Rowan Pelling

The side of my brain that deals with ethics and basic humanity strongly agrees and yet I know how deeply I've been moved by contemplating the long-dead in museums. The Hunterian is unwholesome, educational and... fascinating. I'm glad they've removed Charles Byrne's skeleton but they haven't given it the burial at sea he asked for.

@RowanPelling @guywalters I've never been comfortable with human remains being put on display to be looked at like an exhibit, be it Egyptian mummies, Iron Age bog people or whoever. I think once all studies have been done, DNA extracted etc then they should be reburied.

Should we gawp at the remains of the dead in museums and galleries? I confess to conflicted feelings in this piece: it feels unethical to disinter so many remains and yet the macabre side of me love the Hunterian Museum: telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/03/1…

@alicesalisburyj @youngepilepsy @epilepsyadvice So vital that people realise this.

My son (16) gave me permission to share this as an e.g. of unusual seizures. He’d like people to be more familiar with seizures where you don’t fall For 3 hours yesterday he could only say the nonsense sentence ‘every thrawn, every thring’. To him it sounded like normal speech

@AnarchaWren @Frances_Coppola It's not worth more. I didn't say that.

@RowanPelling @Frances_Coppola It doesn't matter literally at all because this question presumes, erroneously, that Naomi would be somehow immune to cognitive dissonance. Why is this hypothetical scenario worth more than the actual verifiable things she's saying and doing?

Autistic people are understandably angry and scared at Uta Frith's attempt to wipe out their hard-won diagnoses, which for many would mean losing the reasonable accommodations and support on which they rely. Perhaps you could try practising empathy. After all, it's not your life that would be torn apart if polcymakers used Frith's beliefs to justify reducing the support available to autistic people, is it?

I'm sure she doesn't. Let's try and put this another way. At the moment around 42.2 per cent of private school kids get extra time compared to 26.5 per cent of state school. That's manifestly unfair - it's clearly harder for poorer families to get support and diagnosis. That's something I feel passionate about, withone child who was, at times, diabolically failed in state education. But it leaves us with a question. Should around 42.2 per cent of people get extra time in exams? Or are private school kids over-diagnosed with disorders (which may not be the case, perhaps they are in private ed as state school failed them). Can we never question anything?

@RowanPelling I'm sure she thinks all the people that matter to her fully justify their diagnoses, accommodations and support.

@cspencer1508 Incredible sky, ravishing.

Well, this morning looks promising….

@horton_official Widening your remit - excellent news.

Professional news: from tomorrow I am spending some time on the National news team at the Guardian. This means I am moving from writing about the environment to….anything I want. Both exciting and daunting in equal measure. Please tell me stories!

@clashreport Excellent question - cheering you on.

Reporter: You just suggested that Iran somehow got its hands on a Tomahawk and bombed its own elementary school on the first day of the war. Why are you the only person saying this? Trump: Because I just don’t know enough about it.

@annbauerwriter @AConcernedPare2 It feels very different in the UK - perhaps because the left-leaning press is a relatively small sector of the media market. I reckon the Times and the Telegraph run pieces on polyamory because they know you can never underestimate good old-fashioned British prurience.

@RowanPelling @AConcernedPare2 I would agree with that if these pieces ran consistently. But there has been an onslaught in the sex-positive, trans, progressive era and the publications that tend to run them also support very left of center politics. Look at 2014. How many MSM polyamory articles were there?

Enough with the polyamory propaganda. Why is MSM desperately trying to normalize this?

I disagree, in my experience it makes readers cross, jittery and therefore more likely to turn to the consolations of traditional family set-ups. But I do write for the Daily Telegraph.

@annbauerwriter @AConcernedPare2 Speaking as someone who sometimes pontificates on this kind of topic for the MSM, I disagree. They run pieces on polyamory because it titillates (some) and also riles traditional readers - resulting in guaranteed clicks and reads. That's certainly true in the UK.

@AConcernedPare2 Because it weakens the family and thereby gives more power to government. I will die on this hill.

@DavidWootton69 @Richard23287873 Although I'd expand that to say normal for Cambridge = very clever in some ways, astonishingly ill-equipped for life in others.

@RowanPelling @Richard23287873 Normal for Cambridge = IQ 140+. Normal for Norfolk = IQ 80-.

Fascinating to see a small number of women who are clever, singular, blunt to the point they don’t care about being liked being accused of being tone-deaf/bullying on the topic of autism by people who say their diagnosed difference means they come across in ways that mean others profoundly misunderstand them. Is it just possible that everyone in this debate is nowhere near neurotypical (my least favourite word)? My habitual assessment of friends and their kids is “normal for Cambridge”.

@Richard23287873 When one of my sons started secondary school there was a boy in his year who could recite Pi to several hundred places.

@RowanPelling Normal for Cambridge = Normal. It is the rest of the universe that is out of step.

Naomi has been very helpful to me and many other parents of school avoiding children. Good science and better understanding is surely all about asking questions? Closing people/conversations down - you or her - feels unhelpful. For what it's worth, the best neuroscientist I know says all our blunt diagnoses will be obsolete in 30 years and everyone will be treated on individual criterion. I guess we will find out if WWIII doesn't blast us all away first.

I have done this as screen capture because I will be blocked. I find this dismissive attitude about autistic or ADHD masking to be extremely problematic. Naomi has had a huge following in the SEND community. I would advise parents to give her a wide berth. It is not her 1st post.

@alicesalisburyj That's wonderful to hear. I'm so glad. Louis's father is an old friend of my husband's.

@RowanPelling We know them well ♥️ Louis tutored my son while he was out of school. An amazing young man

Given the article is about the ‘feminisation’ of autism, it’s a little odd to offer my 16yo son’s autism diagnosis as a case example for how broadening a category can cause as many problems as it solves, but ho hum My son was diagnosed at 14 and it’s been supremely unhelpful /1

@alicesalisburyj What you say about your son reminds me of Louis, who is now in his early 20s and a very good artist. It might be worth trying to contact his mother? They have an ongoing crowd funder for his treatment.

@alicesalisburyj Sorry to be an utter stranger, saying something that might be unhelpful. But have you come across Louis Petit's story? ft.com/content/06cb8e…

@collaroaudio It is true I am tax illiterate, sorry! Every year I get fined because I'm too feck-witted to work things out and speeding up the process terrifies me.

@RowanPelling with respect, your article in the ‘graph is very wrong about ‘digital tax’. You account for it quarterly, using one of several recognised software platforms and you can add expenses as well as income. In the final quarter, you can balance any expenses unclaimed.