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Reposted by Dr Simon Ubsdell

Rob Ford @robfordmancs.bsky.social · 17h

Brief moment of surprise that UKIP still exists as a thing (and I say that as someone who wrote a book on them once). Then once that passes, remembering that this person is likely not even in the top 5 oddest post Farage UKIP leaders...

Jane @localnotail.bsky.social · 1d

UKIP have been taken over by the COO of the UK branch of St Charlie's Turning Point

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Nick Reeves #FBPE #NAFO @nickreeves.bsky.social · 13h

In this interview, Farage said, "Brexit is the best thing to happen to..." and the first country that came to his mind was Russia.

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The Tennessee Holler @thetnholler.bsky.social · 16h

It’s amazing how all the reporting is just memory-holing this part

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Dan Sohege @danielsohege.bsky.social · 23h

This is the inevitable outcome of relentless anti-immigration political rhetoric and a media environment which disproportionately amplifies the voices of racists, giving the indication that they are the "voice of the public" rather than the minority they are.
www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

‘Frightened to get out of their cars’: Britain’s toxic race debates threaten overseas care workers

Staff are being advised to travel in mixed groups and carry panic alarms as incidents of intimidation spread

www.theguardian.com

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Dr Simon Ubsdell @simonubsdell.bsky.social · 22h

Absolute silence is actually minus infinity dB. Apologies for the pedantry.

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Sarah Murphy @13sarahmurphy.bsky.social · 1d

So, Reform would rocket-boost austerity, slash welfare *but not taxes*, cancel net zero progress, do mass deportations, huff out of the ECHR (torching the Brexit deal and our human rights)…
And to top it all off, there’d be this gem of US-funded christofascist authoritarianism on offer too.
Grim AF.

Lizzie Dearden @lizziedearden.bsky.social · 1d

If you wondered why Nigel Farage turned up in US Congress in September speaking about "freedom of speech", this story has the answer

His appearance was orchestrated by a powerful American anti-abortion group that is trying to increase its influence in the UK by influencing the free speech debate

Jane Bradley @bradleyjane.bsky.social · 1d

NEW: How a U.S. anti-abortion group has quietly positioned itself as a powerbroker between the Trump administration and Nigel Farage’s Reform UK.

Latest investigation w Elizabeth Dias.
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/13/w...

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Henry Mance @henrymance.ft.com · 1d

The right-wing campaign group that helped topple Roe v Wade in the US is now working to roll back abortion laws in the UK, with the help of Nigel Farage.

Its first step? Trying to create a debate around "free speech"
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/13/w...

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Chris Grey @chrisgrey.bsky.social · 1d

This deserves more attention than it has received.

Gove: "we were too anxious as a government to secure those deals in order to show that Brexit was working".

Exactly as so many of us warned at the time, and as the government denied at the time.
www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/country-and-...

Michael Gove admits that post-Brexit trade deals were bad for farmers

Michael Gove has admitted for the first time that the Australia and New Zealand trade deals negotiated by the former Tory government did not protect Britain’s farmers.

www.yorkshirepost.co.uk

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Alexander Clarkson @aphclarkson.bsky.social · 2d

It's the same intellectual world that produced Dominic Cummings and Steve Hilton

Will Jennings 🗳️ @drjennings.bsky.social · 2d

Anyone writing about the influence of these thinkers really needs to provide detail on what they have actually written. Most of it is incoherent, lacking any substance and often downright weird.

Huw C. Davies @huwcdavies.bsky.social · 2d

Reading Thiel, Yarvin, Peterson et al. makes you realise what passes for intellectual iconoclasm these days is all absolute bollocks. Why anyone gives any of these people the time of day let alone credibility is baffling.

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Alan Stedman @alanjstedman.bsky.social · 1d

This deserves a much wider audience

Worth five minutes of your day

Trish Greenhalgh @trishgreenhalgh.bsky.social · 2d

I need a Tommy Flowers Was Robbed t-shirt. Great piece!
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...

Move over, Alan Turing: meet the working-class hero of Bletchley Park you didn’t see in the movies

The Oxbridge-educated boffin is feted as the codebreaking genius who helped Britain win the war. But should a little-known Post Office engineer named Tommy Flowers be seen as the real father of comput...

www.theguardian.com

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Huw C. Davies @huwcdavies.bsky.social · 2d

Reading Thiel, Yarvin, Peterson et al. makes you realise what passes for intellectual iconoclasm these days is all absolute bollocks. Why anyone gives any of these people the time of day let alone credibility is baffling.

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Sarah Murphy @13sarahmurphy.bsky.social · 1d

Corrupt chancers urged to come up with an economic plan that isn’t utter bullshit. So, no tax cuts and austerity on steroids for a country already stuck in Farage’s Brexit dead end.
But hey, some super wealthy industry big (k)nobs will come on board to help con the little guy.

(Times)

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Dr Simon Ubsdell @simonubsdell.bsky.social · 2d

Yes, it's somehow all so tackily predictable.

Terrible scriptwriting.

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Jason Karsh @jkarsh.bsky.social · 3d

If we survive this, and Democrats are able to take back power, I guarantee you we will have to endure think-piece after think-piece that demand the rest of us reach out, stop shaming, and forgive fascists and the crimes they’ve committed. I absolutely guarantee it.

Ari Cohn @aricohn.com · 3d

Some weirdo on Twitter has been absolutely melting down for like 36 straight hours because I posted:

When this is over, do not forget what ICE did, and what ICE is. And do not make room for them in society. Make sure they know that they are, and will continue to be, reviled and beneath contempt.

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Sarah Murphy @13sarahmurphy.bsky.social · 2d

Also this…
Why stay in an environment that wants to do everything it can to undermine you… one which threatens democracy itself with its distorting algorithms, its conspiracy theories and its disinformation… ?
There is no credible reason to stay on X. But there are many to leave.

The story of social media in the last few years is not one of a self-righteous liberal flounce, but of fragmentation: network effects are a thing, and if most of the people you like to talk to switch platforms, there feels little point in remaining behind. If we have lost influence, that's at least partly down to the government's reluctance to use its convening power to reshape the information environment, and its odd commitment to a site owned by someone who wants Keir Starmer in prison.

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Dr Simon Ubsdell @simonubsdell.bsky.social · 2d

It is a cliché of fictional psychopaths that they wildly and fatally misinterpret the Bible and other literary texts.

And then there's Peter Thiel ...

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Pavel @spavel.bsky.social · 3d

As an example: AI doesn't understand "no." Because the statements "no ketchup on my burger" and "ketchup on my burger" are almost identical to a machine that does not and cannot actually reason. It's only a 2 letter difference.

AI doesn't know 'no' – and that's a huge problem for medical bots

Many AI models fail to recognise negation words such as “no” and “not”, which means they can’t easily distinguish between medical images labelled as showing a disease and images labelled as not showin...

www.newscientist.com

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Dr Abeba Birhane @abeba.bsky.social · 2d

"Concerns over an AI bubble bursting have grown lately, with analysts recently finding that it’s 17 times the size of the dotcom-era bubble and four times bigger than the 2008 financial crisis." futurism.com/artificial-i...

Bank of England Warns of Impending AI Disaster

The Bank of England has sounded the alarm, warning of an intensifying risk of a "sudden correction" due to an AI spending frenzy.

futurism.com

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Jonn Elledge @jonnelledge.bsky.social · 3d

Before you all yell at me, my answer can be summed up as "fuck, no".

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Dan Sohege @danielsohege.bsky.social · 2d

If Reform's current polling shows anything, and again it is way too early to be making genuine predictions about the next General Election, it is that a third, or fourth, party can make feasible grounds to potentially win even under FPTP. It definitely isn't an argument to suck it up with Labour. 2/

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Dan Sohege @danielsohege.bsky.social · 2d

Things being as they are, and the near impossibility of predicting a General Election result this far out, I do find it vaguely amusing seeing certain people arguing that no matter what heinous thing Labour does people have to vote for them to beat Reform as "we live in a two party system". 1/

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Dr Simon Ubsdell @simonubsdell.bsky.social · 2d

The theory that scaling laws applied to AI was obvious nonsense except in the sense that they applied to marketing bullshit. The success of AI lies solely in its makers’ ability to escalate hype to a point where it cannot be unwound.

Dr Simon Ubsdell @simonubsdell.bsky.social · 2d

Governments love bogus metrics but never more so than when they involve universities.

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JohnWest_JAWS @johnwestjaws.bsky.social · 2d

These 2 speeches, which, as Nick points out, on the same day, precede what Gill has pled guilty to by 4 years, are more damning for Farage as they also precede Brexit.

All European secret services would have been alarmed by this & would/should have been investigating.

1/

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Dr Simon Ubsdell @simonubsdell.bsky.social · 2d

Why the heck does government have to impose its arrogant opinions into so many areas that are not its concern?

There are numberless things it would be better occupied addressing?

Peter Stefanovic @peterstefanovic.bsky.social · 3d

Tuition fees set to be lowered at universities with poor teaching

Labour is considering bringing the cap below £9,000 a year on campuses where standards aren’t met

www.thetimes.com/uk/education...

Tuition fees set to be lowered at universities with poor teaching

Labour is considering bringing the cap below £9,000 a year on campuses where standards aren’t met

www.thetimes.com

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