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

Listening to people talk about how they prefer to fly from Birmingham to Edinburgh because it’s 40 minutes (ignoring getting to/from airport) instead of 5hr on the train, and wishing we didn’t cancel the low-carbon alternative to that which would have also massively improved the whole network.

submitted 1 hour ago • 1 comment

This is how "This side says X, but the other side says Y" balance ends up distorting journalism. Instead of being based on the journalist's own independent, impartial analysis this question really just ventriloquises a partisan opposition stance and gives the impression the BBC fully agrees with it.

submitted 8 hours ago • 46 comments

Just one university - UCL - employs almost twice as many people as there are working in fishing boats.

submitted 10 hours ago • 33 comments

jimll.co.uk/products/car...

submitted 9 hours ago • 3 comments

Had exactly @lauralaker.bsky.social’s reaction when reading this piece. To the extent ‘public acceptance’ is thought about it is focused on willingness to get in a self-driving vehicle. I think we should be much more concerned about the views of everyone forced to share the road with them.

submitted 12 hours ago • 9 comments

And politically stupid, too. Alienates core vote (& they do have places to go) in pursuit of votes he'll rarely get, & demolishes his core policy agenda of growth, making his re-election more unlikely. Even those (inc. me) willing to cut him a lot of slack feel betrayed. A truly awful day for UK.

submitted 7 days ago • 88 comments

submitted 26 days ago • 0 comments

You would think. But a huge number of people instinctively believe if someone is/appears to be rich, they must be smart and suitable to be in charge. Unpicking that idea would be a good idea for our species, as we move forward.

submitted 10 days ago • 12 comments

1937 Ariel Model 4G Square Four source: tinyurl.com/3rve4usy #ClassicMotorcycles #Motorcycle

submitted 12 days ago • 0 comments

ai in the creative industries feels like the dot com bubble. rich execs think the general public will disregard genuine art for a future of joyless prompts. and as soon as they realise that this won't happen and start losing money from it, it will die. that's my positive message for the day.

submitted 12 days ago • 11 comments

AI replacing all our jobs wouldn't be such a big deal if we all had Universal basic income Universal Healthcare & Guaranteed housing

submitted 12 days ago • 2 comments

Amazing to see the UK is still obsessed with inventing rail vehicles that stand out primarily because they have hardly any passenger capacity

submitted 12 days ago • 12 comments

This from @stephenkb.bsky.social is the best metaphor I’ve yet seen to illustrate Labour’s immigration problem

submitted 14 days ago • 6 comments

Boss of Unite is wrong. She refers to the shutting of Grangemouth oil refinery as evidence of harm from net zero - it shut because it became uneconomic to run. It’s a fossil fuel failure, not net zero, and it was shut by it’s tax exile billionaire owner. buff.ly/cYZyknS

submitted 18 days ago • 9 comments

X-ray technician's hand showing damage from radiation exposure, c.1900. This photograph from the Royal London Hospital demonstrates just how damaging the effects of radiation exposure can be. X-rays were first discovered in 1895 by Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen, but their dangers were not yet understood.

submitted 16 days ago • 5 comments

Elizabeth Line stations are designed to be beautiful, calm environments through which many thousands of people pass safely every hour. Wrap around digital adverts sound like a worrying addition especially for neuro-diverse passengers. I checked in with TfL to find out what the EqIA had to say.

submitted 15 days ago • 16 comments

Time for Starmer to choose: McSweeney or the next election McSweeney or his voters McSweeney or legitimising the far right McSweeney IS THE PROBLEM This tactic isn’t Labour, it’s POLITICAL IDIOCY “Yeah guys you know that thing that fucked us? Got an idea. Let’s double down!” FUCKING MORONS.

submitted 15 days ago • 51 comments

Instead of opposing rightwing extremism, has Germany considered enabling it at every turn, taking every job it offers, and slavishly praising it over and over in the hopes that you'll be the first ally in its life it doesn't eventually betray and discard?

submitted 16 days ago • 7 comments

"Shortly before the 2024 election, Labour was polling at 44%, and now it struggles to stay above half that. Those people did not abandon the party over net zero, or over immigration. They voted for change, and everything the party says suggests they are instead delivering more of the same old shit."

submitted 17 days ago • 10 comments

So Labour’s message now is essentially “Farage is right about everything, so don’t vote for him”… Yeah, that ought to work

submitted 16 days ago • 2 comments

Hoping that Labour are thinking “We’ve neglected our base in pursuit of voters who will never love us, we need to reinvigorate a progressive agenda” while realising they’re almost certainly actually thinking “oh noes they voted for farage we better kick the transes some more and do lots of racisms”

submitted 17 days ago • 8 comments

No, it’s maths because it’s short for mathematics which is a noun and not math which is short for mathematic or mathematical which is an adjective.

submitted 20 days ago • 7 comments

Ooooo it's 15 years today since Gordon Brown called that bigoted woman "that bigoted woman" and Brown was made a pariah for calling a bigot a bigot.

submitted 21 days ago • 6 comments

This is what a rigged economy looks like: In the 1970s, CEOs made 27 times more than the average worker. In the 1980s, CEOs made 48 times more than the average worker. This decade, CEOs are making 354 times more than the average worker. That has got to change.

submitted 23 days ago • 747 comments

What I struggle with, is why GC thinkers don't understand the cruelty of their crusade. The harm they are intent on causing to people who never harmed them is just evil. Previously decent people that I've know have lost their minds over this and there is no talking to them

submitted 23 days ago • 5 comments

If you want to get rid of nuclear power, do it after you’ve got rid of coal completely, otherwise you’re just prolonging coal. U.K. is the 11th European country to phase out coal, Spain, Italy and Ireland this year. Germany not until 2038!

submitted 24 days ago • 0 comments

I really rather fancied one of the Motorola foldables. I think they're sexy as fuck. But it's extremely off-putting to see most of the promotion focus on AI, promising to solve problems which do not exist. I would pay a premium to get a phone stripped of AI bloat. 9to5google.com/2025/04/24/m...

submitted 24 days ago • 18 comments

@bphillipsonmp.bsky.social Your statement on trans people having to use toilets that will literally risk them being assaulted mean I will never vote Labour again. A party that is prepared to throw a vulnerable minority under the bus is a disgrace, no matter what rosette they wear.

submitted 27 days ago • 13 comments

The photo is a bit blurry, and so is my memory about the date and the location. I believe I took it at #Scharnitz 🇦🇹 in September 1984. We see an #ÖBB 1044 electric with a rake of #DB open-plan carriages, on a #Garmisch-Partenkirchen 🇩🇪 to #Innsbruck service, probably originating at #Munich Hbf.

submitted 28 days ago • 0 comments

Transphobes are so interesting because they actually hate the hetero-patriarchy and their husbands, but are fighting to keep both those things exactly as they are and they attack trans women about it. Just the saddest people on the planet.

submitted 28 days ago • 25 comments

So can alcohol, or indeed heroin. What’s your point?

submitted 29 days ago • 4 comments

I just find it interesting how many British centrists can see the issue when billionaire Elon Musk uses his money and power to influence American law and Government policy to operate how he wants it to, but don’t see the problem when JK Rowling does the same in Britain.

submitted 29 days ago • 3 comments

I'd argue this isn't an example of market failure, it's government failure. The shortfall here is local authority housing, which collapsed under Thatcher and never recovered. Right To Buy truly one of the most damaging housing policies in modern British history.

submitted 30 days ago • 4 comments

There isn't a story on the BBC News site about today's trans rights rally at Parliament Square where it's estimated 20k attended. But they did have a story last week about the Let Women Speak transphobe rally in Bristol where 100 people attended.

submitted 30 days ago • 70 comments

Celebrating historic military victories is just not a very British thing to do. Remembrance yes, but nobody's planning a late-night bender in honour of the capture of Berlin www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...

submitted 30 days ago • 51 comments

You get a lot of centrist YIMBY types going on about planning and "get government red tape out the way and just build build build!" but impossible to look at this graph and draw any conclusion other than "oh, shit, the shortfall is just state housing"

submitted 30 days ago • 25 comments

Britain, a trading nation, now has a vital choice to make about its priority trading partners: - the EU, where agreements are made, kept, reciprocal, based on international norms, & enforced by a court - the USA, where agreements are made, broken, changed & broken again at a whim, with no recourse

submitted 31 days ago • 125 comments

Tells you everything you need to know about the UK that one of its richest and most beloved people spent years making it harder for people to use the toilet, and celebrated by posting an Andrew Tate style photo of herself smoking a cigar on a yacht

submitted 32 days ago • 43 comments

No HS2, 50% rise in bus fares, and the Great British Driver gets another treat. This is maybe the dumbest, pettiest thing I've seen yet. Why are they like this?

submitted 33 days ago • 36 comments

right wing talking point with no basis in reality makes it into law, tremendous solidarity to trans siblings out there ✊🏳️‍⚧️

submitted 33 days ago • 4 comments

The UK Supreme Court can rule whatever it likes about whether trans women are legally women or not. The law will eventually change and equality will prevail. Fuck this government and its alignment with such hate.

submitted 33 days ago • 4 comments

why is every newspaper/programme running with the headline "tariffs are paused" when they haven't been. What's happened is that every country (except China) gets a flat rate of 10% for 90 days.

submitted 39 days ago • 519 comments

submitted 40 days ago • 3 comments

If you love nuclear, you must know nuclear. If you know nuclear, you must respect nuclear. A new generation of nuclear enthusiasts have forgotten the lessons of the past. They have become cavalier. Nuclear energy is only safe when you respect its hazards.

submitted 40 days ago • 1 comment

The original Star Wars movie is coming to the BFI www.ianvisits.co.uk/articles/the... This summer, there will be a chance to go back to a long time ago, and a galaxy far, far away - well, to London's Southbank for a special screening of the original Star Wars movie.

submitted 41 days ago • 0 comments