CHAYHO Christina Hughes-Onslow

Sometimes a well-meaning tax code turns out to be utterly idiotic. The UK is a nice example where parents in need of childcare are actively encouraged to not earn more money / remain below their economic potential. Urgent need for tax reform. Source: telegraph.co.uk/money/tax/inco…

A stunning Swallow on a dull day! 😍 Taken last weekend at Combwich in Somerset. 😊🐦

Keep your wits about you Britain. Landlords have to send this PDF to tenants by the end of May, or face a £7,000 fine. I wonder how many small landlords will miss this and be fined? Everyone will chalk it up to the government trying to find a way to squeeze the public for cash. And will they be completely wrong? gov.uk/government/pub…

@PeoplesAudit @brixtonbuzz @pete556 @lswaffield1 @cplocal @survivinglambet Which party do you think will do better if elected next week? Or is it best to hope for a hung council?

4 years ago we sent our report "A council in denial" to all 63 newly elected councillors: thepeoplesaudit.wordpress.com/2022/04/20/a-c… We asked "We would be interested to hear.. what steps you will take.. to improve the council’s governance" Only 2 councillors (both opposition) bothered to reply.

@PeoplesAudit @brixtonbuzz @gamecounsel If you have a council which puts cyclists above all others and employs cyclists to senior positions in planning, this would not come as a surprise. Couple it with a long history of ignoring residents’ concerns and you have a recipe for disaster. Welcome to Lambeth!

Polly Clark is a novelist and TS Eliot Prize–shortlisted poet who recently published Afterlife: New and Selected Poems. Before publication, she was told that Gutter Magazine — a Scottish literary journal — had selected her book as “Book of the Month”, describing it as ‘funny, feminine and violent; confessional yet mysterious’. The review was published. Within days, it had disappeared. Polly rightly asked why. When pressed, Gutter told her publisher: ‘A reader drew our attention to social media posts (completely unrelated) by Polly Clark that they considered to be offensive.’ They added that they are a ‘welcoming publishing space’, including for trans writers, and that promoting Ms Clark ‘risked undermining this goal’. Polly raised the issue with both Gutter and Creative Scotland — which funds the magazine — but neither has agreed to reinstate the review or explain its removal. The Free Speech Union has proudly supported Polly throughout, alongside Freedom in the Arts. A Subject Access Request (SAR) has now revealed that the sole complaint was a private message referring to Polly’s social media posts, accompanied by screenshots that did not substantiate the claims. Those claims were never tested, and Polly was not contacted. The accusation was acknowledged, met with a heart emoji, and acted upon. Polly’s work was censored for holding lawful gender-critical views protected under the Equality Act 2010. Her case raises fundamental questions about free speech, due process, and decisions made without scrutiny or accountability. Polly writes: “I have explored the possibility of legal action. Neither employee nor ‘service user’, I fall outside the limited categories through which such discrimination can currently be litigated. There is no clear legal route to challenge what has happened. Censorship of this kind remains, for now, a moral and cultural offence rather than a legal one. Of course, that makes it no less real.” Adding: “That this can still happen in plain sight, even now, is painful to accept. In the absence of legal remedy – and indeed even if there were such redress – my work is to continue writing, to bear witness to things as they are, and to hold onto the hope of a less censorious literary culture.” Free speech is under threat across society — particularly in higher education and the arts. Read Polly’s Substack below and watch her recent FSU member testimonial 👇

@robertgraham Wishing them good luck

Artemis II comes back to Earth tomorrow (Friday, April 10) at 8pm Eastern (5pm Pacific). This is the most tense part of the mission. They have known defects in the re-entry ablative coating that some feel may cause it to fail on re-entry. Coming back to Earth is far harder than lifting off into space. The heat of re-entry is incredible.

Total ignorance from @networkrail ... they found no active nests apparently... of course they didn't!! They're summer visitors and breeders!!!! 🙄 Now they know the facts, that Swifts return to their old breeding sites, what are they doing about it? Nothing!! 😡 #UnblockTheNests

@TiceRichard @LordAPolls …

This is beyond humiliating. “The agreement would establish a permanent mechanism for an appropriate financial contribution of the UK towards reducing economic, social and territorial disparities between the regions of the EU, applicable to the electricity agreement and any further agreement affording the UK access to the Union’s internal market. The financial contribution of the UK should appropriately reflect the relative size of the UK’s economy and the proportion of the internal market in which the UK aims to participate in line with consistent EU policy.” Starmer wants to pay Brussels to run our affairs. order-order.com/2026/03/30/lab…

Harvard University, to their eternal glory, has provided online recordings of hundreds of authors who have graced their stages over the past century. We are talking Siegfried Sassoon (!), Dylan Thomas, W.H. Auden, E.M. Forster, and more. Dive in! hollis.harvard.edu/discovery/sear…

Concerns grow for the fate of Special Forces historic ‘Big House.' Inverailort House, in Lochaber in the Highlands, is tragically unlisted & is rapidly growing more dilapidated. 📷Richard Findlay FotoFling Scotland #heritage #Scotland #UKspecialforces #BritishArmy #history #WWII

Oxford University researchers have discovered the densest element yet known to science... The new element, Governmentium (symbol=Gv), has one neutron, 25 assistant neutrons, 88 deputy neutrons and 198 assistant deputy neutrons, giving it an atomic mass of 312. These 312 particles are held together by forces called morons, which are surrounded by vast quantities of lepton-like particles called pillocks. Since Governmentium has no electrons, it is inert. However, it can be detected because it impedes every reaction with which it comes into contact. A tiny amount of Governmentium can cause a reaction that would normally take less than a second, to take from 4 days to 4 years to complete. Governmentium has a normal half-life of 2 to 6 years. It does not decay, but instead undergoes a reorganisation in which a portion of the assistant neutrons and deputy neutrons exchange places. In fact, Governmentium's mass will actually increase over time, since each reorganisation will cause more morons to become neutrons, forming isodopes. This characteristic of moron promotion leads some scientists to believe that Governmentium is formed whenever morons reach a critical concentration. This hypothetical quantity is referred to as a critical morass. When catalysed with money, Governmentium becomes Administratium (symbol=Ad), an element that radiates just as much energy as Governmentium, since it has half as many pillocks but twice as many morons.

At this week's Oxford Literary Festival it was my pleasure to interview the former Chancellor of the Exchequer @Jeremy_Hunt about his new book, 'Can We Be Great Again? Why A Dangerous World Needs Britain'. I thought the discussion was highly illuminating both for the degree of intellectual competence that Jeremy Hunt clearly displays, but also the (in my view) utter inadequacy of his political analysis of what ails this country. Time and again we butted up against fundamental differences of what it is that the British state is for. For Jeremy, it seems to be the promotion of liberal democracy around the world. For me, it is to promote the welfare of the British people. While Jeremy speaks with pride about the surgery performed on Britain's finances during the Conservative governments of 2010-2014, and some perhaps justifiable frustration about commentaries which make it seem like government at that time should have been easy, I simply cannot ignore the macro-results of that period in our politics: which is that it left Britain poorer, more divided, and more defenceless. His bland remarks on defence in particular were thrown into cruel relief by the exposure of our current nakedness in the Iran war. I respect any politician whose priority is to find solutions to the problems facing this country, but in order to find them, it's necessary to have a clear appreciation of what those problems are. And I worry that the scale of public disillusionment is lost on Mr Hunt. Ultimately, these differences must be aired so that voters can see clearly where public figures and, in this case, influential members of the Conservative Party, really sit and in what manner they will really approach the challenge of fixing Britain. You can watch the full event here: youtube.com/watch?v=lhcE9j…

Seaton Delaval Hall looking absolutely incredible this evening. You can catch this spectacular sight for the next two nights, from 7:30pm 'till 9pm. @nationaltrust #Northumberland

I had a strange dream. I woke up as the boss of a large Australian university and went straight to work fixing it. I capped international students, made degrees harder, forced students back onto campus, and rebuilt the university around one simple idea: the real product isn’t the degree, it’s the trust that comes with it. Then I woke up. thenewdaily.com.au/opinion/2026/0…

Today, our quiet girls were having a pool party! Akina is a reserved elephant by nature, but the mud bath is her time to shine. She loves water and she loves to show off in it. In fact, we often find her loitering around the pool, just waiting for the other orphans to vacate so she can have it all to herself. As the herd headed into the bush this afternoon, Akina noticed Rokka lagging behind in the water. She about-turned to join her friend, and the two girls enjoyed a splashy show-off session. The Keepers enjoyed the spectacle! Every elephant seen here is an orphan. While each suffered a unique tragedy, they found a family with us – one that will continue to love and support them through their lives. Meet the herd: sheldrickwildlifetrust.org/orphans

The Government tasked a Working Group with drafting an official definition of Islamophobia — now repackaged as “anti-Muslim hostility”. The group operated in secrecy throughout the process. A recent investigative briefing by the FSU’s Director of Research and Policy, @DavidRoseUK, revealed that each of the five members had troubling links to Islamist organisations, including the Muslim Council of Britain and Muslim Engagement and Development. Another striking aspect of the Working Group is the exclusion of moderate Muslim voices — not least former Home Office adviser and founder of Tell MAMA, Fiyaz Mughal, whose charity monitors anti-Muslim hate. Fiyaz Mughal joined David Rose for the latest episode of the FSU podcast. Watch the full episode on our YouTube channel 👇

One of the hereditary peers being kicked out by Labour, in flagrant defiance of the bargain it made in 1998, is the Earl of Leicester. He just raised a question about the proposed ban on trail hunting, which will waste parliamentary time and police resources to no purpose whatever. His question was thoughtful, measured and informed, and Labour peers began to interrupt him, claiming that he was talking for too long. He politely responded that, as this was his first and last oral question in the chamber, he intended to ask it properly. He is one of the 92 diligent and service-driven peers being thanklessly and gracelessly removed to make room for more placemen. It is perhaps especially poignant in his case as an earlier Earl of Leicester was Simon de Montfort, who called the first English Parliament, and whose image adorns the US Congress; and also because he is descended from Sir Edward Coke, the Elizabethan and Jacobean jurist who, as much as anyone, encoded our modern understanding of parliamentary supremacy and freedom under the law. This is what snapping the thread of history looks like.