Helen Hitchcock

Transport of London staff face deportation under new visa rules More than 60 employees who came to the UK on skilled worker visas may have to leave the transport body.

It's sickening that TfL workers who gained a skilled worker visa in good faith have had their secure employment removed by the Government at the stroke of a pen.

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

JK Rowling tweeting got a boycott of M&S, stretching facts to the breaking point, and making the world a worse place for absolutely everyone.

The employee asked the girl and her mother if they needed help shopping. That’s it. That’s all. The misinformation, the insinuations (because the facts are inconveniently benign) are EXACTLY what was done to lesbians in the 80s. This is the product of hate and fear, not reality.

Prison bosses make room for possible influx before planned protests across England Exclusive: Possible arrests at protests against Palestine Action ban and asylum hotels likely to stretch prisons

Let's empty the jails so we can fill them with octogenarians who care about genocide.
Because that's the real threat to society.
www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

How many of those license holders own a car? My oldest has just got a provisional driving licence for id purposes and has no intention to learn.

Whichever way you spin the numbers, there is certainly a large proportion who don't drive, and are largely ignored or penalised by the state with poor and expensive public transport, and bad active travel links.

I shop at #M&S because they're an inclusive employer. I will continue to shop there for that reason.
The chocolate-coated custard creams are a bit rubbish though.

If I have to explain to you why it's a bad idea to use a machine that makes shit up 15-80% of the time AND destroys the environment AND contributes to rising fascism and genocide AND puts brilliant skillful creatives out of work by stealing their work, then we're already speaking different languages

I'm a cancer survivor and I'm terrified of cuts to universal credit

Millie Light writes of the deep sorrow she feels for anyone who becomes sick or disabled with cancer after the universal credit cuts.

Me: summer holidays. Time to give my other interests full attention and refresh my brain.
My body: time off? Insomnia and migraines and the unrelenting urge to clean pointless things..
#Summer

#Wordle 1,503 3/6

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A lucky starter word with some good guesswork. Unreasonably proud of this.

The most brutal life expectancy divide in the world. #GazaGenocide

Sexual violence has been both endemic and normalised within many British police forces — and sexual violence against girls from working class backgrounds has long been ignored by the wider British state. Sometimes the obvious answer is, in fact, the correct answer. Nobody cared about these girls.

Five survivors of Rotherham grooming gangs say they were also raped by police officers Three former South Yorkshire police officers arrested in investigation into claims by the women, as young as 12 at the time

God, the number of people who were willing to believe that the South Yorkshire police were too woke to prosecute sexual abuse cases, when in fact the police force was itself an instrument of patriarchal sexual violence. It’s like a case study in the worst excesses of the British press.

Public media has been defunded. Your support keeps journalists on the ground, lifts unheard voices, and connects communities.

Help us plan for what’s next. Make a monthly gift today. Stand with public media: n.pr/458sOhq

A few dozen people protest a hotel housing asylum seekers and its headline news for days.
Over 100,000 people turn out for London Trans Pride and silence.

Open letter from UK university staff: Request for biometric deferral and safe evacuation of incoming Palestinian students and scholars from Gaza to UK Universities More than 40 students currently trapped in Gaza with full scholarships to UK Universities are asking for a safe route to come and study. We, the academic community hoping to welcome these scholars, ca...

An open letter has been launched today (27/7/25) for members of the UK academic community (academics and other university staff) to sign, to press the UK Home Office to facilitate safe passage out of Gaza for 40+ students with offers for UK universities.

docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

85% of Gaza is on the brink of death due to starvation. Israel could let aid in at any moment. And some people (like these men tried to do with me on Friday) are still trying to justify this atrocity.

There is no justification. This could stop at any moment. End the blockade now.

I think my heart rate has just about recovered! Congratulations #Lionesses #UefaEuro champions! ⚽️🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🏆🦁🦁

Horrifying.

Asking for a friend.

How Britain privatised itself into failure Britain outsourced its state – now private firms profit while public services crumble. In Failed State, Sam Freedman explains what went wrong

🚨How Britain privatised itself into failure.🚨

Britain outsourced its state – now private firms profit while public services crumble.

In 'Failed State', Sam Freedman explains what went wrong.

Connections
Puzzle #777
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Nearly 2nd guess!

Heard from a colleague spending a few months in the Netherlands.

"Went on a 35-mile bike ride today, entirely on bike paths, through all kinds of landscapes. Turns out I love biking, I'm just scared of biking with cars."

😢

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@tomtomorrow.bsky.social @rubenbolling.bsky.social
First they come for the comedians, then the cartoonist. Kings fear being laughed at. We have a funny bone to pick with/without a smile on our faces #Colbert #Kimmel #SethMeyers #DailyShow

This was the order of events:

1. Paramount acceded to Trump’s extortion by paying a bribe.

2. Stephen Colbert calls his employer out for doing that.

3. Paramount fires Stephen Colbert for being honest about Trump.

4. Proving Trump’s bribe worked.

A newspaper article with the headline: “New grant to push sales of electric cars for net zero”. The strapline reads: “Government offers up to £3,750 off new vehicles”. The article, written by Ben Clatworthy and Will Dron, discusses a new UK government scheme offering up to £3,750 for motorists switching to electric vehicles (EVs). The grant applies to EVs with a list price under £37,000 and will be available until 2029. It is part of a £650 million initiative aimed at increasing EV adoption to meet net zero targets. Key points include: • Models made in Britain will get higher grants. • Chinese-made EVs like BYDs will be excluded. • The grant is applied at the point of sale. • About 80–90% of new cars are bought on finance. • The scheme is not means-tested. • Tesla, Polestar, and high-end BMW, Audi, and Mercedes models are ineligible. • Past grants offered up to £4,500 between 2016–2018. • Only 15,474 EVs were registered in 2018, compared to 381,970 last year. • Private buyers accounted for just under 20% of EV sales. • The policy supports Labour’s goal to ban new petrol and diesel cars by 2030 and may later include plug-in hybrids.

Yet again, the UK gov chooses to subsidise the least effective way of reaching net zero. Imagine if did this for cargo bikes instead, effectively halving the price of bikes that can replace the majority of these cars - especially 2nd cars - and funding car sharing schemes instead for longer journeys

A few clarifications on the Green Women's Declaration (GWD) and its relationship to the @greenparty.org.uk (GPEW) and Green Party Women (GPW):🧵

[1]

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