Elizabeth Liddle
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pingu1.bsky.social
Elizabeth Liddle
@pingu1.bsky.social
430 followers 2.1K following 1.5K posts
Part-time boat-dweller, cognitive psychologist and viol player, aging cat lady with ADHD. Trans Inclusive Cis Feminist. Pronouns she/her.
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pingu1.bsky.social
This part is absolutely bang on (as is the rest, but this sums up the mechanics):
They keep on doing the supposedly popular thing, or the easiest thing, and are then surprised to find that it does not lead to a popular outcome. But there is a reason for that: the decision has unpopular effects. They must choose between an unpopular decision and an unpopular effect. You see this across the policy landscape. Universities need more money. Will that be popular? No, so they don’t do it. What is the effect? Universities collapsing. Will that be popular? No, it’ll be even less popular than the policy which would have prevented it. Immigrants boost economic growth. Is immigration popular? No, so they try to reduce it. What is the effect? Reduced growth. Will that be popular? No, it’ll be even less popular than the policy which would have prevented it. This is the cowardice trap. And Labour is currently caught in it.
November 14, 2025 at 1:03 PM
pingu1.bsky.social
Potter Paul Smith’s entry for the competition at Potfest in Hutton-in-the-Forest this, back in July. potfest.co.uk/potter/paul-...
A ceramic White House, roofless. with Nelly the Elephant going “Trump trump Trump” as she demolishes it from within.
October 22, 2025 at 9:05 PM
pingu1.bsky.social
It's completely out of scale, quite apart from involving destruction of the East Wing. The Palladian "pavilions" at the end of colonnades extending from an important building are supposed to be SMALLER:
Houghton Hall, an eighteenth century Palladian mansion built for Britain's first Prime Minister, Sir Robert Walpole. It is flanked by two curving colonnades with smaller "pavilion" buildings at the ends.
October 22, 2025 at 8:42 PM
pingu1.bsky.social
I don't know why nobody noticed this. It was on the renderings and especially obvious in this view: www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-st...
Rendered view of the planned White House ballroom, clearly showing that it replaces the East Wing.
October 22, 2025 at 8:33 PM
pingu1.bsky.social
Socks the cat sitting in a patch of sunlight.
September 17, 2025 at 8:23 PM
pingu1.bsky.social
I’d forgotten Michale Rosen’’s poem “Fascism: I sometimes fear…” was posted in 2014. Needs posting everywhere, every day, now.
Fascism: I sometimes fear... I sometimes fear that people think that fascism arrives in fancy dress worn by grotesques and monsters as played out in endless re-runs of the Nazis. Fascism arrives as your friend. It will restore your honour, make you feel proud, protect your house, give you a job, clean up the neighbourhood, remind you of how great you once were, clear out the venal and the corrupt, remove anything you feel is unlike you... It doesn't walk in saying, "Our programme means militias, mass imprisonments, transportations, war and persecution."
September 15, 2025 at 8:03 AM
pingu1.bsky.social
Also (transcribed to send to my trans daughter):
Zack Polanski in leadership victory Q&A: "You don't need to agree with me on everything. There are red lines though. We are a broad church party, but broad churches have walls. And human rights are one of those walls. … The same people who hate the LGBT community are the same people who hate the Muslim community. It is not insignificant that the Green party now has a Jewish leader, and a Muslim deputy leader. We absolutely recognise that antisemitism and islamophobia are two sides of the same coin, and ultimately, when communities ask for solidarity, including the trans community, the only response, the only authentic response, is to give that solidarity"
September 3, 2025 at 9:54 AM
pingu1.bsky.social
But it’s not even apt for Europe.
Interior of the 6th century Basilica of Sant'Apollinare Nuovo, Ravenna, Italy.
August 28, 2025 at 9:15 AM
pingu1.bsky.social
Palestinians are a national group, right? Looks like genocide to me:

www.un.org/en/genocidep...
Article II In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: (a) Killing members of the group; (b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; (c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; (d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; (e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
August 22, 2025 at 12:41 PM
pingu1.bsky.social
We can still post weird cats though.
Socks sitting under a sofa table as though he is in a box but it is an entirely conceptual box.
August 21, 2025 at 6:27 PM
pingu1.bsky.social
And the coast line is lovely.
Grange-over-Sands station with cast iron canopy and view over Morecambe Bay.
August 17, 2025 at 7:58 AM
pingu1.bsky.social
By far the most common theme concerned a lack of, or decline in, professional staff providing administrative support to academic staff (n = 62), thus resulting in the shifting of burdens onto the latter group of staff. In this context, participants expressed particular concern about both the loss of local administrative staff who used to be embedded in departments or schools (n = 28) and of highly experienced and skilled professional staff (n = 13). Such developments were commonly linked to the transition towards a ‘shared services’ model consolidating administrative functions in one central hub within the university. As one senior academic staff summed it up: Fewer staff employed locally. Regular turnover of admin staff. Lack of clarity over who to contact for help. Lack of continuity of support. And a general sense that professional staff are overwhelmed with workload and unhappy in their roles. A common remark is that when we hire a competent person, they won’t stay here for long as the job is not enjoyable. (P23, T&R, Level E, male)
August 8, 2025 at 10:20 AM
pingu1.bsky.social
Too hot to sit upright today. Wrists too limp.
Socks the cat lying on the kitchen divider, limp front paws drooping over the edge.
July 14, 2025 at 6:58 PM
pingu1.bsky.social
It could even be state-sponsored sabotage. But as protest it is non-violent resistance - the opposite of terrorism. Check out Quakers:

www.quakersintheworld.org/quakers-in-a...
Nonviolence is distinct from a passive acceptance of superior force. It implies: - a willingness to take action without giving in to or resorting to violence - a respect for everyone involved in a conflict - a refusal to do harm to people or living things, and - a willingness to take suffering on oneself without inflicting it on others.
July 13, 2025 at 11:39 AM
pingu1.bsky.social
Even if it was all rather splendid in its day.
Victorian transport infrastructure views from train outside Manchester Piccadilly. The steel railway bridge supports are styled to look like crusader battlements.
June 17, 2025 at 9:55 AM
pingu1.bsky.social
It's wonderful! So accurate, with all the technical detail: with steam coming out of the steam release valve as well as smoke from the smokestack! That child was a keen observer!

poplarlondon.co.uk/poplar-victo...
Victorian photo of "The No.70 steam locomotive, ‘Poplar’ ... built in 1872 by the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway, and in line with the railway’s policy, the engine was named after the area it served." It has a tall smokestack, and the driver is standing in the cab.
May 23, 2025 at 11:17 AM
pingu1.bsky.social
Picciotto in a basket
Picciotto, my daughter’s cat, a long haired tuxedo cat lying belly up in a basket.
May 16, 2025 at 10:58 PM
pingu1.bsky.social
C
Socks, a black cat with four white socks and a white tummy and white whiskers lying on his back on a Persian rug looking cute
May 12, 2025 at 3:45 PM
pingu1.bsky.social
...but vanishingly unlikely! Here's a simulation of data from 27 people on just two measures. The filled triangles are the median people on each measure. They aren't the same person. The "median person" is the orange dot. They don't exist. But they do mark a meaningful centroid.
Simulation of data for 27 "people" on two measures. The green triangle is the median person on the horizontal measure. the blue triangle is the median person on the vertical measure. The theoretical "median person" is the orange circle. They don't exist.
April 8, 2025 at 11:53 AM
pingu1.bsky.social
This one?
Photo of the eastern facade of Hampsfell Hospice near Grange-over-Sands with engraved Greek letters saying “Rosy-fingered dawn”.
January 26, 2025 at 8:49 PM
pingu1.bsky.social
Black and white cat adoring Christmas tree.
January 4, 2025 at 12:08 PM
pingu1.bsky.social
Lovely to have been able to! Yes, my mother was an "unreliable narrator too"! Here's an old photo of the Trent Building to compare - it has a very prominent tower, but the tower is set back a bit, and wouldn't show up on your photo (if that's where it is):
Old photo of Trent Building, University of Nottingham, from the lake, taken in 1958
November 22, 2024 at 12:11 PM
pingu1.bsky.social
Interesting! It looks so like the boating lake in Nottingham, I thought that's where it might be!
View of Highfields Park Boating Lake in Nottingham from the Lakeside Arts car park
November 22, 2024 at 11:54 AM
pingu1.bsky.social
#proofofcat
Our cat Socks sitting on a countertop. He is black with white whiskers and paws and an upside down white heart shape on his chest.
November 17, 2024 at 11:47 AM
pingu1.bsky.social
October 30, 2024 at 8:52 AM