Chaminda Jayanetti

@cjayanetti.bsky.social

41432 Followers 1718 Following

Freelance journalist covering British politics and public services - NHS, education, care, housing, disability, benefits. Not a tribalist. I like good things and I don't like bad things.

Substack post text:

But criminal law and social media regulations shouldn’t necessarily be trying to serve the same purpose. Codes of conduct covering traditional media don’t merely prohibit what is illegal, because they address the media’s role as a source of information. But surely concerns about misinformation on social media similarly relate to social media’s role as a source of information?

BBC live blog text:

Ed Miliband has told BBC political editor Chris Mason it is the "honour of my life" to serve as foreign secretary.

Speaking as he left No 10 following his appointment, he said: "My parents came here as Jewish refugees fleeing from the Nazis, and for them, Britain provided sanctuary and a beacon of hope in the fight against fascism".

Article text by Alexis Petridis in the Guardian:

onnie Tyler had a peculiar career: two bursts of global success that seemed to have almost nothing to do with each other beyond the name that appeared on the records. Her first big British hits, 1976’s Lost in France and 1977’s It’s a Heartache, were superior examples of what writer Pete Paphides subsequently dubbed “medium wave pop", the largely forgotten stuff that actually filled the charts and Radio One’s playlists at a time when reductive rock histories would have you believe the entire nation was gripped by punk. They were a little bit soft rock, a little bit country, a little reminiscent of reliable mid-70s hitmakers Smokie, and so catchy that no one seemed to notice that somewhere between their respective releases, Tyler’s voice had changed dramatically: possessed of a rather sweet tone on Lost in France, an operation to remove nodules on her vocal cords had caused her to develop a striking Rod Stewart-like huskiness by the time of It’s a Heartache.

Substack text:

If we hold social media platforms responsible for individual posts and videos they don’t remove, and punish them for not removing them, they are liable to over-correct and overreach in response. We cannot assume they will employ moderators with extensive legal training – they may be inexperienced, with a brief crash course in the law and Ofcom’s 442-page guidance document. Would posting “Gary Sambrook eats big dinners” constitute abusive words likely to cause harassment or distress? No. Might an inexperienced put-upon moderator, working under threat of sanction if their employer got fined for not deleting an illegal post, decide the safe approach is removing it? Stupider things have happened.

Substack text:

For example, section 5 of the Public Order Act defines an offence as using “threatening or abusive words or behaviour, or disorderly behaviour … within the hearing or sight of a person likely to be caused harassment, alarm or distress thereby”.

Sometimes these judgement calls will be obvious; other times they won’t. Ofcom’s guidance tries to clarify the meaning of “distress” and “harassment” thusly: “Distress involves an element of real emotional disturbance or upset. The same is not necessarily true of harassment. A person may be harassed, without experiencing any emotional disturbance or upset. However, although the harassment does not have to be grave, it should also not be trivial.”

Substack text:

Therefore I think regulation should be structured around “tiers” of culpability:

- platforms that financially reward content based on viewing figures go in the highest tier

- platforms that don’t do this, but do use non-chronological algorithms go in the middle tier

- other platforms go in the lowest tier

Substack text:

Changing the incentives for social media providers means changing their balance of risks in order to change their responses – but those responses won’t always change in the intended way. Severe penalties for breaking badly defined rules can lead to ultra-cautious overcorrection.

Substack text:

The other example concerns an online suicide forum that Ofcom fined £950,000 in May, with a threat of legal action to shut it down in the UK if the forum fails to block UK users itself. At first glance, this seems like the kind of meaty regulatory clampdown Britain needs. But the fine only came at the end of a 13-month-long investigation, during which the forum – linked to more than a hundred UK deaths – was still visible to users in this country. Worse, Ofcom initially dropped enforcement action after the forum said it would block UK users voluntarily. The regulator only restarted proceedings after campaigners pointed out the forum had previously offered to block users when faced with scrutiny from other countries, only to U-turn once those investigations had closed.

Results of that political quiz thing:

63% woke v 37% chud
45% techbro v 55% neo-luddite
61% hopepilled v 39 doomer
78% Davos v 22% Dubai (not even sure what this means)

Your closest match: Pope Leo XIV

Huey Lewis and the News - they of Hip to be Square

Post by Grace Robertson saying that Senegalese footballer Sadio Mane "hasn't been able to make a decent run in behind since his wife was still at school"

Footage of a small group of DR Congo fans celebrating a goal by their team, amid a silent sea of Portuguese supporters in the Lisbon fan park

Paraguay men's national football team manager Gustavo Alfaro on the touchline, with a face resembling Reform MP Lee Anderson

Community meme:

I can excuse mass murder of innocent civilians, but I am required to draw the line at sexual violence

Text of UK health secretary's submission to the Supreme Court case:

5. The Secretary of State recognises that this submission is contrary to the decision of the (bare) majority in Cheshire West. However, for the reasons set out below, the Secretary of State contends that the law took a wrong turn in Cheshire West, and invites this Court to return to the ECtHR approach. Further, there are now extensive safeguards for incapacitated persons who are provided with care and support, which were not in place at the time of Cheshire West (see Annex 1). As such, the “policy rationale” for extending the scope of deprivation of
liberty in order to provide checks on the vulnerable is much reduced.

Guardian photograph of Sadiq Khan looking bald with a full-on buzzcut

Average shortfalls faced by private renters on housing benefit paying the 30th percentile of local rents - in 2024 they wouldn't have faced any shortfall at all:

one bedroom in shared accommodation (aka the “shared accommodation rate”): average £754 annual shortfall

- one-bedroom property: £1,206
- two-bedroom property: £1,566
- three-bedroom property: £1,875
- four or more bedrooms: £2,412 (£2,190 excluding the Central London BRMA)

Guardian article text:

Maguire has excelled for United since Michael Carrick took over as the head coach in mid-January and was called up by Tuchel for the March international programme. The 33-year-old started against Uruguay and came on as a late substitute against Japan, when he brought a threat on set pieces.

But Tuchel has decided to prioritise other players in the position. He is expected to select Ezri Konsa, Marc Guéhi and John Stones, despite Stones’s lack of football for City; he has made only four appearances since 2 December. Also in the frame are Trevoh Chalobah, Jarell Quansah and Dan Burn. Levi Colwill, the Chelsea centre-back, has missed out after being absent for most of the season with a knee injury. The Milan defender Fikayo Tomori has also not been selected.

My results for John Oxley's political map quiz:

"Social Democrat - Centre-left on economics, cosmopolitan and pro-European, with a belief in strong public services and a broadly Atlanticist foreign policy"

Basically I lean collectivist rather than free market on economics, cosmopolitan rather than nationalist on sovereignty, a moderately progressive on social issues, and near the centre on military, civil liberties and constitutional questions

Chart showing success rate of new PIP applicants over time - it declined from around 60% in 2016 to 54% on the eve of the pandemic, briefly jumps to 62% in April 2020, settles for a while just below 50%, then rises to 56% in early 2024 before gradually declining below 50% in late 2025

Politics Home article text:

On Sunday Josh Simons, a former minister who previously led Starmerite organisation Labour Together, added his name to the list of MPs calling on Starmer to be replaced.

“I do not believe the Prime Minister can rise to this moment. He has lost the country. He should take control of the situation by overseeing an orderly transition to a new prime minister,” Simons said.

BBC text by Phil Sims, BBC Scotland political correspondent:

Just two MSPs keep seats from the first Scottish parliament

Fergus Ewing's defeat in Inverness and Nairn means there are just two MSPs left who have represented the same seats from 1999 through to the next term.

Jackie Baillie has racked up her seventh win in Dumbarton, and John Swinney has maintained his streak in Perthshire North.

Remarkably the first minister has triumphed over the same man every single time - Tory Murdo Fraser.

For all of the churn and change today, there are at least a few constants in Scottish politics.

BBC text by Iain Watson:

In other words, they are looking for Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham to return as an MP and to fight a leadership contest in due course.

A significant number of "soft left" MPs prefer him to former deputy prime minister Angela Rayner - another possible contender – or at least believe Burnham would be more popular with voters.

Some who resisted him before, including people you'd describe as Blairites (supporters of former Prime Minister Tony Blair), say they could "live with" him.

People magazine front page from January 2022 with the headline "Betty White Turns 100!" Betty White died aged 99 in December 2021, after this front page had gone to print but before she died

photo posted on Instagram of the ceiling of Ely Cathedral, in the form of something apparently called a "vertorama", which basically ends up making Ely Cathedral's ornate ceiling look like the shape of a vagina

loaf of bread looking like a vagina with lots of seeds around it

Comic Book Guy from The Simpsons, with a face of utter derision

Alan Partridge mid-conversation

Whitney Halberstram from Industry, probably midway through claiming that allegations his fraudulent company is fraudulent are just an attempt to disrupt its share price

tweet posted by Bushra Shaikh on 11th January 2026 - quote-tweeting a tweet by Spectator Index that "UK-based Iran International reports that the most conservative estimates are that at least 2,000 protesters have been killed in Iran over the past 48 hours", she says: "The real number is 6 million"

Text from Politics Home interview with Samantha Niblett:

Niblett said she wants the campaign to be about "taking control of our patriotism, about taking control of our Britishness, and not feeling ashamed".

text from Politics Home interview with Samantha Niblett:

Niblett said she wants the campaign to be about "taking control of our patriotism, about taking control of our Britishness, and not feeling ashamed"

Thelma and Louise, from the film Thelma & Louise

screengrab of the top of a Telegraph comment article by Jake Wallis Simons published this morning

Headline: Trump gambled on Iran and he won

Standfirst: The US president used the wiles of a street fighter to pull a ceasefire deal out of the bag