NEW Either public safety is an absolute priority at sporting events or it is not. Reflections on the Aston Villa and Maccabi Tel Aviv match By me emptycity.substack.com/p/either-pub...

@davidallengreen.bsky.social On the Villa match, I’m not convinced Maccabi’s stance does fully give the government an escape. Another falsehood told by the SoS was that the majority of away tickets would go to British Jewish fans. So it feels she has painted herself into a box here.

I’ve made the mistake of watching the Parliamentary discussion on Villa-Maccabi. Just getting really annoyed by the lies and the ongoing depiction of this as an issue of a threat to the Maccabi fans.

This really should be the story that tells Starmer, Badenoch, Farage and Davey they have it wrong on the Villa-Maccabi issue. www.bbc.co.uk/sport/footba...

It’s fascinating to see the British far-right, fundamentally anti-Semitic, aligning with far-right Israelis because they see an alliance in hating Muslims. “The enemy of my enemy…” But someone will get bitten by this.

You can apply this to a lot of powered garden tools. The amount of people who seem to use tools over-powered for the context, then use them badly and incorrectly so they make as much noise as possible. And that can include supposed garden professionals.

Since the title ‘Duke of York’ is now vacant, I think it’s time it went to someone *from* York. I could make a lengthy pitch but, basically, I think it should be me.

How has the government got itself into the position of standing up for Israeli football hooligans, while criminalising peaceful supporters of Palestine Action?

An interesting thought experiment - would we have the same urgency and outcry if it was a Turkish club with Muslim fans being banned for the same reason? Would every major leader by calling the decision Islamophobic? I think we all know the answer. www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cx...

The response from politicians here is absolutely horrendous. Safety Advisory Groups have to be able to work independently and make decisions based on facts. Seeing the leaders of all political parties point score from it is just pathetic. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Every country with English expat populations should retaliate.

Lots of redwings moving over York tonight

Sky spider!

Of course he’s anticipating strikes. What his potential voters don’t get is that the reason he wants to withdraw from the ECHR and scrap the Human Rights Act is that he’s going to set back conditions for workers in this country by 100 years. His backers demand it.

What’s funny about people like Thiel is that this is actually such an old schtick. Use big, intellectual sounding words, but actually talk complete nonsense. He’s a buffoon. He’s not the messiah, he’s a very stupid boy. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Who benefits from the abolition of stamp duty land tax? The first answer: people buying very expensive homes. Average saving for someone buying a £10m+ home is £1.7m. Average saving for someone buying a £250k-£500k home is £5k.

Reeves needs to go

I again return to my theory that Rachel Reeves was startled by a spider as a child. Nothing else explains this malicious revelling in ignorance.

Why does “We need a shared culture and values” never get called out as obvious bullshit? Politicians of all stripes say it, but it’s an impossibility. What we need is respect for the fact other people will have different cultures and values, underpinned by a decent legal system.

I like the idea they are facing people who “act violently” Is that when someone randomly hands you Parma Violets?

I'm Jewish. I'm also Mancunian. Every other national party leader was interviewed by Laura Kunesberg during their conference. Maybe the BBC thought as someone who also supports Palestine - I had nothing to say? Let's keep growing: join.greenparty.org.uk

We flounced out of the EU on the say-so of politicians who lied to us. And what a total shitshow that’s turned out to be. The polar opposite of what they promised. Now the call to flounce out of the ECHR. By the same people. Telling the same lies. Has the country been kicked in the head by a horse?

This is an excellent point - where are the endless days of headlines across multiple papers? Almost like much of the media is in hock to the same sources. Or, at the very least, happier with a convenient story over the truth. Maybe afraid of the right?

The msm pursued the Rayner story in such detail it forced her resignation . Now there’s a much bigger scandal concerning Farage of possible treason it’s like they’ve forgotten how to spell investigate & corruption. It’s not only Farage who has a Russian problem, if our msm protects him we all do .

First weekend of October so it’s Christmas Cake baking time!

Great quote in this from a Jewish attendee at the pro-Palestine protest: "I think it's possible for us to be compassionate and open our hearts to victims of multiple atrocities at one time." www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Tommy once had ‘strange feelings’ when he saw a really fit medieval sculpture of Jesus. I think that explains everything.

Apparently Kemi Badenoch’s next strategy to make the Tories stand out from other parties is that she’s going to shoot herself in the foot, to be the only party with a policy of deliberately sitting themselves in the foot.

Now go after the people who gave her a place in the VIP Lane and the Lords. Let’s properly hammer corruption. www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cy...

Excellent opportunity with Yorkshire Wildlife Trust - Director of Fundraising and Engagement. Come work with passionate people in the best part of the UK, on the most worthy of causes. careers.ywt.org.uk/job/f36346bb...

Sky News and the BBC repeatedly mention the "migrant crisis" in doing so they are normalising and legitimising far right talking points. There is no "migrant crisis", there is only migrant hysteria, which the British media is feeding into instead of countering.

Something not mentioned about Farage’s swan/carp comments - it’s a purely cultural distinction. People that fund Farage and his ilk shoot plenty of rarer wildfowl than the mute swan. And carp are far less ecologically problematic as a food source than salmon and trout.

A nationalist utterly colonised by foreigners.

Nice of America to elect an ancient, ignorant, racist, misogynist, buffoonish, wannabe fascist dictator, meaning the rest of us have to have his lunatic ramblings on the world stage.

Once again we get coverage of Lucy Connolly that fails to note that she was given *the minimum sentence* for the offender to which *she pled guilty* www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Apart from the bald statistics, there’s another great point tucked in the bottom of this piece. The way Farage is portrayed is also significant - the protagonist, rarely challenged, matey with a pint in hand. The BBC and others willingly indulge his deception.

Reform, with 0.6% of all MPs, featured in 25% of BBC's recent 10pm news bulletins flip.it/okxIhl

The central premise here is astonishingly lacking in self-awareness. The reason Davey “clowns around” and the reason Reform get so much more coverage is, in large part, an editorial decision of the BBC. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Does it count as “officially released information” if Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth adds you to a WhatsApp/Telegram group chat?

I know we keep focusing on Colbert and Kimmel as we should, but we also need to remember there are hundreds of people who work for these shows who also just lost their jobs because of this bullshit, and most of them are probably not millionaires.

Four red admirals joining the painted lady today. The latter basically appeared once the sun came out and hasn’t moved from the garden all day.

Exactly five years ago there was a painted lady on the verbena in the garden. This afternoon, look what we have!

The word ‘legend’ is badly over-used, as is ‘icon’. But Robert Redford was, inarguably, a legend and an icon.

I think my #favouriteflower for #wildflowerhour was the spectacular display of red hemp nettle in East Yorkshire this year on a couple of @yorkswildlife.bsky.social reserves.

Ricky Hatton is a particularly bad example, but we see this too often - young people, frequently working class, all their life from childhood focused on sport. Then they reach the end and have no clue how to fill their time, how to replace that biochemical stimulus. 1/3

The discourse is all around deradicalising young men and the crisis among young men. The discourse would be much better targeted if it was about deradicalising boomers (and increasingly Gen Xers).

Not only has Starmer said nothing about yesterday’s march, his official account has put out a statement *on X* this morning about financial investment in Britain. Dismal.

“Turn the next election into a choice between Labour and Reform and rely on everyone voting Labour to block Reform” is a bad tactic to start with. But it’s a *terrible* tactic when you do absolutely nothing to oppose Reform while in government.

Further evidence that the single best thing Labour could do right now is change the voting system to some form of preferential vote. Only in 65+ does the combined right wing vote tip 50%. In every other demographic the opposite is true.