Good speech from Keir Starmer, EXCEPT it looks like, alongside promises of recognition of non-academic skills, there will be no attempt to relieve the burden of student loans, which grow even as payments are made, making higher education less accessible for those not rich but not entitled to grants.

Anyone else absurdly affected by those smiley face / angry face speed detectors on British Roads? Brinkworth in Wiltshire has a numerical readout. Under 30mph? It say "LEGEND!" but they chicken out for over 30mph, with a lame "SLOW DOWN". I've created a little graphic (below) with what it should be.

Projected National Share analysis of the change in vote share between the 2025 and 2026 local elections shows that the @greenparty.org.uk has the biggest cause to be optimistic as people latch on to hope over hate and Reform's rocket-like ascent begins to curve downwards as unsavoury facts emerge.

BBC Projected National Share of the vote for the local elections with the change from last year. Despite the fanfare in the media for Reform this echoes their steady decline in the polls. Reform 26% -4 Green 18% +7 Labour 17% -3 Conservative 17% +2 Lib Dems 16% -1

We are heading for a Northern ICE Age, unless... perhaps...

As one of the shitforbrains who felled the Sycamore Gap tree is released early from prison tagged, their legacy lives on in @miltonkeynes.bsky.social as a clearly-labelled sapling propagated from the felled tree is deliberately damaged. I hope their hidden shame prompts them to great works of good.

I wonder if the internet can shame this man into resigning. Probably not, but let's give it a go.

History is going to need a name for this period of political insanity. We need our best minds on it.

That young woman who listed @zackpolanski.bsky.social's faults has ruined it for the Telegraph and the Sun. Here is a screenful of the responses to their latest anti-Polanski post.

Christ allfuckinmighty ... what the hell's going on with Sunderland... jeezus 😱😖🤬

Dear BBC. Only politicians with something to gain and the media are calling on the PM's resignation. The general public DGAF Which Labour politician runs this 💩show. @bbcnewsnight.bsky.social

Example of UK, pre-decimal arithmetic. Like many forces brats, I had to learn this in the British Military schools, along with chains and furlongs etc., while spending Marks and pfennigs in Germany.

😂 I actually laughed. What is @theonion.com even for, in the current headline climate?

I think the electorate would have largely forgiven @labouruk.bsky.social its governmental floundering if it had taken back control of water, instead of bailing the companies out and adding the cleanup cost to water bills. This is the nation that celebrates David Attenborough like he was Royalty.

Anyone who has had a pregnancy terminated needs to watch this. #abortion vm.tiktok.com/ZNRsYAHDU/

"UK is a country whose politics is composed of 50% hatred of migrants and trans people and 50% incredibly stupid planning battles." Cory Doctorow www.thenerve.news/p/cory-docto...

The big problem with the biggest plonker on history being the leader of the free world (in theory) is that other national leaders can nick bits of his playbook and seem to be behaving almost normally in comparison.

Sharing my own reply to Finland's Alexander Stubb's scathing analysis of Brexit.

lindaronald.bandcamp.com/track/wolves This is what happens if your local council is taken over by Reform UK.

Sketchers insidious misogyny ▶️Watch the full video now! vm.tiktok.com/ZNRp6VNF3/

White bonnets and red cloaks at the ready; here they come! #TheHeritageFoundation #ReformUK #NigelFarage

Copy and Paste this where it will be seen by the people who need to see it... www.gov.uk/apply-for-ph... Free photo ID for voters

“It’s a totally different situation today than it was just yesterday” Watch our Chief Executive, @bentwomeyuk.bsky.social, talk about the Renters’ Rights Act, which comes into force today, on ITV News this afternoon:

youtu.be/qj8_9yA5T8Q Time for Summer Lady by @steeleye-span.bsky.social sing a song of Maytime. Happy Beltane everyone!

May 7th. If you don't have valid voter ID, get it here: www.gov.uk/apply-for-ph... You need a passport type photo. Spread the word.

barriers.

Flag: a comparison. #JohnAgard #Banksey #blind

Highly recommend @aljazeera.com for Climate Change information

Under the guise of safety and security in the light of the Golders Green attack, protesters will be banned from covering their faces during protests, Shabana Mahmoud has said on BBC Breakfast. 📷Is this a move towards a police state? 📸

Do they still teach the Tolpuddle Martyrs in schools? 7 years transportation* for unionising. (* note for Americans: this means being shipped to a distant colony, as a convict, for hard labour.) www.tolpuddlemartyrs.org.uk/festival

Wiltshire needs to now look at buildings it owns, car parks (Ivy Lane Chippenham already has a roof ripe for solar panels), pavilions, sheds and shelters, anywhere that had a solar panel sized area not facing NNE before covering the countryside over.

Savernake Forest has ents.

Are British institutions thick or corrupt? I can't make up my mind. Scouse Oracle: vm.tiktok.com/ZNRbTBwbD/

NGL, this is another one of my daughters, who after losing 100lbs trained as a fitness and wellness coach, and also devises the recipes to help her clients enjoy their journey to personal renaissance. vm.tiktok.com/ZNRbcQu2p/

Testing @BlueSky's improved photo upload offer, using my photos of the Littlecote Roman Villa and Orpheus mosaic (free to view, 24/7). ///motive.trails.research a 5-minute walk from Littlecote House (Hotel, restaurant, cafe) RG17 0SU. Still only 4 images allowed. Oh, well! See thread.

Why complaining about black actors in British historical dramas is racism. Inspired by reading a thread where people reacting to #BBC drama King and Conqueror were whining about black actors in a scene set at the Battle of Hastings.

www.instagram.com/reel/DXeJc7b... Tesco is rolling out personalised pricing. You will pay what they think they can get out of you. Haggling is back, only you are not an equal player.

This is fascinating! The British are among the most adverse to Voice notes, preferring a text message. Maybe Comms providers should also provide text conversion for those 6 minute voice rambles, for fast readers.

1. Don't be silly. 2. Old dog/new tricks? Just teach kids to think. 3. Power cuts no prob with heat pumps & solar power. 4. Temp overseas workers allowed to harvest our crops again. 5. Brits aren't scared of socialism/Muslims like Americans are taught to be. Socialism gave us the NHS & social care.

Waiting for Sunday Roast in The Bell at Ramsbury

I'm cat-sitting, and the sun is shining through a window with obscuring glass that refracts the light 🌈 . The cats look like something from a fairy story.

Yet again, we’re expected to believe that a random shooter managed to get past presidential security with weapons that a school detector gate would have found, and put themselves, undetected, into a position where they could take pot shots at the President of the USA.

The day absolutely nothing happened and almost sparked a riot, thanks to online rumours, the expectation that police will now reveal ethnicities of suspects (even when there isn’t one) and Twitter/X blue-tick-for-anyone rabble-rousers.

Thought for the weekend.

Bluebells

We don’t need more data centers. Nobody is asking government or private corporations to store our data. The data is for them to monetize and use against us. We are paying our abusers to abuse us. If I wanted to be abused, I would take up dating. Keep it out of politics.

Yes, Swiss scientist Fritz Zwicky coined the term “dark matter” which is impressive, but he also coined the term “spherical bastard” to describe people who are bastards no matter which way you look at them, and I think that should be celebrated more.

Repeated in ALT Text. Post by Mike F Shaw on Facebook. #Anti-fascist