Another reason to avoid the World Cup

In the centenary year of the 1926 General Strike, did you know that the ICU in Southern Africa sent £50 and supportive resolutions to striking British miners? Read more about Henry Dee and David Moorhead's journey to retrace the footsteps of Clements and Eva Kadalie: sslh.org.uk/2026/05/20/r...

So, all the fuss about the government apparently asked (or didn't) supermarkets about prices. In the 1970s, the Tories introduced price subsidies on milk and butter. Different times...

My parish council has just announced it will choose someone to replace a resignation, because 'no election was requested'. Is this normal, does anyone know?

🔴 NEW: Morgan McSweeney - Keir Starmer's chief of staff until three months ago, and reportedly back advising him - was briefed on Labour Together's controversial investigation into journalists more than two years ago Scoop on Democracy for Sale: democracyforsale.substack.com/p/breaking-m...

We joined @waronwant.bsky.social & @labourlabel.bsky.social in Bristol in solidarity with 1,416 garment workers in Sri Lanka sacked by NEXT after unionising for better wages and conditions. NEXT has posted profits over £1 bn for two years running. It’s time workers get a share. #NEXTCanAffordIt

I'm sorry, what? In writing my first monograph, I spent six weeks trying to track down a citation in TWO languages I didn't know. And good thing too, because the citation was wrong. That's scholarship. That's research. You know, the thing we're trained to do?!?

"When someone offers you seat on a rocket ship, you don't ask which seat, you just get on", is such a great encapsulation of the uncritical adoption techbro attitude. www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbPd...

Japanese robot detects 0.1mm rail cracks and repairs them autonomously at night using 10,000 RPM grinding and ultrasonic inspection

So we are starting to see who funded Lord Frost

The rally was funded in large part by substantial donations from the US, including $200,000 from Andy Miller and a further $100,000 from Robert Shillman. This will likely add to the growing disquiet amongst his supporters over Lennon’s constant grifting and begging for money.

A new far-right terror attack in the UK has been confirmed in court. Alina Burns, then 18, tried to behead an Iranian refugee who was standing outside a barber's shop in Bristol with an axe The attack took place on 2 August 2025 but a judge did not rule on 'terrorism connection' until today

cc @royalsociety.org

Thread...

Happy 93:20 Day to all who celebrate it.

The @no2id.bsky.social response to the UK government digital ID consultation is excellent www.no2id.uk/wp-content/u... and should be compulsory reading for all MPs b2fxxx.blogspot.com/2026/05/no2i...

But sure, Streeting, it'll be fine to give access to our health data. What could possibly go wrong?

⛈️ Confirmed: Metrics show declines in internet connectivity in South Africa with high impact to the Western Cape, corresponding to reports of power outages as authorities declare a national disaster amid flooding, heavy winds and snowfall

If you oppose antisemitism from the left but don’t oppose antisemitism from the right, you don’t oppose antisemitism. You oppose the left.

𝟏𝟎𝟎 𝖄𝖊𝖆𝖗𝖘 𝕬𝖌𝖔… The Eye delved into Christopher Harborne's background - his dual identity, his cryptocurrency connections, his enormous political donations - long before his undeclared £5 million personal gift to Nigel Farage. From the Private Eye archive. Issue 1511, December 2019.

He comes pretty close to claying 'people vote for us because of, not despite, our racism'. And given how much the racism has been exposed, he may have a point. So, to quote another foreigner, what is to be done?

My latest @nytimes.com oped shows that the White House is dramatically understating the cost of the war in Iran. By my calculations—and I show my work—this war will cost the typical American family thousands, and it could cost them tens of thousands. Gift link: www.nytimes.com/2026/05/08/o...

Absolute chaos in Milton Keynes. The Lib Dems won the most seats - despite coming FOURTH in vote share. Do we need any more evidence that First Past the Post isn't working?

At some point on my lifetime we might get a government which recognises that having an entire tier of elected institutions which are just powerless complaints departments for a failing social care system is not a healthy or sensible state of affairs.

‘For Anton Jäger, and for many who are involved in left-wing politics and activism, this sense that anything can be politicised, yet nothing can be changed, is a matter of deep disappointment and bewilderment.’ @will-davies.bsky.social on hyperpolitics. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

‘Zack Polanski’s political journey – he started out as a Liberal Democrat – is sometimes framed as opportunism but in fact reflects the radicalising economic experience of millennials now approaching middle age.’ @piercepenniless.bsky.social on the local elections: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Champions of Manchester. Again...

Bloody hell.

UK age-gating plans risk breaking the internet, privacy groups warn

Big tech lobbyists got EU to write EU law to keep environmental impact of individual data centres secret: COMMISSION DELEGATED REGULATION (EU) 2024/1364 of 14 March 2024 on the first phase of the establishment of a common Union rating scheme for data centres eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-conten...

Great headline from BBC News

Kind of surprised that this hasn't been bigger news. It's finals week for a whole lot of universities, and yet, Canvas (a learning/grading platform used by ~9,000 schools globally) is currently inaccessible because of a pay-or-have-your-data-leaked hack. www.insidehighered.com/news/tech-in...

Recently I opened up Microsoft Teams and was greeted with a deepfaked version of my own face. Here's how we got the Chinese-language software being marketed to scammers, and which can be used on WhatsApp, Zoom, other platforms. This is where fraud is right now More: www.404media.co/hello-boss-i...

Microsoft's bad obsession is showing up in shabby services and slipshod software. Here's proof

Oh dear.

#OtD 5 May 1926 over a thousand people gathered outside Leeds Corn Exchange to stop any trams and buses being driven by scab labour during the British general strike. A scab tram was stopped and its windows smashed by demonstrators. Learn more: stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/1055...

An interesting essay by educationalist Will Ellis - raising serious concerns about AI, with studies showing that cognitive engagement shrinks in direct proportion to the degree of AI assistance - with adolescent brains particularly vulnerable: reclaimchildhoodmedia.substack.com/p/the-cost-o...

I do think it sums up “the weird way the Internet shapes politics unnoticed” that “some chants that people should knock off but are mostly an ignorable part of an in-person march” are given more explanatory power than “the website that is full of antisemitism of every stripe that MPs hang out on”.

Wow, they actually *retracted* this so-called meta-analysis about ChatGPT effects on learning performance, though it got massive metrics and social media attention before that. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Microsoft doesn't have customers. It has hostages.

Everyone is watching Hormuz. We should also be watching Panama 1/5

Disturbing for N. Yorkshire

🔴 NEW: Reform UK's £4m crypto donor Ben Delo has dismissed his US conviction as a "non-crime" But we got the court docs - and found a different story US federal prosecutors said he "thumbed his nose at the law" and had led a "criminal enterprise" democracyforsale.substack.com/p/reforms-4m...

behold the flatpack fixed wing drone

Ok so the first addition to my chart will be "hungry ghosts in jars" in the dangerous/capable quadrant bsky.app/profile/doug...

I just watched Clickbait, also known as American Sweatshop 🤷‍♂️, which dramatises this. Not very well, but it suggests growing awareness of ghost work. ALSO... we did a report on how it applies to AI papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....