Deep alignment between the EU and U.K. could close this hole and deliver GDP growth for both sides. This is worth listening to. Tell him he was right then and to do the right thing now 🎧👇

Listening to Toby Buckle's Political Philosophy Podcast: "Appeasement Isn’t Working" yesterday I learned that "Centrism" has a meaning WAY beyond just adhering to the politics of the centre which I've often defended. I apologise for my ignorance. Episode webpage: soundcloud.com/toby-buckle-...

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The senior management responsible for BBC News chose to strap up their left leg, standing only on their right for years on end... so they fell when that leg cramped. No surprises.

William Keegan (my hero) hits the nail right on the head once again #RejoinEU observer.co.uk/news/busines...

Today I specifically remember my grandfathers. One died on active service in the RAF, the other saw naval action that forever changed him. I remember too their loved ones who lived through those years, the impact on their lives and their work to minimise the effect on ours. #Remembrance

Tell the new Democracy Minister: it’s time to scrap First Past the Post - Please sign the petition. @makevotesmatter.bsky.social actionnetwork.org/petitions/pe...

Daft inconvenient rules from the #DVLA... I am forced to wait to renew my photo licence for another 8 months even though it will expire within 10 years (when I reach 70) anyway, whenever I do it. Very poor service provision.

Why is the #BBC referring to Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor as "Andrew"? Is this a familiarity the BBC grants to all suspected sex offenders? If he must be talked about, he's just plain Mr Mountbatten-Windsor now.

Minority representation on TV causes outrage From the new Private Eye, in shops now.

Every word of this... It's not even above the political horizon, but it's the basis of everything else we need. The codification of the constitution has been the most important change the UK has needed for decades, now it's the most urgent too.

www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-... Those dedicated plastic 'Made in China' "patriots" waving Union Flags... every single one of which is upside down. Utter fuckwits.

What does Trump expect to happen to the billions of dollars he used to bail out Argentina? He did it because he supports what they're doing so he won't have attached strings requiring they change course. So it'll all go the way of their economy.. down the pan... but leaving the USA with more debt.

Take part in this Express poll on brexit then RT xd.wayin.com/display/cont...

Radio 4's 'Antisocial' weirdly claiming that art in churches is widely ignored as background. Well, I may be unusual, but my sole reason for entering any church is the art of the building, the art in the building and the transient art performed there. It's what churches are for.

What does "Food Security" mean to you? I think it's the availability & reliability of food supply to a defined population. However, I recently queried the food security of a region & all responses focussed on individual capacity to access food affordably... a very different social issue, I think.

Serious admission that the actual *intent* is to create the tools of oppression, oven ready for an authoritarian government and with no significant protection of civil rights. Not even mission creep, it is the mission.

www.bbc.com/news/live/c1... Poor Donnie 🤭

Why do our regulators allow blatant propaganda channels at all?

I love how Russell T Davies always uses his platform to fight for progress - I hate how it is always so necessary

Maybe a US Citizen can enlighten me... I spent my career in IT, I never worked for any organisation that failed to back up all data at least daily, often far more frequently in recent years. Surely there are multiple saved copies of every dataset that the Trump administration has erased or edited.

Almost certainly attempting to create a hook for GBN to whip up stories equating any lack of accreditation with Reform councils banning of local papers. Well done to the Green Party for being wise to the implications before the fact.

Telling people who support Reform on immigration that its policies are racist and immoral will not change their minds, it will harden their position. Better to point out that, far from improving their lives, Reform's immigration policies will harm them.

In relation to the ID scheme nonsense I saw a claim here that the DWP would have access to all State pensioners' bank transactions anyway. I have fact-checked the claim. It is false. State pension is exempt from the list of benefits under this law that comes into force in 2026.

The first missile to use SEP technology (Copyright Douglas Adams).

Farage is transparently an enemy of the British state.

I'm astonished! We've just had Tory canvassers at our door with no election in sight. This, once safe, Tory seat almost went LibDem last time (with strong tactical voting) and before that you rarely saw or heard from our MP. They must be really really desperate. Good.

Open Rights Group email on Digital ID:

@quietriotpod.bsky.social How do I find your show notes? A search tells me they're on your Web site (which makes sense), but there's no obvious path to finding them there.

Performative nonsense. The French have offered multiple times to site processing centres in France. Asylum seekers could be pre-screened and given visas to use safe, legal routes to get to the UK and make an asylum claim. No more women or children need to die in the channel.

People couldn't see Brexit happening, but it did. Defeatism achieves nothing. Or is that your objective - to get people to give up hope?

#BBC Verify labelling people who aren't fascist as far left activists. "Antifa is short for anti-fascist. It is a loose, leaderless affiliation of mostly far-left activists." Well, this very centrist dad is anti-fascist... I expect you are too. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

"Huge" violent far right demonstration calls out 9% of the people the huge peaceful pro-EU march the then government (and significant portions of the media) ignored completely. 91:9... in favour of peaceful democratic progressive policies. Government policy needs to reflect that.

Maybe it's time for #BBCR4 to sack #JustinWebb from Today for political bias. Then he can be put forward for an #NTVAward and we'll all find out how popular (or unpopular) his views really are. It worked for #GaryLineker.

It occurred to me that Farage is an archetypal cad. Which set me thinking of other terms that may have gone out of fashion for his type... Spiv Bounder Mountebank All leapt to mind. Then there's the more current... Charlatan Snake oil salesman Con man Any more (without swearing)?

@quietriotpod.bsky.social So... If the UK makes a decision under the HRA based on an ECHR decision it could become UK precedent. Then a subsequent ECHR case gets decided against its precedent, but UK courts would be bound to contradict the ECHR. If so, that's daft.

Anyone else identify? [Though there is deep irony in giving these individuals a collective type] www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...

@quietriotpod.bsky.social I think the football fans' wokey dokey thing is more that "woke" is anything that's unlike the past, anything progressive, rather than anything they don't like.

I know the Americans have to do what's meaningful to themselves, but does anyone else find the traction the slogan "No Kings" gets rather quaint and idiosyncratic? Their democracy is undermined by autocrats and they have to refer to a monarchy to make it stick? Weird.

A month on... looks like I was right. Epstein still has legs. I know! I'm as shocked as anyone.

For over 45 years, neoliberal and neoclassical economics have dominated UK policy — and failed us. In a new series, I explain why they fail, and show how you can argue back with reason and evidence. Economics should serve people, not markets. Let’s take it back. youtu.be/uvLZCnhJFaY?...

Nobody beyond a few migration specialists and social activists (plus a few racists) actually care about #Migration in the UK. Almost everyone who claims to care is really focussed on their own share of resources, their own income, their own government support, their own loved ones.

#WordsMatter a lot. "allot" is a synonym of "assign" & "apportion". Everyone knows the difference between "assign" & "a sign", "apportion" & "a portion", so why the hell do so many people confuse "allot" with "a lot"... even if they compound the error by misspelling it "alot"?

They never pass up an opportunity to nudge the narrative, quite often it's secondary to the article's main point (or even tangential). It's too easy to absorb such nudges by accident, even while objecting to the principle, and that is deliberate strategy.

@quietriotpod.bsky.social On the online safety act Beta-test point. I think it's extremely unlikely that the government would take anything like the suggested iterative improvement approach.

@bsky.app Odd that you have to open DM chats to disable DMs making it impossible to disable DMs if you object to verifying age. You should be able to disable DMs in the same okace you can control things like notifications.

I am beginning to feel quite in tune with the MAGA mindset... not sure that's a good thing.

The 201st #TheInfiniteMonkeyCage podcast spends time on climate change, partly bemoaning how expressions of global temperature rise can seem insignificant. It should be easy to offer a huge accessible equivalent figure using Joules or even Calories. #ProfBrianCox #RobinInce #AGW #ClimateChange

Government remains in denial, responding to petition.parliament.uk/petitions/72... with "Britain will stay outside the EU, but we must make Brexit work." Can they really be this stupid? They can't possibly actually think we won't #RejoinEU. So why pretend? #FBPE