I look at the data on who arrived, who's likely to stay and the cost/benefit analyses. But also at how a meme from the ethnonationalist online right was taken up by mainstream media and even Labour MPs with so little interrogation.
I’m not sure even now the BBC would run a story implying Sadiq Khan should be banned from 7/7 memorials, this is completely insane. Just no pretext, open racism
CNN@cnn.com · yesterdayTwenty-five years after the mayor of New York City became the champion of America's grief and resilience at the time of the 9/11 attacks, families of those killed are split on whether the current mayor should attend the annual remembrance. https://cnn.it/4zkKYdc
The latest in "foreign students taking places from British ones" news www.thetimes.com/article/9ad6...
Foreign student slump forces A* universities to accept BBB grades
Our analysis reveals just how much higher education has relied on international fees — and what happens when those students stop applying
thetimes.com
this article is somewhat hobbled by the proscription against plainly stating that racists are racists
CNN@cnn.com · yesterdayTwenty-five years after the mayor of New York City became the champion of America's grief and resilience at the time of the 9/11 attacks, families of those killed are split on whether the current mayor should attend the annual remembrance. https://cnn.it/4zkKYdc
I was told by Danny Boyle in an interview I (and several other student journalists) did that this is the reason Leo Di Caprio is American in The Beach, when in the book he's a Brit
Dan Seitz@dseitz.bsky.social · yesterdayThere are absolutely no considerations of art anywhere whatsoever in this process. It's pure capitalism. If they don't think it'll sell, the movie doesn't get made.
Less bothered that Gervais has gone from The Office to Alley Cats than Netflix going from BoJack to Alley Cats. Much more of a fall too.
Funny how Sonia Sodha, former Chief Leader Writer for the Observer, and regular Guardian columnist, turned into an all-angles antiwokist as soon as she started writing for the Times, isn't it?
flyingrodent@flyingrodent.bsky.social · 2d agoI again note: we wasted at least *six years* on the Keir Starmer project, premised upon the idea that the public were just crying out for mean-as-fuck crackdowns Labour with National Front rhetoric and policies. All the smart lads loved it and then, it turned out those voters just *do not exist*.
Amazing how many British policing scandals seem to boil down to "What do you expect us to do? Our jobs?"
Alison Boden@alisonboden.bsky.social · 2w agoWhen asked why British police screwed up the Andrew Tate case so badly, a "detective blamed the malfeasance on 'overworked, overstretched' officers who failed to take the women’s allegations seriously, partly because two of them were sex workers."
The whole of my willing exposure to Amanda Palmer is writing a review of the first Dresden Dolls album at 75 or Less over twenty years ago (the archives are fucked so I can't check, but I doubt it was positive). Is this finally the end of her? Christ, I hope so.
Jessica Price@delafina777.bsky.social · 2d agoThe TikTok girlies are referring to Amanda Palmer as “steampunk Ghislaine Maxwell” and damn
amazing: - openai has a better understanding of what happened than the "gone rogue" press narrative - the system was still not meaningfully isolated; the agents had read/write access to a package repo which itself had internet access, during *exploit evaluation* www.youtube.com/watch?v=87Dy...
Black Hat USA 2026: The 'Breaking' News: The OpenAI–Hugging Face Incident
YouTube video by Black Hat
youtube.com
Britain’s tiny gaggle of hooting mad elite cranks, who all know each other and relentlessly repeat each other’s idiotic bullshit, are of course not “victims of social contagion”.
I think part of the fascination of this story is that *everyone* has someone like Arday in their close-ish network; and if you don’t think you do you probably haven’t spotted them yet because the average person’s radar for it is *terrible*.
Stephen Bush@stephenkb.bsky.social · 2d agoMy favourite bit of the Arday story, because it combines both the humour and the horror, is that a university department doing research into education didn’t immediately go “hmm. Let’s investigate this a bit further” is the “non-verbal until 18” part.
Really good piece this www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
The takedown of Jason Arday has overjoyed the right, and must be a wake-up call for the left | Jason Okundaye
The Cambridge academic has rightly now resigned. But that won’t end the targeting of senior black figures or the lazy way institutions promote faux equality, says Guardian columnist Jason Okundaye
theguardian.com
if the moderate wing of the Dem party would spend even half of the energy they are spending fighting the DSA on fighting Trump they wouldn't be losing so many primaries to the DSA
Peter Baker@peterbakernyt.bsky.social · 3d ago"We are preparing for the next war that is coming": Abdul El-Sayed's victory in Michigan and the rise of DSA candidates in multiple states have Democrats at odds with each other over the identity and future of the party. @shanegoldmacher.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/2026/08/06/u...
Quite stupendous degree of nominative determinism at work here www.economist.com/science-and-... From The Economist
Shaking my head here reading the Jason Arday resignation letter goodlawproject.org/an-update-fr... There's no contrition here. Does he believe he did nothing wrong? Looks like he was hounded by all the wrong people, *and* embellished a lot of what he did, *and* institutions turned a blind eye
An update from Jason Arday | Good Law Project
goodlawproject.org
I've agreed to be the new host of Bullseye. Not entirely sure what I've let myself IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNN FOR.
Once again we’re in the Arrested Development meme. Did trying to get single market access without free movement of people work in the past? God no … but it might work for us.
Simon Usherwood@simonusherwood.bsky.social · 5d agoNick Boles on his plan for a European confederation. Paper with Demos coming later www.thetimes.com/article/8459...
Two good points in reply to my post, which I will refine my take in light of. This is the first.
Pete@eyebrowsofpower.bsky.social · 5d agoWhile I'm staring down the barrel of the Edinburgh Fringe programme, the fact that stand-up comedy doesn't have defined genres is a real problem in finding stuff. Conversely music is divided into thousands of micro genres to enable easy mixing
truly a man without any principle or idea of the actual big defining challenge the US faces in this moment
If you show up to Bluesky without following anyone, you'll be treated to a series of posts about art, music, and dogs. If you show up to X without following anyone, you'll be bombarded with right-wing conspiracies and white supremacist slop. It's weird which one is seen as a "political bubble"
Bede's World! Bede's World! Party time! Venerable!
I recall we had a period of time where the response of Starmer and Cooper to concerns about these groups was ‘I like flags’
Oxford Clarion@oxfordclarion.bsky.social · 5d agoLeaders of flag-raising group Raise the Colours Oxfordshire placed trackers on highway workers’ cars to find out their home addresses, the High Court has heard. RTC then attempted to intimidate the highway staff into no longer removing flags by repeating their addresses to them.
‘It’s called Toss Cat in America but in Britain, there’s a brand of cat food of that name, so we’ve renamed it Toss Cat’
British Comedy Guide@britishcomedy.bsky.social · 6d ago"It's the first thing I've ever created that I'd like to go on forever". Ricky Gervais introduces Alley Cats, his new animated sitcom which launches on Netflix on Friday. www.comedy.co.uk/tv/alley-cat...
Rod Liddle had a police caution for attacking his pregnant girlfriend. He peddled Rupert Lowe level virulent race hate for the Spectator long before it was fashionable. He wrote about wanting to fuck schoolgirls. To the end he was a bitter, petulant, thin-skinned, needy, angry man. Now he's dead. 🤷🏻♂️
"Like, we know what *we* think. But like what do *you guys* think we should do? Like we have a plan we're gonna do, but if someone has a better plan, like, why wouldn't we hear you out? So just like go ahead, no bad ideas in brainstorming. What are some things we should do in Iran?"
Carl Quintanilla@carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 6d agoPENTAGON: Anyone got any ideas? @cnn.com www.cnn.com/2026/08/03/p...
Also, one of the *big problems* with the move away from Marxism and towards forms of Foucauldian social constructionism is the tendency to bracket off the material, leaving constructions as free floating endless possibilities. The consequences of this are oppressive, damaging and need critiquing!
Dr Dean Burnett@drdeanburnett.bsky.social · last wk.Only just found out about this For the record, you don't get multiple genetic markers and one of the most effective medications known to science with 'social constructs' Channel 4, this is, in scientific parlance, an absolute fu*king disgrace that will genuinely endanger lives #c4 #ADHD
