For any Prog Rock fans out there, my son's band has just released their new single, Black Sun Rising. It's inspired by Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, about the impact of pesticides. The Danish word for murmuration – “sort sol” – is black sun in English.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbSq...
Sigh. That appeal needs to be dismissed ASAP.
On now on Radio 3, Ode To Joy. Europeans stand by for emotion
EU flag waving
Oh how did I miss this at the @togetheralliance.bsky.social march? Still, we were lucky enough to have lots of Morris at the Oxford Folk Festival last weekend. Definitely Folk Against Fascism.
A little toy rat dressed in a floral dress and a white pinafore, carrying her blackboard slate easy for school
Proof of rat
I've followed @themerl.bsky.social for at least 8 years, then, from. But visited for the first time yesterday with @calmerfuture.bsky.social. I went especially for their excellent Radical Rural trail. But we also got childishly excited following the rat trail and lingering in the Ladybird gallery.
A stained glass window in shades of blue, green and brown, featuring two hares running towards each other, field mice in a nest, a heron and a wren. The words 'by him were all things created are written across the top.
Came across this window by Jude Tarrant in Oddington Church, Oxfordshire, the other day.
Reform leader Nigel Farage slammed over bombshell new admission over plan to “demolish” NHS, as waiting lists continue to fall with Labour
Reform have held on to 7 out of 15 (47%) of the seats it has been defending since the 2025 Local Elections.
Retention Rates for Other Parties:
LDM: 35/44 (80%)
GRN: 8/15 (53%)
CON: 16/51 (31%)
LAB: 16/70 (23%)
Localist Groups: 1/11 (9%)
electionmaps.uk/council-by-e...
Quelle surprise...
Farage parked in a disabled spot, then his thugs shove an OAP
You'd think he could afford to get that wall repainted then 🤣
Reform’s local elections campaign in Bradford is off to a terrible start ❌
hopenothate.org.uk/2026/04/16/r...
Interesting...
I think it is preferable to have politicians who have, at some point in their lives, lived like a normal person
The Covid 19 vaccine roll out was an extraordinary feat which may have saved upwards of 475,000 lives.
In the face of a deadly virus dedicated professionals worked hard to make it happen and millions did the right thing and took the jabs.
That's to be celebrated.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cg...
Sound on
Missed the Pope subtweeting the Trump administration:
This US administration will be remembered for forcing huge numbers of people in to a variety of confined, unsuitable spaces, and feeding them food that is an insult to human dignity and nutrition.
🤣
Oh gosh, I assumed she'd already defected to Reform. Only a matter of time, probably.
Yeah, I wouldn't really describe it as a cobbled street!
Oh Pusey Lane of course. So.e of these don't really seem like you could run a cycle trip through them. I don't think Queens Lane is cobbled though is it? I cycle it regularly
This pattern of balance was established in the 1990s with the autism/MMR nonsense hugely boosted by the way the BBC pitched respected scientists with shedloads of solid scientific evidence supporting their viewpoint against antivacc nut-jobs with none, but treat them as somehow equal in value
[23] Finally, If a trans person is asked onto a news item they will always be paired with an anti-trans person & are often not told this until they turn up. The BBC calls this fairness. However when anti-trans ppl or news is reported/interviewed they rarely, if ever, give equal space to trans ppl
Reform is definitely the tail wagging the dog....
And why does CO2 shortage create a meat shortage? Because while sheep and cattle are still mostly killed using a captive-bolt stun pistol, pigs and poultry are mostly stunned using CO2.
Exposure to high concentrations of CO2 in an abattoir leads to gradual loss of consciousness.
Just saying.
**AFFORDABILITY CHEQUE** **Last August Reform UK's coffers were boosted by a generous £100,000 donation from the UK franchise of Sotheby's International Realty.** It isn't hard to see why the property agency, whose UK and Dubai franchises are owned by businessman George Azar, would be interested in supporting Reform. Not only is it the estate agent used by the party's treasurer, Nick Candy, but Reform is hoping its planned tax exemption for multimillionaires prompts wealthy people to relocate to the UK, which would boost the luxury property market Sotheby's deals in. Less clear, however, is how Sotheby's was able to afford its donation to Reform. Its accounts for 2023 show the company was heavily in debt, with net liabilities of more than £12.8m. The company's accounts for 2024, which might have shed some light on the matter, were due by 31 December 2025. But, more than three months on, they still haven't been filed, which is a criminal offence under the Companies Act. Alas, whether Sotheby's had made sufficient profit from its UK operations to fund its generous gift remains, for the time being, a mystery.
Pretty terrible that heavily-indebted Sotheby's has donated to Reform UK. Via Private Eye
Ironically the BBC stumbled on a really important story: Desperate asylum seekers being forced to turn to fraudulent fee-charging “advisors” to navigate a system that is intentionally impossibly baroque and from which all sources of free advice have been removed.
But no: they chose Fake Gay Panic.
Light blue booklet cover: "CITY OF OXFORD / A Balanced Transport Policy" (with the city crest) above "REPORT OF CENTRAL AREA WORKING PARTY TO COUNCIL - 5TH MARCH, 1973"
Oxford City Council's 1973 Balanced Transport Policy. wanderingdanny.com/oxford/docs/... This was hugely progressive, abandoning road building and looking to shift trips to public transport and cycling instead.