caitlin

How Palantir infiltrated the state At a moment of national emergency, the government handed our data to Peter Thiel’s controversial company

🚨 NEW FROM LIBERTY INVESTIGATES

Palantir wants to become the ‘default operating system for data across the US government’.

It now appears to be pursuing the same ambition in the UK.

Read the full story on @prospectmagazine.co.uk ⤵️ www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/dem...

We have an incredible line-up of speakers for our upcoming Domestic Abuse Conference! 😁

With topics including vicarious trauma, coercive control and law enforcement’s role in ending domestic abuse, this event is not to be missed 🙌

Join us & get your ticket now👇
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/cranstoun-...

Prison system crisis due to overreliance on long sentences, says Gauke review Successive governments’ ‘penal populism’ has driven England and Wales justice system to brink of collapse, report finds

Positive @davidgauke.bsky.social led review will confront 'penal populism' - longer & longer sentences, doing less & less good. Better sentencing = less crime. That's the goal. Not the political sugar rush of ramping up sentences every time there's a row. www.theguardian.com/law/2025/feb...

This is so cute!

@cassht.bsky.social I feel like your class would like this 🍄‍🟫🌳🌿

"The reason they’re getting bailed out is because they ran out of other people’s money to line their pockets with. It’s only a matter of time before they end up on the edge of bankruptcy again."

Good character guidance amended to block refugees from naturalisation - Free Movement There have been some important additions to pages 50 and 51 of the Good Character guidance (a comparison of the new and old versions is here) that have the

This should be changed asap.

If we give someone refugee status, it can't be right to then refuse them route to become a British Citizen. To say they can have a home in our country, but never a place in our society and be forever second class. freemovement.org.uk/good-charact...

Ofcom, stop GB News broadcasting hate *CW: Homophobia, hate speech GB News is no stranger to spouting hatred and toxic lies. They take pride in it, and pretend the rules don’t matter. But they do. And they must be enforced. On 22 January,...

On 22 January, GB News presenter Josh Howie repeated a homophobic slur linking the LGBTQ+ community to paedophilia. This is offensive, wrong and unlawful.

Join me and @goodlawproject.bsky.social in filing a complaint to Ofcom: action.goodlawproject.org/ofcom-stop-g...

Thank you to Karma Nirvana, all of the SAP, Yasmin, and to Nicole Jacobs, Naomi Wiseman, @jessasatomp.bsky.social , @jessphillipsmp.bsky.social and @alexsobel.co.uk for such an impressive demonstration of the value of detailed, thoughtful policy work that can (and will) save future lives.

I'm still processing how incredibly significant yesterday's event was. Listening to the Survivor Ambassador Panel & to Yasmin, Fawziyah Javed's mother, was deeply moving. The call to act was heard clearly - I am sure everyone who attended will have left a fierce advocate for a statutory definition.

Fantastic! If you buy any children’s or YA book from Bookshop.org UK this month, 10% goes to BookTrust and Scottish Book Trust, to give more children access to books 💜 🏛️ Here are my classics-themed suggestions to make the most of this scheme…

‘Epidemic’ of violence against women and girls in UK is getting worse – report National Audit Office says government attempts to tackle misogynistic violence are hampered by poor coordination

Reading NAO report & brilliant @lexytopping.bsky.social

Discovered that "the Home Office underspent on its own VAWG budget by an average of 15% between 2021-22 and 2023-24".

Utterly bewildering and rage-making when the whole VAWG sector is on its knees.

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

Nazis: "that's a nazi salute"

Historians: "that's a nazi salute"

Average person: "that's a nazi salute"

The Media: "Elon Musk makes odd gesture throwing his heart to the crowd."

Tory response to child sexual abuse inquiry was ‘awful’, says chair The Guardian22 Jan 2025Rajeev Syal Home affairs editor ▲ Prof Jay said ministers ‘committed to nothing’ on the recommendations The last Conservative government issued an “awful, inconsequential, insubstantial” response to a sevenyear national inquiry into child sexual abuse, according to its chair. Prof Alexis Jay, who led the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse (IICSA), told MPs the response from the then home secretary, Suella Braverman, to the 20 recommendations had “committed to nothing”. Jay’s condemnation came after the current Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch criticised the prime minister, Keir Starmer, for resisting calls to launch another national inquiry into grooming and rape gangs. The IICSA report, which included an examination of child sexual exploitation by organised networks, was released in October 2022, in the final days of Liz Truss’s administration. Jay told MPs the initial response from Grant Shapps, home secretary at the time, had left her feeling “much encouraged”. But after the collapse of Truss’s government, Braverman returned as home secretary and her written response to the report, in May 2023, had been “awful”, Jay said. Jay told MPs: “I cannot tell you how it felt to constantly read the response, when we got the final printed version … It was inconsequential, insubstantial, committed to nothing. And the wording used very often amongst the 20 recommendations was ‘we accept the need for’ whatever it was, but made no specific commitment. The reaction of all of us, but mostly victims and survivors, was such huge disappointment and anger.” Jay said she had been criticised by a Home Office special adviser after she had written to the Times describing the government’s response to her inquiry as weak. She told the home affairs select committee yesterday that she had received a call from the Home Office while on holiday.

"The last Conservative government issued an “awful, inconsequential, insubstantial” response to a seven-year national inquiry into child sexual abuse, according to its chair." [Guardian]

Stop the Government from spying on all of our bank accounts Sir Keir Starmer is pushing plans we defeated under the Conservative Government - to spy on all of our bank accounts on the premise of dealing with welfare fraud and error. It will force banks to fla...

Sign the petition! Stop the Government from spying on all of our bank accounts 👇

you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/st...

Big Brother Watch response to intrusive powers in the Public Authorities (Fraud, Error & Recovery) Bill — Big Brother Watch

🚨NEWS: Government Announces Bank Spying Powers in New Bill.

We know this will disproportionately punish people left on the poverty line by the social security system - for the Government's own mistakes.

Read Big Brother Watch's full statement: bigbrotherwatch.org.uk/press-releas...

Yep - it seems like school uniform is consistently used as an acceptable space for this kind of victim blaming, still. It often seems to come alongside this weird rhetoric of short skirts being distracting for teachers, which is so utterly disgusting. Children's legs are not the problem here.

Wow. Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde fearlessly calls out Trump and Vance to their faces. This is heroic.

(posting in 3 parts due to Bluesky's 1 minute limit)

Every “journalist” using the transphobic phrase “lying about her gender” is encouraging another attack.

This is undeniable stochastic terrorism in UK mainstream media.

Fellow cis people, I'm talking to you:
This.
We do not need 'both sides.' We do not need 'balance everyone's concerns.' We do not need stupid thought experiments. All any trans person needs to hear from any cis person is 'we support you unconditionally against the people who want you dead.'

"Lie" is absolutely disgusting framing. She had sex with a guy who turned out to be such a violent "Gender Critical" that he tried to kill after learning she was trans. I wonder why she had to keep her personal medical history from him huh?! As if you would tell a potential murderer your info. Sick

So concerned about women in sport and an entirely made up threat to women in sport that they’ve decided to inspect the genitals of all women in sport

‘Inaccurate’ grooming gang claims putting children at risk, Sunak and Braverman told Exclusive: Joint letter from organisations and experts says singling out British-Pakistani men draws attention away from other sources of sexual abuse

A year ago, when Suella Braverman wrongly said grooming is mainly undertaken by Pakistanis there was at least some outrage, some pushback, some degree of people standing up & reacting.

Now it is totally normal for politicians across the right to say it. www.theguardian.com/society/2023...

I think the Birds feed is my favourite thing about Bluesky. It's so calming and lovely. Also look at this silly little round creature, how can that not make you smile?

Coming back to this framing today, as so many point out the date of the fire in Parables & say she saw the future. Octavia followed the 'what next' thought process and had the wisdom to get much of it right. It's not magic, it's a skill she should be praised for honing that we can all learn from.

google's ai overview going into detail on what thomas edison, alexander graham bell, and benjamin franklin invented, then saying "A famous female inventor." for five women, then back to describing several more men's inventions

love how google ai goes into detail for all the men, and then for the women, it just goes "eh, some broad"

Lucy Grossmith, Mumurations over Fields

Can’t put enough emphasis on what the words “last medical facility” mean in the context of this genocide. It’s pretty simple to understand what happens when there’s no hospital available.

All of the rhetoric around Imane Khelif and "beating women" etc was inevitably feeding into this. This is a politics of confining women to the domestic sphere and removing us from the public one. It was never just about trans or intersex people - though if it were, that should have been bad enough.

Absolutely hateful.

Caitlin McCullough on LinkedIn: Who are the men convicted in the Gisèle Pelicot rape trial I cannot accept a world where we see all men as monstrous - a trap it is all too easy to fall into if you are exposed on a daily basis to men's violence…

Wrote up some thoughts on the Gisèle Pelicot case and "monstrous men" over on LinkedIn

www.linkedin.com/posts/charit...