obikirk
@obikirk.bsky.social
Northern Engineer, occasionally post opinions.
Reposted by obikirk
We’re now up to 22 ex-Tory MPs joining reform. It’s not subtle - every day clearer this is just a rebranding of the nutty fringe of the Conservative Party offering to rerun the Truss/Johnson omnishambles
December 11, 2025 at 8:44 AM
We’re now up to 22 ex-Tory MPs joining reform. It’s not subtle - every day clearer this is just a rebranding of the nutty fringe of the Conservative Party offering to rerun the Truss/Johnson omnishambles
Reposted by obikirk
/noclip's YouTube discovery has dropped off a cliff in 2025 so just gonna keep posting this as it's one of our most anticipated projects in years. Also we're really proud of it. Check it out!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=eH6m...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=eH6m...
The Making of Disco Elysium - Part One: Foundations
YouTube video by /noclip
www.youtube.com
November 29, 2025 at 7:24 PM
/noclip's YouTube discovery has dropped off a cliff in 2025 so just gonna keep posting this as it's one of our most anticipated projects in years. Also we're really proud of it. Check it out!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=eH6m...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=eH6m...
Reposted by obikirk
This (from: www.ft.com/content/75ce...) is something you can *feel* if you are in the UK, especially if you've experienced living abroad. But infuriatingly successive governments and our entire media are somehow absolutely committed to suggesting anyone who wants to change this is the devil...
November 21, 2025 at 7:38 AM
This (from: www.ft.com/content/75ce...) is something you can *feel* if you are in the UK, especially if you've experienced living abroad. But infuriatingly successive governments and our entire media are somehow absolutely committed to suggesting anyone who wants to change this is the devil...
Reposted by obikirk
You might be able to justify any of these policies individually (perhaps even asylum one) but together there is no coherence. Number 10 might think each is a brick in a staircase leading to the election. I just see a pile of bricks.
November 15, 2025 at 10:37 AM
You might be able to justify any of these policies individually (perhaps even asylum one) but together there is no coherence. Number 10 might think each is a brick in a staircase leading to the election. I just see a pile of bricks.
Reposted by obikirk
This is deranged and dangerous from the Conservatives, and similarly from Reform. If they could enact it, it would rip British society apart, destroy the economy & NHS, & make the UK an international pariah. Every decent politician & political journalist/commentator needs to push back hard.
The draft legislation is crackers. It would fail immediately if we stayed in the ECHR but it disappears the human rights act. if passed after that it would involve mandatory loss of ILR for up to 400,000 people + refusal of 2-3 million others, though without no credible means to identify or remove
Here Lam explicitly sets out her proposal - which is official Conservative Party policy - to deport long-standing legal permanent residents who have *ever* claimed any benefit, including the state pension or child benefit (even if the child is British), or who earn less than £39K.
October 22, 2025 at 6:36 AM
This is deranged and dangerous from the Conservatives, and similarly from Reform. If they could enact it, it would rip British society apart, destroy the economy & NHS, & make the UK an international pariah. Every decent politician & political journalist/commentator needs to push back hard.
Reposted by obikirk
Tooze: There's "disastrous overlap between the timeline of AI-capital & the political calendar. The hyperscalers & MAGA zealots may not share much on substance. They don’t have to. But they agree on 1 thing: the long-term future will be defined bt now & 2028."
adamtooze.substack.com/p/chartbook-...
adamtooze.substack.com/p/chartbook-...
Chartbook 410: Malign coincidence - MAGA & the moment of hyperscaling.
The engagement of big tech with the Trump Presidency has been one of the big surprises of the second term.
adamtooze.substack.com
September 25, 2025 at 3:16 PM
Tooze: There's "disastrous overlap between the timeline of AI-capital & the political calendar. The hyperscalers & MAGA zealots may not share much on substance. They don’t have to. But they agree on 1 thing: the long-term future will be defined bt now & 2028."
adamtooze.substack.com/p/chartbook-...
adamtooze.substack.com/p/chartbook-...
Reposted by obikirk
Retrospectively removing indefinite leave to remain would be immoral and economically damaging. It would tear families apart.
Attacking it as ‘potentially illegal’ is completely beside the point.
Argue with the (awful) idea. Don’t try ’well, actually you can’t do that’.
Attacking it as ‘potentially illegal’ is completely beside the point.
Argue with the (awful) idea. Don’t try ’well, actually you can’t do that’.
September 22, 2025 at 7:10 AM
Retrospectively removing indefinite leave to remain would be immoral and economically damaging. It would tear families apart.
Attacking it as ‘potentially illegal’ is completely beside the point.
Argue with the (awful) idea. Don’t try ’well, actually you can’t do that’.
Attacking it as ‘potentially illegal’ is completely beside the point.
Argue with the (awful) idea. Don’t try ’well, actually you can’t do that’.
Reposted by obikirk
Nigel Farage: "We will abolish indefinite leave to remain (ILR) status", and "We will rescind ILR statuses that have already been granted".
The first sentence is worryingly ignorant. The second sentence is frighteningly fascist.
The first sentence is worryingly ignorant. The second sentence is frighteningly fascist.
September 22, 2025 at 7:01 AM
Nigel Farage: "We will abolish indefinite leave to remain (ILR) status", and "We will rescind ILR statuses that have already been granted".
The first sentence is worryingly ignorant. The second sentence is frighteningly fascist.
The first sentence is worryingly ignorant. The second sentence is frighteningly fascist.
Reposted by obikirk
Reposted by obikirk
I’m old enough to remember when Conservative Party leaders believed in law and order.
Kemi Badenoch refusing to acknowledge that Tommy Robinson is "far-right", now on LBC, and refusing to condemn Elon Musk's words. In fact she says what Musk said *isn't* incitement. So what would be incitement then? How violent would his words have to be before he was deemed a threat to this country?
September 16, 2025 at 8:57 PM
I’m old enough to remember when Conservative Party leaders believed in law and order.
Reposted by obikirk
This is my flag.
August 28, 2025 at 4:21 PM
This is my flag.
Reposted by obikirk
Nigel Farage and the Reform Party’s Taliban Tax means sending hundreds of millions of taxpayers' money to an oppressive regime that British soldiers fought and died to defeat.
August 27, 2025 at 11:35 AM
Nigel Farage and the Reform Party’s Taliban Tax means sending hundreds of millions of taxpayers' money to an oppressive regime that British soldiers fought and died to defeat.
Reposted by obikirk
90 percent of anything Trump says about stuff outside his core obsessions is whatever the last person he spoke to told him about it.
August 21, 2025 at 1:48 PM
90 percent of anything Trump says about stuff outside his core obsessions is whatever the last person he spoke to told him about it.
Unzoomed #568 3/6 🔴🟡🟢⚪️⚪️⚪️
unzoomed.com
Could have got that one in two if I'd remembered the capital city properly!
unzoomed.com
Could have got that one in two if I'd remembered the capital city properly!
Unzoomed
Identify cities using satellite images in this daily puzzle game, where each guess zooms out for enhanced clues.
unzoomed.com
August 8, 2025 at 12:05 PM
Unzoomed #568 3/6 🔴🟡🟢⚪️⚪️⚪️
unzoomed.com
Could have got that one in two if I'd remembered the capital city properly!
unzoomed.com
Could have got that one in two if I'd remembered the capital city properly!
Reposted by obikirk
Support this, both for 'why do we have a civil service internship scheme if NOT to broaden the talent pipeline for it' reasons and for 'this is going to produce some truly amazing takes' reasons.
Civil service interns must all be working class, government says
Civil service interns must all be working class, government says
Internships will only go to students from poorer families in a push to make Whitehall more working class.
www.bbc.com
July 31, 2025 at 11:48 PM
Support this, both for 'why do we have a civil service internship scheme if NOT to broaden the talent pipeline for it' reasons and for 'this is going to produce some truly amazing takes' reasons.
Reposted by obikirk
Maybe I've missed this. But "a soldier sent an email" is not going to cut it as an explanation of how this happened. I'm not saying name-and-shame. But the public are owed a proper explanation. Continuing obfuscation just compounds this.
July 16, 2025 at 7:19 AM
Maybe I've missed this. But "a soldier sent an email" is not going to cut it as an explanation of how this happened. I'm not saying name-and-shame. But the public are owed a proper explanation. Continuing obfuscation just compounds this.
Reposted by obikirk
Being able to ask: “okay, but what are the other consequences of this policy?” Is a pretty essential part of any policy debate, but in the *majority* of our public political debates, such questions are routinely avoided.
July 3, 2025 at 9:34 AM
Being able to ask: “okay, but what are the other consequences of this policy?” Is a pretty essential part of any policy debate, but in the *majority* of our public political debates, such questions are routinely avoided.
Reposted by obikirk
Spanish government report on the causes of the unprecedented blackout of the Iberian peninsula points to failure of thermal power plants to respond as required, and a possible planning failure by the grid operator, as the causes.
elpais.com/economia/202...
elpais.com/economia/202...
El Gobierno reparte culpas entre Red Eléctrica y las empresas por el gran apagón
El Ejecutivo descarta el ciberataque y apunta a la mala planificación del operador del sistema y la actuación “indebida” de las eléctricas. El informe ve la luz 49 días después del primer cero energét...
elpais.com
June 18, 2025 at 5:17 AM
Spanish government report on the causes of the unprecedented blackout of the Iberian peninsula points to failure of thermal power plants to respond as required, and a possible planning failure by the grid operator, as the causes.
elpais.com/economia/202...
elpais.com/economia/202...
On ID cards, I'd suggest that those in favour go look at the state of the UK e-visa scheme.
Whatever the purported benefits, I have zero faith in the home office's ability to manage an ID card scheme.
Whatever the purported benefits, I have zero faith in the home office's ability to manage an ID card scheme.
June 6, 2025 at 3:07 PM
On ID cards, I'd suggest that those in favour go look at the state of the UK e-visa scheme.
Whatever the purported benefits, I have zero faith in the home office's ability to manage an ID card scheme.
Whatever the purported benefits, I have zero faith in the home office's ability to manage an ID card scheme.
Reposted by obikirk
Two words:
Home Office
Home Office
I’ve never understood the irrational opposition to universal ID in this country so very happy to see this in my inbox today
June 6, 2025 at 11:17 AM
Two words:
Home Office
Home Office
Reposted by obikirk
Reposted by obikirk
I'm making my debut on Substack today with the first two parts of my essay on the postwar British economy, "Why Britain Fell Behind".
Subsequent, meatier, parts will be published... later. But I intend to write about other stuff as well.
polichron.substack.com/p/why-britai...
Subsequent, meatier, parts will be published... later. But I intend to write about other stuff as well.
polichron.substack.com/p/why-britai...
Why Britain Fell Behind, Part 1: Introduction & Index
A Study of a Surprising Failure
polichron.substack.com
June 5, 2025 at 1:56 PM
I'm making my debut on Substack today with the first two parts of my essay on the postwar British economy, "Why Britain Fell Behind".
Subsequent, meatier, parts will be published... later. But I intend to write about other stuff as well.
polichron.substack.com/p/why-britai...
Subsequent, meatier, parts will be published... later. But I intend to write about other stuff as well.
polichron.substack.com/p/why-britai...