This was a perfect slice of brilliance. I hope that @talkscaredpod.bsky.social is as proud of it as he deserves to be. Just wonderful.

Michelle from Scare.Me.Reads asked me some really interesting questions about writing Good Boy, books and dogs and meeting my heroes. scare-me.beehiiv.com/p/neil-mcrob...

Celebrating the release of THE END OF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT with a set of short sharp conversations between the contributors Part One features editors Brian Keene and Chris Golden, plus Tim Lebbon talking to Bev Vincent, and Cat Ward talking brutality with Caroline Kepnes All podcast platforms

This is one of the most beautiful things I have witnessed, the craft here is impeccable.

If you're inclined to think "People being disrespectful to Tebbit is a bit off"...

1. One thing you need to realise about the British Establishment is that it uses clowns to express its deepest desires. People like Rod Liddle offer a kind of deniability - "lighten up, he's just having a laugh". But they deliver a closer representation of its truths than any sober editorial.

Private Eye has found that that 281,000 PIP claimants *already in paid work* stand to lose out under the proposed cuts (i.e the four-point rule) That's 55% of all PIP claimants in paid work, according to the article (not my article but I want to flag it)

I do not want AI in Slack. I do not want AI in Google. I do not want AI on Facebook. I do not want AI in documents or spreadsheets. I do not want AI in Adobe Acrobat. I do not want AI in Zoom. I do not want AI on news sites. I do not want AI in the patient portal for my doctor's office. I do not wan

All rather obvious I suppose. But then Trump, Ceaușescu, the Kims, Putin and indeed all the other wannabe strong men in history are "obvious". It's what defines them. Noise, parades, big egos and a total lack of subtlety. A sort of bludgeoning big idiocy. Have some Auden.

Turn it off. Stop using it. Turn it off. Stop. Stop. Stop. If every time I was wrong about something, a gallon of precious water was boiled into the sky, my neighbourhood got polluted and someone lost their job, people would stop asking me things.

I... oh my god. amandaguinzburg.substack.com/p/diabolus-e...

Thinking about “an island of strangers”. Don’t think it matters whether it’s an intentional Powell callback or not. Either: it is Or: it isn’t, but the context and content of the speech recall it. Thing is, option 2 is not better.

A brilliant piece of poetry from Michael Rosen, clearly directed at Starmer and the current Labour Government.

If you are anywhere vaguely on the left and were ever puzzled as to why people clung to Corbyn in spite of all its flaws, the answer is that they all knew this version of the Labour Party was what was waiting in the wings

If your instinct was to roll your eyes or call people cranks for calling Starmer a liar or Streeting, Reeves, Cooper "red Tories". Well, sorry seems they just understood the nature of the forces inside the Labour Party better than you did

🧵NOT BY ME, this is a post from someone who wants to remain anonymous but works extensively with trans people pre-transition. They were asked by someone “why do you think that’s so much [coverage of trans people] in the news at the moment?” This was their response:

Met raids Quaker meeting house and arrests six women at Youth Demand talk www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Worth sharing with alt text. Brian Eno's response to the Quaker arrests.

My designs get lots of publicity in magazines and online and it looks like I’m doing really well. The reality is that it’s bloody hard work being self employed and it’s not getting any easier. Have a look at what I do and repost. Thanks. gailmyerscough.co.uk

Ben Chu, "Instead of cutting spending, the Chancellor could raise taxes" "But all the signs are she has decided not to raise taxes to fill the gap" "That's a political choice"

We're going to die in our tens of thousands. Again. That's what's going to happen. And then the 2nd poorest cohort of the population moves down into our slot, so they can do it again in a couple of years. And the money they make off our deaths keeps flowing uphill into the same pockets.

The paperbacks are out! I'll send a signed example to a random someone reposting this 😮 You want that lovely Tom Roberts art. Plus, it has words inside!

Reading The Times report on speculated PIP cuts, I’m struck by not only how many people will lose vital support but how much we are already degraded to qualify. Have a stranger ask you how you wash “below the waist” and then tell us how easy it is to claim disability benefits.

Benefits too easy to claim? Stephen Smith was found fit to work by the DWP assessors when he looked like this.

A company or rich individual who donates to political parties seeks to influence politics in their favour and normally to increase their wealth. Essentially buying democracy. So you can either ban donations OR give everyone who doesn't donate two votes. I am open to arguments of three votes.

Always repost the Vimes Boots Theory of Socioeconomic Unfairness.

And THAT is exactly how people with a huge sense of entitlement regularly behave when they get caught out. #JeremyClarkson

i’m gonna just watch this at least once a day and i recommend everyone do the same

"People with learning disabilities were told they wouldn’t be resuscitated or treated if they contracted COVID-19, the Covid inquiry has heard." Johnson and his lot should be in prison for manslaughter #CovidInquiry www.disabilityrightsuk.org/news/covid-1...

The thing about culture warriors like Badenoch is that I don't understand how it's possible for people who are so dangerous to be simultaneously so tedious.

OTD.

NHS crisis Prison crisis Social care crisis Housing crisis Cost of living crisis 14yrs of Tory failure, corruption and waste. 10wks of Labour govt and the rightwing are in moralising meltdown. We’re in this mess cos they never gave a shit. Let’s not kid ourselves they care now.

My cartoon for Guardian Books’ autumn reading special.

I for certainly can’t argue with this.

Alongside "who built Hadrian's wall?", another great example of knowledge falling foul of 'common understanding' is scurvy. The Royal Navy discovered the cure for scurvy, won the Napoleonic War, humanity then lost that knowledge without realising, then got saved by two Norwegian guinea pigs 🧵 /1

fantastic diagram from Dave Walker diagramclub.substack.com/p/004-drawin...

When I was 17, I worked in a factory in the centre of Manchester, behind the big Debenhams, that made and sold "For Sale" and "Special Offer" signs. My job was to pack them. /1