Nick

All-time leading world cup goal scorer changes national allegiance during tournament? That's against the rules, surely?

Why are councils so unbelievably bad at UX design? Telling people to email one address, while actually sending their email somewhere else is confusing at best, and likely to put some people off from sending an email at all. Maybe that's the intention?

Hannah Spencer's victory speech is such a restatement of human values: honesty, integrity, pride in her working class roots and her community. A beautiful thing .

Delicious. Greens win. Labour third. Tories lost their deposit, I think. #gortonanddenton

BBC comment that Nigel Farage has been "ever-present" on the campaign trail in the Gorton and Denton by-election, even though (a) there have been several reports of him being overseas during the election period, and (b) he's apparently not there today. He gets such a free ride.

Dangerous game played by Labour's Lucy Powell claiming that unlike tonight's by-election, the general election will be about "who people want to form the next government, which will be between Labour and Reform". Unlikely people would choose another Labour government given experience of this one.

@brynleyheaven.bsky.social I think you asked who gets the credit for the Heath headline generator. Here's your answer...

@leicestermercury.co.uk headline "Rowett fears City star's season could be over" Story: second-choice left back, who most fans wanted rid off last summer, has been injured. Honestly their use of "star" to mean "has played for the first team in at least one competitive fixture" is really annoying.

Crystal.

Renting property in the UK absolutely fucking sucks. Landlords are arrogant, entitled piss-babies.

He lied and lied to get into power. He expelled MPs who did the right thing He pretended migrants were the source of all our problems He watched a genocide taking place and protected the perpetrator. He criminalised decent citizens who spoke out. I could go on. Starmer is not a decent man.

Has anyone told @themerl about this absolute unit?

Well, I think I know who we are all going to be cheering for this week. www.bbc.co.uk/sport/articl...

Sir Ian McKellen is further proof that it is possible to be both a good man and a great man at the same time, despite the evidence of the times. And Shakespeare? He was a bit special too, wasn't he? To write something for audience entertainment that's still educational 400 years later!

Do they understand how mad they sound? As if anyone has ever decided to cross the Channel in a small boat because, if they make it, they might get to take a free taxi to a doctor's appointment? "Pull factors" on steroids. www.bbc.com/news/article...

But Mandelson is only resigning to clear up the accusations about receiving money. Helping cover up rape is not a resigning matter, apparently.

It's this kind of hard work on marginal gains that modern football is all about. If Palace come in under the PSR limit by £1 they'll be very proud of this saving.

As brewery merchandise goes, this is certainly .... something. #jumptheshark #stopitnow #punk?

The fact that Reform welcomed her into membership ought to mean a huge drop in support for them. Of course it won't, because most of their voters have no interest in politics of principle or even consistency.

BBC report at a headline level that Grok will now not make sexually exploitative images any more. An actual reporter comes on and explains that it will do no such thing, and will just make the images invisible in the UK. These are two very, very different things.

I didn’t want to post the chants but I feel I have to, to underline how absolutely insane it is that there is total unanimity on this from far right to the Sensible centre, while it’s crystal clear to football fans and almost nobody at all is saying “This all looks quite fishy”.

I keep thinking about how bad this headline is. I can't find an end to the awfulness. "If women leave the burning building because of the smoke and the flames, the arsonists win - so I'm staying" The predators don't care whether women use X or not, they're having their fun. We must turn it off.

This should be the campaign slogan for the next Dem candidate for every elected position in the USA.

I call on my party and my government to remove themselves entirely from X and communicate with the public where they actually participate online and can be protected from such illegality.

We are the shithole nation. From Caracas to Greenland to Minneapolis, we are the problem in the world, we are the source of the tragedy, we are the affront to all human dignity. This is the United States now. We are the evil.

Today once again proved that everyday citizens protesting their government are braver than the titans who own the largest media corporations, run the biggest law firms and lead the most powerful technology companies.

I'm a 56 year old cynical, depressed, rage-filled and despairing old man. Until it snows. Then I'm a child filled with wonder and joy at the world. Conclusion: it should snow more often.

“Alaa Abd el-Fattah’s tweets were wrong, but he is no ‘anti-white Islamist’. Why does the British right want you to believe he is?” Some sense from @naomiaklein.bsky.social ‬⁩

Surely the Independent didn't think that "Nigel Farage was racist as a young man" was a fact that would surprise anyone, or make anyone change their opinion of him?

freealaa.net/alaa-response

I exchanged several tweets with Alaa during the time of the early Egyptian uprising / Arab spring. I never felt "hated", he was a thoughtful, articulate, passionate advocate for humanity. The game being played by the UK right wing here is abhorrent.

A pretty good summary of the latest political football concerning Alaa Abd El-Fattah

I see no one in legacy media is calling for Israeli's who hold dual UK citizenship to be deported for calling for the deaths of Palestinians. Hypocrisy again over the case of Alaa Abdel Fattah

Oh my goodness. The political demonisation of Alaa Abd al-Fattah is so inappropriate & so unfair. For the man, read his statement here. freealaa.net/alaa-response

Best news for Christmas that Alaa is finally somewhere safe and with his family. And a hearty "fuck off" to Robert Jenrick and anyone else trying to dig up tweets from sixteen years ago to make him out to be some kind of monster, so they can grab cheap headlines.

Saddened to hear of the death of the legendary comic Stanley Baxter. From comedy films to large variety series to children's favourite Mr Majeika , Stanley was on our screens regularly for 30 years. Here Stanley plays 5 characters to show you how everyone loved the BBC Micro

Has Armando Iannucci taken over at the Staggers? There really cannot be any other explanation for this.

More of this please. Every time they pop up, smash them to pieces.

Steal from a supermarket, get locked up. Steal from a restaurant, feature in the local paper.

Pity the stadium announcer at an early kick off mid table championship game, trying to gee up an empty stadium to cheer for our substitutes. #lcfc

Oh yeah, America, this is perfectly normal behaviour for a democracy.

Blood on a lot of people's hands in today's COVID report, but they're too busy moving on from Starmer to Streeting to notice, or care. They'll hang Johnson but never admit their own culpability.

When you need to dispose of a man, there's really only one choice...