See what’s happening. A Trumpist US media company has taken over Channel 5. Another US company is gunning for ITV. Our social media is saturated by Musk’s calls for civil war in the UK. The BBC is the last thing standing, and Trump/Johnson are trying to bring it down

We are so far through the looking glass that the man who tried to overthrow an election becomes president, the people who attacked the Capitol are turned into martyrs, & it's the BBC that gets punished - cheered on by the worst news outlets in the UK & the two most dishonest politicians of our age.

My husband just remarked that as there appears to be little difference in unattractiveness between them, the Conservative Party and Reform might merge and become Conform.

If there was a prize for post of the week @clareobrien.bsky.social deserves to win it for saying that trying to get away from the AI shite being pushed on us is "like escaping the advances of a drunken harasser in a bar."

Can thoroughly recommend this great anthology of short fiction!! My story 'Body Positive' is in some great company - well worth the £9 outlay which goes to benefit UK charity The Wildlife Trusts. #writingcommunity #writesky #authorsandwriting #booksky 📚💙

Born a rich kid, this parasite doesn’t make anything himself. He’s a lucky, greedy, self-obsessed player in capitalism’s casino. A care nurse does more for humanity in an hour than he’s achieved in a lifetime. And he uses his wealth for racist, classist, anti-trans causes. Capitalism’s values stink

Here's my #poem for the #poemsabout #lockeddoors prompt. It's an #ekphrastic poem this time - at least, I'm not sure it works without my photo? I came across these stone dogs by chance & instantly wanted to write about them. @thebrokenspine.co.uk @alanparrywriter.co.uk #poetry #poetsofbluesky

After several days of unrelenting rain I finally made it over to Inverewe Garden to see my Autumn #poem in situ in the Wet Garden! Check the alt text if you can't read it easily. Needless to say - the poem was written on a sunnier afternoon. 🌞 #poetrycommunity #writingcommunity #poetinresidence

Indeed. In fact, although I've been an SNP voter for ages, and have never once ventured onto TikTok, I'm considering voting for, or even joining, the Greens. My only concern is that the Scottish Greens seem less impressive than the English party, which is a bit of a first for me.

Yes - because they don't want you to do anything for pleasure that they can't monetise. I'm so sick of America, its godforsaken 996 culture & its shitty politics, both of which it tries to export to us. Some of the art is still worthwhile although even that's under threat from this barbaric regime.

Didn't get as much reading done in October as usual. However: properly digested a collection of Seamus Heaney's I've had for some time, re-read Deborah Curtis's memoir of her tragically flawed husband Ian, and devoured another of Jim Butcher's Harry Dresden thrillers. 📚💙 #booksky

"What he knew, in short, was that fascism was not over, and that the right would metastasise, returning in a new form to claim power over a populace stupefied by the tawdry blandishments of capitalism. Was Pasolini wrong in his predictions? I think we all know the answer to that."

Up McCaig's Tower in Oban today. Observed by crow and cat.

This. (We have a ghost, but I dont tell visitors about her unless they encounter her themselves. Some people she just finds uninteresting.)

Today's featured author is @clareobrien.bsky.social. 'Breathing Out Becomes White And Snowfall' is written in response to heard voices—not threatening but benign... tuning into a frequency carrying random scraps of language; puns and wordplay, sometimes dark, sometimes playful, sometimes nonsensical

Delighted that my poem 'Excommunicate' is featured in this great digital anthology! 😊

I have a very bad feeling about this...

Being an unapologetically proud mama here as Ruairdhri is my son! Look at his splendid art. 😊 Thanks to Paul of @thewombwellrainbow.bsky.social for interviewing him and spotlighting his work.

My contribution for #poemsabout #BurnForTheCamera was written shortly after the death by suicide of an old friend who was a performing artist. I was trying to understand the pressure performers are under - from fame, from fans, from the press. @thebrokenspine.co.uk @alanparrywriter.co.uk

Also....this.

“Having ID on your phone is not that far removed from having bank accounts on your phone or any other apps that people have on their phones,” he said. Right. Because past govt apps (like Covid test and trace) worked really well. 🙄 And lately, Starmer just loves those sinister US tech bros. 🥶

My year as poet-in-residence at Inverewe Garden & Estate is drawing to a close, but here's my recent interview with arts curator Ginevra House, now free to read on The National Trust For Scotland's website. @n-t-s.bsky.social #poetry #poetrycommunity #ScottishHighlands

We are not a dumping ground for your toxic relatives, Charlie.

Just wow! @zackpolanski.bsky.social absolutely kills it in the @greenparty.org.uk party political broadcast. "Let's make hope normal again" www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxt4...

There is more than one genocide happening in the world right now. What makes us more valuable as a species, wholesale destroyers and despoilers that we are, than (for example) the whirlpool ramshorn snail Rachel Reeves thinks is worth nothing at all because she's never seen one?

This is what Israel is. And so long as we arm and otherwise support them, this is who we are as well.

"Don't let me stay, don't let me stay, my logic says burn, so send me away. Your minds are too green, I despise all I've seen, you can't stake your lives on a saviour machine." - David Bowie, 'Saviour Machine', 1970.

Bit late to the party with this, work & family stuff has kept me from my writing lately! So #ImperfectMe is the ideal theme. This is a WIP, trying to get at how it feels when we isolate ourselves from what feels like an unfriendly world. #poemsabout @alanparrywriter.co.uk @thebrokenspine.co.uk

"All professional creatives, Fay and I were told cheerfully, would soon exist only as hobbyists. This was not provocation. Not irony. Just fact."

A source within MI6 has revealed that MI6 are unhappy with the Palestine Action ban because they are not terrorists and the drain on staff is making the UK more vulnerable to actual terrorist attacks. End the ridiculous ban.

Greta Thunberg speaks to the press after being released from illegal detainment in Israel: "I could talk for a very, very long time about our mistreatment and abuses in our imprisonment. Trust me, but that is not the story.”

Finally!!! The real scandal of the asylum hotels. Why, instead of shining the light on these parasites, months were spent on demonising vulnerable people at their mercy? www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Daughter of Robin Williams, Zelda Williams 💔

🧵Series 4 cover reveals! Delighted to be working with Anna Reckin, Elżbieta Wójcik-Leese, @clareobrien.bsky.social, Hana Ormara...

Bit dubious about all the comments re #TaylorSwift songs claiming they're "definitely" about this person or that event. They're certainly inspired by things in her life, but writers fictionalise, you know? Every detail won't reflect specific reality. And that actually makes it more applicable.

Like so much else this godforsaken country is doing, the treatment of Greta Thunberg detailed here is indefensible. Israel has become a Nazi tribute act. It is adopting as its own the very same cruelty that once killed and brutalised its own people.

This is clever. But as feared...maybe not clever enough.

The thing about fascism is that at heart, it's utterly risible. Stupid blokes desperately trying to build themselves up with nonsensical posturing because inside, they have nothing to offer the world.

Well, #TaylorSwift 's album put the cat among the critics. 1- AND 5-star reviews, which usually indicates pretty compelling work. On first listen I like all but 'Opalite', tho maybe writing an entire song ('Wood') in praise of your lover's dick is a bit ill-advised. But what's sauce for Sabrina.. 😄

A small boon for those who have contributed to the #PoetryTheme prompt is that they can now be found in this new starter pack. Please follow, share, repost #poetrycommunity #poetsonbluesky #poetry #prompts #booksky #writingcommunity

"Timothy Garton Ash recently gave Americans 400 days to save their democracy. As an American, I don’t think the country has that long. As Europeans, we should assume that it does not."

I wrote 'Bone Swing' in the wake of a tragedy as a kind of ritual of death and renewal. The theme of #NationalPoetryDay is 'play': in this poem it's the gods who are at play, and the game is a dark one. But here's another chance to read it in 'Chandelier: Blazing' from @bulbculture.bsky.social !

As MAGA shows us, all the modern right knows how to do is destroy

Very happy to be a part of this wonderful series of pamphlets!

September reading - a play based on a novel, a supernatural thriller set in Chicago, an Irish short story collection, a novel about a rare vinyl dealer and his highly unusual dog, and a history of Doctor Who. 📚💙 #booksky

I was going to watch the video, just to see if it's remotely convincing as a human, but I absolutely couldn't click play. It felt like inviting a vampire over the threshold. So I didn't. Even so, I feel sick.

Delighted to be part of today's launch of brand new Glasgow litjournal 'Sextet', with my flash 'Death Sentences' & poem 'Watching Gracie at TRNSMT'. This issue of the journal's tied to an exhibition in Glasgow's Six Foot Gallery, both of which have the theme Future/Past. [cont]