Recent posts by Global News and Politics Professionals on Bluesky

This is a disturbing development - not nonsense about immigration from an actual newspaper, but nonsense about immigration from a website falsely pretending to be that newspaper. One step beyond the false Guardian headline generator (which too many people were credulous about).

A horseshoe moment here

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Fellow solar nerds will enjoy this. "Fuyao Glass has confirmed mass-production capabilities for solar sunroof glass, with photovoltaic cells embedded" in cars www.pv-magazine.com/2026/08/19/c...

The UK's exploding debt burden...

Lib Dems to force vote on donation cap commission Lisa Smart MP on reports Burnham won't back a cap: "This is totally unacceptable and leaves our democracy dangerously exposed. Lib Dems will force the donation cap commission to a vote when the bill returns & we expect many Labour MPs will join us."

I read Antony Lloyd’s heartbreaking report from Russia’s attack on Kyiv yesterday and it is so stark, the impact of Trump’s decision to cut off patriots. So long as Kyiv can’t shoot down ballistics, Russia will keep murdering.

Loved recording with @rachelblakemp.bsky.social who knows her housing onions. And she’s running to Chair the HCLG parliamentary committee! Have a listen 🎧 👇

Patriots! Via Politico: "Toby Young’s Free Speech Union urged JD Vance to lobby the U.K. government to pause the Online Safety Act...The briefing was timed around Keir Starmer’s first Trump White House visit...Young says the FSU routinely briefs politicians in a position to lobby the government."

Start the day at Edinburgh Festival with some RocknRoll Politics..different show each day.. 11.55....a few tickets still available: www.thespaceuk.com/shows/2026/s...

📢 Paging the “growth situation room” in No10 North We haven’t done growth by every postcode but we have done it by every region: Page 36 bestforbritain.org/publication/...

Tickets selling fast - don't miss out. Launch of the new Line Managers EP @rocknrollbrewhouse - the latest from my record label Jenny's Feather Factory. Sep 3 - five for the gig or a tenner adds a CD. www.skiddle.com/whats-on/Bir...

The best bit about this is how little it resembles the clip from The Office, once they show that to you.

For a little while I thought the whole 'spreadsheet people' thing was a reference to the new Weezer album.

I spent literally four hours working on actual academic writing for once and not checking the internet and you're all talking about "spreadsheet people" now? I feel like I've missed my moment. I also cannot work out *why* you're all talking about spreadsheet people either.

The invisible hand is stuffing its pockets

Sorry to those that keep liking what I just posted only for me to delete the post You're not going mad, I just keep noticing typos in the Substack article screenshots (like 'right' instead of 'write), and it's late and I'm tired - I'll share screenshots and a post tomorrow x

Text of the court judgment which rejected Racist Zero's challenge to a Cambridge college dropping its association with him after his infamous blog post

"Long established institutions are never good at holding themselves to account, the British media is no different" I've a go at speaking about the media's behaviour, this time in a bit more detail - I'll always defend journalism, but only when it's ethical nadinebh.substack.com/p/long-estab...

Long established institutions are never good at holding themselves accountable, the British media is no different I've had a go at talking about how the media behaved in quite a long piece that articulates how I feel about, well, everything that's happened nadinebh.substack.com/p/long-estab...

The U.S.S. Bone Spurs?

I think it’s big mistake for H and M to return; not because I think they should be shunned, or outcast, but because they and their kids will face an unbearable deluge of abuse. It’s shameful, disgusting and abhorrent, how they are hounded. The haters will kill them. www.bbc.com/news/article...

This had me howling. Just looking forward to when they launch their 9/11 bungee attraction.

Quite right @bphillipsonmp.bsky.social, now time for UK government to show leadership and leave X.

Making the drains run on time

This is a fascinating thread on radicalisation, even against oneself

This looks like a fascinating and important book.

Our Netflix algorithm must be having a break down. I'm watching Miss Marple, on my own. We're watching Top Boy together. Teenager is watching Stranger Things. It's basically stopped trying to suggest stuff we might like & just puts up random programme suggestions with an air of hopelessness.

Good to see. Is this happening elsewhere? "One of the changes being introduced by the council is size-based charges for residents' parking permits, reflecting the increasing range in vehicle sizes on its roads." newsroom.bathnes.gov.uk/news/new-par...

"Whether for reasons of his race, his faith, his personality, or his politics, Yusuf seems an increasingly isolated and volatile figure within Reform – attracting criticism from previously friendly right wing papers even more than the left."

"More than one person familiar with Reform’s internal politics has suggested Yusuf is simply difficult to get along with, and not well suited to politics. In business, the boss gets what he wants. In politics, it’s all about bringing people along with you – at least for a while."

Interestingly, Matt Goodwin was also unveiled as Reform candidate for the Gorton and Denton by-election in January 2026.

RocknRoll Politics is live at the Edinburgh Festival tomorrow at 11.55.. brand new show casting light on new Burnham/Swinney era through three by- elections..plus unreliable predictions..Question Time.. and much more: www.thespaceuk.com/shows/2026/s...

"If the construction programme runs to schedule, traffic should disappear from this central stretch of Oxford Street by mid to late October." I'm not a Londoner (anymore) but I'm still overjoyed by this news www.ianvisits.co.uk/articles/oxf...

Two more thugs sentenced for violence against police at Epping "protest" against asylum-seekers www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Yet the UK, which should be filling its universities with these people, is continuing to slam the door in their faces.

This company is owned by a fascist. It's not "illiberal" for liberal democracy to defend itself against fascism: it's basic self-preservation.

Scandalous. Top marks for all cats

Scandalous. To marks for all cats

If anyone has a Time Machine… And is passing through the 12th century… Could you please ask the English & European ruling families to just stop… CALLING EVERYONE HENRY!!!

"I am pleased to be one of a group of concerned Christians who will be praying outside the far-right [Make Britain Christian Again] conference in Morecambe at the weekend" symonhill.substack.com/p/why-we-can...

Who else is being stalked by Big Ben?

Yes, I can also testify to this - which was another thing that surprised me when I joined journalism

Two toots for Labour’s quietly radical planning overhaul www.economist.com/britain/2026...

"There’s not yet any media interest...[in our] six-month investigation, spanning some 20 sources, about the institution the press has been fixated with day after day: Cambridge University... It's about "a white, middle-class, right-wing professor there" - James Orr, Reform's policy chief

It does feel like every one who can do anything about this has just given up on doing anything about how out of control Twitter is I genuinely believe one of the reasons public conversation has become so toxic is because so many in public life continue to stay there www.bbc.co.uk/sport/footba...

One of the social things I didn't understand as an autistic child was hugging As a child I just remember thinking: why do people do this? Particularly girls? I was watching people hug on the playground like I was David Attenborough or something It didn't truly feel natural til university for me

This thermostatic idea that governments experience an increase in the popularity of their opposition as a reaction to their government…

My question at today's Reform press conference

I have made a handy visual guide to illustrate this point.

Yes. You are what you put out into the world. If you were a genuinely nice person you wouldn’t be a bully for money, obviously

One of the things us an industry need to stop doing is perpetuating the 'they say this on social media, but they're a sweetheart in real life' about awful people I've had other journos say this to me about some of the most pernicious grifters over the years, some of who crossed many lines this week

If you want to block Racist Zero on here

I keep meaning to use my Substack blog more, and I’m just curious - wonderful people who follow me to see what pops into my head - what you would like to see me write about? I won’t write about party political stuff for the same reason I’m not a member of any political party - I’m a reporter first

Rainbow!

"The emperor is a fan of Flock, and we must continue utilizing Flock technologies so that we can follow and surveil the rebel scum as they move from playground to playground"

Throwing stones

I have a bad feeling about this

REFORM CABINET? Farage’s Party (and he still effectively owns it) claims to be ready for Government. There are usually around 22 members of the Cabinet (let alone other ministers). Let’s play a game - name 22 Reform members who are credible Cabinet Ministers?

A (supposed) physicist supporting Racist Zero here

Mountain doggy

Throwback to the time I got called a “snowflake” by the Express 😭 This is one of my proudest achievements! I remember meeting an ex-student after me who opted out and had no idea the uni used to plaster exam results without permission on boards outside Senate House www.express.co.uk/news/uk/9574...

Why everybody hates Palantir www.economist.com/britain/2026... from The Economist Shades of Cambridge Analytica in Palantir: a really not-so-remarkable software company that both peddled, and was the target of, some rather overcooked claims

Even if he’s fired from Ghent, there’ll be dozens of other places willing to offer him a position, to advocate his anti-black agenda, especially in the US, where the Trump administration is running a witchhunt against “woke” universities .

Cofnas should have been treated the same way a person trying to use discredited ideas to portray women as naturally inferior to men would have been: a dangerous weirdo that should never be allowed near a university or its students No university serious about truth seeking should have touches him

Strange and worrying. Also - not the main point - how fried is Lembit Öpik’s brain now? I remember when he was a harmless dickhead.

Utterly bizarre, but excellent digging from @monkemma.bsky.social as always

Fwiw, Adonis has never stood for election.

no they didn't. they sat on the sofa scrolling their phones

There is the first proper rain in london for several millenia and there is the most incredible sheen of scum flowing down every surface.

This case has a hearing date - Sep 24th

Israel’s far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, has posted a gloating video of the construction of a gallows complex where Palestinians convicted of terror offences – but not Jewish extremists accused of similar crimes – will be hanged. www.theguardian.com/world/2026/a...

I do wonder what might have been in the U.K. if there was no WW1, or at least no Great War starting before 1916. I think it could have got very ugly. There were a lot of people and groups in radicalisation spirals - the Tories and Ulster Unionists, mainstream Ireland, suffragettes, strikers.

Small boat crossings and European immigration controls on Outer Banks !

Yet another burst water main in North London. Sure am glad Thames Water emailed us tips on saving water during this drought!!

It’s so funny how Mamdani keeps doing popular things in a charming way and his critics have to magic up a version of him to be mad at

🔴 Where Are the Climate Protests? Human Rights Group Warns Government Crackdown Is Silencing the Green Movement Liberty says a slew of new anti-protest measures, including a ban on ‘cumulative disruption’ are silencing calls for government action to prevent catastrophic climate collapse

next government emergency alert should tell people that soft plastics do not go in the recycling bin

of course the person in charge of finding an environmentally-friendly heating system in Pimlico is Councillor Swaddle www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

I am DELIGHTED both that the book is appearing in the world, AND that the first person to get their hands on a copy is a CityMetric alumnus, who is married to a CityMetric alumnus AND the son of a CityMetric alumnus. This makes me very happy indeed.

Someone created a “fake guardian headline” with me as the byline, saying that if you share squirrel memes you’re a white supremacist, and I got 100s of mentions from white supremacists about squirrels. Including AI images of squirrels in Nazi uniforms!

Quite a kooky definition of “illiberal” I think

Honestly I don’t understand why people complain about their posts hitting the “Discover” feed. Every time it unlocks another hilarious interaction.

Aside from the messiness of this, I am very uncomfortable with the idea that two people convicted of the same crime should be treated differently because politicians and the public are really angry about one but don't know or care about the other. Not a good way to do justice policy

On the bird app I once said my perspectives on social inequality came from living in poverty as a child - not reading Marx - and swathes of progressive Twitter were outraged and spent days angrily sub-tweeting me, it was wild I had no idea it was such a sore subject for them, I was flabbergasted

Was the Spitfire relevant to planning reform? No. Was it going in? It undoubtedly was. www.economist.com/britain/2026...

I mean, how would we tell the difference from most current journalism about immigration

Struck by this YouGov poll on a decade of Sadiq Khan's approval rating. It's partly the 'cost of governing' but it's funny to me that the chart of his approval rating is an exact inversion of what the urbanism wonk (myself included) consensus on him would be.

Very good thread this (much better, in my view, that the Substack that prompted it):

"Honeybee Democracy" by Thomas D. Seeley

Got to arrive fresh for the game! www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

One of the main reasons academia has so few black people (more likely to be working class) at the top is the same reason why academia has so few white working class people: money The amount of money, and financial risk, you have to be willing to take to get to PhD or professor level is immense

"which he may have mentioned" am being mocked for trying to sell books by actual sodding bookshops now, smdh

EXC: Equalities minister warns racism and sexism have become normalised in Britain, and calls out opposition politicians for making openly racist statements. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Roses are red, Violets are blue,

It's genuinely wild that there are people, who think of themselves as being right on meritocrats, that the institution that hired *this guy* with this record in 2022 must have been overcome by wokery when they hired Jason Arday a year later.

I guess I need to start reading Will Self again

As its GCSE (O-levels) day this: 1969. I took my O-level exams topless. Got badly sunburnt on Walney beach and couldn’t wear a top. So was allowed. Passed 5. Enough for the job I wanted and got.

Ghent university statement on Racist Zero here in English -

A critical view of the notion of ads in ChatGPT, from Annelieke Mooij and Anuj Puri - eulawanalysis.blogspot.com/2025/12/from...