The Dawlish - Teignmouth railway line feels like the absolute front line of climate adaptation in Britain (a test we are not passing so far).
And yet somehow, somehow, this article manages to go in-depth on the problems with the line without mentioning the climate once. The sea is literally higher!
omg everybody go draw a horse this is what the internet was made for
gradient.horse
Man the implication that somewhere deep in our brain there is a “see tiny people all over the place” button and a mushroom can press it, that’s deeply unsettling.
Number of UK newspaper editorials arguing for more (blue) and less (red) climate action, 2011-2025. Some editorials also present a “balanced” view, which is categorised as advocating for neither “more” nor “less” climate action. These editorials are not represented in this chart. Source: Carbon Brief analysis.
NEW – Analysis: UK newspaper editorial opposition to climate action overtakes support for first time | @joshgabbatiss.bsky.social @sylviahayes.bsky.social
Read here: buff.ly/eAPkvkx
I like the implication in these pictures that on the other 364 days of the year, the zoo has only the vaguest sense of how many lions it should have
read a little bit of the pdf and Olivia Nuzzi is the kind of writer Caroline Calloway wants to be
Google at its peak was basically the best information retrieval system in human history and they and every competitor decided going from there to “you didn’t want answers you wanted half-assed auto-complete 80%-wrong hallucinations” in a few years was the right idea
Hydroclimate responses for European cities under different #AMOC scenarios
'It really did feel like listening to someone who’s become so used to the adrenaline of never quite feeling safe in their own home that they could no longer understand what a healthy, stable, humdrum relationship felt like.'
We don't really know how bicycles work.
Could not love this more.
There's a local history story from my village that I am absolutely fascinated by, but trying to research it is a really good illustration of how absolutely awful Google is for finding what you want now, if what you want is good information on a small site.
the Bythesea's owned a lot of land and gave that bit to the town, I think. He had a famous Rear Admiral nephew maybe? I think I read a Wilts Times article about it once
(if that's Trowbridge anyway!)
A man called Samuel Bythesea, I believe
“That’s why I want every school to play its part in getting attendance back to and beyond pre-pandemic levels.”
I think parents working from home and the changed way we think about virus spread makes this a non-starter for the section of school absence that is genuinely about ill health
The trouble is that book buying and book reading are in many ways entirely separate hobbies, and it’s alarmingly easy to acquire them faster than you read them. Add in wanting to keep them once read and you have triple stacked shelves before you know it. (Not me, of course, no no)
🧵/ How far does the public support net zero?
Support: 60%
Oppose: 25%
Net support by party
Green: +81
Lib Dem: +67
Lab: +64
Con: +11
Reform: -44
yougov.co.uk/politics/art...
Quick thread on the BBC and the political and societal significance of recent developments:
One of the main reasons the UK has historically been so much less polarised than the US, is that Britain has a shared source of information, consumed and trusted by most people regardless of their politics.
It takes an obscene amount of hubris to lecture the BBC when you have The Telegraph’s record on truth-telling.
Some of the paper’s errors this year are so bad they’re almost laughable 👇🏻
How safe are UK research institutions from politicisation? Answer - not at all. A Reform government could do the worst of Trump2 in a couple of weeks. blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsoci...
The right-wing campaign group that helped topple Roe v Wade in the US is now working to roll back abortion laws in the UK, with the help of Nigel Farage.
Its first step? Trying to create a debate around "free speech"
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/13/w...
For the Guardian, @turnbulldugarte.com and I discuss our research that clearly shows one thing: Labour's anti-immigration strategy will only strengthen Reform and weaken its own electoral prospects. It won't win voters back but ultimately normalizes the far right
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Oh no
Farage pledges to expel hundreds of thousands of migrants Reform says mass deportation would save £234bn as it warns ‘Boriswave’ of migration will take critical toll on welfare system
Any journalist quoting this absurd, invented £234 billion number cited by Farage/Reform should make absolutely clear that it has been withdrawn by *its own authors* (the Centre for Policy Studies) after they admitted it contained several major errors (1/3)
oh man, this is how I remembered my fave Lou Wilson works on that show
If this excerpt from VP Harris’ book is typical of the whole, it’s going to be juicy (and enraging.)
www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...
nce 2017, the number of asylum applications in the UK has been increasing, by 2019 returning to levels seen during 2015-16 although the UK was relatively little affected by the European 'migration crisis’. This recent increase is likely due in part to movement to the UK by those already in Europe. • In 2019, at least 1 in 6 asylum applicants to the UK had made a prior application in a European country. • However, only a small portion of secondary movement across Europe is to the UK – in 2019, the UK produced just 6% of Eurodac hits relating to prior applications elsewhere in Europe. • While many entering the UK may travel through France, most top nationalities applying for asylum in the UK do not apply in France in large numbers (with the exception of Sudanese, Afghan and Albanian applicants). Social networks, shared languages and diasporas motivate asylum seekers to reach certain destination countries • Social networks aid migrant integration to society, acting as facilitators of information relating to life in the destination country. They are considered trusted sources and are likely to influence migration journeys more than information from formal institutions. • The presence of diaspora communities can motivate migrants to reach certain destination countries. The proportion of diasporas in the EU+ residing in the UK is correlated with the proportion of asylum applications across the EU+ made in the UK (see slide 21). Armed conflict, human rights abuses, poverty, political & economic instability and violence are factors that forcibly displace migrants • The majority (57%) of individuals escaping persecution are internally displaced within their own countries and most refugees displaced abroad stay within their region of displacement, living in countries neighbouring their countries of origin 1 2 . • Of the number of asylum seekers that reach Europe, only a small percentage claim asylum in the UK. In 2019, the UK received 6% of total EU+ asylum applications. • A …
The Home Office's own (excellent) research summary says
a) asylum seekers come to the UK primarily because of social networks/ties
b) welfare and labour market policies are *not* a big "pull factor"
c) safe routes would help
freemovement.org.uk/wp-content/u...
