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Helen Shorter

@helensh

Research, policy, strategy. Construction, business, education, health. Coffee, hockey, family and friends. Peak District.

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Latest posts by Helen Shorter @helensh

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This year @rthonwesstreeting.bsky.social imposed a new GP contract

Provided an extra £1.50 to uncap the number of calls or requests per day & stand by the phone or computer

And if the job isn’t completed within 24hours the GP will be sanctioned

Job specifications below - can’t see a problem🤷🏻‍♂️

04.03.2026 13:01 👍 47 🔁 26 💬 3 📌 3
Report: privatisation of the NHS from Keep Our NHS Public

Report: privatisation of the NHS from Keep Our NHS Public

Hearing now how every transfer of resources from NHS into private sector reduces the capacity of public sector. 30 per cent is now more realistic figure for privatisation of the NHS - 5 big cataract surgery firms making 32% return on investment, £169m profit

24.02.2026 17:56 👍 127 🔁 92 💬 8 📌 4
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A few weeks of X’s algorithm can make you more right-wing – and it doesn’t wear off quickly Elon Musk’s social media platform is boosting conservative content – and it’s having long-lasting effects on how users see the world.

Research now backs up that if you let X (formerly Twitter) algorithms determine what you read, your views will shift to the right theconversation.com/a-few-weeks-...

18.02.2026 20:06 👍 47 🔁 30 💬 4 📌 2
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Australia added a nuke-equivalent of wind & solar every year for 8 years— accelerating. 6 replaced coal, 2 met new demand. Grid batteries now add a nuke-equivalent every ~22 months, delivering more overnight power than nuclear & charging on cheap solar. Prices are back at 2017 levels, trending down.

08.02.2026 03:30 👍 41 🔁 11 💬 2 📌 1
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World’s richest 1% have already used fair share of emissions for 2026, says Oxfam Richest 1% took 10 days while wealthiest 0.1% needed just three days to exhaust annual carbon budget, study shows The world’s richest 1% have used up their fair share of carbon emissions just 10 days into 2026, analysis has found. Meanwhile, the richest 0.1% took just three days to exhaust their annual carbon budget, according to the research by Oxfam. Continue reading...

World’s richest 1% have already used fair share of emissions for 2026, says Oxfam

10.01.2026 05:06 👍 635 🔁 321 💬 19 📌 58

This!
We have so many rooftops.
So much better to cover current infrastructure with solar than to clog up our agricultural land.

09.12.2025 18:02 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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How councils are innovating to deliver more solar Mid Suffolk District Council leader argues when it comes to solar energy, the principle should be simple: rooftops before rural

Mid Suffolk’s leader explains why rooftop solar should come before rural land – and how the councils are delivering it. Report by Andy Mellen

eastangliabylines.co.uk/politics/loc...

09.12.2025 18:00 👍 27 🔁 7 💬 1 📌 1
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Even after the mansion tax is applied, the owner of a £5m home in Westminster will pay proportionately less in property tax than the owner of a £210k Band B property in Sunderland.

30.11.2025 16:15 👍 38 🔁 19 💬 3 📌 1

This is exactly what the recent Trump-BBC 'scandal' was designed to achieve. The BBC is now self-censoring criticisms of Trump in the name of "impartiality"

25.11.2025 10:26 👍 991 🔁 430 💬 39 📌 18

I wish I didn’t have to share this. But the BBC has decided to censor my first Reith Lecture.

They deleted the line in which I describe Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” /1

25.11.2025 09:26 👍 10102 🔁 5115 💬 340 📌 692
The Economic Impact of Brexit Other

Still reeling from the Stanford report on Brexit. Reduced GDP by up to 8% and investment by as much as 18%. The UK Treasury would have £40 billion more each year if Britain had remained in the EU. Devastating self-immolation.

24.11.2025 11:02 👍 3839 🔁 1728 💬 145 📌 183

Disappointed not to see reference to the shortage of midwives, and the challenging ratios of births to midwives. Years of stringing cuts have their effects on all aspects of health.

23.11.2025 13:26 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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Finland ends homelessness and provides shelter for all in need - scoop.me In Finland, the number of homeless people has fallen sharply. Why? The country applies the "Housing First" concept agains homelessness.

“In Finland, the number of homeless people has fallen sharply. Those affected receive a small apartment & counselling with no preconditions. 4 out of 5 people affected make their way back into a stable life. And all this is CHEAPER than accepting homelessness.”

It costs a lot less to house people.

21.09.2025 06:24 👍 6001 🔁 2308 💬 112 📌 185
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Reform, with 0.7% of all MPs, featured in 25% of BBC's recent 10pm news bulletins Astonishingly, a party with 18 times as many MPs as Reform has received one-third less coverage on BBC News at 10.

This does not look like “impartiality”. It looks like propaganda.
www.thelondoneconomic.com/politics/how...

21.09.2025 07:47 👍 1108 🔁 490 💬 55 📌 27
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Cambridge hospital’s mask upgrade appears to eliminate Covid risk to staff Hospital infection study shows use of FFP3 respirators at Addenbrooke’s ‘may have cut ward-based infection to zero’

We have been living with unnecessary infections in hospitals for years. Ffp3 respirators work. They do outside too! No need to keep catching covid and risking #Longcovid. www.theguardian.com/world/2021/j...

21.09.2025 10:02 👍 56 🔁 16 💬 2 📌 2

Very odd watching BBC News talking about the Lib Dem conference and mentioning how the party has struggled to break through in the media like it's nothing to do with them.

20.09.2025 07:24 👍 3176 🔁 773 💬 104 📌 35
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Apprenticeships have collapsed in England – Labour needs to fine-tune the solution, fast | Heather Stewart Responsibility for vocational training and skills has bounced around Whitehall for years, and enrolment rates are down by a third. Can the latest tweaks work?

About that "skills shortage"?

"Employers’ annual spending on training for each member of staff has fallen by 28% in real terms since 2005, to £1,530, a level less than half the EU average."

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

14.09.2025 15:30 👍 127 🔁 55 💬 3 📌 1
Excerpt from article that reads "BBC insiders rejected any suggestion Reform was not being scrutinised, pointing to editorial guidelines requiring editors to take account of past and current electoral support. They added it was clear from all news outlets that Reform was “setting the political weather”."

Excerpt from article that reads "BBC insiders rejected any suggestion Reform was not being scrutinised, pointing to editorial guidelines requiring editors to take account of past and current electoral support. They added it was clear from all news outlets that Reform was “setting the political weather”."

Reform is setting the "political weather" because the BBC is giving it a platform for setting the "political weather".🤷

BBC under pressure over extent of Reform UK coverage
- featured in more News at Ten bulletins than Lib Dems over six months
www.theguardian.com/media/2025/s...

13.09.2025 12:57 👍 50 🔁 13 💬 4 📌 0
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Balance the BBC The BBC is our national broadcaster, people expect and deserve balanced news coverage.

Back our campaign to balance the BBC
www.libdems.org.uk/BBC

13.09.2025 11:00 👍 52 🔁 24 💬 0 📌 1
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Reform conference sponsored by crypto firm and tobacco co... Questions have been raised over Zebec’s shell company registration and Japan Tobacco International’s links to Russia

Anyone surprised?

Reform UK Ltd conference was sponsored by crypto firm and tobacco company with Russian ties and via opaque off shore accounts

It’s against the rules

12.09.2025 09:39 👍 118 🔁 80 💬 7 📌 2
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BBC under fresh pressure over extent of Reform UK coverage Nigel Farage’s party featured in considerably more News at Ten bulletins than Lib Dems over six months, study finds The BBC has come under renewed pressure over the amount of coverage dedicated to Reform UK after an analysis showed Nigel Farage’s party featured in a quarter of all News At Ten bulletins over six months. Reform featured in 49 bulletins between January and July this year, whereas the Liberal Democrats – the third party in parliament with 72 MPs – featured in 17.9% of bulletins, with 35 references. Continue reading...

BBC under fresh pressure over extent of Reform UK coverage

12.09.2025 08:15 👍 320 🔁 113 💬 26 📌 19
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Nigel Farage uses private company to pay less tax on GB News earnings Exclusive: Reform leader’s use of personal services firm is a practice criticised across the political spectrum

Since this is apparently a resigning matter, I’ll just leave this here…

www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

05.09.2025 11:16 👍 4821 🔁 2127 💬 159 📌 93

Farage has gone to the US to tell them Britain is ”awful” - If you don’t like it over here Nigel maybe don’t catch a return flight?

03.09.2025 18:43 👍 1888 🔁 414 💬 65 📌 18
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Your weekly reminder that voter "concern" with immigration doesn't correspond to actual immigration levels.

It corresponds to the amount of coverage the media gives immigration.

This an entirely self-fulfilling mess, and it is entirely pointless.

04.09.2025 12:07 👍 1022 🔁 393 💬 28 📌 21
Petition: Ensure plurality of political coverage across UK broadcast media at all times We want to ensure that a plurality of views from all political parties in Westminster are represented and the nations parliaments are heard all year round, not just election times. The rules for coverage during elections should apply at all times.

Please could you spread this sensible petition? If you are in UK.

I'm so worried it'll be left too late and we'll be exactly like US. Doomed and broken.
petition.parliament.uk/signatures/1...

29.08.2025 17:57 👍 8 🔁 8 💬 0 📌 1

West Hampstead (Camden) Council By-Election Result:

🔶 LDM: 54.4% (+15.4)
🌹 LAB: 21.2% (-23.4)
🌳 CON: 10.3% (-6.3)
➡️ RFM: 7.2% (New)
🌍 GRN: 7.0% (New)

Liberal Democrat GAIN from Labour.
Changes w/ 2022.

28.08.2025 23:48 👍 194 🔁 55 💬 9 📌 28
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Is the BBC now the official mouthpiece for Reform? A study of the BBC’s Question Time has raised concerns about representation and political impartiality

yorkshirebylines.co.uk/news/is-the-...

🧐

26.08.2025 11:14 👍 169 🔁 41 💬 10 📌 2

This

26.08.2025 17:26 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

How wonderful. Watching BBC give 90% of its political coverage to an opposition party that has 5 seats, while ignoring 100 % an opposition party with 72 seats. The media and the far right are lovestruck bedfellows. When we have Nigel Farage as PM,we know full well who to blame. Nonsense
#libdems

22.08.2025 22:02 👍 115 🔁 29 💬 6 📌 1

"Solar panels in China are cheaper than a same-size piece of window glass. You can use panels as siding and fencing as if it’s a building material that just happens to produce some electricity
The future is panels everywhere"-@dfeldman.org
Thread: Solar Hockey Stick of Hope bsky.app/profile/70sb...

15.07.2025 21:04 👍 568 🔁 196 💬 8 📌 16