Labour are attacking Greens. Fine. I have yet to see any party that has entirely affordable aspirations. But at least the Greens HAVE aspirations. Labour have seemingly decided the status quo cannot be touched, even when it doesn't work for 90% of people, or the viability of life on the planet.

Last one of the year! Our pick of places to sub your work in December. And if you've not submitted anything in 2025? Do it NOW. Go. Full details 👉 writershq.co.uk/5-competitio...

One Source of Bad Information, by Robert Bly (quoted in Wild Things: A Geography of Grief by Barbara Wansbrough)

Once, after it had been condemned for yet another act of deliberate cruelty, I tweeted that the Home Office is not fit for purpose. Stupidly, I assumed that if ever a return to humane policy were to be instituted it would be under a Labour administration. I loathe this government.

My dad abhors any negative comments about immigrants. Asked him recently why he’s so strong on it: ‘Because we’re always happy to take the rich and clever ones. Which means it’s not about disliking immigrants. It’s about disliking the poor and vulnerable. And that’s a bad human instinct.’

I see the PM is being very rattled and very untruthful about the Greens again in the papers. He couldn’t say this stuff in Parliament because he would be lying to the House - both about what our popular, evidence-based policies are, and about him believing this guff. Trumpian

The "it costs so much and that's bad" argument against asylum seekers and people fleeing bad situations to find better opportunities for their kids (and themselves) is not remotely convincing to me because I literally do not give a shit if we spend every dime to reduce net suffering in the world.

Here’s my Spotify Wrapped 🎵✨

😆

In the last couple of days, my RSS reader's New Statesman feed has served up not one but *two* articles by Blue Labour MPs unironically celebrating Shabana Mahmood's performatively cruel immigration 'reforms'. We have strayed into the mirror world. Maybe it's time for some #GreenParty defections.

Oh, look. That thing that was always going to be a total disaster turns out to have been a total disaster. I will never not be angry about this.

Look, we were right about Brexit, and we were right about Covid. Why is it so hard to believe we are right about immigration and asylum?

Starbucks @sbworkersunited.org baristas are standing up to corporate greed and Starbucks’ unfair labor practices and demanding the fair contract they deserve. No contract? NO COFFEE!

I think this book will shape how historians describe the present political moment.

"too on the nose" never really bothered me as a criticism of fiction when we have nominally centrist governments irl robbing immigrants of their jewelry

I hope against hope this is so inhuman a policy that it takes down Labour from within and they are utterly destroyed, forever

Finally joined @greenparty.org.uk this week. Decision confirmed by reading this headline. Yes it is a Labour Home Secretary talking about removing human rights. Oh and its the same Shabana Mahmood that complained about LGBTQ+ inclusive relationship education in primary schools #unsurprised

Labour policy is being celebrated by Tommy Robinson. That's it. That's all you ever need to say to explain who Labour are.

A local bakery just posted this photo on Facebook. I’ve gotten stuff from her before. Nice older lady. I do not know if she made it but…it’s perfect. Perfect.

after a week of their gloating & hysteria, it is clear that most of the British Right consider ‘BBC bias’ to be constituted by any voice, view or analysis heard on the airwaves that disagrees with them, their house newspapers & periodicals—& their construction of popular opinion

Another institution surrenders in advance. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

I will never understand the people who can look at this and shrug.

uk labour lost **half** their coalition playing to racist fears & attacking trans people us dems just won big without any of that

We wandered down to Preston Park for the fireworks on Saturday. And that's after seeing Daniel Kitson's Almost A Ghost Story at the Dome on Friday. We're doing the season properly for once!

More conservative bollocks from a labour advisor. Maybe if work was more interesting and rewarding it would make less people sick. Not being sick is easy when you're on several millions a year, less so on minimum wage. www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/159b218...

fascinated by Democrats who believe in a “big tent” party when it comes to xenophobia and transphobia but not when it comes to brown socialists

For the first time in years, I feel hopeful today. Well done, NY ❤️

Great billboard in Liverpool.

We're finally getting old carpet removed from the bedrooms and office so my books need to go into storage. I'm ten boxes down and don't seem to have made a dent. I suppose at least, when AI takes my work away, I can open a market stall.

Me on Halloween:

* Crochet Horror * #Exorcist #Halloween

Amid all the fuss, remember that for much of the 1960s and 1970s, "the Spare" Andrew Windsor was just one unfortunate incident away from being the next king. Hopefully, this appalling saga will lead to a proper national debate on our hereditary monarchy. Long, long overdue.

Very damp run today, but I was pleased to hang around briefly with this leaf.

Added my short SF story "Small Print" to the blog - first published (as "Fine Print") in Free Radicals Magazine back in 2021. Friendship, beer, betrayal and tricksy contracts on a ship poised for planetfall. www.inflatableink.com/story-small-... #ScienceFiction #ShortStory #WritersOfBluesky

RIP Prunella Scales. Since Patricia Routledge died a few weeks ago I'll draw your attention to DORIS AND DOREEN, an Alan Bennett TV play in which the pair are workers in a dingy Northern office. Almost a two-hander apart from brief appearances by Pete Postlethwaite. www.youtube.com/watch?v=5esb...

Weird! It’s almost like being an unabashed progressive instead of a by the numbers centrist gets people excited that usually wouldn’t care about politics gothamist.com/news/voter-t...

What I don’t understand is why the British press don’t hang Brexit around Nigel Farage’s neck like a stockade. It was the single worst act of economic self harm in modern British history. Why doesn’t the British media force him to own that?

So as an introvert, I've been thinking of not attending a Green Party meeting today. So I suppose I should thank the Labour Party for today's utter onslaught of awfulness. You really helped me get over myself. You guys!

"The idea of deporting people with settled status is disgusting, and anyone proposing it should be immediately drummed out of polite society. Breaking promises made in good faith to our friends and neighbours is racist, extremist and immoral." I'm basically shouting at the sky here, but still.

For anybody seeking context on this one: this policy on its face would result in the deportation of my wife, who has been living in Scotland for 17 years, is married to a Scot, shares the mortgage on a house, and works in a university. Lots of perfectly comfortable people earn < £38k.

Keir Starmer and his front and back benchers personally ensured a worse Brexit outcome in order to sabotage the election that was being ran at the time so probably nothing. Vote Green. These right-wing Labour idiots are done.

New article published! I’m so thrilled to share my article in Science Fiction Studies, included in its November 2025 issue, is now available to read online: doi.org/10.1525/sfs.... (if you don’t have access and want a copy, let me know) #academicsky

After an early start and some writing I got out for a run. All the seasons at war today.

Because Green is for going forward into a thriving future. 🚦 💚

Actually mentioning Brexit. Such a profile in courage! Ruling out any substantive action to fix the damage and the curtailment of our rights to live and work in Europe? Business as usual then. Many who held their noses to tactically vote Labour last election won't be making the same mistake again.

I miss this part of belonging to our continent more than most aspects. I used to live in Paris & commute to London by Eurostar every week. Now I’ll need to get a visa & cannot live in France or Italy.

I have just joined the Green Party because I am a total leftie stereotype, but good God, I can't live with no hope that a fairer world isn't possible. And being a realist, if I want to see change, I've got to support something rather than just despairing the entire time.

Yes it me I be a weirdo that want to be part of something ridiculous 😊

Temple of Poseidon, Sounion by Aria Aber www.divasofverse.com/2025/10/temp...