Here's what Keir Starmer doesn't want you to know about the war on Iran:

1 [Nurse talking to camera] This is usually our busiest time of year at the centre 2 [Show a sign outside a medical institution reading:] Centre for Adults Who Still Can’t Get Their Heads Round Daylight Savings 3 NURSE: We have a spike in admissions when BST starts 4 CONFUSED PATIENT BEING LAID DOWN BY NURSES: Is it forward or back? NURSE: Lie down love 5 We often see the same patients ever year PATIENT: So it’s like… time travel? DOCTOR: No 6 Every year we try to explain BST to them in a fun and memorable way [The patients are sat around a fun show, with people dressed in bunny suits jumping around a giant clock] BUNNY: And now I *spring forward*... 7 [Bunny springs forward one hour on clock] 8 PATIENT WATCHING SHOW: I don’t get it 9 The hardest patients are the Summer Time refusers 10 PATIENT [sat strapped to a chair as a doctor talks to him through a screen, through a tannoy] PATIENT: But why is it better? DOCTOR [talking through microphone]: Because it complicates things. 11 PATIENT: How is that good? DOCTOR: It makes you more tired. 12 DOCTOR [to assistant]: Fetch the cattle prod [Ends]

I think the clocks in UK go back tonight. Or forward. Not sure. Is it forward

The Jetsons lied to us

Apropos of nothing in particular, just resharing this chart showing why North Sea gas is drying up (we burned it all already)

An article about new fossil fuel extraction that doesn't mention climate change (notwithstanding a token mention of Dale Vince to support the thrust of the argument) can't be taken seriously.

Every country with reserves can make an argument that their production makes sense for their energy security and tax base. If they all keep trying to produce ever more fossil fuels then we’re looking at 4C+ of warming in the lifetime of people alive today and all the catastrophe that comes with it.

An expat in Dubai has a startling revelation: the Stephen Collins cartoon Reality check …

www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...

John is such an important voice in this as the government's policies on SEND are announced - a trusted voice and lived expertise that is essential when the broader comment articles lack any legitimacy.

This is probably the single worst aspect of the leaked SEND plans. the transition to secondary is when most Special Needs kids will need more dependable support, not less. But bureaucratic logic seems to have won out

Isn't it great to have something positive to vote for!

[Scene: exterior of Buckingham Palace. A voice comes from inside] Hello and welcome to the media training session! [Scene moves to Interior, a room in the palace. THE QUEEN stands before a screen, hosting a workforce MEDIA TRAINING session for the Royal Family, who are all seated on chairs.]
 THE QUEEN:  As you know we had to cut the PR budget, so I thought I’d do it myself Now then: today’s topic is a common PR danger: ‘Avoiding Association with Sex Traffickers’. So - Question 1. What is the best way to avoid association with sex traffickers?
 Is it: (a), Don’t associate with sex traffickers. (b) Travel 3,500 miles to stay in a sex trafficker’s house to tell them you don’t like them. (c) Something else? [The Royal family all raise hands, apart from Andrew] THE QUEEN: Ooh what a lot of hands! THE QUEEN: Andrew? ANDREW: Um
 ANDREW: Is it (c)… Release detailed records of your sweating history to Newsnight…? [The Queen stares at Andrew for a beat] THE QUEEN: [Same image as last panel, her face unchanged]: Let’s do the picture round. THE QUEEN: Which face says, “I had nothing to do with the sex trafficker?” [on the screen behind her are two faces labelled (a) and (b), one depicting a normal smiley face, the other depicting Andrew’s massively guilty expression from the BBC interview] [Ends]

From 2019, after the Emily Maitlis interview

(I share a page with something called ‘Kids Quiz' in the guardian, which is why we used the phrase ’sex trafficker’ here, and not ‘paedophile’. You can't really throw that word around on the Kids Quiz page)

Take Big Money Out of Our Politics British politics is awash with money from super rich donors. In 2023, two-thirds of all private donations came from just 19 people. These so-called ‘mega donors’ enjoy privileged access to political p...

Oh wow our @38degrees.bsky.social petition to cap political donations in the UK has over 94k signatures!! 💥

There's still lots of time for amendments to Elections Bill. Would be so powerful to get it over 100k

Can you help? Please sign and share! Thanks! 😀 you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/ta...

This is the key point that is lost in so much Westminster bubble talk on net zero. It is popular. It’s hugely popular with Labour’s base and with the progressive voters it needs to vote tactically to defeat Reform. And it’s even popular with Tories who Labour needs not to switch to Reform.

Of all the easy things you can do to help the environment, conserve water for communities not corporations, not perpetuate scams, support the labor and rights of creators... *not* using generative AI is the fucking easiest. You absolutely deserve to be shamed for using it for image and text creation

Reform UK has also criticised the Tories for their comment about Suella Braverman’s mental health. A Reform source said: It’s a gross affront to millions of people in this country’s; it’s also not true. Whether you like Suella or not, she is a Cambridge-educated barrister who has served in a series of extraordinarily senior positions in this country. It goes without saying that she has never been diagnosd with a mental health condition.

Reform genuinely out here arguing Suella Braverman can’t have a mental health condition because *checks notes* she’s well-educated and has a successful career.

Try again, lads. Your bigotry is showing.

Really recommend subscribing to John's newsletter. Cutting through a lot of bullshit in the media conversation on special educational needs provision, with his characteristic empathy and directness.

The utterly shameless & widely covered "report" out today, claiming net zero will "cost" £9tn is based on:

* Assuming free fossil-fuel energy, free petrol cars, free gas boilers, free gas power plants etc

AND

* Including climate damages in the "cost" of net zero

I kid you not, it is that stupid

I've spent all day with Lucinda Chiua's YIAN on repeat; the most beautiful soundscapes, a 40 minute album to listen to as a continuous piece. Another excellent Cantilever feature.

The US attack on Venezuela is an illegal act of aggression against a sovereign country (with lots of oil). Venezuela has become a more deeply repressive dictatorship & urgently needs democratic solution but this is unjustified & unjustifiable. Look forward to seeing swift UK Government condemnation.

A useful poll to consider when any "voice of the countryside" is in a national newspaper supporting fox hunting and it's more deniable forms.

Cantilever catch up: enjoying Just Mustard and Water From Your Eyes. Just put on Ness by Hayden Thorpe and I'm mesmerised; unsurprising that Robert Macfarlene is invoed in this one.

Chuckling to myself on the train whilst reading this list of creatively brutal insults

Prof @hayleyjfowler.bsky.social's warning at the National Emergency Briefing that everyone in the UK deserves to hear.

For the full talk, please go to our YouTube channel. See below.
#NEB2025 #TimeToStepUp

"This is national security issue. Without a living, healthy biosphere, there is no stable economy, no food..."

Prof Nathalie Seddon of @ox.ac.uk on why we're facing a national emergency.

Sign the open letter calling for a televised emergency briefing. www.nebriefing.org/open-letter-...
#NEB2025

A comic called Animals with Misleading Names. There's an electric eel labeled "not an eel". There's a mountain goat labeled "not a goat." There's a maned wolf labeled "not a wolf." There's a king cobra labeled "not a cobra. Also, snakes are typically self-governing." There's a peacock mantis shrimp labeled "Not a peacock. Not a mantis. Also, not a shrimp." There's a horny toad labeled "Not a toad. Only thinks of you as a friend." There's a mayfly labeled "active through the spring and summer." There's an eastern kingbird labeled "found in the west. Many birds do not recognize its authority."

Animals with misleading names. I'm seeing this go around as part of a viral tumblr thread so I thought I'd reshare it.

a reminder I guess

Adding Westerman and Clarissa Connelly to this list: a good first month on the app.

I hadn't seen this before today.

24 people arrested for anti-genocide direct action; detained under the terrorism act, no trial.

Six have been on hunger strike for almost a month "demanding bail as well as the right to a fair trial and an end to Elbit Systems’ UK operations".

Seven of the videos are now on the YouTube channel, I'll be catching up on the over the coming days #NEB2025