Rob Elliot
rob.lidalia.org.uk
Rob Elliot
@rob.lidalia.org.uk
Not one of the five political parties vying to run Britain seems to be made up of serious, competent people with a realistic plan and the ability to explain the constraints of reality to the British people.
November 13, 2025 at 11:44 PM
After all these years I *still* have to hit myself over the head and say "write a test you idiot" after half an hour of staring at a stacktrace & the code & trying to reason about how it happened.
November 7, 2025 at 9:53 AM
Reposted by Rob Elliot
October 30, 2025 at 3:49 PM
Reposted by Rob Elliot
This Is Just To Say

I have looked
at the works
that were around
the statue

and which
you had probably
assumed
were still mighty

Forgive me
your legs are
so vast
and so trunkless
Poor chap, his lip always wrinkling
And now he's dead
It must have been two legs or the heart fed that way
They said.

Oh, no no no, head half sunk all sideways
(Look on my Works, despairing!)
I had far too much clout all my life
And not waving but frowning.
my name is Oz
and wen the stone
is broke to bits
and all alone
i lie in sand
it stretches bare
you read my words
you pls despair
October 30, 2025 at 5:22 PM
Reposted by Rob Elliot
urgently need you guys to know that this French politician below 1) didn't know he'd been appointed as a minister until he saw it on TV 2) reacted by going: "bah pfff voilà"
Le nouveau ministre de la Ruralité, Michel Fournier, raconte avoir appris sa nomination à la télé

Le plus vieux ministre nommé sous la Ve République précise avoir discuté avec le Premier ministre «deux jours avant», sans que rien ne soit arrêté. «Comment j’ai réagi ? Bah pfff voilà», résume-t-il.
Le nouveau ministre de la Ruralité, Michel Fournier, raconte avoir appris sa nomination à la télé
Le plus vieux ministre nommé sous la Ve République a précisé avoir discuté avec le Premier ministre «deux jours avant», sans que rien ne soit arrêté.
www.liberation.fr
October 16, 2025 at 9:23 AM
It shouldn't really be controversial to point out that the tax / benefit system should not mean a salary rise makes you poorer, and that the effective tax rate should only ever increase per salary band, it should not go up and then down. Even if the discrepancies only affect the well off.
October 15, 2025 at 9:30 AM
This royal throne of kings, this scepter'd isle,
This land of such dear souls, this dear dear land,
Dear for her reputation through the world,
Is now leased out like to a tenement or pelting farm.
September 18, 2025 at 4:12 PM
Reposted by Rob Elliot
I've written to Keir Starmer, Kemi Badenoch and Nigel Farage, urging them to join me in condemning Elon Musk's dangerous remarks inciting violence yesterday.

As leaders, we must stand together and make clear Musk will face serious consequences for these actions.
September 14, 2025 at 6:30 PM
Reposted by Rob Elliot
September 14, 2025 at 4:57 PM
If human aligned general super intelligent AI were possible, and happened, it would be a disaster for Thiel and Musk and co, wouldn't it?

It's very hard to see how it could conclude that that such manifestly flawed individuals having such disproportianate power was still in humanity's interests.
September 14, 2025 at 5:59 PM
Is there anyway to prevent being shown a repost of a post you’ve already seen? The relentless self-publicity reposts are becoming a huge pain.
September 13, 2025 at 10:47 AM
Reposted by Rob Elliot
This frontispiece in my book just made me laugh a lot. Is this Buddhist reincarnation, or some other form of afterlife?
September 7, 2025 at 9:20 PM
Theory: fine the hire providers for every misdemeanour committed on their bikes. Automatically recognising a Lime bike should be easy. I reckon at least half of bad cycling is done on hire bikes.

Push the problem of working out how to identify & fine / ban the malefactors onto the providers.
September 9, 2025 at 11:37 AM
I had absolutely no idea that Edward I had met a Chinese Christian monk from what is now Beijing. How extraordinary.

www.seenandunseen.com/edward-i-and...
Edward I and the monk from China | Seen & Unseen
www.seenandunseen.com
September 8, 2025 at 6:29 PM
Reposted by Rob Elliot
“Fellow hellraisers Coldplay” is a phrase no human would ever write.
September 8, 2025 at 11:25 AM
A good old @kevlin.bsky.social from @inoreader.com's chrome extension
September 8, 2025 at 8:34 AM
Mackenzie Crook has a new comedy coming - Small Prophets.

Looking forward to it very much, Detectorists is an absolute jewel, one of the best things I've ever watched.
September 7, 2025 at 5:34 PM
It's a strange thing that we will punish a politician much more heavily for committing an infraction we expected them not to commit than we will another politician for being the sort of person we expect to, and does, commit far worse infractions.
September 5, 2025 at 10:37 AM
I do hope purgatory is real. There would be a wonderful irony in all these dreadful tech bros getting their wish of tens of thousands of years, but having to spend them working out their sins.
September 3, 2025 at 6:02 PM
Hobby horse of mine, but I wonder if it might actually be in Labour’s interest to introduce transferable voting at the next election?
September 1, 2025 at 5:16 AM
The murder rate in close proximity to Lord Peter Wimsey makes Midsomer look positively safe. Man should be preceded by a public health warning.
August 31, 2025 at 10:17 AM
I still think rick-otch-ett would be a better pronunciation from an onomatopoeia perspective.
former kids who read too many books and didnt know how to pronounce the words you learned gang say hey
August 31, 2025 at 10:00 AM
One clever trick to not being convicted of a crime - when they ask you if you plead guilty or not guilty, reply “not guilty” and your odds improve drastically!
August 23, 2025 at 7:51 AM
Continuing with Dorothy L. Sayers, and Clouds of Witness is an unusual mash up of Psmith and Wuthering Heights
August 13, 2025 at 5:28 PM