Lydia Wilkins
@journo-lydia.bsky.social
Award-winning freelance journalist and editor, Disability Review Magazine. Rep’d by Artellus & WNF. https://lydiawilkins.substack.com/
Waking up to this news and utterly lost for words. Alice was amazing and will leave such a hole in the world. With love to all her friends and family. Such a legacy she has left for us xx
Long Covid Advocacy@longcovidadvoc.com · 11mo ago🧵 Rest in power, Alice Wong. @sfdirewolf.bsky.social A trailblazer, a fierce advocate, and a relentless voice for disability rights. Her work changed the landscape for so many. /1
I’m heartbroken to hear of the death of Alice Wong. She was a powerhouse of the disability rights movement in the US and on a personal level, generously gave her time to me over the years. I know she will be missed immensely by those who knew her and those who felt her presence online.
This is a lie. There are many criticisms you might sensibly and truthfully make of the Sentencing Council and the Sentencing Guidelines. I’ve been making them for years. But this is an outright lie. Pure fabrication. A fraud on the public.
Strong MP turnout for @ianbyrnemp.bsky.social Westminster Hall debate on Hillsborough Law. The Govt must enact a full Hillsborough Law - with a legal duty of candour and equality of arms. It’s not a technicality - it’s a moral imperative. Watch the full debate www.parliamentlive.tv/Event/Index/...
I think we can accept Judge Inman has been proven entirely correct on the lack of insight. www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/u...
Roland Smith@rolandmcs.bsky.social · last yr.This felt inevitable: an interview with Allison Pearson given top billing in the Telegraph. Connolly suggests Starmer should relearn what freedom of speech means and "what the laws are in this country". I think he knows but Connolly/Pearson clearly don't. No lessons have been learned in prison.
People can feel sympathy for Lucy Connolly over the scale of sentence she got after pleading guilty. But the appeal found her evidence demonstrably not credible on what she knew/did not know about the sentence before her guilty plea. Her media interviews repeat those false claims
The trial is using the Taser 7 model, which the Scientific Advisory Committee have warned may induce more pain than previous models. INQUEST’s casework has repeatedly highlighted how the use of Taser can contribute towards death, including in the deaths of Marc Cole and Andrew Pimlott.
A week ago, the government authorised a trial for specialist officers to use Tasers in men’s prisons. Concerningly, the trial has no end date, as it will continue to run until 'enough data has been collected to determine if they should be more widely used.’ www.gov.uk/government/n...
incredible how few people understand that 'free speech' means freedom from state censorship, not freedom from being judged for being an arse
So lovely to see this spread on Who Wants Normal? in this month’s Disability Review Magazine. I chatted about writing 80,000 words on an iPhone, trying to make the British media more diverse, and why this book definitely has more jokes in it than my first.
One of my favourite spreads in our current issue ⬇️
Frances Ryan@francesryan.bsky.social · last yr.So lovely to see this spread on Who Wants Normal? in this month’s Disability Review Magazine. I chatted about writing 80,000 words on an iPhone, trying to make the British media more diverse, and why this book definitely has more jokes in it than my first.
You're not entitled to touch disabled people or their mobility aids. If you think someone needs assistance ask. It is absolutely not acceptable to pet & distract a working assistance (service) dog. There are probably signs all over the dog explaining it. You have no excuse. /7 #JustAskDontGrab
There’s so many nasty, awful details in that Janice Turner piece it’s hard to pick the worst. But this is so telling. Asylum seekers apparently don’t deserve to live in a place British people use or even have three meals a day. They’re not quite equal to us, are they?
Today, MP Blair McDougall introduced a Bill in Parliament to remove crown immunity from prisons. Following the deaths of Katie Allan and William Lindsay in HMYOI Polmont in Scotland, he calls for accountability. INQUEST backs the move to end legal impunity for prison failures.
Lovely to be in the latest issue of Disability Review mag chatting about Who Wants Normal? (and finding hope in a tough summer for many disabled people)
“The removal of an entire clause of the bill means there will be no immediate changes to Pip. The Timms review will be “co-produced” with disabled people, leaving open the possibility that they will never happen,” reports @pippacrerar.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
Keir Starmer forced into dramatic climbdown to pass welfare reform bill
Rebel Labour MP finally won over by late promise to shelve plans for deep cuts to personal independence payments
theguardian.com
New issue of Disability Review Magazine has just landed, featuring people like Ade Adepitan, @francesryan.bsky.social, Patchwork Hub & more: issuu.com/sevenstarmed...
DRM - Disability Review Magazine - Summer 2025
Welcome to our Summer issue of DRM. The UK's largest and most trusted disability title with a passion for inclusion and changing the attitude around disability. A magazine that we hope will show y...
issuu.com
Photos from outside the welfare reform bill vote last night. A mini, impromptu ‘die in’ was threatened with potential eviction under counter terrorism laws inside the building (yes, really.) Disability Pride Month started with this, notably.
Every time one of these case emerges from the #SingleJusticeProcedure, it gives opponents of the BBC a stick to beat it with Yet, the Corporation is resisting a key reform to the system that may fix it It's baffling to me
Important one to watch ⬇️
Deborah Coles@debcoles13.bsky.social · last yr.“The legislation is ready to go. It’s just a question of political will. If the Prime Minister doesn’t enact the Hillsborough Law in full, it will be seen as another betrayal of Hillsborough families, survivors and victims of other state cover-ups.” www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpo...
The #PIP ‘U-turn’ is nothing of the sort. As I understand it, the reforms will still be applied to new claimants, eg someone who hasn’t become disabled yet or an already disabled person who isn’t 16 years old yet. How is that fair? Is this seriously the best we can do as a country?
In 'shock news' - disabled people aren't to blame for the state of the economy after all - can we get a new narrative for disability soon please? #DisabilitySky #WelfareNotWarfare #TakingThePIP www.disabilitynewsservice.com/government-c...
Government claims of ‘spiralling’ spending on benefits are false and ‘ideological’, official figures show
Official figures prove that government claims that social security spending is “spiralling out of control” are “not based on any real facts”, say disabled activists. The Office for Budget Responsib…
disabilitynewsservice.com
Colour me shocked that the police and IOPC took five years to dismiss the officers that stripped search a 15 year old child on her period bc she “smelled like weed” and found that race did not play a factor in her search or being treated like an adult. BULLSHIT
And because I have to laugh sometimes, I wrote down a list of some of the most unhinged things that have been said - most in the newsroom & on assignment. lydiawilkins.substack.com/p/im-bored
"I'm Bored.."
The Most Unhinged Things Strangers Have Said About My Disability
lydiawilkins.substack.com
Lydia Wilkins@journo-lydia.bsky.social · last yr... such as in allowing the parroting of demonstrably false information, says a lot. If you consider yourself a feminist, or even a disability ally, you should care about media diversity. You do not know who in the newsroom receives this vital help; it allows us to do our job, strangely.
Good to see today’s Guardian Editorial mention my story that women will lose out under the new PIP rules. If a system leaves women sitting in her bloodied underwear because she can no longer pay the care worker that used to help her get to the toilet, it is one no MP should be backing.
My frustration in a nut shell - media diversity champions should care and be proactive for this reason ⬇️
Frances Ryan@francesryan.bsky.social · last yr.Yes, it’s depressing many MPs, journalists, and activists who call themselves feminists are very quiet about an issue that will devastate disabled women’s bodily autonomy and dignity. But there are tools we can use to bring in allies who would otherwise think “not my fight.” It is!
