It isn't perfect, but Wikipedia is still the closest thing we have to a site that actually fulfills the original promise of the internet as a radical experiment in participatory democracy. We must protect it from AI slop at all costs. www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...
Proscribe the Spectator
This is an absolute scandal & why this country needs a party that will put an end to developers pleading poverty! Sack all of the councillors who either fell for this developer’s refusal to build “affordable” homes on site & now wriggling out of any obligation!
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Extract from Lord John Russell's Essay on the History of English Government (1821): "There was a practical wisdom in our ancestors, which induced them to alter and vary the form of our institutions as they went on; to suit them to the circumstances of the time, and reform them according to the dictates of experience. They never ceased to work upon our frame of government, as a sculptor fashions the model of a favourite statue."
As Thomas Macaulay reminded MPs, in the great reform debates of 1831, "We are legislators, not antiquaries".
His instruction to "reform, that you may preserve", helped a medieval parliament adapt to a new democratic age.
For Lord John Russell, reform was itself a constitutional tradition:
What's the latest rate of global warming? Has it accelerated to 0.27°C or to 0.36°C per decade?
Statistician Tamino explains why he has more confidence in a *continuous* piecewise linear fit (as in our preprint) rather than a discontinous piecewise linear fit. tamino.wordpress.com/2025/06/20/a...
It’s odd to me that “we need to restore Christian values to Europe” is not coded as anti-Semitic even though it is, quite literally, anti-semitism’s original form.
France total number wrong!
For all public figures with a platform — this is how it’s done:
Just a reminder for any member of Congress who seems to have forgotten...
There was an old tweet that stuck with me: "If you can easily walk to the coffee shop but your barista has a one hour commute, you don't live in a walkable 15 minute city; you live in a theme park"
Interesting move. Nice that at least one party wants to challenge Reform rather than dance to their tune.
This chart is from @britishelectionstudy.com @jamesdgriffiths.bsky.social, me and Ed Fieldhouse. You can see that 2024 Reform voters mainly came from the Conservatives or UKIP in 2015.
This has been a story on the right for *ten years* now, unless something very different happened last week.
Lonely pubs, photographs by John Bulmer.
You don't get this sort of segment on Fox. Eye-opening.
Possibly my favourite chart of the elections... the median vote reuqired to win hit its lowest point ever. The era of two-party politics is over.
The historical local elections data courtesy of the one and only Michael Thrasher (who wanted to plot the data back to 1889!).
The American effort to shift the Centre of the global economy away from China towards the US can be taken literally. This map by @PerrinRemonte visualizes the center of the global economy over time. Fun exercise. So far the eastward shift continues.
Adam Przeworski: “My academic work led me to believe that democracy cannot survive when the electoral winners foreclose the possibility of losing elections in the future and when they make the lives of losers excessively miserable.”
Helluva opening paragraph that.
Omg. This makes so much sense.
There's a doom loop; Powell says rates need to be higher to respond to the inflationary effect of tariffs; Trump resents this and makes menacing noises about firing him. Inflation expectations rise because markets think that there is a chance Powell will be fired. Rates have to rise even more...
Read this interview of @frediotto.bsky.social by @jeffgoodell.bsky.social about climate change. Two smart people, one asking good questions and the other giving interesting answers. I’m proud to call both of them friends.
Here’s my interview with Krishnan Guru-Murphy on my new book ‘’A Climate of Truth’
Thank you C4!
www.channel4.com/news/mike-be...
Running an errand this evening soundtracked by some choice selections from the Pressure Sounds back catalogue. What a label. Long may Pete Holdsworth continue…Here’s an ace interview with him by @wrongtom.bsky.social from 2021 when the label reached 100 titles 🎉💥
thevinylfactory.com/features/pre...
Another nasty climate feedback: climate change drives conflicts but "increasing global fragmentation and conflict means that [climate] mitigation will likely be even more obstructed in the future".
The brilliant @monkemma.bsky.social's myth-debunking posts are always worth a read. Unlike The Torygraph.
For reference, this raid happened two days ago. The only mainstream outlets that have reported on it are American.
