From the Bluesky side, it had stabilised post Musk's end of the pier show at just under a million posts per day, and last night was at just over 28 million users, ticking up at perhaps 60-70k per day. https://bsky.jazco.dev/stats
As of this morning, it is at 29.2 million accounts, so that is plus one million in 4 days - 250k per day. Obviously encouraged by Trump, and by Musk's gesture politics. And up from ~250k in August 2024.
So on this trend minus a chunk, for it being a flurry, we'll be looking at ~50 million accounts by Easter, and numbers plus which communities / opinion leaders / organisations shift to Bluesky will make it clearer whether this will be a broader ecosystem.
For bluesky to truly succeed it desperately needs a lot of centrist and, especially, right wing accounts to move
I see no sign of that. Bluesky is actively hostile to these people
So we will end up with two different but similar Twitter-like places and even less interaction between left and right. Not good
Actively hostile?
(Looks at twitter DMs). I could bring Police Scotland to a shuddering halt if I were to report every violent threat I've received on twitter. The blame for this division lies squarely with the social media firm that allows someone who advocates for a beaver reintroductions or a cycle lane here or there to receive that volume of abuse.
Sure, but conversely if Bluesky ever does take off with a wide range of opinion then you will get that on Bluesky as well (indeed there are already early reports of bullying and harrassment on Bluesky - which could be seen as a good sign of its growth)
Except that Blusky has no intention of hosting a debate.
One of Trump’s supporters had her account blocked within minutes of her creating it, having posted precisely nothing.
From the Bluesky side, it had stabilised post Musk's end of the pier show at just under a million posts per day, and last night was at just over 28 million users, ticking up at perhaps 60-70k per day. https://bsky.jazco.dev/stats
As of this morning, it is at 29.2 million accounts, so that is plus one million in 4 days - 250k per day. Obviously encouraged by Trump, and by Musk's gesture politics. And up from ~250k in August 2024.
So on this trend minus a chunk, for it being a flurry, we'll be looking at ~50 million accounts by Easter, and numbers plus which communities / opinion leaders / organisations shift to Bluesky will make it clearer whether this will be a broader ecosystem.
For bluesky to truly succeed it desperately needs a lot of centrist and, especially, right wing accounts to move
I see no sign of that. Bluesky is actively hostile to these people
So we will end up with two different but similar Twitter-like places and even less interaction between left and right. Not good
Actively hostile?
(Looks at twitter DMs). I could bring Police Scotland to a shuddering halt if I were to report every violent threat I've received on twitter. The blame for this division lies squarely with the social media firm that allows someone who advocates for a beaver reintroductions or a cycle lane here or there to receive that volume of abuse.
Sure, but conversely if Bluesky ever does take off with a wide range of opinion then you will get that on Bluesky as well (indeed there are already early reports of bullying and harrassment on Bluesky - which could be seen as a good sign of its growth)
Except that Blusky has no intention of hosting a debate.
One of Trump’s supporters had her account blocked within minutes of her creating it, having posted precisely nothing.
From the Bluesky side, it had stabilised post Musk's end of the pier show at just under a million posts per day, and last night was at just over 28 million users, ticking up at perhaps 60-70k per day. https://bsky.jazco.dev/stats
As of this morning, it is at 29.2 million accounts, so that is plus one million in 4 days - 250k per day. Obviously encouraged by Trump, and by Musk's gesture politics. And up from ~250k in August 2024.
So on this trend minus a chunk, for it being a flurry, we'll be looking at ~50 million accounts by Easter, and numbers plus which communities / opinion leaders / organisations shift to Bluesky will make it clearer whether this will be a broader ecosystem.
I know that to many he can do nothing right, but Trump asking his assistant to give the pen with which he signed the order to release the documents related to the deaths of his father and his uncle, to RFK Jr, was a class move.
He pardoned large numbers of Jan 6 rioters who had violently assaulted police officers (having said he wouldn't). Giving a pen to his political ally doesn't re-balance the scales all that much.
From the Bluesky side, it had stabilised post Musk's end of the pier show at just under a million posts per day, and last night was at just over 28 million users, ticking up at perhaps 60-70k per day. https://bsky.jazco.dev/stats
As of this morning, it is at 29.2 million accounts, so that is plus one million in 4 days - 250k per day. Obviously encouraged by Trump, and by Musk's gesture politics. And up from ~250k in August 2024.
So on this trend minus a chunk, for it being a flurry, we'll be looking at ~50 million accounts by Easter, and numbers plus which communities / opinion leaders / organisations shift to Bluesky will make it clearer whether this will be a broader ecosystem.
For bluesky to truly succeed it desperately needs a lot of centrist and, especially, right wing accounts to move
I see no sign of that. Bluesky is actively hostile to these people
So we will end up with two different but similar Twitter-like places and even less interaction between left and right. Not good
Actively hostile?
(Looks at twitter DMs). I could bring Police Scotland to a shuddering halt if I were to report every violent threat I've received on twitter. The blame for this division lies squarely with the social media firm that allows someone who advocates for a beaver reintroductions or a cycle lane here or there to receive that volume of abuse.
Sure, but conversely if Bluesky ever does take off with a wide range of opinion then you will get that on Bluesky as well (indeed there are already early reports of bullying and harrassment on Bluesky - which could be seen as a good sign of its growth)
Except that Blusky has no intention of hosting a debate.
One of Trump’s supporters had her account blocked within minutes of her creating it, having posted precisely nothing.
From the Bluesky side, it had stabilised post Musk's end of the pier show at just under a million posts per day, and last night was at just over 28 million users, ticking up at perhaps 60-70k per day. https://bsky.jazco.dev/stats
As of this morning, it is at 29.2 million accounts, so that is plus one million in 4 days - 250k per day. Obviously encouraged by Trump, and by Musk's gesture politics. And up from ~250k in August 2024.
So on this trend minus a chunk, for it being a flurry, we'll be looking at ~50 million accounts by Easter, and numbers plus which communities / opinion leaders / organisations shift to Bluesky will make it clearer whether this will be a broader ecosystem.
For bluesky to truly succeed it desperately needs a lot of centrist and, especially, right wing accounts to move
I see no sign of that. Bluesky is actively hostile to these people
So we will end up with two different but similar Twitter-like places and even less interaction between left and right. Not good
Actively hostile?
(Looks at twitter DMs). I could bring Police Scotland to a shuddering halt if I were to report every violent threat I've received on twitter. The blame for this division lies squarely with the social media firm that allows someone who advocates for a beaver reintroductions or a cycle lane here or there to receive that volume of abuse.
Sure, but conversely if Bluesky ever does take off with a wide range of opinion then you will get that on Bluesky as well (indeed there are already early reports of bullying and harrassment on Bluesky - which could be seen as a good sign of its growth)
Except that Blusky has no intention of hosting a debate.
One of Trump’s supporters had her account blocked within minutes of her creating it, having posted precisely nothing.
From the Bluesky side, it had stabilised post Musk's end of the pier show at just under a million posts per day, and last night was at just over 28 million users, ticking up at perhaps 60-70k per day. https://bsky.jazco.dev/stats
As of this morning, it is at 29.2 million accounts, so that is plus one million in 4 days - 250k per day. Obviously encouraged by Trump, and by Musk's gesture politics. And up from ~250k in August 2024.
So on this trend minus a chunk, for it being a flurry, we'll be looking at ~50 million accounts by Easter, and numbers plus which communities / opinion leaders / organisations shift to Bluesky will make it clearer whether this will be a broader ecosystem.
For bluesky to truly succeed it desperately needs a lot of centrist and, especially, right wing accounts to move
I see no sign of that. Bluesky is actively hostile to these people
So we will end up with two different but similar Twitter-like places and even less interaction between left and right. Not good
Actively hostile?
(Looks at twitter DMs). I could bring Police Scotland to a shuddering halt if I were to report every violent threat I've received on twitter. The blame for this division lies squarely with the social media firm that allows someone who advocates for a beaver reintroductions or a cycle lane here or there to receive that volume of abuse.
Sure, but conversely if Bluesky ever does take off with a wide range of opinion then you will get that on Bluesky as well (indeed there are already early reports of bullying and harrassment on Bluesky - which could be seen as a good sign of its growth)
Except that Blusky has no intention of hosting a debate.
One of Trump’s supporters had her account blocked within minutes of her creating it, having posted precisely nothing.
From the Bluesky side, it had stabilised post Musk's end of the pier show at just under a million posts per day, and last night was at just over 28 million users, ticking up at perhaps 60-70k per day. https://bsky.jazco.dev/stats
As of this morning, it is at 29.2 million accounts, so that is plus one million in 4 days - 250k per day. Obviously encouraged by Trump, and by Musk's gesture politics. And up from ~250k in August 2024.
So on this trend minus a chunk, for it being a flurry, we'll be looking at ~50 million accounts by Easter, and numbers plus which communities / opinion leaders / organisations shift to Bluesky will make it clearer whether this will be a broader ecosystem.
For bluesky to truly succeed it desperately needs a lot of centrist and, especially, right wing accounts to move
I see no sign of that. Bluesky is actively hostile to these people
So we will end up with two different but similar Twitter-like places and even less interaction between left and right. Not good
Actively hostile?
(Looks at twitter DMs). I could bring Police Scotland to a shuddering halt if I were to report every violent threat I've received on twitter. The blame for this division lies squarely with the social media firm that allows someone who advocates for a beaver reintroductions or a cycle lane here or there to receive that volume of abuse.
Sure, but conversely if Bluesky ever does take off with a wide range of opinion then you will get that on Bluesky as well (indeed there are already early reports of bullying and harrassment on Bluesky - which could be seen as a good sign of its growth)
Except that Blusky has no intention of hosting a debate.
One of Trump’s supporters had her account blocked within minutes of her creating it, having posted precisely nothing.
From the Bluesky side, it had stabilised post Musk's end of the pier show at just under a million posts per day, and last night was at just over 28 million users, ticking up at perhaps 60-70k per day. https://bsky.jazco.dev/stats
As of this morning, it is at 29.2 million accounts, so that is plus one million in 4 days - 250k per day. Obviously encouraged by Trump, and by Musk's gesture politics. And up from ~250k in August 2024.
So on this trend minus a chunk, for it being a flurry, we'll be looking at ~50 million accounts by Easter, and numbers plus which communities / opinion leaders / organisations shift to Bluesky will make it clearer whether this will be a broader ecosystem.
For bluesky to truly succeed it desperately needs a lot of centrist and, especially, right wing accounts to move
I see no sign of that. Bluesky is actively hostile to these people
So we will end up with two different but similar Twitter-like places and even less interaction between left and right. Not good
Actively hostile?
(Looks at twitter DMs). I could bring Police Scotland to a shuddering halt if I were to report every violent threat I've received on twitter. The blame for this division lies squarely with the social media firm that allows someone who advocates for a beaver reintroductions or a cycle lane here or there to receive that volume of abuse.
Sure, but conversely if Bluesky ever does take off with a wide range of opinion then you will get that on Bluesky as well (indeed there are already early reports of bullying and harrassment on Bluesky - which could be seen as a good sign of its growth)
Except that Blusky has no intention of hosting a debate.
One of Trump’s supporters had her account blocked within minutes of her creating it, having posted precisely nothing.
I noticed a few of my choice sub-reddits have stopped allowing Twitter or Meta links recently. It's all Bluesky now.
Meta will be hard to give up for me because FB is so important in the used car game but maybe I should stop trying to buy non-running RR Ghosts anyway.
I’m in a rural Burmese town - Twantay - which is so rural I don’t think they’ve seen a white person for 40 years
Walk down the street and people run out of the shops to have a look. One guy did a dangerous u-turn just to have a second glimpse. Children almost faint
I mean, it could be my ruthless good looks but I don’t think so
Possibly the last white person here was George Orwell. A copper stationed in Twantay in the 1920s
Wasn't that the experience that turned him into an anti-imperialist and socialist?
In which case, we can expect a different SeanT returning home...
Possibly, tho in a fine irony I can confirm that socialist anti-imperialism has done nothing for Myanmar
It is unbelievably poor. About half the GDP per capita of India. And you can see it
Myanmar only has a sixth of the GDP per capita of neighboring Thailand. British Empire fans please explain.
Myanmar is one of those countries where they’d almost certainly be better off if the British had stayed - and some people will say it (it’s a popular sentiment amongst the minority peoples in Myanmar)
Sri Lanka is another candidate
That said, the idea might be less appealing now it means being ultimately governed by Keir Starmer. As he’d probably try and give them - plus a free pot noodle - to Pyongyang
I was wondering, whilst extremely bored admittedly, if you could show those in power in the US in the 1940s the world now without the British Empire (and the French I grudgingly suppose) whether their determined hatred of European Empires might suddenly seem like a bad idea.
If the US today had an ally with a huge empire to counterweight China and Russia as well as a temperamental French ally it would possibly make their lives easier.
Perhaps the Middle East wouldn’t be a huge problem for them if still under mandate or empire.
But at least they got to smack our imperialist bottoms over Suez.
(And yes I get that those countries in the Empires might have broken free anyway but was just some lazy bored thinking.)
@CLondoner92 #TfL Freedom of Information release: Proposed London Overground line names in 2015 when Boris Johnson was Mayor "We can confirm that a total of £10,175 was spent on customer research on the proposed line name changes."
From the Bluesky side, it had stabilised post Musk's end of the pier show at just under a million posts per day, and last night was at just over 28 million users, ticking up at perhaps 60-70k per day. https://bsky.jazco.dev/stats
As of this morning, it is at 29.2 million accounts, so that is plus one million in 4 days - 250k per day. Obviously encouraged by Trump, and by Musk's gesture politics. And up from ~250k in August 2024.
So on this trend minus a chunk, for it being a flurry, we'll be looking at ~50 million accounts by Easter, and numbers plus which communities / opinion leaders / organisations shift to Bluesky will make it clearer whether this will be a broader ecosystem.
For bluesky to truly succeed it desperately needs a lot of centrist and, especially, right wing accounts to move
I see no sign of that. Bluesky is actively hostile to these people
So we will end up with two different but similar Twitter-like places and even less interaction between left and right. Not good
Actively hostile?
(Looks at twitter DMs). I could bring Police Scotland to a shuddering halt if I were to report every violent threat I've received on twitter. The blame for this division lies squarely with the social media firm that allows someone who advocates for a beaver reintroductions or a cycle lane here or there to receive that volume of abuse.
Sure, but conversely if Bluesky ever does take off with a wide range of opinion then you will get that on Bluesky as well (indeed there are already early reports of bullying and harrassment on Bluesky - which could be seen as a good sign of its growth)
Except that Blusky has no intention of hosting a debate.
One of Trump’s supporters had her account blocked within minutes of her creating it, having posted precisely nothing.
From the Bluesky side, it had stabilised post Musk's end of the pier show at just under a million posts per day, and last night was at just over 28 million users, ticking up at perhaps 60-70k per day. https://bsky.jazco.dev/stats
As of this morning, it is at 29.2 million accounts, so that is plus one million in 4 days - 250k per day. Obviously encouraged by Trump, and by Musk's gesture politics. And up from ~250k in August 2024.
So on this trend minus a chunk, for it being a flurry, we'll be looking at ~50 million accounts by Easter, and numbers plus which communities / opinion leaders / organisations shift to Bluesky will make it clearer whether this will be a broader ecosystem.
For bluesky to truly succeed it desperately needs a lot of centrist and, especially, right wing accounts to move
I see no sign of that. Bluesky is actively hostile to these people
So we will end up with two different but similar Twitter-like places and even less interaction between left and right. Not good
Actively hostile?
(Looks at twitter DMs). I could bring Police Scotland to a shuddering halt if I were to report every violent threat I've received on twitter. The blame for this division lies squarely with the social media firm that allows someone who advocates for a beaver reintroductions or a cycle lane here or there to receive that volume of abuse.
Sure, but conversely if Bluesky ever does take off with a wide range of opinion then you will get that on Bluesky as well (indeed there are already early reports of bullying and harrassment on Bluesky - which could be seen as a good sign of its growth)
Except that Blusky has no intention of hosting a debate.
One of Trump’s supporters had her account blocked within minutes of her creating it, having posted precisely nothing.
Yeah but her reputation precedes her. She is a total nutjob. I'm not surprised she would be getting blocked.
She’s a high-profile Trump supporter. Banning her for who she is, rather than anything she actually said on the platform, is indicative of how the platform wants to run themselves, much like old Twitter.
It's not being a Trump supporter that is the issue, it's the endless stream of crackpot opinions that have caused her trouble. She has been banned from lots of other services before due to the things she has said and done.
This is one I have yet to see anti-Trumpers grapple with - what happens if the bugger or his acolytes get voted back in.
The mainstream media and business are all kissing the ring and sucking the anointed dick, whilst anti-Trumpers are stoking up Court challengers and similar to slow the gradual collapse down by obfuscation and enforcing law, in anticipation of the mid-terms or end-term elections.
But what if the Usonians, on average, actually want to bend over and get Trumped good and hard?
That's the end of the American era, which frankly appears to be on the cards right now anyway.
I don’t see the US era ending any time soon.
But, it would be the end of the US Republic, and the beginning of a much more overt US Empire.
“Manufacturers have entered the New Year in a grim mood. Confidence has evaporated over the last three months as orders have dropped,” said Ben Jones, economist at the business group.
“A fall in domestic deliveries comes amid widespread concerns over the impact of the increase in National Insurance contributions, minimum wages and changes to employment law on firms’ operating costs.”
Much of the global manufacturing sector is struggling with German industry gripped by high energy prices, weak demand and stiff competition from Chinese car manufacturers, while China itself is also battling against an economic slump caused in part by a property crisis.
I am leaving end of next month where I work, Yesterday due to fallin order book and no real sign of an uptick they announced compulsory redundancies. I have been there over a decade and this has never happened before. The assumption is orders will pick up but this has been said for 12 months and it just does not happen and no sign of it happening. We sell consumables and equipment. We have not had an order for a piece of equipment for over 12 months now. Our customers have simply got no capex expenditure at the moment. We have only had a few enquiries too.
The equipment we sell is the route to market for alot of our consumables. The razor and the razorblades analogy and it is just not happening.
Reeves is definitely now making the right noises about growth and seems to be pivoting into the right approach however the damage has been done in the past 6 months.
I'm afraid I have lirrle confidence in Reeves. She has put growth in to reverse gear and the impact of her policies have yet to feed fully through. She evidently had no plan to get the economy growing and Labour is now trying to put one together and will have an internal battle to straighten things out first. The Net Zero versus growth dichotomy is just the first. Sad fact is Reeves will need to reverse lots of her policies ( see non doms ) and its whether she has the courage to recognise she was wrong and change. I doubt it.
She does seem to be doing a partial reverse on non doms and is now being attacked from the left as a consequence.
She needs to do far more but over the last week, week and a half, she does seem to be doing some positive things on growth.
I get the lack of confidence. She has done little to gain any and we are reaping the consequences of the doom and gloom rhetoric when labour came to power however if she does turn it around and does start doing positive things on growth then she has much to gain.
The Left need a reality check. If you want a world-class NHS, you need rich people to pay for it (even if they don't use it).
Chasing the rich away may give warm fuzzy feelings to the Left. Until they have to start explaining the closure of hospital wards. Utter pillocks.
It's not true that the rich pay for the NHS. The rich pay a significant proportion of income tax, but income tax is not the only tax. See https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-8513/ "The 10% of income taxpayers with the largest incomes contribute over 60% of income tax receipts." But, "The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) – an economic think tank – has analysed how much households pay in tax. Their analysis – which covers around three quarters of tax revenues (including income tax, NICs, VAT, excise duties and council tax) – found that, in 2017/18, the 50% of households with the largest incomes contributed around 78% of taxes." And then, of course, there is also corporation tax and business rates, which raise about half as much as income tax.
What we need is a broad tax base and greater economic equality, not failed trickle down economics.
“Manufacturers have entered the New Year in a grim mood. Confidence has evaporated over the last three months as orders have dropped,” said Ben Jones, economist at the business group.
“A fall in domestic deliveries comes amid widespread concerns over the impact of the increase in National Insurance contributions, minimum wages and changes to employment law on firms’ operating costs.”
Much of the global manufacturing sector is struggling with German industry gripped by high energy prices, weak demand and stiff competition from Chinese car manufacturers, while China itself is also battling against an economic slump caused in part by a property crisis.
I am leaving end of next month where I work, Yesterday due to fallin order book and no real sign of an uptick they announced compulsory redundancies. I have been there over a decade and this has never happened before. The assumption is orders will pick up but this has been said for 12 months and it just does not happen and no sign of it happening.
We sell consumables and equipment. We have not had an order for a piece of equipment for over 12 months now. Our customers have simply got no capex expenditure at the moment. We have only had a few enquiries too.
The equipment we sell is the route to market for alot of our consumables. The razor and the razorblades analogy and it is just not happening.
Reeves is definitely now making the right noises about growth and seems to be pivoting into the right approach however the damage has been done in the past 6 months.
Really sorry to hear that, I feel for you. Hopefully you can pick up something pretty soon.
We've been forced to replace one of our main production machines because the old one is EOL and the engineer visits have just become too frequent, but it's absolutely a gamble based on the work coming in. Thankfully I've been working on a Plan B for the last 18 months that will hopefully come to fruition in the summer.
“Manufacturers have entered the New Year in a grim mood. Confidence has evaporated over the last three months as orders have dropped,” said Ben Jones, economist at the business group.
“A fall in domestic deliveries comes amid widespread concerns over the impact of the increase in National Insurance contributions, minimum wages and changes to employment law on firms’ operating costs.”
Much of the global manufacturing sector is struggling with German industry gripped by high energy prices, weak demand and stiff competition from Chinese car manufacturers, while China itself is also battling against an economic slump caused in part by a property crisis.
I am leaving end of next month where I work, Yesterday due to fallin order book and no real sign of an uptick they announced compulsory redundancies. I have been there over a decade and this has never happened before. The assumption is orders will pick up but this has been said for 12 months and it just does not happen and no sign of it happening. We sell consumables and equipment. We have not had an order for a piece of equipment for over 12 months now. Our customers have simply got no capex expenditure at the moment. We have only had a few enquiries too.
The equipment we sell is the route to market for alot of our consumables. The razor and the razorblades analogy and it is just not happening.
Reeves is definitely now making the right noises about growth and seems to be pivoting into the right approach however the damage has been done in the past 6 months.
I'm afraid I have lirrle confidence in Reeves. She has put growth in to reverse gear and the impact of her policies have yet to feed fully through. She evidently had no plan to get the economy growing and Labour is now trying to put one together and will have an internal battle to straighten things out first. The Net Zero versus growth dichotomy is just the first. Sad fact is Reeves will need to reverse lots of her policies ( see non doms ) and its whether she has the courage to recognise she was wrong and change. I doubt it.
She does seem to be doing a partial reverse on non doms and is now being attacked from the left as a consequence.
She needs to do far more but over the last week, week and a half, she does seem to be doing some positive things on growth.
I get the lack of confidence. She has done little to gain any and we are reaping the consequences of the doom and gloom rhetoric when labour came to power however if she does turn it around and does start doing positive things on growth then she has much to gain.
The Left need a reality check. If you want a world-class NHS, you need rich people to pay for it (even if they don't use it).
Chasing the rich away may give warm fuzzy feelings to the Left. Until they have to start explaining the closure of hospital wards. Utter pillocks.
Isn't the point that rich (foreign) people weren't paying?
Yes, they spend money here which does boost the economy, and there'll be some tax take on that too. However, depending on wealthy individuals who make money elsewhere (or indeed even wealthy individuals here) is not a very sustainable tax base. It would be much better to create a faster-growing economy that spreads its growth more evenly - which is also good politics as excessive inequality is a recipe for resentment, division and radicalism, not to mention slower growth anyway as people don't feel a stake in what they're doing.
So far, Labour has given distinctly mixed messages on improving growth and its actions are having a lot more effect than its words.
“Manufacturers have entered the New Year in a grim mood. Confidence has evaporated over the last three months as orders have dropped,” said Ben Jones, economist at the business group.
“A fall in domestic deliveries comes amid widespread concerns over the impact of the increase in National Insurance contributions, minimum wages and changes to employment law on firms’ operating costs.”
Much of the global manufacturing sector is struggling with German industry gripped by high energy prices, weak demand and stiff competition from Chinese car manufacturers, while China itself is also battling against an economic slump caused in part by a property crisis.
I am leaving end of next month where I work, Yesterday due to fallin order book and no real sign of an uptick they announced compulsory redundancies. I have been there over a decade and this has never happened before. The assumption is orders will pick up but this has been said for 12 months and it just does not happen and no sign of it happening. We sell consumables and equipment. We have not had an order for a piece of equipment for over 12 months now. Our customers have simply got no capex expenditure at the moment. We have only had a few enquiries too.
The equipment we sell is the route to market for alot of our consumables. The razor and the razorblades analogy and it is just not happening.
Reeves is definitely now making the right noises about growth and seems to be pivoting into the right approach however the damage has been done in the past 6 months.
I'm afraid I have lirrle confidence in Reeves. She has put growth in to reverse gear and the impact of her policies have yet to feed fully through. She evidently had no plan to get the economy growing and Labour is now trying to put one together and will have an internal battle to straighten things out first. The Net Zero versus growth dichotomy is just the first. Sad fact is Reeves will need to reverse lots of her policies ( see non doms ) and its whether she has the courage to recognise she was wrong and change. I doubt it.
She does seem to be doing a partial reverse on non doms and is now being attacked from the left as a consequence.
She needs to do far more but over the last week, week and a half, she does seem to be doing some positive things on growth.
I get the lack of confidence. She has done little to gain any and we are reaping the consequences of the doom and gloom rhetoric when labour came to power however if she does turn it around and does start doing positive things on growth then she has much to gain.
The Left need a reality check. If you want a world-class NHS, you need rich people to pay for it (even if they don't use it).
Chasing the rich away may give warm fuzzy feelings to the Left. Until they have to start explaining the closure of hospital wards. Utter pillocks.
Their solution will be "wealth tax now" and demand the rich pay their "fair share"
TUSC on Twitter was one of the strongest critics. We need a new party of the left apparently, as Reeves is a Tory.
There is a view on the left, or a part of it, that the wealthy pay no tax at all.
From the Bluesky side, it had stabilised post Musk's end of the pier show at just under a million posts per day, and last night was at just over 28 million users, ticking up at perhaps 60-70k per day. https://bsky.jazco.dev/stats
As of this morning, it is at 29.2 million accounts, so that is plus one million in 4 days - 250k per day. Obviously encouraged by Trump, and by Musk's gesture politics. And up from ~250k in August 2024.
So on this trend minus a chunk, for it being a flurry, we'll be looking at ~50 million accounts by Easter, and numbers plus which communities / opinion leaders / organisations shift to Bluesky will make it clearer whether this will be a broader ecosystem.
For bluesky to truly succeed it desperately needs a lot of centrist and, especially, right wing accounts to move
I see no sign of that. Bluesky is actively hostile to these people
So we will end up with two different but similar Twitter-like places and even less interaction between left and right. Not good
Actively hostile?
(Looks at twitter DMs). I could bring Police Scotland to a shuddering halt if I were to report every violent threat I've received on twitter. The blame for this division lies squarely with the social media firm that allows someone who advocates for a beaver reintroductions or a cycle lane here or there to receive that volume of abuse.
Sure, but conversely if Bluesky ever does take off with a wide range of opinion then you will get that on Bluesky as well (indeed there are already early reports of bullying and harrassment on Bluesky - which could be seen as a good sign of its growth)
Except that Blusky has no intention of hosting a debate.
One of Trump’s supporters had her account blocked within minutes of her creating it, having posted precisely nothing.
From the Bluesky side, it had stabilised post Musk's end of the pier show at just under a million posts per day, and last night was at just over 28 million users, ticking up at perhaps 60-70k per day. https://bsky.jazco.dev/stats
As of this morning, it is at 29.2 million accounts, so that is plus one million in 4 days - 250k per day. Obviously encouraged by Trump, and by Musk's gesture politics. And up from ~250k in August 2024.
So on this trend minus a chunk, for it being a flurry, we'll be looking at ~50 million accounts by Easter, and numbers plus which communities / opinion leaders / organisations shift to Bluesky will make it clearer whether this will be a broader ecosystem.
For bluesky to truly succeed it desperately needs a lot of centrist and, especially, right wing accounts to move
I see no sign of that. Bluesky is actively hostile to these people
So we will end up with two different but similar Twitter-like places and even less interaction between left and right. Not good
All I can say is ... we'll see.
Your view is similar to Rory Stewart - he is currently sticking it out for the same reasons, whilst his podcast other half Bad Al has moved.
As someone basically from the centre-right, I was quite happy on Twitter for 15 years, but I feel the proprietor wants a megaphone not a debating community - and has taken it out of the civil space. I've always put a very strong emphasis on encouraging cross-partisan debate, and I don't think that is possible on Twitter any more.
So I'm doing my bit to build something I hope will be better.
But now I'm also after more of an activist platform than previously.
I know that to many he can do nothing right, but Trump asking his assistant to give the pen with which he signed the order to release the documents related to the deaths of his father and his uncle, to RFK Jr, was a class move.
Because Trump promised RFK Jr that he would declassify the files, and the pen used to sign the document now becomes a family heirloom.
Why is that a 'class move' ?
I mean, I know you think anything Trump and the GOP does is golden, but even you're sifting the dregs now.
Jeez, why do you make things personal again?
If someone close to me was running for office and made a specific pledge to me about something to do with my family, being presented with the pen used to sign the order would be a massive privilege.
RFK Jr saw both his father and his uncle assassinated.
And Trump pardons political violence. If my relatives had been assassinated, I'd be more worried about that.
Yeah but her reputation precedes her. She is a total nutjob. I'm not surprised she would be getting blocked.
She’s a high-profile Trump supporter. Banning her for who she is, rather than anything she actually said on the platform, is indicative of how the platform wants to run themselves, much like old Twitter.
Laura Loomer has accused Musk and X of censorship
“It’s greedy and it’s morally wrong, and it’s downright UNETHICAL AND UNAMERICAN,” Loomer wrote.
She said it was “outrageous and un-American” that someone as close to Trump as Musk is engaging in “this egregious retaliatory censorship” and “trying to harm my livelihood by cutting off my subscriptions and shadow banning my account.”
“The fact that this has gone on for a MONTH now with no recourse is a slap in my face after everything I have done to help President Trump @JDVance and all of their staff,” Loomer wrote.
“It’s already recognized in our country that MONEY IS SPEECH. Thus, the demonetization of my account is truly an abomination, and we clearly do not have free speech in our country when a WHITE HOUSE OFFICIAL can get away with attacking and silencing one of President Trump’s biggest Allies,” she continued.
“If they can do it to me after how hard I worked and how loyal I was to President @realDonaldTrump, they will do it to all of you as well,” she added.
I know that to many he can do nothing right, but Trump asking his assistant to give the pen with which he signed the order to release the documents related to the deaths of his father and his uncle, to RFK Jr, was a class move.
“Manufacturers have entered the New Year in a grim mood. Confidence has evaporated over the last three months as orders have dropped,” said Ben Jones, economist at the business group.
“A fall in domestic deliveries comes amid widespread concerns over the impact of the increase in National Insurance contributions, minimum wages and changes to employment law on firms’ operating costs.”
Much of the global manufacturing sector is struggling with German industry gripped by high energy prices, weak demand and stiff competition from Chinese car manufacturers, while China itself is also battling against an economic slump caused in part by a property crisis.
I am leaving end of next month where I work, Yesterday due to fallin order book and no real sign of an uptick they announced compulsory redundancies. I have been there over a decade and this has never happened before. The assumption is orders will pick up but this has been said for 12 months and it just does not happen and no sign of it happening. We sell consumables and equipment. We have not had an order for a piece of equipment for over 12 months now. Our customers have simply got no capex expenditure at the moment. We have only had a few enquiries too.
The equipment we sell is the route to market for alot of our consumables. The razor and the razorblades analogy and it is just not happening.
Reeves is definitely now making the right noises about growth and seems to be pivoting into the right approach however the damage has been done in the past 6 months.
I'm afraid I have lirrle confidence in Reeves. She has put growth in to reverse gear and the impact of her policies have yet to feed fully through. She evidently had no plan to get the economy growing and Labour is now trying to put one together and will have an internal battle to straighten things out first. The Net Zero versus growth dichotomy is just the first. Sad fact is Reeves will need to reverse lots of her policies ( see non doms ) and its whether she has the courage to recognise she was wrong and change. I doubt it.
She does seem to be doing a partial reverse on non doms and is now being attacked from the left as a consequence.
She needs to do far more but over the last week, week and a half, she does seem to be doing some positive things on growth.
I get the lack of confidence. She has done little to gain any and we are reaping the consequences of the doom and gloom rhetoric when labour came to power however if she does turn it around and does start doing positive things on growth then she has much to gain.
The Left need a reality check. If you want a world-class NHS, you need rich people to pay for it (even if they don't use it).
Chasing the rich away may give warm fuzzy feelings to the Left. Until they have to start explaining the closure of hospital wards. Utter pillocks.
Isn't the point that rich (foreign) people weren't paying?
Yes, they spend money here which does boost the economy, and there'll be some tax take on that too. However, depending on wealthy individuals who make money elsewhere (or indeed even wealthy individuals here) is not a very sustainable tax base. It would be much better to create a faster-growing economy that spreads its growth more evenly - which is also good politics as excessive inequality is a recipe for resentment, division and radicalism, not to mention slower growth anyway as people don't feel a stake in what they're doing.
So far, Labour has given distinctly mixed messages on improving growth and its actions are having a lot more effect than its words.
The current government has been telling those rich foreign people to f**k off, and then f**k off some more, so they’re no longer spending any money in London, preferring to enjoy their wealth in Dubai and Singapore.
Meanwhile UK payroll taxes are going up, so those wanting to invest are looking elsewhere.
The only positive is that the EU is doing even better at killing investment, so the UK might become the least-worst destination in the region.
From the Bluesky side, it had stabilised post Musk's end of the pier show at just under a million posts per day, and last night was at just over 28 million users, ticking up at perhaps 60-70k per day. https://bsky.jazco.dev/stats
As of this morning, it is at 29.2 million accounts, so that is plus one million in 4 days - 250k per day. Obviously encouraged by Trump, and by Musk's gesture politics. And up from ~250k in August 2024.
So on this trend minus a chunk, for it being a flurry, we'll be looking at ~50 million accounts by Easter, and numbers plus which communities / opinion leaders / organisations shift to Bluesky will make it clearer whether this will be a broader ecosystem.
For bluesky to truly succeed it desperately needs a lot of centrist and, especially, right wing accounts to move
I see no sign of that. Bluesky is actively hostile to these people
So we will end up with two different but similar Twitter-like places and even less interaction between left and right. Not good
Actively hostile?
(Looks at twitter DMs). I could bring Police Scotland to a shuddering halt if I were to report every violent threat I've received on twitter. The blame for this division lies squarely with the social media firm that allows someone who advocates for a beaver reintroductions or a cycle lane here or there to receive that volume of abuse.
Sure, but conversely if Bluesky ever does take off with a wide range of opinion then you will get that on Bluesky as well (indeed there are already early reports of bullying and harrassment on Bluesky - which could be seen as a good sign of its growth)
Except that Blusky has no intention of hosting a debate.
One of Trump’s supporters had her account blocked within minutes of her creating it, having posted precisely nothing.
I’m in a rural Burmese town - Twantay - which is so rural I don’t think they’ve seen a white person for 40 years
Walk down the street and people run out of the shops to have a look. One guy did a dangerous u-turn just to have a second glimpse. Children almost faint
I mean, it could be my ruthless good looks but I don’t think so
Possibly the last white person here was George Orwell. A copper stationed in Twantay in the 1920s
I assume there is little left of George Orwell's time in Burma ? Moulmein is the place his family came from or Mawlamyine as it is today.
It's still much the same. Foreign companies extract primary resources, backed by military force, the people see no benefit.
There is a lot of continuity in post colonial states.
And yet Myanmar is poorer or much poorer than all of its neighbours, despite being overly blessed with resources
Yet Singapore has few resources, apart from a deep water harbour, and is rich.
From the Bluesky side, it had stabilised post Musk's end of the pier show at just under a million posts per day, and last night was at just over 28 million users, ticking up at perhaps 60-70k per day. https://bsky.jazco.dev/stats
As of this morning, it is at 29.2 million accounts, so that is plus one million in 4 days - 250k per day. Obviously encouraged by Trump, and by Musk's gesture politics. And up from ~250k in August 2024.
So on this trend minus a chunk, for it being a flurry, we'll be looking at ~50 million accounts by Easter, and numbers plus which communities / opinion leaders / organisations shift to Bluesky will make it clearer whether this will be a broader ecosystem.
I am quite happy with twitter. I think there is much ramping of bluesky going on but twitter has first mover advantage.
We will see but I think it is a lot of hoping from Bluesky fans and Bluesky does not seem especially welcoming of diverse views.
Twitter is definitely getting harder to use. Maybe it's more obvious to me as I'm not on there every day, but following conversations of replies seems much more difficult than it used to be.
@CLondoner92 #TfL Freedom of Information release: Proposed London Overground line names in 2015 when Boris Johnson was Mayor "We can confirm that a total of £10,175 was spent on customer research on the proposed line name changes."
Dunno if DJTJ, who is basically Hunter Biden not on crack, has the sort of energy and work ethic required for a presidential campaign. If he's going to do it, then he should have a PAC set up now and be raising money, schmoozing donors, etc. He conspicuously isn't. The other road block is the guylinered psycho JDV who will, without doubt, run against DJTJ if there is an open primary.
Ivanka is more likely, as DJT at least seems to like her.
Guyliner will be persona non grata by 2028, shirley?
From the Bluesky side, it had stabilised post Musk's end of the pier show at just under a million posts per day, and last night was at just over 28 million users, ticking up at perhaps 60-70k per day. https://bsky.jazco.dev/stats
As of this morning, it is at 29.2 million accounts, so that is plus one million in 4 days - 250k per day. Obviously encouraged by Trump, and by Musk's gesture politics. And up from ~250k in August 2024.
So on this trend minus a chunk, for it being a flurry, we'll be looking at ~50 million accounts by Easter, and numbers plus which communities / opinion leaders / organisations shift to Bluesky will make it clearer whether this will be a broader ecosystem.
For bluesky to truly succeed it desperately needs a lot of centrist and, especially, right wing accounts to move
I see no sign of that. Bluesky is actively hostile to these people
So we will end up with two different but similar Twitter-like places and even less interaction between left and right. Not good
Actively hostile?
(Looks at twitter DMs). I could bring Police Scotland to a shuddering halt if I were to report every violent threat I've received on twitter. The blame for this division lies squarely with the social media firm that allows someone who advocates for a beaver reintroductions or a cycle lane here or there to receive that volume of abuse.
Sure, but conversely if Bluesky ever does take off with a wide range of opinion then you will get that on Bluesky as well (indeed there are already early reports of bullying and harrassment on Bluesky - which could be seen as a good sign of its growth)
Except that Blusky has no intention of hosting a debate.
One of Trump’s supporters had her account blocked within minutes of her creating it, having posted precisely nothing.
Well, that's because of all the far right content and conspiracies theory she has vomited over other social media. Seems entirely sensible to me!
Loomer claimed that a winter storm that disrupted the 2024 Iowa Republican presidential caucuses was weather manipulation to support Nikki Haley's campaign. She made false claims about family members of Arthur Engoron and of Juan Merchan, judges overseeing Trump cases. Etc.
She has claimed that the Parkland and Santa Fe school shootings were staged, by crisis actors. I think it's acceptable for a social media campaign to block that such horrendous comments. Do you?
@CLondoner92 #TfL Freedom of Information release: Proposed London Overground line names in 2015 when Boris Johnson was Mayor "We can confirm that a total of £10,175 was spent on customer research on the proposed line name changes."
“Manufacturers have entered the New Year in a grim mood. Confidence has evaporated over the last three months as orders have dropped,” said Ben Jones, economist at the business group.
“A fall in domestic deliveries comes amid widespread concerns over the impact of the increase in National Insurance contributions, minimum wages and changes to employment law on firms’ operating costs.”
Much of the global manufacturing sector is struggling with German industry gripped by high energy prices, weak demand and stiff competition from Chinese car manufacturers, while China itself is also battling against an economic slump caused in part by a property crisis.
It is growingly apparent that everyone else's politicians were at the COP and other conferences thinking - 'How can we do this whilst keeping industries going?' (unless they were China and India who were just there saying thinking - 'Screw this!' ). British politicians however (and I absolutely include Boris and other Tories in this) were not thinking this, they were just thinking how good they would look in that moment if they just threw it all in and did *extra*. How nice the Champagne tasted and how good the pats on the back felt. Someone else would make it work.
I well remember the Swedish Government at one of the recent climate junkets saying 'Unfortunately our emissions are going to track up a bit and here's why'. The thought of doing that wouldn't even enter the cavity between the ears of a British politician.
I'm sorry but it's the same with Ukraine. We are so determined to 'lead' with our contributions to the cause, we will do it until our own army is fighting with pitchforks. There's no concept of the national interest, none.
Even now, we have an avowedly Tory MP, writing on Conhome in support of a bill to SPEED Net Zero. How can Kemi even hope to operate a party with that sort of person in the PCP?
I know that to many he can do nothing right, but Trump asking his assistant to give the pen with which he signed the order to release the documents related to the deaths of his father and his uncle, to RFK Jr, was a class move.
Because Trump promised RFK Jr that he would declassify the files, and the pen used to sign the document now becomes a family heirloom.
Why is that a 'class move' ?
I mean, I know you think anything Trump and the GOP does is golden, but even you're sifting the dregs now.
Jeez, why do you make things personal again?
If someone close to me was running for office and made a specific pledge to me about something to do with my family, being presented with the pen used to sign the order would be a massive privilege.
RFK Jr saw both his father and his uncle assassinated.
And Trump pardons political violence. If my relatives had been assassinated, I'd be more worried about that.
Carter, Clinton and Obama all freed people for acts of political violence and terrorism.
Interesting Focusalike newspaper from the Ashfield Indies this morning.
It sounds like they have an idea to team up with other Independents to try and take control of Notts CC.
Their first promise is to abandon a section of the strategic mobility track between Kirkby-in-Ashfield and Mansfield / District Hospital / University Campus / Shopping / Employment / Leisure areas.
Current numbers are :
Lab 14, Tory 31, Ash Ind 10, other Ind 6, Reform 1.
It's an interesting idea, but I don't see it surviving if Zadrozny their leader is found guilty in March of his various charges,
I know that to many he can do nothing right, but Trump asking his assistant to give the pen with which he signed the order to release the documents related to the deaths of his father and his uncle, to RFK Jr, was a class move.
He pardoned large numbers of Jan 6 rioters who had violently assaulted police officers (having said he wouldn't). Giving a pen to his political ally doesn't re-balance the scales all that much.
The vast majority of those pardoned were not violent, and those who were violent and arrested on the day had already spent four years incarcerated.
Many others were guilty of nothing except possibly a misdemeanour trespassing, but have been held in custody without trial for years,
Yeah but her reputation precedes her. She is a total nutjob. I'm not surprised she would be getting blocked.
She’s a high-profile Trump supporter. Banning her for who she is, rather than anything she actually said on the platform, is indicative of how the platform wants to run themselves, much like old Twitter.
Laura Loomer has accused Musk and X of censorship
“It’s greedy and it’s morally wrong, and it’s downright UNETHICAL AND UNAMERICAN,” Loomer wrote.
She said it was “outrageous and un-American” that someone as close to Trump as Musk is engaging in “this egregious retaliatory censorship” and “trying to harm my livelihood by cutting off my subscriptions and shadow banning my account.”
“The fact that this has gone on for a MONTH now with no recourse is a slap in my face after everything I have done to help President Trump @JDVance and all of their staff,” Loomer wrote.
“It’s already recognized in our country that MONEY IS SPEECH. Thus, the demonetization of my account is truly an abomination, and we clearly do not have free speech in our country when a WHITE HOUSE OFFICIAL can get away with attacking and silencing one of President Trump’s biggest Allies,” she continued.
“If they can do it to me after how hard I worked and how loyal I was to President @realDonaldTrump, they will do it to all of you as well,” she added.
This is a wonderful encapsulation of Varoufakis's thesis of Big Tech as feudal gatekeepers, rather than tycoons.
And with the added delicious irony of l the MAGA base here being the one that's targeted.
Annoy the laird, because he's trying to to pass different immigration legislation at court to you ? No income for you, as he controls the digital land.
From the Bluesky side, it had stabilised post Musk's end of the pier show at just under a million posts per day, and last night was at just over 28 million users, ticking up at perhaps 60-70k per day. https://bsky.jazco.dev/stats
As of this morning, it is at 29.2 million accounts, so that is plus one million in 4 days - 250k per day. Obviously encouraged by Trump, and by Musk's gesture politics. And up from ~250k in August 2024.
So on this trend minus a chunk, for it being a flurry, we'll be looking at ~50 million accounts by Easter, and numbers plus which communities / opinion leaders / organisations shift to Bluesky will make it clearer whether this will be a broader ecosystem.
For bluesky to truly succeed it desperately needs a lot of centrist and, especially, right wing accounts to move
I see no sign of that. Bluesky is actively hostile to these people
So we will end up with two different but similar Twitter-like places and even less interaction between left and right. Not good
Actively hostile?
(Looks at twitter DMs). I could bring Police Scotland to a shuddering halt if I were to report every violent threat I've received on twitter. The blame for this division lies squarely with the social media firm that allows someone who advocates for a beaver reintroductions or a cycle lane here or there to receive that volume of abuse.
Sure, but conversely if Bluesky ever does take off with a wide range of opinion then you will get that on Bluesky as well (indeed there are already early reports of bullying and harrassment on Bluesky - which could be seen as a good sign of its growth)
Except that Blusky has no intention of hosting a debate.
One of Trump’s supporters had her account blocked within minutes of her creating it, having posted precisely nothing.
Well, that's because of all the far right content and conspiracies theory she has vomited over other social media. Seems entirely sensible to me!
Loomer claimed that a winter storm that disrupted the 2024 Iowa Republican presidential caucuses was weather manipulation to support Nikki Haley's campaign. She made false claims about family members of Arthur Engoron and of Juan Merchan, judges overseeing Trump cases. Etc.
She has claimed that the Parkland and Santa Fe school shootings were staged, by crisis actors. I think it's acceptable for a social media campaign to block that such horrendous comments. Do you?
Blocking Laura Loomer is in the same neighbourhood as blocking Tommy Robinson or Andrew Tate imo.
I know that to many he can do nothing right, but Trump asking his assistant to give the pen with which he signed the order to release the documents related to the deaths of his father and his uncle, to RFK Jr, was a class move.
It looked completely off the cuff too, as he put the pen down first.
Hitler was charming and generous to his friends. Full Godwin but you guys are getting ridiculous.
Edit: Just seen Sandpit's post on the Jan 6th rioters. This almost exactly how my brilliant Higher History teacher described the onset of fascism - the normalisation of violent seditious behaviour.
If Trump dies or is assassinated the VP might have something to say about it...
Vance is more intelligent than the Trumps but he has less charisma, as indeed do most of the top tier GOP.
The problem the GOP will have is like the Tories had post Boris, Boris and Trump had charisma and real appeal to white working class ex Labour and ex Democrat voters others in their party don't match to the same extent.
Indeed, if Vance won the GOP nomination ie the GOP Rishi, I would not put it past Trump Jr to try and form his own Reform like party with Daddy's backing, even if Don Jr and Vance are close now so were Boris and Rishi once
@CLondoner92 #TfL Freedom of Information release: Proposed London Overground line names in 2015 when Boris Johnson was Mayor "We can confirm that a total of £10,175 was spent on customer research on the proposed line name changes."
“Manufacturers have entered the New Year in a grim mood. Confidence has evaporated over the last three months as orders have dropped,” said Ben Jones, economist at the business group.
“A fall in domestic deliveries comes amid widespread concerns over the impact of the increase in National Insurance contributions, minimum wages and changes to employment law on firms’ operating costs.”
Much of the global manufacturing sector is struggling with German industry gripped by high energy prices, weak demand and stiff competition from Chinese car manufacturers, while China itself is also battling against an economic slump caused in part by a property crisis.
I am leaving end of next month where I work, Yesterday due to fallin order book and no real sign of an uptick they announced compulsory redundancies. I have been there over a decade and this has never happened before. The assumption is orders will pick up but this has been said for 12 months and it just does not happen and no sign of it happening. We sell consumables and equipment. We have not had an order for a piece of equipment for over 12 months now. Our customers have simply got no capex expenditure at the moment. We have only had a few enquiries too.
The equipment we sell is the route to market for alot of our consumables. The razor and the razorblades analogy and it is just not happening.
Reeves is definitely now making the right noises about growth and seems to be pivoting into the right approach however the damage has been done in the past 6 months.
I'm afraid I have lirrle confidence in Reeves. She has put growth in to reverse gear and the impact of her policies have yet to feed fully through. She evidently had no plan to get the economy growing and Labour is now trying to put one together and will have an internal battle to straighten things out first. The Net Zero versus growth dichotomy is just the first. Sad fact is Reeves will need to reverse lots of her policies ( see non doms ) and its whether she has the courage to recognise she was wrong and change. I doubt it.
She does seem to be doing a partial reverse on non doms and is now being attacked from the left as a consequence.
She needs to do far more but over the last week, week and a half, she does seem to be doing some positive things on growth.
I get the lack of confidence. She has done little to gain any and we are reaping the consequences of the doom and gloom rhetoric when labour came to power however if she does turn it around and does start doing positive things on growth then she has much to gain.
The Left need a reality check. If you want a world-class NHS, you need rich people to pay for it (even if they don't use it).
Chasing the rich away may give warm fuzzy feelings to the Left. Until they have to start explaining the closure of hospital wards. Utter pillocks.
Isn't the point that rich (foreign) people weren't paying?
Yes, they spend money here which does boost the economy, and there'll be some tax take on that too. However, depending on wealthy individuals who make money elsewhere (or indeed even wealthy individuals here) is not a very sustainable tax base. It would be much better to create a faster-growing economy that spreads its growth more evenly - which is also good politics as excessive inequality is a recipe for resentment, division and radicalism, not to mention slower growth anyway as people don't feel a stake in what they're doing.
So far, Labour has given distinctly mixed messages on improving growth and its actions are having a lot more effect than its words.
The current government has been telling those rich foreign people to f**k off, and then f**k off some more, so they’re no longer spending any money in London, preferring to enjoy their wealth in Dubai and Singapore.
Meanwhile UK payroll taxes are going up, so those wanting to invest are looking elsewhere.
The only positive is that the EU is doing even better at killing investment, so the UK might become the least-worst destination in the region.
That's not a positive. Britain needs a stable and growing EU, both to trade with and because political disruptions there affect here.
The ultra-rich f'ing off to Dubai is a feature not a bug. Personally, I don't have a problem with pandering to them with special favours. Deflating the London property bubble would be no bad thing either.
But there will be some initial tax loss, so that makes it all the more important that you get the rest of the economy producing.
From the Bluesky side, it had stabilised post Musk's end of the pier show at just under a million posts per day, and last night was at just over 28 million users, ticking up at perhaps 60-70k per day. https://bsky.jazco.dev/stats
As of this morning, it is at 29.2 million accounts, so that is plus one million in 4 days - 250k per day. Obviously encouraged by Trump, and by Musk's gesture politics. And up from ~250k in August 2024.
So on this trend minus a chunk, for it being a flurry, we'll be looking at ~50 million accounts by Easter, and numbers plus which communities / opinion leaders / organisations shift to Bluesky will make it clearer whether this will be a broader ecosystem.
For bluesky to truly succeed it desperately needs a lot of centrist and, especially, right wing accounts to move
I see no sign of that. Bluesky is actively hostile to these people
So we will end up with two different but similar Twitter-like places and even less interaction between left and right. Not good
Actively hostile?
(Looks at twitter DMs). I could bring Police Scotland to a shuddering halt if I were to report every violent threat I've received on twitter. The blame for this division lies squarely with the social media firm that allows someone who advocates for a beaver reintroductions or a cycle lane here or there to receive that volume of abuse.
Sure, but conversely if Bluesky ever does take off with a wide range of opinion then you will get that on Bluesky as well (indeed there are already early reports of bullying and harrassment on Bluesky - which could be seen as a good sign of its growth)
Except that Blusky has no intention of hosting a debate.
One of Trump’s supporters had her account blocked within minutes of her creating it, having posted precisely nothing.
Well, that's because of all the far right content and conspiracies theory she has vomited over other social media. Seems entirely sensible to me!
Loomer claimed that a winter storm that disrupted the 2024 Iowa Republican presidential caucuses was weather manipulation to support Nikki Haley's campaign. She made false claims about family members of Arthur Engoron and of Juan Merchan, judges overseeing Trump cases. Etc.
She has claimed that the Parkland and Santa Fe school shootings were staged, by crisis actors. I think it's acceptable for a social media campaign to block that such horrendous comments. Do you?
Blocking Laura Loomer is in the same neighbourhood as blocking Tommy Robinson or Andrew Tate imo.
The difference being that Laura actually has the ear of the president.
If you disagree with her, then let her metaphorically hang herself in public.
@CLondoner92 #TfL Freedom of Information release: Proposed London Overground line names in 2015 when Boris Johnson was Mayor "We can confirm that a total of £10,175 was spent on customer research on the proposed line name changes."
“Manufacturers have entered the New Year in a grim mood. Confidence has evaporated over the last three months as orders have dropped,” said Ben Jones, economist at the business group.
“A fall in domestic deliveries comes amid widespread concerns over the impact of the increase in National Insurance contributions, minimum wages and changes to employment law on firms’ operating costs.”
Much of the global manufacturing sector is struggling with German industry gripped by high energy prices, weak demand and stiff competition from Chinese car manufacturers, while China itself is also battling against an economic slump caused in part by a property crisis.
I am leaving end of next month where I work, Yesterday due to fallin order book and no real sign of an uptick they announced compulsory redundancies. I have been there over a decade and this has never happened before. The assumption is orders will pick up but this has been said for 12 months and it just does not happen and no sign of it happening. We sell consumables and equipment. We have not had an order for a piece of equipment for over 12 months now. Our customers have simply got no capex expenditure at the moment. We have only had a few enquiries too.
The equipment we sell is the route to market for alot of our consumables. The razor and the razorblades analogy and it is just not happening.
Reeves is definitely now making the right noises about growth and seems to be pivoting into the right approach however the damage has been done in the past 6 months.
I'm afraid I have lirrle confidence in Reeves. She has put growth in to reverse gear and the impact of her policies have yet to feed fully through. She evidently had no plan to get the economy growing and Labour is now trying to put one together and will have an internal battle to straighten things out first. The Net Zero versus growth dichotomy is just the first. Sad fact is Reeves will need to reverse lots of her policies ( see non doms ) and its whether she has the courage to recognise she was wrong and change. I doubt it.
She does seem to be doing a partial reverse on non doms and is now being attacked from the left as a consequence.
She needs to do far more but over the last week, week and a half, she does seem to be doing some positive things on growth.
I get the lack of confidence. She has done little to gain any and we are reaping the consequences of the doom and gloom rhetoric when labour came to power however if she does turn it around and does start doing positive things on growth then she has much to gain.
The Left need a reality check. If you want a world-class NHS, you need rich people to pay for it (even if they don't use it).
Chasing the rich away may give warm fuzzy feelings to the Left. Until they have to start explaining the closure of hospital wards. Utter pillocks.
Isn't the point that rich (foreign) people weren't paying?
Yes, they spend money here which does boost the economy, and there'll be some tax take on that too. However, depending on wealthy individuals who make money elsewhere (or indeed even wealthy individuals here) is not a very sustainable tax base. It would be much better to create a faster-growing economy that spreads its growth more evenly - which is also good politics as excessive inequality is a recipe for resentment, division and radicalism, not to mention slower growth anyway as people don't feel a stake in what they're doing.
So far, Labour has given distinctly mixed messages on improving growth and its actions are having a lot more effect than its words.
In general, the number of rich people here, paying no/low tax, is quite low. Those that are, are generally foreigners who are here for limited periods of time.
The belief that the rich pay no tax is about the Americanisation of internet discussion. So you can have a comic discussion with teenagers about healthcare - while they know the NHS exists, quite a few young people are radicalised on the subject of American style healthcare.
For example, one friend of my daughter was adamant on the need for the law to change to allow the government to bargain with pharmaceutical companies over prices. She was slightly flummoxed when I pointed out that the UK does, on a massive scale. And gets quite good prices.
I know that to many he can do nothing right, but Trump asking his assistant to give the pen with which he signed the order to release the documents related to the deaths of his father and his uncle, to RFK Jr, was a class move.
Because Trump promised RFK Jr that he would declassify the files, and the pen used to sign the document now becomes a family heirloom.
Why is that a 'class move' ?
I mean, I know you think anything Trump and the GOP does is golden, but even you're sifting the dregs now.
Jeez, why do you make things personal again?
If someone close to me was running for office and made a specific pledge to me about something to do with my family, being presented with the pen used to sign the order would be a massive privilege.
RFK Jr saw both his father and his uncle assassinated.
And Trump pardons political violence. If my relatives had been assassinated, I'd be more worried about that.
Carter, Clinton and Obama all freed people for acts of political violence and terrorism.
Lone wolves, or attempts to overturn federal democratic institutions. Your man supported the latter.
From the Bluesky side, it had stabilised post Musk's end of the pier show at just under a million posts per day, and last night was at just over 28 million users, ticking up at perhaps 60-70k per day. https://bsky.jazco.dev/stats
As of this morning, it is at 29.2 million accounts, so that is plus one million in 4 days - 250k per day. Obviously encouraged by Trump, and by Musk's gesture politics. And up from ~250k in August 2024.
So on this trend minus a chunk, for it being a flurry, we'll be looking at ~50 million accounts by Easter, and numbers plus which communities / opinion leaders / organisations shift to Bluesky will make it clearer whether this will be a broader ecosystem.
For bluesky to truly succeed it desperately needs a lot of centrist and, especially, right wing accounts to move
I see no sign of that. Bluesky is actively hostile to these people
So we will end up with two different but similar Twitter-like places and even less interaction between left and right. Not good
Actively hostile?
(Looks at twitter DMs). I could bring Police Scotland to a shuddering halt if I were to report every violent threat I've received on twitter. The blame for this division lies squarely with the social media firm that allows someone who advocates for a beaver reintroductions or a cycle lane here or there to receive that volume of abuse.
Sure, but conversely if Bluesky ever does take off with a wide range of opinion then you will get that on Bluesky as well (indeed there are already early reports of bullying and harrassment on Bluesky - which could be seen as a good sign of its growth)
Except that Blusky has no intention of hosting a debate.
One of Trump’s supporters had her account blocked within minutes of her creating it, having posted precisely nothing.
Well, that's because of all the far right content and conspiracies theory she has vomited over other social media. Seems entirely sensible to me!
Loomer claimed that a winter storm that disrupted the 2024 Iowa Republican presidential caucuses was weather manipulation to support Nikki Haley's campaign. She made false claims about family members of Arthur Engoron and of Juan Merchan, judges overseeing Trump cases. Etc.
She has claimed that the Parkland and Santa Fe school shootings were staged, by crisis actors. I think it's acceptable for a social media campaign to block that such horrendous comments. Do you?
Blocking Laura Loomer is in the same neighbourhood as blocking Tommy Robinson or Andrew Tate imo.
The difference being that Laura actually has the ear of the president.
If you disagree with her, then let her metaphorically hang herself in public.
She's also only being banned because Elon Musk wants Indian immigrants for his workforce, which she opposes.
I know that to many he can do nothing right, but Trump asking his assistant to give the pen with which he signed the order to release the documents related to the deaths of his father and his uncle, to RFK Jr, was a class move.
Because Trump promised RFK Jr that he would declassify the files, and the pen used to sign the document now becomes a family heirloom.
Why is that a 'class move' ?
I mean, I know you think anything Trump and the GOP does is golden, but even you're sifting the dregs now.
Jeez, why do you make things personal again?
If someone close to me was running for office and made a specific pledge to me about something to do with my family, being presented with the pen used to sign the order would be a massive privilege.
RFK Jr saw both his father and his uncle assassinated.
And Trump pardons political violence. If my relatives had been assassinated, I'd be more worried about that.
Carter, Clinton and Obama all freed people for acts of political violence and terrorism.
The number of people freed by Carter, Clinton and Obama for acts of political violence put together is considerably smaller than Trump has pardoned. Another key difference is that Trump pardoned those who committed political violence recently in support of his attempt to overthrow democracy. Carter, Clinton and Obama pardoned historical cases.
“Manufacturers have entered the New Year in a grim mood. Confidence has evaporated over the last three months as orders have dropped,” said Ben Jones, economist at the business group.
“A fall in domestic deliveries comes amid widespread concerns over the impact of the increase in National Insurance contributions, minimum wages and changes to employment law on firms’ operating costs.”
Much of the global manufacturing sector is struggling with German industry gripped by high energy prices, weak demand and stiff competition from Chinese car manufacturers, while China itself is also battling against an economic slump caused in part by a property crisis.
It is growingly apparent that everyone else's politicians were at the COP and other conferences thinking - 'How can we do this whilst keeping industries going?' (unless they were China and India who were just there saying thinking - 'Screw this!' ). British politicians however (and I absolutely include Boris and other Tories in this) were not thinking this, they were just thinking how good they would look in that moment if they just threw it all in and did *extra*. How nice the Champagne tasted and how good the pats on the back felt. Someone else would make it work.
I well remember the Swedish Government at one of the recent climate junkets saying 'Unfortunately our emissions are going to track up a bit and here's why'. The thought of doing that wouldn't even enter the cavity between the ears of a British politician.
I'm sorry but it's the same with Ukraine. We are so determined to 'lead' with our contributions to the cause, we will do it until our own army is fighting with pitchforks. There's no concept of the national interest, none.
Even now, we have an avowedly Tory MP, writing on Conhome in support of a bill to SPEED Net Zero. How can Kemi even hope to operate a party with that sort of person in the PCP?
Labour do not actually believe in the concept of “a national interest”. They think it is vulgar, crude; “nationalist”, infra dig, and quasi-fash. Hence they will often take decisions which actively harm the national interest, or impair the welfare of the British people - doing this signals the virtue of the decision maker
There have been several articles eloquently analysing and explaining this in the Spec & elsewhere
Once you grasp this, so much of the weirdness they do - from the Chagos to mad humans rights decisions - becomes quickly comprehensible
@CLondoner92 #TfL Freedom of Information release: Proposed London Overground line names in 2015 when Boris Johnson was Mayor "We can confirm that a total of £10,175 was spent on customer research on the proposed line name changes."
“Manufacturers have entered the New Year in a grim mood. Confidence has evaporated over the last three months as orders have dropped,” said Ben Jones, economist at the business group.
“A fall in domestic deliveries comes amid widespread concerns over the impact of the increase in National Insurance contributions, minimum wages and changes to employment law on firms’ operating costs.”
Much of the global manufacturing sector is struggling with German industry gripped by high energy prices, weak demand and stiff competition from Chinese car manufacturers, while China itself is also battling against an economic slump caused in part by a property crisis.
I am leaving end of next month where I work, Yesterday due to fallin order book and no real sign of an uptick they announced compulsory redundancies. I have been there over a decade and this has never happened before. The assumption is orders will pick up but this has been said for 12 months and it just does not happen and no sign of it happening. We sell consumables and equipment. We have not had an order for a piece of equipment for over 12 months now. Our customers have simply got no capex expenditure at the moment. We have only had a few enquiries too.
The equipment we sell is the route to market for alot of our consumables. The razor and the razorblades analogy and it is just not happening.
Reeves is definitely now making the right noises about growth and seems to be pivoting into the right approach however the damage has been done in the past 6 months.
I'm afraid I have lirrle confidence in Reeves. She has put growth in to reverse gear and the impact of her policies have yet to feed fully through. She evidently had no plan to get the economy growing and Labour is now trying to put one together and will have an internal battle to straighten things out first. The Net Zero versus growth dichotomy is just the first. Sad fact is Reeves will need to reverse lots of her policies ( see non doms ) and its whether she has the courage to recognise she was wrong and change. I doubt it.
She does seem to be doing a partial reverse on non doms and is now being attacked from the left as a consequence.
She needs to do far more but over the last week, week and a half, she does seem to be doing some positive things on growth.
I get the lack of confidence. She has done little to gain any and we are reaping the consequences of the doom and gloom rhetoric when labour came to power however if she does turn it around and does start doing positive things on growth then she has much to gain.
The Left need a reality check. If you want a world-class NHS, you need rich people to pay for it (even if they don't use it).
Chasing the rich away may give warm fuzzy feelings to the Left. Until they have to start explaining the closure of hospital wards. Utter pillocks.
Isn't the point that rich (foreign) people weren't paying?
Yes, they spend money here which does boost the economy, and there'll be some tax take on that too. However, depending on wealthy individuals who make money elsewhere (or indeed even wealthy individuals here) is not a very sustainable tax base. It would be much better to create a faster-growing economy that spreads its growth more evenly - which is also good politics as excessive inequality is a recipe for resentment, division and radicalism, not to mention slower growth anyway as people don't feel a stake in what they're doing.
So far, Labour has given distinctly mixed messages on improving growth and its actions are having a lot more effect than its words.
The current government has been telling those rich foreign people to f**k off, and then f**k off some more, so they’re no longer spending any money in London, preferring to enjoy their wealth in Dubai and Singapore.
Meanwhile UK payroll taxes are going up, so those wanting to invest are looking elsewhere.
The only positive is that the EU is doing even better at killing investment, so the UK might become the least-worst destination in the region.
The EU maybe but Switzerland isn't and even the EU has Meloni's government cutting taxes in Italy unlike Starmer's tax raising government here. Even Macron and Bayrou are more pro business and pro rich than Starmer is and Germany's next Chancellor is a tax and regulation cutting ex corporate lawyer in Merz.
Indeed, by the end of the year Starmer will likely be the most left of centre leader left in the G7 and of the major nations in Europe only Spain will have a Socialist led government still more anti wealth than we are
“Manufacturers have entered the New Year in a grim mood. Confidence has evaporated over the last three months as orders have dropped,” said Ben Jones, economist at the business group.
“A fall in domestic deliveries comes amid widespread concerns over the impact of the increase in National Insurance contributions, minimum wages and changes to employment law on firms’ operating costs.”
Much of the global manufacturing sector is struggling with German industry gripped by high energy prices, weak demand and stiff competition from Chinese car manufacturers, while China itself is also battling against an economic slump caused in part by a property crisis.
I am leaving end of next month where I work, Yesterday due to fallin order book and no real sign of an uptick they announced compulsory redundancies. I have been there over a decade and this has never happened before. The assumption is orders will pick up but this has been said for 12 months and it just does not happen and no sign of it happening. We sell consumables and equipment. We have not had an order for a piece of equipment for over 12 months now. Our customers have simply got no capex expenditure at the moment. We have only had a few enquiries too.
The equipment we sell is the route to market for alot of our consumables. The razor and the razorblades analogy and it is just not happening.
Reeves is definitely now making the right noises about growth and seems to be pivoting into the right approach however the damage has been done in the past 6 months.
I'm afraid I have lirrle confidence in Reeves. She has put growth in to reverse gear and the impact of her policies have yet to feed fully through. She evidently had no plan to get the economy growing and Labour is now trying to put one together and will have an internal battle to straighten things out first. The Net Zero versus growth dichotomy is just the first. Sad fact is Reeves will need to reverse lots of her policies ( see non doms ) and its whether she has the courage to recognise she was wrong and change. I doubt it.
She does seem to be doing a partial reverse on non doms and is now being attacked from the left as a consequence.
She needs to do far more but over the last week, week and a half, she does seem to be doing some positive things on growth.
I get the lack of confidence. She has done little to gain any and we are reaping the consequences of the doom and gloom rhetoric when labour came to power however if she does turn it around and does start doing positive things on growth then she has much to gain.
The Left need a reality check. If you want a world-class NHS, you need rich people to pay for it (even if they don't use it).
Chasing the rich away may give warm fuzzy feelings to the Left. Until they have to start explaining the closure of hospital wards. Utter pillocks.
Isn't the point that rich (foreign) people weren't paying?
Yes, they spend money here which does boost the economy, and there'll be some tax take on that too. However, depending on wealthy individuals who make money elsewhere (or indeed even wealthy individuals here) is not a very sustainable tax base. It would be much better to create a faster-growing economy that spreads its growth more evenly - which is also good politics as excessive inequality is a recipe for resentment, division and radicalism, not to mention slower growth anyway as people don't feel a stake in what they're doing.
So far, Labour has given distinctly mixed messages on improving growth and its actions are having a lot more effect than its words.
The current government has been telling those rich foreign people to f**k off, and then f**k off some more, so they’re no longer spending any money in London, preferring to enjoy their wealth in Dubai and Singapore.
Meanwhile UK payroll taxes are going up, so those wanting to invest are looking elsewhere.
The only positive is that the EU is doing even better at killing investment, so the UK might become the least-worst destination in the region.
That's not a positive. Britain needs a stable and growing EU, both to trade with and because political disruptions there affect here.
The ultra-rich f'ing off to Dubai is a feature not a bug. Personally, I don't have a problem with pandering to them with special favours. Deflating the London property bubble would be no bad thing either.
But there will be some initial tax loss, so that makes it all the more important that you get the rest of the economy producing.
No, we need it all. We need millionaires to spend money here and put down roots (or stay here), AND we need to revive the manufacturing economy. And a lot else besides. Getting rid of millionaires is lunacy, and doesn’t help the 'rest of the economy' one iota.
@CLondoner92 #TfL Freedom of Information release: Proposed London Overground line names in 2015 when Boris Johnson was Mayor "We can confirm that a total of £10,175 was spent on customer research on the proposed line name changes."
Yeah but her reputation precedes her. She is a total nutjob. I'm not surprised she would be getting blocked.
She’s a high-profile Trump supporter. Banning her for who she is, rather than anything she actually said on the platform, is indicative of how the platform wants to run themselves, much like old Twitter.
Laura Loomer has accused Musk and X of censorship
“It’s greedy and it’s morally wrong, and it’s downright UNETHICAL AND UNAMERICAN,” Loomer wrote.
She said it was “outrageous and un-American” that someone as close to Trump as Musk is engaging in “this egregious retaliatory censorship” and “trying to harm my livelihood by cutting off my subscriptions and shadow banning my account.”
“The fact that this has gone on for a MONTH now with no recourse is a slap in my face after everything I have done to help President Trump @JDVance and all of their staff,” Loomer wrote.
“It’s already recognized in our country that MONEY IS SPEECH. Thus, the demonetization of my account is truly an abomination, and we clearly do not have free speech in our country when a WHITE HOUSE OFFICIAL can get away with attacking and silencing one of President Trump’s biggest Allies,” she continued.
“If they can do it to me after how hard I worked and how loyal I was to President @realDonaldTrump, they will do it to all of you as well,” she added.
This is a wonderful encapsulation of Varoufakis's thesis of Big Tech as feudal gatekeepers, rather than tycoons.
And with the added delicious irony of l the MAGA base here being the one that's targeted.
Annoy the laird, because he's trying to to pass different immigration legislation at court to you ? No income for you, as he controls the digital land.
What's also funny is she thinks it's outrageous that a Trump supporter is 'censored' - she seems to think Musk should stick to silencing Trump's opponents. It's the usual definition of 'free speech' for people like her.
@CLondoner92 #TfL Freedom of Information release: Proposed London Overground line names in 2015 when Boris Johnson was Mayor "We can confirm that a total of £10,175 was spent on customer research on the proposed line name changes."
@CLondoner92 #TfL Freedom of Information release: Proposed London Overground line names in 2015 when Boris Johnson was Mayor "We can confirm that a total of £10,175 was spent on customer research on the proposed line name changes."
One day something is going to Twitter but I don't think it's going to be Bluesky. Bluesky's inauguration week core stats - unique daily likers, unique daily posters, total likes, total posts - are about 15% to 20% down on the late November peak. Those numbers don't feel like the numbers of a platform in the mists of going exponential off the back of a wave of outrage.
People may be creating accounts, but they don't seem to be doing that much with them.
I know that to many he can do nothing right, but Trump asking his assistant to give the pen with which he signed the order to release the documents related to the deaths of his father and his uncle, to RFK Jr, was a class move.
I know that to many he can do nothing right, but Trump asking his assistant to give the pen with which he signed the order to release the documents related to the deaths of his father and his uncle, to RFK Jr, was a class move.
Because Trump promised RFK Jr that he would declassify the files, and the pen used to sign the document now becomes a family heirloom.
Why is that a 'class move' ?
I mean, I know you think anything Trump and the GOP does is golden, but even you're sifting the dregs now.
Jeez, why do you make things personal again?
If someone close to me was running for office and made a specific pledge to me about something to do with my family, being presented with the pen used to sign the order would be a massive privilege.
RFK Jr saw both his father and his uncle assassinated.
And Trump pardons political violence. If my relatives had been assassinated, I'd be more worried about that.
Carter, Clinton and Obama all freed people for acts of political violence and terrorism.
Lone wolves, or attempts to overturn federal democratic institutions. Your man supported the latter.
Left wing political violence in the US was rather more serious than you imply.
I know that to many he can do nothing right, but Trump asking his assistant to give the pen with which he signed the order to release the documents related to the deaths of his father and his uncle, to RFK Jr, was a class move.
He pardoned large numbers of Jan 6 rioters who had violently assaulted police officers (having said he wouldn't). Giving a pen to his political ally doesn't re-balance the scales all that much.
The vast majority of those pardoned were not violent, and those who were violent and arrested on the day had already spent four years incarcerated.
Many others were guilty of nothing except possibly a misdemeanour trespassing, but have been held in custody without trial for years,
As I said, he pardoned large numbers of Jan 6 rioters who had violently assaulted police officers. That some Jan 6 rioters had been less violent does not excuse Trump's pardon of those who were.
defiyantlyfree on Twitter, who you describe as "One investigator", calls herself "Insurrection Barbie". She's a hardcore, hard right, MAGA activist. She's not exactly some independent commentator.
@CLondoner92 #TfL Freedom of Information release: Proposed London Overground line names in 2015 when Boris Johnson was Mayor "We can confirm that a total of £10,175 was spent on customer research on the proposed line name changes."
I know that to many he can do nothing right, but Trump asking his assistant to give the pen with which he signed the order to release the documents related to the deaths of his father and his uncle, to RFK Jr, was a class move.
He pardoned large numbers of Jan 6 rioters who had violently assaulted police officers (having said he wouldn't). Giving a pen to his political ally doesn't re-balance the scales all that much.
The vast majority of those pardoned were not violent, and those who were violent and arrested on the day had already spent four years incarcerated.
Many others were guilty of nothing except possibly a misdemeanour trespassing, but have been held in custody without trial for years,
Under UK law that would be covered by "common purpose", if you've joined a riot then you're rioting. Understandable as definitively proving individual actions is difficult.
I know that to many he can do nothing right, but Trump asking his assistant to give the pen with which he signed the order to release the documents related to the deaths of his father and his uncle, to RFK Jr, was a class move.
He pardoned large numbers of Jan 6 rioters who had violently assaulted police officers (having said he wouldn't). Giving a pen to his political ally doesn't re-balance the scales all that much.
The vast majority of those pardoned were not violent, and those who were violent and arrested on the day had already spent four years incarcerated.
Many others were guilty of nothing except possibly a misdemeanour trespassing, but have been held in custody without trial for years,
As I said, he pardoned large numbers of Jan 6 rioters who had violently assaulted police officers. That some Jan 6 rioters had been less violent does not excuse Trump's pardon of those who were.
defiyantlyfree on Twitter, who you describe as "One investigator", calls herself "Insurrection Barbie". She's a hardcore, hard right, MAGA activist. She's not exactly some independent commentator.
There were a few dozen rioters, and 1,500 non-violent people who have just received pardons.
From the Bluesky side, it had stabilised post Musk's end of the pier show at just under a million posts per day, and last night was at just over 28 million users, ticking up at perhaps 60-70k per day. https://bsky.jazco.dev/stats
As of this morning, it is at 29.2 million accounts, so that is plus one million in 4 days - 250k per day. Obviously encouraged by Trump, and by Musk's gesture politics. And up from ~250k in August 2024.
So on this trend minus a chunk, for it being a flurry, we'll be looking at ~50 million accounts by Easter, and numbers plus which communities / opinion leaders / organisations shift to Bluesky will make it clearer whether this will be a broader ecosystem.
For bluesky to truly succeed it desperately needs a lot of centrist and, especially, right wing accounts to move
I see no sign of that. Bluesky is actively hostile to these people
So we will end up with two different but similar Twitter-like places and even less interaction between left and right. Not good
Actively hostile?
(Looks at twitter DMs). I could bring Police Scotland to a shuddering halt if I were to report every violent threat I've received on twitter. The blame for this division lies squarely with the social media firm that allows someone who advocates for a beaver reintroductions or a cycle lane here or there to receive that volume of abuse.
Sure, but conversely if Bluesky ever does take off with a wide range of opinion then you will get that on Bluesky as well (indeed there are already early reports of bullying and harrassment on Bluesky - which could be seen as a good sign of its growth)
Except that Blusky has no intention of hosting a debate.
One of Trump’s supporters had her account blocked within minutes of her creating it, having posted precisely nothing.
Well, that's because of all the far right content and conspiracies theory she has vomited over other social media. Seems entirely sensible to me!
Loomer claimed that a winter storm that disrupted the 2024 Iowa Republican presidential caucuses was weather manipulation to support Nikki Haley's campaign. She made false claims about family members of Arthur Engoron and of Juan Merchan, judges overseeing Trump cases. Etc.
She has claimed that the Parkland and Santa Fe school shootings were staged, by crisis actors. I think it's acceptable for a social media campaign to block that such horrendous comments. Do you?
Blocking Laura Loomer is in the same neighbourhood as blocking Tommy Robinson or Andrew Tate imo.
The difference being that Laura actually has the ear of the president.
If you disagree with her, then let her metaphorically hang herself in public.
So, your argument is that Laura Loomer has been wrongly censored, but that also she has the "ear of the president". (Somewhat lower down than his ear, the rumours say.) It's hard to see someone with the ear of the president as also having been cruelly cut out from society by censorship. Laura Loomer is not a victim.
One day something is going to Twitter but I don't think it's going to be Bluesky. Bluesky's inauguration week core stats - unique daily likers, unique daily posters, total likes, total posts - are about 15% to 20% down on the late November peak. Those numbers don't feel like the numbers of a platform in the mists of going exponential off the back of a wave of outrage.
People may be creating accounts, but they don't seem to be doing that much with them.
That sounds about right. I made an account - and even tried to use it for a while - but it is really quite boring if you want debate
I look at it for 15 mins every few days because some of the people I really liked on Twitter have decamped there, sadly. So I check them out for jokes and memes
'Donald Trump signed pardons for anti-abortion activists on Thursday, during another round of executive orders from the Oval Office
The president pardoned 23 people who had been convicted for blocking access to abortion clinics.
"They should not have been prosecuted. Many of them are elderly people. They should not have been prosecuted," he said. "This is a great honour to sign this. They’ll be very happy."
I'm sorry but it's the same with Ukraine. We are so determined to 'lead' with our contributions to the cause, we will do it until our own army is fighting with pitchforks. There's no concept of the national interest, none.
You have to remember the context at the start of the SMO. It looked like it was going to be meme laden LOLfest and be over quickly. Boris was swept along with the euphoria of being in a war but without the politically troublesome cavalcade of fleg draped coffins landing at Brize that so marred the end of the Afghan adventure.
Now it's turned into The Battle of the Heodenings, the UK government (among others) is balls deep in it with no exit strategy so all they can do is keep shoveling the cash and weapons in, to the great detriment of the British armed forces, while hoping for the best.
The practice of giving friendly names to storms has the serious downside of making it harder to remember when they happened, whereas if you call it 'the great storm of 1987', the clue is in the name.
I know that to many he can do nothing right, but Trump asking his assistant to give the pen with which he signed the order to release the documents related to the deaths of his father and his uncle, to RFK Jr, was a class move.
He pardoned large numbers of Jan 6 rioters who had violently assaulted police officers (having said he wouldn't). Giving a pen to his political ally doesn't re-balance the scales all that much.
The vast majority of those pardoned were not violent, and those who were violent and arrested on the day had already spent four years incarcerated.
Many others were guilty of nothing except possibly a misdemeanour trespassing, but have been held in custody without trial for years,
As I said, he pardoned large numbers of Jan 6 rioters who had violently assaulted police officers. That some Jan 6 rioters had been less violent does not excuse Trump's pardon of those who were.
defiyantlyfree on Twitter, who you describe as "One investigator", calls herself "Insurrection Barbie". She's a hardcore, hard right, MAGA activist. She's not exactly some independent commentator.
There were a few dozen rioters, and 1,500 non-violent people who have just received pardons.
I will use my daily image allowance on this picture showing how non-violent the protestors were. Just people innocently caught up in the moment.
I know that to many he can do nothing right, but Trump asking his assistant to give the pen with which he signed the order to release the documents related to the deaths of his father and his uncle, to RFK Jr, was a class move.
It looked completely off the cuff too, as he put the pen down first.
Yes, he thought in the moment that RFK Jr might actually want to be gifted the pen.
Aiui (possibly from pb) Trump used a different pen for each signature, as is usual for presidents, which would then be given to supporters (in this case, via the medium of chucking them into the MAGA crowd). So the question is not, will the pen be given away, but to whom.
This is one I have yet to see anti-Trumpers grapple with - what happens if the bugger or his acolytes get voted back in.
The mainstream media and business are all kissing the ring and sucking the anointed dick, whilst anti-Trumpers are stoking up Court challengers and similar to slow the gradual collapse down by obfuscation and enforcing law, in anticipation of the mid-terms or end-term elections.
But what if the Usonians, on average, actually want to bend over and get Trumped good and hard?
That's the end of the American era, which frankly appears to be on the cards right now anyway.
I don’t see the US era ending any time soon.
But, it would be the end of the US Republic, and the beginning of a much more overt US Empire.
@CLondoner92 #TfL Freedom of Information release: Proposed London Overground line names in 2015 when Boris Johnson was Mayor "We can confirm that a total of £10,175 was spent on customer research on the proposed line name changes."
I know that to many he can do nothing right, but Trump asking his assistant to give the pen with which he signed the order to release the documents related to the deaths of his father and his uncle, to RFK Jr, was a class move.
He pardoned large numbers of Jan 6 rioters who had violently assaulted police officers (having said he wouldn't). Giving a pen to his political ally doesn't re-balance the scales all that much.
The vast majority of those pardoned were not violent, and those who were violent and arrested on the day had already spent four years incarcerated.
Many others were guilty of nothing except possibly a misdemeanour trespassing, but have been held in custody without trial for years,
As I said, he pardoned large numbers of Jan 6 rioters who had violently assaulted police officers. That some Jan 6 rioters had been less violent does not excuse Trump's pardon of those who were.
defiyantlyfree on Twitter, who you describe as "One investigator", calls herself "Insurrection Barbie". She's a hardcore, hard right, MAGA activist. She's not exactly some independent commentator.
There were a few dozen rioters, and 1,500 non-violent people who have just received pardons.
I will use my daily image allowance on this picture showing how non-violent the protestors were. Just people innocently caught up in the moment.
I still chuckle at RichardT's "found themselves inside the Capitol" line.
One day something is going to Twitter but I don't think it's going to be Bluesky. Bluesky's inauguration week core stats - unique daily likers, unique daily posters, total likes, total posts - are about 15% to 20% down on the late November peak. Those numbers don't feel like the numbers of a platform in the mists of going exponential off the back of a wave of outrage.
People may be creating accounts, but they don't seem to be doing that much with them.
Bluesky has, whether intentionally or not, positioned itself as the platform for the left. I don't see how it breaks out of that to become actually significant.
I'm sorry but it's the same with Ukraine. We are so determined to 'lead' with our contributions to the cause, we will do it until our own army is fighting with pitchforks. There's no concept of the national interest, none.
You have to remember the context at the start of the SMO. It looked like it was going to be meme laden LOLfest and be over quickly. Boris was swept along with the euphoria of being in a war but without the politically troublesome cavalcade of fleg draped coffins landing at Brize that so marred the end of the Afghan adventure.
Now it's turned into The Battle of the Heodenings, the UK government (among others) is balls deep in it with no exit strategy so all they can do is keep shoveling the cash and weapons in, to the great detriment of the British armed forces, while hoping for the best.
The Ukranians are turning 70 years worth of accumulated military hardware owned by the most likely military opponent Europe has into a large pile of scrap metal for us.
That’s probably worth supplying them with enough treasure to get the job done for as long as they want to fight.
@CLondoner92 #TfL Freedom of Information release: Proposed London Overground line names in 2015 when Boris Johnson was Mayor "We can confirm that a total of £10,175 was spent on customer research on the proposed line name changes."
Barking line East London line Emerson Park line Lea Valley line North London line Watford local line
3 of the 12 tube lines were named after just one family.....
Victoria, I assume you're counting Jubilee... what's the other one? Am I being dense this morning?
The Liz Line?
Not a tube line.
And the Victoria line is named for Victoria train station and not Queen Victoria.
And what's the train station named after, sponge cake?
Victoria Street actually....
And what's Victoria St named after, sponge cake?
Well you may have got to Queen Victoria there. But 100 years and two steps away from the Tube line.
It’s a bit of a Waterloo Station thing, the station is named after Waterloo Bridge not the Battle so technically the old amusement about Frenchies arriving on Eurostar in those days was misplaced but still amusing really.
I know that to many he can do nothing right, but Trump asking his assistant to give the pen with which he signed the order to release the documents related to the deaths of his father and his uncle, to RFK Jr, was a class move.
He pardoned large numbers of Jan 6 rioters who had violently assaulted police officers (having said he wouldn't). Giving a pen to his political ally doesn't re-balance the scales all that much.
The vast majority of those pardoned were not violent, and those who were violent and arrested on the day had already spent four years incarcerated.
Many others were guilty of nothing except possibly a misdemeanour trespassing, but have been held in custody without trial for years,
As I said, he pardoned large numbers of Jan 6 rioters who had violently assaulted police officers. That some Jan 6 rioters had been less violent does not excuse Trump's pardon of those who were.
defiyantlyfree on Twitter, who you describe as "One investigator", calls herself "Insurrection Barbie". She's a hardcore, hard right, MAGA activist. She's not exactly some independent commentator.
There were a few dozen rioters, and 1,500 non-violent people who have just received pardons.
I know that to many he can do nothing right, but Trump asking his assistant to give the pen with which he signed the order to release the documents related to the deaths of his father and his uncle, to RFK Jr, was a class move.
He pardoned large numbers of Jan 6 rioters who had violently assaulted police officers (having said he wouldn't). Giving a pen to his political ally doesn't re-balance the scales all that much.
The vast majority of those pardoned were not violent, and those who were violent and arrested on the day had already spent four years incarcerated.
Many others were guilty of nothing except possibly a misdemeanour trespassing, but have been held in custody without trial for years,
As I said, he pardoned large numbers of Jan 6 rioters who had violently assaulted police officers. That some Jan 6 rioters had been less violent does not excuse Trump's pardon of those who were.
defiyantlyfree on Twitter, who you describe as "One investigator", calls herself "Insurrection Barbie". She's a hardcore, hard right, MAGA activist. She's not exactly some independent commentator.
There were a few dozen rioters, and 1,500 non-violent people who have just received pardons.
I will use my daily image allowance on this picture showing how non-violent the protestors were. Just people innocently caught up in the moment.
What's that line that folk of a certain political outlook love?
Natasha Kaneva, head of commodities at JP Morgan, said US output of oil and gas over the next four years will be determined by the price signal and would have been much the same whoever had won the election. “We are agnostic to who sits in the White House,” she said.
One day something is going to Twitter but I don't think it's going to be Bluesky. Bluesky's inauguration week core stats - unique daily likers, unique daily posters, total likes, total posts - are about 15% to 20% down on the late November peak. Those numbers don't feel like the numbers of a platform in the mists of going exponential off the back of a wave of outrage.
People may be creating accounts, but they don't seem to be doing that much with them.
Bluesky has, whether intentionally or not, positioned itself as the platform for the left. I don't see how it breaks out of that to become actually significant.
Yes you still have Truth Social on the right and Bluesky now on the left, X is still more of both sides than either
I know that to many he can do nothing right, but Trump asking his assistant to give the pen with which he signed the order to release the documents related to the deaths of his father and his uncle, to RFK Jr, was a class move.
He pardoned large numbers of Jan 6 rioters who had violently assaulted police officers (having said he wouldn't). Giving a pen to his political ally doesn't re-balance the scales all that much.
The vast majority of those pardoned were not violent, and those who were violent and arrested on the day had already spent four years incarcerated.
Many others were guilty of nothing except possibly a misdemeanour trespassing, but have been held in custody without trial for years,
As I said, he pardoned large numbers of Jan 6 rioters who had violently assaulted police officers. That some Jan 6 rioters had been less violent does not excuse Trump's pardon of those who were.
defiyantlyfree on Twitter, who you describe as "One investigator", calls herself "Insurrection Barbie". She's a hardcore, hard right, MAGA activist. She's not exactly some independent commentator.
There were a few dozen rioters, and 1,500 non-violent people who have just received pardons.
I will use my daily image allowance on this picture showing how non-violent the protestors were. Just people innocently caught up in the moment.
What's that line that folk of a certain political outlook love?
I know that to many he can do nothing right, but Trump asking his assistant to give the pen with which he signed the order to release the documents related to the deaths of his father and his uncle, to RFK Jr, was a class move.
He pardoned large numbers of Jan 6 rioters who had violently assaulted police officers (having said he wouldn't). Giving a pen to his political ally doesn't re-balance the scales all that much.
The vast majority of those pardoned were not violent, and those who were violent and arrested on the day had already spent four years incarcerated.
Many others were guilty of nothing except possibly a misdemeanour trespassing, but have been held in custody without trial for years,
As I said, he pardoned large numbers of Jan 6 rioters who had violently assaulted police officers. That some Jan 6 rioters had been less violent does not excuse Trump's pardon of those who were.
defiyantlyfree on Twitter, who you describe as "One investigator", calls herself "Insurrection Barbie". She's a hardcore, hard right, MAGA activist. She's not exactly some independent commentator.
There were a few dozen rioters, and 1,500 non-violent people who have just received pardons.
I will use my daily image allowance on this picture showing how non-violent the protestors were. Just people innocently caught up in the moment.
That doesn’t show anything at all. That’s a pretty typical scene at any larger political rally where tempers are high; it certainly doesn’t show violent insurrection
I personally witnessed far worse from the BLM rioters in Trafalgar Square during Covid - I saw attempted murder - and all that was briskly filed under “largely peaceful”
I don’t doubt some bad shit happened on J6 but it’s not in your photo
“Manufacturers have entered the New Year in a grim mood. Confidence has evaporated over the last three months as orders have dropped,” said Ben Jones, economist at the business group.
“A fall in domestic deliveries comes amid widespread concerns over the impact of the increase in National Insurance contributions, minimum wages and changes to employment law on firms’ operating costs.”
Much of the global manufacturing sector is struggling with German industry gripped by high energy prices, weak demand and stiff competition from Chinese car manufacturers, while China itself is also battling against an economic slump caused in part by a property crisis.
I am leaving end of next month where I work, Yesterday due to fallin order book and no real sign of an uptick they announced compulsory redundancies. I have been there over a decade and this has never happened before. The assumption is orders will pick up but this has been said for 12 months and it just does not happen and no sign of it happening. We sell consumables and equipment. We have not had an order for a piece of equipment for over 12 months now. Our customers have simply got no capex expenditure at the moment. We have only had a few enquiries too.
The equipment we sell is the route to market for alot of our consumables. The razor and the razorblades analogy and it is just not happening.
Reeves is definitely now making the right noises about growth and seems to be pivoting into the right approach however the damage has been done in the past 6 months.
I'm afraid I have lirrle confidence in Reeves. She has put growth in to reverse gear and the impact of her policies have yet to feed fully through. She evidently had no plan to get the economy growing and Labour is now trying to put one together and will have an internal battle to straighten things out first. The Net Zero versus growth dichotomy is just the first. Sad fact is Reeves will need to reverse lots of her policies ( see non doms ) and its whether she has the courage to recognise she was wrong and change. I doubt it.
Record numbers of firms in distress, particularly in these sectors. It is really hard to see how we avoid a recession early this year and a significant jump in unemployment.
Thought we had such a shortage of people we had to bring them in. MSM is so confusing these days.
“Manufacturers have entered the New Year in a grim mood. Confidence has evaporated over the last three months as orders have dropped,” said Ben Jones, economist at the business group.
“A fall in domestic deliveries comes amid widespread concerns over the impact of the increase in National Insurance contributions, minimum wages and changes to employment law on firms’ operating costs.”
Much of the global manufacturing sector is struggling with German industry gripped by high energy prices, weak demand and stiff competition from Chinese car manufacturers, while China itself is also battling against an economic slump caused in part by a property crisis.
The West needs to quickly decide what to do about the Chinese cars. They’re good enough for people who just want transport, and about 20% cheaper than the Korean equivalents, 40% cheaper than the Japanese.
We need to JV for domestic manufacturing. No way is the UK going to develop mass EV manufacturing which can compete with them independently.
@CLondoner92 #TfL Freedom of Information release: Proposed London Overground line names in 2015 when Boris Johnson was Mayor "We can confirm that a total of £10,175 was spent on customer research on the proposed line name changes."
I'm sorry but it's the same with Ukraine. We are so determined to 'lead' with our contributions to the cause, we will do it until our own army is fighting with pitchforks. There's no concept of the national interest, none.
You have to remember the context at the start of the SMO. It looked like it was going to be meme laden LOLfest and be over quickly. Boris was swept along with the euphoria of being in a war but without the politically troublesome cavalcade of fleg draped coffins landing at Brize that so marred the end of the Afghan adventure.
Now it's turned into The Battle of the Heodenings, the UK government (among others) is balls deep in it with no exit strategy so all they can do is keep shoveling the cash and weapons in, to the great detriment of the British armed forces, while hoping for the best.
Given the degree of damage being inflicted upon both the military power and the military prestige of Russia, the expenditure on the part of the UK government looks like the bargain of the century.
I’m in a rural Burmese town - Twantay - which is so rural I don’t think they’ve seen a white person for 40 years
Walk down the street and people run out of the shops to have a look. One guy did a dangerous u-turn just to have a second glimpse. Children almost faint
I mean, it could be my ruthless good looks but I don’t think so
Possibly the last white person here was George Orwell. A copper stationed in Twantay in the 1920s
Wasn't that the experience that turned him into an anti-imperialist and socialist?
In which case, we can expect a different SeanT returning home...
Also helped turn Orwell into one of the most important writers of the 20th century, so…
I'm not sure he was there for a bit of paid tourism, though.
“Manufacturers have entered the New Year in a grim mood. Confidence has evaporated over the last three months as orders have dropped,” said Ben Jones, economist at the business group.
“A fall in domestic deliveries comes amid widespread concerns over the impact of the increase in National Insurance contributions, minimum wages and changes to employment law on firms’ operating costs.”
Much of the global manufacturing sector is struggling with German industry gripped by high energy prices, weak demand and stiff competition from Chinese car manufacturers, while China itself is also battling against an economic slump caused in part by a property crisis.
I am leaving end of next month where I work, Yesterday due to fallin order book and no real sign of an uptick they announced compulsory redundancies. I have been there over a decade and this has never happened before. The assumption is orders will pick up but this has been said for 12 months and it just does not happen and no sign of it happening. We sell consumables and equipment. We have not had an order for a piece of equipment for over 12 months now. Our customers have simply got no capex expenditure at the moment. We have only had a few enquiries too.
The equipment we sell is the route to market for alot of our consumables. The razor and the razorblades analogy and it is just not happening.
Reeves is definitely now making the right noises about growth and seems to be pivoting into the right approach however the damage has been done in the past 6 months.
I'm afraid I have lirrle confidence in Reeves. She has put growth in to reverse gear and the impact of her policies have yet to feed fully through. She evidently had no plan to get the economy growing and Labour is now trying to put one together and will have an internal battle to straighten things out first. The Net Zero versus growth dichotomy is just the first. Sad fact is Reeves will need to reverse lots of her policies ( see non doms ) and its whether she has the courage to recognise she was wrong and change. I doubt it.
She does seem to be doing a partial reverse on non doms and is now being attacked from the left as a consequence.
She needs to do far more but over the last week, week and a half, she does seem to be doing some positive things on growth.
I get the lack of confidence. She has done little to gain any and we are reaping the consequences of the doom and gloom rhetoric when labour came to power however if she does turn it around and does start doing positive things on growth then she has much to gain.
The Left need a reality check. If you want a world-class NHS, you need rich people to pay for it (even if they don't use it).
Chasing the rich away may give warm fuzzy feelings to the Left. Until they have to start explaining the closure of hospital wards. Utter pillocks.
Isn't the point that rich (foreign) people weren't paying?
Yes, they spend money here which does boost the economy, and there'll be some tax take on that too. However, depending on wealthy individuals who make money elsewhere (or indeed even wealthy individuals here) is not a very sustainable tax base. It would be much better to create a faster-growing economy that spreads its growth more evenly - which is also good politics as excessive inequality is a recipe for resentment, division and radicalism, not to mention slower growth anyway as people don't feel a stake in what they're doing.
So far, Labour has given distinctly mixed messages on improving growth and its actions are having a lot more effect than its words.
In general, the number of rich people here, paying no/low tax, is quite low. Those that are, are generally foreigners who are here for limited periods of time.
The belief that the rich pay no tax is about the Americanisation of internet discussion. So you can have a comic discussion with teenagers about healthcare - while they know the NHS exists, quite a few young people are radicalised on the subject of American style healthcare.
For example, one friend of my daughter was adamant on the need for the law to change to allow the government to bargain with pharmaceutical companies over prices. She was slightly flummoxed when I pointed out that the UK does, on a massive scale. And gets quite good prices.
You're absolutely right about drugs.
When I was working for the government many years ago I went to a talk by the person in charge of crunching the numbers for this policy. He showed a schedule of average prices for non-generic drugs in the US compared to the UK. None was less than three times as expensive in the US and one was about a hundred times cheaper here.
On this site people slag off our government a lot, myself included, but there are some things, like drug pricing or gun control, that this old country gets absolutely spot on, and it always feels good when I hear about one of those.
If only we could extend it, to areas like the tax code, planning, energy policy or defence procurement.
From the Bluesky side, it had stabilised post Musk's end of the pier show at just under a million posts per day, and last night was at just over 28 million users, ticking up at perhaps 60-70k per day. https://bsky.jazco.dev/stats
As of this morning, it is at 29.2 million accounts, so that is plus one million in 4 days - 250k per day. Obviously encouraged by Trump, and by Musk's gesture politics. And up from ~250k in August 2024.
So on this trend minus a chunk, for it being a flurry, we'll be looking at ~50 million accounts by Easter, and numbers plus which communities / opinion leaders / organisations shift to Bluesky will make it clearer whether this will be a broader ecosystem.
For bluesky to truly succeed it desperately needs a lot of centrist and, especially, right wing accounts to move
I see no sign of that. Bluesky is actively hostile to these people
So we will end up with two different but similar Twitter-like places and even less interaction between left and right. Not good
Opinions may differ on what ‘centrist’ means, Bluesky seems pretty centrist to me. I agree that there needs to be some grit in the oyster, but then twitter/X seems to have become entirely grit (or rhyming word). The only reason I haven’t transferred to Bluesky is that I’m a lazy cnut.
Bluesky is the most echoey echo chamber I’ve ever encountered. I really don’t think it’s good for the left if they all hide over there, they will the be constantly surprised - in an unpleasant way - by the real world
Because Bluesky is even less like reality than TwiX
On the other hand it is definitely a nicer, calmer place to chat about fairly non contentious intellectual things. To meet archeologists and lexicologists
It’s a terrible place to have a political argument
I find for stuff I am interested in like old TV, Wrestling, Music and other things it is fine. Even the UK political commentary is fine. As soon as I switched to Following from For You it was fine.
Comments
Raylan Givens : You run into an asshole in the morning, you ran into an asshole. You run into assholes all day, you're the asshole.
Which isn’t a good thing.
Meta will be hard to give up for me because FB is so important in the used car game but maybe I should stop trying to buy non-running RR Ghosts anyway.
If the US today had an ally with a huge empire to counterweight China and Russia as well as a temperamental French ally it would possibly make their lives easier.
Perhaps the Middle East wouldn’t be a huge problem for them if still under mandate or empire.
But at least they got to smack our imperialist bottoms over Suez.
(And yes I get that those countries in the Empires might have broken free anyway but was just some lazy bored thinking.)
But, it would be the end of the US Republic, and the beginning of a much more overt US Empire.
What we need is a broad tax base and greater economic equality, not failed trickle down economics.
We've been forced to replace one of our main production machines because the old one is EOL and the engineer visits have just become too frequent, but it's absolutely a gamble based on the work coming in. Thankfully I've been working on a Plan B for the last 18 months that will hopefully come to fruition in the summer.
Yes, they spend money here which does boost the economy, and there'll be some tax take on that too. However, depending on wealthy individuals who make money elsewhere (or indeed even wealthy individuals here) is not a very sustainable tax base. It would be much better to create a faster-growing economy that spreads its growth more evenly - which is also good politics as excessive inequality is a recipe for resentment, division and radicalism, not to mention slower growth anyway as people don't feel a stake in what they're doing.
So far, Labour has given distinctly mixed messages on improving growth and its actions are having a lot more effect than its words.
https://x.com/igorsushko/status/1882558154384584904
As someone basically from the centre-right, I was quite happy on Twitter for 15 years, but I feel the proprietor wants a megaphone not a debating community - and has taken it out of the civil space. I've always put a very strong emphasis on encouraging cross-partisan debate, and I don't think that is possible on Twitter any more.
So I'm doing my bit to build something I hope will be better.
But now I'm also after more of an activist platform than previously.
“It’s greedy and it’s morally wrong, and it’s downright UNETHICAL AND UNAMERICAN,” Loomer wrote.
She said it was “outrageous and un-American” that someone as close to Trump as Musk is engaging in “this egregious retaliatory censorship” and “trying to harm my livelihood by cutting off my subscriptions and shadow banning my account.”
“The fact that this has gone on for a MONTH now with no recourse is a slap in my face after everything I have done to help President Trump @JDVance and all of their staff,” Loomer wrote.
“It’s already recognized in our country that MONEY IS SPEECH. Thus, the demonetization of my account is truly an abomination, and we clearly do not have free speech in our country when a WHITE HOUSE OFFICIAL can get away with attacking and silencing one of President Trump’s biggest Allies,” she continued.
“If they can do it to me after how hard I worked and how loyal I was to President @realDonaldTrump, they will do it to all of you as well,” she added.
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/5101369-laura-loomer-elon-musk-x-donald-trump/
Meanwhile UK payroll taxes are going up, so those wanting to invest are looking elsewhere.
The only positive is that the EU is doing even better at killing investment, so the UK might become the least-worst destination in the region.
brokeunderground.Loomer claimed that a winter storm that disrupted the 2024 Iowa Republican presidential caucuses was weather manipulation to support Nikki Haley's campaign. She made false claims about family members of Arthur Engoron and of Juan Merchan, judges overseeing Trump cases. Etc.
She has claimed that the Parkland and Santa Fe school shootings were staged, by crisis actors. I think it's acceptable for a social media campaign to block that such horrendous comments. Do you?
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/unmade-in-britain-were-becoming-a-zero-industrial-society/
It is growingly apparent that everyone else's politicians were at the COP and other conferences thinking - 'How can we do this whilst keeping industries going?' (unless they were China and India who were just there saying thinking - 'Screw this!' ). British politicians however (and I absolutely include Boris and other Tories in this) were not thinking this, they were just thinking how good they would look in that moment if they just threw it all in and did *extra*. How nice the Champagne tasted and how good the pats on the back felt. Someone else would make it work.
I well remember the Swedish Government at one of the recent climate junkets saying 'Unfortunately our emissions are going to track up a bit and here's why'. The thought of doing that wouldn't even enter the cavity between the ears of a British politician.
I'm sorry but it's the same with Ukraine. We are so determined to 'lead' with our contributions to the cause, we will do it until our own army is fighting with pitchforks. There's no concept of the national interest, none.
Even now, we have an avowedly Tory MP, writing on Conhome in support of a bill to SPEED Net Zero. How can Kemi even hope to operate a party with that sort of person in the PCP?
It sounds like they have an idea to team up with other Independents to try and take control of Notts CC.
Their first promise is to abandon a section of the strategic mobility track between Kirkby-in-Ashfield and Mansfield / District Hospital / University Campus / Shopping / Employment / Leisure areas.
Current numbers are :
Lab 14, Tory 31, Ash Ind 10, other Ind 6, Reform 1.
It's an interesting idea, but I don't see it surviving if Zadrozny their leader is found guilty in March of his various charges,
Many others were guilty of nothing except possibly a misdemeanour trespassing, but have been held in custody without trial for years,
One investigator picked what she says was a case at random, and went into the details.
https://x.com/defiyantlyfree/status/1882268997606945260
This is a wonderful encapsulation of Varoufakis's thesis of Big Tech as feudal gatekeepers, rather than tycoons.
And with the added delicious irony of l the MAGA base here being the one that's targeted.
Annoy the laird, because he's trying to to pass different immigration legislation at court to you ? No income for you, as he controls the digital land.
Edit: Just seen Sandpit's post on the Jan 6th rioters. This almost exactly how my brilliant Higher History teacher described the onset of fascism - the normalisation of violent seditious behaviour.
The problem the GOP will have is like the Tories had post Boris, Boris and Trump had charisma and real appeal to white working class ex Labour and ex Democrat voters others in their party don't match to the same extent.
Indeed, if Vance won the GOP nomination ie the GOP Rishi, I would not put it past Trump Jr to try and form his own Reform like party with Daddy's backing, even if Don Jr and Vance are close now so were Boris and Rishi once
The ultra-rich f'ing off to Dubai is a feature not a bug. Personally, I don't have a problem with pandering to them with special favours. Deflating the London property bubble would be no bad thing either.
But there will be some initial tax loss, so that makes it all the more important that you get the rest of the economy producing.
If you disagree with her, then let her metaphorically hang herself in public.
The belief that the rich pay no tax is about the Americanisation of internet discussion. So you can have a comic discussion with teenagers about healthcare - while they know the NHS exists, quite a few young people are radicalised on the subject of American style healthcare.
For example, one friend of my daughter was adamant on the need for the law to change to allow the government to bargain with pharmaceutical companies over prices. She was slightly flummoxed when I pointed out that the UK does, on a massive scale. And gets quite good prices.
Otherwise, he loves Tommy.
There have been several articles eloquently analysing and explaining this in the Spec & elsewhere
Once you grasp this, so much of the weirdness they do - from the Chagos to mad humans rights decisions - becomes quickly comprehensible
Indeed, by the end of the year Starmer will likely be the most left of centre leader left in the G7 and of the major nations in Europe only Spain will have a Socialist led government still more anti wealth than we are
People may be creating accounts, but they don't seem to be doing that much with them.
https://www.fbi.gov/history/famous-cases/weather-underground-bombings
defiyantlyfree on Twitter, who you describe as "One investigator", calls herself "Insurrection Barbie". She's a hardcore, hard right, MAGA activist. She's not exactly some independent commentator.
Understandable as definitively proving individual actions is difficult.
I look at it for 15 mins every few days because some of the people I really liked on Twitter have decamped there, sadly. So I check them out for jokes and memes
Then I go back to TwiX
The president pardoned 23 people who had been convicted for blocking access to abortion clinics.
"They should not have been prosecuted. Many of them are elderly people. They should not have been prosecuted," he said. "This is a great honour to sign this. They’ll be very happy."
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/ce8y3yk00yjt
Now it's turned into The Battle of the Heodenings, the UK government (among others) is balls deep in it with no exit strategy so all they can do is keep shoveling the cash and weapons in, to the great detriment of the British armed forces, while hoping for the best.
I will use my daily image allowance on this picture showing how non-violent the protestors were. Just people innocently caught up in the moment.
Aiui (possibly from pb) Trump used a different pen for each signature, as is usual for presidents, which would then be given to supporters (in this case, via the medium of chucking them into the MAGA crowd). So the question is not, will the pen be given away, but to whom.
So there!
That’s probably worth supplying them with enough treasure to get the job done for as long as they want to fight.
https://x.com/marionawfal/status/1882716853379764345
'I was present but not involved'
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/01/24/when-it-comes-to-energy-donald-trump-is-chinas-useful-idiot/
I am in favour of all forms of investment to further growth and prosperity and that is very much needed across the west
Unfortunately Reeves has driven the wealth creators away
140 police officers were assaulted, Sandpit. And that's just fine and dandy with you, is it?
I personally witnessed far worse from the BLM rioters in Trafalgar Square during Covid - I saw attempted murder - and all that was briskly filed under “largely peaceful”
I don’t doubt some bad shit happened on J6 but it’s not in your photo
No way is the UK going to develop mass EV manufacturing which can compete with them independently.
Westminster Voting Intention:
LAB: 25% (-1)
CON: 24% (-1)
RFM: 24% (+1)
LDM: 14% (+1)
GRN: 7% (=)
SNP: 2% (=)
Via @techneUK, 22-23 Jan.
Otherwise the Channel Tunnel is a tube line...
Of course the 2 brown women are no longer welcome in SKS's racist, sexist, factional endeavour of a red Tory Party.
TBF I think the 2 principled brown ladies are better off outside that cesspit of Zionism and Racism.
When I was working for the government many years ago I went to a talk by the person in charge of crunching the numbers for this policy. He showed a schedule of average prices for non-generic drugs in the US compared to the UK. None was less than three times as expensive in the US and one was about a hundred times cheaper here.
On this site people slag off our government a lot, myself included, but there are some things, like drug pricing or gun control, that this old country gets absolutely spot on, and it always feels good when I hear about one of those.
If only we could extend it, to areas like the tax code, planning, energy policy or defence procurement.