Not an email I expected to have to send to be honest #itfc

Ongaku Sessions is a program for concentrated listening, featuring two sets of music linked by a common thread, such as era, genre, topic. Ongaku (音楽) = "sound" in Japanese. Ongaku Sessions is inspired by kissa, the cafes and bars in Japan that play records and invite patrons to listen intently.

This is utterly jaw-dropping. A school that bans Atwood, Zadie Smith, Terry effing Pratchett and *literal George Orwell* is actively harming its pupils. www.indexoncensorship.org/2026/03/scho...

There is apparently a newspaper story nearing publication that contains devastating allegations of sexual misconduct against Cesar Chavez—allegations serious and well-founded enough that the farm workers' movement is aggressively disassociating itself from him in advance of publication.

In April 1992, Robert Altman's The Player was released, garnering lavish praise for its opening scene, a complicated ensemble tracking shot. In April 1990, Coronation Street was doing stuff like this, and nobody batted an eyelid.

Allez le match nulle!

I've just signed the open letter, calling on Jim O'Callaghan to stand up for a fair immigration process that keeps people safe and keeps our families and communities whole. Will you add your name? action.uplift.ie/campaigns/in...

Exclusive on my Substack - voting projections show Labour is set for historic losses in Tyne & Wear at this May’s local elections, according to new modelling. It shows Labour losing control of all four councils up for all-out elections in May. Full details: modernleft.substack.com/p/exclusive-...

Having stuff like the Triple Crown in the Six Nations is adorable. Aw you didn't win the competition by winning 5 matches? Here's a trophy for winning 3 specific matches. Couldn't win 3? Here's a trophy for winning 1! I started typing this before seeing there are 10 trophies on offer. Bloody hell.

💚💛

Please help me share the post below. I don’t have a huge following, but this nomination is a bit under the radar and deserves more attention. His committee vote is this Thursday.

To whom it concerns. My first Substack post. open.substack.com/pub/saturday...

Independents4Change, the party previously founded by TDs and MEPs Clare Daly and Mick Wallace, has asked to be removed from the register of political parties. Swords councillor Dean Mulligan is its only serving office holder in the country. @virginmedianews.bsky.social

“We are forced to stay despite the danger, when we defend our land, and we do so peacefully. None of us carries weapons. All of us carry peace and goodness and love.” These were the words of Father Pierre al-Rahi one day before Israel killed him in Lebanon today on March 9.

"Trump and Netanyahu killed every child in this photo. Every. Single. One. Not combatants. Not militants. Schoolkids from Minab, Iran." en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_Mi... x.com/sahouraxo/st...

Don’t sacrifice the Kurds ✍️ Ben Timberlake spectator.com/article/the-...

@clairewillett.bsky.social Ireland's most prominent pro-life politician met Dolan at a rally in New York recently, so if even he's giving Vance grief, they're in more bother with the Church than they could possibly fathom.

Vance and Dolan beefing is incredibly funny to me given how much water Dolan has carried for this administration and the trads writ large oh word???? the 24/7 racism caucus kept doing racism 24/7 even when it created problems for you personally???? whomst could have predicted

Despite the hot air from government about protecting children, they've voted down our Bill to turn off the toxic algorithms. These algorithms push toxic content promoting eating disorders, self harm, misogyny and hate. Big Tech profits should not come before children's health.

When we talk about Baby Boomers not getting off the stage: In 1997, the US president was born in 1946. In 2007, the US president was born in 1946. In 2017, the US president was born in 1946. And next year in 2027? The US president will have been born in 1946.

1908: the Lancet, one of the most respected scientific journals, calls for 18 age limit on reading in bed amidst a moral panic surrounding children becoming "addicted" to novels, which were "designed to keep kids hooked" and destroy their attention/mental health

I want to be clear that this is intended as high praise: That video reminds me of some Attenborough documentary about an extremely elaborate courtship ritual of some tropical bird, caught on camera for the first time in this film

I am pro Iranian people. I stand with them against their own government’s repression AND against the imperial violence in the form of bombs dropped from the sky from Israel & the US who have already killed hundreds. I support neither imperialism or dictatorship. Sahar Delijani said it best:

Israel's systematic attempts to kill the entire Iranian opposition leadership in Iran is indicative of what (some) of us have been saying— Israel doesn't not want to turn the IRI into a democratic republican state, it wants there to be no state. It wants a rubble-state, Gaza or Yemen or worse.

A true poster

The Greens are offering a different kind of politics – one that offers a sense of solidarity, camaraderie, and agency in an age of individualism. Contests like this don’t just give us hope. They make us feel we’re part of something bigger than ourselves. graceblakeley.substack.com/p/the-ground...

Seats, using @devolvedelections.bsky.social (+/- 2021): SNP: 57 (-7) Ref: 23 (+23) Grn: 16 (+8) Lab: 15 (-7) Con: 9 (-22) LD: 9 (+4) Greens narrowly overtake Labour, and comfortably overtake the Conservatives.

#OtD 27 Feb 1902 Nobel prize-winning author John Steinbeck was born in Salinas, California. Many of his works featured radical, working class themes, including The Grapes of Wrath, and In Dubious Battle, about a fruit pickers' strike: stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9892...

The increased number of such parties over the last decade, however, should serve to keep each other honest (looking at you, Sinn Féin!).

Gorton & Denton By-Election Result: 🌍 GRN: 40.6% (+27.4) ➡️ RFM: 28.7% (+14.6) 🌹 LAB: 25.4% (-25.4) 🌳 CON: 1.9% (-6.0) 🔶 LDM: 1.8% (-2.0) 🎩 MRP: 0.4% ☑️ ADV: 0.4% 🇪🇺 REU: 0.3% 🗽 LBT: 0.1% 🔴 SDP: 0.1% ⚒️ CLG: 0.1% Green GAIN from Labour. Changes w/ GE2024.

Today is the tenth anniversary of polling in General Election 2016, which resulted (after ten weeks of talks) in the Fine Gael-Independent minority government and a confidence-and-supply deal with Fianna Fáil

NEW: Cllr Janice Boylan wins Sinn Féin selection convention for the Dublin Central by-election, beating Gillian Sherratt.

Brainwashing, 2026 edition. This paper shows how X's algorithmic feed shifts people's views rightwards. It's a sophisticated, highly effective form of reorientation. And it is utterly chilling. If you're still on that platform, unhook yourself now. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

When I hear lovely birdsong in the morning, I remember this comic and laugh

The only plausible way MGQ would be correct is that she was the first female Minister after Markievicz,so officially after independence?

Ireland should not play UEFA games against Israel. We should demand Israel are banned from the competition. Sign and share the petition if you agree my.uplift.ie/petitions/fa... @uplift.ie

TBF, any result that had the Green, Reform and Labour % relatively close was likely to have that dynamic anyway, in that progressive voters of either hue had no concrete data on whether they would be casting a "wasted vote".

Football finally completes the sale of its soul to the devil. Trump/Netanyahu/Milei/Orban World Cup incoming.

Sinn Féin TD Joanna Byrne says the board of Drogheda United has asked her to resign as chair of the club, after she said Ireland should not fulfil its Nations League fixtures with Israel

Sticker

Someone has to say it: Jazz ensembles are getting too big

Everyone in Wales right now:

This rules. I love how delighted they all look!

Palestine Action have WON their judicial review in the High Court! A massive victory for free speech, freedom of association and the right to protest. A massive defeat for the draconian attempts by Keir Starmer's government to curtail our fundamental rights.

Fuck, this hits hard

#OtD 11 Feb 1954 a concentration camp was opened in Tefía, Canary Islands, to intern LGBT people imprisoned when homosexuality was banned later that year. The camp was in hostile conditions and guards humiliated and beat prisoners and gave rotten food stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/8291...

What Micheál Martin says at the end is not true... It's horrific, we're the only country in Europe that funds the large scale slaughter of badgers. Badgers are a scapegoat for the spread of bovine TB. More than 66,000 badgers killed in the last decade, even though they're a protected species!

This cause is close to my heart - please sign: my.uplift.ie/petitions/st... @uplift.ie

We’ve now reached the point where British politicians are claiming working-class credentials based on what their grandfather did for a living. Dan Thomas was a London financial services employee before he became Reform’s Welsh leader but he is the grandson of a miner.