you’d think an entire generation of dads obsessed with WWII documentaries would be doing more to avoid living in one

I’m not naming the train companies because I can’t handle the stress of complaining further (and being told more that it was all my fault). Which is a good outcome for the train companies, really - probably not a coincidence. Just one more experience pushing me back into the car.

But my key point is this: Migrating to the UK was my *choice*; it was the choice to commit my skills and knowledge to the UK, not another place. Pay my tax here. Etc. Germany, on the other hand, is the place where I happened to have been born. Purely by chance.

- Roll back authoritarian anti-protest legislation. - At least start work on a written constitution for the UK. - Recognise that Brexit cannot be made to work. Will Labour do any of this? No. And that is why Farage will be PM. Time to change that trajectory is running out.

- Introduce Proportional Representation for General Elections. It is not a perfect system either; yes, it too would result in plenty of Reform seats; it can be very messy (see the Netherlands, for example). But it nevertheless provides a crucial protection layer and it is so much more democratic.

[Let me add in brackets that I am not actually opposed to ID cards as such: I actually think we should have them, but absolutely *never* just in this format and framed around immigration control - and control of other vulnerable groups - and while likely handing data to companies like Palantir.]

In fact: in more cases than not, immigration is actually at least part of the answer to address the real issue. So basically: anti-immigration policies constitute a *double negative* - they prevent addressing the real issues by providing the wrong focus and they likely make the real issue worse.

... of implications. The question really ought to be something like 'Having fewer immigrants in your local community will mean fewer care workers, fewer dentists, fewer bin men, less tax raised for your community etc. Do you support restrictions on immigration?' It is the job of politicians ...

... all we get are insults and hate because the major parties have decided their immigration policies are best shaped by extremists. This began with Brexit and now we are where we are with Reform as a result. I accept that the UK's media landscape does not help, but the problem is more fundamental.

Seems crazy to me that our media is more than happy to talk about Russian interference in Moldovan democracy and yet news of a Reform politician taking money to push pro-Russian narratives is rapidly brushed under the carpet...

Belinda talking about the Weymouth school book ban of Angie Thomas's book The Hate u Give. #KidsConf

Yes I know we have hills and weather, but they are not what stops people cycling. Survey after survey shows that people consistently cite feeling (un)safe as a reason they don't cycle, and that if that changed then they would start cycling or cycle more.

The two tests of cycling infrastructure should be 1 - would this be okay for a 12 year old child on their own? AND 2 - would this be okay for lone woman at night? If the answer to either of these is NO then it's not adequate.

Take your blood pressure at home for 4 days, they said. Every morning (around 9am) and every evening (around 6pm). The chances of me being at home for both of those times on 4 consecutive days is low! Tomorrow I'll manage 9am just. Wed/Thurs I'll be at work for both)

I really should be used to it by now, but the utter theological incoherence of so much of what I see from southern evangelical preachers still boggles my mind from time to time. Like do you own a bible incoherent.

This remains an awful and unfair proposal. For one thing, a lot of people genuinely struggle to find time to volunteer, and for another and more importantly, it’s not volunteering if you’re being compelled to do it!

"What is the moral foundation for the government in undertaking such a comprehensive campaign of fear..? The government says the answer is simple and determinative: they broke a law... But today’s Gospel proposes a far different measure... are they our neighbors?"

It is your responsibility to find a better candidate if you want those votes. Because trans people, and the people who love them, are telling you now that we will not vote for transphobes under any circumstances. Sacrifice your own fucking rights if you want but you don’t get to sacrifice others.

I’m watching bbc breakfast where it’s being discussed again. It is still astonishing that this doesn’t motivate actual answers. Its just amazes me that the PO haven’t produced a balance sheet showing the extra in their til, and given it back!! Then compensation should follow.

Here’s a question for people. In what way has ‘illegal working’ had a harmful effect on you. I mean you, personally, not other people anecdotally.

Christianity expects you to try to behave in a certain way and it doesn't include lying and hating.

For Billy Bragg #r4today

Things I learned about this week (and probably shouldn't have): The MedBed conspiracy theory Space Maids (the W40K remix) ... These are two elements of a bizarre story challenge, amirite? What's the third?

I used to love riding past queues of traffic with a smile on my face, but the traffic is much more free-flowing now I live in NL. Which ought to give the anti-bike (-infra) brigade an epiphany.

Proper bangers for Solemn Evensong for the Eve of St Michael and All Angels tonight - Howells Coll Reg, Faire is the Heaven, an excellent sermon from the Bishop of Selby* and a Langlais voluntary *who is not the Bishop of Whitby, whose stall I had reserved instead. Been a long weekend 🙈

Who is telling the Labour Party that the way to blunt Reform's momentum is to fundamentally agree with them but propose alternate bureaucratically nightmarish forms of nativism?

it is almost funny that the media affairs guy for the Patriarchate of Moscow basically said straight up “yeah we’re controlled by the government and always have been, what’s your problem” and he just leaves it at that. It is unfortunately way too infuriating to actually be funny, however.

‘So you could argue that, historically, we’re about as independent as we’ve ever been.’” a) this is very definitely not saying much while avoiding an outright lie and b) sorry, you thought asking the media spokesman was a good way to find out if the Patriarchate is under Putin’s thumb?!

I think I'd rather be completely ignored in the media than see an entire country relegated to a political football, to be used as fodder for snarky, holier than thou articles and snide comments in Westminster as the place burns down around our heads

When the Roger Rabbit short ROLLER COASTER RABBIT was produced by Disney & Amblin, Spielberg wanted it packaged with ARACHNOPHOBIA. Michael Eisner wanted to release it with DICK TRACY & ultimately won out. Its a shame Spielberg & Disney only made 3 Roger Rabbit shorts because they were immaculate.

Although everyone takes the far right more seriously when they’re in someone else’s country, seems to me.

Ych-a-fi oedd Eluned Morgan a Jo Stevens yn Lerpwl heddiw; y ddwy yn arddangos rhagfarn hyll iawn yn lwmpio’r Blaid gyda Rifform

I actually do see some reasonable uses for Ai (e.g. weather analysis and prediction, certain kinds of diagnostics, farming optimisation). But they all rely on carefully curated datasets WHICH ARE NOT STOLEN.

It’s a seemingly small thing but I would love to see if there was an effect if a department replaced the US militarized ranks (sergeant, lieutenant, captain, major etc) with the UK ones (sergeant, inspector, chief inspector, superintendent).

Today’s homily for the first evensong of Michaelmas. Comes with a soundtrack…

Yes please, I am willing to take this challenge

My general belief is that Dems need to spend more time thinking about what they believe and less about what they think some imaginary swing voters want them to believe. Political strategy will stem from an authentic set of beliefs.

This is such an important point and needs to be made far more often.

Everything the mainstream media considers a "radical left-wing belief" is a compromise position. The actual radical beliefs are things we can't discuss because they're too far outside the Overton Window for most people to understand.

There is a difference between righteous anger, directed at injustice, and hateful anger, directed at those who are different. Authoritarian regimes deliberately conflate the two to silence criticism and create false equivalence. It's important we don't let those in power succeed in this endeavor.

Fascinating article by @hannahritchie.bsky.social. I knew bits and pieces but seeing the data like this really shows how successful past governments were in implementing policies to reduce road deaths. ourworldindata.org/britain-safe...

This is a real ongoing issue with British reality shows. Right wing persons of interest find themselves cast on both civilian and celeb reality shows at a disproportionate rate. You can draw a pretty direct line between Farage getting an image fix from I’m a Celeb to now potentially becoming PM.

Having seen more than one documentary in which police investigations have been hindered by online speculation and so-called 'Internet sleuths' have made people's lives a misery, I have concluded that the self-styled 'true crime community' are a menace making entertainment out of others' suffering...

He's a classic bully. Perhaps the platonic ideal of the archetype, in fact, the culmination of every scared, cruel little boy that ever lived. And after decades of that, what's left? What kind of personality would you expect the Bully Who Always Won to end up with in his dotage?

It's age, senility, to some extent, but it's also the kind of man he is and the kind of behaviour that has been rewarded in his life. He has never had to think critically about a single thing. He has endured - indeed, succeeded beyond all logic - by just doing whatever he wants, every time.

The reason he contradicts himself from day to day is because he has no object permanence to speak of. It's all instinct, reaction, responding to the last thing he remembers seeing or hearing. There's nothing *there*.

And so I say without hesitation that there is no level at which I would be able to make Donald Trump understand anything. You can just tell from every clip of him that no information is getting in there. It's a fog of nonsense.

Which cricket commentator wrote a Harvest Festival hymn? It's as obvious as you think. conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2025/09/28/w...