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tracyp63.bsky.social
@tracyp63.bsky.social
66 followers 49 following 7 posts
Whippet Staff, Brasser and
Dysgwr Cymraeg
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Reposted
iandunt.bsky.social
Incredibly brave. Imagine the faceless bores the BBC will have making their programmes if they continue down this path.
robinince.bsky.social Robin Ince @robinince.bsky.social · 16d
Very sad that I felt I had no choice but to resign from The Infinite Monkey Cage - a victory for the transphobes and other bigots - I did it because so much of the media has chosen to believe the kind and empathetic people are a fiction - they are real and so often unrepresented.
This is the saddest day of my professional life. Today is not only the final recording of the latest series of The Infinite Monkey Cage, it is my last ever Monkey Cage. I never thought that I would have to leave the show. I always imagined going on until | dropped dead under the studio lights due to a brain aneurysm caused by my final attempt to understand notions of quantum gravity or the shock of being told about fly maggot infestations in the sacks of macaque monkeys. I resigned in September, after sixteen years of dedication to the show, A show that I named and helped develop over all those years. Unfortunately, my opinions outside the BBC have been considered problematic for sometime, whether it has been voicing support for the trans community, criticism of Donald Trump, numerous other outlandish opinions, including once gently criticising Stephen Fry. These things were considered to conflict with being a freelance BBC science presenter In a recent meeting where BBC Studio executives again voiced problems with me, I realised my choices. Obedience and being quieter to remain making Monkey Cage, or 'Resign and have the freedom to speak out against what I believe are injustices'. • I chose the latter. It broke my heart. I love this show and I love the audience, and it is because of the audience in particular, that this decision was so difficult to make. I kept thinking about all the extremist voices promoting hate and division. They are being given so many platforms, while voices that represent kindness, open mindedness, empathy seem to be scarcer and scarcer. I felt I couldn't pamper myself with the luxury of silence. One of my many privileges is that I am able to resign and I can speak out even if it is to the detriment of my career. I have thought a lot about my heroes, Sinead O Connor, James Baldwin, Audre Lorde, and so many more. I think of Sinead's words, "the job of an artist is to be themselves at any cost". James Baldwin said prejudice was really just a word for cowardice. Audre Lorde, viewing her life, wrote that her only regrets were her silences. I think of my father as I resign, he brought me up to believe in fairness , justice and kindness. Though my heart is broken, it is also full of fire. I apologise to our incredible listeners for my departure, your love of the show means a great deal. I am so sorry to let you down. I hope that you can understand my reasoning. I have to accept that I am not what the current BBC expects of their freelance presenters. Despite this I should add that I have always worked far more than my contracted hours to try and ensure the show was always the best it could be, as well as making myself accessible and responsive to the audience wherever and whenever I met them. Every night, we have recorded, I have been filled with determination to make the best show possible. This was not "just a job" I hope that with my departure I can be a better ally to the LGBTQ community, to the neurodivergent community, to activists fighting against those who aim to brutalise society, to those currently in prison on hunger strike, and to all those who fight for a more inclusive world. From many conversations, I know there are many Monkey Cage listeners who support these communities and activists too. The strawberry is dead. Long live the strawberry. B
December 13, 2025 at 7:28 AM
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scanditina.bsky.social
While I listen to you @mrjamesob.bsky.social this beauty popped up!
mimij9.bsky.social mimij9.bsky.social @mimij9.bsky.social · 17d
Murder rates in comparable US cities.

Look at London?

Anyone who spouts Trumps lies is a traitor.
December 12, 2025 at 12:27 PM
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willhaycardiff.bsky.social
My piece for The Guardian about why I am far more concerned about Reform's aversion to scrutiny than I am about them calling me a c***.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
I don’t care if Reform calls me a bad word on WhatsApp. But the story behind its gaffe is far more worrying | Will Hayward
The leaked exchange shows how much the party dislikes scrutiny – which reveals a lot about its approach to governing, says Guardian columnist Will Hayward
www.theguardian.com
December 5, 2025 at 5:09 PM
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stuartgwynn.bsky.social
More great work from Will.
I fear we'll be royally screwed if Reform get in next year. I also fear that many in Wales don't have the criticall thinking skills to ask "Why haven’t you got a leader? How are you going to make things better? What are your policies?".
November 30, 2025 at 9:47 AM
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stevebasnett.bsky.social
Why this matters:

Martin Shipton, Nation Cymru:

"Wales is Reform’s next big target… if they [win the Senedd next May] it will make the national Reform party flush with taxpayers’ cash."

(quote from @thenerve.news)

Reform run Kent has already disappeared £40 million. Wales would be much more.
carolecadwalla.bsky.social Carole Cadwalladr @carolecadwalla.bsky.social · Nov 26
NEW: Wales’s first minister @prifweinidog.gov.wales backs call for a full investigation into Russian interference.

Wales’s Senedd elections next spring ‘at risk’. @bbcwales.bsky.social report below.
November 26, 2025 at 11:31 AM
tracyp63.bsky.social
youngvulgarian.substack.com/p/arent-you-...
aren't you tired of feeling insane all the time?
Behold! I have had a thought.
youngvulgarian.substack.com
November 21, 2025 at 7:02 PM
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garyseconomics.bsky.social
Poor people are being abandoned by this country.

Brian Eno telling it straight
November 19, 2025 at 12:37 PM
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timbale.bsky.social
Read 'em and weep. (www.nber.org/system/files...)
This paper examines the impact of the UK's decision to leave the European Union (Brexit) in 2016. Using almost a decade of data since the referendum, we combine simulations based on macro data with estimates derived from micro data collected through our Decision Maker Panel survey. These estimates suggest that by 2025, Brexit had reduced UK GDP by 6% to 8%, with the impact accumulating gradually over time. We estimate that investment was reduced by between 12% and 18%, employment by 3% to 4% and productivity by 3% to 4%. These large negative impacts reflect a combination of elevated uncertainty, reduced demand, diverted management time, and increased misallocation of resources from a protracted Brexit process. Comparing these with contemporary forecasts – providing a rare macro example to complement the burgeoning microliterature of social science predictions – shows that these forecasts were accurate over a 5-year horizon, but they underestimated the impact over a decade.
November 14, 2025 at 3:18 PM
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everyonehateselon.bsky.social
James Dyson owns more UK land than the actual KING. But he pays an effective tax rate of LESS THAN 1%* on his total wealth.

Here’s a novel idea @keirstarmer: to fund schools and hospitals, TAX THE BILLIONAIRES.

📍Station Lane, Bristol - near James Dyson’s £20m country estate Dodington Park
November 12, 2025 at 11:45 AM
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garyseconomics.bsky.social
Here's the link if you wanna donate: taxjustice.uk/afr3-external/
Help us win wealth taxes
We’re at a crucial moment to win an economy for the many. But we need your help to take on the greedy super-rich few trying to stop us.
taxjustice.uk
November 14, 2025 at 5:58 PM
Reposted
garyseconomics.bsky.social
These guys are one of the only voices in the UK economics/tax space campaigning for higher taxes on wealth.

They're asking for donations to keep doing this work.
taxjusticeuk.bsky.social Tax Justice UK @taxjusticeuk.bsky.social · Nov 14
We’re closer than ever to winning major tax reforms that could transform the economy for the many.

That’s why the greedy, powerful few are spreading hate and division... they want us distracted.

We’re in the fight of our lives. Chip in today so we can win it together 🤝
👉 bit.ly/43rYLjL
November 14, 2025 at 5:55 PM
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anandmenon.bsky.social
Jesus Christ. We go mad about one bloke we wrongly released, yet hear next to nothing about this horror? www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
More than 50 child asylum seekers still missing after disappearing from Kent care
Council data obtained by the Guardian shows 345 children have gone missing in recent years, many probably taken by traffickers
www.theguardian.com
November 1, 2025 at 1:57 PM
Reposted
timminchin.bsky.social
A few thoughts on art: art plus intent, and the human connections and empathy of live performance. From The Art of Tax Reform Summit 2025 in NSW.
Tim Minchin’s Full Speech at The Art of Tax Reform Summit 2025 - NSW, Australia
YouTube video by Tim Minchin
youtu.be
October 31, 2025 at 7:03 AM
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iandunt.bsky.social
This was so witty and human. What an absolute hero. open.substack.com/pub/bestforb...
A week before my wedding, I woke up with facial paralysis
‘Apart from having to drink my pints through a straw, occasionally needing to wear an eyepatch and the classical guitarist nobody could hear, I wouldn’t have changed a thing about the big day.’ - Nial...
open.substack.com
October 30, 2025 at 9:18 AM
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dougparr.bsky.social
UK wind power benefits and costs 2010-2023 :

Lower energy bills through avoided gas: £14.2bn
Avoided infra & new gas generation: £133.3bn
Subsidies paid to wind power: - £43.2bn

Overall benefit to UK economy **£104bn**

Don't believe the wind power haters

www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Wind power has cut £104bn from UK energy costs since 2010, study finds
Reduction comes from energy generated from windfarms and lower cost of gas owing to lower demand
www.theguardian.com
October 28, 2025 at 7:17 AM
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ledbydonkeys.org
Farage: epic grifter
October 27, 2025 at 12:45 PM
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jenlucpiquant.bsky.social
New Study Finds Annual COVID Vaccines Protect People against Severe Disease, Even with Prior Immunity www.scientificamerican.com/article/new-...
Annual COVID Vaccines Save Lives, New Study Shows
A new study shows that receiving an updated COVID vaccine reduced people’s risk of severe disease and death in all age groups, regardless of immunity from prior infection or vaccination
www.scientificamerican.com
October 9, 2025 at 11:19 AM
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mrjamesob.bsky.social
Lords Heseltine & Kinnock seem more alive to these self-evident truths than most members of the Commons. Similarly, I find thinkers with direct lived experience of far right dictatorship, Greeks of a certain age for example, crystal clear about what’s happening now.
bbcnewsnight.bsky.social BBC Newsnight @bbcnewsnight.bsky.social · Oct 7
“You described Reform and other parties across Europe today as among the 'right wing equivalents of the fascists in the 1930s'. Why?”

“Because that’s what they are”

@vicderbyshire.bsky.social asks Lord Heseltine about remarks he made at Conservative Party Conference.

#Newsnight
October 8, 2025 at 6:52 AM
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willhaycardiff.bsky.social
Reform keeps arguing immigration is an issue when it isn’t.

There is a by-election right now in Caerphilly and Nigel Farage’s party keeps saying that immigration is an issue there.

BUT over 97% percent of people in the area were born in the UK.

We need to debate based on facts not scaremongering.
September 29, 2025 at 12:53 PM
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london.gov.uk
I’m deeply concerned about recent racist attacks in our capital city.
From the TfL workers being punched and racially abused to women who were chased down the street - I’m deeply concerned about the alarming rise of racist attacks in our capital city. We are also seeing appalling incidents elsewhere in the country - some of which have included abhorrent violence towards children. These incidents illustrate the dangers of allowing racism to be normalised and mainstreamed. Real lives and personal safety are under threat. I will continue to speak out against racial inequalities and injustices, as well as providing support to organisations working to support our communities and bring people together. London is a successful, liberal and multicultural city. The greatest in the world. It will always be for everyone and I promise you: that will never change. MAYOR OF LONDON, SADIQ KHAN
September 26, 2025 at 3:09 PM
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gregjenner.bsky.social
This brilliant video by singer Chris Cron deserves its own applause (he’s on Instagram), but it also reminds us how astonishingly good Queen were as songwriters and musicians. The melody, harmony, and lyrical flair are all elite — and this isn’t even one of their Top 5 most downloaded songs!
September 24, 2025 at 12:04 PM
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mrjamesob.bsky.social
Wow.
tom-clark.bsky.social Tom Clark @tom-clark.bsky.social · Sep 23
Useful reminder from Peter Kellner on the problems we refuse to acknowledge are getting better, and the politics of hopelessness that this breeds

open.substack.com/pub/kellnerp...
September 23, 2025 at 7:38 AM
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profaliceroberts.bsky.social
Writing in the Guardian, @pollytoynbee.bsky.social calls out dangerous supremacism:
“On the Robinson march in London, the great wooden crosses looked like armaments… The marchers’ “Christ is King” flags declared a radicalised ethno-supremacism.”
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
The hard right are claiming the cross – and true Christians should not allow it | Polly Toynbee
British church leaders have finally spoken out about the dangerous rise of Christian nationalism. But their message was far too timid, says Guardian columnist Polly Toynbee
www.theguardian.com
September 23, 2025 at 7:48 AM
tracyp63.bsky.social
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Finland is ready for the next crisis, with stockpiled food and 72-hour kits – Europe should be too | Miika Ilomäki
The next pandemic or geopolitical shock could be close at hand. To look after our people, we’re looking after our supply chains, agriculture and fuel reserves, says Miika Ilomäki of Finland’s National...
www.theguardian.com
September 16, 2025 at 7:29 PM
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brianbilston.bsky.social
Here’s a poem called ‘English Roundabouts’.
English Roundabouts   They’re making the roundabouts great again by painting the flag of St George to keep our circular road systems safe from the dark, satanic hordes. What do they want? Patriotic junctions! When do they want them? Before it’s too late. Good old-fashioned English roundabouts, as decreed by Alfred the Great. Behold the sacred intersection, this blessed plot, this septic isle. English roundabouts for English people, draped in red and white and bile. St George is cross, as well he may be – whipped-up hate, he’s seen before. Give way to the right, the road signs rage, and the far right most of all. Brian Bilston
September 15, 2025 at 7:56 AM