Karen Smith

The member of the Scottish parliament for Shetland has lodged a complaint in Holyrood over the depiction of fair isle knitting in the UK’s new competitive knitting show, which debuted this week with a controversial tank top challenge and steek-related dismissal.

Today is Hug a Bear Day! 🧸

This day is all about hugging a teddy bear – but don’t forget to spread the love and hug your loved ones and pets too!

In the George Ellis collection, we have several portrait photographs featuring children and teddy bears.

Dear GOD if you want to save money in the asylum system

1. LET ASYLUM SEEKERS WORK

2. FAST TRACK STATUS FOR EVERYONE FROM CLEARLY UNDAFE COUNTRIES like Sudan, Syria, etc

3. Run an asylum accommodation system that is NOT FOR PROFIT #r4today

The government has shut down refugee family reunion — turning in effect a “temporary pause” into a permanent ban.

Cruel. Heartless. Inhumane. 🧵

reunitefamiliesuk.co.uk/over-60-orgs...

Can you please employ some journalists that are intelligent enough to know he is no longer a Prince, as the idiots you have are unable to work that out.

Thank you @mrjamesob.bsky.social - only just started but thank you for this highest recommendation

Nige is no longer laughing at himself as he ‘performs’ yet another big speech | John Crace Reform leader is trying to make it as a mainstream politician – which involves contradicting himself and gaslighting voters

“His main theme was that the country was fucked. Largely because of Brexit. Weirdly, he has no memory of being the main architect behind the Brexit vote. He seems to think it happened in a world in which he played no part.”

Farage - the foghorn of failure.

www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

YouTube video by Richard J Murphy The REAL Reason Rachel Reeves is PANICKING About the Budget

Why is Rachel Reeves panicking about the budget? youtu.be/XQUqR6YyF3A?...

Leaving the ECHR won’t “Take Back Control” – it will hand your rights to politicians The myths are seductive, the reality is very different – without the ECHR your freedoms rest on whichever Home Secretary wakes up grumpy

👏 Today marks 75 years since the creation of the ECHR.

We should celebrate the vision that Winston Churchill showed in recognising everyone’s human rights.

But there are now calls for the UK to leave ECHR.

As with Brexit, leaving would strip all of us of fundamental rights.

The Bear explains

To think of this man

In his hospital bed,

Watching the hate-filled racism oozing across the media,

Talk of 'Britishness', and panning 'immigrants', demanding the race of the attacker be revealed,

Never once demanding the ethnicity of the brave man who saved dozens of lives

#SamirZitouni

Free Press, Goodwin v United Kingdom (1996). The ECHR ruled that forcing a journalist to reveal a confidential source breached press freedom. It strengthened protection for journalists in Britain and confirmed that a free press is essential to holding power to account.

When a journalist was punished for protecting a source, the ECHR stepped in. It ruled that a free press must be able to expose wrongdoing without fear. The ECHR defends accountability, and losing it would weaken the public’s right to know the truth.

Cambridgeshire stabbing attack: ‘heroic’ train worker praised for saving passengers’ lives LNER employee Samir Zitouni, who was hospitalised after Saturday’s incident, hailed by police and transport secretary for ‘bravery beyond measure’

This is heroic rail worker Samir Zitouni, who tackled the Cambridgeshire train attacker and is still in hospital.

Thank you Samir.

Leaving the ECHR won’t stop the boats, 300 organisations warn in rallying cry Prime minister Keir Starmer urged to make positive case for ECHR after Kemi Badenoch pledged a Tory government would leave the treaty

Human rights must not be used as a scapegoat to excuse continuing, and escalating, anti-migrant rhetoric and policies.
The ECHR helps protect everyone. Leaving it, or weakening it, harms all of us. It must be protected rather than attacked.

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/poli...

Several innocent people were stabbed by unknown attackers on a moving train in Cambridgeshire, UK Police arrested two suspects at the scene. The sad reality is, Britain is now less safe than many places people call "dangerous." Today, London feels more like Kabul than Uk

Musk's Grok was asked to verify if a tweet featuring a graphic image of the attack on the LNER train was real.

I'm not sharing the whole image but here is part of it and the text.

1/3

Let's just take a moment to reflect on the self-sacrifice and hope this person embodies - not the evil, hateful monsters thirsting for violence.

This man is clearly deranged

For an analogy, imagine the challenge was to write a piece about the history and experience of autism, but you had to do it in 20 minutes using single-syllable words and no adjectives or editing. I’ll still be watching again next week though 😆

X, Grok, Musk cannot be trusted to provide reliable, accurate information. British government and MPs should not be on the platform.

Can’t wait to see Holger’s reaction next week (if he does return) when he learns that he has to knit something in tinsel for a dog #GameOfWool.

His barely disguised contempt and the vegan analogy were the best things about it!

I just kept thinking of the pilling! And the cost!

Am watching #GameOfWool but not sure whether I can cope with a gentle, individual, reflective activity being turned into a sort of team working time stressed nightmare

Rob Jetten (in English) about his triumph:

"We've now shown to the rest of Europe and the world that it is possible to beat a populist movement if you campaign with a positive message for your country."

👏 "There are over four million kids in child poverty in the UK and there are four and a half million people who can't get a dentist appointment."

"We spend 90% of the political capital and discourse and media focus discussing 37,000 people."

🔥 Excellent from Lisa Nandy!

"I've seen this before. When I was growing up in Manchester, my dad used to debate with Enoch Powell."

"What you're doing is trying to create fear and distrust and division, because that's the only way that you and your friends can thrive."

Firm excluded from Polish road tender after submitting AI-generated bid citing fake legal cases

A construction firm has been excluded from a tender for road maintenance in Poland after its bid was found to have been generated by AI, which cited non-existent tax rulings to justify the costs, which were the lowest among all the offers.

"Would you like me to make what you've written more generic and soulless?"

"I DON'T NEED YOU TO FUCKING REWRITE WHAT I'VE JUST WRITTEN!"

As an editor, I don't want to see what AI has written. I want to see what writers have written.
I exist to help writers, and after we talk, both of us will have learned something. With AI, no one learns anything. There is no improvement and growth for humans.

Today, Nigel Farage will present a ten-minute bill to Parliament calling for the UK to leave the ECHR. Here’s why this is significant, but not necessarily as alarming as it might seem.