If a healthy life involves a good night's sleep, the control of one's work-life balance reflects a major class divide in the autonomy of workers.
Managers & executives are usually pretty much in control of the tempo of their working lives, while at the other end of the work-spectrum, gig economy & other precarious workers very much are not.
The health impact of sleep is one more area where class remains a crucial dimension underplayed in our politics.
In Spain protests against a dysfunctional housing market have culminated in a snap election (after the minority Govt.'s attempt to make some legislative headway were stalled by opposition parties).... I wonder what would happen in the UK if protests around housing gathered such pace?
Might they be outlawed as threats to national security; or the organisation proscribed as a threat to national infrastructure & trying to influent a Govt?
Cynical, moi?
#housing #politics
https://www.opendemocracy.net/spain-one-eviction-snap-election-maricarmen-abascal-pedro-sanchez/
Do Andy Burnham & Yvette Cooper understand that the crisis in social care is about more than care for the elderly?
Yesterday I posted on the relative lack of visibility of 'kinship care' for children, today John Harris points to an equal lack of visibility in Govt. (outline) proposals for a 'national care service' of care for people with disabilities.
The care crisis is much wider than just the plight of those near the end of their lives.
#care #politics #disability
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/oct/05/social-care-disabled-adults-crisis-elderly-people-government-silent
In the last week OpenAI's software has been revealed (confirmed might be better) as a rogue agent, hacking IT systems around the world, prompting legal cases for damages.
Might OpenAI's future not be one of growth but of decline under the growing weight of legal claims against it. The key issue will be Courts' view of the ability to assign responsibility to OpenAI.
Whichever jurisdiction *does* establish legal responsibility will quickly become the place to sue OpenAI!
#AI #RuleOfLaw
h/t FT
When schools are not safe for young women, then we know there is something wrong in society; assaults may be child-on-child, but that only emphasises how early problems of sexual abuse are showing up in young people's lives.
But, can we expect already over-worked, thinly-spread teachers to deal with this too? We need to do better; if this is what happens at school its no surprise that such abuse is carried forward into adult life.
#schools #SexualAssault
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2026/oct/04/child-on-child-sexual-abuse-schools-england-and-wales
Much of the focus on the care crisis involves those caring for elderly loved ones, but more than twice the number of children in foster care are part of more informal kinship care relationships.
It increasingly obvious that society is dependent on people's goodwill & compassion for those who are unable to look after themselves.
For too long carers have been ignored or maligned by Govt. we need to be clearer about the real social contribution they make!
#politics #care
https://www.theguardian.com/society/ng-interactive/2026/oct/04/10-minutes-to-decide-life-changing-call-kinship-carer
Gig economy 'employers' claim workers are self-employed rests on 'substitution clauses' allowing workers to transfer (or lend) their account to others while the 'owner' of the account is not using it. This also has allowed a secondary market in these accounts which (some argue) has drawn migrant workers into this exploitative work environment.
The Govt. is looking to remove this defence used to argue workers are *not* employees, to increase workers' rights
#GigEconomy #workers #politics
h/t FT
Young people, who have grown up with social media, AI & associated technologies, smartphones & other products of information capitalism (so called 'digital natives') also see the most negative about the social impact of such technologies....
Perhaps we should listen to them... they are using these technologies, see what they do & now see this as a threat to the good life they want to live; they are unlikely to want to hear older people saying Govt. cannot help.
My favourite paintings, no.63
Roy Lichtenstein, Brushstroke (1965)
Roy Lichtenstein's cartoon appropriating pop art is well known, but I its love this rendering of a brushstroke in that signature style. It takes the thing that he was (essentially) critiqued for removing from painting & depicts it in the criticised style. Its a simple but effective (ironic) comment on his critics. And of course, it functions as representation & abstraction; a simple joy.