Paul Sandars🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿
LightNews LightNews
paulsandars.bsky.social
Paul Sandars🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿
@paulsandars.bsky.social
5.4K followers 9.4K following 8.8K posts
Born in England, but would much rather be a Celt.Lives in Neath Port Talbot. Survivor of a brain haemorrhage that has left me disabled. Once Labour, now Plaid Cymru. Worcs, WBA, Ospreys, Worcester Warriors & Hull KR. I always love Nikki and Eilidh Thomson.
Posts Replies Media Videos
paulsandars.bsky.social
BBC News - Three arrests after BBC investigation into criminal network on High Street
www.bbc.com/news/article...
November 27, 2025 at 6:48 PM
Reposted by Paul Sandars🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿
revdaniel.bsky.social
Rutger Bregman said that the line BBC removed from his Reith Lecture broadcast was: "Donald Trump is the most openly corrupt president in American history.”

So even UK media is now under Trump/ Putin control?

Chilling.
Screen shot of Rutger Bregman with headline “BBC tells staff they cannot quote Trump line removed from (broadcast of) Reith Lecture”
November 27, 2025 at 4:20 PM
Reposted by Paul Sandars🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿
scotnational.bsky.social
Two prominent pro-independence presenters have been arrested and charged with terrorism offences
Two pro-Scottish independence presenters arrested under terrorism laws
www.thenational.scot
November 27, 2025 at 6:25 PM
Reposted by Paul Sandars🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿
radiojammor.bsky.social
Former Tory MSP & Prof of Public Law, Adam Tomkins, recently stated this to a Holyrood Committee (and was agreed with by the other experts present) that "It is political rhetoric and not a constitutional convention."
Professor Tomkins It is political rhetoric and not a constitutional convention. I do not mean to demean that—indeed, I have engaged in plenty of political rhetoric myself in the past—but that is what it is. It is certainly not a rule of constitutional law—subject to one exception, which I will come to in a minute. It is not even a constitutional convention. The statements that were offered in the 2014 campaign about the referendum happening once in a generation, if not once in a lifetime, were political statements, and they should be taken as such, in my view. 09:45 It is self-evidently not the case in the United Kingdom that, once you have had a referendum on an issue, you cannot have another referendum on the same issue some time later. There have been two referendums on the UK’s membership of the European Union, in 1975 and 2016. I am not very good at maths, but I think that that means that they were 41 years apart. There have also been two referendums on Scottish devolution, and they were 18 years apart. The only statutory reference to anything pertaining to this—and it is not a reference that uses the term “generation”—is in section 1 and schedule 1 of the Northern Ireland Act 1998, which provides that there cannot be what that legislation refers to as a border poll within seven years of the previous one. There is no legal answer to the question, “How long is a generation?”, because it is not a question of law. However, there are precedents with a small p, if you will, that we can point to and which suggest a period of somewhere between 7, 18 and 41 years. That might give you some sense of an answer to how long a generation might be. Professor McHarg I completely agree. Under the Northern Ireland Constitution Act 1973, the minimum period between border polls was 10 years. Therefore, if we are talking about statutory ideas of what generations are, they are actually quite short. I think that it was just an opportunistic interpretation of campaign rhetoric that, to me, seemed to be about encouraging people to vote because they might not get another chance, rather than any sort of intention to promise not to seek another referendum for a generation, whatever that might be. Of course, the once-in-a-generation argument loses force the further we get from 2014, and we might expect other types of argument to be made. Indeed, other reasons have been used for rejecting a second independence referendum. For Theresa May, it was simply that “Now is not the time.” For others, it has been that public support was not high enough or that there are higher priorities, such as dealing with the pandemic, climate change or whatever. This highlights one of the features of our lack of legal regulation. There are no trigger conditions and no limiting conditions. It is simply a question of when the time is right. Professor Tierney The thing about constitutional conventions is that they are important. Because our system is so fluid, and because the UK Parliament is able to do what it wants, conventions take on a particular significance. They are rules—they are not just political claims—and they are rules that the people who are subject to them feel bound by, not just politically but constitutionally. They think, “I must behave in this way to act in conformity with the constitution.” That is really important, and it means that we cannot find new conventions easily, because they have to emerge over time through precedent and through clear evidence that the people who are subject to them feel bound by them. That is quite a high hurdle and, like Adam Tomkins and Aileen McHarg, I see no evidence to suggest that a political claim of this nature could in any way be considered to be a constitutional convention. Even if it was so, we now know that constitutional conventions would not be enforced by the courts. However, that is not to say that they are not important. I would say that, were there such a convention, it would be very important, but I cannot see the structure of a convention in that political claim. Keith Brown (questioner) Thank you.
November 27, 2025 at 4:49 PM
Reposted by Paul Sandars🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿
peterjukes.bsky.social
“Just three companies – DMG Media, News UK and Reach – control 90% of UK national newspaper circulation, a 20% increase in market concentration since 2014. Newsquest and National World – control 51% of the UK’s 882 local newspapers and local news websites”

www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
‘Unelected power’ of ultra-rich is reshaping British politics, report claims
Equality Trust study shows how House of Lords appointments, big donations and media ownership affect political decisions
www.theguardian.com
November 27, 2025 at 5:32 PM
Reposted by Paul Sandars🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿
ivananewgrave.bsky.social
Californians are buying ice scrapers at Home Depot, then immediately returning them....bogging down the entire store, until Home Depot refuses to allow ICE to loiter at their location to detain innocent people.

Winter is coming. Scrape ICE.
November 24, 2025 at 8:04 PM
Reposted by Paul Sandars🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿
johnswinney.bsky.social
Scotland’s future is up to people who live in Scotland, not Rachel Reeves, Keir Starmer or any other Westminster politician.
November 27, 2025 at 6:13 PM
Reposted by Paul Sandars🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿
mattdspry.bsky.social
MP pushes to bring Cornish language to Duolingo
MP pushes to bring Cornish language to Duolingo
Anna Gelderd has begun exploring how the Cornish language could be brought onto global learning platform
www.cornish-times.co.uk
November 27, 2025 at 6:26 PM
Reposted by Paul Sandars🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿
bunkunin.bsky.social
Afghans say last path to safety shuts as US halts visas after DC shooting www.yahoo.com/news/article...
Afghans say last path to safety shuts as US halts visas after DC shooting
By Saeed Shah KABUL/ISLAMABAD (Reuters) -Afghans who fled the Taliban and have waited years for a U.S. resettlement decision say their last path to safety has shut since Washington froze all Afghan
www.yahoo.com
November 27, 2025 at 6:26 PM
Reposted by Paul Sandars🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿
paulsandars.bsky.social
I see a report in today's The National that two Scottish Independence supporters have been arrested under the Terrorism Act. Does anyone know anything else?
November 27, 2025 at 6:13 PM
Reposted by Paul Sandars🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿
paulsandars.bsky.social
I have just seen the Police raid a house on BBC News. Where? My home town,West Bromwich. Why? This to do with High Street criminality: these gangs allegedly selling vapes and tobacco.Mind you, my High Street was full of dodgy looking shops, barbers and nail bars etc.then let alone now.
November 27, 2025 at 6:24 PM
paulsandars.bsky.social
I have just seen the Police raid a house on BBC News. Where? My home town,West Bromwich. Why? This to do with High Street criminality: these gangs allegedly selling vapes and tobacco.Mind you, my High Street was full of dodgy looking shops, barbers and nail bars etc.then let alone now.
November 27, 2025 at 6:24 PM
Reposted by Paul Sandars🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿
dysartlad.bsky.social
Allegedly regarding Palestine a*****
November 27, 2025 at 6:16 PM
Reposted by Paul Sandars🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿
adj4life72.bsky.social
I wonder how many of the 2000+ arrested for terrorist offences by quietly holding pieces of card were also labour voters or even members?
They don't put those details out for some reason 🤷🏽‍♂️
November 27, 2025 at 6:18 PM
Reposted by Paul Sandars🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿
carnsallan.bsky.social
I believe that if UDI is declared there is hee haw wm can do about it. It might be against their law, but so what it’s our law that counts after UDI.
November 27, 2025 at 6:16 PM
paulsandars.bsky.social
I see a report in today's The National that two Scottish Independence supporters have been arrested under the Terrorism Act. Does anyone know anything else?
November 27, 2025 at 6:13 PM
Reposted by Paul Sandars🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿
andrew.sharpe.scot
More watering down of Labour's flagship workers' rights bill. Wonder what else they'll ditch...

www.theguardian.com/law/2025/nov...
Government to ditch day-one unfair dismissal policy from workers’ rights bill
Flagship Labour plan to be replaced with six-month threshold after Peter Kyle vows to not let businesses ‘lose’ under new law
www.theguardian.com
November 27, 2025 at 6:09 PM
Reposted by Paul Sandars🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿
thebuell.bsky.social
Starmer fibbing about keeping his party's manifesto on ITV news right now. Oh yeah, then why U-turn on unfair dismissal from day one?

Pull the other one, you're just a Tory lite.
November 27, 2025 at 6:10 PM
Reposted by Paul Sandars🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿
superleggera.bsky.social
I used to watch him tear people apart when he was on the Select Committee, but now he hasn't got the balls to stand up to his party. Just shows he has no morals at all.
November 27, 2025 at 6:02 PM
Reposted by Paul Sandars🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿
sumarumi.bsky.social
That a Reform politician (Farage’s mate Gill) was in the pay of Russia is no surprise.

What is a surprise is that he betrayed our country so cheaply, for £40k.
November 27, 2025 at 4:43 PM
Reposted by Paul Sandars🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿
andrew.sharpe.scot
Funny how the Westminster media have ignored completely the disproportionate impact of tax-per-mile cars on much lower populated/larger distances travelled Scotland.
November 27, 2025 at 4:38 PM
Reposted by Paul Sandars🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿
superleggera.bsky.social
@darrenpjones.bsky.social you've been awfully quiet of late, ashamed to be associated with this utter shower of u-turning bastards? You were great in opposition, clearly useless in office. Shame on you. Labour will be a one term party.
November 27, 2025 at 5:37 PM
Reposted by Paul Sandars🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿
scotlassie2.bsky.social
It's an international treaty. We can leave it, they can leave it. She can F off!
November 27, 2025 at 5:53 PM
paulsandars.bsky.social
BBC News - Woman convicted of Aberdeen knife killing in infidelity row
www.bbc.com/news/article...
Woman convicted of Aberdeen knife killing in infidelity row
Dionne Wilson, 31, denied murdering Sara Irvine, 34, in the city's Auchinleck Road last year.
www.bbc.com
November 27, 2025 at 5:31 PM
Reposted by Paul Sandars🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿
scotlassie2.bsky.social
Nope, not a scooby☺
November 27, 2025 at 5:20 PM