I really think the ‘HEATWAVE IS BACK NEXT WEEEEEEEEK!!!!!’ people need to understand the important and fundamental difference between 29 degrees (uncomfortably hot for some) and 37 degrees (too hot for infrastructure to deal with/people die).

🔥 Europe is starting to push Palantir out. Things are looking rough for Palantir in Europe… …as they are increasingly seen as a danger to sovereignty with a high risk of structural lock-in and major ethical concerns. Please share.

A year 7 pupil told me this morning that her friend filled out a ‘how good a friend are you?’ online quiz but it asked lots of questions about the entire friendship group’s home addresses, date of births etc. There’s a special place in hell for whoever is scamming 11 year olds like this.

I am not SM’s biggest fan, but we who have a platform have a duty to talk about politicians (particularly if they are women of colour who are statistically more vulnerable) in a way that does not dog whistle the volatile and violent far-right. This is shameful behaviour by Allison Pearson.

I got an early review copy of this and thoroughly recommend….

If virtual reality technologies can help students experiencing mental health difficulties, that should be welcomed – but it shouldn’t become a substitute for addressing the root causes of those difficulties… | via @natashadevon.bsky.social

What does Christopher Harborne think he is buying when he keeps sponsoring right wing politicians? (Is the question everyone should be asking).

This month my Teach Secondary column is about schools piloting VR headsets for neurodivergeant children and those overwhelmed with anxiety and how I’m not sure how I feel about it - www.teachwire.net/news/vr-for-...

Can’t stop thinking about the bloke who rang my show last night to insist there was a ‘scientific consensus’ that the uk is ‘beyond optimal population capacity’ and when pushed for evidence to back up this extraordinary claim replied ‘David Attenborough says the earth is overpopulated’. 🤪😬🙃

Tens of thousands celebrated Budapest Pride, the first since Viktor Orbán’s ousting.

I remain incredulous about the extent to which people just parrot ‘WhYdOnThEyStAyInFrAnCe?’ whenever the question of asylum seekers is raised without apparently doing the most cursory of research, thinking about it for more than 3 seconds or indeed caring about the answer.

Coming up on LBC from 6pm (27.06.26) - Will Mahmoud’s latest asylum reform plans work (make the system better and also appeal to those on the Labour left)? - Will Burnham bring about the ‘vibe shift’ the govt so desperately need? - What should be done to make Britain more resilient to extreme heat?

The multimillionaire Nigel Farage rails against climate action, while gliding from one air-conditioned building to another. He knows that he and his ilk will suffer least. But he is prepared to sacrifice everyone else to the demands of his fossil-fuelled funders. So much for "the man of the people".

What is the deal with London busses please? I had an accident and cut my foot open yesterday so had to get a bus instead of walking home and I swear it was about 50 degrees? People were getting on then off at the next stop because they couldn’t hack it. And the driver has to sit in that all day???

I work in education and media so I know what it’s like to be in a poorly ventilated room with 30 kids of different needs trying to teach them stuff and I know what it’s like to sit in an air conditioned studio pontificating. I say ppl who do the latter should STFU about ppl who do the former.

I just read a thing by Greenpeace which said ‘this is the least hot summer you’ll experience for the rest of your life’ and if I wasn’t so lethargic and floppy in this heatwave I’d run around screaming.

Couldn’t stop thinking about Sarah Pochin’s stupid domestic violence video so I wrote a substack about it and why it’s emblematic of a general dangerous social attitude - tashthinks.substack.com/p/the-idea-t...

The next PM could - and in my view should - properly stick it to Trump (as Meloni has just done); announce a plan to undo Brexit; put immigration to bed for at least one electoral cycle; take their government off Twitter; unequivocally condemn Netanyahu & resurrect Leveson 2… A boy can dream.

The great irony is that most climate change deniers are scared of climate change. They’re so afraid of climate change that they’re cosying up to fossil fuel companies who pay them enough that they can be in a wage bracket where they will be some of the last to feel the effects of climate change.

In these challenging times someone might need one of them: Childline: 0800 1111 Samaritans: 116 123 Domestic Violence Hotline: 0808 2000 247 Mind: 0300 123 3393 Age UK: 0800 169 6565 Alcoholics Anonymous : 0800 9177 650 Cruse Bereavement Care: 0808 808 1677 MH text support: 85258 Please share. TY x

Sending love and solidarity to Scottish Muslims. Thinking of you.

Join me from 6pm on LBC (20.06): - Reform in Makerfield- Was it the wrong candidate or does the nation now reject their divisive politics? - Social media ban - does it actually play into the hands of Big Tech? - After Pochin’s misjudged comments, why is still so hard for some ppl to understand DV?

Breaking - Michael Deacon of the telegraph issues ‘everyone stop saying ‘her penis’’ challenge …

Uhm…. He isn’t prime minister yet?

“Young women should dress sexier” agrees Sohrab Ahmari, 41

Love that 20k people signed this on day 1 Why? Because we’re DONE Tech companies profit from hate & disinformation every day & face zero legal liability because they’re classed as “platforms” not publishers An insane loophole that needs closing NOW PLS SIGN you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/st...

Hearing @jemmaforte.bsky.social say ‘we will get some sensible views a bit later but first here is someone quite pompous saying something a bit mad’ on the latest ep of @thetrawl.bsky.social really makes me wish she presented the news 😂 open.spotify.com/episode/3i3u...

Seems like when Sarah Pochin claimed on tv last night to have spent 20 years fighting VAWG she was referencing her time as a magistrate (so it’s not like she worked in a DV shelter or similar). Anyway, after learning this, I did some digging….. www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpo...

That’s now THREE (count em’) by elections where the public have decisively rejected Reform’s divisive politics and racist/sexist rhetoric. Makes me more proud to be British than their faux-patriotism and pathetic flag worshipping ever will.

Farage no doubt currently deciding which of his two disaster modes to deploy a) hide and hope everyone forgets about this in a few weeks b) find some implausible way to try and blame this on Muslims.

Kohen Wiley, a 1-year-old child, is dead after a Mississippi police officer shot into a car and killed him. Family members say his mother was holding him in the passenger seat. The officers were responding to a shoplifting call over a box of diapers at the Senatobia Walmart.

Reform ‘logic’ - If a dark skinned possible immigrant harms women and girls - riot with intent of harming everyone who looks like them. If it’s a football fan after a World Cup defeat he just couldn’t help himself and it’s the England’s squad’s fault for not winning.

It’s stuff like this that makes me believe the conspiracy theory that we all died during COVID and are now trapped in purgatory. youtube.com/shorts/TEfBm...

Lodge this in your mind. The reality is diametrically opposed to what most of the media and several political parties are telling us.

Squeaky bum time as Makerfield residents start voting….

I genuinely don’t think Claire Coutinho could have sounded less sincere when ‘remembering the victims of Grenfell’ if she had tried. #PMQs

Genuinely terrifying read….

People comparing social media to tobacco - I have a better analogy. Social media is like shop that sells things that are bad for you like alcohol and fags but also fruit, water and bread. We’ve just banned kids from the shop (when there are street vendors outside just selling fags and alcohol).

Duh

A) This a properly brilliant piece of investigative journalism by BBC & @hopenot.bsky.social Huge kudos to all involved for doing the job the UK police & CPS failed to do: naming the alleged spymaster & clearly showing Kremlin’s role. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Next time you read a headline about the cost of the benefits bill - or how we must “cut welfare to pay for warfare” - perhaps share the above. The DWP is wasting millions forcing people through pointless reassessments and it’s only the private sector who are getting the benefit (no pun intended).

73% of people with learning disabilities, 86% of those who had an amputation, and 62% of claimants with cerebral palsy were given fixed-term awards last year – meaning they are required to undergo reassessments every two to three years. Funnily enough, those conditions don’t often change.

Hundreds of thousands of disabled people with lifelong conditions are being put through “pointless” benefit reassessments, contrary to official guidelines. This includes people with learning disabilities and limb amputations. My exclusive: www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Imagine if the govt gave contract for social media ID verification to Palantir. I mean…. It’s not NOT likely.

They are going to have to do far more to reassure population about face scanning/ID documentation and where that data will be stored/secured if they want to prevent mass social media exodus after ban for under 16s. I’m not arsed, but some people rely on social media to make….

Funny you ask, because it’s an explicit goal of the US right wing/MAGA to increase teenage pregnancies. This is not a joke. This is why their strategy includes a) banning access to information on reproductive health, as porn, and b) classifying contraception as abortion, so it’s censored online.

Social went wrong with infinite scrolling/algorithms feeding us content designed to grab our attention (which in reality often means content designed to make us angry/anxious). It wasn’t nearly so addictive or sinister before then. That’s why Bluesky is better.

I will be leaving social media next spring (not Bluesky where ban doesn’t apply) because I don’t want to submit sensitive ID information which may be vulnerable to hacks & misuse. I sense lots of people older than 16 will do similar. I actually feel quite positive about it. Might stop OUR addiction.

This makes sense because famously social media has a watershed and no pornography, potentially radicalising hate speech or pro suicide/self-harm content is posted on there before 10pm. 😬