The Crafty Miss

We are in a climate emergency
Cri de cœur-ist disabled vegan migrant
Was an early modernist, now in public health
Aspiring Lorax living with solastalgia
Likes animals, evidence, justice, languages & dialects, citizen science, the outdoors, tea
Prefers the quiet place
Curious about things

[Profile is the front page of a 17th-century pamphlet 'The Crafty Miss'; header is a colourful and cloud-streaked sunset over a green field]

Pronouns: She/her; they/them

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Last Notes

2026-04-15 06:27:42 UTC

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I do not want a special strategy. I do not want a weird hub. I certainly don't want a Yelp for hospitals payment scheme.
I want funded capacity under strong management and governance, reduced waiting times, and best treatments from high quality research. I want ethical practice and psychological safety for a diverse workforce and population. I want reduced health inequalities.
Nearly 2 years after taking power, Streeting's readiness to say the NHS is failing seems ill-advised

2026-04-04 06:52:46 UTC

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I've considered growing these. Are they tasty?

2026-03-26 08:11:06 UTC

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Depends on who the replacement would be

2026-03-10 06:27:15 UTC

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Yeah, it's the second one. Won't hold my breath for Starmer and Reeves to let Miliband have the resources we need to make that a reality, though.
Wonder how this will be played in the popular discourse, like how successful the fossil fuel industry will be in smearing renewables by blaming e.g. sustainability levies for the additional costs

2026-03-09 07:10:00 UTC

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And the public and third sectors are experiencing the same headwinds. People aren't filling vacancies, let alone creating new ones. It's awful out there

2026-02-27 07:09:54 UTC

Quite apart from party, there's going to be a plumber serving in Parliament. A working-class woman can be an MP. This reminder is important. Representation matters

2026-02-19 07:23:02 UTC

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The idea that you have to have done the job already to get the job has been the hard paradox of early careers in particular for a long time.
People are treated like sparkplugs: they are selected to slot in a do the job uniformly form the start, the tossed away if they can't at any point.
Unless we change the mindset in organisations to embrace potential with a willingness to invest in people and their development, I don't see how we get our of this situation

2026-02-16 20:12:20 UTC

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Thoughts and prayers for all the local authorities who now have to scramble to hold an election with less than three months' notice.
I expect turnout will be low because there's not enough time to reach low-engagement voters. That will benefit Reform and other weird parties, but hopefully also small parties like the Greens

2026-02-16 08:30:17 UTC

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I see. I think that makes me more concerned by his musing then!
I would like to see people (especially those with the cred of having not only the platform of the FT but also of being economists etc.) be extremely wary the kind of supposition that can fuel AI boosterism.
For every FT headline even hinting that AI is improving productivity, we'll see more orgs, govt's etc. adopt it (mostly LLMs) uncritically

2026-02-16 07:31:51 UTC

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There is no body of evidence that offers proof of AI as a whole improving productivity so how can a journalist make a casual link here?

2026-02-07 08:34:10 UTC

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And not just in the USA (though the USA may be the most crackers example)

2026-02-04 07:15:47 UTC

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How many headlines of 'Government agrees £1bn cut to NHS to appease Trump' will run, do you reckon?

2026-01-25 08:01:12 UTC

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I was imagining something like the GMC. It's an interesting idea but I won't hold my breath for something tha will actually be robust

2026-01-06 09:38:39 UTC

I want to move someone from Windows to a Linux distro. He's not techy at all so wants something that will look familiar and work. Compatibility paramount, especially for web and an Office replacement.
He browses the web, makes/uses documents, and streams video and listens to/catalogues music.
I think Mint can run off a thumb drive, yes? I suspect he'd be happier trying it out before committing but the idea of a partitioned drived freaked him out when I explained it.
Suggestions?
#Linux

2026-01-02 12:20:20 UTC

1989 and Tomorrow's World are talking about how the house of 2020 will be focused on reducing fossil fuel use. This was a relatively mainstream programme. People knew what needed to be done and our leaders failed us (and we failed ourselves).
I feel so cross and sad when I am confronted by how much wasted time there has been.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/videos/cnk55nnnyxpo
#ClimateDiary

2025-12-28 10:13:13 UTC

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Or a division between home-havers who can't afford any treats because of outrageous housing-related costs inc. maintaining old and crumbling stock and treat-havers who have enough disposable income to spend on those but not enough to stretch to home ownership given said outrageous costs.
Only the very rich and very lucky are likely to manage both.
Perhaps this will mean increasing segmentation and diversification to market to those different groups.

2025-12-26 10:08:17 UTC

I think I'd like to grow a fig tree. Any suggestions (variety, pot and size thereof vs lined/paved hole, AOB) for Northern England?
#Pomology
#Fruit

2025-12-23 07:10:00 UTC

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I struggle to see the angle on this. Is it the economic activity they're worried about losing from the local Greggs or something?

2025-12-22 07:34:32 UTC

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The fact that there's a cardinal direction (shorter distance across the landmass than N to S no less) you sort can't really travel in the country is absurd

2025-12-04 07:03:12 UTC

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Hopefully just me fretting but after Cass and all the hateful nonsense about over-diagnosis among politicians as well as a worrying number in the NHS, I don't have much confidence

2025-12-04 06:58:55 UTC

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I think it will go beyond that to raising official barriers to diagnosis for ND conditions at least

2025-11-17 08:46:36 UTC

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I chose 13 years based on the Syrian civil war but a conflict or regime could last longer.
Also seriously hacked off that she complained about 'illegal' immigration and in the next breath, trailed her asylum and refugee attack, conflating the ideas.
Politicians and the media confect this narrative, then act shocked when people try to burn down the hotels etc.

2025-11-17 06:48:26 UTC

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If it takes, say, 13 years for that to happen, you could well have refugees who have children born in the UK, who have only known life here.
They are proposing to e.g. send parent back to a country they haven't known for years, also ripping their UK-born children out of the only country and perhaps language they know. May also separate adult couples if partner is of a different nationality.
What human rights? Labour are xenophobic ghouls just like the last lot

2025-11-06 07:41:37 UTC

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ADHD is a neuro-developmental disorder, not a mental health difficulty. But it has the same lack of parity of esteem!
There may be a slight increase in incidence, but this is unlikely to be a significant contributor to more people seeking diagnoses. As with autism, it appears to be a combination of things including more awareness, less stigma, and maybe COVID times that gave people opportunities to notice new things about themselves.
Closing waiting lists is unforgivable

2025-10-12 07:56:11 UTC

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I doubt how much this will but through especially to influence voting in future. If someone could find 50 voters who knew about this issue and the BS workaround in the advertised role, with more than half of them annoyed by the cynical solution, I'd be flabbergasted.
But I am willing, nay keen, to be flabbergasted!

2025-10-04 13:54:22 UTC

What's your favourite cottage garden plant? Even better if you say what you love about it!
#Gardening
#Flowers

2025-09-17 06:35:10 UTC

Do you have a GB-based spring bulb (autumn-planted) source you would recommend?
#Gardening
#GardeningUK

2025-09-16 05:12:09 UTC

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I know what we make feels like in terms of standard of living. What most of the country thinks of as well-off isn't anymore. My wage isn't great so much as the average is an insult to human dignity.
30k is a pittance. Avg has barely shifted in the past decade compared against soaring costs. The UK is a low-wage economy (relative to CoL, public services) compared to similar neighbours

2025-09-14 02:03:03 UTC

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I think California quail are some of the most charming birds. Glad they're up on the mountain to keep you company

2025-08-29 06:11:12 UTC

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Given all we are learning about the potential post-acute sequelae of various viral infections including immune dysregulation, I think avoiding viral diseases where possible is in keeping with the precautionary principle. NHS access to the vax enables this.
Let's protect more wains from future shingles (and associated dementia)!

2025-08-19 06:35:05 UTC

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Whoops, doomerism unintentional! My complaint is with repeated messaging about how bad things are in the same ways/outlets but expecting a different result. Decades of that approach have brought us here.
We need to test and learn how to communicate better with more people, building their capability for collective action while overcoming the power structures dedicated to the status quo. And we need enticing visions of what a radically different future could look like

2025-08-19 06:18:03 UTC

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Sounding the alarm in the ways that have been tried is not enough, at least on its own. People are willing to opine about their data, or feelings about data, but comparatively little is being done to create the revolutionary systemic change that is necessary for survival

2025-08-13 16:50:30 UTC

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As you rightly suss, genetic predisposition is about probability at a population level and not a definitive prediction for you personally, but always nicer to have a negative finding on that sort of thing.
And you are right, you are providing immense help to researchers by sharing your profile given you come from an under-represented ethnic background!
Summer would make an excellent research assistant, I think

2025-06-05 07:29:29 UTC

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I disagree that the up-stream issue is social care. That's just another down-stream presentation of need, if perhaps not so far down as the emergency department. Shifting need around the health and care system isn't the solution.
We have a whole field who have done the root-cause analysis and are highly trained and experienced with the skills to act on the evidence. Someone just needs to give us public health professionals the capacity and resource commensurate with the challenge

2025-05-25 21:28:55 UTC

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How are they so bad at this?
And how is Farage allowed to do the same cynical sort of out-maneuvering every time?

2025-05-21 21:45:47 UTC

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Then they'll turn around and complain that the costs of diet-related ill health are bankrupting the NHS like they didn't have the solution to this handed to them decades ago by public health experts

2024-12-30 09:46:36 UTC

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But having seen how older people who are asset rich and cash poor get left (even willing relatives may not have funds to retrofit or repair Gran's house) or become prey to weird equity release schemes, a state-run option that could ensure health, safe ageing in places and also help transfer assets more equitably by moving private housing into public ownership might be useful

2024-12-30 09:42:47 UTC

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I would love to hear an expert response to my off-the-cuff idea this morning in response to the above. Namely, a national programme to improve properties belonging to poorer owner-occupiers with something like the equivalent value from any future sale going back into the scheme. If equal to or exceeding the value of the property, maybe it could become council housing at the point the owner-occupier vacates (e.g. care home or death).
Some prospective inheritors might balk!

2024-12-27 07:24:02 UTC

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I cannot fathom why his opinion is worth publishing or heeding

2024-12-21 19:53:24 UTC

"Ministers resist calls to block Musk donations to Farage’s Reform UK
Government fears moves to curb any potential cash from the tech titan could backfire and play into Reform UK’s hands"
Oh my fucking god these people. Yes, I'm sure capitulation is what will defeat the oligarchs and fascists
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/dec/21/ministers-resist-calls-to-block-musk-donations-to-farages-reform-uk

2024-12-20 09:14:34 UTC

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An aside: I'd like the media to stop calling them sewage 'spills'. They aren't little accidents like spilling a bit of tea on a carpet. They're 19 hours of deliberately allowing raw sewage into waterways

2024-12-15 07:27:54 UTC

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Restriction to citizens only will further exclude migrants who pay tax here and are subject to laws but have no way to influence those laws because we're not allowed to vote. Even those of us with permanent residency aren't allowed to vote. I'd not like to see our political participation restricted further

2024-12-14 08:42:38 UTC

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Thanks for clarifying.
And recognise the pressure described, to go to London to get on in a career. When I worked in the charity sector, this as a thing because the HQs are always there (why?). Weird that this persists when remote working exists.
Even within regions, places like Barnsley, Northern Lincs. etc. have fewer people with qualifications beyond lvl 4 because folk away to study but don't come home. So even within regions, there is brain-drain

2024-12-14 07:43:36 UTC

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Oof, what is a top-tier career by Burn-Murdoch's reckoning? Is everyone working outside of London mediocre? Just because folk are paid less elsewhere doesn't mean their work is lesser but that's how the phrasing makes it sound

2024-12-09 09:25:11 UTC

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I am aware of the supposed paradox and need for housing. Planning isn't sought for housing in the abstract, though. People object to specific developments. Missing nuance makes it easy to label people as NIMBYs rather than dig into the deeper issues.
Proposals should be better and focus on place-making, not endless sprawl of car-dependent, environment-destroying, ugly but unaffordable boxes lacking commensurate infrastructure. Those might stand a better chance of local support

2024-12-09 08:56:52 UTC

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It's infuriating. If there's one matter on which local decision-making is obviously the right place for power to rest, it must be planning. It's local communities who are affected and it's their needs that will or won't be met by the proposed developments.
To let someone in London decide what gets approved in my neck of the woods (or anyone else's) is insultingly dis-empowering as well as inefficient

2024-12-06 11:13:36 UTC

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Share link to article: https://on.ft.com/3DezFdG

2024-12-06 07:11:37 UTC

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The piece talks about the % of male abuse victims then suggests all their abusers are women but doesn't give stats for this, and gives stats on % of physically violent women (but not their victim's gender). This heteronormative framing misses LGBTQ relationships, which is definitely as aspect of simplification of narratives on DV

2024-12-06 07:00:01 UTC

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Patriarchy and toxic masculinity also harm men (and non-binary folks). The fact of men experiencing DV doesn't negate any role of patriarchy in that violence. Neither does it have to be the exclusive driver of such violence to be a valid one

2024-12-06 06:53:20 UTC

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Oh no. I hope she feels better soon

2024-12-05 18:13:25 UTC

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I'm begging you all to wash your hands, wear a mask, and stay home if you're poorly wherever possible.
If you're eligible, please get vaccinated. If you don't qualify for an NHS flu vaccine, ask if your employer offers vouchers for these. Many do.
It's not just about public health, it's also for your own comfort. Norovirus before Christmas sucks, as I know from bitter experience

2024-12-03 07:34:24 UTC

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Even my Tory FiL thinks the Haigh story is a bizarre overreaction to a total non-issue. It seems to have been an extremely trivial matter over which police went crackers, and a sudden storm over a known and spent conviction.
When we treat experience of the carceral system as a lifelong stain then we create permanent disadvantage that traps less privileged folk than Haigh in crime

2024-11-28 07:30:01 UTC

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It isn't always reliable but it's a measure already used across palliative and end-of-life care (and thus in social care, benefits, and all sorts).
One might ask why it's good enough to determine when you can get a syringe driver to mange your pain, or when you or your partner get certain support approved if it ain't good enough for allowing someone who has a terminal illness to say it's time to let them end their life

2024-11-20 07:36:22 UTC

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Wasn't aware farmers were a social class. Also, if it's a class war against someone other than the working class (as you noted, no one mentions *those* class wars), then are those papers accepting farmers aren't working-class? Or at least not the ones whinging about this?

2024-11-16 08:14:45 UTC

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PH working hard on this building a concept and narrative around commercial determinants of health, while groups that cut their teeth fighting tobacco are now looking at obesity and Big Food. We'll line up the pieces, but it required government putting them in play.
As usual, while Westminster and Whitehall faff about, the localities, regions, and devolved govts will get on with the work

2024-11-12 07:02:35 UTC

I saw a butterfly fluttering around yesterday afternoon (11 November). Various bees were out, too.
Good god
#ClimateDiary

2024-11-09 09:41:44 UTC

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God, it's always 'poor kid are obviously not academic. do nothing to help them understand what education might be like and why it might be desirable, just shunt them into trades'.
British class system orthodoxy no more glaring than in the discourse about education, I find

2024-11-06 13:13:20 UTC

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I look forward to their 'Putin: photos of a diamond geezer' feature soon

2024-11-04 06:02:38 UTC

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Polio isn't gone. Look at Gaza. No one is safe until everyone is safe. Just eliminating polio cases in rich countries by using IPV isn't enough.
The rest of the world (like Gaza) gets OPV. It is at best a double-edged sword. We use it in places the world can't be arsed to spend resources and effort to protect poor populations properly with IPV as part of widespread routine vaccination

2024-10-28 08:13:04 UTC

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I was stunned when I learned that some UK employers have retirement ages that are essentially compulsory

2024-10-14 06:03:56 UTC

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Correlation isn't causation. There's a real an unanswered question about whether any causal relationship exists between those two variables and, if so, in which direction (i.e. are we seeing that anxious, depressed people spend more time on social media rather than the other way round)

2024-10-12 07:37:59 UTC

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Bingo. The whole thing looks, walk, and quacks like a scam. I also think it's unethical for me to extract wealth from the economy just because I might have amassed a bit of money. The idea of rewarding rich people for being rich makes me sick.
We don't really have much if anything to invest but we have put a few hundred here and there into e.g. community energy schemes. I don't care if we get a return. The idea is to provide liquidity to important work delivering social good

2024-10-04 06:14:12 UTC

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The UK is a low-wage economy compared to similar countries. There's a lot of talk of how expensive things are but I'd argue wages are actually too low. The minimum wage should double and the average income should probably be about 30% higher.
Yes, *I* am the reason Threadneedle St must guard zealously against inflation

2024-09-27 08:30:46 UTC

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I would rather see any of them leave under a better tax system than keep them here under the current farce

2024-09-26 15:50:05 UTC

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That's if they don't take the plot away from us because we've been so slow in clearing it!

2024-09-23 16:08:05 UTC

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Absolutely. I am contemplating getting on the site mgmt group to try and at least tackle new badness

2024-09-22 19:42:33 UTC

I'm appalled at the state allotment plots are allowed to reach, and especially in terms of the plastic and other toxic pollution on them.
There are plastics everywhere, people use sprays like round-up, they burn waste, there's chipboard and its probable formaldehyde content, creosoted timer. The asbestos cement at least gets taken by the council if you find it. As for the rest, we're all supposed to grow food in a mulch of microplastic and chipboard

2024-09-16 04:16:00 UTC

Makers of the Fedi, is is actually that difficult to make curtains for a sewing beginner?
I sewed a few rectangular things decades ago in school. Curtains seems really straightforward as they're just more rectangles (blackout fabric stitched into hems, hidden tabs stitched behind the header).
Am I missing something and underestimating the challenge?
#Makers
#Sewing

2024-09-15 09:37:36 UTC

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But no politician likely to announce reallocation of health funding that means reductions to NHS services to fund PH prevention work that could take, say, two or three parliamentary terms to demonstrate effectiveness.
V. limited options for simultaneously fighting present fires of NHS demand & preventing future/bigger fires with the same limited resource. Also no appetite to put in the mammoth funding to do both at once (see strawman of an 'NHS with a small country attached')

2024-09-15 09:30:49 UTC

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The NHS is not at its core a prevention service.
Most PH -- especially around the building blocks of health -- is done by local authorities (context is set by national policy). The PH grant from central gov't has seen nine consecutive years of cuts, coming to a 24% per-person real-terms reduction in PH funding. This has fallen unequally on more deprived communities. Yes, even through COVID.
The tub won't stop overflowing until someone turns off the tap

2024-09-14 20:44:02 UTC

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He looks sweet but a bit lost. How fortunate that you found him and he can learn to be at home now

2024-09-09 07:49:00 UTC

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But the weird quasi-religious devotion to the idol of SMEs is just one reason she probably won't go this route. And there's probably not enough HMRC staff to tackle the avoidance

2024-09-08 13:51:16 UTC

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For plants to add/consider:
Dianthus deltoides
Jasione montana
Trifolium repens
Thymus polytrichus
If you can stand some that will get taller if you leave it unmown for a bit but will take mowing (just not flower unless you leave things to grown until, say June):
Geranium sanguineum
Silene vulgaris
Veronica chamaedrys
Dianthus gratianopolitanus

2024-09-08 13:48:53 UTC

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How exciting! May I suggest a pollinator-friendly lawn, something that doesn't get taller than roughly 30 cm and can take mowing? Not sure of your soil and sun.
If you want some more guaranteed success, you can use plug plants from e.g. Naturescape. This is what we did on our front lawn to make a pollinator-friendly grass area.
Naturescape also sell seed, which you could use instead of or alongside plugs
https://www.naturescape.co.uk/product/n14-flowering-lawn-mixture/
https://www.naturescape.co.uk/product-category/grass-mixtures/grass-seeds/

2024-09-08 05:53:06 UTC

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He's gorgeous. Is he a particular breed?

2024-09-05 15:16:35 UTC

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Did you see any children in lobster suits? There were advertisements for the Hepworth on every train platform we visited today and they all featured a child in a red lobster suit complete with little black eyes on stalks

2024-09-03 21:38:41 UTC

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Our grouse is a very, very, very fine grouse

2024-09-03 20:34:16 UTC

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There is a grouse in New Orleans

2024-08-29 06:16:35 UTC

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As the article says, incidence (new diagnoses) appears to be stabilising or tailing off. And the prevalence is still small even if the relative increase is high.
I'm more concerned by the proportion not carrying an epi-pen. 1/3 not carrying their best chance of surviving an anaphylactic event in a community setting is a shocking figure

2024-08-20 06:24:47 UTC

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I am begging people to make evidence-based policy. There's no evidence longer sentences reduce crime. There's no evidence for punitive prison. There may be for some services provided in prison but those could be delivered another way.
Anyone serious about reducing crime -- especially violence -- would look to evidence, not more incarceration.
A long-term step would be to end child poverty. Labour have kept the two child benefit cap. They're not serious about crime reduction

2024-08-19 13:02:12 UTC

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That would be great but we don't have access to leaves or local woodchips so there's not much of an alternative for adding browns to compost.
I can buy in woodchip but there's no guarantee it's not treated, glued/bonded with formaldehyde, etc. and it's expensive

2024-08-09 07:36:21 UTC

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We're in that 10% and I've resigned myself to dying early and in bad conditions without children to advocate for me, and in the accelerating climate breakdown. I don't expect anything in terms of social care to be available by the time I'm of an age.
The flip side is that having kids doesn't guarantee they can or will ensure a more comfortable and safe older age, but it does guarantee having to raise the kids

2024-08-07 15:49:07 UTC

My husband's employer has advised their staff to leave bang-on five today and go straight home for their safety. This fascist violence is out of control