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Lewis Baston

@lewisbaston.bsky.social

20K followers 1.8K following 3.7K posts

Author of ‘Borderlines’ (Hodder, 2024). Psephologist, cat ‘owner’, traveller, flâneur. https://www.hodder.co.uk/titles/lewis-baston/borderlines/9781399723763/

www.hodder.co.uk

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Lewis Baston @lewisbaston.bsky.social · 22d

Delighted to announce that Borderlines is one of @waterstones.bsky.social paperbacks of the year!

Image of the cover of Borderlines, with a photograph of an abandoned customs post in the mist, on a gold background. The text to the right reads Waterstones Paperbacks of the Year.

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Lewis Baston @lewisbaston.bsky.social · 8h

Churchwell book on Monroe is here (and other places) btw. It’s very good. www.amazon.co.uk/Lives-Marily...

Many Lives of Marilyn Monroe: Amazon.co.uk: Churchwell, Sarah: 9781862077546: Books

Buy Many Lives of Marilyn Monroe by Churchwell, Sarah (ISBN: 9781862077546) from Amazon's Book Store. Everyday low prices and free delivery on eligible orders.

www.amazon.co.uk

Lewis Baston @lewisbaston.bsky.social · 8h

This is so grisly. It makes me think of @sarahchurchwell.bsky.social book about Marilyn Monroe and biographers, another way for her image to be exploited and degraded. And that’s leaving aside ‘copyright growing pains’, a mealy-mouthed euphemism for deliberate theft.

Scientific American @sciam.bsky.social · 1d

Despite early, and familiar, copyright growing pains, Sora may be the prelude to AI-generated on-demand TV and movies

Want to See Marilyn Monroe in Game of Thrones? AI Could Make It Soon

Despite early, and familiar, copyright growing pains, Sora may be the prelude to AI-generated on-demand TV and movies

www.scientificamerican.com

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Lewis Baston @lewisbaston.bsky.social · 9h

I had a look as I don’t want to spread misinformation - it’s mentioned in Searchlight who are reliable searchlightmagazine.com/2025/10/ukip... - quite possible as UKIP is so fringe that they haven’t updated their site.

UKIP's annual conference attracts record breaking numbers - EIGHT! | Searchlight

Before last weekend's UKIP conference began, Chairman Ben 'Rogue Builder' Walker issued strict instructions, especially to the chap filming p ...

searchlightmagazine.com

Lewis Baston @lewisbaston.bsky.social · 17h

This is just over 66p per defendant! Lower than legal aid rates. A bargain; it’s an excellent read. I won’t spoiler it but the last bit is extremely sinister and you probably won’t have guessed how. The book as a whole left me thinking about truth, and how it is rationed in the courtroom.

The Secret Barrister @barristersecret.bsky.social · 20h

What’s that, you say?

You enjoy critically acclaimed gritty, authentic crime and legal thrillers?

You enjoy reading such thrillers on an electronic medium, such as e-book?

You enjoy ridonculous bargains?

#TheCutThroatTrial is a crazy £1.99 today.

Go nuts.

www.amazon.co.uk/Cut-Throat-T...

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Lewis Baston @lewisbaston.bsky.social · 18h

Unzoomed #635 3/6 🟡🟡🟢⚪️⚪️⚪️
unzoomed.com looked at a map on this one.

Unzoomed

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Lewis Baston @lewisbaston.bsky.social · 19h

Very best wishes for this week’s post. And the other thing, of course…

Lewis Baston @lewisbaston.bsky.social · 1d

He’ll be writing a book with Matt Goodwin next.

Ed Jennings @edjennings.bsky.social · 1d

Another one falls in Kent.

Reform has suspended county councillor Robert Ford after a complaint was made about him by 'several female members of staff.'

The party said that Cllr Ford refused to engage with the complaints process, so he has had the whip removed pending a disciplinary process.

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Lewis Baston @lewisbaston.bsky.social · 1d

It certainly does. It’s a rune rather than a logo.

Roland Smith @rolandmcs.bsky.social · 1d

UKIP's new logo looks a bit Far Righty.

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Lewis Baston @lewisbaston.bsky.social · 1d

There is. And a jogger went past, going round and round I assume, just after I took the picture.

Lewis Baston @lewisbaston.bsky.social · 1d

Seen as I wander through Putney. I do hope bin day is Wednesday here.

An evening view of an office block called Parklife Studios.

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Lewis Baston @lewisbaston.bsky.social · 1d

It’s either my fault or the ONS’s fault but a spreadsheet I was working on had mismatched data for Scottish Westminster constituencies. So I’ve wasted time and scarce energy and I’ll have to work out how to undo it or whether that’s even possible. Not feeling clever or capable.

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Reposted by Lewis Baston

Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 4d

Jenrick is absurdly incoherent on principles of free expression because he wants immediate arrests for "Allahu Akbar" (God is Great) while turning up to court to defend shouting "Fuck Islam" while burning a Quran

www.theguardian.com/politics/art...

Robert Jenrick criticised for saying people shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’ should be arrested

Tory leadership candidate’s comments around far-right protests described as nasty, divisive and ignorant

www.theguardian.com

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Lewis Baston @lewisbaston.bsky.social · 1d

Just having fun with the headline - @gabrielmilland.bsky.social is making a serious point about stuff being put on the curriculum as a cheap but incoherent way for governments to look as if they’re doing something.

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Lewis Baston @lewisbaston.bsky.social · 1d

Title for the final volume of George Melly’s memoirs just dropped.

Gabriel Milland @gabrielmilland.bsky.social · 1d

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Lewis Baston @lewisbaston.bsky.social · 1d

Unzoomed #634 3/6 🔴🔴🟢⚪️⚪️⚪️
unzoomed.com

Unzoomed

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Lewis Baston @lewisbaston.bsky.social · 1d

Two settings occur to me: one early-career in Edwardian Merseyside, which I think is a great setting. The other would be early 1920s and also feature Michael Collins.

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Lewis Baston @lewisbaston.bsky.social · 1d

I really hope you’re being serious about that project.

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Lewis Baston @lewisbaston.bsky.social · 1d

The crow filming was as I recall fine; I guess a more extended horror version of the story would have involved more crows and more opportunities for stuff to go wrong.

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Lewis Baston @lewisbaston.bsky.social · 1d

No, I think that’s fair (I found Elizabeth Sandifer’s take entertaining but unconvincing). It took a while before I realised that Martha was right: if she and De Vries had fled to Plymouth they would have been fine.

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Lewis Baston @lewisbaston.bsky.social · 1d

Also - it does make me wonder whether the current regulatory regime is adequate in that we have a foreign-funded organisation that is not donating directly but supplying assistance to a party. I’ve always thought think tanks were a massive loophole in the regulatory system.

Steven Fielding @polprofsteve2024.bsky.social · 1d

As this detailed report shows Reform is a Trojan Horse for the US Christian right to secretly reshape British politics along Trumpian lines. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/13/w...

They Helped Topple Roe v. Wade. Now Their Sights Are Set on Britain.

www.nytimes.com

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Lewis Baston @lewisbaston.bsky.social · 1d

Thanks. I also wonder whether there are lessons in how Golden Dawn was tackled legally and politically, or whether that was an outlier experience arising from the strong Nazi and criminal nature of the party and the depth of the crisis.

Lewis Baston @lewisbaston.bsky.social · 1d

Not a Greece expert but New Democracy has recovered well from its post-crash lows while being firmly centre-right.

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Lewis Baston @lewisbaston.bsky.social · 2d

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

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Lewis Baston @lewisbaston.bsky.social · 2d

A fantastic literary agent decided to sign me and I got a book contract with amazingly little fuss. I’ve also met lots of friends and chatted with experts and leaders.

Conrad Hackett @conradhackett.bsky.social · 6d

Has anything great happened in your life because of social media?

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Lewis Baston @lewisbaston.bsky.social · 2d

Unzoomed #633 1/6 🟢⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️⚪️
unzoomed.com pleased with that!

Unzoomed

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