Gloucester Services ✔️

Is there a more hateful motorway than the M25? Between the road surface and aggressive driving and never ending blockages from accidents….

You lot are getting worked up about a Cabinet Minister for AI but missing some bigger warning signals

Can't believe they're making a whole department dedicated to Al Carns.

Any incoming minister for AI should be tasked with replacing a load-bearing spreadsheet from a critical service, to give them the insights into why no one has done it yet. The ministerial equivalent of breaking a horse.

Ontario jails are using an AI tool that claims to predict prisoners’ behaviour. And it’s disproportionately placing Black prisoners in maximum security. An investigation by @desmondcole.bsky.social reveals the province knew the tool would discriminate against Black people—and used it anyway.

Deckchair shuffling is for the unserious. loosemore.com/2026/07/18/d...

yeah we’re gonna have to ban prediction markets

People who keep pointing out that golf courses use as much water as data centres as some sort of defence of data centres drastically underestimate the amount we also hate golf.

begging for a senior English politician whose instincts are not xenophobic.

I was a child in 1976. This chart illustrates the difference between what was going on weather-wise in 1976 and 2025. In 1976, the heatwave was an outlier. In 2025, it is part of normal variation. In 1976, a heatwave would be one-off. By 2025, it's likely to be on-and-off all summer.

It’s another form of gambling.

WHY. WHY. WHY.

Burnham will fail because when a democracy is in a state of existential crisis, it needs political leaders willing to tell uncomfortable truths (and that doesn’t mean dressing up neoliberal tropes as “tough choices”. I see no evidence that Burnham is any such leader.

Hard to think of a more deeply damaging start to Burnham’s premiership than giving green light to new oil & gas in N. Sea, if true. It won’t lower bills or lead to greater energy security but will drive an even hotter planet. What a terrible signal to give to rest of the world #ClimateVandalism

Who the heck has Burnham’s ear. Everything leaked so far is even more horrific than what we currently had.

Dear god.

I started to write a post on my phone, realised it was a thread, got out my laptop to write the thread, realised it was a blog post. So here, have some weeknotes from me. blog.annkempster.com/holy-moly-th...

Let's be absolutely clear: there is no amount of new drilling in the North Sea that Burnham could approve which would be consistent with our climate goals. If we are to avoid complete climate breakdown, we need to turn all effort to clean renewable energy - not doubling down on dirty fossil fuels.

Damn it. My beautiful magnolia tree has spontaneously died overnight. Literally overnight.

I started to write a post on my phone, realised it was a thread, got out my laptop to write the thread, realised it was a blog post. So here, have some weeknotes from me. blog.annkempster.com/holy-moly-th...

BBC should surely recall there were elections in England, Scotland & Wales in May 2026 "Reform swept the board" is factually false. It just writes Wales historic election out - Reform gains, Plaid majority, Lab existential collapse - ignores Scotland, and Green gains in cities (+7) Reform 26 (-4)

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A reminder that the Grenfell fire happened the year before this. One of the big problems for the UK is the sense that nobody is ever held to account www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Welsh pilots showed that using existing public data, thousands of voters can be added automatically. This smart approach removes the need for individuals to opt-in, making registration seamless and effective. The rest of the UK should follow suit. buff.ly/JDgdxwc

The best legacy Starmer has as PM is that he supported Milliband. If Burnham makes Mahmoud chancellor and we slow the move to net-zero, he will be worse than Starmer on the most important issue of our time

Etsy used to be great. Some really nice things made by actual craftspeople. Now it's just a dropshipping hellhole. You can't trust that "ships from the UK" does actually do that. Because 9/10 it does not.

Again, I ask, why are we consulting on something like this. Just do it.

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This is only a good thing. Frankly, I don’t care what industry groups think about this. Just do it.

WHAT

It’s one of the great ironies that people across the world who’ve spent years and years whipping up hate and dividing countries are now complaining that people hate them.

This was on the cusp of actually happening back in 2009/10. But then Gordon Brown called a stupid election, lost, this got canned and we ended up with the bonfire of the quangos.

If I were to ever be PM, the first thing I would do is legislate to create a proper consumer rights organisation, one that had proper teeth. Could use class action suits. And would oversee regulators [I'd also make a mandatory exclusion period for people coming out of industry and into regulators]

Getting paid for not taking annual leave? The rest of us lose that money if we don't take leave.

Join us online on 23 July for the relaunch of WriteToThem in Wales, and learn how to reach the right representative in Wales's changing democratic landscape. We'll also be joined by @jessblair.bsky.social from the Electoral Reform Society to discuss how Welsh politics has evolved. luma.com/tfn60j3e

Remember Streeting's review into whether young people are being overdiagnosed with ADHD, autism, and mental health issues? Well, the interim report is out, and there's a reason the media are silent on it (spoiler: it proves what a lot of us have been saying all along)

Why is it constantly being left to the First Minister to raise the standing orders issue and not the Llywydd. I'm not impressed with how the new Llywydd is handling things. This softly softly approach might have worked in the last Senedd, but it wont' in this one. Needs a sharp, firm hand.

“His brain is in a jar in a lab. There is no question that he is dead. So the fact they wouldn’t pay out is just extraordinary.”

Graham has her own agenda as head of Unite, but she's arguing that 650,000 jobs in one of the fastest growing and fastest employing industrial sectors in the UK is "a noose around job creation". It's not just rubbish, it's nonsensical and feeding into stupid climate change sceptic rhetoric.

Dear god

i’ve invented a device that counters meta’s glasses:

This is it. This. This is the argument we at @transform.wales have been making for Wales.

California is debating legislation right now that would ban all ICE employees from ever being hired by a public agency for life. This is good and next year's Democratic House needs to provide a full roster of ICE employees to help facilitate state efforts like this one.

Merely abolishing ICE is the moderate, restrained position. The moral position is prosecutions, a truth commission, and fundamental constitutional reform so a rogue court run by extremists can never again approve secret police death saques occupying our cities.

Once you start mass removal of citizenship on political grounds you've stopped functioning as a viable democratic state. But that was always where this agenda was heading.

Statement: The Future Generations Commissioner for Wales, Derek Walker, is announcing a review into energy policy and decision-making in Wales. Read more: futuregenerations.wales/news/stateme...

Now get to perimenopause 😵‍💫

Mental state. No, YOU are pruning the roses without gloves.