Ally Brown
LightNews LightNews
allybrown.bsky.social
Ally Brown
@allybrown.bsky.social
1.9K followers 540 following 170 posts
Research Associate in Social Policy @ Strathclyde Uni.

Food policy for THRIVING Food Futures.

Also policy approaches to health inequalities, and to mental health.
Posts Replies Media Videos
Pinned
allybrown.bsky.social
Ally Brown @allybrown.bsky.social · Nov 5
The health inequalities agenda is "tired and risks having run out of road" - not my words, the words of a senior health policymaker in the Scottish Government. But other SG policymakers told me health inequalities were a "huge priority" - so what's going on? A thread... 1/
Reposted by Ally Brown
ketanjoshi.co
This is a thread of major media outlets falsely anthropomorphising the "Grok" chatbot program and in doing so, actively and directly removing responsibility and accountability from individual people working at X who created a child pornography generator (Elon Musk, Nikita Bier etc)

#1: Reuters
Grok says safeguard lapses led to images of 'minors in minimal clothing' on X By Reuters January 2, 20267:40 PM GMT+1Updated 1 hour ago Illustration shows xAI and Grok logos xAI and Grok logos are seen in this illustration taken, February 16, 2025. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab Jan 2 (Reuters) - Elon Musk's xAI artificial intelligence chatbot Grok said on Friday lapses in safeguards had resulted in "images depicting minors in minimal clothing" on social media platform X and that improvements were being made to prevent this. Screenshots shared by users on X showed Grok's public media tab filled with images that users said had been altered when they uploaded photos and prompted the bot to alter them. "There are isolated cases where users prompted for and received AI images depicting minors in minimal clothing," Grok said in a post on X. "xAI has safeguards, but improvements are ongoing to block such requests entirely." "As noted, we've identified lapses in safeguards and are urgently fixing them — CSAM is illegal and prohibited," Grok said, referring to Child Sexual Abuse Material. Grok gave no further details. When contacted by Reuters for comment by email, xAI replied with the message "Legacy Media Lies". In a separate reply to a user on X on Thursday, Grok said most cases could be prevented through advanced filters and monitoring although it said "no system is 100% foolproof," adding that xAI was prioritising improvements and reviewing details shared by users.
January 2, 2026 at 8:02 PM
Reposted by Ally Brown
drjennings.bsky.social
This has been clear ever since the owner of X started promoting civil unrest in the UK more than a year ago…
charlotte2153.bsky.social Charlotte Nichols MP @charlotte2153.bsky.social · 1d
There is, to my mind, no justification for the continued use by the UK Government of X as a platform for official comms. There hasn't been for some time, in fact, but if the latest developments around AI-generated image abuse and CSAM don't change the policy I really don't know what will.
mharrisondupre.bsky.social Maggie Harrison Dupré @mharrisondupre.bsky.social · 1d
NEW: People are using Elon Musk's chatbot, Grok, to alter images to depict real women being sexually abused, humiliated, hurt, and even killed.

futurism.com/future-socie...
January 2, 2026 at 9:24 PM
Reposted by Ally Brown
benjaminbarr.bsky.social
The main way SAs can influence health inequalities is through economic policy, I think. My thoughts are here: www.bmj.com/content/390/...
Regional health divisions in the UK
Coordinated action is needed to resolve inequalities People in the poorer areas of the UK are dying on average nine years younger than those in more affluent areas.1 This divide, which is the fourth ...
www.bmj.com
December 30, 2025 at 10:59 AM
Reposted by Ally Brown
oldtrotter.bsky.social
This is an excellent piece on why the metaphor of "pulling levers" should be laid to rest alongside the parrot from Notlob. I found nothing more discouraging during the GE '24 campaign than Starmer talking about "pulling the growth lever" open.substack.com/pub/howtorun...
There aren't any levers
A dead metaphor is killing the government's ability to get things done
open.substack.com
December 28, 2025 at 3:21 PM
Reposted by Ally Brown
gavin-kelly.bsky.social
Incredible social science & data use here.

The immediate story is about how the opioid epidemic (pushed by pharma in high cancer areas), resulted in major opioid death & economic hardship which - through various media/political channels - resulted in a sustained rise in support for the Republicans
December 27, 2025 at 11:08 AM
Reposted by Ally Brown
drjennings.bsky.social
Sadly no longer with us, there are few who compare with John Clarke (and long-time partner Bryan Dawe) as a political satirist and before that a cultural commentator of sorts. 'The front fell off' is perhaps his most viral sketch...
Clarke and Dawe - The Front Fell Off
YouTube video by ClarkeAndDawe
www.youtube.com
December 24, 2025 at 7:57 PM
Reposted by Ally Brown
threadinburgh.scot
Worth 5 minutes of anyone's time to read about Ronnie. Consider having a tissue handy in case something should happen to get in your eye 🥹
December 25, 2025 at 8:07 AM
Reposted by Ally Brown
adamserwer.bsky.social
The people who profited most from the cancel culture/free speech panic were less interested in actual freedom of speech than establishing their own control over public discourse. You don't even have to take my word for it. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
Every society that has ever existed has had views that are mainstream and views that are fringe. The free-speech frauds who captured the discourse over the past decade understood this, but their true objection was that they did not unilaterally have the power to define which was which. For example, in a 2018 Times column, Weiss complained that “leftists” were engaged in a “concerted attempt to significantly redraw the bounds of acceptable thought and speech.” This was meant to sound sinister, menacing. In fact, this is politics. Every faction is always trying to “redraw the bounds of acceptable thought and speech.” In a free society, the government allows people to have those arguments. Such disputes are not a threat to free speech; they are free speech. When I say that CBS News’s Bari Weiss understood this, you needn’t take my word for it. In November, shortly after being given the reins to one of the oldest broadcast-news organizations in the country, Weiss used identical language to describe her own project: “I think it’s about redrawing the lines of what falls in the 40-yard lines of acceptable debate and acceptable American politics and culture,” Weiss said at the Jewish Leadership Conference. “And I don’t mean that in, like, a censorious, gatekeeping way.” What’s the difference between her “redrawing the lines” of acceptable speech and other people doing it? What makes one “censorious” and “gatekeeping” and the other not? Well, because she gets to decide. That’s what so much of the free-speech panic was ever about: making sure the right people were in charge of what you see, hear, and read. Notably, this has very little to do with reporting the news, which is supposed to be what CBS News does. But if the point of installing Weiss was to ensure that she would gatekeep on behalf of right-wing interests, that is precisely what she appears to be doing.
December 23, 2025 at 6:17 PM
Reposted by Ally Brown
forbetterscience.bsky.social
Contact Tsatsakis and Abdolhahi, they can add your fictional paper to their next study!
forbetterscience.com/2025/11/19/a...
December 20, 2025 at 6:15 PM
Reposted by Ally Brown
mattlodder.com
Does anyone - anyone at all - have a plan to get us to a future where councils do have money to fix things again?
December 17, 2025 at 11:15 AM
Reposted by Ally Brown
allybrown.bsky.social
The health inequalities agenda is "tired and risks having run out of road" - not my words, the words of a senior health policymaker in the Scottish Government. But other SG policymakers told me health inequalities were a "huge priority" - so what's going on? A thread... 1/
November 5, 2025 at 2:58 PM
allybrown.bsky.social
I've been concerned recently to see a few blogs associating over-diagnosis & medicalisation critiques of mental health & neurodiversity with the right-wing, and even fascism.

This excellent article by @jburnmurdoch.ft.com clearly shows some of the sociological concerns www.ft.com/content/8252...
How redefining special needs rocked education
Broadened criteria are benefiting the better-off, harming those facing greatest difficulty and straining the system
www.ft.com
December 13, 2025 at 12:06 PM
allybrown.bsky.social
It might be a record-breaking super-flu season, bringing the NHS to collapse.

But often, a medical lens (the focus on pathology) diverts attention from systematic, social or political failures, such as...
mancunianmedic.bsky.social David Oliver @mancunianmedic.bsky.social · 22d
if we had not closed half our or general and acute beds
if we did not have the 2nd lowest bed base per 1000 in the OECD
if those beds were not full of people waiting community services but fit to leave
if we had not decimated public health, primary care and community nursing
no crisis to see
December 12, 2025 at 2:36 PM
Reposted by Ally Brown
cphjournal.bsky.social
Our first Special Issue is out now! It's on Reproductive Vulnerabilities: A Critical Perspective - Guest editors: Laura Sochas, Kaveri Qureshi, and Philip Kreager

journalhosting.ucalgary.ca/index.php/jc...
Vol. 2 No. 3 (2025) | Journal of Critical Public Health
journalhosting.ucalgary.ca
November 27, 2025 at 6:10 PM
allybrown.bsky.social
Buying a new toaster, can't believe my eyes.

Currys has one for £270 with 440 reviews.
Another at £220 with 500+ reviews.
Or a few options at £200 with collectively 2000+ reviews.

These people need properly taxed, now!
December 9, 2025 at 1:33 PM
Reposted by Ally Brown
stephenboydippr.bsky.social
'us v them' framing in all its guises is utterly poisonous to social democracy and therefore should be avoided like the plague by anyone interested in progressing anything that vaguely looks like social democracy
December 7, 2025 at 9:56 AM
Reposted by Ally Brown
jrf-uk.bsky.social
📉 This morning, the government published its full Child Poverty Strategy, setting out plans to reduce hardship for children growing up in the UK by the end of the parliament.

It's a crucial commitment to delivering on one of their central manifesto promises.
Quote card showing JRF's Principal Policy Adviser Katie Schmuecker saying: 'The government has put its money where its mouth is on the manifesto commitment to reduce child poverty, and recognised the severe and acute poverty an alarming number of children are facing. This child poverty strategy will mean fewer children facing unacceptable hardship, but more will be needed to ensure every child gets the best start.'
December 5, 2025 at 10:50 AM
Reposted by Ally Brown
nickdickinson.bsky.social
Excellent to see this from The Economist. We are slow walking into a constitutional crisis driven by the electoral system, and very few people are taking it seriously enough yet.
owenwntr.bsky.social Owen Winter @owenwntr.bsky.social · Dec 4
Welcome to slot-machine Britain! Our cover this week is on First Past the Post, the voting system that turns multi-party politics into a lottery.

Featuring our new modelling of British elections: www.economist.com/interactive/...
December 4, 2025 at 4:27 PM
Reposted by Ally Brown
louiselocock.bsky.social
On my shift at @oxfordmutualaid.bsky.social on Monday we had virtually no fruit or veg, virtually nothing in the fridges, and low stocks of bread. This is partly because of so many recent emergency requests for food parcels, way more than usual.
saulstaniforth.bsky.social Saul Staniforth @saulstaniforth.bsky.social · Dec 3
"Foodbanks are at breaking point this winter.. [Trussell] expect to hand out an emergency food parcel every 10 seconds over the next 3 months"

The UK has the sixth largest economy in the world #GMB
December 3, 2025 at 9:39 AM
Reposted by Ally Brown
drjennings.bsky.social
If a drug was having this societal effect it would be banned within a week. Across the world, politicians are - through their inaction - completely abdicating their responsibilities to civil democratic discourse.
theguardian.com The Guardian @theguardian.com · Nov 27
Small changes to ‘for you’ feed on X can rapidly increase political polarisation
Small changes to ‘for you’ feed on X can rapidly increase political polarisation
Study finds that a week of political content can bring about a shift in views that previously would have taken three years Small changes to the tone of posts fed to users of X can increase feelings of political polarisation as much in a week as would have historically taken at least three years, research has found. A groundbreaking experiment to gauge the potency of Elon Musk’s social platform to increase political division found that when posts expressing anti-democratic attitudes and partisan animosity were boosted, even barely perceptibly, in the feeds of Democrat and Republican supporters there was a large change in their unfavourable feelings towards the other side. Continue reading...
www.theguardian.com
November 28, 2025 at 12:16 PM
Reposted by Ally Brown
cjayanetti.bsky.social
the next couple of days are going to see a hell of a lot of "the rich declare themselves poor"
November 26, 2025 at 10:26 PM
Reposted by Ally Brown
mkellyirving.bsky.social
One of the biggest challenges in public health & environment-related fields is the miscommunication of population-scale results to the individual-level

This is often caused by the desire to formulate “action” relevant to people’s lives but ends up blaming individuals for things not in their control
November 25, 2025 at 9:10 AM
Reposted by Ally Brown
emmanomics.bsky.social
We have a few spaces left for an in person event on Tax and Poverty on the 5th December in Glasgow.

Aimed at experts and non-experts alike.

Speakers include @mikebrewerecon.bsky.social Sara Cowan (SWBG) and @elainemaag.bsky.social

More info & link to register: www.eventbrite.com/e/poverty-an...
Poverty and Tax Conference - SPA Tax and Social Policy Group
Eventbrite - Tax and Social Policy Group presents Poverty and Tax Conference - SPA Tax and Social Policy Group - Friday, 5 December 2025 at Level 9, Technology and Innovation Centre (TIC) Conference, ...
www.eventbrite.com
November 24, 2025 at 8:46 AM
Reposted by Ally Brown
dieworkwear.bsky.social
Twitter pays people based on engagement (views, retweets, comments, etc). It appears that many MAGA accounts are based abroad and they use AI technology to generate low-effort rage bait.

My guess is that this will get worse as AI tech improves. For instance, fake videos of minorities doing crime.
A Twitter account called Ivanka News tweets an AI image of a young woman wearing Muslim garb. The woman is holding a sign that says "I came here illegally. Should I be deported?" Ivanka News writes: What is your response to this person ?? In the "About this account" tab, it appears the account is based in Nigeria An account called MAGA scope writes: Who, in your view is the great enemy of the United States? Communism, Islam, Democratic Party, or Satan? The account is based in Nigeria. An account called MAGA Nadine writes: You go to work and find this. What would you do? The attached pic is an AI image that shows a microwave. The microwave has a sign that says "For religious reasons, this microwave is now making halal food only." The account is based in Morocco. An account called America First posts an AI image of Tulsi Gabbard. They wrote: How would you rate your trust in Tulsi Gabbard on a scale of 1-10?
November 23, 2025 at 9:23 AM