There's a very special record coming from Beth Orton at the end of the month, and I had a lot to say about it for @uncutmagazine.bsky.social. "Seldom more vulnerable, never contrived, Orton revels in her strengths." www.uncut.co.uk/reviews/beth...

Beth Orton's The Ground Above reviewed: candid album finds hard-won clarity - UNCUT

The singer-songwriter chases freedom on self-produced latest

uncut.co.uk

Berlin Calling! Flattered, honoured, and frankly thrilled to learn that my book, Lee, Myself & I, has been added to the The Rock & Roll Public Library, an archive of 20th century pop culture, collected over a lifetime by British musician and songwriter Mick Jones of The Clash!

I'll keep pushing to get some form of explanation for how Horris Hill failed in its responsibilities to pupils by allowing abusers to thrive for decades before they moved on unhindered, in at least Rodney Allen's case, to further employment w/ kids. www.basingstokegazette.co.uk/news/2610826...

One of Britain's worse paedophiles - a boarding school teacher, naturally - just took a step closer to being sent back to the UK to stand trial. Forgive me if I punch the sky. www.news24.com/southafrica/...

Former Rondebosch Boys’ Preparatory School teacher convicted of indecent assault | News24

Self-confessed paedophile and former teacher Iain Wares has been convicted of indecent assault in the Wynberg Regional Court.

news24.com

Attention boarding schools. Your "Those were different times" arguments can get fucked. "A paedophile teacher at an elite boarding school at the centre of historic abuse allegations was jailed last year. Sands was employed by the school from 2018-2023." www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/b751f59...

Teacher at Britain’s most liberal boarding school jailed for child sex offence

James Sands, 47, sentenced to five years and three months in May 2025

telegraph.co.uk

Imagine hating life as much as The Spectator

Happy Birthday, Andrew. Hope you get everything we want. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor arrested at Sandringham estate

Former prince arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office

theguardian.com

The Colour Of Spring is 40. Courtesy of the great @wyndhamwallace.bsky.social thequietus.com/opinion-and-...

"It’s About Time We Brought Art In, Innit?" Talk Talk's The Colour Of Spring at 40 | The Quietus

Wyndham Wallace pinpoints the moment Talk Talk emerged from their synth pop chrysalis, on third album The Colour Of Spring.

thequietus.com

Forty years young today... "Mark Hollis may have cast aspersions on how Talk Talk began, but this belated rush to hail latter accomplishments has bred collateral damage. The Colour Of Spring’s miraculous regeneration is its greatest casualty." thequietus.com/opinion-and-...

"It’s About Time We Brought Art In, Innit?" Talk Talk's The Colour Of Spring at 40 | The Quietus

Wyndham Wallace pinpoints the moment Talk Talk emerged from their synth pop chrysalis, on third album The Colour Of Spring.

thequietus.com

Children and women can never hope to be safe from sexual predators for as long as a newspaper can run stories like these, minimising the harms of abuse. Sadly, moreover, the Telegraph is anything but an outlier, merely reflective of the establishment it instead protects.

Let it be known that this is the way things will always end - if only eventually - for all those who fail to recognise just how serious sexual abuse really is, whether by enabling it. covering it up, or minimising its significance. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Labour MPs say Starmer’s days as PM are numbered amid fury over Mandelson

MPs say release of papers on Mandelson’s appointment as US ambassador could trigger leadership challenge

theguardian.com

Yet another reason for Mandatory Reporting across the board. People of all political stripes may well have known about this but, for expediency’s sake, chose to say nothing. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

MP Dan Norris arrested on suspicion of rape, sexual assault and upskirting

Labour suspended Norris, 66, last year after his original arrest on suspicion of child sexual abuse offences

theguardian.com

Kudos to @salisburycathsc for their honesty. They may not say why this is but many of us can guess. "Moulton said Salisbury Cathedral School is reacting to a change in thinking among parents, with fewer than five per cent of its 220 pupils now boarding." www.bbc.com/news/article...

Salisbury Cathedral School will not offer boarding from 2027

The school houses choristers from Salisbury Cathedral.

bbc.com

Nick knows, and Nick's got the courage to speak up about it. I like Nick an awful lot. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026....

Ex-British army chief calls on ministers to back MDMA-assisted therapy for veterans

Nick Carter says easing controls on MDMA will allow drug to be used as alternative treatment for those with PTSD

theguardian.com

“It seems inconceivable that the governors were not aware of what was going on. My abuser was sent off on a sabbatical to get psychiatric treatment for his obsession with boys." www.thescottishsun.co.uk/news/1586898...

Scots private school where hundreds of pupils were abused could face prosecution

SHAMED private school Fettes College could face a corporate prosecution for allowing paedo teachers to abuse kids on an “industrial scale”, we can reveal. Scotland’s top law officer is understood t…

thescottishsun.co.uk

These schools were never safe. These schools are still unsafe. These schools will never be safe. It’s time to end this charade. How many abused children will it take to convince you? #boardtodeath www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crim...

Eton head issues statement after ex-teacher jailed for sexually assaulting a pupil

Jacob Leland assaulted a pupil at his teachers’ accommodation and during a school trip

independent.co.uk

Please be kind to any survivors of sexual abuse you might know. Every minute there's another headline reminding us of how we were manipulated, how we were silenced, how no one listened, how no one stopped it, how long it was allowed to go on and how powerful the abusers were. 💔

It's beyond credibility that members of the royal family weren't aware long ago of the depths of Andrew's Epstein links. The difference between those who abuse & those who cover up abuse is simple: one gets their rocks off, the other not. Otherwise: nowt. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

Andrew went to intimate dinner with Epstein after his prison release, files suggest

Famous figures including Woody Allen were invited to party with disgraced financier and Mountbatten-Windsor, documents indicate

theguardian.com

It's a good day to remind the world that the private boarding school where I was repeatedly abused during the 1980s, Horris Hill, offered a position they called "Official Visitor", granted to Andrew Mountbatten Windsor, also great nephew of the prolific child abuser, Earl Mountbatten of Burma.

“I was never culpable or complicit in his crimes," says Peter Mandelson. "Like everyone else I learned the actual truth about him after his death." Erm... After his death? He pled guilty to state charges of procuring a child for prostitution in 2008. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Jeffrey Epstein sent money to Mandelson’s husband after prison release, emails suggest

Child sex offender sent thousands of pounds to Reinaldo Avila da Silva, according to documents published by US justice department

theguardian.com

No shit, Sherlock www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Elon Musk had more extensive ties to Epstein than previously known, emails show

Newly released files from DoJ show the pair making plans in 2013 for the Tesla CEO to visit Epstein’s private island

theguardian.com

It's beyond credibility that members of the royal family weren't aware long ago of the depths of Andrew's Epstein links. The difference between those who abuse & those who cover up abuse is simple: one gets their rocks off, the other not. Otherwise: nowt. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

Andrew went to intimate dinner with Epstein after his prison release, files suggest

Famous figures including Woody Allen were invited to party with disgraced financier and Mountbatten-Windsor, documents indicate

theguardian.com

Here's another sexual predator working for another British boarding school where he was able to ply children with alcohol & take pictures of them naked, which he kept for half a century. What will it take for people to recognise these places need to pay? www.bbc.com/news/article...

Bishop's Stortford College teacher jailed for child abuse images

A former teacher, who created abusive images while working at a boarding school, is sentenced.

bbc.com

Another reminder that Eton College knowingly passed on a sadistic alcoholic, their own headmaster, to another boarding school where he continued to abuse children and also protect other abusers. Such schools must now be held *properly* accountable. news.stv.tv/east-central...

Top private school allowed sexual and physical abuse to 'flourish for decades'

Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry says Fettes College failed to protect children

news.stv.tv

This matters. No one emerged from such institutions unscathed, and Britain is run too often by men who had all empathy beaten out of them. There as many abuse victims as there are those who depended on sacrificing human decency to survive, and it's a habit they've never shaken.

The Tories Made Me German@wyndhamwallace.bsky.social · 9mo ago

Succinct confirmation of an unspoken yet crucial truth about Britain's private boarding schools: "They shamefully failed to protect the pupils and appear to have knowingly exposed them to teachers with a history of abusing children." #Boardtodeath uk.news.yahoo.com/abuse-inquir...

Succinct confirmation of an unspoken yet crucial truth about Britain's private boarding schools: "They shamefully failed to protect the pupils and appear to have knowingly exposed them to teachers with a history of abusing children." #Boardtodeath uk.news.yahoo.com/abuse-inquir...

Abuse inquiry: Pupils ‘wholly failed’ by Fettes College for decades

Lady Smith found pupils were sexually, physically and emotionally abused from the 1950s onwards

uk.news.yahoo.com

Chenevix-Trench has been known about for decades www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Fettes College 'failed to protect pupils' from sexual and physical abuse

Children at ex-prime minister Tony's Blair's former school in Edinburgh were abused by both teachers and other pupils over decades.

bbc.co.uk

Now do EVERY SINGLE BOARDING SCHOOL in the UK (and indeed beyond).

Scottish Daily Mail@mailonlinescot.bsky.social · 9mo ago

Pupils at Fettes college 'wholly failed' by the private school which allowed abuse to continue for decades, chair of the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry says  Visit our homepage at dailymail.co.uk/scotland www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article...

It's all so distressingly familiar from my own experiences of coverups at Horris Hill. "Children were sexually abused, they were physically abused, and they were emotionally abused. Members of staff sexually abused children from the 1950s until the 1980s." www.childabuseinquiry.scot/news/scottis...

It appears @fettes-college.bsky.social had access to the incoming report about the appalling abuse its pupils suffered before victims can see it themselves. Yet again, criminals are provided with an opportunity to get ahead of the game, while victims are ignored. www.fettes.com/news-events/...