Stephen McGann @stephenmcgann.uk · 26/09/2026Yeah, justice. Fairness. Consequences. Appalling. Think of the mess. 1010710
Stephen McGann @stephenmcgann.uk · 26/09/2026Now *there's* some scripted reality I can get behind. x One where both participant and director can end up freely questioning any scriptedness or bias. Unique, thoughtful, emotional, beautiful, unrepeatable. Anthem For Doomed Boomers. Love song to past TV idealism and life's slow realities. My life. 3659
Stephen McGann @stephenmcgann.uk · 26/09/2026An article so Guardian it risks reaching what physicists call "muesli-cruncher criticality" 81125
Stephen McGann @stephenmcgann.uk · 26/09/2026There's a genre of TV called "Scripted Reality". (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scripte...) Never been much of a fan of this mutant. Pick one or the other, I say. The disguised hybrid is a low-dose poison in the contract with an audience. Lucrative though. Premier League football should pick another genre. 5634
Reposted by Stephen McGannAdrian Edmondson @adrianedmondson.bsky.social · 19/09/2026A message to the people in #70Up: we have grown up together, and I’ve always watched with fascination, but the current series fills me with such unspeakable joy and grief at the same time. Thank you. A true epic. I salute you x 842237
Reposted by Stephen McGannTony Tassell @tonytassell.bsky.social · 22/09/2026FT letter makes a grim point on how the first AI war could start - www.ft.com/content/b912... 33712
Stephen McGann @stephenmcgann.uk · 22/09/2026He's going to build a lavish ballroom at the Hill Dickinson... 7763
Reposted by Stephen McGannSteve Peers @stevepeers.bsky.social · 21/09/2026"Don't fight back", says sexual predator 1226676
Stephen McGann @stephenmcgann.uk · 20/09/2026I dunno....looks like they had cloning in the old days... 1190
Reposted by Stephen McGannAndrew R @excelpope.net · 20/09/2026I was looking something up on Google Maps, and I think I might have found out why successive governments have been so bad at delivery. 733359
Stephen McGann @stephenmcgann.uk · 18/09/2026"Are we the Truman Show?"static.klipy.comAre We The Baddies BadALT: Are We The Baddies Bad 4571
Reposted by Stephen McGannTom Reagan’s Hat @rufustsuperfly.bsky.social · 12/09/2026‘I saw you across the harbour & wondered if you’d be interested in some of my new fish fingers’ 636864
Stephen McGann @stephenmcgann.uk · 11/09/2026Yep. The path from "fed up with experts" to "I do my own research" to "SAVE US FROM SATAN'S TRAFFIC LIGHTS!" is reliably straight. 24390105
Stephen McGann @stephenmcgann.uk · 10/09/2026My country has achieved the feat of making the most universally loved and respected charity in the land afraid for its own safety. And yet the dark pantomime of aggressive grievance and its media legitimation continues. If Hippocrates is a traitor for not cherry-picking lives, then are doctors next? 15545122
Reposted by Stephen McGannSam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 08/09/2026One reason England does so well is our second generation immigrants outperform their peers which is not true in most OECD countries. We are also very good at integration. And it's v sad that this is never acknowledge in debates on immigration. 592405850
Stephen McGann @stephenmcgann.uk · 07/09/2026It seems to me that if one wishes to have a citizen protest, then one shouldn't be able to do it with a preemptive masking of one's identity. In a democratic context, a citizen protest is an open conversation with the state. Visible. Identifiable. Hidden subversion is something else. 926351
Stephen McGann @stephenmcgann.uk · 06/09/2026There is a 'no good deed goes unpunished' factor to the dilemma facing the UK that no UK govt has the courage to confront. Doing the things necessary to save the country from long term ruin risks the enacter suffering short term job loss. 'Country first' has a price. The alternative is far pricier. 210611
Stephen McGann @stephenmcgann.uk · 05/09/2026Grandiosity, corruption and fancy dress. Those great triple pillars of British politics. 2966
Stephen McGann @stephenmcgann.uk · 05/09/2026Nah, you blew it mate. That lanyard should be parchment. 2016112
Stephen McGann @stephenmcgann.uk · 03/09/2026If it looks like a Nazi and quacks like a Nazi, then what you've got there is Donald Dönitz. 2885
Stephen McGann @stephenmcgann.uk · 03/09/2026Ah, that would be the devout Christian soul I was reading about this morning, yes? www.ft.com/content/c2d0...ft.comJames Orr and the gospel of the new British rightReform’s policy head is a Cambridge theologian with an enviable contact book and a belief in ‘faith, family and flag’ 812622
Stephen McGann @stephenmcgann.uk · 31/08/2026Labour currently doing more shelving plans than a kitchen designer. 312114
Stephen McGann @stephenmcgann.uk · 29/08/2026Evidence of a British productivity recovery. God knows we need it... www.resolutionfoundation.org/press-releas...resolutionfoundation.orgForget the hype and gloom – Britain is experiencing a broad-based productivity recovery • Resolution FoundationOutput per hour has increased at a respectable annual rate of 1.1 per cent on average over the past two years, rather than the dismal 0.2 per cent fall implied by flawed official statistics, with the ... 16610
Stephen McGann @stephenmcgann.uk · 28/08/2026You'd have to have a heart of stone not to laugh. 915313
Stephen McGann @stephenmcgann.uk · 28/08/2026Dining across divides is older than the Guardian. Have we lost the knack? My brother Joe on the differences that can bond us. substack.com/@joemcgann/n...substack.comJoe McGann (@joemcgann)Sitting across the table from my dear friend Tom. We meet as often as life and work allows , a friendship of more than 50 years. Over an excellent Sicilian lunch, our conversation meanders from Footb... 1315
Stephen McGann @stephenmcgann.uk · 27/08/2026Sometimes, in the middle of all the grime, technology does something beautiful. It's the app that gives you the reverse of addiction. It makes you look up. Makes you stop to listen on a walk. It makes you observe the things around you, and care about them. It is a public good.ft.comHave you discovered the magic of Merlin?[FREE TO READ] A free app has propelled birdwatching into the mainstream, offering a portal to a hidden world 1517737
Reposted by Stephen McGannSam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 25/08/2026New post out: Much of the right - led by Elon Musk - has decided the world's problems are caused by "suicidal empathy". I look at where this phrase comes from, why it's a profoundly wrong misdiagnosis, and a misunderstanding of what empathy is. (£/free trial) samf.substack.com/p/the-war-ag...samf.substack.comThe war against empathyLast week Reform’s treasury spokesman Robert Jenrick set out proposals to cut welfare spending on working age adults in half. 59619170
Stephen McGann @stephenmcgann.uk · 22/08/2026That's nice. Now get them both to run up a few flights of stairs. 3018018
Stephen McGann @stephenmcgann.uk · 22/08/2026Today was a tiny bit chilly with the English sunshine, and it was glorious. 121931
Stephen McGann @stephenmcgann.uk · 21/08/2026I think 'suicidal empathy' may be my phrase of 2026. The world literally setting itself on fire due to the abundance of the opposite. If you believed in an antichrist, this would surely be his poetry. 812718
Stephen McGann @stephenmcgann.uk · 18/08/2026People: You can't just post one line from a song and expect everyone to know the song ME: It's CHRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIISTMAAAAAAAAS 3312910
Reposted by Stephen McGannSam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 15/08/2026I wish media outlets would describe Nathan Cofnas as a racist rather than a "self-defined race realist" which doesn't mean anything to most people. His writing meets any definition of racism however narrowly and cautiously drawn. 672601570
Stephen McGann @stephenmcgann.uk · 14/08/2026Great line from Sorkin's version of 'To Kill a Mockingbird' that I watched last night: "A mob is a place where people go to take a break from their conscience.” 421240
Stephen McGann @stephenmcgann.uk · 14/08/2026What a grubby little media morality play this has all been. My thoughts to his family. 1151438
Stephen McGann @stephenmcgann.uk · 14/08/2026Voting for this always struck me as a very strange way to own the libs. 514216
Reposted by Stephen McGannHannah Fearn @hannahfearn.bsky.social · 12/08/2026For work, I'm looking to speak to someone who studied for an undergraduate degree overseas (UK based before studying). Any tip offs? 1210
Reposted by Stephen McGannEd @dwightwedding.bsky.social · 12/08/2026Reminds me of the greatest piece of junk mail I ever received. Go on, treat yourself 1744391
Stephen McGann @stephenmcgann.uk · 12/08/2026In other news, I found 'Obsession' a hoot. Great central perf. Laughed out loud more than once. 0171
Reposted by Stephen McGannTwlldun @twlldun.bsky.social · 12/08/2026How I’ll post if Bluesky dies 1555
Stephen McGann @stephenmcgann.uk · 12/08/2026If this place dies, it dies. It's just a social network. I don't equate engagement metrics with meaning or value. I'll go and take a walk instead. But I'm not going back to nuremberg dot com. I don't owe malice a conversation. 2564482
Stephen McGann @stephenmcgann.uk · 12/08/2026LATEST: Zoo the size of 68 articulated lorries filled with sausage meat witnesses birth of rare piglet. 4562
Stephen McGann @stephenmcgann.uk · 11/08/2026There is no safe amount of hate you can ingest. There's no 'lite' version you can incorporate into your respectability. It can't be bargained with. It's the scabrous tail that ultimately wags you. 214631
