Andy Smith

I don't want flying cars. I want clean water. I want a stable climate. I want bees to survive.

This is as good as everyone says it is. But also note that the - I’ll be polite - ‘hostile questioner’ had no fear for his physical safety and walked away humiliated but unharmed. Would this be the case at a MAGA event?

Octopus is the easiest thing to cut out of your diet on moral grounds because it’s basically never around, probably has dreams and emotions and tastes like a tire.

I would have absolutely loved this when I was 14 - still quite like it now

Hmm, set in wartime rather than Victorian London for some reason. Also, WTF are all those grandiose CGI vistas about?

Sweepstake (n): Traditional defence against small, squeaky vampire dogs #UxbridgeEnglishDictionary

Hi, I’m a sighted alt text user! Here are some reasons I use it: - Slow Internet on an airplane - I’m over 40, I have no idea who that celebrity is - Bluesky broke images again - My vision sucks and that text is too small to read otherwise - Conveys further context and authorial intent

"In the English town of Cheshire..."

90 years! He kept that quiet 😉

From the new Private Eye

How I arrived on BlueSky* *not really, of course - the power of suggestion!

From Reykjavík to The Hague, European governments are starting to prepare for a literal sea change that would end life as we know it on the continent.

Oh my: LibreOffice just made "no AI" one of their official features: blog.documentfoundation.org/blog/2026/09...

Melanie can't go home before she gets the chance to do a samba to Stacey's Mom #strictly

That's not what 'gunning for you' means #Strictly

Very disturbing that a political party has moved from saying that there should be no penalty for encouragement to violence, to calling for reduced penalties for literally blowing things up. A party manifestly not fit for political office.

Burnham speech: An astonishing moment of radicalism and commitment iandunt.substack.com/p/burnham-sp...

All these tech billionaires thinking they're fans of LoTR but totally misunderstanding it

I predict that Musk’s attempt to suppress this film will be every bit as successful as Meta’s attack on Sarah Wynn-Williams’ book. And the many awards judges around the world who care about culture have an opportunity to play their part. Let’s give Big Tech all the recognition it deserves

Something very strange and disturbing is happening in this country, of which Braverman is just the most pitiful example. iandunt.substack.com/p/the-return...

What scene makes you emotional no matter how many times you’ve seen it?

Ed Miliband will appoint a new special representative for climate security, as well as a new ministerial taskforce on “the national security and resilience risks of a changing climate and nature loss” - excellent to see Now release the full JIC report publicly! www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Possession of an offensive weapon, reckless endangerment, criminal damage ... Let's hope the police take this seriously. www.theguardian.com/world/2026/s...

Keep politics out of music, like in the old days when Tchaikovsky wrote the 1812 Overture about how nice the weather was that year, or Beethoven composed his “Emperor” concerto in honour of his favourite kitten, and Dylan sang A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall, all about the fun of splashing in puddles.

When you're ticked off and a friend sends you something to make you feel better. 🐑🔊

There aren’t many perfect TV shows but Colin from Accounts is one of them. Just beautiful from start to finish

Let's make a dent in that £105m

New episode of the Practical NLP Podcast: interview with Mark Andreas about the Core Transformation method, with links to free resources so you can try it out for yourself nlppod.com/core-transfo...

“Help! My children are drowning!” “Sorry, mate, you’re brown.” Who wants to live in a country where people don’t go to the rescue of men, women and children in danger of losing their lives? The racists do. Please support the wonderful RNLI rnli.org/support-us/g...

“If the UK develops additional oil and gas production, that does not mean an equivalent quantity of production elsewhere automatically stops. It adds additional fossil-fuel supply to an international market." Why is this point so hard for so many to grasp? climateuncensored.com/there-is-no-...

NHS backlog fuelled a private equity gold rush in UK healthcare. All part of Tory plan to hike waiting list, under investment and privatisation of healthcare. Profiteering means less available for frontline services. Higher taxes for lower public value. Ban private equity from all public services

Oh mate, don't mention your *mum* in a conversation about-- oh, too late 😄

I want the Prime Minister to look into a TV camera and say the RNLI are heroes, that we do not change policy by street violence in this country, and that he expects any criminal action to face the full force of the law. That's it. That's all he has to do.

I’m interested in the emotional response (I have it too) whereby anger at the worst people is immediately displaced on to institutions you think should be calling them out. Labour and the BBC’s weak response to fascists arouses more fury than the fascists themselves. Must be a term for it

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

Mrs Brown's Boys though

Now James Orr has stepped down as Reform UK's Head of Policy after C4's report, questions remain for Cambridge – where he is Associate Professor. Byline Times revealed serious concerns about his activities there months ago. We all know there won't now be 200+ articles on him and his life don't we?

🚨 BREAKTHROUGH: After 40 years of research, Brazilian scientist Dr. Mariangela Hungria wins the World Food Prize for pioneering a $2 nitrogen-fixing bacteria treatment that replaces costly fertilizers, saves farmers $25 billion annually, and cuts 230 million tons of CO₂ emissions.

😄

When you set goals, how far ahead do you look - especially when the goals are personal rather than work-related? Here's why it's worth looking further... nlppod.com/goal-setting...

I know this isn't terrorism. You know this isn't terrorism. The authorities know this isn't terrorism. But, once again, they have labelled protesters "terrorists", as part of the long-running programme to ensure that no one dares protest about anything any more. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

900+ academics and others have so far defended this man on grounds of academic freedom. That’s how easy it was for them to support a openly racist man. They didn’t even bother to double check whether the racist happens to also be against academic freedom. Total surprise, he is.

Discworld QOTD, from The Shepherd's Crown "FOR I CAN SEE THE BALANCE AND YOU HAVE LEFT THE WORLD MUCH BETTER THAN YOU FOUND IT, AND IF YOU ASK ME, said Death, NOBODY COULD DO ANY BETTER THAN THAT…"