSC’s answer to everything a new strategy! “The government said it was determined to improve waiting times. A new cancer strategy is expected to be published” www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

The impossible dream some people on the British right are chasing is that you can have a BBC News operation that retreats from detail and expertise, that takes dictation from the government, but this will only create incompetence and failure when it suits you:

The Aesthetic That Won New York City: “I can relate to embodying intersecting and at times contradictory identities. My first point of connection with others is always our shared humanity. Our shared everyday-ness.” www.nytimes.com/2025/11/09/o...

These are the tax reforms Britain needs, but is Reeves listening? “There is an underlying problem here, one that has existed for decades, but seems more acute than ever right now. There is simply no strategy, no sense of direction, no coherent policy.” www.thetimes.com/article/471d...