Democrats get a gerrymander in Virginia approved by a referendum, and it falls. Republicans in other states manage to gut the Voting Rights Act to enact partisan gerrymanders with no signoff from voters, and they stand. The game really does feel rigged, doesn't it?

Funny, warm talk from Tessa Quinn on delivering the Ukrainian resettlement scheme. So much to learn. The importance of agile actionable user research. It’s not so much about making the right decision - as about avoiding the wrong one. Those are different things. #CampDigital

Loving the talk from @emmaparnell.bsky.social and Videha Sharma on how tech is landed in clinical settings. The partnership between design and clinical is key. A minimum viable service is not unsafe - and iteration is the best way to implement new services products in healthcare 🤩 #CampDigital

Lovely hearing how things are in GOV.UK these days. Design has never been about pixels - it’s about the people. Nice. 😍 @laurayarrow.bsky.social #CampDigital

Driving collaboration and holding back product teams from adding digital products into the heavily congested neighbourhood health environment. Great example from @rochellegold.bsky.social of co-design to rebalance and equalise power dynamics between local and national NHS teams 🙌👏 #CampDigital

Very excited for this - the awesome @rochellegold.bsky.social on neighbourhood health and co-design 🤩 #CampDigital

Powerful keynote from Himal Mandala on the parallels between personal burn out and organisations that require heroics from individuals in order to simply cope. Slack in the system is necessary for organisations and humans - it’s the space to sense risk and set boundaries 🙌 #CampDigital

"Silence isn't the absence is risk. It's the absence of safety." Himal Mandala on burn out #CampDigital

Nowhere in the hysterical pile-on against the BBC in the British press has anyone mentioned that BBC News now has 77 million viewers & listeners in the US and has established itself as the second most trusted news source there.

Fantastically hopeful start to the day - from @rachelcoldicutt.bsky.social - bringing much needed optimistim and a call to activism and collective action. Let’s all join. Let’s all do it now. societyforhopefultechnologists.org/ #CampDigital

Enjoying @rachelcoldicutt.bsky.social keynote kicking off @nexerdigital.com #CampDigital Hope spreads

At Camp Digital for the day, time for the talks amongst a few meetings, but nice to have an hour to listen to @rachelcoldicutt.bsky.social at the start. And hook up across the aisle to speak with Dug Falby. 🤜🤛

I’ve shared this report with plenty of people over the years, but sharing it again as I had a reason to point someone at it today. Learn how posh people level up: www.gov.uk/government/p...

WHY ARE WE IN IRAN?

This is good. Gaby Hinsliff drawing parrallels between the economic migrants in Dubai and those seeking a better life elsewhere - www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

I can't fucking believe we're doing this again.

This is undoubtably the most exciting thing happening in tech right now. Why couldn't the UK summon up the balls to do this years ago? Why couldn't Digital Strategies spearhead the introduction of open source products to save money and increase digital independence? Innovation through circumstance

“We will launch during a dynamic political environment where many civil society groups that we would expect to attack us would have their resources focused on other concerns,” according to the document from Meta’s Reality Labs, which works on hardware including smart glasses.

Well that was quite the day. Thank you @rufflemuffin.bsky.social for making this happen - so many buttons pushed, so many thoughts and so much inspiration and I was so moved. Moved to action. It’s time to stand up 🏳️‍🌈🤩💪 #section28film 🙌

Wow. I knew today was going to be inspirational - but wasn’t expecting it to be quite so moving. Passionate debate from this afternoons panel. It’s time to stand up 🏳️‍🌈💪 #section28film

- Chiara Capraro, Amnesty International UK - Katie Dancey-Downs, Deputy Editor, Index on Censorship - Alice Leggatt, CILIP School Libraries Group - Lisa Power MBE, British sexual health and LGBT rights campaigner

Chilling. The effect Section28 had on teachers and young gay people. Terrifying to hear how the Christian right is funding and lobbying right now for a return to those oppressive ideologies. Amnesty International research - will find post links in thread… #section28film @rufflemuffin.bsky.social

Warm and inspiring start to the conference - Lord Chris Smith shares his experiences of being the only out gay MP in parliament as Tory MPs spoke in support of the legislation #section28film - and how it mobilised gay and lesbian people to fight back 🏳️‍🌈

Glad I bought my tickets months ago. So proud of you @rufflemuffin.bsky.social - you’ve done something amazing. Again. 🙌

Halloween 🎃

Wonderful evening last night at the launch of my dad’s oldest friend’s pottery exhibition in London - do go if you can, the pots are exquisite and selling fast! www.contemporaryceramics.uk/exhibitions/...

Even I had a crush on Robert Redford - what a fox 💔

Celebrating the #EnglandRoses win and the respect and joy from both teams after the game. Don’t underestimate the achievement from Samoa - incredible performance and so much pride. Now go fund them and see what those girls can do 💪

New YouGov polling. A monumental failure of our political class to educate, a monumental failure of our media to report fairly, for a generation

Tonight, Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band opened their Land of Hope & Dreams Tour. Bruce launched this run of shows with three statements about the situation in the United States, with comments preceding his songs Land of Hope and Dreams, House of a Thousand Guitars and My City of Ruins.

100 DAYS...of lying, grifting, lawbreaking, division, incompetence, ignorance, illegal deportations, self-aggrandizement, vulgarity, self-pity, cruelty, ignoring the Supreme Court & due process while attacking: the Media, Universities, Law Firms, the Courts & Journalists. 1362 Days to go...

Brilliant helpful thread unpacking a complicated topic and demonstrating - beautifully - that ‘biological sex’ is just not as conveniently simple as some would like to believe 🙌

As ever, you can rely on Marina Hyde - in this article she nails this ridiculous, vacuous spectacle - www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Gorgeous swim at the Lido today.. water still cold tho. 6.9 degrees - and I’m ready for it to warm up no 🥶

Vance blew up that meeting on purpose

1. A few years ago, people like me were widely attacked in the media for “declinism”. How could we fail to see that we were heading into a capitalist utopia, in which everything would keep getting better? This is a thread about what we could see that our critics could not. 🧵

This is brilliant - everything that is wrong with our response to the climate crisis: Illustration by Jon Davis / The Guardian

This is good. With so many banging on about her ‘legacy’ - Polly Toynbee reminds us of the mess Margaret Thatcher made of Britain: www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Squint and it looks like summer - water temp 5 degrees tho 🥶 ❤️

"Remember, asking for mercy toward scared children and immigrants was enough to trigger a full-scale campaign of intimidation from the highest levels of government and media. Remember, a sitting congressman suggested deporting an American citizen for the crime of asking the president to be kind."

"Remember this moment." — @parkermolloy.com The Price of Speaking Up in Trump's America www.readtpa.com/p/the-price-...

How brave 💪 - a much needed moment of grace after the last two days

Thank you Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde.

Bluesky has been flooded with automated reply bots - they'll offer a sort of confrontational opinion as a reply. They're pretty convincing and we all need to train ourselves to not reflexively reply to all responses until we check Dead giveaway is new acct, few followers + original posts

This is a good post with some theories as to why this is happening pivot-to-ai.com/2024/12/07/a...

Enjoyed my first GovCamp experience SO much that I forgot to post during the day. Here’s my quick round up in photos and immediate reflections… 1/ #ukgc25

ooof - this is an early start for a Saturday 🥱 - but it’s worth it - my first GovCamp for literal years! The good stuff of familiar faces and the current optimism in the air for digital govt… But also terrible sadness - for those not here 😢 #BeMoreVicky #ukgc25 @ukgovcamp.bsky.social

This is awesome - we’re all wired differently and it’s always useful to gain a better understanding of what to do to be your best self. Without a post it, I lose even the most important tasks… 🤷