Author | Lightnews

Sally Bourliakas @sallybourliakas.bsky.social · 1d

Yes one in 5 adults roughly
economically inactive

But 👀

& down
from 23.6% in 2011
to 21.2% in 2024

Working age incapacity benefits Stable @ 10M for 30 years 1995-2024

Welfare bill stable at 11% GDP
and likely to stay at that level till 2030
PIP fraud 0.0% 2024
0.4% 2025

WELFARE SPEND IS NOT BALLOONING
Total Welfare spend
Stable 11% GDP (& till 2030)

Working Age (WA)
Economic Inactivity
Stable 10M
for 30 years 1995-2024

& + in last decade
2011 23.6%
2024 21.2%

WA Incapacity benefits stable at 1% GDP
& stable till 2030 WELFARE SPEND IS NOT BALLOONING
Total Welfare spend
Stable 11% GDP (& till 2030)

Working Age (WA)
Economic Inactivity
Stable 10M
for 30 years 1995-2024

& + in last decade
2011 23.6%
2024 21.2%

WA Incapacity benefits stable at 1% GDP
& stable till 2030 Have you ever actually looked at the
DWP figures?
Low slow rising
PIP Fraud rate before 2020
2016/17 1.4%
2017/18 1.5%
2018/19 1.6%
Rather than increasing as Media/ MPs would have you believe when online/phone assessments began in 2020
Lower Now!
2024 0.0%
&
2025 0.4%

UK Pensions, Sick Pay and unemployment benefits the lowest in EU
Welfare bill stable at 11% GDP
and likely to stay at that level till 2030
PIP fraud 0.0% 2024
0.4% 2025

Working age incapacity benefits
Stable 10M & down
from 23.6% in 2011
to 21.2% in 2024

Economic Inactivity
down
from 23.6% in 2011/12
to 21.2% in 2023/24

Reposted by Sally Bourliakas

Dr Ben King 🌍 @benking01.bsky.social · 1d

Top News on #BBCRadio4 this morning

1 in 5 adults are now Not Working

A massive increase since 2019 🤔

Costing the economy over £200billion a year 🤔

Some mention of 'since Covid' and talk of being holistic, but totally missing a trick!

#KeepBritainWorking Review

#LongCovid

a nurse wearing a mask is holding a sign that says we must care for people living with long term covid

Alt: a nurse wearing a mask is holding a sign that says we must care for people living with long term covid

media.tenor.com

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Sally Bourliakas @sallybourliakas.bsky.social · 9d

@lurgeelife.bsky.social Are you ok?
Something happened on X as you left.
I hope you are alright x

Reposted by Sally Bourliakas

Andrew Cutting @andrewcutting.coe.int · 9d

A reminder that the UK’s ban on LGBT people serving in the armed forces was only lifted after a judgment from the European Court of Human Rights.

🔗 www.bbc.com/news/article... via www.bbcnews.com

#ECHR #OurRightsAndFreedoms #Article8 #PrivateLife #MeddlingForeignCourt #CreditWhereItsDue

King unveils new memorial to LGBT veterans after gay ban campaign

A memorial is unveiled dedicated to gay military personnel and to those who served during the armed forces gay ban.

www.bbc.com

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Reposted by Sally Bourliakas

Kelly @broadwaybabyto.bsky.social · 13d

The goal of healthcare is not to increase the GDP

It’s to make people healthy & tend to the sick. It’s not supposed to be a money making scheme

Dr Oz saying that to “flourish in life” you must engage in the workforce is useless eater rhetoric

He wants you to see the sick & disabled as expendable

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Sally Bourliakas @sallybourliakas.bsky.social · 13d

Looks like the Kremlin got cheap caterers in…

Banqueting hall in Kremlin…
White walls lit in many sections along each wall into the distance: Beautiful vaulted ceiling..
Golden chandeliers.

Reposted by Sally Bourliakas

Dr Nafeez Ahmed @nafeez.bsky.social · 14d

Labour. Conservatives. Reform.
Peter Thiel’s fingerprints are on them all — an ideological pincer movement pulling Britain toward MAGA-style autocracy.
My first @BylineTimes video investigation exposes how.
🎥 Watch here → youtu.be/7OaSuAVKCGE?...

The Thiel Effect.

YouTube video by Byline TV

youtu.be

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Reposted by Sally Bourliakas

The Guardian @theguardian.com · 13d

Americans brace for food stamps to run out: ‘the greatest hunger catastrophe since the Great Depression’

Nearly 42 million people in danger as federal government shutdown continues and Snap funding to end 1 November

www.theguardian.com

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Reposted by Sally Bourliakas

Data Report @datareport.bsky.social · 13d

The Friday edition of the virus update is now out with the latest news and data of the day.

We Are In The Calm Before The Winter Storm Of Viruses youtu.be/z8EqGInd-fY?... via @YouTube

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Reposted by Sally Bourliakas

Nick Reeves #FBPE #NAFO @nickreeves.bsky.social · 13d

Richard Tice told The Times in March he had “never met Nathan Gill”

Tice - "Please welcome to the stage, Nathan Gill."
searchlightmagazine.com/2025/10/refo...

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Reposted by Sally Bourliakas

Brexit Bin 🇪🇺 🇬🇧 🇩🇪 @brexitbin.bsky.social · 13d

Plaid Cymru has beaten Reform and Labour in Caerphilly. Apart from other things, Plaid Cymru is also an anti-Brexit party that supports rejoining the EU, the Single Market and the Customs Union.
🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🇪🇺

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Reposted by Sally Bourliakas

Peter Jukes @peterjukes.bsky.social · 13d

Good point from @adambienkov.bsky.social - if the massed ranks of the right wing press with BBC boosting, plus the vast amount of money (and foreign social media bots) couldn’t get Reform over the line, what will?

Byline Times @bylinetimes.bsky.social · 13d

🔴The Reform Backlash: Caerphilly By-Election Result Shows Nigel Farage’s Party Is Much Weaker Than It Looks

Despite widespread media predictions of a Reform victory on Thursday, Farage’s defeat shows his party continues to be overestimated, argues @adambienkov.bsky.social

The Reform Backlash: Caerphilly By-Election Result Shows Nigel Farage’s Party Is Much Weaker Than It Looks

Despite widespread media predictions of a Reform victory on Thursday, Farage's defeat shows his party continues to be overestimated, argues Adam Bienkov

bylinetimes.com

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Reposted by Sally Bourliakas

LurgeeLiz @lurgeelife.bsky.social · Sep 15

Write to your MP using the template below to OPPOSE THE AUTUMN WHITE PAPER which will take a wrecking ball to incapacity benefits (LCW/LCWRA/ESA) 👇

Otherwise this will devastate the lives of the most unwell & disabled people in our country

#CareNotCuts

lurgeelife.wordpress.com/2025/08/30/l...

Letter Template to MPs for the Autumn ‘Health Element’ White Paper

By Liz @LurgeeLife ——– Copy the text below and paste it into an email or word document to send to your MP to vocalise your oppostion to the upcoming 2025 Autumn White Paper. The b…

lurgeelife.wordpress.com

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Reposted by Sally Bourliakas

LurgeeLiz @lurgeelife.bsky.social · Sep 15

🚨 Labour want to scrap the Work Capability Assessment & make Daily Living PIP the gateway

DWP FOI: 584,000 LCW/LCWRA/ESA claimants tried & failed to qualify for Daily Living PIP

A further 500,000 have never tried to qualify for DL PIP so are also at risk

OPPOSE AUTUMN WHITE PAPER!

#CareNotCuts

37. First, we will scrap the Work Capability Assessment (WCA). This will end the state categorising people into binary groups and labelling them as either 'can or can't work'. Instead, any extra financial support for health conditions in UC will be assessed via a single assessment - the PIP assessment - and be based on the impact of disability on daily living, not on capacity to work. [footnote 44] This will de-couple access to the health element in UC (current LCWRA rate referred to as UC health throughout) from work status, so people can be confident that the act of taking steps towards and into employment will not put their benefit entitlement at risk. We will implement this change via primary legislation. Further details will be published in the forthcoming White Paper. We are not consulting on this measure.

https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/pathways-to-work-reforming-benefits-and-support-to-get-britain-working-green-paper/pathways-to-work-reforming-benefits-and-support-to-get-britain-working-green-paper

DWP FOI dated 4 August 2025 showing 584,000 LCW/LCWRA/ESA tried and failed to qualify for DL PIP by November 2024

Interrogation of publicly accessible DWP statXplore database reveals:

Nov 2024: 1,940,853 of 3,025,135 "Health Element" (LCW/LCWRA/ESA) claimants were also in receipt of Daily Living PIP

This means 1,084,282 of "Health Element" claimants were not in receipt of DL PIP

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Reposted by Sally Bourliakas

LurgeeLiz @lurgeelife.bsky.social · Sep 15

Write to your MP using the template below to OPPOSE THE AUTUMN WHITE PAPER which will take a wrecking ball to incapacity benefits (LCW/LCWRA/ESA) 👇

Otherwise this will devastate the lives of the most unwell & disabled people in our country

#CareNotCuts

lurgeelife.wordpress.com/2025/08/30/l...

Letter Template to MPs for the Autumn ‘Health Element’ White Paper

By Liz @LurgeeLife ——– Copy the text below and paste it into an email or word document to send to your MP to vocalise your oppostion to the upcoming 2025 Autumn White Paper. The b…

lurgeelife.wordpress.com

2 2

Reposted by Sally Bourliakas

Tom Kindlon @tomkindlon.bsky.social · Oct 7

Circulating Microclots Are Structurally Associated With Neutrophil Extracellular Traps and Their Amounts Are Elevated in Long COVID Patients

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Screenshot from latest Science for ME weekly update

#LongCovid #TeamClots #PASC @resiapretorius.bsky.social

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Reposted by Sally Bourliakas

Dr Ben King 🌍 @benking01.bsky.social · 24d

It's been 44 months since my Pulmonary Embolism. Luckily my GP arranged a d-dimer test 🙏

1 in 4 people Worldwide are dying from conditions caused by thrombosis

Prevent Blood Clots, Save Lives | October 13 - #WorldThrombosisDay share.google/pxqdbYk45LSv...

#WTD2025 #TeamClots #COVID19

Poster from World Thrombosis Day dot org with my face on it

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Sally Bourliakas @sallybourliakas.bsky.social · Oct 7

#fullmoon

Reposted by Sally Bourliakas

Jonn Elledge @jonnelledge.bsky.social · Oct 6

I do think the media is giving too much attention to the possibility of Farage winning an election that's nearly four years away. I also think it's underplaying the extremely high possibility that, even if he does, he immediately drowns in the same mire that swallowed Starmer and Sunak before him

Financial Times @financialtimes.com · Oct 5

Reform likely to raise Kent council tax after cost-cutting drive falters on.ft.com/4pTvJ62

Reform likely to raise Kent council tax after cost-cutting drive falters

Nigel Farage’s party promised to revive local authority finances by slashing wasteful spending

on.ft.com

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Sally Bourliakas @sallybourliakas.bsky.social · Oct 5

Shocked yesterday Major General Chapman
Ex Head of CT MOD
(when told #Manchester
“suspect was out on bail for #rape”)

“Being an Honest, a decent honest criminal, even for something as bad as rape,
is not the same as a terror attack.”
@skynewsrss.bsky.social
retraction/apology?
(18.35 Fri 3/8/25)

Sally Bourliakas @sallybourliakas.bsky.social · Oct 5

Sally Bourliakas
@Sa...•3h © •••
Replying to @BBCPolitics and @bbclaurak
Why not report on what HAPPENED POLITICALLY THIS WEEK
The GREEN PARTY CONFERENCE
Not what is about to happen
or the knife attack again!
-wall to wall coverage for days
We didn't need Penny Mordant, Ben Howchen & Kimi Bad Enough: conflating antisemitism & anti zionism AGAIN!

Sally Bourliakas @sallybourliakas.bsky.social · Oct 5

It was noticed!

x.com/sallybourlia...

Sally Bourliakas 💙 on X: "@BBCPolitics @bbclaurak For all those who didn’t realise the Greens had a Conference this week their Leaders speech👇🏼 & If you had to talk to someone about a knife attack on a Manchester synagogue Surely @ZackPolanski Jewish & from Manchester was the guy to pick?! https://t.co/M5khF7inPf https://t.co/HepX6uxCHH" / X

@BBCPolitics @bbclaurak For all those who didn’t realise the Greens had a Conference this week their Leaders speech👇🏼 & If you had to talk to someone about a knife attack on a Manchester synagogue Surely @ZackPolanski Jewish & from Manchester was the guy to pick?! https://t.co/M5khF7inPf https://t.co/HepX6uxCHH

x.com

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Reposted by Sally Bourliakas

Zack Polanski @zackpolanski.bsky.social · Oct 5

Bolder. Effective.And surging!

Come on @greenparty.org.uk team.

Let's go!

Join.greenparty.org.uk

The party is louder and more left wing than ever.

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Reposted by Sally Bourliakas

Aliza Adi (she/her) @alizaadi.bsky.social · Oct 5

As far as we know, the BBC didn't officially refused to interview @greenparty.org.uk leader @zackpolanski.bsky.social during conference - but leaving out our Jewish party leader in the week a terrorist murdered and terrorised Jewish people in his own city feels like a very deliberate editorial call

Zack Polanski @zackpolanski.bsky.social · Oct 5

I'm Jewish. I'm also Mancunian.

Every other national party leader was interviewed by Laura Kunesberg during their conference.

Maybe the BBC thought as someone who also supports Palestine - I had nothing to say?

Let's keep growing: join.greenparty.org.uk

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Reposted by Sally Bourliakas

Nick Reeves #FBPE #NAFO @nickreeves.bsky.social · Oct 1

1/ Farage and Nathan Gill made their European Parliament speeches parroting almost exactly the same Russian propaganda talking points on the same day, September 16th, 2014.

Here's Farage's speech

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