Reposted by John BlakeJonn Elledge @jonnelledge.bsky.social · 29/09/2026"And so conference, I pledge to you today: another missing Hartnell episode, back at the BBC, by 2030 - AND an ambition to find a missing Troughton." 61059
Reposted by John BlakeRob Palk @robpalk.bsky.social · 29/09/2026Amazing contrast to Starmer's buttoned up style as Burnham delivers his speech stripped to the waist and covered in peanut butter, repeatedly diving into the audience 1642497
John Blake @johndavidblake.bsky.social · 28/09/2026Is this an apology for his despicable management of the vote for Britain to play its part against the Assad regime’s use of chemical weapons when he was Labour leader? Because that is by far the greater betrayal of Labour’s internationalist credentials I’ve ever seen. 100
Reposted by John BlakeAlondra Nelson @alondra.bsky.social · 27/09/2026The idea that people want AI oversight to happen "all of a sudden" ignores years of research, warnings, and policy efforts. The delay hasn’t been a lack of awareness; it’s been because of years of industry lobbying against regulation, political resistance, and inaction. 37932245
John Blake @johndavidblake.bsky.social · 27/09/2026You can see why Sly didn’t take Hopper’s concept art forward for the movie, hard to see Ivan Drago in this. 000
John Blake @johndavidblake.bsky.social · 27/09/2026Huh, god forbid foreign investors try to bring new industry to the countryside. 000
Reposted by John BlakeIt's Pipes, Mum! Pipes is here! @scriblit.bsky.social · 27/09/2026*blackadder theme* His head is bigger than a fence He breathes, and everything gets warmer His urge to trample represents A nation's nuclear war trauma Godzilla! Godzilla! The scourge of beast and man! Godzilla! Godzilla! He's flattening Japan! 23967356
Reposted by John BlakeDmitry Grozoubinski @explaintrade.com · 27/09/2026I'm not exactly Reacher either, but then I don't let them put my face on posters with the word "Muscular" in size 72 font. This looks like if the Crusades were to liberate an Apple Store Genius Bar. 1617528
Reposted by John BlakeProf Bob Davis @rokewood.bsky.social · 26/09/2026On the anniversary of #StamfordBridge, & with the #BayeuxTapestry back in England, it is salutary to note that 1 of the biggest historiographical shifts of the last 30yrs has been recognition of the scale of the Viking impact on these islands—of which the Normans are culmination 011
John Blake @johndavidblake.bsky.social · 20/09/2026At last, some good electoral news for Republicans. 000
Reposted by John BlakeNeil Norman And His Cosmic Orchestra @fubsyshabaroon.bsky.social · 15/09/2026Kim Trilby. 2014221
John Blake @johndavidblake.bsky.social · 10/09/2026Alternative suggestion: why not free the CofE from its bond to the state of a multi-ethnic and increasingly secular-majority country? 000
Reposted by John BlakeMark Wallace @wallaceme.bsky.social · 08/09/2026Good luck to Putin if he ever tries to push this official out of a window. 3837471
Reposted by John BlakeScott Wortley @scottwortley.bsky.social · 08/09/2026I was Montie's Groundhog A film in which one man resigns from a right wing political party every day for the rest of his eternal life 0248
Reposted by John BlakeStephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 06/09/20262) and 3) are intimately linked, in that the BBC (the organisation that really matters in the modern environment) treats 'claims by rival parties' as the operating frame for how it covers everything. The failure from Labour and the Conservatives to say 'this stuff is bad' is really, really bad. 341090340
Reposted by John BlakeBrendel @brendelbored.bsky.social · 05/09/2026Yes I can hear you Tanguy Destable 421879173
John Blake @johndavidblake.bsky.social · 02/09/2026Disappointing lack of constitutional awareness in explaining the rejection too — Parliament is competent to do anything that it wishes to do, even the stuff it’s said it won’t or things it can’t possibly control. 131
John Blake @johndavidblake.bsky.social · 01/09/2026“Be the stoned pig you want to see in the world” 000
John Blake @johndavidblake.bsky.social · 01/09/2026To be fair, “Dying obscenely rich but hated and unmourned is good actually” is about as zeitgeist-y as you’d could get today. 021
Reposted by John BlakeDomain Expansion: Joyful Chaos Dimension @pricethecreator.bsky.social · 31/08/2026"Am I joke to you, Sharon??" 13588851070
John Blake @johndavidblake.bsky.social · 31/08/2026This feels like a perfectly sound set up in a time of war. 000
Reposted by John BlakeBanjon @beardybanjo.bsky.social · 31/08/2026This is pretty much the exact plot of the Blackadder Christmas special 0154
John Blake @johndavidblake.bsky.social · 29/08/2026The United States is currently at war with Iran. 001
Reposted by John BlakeGrace Robertson 🏳️⚧️ @graceonfootball.com · 29/08/2026pangram, the oft-cited "good" model, has twice in a row now told me sections of my newsletter i wrote myself were ai, then two sentence tweaks threw it off. so let me be extremely sceptical of the pangram guy's claims here. 310220
John Blake @johndavidblake.bsky.social · 28/08/2026This is more awful than I could have imagined: actively degrading US military capacity in the face of the enemy for the sake of the pride of a profoundly unqualified man. It is hard to imagine how dedicated enemy agents could do more damage. 011
John Blake @johndavidblake.bsky.social · 27/08/2026This is not the correct lesson about imperialism to draw from the history of France. 030
John Blake @johndavidblake.bsky.social · 27/08/2026Peter Cullen AND Tim Curry? God clearly determined to reboot 90s Disney cartoons with only the best available cast. 000
John Blake @johndavidblake.bsky.social · 27/08/2026We will all — and probably quite quickly and for some considerable time — regret that this has been allowed to happen. 173
Reposted by John BlakeJasmin Mujanović @jasminmuj.bsky.social · 27/08/2026The convicted Bosnian Serb genocidaire Ratko Mladic has died in a prison cell. He has died in a prison cell, while despite all of his murderous efforts little Bosniak girls and little Bosniak boys are again being born all across Bosnia and Herzegovina. You lost, Ratko. 6630115
John Blake @johndavidblake.bsky.social · 26/08/2026I have watched Clue thousands of times, and it is always brilliant, and it absolutely shouldn’t be — who in their right mind would think a film based on a board game would work? But it does so brilliantly, and Tim Curry’s holding all three of the final reels together is triumphant. 010
John Blake @johndavidblake.bsky.social · 26/08/2026static.klipy.comTim Curry's Wadsworth Eye Roll in ClueALT: Tim Curry's Wadsworth Eye Roll in Clue 010
John Blake @johndavidblake.bsky.social · 23/08/2026In an age of TV detective prequels and spin offs, my suggestion: Miss Lemon Investigates - while Poirot is away on lengthy sojourns to the Middle East where, suspiciously, loads of people keep dying, Miss Lemon keeps having to fill in at home with the inexpert help of Capt Hastings. 030
John Blake @johndavidblake.bsky.social · 22/08/2026New idiom for use when something has happened that you don’t fully approve of but consider to be an ambitious attempt none the less. 010
John Blake @johndavidblake.bsky.social · 20/08/2026There is a lot in this discussion but mostly it makes me think: wow, higher education is really a very long way behind the (English) school system in even thinking about ideas of validity and reliability in assessment. 020
John Blake @johndavidblake.bsky.social · 19/08/2026Some thoughts on Burnham’s first few weeks and how post-18 education still lacks co-ordination even to be successfully devolved. Also, quite a bit about Vladimir Lenin. wonkhe.com/blogs/the-se...wonkhe.com 001
Reposted by John BlakeRobert Stribley @stribs.bsky.social · 16/08/2026It’s hard to imagine a better way to capture how little interest Trump has in the lives of real human beings than to see him support Kim Jong-Un’s vile and oppressive regime over our South Korea. It’s a position that projects both ignorance and contempt for all the people living in both nations. 19494123
Reposted by John BlakeMrs Quent @quarkquent.bsky.social · 14/08/2026Please just want to remind everyone about the reporting (or even public discussion) guidelines around suicide - suicide is not ever caused by any one reason and speculating on (or even announcing) why someone completed suicide is really unhelpful, incl. to people with suicidal ideation 319870
John Blake @johndavidblake.bsky.social · 14/08/2026Up next: HMG warns the entire country against spoiling the next series of Ludwig before the PM has had the chance to watch it. 192
John Blake @johndavidblake.bsky.social · 14/08/2026Someone in government has just had an enjoyable 10 minutes finding out what that big red button in the Cabinet Office does. 1241
Reposted by John BlakeJoe Scaramanga @joescaramanga.co.uk · 07/08/2026Got the place to yourself have you? Can watch anything you want can you? youtu.be/na96q7vCULYyoutu.beUK TV Temporary Faults 1978-2020 - Part One 1978-2006YouTube video by UK TV Moments 3134
John Blake @johndavidblake.bsky.social · 07/08/2026Dobby is a terrible character and my only problem with this desecrating his grave is that it is insufficiently frivolous to be the thing that smashes apart the dreams of anyone who thinks he’s a good thing. 000
John Blake @johndavidblake.bsky.social · 05/08/2026I’ve done a post on the recent curriculum kerfuffles, and why I have firms views about the specifics, but I think that part of the problem is that education is complex system, and I try to explain why here:substack.comIs it possible that both Nick Gibb and Lucy Powell are right?It seems unlikely. 011
John Blake @johndavidblake.bsky.social · 04/08/2026A good way to think about the current Whitehall state is that everything is one circle of power removed from where it should be: HMT is the actual government, treats depts like arms-length bodies, depts treat their agencies like constituents, and there’s nothing left for actual citizens. 120
John Blake @johndavidblake.bsky.social · 02/08/2026Might it be in any way relevant that, by the end of our longest war with France, England had lost everything and France was the most powerful state in the world? 000
Reposted by John BlakeJames O'Malley @jamesomalley.co.uk · 31/07/2026Come to the visitor centre and learn about the science that doesn’t happen at Jodrell Bank! 46518