@vonkarama.bsky.social
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My cartoon in this weeks @newyorker.com
December 1, 2025 at 7:40 PM
My cartoon in this weeks @newyorker.com
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When you see stuff like this, you should ask yourself: what would happen if a PM was ever elected who was not 100% reliably One Of The Lads, and he or she asked to see the Northern Ireland files from the 1970s? What then.
Special forces chief tried to cover up concerns about SAS conduct in Afghanistan, inquiry told
Whistleblower says chain of command failed to stop extrajudicial shootings, including of children, after alarm was raised
www.theguardian.com
December 1, 2025 at 9:28 AM
When you see stuff like this, you should ask yourself: what would happen if a PM was ever elected who was not 100% reliably One Of The Lads, and he or she asked to see the Northern Ireland files from the 1970s? What then.
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This week, Kiran thinks the right wing press’s noses are out of joint because they repeated rubbish they’d been told by the Treasury. I have no idea whether that’s true, but I note a consistent theme of the era is lobby journos enraged because the government of the day made monkeys of them again.
December 1, 2025 at 7:01 PM
This week, Kiran thinks the right wing press’s noses are out of joint because they repeated rubbish they’d been told by the Treasury. I have no idea whether that’s true, but I note a consistent theme of the era is lobby journos enraged because the government of the day made monkeys of them again.
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I recall hearing last year that OBR staff could often be seen walking over to HMT with a pad of paper to sit down in front of their Bloomberg terminal and write down some gilt yields
Structurally it's also interesting that, as the leak report also notes, the OBR has all these responsibilities but is about the scale of a small to medium-sized business, with a budget of £6.4mn and a team of 52 people, only six in what you'd call 'operations'. Not extending to a full IT department.
December 1, 2025 at 6:11 PM
I recall hearing last year that OBR staff could often be seen walking over to HMT with a pad of paper to sit down in front of their Bloomberg terminal and write down some gilt yields
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The Trump regime isn't a presidential administration--it's a heist operation.
The most corrupt president in American history and it's not even close.
The most corrupt president in American history and it's not even close.
Silicon Valley’s Man in the White House Is Benefiting Himself and His Friends
www.nytimes.com
December 1, 2025 at 12:05 AM
The Trump regime isn't a presidential administration--it's a heist operation.
The most corrupt president in American history and it's not even close.
The most corrupt president in American history and it's not even close.
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The saving grace of the OBR is that they are the only people who are genuinely prepared to be honest with the British people about immigration
The Prime Minister and Home Secretary want to drive net migration lower than net 205k. The Chancellor could reduce borrowing £7.4 billion/year in 2029/30 using the OBR projection that it will return to net 340k later in the parliament
obr.uk/box/the-impa...
obr.uk/box/the-impa...
The impact of migration on the fiscal forecast - Office for Budget Responsibility
Following the upwards revision to our migration forecast, this box explored the implications of higher migration on our central forecasts for tax revenues, spending and borrowing. We also drew on alte...
obr.uk
December 1, 2025 at 1:13 PM
The saving grace of the OBR is that they are the only people who are genuinely prepared to be honest with the British people about immigration
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Different analyses but the conclusions are similar, are they not
December 1, 2025 at 1:24 PM
Different analyses but the conclusions are similar, are they not
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This ridiculous sentence is written like a bothsides-ish balancing statement, but it isn’t one. When the mob is in charge, paying the protection money they extort from you is a cost of doing business. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/26/u...
November 29, 2025 at 2:22 PM
This ridiculous sentence is written like a bothsides-ish balancing statement, but it isn’t one. When the mob is in charge, paying the protection money they extort from you is a cost of doing business. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/26/u...
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Once more I remind people that there are wind turbines on the shore of Lake Garda and the Italians seem to survive and even thrive there.
Monty Don's reputation is indestructible (and long may that continue). On a close reading, nowhere is it specified what the invented threat to Rousham Gardens comprises. Even 'Country Life' says the bomber base is 2km away and there's an attractive village in between. It's all a bit Hackney Marshes
'One of the truly great gardens of the world' is at risk of having its vistas and tranquility blighted forever
The views from Rousham, the birthplace of the English landscape-garden movement, are at risk of development if plans for the nearby former RAF Upper Heyford Air Force base get the go-ahead.
www.countrylife.co.uk
November 29, 2025 at 7:45 AM
Once more I remind people that there are wind turbines on the shore of Lake Garda and the Italians seem to survive and even thrive there.
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You either die a hero, or live long enough to become late career Bakkies Botha.
November 29, 2025 at 5:16 PM
You either die a hero, or live long enough to become late career Bakkies Botha.
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Honestly, there is no better rugby writer out there than @bloodandmud.bsky.social. This preamble is a work of art. #WALvRSA
www.theguardian.com/sport/live/2...
www.theguardian.com/sport/live/2...
November 29, 2025 at 3:36 PM
Honestly, there is no better rugby writer out there than @bloodandmud.bsky.social. This preamble is a work of art. #WALvRSA
www.theguardian.com/sport/live/2...
www.theguardian.com/sport/live/2...
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This is now Wales' biggest ever defeat in Cardiff. The shot of Dave Reddin smiling as it happened is fucking poetry.
November 29, 2025 at 4:46 PM
This is now Wales' biggest ever defeat in Cardiff. The shot of Dave Reddin smiling as it happened is fucking poetry.
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The same vibes that caused Everton football club to insist on a particular location in a shopping mall for their merch outlet, so they could get post addressed to "Everton, 2 Liverpool One"
I’m hoping they go for ‘Our Party’, because that will wreak havoc in political interviews, as Tory or Labour or Lib Dem people will end up saying things like ‘Our party is doing very badly in the polls,’ or ‘Nobody in their right mind would vote for our party,’ etc etc etc
November 29, 2025 at 12:21 PM
The same vibes that caused Everton football club to insist on a particular location in a shopping mall for their merch outlet, so they could get post addressed to "Everton, 2 Liverpool One"
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I feel like one of the most underrated explanations for what's happening right now in global politics is that almost everyone has lost their minds.
November 30, 2025 at 2:59 AM
I feel like one of the most underrated explanations for what's happening right now in global politics is that almost everyone has lost their minds.
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There's a very simple solution to Wales contractually needing to provide four teams
November 29, 2025 at 7:36 PM
There's a very simple solution to Wales contractually needing to provide four teams
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not clear whose fault the Your Party fiasco is, but on hearing that the SWP were present, I'm going to think "horses, not zebras"
November 29, 2025 at 10:22 PM
not clear whose fault the Your Party fiasco is, but on hearing that the SWP were present, I'm going to think "horses, not zebras"
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It’s an exaggeration to say the key driving force of recent reactionary politics was important people discovering that the public do not in fact like or respect them, then going *absolutely apeshit* when they discovered there are hard limits on their own behaviour. But it isn’t a wild exaggeration.
November 28, 2025 at 2:01 PM
It’s an exaggeration to say the key driving force of recent reactionary politics was important people discovering that the public do not in fact like or respect them, then going *absolutely apeshit* when they discovered there are hard limits on their own behaviour. But it isn’t a wild exaggeration.
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It already happened! We already had an election won by a buffoon with a platform of very obvious lies and fraud while the entire system screamed abuse at his opponents as traitors and horked up dubious legal cases against them. Our institutions have been packed with malignant wingnuts for years!
November 28, 2025 at 7:55 AM
It already happened! We already had an election won by a buffoon with a platform of very obvious lies and fraud while the entire system screamed abuse at his opponents as traitors and horked up dubious legal cases against them. Our institutions have been packed with malignant wingnuts for years!
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Absolutely this
The Blue Labour right have become the Militant of 2025 - a tiny but hyperactive and densely networked sect working relentlessly to drag Labour towards their niche pursuits and away from the values and priorities of core Labour voters.
November 28, 2025 at 11:22 AM
Absolutely this
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We need to understand the 21st century as a window of atrocity. The right vastly expands what is permissible, and the centrists lock it in and legitimise it so that the right can expand the window ever further. I don’t see how any reasonable person can deny this is what has happened.
November 28, 2025 at 10:41 PM
We need to understand the 21st century as a window of atrocity. The right vastly expands what is permissible, and the centrists lock it in and legitimise it so that the right can expand the window ever further. I don’t see how any reasonable person can deny this is what has happened.
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Strongly agree. Once we’ve established that “politics” is just frottering flags, announcing crackdowns, saying “There’s no magic money tree” and interviewers asking politicians whether a lady can have a willy, it’s going to be hard to break out of that.
November 28, 2025 at 3:00 PM
Strongly agree. Once we’ve established that “politics” is just frottering flags, announcing crackdowns, saying “There’s no magic money tree” and interviewers asking politicians whether a lady can have a willy, it’s going to be hard to break out of that.
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I'll just say I'd rather watch a game where there are red cards every week for high shots than one where, with everything we know about CTE, early-onset dementia and potentially even MND, the players' safety is rated below entertainment as a refereeing priority.
If you didn’t see the game, watch the genuinely insane leaps of common sense, physics and duty of care that all four officials are fully in agreement in making to class a dynamic, avoidable shoulder direct to the head as a rugby incident.
Angus O’Brien is all of us here. It’s genuinely shameful.
Angus O’Brien is all of us here. It’s genuinely shameful.
November 29, 2025 at 12:05 AM
I'll just say I'd rather watch a game where there are red cards every week for high shots than one where, with everything we know about CTE, early-onset dementia and potentially even MND, the players' safety is rated below entertainment as a refereeing priority.
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Messiah II: 2 Hot 2 Handel
November 29, 2025 at 4:12 AM
Messiah II: 2 Hot 2 Handel
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speaking as a virginia beach native if these kind of dudes are plotting against ICE then there is wide runway in public opinion for straight up abolishing the agency under a dem presidency
Kempsville High School assistant principal charged for threats against police, ICE
Virginia Beach assistant principal John Bennett and Mark Bennett charged for conspiring threats against police and ICE agents. Both are held without bond.
www.13newsnow.com
November 22, 2025 at 4:39 AM
speaking as a virginia beach native if these kind of dudes are plotting against ICE then there is wide runway in public opinion for straight up abolishing the agency under a dem presidency