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Owen Blacker @owenblacker.bsky.social · 36m

Gods, that sounds freeing

Reposted by Owen Blacker

Morgan M Page @morganmpage.bsky.social · 2h

London: Come listen to me prattle on about trans history (and watch Framing Agnes!) at this free event at Birkbeck next week! www.bbk.ac.uk/events/event...

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Reposted by Owen Blacker

Naomi Alderman @naomialderman.bsky.social · 7h

feels like yet again time to mention that the *videogames* industry (that's a creative industry, which people do creative degrees in) brings in more than twice the amount to the British economy as the fishing and steel industries *combined*

Naomi Alderman @naomialderman.bsky.social · 7h

I cannot understand what these people think the purpose of human life is?

It is *not* "pursue joy, deal justly, love well, try to understand as much and see as much of this beautiful world and of the deepness, richness and variety of human culture and experience as you can before you die"?

Tim Worthington @outonbluesix.bsky.social · 7h

How is this repeatedly made into a policy issue - by *all* parties - when the blunt fact of the matter is that grown adults who are obliged to pay for their own education, and relentlessly pursued to repay their loans, should be able to study whatever the fuck they want.

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Reposted by Owen Blacker

Anthony Oliveira @meakoopa.bsky.social · 2h

these pieces of shit stole my life’s work for their robots and want to MAYBE give me 3000 retroactive dollars for their theft. get absolutely fucked

The Verge @theverge.com · May 26

Nick Clegg says asking artists for use permission would ‘kill’ the AI industry

Paul McCartne, Elton John and others signed an open letter.

buff.ly

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Reposted by Owen Blacker

Lee Hurley @hleehurley.com · 2h

Starving children screaming for food as US aid cuts unleash devastation and death across Myanmar

apnews.com/article/myan...

Starving children screaming for food as US aid cuts unleash devastation and death across Myanmar

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has repeatedly said “no one has died" because of his government’s decision to gut its foreign aid program.

apnews.com

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Reposted by Owen Blacker

Trick or Treat Coveney🎃 @nmjcoveney.bsky.social · 2h

Obviously

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Owen Blacker @owenblacker.bsky.social · 2h

I can definitely do that much :)

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Reposted by Owen Blacker

Lee Hurley @hleehurley.com · 4h

They have made it clear that they believe if they make it awful enough to be trans, people will stop being trans. In service of that, the assault of children is a welcome outcome for them.

Dr Robert Bohan @robertbohan.bsky.social · 4h

When politicians like Trump, or Starmer, say & do transphobic things, parents talk about it in front of kids & then the kids bring it to school.

It’s horrific that these kids are being taught to hate & at such an early age.

It is critical we do not import this into Irish politics:

11-year-old trans child allegedly assaulted by fellow student

An 11-year-old trans child was allegedly assaulted by a fellow student over their gender identity, the student's father has claimed.

www.thepinknews.com

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Reposted by Owen Blacker

Alex Andreou @sturdyalex.bsky.social · 4h

Badenoch: "While Britain was redefining what a woman is, China built five nuclear reactors."

A perfect summary of conservative idiocy. Glorifying authoritarian post-communism for its efficiency while vilifying democracy for seeking nuance and respect.

It is the Right who hate their own countries.

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Reposted by Owen Blacker

Buff the NullMooPup 🍉 @giantbritishpup.bsky.social · 4h

Hey everyone! New political compass just dropped. Anyone good at making buzz feed quizzes?

Oliver Darkshire @deathbybadger.bsky.social · 4h

I had to put together this chart to explain to one of my D&D groups how I categorize new players but I feel it actually has broader utility

a chart with 2 axis - one for golden retriever across to yeen, and another for himbo down to demon twink

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Reposted by Owen Blacker

Lee Hurley @hleehurley.com · 4h

Tories pledge to abandon stamp duty to help 'everybody' own a home.

This says stamp duty doesn't apply to the first £125,000 of a property's value and is 2% on the next £125,000.

www.gov.uk/stamp-duty-l...

Stamp Duty Land Tax

You pay Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) when you buy houses, flats and other land and buildings over a certain price in the UK.

www.gov.uk

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Reposted by Owen Blacker

Lee Hurley @hleehurley.com · 4h

No love for Labour, as you know, but Badenoch is blaming everything that has happened in the last 15-20 years on the one year Labour have been in power and her only plan is to undo everything Labour have done. Not the stuff that targets trans people, obviously.

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Lee Hurley @hleehurley.com · 4h

She then took a round of applause for Brexit about 3 minutes later.

Adam Bienkov @adambienkov.bsky.social · 5h

"15 years ago, Polish workers came here to find opportunity. Now Poland is growing twice as fast as we are," says Kemi Badenoch.

Any ideas what may have happened in the interim?

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Reposted by Owen Blacker

Lee Hurley @hleehurley.com · 4h

How many women and children is she hurting by forcing the Scottish government to waste so much money on these ridiculous law suits?

When your hate is the only thing that matters...

SEEN Police Official Open Public Network @seenpoliceuk.bsky.social · 4h

Her hubris is the ugliest part of her diseased mind.

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Reposted by Owen Blacker

Quinn Norton @quinn.yoyodyne-it.eu · 5h

I'd really hoped that the frickin @nytimes.com would have checked if Melenchon was head of anything besides the department of saying he'd like to be president of France.

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Reposted by Owen Blacker

Quinn Norton @quinn.yoyodyne-it.eu · 5h

The NYTimes has done a lot of dumb things, but doing a whole interview with Melenchon without ever asking what his position in his party is has to be up there.

The answer is none, btw. Loud Left Grampa of France was turfed out years ago & is now at a think tank. He's not a candidate for anything.

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Owen Blacker @owenblacker.bsky.social · 3h

Of course, a functioning democracy would have at least 1 party who could stand a chance of being elected to a majority without actively fanning the flames of white supremacy and talking about “too many migrants” coming here. Maybe offer a positive vision of the future?

This shitty country, fml

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Owen Blacker @owenblacker.bsky.social · 3h

How dare anyone possibly criticise the flagshaggers?

In a functioning democracy, we'd have news orgs that report about the racism of the flagshagger movement, that report about terrified people fleeing for their lives only to have wankers threaten them outside their emergency accommodation.

Lee Hurley @hleehurley.com · 5h

He will not be taken off air and it is insane that this was even a possibility...but, you know, they already forced the ousting of Gary Lineker, and people like Lineker way more than they like Neville.

[Lineker was BBC, Neville is Sky]

metro.co.uk/2025/10/07/s...

Sky Sports make decision on taking Gary Neville off air after controversial rant

He may have breached Sky's guidelines.

metro.co.uk

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Reposted by Owen Blacker

Lee Hurley @hleehurley.com · 5h

He will not be taken off air and it is insane that this was even a possibility...but, you know, they already forced the ousting of Gary Lineker, and people like Lineker way more than they like Neville.

[Lineker was BBC, Neville is Sky]

metro.co.uk/2025/10/07/s...

Sky Sports make decision on taking Gary Neville off air after controversial rant

He may have breached Sky's guidelines.

metro.co.uk

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Reposted by Owen Blacker

Alex Koppel @arsduo.bsky.social · 5h

i couldn't take this picture for 5 minutes, I was laughing so hard

A truly sad little ghost cut out of a rice cracker with black eyes and little red food colouring mouth, leaning on a black coffin-shaped sandwich

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Reposted by Owen Blacker

Lee Hurley @hleehurley.com · 5h

I've lost track of the number of times James O'Brien has done a 'politically homeless' phone-in for former Tory voters and I can't ever remember him doing one for people on the left.

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Reposted by Owen Blacker

Ethan Landes @ethanlandes.bsky.social · 11d

A wonderful part of UK's legacy of privatization is that instead of perpetually paying some standard rate for electricity and gas (see also: internet), every 12-24 months I get to stress about tariff rates and set up an account with an energy company I've never heard of.

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Reposted by Owen Blacker

Dan Davies @dsquareddigest.bsky.social · 8d

I wrote about this in "The Unaccountability Machine" - when you describe leveraged buyouts to ordinary people, half of them say that it should be illegal and the other half are often convinced that it already is.

Jeremy Parish, imperial aerosol kid @jparish.bsky.social · 9d

Buying a company by taking out a massive loan, then making the company you bought responsible for paying off that loan, is so patently evil that it should be beyond illegal. The kind of thing that inspires enlightened societies without corporal punishment to bring back the death penalty as a one-off

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Reposted by Owen Blacker

Pranay⚡️ @pranman.com · 8d

To extend the qualifying period for any migrant is absolutely mindless, but to extend them for migrants who even many in the right-wing see as "good migrants" is just astonishingly stupid.

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Reposted by Owen Blacker

Pranay⚡️ @pranman.com · 8d

This will be extended by 5 years by Labour.

Remember that every visa extension (2-3 years) costs thousands of pounds, up to £10K for a family of 4.

If your visa extension gets denied, you get 60 (?) days to pack up your life and leave.

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