@martinmckee.bsky.social
Prof of European Public Health LSHTM Co-Director European Observatory on Health Systems & Policy Member Independent SAGE Past President BMA & EUPHA Committed to 🇬🇧 rejoining 🇪🇺 https://www.lshtm.ac.uk/aboutus/people/mckee.martin
Darren Jones is due to announce a citizens' assembly as part of the government's consultation on digital ID cards
What is a citizens' assembly and how have they been used before?
See our handy @instituteforgovernment.org.uk explainer ⬇️
This 18-year-old Afghan girl had offers from York and Reading – thanks to Shabana Mahmood, she will now never escape the Taliban | The Independent www.independent.co.uk/news/people/...
There’s a reason for the international rules-based order. Without it, every country needs their own nuclear weapons. (Actually there are lots of other reasons too)
And “Whoever commissioned this officer has deprived some village of its idiot”
It’s cool that this generation gets to find out the answer to “what would you have done when we started interning the Japanese?” and “what would you have done when we invaded Vietnam?” and “what would you have done in Watergate?” all at the same time.
Breaking: SC newspaper verifies portions of Trump accuser's story. Textbook journalism. Local journalism. Support your local news outlets. www.postandcourier.com/news/epstein...
Our new bird feeder has some visitors
Unlike some others, I strongly support public inquiries (and gave evidence in person to COVID inquiry). But only if we learn from them. We @independentsage.bsky.social showed many COVID failures due to forgetting Philips inquiry into BSE. Now history repeating itself with Chilcot 👇
Please please read this from the archbishop of Chicago
www.archchicago.org/statement/-/...
And before anyone points it out, there’s always customary international law, so we shouldn’t lose all hope. But just now, it seems only to apply to poor countries
www.icrc.org/sites/defaul...
Staff at the nation’s largest Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility have placed bets on which detainee will be the next to die by suicide, according to new reporting from the Associated Press based on 911 calls and detainee accounts.
Has anyone told him that while the US and Israel haven’t signed Protocol 1 of the Geneva Conventions, the U.K. has, which covers current attacks on energy and water infrastructure. Nor have they signed Rome Statute so, like Epstein files, maybe only Brits will be held accountable
A reminder of the Second Geneva Convention. The submarine would not have to surface if it endangered itself but no question of that here.
It is - not sure what happened
RUSSIA GETS:
-Higher oil prices
-Reduced US economic pressure
-Bogged down US military
-Air defense assets not sent to Ukraine
US GETS:
-Indefinite war in pursuit of undefined outcome
-Weaker economy
-Frayed international partnerships
-Combat deaths
Much being made of deployment of a US B-1B bomber at RAF Fairford. Maybe worth reflecting on the challenges and cost of actually using it. Text from Wikipedia
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Not just post Brexit. I heard it all the time when giving talks in support of Remain. I did occasionally point out that 2016 was when my compatriots were thinking of the centenary of the Easter Rising but it was lost on them.
www.military.com/daily-news/i...
Is anyone asking what is the structure that is coordinating UK and other forces in the Mediterranean and the Gulf? What is the chain of command? Is it a free for all? Or is the US involved?
An excellent thread from my colleague @meganbryer.bsky.social ahead of #IWD2026 this Sunday
Lots below including quotes from some of the women who have served as government ministers, reflecting on their time in office
So does she think such people don’t pay VAT when they go shopping? There are lots of UK people who don’t pay tax, and they live in Dubai (or Thailand, from where they bankroll Reform). But she never sees them as a problem
Also, no evidence US even wants it. Flying into a combat zone outside chain of command is a rapid way to make the RAF even smaller, cf F-15s in Kuwait. And she’s clueless about international law (as well as military operations)
If she ever got near levers of power it would be terrifying. Argues that UK should attack Iran because its bases in Qatar, Bahreïn, UAE are under attack. Yet all those countries have armed forces and none of them are attacking Iran.
Every time a Labour politician tries to present their party as middle of the road, between extremes of Green and Reform, they make it much more difficult for progressives to support them. Do they have no-one who can interpret polling data?
There seems to be a widespread view that adherence to international law is somehow optional. Reminds me of Russian friends who described their situation as “the law is like a gate in the middle of a field. You can use it if you want but don’t have to”. And we know where that went.
Even before the illegal attack on Iran, I was preparing a talk on how climate change, and especially AMOC collapse, could lead to UK population becoming refugees. Little did I know that some of the most xenophobic Brits would be fleeing Dubai just so soon. Always remember, it could be you
New data from @whoeurope.bsky.social sets out the scale of the challenge we face in tackling Big Tobacco. We in @eupha.bsky.social stand with WHO in urging much stronger action.
eupha.org/articles/eup...
Sorry but disagree. Engagement with X is complicity. This is a moral issue above all.
Voting opens today for @rcphysicians.bsky.social elections.
I am standing for Vice President for Education and Training.
It's the first elections where Members will also be able to vote. Please encourage all eligible to exercise their franchise.
More about me here:
tinyurl.com/22j7nypk
Indeed. A point some of us have made repeatedly, and futilely, to people who claim to be able to “make Brexit work”, without a clue about how the EU works