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sl62.bsky.social
Steve 🇬🇧 🇪🇸 🇪🇺
@sl62.bsky.social
Happily retired early, some say opinionated, very centrist, done with X, anti Brexit & anti Reform.. live 55/45% UK / Spain, would love free movement back
Reposted by Steve 🇬🇧 🇪🇸 🇪🇺
🚨🚨 @ec.europa.eu president @vonderleyen.ec.europa.eu has just declared that Big Tech companies including X, Meta, Apple & TikTok should be aware the bloc is ready to enforce its full digital rulebook no matter who is in charge of these firms or where they're located.🧵 www.politico.eu/article/euro...
Von der Leyen warns X, Meta, TikTok to play by the rules in Europe — no matter who’s CEO
The European Commission will enforce its digital rulebook without fear, said Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
www.politico.eu
April 22, 2025 at 7:32 AM
Reposted by Steve 🇬🇧 🇪🇸 🇪🇺
Just checked. The question was there but very low on the ballot paper. ‘Should the United Kingdom leave the European Union and damage the ability of our orchestras to tour Europe?’ bit.ly/3Y7L8DG how did you vote?
Brexit means Royal Philharmonic can’t use its own lorries in Europe
The orchestra says the vehicles have essentially been mothballed because of post-Brexit transport restrictions
bit.ly
April 21, 2025 at 5:45 AM
Reposted by Steve 🇬🇧 🇪🇸 🇪🇺
Labour have lost their lead over the Tories on being the best party to manage the economy.

That's a pretty epic failure considering the 14 years of Tory misrule.

But then Labour have been nothing if not consistently inept in their choices and their comms.
britainelects.substack.com/p/labour-los...
April 19, 2025 at 4:09 PM
Reposted by Steve 🇬🇧 🇪🇸 🇪🇺
Reduction of pollution in Paris over the past ten years through the deprioritisation of cars
La pollution de l’air baisse drastiquement à paris depuis 10 ans. Moins de voitures et plus de normes pour les rendre moins polluantes, plus de pistes cyclables… et tout le monde y gagne
April 15, 2025 at 7:57 AM
Reposted by Steve 🇬🇧 🇪🇸 🇪🇺
🚨🚨 WOW: UK is prepared to retain some regulatory alignment with the EU and accept #CJEU supervision over a deal to cut checks on imports of foods & agricultural products- in a significant a move on the promised EU-UK #reset five years after #Brexit.🧵 www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
UK Signals Openness to EU Court Oversight of Key Food Checks
The UK is prepared to retain some regulatory alignment with the European Union and accept supervision of the bloc’s court over a deal to cut checks on imports of foods and agricultural products, a mov...
www.bloomberg.com
April 15, 2025 at 7:47 AM
So once again the right wing press sought to transfer their own little first world problems onto the masses.. the looming catastrophe of VAT on independent schools fees turns out to have been utter shite 🤷‍♂️

apple.news/AvP74C2IcSGK...
We were warned about a catastrophe for private schools – so what actually happened? — The i Paper
Dire predictions about their fate have not come to pass - this is what it tells us about British society
apple.news
April 14, 2025 at 8:57 PM
Reposted by Steve 🇬🇧 🇪🇸 🇪🇺
The screenshot is from @tortoisemedia.bsky.social's excellent "Sensemaker" email. See also this recent piece in the @financialtimes.com.
www.ft.com/content/03d6...
Reform-linked think-tank secures funding pledges worth £1mn
Resolute 1850 begins hiring staff as Nigel Farage’s party seeks to professionalise and strengthen its platform
www.ft.com
April 14, 2025 at 7:58 AM
The people need to wake up
& smell the coffee.. Trump is a dud

apple.news/ANdJTHSE0SEq...
This is Trump's Joe Biden hour: his credibility is collapsing — The i Paper
It's remarkable how fast presidents can squander their political capital
apple.news
April 11, 2025 at 9:29 PM
Reposted by Steve 🇬🇧 🇪🇸 🇪🇺
Donald Trump bends to the power of the markets | Opinion

https://www.ft.com/content/0ceca1e0-8cf1-4c2d-8199-f32c87c38c88
Donald Trump bends to the power of the markets | Opinion
But trade war with China and tariffs on most US imports still risk great harm
www.ft.com
April 10, 2025 at 5:39 PM
Reposted by Steve 🇬🇧 🇪🇸 🇪🇺
Latest from @thetimes.com campaign in favour of keeping Britain as a tax haven for foreigners, regardless of how long they have lived here. What a pity it won’t tell us how Henley Partners, which has skin in the game, came up with its data. Its last “survey” was “modelled” on 250 LinkedIn profiles!
London falls out of top five wealthiest cities as millionaires leave
The UK capital has lost 11,300 dollar millionaires over the past year, a higher proportion than anywhere other than Moscow
www.thetimes.com
April 9, 2025 at 5:17 AM
Reposted by Steve 🇬🇧 🇪🇸 🇪🇺
‘We can’t sit back and watch’
Former MI6 boss says Britain must get ready for war as Putin threatens Europe
shorturl.at/VJDhB
Former MI6 boss says Britain must get ready for war as Putin threatens Europe
Exclusive: As a Russia-Ukrainian ceasefire looks no closer, Sir Alex Younger tells The Independent how the UK is too detached from the threat posed by Putin – and that our ‘collective effort’ needs to...
shorturl.at
April 5, 2025 at 11:16 AM
Reposted by Steve 🇬🇧 🇪🇸 🇪🇺
Life is so unpredictable - never thought my social media account would be so full of penguins! And such insightful ones like those in @heardislandgov.bsky.social
And I certainly didn’t predict the scale of the rallies across the US today - really suggests the resistance has begun
April 5, 2025 at 8:14 PM
Reposted by Steve 🇬🇧 🇪🇸 🇪🇺
Reposted by Steve 🇬🇧 🇪🇸 🇪🇺
Fantastic article by @tomcalver.bsky.social: not only is the UK not a high-tax country, taxes on *middle-income* earners are low by international standards.

If taxes are to rise - and they should - it can't/won't be just on "the rich".

www.thetimes.com/comment/colu...
March 30, 2025 at 9:26 AM
Reposted by Steve 🇬🇧 🇪🇸 🇪🇺
This is rather interesting. But I am not convinced it tells the whole story about the problems facing UK middle/high earners.

Splitting my time between London and Brussels, what really strikes me is the disparity in housing costs. (Short 🧵).
Fantastic article by @tomcalver.bsky.social: not only is the UK not a high-tax country, taxes on *middle-income* earners are low by international standards.

If taxes are to rise - and they should - it can't/won't be just on "the rich".

www.thetimes.com/comment/colu...
March 31, 2025 at 5:54 AM
Reposted by Steve 🇬🇧 🇪🇸 🇪🇺
Why there's nothing “responsible” about forcing hundreds of thousands into poverty, while putting even more strain on those public servants who will have to pick up the pieces

bylinetimes.com/2025/03/26/t...
The False Economies of Rachel Reeves' Spring Statement
There is nothing "responsible" about forcing hundreds of thousands of people into poverty, while putting even more strain on those public servants who will have to pick up the pieces, argues Adam Bien...
bylinetimes.com
March 26, 2025 at 4:20 PM
Reposted by Steve 🇬🇧 🇪🇸 🇪🇺
I was a middle class, middle of the road, middling person, muddling along. Shocks of Brexit,Trump, Ukraine and Gaza jolted me out of complacency. We must fight for our values every day, never take democracy for granted. I no longer think Bernie and AOC are “radical”; they’re principled and feisty. 👍
AOC and Bernie finished off the first leg of their “Fighting Oligarchy” tour Saturday—as 23,000 people showed up to rally in Tucson, AZ. In total, the five high-energy events had more than 86,000 people turn out. Denver’s rally was the largest held in the city since 2008. More here:
Great News That’s Terrible For Trump and His Cult
Onward!
www.dworkinsubstack.com
March 24, 2025 at 12:37 PM
Reposted by Steve 🇬🇧 🇪🇸 🇪🇺
The Trump administration is descending into authoritarianism https://twp.ai/1Vvmrm
The Trump administration is descending into authoritarianism
From media to culture and the arts to the refusal to abide by court orders, we’re nearing ‘Defcon 1 for our democracy’, experts say
twp.ai
March 22, 2025 at 11:17 AM
Reposted by Steve 🇬🇧 🇪🇸 🇪🇺
Alan Sugar, "Brexit was a total absolute disaster, and anybody who says it's not is deluded"

Amol Rajan, "What do you think it would take to get this country growing again?"

Alan Sugar, "Go back into the European Union"
March 21, 2025 at 8:45 AM
Reposted by Steve 🇬🇧 🇪🇸 🇪🇺
🚨🚨 Key points of my piece here in longer 🧵
🔴‘Russia Will Be Hungry for More if Europe Doesn’t Unite to Protect Ukraine’

Defending Ukraine without the US will be complex, costly and politically challenging – but there is simply no alternative, argues @profjacob.bsky.social

bylinetimes.com/2025/03/20/e...
'Russia Will Be Hungry for More if Europe Doesn’t Unite to Protect Ukraine'
Defending Ukraine without the US will be complex, costly and politically challenging - but there is simply no alternative, argues Jacob Öberg
bylinetimes.com
March 20, 2025 at 4:03 PM
Reposted by Steve 🇬🇧 🇪🇸 🇪🇺
Lots of people on here asking what can possibly be Labour’s strategy at the moment. So here is what key strategists are telling MPs who are saying the same…

(don’t shout at me if you disagree, take it up with them!)
March 20, 2025 at 8:50 PM
Reposted by Steve 🇬🇧 🇪🇸 🇪🇺
Elon Musk, owner of Tesla and richest man in the world, is at the very core of Trump’s project. Now Tesla Takedown – the global movement to tank Tesla and break the Musk-Trump alliance – has launched in the UK:
stoptrump.org.uk/teslatakedow...
#TeslaTakedown arrives in the UK!
Stop Trump Coalition
stoptrump.org.uk
March 19, 2025 at 10:36 AM