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Gareth Potter

@garethpotter.com
352 followers 260 following 1.2K posts

I mostly write code. Occasional photographer.

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Gareth Potter @garethpotter.com · 4h
Well, quite. Given their diverse product range, you’d think they might try pushing Amazon Fresh off the back of such a purchase, but no - they seem to categorically refuse to curate anything. The vinyl store, for example, frequently features floor tiles.
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Mujtaba Rahman @mijrahman.bsky.social · 15h
Don't believe the Europeans when they say the UK is no longer interesting, a priority etc etc Every senior EU official I've met today in Brussels has spent 20 mins talking about @andyburnham.bsky.social speech. The EU is paying attention and interested - even if it pretends otherwise
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Survation. @survation.bsky.social · 18h
Support outnumbers opposition in every age group, including those most affected: -> 55-64: 61% support, 16% oppose -> 65+: 55% support, 27% oppose 8/9
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Ste Jormur @stejormur.bsky.social · 19h
- impossible to escape on the internet - weirdly puritanical - might blow up the planet - drink massive amounts of water - love to have names like Claude, Gemini and Grok
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Finn @thegoblinpoet.bsky.social · 19h
hold up - will confidently interject on any subject, often with significant errors - can't actually read, instead relies on an elaborate method of parsing context through structure & likely words - looks financially impressive, actually built on huge amounts of unsustainable debt
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Twlldun @twlldun.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Honestly it’s like a parody by this point isn’t it
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Josh Self @josh.politics.co.uk · 29/09/2026
#Onthisday in 2014: Liz Truss delivers impassioned speech on cheese and apple imports “At the moment we import two-thirds of our apples. We import nine-tenths of all of our pears. We import two-thirds of our cheese. “That is a DISGRACE!” www.politics.co.uk/history/that...
politics.co.uk
‘That is a disgrace!’: Liz Truss pork markets speech (2014)
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Pete Miles @petermiles.eurosky.social · 28/09/2026
"AIs do not have rights, feelings, or consciousness. And we must not train them to act as though they do." I had seen the news clips on Mustafa Suleyman's recent warnings, but only just read the source. Wise words, strongly recommended. mustafa-suleyman.ai/a-warning-ab...
mustafa-suleyman.ai
A warning about ‘model welfare’
AIs are not conscious. They do not feel, experience, or suffer. Training a model to believe it might be a moral patient, as Anthropic’s constitution does, makes the alignment and containment challenge...
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Jim Pickard @pickardje.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
as a satire on so-called late stage capitalism how could one beat investors pouring a trillion into a company offering to wipe out humankind
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Robert Hutton @roberthutton.co.uk · 28/09/2026
Labour is a party disappointed by the people who vote for it and by the economy of the country it's running. thecritic.co.uk/the-...
And how will it do that? Healey, it turns out, has the kind of idea of work you’d expect from a man who has been active in politics since 1986. There were a lot of references to the coalmining heritage of his constituency, and even the more modern work he talked about was hard, manly toil like pipe-fitting, the sort of thing that involves bulging forearms and mucky overalls. Aside from his wife, the one woman he mentioned was Reeves, and she’s just lost her job.

It’s far from clear that the Chancellor has a handle on what the more modern bits of the economy look like. There are a million young people out of work, he said, and the solution he pointed to was shipbuilding apprenticeships. Do this year’s unemployed graduates actually want to go into shipbuilding? Are there enough ships for them to build? His first job, he said, was washing glasses at a pub, exactly the kind of work that has disappeared in the face of minimum wage and tax rises. On artificial intelligence, which has destro
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John Oxley @joxley.jmoxley.co.uk · 28/09/2026
There are pretty obvious reasons why, still less than 48 hours after the incident, we might need to be cagey about what and when we actually knew about this plot and it is deeply unserious, social media poisoned stuff to litigate it all in the open right now.
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Matthew Holehouse @matthewholehouse.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Words absent from Chancellor's conference speech: tax, China, European Union, Hormuz, oil, gas, universities, productivity, gilts, America. 13 union(s), 7 miner(s). Curious.
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Gareth Potter @garethpotter.com · 28/09/2026
Given the space available they really ought to be more ambitious.
Satellite photo of the fields surrounding Kingham station, of which there are a great many.
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Alex Selby-Boothroyd @alexselbyb.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Vindication as someone who saw something, said something leading to something being sorted www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...
theguardian.com
Late-night drive and a 999 call: farmer’s chance encounter that led to terrorism arrests at RAF base
Local people say members of WhatsApp group noticed suspicious activity around vans in Whelford overnight
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Gareth Potter @garethpotter.com · 28/09/2026
Fuck, hadn’t even thought of the commercial space. Clearly needs an update to the rules on enfranchisement. If only there were a vaguely left-of-centre government in power…
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Gareth Potter @garethpotter.com · 28/09/2026
Apparently one of the tricks they do to try to obstruct this in new builds is keeping behind a sufficient proportion of properties to rent out directly, so that you can never get enough owners to pass the threshold.
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Mark Wallace @wallaceme.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Ok don’t let’s get carried away but I found something genuinely good on Threads.
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Will 🇺🇦 Absolute Shower 🇺🇦 @showerabsolute.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
This is hilariously bad but can I show you my favourite bit? Pay particular attention to the last sentence, then consider how, if at all, it relates to the preceding ones.
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Pete Miles @petermiles.eurosky.social · 25/09/2026
On the failures of privatisation and deregulation... 2/2
In reality, of course, that is not how it has played out. It is not just that the

prioritisation of private over public control of vital services and the obsession with

keeping taxes low led to the degradation of the national infrastructure base in areas

such as water, housing, transport and energy. It is that the failure of privatisation to

deliver resilience has meant that many of these sectors are now reappearing on the

public balance sheet as contingent or even actual liabilities as the state is obliged to

intervene. The costs of deregulation similarly reappeared as liabilities on the balance

sheet when the financial system collapsed in 2008. At the root of Britain's problems

lies not so much bad economics as bad accounting: it did not just spend the peace

dividend, it spent the depreciation dividend.
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mtsw @mtsw.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
once again the actual "story" behind Tilly Norwood is how the company's PR firm continues to get these stories placed in ostensibly legit outlets over and over despite zero demonstration of the supposed phenomenon being written about ("AI movie star Tilly Norwood") being real
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Mark Harris @markharris.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
A better way to phrase this Variety headline would be "Publicity Seeker Who Invented A Program Continues Long Con"
Variety headline: Tilly Norwood Would Love to Work With Tom Holland and Olivia Colman, ‘but Only If It Were Their Digital Twins’ on an ‘AI Production’
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Tom Roberts @tpgroberts.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Fundamentally, the median voter has had a tax cut since 2010 and the result is that nothing works.
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Daniel Knowles @dlknowles.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Some unintended consequences I suspect the rise of AI agents will create: 1. Restaurants that only take reservations by hand written letter, or more likely, don't take them at all. 2. Gigs where you can only buy tickets in person. 3. Businesses that operate without websites.
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Katie Martin @katie0martin.ft.com · 25/09/2026
I have blamed The agents That hacked Your website And which You probably Reasonably thought I controlled Forgive me I am rich And unaccustomed To taking responsibility
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Gareth Potter @garethpotter.com · 25/09/2026
“Oh, you’ve written your own threadpool! Marvellous. I’m sure you know better than Microsoft. I can’t wait to master its unique API.”
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Gareth Potter @garethpotter.com · 25/09/2026
I do recall a pub in Holborn running out of Guinness on St Patrick’s Day once many years ago. The chap behind the bar was very embarrassed, but…like, come on.
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phantasmAgaric 🍄 @lalonde.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
european regionalist nationalism is so funny. solidarity with the free peoples of flanders and wallonia against their hated oppressors in wallonia and flanders!!
a graphic showing western european regions with independence/autonomy movements surrounding the word 'INDEPENDÈNCIA'. from the top clockwise: scotland, corsica, the isle of man, a united ireland, cornwall, sardinia, britanny, wallonia, the basque countries, flanders, asturias, catalonia, galicia, wales, and savoy
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Kate Bevan @katebevan.com · 25/09/2026
FFS. Really important infrastructure projects shouldn't be subject to the whims of whoever happens to be in Downing Street. HS2 is a clusterfuck because twats just keep changing their minds. We should commit to big, important projects and see them through, not faff about every time we get a new PM.
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cardinal1608.bsky.social @cardinal1608.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
It mught be an early indicator that (perhaps unsurprisingly) it isn't possible for the Greens to hold together a coalition of Cotswolds Tories who don't want a solar farm in their county and tankies from Haringey who want to invade Israel.
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Research Professional News @resprofnews.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Aria funding for foreign partners ‘hard to justify’. Former science minister raises concerns as agency announces only one UK-based “activation partner”. www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-r...
researchprofessionalnews.com
Aria funding for foreign partners ‘hard to justify’ - Research Professional News
Former science minister raises concerns as agency announces only one UK-based “activation partner”
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Willard Foxton @willardfoxton.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
I think it's absolutely mad that today there's a *national news story* about 400 oil platform workers losing their jobs, and the government being blamed. 25% of the UK TV industry lost their jobs in the last 4 years and we never hear a peep about it! Some jobs are 'real jobs' I guess.
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Legal C @legalclaret.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
The law should not be a political tool. If you commit a crime, you should expect to be arrested and charged. You are also welcome to put your defence (but not make political speeches or commit contempt). But if you want the court system to become politicised… be careful what you wish for.
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Simon Usherwood @simonusherwood.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Gibraltar EES arrangements aren't yet working properly Struck by image of people travelling with copies of treaties www.theolivepress.es/spain-news/2...
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Legal C @legalclaret.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Time to call this out. There is a tendency to talk utter gibberish about recent events. To compare two different events and draw unsubstantiated conclusions. To suggest people are doing “nothing”. A short thread.
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Michael @michaeljsc.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
btw you might be thinking “I’ve seen loads of screenshots on the feed, I don’t need to read the whole piece” but take it from me, you do
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Darth Putin @darthputinkgb.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
This some advanced tankie "thought". Russia has a UNSC seat & world's largest amounts of land, gas, oil and NUKES. Russia also has no agency over our own actions and so cannot be held accountable and therefore must be excused and appeased.
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Gareth Potter @garethpotter.com · 24/09/2026
Substack ought to be a solution to this (pay once, etc.). Instead, it’s a million paywalls. (I saw your offer the other day. I considered it and just went to Waterstones and bought your book instead.)
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Gareth Potter @garethpotter.com · 24/09/2026
Anyway, you can read this one by just enabling reader mode before the dickover comes up and asks you to subscribe.
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Gareth Potter @garethpotter.com · 24/09/2026
I have always wished this would work, because the status quo doesn’t. The problem is that it was mostly the combination of subscriptions and advertising that made newspapers viable; if you salami-slice them it just doesn’t add up.
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Kate Bevan @katebevan.com · 24/09/2026
*extremely tired voice*AI agents don't "go rogue". They are not sentient; they don't have agency. They work within guardrails set by humans. If the humans are so shit at building secure sandboxes for the agents to work within, that's on the humans. Stop using this framing.
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Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Labour, and the country, need a Callaghan moment. Bracing column by @robertshrimsley.bsky.social:
ft.com
You want honesty, Andy? Britain is out of easy options
The prime minister must tell voters that Labour’s manifesto has been superseded by world events, both economic and military
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Gareth Potter @garethpotter.com · 24/09/2026
I don’t think an audio guide was offered. There are some introductory animations beforehand which are trying to pace the flow of people but some visitors just skipped past. The animations continue behind the tapestry, which in theory ought to imply some kind of pace, but it doesn’t seem to work.
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Sarah O'Connor @sarahoconnorft.ft.com · 24/09/2026
Please excuse me while I scream into a cushion at the thought of ALL the articles I had to write on the "UK productivity puzzle" in the 2010s www.ft.com/content/c819...
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Gareth Potter @garethpotter.com · 24/09/2026
Were their Latin better they could walk and translate at the same time.
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Gareth Potter @garethpotter.com · 24/09/2026
Yes, quite. It’s not clear how the ban will help. I went on the first day, took many photos and kept up with the people in front of me. The people behind me - who were not taking any photos - were…more relaxed. It felt like they needed a very slow travolator.
Harold getting it in the eye.Some people sitting round a table feasting.Odo giving Bill the benefit of his wisdom.
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Gareth Potter @garethpotter.com · 24/09/2026
Saw this on a septic tank emptier last month.
A vacuum tanker (apparently) belonging to a septic tank-emptying firm with the number plate GOO4 POO.
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Jacob Gifford Head @giffordhead.co.uk · 24/09/2026
There’s a mad aspect to this. In a case from 1946 called Re Parrott, Mr Justice Vaisey rather surprised everyone by holding that if you had been christened English law did not permit you to change your Christian name.
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Dan Davies @dsquareddigest.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
after consideration, I have produced this necessary reference guide, perhaps @sundersays.bsky.social may be interested. If someone wants to provide funding after the fact, I can promise it won't constitute a donation in kind to Reform.
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Joe @manicpixel.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
One of the real problems with "The Left" from the centre to the fringe is the fixation that it is more important that I save the world than the world gets saved
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