French PM Lecornu has just explained his resignation: political parties all behave as if they have a majority in parliament; their intransigence and egotism is making it impossible. #France

history teacher in 50 years: So in September, that’s when the president signed an executive order criminalizing anti-fascism and saying all resistance would be crushed student: oh so that’s when the whole country realized they were living under fascism teacher: haha what? oh no lol not at all. no.

As a point of information, in Spain a separate digital health ID card has all my health & prescriptions data: it is used by me whenever I go to the pharmacy for a prescribed medicine, or the clinic to see the GP, or to the hospital for an appointment. Why on earth does the UK not do the same? 🤷‍♂️

I have a sinking feeling they’ll do exactly this

Everyone, from big business CEOs to small business owners to highly paid professionals and lowly paid service staff, has urged the Chancellor to tax someone else. From the new Private Eye, out now.

"The big orange elephant in the room that we're all tiptoeing around is the fact that Mandelson was chosen for that position, to be the interface with President Trump, not despite his questionable connections and his rather ephemeral morals, but because of them. Because he shares them with Trump."

Highlighted by the brilliant @hannahfearn.bsky.social on @ohgodwhatnow.bsky.social - this is shameful. A single person needs to earn £30,500 a year to reach a minimum acceptable standard of living in Britain in 2025. A couple with 2 children needs to earn £74,000 a year between them.

This was inevitably going to happen, wasn’t it? Close the hotels and the lEgiTiMaTe cOnCeRns become about asylum seekers living in actual houses. Because it was never about the hotels, as such. While the BBC listens attentively, nods vigorously and puts it at the top of its website.

I HAVE EXCITING NEWS There's an emergency Midnight Mass episode on Rayner's resignation and the reshuffle that followed that will be appearing on your app in a few hours. AND Sunday School as normal in two days. A xx

Suspect the precedent of having breached the ministerial code, despite having acted with integrity, might be problematic for more than just Angela Rayner

It reduces emergency admissions, unnecessary investigations and mortality rates, and raises patient satisfaction. Maybe that’s where the government should be putting its money. ‘MD’ on the NHS summer of discontent, only in the new Private Eye, out now. 🧵2/2

How it's going

‘I had her right in front of me. And now she’s gone’: how one mother lost her daughter to mental illness

The headline here should say: "Number of private schools increases by 35 - showing fears of an exodus to be unfounded". (The increase is mentioned way down the article.) www.thetimes.com/article/19ef...

And an additional "BRAVO!" to @quietriotpod.bsky.social listeners who added a big bump to that graph.

I was explaining to my Ukrainian colleague the phrase ‘There’s no such thing as a free lunch’. She told me the equivalent in Ukrainian is ‘The only free cheese is in the mousetrap’ - which is so much better

little library gallows humor for ya :'D

i dno, maybe time to let it go

There’s a Hindi phrase (usually said by dads) for when someone leaves the lights on that translates to “Is it Diwali again?” A French version is “We’re not in Versailles!” But my favourite version, by far, is the Serbian “Was your grandpa Nikola Tesla?”

I've not been so excited about a film in years. Gunn really truly gets it: what's radical about this character, the ideas embedded in the character www.thetimes.com/culture/film...

With this vote, Congress makes ICE the highest-funded federal law enforcement agency in history, with more money per year at its disposal over the next four years than the budgets of the FBI, DEA, ATF, US Marshals, and Bureau of Prisons combined.

Nostalgia is a powerful drug but Old Twitter’s thing of crowding every single institution / religious order / goth band on the same chaotic platform was a fun once-in-human-development moment before it led to the breakdown of society.

Fascinating piece on (another) unseen health timebomb, which also helps explain a lot about both pressures on A&E and arguably on sickness benefits www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

“We essentially nearly started World War 3 because Trump got fomo” is THE summary of 2025 @youngvulgarian.marieleconte.com

I know your time is precious and all that, but I can assure you that this is worth 100 hours of doomscrolling.

The @uofglasgow.bsky.social knows how to put together a top goodie bag

I agree there is no other obvious short-term solution. However this will undermine all the work done over three decades to find a form of assessment that actually recognises attainment and potential over a random test of personality type.

Something broke the journalists and now they can’t write anything that isn’t ‘What does this mean for Reform at the next election?’

Oooh, you mean it's OK to leave, realise it's a mistake, then rejoin? 😉

"Old fashioned print media is in decline everywhere but in the mind of the nation’s political class. The result is that our leaders are getting a very warped sense of what the average voter thinks, reads and cares about."

🔥 SPOILERS! 🔥 Watch the moment we said goodbye to the Fifteenth Doctor and hello to... #DoctorWho

Have to marvel at the ongoing capacity for Labour to govern in the interests of a British working class it thinks exists rather than in the interests of the one that does.

Thames Water face a record penalty of £122.7m – a fine not to be sniffed at, and hard to swallow

"University: A Good Idea". Excellent piece by @patporter76.bsky.social, reasserting the humanist idea of the university as a place to think, grow and argue; not as a consumer experience providing employable skills. thecritic.co.uk/university-a...

Hope anyone in need or homeless sees this

“Life is better when we leap together.” Kermit the Frog delivered a commencement speech at the University of Maryland on Thursday, the alma mater of his creator, Jim Henson. nyti.ms/4dwMuhQ

“What will happen when the majority of us start to experience life as family carers, & have to confront the fact that our responsibilities to some of our loved ones can no longer be entirely palmed off on other people?” www.theguardian.com/commentisfre... Great piece by @johnharris1969.bsky.social

1 year on. Doesn't time fly.

quite a random question but is any publication/reporter/feed keeping track of random tourists getting ICEd in the US? feel like we had a ton of them in the space of a few weeks/months but not heard of any recently, though can't tell if it's because there's just....so much else happening

For anyone who prefers primary sources, here is the full documentation of the UK-EU Reset published so far. ~AA www.gov.uk/government/p...

🔴 DIRECTO #Eurovision | "Frente a los derechos humanos, el silencio no es una opción". RTVE arranca la emisión de Eurovisión con este mensaje a pesar de las amenazas del certamen de multar a la cadena si sus comentaristas mencionaban el conflicto en Gaza dozz.es/mbmnv4

The BSL during Finland was sensational #Eurovision

Portugal actually sounds a lot like the band that sacks Jack Black in School of Rock

Absolutely insane that it takes a fictional drama set on other planets to say what the news bulletins won't, or daren't.

A comprehensive comms success.

People have genuine, serious, concerns which need to be recognised and addressed. The problem is they keep being told that these concerns are caused by immigration, and when you are struggling you will take what you can as a reason. This isn't to say people are stupid or racist, just struggling. 1/

THE podcast episode that reflects our times and which you need to hear - but will probably ignore

This