Chris Roberts
@chrisjroberts.bsky.social
Trying to stay sane in an increasingly mad world. Light relief offered by Leyton Orient.
Reposted by Chris Roberts
The BBC summary relays false claims but does not prioritise the facts at all
January 24, 2026 at 11:01 PM
The BBC summary relays false claims but does not prioritise the facts at all
Reposted by Chris Roberts
The task for political leadership now is not just to tell the truth, but to make people care about what is true and what is not.
January 24, 2026 at 11:28 PM
The task for political leadership now is not just to tell the truth, but to make people care about what is true and what is not.
Reposted by Chris Roberts
Walz having to basically plead with Minnesotans not to take up arms against the federal government. That’s the extent of the breakdown of political authority in the United States.
January 24, 2026 at 7:44 PM
Walz having to basically plead with Minnesotans not to take up arms against the federal government. That’s the extent of the breakdown of political authority in the United States.
Reposted by Chris Roberts
Remember that the UK has far, far weaker protections against state power than did the US. And the latter folded up like a pack of cards. The US is a warning from the British future.
January 24, 2026 at 4:42 PM
Remember that the UK has far, far weaker protections against state power than did the US. And the latter folded up like a pack of cards. The US is a warning from the British future.
How convenient the chair(man) alone has the ability to invite participating countries to the board (as well as renewal, expulsion and naming a successor and much more). The charter is less forthcoming on how the chair(man) was chosen.
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...
Trump withdraws invitation for Canada to join his global ‘board of peace’
While leaders of many liberal democracies declined to sign on, Mark Carney had, before Davos, accepted in principle
www.theguardian.com
January 23, 2026 at 3:20 PM
How convenient the chair(man) alone has the ability to invite participating countries to the board (as well as renewal, expulsion and naming a successor and much more). The charter is less forthcoming on how the chair(man) was chosen.
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...
Reposted by Chris Roberts
Danny Kruger out there explicitly stating he wants Reform to be just like Trump 2. Wonder if he would like to clarify how that statement should be considered in the light of Trump 2’s comments on British troops fighting for NATO.
🧵 This is a very useful piece from @shippersunbound.bsky.social providing an insight into the two policy main brains in Reform UK - Danny Kruger and Zia Yusuf and how they are thinking about their approach
Kruger says ‘It’s got to be Trump 2, not Trump 1.’
spectator.com/article/we-w...
Kruger says ‘It’s got to be Trump 2, not Trump 1.’
spectator.com/article/we-w...
‘We will use the power of democracy to blow you away’: Reform plots a path to No. 10
As he made his way to lunch on Monday, Danny Kruger, the former Tory MP who defected to Reform last year, could be seen clutching a well-thumbed copy of John Campbell’s biography of Lord Haldane, one ...
spectator.com
January 23, 2026 at 2:33 PM
Danny Kruger out there explicitly stating he wants Reform to be just like Trump 2. Wonder if he would like to clarify how that statement should be considered in the light of Trump 2’s comments on British troops fighting for NATO.
Reposted by Chris Roberts
www.joxleywrites.jmoxley.co.uk/p/airport-bo...
Great piece on “airport book brain” - the tendency of politicians to swallow simplistic solutions. Latest example the Jonathan Haidt book shaping policy on teens and social media
Great piece on “airport book brain” - the tendency of politicians to swallow simplistic solutions. Latest example the Jonathan Haidt book shaping policy on teens and social media
January 23, 2026 at 8:50 AM
www.joxleywrites.jmoxley.co.uk/p/airport-bo...
Great piece on “airport book brain” - the tendency of politicians to swallow simplistic solutions. Latest example the Jonathan Haidt book shaping policy on teens and social media
Great piece on “airport book brain” - the tendency of politicians to swallow simplistic solutions. Latest example the Jonathan Haidt book shaping policy on teens and social media
Reposted by Chris Roberts
imagine being the father or mother or son or daughter or sibling of one of those brave British troops who died in Afghanistan, and having to listen to this crass ignorance
January 23, 2026 at 11:47 AM
imagine being the father or mother or son or daughter or sibling of one of those brave British troops who died in Afghanistan, and having to listen to this crass ignorance
Reposted by Chris Roberts
Another huge success for outsourcing public services. Do we never learn?
BBC News - Retired civil servants left in pension limbo
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
BBC News - Retired civil servants left in pension limbo
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Hundreds of retirees waiting for payments after Capita took over scheme
Civil service pension scheme failed to pay some pensions and lump sums after transferring to a new administrator.
www.bbc.co.uk
January 23, 2026 at 10:06 AM
Another huge success for outsourcing public services. Do we never learn?
BBC News - Retired civil servants left in pension limbo
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
BBC News - Retired civil servants left in pension limbo
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Reposted by Chris Roberts
Unstable and unwell.
January 23, 2026 at 7:09 AM
Unstable and unwell.
Reposted by Chris Roberts
So it was Badenoch *personally* who stabbed Britain in the back during the Greenland crisis! Simply unbelievable. Ought to be a resignation matter.
www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...
www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...
How Badenoch’s meeting with Mike Johnson led to Trump’s Chagos deal rant
A brief encounter set off a chain of events that culminated in a public rebuff to the US president from Keir Starmer
www.theguardian.com
January 22, 2026 at 9:58 AM
So it was Badenoch *personally* who stabbed Britain in the back during the Greenland crisis! Simply unbelievable. Ought to be a resignation matter.
www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...
www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...
Reposted by Chris Roberts
One small but notable sign of the rightward shift in UK politics in recent years is the use of “illegal migrants” for asylum seekers who arrive unofficially. It’s a dehumanising term which was popularised by the hard right and is now - as here - used repeatedly in Home Office press releases.
January 22, 2026 at 10:44 AM
One small but notable sign of the rightward shift in UK politics in recent years is the use of “illegal migrants” for asylum seekers who arrive unofficially. It’s a dehumanising term which was popularised by the hard right and is now - as here - used repeatedly in Home Office press releases.
Reposted by Chris Roberts
A regime that finally backs down when confronted by a united Europe is still tough enough to kidnap a five year old after preschool.
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...
ICE detains five-year-old Minnesota boy arriving home, say school officials
Superintendent says Liam Ramos and his father were taken into custody while in their driveway and sent to Texas
www.theguardian.com
January 22, 2026 at 7:47 AM
A regime that finally backs down when confronted by a united Europe is still tough enough to kidnap a five year old after preschool.
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...
Reposted by Chris Roberts
“We’ve invented a machine the destroys our own planet, drives inequality and the rise of global fascism, destroys truth and veracity, undermines all of human achievements in knowledge, science, medicine, arts and culture. And frankly we’re upset that you’re not that into it and call us names.”
January 22, 2026 at 8:03 AM
“We’ve invented a machine the destroys our own planet, drives inequality and the rise of global fascism, destroys truth and veracity, undermines all of human achievements in knowledge, science, medicine, arts and culture. And frankly we’re upset that you’re not that into it and call us names.”
Reposted by Chris Roberts
Earlier today I heard a mad person yelling at nobody in particular outside Highbury and Islington tube and I'm wondering now whether it was a rehearsal for a Davos speech.
January 21, 2026 at 2:57 PM
Earlier today I heard a mad person yelling at nobody in particular outside Highbury and Islington tube and I'm wondering now whether it was a rehearsal for a Davos speech.
Reposted by Chris Roberts
“…and so the human race suffered a worldwide economic collapse and then a global conflict that wiped out their species, just because one ruler went to war because they did not win a peace prize”
- Cautionary Tales from around the Universe, updated edition.
- Cautionary Tales from around the Universe, updated edition.
January 20, 2026 at 6:41 PM
“…and so the human race suffered a worldwide economic collapse and then a global conflict that wiped out their species, just because one ruler went to war because they did not win a peace prize”
- Cautionary Tales from around the Universe, updated edition.
- Cautionary Tales from around the Universe, updated edition.
Reposted by Chris Roberts
*Sighs once again*.
Consultations are not referendums. We have a system of representative democracy. Those elected enact policy and consult on *how* it is enacted, not if. There are many, many good reasons why this is the case.
Consultations are not referendums. We have a system of representative democracy. Those elected enact policy and consult on *how* it is enacted, not if. There are many, many good reasons why this is the case.
January 20, 2026 at 2:33 PM
*Sighs once again*.
Consultations are not referendums. We have a system of representative democracy. Those elected enact policy and consult on *how* it is enacted, not if. There are many, many good reasons why this is the case.
Consultations are not referendums. We have a system of representative democracy. Those elected enact policy and consult on *how* it is enacted, not if. There are many, many good reasons why this is the case.
Reposted by Chris Roberts
This is (1) disgraceful at a moment of national danger, (2) laughably unserious and (3) deeply unwise when the President is obviously becoming incapacitated and the most unpopular person in the whole UK. Utterly disqualifying.
January 20, 2026 at 9:21 AM
This is (1) disgraceful at a moment of national danger, (2) laughably unserious and (3) deeply unwise when the President is obviously becoming incapacitated and the most unpopular person in the whole UK. Utterly disqualifying.
Reposted by Chris Roberts
To anyone confused by Badenoch making a couple of good calls on Jenrick and Greenland: relax, normal idiot service has been resumed
This is (1) disgraceful at a moment of national danger, (2) laughably unserious and (3) deeply unwise when the President is obviously becoming incapacitated and the most unpopular person in the whole UK. Utterly disqualifying.
January 20, 2026 at 10:28 AM
To anyone confused by Badenoch making a couple of good calls on Jenrick and Greenland: relax, normal idiot service has been resumed
Reposted by Chris Roberts
RSPB and RNLI among charities to quietly stop using Twitter
www.civilsociety.co.uk/news/major-c...
www.civilsociety.co.uk/news/major-c...
Major charities leave X after AI images controversy
www.civilsociety.co.uk
January 20, 2026 at 9:28 AM
RSPB and RNLI among charities to quietly stop using Twitter
www.civilsociety.co.uk/news/major-c...
www.civilsociety.co.uk/news/major-c...
Reposted by Chris Roberts
Reposted by Chris Roberts
Now can we put the clever theories away and just accept we're dealing with a lunatic given unprecedented powers?
Trump to NBC: Norway "totally controls" the Nobel Prize committee "despite what they say"
January 19, 2026 at 5:13 PM
Now can we put the clever theories away and just accept we're dealing with a lunatic given unprecedented powers?
Reposted by Chris Roberts
Leaving X has been a great relief but it would be good if government departments and other officials agencies posted here
January 19, 2026 at 3:26 PM
Leaving X has been a great relief but it would be good if government departments and other officials agencies posted here