culture-war ass take. you're deleting a believably reachable requirement and replacing it with a rather unrealistic one

Government contracts to require job creation instead of green targets under new rules

Louise Haigh says taxpayer money must benefit local communities amid backlash from environmental groups

theguardian.com

This is a repeated pattern Burnham has already displayed - portraying environmental protection and economic prosperity as zero sum, sacrificing one for the other. It might be canny short term politics, but it’s a horrible message that validates the culture messaging of the climate deniers

Tristan Grayford@tristangrayford.scot · 13h ago

The Burnham premiership continues its approach to the future which is "wildfires? lets have more of that please, the young can be put to work to put out the flames" www.theguardian.com/society/2026...

Judge her on "introducing segregation"

Equality and Human Rights Commission@equalityhumanright.bsky.social · 15h ago

Our code of practice for services, public functions and associations comes into force today. It provides practical guidance on how the Equality Act 2010 applies to services, public functions and associations. Find out more: https://ow.ly/alIf50Zwrkx

Dr Mary Ann Stevenson was appointed EHRC leader over the objections of the W&E Commitee by an ideological bigot for a singular, specific reason, and we're screamed at to pretend like the whole intestinal tract of state which has produced this shit is apolitical and innocent

Mary-Ann Stephenson, resign!

Equality and Human Rights Commission@equalityhumanright.bsky.social · 15h ago

Our code of practice for services, public functions and associations comes into force today. It provides practical guidance on how the Equality Act 2010 applies to services, public functions and associations. Find out more: https://ow.ly/alIf50Zwrkx

This is the correct answer. The principle that every person living between the Mediterranean and the Jordan should have equal rights and self-determination is far more important than the number of states.

Ron Skolnik@ronskolnik.bsky.social · yesterday

El-Sayed: "I believe in equal rights to peace, dignity, and self-determination, for Palestinians and Jewish Israelis alike... If that’s 2 states, I’m for it. If it’s 1 state, I’m for that. If it’s this 'land for all' model, ... or whatever they decide." www.newyorker.com/news/the-new...

Rod Liddle was a piece of shit in both his private and public life, and it speaks to the state of British media that they're praising the man. He presaged the steep downward decline of British broadsheet print columnists into increasingly open racism, misogyny, and hatred of queer people.

The transition is already happening at speed. Mental to be acting like net zero is a problem in this context.

Nicolas Fulghum@nicolasfulghum.bsky.social · 2d ago

July marks the first consecutive twelve month period where wind generated more electricity than gas in the UK...in every single month. In the last decade, wind generation in the UK has more than doubled, pushing first coal and now gas out of the mix.

oh look its /another/ study showing that youth transition has the lowest regret rate of any form of healthcare, so excited to see how this changes the political debate about whether we get to exist in public and have access to healthcare

TACC@tacc.org.uk · 2d ago

"The majority (97.1%) of adolescents continued to identify with a gender not typically aligned with their birth sex. Only 2.9% reverted...None who initially identified as non-binary returned to binary gender aligned with birth sex. Discontinuation of gender-affirming hormones was rare."

here's a fun lil exercise for cis people: how many articles would a publication have to print calling for your extermination before you would expect people who care about you to stop giving them money? and how would you feel if their excuse for still supporting them is some fuckass crossword puzzle?

Sturgeon remains one of the few leadership figures in 21st century mainstream UK politics to have treated women and left-wing voters as actual constituencies to be courted, rather than annoying groups that fealty is demanded of

We're in a ridiculous quagmire if describing orgs that think that every person who goes to a gym or uses a data app should be forced to have ID outing their 'biological sex' as Sex Matters has argued (in clear contravention of trans people's human rights)

But why? We can quibble around the specifics of all of those orgs (and I think Amnesty made an error in including ie Beira's Place on it strategically if nothing else). But the fact is, ie Sex Matters is 'anti rights' - they are anti the rights of trans people. That is just true

Barbara Rich@barbararich.bsky.social · 4d ago

I don’t think the Charity Commission would let Amnesty International UK get away with describing any other charity organised around beliefs which are protected in English law as “anti-rights”, nor should it do so.

as we saw with Charlie Kirk it’s extremely notable that no fans of Rod Liddle include any of their favourite quotes from him in their tributes

The entirety of the NHS, from inception, was made possible thanks to non-white immigrants. Every accusation is a confession. They don’t want talented people regardless of skin colour. They just want white people regardless of skills.

Jonathan Portes@jdportes.bsky.social · 2d ago

"There's a real thing going on in the composition of the staff...does that not have to be looked at as well?" Nick Robinson, on Today, discussing this news.sky.com/story/nhs-st...

We have Sex Matters writing articles arguing trans women should be convicted as sex offenders if we use the gym showers at, and that we should have digital IDs with 'biological sex' - then we have Julie Bindel and Rosie Duffield gushing about a man who was arrested for assaulting his pregnant gf?

Rod Liddle has died aged 66. If you can't say anything nice, then don't say anything at all. I'm saying this, cos if Rod Liddle had lived by that principle, then he wouldn't have uttered or typed a single fucking word in his entire adult life, & the world would have been much better for it.

Who remembers how pleased with itself the BBC was its "exposé" about asylum seekers faking being gay

DIVA Magazine@divamag.bsky.social · 3d ago

Concerns for LGBTQIA+ people after changes made to Home Office asylum interviews

So let me get this straight - in the eyes of gender critical activists, a trans woman using a toilet/changing room, like we do in every liberal democracy in the industrialised world are irredeemable predators, but an (alleged) domestic abuser who is also homophobic and misogynistic is somehow ok?

Libby@captainlibatron.bsky.social · 2d ago

Dear god

What is notable about pieces like this is they identify trans rights as a faultline, but I don't think I've ever seen a single Scottish political journalist ever acknowledge that for a centre-left party to take the grotesquely anti-trans position Scottish and UK Labour have is completely abnormal.

Inside Scottish Labour's civil war: Indyref2 and trans rights 'ripping' party apart

Scottish Labour's civil war is about more than just who replaces Anas Sarwar as leader. There are fears the party could be left…

heraldscotland.com

Also something I’ve been really struggling is - why is this all falling on us? Why aren’t others doing more to protect us? Maybe that’s selfish or unreasonable- but I feel the resentment all the same.

This is exactly how I feel. I carry this feeling like a raincloud. I think most people have no idea how hard it is. Don’t want to spread doom either - there’s also much joy in life to find. But the raincloud persists 💔

Lee Hurley@hleehurley.com · 4d ago

Drinking espresso martinis, discussing with my fiancé at what point we need to flee the UK. I don't want to leave my home. My family. My friends. With every passing month, it feels more and more inevitable. We are losing so hard and I can't see how it stops.

No professional accomplishment has ever made me happier than this. theonion.com/translator-o...

Translator Of Original ‘Minions’ Epic Poem Slams ‘Sexless, Bloodless’ Film Adaptation

PHILADELPHIA—In a 4,500-word essay published in Harper’s Magazine, Emily Wilson, known for her popular translation of the Minions epic poem, blasted the latest film Thursday as a “sexless, bloodless” ...

theonion.com

UCU are not affiliated to the Labour Party (and therefore does not attend women’s conference) but if we were then we would be supporting this stance by our brilliant sister unions. Solidarity to them and the whole trans and non binary community.

It’s now a Burnham transphobia problem. metro.co.uk/2026/07/29/m...

Powerful unions boycott Labour Women's Conference over trans ban

metro.co.uk

Ashleeee 🌊🪭@reactiveashley.cat · 3w ago

But to answer your question, I will be observing how our trade union colleagues react to any changes. Seems like a battleground.

The day I will pay attention to politicians guffing about "parity of esteem" is the day one of their children goes to an FE college.

We are aware that NHS England is implementing a change to how it records patient data, prioritising ‘sex observed at birth’ over gender and other medically-relevant data. transactual.org.uk/blog/2026/07...

Earlier this year UKRI launched a funding call to invest £40M in ONE AI lab. www.ukri.org/opportunity/... For some unknown reason they decided to fund TWO AI labs at the cost of £60M. An extra £20M. Just found. That's the equivalent of 7 more years of Jodrell Bank. www.ukri.org/news/ukri-la...

UKRI launches two AI research labs to stay ahead in global race

Two new labs will back British researchers to develop next generation artificial intelligence (AI) systems, helping secure the UK’s position as a global leader.

ukri.org

Astronomer Royal for Scotland | Catherine Heymans@astroroyalscot.bsky.social · last wk.

I'm absolutely devastated for colleagues at Jodrell Bank who found out this morning that funding for the UK's e-MERLIN radio telescope array will be terminated. This is a short-sighted move, to save a tiny fraction of the overall UK science budget. #SaveJodrellBank 🔭🧪 www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...