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Simon Pickles

@sipickles.bsky.social
550 followers 1.1K following 618 posts

Progressive politics, pizza, cycling, net zero, Reluctant Leadership blog: reluctantleadership.substack.com

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Simon Pickles @sipickles.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
It's taken a while but I'm writing again. Perhaps its a barometer for some sort of internal weather.
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Dr Duncan Robertson @duncanrobertson.bsky.social · 27/05/2026
Interesting day for Blair to launch his advice to 'abandon net zero'.
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Peter Stefanovic @peterstefanovic.bsky.social · 27/05/2026
Blimey. This petition is now is now at almost 98,000 signatures. Let’s get it to 100,000 today and have that debate petition.parliament.uk/petitions/74...
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Dan Neidle @danneidle.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
Stunned, appalled, shocked etc to see actual tax reform from a politician. This from Wes Streeting today. A thread on why capital gains tax is broken. It's too low AND too high. & why this is a good proposal.
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thattimwalker.bsky.social @thattimwalker.bsky.social · 18/05/2026
For one, brief, shining moment, it looked like economic literacy, security and sanity were all coming back into fashion.
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Best for Britain @bestforbritain.org · 17/04/2026
@iandunt.bsky.social on our brand new report 🇪🇺 "Customs union is a distraction. Only full membership offers a compelling vision of Britain's future." "Rejoining the EU is the cleanest political argument and the strongest economic argument but it has a weakness."
iandunt.substack.com
Rejoin is coming
Customs union is a distraction. Only full membership offers a compelling vision of Britain's future.
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Mrs. Betty Bowers @mrsbettybowers.bsky.social · 17/04/2026
Christian Nationalism is a Cult of Convenience
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George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 14/04/2026
In the 1930s, Oswald Mosley claimed to be a patriot, while his British Union of Fascists was secretly funded by the Italian government. We are just beginning to grasp how much of the far right in the UK today has been funded by Viktor Orbán and Russian oil money. Their "patriotism" is always a con.
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Mr RobertBob @mrrobertbob.bsky.social · 15/04/2026
The Mail poll in the article is now showing 69% for rejoining the EU, 23% for staying out. I'm sure the Mail and is owners are very excited about that result. 😂 Feel free to add your vote. www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article...
dailymail.co.uk
Hungary's new PM urges Starmer to rejoin EU amid push to unwind Brexit
Péter Magyar, who defeated Viktor Orbán in a stunning result overnight, said he 'hoped' the UK would become a member state again.
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Kate from Kharkiv @kateinkharkiv.bsky.social · 15/04/2026
Vance says that stopping funding for Ukraine is one of his proudest achievements in this administration. ​I’m watching this stunningly cruel speech from Ukraine, as Russia continues to kills us every day. Just today, they killed 8-year-old boy in Cherkasy and five people in Dnipro.
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derek guy @dieworkwear.bsky.social · 10/04/2026
on a scale of 1 to 100, my support for democracy and protecting everyone's right to vote is 99. but i admit it used to be 100 before reading some of your tweets
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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 12/04/2026
i hope the white house sends vance to campaign for Reform in britain
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Mark Chadbourn @chadbourn.bsky.social · 12/04/2026
Good. The wreckers have been setting the agenda for too long.
theguardian.com
Britain could adopt single market rules without MPs’ vote as part of UK-EU reset
Exclusive: Ministers planning new legislation for alignment without full parliamentary scrutiny if in national interest
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Timothy Snyder @timothysnyder.bsky.social · 12/04/2026
Given the huge early turnout in Hungary odds seem very high that Magyar wil defeat Orbán very decisively; the question in that case would be whether Orbán goes with the Ukrainian electoral interference lie he has been preparing and whether foreign actors support him.
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Daniel Lismore @daniellismore.bsky.social · 12/04/2026
Farage has called for NHS privatization three times. Under that system: • Cancer treatment bankrupts you • Heart surgery costs your home • Lifetime prescriptions drain your savings
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Dr. Jeevun Sandher MP @jeevunsandher.bsky.social · 02/03/2026
Oil price is spiking this morning. Three major implications: 1) Makes life less affordable here. Bad news for democracy. 2) Russia will get more revenue from oil sales 3) Time for us to get off these fossil fuels
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Zack Polanski @zackpolanski.bsky.social · 31/01/2026
Nigel Farage claims that he's fighting the Greens. But for weeks now he's refused to debate me. Reform know Gorton & Denton are ready to vote for the Green Party.
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Simon Pickles @sipickles.bsky.social · 13/01/2026
Managers are legacy systems with zero documentation. They run on caffeine and anxiety. I wrote a guide on how to reverse engineer the 5 most common configurations (including the Polling Loop and the Random Number Generator). Build the interface: reluctantleadership.substack.com/p/your-manag...
reluctantleadership.substack.com
Your Manager is a System. They Need an API
A systems-thinking guide to navigating human bottlenecks
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Graham Simpson @grahambs.bsky.social · 04/01/2026
Trump has told the UK that if we want to revive a failing UK-US tech pact, we need to start buying chlorinated chicken from the US! Say no, please sign the petition! act.38degrees.org.uk/act/chlorine...
act.38degrees.org.uk
Sign the petition to keep chlorine-washed chicken off our shelves
Here we go again. Trump has told the UK that if we want a UK-US tech deal, we need to buy chlorinated chicken from the US! 🤢🐔 How dare he try to impose poor food standards in Britain. Sign the petitio...
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Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 03/01/2026
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Simon Pickles @sipickles.bsky.social · 31/12/2025
It is December 31st. You are tired. You are probably mostly cheese. Do not make a New Year's resolution to do more. Here is the gentle art of doing less in 2026. open.substack.com/pub/reluctan...
open.substack.com
The "Stop Doing" List (and why you need one)
The Gentle Art of Doing Less in 2026
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Simon Pickles @sipickles.bsky.social · 05/12/2025
This was a lot of fun to write. The cathartic ones are the best.
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Reluctant Leadership @reluctantleadership.substack.com · 30/11/2025
New post: The Canary in the S3 Bucket A field guide to spotting when your startup is… not fine. reluctantleadership.substack.com/p/the-canary...
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Simon Pickles @sipickles.bsky.social · 30/11/2025
I finally wrote up all the startup red flags I’ve collected over the years. Some funny. Some painful. It’s live: The Canary in the S3 Bucket reluctantleadership.substack.com/p/the-canary...
The Canary in the S3 Bucket - A slightly traumatised guide to startup oblivion
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Simon Pickles @sipickles.bsky.social · 22/11/2025
You can get my Engineering Manager OS from the Notion marketplace now. I'd love to hear how it helps you.
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Simon Pickles @sipickles.bsky.social · 15/11/2025
Today’s Reluctant Leadership post digs into nudging as a leadership skill. Not manipulation, just the quiet art of helping someone reach their own best idea without taking over. If you’re a manager who prefers asking to ordering, this one might resonate.
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Otto English @ottoenglish.bsky.social · 13/11/2025
In the UK, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor's friendship with Epstein has led to total disgrace. He's been stripped of his titles, reduced to the status of a pariah. Nobody is defending him. He's a TOTAL disgrace. In America, Jeffrey Epstein's close mate, Donald Trump, remains the president. Insane.
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Simon Pickles @sipickles.bsky.social · 05/11/2025
Very proud to announce the release of my project I've been working on for a few months. I’ve spent years trying to turn the chaos of engineering management into something repeatable. This is the result. If it helps just one person be a better manager, I'll be happy.
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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez @aoc.bsky.social · 05/11/2025
😎😎😎😎 GOOD THINGS CAN STILL HAPPEN 😎😎😎😎
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Simon Pickles @sipickles.bsky.social · 03/11/2025
This is what the #nokings movement should really focus on: www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
theguardian.com
Top 10 US billionaires’ collective wealth grew by $698bn in past year – report
Oxfam warns Trump policies risk driving inequality to new heights – but Democrats have also exacerbated wealth gap
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Simon Pickles @sipickles.bsky.social · 31/10/2025
I listened to @restispolitics.bsky.social for the first time in a while. What a mistake. It was alarming to hear how much they have shifted right. Alistair softer on taxing the super rich, Rory suggesting watering down net zero targets. Sad.
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Simon Pickles @sipickles.bsky.social · 28/10/2025
Took a month off writing. I now have the same sense of direction as most early-stage startups: vague intentions, unclear roadmap, too many ideas. So naturally, this post is about surviving startups as an Engineering Manager. I hope it helps someone who's in the middle of it... or about to be.
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Simon Pickles @sipickles.bsky.social · 19/10/2025
Inspiring day at #newscientistlive
Talk on insuring hobbits
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The Green Party of England & Wales @greenparty.org.uk · 14/10/2025
The Green surge is breaking limits! 😲 Together, we can make hope normal again! 💚
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Bookshop.org @bookshop.org · 07/10/2025
Can’t decide what to buy on Prime Day? Try: absolutely nothing, and then go support indie bookstores instead 📚
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Sarah Murphy @13sarahmurphy.bsky.social · 05/10/2025
We flounced out of the EU on the say-so of politicians who lied to us. And what a total shitshow that’s turned out to be. The polar opposite of what they promised. Now the call to flounce out of the ECHR. By the same people. Telling the same lies. Has the country been kicked in the head by a horse?
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Burrito Justice @burritojustice.bsky.social · 01/10/2025
quick while the government is shut down let’s all switch to metric
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Mike Galsworthy @mikegalsworthy.bsky.social · 01/10/2025
Reform’s Russia connections are a danger to our national security. It’s time for a public inquiry.
bylines.scot
Nathan Gill’s treachery puts him in same league as the “Cambridge Five”
Reform’s Russia connections may endanger our security – time for a public inquiry
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Mike Galsworthy @mikegalsworthy.bsky.social · 29/09/2025
What has Yvette Cooper’s proscription of Palestine Action done to this country? Beyond absurd. It’s extreme authoritarianism. These police should be arresting rapists & crooks, not neglecting those duties to spend time arresting citizens standing against genocide. It undermines police and the law.
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SlavaUkraini033 @slavaukraini033.bsky.social · 28/09/2025
BREAKING: Huge win for President Maia Sandu and her pro-EU PAS Party in today’s Moldovan parliamentary election. With 90% of the votes counted, her party has 45.61% of the votes and is on track to win a majority of the seats in Parliament.
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Mike Slaven @mcslaven.bsky.social · 26/09/2025
Joey and Phoebe meme. Phoebe instructing Joey to say "Fix the economy and public services" with him at the end instead saying "Digital national ID cards!"
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Rob @robertferry.bsky.social · 22/09/2025
Vertical rows are the agrivoltaic winner! “The vertical panels produce slightly less electricity—but with higher value, as generation peaks coincide with morning and late afternoon demand…The crops don't seem to mind the presence of solar panels and they like the wind protection they provide.”
techxplore.com
Double harvest: Vertical solar panels and crops thrive side by side
Imagine a field where solar panels and crops coexist—with no trade-off. It sounds like science fiction, but that's precisely what researchers from Aarhus University have now documented in a full-scale...
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Best for Britain @bestforbritain.org · 22/09/2025
For 56 minutes Sky News and BBC News interrupted everything else and carried a Reform UK feed live, uninterrupted, unchallenged. The stream spluttered, froze, pixelated - dozens of times - still they stuck with it. FOR ONE HOUR. This is an editorial choice. No other party gets this coverage. ~AA
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Simon Pickles @sipickles.bsky.social · 17/09/2025
This is an absolute scandal ‘Privatisation premium’: billions from UK energy bills paid to shareholders www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
theguardian.com
‘Privatisation premium’: billions from UK energy bills paid to shareholders
Analysis reveals £416 of average bill of £1,719 taken as pre-tax profits by the major energy industries last year, rather than being reinvested
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Kelsey Atherton @atherton.bsky.social · 13/09/2025
Warhammer is harm reduction
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Simon Pickles @sipickles.bsky.social · 12/09/2025
Just cancelled Zwift after about 6 years. Why pay £180 a year when MyWhoosh does the same for free?
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Annette Dittert @annettedittert.bsky.social · 06/09/2025
Is impartiality still a thing at the BBC? Asking for a friend.
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Mike Galsworthy @mikegalsworthy.bsky.social · 06/09/2025
"Reform has touted its plan as a “legal reset”. But it is better understood as a total rejection of the UK’s postwar international commitments to protect the human rights of everyone within its jurisdiction."
theconversation.com
Treaties like the ECHR protect everyone in the UK, not just migrants
These commitments have cemented the UK at the heart of the rules-based international order.
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Matt Novak @paleofuture.bsky.social · 04/09/2025
“President Donald Trump will sign an executive order on Friday changing the name of the Department of Defense to the Department of War…”
bloomberg.com
Trump Moves to Rename Defense Department as Department of War
President Donald Trump will sign an executive order on Friday changing the name of the Department of Defense to the Department of War, reverting to a moniker not used since the 1940s in line with his ...
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Simon Pickles @sipickles.bsky.social · 03/09/2025
I used to think being a manager meant having all the answers. Now I mostly just listen. And weirdly, that helps. This post is about the emotional work no one tells you comes with the job, and how to survive being the team's untrained therapist. reluctantleadership.substack.com/p/the-engine...
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