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Tom H

@nomist.bsky.social
103 followers 259 following 163 posts

History teacher, parent. “Sings enthusiastically, if not always tunefully” (Year 2 school report).

PostsRepliesMedia
Reposted by Tom H
Rachel Cunliffe @rmcunliffe.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
I’m a dual national. I’m not planing on committing any crimes anytime soon, let alone ones with a sentence of 5+ years, but if I ever did I’m not sure why my second passport should disqualify me from facing the same British justice system as everyone else and instead strip me of my citizenship
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Ash Oro @ashoro.co.uk · 22/09/2026
1/23 Sorry, this will be long... There is a lot of shouting about what happened in the Channel yesterday. So I want to go back to basic law. Not immigration policies or political rhetoric. At sea, the starting point is simple: Preservation of life comes first under all maritime conventions.
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Louie Stowell @louiestowell.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
To celebrate Hobbit day yesterday (happy belated birthday frodo and bilbo btw) I've listened to the pilot episode of Eleanor and Alasdair Read That which I realised i'd missed, about the hobbit. Highly recommend! www.podbean.com/ew/pb-gx3r7-...
podbean.com
We Read The Hobbit - Pilot Episode
Eleanor and Alasdair read The Hobbit. J. R. R. Tolkien's 1937 novel is a millennial horror story about a guy who has to attend an unexpected party. It's also a children's fantasy classic, and the insp...
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Tom H @nomist.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
He’s offering to close 500 betting shops, you say?
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Zach Weinersmith @zachweinersmith.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
I believe I have discovered the first theodicy that works
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Ben Newmark @bennewmark.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
This is irritating and comes over as out of touch middle-class hand wringing. The problem we have with school dinners is portion size. Noticeably declined over the last ten years. Make sure they have enough to eat before we fuss about what. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
Deep-fried food banned under new school dinner rules in England
The government describes its new school food standards as "once-in-a-generation changes".
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Ben Newmark @bennewmark.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Inspired by @ensermark.bsky.social latest blog I spent lunchtime doing the same. Stop Making Them Copy. bennewmark.wordpress.com/2026/09/09/s...
bennewmark.wordpress.com
Stop Making Them Copy
As a young teacher, I used copying as a classroom management technique. And it sort of worked. If I made disruptive pupils copy in silence and was stern with those who weren’t, I was sometimes able…
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Nadine Batchelor-Hunt @nadinebh.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
This is an overtly political statement unbecoming for a chief rabbi that conflates Jews and Israel and does not represent the views of me or people like me I could say more, but it’s almost Rosh Hashanah and I don’t want to start the new year badly - and, frankly, its awfulness speaks for itself
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Robert Saunders @robertsaunders.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
A suggested statement for Andy Burnham.
‘The British public decided in the 1930s that they would not tolerate black-shirted militias marching through their streets. They would cherish robust political argument; they would not accept thuggery and intimidation. When Oswald Mosley led his Blackshirts to Cable Street, local people turned them back. A new law – introduced by a Liberal, backed by Labour and carried by a Conservative majority – banned private militias, political uniforms and ‘the use or display of physical force in promoting any political object’. The British people are as determined today as in the 1930s that they will not accept the methods of Mussolini and the Munich Beer Hall. This government will uphold the law and defend the traditions of British democracy’.
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The Empty City @davidallengreen.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
NEW The legal agony of Wile E Coyote Coyote vs Acme may be one of the best films about civil litigation ever made By me, at @prospectmagazine.co.uk www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ideas/law/th...
prospectmagazine.co.uk
The legal agony of Wile E Coyote
Coyote vs Acme may be one of the best films about civil litigation ever made
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Helene von Bismarck @helenebismarck.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
I just watched the documentary and strongly suggest you do the same.
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Tom H @nomist.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Rode my luck a bit today www.maptap.gg September 3 98🎯 97🔥 98🎯 97🔥 99🎯 Final score: 979
maptap.gg
🎯MapTap Daily Geography Game
Play MapTap - the daily geography game! Find 5 world locations on a 3D globe with historical stories. Free browser-based daily game for geography lovers.
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Simon Nixon @nixonsimon.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Amazing. It seems that plagiarism is only a problem for The Times when black people do it
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Tom H @nomist.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Oh, is that what Mel Stride looks like then?
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Tom H @nomist.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
An eye-opening pair of graphs from the Economist. Students who used AI to rush through (and ace) their homework did worse in exams. No surprise there. But those who used AI slowly, to support their learning, did about the same as those without AI. economist.com/graphic-deta...
Graph showing exam scores against homework completion time Graph showing exam scores against homework scores, separated according to student use of AI
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404 Media @404media.co · 17/08/2026
EXCLUSIVE: 404 Media placed a tracking device in a shipment of rare books to see which AI company was buying it, and found an Amazon facility where Amazon scans and destroys books. @evystadium.bsky.social has more. Investigation by @emanuelmaiberg.bsky.social here: www.404media.co/we-tracked-a...
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Tom H @nomist.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
“I would politely suggest that rather than getting primary schools to develop NEET strategies, the better public policy option is for the government to develop a growth strategy” @daisychristo.bsky.social on blistering form open.substack.com/pub/daisychr...
open.substack.com
Schools aren’t to blame for the NEET crisis
When learning more doesn’t help you earn more
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Tom H @nomist.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
Just another AI scandal where USA jurisprudence wrecks things for the rest of humanity
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Tom H @nomist.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
This, of course, was the real highlight of Starmer’s premiership.
Kier Starmer wearing an anorak while everyone else is in a cheap plastic poncho at the Paris Olympics opening ceremony
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Jacob Harris @jacobharr.is · 19/07/2026
From ludic.mataroa.blog/blog/ai-mani... Not surprising for anybody who knows about Goodhart’s Law
Others are being measured on their Al bills with "token leaderboards", where higher is better because I have evidently fallen into the pocket of Hell where the demons torment me by doing elaborate impressions of absolute fucking morons, so the people hired for their freakish ability to perform system optimisation do the obvious thing. They set the LLMs prompting themselves in a semi-plausible loop in case someone inspects the token consumption and then they watch Netflix. Not a single one has been caught, even when their own assessment of the output is that it isn't suitable for deployment.
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Dorian Lynskey @dorianlynskey.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
I reckon everybody has something that brings out the puritan in them. For me it's not drink or drugs or smoking or teenage social media use, etc. It's the astonishing spread of sports betting and prediction markets. Just seems really bad for individuals and society to turn the world into a casino.
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Philippe Auclair @philippeauclair.bsky.social · 18/07/2026
New in @josimarfootball.bsky.social. "It's only the West which goes after Infantino. The rest of the world doesn't care". Adjib Koulamallah, a magistrate and former Deputy GenSec of the Chadian Football Federation, disagrees. "Africa is silent because its silence has been budgeted for", he says.
josimarfootball.com
An Open Letter to the President of Fifa - josimarfootball.com
Op-ed by Adjib Koulamallah, magistrate, former president of Gazelle FC and Deputy Secretary General of the Chadian Football Federation. “Mr. President, I speak at the very moment when my entire contin...
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Ben Newmark @bennewmark.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
Evidence Informed? My recent speech from ResearchED on why I'm so worried about our direction of travel and why once again we may need to fight for evidence informed education. bennewmark.wordpress.com/2026/07/07/e...
Screenshot of text from the linked blog post.
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Tom H @nomist.bsky.social · 22/06/2026
A lovely article www.theguardian.com/football/202...
theguardian.com
Maybe this World Cup will bring the best out of the US, not the worst | Barney Ronay
Tournament could hold up a useful hand mirror to the isolationism and divisiveness of Trump’s joint-hosts
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John Oxley @joxley.jmoxley.co.uk · 21/06/2026
What *is* the point of public funding if it's not to subsidise things we need but commercial broadcasters won't do?
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Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
Everyone on X and elsewhere who called for a violent response should be charged with incitement. Everyone involved in the pogrom should be locked up with exemplary sentences. Govt should make it clear that will be the response in future anywhere else. Enough.
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Tom H @nomist.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
How is this an appropriate use of public funds, putting up pro-Sadiq propaganda in tube stations? I’m not a hater, but I am a taxpayer.
Poster celebrating ‘ten years together for London’
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Stephen Collins @stephencollins.bsky.social · 14/05/2025
british fan chat
cartoon for the guardian by Stephen Collins - script as follows:

[Scene is a darkened LOFT. Amongst the boxes and junk are FOUR KNACKERED OLD FANS - three tower fans and one circular, with cracked grey plastic and buttons missing. One fan, TOWER FAN 1, is a bit taller than the others, and is addressing them]

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TOWER FAN 1:
Right lads, get ready.

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TOWER FAN 1:
This is our time.

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TOWER FAN 1:
The time when we remember who we are, and why we’re here.

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TOWER FAN 1:
We are the four crap fans in a British person’s loft,

and we are here to make absolutely no difference whatsoever.

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TOWER FAN 1:
I know what you’re 
thinking, lads:

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TOWER FAN 1:
Surely this will be the year they finally replace us?

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TOWER FAN 1:
Our plastic’s gone all brown... I haven’t oscillated since 2018...

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TOWER FAN 1:
Dave here sounds like a spitfire and blows like a sad cat’s sigh… 

TOWER FAN 2:
Cheers mate

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TOWER FAN 1:
But no. These people are British, and every year, they forget the sun exists.

By the time they remember, 
new fans will cost *four million pounds* on Amazon.

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TOWER FAN 1:
So we’ll be back down there... shovelling thick air across the moaning faces of a species that cannot comprehend the concept of air conditioning, or even just closing the curtains when it’s hot out...

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TOWER FAN 1:
...while they incessantly bang on about normally hot countries which this country is now temporarily a bit hotter than.

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[The loft hatch opens and a person comes up the ladder]
PERSON:
APPARENTLY IT’S HOTTER THAN GREECE, LISA
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Tom H @nomist.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
Not sure about this new Enid Blyton book tbh.
Headline: Five arrested over conspiracy to defraud…
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Tom H @nomist.bsky.social · 15/05/2026
“Far right anti-Zionism will not bring about a free Palestine; its racism will eventually be turned on Palestinians and Arabs. But given these distortions of the term… isn’t there a case for switching to the language of pro-Palestine?” Important, nuanced and positive from @josephfinlay.bsky.social
toratalbion.org.uk
From anti-Zionist to pro-Palestine
A case for positive language
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Tom H @nomist.bsky.social · 10/05/2026
Humanists showing how to be mensches
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Jonathan Portes @jdportes.bsky.social · 10/05/2026
Completely unacceptable from the Board of Deputies. This nakedly partisan hypocrisy does not represent me or many other British Jews. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...
Michael Wegier, executive director of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, told Haaretz that Reform UK “is a serious party with many supporters, local councillors, and an increasing number of members of Parliament from month to month, which cannot be ignored. They have also expressed very broad support for the fight against antisemitism. There was no way we would not invite them.”

He added: “We did not invite the Greens’ Zack Polanski because we very strongly do not believe he has done enough to root out antisemitism from his party.”
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Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 09/05/2026
This is a real and repeated problem and it’s so easy to fix for a marginal additional cost! Just randomise ballot order!
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Tom H @nomist.bsky.social · 07/05/2026
Spare a thought for all the parents who have to take a day off work because their kids’ schools are closed for the elections. An expensive disruption for education and the economy. At the last GE, it was 9% of primaries closed!
TeacherTapp statistics showing 3 percent of schools are closed for today’s elections.
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🖌 Myandra sez: 🖍 Impeach the MF'er soon. We're waiting. @myandra.bsky.social · 11/04/2026
This is tragically beautiful.
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David Schraub @schraubd.bsky.social · 06/04/2026
I have new paper coming out, "Smothering (the Fight Against) Antisemitism", that discusses an underappreciated impact of Trump's hyper-aggressive interventions against (real and imagined) antisemitism: Their net effect is likely to *deter* Jews from testifying about antisemitism they experience!
papers.ssrn.com
Smothering (the Fight Against) Antisemitism
Just one year into his second term, the Trump administration has—under the guise of fighting antisemitism—shattered preexisting norms that historically acted to
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Daniel Sugarman @danielsugarman.bsky.social · 07/04/2026
I think this comment piece sums up the Kanye West - UK Jewish community meeting offer well. Last week West performed in LA. Local Jewish groups were vocal in their opposition. He didn't offer to meet them - most likely because he knew he didn't have to. www.jewishnews.co.uk/kanye-west-s...
jewishnews.co.uk
Kanye West should meet British Jews on their terms, not his
The challenge with apologies that arrive on the back of consequence is that they may be sincere, but they are indistinguishable from strategy
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Naomi @naomicath.bsky.social · 05/04/2026
It’s time to post one of my favorite memes of the year.
Two pictures of the pillsbury dough boy: once is on a purple background with the caption “he is risen! happy Easter!”, and the other is tan and brown, similar to a cracker, on a white background saying “he is not! Happy Passover!”
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ChristianG @mryeswecan.eurosky.social · 23/03/2026
So, about those Eid prayers in London... "What's the highest thing in Trafalgar Square?" "Nelson's column, innit?" "And the highest thing on the column?" "Nelson." "And on Nelson?" "His hat." "And the highest thing on his hat?" "That bit that sticks up." 1/8
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Angry People in Local Newspapers @apiln.bsky.social · 18/03/2026
STICK IT ON A FIVE POUND NOTE
bbc.co.uk
Red kite with sausage roll snapped by Banbury photographer
Mark Hopkins managed to get some pictures of the bird from his back garden.
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John Bull @garius.bsky.social · 30/07/2024
On 16th March, 1968 Warrant Officer Hugh Thompson Jnr was flying helicopter recon for a US attack on My Lai, an alleged Viet Cong-controlled village in Vietnam. But as the attack developed below, Thompson realised he was witnessing something something else: A massacre. He decided to act. 1/28
a young, brown-haired, clean-shaven american man in a green army uniform. he looks stern.
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Joel S. @joelhs.bsky.social · 15/03/2026
At a time of rising antisemitism, the Trump administration is trying to make American Jews into wards of the state, whose safety depends on political compliance. It's a bargain we should refuse, as I explain here: forward.com/opinion/8126...
forward.com
Trump has forced an impossible choice on American synagogues amid antisemitic attacks
New conditions on federal security grants pit Jews' safety against that of immigrants
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Jo Kibble (Political Animal) @politicanimal.bsky.social · 03/03/2026
If anyone is friends with any Georgian air traffic controllers, buy them a nice bottle of wine. As guardians of pretty much the only narrow gap still available between Europe and Asia that avoids both Iran, the Gulf, Ukraine and Russia, they are under some substantial pressure.
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Ian Martin @ianmartin.bsky.social · 01/03/2026
This is good. observer.co.uk/news/opinion...
observer.co.uk
I won’t remain silent on this cynical war | The Observer
Israelis overwhelmingly back the strikes on Iran, but the most patriotic thing to do is to ask ‘to what end?’
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Tom H @nomist.bsky.social · 28/02/2026
Exactly the same as when Israel scuppered our negotiations with Nasser in 1956: he had already made multiple concessions on the management of the Suez Canal when they attacked and we were then forced to engage in a peacekeeping action to calm the situation. Luckily 🇫🇷 could help on that occasion.
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Tom H @nomist.bsky.social · 26/02/2026
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Arieh Kovler @ariehkovler.com · 22/02/2026
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Claire Sheppard @shinyshep.bsky.social · 17/02/2026
Well you know what day it is! m.youtube.com/watch?v=lS9J...
m.youtube.com
HD Pancake Day Song - Maid Marian and her Merry Men - with Pancake Recipe!
YouTube video by Prosser Family Adventures
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Yair Wallach @yairwallach.bsky.social · 14/02/2026
For some people, shouting "we don't want no Zionists here" is like "we don't want no fascists here". I can see their argument - terrible things were done in the name of Zionism. But almost all Jews would hear "we don't want no Jews here". And they have good reason to fear this is the subtext.
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