Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

JWexTheSpa @jwsidders.bsky.social · 8h

The knowledge and nuance in Luke Kelly’s voice are deeply beautiful. He makes On Raglan Road a four minute, two hour film. That is genius.

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JWexTheSpa @jwsidders.bsky.social · 8h

The Junts deal was the killer. The one time he’s really messed up, IMO.

JWexTheSpa @jwsidders.bsky.social · 9h

Water management here is non-existent. So much is wasted. So little is stored. We are incredibly vulnerable. It's a huge worry - or would be if we were not so ridiculously complacent.

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JWexTheSpa @jwsidders.bsky.social · 9h

Another Spanish poll showing PSOE getting within touching distance of PP. However, the far-right Vox is looking ever-stronger. Worrying.

EM-electomania.es @electomania.es · 20h

#España 🇪🇸 - encuesta GESOP (12 oct): subidón de Vox 🥦, el PSOE 🌹 a 1p del PP 💧

💧 PP: 29% (117-121)
🌹 PSOE: 27,8% (112-117)
🥦 Vox: 18,4% (68-72)
🌷 Sumar: 8% (14-16)
🪻 Podemos: 3,7% (3-4)
🍋 ERC: 2% (8-10)
🍇 Junts: 1% (4-5)

🎯 PollCheck: 5,5

👇
electomania.es/encuesta-ges...

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Hyperlexic @hyperlexic.bsky.social · 10h

They’re deliberately trying to figure out how to give Trump wins without setting precedents that future Democrats can use.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 11h

Amy Coney Barrett defends heavy use of the shadow docket: "If we wrote a long opinion, it might give the impression that we have finally resolved the issue, and in none of these cases have we finally resolved the issue."

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David Beech @davidbeech.bsky.social · 10h

Your average voter thinks most MPs are lining their own pockets - better line of attack on money is how he earns it. Going over to the US and slagging off his country for cold hard cash for a start.

Best for Britain @bestforbritain.org · 10h

And yet he claims to understand the struggles of working people...

https://leftfootforward.org/2025/10/nigel-farage-now-earns-over-1-million-from-12-second-jobs/

Nigel Farage now earns over £1 million from his 12 ‘second jobs’

The Reform leader has raked in a further £189,000 from side jobs since May this year

leftfootforward.org

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Daniel @deargodwhatnow.bsky.social · 10h

It's legitimately been 20 years of libleft people calling Farage rich and posh and it's never ever worked. Nobody thinks he's an ex miner! People know who he is!

Best for Britain @bestforbritain.org · 10h

And yet he claims to understand the struggles of working people...

https://leftfootforward.org/2025/10/nigel-farage-now-earns-over-1-million-from-12-second-jobs/

Nigel Farage now earns over £1 million from his 12 ‘second jobs’

The Reform leader has raked in a further £189,000 from side jobs since May this year

leftfootforward.org

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Reposted by JWexTheSpa

Alastair Meeks @alastairmeeks.bsky.social · 10h

Last night I heard of another friend of a friend who has been lost to a rabbit hole of online propaganda. We need to start treating this as a serious public health concern.

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Lewis Baston @lewisbaston.bsky.social · 16h

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 · 19h

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...

Russia and the rise of the radical right

Marine Le Pen meets with Putin before the 2017 French Presidential election (Photo credit Mikhail Klimentyev/AFP via Getty Images)

open.substack.com

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Prof. Stefan Rahmstorf @rahmstorf.bsky.social · 16h

High resolution images from satellite and from eddy-resolving ocean circulation models point to an ongoing decline of the Atlantic overturning circulation, a key ocean current for our climate. Read more about it in my new blog article. 🌊
www.realclimate.org/index.php/ar...

RealClimate: High-resolution ‘fingerprint’ images reveal a weakening Atlantic Ocean circulation (AMOC)

The #AMOC is the reason for Europe’s mild climate. Evidence that it is slowing has been piling up over the years – it now is likely at its weakest in at least a millennium, and it may even be approach...

www.realclimate.org

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JWexTheSpa @jwsidders.bsky.social · 15h

With water supply, as with so much else, we are deeply, ruinously complacent in the UK. We just assume we will have enough. In the South West we had two years of well above average rainfall. It's taken just a few dry months to put us where we are now.

JWexTheSpa @jwsidders.bsky.social · 17h

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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ScandinoIR @scandinoir.bsky.social · 16h

...but the worrying fact is that no left-of-centre party seems to have figured out a strategy to win elections in the current environment. Being open to immigration or caving in to the racists seem to have relatively similar electoral results.

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JWexTheSpa @jwsidders.bsky.social · 15h

Yep, we are terrible at water management in the UK. We just assume there will always be enough of it. As with so much else, the British are self-destructively complacent.

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JWexTheSpa @jwsidders.bsky.social · 17h

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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JWexTheSpa @jwsidders.bsky.social · 17h

None on the horizon, sadly. If it's a dry winter next year will be absolutely brutal.

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JWexTheSpa @jwsidders.bsky.social · 17h

I think Sánchez doomed himself with the Junts deal. But I really hope I'm wrong!

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JWexTheSpa @jwsidders.bsky.social · 17h

The far-right has power in Italy and the Netherlands. It is on course to get it in France, Spain and the UK. We really aren't exceptional - except, perhaps, in the far-right being slightly more popular here than elsewhere because our voting system does not allow for a separate centre-right party.

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JWexTheSpa @jwsidders.bsky.social · 17h

In political and social terms, the UK is a bog standard Western European country. What actually makes us different is our electoral system. But the collapse of the centre-right across much of the continent (including the UK) will mean even that becomes less of a differentiator in the future.

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David Henig @davidheniguk.bsky.social · 17h

Funny how I only ever hear stories about the EU entry scheme, not the UK equivalent...

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JWexTheSpa @jwsidders.bsky.social · 17h

All true - but only fair to say that based on the polls, Spain is on course to elect an anti-immigrant (except from Latin America), very right wing government which will have actual fascists holding important ministerial posts.

Farrukh @implausibleblog.bsky.social · 18h

In the UK we have Keir -island of strangers- Starmer, whose government is driving right wing anti immigrant and asylum seeker policies

In Spain, Pedro Sánchez is not only celebrating diversity, they're embracing and speaking positively about immigrants

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JWexTheSpa @jwsidders.bsky.social · 17h

The Rejoin movement in the UK is, generally speaking, entirely deluded.

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JWexTheSpa @jwsidders.bsky.social · 17h

Very important thread, this ...

Dylan Difford @dylandifford.bsky.social · 18h

Which party underperformed the most in the 2025 local elections?

Arguably Reform UK. A 🧵 on what the locals tell us about a key and neglected dimension in analysis of the current political situation.

JWexTheSpa @jwsidders.bsky.social · 17h

I really wish it was otherwise, but most voters just do not care that much about improving our relationship with the EU, not deporting people, staying in the ECHR and sticking to net zero. Even a lot of those who claim to care about them will not prioritise these issues when they next vote.

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JWexTheSpa @jwsidders.bsky.social · 17h

Basically, most people might care a bit about all these things in the abstract but none of them are issues that really matter to the majority. None will win an election without significant and very well targeted tactical voting.

JWexTheSpa @jwsidders.bsky.social · 18h

We are told the UK public is opposed to leaving the ECHR, wants to rejoin the EU, is against the deportation of legal residents, supports net zero and is vehemently anti-Trump. Yet the right - which is diametrically opposed to all these things - is on 50%+ in all the polling. Go figure.

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JWexTheSpa @jwsidders.bsky.social · 18h

We are told the UK public is opposed to leaving the ECHR, wants to rejoin the EU, is against the deportation of legal residents, supports net zero and is vehemently anti-Trump. Yet the right - which is diametrically opposed to all these things - is on 50%+ in all the polling. Go figure.

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