Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Chris Scott (he/him) @chrisdonia.bsky.social · 3h

Raise money by implementing mandatory, centrally funded, congestion charges in all UK cities over a certain size.

Real Gaz on a proper bike: [email protected] @gazza-d.bsky.social · 20h

Start with fuel duty.
10p a litre for starters, then make it rise with inflation every year. Like public transport fares do.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Rachel Reeves says she is looking at tax rises ahead of Budget

The chancellor also said she was considering further measures on public spending, in a bid to put the UK's finances on a firmer footing.

www.bbc.co.uk

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Reposted by Chris Scott (he/him)

Angus Main @angusmain.bsky.social · 22h

Theory: Something terrible happened to the deep-voiced guy who used to do the voice overs for movie trailers, and he can now only communicate by pressing a single key on a piano.

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Chris Scott (he/him) @chrisdonia.bsky.social · 3h

Some things only really make sense with a decent novel - Neverwhere (both formats written by the author) and The Abyss (author was present for much of the film's process) spring to mind.

Reposted by Chris Scott (he/him)

Dave Bulmer @demontomatodave.bsky.social · 14h

The novelisation is a missed opportunity and a lost art form, poached from us by capitalists.

We still know the stories of Robin Hood and King Arthur because of novelisations. Peter Pan & Hitchhiker were novelisations. They should be a thing all writers can enjoy doing, knowing it's a real art form

Rachel Feder @rachelfeder.bsky.social · 2d

Tell me your most unhinged literary opinion, as a little treat

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Kathryn Leia @voxossa.bsky.social · 11h

• Indiana Jones and the Same Sex Double Burial Who Were, Like, Probably Roommates or Something
• Indiana Jones and the Series of Small Walls
• Indiana Jones and the Object of Probable Ritual Significance That Looks Suspiciously Like a Seggs Toy

A screenshot listing more realistic Indiana Jones film titles

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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 11h

See this for what it is:
*Trump wants to make the military/FBI loyal to him
*GOP refuses bipartisan legislation to pay the military
*Trump creates a new executive power: that he and he alone decides if the military/FBI is paid during shutdown

donmoynihan.substack.com/p/the-shutdo...

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ryan cooper @ryanlcooper.com · 18h

"they've always been like this" is always a tempting savvy take but it is just not true that Republican staffers were 100 percent open Nazis back in 2004, or hell even 2014. they just weren't

Michael Caley @michaelcaley.bsky.social · 19h

there have been a lot of responses to this arguing that young Republicans were motivated by such feelings but didn't express them openly

and I think a crucial lesson of the Trump era is that there is great value in people not expressing these things openly! that's a big and decisive change!

Amanda Marcotte @amandamarcotte.bsky.social · 1d

For those tempted to say Young Republicans have always been this way, they really have not. When I worked on campus and did bipartisan college events after, they were very much not like this.

That’s why groups like YCT and eventually TPUSA formed — because Young Republicans weren’t radical enough.

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Carlton Reid @carltonreid.com · 3h

Astounding that America has fallen so far so fast.

Barbara Sobel @barbarasobel.bsky.social · 12h

RFK Jr: We need to stop trusting the experts... Trusting the experts is not a feature of science or democracy, it's a feature of religion and totalitarianism.

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Will Sebag-Montefiore @wsebag.bsky.social · 22h

A Level English for Migrants

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Tristan Grayford @tristangrayford.scot · 22h

Every time the far right talks about "free speech" what they mean is "we should be free to do and say whatever we like without any pushback or criticism, including as we silence you."

Jolyon Maugham KC @goodlawproject.org · 1d

Tl;Dr: lots of supposed free speech, anti cancel culture, activists are travelling to Oxford to try and cancel George Abaraonye for exercising his free speech.

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Reposted by Chris Scott (he/him)

Bold Politics with Zack Polanski @boldpolitics.bsky.social · 23h

The hypocrisy of Carole Malone finding a word offensive and then immediately asking a man whose ancestors actually fled the nazis... this:

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She Guevara @sheg7.bsky.social · 1d

Laura Kuenssberg is gunna try to proper hatchet-job him. You're gunna see her spend almost the entire interview being intellectually dishonest in an attempt to paint Polanski as a weirdo dreamer.

www.thenational.scot/news/2554271...

BBC caves to complaints and agrees to major Zack Polanski interview

ZACK Polanski will be interviewed by Laura Kuenssberg after the BBC received complaints from the public for the lack of coverage of the Green Party…

www.thenational.scot

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Chris Scott (he/him) @chrisdonia.bsky.social · 20h

I wish *advertisers* felt pain when you skipped their ads.

piper @roodypatooti.bsky.social · Aug 26

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Chris Scott (he/him) @chrisdonia.bsky.social · 21h

This should be a lesson in not embedding current trends in your writing, but for a while twitter WAS massively important and influential and the die-off was sudden and unpredictable so it's more like the exception that proves the rule 😕

Athena Kugblenu @athenakugblenu.bsky.social · 21h

just finished Yellowface and my takeaway is just how irrelevant Twitter has become. The way it is used by creatives, commentators and consumers is central to the novel. Now, the idea that an artist would care about Twitter feels dated. Tweets used to make the news. Truth Social gets more press now

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Owen Dennis @oweeeeendennis.bsky.social · 1d

Why does every single person who brings up bad apples seem to forget that the entire phrase is "One bad apple spoils the bunch"?

I'm not looking for every person to have absolute literacy on every subject, but I really think this one should be a baseline "do you understand English idioms" phrase.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 1d

Q: Politico reported on a group chat of young Republicans. Does this just reflect some bad apples?

HOCHUL: Some bad apples? These are the future of the GOP. This is so vile it's hard to find the words to put into context ... there's gotta be consequences ... this bullshit has to stop.

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Mr. Chau @srirachachau.bsky.social · 1d

It’s funny how the old media depiction of Nazis was always that they’re evil but dignified gentleman and now they’re openly just like “Hello. I’m the Anime Pedophile”

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Ian @brocktoon.bsky.social · 1d

Part 2: I gave my presentation (partly) on how I'm not sure Games Workshop cares about people making GW style miniatures. Then in real time they sued someone for doing just that.

Oops. But also maybe not oops. On analog games as platforms.

stuckness.ghost.io/when-your-ac...

When your academic presentation is maybe wrong, or Games Workshop sued someone again

My presentation at the Games Workshop Research Day last weekend was on the Chapterhouse case. Very, very briefly: Games Workshop lost (most of) a lawsuit against a small manufacturer of conversion "bi...

stuckness.ghost.io

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Reposted by Chris Scott (he/him)

Anna Frame @annaframe.bsky.social · 1d

There was a story literally last week about a teenager who killed themself after encouragement from Chat GPT. These are empty words. As ever, it’s profit above everything.

Dr Abeba Birhane @abeba.bsky.social · 1d

i don't have the words to emphasise how seriously bad things are gonna get

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Chris Scott (he/him) @chrisdonia.bsky.social · 1d

I'm not saying that kids today have it easy, I'm saying if anyone suggested making things like this now the parents would be lining the streets (and mumsnet) in disgust. We've gone soft and hysterical *as a culture*.

Scarred For Life @scarredforlife.bsky.social · 1d

Final Destination had nothing on British public information films.

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Chris Scott (he/him) @chrisdonia.bsky.social · 1d

Trouble is, to justify mass annual vaccinations they'd have to admit there was a need, which defies the covid-is-over narrative, as well as making the it's-just-flu line meaningless. Oh yeah and all the antivaxxers 😭😭😭

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Andrew Ducker @andrewducker.bsky.social · 1d

Today I spent £108 on getting myself vaccinated against Flu and Covid.

Which led me to wonder what the cost of days off is to the economy. And how far off we are from it being worth the government vaccinating everyone.

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Tristan Grayford @tristangrayford.scot · 1d

It's extremely macabre but how many bodies of hostages is Israel actually convinced are retrievable from Gaza after they eradicated entire settlements from the earth with bombs?

It screams looking for excuses to break the ceasefire.

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Chris Scott (he/him) @chrisdonia.bsky.social · 1d

I can think of one other person who's probably frothing 🤭

Chris Scott (he/him) @chrisdonia.bsky.social · 1d

I know Carcinisation is a popular concept these days but I'd prefer it if humans didn't behave like crabs 😒

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crab_me...

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Chris Scott (he/him) @chrisdonia.bsky.social · 2d

The only good England has served in the past few decades has been to bond most other countries together in united distaste.

Neil Mackay @neilmackay.bsky.social · 2d

The making of an identity crisis: how empire and the union drove England mad

Even Ulster Unionists now consider English - rather than Irish - nationalism the biggest threat to the union

If the UK collapses, it's down to England

In @heraldscotland.bsky.social
www.heraldscotland.com/politics/vie...

How Empire and the Union ruined England, by Neil Mackay

A case could be made that the best medicine for what ails England would be an English departure from the Union, argues Writer at Large Neil Mackay

www.heraldscotland.com

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