James Dixon-Gough
jdixongough.bsky.social
James Dixon-Gough
@jdixongough.bsky.social
Lover of hills, mountains and the natural world. Work at University of Leeds to help lead the University transition to net zero. Views are my own.
Reposted by James Dixon-Gough
It's extraordinary, depressing, infuriating and just wrong that @stephenkb.bsky.social has written this about a Labour government. Worst of all, he's absolutely right. Read it and weep.
There’s a striking line of argument that home secretary Shabana Mahmood made yesterday, both in the House of Commons and in the Guardian, from which I’ve quoted:
ep.ft.com
November 18, 2025 at 10:43 AM
Reposted by James Dixon-Gough
Rain pouring on battered tents. Water rising everywhere. Mattresses, blankets, and clothes soaked through in minutes.

This is the reality for over 900,000 Palestinians who the Israeli military’s genocidal campaign in Gaza has displaced from their homes.
November 17, 2025 at 7:06 PM
Reposted by James Dixon-Gough
There is no evidence that stripping refugees' rights one by one will have any impact on people crossing the channel.

Taking jewellery from refugees is akin to painting over murals for refugee children.

These repugnant ‘deterrents’ did not work for the Tories, and they won't work for us.
November 17, 2025 at 11:02 AM
Reposted by James Dixon-Gough
As Labour proposes limiting the protection of the ECHR, we must remember what it was set up to do; protect us all from abuses of power by our govts.
Be v wary then of anyone calling to do that. You may not be the target now. But why shouldn’t you be next?
bestforbritain.substack.com/p/why-we-and...
Why we - and the Home Secretary - disapply the ECHR at our peril
By Jessica Frank-Keyes
bestforbritain.substack.com
November 17, 2025 at 8:14 PM
Reposted by James Dixon-Gough
Just wilful performative cruelty that is entirely out of step with the majority of British people.

How many Labour MPs got into politics in order to vote for stealing jewellery off of people seeking refuge from war and persecution?
November 17, 2025 at 8:00 AM
Reposted by James Dixon-Gough
And btw as I’ve written I’m not necessarily convinced BBC should survive in its current form. But I’m far more sure, partly because I’m an actual patriot, that its demise shouldn’t come at the hands of a foreign head of state.
November 15, 2025 at 4:16 PM
Reposted by James Dixon-Gough
I came to this country as a child refugee. No English, no certainty, no idea what my life could become. Britain gave me refuge.

Not on a timer, not with conditions attached, but with a chance to grow roots.

A thread 🧵 1/8
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
UK set to limit refugees to temporary stays
Shabana Mahmood is expected to say the era of permanent protection for refugees is over, in major changes to the UK's asylum and immigration system.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 15, 2025 at 10:29 AM
Reposted by James Dixon-Gough
Have to say I find the proposals to take away the route to permanent settlement of refugees both shocking and repulsive. It's code for 'whatever you do and contribute you can never become one of us so we won't allow you to try.' Racism, pure and simple.
November 15, 2025 at 12:26 PM
Reposted by James Dixon-Gough
To reiterate, this is about making life immeasurably more miserable and stressful for some of the most vulnerable people, in the almost certainly vain hope of winning over the votes of racists.

Anything more shabby and shameful is difficult to envisage.
Asylum in UK to be made temporary under Home Secretary’s plans
Shabana Mahmood will lay out reforms modelled on the Danish system on Monday.
www.independent.co.uk
November 15, 2025 at 9:14 AM
Reposted by James Dixon-Gough
Labour's strategy of telling its supporters to back Reform-style policies, or get a Reform Government, is the politics of the protection racket.

Here's why it's not going to work

www.adambienkov.co.uk/p/shabana-ma...
Shabana Mahmood and the Politics of Extortion
Labour's strategy of telling its supporters to back Reform-style policies, or get a Reform Government, is the politics of the protection racket and it is not going to work
www.adambienkov.co.uk
November 15, 2025 at 11:01 AM
Reposted by James Dixon-Gough
🚨 NEW Steve Bannon Offered Trump’s MAGA as a Shield for Jeffrey Epstein

Epstein helped shape Trump’s MAGA movement through a secret alliance with its chief architect, Bannon, who offered to help him “stave off" the #MeToo movement in return for support

bylinetimes.com/2025/11/14/s...
Steve Bannon Offered Trump’s MAGA as Shield for Jeffrey Epstein
Jeffrey Epstein helped shape Trump’s MAGA movement through a secret alliance with its chief architect, Steve Bannon, who told him it could help him “stave off Time’s Up for a decade” in return for str...
bylinetimes.com
November 14, 2025 at 4:48 PM
Reposted by James Dixon-Gough
Extraordinary and utterly damming…
🚨 NEW Steve Bannon Offered Trump’s MAGA as a Shield for Jeffrey Epstein

Epstein helped shape Trump’s MAGA movement through a secret alliance with its chief architect, Bannon, who offered to help him “stave off" the #MeToo movement in return for support

bylinetimes.com/2025/11/14/s...
Steve Bannon Offered Trump’s MAGA as Shield for Jeffrey Epstein
Jeffrey Epstein helped shape Trump’s MAGA movement through a secret alliance with its chief architect, Steve Bannon, who told him it could help him “stave off Time’s Up for a decade” in return for str...
bylinetimes.com
November 14, 2025 at 4:57 PM
Reposted by James Dixon-Gough
If you read @chrischirp.bsky.social & @martinmckee.bsky.social report on vulnerability of UK institutions to capture by anti democratic forces & politisation are you won't be surprised .. What is surprising is the UKGov's inaction & neglect to make them more resilient.. www.ucl.ac.uk/policy-lab/n...
November 12, 2025 at 11:38 AM
Reposted by James Dixon-Gough
A decade ago, the Telegraph was a respectable paper.

Now it’s a low-quality treasonous tabloid.
November 12, 2025 at 6:06 PM
A story of institutionalised sexual abuse and it's impact. Craig, and thousands of others deserved to much more.

www.theguardian.com/news/2025/no...
www.theguardian.com
November 12, 2025 at 6:03 PM
Reposted by James Dixon-Gough
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...
The truth about impartiality at the BBC
And the hysteria of the current "crisis"
open.substack.com
November 10, 2025 at 7:22 PM
Reposted by James Dixon-Gough
1/ Michael Prescott of Hanover Communications, whose leaked memo alleging left-wing bias led to the BBC meltdown.

You could be forgiven for thinking that a corporate lobbyist & former Murdoch press hack may not have the best interests of public-service broadcasting at heart.
November 10, 2025 at 3:17 PM
Reposted by James Dixon-Gough
4/ Robbie Gibb was heard last year to say that if he didn’t get his way with the BBC, he would “blow the place up”.

Someone has certainly blown the place up very effectively.
observer.co.uk/opinion-and-...
The Observer view: political interference at the BBC | The Observer
observer.co.uk
November 10, 2025 at 4:23 PM
Reposted by James Dixon-Gough
The Telegraph routinely spreads myths about a range of subjects - especially climate change.

It has been forced to publish over 100 corrections this year so far.

Yet it has the gall to lecture the BBC - and whip up a national panic - about journalistic standards
The Telegraph’s Record of Climate Falsehoods
The Telegraph, which has accused the BBC of bias and a lack of editorial rigour, has been forced to amend a swathe of climate inaccuracies. The BBC’s director-general and CEO resigned this weekend aft...
www.desmog.com
November 10, 2025 at 7:42 PM
Reposted by James Dixon-Gough
It takes an obscene amount of hubris to lecture the BBC when you have The Telegraph’s record on truth-telling.

Some of the paper’s errors this year are so bad they’re almost laughable 👇🏻
The Telegraph’s BBC hypocrisy
A paper that knows a thing or two about editorial f*ck-ups...
writesbright.substack.com
November 10, 2025 at 7:48 PM
Reposted by James Dixon-Gough
Merry Explodingwhalesmas to all who celebrate!

youtu.be/V6CLumsir34?...
The Exploding Whale: An infamous moment in Oregon history creates a strangely beloved icon
YouTube video by KATU News
youtu.be
November 9, 2025 at 5:05 PM
Reposted by James Dixon-Gough
Reposted by James Dixon-Gough
It's obviously a bad thing if any prisoner is released by mistake, but why is it worse if it's an asylum-seeker?

It seems just to be taken for granted now that someone is more dangerous because they're an asylum-seeker than because they're a criminal.

Something very dangerous is building here.
Well, that was a very weird deputy PMQs. James Cartlidge asking the same question five times – could David Lammy guarantee no other jailed asylum seekers have been accidentally released rather than deported – and Lammy each time instead condemning the Tories' record on prisons and justice.
November 5, 2025 at 1:26 PM
Reposted by James Dixon-Gough
Bill Gates hasn’t made sense on Climate since he teamed up with Bjorn Lomberg in 2009. This is just a restating of Bjorn’s book from this year about how we have a finite amount of money and we shouldn’t use it for climate. What they get wrong is that climate solutions are now fully profitable.
Bill Gates has a new memo out calling for a “strategic pivot” on climate change, downplaying “doomsday” talk to focus on filling enormous post-USAID budget gaps in global health and vaccine funding. I got an early glimpse of his thinking last week:
7 New Takes From Bill Gates on Climate ‘Doomsday’ Talk and Global Health
“I mean, God bless the Europeans for caring about climate.”
heatmap.news
October 29, 2025 at 11:43 AM
Reposted by James Dixon-Gough
A world without Keir Starmer: Is it time to change the Labour leader? iandunt.substack.com/p/a-world-wi...
A world without Keir Starmer
Is it time to change the Labour leader?
iandunt.substack.com
October 31, 2025 at 10:59 AM