I just signed a @theactionnetwork.bsky.social petition: Equality for Cleaners at RCA - End Outsourcing!. Sign here: actionnetwork.org/petitions/eq...

“Remember what I said…” Yeah. About that. It’s almost impressive how confidently wrong that prediction aged.

Reform TV currently is having a meltdown. For the record, Councillor Jaymey McIvor here defected from the Tories to Reform UK to avoid being sacked because of gross misconduct. He’s never stood as a Reform UK candidate.

TBH the only things of his I ever enjoyed reading were (after April 2006) the spines of THE ABOMINABLE DAN SIMMONS and DAN SIMMONS THE HOLLOW MAN

Choose a passive-aggressive number of books that shaped you. Even if you are indifferent to or despise them now. No explanations. 112/747 Max Schaeffer, Children of the Sun (2011)

Choose a passive-aggressive number of books that shaped you. Even if you are indifferent to or despise them now. No explanations. 111/747 Arthur C. Clarke, Childhood’s End (1953)

Is it possible that David Ellison is ruining the film industry in revenge for him being a horrible actor? Don't tell us you don't remember him in Flyboys - aka WWI Top Gun - alongside James Franco and Martin Henderson?!

no war but class war

This is amazing. www.getyourfuckingmoneyback.com

Liver's cheap because there's low demand for it. If everyone started eating it, it would become expensive. And even if everyone loved it, it's only recommended that you eat it once a week, or you risk vitamin A toxicity. Would be nice if the secretary of HEALTH knew that!

so the undertaker offers ashes scatter tubes in various colours, including charcoal, which somehow seems, I dunno, inappropriate

So the Telegraph is taking this well

Dear @lucympowell.bsky.social, I have enjoyed our exchange of letters about which of our parties is best placed to stop Reform. Hannah Spencer MP and I trust that you agree that this question has now been resolved once and for all. Thanks, Zack Polanski

Good morning fellow romantics

This is appalling in many ways. She has full legal capacity but was moved to a care home against her will. A shocking example of overbearing medical power. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

We're back at the Horse Hospital on the 10th for some furious wasteland battles. The bombs have dropped, and now the fight for survival begins with the wonderful Ken Hollings. See you on the 10th.

great state-of-the-field essay on cli-fi, I can see this being very useful for teaching the genre

big thanks to the brilliant @racheldonald.bsky.social for the opportunity to chat on Planet: Critical we kicked off the new year by asking: what's up with climate fiction? www.planetcritical.com/heather-mill...

Watching GODZILLA (1998) before it leaves Netflix and I'd forgotten that this has the largest amount of sexual harassment per kaiju tonne out of any monster movie.

The ICE surge in Minnesota cost $280M to detain 4k people. Of those- only 30 were accused of violent crimes. $9 million per capture of the "worst of the worst". Renee Good and Alex Pretti were unavailable for comment….

Is there no beginning to Matt Goodwin's accomplishments?

Congratulations to The Green Party and Hannah Spencer for such a strong victory in Gorton and Denton - Matt Goodwin seems to be blaming a dirty tricks campaign of the Greens persuading people to vote for them by having policies people wanted to vote for

obviously today is a huge embarrassment for Matt Goodwin and for Reform, which is something that we absolutely ought to celebrate, but we must also remember it's a huge embarrassment for Morgan McSweeney and Maurice Glasman and all the Blue Labour weirdos, and that's important to celebrate too :)

After a year, I've finally finished working through Thomas Burnett Swann's 16 fantasy novels. Here's my essay on his last novel, CRY SILVER BELLS, a fitting end to his career published more than a year after his death from cancer in 1976. What a ride it has been discovering this brilliant writer!

The great Billy Zane rewatch: CRITTERS (1986)

Choose a passive-aggressive number of books that shaped you. Even if you are indifferent to or despise them now. No explanations. 110/747 Tomas Mofola, Chaka (1925)

Choose a passive-aggressive number of books that shaped you. Even if you are indifferent to or despise them now. No explanations. 109/747 Leslie Marmon Silko, Ceremony (1977)

A little over a year ago I wrote this massive essay on E.R. Eddison's strange, magnificent fantasy novel THE WORM OUROBOROS (1922). I'm honestly really proud of this one, because I think I make some unique claims about the novel and it was just a joy to read, write, and learn about.

When faced with a shockingly exploitative new employment contract that would’ve forced them to sign away their IP, their likeness rights, and their power of attorney, Jupiter Jetson and her coworkers at Sheri’s fought back—fast. They organized a union in SIX DAYS. www.thenation.com/article/econ...

Cropping the top and bottom old TV shows so they fill a widescreen display should be punishable by death.

The great Billy Zane rewatch: Back to the Future

Can we talk about the ensemble in the '04 SALEM’S LOT? Rutger Hauer, Rob Lowe, Donald Sutherland & James Cromwell bring a level of gravitas that few TV miniseries of that era could match. Dr Simon Brown helped us discuss why its "bad" reputation doesn't hold up. pod.fo/e/394f46

I’ve always said the best one was WES CRAVEN’S NEW NIGHTMARE

Analysis of crash data shows that you're 17 times more likely to die in a vehicle fire if you buy Elon Musk's Tesla Cyber truck than if you had bought a Ford Pinto, the 1970s era car infamous for gas tank explosions in rear end collisions. fuelarc.com/evs/its-offi...

New and free to download (and coedited by my old mate Joe)

Blimey I just saw a stoat

throw the bums out thetab.com/2026/02/26/n...

Patel has fired 10 FBI employees who were involved in the federal investigation into Trump’s handling of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago and related probes.

Choose a passive-aggressive number of books that shaped you. Even if you are indifferent to or despise them now. No explanations. 108/747 Franz Kafka, The Castle (1926)

Choose a passive-aggressive number of books that shaped you. Even if you are indifferent to or despise them now. No explanations. 107/747 Harold Pinter, The Caretaker (1960)

One-step process for determining whether or not that effusive email about your book and the exciting online offered by the email-sender is fake or not. It is fake if 1. you received it.

This is Bruegger. He learned a highly advanced new trick, demonstrating excellent use of both free will and spatulas. 13/10 (TT: maddmaddmad)

Unfortunate to hear that pre-wedding stress seems to be getting to Taylor Swift. Good luck not exploding. phys.org/news/2026-02...

today I learned that allen keys were invented by sir allen lane, of penguin fame. here he is in 1955, demonstrating their maximum diameter to a sceptical audience of booksellers

the only nyt headline you should care about today:

Morning.

This article on the decline of the mass market paperback has been doing the rounds. Won’t get into the nostalgia aspects of the shift, but if affordability & accessibility are the issue, people should be looking at the huge range of second hand books to be found. www.theguardian.com/books/2026/f...