Surely there's enough evidence now that no respectable media organisation (let's exclude GB News, the Express etc) can Both Sides this. Though I suspect they'll just stop reporting on it altogether rather than actually publish anything about these guys.

I don't really know what I'm on about and I've just got home from Attic, but as much as I love London, it WOULD be nice to to have a bit more of that... permanence in other cities. A feeling that when things were getting better it wasn't just temporary.

There's probably some explanation in investment, but after initial investment you might expect some degree of self-sustenance. Is London just too big a draw? Is it that the periods of ascendancy were just a veneer which never addressed underlying issues?

Within about ten years the first two had faltered; the city centres went into decline and what remained was mostly in the suburbs. Manchester is a 'wait and see', but I imagine the same will happen there - and then perhaps the cycle will begin again. But why?

Might be a convenient time for someone to point out the potential consequences for X routinely breaking the law. (If only we had someone who would be willing to do that...)

And yet it doesn't actually surprise me as much as it should, because that's been the hallmark of this government: no actual vision, no real core moral values, just reaction to events and voices with the aim of... securing more votes in an election four years away?

The more I think about this the more crazy it seems. Bizarre that people want to do this in the first place; unbelievable that it's allowed by the government.

...and support other people and causes they would have previously abhorred, it pretty much single-handedly made me realise how dangerous it can be. If it can happen to him, it could happen to anyone. Hard to feel any sympathy for him though.

I used to be quite blasé and skeptical about the dangers of the internet. Watching Graham Linehan, in real time, change from a normal, funny, seemingly good person into someone so obsessed by this one issue that they'll ruin their own life, try to ruin countless others'...

Wow. I'm not surprised they're all dodgy guys, but even I wasn't expecting a convicted people smuggler. You'd think they'd at least have the sense to not post overtly racist stuff too.

The most annoying thing is how long and unpredictably it all goes on for. Why are people setting off fireworks at 4.30pm on a random Tuesday over a week before bonfire night? It's not even dark yet! Organised displays only, at the very least.

Oh yeah, that's kind of wild - I thought everyone* loved the Just Joans! Last Tango in Motherwell (or Buckfast Bottles) not being on there was one of the things that made me think "nah, this isn't gonna work for me" actually.

Yeah, I went on Spotify for the first time ever (possibly also the last) just a couple of weeks ago, and it was a bit of a shock - most of what I looked at was around 5k. I'm hoping it's partly that a lot of the indiepop crowd are still just using Bandcamp?

OK, it seems like they're not really trying to spin it so much as make up outright lies (paid, bused-in antifa; chants of 'death to America' and 'death to the UK'.)
I guess it's good that with every interaction their credibility with anyone other than a handful of nazis on X is dropping?

But really I think their main target audience isn't normal people anyway, it's the far right on X and Facebook who will actually donate money to them. They don't really need to spin it for those guys.

Yep, I was there for maybe 45 minutes and in that time it was a strong turnout of mostly people who live close by, and it was all really friendly and good natured. My guess is that they focus on it being a protest against the poppy flag specifically, maybe?