Rishi Sunak is seeking to alienate vulnerable people in an attempt to recover his poor polling ratings

A thread on this week’s announcement 🧵 If his last big electoral gambit was cutting off high speed rail from the North, Sunak’s latest wheeze appears to focus on cutting off vulnerable and unwell people from the support they need to get by

I saw a headline this week which read ‘homeless people should not be arrested because they smell’

How on earth did this even need to be said in the UK in 2024?

Well it’s a response to another cruel government policy 🧵 Why such a remarkable statement even has to be made by politicians tells us a lot about the pernicious and nasty agenda of this government when it comes to the vulnerable

There was some big news this week which should have been top of the news agenda - the fact that it wasn’t and the story that dominated the public space instead tells a worrying story about the priorities of many in this country 🧵 On Wednesday I was chairing an event about the future of the Liverpool City Region - it was a wide ranging discussion with experts in their field

One of those was Professor David Taylor-Robinson, an expert in public health and children’s public health

It’s St Patrick’s Day and I am nap-trapped by a snoozing baby so I’ll use this opportunity to tell a story about a trip to Ireland that turned into an unforgettable family reunion 🇮🇪 🧵 My mum was born in England after her parents emigrated from Ireland. For her birthday in 2018, we arranged a trip over the Irish sea with the aim of tracing some of her family roots.

As if we needed any further proof, this past week has shown us what a total and utter con the government’s so-called ‘Levelling Up’ agenda really is

A little Sunday 🧵 for you It was Maya Angelou who coined the timeless phrase: "When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time."
When it comes to Rishi Sunak, this phrase is highly pertinent.

There was a day this past week when it felt like many of Britain's many problems were brought out into the open for all to see.

A 🧵 on a day in the life of a failing state It was a Wednesday and I was on a train, going through some emails. Suddenly a glut came through from the so-called Department of Levelling Up.

Each of these emails on each of these topics opened a window into just how broken this country has become.

After 14 years in power and with an election months away, you might be wondering how the NHS, this nation’s greatest institution has fared under the Conservatives

Here are some staggering numbers to help you form a view 🧵 With the help of @dubasfisher we’ve looked at January of this year in the NHS compared with previous Januarys since the Tories came to power in 2010

As we enter a General Election year, people might be wondering how the country has fared since the Conservatives came to power in 2010

Spoiler alert - it’s not good 🧵 A new report from @CentreforCities has found that people in the UK are, on average £10,000 worse off than before the Tories came to power in 2014

The Post Office scandal is the latest example of how in this country, ordinary people who are unlucky enough to be caught up in tragedy or injustice have the odds massively stacked against them

A 🧵 on why and how this needs to change The scandal, so brilliantly captured by the ITV drama, tells us so much about the way this country works - or more importantly doesn't work - for ordinary people.

While the Conservatives obsess over a cruel immigration policy that will never actually materialise, the NHS once again finds itself in the midst of a brutal winter crisis

A thread on the grim situation facing staff and patients 🧵 As always my examples for this are in Liverpool, Merseyside and the North West but we know these are scenes being replicated across the country as the entire health service finds itself in crisis

As temperatures plummet, the homelessness crisis in Liverpool and other major cities becomes increasingly worrying and dangerous

I spoke to some of those at the sharpest end of this crisis

A difficult🧵 The situation in Liverpool is bleak, with rough sleeper numbers up by 50% in a year - this weekend the city council activated its Severe Weather Emergency Protocol for the first time of the year

It means temperatures are dangerously low for those sleeping rough on the streets

Liverpool is in the grip of a homelessness crisis and hundreds of desperate and vulnerable refugees are finding themselves forced onto the streets

A tough thread on a humanitarian disaster unfolding in this city and many others 👇 I've reported recently on Liverpool's homelessness crisis. It is being fuelled by a range of complex factors including soaring evictions, a lack of housing and a cash-strapped city council. But a big element of this is down to the Home Office and its treatment of refugees.

We have a spiralling homelessness crisis in this country as more and more people find themselves with nowhere to go and local authorities struggle to cope with the pressure

A 🧵 on the perfect storm fuelling this crisis I report on Liverpool so will be using the city for my example in this thread, but this situation is playing out right across the country

We were warned what Rishi Sunak would be like as a Prime Minister…

A quick 🧵 on a disastrous year for our unelected PM In July of 2022, when Mr Sunak was in the midst of an increasingly desperate leadership battle with soon-to-be lettuce tribute act Liz Truss, he spoke to an audience of Conservative members in the quaint Kent town of Tunbridge Wells.

It is estimated that the UK has lost around 50% of its public toilets in the past decade as local councils have seen their budgets obliterated

Quick thread on why this is such a problem and what it says about our broken country 🧵 We've all been there.
You're out on a walk in the park or enjoying a visit to the beach and suddenly you start to realise nature is urgently calling. If you are unfortunate enough to be in Britain when this emergency starts to arrive, you know you’ve got a problem.

Sometimes you have to take a step back and look at the huge damage done in this country since austerity was unleashed in 2010

A vandalizing and painfully unfair policy that has served only to deepen the chasm between the richest and poorest areas of the country

(angry thread) We know that poor council areas have suffered disproportionately from huge cuts over the past 13 years compared to richer council areas

This is nuts because it is those poorer areas that have far more need when it comes to council services and support

After yesterday’s shocking figures from the @TrussellTrust, campaigners in Liverpool have warned that the food poverty crisis has reached its worst point

Foodbanks are running out of food and can’t cope with the soaring demand from desperate families

liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool… At the north Liverpool foodbank the number of families coming in for help has risen by a staggering 50% in the last year

Across the city at least 20,000 emergency food parcels are handed out every week

The Levelling Up process is just a sham really isn’t it

A beauty pageant/hunger games contest for specific projects, favoured by ministers, will never in any way make up for devastating cuts to council budgets over the past 12 years - especially if they are rejected🧵 Take Liverpool Council, which is currently trying to cut a further £73m from its budget

This will take the total cuts from government past the half a billion pound mark since the coalition government arrived in 2010

BREAKING: Final deal agreed with drivers which means that the long-awaited roll-out of the new Merseyrail trains can begin

liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool… This is a huge moment in the *very long* story of these new trains, which were first purchased by the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority in 2016

There have been industrial rows, pandemics, flooding and other issues that have held up this roll-out...

I spoke to several doctors working in Accident and Emergency departments in Liverpool hospitals about the current crisis, their words and experiences are harrowing to say the least

One told me: "This is not healthcare - It is now a lottery whether you survive"

(Thread) One doctor said: "A&E doesn't exist, we used to be able to work out what space we had and who could go where. Now we are pulling people out of resus to get someone else in who is in"

"We aren't working in A&E anymore, we are working in corridors and cupboards"

As first revealed by @LawrenceDunhill, 31 top medics at the New Royal Liverpool Hospital wrote to bosses saying they feel ‘ashamed’ at the ‘overcrowded, chaotic and unpleasant’ situation they are treating patients in

liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool… While emergency departments across the country are in crisis, doctors at the newly opened Royal said the move to a hospital with fewer beds “without any workable contingency plans, [was] frankly inconceivable."