London’s “worst mass eviction in recent history” is underway; hundreds of households across London told to get out of their homes this week by the same landlord, ahead of the renters rights act. The landlord? Billionaire Asif Aziz’s Criterion Capital. www.londoncentric.media/p/asif-aziz-...

This could easily be the basis of a question in the "Life in the UK Test", which you take when applying for British citizenship. "Explain why this was a reaction to news of Andrew's arrest". bsky.app/profile/robm...

So Goodwin has done the Kinder bit this week, now we have the Kirche obligation. Which one of them is going to tell women to get back in the kitchen? And maybe take their shoes off while they are at it.

Remember what happened last time she met a prominent elderly person with IV-related bruising on their hand? 🤞

I was going to be called Peredur if I had been a boy. Great name if you live in Wales, probably not so great growing up in England or living in Japan, Taiwan, Germany etc. The 'th' in Bethan was hard enough for everyone to pronounce.

Now following this thread for all the recommendations for cool Tuvan throat singers. My tip: Yat Kha youtu.be/tXgzc--MgvA?...

Something compelled me to make this

Somebody on here recommended Waiting for the Out (BBC iPlayer) - maybe @jacquiwine.bsky.social? If so, thank you! It was excellent: tense, intelligent, thought-provoking on fatherhood, addiction, the prison system and much else. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

His wishes may soon be granted, once the sub judice rules kick in. In the meantime, I think the public is definitely interested.

One feature I really wish @bsky.app would adopt from old XTwitter is the ability to turn off reposts from individual accounts. There are some people on here who seem interesting themselves, but when they repost Every Single Post from a Very Long Thread, I start to regret my choices. Anyone else?

Well, I would criticise Lord Mandelson, but two and a half years ago, a UK government official emailed me to tell me that I can't criticize government officials on social media, for a period going back five years. So. I have to wait a bit. (You think I'm kidding. The UK government told me that)

We knew from the Google Glass experience that creeps and absolute dangers would pull the worst kind of shit with these things, and yet Meta went ahead with their pervert glasses and refused to listen to the women who said DON'T MAKE THESE.

New on the blog today, I've written about more of my favourite London novels. Including books by Anita Brookner, Elizabeth Bowen, Barbara Pym and many more! #BookSky #London 💙📚 jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2026/01/22/l...

I’ve been reading Trump’s "Board of Peace Charter," and despite the name, this isn’t a multilateral institution, it’s a centralised structure built entirely around the authority of one person (Trump). www.timesofisrael.com/full-text-ch...

Another in the great genre of Japanese officials dressing up as animals to practise emergency protocols.

One day I hope to wake up and discover this has all been a psychology experiment to test the potential limits of the Dunning Kruger effect. I just hope that the ethics rules of whatever species of mouse or dolphin is in charge mean they have to pull the plug before the planet gets blown up.

I spotted this one the other week, and concluded that whoever picks the poems is on the right side of history. Also, "For What It's Worth" popped up on the BBC 6Music playlist this week - its time seems to have come round again: www.youtube.com/watch?v=80_3...

This thread is utterly fantastic, and a good antidote to *waves at absolutely everything else*.

It's missing a ballroom, and there aren't enough fake gold things on the walls.

How it started: Government claimed over half of all households use X as their main news source. How it's going: the data shows fewer people say X is their most important news source than believe the moon landings were definitely faked.

I'm talking about flooding and climate change, chaired by @tomshakespeare.bsky.social, next Tuesday, following on a journalism project: muckrack.com/katharine-qu.... If you're in South London and want to come along, do join 20 January, free tickets here: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/flooding-a...

Maybe it is a positive sign that Bluesky is becoming more mainstream, but I could do without guys like this on the platform: no posts, 19 followers, following 1.2k, all of whom are female, as far as I can tell. Would-be romance scammer?

This suggestion comes from the US, but I think highly applicable to UK politicos too. I am pretty sure Ed Davey would pass, but Farage wouldn't have a clue. And although I live round the corner from her, I have never seen Liz Truss out buying her own lettuce.

I once met a border terrier called Ozymandias. The owner said her son chose the name to so that he could declaim, "Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!" while wielding the poo bags.

This is incredible. Deep respect to @financialtimes.com

1. This is (still) excellent 2. Worth following the thread for one response in particular…

Tom Stoppard was a primary school child who didn't speak English as a first language.

Inertia is an amazing powerful force. People who wouldn't dream of signing up for Trump Truth Social won't quit XTwitter, which is the equally toxic Musk equivalent.

Eight guitars crammed on stage for the final number, in true Blue Aeroplanes traditional style and with as much energy as ever, despite Gerard looking increasingly frail.

Latest government cruelties are simply performative, as countless studies have shown these rules won’t work as a deterrence

Yep. As a teenager in the post-punk 80s, I think the received wisdom at the time was that Fleetwood Mac was 'a bit naff', along with Abba and Paul McCartney.

Beth is my coffee shop alias; for anyone else I am Bethan. Also not Bethany, but that's a different complaint.

Wherever we looked for the prominent flaggers and leaders of this movement, we found people smugglers and sex doll salesmen, people with dubious criminal pasts and people willing to put in a good word for Adolf Hitler. manchestermill.co.uk/the-men-who-...

I sometimes wonder how the parallel universe is getting on, where this plane crash had a different outcome. Would the word Brexit even have been invented? www.theguardian.com/politics/201...

First step on the road to make membership compulsory, along the lines of the Hitlerjugend or Young Pioneers?

Brilliant detail in BBC story about the bikers involved in US aid in Gaza: www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Slightly diminish a book: War and Temporary Ceasefire

Earlier today, I read this by @jamesrball.com and I was nodding along thinking yes, yes, all I get on Facebook/instagram is ads for pure crap unrelated to my interests, no matter how much data they hold on me. But... www.jamesrball.com/p/what-if-bi...

No subs on duty at the BBC website on Sundays?

Belatedly watching this for the first time. Seems somehow relevant for our times.

Ten writers by whom I have read more than five books: Jane Gardam Penelope Lively Richard Powers Yasunari Kawabata Barbara Kingsolver Anthony Trollope Virginia Woolf Douglas Adams Haruki Murakami Dorothy L Sayers

@blogmywiki.bsky.social I see your attic clearance and raise you parental house clearance plus my late husband's youth in boxes from my in-law's attic. Today's possible treasure: ZX Spectrum pamphlet apparently signed by the man himself

Three men sit in a cell in El Salvador. The first asks the second why he has been imprisoned. He replies, "Because I criticized Elon Musk." The first man responds, "But I am here for praising Musk!" They ask the third man who has been sitting quietly in the back. He answers, "I AM Elon Musk".

once again I must tap my own sign

What are the odds on this one turning up in an Omaze draw next year?

A big loss. She was a favourite author of mine from childhood (Bilgewater) all the way up to her novels of older age (the Old Filth trilogy), and everything in between.

He's just following the official style manual: www.amazon.co.uk/Dictator-Sty...