2026
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British Milk Down the Drain While Palm Oil Comes In
British dairy farmers are dumping surplus milk during peak production while UK food manufacturers import palm oil to replace dairy fat in their recipes. Palm oil wins out because it’s cheaper and more shelf-stable than butterfat, but the rainforest and peatland clearance behind it does far more damage than the swap suggests, sterilising entire ecosystems,…
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I Deleted a Facebook Post About Statistics
Today I deleted a Facebook post about UK rape statistics after a straightforward share turned into an argument about grooming gangs, race and immigration within minutes – which was not my intention. The graphic itself didn’t mention ethnicity or immigration status, but a comment dragged the conversation there anyway, and once the source of a…
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When Did Normal Politics Become Far Right?
The term “far right” is increasingly used to describe political positions that were considered ordinary, and held by people across the political spectrum, until relatively recently. Its overuse has blurred the line between normal democratic disagreement and genuine extremism, making the label less precise, less credible and less useful. When did it become far right…
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When Government Decides What We Should Hear
The UK government is currently consulting on plans, set out in the Watch This Space green paper, media literacy strategy and a linked evidence review, that would give “trusted” and public service sources greater prominence on platforms and search results. Backers call it protecting people from misinformation. Critics call it a quiet way to shape which voices…
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Political Commentary Is Now a Subscription Business
Political commentary increasingly runs on the same mechanics as a content farm: a provocative social post drives clicks to a paid platform, and the strength of the argument matters less than whether it converts. Matt Goodwin’s Facebook post about the murders of Jo Cox and Ann Widdecombe raises a fair question about double standards on…
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When A Broken Man Walks Through The Door
Some men walk into Andy’s Man Club quietly. Some after walking or driving passed a few times. Some hover near the door; unsure – anxious. Some sit down, fold their arms, and spend the first hour working out whether they’ve made a terrible mistake. And then some men walk in already broken. I don’t mean…
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One Simple Idea – 10 Years of Andy’s Man Club
Ten years ago today, one man sat in a coffee shop with an idea. A week after asking for the blessing from the heartbroken mother of a young man who’d lost her son to suicide. he didn’t have a business plan. It wasn’t a national charity with hundreds of venues across the UK. Just an…
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YouTube’s AI Slop Problem Nobody Wants to Admit
YouTube allows anonymous channels to build AI-generated political content around the names and faces of real public figures, with no clear label telling viewers what they’re watching. Google talks about fighting AI slop in search while YouTube rewards the same thing with reach and subscribers. A visible on-screen disclosure, stating when a video uses AI-written…
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Addiction Is What Pain Looks Like From the Outside
People are very good at seeing the bit that inconveniences them. They see the drinking, the drugs, the gambling, the missed appointments, the broken promises, the lies, the chaos and the damage. And to be fair, those things are real. Addiction doesn’t only hurt the person stuck in it. It can tear through families. It…
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Many Men Carry the Same Weight for Years
Sometimes, at Andy’s Man Club, you hear a man talk about something he’s been carrying for years. He doesn’t sit down and announce it. It’s not that neat. It comes out in bits, in the way he talks about work, about his family, about himself, in the same sentence he’s probably said a hundred times…