Alison Gibbs
@guineagibbs.bsky.social
Books, theatre, gardening, history, guinea pigs, running, yoga, comedy, folklore, wild places, South London stuff.
Here’s how jumbled my brain is right now: I panic-booked a hair appointment for tomorrow thinking ‘I’ll be too busy in December to get my hair cut’ but looked in the mirror and realised my hair still looks OK. I didn’t need a haircut now, I needed one in 4 weeks. But too late to cancel.
November 12, 2025 at 10:33 AM
Here’s how jumbled my brain is right now: I panic-booked a hair appointment for tomorrow thinking ‘I’ll be too busy in December to get my hair cut’ but looked in the mirror and realised my hair still looks OK. I didn’t need a haircut now, I needed one in 4 weeks. But too late to cancel.
Reposted by Alison Gibbs
Zadie Smith.
November 12, 2025 at 8:55 AM
Zadie Smith.
Reposted by Alison Gibbs
The fact that the BBC has made serious culpable errors does not negate the point that there is a real and concerted right-wing media campaign to destroy it. Both points can be true at the same time and the campaign would not end even if the errors did.
November 10, 2025 at 1:08 PM
The fact that the BBC has made serious culpable errors does not negate the point that there is a real and concerted right-wing media campaign to destroy it. Both points can be true at the same time and the campaign would not end even if the errors did.
Reposted by Alison Gibbs
Repost with an iconic fictional band
November 11, 2025 at 7:31 PM
Repost with an iconic fictional band
Reposted by Alison Gibbs
Robbie Gibb was appointed to the BBC Board by Boris Johnson, was an editorial advisor for GB News, and worked as Theresa May's Director of Comms.
He is not impartial or neutral. The government should remove him from the Board immediately to protect the BBC's independence.
He is not impartial or neutral. The government should remove him from the Board immediately to protect the BBC's independence.
November 11, 2025 at 1:00 PM
Robbie Gibb was appointed to the BBC Board by Boris Johnson, was an editorial advisor for GB News, and worked as Theresa May's Director of Comms.
He is not impartial or neutral. The government should remove him from the Board immediately to protect the BBC's independence.
He is not impartial or neutral. The government should remove him from the Board immediately to protect the BBC's independence.
Reposted by Alison Gibbs
‘Recycling By’
A radio programme like the Shipping Forecast but it’s called Bin Day and it just reads out every single council in the country’s bin schedule
November 11, 2025 at 12:16 AM
‘Recycling By’
Reposted by Alison Gibbs
Look at this great fund. £200 for really small charities to spend on boring things. Easy, quick to apply.
Link below.
Please share :)
Link below.
Please share :)
Boring Fund | Christina Poulton
Applications now open!
£200 grants available for small charities, CICs and voluntary groups towards some of those boring but hard-to-fund costs.
www.christinapoultoncreative.co.uk
November 10, 2025 at 9:12 AM
Look at this great fund. £200 for really small charities to spend on boring things. Easy, quick to apply.
Link below.
Please share :)
Link below.
Please share :)
Reposted by Alison Gibbs
Once every 20 years or so, the director-general of the BBC is forced to resign for being insufficiently rightwing. Alastair Milne in 1987. Greg Dyke in 2004. Tim Davie in 2025. The great irony is that the BBC was in all cases profoundly biased towards established power. But just not biased enough …
November 10, 2025 at 5:44 AM
Once every 20 years or so, the director-general of the BBC is forced to resign for being insufficiently rightwing. Alastair Milne in 1987. Greg Dyke in 2004. Tim Davie in 2025. The great irony is that the BBC was in all cases profoundly biased towards established power. But just not biased enough …
Reposted by Alison Gibbs
ultimately you cannot appease people whose purpose in life is to destroy you bsky.app/profile/drje...
One can’t help but suspect that the Telegraph is going to be disappointed by whoever is appointed if they are to the left of Attila the Hun.
November 9, 2025 at 6:49 PM
ultimately you cannot appease people whose purpose in life is to destroy you bsky.app/profile/drje...
Reposted by Alison Gibbs
the right winger who was appointed to lead the BBC in the hope of appeasing right wingers has been driven out by right wingers for not appeasing right wingers enough and the BBC has the chance to do the funniest thing ever
November 9, 2025 at 6:38 PM
the right winger who was appointed to lead the BBC in the hope of appeasing right wingers has been driven out by right wingers for not appeasing right wingers enough and the BBC has the chance to do the funniest thing ever
Reposted by Alison Gibbs
No, YOU’RE reading that to the tune of Forrest’s “Rock the Boat”.
October 28, 2025 at 5:57 PM
No, YOU’RE reading that to the tune of Forrest’s “Rock the Boat”.
The reason I’ve found the Louvre situation so bizarre is that I’ve seen French security up close - we visited Ile de la Cite just as the trials for the terrorist attacks were starting. (Not on purpose, obvs). The security cordons to walk anywhere round the area were immense.
October 22, 2025 at 8:54 PM
The reason I’ve found the Louvre situation so bizarre is that I’ve seen French security up close - we visited Ile de la Cite just as the trials for the terrorist attacks were starting. (Not on purpose, obvs). The security cordons to walk anywhere round the area were immense.
I obviously still know my childhood phone number, but the other one that stuck with me was my desk phone from the job I had in 2002-07. I get a weird urge to call it and see if it’s still 28 year old me on the other end, trying to buy banner ads on Yahoo.
If anyone needs me I will be in the museum, lying down next to the bog bodies.
October 14, 2025 at 8:16 AM
I obviously still know my childhood phone number, but the other one that stuck with me was my desk phone from the job I had in 2002-07. I get a weird urge to call it and see if it’s still 28 year old me on the other end, trying to buy banner ads on Yahoo.
Another of those days where I silently fume at my nemesis. Do I live rent free in her head or is she in mine?
October 8, 2025 at 4:35 PM
Another of those days where I silently fume at my nemesis. Do I live rent free in her head or is she in mine?
Reposted by Alison Gibbs
Calling English a 'rip-off degree' is one of the most blatant exhibitions of personal barbarism I've ever seen. You've demonstrated nothing but the poverty of your own mind.
October 8, 2025 at 8:28 AM
Calling English a 'rip-off degree' is one of the most blatant exhibitions of personal barbarism I've ever seen. You've demonstrated nothing but the poverty of your own mind.
Reposted by Alison Gibbs
I cannot understand what these people think the purpose of human life is?
It is *not* "pursue joy, deal justly, love well, try to understand as much and see as much of this beautiful world and of the deepness, richness and variety of human culture and experience as you can before you die"?
It is *not* "pursue joy, deal justly, love well, try to understand as much and see as much of this beautiful world and of the deepness, richness and variety of human culture and experience as you can before you die"?
How is this repeatedly made into a policy issue - by *all* parties - when the blunt fact of the matter is that grown adults who are obliged to pay for their own education, and relentlessly pursued to repay their loans, should be able to study whatever the fuck they want.
October 8, 2025 at 8:22 AM
I cannot understand what these people think the purpose of human life is?
It is *not* "pursue joy, deal justly, love well, try to understand as much and see as much of this beautiful world and of the deepness, richness and variety of human culture and experience as you can before you die"?
It is *not* "pursue joy, deal justly, love well, try to understand as much and see as much of this beautiful world and of the deepness, richness and variety of human culture and experience as you can before you die"?
Reposted by Alison Gibbs
“An example of the town of the future is Coventry.... Traffic and pedestrians are kept apart and the roads are planned to let traffic flow smoothly”
(Our Land in the Making, 1966)
Artist: Ronald Lampitt
(Our Land in the Making, 1966)
Artist: Ronald Lampitt
September 30, 2025 at 6:04 PM
“An example of the town of the future is Coventry.... Traffic and pedestrians are kept apart and the roads are planned to let traffic flow smoothly”
(Our Land in the Making, 1966)
Artist: Ronald Lampitt
(Our Land in the Making, 1966)
Artist: Ronald Lampitt
I really hope this doesn’t catch on, in general, but also this particular example - living in a place called Norwood, the name is going to play havoc with the algorithm. I don’t want a load of AI nonsense to come up whenever I search for Norwood.
Quelle surprise that the first plagiarized person is made to look like a young woman.
Shame on Eline Van der Velden for this crap.
variety.com/2025/film/ne...
Shame on Eline Van der Velden for this crap.
variety.com/2025/film/ne...
AI Actress Tilly Norwood Condemned by SAG-AFTRA: Tilly ‘Is Not an Actor… It Has No Life Experience to Draw From, No Emotion’
SAG-AFTRA issued a statement on the AI 'actress' Tilly Norwood, saying she is not a real performer and can never be.
variety.com
September 30, 2025 at 8:05 PM
I really hope this doesn’t catch on, in general, but also this particular example - living in a place called Norwood, the name is going to play havoc with the algorithm. I don’t want a load of AI nonsense to come up whenever I search for Norwood.
I remember the double standard of the ‘rule of 4’ being different in England/Wales & Scotland: Scotland didn’t include young children in the ‘4’, so in Scotland I could have met a friend with her 2 kids and my 2 outdoors, in England I couldn’t. It just seemed so unfair.
Covid exercise messaging left children stuck indoors, UK inquiry hears
Covid exercise messaging left children stuck indoors, UK inquiry hears
Children not allowed out partly because their exercise – playing – looked too much ‘like fun’, says campaigner
Children were stopped from playing outside during Covid partly because it looked “like fun” and did not fit with the seriousness of the restrictions, the UK’s inquiry has heard.
Alice Ferguson, the founding director of Playing Out, which campaigns for children’s freedom to play outside, told the inquiry that play was fundamental for children’s health and wellbeing, especially play outside with other children. Continue reading...
www.theguardian.com
September 30, 2025 at 8:02 PM
I remember the double standard of the ‘rule of 4’ being different in England/Wales & Scotland: Scotland didn’t include young children in the ‘4’, so in Scotland I could have met a friend with her 2 kids and my 2 outdoors, in England I couldn’t. It just seemed so unfair.
I saw this come up again on Facebook today and re-read that opening paragraph. I feel like I understand the context much better than when I first read it - having the Crystal Palace dinosaurs in the neighbourhood helps - but there’s no doubt it’s the Dickens I found most challenging to read.
A 2024 study found that 58 per cent of English majors at two Midwestern universities had so much trouble interpreting the opening paragraphs of “Bleak House” by Charles Dickens that “they would not be able to read the novel on their own.”
What Happens After A.I. Destroys College Writing?
The demise of the English paper will end a long intellectual tradition, but it’s also an opportunity to reëxamine the purpose of higher education.
www.newyorker.com
September 23, 2025 at 2:18 PM
I saw this come up again on Facebook today and re-read that opening paragraph. I feel like I understand the context much better than when I first read it - having the Crystal Palace dinosaurs in the neighbourhood helps - but there’s no doubt it’s the Dickens I found most challenging to read.
Reposted by Alison Gibbs
It is possible to cherish the BBC as an institution while also saying that BBC News is failing very badly, day after day, in its duty to inform and that it always fails in a right-wing direction. It desperately needs to recover its integrity
September 23, 2025 at 10:39 AM
It is possible to cherish the BBC as an institution while also saying that BBC News is failing very badly, day after day, in its duty to inform and that it always fails in a right-wing direction. It desperately needs to recover its integrity
Reposted by Alison Gibbs
This was a great joke.
September 19, 2025 at 11:22 PM
This was a great joke.
Watching Nosferatu in the hope of being pleasantly scared in a minor key, but it’s just pure ham. What a shame…
September 20, 2025 at 10:14 PM
Watching Nosferatu in the hope of being pleasantly scared in a minor key, but it’s just pure ham. What a shame…
Reposted by Alison Gibbs
I have dealt with my BIG FEELINGS about people saying mean things about London by writing this about 57 things I love in London. There were 100 things I loved, but it got too long for one email. London is inexhaustible.
naomialderman.substack.com/p/57-things-...
naomialderman.substack.com/p/57-things-...
57 things I love in London
because London is so good. it's just so so good.
naomialderman.substack.com
September 17, 2025 at 6:35 PM
I have dealt with my BIG FEELINGS about people saying mean things about London by writing this about 57 things I love in London. There were 100 things I loved, but it got too long for one email. London is inexhaustible.
naomialderman.substack.com/p/57-things-...
naomialderman.substack.com/p/57-things-...