Saba Salman

Saba Salman

@sabasalman.com

Journalist|editor|author 📚NEW BOOK Double Discrimination 2026 📚Made Possible 2020 👩🏽‍💻 https://sabasalman.com ✍🏽Private Eye|Guardian|Byline Times|Ed. Community Living 💜Chair @sibs.org.uk|Ambassador @ndtihello.bsky.social 🏛️FRSA @thersaorg.bsky.social

3.5K followers1.7K following754 posts

No need to read it to know what it says about support for learning disabled and/or autistic people: -people are failed -we're concerned Meanwhile: 'Disabled people continue to die prematurely while society fails to act': communitylivingmagazine.com/social-murde... www.cqc.org.uk/publications...

cqc.org.ukThe state of health care and adult social care in England 2025/26 - Care Quality CommissionThis report sets out our assessment of the state of health care and adult social care in England in 2025/26.

RIP another council-owned housing company. Side note: fave headline this week sits atop the Essex district story: 'Epping useless' ✨

Private Eye Magazine@privateeyenews.bsky.social

Some councils’ wholly owned, wholly crap companies limp on, but in skint Shropshire, it’s finally curtains for Cornovii.

The care sector was an 'afterthought', says today's Covid Inquiry, but so were, v specifically, people with learning disabilities. Covid was the leading cause of death for this group, barely mentioned in the report. Prof Chris Hatton was one expert witnesses providing evidence to the inquiry..

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I spent Covid reporting these issues - much of my journalism (and tbh the knowledge I needed to help support my sister) drew on vital research led by Hatton and his Prof Richard Hastings. They warned that failures in care for learning disabled people must be avoided in future public health crises.

...which doesn't seem have found its way into today's report. What exactly is the point of all these inquiries and reports? People with learning disabilities were failed during the pandemic - and by the Covid inquiry: basw.co.uk/about-social...

basw.co.ukPeople with learning disabilities were failed during the pandemic - and by the Covid inquiryAs the UK Covid-19 Inquiry report into the care sector publishes its findings today Professor Chris Hatton highlights ongoing concerns

The care sector was an 'afterthought', says today's Covid Inquiry, but so were, v specifically, people with learning disabilities. Covid was the leading cause of death for this group, barely mentioned in the report. Prof Chris Hatton was one expert witnesses providing evidence to the inquiry..

... today he's said he's 'extremely disappointed in its report and recommendations for the care sector'. The report 'does not speak to the vast majority of adults with learning disabilities getting social care who are of working age and do not live in care homes'.

Love to see how the playlist rules work on this quite unique concept. Does the restriction extend to producers, guest artists or covers by artists originally done by pesky foreigners? Still, such a relief British music is finally coming to the masses with this 'Fearless Champion' of the tradition.

Press Gazette@pressgazette.co.uk

GB News is launching GB Music Radio, a 24-hour digital station only playing artists from Great Britain and Northern Ireland, on 2 November. Chief revenue officer Ross Sergeant said this "gives advertisers something genuinely new". radiotoday.co.uk/2026/10/gb-m...

Saba Salman reposted

Eye Told You So… Ministers to send inspectors into Lord (Ben) Houchen’s Tees Valley authority over high debt, rising borrowing levels and its financial relationship with the publicly owned Teesside International Airport, according to the FT. Eye readers knew this already.

Saba Salman reposted

Are you an adult sibling who has grown up with a disabled or neurodivergent brother or sister? Join our private Facebook group #Siblife to share how you’re feeling and hear advice from others who ‘get it’. Find out more and sign up at www.sibs.org.uk/siblife

New review: 'One chapter was especially hard to read...how systemic and institutional racism often outweighs disability for children of colour, making it difficult to secure even a diagnosis because they're assumed to be 'difficult'. The statistics are horrifying.' www.linkedin.com/feed/update/...

linkedin.com#ableism #intersectionality #disabilityinclusion #nonfiction #bookreview | Dr Ashley FisherI’ve just finished "Double Discrimination" by Saba Salman, an examination of the intersection of racism and ableism, and it’s fantastic. The book has a deeply personal thread: the author’s youngest ...

Years ago a fellow news reporter asked me why on earth I chose to cover local and regional politics given it's 'so boring'... Anyways, here's some bits about booze, brawls, hypocritical jet set hobnobbing and a rubbish (literally) £147m white elephant.

Private Eye Magazine@privateeyenews.bsky.social

Cash-strapped Sunderland forked out £120,000 of taxpayers’ money on lobbying firms to “help the council to make a powerful case with government for economic regenerative support for the city”.

NEW stories, from building safety campaigners in London to a flap about football in Wyre Forest ⬇️

Private Eye Magazine@privateeyenews.bsky.social

Has the Royal Borough of Greenwich splashed taxpayers’ cash on a bid to silence a resident campaigning on building safety?

Saba Salman reposted

Bad news for Reform as Nigel Farage’s Clacton by-election after-party, “Farage Fest”, flouted licensing rules and the party failed to get Tendring council’s permission for the 11pm-11am bender at a local airfield.

Saba Salman reposted

Of all the people to discuss the decline of print with, Amol Rajan took to George Osborne’s podcast. The man who had a disastrous run editing the Evening Standard and who took the Foreign Office funding away from the BBC World Service. ➡️ Watch Page 94, the Private Eye podcast: youtu.be/_CQW3brAeiE

Saba Salman reposted

Saba Salman reposted

A curious comment from Nigel Farage that, under Reform, the Tories’ Somerset council candidate (former neo-Nazi Joshua Bonehill-Paine, who later quit his candidacy) would have “been axed in 30 seconds”. 🧵1/3

Top rot from the new Eye: including this bad penny and more ⬇️

Private Eye Magazine@privateeyenews.bsky.social

Welcome back to Wandsworth, Cllr Robert Morritt, expelled by local Tories in 2013 over an expenses scandal but now back on top as leader. 🧵1/3

Saba Salman reposted

My dad & sister rely on social care so for me, PM's already raised a low bar (22 reviews in 30 yrs) but: -remember kids/working age adults -crack down on profit hungry private 'care' firms -include more than the usual bods in the Big Conversation -rebrand it DSCH* *not really but elevate the SC bit

Welcome back to MHCLG Rayner! Ready to push of Burnham's collaborative 'pulling together' agenda? 'standards are deteriorating, behaviour is worsening, and current mechanisms are not strong enough to address it' 🥊 from a story in the last Private Eye/Rotten Boroughs solace.org.uk/news_and_pre...

solace.org.ukPoor behaviour rampant in local government, survey revealsSolace urges Government to act urgently to strengthen standards regime Poor and inappropriate behaviour in local government continues to be widespread and in some cases is getting worse, a new survey ...

Another push for this gem of a quarterly and its deliberately quirky cover shot (with a story of choice and agency behind it)🔽 Highlights include: - equity in healthcare - disability and ethnicity double discrimination - why language matters - why we need real homes (not 'facilities' or 'settings')

Community Living Magazine@communitylivingmagazine.com

New stories out now! The fight for rights, finding real homes and why language matters. Cover star: Kirsty Pentecost @oskabright.bsky.social communitylivingmagazine.com

Saba Salman reposted

What do the new issue of Private Eye and Charli xcx's new album have in common? They're both on sale this week! IT'S PRIVATE EYE WEEK. New edition in shops and with 365 party girls from Wednesday.

🔽@hannahfearn.bsky.social 💯does justice to the topic of inequalities for learning disabled people of colour. She reflects both the pain and joy in my book, Double Discrimination & puts my sister at the heart of it: 'the depth and profundity of Raana’s inner life' hqm.hqnetwork.co.uk/saba-salman-...

hqm.hqnetwork.co.ukSaba Salman interview: ‘We bring different rules and judgements to people like my sister – because of her skin colour and because of her disability’ – HQM

It's a bit shit - no it really is, read the Orkney poop story - sneak peek on the website but full rot in the current issue) 🔽

Private Eye Magazine@privateeyenews.bsky.social

Can councils deliver Andy Burnham’s laudable plans to hand decision-making power to the regions? Not according to a survey revealing dire dynamics in local government, with bad behaviour “rampant”! 🧵1/2

⬇️ the overlooked in an already overlooked population. Utterly depressing and enraging

Ramandeep Kaur@mumof3amigos.bsky.social

It is shocking that people with a learning disability die much earlier than the general population. But once again, nobody has mentioned the even more shocking statistic that people from an ethnic minority who have a learning disability die much earlier still. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Saba Salman reposted

Embarrassment for the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, which spent two and a half years pursuing a resident for flouting planning rules with his “unsightly” rooftop screen, only for a government inspector to find that Conservative-run RBKC had already approved it. Three times. 🧵1/2

The rise of populism means the line between ‘patriotism’ and racism is blurred. Right wing politicians and some left(ish) (remember the PM’s ‘island of strangers’?) chase votes by normalising language that drives division. Lots of voices being missed in debates on racism, heritage and inclusion👇🏽

Campaigner and speaker Siraaj Nadat Changing Our Lives shares one short, sharp reason why we need a focus on disability and ethnicity. Nadat helped shape my book, Double Discrimination, which investigates the multiple inequalities faced by learning disabled people of colour.

New for @gpadmoreinstitute.bsky.social ‘I was never taught about black history at my special school,’ researcher Paul Christian told me. ‘As an adult, this information wasn’t available in a format I could understand… I feel I lost a part of myself’. ⬇️ www.georgepadmoreinstitute.org/news-and-eve...

georgepadmoreinstitute.orgGeorge Padmore Institute - Journalist Saba Salman talks about the aims of the GPI's easy reads project to defy ableism and racismAddressing conversations which exclude learning disabled people of colour.

Saba Salman reposted

Paul Christian collaborated with the GPI to create easy read documents for people with learning disabilities. This work is now part of Double Discrimination, a new book by the journalist Saba Salman. The easy read documents on collections at the GPI can be found at www.georgepadmoreinstitute.org

georgepadmoreinstitute.orgGeorge Padmore InstituteExplore the lives and struggles of Britain’s black communities of Caribbean, African and Asian descent.
Saba Salman@sabasalman.com

📢Why we need to talk about ‘race’ and learning disability - by the people who know. Paul Christian, a Black activist, historian and researcher who helped shape my new book, Double Discrimination, explains. Double Discrimination: a book on defiance, opportunity, possibility. #LearningDisabilityWeek

📢Why we need to talk about ‘race’ and learning disability - by the people who know. Paul Christian, a Black activist, historian and researcher who helped shape my new book, Double Discrimination, explains. Double Discrimination: a book on defiance, opportunity, possibility. #LearningDisabilityWeek