I wrote for the Guardian’s Saturday magazine about my son Max, who changed how I see the world. Took ages. More jokes after the first bit. Thanks @meropemills for being the most patient and generous editor. https://t.co/jabxDujTiV

Starting a new job as head of national news on Monday so this is my last newsletter. Scroll to the bottom to see my dog getting baked https://t.co/8zFlbv4hh2

First Edition, with @robtopinka, is about how the extremely online right seeded the ‘Boriswave’ conversation, and why they’re basically the Miranda Priestlys of contemporary politics.

I wrote about the Vylanising of the Gaza discourse, and what happens if you keep telling people things they can see aren’t true.

Thank you, @archiebland for speaking with our Vice Chair, @katieghose and for featuring our research in the First Edition newsletter. “You might have a two-year-old waiting half their life before they get their foot in the door for the help they need.”

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“The illusion Labour relies on – that there is no money – has gone up in a puff of smoke. If there’s cash to keep pensioners warm in winter, why aren’t there ways to raise funds to do the same for children or disabled people?” My col. on Starmer’s u-turns

The great Today In Focus team of @helenpidd @samikent and Alex Atack made an episode about Max and did him proud. You can listen to it here: https://t.co/MQEuqcym3D

I’d thank Ruth too but she’d rightly shame me for thinking I’m accepting an Oscar, and obviously it would be totally inadequate anyway.

After it got to the Mail, by the way, Wes Streeting got asked about it on GB News. He said the story showed why the welfare system needs reform. Max Tempers calls this the “posting to papers pipeline”, and he’s absolutely right. https://t.co/kWWChAjKZG

From him it went to feeds like Politics UK and various predictable extremely online shock jocks. You can see why it’s an appealing story for those people. But you might hope some of those laundering it into the mainstream would be curious enough to check. https://t.co/GkMFJh1FLA

Motability is a hardy perennial for scrounger outrage. But it’s worth noting the provenance of the latest round. Long before it hit the Mail, Max Tempers, the same anonymous guy who helped inspire Elon Musk’s grooming gangs obsession, was banging the drum.

Myth 4: ‘Sickfluencers’ boasting about gaming the system are inspiring others. But these videos are often unreliable. Eg this one, a prominent source of outrage: the truth is that the applicant was rejected. Nobody seems to have checked this stuff.

Those figures are for Pip at *any* rate, not the higher mobility rate to qualify for Motability. And that 35% was 41 people; the 54% was 6 people. There will be some with mental health conditions on Motability, but the truth is that the higher mobility award is a very high bar.

Myth 3: The scheme is overrun with unjustified claims. This is based on noting that, eg, 35% with bedwetting/enuresis or 54% with Munchausen syndrome got Pip in October and therefore saying they’re among the BMW recipients. This is a ludicrous leap.

Myth 2: You get a swish car. In fact, 94% of the fleet are economy brands. The few premium cars cost taxpayer exactly the same and need an upfront payment from customer. Clear implication is that disabled people should just be grateful and piss off in their wonky three-wheeler.

Myth 1: you get a free car. In fact, if Motability didn’t exist, customers would get the same Pip money to spend as they like. By this logic, people using pensions for groceries are getting ‘free vegetables’. Scrapping Motability would save zero pounds from the benefits bill.

I don’t agree that it proves overdiagnosis is out of control, but that’s also a cogent objection. But the claims now circulating haven’t just made that case: they’ve suggested the scheme has been fatally corrupted and is now infested with chancers faking their way to a free car.

Motability is a way for people with serious disabilities facing a deeply inaccessible public transport system to use benefits, usually Pip, to pay for the lease of a car. It’s grown a lot recently, and there are fair questions about the size of its reserves and executive pay.

Here’s a piece I wrote about the whole thing, and here are the key points. https://t.co/exNZRQPF9i

You may have seen the recent fury over @Motability: how ‘sickfluencers’ are helping ‘bedwetting boy racers’ get ‘50-grand Mercs’ for free. This is basically a myth, and its laundering into the mainstream is an object lesson in How Things Work Now. Thread follows.