There are many reasons to be angry with the current Labour government, but on the issue of the energy price spike caused by the Hormuz closure, Labour is the only major party with a not-terrible response. (I haven't looked into SNP, PC, Scottish Greens or the Northern Ireland parties).

(and broad-based subsidies to household energy consumption/fuel as proposed by Reform/Tories/Greens/LDs is just insane. Deeply irresponsible and damaging. What would really be a positive signal to markets would be if govt holds its nerve and raises fuel duty as planned..)

I think this is about right. Need A) support for low income households B) avoid unnecessary/damaging market-driven fiscal or monetary tightening in short-term But doing both likely requires C) credible commitment to higher *broad-based* taxes *on middle/upper-middle* income groups.

Badenoch used footage of the Parachute Regiment from the day of Bloody Sunday in a post defending Army veterans of the Troubles. Unacceptable for a UK politician. @bairbreholmes.bsky.social for @belfasttelegraph.co.uk reporting on @columeastwood.ie www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/norther...

A minimum wage rise to £15 sounds great as a policy, but I'd love to know how it had been arrived at: why that figure, which is oddly similar to one used by US campaigns. Has it been researched or costed, or is it ~vibes~? There are odd things going on in the UK on wages and poverty (1/4)

Subsidising energy consumption in the face of both a short-term supply shock and the long-term need to decarbonise. Bad for the economy, bad for the planet, bad for the world's poor. And *if* you favour a wealth tax (I am sceptical but there's a case) spending it on *this" is just idiotic.

i’ve worked in tech more than 20 years. it has never been more ridiculous.

Left: ICC warrant against Putin Right: Genocide convention definition (my emphasis)

Bluesky search sometimes cuts off characters when entered in the search box on the right. I don't think it used to do this.

Rejoin is coming: Talk of the customs union and single market is a distraction. Only full membership offers a compelling vision of Britain's future iandunt.substack.com/p/rejoin-is-...

Joint statement from respective CEOs of both Donut Lab and Nordic Nano www.donutlab.com/donut-labin-... 1/2

It's a long time since I read No Silver Bullet, but the LLM hype also reminded me of Brooks' argument about "automatic programming" - actually a higher level language.

LLM‑Assisted Software Engineers Can Only Be Mad (And Will Block Smartasses) An impromptu essay on the impossible equilibrium of AI‑augmented coding (1)

Chief Commercial Officer of Nordic Nano Group Lauri Peltola has made a criminal complaint about partner Donut Lab concerning their battery. Donut Lab CEO (and NNG board member) Marko Lehtimäki says his claims are true. Google Lens translation to English follows.

Me writing a paper: Step 1: decide on source formats Choose markdown for paper and CSL YAML for references, controlled by git. Process using pandoc: to PDF, HTML, whatever else I want to produce, all from the same source.

Another underwhelming Donut Lab solid state battery video. A discussion of the battery pack in the (presumably production) Verge TS Pro Gen 2 (air cooled with fan) and charge demo with that bike: 10-90% in under 15 mins. 1/2 www.youtube.com/watch?v=paCg...

A genuinely fascinating sub feature of this housing discourse is how everyone’s model of building new housing is new houses on green fields. In practice most development should be by buying already build sites at market prices and you just can’t do that with these mandates.

🚨BREAKING:

Ma este Európa szíve erősebben dobog Magyarországon. Europe’s heart is beating stronger in Hungary tonight.

i hope the white house sends vance to campaign for Reform in britain

Trump suggests a "joint venture" with Iran to collect Hormuz tolls. Between that and Oman getting a cut for uncertain reasons and uses I think I can form a hypothesis why the gangster-in-chief accepted a strategic disaster for the US. h/t @jonathankarl.bsky.social, who hasn't made this post here.

The bases should never have been opened to US use. They should now immediately be closed to them. This is patently the case. It is a military power with explicitly genocidal intent. Given how severe that danger is, the reassurances of its military officials about authorised use are insufficient.

Robert Pape, author of Bombing to Win: Iran's ability to control the Strait of Hormuz could see it emerge as a global power alongside US, China, Russia. www.nytimes.com/2026/04/06/o...

🚨NEW BLOGPOST 🚨 The Hormuz crisis has a real chance of causing energy shortages in the UK. The government is insisting it's business as usual, and opposition parties are arguing for fiscal measures that will stoke shortages. Neither is serious. open.substack.com/pub/joxleywr...

I don’t think BlueSky is dying but I do think it‘s stagnant because there are only so many unpleasant terminally online politically hyper-engaged left of center aging millennials with personality disorders and a history of underachievement to draw from. We’re pretty much all here already.

I wonder if there is insight to be gained from comparing the (ab)use of religion in Trumpist US and Putinist Russia. Or whether it would conclude simply that, yeah, authoritarians will co-opt every authority they are able.

In a crisis caused by availability of fossil fuels, don’t focus on the consumer price of fossil fuels. It would be better to increase the price of fuel and use it to pay for alternative transport options plus cash handouts. That way, people can cut their cost of living while cutting demand for fuel.

Trump is saying this now because he's angry that other NATO members aren't doing what he wants. But there are also medium- and longer-term questions about NATO's viability that everyone needs to face up to. 🧵

Ideal response would be: very clear and relentless communication to blame the war on Trump; explain the truth that at some point people will have to cut back on energy consumption; redistributive measures to help the poorest for whom such cut backs would hit hardest.

Don't subsidise energy prices during a supply crisis: give cash transfers to low-income and vulnerable households instead.

I'm going to use this as an excuse to remind the passing reader that NATO is a defensive alliance, and its defence clause is geographically limited to Europe and North America. The Falklands War was out of scope on geographic grounds. www.nato.int/en/about-us/...

Fuel prices are dictated by supply and demand. Cutting tax just allows oil majors more profit. It would be better to increase it. Maintaining consumption in UK pushes shortages onto poorer countries. www.libdems.org.uk/news/article... 🧵

All but three (!) of the 1,651 refugees admitted into the United States in the three most recent months we have data are white South Africans. For comparison, in 2024, the U.S. admitted 100,060 refugees. It's an explicit white supremacist project. www.rpc.state.gov/documents/Re...

A formerly pseudonymous Redditor with a claimed physics background and energy storage patent has written up a paper on what we know of the Donut Lab solid state battery: It is impossible for a device at 1-4V to store 200-400Wh/kg electrostatically 1/3 files.catbox.moe/h6lf8f.pdf

Today's Donut Lab video: Marko is a troll, and enjoys being a troll All tests have been done with Donut battery v1: there is a claimed improved v2 to be shipped by end of 2026 No further evidence of anything except trolling. www.youtube.com/watch?v=822I...

Every safety regulation is written in someone's blood. So is every law of armed conflict.

I’ve just got back from a week in Washington DC, where Iran War main topic of discussion. I was struck by how the weakness of the administration means that it is ill equipped to deal south a crisis of this magnitude. samf.substack.com/p/trump-runs...

🧵The Covid Inquiry’s latest reports have made one thing brutally clear: the first year of the pandemic - and especially the second Covid wave in winter 2020/21 - was devastating. Much of that devastation was avoidable. This 🧵: impact on NHS, impact on bereaved, and avoidable harm. 1/19

Great piece from @ethangcroft.bsky.social on how Labour's immigration is getting heated Subscribe to Morning Call morningcall.substack.com www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-...

Australia did a number on gullible UK politicians by suggesting they be the first FTA partner expecting to be able to take advantage of weakness. They were right, nothing was learnt, and some of the same people now say CANZUK can be a UK saviour... www.politico.eu/article/ange...

Well, I am not sure what my analysis here is worth, but here is my 7,500 word primal scream of a military historian's take on the War in Iran. My best summary: this war is dumb as hell. acoup.blog/2026/03/25/m...

Great book - here's my review, hot off the @lsereviewofbooks.bsky.social press!

Today's Donut Lab test is back to VTT. It is a further test of a cell whose pouch had lost vacuum at a 100 C discharge test, and appears to have been ordered since the previous test was published as a response to critics. pub-cbd24192d2f1419d824d5ae07a395452.r2.dev/VTT_CR_00178...

Iran war energy crisis equal to 70s twin oil shocks and fallout from Ukraine war, says IEA chief www.theguardian.com/world/2026/m...

This is the ideal opportunity to build a town for the purpose of housing Government, with purpose built housing for Parliament, get out of the Palace of Westminster before it collapses on someone, and sell off the central London offices. Preferably near HS2 Interchange near Solihull.

The UK relevant bits. The report doesn't expand on freedom of expression or media, so I expect this would be interpreted according to partisan perspective.

"One of the wonderful things about Iftars is they always tended to invite people who were not Muslims: they were cross-faith events. I personally felt the more they were held in public places - Villa Park, Edgbaston, the city centre, a way of sharing .. under British values" - Sir Andy Street

Here are 10 consequences of the US-Israel attack on Iran - a thread. US soft power is damaged. To launch an attack without clear aims or an exit strategy has upset allies - in Europe, Gulf & Asia - who must bear the economic, political and military consequences. /1

Krafton CEO asks ChatGPT for advice to avoid paying bonuses to founders of Unknown Worlds and fires them. Loses in court. Lesson 1: do not use ChatGPT for legal advice. Lesson 2: if you are a game developer do not work with Krafton. www.404media.co/ceo-ignores-...

Today's Donut Lab info drop: not a VTT lab report, but a video of a bike from sister company Verge charging at a public charge point. 9% to 80% in 12 minutes. We know VTT have conducted tests for cold, and >750 continuous 6C+ cycles (3/hr over >250hrs). www.youtube.com/watch?v=xp2T...