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Nick Harkaway
@harkaway.bsky.social
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Erk. Nope. No no. I want the time back. What?
1 replies 0 reposts 2 likes
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Nick Harkaway@harkaway.bsky.social |
3078 followers 632 following 3057 posts
Author, screenwriter. Occasional consultant. Husband of much better person. Father of similar. New novel into my father’s George Smiley/Circus universe coming October 2024. Yes, that is a bit terrifying. (He/him)
www.penguin.co.uk/books/463111/k
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Nick Harkaway
@harkaway.bsky.social
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Erk. Nope. No no. I want the time back. What?
1 replies 0 reposts 2 likes
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Nick Harkaway
@harkaway.bsky.social
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Anyway, that’s my day so far. And now I have coffee.
0 replies 0 reposts 7 likes
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Nick Harkaway
@harkaway.bsky.social
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Being serious for a sec, I’m incredibly flattered. And a bit weirded out.
1 replies 0 reposts 3 likes
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Nick Harkaway
@harkaway.bsky.social
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It’s true I did fill that role for a couple of years around 2010, and it’s somehow perfect that the Beeb’s headline moral and spiritual segment is so atemporal that a decade’s worth of change - and what a decade! - just isn’t relevant.
1 replies 1 reposts 10 likes
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Nick Harkaway
@harkaway.bsky.social
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A friend just messaged to tell me I was mentioned on the Beeb’s Thought For The Day. Excited, I asked in what context. Apparently I was quoted as “tech blogger Nick Harkaway”. I would just like to apologise to tech bloggers everywhere.
3 replies 1 reposts 36 likes
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Nick Harkaway
@harkaway.bsky.social
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It’s possible to go in a spiral on this :) But I would suggest a democracy could enact a clear set of prohibitions in law. To bar groups by structure and without explicitly acknowledging it is problematic to me.
1 replies 0 reposts 1 likes
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Nick Harkaway
@harkaway.bsky.social
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NB off the top of my head, a bit exhausted! And, in case I sound other than chirpy, also in good heart and with thanks for the prompt to think it through :)
0 replies 0 reposts 3 likes
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Nick Harkaway
@harkaway.bsky.social
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PR does not solve this problem, but nor - I think - does it exacerbate it. It is simply a better system for representing the opinions and desires of the electorate than FPTP. Persuading that electorate to be wise is the primary challenge of any democracy.
1 replies 0 reposts 2 likes
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Nick Harkaway
@harkaway.bsky.social
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And indeed, UKIP’s exclusion - now Reform’s - by the system does not prevent it exerting a huge influence on our politics. A grouping which has never had more than four MPs has dictated and now destroyed one of our two major parties and closed off policy options for the other.
1 replies 0 reposts 5 likes
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Nick Harkaway
@harkaway.bsky.social
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Second, I think it *is* undemocratic to ask your voting system to rule out certain parties. In a democracy, that is the job of argument and persuasion, not structure. Historically, options which are desired but ruled out become revolutionary causes.
2 replies 0 reposts 2 likes
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Nick Harkaway
@harkaway.bsky.social
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Mmmm. I don’t, to be honest. First: I don’t think you could really describe the Labour platform as “a strong clear programme”. It’s clear, starkly limited and acutely deliverable, but lacks ambition and (35%) clearly didn’t enthuse, which arguably resulted in a higher share for Reform.
1 replies 0 reposts 0 likes
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Nick Harkaway
@harkaway.bsky.social
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Although it doesn't AFAIK attempt to factor how people might respond to know that what they vote for will actually be represented. I'd expect that to take a couple of cycles to permeate, but - if democracy means anything - it has to.
0 replies 0 reposts 4 likes
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Nick Harkaway
@harkaway.bsky.social
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Ooooh, let that understanding spread. Having been taught as a child how to fake persuasive answers to questions I knew nothing about, it's a huge relief to sit back and say "nope, no idea" to people who actually know, and see their eyes light up at the prospect of a willing student. :)
0 replies 0 reposts 10 likes
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Nick Harkaway
@harkaway.bsky.social
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Also schmancy :)
0 replies 0 reposts 2 likes
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Nick Harkaway
@harkaway.bsky.social
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Proof copies have arrived...
4 replies 1 reposts 43 likes
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Nick Harkaway
@harkaway.bsky.social
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That's because you're a shiny star :)
1 replies 0 reposts 1 likes
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Nick Harkaway
@harkaway.bsky.social
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I think I'd argue that what FPTP actually does is shunt that complexity away from the actual vote - and possibly also shield the electorate from the reality of its own choices. The dialogue with the Swiss around how to hold a good referendum was quite interesting in that context.
1 replies 0 reposts 3 likes
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Nick Harkaway
@harkaway.bsky.social
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Weeeeellll but all PR does is guarantee that you get a parliament which reflects the vote. If the politics of a country are contradictory, that's what you end up with, and Israel is the focus of a lot of global crosscurrents. (I don't really know enough to engage properly on that example.)
3 replies 0 reposts 10 likes
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Nick Harkaway
@harkaway.bsky.social
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Yeah, but in truth there's always that. I was at an election party last night and everyone was saying "please can we have boring, functional, effective politics now?"
3 replies 1 reposts 13 likes
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Nick Harkaway
@harkaway.bsky.social
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And god knows whether, over time, you'd still have the Conservatives and Labour as they currently exist, or two or three smaller parties made of each of them. It's too fundamental to get one's head round easily, I think.
1 replies 0 reposts 0 likes
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Nick Harkaway
@harkaway.bsky.social
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Well, yes. It's hard to know what would actually happen if we had PR, though - on last night's showing we'd have far fewer LDs than Reform MPs... but then, people would know they were actually going to get what they voted for, so you might get a completely different spread.
1 replies 0 reposts 1 likes
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Nick Harkaway
@harkaway.bsky.social
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Labour's victory is really important, but emotionally it feels to me less like a birthday present and more like getting a new boiler. This is a work election.
2 replies 10 reposts 44 likes
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Nick Harkaway
@harkaway.bsky.social
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Someone on the other site said this summed up Starmer. If true, that's sort of dazzling. But it also makes the point - again - that FPTP is wildly volatile and weird and we should throw it away.
5 replies 18 reposts 58 likes
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Jamie McKelvie
@mckelvie.bsky.social
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So all the political media will give the Greens as much attention as Reform now, yeah. *Sideways look to camera two*
3 replies 34 reposts 125 likes
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Nick Harkaway
@harkaway.bsky.social
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It’s not just the existential stuff. It’s the day to day stuff the Tories couldn’t be bothered to sort out because it required effort rather than angry tonal chuntering.
0 replies 2 reposts 17 likes
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Nick Harkaway
@harkaway.bsky.social
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By coincidence - or not - my brother had some fairly strong words to describe the consequences of Brexit for the UK film and TV industry…
(That’s not him in the picture.)
www.screendaily.com/news/what-do...
2 replies 4 reposts 13 likes
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Nick Harkaway
@harkaway.bsky.social
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We won. They’re done. Roll up your sleeves.
1 replies 4 reposts 37 likes
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Naomi Alderman
@naomialderman.bsky.social
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Through my childhood, on election nights, my dad was the man under Peter Snow’s desk putting interesting facts on notecards into his socks. That’s how it was done before Google, kids. You got a very clever ASD man with some Oxford degrees to just remember interesting constituency histories.
27 replies 186 reposts 879 likes
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KJ Charles
@kjcharleswriter.com
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Holy shit. I did say we were a swing seat, didn't I?
5 replies 7 reposts 61 likes
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Nick Harkaway
@harkaway.bsky.social
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Thank you :)
0 replies 0 reposts 1 likes
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Ingrid Burrington
@lifewinning.com
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Unwinding from PhD exam reading every day by listening to sci-fi audio books and just want to note that @harkaway.bsky.social's Titanium Noir is a real fun listen
6 replies 2 reposts 20 likes
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Nick Harkaway
@harkaway.bsky.social
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Along with whatever will toxify the US election, obvs.
0 replies 0 reposts 8 likes
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Nick Harkaway
@harkaway.bsky.social
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I’d assume: doing everything he can to keep Gaza burning so that the US cannot focus on Ukraine.
1 replies 0 reposts 12 likes
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Nick Harkaway
@harkaway.bsky.social
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And it really hasn’t properly propagated yet, or else people would be a lot more focused on green issues in this election.
1 replies 4 reposts 11 likes
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Maaike Verbruggen
@maaikeverbruggen.bsky.social
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I am currently the envy of transit nerds around the world Riding the monorail of Wuppertal
31 replies 40 reposts 472 likes
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Paul Duane
@paulduane.bsky.social
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Three adjacent headlines that say it all.
25 replies 82 reposts 331 likes
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Nick Harkaway
@harkaway.bsky.social
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Yep
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Nick Harkaway
@harkaway.bsky.social
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Reminder: www.theguardian.com/politics/art...
2 replies 42 reposts 39 likes
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Nick Harkaway
@harkaway.bsky.social
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I’m past caring. I voted Labour because this government has to be fired into the sun, knowing that next week we’ll have to drag them to the right action on a dozen things that really matter.
0 replies 0 reposts 8 likes
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Nick Harkaway
@harkaway.bsky.social
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Oooooh because there’s some demographic he wants to lock down. It really is clinical, I think: if he says this now it either locks out an attack line or locks in a net percentage increase in Kent. Whatever. “The progressive urban vote is locked, we need more Angry Communitarian Susan” or something.
1 replies 0 reposts 2 likes
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Nick Harkaway
@harkaway.bsky.social
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Vote for ‘em. We can turn the dials in 2025.
1 replies 0 reposts 9 likes
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Nick Harkaway
@harkaway.bsky.social
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At this point he’s just aiming to get the Tories under 100 seats. Maybe even pump the LDs over them. Still stings.
www.theguardian.com/politics/art...
4 replies 1 reposts 15 likes
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Nick Harkaway
@harkaway.bsky.social
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After Nisi was inspiring, I feel a bit pathetic pointing out that shadows are not patches of absolute darkness, so it’s perfectly possible for them to be golden. Gold light source, blue light source, object casting shadow->one blue area of shadow & one gold. Sunsets, piles of gold, jazz bands…
1 replies 0 reposts 14 likes
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Nick Harkaway
@harkaway.bsky.social
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(Your original question sent me down a superb rabbit hole which has yielded a lovely riff. Thank you :)
1 replies 0 reposts 2 likes
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Nick Harkaway
@harkaway.bsky.social
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I feel like it could be more that it’s just insanely hard to conceptualise the nature of the multi-faceted shitstorm that is the present.
1 replies 0 reposts 1 likes
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Nick Harkaway
@harkaway.bsky.social
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Is there an advice deficit? I hadn’t noticed a lack of people running around claiming to know the One True Way.
1 replies 0 reposts 1 likes
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Nick Harkaway
@harkaway.bsky.social
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*cloak swirl* And, like the wind, the shadow, the whisper of lost love's caress... I'm gone!
1 replies 0 reposts 9 likes
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Nick Harkaway
@harkaway.bsky.social
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Hermeneutic disinsertion!
1 replies 0 reposts 5 likes
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Elizabeth Bear
@matociquala.bsky.social
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Creative types, this is a great week to reread your copy of Never Say You Can't Survive: How to Get Through Hard Times by Making Up Stories by @charliejane.bsky.social.
I mean, if you're feeling a little stressed out by everything and it's hard to focus.
3 replies 22 reposts 69 likes
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Popehat
@kenwhite.bsky.social
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/8 At any rate, congratulations to the Federalist Society for an achievement beyond the reach of the British, outside the grasp of bloody civil war, impossible to Nazis and Soviets and terrorists: defeating the American idea.
40 replies 894 reposts 2787 likes