Alistair
@perivale.bsky.social
Ex-astronomer, now cybersecurity consultant, millennial Londoner back in London. “The horrors persist but so do I” - someone in 2023 apparently
Reposted by Alistair
Please don’t be a Teams call please don’t be a Teams call please -
O it’s a Teams call?
…
…yaaay?
O it’s a Teams call?
…
…yaaay?
November 12, 2025 at 11:15 AM
Please don’t be a Teams call please don’t be a Teams call please -
O it’s a Teams call?
…
…yaaay?
O it’s a Teams call?
…
…yaaay?
Reposted by Alistair
This is one of the things I hate most about modern capitalism. The idea of making money has been fully peeled away from delivering any kind of goods or services that people would want to pay money for.
What a thrill to be part of @talkingpointsmemo.com's series about the past 25 years of digital media! I wrote about why private equity goons destroyed Deadspin and why it matters.
There Are No Weird Blogs Anymore Cause It’s More Fruitful to Drive Them Out of Business
I learned many surprising lessons from my 20 months as editor-in-chief of...
talkingpointsmemo.com
November 11, 2025 at 7:21 PM
This is one of the things I hate most about modern capitalism. The idea of making money has been fully peeled away from delivering any kind of goods or services that people would want to pay money for.
Reposted by Alistair
Trump is incredibly unpopular here! including amongst Tory voters. What are they doing?
Conservative Shadow Culture Secretary Nigel Huddleston tells GB News that the BBC should "grovel" to Trump.
Amazing how many British 'patriots' are spending their time telling our national broadcaster to prostrate itself before a hostile foreign leader
Amazing how many British 'patriots' are spending their time telling our national broadcaster to prostrate itself before a hostile foreign leader
November 11, 2025 at 11:22 AM
Trump is incredibly unpopular here! including amongst Tory voters. What are they doing?
Reposted by Alistair
The BBC is in crisis in the same way that GB News would be if you put Owen Jones on the board armed with a veto and plenty of coffee.
November 11, 2025 at 7:48 AM
The BBC is in crisis in the same way that GB News would be if you put Owen Jones on the board armed with a veto and plenty of coffee.
Reposted by Alistair
No! My can of worms, they're everywhere!
Could someone explain to me what is meant when a British person refers to "the middle class" ? Like, in the US, as I hear it, it basically just means a person who makes a certain amount of money, not too far below and not wildly above the median. Seems like a complex concept when UK writers use it?
November 10, 2025 at 10:00 PM
No! My can of worms, they're everywhere!
Reposted by Alistair
The answer to this question is that British people could discuss this question till the end of time and not be done.
Could someone explain to me what is meant when a British person refers to "the middle class" ? Like, in the US, as I hear it, it basically just means a person who makes a certain amount of money, not too far below and not wildly above the median. Seems like a complex concept when UK writers use it?
November 10, 2025 at 10:25 PM
The answer to this question is that British people could discuss this question till the end of time and not be done.
I know this isn’t the main point here but the fact that taking reasonable precautions during a deadly pandemic has become “left-coded” (somehow) seems likely very bad if there’s another pandemic any time soon
the hipsters, they’re ordering double frufru mocha soy frappuccino. doesn’t anybody order a black coffee anymore
November 10, 2025 at 6:03 PM
I know this isn’t the main point here but the fact that taking reasonable precautions during a deadly pandemic has become “left-coded” (somehow) seems likely very bad if there’s another pandemic any time soon
Reposted by Alistair
Maybe Keir should demand the heads of major US news networks any time they imply Britain is on the brink of civil war or that we live under sharia law. Or does it not work both ways?
November 10, 2025 at 11:29 AM
Maybe Keir should demand the heads of major US news networks any time they imply Britain is on the brink of civil war or that we live under sharia law. Or does it not work both ways?
Reposted by Alistair
Should arguably be a lesson that you just can't pander to or reason with the modern, radicalised right. They are coming for you if you report or broadcast entirely fair or innocuous things they don't like. So you have to build up trust by vigorously defending reporting in a way Davie refused to.
It’s not at all clear to me how the BBC can do any kind of serious journalism if its top two bosses can be forced to quit over such an obviously confected scandal. There is no substantive error here. How can the BBC report on Trump, or Farage, or anyone else, in these circumstances?
November 9, 2025 at 7:37 PM
Should arguably be a lesson that you just can't pander to or reason with the modern, radicalised right. They are coming for you if you report or broadcast entirely fair or innocuous things they don't like. So you have to build up trust by vigorously defending reporting in a way Davie refused to.
I know this is hardly a new thing but you know what sucks? Dating in London. Took 5 years off dating with covid and then chronic illness that’s only just under control but am now back in the ring and, good lord, things are so much worse than when I left for Toronto in 2019
November 9, 2025 at 8:32 PM
I know this is hardly a new thing but you know what sucks? Dating in London. Took 5 years off dating with covid and then chronic illness that’s only just under control but am now back in the ring and, good lord, things are so much worse than when I left for Toronto in 2019
Reposted by Alistair
the right winger who was appointed to lead the BBC in the hope of appeasing right wingers has been driven out by right wingers for not appeasing right wingers enough and the BBC has the chance to do the funniest thing ever
November 9, 2025 at 6:38 PM
the right winger who was appointed to lead the BBC in the hope of appeasing right wingers has been driven out by right wingers for not appeasing right wingers enough and the BBC has the chance to do the funniest thing ever
Reposted by Alistair
Just absolutely classic BBC. You've just broadcast the most successful programme of the year, uniting Gen Z kids online and Boomers on broadcast in a return to appointment television. And instead of celebrating, your DG reigns due to a made-up right-wing scandal.
November 9, 2025 at 8:10 PM
Just absolutely classic BBC. You've just broadcast the most successful programme of the year, uniting Gen Z kids online and Boomers on broadcast in a return to appointment television. And instead of celebrating, your DG reigns due to a made-up right-wing scandal.
So is the BBC going to lurch ever further towards laundering the far right now to try and avoid cries of bias? This seems very bad
🔴 Breaking I Davie faced mounting criticism that a Panorama documentary misled viewers by editing a speech by Donald Trump
➡️ Read more: trib.al/I0iw7aP
➡️ Read more: trib.al/I0iw7aP
November 9, 2025 at 7:45 PM
So is the BBC going to lurch ever further towards laundering the far right now to try and avoid cries of bias? This seems very bad
My body’s happily damaging itself tbqh
If you don't damage your body at least a little, have you truly lived?
November 9, 2025 at 12:36 PM
My body’s happily damaging itself tbqh
Reposted by Alistair
It's 2029. MPs no longer speak in Parliament, but instead wave poppies at each other. The number, size and colours of the poppies selected indicate the political position of each participant.
Trevor Philips, "What is the implication of the white poppy?"
Zack Polanski, "The white poppy began after WWI, mainly from women's groups, who talked about peace and antifascism"
"So on the same day we remember the fallen, it's also about looking to the future and saying, we want a world of peace"
Zack Polanski, "The white poppy began after WWI, mainly from women's groups, who talked about peace and antifascism"
"So on the same day we remember the fallen, it's also about looking to the future and saying, we want a world of peace"
November 9, 2025 at 11:55 AM
It's 2029. MPs no longer speak in Parliament, but instead wave poppies at each other. The number, size and colours of the poppies selected indicate the political position of each participant.
I worry a lot about losing the BBC - it’s completely and utterly broken right now but having something trying to push at least some semblance of a shared reality where social media is shattering it is very important if democracy is to survive the next few decades
Obviously right to criticise it when it makes mistakes but the BBC is broadly very good and British people don’t realise how lucky they are to have it.
November 9, 2025 at 12:00 PM
I worry a lot about losing the BBC - it’s completely and utterly broken right now but having something trying to push at least some semblance of a shared reality where social media is shattering it is very important if democracy is to survive the next few decades
There was someone at my board games club complaining about how dangerous the country was now and claimed that the police were hiding the evidence when presented with the stats. It’s very difficult to see how we deal with the fact that people’s perceptions are now so distinct from reality
“The debate about crime… has become a lightning rod that, like the immigration debate, captures a wider set of anxieties about a wider set of failures of policymaking and statecraft.” My @theobserveruk.bsky.social column: observer.co.uk/news/columni...
Violent crime is at a low, yet people’s experiences tell a different story | The Observer
observer.co.uk
November 9, 2025 at 11:47 AM
There was someone at my board games club complaining about how dangerous the country was now and claimed that the police were hiding the evidence when presented with the stats. It’s very difficult to see how we deal with the fact that people’s perceptions are now so distinct from reality
I know they said that as you get older you’ll feel tired more often but 1) I didn’t expect it this soon and 2) I didn’t realise it would be because I’d just notice the nonsense more
In @nytopinion.nytimes.com
“A.I. is no less a form of intelligence than digital photography is a form of photography,” the philosopher Barbara Gail Montero writes in a guest essay. “And now A.I. is on its way to doing something even more remarkable: becoming conscious.”
“A.I. is no less a form of intelligence than digital photography is a form of photography,” the philosopher Barbara Gail Montero writes in a guest essay. “And now A.I. is on its way to doing something even more remarkable: becoming conscious.”
Opinion | A.I. Is Already Intelligent. This Is How It Becomes Conscious.
Skeptics overlook how our concepts change.
nyti.ms
November 9, 2025 at 11:43 AM
I know they said that as you get older you’ll feel tired more often but 1) I didn’t expect it this soon and 2) I didn’t realise it would be because I’d just notice the nonsense more
Reposted by Alistair
Do you think he even remotely grasps how this looks? You'd have to waterboard me to get to post something like this, good lord.
Elon has never experienced this and neither have his biggest fans but now they can create these visuals with the help of a computermachine
November 8, 2025 at 5:02 PM
Do you think he even remotely grasps how this looks? You'd have to waterboard me to get to post something like this, good lord.
Reposted by Alistair
BIG TECH: our new product may create paradise
ME: k
TECH: or kill everyone
ME: um
TECH: OR, boost growth very slightly
ME: I w-
TECH: great, huh? 😍
ME: I would like smarthome stuff that's reliable, easy to configure, & secure
TECH: no. too hard
ME: harder th-
TECH: that's it, you die first
ME: k
TECH: or kill everyone
ME: um
TECH: OR, boost growth very slightly
ME: I w-
TECH: great, huh? 😍
ME: I would like smarthome stuff that's reliable, easy to configure, & secure
TECH: no. too hard
ME: harder th-
TECH: that's it, you die first
AI could end scarcity, end humanity - or boost trend growth by 0.2 percentage points
November 7, 2025 at 8:32 PM
BIG TECH: our new product may create paradise
ME: k
TECH: or kill everyone
ME: um
TECH: OR, boost growth very slightly
ME: I w-
TECH: great, huh? 😍
ME: I would like smarthome stuff that's reliable, easy to configure, & secure
TECH: no. too hard
ME: harder th-
TECH: that's it, you die first
ME: k
TECH: or kill everyone
ME: um
TECH: OR, boost growth very slightly
ME: I w-
TECH: great, huh? 😍
ME: I would like smarthome stuff that's reliable, easy to configure, & secure
TECH: no. too hard
ME: harder th-
TECH: that's it, you die first
While I really disliked the prequels (they sort of started my slide off the Star Wars “train”) at least the phantom menace gave us “Podracer” for my N64 which I actually *adored* at the time
One of the funniest things about getting older is watching people my age succumb to nostalgia about these terrible films.
God its so insane anakin admits to slaughtering a bunch of kids and it’s just a non factor for padme
November 8, 2025 at 11:26 AM
While I really disliked the prequels (they sort of started my slide off the Star Wars “train”) at least the phantom menace gave us “Podracer” for my N64 which I actually *adored* at the time
Neither the current government nor the likely next understand this. The current one thinks AI will fix it (and basically replace the civil service and everything else by 2034 [well at least one minister thinks this bit]) and the likely next one thinks it’s “fake news”
The UK needed and needs 10s of thousands of civil servants to manage the red tape Brexit created. Farage‘s rank incompetence might well create many more red tape jobs. And he is still unwilling to learn.
Nigel Farage says Reform would “reduce the size of the bloated state” by seizing Brexit opportunities to deregulate
@jreland.bsky.social points out in @the-independent.com that this creates a dilemma - the more the UK does things differently to the EU, the more work there is for British bureaucrats
@jreland.bsky.social points out in @the-independent.com that this creates a dilemma - the more the UK does things differently to the EU, the more work there is for British bureaucrats
November 8, 2025 at 11:22 AM
Neither the current government nor the likely next understand this. The current one thinks AI will fix it (and basically replace the civil service and everything else by 2034 [well at least one minister thinks this bit]) and the likely next one thinks it’s “fake news”
Reposted by Alistair
and if you *are* a ghoul, faking decency is the price of admission into polite society. seethe about it on your own time
November 7, 2025 at 7:46 PM
and if you *are* a ghoul, faking decency is the price of admission into polite society. seethe about it on your own time
Reposted by Alistair
"Seizing Brexit opportunities to deregulate" was mostly unspecified magic fairy pixie bullshit then, and it's not going to get any more realistic in the hands of a bunch of Reform clowns who don't know how anything works, don't care to learn and disdain anyone that might.
November 8, 2025 at 9:18 AM
"Seizing Brexit opportunities to deregulate" was mostly unspecified magic fairy pixie bullshit then, and it's not going to get any more realistic in the hands of a bunch of Reform clowns who don't know how anything works, don't care to learn and disdain anyone that might.
Reposted by Alistair
I think it’s worse than the 70s because then it was a bottom up phenomenon, and while their response was often inadequate, there was at least a sense that the elite were pushing back. Now it’s much more top down and the attitude of elite liberal circles is “leave me alone, I CBA to deal with it”
November 8, 2025 at 10:59 AM
I think it’s worse than the 70s because then it was a bottom up phenomenon, and while their response was often inadequate, there was at least a sense that the elite were pushing back. Now it’s much more top down and the attitude of elite liberal circles is “leave me alone, I CBA to deal with it”