With authoritarianism on the rise, book bannings through political censorship, minorities targeted, it’s never been more important to stand up for writers, communities and the books which have been challenged. Join @indexcensorship and booksellers in #bannedbooksweek. Read. Read banned books.

Another good article by @neilmackay.bsky.social www.heraldscotland.com/politics/vie...

There is no time to wait. We need more climate ambition not less. #ActOnClimate #PanelsNotPipelines @MarkJCarney

@zackpolanski.bsky.social is completely correct. The Brit parties aping the Far Right for the last 2 decades has added fuel to their fire. Look at where we've ended up in Brexit Britain. Thankfully off to a brilliant start: great stuff from @greenparty.org.uk www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

"Planned or not, Trump and Putin – like-minded, amoral, authoritarian apex predators – are working together, or at least in parallel, to undercut European democracy, security, prosperity and progressive values. It looks like a concerted pincer movement..." www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Very, VERY excited - and so lucky - to have received a proof copy of this new novel by #DouglasStuart from the Booksellers Conference. One of the perks of being a bookseller is seeing bestsellers of the future before they appear in bookshops. This book is published in May 26. Sgoinneil!

More south-west tranquility in Wigtownshire - such a beautiful part of Scotland.

A few days of peace and tranquility in the south-west.

Astonishing. The gall of this self-serving shower! Tories adding more insult to a never-ending line of injuries. And this ridiculous medieval Gilbert and Sullivan-esque pantomime of a country, this creaking, unjust, unequal state, simply allows it. Fuming. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Idiots. As dangerously thick as they are repugnant. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

For all the smug columnists who have decided to rehabilitate the violent extremism of Charlie Kirk's ideology. Children gunned down in schools? A sacrifice for the second amendment. Gay people? Maybe they should be stoned to death. www.lgbtqnation.com/2024/06/dona...

This is absolutely unhinged from Johnson and others. Kirk was a proponent of Great Replacement Theory who called for gays to be stoned and public lynch mobs to murder trans people. He is the definition of a right-wing extremist. The cowardice, avarice and opportunism of Johnson knows no bounds.

Join the counter protest called by SUTR Scotland on 20th September at Buchanan Galleries Steps at 12 noon!

📣 Join us at the counter-protest on 20th September to say NO to the far right in Glasgow! Buchanan Galleries Steps Sat 20th Sept, 12pm We showed them in July and we will show them again: Glasgow is ANTI-FASCIST ✊✊✊ @lghr.bsky.social @standuptoracismuk.bsky.social @uniteagainstfasc.bsky.social

Utterly loathsome. www.thenational.scot/news/2545452...

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I think we're well beyond "asking questions." Arrest him. www.arabnews.com/node/2614718...

With respect to the candidates, it really doesn't make a difference who the next deputy of the Labour Party is. The party is so fundamentally broken - it seeks only to protect the wealth of it's donors. I spoke to The Indepedent 👇🏼 youtu.be/sTes4wqlOBQ?...

This is yet more evidence that incomes in the UK do not adequately cover the cost of food. Ministers know that the most significant way it can support families on the lowest incomes is to scrap the two-child limit to Universal Credit. They must do this in the forthcoming Child Poverty Strategy.

This by @johnharris1969.bsky.social crystallises the feelings of dread I've been having about the prospect of a Farage government. Think about what it'd mean for the NHS, state education, the BBC, climate change. But then pick yourself up and *fight like hell.* www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

People are exhausted. Our high streets, public spaces, whole communities left unloved. Blaming migrants won’t fix this. Tackling inequality will. Tax the super-rich. Fund public services. #DrawTheLine www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

If Farage wins the next election, it will be down to one person. His name is Keir Starmer. This thread explains why. 1. Destroying faith in democracy. The UK decisively voted out the Tories, only for Starmer to give us a Continuity Tory government, shamefully beholden to economic power. 🧵

THIS! 👇 When the Far Right are exposed for their hate, their lies, their greed and their contempt for working people, we defeat them! Well done @zackpolanski.bsky.social 💚

If you vote Reform you will be voting against women’s equality, for more harassment in the workplace and beyond (as if there isn’t enough) Remember 41% of the Farage Foot Soldiers arrested in last summer’s disgraceful riots had already been REPORTED FOR DOMESTIC ABUSE

“If Scotland is to become independent, we need a revolution” bylines.scot/opinion/if-s...

Andrea Jenkyns has just suggested that in power Reform would bring in legislation to *ban* public sector workers striking. 😬

This is a huge story. Don't let him get away with it. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Jenrick is now straying into far-right territory...

Nadine Dorries joins Nigel Farage’s Reform UK.

Since this is apparently a resigning matter, I’ll just leave this here… www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Scotland's richest 2% now have more wealth than half the population combined. At today's #FMQs we asked the First Minister why shooting estates owned by billionaires still pay no business rates. We’re losing millions of pounds that could go towards our schools, libraries, and hospitals.

Labour has succeeded only in strengthening Farage. The way is now open for Zack Polanski’s Greens” www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Oh, look! Empty meaningless sloganeering! AND a Union Flag! Starmer continues to be repetitively awful. How many Union Flags will PM Farage have behind him? #BetterTogether www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

“My message to Labour is very clear: we are not here to be disappointed by you. We are not here to be concerned by you. We are here to replace you.” Brilliant. 💚 www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Congratulations to the newly elected Leader of the Green Party of England & Wales, @zackpolanski.bsky.social

MPs tamely go along with a 19th C convention not to discuss the royal family. Which is a shame, because there's lots to discuss www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/world/monarc...

And if you're wondering whether someone getting killed is what it will take for the media and political class to come to their senses, I would just remind you that Jo Cox was murdered in a similar moment of demagoguery and hysteria 9 years ago, and if anything things have got far worse since then.

Ably demonstrating that old theory that the further right politically, the smaller the IQ. Idiots. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Just imagine if the 2014 #indyref had gone the other way. Cameron would never have held the Brexit referendum and Farage would have been a busted flush. Now Scotland is shackled to morons painting roundabouts and increased race crime. Better Together, eh? www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Incredibly moving presentation last night in Galashiels with suggestions on how each of us can help. Well done to the Scottish Borders SNP for organising this.

This is the enduring lesson of Weimar: extremism never triumphs on its own. It succeeds because others enable it—because of their ambition, because of their fear, or because they misjudge the dangers of small concessions www.foreignaffairs.com/germany/hitl...

Congratulations to our new co-leaders Gillian MacKay MSP & Ross Greer MSP. 🙏💚 To our outgoing co-leaders Patrick Harvie MSP & Lorna Slater MSP thank you for everything you have done for the party & achieved for people & planet. 1/2

Migrants didn't cut council funding. Migrants didn't cut NHS funding. Migrants didn't close youth centres. Migrants didn't sell off council houses. Migrants aren't filling our rivers with sewage. Farage and co. will tell you to point the finger at migrants. Don't fall for it.

Things are tough for too many people in Scotland. People are tired and angry. But in Edinburgh on Sat 25 October we have a chance to come together to tell our politicians that #ScotlandDemandsBetter. Join us! www.scotland-demands-better.com

This is outstanding. God knows what Labour is doing: legitimising the racism that'll be its undoing, losing the coalition which put it in office, trying to secure voters who will never support it, digging its own moral grave. observer.co.uk/news/opinion...

Not many farmers would tell you that we need to eat less meat; that wealthy landowners shouldn’t moan about inheritance tax but should “pay the whole fucking lot”; & that Reform UK are “a load of rich rightwing toffs” 😂 But Devon farmer Guy Singh-Watson does: www.theguardian.com/environment/...

This is fascinating and well worth the long (chilling) read. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

I am one of the 14 authors who chose to leave the Polari Prize, and I find myself frustrated and saddened at the way this entire story has been represented. 1/