Iain Mansfield
@IGMansfield
Current affairs, politics, education and miscellany. All views my own.
Hallucinatory adventures with Claude! The story of how I tried to use AI to do the charts for a survey I'd done - and how it screwed up in spectacular fashion. edrith.co.uk/p/parenting-su…
Martyn's Law is well meaning but will do nothing to keep us safe from terrorism and will place a huge burden on small venues. Looks as though the only beneficiaries will be civil servants.
One of the strongest arguments for Badenoch is her readiness to call out certain issues which much of Westminster would prefer to ignore:
ONE politician made an effort to speak out against the overreach of the Online Safety Bill before it went into law. @KemiBadenoch. She was pilloried for it from left to right. Accused of endangering children and enabling terrorism. But she was right.
Very interesting. Especially on the point of 1 parent staying home in the early years. Parents want this but it's not achievable for most, mainly due to housing costs. Politicians choose to subsidise childcare (at great expense) rather than making housing more affordable.
Parenting Survey: The results are in! What are people's hopes and fears for their children? What do they think of baby-led weaning? How old should they be given a smart-phone - or pocket money? edrith.co.uk/p/parenting-su…
Parenting Survey: The results are in! What are people's hopes and fears for their children? What do they think of baby-led weaning? How old should they be given a smart-phone - or pocket money? edrith.co.uk/p/parenting-su…
And for more on why England fell out of love with its universities, read here: edrith.co.uk/p/how-did-engl…
There are around 250 university courses where fewer than half of those who enroll complete and go on to a graduate job. We should defund them all - now. Protect students from being mis-sold a dream and getting £50k of debt instead. Protect taxpayers from picking up the tab.
Never forget, the judiciary's Equal Treatment Handbook (2024) approvingly quotes this: “In order to get beyond racism, we must first take account of race. There is no other way. And in order to treat some persons equally, we must treat them differently.” judiciary.uk/wp-content/upl…
"Many of us were wary in university meetings about what we said and to whom. Somehow, we allowed the views of activists on a variety of topics to get a grip across the university, and that was probably in part because of their vehemence". telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/07/2…
There’s an awful lot of “business and management” which in practice is probably an awful lot of waffle with very little meat
The Triple Lock is unsustainable & a significant proportion of pensioners are wealthy. Most European countries make patients pay for at least part of their healthcare while also protecting the vulnerable. The wealthy & firms already pay a lot in tax.
The IMF urges UK govt to end the pensions triple lock and charging for NHS treatment. Condemning pensioners to poverty and denying healthcare to low/middle income families is part of the right wing agenda. Anything to avoid taxing corporations & the rich theguardian.com/business/2025/…
Impossible to now read the opening sentence of a Discworld 'About the Author' without a twinge of sadness.
➡️Vaccines don't cause autism. ➡️Evolution is true. ➡️9/11 wasn't an inside job. ➡️Man-made climate change is real. ➡️The moon landings weren't faked. ➡️Men can't become women.
Superb letter by @LauraTrottMP calling for: a) Investigation into the University of Bedfordshire b) Fundamental reforms to the student visa regime - cracking down on the visa mills that grant access to 'students' who can't speak English.
My full letter to @officestudents
'The UK's world-leading universities sector'
That an *English Literature graduate* of Bedfordshire Uni required *an interpreter* should trigger an immediate revocation of Bedfordshire's right to grant visas - and a wider investigation into its degree standards. It won't though, because we're no longer a serious country.