Top recent posts by Global News and Politics Professionals on Bluesky

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

Racist Zero under investigation by his current employer www.thenational.scot/news/2648073...

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

Remember, if you're worrying about getting your GCSE results today, then don't stress: the fact you're on Bluesky strobgly suggests that you're actually 45 and having some kind of a psychic breakdown!

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

Starmer's historic reputation, I think, will end up being a fascinating answer to 'how would Churchill be assessed if he had *only* been prime minister from 1951 to 1955, when he mostly couldn't really do the job anymore'

Underneath this is the fundamental truth of why homelessness is maintained in our society: as a rock bottom that we can all be threatened with. Stay in line or you’ll be punished for it.

However many times you hammer home a message, it's not enough: voters can be pretty spectacularly wrong even about the very air they breathe...

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

"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

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.

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

What an extraordinary thing to say about a man found liable for sexual assault - never mind comments like "quiet, piggy", "grab them by...", "blood coming out of..." etc

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

🔴 NEW 🔴 Christopher Harborne, Reform’s biggest donor, and Trump’s commerce secretary Howard Lutnick share a financial interest in the crypto giant Tether. Meanwhile, Lutnick has been accused of shaping laws that have benefitted the firm 👇🏻

These are two superb analogies, which I will definitely be borrowing/stealing to use in the future.

One of the most basic failures of that stupid documentary about ADHD is that being a 'psychiatrist' does not automatically mean you're qualified to talk authoritatively about ADHD - or any other form of neurodiversity That's neuropsychiatry - a linked but separate field, C4 should know this

🔴 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

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

"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...

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...

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

Making the drains run on time

Who else is being stalked by Big Ben?

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

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

Throwing stones

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...

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.

Some replies are suggesting that the EU would behave differently in the case of a UK breach from how it has previously behaved. Such suggestions were also made throughout the Brexit talks and post-Brexit disputes, but repeatedly proved wrong in practice.

I have finally got my hands on a paperback copy of Breaking — out next week — Bród is delighted to help me show it to you.

Listening to several William Orbit remixes reminds me how much I loved the 90s remix economy. It may have been driven by marketing but it inspired so much creativity. Underworld’s Rick Smith says he used them to experiment and learn while getting paid. They also made music feel more collegiate

Ghent university statement on Racist Zero here in English -

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

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."

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

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...

"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...

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 U.S.S. Bone Spurs?

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

And yet when I do this with puppies it's "barbaric" and "awful", and it's all "for God's sake, why are you like this, James, it's exhausting".

If you want to block Racist Zero on here

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

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

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 .

I have a bad feeling about this

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).

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.

Quite a kooky definition of “illiberal” I think

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

The UK's exploding debt burden...

Farage's logic here is essentially: not housing rough sleepers is worth it, because it serves as a deterrent to migrants - regardless of if the policy would benefit British people This is a logic entirely consistent with the politics Farage has been pushing for years, I'm not at all surprised

New book is out in just ONE WEEK, ama

Really good piece on the nostalgic thinking which pervades contemporary British politics

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

A (supposed) physicist supporting Racist Zero here

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."

The invisible hand is stuffing its pockets

The idea of having a legal limit on the number of articles that can be published in a given timeframe is unworkable. Are we expecting publications to cooperate on a quota system? And who do you make exemptions for? You can’t legislate ethical behaviour into the media.

Mountain doggy

As someone not in academia I found this thread very interesting

today's update (via Google translate) "Ghent University formally notified the employee concerned on August 20, 2026, of the commencement of a preliminary disciplinary investigation." 1/

I swapped sides entirely in this argument when I got to the words "feng shui".

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

all sounding very normal

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

I did an interview with The National’s Media Watch podcast about all kinds of issues (and my book). Please enjoy how horribly pale I am… youtu.be/gZKSUa2vvUY?...

This is a fascinating thread on radicalisation, even against oneself

"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...

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

I am very torn on this. There are undoubtedly instances of unequal/coercive relationships where the more vulnerable partner would benefit from extra rights. But cohabiting without getting married is a valid choice. Trying to turn it into a stealth marriage is weird www.thetimes.com/money/family...

Pretty eye-popping exclusive from @theleaduk.bsky.social yesterday... Andy Burnham's home address was publicly available on the internet for years. We've alerted No.10 and had it taken down... You're welcome, Andy! open.substack.com/pub/theleadu...

This case has a hearing date - Sep 24th

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.

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.

Never let it be said Bluesky is an echo chamber

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

I guess I need to start reading Will Self again

"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."

My question at today's Reform press conference

"Throughout this book, which slips down like a cool drink on a warm day, Elledge is the most genial of companions, his tone conversational and confiding." Absolutely LOVELY review here for @theartsdesk.bsky.social courtesy of @bernardhughes.bsky.social. I feel very seen

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

fun thing about this bit is I'm just gonna be able to repost it every second day for the rest of time and everyone will assume it was about something else entirely.

Just looking across our polling since Burnham became PM and young people are really interesting. Labour have pulled into a comfortable lead with 18-24 men, but despite the Greens dropping back overall they still have a more than 20pt lead with 18-24 women.

📢 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/...

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

Had a quick look on my old Facebook to see what I posted on my GCSE results day, and all I cared about was my war with GCSE Chemistry

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!!!

Scandalous. Top marks for all cats

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.

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

I keep thinking about how messed up it is that sections of the media, one of the most socially exclusive professions, are so obsessed with portraying schemes designed to get the socio-economically disadvantaged (including white working class) into those spaces as public enemy #1 It's so dystopian

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.

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

This is a question asked before here but I can’t find the relevant threads: recommendations for good, family-friendly brasserie-type places near Gare du Nord for a leisurely lunch awaiting a Eurostar?

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.

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