WHY ARE YOU ANNOYED THIS IS WHAT YOU WANTED TO HAPPEN

Very sad that I felt I had no choice but to resign from The Infinite Monkey Cage - a victory for the transphobes and other bigots - I did it because so much of the media has chosen to believe the kind and empathetic people are a fiction - they are real and so often unrepresented.

Reform a distant second, but just look at the Labour vote. Astonishing

1/ You wouldn’t know it from the coverage, but two recent employment tribunal rulings have vindicated those of us who have said from the start that the Supreme Court judgment did not require the automatic exclusion of trans people from single-sex toilets and changing rooms. 🧵

"To borrow a criticism, in his robust defence of Brexit freedoms, Starmer resembles Alec Guinness’s half-mad colonel in The Bridge on the River Kwai, protecting an edifice he has forgotten was built for the benefit of the other side."

NASA just lost contact with a Mars orbiter, and will soon lose another one arstechnica.com/space/2025/1...

Also, virtually nobody in the party (MPs or members) truly believes it apart from a few crackpot Blue Labour types.

whoop!!!!

This is the most Starship Troopers coded shit. Paul Verhoeven is like, "shit I should have gone further"

This echoes the deliberate and misleading conflation of "freedom of movement" and "immigration" by brexiters and by far too much of our lazy media in the EU referendum campaign.

The brexit con-men's edifice is crumbling. But freedom of movement is a benefit, not a cost. It was always supported by a majority of the UK public when framed (correctly) as a reciprocal right.

Today the i get the exclusive on our latest policy recommendation - how to get a UK EU Youth scheme over the line for the under 30s. It's a floor not a ceiling and should form the basis of negotiation discussions. I am extremely proud of the team and all our trade commissioners for their work. 🇬🇧🇪🇺🤝

Christmas in Wales at Tower Colliery, Glamorgan, 1993, photo by Martin Parr.

More than 2 million consumers in Kyiv are currently without electricity, meaning that 70% of the city is without power, local media report. Kyiv residents are without electricity for up to 16 hours a day because of Russian attacks on our energy infrastructure.

Rejoining the Customs Union would deliver clear advantages for the UK, and two thirds of 2024 Labour voters already support the move: it's time for Westminster to catch up.

Mini thread on the ET decision in Peggie Top line: It says exactly what we have been saying for months. The decision of the Supreme Court was not to turn the Equality Act 2010 into a nationwide bathroom ban - regardless of how anti-trans organisations have sought to misrepresent the law. 🧵👇

Mainly the ones from which I derive passwords.

Someone should do this for UK govt ministers (and Labour MPs)...

Prime Minister of Poland. 🇵🇱

It's a very normal day over at the other site.

@stellacreasy.bsky.social @mainstreamlabour.bsky.social @labourlewis.bsky.social How can our government continue to use a platform whose owner interferes with European democracy in this way?

Calling for regime change in Europe and supporting far-right forces also undermines the transatlantic alliance.

"The thing which has truly upset me this year is not the actions of people like Musk or Trump. We already knew that there are terrible people in the world. It’s how much compliance there is from people who should damn well know better."

A good roundup of reaction to the EV-related budget announcements. transportandenergy.com/2025/11/26/b...

Independent SAGE was a huge asset for anyone who wanted to keep informed about the pandemic. Also, credit to @openuniversity.bsky.social for their rapidly deployed free FutureLearn online learning courses on Covid-19.

The PM's, and the UK Government's, dithering, cost tens of thousands of lives. Clinicians in Lombardy gave us plenty of warning of what was about to hit us. Will Johnson apologise? And are we better prepared for the next pandemic?

"One irony of this situation is that while those on the British left tend to defend the BBC on principle, they are often exasperated by its deference to the right-wing press..." Exactly. "The Plan to Bring Down a Giant." www.cjr.org/the_media_to... in Columbia Journalism Review. Recommended.

Labour MP Brian Leishman: "The Government has surrendered to... the vile rhetoric of Reform. Does the Home Secretary not see that removing the legal obligation to support asylum seekers who will be otherwise destitute, is as far away from Labour Party principles and values as we can get?"

This is excellent news and long overdue.

The cruelty is the point. Shameful.

So the solution is… to join in? I'm afraid the “dark forces” are calling from inside the house at this point.

Thread from a Labour MP:

No, your phone lines are not much busier than normal. And no, your website does not answer my enquiry. It's late morning on a regular November Monday. Your first half 2025 profits were nearly €7 billion. Employ more people. #capitalism

Mahmood's diagnosis is correct. But instead of going aggressively after these "dark forces" with legislation and arrests, the government keeps appeasing and validating them. Madness. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...

when I hear Starmer speak about immigration and race he's spitting in the face of the Labour voters I knew growing up in Manchester, who put themselves on the line against the National Front - and often the police - in the 1970s and 1980s.

The Prime Minister said in September that we are at a fork in the road. These asylum proposals suggest we have taken the wrong turning. The idea that recognised refugees need to be deported is wrong. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Excellent piece. This image from 6 July 2024 (by Simon Dawson) felt hugely reassuring precisely because we expected calm competence from Starmer, in contrast to his Tory predecessors. It's hard to acknowledge that this confidence was misplaced.

The Christmas cake is in the oven and suddenly it's 1961.

I say it over and over again: when you have that much money, you want to live where you want to live and you are simply not going to relocate because of marginal tax rates Alan Dershowitz will never leave Martha’s Vineyard and they won’t even sell him a pierogi

🔉What dangers does X pose to our democracy? And should the government stop using it? Good to hear yesterday from @sundersays.bsky.social and @petergeoghegan.bsky.social on the immense risk of X as it ignores legal obligations and its owner tries to influence UK politics. @commonswec.parliament.uk

Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket lifts off from Cape Canaveral in Florida, carrying NASA's ESCAPADE spacecraft, two probes on their way to Mars. The rocket's first-stage booster, "Never Tell Me The Odds," successfully landed on Blue Origin's recovery barge, Jacklyn. Reporting for Supercluster

Tens of thousands of Labour members screaming THIS at Rachel Reeves this morning 🧵

Is there a petition? www.theguardian.com/media/2025/n...

Be clear, the American far right are coming for British democracy.

The most incredible library in the world, @bodleian.ox.ac.uk opened to OTD 1602, through the energy, money & commitment of Sir Thomas Bodley. It began with 5k books, & now more than 22m, with 2m+reader visits a year, & multi-million online users across the globe. Privilged to be its 25th librarian!

As a biochemistry undergraduate, I was enthralled by the clarity of explanation & excitement in The Molecular Biology of the Gene. Few teaching texts could compare. But this is the correct response to Watson's death, along with rejection of his incomprehensible later views on race and intelligence.

UK-wide broadcasters framed the coverage of the Caerphilly by-election result not around Plaid Cymru’s victory but the implications for the Labour Party and Reform UK, according to research carried out at Cardiff University ✍️Martin Shipton nation.cymru/news/plaid-c...

No, not like that, Lucy. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

I am hearing that @uniofnottingham.bsky.social is suspending (i.e shutting down) *all modern language courses* in 2026-27. One of the largest departments in the UK. A shocking short sighted move that damages regional and national prospects @britishacademy.bsky.social @hetanshah.bsky.social