Tom Runnacles
@tomrunnacles.bsky.social
Software developer, philosopher, guitarist, whinger.
Reposted by Tom Runnacles
I wish I didn’t have to share this. But the BBC has decided to censor my first Reith Lecture.
They deleted the line in which I describe Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” /1
They deleted the line in which I describe Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” /1
November 25, 2025 at 9:26 AM
I wish I didn’t have to share this. But the BBC has decided to censor my first Reith Lecture.
They deleted the line in which I describe Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” /1
They deleted the line in which I describe Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” /1
Reposted by Tom Runnacles
"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...
Reposted by Tom Runnacles
Boston's Mayor Wu playing with Yo-Yo Ma at Symphony Hall
November 23, 2025 at 5:11 AM
Boston's Mayor Wu playing with Yo-Yo Ma at Symphony Hall
Reposted by Tom Runnacles
I despair to see the Labour Party die before my eyes. I am Irish, but am of the European social democratic family. I have always felt a close bond with UK Labour. Now, it is diving down reactionary racist rabbit holes, betraying ts basic values of social solidarity. If this is Labour, let it die.
Labour, you must be SO pleased with yourself.
You have the Yaxley-Lennon Endorsement.
@imogenwalker.bsky.social @darrenpjones.bsky.social @torstenbell.bsky.social
You have the Yaxley-Lennon Endorsement.
@imogenwalker.bsky.social @darrenpjones.bsky.social @torstenbell.bsky.social
November 16, 2025 at 11:26 AM
I despair to see the Labour Party die before my eyes. I am Irish, but am of the European social democratic family. I have always felt a close bond with UK Labour. Now, it is diving down reactionary racist rabbit holes, betraying ts basic values of social solidarity. If this is Labour, let it die.
Reposted by Tom Runnacles
Morally awful, administratively impossible & expensive.. and politically, the reverse of Starmer's panicked conference speech. A govt completely at sea, terrified & incoherent, throwing basic principles overboard in desperation
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
UK set to limit refugees to temporary stays
Shabana Mahmood is expected to say the era of permanent protection for refugees is over, in major changes to the UK's asylum and immigration system.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 15, 2025 at 9:32 AM
Morally awful, administratively impossible & expensive.. and politically, the reverse of Starmer's panicked conference speech. A govt completely at sea, terrified & incoherent, throwing basic principles overboard in desperation
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Reposted by Tom Runnacles
You can tell phrenologists are all lazy by the shape of their skulls
November 7, 2025 at 2:10 AM
You can tell phrenologists are all lazy by the shape of their skulls
Reposted by Tom Runnacles
A List of Things Said to Have Been Ruined by Women
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November 6, 2025 at 8:43 PM
A List of Things Said to Have Been Ruined by Women
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Reposted by Tom Runnacles
As a first order issue, management that decides it can deploy AI as an efficiency tool is already leveraging themselves into some combination of job cuts/lower hiring (at least relative to some counterfactual) position. So there's an ex ante incentive problem where the job cuts are proof of concept.
October 29, 2025 at 3:17 PM
As a first order issue, management that decides it can deploy AI as an efficiency tool is already leveraging themselves into some combination of job cuts/lower hiring (at least relative to some counterfactual) position. So there's an ex ante incentive problem where the job cuts are proof of concept.
Reposted by Tom Runnacles
Hear me out Slow Horses but Muppets, Jackson Lamb the only human
October 27, 2025 at 9:06 AM
Hear me out Slow Horses but Muppets, Jackson Lamb the only human
Reposted by Tom Runnacles
Here are my worst socio-political thoughts. I hope I am not really the person who believes these things.
sootyempiric.blogspot.com/2025/10/misa...
sootyempiric.blogspot.com/2025/10/misa...
Misanthropic Thoughts
What follows is not quite something I believe, nor even something I fear. It is something I fear I believe, my worst tendencies as a think...
sootyempiric.blogspot.com
October 25, 2025 at 7:57 PM
Here are my worst socio-political thoughts. I hope I am not really the person who believes these things.
sootyempiric.blogspot.com/2025/10/misa...
sootyempiric.blogspot.com/2025/10/misa...
Reposted by Tom Runnacles
"From our vantage point as a fundamentally innumerate body of milquetoast thinkers who are wrong about everything, holding fewer sincere beliefs is the key to electoral success."
The Partisans Are Wrong: Holding No Sincere Beliefs Is the Way to Win
“Moving to the center would enable Democrats to confront [Trump] more aggressively and effectively because voters would see them as credible.” — Fr...
buff.ly
October 21, 2025 at 3:21 PM
"From our vantage point as a fundamentally innumerate body of milquetoast thinkers who are wrong about everything, holding fewer sincere beliefs is the key to electoral success."
Reposted by Tom Runnacles
A (dedicated and professional) Deputy Headteacher: ‘it’s really increased the number and length of letters from those parents who are total pricks’
October 21, 2025 at 9:28 PM
A (dedicated and professional) Deputy Headteacher: ‘it’s really increased the number and length of letters from those parents who are total pricks’
Reposted by Tom Runnacles
The Conservative Party cannot be considered a responsible party of government again until and unless Ms Lam is forced to drop her Idi Amin migration proposal and apologise to those it threatens, or has the whip removed. It is as simple as that.
Breaking promises made to people the government thinks unpopular, and saying bad luck with health or unemployment is as reprehensible as criminality, is bad not just for those facing deportation but for all of us who care about Britain as a country that believes in fair play, decency and honesty.
Lam says on air the policy is to remove those "because" they broke the rules/conditions under which they came
But her policy is to retrospectively change the rules/conditions under which they came!
Lam knows this will be perceived as unfair: she will feel "great personal sympathy" for deportees
But her policy is to retrospectively change the rules/conditions under which they came!
Lam knows this will be perceived as unfair: she will feel "great personal sympathy" for deportees
October 21, 2025 at 9:14 AM
The Conservative Party cannot be considered a responsible party of government again until and unless Ms Lam is forced to drop her Idi Amin migration proposal and apologise to those it threatens, or has the whip removed. It is as simple as that.
Reposted by Tom Runnacles
Breaking promises made to people the government thinks unpopular, and saying bad luck with health or unemployment is as reprehensible as criminality, is bad not just for those facing deportation but for all of us who care about Britain as a country that believes in fair play, decency and honesty.
Lam says on air the policy is to remove those "because" they broke the rules/conditions under which they came
But her policy is to retrospectively change the rules/conditions under which they came!
Lam knows this will be perceived as unfair: she will feel "great personal sympathy" for deportees
But her policy is to retrospectively change the rules/conditions under which they came!
Lam knows this will be perceived as unfair: she will feel "great personal sympathy" for deportees
October 21, 2025 at 8:01 AM
Breaking promises made to people the government thinks unpopular, and saying bad luck with health or unemployment is as reprehensible as criminality, is bad not just for those facing deportation but for all of us who care about Britain as a country that believes in fair play, decency and honesty.
Reposted by Tom Runnacles
The politics of the far right does not magically become acceptable when delivered by a young Home counties woman with the right accent and friends.
October 19, 2025 at 12:39 PM
The politics of the far right does not magically become acceptable when delivered by a young Home counties woman with the right accent and friends.
Reposted by Tom Runnacles
You do not, under any circumstances, gotta hand it to Fransisco Franco.
October 18, 2025 at 7:59 PM
You do not, under any circumstances, gotta hand it to Fransisco Franco.
Reposted by Tom Runnacles
Just want to give a shout out to my 83 year old dad- normally conservative, a former SCOTUS law clerk for Rehnquist- who protested out in the rain this morning in St Louis. #NoKings
October 18, 2025 at 8:39 PM
Just want to give a shout out to my 83 year old dad- normally conservative, a former SCOTUS law clerk for Rehnquist- who protested out in the rain this morning in St Louis. #NoKings
Reposted by Tom Runnacles
Our government is currently run by 12 year-olds and extremely divorced middle aged men and, somehow, extremely divorced 12-year old middle aged men.
October 16, 2025 at 3:43 PM
Our government is currently run by 12 year-olds and extremely divorced middle aged men and, somehow, extremely divorced 12-year old middle aged men.
Reposted by Tom Runnacles
Something very weird has gone on to persuade so many organisations to roll with this half-baked software.
It's like someone invented concrete that's 30% cheese and every other building collapses and everyone just shrugs and carries on.
It's like someone invented concrete that's 30% cheese and every other building collapses and everyone just shrugs and carries on.
October 16, 2025 at 7:35 AM
Something very weird has gone on to persuade so many organisations to roll with this half-baked software.
It's like someone invented concrete that's 30% cheese and every other building collapses and everyone just shrugs and carries on.
It's like someone invented concrete that's 30% cheese and every other building collapses and everyone just shrugs and carries on.
Reposted by Tom Runnacles
The deep irony is that Labour is paying the political price for failure of the signature project of its opponents.
May 2, 2025 at 2:38 AM
The deep irony is that Labour is paying the political price for failure of the signature project of its opponents.
Reposted by Tom Runnacles
If the Altman be Bob,
Great work, good job
If the Altman be Sam,
Good grief, goddamn
Great work, good job
If the Altman be Sam,
Good grief, goddamn
October 10, 2025 at 5:13 PM
If the Altman be Bob,
Great work, good job
If the Altman be Sam,
Good grief, goddamn
Great work, good job
If the Altman be Sam,
Good grief, goddamn
Reposted by Tom Runnacles
BBC4 is repeating Bryan Magee’s 1987 series, The Great Philosophers, and I introduce it next Monday 13th at 22.30. I remember being very impressed when it went out that my wonderful PhD supervisor, Myles Burnyeat, was in the very first episode!
October 8, 2025 at 2:27 PM
BBC4 is repeating Bryan Magee’s 1987 series, The Great Philosophers, and I introduce it next Monday 13th at 22.30. I remember being very impressed when it went out that my wonderful PhD supervisor, Myles Burnyeat, was in the very first episode!
Reposted by Tom Runnacles
I don't think Robert Jenrick realises that the people clapping along to him when he talks about Handsworth would clap along if he said the same about Stamford Hill. I'd hope that would give him pause for thought.
October 7, 2025 at 7:36 AM
I don't think Robert Jenrick realises that the people clapping along to him when he talks about Handsworth would clap along if he said the same about Stamford Hill. I'd hope that would give him pause for thought.
Reposted by Tom Runnacles
"Can you have a racist policy without being racist yourself?" is an example of high-level outlets like Radio 4 preferring 'gotcha' questions in political interviews. This question has a premise and inference about what racism is, much narrower than the one which the BBC needs to apply to itself
October 1, 2025 at 8:17 AM
"Can you have a racist policy without being racist yourself?" is an example of high-level outlets like Radio 4 preferring 'gotcha' questions in political interviews. This question has a premise and inference about what racism is, much narrower than the one which the BBC needs to apply to itself
Reposted by Tom Runnacles
The people they are talking about deporting include, to pluck one example from the air, my 59-year-old sister who has lived here since the age of six and is on a low income due to being a nursery school teacher. These plans are utterly scandalous and anyone who supports them is a disgrace.
September 25, 2025 at 8:13 PM
The people they are talking about deporting include, to pluck one example from the air, my 59-year-old sister who has lived here since the age of six and is on a low income due to being a nursery school teacher. These plans are utterly scandalous and anyone who supports them is a disgrace.