Bruce Dickson

Yay! I do love a good indie !! www.thebookseller.com/bestsellers/...

The ITV documentary was SO CLOSE to burying Reform UK! 😭😭 ▪️ Exposing how the Reform party is LYING about how racist they are, so they can get into power. ✅ ▪️ Linking the racist views of Reform councillors to the words of the Party leadership. ❌

The immigration doom loop, summed up here by @gabyhinsliff.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

We've become so accustomed to discussing what little mobility Britain might negotiate back. A visa here. A youth scheme there. A few extra months somewhere else. But why have we stopped asking for the freedom we actually want? Mutual Freedom of Movement.

I guess that, unlike with Brexit where daft fantasy seems endlessly sustainable, Trump’s awfulness becomes objectively undeniable at some point. Notable how many reverse ferrets involve zero self-examination or remorse. This is very good…

A little taster of James O’Brien Plus. Subscribe via YouTube here: youtube.com/channel/UC5xV4vvDclVMILvreSoVW0Q/join

Why rant endlessly about foreign influence when your own party is bankrolled by overseas wealth? The London Economic revealing 80% of Reform UK's donations come from foreign-based donors completely shatters their anti-foreigner posturing. 🤔 #DarkMoney

1. 🧵 Thread What would restoring Freedom of Movement actually give British people? The right to live, work, study, retire and build a life in 30 other European countries (plus Ireland, where we already have these rights). Here’s what we’d get back.

For the first time, the British government has acknowledged that Russia interfered in the 2016 Brexit referendum. So who did BBC Newsnight invite on to discuss what happened? Sergei Markov, Putin’s former spokesman. Par for the course, says Nerve co-founder @carolecadwalla.bsky.social 1/

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@nytimes.com reporting massive fine for Meta for breeches of data privacy. Shame the British government didn’t listen to @carolecadwalla.bsky.social

Runaway AI poses a threat to us all. How humanity stays in control should be a priority for everyone Projection location: Slough, UK Narrated by @gavinesler.bsky.social

Robin Williams warning the US about Donald Trump and his links to underage girls in Miss America Pageants in 2012. Really should have listened.

Georgia: 40% increase in first-day turnout compared with the 2022 midterms, and more than double the first-day participation seen during the 2018 midterms. "Early ballots in North Carolina and Maine are up 38% from the last midterms, while Iowa has seen a 61% increase" www.kark.com/news/early-v...

1. 🧵 THREAD: One thing Remainers keep getting wrong is talking about the EU in terms of institutions rather than what those institutions actually do for people. We talk about the Single Market, the Customs Union and EU membership. But what do those things actually mean?

They've all been at it. I wonder whether being able to point to a "report" that made the misleading claim will give them some cover? I guess we'll find out... 27/

So if anyone feels like complaining about this latest round of misleading headlines, please do. Not sure what difference it makes - but the papers KNOW what they're doing is wrong. They've been rapped on the knuckles for this exact behaviour before www.ipso.co.uk/making-a-co...

Apparently they were "happy" to set out the correct position🤔 (At the back of the paper where no one will bother reading it, and at the bottom of the months-old online version which no one is going to re-read) The damage is done with the headline. The correction will never undo it 25/

So the Express had to change the online headline, include a correction (right at the bottom) and print a correction in a subsequent print edition (buried on pg 40🙄) As an aside - look at the photos they used to illustrate this article 😱 They remained in the updated version. 23/

In 2015, the Express ran with: 🚨"Shocking figures reveal three out of four British jobs go to EU migrants" (FFS - it's like a broken record!) The upheld IPSO complaint explained why the figures were misleading👇 (yes that's basically my previous thread and this one condensed!) 22/

So here is a far less misleading handy graphic using the exact same dataset as CSJ. Amazing what you can do with data, huh!🤷‍♀️ 17/

You have to pretend that: - young people joining the jobs market every day - older people retiring - people getting sick - others returning to work - people changing jobs, - people having multiple jobs - people moving from payrolled to self-employed and vice versa didn't create any new jobs

This is, of course, entirely in line with what you would expect given immigration patterns over that time. So how does data showing 80% of all jobs are held by UK Nationals become "80% of jobs in the UK are taken by foreigners"?? 9/

The dataset allows you to break it down by the nationality of the person currently in the job. Another caveat: Nationality is recorded at the point someone first registers for NI. This status doesn’t change if and when they become British citizens. So it is likely an overcount of foreign workers

So they're at it again 🙄 Torturing valid HMRC data to create wildly misleading headlines, designed to invoke fear and anger about immigrants. Same old, same old... (and you'll see just how old shortly!) 🧵1/28

The Institute for Public Policy Research makes the case for EU membership amid the "unreliability" of the US. And they're right. No ally can rely on America any longer. We need EU membership to keep us safe. Read here: https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/andy-burnham-eu-ukraine-trump-37784291

Some people believe that Brexit didn’t change much in terms of our ability to enter EU countries. But in reality, the change was huge. @savefom.bsky.social

Freedom of movement makes travel easier. It also allows people to relocate permanently or on a temporary basis. It’s governed by clear rules that are designed around the interests of citizens. @savefom.bsky.social

Freedom of movement makes travel easier. It also allows people to relocate permanently or on a temporary basis. It’s governed by clear rules are designed around the best interests of citizens. @savefom.bsky.social

Oh.

George Monbiot explains why the UK should rejoin the EU, "There's a reason why Russia tried to intervene in the Brexit vote, they knew that it would harm the UK and the EU if we left" "They were very clear about that and boy have they been proved right"

Why the Kremlin was pro-Brexit and why it still matters even if 2016 meddling didn’t swing the result www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

You'd be forgiven for having no idea who she is, because, well, see above!🤷‍♀️ Lola was an Oxford lecturer at Oriel College who was charged with possessing indecent child images and is awaiting trial - set to happen in 2028 2/

OK, there is something very, very weird going on in the press right now. It certainly appears, from the outside, as if certain people are being very much protected in a way that was not afforded to certain other people! Let's start with the facts around Lola Salem... 🧵1/

It's legitimate for the EU, the UK, Canada and others to support their Ukrainian ally. If Musk is going to (in effect) assist Putin's invasion of Ukraine, Ukraine's allies should sanction Starlink, X and Tesla. At the very least, governments (and people) should stop using his fucking site already.

Burnham praises Badenboch at PMQs over her conference attack on Reform: "In a spirit of unity... I'm going to commend her for drawing a line... with the party over there for suggesting that her children weren't British... She was brave and she was right to call it out."

I was on the telly.

38d.gs/ksft

Let me try this once more. It was a choice. EITHER the Greens adopted a slogan. OR they could have joined the next govt, where they could push for an end to arms sales, sanctions, support for the arrest warrants etc. It was never going to be both. Which one makes a material difference? #GazaGenocide

The Green party motion on Zionism shows little understanding of what Zionism is, who Jews are or how antisemitism works. Latest column www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Ofcom rules say broadcasters cannot use politicians as newsreaders, interviewers or reporters in any news programmes. So why is Nigel Farage allowed to host his own primetime show on GB News? Demand that Ofcom takes immediate action ⬇️

On Oct 19 we are having a social with a difference! Arjan, our resident local beer expert, has reserved Battersea Brewery taproom for everyone hoping to learn more on beer history and styles. It's also a great opportunity to meet EM members from across London. All info here: tinyurl.com/4c9y8mxz

“Today I am announcing a new National Commission on Electoral Reform. I invite all the political parties to be part of its work. We will contest the next election with a manifesto commitment to change the electoral system” 💬 @andyburnham.bsky.social 🌹 #Labour4PR

‘What underlies the sense of affront is the assumption that the “people of England” are, as it were, a settled question, that the days of large-scale movements belong to the past, or ought to.’ Ferdinand Mount on immigration and emigration in the English imagination. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Yes, it's that time again when the Fascism scene returns to London and this year black is very much in vogue. From the new Private Eye, in shops now.

This is "Stormtroops & Freikorps Again!" - our parody of "Time Warp" from Rocky Horror Picture Show, taking on the topic of the emergence of #PatriotPlatform last week & putting it in an outrageous and glam 👠European context. One of us may have made a mistake towards the end 🤨 youtu.be/R0DGY3iH9ao

While most Britons agree with Andy Burnham that Britain took a wrong turn with Brexit, they are more divided over whether the country took a wrong turn with Thatcher Margaret Thatcher Wrong turn: 35% Neither: 14% Right turn: 28% Brexit Wrong turn: 55% Neither: 11% Right turn: 21%

🇪🇺 Jayne Kirkham MP: "Almost everywhere you go in Cornwall, you'll see a distinctive but far too small blue sign signifying that a building or something was funded by the EU." "It was transformational for us. The Leave campaign promised Cornwall would not be worse off. That has fallen short."