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Sue Cook

@suefc.bsky.social
168 followers 258 following 236 posts

Retired head, who’s passionate about the need to work towards securing a better future for young people and the need to tackle child abuse and poverty. NSPCC volunteer, enthusiastic gardener and cook. Also, an avid reader with wide ranging tastes in music.

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Reposted by Sue Cook
Dinah Rose KC @dinahrose.bsky.social · 7h
Remembering Gwyneth Bebb today. She passed Oxford law finals with first class marks in 1913, but was refused a degree. The CA rejected her claim to become a solicitor, saying only men were "persons" within the legislation. In 1920 she finally became a Bar student. But died in childbirth in 1921.
Screenshot of a Facebook post recording the fact that on this day in 1920, women were awarded Oxford degrees for the first time. Image of graduating women.
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Sue Cook @suefc.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Highly recommend listening to the programme celebrating choral evensong that I have stumbled across on Radio 4 now.
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Parody Nigel Farage @parodypm.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Full marks to Bobby J for not bothering to mention that this was entirely due to being given £45 million from the Labour government and told to do it. Even a Reform council couldn't fuck that up.
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Alice Lilly @aliceolilly.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
This is unconscionable and a moral stain on everybody who facilitated this administration and its approach.
theatlantic.com
The Babies Left Behind in America
The United States is deporting parents without their children, creating a whole new family-separation crisis.
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Alice Lilly @aliceolilly.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Oh to have been sat in the meeting where somebody said, 'okay, hear me out, but I've got an idea for how to respond to this' before they all got up and left* *sorry, I mean 'moved towards a different room'
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Jonathan Jones @sirjjkc.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Here’s my piece for @instituteforgovernment.org.uk on the government’s new legal risk guidance www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/comment/new-...
instituteforgovernment.org.uk
New government, new legal risk guidance | Institute for Government
New guidance is an insight into the government’s attitude to the law and legal risk.
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Tony Yates @t0nyyates.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
A vacuous, cowardly piece by the BBC here, which does little more than launder into the public domain the lies and excuses of Reform www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
Nigel Farage tells BBC he 'wasn't listening' in foreign donor talks
The Reform leader also told the BBC's Laura Kuenssberg that his family are "begging" him to leave his job.
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Parody Nigel Farage @parodypm.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
I for one have had enough of people who can barely speak English, living on benefits, ignoring our laws and wearing weird clothes that cover up their faces. So it was disappointing to see a few hundred of them gathered in Dover today.
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Mark Chadbourn @chadbourn.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
West Midlands Police: “We’re aware of a video circulating from the Reform UK Conference showing an incident with a protester. We haven’t received a complaint but would ask the woman to come forward. Anyone with any information should contact us on 101 quoting log number 924-050926”
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ayowhose.bsky.social @ayowhose.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
Police intel is good enough to allow pre-emptive raids on young women in Quaker meeting houses but mysteriously lacking when it comes to balaclava’d thugs blocking transport infrastructure. Funny that. 🙄 news.sky.com/story/ridicu...
news.sky.com
'Ridiculously heavy-handed' Metropolitan Police criticised after raid on Quaker meeting house to arrest protesters
One Quaker was incensed by how the police "flooded" the building - so much so that they pointedly did not offer the officers any cups of tea.
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Steve Peers @stevepeers.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
Also Farage falsely implies that nothing happened to the people who threw milkshakes at him. In fact both of them have a criminal conviction for doing it.
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John Springford @johnspringford.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
He was listening. He said "yeah, that was great" when the fake US donor described paying for the polling, and that it was "a very modest investment". And, unprompted, "front page of The Times". www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
Nigel Farage tells BBC he 'wasn't listening' in foreign donor talks
The Reform leader also told the BBC's Laura Kuenssberg that his family are "begging" him to leave his job.
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onlycans @onlycans.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
just stop oil protesters got five years in jail for *planning* to do this to the M25.
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Steve Peers @stevepeers.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
Kent police said 'no arrests were made' of the people who blocked a port and roads. There's your two-tier policing, folks www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cm...
bbc.co.uk
Port of Dover delays: Disruption as masked 'stop the boats' protesters block roads
Hundreds of demonstrators, wearing black with their faces covered, caused delays to traffic reaching the port.
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Russ Jones @russincheshire.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
Reform say they'll force school children to sing hymns. Only 5% of Britons go to church. So what we have here is a religious minority forcing their wishes on the majority, and refusing to integrate with Britain's culture. They should go and live somewhere else. According to Reform.
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Scott & Rod @scottrod.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
Wait a minute. Is that Dan Dukes, you know the Dan Dukes who has just stepped down, standing backstage with Farage?
Nigel Farage and Dan Dukes backstage as the Farage conference speech is 'paused'.
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Peter Walker @peterwalker99.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
Dorries is challenged again and says Dan Jukes is someone who just carried Farage’s bags and “organised the car”. When reminded that Jukes described himself as the future No 10 chief of staff Dorries says: “I think that was Dan getting carried away.” Brutal world, politics.
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Peter Geoghegan @petergeoghegan.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Half an hour after publish this, get an email from Reform saying can’t come to this year’s conference 🤔
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Ian Dunt @iandunt.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Illiterate, desperate, embarrassing. More propaganda than journalism. The Telegraph doing their best to confirm our assessment of their decline at Origin Story Live last night.
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Alt National Park Service @altnps.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
A huge thank you to Patagonia! The company has joined conservation and Tribal groups in suing the Trump administration, seeking to overturn its move to shrink Bears Ears National Monument in southern Utah by more than one million acres.
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Ian Dunt @iandunt.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
It might actually be impossible for a Tory to win in London at the moment. Because to win in London you do actually have to show that you love London and the modern Tory party stands opposed to everything London represents.
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Ian Dunt @iandunt.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
Dispiriting. I would much rather his brand of more moderate Conservatism was challenging the national party rather than aimed at attracting a liberal electorate in London. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
theguardian.com
James Cleverly resigns from shadow cabinet to run for mayor of London
Shadow minister for housing, communities and local government to resign with immediate effect
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Christopher Webb @cwebbonline.com · 27/08/2026
If this enrages you, it should. And you’re not alone. The 19-year-old sailor who jumped off the USS Abraham Lincoln is facing disciplinary charges instead of receiving the mental health services he needs. 👀
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Alice Roberts @profaliceroberts.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
The fallout from the collapse of this glacier - a torrent of mud surging down the valley - killed hundreds of people. Gone, in a flash. Those people were wiped out by anthropogenic climate change. Our governments are simply not responding quickly enough to this disaster which is already upon us.
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Jonathan Jones @sirjjkc.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Much good sense here
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Reuters @reuters.com · 26/08/2026
Dolly Parton leaves legacy of literacy, advocacy and charitable giving reut.rs/4gRqdym
reut.rs
Dolly Parton leaves legacy of literacy, advocacy and charitable giving
Dolly Parton, the trailblazing country music icon, songwriter and actress who died on Tuesday at age 80, was so much more to millions around the world.
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Larry the Cat @number10cat.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
We should put this sign on every politician's desk
What would Dolly do?
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Ian Dunt @iandunt.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
The hellbound horror of GCSEs iandunt.substack.com/p/the-hellbo...
Once GCSEs started, that all ended. Education stopped being about learning and started being about passing exams. In fact, it barely counted as education at all. It degenerated into little more than a memory exercise. Can you take information from Source A - your revision notes - retain it, and then input it into Source B - the exam paper. This system produced very reliable exam results, which were used to promote the school to the next set of parents, but it did not produce, did not even aim to produce, people with a love of knowledge or a natural curiosity about the world. It was actually completely indifferent to curiosity. Speaking about it in that context would be like trying to insert Smarties into a slot machine.

At the point of GCSEs, we really do lose that greater educational virtue. We gain things - the work ethic, the need to perform - but we lose things too. And that loss, the complete absence of any genuine intellectual endeavor, is why GCSEs are often such a harrowing period.
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Farrukh @implausibleblog.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
Journalist, "Has the deployment of USS Lincoln gone on too long?" Trump who avoided Vietnam draft five times, "Not long enough" The USS Abraham Lincoln’s current deployment is unusually long: approaching nine months, and has spent more than 250 days continuously at sea
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Marie Le Conte @youngvulgarian.marieleconte.com · 14/08/2026
Cambridge University should have known better, Fleet Street should have known better, the people hungrily absorbing every bit of news about it, making newsrooms feel like they had to keep going with it as a story, should have known better, horrible horrible horrible
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Alice Lilly @aliceolilly.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
This is well worth a read. Levels of abuse directed at MPs and their staff-who are often the ones opening emails and letters and picking up phones- are shocking.
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Rachel Sylvester @rachelsylvester.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
New Scandinavian wings at Wandsworth and Pentonville jails have seen a 45% fall in assaults, 57% drop in self harm and halving of staff absence rates - fascinating results from trial into a more rehabilitative approach to prisons observer.co.uk/news/nationa...
observer.co.uk
‘Scandi wings’ offering pianos, pool and tea parties coul...
A unit in London’s Wandsworth prison has been transformed using methods from Sweden and Norway that prioritise rehabilitation over retribution
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Josiah Mortimer @josiahmortimer.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
Absolutely nuts proposal from Westminster council. The GLA should take over licensing for Soho. It is for everyone, not just the lucky few who live there (and seem to hate it) www.theguardian.com/business/202...
theguardian.com
Council wants pubs in London’s Soho and West End to ban standing
Sadiq Khan criticises Westminster council’s ‘anti-growth policies’ after it recommends stopping ‘vertical drinking’
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Adam Bienkov @adambienkov.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
Nigel Farage just took a question from a 'journalist' at his press conference, who turned out to be his former chief adviser Raheem Kassam, who asks him why the media are being so unfair to him
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Jonathan Jones @sirjjkc.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
It’s perfectly possible to make big changes to the UK’s “constitutional settlement” without a “written constitution”, in the sense of a single constitutional code. Most such changes would require legislation, like the 90s devolution settlements (which undoubtedly form part of our constitution now)
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Cheeses Of Nazareth @cominagetcha.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
Ask them how HMS Ocean, sold in 2018 ended up as the cover model? Deeply researched?
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European Commission @ec.europa.eu · 02/08/2026
🔹 AI-generated media, ‘deepfakes’ must be clearly labelled as such 🔸Chatbots and virtual agents must explicitly state they aren't human 🔹You must be told when AI is actively analysing you, like biometrics, emotion tracking → link.europa.eu/gTvhRX
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Ian Dunt @iandunt.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
'Every day Infantino remains in power is a fresh stain on an institution whose reputation is on the floor' www.theguardian.com/football/202...
theguardian.com
There can be no letup. Humiliated Infantino must stand down at Fifa or be removed | Nick Ames
Uefa’s decisive call for a boycott and declaration of no confidence must be the opening salvos in a concerted push to dethrone the game’s global leader
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Karim Palant @karimpalant.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
Newsnight has just shown the Manchester (city) result and thought it was doing the full Manchester (Combined authority) result. The giveaway is Bev Craig got way over 50% of the vote and they did a second preference count. Total chaos. @luketryl.bsky.social asked to comment on just 92,000 votes
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Rob Ford @robfordmancs.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
The Farage drop is, I think, potentially more consequential medium term than the Burnham bounce (which will fade I'm sure). Reform are a one man band, built around Farage's brand. If he becomes toxic (a) he might quit politics (as he has before) (b) whether he does or not they have no plan B.
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Cath Haddon @cathhaddon.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
Andy Burnham is setting out his approach to social care Our performance tracker from 2025 shows the damaging geographical and demographic ‘care gap’ in England. To take action government needs to understand how and where this care gap is forming www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/publication/...
instituteforgovernment.org.uk
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Mark Chadbourn @chadbourn.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
France has ordered the evacuation of the entire Lège-Cap Ferret because of wildfires. #climatecrisis
bbc.co.uk
France orders evacuation of Cap Ferret peninsula as hundreds flee wildfires
The fire has raged in the region for several days with officials on Friday morning saying it had continued to progress overnight.
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Alex Parsons @alexparsons.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
Talked about in here, but I think the interesting bit of the "how are things going to be different" in the Burnham message to the PLP was the stuff about ministers being available (rather than the things under the heading whipping). MPs should be trying to get concrete structures to back this up
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Sammy Roth @sammyroth.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
Insane new research. Scientists gave asthma patients free electric stoves to replace their gas stoves, then checked to see if symptoms improved. Not only did symptoms improve, ditching gas was *better than medicine.* Details in today's newsletter: www.climatecoloredgoggles.com/p/electric-s...
climatecoloredgoggles.com
Researchers used electric stoves to treat asthma. It worked.
The latest evidence that gas is bad for your health.
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Philip Nye @philipnye.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
As cabinet appointments start to come in, a reminder that we (@instituteforgovernment.org.uk) hold a database of all ministerial appointments back to 1979 It's easy to look up all the previous holders of a post, all the roles someone has had etc: www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/ministers-da...
instituteforgovernment.org.uk
IfG Ministers Database | Institute for Government
Search our database of all government ministers since 1979.
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Steve Peers @stevepeers.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
Yvette Cooper becomes Health Secretary www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cg...
bbc.co.uk
Healey appointed chancellor and Miliband becomes foreign secretary as Andy Burnham picks cabinet
Meanwhile Shabana Mahmood will stay on as home secretary as new Prime Minister Andy Burnham forms his top team.
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Davenant 📸 @marcdavenant.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
I’ve just sent him a letter and a copy of my Outsiders book on homelessness and substandard housing. Of all the places where I documented homelessness, over six years, Manchester was the only city which gave me hope. If anyone can end homelessness it’s him.
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Jennifer Williams @jenwilliamsft.bsky.social · 18/07/2026
AB, a 🧵
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Alice Lilly @aliceolilly.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
Another entry in the ‘please don’t be weird when writing about the North of England’ category
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