John Waine

London moments, August 2025

#streetphotography #street #London #eastcoastkin #urbangaze

They are already in a fascist state but they don't seem to realise it. They will never see fair elections and an independent judiciary again. And it will be worse once Trump is gone. The UK is heading hard down the same road now aided by the right wing press (including the BBC).

I certainly won’t again. Same cut and paste dross every time.

Usual BBC reply. A waste of time complaining to them, I’m afraid

They should simply replace Johnson's appointees with more credible, capable people. That sounds reasonable to me.

Reform UK, which has a grand total of four MPs, was just given an uninterrupted platform for an hour and a half on the BBC and Sky News channels, in order to talk about its plans for mass deportations

When was the last time the Greens (with four MPs) or the Lib Dems (with 72) were given the same?

Absolutely agree. The non-right are terrible at genuinely engaging with the mainstream. Expressing sympathy with their fears before then stating some digestible facts to a handful of friends and family feels more productive than shouting at anonymous people in the sewage pit that is Facebook.

Female blackbird in the blackberries

linktr.ee/vickyouten...

🪶🦉 #birds #wildlife #ukwildlife #nature #photography #ThePhotoHour #blackbird

Labour are undoubtedly doing some good work in the real world, but they must realise that (rather like my hopeless football team) all the hard work in midfield is pointless if you keep scoring own goals. Those teams lose games and get relegated!

This is a vision of the UK if ever it became an ‘all white English’ hell. I would be on a small boat to Calais to escape!

So thankful this life is just a rehearsal. When it is the real thing I am going to dedicate my life to studying the physics and chemistry of food. No such thing as a failed experiment there!

I'm happy with the slide into autumn and early winter, especially after a long hot summer. It's January-March I hate with a passion. What is the point of them? Long dark nights, cold days, gloomy landscapes, and Stoke City revealed as being crap yet again ...

Me too! Pilchards and sardines. Cheap and yummy.

Wife did a scratch meal of sardines cold from the tin, chips and spinach. It was aaammmaaazing! Why I wonder? The science of food fascinates me. This week I have been most researching marinades to tenderise meat. It's life changing!

And it is having an effect on the politically disinterested mainstream. I have a few 'barometer' acquaintances (barber etc) and they are talking more and more about non-white faces, hearing other languages etc.

It is terrifying how this is unfolding despite the clear lessons from history.

How much is critical thinking being taught?

Ashbourne Show 2025

#farming #eastcoastkin #cow #horse #sheep

Yes. And with his record at Coventry, he should be given the time to build slowly and solidly.

We’ll have to see how that works out against stiffer opposition who quickly suss out that one trick.

I was pleased that Robins was not too impressed with yesterday’s overall performance. It was very un-Stoke like, but encouraging, to win by such a margin in a fairly well balanced game.

I’d like to see him swap wings sometimes to mix it up a bit. He does get some nice goals though👍

Johansson, Tchamadeu, Lawal, Taloverov, Bocat, N’Zonzi, Seko, Rigo, Junho, Manhoef, Bozenik

Has Stoke ever put out an XI with no UK citizens? Could it happen?

What would Tone think ?

#stokecity

Indeed. Just reverting to a historic norm, I fear

But worryingly this will be accepted as fact by a huge swathe of the mainstream electorate. How do we connect with them when they are bombarded by this daily?

The current badge has to go but it’s a neater cleaner design than this ‘new’ one and could be developed. Why is 1863 yellow and so prominent? The Staffs Knot is a disgrace. The bottle kiln is odd. The overall design amateurish.

The club should have had the backbone to say “thanks but no thanks”

Can’t argue with that except I would maybe put Seko in for Manhoef and shuffle things round. Manhoef is so frustratingly predictable so most teams will be able to close him down. I cannot understand why he doesn’t spend most of his time on the left wing getting to the byline before crossing.

Texas cow has quadruplets! Long odds - one in 11.2 million chance. The four babies are named Eeny, Meeny, Miny, and Moo. No kidding... As my partner says, "It's all goin' on in nature". Yup! 😊 Photographer Unk.

#cows #quadruplets #oklahomanaturalist #texas #summer #oklahomaphotographer

Black and white photo taken under a steel bridge (which takes up the top half of the image) on a canal tow path. In the bottom left quarter of the frame there is a silhouette of a woman cyclist. On the edge of the bottom right corner is a silhouette of the edge of a woman's hair and shoulder. A canal barge is in the distance on the other side of the canal.

An elaborate man hole cover in a concrete floor. The steel has been cast in a pattern of two circular patterns intersected by a triangle. The original paint is now a cream colour but has flaked off revealing the steel which has rusted to a deep brown which complements the cream paint. The degradation of the pain also creates a second pattern within the pattern of the steel casting.

Inside the V&A East Storehouse, the artefacts are stored on shelves and in cages. This is a store not a curated exhibition. This black and white photo features tailor's mannequins. All are white except one black one which dominates the composition. Most are bare but one has an ornate white woman's evening top on it. The centre mannequin has a woman's head which is quite lifelike.

Inside the V&A East Storehouse, the artefacts are stored on shelves and in cages. This is a store not a curated exhibition. The walkways around the mezzanine floors are constructed of a fine galvanised steel mesh. In this photo, I have pointed the camera upwards to see the footprints of the people walking on the next floor up. Their bodies are only discernible as headless silhouettes. The mesh distorts out perception of them and makes them totally anonymous. When I first saw the thumbnail of this image on my PC, it appeared that the symmetrical lines of the mesh were swirly. This was not the case when I viewed the image at full resolution. But I liked the effect so much that I added a little 'twirl' effect in Photoshop.

'ackney Diamonds

V&A East and Hackney Canalside, London, August 2025

That’s a brilliant photograph and title!

Trust being the key word in this sentence and in life.

5. It has been centuries since any one human could know everything that is known; understand everything that is understood.

This is a remarkable power of science. We delegate trust and authority to experts as internally established in ways that are remarkably resilient to mistakes and malfeasance.

So dramatic! What a shame this isn’t in colour