mattraybrown.bsky.social - Profile | ThreadSky | a Reddit-style client for Bluesky

Students in England graduate with average £53,000 debt. Total debt £266bn, up to 7.3% interest. Most European nations don't charge university tuition fees, England does. What was public debt, is now personal debt. People penalised for education, can't start family, business. Abolish uni fees.

submitted 19 hours ago • 32 comments

A quite superb and mesmerising film 🎥 😍

submitted 4 days ago • 0 comments

We have discovered something .. concerning 🚨 NHS England won't share correspondence between its director and a private healthcare lobby group with EveryDoctor, because it would take them more than two days to gather all the files.... Let us explain what's happened: ...

submitted 4 days ago • 4 comments

Financial stress can hit hard, especially in the arts. If you're struggling, our website's support page offers a curated list of government programs and charity resources tailored for creatives. freelancersmaketheatrework.com/financialsup... #FreelancersMakeTheatreWork

submitted 4 days ago • 0 comments

After a speech slamming migrants, the PM is rebuked by 15 bishops and religious leaders. You can’t play the statesman in Brussels one day and stoke fear at home the next. The two stories won’t co-exist. This and more from @pecksniffsdiary.bsky.social

submitted 26 days ago • 3 comments

Here's the next gig - what a privilege to be joining the cast for As You Like It in this season at @theatreroyalbath.bsky.social 😁🌟🎭 #Shakespeare #Theatre #AsYouLikeIt #acting

submitted 32 days ago • 1 comment

Migrants enrich our culture, contribute to our economy, and become our friends and neighbours. And cutting NHS waiting times, fixing our social care system and building 1.5 million homes cannot be done without overseas recruitment. People need people. Britain needs migrants.

submitted 39 days ago • 3 comments

The government was wrong to cut winter fuel payments. It was wrong to keep the 2-child benefit cap. It was wrong to slash disability benefits. Pushing people into poverty is the wrong thing to do. The right thing to do is redistribute wealth and power so that everyone can live in dignity.

submitted 45 days ago • 171 comments

Wow: Harris Federation, England's 2nd-largest academy chain "trying to make 45 teachers redundant despite reserves of £21m" and highest-paid CEO on more than £500k, NASUWT says in press release.Got wind of a little of this last week. Harris also pays sector-outlier sals to senior managers generally.

submitted 45 days ago • 1 comment

Eco-anxiety is on the rise, but by taking action you can help ease this feeling and make a positive impact at the same time. Check out our tips below. 👇 https://foe.uk/ispz1

submitted 46 days ago • 0 comments

The BBC is institutionally biased towards the right and the far right, and here's the proof: the results of an almost perfect before-and-after experiment. My column today. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

submitted 50 days ago • 155 comments

This "debate" about who should use what toilet doesn’t benefit anyone. It doesn’t fix the underfunding of women's refuges, NHS waiting lists leaving women in terrible pain, mums skipping meals to feed their kids. How about we get on with tackling the real issues affecting women?

submitted 52 days ago • 75 comments

Smart duck.. 😂

submitted 51 days ago • 26 comments

Can't cook, dress, eat, or toilet unaided? Soon, that won’t qualify you for help. 1.3 million disabled people face losing support. Read that again. #PIP 👇😞

submitted 55 days ago • 79 comments

Yesterday, France celebrated independent bookstores with a national day of support — a brilliant move to protect culture against giant corporations like Amazon. 🇫🇷📚 This is the kind of idea the whole world should embrace! 🌍❤️ #BuyMoreBooks

submitted 54 days ago • 6 comments

🚅Want to end the Great British Train Robbery? ✍️It only takes 1 minute to sign our petition. 🤑The rolling stock companies have made £3.6 billion in dividends over the past decade. Now's the perfect time to demand they take our trains into public ownership.

submitted 58 days ago • 24 comments

Surely the question isn’t simply ‘What is a woman?’… it’s more ’Why has any ability to live and let live been lost if no one is being (disproportionately) threatened or harmed?’ Miscreants and predators don’t come in transgender form… they come in people form. My two penn’orth. 🤷‍♂️

submitted 58 days ago • 170 comments

Is Britain about to be sold out in a bad deal with Trump? My latest piece for @yorkshirebylines.co.uk

submitted 58 days ago • 8 comments

Unions have backed Equity’s call for greater co-ordination of activity to tackle the rise of the far right. The motion, moved by Equity’s Race Equality Committee, passed at the annual TUC Black Workers' Conference earlier this week. www.equity.org.uk/news/2025/un... #FreelancersMakeTheatreWork

submitted 64 days ago • 0 comments

BLOG: Why I’m Worried About Regional Theatre www.mrcarlwoodward.com/uncategorize...

submitted 66 days ago • 0 comments

A private equity firm just bought £1.6 BILLION worth of the NHS. It will make bigger profits by hiking rents for hospitals and NHS facilities. Previous govts privatized the estate. That means less money for frontline healthcare. NHS already drained by PFI and private contractors.

submitted 67 days ago • 35 comments

Got to take little Boo to the vet today - but will she have to travel in the hammock? (Favourite place!). Willow just chilling in the coconut 🥥 😌 #ratsofbluesky

submitted 70 days ago • 0 comments

Word of the day is ‘foxy’ (19th century), used of weather that misleads you into thinking it’s extremely warm when in reality it’s pretty chilly.

submitted 79 days ago • 53 comments

Kurt Vonnegut

submitted 80 days ago • 0 comments

Happy #WorldTheatreDay - here's to wonderful theatre families and the stories we've told ❤️ 🎭 #theatre #acting #drama #comedy #Shakespeare

submitted 85 days ago • 0 comments

Labour are not delivering the change voters were promised. Read our response to the Spring Statement calling for increased public investment into the arts and entertainment across the UK 👇 www.equity.org.uk/news/2025/la...

submitted 86 days ago • 0 comments

Rachel Reeves is right that the world has changed - so why won’t she change her strategy to reflect it? Rigid adherence to arbitrary fiscal rules & refusing wealth taxes is a political choice that’s causing huge pain & harm, as well as laying out the welcome mat for the populists at Reform UK

submitted 86 days ago • 140 comments

Britain's 177 billionaires sit on £965 bn - more EACH than the average Brit will earn in 1000 lifetimes. So obviously, Labour decided NOT to have a 2% wealth tax on this obscene, unspendable hoarding. More poverty for 6.9m disabled Britons is their solution. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

submitted 86 days ago • 46 comments

Oscar-winning Palestinian director attacked by Israeli settlers and arrested

submitted 87 days ago • 30 comments

The National Theatre and Wales Millennium Centre have announced further casting for the return of Nye, Tim Price's epic Welsh fantasia

submitted 92 days ago • 0 comments

I think NHS privatisation is about to accelerate massively, and that’s what my newsletter today is about 🚨🚨🚨 You can sign up here: jujuliagrace.substack.com

submitted 92 days ago • 2 comments

Benefit cuts are a 'violation of human rights' which will harm ill and disabled people, government warned www.bigissue.com/news/social-...

submitted 93 days ago • 20 comments

👏 More taxes? Yes please! Patriotic Millionaires want to do more for the country “Tax our wealth” – that’s the message from millionaires across the UK whose campaign is hitting the road ahead of the government’s spring statement By Josephine Ingram @joing.bsky.social

submitted 94 days ago • 5 comments

Broken Britain. Poorest households in Slovenia & Malta better off than the poorest in the UK. UK has some of the least generous welfare across the OECD. Less than 5% of UK private rental accommodation is affordable on housing benefit. Ending two-child benefit cap would reduce poverty by 1.7m.

submitted 94 days ago • 5 comments

Renowned Austrian author Eva #Menasse will be in the UK to discuss her work, in particular her most recent novel DARKENBLOOM, at events in Cambridge (21 March, @caiuscollege.bsky.social) and Brighton (24 March, @brightonuni.bsky.social). Please come! Registration links in thread below. 💙📚 #booksky

submitted 100 days ago • 2 comments

🎭Theatre can change lives 🎭 📢Sign this petition by Equity's Class Network to reinstate National Theatre Primary Schools Touring. Primary school touring offers inspiration to young people who might not otherwise encounter live theatre. ✍️👇 www.megaphone.org.uk/petitions/re...

submitted 100 days ago • 0 comments

Choosing to take money from disabled benefit claimants rather than levy a wealth tax is simply immoral 👇

submitted 101 days ago • 79 comments

On my blog today I’ve written a short piece about why GenAI is a crisis point for writers, artists and photographers and why the artwork of the beer brands who use it looks like shit. You can read it here: www.totalales.co.uk/blog/2025/3/...

submitted 103 days ago • 3 comments

An absolutely extraordinary selection of films by female directors all showing today @princecharlescinema.com Save the PCC! you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/sa... Once it's gone, it's gone forever.

submitted 104 days ago • 0 comments

Had the privilege of hearing the beautiful, evocative piano compositions by the super-talented Alastair Coughlan at the Actors' Church today. What a joy! 🎼👏👏👏 #piano #music #composition #composer #Actor

submitted 105 days ago • 0 comments

This cause is so important. If you can please sign: you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/ta...

submitted 105 days ago • 2 comments

Is it time for the Labour Party to return to its socialist roots? This writer argues that it should have done so long ago. Part 1 of 2 | Colin Tudge @westenglandbylines.co.uk

submitted 108 days ago • 19 comments

Etymology of the day: ‘book’ comes from an ancient root shared by ‘beech’, a wood that people used for engraving inscriptions. ‘Paper’ comes from ‘papyrus’, and ‘volume’ is from the Latin for a ‘roll’ of parchment. Happy World Book Day.

submitted 106 days ago • 54 comments

Happy World Book Day! 📚 Why not revisit a childhood favourite story and rediscover the magic. Children's books aren't just for kids – they can transport you back in time and offer new perspectives. By @jennyrhodes42.bsky.social #WorldBookDay #ReadABook

submitted 106 days ago • 1 comment

169,000 Signatures. Especially important to sign this given Trump's overnight imperial proclamations of tariffs and cutting aid to Ukraine. you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/no...

submitted 108 days ago • 2 comments