Bethan Hutton
@bethanh.bsky.social
I was @yabunonaka1 over there. Books, art, dogs, wildlife, Japan. Ex-journo, still news addict. London, often Wales and Norfolk.
Another in the great genre of Japanese officials dressing up as animals to practise emergency protocols.
Enjoying this demonstration of a drone deploying bear repellent spray. In case you are concerned, I don't think that is a real bear. www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAW3...
January 20, 2026 at 1:24 PM
Another in the great genre of Japanese officials dressing up as animals to practise emergency protocols.
One day I hope to wake up and discover this has all been a psychology experiment to test the potential limits of the Dunning Kruger effect. I just hope that the ethics rules of whatever species of mouse or dolphin is in charge mean they have to pull the plug before the planet gets blown up.
January 17, 2026 at 6:03 PM
One day I hope to wake up and discover this has all been a psychology experiment to test the potential limits of the Dunning Kruger effect. I just hope that the ethics rules of whatever species of mouse or dolphin is in charge mean they have to pull the plug before the planet gets blown up.
I spotted this one the other week, and concluded that whoever picks the poems is on the right side of history. Also, "For What It's Worth" popped up on the BBC 6Music playlist this week - its time seems to have come round again: www.youtube.com/watch?v=80_3...
January 17, 2026 at 5:48 PM
I spotted this one the other week, and concluded that whoever picks the poems is on the right side of history. Also, "For What It's Worth" popped up on the BBC 6Music playlist this week - its time seems to have come round again: www.youtube.com/watch?v=80_3...
Reposted by Bethan Hutton
This thread is utterly fantastic, and a good antidote to *waves at absolutely everything else*.
For many years I have been posting little observations online. What you may not know is that for many years, artists have been illustrating them - for no reason other than they wanted to respond. Below is a thread of some of these beautiful drawings because they should be seen 🧵
January 15, 2026 at 1:26 PM
This thread is utterly fantastic, and a good antidote to *waves at absolutely everything else*.
It's missing a ballroom, and there aren't enough fake gold things on the walls.
If any of you have a spare £40m and are in the market for the blandest mansion ever created, well today is your lucky day www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/1...
January 15, 2026 at 1:07 PM
It's missing a ballroom, and there aren't enough fake gold things on the walls.
Reposted by Bethan Hutton
How it started: Government claimed over half of all households use X as their main news source.
How it's going: the data shows fewer people say X is their most important news source than believe the moon landings were definitely faked.
How it's going: the data shows fewer people say X is their most important news source than believe the moon landings were definitely faked.
January 14, 2026 at 1:34 PM
How it started: Government claimed over half of all households use X as their main news source.
How it's going: the data shows fewer people say X is their most important news source than believe the moon landings were definitely faked.
How it's going: the data shows fewer people say X is their most important news source than believe the moon landings were definitely faked.
Reposted by Bethan Hutton
I'm talking about flooding and climate change, chaired by @tomshakespeare.bsky.social, next Tuesday, following on a journalism project: muckrack.com/katharine-qu.... If you're in South London and want to come along, do join 20 January, free tickets here: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/flooding-a...
Flooding and Climate Change
Katharine Quarmby, award-winning writer,
editor and journalist
www.eventbrite.co.uk
January 14, 2026 at 10:08 AM
I'm talking about flooding and climate change, chaired by @tomshakespeare.bsky.social, next Tuesday, following on a journalism project: muckrack.com/katharine-qu.... If you're in South London and want to come along, do join 20 January, free tickets here: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/flooding-a...
Reposted by Bethan Hutton
![1
Nurse:
It’s become a real problem in this area
2
Nurse:
We’ve seen the whole community lost to addiction
3
Show a building sign posted:
Westminster ‘X’ Addiction Clinic
With various Westminster people or looking at their phones outside it
Nurse:
Ministers, Spads, Researchers…
4
Nurse:
Most mornings we’ll get a call about someone acting strangely
[Nurse on phone taking a call]
Ok - we’ll be right over
5
Nurse:
We just have a gentle chat
[Nurses approach a minister –Robert Jenrick? - standing in the Palace of Westminster
Minister:
I understand your concerns…
6
Nurse:
Are you OK love?
Minister:
Yes I’m just hearing legitimate concerns from real voters
7
Nurse:
That’s a robot, a Nazi and a poorly-disguised Russian
[Show that the people he is talking to are precisely these characters]
Nurse 2:
Give us your phone, love
8
Nurse:
At the clinic we put them in a Grass-Touching Pod, with a real voter to talk to
[We see them back at the clinic, holding the minister's head and pushing him into a glass isolation booth with a grass floor. And it is a baffled looking woman, on a chair, ready to talk to him.]
9
Minister:
YOU MUST BE WORRIED ABOUT THE COMING CIVIL WAR
[woman looks baffled]
10
woman:
I just want a bus service
Minister:
LOOK AT MY FLAG
[produces a St George's flag]
[ends]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:4m3we4apbjayclzcnhwe3pfp/bafkreicahofq6s4xow7vowj7dx6odw6ejdwr4kwcmzta7qwi4hg2nvywji@jpeg)
Maybe it is a positive sign that Bluesky is becoming more mainstream, but I could do without guys like this on the platform: no posts, 19 followers, following 1.2k, all of whom are female, as far as I can tell. Would-be romance scammer?
January 13, 2026 at 11:03 AM
Maybe it is a positive sign that Bluesky is becoming more mainstream, but I could do without guys like this on the platform: no posts, 19 followers, following 1.2k, all of whom are female, as far as I can tell. Would-be romance scammer?
This suggestion comes from the US, but I think highly applicable to UK politicos too. I am pretty sure Ed Davey would pass, but Farage wouldn't have a clue. And although I live round the corner from her, I have never seen Liz Truss out buying her own lettuce.
It's not a foolproof plan but every political debate from now on should be a Normal Guy competition. Ask them to describe grocery shopping in detail. Talk about what it's like to have a friend
January 12, 2026 at 10:39 PM
This suggestion comes from the US, but I think highly applicable to UK politicos too. I am pretty sure Ed Davey would pass, but Farage wouldn't have a clue. And although I live round the corner from her, I have never seen Liz Truss out buying her own lettuce.
I once met a border terrier called Ozymandias. The owner said her son chose the name to so that he could declaim, "Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!" while wielding the poo bags.
we’re in the vet’s office waiting room and they just called for Agamemnon. we all looked at the Great Dane but it turns out Agamemnon is an orange kitten in a backpack that makes him look like an astronaut cheese puff
January 11, 2026 at 7:46 PM
I once met a border terrier called Ozymandias. The owner said her son chose the name to so that he could declaim, "Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!" while wielding the poo bags.
Reposted by Bethan Hutton
This is incredible. Deep respect to @financialtimes.com
Sublime shithousery from the @financialtimes.com 🤌🏽
Who’s who at X, the deepfake porn site formerly known as Twitter: shorturl.at/QkJ5A
Who’s who at X, the deepfake porn site formerly known as Twitter: shorturl.at/QkJ5A
January 6, 2026 at 7:02 PM
This is incredible. Deep respect to @financialtimes.com
Reposted by Bethan Hutton
1. This is (still) excellent
2. Worth following the thread for one response in particular…
2. Worth following the thread for one response in particular…
It is once again that time of year when every Books Dad gets absolutely bodied by Molesworth.
December 18, 2025 at 10:16 AM
1. This is (still) excellent
2. Worth following the thread for one response in particular…
2. Worth following the thread for one response in particular…
Tom Stoppard was a primary school child who didn't speak English as a first language.
This is a really appalling editorial error on BBC Question Time
"Apparently one in three children don't speak English as a first language, why does this matter?"
Chair says "have English as a second language"
Caption changes the meaning entirely
"Don't speak fluent English"
"Apparently one in three children don't speak English as a first language, why does this matter?"
Chair says "have English as a second language"
Caption changes the meaning entirely
"Don't speak fluent English"
December 12, 2025 at 10:05 PM
Tom Stoppard was a primary school child who didn't speak English as a first language.
Inertia is an amazing powerful force. People who wouldn't dream of signing up for Trump Truth Social won't quit XTwitter, which is the equally toxic Musk equivalent.
Pretty crazy that nearly all of the EU Commission is still on X even as Elon Musk is literally talking about destroying the EU.
You can leave X. It's really not that difficult.
You can leave X. It's really not that difficult.
So what's the outcome?
2️⃣5️⃣ of the 27 Commissioners have posted in the last week
2️⃣4️⃣ of the 27 generally post every week (Albuquerque has never been on X, Ribera is sporadic, McGrath has somehow stopped)
0️⃣ have stopped as a result of what Twitter has become since the Musk takeover
2️⃣5️⃣ of the 27 Commissioners have posted in the last week
2️⃣4️⃣ of the 27 generally post every week (Albuquerque has never been on X, Ribera is sporadic, McGrath has somehow stopped)
0️⃣ have stopped as a result of what Twitter has become since the Musk takeover
December 7, 2025 at 11:27 PM
Inertia is an amazing powerful force. People who wouldn't dream of signing up for Trump Truth Social won't quit XTwitter, which is the equally toxic Musk equivalent.
Eight guitars crammed on stage for the final number, in true Blue Aeroplanes traditional style and with as much energy as ever, despite Gerard looking increasingly frail.
Fabulous Blue Aeroplanes show at the Fleece tonight. Their gigs are few and far between so we should treasure them when they happen.
New album next year and new songs (5!) sounded fantastic tonight.
New album next year and new songs (5!) sounded fantastic tonight.
December 7, 2025 at 8:24 PM
Eight guitars crammed on stage for the final number, in true Blue Aeroplanes traditional style and with as much energy as ever, despite Gerard looking increasingly frail.
Reposted by Bethan Hutton
Latest government cruelties are simply performative, as countless studies have shown these rules won’t work as a deterrence
In Sept 2020 Home Office said its own research + external evidence was asylum seekers rarely knew much about asylum rules, about welfare systems, and that there was no clear link between grant rates + where people apply.
Those who'd heard something did not perceive UK more generous than France
Those who'd heard something did not perceive UK more generous than France
November 16, 2025 at 10:04 AM
Latest government cruelties are simply performative, as countless studies have shown these rules won’t work as a deterrence
Yep. As a teenager in the post-punk 80s, I think the received wisdom at the time was that Fleetwood Mac was 'a bit naff', along with Abba and Paul McCartney.
1) This is correct 2) IMO, the most reliable tell of how old someone is online is are they part of basically, the one ten-year cohort not to think Fleetwood Mac are a great band.
every generation loves Rumours. it’s fucking Rumours
November 9, 2025 at 3:15 PM
Yep. As a teenager in the post-punk 80s, I think the received wisdom at the time was that Fleetwood Mac was 'a bit naff', along with Abba and Paul McCartney.
Beth is my coffee shop alias; for anyone else I am Bethan. Also not Bethany, but that's a different complaint.
yes, this. It drives me mad when people don't use my actual name. I'm Kate, not Katie.
I have unfollowed people on social media who have called me Andy. It’s not my name. I am not an Andy. You might as well call me Ronald. Call people by the name they want.
November 7, 2025 at 2:10 PM
Beth is my coffee shop alias; for anyone else I am Bethan. Also not Bethany, but that's a different complaint.
Reposted by Bethan Hutton
Wherever we looked for the prominent flaggers and leaders of this movement, we found people smugglers and sex doll salesmen, people with dubious criminal pasts and people willing to put in a good word for Adolf Hitler.
manchestermill.co.uk/the-men-who-...
manchestermill.co.uk/the-men-who-...
The men who raised the flags
Nigel Farage says this summer’s movement was led by ‘ordinary people’ expressing their patriotism. That’s not what we found
manchestermill.co.uk
November 1, 2025 at 8:45 AM
Wherever we looked for the prominent flaggers and leaders of this movement, we found people smugglers and sex doll salesmen, people with dubious criminal pasts and people willing to put in a good word for Adolf Hitler.
manchestermill.co.uk/the-men-who-...
manchestermill.co.uk/the-men-who-...
I sometimes wonder how the parallel universe is getting on, where this plane crash had a different outcome. Would the word Brexit even have been invented?
www.theguardian.com/politics/201...
www.theguardian.com/politics/201...
Ukip's Nigel Farage injured in aeroplane crash
Nigel Farage suffers minor injuries after two-seater aircraft towing Ukip banner crash-lands in Northamptonshire
www.theguardian.com
September 24, 2025 at 2:55 PM
I sometimes wonder how the parallel universe is getting on, where this plane crash had a different outcome. Would the word Brexit even have been invented?
www.theguardian.com/politics/201...
www.theguardian.com/politics/201...
First step on the road to make membership compulsory, along the lines of the Hitlerjugend or Young Pioneers?
State Superintendent Ryan Walters, in a Tuesday news release, announced his push to have a Turning Point USA (TPUSA) Club America Chapter in every Oklahoma high school.
State Supt. Walters leads effort to introduce Turning Point USA in 'every' Oklahoma high school
State Superintendent Ryan Walters, in a Tuesday news release, announced his push to have a Turning Point USA (TPUSA) Club America Chapter in every Oklahoma high school.
kfor.com
September 23, 2025 at 9:36 PM
First step on the road to make membership compulsory, along the lines of the Hitlerjugend or Young Pioneers?
Brilliant detail in BBC story about the bikers involved in US aid in Gaza: www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Anti-Islamic US biker gang members run security at deadly Gaza aid sites
BBC identifies members of Infidels MC gang hired as armed security at US and Israel-backed aid sites.
www.bbc.co.uk
September 10, 2025 at 9:25 AM
Brilliant detail in BBC story about the bikers involved in US aid in Gaza: www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Slightly diminish a book:
War and Temporary Ceasefire
War and Temporary Ceasefire
The dachshund of the Baskervilles
Slightly diminish a book
Wuthering Hillocks
Wuthering Hillocks
September 8, 2025 at 9:13 AM
Slightly diminish a book:
War and Temporary Ceasefire
War and Temporary Ceasefire
Earlier today, I read this by @jamesrball.com and I was nodding along thinking yes, yes, all I get on Facebook/instagram is ads for pure crap unrelated to my interests, no matter how much data they hold on me. But... www.jamesrball.com/p/what-if-bi...
What if "big data" just…isn't worth very much?
I'm not saying the emperor has no clothes. I am saying his clothes are cheap, tacky, don't work and are seriously overrated.
www.jamesrball.com
August 21, 2025 at 2:00 PM
Earlier today, I read this by @jamesrball.com and I was nodding along thinking yes, yes, all I get on Facebook/instagram is ads for pure crap unrelated to my interests, no matter how much data they hold on me. But... www.jamesrball.com/p/what-if-bi...