Mike Atkinson
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Mike Atkinson
@iwmike.bsky.social
45 followers 66 following 1 posts
Reader, web tinkerer, nerd, founder member of Kamikaze Potato Head - the band that lasted the shortest amount of time before being turned off at an Isle of Wight festival. Ok, it was the garlic festival, but it still counts.
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Reposted by Mike Atkinson
georgeperetzkc.bsky.social
Thanks to @jamesomalley.co.uk for endorsing this idea on his Substack (which you should follow, btw). open.substack.com/pub/jamesoma...
It’s been a strange few days on social media, as the richest man in the world has spent most of his time not building rockets or even helping the incoming Trump administration. Instead, he’s been sending hundreds of tweets about “rape gangs” in Britain, supporting Tommy Robinson, and putting individual politicians, like Jess Phillips, in danger by levelling spurious allegations to an audience of 100m followers. I’m genuinely not sure what the government’s response to this should be, given Musk’s closeness to Trump, who in just over two weeks will be in charge of our closest ally. So it’s basically a situation with no good outcomes. But I do think this suggestion from George Peretz is appealing: That in response to Musk’s nonsense, the government should duplicate its Twitter output on Bluesky. As in the quoted section above, such a move would mean the government can nudge, in a small way, the incentives of which platform people should use. But I also think it would be an elegant diplomatic response, in lieu of doing anything that would directly burn our already limited pool of political capital with the next administration.
January 5, 2025 at 3:12 PM
Reposted by Mike Atkinson
geordielass.bsky.social
🫣
Screen grab of Larry the Cat’s reply to Nigel Farage on x In fairness you were right Nigel; foreigners were coming for your job.
January 5, 2025 at 3:21 PM
Reposted by Mike Atkinson
peterstefanovic.bsky.social
British food sales to EU have fallen by almost a fifth since Brexit. The drop-off has meant a £3bn hit to food exports on average in the three years since the end of the Brexit transition period, new report finds

I’m sure UK news shows will be all over this..
www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/poli...
Brexit hits UK food exports by £3bn as Starmer urged to strike deal with Brussels
British food sales to the EU have fallen by almost a fifth since the end of the Brexit transition period, a new report shows
www.independent.co.uk
December 2, 2024 at 7:00 PM
Reposted by Mike Atkinson
peterstefanovic.bsky.social
“The polls are saying it, the governor of the Bank of England is saying it. And when immigration levels are four times higher now than when we were in the EU, the issue that served as the Brexiters’ trump card lies in shreds”

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Brexit makes no sense in a world dominated by Trump. Britain’s place is back in the EU | Jonathan Freedland
From defence to trade, the incoming US president is upending the old order – and standing apart from our neighbours leaves us dangerously exposed, says Guardian columnist Jonathan Freedland
www.theguardian.com
November 29, 2024 at 5:36 PM