Daz

Different countries, different elections. But a year that has seen Orbán, Bolsonaro and Vučić defeated (and the GOP likely routed at the midterms next week) doesn't exactly fit the narrative of a relentless rightwards shift. Good candidates, campaigns, movements can still win.

Exactly my thought when I first heard the policy. If you want people to integrate, don’t keep them hanging around for 15 years with the threat of deportation hanging over them. 5 years is fair and plenty long enough. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

Good morning Bluesky ☀️ From time to time I like to repost this seminal exchange between Professor Stanley Unwin and Peter Hawkins, the voice of Bill and Ben. 

Had this idea in lockdown, half-built it, forgot about it, remembered it again, though might as well finish it.

After two days at the Future Days festival the thing I've learned is that 303's are absolutely back and a fundamental part of just about every band. I like it

I've seen many people saying the racist comments by Reform councillor Alan Feeney are not what the people of Castle Bromwich voted for. The Facebook groups for Castle Bromwich that keep ending up in front of me indicate they are very much what they voted for. By a large margin

This is good. Shutting out innovation from the European car industry will only leave us with inferior products

We saw this today. The most amazing bike parking facility that I've ever seen. We stuck around to watch numerous people park their bikes. @betterstreetsforbirmingham.org

According to the information that Amazon have recorded on my shopping preferences I "prefer a USB C connector" That's fair

Hey folks. In total honesty my tour is NOT selling well. I’ve sold 30 tickets in a 400 seater in Birmingham, and not much more elsewhere. If you like musical comedy, if you like standup, then please come see my show! And spread the word! The Rachel Parris Songbook tour starts in Nov! Link in bio! 🎶

passing the "zionism is racism" motion on the 90th anniversary of the Battle of Cable Street is a bit on the fucking nose isn't it

Although it feels like I am shouting into the void about this sometimes, I want to share some further thoughts on the “Zionism is Racism” motion which the Green Party is due to debate in the next 16 hours. Just to address various points which I think people in general should know. A thread:

I don't think I have an attention problem but I am now in my 5th hour of trying to watch 45 minutes of TV. I have managed make a rough app in that time

@hockeyviz.com I found some beautiful data viz for you

The next in a series of occasional posts about emails from my local Chinese takeaway. I'm sure you'll agree, a classic of the genre

Based on my Birmingham Instagram feed I can say with some confidence that yesterday Jason Momoa ate a ridiculous amount of food

Just got in my car that has heated up to 30 degrees C on the 1st October

This browser-based RPG is excellent. Can you control Trump to destroy Greenland? www.epicfurious.com

It's a lot of nice commitments from Andy Burnham but as they're mostly due to happen in the distant future is he going to come back next year and give the same speech?

Huge news. We’re always banging on about how important it is that local journalism is paid for, but we know younger people often struggle to afford a news subscription.

Wyatt Dixon interviewing Claire Elisabeth of Goldship about the brilliant Reunion Jack artwork in Birmingham made from removed and then repurposed nationalist lamppost flags vm.tiktok.com/ZN8r6jCAG/

We might need to invent some sort of numerical restrictions. We could call them "word limits" or something similar

English people on this Greek beach are adamently trying to haggle over the price of sunbeds because they'll only be here half the day. But because of their fundamental lack of understanding of the price structure are trying to get away with paying double. Indignantly

You could spend hundreds of pounds a year on streaming platforms offering variable quality TV series and films. Or…….you could spend hundreds of pounds a year on Substack subscriptions. It’s less of a return in terms of value but you get to…..learn something……read something….. I don’t know

If you live in Birmingham you have to subscribe to the Dispatch. It's our last bit of functioning news. You use it or lose it

I guess the world burning just isn't as exciting as being killed by really expensive robots

It’s very simple. A reality TV host became dictator because he turned down a role for Sharknado 4 and that’s why the king of outer space, who cheats at Diablo, got to kill Africa. Now the economy is controlled by a sex cult that has something to do with Harry Potter fanfic because of robots.

Whiska's TV advert says "cats should not play with wool unsupervised" Woke nonsense

Johnny Marr on Channel 4 News saying Andy Burnham is refreshing. Whilst wearing his Andy Burnham glasses, with his Andy Burnham haircut and his Andy Burnham accent

Open letter with Dom Whiting requesting a faster rollout of a safe cycle network in Birmingham - Better Streets for Birmingham

If you donate 10s of millions for £s to a political party knowing that legislation that would make that illegal is almost complete, I'd say you actually had no intention of donating 10s of millions of £s That's just mucking about

It was Dom Whiting's DnB bike in Birmingham today. 1000s of cyclists brought the City Centre to a stop. One angry bus driver but generally more tolerant motorists than I would have expected

It's a new guitar day. I've had this amazing guitar made for me by Luke at Madoc Guitars. I'd spent a while wanting to buy a Stratocaster but not liking any I played; whilst really liking Luke's guitars. So he built the essence of a Strat into his design. It sounds and plays amazingly

This excellent piece is worth a read. I'm so frustrated with the data centre debate. Almost everything gets solved with decarbonising the grid and mandating water use **if it's even needed** using closed loop systems. The US political debate doesn't transfer here in the way many think.

If you're going to give people the label protester then you have to have some idea of what they are protesting. These people are objecting to other people being rescued at sea. Your "concern" is not legitimate if you believe insufficient people are drowning

But putting up 20mph signs isn't really the same as having a 20mph speed limit. We already have notionally 20mph roads everywhere but they are largely ignored as there is little to no enforcement

When I lived in the UK none of my concerns e.g. affordable housing, climate action, increases in welfare spending, scrapping tuition fees, an ethical foreign policy, were ever framed as legitimate concerns. lnstead I was routinely told to fuck off by most political parties for having such concerns.

New Post: The Cost Of Complaining Just Collapsed Read more 👉 https://paulitaylor.com/2026/09/04/the-cost-of-complaining-just-collapsed/

I wrote today's edition of @theleaduk.bsky.social looking at everything that's happened over the last fortnight in Teesside. Most of my writing over the last couple of years has been straight reporting, but this is a bit of a departure.

We saw Big Special at Moseley Folk earlier. An odd band to throw into a predominantly Irish day. But some bands just ooze headliners. They weren't headlining but they should have been An outstanding live band

An important life lesson we should all live by. There was a reason Prince didn't release these songs