Michael Graham (he/him)

NEW EPISODE OUT NOW!

In this special live episode recorded in front of pupils from schools in Doncaster, David talks to political scientist @robfordmancs.bsky.social about whether Nigel Farage is really going to be the UK’s next Prime Minister.

Find us at...🎧 ppfideas.com

Disabled people are more likely to be victims of financial abuse.

And the Universal Credit system makes that even more likely by not allowing them to have money if they live with a partner who earns/has some savings.

It's a horrifically abusive system.

Finland ends homelessness and provides shelter for all in need - scoop.me In Finland, the number of homeless people has fallen sharply. Why? The country applies the "Housing First" concept agains homelessness.

“In Finland, the number of homeless people has fallen sharply. Those affected receive a small apartment & counselling with no preconditions. 4 out of 5 people affected make their way back into a stable life. And all this is CHEAPER than accepting homelessness.”

It costs a lot less to house people.

Geothermal energy has huge potential to generate clean power – including from used oil and gas wells The Earth’s own heat can be brought up from underground and used as a source of energy that emits almost no greenhouse gases and can operate 24/7 almost anywhere on the planet.

Geothermal energy could provide 15% of global electricity by 2050, an exploration geophysicist explains. New techniques allow tapping heat from abandoned oil and gas wells, expanding potential beyond traditional geothermal hotspots.

buff.ly/LLZa6cJ

Wednesday briefing: How to fight the right on reparations – and ‘rewire’ the architecture of inequality In this weeks newsletter: Many paint reparations as impossible, unprecedented, even absurd – world experts tell a different story

“When we talk about reparative justice ... we are also talking about restructuring the architecture of global power dynamics, which continue to shape contemporary issues.”

✍️ Aamna Mohdin discusses our recent report on Reparations with @kojokoram.bsky.social in @theguardian.com

I feel like this photo of masked, armed men pepper spraying a pastor protecting his community is going to be a defining picture of this moment in America for a long, long time.

Preview of poster at Alzheimer Europe conference

Please come & see my poster today Pos.7-20 Digital inequalities in social care - diverse ethnicities @alzheimereurope.bsky.social #35AEC

People are being robbed. The answer to that is not shame or anger.

The answer is empathy and compassion.

YouTube video by Green Party of England & Wales Let's Make Hope Normal Again - Green Party Political Broadcast

Bringing back hope.

Leader Zack Polanski makes a powerful case for taxing wealth not work in the Green Party's new party political broadcast.

Free stickers suitable for flag-bearing lampposts. Send a large A4 envelope with a 1st class large stamp to me at Bragg Office, PO Box 6830 Bridport DT6 9BH and I’ll send you a sheet. #ReclaimtheFlag 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🇬🇧

Research conversation: Improving care for women living with endometriosis - ARC West About the event Endometriosis affects around 1 in 10 women and those assigned female at birth. It can cause severe pain, heavy periods, fatigue, and difficulties with fertility, yet it often takes yea...

⏰ Tomorrow!
💻 Join our Research Conversation: Improving care for women living with endometriosis ♀️

🕔 5-6pm, online
🗣️Take part, get involved, give feedback!
arc-w.nihr.ac.uk/research-con...

The UK had by my calculations, per capita, twice the number of fatalities as the Republic of Ireland. Ireland wasn’t exactly gold standard. Experts were begging the UK govt & opposition to follow basic science, to no avail. The UK scientific establishment was silent. Only Independent SAGE spoke out

Societal inequality linked to structural brain changes in children Income inequality in society has been linked to structural changes in the brains of children who go on to experience poorer mental health.

"This isn't just about individual family income—it is about how income is distributed in society. Both children from wealthy and lower-income families showed altered neurodevelopment and we established that this has a lasting impact on well-being."

UBI trials can't test this. We need to just do it.

Labour uses conference to sideline disabled people… unless they are working The Labour party has used its annual conference to stress – once again – that its focus is on supporting “working people”, rather than disabled people who are unable to work. In his 6,300-word spee…

The Labour party has used its annual conference to stress – once again – that its focus is on supporting “working people”, rather than disabled people who are unable to work.
#LabConf25
www.disabilitynewsservice.com/labour-uses-...

Woman appointed Archbishop of Canterbury in a historic first for the Church of England | CNN Sarah Mullally was on Friday appointed as the new Archbishop of Canterbury, becoming the spiritual leader of 85 million Anglicans worldwide and the first woman to hold the role.

YES!

www.cnn.com/2025/10/03/u...

Fascism, Trump, Reform, and the silencing of dissent Chris Hedges, the noted anti-fascist campaigner in the USA,  has recently pointed out that fascists are unusually candid. They tell you what they are going to do. The problem is not that they hide the...

Criticising Trump was deemed to be a terrorist act in the USA last week. Reform is now trying the same approach here, accusing Starmer of inciting terrorism for criticising Farage. In both cases, the direction of travel is towards full-on fascism. www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/10...

Hey, #MedSky & #SciSky! New text from Elsevier out today, "The Scientific Basis of Fatigue", with multiple chapters on different diseases, including #MECFS, COVID, Parkinson's, stroke and MS.

Proud to be the co-author of the #MECFS chapter with authors from Mayo and Bateman-Horne! More info:🧪

Study links greater inequality to structural changes in children’s brains Researchers say findings show inequality creates toxic environment and reducing it is ‘a public health imperative’ Scientists have linked the impact of living in an unequal society to structural changes in the brains of children – regardless of individual wealth – for the first time. The study of more than 10,000 young people in the US discovered altered brain development in children from wealthy and lower-income families in areas with higher rates of inequality, which were also associated with poorer mental health. Continue reading...

Study links greater inequality to structural changes in children’s brains

Can you help us find study participants? I am part of the READY Study team. We want to listen to family or paid carers of people with a learning disability who died, learning more about people who died of something other than cancer or dementia. Get in touch if you want to find out more

when autistic people talk about research that will actually help to improve autistic people's quality of life, this is the kind of thing we mean. this is a neat study.

Citizen Network: The Power Gap Democracy stops working when some people have much more power than others.

Never shrug when some amass great wealth & power while others are thus weakened.
Growth in power inequalities leads inexorably to exploitation and oppressive rule: citizen-network.org/library/the-...

YouTube video by Garys Economics How Wealth Inequality Affects You

Gary has just done a superb YouTube short video on this which succinctly explains what the billionaires are doing. Whilst they’re busy paying people like Farage to promote division, the billionaires are taking us for mugs. It’s a very deliberate strategy.

youtube.com/shorts/LD6S1...

Farage’s Trillion Pound Black Hole: The Real Cost of Reform UK’s Mass Deportation Plan Exclusive: Reform's plan, which it claims would net huge savings over the coming decades, would actually cost the UK about £70-90bn over the next ten years alone, new analysis of official statistics a...

Nigel Farage claims his mass deportation plan would save the UK hundreds of billions of pounds over the coming decades.

New analysis of official statistics, forecasts and Reform's own figures suggests it would actually *cost* the UK hundreds of billions over the same period

Simon Maechling & @simonmaechling Follow RFK Jr is set to announce Tylenol causes autism. And then he'll push the "cure": leucovorin (folinic acid). Who sells folinic acid? Dr. Oz's supplement company, iHerb. The same Dr. Oz who is now the Administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) in Trump's administration. Think about that: A government health official tied to the very supplement company that benefits from RFK Jr's bogus "cure." This isn't public health. It's corruption dressed up as wellness.

Oh dear. It seems Dr. Oz’s company sells Trump‘s big autism cure. What a crazy happenstance.

Proper thread after the summer break– but if you were looking for a beach read about political reasoning in today's working class, look no further: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

1/3 We've launched our online reading group series and we'd love to see you there! Over six months, our reading group will focus working class storytelling; how it's been used both as an educational tool as well as a form of resistance & instrument for revolution.

www.eventbrite.com/e/wcca-readi...

Chart showing average annual non-pensioner real household income growth, by income percentile: GB/UK

Britain has seen an acute living standards slowdown over the past 20 years.

This has affected incomes across the distribution.

A typical family today would be £20,000 richer if incomes had continued growing at the same rate since 2005, when the Foundation was founded.

⤵️ buff.ly/NuhNFF9

Slowly but surely they’re saying the quiet part out loud

Praise for ‘incredible’ new plan to replace ‘deeply-flawed’ PIP An “exciting” and “incredible” new proposal to scrap the “deeply-flawed” personal independence payment (PIP) and replace it with a new supportive system that meets all of a person’s extra disabilit…

Praise for ‘incredible’ new plan to replace ‘deeply-flawed’ PIP
#PIP #CSS #DWP
www.disabilitynewsservice.com/praise-for-i...

Can violent extremists be deradicalized? I spoke with 24 former terrorists in Indonesia to find out Security crackdowns may miss the root cause of radicalization.

Can violent extremists be deradicalized? A researcher who studies ideological violence spoke with 24 former terrorists in Indonesia and identified 6 critical factors in successfully turning them away from violence:

buff.ly/zHQqMU5