Policing Minister Chris Philp has just asked if Congo is a different country from Rwanda while on BBC's Question Time 👀

The world's first Sikh court has launched in London, handling family and civil disputes.

The court, which will sit openly and has mostly female judges, will seek mediated settlements, but can give legally binding judgments under the Arbitration Act archive.is/IWabV

Not surprised. Supermarket food shopping online is pretty crap - you can't check the expiry dates so can end up with loads of short-dated perishable food; the delivery fees can be stinging; you don't know what will actually be in stock and what won't

Seven years on and no progress on disability rights by UK government, says UN committee
(govt ignores disabled people's evidence and analysis and 'strongly rejects' the committee's findings)
#CRPD24 #CRDP24
disabilitynewsservice.com/seven-years-on…

The first recorded strike in history took place 3,178 years ago!

The ‘Strike Papyrus’ records that tomb workers of Ramesses III at Deir el-Medina in Egypt, downed their tools over pay and conditions in 1155 BC.

📷 Museo Egizio, Turin collezionepapiri.museoegizio.it/en-GB/document…

#Archaeology

NEW: A disability activist has been granted permission to take the DWP to court over its plans to tighten a key disability benefit test

Ellen Clifford is bringing a judicial review of the consultation into changes to the WCA

By me, for the Big Issue bigissue.com/news/social-ju…

Not distasteful: Breaking international law in order to deport victims of modern slavery to a brutal dictatorship

Distasteful: Criticising it

Important piece on rising anger at Hamas in Gaza. “I pray every day for God to punish the one who brought us to this situation,” says one man. “I pray every day for the death of Sinwar.” ft.com/content/c529a3…

This is how Stormont's 2024/25 budget allocations for departments (resource DEL) compares to the budget set by Chris Heaton-Harris last year. Only department to receive less than in April 2023 is Caoimhe Archibald's own department. Health allocation is 53% of £14.44bn total.

Cheer up people.

It’s possible to have good as well as bad shocks. Here’s how things could work out better than expected for the next government
on.ft.com/3xZPwKy

Found this painting in a charity shop, I think it's a Constable.

For Bloomberg, I wrote about the charge that Labour has too few policies, which I don't think is true: trust and clarity problems stem instead from having too many half announced, half communicated pledges, all of them seemingly liable to u-turn.

bloomberg.com/opinion/articl…

#CRDP24 #DefendOurRights
The UNCRPD disability committee has reported there is no progress in Disabled people's rights and in many areas they are going backwards
dpac.uk.net/2024/04/un-com…

Well, that throws the cat among the Scottish pigeons. Question is whether the Greens will still keep the SNP in office for now nonetheless.

We could be heading for a double general election in Scotland.

The AfD is the most popular party among 14-29 year olds in Germany

Looks like Humza Yousaf isn’t going to wait for the Scottish Greens to decide if they still want to be part of his government. Cabinet to meet in the next hour…

My latest article shows that the Universal Credit conditionality regime harms mothers' employment prospects and caring responsibilities regardless of social class, but sometimes the negative effects are exacerbated for working class mothers cambridge.org/core/journals/…

The UN has called for an inquiry into reports of mass graves at two Gaza hospitals: 'Among the deceased were allegedly older people, women and wounded, while others were found tied with their hands… tied and stripped of their clothes.' news.un.org/en/story/2024/…

Happy 90th birthday (in this life at least) to the one and only Shirley MacLaine