Dr Maria Fordham

PhD; writer; reflective practice/resilience guide; Ex: RN/RM/SCHPHV/homelessness specialist; radical Catholic; views my own; personal & professional blog combo

[BladeoftheSun @BladeoftheS]

Tesco are making £4bn a year in profit.

About 50% of their staff are on Universal Credit.

Why don't we crackdown on this unneeded benefit for billionaires?

[Pope Leo XIV @Pontifex]

Those who have lost their lives in the Mediterranean Sea are victims both of decisions that were made and of decisions that were not made. Indifference to the common good and corruption in their countries of origin; a global economic system that generates poverty and exclusion; fear that fuels prejudice and contempt; the belief that such problems do not concern us; the criminal calculations of those who profit from the suffering of others; the slow and difficult transition from mere emergency management to the development of comprehensive and shared policies. #PastoralVisit #Lampedusa

[Simon Kuestenmacher @simongerman600]

Trees. Trees. Trees. They matter. Plant them. Protect them.

[Dr Svilena Dimitrova @NeoDoc11]

“Cruelty, negligence, and a profound lack of accountability” is the best way I can describe what the experience of many I have spoken to - including myself - working in the NHS has become in recent years.

For those of us who have spent more than a quarter of a century studying, training, and working within the NHS, coming to terms with its current state brings a complex form of grief. It is not simply disappointment or frustration - mourning is the correct term to describe it. The NHS has always had flaws, but it genuinely was never this bad before.

My involvement in the Letby case has accelerated my gradually worsening loss of faith. I did not choose to speak up about the Letby case naively. Over many years, I have supported people raising concerns about patient safety and have witnessed first-hand the familiar patterns of whistleblower retaliation, scapegoating, and institutional self-preservation. I thought I knew what both individuals and institutions were capable of.

As an instructed expert, I examined the full medical records for all of the babies involved. I subsequently reviewed the medical expert reports and all communications that preceded what can only be described as the persecution of Letby prior to her prosecution. That direct exposure - both to the clinical material and to the institutional correspondence - fundamentally shifted my perspective from a belief that “we can still make this better” to the more unsettling fact that “it is over, isn’t it”.

I have never before seen an example in which not only multiple individuals but also multiple institutions - those meant to safeguard truth, justice, and patient safety - converged in a way that actively enabled a profound miscarriage of justice. What makes it even more disturbing is that some individuals within those systems appeared to recognise that something was deeply wrong, yet the institutions themselves proved unable - or unwilling - to intervene.

Being involved as an instructed medical expert in the Letby case has profoundly altered me, both as a doctor and as a human being. It has shattered the faith I once held in the capacity of most individuals and systems to self-correct when faced with obvious evidence they have made mistakes.

For the first time in my professional life, I no longer believe the NHS is capable of meaningful reform from within. I now find myself instead observing its gradual implosion - which now is I think inevitable - with deep sorrow, hoping that enough wise and compassionate people survive whatever follows, so that they may help rebuild something from the wreckage.

https://t.co/p5MJYbAv2k

@drphilhammond @PrivateEyeNews @NadineDorries @ClarkeMicah @sarahknapton @ShaunLintern @DOckendenLtd @hannahsbee @LucyLetbyTrials @Michelehal7344 @PeterElston1 @Voice4theDead @DavidDavisMP @DavidRoseUK @FelicityLa76731 @guardian @SkyNews @C4Faye @Channel4News @channel5_tv @BBCNews @alisonleary1 @theJeremyVine @Jeremy_Hunt @wesstreeting

[Chris Wild @ccwild79]

We're still failing the most vulnerable children in our care system.

There are two major problems. Ofsted takes too long to register providers who genuinely want to make a difference, while vulnerable children are placed in unregulated settings with no proper vetting of directors or staff.

The government says every child deserves a safe and loving home, but that's not the reality. The care system has never been a political priority, and it's the children who continue to pay the price.

[𝓒𝓱𝓪𝓻𝓵𝓸𝓽𝓽𝓮 @charlotteukcity]

This is powerful!!

The video strikingly illustrates the game of misinformation that’s being played by Nigel Farage & others. It shows who’s actually benefiting from it.

Absolutely worth watching!

Video sent to me by @nowayjomo

[Dr Maria Fordham @FordhaMM]

@Simi_2210_ Skin

[Dr Maria Fordham @FordhaMM]

@GoodwinMJ Rather, it’s the wars and inequality of health and wealth.

[Pope Leo XIV @Pontifex]

When simulation becomes the norm, it weakens the human capacity for discernment. As a result, our social bonds close in upon themselves, forming self-referential circuits that no longer expose us to reality. We thus come to live within bubbles, impermeable to one another. Feeling threatened by anyone who is different, we grow unaccustomed to encounter and dialogue. In this way, polarization, conflict, fear and violence spread. What is at stake is not merely the risk of error, but a transformation in our very relationship with truth.

[Chris Wild @ccwild79]

In 2025, 91 young people in the care system took their own lives. If we continue to ignore what needs to change, that number will only rise. We need a change in law. It doesn’t matter who is appointed to lead reviews (no disrespect to those who are)— the problem sits within Westminster itself.
@TerryGalloway and I have spent years campaigning for care experience to be recognised as a protected characteristic. That journey has taken us thousands of miles and into countless conversations with human rights lawyers, professionals, and, most importantly, with the young people living this reality every day. @NickMartinSKY @Channel4News

[Chris Wild @ccwild79]

I attended the funeral of a young care leaver who took his own life. I didn’t know him personally, but I was asked to attend and I went out of respect.

What struck me most was the absence of anyone from the local authority. When tragedies like this happen, there should be a duty for someone in power to be there—to acknowledge the life lost, to show respect, and to recognise responsibility.

I don’t believe we need yet another review costing who knows how much, only for nothing meaningful to change afterwards. We already know there are serious failures. What’s missing is action.

Care experience should be recognised as a protected characteristic. @NickMartinSKY @TerryGalloway @JoshMacAlister

[Dalai Lama @DalaiLama]

MESSAGE

I wholeheartedly endorse the powerful appeal for peace made by the Holy Father, Pope Leo, during his Palm Sunday Mass. His call for the laying down of arms and the renunciation of violence resonated profoundly with me, as it speaks to the very essence of what all major religions teach.

Indeed, whether we look to Christianity, Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism, Judaism or any of the world's great spiritual traditions, the message is fundamentally the same: love, compassion, tolerance, and self-discipline. Violence finds no true home in any of these teachings. History has shown us time and again that violence only begets more violence and is never a lasting foundation for peace.

An enduring resolution to conflict, including the ones we see in the Middle East or between Russia and Ukraine, must be rooted in dialogue, diplomacy and mutual respect — approached with the understanding that, at the deepest level, we are all brothers and sisters.

I urge for and pray that the violence and conflicts may soon come to an end.

DALAI LAMA

31 March 2026

[Dr Maria Fordham @FordhaMM]

Meeting US Nurses tonight. We will honour Alex, and light a candle. May his heroic soul RIP 🕯️

[United Nations @UN]

Seeking asylum is a fundamental human right for people fleeing violence, persecution, war or disaster.

Everyone has the right to seek asylum.

@Refugees works around the world to support those #ForcedToFlee.

[Roy Lilley 💙 @RoyLilley]

Over the past 35yrs, the total number of NHS hospital beds has more than halved… 1987 nearly 300,000 beds… by 2019, falling to around 140,000.
Over that period, population (England) has grown from about 47.3m to around 56.6m by 2020 https://t.co/87fX3U2c1T

[Dr Maria Fordham @FordhaMM]

We need more leaders who are ‘Princes of (true) Peace’ …

[A.A.Milne @A_AMilne]

“Wenceslas was perhaps the most beloved King who ever lived. He was a Prince of Peace. I think that to have lived so long ago, and ever since to have been a song on the lips of the world, just because he was gentle, is a wonderful thing to have happened.” ~A.A.Milne #Christmas

[BladeoftheSun @BladeoftheS]

What is it that people expect from deporting people?

Because it won't lower House prices or rents.
And it won't make food or energy cheaper.
There won't be more jobs and they certainly won't pay better.

At what point do you realise it is going to achieve nothing?

[BladeoftheSun @BladeoftheS]

The number of people who go bankrupt every year because of medical bills.

Norway - 0
UK - 0
France - 0
Spain - 0
Portugal - 0
Denmark - 0
Australia - 0
Iceland - 0
Italy - 0
Finland - 0
Ireland - 0
Germany - 0
Netherlands - 0
Sweden - 0
Japan - 0
Canada - 0
United States - 643k

[Occupy Democrats @OccupyDemocrats]

BREAKING: Pope Leo XIV enrages MAGA world by releasing his first major document urging every Catholic in the world to help migrants who all have "Christ himself" inside them — a powerful rebuke of Donald Trump's hateful policies.

This just went off like a bombshell for 1.4 billion Catholics...

The historic document entitled “I Have Loved You” states that caring for the poor also means "fighting against the structural causes of poverty," an unthinkable idea to American Evangelicals who fetishize wealth and billionaire tax cuts.

"No Christian can regard the poor simply as a societal problem," wrote Leo, adding that they are “part of our ‘family’" and they are "one of us." At a time when conservatives are gutting social programs and slashing Medicaid funding, this message is particularly potent.

But it's the section on migrants that has Republicans really up in arms...

"The Church, like a mother, accompanies those who are walking. She knows that in every rejected migrant, it is Christ himself who knocks at the door of the community," Leo wrote.

Recently, the pope urged U.S. Bishops to speak out "strongly" to support migrants against Trump's escalating immigration crackdowns.

In the new document, he writes that the "experience of migration" is woven into the history of the Church, pointing to Abraham setting out "without knowing where he is going," Moses leading his people out of slavery into the desert, and Mary and Joseph fleeing with an infant Jesus into Egypt.

Quoting his predecessor Pope Francis, Leo wrote that Christians must use four verbs for migrants: "welcome, protect, promote and integrate." Francis began the 104-page document but died before it was finished so Leo took up the task of finishing it, explaining: "I am happy to make this document my own — adding some reflections.”

"The Church, like a mother, accompanies those  who are walking," wrote Leo. "Where the world sees threats, she sees children; where walls are built, she builds  bridges. She knows that her proclamation of the Gospel is credible only when it is translated into  gestures of closeness and welcome. And she knows that in every rejected migrant, it is Christ himself  who knocks at the door of the community."

The bit about walls is a clear reference to Trump's infamous border wall and a clear rejection of the animating xenophobia at the rotten core of the MAGA movement. Real Christians should welcome and care for migrants. MAGA Christians want them pepper-sprayed, zip-tied, and terrorized by ICE agents.

The document also tackles the growing corrosive power of billionaires like Elon Must who are using their money to place themselves above the law. It criticizes an economic system in which "earnings of a minority are growing exponentially, so too is the gap separating the majority from the prosperity enjoyed by those happy few."

"A new tyranny is being born, invisible and often virtual, which unilaterally and relentlessly imposes its own laws and rules," wrote Leo.

"There is no shortage of theories attempting to justify the present state of affairs or to explain that economic thinking requires us to wait for invisible market forces to resolve everything," the pope wrote.

"The poor are promised only a few 'drops' that trickle down, until the next global crisis brings things back to where they were," he added.

"Either we regain our moral and spiritual dignity or we fall into a cesspool," the pope wrote in one particularly striking passage.

This document is a battle cry for Christian love and perfectly articulates the true message of Jesus Christ. The fact that Republicans are already raging against it exposes the truth behind their Christian facade. They want the self-righteousness granted to them by their religion without embracing the sacrifice and compassion that it truly demands.

Please retweet and ❤️ to thank Pope Leo for taking such a moral stance!

[Occupy Democrats @OccupyDemocrats]

BREAKING: Pope Leo XIV throws MAGA world into a Sunday rage by urging every Catholic in the world to help and care for immigrants just days after slamming Donald Trump's cruel policies.

This pope REALLY doesn't care about ruffling right-wing feathers...

Leo called on Catholics to "open our arms and hearts to them, welcoming them as brothers and sisters, and being for them a presence of consolation and hope."

The remarks were delivered to a crowd of thousands who were inside St. Peter's Square at the Vatican for Sunday Mass. It was part of event organized for migrants which attracted some 10,000 pilgrims from 95 countries. The Church’s message on immigration is clearly resounding around the world.

The pope stated that migrants cannot be treated with "the coldness of indifference or the stigma of discrimination."

Leo went on to call for "a new missionary age" in which the church will offer "hospitality and welcome, compassion and solidarity" to all of those migrants who are fleeing from violence or searching for a safe new home for themselves or the families.

"In the communities of ancient Christian tradition, such as those of the West, the presence of many brothers and sisters from the world's South should be welcomed as an opportunity, through an exchange that renews the face of the Church," he said.

While he didn’t mention the United States or Donald Trump specifically, taken in the context of his past remarks it’s clear who and what he was pushing back against today. Last week, he enraged MAGA supporters by espousing the true teachings of Jesus Christ.

“Someone who says, ‘I’m against abortion,’ but says ‘I’m in favor of the death penalty,’ is not really pro-life,” the pope told reporters. “Someone who says that, ‘I’m against abortion but I’m in agreement with the inhuman treatment of immigrants who are in the United States,’ I don’t know if that’s pro-life."

Republicans have quickly come to despise Pope Leo because he dispels the lie that they tell themselves: They are not “Christian” in any meaningful sense of the word. They have draped themselves in Christian aesthetics and signifiers while adopting a cruel, fascist worldview that is antithetical to the love, compassion, and selflessness taught by Christ. Pope Leo sees right through them.

Please retweet and ❤️ if you love this pope!