@darcyswickham.bsky.social
Paddy in London. Or a Londoner, former Paddy depending on how you see it.
Very New Labour init? No warmth, no haggis with the fam, bit of scotch to warm the gullet. Just a sad sandwich, with a few of the basics, unopened of course, in an over lit room and a generic piece of tat on the wall.
January 26, 2026 at 11:34 AM
Very New Labour init? No warmth, no haggis with the fam, bit of scotch to warm the gullet. Just a sad sandwich, with a few of the basics, unopened of course, in an over lit room and a generic piece of tat on the wall.
Why is Kyle so bad at his job? Just fix the rates so pubs don’t go out of business and I can get a coffee for less than 3 quid.
January 25, 2026 at 11:28 PM
Why is Kyle so bad at his job? Just fix the rates so pubs don’t go out of business and I can get a coffee for less than 3 quid.
They’ve dropped below China. I’m repeating myself, but Trump and his band of traitors has started the end of American hegemony. Incredible hubris and waste.
In case you’ve ever wondered how you can engineer a sudden drop in your popularity among people who live in countries that belong to NATO, the answer is now in: Either invade Ukraine or elect Donald Trump as your president.
Full newsletter: www.nonzero.org/p/which-ai-t...
Full newsletter: www.nonzero.org/p/which-ai-t...
January 25, 2026 at 11:16 PM
They’ve dropped below China. I’m repeating myself, but Trump and his band of traitors has started the end of American hegemony. Incredible hubris and waste.
Now watching venal, corrupt and equally cowardly men and women lie to our faces about the execution of an innocent man.
Watched a cowardly but panicked man shoot another before his equal panicked peers shot the victim a further 10 times in equal cowardice.
January 25, 2026 at 8:24 PM
Now watching venal, corrupt and equally cowardly men and women lie to our faces about the execution of an innocent man.
Could the BBC offer a subscription service abroad? Like the TV licence for the U.K. but options for people to pay for it outside of here?
January 25, 2026 at 6:35 PM
Could the BBC offer a subscription service abroad? Like the TV licence for the U.K. but options for people to pay for it outside of here?
I don’t like Burnham but can someone take Keir out and put him in as foreign secretary? The job he actually wants and is good at.
January 25, 2026 at 2:32 PM
I don’t like Burnham but can someone take Keir out and put him in as foreign secretary? The job he actually wants and is good at.
Watched a cowardly but panicked man shoot another before his equal panicked peers shot the victim a further 10 times in equal cowardice.
January 24, 2026 at 8:39 PM
Watched a cowardly but panicked man shoot another before his equal panicked peers shot the victim a further 10 times in equal cowardice.
Yes this. Been an educator for too long a time and god yeh there’s things we can do better but the basics remain the same. Get them reading. Tests and assignments on pen and paper. And get them off the phones. AI is like the heroin icing to the damage done by phones. Get it out of the classroom.
What are we doing here
Ed tech is profitable. It is also mostly useless
economist.com/united-state...
from The Economist
Ed tech is profitable. It is also mostly useless
economist.com/united-state...
from The Economist
January 24, 2026 at 3:19 PM
Yes this. Been an educator for too long a time and god yeh there’s things we can do better but the basics remain the same. Get them reading. Tests and assignments on pen and paper. And get them off the phones. AI is like the heroin icing to the damage done by phones. Get it out of the classroom.
Jesus. Lads I’m so sorry for what a rake of us are paying. Flip of a coin growing up in Ireland is what meant I could live for pennies in this country. Actually insane how we tax the young here.
January 24, 2026 at 2:44 PM
Jesus. Lads I’m so sorry for what a rake of us are paying. Flip of a coin growing up in Ireland is what meant I could live for pennies in this country. Actually insane how we tax the young here.
Might as well go hell for leather. He’s done well to placate that animal in the White House, but he’s clearly decided on closer EU alignment as a security measure above anything else and his overtures seem to be more and more spat back at him.
'I consider President Trump's remarks to be insulting and frankly appalling'
PM Keir Starmer calls on the US president to apologise after he suggested that British troops didn't fight on the frontlines in Afghanistan
PM Keir Starmer calls on the US president to apologise after he suggested that British troops didn't fight on the frontlines in Afghanistan
January 23, 2026 at 6:58 PM
Might as well go hell for leather. He’s done well to placate that animal in the White House, but he’s clearly decided on closer EU alignment as a security measure above anything else and his overtures seem to be more and more spat back at him.
U.K. and other allies need to make clear how costly Trump will be to the United States in years to come. Never again can blood be spilled for them. Never again can they call on us for aid.
January 23, 2026 at 5:48 PM
U.K. and other allies need to make clear how costly Trump will be to the United States in years to come. Never again can blood be spilled for them. Never again can they call on us for aid.
I truly don’t understand why anyone uses AI for anything outside of streamlining task. 99% of writing is working through ideas. Why try and automate something that’s ultimately a creative endeavour regardless of the original purpose.
Managing to actually grow my contempt of AI by just doing mundane tasks. Thought about trying it out for a job application, feck it, decided to have a go and actually write the bstarding thing. Took an hour. Wasn’t the easiest but wasn’t hard like. And helped me think through another project.
January 23, 2026 at 5:36 PM
I truly don’t understand why anyone uses AI for anything outside of streamlining task. 99% of writing is working through ideas. Why try and automate something that’s ultimately a creative endeavour regardless of the original purpose.
Managing to actually grow my contempt of AI by just doing mundane tasks. Thought about trying it out for a job application, feck it, decided to have a go and actually write the bstarding thing. Took an hour. Wasn’t the easiest but wasn’t hard like. And helped me think through another project.
January 23, 2026 at 5:35 PM
Managing to actually grow my contempt of AI by just doing mundane tasks. Thought about trying it out for a job application, feck it, decided to have a go and actually write the bstarding thing. Took an hour. Wasn’t the easiest but wasn’t hard like. And helped me think through another project.
Reposted
I have rarely seen a piece of straight reporting by the UK press *this* angry at and contemptuous of Trump. Justifiably so.
I was in Helmand with UK troops. Draft dodging Trump's words are a gut punch to families of those killed
Donald Trump has claimed NATO troops stayed "a little off the front lines" in Afghanistan. It's hard to know whether he's ignorant or just doesn't really care.
news.sky.com
January 23, 2026 at 8:55 AM
I have rarely seen a piece of straight reporting by the UK press *this* angry at and contemptuous of Trump. Justifiably so.
Old lecturer of mind Conrad Brunstorm coined a phrase ‘austeriarchy’ to describe how austerity was enforced and sold on us as a necessity while the richest, instead of suffering with the rest of us, instead became richer. Think a lot would be better if misery was more shared.
January 23, 2026 at 8:10 AM
Old lecturer of mind Conrad Brunstorm coined a phrase ‘austeriarchy’ to describe how austerity was enforced and sold on us as a necessity while the richest, instead of suffering with the rest of us, instead became richer. Think a lot would be better if misery was more shared.
God this government is near useless.
Only good thing the Labour government has done now undone www.politico.eu/newsletter/l...
January 22, 2026 at 10:26 PM
God this government is near useless.
When Countess Markiewicz was interned after the 1916 Rising, British propaganda claimed she wept and begged for leniency as she was a defenceless woman. In reality she calmly and resolutely demanded she be treated as an enemy combatant. She asked for the same bullet as would take the men.
The White House posted an edited photo of the activist involved in the Minneapolis church protest, made to look like she was crying.
January 22, 2026 at 9:33 PM
When Countess Markiewicz was interned after the 1916 Rising, British propaganda claimed she wept and begged for leniency as she was a defenceless woman. In reality she calmly and resolutely demanded she be treated as an enemy combatant. She asked for the same bullet as would take the men.
Send him skiing with someone used to doing wetwork and just ket it all work out.
January 22, 2026 at 9:27 PM
Send him skiing with someone used to doing wetwork and just ket it all work out.
Also, no we don’t?! You’re telling me some idiot has hired a professor that can’t make their own slides or do their own research? I’m sorry, are we hiring carpenters that lick their own hammers now too??
do you also sob when someone steals your nose? x
January 22, 2026 at 9:05 PM
Also, no we don’t?! You’re telling me some idiot has hired a professor that can’t make their own slides or do their own research? I’m sorry, are we hiring carpenters that lick their own hammers now too??
Yeh this. Preston Bus Garage is gorgeous, but it’s underused. The Barbican is better than 70% of buildings in the country, but it’s the exception of brutalism rather than the rule. Get rid of the bad and make good the rest
The thing is, a lot of it was just badly built and/or is an actual nightmare to actually bloody use, while architecture weirdos coo at how ~~pretty~~ they are
one thing I am stridently anti-populist on is brutalism. fuck you and your gaudy ass fake columns, your QVC hog architecture. there is one correct aesthetic for government buildings, and it is brutalism.
January 22, 2026 at 7:12 PM
Yeh this. Preston Bus Garage is gorgeous, but it’s underused. The Barbican is better than 70% of buildings in the country, but it’s the exception of brutalism rather than the rule. Get rid of the bad and make good the rest
One of my aunts died yesterday. She was one of 13. Now 12. Didn’t know her since I left home 17 years ago. Saw her occasionally, always nice to see. She was young. A grandmother many times over. She was kind, and upbeat as a person. I don’t really know how to mourn her. But I’m sorry she’s passed.
January 22, 2026 at 12:41 AM
One of my aunts died yesterday. She was one of 13. Now 12. Didn’t know her since I left home 17 years ago. Saw her occasionally, always nice to see. She was young. A grandmother many times over. She was kind, and upbeat as a person. I don’t really know how to mourn her. But I’m sorry she’s passed.
We should read out or actually show quotes to Johnson and then ask what he thought of them now. He’s a little weasel, but he’s allowed to be one.
Surprise! Mike Johnson says he hasn't seen any of Trump's (bonkers) speech in Davos
January 22, 2026 at 12:20 AM
We should read out or actually show quotes to Johnson and then ask what he thought of them now. He’s a little weasel, but he’s allowed to be one.
Yeh this. We don’t feel relief. We feel resigned. It’s just waiting for the next blow up, the next tantrum, the next bloody problem that we have deal with. Contempt, ill regard, contempt, under a miasma of exhaustion.
Whatever relief is felt across European capitals tonight should be short lived.
Because although Trump's unique brand of unpredictability will eventually die, his America First 'might is right', 'strong devour the weak' legacy may not go to the grave with him.
Because although Trump's unique brand of unpredictability will eventually die, his America First 'might is right', 'strong devour the weak' legacy may not go to the grave with him.
January 21, 2026 at 11:37 PM
Yeh this. We don’t feel relief. We feel resigned. It’s just waiting for the next blow up, the next tantrum, the next bloody problem that we have deal with. Contempt, ill regard, contempt, under a miasma of exhaustion.
Reposted
I will say that one thing the US is sorely lacking is the dynamic in which our Parliament collectively yells RESIGN at government ministers for anything from misplacing a stapler to causing a bond market meltdown
January 21, 2026 at 3:15 PM
I will say that one thing the US is sorely lacking is the dynamic in which our Parliament collectively yells RESIGN at government ministers for anything from misplacing a stapler to causing a bond market meltdown