Matthew Whitfield
@matthewwhitfield.bsky.social
buildings, politics, miscellaneous
Everybody's gay, Kimmy. It's the 90s.
Everybody's gay, Kimmy. It's the 90s.
Pinned
England's Suburbs 1820-2020 | Home
liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk
I co-authored a book about suburbs. Buy it cheap, buy it early. Hell, buy it twice! liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/book/10....
do i look like a Marcus? My plumber has decided to call me that. Earlier this year the kitchen fitter decided I was Graham. Go for it guys, names are just so much bourgeois indulgence anyway. I’m just a soul in possession of a dicky boiler.
November 11, 2025 at 11:41 AM
do i look like a Marcus? My plumber has decided to call me that. Earlier this year the kitchen fitter decided I was Graham. Go for it guys, names are just so much bourgeois indulgence anyway. I’m just a soul in possession of a dicky boiler.
useful insights in Goodall’s piece but commercial outlets like News Agents, at liberty to be partial, still demonstrate the lack of self-awareness he bemoans. Maitlis and Sopel are brimful of just-so views that reflect their social world
The reaction to the Panorama edit has been nothing short of hysterical. Yes the BBC has some impartiality problems. But its biggest isn't the one you think.
New piece from me.
open.substack.com/pub/goodalla...
New piece from me.
open.substack.com/pub/goodalla...
The truth about impartiality at the BBC
And the hysteria of the current "crisis"
open.substack.com
November 11, 2025 at 11:22 AM
useful insights in Goodall’s piece but commercial outlets like News Agents, at liberty to be partial, still demonstrate the lack of self-awareness he bemoans. Maitlis and Sopel are brimful of just-so views that reflect their social world
good call
Oh wow! A London Underground station being officially Listed is always great news - this one especially so. Southwark station, 1999 by MacCormac Jamieson Prichard, has just been Listed at Grade 2. Now for the other JLE stations. @c20society.bsky.social
historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-...
historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-...
November 11, 2025 at 7:26 AM
good call
Reposted by Matthew Whitfield
Labour are like the cringiest middle managers you’ve ever met. Nobody likes them. Incredibly off putting. Obsessed with AI. It’s easy to tell why they are so unpopular
AI chatbots could help stop prisoner release errors, says justice minister
AI chatbots could help stop prisoner release errors, says justice minister
HMP Wandsworth gets ‘green light’ to use AI after team sent in to find ‘quick fixes’ after spate of mistakes
Artificial intelligence chatbots could be used to stop prisoners from being mistakenly released from jail, a justice minister told the House of Lords on Monday.
Lord Timpson said HMP Wandsworth had been given the “green light” to use artificial intelligence (AI) after a specialised team was sent in to find “some quick fixes”. Continue reading...
www.theguardian.com
November 10, 2025 at 7:40 PM
Labour are like the cringiest middle managers you’ve ever met. Nobody likes them. Incredibly off putting. Obsessed with AI. It’s easy to tell why they are so unpopular
yes they appeased the right wing newspapers but were also very right wing to their fingertips, so it’s a funny turn of events
It’s ironic but predictable that the BBC duo -who tried so hard to please the right wing papers-are removed by the right wing papers.
November 9, 2025 at 8:49 PM
yes they appeased the right wing newspapers but were also very right wing to their fingertips, so it’s a funny turn of events
Reposted by Matthew Whitfield
No more noble British tradition than resigning over some nonsense everyone is only pretending to be angry about rather than all of the actually bad things you've done.
November 9, 2025 at 6:10 PM
No more noble British tradition than resigning over some nonsense everyone is only pretending to be angry about rather than all of the actually bad things you've done.
whereas Darren Jones will successfully deliver a shovelful of shite to your doorstep, personally, and expect smiling gratitude
EXCL: The Green party is offering “simple solutions to complex problems” and making “undeliverable” promises to voters ahead of next election, PM's chief secretary Darren Jones tells me 👇
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
Greens’ ‘undeliverable’ promises will let voters down, says Labour minister
Exclusive: Darren Jones says Labour has to convince young people it is ‘modern party of the future’
www.theguardian.com
November 9, 2025 at 3:38 PM
whereas Darren Jones will successfully deliver a shovelful of shite to your doorstep, personally, and expect smiling gratitude
the phrase is usually can’t get ‘off the ground’ so I assume ‘out of the ground’ is used to emphasise this whole thing as a bad seed, too cursed to see the light of day
NEW: The End of the Line: the centrepiece of Saudi Arabia’s Neom gigaproject - a 500m tall, 170km long wall-like building intended ultimately to house 9 million people - can’t get out of the ground, say more than 20 former Neom architects, engineers and senior executives.
ig.ft.com/saudi-neom-l...
ig.ft.com/saudi-neom-l...
End of The Line: how Saudi Arabia’s Neom dream unravelled
Mohammed bin Salman’s utopian city was undone by the laws of physics and finance
ig.ft.com
November 6, 2025 at 8:26 AM
the phrase is usually can’t get ‘off the ground’ so I assume ‘out of the ground’ is used to emphasise this whole thing as a bad seed, too cursed to see the light of day
Reposted by Matthew Whitfield
Howling at this Cynthia Nixon post about Mamdani
November 5, 2025 at 8:47 PM
Howling at this Cynthia Nixon post about Mamdani
ah the past, no need for that to ever encroach on the discourse of the moment (see also: experiences from lands beyond the territorial waters of Great Britain)
2005: Commuters face airport-style scans
What happened? Did reality have a word?
www.theguardian.com/uk/2005/nov/...
What happened? Did reality have a word?
www.theguardian.com/uk/2005/nov/...
Commuters face airport-style scans
Rail and London Underground passengers could soon face airport-style scanning techniques under new anti-terror plans, the transport secretary revealed today.
www.theguardian.com
November 3, 2025 at 7:28 AM
ah the past, no need for that to ever encroach on the discourse of the moment (see also: experiences from lands beyond the territorial waters of Great Britain)
Reposted by Matthew Whitfield
Great investigation of the Nazis, racists and criminals mobilising the flag-on-lamp-posts movement. This is the kind of journalism that the national media could and should have conducted:
manchestermill.co.uk/the-men-who-...
manchestermill.co.uk/the-men-who-...
November 2, 2025 at 7:45 AM
Great investigation of the Nazis, racists and criminals mobilising the flag-on-lamp-posts movement. This is the kind of journalism that the national media could and should have conducted:
manchestermill.co.uk/the-men-who-...
manchestermill.co.uk/the-men-who-...
attacking such an inadequate politician is fish in a barrel stuff, really pathetic of the Mail to do bin-rummaging stuff instead of anything substantive but this is the beast they are. The even nonnier non-story here: London letting agents are incompetent. Wow! www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
Lettings agency takes blame in Rachel Reeves licence row
Agency says staff member offered to apply for licence to allow chancellor to rent out family home, but failed to do so
www.theguardian.com
October 31, 2025 at 11:33 AM
attacking such an inadequate politician is fish in a barrel stuff, really pathetic of the Mail to do bin-rummaging stuff instead of anything substantive but this is the beast they are. The even nonnier non-story here: London letting agents are incompetent. Wow! www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
Reposted by Matthew Whitfield
“what radicalized you” idk paying attention
October 29, 2025 at 5:03 PM
“what radicalized you” idk paying attention
one of these reports could be issued every minute between now and the end of time and the lads from the treasury would still say ‘spending money is bad, it means less money’
Government has published one of those quiet but important documents that might get overlooked as it is not 'newsy'. The headline finding is that £1 of public R&D investment generates £8 in net economic benefits for the UK over the long term
www.gov.uk/government/p...
www.gov.uk/government/p...
The value of public R&D
www.gov.uk
October 30, 2025 at 4:56 PM
one of these reports could be issued every minute between now and the end of time and the lads from the treasury would still say ‘spending money is bad, it means less money’
is it that their products are shit and immiserate the world in innumerable ways?
Meta shares are plunging in heavy trading, on pace for their worst day in three years. Here's why: cnb.cx/4hAPrzH #CNBCData
October 30, 2025 at 4:53 PM
is it that their products are shit and immiserate the world in innumerable ways?
just had emergency visit to Stratford Westfield. It’s half term. Can confirm that British retail might be in a better state than is reported. Also does anyone have any drugs? I need drugs.
October 29, 2025 at 2:44 PM
just had emergency visit to Stratford Westfield. It’s half term. Can confirm that British retail might be in a better state than is reported. Also does anyone have any drugs? I need drugs.
is this happening everywhere or is my manor just more pious about war Christmas?
October 28, 2025 at 8:39 PM
is this happening everywhere or is my manor just more pious about war Christmas?
everyone loves a digital service that just works; I tend to find they broadly do, like ordering a new passport or registering with a GP. So I will continue to oppose their nonsense ID plans with the assumption that aren't needed, except for nefarious or cynical reasons, by these dead-eyed freaks
It’d be helpful to know what the proportions here are of 1) engorged Blairite techno horseshit 2) they’ve promised Silicon Valley billionaire wankers a squillion pounds, and 3) unusually pure batch of cocaine in circulation
October 28, 2025 at 7:55 PM
everyone loves a digital service that just works; I tend to find they broadly do, like ordering a new passport or registering with a GP. So I will continue to oppose their nonsense ID plans with the assumption that aren't needed, except for nefarious or cynical reasons, by these dead-eyed freaks
Reposted by Matthew Whitfield
At a fundamental level, we have to accept much of silicon valley has gone insane.
An ex-Intel CEO’s mission to build a Christian AI: ‘hasten the coming of Christ’s return’
Patrick Gelsinger, executive chairman of Gloo, has made it his mission to advance Christian principles in Silicon Valley
www.theguardian.com
October 28, 2025 at 1:28 PM
At a fundamental level, we have to accept much of silicon valley has gone insane.
order of service at Polly’s funeral will be like ‘yes I’m dead and wasted my life writing columns full of nothing, but maybe my descendants will see 1% of my milquetoast agenda come to pass via multiple further generations of capitulation to evil. Good night and god bless’
Yes, Keir Starmer is Britain’s most unpopular PM ever. That could liberate him | Polly Toynbee
Yes, Keir Starmer is Britain’s most unpopular PM ever. That could liberate him | Polly Toynbee
Forget the public vitriol and use the next four years to get things done – first and foremost, whatever it takes to stop Reform, says Guardian columnist Polly Toynbee
www.theguardian.com
October 28, 2025 at 7:36 AM
order of service at Polly’s funeral will be like ‘yes I’m dead and wasted my life writing columns full of nothing, but maybe my descendants will see 1% of my milquetoast agenda come to pass via multiple further generations of capitulation to evil. Good night and god bless’
Happy national black cat day to Pudding, possibly the cleverest and handsomest of them all
October 27, 2025 at 9:25 PM
Happy national black cat day to Pudding, possibly the cleverest and handsomest of them all
strength and solidarity to these workers ✊ Why won’t any British government see fit to properly fund and defend these irreplaceable, vital institutions that cost around 0.000001% of the national budget to run?
The British Library has long relied on the good will of its fabulous staff, whom it treats shockingly, pays derisorily and ignores as much as it can. Faced with a contemptible 2.6% pay offer, the staff has, unsurprisingly, had enough.
British Library workers are sick of poor pay, overwork, and feeling the fallout of a cyber-attack which left them vulnerable to identity theft and blackmail. Now, they are going on strike for a fortnight.
tribunemag.co.uk/2025/10/from...
tribunemag.co.uk/2025/10/from...
October 27, 2025 at 9:20 PM
strength and solidarity to these workers ✊ Why won’t any British government see fit to properly fund and defend these irreplaceable, vital institutions that cost around 0.000001% of the national budget to run?
Reform won Caerphilly and the electorate want to protect the profits of big tech. It’s zombie media and zombie Labour, ladies and gentlemen
October 24, 2025 at 12:43 PM
Reform won Caerphilly and the electorate want to protect the profits of big tech. It’s zombie media and zombie Labour, ladies and gentlemen
complete bullshit ofc, that’s not a thing (unless you’re being scammed, so I suppose we shouldn’t rule it out as this is Britain in 2025). Any party leader standing on a platform of banning Microsoft Authenticator app would be 100% in every poll, however
It is of course almost 100% certain that *every single word* of this post is a lie.
October 24, 2025 at 11:26 AM
complete bullshit ofc, that’s not a thing (unless you’re being scammed, so I suppose we shouldn’t rule it out as this is Britain in 2025). Any party leader standing on a platform of banning Microsoft Authenticator app would be 100% in every poll, however
does Helen even know what the ‘correct but unpopular choices’ are?
Hey lads, why don’t we just lock the cabin door and fly the plane into the ground, because fuck the haterz, am I right or what
October 24, 2025 at 11:23 AM
does Helen even know what the ‘correct but unpopular choices’ are?