Forever-Ago

Can You Please Stop Telling Me To Live My Best Life Please Thoughts On The Advice Pandemic

Dear modern digital culture. Please stop telling me how to be the best version of me. I'm ok with being, with the exception of the odd day here and there, the fifth or sixth best version of me, with all the chaos, foibles and happy unpredictability that entails: tomcox.substack.com/p/can-you-pl...

Rachel Reeves hints at tax rises in autumn budget after welfare bill U-turn Initially aimed at saving £5.5bn, the watered-down welfare bill now leaves the government with an estimated £5.5bn black hole - close to breaching the chancellor's fiscal rules set out last year.

Rachel Reeves hints at tax rises in autumn.

The bottom 20% pay a higher proportion of income in taxes than the richest 20%. This must change.

Tax capital gains and dividends at same rate as wages, charge them NIC too.

Levy wealth tax, financial transactions tax, windfall tax on profiteers.

I can’t believe I need to spell this out – but Trump is not your daddy | Arwa Mahdawi From the Maga crowd to Nato’s secretary general, everyone is addressing the president of the US as if he was their actual father. Make it stop, writes Arwa Mahdawi

I can’t believe I need to spell this out – but Trump is not your daddy | Arwa Mahdawi

One big happy family

Hear me out: what if E.T. never went back to space and just slowly became a rock troll so he could be with Elliott forever?

Tens of thousands defy Hungary’s ban on Pride in protest against Orbán Crackdown on Pride is part of effort to curb democratic freedoms ahead of a hotly-contested election next year Tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets of Budapest in defiance of the Hungarian government’s ban on Pride, heeding a call by the city’s mayor to “come calmly and boldly to stand together for freedom, dignity and equal rights”. Jubilant crowds packed into the city’s streets on Saturday, waving Pride flags and signs that mocked the country’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán, as their peaceful procession inched forward at a snail’s pace. Continue reading...

Tens of thousands defy Hungary’s ban on Pride in protest against Orbán

Some 100 private jets will fly to Venice for Jeff Bezos' wedding, and I recycle yoghurt cup lids.

Ex-world leaders call for ‘powerful shift’ as they warn of extreme inequality Former leaders urge current state heads to work together to end poverty amid potential of first trillionaires emerging The world is facing a looming crisis of inequality that could see the first trillionaires emerge while nearly half of humanity still languishes in poverty, a group of 40 former presidents and prime ministers warns. In a letter seen by the Guardian, the group – which includes ex-British prime minister Gordon Brown – issues a joint appeal to current world leaders for a “new economic coalition of the willing” to address the escalating threats of inequality, poverty and environmental breakdown. Continue reading...

Ex-world leaders call for ‘powerful shift’ as they warn of extreme inequality

1. Rolls-Royce SMR selected to build small modular nuclear reactors 2. Thousands of jobs to be created as government announces multi-billion-pound investment to build Sizewell C 3. System to distribute surplus food to the most vulnerable 4. Fairer system for debt collection 5. Compensation to postmasters reaches £1 billion milestone 6. Winter fuel allowance reinstated with £35k cap 7. £187m Tech First scheme to get school kids ready to work in AI 8. Extend ban on destructive bottom trawling 9. £86 billion boost to science and tech to turbocharge economy 10. £113bn of new capital investment in homes, transport and energy at the forefront of the spending review 11. Over 6,000 arrests and 9,000 visits carried out across the UK in illegal working 12. Digital marketplace to help change how the UK public sector buys technology

Another raft of good things being undertaken by our hard working Labour government. Just in last 7 days. All on Gov website because it’s not in the media!

Yes, I’ve noticed none of this is reported by MSM.

Non-voters are Nigel Farage’s secret weapon The “hang the paedos, fund the NHS” constituency is not moving left.

Low information, low education, high prejudice. Like those new voters who turned out for Trump in November.

Quite the compliment coming from one of my favorite accounts on this platform.

Thanks for all you do, Rick!

From your fan, Mar🐫

A country lane on the southern edge of Dartmoor.

A Cornish country lane in May

A country lane on the edge of the Quantocks

Another lovely Dartmoor lane in spring

AREN'T COUNTRY LANES BRILLIANT?

I'm keeping the paywall permanently off this lane-themed piece I wrote, to try to tempt people to subscribe to my Substack: tomcox.substack.com/p/once-upon-...

P.S. It works much better if you read it right to the end. I promise.

There's an audio version too.

The White House. The actual White House.

This is the attitude of every abuser, who is now fearful of the consequences of their abuse.

A country lane on Dartmoor at Sunset.

A Cornish country lane in summer.

A country lane on the edge of the Quantocks.

Another lovely Dartmoor lane.

Aren't country lanes brilliant?
tomcox.substack.com/p/once-upon-...

Five linoprint bookmark designs by my mum, Jo.

Look at these beautiful linoprint bookmarks - made by my mum, Jo - that have just arrived in the post.
I'll be sending these out for free to the next 20 people who order a hardback of my recent novel, 1983, direct from me.
Details below...

I hope everyone realizes that scrubbing historical references from web sites is no different than burning books

A photograph of the sun setting over the River Severn, as viewed from an ancient hill fort in Gloucestershire, but which I'm passing off as the landscape in my novel Villager - inaccurately, since the book is set in Devon, although more specifically is also set on a moor that is supposed to serve as a parallel universe version of Dartmoor, with its own legends, ghosts and lost psychedelic music.

I've removed the paywall permanently from this piece, which is a chapter from my novel Villager, told entirely in the form of an online village message board. If you like it, you'll probably like the book. If you don't, you won't... tomcox.substack.com/p/the-villag...

@fpwellman.bsky.social: You can’t say, on one hand, "I can't trust the government, they’re all bureaucrats," and then say, on the other hand, "Well, they're all criminals because the government said so—so let’s ship them to El Salvador forever."

You're fucking losing your minds if you think so.

Please share!!! This is getting ridiculous—they just can’t accept a loss. Please help spread the word to North Carolina. The North Carolina Court of Appeals ruled in a 2-1 decision that over 60,000 votes cast in last year’s closely contested state Supreme Court race must be verified and recounted.

Wake Up! Your House is Burning!

The image is a screenshot of a tweet from Comrade Sisko (@Pinko69420 ), accompanied by two fist bump emojis. The tweet includes a photo of a person sitting in a car, wearing a gray Bass Pro Shops cap and glasses. Overlaid on the image is white text that reads: "Let's start with a 200% tariff on podcast equipment for straight men." The background outside the car window shows a clear sky, power lines, and some buildings.

Guys really do love to hear themselves talk, huh.

Quite a lot more writing (to say the least) on this theme - and others - here, most of which is free to read for three months after it appears: tomcox.substack.com

Oh those hummingbird hawk moths are incredible. I’ve only seen them a few times!

What a Trump victory will mean, is the completion of the annihilation of Palestine and others, abandoning of Ukraine/Europe to aid Russia's invasion, US/ Israeli war against Iran, the return of CIA death squads in the Middle East and Africa, economic collapse, and so on.

Nov 5, 2024

I have this charming book and I'd recommend it

NEW: Today in Instanbul, Turkey.

A people fighting for democracy & against authoritarianism. This is how you do it!

Chairman of Republican People’s Party, Özgür Özel:

“Today, 2.2 million of our citizens overflowed Maltepe Square. This is just the beginning. This nation will not remain silent.” 🇹🇷