Martin Faulkner

Martin Faulkner

@faulknmd.bsky.social

Peterborough via Newcastle, Hamburg and Lewisham. Linguist, parkrunner (A1088564), LLama (FaulknerM), Eurovision nostalgist, random chef, bedroom musician. Also posts from escgo.bsky.social. He/him.

113 followers182 following179 posts

Martin Faulkner
@faulknmd.bsky.social

The right to represent San Marino at Eurovision in perpetuity

Peter@notalawyer.bsky.social

question for the audience: if you were ultra rich (let’s say $25M), what completely frivolous thing are you buying?

Martin Faulkner reposted

Chris Brookmyre
@brookmyre.bsky.social

Love the fact that in most places back then, rumours of a vampire in the neighbourhood would have had the local kids hiding in their bedrooms, while in the Gorbals, they were like: "Let's get tooled up and leather the cunt."

Odd This Day@oddthisday.bsky.social

Well, if it’s 23 September... YES, THAT’S RIGHT! It’s the 72nd anniversary of the hunt for the Gorbals Vampire, in which hundreds of children aged from four to 14, armed with dogs, knives, and sharpened sticks went looking for an urban myth

Martin Faulkner
@faulknmd.bsky.social

A great piece about something that's long had me feeling uneasy. (Besides, personalised media gifts peaked with youtu.be/_wudnjvvxS4?... and everything since has been a pale imitation)

youtu.beA Personalised Birthday Party Record For Charlotte (1982) 45rpmYouTube video by CWL Record Show
the beggars out of here getter@milesklee.bsky.social

Parents are fed up with friends and relatives giving their kids “personalized” AI-generated storybooks with characters resembling their kids. Apart from data privacy concerns, literacy experts say these garbled and convoluted narratives could be an impediment to learning how to read.

wired.comBoomers Can’t Stop Gifting Their Grandkids AI-Generated Slop BooksParents are getting fed up with garbled bedtime stories that feature characters based on actual photos of their children.

Martin Faulkner reposted

Kristian van der Vliet
@vanders.bsky.social

Probably not, but the British journalist class has gotten very good at constantly amplifying the roughly 20% of the dickhead population who are.

Liam Thorp@liamthorp.bsky.social

Have the British public always been so self centred? I’m staggered by how many people I’ve seen saying ‘I don’t use buses so what good is that?’ Or ‘pubs aren’t for me so who cares?’ Millions of people do use each and they are both pretty vital for our economy and society

Martin Faulkner reposted

Dean Hochlaf
@dhochlaf.bsky.social

You would never get the "£50 doesn't even buy a meal quote if the topic was the benefit system, then you would have a guy going "sack of potatoes and a carrot, and you can feed a child for a month at just 3.2 pence per meal"

Sky News@news.sky.com

'£50 doesn't even buy a meal': What people think of Burnham's electricity VAT cut

news.sky.com'£50 doesn't even buy a meal': What people think of Burnham's electricity VAT cutHilary said 'it's a positive move', while Mike said 'it's a bit late'

Martin Faulkner reposted

Ben Dunnell
@bendunnell.bsky.social

One of the very worst aspects of the modern Labour Party is the way in which it has internalised a deeply old-fashioned view of Proper Work as “things people do without a degree”.

Athena Kugblenu@athenakugblenu.bsky.social

Universities keep towns and cities alive. The economies within them and outside of them are so vital. Not only is the way we've treated higher education in this country appalling, its dreadfully negligent, and compounds already existing problems

Martin Faulkner reposted

Brian Phillips
@brianphillips.lol

And we are live! Massive thanks to everyone who contributed to this. Reading your posts made me so much madder than I ever knew was possible

theringer.comThe 40 Most Rage-Inducing Problems in TechThe bugs, broken apps, and nightmare customer-service bots we can't escape, presented as a blessed and sacred addendum to Pope Leo XIV’s new encyclical on AI
Brian Phillips@brianphillips.lol

I'm working on a column about the tech annoyances that drive us crazy, and I want it to be as universal as possible, so tell me yours! E.g. scanning a QR code to read a menu, never receiving the one-time passcode they supposedly texted you, "verify you're human" by IDing tiny motorcycles, etc.

Martin Faulkner
@faulknmd.bsky.social

I enjoyed this and thought it was a pretty fair and balanced summary of the #Eurovision situation

Katja@schlagerkaty.bsky.social

Btw, in case you were interested - RTVSLO aired a documentary last week instead of airing ESC, it was called “Eurovision - Euroillusion?” and you can watch it here, it has English subtitles and several familiar faces are involved. #Eurovision 365.rtvslo.si/arhiv/dosje/...

365.rtvslo.siEvrovizija – EvroiluzijaPesem Evrovizije se je ob 70. obletnici znašla v krizi. Pet radiotelevizij, med njimi slovenska, se je nastopu na tekmovanju odpovedalo, saj iz etičnih razlogov nočejo deliti odra z izraelskim predsta...

Martin Faulkner reposted

Catherine Baker
@richmondbridge.bsky.social

New blog post: The image is gone, only you and I, this means nothing to me: the fractures of #Eurovision 2026 bakercatherine.wordpress.com/2026/05/15/t... …apologies that was a title waiting to happen.

bakercatherine.wordpress.comThe image is gone, only you and I, this means nothing to me: the fractures of Eurovision 2026Let’s get the inevitable earworm out of the way before we go on – though perhaps something about the unsettled atmosphere of a Eurovision where even more viewers, past participants and broadcasters…

Martin Faulkner reposted

derek guy
@dieworkwear.bsky.social

The Artemis II mission reminds me of these 1960s photos of NASA astronauts training in Iceland because they felt the terrain would be similar to what they'd encounter on the moon. The outfits are so great, even some 60 years later.

Martin Faulkner reposted

Ben Dunnell
@bendunnell.bsky.social

This is a lovely and great piece. My choices to add: Grandstand, and the non-presenter-led, perhaps even non-narrated documentary strands, like 40 Minutes.

Curious British Telly@curiousbritishtelly.co.uk

New article looks at What Modern British TV Is Missing (And Why It Matters) curiousbritishtelly.substack.com/p/what-moder... aka Ceefax vs doomscrolling.

curiousbritishtelly.substack.comWhat Modern British TV Is Missing (And Why It Matters)Ceefax vs Doomscrolling

Martin Faulkner reposted

escgo!
@escgo.bsky.social

#Eurovision fans! Our community has found the 12 most ROBBED songs of the 2026 national final season - and now it's over to you to help us crown the winner. You can check them all out in the playlist if you need a reminder, then vote - every day! - in our public poll: www.escgo.com/2026/03/15/s...

escgo.comSongHunt 2026 - The Final | escgo!It’s the grand final of SongHunt 2026 – and YOUR votes will help us find the most robbed national final song of the season. Vote now, vote often!