The real political parties in UK are perhaps not the nominal ones. Regardless of supposed affiliation of ministers, Treasury will always push for certain policies, MOD will always push for certain policies, etc. Each department has their agenda. And the Home Office will always push for ID cards.

At some point I must have accidentally clicked on the advert for some trashy novel about werewolves with fated mates. Now roughly 1/3 of my social media adverts are for wretched werewolf romances with wretched nasty people- not interesting nasty, playground bully nasty. And stupid eugenics.

My son, puppies, and ahistorical discussions, a thread. My son came to me with a YouTube theory - I try not to dismiss these because a) some of them are good, and b) I want him to keep bringing them to me so I can gently debunk the ones that want debunking. This one is interesting because...

Defend Our Juries: "Mass arrests of peaceful protesters will be acutely embarrassing" for Labour on Day 1 of conference. Labour officials also rejected all 30 motions on Palestine - leading to anger from campaigners. DOJ: Most Labour members oppose the ban and the TUC recently backed reversing it.

It is possible to cherish the BBC as an institution while also saying that BBC News is failing very badly, day after day, in its duty to inform and that it always fails in a right-wing direction. It desperately needs to recover its integrity

It takes a long time to turn a shit, I mean ship. Is this the start? 🤞

It would be good if the only political pushback against Nigel Farage's plans to mass deport hundreds of thousands of our neighbours, friends, family and colleagues didn't just come from a handful of backbench MPs and one regional mayor

Tonight I have been mostly learning about Medea, the earliest example I know of bombed at the box office then became a classic, in every sense of the term. Thank you to @nataliehaynes.bsky.social It was a brilliant night.

My son tells me he is having an "uprising" in school. The teachers are using AI generated posters. He views this as unreasonable when there's a whole school full of kids who can draw posters. So he's working with his friends to quietly make alternative posters and put them up...

I saw a job advert today for a trainee @nationaltrust.org.uk Lichenologist and I want to know why no one told 17 year old me that lichenology was an option. I'm not retraining now, getting home for pick up would be a nightmare if work was half way up a mountain. But still.

21st century Britain where it's illegal to project an image on a wall but not illegal to supply weapons to mass murdering genocidal psychopaths

I still have my 'Natural Law Party' Hoodie from 1995, when I got a A+ for an essay on Transcendental Meditation.

This has affected me greatly having seen close up the vitriol coming from "Tommy"'s hate marchers on Saturday. The fear those poor NHS workers must have felt as their hospital was laid siege to by a rampaging mob must have been terrible. Meanwhile complacent ministers claim not to be disturbed.

Imagine having a message that speaks directly to people. Not sure why Starmer was never able to do this, but Polanski gets it.

And a rare Covid memorial. It reminds us to think about both what we lost and what we learned. It's peaceful. As far as I'm concerned we need one in every town centre and elected officials should have to lay a bunch of flowers at them before anyone gives them so much as an official lanyard.

And Dumfries seems good at memorials to things that others forget. Exhibit A- a memorial to the Merchant Seamen who died in the world wars keeping our food and goods coming in. Britain has never stood genuinely alone. The convoys were unarmed and targeted and broke blockades.

The words of the prophets are written on the walls of perfectly lovely bird hides in wildfowl trust reserves.

You know, it's entirely possible to believe that there is no crime on earth where the just punishment is execution without trial at the same time as thinking that someone executed without trial was guilty of some thoroughly heinous things. Two things can be true.

I am taking a small amount of hope from Gary "maybe we could all speak out sometimes" Lineker's win at the National TV awards. Clearly a tiny glimmer, but given its a 100% public vote, a glimmer nevertheless.

Scotland is flying the Palestinian flag outside its seat of government. My Bsky and FB feeds, universally positive. Google news, story after story about how awful that is. Quite telling. And clearly a growing wedge between Westminster and its machine, and Holyrood.

Reading Together by @ecetemelkuran.bsky.social I'm struck by this bit- about how even in accepting refugees people would rather see a thing to help than a whole person with a life and who might be able to help others... thread coming... I've put the transcript in the alt text

- you clean up that banksy? - sure did, your honour, leaving a perfect, permanent outline, imbuing the work with real fuckin gravitas while making its point better than the artist did himself just like you asked

Someone on LinkedIn talking earnestly about living off grid on an island. I'm trying not to be mean. But - -are you sending your LinkedIn posts to a friend tied to the back of a messenger turtle or something?

11 Jobs Nigel has earned at least £989,000 since the election - more than any other MP, and more than 10 times Farage’s annual MP salary of £93,904. Probably made £1M in his first year, but his register of interests isn't up to date. Sunak is nearest on £546K www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-n...

Northern Ireland man from Lisburn kidnapped by Trump’s Ice raids because he “looked like a Mexican”. He had the correct visa, all his documents. He’s never been in trouble with police. Held in terrible conditions. A fellow captive couldn’t get his medication and dropped dead of a heart attack

My family legacy is a new canpaign to ask South Asian families in Britain to share their stories of service in the world wars & raise public understanding of the enormous contribution For Royal British Legion from @britishfuture.bsky.social and @easterneye.bsky.social www.myfamilylegacy.org.uk

Byline Times: BBC Accused of Pro-Reform Bias as Lib Dems Launch Campaign to End 'Wall to Wall' Farage Coverage bylinetimes.com/2025/09/09/b...

Dear USA Deploying troops against civilians will not go well. Yours Great Britain and Northern Ireland

The BBC are constantly fawning over Farage's every move despite Reform only having four MPs. Our national broadcaster should reflect the whole country, not just one man’s ego.

Of course what this actually says is "almost 2/3 of Britons think this stuff is real." And that might mean "some of those people want to buy less stuff." Given it's advertising that pays for media, I can see how that's not the message they want to promote.

From my new piece on the media just voluntarily giving up its place in society because why try when you could yield… catvalente.substack.com/p/no-ones-wa...

Doing some work in the care sector, and as an observation- people keep apologising profusely for "sounding negative." Are there people out there pushing for fake positivity? Sounds like there are. If the situation is serious we should stop trying to force "reframe as an opportunity!"

As the BBC gives disproportionate coverge to Reform’s MAGA/Brexit recycled narratives, Elon Musk directly & via his algorithm pushes white supremacy narratives. Exploiting working class people’s suffering with easy racist answers which are not the root cause nor cure for it. We are losing.

The BBC created Farage by platforming him many times on shows like HIGNFY & Question Time. The BBC hierarchy is Tory. They have consciously adjusted their output to attract Reform voters. It's in this context that Mason's biased coverage should be seen. Not as an aberration but a continuum.

if i had the opportunity to ask a question of anyone in the administration, given this "war in chicago" messaging, i would ask them how many americans the president intends to kill in his war

Asylum seekers exist because of war and violence. If a country wants to tackle asylum seeking the most important thing it must do is stop supporting war and violence abroad. Astonishing how little this is said nowadays.

The President of the United States just essentially declared a war on Chicago because — wait for it! — Black and Brown people live here. This is not normal. This is not okay. And we are going to fucking fight back.

This is the Peterloo Monument in Manchester. It took 200 years from the Massacre to build the memorial, unveiled in 2019. Eighteen deaths confirmed and no count of deaths from injuries- the first to die was a toddler in his mother's arms. The soldiers were drunk. The civilians were unarmed.

It’s official - “Nigel Farage is right, don’t vote for him” is a demonstrably awful strategy for Labour. Boosts salience of immigration, costs votes on the left, doesn’t persuade any voters on right (why would they accept a crap knock-off when they can have the original?)

This is the result of the media's 24 hour attacks on migrants. This is Keir Starmer's daily tweets against refugees. This is the result of reforms lies and fear-mongering. These people are human beings!!! If we put refugees in prison camps, we're the ones who aren't human.

At 8am, starting with the babies, @magscotland.bsky.social started reading the names of children killed in Gaza. At 5pm they had reached the 6 year olds. And these are only the children there were people left to look for. Ceasefire now.

People who aren’t paying attention don’t think anti-trans stuff matters, as they don’t know any, & think of caricatures of trans ppl on sitcoms etc. To the far right yobs it does matter. This happened in Dublin, which doesn’t have the anti-trans culture of Britain. You should care:

Melvyn Bragg has been one of the last standard-bearers for a really important, and unfashionable, idea: that good conversation, between people who really know their stuff, on complex or difficult subjects, can be fantastic radio - and that the national broadcaster should do this. I hope it endures.

net immigration fell by more than half last year and the politics has gone in the complete opposite direction. It's not really about the numbers

Video credit: itsjuliencohen Description: "11 and 8-year-old prodigy sisters played Vivaldi Winter with me" This is serious musical talent 🎻🎻🎹🎶🎵 #VivaldiWinter #Song #music #Piano #Violin #Instruments #Instrumental

YES! Thank you... Say it again, and again, and again. They are not "illegal immigrants". - seeking asylum is legal and has been since 1951.

Flippancy about snowmobiles and fur coats aside, not to mention the risks of emboldening far right misinformation, there's a lot here which is just plain cruelty. Parents can't try and save to buy a child a toy, people can't listen to audiobooks. It really is a "they should suffer" type of policy.

As several have pointed out, this also applies to the massive (100,000 or so) Trans Pride event. Almost entirely blanked.

I lived above a pub much frequented by the English Defence League, back in the day. I can confirm that although their socials were full of "legitimate concerns" re animal welfare, the NHS and veterans, they were there for three reasons- drinking, yelling at passers by, and a scrap...

As Farage parades around the studios and airwaves today can reporters please ask him why there were no Channel crossings prior to the Brexit which he claimed would "take back control of our borders". Thanks