James
@mcjamesz.bsky.social
I got lost somewhere along the way.
🏳️🌈 I-ADHD, Depression, Anxiety. Nerdy.
🇬🇧🏴 Manchester.
Interested in data analysis, politics, maps, dogs, strategic games, history.
🏳️🌈 I-ADHD, Depression, Anxiety. Nerdy.
🇬🇧🏴 Manchester.
Interested in data analysis, politics, maps, dogs, strategic games, history.
Reposted by James
And apart from anything, is there not a huge duty of care issue here for the govt re Grok. If you’re telling the public they can get their comms on X, you’re essentially sending them there? And that puts them at risk of unwillingly viewing SAM and, for female users, being the subject of it?
I am extremely confused as to why the UK government and police are saying Grok’s mass-scale CSAM generation is an issue for Ofcom.
This isn’t about X failing to moderate CSAM, which is an Online Safety Act issue. It is about the company and its technology being actively involved in its generation.
This isn’t about X failing to moderate CSAM, which is an Online Safety Act issue. It is about the company and its technology being actively involved in its generation.
January 7, 2026 at 12:00 PM
And apart from anything, is there not a huge duty of care issue here for the govt re Grok. If you’re telling the public they can get their comms on X, you’re essentially sending them there? And that puts them at risk of unwillingly viewing SAM and, for female users, being the subject of it?
More thoughts on Stranger Things 5:
I'm really unsatisfied with Will's coming out scenes: We don't see Vecna preying on his fears of homophobia & judgement, either before the coming out or in the final tussle. It was set up to be a thing, but in the end it was a schmaltzy sideshow.
I'm really unsatisfied with Will's coming out scenes: We don't see Vecna preying on his fears of homophobia & judgement, either before the coming out or in the final tussle. It was set up to be a thing, but in the end it was a schmaltzy sideshow.
January 2, 2026 at 7:04 PM
More thoughts on Stranger Things 5:
I'm really unsatisfied with Will's coming out scenes: We don't see Vecna preying on his fears of homophobia & judgement, either before the coming out or in the final tussle. It was set up to be a thing, but in the end it was a schmaltzy sideshow.
I'm really unsatisfied with Will's coming out scenes: We don't see Vecna preying on his fears of homophobia & judgement, either before the coming out or in the final tussle. It was set up to be a thing, but in the end it was a schmaltzy sideshow.
I want to talk about a series that probably has cult-fans who treat different views like a satanic aberration.
I'm capable of liking something & also being critical & joking about it. If you're that fan, don't quote-tweet me, I want nothing to do with your weird cult to vaguely popular tv program.
I'm capable of liking something & also being critical & joking about it. If you're that fan, don't quote-tweet me, I want nothing to do with your weird cult to vaguely popular tv program.
December 30, 2025 at 2:20 PM
I want to talk about a series that probably has cult-fans who treat different views like a satanic aberration.
I'm capable of liking something & also being critical & joking about it. If you're that fan, don't quote-tweet me, I want nothing to do with your weird cult to vaguely popular tv program.
I'm capable of liking something & also being critical & joking about it. If you're that fan, don't quote-tweet me, I want nothing to do with your weird cult to vaguely popular tv program.
Reposted by James
He doesn't, but because he doesn't lead and in many ways seems to actively resent being asked to, the tone is set by others around him who he has outsourced to.
December 29, 2025 at 10:56 AM
He doesn't, but because he doesn't lead and in many ways seems to actively resent being asked to, the tone is set by others around him who he has outsourced to.
Reposted by James
If a drug was having this societal effect it would be banned within a week. Across the world, politicians are - through their inaction - completely abdicating their responsibilities to civil democratic discourse.
November 28, 2025 at 12:16 PM
If a drug was having this societal effect it would be banned within a week. Across the world, politicians are - through their inaction - completely abdicating their responsibilities to civil democratic discourse.
Reposted by James
Nigel Farage looks uncomfortable as Jamie Raskin uses his opening statement to absolutely demolish him
September 3, 2025 at 4:39 PM
Nigel Farage looks uncomfortable as Jamie Raskin uses his opening statement to absolutely demolish him
Reposted by James
No, you did not give those of us who happened to look like the people who bombed Pearl Harbor any due process. And that was profoundly wrong. It destroyed our lives.
August 8, 2025 at 6:46 PM
No, you did not give those of us who happened to look like the people who bombed Pearl Harbor any due process. And that was profoundly wrong. It destroyed our lives.
Reposted by James
It's worse than that: because populism can't deliver its promises, it has to keep finding new traitors & enemies to blame. It has to keep tearing at the walls of its imagined prison.
The more it fails, the more it turns people against each other. And the more it seeks to destroy anything in its way
The more it fails, the more it turns people against each other. And the more it seeks to destroy anything in its way
I really don't want to go through the whole rigmarole of seeing Farage win power and then fuck everything up and have loads of sympathetic voxpops with dismayed Reform voters expressing their regrets when it was extremely fucking obvious what would happen because his platform is incoherent garbage
July 21, 2025 at 12:51 PM
It's worse than that: because populism can't deliver its promises, it has to keep finding new traitors & enemies to blame. It has to keep tearing at the walls of its imagined prison.
The more it fails, the more it turns people against each other. And the more it seeks to destroy anything in its way
The more it fails, the more it turns people against each other. And the more it seeks to destroy anything in its way
Reposted by James
Obviously Abbott’s comments that mass immigration was a “squalid experiment” doing untold damage to the UK while implying that Britons of Irish and Bengali origin were not “decent Brits” were completely unacceptable
Hang on, I’m just being told that that was Starmer
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Hang on, I’m just being told that that was Starmer
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Abbott suspended by Labour Party after racism comments
MP Diane Abbott is suspended by the Labour Party pending an investigation, the BBC understands.
www.bbc.co.uk
July 17, 2025 at 5:22 PM
Obviously Abbott’s comments that mass immigration was a “squalid experiment” doing untold damage to the UK while implying that Britons of Irish and Bengali origin were not “decent Brits” were completely unacceptable
Hang on, I’m just being told that that was Starmer
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Hang on, I’m just being told that that was Starmer
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Struggling to resist the urge to respond to clearly antagonistic arseholes spouting ignorant bollocks.
July 14, 2025 at 4:39 PM
Struggling to resist the urge to respond to clearly antagonistic arseholes spouting ignorant bollocks.
So in my current CK3 campaign, the game gave me the Conqueror trait on my second lifetime, & everytime I die, pass on the Empire to a grandchild & they get Conqueror as soon as they inherit too. I'm a bit frustrated with how blobby it makes the experience - is this working as intended?
June 5, 2025 at 4:58 PM
So in my current CK3 campaign, the game gave me the Conqueror trait on my second lifetime, & everytime I die, pass on the Empire to a grandchild & they get Conqueror as soon as they inherit too. I'm a bit frustrated with how blobby it makes the experience - is this working as intended?
When designing your mass transit system, connect points lots of people want to get to sometimes, that aren't conveniently within 10 mins of city centre.
You're designing a web, not a tree.
Connect your hospitals & universities into it, don't route all lines through the same 3 traffic corridors.
You're designing a web, not a tree.
Connect your hospitals & universities into it, don't route all lines through the same 3 traffic corridors.
May 24, 2025 at 2:46 AM
When designing your mass transit system, connect points lots of people want to get to sometimes, that aren't conveniently within 10 mins of city centre.
You're designing a web, not a tree.
Connect your hospitals & universities into it, don't route all lines through the same 3 traffic corridors.
You're designing a web, not a tree.
Connect your hospitals & universities into it, don't route all lines through the same 3 traffic corridors.
Watching a TOTP2 Eurovision special to warm up for tomorrow night. BBC has put forward some rubbish in the past. It's pot luck between classic & forgettable song of the year.
It's really weird the focus was so much on British acts. Abba & Johnny Logan the only non-British acts so far in 2007.
It's really weird the focus was so much on British acts. Abba & Johnny Logan the only non-British acts so far in 2007.
May 16, 2025 at 5:15 PM
Watching a TOTP2 Eurovision special to warm up for tomorrow night. BBC has put forward some rubbish in the past. It's pot luck between classic & forgettable song of the year.
It's really weird the focus was so much on British acts. Abba & Johnny Logan the only non-British acts so far in 2007.
It's really weird the focus was so much on British acts. Abba & Johnny Logan the only non-British acts so far in 2007.
Labour are destroying their coalition. Every party needs a coalition of supporters of different beliefs; Labour is focussed on meeting the aims of Reform's coalition.
It's making itself a pariah for people who believe in human rights & equity - socialists, social democrats & liberals - its core.
It's making itself a pariah for people who believe in human rights & equity - socialists, social democrats & liberals - its core.
May 16, 2025 at 5:56 AM
Labour are destroying their coalition. Every party needs a coalition of supporters of different beliefs; Labour is focussed on meeting the aims of Reform's coalition.
It's making itself a pariah for people who believe in human rights & equity - socialists, social democrats & liberals - its core.
It's making itself a pariah for people who believe in human rights & equity - socialists, social democrats & liberals - its core.
Reposted by James
You’re all such Bluesky dweebs reading the MSM… the thing which, as an aside, that keeps popping up unprompted in entirely unrelated conversations is…. Keir Starmer’s plan to dim the sun.
May 8, 2025 at 3:07 PM
You’re all such Bluesky dweebs reading the MSM… the thing which, as an aside, that keeps popping up unprompted in entirely unrelated conversations is…. Keir Starmer’s plan to dim the sun.
Reposted by James
Reposted by James
If I say to you 'I want a pony in my flat, but I don't believe that I will have to clean up its shit, spend anything on feeding it or in any way change my lifestyle to accommodate it', which is essentially what the voters Downing Street obsesses over say about immigration, should you get me a pony?
May 4, 2025 at 10:03 PM
If I say to you 'I want a pony in my flat, but I don't believe that I will have to clean up its shit, spend anything on feeding it or in any way change my lifestyle to accommodate it', which is essentially what the voters Downing Street obsesses over say about immigration, should you get me a pony?
Reposted by James
Really cool the way Labour is correcting for the Tories' "pander to their core voters at all costs" strategy, with a "telling THEIR core voters to go fuck themselves at every opportunity" strategy
In my view (1) the mass university system we have built since the 1970s is now likely coming to an end, if not in this Parliament than in the next; (2) university bankruptcies (perhaps disguised as mergers) are inevitable. Sorry, but there it is.
May 4, 2025 at 6:43 PM
Really cool the way Labour is correcting for the Tories' "pander to their core voters at all costs" strategy, with a "telling THEIR core voters to go fuck themselves at every opportunity" strategy
Reposted by James
The lowest winning vote share in the local elections was a mere 18.9%...
Truro Moresk & Trehaverne (Cornwall) Result:
🔶 LDM: 18.9%
➡️ RFM: 17.4%
🌳 CON: 17.0%
🌍 GRN: 14.1%
🙋 Ind: 13.3%
🌹 LAB: 11.4%
🙋 Ind: 7.9%
Truro Moresk & Trehaverne (Cornwall) Result:
🔶 LDM: 18.9%
➡️ RFM: 17.4%
🌳 CON: 17.0%
🌍 GRN: 14.1%
🙋 Ind: 13.3%
🌹 LAB: 11.4%
🙋 Ind: 7.9%
May 4, 2025 at 1:35 PM
The lowest winning vote share in the local elections was a mere 18.9%...
Truro Moresk & Trehaverne (Cornwall) Result:
🔶 LDM: 18.9%
➡️ RFM: 17.4%
🌳 CON: 17.0%
🌍 GRN: 14.1%
🙋 Ind: 13.3%
🌹 LAB: 11.4%
🙋 Ind: 7.9%
Truro Moresk & Trehaverne (Cornwall) Result:
🔶 LDM: 18.9%
➡️ RFM: 17.4%
🌳 CON: 17.0%
🌍 GRN: 14.1%
🙋 Ind: 13.3%
🌹 LAB: 11.4%
🙋 Ind: 7.9%
Watched a YouTube video about Stand By Me, & that scene where Will Wheaton is crying, affirming that his Dad hates him. It connects so much.
It's such a horrible thing to *know* that your parent hates you, because you're not the person they want you to be. Too sensitive, too geeky, too not them.
It's such a horrible thing to *know* that your parent hates you, because you're not the person they want you to be. Too sensitive, too geeky, too not them.
May 4, 2025 at 1:54 PM
Watched a YouTube video about Stand By Me, & that scene where Will Wheaton is crying, affirming that his Dad hates him. It connects so much.
It's such a horrible thing to *know* that your parent hates you, because you're not the person they want you to be. Too sensitive, too geeky, too not them.
It's such a horrible thing to *know* that your parent hates you, because you're not the person they want you to be. Too sensitive, too geeky, too not them.
I don't know who that person is that keeps taking my glasses off & leaving them in the most invisible places, but boy do I hate that guy.
May 4, 2025 at 1:48 PM
I don't know who that person is that keeps taking my glasses off & leaving them in the most invisible places, but boy do I hate that guy.
Reposted by James
MAKE THE DEMON MAGIC ELECTRIC STOP!
Reform MP Richard Tice: “Reform control the Mayoralty and County Council in Lincolnshire with myself as local MP.
If you are thinking of investing in solar farms, Battery storage systems, or trying to build pylons.
Think again.
We will fight you every step of the way.”
We will win
If you are thinking of investing in solar farms, Battery storage systems, or trying to build pylons.
Think again.
We will fight you every step of the way.”
We will win
May 3, 2025 at 6:54 PM
MAKE THE DEMON MAGIC ELECTRIC STOP!
Reposted by James
Really think this is important and poorly understood.
Labour is too focused on "messaging" (what message will hold off Reform?) and not interested enough in "governing" (what inputs and outputs) will induce voters to trust and support them.
It's embarrassing political ineptitude, really.
Labour is too focused on "messaging" (what message will hold off Reform?) and not interested enough in "governing" (what inputs and outputs) will induce voters to trust and support them.
It's embarrassing political ineptitude, really.
I agree with this but the picture is incomplete. People mostly aren’t tempted by the far right just because they don’t like migrants, but because migrants are being blamed for other things that are going wrong
Given the local election results in the UK, a short #thread - based on much of our own research - on the vicious cycle of radical right support that we have seen in many countries.
1) When radical right parties (such as Reform) are electorally successful established parties move right on immigration
1) When radical right parties (such as Reform) are electorally successful established parties move right on immigration
May 3, 2025 at 8:03 AM
Really think this is important and poorly understood.
Labour is too focused on "messaging" (what message will hold off Reform?) and not interested enough in "governing" (what inputs and outputs) will induce voters to trust and support them.
It's embarrassing political ineptitude, really.
Labour is too focused on "messaging" (what message will hold off Reform?) and not interested enough in "governing" (what inputs and outputs) will induce voters to trust and support them.
It's embarrassing political ineptitude, really.
There's misinformation that Labour's local election losses were mostly to Lib Dems or Green. This is false.
Labour lost most of its seats to Reform.
Let's look at councils Labour lost a lot of seats on. There's boundary changes in many, complicating direct comparisons.
(Maps from electionmaps)
Labour lost most of its seats to Reform.
Let's look at councils Labour lost a lot of seats on. There's boundary changes in many, complicating direct comparisons.
(Maps from electionmaps)
May 3, 2025 at 2:22 PM
There's misinformation that Labour's local election losses were mostly to Lib Dems or Green. This is false.
Labour lost most of its seats to Reform.
Let's look at councils Labour lost a lot of seats on. There's boundary changes in many, complicating direct comparisons.
(Maps from electionmaps)
Labour lost most of its seats to Reform.
Let's look at councils Labour lost a lot of seats on. There's boundary changes in many, complicating direct comparisons.
(Maps from electionmaps)
Reposted by James
The Tories are going to have some tricky decisions to make around coalition building. Do they go into partnership with Reform in places like Leicestershire or Northumberland?
May 2, 2025 at 8:12 PM
The Tories are going to have some tricky decisions to make around coalition building. Do they go into partnership with Reform in places like Leicestershire or Northumberland?