Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Joe Dunckley @joedunckley.bsky.social · 2d

Expect to see Kemi Badenoch launching a campaign to "save this great national institution, our beloved high street betting shops" in the next few days and then you'll know the policy is a definite winner.

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Joe Dunckley @joedunckley.bsky.social · 2d

we may as well try Reform" feeling. So it looks like Reeves has hit on the one weird trick?

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Joe Dunckley @joedunckley.bsky.social · 2d

People talk a lot about CEOs being out of touch, but it's still amazing to see the Betfred guy is threatening to close all his high street betting shops, seemingly in an attempt to get public sympathy, apparently unaware that "high street betting shops" is a bipartisan byword for national decline?

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Joe Dunckley @joedunckley.bsky.social · 12d

and after the clock has started counting down the final months before the franchise is abolished - suggests that the product managers will have learnt a lot of lessons from working on this IT project.

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Joe Dunckley @joedunckley.bsky.social · 14d

This, except the first panel is 7 decades of white flight from cities to suburbs/Herefordshire mansions and the last panel is "Why are people in the inner cities failing to integrate?"

The classic Alex Norris "oh no" comic (1) A: 'you do not fit in here' (2) B: 'okay we will make our own place' (3) C: 'why are you excluding us'

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Joe Dunckley @joedunckley.bsky.social · 14d

uk/e04000757-eye-moreton-and-ashton ), which rather raises the question of why Jenrick has gone to such efforts to not integrate into his community.

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Joe Dunckley @joedunckley.bsky.social · 14d

Anyway, apparently, despite being born and educated in Wolverhampton, Jenrick has chosen to silo himself off to a mansion ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eye_Manor ) in one of the least diverse parishes in England ( https://censusdata.

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Joe Dunckley @joedunckley.bsky.social · 14d

and asking who we should hold responsible for our communities having become "slums". https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/oct/07/robert-jenrick-accused-of-fuelling-toxic-nationalism-with-birmingham-claims

Robert Jenrick accused of fuelling ‘toxic nationalism’ with Birmingham claims

Shadow justice secretary stands by comments made in March amid criticism including from a Tory colleague

www.theguardian.com

Joe Dunckley @joedunckley.bsky.social · 18d

I take that back, I did pause at the guy in Under Milk Wood who "died of blisters" and consider all the many different things that could be a euphemism for. Perhaps that's what he means.

Joe Dunckley @joedunckley.bsky.social · 18d

The only lyric that made the slightest impression was something about failing to understand Under Milk Wood, which struck me as odd because I never considered Under Milk Wood especially opaque. Otherwise, 7/10 vague background presence material.

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Joe Dunckley @joedunckley.bsky.social · 18d

New Idlewild album: the bits I remember sounded like Idlewild. I assumed something was wrong because it went silent after a few minutes, but no, it's just very short.

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Joe Dunckley @joedunckley.bsky.social · 18d

Might resurrect the thread I had in the old place of "reviews of albums that I had on in the background when focusing on work and wasn't pay any attention to them".

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Joe Dunckley @joedunckley.bsky.social · Sep 11

Bit hilly out. Shap is fun when you're southbound and the M6 has been closed northbound. https://strava.app.link/ElIyN5FgAWb

A Strava track called "Kirkstone, Great Dun, Shap" for 2,866 metres elev gain in 151km.

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Joe Dunckley @joedunckley.bsky.social · Sep 11

Same joke again.

A bicycle inside a cloud, with a radar station vaguely visible behind it.

A road up a hill disappearing into a cloud.

A bicycle on a hill with a valley and lots of clouds behind.

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Joe Dunckley @joedunckley.bsky.social · Sep 7

We've gone on holiday by mistake

A bicycle at a petrol station with a lot of rain outside

A bicycle in a church porch with lots of rain outside.

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Joe Dunckley @joedunckley.bsky.social · Aug 16

Given the mess the Office for National Statistics are making of things like the Labour Force Survey, I think we should contract experienced suppliers like DFDS Ferries to deliver more Official Statistics.

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Joe Dunckley @joedunckley.bsky.social · Aug 16

Great to see this has finally been made official by [checks notes] DFDS Ferries, the official European agency for ranking cities for cycling.

Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan @london.gov.uk · Aug 16

🚴‍♀️ London has done it.

We’ve just been crowned Europe’s favourite city for cycling, a fantastic recognition of the progress we’ve made to make our city greener and more accessible for all. Our cycling boom is good for Londoners and is putting us on the map for cycle tourism.

London Has Officially Been Named Europe’s Favourite City For Cycling – Overtaking The Likes Of Amsterdam And Paris

Helmets at the ready, folks; London has just topped the charts as the internet's favourite European cycling city - and we're feeling wheely proud.

secretldn.com

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Joe Dunckley @joedunckley.bsky.social · Aug 16

cool! Looks brilliant - have some great adventures on it!

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Joe Dunckley @joedunckley.bsky.social · Aug 1

Tech bros going wild about the fact you can ask chatgpt to act as a theoretical physicist and it will push the frontiers of human knowledge. That's nothing, I asked it to act as a psychic medium and it gave me actual msgs from the actual late Harry Houdini. He told me to invest in shares of nvidia.

Joe Dunckley @joedunckley.bsky.social · Jul 19

Everything else aside, just such a dumb idea to devalue a term reserved for one of the worst crimes, make people stop taking the word seriously, and undermine the broad support for systems in place to tackle terrorism.

Joe Dunckley @joedunckley.bsky.social · Jul 19

I'm old enough to remember when our police were under-resourced, our courts system was overwhelmed and our prisons were full, and we didn't need to arrest old ladies crocheting peace slogans to keep them busy.

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Joe Dunckley @joedunckley.bsky.social · Jul 19

I'm old enough to remember when terrorists were scary evil people who did diabolical acts like plant bombs on the tube or crash planes into buildings, not old ladies crocheting peace slogans outside provincial town halls.

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Joe Dunckley @joedunckley.bsky.social · Jul 17

Me (manspreading across 16 seats & 4 tables on the almost empty stopping train from Paddington) at the massed hordes who crushed themselves into the express, expecting to overtake us at Reading, when they finally pull in alongside at Bristol having been stuck behind us all the way.

Real Time Trains of arrivals at Bristol Parkway showing the very delayed express train that stuck behind my stopper.

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Joe Dunckley @joedunckley.bsky.social · Jul 14

Good luck to anybody using Google to look up organisations' addresses in the age of AI Overviews. The address of the Ministry of Justice is a flooring warehouse that once supplied some carpet tiles to the county court.

A google AI overview saying the Ministry of Justice office in Bristol is at 10 Vale Lane.

A Google Maps satellite of 10 Vale Lane, a flooring warehouse in an industrial estate.

A page on the flooring warehouse's website saying that they supplied carpet tiles to the MoJ's Bristol County Court building.

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Joe Dunckley @joedunckley.bsky.social · Jul 13

when they said "think global, act local", I'm not sure they meant paint shit graffiti saying "no ICE in Bristol" all over town. I'm sure someone will come up with some argument about international solidarity but it just comes across as more Too Online ppl confusing US domestic news for UK politics.

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