@pforpapa.bsky.social
Moved to the country, ate a lot of peaches, moved back.
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These are the sorts of probing questions I feel like the new ministerial team at the Home Office will not have been asking. Labour is going down the same old road of raising expectations with big, eye-catching policy announcements but with no idea if they will actually work in practice.
On asylum there seems to be no attempt to analyse different parts of the problem in a way that allows serious public discussion 🧵
November 17, 2025 at 3:11 PM
These are the sorts of probing questions I feel like the new ministerial team at the Home Office will not have been asking. Labour is going down the same old road of raising expectations with big, eye-catching policy announcements but with no idea if they will actually work in practice.
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Seems like a good time (again) to share the guide I developed with @freedomfromtorture.bsky.social, which tells you how to talk about refugees and asylum in a way that actually convinces the undecided - based on testing 🧵 www.freedomfromtorture.org/changing-the...
Changing the Conversation on Asylum: A Messaging Guide
Our new messaging guide looks at the methodology and messages that can help us carve out a new approach that will be successful in persuading the public that seeking safety is a fundamental human righ...
www.freedomfromtorture.org
November 17, 2025 at 3:06 PM
Seems like a good time (again) to share the guide I developed with @freedomfromtorture.bsky.social, which tells you how to talk about refugees and asylum in a way that actually convinces the undecided - based on testing 🧵 www.freedomfromtorture.org/changing-the...
😂
November 14, 2025 at 9:53 AM
😂
Desperate to know the civil servant story behind this. What advice was provided? Did the perm sec agree with pulling the income tax hike we’d all been prepared for?
Gilts sell off heavily at market open. 📉
Long gilt futures drop over 100 ticks.
Long-dated yields rise by 10-13 bps
Long gilt futures drop over 100 ticks.
Long-dated yields rise by 10-13 bps
Oh boy
November 14, 2025 at 8:23 AM
Desperate to know the civil servant story behind this. What advice was provided? Did the perm sec agree with pulling the income tax hike we’d all been prepared for?
Drax being defined as low carbon energy by any gov, let alone one with Ed M as energy secretary, enrages me
Apparently we can't afford to help President Lula save the rainforest, but we can afford to pay Drax to burn 250 year old Canadian trees…
November 13, 2025 at 7:37 PM
Drax being defined as low carbon energy by any gov, let alone one with Ed M as energy secretary, enrages me
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Thinking about the only good leaked email (Channing Tatum from the Sony leak)
November 13, 2025 at 5:11 PM
Thinking about the only good leaked email (Channing Tatum from the Sony leak)
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Six people died from tampered Tylenol and the company pulled 30 million bottles off the market. ChatGPT is accused of urging seven people towards suicide, and OpenAI just assures us they’re still working out the kinks. Billions in investment, zero accountability.
OpenAI faces 7 lawsuits claiming ChatGPT drove people to suicide, delusions
OpenAI is facing seven lawsuits claiming ChatGPT drove people to suicide and harmful delusions even when they had no prior mental health issues.
apnews.com
November 8, 2025 at 2:46 PM
Six people died from tampered Tylenol and the company pulled 30 million bottles off the market. ChatGPT is accused of urging seven people towards suicide, and OpenAI just assures us they’re still working out the kinks. Billions in investment, zero accountability.
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The BBC is apologising for its Panorama edit. It shouldn’t. First, the narrative is true: Donald Trump *did* incite the Capitol riot. Second, the apology won’t appease those attacking it. So why not at least stand for something?
Wrote this on it earlier this week:
inews.co.uk/news/world/b...
Wrote this on it earlier this week:
inews.co.uk/news/world/b...
The BBC was right about the Capitol riots. In a sane world, Trump would be in jail
The US President faced impeachment over the violence, and in a world where Republicans had more courage, he would have been found guilty
inews.co.uk
November 9, 2025 at 7:05 AM
The BBC is apologising for its Panorama edit. It shouldn’t. First, the narrative is true: Donald Trump *did* incite the Capitol riot. Second, the apology won’t appease those attacking it. So why not at least stand for something?
Wrote this on it earlier this week:
inews.co.uk/news/world/b...
Wrote this on it earlier this week:
inews.co.uk/news/world/b...
Love this
November 7, 2025 at 12:34 AM
Love this
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Turns out this news was in the public domain yesterday but no one has covered it as far as I can tell. Does no one care about our national library anymore? It was much the same with the cyberattack. If this was a bit of 'science' infrastructure can you imagine?
www.pcs.org.uk/news-events/...
www.pcs.org.uk/news-events/...
British Library chief executive quits midway through PCS strike
The British Library has been thrown into further turmoil midway through a two-week PCS strike with the resignation of its chief executive Rebecca Lawrence.
www.pcs.org.uk
November 4, 2025 at 3:32 PM
Turns out this news was in the public domain yesterday but no one has covered it as far as I can tell. Does no one care about our national library anymore? It was much the same with the cyberattack. If this was a bit of 'science' infrastructure can you imagine?
www.pcs.org.uk/news-events/...
www.pcs.org.uk/news-events/...
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I'm not sure but I think I might be the first person in the world to hear "the dog's got into the chicken biriyani and it's on the curtains" being shouted up the stairs while I'm on a teams? x
October 30, 2025 at 2:45 PM
I'm not sure but I think I might be the first person in the world to hear "the dog's got into the chicken biriyani and it's on the curtains" being shouted up the stairs while I'm on a teams? x
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🚨 BREAKING: The government has tabled their plan to restrict repeat protests.
Demonstrations could now banned based on the 'cumulative disruption' that previous protests have caused in the area - regardless of if they have been organised by the same people or not.
This is worse than we feared.
Demonstrations could now banned based on the 'cumulative disruption' that previous protests have caused in the area - regardless of if they have been organised by the same people or not.
This is worse than we feared.
Government's repeat protest restrictions worse than feared - Liberty
www.libertyhumanrights.org.uk
November 4, 2025 at 3:28 PM
🚨 BREAKING: The government has tabled their plan to restrict repeat protests.
Demonstrations could now banned based on the 'cumulative disruption' that previous protests have caused in the area - regardless of if they have been organised by the same people or not.
This is worse than we feared.
Demonstrations could now banned based on the 'cumulative disruption' that previous protests have caused in the area - regardless of if they have been organised by the same people or not.
This is worse than we feared.
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The online baying mob shouting "Vote Reform" after Saturday's train stabbing attack may wish to note that not a single Reform MP has turned up for the Home Secretary's statement on the incident.
November 3, 2025 at 5:39 PM
The online baying mob shouting "Vote Reform" after Saturday's train stabbing attack may wish to note that not a single Reform MP has turned up for the Home Secretary's statement on the incident.
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Nigel Farage, whose party recently put a teenager with zero work experience of any kind, in charge of running an entire county, is currently giving a speech railing against "unqualified" politicians being put in charge of Government departments
November 3, 2025 at 11:24 AM
Nigel Farage, whose party recently put a teenager with zero work experience of any kind, in charge of running an entire county, is currently giving a speech railing against "unqualified" politicians being put in charge of Government departments
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It's not a grassroots working class movement.
"Wherever we looked for prominent flaggers and leaders of this movement, we found people smugglers and sex doll salesmen, people with dubious criminal pasts and people willing to put in a good word for Adolf Hitler."
manchestermill.co.uk/the-men-who-...
"Wherever we looked for prominent flaggers and leaders of this movement, we found people smugglers and sex doll salesmen, people with dubious criminal pasts and people willing to put in a good word for Adolf Hitler."
manchestermill.co.uk/the-men-who-...
The men who raised the flags
Nigel Farage says this summer’s movement was led by ‘ordinary people’ expressing their patriotism. That’s not what we found
manchestermill.co.uk
November 1, 2025 at 7:58 AM
It's not a grassroots working class movement.
"Wherever we looked for prominent flaggers and leaders of this movement, we found people smugglers and sex doll salesmen, people with dubious criminal pasts and people willing to put in a good word for Adolf Hitler."
manchestermill.co.uk/the-men-who-...
"Wherever we looked for prominent flaggers and leaders of this movement, we found people smugglers and sex doll salesmen, people with dubious criminal pasts and people willing to put in a good word for Adolf Hitler."
manchestermill.co.uk/the-men-who-...
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This is so good from Cory Doctorow on all the tricks Amazon uses to get both consumers to pay more, and how businesses on the platform end up paying it 45-51 cents on every dollar.
Plus he rightly calls for regulatory change, not just individual consumer action
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
Plus he rightly calls for regulatory change, not just individual consumer action
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
Way past its prime: how did Amazon get so rubbish?
Sick of scrolling through junk results, AI-generated ads and links to lookalike products? The author and activist behind the term ‘enshittification’ explains what’s gone wrong with the internet – and ...
www.theguardian.com
October 5, 2025 at 8:19 AM
This is so good from Cory Doctorow on all the tricks Amazon uses to get both consumers to pay more, and how businesses on the platform end up paying it 45-51 cents on every dollar.
Plus he rightly calls for regulatory change, not just individual consumer action
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
Plus he rightly calls for regulatory change, not just individual consumer action
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
Some v good points in here, which my experience with ministers supports
What if we treated political careers like other high-pressure professions, and actually invested in our leaders to help them thrive?
howtorunacountry.substack.com/p/political-...
howtorunacountry.substack.com/p/political-...
Political Derangement Syndrome: our leaders need therapy
What if we redesigned political careers to get the best of people?
howtorunacountry.substack.com
November 1, 2025 at 4:07 PM
Some v good points in here, which my experience with ministers supports
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Good thing there’s not a power hungry sector of the economy that has single handedly revived demand growth in electric markets and revived interest in fossil fuel plants or we’d really be in trouble
As the single most important news story this year, I can't wait to see the detailed and central coverage this will get in every media outlet we have
‘Change course now’: humanity has missed 1.5C climate target, says UN head
Exclusive: ‘Devastating consequences’ now inevitable but emissions cuts still vital, says António Guterres in sole interview before Cop30
www.theguardian.com
October 28, 2025 at 3:47 AM
Good thing there’s not a power hungry sector of the economy that has single handedly revived demand growth in electric markets and revived interest in fossil fuel plants or we’d really be in trouble
And more importantly, they’re 81,200 very entertaining and interesting words
Finished! 81,200 words, 21 chapters, one trip to Dallas and another to Leamington Spa. It will be out in Spring and, if you were wondering, the font on this title page is called Oswald.
October 28, 2025 at 2:25 PM
And more importantly, they’re 81,200 very entertaining and interesting words
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Guillermo del Toro on wealth: "a wealthy man is a man who has enough, not a man that needs more. If you have enough to invite someone for a beer? You're rich. If you have a yacht, planes, islands, and you still need more? You're not rich."
October 27, 2025 at 1:37 AM
Guillermo del Toro on wealth: "a wealthy man is a man who has enough, not a man that needs more. If you have enough to invite someone for a beer? You're rich. If you have a yacht, planes, islands, and you still need more? You're not rich."
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This from a top expert on Antarctica's Thwaites Glacier.
Highly likely that we're committing to an additional 3 meters (10 ft) of sea level rise as we speak. Yes, it'll take time to fully materialize, but when will the enormous damage that we're signing up for sink in with voters and policy makers?
Highly likely that we're committing to an additional 3 meters (10 ft) of sea level rise as we speak. Yes, it'll take time to fully materialize, but when will the enormous damage that we're signing up for sink in with voters and policy makers?
In summary, the outlook is grim. It is highly likely that Thwaites Glacier will eventually be lost, which will destabilise adjoining parts of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, increasing the committed long-term rise in global mean sea level by more than 3 m.
October 26, 2025 at 9:41 PM
This from a top expert on Antarctica's Thwaites Glacier.
Highly likely that we're committing to an additional 3 meters (10 ft) of sea level rise as we speak. Yes, it'll take time to fully materialize, but when will the enormous damage that we're signing up for sink in with voters and policy makers?
Highly likely that we're committing to an additional 3 meters (10 ft) of sea level rise as we speak. Yes, it'll take time to fully materialize, but when will the enormous damage that we're signing up for sink in with voters and policy makers?
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To be fair, Ireland hasn't had a female president since the two they had before the last one.
October 26, 2025 at 10:39 PM
To be fair, Ireland hasn't had a female president since the two they had before the last one.
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who creates the lively art and music scenes if the rent is too high? who makes cultural life? who serves you food or washes your dishes? who creates the fancy little restaurants that draw you to urban living? affordable housing is at the heart of what makes city life worthwhile.
October 26, 2025 at 6:04 AM
who creates the lively art and music scenes if the rent is too high? who makes cultural life? who serves you food or washes your dishes? who creates the fancy little restaurants that draw you to urban living? affordable housing is at the heart of what makes city life worthwhile.
voting reform the public will get behind
Demand the same for all polling stations at the next UK election.
The home of the O'Donovan family is being used as a polling station in Coolmoyne, Co Tipperary. Around 250 people are eligible to vote at the house and after they cast their ballot, they will be treated to a cup of tea, a slice of apple or rhubarb tart, or a scone | More: rte.ie/b/1540324
October 24, 2025 at 1:05 PM
voting reform the public will get behind
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Pete Hegseth is the kind of guy you used to send on a Crusade so he’d stop bothering you and die from incompetence
January 15, 2025 at 3:16 PM
Pete Hegseth is the kind of guy you used to send on a Crusade so he’d stop bothering you and die from incompetence