TrundleAlongJ

Making sense of the widening gender mental health gap: what teenage girls told us Girls said that visual platforms, such as Instagram and TikTok, particularly reiterate gendered expectations for girls on how they should present themselves.

Girls said that visual platforms, such as Instagram and TikTok, particularly reiterate gendered expectations for girls on how they should present themselves.

Chart showing Annual real growth in median equivalised household disposable income after housing costs, by non-pensioner income vigintile: UK

Changes to benefits and projected wage growth mean 2026-27 could see progressive income growth.

But this week’s dramatic swings in energy prices loom large over the near-term living standards forecasts...

And let’s encourage James Mitchison too.. a real editor

You know the best way to kill AI? Don't use it. Don't buy it. Don't share it. Don't give the people who use it your labour or your money.

SPROCKET led by @ucl.ac.uk exists because children with complex needs still face fragmented, siloed services, even as the government’s SEND Reform white paper calls for major change.

Infographics here for the quick overview. 1/3

Coin used as Leeds bus fare was 2,000‑year‑old currency The coin was handed down to Peter Edwards from his grandfather in the 1950s.

This is the sort of thing a cashless society robs us of, the opportunity to try to get away with paying the bus fare in Carthaginian currency www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Crude oil prices, showing a very sharp increase in the last day, from around 65 to 101 dollars per barrel..

Oil prices wouldn't be all over the news today if more of our economy was powered by local, secure renewable energy.

This isn't an "energy crisis". It's a fossil fuel crisis.

44% of UK electricity came from renewables in 2025. More of that plus an electrified economy => no more oil shocks.

UK-EU SPS Agreement - Legislation in scope To cut red tape and costs for importing and exporting with the EU, the UK will align with EU Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) legislation.

UK government releases list of 76 EU laws that it says UK will align with under food standards treaty with EU www.gov.uk/government/n...

The Saudis have strong incentives to expand the range of pipeline and terminal options along the Red Sea and perhaps via Syria even the Mediterranean.

While with the Iran crisis following the Russia shock in 2022 increases incentives for EU, India and China to diversify energy sources even further

AI and work: an expert assesses how far this revolution still has to run What’s real, what’s over-stated and what risks have we missed so far?

What’s real, what’s over-stated and what risks have we missed so far?

The chart shows that childless Britons losing employment will see less of their vanished wages replaced by benefits than those in any other comparable country, aside from Australia and the US. Even for a lone British parent with two children, the so-called ‘replacement rate’ is 16 percentage points lower than the OECD average, representing the fourth-lowest level of relative support for such a family across the entire rich-country club.

The safety net for Britons is far lower than most of their counterparts.

Many other benefits systems around the world hardwire in a specific link between typical wages and general benefit rates, or what an individual's previous earnings and the payments they are entitled to.

More➡️ buff.ly/a300OG4

Today we have a double debunk:

1. A debunk of the idea that 67 dog breeds are being banned in Britain

2. A debunk of what the usual suspects are saying online (because they are so tediously predictable!🙄)

🧵1/21

The Bedroom tax, still causing problems for poor tenants in #Socialhousing

tonysmiththathousingitguy.blogspot.com/2014/07/bedb...

#SocialHousing #UKhousing

Link on www.linkedin.com/in/tonysmith...

Could UK #socialhousing be managed within many small internal enterprises ?

tonysmiththathousingitguy.blogspot.com/2014/10/corn...

#SocialHousing #UKhousing

Link on www.linkedin.com/in/tonysmith...

In 1950s my older cousin lost sight in one eye due to measles
Her family talked of her school friend who died of pneumonia after catching measles
Before vaccinations we caught it and got over it, but not everybody did
Even so, we were off school & ill for a couple of weeks or more
It’s very nasty

Plaid Cymru plans to share wind farm profits with local people – here’s how that idea has been tried elsewhere In Nepal, local shareholding in a hydropower project changed how communities regarded it.

In Nepal, local shareholding in a hydropower project changed how communities regarded it.

Most Saharan dust is generated by ‘hidden thunderstorms’ high above the desert Why climate models struggle to simulate this special kind of desert thunderstorm.

Why climate models struggle to simulate this special kind of desert thunderstorm.

chart showing Welfare spending as a share of GDP (left) and in real terms (right), by category, outturn and forecast: UK

How has this week's forecast affected the outlook for welfare spending?

There has been little change, and considering spending as a share of GDP it does not look out of control.

Chart showing proportion of working age adults who are caring

Britain’s ‘unsung’ army is the million people in poorer working-age households who now have full-time unpaid caring responsibilities.

Chart showing average real-terms gross household income from benefits among non-pensioner families, by whole-population income vigintile.

Benefitting less Looking across the poorest half of households, average benefit income rose by £1,900 a year in real terms between 1995 and 2010, before falling by £1,600 between 2010 and 2024.

Benefitting less?

The richer half of the country actually saw a bigger proportional increase in their benefit income (of 14 per cent) than the poorer half (of 4 per cent) over the past three decades, and the bottom quartile experienced a real terms fall in benefit income (of 13 per cent).

DfE slims down social work standards following concerns proposals would be 'overwhelming' for practitioners - Community Care Concerns were raised that DfE's proposed standards would be 'overwhelming' for newly qualified social workers

Department for Education slims down proposed standards for newly qualified social workers in children's services after concerns they would be "overwhelming" for practitioners

www.communitycare.co.uk/content/news...

Also some evidence of how competing identities are at play here - very little attachment to county Durham in the Tees area, suggesting the Teesside identity is more powerful?

Will hopefully explore more fully one day... (I'd have loved to do historic boundaries too, but not easy coding wise).

How would the Iran crisis play out in a world powered by renewables not fossil fuels? This conflict exposes the fragility of the global fossil fuel economy and how renewables create resilience.

This conflict exposes the fragility of the global fossil fuel economy and how renewables create resilience.

How the Iran war could create a ‘fertiliser shock’ – an often ignored global risk to food prices and farming Without this form of fertiliser, crops will not produce yields on which the world’s population depends, leaving people starving.

Without this form of fertiliser, crops will not produce yields on which the world’s population depends, leaving people starving.

The Black Death’s counterintuitive effect: as human numbers fell, so did plant diversity New study finds that plant biodiversity collapsed in landscapes where arable production was abandoned during and after the Black Death era.

New study finds that plant biodiversity collapsed in landscapes where arable production was abandoned during and after the Black Death era.

chart showing Change in the number and proportion of children living in relative poverty after housing costs, by Parliament: UK

Child poverty is set to fall by 3 percentage points in 2026-27, primarily due to the two-child limit being abolished.

But in the following years, the child poverty rate will start rising again.

By the end of the decade, the projected rate is just 0.5 percentage points below last year.

chart showing Impact of policy announcements on borrowing in last year of forecast, by fiscal event

Despite insisting Tuesday's Forecast was not a fiscal event, Government policy decisions added £5.7 billion to borrowing, mostly due to higher SEND spending.

Ranking all fiscal events since 2010 by their impact on borrowing, today's Forecast is in the bigger half of fiscal events.

Wolverhampton Council spends £1.5 million on children's home - but it's still empty after three years A controversial children's home is still empty three years after permission was granted - despite the council having spent more than £1.5 million on it.

Wolverhampton Council spends £1.5 million on children's home - but it's still empty after three years

www.expressandstar.com/news/local-h...

How tech turned against women [FREE TO READ] As AI-generated sexualised images proliferate and app-facilitated abuse spreads, we are sleepwalking into a new age of gender inequality. It is time to regulate properly

Agree with all this except honestly I'm less optimistic that anything will ever be done to prevent more harm. People in power simply don't care. It's only girls, whatever.

Big tech is deeply hostile to women and, ofc, #banthepervertglasses

- as.ft.com/r/da4838c6-4...

‘AI will be the end of us’ – is Colm Tóibín right about the threat to creative writing? AI will continue to affect writers existentially and economically – but does the human touch still matter to us more?

AI will continue to affect writers existentially and economically – but does the human touch still matter to us more?