: Q: What will Labour centrist politicians do now that the collapse of neoliberalism into the …

: Preparations for Winter Lights

: A gull keeps Bird Boy company

: An English to English translation error in Windows 11

:

: Two half-built residential towers loom over a night-time Poplar Marina

: The moon on Poplar Marina

: When a marginally less incompetent government begins the long, slow slog to address irregular …

: In the past I’ve used terms like “deep state” or “uniparty” on …

: Tunnel Operations

: I’m testing something - excuse the noise.

: I have come to believe that stationery is hard. Let’s start with the 2mm clutch pencil. The …

: I can’t use LinkedIn. It makes me feel too ill.

: Owen Jones nails it here. Here is the basic truth: the Labour right ran out of ideas long ago. For …

: Crikey, Apple, for £150 quid couldn’t you at least have offered backlighting?

: Burt Reynolds, Peter Falk: same actor, right?

: Okay. Sitting here, listening to the thump, thump of the alien invasion and pretending it’s …

: ChatGPT can’t wield a broom, so how does AI help local authorities deliver non-statutory …

: Starmer is doing a Sunak reset.

: The Star Park crows first XI are playing football on the roof.

: I’m not sure how we’ll find the solidarity to tackle climate change when no one will push the button …

: Cannot find potimarron today; so am winging it with sweet potato and chestnuts. Wish me luck.

: I used to hate peeling vegetables then I got a proper vegetable peeler instead of one of the cheap …

: Farmers, who tugged their forelocks and voted for Brexit though it cut them off from their markets, …

: I’m typing with my ancient Logitech K380. It’s a much nicer keyboard than you’d expect from the …

: The right has offered its successor to the neoliberal order, and that is fascism. What will the left …

: Apparently Rachel Reeves is a social democrat. As a fully paid up member of the “words mean …

: Daylight saving time is over, and it’s dark when I finish work. So I haven’t seen local …

: An over the air firmware update bricked my dishwasher.

: No laughing matter John Harris makes has a good piece in the Guardian on the risks of underestimating the hard right. …

: Newspaper editors seem to love this Labour freebies story because it gives them an excuse to print a …

: The corrupting influence of money on politics is rarely more vividly illustrated than by the Labour …

: Mucking around with the Mb API. Some improvements.

: Vain, imprudent, lacking both judgement and a moral compass. Starmer, like many a modern politician, …

: “Eee bah gum, pet. Labour have condemned us to freeze to death this winter, but at least that …

: Presumably, “black hole, we’re doomed!” has been focus-grouped. Who are this bloc of centrist …

: Over the summer there’s been a change in East London mores: people no longer press the button …

: The government planned to gut the NHS and flog the entrails of to private equity. The “black …

: Rachel Reeves is positioning herself as the centrist dad’s Liz Truss.

: The Chancellor, of all people, “secures” an £8b AWS datacentre that will “support …

: A ‘tough’ government would be taking power and money from the rich, not mugging …

: If Britain is broken, why does government fiddle with the dials? If the machine is kaput you fix the …

: In the polities of neoliberal meritocracy, elected politicians consider ordinary folk non-player …

: My question for the Labour Treasury team is, if the bond markets are running the country, why are we …

: The government either takes us for fools or are so completely clueless about economics that they …

: The Parliament of Crows I live in east London and I often walk down Bow Creek from Bow Locks to the A13 via Cody Dock. In …

: How do you know you’re going deaf in one ear? Your AirPods consistently run down in one ear …

: As AI fever grips public services, there’s a lot of talk about AI replacing professionals. …

: When politicians say they will be “tough on immigration” it’s a tell. They are …

: Riding the rainbow train this morning.

: It is an irony of our times that the professional and managerial caste who manage “teh economeh” on …

: Not sure if the pigeons are fans of minimalism or just like numbers. Anyhow, I play them “Einstein …

: A successful Labour government needs a commitment to social justice. A technocratic government of …

: I’ve never understood why governments are so interested in the opinions of corporations and …

: Cold snap bonus: Rachel Reeves will only have to kill 250k pensioners over a cold winter to save as …

: Bought a black Echo Pop during some sort of Prime discount thing. It came with a white power supply. …

: Super depressing to watch liberal democracies give up without a fight. Elites are like, “Well, …

: The impending collapse of the criminal justice system in the UK is the signal indicator of the true …

: Is Rachel Reeves a poor communicator constrained by Labour’s Tory-lite, don’t frighten the horses …

: Big fire in Canning Town this morning

: The election campaign really shows up the dire state of British political journalism.

: Paula Vennells sure was paid an awful lot of money for not having a clue what was going on during …

: In 10 years time who will deliver the lattes once AI has made human labour obsolete?

: I love economists. Always so cute in their naïve, incelish smugness, and always so reliably wrong.

: You’d think that if the UK government really wanted to “stop the boats”, they’d stop the City …

: It’s almost as if everything that politicians back is a bad idea. This is your cognitive elite …

: A glitch in the Matrix

: Have I got this straight? A lawyer who is defending Trump for the money is using an attack line of …

: Here’s where we’re at in Britain. The Tories are high on their own supply, but they …

: TIL that “May the 4th” for English speakers doesn’t generally refer to the 五四运动, …

: Great day for London. Nasty, divisive culture-wars politics comprehensively rejected. And the swifts …

: Rentier Capitalism by Brett Christophers: an unputdownable read

: Bubble tea in Stratford

: My hometown: dancing under the overpass

: Drift down to the beach

: A community event in Custom House (from some years ago)

: Surprise to see this coot here on the pavement at Poplar Marina

: There’s a colony of wagtails at Westfield in Stratford. They’ve bounced back since the …

: Critters

: Down to the spine

: Park light at Canary Wharf

: Dreamy dusk at the Docks

: Blue flag, blue sky

: Mountain sunrise

: Ice coffee and other things

: Birthday favour

: East London transport trifecta on the way home this evening. Trains cancelled because of trespassers …

: Moody skies over North Greenwich

: The transcendence of the rider - no time to park your Lime bike in the Rapture

: Flâneur or psychogeographer of the liminal space of the submerged memory-city? (h/t Tom Gauld)

: Small to large offices to let

: Prickly pear cactus in the Botanic Garden in Copenhagen

: Late capitalism - it didn’t take a nuclear war

: A page from the calendar

: Of all the second languages Tower Hamlets Council would include in notices, German is most …

: The magic went away

: Morning sky over Hackney Central station

: No train on the tracks

: Crispy bagged salad

: Fire prevention

: In the well-being corner of Canary Wharf, the over-monied can pay to be locked in a freezer

: East End sakura This tree is in Vallance Road Gardens, Whitechapel, in London’s East End. The …

: Pigeons enjoy a characteristic East End meal

: Windy afternoon for the coots on Telehouse Pond

: Ageism. It’s the last acceptable prejudice, isn’t it? The prejudice you can have and …

: Do you see the moorhen, serene on her nest, amongst all the trash?

: The beginnings of foliage

: Chicken bucket

: Forgotten card

: Spring flowers at the Trinity Community Centre in Canning Town

: Toy duck at Cody Dock

: Say AGI isn’t hype to dazzle customers and bamboozle regulators, but something the AI bros …

: Interesting Owen Jones piece in the Guardian today. Worth a look. The line-up of British politics …

: Apologies for the inconvenience

: What does Altman mean by “very subtle societal misalignments”? Valley gibberish, or does …

: Heterodox macroeconomist and campaigner Richard Murphy has produced a Taxing Wealth 2024 report to …

: UK prime minister Rishi Sunak paid around 23% tax on £2.2M income because most of his income is …

: So far this year - as of 4 February 2024 - on my daily walks, and every single day since 1 January, …

: Wryly amused at our blundering elite who spent the last 45 years doing more damage to our productive …

: Well, well, well. The other shoe drops. Activist who led ouster of Harvard president linked to …

: The UK political class has used WhatsApp to avoid democratic scrutiny. They weren’t bamboozled by …

: Funny how aging TINA neoliberals accuse the kids of being intolerant of diverse opinions

: An occasional series of East London chicken shops. Peck! Peck! by Sutton and Sons, Graham Road, …

: It seems to me British politics reached its nadir some time ago. And now, various Tory wannabees are …

: Average car insurance cost in UK nears £1,000 after prices rise 58% “Like a lot of our expenses, …

: Technicians commission one of the Winter Lights exhibits at Westferry Circus.

: X-risk: when the techno-optimists' AI tells them we need to reduce inequality and establish social …

: An occasional series of East London chicken shops. Frisco’s, Beckton Road, Canning Town, …

: An occasional series of East London chicken shops. Seoul Bird with a branch of Wagamama above, in …

: Masala apple pie A nice warming apple pie for when the weather gets colder. Ingredients 1 teaspoon of chai masala …

: Happy new year. It’s been a cost of living crisis fireworks display so the pigeons are …

: 2024 approaches. The fireworks are ramping up, and the pigeons are getting unsettled.

: Is it possible to create an arbitrary bookmark - not bookmark a post - using the microdotblog API? …

: I thought 15C was too warm for snow at Christmas, then looked up and saw it was a tree in blossom.

: TikTok is evil beyond redemption. Its community safety is a sham, and it seeks to profit from misery …

: Friends and followers, we have the winners for the winter solstice 🆆⚓️ on 🛞🛞competition.

: Oh. The Substack clowns have de-cloaked. And to no one’s surprise they’re the …

: Should you ever find yourself sarf of the river in need of a decent lunch, you could do a lot worse …

: Principled Tories? Uh-uh. No. Nope. There are none. Relief for Rishi Sunak as Rwanda bill passes …

: Here’s the thing about neoliberals: they would rather “go fash” than tax the rich and build …

: Political and financial journalists should be clear as to whether they are writing about the …

: The idea that Sunak and the Tories gave two tosses about the jobs of hospitality workers is …

: A lasting legacy of neoliberalism is that in place of solidarity it has created a culture of …

: The obvious, rarely stated. Policy is more responsive to preferences of the well-heeled than of the …

: The people who build and operate TikTok are ghouls.

: How will Labour leader and earnest Thatcherite Keir Starmer outdo the Tories’ cruel “no families for …

: Christmas Menu - first of the second thoughts For Christmas Day, I’m thinking a starter of …

: Christmas Menus 2023 First Draft First cut of menus for Christmas 2023. Work in progress. Main meal only. Vegetarian. Christmas Eve …

: So, last week’s OpenAI chicken coup was a grift to hype their Q* product.

: Few things say global Britain more than a freight train of empty FreightLiners trundling to Tilbury.

: More more puzzling still is why this cabbage is called a hispi cabbage in restaurants and a …

: The OpenAI game of thrones reminds us that in the broösphere you will be replaced by AI, not them.

: Interesting that OpenAI’s backers and funders are keen to hang on to insubstantial TED-talker …

: I wonder what causes the painful broken glass in the ears treble that I hear when listening to …

: A tugboat pulls a large float advertising pesto (of all things) past the O2.

: Tories to ban themselves under new extremism proposals. Revealed: plan to brand anyone ‘undermining’ …

: Britain’s elite institutions appear to be spectacularly incapable of producing a governing class …

: Okta, the new way to spell disingenuous cowboys. Joking apart - whole governments trust identities …

: Working from home? Here’s a tip. Get yourself a cuckoo clock. Muji sell nice modern-style …

: The Covid Inquiry so far - journalism and Oxbridge need a long period of sober reflection.

: I was at a good Newham community event today on their People Powered Places strand. It got me …

: Bluesky asked me for my date of birth, but will only let me enter a date that is 1,000 years older …

: The Economy Over the years in the UK, “the economy” has become the central obsession of politicians. Not …

: The BA app for iPad is excruciatingly useless. All it presents is a screen to book a flight. No …

: Britain’s housing crisis needs radical action not Labour’s technocratic small beer. Labour would …

: Having impoverished the country and precipitated a housing crisis, the Tories can’t kick off a …

: My tip to people trafficking entrepreneurs struggling with burdensome government regulation: make a …

: I’m doing the Hackney Legal Walk on Saturday to raise money for Citizens Advice. Their advice …

: More proof should you need it that the Tories think you are stupid. Rishi Sunak considering …

: Hello younger voters👋. You’ve heard that politics doesn’t offer you anything because you …

: What is remarkable about this is not that almost 80% of the electorate don’t trust Sunak on the …

: Have we got to the stage yet where the parasites shuck off their Tory and begin to seek out a Labour …

: Sunak would not have given his climate speech if the Tories didn’t think us fools. Rishi Sunak …

: Tories vs ruinous Brexit: “Get it done!” Tories vs existential climate crisis: …

: I’m pretty sure everyone who booked Russell Brand knew what kind of person he was. Still, they went …

: Crazy how these credentialed white men reacted with a fantasy projection when an algorithm got as …

: What a steaming pile of crap Resy is. Truly awful user experience that must take some experience to …

: It’s curious just how many boomer and gen-x academic and academic-adjacent types who spoke of the …

: Currently reading: The Tyranny of Merit by Michael J. Sandel. Thoughtful and articulate on how …

: Neoliberal meritocracy doesn’t stand up to even the lightest scrutiny. I thought that its …

: Oxford university, Britain’s educational Mordor, spewed out hordes of neoliberal PPE graduates who …

: “What Britain needs is more spineless, visionless neoliberals whose big idea is NHS …

: I was shopping for bird food at the Range at Surrey Quays this afternoon. What a nice store! There …

: Friends, what is the Magic Technocrat lever that the Tories haven’t used which Reeves and …

: Local bird ground effect over water update Local coots are the ground effect champions. If they ever actually fly out of ground effect, they do …

: I’m reading Show Me the Bodies by Peter Apps 📚 Fuck me, this is a painful, important book. …

: Got home before the dishwasher finished for the first time and noticed it rather swankily projects …

: Do you live in Newham? Have a great idea? Residents can apply for grants of up to £5,000 for …

: Saw this pigeon down at Telehouse. It looks like CGI, but there’s no trickery. The flesh had …

: Not sure if it’s the weather or it’s time to fly home, but the swifts are massing over the Olympic …

: Philosophically, neoliberalism is superficial and incoherent - almost as if it were designed to …

: “Principled” conservatives: you may think the “dash for fash” is a cynical ploy to attract voters …

: Here’s the thing about technocrats: they find themselves running a death camp, so they set about …

: One of the problems of the modern political class in Britain is that being a person of action means …

: The didgeridoo player at Stratford station always attracts pigeons, who stamp their feet in time to …

: Rejoice, elder peasants! Those high-paid, high-skilled, high-productivity jobs could soon be yours. …

: So, the right wing argument for not doing much about climate change is, “It’s not so bad. It’s not …

: Banking printing money from interest rate hikes. The extractive energy sector struck a money gusher …

: Ethical banking This piece on Farage’s crusade against NatWest on Richard Murphy’s Funding the Future …

: Pigeon Tribes Based on their colouring, local pigeons are different tribes. From Terry Spinks Place in Canning …

: I occasionally see a dilapidated ice cream van around Hackney that looks like a horror movie prop. …

: I’m not sure why a public transport service whose exhortations fail to get people to do …

: The choice in British politics is between weak, unprincipled invertebrates and weak, unprincipled …

: What electoral constituency is Starmer trying to appeal to? Two nasty parties

: Twenty is plenty

: So, I am posting in greyscale from an eInk device.

: Does “elite overproduction” explain all the mess the UK and the US are in? I don’t …

: Remember all those “think of the children” Tories during the pandemic? Where are tbey now? Home …

: In the battle of East London leisure destinations, Canary Wharf is advertising at Westfield …

: I’m at St Marks Gate/Cadogan Terrace. The Greenway - a scenic walk down a Victorian super-sewer …

: “Torn” is a great song. Fight me. (And Mrs Moorhen).

: Maybe don’t throw bacon sarnies and toasties at the nesting coot.

: Was wondering why the pot wasn’t boiling. I hadn’t actually turned the hob ring on.

: What are we looking at, Sarge? 3 to 5 years for crimes against architecture, lad.

: So I tried Threads today. Definitely not for me. But the promise of federation is … …

: I can’t find a single quantity theory of money bro who’s loudly blaming inflation on …

: Hey, @help - is something up with the CDN or with image uploads from the MacOS app?

: Nablus on the roost

: Scritti Politici on the airer

: Yes, it’s a pokeria

: Brutalist Chinoiserie in Calabria Along the Tyrrhenian coast on the gulf of Policastro you’ll find the fading legacy of a chain …

: Bergamot soda - “green gold of Calabria”

: Over the decades I’ve been taking the train south from Napoli Centrale, the station has got busier …

: Naples Central Station

: Starhotel Terminus, Naples, Italy ⭐️⭐️⭐️

: I accidentally one-click bought some climate denialist garbage on Amazon by swiping too hard. I …

: I’ve got superstitious over the years over the order I put the vegetables into a ciambotta.

: Mitigating the risk of extinction from an out of touch and amoral billionaire class should be a …

: Your occasional guide to understanding the right: Classical Liberal = over-credentialed incel …

: A coot among the pigeons

: The bourgeois populist press coverage of inflation and interest rates is as howlingly vacuous as the …

: The already awful Horizon scandal that saw innocent sub-postmasters gaoled because of computer …

: I’ve noticed that elites tend to use “intelligent” as a shorthand for “narcissistic, Machiavellian, …

: The staff canteen has been replaced by a staff food-bank. You know when you’ve been Toried.

: Still wrestling with a working (and workable) definition of political centrism. My latest is …

: From the media round today, it seems Keir Starmer has decloacked. Disappointingly but unsurprisingly …

: Citadel. OMFG. I don’t think it’s ironically bad, just absolutely, utterly terrible. …

: I can recommend Belvoir - pronounced Beaver - Farm Ginger Cordial. I make it at double strength with …

: I don’t get the mint business. Does it really make sense to airlift bagged sprigs of mint from …

: When I see people with their Instagrammable dogs, I think of chickens - 3600 years from prestige pet …

: Schrödinger’s civil service is both woke, lazy and incompetent, and orchestrating a …

: Fox News has collapsed beyond degenerate matter and, spinning wildly, has become a griftar.

: The 0816 Overground from Stratford always leaves late. Except when the next three trains are …

: If government has to give incentives to business to invest, doesn’t that imply …

: Coots are one of nature’s great bricoleurs. This coot is one of a pair who’ve built …

: A young female pigeon (I think - not 100% expert at pigeon sexing) is roosting on the patio door …

: Hello journalists! Voter in a democracy here. Sunak’s government is not the one that made the …

: 🐦‍⬛A blackbird is singing over the hiss of the traffic. In the dark. In the rain.

: Poverty and the political right If the right wanted a low-tax small state through democratic means, it would tackle poverty. The …

: It’s kind of pathetic watching successive senior Tories do their “Chemical Ali” turn over Brexit …

: Struggling to get my palm rest out of the packaging because my wrists are so bad.

: I am just beginning the planning now for the 10 year anniversary of this sign not coming down.

: Local drivers need parking practice.

: Sovereignty didn’t matter either The great tragedy of Brexit is that it was just a tactical move by the Tories to win an election and …

: The abandoned Nike outlet is a mirror to the Overground tracks.

: Keir Starmer in drag.

: Capturing Hot Air Tories: The State can’t pick winners. The Mah-Ket will decide our fate. Also Tories: Shackled to the …

: A slice of delicious home-made apple pie with a bit of custard.

: I wonder how many terminal prompts the servers at Telehouse support. Here’s a view of …

: The bridge on the left supports Aspen Way. On the right, the DLR.

: Let’s see ChatGPT 4 drive a car.

: The customer service fail at Franco Manca Canary Wharf this evening isn’t evenly spread. One young …

: Honestly the pizza points are not worth the pain of using Franco Manca’s utterly useless app.

: Culinary instruments on display at John Lewis, Canary Wharf.

: Scored a kilo of Panch Puran (Bengali five spice). This is an essential cooking ingredient for me - …

: Imagine the derision if a member of the working class declared the invention of the shovel the dawn …

: Food courts disconnected from the encumbering shopping mall are an increasingly popular destination …

: A pigeon under the pedestrian ramp at Homerton Station grabs the chance of a bit of morning sun.

: I get it’s disappointing that few high-follower-count folks have left Musk’s horror-platform. Heck, …

: Lots of interesting insects at Praia a Mare last summer. Me being me I was mainly taking pictures of …

: A couple of key right wing terms: Declinism: the opinion that a bonfire of regulations and tax cuts …

: Every right wing talking head: “Rant, rant, woke this, woke that, rant bathrooms, woke deep state. …

: If you are over 50, the writing on the labels of food packaging is too tiny.

: What an odd hill Mark Rowley has chosen to die on. Chopping logic over “systemic” vs “institutional” …

: I’m looking for a houseplant. Nice display in M&S at Crossrail Place - but they’d …

: The area south of A13 between Silvertown Way and Freemasons Road was called Cherry Island. Here is …

: Pigeons on the quasi-portico of Canary Wharf Underground Station

: I got up late so my early walk to Canary Wharf this morning was a dash to the Custom House Elizabeth …

: Passing through the Custom House portal to Canary Wharf lives up to its sci-fi name. Two Londons …

: Manor Road between Canning Town and West Ham, with its temporary pedestrian crossing chicanes, …

: “Nat has herpes” is scrawled all over East London. Should I feel sorry for Nat, or does this have …

: You have got to wonder about the folks who take their dogs to shit outside the school gates.

: In sum, seems like a budget to keep self-interested Tories onside. I guess it presages a ratcheting …

: Hmm. Seems like the Tories have given back around 2/3 of the recent corporation tax hike in tax …

: Imagine if the Tories had given wealthy savers the same pension tax breaks, but required the money …

: You need a lot of patience to drive down Morning Lane in the, uh, morning. I walk - and there …

: Fiscal rules Your budget day reminder that outside of political discourse there’s no such thing as fiscal rules. …

: The unimaginative build-it-by-numbers regeneration strategy is to throw up high-rises around public …

: This is Canary Wharf Station on the Elizabeth Line. It has no direct connection with Canary Wharf …

: Against the grey afternoon sky the silver leaves sprouting from the tree growing out of the taxi …

: Flying Tiger - this is the Crossrail Place branch - gimcrack ground zero.

: I can be a bit slow on the uptake. The people who get het up about “declinism” are the …

: The Tapping of the Purple Reader is the essential ritual of East London travelling people.

: Public address speakers paired together on the lampposts at Hackney Central station.

: Passenger on the train has a “specially selected” mozzarella and sun dried cherry tomato wood fired …

: Hackney is gridlocked this morning. The average British car is the size of a small bus these days. …

: The immigration “debate” in the UK is always radioactive. With their small boats stunting the Tories …

: Saw this on my walk to the Hackney office today through sleet and snow. It explains why so many …

: Tory “libertarians” overcome cognitive dissonance by believing free enterprise only …

: www.theguardian.com Rishi Sunak ‘extinguishing the right to seek refugee protection in UK’ …

: The whole display has crashed at EY, Canary Wharf.

: Crossrail (the Elizabeth Line) is an engineering marvel. But they never take account of passengers …

: Tory Migration-go-round Explained The Tories won’t fix public services, healthcare, housing or infrastructure. If they did, you …

: This art piece in Crossrail Place at Canary Wharf is made up of LED tiles. The art itself is maybe a …

: Almost 45 years in, and I thought that neoliberalism would have its “reflections on forced …

: The pilot hen is the moorhen who’s always leading the other water birds to the food. This …

: One of the interesting things about the Windsor Framework is that it is not, say, the Barnsley …

: The crows are running around on the roof. I can hear the distinctive hopping gait.

: The crow on “crowverlook” duty on the Star Lane office today watches in solitude.

: Gosh @help - am I doing the photoblogging challenge wrong?

: It’s London “nope” weather in Hackney this morning.

: The crazy thing about neoliberals is that they love markets right up to the point that someone tries …

: Highbrow media are setting up Sunak v Starmer as a battle of the centrist dads. Never was a frame so …

: Some tools in the can. Looks pretty secure.

: On changing the brushes on the motors when the battery is flat Leave politics aside a sec and ask yourself, who is being feather-bedded when businesses are …

: Okay. So, thanks to Geofency and Pipedream, I can annoy you all with my arrivals at and departures …

: Sense of Wonder There’s this sci-fi trope where our time-travelling hero in the past lets the future know when …

: Are Tories blind to structural problems? Does their privilege lead them to really, truly believe the …

: I like Yubico YubiKeys - sound idea for improving online personal security, I think. I own a couple. …

: Bought some nice-looking russets from the local M&S, but they’re rubbish: flavourless and …

: I generally avoid vegetables with trademarks, but Kalettes(TM) are seriously tasty. I braise them …

: Alexa seems to like chicken.

: Putting ANPRs on pelican crossings and fining every driver who runs a red light would seem to be an …

: Is it that graffiti is not art, or that all that art is is pissing on lampposts?

: Road racer’s engine is louder than the sirens of the police chasing after down the A13

: I’m leaving Stratford International on the DLR from platform 2. Have literally never seen a DLR …

: What are the Americans shooting down? De-orbiting Teslas?

: A brief musing on political centrism I’ve struggled with the concept of political centrism. I’ve found its positioning as …

: Uttering sound bites while wearing a high viz jacket is not an industrial strategy.

: Reading Liz Truss’s piece in the Sunday Telegraph, I can only conclude that the UK political …

: Elon Cohaagen cutting off the oxygen in Venusville is fiction, right?

: Reading about power outages and trees exploding from the cold, and the best we’ve got is the …

: Dockhunt: closer to that journalistic slip of the tongue than the UK chancellor of the exchequer.

: Not sure how public sector workers contribute to the “wage/price spiral” given their labour isn’t …

: The workers being lowered into the sewer are all Irish. This is England! We expect foreigners to …

: What is your worst walk? Mine is Canning Town to the Greenway via Manor Road. Nasty in all weathers.

: The BBC’s review into its taxation, public spending, government borrowing and debt output is …

: Newham Council would like people to drive less and walk more. It’s a laudable aim even if, as we …

: I have some thoughts and comments about reforming NHS bureaucracy. I tried referring myself to Keir …

: www.theguardian.com The UK may avoid a recession for now but it won’t feel like it for many …

: www.theguardian.com Hedge funds holding up vital debt relief for crisis-hit Sri Lanka, warn …

: With his sleight of hand promise to cut inflation, Rishi Sunak sure does think his core vote needs …

: Seems to me that the people lacking numeracy skills to prosper in the workplace are the Tories. …

: Finished reading: Rentier Capitalism by Brett Chistophers 📚- one of the most insightful books I read …

: Could a politician or policy wonk explain the difference between “turbocharge” and “supercharge” …

: I managed an average of 11.6km a day of walking or running in 2022. Not the 12km a day I was hoping …

: The verdict is in. Anyone who voted Leave was duped. I hope once the Tories are out of office, …

: Oh-ho! Discovered a mandarin negroni stollen that somehow didn’t get eaten.

: When a poor person slips on the ice, does anyone who matters hear them fall?

: Ungritted pavements in Custom House

: Ungritted streets in Canning Town

: Imagine being so cynical and cruel that you choose a performative immigration and asylum policy over …

: Temporary if poorly fitted and not working eInk display on the Elizabeth Line

: I’ve run this timeline over and again and the only place neoliberal “meritocracy” ever ends up is …

: Apparently “Singapore on Thames” is gone, and Britain will “become the next …

: It’s interesting that the Tories say of Brexit that we “voted to change our trading relationship …

: New micro post on the MarsEdit 5 beta. I like the “throwing it out there” aspect. Like …

: Couldn’t get a micro.blog window to show up on the app until I delete the cache. Odd. Anyway, …

: Enjoying The Peripheral on Amazon Prime Video. One thing puzzles me, though. Why are the inhabitants …

: Theory: the people elect politicians to regulate the markets Practice: the markets pay off …

: There’s a distinction between riches and the return to riches. Redistribution isn’t taking from the …

: With only weeks to Christmas, the value destruction leaderboard looks like this: Elon Must Liz …

: www.theguardian.com The cowardly state beholden to “the markets” is back.

: Don’t people like Elon Musk cause real problems for meritocracy’s true believers?

: Leafing through dismal opinion polls this morning, three words characterise Tory supporters: …

: “Smart Home” technology would be a lot better if it actually worked.

: All they have got, the TINA neoliberals, the handmaidens to the rentier class, is racist …

: Currently reading: How the World Really Works by Vaclav Smil 📚: Man likes chicken.

: Not really needing my vegan burgers to have added artificial blood.

: Lagrange is a nice Gemini browser, with an opinionated UI. Amfora is a good looking Gemini client …

: I stumbled across Project Gemini, a lightweight internet protocol pitched somewhere between Gopher …

: Currently reading: Failures of State: The Inside Story of Britain’s Battle with Coronavirus by …

: www.theguardian.com PM weds at “secret” ceremony with friends. It’s in all the papers. Words used to …

: Picnic, early May 2021 To Eat Baby potato salad with steamed green beans, lettuce and tomato, mint, quails eggs, capers …

: An important day for pigeon science In the colder weather, the plants on the balcony are wilting. At the beginning of the week the pair …

: Signs of the times What does this sign mean? Today, I learned it means: GET OUT OF MY F*ING WAY YOU C*NT. LOOK AT THE …

: Sometimes during lockdown I put my coffee in my travel mug.

: A (pedantic) note on King Coot twitter.com/furtherfi… The Community of Coots are too ornery and independent to want anything …

: Moral cesspit? Welcome to Tory Britain. …

: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/aug/31/help-to-buy-loans-benefited-more-rich-than-poor-hous …

: Memo to self: O&M and AOV. Don’t ask.

: Is it ever wise to look at micro.blog clients at two minutes to midnight?

: Footling with collaborative writing apps instead of, you know, writing.