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Colin Elves

@colinelves.bsky.social
980 followers 2.4K following 2.8K posts

Notoriously tired.

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Reposted by Colin Elves
Nicholas Grossman @nicholasgrossman.bsky.social · 2h
The techno-dystopia I actually fear is a future where most people think truth is whatever Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, or Grok say, and the very small number of people who control those systems use that to manipulate for their own ends, making our current epistemic crisis seem small in comparison.
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Colin Elves @colinelves.bsky.social · 1h
What the fuck? What is wrong with people? Honestly, I don’t even understand how they achieved the slower deliveries, or why they bothered.
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Damien Owens @damienowens.bsky.social · 2h
I can’t believe I have to have a real job when all I really want to do is go around solving mysteries with my capybara sidekick who sits in the sidecar of my motorcycle wearing little goggles.
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Colin Elves @colinelves.bsky.social · 11h
Why is it always “we should be more like America” and never “we should be more like Denmark”?
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Duncan Weldon @duncanweldon.bsky.social · 12h
My most conventionally boring social democratic belief. Went to Denmark and the US this summer. They are both very obviously rich and successful economies. Both feel materially much better off than the UK. But I know which one I’d rather live in.
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Colin Elves @colinelves.bsky.social · 13h
Look lads, it’s a simple choice: Do we want a future where we’re ruled by a mad king in Washington who randomly renames things via royal proclamation, or a future ruled by scheming cardinals in Brussels who strategically rename things via secretive papal courts to further their own shadowy goals?
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Colin Elves @colinelves.bsky.social · 23h
Big dance number like in Paddington 2. They’ve even got Kobna Holdbrook Smith back with his truncheon.
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Colin Elves @colinelves.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
On the one hand: reality. On the other: vibes. We know which hand the modern political operator is most comfortable with.
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Colin Elves @colinelves.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
I like the image of Stephen Bush weaving a cocoon around himself wherein his body dissolves into organic goo-soup before emerging, reborn as a beautiful FT column.
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Colin Elves @colinelves.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Seriously tho, algorithmic social media does make you stupid.
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Colin Elves @colinelves.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
I hate a lot of things about modern tech, but I do like how apple have silently implemented the “fuck you” filter for spam calls.
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Colin Elves @colinelves.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
The strangest thing about this is how these nerds seem completely incapable of realising that ordinary people also have agency If thos really did look like the only two options I would be going out smashing up every data centre and murdering every “Alco stock owner” I could get my hands on.
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cait (and adonis) @cait.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
it's just a Rube Goldberg machine that unplugs your computer
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Colin Elves @colinelves.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Another one for “algorithmic feeds make you stupid” I guess.
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Colin Elves @colinelves.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
I wonder what would happen if we ever had a government that promised to invest in the economy the UK had, rather than promised to invest in an economy it wished we had? 🤔 www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
John Healey to promise 'new age of industrialisation' for UK in conference speech
The chancellor will unveil policies aimed at boosting British shipbuilding in his speech to Labour's annual conference on Monday.
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Colin Elves @colinelves.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
I wonder if The Times will now shift its reporting from the claiming all migrants are foreign devils destined to kill honest hard working White British people, to something more positive?
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Colin Elves @colinelves.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Social conservative policy having the literal opposite effect to what is intended… again.
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Jonathan Portes @jdportes.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
In fact, as my/ @migobs.bsky.social research shows, those migrants who came in the peak (2021-23 period) seem to have relatively high earnings progression and employment rates.. migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/resources/co...
migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk
Upward mobility? Earnings trajectories for recent immigrants - Migration Observatory
This analysis uses new data from HMRC to show how the size and earnings of the migrant employee workforce has changed over time in recent years.
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vegavandal.bsky.social @vegavandal.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
“Why does OAI keep unleashing dangerous models on the world with zero cybersecurity guardrails?” is still a better question than “is the code thinking”.
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Colin Elves @colinelves.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
It’s really tedious how the same fucking guys come along every couple of decades to claim they’re changing the world, when they’re really all just rich arseholes with no moral boundaries.
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Colin Elves @colinelves.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
I think Bluesky is better than Twitter not because it is more liberal (that’s just another reason, but because algorithmic social makes you stupider. Algorithms feeds you the same stuff over and over, pushing you down ever narrower rabbit holes in a way that you just don’t get on Bluesky.
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Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
One of my tests is to acknowledge plurality of views. There are legit concerns about handling pace of change + about cutting out immigration we need & want; about too little conttol + too little compassiom; about having a voice + about being protected from racism & extremism bsky.app/profile/sund...
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Clara Jeffery @clarajeffery.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
I’m sorry, what? This piece was not a joint publication/ reporting job (as some are). It was @propublica’s alone and the Times followed with a summary. This is so indicative of NYT. If they don’t ignore proper credit, they just go for stolen valor.
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David Roberts @volts.wtf · 26/09/2026
Class solidarity.
hollywoodreporter.com
The Major Social Media Platforms Are All Rejecting Paid Ads for Alex Gibney’s ‘Musk’ (Exclusive)
YouTube, TikTok and Meta have all turned down the trailer for the Oct. 9 doc, citing "political" content. X won't even take Bleecker Street's calls. The distributor is appealing.
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Colin Elves @colinelves.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
The last libertarian utopia was eaten by bears wasn’t it? Looking forward to finding out what eats this one. Jaguars would be exciting wouldn’t it?
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George Eaton @georgeeaton.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Your regular reminder that UK taxes are average by western standards and low on middle-earners. Labour figures, especially, should not fall into the trap of pretending that we have a “high” tax burden and that taxes are to blame for the living standards crisis. www.arguably.uk/p/the-tax-tr...
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Ben Ansell @benansell.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Every piece I read from the ex-Starmer crew has the same flavour- a bleeding over of their distaste for other more socially liberal colleagues in the Labour Party, which has been retro-fitted into an entire explanation for how politics should work, even as it failed when actually tested.
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Colin Elves @colinelves.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
See, this is the problem with immigration: coming over here with their cultures of hard work and attainment, robbing natural-born Englishmen of their god given right to ignorance and fecklessness.
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Colin Elves @colinelves.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Everything that was wrong with Starmer’s government, and the Blue Labour project, seems to come down to middle-class wankers who despise their own class and so want to be associated with the working class, but their view of the latter is equally patronising and contemptuous.
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sianushka.bsky.social @sianushka.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
I interviewed a mum at the time - her son was autistic and she struggled to get the food he needed on the vouchers. Meanwhile a Tory MP was saying if it wasn’t vouchers, parents would spend the FSM money in “crack dens and brothels”
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Alasdair Mackenzie @alasdairmackenzie.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
You know that saying about how the way they treat asylum seekers is the way they’d treat everyone else if they thought they could get away with it? Well,
The Tories said the reduced subsistence allowance would be loaded onto pre-paid card that would not allow cash withdrawals, and would "prevent spending" on alcohol, cigarettes, or gambling.
The party is yet to detail how its proposal would work, but shadow welfare secretary Helen Whately said it would be "a version" of the pre-paid Aspen card issued to asylum seekers living in government-funded accommodation.
These cards cannot be used to make contactless, telephone or internet payments, whilst asylum seekers whose applications have failed cannot withdraw cash.
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Colin Elves @colinelves.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
That’s just Edith, the two headed invisible Jotun who lives in the woods near my place. Can’t a girl wear a comfy top to the shops without folks making a fuss?
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Colin Elves @colinelves.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Look how pretty those pylons are. I don’t get why people dislike energy infrastructure so much.
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Colin Elves @colinelves.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
They could rescue Captain Tom.
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Colin Elves @colinelves.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
“True Detective (season 1)” - LoL
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Colin Elves @colinelves.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Another example where having a minister responsible for the media industry would be helpful.
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John Bull @garius.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
will say it again: the most effective way to curb far right agitators like Lowe, "Tommo" et. al. would be to stop their ability to earn money for it from social media or live streaming. So much of it is grifting for revenue, not attention.
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lizardbreath 🦎🪦🎃 @spindlypete.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
my small son has been wearing a superman cape we got from goodwill all day every day for ... two weeks? three weeks? and asking that we all call him superman, and pretending he's superman. which is very funny because his understanding of superman as a concept is rudimentary at best
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richard mortimer @richardmortimer.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
The Daily Rothno is The Sound and Isle of Arran #aofoto
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Stephen Collins @stephencollins.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
#TBT to this from 2012 in honour of Michael Gove starring as an invasion-battling leader in Sky's new show The Wargame. If you don't know what or who this comic is about... just count yourself lucky and scroll on, no worries.
[Opening scene is WESTMINSTER, LONDON. Over Downing Street a huge ALIEN SPACECRAFT hovers, silent, still, filling the whole sky a la Independence Day]. 

[Cut to INSIDE 10 DOWNING STREET. The (then) prime Minister DAVID CAMERON is looking out of his office window at the ship.]

VOICE FROM OFF-SCENE, BEHIND CAMERON:
Prime Minister…

CAMERON [addressing the person behind him, still keeping his eyes fixed ahead in dread at the spaceship]:
Yes?

[We see the speaker is MICHAEL GOVE, then Education Secretary]:

GOVE:
Let me do it.

CAMERON:
For God's sake, Michael, you're the Education Secretary! You've never flown a fighter plane in your life!

GOVE:
But I know I could do it, David. I could fly a fighter plane into the big space- ship...

...and shoot all the aliens.

CAMERON:
But you have no military training!

GOVE:
David

I haven't told you this, but...

I used to be a journalist. For The Times.

[Cameron reacts, turning to look at Gove with awe and respect, as if only now truly seeing him for the first time]. 

GOVE:
I wrote two articles about planes, David.

I've got strong opinions about aliens.

I know I can do this job.

[Cut to a title card panel]:

AND SO:

[Then cut again to Cameron on the roof of Number 10, watching a Michael Gove pilot a fighter jet up towards the spacecraft, and then completely miss it, careering towards Earth, as Cameron buries his face in his hands].

[Ends]
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Colin Elves @colinelves.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Nothing prepares you for the rigours of work quite like being infantilised.
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Colin Elves @colinelves.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
George Osbourne is the true villain of our century (so far at least)
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Colin Elves @colinelves.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
George Osbourne is the true villain of our century (so far at least)
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Rob Ford @robfordmancs.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Two MRPs show Labour losing 100 plus seats and their majority and still everyone is going “DOES THIS MEAN EARLY ELECTION???”
static.klipy.com
Life of Brian: He Is the Messiah!
ALT: Life of Brian: He Is the Messiah!
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Colin Elves @colinelves.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Conservatives are so weird.
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Colin Elves @colinelves.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Yes. Or the government could not hold an election tomorrow and continue governing with 403 MPs.
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Colin Elves @colinelves.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Better late than never I suppose.
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Julia Carrie Wong @joolia.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
I’m really not sure that “goes rogue” is an accurate description of a behavior that is apparently both habitual and condoned
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More OpenAl Incidents
The company's A.l. went rogue this year at least four additional times, trying to break into government and university sites.
now
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Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
The BBC news report simply says Mr Thomas broadcast a livestream. This seems highly inadequate in quite a lengthy report, leaving out such key details: what he did; the French stating the behaviour was unlawful www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
Dozens of migrants taken to Dover after more than 30 hours at sea
Protesters had earlier gathered in Gosport after an initial report that the small boat would be brought further west.
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Colin Elves @colinelves.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Seriously considering cancelling the direct debit for the Licence fee today. Legally I don’t need to pay since we don’t watch any live TV. I pay because I want to support BBC World, but that’s becoming increasingly hard to morally justify when I know I’m also funding BBC News’s support of facism.
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