Reposted by Matt Zandstra
Reposted by Matt Zandstra
I will never understand the people who can look at this and shrug.
November 7, 2025 at 7:39 AM
I will never understand the people who can look at this and shrug.
Reposted by Matt Zandstra
uk labour lost **half** their coalition playing to racist fears & attacking trans people
us dems just won big without any of that
us dems just won big without any of that
November 5, 2025 at 12:57 PM
uk labour lost **half** their coalition playing to racist fears & attacking trans people
us dems just won big without any of that
us dems just won big without any of that
We wandered down to Preston Park for the fireworks on Saturday. And that's after seeing Daniel Kitson's Almost A Ghost Story at the Dome on Friday. We're doing the season properly for once!
November 5, 2025 at 12:55 PM
We wandered down to Preston Park for the fireworks on Saturday. And that's after seeing Daniel Kitson's Almost A Ghost Story at the Dome on Friday. We're doing the season properly for once!
Reposted by Matt Zandstra
More conservative bollocks from a labour advisor. Maybe if work was more interesting and rewarding it would make less people sick.
Not being sick is easy when you're on several millions a year, less so on minimum wage.
www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/159b218...
Not being sick is easy when you're on several millions a year, less so on minimum wage.
www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/159b218...
Cut reliance on sick notes to fix benefits crisis, says Labour’s employment tsar
Report warns economic inactivity due to ill health is costing UK over £200bn per year
www.telegraph.co.uk
November 5, 2025 at 11:51 AM
More conservative bollocks from a labour advisor. Maybe if work was more interesting and rewarding it would make less people sick.
Not being sick is easy when you're on several millions a year, less so on minimum wage.
www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/159b218...
Not being sick is easy when you're on several millions a year, less so on minimum wage.
www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/159b218...
Reposted by Matt Zandstra
fascinated by Democrats who believe in a “big tent” party when it comes to xenophobia and transphobia but not when it comes to brown socialists
November 5, 2025 at 11:55 AM
fascinated by Democrats who believe in a “big tent” party when it comes to xenophobia and transphobia but not when it comes to brown socialists
Reposted by Matt Zandstra
For the first time in years, I feel hopeful today.
Well done, NY ❤️
Well done, NY ❤️
November 5, 2025 at 6:25 AM
For the first time in years, I feel hopeful today.
Well done, NY ❤️
Well done, NY ❤️
Reposted by Matt Zandstra
Great billboard in Liverpool.
November 1, 2025 at 4:21 PM
Great billboard in Liverpool.
We're finally getting old carpet removed from the bedrooms and office so my books need to go into storage. I'm ten boxes down and don't seem to have made a dent. I suppose at least, when AI takes my work away, I can open a market stall.
November 2, 2025 at 1:04 PM
We're finally getting old carpet removed from the bedrooms and office so my books need to go into storage. I'm ten boxes down and don't seem to have made a dent. I suppose at least, when AI takes my work away, I can open a market stall.
Reposted by Matt Zandstra
Me on Halloween:
Happy #Halloween!
A wonderful 2nd century AD Roman mosaic found near Antioch, Turkey showing a skeleton, cup of wine in hand, reclining on the floor of a dining room in a house reminding guests to enjoy life: ‘ευφρόσυνος’
A wonderful 2nd century AD Roman mosaic found near Antioch, Turkey showing a skeleton, cup of wine in hand, reclining on the floor of a dining room in a house reminding guests to enjoy life: ‘ευφρόσυνος’
October 31, 2025 at 5:55 PM
Me on Halloween:
Reposted by Matt Zandstra
October 31, 2025 at 6:27 PM
Reposted by Matt Zandstra
Amid all the fuss, remember that for much of the 1960s and 1970s, "the Spare" Andrew Windsor was just one unfortunate incident away from being the next king.
Hopefully, this appalling saga will lead to a proper national debate on our hereditary monarchy.
Long, long overdue.
Hopefully, this appalling saga will lead to a proper national debate on our hereditary monarchy.
Long, long overdue.
October 30, 2025 at 7:58 PM
Amid all the fuss, remember that for much of the 1960s and 1970s, "the Spare" Andrew Windsor was just one unfortunate incident away from being the next king.
Hopefully, this appalling saga will lead to a proper national debate on our hereditary monarchy.
Long, long overdue.
Hopefully, this appalling saga will lead to a proper national debate on our hereditary monarchy.
Long, long overdue.
Very damp run today, but I was pleased to hang around briefly with this leaf.
October 29, 2025 at 1:34 PM
Very damp run today, but I was pleased to hang around briefly with this leaf.
Added my short SF story "Small Print" to the blog - first published (as "Fine Print") in Free Radicals Magazine back in 2021.
Friendship, beer, betrayal and tricksy contracts on a ship poised for planetfall.
www.inflatableink.com/story-small-...
#ScienceFiction #ShortStory #WritersOfBluesky
Friendship, beer, betrayal and tricksy contracts on a ship poised for planetfall.
www.inflatableink.com/story-small-...
#ScienceFiction #ShortStory #WritersOfBluesky
Inflatable Ink: Small Print
A story by Matt Zandstra (first published in Free Radicals Magazine 2021)
www.inflatableink.com
October 29, 2025 at 11:25 AM
Added my short SF story "Small Print" to the blog - first published (as "Fine Print") in Free Radicals Magazine back in 2021.
Friendship, beer, betrayal and tricksy contracts on a ship poised for planetfall.
www.inflatableink.com/story-small-...
#ScienceFiction #ShortStory #WritersOfBluesky
Friendship, beer, betrayal and tricksy contracts on a ship poised for planetfall.
www.inflatableink.com/story-small-...
#ScienceFiction #ShortStory #WritersOfBluesky
Reposted by Matt Zandstra
RIP Prunella Scales. Since Patricia Routledge died a few weeks ago I'll draw your attention to DORIS AND DOREEN, an Alan Bennett TV play in which the pair are workers in a dingy Northern office. Almost a two-hander apart from brief appearances by Pete Postlethwaite.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=5esb...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=5esb...
Alan Bennett's Play-Doris and Doreen 1978
YouTube video by HANA子
www.youtube.com
October 28, 2025 at 1:18 PM
RIP Prunella Scales. Since Patricia Routledge died a few weeks ago I'll draw your attention to DORIS AND DOREEN, an Alan Bennett TV play in which the pair are workers in a dingy Northern office. Almost a two-hander apart from brief appearances by Pete Postlethwaite.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=5esb...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=5esb...
Reposted by Matt Zandstra
Weird! It’s almost like being an unabashed progressive instead of a by the numbers centrist gets people excited that usually wouldn’t care about politics gothamist.com/news/voter-t...
Voter turnout surges in NYC mayor’s race, with Boomers and Gen X leading the charge
The data so far is good news for independent candidate Andrew Cuomo, a political scientist said.
gothamist.com
October 28, 2025 at 12:05 PM
Weird! It’s almost like being an unabashed progressive instead of a by the numbers centrist gets people excited that usually wouldn’t care about politics gothamist.com/news/voter-t...
Reposted by Matt Zandstra
What I don’t understand is why the British press don’t hang Brexit around Nigel Farage’s neck like a stockade.
It was the single worst act of economic self harm in modern British history.
Why doesn’t the British media force him to own that?
It was the single worst act of economic self harm in modern British history.
Why doesn’t the British media force him to own that?
October 23, 2025 at 10:11 AM
What I don’t understand is why the British press don’t hang Brexit around Nigel Farage’s neck like a stockade.
It was the single worst act of economic self harm in modern British history.
Why doesn’t the British media force him to own that?
It was the single worst act of economic self harm in modern British history.
Why doesn’t the British media force him to own that?
So as an introvert, I've been thinking of not attending a Green Party meeting today. So I suppose I should thank the Labour Party for today's utter onslaught of awfulness. You really helped me get over myself. You guys!
October 22, 2025 at 4:47 PM
So as an introvert, I've been thinking of not attending a Green Party meeting today. So I suppose I should thank the Labour Party for today's utter onslaught of awfulness. You really helped me get over myself. You guys!
Reposted by Matt Zandstra
"The idea of deporting people with settled status is disgusting, and anyone proposing it should be immediately drummed out of polite society. Breaking promises made in good faith to our friends and neighbours is racist, extremist and immoral."
I'm basically shouting at the sky here, but still.
I'm basically shouting at the sky here, but still.
It’s racist, it’s extremist and it’s immoral
The right is still calling for deportations, and the government is still being cowardly about it. Also: London’s first green belt; some notes on a shark; and some news, on my next book.
jonn.substack.com
October 22, 2025 at 1:22 PM
"The idea of deporting people with settled status is disgusting, and anyone proposing it should be immediately drummed out of polite society. Breaking promises made in good faith to our friends and neighbours is racist, extremist and immoral."
I'm basically shouting at the sky here, but still.
I'm basically shouting at the sky here, but still.
Reposted by Matt Zandstra
For anybody seeking context on this one: this policy on its face would result in the deportation of my wife, who has been living in Scotland for 17 years, is married to a Scot, shares the mortgage on a house, and works in a university. Lots of perfectly comfortable people earn < £38k.
Katie Lam has made a video - focusing on not giving new ILR grants to people who don't have it
But quietly including the Conservative proposal to be the first government since Idi Amin in 1972 to revoke the permanent leave to remain, then expel: she underplays to what extent
x.com/Katie_Lam_MP...
But quietly including the Conservative proposal to be the first government since Idi Amin in 1972 to revoke the permanent leave to remain, then expel: she underplays to what extent
x.com/Katie_Lam_MP...
x.com
October 22, 2025 at 10:41 AM
For anybody seeking context on this one: this policy on its face would result in the deportation of my wife, who has been living in Scotland for 17 years, is married to a Scot, shares the mortgage on a house, and works in a university. Lots of perfectly comfortable people earn < £38k.
Reposted by Matt Zandstra
Keir Starmer and his front and back benchers personally ensured a worse Brexit outcome in order to sabotage the election that was being ran at the time so probably nothing.
Vote Green. These right-wing Labour idiots are done.
Vote Green. These right-wing Labour idiots are done.
Right, so what are we going to do about this, with respect to the people who lied and lied to accomplish #Brexit, and benefitted financially from it? And didn’t even attempt to backtrack/ tell the nation the truth in the window when that was possible? #FBPE
Impact of Brexit on UK economy even worse than critics predicted, says chancellor – UK politics live
Rachel Reeves also highlights austerity and lack of capital spending as key harms to UK economy
www.theguardian.com
October 22, 2025 at 12:39 PM
Keir Starmer and his front and back benchers personally ensured a worse Brexit outcome in order to sabotage the election that was being ran at the time so probably nothing.
Vote Green. These right-wing Labour idiots are done.
Vote Green. These right-wing Labour idiots are done.
Reposted by Matt Zandstra
New article published! I’m so thrilled to share my article in Science Fiction Studies, included in its November 2025 issue, is now available to read online: doi.org/10.1525/sfs....
(if you don’t have access and want a copy, let me know)
#academicsky
(if you don’t have access and want a copy, let me know)
#academicsky
October 21, 2025 at 9:25 AM
New article published! I’m so thrilled to share my article in Science Fiction Studies, included in its November 2025 issue, is now available to read online: doi.org/10.1525/sfs....
(if you don’t have access and want a copy, let me know)
#academicsky
(if you don’t have access and want a copy, let me know)
#academicsky
After an early start and some writing I got out for a run. All the seasons at war today.
October 20, 2025 at 1:08 PM
After an early start and some writing I got out for a run. All the seasons at war today.
Reposted by Matt Zandstra
Because Green is for going forward into a thriving future. 🚦 💚
"Sir Keir Starmer has been warned that Labour is being deserted by a so-called Green wave of left-wing voters who are disillusioned with the party’s shift to the right on welfare, migration and transgender rights."
www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/...
www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/...
Starmer warned of ‘Green wave’ exodus over Reform obsession
Labour may soon be ‘haemorrhaging’ left-wing voters to the Green Party, which is surging in polls, amid disillusionment with the party’s shift to the right
www.thetimes.com
October 20, 2025 at 5:50 AM
Because Green is for going forward into a thriving future. 🚦 💚