I make a coffee, walk shirtless into the garden, sit down in one of the chairs and let my flat, hairy chest get some sun. And as a good journalist, I open my news app — just in time to find out that I am now, legally, a woman.
Happy Birthday to me, I guess.
https://medium.com/prismnpen/no-mans-land-how-i-feel-as-a-trans-man-in-the-uk-in-2026-953665cd59e1
ukpolitics
NHS workers are being gagged from criticising the Palantir contract 🤐
We can't duck the hard truths that embedding US Big Tech in UK public services carries risks of outside political interference and waste from vendor lock-in.
The alternative is here: Digital Sovereignty with open source tech.
https://novaramedia.com/2026/04/14/nhs-staff-told-stop-criticising-palantir-or-lose-your-job/
#DigitalSovereignty #opensource #palantir #nhs #ukpolitics #ukpol
London Mayor Sadiq Khan shows Palantir the door 🚪
This decision recognises that Big Tech has been grifting the UK for years, by locking us into their exclusive products, jacking up the fees and exporting profits.
The future is open source, NOT shady US spyware companies.
It's time for Digital Sovereignty 🌱
#digitalsovereignty #palantir #opensource #sadiqkhan #metpolice #ukpolitics #ukpol
So we've been getting rinsed by Palantir... go figure 🤷
Turns out we're quid's in when we junk them from our digital systems.
Now we just need to replicate this across the UK State, getting rid of all the other Big Tech suppliers that over-charge and under-deliver.
Bring on Digital Sovereignty with open source tech 🌱
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c2l2j1lxdk5o
#digitalsovereignty #opensource #palantir #bigtech #ukpolitics #ukpol
Burnham obviously will want an extended transition period because it's Labour policy that any transition must be made as long and painful and difficult as possible, followed by a two year wait to be legally recognized
The pettiness of the Reform Voter and the generosity and good spirit of those who stood up to them.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/may/30/durham-pride-trade-unions-beat-reform-funding-axe
“LGBTQ+ teens in particular may rely on social media for crucial information, exploration and support.
The ban will also impact how children access and share information that is important for their participation in democracy, as well as for their health and wellbeing."
🗣️ ORG for Queer AF.
https://www.wearequeeraf.com/youth-social-media-bans-should-raise-privacy-concerns-for-everyone/
#socialmediaban #lgbt #lgbtqia #freeexpression #censorship #ukpolitics #ukpol
Excuse me while I have a rant to get things off my chest.
I'm increasingly feeling that urban & suburban England is utter shit (and it's spilling over into rural Britain)
There's litter & tags everywhere. Vehicles are parked, blocking the crumbling pavements. Roads are potholed.
No one seems to care about what their houses look like (least of all grifting landlords) with scrubby front gardens littered with rusting cars & vans.
Public transport is expensive, unreliable & doesn't go where you want to go when you want to go, leading to vast areas of concrete car parks that are licensed to print money for car park barons
There's no law on the roads, roads policing doesn't exist, and the Highway Code is ignored with impunity. Vulnerable road users take their lives into their hands every time they go out
Racism and all other -isms are displayed openly
I get why Reform people are angry, but their solution is wrong. We need more community & cohesion and much less hate.
Social media bans don't work. They just make things worse.
In Australia, for those teens who haven't bypassed the restrictions, their access to news has been curtailed.
How does this square with giving votes to 16 year olds in the UK? Children have rights to free expression too.
ORG's @JamesBaker explains.
https://peertube.openrightsgroup.org/w/crfbePPnNhcKMPQZts5urk
#socialmediaban #socialmedia #censorship #freeexpression #humanrights #ukpolitics #ukpol
Edited 77d ago
Edited 66d ago
As the world mourns the passing of Marjane Satrapi, I cannot help but reflect on her declining of the French Legion of Honor last year, calling out the hypocrisy of accepting such an award from a government that systematically fails the very Iranian refugees they claim to honor.
Her action stands out even more today, just weeks after France announced a nearly billion euro surge to further militarize Channel border security, a harsh crackdown on the exact routes desperately used by migrants fleeing the Khamenei regime.
Satrapi stood as a beacon of solidarity to those fleeing oppression, and the world is duller today without her in it.
https://www.lemonde.fr/en/france/article/2025/01/14/persepolis-author-refuses-french-award-over-iran-hypocrisy_6737034_7.html
https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2026/04/23/uk-and-france-strike-new-channel-migration-deal-with-boosted-enforcement-and-funding_6752732_4.html
#FemmeVieLiberté #WomanLifeFreedom #MarjaneSatrapi #Iran #FRPol #Politics #UKPol #UKPolitics
This week's net.wars, "Parting glances", bids farewell to Keir Starmer, the former human rights lawyer who presided over the Online Safety Act, age verification, restrictions on protest, and increased surveillance: https://netwars.pelicancrossing.net/2026/06/26/parting-glances/, #NetWars #UKPolitics #privacy
Edited 76d ago
Excellent reporting here from Byline Times. The real story of the Race Science Network that Penetrated Cambridge University and Targeted Jason Arday
Scanning tech would turn every phone into a surveillance device ⚠️
UK Ministers may claim this is to stop children sharing intimate images.
But it means forcing every adult through a digital ID checkpoint and scanning all private images by default.
Once the infrastructure exists, it will be expanded.
It would award every future government and every tyranny across the globe a mechanism to pre-censor everything anyone does with their phone.
U.K. Reform Party leader Nigel Farage is once again under scrutiny for his finances. The News Agents ask how long his "man of the people" act can go on, with his five homes, £5 million gift from a crypto billionaire, and £270,000 payment for advertising gold bars. "He's raking it in from gold bullion, whilst he's also talking about getting rid of workers' rights, getting rid of the minimum wage, getting rid of the protection for people in their employment," says Emily Maitlis.
Can't waste all that practice they're getting from jailing pensioners.
https://www.declassifieduk.org/uk-police-trained-officers-in-states-flagged-over-human-rights/
Today in Brighton.
On your left: fascists (outnumbered by police, despite the presence of Ukip bellend Nick Tenconi 😂 )
On your right: antifascists ✊
The fight for the open Internet is on – support our work 🦾
We're facing a social media ban, digital ID checkpoints and powers to scan our devices.
Our privacy and free expression rights could lie in tatters if we don't resist.
Donate now to power our grassroots movement ⬇️
https://action.openrightsgroup.org/build-our-grassroots-power-defend-open-internet
#StopKillingInternet #StopKillingTheInternet #grassroots #crowdfunder #socialmediaban #digitalrights #privacy #freeexpression #censorship #digitalid #ukpolitics #ukpol
Edited 86d ago
It looks like U.K. Reform leader Nigel Farage will face some serious political competition in the Clacton by-election prompted by his own resignation from parliament. While Labour, the Liberal Democrats, the Conservatives, the Green Party and Restore will not be participating, Count Binface has announced his candidacy. Cosmopolitan explains who he is, and his manifesto (past pledges have included linking ministers' pay to nurses' salaries). At the second link, find Huck Magazine's story on the British tradition of novelty political candidates.
"The tribunal, held nearly one year ago, was chaired by our three guests: former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, Israeli professor of human rights law Neve Gordon and Palestinian legal scholar Shahd Hammouri. Their new book is titled #TheGazaTribunal: Britain’s Complicity in Genocide."
https://www.democracynow.org/2026/8/12/gaza_tribunal_uk
#Gaza #GazaTribunal #Palestine #GazaGenocide #UKpol #UKpolitics #GazaSolidarity #PalestineSolidarity #books @bookstodon
The use of AI in UK asylum decision-making is a disaster.
AI hallucinated a document that led to an asylum application being denied.
Applicants aren't being informed that opaque AI tools are being used in their case, nor being given the opportunity to correct errors churned out by these opaque tools.
#ai #asylum #immigration #migrants #homeoffice #ukpolitics #ukpol
Farage proposes to scrap GDPR in the UK... where to start?
GDPR protects women, workers, patients, ethnic minorities, LGBTQ+ communities, and everybody else from discrimination and abuse.
Scrapping it would be a capitulation to abusive Big Tech corporations and the Trump administration that backs them.
https://www.politico.eu/article/nigel-farage-wants-to-scrap-gdpr-for-the-uk/
#dataprotection #gdpr #privacy #reformuk #farage #ukpolitics ukpol