Helen Sloan

Whatever their rhetoric, closing the public involvement specialist arm of National Institute for Health and Care Research will impact the reputation of UK as a spearhead for innovative involvement of the public in research that has them at the centre

Palantir was a warning sign.

Keir Starmer choosing to hand our data and security to US tech companies is an outrageous failure of judgment.

All in the name of "investment." What about national security?

England facing drastic measures due to extreme drought next year Government and water companies are devising emergency plans for worst water shortage in decades

England facing drastic measures due to extreme drought next year.

Country surrounded by water has water shortages.
2024: 1trn litre of lost to leaks.
Sewage dumped in rivers for 4m hours.
No new reservoirs.
Investment neglected, £85bn paid in dividend.
Record high water bills.

People fleeced.

Peter Watkins obituary: radical British filmmaker behind The War Game and Punishment Park The maverick filmmaker and pioneer of the docudrama, whose anti-establishment works redefined political cinema and challenged the very language of mass media, has died aged 90.

Peter Watkins, film director, changed my outlook and the way to think about film. Total genius and a sad day.
www.bfi.org.uk/features/pet...

Graph showing voting intention (18-49), Source YouGov(28/10/25) Green Party 25% Labour 21& Reform 19% LibDems 15% Tories 11% Other 9%

The @greenparty.org.uk is now the most popular party amongst voters under 50 years old

We need to keep working and growing but I believe a change is gonna come

Note that the anti-migrant propaganda’s aim is not only to scare non-migrants of migrants but also vice versa. It makes migrants feel that almost everyone around them hates them and wishes them harm. Feeling terrified tends to make you behave in a defensive or disconnected way. Understand the game.

Reading Thiel, Yarvin, Peterson et al. makes you realise what passes for intellectual iconoclasm these days is all absolute bollocks. Why anyone gives any of these people the time of day let alone credibility is baffling.

Chris Packham, "This country voted in a party with a massive majority and a mandate for change"

"All we see is Labour kowtowing to the far right. This causes me enormous concern"

"I'm frustrated, I'm angry, and I've frightened"

"And I get more scared every single day"

US professors facing threats, firings and harassment over Charlie Kirk posts As many as 40 academics have been dismissed in aftermath of shooting, allegedly without due process

Academics and university staff being put on leave because of coordinated campaigns by right wing groups accusing them of criticising Charlie Kirk. I must admit I find the hypocrisy under the current US administration re free speech utterly outrageous.

Tower Hamlets has the worst air quality in England, 1.8x the recommended WHO guideline pollutant level

Only three local authorities in England have air quality better than the World Health Organisation's guideline pollutant level, while Tower Hamlets has the lowest air quality.

Explore the data for your area on our newly updated Local Authority Dashboard ⬇️

https://bit.ly/4pNdG1w

Today is a day when arts degrees are worthless, but the product of those degrees is so valuable it would kill an entire industry if they were made to pay for it.

Today my @nytimes.com colleagues and I are launching a new series called Lost Science. We interview US scientists who can no longer discover something new about our world, thanks to this year‘s cuts. Here is my first interview with a scientist who studied bees and fires. Gift link: nyti.ms/3IWXbiE

Scientists are encouraged to produce science that responds to policy priorities but it’s crucial to also produce science that challenges policy priorities, and I feel UK research funders and universities have lost sight of that a bit.

Public health shouldn’t be centred around individual behaviour change. It should be focused on changing the wider commercial, social, environmental & ultimately political determinants of health. Behaviour change will naturally come when healthy behaviours are facilitated by those structural changes.

Looks like we are now live-broadcasting Reform events on mass deportation plans on major TV channels including the BBC. We've just published a study showing that this type of coverage moves public opinion in an extreme direction & normalises those ideas further: www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Paramount Has a $1.5 Billion ‘South Park’ Problem The White House says the show is “fourth-rate” after it showed Trump with “tiny” genitals. The controversy comes just as the FCC has greenlit Paramount’s merger with Skydance and promised to end DEI.

My jaw repeatedly dropped watching South Park's brutal roast of Trump AND Paramount, the company that just forked over $1.5 billion to stream it—and that canceled Colbert after he accused them of bribing Trump. Here's me making sense of it all: www.wired.com/story/paramo...

Watch my question today to the Minister of State for Security arguing why we shouldn't use anti-terrorism laws to ban the direct action protest group Palestine Action.

For 80 years, since Nagasaki and Hiroshima, nuclear weapons have not been used. An amazing tribute to humanity. And to diplomacy. Because that is what kept us safe. Rational diplomacy. The era of irrational autocrats is the real threat now

I will be damned if I allow a bunch of Confederate-waving January 6th apologists give the American people a lecture on flag waving.

There is ZERO reason to enter an argument about patriotism with people who still worship traitors to America 150+ years later.

They. Are. Breaking. The. Law.

People need to see what’s happening.

ICE just took a dad while his teenage son watched, crying and powerless.

Trump is ripping families apart—and some folks still say, “That’s what I voted for.” If that’s your take, that sentiment says more about you than it says about any undocumented immigrant.

🧵 Our new analysis estimates the funding required for social care in England over the next 10 years to meet the needs of people living longer and improve their care. 
 
Read thread ⬇

It’s not too late to stop Trump and the Silicon Valley broligarchy from controlling our lives, but we must act now | Carole Cadwalladr In her final piece for the Observer, Carole Cadwalladr reveals what happened when she returned last week to give the opening speech at Ted, where she gave her first – life-changing – talk six years ag...

Carole Cadwalladr on the button as usual www.theguardian.com/global/2025/...

Two children at school in uniforms and it looks like Japan, both of them look like girls or femmes. One is holding a giant tuba so that it's stuffed over the face of the other one that's pinned up against the wall. The one holding the tuba is labeled every company. The tuba is labeled unwanted AI And the one against the wall is labeled me

Academics represent BU at two Parliamentary events

Well done Lee-Ann (Our Social Care Research lead) and Mel @buresearch.bsky.social going to Westminsters to talk Tech and Social Care and Mel on seldom heard voices

www.bournemouth.ac.uk/news/2025-04...

@basw-uk.bsky.social @hantsconnect.bsky.social @nisreenalwan.bsky.social @rorycj.bsky.social

‘Anxiety is palpable’: detention of researchers at US border spurs travel worries Nature - Several high-profile incidents in the past month have scientists on edge.

An immigration crackdown in the United States is rattling the global research community, with high-profile detentions and deportations of academics stoking fears even for travellers with valid entry documents.

https://go.nature.com/3FG63rf

Here are the NIHR commitments to working with the public in health and social care research. They are encouraging researchers to put these great points into practice
www.nihr.ac.uk/why-have-the...

here are some example laws that could be passed... and what could happen to potential opposition

full piece here
christinapagel.substack.com/p/a-dystopia...

YouTube video by Peter Stefanovic Labour Government backs Tory power grab by appealing Liberty High court victory

Peaceful protest is a fundamental democratic right which must be defended

The decision in @libertyhq.bsky.social’s
important case will affect all of us & is due any time now.

This is why I’m standing shoulder to shoulder with them and I hope you will too

youtu.be/qk5aiRXRuU0?...