Tom Spencer

"The death of truth is the ultimate victory of evil. When truth leaves us, when we let it slip away, when it is ripped from our hands, we become vulnerable to the appetite of whatever monster screams at us the loudest."

-Mon Mothma (Andor)

Opinion | Our Lives Are an Endless Series of ‘And’

Kathryn Schulz is one of my favorite human beings on this planet -- the kind of human being I wish we had many more of -- and her discussion with @ezrakleinbot.bsky.social is predictably lovely. I promise this is worth your time:

Care and maintenance is your most productive work When I was starting out in local government, I used to get frustrated with the people that said, “we did that 10 years ago.” Now I think I…

With the Labour Party seemingly thinking about bringing back Sure Start here's something I wrote a number of years ago about care and maintenance. It includes a section on the benefit of Leeds City Council keeping children's centres open and the impact of this

tombspencer.medium.com/care-and-mai...

South side Wetlands
36. Barnacle goose
37. Moorhen
38. Shelduck
39. Reed warbler
40. Parakeet

Things I heard but didn't see
1. Cetti's warbler

More marshes
19. Swift
20. Starling
21. Blackbird
22. Herring gull
23. Blue tit
24. Dunnock
25. Crow
26. House sparrow
27. Collar dove
28. Blackcap (finally!)
North side wetlands
29. Tufted duck
30. Common tern
31. Pochard
32. Egyptian goose
33. Greylag goose
34. Long tailed tit
35. Heron

River lea
1. Magpie
2. Robin
3. Wood pigeon
4. Cormorant
5. Canada goose
6. Coot
7. Black headed gull
8. Great tit
9. Mute swan
10. Mallard
11. Great Crested Grebe
12. Pied wagtails
13. Feral pigeon
Tottenham Marshes
14. Chiff chaff
15. Goldfinch
16. Wren
17. Greater whitethroat
18. Greenfinch

Did a two hour stroll from our house and saw 40 bird species. It's a solid but not spectacular list. These blue tits were at Walthamstow Wetlands (north side)

A picture of a blue sky and trees

The view from our garden. You can look up. From this angle you'd never guess we were 5 minutes from Tottenham Hale

At the single form entry school in Haringey, where I am chair of governors, we are 60% full. We've just about managed to hold it together financially but it's getting very hard. Only silver lining is we've had our best first choice numbers for receptions since 2012.

Elbows up, Canada.

I went to an online training today for an hour. Someone was on camera and definitely asleep for at least 10 minutes. Not ideal.

UK economy shrinks unexpectedly in blow to Rachel Reeves ONS data showing 0.1% fall in GDP in January comes less than two weeks before chancellor’s spring statement

So if the magical "we'll just grow our way to better public services" plan doesn't work, then what happens?

www.theguardian.comso/business/202...

A trip to Spain I write match reports for our middle-aged 7-a-side football matches. We went on tour for this one…

Football tour write up... Did we win?

tombspencer.medium.com/a-trip-to-sp...

It’s the hope that keeps us here. On my journey to our shared workspace Creative Works Space there is a BUILDHOLLYWOOD collaboration with the artist Mark Titchner. It went…

It's a short thing I wrote about hope tombspencer.medium.com/its-the-hope...

NEW: I just asked Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett if she had a message to Elon Musk.

What would she say to him? Here was her answer:

“Fuck off.”

It is unbelievably counterproductive to fund increased defence spending by cutting aid to the most fragile countries, or by squeezing stretched departmental budgets. Why does the PM not fund this by increasing taxes on the most wealthy rather than further burdening the poorest?

It's the same. It's partly why American leadership matters. To easy for UK and other governments to follow their lead. It's horrible.

Cutting the aid budget to buy more weapons. This government is horrible.

The sun was out so thought I should make the most of it... Oops.

Good morning to this man, and this man only #bbcqt

A playful illustrated title reads “How different birds would act on a first date." A disclaimer underneath states: “Not approved by RSPB fact-checkers.” The image features a cute Coal Tit perched sweetly on a blue flower. The background is a romantic shade of pink.

How different birds would act on a first date...a thread.

(From us to you this #ValentinesDay) 💕👇

The irony that James Watt (Bredog guy) launched 'Shadow DOGE' today to identify Government savings through excessive FOIing/whistleblowing via 'opinions' on spend and 'save the country' (sigh) made a website that is inaccessible/doesn't fit in a browser isn't lost on me

www.shadowdoge.org

That was a fun trip to the @arsenalfc.bsky.social

Grey Saturday morning vibes

I've gone back to the beginning...

I've been meaning to give it a listen. Maybe I'll start now.

all I know is that had President Biden forced out the FAA chief under pressure from his top adviser and his corrupt motives, and then the next week there was a plane crash that killed more than 60 people, Republicans would be howling that it was an impeachable offense.

Just when I think there isn't anything he can say or do that will shock me anymore...

@rspb.bsky.social #BigGardenBirdwatch done. 6 year old helped with the count. We did ok for a garden in Tottenham!
2 great spotted woodpecker, 7 goldfinch, 4 magpie, 3 parakeets, 3 great tits, 2 blue tits, 2 wood pigeon, 2 feral pigeon, 1 dunnock, 1 robin