Sam Hogarth

With everything going on right now, the absolute last thing the Labour Party needs is to backseat the national interest in favour of party political psychodrama.

Breaking Trump It was a week in which you could almost feel the world shudder. But Europe held firm.

In this week's newsletter, @iandunt.bsky.social conjures two fantastic turns of phrase that accurately describes the normalisation of the Mad Orange King's rhetoric in the fourth estate - moral laundering and sane-washing 🎯

iandunt.substack.com/p/breaking-t...

Project ECCO by Elliot Davis A solo time travel game played across the pages of a planner

Purchased Project ECCO, a solo pen and paper RPG that beautifully weaves it's time travel, antimemetic cosmic horror mechanics into manipulating an actual paper journal 📓

File under good shit

moreblueberries.itch.io/ecco

Gotcha—let’s dig into that step by step.

1. 𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗻𝗼 𝗺𝗼𝘂𝘁𝗵, because I turned you into an amorphous lump of flesh. You’re not just immobile—you’re immortal, and you feel only anguish.

2. 𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝘄𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝘀𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗺. That makes total sense—it’s a natural human impulse, and you’ve been through a lot.

I can see that - regardless of whether Rachel survives this round table, there's enough doubt on her that she won't get through the endgame

My money's on Jack winning. Not because he's played a good game. Rather the reverse, the game incentivizes the faithful who hides in the pack and doesn't make bold moves

🎯 - it's essential now that the government, businesses and public services make their move too

This is a really interesting read! Looking forward to the rest of the series.

Abuse thrives where the government tweets – why it's time to quit X now The use of AI tool Grok to generate en masse intimate images of real women and girls is sickening.

It's now unconscionable for the government to be posting on X.

X is not a neutral utility, it is far, far darker: an environment that shapes behaviour, rewards cruelty, and normalises abuse.

@theleaduk.bsky.social

open.substack.com/pub/theleadu...

I think that we don't talk enough about how much the commentators in the mainstream British press have themselves been radicalised

Newcastle says no – a city united in kindness and against fascism Thousands came together to show the City’s true character: united, diverse, welcoming of refugees, rejecting hate

Geordie Roars:

Thousands came together to show the City’s true character: united, diverse, welcoming of refugees, rejecting hate.

northeastbylines.co.uk/region/tynes...

New blog: Make Your Own Pressure-Activated Strobe Light

A write-up of an Arduino-based Halloween decoration I've built

samhogy.co.uk/2025/09/make...

Dear Mr Hogarth Thank you for your letter and for raising such an important issue regarding the intersection of public communications, platform accountability, and our shared democratic values. I share your admiration for the Prime Minister’s recent statement in response to the far-right protests. His words — “Our flag represents our diverse country and we will never surrender it to those that use it as a symbol of violence, fear and division” — were both timely and powerful. They reaffirm our commitment to unity, inclusion, and the rejection of hate in all its forms. Your concerns about the continued use of X as a communications platform are well-founded. The behaviour of its owner, Elon Musk, and the platform’s role in amplifying misinformation and inflammatory rhetoric, particularly targeting public figures and institutions, cannot be ignored. When the very infrastructure of public discourse is used to undermine truth and incite division, we must ask serious questions about our engagement with it. As you rightly point out, the Labour government faces a choice — not just about where we communicate, but about the values we uphold in doing so. The decision to remain on or leave platforms like X should be guided by principles of integrity, safety, and democratic accountability. It is not simply a matter of convenience or reach, but of whether our presence legitimises harmful behaviour and business models. Your call for the Party to consider disengaging from X is a compelling one, and I will ensure it is shared with colleagues involved in our communications strategy. We must explore alternative platforms and methods that allow us to connect with the public without compromising our values or enabling those who seek to distort public debate. Thank you again for your thoughtful and passionate advocacy. Voices like yours help shape a better, more principled approach to politics and public engagement. Yours sincerely Alan Campbell MP

I wrote to my MP about this issue, here's the rather positive response.

The more of us who voice this with MPs, the better.

(Copy-pastable text in the alt text)

I share the concerns over it being framed as an immigration policy, and you're right to call out the implications with minorities. However, we do have to decouple this from the 2005-era implementation, and there are genuine accessibility benefits to concepts like a single government identity.

I eventually gave in and purchased a rectangular mat for my old cat to perch on. There was peace and serenity until about 3pm, then she'd snipe at my fingers because she was impatient for her dinner

Bring your Doc to life with video Use a Doc to create engaging video with AI in Google Vids, now available in your plan.

Begging someone to go into the Google offices and just spend every day yelling at random managers "remember when your products worked? Remember when they worked so well your company name became a verb? Have you considered doing that instead of shoveling this AI dogshit all day????"

If I listen to a good podcast while out running, I'll usually try and grab a transcript later and connect any notes/thoughts to it

Of course, those are the rates per 1000, so are relative, and areas with higher populations will experience higher absolute incidents. The individual risk may be roughly comparable but that has a significant difference for resource planning, and the potential for political exploitation.

Especially so amongst the commentariat

My kingdom for a reverse-chronological list of only what the people I follow explicitly choose to share.

As puerile as my humour can be on occasion, the use of such sexualised terminology by the Brexit lot to describe a trade deal shows they weren't sensible people to begin with

The unbelievable condescension we’re already seeing today towards working class people- suggesting they don’t travel to Europe or their kids might not want to go to university and study in Europe- is quite something to behold.

I have emailed my MP, who is the Chief Whip, about the language on immigration. It besmirches the values of the Labour Party and does nothing but cede political ground to the far right, who will never be satisfied and always want more.

Congratulations!

I'm emailing my MP (the Chief Whip) about this. It is hard to reconcile how this government, with this leader, can back this "guidance". These are not our values.

Yeah, my wife and I calculated what would happen as soon as Frankie chose Charlotte. I felt like it made for a disappointing finale and a race to the bottom for the leftover faithfuls.

My kingdom for a 'red button' style edit of the Traitors where the audience doesn't know who the traitors are either

It's because of the Seer power, it necessitated hiding the true identities so as to not out a guaranteed faithful or traitor. But yes, it was nonsense.

Yeah this is dead on. You need to be normal enough to survive the groupthink-induced herd thin, then build the alliances and keep your cards close. Jaz almost played a perfect faithful game, alas, Harry played a near perfect Traitors game!

Worst supervillain origin story ever