Sameer Padania
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sdp.bsky.social
Sameer Padania
@sdp.bsky.social
1.3K followers 530 following 13K posts
I work on policy and funding for public interest journalism and information ecosystems worldwide - and how to reduce information inequality.

linkedin.com/in/sameerpadania

#COYS #FRSA
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sdp.bsky.social
Consumer website @resolveruk.bsky.social is looking for stories of experiences or customer service stories related to AI Customer Service... (cc: @davidgerard.co.uk)

www.resolver.co.uk/resolver_sto...
This week, we're looking at experiences or customer service stories related to AI Customer Service: Have you found it impossible to talk to a real person when contacting a particular company? Have you ever got stuck in an endless loop of chatbot responses, while a serious situation remained unresolved? Have you struggled to get to the appropriate support because of AI? Has something truly bizarre come out of an interaction with a company's AI customer care? We want to hear from you! Send us your story in 300 words.
January 29, 2026 at 7:28 PM
sdp.bsky.social
I’m legally obliged to post the following:
January 26, 2026 at 1:36 PM
sdp.bsky.social
As was this! 🥩

(Thanks to @kengray1967.bsky.social who kindly passed me a ticket he couldn’t use.)
January 24, 2026 at 10:45 PM
sdp.bsky.social
Having not gone to any live #comedy in years and years, saw Bridget Christie last Saturday and unexpectedly seeing Pierre Novellie now…
Pre-Bridget Christie at the Brighton Dome.
January 24, 2026 at 9:18 PM
sdp.bsky.social
Kind words for the “excellent & meticulous” #OurBBC report from Tom Chivers over on ex-Twitter:
January 24, 2026 at 6:10 PM
sdp.bsky.social
“A broad-based recovery of the liberal order will probably depend on a turnaround in the underlying trends, and here the signs are less promising. Attempts to soften the impact of worsening demographics are routinely rejected by voters and parties on both left and right. And the most promising source of renewed economic dynamism — AI — is likely to worsen inequality and increase societal instability, further undermining faith in democracy and hastening the slide into a zero-sum world.”
January 24, 2026 at 10:14 AM
sdp.bsky.social
In light of the evidence emerging daily, if anything, we are too polite in #OurBBC about just how serious the threats are to epistemic security, cognitive resilience and human autonomy…

demos.co.uk/wp-content/u...
Visualisation of the European tech stack and the countries that dominate and control it - mainly China and the US. From Euro-stack.info
January 23, 2026 at 7:15 AM
sdp.bsky.social
The NPG has 999 “partners” who’d like to observe my every move while I consider buying the Francis Bacon exhibition catalogue.

#art #commerce
January 23, 2026 at 12:18 AM
sdp.bsky.social
Alrighty!!! A bit of catharsis never hurt anyone, right? RIGHT? (Paging any classicists on here to factcheck.)

#COYS
Tottenham Hotspur, in a rare moment of joy, are leading - at home, ye gods, at home - 2-0 against Borussia Dortmund, who are down to ten men.
January 20, 2026 at 9:06 PM
sdp.bsky.social
I don't want to own a car, I want to share a car, as one transport option alongside public transport and my bike. I don't think this is a weird desire. This is the third UK / #London #carsharing or subscription service I have used that has shut down... It's genuinely maddening.
Announcement of the closure of Zipcar UK, finally. FFS.
January 16, 2026 at 9:43 PM
sdp.bsky.social
Gerontocrat gazing upon his dominion Make America Grate Again
January 10, 2026 at 11:27 PM
sdp.bsky.social
This is (quietly) raised in the Government’s Green Paper on BBC #CharterRenewal (open for submissions till March 10th):

www.gov.uk/government/c...
January 8, 2026 at 10:43 AM
sdp.bsky.social
Prophetically, next to it on the shelf….
Richard Mabey’s book, Food for Free.
January 6, 2026 at 8:34 AM
sdp.bsky.social
“Où sont les neiges d’antan?”, meaning, in the case of this book, which I bought to help educate myself, 2024.
January 6, 2026 at 8:32 AM
sdp.bsky.social
#venezuela
Poster for Michael Palin’s upcoming talk on “My Trip to Venezuela”, on Thurs 22 January, in Hampstead, London, in the UK.
January 5, 2026 at 6:10 PM
sdp.bsky.social
Lord, forgive us; for we know not what we do (especially when we get in the final third).

#COYS #THFC
January 4, 2026 at 5:27 PM
sdp.bsky.social
Patrick Gathara would agree.
For the last couple of days, l've been working in some of the world's most remote areas delivering much needed life-saving aid. With nearly a quarter of all children growing up in poverty, life is not easy for the aboriginal tribes of the oil-rich district of Scotland, who are trapped between two sides of a long-running conflict pitting separatist insurgents against the central government which has refused to recognise their right of self-determination. Ever since the Brexit blockade, deliveries of desperately needed humanitarian flavour aid have slowed, forcing nearly 70,000 to flee in the last 18 months alone. Despite this, a 2022 census estimated the population to be close to 5.5m, driven largely by an influx of IDPs from other crisis-torn regions of the UK. An African expatriate I spoke to explained that this was causing resentment in the local host community which is largely made up of an indigenous tribe known as Scots. Hobbled by centuries of ethnic conflict with the more populous English to the south, as well as an indecipherable accent, the Scots have struggled to adapt to modernity. Although the region struck oil in the 1960s, the benefits bypass the hapless natives, as successive regimes in the UK capital, London, have insisted on collecting all oil and gas revenues. This in turn has led to increasing demands for independence and supercharged support for the
January 3, 2026 at 7:40 PM
sdp.bsky.social
Brutal, terminal diagnosis delivered by @sarahjeong.bsky.social.
The media has spent the last few months trying to make sense out of nonsense, attempting to conjure motive, manifesto, and meaning out of the dumbest shit scrawled onto bullets. These were sad attempts to impose meaning on an increasingly incoherent world by a literati that has not yet accepted its irrelevance in a postliterate society
January 2, 2026 at 6:25 PM
sdp.bsky.social
The organisations being supported through the @proton.me lifetime account raffle ($10 per entry):
2025 Proton Lifetime Fundraiser Raffle Once again, we're raffling 10 Proton Lifetime accounts in 2025 to raise money for organizations proposed by Proton's community. This year's beneficiaries are: EDRi Societe Numerique (Digitale gessellschaft) NLnet Foundation WITNESS Hack Club Center for Humane Technology Transparency International Lighthouse Reports Open Markets Institute The Insider
December 30, 2025 at 4:56 PM
sdp.bsky.social
OK, this is getting spookier.

#padania
December 28, 2025 at 9:01 PM
sdp.bsky.social
By a weird coincidence I am reading Europe in Autumn by Dave Hutchinson, in which a key element is a super-efficient trans-European train line…
(sorry for no alt text, but it’s quite hard on browser)
December 28, 2025 at 8:09 PM
sdp.bsky.social
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh

“Is that NHS Direct? Can I get an emergency prescription please? Yes, I have somehow been underprescribed cumin cheese and my health is suffering…”
Email received a short time ago from Eurostar to the effect that the UK has temporarily banned travellers from bringing in meat and dairy products from the EU due to the risk of foot and mouth disease - the day I arrive in Amsterdam, with innocent dreams of bringing back Gouda, mayonnaise and god knows what else.
December 26, 2025 at 9:59 PM
sdp.bsky.social
But underestimated the import of the story
“Key figures in creation of Milton Keynes criticise UK’s new town plan”
December 25, 2025 at 3:52 PM
sdp.bsky.social
Landed on @theguardian.com and thought “that’s a bombshell of an interview to land”
Above the fold part of the Guardian website, saying “Key figures in creation”
December 25, 2025 at 3:52 PM
sdp.bsky.social
Went to sleep thinking about this, as some chancer lobbed his law-bomb last night.

And then got up and read the BBC Green Paper consultation document and felt a lot better.
December 16, 2025 at 2:02 PM