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Andy Tomlinson

@andytomlinson.bsky.social
320 followers 608 following 1.5K posts

Public Policy guy in Europe for Electronic Arts, Board member at Ukie. Video games, politics, tech, often getting distracted by sport.

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Reposted by Andy Tomlinson
ironeconomist.bsky.social @ironeconomist.bsky.social · 8h
In the simplest and most reductive way, the Uk political class seems to have resolved to pay 4% of gdp a year to investors to avoid raising taxes by 2% if gdp a year. It sounds mental when you put it like that but that’s actually the situation.
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Andy Tomlinson @andytomlinson.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
The Chucky sequel about this is going to be GREAT.
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Andy Tomlinson @andytomlinson.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Strange news this morning for anyone following the EU KIDS Act: the Commission have opened a public consultation on it, AFTER they published the bill and sent it to EP/Council: ec.europa.eu/info/law/bet... Pretty sure it doesn't normally happen like that.
ec.europa.eu
European Commission - Have your say
European Commission - Have your say
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Andy Tomlinson @andytomlinson.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Anyone know yet if Spain is about to have a snap election?
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Andy Tomlinson @andytomlinson.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
If antagonists antagonise, does that mean a protagonist can protagonise?
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Reposted by Andy Tomlinson
Neal Hudson @resi-analyst.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Good piece on prices but doesn’t really mention the other side: transactions. Turnover has collapsed in London, especially central areas. That means the price evidence is based on thin volumes and most people are sitting it out (thanks high rents!). That’s prevented further price falls.
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Andy Tomlinson @andytomlinson.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
I, for one, welcome our new frog overlords.
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Reposted by Andy Tomlinson
The New York Times @nytimes.com · 25/09/2026
Breaking News from @theathleticfc.bsky.social: Manchester City have been found guilty on all but one of the 115 charges relating to breaches of the Premier League’s financial regulations, according to people briefed on the matter. nyti.ms/4Azb7Wb
nyti.ms
Manchester City found guilty on almost all Premier League charges relating to financial breaches
City were charged by the Premier League in February 2023.
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Andy Tomlinson @andytomlinson.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Hey look it's "Everybody secretly enjoyed the B Plot in Attack of the Clones: The Motion Picture" (Complimentary) youtu.be/VL-xjzQFWsY?...
youtu.be
Ray Gunn | Official Trailer | Netflix
YouTube video by Netflix
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Reposted by Andy Tomlinson
ᴡᴇ ʙᴜɪʟᴛ ᴛʜɪꜱ ᴄɪᴛʏ @webuiltthiscity.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
This genuinely made me laugh out loud today
HOW AM I DRIVING?
HOW DOES AN ENGINE EVEN WORK?
HOW CAN A LOVING GOD CAUSE SUCH AGONY
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Andy Tomlinson @andytomlinson.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Just finished Jasper Fforde's RED SIDE STORY. A mysterious dystopia filtered through twee English village cutesiness, with regular silly jokes. Expands the ideas from the first book delightfully. Lovely stuff, like Pratchett wrote The Prisoner.
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Andy Tomlinson @andytomlinson.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
It's nice that other religions get to do insipid Thought For The Day platitudes too.
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Reposted by Andy Tomlinson
Blue Heron Farm @blueheronfarm.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
I'm at the Triumphal Arch. I'm at the Sniper Drone Plaza. I'm at the combination Triumphal Arch Sniper Drone Plaza.
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Leonardo Carella @leonardocarella.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
The popularity of moustaches is a leading indicator of world wars.
Frequency of moustaches over time (1842-1976). Source: https://blog.panicola.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/robinson1976a_facialhairtrends.pdf
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fesshole 🧻 @fesshole.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Less of a fess, more of an exposé. I work for the security services and the percentage of colleagues who have 007 as the code on their locker beggars belief. One in three, I'd say.
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Stephanie 🍉 @ageofoddish.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
mmygod
the slut gnomes of false berlin jeopardy bluesky posttoday's jeopardy categories. the last 2 are "false berlin" and "bizarre little men"
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Oxford Clarion @oxfordclarion.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Oxford United have apologised for releasing a clothing collection with the slogan ‘United 93’, after the club’s founding date in 1893. United Airlines flight 93 was one of those hijacked by Al-Qaeda terrorists on September 11. OUFC say “we are reviewing our approval processes”.
The United 93 clothing
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Andy Tomlinson @andytomlinson.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
The EU KIDS Act (social media ban) has leaked. Big implications for games, lots of work to do. But my first reaction is dismay that the Commission has Americanised and used an acronym title, "EU Keeping Internet Digital Spaces Accountable and Trustworthy." How could they?
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Andy Tomlinson @andytomlinson.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
The plan: "John Connor, I have arrived from the future to termina-jesus lad, put it away, is that what you people do? Ooh I've gone all nauseous, I'm stepping outside for a minute."
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ฅ^•ﻌ•^ฅ 🌝 @daddyxanax.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
Her baby is about to set the Guinness world record for the fastest time a baby said their mother's name
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Minna Ålander 🌻 @alanderminna.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
This is the most counterintuitive part of NATO cooperation for the US to stay out of, because hunting these subs has always been about US homeland security - the Russian idea used to be to sneak through the GIUK gap and continue towards US East Coast. Try to find them in the Atlantic, good luck
politico.com
NATO races to guard against Russian nuclear subs without the US
Allied forces gathered near Iceland to practice hunting for Russian submarines, with a key member missing.
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Ben Collins @bencollins.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
13-year anniversary of Subway getting really mad at us.
theonion.com
New Subway Promotion To Honor Subtember 11
MILFORD, CT—Citing a wide range of deals customers will “never forget,” fast food chain Subway announced an exciting new promotion this week to honor and commemorate Subtember 11. “With a number of te...
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Reposted by Andy Tomlinson
Man in Business Suit Levitating @dfeldman.org · 11/09/2026
Just in case you ever have impostor syndrome, remember that in 2011, workers at Los Alamos National Laboratory brought six kilograms of plutonium together to take a picture to show their management. The amount was enough to start a chain nuclear reaction if they had been slightly closer.
Six silvery rods and a pen on a table
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James Ball @jamesrball.com · 11/09/2026
The thing to watch will be Labour fundraising: at the moment they simply cannot *afford* a 2027 election. They're tens of millions short, with no general secretary and no director of fundraising. If those gaps get plugged and they go in a huge fundraising tear, *then* maybe we're on.
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👻 Jack Djinn Wail 🧞 @jacktindale.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
FUN FACT: The reason we sell petrol by the litre but measure performance by mpg is because in the 1970s oil shock, British pumps had exactly the same issue and it was easier to put stickers over the word "gallon" rather than retrofitting all the dials.
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Andy Tomlinson @andytomlinson.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
You know I think England might win this test match.
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Andy Tomlinson @andytomlinson.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
www.eurogamer.net/untangling-m... Very nice Donlan piece. I've long been intrigued by the way our memory builds much more realistic versions of digital places we've visited. Goldeneye 64 was basically photo-realistic, I could swear.
eurogamer.net
I'm trying to untangle my response to how the Ocarina of Time remake looks
The new Ocarina of Time remake reveal felt like a description of a daydream I once had, except the daydream had been mine, and the description someone else's.
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Andy Tomlinson @andytomlinson.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
My wife used to work there and it was a weird, hugely impractical mess inside. But this is still wild to see.
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Andy Tomlinson @andytomlinson.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
“The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to WOAH what the fuck is that mate, jesus"
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Adam Ellis @adamtots.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Reposting this because
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Andy Tomlinson @andytomlinson.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Scrolling down my feed after a busy morning to eventually find this and understand why everybody is annoyed this time.
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Lee Cronin’s Pablo Hidalgo @infinata.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
this is how we win, not by fighting what we hate but by giving walkies to those we love
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Riker Googling @rikergoogling.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
who lives in a pineapple under the sea
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Noah Barkin @noahbarkin.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
Massive increase in voter participation in Saxony-Anhalt compared to previous elections. Could be good. Could be bad. We’ll know at 6pm local time. www.wahlrecht.de/news/2026/la...
wahlrecht.de
Landtagswahl in Sachsen-Anhalt am 6. September 2026
Wahlberichterstattung zur Landtagswahl in Sachsen-Anhalt am 6. September 2026: Hochrechnungen und Prognosen, Ticker-Meldungen, vorläufiges und endgültiges Wahlergebnis mit der Sitzverteilung sowie wei...
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Jon Phillips @jowiph.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
I picked up a copy of the collected letters of JRR Tolkien for reasons, and this is the most bullshit table of contents I've ever seen. I'm actively angry that it exists
Contents

Introduction - vii

Foreword to the Revised and Expanded Edition - xi

Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien - 1

Notes - 607

Index - 637
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Rhys Elliott @superhys.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Steam has generated $15 BILLION in gross revenue so far this year (Alinea estimates) Valve's functional monopoly on the PC market really is a behemoth, already up 15% on the same period last year. This year will almost certainly end well above $20 billion for the first time. Article:
alineaanalytics.substack.com
Steam has already generated $15B in gross revenue this year
We look at the top-contributing new 2026 games, then evaluate whether or not mid-budget games are truly capturing Steam's middle class.
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Eize Basa @eizebasa.baby · 01/09/2026
Welcome to Bluesky.
Thanks for being patient. A team member is coming to cancel you.
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Andy Tomlinson @andytomlinson.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
a) lol, rofl, etc b) why the hell does James Patterson feel like he needs to stick his name on this? Dignity clearly hasn't ever been a priority of his but good God, man.
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Henna Virkkunen @hennavirkkunen.wsocial.eu · 31/08/2026
We designated ChatGPT as a VLOSE and Reddit and Roblox as VLOPs under the DSA. These services indicated that they reach at least 45M average monthly users in the EU and thus meet the threshold for designation. ec.europa.eu/commission/p...
ec.europa.eu
Commission designates ChatGPT, Reddit, Roblox under Digital Services Act
Today, the Commission has designated ChatGPT as a Very Large Online Search Engine (VLOSE), as well as Reddit and Roblox as Very Large Online Platforms (VLOPs), under the Digital Services Act (DSA).
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Daniel Sugarman @danielsugarman.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
The world's most notorious custard-pie thrower is dead. What an obituary. He got Bernard-Henri Lévy seven times.
​Known to his army of fans as L’Entarteur or Georges le Gloupier, Godin launched his career as a serial deflator of egos in 1969, when he planted a tarte à la crème on the face of the French novelist Marguerite Duras (“She has a kind of intelligence and cleverness that serves only her own vanity,” he complained), and he went on to “pie” a cast list of celebrities for sins ranging from pomposity to “choosing to function in the service of the capitalist status quo”.The same could not be said of Bernard-Henri Lévy, one of France’s “new philosophers,” whose provocative views on sex, frequent appearances on television and penchant for white silk shirts unbuttoned practically to the navel, had made him a cult figure – and one of Godin’s most satisfying victims.

Levy once declared: “I am the most gifted writer of my generation,” and often boasted of his reasonableness and tolerance, but he was forced to endure footage being repeatedly shown on French television of himself, covered in cream, during a visit to the Belgian city of Liège, trying to strangle Godin and shouting: “Get up, or I’ll kick your head in.”Noël Godin was born on September 13 1945 and came to pie-throwing after a rebellious youth in which he scandalised the priests in the confessional by speaking of his “horrible sexual life”, and was thrown out of Liège University after emptying a pot of glue over the head of a law lecturer who had helped write the constitution for the Portuguese dictator António de Oliveira Salazar.

He found work at Friends of Film, an obscure magazine published by the Belgian Catholic League. It had a tiny readership, which was just as well, as Godin made up most of his articles. In one he claimed that Louis Armstrong had once been a cannibal and had invested in a film called The Vegetables of Good Will in which Claudia Cardinale played a giant endive.

In another he conjured up a fictional blind Thai filmmaker named Vivian Pei, describing her film, The Lotus Flower Will Never Again Grow on the Edge of Your Island, in such convincing terms that an Asian film specialist travelled to Thailand in an effort to track her down.“We’re very careful not to hurt people,’’ he explained. “Well, they are hurt, but always in their amour-propre.”

In 1995 Godin published an autobiography, Cream and Punishment. His other targets over the years included the New Wave director Jean-Luc Godard (who charmed his assailant by hailing the attack as a homage to silent film), the French politician Nicolas Sarkozy, the choreographer Maurice Béjart and the Ryanair chairman Michael O​’Leary. He tended not to pick Belgian victims, he explained, because few would notice if he did.
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Odd This Day @oddthisday.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Well, happy 29th anniversary to the greatest ‘reverse ferret’ ever issued by a media outlet
“We apologise for the Princess Diana page one headline DI GOES SEX MAD, which is still on the stands at some locations. It is currently being replaced with a special 72-page tribute issue: A FAREWELL TO THE PRINCESS WE ALL LOVED.”
Statement published by the National Enquirer, August 31, 1997
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Andy Tomlinson @andytomlinson.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
Luv 2 feel validated. (It's insurance for the bad times, really)
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Andy Tomlinson @andytomlinson.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Phil Foden is the Nicolas Cage of footballers. Is he a world class talent or does he mostly produce rubbish? Impossible to tell.
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Andy Tomlinson @andytomlinson.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Do you like hearing guitars make good noises? You're in luck - there's a new Dinosaur Jr album out today. open.spotify.com/album/4x9eup...
open.spotify.com
There Near - Album by Dinosaur Jr. | Spotify
Dinosaur Jr. · album · 2026 · 11 songs
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Europe Elects @europeelects.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Norway: Monarch, Harald V, has died aged 89, following a period of illness. His son, Haakon VIII, succeeds him as King of Norway. Harald V was the country’s head of state for a period of over 35 years, ascending the throne in 1991.
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The Onion @theonion.com · 27/08/2026
Lawyers Say Andrew Tate Rented Brother To Appear Loved Online theonion.com/lawyers-say-andrew-tat…
Lawyers Say Andrew Tate Rented Brother To Appear Loved Online
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James Wallis @jameswallis.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
Absolute longshot: I'm looking for Euan Smith who drew artwork for White Dwarf magazine in the mid 1980s and therefore is probably British and probably in his late 50s or 60s. Do you or did you know him?
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Andy Tomlinson @andytomlinson.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
How has nobody given the Hot Shots treatment to Mission Impossible yet?
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Andy Tomlinson @andytomlinson.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
Such a tragic irony that we're the rainiest island in the world but we never developed the technology to store that rain for use later.
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Andy Tomlinson @andytomlinson.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
I knew exactly when the eclipse peaked because the crowd of watchers on Streatham Common broke into applause. Bless this town.
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