Graeme Macdonald

Badenoch: I don’t wan’t to escalate but I want to escalate in order to de-escalate. And we should drill the North Sea. And we should get more bombs and bomb things.

#r4today

The DC Metro tho. A wondrous thing. Sorta Public Works era Science Fiction. The SPACE of each station. Like a world in which all the city seems underground too….for a Glaswegian like me it felt GIANT

The full pathetic weight of the BBC “but” there, ostensibly allowing the room for racist views. I’m now listening to Farage claim that Immigration causes potholes. Incredible. Do they think of the social consequences of their broadcast oxygen? #r4today

cool cool - but do you stop being funny after 50?
(uhm, maybe even 40....) 🤔

“The Board of Peace has rejected your plea for peace assistance due to your poor location.”

Farage uses term “retreating icecaps” in his disingenuous remarks on Trump and Greenland. A word useful to climate deniers and equivocators who can’t confirm acceptance of warming. “Retreat” sounds like the ice has agency. It doesn’t. It’s melting because human actions are causing it to melt.

'How can Sarwar be trusted on transport now?' Rich donors have corroded our democracy by turning it into their plaything and undermining the interests of the people. It is time for that to end,…

The principle reason for the rotten, deadly mess we’re in today is this: over the decades the rich bought up political parties with donations turning government into a corporate plaything which works against the interests of the people

From that all miseries flowed

In @heraldscotland.bsky.social

If an outcome of the incoming global tariff wars is some sort of cool-looking, Euro-brutalist vibe, minimal function yet highly efficient portable mobile devices to replace all our attention-farming US-tech, then great, bring it on.

*No more than three 'apps' (which will not be called 'apps')

Never forget: never let anyone else forget either.

All the posts pointing out historical antipathy in tweets between Jenrick and Farage as Gotchas are fair game but ultimately weak sauce. Ethical solidity doesn’t work with the Reform convinced voter. They will simply see the move as further proof of the growth of the movement. Bygones, etc. Get real

This entire thread is exactly right about what’s happening at Edinburgh.

🧵A political/media guide to the "truth" about net-zero

1) Add up costs to install & run a net-zero energy system
2) Pretend fossil-fuelled alternatives wld be free
3) Do say "eco zealots are bankrupting us"
4) Don't say "free cars if we scrap net-zero" cos it sounds ridiculous
5) That's it!

1/10

Wait did #wato just compare Chamberlain’s WW2 behaviour to Labour’s change of mind on pubs? Amazing. So lazy it reaches to specious.

Three weeks ago...

Minerals.
MineralsMineralsMinerals
MineralsMineralsMinerals
OilOilOilOilOilOilOilOilOilO
MineralsMineralsMinerals
MineralsMineralsMinerals
MineroilMineroilMineroilM
Oh Green Land

#r4today

Palantir lands biggest ever UK defense deal The £240 million contract with the Ministry of Defence has renewed a debate about Britain’s dependence on American technology.

“Palantir, a technology company with close ties to the Trump administration has cemented its role analyzing data for the U.K.’s military — despite an ongoing standoff between the two governments over trade and digital regulations.”
www.politico.eu/article/pala...

Nick Robinson: “So, when we think of the Arctic we have to think about more than polar bears?” I mean, come on #r4today it’s not children’s hour.

Badenoch: I believe in climate change and therefore I am for more oil and less emissions reductions plans. I am for a rules based order but I’m also not.

It’s just all sound and bullshit. No wonder folk despair at the state of British political leadership.

#r4today

I'd call it "Nostromo"

Nostromo Rail.

75% of Reform UK’s donations have come from just three rich men Calls grow for donation caps as Democracy for Sale research reveals that three-quarters of Reform’s funding comes from a trio of wealthy donors

🔴 Nigel Farage’s Reform is more reliant on super-rich backers than any major party in modern British political history

75% of *all* Reform donations *ever* have come from just three rich men

Is this what democracy looks like?

New on Democracy for Sale
democracyforsale.substack.com/p/75-of-refo...

It’s now just a priced-in detail that Trump gets a made-up award on stage, in front of the world’s media. The sheer cringe of it is overlooked quite quickly because we are used to this now. It is an age of fascism moment.

Q: Do you feel that dynamic also applies to ticket prices? People are spending thousands on tickets to these games, and others can’t go because of how dynamic pricing has impacted the cost. Fifa has a responsibility to create revenue for their member associations, but do they also have a responsibility to allow fans to affordably access this tournament that’s meant to be so transformative? A: I equate it to a Taylor Swift tour. Somehow people are able to pay the price and find their way, in some cases, to remote venues. So where there’s a will, there’s a way, and especially in soccer fans, there’s a will. [Dynamic pricing] is the reality of today. With Taylor Swift, you’ve got young people somehow coming up with several thousand to go to a concert. And if they didn’t have dynamic pricing, it would still be the same, because everybody would go to the after-market, and they’re going to end up paying what the market price is. It’s today’s world. And yes, it does mean that a lot of middle-class, working people and their families are priced out. I don’t mean to sound unsympathetic, but it’s the free market at work.

Thought this was an interesting answer re: dynamic pricing. www.theguardian.com/football/202...

It was a brilliant reveal. These guys are Business first and last. The shallowness of the response to capital basically being allowed to have its way was chilling. The notion that *nothing can be done* about dynamic pricing tells us how much they gain from it. I was sickened by that answer.

Sorry but late capitalism and FIFA and the US are making it hard for me to get on board….#worldcup2026

I’ve been listening to #r4today for 1 hour. I’ve heard the veneration of Shakespeare (again); Michael Gove on Roger Scruton; some coded trans bashing (again, usual names involved); immigration as the cause of economic inequality. A discussion on how to repair division recommended more high culture.

#wato, so amidst all the defending the bbc against accusations of its left bias, an item where a formal general argues for military impunity, followed by Laffer himself arguing for tax cuts! Without an opposing view. God, they make it hard to defend them…..

The gallbladdering numbnuts who complain of the BBC’s bias while lauding GBNEWS et al. The BBC are as left wing as John Major. And still they howl. Man, it’s a big slide this new popular fash….they won’t be happy until the news is read every night from a Spitfire.

Imagine the power! No sun for you, Florida! What’s that, London, you want some more sun? What’s in it for us?

I am going to get Glasgow City Council to make a formal bid to control this constellation. I mean weegies *controlling* the Sun. Imagine.

"It is advising passengers not to travel to or from destinations on the line north of Preston."

This line is the kind of statement that drives me crazy. What, are those of us with train tickets and houses "north of Preston" just to wander nomadically around the south of the country until the fix?