Ben Williams
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bpwilliams72.bsky.social
Ben Williams
@bpwilliams72.bsky.social
700 followers 960 following 540 posts
Liberal sort. Rambler. Singer. Gamer. Occasional writer. Recovering politico. Former lots of things (inc. Lib Dem Leader's Chief of Staff, Cabinet Office SpAd, Head of Whips' Office). Yorkshire via Essex. Posting in a strictly personal capacity.
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Reposted by Ben Williams
10th boat blown up in the Caribbean.

6 people dead this time.

Not a single arrest made.

Not an ounce recovered.

Not a shred of evidence provided.
Reposted by Ben Williams
I wonder how often prisoners get accidently discharged when they should be being moved?

Is this only being reported because of the significance of the criminal?

Or is it incredibly unfortunate a very rare thing has happened with this person?
Reposted by Ben Williams
GOP: burning a flag disrespects the people who fought and died for that symbol

Also GOP: hahaha the White House is ours and we'll bulldoze it if we like, just be glad we left you the other half for now
Reposted by Ben Williams
Lessons of Caerphilly by-election IMV:

1) UK has become a country with bloc politics
2) enough voters don't want Reform that they are very vulnerable to being on the wrong side of it
3) but Labour, an essential component of that anti-Reform bloc being able to win, are too unattractive at present.
Labour’s Caerphilly humiliation is a bad omen
Result shows how Reform’s polarising nature may also be its weakness
www.ft.com
Reposted by Ben Williams
my lukewarm take is that normal people don't like the east wing being demolished and at some point they're gonna see a list of all the corporate donors for the ballroom and blame them for it
Reposted by Ben Williams
If a temporary resident of the White House can totally demolish the East Wing to build a gaudy ballroom, without any authority, approval, or regulation, he can tear down the rest of the White House to build a Walmart. That this destruction is allowed underscores how off the rails our country is now.
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Noteable that Bannon recognizes that a Trump 3rd term is completely unconstitutional and yet pushes for it anyway - not via loopholes but by ignoring the Constitution altogether

We are watching in real time as the Overton window shifts to a world in which the Constitution simply does not matter
“He’s gonna get a third term, Trump ‘28, Trump is gonna be president ‘28 so people just ought to get accommodated with that," Steve Bannon said.
Steve Bannon Reveals ‘There’s a Plan’ for Third Trump Term
Bannon divulged that there are “many different alternatives” for securing a third term for Trump.
trib.al
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I am genuinely fascinated by the China story, just witnessing in real time a political party convince itself that it had a completely different (and insane) foreign policy to the one it had.
I yield to no one when it comes to lack of interest in this story. But if means what it is said to mean, then that would be objectively very funny.
Wooooah!

So the China spy case witness statement initially described China as the 'enemy'.

But that word was removed before submition, because it was NOT government policy at the time.

The government when this happened were the Tories.

So arguably the Tories are the reason the case collapsed!
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Reposted by Ben Williams
Labour will win the next election if at any point between now and August 2029, there is a *whole week* when the topic of the day isn't either a) a scandal or b) an argument about the next election.
('Progressive' in quotes as it can be a useful shorthand for anti-Reform but there is clearly absolutely no agreemetn across parties/activists you might usually put in that grouping - Labour, the Greens, the Lib Dems, Plaid, SNP - as to what the right political/policy solutions are for the UK.)
Anti-Reform campaigners somehow need to navigate a prevailing voter desire to get rid of Labour, despite needing them in large parts of the country in order to stop Reform. It's a really, really difficult challenge when so much of what Labour is doing is antithetical to the same campaigners.
For me, the essential problem is that a significant part of the 'progressive' tactical electoral solution (insofar as there could be one) is that the largest element of it (Labour) is the focus of anger for both voters and 'progressive' political activists either outside or alienated from Labour.
If the objective (rightly) is stop Reform, part of the problem is ensuring Labour, which has more electoral capacity than either the Greens or Lib Dems, is part of the 'progressive' solution, when the reason the Greens and Lib Dems are doing well is precisely because Labour is alienating people.
The Greens can poll well nationally, as can the Lib Dems, but that doesn't translate to seats as we saw with Reform - until you reach a tipping point level driven by resonant narratives and matched by campaigning capacity/capability. Reform UK have the former and are quickly developing the latter.
The challenge in a UK-wide GE is that the dynamic of replacing Labour will remain across the UK, but with 'progressive' opportunities (for non-Labour parties) limited to the geographies where support for the Lib Dems and the Greens is strong enough to win a seat under FPTP.
I am not very encouraged. It doesn't feel like it was a positive vote for a 'progressive' alternative to Reform. It was a vote for the party best placed to beat Labour, helped by a significant dislike/disdain of Reform (particularly for being England-centric, lack of Welsh policies/identity etc).
Reposted by Ben Williams
Reposted by Ben Williams
Reporter: The president had initially said that this project wouldn't interfere with or touch the current structure.

Leavitt: If you look at the renderings, it's very clear the east wing was going to be modernized.

Reporter: But modernizing and tearing down are two different things.
Reposted by Ben Williams
"Destruction of federal property is a federal crime-18 U.S. Code § 1361 defines it as willfully injuring or committing any depredation of U.S. gov't property-Damage exceeding $1k is a felony w/ a fine-up to 10 yrs in prison or both"

Meanwhile-took me forever to get permits to repaint my mailbox.
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Glastonbury - Somerset Council

Lib Dem Hold!

🔶 Ewan Cameron Liberal Democrat 882 36.4%
➡️ Reform UK 523 21.6%
🔵 Conservative 506 20.9%
🟢 Green Party 480 19.8%
🔴 Labour 35 1.4%

Congratulations to Ewan and the Team on a great result!
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Dunster - Somerset Council

Liberal Democrat Gain from Conservative!

🔶 Cara Strom Liberal Democrat 1142 49.6%
➡️ Reform UK 666 28.9%
🔵 Conservative 449 19.5%
🔴 Labour 44 1.9%

Congratulations to Cara and the Lib Dem Team!!
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Milton & Tamarside - Torridge DC

Liberal Democrat Gain from Independent!

🔶Nigel Kenneally Liberal Democrat 37.5%
➡️ Reform UK 31.1%
🔵 Conservative 16.7%
🟢 Green Party 5.9%

Congratulations to Nigel and the team on a great result!
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Holy shit! That motherfucker TORE DOWN THE WHITE HOUSE!
Reposted by Ben Williams
NEWS: Journalist Michael Wolff has filed a lawsuit against Melania Trump in New York seeking a declaratory judgment and damages for defamation.

Wolff is striking back after Melania allegedly threatened to sue him for $1 billion over comments he made about the Trumps and Jeffrey Epstein.