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Michael Shaw @mrmichaelshaw.bsky.social · 6h

Source: The New Yorker share.google/97PAVNL7rxmI...

How did a civilized society come to embrace Hitler’s extreme ideas? In 2018, Alex Ross wrote about the scholars mapping the international precursors of Nazism.

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Michael Shaw @mrmichaelshaw.bsky.social · 14h

I now realise this is one of this “pics or it didn’t happen” posts

Michael Shaw @mrmichaelshaw.bsky.social · 14h

The Bunny Vs Monkey event with @jamiesmart.bsky.social was a joy.

Yeah, the kids there liked it, fine, but I got to spend an hour sketching stuff like the insane cat Looshkin and a FARTING TREE with a bum in it. So I was happy.

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Michael Shaw @mrmichaelshaw.bsky.social · 1d

I finally read the 2013 Sun article about Zack Polanski the right is weaponising.

Weird bits I'd not heard mentioned was that the writer

1) felt it worked and;

2) thinks Zack's a hottie ("He’s in dark slacks and a tight-fitting jumper but I try to ignore the resemblance to Marvin from JLS.")

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Michael Shaw @mrmichaelshaw.bsky.social · 2d

Starts humming tunes from the opening act of DDLJ

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Marc Morris @marcmorris.bsky.social · 3d

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Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 3d

No, it's not. It's all a lie. The blunt truth is across the 1991, 2001, 2011 and 2021 Census *every* ethnic group in the UK has become *less* geographically segregated and *all* groups, majority and minorities, are more likely to interact with people not like them.

Iain Mansfield @igmansfield.bsky.social · 3d

Outstanding piece by Stephen Daisley.

Ethnicity is no barrier to Britishness - it's culture and integration.

That means 'smaller cohorts and aggressive integration policies' - and tackling the institutions that 'have amplified grievance narratives and radical anti-Western ideologies'.

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Michael Shaw @mrmichaelshaw.bsky.social · 3d

The Conservatives’ plans to slash arts degrees shows a depressing lack of understanding about Britain’s creative industries.
For crying out loud, it's 12 years since the “Next Gen” report emphasised that the games and film industries needed arts graduates as well as those who'd studied comp science.

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Naomi Alderman @naomialderman.bsky.social · 3d

feels like yet again time to mention that the *videogames* industry (that's a creative industry, which people do creative degrees in) brings in more than twice the amount to the British economy as the fishing and steel industries *combined*

Naomi Alderman @naomialderman.bsky.social · 3d

I cannot understand what these people think the purpose of human life is?

It is *not* "pursue joy, deal justly, love well, try to understand as much and see as much of this beautiful world and of the deepness, richness and variety of human culture and experience as you can before you die"?

Tim Worthington @outonbluesix.bsky.social · 3d

How is this repeatedly made into a policy issue - by *all* parties - when the blunt fact of the matter is that grown adults who are obliged to pay for their own education, and relentlessly pursued to repay their loans, should be able to study whatever the fuck they want.

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General Boles @generalboles.bsky.social · 4d

Everyone who advocates for turning the UK into the UAE assumes they'll be the one with a marina penthouse rather than the guy working on a building site in 50c heat

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Omar Khan @omaromalleykhan.bsky.social · 4d

I know statistics are poorly understood and are misused. But facts matter

Between the 1991, 2001, 2011 and 2021 Census *every* ethnic group in the UK has become *less* geographically segregated and *all* groups, majority and minorities, are more likely to interact with people not like them

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Michael Shaw @mrmichaelshaw.bsky.social · 4d

Kemi Badenoch on #R4today refusing to condemn Jenrick’s line about not seeing “another white face” in Handsworth then…immediately quoting Martin Luther King was peak cringe even for the current Tory party.

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Michael Shaw @mrmichaelshaw.bsky.social · 5d

To my great surprise she showed up. And she was as delightful and funny and flirty as you might hope, memorably eyeing up one of the senior editors and commenting on his “swimmer’s physique”.

I know others who encountered her had similar joyful tales. She was a legend.

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Michael Shaw @mrmichaelshaw.bsky.social · 5d

Whatever I said must have been helpful, because for the next few months she regularly phoned me up (“Hello! It’s Jilly...”)

On one of the occasions we spoke I asked if she’d like to come to the summer party The TES was holding the next evening at the Natural History Museum.

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Michael Shaw @mrmichaelshaw.bsky.social · 5d

Sad to hear the news about Jilly Cooper. She was one of those rare public figures who was exactly as you’d hoped she would be in real life.

Back when she was writing her 2006 school-set novel Wicked! she phoned up The Times Educational Supplement for advice on inspections and got put through to me.

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Dorian Lynskey @dorianlynskey.bsky.social · 6d

Political reporters continue to cover the centre-left according to the old standards of honesty and legality while shrugging at the right: "Ah well, you know what these guys are like. What can you do?"

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Michael Shaw @mrmichaelshaw.bsky.social · 6d

Were you at the 7.45pm screening too?

I think there was a projector issue.

The flickering, especially in bright scenes was distracting.

I’ve watched enough 70mm, 35mm, and IMAX (film) to think it was a projection error and not the Vistavision itself.

Michael Shaw @mrmichaelshaw.bsky.social · 6d

As a fan of Paul Thomas Anderson and Pynchon (plus someone who appreciates DiCaprio’s comic chops) I was surprised One Battle After Another wasn’t 5⭐️s to me.

Didn’t help that the Odeon messed up the Vistavision projection so it flickered badly throughout.

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Michael Shaw @mrmichaelshaw.bsky.social · 6d

Tommy had a main speaker on stage (Brian Tamaki) who was loudly cheered there when he called for a ban on the worship of any religious beliefs in the UK apart from Christianity.

It shocks me how little attention that has received (while the Telegraph etc have defended attendees).

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Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 11d

No, it never existed, and then the imaginary target was scrapped by the Conservatives years ago anyway.

The rise in numbers going to uni was entirely down to higher demand from students.

a rare photo of sean connery signed by roger moore @steamedhamms.bsky.social · 11d

did that 50% uni target thing actually still exist in any meaningful sense?

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Jamie Smart @jamiesmart.bsky.social · 11d

I cannot tell you how many parents I met across the last few events who said that comics started their kids reading. Just comics. It’s the one thing that worked. 🫡

Mark Bradley @markbradley.bsky.social · 11d

I’m just humbly suggesting that, should the publishing industry want to tackle the crisis in reading for pleasure rates, and we have research suggesting that there’s no crisis in reading for pleasure rates amongst children who read comics, that there’s maybe a relatively simple solution right here.

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Michael Shaw @mrmichaelshaw.bsky.social · 11d

A quarter of a million people recently attended a rally (Tommy Robinson's) where preacher Brian Tamaki was cheered for calling for the banning of ALL religions in the UK apart from Christianity.

But the stupid leaked memo suggests it's Labour supporters who are raring to organise a pogrom. 🙄

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James O’Brien @mrjamesob.bsky.social · 15d

I wonder what attracted him to a party led by a massive Putin fan…
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Ex-Reform UK Wales leader Nathan Gill pleads guilty to bribery charges

Nathan Gill admits eight charges of bribery while being a Member of the European Parliament.

www.bbc.co.uk

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Michael Shaw @mrmichaelshaw.bsky.social · 16d

I had to get DigID as an immigrant to the Netherlands and found it incredibly practical, so would hope the UK version would be like that.

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Michael Shaw @mrmichaelshaw.bsky.social · 16d

I had DigID when I was living in the Netherlands.

It was incredibly practical for accessing national and local tax info, pensions, healthcare, Covid jabs, setting up bank accounts and so on.

It’s just stupid that those most angry about “illegals” seem to oppose it.