@milesking
Now at tail end of a long career in UK Nature Conservation - nature reserves, SSSIs, policy work, lots of reports - and 10+ years of blogging. Currently run @poundburynatureproject. Cellist. Living with chronic vestibular migraine. Personal account.
Interesting analysis of the Gorton and Denton by-election and what it means for the May elections, from @robfordmancs.bsky.social
open.substack.com/pub/swingome...
The BBC is lost
crazily early
What would be great is if news outlets pointed to which of Trump's iron laws he was applying. "In his speech on the Iran conflict Trump used law 4 "Manipulate the media ruthlessly" while applying Law 1 "always claim victory"". Each channel could have a Trump law-checker, always on in the background.
Trump will be claiming victory in Iran any day now. He always claims victory. It’s one his iron laws.
seems like a very long time ago now....
RIP Country Joe McDonald. Best known for probably the greatest antiwar song ever written, I feel like I'm Fixin to Die Rag, which he & his band The Fish played at Woodstock. Less well known he devoted much of his life to environmental causes, including Save the Whales www.youtube.com/watch?v=06kq...
I saw him perform at a Save the Whales rally in Trafalgar Square - 12th March 1983. He was brilliant.
Exclusive to Private Eye: HOW DARE I RESIGN?
By Peter Mandelson
From the Private Eye archive.
Issue 1021, February 2001.
one of the best anti-war songs of all time
RIP Country Joe McDonald, who wrote, in my opinion, one of the best antiwar songs of the 60s. youtu.be/eRl6-bHlz-4?...
"Shorting then crashing the market. Shorting the market - I just can't help it. I'm so good at it. In fact I'm the best crasher and shorter ever. People say that. They do."
thanks Mark.
"If it's true that the Iran war will mark 'Jesus's return to Earth', as US forces have been told, at least that would suggest there was some kind of plan" Stewart Lee on Armageddon
New Stewart Lee column.
'“President Trump has been anointed by Jesus to light the signal fire in Iran to cause Armageddon and mark his return to Earth”. To be honest, I preferred Jesus when he just healed lepers, made a small amount of fish feed more people....'
The competence issue matters because what is at stake here is not, as many commentators claim and, no doubt, some political activists and voters hope, that Labour need to respond to the by-election defeat with a ‘lurch to the left’. Setting an immigration policy which is fair, rational, and consonant with economic and demographic needs is not, in itself, ‘left-wing’. Operating an efficient and humane asylum process is not, in itself, ‘left-wing’. Making a clear distinction between immigration and asylum policies is not, in itself, ‘left-wing’. To think otherwise is to cede the idea that these are somehow ‘extreme’ propositions and that the policies of virtually zero immigration, mass deportation, and the near-total rejection of asylum seekers advocated by Reform and others are the ‘norm’ or ‘moderate’.
As @chrisgrey.bsky.social says, rejecting Mahmood's plans would not be a "lurch to the left" but simply about restoring a basic level of (economic, political and administrative) competence.
chrisgreybrexitblog.blogspot.com/2026/03/real...
"He'll see everything.... he'll see the big board!!!"
as it's carrying a fish and with that gigantic hooked bill it certainly looks like a White-tailed (sea) Eagle. What do you think Mark? @markavery.bsky.social
I'm not usually one for 'it's all about oil' conspiracies but atm all the revenue from Venezuela crude is going into an unmonitored Trump controlled account in Qatar and so it's not just the Russians who are benefiting from higher prices if you know what I mean 😉😉😉😉😉
Interesting update from @phillipspobrien.bsky.social, who notes the USA, intentionally or otherwise, is helping Russia even while Russia is helping Iran target its attacks on US military assets in the Middle East. Also, USA is burning through its materiel in Iran.
open.substack.com/pub/phillips...
While strategic food dumps had been run down under Labour Government's of the Sixties and Seventies, it was Thatcher who ordered them to be sold off (buildings and foodstuffs). Gummer was just tidying up the last vestiges in 1993-6. www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/thatche...
this headline may explain why our local Waitrose was rammed this morning.
Roy Cohn's six rules that Donald Trump learnt:
1. Admit nothing, always claim victory.
2. Counter-attack with unimaginably greater force
3. Weaponise the legal system
4. Manipulate the media ruthlessly
5. User fear as shield & sword
6. Cultivate total Loyalty
ideas.bkconnection.com/the-five-les...
Trump's OODA.
Observation: what was on Fox News 5 minutes ago.
Orientation: how can this event personally enrich me and how can I use it to attack my enemies
Decision: This must be done because I am always right.
Action: Pretend to take action, then reverse ferret if it looks like it's going to 💩
did Trump become President in order to
1. Grossly enrich himself and his wider crime family
2. Launch a witch-hunt against his enemies, perceived or otherwise.
3. Shut down all investigations into his own relationship to Epstein.
4. Feed his planet-sized ego.
in no particular order.
Good piece about a transnational trend in reactionary politics
Following in Murdoch's footsteps, we have seen countless reactionary billionaires building media empires, almost always at a huge loss
Profit is not the point, power is and weakened democratic institutions are unable to resist
You're right. I think it's more of an instinct, a compulsion, but there must be the basic elements of a plan there. Whether they happen around Trump, or even in spite of his tantrums and sulks, is moot.
Genius!
"Delightfully, Heavenly’s current range of tour merchandise includes Heavenly branded bicycle bells. I bought one, but within hours it had been stolen off my bike while I was buying some onions in Sainsbury’s, 1
Yes they'll seek to tie that particular flag to the bandwagon, to keep the extreme zealots in Israel or the USA happy.
