A question for UK/Irish political types/writers/correspondents. I'm writing a piece for The Fence and need to know: what is the single cringiest thing you've ever seen at a party conference?

Hey remember when the CDC dropped 6 of the 8 foodborne illnesses from the nationwide monitoring system in July and one of them was listeria? Mentioning for no particular reason www.nbcnews.com/health/healt...

I’m becoming more and more concerned that people at high levels of public discussion cannot identify the difference between a genuinely viral conversation vs a bunch of bots making noise.

Fancy a career change and saving a critically endangered craft or heritage skill from extinction? Have a look at these. I'm currently undecided, but glass eye making and clay pipe making are top of my list! 👁️

Looks like everyone's favourite law the Online Safety Act has blocked Imgur. 10/10 law. Excellent work as always.

Finally finished the full version of this. Thanks for the wonderful reaction to the sketch version :D (P.S. you don't need to tell me you're actually pro fascism, you can just unfollow this page, thanks!)

*sigh* Bluesky is Blueskying again. Here's that link again, this time visible to everyone. Trans people's experiences are not adult content, mods. www.vaginamuseum.co.uk/communitygal...

This peanut butter paste was specifically formulated to help end famine and starvation. This is genocide.

Great news! JSTOR now have a free account with an Independent Researcher category. You can access 100 documents per month www.jstor.org/action/showL...

It’s really hard to find a therapist who can counsel people with actual real threat scenarios, like this one. For example, I don’t think I have “haters”. I have actual coordinated attacks on my safety and wellbeing, sir or ma’am. Same with political conflicts like these.

And now for something completely different: Chart of edible mushrooms!

Indie director Barbara Marques has been kidnapped by ICE. She is legally married to a U.S. citizen & was at a green card mtg when she was abducted and prevented from seeing her lawyer. Her husband Tucker May does not know where she is. Please spread the word so he can find her /1

This was always the funniest conspiracy theory to me — that there are MRI machine-like devices that can cure all known illnesses in seconds, but the government has been hiding them — and Trump just posted an AI generated video of himself announcing they're real. We're cooked!

FBI fires agents seen kneeling in photo during George Floyd protests five years ago

I love mushrooms - like, what are they? Funky lil dudes with a million genders who defy all categorisation, taste delicious, and sometimes kill you horribly? Amazing. I'm so on board. Tell me more.

If you were concerned about Kimmel, here's another for you… Journalist Mario Guevara has been detained for 100+ days, ironically arrested as he reported on a "No Kings" protest. The Trump-Vance admin just issued an order of final removal, to send him to El Salvador—where he fled from 21 years ago.

I'm DJing at Collapsing Tape Launch: Tues 21st Oct @cafeotodalston.bsky.social Mariam Rezaei Mr AKA Amazing Evo Ethel Han Jamie Hamilton Sculpture DJ SET Collapsing Tape — a sprawling experimental compilation of rupture and repair. Details to follow TICKETS www.cafeoto.co.uk/events/colla... 🙏🔥

Look what we have here then.

Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin ✨ figured out what stars are made of ✨ when she was just 25. 🔭🧪 Her PhD thesis basically established the Harvard astro department — at a time when Harvard didn't officially allow woman students. I wrote this little profile to mark the 100th anniversary of her thesis:

Expertise matters. I strongly believe that one of the problems with the media has been the tendency to treat everything as just a branch of politics, and to (wrongly) assume that fundamentally politics-focused reporters can 'get across' any topic. It's not just wrong - it's enormously damaging.

This is exactly what a baby trying to convince his doctor not to give him a shot would say.

hang on, tylenol is just what USians call paracetemol? fuckin' paracetemol? I thought it at least had a mild opioid in it or something.

It's a basic point, but one that needs to be repeated: If right-wingers and their views were popular, they would not be so desperate to control mass media & social media nor to use government power to silence everyone else, and they wouldn't need oligarchs pumping billions into amplifying them.

OLIVER: “In Russia, when Putin rose to power, TV satirists were among his first targets… Putin was driven to madness by how he was mocked on a puppet show… the lesson is it’s not safe to let one show slide because there are currently others.”

I got this yt comment that said "You are dropping a lot of dog whistles about who is and who isn't welcome on your channel." This was 4 days ago but this comment has really dug into my brain. Do racists not expect to be uninvited from parties? Is this why racists get mad when you call them racist?

As a legal immigrant to the UK, I would just like to say that Farage is spewing lies. He wants to revoke benefits/welfare so that only UK born nationals can use access benefits. I already can't access public funds or benefits, and I pay an NHS surcharge on top of national insurance for the NHS.

It's party conference season. We thought it was time to see where each party stands on public ownership. 🔎 Some of the results might surprise you! Check out our full Public Ownership Party Scorecard via link in comments below👇

Wait... are they essentially characterising the Supreme Court judgement as ... a zombie apocalypse? 🤣

NION have now launched a website: notinourname.org.uk 53,171 have signed. Let's get to 100,000

You guys, so many Romance girlies are reading "On Tyranny" that they've broken the Goodreads recommendations algorithm. 10/10; no notes. #romancelandia

Here @nytimes.com - I fixed it for you

Authoritarians always twist “free speech” into a weapon, censoring whoever they fear most. Trump’s FCC chair Brandon Carr’s flip-flop on censorship and free speech is staggering.

Anyone who signs this pledge is not a journalist.

Optimo (Espacio)’s JD Twitch has died. RIP to an all-time great of UK dance music 🖤

Stephen Yaxley-Lennon being deported twice in 24 hours - first from Colombia, then from Panama - because he’s deemed a national security threat, just a week after he led a march calling for migrants to be deported, is the kind of schadenfreude we can all savour.

Trump's scam of inventing "mortgage fraud" charges against his foes is failing. So he's set to fire a top prosecutor who is failing to bring charges, ABC reports. Failing to bring corrupt prosecutions is now a firing offense. This is profound misconduct. New piece: newrepublic.com/article/2006...

Donate to my campaign to make Laura Loomer’s day worse: secure.actblue.com/donate/abu-bluesky

Folks, you can't report the United States to its manager. There's no superhero coming to save us. We don't need one giant act of heroism. We need millions of small acts of solidarity. Help one person in your community for nothing in return. Then, do it again. And again. That's the revolution.

AOC: We should be clear about who Charlie Kirk was. A man who believed that the civil rights act that granted black Americans the right to vote was a mistake… His rhetoric and beliefs were ignorant, uneducated, and sought to disenfranchise millions of Americans.

Fearful Americans Stockpiling Facts Before Federal Government Comes To Take Them Away https://theonion.com/fearful-americans-stockpiling-facts-before-federal-gove-1819579589/

Chicago Pope where u at, one of your bishops is doing apostacy

They just tear-gassed us. They tried to run us over in a van holding a peaceful protester. They shot us with pepper balls. They dragged another protester into the facility.

So, a university president fired a professor because they taught a course that discussed there being more than two genders, and now the university president is being fired for not having fired the professor quickly enough, is where we're at. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/18/u...

Opportunity here for a writer on a low income to get access to a nine week novel writing course taught by the great @silvanhistorian.bsky.social www.curtisbrowncreative.co.uk/course/break...

Just when you thought #JapaneseFolklore couldn't get any weirder, I present you with ringo no kai. This #yokai is the spirit of apple trees whose fruit has been left too long without being picked. They appear in the evening near apple orchards, taking... #FolkyFriday 🎨Matthew Meyer @yokai.com 1/3

We need to be very clear about this. Rising Christian nationalism is a threat to us all. humanists.uk/2025/09/17/r...

I just spoke to NYC Comptroller Brad Lander as he left police custody following his arrest at immigration court. Here’s what he said:

The main story on BBC 6 Music News this morning is that a ‘boat carrying migrants is on its way to France’ Delivered in the same upbeat tone as England winning the women’s Euros. The migration ‘debate’ in this country is unmoored from reality, and the media-political complex is feeding it

This was from banning trans girls from girls sports. Just so you understand the reality of what's going on here.

Netanyahu: ‘These So-Called Genocide Experts Have Probably Never Committed A Genocide In Their Lives’