Graham Martin
@graham-martin.bsky.social
Formerly in Yorkshire, now living in Orkney. Lapsed activist, still talking politics. Pro-unions and strikes. Trans Lives Matter. Against all Imperialisms, not just the West. Too many interests to list. Neurodivergent. Christian, but not like that...
When in Norway, Have a break, Have a Quick Lunch!
(Product is nigh-identical, but produced by a Mondalez subsidiary and, crucially, not Nestle).
(Product is nigh-identical, but produced by a Mondalez subsidiary and, crucially, not Nestle).
October 27, 2025 at 11:34 AM
When in Norway, Have a break, Have a Quick Lunch!
(Product is nigh-identical, but produced by a Mondalez subsidiary and, crucially, not Nestle).
(Product is nigh-identical, but produced by a Mondalez subsidiary and, crucially, not Nestle).
Just dropping by whilst in Arctic Norway to say that all bread should come in wrappers with pictures this fun:
October 26, 2025 at 1:17 PM
Just dropping by whilst in Arctic Norway to say that all bread should come in wrappers with pictures this fun:
I was reminded the other day of the White Woman from Australia who crashed the Break Dancing at the Olympics.
Frankly, this has the same energy: white person mimicking back the culture but in a self-absorbed, unreceptive and undignified way.
(And stop saying Dementia, this ain't new from Trump)
Frankly, this has the same energy: white person mimicking back the culture but in a self-absorbed, unreceptive and undignified way.
(And stop saying Dementia, this ain't new from Trump)
October 26, 2025 at 1:13 PM
I was reminded the other day of the White Woman from Australia who crashed the Break Dancing at the Olympics.
Frankly, this has the same energy: white person mimicking back the culture but in a self-absorbed, unreceptive and undignified way.
(And stop saying Dementia, this ain't new from Trump)
Frankly, this has the same energy: white person mimicking back the culture but in a self-absorbed, unreceptive and undignified way.
(And stop saying Dementia, this ain't new from Trump)
Reposted by Graham Martin
Good thread on how a big part of the problem of British politics is big media figures with no real interest in being across the details.
Peston tells Lam that she said something that he "genuinely didn't understand". "But who are these people who came legally who should leave?"
This does not look like faux naivety.
He should know the answer!
She misleads in her answer to him.
So he gives a misleading summary of her policy on air.
This does not look like faux naivety.
He should know the answer!
She misleads in her answer to him.
So he gives a misleading summary of her policy on air.
October 21, 2025 at 6:17 AM
Good thread on how a big part of the problem of British politics is big media figures with no real interest in being across the details.
Reposted by Graham Martin
28 Aug 25 -- UK trans man denied Gender Recognition Certificate over his intention to conceive a child after board says it means he's not living as a man--a key requirement. (European Court of Human Rights has ruled against req. sterilization for legal gender changes.) @rikiwilchins.bsky.social
Trans man denied gender recognition because he wants kids
A trans man was reportedly denied a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC) because of his desire to have kids.
www.thepinknews.com
August 28, 2025 at 11:15 AM
28 Aug 25 -- UK trans man denied Gender Recognition Certificate over his intention to conceive a child after board says it means he's not living as a man--a key requirement. (European Court of Human Rights has ruled against req. sterilization for legal gender changes.) @rikiwilchins.bsky.social
Reposted by Graham Martin
How Spain put up wealth taxes - without chasing away the billionaires.
Yet the 'don't tax the rich' brigade constantly scare people.
Wealth tax isn't just about revenued. It reduces inequalities, capacity of the rich to bribe, pollute, hijack democracy, hold governments to ransom.
Yet the 'don't tax the rich' brigade constantly scare people.
Wealth tax isn't just about revenued. It reduces inequalities, capacity of the rich to bribe, pollute, hijack democracy, hold governments to ransom.
How Spain put up wealth taxes - without chasing away the billionaires
Amid calls for Rachel Reeves to bring in a new levy for the super-rich, Madrid offers lessons for policymakers
www.theguardian.com
August 17, 2025 at 12:11 PM
How Spain put up wealth taxes - without chasing away the billionaires.
Yet the 'don't tax the rich' brigade constantly scare people.
Wealth tax isn't just about revenued. It reduces inequalities, capacity of the rich to bribe, pollute, hijack democracy, hold governments to ransom.
Yet the 'don't tax the rich' brigade constantly scare people.
Wealth tax isn't just about revenued. It reduces inequalities, capacity of the rich to bribe, pollute, hijack democracy, hold governments to ransom.
The more Starmer and Cooper go on, the more I feel like their legacy will be Resisters to a coming Reform government being arrested and jailed under Labour's laws. A horrific kick in the teeth to any decent human being who worked to get them elected.
August 13, 2025 at 3:02 PM
The more Starmer and Cooper go on, the more I feel like their legacy will be Resisters to a coming Reform government being arrested and jailed under Labour's laws. A horrific kick in the teeth to any decent human being who worked to get them elected.
Reposted by Graham Martin
hear me out: Kobi Nazrul primary school in London's East End is the first in the UK where *every* pupil is bilingual
here.
here.
Tommy Robinson fondly invoking the days when the East End was run by gangsters and women were in danger of being killed
August 13, 2025 at 8:37 AM
hear me out: Kobi Nazrul primary school in London's East End is the first in the UK where *every* pupil is bilingual
here.
here.
Reposted by Graham Martin
Are you a business? Do you want to be able to operate on an inclusive basis?
Sign this letter.
Sign this letter.
🚨 NEW 🚨
Sign and share this letter to Ministers to express your business' or organisation's concerns with the EHRC's proposed Code of Practice
www.transsolidarityalliance.com/businesses-o...
Sign and share this letter to Ministers to express your business' or organisation's concerns with the EHRC's proposed Code of Practice
www.transsolidarityalliance.com/businesses-o...
August 13, 2025 at 6:22 AM
Are you a business? Do you want to be able to operate on an inclusive basis?
Sign this letter.
Sign this letter.
Reposted by Graham Martin
Sending a very clear instruction to the public that we are supposed to see a link between ethnicity and crime.
Police will be encouraged to disclose the ethnicity and nationality of suspects charged in high-profile and sensitive investigations.
Policing Minister Dame Diana Johnson speaks to #BBCBreakfast about the new guidance from the the National Police Chiefs' Council
Policing Minister Dame Diana Johnson speaks to #BBCBreakfast about the new guidance from the the National Police Chiefs' Council
August 13, 2025 at 8:31 AM
Sending a very clear instruction to the public that we are supposed to see a link between ethnicity and crime.
Reposted by Graham Martin
The Telegraph's Allison Pearson has been, effectively, inciting riots and a military coup. This is one of Britain's biggest newspaper columnists. Via Private Eye
![‘Inciteful’ commentary
> “The abandonment of the dying and the shell-shocked [after the 7 July 2005 attacks] works pretty well as a metaphor for the British state’s cowardly handling of the Islamist threat, I think. Bury it deep, then, when something awful happens, as it inevitably will, claim that ‘we did everything we possibly could’, and, if British people get angry that such barbaric fanatics are let into our country in huge numbers, blame those people for causing division and hate.”
— Allison Pearson, Daily Telegraph, 8 July
> “Anyone else hoping for a military coup?”
— Allison Pearson, X, 23 July
> “So maybe Lucy Connolly was right after all… In her tweet she called for ‘mass deportation now’ and added: ‘Set fire to all the f---ing hotels full of the b-----ds for all I care, while you’re at it take the treacherous government and politicians with them. I feel physically sick knowing what those families will now have to endure. If that makes me racist so be it.’”
— Allison Pearson, Daily Telegraph, 30 July](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:6laekojw3whqu64tlaxopvgx/bafkreifwm7fzrbhggowe6xzp7x7pnzpwds6qzndfyg4rlzngprbd55ju4e@jpeg)
August 9, 2025 at 7:39 AM
The Telegraph's Allison Pearson has been, effectively, inciting riots and a military coup. This is one of Britain's biggest newspaper columnists. Via Private Eye
Reposted by Graham Martin
Mad that if most people posted racist shit like this off of their work accounts they’d face disciplinary action but not if you’re prime minister.
August 9, 2025 at 7:59 AM
Mad that if most people posted racist shit like this off of their work accounts they’d face disciplinary action but not if you’re prime minister.
Reposted by Graham Martin
"This facility’s purpose fits the classic model: mass civilian detention without real trials targeting vulnerable groups for political gain based on ethnicity, race, religion or political affiliation rather than for crimes committed."
Read @andreapitzer.bsky.social:
www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnb...
Read @andreapitzer.bsky.social:
www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnb...
Opinion | Don’t call it ‘Alligator Alcatraz.’ Call it a concentration camp.
This facility’s purpose fits the classic model, and its existence points to serious dangers ahead for the country.
www.msnbc.com
July 5, 2025 at 12:30 PM
"This facility’s purpose fits the classic model: mass civilian detention without real trials targeting vulnerable groups for political gain based on ethnicity, race, religion or political affiliation rather than for crimes committed."
Read @andreapitzer.bsky.social:
www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnb...
Read @andreapitzer.bsky.social:
www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnb...
Reposted by Graham Martin
We have had a report saying two women walking up to a protest today at BAe Samlesbury were stopped by Lancashire Police and advised to remove their t-shirts that say 'Free Palestine', as it may "breach the proscription order".
And so it begins.
And so it begins.
July 5, 2025 at 1:05 PM
We have had a report saying two women walking up to a protest today at BAe Samlesbury were stopped by Lancashire Police and advised to remove their t-shirts that say 'Free Palestine', as it may "breach the proscription order".
And so it begins.
And so it begins.
Reposted by Graham Martin
I don’t think anyone is prepared for what they just did w/ ICE.
This is not a simple budget increase. It is an explosion - making ICE bigger than the FBI, US Bureau of Prisons, DEA,& others combined.
It is setting up to make what’s happening now look like child’s play. And people are disappearing.
This is not a simple budget increase. It is an explosion - making ICE bigger than the FBI, US Bureau of Prisons, DEA,& others combined.
It is setting up to make what’s happening now look like child’s play. And people are disappearing.
July 3, 2025 at 6:58 PM
I don’t think anyone is prepared for what they just did w/ ICE.
This is not a simple budget increase. It is an explosion - making ICE bigger than the FBI, US Bureau of Prisons, DEA,& others combined.
It is setting up to make what’s happening now look like child’s play. And people are disappearing.
This is not a simple budget increase. It is an explosion - making ICE bigger than the FBI, US Bureau of Prisons, DEA,& others combined.
It is setting up to make what’s happening now look like child’s play. And people are disappearing.
Reposted by Graham Martin
Concerts that changed social consciousness
Woodstock (1969) – anti-Vietnam war
Concert for Bangladesh (1971) – Refugee aid
Live Aid (1985) – Global famine
Nelson Mandela Tribute (1988) - anti- apartheid in South Africa.
Glastonbury (2025) - Free Palestine
Music moves more than hearts.
Woodstock (1969) – anti-Vietnam war
Concert for Bangladesh (1971) – Refugee aid
Live Aid (1985) – Global famine
Nelson Mandela Tribute (1988) - anti- apartheid in South Africa.
Glastonbury (2025) - Free Palestine
Music moves more than hearts.
June 29, 2025 at 1:58 AM
Concerts that changed social consciousness
Woodstock (1969) – anti-Vietnam war
Concert for Bangladesh (1971) – Refugee aid
Live Aid (1985) – Global famine
Nelson Mandela Tribute (1988) - anti- apartheid in South Africa.
Glastonbury (2025) - Free Palestine
Music moves more than hearts.
Woodstock (1969) – anti-Vietnam war
Concert for Bangladesh (1971) – Refugee aid
Live Aid (1985) – Global famine
Nelson Mandela Tribute (1988) - anti- apartheid in South Africa.
Glastonbury (2025) - Free Palestine
Music moves more than hearts.
Reposted by Graham Martin
It's one of the best articles on this subject we have ever see, will make sure that @yorkshirebylines.co.uk Co Editor in Chief @louisehoughton.bsky.social passes your feedback to the author.
June 27, 2025 at 1:34 PM
It's one of the best articles on this subject we have ever see, will make sure that @yorkshirebylines.co.uk Co Editor in Chief @louisehoughton.bsky.social passes your feedback to the author.
Reposted by Graham Martin
This is the rhetoric of a country about to do a genocide
This from Tommy Tuberville may be the most racist things a U.S. senator has said in my lifetime. And the bar is high.
www.al.com/politics/202...
www.al.com/politics/202...
June 27, 2025 at 9:32 PM
This is the rhetoric of a country about to do a genocide
Reposted by Graham Martin
This times a thousand, and it's messed up how a political assassination just kind of fell out of the news right away.
A radical Christian just murdered the speaker of a state house but the real worry is the theocratic muslim who said the bus should be cheaper
June 27, 2025 at 10:04 PM
This times a thousand, and it's messed up how a political assassination just kind of fell out of the news right away.
Reposted by Graham Martin
"Russia is not a country. It is a KGB operation that went out of control.”
- Vladimir Bukovsky, Russian dissident and former Soviet political prisoner
- Vladimir Bukovsky, Russian dissident and former Soviet political prisoner
June 28, 2025 at 2:34 AM
"Russia is not a country. It is a KGB operation that went out of control.”
- Vladimir Bukovsky, Russian dissident and former Soviet political prisoner
- Vladimir Bukovsky, Russian dissident and former Soviet political prisoner
Reposted by Graham Martin
This is oligarchy. This is obscene.
While 60% live paycheck to paycheck & kids go hungry, Jeff Bezos, worth $230 billion, goes to Venice on his $500 million yacht for a $20 million wedding & spends $5 million on a ring while his real tax rate is just 1.1%.
End this oligarchy.
While 60% live paycheck to paycheck & kids go hungry, Jeff Bezos, worth $230 billion, goes to Venice on his $500 million yacht for a $20 million wedding & spends $5 million on a ring while his real tax rate is just 1.1%.
End this oligarchy.
June 24, 2025 at 4:04 PM
This is oligarchy. This is obscene.
While 60% live paycheck to paycheck & kids go hungry, Jeff Bezos, worth $230 billion, goes to Venice on his $500 million yacht for a $20 million wedding & spends $5 million on a ring while his real tax rate is just 1.1%.
End this oligarchy.
While 60% live paycheck to paycheck & kids go hungry, Jeff Bezos, worth $230 billion, goes to Venice on his $500 million yacht for a $20 million wedding & spends $5 million on a ring while his real tax rate is just 1.1%.
End this oligarchy.
Reposted by Graham Martin
Farage and the far right in general come from a grievance culture. If you do what they want, even maximally – Brexit – they’ll move the goalposts and keep moaning. If you engage seriously with their concerns, they’ll find new ones. You will never satisfy them, because they don’t want to be satisfied
The problem with this ‘let’s weaken our commitment to the ECHR so as to fend off Farage’ plan is that when it doesn’t work, we end up with Farage *and* a weakened commitment to the ECHR at exactly the moment we need the ECHR the most.
June 19, 2025 at 9:06 AM
Farage and the far right in general come from a grievance culture. If you do what they want, even maximally – Brexit – they’ll move the goalposts and keep moaning. If you engage seriously with their concerns, they’ll find new ones. You will never satisfy them, because they don’t want to be satisfied
Reposted by Graham Martin
Don't let your justified anger at the horrors of Israel's actions in Gaza lead you to side with the systematically femicidal, brutally oppressive, murderous shitshow that is the "government" of Iran that has been funding and fomenting violence and hate across the middle east for decades.
June 13, 2025 at 7:35 AM
Don't let your justified anger at the horrors of Israel's actions in Gaza lead you to side with the systematically femicidal, brutally oppressive, murderous shitshow that is the "government" of Iran that has been funding and fomenting violence and hate across the middle east for decades.