Andy O'Hara

I hope every Labour MP considering whether to support Shabana Mahmood's asylum plans remembers Nigel Farage's assessment that the “Home Secretary sounds like a Reform supporter.”

If they support them they will too.

Map showing successive dispersals of humans, homo erectus and Neanderthals from 200,000 to 700 years ago

Overview map of the peopling of the world by early humans during the Upper Paleolithic, following the Southern Dispersal paradigm.

Look, for fuck’s sake, humans have been migrating continuously for our entire existence.

Every single human in the world is the product of migration.

It’s what humans do. There is nothing *more* human.

That’s never going to change.

Just grow up, get the fuck over it and plan accordingly.

"Should These People Exist?" Live on the BBC at Ten The surreal, exhausting, frustrating battle of pretending "both sidesing" is a form of legitimate debate

I honestly didn’t think I would have time to put anything out, but then the cat woke me at 5, I got annoyed by a gleeful Telegraph at 6:10 and suddenly the hours up to 08:30 and my lunchbreak became very, very productive.

The letter the BBC could send back to Trump A proposal for a reply to his $1bn claim

The letter the BBC could send back to Trump - brilliant stuff from @davidallengreen.bsky.social open.substack.com/pub/emptycit...

Ignoring the harms of Covid is a political choice. Greens Against Covid

The long term harm caused by #Covid is well-documented in hundreds of thousands of research papers and clinical reports.

#longcovid @greenparty.org.uk @greensorganise.bsky.social

an adorable baby bison with long legs, a chonky body and no neck

you have been visited by Baby Bison and will now enjoy 48 hours of elevated serotonin

Amy Madigan Is Back in the Spotlight. It’s Making Her Nervous Her performance as the creepily clownish aunt in 'Weapons' has relaunched her career and made her an Oscar frontrunner — not to mention the year's most unlikely Tiktok star.

Amy Madigan! Mainly for the pictures, which are ace. Beware massive WEAPONS spoilers with no warnings) in the text. Doesn't mention Walter Hill's STREETS OF FIRE, love her in that.

Boring Fund | Christina Poulton Applications now open! £200 grants available for small charities, CICs and voluntary groups towards some of those boring but hard-to-fund costs.

This might be of interest to a few people

The Boring Fund: Small (£200) grants to UK non-profits, charities and voluntary groups who just need a bit of help to pay for boring running costs like web hosting, admin, insurance etc

Apply by 30 November

www.christinapoultoncreative.co.uk/boring-fund

NION Women Rejects Anti-Trans Narrative at Kenwood Ladies Pond Image of women swimming in the wild

🏊‍♀️The women who swim at Kenwood Ladies Pond have already made their decision.

In 2024, almost 900 members voted to keep their trans-inclusive policy - a policy that has worked peacefully since 2019.

Now, a small campaign group is seeking to overturn that democratic decision through the courts.

1/5

Nigel Farage MP pictured smiling with Nathan Gill, former Reform UK leader in Wales who has pleaded guilty to eight counts of taking bribery while being a Member of the European Parliament. In exchange for money, Nathan Gill used parliamentary speeches to speak in favour of Russia.

I have updated my official log of lobbying and policy meetings for the past three months.

This should be a basic requirement for all MPs. We all need to know who those who serve us meet with, and in whose interests they act.
www.sianberry.org.uk/official-mee...

Or maybe we should provide a universal basic income for ALL humans, no exceptions, no means tests (just take it back from the billionaires at income tax time).

Humans shouldn't need to work to live.

We are not work machines!

What if dinner was public infrastructure? A Scottish charity wants to reintroduce state-subsidised diners for all—potentially a big ask in the current political climate.

A charity is gaining momentum pushing for state-subsidised diners to be reintroduced across the UK to improve access to affordable, healthy, and climate-friendly food.

Not everyone is convinced, however, that there's a chance in the current political climate.

My latest for Sower ⬇️

Image showing a Halloween special offer from Long Covid Advocacy. At the top, the logo reads LONG COVID ADVOCACY. Below this, in large, bright pink neon text is the offer: FREE DELIVERY. The middle of the image features three carved Halloween pumpkins (jack-o'-lanterns) with different smiling faces. Below the pumpkins, there is a line of pink text: ALL PROFITS TO RESEARCH! The next line reads: Halloween spesh offer open all weekend. Underneath that, in smaller pink text, is the duration: FRI - SAT - SUN. At the bottom right, the website address is listed: longcovidadvoc.shop. In the bottom left corner, there is a small photo of a man with a white beard wearing a black t-shirt.

🎃 HALLOWEEN SPECIAL 🎃

Our shop has been tootling away & a huge thank you to those who have supported it!

🖇️
longcovidadvoc.shop

Jane Bown: eye to eye with the artists | The Observer Memories of the late photographer who, over a 60-year career at the Observer, indelibly captured cultural icons from Hockney to Bacon

Very interesting article on Jane Bown, one of the best portrait photographers, with some great examples of her work observer.co.uk/culture/phot...

Votes by party for and against Nigel Farage's bill for the UK to leave the European Convention on Human Rights. Ayes (for: 95), mostly Conservatives with Reform, DUP and Traditional Unionist Voice defeated by Noes (against: 155) mostly Lib Dems and Labour, with SNP, Greens, Plaid Cymru, Ulster Unionist, others. Source: UK Parliament, 29 October 2025.

Thank you, the 63 Labour MPs who pushed back against instructions not to vote and helped defeat Farage's bill to leave the #ECHR. No matter if some see the bill and the vote as symbolic. It was symbolic of an attack on human rights — you had the courage of conviction to help stop it in its tracks.

Asylum seekers, housed in hotels in Manchester, are reaching out in their own words to address the concerns of the local community.

Please take a minute to read their letter, & share it with the people in your life who need to hear the truth about the people they are protesting.

Cover of Sleepless by Lou Morgan, showing a silhouette of a girl on a purple background overlaid with text reading “the nightmare begins when you’re awake”

With Halloween and long nights coming up, and mock-exam season just around the corner, it feels like a good time to usher my study drug / exam stress horror set in and around London’s Barbican, Sleepless, out of the shadows.

www.amazon.co.uk/Sleepless-Re...

Image of the mechanical ladder outside the Louvre Text below says WENN'S MAL WIEDER SCHNELL GEHEN MUSS (When you need to move fast) Underneath is more German text which translates as "The Böcker Agilo transports your treasures weighing up to 400kg at 42m/min - quiet as a whisper."

The German company that makes the mechanical ladder used in the Louvre heist has used the image to advertise, with the text 'When you need to move fast'

10/10 response, no notes

I’m so happy to see this.

@johnsweeneyroar.bsky.social is one of our own. Like @thenerve.news he’s an old Observer hand. Later at BBC he did everything, but in 2018, he found himself blocked from one particular subject…Russia & Brexit.

Please give him a hand…Sweeney’s coming home 👏👏👏

It's almost as if 2024's massive rejection of mealy-mouthed, downward-spiral, centre-right, blame-the-poor, end-game-capitalism, austerity-obsessed politics was a signal to Labour that the country was desperate for something else.

My comfort in folklore often comes from the fact it ratifies the truths that greed is an evil, tyranny is to be opposed and manners matter. If it legitimises a fear of trespassing against the common good by the rich, it is performing one of its fundamental roles. – #CLNolan #FolkloreThursday

Did You Reconnect With Deep Lake?: (Re)playing Public Access — Broken Hands Media Cary is a librarian, with family still living in Deep Lake, when he and his friends return for the summer. “Friends” might be a bit of stretch: they’re almost strangers, who have reconnected in the su...

I wrote about Public Access from the perspective of a repeat player: www.brokenhandsmedia.com/blog/2025/10...

This is the usual sulky-baby nonsense but what a delicious treat it would be if the mad authoritarian racists just… left

Is there a walled-up secret chamber available at Glamis?

Study finds only thing worse than being ignored is being perceived The only thing worse than nobody noticing you is somebody acknowledging your stupid, embarrassing existence, a study has revealed. The study, conducted by researchers who had reportedly “run out of…

The study, conducted by researchers who had reportedly “run out of ideas”, showed that while going through life feeling invisible is painful, it’s nowhere near as bad as someone making a comment on a minor change to your appearance.

Riot Women: dear gods that was f'n excellent. Hoping to see more.

"What treasure did your adventure yield?" villagers would ask on her return.

"None," she would laugh, "except memories, scars, and a favour owed me by a wolf!"

Or a dragon, toad, sow, or gorgon.

"When will you call in all the favours owed you?"

"Only when I must," she said.

She never had to.

This is Bryn Carpenter, ex-collier, who lost his son Desmond 59 years ago today, in the disaster at Aberfan. His daughter Jean, who survived, was a lovely lady; she was very helpful in getting Bryn to be interviewed. You can watch my interview with Bryn here www.youtube.com/watch?v=siWH...

And that's the sort of thing I'd normally nope out on myself as well... back to hermit mode till my brain's actually functioning

Fair points- the morning brain fog hadn't really clocked anything beyond the text itself.