'The real question is no longer whether Britain could recover its old opt-outs and budget rebates, but whether it is prepared to join a union that is more fiscally integrated, more interventionist, more geopolitical and, in many respects, markedly less British than the one it left.' Yes, please!

Interesting to see a Guardian editorial in favour of Ed Miliband as Chancellor. We're not in 2010 anymore (when they backed Lib Dems in the election). Political opinion in those circles has grasped that only fundamental economic reform (what I think of as the 'big fix') can save the system... 1/

Cool to see Decades volumes on the @bloomsburylit.bsky.social stall at BAMS/MSA #WeirdModernisms.

159 now! 🏳️‍⚧️✊

I think this quote really demonstrates for me something that is quite weird and hard about watching reactions to sector redundancies while precarious - because I am expected to do exactly this next year. And no one seems to find it a problem. (1/2)

England is such a weird country - currently caught in some Eliot-type time loop in which World Cup glory and Burnham reintroducing the 1945 political settlement are both apparently just over the next rise in the road. I'm making a note to remember this moment.

So, which Die Hard in particular? Can it be the one with Jeremy Irons? I'm really up for this book.

Totally unbiased commentary on the Beeb there. If Paraguay beat England this way, I can't see Shearer saying they totally deserved to win. They took the pens well, but they weren't playing football out there.

Anyone else doing any shortlist reading?

I don't want to rejoin with the old opt-outs. I want to rejoin as an ordinary European country* on the same basis as everyone else and fully commit to Europe. Like the French, I don't think I would support a campaign for the old opt-outs (which we won't get anyway). *whether that be UK or Wales.

Finally approaching Euston - it's only taken seven and a half hours for this direct train from Glasgow, after a series of hold-ups and go-slows.

Keeping a track of these write-ups for reasons. Also nice to see myself quoted if not named.

So, that was a blast. Who knew Glasgow was a massive sun trap!? Absolutely brilliant inaugural European Conference on the Fantastic. Enjoyed every moment, including the Scottish Speculative Fiction panel I was on. Thanks to organisers and speakers. Next year, Karlstad! #ScottishSFF #Europe

Ok, if there's only a couple of minutes to go, walk through the train. If there's 25 minutes to depart time, walk down the platform and do not audibly tut at me while I'm stowing my luggage.

FYI I'm interviewing Guest of Honour Neil Williamson at this year's PictCon. One of Scottish SF's most lauded and subtly devastating authors, an editor and musician, expect some wide-ranging and in-depth chat from us. @neilwilliamson.bsky.social Tickets here: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/pictcon2-t...

Really, really looking forward to this chat with Ruth. She's one of my favourite people to talk to. And I'm really looking forward to Pictcon too. It's a lovely warm hug of a convention and very much worth dropping in on if you're free that day.

The people who we were supposed to have decided, after 1945, should never be allowed to be in charge again, are in charge again.

A lot more on Brexit in my recent book Culture Wars in Britain, which has now been out for just over a month.

10 years on from the referendum we are still governed by the cultural schism revealed in that vote. Brexit switched the track of UK politics and set up a dynamic by which who ever wants to uphold the sovereignty of the British Nation state is forced into ever more disastrous authoritarian positions

For many LGBT folk like me, and especially trans folk, Keir Starmer will be remembered in the same way as Margaret Thatcher: with deep contempt for having overseen a deeply hostile, queerphobic government, which rolled back human rights and set society back by at least a decade. Good riddance.

Instability is not being caused by a rapid turnover of prime ministers. The rapid turnover of prime ministers is being driven by wider social changes that the current UK Parlianentary system is not designed to handle.

Here in Wales we mark the Summer Solstice at Bryn Celli Ddu, a Neolithic chambered tomb on Ynys Môn (Anglesey). The entrance is aligned to the midsummer sunrise. For more info see: cadw.gov.wales/visit/places...

I have seen copies of my books in Waterstones before but never on a display table with a 'signed by the author' sticker. Nice to find Culture Wars in Britain sitting under a quote by Margaret Atwood. Also especially cool because Finding Refuge by @andreahammel.bsky.social is on a nearby shelf.

"Labour" is not a progressive party. Glad we could clear this up.

Chances are the pressure on Starmer will force him to step down, but if he fights it will suggest this is a deeper ideological battle between wings of the Labour Party that might even potentially lead to a split. If you see the electorate split into two blocs - left-liberal-progressive vs right (1/)

Burnham got his moment and Labour MPs should pay heed. The message over 3 byelections (Caerphilly, G&D, Makerfield) is that Reform can be beaten but in none of those cases were they beaten by Starmer's Labour. To repeat nationally, a different Labour will need to work with the other prog parties.

Now that Andy Burnham is returning to Westminster, and possibly heading to Downing Street, what next for constitutional reform? On 9 July, join Frances Foley, @cathhaddon.bsky.social and @lisajames.bsky.social to discuss just this at our free, online event. Sign up 👉️ ucl.zoom.us/webinar/regi....

It is extremely important that Labour understands that the movement of voters between Lab and Ref was not the crucial factor, it was consolidation of the anti-Ref vote and Lab voters turning out in droves. Otherwise Burnham will make the same mistakes as Starmer in targeting only one set of voters.

Darkly funny that this was ultimately pushed through to prop up and secure the Conservative Party most of the status quo, and to fend off the threat of a Labour government that might be politically disastrous and economically ruinous. Funny how things turn out, isn’t it.

And this is what pisses me off about Welsh media. Instead of explaining why Welsh Govt is supporting projects globally that will have a greater impact on climate change than simply planting more trees in Wales, they're chasing clicks and views on social media to make a quick buck.

Both the government and the Court of Appeal now treat protesters as terrorists and terrorists as protesters. It's hard to accept that a "Labour" government is imposing rightwing authoritarianism on the UK, but please read this column to see what's happening.+🧵 www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Easier running these awards than you might think!

First winner: Animal Spiral by Luis Othoniel Rosa tr. Katie Marya

The *Something* Awards for Most Transformative Vision of A New Cultural Pattern of Living and/or Most Programmatic Account of A New Society in Fiction.

No genre SF novel has won the Arthur C. Clarke Award this decade. 2020 - Serpell (Hogarth) 2021 - McKay (Scribe) 2022 - Giles (Picador) 2023 - Beauman (Sceptre) 2024 - MacInnes (Atlantic) 2025 - Greer (Borough)

The Jan-June 2026 book of SI essays is now available! You can buy the ebook (AUD20) or paperback (AUD35, inc shipping)... OR you can subscribe (AUD30/year) and get the ebook for free, and then the July-Dec ebook as well! www.speculativeinsight.com/buy-collections

It's even worse than this. Labour under Starmer aren't positioning themselves as lesser evil. They are competing directly for the vote of the right wing/socially conservative/authoritarian nationalist bloc of voters. It's not clear how this would change under Burnham either.

The Strange Horizons annual fund-drive is now live! Support us to continue publishing free, weekly, online SFFH fiction, poetry, art, and non-fiction for our 27th year! www.backerkit.com/c/users/3516... For new supporters - welcome aboard. For the regulars - you’ll notice something different. 🧵

Paul Kincaid on The Recollections: "The Recollections is probably as close to an in­tellectual autobiography of Priest as we can ever expect to see." locusmag.com/review/the-r...

This is going to be condemned by the Westminster Government, right?

Al Carns saying 'We need a new way of governing and we need it now' is being interpreted as an implicit criticism of Starmer. But everyone knows Starmer's days are numbered anyway. It seems a much more alarming statement to me.

#OtD 11 Jun 1943 Karl Gorath, 20, a nurse, was deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp for homosexuality. He managed to survive until the end of the war, but was soon rearrested and jailed under the same Nazi law by the same judge in West Germany stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/8323...

Cold Hard Rage. The mainstream media's policy of appeasement has been exposed. As the far-right violence intensifies and escalates they will have to be held responsible for their complicity in all of this: open.substack.com/pub/fiftysix...

Why are anti-terror powers not being used by the British government against far-right extremists fomenting riots and attacking citizens, police and property? They were quick to outlaw Palestine Action. To not use anti-terror powers creates a real two-tier justice system which favours Neo-Nazis.

It was obvious he was dead in the water but the consequences of the inevitable collapse of Starmer's authority are proving worse than I thought. I'm starting to think the whole government might fall, which would be a complete disaster for us all. Lot now riding on Burnham (too much for anyone).

Re-reading // Snap! Criticism: Okorafor and Phillips ancillaryreviewofbooks.org/2025/06/04/s...

Incredible headline to illustrate what not to do as a public actor... Both "populist pull" and "hard right" euphemism the these and demonstrate the article and outlet are not serious about the resurgence of the far right and fascism and as such are complicit We have pogroms happening, wake up!

listen to me as a trans woman and huge DC fangirl, seeing this in a DC book means EVERYTHING to me as a trans writer, seeing an editor and major publisher supporting this kind of surface discussion of actual trans issues is… almost unheard of this book is REVOLUTIONARY

27 people, including children, were made homeless after Tuesday's violence. 12 police injured on 2nd night of violence. 3 people have been arrested. In England, around 1 in 3 rioters were arrested. In Northern Ireland that number is 1 in 12 (before these latest riots). Why?

Living through the rise of the right in slow motion, while BBC News enthusiastically report on 'legitimate concerns'.