Today in "it's not helpful we speak the same language": a surprising number of "this wouldn't be a problem if not for lawn grass, plant native plants that can handle the weather" responses to photos of dried out England & Wales My Good Yanks, that is indeed native grass that is parched

Once again affirming that this website does, indeed, have the juice: a GPEW member throwing a massive, multi-post reply every time tantrum in my mentions over a Kirk Minister making a light, throwaway gag, up to and including describing the Kirk as a "cosplay church" Touch (crispy, yellow) grass

We need you to be less Online No, that's too Not Online

Jordan@jordanpfot.bsky.social · 4h ago

Why are you commenting if you don’t know the specifics of the case!!!!!

Chat is it good for the long-term health of my legacy soc dem party that one of my MSPs is a serial party switcher and can be leant upon to switch votes at the behest of Jackie Baillie

Most of the UK: We have not had rain since June and we have at least two further weeks of no more rain 😱 Glasgow: Can I interest you in a push notification for a thunderstorm warning?

Okay, who at McVities decided that they were going to do raspberry versions of their classics? Has that person been given an enormous, set-for-life pay and pension deal? Raspberry Jaffa Cakes? Better than the original, imo. Raspberry Cream Digestives? Phenomenal, powerfully moreish.

"losing *more* votes to the Greens" is the absolutely key phrase here: Sturgeon does actually get it! The wing currently in the ascendence in the SNP are all absolutely convinced that the end of the BHA saved them, as opposed to SNP polling remaining flat from before collapsing it until this year

The National@scotnational.bsky.social · 2d ago

Nicola Sturgeon has warned John Swinney that the SNP risks losing more votes to the Scottish Greens under the party’s current policy direction 👇

Good evening, on my cycle there a teenager took one look at my helmet and decided it looked military enough to mockingly stand to attention and salute me, which, obviously, mortifying, absolutely wrecked me, but on the other hand

Vote shares are going to be inconsequential for this, it's all about raw votes, so here's my -3000's vibes (he's starting from 21000): -3000: Good for a by-election with no real opposition -6000: People really unwilling to turn out -9000: Okay people are actually quite angry -12000: Political death

Election Maps UK@electionmaps.uk · 2d ago

Clacton By-Election Voting Intention: ➡️ RFM: 73% (+27) 🗑️ CBF: 20% (New) 🟥 REC: 2% (New) ⚫ Others: 5% (-49) Via @survation.bsky.social, 16-24 Jul. Changes w/ GE2024.

I am absolutely not a "once you're out of elected office, you have nothing worth saying", but I do think we really need to get better at striking the balance on what we hear from Party Grandees. "Someone who only ever appears, and does so extremely frequently, as a reactionary critic" is not useful

Allan Faulds@afaulds.bsky.social · 2d ago

It's Alex Neil You could be forgiven for forgetting he was the Cabinet Secretary responsible during the final stages of the Equal Marriage bill Regardless, yesterday's man, our media need to stop dignifying this pish with coverage

Is this news, or is it just Jim Sillars or Alex Neil throwing another strop? Let's find out which one it is

Dysfunction? In your Scottish Labour Party? It's precisely as likely as you'd think

Jordan@jordanpfot.bsky.social · 2d ago

Looking increasingly like Marra vs Fagan then. You get the contest you deserve, I suppose www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/politic...

Using the phrase "Holyrood 6" to refer to, duh, the parties with elected MSPs, and suddenly remembering the time an Alba guy got really annoyed that I was still using "Holyrood 5" in my output even though Ash Regan had defected to Alba. You didn't even live to see a second election, my guys!

Me after a near disaster with an oven grill and quesedilla last night: You know maybe something adjacent to a sandwich press would be a useful kitchen investment Local supermarkets: ???? What is???? No. Forbidden tech. Can we interest you in a mini deep fat frier to burn your home down with though?

Waking from an afternoon nap in which I dreamt that I'd unwittingly crossed into a recursive parallel universe devoid of other human presence, via Dorchester Avenue I have watched no recent media that relates but tbf checks out for Dorchester Avenue, which *feels* neverending when you walk along it

What is notable about pieces like this is they identify trans rights as a faultline, but I don't think I've ever seen a single Scottish political journalist ever acknowledge that for a centre-left party to take the grotesquely anti-trans position Scottish and UK Labour have is completely abnormal.

Inside Scottish Labour's civil war: Indyref2 and trans rights 'ripping' party apart

Scottish Labour's civil war is about more than just who replaces Anas Sarwar as leader. There are fears the party could be left…

heraldscotland.com

Nonsense adverts for an "alternative medicine" service have gone back up on my cycle route to and from climbing, talking about how great the "doctors" are, which is great as I wanted to mentally seethe THEY AREN'T DOCTORS THEY ARE QUACKS AND CHARLATANS several times a week

I am once again asking why the think tank founded after the murder and in memory of a pro-immigration Labour MP has such a raging stauner for the right wing

I think it's simply human nature to have a certain degree of "well *I* think this politician is good, and so do the circles I move in, so that must be representative" in political media, but simultaneously I think Scottish political media is worse for it than average because the bubble is so small

Michael@michaeljsc.bsky.social · 5d ago

“you don’t come across many people that don’t think [Anas Sarwar] was a good leader” Andy have you seen his poll ratings?! the Holyrood bubble is *insane* for this, these people are stealing a living

Lads I just discovered they don't even make Cream o' Galloway ice cream with milk from Galloway anymore, they source it from Dumfriesshire, and also they don't even make the ice cream in Galloway either, brand consolidation is pure shite, hate it (This is peak Friday afternoon posting)

And the 2024 figure is also 6% lower than Glasgow City Council 2022, the lowest council turnout in Scotland, and yet still an argument you hear from Scotland's tiny cohort of Mayor Lovers is "ooh it'll boost democratic engagement!"

Sunder Katwala (sundersays)@sundersays.bsky.social · 5d ago

538,659 votes cast in Greater Manchester: 25% turnout (just over 2 million eligible) in this by-election, compared to 32% turnout (663k) when this coincided with the May 2024 local elections www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cn...

Good afternoon, today in my favourite Broken Record topics, it's so silly that "the biggest by-election in Britain's history" is being counted right now as an effective black box rather than an Electoral Authority's website giving live updates as votes are counted for individial polling districts

I remain not a football person but I am of course a "bastards being laid low by their own hubris" person and it's very funny seeing Infantino going from "ha ha get fucked, I am untouchable after a surprisingly successful World Cup" to "why is everyone being mean about my money grabbing plans 🥺"

I know we're all railing fruitlessly against the technological tide but I actually find it faintly insulting to open up a *10 page* PDF and have Adobe shrieking THIS APPEARS TO BE A LONG DOCUMENT, DO YOU WANT AN AI SUMMARY?! 10 pages isn't "long" you daft bastards, go away, I hate you!

The thing about having regular cycle routes is you also develop a cast of regular characters you encounter on them. Aww, Bench Cat is out today! Hm, Power Walk Woman isn't usually this far along. Oh, classic Tank and Flannel Man vibe. Ah, there's the Cabinet Secretary for Public Service Reform.

I'm sorry, I'm sorry, but this is so extremely funny to me: there is a very, very good chance that machinery I was very tangentially involved in building(it was very early on, so we're talking "prepared maybe one or two documents for") has been blown up by Ukraine, to which I say "get in lads"

I mean this is also just a load of old bollocks: there's nothing about an uncontested by-election that enables you to gather more data than a contested one? Even the busiest by-election hardly has parties jostling for the same doorsteps at the same time, and if that does happen, you come back later

Tyron@tyron.bsky.social · 6d ago

Kind of a mental line from Farage on why it's so good for him to be fighting the Clacton by-election. Reform shouldn't ever have needed to be seriously fighting Clacton at the next general election if they were remotely on track to be the next opposition, let alone the government?

Me, about to attempt a harder climb than usual: Oh no, I also haven't been doing my Twelve Minutes of Core (TM) Best pal: If you fail to do this I'm going to blame your lack of 12MoC Me, falling off 2/3rds of the way up: ... ... genuinely I could probably have done that if I'd kept up the 12MoC 🙃

"Elect me to Westminster and I won't bother actually going to Westminster" is phenomenal, British Far Right re-inventing abstentionism from first principles, most unlikely Sinn Féin tribute act in history

Josiah Mortimer@josiahmortimer.bsky.social · last wk.

Even the far-right English Democrats are sticking the (jack)boot into Farage in Clacton. Latest leaflet: "I will dedicate all of my time to Clacton. I won't be hiding in Westminster or jetting off to America where you can't reach me."