How did the UK get like this? We are 25 years post Deborah Lipstadt beating David Irving in court, when it seemed like everyone was on the same page about this stuff. Since, we have progressively crept into a very dark place. www.thejc.com/news/uk/reve...

Mark Urban 'the BBC can’t find an effective way to thrash out questions of bias internally, then it’s in big trouble.' markurban.substack.com/p/liberal-bi...

'Clumsy error'. Hilarious misrepresentation of what happened. Trump isn't even the biggest editorial failure. People like Rusbridger, Yelland, Aaronovitch, Campbell etc are going to damage the BBC through their tribalistic ignorance of bad practice, and hand the BBC over to its enemies.

Interesting post on self-isolation: 'I’m warning today’s Centrists that hiding themselves away from voters in Leftist sinkholes and treating the views of the voters’ outside with contempt will give them exactly the kind of government they profess to be terrified of' substack.com/home/post/p-...

A quick post about the whole paracetamol thing, and can people stop saying there is 'no evidence'. There is, but the balance of evidence and the strongest studies don't show a link. www.anthonycox.uk/p/you-say-ac...

Excellent piece in the BMJ on the Assisted Suicide bill. I use that term because of this text in the piece. blogs.bmj.com/spcare/2025/...

What a bleak view of the lives of others. It perhaps says more about the inner life of the writer than the wider world. When reading how anti-human movements like eugenics became normalised in the past, you wonder how people let it happen. But it can happen. www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-...

There are no rules, the UK is now just following the law that was already in place. Following the Equality Act 2010 to enable sex-based rights for women is not going to make global fascism stronger.

Have people read the replies and QTs to this post? bsky.app/profile/jay.... People should spend less time on X and Bluesky, because they are both causing brain rot and bubble thinking.

I feel like Mehdi may be taking the wrong lesson from this.

The moment of a Russian UAV strike on Kharkiv today. The Russians hit the building of the National University of Pharmacy.

Well @jessesingal.com was right in the end. 'We should recognize that while we do, in a very real way, dominate most cultural and educational institutions (even if we’re pathetic at gaining political power), you never know who will control things tomorrow.' jessesingal.substack.com/p/please-sto...

15 September 1931. | A Dutch Jewish boy, Joseph Karel Vos, was born in Kempen. He arrived at #Auschwitz on 26 November 1942 in a transport of 709 Jews deported from #Westerbork. He was among 667 of them murdered in gas chambers after the selection.

There isn't a slippery slope with assisted dying, there's a ratchet. Once you cross the line, the line keeps being pushed. www.politicshome.com/opinion/arti...

Cal Newport on how to respond after events like the Kirk murder. ‘there’s often a public conversation about the appropriate way to respond. Here’s one option to consider: Quit using these social platforms.’ calnewport.com/on-charlie-k...

I don't think anyone who's salivating at the prospect of mass political violence or civil war has the foggiest idea of how bad these things are in real life. It's beyond their memory and their imagination.

What is Blueskyism www.natesilver.net/p/what-is-bl...

The United Kingdom has been accused by other Council of Europe states of adopting a “maximalist” approach to human rights, the justice secretary disclosed yesterday. Shabana Mahmood was answering questions from the House of Lords constitution committee. rozenberg.substack.com/p/do-we-go-t...

The UK has avoided the surgical inventions in these vulnerable children with gender dysphoria (who often have co-morbidities that are ignored - see Cass). The evidence for gender dysphoria resolving after puberty is far better than the benefits of medical interventions.

Dogs are getting vaccinated less and rabies rates are rising, in part because 37% of Americans think vaccines will give their dogs... pawtism. www.nbcnews.com/health/healt...

Graham Linehan thinks I'm a "cynical, careerist hack" because I don't share his views. I think he's an obsessive, rude jerk. But I also don't think that should be illegal. (Gift link) www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

Green

Aseem Malhotra is now an advisor to Reform UK on health. Terrifyingly, none of the ‘sensible’ parties seem able to pivot to where the public is, as some in Europe have, or look vaguely competent. So there we are. Still at least sensible as can speak to each other on Bluesky.

‘The idea that the withdrawal of anonymity might inhibit the free exchange of ideas or the examination of controversial subjects is quite simply beyond the comprehension of at least eight-tenths of the sort of people who now serve in parliament’ thecritic.co.uk/in-defence-o...

In an effort that will no doubt torch my follower base, I have laid out some basic numbers around our fiscal situation. Obvious, but still a little sobering for me. freethinkecon.wordpress.com/2025/07/15/t...

‘If—as I do—you view social media as of little value but are also—as I am—mildly addicted to it then Bluesky is the best because it is the worst.’ open.substack.com/pub/rbnmcken...

If people think American scientists are somehow going to land in Europe, I've got news for you about the difference between millions and billions. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

New paper: Wongtaweepkij et al. Public self-reported adverse experience and knowledge about use of herbal and dietary supplements. BMC Complementary Medicine and Therapies (2025) 25:226 doi.org/10.1186/s129... link.springer.com/content/pdf/...

Stranger in a strange land

Nice profile on Jesse Singal, who is a model for how liberalism could work. unherd.com/2025/06/can-...

Causality assessment is a fraught business.

Wordle 1,453 2/6 🟨⬜⬜🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

This is a good balanced piece by Helen, and the response in comments is as you might expect here. 2016-2018 twitter, but without the socio-cultural power to destroy people. Very Wily Coyote running off a cliff and only falling when they notice they have done so.

The Phoenician Scheme was very good.

Trip up Snowdon.

Britain gives Germany a ‘reason to launch V1 and V2s to bomb the hell out of them’ with its dam-buster attacks in the Ruhr Valley.

OK, this may be better.

Best one.

My latest, a response to the tedious ‘but people are wrong, crime is actually falling!’ brigade. Shout out to @joxley.jmoxley.co.uk who inspired the piece.

Pulls up deck chair

Nice meme, but Christianity got rid of slavery in Europe under the Catholic Church, and British evangelicals were later a driving force in tackling slavery world wide.

Apparently this epistemic bubble is fine.

Ducks

I work in the building where this happened. Quite a moving podcast about the Birmingham smallpox lab leak. www.pushkin.fm/podcasts/cau...

This is true, i think it also understates the catastrophic effects because it's impossible to overstate them.

Perhaps the answer to ‘What can be an alternative to a large dysfunctional text based game?’ is not ‘Let’s have another dysfunctional text based game.’

Variation in the potentially inappropriate use of antipsychotic and benzodiazepine medications among individuals receiving residential medication management reviews ➡️ Mouna Sawan, Alexander Clough, Jodie Hillen, Andrew R. Zullo, Daniela Claudia Moga, Natalie Soulsby & Danijela Gnjidic

There is probably an argument for reducing the number of HEIs in the tail, focusing funding on excellence and research, and creating technical colleges for areas of skills shortages.

This is a really important story - obviously it is good for the UK that UK HE remains a strong export market. But that doesn't mean we should be relaxed about what is just straightforward misselling that is bad for the people who buy it, bad for the longterm health of UK HE and the UK.