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Jay Earr

@jayearr.bsky.social
199 followers 633 following 0 posts

Current-affairs interested Brit, therefore perpetually caught between blind fury and dejected despondency. 🤬😟

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Reposted by Jay Earr
Phil Jones' body double @philsbodydouble.bsky.social · 22h
Average new-build defects by country: Germany < 10 France 10 to 15 Netherlands ~20 Italy 20-25 Spain ~58 UK 130-150 Do you see this, Brits? Judging by the lack of reaction to my post below, you do not. Why do you let them get away with this in the UK? Wake the hell up, this is NOT normal.
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Sathnam Sanghera @sathnam.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
Dear tv and radio producers. Thankyou for the invitation. But, no, I do not want to appear on your show to defend the idea that I am English, after 50 years of living and working here, because the increasingly feral right want to turn this into a "debate" and you cannot see how you're being played
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Laura Bassett @lebassett.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
“If you don’t like public executions just don’t watch it” says the crowd trying to ban drag shows and books
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Eliot Higgins @eliothiggins.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Credit to the US for making the point the conference was trying to make about US foreign interference in European democracies for them, and bringing more attention to the conference and its themes than they could have possibly hoped for. www.politico.com/news/2026/10...
politico.com
EU, Canada and Lithuania pull out of disinformation conference after US pressure
The Trump administration was bothered by panels that referred to the U.S. as a disinformation threat.
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Otto English @ottoenglish.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Yes indeed I'm rather tiring of the coverage... a convicted perjuror who brazenly lied his way through life and continued to attend the House of Lords even as this poor woman's life fell apart.
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Stephen Collins @stephencollins.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
[A parody of MR ROGERS’ NEIGHBOURHOOD, in which the kindly Mr Rogers takes us to see local things in his town.]
 
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[title]
MR ROGERS’ NEIGHBOURHOOD

MR ROGERS:

Hi there

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Today, I’d like to take you to visit some of my neighbours… 

[He puts his coat on to leave his house]  

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At a wonderful local event,
 
[We see the cute toy-town diorama of his village famous from the TV show. The camera pulls out…]

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The Data Center protest.

[The camera has pulled out further and now we see a huge DATA CENTER at the edge  of town]. 

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MR ROGERS [joining a crowd protesting outside the Data Center]:

The Data Center is an enormous, windowless, endlessly humming building outside of our town

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…Which has tripled energy prices, drank all the water, and created four jobs.

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[to camera, as if kindly explaining to the viewing children]:

Four jobs! Golly!

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LADY PROTESTOR [probably NAOMI KLEIN, holding a sign]:

In a way, the Data Center is kind of a vivid metaphor for a future we feel locked out of!

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MR ROGERS [to camera again]:

A metaphor.

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That’s something that lets us clarify our feelings about something else. 

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LADY PROTESTOR:
How do you feel, Mr Rogers?

MR ROGERS:
I feel like bringing down the government!

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MR ROGERS [now holding a sign and protesting]:

It’s good to have neighbors.

[ends]
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Mr. Blabalino 🇳🇴🇺🇸💙 @blabalino.com · 02/10/2026
Always happy to help with costume ideas for your #cats.
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Crime Girl @crimegirl.co.uk · 28/09/2026
I am a barrister who once spent time seconded to the CPS serious crimes unit making charging decisions. Today, you can pretend to be one too and work through the decision-making framework in a very serious case. The police have multiple suspects in custody and the phone just rang. 👨 👨 👨 👨 👨 📱 👮‍♀️ 🚨
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Dmitry Grozoubinski @explaintrade.com · 24/09/2026
If Elon Musk and half the Tesla C-Suite were currently in jail because Grok spent weeks generating CSAM-on-demand while they memed about it, Altman and the rest might be a bit more cautious about letting their little robots commit share price friendly press releasable crimes.
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Otto English @ottoenglish.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Racists.
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Jonathan Portes @jdportes.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
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Torsten Bell @torstenbell.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
So much of the right these days have a massive patriotism problem. This guy: - is a tax exile (left long before this govt) - hates his own country while complaining he doesn’t get big enough subsidies from it - laments the manufacturing hit from a Brexit he supported www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
Billionaire Manchester United owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe says he has lost confidence in UK
Ineos founder Sir Jim Ratcliffe tells the BBC he thinks the country is "on the slide" and calls for more investment in the North Sea.
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Prem Sikka @premnsikka.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Billionaire Brexiteeer and Man United owner says he has lost confidence in the UK. Lives in Monaco to avoid UK taxes, owns several luxury properties. Demands state subsidies, including for building a Man U stadium. Why do billionaires resent people getting decent NHS, social care, public services?
bbc.co.uk
Billionaire Manchester United owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe says he has lost confidence in UK
Ineos founder Sir Jim Ratcliffe tells the BBC he thinks the country is "on the slide" and calls for more investment in the North Sea.
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Ash Oro @ashoro.co.uk · 18/09/2026
Just going to put an aside here: This caller got me - and all I could think was: This is what needs to be played when people ask "What is masculinity supposed to be?" A man that risks his life for others for no pay, thinking of how this may affect his family and breaking down. Hero...
youtube.com
LBC caller fights back tears discussing RNLI abuse
YouTube video by LBC
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Chaminda Jayanetti @cjayanetti.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
I think I'm 15 years past the point when I was absolutely done with being badgered into having an opinion on every single fucking thing. Most of this stuff doesn't much matter, and as Harriet says half the time the controversy is the objective. Save your brain, ignore it and move on
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Otto English @ottoenglish.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
Britain is just looking on as a handful of tax hating billionaires buy our political future.
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Alex Andreou @sturdyalex.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
Seems to me that tech bros are hijacking the narrative to claim Some Mysterious and Uncontrollable Thing is being created, even as they continue to create The Very Thing. At this development stage, there is 0% chance that AI destroys humanity. There's a decent chance humanity destroys humanity.
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Mike Drucker @mikedrucker.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
You’ve gotta use AI because it’s the future. But also it’ll take your job. But also it’ll create a paradise on earth and solve most of our problems. But also it’ll end humanity soon. But also you’ll get left behind if you don’t use it right now.
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Nick Pettigrew @nick-pettigrew.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
I just think that risking your life at a moment's notice to save people you've never met in exchange for no money is a better expression of patriotism than dressing up like a Poundshop paramilitary and intimidating families with kids trying to get onto a ferry.
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Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
For a sign of how absurd this is, *Theodor Herzl* did not observe dietary laws particularly closely, did not keep Shabbat, and was not in any way religious!
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Larry the Cat @number10cat.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Since its foundation in 1824 the bravery of Royal National Lifeboat Institution volunteers has saved more than 146,700 lives at sea. Hundreds of those volunteers have died attempting to save others. They are the best of us.
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John Oxley @joxley.jmoxley.co.uk · 05/09/2026
A large group of co-ordinated, masked men blockading a piece of significant infrastructure is a security threat and should be dealt with as one. There should also be serious questions about why police/intelligence services didn't pick up on it in advance.
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The Empty City @davidallengreen.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
Seems the difference between ‘protestors’ and ‘terrorists’ is that protestors wear balaclavas while terrorists hold placards.
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Robert Hutton @roberthutton.co.uk · 05/09/2026
How could an associate professor in divinity at Cambridge be expected to know that lying is bad? thecritic.co.uk/mone...
Ah yes, James Orr. A lot of us had been hazy about what it is exactly that associate professors in a divinity department do all day. It doesn’t seem to involve a lot of work: Orr is often to be seen at Reform events in London, which take up the whole morning even for those of us with offices down the road. Now we know he was also sipping cocktails while discussing ways in which wealthy foreigners might be able to get round the laws that ban them donating to the party.

The associate professor of divinity was filmed explaining to an undercover reporter that so long as everyone kept their mouths shut, there was no way that the authorities would ever find out. Orr spent four years as a postdoctoral fellow in theology, ethics and public life at Oxford, and it would be fascinating to know at what point he developed this theory of What the Electoral Commission Don’t Know Won’t Hurt Them. Perhaps he was off sick the day they opened the gospel of Luke: “What you have said in the dark will be h
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Dan Neidle @danneidle.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
The Post Office told wrongly-accused postmasters that their compensation offers were secret, and couldn't be shown to anyone. That was false. The Solicitors Regulation Authority was about to prosecute the lawyers responsible. But now it's dropped the case, and won't say why.
Having considered the representations and other information received from the Firm we have decided to close the investigation. Our view is that the Firm exercised proper professional judgment when coming to a decision on the legal position as regards the explanation of the “without prejudice” label in the correspondence that was sent to sub-postmasters relating to the Horizon Shortfall Scheme.

The SRA will close the matter with no further action.
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Musa Okwonga @okwonga.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
From this review- “Think of all the diligent, decent black academics who have been lumbered with the embarrassment of having Arday as a figurehead” - no, think of *why* black academics are held collectively responsible in ways that white academics are not
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Dmitry Grozoubinski @explaintrade.com · 10/08/2026
College kids defacing a McDonalds during a climate change rally lead to calls to call in the tanks, whereas coke-head wife beaters trying to burn refugees alive get sorrowful expressions of sympathy for their "legitimate underlying concerns" and "lads with strong feelings, what can you do?" shrug.
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By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 08/08/2026
Hardly a day goes by without my getting email from someone looking for ways to do good with tech. From computer science students thinking about post-grad careers to seasoned coders with decades of experience, there's an army of hackers looking for a way to turn their expertise into public goods. 1/
The giant head of the Statue of Liberty. Around it are many medieval machines, tended by little medieval rude mechanicals. In the background is a crosshatched architectural drawing of some classical arches and such.
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By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 30/07/2026
With "surveillance pricing," businesses have finally found something AI can do way, way, *way* better than people: price gouging. 1/
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London Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · 28/07/2026
Bluesky users really are 𝘓𝘙𝘉 people. Even if you don’t know it yet. Try us out for 3 months for just £6, to see: subscription.lrb.co.uk/offers/social
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Warren Oates @warrenoates1.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
#SaveJodrellBank It's been announced that Jodrell Bank Observatory, which houses the UK's largest telescope, will lose it's government funding and could close. This would be absolutely devastating for the 3000 scientists who use it in their work. It will save just £2.8m a year. 1/2
bbc.co.uk
Jodrell Bank's Lovell telescope faces axe in science cuts, BBC understands
Astronomers warn it would tear the heart out of UK science, and leave a generation untrained.
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Josiah Mortimer @josiahmortimer.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
Spokesperson for Sadiq Khan on new stats showing 36,000 fewer neighbourhood crimes across London over the last year, down 15%. "Musk, Farage [and] the captains of online disinformation...want to paint London as a dystopian hellhole. "Crime is coming down even further. London is getting safer."
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Tomas Hirst @tomashirstecon.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
Lot of commentary about UK’s economic missteps - through line for me is that the series of shocks the country has experienced reduced the role of sterling as a reserve currency without reducing financialisation of the domestic economy. So raised cost of capital without reducing reliance on leverage.
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Alex Andreou @sturdyalex.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
The danger of using voxpops in place of real analysis. Cameras are a magnet for motivated activists. These two made it into four different reels + a dozen print pieces. The illusion is that we're getting an insight into "Clacton voters". In truth, we just know what Farage Megastans Jim & June think.
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Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
This is why @stephenkb.bsky.social is right the BBC shouldn't do comment. Their rules on impartiality make it impossible not to do "on the one hand" caveats to the point of absurdity.
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Adam Bienkov @adambienkov.bsky.social · 28/06/2026
So it turns out the massive scandal here is that Bridget Phillipson's mum bought a council house for £9k in 1990 and then sold it *33 years* later for £99k. That's the entire story
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Twlldun @twlldun.bsky.social · 21/06/2026
My against the grain of Bluesky opinion is that we should be campaigning for the - say - Belfast knife attack to have the same amount of coverage as the Edinburgh knife attacks, and not vice versa.
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The Empty City @davidallengreen.bsky.social · 15/06/2026
An aphorism for the ages.
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Holly Brockwell @hollyqueenofspayeds.com · 02/06/2026
I would REALLY like to see the cat road collisions petition actually get somewhere this time. Two weeks left to get it over the 100k line so ministers can't just shrug and go "nah that's just for dogs" as they have previously. Please sign and share:
petition.parliament.uk
Petition: Legislate to require drivers to report collisions with cats
It is legal in the UK to hit a cat when driving and not need to stop or report collisions, leaving them scared, alone, and in pain. Cats are important, loved, valued family members for many and we believe the law should reflect this.
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Laura Chapin @laurachapin.bsky.social · 14/05/2026
Here's the thing: for all the handwringing over declining birth rates, one of the taboo reasons women aren't having kids is because...we don't want to. The social compact for our mothers & grandmothers was financial stability meant getting married & having kids with a man who made 'provider' money.
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Peter Stefanovic @peterstefanovic.bsky.social · 02/05/2026
Migrant Channel crossings down by third as Europe thwarts smugglers More boats and engines are being seized and routes are being blocked off amid better co-operation across the Continent www.thetimes.com/uk/transport...
thetimes.com
Migrant Channel crossings down by third as Europe thwarts smugglers
More boats and engines are being seized and routes are being blocked off amid better co-operation across the Continent
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Twlldun @twlldun.bsky.social · 25/04/2026
The decision of Piers Morgan to let this play out and keep filming is a spectacular bit of comedy of embarrassment. An anxiety dream of comedy.
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Prem Sikka @premnsikka.bsky.social · 07/04/2026
Private equity controls our lives from the cradle to the grave. Profiteers from hospitals, nurseries, housing, care homes, undertakers. Business model - high prices, low staffing/wages, high debt, asset-stripping, tax abuse. Life commodified & financialised. Profits for the few, misery for many.
theguardian.com
Want to know capitalism’s endgame? Just look at private equity – it has captured our everyday lives | Hettie O'Brien
These companies now own everything from nurseries to care homes, squeezing vital services for profit while we foot the bill, says Hettie O’Brien, author of The Asset Class: How Private Equity Turned C...
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christhebarker @christhebarker.bsky.social · 04/04/2026
Incredible picture: Orion snapped this high-resolution selfie in space with a camera mounted on one of its solar array wings during a routine external inspection of the spacecraft on the second day into the Artemis II mission. Credit: NASA
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Prem Sikka @premnsikka.bsky.social · 23/03/2026
In February 2026, annual gross median wage of a UK employee was £31,032, £25,863 after income tax and NIC. Hard to survive, raise families, buy home, save for pension. 1% have more wealth than 70% of the population combined. Can't grow economy without equitable distribution of income and wealth.
ons.gov.uk
Earnings and employment from Pay As You Earn Real Time Information, UK - Office for National Statistics
Monthly estimates of payrolled employees and their pay from HM Revenue and Customs' (HMRC's) Pay As You Earn (PAYE) Real Time Information (RTI) data. This is a joint release between HMRC and the Offic...
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Tim Bale @timbale.bsky.social · 13/03/2026
Anglosphere agony vs Nordic nirvana. (PS Can't believe I'd never seen this graph before, so grateful to @stephenkb.bsky.social for sharing in his fab morning newsletter (www.ft.com/inside-polit...)
Graph of average annual fees for BA/BSc or equivalent courses in the OECD showing England as the most expensive and Nordics the least
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