Kate Ardern@KateAlvanley
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ardernkate.bsky.social
Kate Ardern@KateAlvanley
@ardernkate.bsky.social
Public health doctor, hon Professor @salforduniversity, visiting Professor @chesteruniversity, former Director of Public Health, Scouser & @FT Women of 2020 ❤️all arts especially music & film, wildlife, photography, history, politics & sci-fi
Reposted by Kate Ardern@KateAlvanley
Have to say it’s deeply frustrating that the BBC News team simply cannot ask a tough question about POLICY rather than politics. It is infantilising the audience - unless the audience is other journalists in the lobby.
I’ll give Laura K some questions for free:

Are you really going to introduce tax on salary sacrifice pension contributions on your own voters months before the election?

Where will the money for special educational needs come from when it’s moved from local government to central?
November 30, 2025 at 2:18 PM
Reposted by Kate Ardern@KateAlvanley
This is the most alarming story I’ve read today. Giving up the fight before it’s started
November 30, 2025 at 9:57 AM
Wishing all my fellow Scots a very happy #StAndrewsDay 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿
November 30, 2025 at 8:42 AM
Reposted by Kate Ardern@KateAlvanley
There's absolutely no restrictions on what goes into an illegal landfill which means no control on what seeps out of them into water, soil + air. We've heard reports of substances like asbestos at illegal sites, others of waste burning + acrid smoke.
🧵
1/4
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
At least 8,000 illegal waste sites in UK, research suggests
Exclusive: Concerns over impact on health and environment, as well as £1.63bn in avoided landfill tax
www.theguardian.com
November 29, 2025 at 11:33 AM
Reposted by Kate Ardern@KateAlvanley
So take this in. Straight from the NATO meeting after Russia’s attack Britain’s primary military town, Salisbury, Boris Johnson flew unofficially to party in Umbria with a former KGB officer working for the Kremlin.

Can anyone tell me how this has been forgotten?

It is Profumo on stilts
November 30, 2025 at 4:45 AM
Reposted by Kate Ardern@KateAlvanley
Farage needs to work out why his hapless councillors are so newsworthy doesn’t he?
November 30, 2025 at 7:14 AM
Reposted by Kate Ardern@KateAlvanley
What happened is precisely what the world's leading macroeconomists predicted would happen.
November 29, 2025 at 8:05 PM
Reposted by Kate Ardern@KateAlvanley
'We have historically high welfare spending.' No we don't.

'We have a historically high proportion of working-age people not actually working.' No we don't.

'The number of Britons emigrating is skyrocketing.' No it isn't.
November 29, 2025 at 5:08 PM
Reposted by Kate Ardern@KateAlvanley
Reposted by Kate Ardern@KateAlvanley
The sheer scale of media outrage this week about plans to lift hundreds of thousands children out of poverty, by taxing millionaire homeowners, tells you everything you need to know about the real priorities of the British press
www.adambienkov.co.uk/p/the-real-b...
The Real 'Benefits Street' Protecting Britain's Wealthiest
The sheer scale of outrage about plans to lift children out of poverty, by taxing millionaire homeowners, tells you everything you need to know about the priorities of the British press
www.adambienkov.co.uk
November 29, 2025 at 4:29 PM
Reposted by Kate Ardern@KateAlvanley
It's not just the Guardian. Momentum gathers.

#R4Today
🗣️ Nigel Farage ‘was my vicious, persistent tormentor’ at school

Reform UK’s reaction to claims by former schoolmates about its leader’s alleged racism during his days at Dulwich College raises questions ⬇️
Nigel Farage ‘was my vicious, persistent tormentor’ at school
Reform UK’s reaction to claims by former schoolmates about its leader’s alleged racism during his days at Dulwich College raises questions
www.thetimes.com
November 29, 2025 at 7:07 AM
Reposted by Kate Ardern@KateAlvanley
The DC shooting is a Reichstag Fire.

Trump granted the man asylum this spring. Trump agreed with the program that brought him here in 2021. There was full vetting. Trump’s DC op is why this happened.

Now it’s being used to end all immigration from nonwhite countries. And undo the Biden presidency.
The Afghan national accused of shooting two National Guard members near the White House this week underwent thorough vetting by counterterrorism authorities before entering the U.S., according to people with direct knowledge of the case.
Counterterrorism officials vetted Guard shooting suspect before he entered U.S.
Individuals with knowledge of the process that Rahmanullah Lakanwal went through contradicted senior Trump officials’ claim that he was not scrutinized.
www.washingtonpost.com
November 29, 2025 at 1:09 AM
Reposted by Kate Ardern@KateAlvanley
I heard about this just the other day. The Swing Riots. One of the largest social uprisings in British history yet treated as a footnote, if that.
#OtD 29 Nov 1830 "Captain Swing" farm workers fighting for better pay and more jobs attacked a farmer and a constable in Stour Provost, Dorset. Some were arrested, but were freed by sympathisers and rioting spread stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/1012...
November 29, 2025 at 6:51 AM
Reposted by Kate Ardern@KateAlvanley
🗣️ Nigel Farage ‘was my vicious, persistent tormentor’ at school

Reform UK’s reaction to claims by former schoolmates about its leader’s alleged racism during his days at Dulwich College raises questions ⬇️
Nigel Farage ‘was my vicious, persistent tormentor’ at school
Reform UK’s reaction to claims by former schoolmates about its leader’s alleged racism during his days at Dulwich College raises questions
www.thetimes.com
November 29, 2025 at 7:02 AM
Reposted by Kate Ardern@KateAlvanley
As Western leaders convened this week to digest the plan, Poland’s prime minister Donald Tusk offered a pithy summary: “We know this is not about peace. It’s about business."

#R4Today
“In days after Alaska, a European intel agency distributed a hard-copy report in an envelope to some of the continent’s most senior national security officials, who were shocked by the contents: Inside were details of the commercial and economic plans the Trump admin had been pursuing with Russia.”
Make Money Not War: Trump’s Real Plan for Peace in Ukraine
The Kremlin pitched the White House on peace through business. To Europe’s dismay, the president and his envoy are on board.
www.wsj.com
November 29, 2025 at 6:39 AM
Reposted by Kate Ardern@KateAlvanley
We are pleased to announce Dame Tamara Finkelstein DCB as our next CEO.

She will take up the role substantively in February, following a long and successful career as a senior leader in the civil service. Find out more: https://raeng.org.uk/news/royal-academy-of-engineering-announces-new-ceo/
November 28, 2025 at 12:50 PM
Reposted by Kate Ardern@KateAlvanley
Climb ev'ry mountain - but stay off Instagram!

www.bbc.com/news/article...
Austrian nuns win reprieve in abandoned convent - if they stay off social media
The three nuns say they were taken out of the convent against their will and placed in a care home.
www.bbc.com
November 28, 2025 at 12:53 PM
Reposted by Kate Ardern@KateAlvanley
The 28-point ‘peace plan’ for Ukraine may be dead – but Trump still won’t stop Putin | Dmytro Kuleba
The 28-point ‘peace plan’ for Ukraine may be dead – but Trump still won’t stop Putin | Dmytro Kuleba
Kyiv and the rest of Europe must stand together to prevent Russia from seizing more territory by force, says Dmytro Kuleba, a former foreign minister of Ukraine
www.theguardian.com
November 28, 2025 at 12:59 PM
Reposted by Kate Ardern@KateAlvanley
If a drug was having this societal effect it would be banned within a week. Across the world, politicians are - through their inaction - completely abdicating their responsibilities to civil democratic discourse.
November 28, 2025 at 12:16 PM
Reposted by Kate Ardern@KateAlvanley
Two things really struck me in what is a very good article

1. *Why* did we shift from always having a CMO who is a trained public health doctor to appointing ones who are not?

2. What did SE Asian nations do so much better than the West/UK did &why did we ignore lessons (and ignore WHO too)
November 28, 2025 at 9:53 AM
Reposted by Kate Ardern@KateAlvanley
Labour will not tax state pension for those with no other earnings on.ft.com/49KrfZZ
Labour will not tax state pension for those with no other earnings
Move reduces impact on older voters of this week’s decision to freeze thresholds
on.ft.com
November 28, 2025 at 10:20 AM
Reposted by Kate Ardern@KateAlvanley
Ex-Brexit Party MEP named in Nathan Gill messages denies taking pro-Russian payments www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Former Brexit Party MEP denies taking payment from pro-Russian campaign
A prominent former MEP for Nigel Farage's old party denies taking bribes in a pro-Russian campaign.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 28, 2025 at 9:43 AM
Reposted by Kate Ardern@KateAlvanley
Welcome Shabana Mahmood to your next four years of headlines!!!
November 28, 2025 at 9:32 AM
Reposted by Kate Ardern@KateAlvanley
PHOTO OF THE DAY. John Lennon during his last live performance (with Elton John) before a paying live audience at New York's Madison Square Garden (1974). 📷 Bob Gruen
November 28, 2025 at 9:36 AM