I think, in the end, I'm going to look through the Plaid and Green manifestos and see which I prefer and just vote for that. All this trying to second-guess how things are going to go is too stressful. I always get it wrong when I try to vote tactically, anyway.
CRIMINAL DRIVING ROCKETS IN ANGUS.
Same paper, same result.
That's what I'm going to do, but we've been lumped with a system that isn't sufficiently proportional and which needs a party to get 12-13% to get any representation (depending on various things). That means tactical voting will still come into it. It's just harder to figure out.
This system we've been given for this election is a nightmare, really, because it's almost impossible to vote tactically in a sensible way. You've got almost as much chance of getting the opposite. Single Transferable Vote would have been better.
The British cover for Enchanting the Fae Queen, by Stephanie Burgis, shows a green background with a frame of climbing roses and branches rising through a night sky full of stars. In the center of the image, just beneath the moon, stands a massive, ominous castle with a hedge maze before it. A blonde woman in a long gown scattters sparkles in her wake as she leads her tall. uniformed male companion through the moonlit hedge maze at a run, while giant butterflies flutter overhead. The tag line reads: “All’s fae in love and war” and a blurb from Sarah Beth Durst reads: “Full of charm, wit and magic.” Around and beneath the cover image is this text, connected by arrows to different parts of the cover image: She's a scandalous seductress; he's famously moral, virtuous and chaste; “Yes, I may kill him, but I’ll kill anyone else who tries”; Enemies to lovers; only 99p this April.
A quick reminder that if you're in the UK (or many parts of mainland Europe), you can snap up the British ebook of Enchanting the Fae Queen for just 99p - but do it quickly, because the sale ends in 8 days!
www.panmacmillan.com/authors/step...
#romancelandia
(Or, of course, vice versa, with Greens getting a seat but Plaid not getting enough for two.)
The problem is, we don't have enough constituency-level polling analysis. With the d'Hondt method, it's altogether possible to end up with an extra Reform MS by doing that, if they still poll slightly more than Plaid and the Greens don't get enough for a seat.
This Green Party election crowdfunder has only been up for three days and already its three-quarters of the way to its target.
The leaflets it is paying for are so good that Labour MPs are stealing them…
www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/we-deserve...
I see uncritical support for the IOC's one time only, all or nothing, SRY gene test 'to identify men' platformed today. Fun fact about that. It's entirely possible to test positive after being pregnant with a boy. Fetal DNA can cross the placenta and linger in the maternal bloodstream for decades.
Tweet by Martina Navratilova. "Predator. That is how he should register. A sexual predator…" quote-tweeting a tweet by "Biology Rules OK" about Dr. Beth Upton, a trans woman
This tweet is highly defamatory and Martina Navratilova should be fired from BBC Sport for it.
It demonstrates an horrendous level of hatred for a trans woman (who was cleared of all wrongdoing in a recent tribunal) because she is a trans woman.
Dundee Courier: DRUNKEN POLICE CHASE TEEN IN COURT.
Grammar is important.
Little known fact: if nobody will pay £850,000 for your house, it's not worth £850,000.
The existence of women's sports is a historical one that was reinforced at regular intervals by patriarchal assumptions that women are more fragile and need to be "protected"
It doesn't reflect any statistical truth
(1/2)
"This failure of biological recovery does not occur in healthy controls, deconditioned people, or in other chronic diseases... It is not fatigue. Rather, it is failed metabolic recovery."
This is one of the best- written pieces I've read. The body uses energy not just for activity but also to relax.
Ha! He blocked me with this list, but I'd already blocked him ages ago.
Just found out Starlink satellites only last about 5 years before they're pulled down to burn up in the atmosphere (leaving toxic metals in the air). Our convenience culture has reached the level where we now have disposable satellites.
And Musk wants to launch a *million* data centre satellites.
Beth worked as a doctor for years until a transphobe turned up. Now, she's had to leave her job, leave her home, move to the other side of the world and is still being hounded and harassed by the media and cult.
She did nothing but exist as trans in the orbit of Sandie Peggie.
Congratulations!
Even if this wasn't tedious, reactionary "women should stay in the home" nonsense, I'd suggest that children are more likely to be abused in the home than in professional childcare.
Shocked - shocked! - to find out I'm not nominated for a Hugo award again. What were you all thinking???
(Or: congratulations to all the nominees!)
www.lacon.org/hugofinalists/
Congrats to the Hugo finalists for 2026!!!!! Really incredible entries here!!!
Extra special congrats to @scalzi.com @lateonsetgirl.bsky.social and @adapalmer.bsky.social for their profoundly awesome works!!🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉
www.lacon.org/hugofinalists/
If you're an editor using AI to assess, summarise, or edit a manuscript, you're not a professional, IMHO.
Also, all modern phones can be set up to be muted and restricted during certain hours so they don't interrupt during school hours.
Years back, a publisher‘s PR dept offered to send me on a social media course. I asked them, if I did the course, would they start reposting and retweeting my posts about my books?
Reader, I was not sent on the course.
Against a background of dark violets and green leaves is shown the illustrated cover of Enchanting the Fae Queen, in which a mischievously grinning woman with long blonde curls, a moonstone crown, a pink dress and bare feet, sits perched in a tree teasing the uniformed general who stands before her, his expression determined and one of his hands around her closest leg while she pokes his strong nose with one finger. Above that cover image is this snippet of text: For seven years, this woman had haunted his life and his dreams with her incorrigible teasing and their circling, joint obsession.
This week's Tuesday snippet comes from Enchanting the Fae Queen, which is out in ebook, paper, and audiobook:
stephanieburgis.com/books/enchanting-the-fae-queen
#romancelandia
T is OK for cis women but not trans men.
Puberty blockers are OK for cis kids but illegal for trans kids.
You see it, right? You see what this is?
I'm making one last push to let people know about this online talk -- sponsored by the British Library in conjunction with their current exhibition on fairy tales. The live stream starts at 7:30 tonight, but if you buy a ticket *before* the event you can watch it any time over the next 7 days.
I just want to alleviate concerns for all my authors and prospective authors that I have never used ChatGPT, never shared anything AI, worked really hard to avoid every aspect of it, and will ABSOLUTELY NEVER upload your novels to any AI function.
I am a slow reader, but it me. I am the reader.
