This is my kind of political analogy.

Nepo baby musician

but other than that, mrs lincoln, how was the play

In the first of a new free, in-person training series for writers, sponsored by @alcs.co.uk, WGGB Organiser Eleanor Dawson is leading a workshop on copyright and contracts in London on Monday 18 May (11am to 3pm) Find out more and apply (deadline noon, 11 May) www.surveymonkey.com/r/WGGBTraini...

PLEASE SHARE: Free 8-week writers group at AGA/ @aowensarchive.bsky.social Glasgow. Starts 28 May, Thursdays 1–3pm at The Whisky Bond. For local people new to writing. Guest sessions with @heatherparry.bsky.social & @kirstininnes.bsky.social, facilitated by Saskia McCracken. 10 free spaces.

Just in case you missed it...

David’s album is excellent and his band are incredibly accomplished players. You should treat yourself to a very fine evening if you are in, or near, one of these cities next week.

Every Reform councillor who was elected this week is going to go into their first day of work thinking that 80% of their borough's budget goes on giving immigrants pronouns and they're all going to find that every single department is underfunded and slightly reducing the budget will kill people

You've watched us do this. You have a free preview of the grim and terrible ending. Knowing didn't save us. It might save you. Get organised. You're further along the curve than we were in 2014. Good luck. You're going to need it. — @therickwilson.bsky.social bylinetimes.com/2026/05/08/r... 12/12

A Reform government in Westminster isn't just a domestic catastrophe. It's the loudest possible argument for Edinburgh and Cardiff to head for the exits. Britain doesn't just risk becoming a worse country. It risks becoming several smaller ones. 9/12

Brexit was a policy. What's coming next is a regime change. Reform is running on mass deportations. Gutting the BBC. War with the judiciary. A foreign policy authored in Mar-a-Lago and proofread in the Kremlin. 8/12

Farage spent years on the RT payroll. Met privately with the Russian ambassador. Said Putin was the world leader he most admired. Defended the annexation of Crimea. The man about to inherit your country has spent 20 years on the wrong side of the war for Europe's future. 7/12

Go go go!! If you've ever wanted to write a First Doctor story, here's your chance! www.bigfinish.com/news/v/big-f...

This is the problem. A pitch to voters "turning to Greens and Reform". You have to actually choose between the voters who want what they perceive as a socially liberal socialist environmentalist party and the ones who want fascism. You can't appeal to both, and now they all hate you.

On Friday afternoon before the Bank Holiday, colleagues in the Humanities department were called to a meeting on Tuesday. They were informed that the University Portfolio Review had decided that English Language, English Literature, Philosophy, History & Creative Writing UG degrees would close

Get ready to swipe right on the Cast & Creatives of MY ROMANTIC HISTORY! This fast, funny and painfully relatable rom-com by D.C. Jackson is about two people who might just be perfect for each other – if they can ever get over their past.

Luz train station, São Paulo. Why would I post such a thing? Well, the guts of that station were manufactured at the Saracen Foundry in Possilpark. The whole thing was assembled here in Glasgow before being dismantled and shipped out to Brazil. 📷 Danyel Monteiro

A mural in Leith. #Leith #Edinburgh

do think one of the big problems of the era is that a lot of mainstream politicians have forgotten that you just can't convince everyone; the point of successful electoral politics is to convince the people you can convince and to *defeat the rest*

Reform’s toxic thinking has infected Scottish politics – this week’s Holyrood elections will tell us how badly | Jasmeen Kanwal

I don't know why we should judge public figures based on some secret belief that might be in their hearts that they don't act on, rather than on their public behavior and contributions to public life.

"how was your first day at work?" [longest cigarette draw in history] "pas bien"

Sorry to hear that Beverley Martyn, nee Kutner, has died, after a prolonged period of illness. She had a tough life and suffered periods of horrific spousal abuse. Although her talents were only sporadically allowed to shine, she created some beautiful music. I'll be listening to some of it tonight.

The way the outfits here create flashes of blue and white is very mesmerizing.

I’m fucking horrified that folk 100s of years from now are going to refer to this period as the Trumpian Age or some shit and I’m gonna be lumped in with all the dumb extremist dicks. Solidarity with dead people from the 19th century who thought empire was for arseholes and now get called Victorians

Keir Starmer & Morgan McSweeney are going to go down as major villains in Labour history. Majority Labour Govts do not come along very often. By their ineptitude, incompetence & rotten politics they have blown apart the prospects of this Labour Govt. Tragic but there is no way back now.

Remembering Fred Dibnah, born this day in 1938.

the Labour Right spent 10 years arguing that a left/soft-left Labour government would be a disaster and then about 10 minutes proving that a Labour government led by them was a disaster too

OH MY GOD THE PREMATURE PITCH INVASION ADDED TIME GOAL! York City took the title and promotion to League Two from Rochdale with a 102nd-minute goal in the time added on after the home fans invaded the pitch thinking they’d won in the 95th minute!

BBC Scotland's longest-running drama series has officially wrapped filming after more than two decades 🔗 www.thenational.scot/news/2...

In so many ways the political response to the climate crisis over the past 20 years was a dry run for all that followed. A mix of outright denial, underpowered technocratic fixes that refuse to engage the public, learned helplessness, and sneering at those who try to warn there’s a disaster looming.

my latest books cartoon for @theguardian.com

At the start of April, we announced new Standard Play Contract Rates for playwrights in Scotland, negotiated with our friends at the Federation of Scottish Theatre. These went into effect immediately, and more info can be found through the link in our bio. #playwright #scottishplaywrights #fst #ssp

Well, that first half was...eventful! 😱 Two goals up. But my nerves are already shot. #celticfc

What a howler! Should have known how speedy Daizen Gonzales can be 😁 Maeda🍀

NASA just dropped the closest image ever taken of Jupiter...

The trouble is that we have a bad habit, encouraged by pedants and sophisticates, of considering happiness as something rather stupid. Only pain is intellectual, only evil interesting.

Anyone who received their postal ballot today in the South of Scotland region, please be aware that "Independent Green Voice", which appears second on the list on the peach regional ballot paper, is NOT the Scottish Green Party. This is in fact a deliberate vote spoiling attempt by right-wingers.

Six scary minutes chronicling a five thousand year continuum of human oppression from the dawn of man to the Mississippi Delta, Bob Dylan's "Blind Willie McTell" is the saddest song written about America's failed promise. This land is our land. This land is condemned. www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AIR...

"A collapse would shift the tropical rainfall belt on which many millions of people rely to grow their food, plunge western Europe into extreme cold winters and summer droughts, and add 50-100cm to already rising sea levels around the Atlantic."

For anyone wanting to get in to film/TV, I’ve put together a series of lunchtime talks from Wednesday to Sunday next week on directing, design, composing, producing & locations with fantastic guests. Free for under 25s. Do share! Part of From Page to Screen festival. @bridportarts.bsky.social

Something For the Longing Box Set - Day 8. Here's one of the very, very great bands from Scotland - The Shop Assistants and I Don’t Wanna Be Friends With You. And an excellent photo of David Keegan taken by Paul Groovy in Brighton - 15/12/85 www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OxX...

Truly remarkable how many people have told the Pope, in some way or another, to "shut up and dribble." Or corrected him on the Bible, despite their thin education on theology. Or told him to stay out of US affairs, despite him being a US citizen. The hubris is amazing.

This week we want to highlight our Fair Work Campaign. We have been part of a growing cross-union campaign to improve conditions for freelancers across Scotland’s creative industries. For more info on the campaign, visit our website (link in bio). #playwrights #stuc #fairwork #scottishfreelancers

But when we crave power over life—endless wealth, unassailable safety, immortality—then desire becomes greed. And if knowledge allies itself to that greed, then comes evil. Then the balance of the world is swayed, and ruin weighs heavy in the scale.

1. In 2002, I was one of the first writers to interview Stuart Murdoch from Belle and Sebastian. Sadly, my editor at the time (Sarah Vine – whatever happened to her?) made a right pig’s ear of it. But I recently found the original transcript. Here it is, along with the story behind what happened.

Harold Pinter’s cold-eyed screenplay, against Gerry Fisher’s lush cinematography, Michael Legrand’s tremendous score, magnificently fierce Margaret Leighton, hot Alan Bates: Joseph Losey’s The Go-Between is a wonder and it’s Julie Christie’s 86th birthday so spoil yourself. youtu.be/8WukSYjLKBY?...

proud 🥰

Loved researching this connection between the Dave Brubeck Quartet's 'Take Five' and the amazing Jean Seberg. Here davehaslam.substack.com/p/the-bestse...

On BBC Radio 4 Extra, 13 April, 3pm BST & on BBC Sounds thereafter Drama by Sarah Wooley, based on Muriel Spark’s wartime work creating “Black Propaganda” for MI6. Her job was to produce what she called “a tangled mixture of damaging lies, flattering & plausible truths” www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b...