David Oakley

Day after Alex Pretti killing I complained to BBC about presentation of White House statements and evidence as equivalent. Duty of balance doesn’t extend to complicity with clear lies, I said. BBC could and should report WH making false statements as a *fact of the story*. Today I got response …

It’s kind of weird - seems to label the unitary authorities of Cheshire separately, but doesn’t separate Stoke-on-Trent from Staffordshire

Smurfs play Blondie?

🚨The Petition calling for by-elections to be called automatically when MPs defect to another party now has 55,000 signatures! Let’s get the 100,000 needed!

petition.parliament.uk/petitions/73...

"Look, I get it, he's mental but what the fuck do you want me to do?"

- Labour +45%

No alpha channel. Got it 👍🏻 (gosh that stuff must be tiring)

If any minister should, Ed Milliband should be on BlueSky. He’d surely get decent engagement here- I mean even the service’s name fits!

I call on my party and my government to remove themselves entirely from X and communicate with the public where they actually participate online and can be protected from such illegality.

As Barack Obama stumps for other Democrats, the party gets to see what it lost The wit and wisdom of the superstar ex-US president make him the best candidate – too bad he can’t run

As Barack Obama stumps for other Democrats, the party gets to see what it lost

It was the “White Knight” trilogy, last one was Stormbringer…

An animated loop basd on the games of the ZX Spectrum 8 bit micro from the 1980s

This was made in photoshop and Blender and just a fun little tribute to my all time favourite home computer

#zxspectrum #retrogaming #pixelart #8bitart

Keep it in the family - Anton and Janette

Ukraine’s Plan to Starve the Russian War Machine Negotiations have stalled. Trump keeps changing his policies. Ukrainians, backed by Europeans, are taking matters into their own hands. ​​​​​

Negotiations have stalled. Trump keeps changing his policies. Ukrainians, backed by Europeans, are taking matters into their own hands, by targeting the Russian oil industry:
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

I always remember when Anne Robinson tried to do her school ma’am act on Ricky Hatton on Celebrity Weakest Link.
AR: “Ricky - you were the weakest link in that round. Why do you think that is?”
RH: “Probably because I get punched in the head for a living, Anne.”

It was a set-up, really. I read your post and spotted the letter for my 18-year old that had been sat on the kitchen table for days, so couldn’t resist telling him he needed to open it 🤭

🙄

Sunday’s @thetimes.com cartoon times.newsprints.co.uk/morten-morla...

This little parable is a nice illustration of why it is important for mainstream parties to set and uphold clear, bright line anti-prejudice norms, and of why the failure of senior Conservatives to do so risks doing great harm to their party

Mo Salah is asking the right questions

The British media outlet ITV also went on a Jordanian airdrop and simply ignored the Israeli government’s illiberal demands:

www.itv.com/news/2025-08...

@bsky.app has not yet verified @alistapart.com, we suppose because they’ve got bigger fish to fry first. We guess that at least some members of the Bluesky team learned their craft from us and trust that they’ll get around to verifying us sooner or later. Reshare if you care.

Opinion | Netanyahu Is Choosing to Starve Gaza

Alex de Waal in the NYT, drawing out the difference between the logistical complexity of abating other famines and this one: "If Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel decided tonight that every Palestinian child in Gaza should have breakfast tomorrow, it could undoubtedly be done." (gift link)

[Scene is Women’s World Cup match showing on big screen in pub, lots of FANS in pub watching it cheerfully, apart from one guy at the back looking grumpy] 1 FANS [as goal goes in]: YYEEEESSS! 2 COMMENTATOR 1 VOICEOVER ON THE TV: Ooh and there's been a VAR check on that goal 3 COMMENTATOR 2: Yeah Robyn it looks like there’s been a question about it... 4 [show a miserable gammony bloke watching the same from the back of the pub] COMMENTATOR 2: …from Brian at the back of the pub. 5 COMMENTATOR 1: Looking at the replay we can see Brian using this rare moment of uncomplicated national joy 6 COMMENTATOR 1: to talk about men. BRIAN [holding his pint while he watches the screen, grumbling his own commentary]: Grumble Grumble Grumble men’s game 7 COMMENTATOR 2: Yeah you can see from his body position he’s making a dumb and sexist comparison there 8 COMMENTATOR 1: The ref’s made her decision… [Ref returns to the pitch, making one of the big VAR speeches they’ve started doing through her head-mic] 9 REF: MY JUDGEMENT IS… 10 REF: BRIAN IS TALKING BOLLOCKS. 11 PEOPLE IN PUB: YEEEAAH 12 PEOPLE IN PUB [all pointing at Brian]: SHUT UP BRIAN SHUT UP BRIAN

Trump and Musk feature in the latest Beano. D.O.P.E.

This sort of satire is wasted on 7 year olds!

Ours was a John Menzies when I was growing up…

Ed Stourton was already a veteran in 1993?

I think this basically comes down to “Trump gives us cover to change things that we want to without having a Truss event”. There’s value in that, as long as they get decent advice.

Not only is this crass, it is highly significant.

Radosław Sikorski is perhaps the most Atlanticist major politician in Europe.

And this is how he is now being publicly treated by US/Musk.

They do not want us to be their friends, they do not want us to be their allies.

Remarkable assessment by an incoming German chancellor. “for me it is an absolute priority to strengthen Europe as quickly as possible, so that we achieve independence from the US, step by step.” www.dw.com/en/german-el...

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Correct. If the birthdate field contains corrupt or mismatched data, it defaults to 1875-05-20, which serves as a flag. May 20, 1875, is the day the international standards and metrics treaty was signed. Everything is a conspiracy when you don’t know how anything works.