The headline for this piece is distracting. Ken Loach has many important things to say and it's worth everyone listening. 'The people who have nothing are always blamed, and the people who got rich on the system escape.'

Yes. Like other New Labour characters, Wes Streeting quickly adopted the art of spin to sell a good story about himself. Most people who work in the NHS are well aware of the cans he has kicked down the road.

That's the hard bit because community organising is slow, local, and doesn't scale the way policy does. But it's also the only thing that makes policy stick. Without the organised base, reforms get reversed the moment political winds shift.

Myown take: AI can't yet feel. Ergo, it can't yet write.

A neat summary of where we're at. For me, as a critical and community psychologist, I think this is the hardest bit: 'we need community organising to deliver the kind of mutual aid that has always protected workers from crises caused by capital.' I just don't know how to do this!

Not only do I read @graceblakeley.substack.com because I trust her judgement on economic matters, but I also enjoy her wry humour. BP is today's king in the altogether.

I don't necessarily agree with either side, but I do know what it's like to face constant pressure in a job. I even wrote a novel about the pressure I faced as a clinical psychologist in the NHS. I tried not to cave in to it. www.madintheuk.com/2025/03/pape...

This morning, @greenpeaceuk.bsky.social activists turned his golf course on the west coast of Scotland into a wind farm. Sign the petition: action.greenpeace.org.uk/renewable-re... CHOOSE WIND. DUMP TRUMP.

The history of madness is the history of power. Because it imagines power, madness is both impotence and omnipotence. It requires power to control it. Threatening the normal structures of authority, insanity is engaged in an endless dialogue—a monomaniacal monologue sometimes— about power.

Wow... Next year will mark the 60th anniversary of the 1st ATM in the UK. And now people are often just paying with their phones. www.theguardian.com/money/2007/j...

The difference between AI and a real human being is a bit like the difference between Quorn/soy/meat substitute and real meat. It might taste ok at first but then it becomes a bit unpalatable.

Sometimes you have to go back to go forward.

On World Storytelling Day and the spring equinox, 20th March 2026, some words from the great story teller, Michael Morpurgo: We must sing and we must hope.

'...even a ‘good death’ through palliative care cannot take away the loss of dignity and prolonged suffering.' www.itv.com/news/2026-03...

"When life itself seems lunatic, who knows where madness lies? Perhaps to be too practical is madness. To surrender dreams – this may be madness. Too much sanity may be madness, and maddest of all: to see life as it is and not as it should be." Cervantes, Don Quixote

A reflection on @graceblakeley.substack.com's latest blog: midpsy.uk/2026/03/17/c...

@graceblakeley.substack.com is spot on as usual. We’re human beings. Our imaginations are one of our most defining human characteristics. We can imagine a better world. And we can inspire each other in the process of doing so. Who knows what powerful acts of resistance could emerge from us?

"When life itself seems lunatic, who knows where madness lies? Perhaps to be too practical is madness. To surrender dreams – this may be madness. Too much sanity may be madness, and maddest of all: to see life as it is and not as it should be." Cervantes, Don Quixote

A reflection on @graceblakeley.substack.com's latest blog: midpsy.uk/2026/03/17/c...

@graceblakeley.substack.com is spot on as usual. We’re human beings. Our imaginations are one of our most defining human characteristics. We can imagine a better world. And we can inspire each other in the process of doing so. Who knows what powerful acts of resistance could emerge from us?

This argument also applies to drugs for mental health problems. In neither case do the drugs address the underlying problems. midpsy.uk

This is what bravery and leadership looks like. 'A government’s overriding duty, said Sánchez, was to protect and improve the lives of its citizens, not to manipulate or profit from global conflicts.'

Check out this excellent review of my excellent book in the latest issue of Asylum Magazine: midpsy.uk/2026/02/28/p...

These videos are great. I imagine many people would find them helpful. I wish I had come across these whilst I was still working as a consultant clinical psychologist!

Breath of fresh air. Don't ask how I am. 'Because the answer's going to be the same every day: not good.' Fuck the cult of mandatory optimism.

Privatisation broke our water system. @labourslewis.bsky.social has a people-first, evidence-based alternative, and I’m backing it. Add your name to the People’s Plan for Water: ​https://actionnetwork.org/forms/water-belongs-to-all-of-us-back-the-peoples-plan-for-water?source=bluesky&​

New review of Team Of One 'It deserves the widest readership – including MH practitioners, the people who use their services, and anyone who wonders why we are further than ever from finding the promised technical fix for widespread confusion and despair.' midpsy.uk/2026/02/28/p...

Honestly. Everyone should be seriously outraged about this. We've been robbed of our clean rivers and seas. This is today's picture of how much sewage has been dumped. If you're not outraged, you're not paying attention.

The most dangerous terrorists in our world do not skulk in the shadows with Kalashnikovs; - they sit behind polished desks in the full glare of the global media. Miffsky, February 2026

This portrayal of Cuba, its resistance against all odds, made me think of a typical psychiatric patient, made out by most to have something wrong with them, when in fact there is a refusal to acknowledge the problems of the world which have made them like this. open.substack.com/pub/gracebla...

I ran it once.

I'm a clinical psychologist. This is madness.

Don't be fooled by the AI narrative. Read this @graceblakeley.substack.com instead. 'All this new investment isn’t creating jobs – instead, it’s supercharging inequality.'

The most dangerous terrorists in our world do not skulk in the shadows with Kalashnikovs; - they sit behind polished desks in the full glare of the global media. Miffsky, February 2026

This portrayal of Cuba, its resistance against all odds, made me think of a typical psychiatric patient, made out by most to have something wrong with them, when in fact there is a refusal to acknowledge the problems of the world which have made them like this. open.substack.com/pub/gracebla...

London’s “worst mass eviction in recent history” is underway; hundreds of households across London told to get out of their homes this week by the same landlord, ahead of the renters rights act. The landlord? Billionaire Asif Aziz’s Criterion Capital. www.londoncentric.media/p/asif-aziz-...

Clearly at this moment in history, what the UK needs is more IAPT: midpsy.uk/2026/02/20/t...

Clearly at this moment in history, what the UK needs is more IAPT: midpsy.uk/2026/02/20/t...

I ran it once.

#Snow in the valley today. #LongMynd #ChurchStretton #Shropshire @thephotohour.bsky.social @snowhour.bsky.social

Holy shit! That’s my professional analysis. Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor becomes the first senior royal in modern history to be arrested. Police have raided the Royal Family's Sandringham estate. Holy shit!

I'm a clinical psychologist. This is madness.

This is a great initiative by public-spirited Brummies concerned about flags being used as a cover for harassment and intimidation. As they say, communities deserve to feel safe. Hence this form enabling community-led incident reporting: baserow.io/form/B_y0YQ2...

Why should I let the toad work squat on my life?

Amelia Tait is so right. Down with dopamine depleting tat! Also, if you want to show your Valentine love, hugs are free.

Hands off my data! If you want to opt out of sharing your health records, because you don't want to be a product which is bought and sold by private companies like Palantir, you can do so here: your-data-matters.service.nhs.uk

'Palentir is like the biggest octopus you ever saw, with so many legs you couldn't count them'. www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSRw...

If you've ever had the experience of not being listened to at work, you might identify with this. @jeremycorbyn.bsky.social on much more than Mandelson...this is about how power operates and how power corrupts... and the price we are paying for other people's greed www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSRw...

Ghislaine Maxwell invoked her Fifth Amendment right today and didn't answer questions about Epstein and Trump, including this one posed to her by Rep. Ro Khanna. But this question must be answered:

'Starmerism derived coherence from its war on the Labour left. Once the enemy had been defeated, his coalition lost its unifying purpose.' Nowhere near as destructive as Thatcherism, but Starmerism is possibly way more disappointing. So many of us were desperate for something so much better.