I've said before that Britain is afflicted by a triple-humiliation: loss of aristocracy; empire; political/media credibility. Brexit was essentially the last gasp of the British ruling class yelling to the Commonwealth, "Come on chaps, we're leaving," then marching out into the blizzard alone—nude.

NEW | Analysing a pre-budget blood pressure raiser: Rage-bait articles about people angry they're getting free money are the real inheritance tax…. Is the future of British newspapers just endless stories of well-off people pretending to be victims? brokenbottleboy.substack.com/p/rage-bait-...

Beginning to think that Reeves is really susceptible to the fact that the human mind isn't really capable of understanding big numbers and is assuming £600m which in the terms of our budget is peanuts, is worth collapsing universities over.

Believe me, my aching muscles are letting me know it was a busy weekend!

Uh huh yup yup

I haven't really had a plan in life. I have been fortunate to end up with a job I don't hate and enough money to get by.

I am irredeemably furious about these people sacrificing all our futures, with no consent, so they can make a couple billy more before the world collapses. And you are acting like we don’t have their names and addresses

(government minister reading a report on the thousandth clinical drug trial of a pill that eliminates poverty, with a 100% success rate, that generates 10 times the value it costs to produce & makes government ministers public heroes) I don't understand, so the poor are made to suffer how, exactly?

Nintendo NES. A hand me down from a neighbour, but I loved it. Mario 3, Defender of the Crown, Wrestling and Fantastic Dizzy were my favourites if memory serves me correctly. Fantastic machine.

I laugh but all the lads are talking openly about how disastrously unsuitable for power Boris Johnson and Dominic Cummings were, and yet I remember them all giggling and smiling and playing along, telling the public that whatever you might think about Johnson, he was Determined to Get Brexit Done.

What a wonderful group of people (including all the ones behind the scenes, the crafters and more). What a fantastic week. Hands down one of my favourite times of the year. Over $1 million for Child's Play charity.

It's amazing how protected those in Westminster are. Trash the country; make our lives harder and more miserable and then waltz off in luxury living with no fallout. The worst people in our society by a wide margin

Excellent thread, please read this

Still marvelling how Labour took a standard right wing troll comment of "why don't you put them up in your house", and turned it into policy with their rejigging of the community sponsorship scheme. Basically saying "you want to support asylum seekers, you sort it" for a fairly basic State function

All the rape, torture, and murder will be brushed under the carpet, a great lesson for any future war criminals.

Once again, we are way too relaxed about the fact that "shooting Irish people is good actually" is a mainstream political position on the neighbouring island.

Started a new file on Scarlet Hollow and ended up staying up way too late playing it. The scope of this game is something else, all of my playthroughs have ended up wildly different. I can't recommend this game enough if you like visual novels

*sighs* Ok, I'll use Chrome...Nope infested with Gemini. Edge? Co-pilot. Brave? Leo-AI Opera? ChatGPT & Aria. Plus bought by the Chinese (I think). Looks like I'm bouncing back to Vivaldi if I can. Yes it's built on Chromium but still... vivaldi.com

If this doesn't raise at least $5,000 I will be very surprised. Join in at: desertbus.org/2025/

Worth remembering as this unfolds that it was disabled people and people from ethnic minority backgrounds who disproportionately died. Tens of thousands needlessly lost their lives, many who died alone or with just an iPad. Thousands more were left with life changing Long Covid. A true scandal.

"Do you think the plebs should get a jury trial" is such a thrilling line from Labour, truly great to see this

The core aim of the Terf movement - a tiny number of newspaper columnists who melted the brains of middle aged reactionaries - was always to encourage maximum public hostility against transgender people, and give them the impunity to act upon it.

It's an outstandingly well researched and written book. Made me cry, so be warned. I would still say it's essential reading though.

NEW | The Daily Telegraph, anti-immigrant rhetoric, and some very weird Winnie the Pooh fan fiction... A column from Allison Pearson shows how Labour's attitude to asylum seekers will never be cruel enough for the Right. brokenbottleboy.substack.com/p/the-daily-...

Again, when the Mexican director of Children of Men was asked how he created such an authentically grounded British dystopia, he said he just looked at the trends they observed around them and imagined what would happen if they continued to get steadily worse and nastier for twenty years. And

Share a TV series you've watched from beginning to end more than once.

No, it's not. The political class's encroaching fascism is what is tearing the country apart. "Othering" is just one of the heinous indicators of fascism, and this govt is tilting windmills into all of them. If I ran the country, I'd make them all crimes against humanity.

Fascinating watching Cloudflare go down this morning, taking half of the internet with it. People have no idea how fragile and vulnerable the world's IT nervous system really is.

I know it's been said before but "we don't know who is in those hotels" is SO WEIRD. I don't know who is in a hotel when I STAY in a hotel. I never know who is in any hotel at any point. How did this dogshit prevail?!

Big very scary announcement that I never thought I'd have to make so I put nice music and a relaxing nostalgic background on it for you.

That David Frost, Nick Timothy and others attached essentially zero importance to the Dublin third country removal system -- the result of over 30 years of UK diplomacy -- at the time of Brexit is fascinating. People with very limited understanding but infinite self-belief.

Counterpoint: they did not want to solve the problems, they wanted to make a calculated point about how people cannot have better things and therefore they are not, in fact, decent or honest men.

It won't achieve anything but I at least got to call the Labour party disgraceful in an official communication. You can too: www.writetothem.com

A widow wearing her husband's wedding ring. A necklace that reminds you of the grandmother who raised you. The only heirloom you carried from the house you left fearing for your life. This is depraved beyond comprehension.

My God in Heaven. A government based on performative cruelty. The Nasty Party never left, they just changed their ties.

that our policies are expressly designed to avoid paying people more money so we can stash it away in a few psychos' bank accounts is just so aggravating when you consider how boneheaded this is. but no lets round up 30M immigrants and impose crippling consumption taxes and see if that helps

But I see something like this, and there is no choice in it for me. The cops talk about "facilitating the right for both sides to protest". Fuck off! What about this little girl's right to grow up without being made to feel like a fucking invader? What about her right to grow up in safety? 4/

The idea that you’re only allowed to live and work somewhere because you happened to be born between some arbitrary lines on a map at the right time is absurd.

And we have hit $150k for #DB2025! Thank you all! #ForTheChildren desertbus.org

You'll notice that there are certain demographics in society - the poor, immigrants, disabled people - who we are constantly told live on easy street with the government lavishing them with riches, and even after decades of policy designed to stop this, still have it way too good.

Illegal migration isn't tearing this country apart, but our obsession with it is. It's an obsession fuelled by our media and politicians. Both profit from blowing the problem out of all proportion. It's been happening for decades, but never more so than now

Why, it’s almost like there was some kind of elite project to benefit themselves that everyone who matters is still lying to themselves and the public about, decades later

It is IMO absolutely undeniable that the student protesters of 2011 were 100% correct about the disastrous consequences of austerity, and all of the smart wankers of politics and commentary who showered hatred upon them were catastrophically wrong. Have you seen anyone who matters acknowledge this?

At some point, for the love of God, will someone ANYONE at long last take the council funding crisis seriously?!? Because THIS is what will break down a society, not some poor soul escaping incredible dangers, arriving on our shores.

If you didn't know who this guy was, you wouldn't be able to guess if he was a Labour, Reform, or Tory candidate. And that's a super quick guide to British politics in 2025.

Just thinking how frustrating it is that everything has been so crammed into releasing in November that the big films will trample each other, and the smaller films won't get seen. Especially after an October which was very quiet as the big films flopped.

What is truly pathetic about Labour is that this is all they have got. They have failed so spectacularly already, despite a whacking great majority, to even attempt to govern positively that all they have is punching down on marginalised groups and saying "oh but Reform will be worse".