Malazan Empire: TheRetiredBridgeburner - Viewing Profile - Malazan Empire

I was away for the weekend and did my best to not go down the rabbit hole of the local elections, but as others have said upthread, it's depressing but ever so predictably so.

Our incumbent Lib Dem councillor kept his seat, so locally I'm pleased as they seem to be a general force for good in the area - and boy do they take abuse from those of the Reform persuasion on an almost daily basis whenever they try and engage. We had an "asylum hotel" protest just down the road from us for a hotel which hasn't been used to house asylum seekers for a number of years and in fact currently housed women and children fleeing domestic violence. The councillors absolutely no nonsense stance of calling out racism for what it is was very impressive and I think they handled it very well.

I just hope this happening three years ahead of a potential GE is enough time for Reform to mess up catastrophically - but given how many of their voters don't seem to understand the difference between local and general elections in the first place, it feels like a slim hope at the moment.

I caught the quote by the Reform councillor in Sunderland about melting Nigerians to fill the potholes and actually concluded hopefully that it was a caricature. Finding out otherwise was probably the cherry on top of a very depressing cake. This country has normalised hatred and abhorrent behaviour by those in politics to such a level I don't see a way back for the foreseeable future at least.

All the best QT!

Macros, on 26 April 2026 - 09:56 AM, said:

200% this.

Untypical by Pete Wharmby

I'm listening to the audiobook (read by the author) and it's a really good listen about neurodivergence, with just the right amount of humour ("Alexander Graham Bell can get in the bin") but also plenty of information and thoughtful suggestions about how to make the neurodivergent experience of both school and the workplace less stressful.

Really hope everything goes well for him, QT!