206. The fog smells of smoke; wet cardboard sign by the curb. Yet, somewhere, songbirds. #haiku #poetry #senryu #spring

Hope springs out of the darkness #Daffodils

Some day we'll all regret this & we'll hold hearings & rend garments & pledge "never again" & we'll be just as full of shit as we were last time.

So invested in the life and times of Punch! I could not handle working in a zoo #Punch

Hark the calling—where the gasp must quake. Waking rapture in the storm; thunder-born. Hear it roar—the lion’s share summons. Hunger for the heart: tender even in the bite. #poetry #vibe

The UK singles chart was better when songs slowly rose to the number one position.

I sometimes worry I go a bit too hard with my resentment of British newspaper journalists as a class, but then I am reminded of stuff like this and am reaffirmed in my belief that we simply do not loathe them enough.

Excellent article. The phrase systemic denial really struck me. It's a profound moment when you come to realise the suffering the victims have gone through and continue to endure.

The Liberal Democrats have argued that the country faces a "silent epidemic of loneliness" and that a lack of community spaces is forcing people to find human interaction online.

Whatever we might feel about the Labour Government, heaven protect us from this motley crew of has-beens, incompetents, & self-serving ideologues—as well as the assorted bigots & disgruntled malcontents looming behind them www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Maybe the lack of safe outdoor spaces, and the lack of meaningful youth facilities could be tackled?

Agreed. I find it fascinating that very economically successful countries often seen to be described as having a well-educated population. Yet, increasingly, in England, wanting an education is seen as a privilege, not a fundamental right.

Education should be free. It is literally the practice of freedom. It is a public good.

Explaining the plot of Scooby-Doo to my daughter and realizing the central irony of the show is that the gang cruises around looking for magic and mysteries that never pan out, while the only truly supernatural element is the talking dog they all ignore.

For me it is also happy 1yr of motherhood/keeping another human alive day (which has been quite a bloomin mission!)

💘 To the last great romantic's among you... happy #ValentinesDay 💘

One for the ages... 😉

Fascists only need to win one election to destroy democracy, whereas democrats have to win every election to preserve it. That’s why fascists cannot be allowed into politics, why a tolerant society must never tolerate fascism or it will lose its tolerance. It’s the Popper Paradox and we’re living it

Pro tip: believe women.

starting to feel like there's a direct relationship between the growing obsession with lifestyle hygeine (no drinking, no caffeine, no sex, obsessive working out and looksmaxxing) and the inability to meaningful moral stands on issues of actual import

The depressing and obnoxious reality here is that many powerful and well-connected rich men see half of the population as meat rather than as people.That will not change in a hurry because the culture, the wealth and the connections persist www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...

You’re out there, always watching from the shadows, and I pretend that I don’t know. Because— what would that mean you are capable of? Try not to wonder more than I have to. #Poetry #Poem #BlueskyPoetry

No political interview or debate should be aired live. They should all be fact-checked by agreed impartial bodies and then edited accordingly to remove any falsehoods. Gave an hour long interview and only 5 minutes made it to air? That's on you.

The fact that Topics were discontinued but Snickers are still going is a national disgrace.

'If you want a healthy and harmonious civil society, invest in the humanities and the arts' Jules Verne’s dystopia was a world without humanities. Don’t let his nightmare come true, writes Elif Safak https://bit.ly/4a0ROtL

We're going to end up with a right-wing government next election unless all other parties and left/ centre populace start being more focused on countering. The moral values/they're lying finger-pointing dismissals aren't impactful (who cares for morals or truth if the alternative suits?)

I guess what I'm saying is that Austen's distant and prideful longing is much more deeply erotic than a member of the gentry fingering his maid on the service stairs

The journos go to the same dinner parties as Peter Mandelson and Michael Gove. They all went to the same posh universities. A corrupt elite of scribblers, politicians and crooks.

"What leverage might the Trump administration have over him?"

The appointment of #Mandelson by Starmer, and anyone who defends it, needs serious looking into. They asked him a few qs and took his answers as gospel?! When I was the reference for a friend's civil service job and the questions were deeply personal, thorough and my answers cross-referenced.

Had an intriguing editorial discussion recently: how did people in the past talk about 'minutes' when they didn't have watches or standardised times? How does that affect your thinking? Come down an Elizabethan/Jacobean rabbit hole with me. 1/

Bill Gates said today that “he regrets every minute he spent with Epstein”. Bet not. You regret getting caught. You regret being exposed. You don’t regret anything you did. We’re not listening to anyone that boo-hoos with “regrets”. You should regret that you stayed silent. GFYS #BillGates #Epstein

Happy February! Welcome to most underrated and fastest improving month. You start in the depths of winter and end waking up in the light to the sound of birds singing, to the sight of snowdrops, daffodils and early blossom in the trees #BigFebruary

This is why AI can never replace artists.

All politicians should leave X but yes indeed - how can the likes of Corbyn and Sultana remain there while robustly calling out fascism. It's appalling double standards.

2 weeks post-surgery and my boy is *thriving*. A highlight of my existence is seeing him flourish and be his full self, he's always such a happy little chap.

Public libraries should grow in number and size in proportion to an area's population. New housing is great but only if there's also a public lending library with a good stock of books, journals, music, and tools. And librarians. It's not a library without librarians.

@robfmac.bsky.social Serendipity struck! We'll get our Runrig Experience after all 😊

Sometimes I think there is no point being creative anymore but I've discovered my married-father-of-two neighbour routinely goes out for 2-3hrs in the dead of night and it turns out my mind is still very creative.

😚👌

Pleased with this little find today! One to keep for the baby when he's older once I've marked our places of heritage on it. (Having tangible links between then and now is one of my favourite things about living where we do now. I never had graves to visit or people before me in MK)

(imho) Richard Tice came across really well on Kuenssberg this morning, as did Tracy Brabin. I'm not a Reform supporter but can see how people buy into it.

I'm gonna keep banging this drum: AI is a useful tool for an expert, it can provide shortcuts and efficiencies in the same way as many other tech tools do. AI is a massive problem for anyone inexpert, because it makes stuff up. If you lack expertise you just can't tell how good the output is.

Son's surgeon complimented my book choice yesterday and now we're total besties.

Current poetry (seeing as the baby knocked my other book into a jug of water 🤦‍♀️)

If our place in life relies on digital platforms, god help us in a power cut.

If you read one thing today, make it this. The revised terms and conditions for X come into play on 16th Jan.

Just reminding everyone who still has an X account of this from Private Eye

The bare bones of a forest for all to see in winter. Northchurch Common, #Berkhamsted #DronePhotography #DJIMavic3Pro

“If everybody always lies to you, the consequence is not that you believe the lies, but rather that nobody believes anything any longer… And a people that no longer can believe anything cannot make up its mind…And with such a people you can then do what you please.” Hannah Arendt