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Kev Shaw @kevshaw99.bsky.social · 11h

Exactly this.

JWexTheSpa @jwsidders.bsky.social · 17h

"One reason the successive Tory administrations from 2016 to 2024 achieved so little beyond damage control is that they traded middle-aged voters who needed little from the state for older voters who require rather more"
So much good stuff by @stephenkb.bsky.social in his FT column today.

How Brexit drained the Tories’ talent pool

The party can’t keep expecting successful people to pretend that leaving the EU was a good idea

www.ft.com

Kev Shaw @kevshaw99.bsky.social · 11h

So if your paying for printers, ink, paper, and physical storage space for paperwork you've printed off, all to protect against you getting hacked and your cloud storage being accessed - why bother paying for cloud storage?

OCR scanners are now cheap and really good!

Ewamore, Quoth the Raven @ewacat.bsky.social · 15h

love that this "resilience engineering" is basically: write things on paper www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Have plans on paper in case of cyber-attack, firms told

Prepare to switch to offline systems in the event of a cyber-attack, firms are being advised.

www.bbc.co.uk

Kev Shaw @kevshaw99.bsky.social · 11h

Maybe Hamas have some responsibility here too.

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Kev Shaw @kevshaw99.bsky.social · 11h

Exactly - especially when polls indicate nearly 50% support parties implacably opposed to any rapprochement with the EU.

There's simply no way the EU would spend any time on a "join" application from us with country so split.

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Kev Shaw @kevshaw99.bsky.social · 11h

Spot on.

Ed Wilson @eddwilson.bsky.social · 14h

The Tories told us around 2018 that the Brexit they were heading for would cost us 4% of the economy. The OBR agreed, and hasn't changed its position.

We know that a majority now think Brexit was a bad mistake. What we need is some honesty about the complexity of rejoining.

#politicslve

Reposted by Kev Shaw

Kelly @broadwaybabyto.bsky.social · 20h

The 15 year old girl who was dragged from her car by ICE had recently had kidney surgery.

She was thrown to the ground despite screaming “I’m not resisting”

She had to return to the hospital.

These aggressive tactics will disable. They will kill.

They must be held accountable.

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Kev Shaw @kevshaw99.bsky.social · 15h

That may well be - but the points they make are correct - basically they're the same points the IFS has been making.

Council tax is regressive, and should replaced by a property value tax.

Would this be unpopular in London and the South East (and in Bristol, Manchester, etc.)? Yes.

Reposted by Kev Shaw

Reform Party UK Exposed @reformexposed.bsky.social · 19h

Go on then Nigel Farage, keep telling us you know nothing about Russian influence…

The Farage staffer, the Russian embassy and a smear campaign against a Kremlin critic

www.theguardian.com/politics/201...

The Farage staffer, the Russian embassy and a smear campaign against a Kremlin critic

Worker for Farage’s group in EU parliament was ‘frequent visitor to embassy’ and accused of role in propaganda stunt

www.theguardian.com

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Ed Wilson @eddwilson.bsky.social · 1d

"During the first 10 years of the spending cuts that began in 2010, councils’ funding for youth services in England and Wales suffered a real-terms cut of 70%. By 2023, about 1,200 publicly run youth centres had closed, and more than 4,500 youth workers had lost their jobs."

#r4today

Britain's youth clubs have been quietly decimated. What's most revealing is that few seem to care | John Harris

These vital spaces have been the first targets of cuts in a nation that favours age over youth – despite being the remedy for blights such as social division, polarisation and loneliness, says Guardia...

www.theguardian.com

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Reposted by Kev Shaw

JWexTheSpa @jwsidders.bsky.social · 1d

A ban on borrowing to fund government expenditure surely means huge cuts to all public services on a scale never seen before. The NHS could not survive this. Neither could the Triple Lock.

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Kev Shaw @kevshaw99.bsky.social · 1d

Yup.

The amount saved by cutting education for those in prison will be tiny in comparison with the amount of money to cover the policing/court/prison costs of having more people re-offend.

I just don't understand why this isn't obvious to politicians, advisors and civil servants.

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Kev Shaw @kevshaw99.bsky.social · 1d

Let's hope the racists, religious loons and fascists in both Hamas and the Israeli government will stop trying to kill everyone on the other side.

Sadly, I don't think it will last.

I hope beyond hope that I'm wrong.

Kev Shaw @kevshaw99.bsky.social · 2d

👏👏👏👏

Lewis Baston @lewisbaston.bsky.social · 2d

It’s infuriating that so mediocre and crude a power as Russia is running rings round European democracies and that they have so many willing collaborators.

Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 2d

New post just out:

The relationship between Russia and the European radical right goes well beyond Reform's Nathan Gill being bribed.

In this post I trace the history back to the 1990s and look at the threat it poses now.

(£/free trial)

open.substack.com/pub/samf/p/r...

Reposted by Kev Shaw

Dave Levitan @davelevitan.bsky.social · 3d

“We can give $20 billion to Argentina but we can’t afford the CDC’s measles experts” is a hell of an argument

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JWexTheSpa @jwsidders.bsky.social · 2d

Reservoirs are now fuller in Spain than they are in South West England. And South West England is probably in a better position that much of the rest of the country. Across England, there is no meaningful rainfall in sight.

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Reposted by Kev Shaw

Ed Wilson @eddwilson.bsky.social · 2d

Ceasefire withdrawal

#bbclaurak

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Reposted by Kev Shaw

Dave Vetter @davidrvetter.bsky.social · 2d

Every day is a good day to point out that 92% of Reform's donations were found to come from figures and groups linked to the fossil fuel industry. @desmog.com

Nigel Farage’s Reform Party Has Accepted £2.3 Million from Fossil Fuel Interests, Climate Deniers, and Polluters Since 2019 Election

Reform UK has received more than £2.3 million from oil and gas interests, highly polluting industries, and climate science deniers since December 2019, amounting to 92 percent of the party’s donations...

www.desmog.com

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Reposted by Kev Shaw

Paul Marshall @pmarsha11.bsky.social · 3d

"I have worked with Nathan Gill over a period of years and he's been terrific, he's never, ever, let me down. He's as honest as the day is long."
Nigel Farage
BBC News 2016

Welsh election: UKIP's Farage backs 'terrific' Gill

UKIP leader Nigel Farage backs the party's Welsh leader Nathan Gill as

www.bbc.co.uk

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Reposted by Kev Shaw

Ed Wilson @eddwilson.bsky.social · 2d

Israeli deputy foreign minister Sharren Haskel on BBC World Service says Israel has accepted "Trump's 20 point plan" but Hamas has not.

She's dodging all questions about tomorrow's conference and falling back on the old scripts. It's Israel against the world.

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Reposted by Kev Shaw

Josiah Mortimer @josiah.writes.news · 4d

Politico: "Boris Johnson breached anti-sleaze rules (again) after failing to come clean about work he is said to have done for two firms without consulting regulators...Johnson sought to link firms up with foreign government representatives & entered into contracts without consulting the watchdog."

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Kev Shaw @kevshaw99.bsky.social · 4d

👏👏👏👏

Twlldun @twlldun.bsky.social · 4d

The speed and booze addicted dressed in black playing raw live shows in prisons with a voice like god almighty himself guy is “deeply uncool”? What

The Wall Street Journal @wsj.com · 5d

Compared to Dylan and Springsteen, country-music legend Johnny Cash can seem deeply uncool. It took time for me to appreciate his profound, plainspoken strength, writes Jon Fasman.

Kev Shaw @kevshaw99.bsky.social · 4d

More Brexit benefits.

European Movement UK @europeanmovement.co.uk · 4d

From Sunday, travelling into Europe gets tougher for Brits.

New EU border rules mean fingerprint scans, photo registration and longer queues.

This is the real-world cost of Brexit - more hassle, more red tape, more delays.

Kev Shaw @kevshaw99.bsky.social · 4d

Exactly.

But a decade of relentless lies, unchallenged by most of the mass audience media, will change that I'm sure.

mimij9.bsky.social @mimij9.bsky.social · 4d

Numerous polls have been conducted on withdrawing or not from the ECHR.

The more recent polls have given a clear majority (over 50%) staying in the ECHR.

The evidence is clear, withdrawal commands neither majority support nor political urgency.

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Kev Shaw @kevshaw99.bsky.social · 4d

Maybe 9 months ago a you might have said it's just because Reform are new and interesting.

That's no longer possible.

It's so obvious, so out of keeping with majority opinion (outside of X and the Telegraph/Mail), that it's obviously deliberate bias.

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Kev Shaw @kevshaw99.bsky.social · 4d

It's also a clear indicator the basic editorial values now in place at the BBC, and not a good one.

It's why we see the constant non-critical lionising of Farage from the BBC politics editor (Mason), reflected on the key political/news broadcasts and content online.

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