Tom Phillips

Tom Phillips

@tom-phillips.com

New book out now! A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE END OF THE F*CKING WORLD – https://linktr.ee/endofthefckingworld Previous books: Humans; Truth; Conspiracy. Formerly BuzzFeed & Full Fact.

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Hello, the paperback of my latest book is in stores TODAY, which is very exciting. It's had some wonderful reviews and I'm very proud of it, please buy it and also tell everybody you know to buy it too. Bookshop link here (other retailers are available): bit.ly/4ocy630

Tom Phillips reposted

If Lula wins, obviously the best thing about it is that the Amazon will be protected and the heat death of planet earth won’t be accelerated. But a close second is the knowledge that Neymar will be really sad about it

Tom Phillips reposted

Viscerally upset by the Beth Upton stuff. They won't be satisfied until they have hounded a woman – who the tribunal explicitly found had done nothing wrong – to her death. Btw the "incident" in Australia is that a patient worried she *might* be forced to be treated by her. She of course wasn't.

Tom Phillips reposted

obviously many more important takeaways from the French approach to protest, but much respect to the absolute varsity level Whimsy of throwing a whole ass piano at the cops

You will be able to ask, and it will be able to refuse, because it's sentient. Be careful not to startle or distress your sentient car! We advise speaking in a calm, steady voice when negotiating with your sentient car to turn left, or unlock the doors.

Matt Novak@paleofuture.bsky.social

sentient

"it may be a more pleasant form" is so unsettling, like something a serial killer nicknamed 'The Upholsterer' would say

Brian Stelter@brianstelter.bsky.social

Breaking: Trump says he has asked Katie Zacharia to reconsider her White House press secretary role. He said she'll stay in the administration "in some form" but "it may be a more pleasant form" www.cnn.com/2026/10/16/p...

Tom Phillips reposted

If you're going to relitigate the Brexit/Russia debate as prime minister, it would be helpful to do so with a clear briefing: what kind of interference are you saying took place, on what scale, and how effective did you judge it to be? Are we talking online bots? Financing? Something else?

channel 4 really have been giving off powerful "please shut us down, will nobody end our torment" vibes of late

Scott Bryan@scottygb.bsky.social

Channel 4 have announced celebrities for next series of Handcuffed, where celebs are handcuffed. - Katie Price and Suella Braverman - Neil Ruddock and Bimini - Kerry Katona and Mark-Francis Vandelli - Lady Victoria Hervey and Georgia Harrison MBE - DJ Fat Tony and Princess Olga Romanov

Tom Phillips reposted

if you have somehow missed the chance to read A History of the World in 47 Borders so far, then today's your lucky day: it's currently 99p from the ebook retailer of your choice

hope all the teams of National League North enjoy their trip to the Etihad next season

James Dart@jamesdart.bsky.social

Premier League says the independent commission found Manchester City used schemes 'to artificially inflate the club’s revenues, and reduce its costs, by more than £900m' during a nine-season period

Bringing in an iced coffee is loser behaviour. The true job interview power move is to plug in a coffee grinder and a swan-neck kettle before you even introduce yourself, open a bag of single origin heirloom Ethiopian beans - with notes of strawberry, blueberry and vanilla - and slowly, laboriously,

Kai Ryssdal@kairyssdal.bsky.social

I’m sorry, but if you bring an iced coffee - or any damn beverage at all - to a job interview, you’re disqualified. It’s not hard, people.

Tom Phillips reposted

In retrospect, it was probably a bad strategy to have a Director of Strategy who has no knowledge of policy and who hates what the Labour Party has traditionally stood for.

Nick Garland@npjgarland.bsky.social

Kind of grimly fascinating as always, coming from the former director of strategy to a Labour PM. There just isn't a future for a centre-left politics that is this hostile to pretty basic progressive values.

now witness the firepower of this fully armed and operational triumphal arch

Kieran Healy@kjhealy.co

I’m at the Military Complex. I’m at the Triumphal Arch. I’m at the combined Military Complex/Triumphal Arch.

Tom Phillips reposted

If you're around Chelmsford on the 3rd November, why not spend an evening with two blokes who are clearly *very* proficient at peering over or through black rimmed spectacles, discussing Francis' new book Nonesuch in particular and (I would imagine) alt history and London based fantasy in general.

Moonflower Books@moonflowerbooks.bsky.social

Ooh boy, do we have a treat to share... Booker Prize-longlisted author Francis Spufford will be in conversation about his newest novel, Nonesuch, with @jamesbluecat.bsky.social at @waterstones.bsky.social Chelmsford. Two alt-history greats in one room? SIGN US UP. www.waterstones.com/events/franc...

Look, I think we need to understand and empathise with the villagers' concerns. Yes, they've declared themselves in open rebellion against His Majesty the King, but it's important that the army put down the revolt with a minimum of bloodshed, and we should limit executions to only the ringleaders.

This touches on an important point: there's a decent chance that 72 million quid is an absolutely ruinous amount of money for Reform, I can't think of an institution in the country less well suited to handle that amount of money, it will be like one of those cautionary tales about lottery winners.

Robert Hutton@roberthutton.co.uk

Reform has already enjoyed several years of support from a loss-making TV channel whose main function seems to be to give money and favourable coverage to its MPs. The government has done nothing about this. It's probably a more effective way of spending millions than Farage will manage.

The example quoted in the article is someone using Claude to help write a grant application.

The New York Times@nytimes.com

Breaking News: Anthropic said it halted potential plots by scientists who used its A.I. models to do research that could have helped develop biological weapons.

the government really should think about having a minister to oversee this sort of thing, a kind of culture secretary if you will

Scott Bryan@scottygb.bsky.social

This era in british broadcasting: Sky buying ITV. Channel 5 being bought by Paramount. BBC making £500m of cuts. and now C4 making biggest workforce cuts in its history. www.theguardian.com/media/2026/s...

Tom Phillips reposted

"VERY INTERESTING AND FUNNY" - no star rating but I'll let you extrapolate

Joe Kelly@joekelly216.bsky.social

Went to see @jonnelledge.bsky.social speak about 31 Inventions last night. As expected very interesting and funny. Plus a signed copy of his excellent book. Definitely worth grabbing a ticket if you can

Tom Phillips reposted

The thing is Daniel Sandford in his report in this very video explains clearly why these black shirts were intimidating, that others found them intimidating, the pictures *show* they are intimidating. Why ask the question? It might as well ask "is water actually wet?"

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Tom Phillips reposted

I picked up a copy of the collected letters of JRR Tolkien for reasons, and this is the most bullshit table of contents I've ever seen. I'm actively angry that it exists