Grisly videos circulate online because people don’t trust the press to cover politically inconvenient crimes in a clear or frank manner. So people feel they need to see for themselves. The reaction of press, govt & activists to recent videos proves that instinct is correct btw

Hoofin effort lads. Epically executed and thinking of the lads that never came home. 💂🏻‍♀️👋🏻🇬🇧🙏🏻🍻.

So now it wasn't McSweeney's fault that Mandelson was appointed? Make it make sense...

Fairplay to them, they’re enjoying themselves out there! 😂

Despite claiming to be a football fan, Sir Keir Starmer has not replied to any of my emails asking him to simply move the clocks back five hours so we can watch all the World Cup games. His silence speaks volumes.

21/ Most slop has always been human slop. Merriam-Webster's 2025 word of the year defined "slop" as low-quality AI content, which is way too narrow. The academic journal system was a slop factory long before any human had a ChatGPT subscription.

16/ AI exposes what was already broken. "If AI can do your research, your research was never good." I agree—but that is an indictment of social science, not a defense against AI. The replication crisis, citation padding, and papers nobody reads were all pre-existing conditions.

OK folks, let's dial down the nerves and see what they're actually talking about here. In their own words: "public control of strategic assets" (the means of production in key sectors), "credit guidance" (the state decides where investment goes), "universal public provisioning" of housing, health, education and transport, and moving past the "grow-tax-transfer" model. Lenin had a name for keeping the strategic sectors and the credit system in state hands while tolerating markets: the commanding heights. I was born in the Soviet Union, so I know a little bit about communism. I can see it a mile away, even when it's called something else.

Whenever certain campaigning around social media bans or Martyn's Law is brought up, I'm reminded of this Mitchell and Webb radio sketch from 2005. Here's a transcript: -- Those are the headlines at 5.09 and for an immediate reaction to today's event I think we can speak to Tom Hilton hello Tom? uh hello Chris Pal here from Radio 4, thanks for speaking to us. Can I ask what your response is to today's announcement that Rail North East will not be funding the laser assisted train early warning system? uh well yeah I personally think it's a shame So it's shame on the management, shame on the government? well I suppose but look - can I just say I'm really not the best person to talk to about this, I mean it's weird you even happen to to call me. You see by a spooky coincidence I actually lost my wife in a train crash. Yes, we know. one that exactly this kind of system could have prevented. That's why we were in touch with you Tom. oh! oh right. blimey that does seem a bit... almost... ghoulish. Well, no it's it's because you've got personal experience of a rail tragedy that your views are so important. really? I would have thought that it was because I've got personal experience of a rail tragedy that my views should be dismissed out of hand. No, no, look... Would you say that, to you, safety is by far the most important issue facing the rail network? well of course I would my wife just died in a train crash. Thank you. but you really should talk to someone else it's impossible for me to have any objectivity at all. Right, but, but if spending the three billion on the system could bring back your wife, that would be worth it? well, obviously, although I must stress I lack - any - objectivity. Nevertheless, what would you say to the minister? What would your message be to him? my message would be: minister, good luck in judging how to allocate your finite resources given the many competing demands you face.

The closing phrases of this read very much like a 1950s Politburo pronouncement to me..

David Lammy’s proposals to restrict the right to jury trial have been examined by the Justice Committee of the House of Commons. And. Well. Um. It’s *quite* the report. I think it’s actually worse than politely scathing. It’s embarrassing 👇🏼🪡🧵

"It's CEEFAUX Sir, they've gone topical again." #doctorwho

20 years ago, An Inconvenient Truth put climate change at the center of global debate, shaping politics, influencing leaders, and inspiring a generation of activists. Two decades later, we can assess not just its impact, but its accuracy. Many of the film’s most alarming predictions did not materialize, while many of the policies it inspired have proven costly and ineffective. The lesson? Panic is a poor guide for public policy. Focusing on innovation, adaptation, and economic development can do far more to help both people and the climate—at a fraction of the cost. financialpost.com/opinion/bj…

Here’s Ash during the BLM moral panic, holding forth on how Newtonian physics and the refraction of light relate to the structure of ‘whiteness.’ Now she’s furious that things are being ‘racialised’…

1/ I went to Parliament to watch the Women and Equalities Committee. The chair of the EHRC Mary-Ann Stephenson (MAS) and CEO John Kirkpatrick were giving evidence, the other adults in the room were Rosie Duffield and Rebecca Paul MP. Other than that it was the slow kid's table.

#MISSING Have you seen Thomas, 11? He is missing from Abbey Wood and was last seen on 7 June, wearing a Nike Tech fleece tracksuit and black trainers. He is also known to frequent the Watford area. Anyone with information should call 101 quoting CAD8243/08JUN26.

As the World Cup approaches, a reminder of one of my all-time favourite things: For some reason, freshly-relegated Manchester City hosted Jamaica at Maine Road for a France ‘98 warm-up game. And the Independent’s match report was BRUTAL on a terrible 0-0 draw.

Protecting EU Suppliers, not UK Consumers Adding a CBAM to imported products when there is no alternative domestic supplier, such as ammonia for fertiliser production, will necessarily increase agricultural production prices. The UK produces less than 30% of the fertiliser it uses each year, but even this production relies on imported ingredients, most importantly, ammonia. CF Fertilisers’ Billingham plant ceased ammonia production in July 2023. This was the UK’s last major ammonia producer. In 2024, the UK imported 3.22 million tonnes of the fertiliser products that will be covered by the UK’s proposed CBAM. Almost all of which will be charged for both CO2 and nitrous oxide emissions - making the CBAM doubly expensive. Increased costs for UK fertiliser mixers will be passed on to farmers, eventually raising the price of domestically produced food. Most of the UK’s ammonia now comes from the US, but it is not cheaper due to differences in carbon taxes that a CBAM is meant to levelize. The price differential when the UK still made ammonia was due to the difference in natural gas prices between the US and the UK. US natural gas prices are a third to a quarter of those in the UK. Instead of adding a CBAM to imported fertiliser that the UK doesn’t make any more, the UK should encourage UK gas production and exploration in the North Sea; allow hydraulic fracturing for gas; and remove the additional 38% ‘Windfall’ tax on North Sea gas production, thereby lowering the cost of the UK’s domestic natural gas feedstock for fertiliser production.

It's an endless joy to watch Islamists embarrass their "progressive" allies in public, because, unlike the ideologues who treat them as pets, fundamentalists hold their irrational beliefs sincerely and say the quiet part out loud. "Mo, mate, no! We have to call them 'Zionists'!"