Cladded Out

Labour in the pockets of property developers and ignoring leaseholders who are the very people they promised to help 126 years ago.

Even worse, that event had seating fixed by the organisers. You couldn’t sit with your mates, They wanted to ensure that their developer mates sat only with the ‘right’ people. I demanded a refund and walked out.

Despite what the naysayers and bad faith commentators assert, this Labour government is progressing the most ambitious overhaul of property law in over a century, if not longer. We can't end the leasehold system overnight, but we will finish the job in this Parliament.

Leasehold is going to 'wither on the vine': @mtpennycook assures APPG this week he will see through the reforms @justinmadders @NLC_2019 leaseholdknowledge.com/pennycook-prom…

A @UKLabour government should be fighting for working people, not the idle offshore rich. Yet on Thursday, Number 10 quietly blocked publication of the long-promised draft Leasehold and Commonhold Reform Bill. If manifestos mean nothing, neither does our vote.

Looks like @LondonAssembly are getting the message that London flat occupiers are sick and tired of being charged hefty fees for services that may not have even been delivered and paid for by freeholders. Let’s see how Commonhold can work in London!

She couldn’t read. She couldn’t write. But in 1828, she walked into a courtroom and destroyed a white man’s case. Her name was Isabella. History would know her as Sojourner Truth. Ulster County, New York. 1797. Isabella was born enslaved—not in the South, but in New York, where slavery was fully legal. She spoke Dutch before English. Enslaved people were forbidden to learn to read. Knowledge was power, and power was denied. By nine, she had been sold twice. By thirteen, sold again. Each sale meant violence, loss, and erasure. At eighteen, she was forced into marriage. She had five children. She loved them fiercely. But the law said they weren’t hers. In 1826, New York passed a law promising the end of slavery on July 4, 1827. Her enslaver, John Dumont, made her a deal: work harder, and he’d free her early. She did. He broke his promise. Before dawn, with her infant daughter in her arms, Isabella walked away. No money. No plan. Just faith. She found refuge with Isaac and Maria Van Wagenen, Quakers who opposed slavery. When Dumont came to reclaim her, Isaac paid $20 to secure her legal freedom. At 29, Isabella was free. Then she learned the truth. Dumont had illegally sold her five-year-old son, Peter, to an enslaver in Alabama—violating New York law. Everyone expected her to accept it. She didn’t. An illiterate Black woman—recently enslaved—sued a white man. In 1828. She couldn’t read the documents. She couldn’t sign her name. But she spoke. She named the law. She named the crime. She named her child. The judge ruled in her favor. Isabella became the first Black woman in American history to win a court case against a white man. When Peter returned, his body was scarred—but he was alive. He was home. She had done the impossible. For years, she worked as a servant and preached wherever she could. Her voice carried weight. Her presence commanded silence. Then, in 1843, at 46 years old, she chose a new name: Sojourner Truth. Sojourner—because she would walk. Truth—because she would speak. With 25 cents in her pocket, she set out across America. She memorized Scripture by listening. She spoke without notes. Her words were raw, direct, unshakable. In 1851, at the Women’s Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio, some white women wanted her removed. “This is about women,” they said. Sojourner stood. What mattered wasn’t the dialect later added by others. What mattered was the message: Black women are women. Strength does not erase womanhood—it proves it. She spent the next three decades fighting—recruiting Black soldiers during the Civil War, challenging segregation on streetcars, lobbying Congress, confronting racism and sexism wherever she found it. She never learned to read. Yet she dictated her autobiography. She debated politicians. She met presidents. Sojourner Truth died in 1883, at 86. Poor. Landless. Unbroken. Over a thousand people attended her funeral. She freed herself. She beat the courts. She spoke when silence was safer. Born enslaved. Died free. Illiterate—but unstoppable. Sojourner Truth didn’t wait for permission. She walked. And the world changed. That’s the truth.

Suspicious that no Labour MP is making a fuss about this. Many have more leaseholders than their majorities. We will remember. We will come for you.

Thank you to everyone who came down tonight 8.5 years on. Your continued support keeps us going. To our 72 loved ones, you are forever in our hearts 💚

What sort of warped, selfish and anti-social mentality is this...? Go to a lovely, scenic, place - have a BBQ, and then trash it. We're lobbying for littering fines to be increased from £500 to £1000. @jk_rowling

NEW: While the country was distracted by Charlie Kirk’s assassination, the Senate quietly voted to block the release of the Epstein files. 51–49. One vote short of transparency. And not a single outlet led with it. They know exactly what they’re doing.

Made to see this path in St Anne’s Street cleared because as the winter comes the mud and over growth makes it almost impassable Thank you @lpool_LSSL @TAXIALLIANCELPO @angiesliverpool @LiverLibDems

A powerful and important post about how some classrooms, in an attempt to be ‘trauma-informed’, create traumatising experiences for the rest of the class. This is worth reading for anyone who thinks that the well- behaved cohort of students is there solely to act as a life support for the more chaotic students.

Today, HRH Prince William, alongside his lovely daughter, HRH Princess Charlotte, is watching the UEFA Women's EURO 2025 Final match between England and Spain at St. Jakob-Park. Our young fashionista is rewearing a Guess Dress that we first saw last year and at Wimbledon. #PrincessCharlotte

This is a huge amount of data showing very strong correlational links between early smartphone exposure and poor mental health and wellbeing. It’s getting harder to ignore the urgency of serious preemptive action to be taken to protect children from a danger that we buy for them as a present.

💰BREAKING: Down from £100bn, the cost of nationalisation is now... £1bn. By the way, the ownership model that "doesn't work" in Paris just made the Seine swimmable again after 100 years. We encourage Steve Reed to take a dip in the Thames.

On this day in 1796, Scotland lost its national bard Robert Burns. Just 37 years old, he passed away in his home in Dumfries, leaving behind a large, grieving family along with a legacy of poetry and song that still resonates today. #OTD #Scotland 🧵

As I return to classroom teaching this fall, I've been revisiting Barak Rosenshine's "Principles of Instruction" for practical, research-backed teaching strategies. His approach cuts through the noise with clear, actionable guidance about what actually works in classrooms - like starting each class with a quick 5-minute review, breaking complex tasks into small steps, and checking understanding with specific questions rather than just asking "Does everyone get it?" For my high school English classes, I'm particularly drawn to his emphasis on modeling and guided practice. Rather than just assigning essays and hoping for the best, Rosenshine's research suggests thinking aloud while I analyze a passage or draft a paragraph, showing students exactly how experienced readers and writers work. Then students try these same strategies with immediate feedback - practicing thesis statements together, working through text analysis in pairs, and getting real-time corrections and encouragement. The research strongly supports scaffolding complex tasks like literary analysis or argumentative writing. This means providing concrete supports - like sentence starters for analysis, structured paragraph templates, or revision checklists - while students are learning, then gradually removing these supports as students gain confidence. Rosenshine advocates for maintaining a high success rate (around 80%) during practice, ensuring students master each step before moving on to independent work. files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ971…

Never forget that Diane Abbott (now the new mother of the house) stood up 46 times, and Lindsay Hoyle ignored her when everyone in the commons was talking about her.

If the only way you'll ever hear someone call out Nigel Farage's destructive, divisive politics on the BBC is for me to do it, then so be it.