Joe

Trump just posted this photo of the sharpest minds in our intelligence community hard at work during the Venezuelan operation.

No abstention. That would be the end of Starmer’s career.

I have supported him all the way because I believe he is a good man with principles.

The criticism of Trump’s invasion cannot be fudged.

100% seriously, European leaders and Commission officials should plan on the basis that the US might do this to them too, about Greenland, about tech regulation, about “Christian values”, about “free speech”, whatever.

Everyone in the command chain for this deserves to be kidnapped and rendered in shipping crates to The Hague.

I don’t know how possible this would even be, but I would like to boycott all American products and the American economy, and I think we all should.

The FIFA Peace Prize doesn't mean what it used to

FIFA peace prize in action

“I’m illegally bombing Venezuela on some trumped up charges to detract everyone from the Epstein files, my dementia and the fact I’m a greedy imbecile trying to make political change.”

There is, to my mind, no justification for the continued use by the UK Government of X as a platform for official comms. There hasn't been for some time, in fact, but if the latest developments around AI-generated image abuse and CSAM don't change the policy I really don't know what will.

Think @sundersays.bsky.social is accurate here.

The UK has not suddenly become much more racist.

However the (re)normalisation of open racism by "respectable" right-wing media and politicians has led to both increased visibility for open racists, & radicalisation of some "soft" racists/xenophobes

It’s not about NHS services failing and much more about people being overreactive idiots after Covid. I would be so embarrassed to rock up at A&E to get treated for a cold.

@ottoenglish.bsky.social @telegraph.co.uk

The fruits of Brexit coming back again.

Coffee shop chains 'invade' Bristol - and independents fight back You may think Gail's took over the city - but there's at least one other bakery cafe in Bristol that beats them in numbers

This really annoys me. Pinkman’s has five stores in Bristol while Gail’s has three. Why is Pinkman’s still an ‘independent’ and Gail’s is destroying the local economy?

www.bristolpost.co.uk/whats-on/foo...

@bristolpost.co.uk

Ty Mitchell Ty Mitchell (born c. 1991) is a British southpaw boxer from Derby, England, standing at 6 feet 4 inches with a professional record of 5 wins and 2 losses as of 2025. A promising amateur prospect in hi...

Excellent. Just read a little bit further in, you’ll see why.

grokipedia.com/page/Ty_Mitc...

I had hoped for a Labour government whose sole purpose was not to be in office.

I am quite far to the right of the Bluesky consensus, but am very disappointed.

I appreciate the problems are intractable. But they governing.

Asylum system in UK ‘out of control’ and dividing country, home secretary says Shabana Mahmood to unveil new proposals modelled on Denmark’s controversial system

The Prime Minister said in September that we are at a fork in the road. These asylum proposals suggest we have taken the wrong turning.

The idea that recognised refugees need to be deported is wrong.

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

It's real, and it's mind-blowing.

A complete lack of awareness and a national embarrassment.

I am starting a petition to ban Erling Haaland from #FPL. Simply by having him as your captain you can trash all other teams. It’s ridiculous. 2/3rds have him anyway. Get rid and it’ll be a fairer, more proper game.

Signed:
Me, rueful I didn’t select Erling #Haaland in August

1980:
NHS spending as a % of GDP: 5.1%
Defence spending as a % of GDP: 5%

2024:
NHS spending as a % of GDP: 10.9%
Defence spending as a % of GDP: 2.2%

This is such a common applause line, but it’s also total bullshit.

Is saying that the Jews run the world antisemitic or just vigilant? Tune in for next week's episode of "is it racist to be racist"

News media "impartiality" has spread from party political disputes to much more basic matters of right and wrong, even matters of true and false. But where there is growing bias is in favour of the sensational and superficial. The result is a media environment ideal for boosting far-right populism.

Moderating freedom of uninformed speech would of course carry great risk, and at the moment fuck knows how we’d do it, but I present the argument so we can use freedom of informed speech to begin the discussion.

14/14 ends

We do it a little bit, like with Ofcom, but also not really as it has very, very little impact, and certainly none on freedom of uninformed speech. We need to find a way to do it properly and effectively.

13/14

We must do the same with speech. Uninformed speech will destroy speech, like fully free markets would destroy the economy.

12/14

And so, we moderate free markets: we use taxes, competition laws, government oversight etc to sustain true freedom in markets.

11/14

However, free markets require moderation. Markets without limits would quickly lead to a collection of wealth in the hands of the few, such as in monopolies. This would result in fewer products, price rises and ultimately a reduction in liberty.

10/14

There’s a strong parallel with markets. Some will disagree I’m sure (and that’s OK) but I believe free markets provide enormous benefit to society and to individual liberty. We are able to easily obtain things of benefit to us and the economy grows with power, improving standards for all.

9/14

We need freedom of speech. But warped freedom of uninformed speech will kill it off. The rise of authoritarianism will see to that, no problem. And, of course, it will be because of freedom of uninformed speech.

8/14