@nickbwalking@zirk.us
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nickbwalking

@nickbwalking@zirk.us

Writer, walker, Who and Wolves fan. Also other things not beginning with W. Used to be a politician and an academic, now working out what comes next. Working on a memoir about walking and mental health.

Icon: A picture of me (a then 50-year old white man with brown and grey hair and beard) standing in front of the Calanais stones)
Banner image: A view of Loch Broom from Ullapool Harbour, with mountains and clouds reflected in the water.

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

nickbwalking, to random
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"when the pros move in, people are compensated based on results, and this means that every potential rent-seek becomes an actual rent-seek"
Dan Davies on leasehold, rent-seeking and "asset-ization"
https://backofmind.substack.com/p/a-very-anglosphere-disaster

nickbwalking, to UKpolitics
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"If asked, teachers will have to be clear gender ideology is contested."
Can they make it clear that contest is between obsessed culture warriors who've invented it as a bogeyman to scare people with and people who have no idea what they're talking about and want to get on with their lives?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-69013002

nickbwalking, to random
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This needs signatures, almost at 10,000 where the government have to respond.
Petition: Do not ban transgender people from receiving care in mainstream hospital wards
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/661601

nickbwalking, to random
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There were times in my political career when I thought about pushing on to be am MP but decided not to for several reasons, including not being sure I was good enough for it. But the surest way to kill that version if imposter syndrome is to see just how dim some MPs actually are. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/article/2024/may/13/uk-minister-maria-caulfield-faces-calls-to-refer-herself-to-ethics-adviser-over-false-15-minute-city-claims

nickbwalking, to UKpolitics
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The Telegraph running a story about a Lib Dem candidate being deselected for his "Christian beliefs" without stating which beliefs in particular got him into trouble. (To save you looking, it's the homophobia and transphobia, not the Sermon on the Mount)
https://archive.ph/BeAUj

nickbwalking, to random
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Going to continue boycotting this year's Eurovision but sorely tempted to watch the potential televisual disaster as it unfolds.

fkamiah17, to random
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Someone needs their ego puncturing. Or punching. I'm not fussed which.

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/article/2024/may/11/political-reporter-laura-kuenssberg-year-in-tv

nickbwalking,
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@fkamiah17 of course she's into The West Wing like all the people who wish politics wasn't so complicated and problems could be solved by someone giving a speech.

nickbwalking, to random
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Running the Colchester 10K tomorrow, so am resting my legs and knees by loitering in the woods to marshal at Markshall

A picture of the author, a bearded man in his 50s wearing glasses, wearing a Parkrun volunteer hi-vis and lanyard in front of some trees.

nickbwalking, to UKpolitics
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I was a Lib Dem, so I've seen parties welcoming lots of odd defectors in my lifetime but even so, Labour putting out the welcome mat for Natalie Elphicke looks like something that can only end in disaster. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/article/2024/may/08/conservative-mp-natalie-elphicke-defects-to-labour-party

nickbwalking, to random
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Every member of the Sutherland Brothers and Quiver look like they went on to be the guy in the office who all new secretaries were warned to not be alone with.

nickbwalking, to random
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The drought of 1976 was a deserved curse upon Britain for allowing this episode of to come into being.

nickbwalking, to UKpolitics
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Colchester Labour get their knuckles rapped by the police for lying in election leaflets. Even more amusing for me as I remember just how holier than thou the same Labour people would be criticising Lib Dem leaflets when I was in politics.
https://www.gazette-news.co.uk/news/24289553.colchester-labour-leaflet-withdrawn-essex-police-complaint/ (might be paywalled)

nickbwalking, to UKpolitics
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Local elections in two days time, have received four leaflets, one each from the party candidates for city council. Nothing from any of the PCC candidates, or from our independent council candidate, though looking back at last year he seems to be a (Piers) Corbynite conspiracist, so that leaflet would be for amusement only.

nickbwalking,
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And here's the advantage of uploading election leaflets, you can find what someone was saying last year. https://electionleaflets.org/leaflets/19120/
Amusingly for someone complaining about surveillance and control, he was very easy to find ranting on Facebook...

nickbwalking, to random
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A law that bans politicians from lying sounds good, but in practice it'll be something that allows the already powerful to define "the truth" and ban people who challenge it. https://inews.co.uk/news/law-to-ban-politicians-from-lying-backed-by-two-thirds-of-public-poll-shows-3029610

nickbwalking, to random
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No Friday night for me, as I'm off for some live nostalgia, seeing The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown at Colchester Arts Centre. All together now: " I am the god of hellfire and I bring you..." https://youtu.be/en1uwIzI3SE?si=1Fs2RNb7Fcdgwt7n

nickbwalking,
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A deconsecrated church seems an appropriate venue for the God of Hell Fire.

nickbwalking, to random
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Laurence Fox told to pay £180,000 in libel damages
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-68899248

nickbwalking,
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Say what you like about Fox's musical talent, but his Finding Out tour has been a brilliant watch so far.

nickbwalking, to random
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Happy Middle Aged Men Repeatedly Telling You They're Not Listening To Taylor Swift Day!

fkamiah17, to UKpolitics
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I hate it when a cynical prediction comes true within 24hrs of making it.
Another kick in the balls for young people.
https://www.ft.com/content/feb93c52-b8ca-4137-ba27-2f15b5af85bd?shareType=nongift

nickbwalking,
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@fkamiah17 something deeply wrong when a "labour" party makes giving workers the right to move elsewhere for work a "red line".

nickbwalking, to UKpolitics
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Sometimes I forget why I left the Lib Dems, then I get a mailing from our local PPC who, amidst everything else going on in the UK and the world, has decided to make "self-service checkouts: good or bad?" one of his key campaign issues.
https://electionleaflets.org/leaflets/19323/

nickbwalking, to random
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Last week's was in Norway, this week I'm in Norfolk. Or possibly Suffolk. The town of Harleston is in Norfolk, but Harleston Magpies hockey club, where the parkrun takes place is the other side of the river in Suffolk. Where it may be, it's a friendly little run, three twisty laps on the hockey club fields, then tea and coffee for a donation in the clubhouse after. My 228th Parkrun at my 52nd location.
https://strava.app.link/w1QcrR64KIb

nickbwalking, to random
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Robson and Jerome at least had the decency to look vaguely uncomfortable when they were on Jimmy Nail really thinks he's pulling off the tortured artist shtick.

nickbwalking, to random
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A quick review of Miranda Prag's An Attempt To Lose TIme, which I saw at Colchester Arts Centre last night. https://nickbwalking.medium.com/miranda-prag-an-attempt-to-lose-time-741f824622cd?sk=68fe3c1c7203a835198efb3eb2e55e52

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