Jonathan Roberts

Water bills to rise further for millions after appeal Five water companies win permission for higher bills as they seek more funds to fix outdated infrastructure.

Good job they've clawed back that £50 billion they gave to share holders that should have been spent on infrastructure, otherwise this would be outrageous www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

I'll be honest, I didn't realise it wasn't subject to VAT. Closing tax loopholes for private healthcare providers and using this to fund NHS pay rises seems like an easy win from where I'm sitting.

Maybe, and here's an idea, if Labour is intent on ushering in a far right government they shouldn't put in place the infrastructure for a surveillance state.

Reform UK's ex-Wales leader Nathan Gill admits pro-Russia bribery Nathan Gill admits eight charges of bribery while being a Member of the European Parliament.

Laura Kuenssberg: do Reform's Russian connections spell the end for Keir Starmer?

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

If you call going round putting up flags given to me by a notorious right wing extremist and then asking people to bow to them political, then yes, it's 'political'.

Approaching my 10th wedding anniversary and my 4 year old is incredulous my wife and I still have anything to say to each other. 10 years, in her view, should be quite enough time to say everything you need to each other.

He's also failed to tackle wealth inequality (instead preferring to blame immigration for everyone's woes).

As far as I can tell Farage has been called out in Congress after calling for sanctions against the country he seeks to lead. It's an act that should bar him from ever being PM. Yet, the BBC only seems interested in breathlessly telling us how Reform are the Government in waiting

If anyone without children asks my advice about having children I ask one simple but important question. How much do you like side quests?

This feels like a mad idea because - among other things - these data centres require heaps of water and we've spent the last 30 years siphoning £50 Billion into shareholders pockets rather than investing in water infrastructure. We've built no new reservoirs in the last 30 years!

New paper where we argue that (at least in the UK genomics context) we need to make it easier for the full diversity of our workforce to contribute to research. bmjopen.bmj.com/content/15/8...

Just going through the self check out while the kids scan everything themselves

For what it's worth I've found the work of Lisa-Feldman Barrett super helpful in thinking about how to respond to my children's emotions.

There's also a lot in the gentle parenting movement (and that ilk) that prioritises validation of emotions over all else. There's little space within these frameworks for trying to re-frame or contextualise emotions.

Labour betting the house on economic growth rather than solid principles is looking worse and worse every day.

Yeah. If only those poor water companies had less regulation to deal with they could properly innovate! I bet there are a million ways they could pollute our waters they haven't even thought of yet!

Reading "the Grammar of Fantasy" by Gianni Rodari. He has a great line about why we need to nurture our imaginations: "Not because everyone is an artists, but because no one is a slave." This captures much of my worry about LLMs damaging our creative powers.

How successfully Reform is making the weather is maddening. Politics could do itself a massive favour if those in power stopped worrying about the tantrums of middle aged men.

Fair pay for NHS workers is no-brainer. However, I think the context of this will make it a real challenge to win over the majority of the public (for clarity, I'm not saying they're wrong, just that this sets up major coms challenge)

It's will swiftly be a case of "This messiah complex isn't big enough for the both of us"

Just don't get it out in public.

The framing of this - the two siding - is terrible from the BBC. Falling for the trick of allowing a (very small) spoon full of truth to allow a serious amount of conspiracy theory and corruption to go down.

Indeed, his current strategy of appeasements reminds me as a parent of trying to negotiate with a toddler.

I knew Nestle were evil, but this really takes it a step too far.

Diamonds cha-cha forever with Tom Holland as Bond. I'd watch that.

Absolutely chilling.

I am 💯 with you.

I can't hear you!!

Me: maybe listen better then mate.

Be ready to be shocked and offended at university, students told Guidance has been published by the Office for Students on new free speech rules coming into force this year.

Ah I see we are again making policy based on right wing fantasies about 'snowflakes' that mostly just represent projections of their own insecurities. Cool. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...