I think about this Tony Benn speech much more than I used to

There are reports of US/Israeli strikes on or near the homes of former Iranian pres, Ahmadinejad, former reformist presidential candidate, Mir Hossein Mousavi, and various leftist activists. If the US/Israel really wanted the “people” to take back the country, they wouldn’t assassinate these folks

When I was young they used to go to the effort of lying to you about the need for their illegal war first, these lazy bastards didn't even fake one dossier or pressure a single weapons expert to kill himself, it's insulting

My brain is not doing focus very well today. Going to give it a nap and then crack on with some more law later.

Very clear that for Starmer, 'sectarian voting' is when British Muslims don't vote Labour, and for many others, it is just when British Muslims vote.

people love comparing america to rome and it's normally bullshit but both the american and the roman empires definitely have an unintelligible penchant for pointless wars against persia

I can't imagine the Law Commissioners ever imagined themselves writing "it is both accurate and precise to say [...] '1 Bored Ape'"

Chuckling slightly that one of the cases about bitcoin involves a company called Tulip Trading.

As Democracy Volunteers are the source of the claim of "Family Voting" in the Gorton & Denton by election, I got curious about their claims and thanks to @joenoonan.bsky.social I came across this claim about "Family Voting" during the 2020 Irish General Election. A brief 🧵

Leaks from Labour HQ strategy department

At the current rate, Cambridge (a safe Labour seat) will be a Lib Dem/Green marginal.

I’m in this video and I’m twisting my hips to avoid it.

I used to think that saying something tongue-in-cheek required that you literally said it while your tongue was in your cheek. It never seemed terribly useful as a rhetorical technique.

Worth reading their letter in full, but would particularly like to draw attention to this paragraph, following the High Court decision. Routinely outing trans people at work is not compatible with their human rights.

Wow! makes me think of Willie Rennie!!! (Cartoon from @neilslorance.com )

When I've been out and about, I've never had a trans person approach me to try and turn me trans. I've never had a Muslim try to convert me. I have had Christians invade my space and shove leaflets into my handbag or my hand. They can't take no for an answer. Only one type of indoctrination here.

okay, here it is, the five key takeaways from this by-election: 1. Denton Kebab House 2. The Crispy Cod, Denton 3. Reddish Tandoori, Gorton 4. Cottage Chippy, Gorton 5. The Continental Takeaway, Denton

To be absolutely clear: this is the lowest percentage of the vote in a by-election for the Conservatives or Tories since the party was founded at the time of the Glorious Revolution in 1689.

I love the colours of the @moorelib.bsky.social entrance 🏳️‍⚧️

Hahahahahahaha cc @paperghost.bsky.social

Swing Labour to Green is 26.4% For the history fans: Orpington, 1962, swing 26.3%

Wooo. 4.5k majority over Reform, Labour in third.

Botched Execution

Fascinating innovations in the EU-UK Gibraltar Agreement - www.gov.uk/government/p...

A friend has just typed “Rizzo” instead of “Rizzio” and I now want The Muppets Do 16th Century Scotland. I am especially here for Miss Piggy v John Knox. He doesn’t stand a chance.

we choose to go to the moon and do those other things not because they are easy but because we were bored

Colonial Bank v Whinney (1886) 11 App. Cas. 426

Turns out I needed wine to approach legal discussion of cryptoassets.

Among my objections to cryptocurrencies is that I find myself reading gibberish like "Darby stopped baking the Tezos".

I often get very sad looking at the wonderfully goofy Billingham town centre in its heyday. When even a small town on Teesside could, with a bold district council and a tax windfall, build a really forward-looking walkable community-centric piece of urbanism.

The Speaker's information must have been very persuasive: enough to force the police to act in the afternoon. hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2026...

So the BBC promised Davidson and StudioCanal (who made I Swear) that any swearing tics would be edited out from broadcast, and instead they left them in despite a two hour delay, and even put a fucking microphone right in front of him to ensure they picked it up - he was sat at the back of room.

Gordon Brown's vengeful streak hasn't been this fun since like 2006

It feels out of fashion but a reminder that if you want to be a woman you can just be one.

Coming in November from @brisunipress.bsky.social, In the Aftermath of Empire explores the impact of British imperialism on gender and sexuality law in four jurisdictions. Please tell your libraries to pre-order! bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/in-the-after...

This is excellent. Now I want the one about the jackdaws and the sphinx of quartz.

On the one hand, thank you GP for getting my ADHD referral moving. On the other hand, could you at least try to settle on what to call me in the letter?! (This is the first time anything like this has happened since I got a new NHS number six years ago so I have no idea why I’m confusing now.)

When a trans femmes tits start growing

Power is the ability to cause change in others that would not otherwise occur. To cause someone to cringe is therefore an act of power. If you're cringe hard enough, you can become a god.

Title text: "My icebox plum trap easily captured William Carlos Williams. It took much less work than the infinite looping network of diverging paths I had to build in that yellow wood to ensnare Robert Frost." Alt text: https://explainxkcd.com/3209#Transcript

Suggest Congress closes the door in the President's face so as to remind him not to seek to arrest politically opposed members of Congress. It's what we do, over here, at our equivalent annual address to the legislature.

If one is in an English court and brings up a US case in argument does one use the English way of pronouncing “v.” in case names (“and” or “against”) or the USian one?

Good therapy session earlier, with big discussion of the importance of autonomy in my mental makeup. Suppose I knew I was trans but hadn’t taken any action about this. If I were forced to transition, I’d resist strenuously and probably subsequently detransition.

Poetry doesn't do well over here Nobody knows if it's good Did you read a poem and like it a lot? Maybe you misunderstood. Maybe you'll share an unlikeable verse Maybe you'll say "this is nice!" And all of your timeline will lean back and laugh; Maybe you ought to think twice.

some years back i ran a private multiplayer Europa Universalis 4 game for a cross-party group of MPs. All of whom played it regularly already single-player. It was gloriously fun, full of unexpected alliances and the odd backstab.

can't believe i almost forgot

Nadine!

Wah. Partner goes home and I have to apply my own hormones at night again like some kind of savage 😭😉

It's 2026 and we have to get therapy for our Linux kernel build scripts because someone pretended they were going to off themselves.

Nobody should let me judge anything, let alone public procurement contracts, because I am far too easily swayed by an Eliot reference. “These fragments I have shored against my ruin”? That’s reassurance enough for me: have £75m This is probably another reason why public procurement rules exist.