Tom W
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thomaswilliams.bsky.social
Tom W
@thomaswilliams.bsky.social
320 followers 330 following 750 posts
On the quiet side. A bit peculiar. A good companion, in a weird sort of way.
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thomaswilliams.bsky.social
I've not checked the actual source on this, but it looks about right. Eliding over the enormous increase in the early 90s by citing a figure from over a decade earlier, as if it hadn't changed, is remarkable sophistry
A line graph showing rates of higher education participation in the UK, 1950-2010. It starts off low, climbs until 1970, then approximately plateaus around 15% until about 1990 - at which point it very quickly rises over a few years to 35%
November 25, 2025 at 8:47 AM
thomaswilliams.bsky.social
No, but this seems to go beyond reasonable edits. It's splicing together a single sentence from two phrases, which changes the context of the latter. I've not seen the actual video - if anyone can link to it I'd be interested - but if that was done without making the cut clear, that's misleading
In his speech in Washington DC on 6 January 2021, Trump said: "We're going to walk down to the Capitol, and we're going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women." However, in Panorama's edit, he was shown saying: "We're going to walk down to the Capitol... and I'll be there with you. And we fight. We fight like hell." The two sections of the speech that were edited together were more than 50 minutes apart. The "fight like hell" comment was taken from a section where President Trump discussed how "corrupt" US elections were. In total, he used the words "fight" or "fighting" 20 times in the speech.
November 9, 2025 at 9:57 PM
thomaswilliams.bsky.social
Oh yes uk.trustpilot.com/review/diana...
Screenshot of Trustpilot ratings for Diana Jewellery: 90 reviews with an average rating of 1.2 stars
September 30, 2025 at 5:56 PM
thomaswilliams.bsky.social
What’s worrying is he is meant to be their expert on this stuff! Either he doesn’t understand what he wrote a book about or he is REALLY bad at trying to explain it to people who aren’t already immersed in it
Mike Wendling is a BBC journalist, with the job title US National Digital Reporter, and author of the book Alt-Right: From 4chan to the White House
September 12, 2025 at 5:50 PM
thomaswilliams.bsky.social
This is how I picture you whenever you post something this excitedly x
Tiffany "New York" Pollard from the reality TV series Flavor of Love in which she reacts with astonishment to a fellow contestant saying they think they look like Beyoncé
July 21, 2025 at 11:06 AM
thomaswilliams.bsky.social
Seeing Wes in this context always reminds me of this time he baselessly accused an often-abused black woman MP of seeking to discredit the EHRC because the Labour manifesto said it needed to be given a bigger budget and made properly independent of government
A tweet from Wes Streeting on Twitter, quoting another tweet from Dawn Butler: Why did the Labour Party's Race and Faith manifesto, which you published, include a reference to making the EHRC 'truly independent' if not to discredit it? What, if anything, have you said and done as Shadow Equalities Secretary to address our own toxic antisemitism crisis?
July 18, 2025 at 11:30 AM
thomaswilliams.bsky.social
I pointed out that they would be the one throwing the other person under the bus in this image - analogous to the classic trolley problem, as I'm sure you know - and got immediately blocked :)
The bridge variation of the trolley problem: a runaway trolley is racing towards five people tied to the railway track, but the subject is on a bridge with another person, who they can push off the bridge to stop the train
July 17, 2025 at 11:33 AM
thomaswilliams.bsky.social
So you're the one pushing the other guy off the bridge in this picture, right? I mean, I know you're happy to throw minorities under the bus, I just didn't think we were talking so literally
The bridge variation of the trolley problem: a runaway trolley is racing towards five people tied to the railway track, but the subject is on a bridge with another person, who they can push off the bridge to stop the train
July 17, 2025 at 11:29 AM
thomaswilliams.bsky.social
Wow, it's like it knows me!
Screenshot from the results page of the More in Common website, which has been altered to use parts of the generic psychological profile from the Forer experiment. It reads: Which segment are you? Sceptical Scrollers You have a great need for other people to like and admire you. You have a great deal of unused capacity which you have not turned to your advantage. You prefer a certain amount of change and variety and become dissatisfied when hemmed in by restrictions and limitations. You pride yourself as an independent thinker and do not accept others' statements without satisfactory proof. Security is one of your major goals in life.
July 14, 2025 at 2:42 PM
thomaswilliams.bsky.social
Screenshot from the Simpsons Stonecutters episode of the "No Homers Club" treehouse, with Charles III's face crudely pasted over Homer Glumpett's. The caption reads "It says no kingS, we're allowed to have one"
June 14, 2025 at 11:58 AM
thomaswilliams.bsky.social
The real life version of this guy
The toy “Wooly Willy”, an old game where you could use a magnet to drag iron filings onto a drawing of a bald man to look like hair
May 10, 2025 at 10:22 PM
thomaswilliams.bsky.social
And anyone who enjoys that may also like this similar American letter-and-reply which is less well known in the UK
Letter from Dale Cox to the Cleveland Browns: Gentlemen: I am one of your season ticket holders who attends or tries to attend every game. It appears that one of the pastimes of several fans has become the sailing of paper airplanes generally made out of the game program. As you know, there is the risk of serious eye injury and perhaps an ear injury as a result of such airplanes. I am sure that this has been called to your attention and that several of your ushers and policemen witnessed the same. Please be advised that since you are in a position to control or terminate such action on the part of fans, I will hold you responsible for any injury sustained by any person in my party attending one of your sporting events. It is hoped that this disrespectful and possibly dangerous activity will be terminated. Very truly yours, ROÉTZEL & ANDRESS Dale O. Cox Response from the Cleveland Browns: Dear Mr. Cox: Attached is a letter that we received on November 19, 1974. I feel that you should be aware that some asshole is signing your name to stupid letters. Very truly yours, CLEVELAND STADIUM CORP. James N. Bailey, General Counsel
April 29, 2025 at 11:53 AM
thomaswilliams.bsky.social
Finally got around to writing to my MP about the Supreme Court decision and EHRC draft guidance - I have no idea what his starting point is so my approach is very much aimed at a standard Labour-brain MP. Sharing in case any of it is useful to anyone who hasn't got around to writing to theirs yet
I am one of your constituents (although I have only recently moved into the area and my electoral registration may not show up yet) and I am gravely concerned about the recent Supreme Court judgement in For Women Scotland Ltd v The Scottish Ministers and the guidance since published by the EHRC. The 2010 Equality Act was a landmark piece of legislation. I myself worked for a government MP for a period during Gordon Brown's time as Prime Minister, and was proud to be doing my small part for a government that was one of the most forward-thinking in the world on equal rights. The Supreme Court judgement, and the EHRC guidance, tears this legacy to shreds. I am not going to attempt to relitigate the decision itself, though I find it unconvincing. It may be that, legally, the intent the words of the 2010 act are deemed to have by their lordships is correct. But it is clearly not the true intent of the legislation. This has been confirmed by civil servants who worked on drafting the bill and shepherding it into legislation (eg https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/apr/18/ruling-on-woman-definition-at-odds-with-uk-equality-acts-aim-says-ex-civil-servant). The then Solicitor-General, Vera Baird, in the committee stage of the bill, confirmed similarly that a trans person with a GRC would be treated under the act as being of their "acquired gender" (https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200809/cmpublic/equality/090623/pm/90623s07.htm#09062415000272). Your colleague Chris Bryant, who was Deputy Leader of the House of Commons when the bill was introduced, has made clear he disagrees with the court's interpretation. Before the Equality Act, trans people still had rights against discrimination. At the European Court of Human Rights, Goodwin v UK established the UK's obligations, which led to the Gender Recognition Act 2004 [GRA] providing that "Where a full gender recognition certificate [GRC] is issued to a person, the person’s gender becomes *for all purposes* the acquired gender". Even before the GRA, it was held by the Court of Appeal in Croft v Royal Mail that "a permanent refusal to permit someone presenting as a woman from using female facilities could be an act of discrimination even if the person had not undergone final surgical intervention," meaning neither a GRC nor surgical transition was necessary for a trans person to be treated equally with someone else of their gender and use the appropriate facilities. It is also worth noting that the GRA requires that someone has "lived in the acquired gender throughout the period of two years" to be eligible for a GRC, and in practice this often means things like using the toilets and other facilities appropriate to that gender. The effect of the Supreme Court judgement and the EHRC guidance are to say that far from being a forward-thinking and progressive piece of legislation, the purpose of the Equality Act was to strip protections from trans people, hollow out the Gender Recognition Act, and introduce a "bathroom ban" on trans people who had been using the appropriate facilities for decades - _and that no one realised or implemented this for over a decade_. If this had truly been the intention of the legislation, why did the government in the years immediately following this implement it in the opposite way? If allowed to stand, this decision and the resulting guidance will be disastrous for trans people. Even on just one small basic issue, toilets: if trans people cannot use the toilets appropriate to their gender, and are instead forced to out themselves and subject themselves to a very real risk of harassment, many will simply not be able to use toilets in public places. This is effectively a ban from trans people living a normal life and being in the public realm. For trans men the situation is even worse: the judgement and guidance say that not only must trans men be excluded from single-sex facilities for men, on the basis of sex, they may also be legally excluded from single-sex services for women, on the basis that they have "a masculine appearance or attributes to which reasonable objection" may be made. I recognise that, whatever its flaws, the judgement of the Supreme Court does now reflect the state of the law as it stands. *But parliament is sovereign and it can and must change that law.* The intention read into the act by their lordships is not the intention of those who wrote and enacted it, and if left to stand it will deal a terrible blow to the legacy of the 1997-2010 Labour government. It will retrospectively change them from a government who worked hard to improve equality across many protected characteristics into one who, inadvertently, introduced one of the most regressive pieces of discriminatory legislation outside of Russia or Hungary. The damage this will do to trans people is immense. *I am therefore asking you to protect this legacy by lobbying the Prime Minister and the Minister for Women and Equalities to introduce legislation to restore the original intent of the Equality Act, and opposing any attempt to give statutory force to the guidance drafted by the EHRC.*
April 28, 2025 at 10:00 AM
thomaswilliams.bsky.social
The Labour manifestoes under Corbyn’s leadership proposed to give the EHRC genuine independence from the government. Guess who baselessly* suggested this was about preventing it tackling antisemitism…
A tweet from Wes Streeting from 2019, responding to Dawn Butler: “Why did the Labour Party's Race and Faith manifesto, which you published, include a reference to making the EHRC 'truly independent' if not to discredit it? What, if anything, have you said and done as Shadow Equalities Secretary to address our own toxic antisemitism crisis?”
April 27, 2025 at 6:58 PM
thomaswilliams.bsky.social
Screen cap from the Simpsons, “Lisa’s Rival”, where her rival’s dad gives her a ball after she struggles at making anagrams
April 14, 2025 at 4:29 PM
thomaswilliams.bsky.social
Peter Walker ‪@peterwalker99.bsky.social‬ For the annoyed correspondents, I’d suggest reading the whole story. It’s not making any sort of moral judgment - that would be very odd - merely using a comparison to show the huge and fast-rising financial burden on councils under the current system.!
March 9, 2025 at 6:58 PM
thomaswilliams.bsky.social
Screenshot of an article from the Guardian. Text reads: ‘Receiving his “frothy coffee” in Pontypridd’s Prince’s cafe, Owen Smith stopped mid-sentence to express some amusement. “I tell you it is the first time I have ever been given little biscuits and a posh cup in here,” Smith said, looking up at the owner David Gamberini, as his order was placed on the table. “Seriously, I would have a mug normally,” the MP added, examining the refreshments in front of him.’
February 8, 2025 at 12:47 PM
thomaswilliams.bsky.social
A still from the Simpsons showing Marge, Lisa and Maggie. The original subtitle text of "It's true, but he shouldn't say it" has been crudely edited to become "It's true, and he should say it".
February 8, 2025 at 11:48 AM
thomaswilliams.bsky.social
Both these memes are applicable
Image from 30 Rock with caption "Lemon, it's Wednesday" and image from Mean Girls with caption "On Wednesdays we wear pink"
January 22, 2025 at 2:10 PM
thomaswilliams.bsky.social
Tik Tok, a very rotund shiny robot with a moustache, from the film Return to Oz
January 19, 2025 at 2:24 PM
thomaswilliams.bsky.social
There’s a winner’s premium involved. In fact it looks very similar to this one, up to a certain point, and we know what happened next…
Graph showing Keir Starmer’s favourability rating, which is consistently negative until the first poll taken after the 2024 general election, at which point it becomes almost a dead heat.
January 9, 2025 at 8:51 PM
thomaswilliams.bsky.social
Screenshot from @notanandamide on Twitter. Image in post shows newspaper headline “to beat the 5p bag charge… just say NO and bring your own”. Tweet says “getting people to do this is literally the whole point of the charge you lobotomised shitlarks”.
January 5, 2025 at 11:55 PM
thomaswilliams.bsky.social
HNY, everyone. This year’s lemon pig is particularly messy - I forgot about it till the last minute and only had a really dry leathery one to hand. Hopefully not an omen for the year to come
A model pig made from lemon, with cloves for eyes, a tin foil tail, cocktail stick legs, and a penny in its mouth. It is generally wonky and ill composed.
January 1, 2025 at 12:19 AM
thomaswilliams.bsky.social
The Simpsons did almost exactly the same joke in s5
December 31, 2024 at 1:12 PM
thomaswilliams.bsky.social
I assumed the yellow group was a red herring, which held me up briefly. But still:
Screenshot showing a perfect result on today’s NYT Connections game
December 24, 2024 at 11:18 AM