She's alright. That's actually a quite good list.
Turns meetings into pints and pints into meetings. Host of The Anfield Wrap and occasional writer of things. Author of Transformer for the good people at Canongate.
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She's alright. That's actually a quite good list.
What a "but". The "but" which shows you how far right hatred is laundered. Look! The sausage is being made. And it is putrid.
"but"?
Tremendous from @jonathanliew.bsky.social. You are used to me saying that about the sport stuff. But here he shows the trajectory of a very small number of people's dreams, its impact and how it can become a huge number of people's nightmare. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Taps sign
There is seemingly no one the starmerite faction party dislikes more than a hypothetical teacher married to a doctor raising two kids in a safe labour seat in a well to do suburb of Newcastle who both voted for the current government in Summer 2024
people who don’t like think for you machine are probably lazy, says think for you machine CEO
what fun, to take a brief break from despairing at the state of British politics to briefly despair at the state of French politics instead :) www.thenewworld.co.uk/marie-le-con...
Is it too much to ask that Mandelson might now get the level of scrutiny and hostility that the press routinely brings to bear on people like e.g. Boris Johnson’s neighbour, who called the police at 2 am because the PM was having a drunken row
labour talks big game about “protecting children” which was the justification for the online safety act but then does this lol
Will this get as much attention at that poll showing Reform on 35% a few weeks ago? Ofc not. Always look at trends not individual polls.
Another wonderful day for noticing who can enjoy being wafted through a long, prestigious, very lucrative career, even if they’re Patrick Bateman coming apart at the end of the movie confessing to murders and executions, vs who will get 200 hacks rummaging in their bins for a suspect Facebook Like.
Huge if true.
Releasing a single tomorrow. YES, THAT’S RIGHT!
The thing with the British political/media class' big weapon of just 'not noticing things when they're inconvenient' is that the Americans aren't aware of the 'things you're not allowed to notice' list.
V funny this, breathless write up of 'advanced tech' which is "so snazzy" that... it does stuff you can do on an excel spreadsheet
Such a bad article. The contempt with which she talks about "people bringing dependants" is simply disgusting; what she is saying is that I should not have been able to be joined by my wife because it contributed to high net migration in 2023.
The National Front promoted re-migration in the 1970s. It’s now mainstream policy in right wing political parties and their chums in the media are trying to manufacture consent for this far right policy.
someone really needs to tell the prick in No 10 that keeps coming up with these quotes that he sounds like Gareth from The Office
The broadsheet commentariat continue to be the most toxic and least accountable section of the body politic. They’re just paid to tell vicious lies with absolutely no personal consequences, ever.
😘 👌
This is a really great thread on generative AI use.
I respect Anil so I want to talk seriously about harm reduction and public health messaging. First let me acknowledge that yes, many regular, not-super-online people are trying out AI tools. Of course they are! It's been aggressively pushed into everything and given heavy institutional support.
This is an absurd misuse of laws designed to tackle terrorism and an insane waste of a resource-starved criminal justice system. There were obviously not 900 terrorists wandering through central London on Saturday and it's utterly ridiculous to act as if there were
the consistent through line is that characters who are supposed to represent fascism (bad) are reinterpreted as representing fascism (good)
Hopefully the BBC will follow up on this story to cover the fact the venue mentioned in it had all of its windows put out on Friday night by someone with a hammer. Seems somewhat relevant. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
I’ve been frustrated to see so much of the ongoing story about asylum seekers and the protests against them covered without hearing from those seeking asylum and now being met with hostility and hatred I set out to speak to those directly affected to find out about the impact this is having 👇
Sack him. I'm sure he's a nice bloke but he could be a nice bloke as an audit manager at NatWest and do the politics as a hobby. The senior political correspondent of the national broadcaster ought to be doing a better job than this
"hahaha I am such a massive nerd about politics I bloody love politics, I love going to party conferences. No I'm not going to write about policy that sort of thing is of no interest at all to a fellow like me" www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Political reporters like "drama". That's why they like the Reform circus just like they were excited by Brexit. What they don't want is to report the dull grind of serious policy.
Tapping the sign
The absolute state of this reporting from Chris Mason BBC News - Reform conference shows party's growing ambition like never before www.bbc.com/news/article...
I find the "we need to prove our identity all the time anyway" argument for ID cards to be unsatisfactory. What, I wonder, are all the situations that David Blunkett finds himself in which he is asked for ID? on.ft.com/4p9yzn9
Nobody who defends this will be able to tell you what the objective is; what it achieves; who it protects; who it makes safer; what the coherent message is. The police are performing political-military work and the Home Secretary—a politician—is thinking & acting like a General. Smash, smash, smash.
Dismayed by the "I loathe Gl**ner but his arrest should scare us all" takes. The bar for arrest over a social media post *should be extremely high*, but a guy who's harassed trans people 19 hours a day for 8 years, telling his 600k fans to attack any trans women they see, clears that bar v easily?
Important to understand it was only possible to whack Angela Rayner because she has talked a good game about fairness and taking on entrenched interests. Which do we think politicians will drop: the tax fuckery, or the chat about fairness and taking on the people who hand out the bungs?
Another somewhat telling thing about this is their inability, as a supposedly "left" movement, to find a coalition that doesn't include people who are frankly xenophobic, homophobic, transphobic, or all three. These are *not actually popular positions* with left-inclined voters.
I've got two on here - my book and a think tank report I wrote years ago. Thanks AI thieves.
It's worth spending some time considering what this phrase reveals about the quality of our political media at large.
There isn’t a poll option on BlueSky, but what do we think: a) She told friends, who couldn’t be trusted and blabbed b) The press suborned her accountant c) The press bought her ex d) Labour twats suborned her accountant e) Labour twats bought her ex Because I don’t really see an option f) here.
Watch any time she has to talk about trans people, the disgust is plastered across her face.
Like I said, quite weird that after 7 years of treating him like the radioactive danger he clearly is, he's suddenly being invited into the Guardian to talk about how his wife left him and his career collapsed, and the putting of two and two together is left judiciously up to the reader
Landlords welcome Steve Reed www.nrla.org.uk/news/landlor...
oh fucking christ no
The Sun, here.
This is true but also, the PM’s chief of staff appears to have spent much of 2023/24 bragging loudly to journalists about how he and his mates seized control of the party by actively fucking over their colleagues, secretly feeding absurd, wildly inflammatory drivel and bullshit to the British press.
“In summary some politicians are targets and that’s simply how it goes, which is uh unfortunate I guess” - me for the Guardian
Working class people (not just politicians) are held to higher moral standards because they have fewer people with real power who can speak up for them and cause sway. It’s literally why collective action is so vital
I cannot stomach this ongoing pattern of women, especially working class women and WOC, facing consequences for corruption, and rich white men who have been born with only the best untarnished silver crockery rammed into every orifice prancing away scot-free.
get why she had to go but irksome she lost her job to something quite complex and, let's be honest, reasonably minor in the grand scheme of things, when shadow cabinet members get to merrily hang out with Eddie Swastika without any repercussions
Most other politicians aren't resigning because they failed to consult the right tax lawyer
If the Labour Party can't batter a man who flogs gold bullion then there isn't enough time in the rest of human history for all the long looks in the mirror that would be required.
Knowing what I do about the British press - what everyone saw in a public inquiry - I wouldn’t even assume that the info that finally wrecked this politician that her party’s chief of staff fears and hates was not obtained via criminal activity. That is at least moderately likely.
Let the airing of grievances commence
Weird isn’t it, how everyone in Labour that the party’s right and the press despised and wanted rid of has encountered terrifying scandals, wild accusations and disqualifying legal problems. Whatever could have been happening here, in our very transparent democratic system.
I really feel for Rayner. The hypocrisy, misogyny & classism in response to her error - not that I’m condoning the error - compared to the ways in which the posh & wealthy are treated when they do it on purpose, has been stark & depressing. That AI featured on Sun front page especially disturbing.
I would be absolutely fascinated to see this level of scrutiny applied to the property dealings of the other 649 MPs and what that might reveal.
I obviously have absolutely no insight into the rights and wrongs of what Rayner has apparently done, but it is not hard to discern a sense that some commentators feel a woman from a working class background really ought to know her place better.
“They just keep smashing away at it until they get what they want, no matter how much damage it does and disastrous it is” covers the era quite well, I think.
I urge people to notice that the vicious dickheads in the leader’s office and the press have been trying to fuck her up for years, often in desperate, slapstick ways. And they just ram away at it constantly until they get what they want.
On the same day in the Telegraph:
![The Telegraph Rayner tax scandal - £40k tax dodge - Statement Angela Rayner dodges £40,000 stamp duty Deputy Prime Minister reduces tax bill for Hove flat by declaring it as her main residence [Photo: Angela Rayner pictured at the weekend in Hove, where she has just bought a flat Credit: Dan Charity/The Sun on Sunday] Robert Mendick Chief Reporter. Amy Gibbons Political Correspondent 29 August 2025 8:57am BST](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2kf2qj56o2vq7jfaq4x4ogp6/bafkreihe5mm7nwmwvzhtgadmsafyvsaxhrufuai2d2j2rju5zt6g2lytea@jpeg "Click to view full size")
![The Telegraph Money > Property > Second homes How to avoid tax on your second home From stamp duty to council tax, shield your wealth from Labour's tightening net [Photo of houses around a bay - Areas such as Cornwall have added a premium to council tax bills for second homes Credit: iStockphoto] Fran Ivens Senior Money Writer 29 August 2025 1:21pm BST](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2kf2qj56o2vq7jfaq4x4ogp6/bafkreieuwgc2vsmyfcctmf4cnpcqckij2pqdk2gmzajpnihrsqyqmzyr5e@jpeg "Click to view full size")
Affirming and amplifying disingenuous white grievance politics at a time of insurgent fascism is a form of collaboration. Irrespective of conscious intent. And irrespective of whether its the centre or left doing it.
I'm sorry, but whatever your personal proclivities I think we can all agree that if you're wearing a t-shirt with a Telegraph front page on it you absolutely are an extremist.
It is peak UK that a transphobe being arrested for inciting violence is the Free Speech Issue Of The Moment, rather than the suppression of anti-genocide campaigners.
Of course, ITV's clarification at the end absolutely didn’t make them sound psychopathic whatsoever. Embarrassing
When I posted that I was the "lesbian staffer" that quit Duffield's office, Linehan went for me and I had days and days of abuse (Duffield did nothing natch). It was probably the most online homophobia I've ever experienced, and he called me a disgrace to gay rights.
It was clear very early on that Sir Keir’s project was a forced restoration of an old guard their party didn’t particularly want, and that it was imposed by lying, stitch ups and shenanigans. The words required here are not things like “unusual” but “calculated fraud” and “total media complicity”.
as a one-person example, I will say that I used transcription softwares for several years as I'd convinced myself that going in and fixing the quotes afterwards was easier, then I manually transcribed something again earlier this year and realised it was actually both quicker and easier after all
It's so funny how "well that won't help get Labour elected" is the line trotted out to literally everyone on the left, even their opposition. I remember a presenter saying it to a Just Stop Oil activist!
Labourites seem to have gone from "ha ha hypnotits" to "oh fuck Polanski will make Farage PM, is that what you want???" very quickly. But lads, if you want people's votes, win them. You're the government ffs.
Good news about the cutting-edge AI tools from the $3-trillion-dollar company.
Also, in a way, these CEOs don't even need to be "wrong". Their reward mechanisms are so often uncoupled from being right, or even being profitable, that a lot of their job is raising hype and increasing their company's valuation. Bubbles of nonsense - Blockchain, NFTs, AI - do this extremely well.
This is just wrong as well. NVDA's making money hand over fist because of others chasing AI needing their product, not because Jensen Huang is gambling on a hype train. THEIR product works fine & is profitable. Same for Broadcom. So that's two off the list before we even discuss Apple's reticence.
wow is it possible for seven people to all be wrong about something? www.axios.com/2025/09/02/a...
Anyway, look forward to Labour's extensive proposals on much needed media reform.
Ed Balls shoots his mouth off, barracking like this in the breakfast format being a former Labour Shadow Chancellor, married to the actual Labour Home Secretary and we're all meant to think this is absolutely sound and good actually.
‘Starmer plans electronic ID cards for all to help stop UK boat migrants’ I can’t believe this nonsense is back again. A Trojan Horse policy that hoodwinks all of us into accepting deeply problematic ID cards that won’t remotely impact asylum numbers. inews.co.uk/news/politic...
I mean this was ten years ago and Starmer two days ago agreed that people should be concerned about their daughters walking near hotels housing refugees.
Ed Balls, like a lot of Labour, feels that they are entitled to our votes and they are going to find out starting next May that being a far right party with a red rosette will mean the we will be voting elsewhere.
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do you think there will ever be any serious reflection on how we got here btw
So revealing that it doesn't appear to cross Rentoul's mind that Polanski might want to do this because he *believes* it.
The new ROUTE ONE is here and we're dishing out transfer window awards for....Antony. I know. I'm as uncomfortable with this as you. Listen now for a fleet-of-foot digest of all the day's football news. Now with added @knoxharrington.bsky.social pod.fo/e/3238f3
The squad borrowing from Peter to pay Paul stuff runs out of road quite quickly if you aren't careful. The manager is on record saying he likes 2 for every position. In terms of plausible starters as forwards, he has played 3 and only has 4. Arsenal are deeper. They just have less starting quality.
A key thing here is that “blame migrants” was imposed on the public from above by successive governments and the national press working very hard, hand in hand over decades, while “blame the rich” seems to be largely organic, arising despite committed efforts to stamp it out.
I think there is such a definition as starting forwards - forwards we can reasonably surmise the manager is happy to start against Real Madrid for instance. You are never getting 5 Salahs. We had 5. We now have 4. We may win both the big two. We can. But illustrating the risk is reasonable.
In electing Starmer, the Labour Party has chosen fascist protests over governing.
Think the moving parts here are also sell on and buy back. And maybe us just being sound with the player and Villa.
It isn't a front three if Frimpong or Wirtz play in it. They aren't forwards. Which is fine. Leagues can be won playing 4231 but it is different to playing with three forwards which is what we have done well with. Again, a risk, not an insurmountable one but a risk we have chosen.
It doesn't misrepresent the jssue because I am not talking about minutes. I am talking about starting options. You have 5 and 1 gets injured and you have 4. You have 4 and one gets injured and one goes to AFCON in December and you have 2. Now you can't make good subs or rotate.
Players move on. He undoubtedly trusted Diaz.
About two-thirds of patients who were flagged by the AI stethoscope as potentially having heart failure did not actually have it.
This is the part that gets me as well. Sometimes people will say, “Well AI isn’t going to take Director level jobs.” And I ask them who the hell is going to be Director level when all of us who built our skills over a career end those careers.
I don't disagree with the first two sentences, but I think in general there's been far too much movement from 'not really noticing the problem' to 'despair'. Let's experiment with 'people and organisations try and enforce the norm' and then see if it is actually hard for it to be re-bottled.
I'd say I told you so but it was always going to happen wasn't it?
It's remarkable how ~2017-2019 was an all-hands existential struggle to eradicate the unacceptable scourge of bigotry and racism from British politics forever, and now it's this, all day, every day, and not a single one of our commentariat has noticed nor has anything to say about it.