Alistair

Beautiful everyday Ladybird things. Pen, pencil, 1965 Artist: Robert Ayton

10th Day of #inktober #inktober2026 “Mystical”

My Inktober effort for RAM - Collage from laserprint of a wartime poster

6th day of #inktober #inktober2026 prompt “ogre” which got me thinking about how early humans would have reacted to first meeting neanderthals and denisovans, How alike and different from homo sapiens they were and how that impression could have informed the myths and stories that we carry with us

Day 5 of #inktober #inktober2026 “smack” there is fineliner, Indian ink and acrylic marker in among the layers - Corrour train station as featured in Trainspotting film

Inktober day 4 “cactus” - honestly there is a chain of thoughts that got me to here #inktober #inktober2026

Trump, when asked about the question of superintelligence, picked soup www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Rebranding AI as SI makes sense once you realise the new acronym stands for Stolen IP

I have to give some credit to the person at Sky TV who asked “what if a terrible calamity occurred?” and set up a scenario where Michael Gove was given a position of authority again

Most housing benefit goes to private landlords. A big chunk of universal credit subsidises underpayed workers. The so-called welfare bill could be seriously reduced by fixing these underlying issues, not cutting actual welfare.

Nice campaign by the Norwegian Consumer Council about the declining lifespan of products. Enjoy!

This German comedy sketch (with English subtitles) perfectly captures so much of what is going on right now in the UK, the US, and across Europe. "Playing the 'Nazi Card' in the Third Reich", by Browser Ballett.

While looking for something else in the Imperial War Museum's online collections I found this 1943 painting by (Lt-Cdr) James Yunge-Bateman: 'The Outside Viewing-tank : Directorate of Camouflage, Naval Section'. Somewhat off-topic for me, but too appealing not to post. IWM (Art.IWM ART LD 2759).

Let’s face it, the only prompt and decisive response we’re ever likely to see from the Police at a far right demo is the setting up of a recruitment stand

If this wasn't a right wing group, they'd be proscribed as a terrorist organisation by next week. You know it, I know it. It's deeply shocking, what has happened to ostensibly centrist British politics.

My lowest stakes conspiracy theory is that 2nd class post costs the Royal Mail more than 1st as the system is all set up for 1st and that the additional processing and logistics of holding onto it for an extra day is needless hassle and cost for the sake of making 1st seem like a premium proposition

Good, if the Russians want to experience elite level cross country skiing and marksmanship they can try invading Finland again

Hovis make the best Digestives. McVities be damned

PhDon’t

Every single episode of Question Time

UK media readers can be reassured that the market for creepy, offensive and needlessly contrarian bullshit opinion pieces will be unaffected due to massive oversupply capacity

Good grief, this hits home.

Two fantastical flower drawings in watercolour - from an exercise in Drawing is Free’s monthly art workbook

I made a little thing - a little free art gallery tucked just inside the doorway of A Touch of Enchantment Gift Shop in Cladach above the free library. Folks can take art, contribute their own & hopefully be inspired by the island

Is one of them “Get paid £13million last year” Charlie? Any chance that that one financial trick you use might help readers? www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Ah, yes. The true meaning of Christmas

This is what a pogrom looks like: men in masks coming to drive you from your home. This is a collective failure of our political and media class because we did not have the courage to say no, and because too many were allowed to embrace this without shame

Spotted at the Bolivia v Scotland match

Politicians skirt around it. The media skirts around it. But, we have a very sinister far right, racist problem in the UK. Reform and Restore… two cheeks of the same hideous arse… flooding the zone with their hate, their lies and their howling inadequacy. If they’re our future, we’re done for.

Tony Blair thinks the UK should closely align itself with the policy decisions of a man who only survived the COVID years because he was outsmarted by the childproof caps on his bottles of bleach #fuckofftony #andthenfuckoffsomemore

Look what finally made it to Arran! @mygoditsraining.bsky.social’s new book. 2nd image from the acknowledgements nails my perfect mode of work - discuss ideas, lob others in, saunter off before the hard work starts & still get a namecheck and some credit

2026 Me: Hey 1996 me, in 30 years time you'll be furious at everything Tony Blair says and think John Major makes some pretty sensible points 1996 Me: Fuck, so I'm doomed to become more conservative as I get older 2026 Me: Well not exactly

Climate change is real and it's happening and it's only going to get worse until everyone wakes the fuck up. By far the biggest threat to us all. We don't have another planet we can go to.

There is no respect for the old ways. I just washed the car and not one person walked by and said “When you’re done with that you can do mine”. We used to be a proper country

Fresh circle of hell now available - local pub has decided that having to open a webpage via QR code to access the menu isn’t faff and annoying enough and now asks you to interact with an AI chatbot 🤢

Your regular reminder that even a survey that didn‘t ask about Richard Dawkins got the answer that scientists say he is full of shit www.independent.co.uk/news/science...

My Mum treated herself to some sketchbooks and pencils to start drawing so we went out and about for an hour or so yesterday in search of likely spots. My sketches while we sat - the marker stone is www.arranartsheritagetrail.com/placemarkers... relating to Sir David Young Cameron

Feathers McGraw gets everywhere

OK, now that paper is a very cool read

Another Goat Fell scrawl

Dundonald Castle from the visitor centre