John Davies
@jrsdavies.bsky.social
Old bloke. Now back living in NE London after sojourns in Oxford, Liverpool, Bloomsbury, Boston MA, Cardiff and N Ireland. Reads, sings in choirs, worries about Leyton Orient. Occasionally blogging at https://oldgeezerrereadingblog.wordpress.com/
Reposted by John Davies
Happy Advent to you and your kin! And everyone else's kin too, come to that. As every December so far this decade, I'm going to do an Advent Calendar of beautiful and brilliant carols, with each day's added to a YouTube playlist and also to the ongoing Spotify one, now in its sixth(!) year.
👇👇👇👇👇👇👇
👇👇👇👇👇👇👇
December 1, 2025 at 7:45 AM
Happy Advent to you and your kin! And everyone else's kin too, come to that. As every December so far this decade, I'm going to do an Advent Calendar of beautiful and brilliant carols, with each day's added to a YouTube playlist and also to the ongoing Spotify one, now in its sixth(!) year.
👇👇👇👇👇👇👇
👇👇👇👇👇👇👇
Reposted by John Davies
The UK, where the day after a decision to take half a million children out of poverty, the media & political world has been full of sneering at those same children & their families, labelling them as ‘Benefits Street’, while the same people are moaning about a tax on £2m mansions. Shameful stuff.
November 27, 2025 at 8:22 PM
The UK, where the day after a decision to take half a million children out of poverty, the media & political world has been full of sneering at those same children & their families, labelling them as ‘Benefits Street’, while the same people are moaning about a tax on £2m mansions. Shameful stuff.
Reposted by John Davies
THREAD.
3 years ago, with no warning, a brilliant orange farm cat wandered over from the draughty barn where he had been living, in rural Cornwall, and decided he wanted to live with us instead.
We decided to call him Jim.
This is the first photo I took of him, on that night: December 1st, 2022.
3 years ago, with no warning, a brilliant orange farm cat wandered over from the draughty barn where he had been living, in rural Cornwall, and decided he wanted to live with us instead.
We decided to call him Jim.
This is the first photo I took of him, on that night: December 1st, 2022.
November 26, 2025 at 8:44 PM
THREAD.
3 years ago, with no warning, a brilliant orange farm cat wandered over from the draughty barn where he had been living, in rural Cornwall, and decided he wanted to live with us instead.
We decided to call him Jim.
This is the first photo I took of him, on that night: December 1st, 2022.
3 years ago, with no warning, a brilliant orange farm cat wandered over from the draughty barn where he had been living, in rural Cornwall, and decided he wanted to live with us instead.
We decided to call him Jim.
This is the first photo I took of him, on that night: December 1st, 2022.
Reposted by John Davies
"My NHS colleagues & I weren’t willing to let the bodies pile high in their thousands. Boris no longer mentions them at all."
My piece on the responses to the UK Covid-UK Inquiry report that try to airbrush the dead away.
Sincere thanks, @theobserveruk.bsky.social.
observer.co.uk/news/nationa...
My piece on the responses to the UK Covid-UK Inquiry report that try to airbrush the dead away.
Sincere thanks, @theobserveruk.bsky.social.
observer.co.uk/news/nationa...
I’ll never forget the horror of the Covid wards | The Observer
observer.co.uk
November 23, 2025 at 9:18 AM
"My NHS colleagues & I weren’t willing to let the bodies pile high in their thousands. Boris no longer mentions them at all."
My piece on the responses to the UK Covid-UK Inquiry report that try to airbrush the dead away.
Sincere thanks, @theobserveruk.bsky.social.
observer.co.uk/news/nationa...
My piece on the responses to the UK Covid-UK Inquiry report that try to airbrush the dead away.
Sincere thanks, @theobserveruk.bsky.social.
observer.co.uk/news/nationa...
Well said, NUJ
The NUJ has issued a statement in response to the resignations of Tim Davie, BBC director-general, and Deborah Turness, BBC News chief executive
www.nuj.org.uk/resource/nuj...
www.nuj.org.uk/resource/nuj...
NUJ reacts to BBC leadership resignations
The NUJ has issued a statement in response to the resignations of Tim Davie, BBC director-general, and Deborah Turness, BBC News chief executive.
www.nuj.org.uk
November 10, 2025 at 12:18 PM
Well said, NUJ
I'm sorry, it has to be Walthamstow Central's William Morris tiles
Have been contemplating what my favourite mural on the Victoria line is and I think it's the Tottenham Hale one.
November 3, 2025 at 7:15 PM
I'm sorry, it has to be Walthamstow Central's William Morris tiles
For the fourth time this year, we're experiencing a Virgin broadband 'outage'. What have we done to deserve this? #Virginmedia
November 2, 2025 at 8:01 PM
For the fourth time this year, we're experiencing a Virgin broadband 'outage'. What have we done to deserve this? #Virginmedia
Reposted by John Davies
You know what - it would be really life affirming if just for once - THIS 👇 was the story
Next time someone tells you that train drivers "just push buttons" show them this from the BBC
November 2, 2025 at 7:11 PM
You know what - it would be really life affirming if just for once - THIS 👇 was the story
Enjoying the #Ozymandias versions springing up unbidden here
"Create works so great that they will induce despair in the mighty. Your time starts now."
"Nobody's just going to chuck a couple of giant legs up in the desert and call it job done, are they?"
"Definitely not, Greg. First up - let's see how Ozymandias got on."
"Nobody's just going to chuck a couple of giant legs up in the desert and call it job done, are they?"
"Definitely not, Greg. First up - let's see how Ozymandias got on."
October 30, 2025 at 7:53 PM
Enjoying the #Ozymandias versions springing up unbidden here
Re BBC Question Time: my admttedly hazy memory from working at Radio Times was that when it started in Sept 1979 it was a hastily devised stopgap when a nightly BBC1 Parkinson chat show plan was abandoned. Even then it was a tired format, borrowed from Radio4 #bbcqt
October 30, 2025 at 7:01 PM
Re BBC Question Time: my admttedly hazy memory from working at Radio Times was that when it started in Sept 1979 it was a hastily devised stopgap when a nightly BBC1 Parkinson chat show plan was abandoned. Even then it was a tired format, borrowed from Radio4 #bbcqt
Reposted by John Davies
At a time when global politics is dominated by ignorant, bigoted, careless dickheads, Ireland elected a humane, intelligent and articulate president. That's really the story here, isn't it.
October 27, 2025 at 10:27 AM
At a time when global politics is dominated by ignorant, bigoted, careless dickheads, Ireland elected a humane, intelligent and articulate president. That's really the story here, isn't it.
Reposted by John Davies
The whataboutism on Gaza really rankles, especially for those of us who have spent our careers reporting on the crises Israel's defenders cynically invoke as so much worse than Gaza. I wrote about how it actually compares, and what the true toll may be. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/23/o...
Opinion | What Happened in Gaza Might Be Even Worse Than We Think
www.nytimes.com
October 23, 2025 at 1:46 PM
The whataboutism on Gaza really rankles, especially for those of us who have spent our careers reporting on the crises Israel's defenders cynically invoke as so much worse than Gaza. I wrote about how it actually compares, and what the true toll may be. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/23/o...
One more for the #1925club: Edith Wharton's The Mother's Recompense
oldgeezerrereadingblog.wordpress.com/2025/10/
oldgeezerrereadingblog.wordpress.com/2025/10/
October 2025 – Old geezer re-reading
1 post published by jrsdavies during October 2025
oldgeezerrereadingblog.wordpress.com
October 21, 2025 at 10:10 PM
One more for the #1925club: Edith Wharton's The Mother's Recompense
oldgeezerrereadingblog.wordpress.com/2025/10/
oldgeezerrereadingblog.wordpress.com/2025/10/
Reposted by John Davies
If you read one article about the nonsense of recent days, make it this one. Not least because it also acknowledges that the trend towards blanket away-fan bans is problematic.
Standing with Maccabi’s football hooligans against local police – is that what patriotism looks like now? | Jonathan Liew
Standing with Maccabi’s football hooligans against local police – is that what patriotism looks like now? | Jonathan Liew
Tommy Robinson is said to be going to Villa Park as a Maccabi Tel Aviv fan. Do the politicians jumping on this bandwagon care what they are doing, asks Guardian columnist Jonathan Liew
www.theguardian.com
October 21, 2025 at 7:49 AM
If you read one article about the nonsense of recent days, make it this one. Not least because it also acknowledges that the trend towards blanket away-fan bans is problematic.
Reposted by John Davies
116 children didn't come home from school that day. Never forget. Aberfan 💔
October 21, 2025 at 5:50 AM
116 children didn't come home from school that day. Never forget. Aberfan 💔
Hey, @kaggsy59.bsky.social (or whoever makes the rules), can I submit for the #1925club a blog I wrote a couple of months ago on 1925's The Great Gatsby? Here's the link oldgeezerrereadingblog.wordpress.com/2025/08/20/r...
Re-reading The Great Gatsby … and Accident
Another centenary: after celebrating the 100th anniversary of Russell Hoban’s birth, we turned to the even more famous Scott Fitzgerald for a re-reading of his The Great Gatsby, first published in …
oldgeezerrereadingblog.wordpress.com
October 20, 2025 at 10:35 AM
Hey, @kaggsy59.bsky.social (or whoever makes the rules), can I submit for the #1925club a blog I wrote a couple of months ago on 1925's The Great Gatsby? Here's the link oldgeezerrereadingblog.wordpress.com/2025/08/20/r...
For one day only, I could say I was the man in @seatsixtyone.bsky.social (and the Eurostar was on time, too)
October 15, 2025 at 8:20 PM
For one day only, I could say I was the man in @seatsixtyone.bsky.social (and the Eurostar was on time, too)
Reposted by John Davies
Want to kill the BritCard digital ID scheme dead in a day?
Insist that Keir Starmer spends a day volunteering in a public library to deal with all the tech support requests.
Insist that Keir Starmer spends a day volunteering in a public library to deal with all the tech support requests.
September 27, 2025 at 10:41 AM
Want to kill the BritCard digital ID scheme dead in a day?
Insist that Keir Starmer spends a day volunteering in a public library to deal with all the tech support requests.
Insist that Keir Starmer spends a day volunteering in a public library to deal with all the tech support requests.
Let's assume a digital ID system is 'rolled out'. So like any big project, there'll be what its defenders will call 'glitches'. And there'll be headlines such as 'OAP denied treatment because his/her ID doesn't work'. Ready for that? #digitalID
September 26, 2025 at 11:00 AM
Let's assume a digital ID system is 'rolled out'. So like any big project, there'll be what its defenders will call 'glitches'. And there'll be headlines such as 'OAP denied treatment because his/her ID doesn't work'. Ready for that? #digitalID
Reposted by John Davies
Ok. They’ve pissed me off.
I’m back to tell you 3 things about ID cards:
1. Migrants ALREADY HAVE biometric ID cards & govts have been trying to digitise them for years w repeated fuckups & failures causing complete chaos - they don’t work, you do not want that system for you.
I’m back to tell you 3 things about ID cards:
1. Migrants ALREADY HAVE biometric ID cards & govts have been trying to digitise them for years w repeated fuckups & failures causing complete chaos - they don’t work, you do not want that system for you.
September 26, 2025 at 8:27 AM
Ok. They’ve pissed me off.
I’m back to tell you 3 things about ID cards:
1. Migrants ALREADY HAVE biometric ID cards & govts have been trying to digitise them for years w repeated fuckups & failures causing complete chaos - they don’t work, you do not want that system for you.
I’m back to tell you 3 things about ID cards:
1. Migrants ALREADY HAVE biometric ID cards & govts have been trying to digitise them for years w repeated fuckups & failures causing complete chaos - they don’t work, you do not want that system for you.
A great list - not only because it includes Epping Forest, riding on top of a bus and the Wallace Collection. Mentions must-visit places I'd never heard of ...
subsequent to the orange man shooting his mouth off about London, I did the second part of my 100 things I love in London. because I mean, really:
open.substack.com/pub/naomiald...
open.substack.com/pub/naomiald...
43 more things I love in London
still just filled to the brim with wonder
open.substack.com
September 26, 2025 at 10:51 AM
A great list - not only because it includes Epping Forest, riding on top of a bus and the Wallace Collection. Mentions must-visit places I'd never heard of ...
Reposted by John Davies
Why are the American president's claims about autism the first item on British news bulletins?
He's not our president, the advice doesn't apply here and he's not presented any evidence to support his assertions.
So why spread these claims? What make this the biggest story in the UK?
He's not our president, the advice doesn't apply here and he's not presented any evidence to support his assertions.
So why spread these claims? What make this the biggest story in the UK?
September 23, 2025 at 6:51 AM
Why are the American president's claims about autism the first item on British news bulletins?
He's not our president, the advice doesn't apply here and he's not presented any evidence to support his assertions.
So why spread these claims? What make this the biggest story in the UK?
He's not our president, the advice doesn't apply here and he's not presented any evidence to support his assertions.
So why spread these claims? What make this the biggest story in the UK?
Reposted by John Davies
Yes, in case you missed it, the U.K. does have a big problem with free speech.
No, it’s not the problem Vance et al are talking about.
No, it’s not the problem Vance et al are talking about.
September 17, 2025 at 11:33 AM
Yes, in case you missed it, the U.K. does have a big problem with free speech.
No, it’s not the problem Vance et al are talking about.
No, it’s not the problem Vance et al are talking about.