Paul Hebden

It's my birthday, which is always a cue to put a tree up

Let's traumatize more kids, great idea

These are political decisions. We've raised a generation of the youngest people who will manifest the consequences of that wilful lack of care that is austerity, for the rest of their lives. That trauma will keep reproducing in those lives , relationships and among the people around them.

But rather than try to support parents, politicians aided and abetted by dismal spreadsheet economics, rather than even strategically support those most at risk of reproducing chaotic lives, we cut, we end , we judge, we condemn. We wilfully re-create the social conditions for re traumatization.

Parents are stressed beyond imagination because they can't put food on the table, or because they have their own addictions and pathologies, which on turn are a response to the trauma they experienced as children. We all have our own trauma experiences, big or small, they shape us.

In the UK we have just been through 15 years of cutting and denying parents and young people the slenderist chance of being able to deal with trauma before it takes a hold of their lives. In social work you see the consequences of this all the time. Children who start the day hungry are traumatized

The biggest single contribution we could make to human existence, everywhere, would be to acknowledge the role that trauma plays in everyone's life, and commit to doing something about it at the most important points in people's lives.

Why are diagnoses of ADHD soaring? There are no easy answers – but empathy is the place to start | Gabor Maté Some say it’s overdiagnosis, others say it’s greater recognition. But it’s clear we must think about how our society is impacting human development, says author and retired physician Gabor Maté

We should be more like Gabor and less like the ableist gaslighters and denialists.
share.google/S5v3oEz4TNjF...

Steve Peers O @stevepeers.bsky.s... • 18m Imagine the reaction to allegations that Corbyn had made hissing gas noises to Jewish kids as a schoolboy - and then if he had responded to those allegations by shouting 'Bernard Manning!' at the journalists I LBC Watch @Ibcwatchuk.bsk... • 3h The radio silence about Farage from people who are usually supremely vocal about antisemitism is so so telling.

The key here is that this isn’t double standards: it shows there are just *no standards at all*, because nothing is real. It’s all performance art bollocks and brute expediency, and it always was.

"It would seem that bond vigilantes, not the government, run the UK."

ICYMI: In our latest blog, NEF’s Dominic Caddick explains how we can tame the bond market - and why more austerity won’t fix anything.

Read it here: neweconomics.org/2025/11/how-...

Every failing of DWP is down to the arrogance of these people and their contempt for benefit claimants

Senior DWP civil servant blames victims for carer’s allowance scandal Neil Couling said failings by individual claimants ‘at the heart’ of crisis, despite a report finding DWP shortcomings ‘unacceptable’

Senior DWP civil servant blames victims for carer’s allowance scandal
Neil Couling said failings by individual claimants ‘at the heart’ of crisis, despite a report finding DWP shortcomings ‘unacceptable’
www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

On @lbc.co.uk £800m to get 1m NEETS into work, good use of your taxes? Should UK follow Australia and ban U16s from social media? And if standing up to bullies doesn’t work what does? 0345 6060973 x

Fuck me we really have to get serious about Reform curious voters and understand that many are motivated by more than base prejudice and immigration. Apart from anything we need to understand the wedges that exist between Reform voters and activists/leadership

And it's always striking how someone who talks posh and has an authoritative liberal ethos - Rory Stewart - gets away with inaccuracies, cos he's allowed to play politics on easy mode.

It's a shame for the serious voices in and around the Polanski camp. He's clearly a rare political talent, but he's walked into a predictable trap the last few days that will inevitably raise questions about his judgement. It's a fundamental law that the left is always held to a higher standard.

"Judge folks by the company they keep" can be a flaky and unfair rule of thumb.
But in left UK political projects where you are not allowed to play politics in easy mode, it's deadly.
We're seeing right now how fast the credibility of a left political project is undermined by association.

"The Great British Moan Off", or how I learned to love Christmas conversations involving politics. Nothing says “Christmas is here” like the annual panic about going home to see the family. You pack your bags, brace your emotions, and prepare yourself for: unsolicited life advice passive-aggressive...

In this way, a silly - and glibly reactionary - card game becomes a doorway to real political understanding.

So this Christmas:
Don’t dread the conversation.
Play the game.
Use the moans.
And talk like humans again.
www.linkedin.com/pulse/great-...

It's a chance to ask family:
“What would you fix first if you had a chance?”
“Why does everything feel harder these days?”
“Does anyone actually get this stuff?”
"What can we do about it, together?"

Farage and the far right - they weaponise this stuff: weaving small, everyday irritations into a full blow culture / identity politics. As progressives our task is surely to do the opposite. Use the moans to open real, human conversations.
- Not lecturing.
- Not dunking.

Just..... talking.

It's a shame, but the defining British emotion right now is frustration.
- ludicrously expensive trains.
- The impossibility of getting a GP appointment.
- Cost of living.
- Crap 5G

All the stuff people feel but rarely talk about in a solidaristic way, across identities and ideologies.

It’s funny because it’s painfully true and even the "gammons" get in on the joke. And herein lies a unique twist:
The moans don't have to turn into a reactionary “culture war” row. Because the moans the game surfaces are about everyday life in a country that’s quietly been falling apart.

The game is simple: The cards are all about classic British moans:
- Bad WiFi.
- Potholes.
- Hospital parking fees.
- Terrible customer service.

You vote on who’s most likely to "lose it" over one of these things.

Great British Moan Off - Quintessentially British Questions Quiz Looking for a “who’s most likely to” game with quintessentially British questions? Quiz-off with Great British Moan Off! The British etiquette-based card game.

But last year I found a genuinely useful tool for surviving it — and even having better conversations.
A silly (reactionary) card game: The Great British Moan Off.
bubblegumstuff.com/products/gre...

I wrote a blog about Christmas, family and a card game about politics.

Every Christmas comes with the same fear: going home and navigating family politics. There’s always THAT relative.
You know the one.

How are you by the way @stephenboydippr.bsky.social

Ah yes. That would make sense! The kids know best on these things too.

At least that's my story!

My Spotify Unwrapped has my listening age at 76, cos it's mis-categorised my love of Boogie-funk (80s, post disco, early electro, house, hip hop) as Boogie, the 1930s dance craze (Chattanooga Chi Chu etc).

Idiots!!!!

A chart with year-by-year data on interest paid to banks on reserves created by QE, banking sector profits as implied by tax receipts, and taxes on banking sector including corporate tax, bank levy, and bank surcharge. Total taxes banks paid over period: £100.1 bln. Total interest paid to banks: £109.3 bln Sources: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/paye-and-corporate-tax-receipts-from-the-banking-sector-2025 Interest calculated from BoE database series RPWZ4TM and Bank Rate

Because the Treasury is liable for interest on the bank reserves, which is charged at Bank Rate, they amount to floating rate loan (which replace low-coupon fixed rate debt bought with the reserves under QE). So having a lot of bank reserves when Bank Rate went up has proved exceedingly expensive.