By Hiroshi Yasuda: A COVID wave kills selected vulnerable people while making healthy people vulnerable. You may be selected in the next wave. Source: x.com/Yash25571056...

Document from NHS England which basically says when there is another Pandemic we can’t be bothered to protect you, it’s too costly. We are on our own folks. H/T @catinthehat.bsky.social

@mrjamesob.bsky.social hope this comes up on the show sometime soon 🙏

I wish more people were aware of this. Considering the scale of the threat, the media's near-silence is both remarkable and culpable. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

The truth … not enough hospital beds is the cause of A&E delays … political failure & NHS leaders complicit with them Jan 23 Rishi Sunak promised 5000 more PERMANENT hospital beds. NHSE leaders in Dec 23 said that there were added. There are 400 fewer beds now than when he made that announcement!

Enshittification of services. Why is this still happening? What is the government for if not to sort this out promptly? www.theguardian.com/money/2025/d...

@mrjamesob.bsky.social another topic for the programme?

The myth that the NHS is ‘free’ is propagated by people who don’t want it to exist. No it’s not free! It’s paid for by the public - and many older patients who need the service more than most have paid into the system for their entire working lives!

Before Margaret Thatcher the UK had much cheaper rail, much cheaper mail, some of the cheapest Energy and Fossil Fuel in Europe and the cheapest water in Europe. Because we owned it. Look at it now, you pay more, the State PAYS more (totally insane), and it is worse.

Extreme inequality is poisoning democracy, stalling growth, and fuelling division. At the upcoming Budget, the Government can stop the rot if they tax the super-rich, end the cuts and protect public services. Demand a budget for the 99.9%. taxjustice.eaction.org.uk/budgetforthe...

Of course you know why a private market in health care is so bad for health. The best way to make money is to sell a drug that relieves the symptoms of, but does not cure, a very uncomfortable chronic condition. The worst way to make money is to prevent illness through social change.

Today we’ve been in the West Midlands. Thanks so much to @sarahedwardsmp.bsky.social for coming down with Poykee, Westminster Dog of the Year #TaxTheSuperRich

Great to see @kimjohnsonmp.bsky.social in Liverpool this morning. Thanks for your support! #TaxTheSuperRich

Patriotic Millionaires with the message "Tax us the super-rich"  | North East Bylines

Universal Credit allows bosses to get away with paying wages that are too low to live on. Don't stigmatise the millions of hard-working people who depend on it as 'lazy'.

Living with Long COVID often feels like living in a horror movie. Along with your disease comes a creepy Hive Mind refusal to acknowledge the dangers of COVID infection. In Vince Gilligan's new Apple TV show Pluribus, the Hive Mind comes to life: www.thegauntlet.news/p/pluribus-c...

The lesson of history is that tyrants cannot be appeased. Appeasement only feeds their insatiable hunger for power. Tyrants prey on people who feel unsafe and vulnerable. But without mass submission, a tyrant is powerless. Remember this.

As a Muslim, at a time of division Mamdani has brought much of his city together. He spoke for Mexican abuelas & Ethiopian aunties. “No longer would politics be something that is done to us. Now, it is something that we do”. It is shameful that not one of our UK leaders has been able to do the same.

Met the former editor of the York Evening Press last night, who said in the mid-90s he had 85 people working directly for him, including nine staff photographers. All that to serve a city and surrounding area of about 200k people. Local news was wilddddd.

Congratulations to Lidia Morawska, the Aussie scientist who alerted the world to the airborne nature of COVID-19. Winner of the Prime Minister’s Prize for Science. I’ve learnt so much from being a (very minor) part of Lidia’s team. Brilliant, incisive, generous. www.industry.gov.au/publications...

This is only the latest version of a recurring pattern. In the 1930s it was ‘if they are so poor how can they afford to go to the cinema?’ The response is that poverty is revealed not in choices but the cost of choices. What do they have to sacrifice to do or have things others take for granted?

We've just launched the first large, site-less (home, direct to participant) randomized trial for treatment of #LongCovid, testing tirzepatide (a GLP-1 drug) vs placebo. Please help spread the word www.scripps.edu/news-and-eve...

“Science is never settled” sounds reasonable—but it’s often a rhetorical trick to undermine consensus on issues like vaccines or climate change. Science evolves, but some things are overwhelmingly supported by evidence. My latest for Live Science www.livescience.com/... 1/10

Inside looming NHS winter crisis as hospitals face ‘armageddon’ - The Independent HOW CAN THIS BE??? Wes Streeting, what are you doing about this? “we’re hearing of trusts being told they cannot spend any more money on staffing.” #nhs @mrjamesob.bsky.social

@mrjamesob.bsky.social @kojokoram.bsky.social @garyseconomics.bsky.social @teamlabouruk.bsky.social @zackpolanski.bsky.social @eddavey.libdems.org.uk Why is this getting so little attention? Brilliantly said by @adityachakrabortty Let’s boost this please www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Yeah. Who needs English?

Rachel Reeves may lift two-child benefit cap in November budget. The cap affects 1.7m children. This Tory policy should have been abandoned last year. Must redistribute wealth. 1% have more wealth than 70% of the population combined. 16m live in poverty. Tax the rich.

Well said by @richardjmurphy.bsky.social eastangliabylines.co.uk/politics/sta...

Remember: The GOP’s nonsensical culture wars are meant to distract you from corporate corruption and plunder. [Cartoon by Jace Avery]

We’ve been at the @makethempay.bsky.social march today and patriotic millionaire Julia has a message for Rachel Reeves MP #TaxWealthNotWork #MakeThemPay

Doctors are patients too! #NHS is for all of us, although if you’re healthy & wealthy you may not need it As a society having access to care, free at the point of need, is worth fighting for Why? Because you never know when YOU might be in need! That’s a functioning society

@thetrawl.bsky.social @marina-purkiss.bsky.social “Nobellend Peace Prize” Well done @pimlicat.bsky.social what a brilliant invention! Cheered me up this morning after reading about 100 ways the world is going mad

Why Labour should make Jeremy Hunt the new Liam Byrne. (Reposted with a non sweary post for reasons.)

From refrigerators to dishwashers, many Americans feel that the quality of household appliances has declined significantly over the past few decades. Our Wirecutter expert wondered if companies were to blame and the culprit was planned obsolescence. Instead, she found a much more complicated story.

NHS has a major problem - it has a leak - retention crisis 18,000 UK-trained doctors have left to work abroad That's nearly one in seven UK-trained drs, representing a 50% increase since 2008 Imagine investing £𝟮𝟯𝟬,𝟬𝟬𝟬 𝗽𝗲𝗿 dr, only for it to benefit another country That’s UK workforce planning

What’s happened to the @bsky.app algorithm? Why can’t I see the posts of the people I follow where I used to see these? Now it’s just a lot of posts from unknown accounts I have no interest in. Anyone else has this happening?

It's amazing how the same politicians can describe VAT on public school fees as an attack on aspirational parents and then argue that free school meals for poor kids are a waste of money

@mrjamesob.bsky.social you did it again James! The breakup of the century #muskVsTrump happens the week you are away. Can I please ask you never go on a holiday again? 😆 can’t wait for your show when you’re back

You know those labour simulators they sometimes put on men so they can understand the joys of periods and/or childbirth? Sometimes I think we need a version for chronic illness. Too many people don’t “get it” until it happens to them. They’re insistent it’s our fault. We don’t try hard enough

Remember when Britain had 3600 Sure Start centres and no baby banks?

@mrjamesob.bsky.social I think you’ll like this analogy #brexit #jamesO’Brexit

A reminder that I made an Indie Sage list to make it easy to see members' posts... bsky.app/profile/did:...

If you want to stop World War Three, think what would have stopped World War Two. Occupation of the Ruhr. Anschluss with Austria. Annexation of Sudetenland. Hitler could have been stopped each time. But fear of war led to war. Don’t repeat the mistake. #SlavaUkraini

When mask mandates were enacted to try and save lives, the right screamed about freedom. When mask bans were passed? They celebrated. Because it’s not about freedom. With vaccine mandates, they screamed about autonomy. When vaccines get restricted, they cheer. Because it’s not about autonomy.