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Adam Squires @adsquires.bsky.social · 3h

Looking forward to listening to my impressive colleague Asel

Reposted by Adam Squires

Charlotte Nichols MP @charlotte2153.bsky.social · 20h

I swore my oath on a Tanakh, and while Parliament has got a pretty wide range of available options (I'd love to know why the Zohar is one of them?) you can also request any other holy book, bring your own, or indeed not swear an oath on anything at all and make an affirmation instead. All counts 🤷‍♀️

Sacred Texts
The following holy books are available to
Members at the Table: the New Testament; the
Old Testament; the Koran; the Sundar Gutka;
the Welsh Bible; the Gaelic Bible; the Old and
New Testament combined (New English Bible
with the Apocrypha); the King James Bible;
the Jerusalem Bible; the Torah; the Gita; the
Book of Mormon; the Dhammapada (by either
Sangharakshita or Gil Fronsdal); the Zohar;
the Hebrew Bible and the Douay–Rheims Bible.

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Adam Squires @adsquires.bsky.social · 7h

Let's ask unrepentant antisemite Nigel Farage for his views...

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Reposted by Adam Squires

Yair Wallach @yairwallach.bsky.social · 8h

A year ago, you could perhaps explain this as cowardice. Fearing Farage was headed for 10 Downing St, they felt a need to suck up to him. But given this seems far less likely now, we just have to conclude that this is their politics.

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Adam Squires @adsquires.bsky.social · 8h

Agree - quite the opposite. Netanyahu's talking points have always been "they don't just want us to withdraw from the occupied territories, they won't be happy until Israel has ceased to exist and this is all a Palestinian state". He will absolutely hold this motion up as supporting evidence.

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Reposted by Adam Squires

Arthur Snell @snellarthur.bsky.social · 10h

Your daily reminder that nobody has done a comprehensive assessment of the impact of Russian meddling in Brexit. McCallum is expressing an opinion, not the product of an MI5 investigation.

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Adam Squires @adsquires.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

early in the pandemic). But not enough to decide to then listen to different, better informed people on the subject.

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Adam Squires @adsquires.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

Iirc both of them picked arguments with Prof Christina Pagel during / about COVID, in response to her reasonable and well informed threads. Lilico had a brief moment of realizing he didn't know as much about it as he thought, when it didn't end when he predicted (relatively

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Reposted by Adam Squires

sianushka.bsky.social @sianushka.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

It’s simply not possible to do this and do what their voters want - people will still arrive and if you aren’t processing applications (see the IMA) you still need to house people before you deport them so it would mean hotels or large scale sites www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

bbc.co.uk

Reform would suspend asylum system for parliamentary term if in government

All asylum applications would be rejected and existing ones voided, with all claimants marked for deportation.

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Adam Squires @adsquires.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

It's the "The Rest Is..." series

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Adam Squires @adsquires.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

Do they merely confirm my preconceptions? There have been, it turns out, half a dozen huge empires over the millennia in Persia that I'd never heard of (and have now). I had absolutely no preconceptions!

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Adam Squires @adsquires.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

Seems a bit of an extreme reaction, no? "The rest is History" and "Empire" tell me bits of History I didn't know, TRIE if I fancy listening to people discussing celebrity Traitors (don't listen to TRIP as I find it irritating)

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Adam Squires @adsquires.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

Shoulda read my own advice bsky.app/profile/adsq...

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Adam Squires @adsquires.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

And of course it was illegal for sixth formers. The age of consent wasn't equalised until 2001. (No gay marriage or even civil partnerships for another decade) If you don't think it was harder to be gay then, how would you explain the fact that so few people identified as gay then vs now?

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Adam Squires @adsquires.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

Growing up may be harder but I don't think *being gay* is. "Gay" and "bender" were common slurs then, as were limp wristed "ooh ducky" stereotype impressions. Under Section 28 it was illegal for a school to teach that same sex family relationships were acceptable.

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Adam Squires @adsquires.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

Oh yes! Who's number 5? I'm not sure George Michael is the best example of how you could be "completely no effs given non-conforming" - he spent the 1980s hiding his sexuality and didn't come out until 1998! Freddy Mercury never came out publicly.

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Adam Squires @adsquires.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

😂 - I'm not sure about that given that my first thought (starting the conversation) was "I guess there was Boy George" which also occurred to you, and @northofcam.bsky.social ... suggesting that maybe there weren't all that many gender non-conforming men! (Prince and Bowie were ambiguous at times)

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Adam Squires @adsquires.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

Same year! I'm wondering if that's when the culture change was happening, at different rates in different unis. (Reminds me of a similar "when did you first meet email?" conversation)

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Adam Squires @adsquires.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

That's a good point - would be interesting to know the timings of those. Another difference - how "male" pubs were. All Bar One was a big deal for selling a range of (white) wines, having big windows without net curtains, and being a welcoming place for women to drink without being hit on.

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Adam Squires @adsquires.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

That's interesting. Nobody in my year had come out as gay by end of sixth form (1992). I knew of three gay women in total at uni (mid 90s). No men I knew came out until their mid 20s. And I didn't know any trans people until much later. Very different now - many more out gay and trans undergrads.

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Adam Squires @adsquires.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

Yes, that sort of thing seems to have got worse. On the other hand, for example, I think girls are encouraged to play football more now - as well as having the role models (England women's football wasn't on the radar). Conversely the culture for men was more violent - pub fights a common sight.

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Adam Squires @adsquires.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

Big flasher mac Royale family with cheese Sorry I assumed it was one of those "by adding a word" games.

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Adam Squires @adsquires.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

*People expressing a wish not to be referred to by pronouns corresponding to their biological sex* was the thing that was extremely rare in those days, which is my point.

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Adam Squires @adsquires.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

That is exactly my point! People called men "he" and women "she" without fail, and any exception was people making a point (as in that example, which is the only case I can think of). People "didn't care" about pronouns because they were strictly observed.

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Adam Squires @adsquires.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

I was also a teen in the 80s and I'm not saying it was much *more* gendered than now, just not *less* gendered either. Half of the DM wearing girls wore floaty skirts, for example. And that's ignoring the other social tribes - ra ra skirts, leggings, miniskirts, etc etc.

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Adam Squires @adsquires.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

I mean, they would have done if anyone had used the wrong one but no one ever did! (Apart from an ironic vaguely homophobic "ooh what's up with *her*?" among the lads' rugby team.)

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Adam Squires @adsquires.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

It could be two aspects of the same thing - pressure for "being a woman" being stronger and more tightly defined, so more people - as a reaction - responding with "why do I need to pick a gender". But it doesn't work for men - there is definitely less pressure on men now to conform, vs 40 yrs ago.

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Adam Squires @adsquires.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

Yes, I think that's a good point. The example of Annie Lennox (given elsewhere on this conversation) - wore a suit, had short hair, but looked feminine. Someone who looked like her now (Pink?) wouldn't be seen as an example, I think.

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Adam Squires @adsquires.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

What's the "something that never existed"? If you mean, people refusing to be considered male or female then yes, that's precisely my point!

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Adam Squires @adsquires.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

Could you give examples...? I don't think men and women dressed more similarly then than now? (Barrel legged jeans seem fairly common and non-gendered among current students, for example)

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Adam Squires @adsquires.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

What were the larger and more significant manifestations in the 1980s?

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Adam Squires @adsquires.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

I guess there's different manifestations. People wanting to be called by gender neutral pronouns is presumably a manifestation of "I don't see why I need to pick one of your two genders" that is much more common now, especially among gen Z and younger.

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Adam Squires @adsquires.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

"the biological reality is that X *may* happen" - wtf does that even mean?

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Adam Squires @adsquires.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

Copilot reckons it may be financially trickier if you'd paid for the ticket and claimed back, than if employer had - if a "refund" would then be double claiming - even though ultimate result equivalent.

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Adam Squires @adsquires.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

Yep. And from a moral PoV, you're the one suffering the inconvenience, not your employer (if you were worried). Although thinking about it - what are company policies on this?

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Adam Squires @adsquires.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

Actually thinking about it the double blind "published work of George Elliott" experiment does have useful data points here.

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Adam Squires @adsquires.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

No, it's based on proper randomized controlled work on rats.

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Adam Squires @adsquires.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

Entered a supermarket? Ran a supermarket? Was a supermarket?

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Adam Squires @adsquires.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

This is *absolutely* a task for @naomialderman.bsky.social (who will no doubt come up with alternative approaches to achieve the same goal)

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Adam Squires @adsquires.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

At least, in Gaza and West Bank.

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Adam Squires @adsquires.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

Right. I can see why one *might* argue that it isn't genocide, but given all the reasons you outline, it isn't unreasonable / outrageous / antisemitic for someone to argue they think it is.

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Adam Squires @adsquires.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

"is that the ship in which Theseus sailed? Up there on stage singing 'About You Now'?"

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Adam Squires @adsquires.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

Ship of Theseus, but each time a plank needed replacing, they instead got someone who'd been in Sugarbabes.

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Reposted by Adam Squires

Will Jennings📉🗳️ @drjennings.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

How long before political scientists come up with a new ‘Unexpected Explosion During Data Processing’ methodology?

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Adam Squires @adsquires.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

I feel like I meet this phenomenon a lot on social media - people saying "that isn't a good analogy, because this is". 75% of the discussion about that red button moral philosophy question, for example.

Adam Squires
@adsquires.bsky.social
That doesn't explain why.the spades wasn't a good analogy, it's just suggesting a third analogy

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