Uh oh. Something odd happening with the sun. Hope it's not the jaguar god Tepēyōllōtl trying to consume it

If you give the vigilante mob what they want - nodding and agreeing as you understand their "legitimate concerns" - what you get is more vigilante mobs. www.bbc.com/news/article...

Further arrests in Thetford as disorder continues for third night

The arrests follow disorder linked to anti-immigration protests in the Norfolk market town.

bbc.com

Leonardo Carella@leonardocarella.bsky.social · 12mo ago

Another step in the unconditional surrender of the British establishment to Reform, to intimidation and to mob rule.

not just a London story - a lot of health services in the last 5 years have been unsustainably funded through deficits and that has to end at some point not a lot of slack for immediate savings to be made to fund social care and other wellbeing priorities www.theguardian.com/society/2026...

NHS mental health trust plans £25m in cuts to jobs and services

Body providing care in east London and Bedfordshire accused of ‘unfathomable and unacceptable’ move

theguardian.com

"the new Mayor will face a much tougher task, presiding over a politically balkanised combined authority where opposition parties with wildly different agendas wield power in the boroughs." yeah - I don't think many institutions are ready for this kind of political change - it's coming though

Rob Ford@robfordmancs.bsky.social · 3w ago

New Swingometer! A preview of next week's Greater Manchester by-election - the largest by-election Britain has ever seen: open.substack.com/pub/swingome...

And we're starting

Greater Manchester VCFSE Leadership Group@gm-vcfse-leaders.bsky.social · 4w ago

🔴 WATCH LIVE: Greater Manchester's mayoral candidates take questions from the VCFSE sector and share their vision for tackling inequality, empowering communities and shaping the future of our city-region. 🎥 Watch live from 6:45pm today: www.youtube.com/live/0uYc1jP...

Greater Manchester's Mayoral candidates are taking questions from the VCFSE sector and sharing their vision for tackling inequality, empowering communities and shaping the future of our city-region. 🎥 Live on YouTube at 6:45pm today: https://ow.ly/ikvv50ZogGY

GM Mayoral Election Hustings for the Voluntary, Community, Faith, & Social Enterprise (VCFSE) Sector

How will the next Greater Manchester Metro Mayor work with the VCFSE sector?

ow.ly

the north, south and midlands are overlapping concepts that resist being mapped. Drawing lines on maps and using them to define cultural boundaries is a mug's game. But some people do like the attention that comes with a bit of kayfabe

the gap between families is larger than the gap between generations

Resolution Foundation@resolutionfoundation.org · last mo.

For many, the 'Bank of Mum and Dad' has become a necessity for getting on the housing ladder. But not everyone has equal access to this 'bank'. Among those in their twenties, inheritances and gifts appear skewed to those on higher incomes.

Date Yourself with a snap of your first ever computer.

Robin Wigglesworth@robinwigglesworth.ft.com · last mo.

Date yourself with a snap of your first ever computer.

The green man changes too quickly on pedestrian crossings. This local tree was never going to get across in time

I hate terms like "working people" when used in this way. Pretty much meaningless. My landlord works (sometimes) but he makes money from rents and I make mine from labour. We have different interests

YouGov@yougov.co.uk · 2mo ago

Which party do Britons think best represents working people in the UK today? Reform UK: 16% (-3 from May 2025) Labour: 15% (-2) Greens: 9% (+5) Con: 7% (-1) Lib Dems: 5% (-1) Other: 3% (-1) None of them: 28% (-3) yougov.com/en-gb/daily-...

Is there really $3tn+ available for misallocation in the economy right now? I've a horrible feeling that the answer is "there always is"

Financial Times@financialtimes.com · 2mo ago

Breaking news: The AI company has confidentially filed for a $1tn-plus initial public offering, setting a three-way race with OpenAI and SpaceX for potentially three of the biggest listings of all time. ft.trib.al/o8iOlMa

youtu.be/OAo3bENHIJ4?...

WOOZE - HELLO CAN YOU GO [Official M/V]

YouTube video by WOOZE

youtu.be

Will Jennings📉🗳️@drjennings.bsky.social · 2mo ago

What’s your favourite song that nobody will have heard of?

There is no safe age to be exposed to unending footage of atrocities, pro-anorexia content, or images of child sexual abuse:

Perhaps we should all be banned from social media

Focusing only on under-16s obscures the lack of internet safeguards for everyone else

ft.com

a problem with attempts to find a narrative for Burnham's time as mayor is that reality doesn't neatly conform to narrative structures Working with GMCA before and during his time I think it's more useful to look at each manifesto as a separate period, as he and the LAs have adjusted to each other

2nd city discourse is only marginally less annoying than food discourse. But I guess it's not hard to have an opinion about it, not matter how meaningless a term. Mine is that only one of these candidates has nationally significant cultural institutions - but from a nation most surveyed don't get

YouGov@yougov.co.uk · 3mo ago

What do you consider to be Britain's second city? Manchester: 34% of Britons Birmingham: 30% Edinburgh: 12% Liverpool: 3% Glasgow: 3% Cardiff: 2% Leeds: 1% Newcastle: 1% Bristol: 1% yougov.com/en-gb/articl...

I remember during the pandemic where some people couldn't use emergency food deliveries because the "essential" goods chosen weren't essential to them. There are lots of cultural and health issues that shape what we eat Better to just increase benefits www.theguardian.com/business/202...

UK supermarkets urged to consider voluntary price caps on essential foods

Retail sources rebuff government proposal as ‘unjustified’ and likely to push costs up across board

theguardian.com

<sigh> when will people learn that beans are for life, not just economic downturns www.npr.org/2026/05/18/n...

When times are hard, we eat more beans. And it's happening again now

The fiber craze is pushing more people into the broad world of beans, as the U.S. bean industry looks to double American consumption of pulses by 2030.

npr.org

It's good that Milburn is expected to highlight the restrictions on Further Education funding. Without action colleges are expected to be turning away 1000s of young people in the Autumn. And we wonder why NEET numbers are high www.ft.com/content/c8f7...

Too many young people pushed towards university, says UK government adviser

Former cabinet minister Alan Milburn to call for more funding for technical and vocational courses

ft.com

This is a good overview of the situation for labour in the context of the by-election But I'd add that the campaign Burnham runs here could well shape his leadership bid. The views of people in Makerfield could be quite consequential www.ft.com/content/d1b1...

No good outcomes for Starmer

Andy Burnham’s entrance into the Labour leadership race has left Keir Starmer in a lose-lose-lose position

ft.com

the news is just getting worse for Starmer

Cat Neilan@catneilan.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Chuka Umunna has just gone into Downing Street

I do not support the building of offshore wind turbines in Manchester. I'm also not massively convinced about hydroelectric dams

YouGov@yougov.co.uk · 3mo ago

Only 20% of Britons would support the construction of an AI data centre in their local area - 48% would be opposed This level of support is comparable to the number who would welcome new shale gas wells or coal power stations in their local area yougov.com/en-gb/daily-...

that's quite a large "screw the lot of you" vote in second place - appreciate though that the incumbent resigned last November and was linked to the infamous WhatsApp group

anecdotally this is not a post austerity problem. Maternity care has been failing in some areas for decades - although it may be more widespread now

Anna McShane@annacmcshane.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Women who are financially struggling are almost twice as likely to report a poor birth experience as those who are comfortable. The problems are not confined to a few ‘bad apple’ hospitals. They are systemic.

Amazing how AI is improving productivity Just throwing sand in the gears everywhere

Financial Times@financialtimes.com · 4mo ago

Clients’ barrage of AI-generated queries risks pushing up lawyers’ fees ft.trib.al/zzeTec8

And not just long covid as a condition itself - the lockdowns saw a lot of physical deconditioning of people in mid-to-later life which didn't just go away when things re-opened. These will have had long term impacts both on health and the ability to maintain employment www.ft.com/content/de44...

Long Covid to cost OECD economies up to $135bn a year

New research predicts impact of lower productivity and workers quitting because of long-term illness after Covid-19

ft.com

oh great - today's the day where news includes hackneyed made up nonsense.

if you see this, post a concert photo you took