'London Dreams: Sleeping Cat and BT Tower' by Edward Luper
edwardluperart.com

Congrats!

I booked a tour of the parliament building while visiting London around this time last year, and it was really cool to see the HoC and the surrounding rooms. I'd definitely recommend it to anyone interested in that sort of thing.

The clock tower looks really impressive after its restoration too!

Windows 10 goes out of support today. My fave useless fact about w10 is that the iconic blue desktop background is a *photograph* - not CGI.

Tiny 'making of' vid here - youtu.be/_2RacX9DgWM...

The problem seems to be twofold: the changes are so harsh that many people are potentially disqualified, but it's so poorly-communicated that it's getting increasingly difficult to keep up with.

But yeah. If it's bad for migrants and their families, it must be a headache for their employers too!

Seeing the spelling mistakes in pics like this - which remind me of the infamous Glasgow Wonka exhibition ads! - are like that moment when you start lucid dreaming. It looks superficially fine, but as soon as you pay proper attention, you see the "trick" and realise that it isn't real

The appeal of podcasts, for me at least, is a sweet spot between videos and written articles, where my ears are on you while my eyes are focused on some other task. Depending on the subject matter, it's very much a niche that still exists!

Is that an extension of the "pivot to video" fad that many of us have been grumbling about for years? Some stuff works best in a video format. Other stuff is fine as audio or, indeed, a written article...for the very reasons you mention!

A very helpful thread.

This is no criticism of Otto - I'm glad he's posted it - but it's pretty damning that I'm getting a clearer explanation of the situation from some kind-hearted dude on bsky than, y'know, the actual government's comms team. Whose job it is to explain this stuff

Some changes to immigration rules today, not just increasing English language requirements, mean migrants looking to live and work in UK will have to meet far far higher standards than British nationals, while paying vast sums to be allowed to do so. That isn't a system based on "fairness". 1/

We need a full feature-length version of this, huh?

I can't explain it but this Godzilla fig is radiating a lot of Beavis energy

水着

朝

It may be that I have to remain outwith the UK after all

The way things are going, it's unlikely that my future spouse will be able to move here (despite her English fluency).

I'm starting to think about the possibility of selling up, moving to her country instead and getting a job there

I don't think the government themselves know tbh. And I'm not being facetious! This looks like less of a well-thought-out policy and more like a hastily-drafted press release intended to appease the newspapers and the racist people who read them.

Reform are ahead in the polls, so Labour are scared

Interestingly (by which I mean: infuriatingly and worryingly), this is the sort of level that's expected. I only got 79%, because there's often more than one potentially correct answer, but the test only accepts one of them. So you need better-than-native fluency *and* luck!

queen of olympus

I wonder whether I'll be forced to take A-level English when I apply for a new job, and where I'll be deported to if I refuse

Unironically this.

I studied English as far as GCSE and I was born here, along with millions of others.

This is xenophobic and indefensible

I think that we just reached peak Non Job

I'd put money on 0% of that ad being written by a human

RIP Drew Struzan