David Quainton
@dqstuff.bsky.social
Writer, relentless witterer, the only me I know. Exuberance, LFC, cycling, and the surprisingly bearable lightness of being.
Pinned
David Quainton
@dqstuff.bsky.social
· Nov 15
Copying across some facts (a thread that will run on, and that is entirely true if you look it up):
1. Everest is not the tallest mountain on earth. It’s also not the furthest from the centre of the earth.
1. Everest is not the tallest mountain on earth. It’s also not the furthest from the centre of the earth.
Reposted by David Quainton
Gary Lineker: "This is the mistake the BBC makes. The BBC tries to appease the people that hate the BBC, rather than worrying about the people that love the BBC."
April 22, 2025 at 7:35 AM
Gary Lineker: "This is the mistake the BBC makes. The BBC tries to appease the people that hate the BBC, rather than worrying about the people that love the BBC."
Reposted by David Quainton
In shock news, it turns out that Brexit punched the UK economy in the face, much in the way that official forecasts in 2016 said it would punch the UK economy in the face, that were dismissed as nonsense by lying rightwing shills at the time.
Headline from a serious and long working paper on the economic impact of Brexit. Possible that this has been feeding into OBR and HMT discussions?
November 10, 2025 at 9:40 AM
In shock news, it turns out that Brexit punched the UK economy in the face, much in the way that official forecasts in 2016 said it would punch the UK economy in the face, that were dismissed as nonsense by lying rightwing shills at the time.
Perspective
Liverpool limited Haaland to his joint-lowest non-penalty xG in the league at home, missed two big chances and suffered two subjective VAR overturns for (I think) the first time ever.
The Reds weren't great but their luck was worse. My review: www.andrewbeasleyfootball.com/p/the-match-...
The Reds weren't great but their luck was worse. My review: www.andrewbeasleyfootball.com/p/the-match-...
November 10, 2025 at 9:50 AM
Perspective
Kenny Dalglish documentary is primo stuff - congrats @asifkapadia.bsky.social 👌
So much quality, on such bad pitches. Forgot what a handsome fella Hansen was when he was younger as well.
So much quality, on such bad pitches. Forgot what a handsome fella Hansen was when he was younger as well.
November 8, 2025 at 11:13 PM
Kenny Dalglish documentary is primo stuff - congrats @asifkapadia.bsky.social 👌
So much quality, on such bad pitches. Forgot what a handsome fella Hansen was when he was younger as well.
So much quality, on such bad pitches. Forgot what a handsome fella Hansen was when he was younger as well.
BBC getting into Easter, a bit late perhaps but spreading the good word.
November 7, 2025 at 11:25 AM
BBC getting into Easter, a bit late perhaps but spreading the good word.
Reposted by David Quainton
Oh how terrible, I can see why renewables are so unpopular...
Australia has so much electricity from solar power that it is going to start offering free electricity to everyone for at least three hours during the day as the wholesale price of power goes negative
electrek.co/2025/11/04/a...
electrek.co/2025/11/04/a...
Australia has so much solar that it's offering everyone free electricity
Australia's extensive solar power penetration makes so much energy that the government wants to offer free electricity at peak hours.
electrek.co
November 6, 2025 at 11:37 AM
Oh how terrible, I can see why renewables are so unpopular...
Reposted by David Quainton
Every word of this thread, especially the part about old prejudices returning at terrifying speed. What British - or, more accurately, English - complacency has allowed to happen to the EU is so dangerous.
I have spent my entire professional life understanding the British point of view on foreign policy. I get certain historic and cultural differences. But the wilder the world gets the more infuriated I become by the dismissive attitude many Brits have towards the EU as a peace project./
November 6, 2025 at 8:44 AM
Every word of this thread, especially the part about old prejudices returning at terrifying speed. What British - or, more accurately, English - complacency has allowed to happen to the EU is so dangerous.
Reposted by David Quainton
This is an extraordinary read which does make you want to bang your head against the millions of pounds of steel and concrete used to build this pointless bridge
My latest: Move over bat tunnel, here’s the wild story of how HS2 were forced to build a multi-million pound bridge for a road that… doesn’t actually exist.
How HS2 built a bridge to nowhere
A state-of-the-art road bridge has been built deep in the heart of rural Buckinghamshire. Designed to carry traffic over the HS2 railway, there's just one tiny problem - there's no actual road.
martinrobbins.substack.com
November 3, 2025 at 9:36 AM
This is an extraordinary read which does make you want to bang your head against the millions of pounds of steel and concrete used to build this pointless bridge
Reposted by David Quainton
Delighted to say that an updated and expanded version of my series on one of the most extraordinary acts in aviation history will be running on The Up Front over the coming weeks.
And even better: it's now completely free to read.
And even better: it's now completely free to read.
In December 1941, Pan Am flight 18602 was trapped the wrong side of the Pacific by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
To get home, her civilian crew would need to do the near-impossible: circumnavigate the world in commercial seaplane.
In our new series, we tell tell their remarkable story.
To get home, her civilian crew would need to do the near-impossible: circumnavigate the world in commercial seaplane.
In our new series, we tell tell their remarkable story.
The Long Way Round: The remarkable journey of the California Clipper, Part 1
In 1941, the Japanese attacked Hawaii, leaving Pan Am flight 18602 trapped the wrong side of Pearl Harbour, To get home, its civilian crew would have to do something incredible: circumnavigate the wor...
theupfront.media
October 31, 2025 at 10:23 PM
Delighted to say that an updated and expanded version of my series on one of the most extraordinary acts in aviation history will be running on The Up Front over the coming weeks.
And even better: it's now completely free to read.
And even better: it's now completely free to read.
Reposted by David Quainton
ryan is a wonderful writer and person. you people are insane.
I temporarily revived No Grass in the Clouds to write about the strangers on the Internet who are getting mad at the person I'm going to marry about an article I wrote six years ago: nograssintheclouds.substack.com/p/on-set-pie...
On set pieces and staying sane
Last week, I wrote an article about the one slippery-slope of using data in soccer that I’d always worried about: the path where everyone gets good at set pieces at the expense of everything else.
nograssintheclouds.substack.com
October 30, 2025 at 10:40 PM
ryan is a wonderful writer and person. you people are insane.
Roger Hargreaves taking notes for his next book: Mr Gesticulate.
Newsom sign language in full effect here. Like a two-armed octopus.
Newsom sign language in full effect here. Like a two-armed octopus.
Obviously California has issues but this defense of their policies by Newsom is worth watching.
TN is a low tax state - for the top. regressive for the bottom. our services and laws punish working people also (bottom in infant & maternal mortality, poverty, school spending, violent crime, etc..)
TN is a low tax state - for the top. regressive for the bottom. our services and laws punish working people also (bottom in infant & maternal mortality, poverty, school spending, violent crime, etc..)
October 30, 2025 at 6:36 AM
Roger Hargreaves taking notes for his next book: Mr Gesticulate.
Newsom sign language in full effect here. Like a two-armed octopus.
Newsom sign language in full effect here. Like a two-armed octopus.
I wonder if Slot has been focussing on the first team for the weekend, getting a week to sort out the shape etc, and just basically sacking this match off looking at that line-up.
October 29, 2025 at 7:00 PM
I wonder if Slot has been focussing on the first team for the weekend, getting a week to sort out the shape etc, and just basically sacking this match off looking at that line-up.
Not quite Hadji Hadda Eggen Chippo, but this is good
October 28, 2025 at 10:52 PM
Not quite Hadji Hadda Eggen Chippo, but this is good
Reposted by David Quainton
The whiter the area the more likely it is to have a Reform problem. Immigration isn’t the problem, otherwise you’d get Reform in more diverse areas - it’s fear of change among older people.
Buxton: Why one small town with very little immigration turned to Reform UK
How national concerns affected a local election in the heart of the Peak District.
www.bbc.com
October 28, 2025 at 8:51 AM
The whiter the area the more likely it is to have a Reform problem. Immigration isn’t the problem, otherwise you’d get Reform in more diverse areas - it’s fear of change among older people.
Hear me out:
Play Joe Gomez at left-back.
Play Joe Gomez at left-back.
October 27, 2025 at 6:29 PM
Hear me out:
Play Joe Gomez at left-back.
Play Joe Gomez at left-back.
That was the Arne Slot kick-off! Genuinely, he invented that. Wonder if anyone will pick up on it.
October 25, 2025 at 8:14 PM
That was the Arne Slot kick-off! Genuinely, he invented that. Wonder if anyone will pick up on it.
Did we know Mamardashvili can’t pass a moving ball very well before we signed him?
October 25, 2025 at 7:26 PM
Did we know Mamardashvili can’t pass a moving ball very well before we signed him?
Croix de Fer - Telegraphe-Galibier - Alpe d’Huez via the back way… this is exactly what Queen Stages of the Tour de France should look like 👌
(Obvs will be dominated by one rider and rendered largely pointless, but can confirm that every metre of the route is mega)
(Obvs will be dominated by one rider and rendered largely pointless, but can confirm that every metre of the route is mega)
October 23, 2025 at 1:00 PM
Croix de Fer - Telegraphe-Galibier - Alpe d’Huez via the back way… this is exactly what Queen Stages of the Tour de France should look like 👌
(Obvs will be dominated by one rider and rendered largely pointless, but can confirm that every metre of the route is mega)
(Obvs will be dominated by one rider and rendered largely pointless, but can confirm that every metre of the route is mega)
Reposted by David Quainton
🇨🇦 Canada is sending out agents into the streets of Toronto to deal with foreigners
October 22, 2025 at 9:12 PM
🇨🇦 Canada is sending out agents into the streets of Toronto to deal with foreigners
I imagine it’s actually an extremely popular opinion, tbh.
Can remove Remco because he’s fallible, but otherwise yes.
Can remove Remco because he’s fallible, but otherwise yes.
Unpopular opinion:
Cycling would be (much) better off if Pogačar, Jonas, MvdP and Remco retired at the end of 2023
Cycling would be (much) better off if Pogačar, Jonas, MvdP and Remco retired at the end of 2023
October 22, 2025 at 1:28 PM
I imagine it’s actually an extremely popular opinion, tbh.
Can remove Remco because he’s fallible, but otherwise yes.
Can remove Remco because he’s fallible, but otherwise yes.
Wow, they printed an article that’s literally this:
October 20, 2025 at 6:21 PM
Wow, they printed an article that’s literally this:
Reposted by David Quainton
![1
Nurse:
It’s become a real problem in this area
2
Nurse:
We’ve seen the whole community lost to addiction
3
Show a building sign posted:
Westminster ‘X’ Addiction Clinic
With various Westminster people or looking at their phones outside it
Nurse:
Ministers, Spads, Researchers…
4
Nurse:
Most mornings we’ll get a call about someone acting strangely
[Nurse on phone taking a call]
Ok - we’ll be right over
5
Nurse:
We just have a gentle chat
[Nurses approach a minister –Robert Jenrick? - standing in the Palace of Westminster
Minister:
I understand your concerns…
6
Nurse:
Are you OK love?
Minister:
Yes I’m just hearing legitimate concerns from real voters
7
Nurse:
That’s a robot, a Nazi and a poorly-disguised Russian
[Show that the people he is talking to are precisely these characters]
Nurse 2:
Give us your phone, love
8
Nurse:
At the clinic we put them in a Grass-Touching Pod, with a real voter to talk to
[We see them back at the clinic, holding the minister's head and pushing him into a glass isolation booth with a grass floor. And it is a baffled looking woman, on a chair, ready to talk to him.]
9
Minister:
YOU MUST BE WORRIED ABOUT THE COMING CIVIL WAR
[woman looks baffled]
10
woman:
I just want a bus service
Minister:
LOOK AT MY FLAG
[produces a St George's flag]
[ends]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:4m3we4apbjayclzcnhwe3pfp/bafkreicahofq6s4xow7vowj7dx6odw6ejdwr4kwcmzta7qwi4hg2nvywji@jpeg)
Apparently they’re going to demote Prince Andrew to the Earl of Cardigan because he’s not a sweater.
October 18, 2025 at 9:59 PM
Apparently they’re going to demote Prince Andrew to the Earl of Cardigan because he’s not a sweater.