Tom Freeman
@tomfreeman.bsky.social
Occasional editor and writer. Purveyor of half-baked opinions. Intermittently able to make my nieces laugh. (SnoozeInBrief on Twitter)
My blog on usage, editing and suchlike: https://stroppyeditor.wordpress.com
My blog on usage, editing and suchlike: https://stroppyeditor.wordpress.com
Feels like a bit of an overreaction
January 17, 2026 at 10:19 PM
Feels like a bit of an overreaction
Drill bit? Drill lot, more like
January 17, 2026 at 2:33 PM
Drill bit? Drill lot, more like
brb, just going to cast some runes on a hilltop and offer the old gods a blood sacrifice so that they'll put a photo of my cute neighbour into a bikini
X has stopped working
X has stopped working
www.independent.co.uk
January 16, 2026 at 4:07 PM
brb, just going to cast some runes on a hilltop and offer the old gods a blood sacrifice so that they'll put a photo of my cute neighbour into a bikini
Empty tautologies. If you know, you know.
January 15, 2026 at 10:04 PM
Empty tautologies. If you know, you know.
Reposted by Tom Freeman
This is truly awful prose
January 15, 2026 at 8:29 PM
This is truly awful prose
This post about Robert Jenrick is absolutely terrible. The writing of it was an appalling act of incompetence, and then the posting of it was a cynical betrayal of this great website. Ever since I came up with the idea for it two minutes ago, I have been absolutely furious about it.
January 15, 2026 at 5:04 PM
This post about Robert Jenrick is absolutely terrible. The writing of it was an appalling act of incompetence, and then the posting of it was a cynical betrayal of this great website. Ever since I came up with the idea for it two minutes ago, I have been absolutely furious about it.
A "jenrickroll" is a practical joke that begins by apparently offering a substantive and visionary political leader but then providing a C-list opportunist complaining about the lack of white faces on the high street
January 15, 2026 at 3:44 PM
A "jenrickroll" is a practical joke that begins by apparently offering a substantive and visionary political leader but then providing a C-list opportunist complaining about the lack of white faces on the high street
Good news for Chris Philp, though, who now proudly claims the title of Shadow Cabinet's Most Odious Sociopath
January 15, 2026 at 12:56 PM
Good news for Chris Philp, though, who now proudly claims the title of Shadow Cabinet's Most Odious Sociopath
Let's not jump to conclusions, could be that McSweeney has finally managed to impress one of those fabled "hero voters"
January 15, 2026 at 11:44 AM
Let's not jump to conclusions, could be that McSweeney has finally managed to impress one of those fabled "hero voters"
OK, but glass half full, she was presented with clear, irrefutable evidence that he was NOT plotting in secret to challenge her for the Tory leadership
BREAKING Kemi Badenoch has sacked Robert Jenrick from the shadow cabinet, removed the whip and suspended his party membership.
She says she was "presented with clear, irrefutable evidence that he was plotting in secret to defect" to Reform
She says she was "presented with clear, irrefutable evidence that he was plotting in secret to defect" to Reform
January 15, 2026 at 11:19 AM
OK, but glass half full, she was presented with clear, irrefutable evidence that he was NOT plotting in secret to challenge her for the Tory leadership
...hence the expression "getting out of hand".
January 15, 2026 at 9:28 AM
...hence the expression "getting out of hand".
Hey if there's a scandal on The Traitors we should call it Traitorsgate
January 14, 2026 at 11:21 PM
Hey if there's a scandal on The Traitors we should call it Traitorsgate
A significant proportion of online outrage is directed at statements that describe a bad thing but then neglect to add the words "and that is a bad thing"
January 14, 2026 at 9:09 PM
A significant proportion of online outrage is directed at statements that describe a bad thing but then neglect to add the words "and that is a bad thing"
Reposted by Tom Freeman
it's pretty wild that the Swedes have been in NATO less than 2 years and are now somehow at "deploy quasi tripwire force against US aggression" stage
January 14, 2026 at 8:12 PM
it's pretty wild that the Swedes have been in NATO less than 2 years and are now somehow at "deploy quasi tripwire force against US aggression" stage
He gets twice-daily briefings from Mike Johnson
Musk says he was unaware of Grok generating explicit images of minors reut.rs/4qpN9Y2
Musk says he was unaware of Grok generating explicit images of minors
Elon Musk said on Wednesday he was not aware of any "naked underage images" generated by xAI's Grok chatbot, as scrutiny of the AI tool intensifies worldwide.
reut.rs
January 14, 2026 at 7:36 PM
He gets twice-daily briefings from Mike Johnson
This would be one of those cherished "levers" that allow a minister to quickly and easily go from outrage to action to public gratitude, and yes stage 3 will definitely happen
It is utterly ridiculous that the Home Secretary wants to reintroduce the power to sack chief constables.
Isn't she busy enough?
No other country is as centralised as Britain - this is just a small example of the utter parochialism of people like Mahmood.
Isn't she busy enough?
No other country is as centralised as Britain - this is just a small example of the utter parochialism of people like Mahmood.
NEW Shabana Mahmood announces not only that Craig Guildford, the chief constable of West Midlands Police, no longer has her confidence after a "devastating" independent review, but also that the government will reintroduce the power for home secretaries to sack chief constables
January 14, 2026 at 3:08 PM
This would be one of those cherished "levers" that allow a minister to quickly and easily go from outrage to action to public gratitude, and yes stage 3 will definitely happen
Reposted by Tom Freeman
This just looks terrible; cancelling an election is a big deal. If you do it to save £250k and some hassle, it's really sending a bad message to people whose trust in the system is at an all-time low to begin with.
search.app/xtCUS
search.app/xtCUS
Exeter City Council will ask to cancel May elections
Some councils can ask to cancel elections due in May but critics say it is important they go ahead.
search.app
January 14, 2026 at 1:22 PM
This just looks terrible; cancelling an election is a big deal. If you do it to save £250k and some hassle, it's really sending a bad message to people whose trust in the system is at an all-time low to begin with.
search.app/xtCUS
search.app/xtCUS
The term "vikings" is historically misleading, because they mostly weren't kings and there were more than six of them.
January 14, 2026 at 10:50 AM
The term "vikings" is historically misleading, because they mostly weren't kings and there were more than six of them.
Reposted by Tom Freeman
An absolutely key first principle when using AI is that you, the human, are responsible for its outputs, and that you must *check* everything it churns out. Blaming Copilot doesn't wash.
WM Police chief Craig Guildford has apologised for identifying a fictitious West Ham v Maccabi Tel Aviv match in a police report. He’s written to the home affairs committee and blames Microsoft CoPilot for the error
January 14, 2026 at 9:53 AM
An absolutely key first principle when using AI is that you, the human, are responsible for its outputs, and that you must *check* everything it churns out. Blaming Copilot doesn't wash.
Given that any flat projection distorts in some way, the best way to look is on a round globe, or at least on a simulation of one
January 14, 2026 at 9:08 AM
Given that any flat projection distorts in some way, the best way to look is on a round globe, or at least on a simulation of one
Some medieval clerks were so devoted to doing their work well that they would never leave their desks, so fungi and algae would start to accumulate and form symbiotic relationships on their undersides. Hence the term, suggesting approval of a source of writing or other material, "lichen sub-scribe".
January 13, 2026 at 8:49 PM
Some medieval clerks were so devoted to doing their work well that they would never leave their desks, so fungi and algae would start to accumulate and form symbiotic relationships on their undersides. Hence the term, suggesting approval of a source of writing or other material, "lichen sub-scribe".
The bit on translations reminded me of Le Diner de Cons, an excellent comedy in which one joke depends on a mishearing of the name Sasseur for "sa sœur". The subtitler solved this problem by renaming the character Hissister. Pretty awkward, but hard to see what else you could do.
AGI may never happen. But in some tasks, 'as good as human' intelligence does already exist - yet there is still one vitally important thing that AI can't take, which is responsibility. Some thoughts on that in my column this week:
AI cannot take responsibility for human faults
As Grok shows, decisions have consequences and someone needs to be able to answer for them
www.ft.com
January 13, 2026 at 5:44 PM
The bit on translations reminded me of Le Diner de Cons, an excellent comedy in which one joke depends on a mishearing of the name Sasseur for "sa sœur". The subtitler solved this problem by renaming the character Hissister. Pretty awkward, but hard to see what else you could do.