Declan Gaffney

I remember using an inflation series to work out that in real terms the cost of jazz vinyl (£25-30 at the time) was almost unchanged since I first started buying in the late 70s, while the manufacturing quality was incomparably higher.

If you're old I'm pre-historic. Have a good one!

Irish coins of different sizes, showing a horse, salmon, bull, hare, hound, hen, pig and woodcock

In 1926, as a member of the Irish Senate, W.B. Yeats enthusiastically took charge of the committee designing new coinage for the Irish Free State. Yeats decided the different denominations should be symbolised by different animals (was he consciously thinking of this as the “tails” side?) 1/2

Literally the first page of Molloy.

Even if the banknote redesign is abandoned you can be sure there will be people in vox pops saying it has happened & that's why they're voting Reform. Cf. bendy bananas and Winterval.

The coolest coinage ever minted heavily featured animals and was very patriotic imo. Also; nothing is ever going to come out about any given animal alive or dead that makes them problematic

Having a normal one over here a chairde.

T-Shirt slogan yellow on black "what would Victor serge do?"

someone I once knew had a t-shirt saying this

Watch out or it'll be kittens next.

Jasmine in a dark back yard. I like the way the stages of flowering can be seen simultaneously this time of year.

Does the welfare of migrants living here just drop out of the social welfare function at some point?

If you'd told me maybe three years ago that a UK news channel would be platforming someone to set out openly racist, far right, violent conspiracy theories, I'm not sure I'd have believed you. And yet here we are.

👍

I wonder if Nigel Planer covered it in one of his excellent acting masterclasses?

New MP Hannah Spencer was given a police escort after an anti-hate demonstration turned violent. The Green Party MP had made a speech at the Greater Together Manchester event on Sunday afternoon in Piccadilly Gardens.

I try very hard not to use the word Orwellian too much but it’s the best adjective for the mauling of language at the start of this BBC News report. “… an anti-hate demonstration that turned violent”. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

'They were extraordinarily slow on the uptake.' Louis MacNeice in all his ambivalence circa 1940. He could be no less harsh on Ireland.

As (at a somewhat more informed level) was Frank Field with his nostalgia for mutuals.

Despite what's happening in Iran and the Midddle East, I am confident that had two trans people done to a Labour, Tory or Reform MP what transphobes did to a Green MP, it would be front page news.

'Farage lost and blamed Muslims. The data doesn't support his suspicion' - LabourList Labour’s third-place finish in Gorton and Denton was a sobering result for Sir Keir Starmer. But Nigel Farage’s…

"Reform does not need to win diverse urban seats outright to reshape the political landscape. It only needs to normalise the idea that losses there are somehow suspect. Once that logic takes hold, any unfavourable result can be reframed as a problem with the electorate rather than the message."

Screenshot of an X post by HasanAbi commenting on how to discuss trans issues with median voters. The post quotes Marco Foster, who says the anti-trans campaign in Maine is funded by an out-of-state billionaire to distract from tax discussions and notes that very few trans kids compete in high school sports there. Below is a podcast-style video still of a man speaking into a microphone.

When you hear them target any vulnerable community—immigrants, trans people, refugees—ask first why they're trying to distract and divide us. Don't fall for it.

Lam is a "standout performer"

Her breakthrough moment was eye-catching language to make media spot that the Conservatives had published a bill several months earlier pledging to deport 5% of the population - so that they had to ditch that legislation + policy
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

This is very much not OK. Nobody should have to put up with this harassment.

I hope the parliamentary authorities look at Hannah Spencer’s safety and protection as a matter of urgency.

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When I bought an old book yesterday I learnt a new word yesterday - 'grangerised'. A note inside from the bookseller said it had 'grangerised' illustrations. I thought at first it must be some kind of photogravure technique, perhaps, but no. #book #history

“Our government is treating the suffering of the Iranian people as a backdrop for our own entertainment,” Cardinal Cupich continued, “as if it’s just another piece of content to be swiped through while we’re waiting in line at the grocery store.“

want to follow the news but can't bear thinking about ordinary Iranians, who've been stuck under such an oppressive regime for so long, who maybe got a flicker of hope, briefly, a few months ago, then watched in horror as their friends and relatives got killed by the state, and now this, unspeakable

I'm out of words here

This is what International Women's Day is for. Not 'Happy Women's Day'. It's not our birthday. It's a day to recognise those who fought, and who still needs fighting for.

This is the Platonic ideal of a social media exchange, never again to be equaled or even attempted: