The “silent majority” has now been tested more than once. And when it is summoned to the ballot box, it turns out the majority isn’t silent. And it isn’t Reform. @theleaduk.bsky.social open.substack.com/pub/theleadu...

What we have seen in Gorton and Denton is what we saw in Caerphilly in October. A lot of people really don’t want the hateful politics of Reform and will work hard and smart to try and keep them out. Labour must now listen to this and stop the grim attempts to mimic Farage.

HAPPY OU ANNIVERSARY! Today marks 60 years since the ‘University of the Air’ White Paper paved the way for the @OpenUniversity - and I am proud, with Milton Keynes as host city, to celebrate Jennie Lee and Harold Wilson’s vision for access to learning. labourlist.org/2026/02/the-...

How Matt Goodwin's definition of "the Elite" focuses on university workers and civil servants, while excluding the investment bankers, asset managers and global real estate executives who pay him bylinetimes.com/2026/02/25/r...

These people are poison. They will unleash racist thugs on the streets of this country and call it security. They will subjugate us to the US and call it patriotism. They must be stopped. There is no more important task in politics.

This is causing despair in academe. (1) We were forced to close during Covid. We had no choice! (2) We're not service providers like a restaurant, we are institutions of state. (3) We did everything we could. (4) This will cripple current students' education. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

The arrest is for the courts. Accountability is not. If it is to survive this crisis, the Royal Family must finally answer questions about how it conducts itself. My latest: The Humbling of the House of Windsor open.substack.com/pub/goodalla...

It's the caring labour of coding that is constantly rendered invisible. Real Men move fast and heroically break things, ripping the future into the present whether we like it or not. Caring whether it's fit for purpose and methodically examining what's being proposed to assess it is for pussies.

To give you an idea of how deranged the UK has become about gender stuff, here's Enid Blyton - the absolute avatar of classic English conservatism and a huge fan of racist "gollywogs" - casually describing a gender non-conforming kid in the 1940s and having their friends be totally cool with it.

hi all. times are bad, and i'm still looking for work. if you or anyone you know need an editor, book/podcast researcher, sticker artist, or shrimp facts vending machine, i'm your guy. (details in images & image descriptions.)

What actually happened in the Living in Love and Faith debate yesterday (apart from another 5 hours of the same old): #CofE viamedia.news/2026/02/13/l...

Today's ruling on the EHRC's interim guidance is a disappointing, confusing and mixed picture. A trans woman who is a customer in a café can use the women's toilets, but if she works there she might not be able to. Once again everyday life is being made a legal labyrinth for trans people.

Even earlier than that according to the OED, which has a quote from 1399 (though published in 1425) that is so old as to be barely comprehensible to the modern English speaker: "Cast þerinne gode mylke of almaundes."

Edinburgh O'Clock - 3 minutes to every hour. - we run fast so you don't miss your train. A new hourly image to brighten your day taken in #Scotland very often #Edinburgh and shared with love by Tom Duffin @tomduffinphotos.bsky.social. Please repost with your own caption.

Young men are the second most liberal group in the country after young women.

"I want everyone to understand that gender ideology and free speech cannot coexist"

Wes Streeting saying on Today that Mandelson is ‘not the man we thought he was’ but the trouble is, he is exactly the man we thought, just on a much worse scale than almost anyone thought. And there is an alternative world where none of this is this govt’s problem, because they never gave him a job

Auschwitz was at the end of a process. We must remember that it did not start from gas chambers. This hatred gradually developed: from ideas, words, stereotypes & prejudice through legal exclusion, dehumanization & escalating violence... to systematic and industrial murder. Auschwitz took time.

Actually I'd argue given Britain's history as an increasingly secular country which nevertheless was readily infected with complementarían philosophy as a result of TERFs filing the serial numbers off of evangelical & Catholic moral panic, it's good to care about the specific philosophical moves.

“Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world’s grief. Do justly, now. Love mercy, now. Walk humbly now. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it.” See "Wisdom of the Jewish Sages" for attribution.

anyway, my dudes, you are too old to believe in the logistics fairy

You don't murder people for using the word "kidnapper" (which, I'll add, is an accurate description of grabbing people and locking them up without due process.) If you do, you're a fascist.

Look at this: @inquirer.com has digitally preserved the interpretative signage removed by NPS, and used annotations to explain what specifically was flagged before removal. This keeps the content publicly accessible (for now) while doing newsworthy reporting www.inquirer.com/news/philade...

Brilliant thread!

As someone who spent the last 15 years working with aging brains & dementia, I can't stop thinking about this. It is gerontocracy: leaders who are substantially older than most of the adult population. When did we accept this? The new generations can't show up because the old generations never left.

Whatever my uni declares, I am not going to engage with AI. I am not going to use AI or teach students to use it. I am going to continue to explain to students why it is harmful. Absolutely absurd to allow this anti-intellectual, environmentally devastating technology into the university at all.

Sounds like a you problem, Microsoft chief Satya Nadella

The QUEER DATA SHOWCASE is returning in 2026 – and we’re taking the show to Manchester! An opportunity to showcase work with an audience enthusiastic about all things queer and all things data! 📢 The CALL FOR PRESENTERS is now live! www.ai-ethics.org/queer-data-s...

Satire is dead. www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...

I went to Minneapolis last week. What I saw was horrifying and inspiring in equal measure. Gift link to my latest column: www.nytimes.com/2026/01/19/o...

Butlerian Jihad now

NEWS! Keir Starmer flies to US to give Donald Trump his cycling proficiency badge

The Reform pitch is increasingly “the last government was terrible, so we’ve hired everyone who was in it”.

Surprisingly funny thread for such a grim subject!

Politicians: don't use AI to make your maps.

Do have a read of my Substack today if you have time, it makes a convincing case for why going to the pub might not be good for "you" but it is good for "us" and then you can send to your friends and maybe they'll go the pub with you as well

To anybody still using X: sexual abuse content is the final straw, it’s time to leave | Marie Le Conte

I'm glad to see this pressure on Google and Apple. If any other company was running an active CSAM generator in public you better believe it would have been removed from their app stores by now www.wired.com/story/x-grok...

“i want back my rocking chairs, / solipsist sunsets, / & coastal jungle sounds...” A poem by Renee Nicole Good, who was murdered by ICE earlier today. lithub.com/renee-nicole...

The US government is now freely killing people at sea, in other lands, and on its own streets. It is difficult to see what more is needed for Congress and the Supreme Court to exercise their constitutional duty to check and balance what is now a rogue state abroad and a gangster state at home.

Glad we made this decision today I know colleagues, the government and other organisations think they will be ceding ground and an important public discussion space if they leave X It has been twisted too far into an unsafe, malign and destructive tool to morally use, & thereby endorse, anymore

The Spanish version is “the left liberates, the right oppresses” and once I learned that, both screws and politics made more sense

BREAKING Irish Govt to move Grok to another parish.

My niece in Stonehaven, near Aberdeen, has made a snow dalek that's featured in the Aberdeen Press and Journal. #proudaunt

The end goal of Grok sexual harassment is to make women afraid to be visible. It’s a punishment for daring to exist in a way the perpetrators can’t control. There’s no one solution to this, because the problem isn’t just technological. It’s cultural. It’s misogyny. This is just one expression of it.

Marco Rubio is reportedly saying Maduro will stand trial in US courts. Which means it’s now the US administration’s position that US courts can hold foreign presidents, but not the US president, accountable for crimes.

Keir Starmer should condemn Trump’s illegal action in Venezuela. Maduro is a brutal and illegitimate dictator, but unlawful attacks like this make us all less safe. Trump is giving a green light to the likes of Putin and Xi to attack other countries with impunity.