This is the objective scientific answer, OP.

The Fripp collaborations also merit your attention.

Yeah, that got a double-take out of me too. Hell, “Lord Pickles” alone is quite the concept to be reminded of in itself.

Forget the forensics guys, if he keeps this up they’ll be prepping the rubber hose and dentistry tools guys.

Maybe ISPs is an okay comparison? Most of us are on different ISPs but we access the same internet.

It’s probably more productive to just ignore the technical details. Half the country seems to believe they’re buying “wi-fi” nowadays.

Just stick with “try Mastodon” or “try Lemmy” and let the non-technical folk build whatever mental model suits them best.

Just for the record: the Sun ended Page 3 in 2015.

No “it was a different time” excuses wash yet.

Okay, that’s fair, they do have another scandal to weather (contrived though it appears). Sorry, I thought I read a slight undertone of “filthy BBC got anuvver nonce innit” :)

I’ve still got no idea who people think it is.

Nor do I care to, because it ain’t remotely sodding important.

Seems like the BBC may have another one on their hands.

Another… what, exactly? Rude, unpleasant person who happens to be either gay or bi? (I think I get this message from the reporting, but I’m not certain that I’ve specifically seen the gender of the original “young person” mentioned now that I think about it)

This is such an obviously confected story to fling shit at the BBC. It disappoints me that so many otherwise articulate and sensible people seem to be swallowing it hook line and sinker.

Damned filth.

I had a Panda

No.

There’s no need for monoculture - especially on a platform that aims to be decentralised.

Look at it this way - if some town has three gay bars, three metal pubs and three old-man real-ale pubs, it’s not an issue for the LGBT community, the metal community or the drunk old men; they’re just different places to drink. Possibly the drunk gay old metal fans might get confused, but they sound awesome and are likely welcome everywhere.

…actually, thinking about it, I bet the drunk old men probably do have an issue with all eight of the other pubs they don’t go to. But that’s just them.

I would love to know more without having to actually research who this guy is.

With the greatest of respect: the guy was Chancellor of the Exchequer for years. It seems reasonable to assume people know who he is in a UK politics forum. (edit: sp.)

on par with Private Eye

…dear god man. I mean, it’s great at what it does, but comparable to the Eye? No. Just… no XD

We have been contacted by George Osborne and Thea Rogers’ lawyers

This, though, may as well be a straight-up admission of truth.

I mean, let’s be real - it’s totally inconsequential. We’ve known for years who he is and how he fills his days waiting for his inheritance, and more importantly, none of this stuff, even if true, will actually affect him in any meaningful way.

But I can’t claim for a second that I’m not chuckling at his misfortune today.

“PopBitch” (that’s a new one)

They’ve been around for knocking on 20 years, if not longer.

Absolutely nothing more noble than a gossip-sheet (and they don’t aim any higher either, to be clear), but they are legit and are broadly non-partisan.

Yeah, I woke up to that yesterday. My mood was not improved by it.

and water when it was in public ownership was way down the queue.

Or in other words, “when we had responsibility for it we didn’t want it because we couldn’t profit from it, so we shirked our responsibility so we could shrug it off in '89. Naturally, no other attitude to the matter is conceivable”.

On the contrary, I’m putting the goalposts back where they were before you misunderstood them.

From the article:

Hall concludes the companies have borrowed to pay dividends, rather than to invest in infrastructure projects. The £123bn of capital expenditure spent by the companies has all been financed by customer bills, the analysis states.

Your analogy is a little off. If I were in the slightest danger of defaulting on my mortgage, you may be assured that even my closest family would be getting handwritten free hug vouchers for christmas.

It’s not about being debt free, it’s about not using your debt for stupid things.

I think you’re pretty much on the money as far as sources go (and on the matter of letting things grow organically while it’s still a small community) - something specific about multiple posts though:

When news breaks, it’s exciting, and everyone wants to post. This can mean discussions getting fragmented.

I think @Noit@lemm.ee or @NuPNuA@lemm.ee has been in touch with you about long-running megathreads already - in the politics sphere, at least, these do tend to absorb a lot of the “oh god what’s Suella done now” and “but why can’t we election now boohoo” chatter. That in turn tends to mean that little things and breaking news naturally gravitate into them, which helps keeps things tidy.

As an added bonus, as a community grows, they also serve a really useful purpose in letting people form a picture of who the people on the other side of the screen are, and keep the pixels humanised, if you see what I mean - which is particularly important when discussing Serious Business like politics, of course.

So in conclusion, I think you should do megathreads in the politics space; thank you for attending my Thread Talk.

hopefully we’ll get an autumn general election

No chance. They’re dug in for the duration now.