We've had a new report out into maternity and neonatal care and honestly... there's not a single surprise in it.
It's still - and I don't use these words lightly - a total disgrace. We've had multiple reports telling us this. And yet the same problems keep happening.
Women not being listened to - mums and babies being harmed or even dying - when they shouldn't be. So many people have their own stories - I'm sure if you're listening to this right now you might have your own story - or know someone who does.
There's one thing I wanted to pick out from the report by Baroness Valerie Amos.
The investigation heard cases of women who had lost babies being placed on wards with newborns.
This might seem like a little thing. But can you imagine losing a baby. The worst moment of your entire life. All those hopes and dreams for your child's future. Carrying the baby inside you - feeling it grow - and then the blood, the desperation that maybe it's going to be ok, surely it's got to be ok, and then the reality that you've lost your child.
And then what happens? You're put on a ward full of other mothers just like you... but these mums have their little babies in their arms.
That is not just negligent. It is cruel.
And it also happens systematically throughout the NHS. Having a miscarriage? Go to the maternity unit. Just had a scan where you'd hope to see your baby kicking but actually find out it doesn't have a heart beat? Go and sit down with all the happily pregnant mums.
This is symptomatic of a system where women are treated like vessels not like people who should be heard and listened to.
Because bringing life into the world can be the happiest time of your life. But it can also be the worst time of your life.
Either way - it's the most important moment. And that's why we've got to get this right.
“Some random country”?
179 Brits were killed in Iraq and thousands more injured while supporting America’s war.
Article 5 of Nato convention has only been invoked once in alliance’s 75-year history: in aftermath of Sept 11 terror attacks on US.
The coffin of the Unknown Warrior arrives in Britain from France and is taken to the Cenotaph before the final burial at Westminster Abbey, 10-11 November 1920.
Film: IWM 505
New ad from the Harris campaign on reproductive freedom, ahead of the VP's speech in Texas on Friday. This is a very tough one to watch, but it's incredibly important to. Thank you so much to Ondrea and Ceasar for trusting us to share their story.
Baby Loss Awareness Week is such an important moment to support those who have experienced the devastation of baby loss.
Sending love, strength and hope to anyone affected. #WaveofLight
C
SAVING PRIVATE RYAN was released 26 years ago today. Acclaimed as one of the most realistic depictions of WWII warfare, and among Steven Spielberg’s most popular films, the making of story is enormous. Earn this…
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A big moment in Britain's industrial story happened today.
The coke ovens at the Port Talbot steelworks were closed.
This was where they baked the coal used to make millions of tonnes of steel.
What you're looking at here is the last coke ever made in the UK. Pix: @TataSteelUK
Medical student Immanuel Feyi-Waboso, 21, will miss the final match of the 6N with 🇫🇷 after self-diagnosing a concussion post the Ireland game and informing team medics.
This is an exceptional example to set both his teammates and the young fans that idolise their heroes 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
Here is George Clooney’s response after Trump accused him of being a "Hollywood elite."
"Here’s the thing: I grew up in Kentucky. I sold insurance door-to-door. I sold ladies’ shoes. I worked at an all-night liquor store. I would buy suits that were too big and too long and cut the bottom of the pants off to make ties so I’d have a tie to go on job interviews. I grew up understanding what it was like to not have health insurance for eight years.
So this idea that I’m somehow the “Hollywood elite” and this guy who takes a shit in a gold toilet is somehow the man of the people is laughable.
People in Hollywood, for the most part, are people from the Midwest who moved to Hollywood to have a career. So this idea of “coastal elites” living in a bubble is ridiculous. Who lives in a bigger bubble?
He lives in a gold tower and has twelve people in his company. He doesn’t run a corporation of hundreds of thousands of people he employs and takes care of. He ran a company of twelve people!
When you direct a film you have seven different unions all wanting different things, you have to find consensus with all of them, and you have to get them moving in the same direction.
He’s never had to do any of that kind of stuff. I just look at it and I laugh when I see him say “Hollywood elite.” Hollywood elite? I don’t have a star on Hollywood Boulevard, Donald Trump has a star on Hollywood Boulevard! Fuck you!"
- George Clooney
actor, philanthropist, humanitarian & activist
A main road into Cardiff has become a tractor park as farmers protest outside the Senedd
The A4232 is being used as a holding area for vehicles as farmers walk to the demonstration
Read more: https://t.co/QcGdlINti4
Is the UK flooded with #ECHR violations?
Is the UK under a constant barrage of late night, 'pyjama injunctions' AKA Rule 39 orders?
Is the UK doing really badly protecting ECHR rights, constantly losing in Strasbourg?
THE LATEST STATS ARE OUT.
PREPARE FOR A SHOCK.
I spent 2 years in the 00s doing voluntary work in Jamaican prisons on these cases + feel qualified to respond to this. So here goes 🧵
I saw a lot of volunteers come + go. One I won't forget. Let’s call her ‘Harriet Cole’. Harri saw the world in simplistic, black and white way
After the effect of 'Mr Bates vs the Post Office', let’s hope Toby Jones is also working on new TV dramas about water pollution, climate change, covid, PPE contracts, the refugee crisis, the cost of living, energy prices, and the NHS