Adam
@adamcobb.bsky.social
Digital marketing type; European politics bore; language enthusiast; one of those gays you hear about; Eurovision nerd; that guy in the window seat. @adamcobb on Twitter
I think the one thing we can all agree on is that Labour deciding to have a 3 month run up to the budget, argue with itself, hand wave, basically announce and then drop major policy shifts and leave itself with a huge headache the next time the OBR does a new forecast has been a resounding success!
November 25, 2025 at 11:36 PM
I think the one thing we can all agree on is that Labour deciding to have a 3 month run up to the budget, argue with itself, hand wave, basically announce and then drop major policy shifts and leave itself with a huge headache the next time the OBR does a new forecast has been a resounding success!
Another part of the madness of this government wanting to govern and campaign like it’s 1995 is that they’re worrying about newspaper headlines on this (hence the clever dick stuff) when the threats are
- Martin Lewis
- r/ukpersonalfinance
- Some TikTok that goes viral
- Your online HR portal
- Martin Lewis
- r/ukpersonalfinance
- Some TikTok that goes viral
- Your online HR portal
November 25, 2025 at 11:26 PM
Another part of the madness of this government wanting to govern and campaign like it’s 1995 is that they’re worrying about newspaper headlines on this (hence the clever dick stuff) when the threats are
- Martin Lewis
- r/ukpersonalfinance
- Some TikTok that goes viral
- Your online HR portal
- Martin Lewis
- r/ukpersonalfinance
- Some TikTok that goes viral
- Your online HR portal
Only true 90s kids remember the Index catalogue.
November 25, 2025 at 10:33 PM
Only true 90s kids remember the Index catalogue.
I take to agree with this in general. The two huge risks are it being done in a panic because of a huge backlog and the fact that it seems to have dropped from the sky for most people and you really, really want them to have thought hard about the whats and whys of this.
I struggle with how much of the commentary which implies that our European neighbours are dreadful places ruled by judicial autocracy. But as @nwylabour.bsky.social says, it does not help that the government has done so little to build goodwill and has blundered on other 'reforms'.
November 25, 2025 at 8:30 PM
I take to agree with this in general. The two huge risks are it being done in a panic because of a huge backlog and the fact that it seems to have dropped from the sky for most people and you really, really want them to have thought hard about the whats and whys of this.
Glee. Sometimes I like to pretend they made a pilot and it never got picked up.
while I am posting trivia, which TV show do you think showed the sharpest fall in quality from first to last seasons? I ask because the answer is obviously The Morning Show, the last series of which was garbage
November 25, 2025 at 4:28 PM
Glee. Sometimes I like to pretend they made a pilot and it never got picked up.
And the 'taxes by SimCity 3000 budget screen' meme rolls on!
November 25, 2025 at 11:58 AM
And the 'taxes by SimCity 3000 budget screen' meme rolls on!
The main impression you got from that hearing is a bunch of people (on the BBC side and the parliamentarian side) who have no concept of the stakes they are playing with.
Prescott is asked whether he thinks Donald Trump's reputation has been tarnished by Panorama. "Probably not," he replies with a grin.
November 24, 2025 at 10:52 PM
The main impression you got from that hearing is a bunch of people (on the BBC side and the parliamentarian side) who have no concept of the stakes they are playing with.
The point that is endlessly missed by these people is that lockdown would’ve basically happened whether the government ordered it or not. There were huge drops in restaurant bookings, train travel etc. before any legal restrictions came in.
I too would be saying stuff like this, if my status and career depended on people not ever saying openly that I had been deeply complicit in an avoidable calamity with a five figure bodycount
November 20, 2025 at 7:57 PM
The point that is endlessly missed by these people is that lockdown would’ve basically happened whether the government ordered it or not. There were huge drops in restaurant bookings, train travel etc. before any legal restrictions came in.
I really feel the inquiry would've been better off interviewing a bunch of people in Australia, Singapore, South Korea etc. about what went right there and how we could learn from it. It feels like lockdowns would be much harder to pull off now than 5 years ago.
BREAKING: The UK’s response to Covid was “too little, too late”, a damning official report on the handling of the pandemic has concluded, saying the introduction of a lockdown even a week earlier than happened could have saved more than 20,000 lives.
November 20, 2025 at 4:23 PM
I really feel the inquiry would've been better off interviewing a bunch of people in Australia, Singapore, South Korea etc. about what went right there and how we could learn from it. It feels like lockdowns would be much harder to pull off now than 5 years ago.
My uninformed read is that the government assumed that rolling in behind the EHRC guidance was the best means of making the issue go away and upon discovering it did not do that, has had no Plan B.
November 20, 2025 at 2:16 PM
My uninformed read is that the government assumed that rolling in behind the EHRC guidance was the best means of making the issue go away and upon discovering it did not do that, has had no Plan B.
I know, I know this is 100% a tiny violin moment and The Times knows that and it's why they're promoting it (they love rage clicks!) but this country needs to be better at convincing rich people to donate money to civic things. They assuage their guilt, we get a lovely park. New York is great at it.
The fear of not having enough money is familiar. But there’s a quieter struggle at the top: feeling uncomfortable with having too much, says money psychotherapist Vicky Reynal ⬇️
Why my ultra-rich clients are ashamed of their wealth
www.thetimes.com
November 20, 2025 at 10:59 AM
I know, I know this is 100% a tiny violin moment and The Times knows that and it's why they're promoting it (they love rage clicks!) but this country needs to be better at convincing rich people to donate money to civic things. They assuage their guilt, we get a lovely park. New York is great at it.
I’ve organized 3 events for work this year I’ve spent the 2 weeks leading up to them with a horrible knot in my stomach convinced I’ve forgotten to do something. So far, turns out I’ve been fine. There’s an event next week and I don’t have the knot and I’m worried it means I HAVE forgotten something
Nightmare. Been battling a sense of dreadful unease for the last hour. Turns out I had scheduled a panel for today that I had put in as happening next week (now in a cab to it), which is both embarrassing but also a fascinating insight into how unhelpful the brain can be.
November 19, 2025 at 5:51 PM
I’ve organized 3 events for work this year I’ve spent the 2 weeks leading up to them with a horrible knot in my stomach convinced I’ve forgotten to do something. So far, turns out I’ve been fine. There’s an event next week and I don’t have the knot and I’m worried it means I HAVE forgotten something
Reposted by Adam
Have I ever mentioned my mortal fear of former BBC News substitute presenter Mishal Husain? Probably not, since it's not a big issue generally.
Anyway, best get to work
Anyway, best get to work
November 19, 2025 at 9:38 AM
Have I ever mentioned my mortal fear of former BBC News substitute presenter Mishal Husain? Probably not, since it's not a big issue generally.
Anyway, best get to work
Anyway, best get to work
Reposted by Adam
WE GOT A BBC MONTAGE. That’s how important Scotland qualifying is!!
November 18, 2025 at 10:49 PM
WE GOT A BBC MONTAGE. That’s how important Scotland qualifying is!!
Never change Scotland
November 18, 2025 at 10:31 PM
Never change Scotland
Reposted by Adam
It now falls to Steve Clarke to work out exactly how to get eliminated in a group at the hands of Canada, DR Congo, and Uzbekistan.
November 18, 2025 at 9:59 PM
It now falls to Steve Clarke to work out exactly how to get eliminated in a group at the hands of Canada, DR Congo, and Uzbekistan.
If I were subtitling this I’d just write *incomprehensible Scottish noises*
November 18, 2025 at 8:49 PM
If I were subtitling this I’d just write *incomprehensible Scottish noises*
Reposted by Adam
UK Politics Bluesky is a not-particularly-popular role-playing game. the rules are simple: one participant takes the part of "the Stephen Bush", a commentator for the Financial Times, and other participants race to as quickly as possible link any given statement to the Harry Potter media franchise
November 18, 2025 at 2:22 PM
UK Politics Bluesky is a not-particularly-popular role-playing game. the rules are simple: one participant takes the part of "the Stephen Bush", a commentator for the Financial Times, and other participants race to as quickly as possible link any given statement to the Harry Potter media franchise
The status updates are getting increasingly pass-agg. Having managed a much, much smaller crisis like this, I can hear the 'every moment I'm explaining this to you is a moment I'm not fixing it' coming from engineering.
November 18, 2025 at 2:27 PM
The status updates are getting increasingly pass-agg. Having managed a much, much smaller crisis like this, I can hear the 'every moment I'm explaining this to you is a moment I'm not fixing it' coming from engineering.
Bob was shocked to find things being sold at a car boot sale they may not have been 100% legit. Good thing this never happened in the 1970s Britain he’s so fond of.
November 18, 2025 at 1:37 PM
Bob was shocked to find things being sold at a car boot sale they may not have been 100% legit. Good thing this never happened in the 1970s Britain he’s so fond of.
A lot of UK politics seems to regard the immigration health surcharge like Trump regards tariffs, as a free money pipe with zero consequences.
Reform’s £25bn p/a savings plan. A theme emerges:
- ending foreign aid
- increase immigration health surcharge paid by foreigners
- deport foreign criminals
- end UC payments to foreign nationals
- ending foreign aid
- increase immigration health surcharge paid by foreigners
- deport foreign criminals
- end UC payments to foreign nationals
November 18, 2025 at 10:46 AM
A lot of UK politics seems to regard the immigration health surcharge like Trump regards tariffs, as a free money pipe with zero consequences.
Has the government considered banning the use of English and forcing us all to learn Hungarian or Finnish instead?
Proponents would argue it has a deterrent effect, but the pull factors for the UK are very different from Denmark.
November 18, 2025 at 9:11 AM
Has the government considered banning the use of English and forcing us all to learn Hungarian or Finnish instead?
Reposted by Adam
Maybe someone suggested 'Pocahontas' and everyone winced, realised that absolutely no part of the US political spectrum is going to look kindly on that film, and just switched to the next Disney Princess in the colour chart.
November 17, 2025 at 11:35 PM
Maybe someone suggested 'Pocahontas' and everyone winced, realised that absolutely no part of the US political spectrum is going to look kindly on that film, and just switched to the next Disney Princess in the colour chart.