Sylvia Davidson

Screen shot from Paul Embery’s X account: Respect to this police officer. Confronted by radicals demanding the arrest of a Christian preacher on the grounds that Whitechapel "is a Muslim area" she was calm and professional and gave them short shrift. Let's see more of this from the police. Has a video of a woman police officer talking to a group of Muslim men

This clip is all over the other place and has made its way onto GB News and Talk TV so I’ll do a bit of an explainer here too!

The clip doing the rounds is of a fantastic police officer telling a group of Muslim men that a Christian preacher nearby is entitled to freedom of expression.

🧵
1/19

Absolutely insane story about a middle-aged woman from Hertfordshire who got arrested, shackled, and detained by ICE and held in a prison for eight weeks.... while on holiday... with a valid tourist visa... as she tried to leave the country.

KFC, Nando's, and others ditch chicken welfare pledge as demand soars Wingstop, Burger King, and others have walked away from an industry commitment to avoid using fast-growing chickens

KFC, Nando's, Burger King and others ditch chicken welfare pledge.

It is about profits.

They prefer "franken-chickens" which mature quicker but have higher rates of premature death and muscle disease.

What are people eating?

Customers not told anything about chicken welfare.

#WutheringHeights Sweepcliff.

That said we need gear and have ecologists and contractors to hire to get the bigger stuff done. The land purchase wiped us out and the Warleigh Task Force only get us so far. That’s why we’ve launched a second crowdfunder. Buy us “a pint” and get it doubled. www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/warleigh-n...

Stoneygate (Leicester) Council by-election result. The chart displays eight vertical bars representing different parties or candidates with their respective percentage of the vote. The Green Party (GRN) leads at 30%, followed by Labour (LAB) at 28%, One Leicester (Leic) at 16%, Independent (IND) at 12%, Conservatives (CON) at 8%, Reform (REF) at 3%, and both the Liberal Democrats (LDM) and a second Independent (IND) at 2% each.

GREEN GAIN

Stoneygate has chosen HOPE. Aasiya Bora is elected with 30% of the vote.

The collections at @nhm-london.bsky.social are full of glorious specimens esp the Flies. But they also come with lots of extra information

Roger Crosskey wrote down his feelings 50 years ago about this species complex - his frustration evident

@dipteristsforum.bsky.social @dipterists.bsky.social

A moist and exciting trip to Grimston Warren today, with lots of good lichens seen including Diploschistes muscorum and Cladonia macilenta, as well as Ramalina fastigiata. Conifers were removed 27 years ago, and the heathland has come back really well including the lichen flora.

Good news from Orford Ness 📣 This year, more than 430 grey seals pups have been born, an 88% increase on last year and the highest number since the colony arrived in 5 years ago. It's the surest sign yet that the colony has established and is growing on the Suffolk coast.
📷️ Hanne Siebers

That Goodwin would attract like-minded racists, bigots and neo-Nazi adjacent lowlifes was predictable.

That the BBC, Times, etc would entirely ignore this...was also predictable.

Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s recent comments about migration weren’t just wrong, or offensive, they were a distraction.

There’s a reason billionaires keep stoking anti-migrant sentiment, here’s what they don’t want you to realise… 🧵1/10

That’s an interesting list - no Flavoparmelia caperata - sure it would be high up a list for Sussex as corticolous and saxicolous.

These two women are suing Andrew Tate, alleging he raped them. Here they visit the social media companies that created Tate. Please share.

*one voice altered to disguise identity

A screen snip. At the top is a sentence pointing out that the Northern Line tube line closely follows the route of the Roman Road, Stane Street. Beneath are two maps, on the left Stane street is shown with settlements including Morden, Tooting, Clapham and Kennington marked. On the right is another map with the modern northern line shown. All of the settlements on the stane street map are duplicated on the tube map.

We've been on the Northern Line. The idea that it's 2000 years old seems completely reasonable.

Nice photos, they never really stay still so I often do little films of them - none of which have been a big box office success - yet!

‘Backroom’ lobbying on Coul Links golf plan under fire Scottish ministers have been privately urged to back plans for a golf course on a coastal wildlife site. This has been condemned as “backdoor lobbying that tries to bypass the rules”.

‘Backroom’ lobbying on Coul Links golf plan under fire...

www.theferret.scot/backroom-lob...

Zack Polanski on how Keir Starmer could have changed the April 2025 UK Supreme Court ruling to protect trans rights (EXCLUSIVE) Zack Polanski revealed how Keir Starmer could have acted to protect trans rights after April 2025 UK Supreme Court ruling.

It’s the Government’s duty to protect all communities - including trans people.

They’re failing to do that.

Trans people deserve safety and dignity.

www.attitude.co.uk/news/zack-po...

'Bid to buy Rothbury Estate as divisive as Brexit' Funds are being raised to buy the Northumberland estate - but the plans have split opinion.

Fixed that headline for you:

‘One (1) farmer who farms 1,000 acres doesn’t like rewilding, we’ve made that the basis of our headline in a classic example of false balance.

PS everyone else in the story loves the idea of the Wildlife Trusts buying the Rothbury Estate’

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

'Mini Switzerland' plan for Peak District transport network The idea would see buses arriving before trains pull into stations to improve connectivity.

Fantastic to see my Mini Switzerland idea covered by the BBC.

It captures so many people’s imaginations because it’s both obvious, simple and yet - from where we are today - unspeakably radical.

Please share!

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

I’m not normally that person but….

It’s really annoying that Democracy for Sale a has hardly been credited anywhere in last 24 hours for breaking story of Labour Together paying to spy on journalists *almost two weeks* ago

Hadn’t expected Tory press office to be the exception!

I've often wondered how Steven Pinker's amazingly sloppy research and baseless claims* have for so long received a free pass. I wonder whether it could have something to do with a. his connections with the rich and powerful; b. his claims often aligning with what they want to hear.
*See next post.

The UK was declared measles free in 2017.

Vaccine programs completely eliminated it.

Since then, pro sickness conspiracy theorists and anti science idiots have enabled its return.

'Bid to buy Rothbury Estate as divisive as Brexit' Funds are being raised to buy the Northumberland estate - but the plans have split opinion.

The worst kind of fake-balance from the BBC in this headline, and to a lesser extent the article.

One person has said the purchase is divisive, but it's their words that have been used for the headline.

One person. Along with his photo.

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

Donate here to the RNLI
rnli.org

Tilberthwaite pt 2 lichen trip report 7 February 2026 Eleven months on, we returned to Tilberthwaite. Last time we visited the old mine workings, this time the woods were our destination. We made short work of the journey from the car park; the rivers...

Here's a thing about the recent Cumbria Lichen and Bryophyte Group trip to Tilberthwaite. cumbrialichensbryophytes.org.uk/2026/02/12/t...

Two nice finds in today’s cold and bright conditions. Physcia clementei on a sycamore at Barrow Common, and Agonimia tristicula on a wall at North Creake churchyard, which had well over 70 species of lichen.

Coral background with faint heart illustrations. A glossy male Blackbird with a bright yellow bill faces left. Large title reads: “Birds as bad exes*” Smaller text reads: “*Yes, you read that right.”

Happy Valentine’s Day, from us to you. Tag your exes. Xoxox

Drop the charges.

🇵🇸

Putin’s megaphone: Orbán’s far-right push into UK universities is fuelled by Russian oil | Good Law Project Good Law Project has uncovered a network funded by Hungary’s authoritarian leader Viktor Orbán, that uses profits from refining Russian oil to platform far right and anti-trans campaigners in the UK

Our investigation has uncovered a network funded by Hungary’s authoritarian leader Viktor Orbán, that uses profits from refining Russian oil to platform far right and anti-trans campaigners in the UK

https://goodlaw.social/2l1y

The EU is working on a blanket ban of ‘forever chemicals’. Why isn't Britain? | Pippa Neill I met people living with dangerous levels of Pfas, including in their food. The government is failing them, says environmental journalist Pippa Neill

As the EU explores a ban on forever chemicals, the UK announces a plan to make a plan of what to maybe do about PFAS. How many people are being exposed to harmful chemicals while the government dithers?

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...