Harry Stopes
banner
harrystopes.bsky.social
Harry Stopes
@harrystopes.bsky.social
Historian and journalist. Writing a book on the history of prison. Mancunian in Berlin. www.harrystopes.com for work, and www.harrystopes.substack.com for somewhat work-related musings.
Pinned
THREAD. The CCRC has referred the murder convictions of 3 men who were convicted in 2017 of the murder of Abdul Hafidah in Moss Side, Manchester to the Court of Appeal.

(Nathaniel Williams was also convicted of murder in the same case: his application on the same basis is still being considered.)
Murder convictions in Moss Side ‘joint enterprise’ case referred to court of appeal
CCRC says new evidence undermines narrative Durrell Goodall, Reano Walters and Trey Wilson were in a gang
www.theguardian.com
"Jude, the obsessive student of the game who quotes Theodore Roosevelt after a big tournament win."

the quotation in question is beloved by Tom Brady and LeBron James.
England deserve a tide of goodwill, yet somehow Jude Bellingham is still a target | Jonathan Liew
It’s hard to disagree with Ian Wright when he suggests the midfielder has been subjected to a timeworn double standard
www.theguardian.com
November 27, 2025 at 9:04 AM
Reposted by Harry Stopes
Even the best teams aren't perfect.
Madueke starting his post-match interview by thanking the Lord and his Saviour Jesus Christ. Hard to think of an English club, now or before, in which so many players have been driven by their (Christian) faith as this Arsenal team: Noni, Eze, Saka, Gabriel, Martinelli, Ødegaard and others.
November 26, 2025 at 10:14 PM
🤨
I honestly think Arsenal’s second 11 is still a top 10 team in Europe.
November 26, 2025 at 10:13 PM
I just realised that all 5 of the nations that my son would qualify to play international football for have qualified for the next World Cup. Probably the only time that's ever going to happen.
November 26, 2025 at 7:11 PM
Israel has killed an average of almost 2 children every day in the Gaza Strip since the 'ceasefire' began, per UNICEF
United Nations Geneva on Instagram: ""Yesterday morning, a baby girl was reportedly killed in Khan Younis by an airstrike, while the day before, seven children were killed in #Gaza City and the south....
14K likes, 722 comments - ungeneva on November 21, 2025: ""Yesterday morning, a baby girl was reportedly killed in Khan Younis by an airstrike, while the day before, seven children were killed in #Gaz...
www.instagram.com
November 23, 2025 at 11:37 AM
The Home Office seems to believe that asylum seekers bring their children with them to the UK do so only in order to "exploit" them as a means to avoid being removed.

Apparently in the eyes of Mahmood et al, asylum seekers are not simply people who love their kids and want them to be safe.
November 21, 2025 at 1:58 PM
‘“Do we think that someone who has stolen a bottle of whisky from a minimart should receive the right to trial by jury?” she said.’

Just one problem with the Minister’s statement: how would you know that they did in fact steal the bottle of whisky until they have been tried?
Another government of former human rights lawyers who forget that Judge Dredd was a satire, not a role model. Reminds me of the jury I was on where the forewoman said the defendant must be guilty because he ‘didn’t look sorry’.

www.theguardian.com/law/2025/nov...
MoJ to remove right to trial by jury for thousands of cases in controversial overhaul
Exclusive: Courts minister says change needed to stop criminals opting for juries to delay cases, sometimes by years, and clear huge backlog
www.theguardian.com
November 20, 2025 at 11:40 AM
Reposted by Harry Stopes
THREAD. The CCRC has referred the murder convictions of 3 men who were convicted in 2017 of the murder of Abdul Hafidah in Moss Side, Manchester to the Court of Appeal.

(Nathaniel Williams was also convicted of murder in the same case: his application on the same basis is still being considered.)
Murder convictions in Moss Side ‘joint enterprise’ case referred to court of appeal
CCRC says new evidence undermines narrative Durrell Goodall, Reano Walters and Trey Wilson were in a gang
www.theguardian.com
November 19, 2025 at 11:31 PM
THREAD. The CCRC has referred the murder convictions of 3 men who were convicted in 2017 of the murder of Abdul Hafidah in Moss Side, Manchester to the Court of Appeal.

(Nathaniel Williams was also convicted of murder in the same case: his application on the same basis is still being considered.)
Murder convictions in Moss Side ‘joint enterprise’ case referred to court of appeal
CCRC says new evidence undermines narrative Durrell Goodall, Reano Walters and Trey Wilson were in a gang
www.theguardian.com
November 19, 2025 at 11:31 PM
Exactly what this means for the present-day Nigel Farage is maybe a bit complicated, but there can be no doubt IMO that the teenager was an out-and-out fascist and racist. Wish this level of scrutiny had been applied to him 25 years ago.
‘Deeply shocking’: Nigel Farage faces fresh claims of racism and antisemitism at school
Bafta-winning director among contemporaries urging contrition and apology from Reform UK leader, who denies the allegations
www.theguardian.com
November 19, 2025 at 10:54 AM
Reposted by Harry Stopes
maybe if he takes more consultant advice to move to the right on immigration he can turn those numbers around
November 16, 2025 at 2:02 PM
Reposted by Harry Stopes
Berlin’s CDU, which has refused calls to examine banning the partly openly neo-Nazi AfD, is now demanding that security services review Die Linke for “anti-Israel” positions
November 16, 2025 at 1:36 PM
Reposted by Harry Stopes
The UK already prohibits MARRIED BRITISH CITIZENS from automatic family reunification, including my own, which is why my wife and I have to live in a third country together. Mahmood wants to further erode the Right to Family Life assured by the ECHR. This is an evil anti-family and anti-human policy
November 16, 2025 at 10:03 AM
Reposted by Harry Stopes
I for one am quite glad my family was not told to go back to Bialystok or Kyiv when they were "safe" in 1922.
November 15, 2025 at 8:54 AM
Reposted by Harry Stopes
Behind the weasel words and prevaricating euphemisms, Britain's politics of immigration are rooted in an antipathy to the presence of negatively racialised people in this country *on any terms*. If we'd confronted that reality decades ago, and faced it down, we wouldn't be where we are now.
the video goes on and on about illegal immigration and yet the new proposal will target legal migration by confirmed refugees
November 15, 2025 at 11:11 AM
Reposted by Harry Stopes
To explain briefly: at the moment people successful in their asylum claims get permission to stay in the UK for 5 years, then have to apply for permanent residency. At that point a review of their status is done, but it’s rare not to succeed at that point unless they‘ve committed an offence 1/
To reiterate, this is about making life immeasurably more miserable and stressful for some of the most vulnerable people, in the almost certainly vain hope of winning over the votes of racists.

Anything more shabby and shameful is difficult to envisage.
Asylum in UK to be made temporary under Home Secretary’s plans
Shabana Mahmood will lay out reforms modelled on the Danish system on Monday.
www.independent.co.uk
November 15, 2025 at 9:36 AM
someone please reassure me the writer is doing this as a bit
what the actual fuck
November 14, 2025 at 5:53 PM
"One should take this will seriously."

Translation: the former vice president of the Bundestag, (from the 'liberal' FDP), is insinuating that, if at all possible, hanging a banner in support of Palestine on the Brandenburg Gate should be a deportable offence.
November 14, 2025 at 9:34 AM
Esther Perel with a surprise intervention into the Lampard-Gerrard debate
November 13, 2025 at 12:48 PM
very strange for an article published in 2025 to describe Friedrichstraße as "the main shopping street in EAST Berlin"
‘The car belongs in Berlin’: city backpedaling on bike-friendly policies, critics say
Car-critical measures have been slashed since the conservative CDU came into power in 2023, triggering protests and dividing communities
www.theguardian.com
November 13, 2025 at 12:29 PM
Reposted by Harry Stopes
Ich frage mich, welche/r nordamerikanische/r Denker:in derzeit in Deutschland eine Rede halten könnte, ohne einen kollektiven Nervenzusammenbruch zu provozieren. Mir fallen nur Donald Rumsfeld und Ayaan Hirsi Ali ein.
"In Schockstarre" jfc
November 11, 2025 at 7:15 AM
Genuinely confused as to what this article is supposed to demonstrate in contrast with e.g. coverage in the FR. (And ironic in this context that Steinke again brings up his claim that there is no censorship in Germany on the topic of Israel)
November 12, 2025 at 9:42 AM
Reposted by Harry Stopes
The demise of the BBC is also a loss for civil society beyond Britain. The BBC of old had a huge influence across Europe where public broadcasters would buy and air these programs or be inspired to make them themselves (sadly, Brits rarely if ever bought European programs in turn).
A generation or two ago the BBC would have produced a detailed multi-episode history of Syria's civil war in the style of Alan Little and Laura Silber's Death of Yugoslavia.

Now a BBC that is uninterested in detail and deeply risk averse and seems barely interested in that crucial information space
November 11, 2025 at 8:26 AM
Reposted by Harry Stopes
Gary Lineker: "This is the mistake the BBC makes. The BBC tries to appease the people that hate the BBC, rather than worrying about the people that love the BBC."
April 22, 2025 at 7:35 AM
German journalists always seem to show them themselves up when they write about foreign countries. The plonker responsible for this article (and presumably their editors) thinks that Cornell University is in New York. It’s fine not to already know that obviously, but maybe do your research next time
November 8, 2025 at 3:13 PM