Fireworks at 2am on the 8th of November? Death penalty

One of my favourite genres of troubleshooter is when it says "simply go here and press this button", and you go there and the button simply doesn't exist. Thanks for that! Glad your website knows its own layout and options! Super helpful!

Today marks just six months to go until the 2026 Scottish Parliament Election! As is now usual, I'll be looking to commission a pre-election poll. If you can, please chip in to the crowdfunder here - all donations gratefully received, and even if you can't donate, please share! gofund.me/cf862de1a

By-Election Result analysis: Buckhaven, Methil and Wemyss Villages A big SNP victory and complete Labour collapse, placing behind Reform UK on their best-yet Scottish share, followed on from the conviction of a Labour councillor

In 2013, Lucy Meadows, before she took her own life, faced a press monstering by a Daily Mail columnist that was outrageous enough that the coroner felt the need to speak on the matter. Nowadays, that kind of monstering is just built into the coverage across the board.

In a move that will shock everyone I am using this as another example of why a mixed system is a bit crap and we should have a purely Open PR List based model. I imagine this would be claimed to not be undemocratic as members got to pick the constituency candidates, but in reality that's pish.

These are proper Death of the Party (nearly) numbers for the Conservatives, in that they are equivalent to their pre-revival lows in such wards AND sit alongside an inevitable crash in support even in better areas. I've been saying for months they could lose both Glasgow MSPs, for example...

Missed the 70th anniversary of a red-letter date in the history of science yesterday, and unfortunately there is no safe way to get my bike up to 88mph even if I had a flux capacitor and some plutonium lying about, so having to settle for doing my annual watch a day late

Thinking back to the "Yanks shocked the UK doesn't really have a concept of carrying weapons for self defence and indeed that is illegal" discourse the other day and thinking how here in Glasgow the only time I actually have anything close to fear for my safety is Bonfire Night...

Lunchtime has apparently become mount hunting time (what better time to do boring old game content than when you've only got a short period) and what a rich harvest it has been lately I... never have to do Dragon Soul again? Okay there's hard mode version but I'm cutting my losses here after years

This may be in the FT piece which I haven't actually read but Neom had been selected as the host city for the 2029 Asian Winter Games, just as a fun reminder of how weirdo freak corruption is very much an international affair

Not me at a work meeting today giving it "aha yes, that very much puts me in mind of Palmerston's famous remark on the Schleswig-Holstein Question", thankfully the intended audience of one (1) other attendee appreciated the reference

One of my most niche killjoy things is when did we develop so many different Moons? Oh, it's a Supermoon this time? A Blood Moon? Oh this time it's apparently a fuckin Beaver Supermoon? No. Enough. We used to just have a Full Moon and we managed! It sufficed! I hate these SPECIAL MOON TYPE stories!

I realise I used "folk" three times in quick succession here which reminds me of the time a TERF on Twitter told me that people who use the term "folks" need to have their hard drive searched, look, that's just how I speak, I like to say "folks", and not in a folksy way, it's just a word I use!

Also, been reminded in chat with other folk, when you see folk (especially folk elected in 2022) railing against the SNP from a Green (or formerly) perspective, remember that in 2022 there was no stronger mutual flow of preferences than between the SNP and Greens ballotbox.scot/le22-party-p...

International Election Dilettantes: Well now that I've seen the NYC result (hurray, Mamdani won!) I don't have to think about the US anymore Sophisticated US Election Knowers (read: people who follow @michaelhobbes.bsky.social): Ah now of course time to settle in and see if Wilson wins Seattle

Relatedly, the same outfit that has been giving it "Keir Starmer will simply be the British Emmanual Macron" does not get to have anyonr sniffily go "WELL, I don't think there's anything to learn from an election in" *checks notes* "one of the most culturally dominant cities in the Anglosphere"

Lmao imagine pretending you were taking the moral high ground on anything then palling up with the SWP, mortifying!

I know people bristle at such comparisons but the term "Trumpian" does seem apt: having seen their prospects of winning an election drop, the Top Tier Government decides to cynically deploy its institutional heft in a fundamentally inappropriate manner against partisan foes in Lower Tier Governments

British Labour MPs trying to associate themselves with Mamdani's win all "how do you do, fellow lefties" style, as if they aren't the same sort of right-enabling establishment he was a reaction against, embarrassing, the cheek, the nerve, the gall, the audacity and the gumption required

There's an old Izzard bit about how squirrels will suddenly pause and look like they've realised they left the oven on, before remembering they are squirrels and it's fine Anyway I love when dogs suddenly wake up, fully alert, no prompting, like they've been caught sleeping on the job

Today's office companion has stolen Bracken's bed, but given Bracken has only ever attempted to devour the bed when he visits, I don't think he can complain

When you think about it in blocs, the UK is akin to the US through my lifetime in that it's been pretty rare for the Right to actually win the popular vote but it keeps ending up in government because our voting system is a joke

Good summarisation of the incoherence of the Corbyn-Sultana tendency, this Also remembering that the Scottish Greens are too middle class and not really socialist, but literal landlords who voted against private school VAT are welcome as foundational members, sublime work all round

Obviously US politics is very "not my circus, not my monkeys" but it does strike me the worst thing NYC, or any city (or indeed state) could do is legitimise the notion that local democratic choice should be constrained by threats from the Federal Executive, which is already massively overreaching

The two strongest memories of my walking tour of Bratislava years ago are one, the "yeah we had more beautiful old town and they tore it down for a motorway" twinsies with Glasgow and two, the explanation of Christmas Carp, how sad she was when he was cooked, but, alas, he was indeed delicious

S1:E7: Smell of Success (4 out of 5 slices) Hands-down the most imaginative murder scenario by this point in the series, a foreshadowing of some real bangers in season 2, and some great Aunts content. Could maybe have 5'd but it's sat between two easy 5's, so let's not get greedy, eh?

Well, well, well, if it isn't another instance of "the UK's historic governing duopoly nearly coming a cropper of their own outrageously unfair, rigged systems"! You don't have to worry about donors so much if you have a reasonable system of public funding for parties. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

It's instructive as to the brain melting and reality warping power of the media that even on this, the Woke Social Media Website, we can see lots of Yanks who are absolutely certain people in the UK are swimming in a sea of blood from knife crime and not in fact several times safer than them

Obligatory Bracken photo but you have to know he did the most DIABOLICAL fart just before

DnD is going ridiculously today, Hagatha Arkness, Haggie Smith and Christina Haguilera are doing TERRIBLE things to the party

I never put deccies up for Hallowe'en so I usually never get folk at the door, but having been caught out last year, I got a few things in just in case this year There were zero knocks, which means I can take some Haribo and Malteasers with me every time I go out for the next week

This is essential political knowledge. See also how the defection of a Labour briefcase twink to Reform in Renfrewshire was also a warning sign.

Real scary stuff: I have been a homeowner for a whole year as of today

Stirling East (Stirling) by-election, first preferences (vs Dec 24 by-election): SNP: 808 (36.4%, +1.8) Labour: 530 (23.9%, -1.7) Reform UK: 517 (23.3%, +9.2) Conservative: 147 (6.6%, -5.6) Green: 141 (6.3%, +1.3) Lib Dem: 79 (3.6%, +0.6) (An Independent got 5.6% in December) SNP elected stage 6.

Obviously, FindOutNow polling is pish, but here's the thing: YouGov isn't, and with the Greens only 1% behind Labour this week, matter of time until there's an overtake there too. At that point, Starmer's only remaining option is presumably to put Morgan McSweeney in a wicker man and let it burn.

One prince no longer being called Prince is a great start, now let's work on the whole Mountbatten Windsor family following suit

Anyway the thing imo with the Reeves Rental Revelations is not that they are particularly severe but that one, there is prior this term for "honest mistake = resigning" and the double standards would be egregious, and two, the entire media scents blood and is clearly inclined to keep hammering it

"Mhairi Black becoming an actor means we should institute an absolutely unworkable, unaccountable, and for many people absolutely life-ruining form of governance" is certainly a take that can be published on social media, to be sure

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I need someone to explain to me why, in the country with the lowest barrier to parliamentary representation in Europe, the Dutch Greens and Labour are merging into a single party. It just feels bizarre, two very distinct political traditions that are apart in every country, why merge *there*?

When your pal at climbing tells you about a particularly heinous "someone did the worst shit imaginable in a public toilet" incident and you find that upsetting, that's a trauma dump Good evening, this accurately describes a conversation, and I SPUN on the wall to drop my punchline

This is also a good point: someone I know often tells an anecdote of how they rescued a bundle of Green votes from the Tory table in 2016: it wasn't that the count staff in question were trying to manipulate the result, it was just human error, which you'll always get but worse if folk are sleepy!

No you've spent your lunch break emailing meeting room venues to get something sorted early doors for election day...

Explaining to the "Mamdani lied when he called an older woman relative his 'aunt'!" people that my mum's best pal calls me "uncle" when I am discussed in relation to her dog, despite the fact my mum is also "auntie" to said dog, and watching their last remaining brain cells leak out their ears

Given she *actually saw and shared it approvingly*, it's a fumble for the ages that Zarah Sultana did not take the logical read from the "No chance of me giving YOU my vote... Now if it was Zarah Sultana, happily... can't stand the man, wouldn't vote for the man, I'm going Green, bye-bye" clip

On day three of "we don't need you tomorrow BUT call the helpline in the evening to check again", my guys, I just want to know whether you need me to do my Civic Duty or not, take me in or release me from this purgatory

Poll Analysis: Survation 22nd of September - 14th of October 2025 Holyrood seats projection: SNP ~ 62 Reform UK ~ 21 Labour ~ 17 Conservative ~ 10 Green ~ 10 Lib Dem ~ 9

Good afternoon, I picked WoW back up last week. On my lunch break I thought, I'll do the Hallowe'en boss for the *new* mount they added *this year* after finally, *last year* getting the original. I only discovered they'd added that yesterday. I JUST GOT THE ORIGINAL AGAIN, I WILL BECOME THE JOKER.

With all due respect to Gerry, even if we ignore the complete incompetent chaos of it so far, one thing the "the Greens need to work with Your Party like suggested in England" arguments in Scotland gloss over is the fact the English Greens are working within an FPTP system, but for Scots it's PR