Gilbert Oddstream @oddstream.bsky.social · 28/09/2026Forgot about Woolworths. "On 26 November 2008, the Woolworths and Entertainment UK subsidiaries entered administration. Deloitte closed all 807 Woolworths shops between 27 December 2008 and 6 January 2009, resulting in 27,000 job losses." 120
Gilbert Oddstream @oddstream.bsky.social · 27/09/2026The “billionaires are clever, therefore they should run things” rests on a questionable transfer of competence: being excellent at accumulating wealth in one sphere does not prove that someone understands healthcare, education, democracy, urban planning, ecology, or social welfare. 011
Gilbert Oddstream @oddstream.bsky.social · 27/09/2026Asda, Morrisons, TalkTalk, Pizza Express, AA, Vue, David Lloyd, Merlin Entertainments, ... 161
Gilbert Oddstream @oddstream.bsky.social · 20/09/2026A beggar’s mistake harms no one but the beggar. A king’s mistake, however, harms everyone but the king. Too often, the measure of power lies not in the number who obey your will, but in the number who suffer your stupidity. ~ R Scott Bakker, The Judging Eye 011
Gilbert Oddstream @oddstream.bsky.social · 12/09/2026Customer? A vassal describes someone in a subordinate position who owes loyalty and tribute to a more powerful superior. While it originated in the feudal system, it is often used metaphorically today to describe a person or smaller entity that is controlled by a larger organization. 001
Gilbert Oddstream @oddstream.bsky.social · 10/09/2026If anyone hasn't read or even flicked through Invisible Doctrine: The Secret History of Neoliberalism by George Monbiot and Peter Hutchison, then they might like to. It's well written and the message lingers long in the mind. 021
Gilbert Oddstream @oddstream.bsky.social · 10/09/2026Oxford University Press used to have an informal competition for the most boring book they published each year. I remember it being won by a monograph on the Bolivian potato. I think your find beats that, though. 110
Gilbert Oddstream @oddstream.bsky.social · 06/09/2026In the early 1930s, the Daily Mail, under proprietor Lord Rothermere, openly supported Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists, whose members were known as the Blackshirts. On January 8, 1934, it published the headline “Hurrah for the Blackshirts!” 061
Gilbert Oddstream @oddstream.bsky.social · 04/09/2026Chicken periods that smell like stink bombs? Just say no. 010
Gilbert Oddstream @oddstream.bsky.social · 27/08/2026I would like to know who got to him, and how. 11300
Gilbert Oddstream @oddstream.bsky.social · 27/08/2026“Isn’t it funny how we were taught to be afraid of witches, but not the men burning them.” 020
Gilbert Oddstream @oddstream.bsky.social · 25/08/2026Typical pub with a kitchen: £600–£1,200/month on electricity alone. Pub makes £2.75 gross profit per pint, but perhaps only 15–50p as actual business profit after overheads. It just doesn't math. 000
Gilbert Oddstream @oddstream.bsky.social · 08/08/2026Does this German firm think that Trump will actually pay them? 000
Gilbert Oddstream @oddstream.bsky.social · 28/07/2026"Alonso is a difficult person to read, and he can be gnomic when he speaks." -- succinct, witty, and accurate. 000
Gilbert Oddstream @oddstream.bsky.social · 28/07/2026Andrew Benson - an eloquent, informed, and thoughtful voice of calm reason in a blizzard of hype. 101
Reposted by Gilbert OddstreamAnonymous @youranoncentral.bsky.social · 22/07/2026You can argue for any political ideology or system of government you like, but if it does not treat women equitably and recognize them as fully human, it has already failed and deserves to collapse. 9456106
Gilbert Oddstream @oddstream.bsky.social · 18/07/2026Probably not, but I can only write from my experience. I have spoken, at length, with hundreds. A few were just, well, evil, but the great majority seemed like victims. 120
Gilbert Oddstream @oddstream.bsky.social · 18/07/2026It's so sad when you talk to a drug or alcohol addict, who was traumatised as a child by their parent's drug or alcohol addition. 140
Gilbert Oddstream @oddstream.bsky.social · 18/07/2026“It did what all ads are supposed to do: create an anxiety relievable by purchase.” ~ David Foster Wallace, Infinite Jest 010
Gilbert Oddstream @oddstream.bsky.social · 18/07/2026“advertising symbolizes the art of making people dissatisfied with what they have.” ~ Joost A.M. Meerloo, The Rape of the Mind 010
Gilbert Oddstream @oddstream.bsky.social · 18/07/2026"Advertising may be described as the science of arresting human intelligence long enough to get money from it." ~ Stephen Leacock 210
Gilbert Oddstream @oddstream.bsky.social · 10/07/2026The details, rhythm, timing, and the little shock at the end are on point. Lovely work. 010
Gilbert Oddstream @oddstream.bsky.social · 13/06/2026There's this weird belief that people have, that being rich makes you smart. The richer you are, the smarter you must be. People are now realising that the richer you are, the more crooked and unethical you must be. 021
Gilbert Oddstream @oddstream.bsky.social · 05/06/2026Embrace the wab-sabi vibe of the Suffolk coast. Aldeburgh or Southwold are really good for pubs and reading on a deserted beach. 030
Gilbert Oddstream @oddstream.bsky.social · 18/05/2026A profound irony: the very system designed to protect capital has eroded the state structures required to sustain and defend it. This is a drum worth banging, loudly and often. 000
Gilbert Oddstream @oddstream.bsky.social · 06/05/2026Carney listens and communicates. His regular updates on Bluesky are positive. His academic credentials are like the big stick he carries behind his back but never has to brandish. 000
Gilbert Oddstream @oddstream.bsky.social · 02/05/2026“If a monkey hoarded more bananas than it could eat, while most of the other monkeys starved, scientists would study that monkey to figure out what the heck was wrong with it. When humans do it, we put them on the cover of Forbes.” 010
Gilbert Oddstream @oddstream.bsky.social · 01/05/2026Wanxiety (wait + anxiety), Spinxiety (spinner + anxiety)? 000
Gilbert Oddstream @oddstream.bsky.social · 01/05/2026The unspecified wait/delay that computers impose on you many times a day. Will it last one second? Ten? An hour? Am I supposed to wait, go and make a cup of tea, throw myself into a stress pit of frustration? Why couldn't the lazy programmer have added a progress bar? 350
Gilbert Oddstream @oddstream.bsky.social · 29/04/2026True story: the day after the Brexit vote, I saw a woman interviewed on TV. She said "I voted [for Brexit], but the Pakistanis who live on my street are still there - I'm disgusted". That one moment told me all I need to know about voters, racism and Brexit. 020
Gilbert Oddstream @oddstream.bsky.social · 22/04/2026It's his neoliberal sympathies that amaze and disappoint. I thought we elected a left-wing government? Who exactly is running the country now - because it isn't Starmer. 000
Gilbert Oddstream @oddstream.bsky.social · 22/04/2026You perhaps assume a level of historical education, and a level of organisation and planning. Show me the evidence, and I will support your proposition. 111
Gilbert Oddstream @oddstream.bsky.social · 09/04/2026‘Books,’ Ferro snorted. ‘Waste of fucking time.’ 020
Gilbert Oddstream @oddstream.bsky.social · 09/04/2026Say one thing for Joe, say that he writes entertaining books. 130
Gilbert Oddstream @oddstream.bsky.social · 30/03/2026Also read Carlo Cipolla's essential guide, "The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity". en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlo_M...en.wikipedia.orgCarlo M. Cipolla - Wikipedia 240
Gilbert Oddstream @oddstream.bsky.social · 24/03/2026Even as a young man, Vito Corleone became known as a “man of reasonableness.” He never uttered a threat. He always used logic that proved to be irresistible. He always made certain that the other fellow got his share of profit. Nobody lost. -- Puzo 160
Gilbert Oddstream @oddstream.bsky.social · 17/03/2026We used to drive on the left, now we drive on what's left. I'll see myself out. 061
Gilbert Oddstream @oddstream.bsky.social · 06/03/2026In 2000, Madeleine Albright, U.S. Secretary of State, said that intervention by the U.S. in the internal affairs of Iran was a setback for democratic government. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1953_Ir...en.wikipedia.org1953 Iranian coup d'état - Wikipedia 1175
Gilbert Oddstream @oddstream.bsky.social · 05/03/2026Based on his career military experience, Butler discusses how business interests commercially benefit from warfare. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_Is_...en.wikipedia.orgWar Is a Racket - Wikipedia 010
Gilbert Oddstream @oddstream.bsky.social · 04/03/2026What disgusts me is that people are profiting from students being in debt. 020
Gilbert Oddstream @oddstream.bsky.social · 03/03/2026ESG bonuses are performance-based incentives tied to environmental, social, and governance (ESG) targets, increasingly used by companies to align executive and employee compensation with sustainability goals. 020
Gilbert Oddstream @oddstream.bsky.social · 28/02/2026Your fabulous pencil rages against the dying of those in the right. 000
Gilbert Oddstream @oddstream.bsky.social · 20/02/2026As studies in the US by Christopher Achen and Larry Bartels show, the great majority of voters possess no useful political information at all. Without the time or tools needed to understand politics, we are led blithely into the arms of people who would destroy us. 010
Gilbert Oddstream @oddstream.bsky.social · 25/01/2026What is the rationale for the government to deny public ownership? The ONLY argument I've heard from them is that "if it keeps being badly run, then we will get the blame". 170
Gilbert Oddstream @oddstream.bsky.social · 17/01/2026Our system of "democracy" has been set up by the rich for the rich. The system is built to encourage good "little" people to fight other "little" people. Division and distraction. Look over there while we get on with helping ourselves to your cash. 120
Gilbert Oddstream @oddstream.bsky.social · 14/01/2026substack.com/@garrykaspar...substack.comGarry Kasparov (@garrykasparov)Dictators attack weakness, and offers of negotiations and peace are interpreted as weakness. "If you really wanted to stop me, you would. You don’t, so you are weak and so I attack." 020