Happy Friday!

I’m not actually ignoring the news but Bayern beat Arsenal this week which made me happy (Bayern are the only one of my Champions League picks for the family draw, so all my hope rests with them!)

Biden’s Increasingly Contradictory Israel Policy. Obviously, things have moved somewhat over the last week but Israel needs consequences…

Former head of Shin Bet: Hamas’s nightmare is a two-state solution. It’s really easy, when solutions are complicated and no-one wins, to pick a side and stay firmly entrenched there. Ami Ayalon, hasn’t done that. He’s clear about what he wants and also clear that Israel won’t get it without treating Palestinians as people. I’m currently reading his memoir and it’s both hopeful and heartbreaking. On the back of this I also watched ‘The Gatekeepers’ which I would recommend.

Thames Water nationalisation plan could move bulk of £15bn debt to state. Thatcher’s privatisation was a stupid idea and will cost the country a lot of money!

What Cass review says about surge in children seeking gender services. I think caring for children is in crisis. Just look at how terrible the CAHMS waiting lists are right now. I also think that parents are in a continuous state of low level crisis and don’t have good coping skills and therefore can’t teach children coping skills and goodness knows teenagers have to try on a lot of personalities before they settle to who they are. I think teenagers are telling us something, it’s about how uncomfortable and uncertain they feel and whether that expresses itself in gender questioning or anxiety adults need to deal with it. Which takes time and money and understanding. None of which the NHS has nor is the government prepared to fund the NHS so that it does.

UK facing food shortages and price rises after extreme weather

Liz Truss has kindly offered to ‘save the west’. But who will save her from her delusions?

‘The courgettes were so good last year, I got a tattoo of one’: life on a Birmingham allotment

Letting grass grow long boosts butterfly numbers, UK study proves. I’m not lazy, I’m helping the butterflies!