Fair play to education minister Olivia Blake, on the morning broadcast round, whose advice to knackered school kids was basically: there will be plenty of days when you have a job and are really not up to it but have to struggle in, so consider today training for that.

Ingenious. Obvious when you think about it, but isn't that true of all great ideas?

I'd say we're about six months away from AI causing some huge catastrophe, such as a national disaster.

It me

The big problem here is that the "AI" label is being misapplied to all sorts of useful stuff that will be in the firing line when the real backlash on LLMs and generative AI starts.

I bet the bar staff at the Houses of Parliament aren't allowed to drink while working.

RENEWABLES: They're still wildly popular with the British public, not that you'd realise from news coverage * Only 4% are opposed Even for wind/solar farms in your local area, opposition is very low * 74/68% would either be happy to have a local solar/wind farm, or don't care

A really unpleasant professional anxiety that I’ve just realized I have is that I don‘t know how to think about collaborations now that I’m so mismatched with peers on acceptable AI use. I expected this problem with students but I’m shocked at how everyone in their 40s/50s is just casually using it

The bottom line of UK politics is that the Establishment and its media will only tolerate a Tory government (and Reform is of course Tory), and it matters not the slightest jot how awful that government is.

I've got a bunch of programming and software development tomes (including 2 copies of Code Complete!) that I don't need. Wondering what to do with them. They're pretty much valueless at this point and quite heavy to post anywhere. Should I just dump them? Is there anywhere (UK) that would want them?

What if Andy Burnham could raise £15bn – without a tax rise? There's one catch. He'd need to solve the UK’s biggest and least-discussed tax problem. Almost half of all small business corporation tax isn't being paid - and nobody knows why. Thread:

Man of the mortgage-free £4 million property portfolio. www.thetimes.com/article/3590...

The UK would not have an executive president. So the "I don't want a Trump" thing doesn't work. That people do not understand these very basic different models of how a republic would work shows how the establishment narrative continues to shut the conversation down.

@doctorow.pluralistic.net Right down your alley. noyb.eu/en/us-suprem...

omfg lol

Ed Brubaker on 20 Years of Criminal, Part 1. Ed Brubaker sits down with Weird City Media to talk about the acclaimed crime series. https://www.weirdcitymedia.com/ed-brubaker-criminal-comic-interview-1/

Interesting, but rather depressing thread.

Farage is facing questions after just two of the five homes he & his partner own, which are worth a combined £4m, are declared on his register of interests Farage denies any wrongdoing! #NigelFarage

There will never be a leader of the Labour Party who can institute socialist policies until the Tory media can be stopped by law from lying on matters of facts/evidence. Labour, you are eternally f***ed unless you do this one thing.

What on earth is the point of all the praise for AB's social media game when the first reply that comes up on X to the whizzy tweet showing him about to give his speech turns out to be this poisonous crap. Show some guts, Andy, and get off X.

Apparently the incoming Burnham government is looking for "big ideas". Here are 10 of them:

8) Double down on net zero, but as economic policy not climate policy. Stop talking about net zero and start talking about electrification. UK was fast to digital tech where others clung to fax machines; now it is fast to electric industry where others cling to clunky old fossil fuels. Own it.

If someone answers "we'll get AI to do it" when asked how to solve a problem, then you know right there that they don't have a fucking clue and should in no way be in a position to make such a decision.

Drop some COPS

Growth mentioned ten times. Climate mentioned zero times. A reminder that the green economy is worth £100bn a year, benefits every part of the UK, and green jobs are paid 11% above the average wage. Burnham must stamp out creeping climate skepticism and deliver for people and for nature.

In which (spoiler for Emma's thread I suppose :) ) the Daily Fail gets all het up about a law that was passed when Thatcher was still PM. You couldn't make it up.

Anyone?

Told you. "Worse but cheaper" only works until it categorically fucking doesn't. "AI" cannot do these things and the people selling you on the idea that they can cannot be trusted.

I call this phenomenon "CEO skim-read Forbes in the Business Class Lounge" and once you notice it you can't stop seeing it everywhere. Open plan offices, beanbags and pool tables, everything-must-be-blockchain, everything must be in the cloud, outsource everything, AI everything...

As the BFI don’t seem to have any kind of presence on here, here’s their 75th anniversary article comparing the film locations used then and now www.bfi.org.uk/features/lav...

It's breaking my heart that the house isn't being turned into a museum to be a permanent home for all of this. Come on national trust, English heritage, v&a or whoever, keep it all together.

Ford has rehired hundreds of senior engineers after replacing them with AI backfired and has cost the company billions of dollars. AI adoption is blamed for Ford being the most recalled automaker in the U.S. with 51 recalls covering over 11 million vehicles in the first half of 2026 alone.

‘Say yes and never do it’ Mel Brooks knew how to deal with the studios

This is a weirdly narcissistic mindset I see among conservatives. This idea that people take a firm moral stance not because of their principles but because they secretly know how to cheat. Its a mix of paranoia, projection and an inability to believe someone can be ethical without an ($) incentive.

Happy 100th birthday to this guy.

People, in every field, are watching their careers get burned into ash in favor of a machine that is *allowed* to make vastly bigger mistakes than they would ever be allowed to. The machine can't even get the company's name right, but *you* are hounded over the color of a single pixel, etc.

Very good question from my GB News colleague. He may be surprised to know that Andy Burnham has spent more time in Makerfield since 18 June than I've spent in Clacton since July 2024.

It’s important to note that unlike Russia, Ukraine is not striking civilian targets like schools and hospitals. Instead, Ukraine’s strikes against military infrastructure is causing discomfort, anger & despair in Russians having to piss on the roadside while queuing for petrol.

Letraset dry transfers used by animators on 'Yellow Submarine' to speed up the process. www.action-transfers.com/html/a_artic...

More than a decade ago, a group of young, internet-connected Belarusian dissidents launched a series of increasingly high-stakes, increasingly surreal confrontations with the corrupt, authoritarian government of Alexander Lukashenka, a man who is often called "the last Soviet dictator." 1/

FFS Guardian, it's safe *asylum* routes. I'm hoping that this post will become out of date when they update the headline. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

Two thirds of Reform UK Ltd's income originates with fossil fuel interests. Which could at least provide an alternative explanation (to rank stupidity) for Richard Tice's recent remarks... But don't worry, working people. These multi-millionaires are on your side! www.desmog.com/2026/04/30/r...

This is criminal. Not only should new car parks have solar canopies, they should be retro fitted to existing ones too. It creates jobs and builds energy security, even if you ignore the environmental benefits.

This is a fantastic bit of rhetoric that stomps all over Elon Musk’s stupid space fantasies

I would like my GP practice to recognise that getting a message on the NHS app can be anxiety inducing, and maybe there's a better way to invite me to some kind of summer party thing.

"How dare you plagiarise my plagiarism machine" is the new "No fighting in the war room"

It is being reported that King Charles III paid £12.9m in tax last year, and that this is unprecedentedly transparent and decent of him. This is complete bollocks. Here’s What They Don’t Want You To Know: open.substack.com/pub/whatthey...

Why am I not surprised?

I still can't believe that #Farage (to rhyme with #Faridge) is younger than me. I assume that anyone my age or younger should be less reactionary, more liberal (small l), and more tolerant that previous generations. I'm clearly wrong :(