@jrberkeley
John (he/him) aka. John Berkeley; Leovinas. UK-based writer of SFF, player of RPGs, Classics/archaeology/ancient history PhD, process/telecoms specialist. The sort of gay lefty Liberal your mother warned you about. Views my own, etc. (no TERFs or AI, ta)
Yet Mary Whitehouse was no joke β jeer, but donβt swallow βcuddlyβ revisionism.
She destroyed lives, persecuted gays, and silenced education, information and entertainment.
She was a theocratic, bullying bigot.
Remember that as todayβs social conservatives reanimate her evil.
Hugh Paddick and Kenneth Williams caricatured as Julian and Sandy
Hugh Paddick and Kenneth Williams caricatured as Julian and Sandy
Educational, improper and entertaining, Round the Horne so enlightened the masses that by 1968 conversational Polari was the fourth-most-practiced tongue in the UK.
Hear it coupling with searing kitchen sink political issue in Julian & Sandy β Keep Britain Bona:
youtube.com/watch?v=E_w8...
While I have a distrust of many people with responsibility and authority, I fundamentally believe in the power of truth and love. My work regularly connects with incredibly smart and compassionate people too
bsky.app/profile/scum...
I stupidly didn't think he could say anything else to make my jaw drop - oh, me of little faith...
Melissa is absolutely right. We might be traditionally published, and we might occasionally break out with a bestseller, but midlist authors are often neglected by publishers while the big titles suck up all the oxygen. There are some brave and exciting books out there that deserve a lot more hype!
If you're doomscrolling, guess what? So far there are 51 kΔkΔpΕ chicks hatched and thriving this season, the same number of birds as we had in TOTAL in the 90s! Only one chick has died and there are still fertile eggs waiting to hatch!
For it to work, you'd also likely need a presumption against people in the abolished bodies being able to apply to be in the new ones. The new bodies would need a mindset so antithetical to the current ones that they'd need very strong vetting against those trying to bring back the bad old days.
2/2
I've always thought that abolishing the Met & the Home Office, and institutionally/structurally salting the earth beneath them so the authoritarian monstrosities don't just reemerge in 20 years, was the way to go.
(Obviously they'd need to be indirectly replaced rather than just gotten rid of)
1/2
I'm the person who gets to spend my Friday morning in court finding this stuff out btw.
Full report:
committees.parliament.uk/committee/17...
An analogue for 'Don't start a land war in Asia' is 'Don't upset the Quakers.'
A vitally important report that I hope @victoria-collins.bsky.social and Anna Sabine read in particular - and many others. π
publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld5901/ld...
Reasons a cis women might have Y chromosomes:
- Twin brother
- Gestating a child with a Y chromosome
- Bone marrow transfusion from someone with a Y chromosome
- Being intersex (we know of XY women who have naturally conceived and given birth)
A photo along a windowsill of a Christmas cactus, a serially-segmented greeen plant, with large, delicately-pink flower budding and blooming. A magenta cyclamen and a fern in a pot are also visible.
The Christmas cactus has unexpectedly flowered again (usually it's pretty bang-on around Christmas). So... Merry Christmas? I suppose? π€·ββοΈ
#flowersofbluesky
The House of Lords Digital & Communications Committee just published their report on AI, copyright & the creative industries, and their conclusions could not be clearer.
𧡠1/5
Ah, lovely. π
Wait, one of the actors went MAGA? Which one?
Your regular reminder that the UK is in fact a high trust society and anyone who implies it isnβt is either selling you a pup or has bought one.
'Reply' it is, then. π
On the blog, @trip.bsky.social spills all the tea about running a Kickstarter. His new one *just* launched (find a link there)! So you get advice *and* an opportunity to take part in an older publishing model that now offers swag along with the book!
milfordsfwriters.wordpress.com/2026/03/03/d...
I do not like this gen AI
I do not like what it implies
I do not want it in my art
I do not think it makes you smart
I do not want it in my games
I do not like its goals and aims
I do not want it in my books
I do not like the way it looks
I do not like it, I don't care
I do not want it anywhere
Itβs World Book Day 2026! So what better way to celebrate than to help a new (queer AF) fantasy novel come into the world?
Think Drag Race meets a gay Game of Thrones meets Zelaznyβs Amber
This one is for all the people with toxic familyβ¦and a NEED for freedom
www.kickstarter.com/projects/tri...
This is a good analogy. Very useful in carefully controlled settings for specific usages, but unfortunately being widely inserted into everything and used without training or PPE and poisoning a lot of things and people and weβre going to pay a tonne of money to remove it safely in the future
TL;DR Labour's policies:
π¨Increase use of irregular routes
π¨Increase human trafficking
π¨Increase number of people forced to be undocumented
π¨Force people into deprivation
π¨Leave, particularly women and children, at risk
π¨Cost more than current policies
π¨Violate international law
10/ #r4today
It is the *exact same* in Britain. The mediam voter wants clean water & cheaper bills. Every TERF protest is attended by the same 6 upper middle class idiots.
Everyoneβs always sure their use of AI is righteous, responsible, justified but other peopleβs are wasteful.
Unless you are in a very small, highly trained subset of people, itβs every bit as damaging as othersβ.
Save yourself the time and donβt protest to me with your whatabouts.
For all those who werenβt awakeβwe launched last night! Check it out and please share~!
(Also for EU folks, this is a great Kickstarter! We ship from Spain, so shipping is affordable and thereβs no import VAT)
Gold art deco scrollwork in teh corners of a black background, on which is the following list: Stretch Goals! Β£5k - Chapter Header Image Β£7500 - No-Frills Audiobooks Β£10k - Annotated ebook (V) Β£12.5k - Printed Endpapers Β£15k - Annotated ebook (B) Β£17.5k - House Bookmarks Β£20k - Sprayed Edges Β£25k - Deluxe Audiobook (V) 500 NA Physical Backers - Reduced Shipping!
Wow! So we hit double the funding goal for THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF VALENZIAGA on Day 1!
That meansβ¦Stretch Goals! Here they are (yes, weβve already unlocked the first one - Chapter Header Images, woo!)
As ever, these will be HUMAN ART!
www.kickstarter.com/projects/tri...
LOOK AT THAT COVER!!! πππ
@stewarthotston.com The government consultation closed last February, FYI, unless there's a new one ongoing? π
www.gov.uk/government/c...