Two things here. First, Badenoch is doing a really brazen Johnson here, counting the 14,000 prison spaces the 2010-2024 Tories created, but ignoring the 13,500 prison spaces they closed down! Second, we have a falling crime rate but a growing prison population. Burnham needs to focus on why that is.

Full Fact@fullfact.org · 7h ago

Andy Burnham has claimed only 500 prison places were added between 2010 and 2024, but Kemi Badenoch says the Conservatives created 14,000 new places. Can these two claims add up? We’ve had a look at the figures 👇 fullfact.org/crime/how-ma...

Its a dark day for Human Rights here in the UK.

Following Rod Liddle's death I've been thinking again about the often unacknowledged privilege in being able to see the words of a demagogue as just things you disagree with rather than things that threaten people.

It is the single worst deliberate change I have ever seen made to a product, and might be what stops me using Microsoft Office after…25+ years? Imbecilic product decision, but just one among *many*.

Heather Burns@heatherburnstech.bsky.social · yesterday

The most terrifying enshittification I've discovered has been learning that Microsoft Word documents no longer auto-save if you are not saving them to one of their own proprietary cloud services. I'm slapping control-S like it's 1999.

I see the “protect women” crowd are busy eulogising a man who at age 45 assaulted his 23 year old girlfriend when she was 20 weeks pregnant

In 2005, Liddle accepted a police caution for common assault after being arrested for allegedly punching his pregnant girlfriend, then 20 weeks pregnant. (Source: PinkNews) He later denied it. The caution stands.

i personally don't think child molestetion should be required to play volleyball

Gillian Branstetter@gbbranstetter.bsky.social · 2d ago

An initiative on the ballot in Washington state in November would require all athletes seeking to play girl's sports from kindergarten to high school to undergo "genetic screening, a testosterone-levels test, or an examination of their reproductive anatomy" before they can play

As Rod Liddle has died, I notice this column I wrote in 2019 about his attacks on people with M.E. is on the most read again. Rebekah Brooks, of News UK, described Liddle today as “provocative”. In reality, he spread lies about very sick people for cash. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Rod Liddle vilifies disabled people. I’m tired of the hate. We all should be | Frances Ryan

Whether it is ME patients or another target, huge swathes of the media have normalised hatred of minorities for years, says Guardian columnist Frances Ryan

theguardian.com

I don't think people are ready for this kind of joke yet.

Allister Heath, June 5th 1940: We've lost the war against Nazi Germany. Time to scrap liberal democracy.

Sigh. I was going to post about how people will react to today's UK government policy announcement on youth employment, but I thought better of it, but now I'm seeing people react in exactly the way I expected, and our ability to discuss social policy really has collapsed. So, two observations...

When we march at LGBT+ Pride events we are echoing the Stonewall rioters' demand for human rights, safety and dignity. When someone attacks a Pride event, as we saw so horrifically in Berlin this weekend, they mean to silence the rest of us. We must only shout louder. We are love, and we will win.

I'm enraged I have to give a shit what the scummiest grifters on the planet are pushing this week because they might have outsized influence on actual policy. Like if the Facebook posts of the loudest douche you went to high school with were being projected on the main screen in the Situation Room.

Euan MacDonald@euanmacdonald.bsky.social · 2w ago

This really shows the value of propaganda: As soon as the Kremlin’s “Russia’s victory is inevitable” narrative was broken, minds started to change.

The claim “RFK Jr. does not fuck chickens” is not an evidence-based claim because studies have not ruled out the possibility that RFK Jr. fucks chickens.

BBC Alba will have live coverage every evening (because the Gaelic language rights are separate!)

Completely serious democratic country, oh yes. www.heraldscotland.com/news/2630017...

Anas Sarwar set to resign as Scottish Labour leader to join Andy Burnham's government

Anas Sarwar is set to resign as leader of Scottish Labour.

heraldscotland.com

If you opt to keep Shabana Mahmood in her role as Home Secretary you are telling everybody on the left that you are not interested in actually learning from what Starner did wrong and quite like a lot of it.

Poor Prometheus, reduced to hawking on Vinted

You may remember this Channel 4 report from the 2024 election. It really is worth re-watching and re-sharing. This is who Reform are. Every time they are treated as anything other than this bunch of unreconstructed racists and bigots, this sort of ignorance and hate is further mainstreamed.

@annasophiegross.bsky.social · 3w ago

NEW: Reform UK volunteer George Jones who left Farage's campaign in 2024 after undercover reporters showed him calling the Pride flag “degenerate” and suggesting LGBT people are paedophiles has quietly returned to run its Patrons’ Club www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmkM...

If you pile your furniture in the middle of your living room then set it on fire, you will have the warmest house in your street, for a few hours.

Not enough coverage of this is mentioning a) this insight behind what was said and why, or b) the fact that the comments were made before it was revealed that Widdecombe was murdered (which is, of course, horrific). I'll be watching closely to see if the Procurator Fiscal proceeds with a prosecution

Alejandra Caraballo@esqueer.net · 3w ago

A trans woman was arrested in the UK for posting on Bluesky “I hope she was handcuffed to the bed as she screamed in agony." This was a reference to comments made by Widdecombe when she was prisons minister where she supported the handcuffing of Incarcerated pregnant women giving birth.

These years of anti-immigration hysteria we're living through right now are going to look utterly incomprehensible in the coming era of closing schools, ageing populations and massively understaffed public services

Josiah Mortimer@josiahmortimer.bsky.social · 3w ago

Wow. The Department for Education has just published new projections which estimate that the number of pupils in state-funded schools in England will plummet by more than 9% by 2031 amid falling birth rates And yet this issue receives probably 1,000th of the coverage the immigration debate receives

This is a really interesting conversation between Mallory and Aaron spanning ethics, computing efficiency, and the inbuilt biases of AI, well worth a read

Mallory Moore@sexabolition.blog · 3w ago

There are so many other areas where the shift to major general purpose computing has been a problem. Dialysis machines run a full windows OS that never gets updated, easy target for ransomware targeting hospitals and also really energy inefficient because you overspec them to be able to run windows.

This is absolutely absurd. Scottish transphobes post worse about trans people, including Heather, all the time and the police sit on their hands. JKR posted an upskirt photo of a trans person, a clear crime, just this week. No action. Talk about two tier policing. www.bbc.com/news/article...

Aberdeen University worker charged over Ann Widdecombe death comments

Police Scotland had initially said there was no criminality but have now confirmed a 50-year-old has been arrested and charged.

bbc.com

A reminder that this is the guy we're all now supposed to be listening to on the subject of the safety of MPs

Heartbreaking thread

Cal Horton (they/them)@fiercemum.bsky.social · 3w ago

Just had meeting with kiddo's school. She has been fully supported, treated with full equality & dignity for years. All of that changes from September. Full segregation & humiliation across the board. The school staff cried in the meeting. This will absolutely lead to children's deaths 1/2

Just had meeting with kiddo's school. She has been fully supported, treated with full equality & dignity for years. All of that changes from September. Full segregation & humiliation across the board. The school staff cried in the meeting. This will absolutely lead to children's deaths 1/2

Shame on Labour. This guidance is deeply flawed, and will make life much harder for our trans friends and family

Trans+ Solidarity Alliance@transsolidarity.bsky.social · 3w ago

New: the EHRC’s code of practice is set to come into effect on 5th August, after the minister made a commencement order that has now been published. More to follow. www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2026/78...

On his last day of PMQs and cabinet Starmer oversaw the order to enforce the trans segregation guidance that makes Britain one of the most trans hostile nations in Europe - creating a culture of gender norm enforcement, social suspicion, and vigilante toilet police.

Remember Streeting's review into whether young people are being overdiagnosed with ADHD, autism, and mental health issues? Well, the interim report is out, and there's a reason the media are silent on it (spoiler: it proves what a lot of us have been saying all along)