Add your name to call for a cap on political donations today: you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/ta...

"Switzerland’s military has terminated its contract with Palantir… following a security audit… concluded that U.S. intelligence agencies could potentially access sensitive Swiss defense data… significant reputational warning for the data analytics firm" www.newscase.com/palantirs-sw... #R4Today

From last night. An appropriate snippet of Midlake to mark the occasion.

Sir Ian McKellen performing a monologue from Shakespeare’s Sir Thomas More on the Stephen Colbert show. Never have I heard this monologue performed with such a keen sense of prescience. Nor have I ever been in this exact historical moment.TY Sir Ian, for reaching us once again. #Pinks #ProudBlue

#resistance

“We still haven't destroyed London or Birmingham…We haven't wiped all this British scum from the face of the earth." We haven't kicked out the goddamned BBC with that Steve Rotten-berg. He walks around looking like a defecating squirrel…he's a conscious enemy of our country!" @bbcstever.bsky.social

I can smell those stacks #lovelibraries

Sad to hear this news. #Tully Mark Tully, the BBC's 'voice of India', dies aged 90 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4nnp4d064do

"Prodigal", Mykonos, 17 January 2016. Ten years ago today. I miss her.

This photo was taken in 1911 using glass plate technology by Herbert Ponting who was part of Scott's Antarctic expedition, The composition and detail are exquisite with the band of white snow/ice creating a perfect frame around the two people and the ship in the distance Iconic imo

The shape of the season #winterwalks

One of the few things that might actually get some kind of reaction from Musk would be the government and all MPs simply leaving X. This doesn't require regulatory or legal action. There are no barriers. They could *and should* just do it.

Winter walks

People fatally shot by UK police in 2024/25: 2 People fatally shot by US law enforcement in 2025: 1280

75% cat

LIFE RULES: Insulate your house with books to ward off evil Oppose the zombie AI apocalypse Never click on a link to the Daily Mail Use double the recommended amount of garlic Always stop to say hi to sheep And to horses too (but in a fake posh voice) I think that's more or less everything covered?

Give it a year, I reckon, and one of THE major societal divides, nudging countless friendships to an end, is going to be the one between people who post awful AI shit on the internet and people who don't because they realise it's a dishonest, ecologically ruinous evil fast-tracking us to apocalypse.

This is what those who have fallen into the trap of generative AI simply can’t grasp. Photography isn’t about making a clever image it is rooted in the subject - the thing itself - and in the absence of that all AI images are by definition shallow, transient and meaningless.

RIP Martin Parr. Very sad to hear this.

So Autumn

THREAD. 3 years ago, with no warning, a brilliant orange farm cat wandered over from the draughty barn where he had been living, in rural Cornwall, and decided he wanted to live with us instead. We decided to call him Jim. This is the first photo I took of him, on that night: December 1st, 2022.

This isn’t just the BBC censoring an opinion, as objectionable as that would be. This is the BBC censoring an historical fact. There is a mountain of evidence to back up this claim.

🚨The Petition calling for a public inquiry into Russian influence on UK politics & democracy has now rocketed past 55,000 signatures! Let’s get it to 100,000. If a petition is what it’s going to take let’s get this done! petition.parliament.uk/petitions/74...

21K and rising fast Petition: Call a public inquiry into Russian influence on UK politics & democracy petition.parliament.uk/petitions/74...

The BBC is the biggest thump of soft power the UK has and its reach and influence to the benefit of the country is extraordinary. Destroy it, hugely damage the UK. The same people who helped weaken us over Brexit are seeking to do it again.

Tom’s ALT text captions are a hoot. @dj-acid-reflux.bsky.social thank you!

Camouflage level: expert

The fact that the BBC has made serious culpable errors does not negate the point that there is a real and concerted right-wing media campaign to destroy it. Both points can be true at the same time and the campaign would not end even if the errors did.

Trump's White House & fawning hacks here don't really care about the 0.001% that the BBC gets wrong. They care about all the stuff it gets right.

Get your colleagues and friends off it, folks.

Hannan and Frost in the Telegraph. Sunak in the Times. Kwasi Kwarteng in the iPaper. Johnson in the Mail. Gove editing the Spectator. Farage everywhere. All of them shamelessly honking out their ‘Listen to me!’ garbage, as the country flails around in the unbelievable mess they’ve made. Nauseating.

I knew Gill and Farage and the rest of the UKIP crew in the European Parliament They were crooks and shysters to a man They repeated Putin talking points and appeared on Russia Today UKIP then and Reform now are both a threat to our democracy www.theguardian.com/news/ng-inte...

Love this Edward Gorey quote: "Anything that is art is presumably about some certain thing, but is really always about something else, and it’s no good having one without the other, because if you just have the something it is boring and if you just have the something else it’s irritating.”

Bertrand Russell to Oswald Mosley. Perfection.

The carpet they’re sweeping it under surely isn’t big enough?

Save our creative arts - stop the steal!

Lords Heseltine & Kinnock seem more alive to these self-evident truths than most members of the Commons. Similarly, I find thinkers with direct lived experience of far right dictatorship, Greeks of a certain age for example, crystal clear about what’s happening now.

@millais.bsky.social A mossy pool with waterfalls in Cornwall #woodland #magical #painting

There seems to be some *confusion* among Reform supporters over Nathan Gill being one of them “But, but, Reform didn’t exist when he took his Russian bribes” “But, but he was in UKIP” “But, but it has nothing to do with Farage, he barely knew the guy” So here’s a little history lesson 👍🏼🧵 1/14

Leaving the ECHR won’t “Take Back Control” – it will hand your rights to politicians The myths are seductive, the reality is very different – without the ECHR your freedoms rest on whichever Home Secretary wakes up grumpy eastangliabylines.co.uk/politics/jus...

"To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. Nothing but the truth should be spoken about him or any one else." Roosevelt May 7, 1918

This is such a timely report by @basakcali.bsky.social @victoriaadamant.bsky.social and @alicedonald.bsky.social. It analyses almost 400 news pieces on immigration published in UK media, and reveals frequent misreporting of tribunal cases, and mischaracterisations of the role played by the ECHR

What utter dickheads we are… Rayner fought for workers: sick pay, maternity rights, protection from unfair dismissal Farage and his MPs voted it down Rayner gets binned over £40k in stamp duty Farage dodges £44k, shrugs & strolls on The mega wealthy win again.

Since #bbcpm is unlikely to play the greeting to Nigel Farage from the senior Democrat member of the committee. . .

Why, you might ask, do the BBC and Sky News, casting their editorial guidelines to the wind, keep giving massive airtime to the far right, while shutting out leftwing voices? Don't their bosses understand the likely consequences? Only one explanation now remains. They do. And it is what they want.

Here's how the real two-tier Britain works: 1. Whatever Nigel Farage says, however stupid, is looped and discussed by the media, while left-wing voices are treated as noises off. 2. Tiny far-right protests get massive airtime, while 10s of 000s gathering for Palestine or green causes are ignored.🧵

I know I keep banging on about my designs but it’s not easy being a small business at the moment. Take a look at my wares and please repost. gailmyerscough.co.uk Thanks!

A lot of artists and designers are struggling at the moment. It’s been very quiet. Please have a look at what I do and repost to spread the word. gailmyerscough.co.uk

In the light of this week’s finalist announcement for the 2025 Orwell Prize, I have updated this starter pack. Some more brilliant writers and journalists in here for you to follow. Please repost the pack if you can to promote them and their great work widely #OrwellPrize #writingcommunity

Paul Nash was born #OnThisDay in 1889 🎈 The artist is known for his surrealist landscapes and depictions of wartime destruction. Explore more 👉 buff.ly/dHZ9URN 📷 1) @leedsmuseums.bsky.social / 2) Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums / 3) Royal Air Force Museum