Woops! Another lying toad standing for Reform.

I’m worried that my toaster is suffering from depression. Everything it produces is so dark.

Change a letter, ruin a film: The Lard of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring

Change a letter, ruin a film: The Dork Knight

If you are bored of the media obsession over Andy Burnham, why not take a read about the progress our Labour government made this week in improving our country. Third week of the year and third week of achieving so much! open.substack.com/pub/warrenoa...

Yay

i’m laughing imagining one of those car carrier trucks going all the way across the country and then when they pull the cars off it, the truck is mad like “they could drive this whole time!?”

"I want everything to be an inconvenient distance away and I want to have to drive to get there," is a really weird hill to die on. But hey, at least you're dead, I guess?

RIP Alex Pretti November 9, 1988 - January 24, 2026 A nurse who exhibited bravery and kindness. Murdered by U.S. government thugs.

You’re Great.

Like water yeah?

“Ah, a letter in the Dorset Echo addressing the behaviour of our monarch” [reads letter] “Oh.”

Hopeless *and* cunning?

Well, this aged well.....

As a perpetual urban studies educator & co-learner, I highly appreciate these starter packs. Expanding & deepening the conversation about what makes cities truly great—and learning from practitioners & thinkers around the world—is essential in this era of planetary urbanisation and rapid change.

If you've watched the actual video... Farage falls over himself to say how respectful and polite he's being to Trump while pointing it out. It's absolutely pathetic

I yet again need to remind people that the Labour way of electing leaders is not the Tory way of electing leaders; and I wish the papers would stop pretending it is. bsky.app/profile/gary...

But Gary, the media! (Seriously it feels like the media have spun this web about Burnham getting the leadership and/or a new leadership election)

Yet again, I plead for people, especially political reporters, to understand this is not how politics does. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

I’d go so far as to say I think it’s practically impossible for Starmer to be removed this way. The chances of over 80 sitting Labour MPs all pulling the plug and uniting behind a single candidate are so small as to be essentially negligible.

Farage has been touring Davos all week pledging to “fight the globalists” - all funded by a $10 billion trust run on behalf of an Iranian billionaire. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

This is David Marsh. He went to my old school. He is one of the small number of European troops who went to Afghanistan and never did much nor went to the front line according to Donald Trump. He died in 2008 aged 23 in Afghanistan when the patrol car he was in was blown up in Helmand Province.

He really isn’t. Go and look at places where they have good safe cycling infrastructure. Count the cycle helmets. Consider the hierarchy of risks. Look at head injuries in cars. Think about why sports car drivers and pro-cyclists do wear helmets. But utility cyclists and car drivers don’t.

Absolutely!! I was speechless when I heard the interview! Why hasn’t this been picked up more @bbcpm.bsky.social??

00:19:26 - James Cleverly saying “very, very few” people in Braintree don’t have a car. He adds that if you don’t have a car “you are screwed”. In fact, 13.7% of households in his constituency don’t have a car. Thanks to his party’s lack of support for public transport, they are screwed.

Ticket warning! 🙌 Half the tickets left for each of the 3 tours we’re putting on in April, May and June. Each walk’s a one off, so once they’re gone they’re gone! I’d be delighted to see you come along - fitness, history enthusiast, whoever you are! www.northeastheritagelibrary.co.uk/event-list

🚨 BREAKING: Keir Starmer has called on Donald Trump to apologise for his "insulting and frankly appalling" comments about British troops in Afghanistan 👏

One day soon, we'll hold a service and rebury them. A priest will lead the service, and I will dig the hole, and we will lower these fragments of person back into the rich black earth, in this, the place they chose to be. After all this disturbance, we will, once again, pray them to their rest.

"The prospect of climate breakdown would make the mouths of many fascists water. Collapsing agriculture would demand muscular control of food systems. Thousands of ICE agents currently terrorising Minneapolis provide a glimpse of this future. The UK may think it is immune. It is not."

The UK gov has finally released the Global biodiversity loss, ecosystem collapse and national security report. We face catastrophe. Why aren't politicians acting? I think some are - but in ways perhaps just as frightening. My latest for Technosphere Earth. www.technosphere.earth/no-war-on-a-...

The said image is part of the title page of a famous German book of the 1560s about 'How to make artificial colors'. Here is the title page:

He’s so Kafkaesque. Was this written by the onion?

ReformUK backed US GOP President's attack on sacrifice of UK military & their families in Afghanistan is gut wrenching. This is an abusive not a special relationship. Time to end lying pretence.

- There are vastly more interesting things to put on bookshelves than books (5) People say: "I want to have lots of books on display because I want my kids to read". But your kids won't be inspired to read by some Sally Rooney book gathering dust on a shelf. Read in front of them. Read TO them.

Trying to think this through. Lots of contemporary non-fiction writing boils down to “here’s an interesting idea”. And those books should probably be essays no matter how interesting the idea is.

My greatest sympathy this morning to all of the families of British, and other nationality, families who lost loved ones, and those who suffered injury, supporting US causes www.theguardian.com/politics/liv...

Let's not forget Farage is one of Trump's biggest supporters in UK politics

Fascinating point from Rob about the scale of a possible mayoral by-election. Burnham was re-elected mayor of Greater Manchester (GM) on 2 May 2024. It's a 4-year cycle, so his stint as mayor is due to run through until 2028, and there are circa 2.1 million registered eligible voters across GM.

it is time to impound cars plus make sure that when petrol is bought there is a mechanism of proof of the right to drive.

The other European leaders this week would fundamentally disagree with you.

I think Burnham needs to be very careful here, voters don’t like to be taken for granted, I wouldn’t bet on labour winning any bye election at the moment plus Farage would throw the kitchen sink at this

Burnham should complete his term as mayor and then be free to find a seat to contest Boris Johnson is a turd, but even he did not ditch London part way through a term as mayor

Yes, this is the key argument for me. The NEC should not be blocking candidates because they might run to be leader: it should actively want its "big beasts" in Parlt. But nor should someone throw over an elected mayoralty less than halfway through their term.And Burnham cannot legally do both jobs

Here's an account. 25k followers. Talking up the possibility of a wasteful and damaging government leadership change. While desperate people who've suffered the worst 15 yrs under the Tories, are relying on Labour to save them. It's irresponsible IMO.

I think what the "blocking Burham looks petty" arg misses is that Labour NEC have a strong reason for blocking - Burnham would have to walk out on a Combined Authority Mayoral job he was elected to less than two years, triggering by far the largest by-election in British history

I know some people are cynical about everything now and just say “eh, what do you expect” at every new low, but really this is just astonishing and outrageous, and I don’t think we should shrug at that www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

Dump him, girl www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...

BREAKING: UK government borrowing fell sharply last month, due to more income from taxes and higher National Insurance Contributions outweighing spending, figures show. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

The Titanic could complete a 360° circle in 6 minutes