Michael Brazendale

❗️Mitch McConnell said the Pentagon is holding up $400 million in Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative funds that Congress approved months ago for fiscal 2026. In a Washington Post opinion piece, he accused the department’s policy shop under Elbridge Colby of stonewalling lawmakers seeking answers and argued that slow-rolling support to Kyiv weakens both Ukraine’s defense and US security interests. #US

One King. One Narcissistic Personality Disorder

Fifty percent of 15-19 year olds in the UK have been diagnosed with a ‘mental illness’. The number is set to rise to two thirds by 2030. We are pathologising normal human experience, and burdening our young people with diagnostic identities that erode their sense of autonomy and resilience. telegraph.co.uk/business/2026/…

Today’s main evidence was from Claudia Birtles who was irreverent and unbelievably devoid of an empathy. She is VC‘s Care Coordinator now known as lead professional. In charge of case since first diagnosis in Nottingham of May 2020. She’s in charge of looking after his care plan, attending multidisciplinary team meetings and see that things are going according to the clinical plan. Examination of the notes today reveal the MDT’s seem like a chat, there’s no agenda, no template, no organisation and there seems to be no structure to these meetings. There were no minutes taken and hence no documentation. As you and I both know if something isn’t written in the medical notes it basically didn’t happen. Throughout the whole of evidence there was a feeling of lethargy, no curiosity, not challenging the Psychiatrists with their flawed management who themselves were of the poorest professional standard that I have come across. Basically there is no plan in place. It seems like a clinically stumbling stroll. The care coordinator is meant to know their patients really well yet knowing lack of concordance, there is no suggestion of a community treatment order (CTO) after Sec-3. Just repeated recording of lack of concordance with medication with no plan to pursue. He’s not taking medication and hence section after section repeated x4 with absolutely no improvement in management. What does improve is Birtles self management where she puts in the notes that VC is not to be visited singularly because she felt unsafe and the irony here that really upset me is that she didn’t give a second thought to the safety of much younger students. She never contacted University to alert of risks. Today’s evidence was particularly upsetting because at the end of every sentence that this Care Coordinator came up with she could have insisted on a different therapeutic direction like depot, but didn’t insist. Devoid of the vision of what might happen. Had there been a different course of Mx, depot, assertive outreach, any change of clinical direction ,VC I’m convinced would’ve missed our children. Claudia Birtles treated the whole 2 year management like some paper exercise with no positive intervention by herself. Selfish, lazy unprofessional but more importantly to me she had the opportunity to change VCs course and she didn’t. As for her totally inappropriate smiles and laughter, showed a total lack of empathy for the bereaved or respect for the Inquiry process. @bbcemt @BBCNews @GBNEWS @nottslive @nmcnews @wesstreeting

When voting in the local elections, please judge Reform on our record so far: -over 75 councillors sacked, resigned or defected -every council raised council tax after promising to cut it -Staffordshire sacked two leaders for racism -Nottinghamshire spent £70k putting flags up

King Charles III told the US Congress that the same resolve shown after NATO invoked Article 5 following 9/11 is now needed to defend Ukraine and its people, linking today’s fight to a century of UK-US joint action in major wars and security crises. #Ukraine

What fresh hell is this?! A job advert for a haematology PA - with NO medical degree in a specialty with some of the sickest patients to: 🚩review unwell pts 🚩 LEAD ward rounds 🚩procedures including paracentesis, lumbar punctures & bone marrow sampling 🚩discharge patients

Brilliant, bold and challenging address by King Charles to the U.S. Congress which was (very unusually!) united in regular standing ovations. The best speech of his life, right when his country needed him to step up and repair the Special Relationship. Bravo, Your Majesty! 🇬🇧 🇺🇸

As a new Member of Parliament, Nigel Farage was obliged to report to the House of Commons all political donations and gifts he had received during the previous 12 months. He did not. The Conservatives are therefore today referring Nigel Farage to the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner.

Meanwhile…

The Palantir pipeline: how Peter Thiel's surveillance firm hired more than 30 senior UK officials thenerve.news/p/palantir-rev…

Far as I’m aware, the Greens are the only party who want to windfall tax these profits & use the money to bring our bills down. Thats why they’re the only party on the rise. Cos that is common bloody sense.

Dozens of MPs have signed a motion against Wes Streeting's new power to direct NICE on NHS drug pricing thresholds, a move tied to the UK-US trade deal. We recently reviled the true cost of the UK-US pharma deal👇 thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2026-0…

I’m delighted to hear about the massive $3.2 billion profit BP made. Not that I have any vested interest in it, other than the £50,000 given to us by the wife of former senior BP executive James Hay.

michaelj-scott.com/the-reificatio… The case for routinely administered CBT no better than that for Santa

"You can smell the alcohol when people are in between votes." Green MP Hannah Spencer tells us what Westminster is REALLY like. The full interview is live on YouTube, and as a podcast here: linktr.ee/howtorebuildbr…

We have uncovered a haphazard approach to the use of Advanced Practitioner (AP) roles by NHS trusts. Our investigation has revealed almost half of hospital trusts are using non-doctors to fill doctor rota gaps.   APs can play an important and valued role in patient care. But they should not be asked to substitute for doctors to address staffing gaps.   Patients shouldn’t have to worry about whether NHS managers have asked non-doctors to deliver care that only doctors can safely deliver. Read the full story: bma.org.uk/news-and-opini…

This has always been the case. Private hospitals rake in the profits, and the NHS picks up the pieces (for free) when things go wrong. Same with A&E...there is no private emergency service.

Moral Obligation Is Not a Cheque linkedin.com/pulse/moral-ob…

31 MPs have already signed the motion opposing it. The deadline is tomorrow. Please write to your MP and ask them to add their name 👇 actionnetwork.org/letters/ask-yo…