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Reposted by Alex

Commissioner for Human Rights @commissionerhr.coe.int · 3h

Read my two letters to the #UK:
1. Protests: I call for a review of the legal framework and the reconsideration of provisions in the Crime & Policing Bill that could restrict freedom of assembly.
2. Trans people: I warn against exclusion&zero-sum approaches
👇#HumanRights
www.coe.int/en/web/commi...

United Kingdom: Commissioner addresses human rights issues in policing of protests and the situation of trans people - Commissioner for Human Rights - www.coe.int

Strasbourg 14/10/2025

www.coe.int

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Alex @alexical.bsky.social · 1d

As well as the five emoji reactions, Teams calls should have pronoun reactions so I can correct people while they're talking without having to unmute to exclaim "they!" at them. 🙄

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👻madeline boOoOoOodent👻 @oldenoughtosay.com · 6d

Wrote a lil bit for the Clarion about Speedwell House, for those of you who saw my posts on it the other day! Am I ready for Serious Historians to call me ridiculous? Yes. Did I have a lot of fun writing it? Also yes

Oxford Clarion @oxfordclarion.bsky.social · 6d

An unexpected archaeological discovery in Oxfordshire County Council’s proposed new HQ could transform our understanding of Oxford’s history. Madeline Odent @oldenoughtosay.com unearths a fascinating site – and floats an intriguing possibility…

oxfordclarion.uk/have-we-foun...

Have we found St Frideswide’s Priory?

An unexpected discovery at Oxfordshire County Council’s proposed new HQ could transform our understanding of Oxford’s history. Madeline Odent explains more… Oxfordshire County Council received some u...

oxfordclarion.uk

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CoHSAT - Coalition for Healthy Streets and Active Travel (Oxon) @cohsat.bsky.social · 6d

"Give us options" they said...
Free bus travel and a host of extra services are coming to Oxford, thanks to clearer roads of the Temporary Congestion Charge
www.oxfordbus.co.uk/free-bus-tra...

A bus and the caption 'Free bus travel to coincide with congestion charge'
(from BBC website)

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LGBTIQA+ Greens @lgbtiqagreens.bsky.social · 19d

An attack on one of us is an attack on all of us.

A brief statement in solidarity with Liberal Democrat councillor Chris Northwood @chrisn.xyz

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Alex @alexical.bsky.social · 20d

Lucifer statues just can't not be sexy. I don't make the rules (sculptors make the rules)

Sir Jacob Epstein’s Lucifer (1945). A gold masculine figure with wings unfurled upwards. He has longer hair and wears no clothes above his hips except for chest-binding. Lower "underwear" is similarly scant, with thongs around the upper thigh and across the groin. I think some would describe his build as "ripped". Image from https://www.birminghammuseums.org.uk/stories/lucifer-at-home-in-birmingham

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Alex @alexical.bsky.social · 22d

:-D. And now I've found www.oxfordhistory.org.uk/cornmarket/w... etc and looks like that's my next few hours lost to reading 😅

44-46 Cornmarket

www.oxfordhistory.org.uk

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Alex @alexical.bsky.social · 22d

I read your Cheng Yu Tung thread with appreciation on the (other) blue hell site, so fair enough if the answer is just "that, many times over, over a long time"!

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Alex @alexical.bsky.social · 22d

I've always been fascinated by how high streets evolve (including Cornmarket here). Like if you look up above the store fronts there are always so many eras and styles smushed up against each other. I assume older ones are regularly replaced over the decades, or maybe it's also some filling in gaps?

A view from StreetView of the upper storeys of the buildings on the west side of Cornmarket, from the north end. From the distance, there's the Clarendon centre, an older fancy looking building, a rectangly concrete thing (said without judgement), something in brick, and then various rendered buildings that look 20th C but are probably actually older behind the render? idk, I am not a buildings expert!

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Alex @alexical.bsky.social · Sep 12

So he is, oops! Apologies @calummillerld.bsky.social for missing you, and thank you for your support! ❤️

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Alex @alexical.bsky.social · Sep 12

@calummillerld.bsky.social Would you sign this too? 🙏🏻

Wendy Chamberlain MP @wendychambld.bsky.social · Sep 12

I’ve signed this letter calling for full parliamentary scrutiny of the EHRC’s guidance.

Trans people deserve clarity, dignity, and safe access to services - not uncertainty and exclusion. Parliament must ensure that any guidance reflects lived experience and protects everyone’s rights.

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Pwnallthethings @pwnallthethings.bsky.social · Sep 7

The flip side is also that by focusing on net migration, the UK counts its own brain drain of young talent *as a positive* in its own numbers. It's like the economic version of a death cult

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Alex @alexical.bsky.social · Sep 2

It's in my Kobo wishlist (was trying not to buy All The Books at once) but is apparently now unavailable 😭. Do you know what's happened to it or where I can buy an ePub?

Reposted by Alex

The Green Party of England & Wales @greenparty.org.uk · Sep 2

Congratulations to the newly elected Leader of the Green Party of England & Wales, @zackpolanski.bsky.social

Leadership elections results

New Leader

Zack Polanski

Photo of Zack Polanski

REAL HOPE. REAL CHANGE.

Green Party

Promoted by Chris Williams on behalf of The Green Party, both at PO Box 78066, London SE16 9GQ

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Alex @alexical.bsky.social · Sep 2

Oh shush

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Jacey is a suitable combo of my actual name for privacy reasons @spacegrace.bsky.social · Sep 1

The new Executive Director of Communications at Number 10 has been appointed by Starmer, and it is Tim Allan who was a trustee for Sex Matters until today.

Labour are embedding transphobia into every facet of their operations and British political life in general.

Google search showing Tim Allan as a trustee of Sex Matters:

X
Sex Matters
https://sex-matters.org
Tim Allan
Tim Allan's career has spanned working as a senior advisor in 10 Downing Street for Tony Blair, running corporate communications for BSkyB and founding a ...
Sex Matters
https://sex-matters.org
Sex Matters appoints new trustees
20 Sept 2024 - Sex Matters appointed Tim Allan, Kate Owen, Anya Palmer and Claire Weir as new trustees, joining existing board members Naomi Cunningham,...
About our new trustees
Tim Allan
Kate Owen

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Alex @alexical.bsky.social · Aug 28

PDS no longer requires gender when searching without an NHS number for people anyway, following some trans-inclusive service design for COVID vaccination booking. The question just doesn't need to be asked. digital.nhs.uk/blog/design-...

Making booking a vaccine more inclusive - NHS England Digital

As we developed the COVID-19 vaccination national booking service in 2020, we became aware that a question that asked users for their gender might be a barrier for some people wanting to book a vaccin...

digital.nhs.uk

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Alex @alexical.bsky.social · Aug 20

They've replied to Elias to say that trans women are welcome to have bra fittings at their stores, so hopefully they'll say the same if/when they reply to you! 🤞

bsky.app/profile/manc...

Spooky neighbourhood baby octoghost @mancalledhorse.bsky.social · Aug 19

Update: M&S are cool and GCs and the Sun are filthy liars

I can confirm that this is the case indeed, we want our stores to be inclusive and welcoming places for all our customers.

I hope you enjoy the rest of your day.

Kind regards

Vince Struelens

Your M&S Customer Service

M&S

[Redacted] wrote:

On 18 August 2025 at 15:26:43 UTC,

Hi Vince,

Thank you for getting back to me so quickly and for stating M&S's position on inclusion. Could you please confirm that M&S will continue to allow trans women to have bra fittings and will not be changing that policy in the face of this obnoxious bullying campaign?

Thank you,

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Alex @alexical.bsky.social · Aug 18

And bsky.app/profile/manc... too :-)

Spooky neighbourhood baby octoghost @mancalledhorse.bsky.social · Aug 18

I've emailed the CEO

Dear sir,

I'm very concerned today to read press reports that Marks and Spencer will be banning transgender women from receiving bra fittings and possibly even trying on any clothes at all in your stores. Some reports have implied that you will be banning transgender staff from working on floors of your stores where women's underwear is sold.

Marks and Spencers has long had a reputation as a retailer and employer that is safe and supportive for trans people, and LGBTQ+ people in general, so it is extremely disappointing to read these reports.

I know newspaper reporting on transgender issues is often extremely inaccurate and based on the press releases of a handful of opaquely-funded activist organisations that are working to exclude transgender people from society, so can you please confirm if it's true that your spokesperson said that your shops will only provide bra fittings for "biological females"? If so, what is your organisation's reasoning that excluding transgender women from bra fittings would be a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim, when on the face of it such a service would normally be offered to anybody with breasts, regardless of what their birth certificate says. What would be the legitimate aim here, and how would preventing a particular group of women with breasts - who share the Equality Act protected characteristic of gender reassignment - from buying bras in your shops be a proportionate means of achieving that aim?

What will your process be for sensitively assuring that those customers you allow to access bra fittings are indeed all cisgender women, given that cisgender women - and particularly lesbian, bisexual and queer cisgender women - do not all conform in appearance to stereotypical gender norms?

Will you be asking all women booking fittings to provide documentary proof of their "biological sex" or will you be relying on your staff to make judgements based on appearance?

Are you prepared to defend employment tribunals brought by your transgender staff members outed against their will or excluded by virtue of the protected characteristic of gender reassignment from working in certain sections of your stores when those areas will still be accessible by cisgender men buying clothes for their partners?

I hope to receive assurance from you that Marks and Spencer will not actually be capitulating to this bullying campaign by bigots, and that M&S will remain a safe place for transgender people, gender non conforming cisgender people, and all members of the LQBTQ+ community to shop, otherwise I will no longer be buying my clothes from you.

Yours,

Are you prepared to defend employment tribunals brought by your transgender staff members outed against their will or excluded by virtue of the protected characteristic of gender reassignment from working in certain sections of your stores when those areas will still be accessible by cisgender men buying clothes for their partners?

I hope to receive assurance from you that Marks and Spencer will not actually be capitulating to this bullying campaign by bigots, and that M&S will remain a safe place for transgender people, gender non conforming cisgender people, and all members of the LQBTQ+ community to shop, otherwise I will no longer be buying my clothes from you.

Yours,

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Davis Bickford @davis.social · Aug 18

4 panel DeepSpace Nine meme

Panel one Dr. Julian Bashir asks "Do you think the rail workers should strike?"
Panel two Garak replies "All exploited workers should strike!"
Panel three Dr. Julian Bashir asks "Even if it will disrupt the economy?"
Panel four Garak with a smile replies "Especially if it will disrupt the economy!"

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rahaeli @rahaeli.bsky.social · Aug 17

lol, this quiz is hilarious. (I only scored 16/21, which is why I finally gave up running my own mail server because I couldn't take it anymore.)

jag @i-am-j.ag · Aug 17

I scored 19/21 on e-mail.wtf and all I got was this lousy text to share on social media.

I ran the email services for a regional ISP for a few years. I know way too much about the email RFCs.

Email is Easy

Everyone knows what an email address is, right?

e-mail.wtf

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LorennaCleary.bsky.social @lorennacleary.bsky.social · Aug 8

Tiktokers knew in advance how to subvert censorship. The younger ones had made up a new language that was often juvenile and sometimes offensive just to get around TikTok’s algorithm. An algorithm that censored content that was controversial. bsky.app/profile/rowa...

Rowan Zeoli @rowanzeoli.bsky.social · Aug 8

It's so surreal to see people talking about this in code

Aug 07 protest til tok video, with a river of protesters in downtown LA

24 hour music festival here's the tea you need to know til tok video with a woman image overlaid on top of a fed in riot gear

Los Angeles music video header on a clip of protestors holding Mexican flags

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Ine Harsten 📎 @iharsten.bsky.social · Aug 10

Al Jazeera now confirm their crew in Gaza City have all been assassinated:

News Eye @newseye.bsky.social · Aug 10

Anas Al-Sharif was one of the most remarkable reporters of his generation. For 673 days, he defied Israeli threats to kill him.

Al Jazeera now confirm their crew in Gaza City have all been assassinated:

RIP reporters Anas Al-Sharif & Mohammed Qareqea and cameramen Ibrahim Zaher & Mohammed Nofal

Anas Al-Sharif pictured with his two young children that he is holding. They are all smiling.

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Liz Carolan @lizcarolan.com · Aug 6

Israel is storing recordings of Palestinians daily phone calls - millions of them - that they analyse to plan airstrikes / kill people - in Irish data centres

Sweet Jesus

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...

‘A million calls an hour’: Israel relying on Microsoft cloud for expansive surveillance of Palestinians

Revealed: The Israeli military undertook an ambitious project to store a giant trove of Palestinians’ phone calls on Microsoft’s servers in Europe

www.theguardian.com

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