@neiljsmith
Singer/songwriter/musician and semi-autonomous biped from the badlands of the Buckinghamshire/Berkshire borders, UK My lovely band Plynthology: https://linktr.ee/plynthology My solo exploits: https://linktr.ee/neiljsmith
This is incredible. UK emissions fell 2.4% in 2025 as coal fell to a 400-year low. Incredibly, we used less coal last year than than in 1600, when Queen Elizabeth I was on the throne and Shakespeare was writing Hamlet
www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-uk-...
GB News loses £22m, taking their total losses to over £130m. Except it's not a 'loss', it's an investment by Paul Marshall in providing a propaganda service to platform right wing grifters, gobshites, conspiracy nutters and contrarian fuckwits.
I was born in an Iranian prison. My parents were held in their jails. My uncles lie in their mass graves. Nothing you can tell me about the crimes of the Iranian regime that I haven't lived in blood and bone. That doesn't mean I want my people bombed, maimed, killed, their homes in ruins. If your vision of liberation comes only through the destruction of innocent lives, then it's not freedom you're after. Sahar Delijani, Iranian author
I am pro Iranian people. I stand with them against their own government’s repression AND against the imperial violence in the form of bombs dropped from the sky from Israel & the US who have already killed hundreds.
I support neither imperialism or dictatorship.
Sahar Delijani said it best:
Common Peephole She came from Greece, she had a faulty socket. Her eye fell out, she couldn’t stop it. That’s when I caught her eye. Brian Bilston
Pulp poetry.
Not been aware of this “uproar” anywhere but here. Either on the news or in broadsheet media. And there should be uproar. Because, in a nutshell, it tells you why Reform - in their infantile, idiotic, vengeful inadequacy - are so ragingly unfit for office.
nation.cymru/news/uproar-...
So, what drives approval ratings? Public opinion is informed largely by the media, so a biased media inevitably results in biased approval ratings. How else could Johnson and Farage really be more popular than Starmer? And then Starmer’s opponents feed off negative coverage to their own advantage.
Most of our media is studiously ignoring the Epstein links to Brexit, Farage and far right populism. Farage is being touted for No.10. He wants an even more extreme Brexit. A race to the bottom to sell us out to this global network of oligarch crooks.
Why TF isn’t he being investigated and stopped?
BREAKING: Gordon Brown defends Keir Starmer
"I can look in his eyes and see he is a man of integrity.
"He wants to do the right things. Perhaps he has been too slow to do the right things. But he must do the right things now.
"Lets judge what he does"
The sooner the wider public understands that Nigel Farage is actively working against Britain’s interests, the better.
map: Dignitas from Davos
If he sets off right now, he could get to Dignitas before they close. It's only a 2 hour drive from #Davos.
If it's the cost he's worried about, I'm sure he'd get a generous crowdfunding response. Maybe they take gift vouchers? Either way, the clock's ticking...
Remember the Soviet joke about a man who always goes to look at the papers but never buys one. The news agent asks him what he's looking for and he says, "An obituary" and the news agent points out that they're always in the back section. "This one won't be".
![What, if anything, is Trumpism?
There is not really any rhyme: there is no consistency or predictability in what he does. His actions in situation [A] will tell you little or nothing about what he may do in situation [B].
There are, at a general level, certain themes: he is indifferent to norms, he is cunning, he likes leverage, he will renege on deals, he has a sense for ratings, he will often back down. But these are tactics and improvisations: they say little or nothing about which subjects he will engage with next.
And nor is there is much reason: little or nothing he does makes sense, at least for the reasons he gives – or for the reasons his partisan supporters come up with to justify his actions and inactions.
It would be fair to say there is neither rhyme nor reason.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:nx2kxyxako6sobj4g4pdkl6s/bafkreiht5hm2c5ywad6s6pn3zttwxw2hxnvdvmhokkfoyz4o6zmy3p6myi@jpeg)
What, if anything, is Trumpism? There is not really any rhyme: there is no consistency or predictability in what he does. His actions in situation [A] will tell you little or nothing about what he may do in situation [B]. There are, at a general level, certain themes: he is indifferent to norms, he is cunning, he likes leverage, he will renege on deals, he has a sense for ratings, he will often back down. But these are tactics and improvisations: they say little or nothing about which subjects he will engage with next. And nor is there is much reason: little or nothing he does makes sense, at least for the reasons he gives – or for the reasons his partisan supporters come up with to justify his actions and inactions. It would be fair to say there is neither rhyme nor reason.
NEW
“…neither rhyme nor reason.”
We are currently in a situation where precedents and norms and laws and rules and theories offer no assistance.
By me.
Substack: emptycity.substack.com/p/neither-rh...
Personal blog: davidallengreen.com/2026/01/neit...
"Donald Trump now genuinely lives in a different reality, one in which neither grammar nor history nor the normal rules of human interaction now affect him. Also, he really is maniacally, unhealthily obsessive about the Nobel Prize."
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...
We've spent ten years being proved right about all the things the loudest, biggest voices in the UK media insisted, often obnoxiously, we were wrong about. The real kicker is that there's no consolation whatsoever in being correct. Brexit, Putin, Johnson, Truss, Trump, Twitter, Netanyahu etc etc...
This is so important. If you persist in misrepresenting or misunderstanding reality you give even more ammunition to populist liars who understand nothing.
Today, waiting lists are down by more than 312,000 since Labour came into government - with an 86,000 drop in November alone.
That's the second biggest drop in 15 years.🎉
See more below ⬇️🧵
Department of Homeland Security post on X affirming immunity for ICE agents under all circumstances
When the interior ministry declares its militia to be above the law in terms that equate dissent with treason there really isn’t any question of whether or not we are looking at an authoritarian regime.
Musk: We have a feature that encourages immoral and debasing behaviour. Let’s monetise it! You almost have to admire his total lack of human decency.
Democratic rights should be withheld from those who oppose democracy.
Caption: Every December, the team of marine biologists draw lots to decide who will take Mister Wiggles home with them for the holidays. Image: Five small figures take small pieces of paper from a hat. Behind them a colossal squid waits in an enormous tank set upon a gigantic trolley.
A Christmas cartoon from my new book of science cartoons PHYSICS FOR CATS. In good bookshops and online now: www.tomgauld.com/comic-books-v2
Rob Reiner was a genius. He brought joy to this world, and in decades to come, people will still be laughing, crying, and quoting along to his incredible oeuvre.
Donald Trump is a nobody. History will remember him as a villain and a nasty, dim-witted, unloved one at that.
There's your difference
It’s increasingly hard to find balanced news about the UK government’s policies and actions, but this is an informative article on proposed changes to ECHR rules on asylum rights.
www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/12...
We celebrated FREE SPEECH in the village yesterday.
We called each other bastards & fuckers.
Everyone said Jill in the village shop was a bitch & should be jailed.
I called Dean our paperboy a lying wanker and Bunty said Simple Sally should be burnt for being a slut.
🇬🇧
Can someone please explain why it is that too many politicians only seem to want the votes of the prejudiced and the ignorant? To the extent that they are actively repelling anyone capable of rational thought and decency. Why the pathetic need to appease the bigot vote, at everyone else’s expense?
Apologies for reacting and respoding
I hoped never to see concentration camps like the ones I grew up in appear again in this country. Reading this breaks my heart.
Anyone who knows the first thing about literary translation knows that direct translations are often impossible, and that creative, nuanced, sympathetic solutions must be found due to unfamiliar idioms, imagery, rhyming schemes, etc while balancing author motifs and style. AI simply can't do that.
'Mothra' live by Plynthology at Other Space Arts, Windsor. What an amazing night we had at Other Space Arts! Mega thanks to Ruby Dawn and Vinna Bee for truly off-the-scale performances, Mr C for superb dad jokes and compering, Steve the sound and all at OSA for hosting us at their wonderful venue.
• Re your article (Labour targets international students claiming asylum after election losses to Reform, 3 May), the insistence of this Labour government on responding to the perceived threat of Reform by aping it on the issues where it is strong is utterly mind-boggling. I don't think any electable party will be more anti-immigration than Reform. The portion of the electorate for whom immigration is the one issue they care about won't be persuaded to vote Labour by it pledging to reduce asylum applications from international students. It's a ludicrous idea and, at best, only serves to reduce the distinction between the two parties. In reality, Reform is weak on almost every conceivable area: the economy, the NHS, Donald Trump, Brexit... the list of vulnerabilities is almost without limit. Yet the government chooses to engage on the only ground on which Reform is sure-footed. It's utterly bizarre. How is a party with five MPs, fewer than 800 local councillors and no actual policies allowed to dictate the agenda in this way? Richard Repper Frome, Somerset
V good letter in The Guardian on Labour’s flailing hopelessness in the face of Reform.
Come on, Labour. The country is crying out for better. We’re sick of this ugly rightwing agenda. It brings nothing but failure.
It’s disloyal to your voters and to the country. You’ve got power and time. Use them.
They’re not concerned with irrelevancies like truth and facts. Just like MAGA, all they want is to throw red meat to their bigot fan base and fuel the culture wars for their own evil ends.
