“A stupid man's report of what a clever man says can never be accurate, because he unconsciously translates what he hears into something he can understand.” — Bertrand Russell

This government has not taken a single meaningful step to tackle the causes of the horrendous inefficiencies in the criminal justice system, instead rushing to dismantle trial by jury. Legal professionals have offered numerous alternatives to address the backlog. Ministers are not listening.

Someone should plot Thames Water's profits against the amount of sewage they have spilled into waterways.

'as lawmakers seek answers, they could look into whether the missile used in the second strike was configured as an anti-personnel device —...designed to produce lots of shrapnel — or was instead configured to cause maximal damage to a large object.' www.nytimes.com/2025/12/01/u...

Donald Trump is taking money away from our hospitals & GP surgeries, and Nigel Farage is cheering him on. We can't let Trump get away with extortion like this, Parliament must be given a chance to vote this deal down.

Anyone in the UK considering voting for Farage’s pro-Putin Reform Party should watch this.

Doesn’t this rhetoric sound familiar? In 1947, the U.S. Army released "Don't Be a Sucker" to show how a nation can be divided, reminding Americans that prejudice isn't natural and is created by those who gain from it. Via @builders on IG #Pinks

has to play with a runner. "hmm nope can't see any mobility issues here"

FFS you truly cannot win. Sit at home being really, really disabled? Lazy. Play sport? Not disabled enough. Ghoul shit.

The guy's literally got one leg, but that's apparently one too many for the DWP to consider him disabled www.mirror.co.uk/money/dwp-fi...

Feel like I'm going mad. The Budget's 'headroom' is based on frankly irresponsible and wildly optimistic claims about what Labour will do in the final year of the forecast, and on ignoring a bunch of upward pressures on spending, and the claim is that she was being exaggeratedly *pessimistic*?

Watched BBC 6 o clock news. Just a completely unserious broadcast. Chris Mason, acting like a children's entertainer, giving a prolonged impenetrable editorial. Not a whiff of informative content about the Budget or what it means for the country. Just playschool blah blah bollocks.

There is an actual interesting little deceit in the budget, namely ther have the OBR still forecasting based on increasing net immigration back to 300-350k whilst the Home Secretary is promising to bring it down from 200k, which does dissolve about half the headroom, but somehow we're doing vibes.

"An exodus of UK citizens is being driven by tens of thousands of eastern Europeans moving home and taking British partners with them." Going over there, taking their jobs, etc. ~AA

Mind-blowingly cool use of AI “Altogether, these findings are leading us to an extraordinary conclusion: Whales may possess a communication system more intricate than our own, one that possibly predates human language by tens of millions of years.” www.nytimes.com/2025/11/23/o...

Translation: Pete may well go down for this. But I’m not going with him.

The death of browsing is part of the reason art is the way it is now. Our opinions are largely fed to us by algorithms. Spending a spare 15 minutes wandering around a bookstore or comic shop or video rental place was how you found stuff you wouldn't ordinarily pick up and thereby expanded your taste

Experts say it’s highly unusual for the White House to tell agents to give up custody of potential evidence in an investigation, as it did with the Tates. “I’ve never heard of anything like that in my 30 years working,” an ex-DHS official said.

🔥 The mood in Brexit-world is changing...

Can't wait until he's convicted of murder. 💥

The country is losing £90 billion a year in tax revenue because of Brexit Which Sunak campaigned for He can shut the F up about powering the country's economy

🧵A legal scholar finds the killing by special forces of survivors in the Navy attack on an alleged drug boat to be a war crime and murder. "the currently governing DOD Manual in Section 5.9 states clearly that persons “placed hors de combat may not be made the object of attack.” ...

petition.parliament.uk/petitions/74... - Sign the petition in confidence. Personal details, name, address, etc are kept confidential. So please sign and keep the pressure up on crooked MP's who take Russian money.

"A question for history will be whether Putin entertained this approach in the interest of ending the war, or as a ploy to pacify the U.S. while prolonging a conflict he believes is his place in history to slowly, ineluctably win"

Historical precedent of note...

In other shocking news, adjascent apples in same barrel also appear brownish. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... PS I know it shouldn't surprise me, but OF COURSE he lives in France.

@quietriotpod.bsky.social @sturdyalex.bsky.social @pimlicat.bsky.social

By all means cover the attack lines and rebuttals in the report that follows. But the actual headline here should be not be shaped by either side's partisan briefings.

Headline on The World at One just now: "Sir Keir Starmer has denied putting the Labour Party before the country by ending the two-child benefit cap". Can we please go back to reporting the actual news, not someone's partisan take on it?

Fewer workers. Fewer international students. More people leaving. A "step in the right direction" according to the PM. Impossible to take PM/govt seriously on growth if they are deliberately reducing it (and making the fiscal position worse) *as a matter of policy*. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

🔥POWERFUL AD ABOUT ICE AGENTS: “What will you say when your kids ask you about your day? A mask can’t hide you from your neighbors, your family, God… you can walk away, but the shame will follow you home.”

'This isn't an opinion. This is counting.'

Abysmal, mindless, utterly zombified. You can't even call it policymaking because that implies a degree of thought which simply isn't present. Pretty soon they might actually hit Cameron's 'tens of thousands' target and then they'll shit themselves with horror at the consequences.

Today's migration stats illustrate the migration doom loop in action... (from my presentation at the IMF last week)

“The last time income tax was raised was 1975 - that’s 50 years ago. This has led to a ballooning of the number of measures in every budget from a few with a big impact to hundreds with small impacts. It is a deliberate confusion of tax policy.”

This emotional argument is Always employed when people make suggestions about elderly people downsizing from houses they can't really afford but I don't think they realise how many u-40s can't relate at all to the idea of having a home they could stay in for the rest of their life

Some sympathy for this potentially made up woman but I wonder how the poster feels about the numerous people who would love to be able to call a house their own and form relationships with their neighbours but can't because of the housing market. Does their emotional plea count for anything?

@quietriotpod.bsky.social @sturdyalex.bsky.social @pimlicat.bsky.social

this is one of the reasons not to do policy by poll or focus group

🔥 Rachel Reeves says there’s a “hole” in the public finances. A new decade-long Brexit study quantifies it: A 6–8% hit to GDP That's £180bn-£240bn a year It means less tax revenue and so less money for everything. Brexit made Britain MUCH poorer.

I feel you, ancient Mongolian ceramic hedgehog. I feel you.

Thanks to @iandunt.bsky.social I get this reference.

And honestly I don't give a fuck if it's popular or not. It's going to make a lot of kids' lives better. That's the point of government. Not an opinion poll.

Whatever else this government do (and there's plenty of issues with this budget) ministers will always be able to point to this as an incredible important contribution to the country's future. Almost half a million kids taken out of poverty.

I remain genuinely gobsmacked that this wasn’t picked up more. The Alex Jones who *repeatedly accused grieving parents of making up their children’s murders*. Anyway, “after the news we’ll be joined by Nigel Farage & definitely won’t be asking him about any of this…”

This is not a peace plan. It is a proposal that weakens Ukraine and divides America from Europe, preparing the way for a larger war in the future. In the meantime, it benefits unnamed Russian and American investors, at the expense of everyone else. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...