Phil Edwards
@philedwards.bsky.social
"Research fellow" (i.e. retired) at MMU; still writing. Interests: international law, jurisprudence (mainly Kelsen). Other interests: folksong, real ale, the Left, cinema, Bowie, Aickman. Blogs at gapingsilence.wordpress.com and ohgoodale.wordpress.com .
Maintenant c'est joué. I mean, seriously joué. Properly, properly joué. If you had any lingering doubts as to whether tu ne la verras pas, dispel them. Really, really joué.
November 13, 2025 at 9:11 AM
Maintenant c'est joué. I mean, seriously joué. Properly, properly joué. If you had any lingering doubts as to whether tu ne la verras pas, dispel them. Really, really joué.
TONY BLAIR: Ignore the Left. If anyone attacks from the Right, ignore them too. You're new, you're different. OK?
KEIR STARMER: And if my allies break with me?
TB [sighs]: Ignore them too.
KS: OK! So I defeat the Left utterly, then I undermine the Right and I brief against my allies. Sounds good!
KEIR STARMER: And if my allies break with me?
TB [sighs]: Ignore them too.
KS: OK! So I defeat the Left utterly, then I undermine the Right and I brief against my allies. Sounds good!
November 12, 2025 at 7:31 PM
TONY BLAIR: Ignore the Left. If anyone attacks from the Right, ignore them too. You're new, you're different. OK?
KEIR STARMER: And if my allies break with me?
TB [sighs]: Ignore them too.
KS: OK! So I defeat the Left utterly, then I undermine the Right and I brief against my allies. Sounds good!
KEIR STARMER: And if my allies break with me?
TB [sighs]: Ignore them too.
KS: OK! So I defeat the Left utterly, then I undermine the Right and I brief against my allies. Sounds good!
Reposted by Phil Edwards
Mr McSweeney, when we gathered in secret in 2018 to scribble down your list of idiotic accusations against your colleagues and then relentlessly stampede every word of your drivel onto front pages as revelations and a terrifying national emergency, we did not expect “a toxic culture of briefing”
November 12, 2025 at 9:42 AM
Mr McSweeney, when we gathered in secret in 2018 to scribble down your list of idiotic accusations against your colleagues and then relentlessly stampede every word of your drivel onto front pages as revelations and a terrifying national emergency, we did not expect “a toxic culture of briefing”
BBC News alert:
"Several people reportedly killed after car explosion"
I had to tap to get the full text, which read:
"Several people reportedly killed after car explosion near major landmark in Indian capital Delhi."
Which isn't a big improvement.
"Several people reportedly killed after car explosion"
I had to tap to get the full text, which read:
"Several people reportedly killed after car explosion near major landmark in Indian capital Delhi."
Which isn't a big improvement.
November 10, 2025 at 3:47 PM
BBC News alert:
"Several people reportedly killed after car explosion"
I had to tap to get the full text, which read:
"Several people reportedly killed after car explosion near major landmark in Indian capital Delhi."
Which isn't a big improvement.
"Several people reportedly killed after car explosion"
I had to tap to get the full text, which read:
"Several people reportedly killed after car explosion near major landmark in Indian capital Delhi."
Which isn't a big improvement.
Just spent five minutes on 'Your Party' mailing list advocating sortition & explaining that selecting conference attendees "literally at random" is actually a feature, not a bug.
November 10, 2025 at 10:47 AM
Just spent five minutes on 'Your Party' mailing list advocating sortition & explaining that selecting conference attendees "literally at random" is actually a feature, not a bug.
A whole month, you say? Sounds considerably longer than the traditional Christmas period. Maybe they should call it Winterv
[shot rings out]
[shot rings out]
We used to have 1 “light switch on” on 1 evening and that was largely it - outside of what was happening in shops
Now we have so much more on offer, over a whole month
A one-off light switch on is less relevant and hard to manage. So some towns will drop them
It’s not that deep!
14/15
Now we have so much more on offer, over a whole month
A one-off light switch on is less relevant and hard to manage. So some towns will drop them
It’s not that deep!
14/15
November 9, 2025 at 12:06 PM
A whole month, you say? Sounds considerably longer than the traditional Christmas period. Maybe they should call it Winterv
[shot rings out]
[shot rings out]
If you see this post an album cover with a motor vehicle on it.
November 8, 2025 at 6:37 PM
If you see this post an album cover with a motor vehicle on it.
“Can you FGS stop polishing up Reform talking points into news stories?”, sources have told the BBC.
November 8, 2025 at 2:57 PM
“Can you FGS stop polishing up Reform talking points into news stories?”, sources have told the BBC.
Reposted by Phil Edwards
OVER A MILLION USERS
DISCUSS SUICIDE WITH CHATGPT
EVERY *WEEK*
what the fuck are we DOING here
DISCUSS SUICIDE WITH CHATGPT
EVERY *WEEK*
what the fuck are we DOING here
Panera’s moderately caffeinated lemonade was loosely associated with 2 deaths before it was taken off market.
This article alone has 4 examples of ChatGPT encouraging young people to commit suicide, and OpenAI’s own public stats estimate over a million users discuss suicide with ChatGPT each week.
This article alone has 4 examples of ChatGPT encouraging young people to commit suicide, and OpenAI’s own public stats estimate over a million users discuss suicide with ChatGPT each week.
I fully believe in the corporate death penalty and believe we would be a better world if OpenAI lost its corporate charter and was forcibly dissolved.
www.cnn.com/2025/11/06/u...
www.cnn.com/2025/11/06/u...
November 7, 2025 at 10:59 PM
OVER A MILLION USERS
DISCUSS SUICIDE WITH CHATGPT
EVERY *WEEK*
what the fuck are we DOING here
DISCUSS SUICIDE WITH CHATGPT
EVERY *WEEK*
what the fuck are we DOING here
Reposted by Phil Edwards
a mental health crisis among British students whilst universities are pushing faculty to accept or even encourage students using generative AI is a catastrophe waiting to happen
1.This is not the only known example we know of ChatGPT cheering on a vulnerable young person to die by suicide, this time it is a recent Texas A&M grad
2. Every single university that has invited OpenAI into our midst should be asked to account for their choices.
www.cnn.com/2025/11/06/u...
2. Every single university that has invited OpenAI into our midst should be asked to account for their choices.
www.cnn.com/2025/11/06/u...
November 7, 2025 at 9:19 PM
a mental health crisis among British students whilst universities are pushing faculty to accept or even encourage students using generative AI is a catastrophe waiting to happen
Strange urge to play Prince of Persia all of a sudden.
November 7, 2025 at 10:30 AM
Strange urge to play Prince of Persia all of a sudden.
Excellent piece from @davidallengreen.bsky.social on the prison/punishment system.
Reminds me of the "What Works?" tragedy (brief🧵).
emptycity.substack.com/p/the-real-p...
Reminds me of the "What Works?" tragedy (brief🧵).
emptycity.substack.com/p/the-real-p...
The real problem which blights our prison and punishment system
The way we think about custodial sentences is what needs to change
emptycity.substack.com
November 7, 2025 at 9:45 AM
Excellent piece from @davidallengreen.bsky.social on the prison/punishment system.
Reminds me of the "What Works?" tragedy (brief🧵).
emptycity.substack.com/p/the-real-p...
Reminds me of the "What Works?" tragedy (brief🧵).
emptycity.substack.com/p/the-real-p...
Reposted by Phil Edwards
I do not think all anti-Zionists are antisemitic, but anti-Zionists who label Zohran Mamdani a "Zionist" simply because he condemned swastikas drawn on a Jewish day school in Brooklyn are in fact antisemites.
November 6, 2025 at 10:09 PM
I do not think all anti-Zionists are antisemitic, but anti-Zionists who label Zohran Mamdani a "Zionist" simply because he condemned swastikas drawn on a Jewish day school in Brooklyn are in fact antisemites.
Reposted by Phil Edwards
"You *can* see the War; It's over there, between the Land and the Sea!"
#DoctorWho
#DoctorWho
October 31, 2025 at 1:02 AM
"You *can* see the War; It's over there, between the Land and the Sea!"
#DoctorWho
#DoctorWho
This is insane, and deeply depressing. Somebody give this guy a job. Ideally a boring job with long lunch hours and Shibboleth access.
what a week. 2 more job rejections on my already a decade covering list of failed applications to stay within academia. the time to say goodbye is in sight.
November 6, 2025 at 5:35 PM
This is insane, and deeply depressing. Somebody give this guy a job. Ideally a boring job with long lunch hours and Shibboleth access.
Reposted by Phil Edwards
How glib and superficial and frankly ignorant can you be to dismiss this. How dare you suggest that France and Germany being close allies and friends is a small or even (in the words of many British colleagues) “weird“ and dispensable achievement.
I have had enough of it.
I have had enough of it.
November 6, 2025 at 7:57 AM
How glib and superficial and frankly ignorant can you be to dismiss this. How dare you suggest that France and Germany being close allies and friends is a small or even (in the words of many British colleagues) “weird“ and dispensable achievement.
I have had enough of it.
I have had enough of it.
Don't read this thread unless you're alone. Especially if, like mine, your sense of humour runs to (a) nonsense words and (b) straight-faced repetition of the same joke.
Hardly surprising that it's a long thread, tho. I mean, I ate at McDonalds in 1974*, and I certainly never paid 9.50 for shloske.
Hardly surprising that it's a long thread, tho. I mean, I ate at McDonalds in 1974*, and I certainly never paid 9.50 for shloske.
mmmm my favorite mcdonald’s food, Dore, Caprer, and a side of Cchinges
November 5, 2025 at 10:58 PM
Don't read this thread unless you're alone. Especially if, like mine, your sense of humour runs to (a) nonsense words and (b) straight-faced repetition of the same joke.
Hardly surprising that it's a long thread, tho. I mean, I ate at McDonalds in 1974*, and I certainly never paid 9.50 for shloske.
Hardly surprising that it's a long thread, tho. I mean, I ate at McDonalds in 1974*, and I certainly never paid 9.50 for shloske.
Reposted by Phil Edwards
Our position statement rejecting the use of GenAI for reflexive qualitative research can be found here
papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
<span>We reject the use of generative artificial intelligence for reflexive qualitative research</span>
We write as 416 experienced qualitative researchers from 38 countries, to reject the use of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) applications for Big Q Qu
papers.ssrn.com
November 4, 2025 at 8:18 PM
Our position statement rejecting the use of GenAI for reflexive qualitative research can be found here
papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
Reposted by Phil Edwards
Reposted by Phil Edwards
The failure of the “blue no matter who” crowd to rally behind Mamdani really just lays the reality of that position bare, doesn’t it?
November 4, 2025 at 5:00 PM
The failure of the “blue no matter who” crowd to rally behind Mamdani really just lays the reality of that position bare, doesn’t it?
A couple of interesting articles on sortition (although the first should have had the same word limit as the second; I found the bits about the metaphysics of knowledge less pressing than the bits about, well, sortition).
prometheusjournal.org/2025/11/04/s...
prometheusjournal.org/2025/11/04/a...
prometheusjournal.org/2025/11/04/s...
prometheusjournal.org/2025/11/04/a...
Against sortition | Prometheus
Sortition is sold as the solution to our democratic deficit. Michael Chessum argues that it is a chimera ripe for undemocratic manoeuvers.
prometheusjournal.org
November 4, 2025 at 10:36 AM
A couple of interesting articles on sortition (although the first should have had the same word limit as the second; I found the bits about the metaphysics of knowledge less pressing than the bits about, well, sortition).
prometheusjournal.org/2025/11/04/s...
prometheusjournal.org/2025/11/04/a...
prometheusjournal.org/2025/11/04/s...
prometheusjournal.org/2025/11/04/a...
"Your theory that all anyone in mainstream politics cares about is flags, crackdowns and getting to meet Bono... I don't know, it just seems a bit crude."
- Well, it wasn't always Bono.
- Well, it wasn't always Bono.
He wore this to get an award MP Tony Blair .
BOWIE always iconic ♥️
BOWIE always iconic ♥️
November 4, 2025 at 10:17 AM
"Your theory that all anyone in mainstream politics cares about is flags, crackdowns and getting to meet Bono... I don't know, it just seems a bit crude."
- Well, it wasn't always Bono.
- Well, it wasn't always Bono.
In my soon-to-conclude 1970s sf reviewing project, I review two books at a time; the latest post is the only one so far with two different star ratings.
Most books don't get a star rating; I only use 5* (read this!) and 1* (don't read this!).
gapingsilence.wordpress.com/2025/11/02/t...
Most books don't get a star rating; I only use 5* (read this!) and 1* (don't read this!).
gapingsilence.wordpress.com/2025/11/02/t...
The £10 Box: Somerset Dreams, Xeno
The £10 Box was an old fruit box containing 40 hardbacks, all of them Science Fiction Book Club editions, dating from 1968 to 1979, which I bought from my local Oxfam bookshop for a tenner several …
gapingsilence.wordpress.com
November 3, 2025 at 4:13 PM
In my soon-to-conclude 1970s sf reviewing project, I review two books at a time; the latest post is the only one so far with two different star ratings.
Most books don't get a star rating; I only use 5* (read this!) and 1* (don't read this!).
gapingsilence.wordpress.com/2025/11/02/t...
Most books don't get a star rating; I only use 5* (read this!) and 1* (don't read this!).
gapingsilence.wordpress.com/2025/11/02/t...
Reposted by Phil Edwards
Good lord. www.glasgowbell.co.uk/raise-the-co...
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
www.glasgowbell.co.uk
November 1, 2025 at 8:05 PM
Good lord. www.glasgowbell.co.uk/raise-the-co...
On 'Your Party':
gapingsilence.wordpress.com/2025/10/31/y...
"The size of the YP membership, and the range of skills and experience that members can bring to it, has rightly been seen as its key asset; the assemblies and the ‘crowd editing’ tool could have been designed to neutralise that asset."
gapingsilence.wordpress.com/2025/10/31/y...
"The size of the YP membership, and the range of skills and experience that members can bring to it, has rightly been seen as its key asset; the assemblies and the ‘crowd editing’ tool could have been designed to neutralise that asset."
Yer Blues(1): What’s Bin Did
This is the first in a brief series of posts about the “Your Party” project. Like a lot of people, I was initially very enthusiastic about the project; like a lot of people, I don’…
gapingsilence.wordpress.com
October 31, 2025 at 1:31 PM
On 'Your Party':
gapingsilence.wordpress.com/2025/10/31/y...
"The size of the YP membership, and the range of skills and experience that members can bring to it, has rightly been seen as its key asset; the assemblies and the ‘crowd editing’ tool could have been designed to neutralise that asset."
gapingsilence.wordpress.com/2025/10/31/y...
"The size of the YP membership, and the range of skills and experience that members can bring to it, has rightly been seen as its key asset; the assemblies and the ‘crowd editing’ tool could have been designed to neutralise that asset."