Tanja
@tanjainthegreen.bsky.social
EU citizen settled in the UK. Eventually moving to France with my Brit husband. MS. Early retired. Gardening. Cats (that's Oscar in the banner). Not in that order. (No DMs please. Also, rudeness/condescension = muting/blocking)
All that Brexit winning, eh? Yay.
Remember the US trade deal that Starmer announced with huge fanfare?
Would it surprise you to learn that it's stuck?
As I (and many others) pointed out at the time, it was merely the outline of negotiations, not a done deal.
And now Trump wants more, of course, including weaker UK food standards.
Would it surprise you to learn that it's stuck?
As I (and many others) pointed out at the time, it was merely the outline of negotiations, not a done deal.
And now Trump wants more, of course, including weaker UK food standards.
December 14, 2025 at 8:07 AM
All that Brexit winning, eh? Yay.
Reposted by Tanja
Ian Fleming's original James Bond, Moonraker, published 70 years ago in April 1955, features a villain who's a super-rich industrialist, rocket-maker seeking to cause chaos because he's a secret Nazi..
December 13, 2025 at 11:43 PM
Ian Fleming's original James Bond, Moonraker, published 70 years ago in April 1955, features a villain who's a super-rich industrialist, rocket-maker seeking to cause chaos because he's a secret Nazi..
Reposted by Tanja
If you think that Europe is doomed, you’re not paying attention.
Wrote a recap of the latest developments and call me a hopeless Europtimist but I think Europe+ (including Canada) isn’t doing too bad in terms of offering Ukraine an actual perspective for the future. With or without the US.
Wrote a recap of the latest developments and call me a hopeless Europtimist but I think Europe+ (including Canada) isn’t doing too bad in terms of offering Ukraine an actual perspective for the future. With or without the US.
Is Trump Making Europe Great Again?
In a world of zero-sum thinking, the EU's win-win logic can be a powerful tool.
open.substack.com
February 25, 2025 at 8:47 PM
If you think that Europe is doomed, you’re not paying attention.
Wrote a recap of the latest developments and call me a hopeless Europtimist but I think Europe+ (including Canada) isn’t doing too bad in terms of offering Ukraine an actual perspective for the future. With or without the US.
Wrote a recap of the latest developments and call me a hopeless Europtimist but I think Europe+ (including Canada) isn’t doing too bad in terms of offering Ukraine an actual perspective for the future. With or without the US.
🥳🎉
The EU froze €210bn of Russian sovereign assets held in the bloc on Friday. The freezing paves the way for a loan to be raised against the assets to prop up Ukraine's defence. on.ft.com/48PfDCV
December 12, 2025 at 9:05 PM
🥳🎉
Reposted by Tanja
The fact the police are investigating Reform over alleged election overspend is potentially far more serious than you might imagine. If found guilty it could actually lead to a VOID election. Farage could lose his seat and be barred from office for 3 years and a by election could be called! 🤞
December 9, 2025 at 10:11 AM
The fact the police are investigating Reform over alleged election overspend is potentially far more serious than you might imagine. If found guilty it could actually lead to a VOID election. Farage could lose his seat and be barred from office for 3 years and a by election could be called! 🤞
Totally agree with this. I don't think we'll see the UK joining the EU in at least a generation. The UK needs to sort itself out first, and there will be none of the previous opt outs.
For my last Sunday Scribblings of 2025, back to one of my recurring themes, the future relationship between the UK and the EU. It is not going anywhere, anytime soon.
hayest.substack.com/p/sunday-scr...
hayest.substack.com/p/sunday-scr...
Sunday Scribblings
The UK, Europe and the Myth of Sisyphus
hayest.substack.com
December 7, 2025 at 8:23 PM
Totally agree with this. I don't think we'll see the UK joining the EU in at least a generation. The UK needs to sort itself out first, and there will be none of the previous opt outs.
Reposted by Tanja
Please share this info. I cannot emphasise enough: all formulas are the same by law (*except prescription ones), you don’t need to spend £3-£5 more a tub for the branding. Spending more buys no extra quality and does not make you a better mama x
And where it comes to formula:
- all formulas are the same by law
- the cheapest is always Aldi Mamia at £7.50 or so a tub (only own brand on the market)
- follow-on milk is a marketing device to get round the ad ban - your baby doesn’t need it
- all formulas are the same by law
- the cheapest is always Aldi Mamia at £7.50 or so a tub (only own brand on the market)
- follow-on milk is a marketing device to get round the ad ban - your baby doesn’t need it
December 3, 2025 at 11:17 PM
Please share this info. I cannot emphasise enough: all formulas are the same by law (*except prescription ones), you don’t need to spend £3-£5 more a tub for the branding. Spending more buys no extra quality and does not make you a better mama x
Reposted by Tanja
My response would be: if European pressure campaigns have helped prevent a Trumpian disaster with Ukraine so far, then perhaps they were worth the effort (no matter how humiliating). I think you keep going til you fail. Then you draw the proper conclusions
Punchy stuff from Sandbu
"3 times Trump has tried to bounce Ukraine into conceding to Russian demands... 3 times Europeans have scrambled to change his mind... how many more lessons do they need to conclude that the transatlantic relationship is over?"
www.ft.com/content/8...
"3 times Trump has tried to bounce Ukraine into conceding to Russian demands... 3 times Europeans have scrambled to change his mind... how many more lessons do they need to conclude that the transatlantic relationship is over?"
www.ft.com/content/8...
December 1, 2025 at 4:24 PM
My response would be: if European pressure campaigns have helped prevent a Trumpian disaster with Ukraine so far, then perhaps they were worth the effort (no matter how humiliating). I think you keep going til you fail. Then you draw the proper conclusions
Reposted by Tanja
🎄Sparkle season is officially here!😃The meme below is a true representation of me this month but I still love it❤️😊
November 30, 2025 at 8:52 PM
🎄Sparkle season is officially here!😃The meme below is a true representation of me this month but I still love it❤️😊
Reposted by Tanja
The number of people migrating to the UK is down, again.
Lower migration is bad for our economy, especially our already struggling public services. The economy getting worse means politicians scapegoat and blame migrants and refugees even more. It’s a doom loop where we’re all worse off.
Lower migration is bad for our economy, especially our already struggling public services. The economy getting worse means politicians scapegoat and blame migrants and refugees even more. It’s a doom loop where we’re all worse off.
Today's migration stats illustrate the migration doom loop in action...
(from my presentation at the IMF last week)
(from my presentation at the IMF last week)
November 27, 2025 at 12:08 PM
The number of people migrating to the UK is down, again.
Lower migration is bad for our economy, especially our already struggling public services. The economy getting worse means politicians scapegoat and blame migrants and refugees even more. It’s a doom loop where we’re all worse off.
Lower migration is bad for our economy, especially our already struggling public services. The economy getting worse means politicians scapegoat and blame migrants and refugees even more. It’s a doom loop where we’re all worse off.
Reposted by Tanja
Good morning to Brazilian reporter Manuela Borges, who’s been waiting eleven years for this petty moment. ❤️ 🇧🇷
November 26, 2025 at 1:04 PM
Good morning to Brazilian reporter Manuela Borges, who’s been waiting eleven years for this petty moment. ❤️ 🇧🇷
Reposted by Tanja
Brilliant thecritic.co.uk/auntie-in-th...
November 24, 2025 at 10:06 PM
Brilliant thecritic.co.uk/auntie-in-th...
Reposted by Tanja
God it's so cool that so much of British and European nationalist politics has broadly been shaped by warehouse clickfarms rented by guys in South Asia running "how to make money from racist old people" workshops, and that this has had more influence on media and politics than any grassroots group
November 24, 2025 at 11:55 AM
God it's so cool that so much of British and European nationalist politics has broadly been shaped by warehouse clickfarms rented by guys in South Asia running "how to make money from racist old people" workshops, and that this has had more influence on media and politics than any grassroots group
so so many cables, and the garden need a good pruning and I'll admit that I don't need quite that many plant pots.
Twitter accounts are based in Russia. BlueSky accounts are based in homes with, frankly, too many books, plants, obsolete cables, and pieces of rustic pottery, that could do with a bit of a tidying up, to be honest.
November 23, 2025 at 8:43 PM
so so many cables, and the garden need a good pruning and I'll admit that I don't need quite that many plant pots.
Reposted by Tanja
Farage can now be easily boxed in to a corner where his only ‘defence’ becomes: “Yes I spouted Kremlin propaganda & Putin worship but, unlike Nathan Gill, I didn’t need bribes to do it.”
It is, once again, a question of whether interviewers have the temerity to shut down his whining obfuscations.
It is, once again, a question of whether interviewers have the temerity to shut down his whining obfuscations.
November 22, 2025 at 11:04 AM
Farage can now be easily boxed in to a corner where his only ‘defence’ becomes: “Yes I spouted Kremlin propaganda & Putin worship but, unlike Nathan Gill, I didn’t need bribes to do it.”
It is, once again, a question of whether interviewers have the temerity to shut down his whining obfuscations.
It is, once again, a question of whether interviewers have the temerity to shut down his whining obfuscations.
I have always lovedsquid and octopuses, wonderful and intelligent beasties
BIG news about vampire squid! I just learned their Japanese name "koumori-dako" means "bat-octopus," which is objectively better* and I'll be using it from now on. 🦇🐙
That's not the news though, the news is that scientists sequenced their genome and it's ENORMOUS 🧪🧵
www.cell.com/iscience/ful...
That's not the news though, the news is that scientists sequenced their genome and it's ENORMOUS 🧪🧵
www.cell.com/iscience/ful...
Giant genome of the vampire squid reveals the derived state of modern octopod karyotypes
Marine organism; Genetics; Evolutionary mechanisms; Phylogenetics; Genomic analysis
www.cell.com
November 22, 2025 at 12:18 AM
I have always lovedsquid and octopuses, wonderful and intelligent beasties
Reposted by Tanja
Whoopsie.
"It remains to be seen what will happen when this case reaches the Supreme Court. But there is a very real chance that Texas’s gerrymander will fall entirely because of inept lawyering by Trump’s Justice Department..."
www.vox.com/politics/469...
www.vox.com/politics/469...
Trump’s Justice Department may have accidentally handed Democrats five House seats
Oops.
www.vox.com
November 22, 2025 at 12:10 AM
Whoopsie.
Reposted by Tanja
A very good catch by The Guardian on Russianisms that make the “peace deal” sound like it escaped from a Russian grammar workbook and got run over by Google Translate on the way out.
I’d add “NATO expansion” - their trademark phrase, not “NATO enlargement.”
www.theguardian.com/world/live/2...
I’d add “NATO expansion” - their trademark phrase, not “NATO enlargement.”
www.theguardian.com/world/live/2...
November 21, 2025 at 8:15 PM
A very good catch by The Guardian on Russianisms that make the “peace deal” sound like it escaped from a Russian grammar workbook and got run over by Google Translate on the way out.
I’d add “NATO expansion” - their trademark phrase, not “NATO enlargement.”
www.theguardian.com/world/live/2...
I’d add “NATO expansion” - their trademark phrase, not “NATO enlargement.”
www.theguardian.com/world/live/2...
Reposted by Tanja
Rewarding a dictator-aggressor always leads to another war. One that is usually even worse.
November 21, 2025 at 6:15 PM
Rewarding a dictator-aggressor always leads to another war. One that is usually even worse.
Reposted by Tanja
Russia's leadership not happy with France selling Rafale jet fighters to Ukraine, saying it upscales the war in Ukraine.
They don't feel the same way about asking Nth Korea for troops & arms, Iran for drones & missiles & China for assistance (unknown).
Hypocrisy doesn't even enter their thinking!
They don't feel the same way about asking Nth Korea for troops & arms, Iran for drones & missiles & China for assistance (unknown).
Hypocrisy doesn't even enter their thinking!
November 20, 2025 at 11:36 PM
Russia's leadership not happy with France selling Rafale jet fighters to Ukraine, saying it upscales the war in Ukraine.
They don't feel the same way about asking Nth Korea for troops & arms, Iran for drones & missiles & China for assistance (unknown).
Hypocrisy doesn't even enter their thinking!
They don't feel the same way about asking Nth Korea for troops & arms, Iran for drones & missiles & China for assistance (unknown).
Hypocrisy doesn't even enter their thinking!
Reposted by Tanja
This isn’t a peace plan. This is handing Ukraine to Putin on a silver platter, which is what I said all along that Trump would do.
🚨 SCOOP: Trump peace plan for Ukraine includes NATO-style security guarantee
Scoop: Trump peace plan for Ukraine includes NATO-style security guarantee
Trump would be committing the U.S. to defend Ukraine if Russia attacks again.
www.axios.com
November 21, 2025 at 4:40 AM
This isn’t a peace plan. This is handing Ukraine to Putin on a silver platter, which is what I said all along that Trump would do.
Reposted by Tanja
“The gov't are doing some good stuff and they do have a machine that should be able to amplify a relatively simple message that involves some measure of positivity. But they just seem incapable of doing it. I know people who are on the minimum wage who didn't know that it had gone up.”😱
💒 SUNDAY SCHOOL Tax of My Tears OUT NOW!
🔀 How can sticking to a pledge become a U-turn?
🚮 Fly-tipping trauma
🚻 “Doing a Mandy”
@pimlicat.bsky.social & @mrkennycampbell.bsky.social deliver today's lesson.
🎧👇
🍏 podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/q...
🍊 open.spotify.com/episode/4Pmt...
🔀 How can sticking to a pledge become a U-turn?
🚮 Fly-tipping trauma
🚻 “Doing a Mandy”
@pimlicat.bsky.social & @mrkennycampbell.bsky.social deliver today's lesson.
🎧👇
🍏 podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/q...
🍊 open.spotify.com/episode/4Pmt...
Sunday School: Tax of my tears
Podcast Episode · Quiet Riot · 16/11/2025 · 52m
podcasts.apple.com
November 16, 2025 at 7:48 AM
“The gov't are doing some good stuff and they do have a machine that should be able to amplify a relatively simple message that involves some measure of positivity. But they just seem incapable of doing it. I know people who are on the minimum wage who didn't know that it had gone up.”😱
Reposted by Tanja
Ah the 1970s.
Stagflation, three day weeks, collapsing infrastructure. Civil War in Northern Ireland. In yer face racism and bigotry everywhere. Bin strikes. Strikes in general. Blackouts. Industrial decline. Wage inequality. Dog crap everywhere. And households spent 25% of their income on food.
Stagflation, three day weeks, collapsing infrastructure. Civil War in Northern Ireland. In yer face racism and bigotry everywhere. Bin strikes. Strikes in general. Blackouts. Industrial decline. Wage inequality. Dog crap everywhere. And households spent 25% of their income on food.
November 14, 2025 at 8:40 AM
Ah the 1970s.
Stagflation, three day weeks, collapsing infrastructure. Civil War in Northern Ireland. In yer face racism and bigotry everywhere. Bin strikes. Strikes in general. Blackouts. Industrial decline. Wage inequality. Dog crap everywhere. And households spent 25% of their income on food.
Stagflation, three day weeks, collapsing infrastructure. Civil War in Northern Ireland. In yer face racism and bigotry everywhere. Bin strikes. Strikes in general. Blackouts. Industrial decline. Wage inequality. Dog crap everywhere. And households spent 25% of their income on food.
Reposted by Tanja
Friendly reminder that dishwashers made after 1995 or so are so water and energy efficient that even if you ran them twice fully loaded it would still use less water than handwashing the same load.
So many "green" things feel like sacrifices. Dishwashers are not one of them.
So many "green" things feel like sacrifices. Dishwashers are not one of them.
November 12, 2025 at 5:03 AM
Friendly reminder that dishwashers made after 1995 or so are so water and energy efficient that even if you ran them twice fully loaded it would still use less water than handwashing the same load.
So many "green" things feel like sacrifices. Dishwashers are not one of them.
So many "green" things feel like sacrifices. Dishwashers are not one of them.