It is extremely annoying the way that Hunt, like Osborne before him, personally undermined the foundations of the British state and now gets to opine as if this mess was absolutely nothing to do with him.

Agree. There’s so much about media & social media that I think is absolutely urgent and essential for the government to get to grips with. “Ban it for kids” is the dumbest and least effective approach I can think of. The kids aren’t even the problem! Radicalisation is happening to older generations

The concern about the harm to young people is the public consent that the Government needs to properly regulate social media, tackling the harm it causes across society. But rather than actually take that on, Government will ban young people and then have “done something”, leaving all other harms.

This feels stupid. Regulate the platforms, don’t ban kids. An upside of regulating the platforms is that it isn’t only kids who would benefit. www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/...

Quite pointed that he will do this but won’t do anything about the incitement, hate and disinformation on X.

Well APPARENTLY they only do cars and also I'm banned for life

Welcome to the UK, where soon 17-year-olds will be legally allowed to drive, join the army, work a full-time job, have sex and even vote but not watch YouTube past their bedtime.

I do think the “and vote” is the dumbest part. Australia bans the under 16s from social media. It doesn’t have a ridiculous curfew on the 16 to 18 year olds. And you can’t vote until 18. This is obviously the right order because politics takes place on social media now, for good and for ill.

This is nuts. Yes we need better protections online, but this is a massive overreach by Starmer. For many young people, especially marginalised ones such as trans and neurodivergent, online spaces can be a safe place for them to develop a genuine support community www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

Why regulate the social media companies when you can do whatever the fuck this is?

This from Wes Streeting does a decent job of outlining an agenda: expand high-skill migration, Brexit/EU, energy, housebuilding, and tax reform. Overlaps with my suggestions (see next post). Also very "Blairite" - much more so than Blair's own reactionary twaddle www.ft.com/content/83d1...

@okwonga.bsky.social He needs to be labelled a genuinely evil person

Edward Luce in the Financial Times about Musk:

The UK once led Europe in research, innovation and student exchange. BREXIT pushed us out of key programmes and partnerships — and the consequences are hitting hard across campuses. @mikegalsworthy.bsky.social @bylinesnetwork.co.uk More: national.thelead.uk/p/brexit-eu-... #Brexit #Education #UK

NEW from me today: ICYMI it earlier, I've written for @arguablymag.bsky.social about the quiet crisis destroying almost everything important about universities, and why no-one's talking about it. Take a look: www.arguably.uk/p/the-quiet-...

Twitter/X is an enormous national security threat on a global scale, and a lot more nations need to grow a spine and start blocking it (and taking other active, aggressive measures).

Northern Ireland is such a beautifully revealing test case because it is both still *incredibly* racially homogenous *and* has extremely, extremely obvious non-immigration-related reasons for high levels of violence and community unrest - yet these people still can't help themselves

Just to note that it is possible to hold the correct opinion that the Waspi women don't have a case for compensation because it is on you to keep on top of your pension and they had loads of notice, and also not to slip into ageism and misogyny when expressing that opinion.

My son was saying this morning that X is really popular with his friends (other teenage boys) and it occurred to me that if you have one site that is awash with violence, pornography and other stuff that is limited elsewhere by the online safety act, then you are just driving people to go there.

Utterly heartrending and enraging to read this piece. This is where 'pure, cold rage' gets you: pogroms on the streets and care workers cowering in their homes. Arrest the rioting racists, ban X, cap political donations, turn the screws on the fascists. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

Demonstrations sometimes turn violent but if you’re turning up in a balaclava specifically to burn houses and throw paving stones at the police are you really a “demonstrator” or “protester” or are you something else?

A few people campaigning / focus grouping in Makerfield have told me that even Reform supporters have brought up that Farage going against the wishes of Nowak's family made them uneasy. So these statements are both brave and important.

Labour's policy is to keep supporting the website that makes non-consensual pornography and whose owner promotes race riots, got it. Weird how standing up for democracy looks a lot like bending over.

The family of the Belfast stabbing victim have released a statement saying - like the family of Henry Nowak last week - that the attack should not be used to "divide people or fuel hostility" They condemned disorder and praised the "valuable contribution" by migrants inews.co.uk/news/politic...

Condemning riots isn't enough. We need policy action, including an immediate appraisal of X as a vehicle for coordinating far-right disorder. And we need political leadership, to challenge white nationalism as an idea, not to validate it daily and then complain when it turns violent.

Russia is openly waging a form of hybrid warfare against us and this is part of it.

A whole 12% of voters think Brexit has been a success. And just 25% of Leave voters. Sigh.

I know there’s a lot going on with the world right now, but I don’t understand why everybody else isn’t thinking about Jared Leto going full method as Skeletor for the new Masters of the Universe film. Just imagine…

Call me an idealist, but I think that a prerequisite for hosting an international sport event should be that you're willing to host an international sport event.

really hard to be a more dismaying world cup host than Qatar and yet so far the US absolutely smashing it

Fascinating age split on this one. Young people are both more likely to use AI and more likely to want it to disappear.

One of the obvious problems with a under-16 social media ban is that it won't work. (60%+ of Australian under-16s are still using these platforms). But it will make people feel like something has been done so they won't tackle the content, which is the real issue.

Got into an argument on Sky a few weeks about about banning social media for teens. "But parents want it!" Sure, but that doesn't mean it will work or is a good idea! How about a serious conversation about what social media is doing to all of us, adults included? Or is that too difficult?

My concern is what should be a stopgap solution for problems that need a long term whole society approach ends up being the only serious attention paid to the issue. A band-aid on a festering sore.

The conservative government kept bringing up Liam Byrne's note for at least 13 of the 14 years they were in power. Constantly surprised by how little criticism of the last government the current one actually does.

Wow! 200,000km² of ocean declared entirely off-limits to fishing in some of the most biodiverse waters on earth 🌏 That's a win 🙌 #oceanoptimism oceanographicmagazine.com/news/papua-n...

The Equality Act (2010) was one of the most important pieces of legislation in my life. It is largely an incredibly thoughtful and well-designed piece of reflexive legislation that gives minoritised and oppressed people in the UK protection...

I’m sure that this is a better use of £1.3bn than preventing the collapse of the university sector, upgrading the rail infrastructure in northern England or indeed giving Leeds a tram without another business case because it’s always important to spend public money wisely.

Once again we are begging you to understand that the only road a country will take if it limits the growth in educational attainment for its citizens is the one that leads down every global league-table, and you have to be a blinkered idiot not to grasp this.

Why big companies haven't sussed out yet that many people, myself included, will literally pay for an AI-free, basic *functional* tech option at this point. I shouldn't have to, but I would.

Lots of talk about cost of Palantir, founders’ troubling values, risks to data sovereignty. But the thing you don’t hear enough is that it’s nothing special. Talk to industry or users and they’ll tell you that loads of companies can do what Palantir does - better - at a fraction of the cost. 1/2

NEWS! Nigel Farage lured back into Parliament by £5m cheque attached to fishing line newsthump.com/2026/06/02/n...

Three Lebanese hospitals hit by Israeli forces in under a week

well worth visiting

The biohackers subreddit banned all posts about peptides and HRT because peptide companies were spamming + manipulating the sub in order to manipulate Google AI and ChatGPT answers. Very insidious industry that is drastically changing the internet www.404media.co/companies-ar...

X is currently full of posts falsely naming Christi Hill and another officer as having arrested Henry Nowak. One names and pictures the other PC, saying, "Wanted: dead or alive". It gives his address. What more exactly will it take to get UK MPs, ministers and departments off that hellsite?

Remember “but what about China?!” Well, its now “What about the USA?!”

Keir Starmer's response to Nigel Farage at PMQs just now was probably the most powerful and eloquent I have seen him in the Commons. The full answer is worth reading.