Robert Macmillan
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robfmac.bsky.social
Robert Macmillan
@robfmac.bsky.social
890 followers 280 following 890 posts
He/Him

Raconteur

Modern Studies teacher.
Good design preacher.

robfmac.com

❤️ @audproctor77.bsky.social ❤️
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robfmac.bsky.social
Robert Macmillan @robfmac.bsky.social · Nov 13
To introduce myself.

I’ve been a teacher for almost 28 years.

Forever striving to help young people equip themselves with the knowledge and skills, to take the power that belongs to them, to make their world a better place.

Citizens first, consumers last.
Reposted by Robert Macmillan
joshuaeakle.com
Oh my.

James Talarico is incredibly skilled in dismantling Christian Nationalists.

Get this man in the Senate.
November 19, 2025 at 3:42 PM
Reposted by Robert Macmillan
juderogers.bsky.social
Please read, listen, and share widely. www.theguardian.com/music/2025/n...
‘I never wanted to sing into a vacuum’: Scottish folk pioneer Dick Gaughan’s fight for his lost music
A skilled interpreter and social justice champion, Gaughan is a hero to the likes of Richard Hawley and Billy Bragg. Yet much of his work has been stuck in limbo for decades – until a determined fan s...
www.theguardian.com
November 19, 2025 at 7:08 PM
Reposted by Robert Macmillan
salmanshaheen.bsky.social
Increasingly, we have to see climate denial, or refusal to act, as pursuing a policy of mass murder.

#climatechange #climatedenial #globalheating #netzero #trump
Trump’s anti-climate agenda could result in 1.3m more deaths globally, analysis finds
Fallout from increased emissions linked to president’s ‘America First’ policies expected to most affect those in poor, hot countries
share.google
November 19, 2025 at 1:11 PM
Reposted by Robert Macmillan
tanjabueltmann.net
Tried to get this published but no luck, so might as well ‘publish’ it here so it’s not a complete waste!

➡️ Stripping rights from refugees today endangers us all tomorrow

#asylum #Mahmood #history #humanrights
Stripping rights from refugees today endangers us all tomorrow   When I was 13, I visited a Nazi concentration camp for the first time, confronting my country’s dark history always—and rightly—a bedrock in my growing up.    One image from that visit has stayed with me ever since: a display of prisoners’ personal possessions.    It revealed a world in which those imprisoned were stripped not only of their freedom but of the last tangible traces of their humanity. That systematic erasure was the most important precondition for murdering millions.   Now, as a historian, I know that history does not flow into the present in a straight line, and direct comparisons are rarely appropriate. They certainly are not here.   But history is the one compass humanity has. Too often we choose to ignore it.    The Home Secretary’s proposals for changes to the UK’s asylum system represent such a moment of failure.    Yet the most troubling aspect of Labour’s frantic efforts to appear tough on immigration is not even the historical echoes that taking refugees’ possessions invokes. It is that cost recovery is not the real purpose of the rationale behind it.    The true aim is to appeal to a particular audience—those who take satisfaction in seeing people seeking refuge deprived of what little they have. It is hard to imagine a more troubling approach to policymaking, and that becomes even clearer when we consider the Home Secretary’s proposals in context.   As of June 2025, there were 42.5 million refugees globally. Over 70% are hosted by low- and middle-income countries. The UK hosts 548,000 refugees; that is 0.78% of the UK population. Around 110,000 people are in receipt of asylum support; that is 0.15% of the UK population.   It is unconscionable that such a small and vulnerable population can be targeted with deliberate cruelty and weaponised for assumed political gain.   And that is all this will ever be. The core miscalculation is believing that adopting these positions will neutralise Reform.    Both historical knowledge and current research show the opposite. Mainstreaming extremist policies legitimises them further and aids only the original. Each step towards Reform’s territory simply gives Reform more power.   But our political discourse has been so degraded over the last decade that many no longer even recognise policies—or the language that frames them—as extreme.    That is how the Home Secretary can speak so casually of desperate people seeking sanctuary as recipients of a ‘golden ticket’ as though the context is Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory rather than countries torn apart by war and starved by famine. Speak of her ‘moral mission’ to withdraw support, alleging that ‘illegal migration is tearing our country apart.’ And warn of ‘dark forces stirring up anger,’ oblivious to her own role: from the use of blurry, dehumanising images of refugees to spread falsehoods about their impact on communities, to the equally false description of refugee movements as illegal migration.    I suggest the Home Secretary find a mirror if she is keen to understand who is helping turn anger into hate.   Because it is the mainstreaming of far-right talking points that the Home Secretary’s proposals represent that is really tearing our country apart.   For when a policy looks like the far right, speaks to the far right and is hailed by the far right as being far right, it is far right. There is a reason Stephen Yaxley-Lennon is jubilant and speaks of ‘the Overton window having been obliterated.’   This makes a mockery of the Prime Minister’s recent comments on the urgent need to tackle racism. But it also raises alarming questions about the impact this will have on communities around the country, many of which are already deeply divided.    The proposed policies will do nothing for these struggling communities, because their problems simply do not stem from people seeking sanctuary with us. In fact: for as long as politicians focus on immigrants and refugees as the cause of our problems, they will fail to deliver for the British people.   But it is important to grasp the impact of the Home Secretary’s proposals as they carry broader consequences for all of us. Suggestions for changes to how the European Convention on Human Rights is applied are particularly concerning. Requiring judges to prioritise ‘public safety’—falsely implying refugees pose a threat—would qualify human rights for a specific group.   And once one accepts that human rights can be qualified for one group, one creates tools that can be used against anyone.   So what these proposals really mean goes far beyond asylum policy. This is about the kind of country we will have in the future. If human rights are no longer universal, they become a means for exclusion and control.    That is why stripping rights from refugees today can only enable a system that endangers all our rights tomorrow.    And that is why our historical compass matters and why we have to use it now. Because that compass tells us without doubt that when first they come for one group that is never where it ends. 
November 18, 2025 at 8:03 PM
robfmac.bsky.social
That noise when Kenny McLean scored: that was simply amazing to be in.
November 19, 2025 at 12:48 AM
Reposted by Robert Macmillan
kennypieper.bsky.social
November 18, 2025 at 10:55 PM
Reposted by Robert Macmillan
dov.bsky.social
POINTS BASED IMMIGRATION SYSTEM, YOUR BOYS TOOK A HELL OF A BEATING
November 18, 2025 at 9:48 PM
Reposted by Robert Macmillan
zarahsultana.bsky.social
I asked the Home Secretary how it feels to kick away the ladder and introduce anti-migrant policies endorsed by fascist Tommy Robinson?

She didn’t answer the question, calling it “beneath contempt”.

The only thing beneath contempt is her pound-shop Powellism. Shame on her & this Labour government.
November 18, 2025 at 3:55 PM
Reposted by Robert Macmillan
salmanshaheen.bsky.social
Dark forces may be stirring. But in the darkness, we must light a candle. Refugees deserve compassion and dignity.
November 18, 2025 at 3:25 PM
Reposted by Robert Macmillan
benansell.bsky.social
This from @stephenkb.bsky.social cuts to the heart of the matter. Does the government not understand how toxic this argument is? Do they think they can somehow weaponise it? The last governments at least had the merit not of making this kind of foul claim.
November 18, 2025 at 10:04 AM
Reposted by Robert Macmillan
scottishgreens.org
trans people exist.
billionaires shouldn't.
Trans people exist. Billionaires Shouldn't. Scottish Greens.
November 16, 2025 at 6:23 PM
Reposted by Robert Macmillan
cjayanetti.bsky.social
the one good thing about this guy winning his seat at the last election will be him losing his seat at the next one
adambienkov.bsky.social Adam Bienkov @adambienkov.bsky.social · 2d
Labour MP Luke Akehurst says he "wholeheartedly welcomes" Mahmood's plans "which I believe will tackle a failure by the previous government to maintain one of the most basic fundamental functions of government, which is control of our borders."
November 17, 2025 at 7:44 PM
Reposted by Robert Macmillan
coldwarsteve.bsky.social
November 17, 2025 at 6:46 PM
Reposted by Robert Macmillan
nasarmeer.bsky.social
1/ A first pass at this HO paper it begins with usual caveats (‘decent, compassionate, tolerant country that celebrates diversity’ (p. 7), before blaming this ‘comparative generosity’ (p. 30) and for making the UK ‘the destination of choice in Europe’ (p. 9) (and which we are not btw)
November 17, 2025 at 6:18 PM
robfmac.bsky.social
Nice wee place at the end of our road.
November 17, 2025 at 6:13 PM
Reposted by Robert Macmillan
ddonnelly.bsky.social
I can't bear the way government ministers are suddenly talking about immigration. They did this to trans people too - complete U-turn and descent into what would previously have been considered blatant bigotry. I look forward to my Labour MP's useless reply in about six months...
November 17, 2025 at 5:17 PM
Reposted by Robert Macmillan
mckelvie.bsky.social
People are probably calling Labour racist because Labour keep being racist. If they want to stop being called racist they should stop doing racist things.
November 17, 2025 at 10:14 AM
Reposted by Robert Macmillan
fakehistoryhunter.net
This is how I would die but at least I'd die laughing.
November 17, 2025 at 5:10 AM
robfmac.bsky.social
“Is this civilisation?
Is this all we’re gonna be?
A helpless United Nations
A censored BBC
War in the African nations
And in the Middle East
Just a mess of frustration waiting for release.

When they beat the drum it’s too much to swallow
When they beat the drum it just sounds so hollow…”
November 16, 2025 at 10:28 PM
Reposted by Robert Macmillan
tanjabueltmann.net
🌍 42.5m refugees
Over 70% of them are hosted by low- and middle-income countries.

🇬🇧 548k refugees
= 0.78% of the UK population.

It is not refugees who tear our country apart, it is the mainstreaming of far right policies. And that’s a risk to all of us.

My letter to my MP.

#asylum #Mahmood

🧵
Dear [my MP’s name], As the Home Secretary prepares to announce sweeping changes to the UK’s asylum system, I see it as both my duty as a citizen and responsibility as a migration expert to do all I can to urge policymakers to oppose the proposals—not only for what they will do to refugees, though that is the first concern, but also for what they will mean for all of us and the future society we live in.  That is why I am writing to you as my MP. This letter explains why I consider the need to oppose the Home Secretary’s proposals urgent and, at the most fundamental level, in the national and your constituents’ interest. I was born in Germany, a country whose history taught me how quickly societies can go down dark paths; how quickly our leaders can fail in the choices they make. But the history of the displacement of people that the Nazi regime was responsible for also shaped my understanding of why refugee movements occur—and why our response to any of them can never compromise what are, and must always be, universal human rights. Which is why what is happening in the UK now is so deeply alarming. A manufactured crisis As of June 2025, there were 42.5 million refugees globally. Over 70% of them are hosted by low- and middle-income countries; most of them immediate neighbours. Overall, five countries—Colombia, Germany, Türkiye, Iran and Uganda—host a third of the total number of refugees; Germany is the main host in the EU, hosting 2.7 million. The UK hosts 548,000 refugees; that is 0.78% of the UK population. About 110,000 people are in receipt of asylum support; that is 0.15% of the UK population.
November 16, 2025 at 9:25 PM
Reposted by Robert Macmillan
benpatrickwill.bsky.social
Is "learning science" being appropriated by Big Tech to justify its expansion into education? Absolutely. Here's Microsoft calling the new "Teach" mode of Copilot "learning science" - which means of course an "advanced agent" it will push at schools like it or not.. www.microsoft.com/en-us/educat...
New AI experiences and academic offering for Microsoft 365 Copilot | Microsoft Education Blog
Explore new AI-powered experiences at no additional cost for educators and students—plus an academic offering for Microsoft 365 Copilot.
www.microsoft.com
November 15, 2025 at 11:42 PM
Reposted by Robert Macmillan
drdiongeorgiou.bsky.social
Someone should ask Starmer and Mahmood whether they think the Kindertransport, for example, should have been a return ticket. Whether Alf Dubs, rather than becoming a Labour MP and now Lord, ought to have been sent back with his family to Czechoslovakia once it was liberated from German rule.
trillingual.bsky.social Daniel Trilling @trillingual.bsky.social · 5d
This contribution to the volume of human misery is yet another policy from Labour based on a false premise, in this case that refugees are overly attracted to Britain. It will increase bureaucratic limbo, thus making worse the problem of "cohesion" it purports to solve.
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 9:05 AM
robfmac.bsky.social
Scotland have Greece right where they want them now.

🤣
November 15, 2025 at 9:07 PM
robfmac.bsky.social
What in hell is that awful font on the Scotland shirts?
November 15, 2025 at 7:43 PM
Reposted by Robert Macmillan
t0nyyates.bsky.social
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