Nostr notes by Flick 🇬🇧

See, told you you’d know by the follow requests! ...

2026-08-23T16:46:09Z

See, told you you’d know by the follow requests!

quoting
nevent1q…ll5v
I am so much stress:)

Not anyone’s’ fault.

Look to your notifications, follows will be the tell.

Yep, but it’s been really unstable the last few weeks so I ...

2026-08-23T11:24:54Z

In reply to nevent1q…nrnm
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Yep, but it’s been really unstable the last few weeks so I decided it was time to at least get everyone set up with an alt.

I thought the excuse for not testing on women was exactly this? ...

2026-08-23T07:31:05Z

In reply to nevent1q…p7e8
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I thought the excuse for not testing on women was exactly this? They’ve known forever.

While I would in general prefer no vomit, vomit at 7:30 once I am ...

2026-08-23T06:36:29Z

While I would in general prefer no vomit, vomit at 7:30 once I am actually out of bed, and with enough notice to get him outside, is a definite improvement.

Got some dog meds you’re welcome to have… ;)

2026-08-22T21:36:16Z

In reply to nevent1q…lygz
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Got some dog meds you’re welcome to have… ;)

Well, I don’t, but ykwim.

2026-08-22T21:29:21Z

In reply to nevent1q…se9g
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Well, I don’t, but ykwim.

I do hope so.

2026-08-22T21:29:02Z

In reply to nevent1q…sg86
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I do hope so.

Unbearably cute to hear a French woman say that she enjoys ...

2026-08-22T21:28:50Z

Unbearably cute to hear a French woman say that she enjoys relaxing by doing “cro-chette”.

Emotional labour is tiresome. Especially when one had to deal ...

2026-08-22T20:50:20Z

Emotional labour is tiresome. Especially when one had to deal with dog vomit (et al) at dawn. But sometimes necessary.

Nostr event nevent1qqsz4k0fcfplem4r3kqm7nz6zty3fendy7nvy5gsfavtwkjsfwqsc0szyrsm0vsf2dcujq7v98avk8v5njnql9mzc9au6rj3z85jejv782f0ckzm0v0

2026-08-22T20:34:46Z

No, Maddie’s all woman. I think Hebs meant Ms Moneypenny.

2026-08-22T20:33:22Z

In reply to nevent1q…gnkh
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No, Maddie’s all woman. I think Hebs meant Ms Moneypenny.

lol probably. You forgot non-white.

2026-08-22T20:32:53Z

In reply to nevent1q…atg6
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lol probably.

You forgot non-white.

Gabriel-Rumi’s biological parents, Omar Ahmed and Nausheen ...

2026-08-22T20:32:02Z

In reply to nevent1q…vy9s
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Gabriel-Rumi’s biological parents, Omar Ahmed and Nausheen Gilkar, are from California. They conceived using IVF and decided, for unknown reasons, to use a surrogate. Perhaps Nausheen couldn’t carry the baby, or perhaps, like a growing number of western women, she’d put in the hard yards at the gym, looked hot on her socials and didn’t fancy stretch marks. Some women now use surrogates because they’re freaked out by the thought of labour. ‘Social surrogacy’, it’s called, to distinguish it from the medical sort. Is it morally right to outsource physical pain?

Anyway, for whatever reason Nausheen and Omar contracted Worldwide Surrogacy Specialists LLC, WSS contacted McKenna West, and Gabriel-Rumi was implanted. All was dandy until the 20-week scan when it was discovered that he had a heart condition, hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS), which would require surgery shortly after birth.

At that point, Nausheen and Omar decided to abort, which contractually they had a right to do. McKenna at first agreed and made the appointment, before realising that she couldn’t bring herself to kill the baby. Children with HLHS can lead happy lives and Gabriel deserved a chance, she said, and she offered to have him and bring him up herself. McKenna didn’t want cash; this wasn’t any sort of shakedown. It was the baby she was thinking of, and at a later stage she offered to give up any parental rights if Nausheen and Omar would agree to the life-saving surgery.

The couple thought it best to kill their son. McKenna was prepared to suffer and to disrupt her existing life in order for him to live. Which woman acted more like a mother? I’m not attacking Nausheen. All over the world mothers abort babies for less serious reasons. But parental love is sacrificial. It was Mc-Kenna who demonstrated that love.

And is it all that surprising? I remember the 20-week scan as a turning point in my own pregnancy. The size, the heartbeat, the obvious life of the baby jolted me into a realisation that here, truly, was another person, and that I loved him and had a duty to care for him. In many ways it was a terrible realisation for a woman as irresponsible as me, and it came with a premonition of all the future worry and grief that love involves. I think of that moment as the beginning of motherhood, and it was entirely bound up with the physical closeness of the baby. Distance allows for denial – in pregnancy as in all manner of other scenarios. When your aged grandparents are at a distance, for instance, it’s easy to persuade yourself that it’s fine not to visit, less unsettling for them. Up close, the truth outs.

A convenient language has evolved to keep the fiction of uncomplicated surrogacy alive and to persuade us all that you can fracture motherhood: split off the egg from the womb, and the womb from the parenting, with absolutely no harm done. Surrogates are known as ‘gestational carriers’, and like egg donors they’re treated as if they’ve done no more than a regular good turn, given blood maybe. But the difference between Nausheen and McKenna’s reactions to their son’s disease shows how wrongheaded this notion is.

A woman who carries a child isn’t just storage – she’s bonded and the baby feels that bond too. Well, of course it does. The womb is its whole reality. A baby is born already knowing and listening out for a birth mother’s voice, and her smell and her heartbeat – and when it’s deprived of them, it suffers. We know now that if a baby is parted from his birth mother, he interprets her absence as life-threatening and it triggers an emergency stress response. His cortisol spikes and his blood pressure rises. It’s one of those many biological realities that people who call themselves progressive try to will away.

They insist on ‘bodily autonomy’ and a mother’s right to choose right up to birth, for abortion. But if a surrogate like McKenna wants to save a baby, I wonder, is it still ‘her body, her choice’?

The couple did not take McKenna up on her offer to care for their baby. They insisted on abortion, and so she fled with Gabriel-Rumi on board to Texas, where she felt he was safer. Texas not only bans abortion in almost all circumstances but gives the woman who carries the child, rather than the commissioning parents, the authority to decide on medical care.

Gabriel-Rumi was born on 12 August in Dallas, and he owes his life to McKenna West, but even so he may never be allowed to meet her. Nausheen and Omar are now the baby’s legal parents and they’ve procured a court order preventing McKenna from coming near him. They’re also suing her, seeking up to $250,000 for breach of contract, though I’m not sure where they think she’ll find that sort of money. And who knows, should they win next week’s battle for long-term custody, how they’ll possibly explain to their son why they decided to destroy the woman who saved his life.

Nostr event nevent1qqsf5p7gmxnt97rezlc47q3cd05jktck9nt3yta7ac6xw4s2amlf3fczyrsm0vsf2dcujq7v98avk8v5njnql9mzc9au6rj3z85jejv782f0c89rd6z

2026-08-22T20:30:55Z

https://spectator.com/article/baby-gabriel-rumi-is-the-latest-victim-of-the-global-surrogacy-business/

On Tuesday, a court in Dallas, Texas will convene to decide the fate of a small baby called Gabriel or Rumi, depending on who you believe his mother is. Gabriel-Rumi is at present a sort of Schrödinger’s baby, suspended between possible futures and suspended also, poor sod, between life and death: born with heart disease, headed now for surgery.

Gabriel-Rumi’s short life has so far been the subject of a media frenzy, for reasons I’ll explain, but should he later look back and be appalled at all the fuss, I’d like him to know what a service he’s already done the world.

The global surrogacy business surges on, valued at almost $40 billion, heading for $300 billion by 2030; an accelerating factory belt of babies commissioned, grown, sold. No one who profits from it wants to pause the gravy train or look too hard for harm. But the case of baby Gabriel-Rumi makes the cost of surrogacy – all surrogacy – painfully clear.

Gonna give you props for that: bloody good for non-native ...

2026-08-22T20:22:01Z

In reply to nevent1q…c37m
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Gonna give you props for that: bloody good for non-native speaker!

Nostr event nevent1qqs8r99xa66pd828dft02ary9uj6hscfkz37q9ycv367mlqv4tqa3eqzyrsm0vsf2dcujq7v98avk8v5njnql9mzc9au6rj3z85jejv782f0c9umym3

2026-08-22T20:15:49Z

There is some talk that the next Bond film should be a period ...

2026-08-22T19:56:44Z

In reply to nevent1q…020d
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There is some talk that the next Bond film should be a period piece, taking him back to a time when we were happier, sexier and more powerful. (The fact that the Britain of Jim Callaghan or Ted Heath fits those criteria is worthy of an essay in itself.) However tempting it might be to produce a sort of fetish-Bond, it would be a mistake – a step in the Austin Powers direction, culturally speaking. It would also herald the demise of many British creative traditions. If we admit that we’re no longer a country in which we can set a Bond film, that’s less a statement about a franchise than a depressing admission about our ability to do or say a whole host of other things.

There are plenty of action scenes. Bond faces an HR manager who ...

2026-08-22T19:56:29Z

In reply to nevent1q…uvtj
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There are plenty of action scenes. Bond faces an HR manager who makes Rosa Klebb look like Mr Fezziwig. Ninety per cent of his Q scenes involve the signing of online disclaimer forms. He narrowly escapes strangulation by rainbow lanyard. These dreams are all the scarier because, like other horrors (such as ‘ice-breaking exercise’ or ‘Lucy Powell, Education Secretary’), they are grounded in reality.

The rumour mill is again in full pelt about the next Bond film. Producer Amy Pascal has promised ‘something really different that is stirring and exciting and different’. If she means different from Daniel Craig’s pseudo-brooding, ‘something nasty in the woodshed’ Bond, then great. More likely, she means something intensely tedious and right-on.

Pauses between Bond films have been getting longer. Six years elapsed between Spectre and No Time to Die, thanks to the pandemic and endless uncertainty over Craig’s return, during his ‘I’d rather slit my wrists’ phase. The delay before the next release, a full reboot, will be even longer. Meanwhile actors who might have excelled in the role have either aged out or simply become too famous. It’s ten years since Tom Hiddleston’s star-turn in The Night Manager and he’s now the same age as Roger Moore in his Live and Let Die debut, then the oldest-ever Bond. Amazon, which bought the Bond franchise last year, is probably too canny to go ‘peak woke’ in its casting (as per South Park’s satire of Star Wars producer Kathleen Kennedy: ‘Put a chick in it! Make her gay!’), but constant dithering has written out a generation of acting talent. The decision to kill off Bond in his latest outing by torpedoing him to smithereens was the price of Craig’s participation, but filmmakers now face the dilemma of where to go next.

Is the modern world even capable of making a good Bond? There is a certain grim disconnect between Britain in 2026 and the world of Bond. 007 is not supposed to exist in a humourless, ambitionless and powerless country. It is discordant and depressing: like imagining the Carry On gang in a gulag. Sadly, Bond has long been in the hands of people with little apparent affection for the series. The Craig era evidently saw itself as more ‘enlightened’ than its predecessors. Bond’s recurring love interest Madeleine Swann is portrayed as high-end totty, the sort of woman you’d meet at Davos, not a Plenty O’Toole type. Even her name involves two Proust references. You could almost sense the writers congratulating themselves: ‘We’d never name someone Onatopp or Dr Goodhead. We’re “cerebral Bond”!’

Craig himself argued that the series needed to take a ‘darker’ turn because the Austin Powers spoofs had rendered the old gags impossible to use. Ironically, Craig’s films contain all kinds of dumb nonsense – flesh-eating nanobots, slapstick villains, gaping plotholes – just without the accompanying fun of Moore’s safari suit. Spectre features the intensely stupid revelation that Blofeld is Bond’s stepbrother; a plot-point which genuinely seems pilfered from Austin Powers, when Dr Evil is revealed to be our hero’s long-lost twin. The problem was that Craig mistook ‘darker’ for ‘moralising’ and ‘more boring’.

Another recurring gag in vintage Bond is that almost every onscreen woman makes clear her desire for 007, which becomes funnier and more endearing when the object of their longing isn’t the prowling thirtysomething sex machine Sean Connery, but Roger Moore, who in later outings looks as though he could be the face of a walk-in bath company rather than an international sex symbol. In No Time to Die, Bond’s legendary philandering is long gone. A female agent repulses his attentions – a scene which exemplifies Modern Bond’s preference for deconstructing its genre, not revelling in it.

Many of the best Bond films are explicitly geopolitical. Some plotlines have aged poorly, such as Bond’s alliance with the Afghan mujahideen in The Living Daylights. But when done well, these add depth. The interplay between Bond and General Gogol during the Moore/Dalton eras beautifully mirrors the thawing of relations between the West and the USSR. Bond often partners with the British armed forces in his missions. Such details would not be included today – far too Anglocentric, too prone to spook ‘international markets’.

This may explain why recent villains have been generic freaks of ambiguous motive, rather than well-defined enemies working for a foreign power. Much Bond involves suspension of disbelief (silly gadgets or sexy Roger), but this is often offset by a more credible geopolitical backdrop. Nuclear annihilation by the Soviets remained the leitmotif of high-Bond. Now we have the opposite – believable sex (or lack thereof) but a willing blindness to the realities of, say, China, or radical Islam.

Nostr event nevent1qqstruagmpuy0y3htmalqk5mtqez37vsetv6y7zmwtguc0qwnhnayzgzyrsm0vsf2dcujq7v98avk8v5njnql9mzc9au6rj3z85jejv782f0ck7v7za

2026-08-22T19:55:44Z

https://spectator.com/article/bonds-identity-crisis-mirrors-britains/

Sometimes I wake up in the night disturbed by dreams of James Bond. Surely, you might say, that’s the point of him; a man of such raw sex appeal that he can break the somnial boundary of women all over the world. But these aren’t sexy dreams about Bond’s past; they’re nightmarish visions of his future – Bond in the modern British public sector.

Picture it, 007 walks in for his briefing with M. The process is not the quick-witted sparring of classic Bond but a long PowerPoint presentation complete with a quiz at the end to show he’s been listening. Miss Moneypenny doesn’t ‘feel comfortable’ booking Bond flights because of the carbon output, so he finds himself on a rail replacement bus service. It transpires that his mission, the highest use of the British deep state’s most dangerous asset, is to eliminate someone suspected of misgendering the employee of a Citizens Advice Bureau in Broadstairs.

Because that’s what we do in this bloody country….

2026-08-22T19:49:53Z

In reply to nevent1q…4nq8
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Because that’s what we do in this bloody country….

The word ‘conspiracy’ is one of the strangest in our ...

2026-08-22T19:49:01Z

In reply to nevent1q…qp45
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The word ‘conspiracy’ is one of the strangest in our language. The authorities will readily allege it when they have very little actual evidence against a defendant. Nobody sniggers when they do so. But a private individual will be laughed to scorn if he suggests that powerful or influential people might have met privately to discuss a common aim – as in fact they do all the time. The moment the tinfoil hat of ‘conspiracy theorist’ descends on your head, nothing you say will be taken seriously.

As well as suggesting mild insanity, the word also creates dark images of men in Guy Fawkes hats, with daggers concealed in their cloaks, whispering to each other in a tavern in Deptford. I have long tried to counter this non-argument by pointing out that the most common conspiracies in modern Britain go by the prosaic name of ‘lunch’.

When I worked as a Lobby reporter at the Palace of Westminster, I learned quickly that very little could be picked up in the Lobby itself. The key to success was to join or form a lunch group with one or two others, and invite senior politicians to spill the beans over an expensive meal they didn’t have to pay for.

I do not think that the Sainted Lord Moore, who was in such a group with me in the Thatcher era, will mind terribly if I mention this. His presence had a magical effect. Almost nobody turned us down. Many of those we pumped for leaks, gossip and indiscretions are now dead, including Lord Hailsham, who turned up at Rules in Maiden Lane straight from the Woolsack, still wearing his Lord Chancellor’s kit of doublet and hose. If the readers of British newspapers knew just how much of the supposed political news placed before them is cooked up in such places, over the smoked eels or the steak and kidney pudding, I expect they’d be envious.

But this is lighthearted stuff compared with ‘whataboutery’. This expression really did begin in the Cold War, when Soviet propagandists would respond to criticism of their police state by saying that black people in the US got a raw deal. The two obviously weren’t comparable, and in any case Soviet Moscow was one of the most racially bigoted cities in the world. It was false equivalence of opposites. But we have recently moved into the age of regime change, in which we are expected to applaud wars against other countries because their regimes are bad. But, oh dear, what if our allies also have bad regimes?

I am as revolted by the Iranian despotism as anyone else. Perhaps more so. They once threw a friend of mine into solitary on false charges of spying, a hideous experience of injustice and cruelty. But the ‘West’ is somehow unmoved by the comparable repressions of Turkey, its prisons bulging with journalists, of Saudi Arabia, with its dungeons and bone saws, and Egypt, with its street massacres of opposition supporters. We are very friendly with these countries. How so if our hatred for oppression in Iran is genuine? If I make the simple point that our supposed objections to the Tehran state are a pretext, not a reason, then I am accused of ‘what-aboutery’. Is this right or fair? If you really cannot distinguish between oven-ready propaganda and serious fact, should you even engage in politics?

The inventor of whataboutery, as I sometimes point out, was Our Lord Jesus Christ, who in a memorable bit of preaching, asked ‘And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.’ (Matthew 7, vv 3-5, if you’re interested).

As for being an apologist for foreign despots, this has now become the standard objection to anyone who dissents from the official line on the Ukraine war. And it is an official line. Government buildings in London fly the Ukrainian flag, an unprecedented gesture. No doubt there are some people who support the Russian invasion of Ukraine (I have always deplored it). There may even be people who support its aims, whatever they actually are (I have no idea). I am even told that I am a Putin sympathiser because I was once a Trotskyist, logic so mad that it would take pages to dismantle.

The possibility that I might take the view I do because I am a British patriot and don’t see what interest Britain has in prolonging, arming and financing this conflict is not considered. This is all quite trivial now, and I can cope with it. But it troubles me because it is the embryo of a police state mindset, in which dissent is automatically treachery. Argue with me, beat me in debate, anything you like. But don’t call me by these totalitarian names.

https://spectator.com/article/the-great-whataboutery-delusion/ If ...

2026-08-22T19:48:05Z

https://spectator.com/article/the-great-whataboutery-delusion/

If you live near the frontiers of acceptable opinion, as any thinking person must surely do, you quickly find that these badlands are policed mainly with insults and innuendos. And so you learn one morning, to your surprise, that you are an apologist for some repulsive regime which you strongly dislike. If you have been especially daring, you may be a ‘war crimes denier’ as well. Or you are charged with ‘whataboutery’, a word its users think will magically erase your case. Or, in many ways best of all, you are a conspiracy theorist.

There is a myth that this phrase was invented by the CIA to try to discredit protestors against the Vietnam war, but the expression is far older than that. Even so, like all these dismissive epithets, it is remarkably effective – especially among the great electronic mobs of antisocial media.

Nostr event nevent1qqswrycd5360h9ne369020rr4ltqs6sayg9qa9scs3gx6js9yxsr2qqzyrsm0vsf2dcujq7v98avk8v5njnql9mzc9au6rj3z85jejv782f0crgtfsp

2026-08-22T19:27:12Z

All this is likely to bring some of our nation’s problems home ...

2026-08-22T19:24:23Z

In reply to nevent1q…xvzn
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All this is likely to bring some of our nation’s problems home in a way that will be harder and harder for ‘Middle England’ to ignore. Accelerationists on the right at this point think: ‘And then they will realise that we were right.’ But it is not inevitable that things will fall out that way. My own observations of people and their political delusions suggest that Islington could be completely overrun by migrants and the locals would still turn out of a weekend with ‘Smash fascism’ and ‘Stand up to racism’ banners. Remember that communism in the 20th century killed tens of millions of people, yet there are still people who believe it was a good thing. Why should the multiculturalist open-borders types hand over their political philosophy any more easily?

Allow me to make just one prediction. I suspect that in the coming weeks we will be told that the natives of Piddington and Barnham turn out, sadly, just to be very, very racist. What is more, the only way the locals could ever be cured of this is if they can experience greater diversity.

At this stage our country is quite mad enough to accelerate over a cliff. Some folks might even like that.

don’t know how familiar readers are with the term ...

2026-08-22T19:24:13Z

In reply to nevent1q…2pcl
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don’t know how familiar readers are with the term ‘accelerationism’. It is generally used to describe a tendency on the left, though is increasingly heard on the right too.

The basic idea of accelerationism is that there are certain flaws in the societal structure which if pushed could bring things to their inevitable conclusion more quickly.

It is why there are so many people on the left of politics who say that sustainable government spending should be discouraged. It is not just because they are economically illiterate. What they really hope is that a speeded-up financial disaster will expose the ‘underlying contradictions of capitalism’, and we’ll all realise that Karl Marx was right and promptly vote for Zack Polanski or similar at the next election.

Such accelerationism is a tendency that conservatives usually have the sense to avoid, largely because conservative-minded people are more sceptical of the idea that things always fall out in a way that fits our own existing desires. A key insight of conservatism, since the French Revolution at least, is that there is always room for things to get worse – generally in ways that no one outside Beelzebub’s immediate family could have imagined.

Yet there is a right-wing version of accelerationism that has started to bubble up a little more volubly of late. This centres around the idea that our high immigration, stretched welfare state and societal model is heading for a crash and that there might be some advantage in things travelling a little faster in that direction. If legal and illegal migration continue to speed up, so this belief goes, then a greater proportion of the public will finally realise what a disastrous model it was. Things will then come to their inevitable end point and we can get this muddy intermediate phase over and done with quickly.

It is surprising that Andy Burnham has turned out to be such a boon to the right-wing accelerationists, but that is what he is proving to be. Not least through his sinister and hilarious idea of solving the country’s problem of where to house illegal migrants by putting more of them in leafy middle-class areas.

As it happens, there are good arguments for Burnham’s brainwave. For decades, left-wing and putatively right-wing governments have managed to disguise many of the downsides of mass migration by making sure the migrants are housed in working-class areas. All across the country this has proved a brilliant wheeze, because if any migrants hang around the streets and start propositioning schoolgirls, you can expect to snooker the locals in a number of ways.

First you can expect them to keep quiet about it, knowing that their betters in Westminster have made decisions they could not possibly understand even if it was explained to them slowly. Second, you can expect that if the locals do object, who cares? Nobody goes to dinner parties with these people anyway, nobody weekends in their areas and none of the locals has a regular presenting slot on Newsnight. Thirdly, if the above doesn’t work and there is actually a ruckus, you can just call the locals ‘racist’, which will make them scurry away, doffing their caps as they do so in the direction of their moral and social superiors.

That was the model Keir Starmer’s government continued when it allowed migrants to stay in hotels in Essex. Starmer and co didn’t care about the people there, and when some of them did pipe up to say they weren’t keen on the child-molesting that seemed to have emerged in the area, the far-left turned up to shut them down, called the locals ‘racist’, and the problem apparently went away.

So I have some sympathy with those who are pleased to hear that Burnham thinks non-working-class areas of the country should take their own unfair share of illegals, particularly when you read the details. For instance there is the idea of housing 1,250 ‘male asylum seekers’ right beside Piddington in Oxfordshire. The village has a lovely church and village hall. The 2011 census recorded a population of 370. A similar brainiac has decided that the village of Barnham in Suffolk should have a right going-over. Barnham has a population of 600, a charming bell tower and a nearby landscape garden designed by Capability Brown. It too is scheduled to welcome 1,250 ‘asylum seekers’.

It is not for me to make predictions. But I suspect that the illegal migrants housed in these parts of rural England will not appreciate the subtleties of church architecture or landscaped gardens. Problems are likely to arise. I say no more.

Nostr event nevent1qqsx45vevkawa9x0vrnk3uyug8jm3f5d3v8yvzywpu866zsgdy8tgrqzyrsm0vsf2dcujq7v98avk8v5njnql9mzc9au6rj3z85jejv782f0cyw4fvw

2026-08-22T19:22:57Z

https://spectator.com/article/middle-england-is-finally-waking-up-to-the-migrant-crisis/

So I have some sympathy with those who are pleased to hear that Burnham thinks non-working-class areas of the country should take their own unfair share of illegals, particularly when you read the details. For instance there is the idea of housing 1,250 ‘male asylum seekers’ right beside Piddington in Oxfordshire. The village has a lovely church and village hall. The 2011 census recorded a population of 370. A similar brainiac has decided that the village of Barnham in Suffolk should have a right going-over. Barnham has a population of 600, a charming bell tower and a nearby landscape garden designed by Capability Brown. It too is scheduled to welcome 1,250 ‘asylum seekers’.

It is not for me to make predictions. But I suspect that the illegal migrants housed in these parts of rural England will not appreciate the subtleties of church architecture or landscaped gardens. Problems are likely to arise. I say no more.

Nostr event nevent1qqsq96ehx9hz34r0nmxruhdm694zc7lt799aw9ua9l0azkjdw5sp4vqzyrsm0vsf2dcujq7v98avk8v5njnql9mzc9au6rj3z85jejv782f0czrgwnv

2026-08-22T19:06:31Z

My ex played it a lot, and I do not remember that scene at all! I ...

2026-08-22T18:23:39Z

In reply to nevent1q…suux
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My ex played it a lot, and I do not remember that scene at all! I wonder if you had to make certain choices and he never got it?

Then there's the piece that isn't economic at all, ...

2026-08-22T18:22:44Z

In reply to nevent1q…0l3p
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Then there's the piece that isn't economic at all, it's psychological, and I think it's the most underrated variable of the four. Nobody in 1971 was budgeting for cable, and there was no cable to budget for. Nobody had a phone bill, because there were no mobile phones, just one hardwired line the whole family shared. Nobody expected an annual flight to Cancún or Lisbon, international travel was rare and expensive and mostly for the genuinely rich. There was no Netflix, no Spotify, no Amazon Prime, no forty-dollar-a-month gym membership, no app subscriptions quietly draining a checking account one at a time. A dollar in 1971 wasn't just worth more in raw purchasing power, it had far fewer places it was expected to go. The paycheck went further partly because the culture hadn't yet invented two dozen new places to spend it.

Very good point.

They’re good doers for me, probably suit your climate too.

2026-08-22T18:13:57Z

In reply to nevent1q…9u6n
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They’re good doers for me, probably suit your climate too.

Nostr event nevent1qqsd4ag3rmdr4yd6yk7988gnqtw7xf26ygw0pzgvtgperqnn5fwnzkszyrsm0vsf2dcujq7v98avk8v5njnql9mzc9au6rj3z85jejv782f0cdj5lsn

2026-08-22T18:13:05Z

At that point, just let them on the damn sofa!

2026-08-22T17:30:46Z

In reply to nevent1q…5muy
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At that point, just let them on the damn sofa!

Kestrel. Opposite problem here: all the foliage got burnt off a ...

2026-08-22T16:50:26Z

In reply to nevent1q…q6ey
_________________________

Kestrel. Opposite problem here: all the foliage got burnt off a month ago, I’ve just moved the bags into the shed to store them in the compost.

Nostr event nevent1qqs8d4zf88hxzvnt6qjz9wzuep4hns0qx5me850gaqmhujpcclv7kqgzyrsm0vsf2dcujq7v98avk8v5njnql9mzc9au6rj3z85jejv782f0c7glkz2

2026-08-22T16:27:18Z

Everything I’ve heard is that it’s great except for the tiny ...

2026-08-22T14:44:47Z

In reply to nevent1q…x5yf
_________________________

Everything I’ve heard is that it’s great except for the tiny number for whom it’s very, very bad.

I’m glad your girl is doing well on it, long may she continue to.

It would be very amusing if he’s right.

2026-08-22T13:32:39Z

In reply to nevent1q…3a74
_________________________

It would be very amusing if he’s right.

Stomach, yeah. He is fairly predictable*, and I will do that if I ...

2026-08-22T12:56:30Z

In reply to nevent1q…v239
_________________________

Stomach, yeah.

He is fairly predictable*, and I will do that if I need to.

*except the first time this morning, oddly.

Nostr event nevent1qqsx23h7ydrrrv5uahvq05nrac047m5qj04adp03qyweykxmr0gc78szyrsm0vsf2dcujq7v98avk8v5njnql9mzc9au6rj3z85jejv782f0cp6y9qn

2026-08-22T12:48:34Z

https://klementoninvesting.substack.com/p/if-this-is-true-the-hyperscalers

In my regular research (behind a paywall), I have been saying for a while that I think the future of AI is not large language models (LLM), but small language models (SLM) run on local desktop computers or even mobile phones. In May, a team from Stanford University published research that compared these SLMs with the performance of LLMs run in data centres. If their results are true, then we will hardly need any data centres in the future, and the hyperscalers are wasting hundreds of billions of dollars in investments. […]

This already means that one can replace data centres and their expensive cutting-edge semiconductor infrastructure in four out of five use cases. The research report estimates that the addressable market in the US for SLMs has grown to about $10tn or one-third of the entire US GDP of $30tn. There isn’t much left for LLMs to thrive in, and every year, their advantage over SLMs is shrinking.

He’s off NSAIDs for life, he’s never going to use them.

2026-08-22T12:35:04Z

In reply to nevent1q…k0l8
_________________________

He’s off NSAIDs for life, he’s never going to use them.

Nostr event nevent1qqszg3c9jt2aa5fvxfawzycdxgctuf22gxh7vj3zekv9ff6wkdsg7pszyrsm0vsf2dcujq7v98avk8v5njnql9mzc9au6rj3z85jejv782f0ctjsv0l

2026-08-22T12:33:11Z

https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/latest-news/asian-communities-told-wash-rice-37574542

Asian and Muslim communities have been told to wash their rice and feet less in a bizarre water-saving bid by the UK's water regulator.

A whopping £270,000 of billpayers' money funded the scheme that used a famous chef to teach southeast Asians how to wash rice with less water.

People from the Muslim community have also been encouraged to use only a litre of water when performing “wudu” – washing the body – before prayer.

Nostr event nevent1qqszn5nv9f4fhzmwjje7h8tzxlygvx4n7jgelwskkql3lyf5usua97szyrsm0vsf2dcujq7v98avk8v5njnql9mzc9au6rj3z85jejv782f0c08244t

2026-08-02T20:28:09Z

Nostr event nevent1qqsdzkau707lz25s0z8mymlv2cs2205ksngn09s0wtt7kxdl6489qxszyrsm0vsf2dcujq7v98avk8v5njnql9mzc9au6rj3z85jejv782f0catj3u6

2026-06-16T19:26:18Z

https://dizzythinks.substack.com/p/two-crises-one-solution-zero-chance

These are presented as two separate problems - kids accessing porn, and proving who you are online - requiring two separate expensive solutions, at least one of which will inevitably be delivered late by a consultancy charging £2,000 a day for a graduate who’s just discovered what an API is.

They are not two problems. They are one problem. And - brace yourselves - it’s already been solved. The solution is sitting in your pocket right now, between Candy Crush and those three parking apps you’ve got that never work.

It’s called your banking app. […]

You open your banking app. You tap “prove I’m over 18”. The app spits out a single-use cryptographic token - a code, a QR, whatever - that says precisely one thing: the holder of this is an adult. Not your name. Not your birthday. Not your account number. You show it to the website or other app. The website or other app checks the signature. In you go. Ten seconds, job done, and at no point did they have any idea who you are, or your bank learned what you’re into.

After subsidence left a country road riddled with almighty ...

2026-05-11T18:36:20Z

After subsidence left a country road riddled with almighty craters, workmen were sent out to clean up the mess.

It all went awry, however, when their own lorry fell victim to a large hole in the road.

Contractors from Stabilised Pavements were working at Butleigh Drove near Walton in Somerset when their lorry rolled into a ditch that had given way on the uneven surface.

The workers were forced to abandon the vehicle after it settled at a 45-degree angle, metres from a sign reading “skid risk, max speed 20mph”.

I think this may have gone too far, America. ...

2026-03-22T16:06:11Z

I think this may have gone too far, America.

https://www.tacticalpajamas.com/

I’ve just driven down onto the Cheshire plain and there are ...

2026-03-05T17:44:29Z

In reply to nevent1q…2ujh
_________________________

I’ve just driven down onto the Cheshire plain and there are daffs and blossom everywhere!

Not here, they don’t. (The UK and Ireland are rabies-free.)

2026-02-27T15:31:15Z

In reply to nevent1q…h722
_________________________

Not here, they don’t. (The UK and Ireland are rabies-free.)

Crazy woman on the radio saying shooting deer is cruuuuuuel and ...

2026-02-20T08:51:16Z

Crazy woman on the radio saying shooting deer is cruuuuuuel and their numbers can be controlled by — checks notes — cutting grass and putting in fences.

I disagree, medlars are worth it even with the bletting and the ...

2026-02-09T21:08:21Z

In reply to nevent1q…jjlt
_________________________

I disagree, medlars are worth it even with the bletting and the seeds! You can make a lovely crumble with them.

They make a good fruit leather, if that’s not too similar to jam.

They are messy trees though, quite sprawling and floppy, not like a nice little apple or cherry.

Shout out for pheasant berry, too. Shrub rather than tree, but they are delicious.

Nostr event nevent1qqs22fta8vpswrmvcszyhuy687agfkwlam4uv2cg5klmt2m53hh0uaszyrsm0vsf2dcujq7v98avk8v5njnql9mzc9au6rj3z85jejv782f0cqthyrr

2026-01-31T20:32:22Z

https://spectator.com/article/amelia-the-purple-haired-goth-girl-who-became-a-nationalist-icon/

Does it mean anything important, or is it all just amusing internet froth? I believe it does have significance, even if Amelia disappears tomorrow. Amelia is final proof, in the age of the viral AI meme, that the government no longer has any chance of controlling the narrative, let alone establishing one in the first place.

This goes against every instinct and reflex of the British Establishment. Because, if the Establishment exists to do anything, it is to control us. This is why Starmer is so desperate to ban X for putting fake bikinis on women, while taking a year to announce a possible inquiry into nationwide grooming gangs.

Happily, this is one battle the Establishment simply cannot win. It has been said that the internet is the subconscious of humanity. And, as Freud observed, in the end the subconscious will always decide what we do. Dreams denote desires, and desires determine reality. In other words: go, Amelia.

https://archive.ph/gcdQf

Ah! I got it from the excellent Salt, Sugar, Smoke! I have done ...

2026-01-30T21:21:15Z

In reply to nevent1q…3jzr
_________________________

Ah! I got it from the excellent Salt, Sugar, Smoke!

I have done all three colours and prefer white/pink to red, personally.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1845335643

Who what now?

2026-01-30T21:16:10Z

In reply to nevent1q…u3td
_________________________

Who what now?

If you have the trees, early peach/cherry leaves ditto without ...

2026-01-30T21:09:25Z

In reply to nevent1q…s0ww
_________________________

If you have the trees, early peach/cherry leaves ditto without the vanilla.

Legally, W will operate as a subsidiary of We Don't Have ...

2026-01-24T12:09:54Z

In reply to nevent1q…x0r9
_________________________

Legally, W will operate as a subsidiary of We Don't Have Time, a media company focused on climate issues.

Behold, my Christmas faggot: ...

2025-12-19T16:51:34Z

Behold, my Christmas faggot:

Women cannot rape in the UK. The law specifies a penis.

2025-10-21T17:17:03Z

In reply to nevent1q…cnne
_________________________

Women cannot rape in the UK. The law specifies a penis.

I love the fact that the Taliban flat out said “We don’t do ...

2025-10-11T13:35:26Z

In reply to nevent1q…jl3k
_________________________

I love the fact that the Taliban flat out said “We don’t do that any more” but the Home Office hasn’t thought to ask them.

I think today may be worse than yesterday. First use of my winter ...

2025-10-04T09:04:33Z

I think today may be worse than yesterday. First use of my winter coat….

Nostr event nevent1qqstm5c9cfqxyhgwn6mgfx6mtc83ady9res5px9x24vruxdcjrtqg7gzyrsm0vsf2dcujq7v98avk8v5njnql9mzc9au6rj3z85jejv782f0cylargw

2025-09-12T09:46:02Z

https://www.spiked-online.com/2025/09/11/progressives-are-dehumanising-charlie-kirk-even-in-death/

His death does not come out of the blue. It happened after years of violent and hyperbolic rhetoric from the mainstream media and Democratic elites attacking conservatives as evil, Nazi-adjacent threats to the status quo. Indeed, the day before Kirk’s assassination, Connecticut Democratic senator Chris Murphy announced, ‘We’re in a war right now to save this country… so you have to be willing to do whatever is necessary in order to save the country’.

Nothing is beneath these people. After Kirk’s death, ‘progressive’ pundits and assorted online leftists have claimed that Kirk brought this on himself. That he deserves it for espousing ‘controversial’ views. MSNBC political analyst Matthew Dowd said that ‘[Kirk has] been one of the most divisive younger figures, who is constantly sort of pushing this hate speech aimed at certain groups. And I always go back to, hateful thoughts lead to hateful words, which lead to hateful actions.’ By hateful thoughts and words, of course, Dowd means any views that challenge his liberal-left worldview.

Nostr event nevent1qqs8fr7ep80mqcjx9q7dacylvr7r2uj4f8nthns4tmu3zx7ufcar3uszyrsm0vsf2dcujq7v98avk8v5njnql9mzc9au6rj3z85jejv782f0crma9al

2025-09-11T09:35:01Z

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/09/09/trade-unions-vow-to-oppose-supreme-court-trans-ruling/

Trade unions have vowed to oppose the Supreme Court ruling on transgender issues and have called official guidance on single-sex spaces “flawed”.

Delegates at the Trades Union Congress (TUC) voted unanimously in favour of a motion which said the April ruling went against the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).

One representative of the Unison union accused Bridget Phillipson, the equalities minister, of overseeing a “segregation” of trans people in society.

https://archive.ph/CHxNI

@nprofile…rpw6 ^

2025-09-10T14:21:47Z

In reply to nevent1q…pp0c
_________________________

Bland Grey Moon 🌚 🍁 (nprofile…rpw6) ^

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cwylp71vnjgo A vaccine which ...

2025-09-10T14:21:28Z

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cwylp71vnjgo

A vaccine which could save Australia's endangered koala population from a rampant chlamydia epidemic has been approved for rollout for the first time.

University of the Sunshine Coast (UniSC) scientists have spent more than a decade developing a jab to curb the spread of the disease, which has devastated wild koala populations across most of eastern Australia.

Belarus is saying it was Ukraine’s fault because U jammed the ...

2025-09-10T14:19:14Z

In reply to nevent1q…jxcx
_________________________

Belarus is saying it was Ukraine’s fault because U jammed the drones’ signals. Just lol ffs.

Yeah, there seems to be slight concern that pegging it down might ...

2025-09-10T10:31:00Z

In reply to nevent1q…hl90
_________________________

Yeah, there seems to be slight concern that pegging it down might have caused damage but I suspect it will be fine.

Nostr event nevent1qqsw9gakwyw7e2ughft5hmae94ku3rvlr39s2mktnelzwkymrr6rt8qzyrsm0vsf2dcujq7v98avk8v5njnql9mzc9au6rj3z85jejv782f0chyrqmq

2025-09-10T10:27:41Z

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2025/09/10/ukraine-russia-war-latest-news-drones-poland-nato/

Nato jets shot down Russian drones that “repeatedly violated” Poland’s airspace in an overnight bombardment of Ukraine.

Polish, Dutch and Italian fighter aircraft were scrambled to intercept at least 19 drones as citizens were told to stay at home.

It marks the most serious clash between Russia and the alliance since the start of war in Ukraine, dragging the conflict into uncharted territory.

Politicians and analysts believe it was a deliberate attempt by the Kremlin to test Nato’s response.

Nostr event nevent1qqsd3xadtz5frt5wg6s6uk6mg7jr2rqdy7x6xqzecayrm2ns97heargzyrsm0vsf2dcujq7v98avk8v5njnql9mzc9au6rj3z85jejv782f0cnn6t4l

2025-09-10T10:22:36Z

https://www.thetimes.com/uk/environment/article/climate-change-global-warming-net-zero-pxznms29q

The number of Britons who think the dangers of global warming have been exaggerated has jumped by more than 50 per cent in the past four years, new research for The Times reveals today.

One in four voters now believe that concerns over climate change are not as real as scientists have said, amid growing public concern at the cost of the government’s net zero policies.

Less than a third of the public (30 per cent) are in favour of banning new petrol and diesel cars — down from 51 per cent in 2021.

https://archive.ph/TUrLj

Nostr event nevent1qqsph75lf60rkrx4wz6yn282m9rrnnh8mh9uh74mhjl32paxjz5zpzszyrsm0vsf2dcujq7v98avk8v5njnql9mzc9au6rj3z85jejv782f0ccefz46

2025-09-10T10:18:37Z

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/09/09/allison-pearson-graham-linehan-arrest/

The pattern is always the same. When the police want to behave like social-justice activists they demand “operational independence”. When they get found out suddenly they want “guidance”.

None of this is by accident. The stretching or misinterpreting of legislation that was intended for genuinely threatening scenarios to intimidate or criminalise people for expressing legitimate opinions is deliberate policy. It is presided over by one of the worst, most un-British bodies in Britain: the College of Policing. This quango states its purpose is “to support everyone in policing to reduce crime and keep people safe, including by sharing knowledge and good practice”.

Its true aim is more worrying, I think, and lacks democratic accountability. According to one senior officer, the College sees its role as promoting and supporting equality and diversity, and “supporting difference”. Entirely captured by transgender activists, the College brainwashes police officers to spout slogans like Maoist cultural revolutionaries – “Hateful and offensive! Hateful and offensive!” Anyone who hopes to climb the career ladder must be able to demonstrate their fidelity to progressive, Left-wing ideas, no matter how bonkers they may be.

https://archive.ph/O4oV9

I was going to say that this was a bit much, but it’s fabric ...

2025-09-10T10:14:00Z

I was going to say that this was a bit much, but it’s fabric not spray paint, so actually quite clever!

https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/2106314/Whitby-White-Horse-St-George-s-Cross

Nostr event nevent1qqsruu2geha3zppcfdptmjeuhj5rreyjrxc9hz9mlvkgl7w286srufqzyrsm0vsf2dcujq7v98avk8v5njnql9mzc9au6rj3z85jejv782f0csjxe4s

2025-09-10T08:26:02Z

In reply to nevent1q…rx75
_________________________

https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/labour-s-refusal-to-accept-the-definition-of-a-woman/

I’ve been getting mixed signals on the rodent front for the ...

2025-09-10T07:55:24Z

I’ve been getting mixed signals on the rodent front for the last couple of weeks: bait being taken sometimes, but the ducks’ bowl not being scraped clean and no actual sightings.

I set a trap last night to see what was going on, and: sorry, little mousie. That wasn’t meant for you :(

Go, 4chan, go! https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cq68j5g2nr1o A ...

2025-08-24T09:44:21Z

Go, 4chan, go!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cq68j5g2nr1o

A lawyer representing the online message board 4chan says it won't pay a proposed fine by the UK's media regulator as it enforces the Online Safety Act.

According to Preston Byrne, managing partner of law firm Byrne & Storm, Ofcom has provisionally decided to impose a £20,000 fine "with daily penalties thereafter" for as long as the site fails to comply with its request.

"Ofcom's notices create no legal obligations in the United States," he told the BBC, adding he believed the regulator's investigation was part of an "illegal campaign of harassment" against US tech firms.

Ofcom has declined to comment while its investigation continues.

"4chan has broken no laws in the United States - my client will not pay any penalty," Mr Byrne said.

Nostr event nevent1qqsxepc7t448s2gt2zgaddzl5gyyvak98gxjkrm0mwlnuss8peh5rsszyrsm0vsf2dcujq7v98avk8v5njnql9mzc9au6rj3z85jejv782f0csge8ge

2025-08-21T19:17:23Z

https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-small-boats-are-a-national-security-emergency/

But what is especially alarming is the demographic breakdown of recent small-boat migrants who have arrived on Britain’s shores. It is safe to say that that we are not referring to migratory trends dominated by women and girls who are at serious threat of sex-based violence in warzones where rape is used as a weapon of war. From January to June 2025, 70 per cent of the 19,982 small-boat migrants who were recorded as arriving in the UK were males who were 18 to 39 years of age. During this time, the top five nationalities among small-boat migrants are the following: Eritrean, Afghan, Sudanese, Somali, and Iranian. They originate from parts of the world where women’s rights are not in especially high supply.

On top of that, there are emerging trends which underscore the reality of the small-boats crisis being a national-security emergency. In the first half of this year, 977 Yemeni nationals arrived in the UK through small-boat Channel crossings – adding to the 1,300 last year. From January to June this year, 266 small-boat migrants who reached the UK’s shores were recorded as originating from the ‘Occupied Palestinian Territories’ – a marked increase from last year’s total figure of 72. There are growing signs that the impact of the Yemeni civil war and the Israel-Palestine conflict is spilling over into the UK’s small-boats emergency. Irrespective of one’s views on UK Middle Eastern policy, the possibility of the UK importing Yemenis sympathetic to the Houthis and Palestinians supportive of Hamas – two Islamist political-military organisations backed by the Islamic Republic of Iran – carries significant public-safety risks, especially to Britain’s Jewish communities.

https://archive.ph/dY5ke

I was thinking “why prioritise a washing machine of all ...

2025-08-19T19:04:55Z

In reply to nevent1q…p37v
_________________________

I was thinking “why prioritise a washing machine of all things”, but on reflection I suspect someone had just stuck a bunk bed in their laundry room, so the tenant will have the added joy of the landlord wandering in to do the washing.

I’m slightly surprised that I have yet to see this memed. 1066: ...

2025-08-19T18:59:09Z

I’m slightly surprised that I have yet to see this memed.

1066: William the Conqueror crossed the channel with some 8,000 men.

1588: The Spanish fleet consisted of about 130 ships with about 8,000 seamen and possibly as many as 19,000 soldiers.

2025: 28,000 and counting….

Nostr event nevent1qqsq9636pq0j3z60ajeulknmz5ezu3qphr7scw8uye4frk4rzr26pqqzyrsm0vsf2dcujq7v98avk8v5njnql9mzc9au6rj3z85jejv782f0cfdxq9e

2025-08-16T18:26:41Z

https://freespeechunion.org/police-gag-order-against-union-activist-overturned-in-free-speech-case/

A Free Speech Union (FSU) member was arrested in an early-morning raid after criticising his former employer in a private Facebook group, then placed under “Orwellian” bail conditions barring him from even revealing the arrest. Following legal intervention supported by the FSU, the extraordinary “gagging clause” has now been overturned at a special court hearing. […]

In 2023, an employment tribunal ruled he had been unfairly dismissed on grounds of capability. Since then, he has continued to advise firefighters in a private Facebook group, occasionally posting critical remarks about the service’s management. Speaking to the Telegraph, he said his comments – which have been reviewed by the paper as well as by the FSU’s casework and legal teams – were “anodyne” and “certainly not criminal”.

Nevertheless, these remarks drew police attention. Earlier this summer, Staffordshire Police carried out a 7am raid on Moss’s home in Newcastle-under-Lyme, seizing his phones, iPad and computer, before arresting him on suspicion of an offence under section 1 of the Malicious Communications Act 1988. Moss said the officers were “heavy-handed” and left him feeling “like a criminal.”

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cjeykklwn7vo A Labour ...

2025-08-15T10:33:07Z

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cjeykklwn7vo

A Labour councillor who called for far-right protesters' throats to be cut at an anti-racism rally has been found not guilty of encouraging violent disorder.

Ricky Jones, 58, has been on trial at Snaresbrook Crown Court after he called demonstrators "disgusting Nazi fascists" and said "we need to get rid of them all" while addressing a crowd in Walthamstow on 7 August last year.

I must admit, while reading it I did think “I wonder why the ...

2025-08-12T16:08:37Z

In reply to nevent1q…jnrq
_________________________

I must admit, while reading it I did think “I wonder why the TRAs haven’t gone after the story”. Presumably a bit close to the truth for them to want to draw attention to it.

Long but interesting. ...

2025-08-12T15:59:55Z

Long but interesting.

https://dailysceptic.org/2025/08/12/the-land-that-forgot-about-wolves/

The image of the fairy tale wolf no doubt has lots of semiotic resonances but the most obvious (beyond the literal danger of wolves themselves, I suppose) is that of the sexually predatory male. The message of these tales is that although there are good people in the world (your grandmother, the woodcutter, the little pig who made his house out of bricks), it is also inhabited by dangerous actors who want to do bad things to you. And since these actors will often come in disguises, pretending to be nice – and particularly when your mother and/or father has gone out or is otherwise not present – be on your guard. Learn to discern the benevolent from the malign.

He goes on to analyse some recent BBC versions of Little Red Riding Hood and The Three Pigs:

In Little Red Riding Hood, we see “Little Red” going to visit her grandmother with a basket of treats, as in the original. And, sure enough, we discover that there is a wolf lurking in the forest. But he is curiously un-wolf-like. With bunny-like ears and a fluffy tail he looks more like a fox, and his behaviour is flighty, cowardly, almost effete. And we quickly find out that he has no interest in eating “Little Red” or her grandmother or anybody else.

Nostr event nevent1qqs2q48qqf59gdu6mxvk7rjsqs8mpv7cdxj5dd4k9h76u9tl7yvmtgszyrsm0vsf2dcujq7v98avk8v5njnql9mzc9au6rj3z85jejv782f0ca8wza0

2025-08-11T14:10:43Z

https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/do-the-palestine-action-protestors-really-care-about-palestine/

The focus of the protest, Palestine Action, is almost incidental as a cause, because those arrested, and the rest of those who attended, were there not because they identify in any specific sense with the cause of Palestine Action but rather because they identify with every cause.

Support for Palestine Action is merely the latest example of what has been dubbed the ‘omnicause’. Whether they’re demonstrating for Palestine, trans rights or the environment, it’s essentially the same people doing the same thing, but under supposedly different labels. If you drew a Venn diagram of Palestine, eco and trans activists, you would draw a simple circle, because they are basically the same people. They aren’t protestors with a focus; they protest about everything, everywhere. Palestine Action is itself an offshoot of a green group.

https://archive.ph/YiKvm

Nearly done, unless I decide to extend it: It’s expensive, but ...

2025-08-10T18:51:27Z

Nearly done, unless I decide to extend it:

It’s expensive, but that “Very Velvet” thread is pretty. It’s the darker shade in the alternating squares, and it really does sew up like velvet.

Nostr event nevent1qqswzduaa6jpf83dzs86hkx2sa8sxsg70nngc8kz9xn0j4asg6478kgzyrsm0vsf2dcujq7v98avk8v5njnql9mzc9au6rj3z85jejv782f0c63c9n8

2025-08-09T19:12:30Z

Nostr event nevent1qqs2fh2a546urcksq0d9fztqjadv7fme9jua27hsld7cdulpfa0kluszyrsm0vsf2dcujq7v98avk8v5njnql9mzc9au6rj3z85jejv782f0cgu6zfd

2024-12-02T20:57:23Z

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/12/02/britain-paying-wind-farms-record-1bn-to-switch-off/

The amount of wind power “curtailed” in the first 11 months of 2024 stood at about 6.6 gigawatt hours (GWh), according to official figures, up from 3.8 GWh in the whole of last year.

Curtailment is where wind turbines are paid to switch off at times of high winds to stop a surge in power overwhelming the grid. Households and businesses pay for the cost of this policy through their bills.

The cost of switching off has reached about £1bn so far this year, according to analysis of market data by Octopus Energy which was first reported by Bloomberg. This is more than the £779m spent last year and £945m spent in 2022.

The jump in curtailment follows the opening of more wind farms at a time when the country still lacks the infrastructure needed to transport all the electricity they generate at busy times.

https://archive.ph/OWa1c