I might not have the regular Irish Times column that Steen has, but I do have quite a bit more than a few anecdotes to back up what I say. Maria Steen thinks the #genderPayGap is a myth but that is a hopelessly basic and naive take. Here is why. paygap.ie/posts/maria-...

The Telegraph just gave a convicted criminal a two-page spread to explain why he's pumping £4 million into Reform UK. They tucked his criminal record away in the small print. So as a former financial crime specialist I’ll do their job for them👇

Irish far-right are making speeches about migrants at their fuel protests.. meanwhile: 'Ireland’s energy-hungry datacentres consumed more electricity last year than all its urban homes combined, according to official figures.' Amazon AWS, Google, Equinix, Microsoft, Digital Realty, Edge Connex..

Excellent thread from the time of the riots in Nov 2023, and points out how much earlier the extremism was all developing.

With thanks to @ciaranoconnor.bsky.social, @worklesshard.bsky.social and lots of others, The Briefing is back after a hiatus; Who is funding the Facebook ads pushing the fuel protests? 🇮🇪 With extra bonus "here comes MAGA" content 🦅 www.thebriefing.ie/who-is-fundi...

Reform UK voters least likely to see social media posts from family and friends, study finds

Impossible to disagree with a single word that Ben Rhodes (Obama era NSC official) is saying here:

Reform would ban any citizen of many Commonwealth countries gaining a visa due to a policy position of its government. Most Reform's policies are in the long tradition of finding reasons to propose policies that impact on non-white migrants, not white migrants www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

🚘 Tesla vs. Europe’s social model? Tesla is often cited as an industrial success of the green transition - but its anti-union model raises serious concerns 🔗 etui.org/4ik 🧵 👇

NEW: The government has asked its new employment rights watchdog, the Fair Work Agency, to reduce regulatory burdens on business. This is at a time when the UK has among the fewest labour inspectors in the OECD & workers face billions of pounds in unpaid wages. www.theguardian.com/business/202...

From today, every child counts equal. So if your family are on low wages or fall on hard times - universal credit is paid for every child, not just the first two Cos every child matters - and every child deserves the chance to thrive

From today sick pay rule changes to benefit up to 9.6 million UK workers👏 www.theguardian.com/law/2026/apr...

This week, Brexit finally killed our family business. We cleared out our warehouse, handed back the keys, paid the final bills and said goodbye to our last employee. What was once a thriving firm died a slow, sad death, all thanks to Farage, Johnson and the gullible idiots they conned. 1/18

We don’t usually defend bosses. But when a bad boss goes after THE Boss and our union brother? We won’t stand for it.

The far-right have called a rally in Coleraine this weekend, this is the peaceful counter. 'The Causeway Trade Union Council is organising a peaceful counter-demo to show that the north coast stands for peace, solidarity, and inclusion. Where: Coleraine Town Hall When: 2PM, Saturday 4th April'

NHS staff were among the most exposed people during that 1st yr. They had neither the protection of effective treatments or - for the first 9 months - a vaccine. Healthcare workers were much more likely to have been infected, to get Long Covid, and to die. 4/19

AI is less regulated than sandwich shops. That’s a problem. There is no industry and no job that AI won’t touch. That’s why working people’s voices need to be heard—and why we need AI guardrails now to protect our jobs, our rights and our freedoms.

Jim Crow. Apartheid. Israel Now. That’s what’2-tier justice’ is.

Two of the journalists assassinated in South Lebanon this morning by Israel were Lebanese correspondents Ali Shoeib and Fatima Ftouni. They become the 252nd and 253rd journalists killed by Israel in the last two years. Unprecedented. (📸 Cradle Media)

As the police find no evidence whatsoever of illegal family voting or voter coercion in the Gorton and Denton by-election, the BBC should ask themselves why, on the morning of the result, they gave so much airtime to these absurd and obviously racist claims from Nigel Farage

Dr Gareth Murphy, Head of Industrial Relations and Campaigns at FSU, talking today on AI and the Financial Services Sector in Ireland at the Skills for a Fair Future - Unions Leading Change event, organised by @nic-ictu.bsky.social in Belfast as part of the Union Learning Conference. #AI

Today Belfast lost a giant of activism, Naomi Connor. Our solidarity and love to her family, friends and everyone who has been lucky enough to have had her in their lives. Naomi was friend and inspiration to End Deportations Belfast and so many other groups fighting for a better world. [1/2]

Our friend Activist Educator Agitatior Member Comrade Our pool feels a little shallow now she has left us

Remember how "bespoke deals" were Brexit's great big selling point? The Australian FTA with the UK allows them to import more than twice as much beef into this country as the whole of the rest of EU put together... before turning it up to "as much as you want." Farming in the UK is fucked.

Robert Jenrick calling Palm Sunday 'Psalm Sunday' reminds us once again that dim witted rage baiting populists never know the slightest thing about what they are purporting to defend.

FSU’s delegation at @nic-ictu.bsky.social Women’s Conference this week — Achieving for In Women a New Economic Model for Women Workers FSU had 6 motions, including Pay Transparency and spoke on a number of issues, such as ‘ICTU New Economic Model’ and ‘AI a threat to women’.

“According to Amis, OPEC put an end to the literary bohemia of his youth. The “oil hike, and inflation, and then stagflation” meant nobody could live on ten shillings a week.”

NAHT is proud to support the Together Alliance’s march for love, hope and unity on Saturday 28 March ✨ We stand with those working to counter rising hatred and division across our communities. https://bit.ly/3NdybGf

If the Shadow Lord Chancellor says "it should not happen again", is it now Conservative policy to ban an Iftar in a public square in London, or elsewhere? - What current/new law? - Or to make it an offence to pray in public? or to limit the number doing so, for a specific faith, or several/all]?

He just doesn’t get it it does he? Those with the lowest incomes carry the highest tax burden in relation to income and have no way of ‘avoiding tax’ Richard Tice said ‘How many friends and family do you have who voluntarily choose to pay more tax than they are legally obliged to do’

Typical Times doing its overbearing brexity parent act. Telling Reeves she can try to improve market access with the EU but nothing more. Because then we’d be “supplicants”. Ffs. The endless tedium of it. Get over yourselves. Look at our geopolitical insecurity and the actual numbers (Private Eye).

The Spectator, a right wing news magazine owned by Paul Marshall, falsely accused a HOPE not hate journalist of committing a serious criminal offence. They were forced to retract the story and apologise. But instead of stopping there, The Spectator couldn’t resist one more swing.

We support the calls today from AdviceNI & Feeding_Britain & all education unions who argue NI Executive now make the eradication of child poverty a cross-departmental priority We believe that a universal offering of Free School Meals is a key step to achieving this! www.ictuni.org/news/nic-ict...

Brexiter Arlene Foster who now sits in the House of Lords wants to cut welfare support and spend the money on defence instead Brexit costs the UK £90 billion in lost tax income every year,if we didn't have Foster's Brexit we could keep supporting those in need while also ramping up defence spending

When you're poor you know your bank balance to the nearest penny & an exact inventory of your kitchen shelves, the precise date each of a half dozen bills are due & how long each can default before they accrue fines or disconnection & which items are cheaper in which store for a 3-mile radius.

The 1980s North Sea oil windfall went on tax cuts and unemployment benefit instead of being invested by a sovereign wealth fund – a fact Reform et al never mention.

Iftar, Day 19

On International Womens Day we call on MLAs to support the Good Jobs Bill. Polling shows major support for new Employment Rights laws from NI Assembly NIC-ICTU has written to every MLA to urge support for new rights for workers in Northern Ireland www.ictuni.org/news/interna...

As the laid off Middle East News Editor, I concur. Management eliminated the positions of every single staff correspondent and bureau chief in the Middle East.

Feminists across the world are paying tribute to Yanar Mohammed, great defender of women’s rights, who was assassinated today in Iraq.

(Sighs) From the land that invented populism… www.agendani.com/trade-union-...

"They died to save her face" From the Private Eye archive. Issue 550, January 1983, some months after the Falklands war.

These figures illustrate the urgent need for NI Executive to agree the proposals for Good Jobs Bill @economy-ni.gov.uk Let our MLAs do the jobs we pay them to do and legislate for better job security for every worker www.ictuni.org/news/good-jo...

This is a historic milestone for working people in the South. Congratulations to the Volkswagen workers and our @uaw.org family on ratifying their first union contract. Better pay, healthcare cost reductions, job security and more — it’s #BetterInAUnion!

A new paper shows that less than 2 months of exposure to Twitter’s algorithmic feed significantly shifts people’s political views to the right. Moving from chronological feed to the algorithmic feed also increases engagement. This is one of the most concerning papers I’ve read in awhile.

Starmer’s real leadership crisis. New post on my Brexit & Brexitism Blog. Fatuous media coverage aside, Starmer’s challenge is to make good on his claim that Britain isn’t the country of the Brexit years in the face of rising ethno-nationalism: chrisgreybrexitblog.blogspot.com/2026/02/star...

Last time a Reform politician said the minimum wage should be cut we looked into his businesses & found three of his former employees had won employment tribunal claims against him. But despite what the tribunal ordered, he didn't pay a single judgment www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2025...

Spoiling a lot of takes but begging a large number of other questions... "Worsening graduate fortunes, it turns out, are a particularly British problem" www.ft.com/content/649d...

Strike over labour reforms brings Argentina’s capital to a near-standstill https://aje.news/6yz95q