Justin Needle

Health policy academic, classical music lover, dad. No longer posting here - moved to Bluesky (

[Justin Needle @falakros]

Hi all, I'm no longer posting here and have moved to Bluesky: https://t.co/HruTsu2pTL

[Carole Cadwalladr @carolecadwalla]

Please read this. It's literally been 8 years in the writing.

The first wave of tech disruption of democracy 2016-2024 is over. What starts now is something much, much worse: the age of information chaos.
1/
https://t.co/bsnKnag51p

[John Harris @johnharris1969]

Here's K.Badenoch, who thinks an autism diagnosis entails "economic advantages and protections". She also queries providing school transport for autistic kids & has no idea what neurodiversity/divergence are, and why they have abs nothing to do with, say, anxiety. Pls retweet

[Owen Jones @owenjonesjourno]

Israel’s genocidal mayhem has given me a hideous understanding into the great horrors of the past.

How could so many people who regard themselves as decent, humane, ‘moderate’ become complicit in unspeakable atrocities? It’s something I’ve always wondered.

After all, only a tiny proportion of any society are actually sociopaths.

Well, this great crime of our age offers the answers.

The British media and political elites are full of people who aren’t even pretending.

Their worldview is clear. Israelis are “us”. Palestinians are “them”.

Accordingly, every Israeli life has meaning and value - it is inherently precious.

A Palestinian life is worth virtually nothing. It is less than cheap. A bag of rats drowned in a lake is likely to elicit more sympathy.

Violence against a single Israeli life - “us” - is therefore seen as intolerable and unbearable.

Endless violence against countless Palestinians, on the other hand, doesn’t even produce a genuine emotional response.

We’ve seen this tested to destruction.

It doesn’t matter what the atrocity is.

Newborns cooked alive in rubble, or left to suffocate and rot in bombed hospitals.

6 year olds shot in the head by snipers.

Terrified children deliberately blown apart in their families’ cars by tanks, the paramedics sent to save them butchered, too.

Entire family bloodlines exterminated in moments.

Detainees gang raped. Bodies thrown from roofs. Civilians riddled with bullets while trying to get food.

The worst imaginable atrocities committed over and over again, but because the victims are Palestinian, no outrage or horror or anguished demands that this must stop, whatever it takes.

There is, at best, empty handwringing and platitudes, while our government continues to arm the perpetrators.

But when an attack is launched against Israel in which not a single Israeli is killed, then there is wall to wall horror, disgust, outrage from our political and media elites.

So if you’re wondering how so many who regarded themselves as decent, modest, upstanding, morally sophisticated citizens actively made themselves complicit in all the horrors of the past you read about in books - well, now you know.

What mattered to them was who was “us” and who was “them”.

I used to passionately disagree with these elites - I work, after all, in the British media, and have now for 13 years: even hold them in contempt. But it took this genocide to make me realise:

I don’t live in the same moral universe as these people. They now disgust me: I am repulsed by them. It is what it is: my job is to be honest about my opinions, and I could pretend this isn’t how I feel, but for what moral reason?

I’m not telling you because it’s cathartic, even though it is. It’s because what I feel is felt by many others, and that matters - a lot.

Millions of people in every country, on every continent, are feeling this, and it gets stronger with every passing day,

The consequences will be felt for many, many generations.

[Dr Dan Goyal @danielgoyal]

I still can’t believe we’re prioritising bringing AI into the NHS when patients are still being treated in corridors and cupboards, ambulances still queuing outside A&Es, and 34% of patients with cancer are waiting more than TWO months to start treatment. FFS it’s not complicated

[The Mental Elf @Mental_Elf]

It's time now to hear from Prof @SoniaJohnson
-Professor of Social & Community Psychiatry @UCLPsychiatry
-Director of the NIHR @MentalHealthPRU

What does research tell us about how care & support for people with a “personality disorder” diagnosis could be improved?

🧵 THREAD

[Helen Gilburt @helengilburt]

What's it like to navigate care when you have been given a diagnosis of personality disorder - essential listening from @soniajohnson with thanks to @Mental_Elf #BIGSPD24 https://t.co/NzX717gIYx

[CHPI @CHPIthinktank]

Thread: 1/7 Interesting claim from @AngelaRayner Rayner that Labour's health policies will "save money" - presumably because they will be able to do more with less. Here's why their current manifesto is likely to lead to the opposite - its all very leaky!🧵https://t.co/a0EUJOhj03

[Nuffield Trust @NuffieldTrust]

🆕Read our response to the NHS and care proposals in the Labour Party manifesto.

Commendable ambitions to drive down waits, improve GP access and reform social care but funding plans will not accompany a dramatic recovery.

https://t.co/2JF3OArRz3

[Dr Steve Taylor @DrSteveTaylor]

This was 2023 but nothing has improved since.
@BBCRosAtkins BBC looked at NHS funding since 2000 & compared UK healthcare spending with the richest EU members. And then looked at how funding connects to the current NHS crisis.
5 mins on what was found.

[OECD Social @OECD_Social]

While most #HealthSpending is covered by mandatory financing schemes, almost 2⃣0⃣% is paid out-of-pocket by healthcare users on average across OECD countries.

Learn+ on #WorldHealthDay 👉 https://t.co/CvJTlF5Fyg | #MyHealthMyRight @OECD

[Prem Sikka @premnsikka]

Patients waiting for a month or more to see a GP up by 38% – from 12.8 to 17.6m appointments.

Number of GPs down.

Hospitals have waiting list of 7.6m appointments. 300,000 a year die waiting.

Tories forcing people to go private, killing thousands.
https://t.co/Ma2i8aDuMb

[GET A GRIP @docrussjackson]

#THREAD

Fascinating recent article from an important voice in #Propaganda Studies, Cory Wimberly:

'Propaganda: More Than Flawed Messaging', (March 2023).

Unfortunately, it's paywalled, so I'll outline the abstract, & intro & summarise the conclusion.

https://t.co/VMwbIcJVjD

[Justin Needle @falakros]

@mrmorrisphil @BeatriceRana She's a marvel.

[Dr Rachel Clarke @doctor_oxford]

Many thanks, @wesstreeting.

Have to say I really didn't have "stop exploiting those patients you see dying in corridors in horrifically overwhelmed A&Es" on this year's Christmas list.

Please consider reading this short thread in response to your Sunday Times interview. 1/n

[George Monbiot @GeorgeMonbiot]

We should never underestimate the extent to which the BBC changed this country by giving endless airtime to Nigel Farage, other far right extremists and the Tufton Street junktanks, while shutting out progressive voices. 🧵

[Robert Ford @robfordmancs]

Three questions for team “big and decisive move”:
1. Which of the following - student migration, NHS/social care migration, highly skilled migration - will see “big and decisive” cuts and how exactly are these being implemented?

[Mark Dayan @markgdayan]

After years of overspends and failed savings drives, the Treasury and Govt are increasingly mired in mistrust with the health and care sector they fund. This seems a niche and nerdy issue, but I think there are 5 ways in which it has become a real problem https://t.co/WVLjI9CdjJ