Thingus

Thingus

@thingus.bsky.social

I like messing with stuff and spinning wool and probably other things too he/him I wrote a little RPG; https://thingus.itch.io/hench

138 followers522 following894 posts

Thingus
@thingus.bsky.social

One of the big upsides of having a local independent paper is you get follow-ups to national stories after Something Has Been Done

Leicester Gazette@leicestergazette.leicester.news

Meet the garment workers who are pulling on the threads of change ahead of a new law to protect them from exploitation

leicester.newsWe want to clothe the world again – but change must come first* * * This story was published by **The Leicester Gazette** : a local, independent newspaper about Leicestershire. 1,000 people have already joined our community. Just use those buttons below to download our app and **sign up for free**. * * * In 2023, I received a last-minute call to cover a garment workers’ rally in Spinney Hill Park. It was one of the first large rallies post-lockdown, following the Sunday Times’s explosive investigation into Boohoo way back in July 2020. The rally, and the stories of the women I met that day, have stayed with me. Their experiences of low wages and poor working conditions echoed what the nation had heard in the Boohoo investigation. But it was one of the first times national media had access to garment workers and could hear directly from them. The workers who spoke out called for fair pay and highlighted a worrying issue: many had lost their jobs following the investigation. That concern was later proven true, with more than 500 factories found to have closed within two years of the Boohoo scandal. Many of the workers interviewed were not compensated for their media appearances. And as quickly as news organisations arrived to cover the story, they were gone. What remained was a community searching for support. This led us to ask an important question: what does the future of the garment industry look like for the city that once clothed the world? I caught up with some of the garment workers who attended the rally in 2023. Isabel, who attended with her colleagues, said: > “I went with the hope that our change will happen and that the government will see this issue that has been addressed and that the brands will see the issue. We went united and together, but we are still looking to see changes. This city once clothed the world.” Farrah, a garment worker who also attended the rally in 2023, said: > “After Covid-19, the situation was bad, but still sometimes people are being asked to work hours for free to prove their skills to factories.” Garment workers and campaigners at the garment worker rally in 2023. Photograph: Emma Guy ## **Following the Boohoo scandal** Following the Boohoo scandal, the government carried out a multi-agency crackdown, described as the largest investigation into workplace non-compliance ever conducted in the UK. The findings, reviewed in 2025, found that although some breaches of employment law were identified in Leicester, they did not reach the threshold for prosecutable forced labour or modern slavery offences. Over three years, one watchdog visited 318 factories and identified £199,515 in underpayments. Another watchdog made 524 visits, opened four modern slavery investigations and obtained one Slavery and Trafficking Risk Order as a result of those visits. The review also found that minimum wage non-compliance in Leicester’s garment sector was lower than in the wider manufacturing industry. Speaking to Dev about his and his mother’s experiences as garment workers, he said: > “My mum used to work in factories and work at home. I used to help my Mum, do some of the work to help her out. Night-time, for example, it would be 8pm before I went to bed. I would see my mum working away all night and all day… My mum’s choice was to either accept her fate and be unable to pay her bills – and unable to provide for us, unable to give us adequate food. The brands need to listen, the government needs to listen”. The report recommended reviving the Leicester Labour Market Partnership and continuing local initiatives such as the Leicester Fashion Technology Academy and the Fashion-Workers Advice Bureau Leicester (FAB-L). As a result, the Leicester Made trade event is expanding this year as “Leicester Made and Regions,” while the Garment and Textile Workers Trust has broadened its work from supporting workers to supporting the sustainability of factories. Despite this, hundreds of experienced machinists remain unemployed. Speaking about the impact of factory closures, Fatima said: > “I want work. I don't want to rely on government benefits. I don't want to rely on [the] food bank, I don't want to stay here in poverty. I want proper work, legal work. I want fixed hours and a contract. We must have national minimum wage and the rights that all the other workers in Leicester are getting except for us.” ## Join the conversation Our app is more than just a way to keep up – it's a gateway to award-winning journalism and the local community. __Want to support our work?__ Click here for membership__.__ ## Pulling back the curtain on the industry After the scandal and the closure of hundreds of factories, Boohoo committed to rebuilding in the city. In 2022, the brand opened its own site on Thurmaston Lane as part of what it called its “dedication” to ethical British manufacturing. However, the venture was short-lived. A year later, another explosive investigation, this time by BBC Panorama, alleged that Boohoo staff had pressured suppliers to drive down prices after they had been agreed. Panorama also claimed that the brand had subcontracted work from the Leicester factory to workers in Morocco. After years of national headlines, Boohoo began consulting on closing the Thurmaston Lane site in early 2024 – just two years after it opened. One way brands try to avoid accountability for workers’ rights is by outsourcing production to factories in another country. Campaign groups such as Labour Behind the Label (LBL) say this allows brands to avoid responsibility for the rights abuses and environmental harms from which they profit. According to LBL, another way brands avoid accountability is by hiding where their garments are made and who makes them. LBL said: > “Brands are aware that if customers knew that the workers who make their clothes cannot afford to live in dignity, it would make people think twice before buying their clothes. No one wants to feel that the clothes that they are wearing have been stitched in unsafe conditions or that workers have not been paid fairly for their labour. Without knowing where clothes were made, we can’t make informed choices or hold brands to account for these conditions. So brands work hard to make sure that we never find out.” Garment workers and campaigners signing boards calling for change. Photograph: Emma Guy ## **Threads of** **change** Across the EU, new laws are being introduced to make it easier for workers everywhere to hold companies accountable for human rights abuses and environmental harms. However, the UK is behind. It remains difficult for garment workers around the world to bring cases against UK brands in UK courts. LBL, alongside garment workers and campaigners, is taking action. The group is calling on the public to email their MP to back a new bill that would protect garment workers now and in the future. Labour Behind the Label said: > “We urgently need a UK law to hold fashion brands accountable when they fail to prevent violations of the rights of garment workers who make their clothes.” Garment workers and campaigners around the world have been fighting for decades to improve conditions and hold big fashion to account. But with garment workers, unions and organisations such as LBL behind it, a new law protecting workers’ rights is within reach. * The names of garment workers featured in this article have been changed to protect their identities. * Have you worked in Leicester’s garment industry? We’d love to hear from you. This is the first article in our series exploring the city’s garment industry, and we want to hear your story. Email us at info@leicester.news. * * * **Before you go…** We’ve recently surpassed 1,000 subscribers, which is amazing considering we’re a small team on a shoestring budget. Now, we’re ready for the next stage of the Leicester Gazette. **Download our new app and get all of our journalism anytime, anywhere.** The app connects with **Bluesky** , **Mastodon** and **Threads** , giving you access to a network of around 60 million people. It’s a safer, more meaningful alternative to mainstream social media – owned by the community. * * *

Thingus reposted

Jay Hulme
@jayhulmepoet.bsky.social

Replying to @jayhulmepoet.bsky.social

But I don't know anything about tapes or digitisation or anything like that. I don't even know how I would play this. I don't even know if it's still in good enough condition to play. So my question is... How? How do I take these two tapes, this two part performance, and make the choir live again?

Thingus
@thingus.bsky.social

New ironic fate unlocked

Carl Quintanilla@carlquintanilla.bsky.social

WAPO: The architect quit “after warning repeatedly that Trump was insisting on a preliminary design that did not provide adequate emergency exit routes or fire-containment measures .. .. ‘I am the code,” Trump said.” @washingtonpost.com www.washingtonpost.com/investigatio...

Thingus
@thingus.bsky.social

Hey this game is real good, you should play it with two or three of your friends hooting in your ear

Black Tabby Games (This is Tony) - Slay the Princess@blacktabbygames.com

Slay the Princess is under $10, an all-time-high-discount! 💯 90 Metacritic 👑 97% positive on Steam ⏳ 3 hours for one runthrough, but over 15 hours to see everything - each journey will be wildly unique 🗣️ Fully voice acted by @jonnysims.bsky.social and @nichole.bsky.social

Thingus
@thingus.bsky.social

Oh THAT'S what 'getting mullered' means!

Moths in a human suit (they/them)@lycomorpha.bsky.social

Forgot to finish this, because Friday brain I guess. I did mull it! I'm gonna say it's... Purple. Maybe more blue-leaning in person than it looks here. But mostly it's definitely still purple. I'll scan the swatch & do a light-fastness test next.

Thingus
@thingus.bsky.social

I did some natural dying a few weeks ago, and here are some of the results! Left is onion skin, right is cochneal; both mordanted in copper

Thingus
@thingus.bsky.social

There's an extra hazard here, which is this is the size that a lot of org services like HR platforms, payroll management, document storage ect, run out of free seats and you have cough up or scrambled to move to something else

Aura/Moom@moomanibe.bsky.social

genuinely wondering if there's any writing out there about the way that going from sub-10 employees to sub-20 constitutes an invisible and substantial danger for many indies as the studio goes from "everyone knows what they are doing" to "fairly substantial organizational overhead becomes necessary"

Thingus
@thingus.bsky.social

Wearing a white t-shirt at #emfcamp and being asked 'Whats your favourite YouTube video? I'll project it on your chest', and I couldn't miss up the chance to do a bit of unpaid marketing for @simogo.com

Thingus
@thingus.bsky.social

Talk to your friends about Popes...before they find out for themselves.

Alix Weasel@alixwzl.bsky.social

I just wanted to look to see if Daniel Ortegas had kids and now I know that there was an al-Gaddafi Peace Prize and that one recipient was the Pope of the Orthodox Coptic Church who visited the Catholic Pope in the Vatican because both their Patriarchies were recognised by the Council of Nicea and-

Thingus
@thingus.bsky.social

I'm packing my fibrecraft box up for #emf - going to teach some of my villagers to drop-spindle badly and hopefully tablet me up some new bootlaces!

Thingus
@thingus.bsky.social

The worst part about this is that most of these organisations were working from paycheck to paycheck. Even a short interruption in funding would have shuttered most of them permanently and broken the relationships needed to rebuild them.

Lauren Dobson-Hughes@ldobsonhughes.bsky.social

Musk says not a single person has died due to him axing USAID. Sadly, part of my job involves tracking aid spending. So here’s a thread with just some of the people who lost their lives because of USAID cuts

Thingus reposted

Alix Weasel
@alixwzl.bsky.social

Signal boosting, but honestly this was an important call to make and I'm glad that they did.

Trans+ Solidarity Alliance@transsolidarity.bsky.social

Important mass lobby update: With a red weather warning in place for the day, it will not go ahead. We are reaching out to participants with further detail and actions, but please do not travel. We are arranging a future date and will update ❤️ www.transsolidarityalliance.com/post/weather...

transsolidarityalliance.comWeather update: Mass lobby postponedWith a red weather warning now in place for the day of the planned Mass Lobby for Trans Equality on Thursday 25th June 2026, we are cancelling the lobby on the day and advise people do not travel to W...
Thingus
@thingus.bsky.social

If you can get to Halfords, car window sun-blockers work pretty well for regular windows and have Velcro fastenings

Jay Hulme@jayhulmepoet.bsky.social

If ur landlord has provided you with curtains that are basically semi-transparent tissue paper, remember that u can tape tinfoil directly onto glass without "damaging the window frame paint" (which u know they'll try and get u for even tho they left u to boil like a crab in this heatwave)

Thingus reposted

Trinket
@trinketbirdy.bsky.social

I am proud to announce our new podcast One Pound Film Club! The podcast where we believe no good movie should cost more than a quid. We can only review a film if we can get a physical copy for a pound or less. Our first episode is Scorpion King 3, hoooo boy.

patreon.comOne Pound Film Club — A podcast about hunting down hidden gems in movie bargain bins.Get more from One Pound Film Club on Patreon. A podcast about hunting down hidden gems in movie bargain bins.. Support One Pound Film Club and get exclusive access to their work.
Thingus
@thingus.bsky.social

Bluesky to make the Mosquito Noise or be banned in the UK.

Cethan Leahy@cethanleahy.com

Bluesky overrun by British teenagers at night because it's the one place the Labour government will never check.

Thingus
@thingus.bsky.social

We had. We had ARM. It grew out of the BBC Micro into THE chip architecture that runs _every_ phone. It was a huge economic, strategic and cultural asset. We had this. And then you daft bastards sold it! To SOFTBANK! For basically a fiver!

Sarah Kendrew@sarahkendrew.bsky.social

"Britmaxxing" - new levels of cringe achieved in UK politics. ✅🥴

Thingus
@thingus.bsky.social

I offered some inkle warping advice and got a bit carried away 🧵

Thingus@thingus.bsky.social

So what I've found easiest is to - grab the first colour of thread in your pattern - tie on to the front bar - warp it around however many times - cut it off a with a good length left over - wrap _that_ length around the front bar about eight or nine times, so it stays in place without a knot.

Thingus
@thingus.bsky.social

This got me on eBay for the first time in my life

Gareth@gawuffy.co.uk

I'm sorry what? As part of its 1987 rebrand British Rail's sectorised freight business Railfreight had its own branded After Eight mints and called them AFTER FREIGHT!?