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Tom W @thomaswilliams.bsky.social · 21h

Regardless of anything else, it's miserable to be interpreting the Nobel Peace Prize solely through a lens of Trump-trolling

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Tom W @thomaswilliams.bsky.social · 23h

Notable that the most significant of those policies is a Tory policy this government inherited

Free childcare: How we are tackling the cost of childcare

England has some of the highest quality childcare provision in the world, with 96% of early years settings rated by Ofsted as good or outstanding. But we recognise that childcare is also one of the bi...

educationhub.blog.gov.uk

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Reposted by Tom W

Fantômas, Le contrebandier de DEI @theefantomas.bsky.social · 3d

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Tom W @thomaswilliams.bsky.social · 4d

Apparently the job of the centre-right party is to prevent the more right-wing party from being able to win? I wonder if that could apply to the left as well 🤔

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Tom W @thomaswilliams.bsky.social · 4d

"when they get their first job"? Then a) you've got a policy that won't benefit the vast, VAST majority of voters b) even for those it does benefit it's "here's 5 grand to put towards a house a decade from now, if you're lucky" c) most people won't pay £5k tax in year 1 working, does it carry over?

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Tom W @thomaswilliams.bsky.social · 5d

Spirited Away, Kiki’s Delivery Service, or Howl’s Moving Castle are good as gateway films. They’re all good, fun, plot-driven adventures, more so than eg Totoro (which is lovely, but not all that much *happens*)

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Tom W @thomaswilliams.bsky.social · 5d

Also note the wording "restore it to a single-sex space". I'm not aware of their ever being trans-exclusionary, so even on their interpretation of "single-sex", isn't that a straightforward lie?

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Tom W @thomaswilliams.bsky.social · 7d

Same! Well, I know 'Of Dork' specifically, but I can't think of the other three

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Tom W @thomaswilliams.bsky.social · 10d

Oh yes uk.trustpilot.com/review/diana...

Screenshot of Trustpilot ratings for Diana Jewellery: 90 reviews with an average rating of 1.2 stars

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Tom W @thomaswilliams.bsky.social · 11d

Wow. I’d be surprised if many people spotted that (I note none of the commenters did), but it’s a fantastic piece of work

Tom W @thomaswilliams.bsky.social · 11d

I know this isn’t an original observation, but that man has the least genuine smile I’ve ever seen. It looks like his mouth is trapped in some horrible torture device from Saw

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Tom W @thomaswilliams.bsky.social · 12d

👀👀👀

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Tom W @thomaswilliams.bsky.social · 12d

At least if they wait till after those they have both a specific grievance as justification for toppling Starmer, and they can let him take the blame for the likely losses in Wales and London

Tom W @thomaswilliams.bsky.social · 12d

Is part of the issue that it's a bit of a poisoned chalice right now? Even if a new leader had a radically different programme - and I'm not convinced any realistic candidate does - they wouldn't have long to turn things around before what are likely to be disastrous local elections next year

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Tom W @thomaswilliams.bsky.social · 14d

She and Jeremy Bowen are both excellent, and a large part of why the BBC World Service is my main source for news. The domestic BBC stuff on the other hand...

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Tom W @thomaswilliams.bsky.social · 14d

The change between results when asking about ID cards and digital ID is almost zero among the youngest age group, and biggest in the oldest age group. That seems good prima facie evidence that yes, it's the digital aspect they don't like

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Tom W @thomaswilliams.bsky.social · 14d

Politically the example I always think of is Brown and the Gurkhas, which to me seemed like an instinctively pro-immigration government trying to work out what the Telegraph and the Mail would want, and missing the mark entirely

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Tom W @thomaswilliams.bsky.social · 14d

Good! That might finally move enough people off them to build a critical mass elsewhere (the *only* reason I am still on FB is quiz stuff, I would be so pleased if we could all move somewhere else)

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Reposted by Tom W

wariotifo @wariotifo.bsky.social · 14d

Is Lewis Goodall married?

Goodall married Tone Langengen, the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change's senior climate and energy policy advisor, in August 2023.

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Tom W @thomaswilliams.bsky.social · 14d

Also, that polling specifically talks about an ID card "that people could carry with them". That's completely different to "a digital ID that people will be forced to carry with them because it will be needed to access various services"

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Tom W @thomaswilliams.bsky.social · 14d

(the full survey is here and it is genuinely remarkable how transparently manipulative it is. No attempt at all to hide what they're doing)

yonderconsulting.com

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Tom W @thomaswilliams.bsky.social · 14d

That's just the beginning, it's also "what if they meant you didn't have to remember the passwords for your online accounts and somehow improved learning in schools"

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Tom W @thomaswilliams.bsky.social · 14d

Precisely correct: the first three options in the polling they did asking about features on an potential app were "report potholes", "report missed bin collection" and "report fly tipping". yonderconsulting.com/wp-content/u... It's some of the most manipulative polling I've ever seen (see thread)

Tom W @thomaswilliams.bsky.social · 14d

You know that Yes, Prime Minister bit about polling? Where you manipulate people into responding a particular way with a series of questions, ask the one you actually care about last, and then only report that? Yeah, that's what they've done here. (1/18, sorry!)

Public backs ‘super ID card’ which could be used to report potholes

Ministers have recently said they are considering introducing a form of digital ID for adults in Britain

www.independent.co.uk

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Tom W @thomaswilliams.bsky.social · 14d

It's push-polling, the polling company should be ashamed, and journalists should report it as such. (full tables here for anyone interested: yonderconsulting.com/wp-content/u...)

yonderconsulting.com

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Tom W @thomaswilliams.bsky.social · 14d

We've been repeatedly told what advocates for digital ID think, but never opponents. The implication - never actually spelled out - is that digital ID will fix these annoyances and enable these features and improvements. So of course people say they support it.

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