Colin Baines
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colinbaines15.bsky.social
Colin Baines
@colinbaines15.bsky.social
Re-Cumbrianing (formerly immigrant in Vienna) podcasts, politics, educator, science, neurodiversity
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“Starter packs” are groups of profiles that folks have created around different topics or accounts they followed on other SM.
Can follow up to 150 accounts at a time.
So I made feed that collates posts with “starter pack” and a link

bsky.app/profile/did:...
Reposted by Colin Baines
The UK Trade and Business Commission’s new report sets out how the UK and the EU could implement a Youth Experience Scheme.

“The report is likely to give weight to the arguments of Britain’s negotiators in talks over the deal,” writes Arj Singh.

Read: https://bit.ly/48tqyTY
December 9, 2025 at 5:40 PM
Reposted by Colin Baines
This is a significant report on UK-EU youth experience / mobility as the first to be released from either side on how the scheme outlined in May's common understanding could actually work in practice.

I'm pleased to have been involved as an adviser.
The UK Trade and Business Commission’s new report sets out how the UK and the EU could implement a Youth Experience Scheme.

“The report is likely to give weight to the arguments of Britain’s negotiators in talks over the deal,” writes Arj Singh.

Read: https://bit.ly/48tqyTY
December 9, 2025 at 5:48 PM
Reposted by Colin Baines
🆕 SPOILER ALERT - Unpicking the Budget 📈

The good stuff
The less good stuff
The economic rationale
The political consequences

Balance, humour, @pimlicat.bsky.social , @sturdyalex.bsky.social & top economist Vicky Pryce.

🍊 open.spotify.com/episode/05mP...

🍏 podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/q...
Unpicking the most-leaked Budget in history, with Vicky Pryce
Podcast Episode · Quiet Riot · 26/11/2025 · 1h 18m
podcasts.apple.com
November 26, 2025 at 10:33 PM
Reposted by Colin Baines
Sorry, everyone. I think we've gone and done a thoughtful, balanced episode on #Budget2026, that is more about the economics and the politics, rather than the gossippy nonsense that gets hacks excited. #NotSorry
🆕 SPOILER ALERT - Unpicking the Budget 📈

The good stuff
The less good stuff
The economic rationale
The political consequences

Balance, humour, @pimlicat.bsky.social , @sturdyalex.bsky.social & top economist Vicky Pryce.

🍊 open.spotify.com/episode/05mP...

🍏 podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/q...
Unpicking the most-leaked Budget in history, with Vicky Pryce
Podcast Episode · Quiet Riot · 26/11/2025 · 1h 18m
podcasts.apple.com
November 26, 2025 at 10:38 PM
Reposted by Colin Baines
You may have seen some headlines about welfare spending going up to £406.2bn by 2030/31.
That is correct, it is the OBR figure.

Here is what you may not have seen.
Of the £406.2bn
A) £195.4bn goes to pensioners
B) £13.9bn goes on child benefit.

Facts matter.
November 26, 2025 at 7:49 PM
Reposted by Colin Baines
On Truss & Kwarteng in ‘22. Allister Heath, Telegraph: “the best budget I have ever heard a British chancellor deliver". Alex Brummer, Mail: “a genuine Tory package elbowing to one side the Treasury's fiscal conservatism".
These men will now be paid actual money for their analysis of today’s budget.
November 26, 2025 at 4:32 PM
Reposted by Colin Baines
Nice. Now negotiate a return to the programme known as the EU.
September 25, 2025 at 9:22 AM
Reposted by Colin Baines
NEW:

We are joined by Luke Tryl to talk about everything from:

🔵📉 Tory Party Demise
🏆 Trump’s ache for a NobelP
🇪🇺🇬🇧 reducing reliance on 🇺🇸

Plus Wokey Dokey is BACK.
@pimlicat.bsky.social @sturdyalex.bsky.social
open.spotify.com/episode/6ZMU...

podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/q...
The Art of The Kneel
Quiet Riot · Episode
open.spotify.com
August 21, 2025 at 6:46 AM
Reposted by Colin Baines
The scale of the backlog arises because the Sunak government, while clearing the 2022 backlog, stops processing asylum claims of those who arrive in 2023-24, despite having no real world prospect of removing 99% of those it is accommodating, in limbo. No plan except to leave it to after the election
August 20, 2025 at 7:31 AM
What a PR triumph for Putin!

1. Red carpet greeting, with massive formalities.

2. Trump applauds him 3x on arrival.

3. They ride together in Trump's car.

4. At the incredibly brief press conference, Trump agrees to consider the suggestion that Moscow could be the venue for their next meeting.
August 16, 2025 at 9:08 AM
Reposted by Colin Baines
Great thread (h/t @columnist.bsky.social)
Instead of regurgitating the bromide that LLMs are just "autocomplete on steroids" (even by people who know better), maybe we can actually engage in some public education. The problem with genAI is better expressed through a classic computer science concept, known as SYMBOL GROUNDING. 🧵
August 13, 2025 at 6:49 AM
@quietriotpod.bsky.social wonder how far this translates across to reform/tory playbook- for me it’s the nhs versus US health insurance that is a bulwark against a ‘fear’ of empathy
One of the most successful deceptions of our time was getting so many Americans to fear diversity more than racism, equality more than misogyny, democracy more than fascism, immigrants more than authoritarians, the poor more than corrupt billionaires, and empathy more than cruelty.
August 4, 2025 at 1:15 PM
July 16, 2025 at 7:40 AM
Reposted by Colin Baines
🎉 Some exciting housekeeping news in tomorrow’s show🎉

Make sure to be subscribed wherever you get your podcasts
July 2, 2025 at 9:20 PM
Reposted by Colin Baines
UK chemistry industry professionals

Please fill in this short survey to help CAMS help us all by modernizing what graduates are taught with respect to data handling. Which can be as simple as organizing yourself and naming files sensibly! #chemsky

forms.office.com/Pages/Respon...
Microsoft Forms
forms.office.com
July 2, 2025 at 6:57 AM
Reposted by Colin Baines
The ongoing marine heatwave in the Mediterranean Sea is one of the the largest marine anomalies observed globally
June 29, 2025 at 5:38 AM
Reposted by Colin Baines
🚨 WALES SPECIAL: Senedd Stakes

Labour’s future, Reform’s rise, the fate of Taith, and who’s winning the long game ahead of #Senedd2026.

@pimlicat.bsky.social chats to @willhaycardiff.bsky.social. #WelshPolitics #QuietRiot

🎧 open.spotify.com/episode/5etY...

🍏 podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/q...
Wales 2026: The Battle Begins
Podcast Episode · Quiet Riot · S2, E69 Bonus · 28m
podcasts.apple.com
June 20, 2025 at 11:43 AM
Reposted by Colin Baines
England win the toss and put India in to bat! 🏏
Come on England!
#ENGvIND
June 20, 2025 at 9:31 AM
Reposted by Colin Baines
Brexit: the next phase. New post on my Brexit & Beyond Blog. With the Gibraltar agreement ending the A50 issues, and the Reset Summit over, we're entering a period of technical adjustments. Thoughts on that, and the 9th anniversary of the Referendum: chrisgreybrexitblog.blogspot.com/2025/06/brex...
June 20, 2025 at 6:11 AM
Reposted by Colin Baines
Day 204 of the #GeorgiaProtests
June 19, 2025 at 10:26 PM
Reposted by Colin Baines
Yes, We are still alive and resisting. But gdream of course wants to kill protests in Georgia. Don't forget about us ♥️
#GeorgiaProtests
#TerrorinGeorgia
June 20, 2025 at 7:05 AM