Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Parkin and Tea

Prem Sikka @premnsikka.bsky.social · 2d

How austerity hit young people.

In the decade after 2010 councils’ funding for youth services in England and Wales suffered a real-terms cut of 70%.

By 2023, 1,200 publicly run youth centres closed.

Young people abandoned to fund tax cuts for corporations the rich.

Britain's youth clubs have been quietly decimated. What's most revealing is that few seem to care | John Harris

These vital spaces have been the first targets of cuts in a nation that favours age over youth – despite being the remedy for blights such as social division, polarisation and loneliness, says Guardia...

www.theguardian.com

10 150 270

Reposted by Parkin and Tea

Max Colbert @mc00.bsky.social · 1d

Really important NYT investigation finds that the ADF has been working with Reform, 'courting the party since at least 2024' and that the British arm 'orchestrated Mr Farage’s appearance in Congress, reaching out to ask if he would like to give evidence on censorship'
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/13/w...

They Helped Topple Roe v. Wade. Now Their Sights Are Set on Britain.

www.nytimes.com

8 110 200

Reposted by Parkin and Tea

The Rest Is Politics @therestpolitics.bsky.social · 1d

"Nobody should ever vote for any party in Britain that was modelling itself on ICE" - Rory Stewart

2 21 100

Reposted by Parkin and Tea

East Anglia Bylines @eastangliabylines.co.uk · 1d

National Grid have published visualisations of how the Essex landscape will appear with the addition of 50-metre pylons.

Local councils say the plans are ‘unacceptable’.

See the article for ‘before and after’ pictures ⬇️

Report by Piers Meyler.

Visual impact of new Essex pylons is modelled

Visual simulations reveal how new 50-metre pylons could reshape Essex’s countryside – and spark growing local resistance

eastangliabylines.co.uk

2 2 3

Reposted by Parkin and Tea

glastomichelle.bsky.social @glastomichelle.bsky.social · 2d

Ruby Red Tor. October 2024 the aurora paid a visit to Glastonbury. This was the result of my last trip up there that night after several trips up there to find total cloud cover. This image is October in my 2026 Glastonbury Tor calendar.
www.visionsofsomerset.co.uk/product-page...

5 37 300

Reposted by Parkin and Tea

Climate News @climatenews.bsky.social · 2d

THE LONDON ECONOMIC

"We should all be angry that we had 14 years of Tory austerity. They shut our libraries, they shut our community centres. And then to say integration is a problem - how do you expect people to integrate if you've taken away their services?"

-ZACK POLANSKI, GREEN PARTY LEADER

2 130 410

Parkin and Tea @parkinandtea.bsky.social · 2d

At one of the railway related museums near us they have a poster (c.1920s from what I recall) which shows the income distribution from one of the larger rail companies at the time, was around 60-70% income from freight, so suspect freight has always been the bit that makes the money.

1

Reposted by Parkin and Tea

Sue Cowley @suecowley.bsky.social · 3d

I think maybe the #SEND review needs to look at making education itself more suitable for meeting more children's needs? Start seeing #inclusion as a feature of the system rather than as an add on. If we did that alongside additional support for children with high level needs we might get somewhere?

9 7 58

Reposted by Parkin and Tea

SueP @sparkes66.bsky.social · 3d

IMHO it has to begin with the curriculum. Enough time to truly meet those ELG and to work on them throughout KS1 and to truly embed all the basics at a suitable pace throughout Primary. Stop racing them through and thinking earlier means better. But also enough money and resource.

2 3 13

Reposted by Parkin and Tea

Prem Sikka @premnsikka.bsky.social · 3d

Farage/Reform and the Trump playbook.

Mass sackings of unsympathetic civil servants
Promise to reduce workers's rights
Inflict spending cuts - hit the poor, old, sick, disabled

Now claims teachers are “poisoning our kids” - just as Nazis did to control education.

Power grab by dividing society.

Nigel Farage accuses teachers of ‘poisoning our kids’ on race issues

Exclusive: Reform UK leader’s remarks at event for private US college criticised as ‘grossly irresponsible’ by NEU leader

www.theguardian.com

35 280 550

Reposted by Parkin and Tea

J.M. Hardin @jmhardin.bsky.social · 3d

In case you haven't seen it yet, @hcrichardson.bsky.social and @jbf1755.bsky.social talk about propaganda, No Kings Day, and the Founding Frogs on this week's What the Heck Just Happened? www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-f0...

What the Heck Just Happened?

YouTube video by Heather Cox Richardson

www.youtube.com

2 34 94

Reposted by Parkin and Tea

cait (and adonis) @cait.bsky.social · 3d

I genuinely cannot express how vital it is that you train yourself to recognize AI-generated images and videos for your own good because none of this is going away and many, many people are counting on you to fall for their shit

31 1.1K 4K

Reposted by Parkin and Tea

Mike Sowden @mikeachim.bsky.social · 3d

Proud of my other half for talking about a very difficult topic in the hope it helps a few other folk: open.substack.com/pub/thefeelg...

What if...a conversation about suicide could save a life?

It's World Mental Health Day and we must keep talking openly about it.

open.substack.com

3 7 38

Parkin and Tea @parkinandtea.bsky.social · 3d

Once had a parcel that was delivered to our door but the proof of delivery photo was neither that parcel or our door...

1

Reposted by Parkin and Tea

Sue Cowley @suecowley.bsky.social · 4d

When you come at inclusion via the early years idea of creating an 'enabling environment' then what happens is that you adapt the setting to suit the children rather than trying to adapt the children to suit the setting.

'The child is not for the school; the school is for the child." #EduSky

5 21 75

Parkin and Tea @parkinandtea.bsky.social · 3d

Potentially putting a note on the delivery part of your website that the RM48 seem to be taking longer would be a useful temporary measure to manage people's expectations.

1

Parkin and Tea @parkinandtea.bsky.social · 3d

Yes Dpd delivery's have always been fine. Think it was the Zatu Games website that had the Evri/RM option which is what had sprung to mind prompting my post.

Parkin and Tea @parkinandtea.bsky.social · 3d

Never had trouble with Dpd deliveries where we are either. Evri seem to be unreliable at putting the parcels at the right door judging by the number of 'anyone recognise this front door' posts on the village Facebook group.

2 1

Parkin and Tea @parkinandtea.bsky.social · 3d

Don't know if it is feasible to have more than one courier option. Some places give options so you pay for what the service costs but can choose which. If I try to choose RM because it always gets here whereas we have lots of hunt the front door on the village face book group for evri deliveries.

1 1

Reposted by Parkin and Tea

Richard Urwin @soronlin.richard-urwin.co.uk · 4d

I had the one chance in my life to use the Two Ronnie's Four Candles line, when I broke the handles of two forks in one week. The young Indian guys in the hardware store hadn't seen the sketch.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=gi_6...

The Two Ronnies - Four Candles

YouTube video by JJMClark

www.youtube.com

1 1

Parkin and Tea @parkinandtea.bsky.social · 4d

This way each child leaves schooling with a mixture of skills and achievement unique to them to take forward as they wish. Age doesn't matter as much in between times because they are doing things when they are ready. Quite how you structure the rest of it I have no idea.

1 4

Parkin and Tea @parkinandtea.bsky.social · 4d

Ofsted want to measure progress, society expects to rank each cohort via GCSEs. But perhaps if each subject or specialism had grade more akin to the Music grading system so it is skill based rather than relative ranking and children can just do them as and when they are ready.

1 4

Parkin and Tea @parkinandtea.bsky.social · 4d

Wonder if that is where what you might in manufacturing call vertical integration might work, so rather than splitting the children into groups by age, you have a more consistent community with a spread of ages across the whole of school age. But then we come back to the 'you get what you measure'.

1 3

Parkin and Tea @parkinandtea.bsky.social · 4d

Some of Peter Gray's writing about the Sudbury schools in the US in his book Free to Learn might be of interest, especially around the age range of the friendship groups that form, quite often a 4yr age gap. So even perhaps having a way to broaden the groupings to a wider spread of ages might help.

1 2

Parkin and Tea @parkinandtea.bsky.social · 4d

This one was interesting, especially the bit about the Liberty Poles.
www.youtube.com/live/pG0gzQw...

What the Heck Just Happened? Heather and Joanne

YouTube video by Dr. Joanne Freeman

www.youtube.com

1