Ann
@agvbergin.net
Both newts and housing, please. Scientific technical editor. Personal account, views my own.
Pinned
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
George Lakoff, Moral Politics
Reposted by Ann
The Home Office’s absurd taxi bill results entirely from its insistence on forcing people to move round the country without choice or notice, & to live on the breadline so they can’t afford public transport. That Mahmood didn’t know about it till the BBC told her shows how appallingly the HO is run.
November 29, 2025 at 8:50 AM
The Home Office’s absurd taxi bill results entirely from its insistence on forcing people to move round the country without choice or notice, & to live on the breadline so they can’t afford public transport. That Mahmood didn’t know about it till the BBC told her shows how appallingly the HO is run.
Reposted by Ann
The large drop in immigration seen in today's ONS data will likely have huge consequences for social care.
The sector has been entirely reliant on care workers from overseas to meet growing demand.
Read our statement from Researcher @cglobont.bsky.social 👇
The sector has been entirely reliant on care workers from overseas to meet growing demand.
Read our statement from Researcher @cglobont.bsky.social 👇
Falling immigration presents problems for social care sector
Cyril Lobont responds to new immigration data from the Office for National Statistics.
www.nuffieldtrust.org.uk
November 27, 2025 at 12:33 PM
The large drop in immigration seen in today's ONS data will likely have huge consequences for social care.
The sector has been entirely reliant on care workers from overseas to meet growing demand.
Read our statement from Researcher @cglobont.bsky.social 👇
The sector has been entirely reliant on care workers from overseas to meet growing demand.
Read our statement from Researcher @cglobont.bsky.social 👇
Reposted by Ann
An interesting #spaceweather story developing. Airbus has made a statement saying that “Analysis of a recent event involving an A320 Family aircraft has revealed that intense solar radiation may corrupt data critical to the functioning of flight controls”
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Flights disrupted as Airbus requests modifications to thousands of planes
About 6,000 plans are thought to be affected, about half the European aerospace giant's global fleet.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 28, 2025 at 8:12 PM
An interesting #spaceweather story developing. Airbus has made a statement saying that “Analysis of a recent event involving an A320 Family aircraft has revealed that intense solar radiation may corrupt data critical to the functioning of flight controls”
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Still having lots of problems buying train tickets despite being a regular traveller.
(1) I have stopped buying them from ticket machines due to an experience where a Greater Anglia employee did not know how their machine worked.
(1) I have stopped buying them from ticket machines due to an experience where a Greater Anglia employee did not know how their machine worked.
November 28, 2025 at 7:02 PM
Still having lots of problems buying train tickets despite being a regular traveller.
(1) I have stopped buying them from ticket machines due to an experience where a Greater Anglia employee did not know how their machine worked.
(1) I have stopped buying them from ticket machines due to an experience where a Greater Anglia employee did not know how their machine worked.
Reposted by Ann
If we put growth to one side, we should not private pavement space so that people ordering a handful of groceries are prioritised over people in wheelchairs. On a narrow pavement, as many in Britain are, it’s not good for pedestrians.
November 28, 2025 at 1:35 PM
If we put growth to one side, we should not private pavement space so that people ordering a handful of groceries are prioritised over people in wheelchairs. On a narrow pavement, as many in Britain are, it’s not good for pedestrians.
I think the prostate cancer screening stuff is downstream of culture, e.g. the way BBC local news and the One Show typically report on stories like this is through people who are experts by lived experience with cancer.
November 28, 2025 at 5:17 PM
I think the prostate cancer screening stuff is downstream of culture, e.g. the way BBC local news and the One Show typically report on stories like this is through people who are experts by lived experience with cancer.
Reposted by Ann
This is what happens when as a single condition health charity you’re overly focused on those who die of your condition and you don’t consider outcomes for those who don’t, or the opportunity costs involved for NHS. PCUK are particularly guilty but they’re not alone.
www.thetimes.com/article/4487...
www.thetimes.com/article/4487...
Start prostate cancer testing regardless of advice, Wes Streeting told
NHS advisers are expected to rule against a mass programme for the disease, which causes more than 12,000 deaths a year
www.thetimes.com
November 28, 2025 at 8:46 AM
This is what happens when as a single condition health charity you’re overly focused on those who die of your condition and you don’t consider outcomes for those who don’t, or the opportunity costs involved for NHS. PCUK are particularly guilty but they’re not alone.
www.thetimes.com/article/4487...
www.thetimes.com/article/4487...
Reposted by Ann
This is a very timely discussion from John Mahon of @ukandeu.bsky.social. There are all sorts of claims about who these emigrants are & why they are leaving the UK (not least from Goodwin et al) & a lot of anecdotes. So, as Mahon says, we could really do with some proper research evidence.
🔃 "For public policy reasons and Treasury planning, it would be much better if we knew something about these citizen-emigrants."
✍️ John Mahon makes the case for having a better understanding of the British nationals leaving and returning to the UK
ukandeu.ac.uk/who-is-emigr...
✍️ John Mahon makes the case for having a better understanding of the British nationals leaving and returning to the UK
ukandeu.ac.uk/who-is-emigr...
Who is emigrating from the UK? - UK in a changing Europe
John Mahon makes the case for having a better understanding of the British nationals leaving the UK. He argues that the cost to the state of British nationals leaving or returning to the UK varies, so...
ukandeu.ac.uk
November 28, 2025 at 3:11 PM
This is a very timely discussion from John Mahon of @ukandeu.bsky.social. There are all sorts of claims about who these emigrants are & why they are leaving the UK (not least from Goodwin et al) & a lot of anecdotes. So, as Mahon says, we could really do with some proper research evidence.
Reposted by Ann
Here are some avoidable issues that may upset autistic people to the point of self-injury or aggression, yet parents or caregivers might be told such behavior is “just autism,” or that the autistic person needs behavioral conditioning therapy. At TPGA:
thinkingautismguide.com/2022/01/auti... 1/
thinkingautismguide.com/2022/01/auti... 1/
Autism Checklist of DOOM
Our autism checklist of doom is meant to help people the kinds of things that may upset an autistic person, ones that aren't always obvious.
thinkingautismguide.com
November 27, 2025 at 6:33 PM
Here are some avoidable issues that may upset autistic people to the point of self-injury or aggression, yet parents or caregivers might be told such behavior is “just autism,” or that the autistic person needs behavioral conditioning therapy. At TPGA:
thinkingautismguide.com/2022/01/auti... 1/
thinkingautismguide.com/2022/01/auti... 1/
Reposted by Ann
I say this mostly because Reform and certain journalists friendly to them seem determined to start a “white flight” narrative since net migration has dropped so dramatically.
It’s not true. It’s not even close to true.
It’s not true. It’s not even close to true.
November 27, 2025 at 4:49 PM
I say this mostly because Reform and certain journalists friendly to them seem determined to start a “white flight” narrative since net migration has dropped so dramatically.
It’s not true. It’s not even close to true.
It’s not true. It’s not even close to true.
Reposted by Ann
The number of British citizens emigrating hasn’t increased, btw. Outward migration is up, but the increase is mostly non-EU migrants leaving the UK.
The methodology counting emigration of British citizens changed in 2021, which increased the number, and it’s been pretty much flat ever since…
The methodology counting emigration of British citizens changed in 2021, which increased the number, and it’s been pretty much flat ever since…
November 27, 2025 at 4:48 PM
The number of British citizens emigrating hasn’t increased, btw. Outward migration is up, but the increase is mostly non-EU migrants leaving the UK.
The methodology counting emigration of British citizens changed in 2021, which increased the number, and it’s been pretty much flat ever since…
The methodology counting emigration of British citizens changed in 2021, which increased the number, and it’s been pretty much flat ever since…
Reposted by Ann
The UK, where the day after a decision to take half a million children out of poverty, the media & political world has been full of sneering at those same children & their families, labelling them as ‘Benefits Street’, while the same people are moaning about a tax on £2m mansions. Shameful stuff.
November 27, 2025 at 8:22 PM
The UK, where the day after a decision to take half a million children out of poverty, the media & political world has been full of sneering at those same children & their families, labelling them as ‘Benefits Street’, while the same people are moaning about a tax on £2m mansions. Shameful stuff.
Reposted by Ann
Public Law Project's latest report finds that the average universal credit sanction is hundreds of pounds more than a criminal fine.
Universal credit sanctions more 'severe' and 'damaging' than criminal fines
www.bigissue.com
November 22, 2025 at 12:01 AM
Public Law Project's latest report finds that the average universal credit sanction is hundreds of pounds more than a criminal fine.
Reposted by Ann
We have a UK government intellectually and psychologically unprepared to cope with potential labour shortages or market crashes because these scenarios don't match entreched assumptions about the trajectory of the global order
Fewer workers. Fewer international students. More people leaving.
A "step in the right direction" according to the PM.
Impossible to take PM/govt seriously on growth if they are deliberately reducing it (and making the fiscal position worse) *as a matter of policy*.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
A "step in the right direction" according to the PM.
Impossible to take PM/govt seriously on growth if they are deliberately reducing it (and making the fiscal position worse) *as a matter of policy*.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
UK net migration falls sharply with drop in arrivals for work and study
Provisional figures for net migration to the UK show levels dropped to 204,000 in the year to June 2025.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 27, 2025 at 8:30 PM
We have a UK government intellectually and psychologically unprepared to cope with potential labour shortages or market crashes because these scenarios don't match entreched assumptions about the trajectory of the global order
Reposted by Ann
Worth saying they tech policy (which is currently economically driven) is not at all left-wing though - strongly influenced by Silicon Valley tech and US foreign policy, with a sprinkle of Centrist Dad tech authoritarianism
Starmer and Reeves run probably the most economically left-wing government of past five decades and yet bleeding support to its left thanks to dumb strategy www.economist.com/britain/2025...
November 27, 2025 at 10:14 AM
Worth saying they tech policy (which is currently economically driven) is not at all left-wing though - strongly influenced by Silicon Valley tech and US foreign policy, with a sprinkle of Centrist Dad tech authoritarianism
Reposted by Ann
One of my biggest fears is how the toughening up of restrictions directed at the many tens of thousands of people on Health and Care visas (both for extensions and settlement) will see increases in undocumented people. Instead of helping them, they are being demonised.
Today's migration stats illustrate the migration doom loop in action...
(from my presentation at the IMF last week)
(from my presentation at the IMF last week)
November 27, 2025 at 11:17 AM
One of my biggest fears is how the toughening up of restrictions directed at the many tens of thousands of people on Health and Care visas (both for extensions and settlement) will see increases in undocumented people. Instead of helping them, they are being demonised.
I just think that economic and social issues are not neatly separable.
Having an approach to social issues where you are taking actions that wouldn't be out of place for a radical right party (20 years to indefinite leave to remain for refugees) leaves you looking economically unserious too.
Having an approach to social issues where you are taking actions that wouldn't be out of place for a radical right party (20 years to indefinite leave to remain for refugees) leaves you looking economically unserious too.
November 27, 2025 at 11:14 AM
I just think that economic and social issues are not neatly separable.
Having an approach to social issues where you are taking actions that wouldn't be out of place for a radical right party (20 years to indefinite leave to remain for refugees) leaves you looking economically unserious too.
Having an approach to social issues where you are taking actions that wouldn't be out of place for a radical right party (20 years to indefinite leave to remain for refugees) leaves you looking economically unserious too.
Reposted by Ann
If you are eligible for the mobility component of PIP, you can spend *your own money* topping that up to have a great accessible car. Critics should ask: Why are you against this? What it is about disabled people that makes you believe it’s wrong to have nice things they paid for themselves?
November 26, 2025 at 1:22 PM
If you are eligible for the mobility component of PIP, you can spend *your own money* topping that up to have a great accessible car. Critics should ask: Why are you against this? What it is about disabled people that makes you believe it’s wrong to have nice things they paid for themselves?
Reposted by Ann
“The Motability scheme was set up to protect the most vulnerable. Not to subsidise the lease on a Mercedes Benz,” Reeves says.
Misleading and nasty in equal measure.
Misleading and nasty in equal measure.
November 26, 2025 at 1:15 PM
“The Motability scheme was set up to protect the most vulnerable. Not to subsidise the lease on a Mercedes Benz,” Reeves says.
Misleading and nasty in equal measure.
Misleading and nasty in equal measure.
Reposted by Ann
And the two child benefit limit is abolished. An enormous victory for those who have campaigned tirelessly for eight long years through successive governments. This will lift at least 450,000 children out of poverty. Fewer kids will be hungry. No more women forced to disclose their rape.
November 26, 2025 at 1:37 PM
And the two child benefit limit is abolished. An enormous victory for those who have campaigned tirelessly for eight long years through successive governments. This will lift at least 450,000 children out of poverty. Fewer kids will be hungry. No more women forced to disclose their rape.
Reposted by Ann
I wish I didn’t have to share this. But the BBC has decided to censor my first Reith Lecture.
They deleted the line in which I describe Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” /1
They deleted the line in which I describe Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” /1
November 25, 2025 at 9:26 AM
I wish I didn’t have to share this. But the BBC has decided to censor my first Reith Lecture.
They deleted the line in which I describe Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” /1
They deleted the line in which I describe Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” /1
Reposted by Ann
November 25, 2025 at 10:04 PM
Reposted by Ann
I have and it’s going to be available to download soon.
Hi Moose. Have you drawn an advent calendar this year?
November 26, 2025 at 5:55 PM
I have and it’s going to be available to download soon.
Reposted by Ann
With public transport still inaccessible for so many disabled people, Motability vehicles are an essential lifeline. Today the Government introduced a maze of complex charges, putting the cars we rely on out of reach for many.
Read our statement: https://bit.ly/4p2bYsa
Read our statement: https://bit.ly/4p2bYsa
November 26, 2025 at 6:02 PM
With public transport still inaccessible for so many disabled people, Motability vehicles are an essential lifeline. Today the Government introduced a maze of complex charges, putting the cars we rely on out of reach for many.
Read our statement: https://bit.ly/4p2bYsa
Read our statement: https://bit.ly/4p2bYsa
Really angry that drivers aren't being taxed properly, still, amidst a climate emergency.
November 26, 2025 at 5:48 PM
Really angry that drivers aren't being taxed properly, still, amidst a climate emergency.