Andy Ecelson

Never underestimate how many deeply fucking stupid people are able to get rich and influential and never, ever underestimate how many really fucking stupid people are willing to vote them into power.

Nadim Zahawi arrived in the UK from Iraq as a child refugee. His family claimed asylum once they were here. Today he has joined Reform who will stop all in country asylum applications. Under his new party, his own family fleeing persecution would be immediately deported.

I have not personally used X/Twitter for some time now. It was already an unpleasant place prior to its takeover by Elon Musk but since his acceptance of hate speech and anonymous online abusers, it has become utterly unusable.

The debate on immigration has become so toxic that we are in danger of not being able to talk about it at all - we need to change that because otherwise we could make the situation worse for all concerned. However hard it is, I won’t stop trying to change the conversation. If you agree please share.

There is no reason why this should have made me laugh so hard a bit of gas escaped.

● Andrew Windsor remains 8th in the line of succession. ●King Charles III will privately fund his new living arrangements despite Andrew being very rich indeed ● Actually we don't know how wealthy Andrew is because his mother's will is sealed for 90+ years ● Sleep well serfs. ● Know your place.

This is 100% going to be used to put ICE agents outside polling stations in areas where they want to suppress the vote.

I've spent the last three years researching Grimsby Town FC for my PhD. So in the wake of last night, I wanted to write a piece on what makes #GTFC such a special club, and what Manchester United can learn from the supposed "little fish" of English football. joshbland.substack.com/p/the-real-b...

Nigel Farage says abortion laws are “utterly ludicrous.” MPs are watching. We have days to show them: the public backs abortion rights. Join me and sign the petition now! you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/de...

Yeh, sure, Ukraine cyberattacked X, we sent condoms to Hamas, Zelensky’s a dictator, Mark Kelly’s a traitor, it was a Roman salute, they’re eating the dogs…

Imagine having had an academic career, yet quite frankly being this profoundly stupid

Indeed. Trump is 'dovish' or 'pacifist' if you ignore trivialities like 'number of bombs dropped in Afghanistan 2016-2020' compared to '2006-2016' (when DoD started to measure) and instead focus on 'the world as Ian Leslie would like it to be'.

We're among 1,000+ musicians who are jointly releasing this album of recordings of empty studios to protest the government's planned changes to copyright law, which would hand the life's work of the country's musicians to AI companies for free. Don't legalise music theft! isthiswhatwewant.com

Auschwitz was at the end of a long process. It did not start from gas chambers. This hatred was gradually developed by humans. From ideas, words, stereotypes & prejudice through legal exclusion, dehumanization & escalating violence... to systematic and industrial murder. Auschwitz took time.

Ta daa bsky.app/profile/stev...

Last time I checked the EU never tried to overthrow a UK Govt. Where are the sovereignists now? Their silence is deafening www.ft.com/content/dd4b...

If you're a Labour government with a big majority and you can't or won't address the biggest avoidable source of acute suffering in society - the dreadful plight of millions of elderly with care needs, obvious for decades, unaddressed for decades - then what on earth are you there for?

@timdowling.bsky.social "First Cheistmas Alone"?

Just started rewatching "The West Wing." Really looking forward to getting to the episode where Bartlet releases his own brand of perfumes and personalised bibles.

Being called a fraud by Boris Johnson is like being called a fat greedy bastard by Mr Creosote.

Today’s poem is dedicated to all those who have taken it upon themselves to correct the grammar or spelling in my poems over the last few weeks. It’s called ‘Pedents’.

@billybragg.bsky.social Well, you turn up late on Blue Sky and I find you've pinched part of my biography! What's that all about?

Wow! What a great evening. Fifty years going to live music. Hard to think of anyone I've enjoyed as much as Police Dog Hogan. Whole set was fabulous but the arrangement of "Let My Spirit Rise" was just magical. Many thanks to @timdowling.bsky.social and gang. Surely, has to be a live album, soon?

Not a lot good to say about Scunny....Not actually true, I spent a lot of happy years working there. But, so looking forward to seeing the brilliant Police Dog Hogan at the Plowright Theatre, tonight. With @timdowling.bsky.social

If you are anti-Brexit and pro EU and want to find some extra followers. RT and reply to this post and add each other. No fun speaking to yourself.

cartoon of the day

Elon just posted this list of government waste and all I can think of is that episode of Seinfeld in which Kramer gets fired from a job he doesn't actually have by a man who points out to him that he exhibits no sign of understanding the industry he's in I have no idea what I'm even looking at here

This place is a bit like tea and cakes at a first meeting with prospective in laws, as opposed to all nighters doing shots and throwing up in the street at the other place.

So y’all know that the lead investor in this place is a crypto company founded by Steve Bannon’s ex-business partner, right?

Biden's legacy will consist of actively enabling genocide in Gaza, preventing Ukraine from defending itself as it could, and failing to Trump-proof the US. Toxic.

youtu.be/6WKUv98fIeg?... Something I particularly like on Remembrance Sunday: Show of Hands at Exeter Cathedral from 2016 with The Lost Sound Chorus and readings of War poetry by Imelda Staunton and Jim Carter to commemorate the Shrounds of the Somme project. Breathtakingly poignant.

It's 35 years today since the opening of the Berlin Wall. I wrote about Margaret Thatcher's response for the @newstatesman.com, and why she later described it as the "one instance in which a foreign policy I pursued met with unambiguous failure". www.newstatesman.com/long-reads/2...

My grandmother voting for Kamala Harris. Born 1918. 2 years old when the 19th Amendment was ratified. 47 when the Voting Rights Act secured her vote. Will turn 107 on inauguration day. She’s lived through it all, and she’s damn sure not going back.