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reallydespondent.bsky.social
@reallydespondent.bsky.social
81 followers 420 following 12 posts
Just getting started on here. Will sort out properly later.

Left wing, but I don't think we should nationalise Greggs
Posts Replies Media Videos
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orangesage.bsky.social
#NoKings Miami!
October 18, 2025 at 3:56 PM
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sundersays.bsky.social
2024 Conservatives did prefer Reform to Labour by 66% to 34% in July 2024 (so 4.5m Reform > Labour, while 2.25m preferred Labour)

Cons were evenly split between Ed Davey and Nigel Farage in July 2024,: hose who voted Conservative in 2024 just preferred the LibDems (51%) to Reform (49%) overall
August 17, 2025 at 8:32 AM
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lewisbaaron.bsky.social
The Centre for Migration Control?

A “Think Tank” ran seemingly by one guy called Robert Bates, a Senior Reform Campaigner in the Channel 4 Documentary released last year ‘Undercover inside Reform’s campaign’.

His data is wrong and purposely misleading.

#news #uk #politics
August 5, 2025 at 5:15 PM
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whstancil.bsky.social
The man predicted the future and he told you exactly how it was going to happen, too
July 26, 2025 at 11:09 PM
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bladeofthes.bsky.social
The UK state pension, worst in the world.
July 22, 2025 at 5:04 PM
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premnsikka.bsky.social
Page 343, Water Commission report:

" ... provide the water regulator with additional discretion over enforcement in defined circumstances, allowing them to defer or waive fines and penalties".

Oh dear - No penalties for dumping sewage, unplugged leaks.

That will worry the bosses, won't it.
assets.publishing.service.gov.uk
July 21, 2025 at 9:29 AM
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weownit.org.uk
8 in 10 of us back full public ownership of rail. And the government is working on delivering it.

But @railandroad is still letting private firms in - disrespecting democracy.
@Heidi_Labour, impose a moratorium on new 'open-access' approvals.

vist.ly/3xwvq
Open letter: stop First Group, Arriva and other private firms clinging on to our railway | We Own It
Private firms like First Group and Arriva are fighting to cling on to our railway. The government must impose a moratorium on approval of new rail contracts with private firms.
weownit.org.uk
July 15, 2025 at 10:23 AM
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martinlewis.moneysavingexpert.com
Reports Chancellor to announce a cut in the cash ISA limit when she speaks at the Mansion House on 15 July. I think it’d be a mistake

Courtesy of @thismorningitv.bsky.social
Martin Lewis: Chancellor to cut Cash ISA limit? I think it’d be a mistake
YouTube video by MoneySavingExpert.com
youtu.be
July 1, 2025 at 7:23 PM
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nataliegreenpeer.bsky.social
Why have I tabled a motion against the continued funding of Drax to burn US trees, to be heard on Monday in #HouseofLords?

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Ancient trees are shipped to the UK, then burned – using billions in ‘green’ subsidies. Stop this madness now | Dale Vince
The evidence against the Drax power station is damning, yet the government wants to continue its massive public funding, says campaigner Dale Vince
www.theguardian.com
June 21, 2025 at 4:57 PM
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carolinejmolloy.bsky.social
The idea that the UK benefits system is overly generous, is a joke. Our system is meaner and more punitive to the old, the sick and the unemployed, than almost anyone else (bar the US, of course). Starmer & Reeves need to talk about the figures, not the Mail propaganda 👇
drstevetaylor.bsky.social Dr Steve Taylor @drstevetaylor.bsky.social · Mar 8
GP working 30 yrs in a mixed urban area, rich & poor

Rarely seen people abuse the benefits system
Seen lots of the health, social & wealth systems fail those in most need

The healthy & wealthy always making the decisions

Compare how the UK spends with similar nations @teamlabouruk.bsky.social
June 19, 2025 at 6:54 AM
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marykfoymp.bsky.social
My correspondence with findings from the roundtable I recently held has been sent to DWP SoS, Chancellor & PM.

We need to pause. It’s unnecessary to push ahead with changes that will have such a devastating impact on many disabled people & above all, it’s not Labour!

My thanks to all who input. ❤️
I am writing to you as a matter of urgency regarding the Pathways to Work Green Paper. As you will know, there has been significant disquiet about the proposals amongst welfare organisations, disability charities, and those members of the public in recipe of Personal Independence Payments. Following the publication of the Pathways to Work Green Paper, my office received a greatly increased volume of correspondence from concerned and distressed constituents. To get a fuller understanding of the impact that the changes to social security would have in the City of Durham Constituency, and due to what felt like a distinct lack of direct consultation by the Government with people in my constituency and the wider North East, I organised a roundtable discussion with numerous expert voices, as well as a number of constituents who will either be affected by these proposed changes, or volunteer in the local community and could contribute on behalf of local residents. This event took place on Friday 30 May and was attended by a number of organisations. These were as follows: • Durham Welfare Rights • Citizen's Advice Durham • Waddington Street Centre • Durham Well-being Alliance • MS Society • Samaritans • Health Equity North • Durham County Carers • County Durham Clothing Bank and Food Pantry • Volunteers and affected constituents It was important that during this event, I heard submissions from every attendee. However, throughout the event, a number of themes did emerge, and similar concerns were raised by many of the attendees. The overwhelming consensus from everyone present however, was that these proposed changes to the social security system, particularly the proposed changes to Personal Independence Payments (PIP), will have a much more severe and negative impact on the North East than almost every other region of the country. Indeed, as Health Equity North stated, this is not a level playing field. The scale of ill health in the North is 50% higher than it is in the South. The proposals in the Green Paper will have a worse impact on the North, not just on individuals, but on the economy too. For instance, women in the North work longer and harder and they provide unpaid care which actually saves the Government in the region of £10 billion per year. There was also significant concern about the Government's stated aim of encouraging disabled people back into work, and about the plan to allow people to try out work without the threat of losing their benefits, should it not work out. First, it should be noted that, compared to other regions, the North East still has a significant number of physical jobs, that require people to be away from their homes. Indeed, at the time of the 2021 Census (March 2021), approximately 26% of workers resident in the North East were working at or from home, a significantly lower number of workers than other regions in the UK. As a number of attendees at the roundtable asked: where are the jobs that people are expected to move into coming from, and where will they have to travel to for access to these jobs? As the Standard Occupational Classification figures provided by NOMIS show, the North East is behind only Yorkshire and the Humber, and the East Midlands for the number of people working in Major Group 8-9 (Processing Operatives and Elementary Occupations) and has the second smallest number of people working in technical, managerial or senior positions. As was stated by the Samaritans at my roundtable discussion, we should be investing in ways to lift people out of poverty before any consideration is given to cutting the support they receive. Indeed, as Health Equity North pointed out, there has been chronic underinve… shows higher rates of poor mental health compared to many other regions of the country, and regularly records the highest suicides rate in England. Indeed, County Durham Carers reported an increase in suicidal callers as a result of the recent announcements. Given this, and the multiple reports during the roundtable of the stressful, adversarial and often cruel nature of assessments, there is a real fear that these changes will - and in some cases already are - driving people not only towards mental health crises, but towards suicide. It was felt around the table that this process is already happening, and in fact that the whole system seems designed to degrade people. There were few attendees who did not have direct experience themselves - or with people they have worked with - of degrading experiences and misrepresentations by assessors when accessing the social security system. These proposed changes are potentially not only leaving this demeaning and undignified process in place, but actually excluding people from vital support should they seek help through the social security system. There was a clear message from everyone at the roundtable - these proposals feel cruel, highly distressing and not what was expected from a Labour Government. In fact, many attendees, and many of my constituents who have written to me since the Green Paper was announced have said to me that this feels like a betrayal, from a Government they expected to stand up for the most vulnerable in society. The message given to me, and one I repeat in this letter, is to ask the Government to think again. We must not lose sight of the whole point of PIP - that it is there to ensure that people can live dignified, independent lives. And that the social security system should be there for people in their time of need, and should not only be considered as a financial burden. While there is a strong argument that there should be some reform and rebalancing of the social security system, we should …
June 16, 2025 at 7:20 PM
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helenebismarck.bsky.social
So,as a little thought-experiment, tell me something about the United Kingdom that works well and is actually quite impressive. I am not trying to sound like some boosterish politician. I just genuinely believe that making people believe that all is lost is a convenient pretext for shady characters.
June 16, 2025 at 7:03 PM
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stephenkb.bsky.social
👇 genuinely don’t understand why people are unable to comprehend “don’t get AI to do something for you if you can’t understand whether it has produced the wrong answer”.
paperghost.bsky.social Chris Boyd @paperghost.bsky.social · Jun 15
this seems like an incredible way to get yourself into huge amounts of trouble with several tax and immigration departments simultaneously
"Try filing three country’s taxes as a dual French-American with UK spouse and income, You have to scroll through 10+ Google pages of websites and peruse through pages of each. Or ask ChatGPT, which tells you each relevant form and line. Many boring hopeless hours vs 20 minutes."
June 15, 2025 at 1:10 PM
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feralcommie.bsky.social
Well worth a read, this massive corporate land and power grab in the UK - Neoliberalism on steroids - is getting barely any coverage even from the left
May 31, 2025 at 6:43 AM
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fascinatorfun.bsky.social
Immigrants “are ambitious, enthusiastic & hard-working. They want a better life, & a better life for their children, and they are willing to do backbreaking work in order to secure it. They show all the attributes which we praise in others but condemn if it's demonstrated by an immigrant.”
May 16, 2025 at 7:38 AM
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scotnational.bsky.social
Read more: www.thenational.scot/news/2516599...
www.thenational.scot
May 15, 2025 at 1:16 PM
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richardjmurphy.bsky.social
Wes Streeting is gutting the NHS of its ability to survive by destroying the management on which it is dependent to deliver the healthcare we need. This is not austerity. This is madness, Elon Musk style, and if he succeeds, there will be no NHS left to save. www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/04...
Streeting’s NHS madness
I tried to work out how to summarise Roy Lilley's morning email this morning on the madness that Wes Streeting is unleashing on the NHS, and failed. So I am copying it with a suggestion that this is w...
www.taxresearch.org.uk
April 14, 2025 at 7:09 AM
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qi.com
Every time Japanese train drivers perform a task, they have to make a physical gesture related to it and announce the task out loud e.g. when checking their speed, they point at the speedometer and announce ‘speed check: 80’. The system reduces errors by up to 85%.
April 14, 2025 at 9:28 AM
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lrb.co.uk
‘The more the price of Tesla dropped, the more shares Musk had to sell to raise the cash, so it kept falling. In all, his net worth decreased by $200 billion in a year, breaking the record for the largest loss of personal fortune in history.’

Deborah Friedell: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Deborah Friedell · Delete the workforce: Musk’s Twitter Takeover
Trump praised Musk for being so good at firing people: ‘You’re the greatest cutter. I mean, I look at what you do....
www.lrb.co.uk
April 8, 2025 at 4:10 PM
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dceiver.bsky.social
I don't know what's funnier: That Trump doesn't understand how tariffs work or how he doesn't understand how drug dealing works
Truth Social post that describes how we going to "tariff the value" of fentanyl to "make it more costly to distribute and buy"
April 2, 2025 at 1:18 PM
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chrismurphyct.bsky.social
Those trying to understand the tariffs as economic policy are dangerously naive.

No, the tariffs are a tool to collapse our democracy. A means to compel loyalty from every business that will need to petition Trump for relief.

1/ A 🧵 to explain his plan and how we fight back.
April 3, 2025 at 3:29 AM
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barristersecret.bsky.social
NEW BLOGPOST: We need to talk about the Sentencing Council

thesecretbarrister.com/2025/04/02/w...
We need to talk about the Sentencing Council
The past few weeks have seen significant political and media attention lavished on the Sentencing Council of England and Wales, a small independent non-departmental public body which has hitherto a…
thesecretbarrister.com
April 2, 2025 at 1:12 PM
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declassifieduk.org
Britain provided aerial refuelling for US jets during Yemen airstrikes that killed 53 people, including women and children.

www.declassifieduk.org/how-starmer-...
How Starmer aided Trump’s deadly bombing of Yemen
Exclusive: Britain provided aerial refuelling for US jets during Yemen airstrikes that killed 53 people, including women and children.
www.declassifieduk.org
April 1, 2025 at 7:03 AM
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sjwrenlewis.bsky.social
ICYMI: 2 posts:
Labour’s strategic error on tax
mainlymacro.blogspot.com/2025/03/labo...
The UK is undertaxed compared to our neighbours
+
Why can’t we do fiscal policy in a grown up way?
mainlymacro.blogspot.com/2025/03/why-...
The Chancellor could have noted the OBR's forecast and done nothing
Labour’s strategic error on tax
Two things have become clear to many people since Labour came to government. The first is that the party had done less preparation work fo...
mainlymacro.blogspot.com
March 29, 2025 at 9:31 AM