B O'Brien
@bobrien.bsky.social
Pro-Labour, anti-anti-politics. Enjoy rational debate, despise populism of Left or Right, supporter of parliamentary democracy. "That which can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence." (Christopher Hitchens).
Reposted by B O'Brien
When you say "I don't want to be out on strike today", yes you do. You ... have had a 28.9% pay rise, the highest in the public sector, two years in a row ... The leadership of your union are not honest enough that some of this change takes time. Wes Streeting rightly to the BMA resident doctors.
November 15, 2025 at 10:58 PM
When you say "I don't want to be out on strike today", yes you do. You ... have had a 28.9% pay rise, the highest in the public sector, two years in a row ... The leadership of your union are not honest enough that some of this change takes time. Wes Streeting rightly to the BMA resident doctors.
Reposted by B O'Brien
Oddly enough despite the ‘toxicity’ alleged in Downing Street, Labour continue to deliver time and again every single day. These 11 are all announcements from this week.
Impressive no?
Impressive no?
November 12, 2025 at 12:42 PM
Oddly enough despite the ‘toxicity’ alleged in Downing Street, Labour continue to deliver time and again every single day. These 11 are all announcements from this week.
Impressive no?
Impressive no?
Reposted by B O'Brien
Rules for MPs are that you cannot claim for daily travel. Does a nurse get to claim daily mileage? No. Does a road worker? No. Does a teacher? No.
Why does the Mayor? Especially with an £86k salary.
Pay back your travel expenses, Andrea! It’s the right thing to do.
Why does the Mayor? Especially with an £86k salary.
Pay back your travel expenses, Andrea! It’s the right thing to do.
November 12, 2025 at 12:44 PM
Rules for MPs are that you cannot claim for daily travel. Does a nurse get to claim daily mileage? No. Does a road worker? No. Does a teacher? No.
Why does the Mayor? Especially with an £86k salary.
Pay back your travel expenses, Andrea! It’s the right thing to do.
Why does the Mayor? Especially with an £86k salary.
Pay back your travel expenses, Andrea! It’s the right thing to do.
Reposted by B O'Brien
One of the good things about watching some of the wider debates in the Commons is seeing some of the junior ministers at the Despatch box.
Here is part off the closing speech @dantomlinson.bsky.social gave for the government on the opposition day debate on taxes.
1/2
Here is part off the closing speech @dantomlinson.bsky.social gave for the government on the opposition day debate on taxes.
1/2
November 12, 2025 at 4:52 PM
One of the good things about watching some of the wider debates in the Commons is seeing some of the junior ministers at the Despatch box.
Here is part off the closing speech @dantomlinson.bsky.social gave for the government on the opposition day debate on taxes.
1/2
Here is part off the closing speech @dantomlinson.bsky.social gave for the government on the opposition day debate on taxes.
1/2
Reposted by B O'Brien
I've always felt that Johnson and Farage put self-interest over the national interest - hence their dallying with Putin and his oligarchs. But directly colluding with a foreign government to take down the BBC feels like an act of supreme treachery
November 10, 2025 at 5:50 PM
I've always felt that Johnson and Farage put self-interest over the national interest - hence their dallying with Putin and his oligarchs. But directly colluding with a foreign government to take down the BBC feels like an act of supreme treachery
Reposted by B O'Brien
The reaction to the Panorama edit has been nothing short of hysterical. Yes the BBC has some impartiality problems. But its biggest isn't the one you think.
New piece from me.
open.substack.com/pub/goodalla...
New piece from me.
open.substack.com/pub/goodalla...
The truth about impartiality at the BBC
And the hysteria of the current "crisis"
open.substack.com
November 10, 2025 at 7:22 PM
The reaction to the Panorama edit has been nothing short of hysterical. Yes the BBC has some impartiality problems. But its biggest isn't the one you think.
New piece from me.
open.substack.com/pub/goodalla...
New piece from me.
open.substack.com/pub/goodalla...
Reposted by B O'Brien
The Greens are not the antidote to Reform. Sadly Polanski is a left leaning version of Farage. Both are populists, both have great answers but neither is capable of the hard work needed to develop workable solutions to benefit Britain.
Look under the hood.
Look under the hood.
November 11, 2025 at 6:51 AM
The Greens are not the antidote to Reform. Sadly Polanski is a left leaning version of Farage. Both are populists, both have great answers but neither is capable of the hard work needed to develop workable solutions to benefit Britain.
Look under the hood.
Look under the hood.
Reposted by B O'Brien
Good luck with that.
God the hard left is tiring.
😂😂😂😂😂
God the hard left is tiring.
😂😂😂😂😂
November 9, 2025 at 2:16 PM
Good luck with that.
God the hard left is tiring.
😂😂😂😂😂
God the hard left is tiring.
😂😂😂😂😂
Reposted by B O'Brien
Another very pertinent fact that I have not seen mentioned ANYWHERE: In 14 years of Tory rule we had 14 Prisons Ministers - six in a single year, at one point - and a total of 11 Justice Secretaries, including Grayling, Raab, and Truss. In 13 years of Labour it was three: Irvine, Falconer, Straw. 🤔
November 9, 2025 at 12:44 PM
Another very pertinent fact that I have not seen mentioned ANYWHERE: In 14 years of Tory rule we had 14 Prisons Ministers - six in a single year, at one point - and a total of 11 Justice Secretaries, including Grayling, Raab, and Truss. In 13 years of Labour it was three: Irvine, Falconer, Straw. 🤔
Reposted by B O'Brien
The polls aren't good for Labour but in the polls that matter, Reform haven't been winning. In the last 20 or so LE by-elections the Lib Dems have done better than them by a country mile and in the big one, Caerphilly they lost bigly. Yet the media continues to use the polls to set the agenda, why.
November 8, 2025 at 11:01 AM
The polls aren't good for Labour but in the polls that matter, Reform haven't been winning. In the last 20 or so LE by-elections the Lib Dems have done better than them by a country mile and in the big one, Caerphilly they lost bigly. Yet the media continues to use the polls to set the agenda, why.
Reposted by B O'Brien
Sunak’s government raised the rate of National Insurance contributions by 1.25 percentage points in 2022 (and introduced a new Health & Social Care Levy) despite the Conservatives’ 2019 manifesto promising “no increase in the rates of income tax, VAT or National Insurance”
November 4, 2025 at 9:56 AM
Sunak’s government raised the rate of National Insurance contributions by 1.25 percentage points in 2022 (and introduced a new Health & Social Care Levy) despite the Conservatives’ 2019 manifesto promising “no increase in the rates of income tax, VAT or National Insurance”
Reposted by B O'Brien
Some of the many, many things Labour have achieved for our children. Lots more but here’s few. #LabourAchievements
November 4, 2025 at 4:58 PM
Some of the many, many things Labour have achieved for our children. Lots more but here’s few. #LabourAchievements
Reposted by B O'Brien
Thugs who call themselves 'patriots', are tho opposite. They're the nearest the UK has to Hitler's fascist thugs who beat people up, if they dared to oppose what they want. This pensioner was a victim of the criminal fascists that are now emboldened in the UK by right-wing politicians & their media.
November 4, 2025 at 12:51 PM
Thugs who call themselves 'patriots', are tho opposite. They're the nearest the UK has to Hitler's fascist thugs who beat people up, if they dared to oppose what they want. This pensioner was a victim of the criminal fascists that are now emboldened in the UK by right-wing politicians & their media.
Reposted by B O'Brien
So this is Labour's response to Farage's speech this morning - but put out this afternoon across all the channels they are active on.
Very good Labour, very good!
Very good Labour, very good!
November 3, 2025 at 3:24 PM
So this is Labour's response to Farage's speech this morning - but put out this afternoon across all the channels they are active on.
Very good Labour, very good!
Very good Labour, very good!
Reposted by B O'Brien
A perfect 10 of #LabourAchievements. Busy #FixingBritain In just the last four days announcements covering veterans, military homes, people in work up and big savings on electricity costs for business. 👏👏👏#FixingBritain every week by hard work and good government
November 2, 2025 at 7:58 AM
A perfect 10 of #LabourAchievements. Busy #FixingBritain In just the last four days announcements covering veterans, military homes, people in work up and big savings on electricity costs for business. 👏👏👏#FixingBritain every week by hard work and good government
Reposted by B O'Brien
Digital ID
It will make your life easier. And it will be free.
Here is Josh Simons, Cabinet Office Parliamentary Secretary explaining just a few of potential uses.
I personally cannot wait for it. Most people will wonder what the fuss is all about when we get it.
www.instagram.com/p/DQb9v_igdEa/
It will make your life easier. And it will be free.
Here is Josh Simons, Cabinet Office Parliamentary Secretary explaining just a few of potential uses.
I personally cannot wait for it. Most people will wonder what the fuss is all about when we get it.
www.instagram.com/p/DQb9v_igdEa/
November 1, 2025 at 5:19 PM
Digital ID
It will make your life easier. And it will be free.
Here is Josh Simons, Cabinet Office Parliamentary Secretary explaining just a few of potential uses.
I personally cannot wait for it. Most people will wonder what the fuss is all about when we get it.
www.instagram.com/p/DQb9v_igdEa/
It will make your life easier. And it will be free.
Here is Josh Simons, Cabinet Office Parliamentary Secretary explaining just a few of potential uses.
I personally cannot wait for it. Most people will wonder what the fuss is all about when we get it.
www.instagram.com/p/DQb9v_igdEa/
Reposted by B O'Brien
ICE’s undercover officers in plainclothes abducted Sindi Moreno while she was leaving to drop her daughter off at elementary school in Houston. The agent in civilian clothing assaulted and attempted to kidnap Sindi as she and her child desperately fought him off.
November 1, 2025 at 1:42 AM
ICE’s undercover officers in plainclothes abducted Sindi Moreno while she was leaving to drop her daughter off at elementary school in Houston. The agent in civilian clothing assaulted and attempted to kidnap Sindi as she and her child desperately fought him off.
Reposted by B O'Brien
Reeves "letting-gate" might just win the award for the most pathetic non-story of the year.
October 31, 2025 at 10:23 AM
Reeves "letting-gate" might just win the award for the most pathetic non-story of the year.
Reposted by B O'Brien
"To say 'Zelenskyy is no friend of the working class' is an insulting, facile distraction from the fact that Sultana refuses to support the Ukrainian people’s fight for existence."
Proper cold fury and moral clarity from @paulmason.bsky.social on Sultana.
open.substack.com/pub/htsf/p/c...
Proper cold fury and moral clarity from @paulmason.bsky.social on Sultana.
open.substack.com/pub/htsf/p/c...
Coventry South needs a by-election soon
Zarah Sultana has no mandate for disarming the people of Britain and betraying Ukraine
open.substack.com
October 28, 2025 at 3:06 PM
"To say 'Zelenskyy is no friend of the working class' is an insulting, facile distraction from the fact that Sultana refuses to support the Ukrainian people’s fight for existence."
Proper cold fury and moral clarity from @paulmason.bsky.social on Sultana.
open.substack.com/pub/htsf/p/c...
Proper cold fury and moral clarity from @paulmason.bsky.social on Sultana.
open.substack.com/pub/htsf/p/c...
Reposted by B O'Brien
If you think Labour are chasing Reform votes, please provide examples of a Reform policy which Labour is adopting because I can't think of one. I do know Reform MP's have voted against every single bill Labour has put forward, so it might be a challenge to provide some actual substance to the claim.
October 28, 2025 at 10:25 AM
If you think Labour are chasing Reform votes, please provide examples of a Reform policy which Labour is adopting because I can't think of one. I do know Reform MP's have voted against every single bill Labour has put forward, so it might be a challenge to provide some actual substance to the claim.
Reposted by B O'Brien
Always fascinating watching people underestimate the size of London vs other UK ciries.
On an average weekday, more journeys are made on JUST the Elizabeth line than the ENTIRE population of Liverpool.
If the Tube was a city, its average daily passengers would make it the 2nd largest in the UK.
On an average weekday, more journeys are made on JUST the Elizabeth line than the ENTIRE population of Liverpool.
If the Tube was a city, its average daily passengers would make it the 2nd largest in the UK.
October 28, 2025 at 7:58 AM
Always fascinating watching people underestimate the size of London vs other UK ciries.
On an average weekday, more journeys are made on JUST the Elizabeth line than the ENTIRE population of Liverpool.
If the Tube was a city, its average daily passengers would make it the 2nd largest in the UK.
On an average weekday, more journeys are made on JUST the Elizabeth line than the ENTIRE population of Liverpool.
If the Tube was a city, its average daily passengers would make it the 2nd largest in the UK.
Reposted by B O'Brien
NEW: 5 Reform councillors in Cornwall have now quit the party and are sitting as independents on the Council
Includes the former Reform group leader and deputy group leader… 🤯
Includes the former Reform group leader and deputy group leader… 🤯
October 27, 2025 at 4:05 PM
NEW: 5 Reform councillors in Cornwall have now quit the party and are sitting as independents on the Council
Includes the former Reform group leader and deputy group leader… 🤯
Includes the former Reform group leader and deputy group leader… 🤯
Reposted by B O'Brien
Retail sales rose by 0.5% in Sept but were expected to shrink by 0.2%, so 0.7 points better than expected!
This marks four months in a row they have increased & are now the highest since July 2022.
Growing retail sales suggests economic growth is likely.
#Labour
This marks four months in a row they have increased & are now the highest since July 2022.
Growing retail sales suggests economic growth is likely.
#Labour
Retail sales the highest in three years in a surprise to economists
Computer and telecommunications retailers did well as the iPhone 17 launched in the month.
news.sky.com
October 27, 2025 at 10:38 AM
Retail sales rose by 0.5% in Sept but were expected to shrink by 0.2%, so 0.7 points better than expected!
This marks four months in a row they have increased & are now the highest since July 2022.
Growing retail sales suggests economic growth is likely.
#Labour
This marks four months in a row they have increased & are now the highest since July 2022.
Growing retail sales suggests economic growth is likely.
#Labour
Reposted by B O'Brien
If anyone wants to hear Keir Starmer talk about music as well as politics ,Radio 3 Private Passions today is a great opportunity to hear him speaking from the heart. If you're a sneerer, however, you probably won't enjoy it.
October 26, 2025 at 2:04 PM
If anyone wants to hear Keir Starmer talk about music as well as politics ,Radio 3 Private Passions today is a great opportunity to hear him speaking from the heart. If you're a sneerer, however, you probably won't enjoy it.
Reposted by B O'Brien
Labour have a new video clipping together Pochin, Streeting and Philp:
Philp had 6 opportunities to condemn the Reform MP's racist comments. He refused.
The Tory party has become too weak to stand up to Reform.
Labour is clear - there is no place for this politics in Britain.
Philp had 6 opportunities to condemn the Reform MP's racist comments. He refused.
The Tory party has become too weak to stand up to Reform.
Labour is clear - there is no place for this politics in Britain.
October 26, 2025 at 1:37 PM
Labour have a new video clipping together Pochin, Streeting and Philp:
Philp had 6 opportunities to condemn the Reform MP's racist comments. He refused.
The Tory party has become too weak to stand up to Reform.
Labour is clear - there is no place for this politics in Britain.
Philp had 6 opportunities to condemn the Reform MP's racist comments. He refused.
The Tory party has become too weak to stand up to Reform.
Labour is clear - there is no place for this politics in Britain.