oh I did know this I'm meant to be promoting it, please go buy a cheep ebook of 47 Borders, it's almost certainly cheap on Kobo too as they tend to price match

A History of the World in 47 Borders: The Sunday Times #1 Bestseller

A captivating exploration of world history through the lens of political borders, offering surprising, humorous, and insightful stories that reveal their profound impact.

amazon.co.uk

@globelimper.bsky.social · 20h ago

you know 47 borders is just 99p on Kindle today?

Ex-PM Starmer said, in response to Raise the Colours terrorising people, ‘I am supporter of flags’, ‘I’m very encouraging of flags. I think they’re patriotic and I think they’re a great symbol of our nation’ and his family had ‘got St George’s flag in our flat’ www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...

Cllr Dr Alex Powell@apowelllaw.bsky.social · 2d ago

The campaign of harassment and intimidation Raise the Colours have undertaken against council staff, contractors, and members of the public as reported by the Clarion today is shocking if not surprising. Excellent reporting. oxfordclarion.uk/the-clarion-...

Brilliant letter from Stuart Thompson to Jeremy Clarkson about his comments that benefit claimants should write weekly thank you letters to tax payers detailing how they spend their benefits each week.

Its quite hard to know what, exactly, will actually lose someone their licence if 59 points, driving while disqualified and no insurance doesn't. Its not juat dangerous - its clear contempt for the law. We should treat car crime like any other crime

Jon Owen@anotherjon.bsky.social · 2d ago

"I'm getting fed up with getting pulled by you guys, so this one will result in a complaint," says the driver with 59 points on his licence. 59 points, and still driving, and he didn't go to prison. The system is broken. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

I’ve known this was coming and so has everyone else. It doesn’t exist, keep burning, it doesn’t exist, keep burning, oh, it *does* exist but it’s too late to do anything, so keep burning. The sheer cynicism should carry a jail sentence.

Roland Smith@rolandmcs.bsky.social · last wk.

Nighty night.

One of the all-time great Hollywood anecdotes. John Boorman on the late great LEE MARVIN

I’m furious that Andy Burnham's talks on social care will not include someone who isn’t even an MP and whose party accounts for 1% of Parliament. Call that democracy?

PLEASE SHARE THIS To the young person (longish dark hair, patterned waistcoat, chinos & DM boots) who left this scroll of papers on the Piccadilly Line train at South Kensington station at about 4.25pm today, I’ve handed it to the station staff at Hammersmith.

"What all the critics of Miliband’s appointment are overlooking is that it is not actually the purpose of the Foreign Secretary to appease Donald Trump. The job of Foreign Secretary is to stand up for British interests." ✍️ @alexhh.bsky.social bylinetimes.com/2026/07/27/i...

'It's Trump, Not Ed Miliband Who Is the Source of the UK's Transatlantic Problems'

The first job of the Foreign Secretary is to stand up for Britain's interests, not to appease a President trying to undermine them, argues former British diplomat Alexandra Hall Hall

bylinetimes.com

Long overdue for The Spectator's Islamophobia to come under the microscope. Excellent piece from Peter Oborne here doing just that. It is now, he writes, just "an upmarket version of GB News" (same owner, of course)

Exposed: The Rabidly Islamophobic Magazine at the Heart of the British Establishment

For almost 200 years, 'The Spectator' stood for civilised, bravely heretical discourse. But a new report reveals how it now spews out anti-Muslim hatred week after week to its upmarket audience

open.substack.com

Burnham: Social Care is a huge challenge that demands a proper longterm solution. It can be done if parties work together. Most parties: PM is right and we'll work with him for a solution. Tories: PM is right and we'll work with him for a solution. BUT ONLY IF HE CAN DO IT FOR FREE. Grow TF up.

Anyway, Nigel, about that £5 million...

lots of reporters suddenly worried about slipping into communism but strangely f*cking quiet about slipping into fascism

Worth pointing out that in 1956, a children's book adaptation of Homer was doing "woke" casting.

No, no and no. These weren't "rogue AIs" -- what happened here is that OpenAI kicked off a software process and let it run. OpenAI was always in control and could have stopped the process (or actually paid attention to what it was doing) at any time. >>

We're thrilled to announce that The Pipeline in Brighton is now community owned, becoming the 10th grassroots music venue to be permanently protected through our Own Our Venues campaign.

I've said it before: ignore the haters. Met data shows there were 35,000 fewer neighbourhood crimes last year than the year before. While some spread myths online, the Met is cutting crime and making our streets safer for everyone, with record funding from City Hall.

If you’ve heard online that London is dystopian and dangerous – read this. It just isn’t | Sadiq Khan

Britain’s capital has faced social media, press and political attacks designed to make residents and tourists feel unsafe. Ignore that: we have the facts, says London mayor Sadiq Khan

theguardian.com

Happy Birthday, Eric William Ravilious, 22 July 1903 – 2 September 1942. 'Runway Perspective', 1942. www.iwm.org.uk/collections/...

Once again, why haven’t we banned disposable barbecues?

Sue Wilkes@suewilkesauthor.bsky.social · 2w ago

One careless person has led to all this dangerous work for fire crews: www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... www.cheshirefire.gov.uk/news-events/...

The sound of apoplectic popping when transphobes watching BBC's Evolution realise their distant ancestors were hermaphrodites.

"[…] without UBI, people like this are exceedingly rare. Einsteins are rare. Khns and Kleks are rare. With UBI, they will be less rare. That is not a hope. That is a statistical near-certainty." www.scottsantens.com/the-angine-d...

The Angine de Poitrine Argument for UBI

Why Angine de Poitrine's viral microtonal math rock KEXP session, Ireland's permanent basic income for artists, and Albert Einstein are three sides of the same human triangle Two guys in papier-mâché…

scottsantens.com

As Ed Miliband leaves his post as energy and net-zero secretary, a final tally: There have been an incredible 251 newspaper editorials attacking him and his approach to net-zero since the start of 2024 That amounts to two editorials a week, mainly in the Sun, Daily Mail, Times and Daily Telegraph.

If you’re wondering why UK press has suddenly woken up to Farage, please read this. It’s because: Brexit. The r/w press refused to scrutinise the money behind Farage & the lawsuit against me scared off the rest. But this isn’t a new scandal. It’s the same one I’ve been reporting on for a decade

THE NERVE@thenerve.news · 3w ago

NEW: Who funds Nigel Farage? And why has it taken till now for any journalistic scrutiny? @carolecadwalla.bsky.social who has tracked him for a decade exposes how the UK press & regulators looked the other way 🧵👇

Can you imagine the uproar if someone's legal car was seized and immediately crushed because some woodentop made a mistake? And the Police don't even apologise or accept they made a mistake. It's good to see this go mainstream. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Birmingham man's legal e-bike seized and destroyed by police in error

The BBC finds the bike was legal and supplied as part of a scheme to reduce pollution in the city.

bbc.co.uk

White supremacists are carping about a black women playing a character in Greek mythology. Hollywood's most egregious casting was when it hired white people as non-white characters, not the other way around. LEFT: Katharine Hepburn in “Dragon Seed.” RIGHT: Mickey Rooney in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s.”

The only reason any consortium wants to take over and "rescue" Thames Water is to extract as much cash as possible before it's death spiral is complete and the corpse handed over to you and me for its financial resurrection. www.theguardian.com/business/202...

Thames Water creditors seek talks with Burnham as nationalisation looms

Consortium preparing for potential legal battle amid reports new PM could put the company into temporary public ownership

theguardian.com

Folks complaining the actors in The Odyssey don't look Ancient Greek are oddly nostalgic for the era when John Wayne was apparently the most qualified Mongolian on Earth.

Thoughts on people bringing you down

In these challenging times someone might need one of them: Childline: 0800 1111 Samaritans: 116 123 Domestic Violence Hotline: 0808 2000 247 Mind: 0300 123 3393 Age UK: 0800 169 6565 Alcoholics Anonymous : 0800 9177 650 Cruse Bereavement Care: 0808 808 1677 MH text support: 85258 Please share. TY x