Without wanting to sound like a conspiracy theorist. It definitely seems like disabled, ADHD, Autistic people are being fitted up so they can be blamed for society's ills. Being disabled isn't "trendy" but journalists attacking disabled people definitely seems to be a new trend. 1/2

All else aside there is nothing I want or need genAI to do for me. I like reading. I like doing research. I like playing around in spreadsheets. I like interviewing people. I like writing. I like doing these things for myself because I take pleasure in the doing and they make me a better thinker.

This was in the Byline Times article on him from a few weeks ago

A sign of v poor understanding of complex messy settlement reforms is many newsrooms would be v surprised to hear current proposals force junior architects to leave, among 250k people (chefs, technicians, scientists) if only exempt care workers. By accident/design unknowm bsky.app/profile/heri...

Kirsti M@heritage-meisie.bsky.social · 2w ago

It would also force someone like me (high skilled architect with masters degree & various specialism accreditations working in Scotland) to leave as I don’t earn over £50k & am on the lower going rate which will expire in Apr 2030. Unlikely I will earn new going rate in Scotland. Will need to leave.

We put the Home Office's own numbers to the test. 👀 A spouse visa costs £482 to process — applicants are charged £2,064. That's a 77% profit margin on people trying to stay with the person they love. Summer of Hope funds free legal advice & wellbeing support. 👉 actionnetwork.org/fundraising/...

Universities and students are not enclosed units, ivory towers separate from the rest of their local communities. They eat and drink (a lot) including spending lots of money in local pubs and restaurants. They shop. They get buses, taxis and Ubers. They put money into local economies.

With layoffs at Xbox, sources indicate accessibility efforts have also been affected. What was once a champion of accessibility is now a shell of its former self, unsure if accessibility even has a place at the new Xbox. Read my first report for @aftermath.site here: aftermath.site/xbox-layoffs...

Layoffs Leave The Future Of Xbox’s Award-Winning Accessibility Efforts In Doubt

Former workers say Xbox cuts leave less resources and experts to make sure games are developed, labelled, and tested with accessibility in mind

aftermath.site

If Global Banking School is the future of British Higher Education, count me out. Count everybody like me, out. Find someone else willing to pretend to teach you in decaying office buildings while taking your very real money.

Ending rough sleeping is a vital goal for the new government but is a deeply complex challenge. Delivering on this commitment will require cross departmental working at all levels of government and should be a component of the devo agenda for new govt to drive local collaboration on this shared goal

Unless this “honesty” involves the recognition that immigrants are *not* the root cause of the UK’s problems *but* actually a part of the solution to them, this will be completely pointless. I cannot stress this enough. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Burnham to say UK must be honest about its challenges as he prepares to become PM

Labour leader will visit king to accept role on Monday and will start making cabinet appointments that afternoon

theguardian.com

Great to see the Guardian champion the SHAPE (Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences) subjects, but this piece gives impression that they are expensive, whereas many are 'cheap to teach' subjects subsidising more expensive subjects, mainly in STEM and medicine. The crisis demands better understanding.

The Guardian view on humanities cuts in universities: academic departments are more than cost centres | Editorial

Editorial: Literature, the arts and social sciences must not be sacrificed as higher education funding is squeezed

theguardian.com

This is very disappointing. Such an important and undervalued brief which was for years held by a succession of uninterested itinerants. A prisons minister who genuinely cared and who was starting to see results.

Cassia Rowland@cassiarowland.bsky.social · 2mo ago

The day’s first casualty: James Timpson resigns as prisons minister. This is a big surprise! Timpson had a long history as a prisons reformer before entering government and seen as one of Starmer’s more innovative & exciting appointments. He’s also delivered a big change programme in gov. So: why?

How about a jet-lagged live posting while I read? Trying to read this because I keep getting tagged in posts about it, but the first paragraph already contains synthetic text (a quote from Claude). I will skip that bit and persevere... www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Could AI be conscious?

Experts believe it’s at least possible. We urgently need a plan to navigate the ethical implications

theguardian.com

We aren’t a serious country.

Plashing Vole@plashingvole.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Congratulations to the government on saving 2700 jobs by nationalising British Steel. Now, about the 18,000 university jobs lost in the last 18 months, with more coming…

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)

I'll say it again, as I do almost every day in some context: the way policy is set up right now, most British universities will either radically downsize or close in this Parliament or the next. Only a small elite of c.10 to 20 will be recognisable as univs at all. How do people not know this?

The facade is cracking

After I wrote last week's column, I learnt that a neighbour with severe disabilities, an extremely tough & resourceful woman who lived to the full, died in the heatwave. Everyone here is devastated. I can scarcely express my anger towards a mindset that treats people like her as collateral damage. 🧵

A few token places on safe and legal routes for refugees cannot in any way mitigate or atone for what this government has done and is doing on asylum or immigration policy. A thread trying to be clear-eyed about this.

This is absolutely damning.

Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration@icibi.bsky.social · 3mo ago

The Independent Chief Inspector's report on ‘An inspection of asylum casework’ has been published and is available on the ICIBI website:

so a friend on a mailing list I've been on forever said he couldn't understand why so many people had wanted Starmer to stand down when he was obviously so much better than those who came before. I did my best to explain

Temporary Bat@saredra.bsky.social · 3mo ago

People being deeply confused as to why he's gone, getting a load of responses as to how he pissed them off, and remaining confused because, like, that reason only affects that person, so where were these blunders? Also, the cat may be PM now, not sure.

If you, like us think that your salary must not determine whether you can live here in your own country of birth or adoption with your family sign our petition: reunitefamiliesuk.co.uk/sign/

This Father's Day, we remember thousands of dads separated from their families by the UK's harsh visa rules: stuck abroad because their partners in the UK cannot meet the requirements or unable to bring their family to the UK. So we ask children what their Daddy means to them?

I thought it'd be a swell idea to create a starter pack of journalists who specialise in throwing light on the dark(er) side of football. It's small for two reasons: there aren't many of us; and I've probably forgotten plenty of excellent people. Thank you for suggesting additions in replies.

It seems a good day to remind people that in the UK 3 times as many people work in Indian restaurants or for McDonalds as in the whole coal and steel industry. 5 times as many are academic staff at universities. If Labour does not understand its electorate, there is no way to appeal to it.

I don’t have strong views on the u16 social media ban but if these platforms are so harmful, why does the govt still use them for comms? Likewise, while kids (and everyone else!) should be encouraged to socialise in-person, they now have far fewer options following brutal cuts to youth services

A ban also stops the Government from having to actually legislate on what social media companies are doing to stop harmful content being produced and shared. Just put a blindfold on your child, never mind that adults can still see all this harmful garbage day and night.

Jonn Elledge@jonnelledge.bsky.social · 3mo ago

The Children's Commissioner wants the social media ban extended to 18. Even though people will be able to vote at 16. The Beatles first went to Hamburg when George Harrison was 17. You can also decide to take on £50k of tuition fee debt at 17.

So the UK government didn’t leave X when it produced a deluge of abuse images including CSAM and now Starmer is lecturing us on child safety? What about holding social media companies to account?

Our Shuffle Up And Play Season 5 Kickstarter is live now! Show your support and walk away with some sweet swag: www.kickstarter.com/projects/tol... #magicthegathering

I think every politician who proposes to ban anything on the internet for teens should be required to propose, as an alternate, a free and accessible and all weather space for teens to hang out in their own hometown