Kate Barker

‘It’s International Women’s Day. Why aren’t you smiling?’

Important thread 👇

Rough rule of thumb: 10% *sustained* oil price rise adds about 0.4/0.5% to inflation and reduces GDP growth by around 0.1/0.2%

🚨 It looks like the UK government is gearing up to upend copyright law in favour of AI companies, legalising the theft of their work.

This is despite creatives' huge protests, and despite previous proposals being roundly rejected by the public.

Please spread the word.

🧵 1/4

Post from Julia Fine that says, "Write the book you want to read because you will have to read it 75 times."

#writerslife

Looking at Amazon.com it seems that HarperCollins, his UK publisher, is distributing the paperback in the US from May. I'd be fascinated to know too (also why a HarperCollins US imprint doesn't appear to have picked it up - though this may be my mis-reading of Amazon).

So WeTransfer, which has been my go-to large file sharing service for over a decade, has decided they now own what you upload & can use it to train AI. Anyone know of any good alternatives?

I hope HarperCollins haven't gone to print with the paperback of Andrew Lownie's book yet.

Donald Trump's birthday is 14 June.
Just saying.

ALSO - if you missed out on your childhood measles vaccine and haven't had measles, you can get *free* MMR vaccination from your GP! (whether as an older child, teenager or adult).

I got my MMR about 10 years ago!

www.nhs.uk/vaccinations...

I thought Wuthering Heights was great. Looks incredible, good soundtrack, hot lead actors, sometimes really funny. All the drama. Who cares if it’s not like the book.

EVERYDAY RACISN Everydayracism_ @everydayracism_ Sir Jim Ratcliffe is the second wealthiest person in the country who left to avoid paying taxes and whose company received £120M in UK aid last year. The "biggest drain on our system" isn't immigrants, it's wealth hoarding billionaires.

Possibly 7th richest person in the UK but I think the point still stands

How the British Empire Chose Canada Over Guadeloupe London won the spoils of war from France—and lost the United States.

Delighted to have a Blood and Treasure extract in Foreign Policy today.
foreignpolicy.com/2026/02/06/b...

Bruce Springsteen - Streets Of Minneapolis (Official Audio) YouTube video by Bruce Springsteen

I wrote this song on Saturday, recorded it yesterday and released it to you today in response to the state terror being visited on the city of Minneapolis. It’s dedicated to the people of Minneapolis, our innocent immigrant neighbors and in memory of Alex Pretti and Renee Good.

Stay free

Someone should do a daily podcast this May on the General Strike one century on.
15 min episodes 4th to 12th May.
(I will happily write and present this podcast if some organisation wants to pay me).

UK loses measles elimination status, warns WHO Vaccination rates in 2024-25 among five-year-olds who had received both MMR jabs hit the lowest level in 15 years.

Arguably more significant than defections, internal party politics and the Beckhams…

In 2024 there were around 3,600 suspected cases of measles.

We need to challenge the nonsense spread by anti vaxxers and ensure children are protected.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

news.sky.com/story/uk-los...

Wouldn’t have made it out of the VEEP writers room

THE SECOND HOME (May 28th - please pre-order🙏🏻).

A second book, a body of work. I’m so grateful I can do this again and really hope people enjoy this one.

P.S. it’s set during an August bank holiday heatwave — a reminder that warmer, brighter days are coming!!! ☀️

#psychologicalthriller #novel

Airport book brain! This is very good. Though I'd argue that we are suffering as much from podcast brain.

Opinion | How Trump Has Used the Presidency to Make at Least $1.4 Billion (Gift Article) The president took an oath to serve the American people. Instead, he’s focused his second term on enriching himself and his family.

"All told, Mr. Trump has profited from his return to the presidency by an amount of money equal to 16,822 times
the median U.S. household income."

Happy #PLR day, published authors! If you aren't registered, DO IT NOW for next year: plr.bl.uk/login

No! But I like her. 2 backlist titles in the Kindle top 100 currently and a new book out soon so v well played, I’d say!

I think the game she is playing is selling more books and she’ll have stuck in people’s minds more this way than by being bland and then murdered.

Fantastic news - go Harriet! #TheTraitors

There is, to my mind, no justification for the continued use by the UK Government of X as a platform for official comms. There hasn't been for some time, in fact, but if the latest developments around AI-generated image abuse and CSAM don't change the policy I really don't know what will.

Grok Posts Sexual Images of Minors After ‘Lapses in Safeguards’ Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence chatbot Grok said “lapses in safeguards” led to the generation of sexualized images of minors that it posted to social media site X.

X/grok creating and platforming sexually explicit material of children isn’t just a lapse, it’s criminal.

Elon Musk and his companies should be held to account.

It’s been over a year since I dumped X. It was the right decision then and even more so now. www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

If the British government, and indeed other governments, can’t muster a fast and strong response to Twitter adding a facility enabling users to create and share AI child sexual abuse material then not sure what Musk could ever do that would actually provoke a response.

Thank you - I was way out of my comfort zone!
Here you go with the sprouts image!