Haven Tenerife
@janetanscombe.bsky.social
Doctor of ancient history, retired university lecturer living in the foothills of Mount Teide among birds, trees, peace and books, esp neuropsychology & Agatha Christie. "Leftie elitist". 50% Welsh, 50% Irish, 100% European. MBE.
She supported the nomination for my own MBE so it was only appropriate I did the same for her BEM for exceptional services to British and others in Tenerife. I had the last honour from the old Queen in Tenerife and she has the first from the new King! Congratulations @clioflynn.bsky.social
December 3, 2025 at 8:36 PM
She supported the nomination for my own MBE so it was only appropriate I did the same for her BEM for exceptional services to British and others in Tenerife. I had the last honour from the old Queen in Tenerife and she has the first from the new King! Congratulations @clioflynn.bsky.social
My generation has benefited most of all from this, and we share some of the responsibility, but the real blame is due to an officially-approved and rampant capitalism that's rocket-propelled "growth" since the 80s and caused social collapse through inequality. That can't be laid at boomers' door.
"The core of our problem in the UK is housing. Using long-term nationwide data, John noted that the average UK house in 1956 – the year of his birth – cost £1,884.
By 2025, that figure was £271,000. That is a 144-fold rise in nominal terms"
By 2025, that figure was £271,000. That is a 144-fold rise in nominal terms"
Is Britain at the peak of a great financial wave?
Britain is living at the end of a decades-long inflationary wave. What comes next depends on whether we confront our financial model
eastangliabylines.co.uk
December 3, 2025 at 9:49 AM
My generation has benefited most of all from this, and we share some of the responsibility, but the real blame is due to an officially-approved and rampant capitalism that's rocket-propelled "growth" since the 80s and caused social collapse through inequality. That can't be laid at boomers' door.
And not just about Die Hard ... of course it's a Xmas film, but expecting sanity from the UK right now is a big ask. I must be one of the few who've never seen the UK's apparent actual "favourites" - Home Alone, Love Actually, and Elf!
December 2, 2025 at 5:00 PM
And not just about Die Hard ... of course it's a Xmas film, but expecting sanity from the UK right now is a big ask. I must be one of the few who've never seen the UK's apparent actual "favourites" - Home Alone, Love Actually, and Elf!
A lie for the monied interests of a few against that of the many, in which experts who understated the truth were not just disregarded but dismissed as mendacious idiots ... believed by flag shaggers who believed their colour and Englishness made them superior. And why it can never ever be forgiven.
Brexit: the trillion pound ‘mistake’
The recent NBER report suggests the Treasury’s 2016 analysis – slammed by Brexiters as a ‘hoax’– actually understated the impact of Brexit.
The recent NBER report suggests the Treasury’s 2016 analysis – slammed by Brexiters as a ‘hoax’– actually understated the impact of Brexit.
Brexit: the trillion pound ‘mistake’
The recent NBER report suggests the Treasury’s 2016 analysis – slammed by Brexiters as a ‘hoax’– actually understated the impact of Brexit
yorkshirebylines.co.uk
December 1, 2025 at 7:26 PM
A lie for the monied interests of a few against that of the many, in which experts who understated the truth were not just disregarded but dismissed as mendacious idiots ... believed by flag shaggers who believed their colour and Englishness made them superior. And why it can never ever be forgiven.
Got a flea in my ear recently for telling someone about this wonderful news about macular degeneration on the grounds that it's "incurable". People are often unaware of some really good medical advances while everyone's yelling into the void ...
I think we need to arrange a welfare check on the Vanderbilt guy for conducting that research but otherwise these are all excellent news. 🙌🏻
See, there is some good stuff happening. The further applications of the stem cell research is particularly exciting to consider.
See, there is some good stuff happening. The further applications of the stem cell research is particularly exciting to consider.
December 1, 2025 at 4:09 PM
Got a flea in my ear recently for telling someone about this wonderful news about macular degeneration on the grounds that it's "incurable". People are often unaware of some really good medical advances while everyone's yelling into the void ...
😅
I do actually love whatever it is we call Christmas, just not in the public form we now suffer much of the year. Never could stand flashing lights, metallic tinsel, shrieky songs, jingly music ...
but the quiet dark half of the year? that's something to celebrate. As a season, not a day. 🧣🧤❄️🌲💚
I do actually love whatever it is we call Christmas, just not in the public form we now suffer much of the year. Never could stand flashing lights, metallic tinsel, shrieky songs, jingly music ...
but the quiet dark half of the year? that's something to celebrate. As a season, not a day. 🧣🧤❄️🌲💚
We passed the event horizon ... we can't say it's only november any more ...
Noddy says it's time ...
shit.
Noddy says it's time ...
shit.
December 1, 2025 at 2:47 PM
😅
I do actually love whatever it is we call Christmas, just not in the public form we now suffer much of the year. Never could stand flashing lights, metallic tinsel, shrieky songs, jingly music ...
but the quiet dark half of the year? that's something to celebrate. As a season, not a day. 🧣🧤❄️🌲💚
I do actually love whatever it is we call Christmas, just not in the public form we now suffer much of the year. Never could stand flashing lights, metallic tinsel, shrieky songs, jingly music ...
but the quiet dark half of the year? that's something to celebrate. As a season, not a day. 🧣🧤❄️🌲💚
Not just Sweden, not just political life. Women are increasingly looking at this man's world and saying Fine, have it ... leave me alone. That's pretty much where I am too, and it's not fear, it's disgust.
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/d...
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/d...
Rising levels of hate forcing women out of Swedish public life, says equality agency
Country seen as champion of equal rights faces reckoning after senior politician says she felt compelled to quit
www.theguardian.com
December 1, 2025 at 9:31 AM
Not just Sweden, not just political life. Women are increasingly looking at this man's world and saying Fine, have it ... leave me alone. That's pretty much where I am too, and it's not fear, it's disgust.
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/d...
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/d...
I never once saw a panto where Widow Twankey was played in suspenders and high hells by an act with a very suggestive name. I am not prudish but Merry Drag Tales is not a traditional panto, and whatever the time and place, cocks and suspenders for under 5s do not qualify as family friendly for me.
Bob, it's called a pantomime, happens every year for at least 2 centuries
"Richmond Theatre has been criticised for running a 'perverted' Christmas drag show for children."
"Richmond Theatre has been criticised for running a 'perverted' Christmas drag show for children."
November 30, 2025 at 5:47 PM
I never once saw a panto where Widow Twankey was played in suspenders and high hells by an act with a very suggestive name. I am not prudish but Merry Drag Tales is not a traditional panto, and whatever the time and place, cocks and suspenders for under 5s do not qualify as family friendly for me.
Existential threat. As is the disappearance of European water.
We can talk politics about Trump, Putin, Venezuela, Brexit, the EU, whatever we like, but there really is only one story in town. That people don't recognize that is why it's an existential threat.
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
We can talk politics about Trump, Putin, Venezuela, Brexit, the EU, whatever we like, but there really is only one story in town. That people don't recognize that is why it's an existential threat.
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
November 29, 2025 at 3:08 PM
Existential threat. As is the disappearance of European water.
We can talk politics about Trump, Putin, Venezuela, Brexit, the EU, whatever we like, but there really is only one story in town. That people don't recognize that is why it's an existential threat.
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
We can talk politics about Trump, Putin, Venezuela, Brexit, the EU, whatever we like, but there really is only one story in town. That people don't recognize that is why it's an existential threat.
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Just thinking back to early Christian times, don't remember there being a Conservative Party either, so there's that, but no-one needs that to be reminded of that to see the Tories are un-Christian ... only need to look at them ...
November 28, 2025 at 4:35 PM
Just thinking back to early Christian times, don't remember there being a Conservative Party either, so there's that, but no-one needs that to be reminded of that to see the Tories are un-Christian ... only need to look at them ...
Wonder if the English patriots claiming their right to jury trial is enshrined in Magna Carta have the first idea they'd be the ones classed as serfs and peasants, and so the ones whose rights were specifically not actually covered, them not being landowners or barons or similar ...
Guess not 🤪
Guess not 🤪
November 27, 2025 at 9:06 PM
Wonder if the English patriots claiming their right to jury trial is enshrined in Magna Carta have the first idea they'd be the ones classed as serfs and peasants, and so the ones whose rights were specifically not actually covered, them not being landowners or barons or similar ...
Guess not 🤪
Guess not 🤪
Poignant, and true. I was what Margaret Thatcher, whom I knew personally, called one of the Wets: we were quite a group. It always used to be a truism that people became more right wing as they aged. For me, the opposite is true simply because the political landscape has changed, not my views. As 👇
November 27, 2025 at 8:53 PM
Poignant, and true. I was what Margaret Thatcher, whom I knew personally, called one of the Wets: we were quite a group. It always used to be a truism that people became more right wing as they aged. For me, the opposite is true simply because the political landscape has changed, not my views. As 👇
Hopefully the Streisand Effect will ensure that despite the BBC's abject craven cowardice everyone knows this historian considers Donald Trump “the most openly corrupt president in American history”.
I'd imagine most of us consider the shyster in similar fashion as I reckon we all do the BBC.
I'd imagine most of us consider the shyster in similar fashion as I reckon we all do the BBC.
BBC tells staff they cannot quote Trump line removed from Reith Lecture www.theguardian.com/media/2025/n...
BBC tells staff they cannot quote Trump line removed from Reith Lecture
Journalists not allowed to repeat Rutger Bregman’s corruption claims against US president in coverage of edit
www.theguardian.com
November 27, 2025 at 2:36 PM
Hopefully the Streisand Effect will ensure that despite the BBC's abject craven cowardice everyone knows this historian considers Donald Trump “the most openly corrupt president in American history”.
I'd imagine most of us consider the shyster in similar fashion as I reckon we all do the BBC.
I'd imagine most of us consider the shyster in similar fashion as I reckon we all do the BBC.
Someone who has proven again and again that he knows how to think about "conflict" and who knows Russia ...
👇
👇
If you really think we need to listen to some Russians, forget "navalnist" and other "Russian opposition" activists, who are too afraid to call the war for what it is and are only concerned about "poor Russians suffering under evil Putin".
Listen to Kasparov:
Listen to Kasparov:
November 27, 2025 at 12:59 PM
Someone who has proven again and again that he knows how to think about "conflict" and who knows Russia ...
👇
👇
I think we are all increasingly aware now, and not before time, that "our friends" and "our enemies" need redefining ...
This new report from the Grantham Institute is crucial. And it's quite striking to see it published... it seems to indicate people are willing to consider policy ideas long treated as taboo.
www.lse.ac.uk/granthaminst...
www.lse.ac.uk/granthaminst...
Revisiting central bank independence for the climate era: insights from the People’s Bank of China - Grantham Research Institute on climate change and the environment
This paper explores the relationship between independence and climate action through an in-depth study of the PBoC, comparing it with Western central banks.
www.lse.ac.uk
November 27, 2025 at 10:26 AM
I think we are all increasingly aware now, and not before time, that "our friends" and "our enemies" need redefining ...
Do read the link! As I often say, the USA's origins are rooted in projectile pestilential Protestantism, Puritanical Christian white nationalist extremism which saw Cromwell's harshness as far too weak.
Nothing has changed except in an inevitable evolution of the foundational idea of Providence.
Nothing has changed except in an inevitable evolution of the foundational idea of Providence.
Some interesting perspectives on origins of the US empire.
Also about us - colonialists.
Also about us - colonialists.
The Pilgrims Were Doomsday Cultists
The settlers who arrived in Plymouth were not escaping religious persecution. They left on the Mayflower to establish a theocracy in the Americas.
www.thenation.com
November 27, 2025 at 10:23 AM
Do read the link! As I often say, the USA's origins are rooted in projectile pestilential Protestantism, Puritanical Christian white nationalist extremism which saw Cromwell's harshness as far too weak.
Nothing has changed except in an inevitable evolution of the foundational idea of Providence.
Nothing has changed except in an inevitable evolution of the foundational idea of Providence.
I've been told to my face that performative cruelty is needed because these "animals" don't understand anything but a hard-faced approach, so that's how it is, suck it up, get used to it, and "I don't give a f**k if people don't like it".
They are not nice people.
Yes, this 👇
They are not nice people.
Yes, this 👇
It helps to remember that in the story of what a despicable child Nigel Farage was before he became a despicable man, this is a selling point among his despicable supporters.
November 26, 2025 at 11:54 AM
I've been told to my face that performative cruelty is needed because these "animals" don't understand anything but a hard-faced approach, so that's how it is, suck it up, get used to it, and "I don't give a f**k if people don't like it".
They are not nice people.
Yes, this 👇
They are not nice people.
Yes, this 👇
The olive-coloured building is a hospital. The camper vans are in its car park because their resident occupiers have to live somewhere ...
But we have record tourism numbers. Yay 🤪
Some call it a paradox. Others call it parasitism, especially of the politics-development revolving door system.
But we have record tourism numbers. Yay 🤪
Some call it a paradox. Others call it parasitism, especially of the politics-development revolving door system.
Canarias entre el récord turístico y la exclusión social: la paradoja de la tasa AROPE
https://fundacioncanarina.org/canarias-la-paradoja-de-la-tasa-arope/
#turismo #pobreza
https://fundacioncanarina.org/canarias-la-paradoja-de-la-tasa-arope/
#turismo #pobreza
Canarias entre el récord turístico y la exclusión social: la paradoja de la tasa AROPE - Fundación Canarina
Aunque Canarias bate récords de turistas, más del 30 % de su población vive en riesgo de pobreza o exclusión social
fundacioncanarina.org
November 25, 2025 at 2:59 PM
The olive-coloured building is a hospital. The camper vans are in its car park because their resident occupiers have to live somewhere ...
But we have record tourism numbers. Yay 🤪
Some call it a paradox. Others call it parasitism, especially of the politics-development revolving door system.
But we have record tourism numbers. Yay 🤪
Some call it a paradox. Others call it parasitism, especially of the politics-development revolving door system.
Since travel is now just what everyone does everywhere absolutely all the time, I don't think anyone will stop consuming. And I've reached the point now where I don't even think it's the corporations' fault. We all know what we're doing. We are the ones to blame. The "we" who consume, that is ...
It should be obvious by now that we cannot make the future of human civilisation dependent on whether the fossil fuel vendors vote for ending fossil fuel use.
Rather, it is up to those who buy fossil fuels to end their lethal addiction fast, before it is too late.
Rather, it is up to those who buy fossil fuels to end their lethal addiction fast, before it is too late.
My latest: #COP30, global climate politics, and what happens next — for @theguardian.com
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
November 25, 2025 at 2:37 PM
Since travel is now just what everyone does everywhere absolutely all the time, I don't think anyone will stop consuming. And I've reached the point now where I don't even think it's the corporations' fault. We all know what we're doing. We are the ones to blame. The "we" who consume, that is ...
London has urban foxes, Madrid has ... urban boars! The renaturalized stretch of the Manzanares river in Madrid is seeing such life return, including very many birds and, it seems, more than a few wild boars, our jabalíes! 🐗💦
Me acaban de pasar este vídeo hecho hace unos días, en el que aparecen dos jabalíes en el renaturalizado tramo urbano del Manzanares, a la altura del Puente de Segovia. La riqueza natural en el río sigue creciendo desde que se renaturalizó. #UnRioLlenoDeVida
November 25, 2025 at 2:28 PM
London has urban foxes, Madrid has ... urban boars! The renaturalized stretch of the Manzanares river in Madrid is seeing such life return, including very many birds and, it seems, more than a few wild boars, our jabalíes! 🐗💦
Do read the whole thread, but as it says, "it’s especially ironic because the lecture is exactly about the ‘paralyzing cowardice’ of today’s elites."
A perfect example of the paralyzing cowardice of the BBC. Not biased in any way except in blowing with any prevailing wind due to lacking a spine.
A perfect example of the paralyzing cowardice of the BBC. Not biased in any way except in blowing with any prevailing wind due to lacking a spine.
I wish I didn’t have to share this. But the BBC has decided to censor my first Reith Lecture.
They deleted the line in which I describe Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” /1
They deleted the line in which I describe Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” /1
November 25, 2025 at 12:37 PM
Do read the whole thread, but as it says, "it’s especially ironic because the lecture is exactly about the ‘paralyzing cowardice’ of today’s elites."
A perfect example of the paralyzing cowardice of the BBC. Not biased in any way except in blowing with any prevailing wind due to lacking a spine.
A perfect example of the paralyzing cowardice of the BBC. Not biased in any way except in blowing with any prevailing wind due to lacking a spine.
The necessary other half of "hope for the best" is "prepare for the worst". The latter without the former is paranoia. The former without the latter is where we are, blindly sleepwalking into the future we've already burnt. We need both, but above all we need leaders with the mind to see the need.
Europe is acting like a plumply prosperous market town unable to believe the ravening nomadic horde and the neighbouring evil empire would *really* eat it all up
"Europe’s problem is not that it lacks options. It is that it refuses to use them". Jade McGlynn skewers both the Dmitriev/Witkoff plan for Ukraine's destruction, & Europe's refusal to act decisively enough to prevent disaster. open.substack.com/pub/smalldee...
November 25, 2025 at 12:29 PM
The necessary other half of "hope for the best" is "prepare for the worst". The latter without the former is paranoia. The former without the latter is where we are, blindly sleepwalking into the future we've already burnt. We need both, but above all we need leaders with the mind to see the need.
The world needed better. And by a country mile. We are f*cked.
A failure - and one that’s Trump-driven.
The world deserves better.
The world deserves better.
COP30 climate summit ends without new pledges to cut fossil fuels - follow live
www.bbc.co.uk
November 22, 2025 at 8:42 PM
The world needed better. And by a country mile. We are f*cked.
A very good point. While Labour insist on making work something they say cannot work and is disastrous, they are taking people for mugs. It's all just sophistry to try to appease the bigots who'll vote Reform in any case. Labour don't deserve any support until they act in line with reality.
By refusing to do anything about Brexit, despite now admitting the damage, Labour "now own it & its consequences".
www.scotsman.com/news/opinion...
www.scotsman.com/news/opinion...
Why 'it's the Brexit, stupid' should be the political slogan of our times
As Chancellor Rachel Reeves prepares the Budget, she’s missing an estimated £40 billion a year in tax revenues because the UK left the European Union
www.scotsman.com
November 22, 2025 at 3:10 PM
A very good point. While Labour insist on making work something they say cannot work and is disastrous, they are taking people for mugs. It's all just sophistry to try to appease the bigots who'll vote Reform in any case. Labour don't deserve any support until they act in line with reality.
Seems quite fair to me ... would do everyone else a favour too.
The EU has to stand up here or we may as well call it quits. Today.
The EU has to stand up here or we may as well call it quits. Today.
I think I am ready to offer my diplomatic solution to the US government: how about you fuck yourself along with your russian buddies and then you keep fucking yourself for so long that Ukrainians would never hear of both of you ever again?
#UkrainianView
#UkrainianView
November 21, 2025 at 3:52 PM
Seems quite fair to me ... would do everyone else a favour too.
The EU has to stand up here or we may as well call it quits. Today.
The EU has to stand up here or we may as well call it quits. Today.