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Andrew Cutting @andrewcutting.coe.int · 1d

The European Convention on Human Rights is being misrepresented in the UK, says former Supreme Court President Lady Hale👇

🔗 www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home... via @the-independent.com

“It seems so short-sighted. I’m sorry, I’m really, really worried about it.”

#ECHR #OurRightsAndFreedoms

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David Allsopp @doublehelix.bsky.social · 1d

Good thing the UK NHS is offering the vaccine to <checks notes> almost nobody under 75 🙄

Chise @sailorrooscout.bsky.social · 1d

Well now, would you look at that?

A massive study of NEARLY 300,000 people in the United States found that receiving an updated 2024-2025 mRNA COVID-19 vaccine REDUCED people’s risk of severe disease AND death in ALL age groups, REGARDLESS of immunity from prior infection or vaccination.

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Peter Tennant @pwgtennant.bsky.social · 1d

NEWS: "Wage growth slows slightly over summer" www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

UK UNIVERSITY WORKERS: "What is this mythical wage growth of which they speak?"

Wage growth slows slightly over summer

Annual growth in employees' average earnings was 4.7% in the three months to August.

www.bbc.co.uk

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London Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · 10d

‘The current members of the Supreme Court, ten men and two women, all of them white, seem to regard the Human Rights Act as an unwelcome remnant of a past era.’

In his final piece for the 𝘓𝘙𝘉, Conor Gearty writes on the Supreme Court’s reinterpretation of the HRA: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Conor Gearty · Unwelcome Remnant: Erasing the Human Rights Act

The Supreme Court is quietly editing the Human Rights Act out of existence. In cases where human rights cannot be...

www.lrb.co.uk

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Jennifer Cobbe @jennifercobbe.bsky.social · 2d

He is less direct about - but does not leave unsaid - the implication that, in ignoring human rights law, the Supreme Court in FWS created a legal situation which itself is potentially incompatible with the UK's human rights obligations

The European Court of Human Rights (the Court) has recognised that, the very essence of the
European Convention on Human Rights (the Convention) being respect for human dignity and human
freedom, it guarantees the right of trans people to personal development and to physical and moral
security. Gender identity is covered as an aspect of private life under Article 8 of the Convention. This
protection entails an obligation to provide for legal gender recognition, in order to avoid the
unsatisfactory situation in which trans people live in an “intermediate zone [as] not quite one gender or
the other” (Christine Goodwin v. the United Kingdom). The Court has further emphasised the
importance of the impact on trans people of a discordance between their social reality and the law, with
the coherence of the administrative and legal practices within the domestic system being an important
factor in assessing whether there has been a violation of Article 8 (Hämäläinen v. Finland).
It should be ensured that steps taken towards implementing the Supreme Court judgment avoid a
situation where a person’s legal gender recognition is voided of practical meaning, to the extent that it
leaves trans people in an unacceptable “intermediate zone”. Where possible, inconsistencies within the
domestic system, particularly with regard to the interplay between key legal frameworks such as the
Equality Act and the Gender Recognition Act, which could lead to legal uncertainty or to dissonance
between the lived experiences of trans people and their treatment in law, should be avoided. It is also
to be recalled that not all trans people wish to obtain legal gender recognition, and in reality simply live
according to their gender identity. This does not in any way diminish their right to be treated with dignity,
to be protected from discrimination, and to be able to participate in all areas of everyday life.

Jennifer Cobbe @jennifercobbe.bsky.social · 2d

Council of Europe's Commissioner for Human Rights is clear that if the Equality and Human Rights Commission's guidance on trans people is as expected, it will be essentially impossible to reconcile with the UK's human rights obligations

rm.coe.int/letter-to-pa...

As I note in my end-of-visit statement, I observe a tendency to see the human rights of different groups
as a zero-sum game. This has contributed to narratives which build on prejudice against trans people
and portray upholding their human rights as a de facto threat to the rights of others. Such a zero-sum
approach risks certain inferences being drawn from the UK Supreme Court judgment that could lead to
widespread exclusion of trans people from many public spaces. This, in turn, may severely infringe on
their ability to participate fully and equally in society. This is particularly the case, as discussions about
how access to services and facilities will have to be regulated following the judgment have tended
towards the exclusion of trans people. It would therefore be crucial for all stakeholders to receive clear
guidance on how inclusion of trans people can be achieved across all areas, and how exclusion can be
minimised to situations in which this would be strictly necessary and proportionate, in line with well
established human rights principles. In reality, tensions between the human rights of different groups in
this context are likely to be exceptional in nature, and resolvable through nuanced, reasonable and
balanced accommodations. This would also be in line with the approaches taken by various bodies of
the Council of Europe (such as the Committee on the Prevention of Torture (CPT) or the Group of
Experts on Violence Against Women (GREVIO)), which recognise the particular vulnerability of trans
people, and which begin from the position of their inclusion within spaces according to their gender
identity – with exceptions made on a case-by-case basis as necessary.
Another area of concern is that blanket practices or policies on access to gender-segregated spaces
could be put in place, which would require trans people to habitually “out” themselves publicly when
accessing services or facilities, either directly (by being asked about their…

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Jennifer Cobbe @jennifercobbe.bsky.social · 2d

The rhoticity! Most (all?) US accents are rhotic - most (but not all!) English accents are not

Though it gets more complicated with rhotic English, Scottish, and Irish accents - which I think is why guesses at identifying my Belfast accent range from Scottish to Canadian

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Jennifer Cobbe @jennifercobbe.bsky.social · 2d

Mind you I'm currently battling a voice transcription app that insists on spelling "how" as "high", "now" as "nigh", and "power" as "par"

Not built for Belfast speakers

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Jennifer Cobbe @jennifercobbe.bsky.social · 2d

This is like when I discovered about a year ago that 'Waze' - which with a Belfast accent I always thought was an odd name - makes sense for a navigation app when pronounced the English way

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Jennifer Cobbe @jennifercobbe.bsky.social · 2d

I have not only just learned that this is a pun but also that it's the opposite to this - most English people drop the R from shorn

Someone needs to stage an intervention to teach them rhoticity, it's killing me

Joe Griffin @thejoegriffin.bsky.social · 2d

I keep forgetting that English people add a phoenetic 'r' where there's a vowel. That's why I didn't get that name 'Shaun the Sheep' was a pun for a good 10 years.

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Nathan Kalman-Lamb @nkalamb.bsky.social · 2d

Front page of Scottish newspaper The National today.

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🌶 David Gray Widder @davidthewid.bsky.social · 6d

🫧The news is finally asking if we're in an AI Bubble, and when it will pop. Good!🎈

Our data shows how we got here: Big Cloud is frantically investing in AI startups to build cloud market share and justify their *massive* investments in AI infrastructure.

How Google, Microsoft & Amazon invests:

🌶 David Gray Widder @davidthewid.bsky.social · Aug 6

📣🚨NEW: ☁️ Big Cloud—Google, Microsoft & Amazon—control two thirds of the cloud compute market. They’re getting rich off the AI gold rush.

In new work with @nathanckim.bsky.social, we show how Big Cloud is expanding their empire by scrutinizing their *investments*… 🧵

📄PDF: dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn...

The cover of the report, with dark blue title "How Big Cloud becomes Bigger" with "Bigger" in bold, and subtitle in light blue "Scrutinizing Google Microsoft and Amazon's investments", and light grey author line "David Gray Widder and Nathan Kim" on light grey page background with three clouds: white, dark grey, and very dark grey getting bigger and going towards the top right until they're off the page.

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Jennifer Cobbe @jennifercobbe.bsky.social · 5d

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Dr Emma L Briant 🐸🎃 @emmalbriant.bsky.social · 6d

This is awful. Most importantly health care is meant to be independent - to be trusted - it's going to make people feel more paranoid about going to seek help and talking freely with their doctors and medical professionals about their circumstances.

Peter Stefanovic @peterstefanovic.bsky.social · 7d

BREAKING: Specialist employment advisers will be based in GP surgeries and mental health services as part of government plans to get people back to work.

Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden speaks to #BBCBreakfast about the government’s plan to tackle long-term sickness

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Jennifer Cobbe @jennifercobbe.bsky.social · 7d

It's of course a meme by now that people in GB barely know Northern Ireland exists, but maybe some of the responses to this idea might look to see what happens in the part of the UK where lots of pubs and bars already serve until 1am

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

Pubs to stay open until early hours in push for UK growth

Exclusive: Plans for England and Wales would help the ailing hospitality sector but have attracted criticism from health experts

www.theguardian.com

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Colin Murray @colinmurray.bsky.social · 7d

A pure example of BBC balance. On the one side, on the other, all the way through. This leaves a really superficial account of what's at issue with leaving the ECHR and accepts, doe-eyed, that Policy Exchange had a "really detailed proposal" on the GFA, not a hot mess:

share.google/qGXg9rHZYfPL...

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Tim Worthington @outonbluesix.bsky.social · 8d

How is this repeatedly made into a policy issue - by *all* parties - when the blunt fact of the matter is that grown adults who are obliged to pay for their own education, and relentlessly pursued to repay their loans, should be able to study whatever the fuck they want.

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Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 8d

NVIDIA and OpenAi:

Concerns that their “increasingly complex and interconnected web of business transactions is artificially propping up the trillion-dollar AI boom.“

@bloomberg.com $NVDA 👀
www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

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Rob Mullins @robertmullins.bsky.social · 10d

If I were an investigative journalist in the UK (are there any left?), I would be having a good look at the extent to which NHS leadership seems to have allied itself with a fringe medical movement that more or less condones conversion therapy. qnews.com.au/australian-r...

Australian report says UK’s Cass review should not guide transgender healthcare

QNews LGBTIQA+ News

qnews.com.au

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Mike Galsworthy @mikegalsworthy.bsky.social · 10d

She was arrested for holding a sign reading:

“I do not support the proscription of Palestine Action”

How that would warrant arrest is very unclear. I wonder if the police here even understand the boundaries of the bizarre law they’ve been forced to enforce.

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Jennifer Cobbe @jennifercobbe.bsky.social · 11d

She's never going to be in a position to implement it so in a sense the practicalities are indeed irrelevant, but I suspect that's not what she means

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Jennifer Cobbe @jennifercobbe.bsky.social · 11d

Aside from anything else, 'who cares!' as an answer to 'how would your policy actually work?' is very Kemi Badenoch

Adam Bienkov @adambienkov.bsky.social · 11d

Kemi Badenoch asked where she would send the 150,000 people she says she would deport every year, replies that it's an "irrelevant question".

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Jennifer Cobbe @jennifercobbe.bsky.social · 11d

Hayley Williams - Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party

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Kate Leader @leader-kate.bsky.social · 11d

Might try an experiment in criminal law this year where for my public order offences lecture I just read through all the current and proposed protest offences and the students can place bets over whether I can cover them all in 2 hours or if I run out of time.

Kate Leader @leader-kate.bsky.social · 11d

The Home Secretary is now planning to find a way to criminalise the "cumulative effect" of protest.

Police to get new powers to crack down on repeated protests, says Home Office

Move follows arrest of almost 500 people at latest pro-Palestinian demonstration in London on Saturday

www.theguardian.com

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Robin Berjon @robin.berjon.com · 11d

I don't always agree with Macron, but it's promising to hear him speak of democracy and infrastructure in exactly the right terms.

Politics is finally shifting towards the reality of our digital environment.

Justin Hendrix @justinhendrix.bsky.social · 11d

"...all those who are playing on or with this [digital] infrastructure will have won. And we will be a continent, like many others, of conspiracy theorists, extremists, noise and fury."

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