John BH
@johnbriggsh.bsky.social
Learning to listen. Trying to be better. Trying to escape my western perspective.
And thank you in advance for posting an academic paper that is open access.
And thank you in advance for posting an academic paper that is open access.
Pinned
John BH
@johnbriggsh.bsky.social
· Mar 18
“The invariable variability of human embodiment underwrites all human values, including that of life worthy of life.” - Joel Michael Reynolds, The Life Worth Living
Reposted by John BH
Jonathan Chait has disparaged the NYT Contributor Boycott as an “insidiously illiberal maneuver” that abandons “faith in public reason.” He is right on this point. Antifascism undeniably involves—at least outside of dinner parties—a conscious measure of illiberalism. www.newarab.com/opinion/no-o...
No Opinion for Gaza: Why we are boycotting the New York Times
Sophie Lewis explains why she & 200+ former New York Times contributors are boycotting the outlet until it addresses its anti-Palestinian bias.
www.newarab.com
November 14, 2025 at 2:06 PM
Jonathan Chait has disparaged the NYT Contributor Boycott as an “insidiously illiberal maneuver” that abandons “faith in public reason.” He is right on this point. Antifascism undeniably involves—at least outside of dinner parties—a conscious measure of illiberalism. www.newarab.com/opinion/no-o...
… and themselves.
The Labour government is asked yet again when it plans to respond to the ICJ's demand, issued 16 months ago, that states stop aiding Israel's illegal occupation.
Ministers appear to have no intention of responding, because it would incriminate their ally Israel.
#DCUKparliament
Ministers appear to have no intention of responding, because it would incriminate their ally Israel.
#DCUKparliament
November 13, 2025 at 9:03 AM
… and themselves.
Notwithstanding McSweeney’s alleged machinations, the prospect of Wes Streeting being Prime Minister is awful. His being SoS for Health is awful.
Change for the sake of change can make things worse. The parlous condition of our public services should be enough evidence of this.
Change for the sake of change can make things worse. The parlous condition of our public services should be enough evidence of this.
November 13, 2025 at 8:59 AM
Notwithstanding McSweeney’s alleged machinations, the prospect of Wes Streeting being Prime Minister is awful. His being SoS for Health is awful.
Change for the sake of change can make things worse. The parlous condition of our public services should be enough evidence of this.
Change for the sake of change can make things worse. The parlous condition of our public services should be enough evidence of this.
Lessons to be drawn, mistakes to be avoided. The importance of contrasting the motivations behind anti-Zionism and the Right’s anti-Zionism, based on analysis of conversations between Nick Fuentes and Tucker Carlson, and Candace Owens and Norman Finkelstein.
podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/o...
podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/o...
Confronting the Anti-Zionist Right
Podcast Episode · On the Nose · 06/11/2025 · 50m
podcasts.apple.com
November 13, 2025 at 7:21 AM
Lessons to be drawn, mistakes to be avoided. The importance of contrasting the motivations behind anti-Zionism and the Right’s anti-Zionism, based on analysis of conversations between Nick Fuentes and Tucker Carlson, and Candace Owens and Norman Finkelstein.
podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/o...
podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/o...
Events at the BBC look like a scripted reality show. This is how the cast was assembled, waiting for the act to be triggered.
www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ideas/media/...
www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ideas/media/...
How the government captured the BBC
A right-wing cabal, largely unaccountable, is waging war on the principles that made our public broadcaster great. It must not succeed
www.prospectmagazine.co.uk
November 13, 2025 at 7:14 AM
Events at the BBC look like a scripted reality show. This is how the cast was assembled, waiting for the act to be triggered.
www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ideas/media/...
www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ideas/media/...
What?
UK to publish less official data in drive to restore quality reut.rs/4qMhb8O
UK to publish less official data in drive to restore quality
Britain's Office for National Statistics plans to release less data on health, crime and regional development next year to free up resources to repair the quality of the most important economic figures, it said on Wednesday.
reut.rs
November 12, 2025 at 10:20 AM
What?
Reposted by John BH
Here are a few of the things for which Ministers ought to be held liable if they are foolish enough to ban VPNs: the economic damage done by industrial espionage; personal loss due to identity theft and data breaches; violation of privacy rights through data monetization. At national scale.
November 12, 2025 at 10:11 AM
Here are a few of the things for which Ministers ought to be held liable if they are foolish enough to ban VPNs: the economic damage done by industrial espionage; personal loss due to identity theft and data breaches; violation of privacy rights through data monetization. At national scale.
Trying to cover bad legislation with worse legislation : and tipping public money into slop surveillance to justify it.
This government cannot do anything right.
This government cannot do anything right.
The British government admits it is now monitoring VPNs use by UK residents. Regulator Ofcom has contracted with an AI-powered surveillance service to detect the number of citizens using VPNs to evade the Online Safety Act.
The UK tech minister has said a VPN ban is on the table.
The UK tech minister has said a VPN ban is on the table.
Exclusive: Ofcom is monitoring VPNs following Online Safety Act. Here's how
Ignoring VPNs risks creating ineffective laws, but tracking them threatens people's privacy
www.techradar.com
November 12, 2025 at 9:59 AM
Trying to cover bad legislation with worse legislation : and tipping public money into slop surveillance to justify it.
This government cannot do anything right.
This government cannot do anything right.
I’m no longer a commuter and only an occasional user of trains, and off-peak only : but subjected to delay/cancellation on about 1/3 journeys.
November 12, 2025 at 8:38 AM
I’m no longer a commuter and only an occasional user of trains, and off-peak only : but subjected to delay/cancellation on about 1/3 journeys.
Awful idea. Lazy, shallow, policy making. The carelessness - even callousness - with which our politicians treat education and the teaching profession is scandalous.
www.theguardian.com/education/20...
www.theguardian.com/education/20...
All schools in England to be given AI-generated pupil attendance targets
Unions decry move, saying it will put more pressure on headteachers without tackling absence from classrooms
www.theguardian.com
November 12, 2025 at 8:16 AM
Awful idea. Lazy, shallow, policy making. The carelessness - even callousness - with which our politicians treat education and the teaching profession is scandalous.
www.theguardian.com/education/20...
www.theguardian.com/education/20...
Reposted by John BH
Been in touch with a medical provider in Gaza who says “this ceasefire is even less of a ceasefire than the last ceasefire” — nothing’s getting in, no one’s getting out, people are still being killed and badly injured every day
“Israeli soldiers have described a free-for-all in Gaza and a breakdown in norms and legal constraints, with civilians killed at the whim of individual officers.”
The stories will get worse over time as censorship erodes. But we knew and didn’t stop it.
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...
The stories will get worse over time as censorship erodes. But we knew and didn’t stop it.
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...
Israeli soldiers speak out on killings of Gaza civilians
IDF soldiers tell documentary of opening fire unprovoked and arbitrary designations of who was an enemy
www.theguardian.com
November 11, 2025 at 2:14 PM
Been in touch with a medical provider in Gaza who says “this ceasefire is even less of a ceasefire than the last ceasefire” — nothing’s getting in, no one’s getting out, people are still being killed and badly injured every day
Reposted by John BH
Of course, because this is precisely why they were put up and what they’re for.
NHS staff who visit patients at home say St George’s flags can mean ‘no-go zones’
NHS staff who visit patients at home say St George’s flags can mean ‘no-go zones’
Black and Asian staff left feeling ‘deliberately intimidated’, according to chief executive of one NHS trust
NHS staff who care for patients in their own homes fear some areas have become “no-go zones” for them because of the presence of St George’s flags, health leaders have said.
Black and Asian staff have been left feeling “deliberately intimidated” as a result of the flags that were put up in many parts of England during the summer, according to the chief executive of one NHS trust in England, who asked to remain anonymous. Continue reading...
www.theguardian.com
November 11, 2025 at 6:15 AM
Of course, because this is precisely why they were put up and what they’re for.
Reposted by John BH
I received this email about Democrats caving to end the shutdown from one of the SNAP recipients I spoke to:
November 10, 2025 at 2:17 PM
I received this email about Democrats caving to end the shutdown from one of the SNAP recipients I spoke to:
It’s vital to keep reminding people, or helping them see for themselves for the first time, that Israel is a violent, oppressive, authoritarian ethno-state. By design.
It is the dream of ethno-nationalists everywhere because what it does whatever it wants to with complete impunity.
It is the dream of ethno-nationalists everywhere because what it does whatever it wants to with complete impunity.
Palestinian woman Umm Zuhri Shweiki was forcibly expelled from her home in occupied East Jerusalem by Israeli forces, who seized and emptied her house before handing it to Israeli settlers.
November 10, 2025 at 10:49 AM
It’s vital to keep reminding people, or helping them see for themselves for the first time, that Israel is a violent, oppressive, authoritarian ethno-state. By design.
It is the dream of ethno-nationalists everywhere because what it does whatever it wants to with complete impunity.
It is the dream of ethno-nationalists everywhere because what it does whatever it wants to with complete impunity.
The BBC shouldn’t be plaything of the political/wealthy elite. It should be reconfigured as a truly public institution; overseen by and for the public.
November 10, 2025 at 10:40 AM
The BBC shouldn’t be plaything of the political/wealthy elite. It should be reconfigured as a truly public institution; overseen by and for the public.
The suspicious may wonder if the BBC’s senior leadership is a part of the right wing establishment.
The BBC's senior leadership resigning en masse over one dodgy edit in one programme, simply because the right wing press demands it, tells you everything you need to know about where the power really lies in that relationship
November 10, 2025 at 8:57 AM
The suspicious may wonder if the BBC’s senior leadership is a part of the right wing establishment.
Reposted by John BH
Given the stratospheric emissions from 50000-odd attendees, and the repeated lack of actual progress, it's surely the case that the annual COP circus is a net-negative for the climate?
November 8, 2025 at 2:21 PM
Given the stratospheric emissions from 50000-odd attendees, and the repeated lack of actual progress, it's surely the case that the annual COP circus is a net-negative for the climate?
Reposted by John BH
The populist right doesn‘t rank absolute improvements in their own lives as highly as they do improvements relative to their enemies. Indeed, they will gladly take absolute losses if their enemies take bigger ones. The biggest constituency of their enemies is their fellow citizens.
November 9, 2025 at 3:17 PM
The populist right doesn‘t rank absolute improvements in their own lives as highly as they do improvements relative to their enemies. Indeed, they will gladly take absolute losses if their enemies take bigger ones. The biggest constituency of their enemies is their fellow citizens.
For (yet another) example: bsky.app/profile/edwi...
Because it’s drowned out by the hateful, racist shit of Labour’s immigration policies, which they drone on about pretty much every day.
Why aren't Labour's life-changing policies connecting with voters - and what can the party do? It's down to messaging, how it's told, and the messengers...
November 9, 2025 at 9:07 AM
For (yet another) example: bsky.app/profile/edwi...
Reposted by John BH
This is really important.
The main thing that makes it hard to achieve integrated nature and green in cities isn’t density of buildings or density of people — it's density of cars. And the more well-designed and integrated density of people & buildings you achieve, the fewer cars you need or want.
The main thing that makes it hard to achieve integrated nature and green in cities isn’t density of buildings or density of people — it's density of cars. And the more well-designed and integrated density of people & buildings you achieve, the fewer cars you need or want.
November 9, 2025 at 8:09 AM
This is really important.
The main thing that makes it hard to achieve integrated nature and green in cities isn’t density of buildings or density of people — it's density of cars. And the more well-designed and integrated density of people & buildings you achieve, the fewer cars you need or want.
The main thing that makes it hard to achieve integrated nature and green in cities isn’t density of buildings or density of people — it's density of cars. And the more well-designed and integrated density of people & buildings you achieve, the fewer cars you need or want.
Reposted by John BH
Utterly chilling reporting from the Prospect and NY times on trumps war in the Caribbean
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/23/w...
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/23/w...
October 25, 2025 at 12:23 AM
Utterly chilling reporting from the Prospect and NY times on trumps war in the Caribbean
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/23/w...
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/23/w...
“… society is dominated by wealthy mountebanks and literally demented politicians who are happy to take on all the risks of AI because it promises to create workers who cannot even conceptualize quitting, much less striking.”
Excellent essay here on the slow strangling of mass literary culture in the West - most clearly in the US, but it's obviously happening here too
November 9, 2025 at 8:48 AM
“… society is dominated by wealthy mountebanks and literally demented politicians who are happy to take on all the risks of AI because it promises to create workers who cannot even conceptualize quitting, much less striking.”
Reposted by John BH
This is an entirely uncontroversial view in international law and usually taught in 101.
November 9, 2025 at 7:42 AM
This is an entirely uncontroversial view in international law and usually taught in 101.
“Julia Lopez, the Conservative MP for Upminster. Lopez is close to Uniserve – literally: her constituency office was on the company’s site, in effect, Liddell is the MP’s landlord”
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
Revealed: The billion-pound PPE contractor with a Tory MP on site
Special report: Uniserve was paid £1.4bn for Covid contracts that included supply of £178.5m in never-used equipment
www.theguardian.com
November 9, 2025 at 7:02 AM
“Julia Lopez, the Conservative MP for Upminster. Lopez is close to Uniserve – literally: her constituency office was on the company’s site, in effect, Liddell is the MP’s landlord”
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
Reposted by John BH
What happened, @nytimes.com? Why not stand by your original headline? Because it’s absolutely an accurate representation of this trash conversation.
To publish this at all should be a fireable offense - but to publish it as women’s rights are being decimated is deeply immoral, bordering on evil
To publish this at all should be a fireable offense - but to publish it as women’s rights are being decimated is deeply immoral, bordering on evil
November 7, 2025 at 8:10 PM
What happened, @nytimes.com? Why not stand by your original headline? Because it’s absolutely an accurate representation of this trash conversation.
To publish this at all should be a fireable offense - but to publish it as women’s rights are being decimated is deeply immoral, bordering on evil
To publish this at all should be a fireable offense - but to publish it as women’s rights are being decimated is deeply immoral, bordering on evil