Happy birthday to me 💆🏼‍♀️

restless legs syndrome sounds like the daftest condition someone could have but I'm experiencing RLS as a pregnancy side effect and OH MY GOD WHAT IS THIS TORTURE

A Labour MP once called me and a friend "cunts" to our faces one night in Brighton after we got locked inside the flat we were staying in.

out of office

I HAVE GROWN STRAWBERRIES

last week it was the heat, and now it's the gymnast in my womb preventing me from sleeping

Many social workers will have been harassed, assaulted, or had their personal information shared online. @basw-uk.bsky.social has made this issue a priority, and now we're collecting information from social workers to plan our next steps. Complete our survey here: shorturl.at/l8LCU

Ok I actually got the wordle which is by fluke because I used my default first guess and then I was so confused about what it could be that I randomly picked a letter/order and it was right on the third guess, and this was after I accidentally guessed the same thing twice.

We got the dog a new bed.

it's so hard to teach toddlers boundaries because it's absolutely hilarious when they do something they know they're not supposed to and they look at you like 👀

Beautiful day here in Middlesbrough. I'll be spending my morning overseeing some Labour shortlisting meetings. It's not the life I wanted, but it's the life I chose 🫠

In Leeds overnight which is like 5 degrees hotter than Middlesbrough 👎🏼 In a hotel which has air con 👍🏼

Willing and Able by Noah Kahan. His voice, the lyricism, all of it. youtu.be/2f4gu97XWFg?...

Once upon a time, it was nightclub wristbands. Now it's soft play wristbands.

ITS NOT 'KING OF THE NORTH', ITS 'KING IN THE NORTH'

I live in Middlesbrough and it routinely pisses me off that a lot of the time when people talk about the North, they mean the North West. Middlesbrough and Manchester are as alike as Dover and Devon.

look I'm as big a Taylor Swift fan as they come (without being weird about it) and I could not care less about her wedding venue allegedly being Madison Square Garden. Why do people care about this so much that they write long threads about it??? Why is this what you spend your energy on?

Ellen says it's too hot.

had Bernard Mathews turkey dinosaurs and potato alphabets with baked beans for dinner and it was cracking.

I took part in a quiz a few weeks ago and there was a round on politicians and their jobs before they became a politician, and all 10 answers were male politicians and I called out the host over it. this kinda stuff really irks me.

Also: Keir Starmer himself said a few months back that he thought social workers (although different to care workers) had made a powerful case over earned settlement rules. So Mike Tapp isn't really far away from Keir's own view. @basw-uk.bsky.social (basw.co.uk/articles/pri...)

The flower Arthur "made" me at nursery for mother's day is on its last legs and I don't know how to save it. I don't even know what flower it is and Google lens was useless.

Of ALL the things that can be claimed on expenses, I'm quite surprised to learn that Larry's upkeep is paid for by the staff of Downing Street and fundraising. Larry's food and toys being paid for by the taxpayer would probably be the only thing the public didn't moan about.

just a boy and his frozen tea towel blanket

I am once again recommending the Shark fan (if you can afford it & aircon is not an option), because when that baby is blowing onto my skin, heat is a myth to me.

our overgrown hedge has finally been trimmed back so now @andymcdonaldmp.bsky.social can stop threatening to come and trim it himself 😅

A new govt gives me hope in areas we've got it wrong, we can start to get it right. I'd like to see @andyburnham.bsky.social: 1. abandon 'earned settlement' 2. stop family returns plans 3. scrap the National Age Assessment Board 4. end trials of AI for age assessment of young asylum seekers

so, end of contest by summer recess. Sounds like that means no role for Labour members in this contest? There's plenty of good arguments why the PLP should pick the new Leader when in government, but as a staunch defender of members, I'm a bit pissed off about that.

I have just googled the difference between a lecture and a podium so I too can mercilessly mock those who get it wrong.

Lewis: "that cloud looks like Denis Healey" @yewisloung.bsky.social

just remembered that we asked for mince beef and onion pies at the bakery today for lunch, only to get home and discover they gave us steak pies. I'm livid all over again.

our toddler can now ask for a snack ("nack") and we weren't adequately prepared for this.

Not surprising in the least. Those who carry out proper Merton-compliant age assessments of asylum seekers - social workers - have been against the use of AI in assessing age from Day 1: basw.co.uk/articles/soc...

the problem with rationing our toddler's easter eggs (thanks grandparents) is that now he associates 'egg' with 'chocolate' and always asks for 'egg' but gets upset when we offer him an actual egg.

So don’t romanticise this shitty, back-breaking, lung-destroying, often fatal life. Don’t bolster your own credentials off the backs of the dead and destroyed, or seek power off the rose-tinted, dewey eyed votes of those who weren’t even there. 10/

when a seller accepts my lowball offer on vinted

If you're like me and loved those push up smarties ice creams but can never find them anywhere, Lidl currently have a similar thing but a different brand

just emailed my first Labour Regional Executive Committee report to my local CLPs. I am sooooo Ann Black right now.

Not a book, but there's a song and the lyrics say "I was yellow, he was green, and all we ever made was blue"... YELLOW AND GREEN DO NOT MAKE BLUE. I can't even listen to it now.

For the record, the somethings I want my government to do should be good things.

has anybody bought Lucy and Yak dungarees and are they worth the £75 price tag

I've got a c-section booked this autumn, for no other reason than it's MY decision to have MY baby from MY body that way. It's between me and my doctor, and nobody else's business.

sometimes I think targeted ads on social media are getting very smart, but then a £600 a night hotel comes up on my feed.

spending the weekend in Birmingham for the Jo Cox Women in Leadership Programme residential weekend ✨💃🏼

"Age assessments of asylum seekers are already carried out by trained immigration enforcement officers, who use methods such as examining documents, X‑rays and MRI scans." No they're not. Age assessments are carried out SOCIAL WORKERS. And x-rays or MRIs aren't used. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

being pregnant in this heat is no fun, but we are so so thrilled that Arthur will be having a SISTER in October 🥰 All over the world having a baby girl is often seen as less desirable but that couldn't be less true in our household. She will be so loved and championed and supported 💜

I don't speak for the whole Labour membership, but I'd be pissed off if after 14 years of opposition and campaigning for a Labour govt, we threw away 3 more years of governing for a *chance* of having 5 more years.

easy to say now that there shouldn't be an early General Election but the calls for the "illegitimate" and "unelected" Prime Minister Andy Burnham to call an election will be so loud and so relentless that it'll overshadow everything else. It'll make governing difficult.

"...and floppy discs were actually made of hard plastic" @yewisloung.bsky.social

The heat is making Ellen silly 😼