Taking a brief Bluesky break after bereavement.

So, just to confirm, the BBC can’t keep Robin Ince on the air because his trans allyship brings the organisation into disrepute, but they can keep David Walliams, who performed Nazi salutes at the recording of this very show, on the air despite him being predatory towards women. Cool. Very normal.

Robin Ince reveals to last night’s audience at a recording of Infinite Monkey Cage that the BBC has forced him to resign over his support of trans people

Heartbreaking news, Robin Ince is the best of us, and while the transphobes and neurodiversity-is-a-fad brigade rejoice and will consider this another victory, Robin is on the right side not only of history but also of the here and now.

Google defaulting all Gmail users to a setting that enables Google to harvest all your emails into chatbot training is straight-up evil and invasive. www.huffpost.com/entry/opt-ou...

From this minister's op-ed: "People wanting to experience God are more likely to meet the Divine trying to shut down the Broadview, Illinois, ICE facility than we ever were in church...God does not live in our houses of worship, but...with those who are bearing the brunt of cruelty in this moment."

Deeply grateful to @orionmagazine.bsky.social for giving @alexismarieadams.bsky.social and myself the opportunity to have a conversation about borders, belonging, writing, rivers, grief and resistance, as well as our shared love for the more-than-human world. orionmagazine.org/article/hear...

This might be of interest to a few people The Boring Fund: Small (£200) grants to UK non-profits, charities and voluntary groups who just need a bit of help to pay for boring running costs like web hosting, admin, insurance etc Apply by 30 November www.christinapoultoncreative.co.uk/boring-fund

This was so witty and human. What an absolute hero. open.substack.com/pub/bestforb...

Going through dog's breakfast of homework instructions with 11yo. We're both close to meltdown. There will be Feedback. (I don't want to be that parent, but I am that parent)

In social movement studies, we talk about how marches and protests expand the threshold of acceptable risk so that people take more and bigger social risks IN PUBLIC, EN MASSE. This is extremely important for the bourgeois white folks holding signs and building social rapport.

Glasgow nursery: pls can you pick up 1yo, she's not well. Me: no, I'm at work in Edinburgh. Them: oh. Me: try phoning her dad, who brings her in and picks her up every day because he works in the office next door to you. True story (2014).

Today I am mostly thinking about the popular inter-war literary genre 'animal stories written by fascists'. Join me.

Today is the official pub day for VOICES OF RESISTANCE, a collection of diaries from four Gazans, offering a rare, deeply personal window into daily life under genocide. It's an essential record of lives lived amidst terror—and their resilience in the face of it. www.biblioasis.com/shop/new-rel...

Everyone who studies research methods just had an aneurysm

I'm so rubbish at promoting my books. But today is National Poetry Day, so: Buy my book, she says, You'll build treasures in heaven, and help me feel loved. wyndingway.etsy.com/listing/1776... (Etsy for 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 only, sorry. But the ebook is available on most online stores. Thanks for looking! 🙂)

Reposting this, no reason

Nathan Gill is no fringe politician. He was the leader of the Reform Party and before that UKIP in Wales. A Brexit Party MEP. A friend and ally of Nigel Farage, who in 2016 called him: "terrific," and "as honest as the day is long." This is a MASSIVE story www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

"War-ravaged" Portland today... #WarRavagedPortland

This year, frontline healthcare workers in Scotland are only being offered the flu jag, not covid as well. V cheesed off about this - we'll just get all the exposure, and drop like flies. Struggling to understand the logic behind this decision.

wrote a little essay about prose, 90s historical romances, and why fascists love AI so much 💕 subscribe to my newsletter to enter a giveaway for a physical arc of the everlasting! buttondown.com/alixeharrow#...

of all the things I am not going to buy, this is the thing I am not going to buy the most

SCAM ALERT: If by chance you get contacted by a group advertising themselves as the “Crazy Old Bats Book Club” who would like to charge you for reading your book in their book club, and who claim I am one of the Satisfied Authors, and furthermore give you an email address for me—it’s not me.

Since my book Normally Weird and Weirdly Normal came out - not a day has gone by without me receiving a message from someone who found themselves , a parent , a partner or child in the pages - I am so happy to see them and it makes my heart sing uk.bookshop.org/p/books/norm...

A long, chewy Sunday read. Reviews are powerful. This essay looks at literary criticism: what it elevates, what it dismisses, and how those choices quietly shape which voices and stories are valued in our culture. kristiedegaris.substack.com/p/literary-c... #Reading #Writing #Books #Scotland #UK

Our regular reminder that the main cause of lovely autistic children is lovely autistic parents having a baby. And our reminder that e.g. autistic people have more pain conditions, so may be more likely to take paracetamol during pregnancy. Such pills are not the 'cause' of the autistic baby, USA.

Rayner is absolute class. She's been a bit silly in organising her taxes, but that's not why they hate her. They hate her because she did not know her place.

If you're a Kindle or Kobo reader, you can buy my nature memoir now for only 99p! 🤩 Land Beneath the Waves is not a #naturecure book. It's about how meaningful relationships with the natural world can enrich our lives. #nature, #place, #landscape, #wildlifegardening #chronicillness #booksky

Dear Americans, welcome to the thrilling game of ‘Did this dictator die or just disappear for a day?’ We’ve been playing it with Putin and Lukashenko for decades. Enjoy the suspense.

It's today: the last Saturday of August is #Linlithgow Independents' Day! Right here in the bookshop, it's BOGOF on ALL fiction paperbacks! That's right: if it's fiction, if it's paperback, it's BUY ONE GET ONE FREE all day long! Fill your boots #ChooseBookshops #shopindie

I'm ded 💀 😂 😂 😂

This is a PSA for anyone who follows artists: Your comments are NOT annoying! I think I speak for many of us we are starved for praise on our work so please if you have something to say lay it on thick WE LIKE IT. I promise you it is not seen as cringe or a bother, we love the interaction!

Paging @jeevanicharika.bsky.social

oh weird i'm just drawing a venn diagram of people who think we need men patrolling the streets to keep women safe and men who think metoo went too far and you'll never guess how it's turned out

UK readers, if you can't afford to buy any of these books, order them from your local library. The authors will see your support through loan figures and PLR. You don't even have to finish reading them if you don't want!

I can't believe it's actually possible for someone so monumentally thick to be in such a position of power. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Government has got this spectacularly wrong. If an organisation is breaking the law, prosecute it. But arresting people for holding up signs is a waste of police time, it's increasing support for the organisation &, above all, it's a flagrant violation of free speech. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Letter of the day (in the Times)

if your teenager loses their shit and “recoils in disgust” because somebody who looks different to them interacts with them in public that’s a hell of an indictment against your parenting

Ridiculous situation. A man who has spent the last thirty years being one of the most inventive, prolific and funniest stand-ups out there. You should make a beeline for this, I'd say.

We're delighted to announce that entries for the 2025/26 Nature Chronicles Prize open today! The winner will receive £10,000 and five runners up £1,000 each. The winning and shortlisted entries will be included in The Nature Chronicles Prize: 3 anthology, published by @saraband-books.bsky.social

An English phrase for describing two things (or people) that are completely different is “like chalk and cheese.” A similar phrase in Czech is jako nebe a dudy. It means “like heaven and bagpipes.”

Aberdeen & Edinburgh are filling up with anti-Trump protesters 😎💪 Donald Trump & his hateful politics are NOT WELCOME in Scotland!

Yeah. The issue with The Salt Path isn't so much it's 'truth value' as the dodgy aesthetics which have always been there. Look I have no interest in casting stones at someone who made up a story to cover up (a) bad decision(s), though I think that 'true' story would have been more interesting 1/n

I've made a new list on @bookshop.org of books that explore nature / walking / the outdoors by disabled, neurodivergent and chronically ill writers - Nature Beyond Cure - aka our own narratives are messy and complex. Do share! #BookSky #DisabledWriters uk.bookshop.org/lists/nature...?

Some thoughts on the #TheSaltPath scandal, especially for those who write books in that general neighbourhood (the nonfiction ones with the faux-woodcut covers, shelved under "nature" even if they probably shouldn't be). 🧵1/

"For the life of me, I can't tell you what led me to reflect on the moment when Nicholas II lost control over a once-burgeoning empire due to widespread unrest that he himself had a hand in shaping."

Yes. I am right. I am seeing how Chat GPT is ruining students critical thinking and writing skills in real time. It is not the future. It is a tool designed to render the populace helpless, to make people doubt their innate intelligence, and to foster overreliance on technology.

I'm in the school playground waiting for 11yo's prom (ugh) to finish. Above ABBA and the Macarena, blackbirds sing and Merlin tells me house martins are calling too, out of sight. And breathe.