Scribbler Pen

Thank you for presevering, great news! Congratulations @ellarobertafdn.bsky.social

Image shows Sian Berry stood to the left of campaigner Rosamund Adoo-Kissi-Debrah, and surrounded by a group of clean air campaigners. All of them are smiling and holding a copy of Ella's Law - the Clean Air (Human Rights Bill).

Image shows Rosamund Adoo-Kiss-Debrah sat next to Sian with a copy of Ella's Law on the table in front of them. They are both reading the Bill that is named in memory of Rosamund's daughter Ella who died aged nine due to exposure to air pollution.

Ella’s Law has been published 👏

No child should have the growth of their lungs stunted because of dirty air where they live and play, yet this is the reality of air pollution in England. Ella’s Law would change this.

My thanks to Rosamund and all the hard-working campaigners demanding change.

Axel Springer buys Telegraph in £575mn deal German media group scuppers proposed acquisition of UK newspaper company by Daily Mail owner

Now, will "We shall fight Motability and RNLI on the beaches" continue to be the editorial line, or will Axel Springer find a better business model? www.ft.com/content/e5cb...

But who could have imagined that this week's moral panic about UK #welfare "spiralling out of control" would be as groundless as it was this time last year, and the year before, because the percentage of GDP spent on welfare stays flat and is set to stay flat until 2030.
OBR: obr.uk/efo/economic...

What happened to "creating safe and legal" immigration routes promised at election? Maybe Labour @labouruk.bsky.social
should take time off from kicking disabled people, modelling black uniforms, and feeding bigoted opinion pieces to bigots who'll vote for bigger bigots anyway, and sort these out?

Britain is an island, it's where people have always landed. From Beowulf in a dialect of Norse to Zadok to the Merchant Ivory films that gave you all assorted 30p Lees a nostalgia for a time that never was, *this* is your culture, made by immigrants. Prove your own damned lineage to the nth degree.

We truly live in an era of the worst politicians in our lifetimes. And I'm old enough to have seen a few. 15 years is a lifetime to a child, who won't know is she can ever call the country that she is growing up in her own, keep her friends, finish education, get a job. Cry more about "integration".

A letter from the British Conservatives' leader Kemi Badenoch to the Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer urging him to push through his Home Secretary's Shabana Mahmood's hardline anti-immigration policies despite protests from his own MPs.

Mendelssohn on the radio as I work, and I think "All you awful Mahmoods-Badenochs-Farages-Lowes and other Powells who want to "take the country back" to Victorian times, here is Queen Victoria's favourite composer, a Jewish #immigrant from Germany, you'd have hated him. He *is* your British culture.

Cruelty to immigrants is not what my party stands for. It’s time for True Labour, not Blue Labour | Stella Creasy We must get back to the party’s roots before it is too late. That means embracing difference, rejecting division – and fighting for opportunities for all, says MP for Walthamstow, Stella Creasy

Will MPs even get a say in this policy?
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Shabana Mahmood accused of mimicking Trump as she announces asylum plans Home secretary’s proposals to overhaul immigration system include end to permanent refugee status

Did someone order performative cruelty in 2024? No? Well, we're here to deliver it, and it has your address on it. Refuse delivery, you say? Sorry, but you have to pay return postage. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

Why can't our government lock its revolving door with Palantir? What are they afraid of?
This is highly sensitive patient data going to a company known for misusing patient data in unethical ways. And here is a clear conflict of interest, not to say corruption.

Thank you! This is good start.

For anyone consuming UK news: It's April, Spring budget, open season on disabled people to justify welfare cuts. Westminster politics and media astroturfing of the "striver vs scrounger" variety starts here. It's what we do instead of Lent and Easter. To make palatable, season with a pinch of salt 🧂

Journalists have a moral responsibility not to peddle misinformation, when DWP data is as available to them as to anyone. And not to stigmatise. It's long past time that "Nothing About Us Without Us" became a code of conduct.
Don't tell disabled people what you think they do or don't need. Ask them.

This is more insidious coming from self-avowed progressives. When this is what the health component of Universal Credit will look like in 3 weeks' time for new and reassessed claimants too disabled to work (a.k.a. LCWRA). Most of whom are over 50, not "young". They won't suddenly become fit to work.

Proposal on support for pupils with medical conditions at school We are seeking views on updates to guidance to strengthen how schools support pupils with medical conditions and allergies.

🚨 IMPORTANT Govt #consultation on supporting children with medical conditions in #school. This includes clinical vulnerabilities. A chance to call for #Covid prevention and #LongCovid support
#CleanAir #LongCovidKids www.gov.uk/government/c...
@longcovidkids.bsky.social @gmhazardscentre.bsky.social

Contrary to the trope here, most people assessed as having Limited Capability for Work Related activity (i.e. the group not required to seek work, others are) are not young people, but over 50s. Many who had worked but are now too ill.
The DWP data is open to journalists' searches and FOI requests.

It would be helpful to talk to some disabled people, even family, who might explain to you what the barriers to employment are, and whether getting financial support when disabled is one of them.

UK to further curtail rights of asylum seekers Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood will tighten rules on access to accommodation and financial support

Government to further curtail rights of asylum seekers

The legal changes to be announced today will revoke the UK’s statutory legal duty under EU law to provide asylum seekers with support and accommodation

www.ft.com/content/cac2...

This dog whistle is not meant for us. It's just too loud not to hear.

UK Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood standing outside a red brick asylum holding facility, with its cage-style high metal fence behind her. She is wearing a double breasted black wool greatcoat with a black leather belt and grey stitching along the edges, reminiscent of a World War II era SS Rottenfuhrer regulation greatcoat without the insignia.

Opening shot from the Department for Work and Pensions video, part of its Get Britain Working campaign in 2025, ahead of the budget announcing welfare cuts for disabled people. It shows people walking towards a job centre housed in a Victorian-era factory yard, with a wrought iron arch mounted over its red brick gateway.

This week we have this asylum crackdown messaging from the Home Office. This time last year we had this Get Britain Working messaging from the DWP. Visual messaging is never accidental.
If you read one thing today, read this history lesson from 100 years ago. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

SS Rottenfuhrer regulation overcoat, minus the buttons and insignia.

Because both are channelling a very specific uniform, in a very Specific Service, from almost 100 years ago.

Thank you for putting it so beautifully and clearly.

If beating hatemongers took the power of disinvesting in them last time, what would do it now, when wealth the size of a nation's economy flocks to hate?

Every word of this.
A hundred times — this.

Exempt from seeking work is the Limited Capability for Work Related Activity, LCWRA group. New or reassessed claimants in LCWRA from April already face a 50% cut in the disability element of Universal Credit. They won't be 50% healthier or more able to work. Is this meant to boost their self-esteem?

The assumption that these are "young people sitting at home getting depressed" is in itself a trope. People with mental health conditions judged mild are required to seek work. A lot comes under mental health, e.g. learning disabilities. Even clinical anxiety is not the much maligned layman's term.

The people on Universal Credit "allowed not to work" (besides all those employed already) are those the DWP has assessed (not an easy process, often stacked against the claimant) as too disabled to seek work. Whether physical or mental health, this isn't a matter of "self esteem" but of disability.

Thank you. Although I have no complaints about my current employer, it was an environment in the course of work where Covid was hard to avoid and I didn't manage to avoid it. My previous employer learned a much-needed lesson in false economy: that you can't get much done when your load-bearers drop.

I am sorry, and I know. Good on you for taking the HEPA filter in, and I truly hope you avoided the damned thing. Maybe your dentist will learn.
We are in the middle of mass, self-perpetuating ignorance. And we need to hold our nerve, for as long as this takes. 💜