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Tom (he/him)

@tompowell01.bsky.social
271 followers 1.5K following 602 posts

Coming over from TwiX. If I follow you here it's because I follow you on there & learn a lot from you (or you're in a starter pack I like the look of) Opposing the arms trade and all complicity in the occupation of Palestine. Action is necessary

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Tom (he/him) @tompowell01.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
The study you cited estimates 2.5bn under one model and explicitly depends on sustainability assumptions; the wider carrying-capacity literature says these numbers vary enormously. ‘I’m a scientist and this is my opinion’ isn’t evidence for the 1bn figure.
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Tom (he/him) @tompowell01.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Yeah, that's a reply to criticism of the study. Haubrock says the historical r-N relationship doesn't uniquely identify ecological carrying capacity, because enormous technological, institutional and demographic changes occurred simultaneously. And then you've decided to drop to 1Bn, out of thin air
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Tom (he/him) @tompowell01.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Where was this willingness to confront the direction of travel when he actually had political power? But I don't think a single personal intervention on a very specific argument about race and national identity establishes Burnham has ceded the broader issue to him....
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Tom (he/him) @tompowell01.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
doesn't get close to the 44 billion musk paid to insert himself into uk politics
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Tom (he/him) @tompowell01.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Where does the 500m-1bn figure come from? What peer-reviewed evidence establishes that as Earth's sustainable human population, rather than a figure dependent on particular assumptions about consumption, technology and resource distribution?
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Tom (he/him) @tompowell01.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Ratcliffe changed his tax residence from the UK to Monaco in 2020, which has no personal income tax for most residents. In this new interview, the two problems he specifically identifies are immigration and benefits. Tax dodging millionaires aren't a problem at all.
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Tom (he/him) @tompowell01.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
So "teaching people that humanity is exceeding ecological limits" then? There's no population number that constitutes "overpopulation" independently of consumption, technology, distribution and resource management. Such a nothing point.
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Tom (he/him) @tompowell01.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
You have "overpopulation" in you bio. What's your "plan" on sorting that out?
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Tom (he/him) @tompowell01.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Starmer didn't know who Mamdani was. I know Burnham does. There are lessons to be learned.
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Tom (he/him) @tompowell01.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Southerners absolutely eat chips. They just appear to have made the terrible decision to put mayonnaise and ketchup on them instead of gravy. These people need to be exciled. yougov.com/en-gb/articl...
yougov.com
What do Britons like most on their chips?
Mayonnaise, mushy peas, curry sauce: the answer varies wildly depending on where in the country you ask
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Tom (he/him) @tompowell01.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Policy 1: establish what people would quite like us to believe.
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Tom (he/him) @tompowell01.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Policy 1: establish what people would quite like us to believe.
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Tom (he/him) @tompowell01.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Still a really watchable film. A hundred years later, it really stands up.
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Tom (he/him) @tompowell01.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Added to the list. Looking forward to it.
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Tom (he/him) @tompowell01.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
3 weeks ago NATO was saying no imminent threat even while Russia "is stepping up hybrid acts in Europe"). Militaries, defence ministeries etc are always yelling about Russian threats. There's a case for cyber-threats. But there's no tanks and bombs involved with that www.reuters.com/business/aer...
reuters.com
NATO sees no imminent threat of attack, official says
A NATO official said on Sunday Russia is stepping up hybrid acts in Europe, but that at ​this time the alliance sees no imminent threat of ‌attack.
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Tom (he/him) @tompowell01.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Absolute nonsense. "Intelligence chiefs all over europe try to push their governments into ever more defence spending". Russia can't get through the Ukraine. The idea they're attacking NATO is for the birds.
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Tom (he/him) @tompowell01.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
skywriter.blue/@georgemonbi...
skywriter.blue
Page by George Monbiot | @georgemonbiot.bsky.social
A short thread on “legitimate concerns”. The phrase is used repeatedly by UK government ministers. The Home Secretary is at it again this week. But only ever - as far as I can tell - in one context: p...
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Tom (he/him) @tompowell01.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Orloondo Bland's back? Thought we were rid of that one for good.
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Tom (he/him) @tompowell01.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
So why do you need stealth recordable glasses?
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Tom (he/him) @tompowell01.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
So why do you need stealth recordable glasses?
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Tom (he/him) @tompowell01.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
Definitely; especially if you’re susceptible to B-movie tropes. It’s basically Scorsese doing a lavish, A-list version of the whole isolated-island/sinister-asylum/creepy-psychiatrist thing. It's the horror version of Point Break.
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Tom (he/him) @tompowell01.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
So you're not claiming Point Break is some unsurpassable feat of cinema, just that its particular charm is bound up with being this weird, slightly trashy, accidentally iconic object. Interested to hear your thought on Shutter Island.
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Tom (he/him) @tompowell01.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
As much as I agree with the point, this might be libelous. I can't find the evidence the 36 mill was from criminal activity.
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Tom (he/him) @tompowell01.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
Not that important really. People remember the vibe much more strongly than the screenplay. It's an exceptionally well-directed, charismatic B-movie that accidentally brushes against some interesting ideas about masculinity, desire and freedom. If nobody can improve on it, we're lost as a species
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Tom (he/him) @tompowell01.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
if he wants a fair fight at the polls, surely he should be giving 36 million to every party? (or no party)
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Tom (he/him) @tompowell01.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
Wanting peace from someone’s Bluetooth speaker is reasonable; claiming a 20-yard privacy zone in a public park isn’t. Why do you want to have a device that can secretly record video in a public park anyway?
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Tom (he/him) @tompowell01.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Better to regulate the glasses themselves: obvious recording indicators, no covert mode, strict limits on recording strangers, and outright bans in places like bathrooms and changing rooms.
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Tom (he/him) @tompowell01.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
The “undermath” was already there: decades of US intervention, military bases, sanctions, support for authoritarian allies, the Gulf War and Iraq sanctions, Afghanistan in the 1980s, etc.
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Tom (he/him) @tompowell01.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Stop attacking countries around the world.
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Tom (he/him) @tompowell01.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
There are perfectly legitimate uses; accessibility, navigation, translation etc, but these things need to be regulated hard, they're clearly dangerous. A mandatory, tamper-resistant recording light that is impossible for the wearer or an app to disable would be a start.
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Tom (he/him) @tompowell01.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Expecting 40% interest on your moral overdraft? You’re not doing that badly. It’s not like you’re Farage: “I have been cruelly denied access to the same bank the King banks with. Oh, the humanity!”
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Reposted by Tom (he/him)
Oliver Bullough @oliverbullough.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
The fact something as fundamental and superb as the RNLI is a charity is one of the most magical and strange things about Britain. You can support them here. rnli.org/support-us/g...
rnli.org
Donate to the RNLI and help save lives at sea
Your donations really make a difference. We depend on your generosity to educate people to stay safe and prevent tragedies on and offshore. Donate here.
11615286
Reposted by Tom (he/him)
Oliver Bullough @oliverbullough.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
It's such an obviously good institution, that it becomes the clearest possible dividing line in politics. If someone doesn't like the RNLI, I don't like them.
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Tom (he/him) @tompowell01.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
i also think you shouldn't be allowed in the lords when you use "accept" in this context...
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Tom (he/him) @tompowell01.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
I don't think he did, not for losing G&D. He said Starmer should resign over the Mandleson/Epstein stuff, around the time of the by-election. I think Spencer said she'd seek his resigniation if she won it.
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Tom (he/him) @tompowell01.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
A bad loss potentially would be damaging, but coming second to Labour doesn't harm him. Bad loss is unlikely really, in the particular seat. Not runnung and then Labour narrowly beating a different Green cadidate would be far worse for him.
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Tom (he/him) @tompowell01.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
government doesn’t have to sit back and hope billionaires choose to do it: infrastructure, public investment, skills, procurement and industrial policy can actively create the conditions for it.
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Tom (he/him) @tompowell01.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Pouring capital into existing property and assets makes billionaires richer without doing much for productivity or living standards.
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Tom (he/him) @tompowell01.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Exactly. So wealth was created. The issue is that a huge amount of it ended up concentrated in assets and billionaire fortunes rather than translating into broadly shared prosperity
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Tom (he/him) @tompowell01.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
I dunno. Billionaire wealth has skyrocketed over that period. Wealth was certainly being created. The question is who captured it.
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Tom (he/him) @tompowell01.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Political parties don’t create wealth, no. MPs don't personally manufacture goods. Governments create wealth by building infrastructure, funding education/research, maintaining courts & property rights, investing in energy and transport and employing people who provide economically valuable services
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Tom (he/him) @tompowell01.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Usualy Tominey nonsense. I never learn 🤣. Businesses being “a cow to be milked”, Arthur Laffer, Milton Friedman, government supposedly merely “meddling” in naturally functioning markets, standard extraordinary claims about how goverments don't create wealth. If she had brains she'd be dangerous.
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Tom (he/him) @tompowell01.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Bring in a Glass-Steagall-style separation between retail banking/investment banking, introduce a transaction tax that hits large-scale speculative trading and give everyone a basic Bank of Eng current account/debit card. Let private banks show what useful service they actually provide
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Tom (he/him) @tompowell01.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
We don't have evidence that intelligence naturally produces murderous drive. The catastrophe argument doesn't require that. Coxon's worried about a system becoming capable at pursuing objectives that aren't compatible with ours. It might no more “hate” humanity than a bulldozer hates an anthill.
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Tom (he/him) @tompowell01.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
As an individual dietary choice, cutting dairy, especially cheese, is genuinely one of the more meaningful food-related reductions on land use and manure emissions you can make.
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Tom (he/him) @tompowell01.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Never gets old. www.youtube.com/watch?v=-17Q...
youtube.com
The Crown & Corruption: How the United Kingdom Became the World's Largest Tax Haven! | FD Finance
YouTube video by FD Finance
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Tom (he/him) @tompowell01.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
static.klipy.com
Get In My Belly Food
ALT: Get In My Belly Food
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Tom (he/him) @tompowell01.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Physics tells us the forest matters. It doesn’t tell us that poorer countries should carry the cost of protecting it for everyone else
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Tom (he/him) @tompowell01.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
But they put the number in quotation marks in the headline so that solves the problem, does't it? 😂
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Tom (he/him) @tompowell01.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Yes.
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