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Reposted by Mark Wallace

the babahuck @tylerhuckabee.bsky.social · 9h

In 2004, Parisian police were conducting a training exercise in the french catacombs and found, after moving past a desk and a tape playing audio of snarling dogs, a fully functional movie theater and bar. When they returned 3 days later, the equipment was gone, with a note: “Do not try to find us.”

Members of the force's sports squad, responsible
- among other tasks - for policing the 170 miles of tunnels, caves, galleries and catacombs that underlie large parts of Paris, stumbled on the complex while on a training exercise beneath the Palais de Chaillot, across the Seine from the Eiffel Tower.
After entering the network through a drain next to the Trocadero, the officers came across a tarpaulin marked: Building site, No access.
Behind that, a tunnel held a desk and a closed-circuit TV camera set to automatically record images of anyone passing. The mechanism also triggered a tape of dogs barking, "clearly designed to frighten people off," the spokesman said.
Further along, the tunnel opened into a vast 400 sq metre cave some 18m underground, "like an underground amphitheatre, with terraces cut into the rock and chairs".

There the police found a full-sized cinema screen, projection equipment, and tapes of a wide variety of films, including 1950s film noir classics and more recent thrillers. None of the films were banned or even offensive, the spokesman said.
A smaller cave next door had been turned into an informal restaurant and bar. "There were bottles of whisky and other spirits behind a bar, tables and chairs, a pressure-cooker for making couscous," the spokesman said.
"The whole thing ran off a professionally installed electricity system and there were at least three phone lines down there."
Three days later, when the police returned accompanied by experts from the French electricity board to see where the power was coming from, the phone and electricity lines had been cut and a note was lying in the middle of the floor: "Do not," it said, "try to find us."

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Mark Wallace @wallaceme.bsky.social · 7h

One of Britain’s world-leading sectors is ludicrous sports: today is Surbiton’s annual Ski Sunday, where people with blocks of ice strapped to their feet compete to race fastest down a plastic ski course covered in washing-up liquid. Love it.

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Mark Wallace @wallaceme.bsky.social · 1d

My opinion is that maybe Pakistan shouldn’t have funded and aided the Taliban for years?

Anton Gerashchenko @antongerashchenko.bsky.social · 1d

Fighting broke out between the security forces of Afghanistan& Pakistan tonight

"In retaliation for the air strikes by Pakistani forces,"Taliban border forces in the east engaged in heavy clashes against Pakistani forces'," the Afghan military said in a statement.

Friends,what are your opinions?

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Mark Wallace @wallaceme.bsky.social · 1d

Yes! #makerussiapay www.bbc.com/news/article...

UK ready to use frozen Russian assets to fund Ukraine war effort - BBC News

The UK, France and Germany are "united" in wanting to use the full value of frozen Russian assets to end the war, Sir Keir Starmer said.

www.bbc.com

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Reposted by Mark Wallace

Mark Wallace @wallaceme.bsky.social · 2d

Thank goodness. We have no blasphemy law in this country any longer, nor should we. I dislike book burning instinctively, but plenty of things I might dislike are nonetheless rightly legal. Mr Coskun should never have been convicted for an act of free expression. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Man who burned Quran outside Turkish consulate wins appeal - BBC News

Hamit Coskun's freedom of expression includes the right to express views that offend, a judge rules.

www.bbc.co.uk

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Mark Wallace @wallaceme.bsky.social · 1d

Agreed!

Mark Wallace @wallaceme.bsky.social · 2d

Most recently to my knowledge 2015 and 2016 for Britain First.

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Mark Wallace @wallaceme.bsky.social · 2d

Yep - I’m still amazed no action was taken over this uniformed march in Brixton www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article...

Who are secretive British protest group Forever Family?

Forever Family - whose social media accounts are mostly set to private - aims to centralise community groups in a bid to support like-minded organisations.

www.dailymail.co.uk

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Mark Wallace @wallaceme.bsky.social · 2d

LOL! Though I don’t think that’s the monarch they have in mind

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Mark Wallace @wallaceme.bsky.social · 2d

I don’t think that’s the King they have in mind.

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Mark Wallace @wallaceme.bsky.social · 2d

Just a reminder that marches featuring a political uniform are illegal…

James Bloodworth @jamesbloodworth.bsky.social · 2d

Homophobic Christian evangelical group ‘King’s Army’ marches through London’s Old Compton Street www.scenemag.co.uk/christian-ev...

Homophobic Christian evangelical group ‘King’s Army’ marches through London’s Old Compton Street

A 'Christian evangelical group' calling itself the 'King’s Army' has marched through Old Compton Street - the historic heart of London’s LGBTQ+ community - chanting religious slogans and accusing the ...

www.scenemag.co.uk

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Mark Wallace @wallaceme.bsky.social · 2d

If they think the choice is a) swoop in and save your councillors or b) let them lose their seats then swoop in then sure, a). But if it’s a) swoop in, lose your councillors and get blamed or b) lose them while letting someone else get blamed first, then swoop in, then they’d choose b, surely.

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Mark Wallace @wallaceme.bsky.social · 2d

I think there’s a reasonable argument that if you want to say “It’s not worked, I’m resetting it”, you instantly lose all momentum if you immediately get battered in an election. It speaks to whether they think May is currently salvageable.

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Mark Wallace @wallaceme.bsky.social · 2d

Basically, this: bsky.app/profile/gare...

Gareth Davies @garethtbij.bsky.social · 2d

If a "younger" reporter files me a story containing an error like that and we end up publishing it, then ultimately that's on me. I'd get very short shrift if I blamed them for it, and rightly so

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Mark Wallace @wallaceme.bsky.social · 2d

Hmm. Are there no checks between these “younger producers” and the script airing?

I recently encountered a younger producer who insisted (via TikTok) that gold top milk was a newly invented superfood. But neither I nor the presenter then said it on air…

Zoë Crowther @zoecrowther.bsky.social · 2d

The Guardian has picked up this story, with the founder of the production company behind #HIGNFY blaming young producers “marinated in social media”

He says they have tightened their rules around getting information from social media

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Reposted by Mark Wallace

PoliticsHome @politicshome.bsky.social · 3d

Britain must resist unwinnable subsidy races and instead fix its foundations
✍️ John Caudwell

Britain must resist unwinnable subsidy races and instead fix its foundations

Our economy is anaemic. Infrastructure is crumbling. Electricity prices are among the highest in the developed world. For a country with our histor...

www.politicshome.com

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Reposted by Mark Wallace

PoliticsHome @politicshome.bsky.social · 2d

🚨OUT NOW 🚨Panic (on the streets of Manchester?)

Join @alaintolhurst.bsky.social inside Tory conference as he talks to James Cleverly & Mel Stride, pollsters Allie Jennings & Patrick English, the IfG's Tom Pope, and academic Rob Ford about whether the party can recover

podfollow.com/politicshome...

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Mark Wallace @wallaceme.bsky.social · 2d

This so absurd as to amount to bad faith now. You claimed my post was “spin” - with no basis. When asked which bit, you refuse to answer until you see the judgment. Then you refuse to answer the fact that it is what the judgment says. Then you falsely claim I’m quoting Toby Young. And on…

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Mark Wallace @wallaceme.bsky.social · 2d

Whose words are they?

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Mark Wallace @wallaceme.bsky.social · 2d

Do you know what “the words of” means?

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Mark Wallace @wallaceme.bsky.social · 2d

Possibly - I’m not advocating it just reflecting on what I suspect is the thinking

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Mark Wallace @wallaceme.bsky.social · 2d

If you just messed up, and leapt to a slur without any reason beyond instinctive dislike, it’d be easier (and more decent) just to say so.

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Mark Wallace @wallaceme.bsky.social · 2d

And you *still* won’t answer my straightforward question. You declared something to be the case - you must have had a reason, a basis beyond kneejerk dislike?

I haven’t quoted the words of Toby Young at all on this topic. You’re making things up now…

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Reposted by Mark Wallace

Goldie and Komos @komos-and-goldie.bsky.social · 2d

"I dislike book burning instinctively, but plenty of things I might dislike are nonetheless rightly legal."

Exactly.

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Mark Wallace @wallaceme.bsky.social · 2d

Laughs in vampire.

Financial Times @financialtimes.com · 2d

More than a decade ago, scientist Tony Wyss-Coray stitched together the blood vessels of two mice, allowing their blood to intermingle. The results of this experiment facilitated a leap forward in our understanding of longevity: that younger blood can help the memory. on.ft.com/42uwt7S

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