Yesterday I witnessed something extraordinary: the author Sarah Wynn-Williams sitting silent on a stage at @hayfestival.bsky.social. And she got a standing ovation. I hope the attempt to censor her backfires magnificently. I have just ordered her book. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Thinking about why women might not want to use a product that has forced itself into every software interface to confidently shout things that are wrong

It takes 1 second to cross from Italy into France. No passport needed, zero waiting time. Cc Starmer youtube.com/shorts/sBq27...

just wanted to read a kids’ menu online and look at all this fucking shit lmao

Anthony Scaramucci, "Britain has got poorer over the past decade" "Brexit has not worked" "Can't get same deal with EU, the UK once had"

Brexit really was the most monumentally stupid thing a populous could do

More than 60% of Australian kids are still using social media despite the ban. Because prohibition rarely works. We know this. mollyrosefoundation.org/more-than-60...

All those years of losing 4-8% GDP per head will make us so strong!

I did a thread on 15 minute cities on X which went so viral I ended up in the Times and on BBC Radio. I thought I'd repeat it here... This was my parents house in Coventry. They bought it in 1965 and it was my home throughout the 1970s & 80s. My mum lived there until 2021. It was a happy home. 1/22

I regret to report that it remains impossible to procure a coffee in this country unless you want it in either a thimble or a bucket.

It's true that this wasn't anticipated by the EES at its pre-Brexit conception (at which time the UK was a prominent advocate of it so as to 'control our borders'). But, hey, the UK left so it's a bit rich to be calling for "a tailor-made British solution": www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-... 1/2

‘So Eileen I’ve removed all the pictures in your care home…oh and have you got the correct ticket that allows you to stay here?’

Your regular reminder that AI frequently hallucinates legal nonsense. No reason to believe it would be any better at the other jobs mentioned.

Afternoon.

🎵 Roses are red Passports are blue Now stand over there In that very long queue 🎵 If only someone had warned us... (The EES was approved in April 2016, before the EU Ref)

Anyway here's an idea for @ledbydonkeys.org The queues at Dover are massive. Maybe put a poster of a smiling Nigel Farage looking down on it all for the rest of the summer.

Another of those wonderful Brexit freedoms is the scrapping of “health and safety laws which removed powers to ban products thought to pose a health hazard”, the so called “red tape”… Enjoy the Asbestos in your Kids toys Brexiteers, its what you voted for! #Brexit #Reform #Farage #Conservatives

From today’s @financialtimes.com #labourparty #brexit

Ah the joyous reality of cutting red tape. ⬇️

It’s pathetic. I honestly don’t know what to do politically right now. I’m a Labour member and want Labour to lead the next government, not least because the idea of Reform in government is horrifying and I’m not sure how else to stop them. But what’s the point if Labour = Reform + hand-wringing?

Holidaymakers endure THREE HOUR waits at Dover amid EU passport control chaos - No, it’s BREXIT passport control chaos! www.mirror.co.uk/money/dover-...

This is just crazy & no less so if it's 'just to win Makerfield'. It seems like Blue Labour redux. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

How is it possible that senior UK officials have apparently learnt nothing about negotiating with the EU over the last 10 years? This is why there is widespread distrust of the UK across the EU, because it is believed we still want to pick and choose our membership model.

Not sure if this is one of my most rightwing or my most leftwing takes, but if you believe there is such a thing as “excessive profits” in a sector you really should just go ahead and insource the service you’re paying for:

I re-posted this earlier before I'd read the report, and as @davidheniguk.bsky.social says it really is extremely good. From a UK perspective, the proposal for "a systematic, evidence-based review" is crucial. It's actually astonishing there hasn't been one already. 1/3

Really, Labour, he is NOT the man to solve your problems. Really.

No, due to Brexit… www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

There's some welcome bits and pieces in that EHRC guidance, particularly on clubs and associations being able to remain trans-inclusive, but in general it's a mess. Imagine having to make a major financial decision on the basis of the endless, hyper-anxious impenetrable drivel in that document.

I had opportunity to speak to a senior civil servant involved at the time and was told that May had no understanding whatsoever of the consequences of what she said in that speech.

So the country gets what.....a change of glasses ?

This would be a pointless and vindictive move which would shame those who propose it for the rest of their careers.

This is a failure of journalism, on a really basic level, but it is also a failure of political leadership. It was going to fall simply in the basis of what the previous govt did. But Starmer somehow conspired to actively spread the impression it was rising.

BBC's second top story at 6 o'clock was the Chancellor getting heckled by some shouty twat. Not even news. Let alone top news. Into the actual item, mentioned almost in passing, the fact gov't has frozen fuel duty. It is impossible to deny the bias. You have to REALLY not want to see it.

He's doing this because polls show more people in favour of Mahmoodism than against. And from a purely political POV (leaving aside morality and, yknow, thinking) that sounds sensible. But it isn't. It's spineless and moronic. Quick thread >

I'm in an AI workgroup at my job, and the training says you must always check the output. When I point out that this explicitly adds to my workload everyone ignores me, because they want to use it for gaps in their knowledge and not check it 🙃

Whenever someone prominent accidentally shares an AI hallucination, people are like “this is why you have to double-check the output!” Which is absolutely true, but remember that AI proponents market it as a faster way to work. Which is not really true if you have to double check everything it does.

Very much the Web at the end of the world. Just shuddering at the inference costs.

Should we ban newspaper columnists from voting?

Stephen's right of course. One of the most jaw-dropping pieces of information which emerged as the project fell on its arse was that the boss of HS1 offered to help on HS2 and was turned down. www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/poli...

Much to enjoy about this, but I think the 'you used to be there' hand gesture is my favourite and even more enjoyable than the original 'well, if you're gonna set me up' response.

People: it's outrageous that my local council can't fix all the potholes. Also people: I'm driving around in a very heavy SUV, parking on pavements and I want to pay less tax, not more.

I used to have my own business building guitars. Sent lots abroad, Denmark, US, Ireland, Canada, etc . Brexit destroyed 50% of my business overnight and made it unviable in the end. In the EU it was seamless exporting anything, outwith it's red tape and more costs. Nandy out of touch with reality

I was cured of any McKinsey-wonder when they leaked the slide pack they produced for Eric Adams as the basis for the roll-out of wheelie bins in NYC. It was notably less well written than the one produced by a sub-director level Ealing Council waste service officer when we were doing the same thing.

When a company is fined it's just the cost of doing business. EXECUTIVES make decisions. Companies aren't sentient entities & don't "do" things or "think." EXECUTIVES do. Regulators know this. Fining a company instead of executives shows the regulators are working for those executives. "Captured."

The Lexiter version of 'Brexit wasn't done properly', with no contrition for the fact that there was never any chance of Lexit being enacted and no recognition that the situation now isn't one in which Labour can just say "ok, let's rejoin instead": www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Nigel Farage’s partner, a former waitress not known to have any private money, bought a £1 million house for cash shortly after he secretly received £5 million from a Thailand-based cryptocurrency billionaire - the same house that he claimed, months previously, that he was about to pay for himself.

I used to regularly buy from UK artists, but since Brexit, it’s just too much hassle. For the artists - and then I get charged customs fees. Only do it now if I know I’m going to Scotland and can pick goods up myself.

Reform get in and leave the Brexit deal, the Windsor Framework and the ECHR, you'll have to go through endless years of the self-same debacle. Like eating glass, but not as nice. For no reason.

Artist’s impression:

This shit takes up too much public space - the car + the charger.