Segundo Volante

What's your Mount Rushmore of the Mount Rushmore lists that you've done?

Written by a doctor at St Thomas' Hospital, London after the Tommy Robinson march on 13/9. 'I was the anaesthetic consultant on call at St Thomas' Hospital yesterday. It is on the south side of the bridge that these racists marched over for 5 hours; right under the windows of the hospital chanting their hateful, vitriolic, violent slogans. It was not lost on me that in our emergency handover meeting of around 15 people at 8am, I was one of only two white British members of staff. The NHS would collapse without the remarkable work that colleagues who are immigrants and the children of immigrants do. This "protest" was not peaceful as we know. Many broke through what were pretty puny barriers to get into the hospital grounds. Security (all non-white and being incredibly measured) had to fend them off at the main entrance. No police. No other help. Lots of very scared non-British workers inside the building. Lots of the staff on duty with me were really scared about getting home safely. Many booked rooms in the nurses' accommodation overnight because they didn't dare leave. I drove several to nearby stations to avoid what was by 5pm an intimidating, abusive, drunken rabble. Our chief exec sent a weak email on Thursday saying, effectively, everyone is valued in our hospital. She was nowhere to be seen on Saturday. Colleagues and I are going to write to her to say that the Trust's response before and on the day was wholly inadequate but I also think NHS leaders and the government need to denounce the overtly racist elements of the march (i.e. most of it) and publicly support non-British NHS workers. They must stop equivocating for fear of offending a group of the electorate that they foolishly think might vote for them, and take a damn stand. They are leaving a vacuum for the radical right; either fight or step aside and let someone else try to save the soul of the country.

I was shocked to see lots of families with their teens proudly marching. People need to get involved and counter this appalling rhetoric. It's completely disgusting. We need to try to understand why they believe the far right's lies, counter those lies and offer a genuine alternative for ordinary people otherwise we will be in the US's shoes with Farage at the helm. I will do whatever I can to help in this cause but it is urgent. Labour are not doing anything effective. Those groups/parties planning to provide an alternative need to get their A's into G and start campaigning loudly. Farage spent the summer holding weekly press conferences while the government went on holiday. I felt embarrassed to call myself British in front of my incredibly brave but distressed colleagues yesterday. I'd welcome everyone's view about the most useful steps that I and others who are equally appalled by yesterday and the rise of the far right here can most usefully do to fight back. Wishing everyone a peaceful evening.

Message from a Dr at St Thomas’ hospital:

[me, a journalist who spends all day every day on a social media app where the discovery algorithm is personally controlled by its owner, captain birdseye] you know, a lot of people are talking about fish fingers, we should probably cover that

One of my favorite genre of posts on Twitter right now is people who think grok can help them find the killer

You're getting a clear X-ray of America right now.

Look at who this country's powerful institutions choose to elevate, venerate, and celebrate.

Look at the double standards.

Look at the people who adore Charlie Kirk - then spend five minutes reviewing his hateful legacy.

This is America.

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?

Here's how the real two-tier Britain works:
1. Whatever Nigel Farage says, however stupid, is looped and discussed by the media, while left-wing voices are treated as noises off.
2. Tiny far-right protests get massive airtime, while 10s of 000s gathering for Palestine or green causes are ignored.🧵

How much is a pint of milk?

Screenshot of an article discussing online reactions to criticism of Ms. Sweeney and an American Eagle ad. It states that nearly three-quarters of critical posts had fewer than 500 views, but pro-Trump users amplified them through reposts and reshares. On July 27, large right-wing accounts like Libs of TikTok began reposting critiques, mocking them as examples of "triggered" liberals. The account, run by Chaya Raichik with 4.3 million followers on X, posted, “Keep this up Democrats. This is going to be great for you guys.”

It's taken the New York Times a decade to finally realize how the far right works. They amplify a handful of random posts by nobodies as a characterization of the entire left and then get outraged by it. That in turn drives media coverage and takes over the media cycle for weeks.

Most disappointed you don't still have the mullet

Greetings from England. I'll have to send you over some black pudding, toad in the hole and spotted dick.

Google screenshot, at the bottom of the page it says "Applying AI towards science and the environment"

Google already trying to get ahead of the coming "AI" backlash with a bit of greenwashing

I see the 'freedom of speech, defund the BBC' lot are shouting for more staff at the BBC to monitor and censor music acts again.

High Court allows UK to keep exporting F-35 jet parts to Israel The ruling comes despite the court admitting that the exports could be used in breach of international humanitarian law.

The ruling comes despite the court admitting that the exports could be used in breach of international humanitarian law.

We can excuse genocide but we can’t excuse calling for the destruction of the military actually carrying out genocide.

The only possible reason for wanting to leave the EHCR (Equality and Human Rights Commission), which is designed to protect human rights, is because you want to be able to abuse those rights. No ifs, no buts, that's your plan.

Happy Father’s Day to all the dads raising their boys to be champions.

It's called Shifty in the UK

a man is walking down a dirt road in a field ALT: a man is walking down a dirt road in a field

Fucking get in there. I know how I'm spending my Sunday.

CM Punk tweet that reads "go suck a blood money covered dick in Saudi Arabia you fucking dork"

Oh here we go

Happy birthday!!!!

#ad

Happy "far right falling out" day

Might as well fold the conservative party as Labour seems to have become them. We need a true left wing party that will actually bring change as nothing has changed since one of the last 'once in a lifetime' financial crisises. And people are getting pissed off.

Imitating Farage's imported US-style culture war bollocks is an absurdly dense idea Reform are beating Labour in the polls and pushing US-style culture war bollocks, so the idiots at Blue Labour are proposing that Starmer focus public attention on US-style culture war bollocks!

The right-wing Blue Labour faction who have enormous influence over Keir Starmer are advising him to go all-in on US-style culture war bollocks by "rooting out DEI" to pander to Reform voters.

There are multiple reasons that this is a deeply stupid and reactionary strategy.

Ahh, never heard it called that before. You learn something new every day even if that is political mismash words.

What the heck is a fiscal event...

A legend

X-Files in the streets. Twin Peaks in the sheets