I do rather wish we could have had some more robust journalism in the topic BEFORE the every crank toilet monitor in the country were legally empowered, but alas
Re-elect Sister Smudge for Secretary-Treasurer
@left-sharkey.bsky.social
Uphold Sister Smudge Thought. He/him.
I’d recommend everyone watch this - it’s rather cheering to watch our media discover that an incompetent crank runs our national equality regulator
Channel 4 News@channel4news.bsky.social · 6h agoEHRC chair challenged on how to enforce single-sex toilet rules www.channel4.com/news/ehrc-ch...
the teens hanging out at McDonald's have changed a little
Really happy to be able to preserve these titles. Folks, if you have a collection of disks or tapes, do have a look through them to see if there’s anything that might need preserving. Hard to believe, but these sat on my shelf for 20 years before I realised how rare they were.
Games That Weren't@gamesthatwerent.com · 17h agoA lovely huge preservation update today! Thanks to @malcseventyfour.bsky.social, 15 previously unpreserved Commodore 64 educational titles from Grolier/Mindflight have now been recovered, including the long sought-after The Story of Miss Mouse and Rhyme Land. www.gamesthatwerent.com/2026/08/grol...
[Guy who never goes outside voice] Damn it's crazy how irrelevant outside is these days
there's the principle of charity and there's being a mark and if trying to sort out the difference in practice scares you then I've got an amazing investment opportunity for you
men only want one thing, and it's a world where time drifts slowly and music carries you away. to be set adrift by the timeless pleasures of tubular bells. to order Pure Moods, call the number on your screen, or send check or money order for the amount shown, plus shipping and handling.
The average newspaper article on any single benefit in the UK: 1) starts by framing the entirety of state benefit spending as an insurmountable cost 2) stacks the deck to compare the highest possible award with the lowest possible wage 3) downplays the actual situation for those claiming
Re-elect Sister Smudge for Secretary-Treasurer@left-sharkey.bsky.social · last wk.LBC article states this is a comparison of a 16-17 year old working 12 hours a week during term-time versus a child of similar age who receives the enhanced rates for both care needs and mobility.
another piece of slight of hand seen here is mentioning the cost of the entire benefits bill - covering a whole range of forms of support - whilst discussing one smaller part of it, without mentioning the overall cost of that part as context.
Re-elect Sister Smudge for Secretary-Treasurer@left-sharkey.bsky.social · last wk.also notice the slight of hand here: "According to analysis from The Times, more than 87,000 16 and 17-year-olds are claiming Pip. More than two-thirds of those on the upper tier (£194 a week) are claiming for mental health and neurodevelopmental conditions"
The initial source appears to be this Times piece, which is a) paywalled and b) still deeply disingenuous in the way it's framed and discussed, if other related reporting from the Sun and LBC are correct.
Teenagers on Pip paid £100 a week more than those working part-time
More than two thirds of 16 and 17-year-olds on the benefit’s upper tier claim for mental health and neurodevelopmental conditions, receiving up to £194 a week
thetimes.com
Leftback@leftback.bsky.social · last wk.Remember: Reform Councillor
I was also on JSA for a few months (a fair few years back by now), and though everyone involved was pretty reasonable - sympathetic work coach, etc - nothing I actually did there improved my employability or helped me get a job.
Chris Boyd@paperghost.bsky.social · last wk.i was on jobseeker's allowance for just six months, in *2024*, and even now i still get random letters in the post from HMRC, or the jobseeker's office, as if i'm up to no good or somehow sneakily grabbing that massive slice of £90 a week while in full time employment
It’s a rip-off price, the vendor is toxic, and it seems the software doesnt deliver: www.ft.com/content/cbd1... Palantir tool has not cut hospital discharge delays, study says
Palantir tool has not cut hospital discharge delays, study says
Think-tank’s findings likely to add to calls for audit of NHS England claims around Federated Data Platform
ft.com
next series of bake off is going to be wild
post malone ergo propter malone@proptermalone.bsky.social · 2w agomy intuition is that an arbitrarily chosen baguette has the advantage but that naan benefits more from engineering and a purpose-built throwing naan is probably ahead of a purpose-built throwing baguette
the editorial stance of the Guardian is that there is a climate crisis, that countries like the UK need to do more to reduce emissions & pay for adaptation for poorer countries that are most at risk. The environment desk reports with that understanding; somehow it goes missing for domestic politics.
Jo Michell@jomichell.bsky.social · 2w agoI think it would be useful if journalists stopped adding the word 'radical' to descriptions of energy secretaries for the apparent reason that they understand the urgency of the climate crisis. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
all this is making me wish Scrapheap Challenge was still going
David Lewis@davidclewis.bsky.social · 2w agoUp the stakes: freeze the naan and launch it out of a clay pigeon machine, then fire the baguette out of a rocket launcher. Bread Wars: all the 𝘱𝘢𝘪𝘯 with none of the pain.
unions and reps aren't perfect, but I would beg people to try that option if they can before doing anything like this
Tom Roberts@tpgroberts.bsky.social · 2w agoA fun new problem that I had not clocked but discovered at a round table yesterday: Staff using AI to workshop their grievances and whistleblowing reports! The staff get bad legal advice, confidential information gets into AI training models, and reports get harder to parse, yay!
a lot of memes focus on Australia's large number of creatures that will absolutely kill you in horrible ways, but it is also a world leader in funny little guys
@eoinmonkey.bsky.social · 2w agoTHIS BILBY IS THE SIZE OF A LARGE GERBIL. THERE IS OFTEN A SMALLER VERSION INSIDE ITS POUCH.
and this skilled political operation, is it just briefing anonymous slaggings to the lobby again, or will something else be in evidence this time
PoliticsHome@politicshome.bsky.social · 2w agoLabour MPs unhappy with the treatment of Starmer loyalists have warned they could make life hard for Burnham at the Budget “Andy’s Starmerite purge has created an incredibly powerful phalanx of skilled political operators who intimately know the government’s fiscal position" Harriet Symonds writes
it is the Telegraph, so of course it's reporting this breathlessly, but this is *not new* - even Forstater insisted that she wouldn't misgender someone at work during her tribunal and appeal (though your milage may vary as to whether that was an honest claim, considering her trajectory)
Dan Sohege@danielsohege.bsky.social · 2w agoGood. Look, if it is a genuinely honest error, most people I know, including myself, aren't going to make a fuss beyond maybe a gentle clarification first time. If people wilfully misgender trans and non-binary individuals though they absolutely should face misconduct proceedings.
The thing about having social media as your omnicausal explanation for everything political in the last few decades is that you are correct in a purely tautalogical way, but after a certain point it stops having any utility and just becomes a way to avoid discussing any specifics.
A government official in Australia says the Northern Territory needs data centres to use lots of water so......the Earth's axis doesn't flip
Between this, the "Get The L Out" survey, and the Littman paper, the anti-trans movement are doing a lot to raise awareness about sampling bias
Parker Molloy@parkermolloy.com · 2w agoThe anti-trans group LGB Alliance posted this to Twitter, and I find it genuinely funny. Once you read the methodology section on their survey, it's clear that this survey only tells you that people who already support this group... agree with the group.
amendment to the BBC charter that every vox pop gets the BBC Verify treatment from now on
Ian Rennie@theangelremiel.bsky.social · 2w agoWho are these weirdos? And why are the BBC interviewing them?
Genuine malpractice from a public broadcaster, completely warped priorities that they are *well aware* are warped.
Adam Bienkov@adambienkov.bsky.social · 2w agoYou wouldn't know from these Tweets by a BBC reporter that small boat crossings are down by almost a half compared to the same period last year
I need only the slightest excuse to post this pic of Gruff Rhys throwing celery into the crowd again
The Best Album of 2001@bestalbumbrackets.bsky.social · 2w agoThe Best Album of 2001 Round 2 Match #87 #10 The Shins, OH, INVERTED WORLD VS. #74 Super Furry Animals, RINGS AROUND THE WORLD Go here to vote: forms.gle/BEJ8NZfM2fwi...
at the time, certain commentators - including a sitting Labour MP - were champing at the bit to claim this as a Islamist terror attack, and were clearly disappointed when it wasn't. Hard not to see that response as an antecedent to today's apologism for race riots.
David Klemperer@dmk1793.bsky.social · 2w agoWe must remember the Utøya massacre, and remember it for what it was: a far-right attack specifically targeted against democratic socialist activists. Today, the ideologies of its perpetrator are openly espoused by a global network of nationalist oligarchs as they wage war on democratic societies.
