Gift
@giftmacher.bsky.social
Recovering STEM brain, occasional poet.
Increasingly a fan of lampposts.
they/them, but you can also use he/him
https://medium.com/@crimson-flag
Increasingly a fan of lampposts.
they/them, but you can also use he/him
https://medium.com/@crimson-flag
What we have here is a class of people, and I include Cox here, who are too used to operating with very little consequence. They think they can always come back, like Mandelson, and normally they are right. Hence this shit.
www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-...
www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-...
“Dismay” as No 10 works with Brendan Cox after misconduct claims
The husband of the murdered Labour MP Jo Cox resigned from three charities after various allegations
www.newstatesman.com
February 19, 2026 at 12:09 AM
What we have here is a class of people, and I include Cox here, who are too used to operating with very little consequence. They think they can always come back, like Mandelson, and normally they are right. Hence this shit.
www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-...
www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-...
Reposted by Gift
Just while we’re talking about Labour Together quietly handing the Times dossiers of smeary innuendo culled from social media, then passing it to the relevant authority: I note they were still at it *together* as recently last month: putting the boot into a school in one MP’s constituency.
February 18, 2026 at 10:59 AM
Just while we’re talking about Labour Together quietly handing the Times dossiers of smeary innuendo culled from social media, then passing it to the relevant authority: I note they were still at it *together* as recently last month: putting the boot into a school in one MP’s constituency.
Reposted by Gift
🧵
Instead of "the left isn't paying enough attention to these machine gods" they're claiming to build, perhaps we should write an article about how effective altruists brand themselves "left", ask who is writing these articles, and trace their cults and sources of funding.
February 18, 2026 at 3:46 PM
🧵
Reposted by Gift
I read this stuff and I think: the world’s wealthiest, most important people have absolutely fucked it yet again in an especially humiliating manner, and they’ll be trying to work out whose fault it is. It won’t be their fault, will it.
February 18, 2026 at 3:25 PM
I read this stuff and I think: the world’s wealthiest, most important people have absolutely fucked it yet again in an especially humiliating manner, and they’ll be trying to work out whose fault it is. It won’t be their fault, will it.
Reposted by Gift
Hey you there, boy! What day is it?
Time to read some good stuff from Friend of the Pod Juliet Jacques!
novaramedia.com/2026/02/17/t...
Time to read some good stuff from Friend of the Pod Juliet Jacques!
novaramedia.com/2026/02/17/t...
The Media Let Mandelson Get Away With It for Decades | Juliet Jacques
Journalists clutching their pearls at the latest revelations about Peter Mandelson’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein are full of it, writes Juliet Jacques. Time for Leveson part two – starting with ...
novaramedia.com
February 18, 2026 at 3:01 PM
Hey you there, boy! What day is it?
Time to read some good stuff from Friend of the Pod Juliet Jacques!
novaramedia.com/2026/02/17/t...
Time to read some good stuff from Friend of the Pod Juliet Jacques!
novaramedia.com/2026/02/17/t...
So, is it a good thing when the basic components of the machines every business and government needs has been bought up by people speculating on futures? At what point do we think tech cutting the ground out from under itself will cause a collapse?
www.rockpapershotgun.com/ssd-prices-i...
www.rockpapershotgun.com/ssd-prices-i...
SSD prices in yet more trouble as two of the biggest hard drive makers have already sold out their 2026 stock
Key HDD suppliers WD and Seagate have both allocated their entire 2026 production output for sale, likely worsening PC component shortages and price rises.
www.rockpapershotgun.com
February 18, 2026 at 1:40 PM
So, is it a good thing when the basic components of the machines every business and government needs has been bought up by people speculating on futures? At what point do we think tech cutting the ground out from under itself will cause a collapse?
www.rockpapershotgun.com/ssd-prices-i...
www.rockpapershotgun.com/ssd-prices-i...
Reposted by Gift
It was clear by 2015 that the Tories appalling economics was creating too much public dissent to be manageable, but unfortunately the alternative was a bunch of people who might, for eg, ask to see MI5's files on the activities of Prince Andrew and Peter Mandelson.
February 18, 2026 at 12:27 PM
It was clear by 2015 that the Tories appalling economics was creating too much public dissent to be manageable, but unfortunately the alternative was a bunch of people who might, for eg, ask to see MI5's files on the activities of Prince Andrew and Peter Mandelson.
Reposted by Gift
And northern / Midlands towns that were already seeing youth flight and a lack of investment as well as a death of local industry haven't caught up because they have no means to. Just because a lot of journos went on poverty safari up north doesn't mean the council funding settlement was fixed.
February 18, 2026 at 9:58 AM
And northern / Midlands towns that were already seeing youth flight and a lack of investment as well as a death of local industry haven't caught up because they have no means to. Just because a lot of journos went on poverty safari up north doesn't mean the council funding settlement was fixed.
Reposted by Gift
What is categorically true is that Osborne and Cameron slashed council funding to ribbons (iirc -26% on current inflation levels vs 2010), while handing them more statutory duties (social care!) and blocked them from raising council tax sufficiently.
February 18, 2026 at 9:57 AM
What is categorically true is that Osborne and Cameron slashed council funding to ribbons (iirc -26% on current inflation levels vs 2010), while handing them more statutory duties (social care!) and blocked them from raising council tax sufficiently.
Reposted by Gift
Have they though? Levelling up was an underfunded shambles that mainly served as a competition between councils for not enough funding for singular prestige projects, not a sustainable funding base. The current "pride in place" nonsense is similarly underwhelming but differently structured.
February 18, 2026 at 9:56 AM
Have they though? Levelling up was an underfunded shambles that mainly served as a competition between councils for not enough funding for singular prestige projects, not a sustainable funding base. The current "pride in place" nonsense is similarly underwhelming but differently structured.
You know I was in the first cohort to pay fees and have a loan instead of a grant. £1000 a year fees, and I for get now but I think it was maybe £6k loan.
Pretty sure I paid about £160 a month intent in my second year (2k a year).
Now it's +9k fees and the same in rent. Under 30 years difference.
Pretty sure I paid about £160 a month intent in my second year (2k a year).
Now it's +9k fees and the same in rent. Under 30 years difference.
February 18, 2026 at 12:48 AM
You know I was in the first cohort to pay fees and have a loan instead of a grant. £1000 a year fees, and I for get now but I think it was maybe £6k loan.
Pretty sure I paid about £160 a month intent in my second year (2k a year).
Now it's +9k fees and the same in rent. Under 30 years difference.
Pretty sure I paid about £160 a month intent in my second year (2k a year).
Now it's +9k fees and the same in rent. Under 30 years difference.
Reposted by Gift
Reposted by Gift
anyway pls share www.gofundme.com/f/mass-arres...
Donate to MASS ARREST! Help the squatters xxx, organized by Brad Lee
Hello friends, comrades, anonymous homies
13/2/26
Yesterday 52 police officers br… Brad Lee needs your support for MASS ARREST! Help the squatters xxx
www.gofundme.com
February 17, 2026 at 9:11 PM
anyway pls share www.gofundme.com/f/mass-arres...
Reposted by Gift
NEW | ‘Inspired’ by that editor castigating a journalism graduate for not wanting a job just feeding the AI…
AI;DR: Journalism's quislings for AI and why I'll never use AI to write this newsletter
brokenbottleboy.substack.com/p/aidr-journ...
AI;DR: Journalism's quislings for AI and why I'll never use AI to write this newsletter
brokenbottleboy.substack.com/p/aidr-journ...
AI;DR: Journalism's quislings for AI and why I'll never use AI to write this newsletter
The future of journalism doesn't have to be AI-generated; we can and should resist.
brokenbottleboy.substack.com
February 17, 2026 at 3:02 PM
NEW | ‘Inspired’ by that editor castigating a journalism graduate for not wanting a job just feeding the AI…
AI;DR: Journalism's quislings for AI and why I'll never use AI to write this newsletter
brokenbottleboy.substack.com/p/aidr-journ...
AI;DR: Journalism's quislings for AI and why I'll never use AI to write this newsletter
brokenbottleboy.substack.com/p/aidr-journ...
Reposted by Gift
liberal walking into the car dealership: i want the second shittiest car you have. i will buy it for literally any price
February 16, 2026 at 2:39 AM
liberal walking into the car dealership: i want the second shittiest car you have. i will buy it for literally any price
It will never not blow my mind how open they are with all this, even now when they gun has been turned against them. It's wild. And by wild I mean, shit.
It’s okay though, there was nothing funny going on. They were simply compelled by the audacity (you might know “audacity” better by the more accurate description “relentlessly lying like fuck with intend to deceive and defraud”).
February 17, 2026 at 7:41 PM
It will never not blow my mind how open they are with all this, even now when they gun has been turned against them. It's wild. And by wild I mean, shit.
Reposted by Gift
Okay, so this the paper is just going with LOL fuck you, we can do and say whatever we want, who is going to even criticise us for this shit, let alone anything else? And why wouldn’t they, they are free to behave as horrifically as they want. Unlike Labour Together, ironically.
February 17, 2026 at 1:15 PM
Okay, so this the paper is just going with LOL fuck you, we can do and say whatever we want, who is going to even criticise us for this shit, let alone anything else? And why wouldn’t they, they are free to behave as horrifically as they want. Unlike Labour Together, ironically.
Reposted by Gift
February 15, 2026 at 5:00 PM
That's a yikes! from me.
"if they socially transition too early we think they can get locked onto a trajectory that may not have been the correct natural trajectory for them"
Direct quote.
Direct quote.
February 16, 2026 at 3:17 PM
That's a yikes! from me.
Evergreen this one.
Anyway I think to summarise today, we only need one image.
February 16, 2026 at 2:57 PM
Evergreen this one.
Reposted by Gift
If children were more politically active they would be quite pissed to be told that their screen time is “the most urgent public health issue” while the largest measles outbreak since the vaccine sweeps their schools because of conspiracies that the adults in their life believed from social media.
‘It’s the most urgent public health issue’: Dr Rangan Chatterjee on screen time, mental health – and banning social media until 18
‘It’s the most urgent public health issue’: Dr Rangan Chatterjee on screen time, mental health – and banning social media until 18
The hit podcaster, author and former GP says a failure to regulate big tech is ‘failing a generation of children’. He explains why he quit the NHS and why he wants a ban on screen-based homework
www.theguardian.com
February 16, 2026 at 7:52 AM
If children were more politically active they would be quite pissed to be told that their screen time is “the most urgent public health issue” while the largest measles outbreak since the vaccine sweeps their schools because of conspiracies that the adults in their life believed from social media.
Reposted by Gift
if this has to be a news story it should be that a qualified and competent doctor has been run out of a struggling NHS simply because she is transgender
The BBC reporting on Beth Upton’s current employment situation is definitely not in the public interest, and it is insane how much the British press freely get away with harassing her for the crime of simply living her life existing as a trans person in the UK.
February 15, 2026 at 1:38 PM
if this has to be a news story it should be that a qualified and competent doctor has been run out of a struggling NHS simply because she is transgender
Reposted by Gift
It’s almost verbatim Nazi propaganda at this point.
February 15, 2026 at 7:14 PM
It’s almost verbatim Nazi propaganda at this point.
Reposted by Gift
This is exactly it. People presented Mandelson a certain way because they saw it in their interests to do so.
Nobody has ever been fooled by this guy that didn’t want to be
February 3, 2026 at 9:23 PM
This is exactly it. People presented Mandelson a certain way because they saw it in their interests to do so.
Reposted by Gift
Labour Together’s Donor Network tamills1981.github.io/society-from...
February 16, 2026 at 7:40 AM
Labour Together’s Donor Network tamills1981.github.io/society-from...