Will Cooling
@willcooling.bsky.social
Writes & Hosts the It Could Be Said substack & podcast; https://itcouldbesaid.substack.com/
Has contributed to a variety of outlets on politics, sport or pop culture
Contact email is w.cooling[at]gmail.com
All opinions his own & not of any employer
Has contributed to a variety of outlets on politics, sport or pop culture
Contact email is w.cooling[at]gmail.com
All opinions his own & not of any employer
OOOOOH YEAH.
I cannot believe we had to put up with Daniel Craig's dead eyed, sexless Bond when Fassbender was right there!
I cannot believe we had to put up with Daniel Craig's dead eyed, sexless Bond when Fassbender was right there!
November 26, 2025 at 2:20 AM
OOOOOH YEAH.
I cannot believe we had to put up with Daniel Craig's dead eyed, sexless Bond when Fassbender was right there!
I cannot believe we had to put up with Daniel Craig's dead eyed, sexless Bond when Fassbender was right there!
Karl Urban Dredd in an adaptation of Judge Death/Lives or America vs adapation of 1885/6 British Parliamentary Crisis....
Decisions, Decisions.
Decisions, Decisions.
If you were a despotic president, what movie would you force Hollywood to make? I want to see Quentin's Star Trek movie or maybe Kill Bill Vol 3.
November 26, 2025 at 2:01 AM
Karl Urban Dredd in an adaptation of Judge Death/Lives or America vs adapation of 1885/6 British Parliamentary Crisis....
Decisions, Decisions.
Decisions, Decisions.
Unlike the phrase below, which is a fragment.
That’s a real sentence
BREAKING Jair Bolsonaro, convicted of attempting a military coup and the violent abolition of the democratic rule of law, is ordered today to begin his 27-year sentence
www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/1...
www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/1...
November 26, 2025 at 1:58 AM
Unlike the phrase below, which is a fragment.
I would really like someone to investigate how many people died so Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves could suck up to Donald Trump
The numbers vary from study to study but hundreds of thousands of people have died because of Elon Musk and Marco Rubio illegally disbanding USAID — a body count on par with the first eight years of the Syrian civil war — In just seven months. It’s mass death that is simply unfathomable in scale.
USAID shutdown has led to hundreds of thousands of deaths | Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
The Trump administration’s decision to shut down the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths from infectious diseases and malnutrition, accord...
hsph.harvard.edu
November 26, 2025 at 12:50 AM
I would really like someone to investigate how many people died so Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves could suck up to Donald Trump
I really wish the New Statesman syndicated its biggest columns like the Spectator used to do. Ailbhe Rea's excellent article should have been much more widely read because it really explodes how irresponsible and (to be frank) thick Rachel Reeves truly is.
Fantastic(ally depressing) article and this rather sums it all up
November 26, 2025 at 12:42 AM
I really wish the New Statesman syndicated its biggest columns like the Spectator used to do. Ailbhe Rea's excellent article should have been much more widely read because it really explodes how irresponsible and (to be frank) thick Rachel Reeves truly is.
Reposted by Will Cooling
And they cut aid to the most vulnerable in the world for this
November 26, 2025 at 12:11 AM
And they cut aid to the most vulnerable in the world for this
Has anyone else notice that any pretence that Reeves is doing anything other than plug the gap caused by being defeated on benefits cuts & the OBR's productivity correction has long since gone? So even if this budget works, its only getting them back to where they were in March i.e. hated & useless
November 25, 2025 at 11:37 PM
Has anyone else notice that any pretence that Reeves is doing anything other than plug the gap caused by being defeated on benefits cuts & the OBR's productivity correction has long since gone? So even if this budget works, its only getting them back to where they were in March i.e. hated & useless
...."we're running ponzi scheme here guys...you've gotta show willing"
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang was reportedly shocked that some managers don't want people constantly using AI.
In an all-hands meeting he said: "My understanding is Nvidia has some managers who are telling their people to use less AI, are you insane? ...
In an all-hands meeting he said: "My understanding is Nvidia has some managers who are telling their people to use less AI, are you insane? ...
November 25, 2025 at 10:58 PM
...."we're running ponzi scheme here guys...you've gotta show willing"
Maybe Starmer & Reeves hate their Blue Sky fanclub as much as the rest of us and so designed a tax increase lazer focused on screwing them over
November 25, 2025 at 10:53 PM
Maybe Starmer & Reeves hate their Blue Sky fanclub as much as the rest of us and so designed a tax increase lazer focused on screwing them over
Reposted by Will Cooling
As someone who has had a Motability car in the past (before failing my 7th driving test), you don't get any type of car - it is a scheme to use your benefits to lease an adapted car, and to get a BMW etc you would need to pay the significant difference
Let's be absolutely clear the restrictions on Motability cars is reflective of a quiet desire to see disabled people pushed out of public life because getting them in public space is sometimes a bit inconvenient and expensive
November 25, 2025 at 4:48 PM
As someone who has had a Motability car in the past (before failing my 7th driving test), you don't get any type of car - it is a scheme to use your benefits to lease an adapted car, and to get a BMW etc you would need to pay the significant difference
Not sure leaving it to judges is stopping Mail or Telegraph reading berks sitting in judgement on you......
I'm remarkably relaxed about this. No I don't want my neighbours – Mail and Telegraph-reading berks – judging me. I'd rather have legal experts who've learned how to think.
www.theguardian.com/law/2025/nov...
www.theguardian.com/law/2025/nov...
David Lammy considers scrapping jury trials for all but the most serious cases
Senior lawyers criticise justice secretary’s radical plan, saying it could ‘destroy justice as we know it’
www.theguardian.com
November 25, 2025 at 8:32 PM
Not sure leaving it to judges is stopping Mail or Telegraph reading berks sitting in judgement on you......
4.1% you say. I wonder what estimated increase in public sector pay they've made the OBR include in their forecasts?
November 25, 2025 at 6:05 PM
4.1% you say. I wonder what estimated increase in public sector pay they've made the OBR include in their forecasts?
Reposted by Will Cooling
this is not how a serious fucking government in a serious fucking country does serious fucking politics, let alone serious fucking economics! are you fucking serious!!
November 25, 2025 at 2:48 PM
this is not how a serious fucking government in a serious fucking country does serious fucking politics, let alone serious fucking economics! are you fucking serious!!
Reposted by Will Cooling
i don't object to the fucking policy! i object to this being the level of debate we're at now! two fucking months of "maybe we'll actually do something meaningful" and now we're down to the dregs of "a technical change that actually belongs to the Department of Health"!! are you fucking serious!!!
November 25, 2025 at 2:47 PM
i don't object to the fucking policy! i object to this being the level of debate we're at now! two fucking months of "maybe we'll actually do something meaningful" and now we're down to the dregs of "a technical change that actually belongs to the Department of Health"!! are you fucking serious!!!
I swear I'm on crazy pills here. You fund these things by paying for the hotel or the restaurant or the venue that you visit. You know the things that pay business rates!
I mean, the idea of chipping in a few pounds/ euros/ zloty to fund the civic life that has drawn me to visit Liverpool/ Florence/ Krakow isn’t unreasonable of inequitable.
November 25, 2025 at 3:16 PM
I swear I'm on crazy pills here. You fund these things by paying for the hotel or the restaurant or the venue that you visit. You know the things that pay business rates!
The US House of Cards was always a bit smoke & mirrors, but the third season is laughably bad and by all accounts it never improves
while I am posting trivia, which TV show do you think showed the sharpest fall in quality from first to last seasons? I ask because the answer is obviously The Morning Show, the last series of which was garbage
November 25, 2025 at 2:47 PM
The US House of Cards was always a bit smoke & mirrors, but the third season is laughably bad and by all accounts it never improves
Something Something Co-Op Branch Something Something Only Bad Wine
November 25, 2025 at 2:28 PM
Something Something Co-Op Branch Something Something Only Bad Wine
Surely the spoils system would mean most pre-20th Century President would be engaging in openly corrupt conduct by modern standards?
Does Donald Trump have serious rivals who could contend for "most openly corrupt President in American history"? Who gets the final verdict for this accolade?
November 25, 2025 at 1:20 PM
Surely the spoils system would mean most pre-20th Century President would be engaging in openly corrupt conduct by modern standards?
I would very much like to see this think tank created
Sometimes wonder if what the UK needs is a thinktank that doesn't do any new research, it just repeats obviously true statements that people try to ignore because they're inconvenient.
International students cross-subsidise home students. Your pension is paid for out of general taxation.
International students cross-subsidise home students. Your pension is paid for out of general taxation.
November 25, 2025 at 1:11 PM
I would very much like to see this think tank created
I just vehemently dislike what this tax says about us. To use the line that people have been making on the international students levy - you don't place tariffs on your own exports.
Tourist Tax is fine I think. Worth noting though how this started as an idea for local authority discretion but seems likely to end as a Treasury imposition on England. The unchanging policy that HMT must control as much as possible. www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Reeves Budget to Embrace Tourist Tax for Cities Including London
The UK will allow Mayor of London Sadiq Khan and other local leaders to impose a “tourist tax” on overnight stays in English cities.
www.bloomberg.com
November 25, 2025 at 1:07 PM
I just vehemently dislike what this tax says about us. To use the line that people have been making on the international students levy - you don't place tariffs on your own exports.
This comes back to my objection with Ai - so many of the roles it *might* be able to render redundant are already fairly low paid, especially in comparison to the cost of a Ai. So if two guys by themselves can outperform the software, what use is the software?
Founders on LinkedIn still seem to be struggling with the difference between telling people about their humble beginnings and admitting to straight up committing fraud.
November 25, 2025 at 1:02 PM
This comes back to my objection with Ai - so many of the roles it *might* be able to render redundant are already fairly low paid, especially in comparison to the cost of a Ai. So if two guys by themselves can outperform the software, what use is the software?
What do we want?
Minimum Wage of Eight and We Will Not Wait
Minimum Wage of Eight and We Will Not Wait
My column in today’s FT: the vision since 2016 has been that the lever British governments pull to fight poverty is to increase the minimum wage. Time for government to start pulling its weight again too:
The minimum wage is not a cure all — we’re asking too much of business
Politicians spend too much time uttering cheap rhetoric about cheap labour
www.ft.com
November 25, 2025 at 12:39 PM
What do we want?
Minimum Wage of Eight and We Will Not Wait
Minimum Wage of Eight and We Will Not Wait
Reposted by Will Cooling
The “savvy” view is usually wrong - both morally but also as analysis. Farage’s views and character are a really important part of why the polls are where they are!
All the supposedly progressive people saying 'Nigel Farage's racism doesn't matter. His fans love it'.
It matters whether the leader of the party leading all the opinion polls is an outright racist. It matters if he called black people 'wogs' and said 'gas them' to Jews. Not everything is a game
It matters whether the leader of the party leading all the opinion polls is an outright racist. It matters if he called black people 'wogs' and said 'gas them' to Jews. Not everything is a game
November 25, 2025 at 10:53 AM
The “savvy” view is usually wrong - both morally but also as analysis. Farage’s views and character are a really important part of why the polls are where they are!
One reason why I think we may end up with Closed List PR is that its the version of PR which could most easily be implemented in a blind panic - given the Euro-consistuencies from 2019 are still on file.
We are moving inexorably to the end point of electoral chaos - five parties all tied on 19% in the polls, election to be decided by blindfolded chimps chucking coloured darts at a constituency map
Westminster Voting Intention:
RFM: 25% (-2)
LAB: 19% (=)
CON: 18% (+1)
GRN: 16% (-1)
LDM: 15% (+2)
SNP: 3% (=)
Via @yougov.co.uk, 23-24 Nov.
Changes w/ 16-17 Nov.
RFM: 25% (-2)
LAB: 19% (=)
CON: 18% (+1)
GRN: 16% (-1)
LDM: 15% (+2)
SNP: 3% (=)
Via @yougov.co.uk, 23-24 Nov.
Changes w/ 16-17 Nov.
November 25, 2025 at 12:21 PM
One reason why I think we may end up with Closed List PR is that its the version of PR which could most easily be implemented in a blind panic - given the Euro-consistuencies from 2019 are still on file.