Please let the bin (with a degree in classics and a sense of humour) win. Please.
FrancesCrook@bsky.social
@francescrook.bsky.social
Co-convenor of the Commission on Political Power https://commissionpoliticalpower.uk Francescrook.Substack.com
Summer 2026 on course to be UK’s hottest on record, says Met Office. Until we stop burning fossil fuels, this summer will be one of the coolest of the rest of our lifetimes. www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Summer 2026 on course to be UK’s hottest on record, says Met Office – latest news
Prediction comes amid warning of ‘extreme heat’ this week with temperatures of 38C possible
theguardian.com
A few simple water safety skills could save a young Londoner’s life. Knowing how to spot danger, stay afloat and signal for help is vital. This summer, we’re funding free swim safety sessions - part of our plan to make London's waterways safer and more accessible for everyone.
SwimSafe Water Safety Sessions
SwimSafe returns to the Royal Docks for its third year, offering free sessions for children aged 7–14 to build confidence in open water and learn essential water safety skills.
royaldocks.london
Will making the young men (at the time children) who killed PC Andrew Harper spend a year or so longer in prison help to make them make amends and turn their lives round? It could be the opposite. Prisons for teens are infested with violence. francescrook.substack.com/p/the-family...
The family of Andrew Harper is understandably angry
The possible earlier release of his killers illustrates the capricious nature of the justice system and recalls the Derek Bentley case
francescrook.substack.com
Please let the bin (with a degree in classics and a sense of humour) win. Please.
Activists are being told to avoid drinking and Tweeting because its own members are “the biggest threat to Reform”. bylinetimes.com/2026/08/11/r...
Reform UK Tells Its Activists ‘Don’t Drink and Tweet’' Because 'The Biggest Threat to Reform Is the People in It'
EXCLUSIVE: "If this was sat on the desk of an anti-Reform journalist, what are they going to do with it?” the leaked internal training course warn its members
bylinetimes.com
When people were given an IPP sentence it was recorded as 99 years. No wonder people felt helpless, their mental health deteriorated and they became dangerous and/or suicidal
Andrew Sparrow@andrewsparrowgdn.bsky.social · 10h agoBurnham says he wants review of 'unfair' indeterminate IPP sentences to help free up more jail spaces - www.theguardian.com/politics/liv...
First we have the Farage-attention-seeking-fanfare press conference to allow him to announce some steaming horseshit policy. Then we have the ‘why it’s steaming horseshit’ aftermath. But it’s already too late. Much like the filth pumped into our rivers and seas, our politics is hideously polluted.
MPs shouldn’t face abuse. Neither should their staff – but here’s what we deal with every day | Estelle Warhurst
MPs shouldn’t face abuse. Neither should their staff – but here’s what we deal with every day | Estelle Warhurst
Some constituents are traumatised, others violent. It’s time the House of Commons protected the people who work at the grassroots of our democracy, says Estelle Warhurst, office manager for a Labour MP
theguardian.com
The Jason Arday story is by no means the biggest scandal at Cambridge University. I'm sure the media is going to pick this up and run with it in just the same way ... Or is the exaggerated CV of one Black professor somehow more important than this?
Byline Times@bylinetimes.bsky.social · 15h ago🟡 From This Month’s Magazine Reform UK and Big Tech Palantir Co-Founder Peter Thiel’s ‘Political Pipeline’ Recruitment Project at the World-Renowned… By Byline Times raising The academic institution has nothing to say in response to a six-month investigation by Byline Times raising serious…
MPs have stopped publishing the names of their parliamentary staff. We previously exposed how Israel has been quietly financing UK parliamentary staff 👇 www.declassifieduk.org/how-israel-f...
How Israel funds UK parliamentary staff
Israel is quietly financing assistants of British MPs, Declassified has found.
declassifieduk.org
Exceptional examples, accurate or not are just anecdotes - not data. The data says heat pumps don’t work. Niche technology for those that can afford to match the 8k government bung - which is essentially a middle class subsidy while 5 million people live in energy poverty. We need a better balance.
Will making the young men (at the time children) who killed PC Andrew Harper spend a year or so longer in prison help to make them make amends and turn their lives round? It could be the opposite. Prisons for teens are infested with violence. francescrook.substack.com/p/the-family...
The family of Andrew Harper is understandably angry
The possible earlier release of his killers illustrates the capricious nature of the justice system and recalls the Derek Bentley case
francescrook.substack.com
The story of the killers of police officer Andrew Harper is complicated. Here are some thoughts francescrook.substack.com/p/the-family...
The family of Andrew Harper is understandably angry
The possible earlier release of his killers illustrates the capricious nature of the justice system and recalls the Derek Bentley case
francescrook.substack.com
To save high streets Burnham must create a level playing field with shopping centres & supermarkets- charge for parking
Laura Phillips@lauraphillips.bsky.social · 23h agoPolitics UK: 🚨 BREAKING: Andy Burnham has announced new powers to limit the spread of vape and betting shops They will now need to get planning permission and Closure Orders will double from 6 to 12 months to tackle "dodgy barber shops"
‘France remains on a war footing. Forest fires are turning out to be ruthless seasonal enemies, along with water shortages and crop stress, all of them driven by man-made climate change.’ New on the blog from Jeremy Harding: www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/au...
Jeremy Harding | Don’t Look Up
In the last week of July a guest in our house, an hour’s drive from Bordeaux, was called away to a fire emergency in...
lrb.co.uk
I’m trying to return an item to Uniqlo and I need a masters in tech, they make it impossible
Visible boat arrivals lead the BBC website. The less visible downward overall trend is more prominent than in BBC reporting three months ago (reporters often didnt seem to know/notice until April). It has come up to paragraphs 8-10 www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
The notion that £22Bn has just been secured from the water companies for investments to improve the situation - is nonsense, that’s £22Bn added to water bills, it’s being “secured” from all of us, while they continue to make mega profits which they ship to whatever tax haven they are based in.
The UK’s willingness to blow up its two genuine world-leading industries (finance and higher education) is quite something.
Sunder Katwala (sundersays)@sundersays.bsky.social · 2d agoSunday Times research finds universites down £550+ million on international (aggregate across the 55 universities with lower international fee income of 128 surveyed)
As an aside, John Howard died in Kherson 200 years ago, after setting up a fever hospital he died. There is rather grand memorial statue to him there.
Byline Times@bylinetimes.bsky.social · 2d ago📌 ICYMI — Two Years On, the World Witnesses Human Safari in Kherson — @zarinazabrisky.bsky.social A viral video of a drone attacking a vegetable seller at Kherson farmers' market has brought Russia's deliberate targeting of civilians, which Byline first revealed two years ago……
Barlinnie prison had a similar wing decades ago, specifically for the most dangerous violent and truculent men. It had amazing results. It was closed down.
Our investigation found that a former army medic with a long history of abuse and assault allegations is running illegal children’s homes in Merseyside.
At least seven councils have placed children in illegal homes run by SafeSpace4U, the company that employs him. www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2026...
thebureauinvestigates.com
Climate denial is getting louder. Reality is getting harder to ignore. When parks are brown, rivers are shrinking and firefighters are battling blazes across the globe, governments must accelerate climate action, not slow it down.
This burning summer is the proof: the voices of climate denial aren’t just delusional, they’re deadly | Sadiq Khan
Look at our blazing forests and parched cities. Green policies aren’t a ‘luxury’, and we can’t burn more oil and gas. People need the truth, says London mayor Sadiq Khan
theguardian.com
This is great news & can save households hundreds of pounds. I want to make sure that leaseholders can benefit from this. Freeholders/Managing agents shouldn't be able to block common sense installations- I have written to the Government about this today. www.theguardian.com/money/2026/j...
UK households free to install plug-in balcony solar panels from end of August
Law change means renters and flat owners may be able to cut bills as energy costs soar amid Iran war
theguardian.com
As anyone in publishing will tell you, women do not resist reading books by men, but men will often dismiss books by women. This is not a publishing problem or a failure to target men. It's a misogyny problem.