"If only men wield weapons, then all tombs with weapons are male. If only men are ever found interred with weapons, then it’s unlikely women ever wielded them. We only imagine some version of what we’ve seen. It takes a lot of unlearning to learn history." Great guest post from @isabelleroughol.com

Incredible opportunity here. You will be working with some of the best people out there.

I’ve been hearing so much anger and disappointment from frontline workers about the BBC investigation into fraudulent asylum claims. One of the most damning responses has come from one of the experts they interviewed, solicitor Ana Gonzalez. It’s really worth reading her response in full:

I don't think the public realise the scale of the problem. I'm supporting several sponsored care workers to recover and get justice for the horrific exploitation they have experienced. Their exploiters used the Home Office's rules to abuse them. The rules also hinder them getting justice.

Good initiative to get the word out about these unjust and counterproductive proposals: migrant workers and Unison to carry out out mass leafleting campaign in Shabana Mahmood’s constituency to protest against major extension of baseline settlement periods www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

"It is the first time such a large Labour-affiliated union is lobbying en masse against a key party policy." Incredible organising from migrant care workers against the the Government's earned settlement proposals. The Home Secretary must listen and stop these harmful plans now.

Key point: "Crucially, the Labour government’s own actions between now and the next election could amplify the effect of Reform’s policies or almost neutralise them." Government's proposals not just damaging, but would make it far easier for Reform to deport 100,000s. www.ft.com/content/a762...

‘One thing America will do is confound your sense of scale, and with it, your sense of the damage people can and cannot do.’ James Lasdun takes a road trip via America’s courthouses. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

OpenAI's marketer George Osborne is dishonest here from the very first paragraph: the choice, apparently, is 'AI' or 'paper records'. Apparently there are no options in between. www.thetimes.com/article/d918...

‘John Donaldson’s career with the National Industrial Relations Court can be seen as an egregious example of judicial activism: secretive, condoned and connived at by the judiciary, civil service and government ministers.’ Francis FitzGibbon on judicial overreach. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

New from FM: Past arrest and beating of Vietnamese protester does not amount to persecution | Ralitsa Peykova

Gave an interview recently about the existence of vast Nazi networks in Germany and the abuse still hasn't stopped coming days later. With the far-right leading the country in the polls, it's probably time to stop talking about this stuff. It just feels like it puts a target on you, nothing more.

So I am not an AI adopter, but I thought I'd try to see if it could help me find the business rates paid by IRCs...

Good Reuters story on the government's "earned settlement" proposals and the care sector. www.reuters.com/world/uk/uks...

Giles was an extraordinary lawyer and legal writer and was always willing to take the time to help a good cause. Really sad to hear about this. May his memory be a blessing. nearlylegal.co.uk/2026/04/gile...

Looking to rehome these journals for the cost of postage only - UK based. Costs £12 to post 20kg and less to post less #booksky #academia #archaeology #history

Long thread alert 🧵 1. The Home Secretary has accepted she has discretion to grant leave on the five-year route without imposing a no recourse to public funds condition. Until now, applicants were told to accept the condition or switch to the ten-year route.

New from FM: Home Secretary accepts she can grant further leave on the five-year route without the no recourse to public funds condition | Nakita Hedges

This sort of thing is very irritating. The Home Office are telling people that they WILL be able to apply for settlement after 10 years (this is from a grant under the current 10 year route). Totally irresponsible given the Earned Settlement proposal is a near certainty.

Re: the current moment Perhaps a big disconnect comes from the gap between "people who can see through the hype and are assessing utility in a post-hype environment" and "people who know how dangerous the hype is precisely because being able to see through it is actually pretty rare in humans"

Now officially my most read post on there, hopefully helpful for anyone planning to do a complaint (which I am going to sit down and do next week, once rested)

Over the last 4 yrs, @dotwuk.bsky.social has participated in the UK COVID-19 Inquiry. Yesterday the Inquiry published its report on vaccines and therapeutics. It is a huge win to see the Inquiry officially recognise that NHS migrant charging and Home Office data-sharing undermined vaccine uptake.

Found this in the archives. Just imagine.

It’s genuinely staggering how little substance there is to today’s instalment of the BBC’s attempt to create a national crisis out of a few unproven allegations of immigration fraud 1/

This really does look like one of the best jobs ever. And the recruitment process is impressively inclusive as well. (Maybe I'll start writing more public-facing pieces so next time this comes up I'll meet the requirements! Absolute dream job for a researcher with great writing skills...)

BBC News is going very hard on its investigation into advisers who help people ‘fake’ asylum claims, focusing especially on people who falsely claim to be gay. But it doesn’t say what percentage of claims are made on the basis of sexuality. As of 2023 — the last available figures — it was 3%.

The real issue this highlights is decades of cutting legal aid, and creating a complicated, unfair and impossible to manage system, make people very vulnerable to anyone who tells them they can help, and can I have all your money please? Another way asylum seekers are exploited.

The *top two* stories on the BBC site, plus a 3rd further down, are now about the claims of scammers which the BBC presents as evidence of the asylum process being “systematically exploited” - whilst also admitting they don’t know how widespread the issue is. Practically a Reform mouthpiece now.

Thought this was an interesting little chunk. The people running this government have forgotten how to make a sincere argument for what they are doing.

The ICIBI  invites anyone with knowledge and experience of the Home Office's engagement with local authorities in the planning and development of asylum accommodation to submit evidence for the inspection:

Shoutout to @jdportes.bsky.social for getting this info as Govt. have been refusing to publish economic impact assessments. That £600m "saving" will end up being spent on managing hate crime/community cohesion and trying to fix an utterly decimated care system. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

Lessons for the Brits exist abroad. We're the last domino in a European wide cycle. We've theoretically got the most advantageous position against authoritarian/fascism. Will we make the most of it?

My analysis of the fiscal impact of the "earned settlement" proposals, based on government's own data. The direct savings are a fraction of the Home Secretary's misleading claims, and likely to be offset by the substantial costs of lower work-related migration. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

Once again the government are moving asylum seekers who are members of our congregation, with almost no notice, to cities hours away, and no matter how many times it happens I don't get any less mad.

Oh, FGS - @politico.com is taking sponsorship money from Palantir - running their ads through news updates. That's absolutely the *last* thing we need in our politics, Palantir going straight for the political-media environment at a time when we need massive scrutiny of their contracts in the UK.

Journalists know that losing the Wayback Machine would be a nightmare: www.wired.com/story/the-in...

A couple weeks ago, Nicholas Keung at the Toronto Star reported on how generative AI is being used to assess immigration applications in Canada...and how it's led to refusals because of stuff the AI tool added in, that humans (clearly) failed to check. www.thestar.com/news/canada/...

Look, at this point *everyone* agrees we should spend more time away from screens, children and teens especially, outdoors even. But it's not going to work if you say teens should never do physically boisterous stuff in large groups. They're gonna do it anyway because it's thrilling and fun!

the simulation within which we live saw fit to have Colbert recite mountain goats lyrics with superb dramatic weight about 14 minutes in youtu.be/YOzyCF3cFNc?...

Officially relaunched Stand For All, with updated website, for freelance work on comms, policy and advocacy, along with media/advocacy training, including, but not limited to: ✅Migrants' rights ✅Trans rights ✅Autism/ADHD ✅Parliamentary engagement Also available for media requests standforall.co.uk

I'm kind of fascinated by the way that people have literally forgotten what town and city centres used to be like on a Friday and Saturday night. Or what town centres and city centres used to be like on match days. Now if some folks get rowdy in a public space it's all '[x] has fallen'

So maybe we should pass laws that punish the giant corporations for their abusive business practices instead of laws that won’t help kids and will force ICE watch activists to upload their government ID to platforms that will hand them over to Trump in a heartbeat

Deeply concerning that the Government are considering curbing Freedom of Information requests. They’ve been central to unearthing national scandals and forcing action and justice - like the Post Office Horizon scandal. www.ft.com/content/2c34...

Ok, but en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nauru_R...

“Military-aged male” is not a legal category. The categories are “civilian” & “combatant”. In case of doubt, a person is presumed civilian. Age & gender are not close to sufficient to dispel such doubt. Speculative beliefs about threats are also insufficient. 1/2

This shipwreck could have been prevented if the @ec.europa.eu had created a search and rescue program. The dying at sea needs to stop - safe passages now!

There’s no purpose to these policies beyond the shabby & in any event vain hope of gaining votes from racists. They‘ll screw up countless people’s lives for decades & prevent them becoming full members of society as well as damaging the economy. There is no compromising with this & MPs shouldn’t try

Yes. I'm asking for more money. Not for me, but for help to London's homeless. www.justgiving.com/page/dan-kas...