Why are numbers on UC higher?
1. People moved off old benefits onto UC (without the option)
2. Rising pension age means more people in working age system for longer
3. More people with ill health & disabilities, barriers to treatment, Covid legacy
4. Deepening poverty... 1/2

The prime minister must face facts and end the two-child limit on benefits A group of charities have joined together to write to the PM calling for action on child poverty and an end to the two-child benefit limit.

Its time to face facts and end the two-child limit on benefits

Backing calls from former prime minister Gordon Brown for more intervention on child poverty
a group of 13 leading charities have joined together to write a letter to Keir Starmer

www.bigissue.com/news/social-...

Labour to revive Northern Powerhouse Rail project Starmer and Reeves expected to announce move before Labour conference, with aim of boosting backbench morale

Labour to revive Northern Powerhouse Rail project

Starmer and Reeves expected to announce move before Labour conference

www.theguardian.com/business/202...

The Slightly Under the Weather Kennedys.

YouTube video by Channel 4 News Leicester City Council to end post-16 school transport for SEND students

"When you have a SEND child, you're battling all the time. And it never stops."

Brilliant report from @channel4news.bsky.social on the impact of post-16 SEND transport cuts to students and their families.

h/t @natspec.bsky.social

www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CAA...

He did. He meets a delivery man who did his NS in the same RAF station. (I think it's the Christmas episode.)

Yes, I realised that when rewatching.
Richard Briers said this in an interview - that Tom would have been insufferable.
Do you remember "The Windbreak War"? The snobbery is dripping of Tom & Barbara.

Civic society has long had a leftward tilt. (One now former Conservative MP contact always used to note that of the c10 per cent of their constituents who voted for anything to the left of Clegg, they knew basically all of them because they ran the volunteer orchestra, the cinema, etc. etc.)

In addition, I think there's a kind of learnt helplessness/excuse-making for the incumbent government that the 'actually, it is terrible' stuff leads to. (Even from people who oppose the current government). 'Petty crime is no longer legal', 'people have local government again' are not insoluble.

George Osborne arranged Cotswolds holiday for JD Vance [FREE TO READ] Ex-chancellor helped source accommodation and devise itinerary for US vice-president

Turns out that George 'six jobs' Osborne is also a high end vice presidential travel planner on.ft.com/3UuNBG2

UK universities explore merging language courses as enrolment falls Institutions discuss closer collaboration and sharing resources amid funding concerns

This is just stupid now. Universities are a state asset and a facet of national power. Someone needs to get a grip on them immediately - like, today. www.ft.com/content/d949...

Isn’t this the kind of thing that Meghan got torn to shreds for by the British media? But, when lovely Pippa does it, it’s just fine?

Rachel Reeves orders fresh planning overhaul for ‘critical’ infrastructure projects Officials asked to draw up proposals for second bill that would include scaling back judicial reviews for major works

When I say 'the government has no project' this is a good example of that, where on the one hand we have 'remove barriers for critical infrastructure' and on the other we have 'but stop hiring construction workers from overseas'.

FT radar analysis reveals huge build up of European defence capability, stretching over 7mn sq metres of new industrial development, with a priority given to ammunition on.ft.com/45xcaXS

Same.

Same.

As Patrick well knows, the issue is not 'anti-trans prejudice' but rather women's political, legal & socio-cultural equality & rights. Based on sex not gender identity as confirmed by the Supreme Court.
Framing women's rights campaigners as 'anti-trans' is regressive, sexist & patriarchal.

Protests in Belfast and Dublin over Israel’s killing of journalists in Gaza Protests have taken place in Belfast and Dublin after a prominent Al Jazeera correspondent was killed alongside four colleagues by the Israelis in Gaza City at the weekend.

"National Union of Journalists (NUJ) held demonstrations at Writers’ Square in the Cathedral Quarter and at the Spire in Dublin city centre on Monday evening to condemn the outrage." www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/republi...

If he is rewarded for these crimes then he will invade again and he will invade elsewhere - and any other authoritarian leader that fancies more land & resources will know they can do exactly the same.

Putin lied in 2014 and he will lie again. And the victims will be betrayed.

If Putin is rewarded for illegally invading Ukraine, for occupying parts of Ukraine, for committing genocide, for torture, rape, summary executions, for false imprisonment, for abducting children, for bombing schools and hospitals, murdering journalists, starving ppl… then anyone can do anything.

Russia’s cruelty and lies - this is what terrorist state looks like.

Quick sense check from other Londoners, please: there’s a huge police facial recognition operation underway at Brixton tube. They say it’s just Brixton today; happening all over London over the months.

Anyway else seen this happening anywhere else?

It might be FOI time.

These men?
www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

Also there is a historical precedent for racist men lynching people using women as a pretext.

Malcolm Cupis writes on ConsHome that he has joined the Conservative Party to protest at Reform not choosing Ant Middleton, a criminal, bankrupt + racist who would ban Badenoch, Sunak and Khan from high office by proposing a '4 generations' rule + who will speak at the Tommy Robinson rally on 13/9

No, Kemi – putting asylum seekers in tents isn’t the answer The leader of the Conservative Party ought to be addressing the issue of how to prevent more small boats from arriving in the UK, instead of talking vaguely of ‘camps’, says John Rentoul

No, Kemi – putting asylum seekers in tents isn’t the answer. Me for @the-independent.com www.independent.co.uk/voices/labou...

Can't predict vote percentage but will stick my neck out and say: Cons 90% to have more seats than Rfm. I don't want to be blasé about Rfm, but it's not easy to go from 4 to 122.

JD Vance to meet Farage and Jenrick during Cotswolds holiday [FREE TO READ] Tory leader Kemi Badenoch will not have an audience with the US vice-president due to a schedule clash

Right-o

JD Vance to meet Farage and Jenrick during Cotswolds holiday on.ft.com/40Zb3yT

Hungary’s Viktor Orban: “The Ukrainians have lost the war. Russia has won this war.

“The only question is when and under what circumstances will the West, who are behind the Ukrainians, admit that this has happened and what will result from all this.”

Quisling.