London-based NGO journalist. Germanophile, MCFC fan (since 1974). Loves Thomas Mann, Kraftwerk, Ultravox, OMD, Discworld, films, books, cats, birds, Minions, B5, Star Trek/Wars. LGBT+. Wish I could ignore politics, but can't. No chat unless I know you
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I will never not understand how a minority of people have decided that wind farms - significantly prettier than pylons, coal power plants, nuclear power plants, and almost certainly fusion power plants - are ugly. In terms of energy generation, what else are you hoping for that is better?
Oh, look! It's not a drag queen or a transgender person. #AnotherChristian #NOTaDragQueen #NOTaTransPerson
The test cricket at Old Trafford ā¦ OMG!
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Word of the day is āswullockingā, from 19th-century East Anglian dialect: sultry, sweltering, and sudiferous (sweat-inducing).
Liz Truss has warned the British Museum against losing its marbles. Ironic, really.
WTF?!? Border Czar Tom Homan claimed that ICE and Border Patrol agents donāt need probable cause to detain people they suspect are undocumented, saying they can do so based on factors like physical appearance. This is straight-up racial profiling, not law enforcement.
The Telegraph today carries a news story about someone paying Ā£7.4 million for a handbag (Hello, Lady Bracknell!). And an opinion piece describing a wealth tax as a āmoral abominationā. What a time to be alive.
Good. www.bbc.co.uk/sport/olympi...
Wait until the silly season really gets going.
Hospitals are supposed to be where the suffering stops. In Gaza, they are where the killing continues. Channel 4's Gaza: Doctors Under Attack has exposed a terror campaign that sends a horrifying message: No One Is Safe. Not Even Here.
America at war Subscribe to Private Eye: subsonline.co.uk
And never forget how some media published photos of him being carried off the pitch.
01/05/75 - 26/06/03 RIP big man. #MCFC #CTID
The proliferation of these groups is a bit odd given it's all the same people on all of them. (And they have fairly similar policy views to most of the existing right-wing think tanks).
This is an absolutely brilliant column by @rafaelbehr.bsky.social . Every Word of this. I would only add that I personally think that this started even earlier than Truss. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
What do we think?š¤ Hmmā¦. A Daily Mail headline so clearly designed to make you furious. Being shared by salivating Tory MPs who love a good rage farming story! So, whatās going on here? Letās take a look!š š§µ 1/13
Trump: āOffer up your trans Keir - then we can do business.ā Starmer: āYes Mr Donald. Did you see Friday, Mr Donald? Did we do good?ā Labour will absolutely do this. š³ļøāā§ļø
Reading Anne McElvoy on how convenient the Supreme Court decision is for the Starmer government and the rest of the Establishment reminds me that human rights are, for the boss class. An area where there is minimum actual commitment and a lot of lip service.
āSickening and heartbreakingā Someone who was at the Marge Greene town hall where folks who dissented were arrested/targeted/tased by police ā who has voted for both parties ā writes about what she saw šš½
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
The first modern-day concentration camps were in Spanish-ruled Cuba and in South Africa in the Anglo-Boer war in the late 19th century. www.smithsonianmag.com/history/conc...
White House removes wire services from press pool rather than restore APās access
IāM GOING TO KEEP POSTING THIS STORY UNTIL ANDRY IS FREED: Gay Venezuelan makeup artist sent to Salvadoran prison after a disgraced cop's report Andry Hernandez Romero sought shelter in the U.S. because he was persecuted as a gay man, one of the "particular social groups" allowed to claim asylum.
This is it. Weāve abandoned Europe and our allies for a Third World tinpot dictator.
Louisiana baptist pastor, Shane Wiggins, has been arrested for the rape of a child. www.baptistmessage.com/63415-2/
And guess what?
Also-fuckin'āluteyānot.
ANOTHER ONE! Donald Trump didnāt just deport Albrego Garcia to a foreign torture prisonāhe deported a Venezuelan teenager who wasnāt even the intended target. His name is Merwil GutiĆ©rrez. He wasnāt in a gang. He wasnāt a threat. And even Trumpās own administration admitted he wasn't the target.
Leavitt: "Abrego Garcia was a foreign terrorist. He is an MS-13 gang member. He was engaged in human trafficking." (The White House hasn't provided evidence for any of these claims ... )
Odd new power dynamic.
The forgotten war in Sudan. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...
Nadav Shtrauchler, a former adviser to Mr. Netanyahu, said that the prime minister had experienced āa complete reversalā under the Trump administration that allowed him āmuch more room to operate.ā
Hungary has just passed an amendment to the constitution that allows the government to ban public events by LGBTQ+ communities.
Grabbed at his appointment to become a citizen. Is this who we are? ššŗšø
And this is endorsable? www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Your regular reminder that almost everything Trump is getting away with is not because of presidential strength, but because of congressional weakness and judicial deference. The constitutional tools are already there to fix this, but those who can fix it are refusing to do so.
Not trying to be funny, but have you read the actual report?
"Almost all the UK attacks reported in my study centred on LGBTQ+ materials." Meanwhile editors commission dozens more articles about the silencing of, perhaps, Britain's most published academic, Kathleen Stock. www.theguardian.com/books/2025/a...
We are seeing more and more lies being told about disabled people. There is hardly any fraud in the benefits paid to disabled people. We need to challenge the scapegoating of disabled people - and fight for a wealth tax instead. Sign my petition today. www.change.org/p/tax-wealth...
Excellent thread.
I found this thread by George Monbiot, as well as his article quoted, well worth a read. It gets to the heart of the problem of politics in the U.K. at the moment, and some pretty straightforward solutions staring our leaders in the face.
Librarians in UK increasingly asked to remove books, as influence of US pressure groups spreads
Absolutely love Matisse.
Horrific.
"On Tyranny" is a #1 NYT bestseller again. I wish the moment were different. But Iām glad the book is useful. And grateful for all the kind words about putting the 20 lessons to work. snyder.substack.com/p/twenty-les...
šš
It's a wonderful film.
Singinā in the Rain was released in theaters on this day in 1952 āļø
Just a reminder for michiganders Tom Barrett is not your friend, he promised to protect vets benefits and even helped to sponsor two bills to turn around and voted to cut their benefits, and voted today for the bill that going to cut Medicaid and Medicare , his next election vote him out. #HadEnough
This is all horrifying. Our system is not supposed to work like this.
Sharing this again, because it's worth it. snyder.substack.com/p/twenty-les...
Well worth a read.
Keir Starmer arrives in the Antarctic to discuss tariffs ā with penguins: the Stephen Collins cartoon
10 April 1902 | A Polish Jew, Markus Gross, was born in Krakow. A clerk. In #Auschwitz from 18 May 1942. No. 35704 He perished in the camp on 8 July 1942.
That's a good one!
`over the course of time, I grew up with bomb hoaxes at scholar school at later, heard five bombs go off in London (two near enough to rattle the windows of my home). May, many, experienced much worse, but none of us should forget the importance of the GFA (started by John Major).
Today is the anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement. One of the great political achievements post WW2. For those of us growing up in the 1970s peace, albeit an uneasy one at times, was unimaginable.
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No! It's chemicals in the water making people LGBT+! edition.cnn.com/2023/07/13/p...
Personally, I approve of the Oxford comma. I also like this track. www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_i1...
Balloons don't go to heaven. They fall back to Earth and many birds and wildlife become entangled resulting in death. There are many other ways to celebrate life that aren't harmful to the environment and wildlife!
Remember Putin's initial claim that the invasion was for 'denazification'? I know people on the left who leapt at that. They cite the Azov regiment ā never Russia's Wagner group, of course. The mental gymnastics must be wild now Putin's intertwined with Trump,
FFS. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Good Law Project holds a copy of new NHS Guidance published yesterday and it is clear that Wes Streeting is continuing his war on trans people. Remarkably the national health service is now directing GPs to cause harm to the community. š§µ
Joey Barton remains an utter shit. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Presumably they don't understand that the US has to import cocoa! It's madness. 2/2
They don't even understand that if the US makes something, it will need to NOT import any raw materials in order to avoid tariffs on raw materials. I saw something earlier form some US 'influencer' suggesting the US-mad chocolate will be a cheaper win. 1/
I'm no economic genius (very far from it), but I get the feeling that many, many people have even less of a clue than I do about this. I think the global economic system is FAR from ideal, but this isn't about changing it to favour working people.
Oh yes.
Oh FFS. Of course. www.bbc.co.uk/news
Are you a woman who changed your name when you got married? Congress is considering a bill that could make it much harder for you to vote. Call your repāthis is not a drill. indivisible.org/resource/cal...
... and have incredibly fond memories of seeing Charlie Cairoli live. Okay, one of his troupe, Little Jimmy, was a bit scary, but I still retain a real sense of affection for Cairoli himself, including for his children-aimed TV shows. There is no comparison between such artists and Trump et al. 2/2
I appreciate that people can be scared of clowns, but citing this lot in the White House as clowns feels inappropriate to me. Okay, I get Pennywise, but growing up (largely) in the north west of England in the 1970s, I was taken to the Blackpool Tower circus at least twice ... 1/
That was Musk, who posted that he thought Rupert Lowe would be a better leader. But yes, that seems to be behind Reform removing the whip from Lowe, plus the 'independent' investigation into his behaviour.
He's such a nasty, hypocritical pice of work.
Here we go - EU Member States approve first batch of EU trade retaliation against Trump tariffs ec.europa.eu/commission/p...
Transphobes in my mentions arguing that men are better at Pool because they're stronger which is important for the initial break. Yes women are too feeble to break, good point, very rational. Raw strength is a key asset in Pool
He's cringe-inducingly pathetic.
Absolutely damning. Seems that the British government made not attempt to find out if the Russians had interfered in the EU Brexit referendum.
So sorry, Colin.
I know it's not the central point, but his utter inability to understand basic grammar really peeves me.
In general, I agree absolutely with you, and am trying to withdraw from paying form US products and services. But for instance, given my trade, I need to use Apple, and Adobe.
Dat vind ik niet leuk.
Saw Reddit screenshots here earlier of small businesses being really concerned. One had an order in with China for (approx) $3,000 worth of steel. They've now had an extra bill of (approx) $2,000 to receive the goods.
Musk is a classic example of Dunning-Kruger.
Boy, 16, stabbed to death in Huddersfield was Syrian refugee
š£ NEW š£ Today, we can reveal that the director of Luxe Lifestyle ā a firm that bagged a Ā£25.7m PPE contract during Covid, when it had zero employees and a huge debt ā has been arrested. Weāve been pushing for this for five years. goodlawproject.org/vip-lane-arr...
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...
April 8 is the International Roma Day. Remember & learn about the fate of some 23,000 Sinti & Roma who were deported to the German Nazi camp #Auschwitz. Some 20,000 were murdered there. Lesson: lekcja.auschwitz.org/en_roma_ausc... Podcast: podcasters.spotify.com/auschwitz-me...
Some of you thought I made a mathematical error in my PROOF report on the new international slave trade Donald Trump and Nayib Bukele have agreed upon. I didnāt. Both The Conversation and FT report that U.S. inmatesāa majority with no criminal recordāwill have āless than two feet of living space.ā
And he bankrupted a casino.
A spoon full of poison makes America go down
