@marksfretwell.bsky.social
🕊️⚖️🇺🇳🌍🫒🌳📚♾️
We autistics mask - we do it to protect ourselves. It's lovely if you'd like to let us reduce how much we have to mask, but please make sure you really mean it! #Autism
09.02.2026 07:01 — 👍 2 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0
I made a map of 3.4 million Bluesky users - see if you can find yourself!
bluesky-map.theo.io
I've seen some similar projects, but IMO this seems to better capture some of the fine-grained detail
Instead of conferring titles, gongs and baubles and then demanding those titles, gongs and baubles be removed…
…perhaps as a modern, mature polity we should have far fewer titles, gongs and baubles in the first place.
The long slippery slope to a fascist dictatorship
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Dear USA
Policing and law enforcement losing the confidence of the community does not end well.
Yours,
Great Britain and Northern Ireland
The inescapable view that on both the UK and USA, Charles de Gaulle was absolutely right.
07.01.2026 17:41 — 👍 546 🔁 118 💬 5 📌 0
The final part of Macron’s statement published on his Instagram account. It reads: No intimidation or threat will influence us—neither in Ukraine, nor in Greenland, nor anywhere else in the world when we are confronted with such situations. Tariff threats are unacceptable and have no place in this context. Europeans will respond in a united and coordinated manner should they be confirmed. We will ensure that European sovereignty is upheld.
What makes this statement by Emmanuel Macron so unprecedented is, for the first time, a leading European ally is equating Trump with Putin.
“No intimidation or threat will influence us - neither in Ukraine, nor in Greenland, nor anywhere else in the world.”
EVERYTHING has changed.
“The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.” —George Orwell (1984)
08.01.2026 15:32 — 👍 17677 🔁 6631 💬 396 📌 231Remember when every leader wanted their picture taken with Greta? She is still that truth teller, they just can't face the truth of their crimes.
23.12.2025 18:33 — 👍 1207 🔁 326 💬 14 📌 5
Panel 1. A character holding a mobile phone. Ping! An alert arrives: "Your order has been received!" (Image of happy-looking book) Panel 2. Ping! "Your item has been dispatched!" (Image of happy-looking van, driving along) Panel 3. Ping! "Your package has been delivered!" (Image of happy-looking box on doorstep) Panel 4. Ping! "Your book has been neglected: left on the shelf, unread and forgotten, gathering dust for several months." (Image of unhappy-looking book, dusty and covered with cobwebs, accompanied by a spider) Panel 5. The character looks sad and guilty about the unread book. Panel 6. Ping! "Your order has been received!" (Image of new, happy-looking book)
My cartoon for this week’s @theguardian.com books.
Lots more here: www.theguardian.com/books/series/tom-gauld-s-cultural-cartoons
Where I still find hope for deomocracy in the UK www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/10...
12.10.2025 06:36 — 👍 47 🔁 19 💬 3 📌 2Are signed copies of your new book going to be available anywhere @katrinanavickas.bsky.social? ✍️📚 Loved the podcast need the book.
04.10.2025 06:42 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0Autism is not a disease.
You can’t cure autism.
"Some people don’t care what we want. They want a cure for autism, and they spend a lot of time and money looking for it. This is bad for autistic people. People should spend time and money helping us live good lives."
Words by @autisticadvocacy.org.
This is not the first time the far right has declared war on autism.
I will be joining, on the side of autism, and you should too.
open.substack.com/pub/lauriepe...
Great episode. Gillian is just a wonderful interviewer, asking the right questions and reflecting on the answers.
open.spotify.com/episode/4iO4...
“The ultimate, hidden truth of the world is that it is something that we make, and could just as easily make differently.” ― David Graeber
07.05.2025 18:31 — 👍 231 🔁 86 💬 2 📌 5
The world needs a liberal Pope. What happens in Rome over the next few weeks is part of the power play that is shaping the world we will live in.
youtu.be/oMkqeNUW_3o?...
Pope Francis receiving a warming stripes stole. Photo: Vatican Media
“Never have we so hurt and mistreated our common home as we have in the last two hundred years. Reducing greenhouse gases requires honesty, courage and responsibility. Those who will have to suffer the consequences will not forget this failure of conscience and responsibility.” — Pope Francis
21.04.2025 08:48 — 👍 2592 🔁 854 💬 19 📌 27
A giant has left us: @Pontifex was a true fighter for peace and climate. Last November @miaamormottley and I met with him to discuss a new “Economics of the Common Good”. We will cherish his memory forever. YT video here. youtu.be/Ev3SOKNNtFI?...
21.04.2025 08:49 — 👍 73 🔁 15 💬 2 📌 0
They're teaching economics wrong – full interview with Ha-Joon Chang
www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGt7...
Naughty grey cat sitting in a box
Stack of books
✨GIVEAWAY✨
Smokes has taken over my CUP delivery box so it’s time for a giveaway of 2 paperback copies of Blue Helmet Bureaucrats!
UK and EU addresses only pls (soz global pals!). RT & like for entry. Will randomly select the winners next Sat. 🩵💙🩵
NEW: What does Elon Musk really want?
www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPoX...
Bring all the tea and scones in the land! It’s the National Trust’s 130th birthday. As Dame Judi says here, goodness knows what Britain would be like without it.
#HappyBirthdayNationalTrust
Warming stripes for 1850-2024, changing from blues to reds as the world rapidly warms up
The data is in. 2024 was the warmest year on record, and probably in the whole of human history – about 1.6°C warmer than the pre-industrial period.
More than 1 billion individual thermometer measurements, made by thousands of people over many decades, have been condensed into a single number.
Title: Still haven't made a new year's resolution? Let us help you generate one! Image: a diagram which asks you to input “The year of your birth added to the number of pets in your home”, “The number of days in the current month plus your shoe size” and “The sum of the first three digits in your telephone number” which will seemingly make a random resolution but actually always* makes “support your local bookshop”. *Unless you have size 68 shoes or a negative number of pets or some other nonsense in which case you will get the silly outcome you deserve.
My new year’s resolution generator for @theguardian.com. Let me know what you get!
04.01.2025 10:00 — 👍 1584 🔁 547 💬 79 📌 113
Two scientists share an office. The first, whose half of the room is neat and tidy, says “My new year's resolutions are to jog to work every day, choose the healthy option at lunch, and run a pleasant, well-ordered workspace.” The second, working in a total mess, replies “In the interests of scientific rigour, I'll be the control, and change absolutely nothing.”
Happy New Year!
(my cartoon for @newscientist.bsky.social)
I'm back. What's next?
www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgvb...
What am I going to do in 2025? youtu.be/xcaN8Kq8YHU?... 2025 is a year when I can do what I want – as technically I will have retired. And what I want to do is make educational videos.
31.12.2024 07:07 — 👍 147 🔁 34 💬 12 📌 1
Image: a huge pile of crumpled gift wrap in the corner of a room. Caption: By concealing herself within a cocoon of discarded wrapping paper and surviving on a diet of surplus festive chocolates and liqueurs, Emily hopes to read undisturbed as far into January as possible.
My cartoon for this week’s @theguardian.com Books
29.12.2024 14:50 — 👍 1362 🔁 376 💬 16 📌 38
