Reposted by Owen MichaelBut Andrew Hickey Died Ten Years Ago This Very Night @andrewhickey.500songs.com · 2hWhat I always find fascinating about this stuff is that the "non-brewed condiment" label isn't, as you'd think, to do with modern food-labelling laws. It's because of the temperance movement more than a century ago. 15614
Reposted by Owen MichaelRobin Wilde @robinwilde.me · 2hI can hear the screeching U-turn that happened during the naming of this business 813737
Reposted by Owen MichaelJames Austin @jamesdaustin.bsky.social · 4hThe reason I focus a bit on the Greens and the crank-left is because I think they're now a long term force in politics. They will be part of any coalition and shape the left debate. And we cant, as the left, afford a party with that influence and following to be our version of Restore. 3353
Reposted by Owen MichaelKuba @kayes67.bsky.social · 4hI respect some people who left the Labour Party under Keir Starmer and joined the Greens, but, let me be real here, the foreign policy views on display here vary between mad and unconscionable (and I saw someone refer to the camp-y “emotional support IRGC” in a reply, hats off) 1166
Owen Michael @owenwmichael.bsky.social · 4hI do think the Labour Party is too willing to block motions but things like this remind me why 292
Reposted by Owen MichaelMichael @michaeljsc.bsky.social · 6hI think there’s a cousin of this that implicitly starts from the principle that winning political consent to rejoin would be nigh impossible, and then backfills procedural difficulties to rejoining rather than say their worry is domestic politics. 1123
Reposted by Owen MichaelPhil Tinline @philtinline.bsky.social · 10hOne implication of this caricature is that the government that lost power in 1979 somehow didn't champion Western values. Given that it was the last UK government led by a veteran of the war against Nazism, I don't find that very persuasive. 7335
Reposted by Owen MichaelDoctor Charlton Cussans PhD @charltoncussans.bsky.social · 21hJews could be and still are the victims of antisemitism regardless of their levels of oppression in the state and society in which they live(d). 512815
Reposted by Owen MichaelDr. Samantha Hancox-Li @sjshancoxli.liberalcurrents.com · 15hpeople can be both oppressed and oppressors 1144335
Reposted by Owen MichaelAndrew Reeves @andrewsshi.bsky.social · 23hThe issue with "monsters are marginalized people in fantasy clothes" is that it ends up with things like people making orcs more explicitly like people from IRL sub-Saharan Africa. "There's kind of a racist subtext with orcs, so we've fixed it by making them H. Rider Haggard Zulus." Which, um. 1023339
Reposted by Owen MichaelMarisa Kabas @marisakabas.bsky.social · 21hlast night at dinner we were talking about how much tracey sucks and the server overheard and was like are you talking about michael tracey? that guy fucking sucks, and it was very satisfying 543124306
Reposted by Owen MichaelCalliope @calliope5431.bsky.social · 02/10/2026"Who is Gulbuddin Hekmatyar?" is a question that neither neocons nor the far left can actually answer. The Taliban being an absurdly parochial Kandahari militia also doesn't really register with most people. 1204
Reposted by Owen MichaelNathan @nwylabour.bsky.social · 23hI understand the urge to say 'we should simply not allow this to happen', and I don't disagree with it as an aspiration, but I also think if we continue to rely wholly on state media to transmit progressive messages we're going to come unstuck. 152
Reposted by Owen MichaelMike Black @mikeblack114.bsky.social · 02/10/2026it's relieving the GW, just like the Makin Island is relieving the Boxer, just like all of these are rotational swapouts and not additive how are you all still falling for this 8 months in, this is jangling keys toddler levels of attempted misdirection from some of the dumbest admin members and yet 820929
Reposted by Owen MichaelThe Alternate Histoween 🎃 @althistorian.bsky.social · 02/10/2026You know an arguement for abolishing the death penalty is that we're better than Pike. We understand that killing is horrible and wrong. If we're just as brutal as her than I fear all we did is breed several more Pikes. 3344
Reposted by Owen MichaelDaniel @deargodwhaat.bsky.social · 01/10/2026More generally, wasn't Music Hall type singers or the whole genre absolutely enormous, and essentially never recovered from the invention of television? 4122
Reposted by Owen MichaelCharles EP Murphy @cepmurphy.bsky.social · 01/10/2026Everyone loves Dunk Poster, the poster who does epic dunks on things we hate! [five minutes later] We regret to report Dunk Poster has dunked on the thing we like. 181
Reposted by Owen MichaelDan Neidle @danneidle.bsky.social · 01/10/2026The cope from some Man City fans is that the sham sponsorship income meant the club overstated revenue and so overpaid corporation tax. So they are due a refund! Awesome! Um, no. City paid *zero* corporation tax because they lost buckets of money. The receipts: 619151
Owen Michael @owenwmichael.bsky.social · 01/10/2026Oh go on then 12axes.vercel.app/results?est=... 110
Reposted by Owen MichaelHemry, Local Bartender @bartenderhemry.bsky.social · 01/10/2026I have never seen anyone make this argument, on bluesky or elsewhere. What we have all seen is people claim repeatedly that they did in fact stop saying weird, which is false. The fact that consultants, who were ignored by the candidates but amplified by the press, were opposed to it is uncontested 3526
Reposted by Owen MichaelMicah @rincewind.run · 01/10/2026Discworld QOTD, from Unseen Academicals “But, it was a funny thing: every day something happened that was important enough to be on the front page of the newspaper. She’d never bought it and seen a little sign that said ‘Not much happened yesterday, sorry about that’.” 940543
Reposted by Owen Michaeljamelle @jamellebouie.net · 01/10/2026"they really believe it"/"they will try to do it"/"the promises are real" are things that most americans refuse to believe about politicians but if you take them seriously will help you predict political behavior more often than not 592576412
Reposted by Owen MichaelJonn Elledge @jonnelledge.bsky.social · 01/10/2026"What do the following people have in common: Anthony Hopkins, Shirely Bassey and Tom Jones? That’s right: all of them have been alive longer than Cardiff’s been their nation’s capital." Of Cardiff, Welsh history and what it means to be a capitaljonn.substack.comThe Audacity of HopeThis week: Andy Burnham’s bringing sunshine back. Also: of Cardiff, Welshness and what it means to be a capital; and a helpful map of accident blackspots. 3314
Reposted by Owen MichaelSimon Alvey @salvey1.bsky.social · 01/10/2026Also the Welsh Christian Party went into the 2007 Assembly election campaigning to replace it with the flag of St David because the dragon was a symbol of Satan 191
Reposted by Owen MichaelStephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 01/10/2026The BBC switching its local resources from radio to the website has been disastrous for the business model of local newspapers, but you have to balance that against how good it has been for 'the BBC's opponents' and 'random companies who now get a PR hit on the biggest news website in the UK'. 815435
Reposted by Owen MichaelSam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 29/09/2026Was interviewed by a US journalist today who asked if we were all panicking about terrorists at Fairford, which ended with me trying to explain dogging. 551070146
Reposted by Owen Michael👻 Jack Djinn Wail 🧞 @jacktindale.bsky.social · 01/10/2026There are ethical and religious reasons to be opposed to the death penalty, but one of most obvious alternative ones is the simple bureaucratic incompetence associated with most of it. 3768
Reposted by Owen MichaelThorne 🌸 @ens0.me · 30/09/2026The heartening part of this is because the baseline expectation for governments has shifted so far in the right direction. For most of human history, you couldn't expect things like due process or democracy. Now, authoritarian governments are forced to at least play pretend in most cases. 0356
Reposted by Owen MichaelNathan Goldwag @goldwagnathan.bsky.social · 30/09/2026I will also say that even in purely formulaic space opera or MilSciFi there are absolutely differences in quality that are very noticeable. 2654
Reposted by Owen MichaelNotes from Poland @notesfrompoland.bsky.social · 30/09/2026After eight years of service, Cobra, one of the first dogs to serve in the security force of Poland’s parliament, has retired. To mark the occasion, the speaker of the parliament personally informed Cobra of the decision.notesfrompoland.comSpeaker of Polish parliament signs off on service dog's retirement after eight years of "exemplary" service 19725
Reposted by Owen MichaelJo Kibble (Political Animal) @politicanimal.bsky.social · 30/09/2026We rightly give Home Office ministers a hard time here for many things, but in their defence, not one of them has ever ordered the Identity & Passport Service to mail out passports in envelopes that might as well be printed with the words ‘Important identity document enclosed: please steal’. 926462
Reposted by Owen MichaelTheLightdancer @thelightdancer.bsky.social · 30/09/2026Both the US and the USSR were regularly tripped up by the seemingly obvious discovery that allies, or even satellite states, were made of people with minds of their own and the willingness to act upon having them. It's one of the more tragicomic aspects with historical distance. 061
Reposted by Owen MichaelDr. M.A. Davis @mikedavis.bsky.social · 30/09/2026"it is easier to get high-quality diasporic food in parts of the world where that diaspora lives" is a proposition people people have trouble with but it seems pretty straightforward. 51596
Reposted by Owen MichaelShiv Ramdas Mens Rice Activist @nameshiv.bsky.social · 30/09/2026yep, it's not an accident that the UK generally does Indian food a lot better than the USA and the USA generally does Mexican food a lot better than the UK 72315
Reposted by Owen MichaelSam (ABeardedPanda) @abeardedpanda.bsky.social · 30/09/2026The thing that pisses me off the most about this one is State never actually used the g-word because of the diplomatic implications of R2P and this same crowd of people pointed at that statement back in 2020 to say "Look, even the State Department doesn't think it's a genocide..." 15710
Owen Michael @owenwmichael.bsky.social · 30/09/2026I am now wondering if a significant gap I hadn't noticed before is that for the median reasonably informed but not in party politics voter party conferences are primarily covered in terms of the rally aspects 160
Reposted by Owen MichaelJohn C @badsocialism.bsky.social · 30/09/2026Honestly? All of these sounds like good ideas 0433
Reposted by Owen MichaelDie Capuccinogruft @thomas.escritt.eu · 30/09/2026I mean I'm an idiot for engaging with this low-effort bad-faith nonsense, but yeah the limited autonomy of Barcelona and Hamburg, lol 282
Reposted by Owen MichaelKate Osborne MP @kateosbornemp.bsky.social · 30/09/2026My full speech at the Labour for Trans Rights rally at Conference. This is an incredibly difficult time for trans & non-binary people, facing a relentless attack on their rights & dignity. I want everyone in our community to know that I’ll never stop standing alongside you & fighting for equality. 65018
Reposted by Owen MichaelDave Weigel @daveweigel.bsky.social · 30/09/2026I also think about Elon saying Biden's DOJ wouldn't prosecute Sam Bankman-Fried because he was a Dem donor... followed by Biden's DOJ nailing SBF, who now posts about how awesome Trump is so he can get a pardon. 9838138
Reposted by Owen MichaelLewis Baston @lewisbaston.bsky.social · 30/09/2026I’m actually sorry to see this. I hope someone independent and centre-right does cooperate with the commission, perhaps someone from the UUP? 1292
Reposted by Owen MichaelJohn C @badsocialism.bsky.social · 30/09/2026Sorry what do you mean the last Vice President of the 3rd Republic's chamber of Deputies 1) Was from Guadeloupe 2) Voted to dissolve the 3rd Republic 3) SAT ON THE NATIONAL COUNCIL OF THE FRENCH STATE 5326
Reposted by Owen MichaelJohn C @badsocialism.bsky.social · 30/09/2026Listen so long as Americans are putting marshmallows in green bean "casseroles" and insisting Turkey is somehow nice can we put this all to rest. You've got fantastic food, we have fantastic food, let's just...have a party 2414
Reposted by Owen MichaelYuan Yang @yuanfenyang.bsky.social · 29/09/2026I was proud to once again speak at the Labour for Trans Rights rally at Labour Conference today, alongside many other allies in Parliament. (1/2) 1312
Reposted by Owen MichaelDr Jo Kershaw @mthrjo.bsky.social · 30/09/2026It’s mostly the wars, tbh. The Great Depression followed by WWII and the serious food shortages that came with it did a number on British food (and also on the palates of people who didn’t remember anything better) 7491
Reposted by Owen MichaelAmrk @amrk.bsky.social · 30/09/2026It also addresses the farcically low bar for getting a statue in like, 1885. Cardiff is full of statues to like, the deputy mayor and I don’t even know if they were problematic it’s just in 1900 they gave out statues to people who now don’t have Wikipedia pages 2344
Reposted by Owen MichaelNathan @nwylabour.bsky.social · 30/09/2026Weird thing about this is that a) Shabana Mahmood is a Brummie, b) she doesn't really use progressive rhetoric 3265
Reposted by Owen MichaelJohn Oxley @joxley.jmoxley.co.uk · 30/09/2026Said this before, but you could write an interesting book on the books/films/music that were huge in their time but rapidly disappeared from any collective knowledge. Only hardly anyone would read it, because they wouldn't recognise them. 7029035
Reposted by Owen MichaelWill Cooling @willcooling.bsky.social · 30/09/2026This is undoubtedly true and I think a lot of companies have bet heavily on IP on the mistaken understanding that there are "forever" characters or acts, when they're subject to quite rapid decay. 1419014