Kemi must be so disappointed the former neo-Nazi has decided not to stand after all lol

Cis woman on now speaking about how much she has been challenged, had security called on her because she has PCOS. Says she's never had a problem with trans women but multiple problems with GC women. She's on the verge of tears.

You're only a neo-Nazi if your name begins with H. Anyone else is just Sparkling Mussolini

Are the UK Conservatives actually mad?

Tough on crime, given up on the causes of crime

OK, so I do not want to hear, at any point in the coming years, a Government spokesperson talking about "tougher sentences" for whichever type of offending is causing popular outrage at the time. You need to own this, politicians, and all the needless confusion and pain you're causing now.

Astonishing that Liddle might have edited The Independent. (But was caught out lying as he tried to hide extreme racist posting.)

Sunder Katwala (sundersays)@sundersays.bsky.social · 2d ago

His MillwallMonkey online antics did seem to cost him the Independent editorship. He publicly implausibly denied one (biological racism IQ) post was his when going for editor. He later defended that post in a Guardian interview, seemingly forgetting his denial leftfootforward.org/2010/01/wher...

Most of the criticism of the late and widely unlamented Rod Liddle goes to his posts about abusing children, and his criminal assault on a pregnant partner. But his wild invective against Muslims was just as evil. Strikingly, it draws less comment.

Remarkably, Duffield herself is now eulogising Liddle fondly

I Am Incorrigible@imincorrigible.bsky.social · 2d ago

In one 2019 Spectator paragraph, Liddle mocked Rosie Duffield, who had given a harrowing Commons speech about surviving domestic abuse, as "sobbing and oppressed", & then suggested holding the election on a Muslim holy day to suppress the Labour vote. He called it satire. It was racism & misogyny

Is the Rod Liddle who died (one of a kind, warm, funny etc) the same chap as the guy I associate with that name? I'm confused.

BBC Radio 3 doing what it does best: in the Proms interval, a serious look into what's going on in the Shostakovich 11 that's coming up in the second half. Well done.

Zeus’ law? www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...

Kindness of strangers: We were hopelessly lost in the Sudanese desert. Then villagers offered us a hut to stay in

We were exhausted and in need of rest. In the morning, the kind locals prepared a huge breakfast and refused to accept any payment

theguardian.com

Covid lockdowns demonstrated, in a deeply imperfect way, the possibility of large-scale social solidarity for a higher cause. That is a prime reason why so many powerful people want us to run screaming away from them into the comforting arms of selfish individualist competition.

The Ice Cream Man Cometh

Eurostar has its own, very annoying form of (not) customer service. It suggests you look for the answer to.your question in their FAQs. I know ot won't be, but I do as asked. It's not. So I use the contact form. Immediate automated reply by email says "try this link, we'll assume you found the >>

For the nth time, it's rein in, not reign in. (And it's certainly not rainin' 😀)

Plenty of criticism in response to this, rightly. But what he says doesn't make sense in itself. A subject can't be "disputed", it's a subject, it exists. Does he mean the idea that LC exists is disputed? Later he qualifies that, rather a lot. The explosive bit in this post is surely the "at best".

Lewis Goodall@lewisgoodall.com · 4d ago

Long covid is a disputed subject, at best.

Slightly bothered by my perusals of Substack having got to the point where I feel a need to block on occasion. Most recently, an openly neo-Nazi activist who as far as I'm concerned ought to be somewhere else entirely ...

Looked at the Radio 3 schedule for tonight. After Mahler 1 by heart at the Proms, an interview with Thea Musgrave whose new bassoon concerto is having its Proms première on 23 August. Hmm, I thought, Thea - whom I much admire - must be into her eighties now. Looked her up. She was 98 in May 🙏

Highly recommended. Drama about the real-life meeting between English double agent Guy Burgess (one of the ring of 5 Soviet agents in British intelligence) & actress Coral Browne. Burgess's sad existence in Russia is brightened up by her visit & also a bespoke suit she orders for him.

Talking Pictures TV@talkingpicturestv.bsky.social · 4d ago

Coming soon! Wednesday 5th August, 8:35pm AN ENGLISHMAN ABROAD (1983) written by #AlanBennett and starring #AlanBates #CoralBrowne #CharlesGray drama #TPTVsubtitles

Achieved

#haiku TL:DR irl iirc yolo

Perfect encapsulation

Dmitry Grozoubinski@explaintrade.com · 5d ago

To state the obvious: It's not "banter" if the person you're doing it at would not be participating if given the choice.

Haven't heard much on the news about why Spain possesses two enclaves in anothrr nation's terrirory. Seems to be taken as read, a perfectly normal thing.

Good for the café owner. On a less serious note, I did have to read that headline a couple of times before I could dispel the image of police officers munching on children!

HappyToast@happytoast.co.uk · 6d ago

This has really pissed me off, if you're in the area and can afford it go and give the cafe owner some money to help fund the kids meals. And if he refuses buy yourself a nice coffee and tip him as much as you can. Fuck Reform taking food from kids in need. www.mirror.co.uk/news/politic...

Wow! New album of John McCabe Symphonies and Cello Concerto from BBCSSO and Kenneth Woods open.spotify.com/track/2VteBI...

Symphony No. 2: I. Vivo

John McCabe, Kenneth Woods, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra · McCabe: Symphonies 2 & 3 and Cello Concerto · Song · 2026

open.spotify.com

Yes, good. I don't like that sort of thing at all, but it's not inciting or even "calling on" anyone to do anything. The guillotine is a symbol of the desire to overthrow an established order, in this case represented by Farage and his coterie of money men. No guillotines on sale that I've seen.

Peter Walker@peterwalker99.bsky.social · 6d ago

Interesting statement from Avon & Somerset police about how not only did Zack Polanski not commit an offence in posting a pic of a man in a T-shirt showing a guillotine and a reference to Nigel Farage, but that the "satirical" T-shirt was itself also not an offence.

Just dipping in here to endorse the applause for James' work and to urge following him

Sunder Katwala (sundersays)@sundersays.bsky.social · 6d ago

Massively valuable work on the impacts by @jamesbowes01.bsky.social If the govt decides that those in the UK *should* have a secure path to settlement, then this can be fixed If the intention is to make people leave in 2030, they need to own that + show the impact bsky.app/profile/jame...

Yes, and while in appalling taste it was in no way a call to assassinate Farage. It's striking, the change in what's disapproved of in the way of rhetoric. Meanwhile calls to "send them back" to, in some cases, torture and death are brushed off as the product of "legitimate concerns".

The National@scotnational.bsky.social · last wk.

BREAKING: The Met Police have confirmed no further action will be taken against Green Party leader Zack Polanski after he inadvertently shared an image on social media depicting a man wearing a black T-shirt with a picture of a guillotine and the words: 'We’re only making plans for Nigel'

Not a paradox. Devolution is about the tier of government where powers and resources rest, not necessarily to do with geography.

The Londoner@londonermag.bsky.social · last wk.

Will Sadiq Khan soon be more powerful than ever? One of the paradox's of Burnham's devolution agenda is that London's mayor stands to gain more than anywhere else. Full story below ⬇️