simonubsdell.bsky.social - Profile | ThreadSky | a Reddit-style client for Bluesky

I’m inspired by the words of @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social, the winner of last night’s mayoral primary election in New York City. Our system may be under attack by Big Money and demagogues, but let his victory serve as a reminder that power belongs to the people.

submitted 11 hours ago • 86 comments

In the old days we were allowed to scoff at those who called themselves writers but never actually completed anything. Now we must honour them for their arrogance in calling themselves writers (or whatever discipline they would like the world to recognise that they have mastered without effort).

submitted 8 hours ago • 0 comments

How authoritarians talk -attack the free press -smear anyone who questions their claims -use dehumanizing language

submitted 14 hours ago • 20 comments

67 dimensional chess, dear boy. You wouldn't understand.

submitted 8 hours ago • 2 comments

Starmer is going head to head with the King over Trump’s visit, The Times reveals. Charles wanted a low-key meet in Scotland, because of concerns over threats to Canada. Starmer has instead opted for a full pomp and ceremony State visit in London in a bid to curry favour with Trump.

submitted 20 hours ago • 122 comments

It is genuinely astonishing how one of the objectively stupidest people alive today is so obsessed with grading everyone else on their intellect. Dude, just don't go there.

submitted 8 hours ago • 0 comments

Good of Trump to confirm for us that the admirable Mamdani is going to win the contest. On his way, you say, Donald? Sounds good to us.

submitted 9 hours ago • 3 comments

I've seen a lot of pieces on Trump referencing the 'madman theory', popularised (if that's the right word) by Richard Nixon. I think it is being used in two senses, or for two purposes, but that it is wrongly used in the first (main) sense. Quick thread to try to explain. 1/6

submitted 10 hours ago • 2 comments

A remarkable snapshot of just how much damage Donald Trump's second term has done to British public trust in the US government. (YouGov Blue)

submitted 9 hours ago • 5 comments

It is such a relief to know that, despite all appearances to the contrary, Starmer is still playing chess in infinite dimensions, as his admirers have so reliably informed us he has cunningly been playing, despite all appearances to the contrary. So that's all good.

submitted 9 hours ago • 0 comments

It’s interesting how consistent survey data on LLM usage is. Something like 10% of people are using this every day or so, another 15 or 20% every week or two, and then about 50% have looked at it and not come back.

submitted 62 days ago • 3 comments

OpenAI’s Deep Research is built for me, and I can’t use it. It’s another amazing demo, until it breaks. But it breaks in really interesting ways. www.ben-evans.com/benedictevan...

submitted 127 days ago • 5 comments

As i wrote in Jan 2025: “There is lots of justified outrage at the way AI companies have "stolen" millions of creative works to train their models. But there's every chance it's legal.” www.jamesrball.com/p/copyright-...

submitted 22 hours ago • 5 comments

I came home and opened the news. russia launched a missile attack on the city of Dnipro and the surrounding region, striking civilian infrastructure and a passenger train. At least eleven people were killed, and more than 100 were wounded. I want the world to know.

submitted 1 day ago • 77 comments

Ah yes, the exquisite finesse of 5d chess. Such a pleasure to witness.

submitted 1 day ago • 1 comment

'On point' is a distressingly clunky usage but, even if we accept it as acceptable, it absolutely doesn't mean what we are daily required to accept that it means. And I know that doesn't matter. But Jeez!

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

It does not sound as if the government is convinced by its own logic for proposed levy on international students (a tariff on UK services exports in all but name). "We thought it was worth exploring a way..."

submitted 1 day ago • 1 comment

🚨🚨 As others have observed this is an excellent read by Roland Smith trying to pin down the Leave Campaign on widely inconsistent promises, messaging and how some leading Brexiteers and internal Tory power struggles led us to where we are today 9 years after the fateful vote. /1

submitted 1 day ago • 3 comments

This might be one of the most horrifying educational turning points we have ever encountered. Idiot nonsense machines are now f*cking with our childrens' brains right from the start. mastodon.social/@b_rain@troe...

submitted 1 day ago • 2 comments

You're not seriously saying that Trump did not bring everlasting peace to the Middle East by means of a single perfect missile strike? I find this hard to believe. The man breathes geopolitical genius.

submitted 1 day ago • 2 comments

Funny how you so rarely hear about the politics of morals from the PM, and then he focuses it on... this

submitted 1 day ago • 3 comments

This is not satire. It's cruelty by literal design.

submitted 1 day ago • 62 comments

Why Labour voters are deserting - and how hard it might be to get them back.

submitted 1 day ago • 3 comments

This really is an amazing exchange. RFK Jr ends up asking AOC to help him try and understand what is happening in his own department. As far from an intellectual fair fight as you will ever see.

submitted 1 day ago • 25 comments

In case you missed it.... "There was an eruption of Mount Lewotobi Laki-laki on Tuesday, June 17, 2025, at 17:35 WITA with an observed ash column height of ± 10,000 m above the peak (± 11,584 m above sea level)," said the Volcano Observation Post Officer, Yohanes Kolli Sorywutun in his statement.

submitted 1 day ago • 2 comments

“Reports of such a ruthless whipping operation reflect the government’s weakness: a wild overcompensation after Starmer instigated a political argument in his party, and failed to win it.” www.politics.co.uk/news-feature...

submitted 1 day ago • 4 comments

Robert Jenrick has declared that he is an "Anglofuturist" today. It is not a phrase that many people will have seen in mainstream politics and the media. What does it mean? It may have two distinct and overlapping meanings to those who are championing it, such as the Anglosphere Institute

submitted 1 day ago • 49 comments

If you outsource party management and politics to testosterone-fuelled fools more concerned with looking hard to the Tory press than in developing serious policy Labour MPs can back, you end up where Keir Starmer finds himself today. This is a massive failure of leadership.

submitted 1 day ago • 4 comments

Labour whips are now ringing round rebels on the benefit reform bill to tell them it’s a confidence vote on Starmer. Which may not go as well as they hope.

submitted 1 day ago • 98 comments

Just 30% of Brits still see the US as a friend to the UK and Europe. The lowest number yet recorded. Only 11% want a closer relationship with the US, compared to 42% who now want a closer relationship with Europe

submitted 1 day ago • 12 comments

Kaja Kallas:the EU has secured 80% of 2 million ammunition rounds pledged to #Ukraine. "While all eyes are on what is happening in Iran and in the Middle East, there are people dying in #Kyiv, because Russia keeps bombing Ukraine every single day. So we have to keep up the pressure on Russia.

submitted 1 day ago • 15 comments

“Leavers thought they'd won. Remainers knew we'd all lose; that leaving the EU would be catastrophic, not just for our economy and living standards, but in validating an ugly wave of populism and nativism which continues to this day.” ~AA @pimlicat.bsky.social www.bestforbritain.org/brexit_9th_a...

submitted 2 days ago • 23 comments

He seems like a stable person. Yikes!

submitted 1 day ago • 1 comment