🚨 NEW FROM LIBERTY INVESTIGATES Palantir wants to become the ‘default operating system for data across the US government’. It now appears to be pursuing the same ambition in the UK. Read the full story on @prospectmagazine.co.uk ⤵️ www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/dem...

We have an incredible line-up of speakers for our upcoming Domestic Abuse Conference! 😁 With topics including vicarious trauma, coercive control and law enforcement’s role in ending domestic abuse, this event is not to be missed 🙌 Join us & get your ticket now👇 www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/cranstoun-...

Positive @davidgauke.bsky.social led review will confront 'penal populism' - longer & longer sentences, doing less & less good. Better sentencing = less crime. That's the goal. Not the political sugar rush of ramping up sentences every time there's a row. www.theguardian.com/law/2025/feb...

"The reason they’re getting bailed out is because they ran out of other people’s money to line their pockets with. It’s only a matter of time before they end up on the edge of bankruptcy again."

This should be changed asap. If we give someone refugee status, it can't be right to then refuse them route to become a British Citizen. To say they can have a home in our country, but never a place in our society and be forever second class. freemovement.org.uk/good-charact...

On 22 January, GB News presenter Josh Howie repeated a homophobic slur linking the LGBTQ+ community to paedophilia. This is offensive, wrong and unlawful. Join me and @goodlawproject.bsky.social in filing a complaint to Ofcom: action.goodlawproject.org/ofcom-stop-g...

I'm still processing how incredibly significant yesterday's event was. Listening to the Survivor Ambassador Panel & to Yasmin, Fawziyah Javed's mother, was deeply moving. The call to act was heard clearly - I am sure everyone who attended will have left a fierce advocate for a statutory definition.

Fantastic! If you buy any children’s or YA book from Bookshop.org UK this month, 10% goes to BookTrust and Scottish Book Trust, to give more children access to books 💜 🏛️ Here are my classics-themed suggestions to make the most of this scheme…

Reading NAO report & brilliant @lexytopping.bsky.social Discovered that "the Home Office underspent on its own VAWG budget by an average of 15% between 2021-22 and 2023-24". Utterly bewildering and rage-making when the whole VAWG sector is on its knees. www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

Nazis: "that's a nazi salute" Historians: "that's a nazi salute" Average person: "that's a nazi salute" The Media: "Elon Musk makes odd gesture throwing his heart to the crowd."

"The last Conservative government issued an “awful, inconsequential, insubstantial” response to a seven-year national inquiry into child sexual abuse, according to its chair." [Guardian]

Sign the petition! Stop the Government from spying on all of our bank accounts 👇 you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/st...

🚨NEWS: Government Announces Bank Spying Powers in New Bill. We know this will disproportionately punish people left on the poverty line by the social security system - for the Government's own mistakes. Read Big Brother Watch's full statement: bigbrotherwatch.org.uk/press-releas...

Wow. Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde fearlessly calls out Trump and Vance to their faces. This is heroic. (posting in 3 parts due to Bluesky's 1 minute limit)

Every “journalist” using the transphobic phrase “lying about her gender” is encouraging another attack. This is undeniable stochastic terrorism in UK mainstream media.

Fellow cis people, I'm talking to you: This. We do not need 'both sides.' We do not need 'balance everyone's concerns.' We do not need stupid thought experiments. All any trans person needs to hear from any cis person is 'we support you unconditionally against the people who want you dead.'

"Lie" is absolutely disgusting framing. She had sex with a guy who turned out to be such a violent "Gender Critical" that he tried to kill after learning she was trans. I wonder why she had to keep her personal medical history from him huh?! As if you would tell a potential murderer your info. Sick

So concerned about women in sport and an entirely made up threat to women in sport that they’ve decided to inspect the genitals of all women in sport

A year ago, when Suella Braverman wrongly said grooming is mainly undertaken by Pakistanis there was at least some outrage, some pushback, some degree of people standing up & reacting. Now it is totally normal for politicians across the right to say it. www.theguardian.com/society/2023...

I think the Birds feed is my favourite thing about Bluesky. It's so calming and lovely. Also look at this silly little round creature, how can that not make you smile?

Coming back to this framing today, as so many point out the date of the fire in Parables & say she saw the future. Octavia followed the 'what next' thought process and had the wisdom to get much of it right. It's not magic, it's a skill she should be praised for honing that we can all learn from.

love how google ai goes into detail for all the men, and then for the women, it just goes "eh, some broad"

Lucy Grossmith, Mumurations over Fields

Can’t put enough emphasis on what the words “last medical facility” mean in the context of this genocide. It’s pretty simple to understand what happens when there’s no hospital available.

All of the rhetoric around Imane Khelif and "beating women" etc was inevitably feeding into this. This is a politics of confining women to the domestic sphere and removing us from the public one. It was never just about trans or intersex people - though if it were, that should have been bad enough.

Absolutely hateful.

Wrote up some thoughts on the Gisèle Pelicot case and "monstrous men" over on LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/posts/charit...

Didn't expect a sanitary towel advert to have me in tears (and I'm not even on my period! lol) This is a surprisingly beautiful film. If it moves you, and you want to do something useful about it, donating to Bloody Good Period isn't a bad way to start. www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpFY...

A gorgeous short story for the end of your Monday - give it a read. It made me smile, and feel a little hopeful too. clarkesworldmagazine.com/kritzer_05_23/

This *and* - don't leave this up to politicians. We can build power in our communities by connecting with parents, families, and schools, sharing knowledge and resources, and standing up for one another in everyday conversations and practices.

Couldn't have picked a better week to escape to Scotland. It's been the perfect reset.

The real person of the year.

a Labour Health Secretary is voluntarily targeting trans healthcare in the UK in the same way that it’s taking a Trump-appointed Supreme Court to accomplish in the US

Trans kids just want to be themselves and live their lives. Today Wes Streeting said no to that. No to options. No to buying time. No to safely exploring their identity. No to life-saving gender-affirming care for children. I hope he rots in hell.

I have spent most of my adult life building my career and social life around activism - joyful but so heavy, too. This year, I joined a show tunes choir. And it is just for the sheer delight of singing together. I cannot recommend it strongly enough, a hobby that's just about fun is so liberating.

📷 🪶 🌿 time to post another White-Throated Kingfisher.

Having only cis people making laws and policies about trans people is exactly the same as having only men doing it for laws and policies about women. Bullshit at even a surface level and should be completely unacceptable to any rational person

While we are watching the terrible situation in the US, let’s prepare, organise, strategise and educate ourselves about a Musk/Farage coalition and be ready to fight for democracy. It’s no joke and it’s coming our way.

A collection of free books for #ReadPalestineWeek - poetry, short stories, full novels and lots of non fiction to get stuck into here: publishersforpalestine.org/2024/11/29/f... #BookSky

Join us December 2 for a training on Bluesky, with lots of tips and guidance for social change groups and activists. The training is free for those who need free access to join. #Bluesky #endX community.socialmovementtechnologies.org/courses/blue...

‘What does it mean that the earth is so beautiful? And what shall I do about it? What is the gift that I should bring to the world? What is the life that I should live?’ – from Mary Oliver’s 'Long Life'

A good article that links abortion to trans rights. The @theguardian.com actually making the connection with bodily autonomy. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Leaflet from the protest.

Really brave protest by Trans Kids, at one of England’s biggest train stations. The UK govt has removed trans healthcare, in breach of international best practice & expert opinion. Hate crimes against trans ppl have risen 186% in 5y*

It's Reclaim the Night Brighton tomorrow. First time in years I haven't organised it, which feels strange/liberating - it's lovely to see a new gen of activists take it on, and odd to let it go. I might be too sick to attend, but I hope any Brighton followers will be at the station at 6pm tomorrow!

You hear a gentle splash and... How delightful! A Dipper is taking a paddle through your feed.

Nails celebrating the British Library's exhibition Medieval Women: In Their Own Words. Never visited the library before but could not pass up on the opportunity to see these stunning manuscripts up close. @britishlibrary.bsky.social

jk rowling funded a case going before the supreme court that argues it should be legal to discriminate against and persecute trans ppl. yet still we have to listen to ‘centrists’ claiming she isn’t bigoted she just has ‘a difference of opinion’. no trans ppl have a voice in these proceedings.

There were trans women at the Stonewall Riots. There were trans women in the Gay Liberation Front. There were trans women at the first Pride rally in London in 1972. I marched with trans women on Section 28 protests in the 1980s. Our communities, our activism and our histories are intertwined. 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️