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Oliver Lough

@olough.bsky.social
400 followers 380 following 525 posts

Humanitarian research and M&E; Kyiv, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Erbil, SOAS, Kabul, Beijing; feminist; Londoner. Everything is on fire or worse. All opinions my own. He/him

PostsRepliesMedia
Oliver Lough @olough.bsky.social · 4h
So it turns out the atrocities of 2017 never actually stopped, just continued under new management. This is unremittingly awful. www.theguardian.com/global-devel...
theguardian.com
‘They showed no mercy’: mapping the Rohingya villages being erased by rebel forces
Nearly a decade after the ethnic cleansing of Rohingya people by Myanmar forces, satellite images show the insurgent Arakan Army is now emulating the killings and land grabs
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Oliver Lough @olough.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Congratulations everyone we've now graduated to having the most annoying food debate possible with The Americans, only this time we've preempted their participation entirely! Much more efficient that way
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gamera obscura @ohrobin.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Google earth has updated its satellite images of Gaza. The destruction is almost incomprehensible.
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Oliver Lough @olough.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Worth reading this piece in conjunction with Owen Hatherley's one about similar dynamics on Walthamstow in terms of how much of this is about 'failing' high streets and how much is about class and messy urban environments www.dezeen.com/2017/11/07/o...
dezeen.com
"London streets don't need to look like a 1940s that never happened"
The sanitisation of shop signs in Walthamstow, northeast London, is a mistake that mustn't be repeated anywhere else in the capital, argues Owen Hatherley
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Oliver Lough @olough.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
I get the stuff about gambling but this is a *very* selective look at what this section of the Uxbridge Road actually contains... giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/... via @financialtimes.com
giftarticle.ft.com
The west London high street fighting against bookies and chicken shops
Residents’ campaign to diversify Uxbridge Road comes as prime minister pledges to tackle UK’s ‘hollowed out’ neighbourhoods
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Oliver Lough @olough.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Goodness these new Enid Blighton adaptations are getting dark
Five arrested for alleged terrorism offences after 'major incident' near RAF Fairford
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Oliver Lough @olough.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Interesting thread this in that my parents live there and the social dynamics are a bit more, ah, nuanced than some of the replies might suggest. Useful reminder (to me anyway) that the places we discuss like this are actual places rather than caricatures.
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Oliver Lough @olough.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Ok but seriously a former colleague in Myanmar tried to convince me that his Buddhist Nazi neighbours (and I use that term advisedly) were nice people because they helped fix his water pump that one time
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Oliver Lough @olough.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Dun dun dunnnnnnnn
A martian tripod directs a heat ray at a late Victorian battleship against a darkening sky and, for some reason, a pleasure yacht.
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Oliver Lough @olough.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
I've had 3 near misses with dangerous drivers in the past 2 rides and am therefore *well aware* of the main danger on the roads, but the number of ppl on here minimising or diverting good faith comments on dangerous cycling is baffling. Come on guys, we can walk and chew gum at the same time here.
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Oliver Lough @olough.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
The Hardy Tree, Old St. Pancras Churchyard, c. 1865
A pile of ebikes thrown against the base of a mature London plane tree. In time, they will become intertwined with its roots.
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Oliver Lough @olough.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
My god Americans are *so weird* about speed cameras. Pretty much the whole of inner London is now a camera-enforced 20mph speed limit zone, and the outcome is, you guessed it, that people drive at or under the speed limit and deaths/injuries are reduced tfl.gov.uk/info-for/med...
tfl.gov.uk
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Gaby Hinsliff @gabyhinsliff.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
I’ve been a bit quiet on here lately, and this was why www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
theguardian.com
Losing a parent is a bewildering, lonely experience. Here are the things I wish I had known before | Gaby Hinsliff
There’ll be exhaustion, love tinged with occasional rage, even moments of black humour. But my mum would want me to tell you: don’t be afraid, says Guardian columnist Gaby Hinsliff
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Oliver Lough @olough.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Always nice to have an opportunity to re-share this collection of thoroughly pissed-up drivers arguing their judgment isn't the slightest bit impaired on the eve of the 1967 drink driving ban youtu.be/bCd-suRKZOI?...
youtu.be
Pub goers of 1967 discussing the absolute audacity of drink-driving laws in the UK. 
YouTube video by Britain's Lost & Living Pubs
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Oliver Lough @olough.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
Also true in London. People pretty good in the centre (although poor cyclist behaviour from dockless ebikes is turning everything a bit Hobbesean), pretty good in countryside proper, and in between a Feral Belt filled with actual monsters.
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Ben Parker @benparker140.eurosky.social · 29/08/2026
Synthetic refugees? The humanitarian/development sector is running a contest for AI to analyse survey results, including from Syrian #refugees, in order to predict and/or enrich results of surveys: simulacrabench.org
simulacrabench.org
SimulacraBench · Benchmarking AI's Ability to Augment Development Data
A NeurIPS 2026 competition. Validate AI representations of hard-to-reach populations on unreleased UNHCR, UNICEF, and World Bank microdata.
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Oliver Lough @olough.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
This popped into my head this morning for no particular reason music.youtube.com/watch?v=M8yb...
music.youtube.com
Thom Yorke - Harrowdown Hill
YouTube video by Thom Yorke
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Oliver Lough @olough.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
Look lads we all loved Spaghetti House but I think you're reading a bit too much into its closure
The boarded up Spaghetti House at the bottom of Argyll Street. Across the window is scrawled (twice) LONDON IS FUCKED. It's not, of course.
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Oliver Lough @olough.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
Nice, but the insane Brighton regency palace with the library is better for the price
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Alice Bennett @aliceponderland.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
Make a movie from McGonagall‘s The Tay Bridge Disaster, you cowards.
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Oliver Lough @olough.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
What if the real Sea Peoples are the friends we made along the way?
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Jim Waterson @jim.londoncentric.media · 12/07/2026
Take one spoonful of England v Argentina football discourse, mix it with US Politics Bluesky users, bind it together with some historical takes based on late night half-remembered Wikipedia binges. Could be a good few days on here.
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Oliver Lough @olough.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
Begging for the "...and therefore,"
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Dan Sohege @danielsohege.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
The Green Man Trust refugee training is such a great initiative. We need a bit more positive news right now. www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...
theguardian.com
‘A big chunk of positive energy’: Green Man celebrates 10 years of training refugees
Welsh festival helps asylum seekers gain confidence and skills while settling in to a new life in the UK
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Oliver Lough @olough.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
Counterpoint: let people cook food whichever way they want to without this completely bizarre, aggressive hectoring? Not like the NYT recipes comments aren't full of comments detailing the best sub for X.
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Oliver Lough @olough.bsky.social · 29/06/2026
Current and former IRC staff heaving a collective if provisional sigh of relief this morning giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...
giftarticle.ft.com
Westminster braced for another act in Miliband brothers saga
Andy Burnham may bring David Miliband back into the fold after a 13-year absence
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Oliver Lough @olough.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
Because meaningfully hot summers started happening here (UK) about 10 years ago, behaviour change is slow, and public policy priorities have been elsewhere. Yes the Brits used to be weird about not owning fans but like, these things have a lag time! This is not hard to understand!
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Oliver Lough @olough.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
very gratified to see that the visa website for certain country doesn't even mention this vile little gremlin of a website (largely complimentary) on the list of social media sites they'd like to check for suspect comms
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Oliver Lough @olough.bsky.social · 25/05/2026
The Canton Arms, 177 South Lambeth Road. London SW8 1XP. Do yourself a favour.
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Oliver Lough @olough.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
introduce yourself with 10 bands / musicians you've seen live St Vincent Meshuggah Carsick Cars PJ Harvey Destrage Alanis Morrisette Zhadan i Sobaky Clutch Metric High on Fire
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Oliver Lough @olough.bsky.social · 18/05/2026
Ah, love a browse through a nice rural antique shop, always nice to see what hidden geWHAT THE FUCK
THE BROWN BREAD SOLD HERE IS THE REAL OLD-FASHIONED FARMHOUSE BREAD AS SUPPLIED TO AND RECOMMENDED TO [totally normal, not prominent fascist] SIR OSWALD MODLEY, BART.
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Oliver Lough @olough.bsky.social · 18/05/2026
No shade to OP, but the fact that the first name on the event advertised at the bottom of this piece is currently centre of today's Discourse for sounding off on X about how "everybody is happy to deport at least some people who are here legally" is a microcosm of how utterly fucked we seem to be
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Oliver Lough @olough.bsky.social · 11/05/2026
"Look, this foreign country has a completely different history to us. Hard to imagine how that would play out here."
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Oliver Lough @olough.bsky.social · 02/05/2026
Post your warning sign
FUMES (hand painted, jaunty yellow upside down triangle on a blue square with a 70s-looking dial switch above. Something to do with whisky distilling being an alarmingly explosive process)
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Dreadnought Holiday @dreadships.bsky.social · 01/05/2026
Post your warning sign
Warning sign for the power take off of an agricultural tractor. A stick body who failed to establish a safe system of work is shown physically wrapped around the drive shaft like a meaty Twister lolly. For reasons unspecified - possibly an extreme shock reaction - a foot and hand have also been sent flying. This will all come with paperwork.

Basically a PTO absolutely will fuck you up and this sign accordingly goes hard.
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Oliver Lough @olough.bsky.social · 29/04/2026
One thing I'm really going to miss about Ukraine is that certain (by no means all) services just...work? Nova Poshta being the prime example. No sense that you're being ripped off through a mix of price gouging and multiple layers of incompetent subcontractors, just very fast, cheap delivery.
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Oliver Lough @olough.bsky.social · 17/04/2026
Lol yeah right that's just what Dracula *would* say
A google satellite map of the coast. A point of interest is labelled "Old Slains Castle (Not Dracula castle)." Sure. Absolutely. Completely believable and not in any way suspicious.
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Oliver Lough @olough.bsky.social · 14/04/2026
Honestly the gall of this. *Your* little bike ride is a selfish inconvenience, *my* drive to Brighton beach is an inalienable right.
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Oliver Lough @olough.bsky.social · 14/04/2026
Yes god forbid that my personal safety or right to use the road for whatever means I deem fit (because it's none of your fucking business) should compromise your ability to get to your destination 3 seconds quicker.
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Oliver Lough @olough.bsky.social · 12/04/2026
This is why the humanitarian principle of impartiality - targeting the most acute needs among the most vulnerable - is so important. These orgs are for sure imperfect in how they do that, but it has to be better than the randomness of individual crowdsourcing (before we even get to the scams)
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Ingrid Burrington @lifewinning.com · 30/03/2026
I searched "data center coloring book" because I was trying to decide if I should make one and found this, from a power management company, and I don't think I can top this www.eaton.com/explore/_pfc...
eaton.com
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Oliver Lough @olough.bsky.social · 29/03/2026
Erm @kagi.com how do I stop results from X topping my search in a little special box of their own? Sort of paying you specifically to avoid this sort of nonsense.
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Oliver Lough @olough.bsky.social · 22/03/2026
Next best thing might be Of This Our Country, excellent collection of recent-ish essays on Nigeria by Nigerian authors (also the only bloody book in the Hatchards-Waterstones-Foyles triangle I could find on the place that wasn't about Boko bloody Haram) www.boroughpress.co.uk/products/of-...
boroughpress.co.uk
Of This Our Country - The Borough Press
To define Nigeria is to tell a half-truth. Many have tried, but most have concluded that it is impossible to capture the true scope and significance of Africa’s most populous nation through words or i...
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Oliver Lough @olough.bsky.social · 03/03/2026
This from the man who was campaigning for the UK to enforce a "no-fly zone" over Ukraine in March 2022 even after it was patiently explained to him that this was simply a different way of saying "NATO should declare war on Russia" in case anyone's curious about his priors on war, in general.
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Andrew Sissons @acjsissons.bsky.social · 02/03/2026
This is a frustrating column by Martin Wolf - which is sadly typical of a lot of economics commentary on GB energy. It does identify some of the key causes of high electricity prices - including Britain’s high exposure to gas prices and rising network costs. But there’s a lot it leaves out…
giftarticle.ft.com
The great British electricity puzzle
It turns out that making the transition to clean energy while keeping the price down is hard
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Colin Gorrie @colingorrie.bsky.social · 18/02/2026
If you liked this experiment, I published a full piece today in the same vein: a text that gets 100 years older with every section, from a modern blog post to a medieval chronicle. It's a single story spanning 1000 years of English. See how far you get. www.deadlanguagesociety.com/p/how-far-ba...
deadlanguagesociety.com
How far back in time can you understand English?
An experiment in language change
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Oliver Lough @olough.bsky.social · 24/02/2026
Looks like @londoncentric.media reporting might legitimately have stopped a deeply shady mass eviction across London. Well worth sending a few quid their way if you can www.londoncentric.media/p/asif-aziz-...
londoncentric.media
Billionaire halts mass eviction after London Centric investigation
Exclusive: Asif Aziz's Criterion Capital hoped to replace hundreds of tenants with more lucrative temporary accommodation. That plan has been shelved – for now.
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Oliver Lough @olough.bsky.social · 14/02/2026
Platonic ideal of a weekend magazine piece this. Loved it.
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Oliver Lough @olough.bsky.social · 12/02/2026
Went to the same prep school as Freddie, we were taught by the same men, several of whom turned out to be pedophiles and were of course welcomed back into the community with open arms after apoLOL they went to jail and the school closed because of course it fucking did this isn't hard.
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Mic Wright @brokenbottleboy.bsky.social · 12/02/2026
It’s not a new principle that you don’t stay friends with someone you know is a pedophile. I wouldn’t stop being friends with them because I feared guilt by association. I’d stop being friends either them because they are a pedophile. I wonder why the right needs to do these mental gymnastics… 🤔
Freddie Sayers on Twitter:

The new principle emerging from Epstein and other recent stories seems to be: you cannot continue to be friends with someone convicted of a bad crime if you wish to escape guilt by association.
What kind of morality is that? Leads to a fearful, cold, unchristian society.
UnHerd
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