Mark Appleby
@markappleby.bsky.social
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Enterprise Architect, Bristol UK
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Mark Appleby
Giles Wilkes
1 day ago
"In essence, Leave was a paternalist movement â its key pledge was to spend EU membership dues on the NHS â led by unrepresentative libertarians from the safety of Londonâs two or three ghastliest private membersâ clubs".
www.ft.com/content/5cda...
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How Brexit made Britain a European country
With its political chaos and high-spending state, the UK is more continental than it was a decade ago
https://www.ft.com/content/5cda29fb-0a58-4cb6-97d6-4f9b12686d1c?shareType=nongift
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Sam Freedman
2 days ago
This is perhaps the thing that's annoyed me most about this government. They have had an opportunity to do something important AND in their political self-interest and instead chose to ignore it.
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James Ball
4 days ago
I think this might be the single most viscerally disgusting act of either of Trump's presidencies. Truly, utterly, vile.
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Adam Bienkov
4 days ago
Rishi Sunak tells Radio 4 that "AI is changing every aspect of our economy and our lives, and if I was back in office and looked at my diary and where I was going to spend my time, I would spend it on that" At no point does he or the BBC mention the ÂŁ373,000 given to him every year by an AI company
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Sam Freedman
4 days ago
Except it isn't what he did in government! He raised spending massively, raised taxes, increased welfare spending, increased immigration and was pro-EU integration. Now he's against all those things.
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Ian Birrell
4 days ago
Another Farage ally spewing Russian propaganda đ
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Peter Geoghegan
4 days ago
Tony Blair on my radio doing full AI Silicon Valley boosterism UnrelatedlyâŠ. Tony Blairâs personal think tank has had or been pledged $350 million from Oracle boss Larry Ellison
democracyforsale.substack.com/p/inside-the...
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Inside the Tony Blair Institute
A former PM, Trump's 'CEO of everything' and NHS data - what could go wrong?
https://democracyforsale.substack.com/p/inside-the-tony-blair-institute-larry-ellison-peter-kyle-starmer
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Dmitry Grozoubinski
4 days ago
Thanks Mr Blair but a baselessly confident 6,000 word diatribe telling the UK to move right on every issue while embracing Trump and Silicon Valley wasn't even that cute all those times Dominic Cummings wrote it.
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Anthony Painter
4 days ago
When you distil the Blair thing it is pretty dystopian. 1. AI or bust. 2. Reorient everything around AI - go MAGA not EU. 3. Restructure Government around it. 4. Accept no regulatory limits to this. 5. Become a mini US. Enter the EU and turn it that way too.
institute.global/insights/pol...
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The Labour Party Is Playing With Fire Over Its Future and the Future of the Country
In this essay, Tony Blair sets out the need for a new agenda for Britain.
https://institute.global/insights/politics-and-governance/the-labour-party-is-playing-with-fire-over-its-future-and-the-future-of-the-country
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David Klemperer
5 days ago
Matt Ridley and the Daily Mail:
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Anne Applebaum
6 days ago
"In September 2025, nine mosques and cultural centers in and around Paris were targeted...Bloody severed pig heads, each marked with the word âMacronâ in blue ink, were left outside their front doors." This was a Russian stunt. From
@occrp.org
Read more:
www.occrp.org/en/investiga...
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Leaked Documents Reveal Russian âCognitive Strikesâ Against the West â Including Islamophobic âPig Headâ Attacks in Paris
Leaked chats and documents showcase the Russian presidential administrationâs role in false-flag vandalism attacks and election interference campaigns in Europe and beyond.
https://www.occrp.org/en/investigation/leaked-documents-reveal-russian-cognitive-strikes-against-the-west-including-islamophobic-pig-head-attacks-in-paris
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James Ball
7 days ago
Sacking middle managers and then rehiring them is pretty much the oldest false economy in business. AI is just the newest excuse to do it. I do think AI will replace millions of jobs (just like word processing, email and spreadsheets did). It's just probably not gonna be these ones, long run.
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Jonathan Portes
8 days ago
I can excuse
@iaindale.bsky.social
's ignorance here. Just because anyone with a very basic economics education should recognise the lump of labour fallacy doesn't mean he should. But the arrogance combined with the absolutely deliberate refusal to think is quite remarkable.
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Third day of outage for HMRC self assessment submissions, and still their self assessment status page insists "Full service available". Chat service useless, phone helpline offers no help. HMRC digital channels need much better support.
9 days ago
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Social Media Lab
10 days ago
And there it is ⊠as predictable as rain. Instead of Trump or Hegseth, they had an âacting Navy secretaryâ announce that Taiwan's weapons sales will be paused to âensure munitions for the Iran war.â And I'm sure it has nothing to do with a wink and a nod to China.
thehill.com/policy/defen...
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Acting Navy secretary: Taiwan weapons sales paused to ensure munitions for Iran war
Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao said Thursday the U.S. is pausing a $14 billion arms sale to Taiwan because of the Trump administrationâs war with Iran. Speaking during a Senate AppropriationsâŠ
https://thehill.com/policy/defense/5890471-us-arms-sales-taiwan-paused-iran/
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David Henig
10 days ago
The curse of performance management. The mistaken belief that you can measure high performance. In both public and private sector I've seen nothing more likely to damage staff morale.
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
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Senior civil servants to get bonuses for first time to reward âdoers, not talkersâ
Highest-ranking staff will get 2.5% pay rise with bonuses for top performers in plan to ârewireâ civil service
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/may/21/senior-civil-servants-bonuses-pay-labour
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Jonathan Portes
11 days ago
- Subsidising consumption in the face of a supply shock - reducing incentives to drive less/switch to EVs - using up limited fiscal space to help better-off drivers rather than the most vulnerable. Hard to think of a worse policy right now.
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Dan Davies
16 days ago
"we've got something better than a legally enforceable ruling, we've got Elon Musk's word as a gentleman"
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Peter Geoghegan
16 days ago
đŽ Keir Starmer promised to crackdown on "Slapps" - abusive libel cases to silence journalists and critics Then Labour quietly dropped it We can reveal why: a three-year lobbying blitz by libel lawyers who've acted for Russian oligarchs, Epstein + more
democracyforsale.substack.com/p/how-lawyer...
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How lawyers to the super-rich strangled Labour's Slapp bill
Exclusive: A discreet lobbying campaign by lawyers who have acted for oligarchs and the super-rich told government that reforming England's libel laws was too difficult.
https://democracyforsale.substack.com/p/how-lawyers-to-the-super-rich-strangled
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Mark Appleby
18 days ago
NEW: On the ÂŁ5mn Harborne gift (which Farage says he didnât have to declare because it was to cover his security before he became an MP) Farage did declare a donation from George Cottrell in mid-April 2024, which covered his accommodation and travel and âsecurity provisionâ.
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Adam Bienkov
17 days ago
Jenrick listed the money as coming from 'Spott Fitness' - a company which had no employees, had never made a profit and carried debts of over ÂŁ300,000. In reality it came from Gary Klopfenstein, a Chicago-based investor who pled guilty to wire fraud and misappropriating funds
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Robert Jenrick's Alleged ÂŁ40k Donor Pled Guilty to Wire Fraud in California Ponzi Scheme
Police are examining allegations that the Reform UK MP's Conservative leadership campaign was unlawfully funded by a US-based investor who pled guilty to fraud
https://bylinetimes.com/2026/04/28/robert-jenricks-alleged-40k-donor-pled-guilty-to-wire-fraud-in-california-ponzi-scheme/
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Jim Pickard
17 days ago
BREAKING: Reform UK leader Nigel Farage bought a ÂŁ1.4 million property in cash shortly after receiving a ÂŁ5m personal gift from billionaire donor Christopher Harborne, according to property records seen by Sky News.
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Ian Birrell
17 days ago
Typical: no mention of social care in this resignation letter by the health and social care secretary, making huge play of his claimed achievements in the NHS
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Chris Dillow
17 days ago
The problem for Blue "Labour" is that in destroying the economic base of the metropolitan elite it is also wrecking the economy. But not to worry, backyard pig iron furnaces should solve the problem.
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Heather Burns
19 days ago
Fun fact: the magical child safety solution which Jess Philips cited in her resignation letter is a vendor-specific offering, which benefited from an intense PR and lobbying campaign, and was previously praised by ... Prince Andrew. I always keep the receipts.
heatherburns.tech/2026/02/20/t...
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Phillips OBrien
19 days ago
The Trump administration is now openly stealing from Europe. They are taking in funds through PURL, supposedly to provide arms for Ukraine, but refusing to deliver the weapons.
www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/202...
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WP: European allies concerned about future of US weapons supplies to Ukraine
European allies are increasingly concerned about the future of US weapons deliveries to Ukraine as American stockpiles shrink and doubts grow over Pentagon spending transparency.
https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2026/05/12/8034264/
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Sathnam Sanghera
19 days ago
The inexplicable excitability of political correspondents, as their nation withers and disintegrates
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Max Boot
22 days ago
About 352,000 Russian soldiers had died in the war against Ukraine through the end of 2025, according to a new estimate, underscoring the high cost that President Vladimir V. Putin is willing to bear to pursue his battlefield aims.
www.nytimes.com/2026/05/09/w...
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Russia Has Lost More Than 350,000 Soldiers, New Estimate Finds
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/09/world/europe/russia-ukraine-war-death-toll.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share
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Adam Bienkov
23 days ago
For two years the 'Blue Labour' tendency has told the party's core liberal voters (in the famous words of Shabana Mahmood) to "f*** right off". Now they've acted accordingly
www.adambienkov.co.uk/p/how-the-ma...
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How the Mahmood-McSweeney Strategy Handed the Local Elections to Nigel Farage
For two years the 'Blue Labour' tendency has told the party's core voters to "f*** right off". Now they've acted accordingly
https://www.adambienkov.co.uk/p/how-the-mahmood-mcsweeney-strategy
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James Ball
25 days ago
Incredible way to beat the drinking-on-the-job stories there, Kash, old buddy, old pal.
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General Boles
25 days ago
This is like the guy at Spearmint Rhino who thinks the dancers really get him
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
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Richard Dawkins concludes AI is conscious, even if it doesnât know it
Chats with AI bots have convinced evolutionary biologist but most experts say he is being misled by mimicry
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/may/05/richard-dawkins-ai-consciousness-anthropic-claude-openai-chatgpt
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Heather Burns
28 days ago
âŠafter *two weeks* of use
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Heather Burns
28 days ago
Scary note in this article - when Grok told this guy that people were coming to kill him, it named real people at real companies, including one near him.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
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AI told users it was sentient - it caused them to have delusions
Several people told the BBC they experienced delusions after intense conversations with AI.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c242pzr1zp2o
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James Ball
29 days ago
It is absolutely extraordinary for the special advisor of a serving cabinet minister to be threatening a British media outlet with an injunction on what seem like deeply spurious grounds. You cannot get an injunction for defamation: the saying is "publish, and be damned" for exactly that reason.
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Chris Dillow
29 days ago
New substack: Westminster politics is something which no intelligent person can look upon with anything other than revulsion.
chrisdillow.substack.com/p/the-stupid...
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The stupidity of politics
No sane person would run a household or business with the lack of thinking that the government devotes to its affairs.
https://chrisdillow.substack.com/p/the-stupidity-of-politics
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Paul Evans
about 1 month ago
Sheâs so desperately online, isnât she? All of the arguments for staying on twitter revolve around cognitive diversity and âfilter bubblesâ. So why do those who remain look like theyâre members of a cargo cult?
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David Clark
about 1 month ago
Right on cue, Starmer has just said that people should be prosecuted for using the word âintifadaâ. But as we see from the Tatchell example below, there is currently no legal basis for that because itâs based on a lie (repeated by Starmer) about what the word means. 1/
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Dmitry Grozoubinski
about 1 month ago
Every paragraph in this story is wilder than the last. The level of assumed impunity is wild. It's hard to pick just one but I think I was most enraged by the part where senior officers invent one bogus reason to detain her after another, as their subordinates point out how flimsy each is.
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Jonathan Portes
about 1 month ago
The Policy Exchange culture warriors that captured the Office for Students always had a clear agenda - to destroy free speech/academic freedom in order to "save" it. Wrote this in 2020. Sadly accurate, although let's hope yesterday's judgment is a turning point.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
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The rightwing defence of 'academic freedom' masks a McCarthyite agenda | Jonathan Portes
Are rightwing academics being silenced? The Policy Exchange thinktank says they are â and has plans for cracking down, says professor of economics Jonathan Portes
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/aug/04/rightwing-academic-freedom-policy-exchange-thinktank
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Patrick Dunleavy
about 1 month ago
Drones mean that the âWarrierâ vehicle is absolutely no use any more, but Healey is too scared to write off the huge sunk costs of a Tory/MOD disaster program. Labour just made a dreadful, expensive decision on its creaking military gear | The Independent
www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/poli...
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Labour just made a dreadful, expensive decision on its creaking military gear
Burying the bad news of a non-decision over a useless but expensive defence disaster on a day when all eyes were on the PM shows the government putting politics above good sense, writes world affairs ...
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/ajax-defence-uk-military-ukraine-weapons-b2966460.html
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Robert Saunders
about 1 month ago
One of the most remarkable achievements in modern political history has been the emergence of "anti-establishment, anti-elite, people's army" parties - committed to "bringing back the nation-state" - that are led, directed & financed by the richest, most privileged & most mobile people on the planet
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Lewis Goodall
about 1 month ago
Take a look at a State Dept design for new American passports. Banana republic stuff. Genuinely tragic to see.
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Phillips OBrien
about 1 month ago
Ukraine is putting relentless pressure on Israel now. The Netanyahu government has made a catastrophic error by siding with Putin's dictatorial government.
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Paul Bernal
about 1 month ago
Well thatâs remarkably stupid.
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Anthony Painter
about 1 month ago
A Labour Government, in policy and rhetoric, attacking a group of care workers. How has it ended up here?
@guardianheather.bsky.social
calls it out. Absolutely rightly.
www.theguardian.com/business/202...
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Britain is undermining the care workers it depends on | Heather Stewart
Labourâs immigration plans tear up the promise made to 300,000 people recruited for a sector in crisis
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/apr/26/britain-undermining-care-workers-depends-on-labour-immigration
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Alan Rusbridger
about 1 month ago
The âLordâ Matthew Doyle saga somehow epitomises this zombie government
app.prospectmagazine.co.uk/story/73126/...
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Starmer is leading a zombie governmentâthe Matthew Doyle saga proves it
The prime ministerâs days appear numbered. Dare we hope he might be replaced by someone of vision, competence and integrity?
https://app.prospectmagazine.co.uk/story/73126/content.html
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Simon Kuestenmacher
about 1 month ago
This chart might look political, but itâs really about data science. The UK can rank great or poorly depending on the KPIs you choose. Our choice of data decides how we view reality.
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Roland Smith
about 1 month ago
Ummm.... yikes?
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Dmitry Grozoubinski
about 1 month ago
Can't believe there might be a place in AI for massively overconfident self-proclaimed geniuses who believe you can data-logic your way through any complex societal problem if you just reject complexity, empathy, morality and legality as obsolete weaknesses.
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Paul Bernal
about 1 month ago
On the day it was announced that the Metropolitan Police were considering a big contract with Palantir.
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