Laura Phillips

She’s brilliant isn’t she?

Socks the Cat sitting behind President Clinton's desk in the Oval Office. January 7, 1994. We can only wish…

Socks the Cat sitting behind President Clinton's desk in the Oval Office. January 7, 1994.

We can only wish…

Please make it make sense?

There's a bunch of Chevening Scholars in my Masters classes and they massively enrich it. Impressive people and also so obviously wedded to going back and improving their own countries.

Parliamentlive.tv Justice and Home Affairs Committee

At 11.55 here Claude Moraes correctly points out that care workers/dependants are fiscally *positive* every year until about 2045.

In response, the Home Office official misstates the facts & clearly doesn't understand either the point or the actual data/analysis

parliamentlive.tv/event/index/...

BBC journalist Helen Catt is looking for yr #pothole stories in Sussex, Surrey+Kent. Has hitting one done serious damage to your car? Do you live near a pothole hotspot? Or maybe the state of the roads is affecting your business? Do get in touch Helen.catt@bbc.co.uk +pls mention you’re on Bluesky.

BBC Radio 3
The Essay: Music Rediscovered - series 2

A remarkable online project is making available, for the first time in a hundred years, the rich repertoire of klezmer player Motl Reyder. Phil Alexander explores his tunebook.

Thank you!

Dresden city centre to be evacuated after WW2 bomb found The city's biggest ever evacuation comes after the British flying bomb was discovered near a collapsed bridge.

Much of the centre of the German city of Dresden will be evacuated on Wednesday, after the discovery of a large unexploded British World War Two flying bomb.
The 250kg (551lb) device was discovered near the former Carola Bridge, which collapsed in the Elbe River in 2024.

Can anyone explain to me what the Blue Labour justification for this is? Who out there will vote Labour because Mahmood prevented a Sudanese Chevening Scholar? And to be honest, why won’t the PM simply overrule her?

'Extinct' large tortoiseshell butterfly spotted across southern England There has been a flurry of early sightings of the large tortoiseshell butterfly, a charity says.

Some good news among the awful.

@sameerhashmi.bsky.social: The UAE’s Ministry of Interior has issued an emergency alert asking residents to seek a “safe place”
The UAE’s Ministry of Defence said on X, “The UAE's air defences are currently dealing with a barrage of ballistic missiles coming from Iran.” #Iran #Dubai
[it’s not over]

Thank you so much!

*Most important* IMO everything depends on #BBC being properly funded. They can’t take any more cuts. They can do much in terms of #creativeindustries, #skills, #technology - creating safer #socialmedia space, #AI but only if fully funded. Govt can’t demand more without more money. Thank you!

Pls mention how much local radio means to its loyal listeners inc elderly people on lower incomes. Cuts to local radio progs mean they are restricted to before 2pm every week day and many local presenters have been axed. Not everyone is online+local radio providers companionship+sense of community..

On Question 1: Pls say that #BBC's purposes should be updated, not reduced. You could add a purpose for the BBC to support a healthy information environment, inc countering #disinformation and promoting critical and evidence-based argument. Vital with #socialmedia+#AI fakery. 12/

Pls say that the government must create an *independent* appointments body to appoint #BBC Chair+non-executive Board members, with ratification by the Commons Culture Media and Sport Subcommittee. Power to determine BBC funding levels must be transferred to an independent body, as Germany does. 11/

Pls make clear that to ensure its independence+survival as a #publicservicebroadcaster the BBC needs a *permanent* Charter, (like eg Bank of England) enshrining its existence+core mission. 10/

The #BBC's *independence* from any govt (or private owner, advertisers, tech giants) is vital to its mission to inform us impartially. Please make clear using the "other box" on Questions 10+11 that there must be no more party political appointments to the BBC Board. 9/

This is preferable in my view, to creating a patchwork of concessions that reduces BBC income while adding administrative complexity. 8/

The licence fee will rise to £180 in April. That's under 50p per day for all the BBC offers. The best way to address affordability concerns is to broaden the funding base so that more households contribute, allowing the per-household cost to remain low. 7/

Pls say any new concessions must not fall on BBC. Over-75s concession (a welfare benefit) was transferred to BBC in 2015 as part of licence fee settlement imposed by George Osborne +cost roughly £250m annually before BBC was forced to restrict it to those on Pension Credit. 6/