J McLaren
@jmclaren.bsky.social
Author and dog lover - multitasking...mostly looking for the ball. Any articles from lcdviews.com should be taken with a bucketful of salt.
Pinned
Our beleaguered corner store owner, battered by Lambeth councils unceasing war against cars, and now the latest budget increasing his costs and diminishing his returns, was asking me yesterday why Lab are as bad as the Tories for him. -.- “They only have entitlement to govern. No idea what to do.” 🤷♂️
You know what? I really don't think it is. Great domestic political posturing, but Labour have no plans to go beyond the 'reset' agenda, certainly none the EU are likely to accept. This will be talk to little if any action.
Starmer declaring “we have to keep moving towards a closer relationship with the EU” is a significant moment.
Reflects transformation in public opinion + need for economic growth.
Reflects transformation in public opinion + need for economic growth.
December 4, 2025 at 8:24 AM
Our beleaguered corner store owner, battered by Lambeth councils unceasing war against cars, and now the latest budget increasing his costs and diminishing his returns, was asking me yesterday why Lab are as bad as the Tories for him. -.- “They only have entitlement to govern. No idea what to do.” 🤷♂️
As a valued customer of Thames Water I can only scream while wondering how much this continues to influence my voting decisions.
Thames Water half-year profits leap to £386m after bills rose by nearly a third.
Leaks and sewage dumping will continue for years.
£20bn+debt. A third of the bill covers interest payments.
Captive customers have no choice.
End the scam. Nationalise water.
Leaks and sewage dumping will continue for years.
£20bn+debt. A third of the bill covers interest payments.
Captive customers have no choice.
End the scam. Nationalise water.
Thames Water half-year profit leaps to nearly £400m after it raises bills by third
Revenues jumped 40% to nearly £2bn after debt-ridden utility hiked water bills sharply in April
www.theguardian.com
December 4, 2025 at 8:16 AM
As a valued customer of Thames Water I can only scream while wondering how much this continues to influence my voting decisions.
Well I know this is a deep fake, because although highly accurate, there should be an increasing mountain of fresh skulls behind him.
December 3, 2025 at 6:31 PM
Well I know this is a deep fake, because although highly accurate, there should be an increasing mountain of fresh skulls behind him.
My exhaustive review of coding agents... GPT-5 : too prone to daydreaming and occasional random acts of vandalism. Sonnet-4.5 : fantastic for the most, but can get stuck in terrible fail loops and is out of date on Xcode. Opus 4.5 : Great. But. I don't know who reverted the build to 2 wks ago? :)
December 3, 2025 at 3:18 PM
My exhaustive review of coding agents... GPT-5 : too prone to daydreaming and occasional random acts of vandalism. Sonnet-4.5 : fantastic for the most, but can get stuck in terrible fail loops and is out of date on Xcode. Opus 4.5 : Great. But. I don't know who reverted the build to 2 wks ago? :)
Why is Labour currently fcuk’d? I think of headlines to write about them constantly and realise I already wrote them under the Tories years ago now…
Home Office to deport everyone in Britain - LCD Views
“I’m just following orders,” Sajid Javid, Temporary Home Office Secretary, told reporters outside the departure lounge at Heathrow terminal 6 this -
lcdviews.com
December 2, 2025 at 2:21 PM
Why is Labour currently fcuk’d? I think of headlines to write about them constantly and realise I already wrote them under the Tories years ago now…
Reminded me of this from 2019.
December 2, 2025 at 11:51 AM
Reminded me of this from 2019.
Just got the dog to howl with me. My last dog who was the best dog anyone ever had, would never howl with me. I’m pleased now. Reminds me of when I was a wee lad and I’ll howl with the dog and my mum would shout at me to stop 🤣😇. Except today we only howled three times because I live in a terrace…
December 1, 2025 at 8:49 AM
Just got the dog to howl with me. My last dog who was the best dog anyone ever had, would never howl with me. I’m pleased now. Reminds me of when I was a wee lad and I’ll howl with the dog and my mum would shout at me to stop 🤣😇. Except today we only howled three times because I live in a terrace…
There are flags all over the poles in the streets surrounding St Helier hospital in south London. A hospital which is overwhelmingly staffed by people born overseas who have looked after me with care and empathy for some years now. Like to see whoever put those flags up pay to remove them too…
Disgraceful! A patriotic flag shagger who dedicated his time to illegally putting up 64 flags is being charged £2,300 for the cost of taking them down. If it wasn't so funny I'd be furious.
November 30, 2025 at 11:00 AM
There are flags all over the poles in the streets surrounding St Helier hospital in south London. A hospital which is overwhelmingly staffed by people born overseas who have looked after me with care and empathy for some years now. Like to see whoever put those flags up pay to remove them too…
52/48 almost 🤷♂️🤣
Their Party.
Your Party members have voted to have a COLLECTIVE leadership - so against having a single leader (for now).
So no Corbyn v Sultana leadership race just yet...
Vote was tight - 51.7% in favour
So no Corbyn v Sultana leadership race just yet...
Vote was tight - 51.7% in favour
November 30, 2025 at 10:57 AM
52/48 almost 🤷♂️🤣
Reposted by J McLaren
Yes, Jared Diamond was wrong.
Rapa Nui's people did not suffer ecological and social collapse. They adapted to changed circumstances and thrived.
And they were nothing like "primitive"
phys.org/news/2025-11...
Rapa Nui's people did not suffer ecological and social collapse. They adapted to changed circumstances and thrived.
And they were nothing like "primitive"
phys.org/news/2025-11...
Studies show how the giant statues on Rapa Nui were made and moved—and what caused the island's deforestation
Rapa Nui, also known as Easter Island, is often portrayed in popular culture as an enigma. The rationale is clear: The tiny, remote island in the Pacific features nearly 1,000 enormous statues—the moa...
phys.org
November 30, 2025 at 8:05 AM
Yes, Jared Diamond was wrong.
Rapa Nui's people did not suffer ecological and social collapse. They adapted to changed circumstances and thrived.
And they were nothing like "primitive"
phys.org/news/2025-11...
Rapa Nui's people did not suffer ecological and social collapse. They adapted to changed circumstances and thrived.
And they were nothing like "primitive"
phys.org/news/2025-11...
Back in the heat of the Brexit years whenever you said the Russians are all thru this and our politics, people often thought you had Kremlin Derangement Syndrome…and earnest podcasters dismissed it all as conspiracy theory…and slowly, the light is dawning, that Russia was/is all thru our politics…
November 29, 2025 at 6:58 PM
Back in the heat of the Brexit years whenever you said the Russians are all thru this and our politics, people often thought you had Kremlin Derangement Syndrome…and earnest podcasters dismissed it all as conspiracy theory…and slowly, the light is dawning, that Russia was/is all thru our politics…
I watched this and enjoyed it. Altho it has ruined Hamlet a bit for me. Why doesn’t Hamlet’s dad’s ghost just haunt Claudius into madness and death? He seems to pop up as he likes. What obscure bit of medieval Danish afterworld legality prevented that?
I came across this youtube video you should watch. I spent months research and writing and editing it myself, but I did come across it and think you should watch it.
youtu.be/Qm3LoWtVI1U
youtu.be/Qm3LoWtVI1U
Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet: The Videogame
YouTube video by Alien Bob
youtu.be
November 29, 2025 at 9:06 AM
I watched this and enjoyed it. Altho it has ruined Hamlet a bit for me. Why doesn’t Hamlet’s dad’s ghost just haunt Claudius into madness and death? He seems to pop up as he likes. What obscure bit of medieval Danish afterworld legality prevented that?
Next week Putin recognises Trump’s violent seizure of lands across the border with Canada?
If it's true, if the US is willing to allow borders to be redrawn by force and let aggressors be rewarded, then the gates of hell are about to be opened.
This may prove to be the single most destabilizing and conflict-spawning decision of the 21st century.
A truly Black Friday.
This may prove to be the single most destabilizing and conflict-spawning decision of the 21st century.
A truly Black Friday.
November 28, 2025 at 11:11 PM
Next week Putin recognises Trump’s violent seizure of lands across the border with Canada?
I built a collaborative drawing app -been waiting for my kids to test it. 15 year old barges in just now - “Black doesn’t work! Omg! How can you not have the colour black?” WTF…think a moment. Get phone. Check settings. She’s got it on dark mode. Light mode. Black visible. lol. I’ll fix that then 🤣
November 28, 2025 at 10:56 PM
I built a collaborative drawing app -been waiting for my kids to test it. 15 year old barges in just now - “Black doesn’t work! Omg! How can you not have the colour black?” WTF…think a moment. Get phone. Check settings. She’s got it on dark mode. Light mode. Black visible. lol. I’ll fix that then 🤣
Do wonder if Trump’s rush to help the Kremlin indicates Russia is much closer to a cliff edge economically than suspected?
It was not a plan but a capitulation document. It did not come together. It was a Russian document presented by some Americans as American. Be clear in your headlines. Help
people see the simple awfulness of things.
people see the simple awfulness of things.
President Trump's proposal to end the war in Ukraine heavily favored Russia in its initial form and included demand that Kyiv has consistently rejected. Here's how the plan came together.
Listen to "The Daily."
Listen to "The Daily."
November 28, 2025 at 7:10 PM
Do wonder if Trump’s rush to help the Kremlin indicates Russia is much closer to a cliff edge economically than suspected?
Forgive the award winning cinematography. But my last dog I never taught this trick as I assumed it was really hard. It’s not. She’s riddled with bullet holes now 🤣🙌
November 28, 2025 at 6:25 PM
Forgive the award winning cinematography. But my last dog I never taught this trick as I assumed it was really hard. It’s not. She’s riddled with bullet holes now 🤣🙌
Reposted by J McLaren
Russia writing US policy. For discussion of the implications of this please listen to my conversation with Michael Weiss on Thinking Live:
snyder.substack.com/p/oligarchs-...
snyder.substack.com/p/oligarchs-...
New: @theins.press saw the Witkoff-Dmitriev plan six months ago in draft form—except it was all Dmitriev. Bloomberg reports now Dmitriev told Ushakov he’d pass along a Russian plan and the Americans “can present it as their own”: theins.press/en/politics/...
Made in Moscow: The “U.S. peace plan” for Ukraine was substantially formulated months ago by Kremlin operative Kirill Dmitriev
Since it was first published on Nov. 20, the much-discussed 28-point plan for ending the war in Ukraine has borne all the signs of a Kremlin information operation. In fact, many of its most controvers...
theins.press
November 28, 2025 at 4:10 PM
Russia writing US policy. For discussion of the implications of this please listen to my conversation with Michael Weiss on Thinking Live:
snyder.substack.com/p/oligarchs-...
snyder.substack.com/p/oligarchs-...
This has been one of the notable declines in BBC news/politics quality. Bad actors frame the story and the BBC accepts the framing without question, ie, the US "trade deal". When is a trade deal not a trade deal? When it's not a trade deal...but rather than arbitrary bollocks demanded by a nutter.
November 27, 2025 at 8:31 AM
This has been one of the notable declines in BBC news/politics quality. Bad actors frame the story and the BBC accepts the framing without question, ie, the US "trade deal". When is a trade deal not a trade deal? When it's not a trade deal...but rather than arbitrary bollocks demanded by a nutter.
I was in Spain a few weeks ago staying with a friend. One day the utility co turned up. Dug a big hole in the road. Erected barriers etc. we know the drill. Repaired whatever. Fixed road. Took barriers, left. About 3hours and normal life resumed. Uk? Months. I’d go for just that! 😂🙌
Yes - everyone has theories but the data isn’t there.
🔃 "For public policy reasons and Treasury planning, it would be much better if we knew something about these citizen-emigrants."
✍️ @jsm27.bsky.social makes the case for having a better understanding of the British nationals leaving and returning to the UK
ukandeu.ac.uk/who-is-emigr...
✍️ @jsm27.bsky.social makes the case for having a better understanding of the British nationals leaving and returning to the UK
ukandeu.ac.uk/who-is-emigr...
November 26, 2025 at 4:25 PM
I was in Spain a few weeks ago staying with a friend. One day the utility co turned up. Dug a big hole in the road. Erected barriers etc. we know the drill. Repaired whatever. Fixed road. Took barriers, left. About 3hours and normal life resumed. Uk? Months. I’d go for just that! 😂🙌
I guess the problem for Starmer is, as a former chief prosecutor, people expected him to be a conviction politician…
‘In policy terms, and on the substance, Labour has just about got itself a passing grade with this budget. The way it’s been sold to the public is a catastrophic failure.’
This feels like a very apt description of the entire Labour government since July 2024
This feels like a very apt description of the entire Labour government since July 2024
"This was a relatively modest and uneventful budget, and yet it’s dominated the headlines for three months … In policy terms, and on the substance, Labour has just about got itself a passing grade with this budget. The way it’s been sold to the public is a catastrophic failure."
November 26, 2025 at 3:58 PM
I guess the problem for Starmer is, as a former chief prosecutor, people expected him to be a conviction politician…
I love these images from this bot account. Knowing that there is a man made machine trundling about Mars gives me hope for us all. Not in the Musk way, but in the capability of our species to do amazing things, even as the idiots get all the attention day to day.
Sol 1694: Left Mastcam-Z Camera, imaged at 11:35:45.844 (local mean solar time), image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU
November 26, 2025 at 10:18 AM
I love these images from this bot account. Knowing that there is a man made machine trundling about Mars gives me hope for us all. Not in the Musk way, but in the capability of our species to do amazing things, even as the idiots get all the attention day to day.
Just the best and the brightest running things...
November 25, 2025 at 3:05 PM
Just the best and the brightest running things...