Simon
@therapod.bsky.social
Reposted by Simon
Reposted by Simon
I may well have high expectations but I wouldn’t view fixing potholes as an achievement in 21st century Britain. What I would consider an achievement is improving our active travel infrastructure so we’re less reliant on cars helping both our health and the climate crisis :)
October 22, 2026 at 10:06 AM
I may well have high expectations but I wouldn’t view fixing potholes as an achievement in 21st century Britain. What I would consider an achievement is improving our active travel infrastructure so we’re less reliant on cars helping both our health and the climate crisis :)
Reposted by Simon
Reposted by Simon
Reposted by Simon
As someone with her fair share or horrible, horrible Sunday nights, I feel this.
March 18, 2026 at 6:50 AM
As someone with her fair share or horrible, horrible Sunday nights, I feel this.
Reposted by Simon
NEW BLOGPOST: Keir Starmer and David Lammy are taking an extraordinarily dangerous gamble with our individual liberty
For any MP unsure of how to vote on the government’s proposals to restrict trial by jury.
For any MP unsure of how to vote on the government’s proposals to restrict trial by jury.
Keir Starmer and David Lammy are taking an extraordinarily dangerous gamble with our individual liberty
This week, MPs will vote on the second reading of the Courts and Tribunals Bill. Don’t let the anodyne name fool you – this is one of the most revolutionary pieces of legislation in our…
thesecretbarrister.com
March 7, 2026 at 8:14 PM
NEW BLOGPOST: Keir Starmer and David Lammy are taking an extraordinarily dangerous gamble with our individual liberty
For any MP unsure of how to vote on the government’s proposals to restrict trial by jury.
For any MP unsure of how to vote on the government’s proposals to restrict trial by jury.
Reposted by Simon
How to change the world from your little place in it?
***
Speak about your passions a little.
Do what you’re scared of a little.
Challenge your tribe a little.
Pause before you react a little.
Believe that everyone is struggling a little.
Spread hope a little.
Love yourself at least a little.
***
Speak about your passions a little.
Do what you’re scared of a little.
Challenge your tribe a little.
Pause before you react a little.
Believe that everyone is struggling a little.
Spread hope a little.
Love yourself at least a little.
January 31, 2026 at 7:41 AM
How to change the world from your little place in it?
***
Speak about your passions a little.
Do what you’re scared of a little.
Challenge your tribe a little.
Pause before you react a little.
Believe that everyone is struggling a little.
Spread hope a little.
Love yourself at least a little.
***
Speak about your passions a little.
Do what you’re scared of a little.
Challenge your tribe a little.
Pause before you react a little.
Believe that everyone is struggling a little.
Spread hope a little.
Love yourself at least a little.
Reposted by Simon
Right. The direction of travel is the most insidious.
Colleague sends me this from the partner leave to remain application they are completing... I had not seen this before. Ask yourself, why would the Home Office need to know how your partner became British?
December 16, 2025 at 5:01 PM
Right. The direction of travel is the most insidious.
Reposted by Simon
The idea of the Home Office selling off the confiscated jewellery of those who have fled war and persecution should, in an ideal world, be the death knell for this government.
November 17, 2025 at 7:28 AM
The idea of the Home Office selling off the confiscated jewellery of those who have fled war and persecution should, in an ideal world, be the death knell for this government.
Reposted by Simon
Somebody at HMRC needs to be canned for this idiotic ‘fraud-detection’ idea. And I fear future use of AI in welfare cases might well produce this kind of story regularly (as they have in Nevada for example).
UK woman who booked Oslo flight but did not fly loses child benefit ‘because she emigrated’
Exclusive: HMRC told Lisa Morris-Almond there was no record of her return to UK, but she did not take the trip
www.theguardian.com
October 30, 2025 at 7:55 AM
Somebody at HMRC needs to be canned for this idiotic ‘fraud-detection’ idea. And I fear future use of AI in welfare cases might well produce this kind of story regularly (as they have in Nevada for example).
Reposted by Simon
Research should inform policy but that’s tricky if it is almost entirely driven by policy. The independence of research is key to change because if you fund only research that responds to policy (even good policy) you’re less innovative, creative & responsive to the open options of the future.
October 24, 2025 at 7:12 AM
Research should inform policy but that’s tricky if it is almost entirely driven by policy. The independence of research is key to change because if you fund only research that responds to policy (even good policy) you’re less innovative, creative & responsive to the open options of the future.
Reposted by Simon
💥The shingles vaccine might be one of the most underrated health moves after 50.💥
New large study(174K pts):
▪️ 50% lower risk of vascular dementia
▪️ 27% fewer blood clots
▪️ 25% lower risk of heart attack or stroke
▪️ 21% lower risk of dying early
#BlueSky #MedSky #NewsSky #SciSky 🧪 #NurseSky #IDSky
New large study(174K pts):
▪️ 50% lower risk of vascular dementia
▪️ 27% fewer blood clots
▪️ 25% lower risk of heart attack or stroke
▪️ 21% lower risk of dying early
#BlueSky #MedSky #NewsSky #SciSky 🧪 #NurseSky #IDSky
October 21, 2025 at 11:02 PM
Reposted by Simon
Even if we feel helpless against the evil we see in this world, we must object to it while we can. Even if we think this is not our responsibility to the people inflicted by it, it’s our responsibility to our own humanity. Even if we feel it won’t change a thing, it’s enough that it will change us.
October 13, 2025 at 5:55 PM
Even if we feel helpless against the evil we see in this world, we must object to it while we can. Even if we think this is not our responsibility to the people inflicted by it, it’s our responsibility to our own humanity. Even if we feel it won’t change a thing, it’s enough that it will change us.
Reposted by Simon
Meanwhile....
"The other prisoners also looked to be in bad shape. Their cheekbones jutted out, with some bearing the marks of recent beatings and a few unable to walk without being propped up by their relatives"
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...
"The other prisoners also looked to be in bad shape. Their cheekbones jutted out, with some bearing the marks of recent beatings and a few unable to walk without being propped up by their relatives"
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...
‘Locked up for 24 years’: joy and sorrow as Palestinian prisoners and detainees return home
Nearly 2,000 people, including about 1,700 seized from Gaza and held without charge, set free from Israeli jails
www.theguardian.com
October 13, 2025 at 6:03 PM
Meanwhile....
"The other prisoners also looked to be in bad shape. Their cheekbones jutted out, with some bearing the marks of recent beatings and a few unable to walk without being propped up by their relatives"
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...
"The other prisoners also looked to be in bad shape. Their cheekbones jutted out, with some bearing the marks of recent beatings and a few unable to walk without being propped up by their relatives"
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...
Reposted by Simon
He calls Nigel Farage racist and then does literally all the same things but wearing a red tie.
October 2, 2025 at 8:03 AM
He calls Nigel Farage racist and then does literally all the same things but wearing a red tie.
Reposted by Simon
The police seem inexperienced with how to arrest a dangerous terrorist in a wheelchair.
Well done Yvette Cooper. Slow hand clap. 👏
Well done Yvette Cooper. Slow hand clap. 👏
September 29, 2025 at 8:36 PM
The police seem inexperienced with how to arrest a dangerous terrorist in a wheelchair.
Well done Yvette Cooper. Slow hand clap. 👏
Well done Yvette Cooper. Slow hand clap. 👏
Reposted by Simon
Zoe Gardiner, "The saddest thing I've heard about Trump's visit, is that he is going to get his golden carriage ride, but in private, because the great British public would have given him the rotten tomato treatment if he dared to show his face in public"
September 16, 2025 at 7:10 AM
Zoe Gardiner, "The saddest thing I've heard about Trump's visit, is that he is going to get his golden carriage ride, but in private, because the great British public would have given him the rotten tomato treatment if he dared to show his face in public"
Reposted by Simon
"When the rich rob the poor, the rich call it 'business'. When the poor fight back, the rich call it 'violence'."
Mark Twain
Mark Twain
September 15, 2025 at 9:08 PM
"When the rich rob the poor, the rich call it 'business'. When the poor fight back, the rich call it 'violence'."
Mark Twain
Mark Twain
Reposted by Simon
Every UK organisation -governmental or not- should quit X right now. Actively using that platform is no longer justifiable by anything.
September 14, 2025 at 10:41 AM
Every UK organisation -governmental or not- should quit X right now. Actively using that platform is no longer justifiable by anything.
Reposted by Simon
I’ve a contempt for our Prime Minister I’ve not felt for any of his predecessors. Not one. If you can’t take a stand on genocide, what else is there? How can any human being have so little humanity?
September 10, 2025 at 10:16 PM
I’ve a contempt for our Prime Minister I’ve not felt for any of his predecessors. Not one. If you can’t take a stand on genocide, what else is there? How can any human being have so little humanity?
Reposted by Simon
Now we can say which heatwave deaths have been directly the result of which oil giants
No excuses now not to sue the arses off them, and jail those at the top
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
No excuses now not to sue the arses off them, and jail those at the top
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Carbon emissions from oil giants directly linked to dozens of deadly heatwaves for first time
Study shows how individual fossil fuel companies are making previously impossible heatwaves happen and could have to pay compensation
www.theguardian.com
September 11, 2025 at 8:23 AM
Now we can say which heatwave deaths have been directly the result of which oil giants
No excuses now not to sue the arses off them, and jail those at the top
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
No excuses now not to sue the arses off them, and jail those at the top
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Reposted by Simon
I can’t tell you how many parents’ MENTAL HEALTH problems are CAUSED and EXACERBATED by the pressure of trying to get any—let alone decent—SEND SUPPORT. If the GOVERNMENT want to reduce DIAGNOSIS, they should make SEND FUNDING easier and more RELIABLE to get, not CUT it.
August 29, 2025 at 6:44 PM
I can’t tell you how many parents’ MENTAL HEALTH problems are CAUSED and EXACERBATED by the pressure of trying to get any—let alone decent—SEND SUPPORT. If the GOVERNMENT want to reduce DIAGNOSIS, they should make SEND FUNDING easier and more RELIABLE to get, not CUT it.
Reposted by Simon
While the mainstream discussions are depressingly about *how* best to remove and stop immigrants, it’s a revolutionary act nowadays to say that immigration is actually a positive thing and an essential component of a thriving country, so please join me in doing so!
August 28, 2025 at 9:17 AM
While the mainstream discussions are depressingly about *how* best to remove and stop immigrants, it’s a revolutionary act nowadays to say that immigration is actually a positive thing and an essential component of a thriving country, so please join me in doing so!
Reposted by Simon
It is very nearly the tenth anniversary of that brief moment when, for 2 or 3 days, British newspapers remembered refugees are desperate human beings who need our help, rather than scum that it's okay to threaten with violence.
August 21, 2025 at 4:44 PM
It is very nearly the tenth anniversary of that brief moment when, for 2 or 3 days, British newspapers remembered refugees are desperate human beings who need our help, rather than scum that it's okay to threaten with violence.