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Tom King

@tallgeekychap.bsky.social

440 followers 470 following 1.9K posts

Seeking a future that isn't the end-point of where we are. I believe in a more generous society: generoussociety.com Political consultant running a small firm after many years of working for others.

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Tom King @tallgeekychap.bsky.social · 17h

Many people are saying the BBC's news values are a bit skew-whiff.

Tom King @tallgeekychap.bsky.social · 15h

Indeed! Mostly because senior Labour MPs kept coming out and saying it couldn't work and the party should just go into opposition.

Tom King @tallgeekychap.bsky.social · 15h

This BBC timeline, meanwhile, suggests Labour were offering to put AV into law and then hold a confirmatory referendum on it. news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_poli...

BBC News - Election 2010 Timeline: How coalition was agreed

news.bbc.co.uk

Tom King @tallgeekychap.bsky.social · 15h

The article contradicts itself at the bottom by suggesting they offered moving to AV for the Commons without a referendum, and a further referendum on STV/PR.

Basically the Lab position was never actually clear because the numbers never allowed for a deal in the first place.

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Tom King @tallgeekychap.bsky.social · 15h

Nah. If they offered anything it was legislation for a referendum on AV (which is the same as what the Tories then offered).

From here: www.theguardian.com/politics/201...

Tom King @tallgeekychap.bsky.social · 15h

The Lib Dems would obviously have killed for 22% of the seats. They had 23% of the vote and under 9% of the seats.

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Tom King @tallgeekychap.bsky.social · 17h

Many people are saying the BBC's news values are a bit skew-whiff.

Tom King @tallgeekychap.bsky.social · 17h

Is it perhaps time to recognise that the number of politicians active in the UK (or, I suspect, anywhere else) with a genuine deeply held set of ideological principles built on any intellectual tradition is... extremely tiny? It would be quicker to name the ones you think *do* have it.

Tom King @tallgeekychap.bsky.social · 19h

High-level 'reckons' breach

Jessica Elgot @jessicaelgot.bsky.social · 1d

Not really the main point for these witnesses statements but this is unbelievably low grade stuff to be passing on.

Tugendhat did not in fact get a cabinet job and Jeremy Hunt endorsed Rishi Sunak. Did the Chinese realise how crap all this intelligence was?

Reposted by Tom King

Duncan Hothersall @dhothersall.bsky.social · 21h

It's really telling that mainstream journalists are doing stuff about the *possibility* of the ADF or the Heritage Foundation starting to influence UK politics, when the reality is that they have been here for years, spending huge quantities of cash and succeeding in areas like trans rights.

The News Agents @newsagents.bsky.social · 1d

"The ADF has chosen Nigel Farage to focus on, building up this ally who has the potential to be a JD Vance-like figure in the future."

Can the Christian group that influenced the overturning of Roe v. Wade bring its extreme views to the UK?

www.thenewsagents.co.uk/article/is-n...

Is Nigel Farage being used as a pawn by US Christian extremists? | The News Agents

A New York Times report suggests Nigel Farage is being backed by Alliance Defending Freedom – a conservative Christian group dedicated to rolling back rights of many groups in the US. What does this…

www.thenewsagents.co.uk

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Tom King @tallgeekychap.bsky.social · 20h

Sinners is the only out and out fun film on that list.

The Departed is decent but insubstantial.

No Country for Old Men is the most tense.

There Will Be Blood is the best drama.

Killers of the Flower Moon is overlong, harrowing, and uneven.

Gangs of New York is doggerel.

Tom King @tallgeekychap.bsky.social · 1d

I urge you to read Technopoly by Neil Postman, if you haven't before. And then if you want something to really get your teeth into, Golumbia's Cyberlibertarianism.