Scribbler Pen
LightNews LightNews
banner
scribblerpen.bsky.social
Scribbler Pen
@scribblerpen.bsky.social
5.3K followers 3.3K following 1.4K posts
Writer, editor, analyst. Disability employment rights advocate.
Trade union disability rep. Arts, science and languages nerd, internationalist, hiker, nature lover. Could really do without Long Covid
Posts Replies Media Videos
scribblerpen.bsky.social
Thank you, the 63 Labour MPs who pushed back against instructions not to vote and helped defeat Farage's bill to leave the #ECHR. No matter if some see the bill and the vote as symbolic. It was symbolic of an attack on human rights — you had the courage of conviction to help stop it in its tracks.
Votes by party for and against Nigel Farage's bill for the UK to leave the European Convention on Human Rights. Ayes (for: 95), mostly Conservatives with Reform, DUP and Traditional Unionist Voice defeated by Noes (against: 155) mostly Lib Dems and Labour, with SNP, Greens, Plaid Cymru, Ulster Unionist, others. Source: UK Parliament, 29 October 2025.
October 30, 2025 at 11:21 AM
scribblerpen.bsky.social
Lest any unreasonable expectations arise of the government learning anything from Caerphilly byelection and deciding that perhaps attacking disabled people and every scapegoat they could find wasn't a vote winner, rest assured it has not. Brace. Brace. We are "going further and faster" again. ⚠️
Extract from The Guardian coverage of the Caerphilly byelection in Wales won by Plaid Cymru on 24th October, ending a century of Labour majority which has dropped to an 11% of the vote. Text says 'Downing Street: government understands 'people are disappointed with the pace of change' The prime minister’s press secretary has responded to the Caerphilly Senedd constituency byelection, which saw a huge swing away from Labour, by saying that “Byelections are always difficult for incumbent governments,” PA Media reports. It quotes them saying: This one is no different, but we are determined to show the people of Caerphilly and working people across Wales the change the UK Government is delivering hand in hand with the Labour government in Wales. (We are) determined to go further and faster, understand people are disappointed with the pace of change, and that is what the Government is relentlessly focused on delivering for working people in Wales and across the UK.'
October 24, 2025 at 1:35 PM
scribblerpen.bsky.social
After Liz Kendall failed to deploy DWP job coaches to mental health wards to hassle patients, Pat McFadden is deploying them to GP surgeries to hassle patients instead.

How about:
1. Cut Covid spread
2. Invest in public health, not harebrained DWP schemes
3. Let ill people see the doctor in peace?
Headline text 'JOB ADVISERS to be embedded in GP surgeries as more people offered help into work'
October 16, 2025 at 11:30 AM
scribblerpen.bsky.social
#Flu v #Covid #vaccine eligibility.
1. Which is hospitalising more people now?
2. Which is leaving more people long-term sick & disabled (2m+ #LongCovid, UK)?
3. Just as the government is punishing people for being sick and disabled?
Private vaccine: £100
Logic?

Thanks to @catinthehat.bsky.social
Comparison of UK 2025 eligibility for flu vaccine (all types of clinically vulnerable people) vs Covid-19 vaccine (only over 75s, living in an old people's care home or immunocompromised due to specific illness e.g. HIV, AIDS or treatment, e.g. cancer. Most people with organ diseases, blood diseases, e.g. sickle cell anaemia, illnesses such as COPD, diabetes, or learning disabilities are not eligible for Covid-19 booster vaccination.
October 10, 2025 at 4:47 PM
scribblerpen.bsky.social
The evolution of this story is a story in itself. An accident, much speculation, a bit of self-promotion, the usual experts on "mass hysteria"... And then, as Occam's razor has it, the simplest explanation — a can of noxious gas. The story is a cautionary tale not to take big egoes at face value.
A Guardian headline with a photo of people with luggage standing outside an airport terminal. Headline text says '"Mass psychogenic illness" plausible cause of toxic substance alert at Heathrow, says scientist'. Subheader text says 'Patt of airport was evacuated and 21 people fell ill but police found no sign on any hazardous material'. Below it, an update in red text says 'Update: Man arrested on suspicion of bringing teargas to Heathrow'.
September 11, 2025 at 9:06 AM
scribblerpen.bsky.social
Don't give up. ❤️‍🩹 We are very much not done.
Statue of suffragette Millicent Fawcett in Parliament Square in London holding a banner with a slogan attribute to her that says 'Courage calls to courage everywhere'
July 9, 2025 at 7:41 PM
scribblerpen.bsky.social
UK Govt snuck out an impact assessment last night showing £2.1 bn cuts to Universal Credit health, with 750,000 claimants to lose £3,000 a year on average by 2029/30. via @richardburgon.bsky.social
The Severe Conditions Criteria (SCC) and SREL (terminal illness) are limited, protect barely 1 in 10.
Chart showing the impact on UC health claimants after Severe Conditions Criteria and SREL (terminal illness) protection, with 750,000 claimants on lower rate bearing a £2.1 billion cut by 2029/30
July 9, 2025 at 12:20 PM
scribblerpen.bsky.social
The UN letter to the UK government
Page 1 of the letter to the UK government requesting information on the Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill and welfare reform Green Paper, legislation that may breach disabled people's rights under the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, UNCRPD, 8th July 2025 Source: https://acrobat.adobe.com/id/urn:aaid:sc:EU:d09dc26a-18a3-4eee-906c-c646278c403f Page 2 of the letter to the UK government requesting information on the Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill and welfare reform Green Paper, legislation that may breach disabled people's rights under the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, UNCRPD, 8th July 2025 Source: https://acrobat.adobe.com/id/urn:aaid:sc:EU:d09dc26a-18a3-4eee-906c-c646278c403f Page 3 of the letter to the UK government requesting information on the Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill and welfare reform Green Paper, legislation that may breach disabled people's rights under the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, UNCRPD, 8th July 2025 Source: https://acrobat.adobe.com/id/urn:aaid:sc:EU:d09dc26a-18a3-4eee-906c-c646278c403f
July 8, 2025 at 4:35 PM
scribblerpen.bsky.social
The #Labour front bench, one year in, listening to Rachael Maskell MP pleading with them not to impoverish disabled people.
#UniversalCreditBill
Labour backbench MP Rachael Maskell, a woman with blond hair in a plait, wearing a green blazer, speaking in the UK House of Commons in opposition to the Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill at its second reading on 1st July 2025, facing the Labour government front bench, on which the work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall, a dark haired woman in a navy suit, sits flanked by work and pensions ministers Sir Stephen Timms and Andrew Westers and another author of the bill, Treasury minister Torsten Bell, all men in dark suits, all four of them wearing grim expressions.
July 4, 2025 at 2:32 PM
scribblerpen.bsky.social
Before it vanishes, the Telegraph @telegraphnews.bsky.social correction on #Motability 30 Jun:
​An article ‘Some towns have 20pc on disability benefits/One in five claims disability benefits in towns across Britain’ referred to people on Personal Independence Payments (PIP) claiming ‘free’ cars...
The Telegraph Corrections & Clarifications page, June 30, 2025. Correction text says 'An article ‘Some towns have 20pc on disability benefits/One in five claims disability benefits in towns across Britain’ referred to people on Personal Independence Payments (PIP) claiming ‘free’ cars. This was inaccurate. The Motability scheme allows people on the highest rate of mobility PIP to use their PIP mobility payments to lease a car. In some cases, individuals on the Motability scheme will also need to make advance payments from their own funds which are non-refundable. We are happy to correct the record.'
July 3, 2025 at 11:05 PM
scribblerpen.bsky.social
If the #WelfareReformBill passes its 2nd reading on Tuesday, all its subsequent stages will be crammed into one day on Wednesday 9th July, to pass there and then. As it's a Money Bill, the Lords can't force through amendments or stop it.
#TakingThePIP
House of Commons schedule with Wednesday 9 July schedule that reads 'Committee of the whole House and remaining stages of the Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill'
June 26, 2025 at 5:53 PM
scribblerpen.bsky.social
Happy 122 birthday to George Orwell.
"Twelve voices were shouting in anger, and they were all alike... The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again: but already it was impossible to say which was which."
Animal Farm, illustrated by Ralph Stead.
Drawing by Ralph Stead from the 50th anniversary edition of Animal Farm, a book by George Orwell, showing men and pigs, dressed in suits and ties, all grotesquely indistinguishable from one another, squabbling over a game of cards around a dining table in front of a mantelpiece with a portrait in a gilt frame above it, while farmyard animals look in through the window from the dark outside.
June 25, 2025 at 12:33 PM
scribblerpen.bsky.social
Principles and courage over hubris and threats, always.
Brick house in London with a blue advertising sign with white text that says 'TAKE COURAGE', photographed against a cloudless sky.
June 23, 2025 at 11:51 PM
scribblerpen.bsky.social
Away from the soul-destroying Westminstery, here is better company of a medlar, a fruit Shakespeare less subtly called "open-arse" (once common name due to its shape when ripe), and its visitor, which I think is a 22-spot ladybird, but I haven't counted the spots and can't claim to be an expert.
An unripe green medlar fruit on a branch with green leaves, some with old rust. Yellow ladybird with black spots on a green leaf with dry edges
June 18, 2025 at 2:33 PM
scribblerpen.bsky.social
Lost for words. How many Reichsmarks have we saved from disability welfare to fund a nuclear plant?
X post by UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer @Keir_Starmer on 11 June 2025 at 14:17 BST, after the Chancellor's Spending Review statement. Text says 'Earlier this year, my government took on the tough but fair task of reforming our welfare system. The Tories opposed it. Reform opposed it. Today, because we took on that task, we have been able to invest in building a new nuclear power plant at Sizewell – creating 10,000 jobs.'
June 11, 2025 at 10:12 PM
scribblerpen.bsky.social
This is a breakdown of people claiming PIP who score less than 4 points in all activities (even of they have scores across multiple activities i.e. have complex needs), who would become ineligible for PIP
Source: DWP FOI response www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/pip_...
A Department for Work and Pensions response to an FOR request giving a breakdown by age of people scoring less than 4 point in all activities of PIP assessment, which includes 91% of claimants aged 60+, 90% of claimants aged 50+ and 89% of claimants aged 40+ for standard daily living rate. Full response at https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/pip_data_ages_of_claimants#incoming-3011699
May 26, 2025 at 6:29 PM
scribblerpen.bsky.social
There is still time to sign this petition to protect NHS workers and vulnerable patients from hospital infections.
petition.parliament.uk/petitions/70...
Poster with a QR code for a petition and a line drawing of a loudspeaker, with text that says 'Make some NOISE!!! We need your voice! Reach out to all your contacts and ask them to sign and share the petition for Clean Air in Healthcare. DEADLINE 11th May 2025'
May 7, 2025 at 9:57 PM
scribblerpen.bsky.social
It's hard to recall a government bungling its relationship with such a large, socially and politically diverse demographic, so badly, so fast, as it's done with disabled people and their families in just 10 months.

Go "further and faster", "cut deeper" – really? How about listen?
Extract from the Guardian article from 5 May 2024 by Pippa Crerar and Jessica Elgot titled 'No 10 rethinking winter fuel payment cut after Labour slump in local elections'. Text, which refers to proposals for benefit cuts, says 'We didn’t go big enough the first time round. The costs are unsustainable,” one No 10 source said. “It’s a fairness issue but also a fiscal one – how can we spend money on the public’s priorities, like schools and hospitals, if all the money is going on welfare?” A second government source said: “We should’ve done it all in one hit – we didn’t go far enough. We’ve had all the political pain for very little fiscal gain.” Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) officials believe the government would need to cut a total of £15bn from the benefits bill to make an impact on the rate of growth.' Article link: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/may/05/no-10-reviewing-winter-fuel-payment-cut-after-labour-slump-in-local-elections
May 7, 2025 at 10:00 AM
scribblerpen.bsky.social
I hate fly-tipping, but isn't this a bit Robocop meets Black Mirror? And, just a thought, shouldn't some councils be paying bin collectors properly?
An X post by Keir Starmer. Text says: 'This is a message to fly-tippers blighting our towns and villages: For too long, your actions have gone unpunished. This ends now. We'll use drones and new tech to identify your vehicle. Then we'll crush it.'
April 30, 2025 at 12:56 PM
scribblerpen.bsky.social
I don't know why it's taken me so long to remember where I'd seen a similar symbol, besides the obvious. Charlie Chaplin in "The Great Dictator", 1940.
Charlie Chaplin in a still from his film The Great Dictator, a satire on Hitler, with a swastika parody symbol on his military style peaked cap and onnhis armband, consisting of two white X shapes stacked on a black background.
April 5, 2025 at 5:56 PM
scribblerpen.bsky.social
The clocks move forward tonight. If the @teamlabouruk.bsky.social government's mindset could move forward too, from 1835 into 2025, that would be welcomed by everyone.
#WelfareNorWorkfare
Geroge Cruikshank's illustration from Charles Dickens's 1837 novel Oliver Twist, set in a workhouse, showing Oliver, a scrawny boy holding a bowl and a spoon asking Mr. Bumble, a stern looking balding man and Widow Corney, a thin-faced shocked-looking woman, for some more gruel, as other scrawny boys look on, worried, from the table in the background. Access to workhouse was limited to only select poor, such as severely disabled people, by the Poor Law reform enacted from 1835.
March 29, 2025 at 11:57 PM
scribblerpen.bsky.social
Listening to Farage costs the UK £37bn a year. So Blue Labour urge Starmer to sound more like Farage for the bigots at the back and to get tough on disabled folk. But the economic reality hits, and it's "tear down barriers". Do disabled folk get a break now?
www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/poli...
Headline from the Independent, Saturday 22 March 2025 that says 'Labour pledges to ‘tear down’ barriers after new figures reveal Brexit costing UK business £37bn a year' Subheader text says 'Exclusive: Billions of pounds worth of lost business with other European Union countries prompts calls to re-enter customs union and single market' Article by Kate Devlin, Whitehall Editor.
March 23, 2025 at 1:04 PM
scribblerpen.bsky.social
If Liz Kendall, Keir Starmer & others in @teamlabouruk.bsky.social government calling #DisabilityBenefit cuts a "moral mission", moral duty etc. sounds familiar, it is. It is exactly what the Tory government was calling them only months ago - before it was voted out. #MoralMission #WelfareReform
Headline from The Conversation, 19th March 2025, illustrated with a picture of the Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall speaking to MPs in Parliament. Text says 'Labour says benefit reforms are a 'moral mission' - it looks more like moral panic' Headline from Sky News on 9 June 2024 illustrated with a picture of former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak talking to healthcare workers, text says 'General election: Rishi Sunak says reforming welfare is 'moral mission' as he pledges to cut rising costs of benefits'.
March 19, 2025 at 9:28 PM
scribblerpen.bsky.social
It is reassuring, isn't it, that while there were 655 prosecutions for benefit fraud in the last financial year, PIP fraud was 0.0%, while both overpayments and underpayments were 0.4%. 0.3%of overpayments were due to claimant error, the lowest since 2018. None due to fraud.
Graph from the UK Department for Work and Pensions report, Fraud and Error in the Benefits System, showing Personal Independence Payment fraud at 0.0% in 2023-24. Overpayments were 0.1% due to official error and 0.3% to claimant error, the lowest since 2018.
March 17, 2025 at 5:47 PM
scribblerpen.bsky.social
This time 5 years ago, passing in/out of consciousness, I thought "I'm not going to make it. What needs sorting before I don't?" In the end I survived Covid and pneumonia, but #LongCovid stuck. I used to be indefatiguable, I would finish work then go make things. I miss that. #LongCovidAwarenessDay
Long Covid Awareness Day 2025 badge, marking 5 years of Long Covid. A white circle on a grey backgroun containind a light teal blue number 5 stulised around concentric dark and light teal blue circles that together look like an archery aim, with text 'Long Covid Awareness" in dark grey on white curving along the bottom right.
March 15, 2025 at 5:59 PM