I’ve written a long read on the NHS, the 10 year plan, and how we can unstick the system

What does a digital-era healthcare system really mean?

(Warning: It’s one for a cup of tea!). (1/n)

medium.com/@jamestplunk...

When speaking to Tommy Robinson at the far right demonstration in London today, Elon Musk wore a t-shirt saying "What would Orwell think?"

So let's dive in - what would George Orwell think about Tommy Robinson and Elon Musk? 🧵

I need you to understand what this country feels like right now for those of us who look different. I'm sitting here, trying to plan for Saturday, make sure I don't even need to go to the corner shop for milk, like it's Christmas Day or lockdown. Why? Because I live near where Yaxley-Lennon will 1/

THIS 👆🏾!

Not a word has come from this government, for a month, about

Racist attacks in Britain: graffiti & intimidation

The sewer of racism online

These racist attacks on government ministers

The world's richest man promoting fascists who want to eradicate minorities from the UK

One more tout today (for the west coasters) of this provocative new piece I wrote for Public Notice:

open.substack.com/pub/aaronrup...

Just for perspective, a few weeks ago roughly 100,000 turned up for the London Trans+ Pride march. By contrast fewer than 3,000 ACROSS THE WHOLE COUNTRY, have turned up to anti-asylum "protests". Yet we are meant to take the latter as "the voice of the people" and the former as "the minority".

If you're going to send me something written by an LLM then save us all time and resources and just send me your prompt instead. I'll value a text that says "Heartfelt condolence message with reference to a list of events" more, because this way I at least actually know what you were thinking

These astute points from @seanconnorswrites.bsky.social neatly demonstrate why Europe is not going to relent on commitment to the euro for applicant states

And it comes down ti that much abused phrase "single market"

A 🧵

(Apologies @brainburnnow.bsky.social + @andrewbrook.bsky.social forimages)

In an effort that will no doubt torch my follower base, I have laid out some basic numbers around our fiscal situation. Obvious, but still a little sobering for me.

freethinkecon.wordpress.com/2025/07/15/t...

I got permission to share this, and I'm extremely grateful for that.

The Onion got this letter from one of our subscribers in Alaska. She works with dementia patients and decided to leave a copy in the car for each one.

This email made my year. Read it and you'll see what I mean. People are good.

brilliant

Police departments have exponentially more control over how officers are recruited, trained, and overseen than a protest does over its participants, but are allowed by a sympathetic press to use the "bad apples" defense to separate deeds from goals and institutions in a way protestors often aren't.

🧵
My small country, Estonia, population 1.3 million sent 2003-2014 over 2500 soldiers. 9 were killed in the line of duty. 109 wounded, half of them so seriously they could no longer lead a normal life.

In Iraq 2003-2009 we had more than 440 soldiers. 2 were killed. 18 seriously wounded.

1/n

📌

🧵 Several people have raised questions about what I meant by "deservedly so" when referring to the decline of institutional trust. It's a fair question, so I want to explain that, because it sits at the heart of my work on how democracies collapse when their epistemic foundations rot.

Janet Sheehan. My first Mother’s Day without her. Thank you x

Yes it was complacency. The public sector came to be seen in the same light as the charity sector. Voluntary. Where only those that could afford not to maximise their wage would apply. And you know who that attracts.

Some thoughts about the US deportations court order case, where today saw (1) a judgment from the federal district court and (2) a hearing at the federal court of appeal.

Judgment:
storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

Hearing (audio on YouTube):
www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DoT...

1.

Anyone who somehow still believes Elon Musk is a genius should read this - it is a brutal indictment of his ignorance and ideology. defector.com/neither-elon...

What we’re witnessing in America is what happens when disordered discourse captures a political party, then the state itself. The Republican Party was the first to fall - abandoning truth for conspiracy, ideology for grievance, and policy for performative outrage.

Putin planned to take Kyiv in three days, but he couldn't take Kyiv in three years.
The only way Putin wins now—the only way he finally succeeds in destroying Ukraine’s sovereignty—is by persuading Ukraine’s allies to abandon Ukraine.
www.theatlantic.com/internationa...

Could we all, please, stop saying this is caused by social media?

It isn’t. And suggesting it is dangerously distracts us from what matters most.

Pol Pot didn’t have YouTube or Instagram.

Hitler didn’t have Facebook or Twitter.

Stalin didn’t have TikTok.

A 🧵 /1.