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Ann

@agvbergin.net

360 followers 400 following 4.4K posts

Both newts and housing, please. Personal account, views my own.

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Ann @agvbergin.net · Mar 5

"What children need to learn most is empathy for others, the capacity for nurturance, cooperation, and the maintenance of social ties, which cannot be done without the strength, respect, self-discipline, and self-reliance that comes through being cared for and caring."

George Lakoff, Moral Politics

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Ann @agvbergin.net · 12h

So sorry. Boots website is very very bad.

(We got ours last week from a good pharmacy chain that took over a bunch of Lloyds when they closed, but is North/West Yorks only.)

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Mark Brown @markoneinfour.bsky.social · 13h

Most societies treat those living with mental ill-health, distress and trauma far worse than those who do not and allow people to become poor, unwell and unsupported. No person should become poor because they live with mental ill-health, distress and trauma. But too many do #worldmentalhealthday

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Nicolete Burbach @nicoleteburbach.bsky.social · 1d

Leo XIV's first papal document, the Apostolic Exhortation 'Dilexi Te' is genuinely prophetic. Here are some highlights. www.vatican.va/content/leo-...

Apostolic Exhortation Dilexi te of the Holy Father Leo XIV on Love for the Poor (4 October 2025)

APOSTOLIC EXHORTATION DILEXI TE OF THE HOLY FATHER LEO XIV TO ALL CHRISTIANS ON LOVE FOR THE POOR [ Multimedia ] _____________________

www.vatican.va

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Ann @agvbergin.net · 14h

I think that the herps feed may like to know about this 🐸

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citrus sapling 🍋 shop update live! @citrussapling.bsky.social · 15h

Frog Con returns this year, and it begins tomorrow!! This is a fully online con so you can enjoy frogs from anywhere in the world ⭐ I am part of the artist alley again, you'll be able to see my virtual table at A1! #art

A painting of a green frog on grey paper swimming downwards, surrounded by blobs of frogspawn.

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James Harding-Morris @bsbicountries.bsky.social · 1d

The Little Whirlpool Ramshorn Snail - one of a series of photographs I commissioned whilst working on the Back from the Brink project so that people could actually *see* some of our most threatened and beautiful species.

📷: Alex Hyde/Back from the Brink

Little Whirlpool Ramshorn Snail on a fingertip

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Ann @agvbergin.net · 23h

I think a core part of what Labour promised was better administration of the state. This isn't it, and it's at least in part because they also do not value the Equality Act.

Ann @agvbergin.net · 23h

Conclusions from the dossier submitted to the National Audit Office.

Conclusion
External, independently verifiable evidence confirms that Access to Work’s current
implementation represents a systemic national failure, not a local or administrative
anomaly.
These findings reinforce the need for NAO scrutiny into both the policy origin and
operational governance of the scheme.
Observed Impacts
The evidence gathered by Action on Disability (AoD) shows that Access to Work’s (AtW)
administrative and policy failures have produced measurable harm, not only to individual
Disabled workers, but also to employers, local authorities, and the public purse.
These impacts fall into four broad areas: employment outcomes, personal wellbeing,
employer costs, and fiscal inefficiency.

Ann @agvbergin.net · 23h

Conclusions from the dossier submitted to the National Audit Office.

Ann @agvbergin.net · 23h

Systematic evidence from Action on Disability's support cases on the effects of these changes to Access to Work.

aod.org.uk/wp-content/u...

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John Pring, DNS @johnpring.bsky.social · 1d

Access to Work dossier of evidence shows ‘real harm’ and job losses caused by DWP cuts and failings
#AccessToWork #DWP
@accesstoworkcol.bsky.social
www.disabilitynewsservice.com/access-to-wo...

Access to Work dossier of evidence shows ‘real harm’ and job losses caused by DWP cuts and failings

The Access to Work scheme is failing Deaf and disabled people, and its “decline” in the last two years has caused them “real harm”, with some support packages cut by 80 per cent, according to a det…

www.disabilitynewsservice.com

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Dave @davemck.bsky.social · 4d

You're all wrong. It's the washing machine and dishwasher and the fridge.
They powered the post war boom as more women stopped working exclusively in the home and started picking up jobs. They weren't tied to back breaking labour in the home.
Electrification powers equality.

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Ann @agvbergin.net · 1d

Currently very annoyed with Octopus, who have added 4 digit form validation such that I cannot given them my 5 digit gas meter reading.

Reposted by Ann

John Pring, DNS @johnpring.bsky.social · 1d

Coach firm to pay thousands to accessible transport activist after driver lied that he threatened violence
www.disabilitynewsservice.com/coach-firm-t...

Coach firm to pay thousands to accessible transport activist after driver lied that he threatened violence

A coach operator that passed on defamatory lies about a well-known disabled activist who exposed the inaccessibility of one of its coaches will have to pay him substantial damages, and make a humil…

www.disabilitynewsservice.com

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James Allan @jamesallanatmos.bsky.social · 8d

This is important work an tallies with data I've seen from the supersite during heatwaves. As the climate warms up, the contribution to PM from secondary organic matter increases, and this is something we still have a relatively poor handle on compared to other sources.

Emily Barnes Franklin, PhD @emfranklin.bsky.social · 9d

Out this week in npj Climate and Atmospheric Science: VCPs, biogenic VOCs and traditional anthropogenic PM respond to heat and smoke to drive summer PM pollution outside NYC, highlighting vulnerabilities of urban air quality under global change. @chemdelphine.bsky.social @dbm.bsky.social

Emerging drivers of urban aerosol increase global change vulnerability in a US megacity

npj Climate and Atmospheric Science - Emerging drivers of urban aerosol increase global change vulnerability in a US megacity

rdcu.be

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Ann @agvbergin.net · 2d

Really pretty worried about this effect this will have.

www.theguardian.com/business/202...

NHS could pay 25% more for medicines under plan to end row with drugmakers and Trump

UK ministers preparing to raise payments to end standoff with pharma industry, cited as reason for firms axing British investments

www.theguardian.com

Ann @agvbergin.net · 2d

I am really depressed by the degree to which the government appears to be driven by business interests.

Ann @agvbergin.net · 2d

I am a middle class woman who does not drink, and I am correct when I say that drinking is bad for you.

Shout-out to everyone who hates the pubs as third space discourse.

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Glen O'Hara @gsoh31.bsky.social · 2d

Think of the headlines: Motability recipients who can't breathe properly having their cars driven away; ppl who've been here for decades having in-work benefits stripped; prisons collapsing under the strain. Would all cause immediate Tory u-turns under pressure. Nonsense. (3/3)

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Glen O'Hara @gsoh31.bsky.social · 2d

A load of cuts on 'foreigners' that don't even add up. Cuts that even if they happened would be swallowed by the £30, £40bn the govt needs anyway. A new 'golden rule' that makes zero sense. Worse is the impact on real people. (2/3)

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Glen O'Hara @gsoh31.bsky.social · 2d

Coverage of Badenoch's speech was one of the worst examples ever of Westminster Brain and Lobbythink. A litany of nonsense applauded by a policy elite that can't even think three moves ahead. (1/3)

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Amanda Katz @katzish.bsky.social · 2d

Horrific reporting from the AP on the Myanmar families watching their kids starve to death from Trump and Musk’s aid cuts apnews.com/article/myan...

Starving children screaming for food as US aid cuts unleash devastation and death across Myanmar

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has repeatedly said “no one has died" because of his government’s decision to gut its foreign aid program.

apnews.com

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Ann @agvbergin.net · 2d

BTO has a nice map here showing locations of Robins ringed in Britain and Ireland.

www.bto.org/learn/about-...

Robin | BTO

The Robin's red breast and habit of living close to humankind makes it one of our most familiar birds.Robins are widely distributed in Britain & Ireland throughout the year, from Shetland to the Chann...

www.bto.org

Ann @agvbergin.net · 2d

Tho it seems a little early for food in Northern Europe and Russia to have been consumed by snow and ice.

Ann @agvbergin.net · 2d

So seems like they can be both sedentary and migratory.

> Our resident birds are often joined by migrants from Scandinavia, Europe and Russia looking to avoid the harsh winter in their own countries.

www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/blog/2019/05...

Ann @agvbergin.net · 2d

On the assumption that it's the same one.