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fornbirkibeinn.bsky.social
Nobody very important. Ferrets, greyhounds, poorly thought-through opinions. Englishman living in rural Northern Ireland. he/him
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Posts 15 Comments 35

England rather than the UK, but footpaths. In England you can pick any two nearby villages and chances are there is a footpath, probably off-road, that might not be perfect but is available by a moderately fit adult. Didn't realise how much I valued that until I moved to NI, which doesn't have it.

submitted 2 hours ago • 0 comments

It's very weird reading the Shahnameh and finding that the Achaemenids just don't feature in it because nobody in 1st millennium Iran remembered they had ever been a thing.

submitted 4 hours ago • 0 comments

wait, sorry, the specific argument for why this is 'undemocratic' is that it doesn't sufficiently advantage the namebrand incumbent with tons of money from the political aristocracy? that, specifically, is what makes this voting system 'undemocratic'? incredible

submitted 1 day ago • 1 comment

On Facebook, there is a live "Ballymena Reaction Group" page saying it is a "war" and which has over 2 days posting information to direct attacks, issuing threats, and asking mobs to exempt some houses. It has 4.8k followers We urgently need to Make Facebook & X Lawful Again

submitted 5 days ago • 16 comments

I live in Larne. I’m no loyalist. In fact I’m nationalist-from-centre. But I urge online commentators to shy away from tarring all the hate-fuelled, viscous and ignorant little racist pricks as loyalists. Focus on one thing at a time. This racism is a human issue, not the constitutional question.

submitted 4 days ago • 4 comments

If you go to X and search for "Ballymena" then about 50% of the "top" search results are far right, racist posters sowing misinformation and effectively endorsing the violence. You do have to wonder at what point governments actually try to get to grips with this sort of stuff.

submitted 5 days ago • 6 comments

Someone has to say it. And I don't live in Northern Ireland. I will note that no one has firebombed Jeffrey Donaldson's house. That's all. (Yes, Mr Donaldson has not been convicted of anything, but neither have the two young men accused in this case. In neither case do I make comment on guilt).

submitted 5 days ago • 0 comments

I have read commentary of the kind "Reform is now outpolling Labour on economic competence, therefore ..." No. Therefore nothing. That first bit just shows this game of polling competence to be a clown game. It is playing table tennis with water melons, drawing with jelly. Don't try to win it.

submitted 5 days ago • 10 comments

'Real wages have grown more in the first 10 months of this Labour government than in the first 10 years of the Conservative government' is a strong line from Reeves. May not feel like it yet, but there is some good news out there.

submitted 5 days ago • 1 comment

Found the implicit logic of Joani Reid's question a bit odd there - rests on the idea it is innately comical to lose elections to the Labour party. #pmqs

submitted 5 days ago • 1 comment

An interesting opinion from a man whose livelihood depends on people listening to his voice.

submitted 5 days ago • 0 comments

www.theguardian.com/politics/202... It is noticeable that Rayner us very good at internal negotiations.

submitted 5 days ago • 0 comments

@irhottakes.bsky.social covered a relevant subject in its entirety

submitted 6 days ago • 2 comments

Okay, I'll say it: America, I don't think your Constitution is very good

submitted 6 days ago • 18 comments

You can say you're British; and you can say you're shocked that a town whose major historic industries were agriculture and abbatoirs is about 15% European by population, but I don't think you can do both.

submitted 6 days ago • 2 comments