£139bn. What else would that have bought? Every bus journey in England free for 40 years Or 60,000 miles of protected cycle lanes Or 3.3m new EVs, more than doubling the UK fleet Instead it went on a £139bn fossil fuel subsidy.

Simon Evans@drsimevans.carbonbrief.org · yesterday

OBR: "The cumulative cost of freezing fuel duty rates [since 2010-11]…has risen to £139bn." "[I]f fuel duty were to remain frozen until 2029-30, public sector net borrowing would be £4.3bn higher."

I get how this happens - you make more money, you spend more - but the lack of reflection on what is by any measure a huge wage is not the sort of thing I’d be sharing with the Guardian.

Tom Roberts@tpgroberts.bsky.social · 10h ago

I, put simply, do not believe you.

It’s social media revisionism to say audiences knew in 1999 that Jar Jar Binks was computer generated. It took YEARS to figure that out. At the time we all thought he was a real man who was very unwell.

In 2008, Neil Strauss published a follow up to The Game, his book about pickup artists. It was a self-help book called The Rules of the Game. And it was blurbed by Russell Brand: “Neil Strauss’s writing turned me from a desperate wallflower into a wallflower who can talk women into sex.”

I’d like to think that Tom Scholar’s enjoyed his time after HMT.

Neil Norman And His Cosmic Orchestra@fubsyshabaroon.bsky.social · yesterday

Thicker than a whale omelette.

I’ve never wanted a touchscreen MacBook, because I don’t want anyone to touch the screen of my MacBook, ever.

If you're trying and failing to access the government's council tax band check website, then remember it's almost certainly written on your council tax bill from this year, which was probably emailed to you.

Paul Brand@paulbrand.bsky.social · yesterday

Chancellor says households in council tax bands A-D will get £100 off their energy bills. The government's band check website appears to have crashed in response, perhaps as everyone scrabbles to see if they're eligible. #Budget2026

Well done to the photographer for almost getting "Dour Future" in this shot.

Weird how it's fine for a presenter on Today to have a column in the Mail where he gives his highly political views, but it was beyond the pale to have the presenter of Match of the Day having opinions.

Dorian Lynskey@dorianlynskey.bsky.social · 2d ago

The problem with Justin Webb’s position at the BBC is not just his flagrant bias, or his writing for the Mail, or his audible prejudices, it’s that all those things make him embarrassingly bad at analysing politics. “Left = firebrand = too woke = trouble for Dems” is about his level

Few years ago at an Anthony Gormley exhibition there was a documentary on the building of the Angel of the North. Everyone hated it - locals protested, national papers likened it to the work of Albert Speer. The moment it went up everyone changed their tune and it's now an icon

Tom Wilson@feedthedrummer.bsky.social · 2d ago

Remember back at school we had a question time of councillors ahead of local elections and for some reason the thing that really animated the panel was Labour's plan to pedestrianise the town centre. Every party predicting crime and economic doom, and within a year of completion, everyone liked it.

sorry for what i posted 5 minutes ago. that was a youthful indiscretion i’ve changed now im a better man

It’s hardly the area with the most difficult to pronounce countries, he must be a fucking idiot.

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 2d ago

JD Vance says of the Middle East that it's "a region of the world made up of countries whose name I couldn't even pronounce"

a weird set of people who only exist online are people who celebrate the defeat of global fascism in every other country and are then horrified and appalled at the idea that they should also be expected to vote for their domestic opponent of global fascism if some of their stances are Problematic

Norway should use this for a “visit Norway” ad.

POLITICO Europe@politico.eu · 4d ago

Donald Trump on Sunday night said Norway “sucks,” as he fulminated about being repeatedly overlooked for the Nobel Peace Prize.

A newspaper promising the first images of pedestrianised Oxford Street used a single screenshot from a traffic camera. Now, why didn't I think of that when I spent two cold hours on Oxford Street last night? www.ianvisits.co.uk/articles/las...

Last buses run down Oxford Street as pedestrianisation kicks in

Just before 8pm on Sunday evening, the last buses and taxis made their way along the half of Oxford Street that is now fully pedestrianised.

ianvisits.co.uk

Great film. Amazing performance. It’s worth watching, and it’s free!

Internet Archive@archive.org · 4d ago

📽️ #OTD in 1928, THE PASSION OF JOAN OF ARC premiered in France. For this #PublicDomain Spotlight, revisit Carl Theodor Dreyer’s silent masterpiece, featuring Renée Falconetti in one of cinema’s most celebrated performances. Watch it at the Internet Archive: archive.org/details/the-...

Whatever happens in Brazil, I don’t understand why people will support politicians who didn’t respect the result of the last election (or in this case, his son). You wouldn’t have thought that “attempted coups should be disqualifying” would be controversial but here we are.

This week's Starlink shenanigans: "What actually happened was that Trump and Musk had badly miscalculated about the political and potentially economic reaction to this move and were caught like rats in a trap of their own making"

Phillips OBrien@phillipspobrien.bsky.social · 4d ago

Free weekend update is out. Its mostly a deep dive into the Starlink/Starshield move by Trump and Musk (yes both of them) which did real damage to Ukraine and proved a point. Trump reacts to pressure, not flattery. Standing up to him is the only way. phillipspobrien.substack.com/p/weekend-up...

This graph shows the efficacy of austerity too. The poorest in society went through all that, our state is falling apart and it didn’t even achieve anything of what the stated intent was.

Jonathan Portes@jdportes.bsky.social · 4d ago

This is just dreadful stuff from Kuenssberg: "What has the government done to cut the national debt?" ONS: "Public sector net debt was provisionally estimated at 94.0% of GDP, 0.7 percentage points lower than a year earlier"

Big fan of the bright pink Pakistan kit for today’s ODI. Works well with their green.

I’m beginning to wonder if this baby even knows the clocks have changed.

if you ever happen to see someone post a joke you don't understand or discuss a subject you aren't familiar with, you are well within your right to complain, and perhaps even scold them if necessary. you are their customer and you have rights

Yes, why do people choose to stay in countries that are (broadly) well run, look after their citizens, and where there aren’t any wars? It’s a mystery for the ages.

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 5d ago

Trump: "Why do we always have to take people from shit house countries? We can't we take people from Norway and Sweden and Denmark? By the way, Denmark gave us Greenland ... what do you take, Venezuela or Greenland? We got them both!"

The last lot of twenties were great: The Waste Land, Ulysses, Gatsby, The Trial, Hot Fives and Sevens, Rhapsody in Blue, Bolero, Nosferatu, Sunrise, Metropolis, Battleship Potemkin,, quantum mechanics, insulin, Bauhaus, Magritte, the Tractatus, Vienna Circle, Being and Time, television.

“He’s got the White House looking like Saddam Hussein opened up a Cheesecake Factory” — Obama

“How much time do you think this defense secretary spends looking in the mirror in the morning? These are not serious people” — Obama’s audience in Ohio is hanging on every word as he skewers Trump and Hegseth

There’s lots wrong with the film Troy. More than I could fit in to a tweet, but central to it is how utterly abysmal Brad Pitt’s acting is.

I guess we’re going to have to say goodbye to this era of governments chosen by highly educated women. Examples are everywhere, I’m sure, but none immediately leap to mind.

@amybisinthewoods.bsky.social 🍄🍄‍🟫@amybdogsandfungi.bsky.social · 5mo ago

“Palantir cofounder and CEO Alex Karp states ‘AI will undermine the influence of highly educated, often female voters and give it to working class men. We have feminine energy running our cities and our courts,’ he complained.”

If he’d been asked which of these animals is a giraffe, he’d have been fine.

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 6d ago

😳 WOMAN REPORTER: Do sexual abuse allegations mean nothing to you, sir? TRUMP: Wait. Wait! Wait wait wait. Slow down. Who are you with? REPORTER: NBC, sir. But they are very serious sex abuse allegations TRUMP: Quiet! Isn't she a fresh person? You're a horrible little reporter, aren't you?

Who will rid HR of those meddlesome priests?

David Higham@oldtrotter.bsky.social · 6d ago

Seems a touch brutal.