Thomas Bell
@realthomasbell.bsky.social
Getting through this with everyone else.
Me: Jesus, how is it that you learnt to speak with me this way?
Jesus: ܐܝܩܐ
Jesus: ܐܝܩܐ
I mean, they can't and it doesn't. don't print lies in the newspaper.
The app Text With Jesus uses artificial intelligence and chatbots to offer spiritual guidance to users who are looking to connect with a higher power: on.nbc10.com/7XM8xrf
November 15, 2025 at 10:13 AM
Me: Jesus, how is it that you learnt to speak with me this way?
Jesus: ܐܝܩܐ
Jesus: ܐܝܩܐ
Reposted by Thomas Bell
A “fun” manifestation of that is that is that Labour in 1964, 1974 and 2024 all won with fewer votes than they got in the heavy defeat they suffered in the election before, while Blair got fewer votes in 1997 than Major in 1992.
November 14, 2025 at 6:14 PM
A “fun” manifestation of that is that is that Labour in 1964, 1974 and 2024 all won with fewer votes than they got in the heavy defeat they suffered in the election before, while Blair got fewer votes in 1997 than Major in 1992.
Reposted by Thomas Bell
It must be a huge relief for our politicians to know they can once again avoid making any tough decisions.
Hurrah for being able to can kick the can a little bit further down the road again!
Hurrah for being able to can kick the can a little bit further down the road again!
November 14, 2025 at 9:43 AM
It must be a huge relief for our politicians to know they can once again avoid making any tough decisions.
Hurrah for being able to can kick the can a little bit further down the road again!
Hurrah for being able to can kick the can a little bit further down the road again!
Reposted by Thomas Bell
Issue for Labour now isn't whether they break their manifesto pledge on tax. It is whether they do so in a way which is blatant, honest but sustainable - or whether they do so by a myriad of complex and likely insufficient means whilst arguing they are not.
Imho, one seems more toxic than the other
Imho, one seems more toxic than the other
November 14, 2025 at 10:03 AM
Issue for Labour now isn't whether they break their manifesto pledge on tax. It is whether they do so in a way which is blatant, honest but sustainable - or whether they do so by a myriad of complex and likely insufficient means whilst arguing they are not.
Imho, one seems more toxic than the other
Imho, one seems more toxic than the other
Reposted by Thomas Bell
Respectfully would argue that the Brexit referendum itself was a symptom of a political class that had withdrawn from governing and instead entertained itself with spectacle politics. (Wrote this in 2018 with @martinlodge.bsky.social). www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1...
November 13, 2025 at 11:45 PM
Respectfully would argue that the Brexit referendum itself was a symptom of a political class that had withdrawn from governing and instead entertained itself with spectacle politics. (Wrote this in 2018 with @martinlodge.bsky.social). www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1...
If “amid fears the move would anger…mutinous Labour MPs” is true (meaning not the fear, but that the fear is right) then the problem is not just the leadership.
November 14, 2025 at 1:27 AM
If “amid fears the move would anger…mutinous Labour MPs” is true (meaning not the fear, but that the fear is right) then the problem is not just the leadership.
Every now and then there are hints of systematic thought. www.bbc.com/news/article...
Police and crime commissioners to be scrapped in England and Wales
The government says it will save £100m over this Parliament and less than 20% of voters can name their PCC.
www.bbc.com
November 13, 2025 at 11:54 AM
Every now and then there are hints of systematic thought. www.bbc.com/news/article...
More to the point, it is clear why they see it and are amazed.
Well, it's a little clearer now why billionaires are so invested in technology that produces better written emails.
November 13, 2025 at 1:16 AM
More to the point, it is clear why they see it and are amazed.
Pretty grim stuff
basically believe that this mostly depends on when you got Properly Online - before a certain cut-off your normal internet experience was high agency/high effort, but it eventually became low agency/low effort, and it's impossible to create a social media experience that caters to both groups
yes I think @youngvulgarian.marieleconte.com has talked about this, it's deeply alienating to find out that the vast majority of people do not want the curated timeline / engagement / discussion version of social media that I find to be the only good version of the experience
November 12, 2025 at 3:59 PM
Pretty grim stuff
We rag on Reform here on this site but we also all want Labour to do exactly this.
Another case of Reform saying one thing then doing the other:
A Reform-led council is planning to double council tax on second homes six months after party leader Nigel Farage denounced such policies as “madness” and “extortion”
By me, for Politics Home www.politicshome.com/news/article...
A Reform-led council is planning to double council tax on second homes six months after party leader Nigel Farage denounced such policies as “madness” and “extortion”
By me, for Politics Home www.politicshome.com/news/article...
Reform Council To Double Tax On Second Homes Despite Nigel Farage Calling The Idea 'Madness'
A Reform-led council is planning to double council tax on second homes six months after party leader Nigel Farage denounced such policies as “madne...
www.politicshome.com
November 11, 2025 at 6:38 PM
We rag on Reform here on this site but we also all want Labour to do exactly this.
Reposted by Thomas Bell
🚨BREAKING: In a sweeping victory for voters, a Utah court struck down the GOP-controlled legislature’s congressional gerrymander and a companion law designed to entrench partisan power — restoring a fair map for the 2026 elections. www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/...
Utah Judge Strikes Down GOP Gerrymander, Restores Voter-Approved Fair Map
Read more here.
www.democracydocket.com
November 11, 2025 at 12:43 PM
🚨BREAKING: In a sweeping victory for voters, a Utah court struck down the GOP-controlled legislature’s congressional gerrymander and a companion law designed to entrench partisan power — restoring a fair map for the 2026 elections. www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/...
I’m going to go with he probably actually believes this, given how many times he seems to have just not paid people etc. and come out fine.
Trump: "I want the money to go into an account for people where they buy their own health insurance. It's so good. The insurance will be better. It'll cost less. Everybody is gonna be happy. They're gonna feel like entrepreneurs. They're actually able to go out & negotiate their own insurance"
November 11, 2025 at 1:56 PM
I’m going to go with he probably actually believes this, given how many times he seems to have just not paid people etc. and come out fine.
I’m leaning not towards deliberate malice, but to he has no idea what he is doing.
November 11, 2025 at 1:50 PM
I’m leaning not towards deliberate malice, but to he has no idea what he is doing.
The term “unique habitat” has come around to implying “basically meaningless piece of land”, and I don’t think that’s a good thing for conservation.
November 11, 2025 at 11:19 AM
The term “unique habitat” has come around to implying “basically meaningless piece of land”, and I don’t think that’s a good thing for conservation.
The cuts to BBC World Service are one of the dumbest soft power moves ever made.
Nowhere in the hysterical pile-on against the BBC in the British press has anyone mentioned that BBC News now has 77 million viewers & listeners in the US and has established itself as the second most trusted news source there.
November 11, 2025 at 11:12 AM
The cuts to BBC World Service are one of the dumbest soft power moves ever made.
£140 pounds a night to stay in a traffic island. They’ll do anything but zone new development.
I stayed in a converted underground toilet in Oxford - and you can too!
(if you pay approximately £200) on.ft.com/3XllOZU
(if you pay approximately £200) on.ft.com/3XllOZU
The Netty: Oxford’s new micro-hotel — in a former public toilet
[FREE TO READ] Key Notes | Hidden down a flight of steps on a traffic island, two underground suites offer only a ‘few subtle nods’ to the past
on.ft.com
November 11, 2025 at 11:09 AM
£140 pounds a night to stay in a traffic island. They’ll do anything but zone new development.
Reposted by Thomas Bell
The key is to raise taxes enough to actually be able to do something with it, beyond placating the OBR and bond markets
Breaking the tax pledge is the right call...and politically sulphurous. Reeves must argue, far more forcefully, that taxes are *the* essential downpayment we all pay for a fairer society.
Patrick Diamond and I wrote for @renewaljournal.bsky.social. Key points in 🧵 👇
renewal.org.uk/blog/if-labo...
Patrick Diamond and I wrote for @renewaljournal.bsky.social. Key points in 🧵 👇
renewal.org.uk/blog/if-labo...
If Labour want a fairer society, they must argue for it
Labour must make the political argument: taxes are the critical downpayment we all pay to live in a fairer society.
It now seems all but certain that direct taxes will rise in the forthcoming Budget...
renewal.org.uk
November 10, 2025 at 8:20 AM
The key is to raise taxes enough to actually be able to do something with it, beyond placating the OBR and bond markets
Reposted by Thomas Bell
Bloody hell www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
www.theguardian.com
November 9, 2025 at 12:15 PM
Bloody hell www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
Reposted by Thomas Bell
I’m with Vince.
And 2p on income tax plus 2p off NICS to raise £6bn feels like being hung for half a lamb.
www.ft.com/content/9e56...
And 2p on income tax plus 2p off NICS to raise £6bn feels like being hung for half a lamb.
www.ft.com/content/9e56...
November 8, 2025 at 12:01 PM
I’m with Vince.
And 2p on income tax plus 2p off NICS to raise £6bn feels like being hung for half a lamb.
www.ft.com/content/9e56...
And 2p on income tax plus 2p off NICS to raise £6bn feels like being hung for half a lamb.
www.ft.com/content/9e56...
What the hell is Labour’s theory of governance?
Govt scraps all electrification investment. Midland Main Line to stay forever diesel Leicester Nottingham Derby Sheffield. Hugely embarrassing and inexplicable
www.ft.com/content/5ecd...
www.ft.com/content/5ecd...
UK transport secretary says full electrification of railways ‘not affordable right now’
Heidi Alexander says focus will be on other projects such as HS2
www.ft.com
November 9, 2025 at 9:56 AM
What the hell is Labour’s theory of governance?
Western history being broadly admirable (whatever that means) and love of nation is admirable are surely in contention with each other.
Rage against group think, writes Matthew Syed in the Sunday Times, by reading out a paragraph of what *I* think at the beginning of every BBC editorial meeting.
November 9, 2025 at 9:52 AM
Western history being broadly admirable (whatever that means) and love of nation is admirable are surely in contention with each other.
Reposted by Thomas Bell
I’d always wondered why no one had ever published a full, detailed map of the 1960s plan to turn London into a giant web of US-style urban motorways…. It turns even the politicians and designers didn’t make one at the time. It just didn’t exist. Until now.
Earlier this week I spoke to London Centric about the Ringways Map and all things unbuilt London - they’ve dedicated the whole of their latest edition to the story! substack.com/home/post/p-...
Would your home have been under a motorway?
"The most astonishing and destructive thing never to happen to London," says the man who has spent twenty years researching the first true map of the unbuilt Ringways.
substack.com
November 9, 2025 at 8:40 AM
I’d always wondered why no one had ever published a full, detailed map of the 1960s plan to turn London into a giant web of US-style urban motorways…. It turns even the politicians and designers didn’t make one at the time. It just didn’t exist. Until now.
Reposted by Thomas Bell
Just staring the third Star Trek SNW series, a bit late I know. Sadly not impressed by the writing in the first episode. Hoping it improves.
November 8, 2025 at 4:46 PM
Just staring the third Star Trek SNW series, a bit late I know. Sadly not impressed by the writing in the first episode. Hoping it improves.
The freezing of house valuations in the early 1990s must be so hugely distorting to politics and economics in so many ways.
Crucially, the tax rise wouldn't be accompanied by a revaluation of housing - meaning it wouldn't hit areas that have gentrified since valuations were taken in 1991
The policy would instead hit "old money" areas - 40% of homes in the Cities of London and Westminster constituency would be affected
The policy would instead hit "old money" areas - 40% of homes in the Cities of London and Westminster constituency would be affected
November 8, 2025 at 11:46 AM
The freezing of house valuations in the early 1990s must be so hugely distorting to politics and economics in so many ways.