"non clinical staff" deciding if you're ok to go back to work after a miscarriage/mastectomy/severe epilepsy etc. Oh yeah this is gonna kill people.

For lovers of gothic fiction, a creepy short story by yours truly. Seemed appropriate after a scanxiety intense week. #writing #booksky open.substack.com/pub/stephani...

My blood marker test came back & my cancer remains undetectable. Which is great news. I do have some concerning symptoms, so we are following up with a CT scan, but my oncologist isn't expecting to find anything bad. She is acting out of an abundance of caution. Caution is reassuring.

Tomorrow, I'm seeing my oncologist to find out if my cancer is kicking off again. I keep trying to distract myself, but my brain keeps gnawing on how similar my current symptoms are to those before my last recurrence. People talk about scanxiety, but mine is more like scan-hypochondria. #cansky

Is the neverending pursuit for convenience making us lonelier and angrier? Do we need to actively reintroduce mindful friction to our lives? My latest A Life Quixotic article is up! open.substack.com/pub/stephani...

I don’t believe that most voters are OK with this. A moral failing of the British media that these four reprobates were not made (in)famous enough to be stopped.

Gratitude is a lovely emotion, but as a cancer survivor, it can feel like it is the only emotion you are allowed to express. Screw that.

Every nation should propose an Attenborough Act, enshrining the rights of Nature, and all its creatures and life-sustaining functions and features, in every constitution, in perpetuity. They deserve it, and so does Sir David. It would be a fitting tribute to a life well lived. Happy birthday, Sir.

I voted today. Whoop whoop! This is my didn't vote for reform face

My latest A Life Quixotic article is up on substack. Dedicated to everyone living with #cancer or other #chronicillnesses. You are not alone. open.substack.com/pub/stephani...

My latest A Life Quixotic article is dedicated to anyone whose role has been made redundant. Although I'm hoping it might help anyone facing uncertainty. open.substack.com/pub/stephani...

My second 'A Life Quixotic' article has gone live today. This week, I talk about what resilience isn't, and I share some of the techniques I've used to navigate tough times. It is more lighthearted than it sounds, I promise open.substack.com/pub/stephani...

My second 'A Life Quixotic' article has gone live today. This week, I talk about what resilience isn't, and I share some of the techniques I've used to navigate tough times. It is more lighthearted than it sounds, I promise open.substack.com/pub/stephani...

Hi, I just signed this! We’re trying to break the record for the UK's biggest ever thank you card - dedicated to everyone in our community who makes life a bit easier. Will you add your name and pass this on so we can break the record?! you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/si...

Great to be in London on the massive demo against the far right! Brilliant atmosphere of solidarity, unity and hope. We will not be divided. Thanks to all the organisers and speakers. @togetheralliance.bsky.social #standuptoracism #unity #hope

BBC PROTEST BLACKOUT

Data meets demagogue. Paul McNamara didn’t let Farage hide behind “leaflet” waffle—just pinned him down with facts. This is what accountability looks like. #r4today

Farage told us, leaving the EU would let Britain make better trade deals He was told, that's rubbish, the EU is much, much bigger. it has greater bargaining power Turns out we were right UKIP, Brexit Party+Tories, ex-Tories in Reform Ltd were wrong! meme via Improvements since we had Brexit

So it turns out the real scandal of the Gorton and Denton by-election was the willingness of media organisations to collude in Nigel Farage's attempt to undermine the result of a free and fair election www.adambienkov.co.uk/p/how-the-bb...

Farage and Reform wasted police time? A Greater Manchester Police investigation found no evidence of any intent to influence or stop any person from voting at the Gorton and Denton by-election.

Absolutely nothing on the impartial BBC website. Why are they so against reporting on the UK public’s stance against the far right? Shameful.

But in the UK depression only matters if you're actively trying to kill yourself.* Anything else is just a normal bad mood (even if it's gone on for decades) & you should man up & get to work. Right, @rthonwessstreeting.bsky.social? *and when Assisted Dying comes in, the govt will help you do it

If it’s true Reform UK’s Treasury spokesperson Robert Jenrick told a business audience last night that renewable companies are "screwed" if Reform get in, it tells you everything about their readiness to inflict national self-harm in pursuit of ideological war on climate action.

Good morning. The President of the United States was in the middle of the most serious child sex trafficking ring of the last quarter century. He is referenced not a dozen times in the case files. Not 100 times. Not 1,000 times. He’s referenced 38,000 times.

The problem is - & the lesson we should take from Epstein - is that that behaviour is on the spectrum of "normal, for powerful human men." This seems to become more true the more powerful he is. Enabling & excusing it seems to become normal for both women & men in the blast radius of powerful men.

What I find amusing about the Express' cinematic universe is that the UK is simultaneously free and thriving thanks to Brexit and poor and oppressed thanks to the current government. This dichotomy is also reflected in Mail/Telegraph etc but its at its most acute in the Express.

Looking at #epstein reports , thinking of the deference to power that allows all this and the people who have fought so hard for justice - here is a not nice #poem that erupted today

Liam is in ICE custody and his health is deteriorating. Joaquin Castro says Liam is depressed, lethargic, sleeping excessively and barely eating, repeatedly asking about his mom, and when he can go home. He’s withdrawn and not the bright preschooler he was just days ago. LIAM NEEDS A DOCTOR 1/2

#Epstein #EpsteinFiles

Reform UK Councillor Mick Cockerham of Newton Abbot South is showing, through this sick statement, what British values mean to Reform politicians. #UKPolitics

Dear voter, sick of the other parties and tempted by Reform UK? Don’t be daft. Don’t do it. They’re not your friends. Unless you are already rich, this report proves that they will only make your life and your family’s lives worse talkingupscotlandtwo.com/2026/01/28/d...

University Student loans do not go to Universities, they do not go to the Government. They have been sold to billionaire bankers who do not pay ANY tax in the UK on the money. As well as leaving 4m people in crippling debt they are destroying the economy.

Jonesy cartoon in Private Eye No. 1667

The USA now ranks in the top 10 countries in the world for State Violence which is the State using violent/fatal force against people who oppose it. It isn't a safe place, don't visit, certainly not to watch a ball being kicked around or a person sprinting 100m.

Massive anti-impunity protests broke out in more than 70 cities across the US over the weekend; hundreds of thousands of people are calling for the fall of the Trump regime, the arrest of regime officials, and the abolition of ICE. Chicago, protesting in under -20°. #3E #GoodvsEvil

Palantir is working with ICE. Why the hell are we giving Palantir our NHS information. Palantir need to be banned from UK Goverment, just like the Swiss banned them from theirs.

And Keir #Starmer thinks this an appropriate site for our government to be using. And he thinks it's an appropriate site for this country to be using.

For a government that is led by a former human rights lawyer, the treatment of these hunger strikers is truly debased

Well the UK IS an unwelcoming, racist country.

Happy Christmas Eve Eve. Tonight, I'll be wrapping presents while watching Going Postal (both parts). It is a tradition stemming from the fact I have a large family and one film was never long enough. Do you have any "not technically Christmassy" Christmas viewing rituals?

Shock collars. Puppy farms. Caged hens. Farrowing crates. Years of Tory rule and they did f*ck all. Now there’s a bill to stop animal cruelty and the Tories are screeching again. Cruel, rotten, amoral b**tards. Same f**th, different day. #ukpolitics

I'm meeting up with my writing group to celebrate solstice this evening. There is a thinning line betwixt writer and witch.

The Yanks' Christian Taliban scam has crossed the pond. Slashing the minimum wage, free healthcare and disability benefits isn’t very Christian. But since when has Farage ever given a toss about the poor, innit.

The real question is not "Why is Bluesky so left-coded," the real question is "Why can't the right exist in a social media environment without algorithmic assistance, where people can ignore them"

Michelle Mone can be expelled from the House of Lords by a simple majority vote in the Commons, and then in the House of Lords. Like if she needs to go. RT if she has to go.