Around the outside

"the crimes of John Smyth, a barrister involved in conservative evangelical Christian camps."

For those seemingly unable to read the article before commenting...

Sounding amazing, Elon, very confident and cool. I like it when he slags off Mamdani, DONALD TRUMP'S FAVOURITE BOI!

Unless she's monumentally thick, I'm going to assume this statement wasn't intended to convince anyone who is genuinely progressive that they are wrong. But, to position herself as the real progressive. Is she really deluding herself of that, or was this just for the LFI audience at the dinner?

'All school boys, who went on to write for The Spectator, were obsessed with Hitler.'

Mostly, criminal defence work on human rights matters, I believe.

I hope @oxfordshirecc.bsky.social (and all local and national govts) stop using X.
It is toxic and polluting and we should not be adding to its active users.
theconversation.com/hate-speech-...

<sigh>

Oxfordshire County Council is “urgently reviewing” its use of X, formerly Twitter, as a result of “very recent news regarding Elon Musk and his use of his platform”. Devon, Southampton, and Warwick councils have all recently quit the platform.

I'm not saying it was tediously lazy and unoriginal, but she did mention "boob hypnosis."

Four separate times.

I do wonder now if he was always like this. And that his time as a human rights lawyer just happened to be a career path that presented itself and seemed expedient to pursue.

"We are all hoping that they are saying one thing before the election and will do something different afterwards"

I was going to ask when that's ever happened, but then, of course, Keir did exactly that after the leadership election. It just rarely happens for the betterment of anything.

"You hate trans people"

Are you telling me that pop culture skewering satirist, Marina Hyde, has never taken aim at Rowling or Linehan?

A terf? Employed by the Guardian? Shirley not!

She's probably throwing shade at some of her younger, not at all sensible, Baronet-less colleagues.

We must #ChangeTheNarrative!

Dr Beth Upton was fully acquitted of all wrongdoing in yesterday’s Employment Tribunal decision. Yet she has been vilified by a toxic & poisonous media for months.
It must stop!

Congratulations, and solidarity, to you, Beth!

Is it forgotten or a more zealous need to pretend it never happened? Probably both.

'User blocked by a Very British Bigotry'

It's as if Alan Partridge pitched political comms campaigns.

I'm so sorry to hear that:(

Four mentions of "boob hypnosis"?

That's a rich vein of hithero untouched comedy gold that Marina's tapped into. Fantastic stuff...

How to make Keir Starmer a social media star Five ways for the PM to connect with voters, without tap-dancing naked down Camden High Street

Oh god, he's actually going to do "Banging On with Keir"

peterhyman21.substack.com/p/how-to-mak...

The WI and Girlguiding have been pressured to exclude trans women – yet the law is clear as mud | Jess O’Thomson Since the supreme court decision, organisations have faced lobbying and legal threats. But trans people are protected by discrimination law too, says Jess O’Thomson of the Good Law Project

The WI and Girlguiding have been pressured to exclude trans women – yet the law is clear as mud | Jess O’Thomson

Mark Carney made standing up to Trump a cornerstone of his successful election campaign. But Keir's reverse midas touch can't be shaken.

"in reality it's middle-aged ppl being brainwashed by social media."

As epitomised by our current cabinet and our political commentator class.

Marina manages to make the seldom referenced "boob hypnosis" jibe four times in her piece. No one could ever accuse her comedy gold of being lazy and hackneyed...

Middle_Screen3847 comment on Reddit: I promise, every time you run due to the embarrassment about having nothing, I’m going to call it out. It’s never going to work. Every time you run from directly responding and contending with the criticism, defending the actual false generalization and claim, I’m going to call it out. Every time and forever. Again, this is what happens when we finally come across someone who can and will hold us to our words and take something all the way to its conclusion. Simply getting words on the screen will never work. Lol it’s really sad to believe this fools people That sure is an interesting way of saying “I realize I’m wrong, you’re right and i have nothing. That’s frustrating and embarrassing for me. I’m also not mature enough to admit to or deal with being wrong. Maybe if I just get anything at all on the screen, it will distract from that. Maybe it will make it seem like i have something, when, in reality, I have nothing, am running, embarrassed, this is a defense mechanism and I’m a wittle baby.”

A Reddit reaction to "Not all men"...

There's a post on Reddit today showing a Sky News clip of Wilfred Frost getting very agitated that his "Not all men" routine isn't being humoured on a story about women only carriages. He's REALLY not happy, as are a number of poor, little demonised men in the comments...

They've proven that they judge that the propaganda value of a semblance of victory is far more important than substance of issue they profess to care about. Or, at the very least, that face saving must be maintained. If they actually cared, then they should be furious about yesterday's outcome.

IOA group leader “harassed and bullied” female councillor The group leader of the Independent Oxford Alliance, David Henwood, has been found to have harassed and bullied a Labour councillor and brought Oxford City Council into disrepute. Trish Elphinstone, ...

He's such a lovely chap, too...

oxfordclarion.uk/ioa-group-le...

It just shows they don't really care about substantive parts of the case. If they did, then they'd be furious about the 'injustice' of the ruling. The propaganda is much more important to them.

Interesting that they're going for face saving claims of victory and not railing against a perceived injustice at all the more substantive claims that were rejected. The propaganda is judged to be the most important thing to them.

Would that even be a dealbreaker for those publications or their readership?