A.V. Deggar

Tom Freeman @tomfreeman.bsky.so... • 1h → Replied to Stephen Bush I find it insultingly dishonest when news reporters say things like "the government completely lost control of the news agenda" when what they mean is "this is what we have decided to talk about"

100% agree, incredibly obnoxious to boot

And it's just going to get more pronounced.

2026 must be the year a Left Alternative/Progressive Front starts to formalise it's bonds.

Well, shit. We are absolutely here already.

Well, well, well. Look who it isn't—riding onto the front pages and stuffing the airwaves to spare the government's blushes, yet again.

Petty, maybe. But I am afforded that pettiness because this hollow man & his coterie of cookie-cutter lobbyists & blandroids have wasted a historic, generational opportunity to set the country I live in back on the right track, & instead they've been a tool of continuity and midwife to fascism.

Poor Eve, she didn't deserve it.

Kev Starmer sounds like he could batter the Stellas of a Wednesday eve

John S. Locke states in The Art of Correspondence (1884): In closing a letter never subscribe yourself Yours, &c. &c. is an abbreviation of etc., which is an abbreviation from the Latin words et cetera, meaning and others, or, and so forth; forth means onward or forward. Hence there can be no propriety in saying I am yours and others, or I am respectfully yours and onward. This awkward expression is very common in business letters. Printers frequently abbreviate the complimentary closing of a letter, and to save type or time they print Yours, &c, which implies that the letter is closed in the usual form. Doubtless some thoughtless writer seeing this, concluded that it looked well and gave the letter an air of business despatch; hence it came into its present improper use.

This "Yours etc" thing has pissed me off so much that I did some reading into it.

Turns out that it's just an erroneous form of something that's an improper use to start with, but it arose from people trying to appear more important & professional than they actually were.

Which is so on brand.

There's a hilarious picture where he looks gormless and startled like he's just been woken abruptly from a post-lunch kip, and I can't find it for the life of me. Wish I'd saved it!

So am I. When we did that to Jol I've never felt so depressed as a football fan the next day.

Yeah exactly what I was thinking as well. Man Utd waiting till the stock exchange is closed for the day or however they've done things since Moyes.

It's almost inevitable

And let's not forget (c) here, which is all important.

bsky.app/profile/avde...

I think the New Year reset might be Starmer himself getting the boot.

Starmer has full confidence in Mandy, 9/9/2025

Mandy sacked 11/9/2025

A reminder that Starmer's "full confidence" in Peter Mandelson lasted all of two days....

Funny how things work out like that 🤷

A reminder that Starmer's full confidence in Peter Mandelson lasted for two days.

PM has confidence in Chancellor

She's done, then.

Great point. In mainstream media parlance, I think:

Activist = amateur, anti-status quo, anti-establishment, radical.

Academic = professional, pro-status quo, establishment, moderate.

Language absolutely matters, and the "activist" in this case is the BBC. Again.

😆

Our Kev

🏆

😆

🤢

😂

I'm glad I didn't see or hear this in person 😶

Yep, that tracks. Good job we are stepping into a France post-2017 political reality, he's already practiced his lines.

Remember when he sacked Rebecca Long-Bailey for sharing an interview with Maxine Peake when one tiny bit of the article was her stating that Israeli security forces provided training to American police forces?

The grown-ups are back in charge etc

A fax machine. Like magic in the 90s, honestly. With the most toxic paper you could ever conceive of