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He did laugh so excessively as if he had been drunk; his eyes sparkled with spirits
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Dec 21 16 tweets 6 min read
A lot of people thought the murder of Brian Thompson looked like a professional hit due to the weapon and the killer's demeanour. It turned out to be an intelligent, unstable amateur who was quickly caught.

So what does a professional assassination look like? One morning in August 2019, two gunmen attacked Naief Adawi outside his apartment in Malmö.

Adawi ran off, leaving his wife and child behind. So, the hitmen killed his wife (Karolin Hakim) instead. Image
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Jul 22, 2023 14 tweets 4 min read
The UK is weird in not having an ID system. There is no central register of residents or citizens. People prove their identity through random documents (driving licences, utility bills), and businesses check against incomplete databases (esp credit rating agencies,) This was recognised as a problem in the '00s, and the Blair government tried to bring in national identification cards. But on coming to power, the Conservatives scrapped the idea. The concept has been a dead letter since. Image
May 17, 2023 6 tweets 2 min read
I occasionally still ruminate on the frankly weird choices of personnel at the top of the Britain Stronger in Europe campaign. The remain campaign was a very serious matter, and you would assume they'd have the top talent... Image Instead, as Executive Director, you had Will Straw: a failed Labour candidate who had never won an election, and whose main qualifications were 1) Having a blog and 2) Being Jack Straw's son Image
May 16, 2023 4 tweets 1 min read
This story is even more bizarre, and worse, than it seems.

Pretty much ever news outlet has just reprinted BTP's press release. The only one which actually covered the trial was a website run by Southbank University students

journalism.london/2023/05/abdulr… Presumably because they actually turned up to the courthouse, they were able to report that Hersi had three previous convictions for sexual assault, and was on licence for one of these offences at the time of this incident
Nov 22, 2022 4 tweets 1 min read
I visited Taiwan, where the bin lorries drive the streets playing music like an ice cream van. When they arrived at a particular street, the residents came out of their houses to deposit their recycling… Witnessing this, I was immediately transported back to my then home in east London, where the street were littered with mattresses and empty cans of cooking oil.

Taipei, on paper a poorer city than London, was an important inflection point on my political development
Oct 11, 2022 20 tweets 9 min read
If you use Wikipedia, you've seen pop-ups like this. If you're like me, you may have donated as a result.

Wikipedia is an amazing website, and the appeals seem heartfelt. But I've now learnt the money isn't going where I thought... Image
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The organisation which administers Wikipedia - to whom the money goes - is the Wikimedia Foundation Inc. Wikimedia is a San Francisco non-profit with 400 employees - which has exploded in size in recent years. Image
Sep 25, 2022 29 tweets 9 min read
Following the death of Chris Kaba, a Guardian editorial and podcast spoke at length about the Met Police's supposed habit of killing unarmed black men. They identified three predecessors:
1) Azelle Rodney
2) Mark Duggan
3) Jermaine Baker
Who were they, and what happened? Image All four deaths resulted from a "hard stop" - armed police rapidly containing a vehicle. It should be obvious, but police in the UK are not routinely armed. If cops are smashing into your car and pointing a gun at you, they have an actual reason to think you are armed too.