Paul Jaymes

Thought bubbles are everywhere these days. People trapped in their own echo chamber, asserting unassailable moral and factual superiority, oblivious to how out of touch and foolish they seem to anyone outside their circle. I worry every day that I might be one of them - do you?

@BladeoftheS Actually if freedom of movement is implemented correctly - not like before - it should make it easier to "stop the boats" & cut down excessive, unproductive immigration which sadly is a real problem. But the culture war narratives on both sides are set like concrete so no chance

The Government plans to change the law to bind UK regulations to EU law. Doing so would mean the ONLY reason we can't be in the Single Market is because we don't accept Freedom of Movement. Would you accept Freedom of Movement to rejoin the Single Market?

One pavement e-bike rider told me to "f**k off" yesterday and another passed within an inch of me this morning. Bad cycling apologists: this is on you. Something has to be done. Vulnerable pedestrians are sick and tired of being told to suck it up. bbc.co.uk/news/articles/…

@Strobe_Lightly @polblonde My son is 9 years old. This week, IWD brings a flurry of well-meaning activity to his primary school - talks about how wonderful women are (& sometimes about how awful men are). The trouble is that for 9 year olds all this reinforces the very stereotypes it's trying to challenge

Whatever one’s views on the Graun - for me, a lifelong leftist, it morphed into parody a couple of decades ago - it’s worth taking one for the team to read @polblonde’s excellent article which raises some interesting questions vis-à-vis toxic masculinity and ‘trans’ ideology.

I’m a chemist. I need to say this - because it’s getting dangerous out there. The biggest health myth in the world isn’t about vaccines. Or GMOs. Or fluoride. It’s the root of all of them. It’s called chemophobia - and it’s killing science. Fear of “chemicals” now drives vaccine rejection, GMO bans, food hysteria, and entire political movements. From tampons to tap water, people have been taught to fear chemistry - the very thing that keeps us alive. Chemophobia tells us: “Natural is good.” “Synthetic is bad.” That’s a lie. Botulinum toxin is 100% natural and one of the deadliest molecules known. Aspirin is synthetic and life-saving. We’ve gone from banning harmful substances for good reason…to banning safe, well-tested molecules for emotional reasons. You’ve seen the slogans: “If you can’t pronounce it, don’t eat it.” “Paraben-free.” “Clean beauty.” They sound empowering. But they’re not science - they’re marketing. And they’re making the world dumber, poorer, and sicker. Your body doesn’t care if a molecule comes from a plant or a lab. Vitamin C is vitamin C. Formaldehyde is formaldehyde and your body makes more of it every day than any vaccine ever could. Dose matters. Source doesn’t. This fear isn’t harmless. It shapes public policy. It blocks innovation. It raises food prices. It slows down cancer treatments. Chemophobia is now mainstream and it’s costing lives. Scientists aren’t losing because we’re wrong. We’re losing because fear spreads faster than facts. Because influencers sell fear for clicks. Because lawyers monetize doubt. And because scientists are too tired to fight back. So here’s my message, as a chemist and as a citizen: Learn how toxicology works. Call out chemical fear-mongering. Support policies based on evidence, not emotion. Chemistry isn’t the enemy. It’s the reason you have clean water, safe food, and modern medicine. If we let fear win, we lose all of it.

@MrMatRead @TfL Just go to St Pancras and explain to Eurostar staff; they will just put you on the next train, no dramas

@MikeWillSee @GarethDennis Already seeing comments that this means the upgrade was badly done and a "waste of money" when this is obviously an old section of wall, not the new concrete further along. Yes more work is required, but the damage today would have been much much worse without the upgrade

@GarethDennis I sure am glad the government hasn't decided to suspend further works on the Dawlish Sea wall! ...oh wait

Ah yes, here we go again... Coastal railways fighting stormier and higher seas. The railway will always lose.

@JulesRow @GailKir94323570 It's clearly an old section of the Dawlish wall that's been compromised, not one of the new sections. You can tell because it's clearly a simple low wall built with granite - the new sections are thick concrete. Without the completed works the damage today would be much worse.

@GailKir94323570 That part of the pier was condemned and not used. The new sea wall protection in Dawlish, obviously used cheap materials. The local council of Dawlish/Exeter county council practically guaranteed it was protecting the rail line and station. It wasn’t cheap, they were.

South Devon. So sad to see that part of Teignmouth’s historic pier has washed away and part of the sea wall next to the railway line at Dawlish has crumbled as part of the destruction left by #StormIngrid 😢

@CementAndRebar @GarethDennis I'll leave someone better qualified than me to comment on that.

@paul_jaymes @GarethDennis Well apart from that it’s correct though? Just flip the image lmao

how many more WRONG diagrams will be created for the Spanish rail crash today, do we think?

@GarethDennis Fair enough. I guess that weld could have been in many locations along the route. I suppose I was thinking the crossover would cause additional stresses on it, but I totally accept that that's a reach.

@paul_jaymes I'm inclined to disagree - it may have deflected the derailed train into the oncoming service, but looking at everything I think it was unlikely to have played a role as the derailment trigger.

I think we're now able to build a pretty clear picture of the most likely mechanism of the train crash at Adamuz in Spain.

@CementAndRebar @GarethDennis No. Apart from anything else, this is Spain, where trains run on the right.

@GarethDennis Isn’t the first one correct?

@GarethDennis Absolutely heartbreakingly awful. My very inexpert first reaction is that the nearby crossover cannot be a coincidence. It looks like this weld might have connected the S&C to the continuous rail. It's not a spreader bar but as soon as I saw the crossover I thought "Potters Bar".

The Hatfield rail crash in the UK has many similar elements of the Adamuz disaster. While the trigger and mechanism of derailment were quickly clear, it took six and a half years to understand the full picture of why a rail was allowed to shatter underneath a high speed train.

This surrender to Putin is so absolute, Trump and his supporters might as well hand over the white house to be the Russian embassy. Never before has a US president been so played and humiliated by a foreign power. The biggest tragedy is that they don't even know it's happened.

@BritainForTrump Good luck in your car then* *Average >4 road deaths every single fricking day

I am not safe to get on a train. I am not safe to walk my dog. I am not safe to go to a Christmas market. I am not safe to go to an Ariana Grande pop concert. I am not safe to send my kids to a Taylor Shift dance class. I am not safe at the Manchester Synagogue. I am not safe to walk over London Bridge. I am not safe to walk over Westminster Bridge. I am not safe to walk over London Bridge again. I am not safe to walk over Westminster Bridge again. I am not safe at the Liverpool Women's hospital. I am not safe in Sir David Amess constituency surgery. I am not safe at Glasgow Airport. I am not safe on the London Underground or Red Buses.

@GregHands @AHK_UK @NickTorfaen @GermanEmbassy @GermanyDiplo @UKinGermany @andrewjonathanm @TheLocalGermany @GermanAmbUK @DLidington @ilka_hartmann You won, get over it

Germany exports $87bn of goods to the UK, receives 5.3m British tourists and holds €35.5bn direct UK investment. Equivalent figures for Chile, NZ & Monaco are negligible. But at Munich Airport, they sail through the e-gates; Brits can follow only by reporting to the police.

I have nothing but admiration for the train driver and signalling control team that managed to divert that train onto the right track to stop at Huntingdon last night. The quick thinking and prompt action involved blows my mind.

Now stripped of pomp and privilege, No banners left to bear, A warning to the titled few Who think they’re past repair.

The vanished Duke of York, Was once the Queen’s proud son. But flights at night and pals of blight Undid what birth had won. When questions came, he dodged them all, With pompous, clumsy spin. And memory failed - or so he claimed - Of where he'd ever been.

@clairebubblepop It's the race to the bottom in corporation tax, which has generated an asset inflation boom that only benefits people who already have money. Increasing the value of assets while decreasing the value of labour creates a cycle of increasing wealth inequality.

Said this before but I’ll say it again. Just one lifetime ago in the UK, our grandfathers could buy a home, buy a car, have 3 to 4 children, wives could stay home, take annual vacations, and then retire… all on one middle-class salary. What happened? We had same day GP, ambulances within minutes, dentists, good education, decent public transport, clean river and beaches. So AGAIN WTF happened?

I'm yet to form an independent opinion on Starmer's Britcard ID scheme. Doing so will take time and introspection to understand the nuances and arguments in both directions. But if both Owen Jones and Nigel Farage are aligned in opposition, it's going to be a tough ride for Keir.

Please realize: Gender dysphoria is a junk diagnosis based on the faulty premise of an innate “gender identity.” It was created by sexologists and fetishists to normalize child transsexuals and commit insurance fraud. Myself and other mental health professionals have critiqued it many times. The DSM is a political tool and for profit book. It is not to be trusted. The word “gender” in the DSM diagnosis of gender dysphoria means “a public, sociocultural, or lived role.” It is NOT a synonym for sex. It’s about identity. And dysphoria is not a synonym for dysmorphia. Further, it is not considered a disorder, but rather an innate condition. I might be able to get on board with a disorder called sex dysmorphia. I might also go with a specific kind of body integrity disorder. But that is not at all how gender dysphoria is defined. It’s defined as an identity incongruence and the diagnostic criteria is a list of sex stereotypes. It’s basically saying if you don’t conform to sex stereotypes and this makes you uncomfortable, then your body is wrong for your identity. It assumes identity is innate and bodies can be wrong for your identity. And because it is not considered a disorder but an innate condition it then uses this position to justify chemically castrating children, as well as breast binding, medically unnecessary radical double mastectomies, genital mutilation, and the creation of cosmetic flesh sculptures, as well as other extreme plastic surgeries. All in defense pf someone’s mental concept of themselves aka identity But Identity is not innate. Identity is a mental concept we create about ourselves. Psychology used to warn about over attachment to egoic identity as a brittle mental state and would question this position. Now the profession argues for affirmation only. It’s appalling.