Duncan Porter

What Does War with Iran Have to Do with Elections? The administration is sending alarming signals about the midterms.

Or he's going to use the war as a reason to cancel elections.

www.brennancenter.org/our-work/ana...

Leasehold should be replaced with commonhold.

The complication is: many freeholds are now investment assets with returns from ground rents, so abolishing them may require compensation.

In other words, homes people live in have been turned into income streams for investors.

It looks like Linux is finally about to go mainstream!

[We see a close up of a young white male, tanned, white teeth, coiffed hair clearly an influencer on social media. It is an image such as you see when social media posts are shown on the news. In the corner of the screen is named a location: DUBAI. He is staring slightly off-camera for several silent panels of the comic strip. His eyes move slightly. He is having a thought.] From off-screen a newsreader’s commentary comes: NEWSREADER: Extraordinary images here of an expat in Dubai [The influencer’s eybrows raise slightly] …Having their first ever geopolitical thought. [CUT TO a BBC news scene. The BBC newsreader CLIVE MYRIE is talking to an interviewee next to the screen showing the social media influencer’s face. The interviewee’s name is David Jones]. CLIVE MYRIE: To explain the significance of this moment we’re joined by David Jones, our Expat Thoughts correspondent DAVID JONES: Clive, this is momentous It was caught on film at the end of an Instagram post titled: ‘Dubai Is Brilliant’. [Pointing at the screen, the influencer’s expression still the same] You can clearly see in the eyebrows here, the dawning realisation that there *might* be something in the world beyond his dickhead self. It marks a *huge* departure from all the Dubai Expat’s previous thoughts. CLIVE MYRIE: Which are…? DAVID JONES: You've Got To Get Yourself Out Here Mate, Everything Is So Clean, I Don't Have To Pay Taxes, I Am Incurious As To Why I Do Not Have To Pay Taxes, and Spa. CLIVE MYRIE: And might we see an expansion of these new Thoughts in coming days? DAVID JONES: I think we can expect to see: “I Deserve To Be Airlifted By A Country I Pay No Tax To” CLIVE MYRIE: Mmm. [Ends]

Cover of Get Ahead of Being Dead, Your Handy Planner for the End of Life by Evie King. Red flowers surround the text, living at the top, wilting in the middle, dying at the bottom. Quote from Richard Herring at top. Don't buy this book if you're already dead, it's too late.

🚨Cover reveal🚨

Nice.

I can't find a single wind turbine engineer who will tell me how efficient a swastika shaped blade arrangement will be, so I'm struggling with the USA market.

Considering starting a business selling patriotic solar panels with St George's flags on them.

I came across this quote when looking for Marjane on here & it's just perfect

bsky.app/profile/myth...

Bought last week, so coincidental with the appalling current event & reading it while the news unfolded was genuinely devastating.

I wish everyone could read this - I'm certain it would change a lot of opinions & perspectives about the region & it's amazing people.

2/

Just finished reading Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi.

A graphic novel about growing up & coming of age in Iran. A perfect medium for a memoir like this. It was compelling, fascinating & very emotional. A really beautiful book.

Marjane is a towering example of how to be a human.

#booksky

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Just finished reading Girl in a Band by Kim Gordon.

Quite interesting, but not as much about the music as I'd have liked. Some justifiable axes to grind & some insight into what it was like to be a female musician in 80s & beyond.

#booksky

It's funny how targeting messages at voter demographics is suddenly being labelled & called out after years of highly funded campaigns weaponising social media advertising tools in order to micro target very specific sectors with FUD.

Nice to wake up to find the UK waking up too!

Hannah is going to be a really great MP. Labour will need to shift back to the left & win back trust. Goodwin had a bad loss. People didn't reject radical progressive policies.

Do you hear that thunder?

Final thought: SEN prov affects us all. Failure to invest now costs significantly down the line & ROIs can be massive.

Also, it doesn't "cost" £4B as the majority of that investment is money in the economy returning as tax - probably more as the investment returns multiply.

6/6

Funding is crucial, but we need reform of LA capacity, Ofsted & accountability, stronger oversight of academies, better access to educational psychologists linked to schools & a simpler route for families when those provisions fail.

5/6

Currently, academies often lack any meaningful accountability, LAs are utterly overstretched & oversight is inconsistent.

4/6

Shifting toward system accountability rather than individual plans makes a lot of sense in theory. The risk is what happens when the system fails. Parents still need a clear, enforceable route to make sure their child is supported.

3/6

More investment now is great, but if EHCPs are reduced or replaced without equally strong individual rights, families lose protection against future cuts or schools failing to meet needs, which investment alone won't fix.

2/6

YouTube video by Channel 4 News Government overhauls special education with £4bn plan

It’s frustrating that pension support is protected via mechanisms like the triple lock, but SEN children may lose their main form of legal protection.

Our experience &what professionals have told us repeatedly, is that the SEND system has been broken for years.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYDT...

1/6

Just finished reading White Teeth by @zadiesmith.bsky.social

Absolutely loved this. Great characters, wild story. A long book that didn't feel long.

Can't believe this was written when Zadie was in her early twenties. Some amazing observations & depth.

Massive recommend!

#booksky

What power do governments have to address this, given the owners of these platforms are buying up the media & own most of the tech infrastructure now?

It's also a dumb strategy from Labour. Most people can spot cynical triangulation & smears a mile off, so it reflects very poorly on them.

The sad thing is Labour could have a grown up debate about these points & earn more respect, but maybe that's no longer possible on social media?

Especially teasels which grow like weeds and look amazing.

Just finished reading Educated by Tara Westover

Wow.

I had to remind myself a few times that this wasn't a work of fiction. A very authentic emotional journey. Hard to read in places, such is the emotional & physical trauma described.

Highly recommended.

#booksky

Just finished reading The Quiet American by Graham Green.

Fascinating read. Amazingly astute & prescient about geopolitics & colonial/imperial meddling.

The "romantic" story is wild. Were men in the 50s really so emotionally stunted or just the authors?

#booksky

Recently finished reading In Cold Blood by Truman Capote.

A serious, detailed piece of work, but it is a long, slow read, which while incredibly interesting, needed some effort to keep going.

Capote's prose is great though & I'm keen to try some more.

#booksky

Yesterday, the @nationaltrust.org.uk released a family group and a pair of Eurasian beavers at two sites as part of a wider release across the Holnicote Estate on Exmoor in Somerset. This is the second licensed wild release by the National Trust, following the first in Dorset last year.

...Canada, cut off from communication, snowed in for a long winter with dwindling supplies & almost no knowledge of what's happening in the wider world.

I really enjoyed this book & wanted it to be longer.

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Just finished reading Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice.

An excellent recommendation by the folk at the Highland Bookshop in Fort William.

This is a very focused take on an apocalypse story from the perspective of a small first nation community in the far north of...

#booksky

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