Deregulation mania UK Govt to weaken ring-fencing of retail from speculative banking, introduced after the 2007-08 crash. Nothing learnt. Claims this will release capital for economic growth - more speculation. Danger of shadow banking, AI bubble looms Who bears the cost of bailouts?

A little more on George Michael’s philanthropy. Tonight The Music Seems So Loud: The Meaning of George Michael, is published soon. You can pre-order copies now and book spaces at a launch event I’m doing on Mon June 1st with Intelligence Squared at the Union Chapel in London. www.sathnam.com/events

“Who wouldn’t be excited by a new cheese?” said Helen. #TheArchers

There’s little Holly Foster Wells doesn’t know about Peggy Lee: she’s her granddaughter. Now she’s unearthed a never-released, home-recorded jam session with a song she never sang in public. It’s a year on from her painful divorce from Dave Barbour and it’s damn fine. youtube.com/watch?v=iKCI...

Today we launch ‘How to protect against scammers – a guide for authors’ with @societyofauthors.bsky.social following an uptick in enquiries from writers who are being targeted by ever more sophisticated fraudulent activity, often driven by AI Download the free guide www.writersguild.org.uk/scams

Blimey.

Former Scotland Yard superintendent backs calls for the Met Police chief to resign over his criticism of pro-Palestine protests. Nusrit Mehtab tells us that Sir Mark Rowley is “blurring the lines of operational policing and political positioning”. www.declassifieduk.org/met-chief-sh...

#OnThisDay, 18 May 1953, pilot Jackie Cochran becomes the first woman to break the sound barrier. #WomenInHistory #OTD #History #WomensHistory #AviationHistory 🗃️

The @writersguildgb.bsky.social is working hard for its members. New guide on protecting us and our work from scammers out today. WRITERS - if you are not yet a member please join us. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain. #JoinAUnion

Could be this is where the Neo-Luddite movement starts getting serious.

Fearing a change in Labour leadership, Thames Water creditors rush a takeover plan. Want regulator to go easy on abuses. Still want dividends. Customers will be fleeced. There can be no market-based solution. No competition Captive customers No substitute goods Must nationalise. archive.ph/eJoHP

#OtD 17 May 1966 Vassilis Palaiokostas, “the Greek Robin Hood,” was born in Moschofito, Greece. The became famous for robbing banks and the rich and giving to the poor, and repeatedly escaping jail stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/8918...

#OTD in 1863, Galician poet & novelist Rosalía de Castro published "Cantares Gallegos." It marked the spectacular rebirth of Galician literature. She is considered one of the most important figures of 19th-century Spanish #literature & modern lyricism. 17 May is #Galician Literature Day. #litsky

A wax model showing the muscles of the torso and head made by surgeon André-Pierre Pinson in the late eighteenth century. It’s currently on display in the Musée de l’Homme, Paris.

Few things buttress my faith in humanity like this loathing. The fact that the AI overlords have so miscalculated what we would think and whether it would matter is fun too. A bit like the Trump Administration's miscalculation of how Minneapolis would respond to invasion by a thug army.

A platform backed by Peter Thiel and advised by Donald Trump Jr. is taking anonymous crypto bets on UK elections, missile strikes and the death of world leaders. In Britain no regulator will touch it A Nerve explainer by @tuckerian.bsky.social www.thenerve.news/p/polymarket...

‘She really did suffer a lot to get her story out there. And so to have people embrace it would be amazing to her’: Virginia Giuffre’s ghostwriter Amy Wallace talks to @luciaoc.bsky.social

We’ve been doggedly reporting on Palantir’s contracts with UK state…& this latest one with Met police is both creepy & opaque. Met has used Palantir to spy on its own officers. If it can do this to its own employees…what about the rest of us? By @mc00.bsky.social & @luciaoc.bsky.social

The oxygen that keeps us alive comes from natural ecosystems: half on land, half at sea. It's not complicated: we are TOTALLY dependent on the living world. Yet it's still treated as nothing but 'resources', to exploit and destroy for profit.

Post a meme made by you.

"Starting with an armature of wire mesh, masking tape, and Jesmonite resin, she meticulously cuts and tucks Persian carpet around every limb, building a surface that looks unbroken" www.thisiscolossal.com/2026/05/debb...

You can read more about her at www.infinite-women.com/women/jeanne...

From the book, Bullshit Jobs.

#OnThisDay, 18 May 1893, Meri Te Tai Mangakāhia spoke at the Kotahitanga (Māori parliament) in Aotearoa (New Zealand). She was the first woman to address the Kotahitanga, #AotearoaHistory #NZHistory #VotesForWomen #WomenInHistory #OTD #History #WomensHistory 🗃️ 1/2

In her speech Meri Te Tai Mangakāhia called for Māori women to have the vote and to be members of the parliament. 2/2

Wake! For the Sun, who scatter'd into flight The Stars before him from the Field of Night, Drives Night along with them from Heav'n, and strikes The Sultan's Turret with a Shaft of Light. "The Rubaiyat": classics.mit.edu/Khayyam/ruba... ✒️ #OmarKhayyám was #BOTD 18 May 1048. #Poetry

"The good life is one inspired by love and guided by knowledge." ✒️English mathematician, philosopher and author #BertrandRussell (Nobel Prize in #Literature 1950) was #BOTD 18 May 1872. #Philosophy

"Take your work seriously, but never yourself." 🩰 English #ballet legend Dame #MargotFonteyn was #BOTD 18 May 1919. #Arts #Dance

Colombian installation artist, Doris Salcedo, from the 'Uprooted' exhibition #WomensArt

Illustration from 'The Lost Words'(2017) by artist/author Jackie Morris who created the book in collaboration with Robert Macfarlane #Womensart

Almost unbearably beautiful

'Morning conversation', linocut by Olesya Dzhurayeva, contemporary Ukrainian printmaker #WomensArt #Monday

Monday morning mood lifter.

#OtD 15 May 1940 anarchist textile worker militant Dolors Prat climbed the Pyrenees to France to escape Franco's fascist regime. She had been deported back to Spain after previously fleeing to France stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/8714...

I love this 👇👇👇👏👏👏

Why is Trump so terrified of teachers? Because like every dictator, he knows the greatest threat to his rule is an educated public. I spoke with American Federation of Teachers president @rweingarten.bsky.social about Trump's war on teachers — and how we can fight back.

Simply doesn't make sense as a reconsideration of justice. This is a person who actively attempted to undermine democracy, to subvert the will of Colorado voters.

The work of Vivian Maier (1920-2009), prolific US street photographer whose work was unknown in her lifetime #WomensArt

Sarah Andersen, contemporary US cartoonist and illustrator (who obviously knows cats....) #WomensArt

Fears of ‘postal deserts’ as private equity owner of former WH Smith stores puts counters under threat. Post Office is state-owned. It sold buildings and outsourced. Another failed business model Swathes of villages and town centres would have no bank branch or a post office.

Tesco boss’s pay rises by more than £1m to £10.8m. 3m Britons skip meals, can't afford to buy food. Tesco profits hit £3.15bn. There are no controls of fat-cattery. Shareholder votes are advisory, not binding. Workers have no say. Customers have no say.

Blackpool's 'exhilarating, terrifying' history of dance #Lancashire #BBCNews

#OnThisDay, 16 May 1975, Japanese climber Junko Tabei reaches the summit of Everest. She is the first woman to make it to the peak of the world's highest mountain. #WomenInHistory #OTD #History #WomensHistory 🗃️

Live feed from the Unite the Kingdom march

Record number of UK people turning to crowdfunding to cover rent and household bills. Average real wage hardly changed since 2008. Millions rely on food banks. Healthy life expectancy shrinking. Record number of billionaires. 1% have more wealth than 70% of the population combined.

'Accessibility trails changed my life' #Lancashire #BBCNews

Disastrous PFI pushed through the Highways (Financing) Bill to “fund large-scale road schemes.” Previous PFI schemes resulted in £6 repayment for every £1 of private investment. Govt guaranteeing corporate profits Cheaper alternatives: Govt borrowing Public bonds Tax corporations/rich

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