Alan Read
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Alan Read
@fretwhizzy.bsky.social
260 followers 280 following 68 posts
Former Higher Scientific Officer, UK Civil Service. Left to play guitar, and grow my own guitar strings.
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Vlad's little helpers did quite a number on the UK.
brexitshambles.bsky.social brexit_sham @brexitshambles.bsky.social · 23d
According to the National Bureau for Economic Research, Brexit has had negative impact and was the catalyst for the UK’s economic downfall with GDP falling by 8%, investment down by 12% and employment down 4% from where they should all be since 2016. www.thelondoneconomic.com/politics/bre...
'GDP reduced by 8%' - Nine-year study reveals how Brexit decimated UK economy
Can't help but feel those responsible for Brexit should not, for example, be riding high in the polls with a new party...
www.thelondoneconomic.com
November 17, 2025 at 3:10 AM
Astonishing.....
monkemma.bsky.social Emma Monk @monkemma.bsky.social · Oct 29
Wow - those are quite phenomenal headlines given the details of the story.

Ahh look, he’s just a ‘nerdy’ guy. No harm done.

You need to scroll down to paragraph 13 of the Sky piece to find the full story!

🧵
1/9
October 29, 2025 at 3:25 PM
Reposted by Alan Read
profbillmcguire.bsky.social
If you live in Jamaica and are considering staying put - DON'T

This is an astonishingly powerful, slow-moving, storm that is going to have a cataclysmic impact on landfall

Wind speeds up to 160mph, a 15ft storm surge and 3ft+ of rain

FIND SHELTER NOW

www.theguardian.com/world/live/2...
Hurricane Melissa live: life-threatening category 5 storm to bring 175mph winds as it moves towards Jamaica
Jamaicans urged to seek shelter immediately, and Cuba, Haiti and Dominican Republic also threatened
www.theguardian.com
October 27, 2025 at 9:03 PM
This is my ship. I use it as something of an ice-breaker at parties.
October 23, 2025 at 4:33 PM
My shiny new Photo Driving Licence card arrived today.

Importantly, for fans of cult 1960s TV series The Prisoner, Iron Maiden fans, and assorted current or former Teenage Dirtbags, I can now loudly proclaim:

"I'M NOT JUST A FREE MAN, I'M A NUMBER TOO!"
October 17, 2025 at 1:41 PM
It's looking pretty grim folks. All this, and more, in just 3 days....
October 15, 2025 at 9:32 PM
I was eager to read a book about male sexual stamina. But, to be honest, it was something of an anticlimax.
rkemb.bsky.social Richard K @rkemb.bsky.social · Oct 14
I read a book about trepanation. Really opened my mind.
chrisjones1.bsky.social Chris Jones @chrisjones1.bsky.social · Oct 14
I read a book about kitchen roll. Very absorbing.
October 14, 2025 at 8:01 PM
It seems he fell foul of Anty-Smuggling legislation. :)
October 4, 2025 at 3:39 PM
"Snigdha has the receipts."
snig.bsky.social Snigdha @snig.bsky.social · Oct 1
Nigel Farage has been a lifelong racist. He's been a racist since his school days. David Lammy was forced to apologise for saying Farage flirted with the Hitler Youth - but what do you call it when someone sings Hitler Youth songs? Read Chloe Deakin's letter on Farage's fascism and racism at school.
From Chloe Denkin 01-734 1717 and 1778 E3 ALBANY PICCADILLY WIV ORH 4th June 1981 Dear Master, I am happy to say that I am not acquainted with N. P. Farage, of ASRY happy, because judging from hereporis i haveter ceived he is not someone with whom I would wish to be acquainted; and becaure I am, therefore, able to write on the ground of no personal prejedice, but on that conceraing p. inciple. You will recati that at the recent, and longthy, moeting about the selection of prefects, the nomads by a hegy that Sara was "a fascist, but that was no reason why ho would not make a good prefect" invoked considerable reaction from members of the Common Room. Another collesgue, who teaches the boy, des-cribed his publicly professed racist and neo-fascist views; and he citod a particular inciler in which Farage was so offensive to a boy in his set, that he had to be removed from the lesson. This mastor stated his view that that behaviour was precisely why the boy should not he made a prefect. Yet another colleague deseribed how, at a CCE camp organized by the College, Farage and others had marched through a quiet Sussex village very late at night shout-in Hitler-you songs; and when it was suggested by a master thie boys who expressed such views "don't really mean them", the College Chaplain himself commented that, on the contrary, in his experience views of that kind expressed by boys of that age are onted, and are mennt, At the end of that meeting I had not a scintilla of doubt that after the facts disclosed to you, Farage's nomination would no longer be considered. Nor, I imagine, had my colleagues; other-wise, we would have expressed ourselves even more strongly. But yesterday I was told by a senior boy, in terms of st that Farage was indeed to be selected; and today, of course, his appointment was announced in Assembly an announcement, I gather, which was met with disbelief and derision. To say that is too late to reverse this decision, or that Farage', acdir 3 will be restricted to particular areas of College te, or that he will be supervised within them, is futile. His appointment will have four immediate consequences. First, it will vastly increase his own confidence, and sense of self-justification. Secondly, he will have the privilege of listing his appointment as a profect at Dulwich College in his uni-versity and other applications. Thirdly, his peers, according to their own views, will either adopt him as an exemplar, or, as is much more likely, regard his appointment with disillusionment and cynicism when Ley observe that his notorious views and behaviour, well known to poth Master and members of the staff, are, as it would aptent, condoned by them. Fourthly, those members of the Common Room, such as myself, who believed that a firm daca fon had been reached through a democratic process, will be shock, saddened, angered, and disheartened. You will appreciate that I regard this as a very serious matter. i have often heard you tell our senior boys that they are the nation's future leaders. It is our collective responsibility to ensure that these lenders are enlightened and compassionate. As you know, the national and educational press has recently given much prominence to the growing concern at the exploitation of school pupils by extremists of all kinds. A school of the stature and high roputation of Dulwich College which openly con-domned the recent troubles in Brixton, and offered its facilities freely to the foreca of law and order, ought not to be seen laside or outside its confines to be giving its endorsement, expressly or by implication, to budding extremists of the opposite kind. A school which is proud of its selectiveness, conservatism, and discipline, cught not to allow these characteristics to degen erate into intolerance, political extremism, or bullying of the nastiest kind, in its pupils. The matter of the appointment of Farage as a prefect may be thought by some to be minuscule against these deep considerations. It is not so. I am by disposition, tolerant; and in politics, moderate. But as a member of the Common Room, I find it distasteful that a boy such as Farage should have bestowed upon him the prestige of office and authority: wore I a parent or a pupil, I would find it profoundly so. In view, as I am aware, of the wide concern within the College about this matter, I am sending a copy of this letter to the chairman of the Common Room. Yours very sincerely, David Emms, Esq., MA, The Master of Dulwich College.
October 1, 2025 at 5:47 PM
Wow...

I've never seen it framed like before, and I'd like time to reflect further before perhaps commenting in more detail, but honestly as much as I wish it were not so, my initial reaction is that I have to agree.
September 27, 2025 at 8:58 PM
Diminish a book

Crime and Reprimand
usagi3939.bsky.social Usagi @usagi3939.bsky.social · Sep 8
Diminish a book

The Crow Lane
karenattiah.bsky.social Karen Attiah @karenattiah.bsky.social · Sep 8
Diminish a book

The Grapes of Minor Annoyance
September 8, 2025 at 7:46 PM
If you're a citizen of the USA, you should be aware you may not have very long to act against the present threat, but a heck of a long time to regret not doing so....
rhutabhayga.bsky.social Rhuta Bhayga @rhutabhayga.bsky.social · Jul 9
#StaceyAbrams explains how to achieve an #autocracy in 10 steps.

We're at step 9.

The military is in our streets. Is our democracy worth the effort to defend it?
July 22, 2025 at 10:57 PM
A look at the societal mechanisms currently enabling a proliferation of unreliably evidenced beliefs....
hardeepmatharu.bsky.social Hardeep Matharu @hardeepmatharu.bsky.social · Jul 10
"Addressing real psychological & sociological needs is something those false, misinformed beliefs are doing. We actually need to try to tackle the underlying social problems, like alienation, people are grappling with"

My in-depth essay with brilliant insights from LSE's Prof J McKenzie Alexander ⬇️
The Cost of Lies: Why We Identify With Deadly Misinformation
From Covid to climate change, understanding the role unevidenced conspiracy theories fulfil for individual and social identity in a shifting world can better help explain our ‘post-truth’ age
bylinetimes.com
July 15, 2025 at 2:09 PM
Reposted by Alan Read
monkemma.bsky.social
Right, so I was asked to take a look at this headline and as you can imagine, there is a lot wrong with it! 🙄

This was initially published in
@thetimes
and then picked up by the usual GB News, DM, Telegraph etc

Let’s take a look….👀

🧵

1/26 (1/1)
Daily Mail headline: Migrants who cross the Channel into the UK 'are 24 times more likely to go to prison than Brits'
July 4, 2025 at 8:52 AM
Trump's Parade sponsors include "Scott's Miracle Gro".

Which is ....odd.

I confess I was thinking of a different kind of fertiliser, one usually quantified in "steaming piles"...
June 15, 2025 at 2:01 AM
Reposted by Alan Read
darbysaxbe.bsky.social
🚨BREAKING. From a program officer at the National Science Foundation, a list of keywords that can cause a grant to be pulled. I will be sharing screenshots of these keywords along with a decision tree. Please share widely. This is a crisis for academic freedom & science.
list of banned keywords
February 4, 2025 at 1:26 AM
Reposted by Alan Read
altcdc.altgov.info
The entire archive of CDC datasets can be found here.

HUGE shoutout to data archivists- this work is important 👏🙌🏻

archive.org/details/2025...
February 1, 2025 at 6:33 PM
"The greatest trick that Santa ever played was convincing the world he didn't exist."

Or was it Satan? Easily misremembered....
December 20, 2024 at 3:59 AM
I finally deactivated my Twitter account last night. I'd been using it pretty much passively for months, but seeing Melon Husk shilling for Tommeh made it seem unjustified to continue using it even that way.

So, yup. Twitter RIP from me for the foreseeable.
November 26, 2024 at 5:02 PM
Reposted by Alan Read
kityates.bsky.social
Neil Fergusson's cross-investigation at the
Covid Inquiry is painting a very clear picture that it was evident by the end of February to SAGE that huge numbers of people would die and hospitals would be overwhelmed if nothing was done.

So why wasn't something done sooner?
October 17, 2023 at 7:15 PM
Sunak says we don't want a General Election. I'm pretty sure that's bs.

petition.parliament.uk/petitions/64...
October 7, 2023 at 12:51 PM
Am I alone in wondering if Elon Musk has a secret account here?
September 22, 2023 at 7:28 PM