Taffy Osborne
@poppingbubbles.bsky.social
Popping Bubbles on twitter. UK & Welsh politics/social policy. Occasional regional broadcaster. Data person at large UK charity.
As an institution it's single handedly responsible for it being very difficult to buy a bad breakfast out in the UK or get ripped off too much, even if you never set foot in there.
December 3, 2025 at 8:49 AM
As an institution it's single handedly responsible for it being very difficult to buy a bad breakfast out in the UK or get ripped off too much, even if you never set foot in there.
Spoons breakfast is a triumph of food engineering & a force for social good. Every ingredient comes out the microwave, which only has one button because they are all timed to exactly 3 mins required. Then it sets a standard every other place in town must meet. (pouring one out for latter days Oates)
December 3, 2025 at 8:47 AM
Spoons breakfast is a triumph of food engineering & a force for social good. Every ingredient comes out the microwave, which only has one button because they are all timed to exactly 3 mins required. Then it sets a standard every other place in town must meet. (pouring one out for latter days Oates)
So yes it's the fault of recent Republican legislators who actually used the democratic imbalance tactically and repeatedly to stop anything happening and maximised leverage via the SC, but the reason they could do that is structural.
December 2, 2025 at 5:44 AM
So yes it's the fault of recent Republican legislators who actually used the democratic imbalance tactically and repeatedly to stop anything happening and maximised leverage via the SC, but the reason they could do that is structural.
Sorry as an outsider it long long predates anyone actually there. It's your system, if you design aspects of it to be gridlocked or anti democratic (the fudge where small states can stop a maj. acting) without occasional democratic renewal it's inevitable. Although using those levers brought it on.
December 2, 2025 at 5:41 AM
Sorry as an outsider it long long predates anyone actually there. It's your system, if you design aspects of it to be gridlocked or anti democratic (the fudge where small states can stop a maj. acting) without occasional democratic renewal it's inevitable. Although using those levers brought it on.
Yes exactly, I think this is on *her* not No. 10, given in any conversation she is the expert on the Bangladeshi system. "Do you really want to give me *that* job given how exposed I am, how about something in DEFRA/whatever I am interested in." I mean maybe corruption is what she is interested in 🤔
December 1, 2025 at 10:40 PM
Yes exactly, I think this is on *her* not No. 10, given in any conversation she is the expert on the Bangladeshi system. "Do you really want to give me *that* job given how exposed I am, how about something in DEFRA/whatever I am interested in." I mean maybe corruption is what she is interested in 🤔
It's not like a colossal error by the government as these things go but it is something they should have thought about for sure. *SHE* should have known about the risk as presumably she understands Bangladeshi politics well!
December 1, 2025 at 10:31 PM
It's not like a colossal error by the government as these things go but it is something they should have thought about for sure. *SHE* should have known about the risk as presumably she understands Bangladeshi politics well!
I agree it is really hard to get a sense of but that's kinda my point. It's a political risk having those connections when you could have kept her away from that and FCDO & just made her minister of state for the cabinet office, or something where the same risk didn't exist.
December 1, 2025 at 10:29 PM
I agree it is really hard to get a sense of but that's kinda my point. It's a political risk having those connections when you could have kept her away from that and FCDO & just made her minister of state for the cabinet office, or something where the same risk didn't exist.
Do I think a single whiff of it disqualified her from the role specifically in case this exact thing happened, yes 100%. Plenty of government jobs that weren't this one.
December 1, 2025 at 10:12 PM
Do I think a single whiff of it disqualified her from the role specifically in case this exact thing happened, yes 100%. Plenty of government jobs that weren't this one.
Yeah I couldn't believe this! Many many ways to go for the budget consistent with her ideology, and she chose to frame it like this. She is incredibly unskilled.
December 1, 2025 at 12:34 PM
Yeah I couldn't believe this! Many many ways to go for the budget consistent with her ideology, and she chose to frame it like this. She is incredibly unskilled.
Farage is too canny to allow Truss entry she is too tainted.
December 1, 2025 at 12:32 PM
Farage is too canny to allow Truss entry she is too tainted.
"It won't matter" is my cynical take on the politics (not the actual policy) of events and it's sometimes wrong but not often.
November 29, 2025 at 10:57 PM
"It won't matter" is my cynical take on the politics (not the actual policy) of events and it's sometimes wrong but not often.
I don't mind options at all, which is what this platform is for, and Chaminda is right 90% of the time which is a lot more than most, certainly than me, but your meta analysis of politics opinion havers is correct - too close to it!
November 29, 2025 at 10:55 PM
I don't mind options at all, which is what this platform is for, and Chaminda is right 90% of the time which is a lot more than most, certainly than me, but your meta analysis of politics opinion havers is correct - too close to it!
It's so odd being obsessed by this stuff but then moving in circles a lot of the time doing event work where people don't think about it like at all. Like at all at all. It's like asking me to have an opinion on strictly come dancing or something. It just slides off my brain.
November 29, 2025 at 10:51 PM
It's so odd being obsessed by this stuff but then moving in circles a lot of the time doing event work where people don't think about it like at all. Like at all at all. It's like asking me to have an opinion on strictly come dancing or something. It just slides off my brain.
Right and there is a lot of lag too. Occasional real cut through moments when the public make their mind up (mini budget and Salisbury are the only two exceptions I can think of top of my head where opinions changed fast based on events where the principals had agency) but it's rare. Mostly v slow.
November 29, 2025 at 10:41 PM
Right and there is a lot of lag too. Occasional real cut through moments when the public make their mind up (mini budget and Salisbury are the only two exceptions I can think of top of my head where opinions changed fast based on events where the principals had agency) but it's rare. Mostly v slow.
This was a sharp contrast to 2019 when attitudes to Corbyn came up basically every time I asked.
November 29, 2025 at 10:33 PM
This was a sharp contrast to 2019 when attitudes to Corbyn came up basically every time I asked.
I don't live in Crewe! My experience here extends to the many 1st time labour voters I talked to at the time in a N Wales marginal and predates the era in which I obsessed over polling because I still ran a business and didn't have time but the two reasons I kept hearing were the Tories and Brexit.
November 29, 2025 at 10:33 PM
I don't live in Crewe! My experience here extends to the many 1st time labour voters I talked to at the time in a N Wales marginal and predates the era in which I obsessed over polling because I still ran a business and didn't have time but the two reasons I kept hearing were the Tories and Brexit.
I account for 2017 based on the non political people I was talking too in that era, who were nearly all not paying attention to Labour at all, or were picking the least worst Brexit option. So yes it's pretty crude but there is enough truth in it that it floats around for a reason (2/2)
November 29, 2025 at 10:12 PM
I account for 2017 based on the non political people I was talking too in that era, who were nearly all not paying attention to Labour at all, or were picking the least worst Brexit option. So yes it's pretty crude but there is enough truth in it that it floats around for a reason (2/2)
I don't believe Chaminda that everyone around Corbyn was as thick as pigshit early on, but sadly I do believe he was right about enough of the key players to account for nearly all the most disastrous mis steps, they just kept making *very* silly mistakes. I agree it got worse as it went on. (1/2)
November 29, 2025 at 10:12 PM
I don't believe Chaminda that everyone around Corbyn was as thick as pigshit early on, but sadly I do believe he was right about enough of the key players to account for nearly all the most disastrous mis steps, they just kept making *very* silly mistakes. I agree it got worse as it went on. (1/2)
Under rated in this thread. As well as insights above, it does keep coming back to this.
November 29, 2025 at 8:41 PM
Under rated in this thread. As well as insights above, it does keep coming back to this.
As a farm kid it comes very very early on.
November 29, 2025 at 7:32 PM
As a farm kid it comes very very early on.
A young friend of mine (must be like 25, worked for me when he was like 18) *didn't* have an argument with someone today after traditionally being incredibly stubborn when he knew he was right (he was right here) and causing problems for himself and I was so proud of him.
November 28, 2025 at 10:16 PM
A young friend of mine (must be like 25, worked for me when he was like 18) *didn't* have an argument with someone today after traditionally being incredibly stubborn when he knew he was right (he was right here) and causing problems for himself and I was so proud of him.
I think that language guides where you say "should be understood by a bright 10 y/o" or whatever (good) are understood to mean "talk as though you were talking to ten year olds" (very bad, massive turnoff)
November 28, 2025 at 9:43 PM
I think that language guides where you say "should be understood by a bright 10 y/o" or whatever (good) are understood to mean "talk as though you were talking to ten year olds" (very bad, massive turnoff)
Stand corrected
a person riding a skateboard down a sand dune with the words awesome written on the bottom
ALT: a person riding a skateboard down a sand dune with the words awesome written on the bottom
media.tenor.com
November 28, 2025 at 5:23 PM
Stand corrected
Can't surf on Dune without water. Bet the surf is sick on Calidan.
November 28, 2025 at 5:22 PM
Can't surf on Dune without water. Bet the surf is sick on Calidan.