I don't get how Burnham can say he will be "unashamedly Labour" while vocally supporting arguably the most significant rollback of human rights in more than 70 years, unless he is actively acknowledging that Labour no longer stands for human rights.

may I indulge my pet kvetch people rightly condemning Serkis's comments about Middle Earth (and by extension his understanding of that place & its lore) are still gonna watch the fucking movie because no one can bear not having a take to make this shit stop you have to stop giving it the oxygen

Jesus. 35 UK universities quietly- without debate - joined the Ministry of Defence’s “Battlefield Alliance” which seeks to “reorientate academia towards Defence and National Security” They’re destroying the social sciences and humanities while militarising the institutions

absolutely abysmal from Amnesty to not have any plan whatsoever to deal with threats of legal action btw

The National Poetry Competition, run by The Poetry Society since 1978, is now open for entries for a single unpublished poem. The judging panel Niall Campbell, Malika Booker and Luke Kennard are looking forward to reading your poems! Entry details via link in bio

Captured in motion in multiple ways ❤️ the official photos from the Barbican Young Poet Open Works, my performance and participation in a movement workshop run by my cohort member Jess. Once again feeling very lucky and proud to have taken part! 📸: Jesse Olu Ogunbanjo

Guys this is my press! If you've got a weird little manuscript hanging around, please send it our way!

Maybe this hasn’t sunk in for anyone who should care but the NHS was birthed when the UK *literally had negative money*. The USA had razed us of every penny to pay for weapons to defend ourselves against Germany, Germany had bombed all our industrial sites. We still did it in 6 months. 6.

In Blair’s deft hands, nostalgia and longing fuel exploration; every monster a possible alt(a/e)r, every queered (head)canon a closely held grace. The death of the Cult Classic K. Blair (@kblair.bsky.social) kithbooks.com/shop/p/cultclassic

Eat at a locally owned café, shop for a new paperback from an indie bookstore in town, get tomatoes at your nearest farmer's market, buy a lit mag or small press book direct from the publisher & see a film in a community cinema or one day all that'll be left are corporations.

ASIAN PIRATE MUSICAL 🏴‍☠️ Upstairs at the Gatehouse 28 July - 2 August 2026 Tickets: tiny.cc/APMGatehouse

Last night, after waiting seven years for his London return, I got to see Orville Peck perform. Without his album Pony, I would not have written this poem (www.engenderedlitmag.com/blairnolen) & likely wouldn't have explored my gender at all, what a blessing it is to have art affect you so deeply

Add your name to the union-backed petition to tell the HSE that we need a maximum working temperature www.megaphone.org.uk/petitions/we...

The reaction here in Paris to this heatwave feels different from previous years. People are understanding that the climate emergency is here. Schools and l businesses are closing early, ER’s filling up. A/c is the subject of political fights. Meanwhile our tech overlords have a message:

nobody in British politics seems to want to say it but the single biggest driver of their inability to keep a prime minister for any length of time is that Brexit was stupid and ruinous and made everyone’s lives worse

Once again the revolting door of UK prime ministers, each dedicated to the cause of making life difficult and miserable

Barbican Young Poets Open Works showcase 2026, a privilege to perform for a warm, supportive audience and be part of a cohort of talented, creative, awe inspiring writers. I feel so honoured and lucky ❣️

Nancy 6/21/26

The nature of doing an art form for a long time, is that sometimes you fall down the rabbit hole of the archive (event photos on Facebook) to find the strange occurrences of overlapping lives. The rooms you were in together before truly knowing each other.

brother gregor's catch of the day

Rough day, so have a poem about the Jar of Moles in the Grant Zoology Museum in London that everyone has regarded as too thoroughly batshit to publish

Tomorrow! Come make poetry with us!

Nancy 6/18/26 … “Fritzi Ritz Interlude” Part 6

Not just a showcase this year, but an opportunity to engage in fascinating workshops coordinated by the cohort, to see installations and projects developed over the year and of course to hear some stunning poetry! 20/06/26, tickets are £6 www.barbican.org.uk/whats-on/202...

Come on and slam! Yours truly is hosting One Night Slam, 14th July, slam sign ups available on the door 🍿 £50 cash prize and a chance to be photographed with a huge wrestling belt! www.outsavvy.com/event/37203/...

A keynote speaker admits to using Claude to write their paper or a work colleague visibly consults ChatGPT while fielding questions in a meeting (its disproportionately men doing this so far). Understand these acts as about power: the power to refuse to meaningfully engage or listen to others.

I don't think using fiction as an avatar for your own wish fulfiment is invalid but it is weird to me that it seems to have become normalized that the point of fiction is wish fulfiment. And by weird I mean an intentional shift to make art a product of consumer gratification first and foremost.

I bought a printer to print pages. It is trying to sell me bread and timeshares. My printer has its own TikTok. My printer is legally registered to vote in Nevada. My printer just flipped a house in Tucson. Yesterday, my printer printed out my novel. It was gibberish I hadn't written.

Come on and slam! Yours truly is hosting One Night Slam, 14th July, slam sign ups available on the door 🍿 £50 cash prize and a chance to be photographed with a huge wrestling belt! www.outsavvy.com/event/37203/...

Send me ur cats* Deadline Mon 13 July *queer poems, essays, hybrids outburstarts.com/events-proje...

MEGA SALE: ALL books are £5 on our website until we close the shop on Tuesday 30th June (or we sell out!). Help us have a great send off: www.404ink.com/shop

💚 We're seeing poetry pamphlets and novellas from UK Authors + Smaller manuscripts from authors worldwide! 💚 #poetry #writingcommunity

My friend wrote The Death of the Cult Classic! A book of poems about film, queer life and survival – ruthlessly full of life! K is incredibly talented and one of the coolest people I know 💜

when i tell you we're just hitting our stride. there's so much more planned for 2026. kithbooks.com

The UK's love affair with Big Tech is toxic ☢️ A small bunch of US firms have captured our critical systems from the NHS to defence. We need a Digital Sovereignty strategy to secure independence and economic growth with open source. Write to your MP ➡️ action.openrightsgroup.org/tell-your-mp...

A reminder that Brazil banned Twitter for failing to stop the spreading of disinformation. There is nothing stopping the British government from doing the same.

shallow grave summer

What distinguishes the UK from the US and many similar countries is that our entire media-political class were educated in the same institutions, live in the same city, and are increasingly inter-related. It is the civic equivalent of incest, and has similar results on institutional heredity.

Thank you to everyone who wrote to their MP. If your MP has already signed, please consider thanking them. If they haven’t, you can still email them now and tell your friends: equalrecognition.eaction.org.uk/rejectthecode

Five favourite books of all time in no particular order: The Beauty of the Husband by Anne Carson Radiance by Catherynne M. Valente Mongrels by Stephen Graham Jones A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine Priestdaddy by Patricia Lockwood This list is not fixed and subject to novel experiences

A powerful statement of solidarity from Disability Rights UK; and in light of the subsequent EHRC statement on disabled people, minoritised groups sticking together is as important as it ever has been. ✊

Bouchra (2025) directed, written by, and starring Meriem Bennani and Orian Barki. An animated lesbian drama film exploring what happens years after you've come out, it is funny and charming, set in both New York and Morocco. Highly recommend! youtu.be/-m302Kq_FG4?...

Ignoring the rest of my life to post my eldritch Garfield poem, specifically its Garfield-as-Eldritch-Sea-God-of-Late-Capitalism with all of us unknowingly partaking of his microplastic communion. Originally published in Broken Sleep Book's 'Footprints: An Anthology of New Ecopoetry' 2022

Hilarious and deeply insightful writing by @brianphillips.lol.

Submissions are open! We're looking for short stories from writers living in the North of England for our second anthology, on the theme of sorcery. Find out more and submit: carnyxpress.co.uk/submissions/

Not just a showcase this year, but an opportunity to engage in fascinating workshops coordinated by the cohort, to see installations and projects developed over the year and of course to hear some stunning poetry! 20/06/26, tickets are £6 www.barbican.org.uk/whats-on/202...

I can absolutely guarantee that he’s talking bollocks. Not only have i switched off every bit of AI that Windows and Google try to force on me, but I’ve gone back to writing with a pen, in a notebook, and actually I’m getting way more words down than at a computer: