"More than 250 people were subjected to painful electric shocks, designed to change their sexuality and gender identity, in NHS hospitals between 1965 and 1973, the BBC has discovered." www.bbc.com/news/article...

Recently, @louknightsmccudden.bsky.social , MSI UK's Head of External Relations, spoke on the @opendemocracy.net podcast about the importance of abortion decriminalisation. 🔗Listen to the episode: www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNlo... #Abortion

Incredibly reasonable and impartial question for journalists to ask - and demand a real answer

The worrying rise of US anti-abortion rhetoric is in full force - how deep is Reform UK's involvement? share.google/6GuBaRun7YuU...

This reminds me of the episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer when Jonathan creates an alternate world where everyone thinks he's cool and popular and he can do everything. By the end of the ep he learns that he's sad and pathetic and the fantasy isn't real.

Today is International Men’s Day. So here’s to refugee men fleeing abuse, trans men denied healthcare, queer men bullied for being different, Black men racially profiled, disabled men excluded from work, and all the other men who fail at being “real men.” May we continue to cultivate our humanity.

Royal British Legion warns political activists against hijacking Faversham’s Remembrance Day parade share.google/EawQ7ntWTWfV...

"We need to remain firm against anyone who works to roll back our hard-won rights.” On the anniversary of Safe Access Zones last Friday, our Head of External Affairs @louknightsmccudden.bsky.social spoke to Stylist on the state of UK abortion rights. Read it here: www.stylist.co.uk/news/abortio...

What's this sudden obsession with hobbits from the ethnonationalists?

"I imagine one of the reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, they will be forced to deal with pain." This James Baldwin quote is hitting harder than ever.

"But then in 2000 The Blind Assassin won the Booker prize. Whew, I thought. I no longer have to deal with reporters asking me why I didn’t win it, only with the ones who’ll be saying why I shouldn’t have." share.google/H1khJwv0xVtt...

I try to avoid "real organizers vs. fake/keyboard organizers" framings for the most part but one thing you learn quickly from organizing is how difficult it is to get people to do anything at all, how much you're competing against sociologically. people are overworked and tired

On Threads, the AP promoted this story with the caption: “Anti-abortion pregnancy centers offer much more than free ultrasounds and diapers. Here's why they're expanding as Planned Parenthood clinics close.” Do better @apnews.com

Interesting piece. But it's not just about channels, it's about a larger crisis in government comms - and in society - which is not a new thing and goes back perhaps 15 years. Put simply, the Whitehall comms machine has lost the ability to win arguments.

A conservative Christian group that helped overturn the right to abortion in the US is now attacking UK abortion rights. With the same tactics used to overturn #RoevWade, they're attacking abortion clinic buffer zones and gestational limits. @bradleyjane.bsky.social & Elizabeth Dias report ⬇️

"Eicke listed ways... the court changed the UK. This included the abolition of birching in the 1970s, helping to expose the thalidomide scandal, lifting the ban on homosexual people in the armed forces and being responsible for the Hillsborough public inquiry reopening." share.google/hn2s3u5k419c...

“I think it’s very powerful as a message to send to the world that parliamentarians in this country have voted to defend the right to choose." In @bigissue.com, @louknightsmccudden.bsky.social spoke about the UK's move towards full decriminalisation of abortion. www.bigissue.com/news/social-...

First Wives Club “You Don’t Own Me” is circling in my brain always. youtu.be/dRLdtDYoVX8?... RIP, to a legend and style icon.

where do people like this think creativity happens? it happens IN the transitions, it happens in navigating through all the difficult bits; the pleasure of creating is inextricable from the difficulty, it's all one cloth. you deliberately conflate that with rote productivity then you have no soul

They imagine ideas emerge from the ether, bolts of lightening disconnected from our hearts. They imagine the process is an obstacle not the whole damn point. The idea of being stuck and having something just hand you some...solution, is so off putting to me as an artist.

People who think the idea of "give me ideas" is something genuinely creative people want have literally never experienced the absolute EUPHORIA of a brainstorming breakthrough, either solo or with a human collaborator. They don't understand what is happening when artists create, on a basic level.

"That's not the language I would have used" is not an acceptable response to this at all. Journalists need to make sure that this line repeatedly gets the response it deserves

Tice's quote is fake. Starmer said: "While we must come together to fight Reform with everything this movement has, we must go into that battle armed – not just with words but condemnation – but with action. That means tackling all the problems they pray upon. All the problems.”

Richard Tice has made up a fake quote from the PM to claim he incited violence against his political opponents. It was not sufficiently challenged in the Sky News interview that he did not say it, because the interviewer didn't have the text. Ofcom should rule uk.news.yahoo.com/no-keir-star...

It is disgusting, horrifying, and heartbreaking that this even needs to be said. But sadly it does.

I'm getting really really fed up at constant reassertion that welfare spending is "out of control" when it is the same as the average for the past few decades. One reason disability benefit costs have risen is because core support has fallen.

We've been featured in Stylist this #InternationalSafeAbortionDay 🌟 "We need to consider what fighting for reproductive justice might look like in a global political climate which is more hostile to human rights and equality." - @louknightsmccudden.bsky.social www.stylist.co.uk/news/politic...

One of the ironies in the age of micro-targeting is that a single unifying narrative/message is more important than ever.

A great new project.

The heuristic of 'if you couldn't make a decent stab at writing their obituary without further reporting, you shouldn't write a thinkpiece about their thoughts reveal about our times' remains very strong.

“Understandably, autistic people will be dismayed and frightened by this... We urge our Govt and NHS to stand by autistic people and condemn this misinformation. "We urge anyone looking for information about autism to visit websites from trusted organisations." www.autism.org.uk/what-we-do/n...

Good piece by @chrisdillow.bsky.social on probability compression, relativism, and the idea of media balance

Hey a thing I really don’t want to get lost here is that while Tylenol doesn’t cause autism, IT’S FINE TO BE AUTISTIC. Let’s not grant them the premise that autism should be eradicated in our way to correct the science, okay? Okay.

A "marketplace of ideas" isn't going to be any less distorted by money and power and corruption and imperfect information and negative externalities (or the free speech equivalent) than actual markets

I can explain the term "the woke right." The logic: 1) I denounced "wokeness" for years, proclaiming it dire threat to free speech, a civilizational danger 2) This fascism I was downplaying while focused on wokeness seems actually bad 3) Since I am by definition never wrong, the fascism is wokeness

I’ve seen other people express this far better than me. But if, like me, you’re finding the ‘free speech’ hypocrisy of the right unbearable, you have to remember they know what they are doing. It’s not that they haven’t realised how illogical and hypocritical they are. They know,they just don’t care

Great interview with Baroness Lady Hale, first female president of the supreme court, from @zoesqwilliams.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/law/2025/sep...

"The phrase chronically online... can sound dismissive, as if being on screens all the time is a frivolous obsession." "But... for many young people, being online is about necessity, connection and community." Blog by sexual health charity Brook: share.google/BGIxBVIMGMgH...

Bertrand Russell, at 89 years old, to Sir Oswald Mosley, a man most famous for founding, in 1932, the British Union of Fascists. I'm all for civil discourse. But everyone can and should draw a line at who they will talk to. Notice that Russell did not demean himself with incivility, either.

Research shows what we all knew was happening - period tracking apps are being used to help the government monitor our reproductive lives, and by companies to make a profit. english.elpais.com/health/2025-...

Fantastic column by @stephenkb.bsky.social "Racism in the UK remains the preserve of an extreme minority — but one that is emboldened and growing louder. It is the result of a year in which neither the government nor the opposition have been willing to draw red lines." www.ft.com/content/fbbd...

As I say, it really does demonstrate why political leadership on racism matters - a non-trivial chunk of people will follow where leaders of their big party move. Heath and Wilson proved that in 1968, and Starmer and Badenoch are proving it in 2025.

In July in Glasgow we protested a racist who brought his ‘mass deportations’ horror show to our city. Here he is at the anti-abortion protest in London last weekend. ‘Protect arrr women’ is a lie. They don’t care when women die.

Great, readable explainer from @ukandeu.bsky.social on the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and the Good Friday Agreement ukandeu.ac.uk/explainers/t...

Too often, this rubbish gets seen as exciting but harmlessly funny, when in fact it's both boring and dangerous.

Good to hear @kimjohnsonmp.bsky.social on Politics Live speaking sense regarding refugees, about the need for humane policies and safe routes.

Breaking News: Appeals court upholds $83 million jury verdict against Trump for defaming magazine writer E. Jean Carroll. https://cnn.it/42iEoF1

"The greatest danger to women and girls is not a nameless stranger. It is overwhelmingly someone they already know. Partners, ex-partners, relatives, colleagues or neighbours." Fantastic piece in @bigissue.com. This is what sincere media engagement with this subject can look like.

It should be a scandal. It should be a story. It won’t be.