A multi-millionaire attacking working-class families isn't patriotism. It's cowardice. www.thenational.scot/news/2548477...

🎠The SHOW GOES ON!🎡 Come down to the ‘Sands to celebrate the OPENING of the amazing DUMFRIES ROOD FAIR! The first Official Opening in living memory - & You're invited!! 📆Thurs 25 Sept ⏰5:30pm for 6pm. 📍Whitesands, Dumfries (gather at the Waltzer) 🎟FREE to attend, no need to book - ALL WELCOME

This week I sent the Cumbernauld Dialectogram to its new home. Can't say exactly where yet, other than I'm excited... Also, myself, @alisonirvine.bsky.social & @chrislesliephoto.bsky.social will bring Concrete Dreams to @natlibscot.bsky.social in Sept. Tickets are free! www.nls.uk/whats-on/con...

Free tickets to our event on Cumbernauld Town Centre with National Library of Scotland, including presentations & film screenings are available here: 3rd Sept @chrislesliephoto.bsky.social @dialectographer.bsky.social @emilymunro.bsky.social www.concretedreams.org.uk www.nls.uk/whats-on/con...

Today our Trustee and Jnr Vice President of the Showman's Guild Alex James Colquhoun will give evidence to the Scottish Covid-19 Inquiry on the impact of lockdown on our community & the fairground industry. It starts in about 10 mins & you can follow it live here: www.youtube.com/@covidinquir...

There has been talk of a national memorial for Jane Haining for years now, but it doesn't seem to have come to much yet. There's a small plaque for her on a stone that's part of the cairn marking the Scottish Parliment in a lovely spot up on Calton Hill in Edinburgh, but I hope we do more.

Wrote about an effort to make social media companies pay for the hate that spreads on their platforms badfaithtimes.com/theres-a-way...

Not reliable reference but Social Changes had a poll were they modelled turnout scenarios. Big assumptions

Am I right in thinking that a neuroscientist doesn’t know that all science is theoretical and thus, has the same understanding of what theory means as a flat-rather?

In the Beano this week Bananaman’s enemy General Blight becomes the head of DOPE - the Department of Pure Evil.

I loved our talk at the @riasbookshop.bsky.social on #Cumbernauld. Chaired excellently by architect Malcolm Fraser and full of heated discussion from the audience, it was a great night. @nlheritage.bsky.social @chrislesliephoto.bsky.social @dialectographer.bsky.social Thanks for having us, RIAS!

Thanks so much @riasbookshop.bsky.social !

Giving this another wee punt in case anyone interested might have missed it yesterday. Fairs are a vital part of our heritage - it would be a great cultural loss if we were to allow them to fade away.

“Fairs are an accretion of centuries’ of collective memory, their identities bound up - historically, aesthetically, emotionally - with the land on which they stand." I loved writing this @heraldscotland.bsky.social piece on fairs & the fight to save them. www.heraldscotland.com/news/2509695...

Come and see Recollective (myself, @alisonirvine.bsky.social and @chrislesliephoto.bsky.social) at @riasbookshop.bsky.social this Wednesday (23rd April) at 6.30pm talking about Concrete Dreams: the Rise and Fall of Cumbernauld Town Centre. www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/bookshopla...

If you're interested in Cumbernauld, architecture, social history, stories, photography and illustration, & if you can get to Edinburgh on 23rd April, this is the event for you! @dialectographer.bsky.social @chrislesliephoto.bsky.social @riasbookshop.bsky.social www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/bookshopla...

For the @economist.com, I wrote about the Le Pen verdict. In liberal democracies, the law needs to be applied even if that strengthens the far right. But here, we should not just assume that this will help the RN. On the contrary. It's a good moment for democracy. www.economist.com/by-invitatio...

I returned to my own substack this week with musings of fascism on film. Do you remember the first Nazi you saw on screen? How did films of the past bring us warnings for the future? I take a look at a film that shook me to my childhood core; Au Revoir Les Enfants. open.substack.com/pub/emmalenn...

Post your favourite Doctor Who. Wrong answers only:

I note this was written by three policy interns, a tech-bro and an academic who should frankly be ashamed of himself. We need immediate pushback on this garbage, although 'taxing the people so that billionaires don't have to pay a dime' has got to be a hard one to sell...

This should really be all the evidence anyone needs to ensure that official accounts on X/Twitter for every level of government, every political party concerned for decency, and every pubic service should be closed down. It is no longer a social network, it is a Musk-Trump propaganda site.

I'm looking forward to this event on our latest Recollective project. Concrete Dreams: The Rise and Fall of Cumbernauld Town Centre. 23rd April @dialectographer.bsky.social Chris Leslie

Hello Bluesky! We are Fair Scotland, a Registered Charity that advocates for Scottish Showpeople & the rich Fairground culture they sustain. Follow us for updates on events, new research and resources on the Scottish Show Community & informed comment on all things Fairground! @tsbeall.bsky.social

We're delighted to announce our programme of special FREE events, screenings & walks that celebrate the history of the Dumfries Fairs and highlight their precarious future (22nd-29th March 2025) Further details and booking information here: bit.ly/DumfriesFair_Events We'll see you on the 'Sands!

Also good to see Alison Irvine, Chris Leslie and @dialectographer.bsky.social’s Cincrete Dreams. A very thoughtful representation of Cumbernauld.

"Yesterday I wrote a piece for the Guardian about my decision to step down as an Associate Editor at the Royal Society’s journal Open Science. The response has been overwhelming." My latest substack. open.substack.com/pu...

🚨I promised I'd say more on the Royal Society and Elon Musk, so here it is. 🚨 I've resigned my position as Associate Editor at Royal Society's journal Open Science in protest at their lack of action over Elon Musk. My op-ed in @theguardian.com www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Thoughts, Bluesky? If so, please add them below; or if of interest, please share. This is very important work, I think; if Germany’s domestic politics continues on its current course, the next four years are a worrying period. And the AfD will play a key role in that.

@liverpoolecho.co.uk @exploreliverpool.bsky.social and everyone else in the area. You may enjoy some of the events we have put on for #WorldBookDay. Join us.

I’m not normally a BBC basher but it’s *still* referring to what happened in the White House yesterday as a “shouting match”, a “ spat” and a “row”. We all watched it. That’s not an accurate depiction of events.

Good to see @hopenothate.org.uk findings reported in the Guardian today. You can read our original report here: hopenothate.org.uk/2025/02/10/e...

With policy ambition, this could be a parliament of rapidly falling child poverty. Significant policy change could lower child poverty numbers below 4 million again.

5 years ago I was ride or die for taxing the wealthy because I wanted to fund social programs now I'm ride or die for taxing the wealthy because they are termites chewing away at the foundations of democracy and the social programs will be a nice bonus

personal liberties like.....changing your gender, supporting Palestine, vocally opposing decisions taken by the government? those personal liberties?

Good on @johnswinney.bsky.social for saying straight out that Reform is a far-right party ... it's more than most other politicians and the vast majority of the media have the guts to do. We need to wake up and speak the damn truth about what we see before us www.heraldscotland.com/news/2496569...

It’s been pointed out in the comments but this photo is from the 1984 miners strike. Famously a time in which the country was very united.

US Science has been under sustained attack for the last month. I've been thinking about the vulnerabilities in UK science. In a new post, I've imagined a dystopian but *possible* future for UK science - as a way for prompting discussions on how we can protect it. open.substack.com/pub/christin...

Today, @coopparty.party.coop has launched Community Britain, a campaign recognising the people and places that bring pride to communities, and the serious solutions they offer to our politics and our country. party.coop/community/

A lot to welcome here- and for all levels of our government to crib from if it wants to stand firm against the far right and its brand of pseudoscience. I hope this is a sign they will also do the right thing on the 3rd of March.

The CCC is clear – net zero is essential for the the health of our climate and a chance to cut bills and raise living standards. This report challenges those trying to politicise climate action and hold Britain back. Cutting our reliance on fossil fuels can cut bills by £700.

It is hard to keep going in a world where the entire economy is a scam (always has been, I know) but the last decade of it has been defined by: -Algorithms that make everything you use worse -Virtual reality that no one has ever wanted. -IRL Monopoly Money -$1 billion monkey cartoons -AOL chatbots

'The River Clyde used to be the lifeblood of Glasgow (...) and it could be again.' In their podcast, 'Who Owns the Clyde', @louisewelsh00.bsky.social of UofG Creative Writing & Architect @judebarber.bsky.social launch a citizen investigation into the iconic river. www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQSF...

Got mine submitted

This was an infuriating process and has burned away too much of my afternoon, BUT there is STILL time to respond and if you are an artist, writer, maker of any kind or just care about these things, it would be a good idea to do so.

Could someone please put this under the nose of #keirstarmer BEFORE he bets the farm with his ‘infallible roulette system’?

"Waiting for Gorey" is my tribute to Edward Gorey (with a dash of Samuel Beckett) for the Phantasmagorey show at Custom House, Leith in Edinburgh. The show features forty other artists and is open for two more days. www.instagram.com/phantasmagoreyshow/

"everybody in the world, in ten years’ time, is going to be more productive than the most productive person in the world" FFS please can someone competent in this subject get through to the govt @drkatedevlin.bsky.social

I would say remotely competent historians understand that major events in history are historically shaped by men born into wealth and power and lots of them were idiots. (Caligula: psychopathic dumbass!)

Expect to see a lot more of this 👇 in the coming months & years. If Europe is at least pretending to have a serious conversation about life without a US security guarantee, then the same conversation has to be had about tech dependence on the US. Whether anything will happen is another matter.