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smb67.bsky.social
@smb67.bsky.social
67 followers 140 following 51 posts
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peterstefanovic.bsky.social
🚨WOW! The Petition calling for a public inquiry into Russian influence on UK politics & democracy has now rocketed past 75,000 signatures! 🙏

LET’S KEEP GOING!

If a petition is what it’s going to take let’s get this done!
petition.parliament.uk/petitions/74...
November 27, 2025 at 9:38 PM
smb67.bsky.social
@rory-stewart.bsky.social
Thoughts??
October 21, 2025 at 6:13 PM
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bylinefestival.bsky.social
We’re pleased to announce @andyburnham.bsky.social is making the closing speech at Byline Festival 13 July at Keele University

He will be speaking on the Festival theme about the importance of defending truth and democracy

Full programme and tickets:

bylinefestival.com
July 4, 2025 at 5:16 PM
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alexhh.bsky.social
I’ll tell this Georgian Minister what’s “casting a shadow” over UK- Georgia relations; it’s her govt’s systematic erosion of democracy, abuse of power, arrests, beatings and intimidation of opposition and civil society activists, and betrayal of Georgian people’s rights, freedoms and aspirations.
civil.ge Civil.ge @civil.ge · Jun 26
GD FM Maka Botchorishvili met UK Ambassador Gareth Ward. According to the Georgian MFA, sides discussed UK sanctions, among others, with Botchorishvili saying they “cast a shadow over strategic partnership and friendship” between the two countries.
Sanctions Cast Shadow on Friendship, Botchorishvili Tells British Ambassador in Meeting - Civil Georgia
Georgian Dream Foreign Minister Maka Botchorishvili met with the United Kingdom’s Ambassador to Geor
civil.ge
June 26, 2025 at 5:29 PM
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carolecadwalla.bsky.social
Jon Stewart is a legend & the way this show is trying to explain to a mainstream audience the gravity what is happening in the US is amazing. It was both thrilling & terrifying to be part of it. Thank you @TheDailyShow 👏

www.youtube.com/watch?v=vG7C...
Carole Cadwalladr - Broligarchs, AI, and a Techno-Authoritarian Surveillance State | The Daily Show
YouTube video by The Daily Show
www.youtube.com
June 3, 2025 at 9:46 AM
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booktasters.bsky.social
Too many books? I think what you mean is not enough bookshelves.
June 2, 2025 at 5:56 PM
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meckeringboy.bsky.social
Watch and share this video. 🙏🏼

It’s genocide.

There can be no excuses. Everyone involved and everyone who stands by without calling it out is complicit.

All those responsible must face justice in The Hague.
June 1, 2025 at 10:54 AM
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georgemonbiot.bsky.social
Every day a new atrocity in #Gaza. And still the UK supplies lethal weaponry to the Israeli government. There is a term for this: complicity in genocide.
June 1, 2025 at 4:17 PM
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joneshowdareyou.bsky.social
Francesca Albanese—

"What is left to say, really."
May 30, 2025 at 7:49 PM
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assisiproject.com
"We must regain the conviction that we need one another, that we have a shared responsibility for others and the world, and that being good and decent are worth it (229)." #PopeFrancis #LaudatoSi #WeAreFrancis
May 30, 2025 at 11:19 PM
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nytimes.com
The Dutch historian Rutger Bregman’s new book makes the argument that society’s best and brightest should be focused on making the world a better place instead of making money. Read or listen to more on The Interview. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/17/m...
May 17, 2025 at 7:26 PM
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zapperfan7.bsky.social
Reform is a Limited Company

Farage owns 53%

It was formed in 2019 to push for a “no-deal Brexit”

It wants to reintroduce the Liz Truss budget

It wants to privatise the NHS

& invest in fossil fuels

Close the BBC

& break International law

It’s a scam

Please retweet widely
May 16, 2025 at 10:37 AM
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nytimes.com
Robert “Ed” Smylie, the NASA official who saved the Apollo 13 crew in 1970, has died at 95. He cobbled together an apparatus made of cardboard, plastic bags and duct tape after an explosion crippled the spacecraft as it sped toward the moon. nyti.ms/3Sbusb3
May 16, 2025 at 7:37 PM
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alexhh.bsky.social
Excellent letter. Well said @tanjabueltmann.net . I deeply share your outrage and sense of betrayal.
tanjabueltmann.net Tanja Bueltmann @tanjabueltmann.net · May 12
My letter to the Prime Minister. #immigration
Slightly amended so I can fit this here: I am writing to you as an immigrant who chose to make the UK my home. As someone who is now also a British citizen. And as a German-born historian who understands where the complete normalisation of the far right can end. I write to say: For shame! I first came to the UK in the 1990s for a visit with my grandmother. Objectively, much was backwards here. No mixer taps in the bathroom; awful ‘bread’; and strings had to be pulled to switch on lights. But however I felt about this, my own string had been pulled: I loved this Cool Britannia. It was quite possibly then that I decided that the UK was to be my home. When I arrived to settle here permanently, I made a choice: to contribute my skills, my knowledge—all I have to offer—to this country rather than another one. I am deeply disgusted by your comment today that immigration has done ‘incalculable damage’ to the country. This is the language of the far right. It is insulting, hateful & will fuel xenophobia. And it is just wrong. Migration is a normal part of the human existence. None of us would be where we are without it. Open your fridge and you will see migration. Immigrants help make the UK tick every single day, whether we clean toilets in our hospitals or provide care for the elderly; whether we empty our bins or carry out cancer research. We are mothers, sons-in-law, aunts and uncles, friends, neighbours and colleagues. I ask you not tell me that you do not mean me. I know that you do not—at least not primarily—mean a white woman from Europe who has a PhD. But who do you mean? And, much more importantly, who do you think those racists who were engaged in riots on our streets last summer think you mean? Anti-immigration narratives have defined UK policymaking for the best part of two decades. And fundamentally so. They were the key driver in delivering Brexit, for example, and, as such, have directly limited the rights and opportunities of British citizens. This obsessive focus on immigration as the ‘problem’—that is the real problem. And it is consistently delivering poor outcomes for the UK. Instead of tackling this, you are choosing to consolidate it, sowing divisions along the way. You may point me to polling and tell me that this is what voters want. Do they? I am not surprised at all that over 50% of voters might say they want to see immigration reduced if that is the question they are being asked. What we need to know is what they would answer to the question: “Would you like to see immigration reduced? What this would mean for you and your local community is XYZ.” That is not how surveys can ask questions, but governments absolutely can choose to make policy using such a more informed position. Prime Minister, you continue to talk a lot about making the tough choices. But let’s be clear: setting immigrants up as the ‘other’, as a scapegoat—describing us as a threat ‘pulling the country apart’, a ‘squalid chapter’, a risk that might make the UK an ‘island of strangers’—these are not tough choices at all. These are the easy choices. They are the choices that populists make who have no solutions to the real problems a country faces. What I would like to know, Prime Minister, is what you will do when your policies lead to the implosion of the UK’s Higher Education sector. What you will tell communities when they can no longer provide any care for the elderly. The policies you announced today will not solve anything at all. They will have exclusively negative impacts. For those immediately affected; for our communities; and for our economy. Being pro-immigration—it is progressive, yes, but the much more crucial point is that it is also the most pro-UK policy approach that any politician in the country can pursue. And you are choosing to do the opposite. This, Prime Minister, is the real damage—and it will be very calculable indeed. Tanja Bueltmann
May 12, 2025 at 9:44 PM
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fergus.bsky.social
The Financial Times editorial board on Gaza:

'...the longer it goes on, the more those who remain silent or cowed from speaking out will be complicit.'

www.ft.com/content/f5fd...
May 7, 2025 at 11:27 PM
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jayinkyiv.bsky.social
The US is no longer collecting intelligence on Russian war crimes in Ukraine , the US administration has suspended the work of an interagency group, the Washington Post reports , citing two sources.

In addition, they also abolished the position of the person responsible for coordinating the group.
April 23, 2025 at 9:34 AM
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peterjukes.bsky.social
Amazing. After nearly losing her house, and being locked away in a legal battle for years because of one innocuous line in her last TED Talk, @carolecadwalla.bsky.social returns to the Lion’s Den, and calls out the Broligarchs

This Is What a Digital Coup Looks Like youtu.be/TZOoT8AbkNE?...
This Is What a Digital Coup Looks Like | Carole Cadwalladr | TED
YouTube video by TED
youtu.be
April 10, 2025 at 9:13 PM
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timothysnyder.bsky.social
"Trump has an obvious weakness that makes America weak. He places the American economy at risk for the sake of a personal foible, a visible vulnerability."
snyder.substack.com/p/trumps-psy...
Trump's Psychological Vulnerability
And the Destruction of the American Economy
snyder.substack.com
April 10, 2025 at 3:34 PM
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guyverhofstadt.bsky.social
Urgent need for a group of EU leaders to outline a shared vision for our continent in this earth-shattering moment.🧵
April 9, 2025 at 3:15 PM
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nytimes.com
Demonstrators gathered across the U.S. on Saturday for a day of protest against President Trump and his policies. Read more: nyti.ms/3Ebi0oi
A large crowd of protesters gathered in St. Paul, Minnesota. Photo by Tim Evans/AFP — Getty Images
April 5, 2025 at 9:46 PM
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peterstefanovic.bsky.social
This is appalling from Trump's special envoy who has dismissed Prime Minister Keir Starmer's plan for an international force to support a ceasefire in Ukraine as "a posture and a pose"

The US is no longer a reliable ally
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Trump envoy Steve Witkoff dismisses Starmer plan for Ukraine
Steve Witkoff says the UK plans for an international force to support a ceasefire are a
www.bbc.co.uk
March 23, 2025 at 12:08 PM
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ottoenglish.bsky.social
Also. Douglas Carswell doesn't even live in the UK anymore. He lives in Jackson, Mississippi.
localnotail.bsky.social Jane @localnotail.bsky.social · Mar 23
like, proper batshit
My plan to get Britain back on track National recovery means that we must fundamentally change the way this country is governed Douglas Carswell 22 March 2025 6:44pm GMT These are the nine ‘milestones’ (under which are grouped the 34 specific policy steps): 1. Securing Control Over Public Administration 2. Securing Control Over Borders 3. Undoing the Blairite Legislative Legacy 4. Unleash Growth 5. Reduce Public Spending 6. Tax Cuts 7. Public Sector Reform 8. Strengthening Defence, Realign Foreign Policy 9. Remigration & Integration Britain is in a pitiful condition. Our economy is faltering, burdened by high taxes and excess regulation. Public services no longer serve the actual public. Culturally, we are coming apart, strained by mass immigration, a crumbling sense of identity, and a demographic transformation so swift it risks making our country unrecognisable.
March 23, 2025 at 6:13 PM
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krassenstein.bsky.social
BREAKING: People are being suspended on X in Turkey for posting videos of these protests against Erdoğan’s corrupt and repressive regime.

Keep sharing everywhere.
March 23, 2025 at 12:20 PM
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mikejjensen.bsky.social
That didn't last long.
conflictdispatch.bsky.social Conflict Dispatch @conflictdispatch.bsky.social · Mar 18
🇺🇦🇷🇺 Putin Breaks “Energy Ceasefire” within 3 Hours after Talks with Trump

Local sources report that a Russian attack targeted energy infrastructure in Sloviansk, Donetsk region, cutting power to half the city, per Tsaplienko.
March 18, 2025 at 7:45 PM