Some great reporting here: “One of the most prominent YouTubers, Anthony Styles, 59, has since deleted his AJ Audits channel after it was revealed he is a convicted paedophile. He was known to frequent protests… where demonstrators claimed to stand for the “protection of women and children”

🖤 Come for the nostalgia. Stay for the depth. Rainbows in the Rough dances between heartbreak and high camp. 📖 www.amazon.co.uk/dp/... 👤 @dukestking.bsky.social

This headline seems to be missing some wording along the lines of "reluctantly realises he has no other choice than".

Reform party will eventually come after citizens, with parents who were born abroad, like myself. My friends and I have had this discussion for some time. Make no joke about it, if they get into power they will need to continue to enrage the British voting public, they need chaos to thrive.

🎧 Grew up on pop, survived on subtext? This book is your biography—just with better taste in icons. 👉 www.amazon.co.uk/dp/... 👤 @dukestking.bsky.social

That Keir Starmer's government would a) swiftly become unpopular and b) the far right would surge as a result was entirely predictable. It was predicted. I predicted it before Rishi Sunak called the election, because it was obvious: www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Shot, chaser Young men more likely to vote Green than Reform. Young men second most progressive group of any demographic. Combined right-wing vote barely bigger than Green vote alone for young men

The old "if you bring up Hitler in an argument you've already lost" has evolved in to not being able to call literal fascists what they are without everybody thinking you're being overly dramatic.

If the shooter had killed a leftist podcaster, he would have a multi million dollar Go Fund Me to cover his legal fees tomorrow, and an interview lined up with Charlie Kirk.

eulogizing Charlie Kirk as someone you disagreed with but whom you respected for his dedication doesn’t make you look broadminded or principled, it‘s a red flag that you are insulated from the very real and material consequences of his annihilationist political project, which is still ongoing!

REM nailed it. Become the biggest band on the planet. Sell out stadiums all over the world. Have millions in the bank. Break up. Don't be tempted by lucrative comebacks. Fair play.

📚 Back to school? Take queer cultural theory with you. Rainbows in the Rough is your new required reading. 📘 www.amazon.co.uk/dp/... 👤 @dukestking.bsky.social

Starmer has the worst political instincts of any party leader in history. His entire strategy is trying to appease a bunch of people who already decided years ago they hated him. Meanwhile he's pissing off everybody who tolerated him.

Isn’t it amazing that when you explain things in simple language to people, things that are relevant to them, people suddenly understand what’s happening and how they affect people. Even better when you point out what Farage actually stands for. His voting record is proof of his true colours.

Nigel Farage is the biggest charlatan in British political history. And here's what his constitutents in Clacton really think:

I turn on my TV and a TV presenter is asking a Govt minister why they are talking about rolling out free childcare when the big issue is asylum hotels. This is objectively insane.

💄 Lipstick-stained critique. Memoir that moonlights as a manifesto. Rainbows in the Rough is queer literature that struts. 👉 www.amazon.co.uk/dp/... 👤 @dukestking.bsky.social

There were more people taking part in protests against the board of Sheffield Wednesday than there were people protesting against all the Asylum Hotels in all of the UK this weekend. Don't mainstream bigotry!

'Immigration doesn't bother me but it seems to bother everyone else' – Everyone. This is what happens when the media runs away with Hard Right narratives.

Every profile of an "I left the left" celebrity is the same story: A combination of privilege, propaganda and getting yelled at on the internet. And once you make the turn you never go back because all the money is on the right.

The people crying 'house our homeless first' are largely the same people who used to scream 'get a fucking job' at homeless people.

🔥🔥🔥🔥

🕺 Not every essay wears a tie. Some wear platform boots. This is social commentary you can vogue to. 📖 www.amazon.co.uk/dp/... 👤 @dukestking.bsky.social

The Titanic Theory If we were on the Titanic, we would be in 3rd class with the immigrants. Together. When we hit the iceberg, the rich b!tches in 1st class would happily fck off & leave both the working class + the immigrants to die a slow, painful death. Together. Eat the rich. Together.

“We’re here to talk about A levels” “Free Palestine the BBC is complicit” 💀💀

Transphobes used to say things like 'if you have a vagina, you're a woman, end of discussion' and now they say things like 'if your gametes are diagonally haplodidic and they fall between 0.4 and 0.9 on the Strasburger Faultline, you're a woman, and I really can't be any clearer than that'

🏳️‍⚧️ Not just queer writing. Queer memory. Queer mythology. This book unzips the past and struts through it. 📚 www.amazon.co.uk/dp/... 👤 @dukestking.bsky.social #RainbowsInTheRough

I hate dog people

opened up a box. flier from a replacements show in 1984, flier from a johnny thunders gig at irving plaza in the same time frame, a letter from pete townshend's PA, some old copies of the rocket, a backstage pass from an r.e.m. gig in 1986, need to open boxes more often

Why, yes, there IS a Simpsons chapter in my book... @thebrokenspine.co.uk Buy here: www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0FB8GFTQ...

🧷 Memoir with sass. Critique in fishnets. Rainbows in the Rough is queer life—raw, riotous, and real. 👉 www.amazon.co.uk/dp/... 👤 @dukestking.bsky.social

Book waffle for Waterbear College of Music

⏳Final week to sign up to the Green Party. 🗳️ Vote for Bold Leadership on August 1st.

Mama, I'm Coming Home

✨ Grew up idolising Madonna, Bowie, Marilyn? This book takes those icons and queers the hell out of them. 📘 www.amazon.co.uk/dp/... 👤 @dukestking.bsky.social

He calls his wife "first lady" and Putin "Vladimir"?

@paisleysparks44.bsky.social zis one of yours? He approves if so

1. Yesterday, 86 people were arrested in the UK under the Terrorism Act 2000 for holding signs saying "I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action." They are the opposite of terrorists. They were protesting *against* terrorism. 🧵

Phil Collins is doing that thing where he's balding but has kept growing his hair as if nobody would notice. Nice try Phil, but you've got to get up very early in the morning to catch me out...

🌞 Pride month’s over, but queer truth doesn’t go quiet. Rainbows in the Rough is still marching—through memory, culture, and lived resistance. 📚 www.amazon.co.uk/dp/... 👤 @dukestking.bsky.social #RainbowsInTheRough

This has made me so happy!!!

We’re just 47 books away from beating our total sales for all of 2024. I’d love to hit that ASAP, and honestly, I know we will. We’re going to smash it. Thank you. You’re making that happen. You’re buying and reading books I believe in, and that I work bloody hard on. That means everything.

Reasons why people think ghosts exist: 1. The human brain hallucinates a lot. 2. Unresolved grief/trauma. 3. People making it up. 4. It was a bit windy.

It’s almost as if arbitrarily designating a non-violent group as terrorists doesn’t automatically mean that everyone else agrees with you. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

IT’S FUCKING CHESS What POSSIBLE advantage, even in the warped mind of a transphobe, could being transgender give you at chess? They’re so nakedly hateful they just can’t stand any trans person winning anything ever. Pathetic.

Neil Young signing up for Glastonbury, then pulling out in a huff before he was even announced, then deciding to play after all, but not letting the BBC film it, then changing his mind with mere hours to go is the most Neil Young sequence of events ever and I love it 😂

Waffling on about my book whether people like it or not in Southport with @brokenspinearts.bsky.social @alanparry83.bsky.social looks engrossed Hoping for a Liverpool event, where you'll have no excuse but to come under duress. Book link in bio yadda yadda yadda

🩷 This is the story behind the stories. The queer voice behind the pop icon. The truth under the sparkle. Rainbows in the Rough is out now. 📘 www.amazon.co.uk/dp/... 👤 @dukestking.bsky.social 🏳️‍🌈 #RainbowsInTheRough

🖤 Memoir that speaks in mixtapes and mirrorballs. @dukestking.bsky.social’s Rainbows in the Rough is what queer literary legacy looks like. 📚 www.amazon.co.uk/dp/... #PrideMonth

What inspired Rainbows in the Rough? Shaun Ponsonby lifts the lid on the chaos, queer icons, and hard-won truth. Live Q&A. Bring your questions. 📅 Wed 25 June 📍 Southport 🔗 shorturl.at/akR3E