Charles Williams
@nicander.bsky.social
Charity content person. AFC Wimbledon fan. Trying to write a thing. Views my own. Was at another place as @randomventures
Reposted by Charles Williams
It is incredible to me how made up this issue is. No one gave a shit ten years ago. Sure there were your individual mad, ignorant bigots but *Theresa May* was pushing for self-ID because it was the last little bit of logistical sorting out of a settled question: we're ok with Trans people
December 6, 2025 at 1:33 PM
It is incredible to me how made up this issue is. No one gave a shit ten years ago. Sure there were your individual mad, ignorant bigots but *Theresa May* was pushing for self-ID because it was the last little bit of logistical sorting out of a settled question: we're ok with Trans people
I'd never looked at a David Walliams kids book because of their rep and we got given one the other day. Maybe it's not so bad, I thought. Within five pages we'd met a mysterious old man called Chang and a corner shop owner called Raj.
December 7, 2025 at 9:56 AM
I'd never looked at a David Walliams kids book because of their rep and we got given one the other day. Maybe it's not so bad, I thought. Within five pages we'd met a mysterious old man called Chang and a corner shop owner called Raj.
Reposted by Charles Williams
This was very informative for me, if also rather worrying paulkrugman.substack.com/p/talking-wi...
Talking With Paul Kedrosky
So, about this AI thing ...
paulkrugman.substack.com
December 6, 2025 at 2:07 PM
This was very informative for me, if also rather worrying paulkrugman.substack.com/p/talking-wi...
Just absolute spite from Lambeth Council, that. "Oh, you want fewer events? Fair enough, we'll bin the free community one."
*Lambeth Country Show axed after 50 years
*The 81 year old running as the YIMBY mayor of London
*A £500 basement conversion in Lewisham
*WHY ARE LONDON’S BUSES GETTING SLOWER???
Completely chaotic mix of stories, what is the editor thinking, all here:
www.londoncentric.media/p/lambeth-co...
*The 81 year old running as the YIMBY mayor of London
*A £500 basement conversion in Lewisham
*WHY ARE LONDON’S BUSES GETTING SLOWER???
Completely chaotic mix of stories, what is the editor thinking, all here:
www.londoncentric.media/p/lambeth-co...
No more Lambeth Country Show: Battle for Brockwell Park returns
Plus: Why are London's buses getting slower, the 81-year-old running to be the YIMBY mayor of London, We R Blighty turn to body cams, and would you buy this basement for £500?
www.londoncentric.media
December 6, 2025 at 8:45 AM
Just absolute spite from Lambeth Council, that. "Oh, you want fewer events? Fair enough, we'll bin the free community one."
This. Fucking hell, this. Ideas are so, so cheap.
It’s the mark of an amateur – in journalistic writing, book writing, TV, whatever – that they think ideas are the currency, where the value is, and need fiercely protecting.
Everyone has ideas. Usually ten before breakfast. Executing them well is the hard bit.
Everyone has ideas. Usually ten before breakfast. Executing them well is the hard bit.
'The words are AI, but the idea is all me.'
'This is MY story, I just needed telling it.'
'The voice is authentically my own.'
'The novel is mine, but I used AI to write it.'
'This is MY story, I just needed telling it.'
'The voice is authentically my own.'
'The novel is mine, but I used AI to write it.'
December 4, 2025 at 10:55 AM
This. Fucking hell, this. Ideas are so, so cheap.
Reposted by Charles Williams
It’s the mark of an amateur – in journalistic writing, book writing, TV, whatever – that they think ideas are the currency, where the value is, and need fiercely protecting.
Everyone has ideas. Usually ten before breakfast. Executing them well is the hard bit.
Everyone has ideas. Usually ten before breakfast. Executing them well is the hard bit.
'The words are AI, but the idea is all me.'
'This is MY story, I just needed telling it.'
'The voice is authentically my own.'
'The novel is mine, but I used AI to write it.'
'This is MY story, I just needed telling it.'
'The voice is authentically my own.'
'The novel is mine, but I used AI to write it.'
December 4, 2025 at 10:33 AM
It’s the mark of an amateur – in journalistic writing, book writing, TV, whatever – that they think ideas are the currency, where the value is, and need fiercely protecting.
Everyone has ideas. Usually ten before breakfast. Executing them well is the hard bit.
Everyone has ideas. Usually ten before breakfast. Executing them well is the hard bit.
Reposted by Charles Williams
Paid for by the Harry Potter Institute for Fucking Monsters.
December 3, 2025 at 11:07 AM
Paid for by the Harry Potter Institute for Fucking Monsters.
Reposted by Charles Williams
It's worth noting that the Government has a massive majority and could fix this in an instant with a one-line piece of legislation. It doesn't want to.
December 3, 2025 at 11:18 AM
It's worth noting that the Government has a massive majority and could fix this in an instant with a one-line piece of legislation. It doesn't want to.
Reposted by Charles Williams
If the Equality Act had never existed, and someone proposed to pass a law banning women’s organisations from choosing to welcome trans people, we’d think it was a pretty extreme proposal. I don’t think it’s less extreme because it’s come about as a result of a new interpretation of an old law.
December 3, 2025 at 11:18 AM
If the Equality Act had never existed, and someone proposed to pass a law banning women’s organisations from choosing to welcome trans people, we’d think it was a pretty extreme proposal. I don’t think it’s less extreme because it’s come about as a result of a new interpretation of an old law.
Reposted by Charles Williams
Good rebuttal worth spending time with
Rightly lots of debates about growth this weekend - rightly because it was low productivity growth that saw wages entirely flatline during the 2010s.
December 1, 2025 at 8:03 AM
Good rebuttal worth spending time with
Reposted by Charles Williams
December 2, 2025 at 8:48 AM
I find myself thinking a lot about this from Uncle Monty in Withnail & I, which might slide by alongside all those other great quotes from the most quotable film ever made, but is the truest thing in the whole film: "free to those who can afford it, very expensive to those who can't."
Prince Edward pays peppercorn rent for 120-room Surrey mansion - The Times and The Sunday Times
Prince Edward pays peppercorn rent for 120-room Surrey mansion — The Times and The Sunday Times
The King’s brother, Prince Edward, enjoys his Surrey mansion at a peppercorn rent, it can be revealed, after The Times forced the disclosure of documents held by the Crown Estate. The Duke of…
buff.ly
November 29, 2025 at 8:59 AM
I find myself thinking a lot about this from Uncle Monty in Withnail & I, which might slide by alongside all those other great quotes from the most quotable film ever made, but is the truest thing in the whole film: "free to those who can afford it, very expensive to those who can't."
Reposted by Charles Williams
Now can everyone stop being cowards and someone please just give me a big beautiful model of Tove Jansson’s best boy Gollum
November 27, 2025 at 4:49 PM
Now can everyone stop being cowards and someone please just give me a big beautiful model of Tove Jansson’s best boy Gollum
Every time as a website manager someone said "we can just publish it now and exclude from search and nav", my brain would do a quick "*is* that okay?" risk assessment and 99% of the time it's fine. However, the 1% is the bit where if you get it wrong, you get sacked.
i mean not to prejudge this, but the cyber expert is likely to say 'yeah you hit publish, mate'
OBR calls in cyber expert over botched release of Budget analysis
November 27, 2025 at 12:40 PM
Every time as a website manager someone said "we can just publish it now and exclude from search and nav", my brain would do a quick "*is* that okay?" risk assessment and 99% of the time it's fine. However, the 1% is the bit where if you get it wrong, you get sacked.
Reposted by Charles Williams
THE POLICY ADDRESSES THIS ALREADY.
"Homeowners will be able to roll up the annual payments and defer them until they move house or die." www.ft.com/content/5b07...
"Homeowners will be able to roll up the annual payments and defer them until they move house or die." www.ft.com/content/5b07...
November 27, 2025 at 11:43 AM
THE POLICY ADDRESSES THIS ALREADY.
"Homeowners will be able to roll up the annual payments and defer them until they move house or die." www.ft.com/content/5b07...
"Homeowners will be able to roll up the annual payments and defer them until they move house or die." www.ft.com/content/5b07...
Reposted by Charles Williams
narrator: 50 years ago...
me: [nods] in 1945
narrator: in 1975...
me: what
me: [nods] in 1945
narrator: in 1975...
me: what
November 25, 2025 at 2:11 AM
narrator: 50 years ago...
me: [nods] in 1945
narrator: in 1975...
me: what
me: [nods] in 1945
narrator: in 1975...
me: what
Reposted by Charles Williams
Fifty-one years (and three days) since the Cleveland Browns "some asshole" letter was sent:
November 24, 2025 at 7:26 PM
Fifty-one years (and three days) since the Cleveland Browns "some asshole" letter was sent:
No. Just absolutely not.
Keir Starmer's spokesman insisted on Monday that "clearly these changes will not be retrospective" for those already granted asylum, as Reform have been demanding.
Now we learn they will be
inews.co.uk/news/politic...
Now we learn they will be
inews.co.uk/news/politic...
November 19, 2025 at 10:57 AM
No. Just absolutely not.
Reposted by Charles Williams
Labour’s core voter is a Londoner. While they fret about imagined Reform defecting voters in the “red wall” they’re at risk of losing their 21st century heartland entirely.
www.thenewworld.co.uk/james-ball-l...
www.thenewworld.co.uk/james-ball-l...
November 18, 2025 at 11:56 AM
Labour’s core voter is a Londoner. While they fret about imagined Reform defecting voters in the “red wall” they’re at risk of losing their 21st century heartland entirely.
www.thenewworld.co.uk/james-ball-l...
www.thenewworld.co.uk/james-ball-l...
I don't think it will return without leadership change. Even a change in approach now will feel too much like triangulation/desperation. People voted Labour because they wanted better values at the top, and a focus on what is actually important, and they've got the same/worse. It's a disaster.
I've been out canvassing quite a lot in London lately. Labour's vote has absolutely evaporated.... it is quite extraordinary to go to places where Labour were on 50-60% of the vote at the last locals and find nobody, or virtually nobody, supporting them.
The phrase 'I voted Labour last time, but...
The phrase 'I voted Labour last time, but...
November 18, 2025 at 11:57 AM
I don't think it will return without leadership change. Even a change in approach now will feel too much like triangulation/desperation. People voted Labour because they wanted better values at the top, and a focus on what is actually important, and they've got the same/worse. It's a disaster.
Went to the Paddington Experience with my son at the weekend, which was lovely, and I think would have been ruined if Paddington had had to explain that all his valuables were taken at the border, the whole country seemed like it hated him and he was at constant risk of deportation.
November 17, 2025 at 11:11 AM
Went to the Paddington Experience with my son at the weekend, which was lovely, and I think would have been ruined if Paddington had had to explain that all his valuables were taken at the border, the whole country seemed like it hated him and he was at constant risk of deportation.
Reposted by Charles Williams
it's basically impossible to argue with this, they have won significant policy concessions, and there's no reason to think they'll stop pushing now that Labour have opened the door for them
They must be proud with this endorsement, they worked hard for it.
November 16, 2025 at 10:13 AM
it's basically impossible to argue with this, they have won significant policy concessions, and there's no reason to think they'll stop pushing now that Labour have opened the door for them
Borders and nations are a scam and have no inherent value or role to play in humanity's success or survival.
"my least woke opinion is---"
That's enough. We've had enough people indulging in the "thrill of a little conservatism", as a treat. Of considering reactionary thought to be a salacious and taboo in a world descending into reactionary mania.
Give me your MOST woke opinions. We're bringing it back.
That's enough. We've had enough people indulging in the "thrill of a little conservatism", as a treat. Of considering reactionary thought to be a salacious and taboo in a world descending into reactionary mania.
Give me your MOST woke opinions. We're bringing it back.
November 16, 2025 at 11:24 AM
Borders and nations are a scam and have no inherent value or role to play in humanity's success or survival.
Reposted by Charles Williams
"Thank Heavens Reeves froze the thresholds," says the median voter in 2029 as they walk past the derelict sports centre and down the empty high street to cast their vote.
English councils plan to sell off social clubs and sports centres to balance books
English councils plan to sell off social clubs and sports centres to balance books
Survey finds 60% of key cities councils are planning to sell assets to meet costs of adult and children’s social care
English councils are planning to sell social clubs, sports centres and shopping arcades as they bet on a fire sale of assets to balance the books, according to a survey of local authorities.
The key cities group of councils, which represents second-tier cities in England, said 60% of councils were planning to sell assets to meet the escalating costs of adult and children’s social care. Continue reading...
www.theguardian.com
November 15, 2025 at 11:34 AM
"Thank Heavens Reeves froze the thresholds," says the median voter in 2029 as they walk past the derelict sports centre and down the empty high street to cast their vote.