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Lucy

@lucyd1089

Middle-aged centrist mum. Spend my time reading, singing and being angry about stuff. Views my own (obviously).

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20.09.2023
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Latest posts by Lucy @lucyd1089

Henrietta Barnett, a super-selective girls’ grammar in north London, has 4.8% of pupils eligible for free school meals against a national figure of 25.7%. These schools are not engines of social mobility.

06.03.2026 11:36 πŸ‘ 3 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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This might make more sense if the grammar system genuinely rewarded the brightest regardless of background. It doesn’t, as the wealthy tutor their kids from year 1-2 onwards, at a cost of many thousand of pounds, to ensure they pass. It’s a measure of privilege, not innate intelligence.

06.03.2026 11:26 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

As always: its not just grammars you're bringing back, its secondary moderns.

And no one wants their kids to go to one. Which is a issue when 75% of kids will do so.

Always missed in this debate. You're making the education of the majority worse, to privilage a small minority.

06.03.2026 07:22 πŸ‘ 114 πŸ” 22 πŸ’¬ 14 πŸ“Œ 5

Kids love dressing up though. Also most of them do lots of other activities to encourage reading at the same time.

05.03.2026 09:13 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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FT comments section this morning - saying what everyone else is thinking, right?

05.03.2026 07:15 πŸ‘ 17088 πŸ” 5961 πŸ’¬ 512 πŸ“Œ 493
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"Mr Speaker, as @GIGACHAD_1776 said to me on X yesterday"

04.03.2026 16:47 πŸ‘ 489 πŸ” 98 πŸ’¬ 6 πŸ“Œ 2

β€˜Orcs’ is a racist dog whistle.

04.03.2026 16:04 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Starmer in the Commons when challenged by Tory MP Gareth Bacon about UK actions over Iran: "Hanging on to President Trump's latest words is not the special relationship."

04.03.2026 12:36 πŸ‘ 126 πŸ” 32 πŸ’¬ 4 πŸ“Œ 9

I applied for a job with Robin Wales once. Clearly dodged a bullet there.

04.03.2026 11:04 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

I get why people compare worries about kids on social media with previous moral panics but I think an important difference is that when previous generations worried about computer games or rock music they were worrying about things kids did that their parents didn't understand.

03.03.2026 22:13 πŸ‘ 13 πŸ” 4 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
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Childless adults stop opining on kids’ access to social media challenge

03.03.2026 19:52 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Also that article she’s screenshotted doesn’t even say what she claims it does.

03.03.2026 19:36 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

Once again: childless Very Online adults are not the voices we should be prioritising in the debate around kids and screens.

03.03.2026 19:33 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

Nope. Social media is still bad for kids and no one should be listening to TL on this as she is the poster child for the Terminally Online.

03.03.2026 19:30 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

Well, it worked out brilliantly in Afghanistan…

03.03.2026 19:08 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Sincerely hope they will listen to this (but not holding my breath).

03.03.2026 08:39 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Among the many, many reasons this is nuts: the bulk of British Muslims are Sunni, while Iran is a Shia theocracy. Sunni-Shia rivalry and mutual hostility goes back roughly a thousand years and has played as large a role (if not larger) as Protestant-Catholic rivalry/conflict in Europe

02.03.2026 11:31 πŸ‘ 386 πŸ” 123 πŸ’¬ 25 πŸ“Œ 3

My radical take is that the people primarily to blame for the inevitable wave of anti-Semitism we are already starting to see are in fact the people being anti-Semitic

28.02.2026 19:17 πŸ‘ 219 πŸ” 45 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 0
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One reason Hannah Spencer did well is she passed the β€œgets it test” few politicians do on two levels. First: personally we heard praise she seemed normal in touch & respected voters. Second message; the below from her speech is the perfect distillation of what we hear in groups.

28.02.2026 12:38 πŸ‘ 220 πŸ” 58 πŸ’¬ 16 πŸ“Œ 5

I know it's not the main issue, but what's the FIFA protocol for when a host nation for a world cup attacks or declares war against a participating nation in the run up to the competition? especially when the head of the host nation is in receipt of your inaugural peace prize?

28.02.2026 06:52 πŸ‘ 195 πŸ” 84 πŸ’¬ 8 πŸ“Œ 5

It seems very implausible that Galloway was that much of a factor.

27.02.2026 14:04 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Literally no one wants to hear from Americans on the weirdness of any other country’s politics. Get your own house in order.

27.02.2026 13:03 πŸ‘ 4 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

But it’s the absence of any coherent political narrative that’s the problem. They came in after a truly awful, long Tory night and failed to offer hope, failed to offer optimism, failed to offer any sense of real change. Failed to offer any vision that is coherent and makes sense.

27.02.2026 07:36 πŸ‘ 5 πŸ” 2 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 0

THIS. For the love of God stop fighting the 2029 election and offer people something to hope for NOW.

27.02.2026 07:27 πŸ‘ 6 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

A wake up and smell the coffee moment for Labour. Early signs are that Labour wants to sip hot milk instead ("we couldn't turn out our vote." No, you did. That's the problem.)

Governing strategy, policy, comms, campaigning - all needs a complete reset and in that order.

27.02.2026 06:59 πŸ‘ 69 πŸ” 14 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 2

Miriam Cates: Have more kids!

Also Miriam Cates: Not like that.

25.02.2026 17:41 πŸ‘ 32 πŸ” 14 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 0

β€˜Orc’ is a blatant dog whistle to a very specific section of the online far right. It’s terrifying that this man is a member of parliament.

25.02.2026 13:57 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 2 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

This is how I discovered Polanski’s position on β€˜natural birth’ and god, fuck this so so much

23.02.2026 23:19 πŸ‘ 304 πŸ” 127 πŸ’¬ 10 πŸ“Œ 8

Oh no, so sorry to hear this.

22.02.2026 21:18 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

1300 basically comprehensible to me, 1200 basically not. Extraordinary how rapidly the language evolved.

22.02.2026 10:58 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0