The Haunted Balloon Lady

How Twitter feels right now #Xodus

🇪🇺 The freedom to live, work, travel, study, retire across 27 countries. Give us back that freedom.

People who have quick showers aren't cleaning themselves properly. It's not possible to thoroughly wash your hair, face, pits, torso, back, genitals, arse and feet in 3 minutes. A proper shower takes at least 10 minutes, 15 mins if you need to masturbate too.

Empireworld is 99p on Kindle, and elsewhere, for a few more days www.amazon.co.uk/Empireworld-...

Sheep

Conservative peer Lord Jackson told a debate on Lords reform on Friday: "An elected House...will result in a House of compliant placemen from party lists, donors, careerists, cranks and the unemployable." Which to most members of the public sums up their view of the Lords as it is *now*

Big UK banks pocketed £29.2bn in 6 months while our bills went up. A windfall tax on bank profits would raise £19bn for schools & NHS. But banks & their lobbyists are trying to block it. Last chance to sign the petition and tell John Healey to #TaxtheBanks! you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/ta...

This went on for the rest of the full hour, at which point the BBC apologised for having to go to the weather and urged viewers to follow continuing live coverage on iPlayer. Forty-one minutes of unfiltered, unchallenged propaganda by a far right party with 8 MPs, now third in the polls. Discuss.

🧵 Wow - this article is bordering on unhinged! Apparently the BBC is akin to a “North Korean re-education camp” for teaching children about net-zero and covering both the pros AND cons of immigration Join me for a masterclass in cherry-picking and context stripping to brainwash your own readers👍🏻

EL-SAYED: "I get that the President of the United States takes personal offense to my first name - he doesn't mind as much when it's a shared name from the Saudis that are funding his son in laws private equity. Mercado Media

Brilliant! 🔥🔥🔥 This is what the fossil fuel industry WANTS you to believe! #ClimateEmergency [SOUND ON 🔊]

Reform UK's Suella Braverman claims massive taxpayer-funded water bill at home equal to 18 baths a day Claim to have used 1,504 litres of water daily at her £1.2million four-bedroom pad in a five-month period. Reform have promised benefit cuts for the disabled, old, sick, poor, unfortunate.

"Legal migrant numbers are at a historic low and small boat crossings have halved, yet that didn’t stop anger at asylum seekers spilling on to the streets. "There is no level of migration low enough to satisfy some people. There is, however, a level of migration low enough to make us all poorer."

Danny Tommo's 'patriot platform' vigilantes were refused service in The George Inn, Portsmouth. They demanded to know why, despite the fact they do not have to be given a reason. Always make bigots feel unwelcome. Show the pub some love for doing the right thing. Things you love to see ✊❤️

The Recommender: Jackie Kay The award-winning poet, playwright and novelist, whose latest collection Selected Poems 1991–2026 is out now @picadorbooks.bsky.social, shares her cultural highlights

Only 9 weeks until Christmas. That's 420 walks, 4,828 ignored recalls, 27 gallons of mud, one near-death experience, six vet visits, and 22 "incidents" involving a long-dead seagull. "The perfect Christmas gift." "Funny, heartwarming, brilliant." 25% off via russelljonesauthor.com ⚠️ Order early

The Pentagon has quietly created a secretive agency, the Technology Support Office, to develop cyberattacks, supply-chain sabotage and deception tactics aimed at slowing adversaries’ military technology programs, Politico reports. No doubt to be used against Europe and Canada

Sure, we should, if we can (many cannot). But as I keep pointing out, the government itself is making no provision at all. No stockpiles, no back-up, no alternative sources. It's individuating the response to a collective problem, and that never ends well. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Olivia: Next in my "it's okay to..." series. "Your feelings of grief, loss, anger, frustration and sadness are all valid. It's okay if you're struggling right now, these are difficult times we're living in 🩵" H/T: @o-bel.bsky.social

The fact that a private organisation @buds-disability.bsky.social gives us the only detailed weekly risk levels on Covid and flu, along with advice on precautions, tells you a lot about our public health, which continues to minimise the risks of both viruses.

This is BuDS’ 294th Covid risk assessment since the beginning of the pandemic. BuDS is the only organisation publishing free risk data for disabled and Covid-cautious people in England. We will update you on the situation again next week.

Covid infections in England are continuing to increase, up 6% on last week. The overall Covid risk level remains High and, as of 18 October, 1 in every 149 people in England were infected. Full precautions, including a PPE mask, are strongly recommended in ALL indoor places. A thread 🧵

‘Pure arrogance’: anger in Finland as Google illegally fells 250,000 trees for datacentre

Musk: “I do think at times the X feed can be a little dark. “I do think there's too much political rage bait on X.”

Let’s eradicate our life support systems – that’ll teach the liberals! It's not just about giving destructive industries what they want, important as this is. The likes of Trump and Bolsonaro will kill the planet out of a vengeful desire to hurt. My column. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

a deranged Peter Navarro lies on Newsmax of covid that Fauci "created the virus himself"

🚨BREAKING PMQs🚨 Burnham: "If this house was to come together, it would give me the strongest position to go to that summit and get a good deal for British farmers and British food producers." "And I wait for the party opposite to come to this because that is exactly what they need right now."

“Compatible with our climate commitments" ...Bollocks www.unep.org/en/news-and-...

Approving the Jackdaw gas field solves none of our problems, while contributing to the existential crisis of climate breakdown. The government has privileged special interests above the general interest. It's a shameful, cowardly decision.

How a country is unable to get rid of someone like this 👇 is beyond me.

Today's decision by Labour to approve new drilling in the North Sea is climate vandalism. It's a betrayal of all of our futures, and Labour has abandoned all credibility in the fight against climate change. This is a victory for Shell over the people. www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cw...

👏 Rupa Huq MP: "I think a lot of people think that Ofcom is just not doing its job." Sign our petition calling for Ofcom to investigate Farage's show for breaking Ofcom's own partiality rules 👇 https://bestforbritain.org/petition/farage-on-gb-news-demand-that-ofcom-takes-immediate-action/

When did the BBC description of Tommy Robinson change from ‘far right activist’ to ‘political activist’? Because that’s how he’s described on Radio 4 now

The Covid Inquiry's report on social care will be published tomorrow at 12pm. For bereaved families, this is one of the most important modules of the Inquiry. Here are the key issues we want it to address. 🧵 1/10

The bottom line is that there’s no such thing as a non-racist Reform UK councillor, otherwise there’d be no Reform councillors. What’s central to this is how racism has been normalised in the name of ‘legitimate concerns’ and therefore it‘s ok to be a bit racist but not too much.

If this isn’t stoking violence for political ends, and therefore meeting the legal definition of terrorism, I’m not sure what does

I’m not sure we’re joining the dots yet. Experiencing a heatwave is one thing; understanding what prolonged drought means for water supplies, farming and food prices is another. Give it another month or two, and we may feel the consequences more directly. www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...

Earth’s ‘life support systems’ are breaking down, climate scientists warn “The climate emergency is already here” www.scientificamerican.com/article/clim...

“Reform UK says ….” BBC News continues to report on Reform as if it’s OK for a party to be racist as long as they make an extra effort not to be too racist. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

A data center ys the opposite of a librarye

This is true! 🇪🇺 The EU's Single Market is designed to let the various countries of Europe work together as a unified entity so Europe can compete with USA and China. For that, the Single Market needs the free movement of goods, services, digital services, capital, businesses, workers and people.

Seriously, we need to stop thinking of freedom of movement as some kind of necessary evil, but as something thoroughly good. There’s a reason it’s an intrinsic part of the single market. If you don’t understand that, you don’t understand the single market.

Suella Braverman made a solemn affirmation, while holding he Buddhist Dhammapada text. There was no controversy about this. www.parliament.uk/globalassets...

This can’t be real. Yet somehow is. Please stay till the end. The last line is…👌 Introducing Democrat Jaime West, running for election for Fayette County Council, District 4 in Indiana. (🎥 Viva Frei)

For the first time, the British government has acknowledged that Russia interfered in the 2016 Brexit referendum. So who did BBC Newsnight invite on to discuss what happened? Sergei Markov, Putin’s former spokesman. Par for the course, says Nerve co-founder @carolecadwalla.bsky.social 1/