Neil Tester

Just read a comment on my local newspaper’s website decrying “Neigh Sayers” and that’s set me up nicely for the day.

in this week's newsletter! my very, very hot take, which is that one of the reasons politics has got bad is that our politicians have got.......too good - do read it, see what you think, shout at me, etc youngvulgarian.substack.com/p/politics-i... [free edition!]

‘Hope and relief’ as seaside town’s last youth centre saved Charity praises effort to stop Ramsgate’s Pie Factory Music closing but calls for more youth services in coastal towns

Really needed to see a good news story at this point in this particular week…

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

3/3. I’m increasingly glad that Healthwatch Hertfordshire has decided to carry on doing what we do best during the uncertainty, keep all of our options in play and focus on helping our system partners think about and shape the future. This ride isn’t going to get any less interesting…

2/3. First Ian Dodge, who’s led on numerous pieces of legislation in his time, argued that time pressure means they’ll have to ditch them to save the central proposals in the Bill. Now former minister Lord Hunt says the Lords will want a continuing independent voice for people using health services.

Health Bill won’t survive the Lords intact, says ex-minister A former Labour minister has predicted government will have to retreat on its planned abolition of Healthwatch, and described its approach to the NHS as "command and control from the Department of Hea...

Interesting to see that the HSJ podcast has now twice featured experts highlighting the challenge the Government will face in attempting to get the forthcoming Health Bill through Parliament if it includes its current plans concerning Healthwatch. 1/3.

www.hsj.co.uk/policy-and-r...

‘Dangerous and alarming’: Google removes some of its AI summaries after users’ health put at risk Guardian investigation finds AI Overviews provided inaccurate and false information when queried over blood tests

www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Google AI Overviews put people at risk of harm with misleading health advice Exclusive: Inaccurate information presented in summaries, Guardian investigation finds

www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

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’

Classy. Or just auditioning for a role as a panto villain?
www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

‘It was the last time Mum smiled at me’: the choirs singing to the dying in three-part harmony A worldwide movement to sing gentle songs to the dying provides comfort, peace and release to both the suffering and the singers

Beautiful and thought-provoking on lots of levels.

www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

Screenshot from the Sunday Times. Two stories next to each other. Photo of Malta. Headline: Forget Dubai - Britons are moving here to cut tax bills instead. Photo of Zohran Mamdani. Headline: Rich New Yorkers eye London as Mamdani plots wealth tax.

Hang on, Sunday Times - maybe make your mind up?

Mount Vernon Hospital, Rickmansworth Road, Northwood - Hillingdon | Historic England Explore every county, district, city and major town across England.

Heritage at Risk register’s out in a week of briefings that the Budget will cut NHS lists. Describes this 123-yr-old hospital as decaying with no solution agreed. That’s just its existence, not its NHS function. Cutting lists needs a serious capital strategy.
historicengland.org.uk/listing/heri...

This article was amended on 4 November 2025 to remove a suggestion that print journalism is "obsolete". Newspapers and magazines are still available.

Love this note at the end of the Guardian’s review of the J**n L***s Christmas ad.

What are parents of children with special educational needs and disabilities telling us? Parents across England are speaking up about the challenges they face getting the right specialist support for their children and how families are often left struggling to get the care their children ...

Good to see @healthwatchengland.bsky.social pulling together experiences of children with SEN and disabilities ahead of White Paper. Glad 2 of the examples used come from what people have shared with Healthwatch Hertfordshire - and that one is a good news story. www.healthwatch.co.uk/blog/2025-11...

Whoever’s directing Sunday Brunch just made my morning. @charliehigson.bsky.social said he bonded with @jimmoir1.bsky.social over their partners cheating on them by going fishing together. Cut to young Norwegian singer Sigrid looking utterly staggered that Brits discuss such things on live TV.

This is good news but the Secretary of State’s wrong to say women have been suffering in silence. They’ve consistently been trying to tell the system and being ignored. Sound familiar? Here’s Exhibit A from Healthwatch Hertfordshire: www.healthwatchhertfordshire.co.uk/news/2023-12...

SPOILER ALERT: the blog may not be *entirely* about the TV show…

“Just go outside!” I’m writing this just over eight hours before I settle down to watch this evening’s opening episode of Celebrity Traitors. This trailer article in today’s Guardian provides a masterclass in how to org...

Who else is looking forward to Celebrity Traitors tonight? I have views…
neiltesterconsulting.co.uk/blogs-and-ar...

I know statistics are poorly understood and are misused. But facts matter

Between the 1991, 2001, 2011 and 2021 Census *every* ethnic group in the UK has become *less* geographically segregated and *all* groups, majority and minorities, are more likely to interact with people not like them

“Just go outside!” I’m writing this just over eight hours before I settle down to watch this evening’s opening episode of Celebrity Traitors. This trailer article in today’s Guardian provides a masterclass in how to org...

Who else is looking forward to Celebrity Traitors tonight? I have views…
neiltesterconsulting.co.uk/blogs-and-ar...

Screenshot of BBC London news. A man with grey hair, wearing a white shirt and dark suit, is being interviewed in a city street. The on-screen caption identifies him as Brent North, Gatwick Diamond Initiative.

While it would make Barry Gardiner MP’s life easier if he represented a one-man constituency, Brett North isn’t going to be pleased with BBC London.

A page in a lined notebook. Handwritten text as follows. 4/5/09 Why are my cheeks and earlobes soft? 4/5/09 Why is everything in space? 6/5/09 Why do train signals have four lights? 21/5/09 Are pandas dangerous?

I’ve moved house and I’m still stowing away a whole load of things that I know why I kept but that don’t have obvious places to go. One is this notebook in which I started to note down some of my 7-year-old’s questions. If anyone can answer them, it would help me stop being such a deadbeat dad 🤣

Newly retired UK teachers ‘sick with worry’ after delays in pension payments Current and retired staff complain about delays, backlogs and poor communication at Teachers’ Pensions

Not entirely sure why they buried the key to it all in the 14th paragraph…

www.theguardian.com/money/2025/s...

Time to get serious about men’s NHS Health Checks Our new research shows that too many men are missing out on the NHS Health Check, which is essential in preventing illness and saving lives. Read our findings and calls to action for healthcare leader...

Important from @healthwatchengland.bsky.social. I was invited for mine 7 years after I became eligible, finally went 2-and-a-half years later, had blood pressure of 170/120 and dread to think what might have happened. (Exercise and meds have sorted the BP now.)
www.healthwatch.co.uk/blog/2025-09...

Nothing will stop the illegal ice cream vans on Westminster Bridge

‘Partridge is more popular than me – that’s a given!’ Steve Coogan on Alan’s glorious return For three decades, he has played one of the UK’s greatest ever comedy characters. But how different is he to Alan Partridge really? Ahead of the presenter’s new show about mental health, Coogan is put...

I find it quite endearing that there are still PR people who think I’m going to read this now and still remember it, after weeks of the world continuing its accelerating descent, in October.
www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio...

Resignation of Claire Murdoch

Claire has overseen a period of pretty substantial (unprecedented?) growth in spending on mental health services ... Yet it's miles away from meeting need and demand

The commitment to that growing investment now very clearly at an end

Labour comms director helped write manifesto while still working at TikTok Exclusive: James Lyons rewrote 2024 election pledges ‘over evenings and weekends’ before his exit from social media company

I can EXCLUSIVELY reveal that when someone posts something on LinkedIn the Guardian thinks it counts as an EXCLUSIVE.
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

A textbook case of how not to report polls.

'50%? Oh my god!'
'Oh, you mean a 9-point increase'?

The doctor quoted by Dr Aseem Malhotra
in his speech today was listed in 2020 as having a financial interest in a rival Covid vaccine and company.