A bloke approached me in the street today, bold as you please, and said “I’m ugly and overweight l, aren’t I?” He wasn’t threatening or anything. It was just a very, very odd thing to do. I asked him who he was and what he wanted. He just laughed. What is going on?

Today many western democracies stand at a crossroads. But the traffic lights aren’t working, road markings are so worn they’re illegible, signposts have all been nicked for scrap, SatNavs are all out of range, and a nearby sewage pipe has burst, coating all roads in muck. #WhatsYourMetaphor ?

People have a short little span of attention nowadays 😬

The thought just struck me—not for the first time but it’s been a while—that while Covid raged, killing and hurting so many people, in Britain, the ridiculous Boris Johnson was distracted with executing a constitutional change that was to utterly hobble the UK for at least a generation. Astounding.

A court has ruled that the government's authoritarian ban on Palestine Action was unlawful. Time to stop criminalising the people protesting a genocide - and start ending the UK's complicity.

I gather from an unverified source (BBC News) that Palestine Action offence has been deemed criminal but not terrorist, and that the Home Office intends to fight the Govt ‘cause’ on this. Way to go, Labour. Vote @greenparty.org.uk

How long are we going to hear about “legitimate debates and concerns about immigration?” It’s time we told the truth and deal with it. Net migration is low, we need more migrants, we are an ageing population. Highly skilled and low paid jobs are dependent on migrants. We need safe and legal routes.

Dedicated to BlueSky friends in the United States, particularly in the Twin Cities. This is Alexander Johnston’s 1858 painting ‘The Press Gang’, depicting the practice of seizing people (men, here) from their ordinary lives and removing them violently to service in a Navy ship or Yard.

Oh this is splendid. Reminds me of a famous incident from when I was at university when the union events organiser was told to order £500 of smoked salmon for a party. Instead he ordered 500lbs. It had to be delivered in a truck. Everyone ate salmon for weeks

I was born and raised in Gorton and Denton, and I absolutely guarantee you Reform won't put it first. They won't even put Britain first. They'll put Russia first. We LITERALLY jailed one of them for doing that.

My BlueSky button has turned ‘3D’. Excellent.

When did umbrellas fall out of use in England? Are they ‘cissy’, like bicycles? Spotted yet another crocodile of school kids out in the city in the rain yesterday. Not an umbrella among them. Few coats looked waterproof. A bunch of soggy kids. What’s going on?

This lady in a bathrobe recording ICE kidnapping another of her neighbors in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Things haven't gotten better there; they've gotten worse. We need to give Minnesota our attention and support.

The kind of horror that lies in store for Britain under modern fascism.

Does the Number10 spokesperson remember who spoke about "Island of strangers", "squalid chapter", "incalculable damage"? I do. I know who first wanted to divide this country. Starmer mainstreamed and normalised that kind of rhetoric🤢 bsky.app/profile/er20...

Wanted: Regional Director to work for an organisation opposed to home working. The successful applicant will be expected to work from home.

“My grandmother fled Germany, you would deport her!” “My ancestors fled pogroms, you incite them on refugees.”

One of the maddest elements of Brexit - and there are *many* - is the rewards that continue to be lavished on the blithering idiots who sold it & continue to be proved wrong about everything every day…

The public needs to be aware that a similar thing has been happening in the UK to the US with antivaxxers that has been drowning out Covid facts and interfering in science in parliament since 2020.

🥇🥇🥇

When I got the contract to write a history of concentration camps in 2014, I hoped to keep the US from ending up here. That didn't work out! But now it's critical to understand how much is already in process and the enormity of what's coming. The sooner we act to stop it, the more people we'll save.

The United States is purposefully blockading Cuba from accessing fuel that powers everything from grocery stores to hospitals. People will die. Children will die. What's being done to the people of Cuba is monstrous. The people in power were ok with it in Gaza and now they're doing it to Cuba.

I'm going to do a thread of all the references and context behind Bad Bunny's performance and what it means for Puerto Ricans to see this on the biggest stage. The opening title screen is a street mural in Puerto Rico that comes to life with footballs as coconuts. Follow along!

US concentration camp news. Dedicated to all the ‘Deportation Command’ fans in England.

Kids Beg for Freedom in Letters From Inside ICE Detention Center: ‘Please Get Me Out of Here’ This is where we are in US in 2026 because of Trump. We have concentration camps www.mediaite.com/media/news/k...

“[Labour] should not pitch hopelessly to insatiable rejectionists in ways that fail with everyone” But they have. Repeatedly. Emphatically. Slickly. Boastfully. Cruelly. They’ve finally convinced me… … to back @greenparty.org.uk instead.

This type of X comms from the Home Office seems a political gift to Reform, and fuel for overt racists, while repelling progressives at the same time

So THAT’S what DtMF stands for… ! #BadBunny

Our hospital records (including those of under-age girls) available to Palantir ... "Jeffrey Epstein Co-Owned Venture Capital Fund With Palantir’s Peter Thiel" novaramedia.com/2026/02/05/j... All government contracts with Palantir must be scrapped!

“It could take years to restore Brexit losses” Especially if Farage comes along and tears up the ‘reset’ as he threatens. Honest to god.. it’s such a tedious, idiotic, resource-sapping mess. There’s really nothing patriotic about it. Prejudice costs such a lot. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

I speak to so many people who think they haven’t caught COVID but don’t mask or test. It might be that a few of you didn’t but it’s far more likely most of you had asymptomatic COVID. Between 40-49% catch asymptomatic infections but it’s not a cold. Mild doesn’t necessarily equate 🧵

UK ‘Simpler Recycling’ Regulations under the Environment Act (2021) have supposedly been implemented for businesses since March 2025. Patchily. Hands up if you noticed. Over the next year or so HMG aims to extend the regs to households. Size of challenge: massive. Public information: seen any?

Will the British anti-immigrant frenzy lead to even bigger ‘facilities’ in the post-industrial wastes or less profitable pastures of England? What euphemisms and cute acronyms will be invented to name these cruelty-driven concentration camps?

just building this awful camp system is a crime against humanity imo

Concentration camps: “For 280 days we haven’t eaten a single piece of fruit, banana, apple, orange, or anything fresh. We are all in one big room with no doors or windows. We can’t see any grass or trees. We are all constantly sick."

Former Washington Post journalists have launched a GoFundMe to help repatriate fired staff members who are effectively stranded in foreign countries. One of the richest men in the world fired them from the paper and didn’t even pay to ensure they got home. Abolish the billionaire class:

We ICE vehicle drivers, of course, both distribute and ingest this muck. Non drivers just get to ingest it. The ‘environment’ isn’t just a pet project for tree huggers and science fetishists. It’s the place we all live in. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Why is every scandal existential for Starmer? Because he has actively worked to eradicate his own support base. And that, along with the Mandelson decision, can be laid at McSweeney's door iandunt.substack.com/p/starmers-m...

Can we just call these what they are? Concentration Camps!!! www.nbcnews.com/politics/imm...

The wind blows cold … Warm your hands on Pecksniff.

Every now and then the metaphorical world bumps into the real one.

🚨🚨" Some leaders have chosen to hunt them down and deport them through operations that are both unlawful and cruel. My government has chosen a different way: a fast and simple path to regularize their immigration status." Spanish PM Pedro #Sanchez on why #migrants are essential for Western society:

Those surprised at the BBC promoting Reform (whole programme promoting them, and Yusuf yet again on #bbcqt ) should remember this is nothing new. Look the incredible bias in their choice of MEPs on BBC Question Time during the Brexit years:

The guest speaker at our next local gathering of Spoonerists is from Madrid. He’s giving a talk entitled ‘How I was bored by a gull’.

Every American needs to watch this:

📌 ICYMI — Jeffrey Epstein ‘Co-Owned’ Venture Fund with Palantir Founder as it Entered UK Government The Russian connected convicted sex trafficker co-owned a fund… https://bylinetimes.com/2026/02/04/jeffrey-epstein-and-peter-thiel-co-owned-venture-fund-as-thiels-palantir-entered-uk-government/

A simple, important failing in the UK’s current form of representative democracy.

Zack Polanski's ( @zackpolanski.bsky.social ) strongly worded open letter to Wes Streeting, rightly urging him to rip up the Palantir contract in light of the Mandelson Epstein revelations

I know you've heard that a federal judge ordered the release of 5 year old Liam Conejo Arias and his father, and that they're now home. But did you look at the judge's order? It's less than 2.5 pages and well worth a minute. "Jesus wept." Link to pdf: storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

Poverty in provincial England. A memory from post-referendum, pre-Covid January 2019. This building once benefitted from town centre enhancement measures in Redruth, #Cornwall.