lonwon.bsky.social - Profile | ThreadSky | a Reddit-style client for Bluesky

"Ministers repeatedly dodge the simple question: has the UK government conducted a risk assessment of genocide in Gaza? If not, why not? And if so, what does it say?" Read my op-ed on the UK's duty to prevent genocide in Gaza here: parliamentnews.co.uk/we-cannot-wa...

submitted 14 hours ago • 2 comments

The latest YouGov MRP poll is WILD. 140 MPs elected on less than 30% of the vote, including 1 on just 23.5%. An average winning share of just 35%. Only 17 MPs would represent a majority of their voters. Without electoral reform, Parliament risks a serious crisis of legitimacy.

submitted 13 hours ago • 2 comments

Why aren't politicians doing their jobs? stumblingandmumbling.typepad.com/stumbling_an...

submitted 17 hours ago • 0 comments

The point is that there is a growing number of PIP claimants, and there is a way to tackle it in the longer term - improving the state of the nation's health. That looks like the emergency to me. #r4today

submitted 18 hours ago • 1 comment

Chair: Do you accept working-age social security spending has been about five per cent of GDP for a decade? And more PIP recipients is due to demographic change, the nation’s poor health, and higher state pension age? Minister: Well, yeah, I mean, much of what you say, I completely accept #r4today

submitted 19 hours ago • 5 comments

1. Starmer was warned and warned that his benefits cuts were not just cruel and unfair, but a political disaster. He dismissed the warnings, even this week, as no more than "noises off". Now, as the disaster materialises, he's desperately backtracking. Here's an idea: how about listening? 🧵

submitted 1 day ago • 80 comments

He's not wrong www.theguardian.com/world/2025/j...

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

Excellent piece by @faizashaheen.bsky.social explaining the deceptive brilliance of Farage's Britannia Card. It sounds like a Robin Hood plan to tax the rich to help the hardworking poor. It's actually a £34bn windfall for a few very wealthy non-doms. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

submitted 2 days ago • 1 comment

Why is it that our politics has become so degraded that it has abandoned basic economic reasoning? asks @chrisdillow.bsky.social stumblingandmumbling.typepad.com/stumbling_an...

submitted 3 days ago • 0 comments

SPECIAL REPORTS // Exeter City Council fields false prospectus in determination to close Northbrook pool Ian Collinson reports double down on misrepresentation, material omission and flat denial as council plans to rend more of city’s fabric from its roots. exeterobserver.org/2025/06/23/e...

submitted 4 days ago • 1 comment

If you are not concerned by the proscription of Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation because you think it doesn’t impact you, you are wrong. This is an authoritarian abuse of power by the government & it curtails all of our civil liberties #r4today

submitted 3 days ago • 65 comments

This is insane by Yvette Cooper. Spray-painting planes is not terrorism. Criminal damage, yes - but you cannot “terrorise” inanimate objects. It does not serve to cause terror in victims. Therefore it is not terrorism. The authoritarian Home Secretary has lost the plot.

submitted 4 days ago • 107 comments

Sure, Andrew, the news media are dominated by the left. 🤨

submitted 4 days ago • 0 comments

Perfectly expressed.

submitted 4 days ago • 31 comments

@o7rise.bsky.social Hi, not sure why I'm on your Conservatives block list, as I'm not any kind of right-winger! I don't think I've ever followed any of the listed accounts, though I do sometimes follow conservatives (e.g. David Frum) when they're doing interesting critiques of fascists (e.g. Trump)

submitted 4 days ago • 0 comments

On the contrary, the unprovoked US attack on Iran shows that Trump is a weak president who can be bounced by Netanyahu into going against the avowed anti-interventionist platform on which Trump was elected. This gives Russia cover to target Eastern Europe, and China cover for Taiwan.

submitted 4 days ago • 0 comments

If you are a news reader and you edit quotes from a news report so they say what you want them to say rather than what they actually say, you are no longer a news reader.

submitted 4 days ago • 24 comments

Excellent by @nesrinemalik.bsky.social on the moral vacuum at the heart of Western governments. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

submitted 4 days ago • 16 comments

Thoughtful reflections on disturbing assumptions inherent in some immigration rhetoric. I do think that hurling "racist" at people is generally counterproductive; but also that questioning exactly what their words imply about their beliefs (as this article calmly does) is effective anti-racism.

submitted 7 days ago • 0 comments

Have written up some of my thoughts about the increasingly sinister use of 'non-UK born' and 'white British' in the British press. The obsession with 'white British' citizens over other British citizens harms all of us and needs to be called out. benansell.substack.com/p/who-counts

submitted 7 days ago • 35 comments

There are still Labour MPs with integrity. Vicky Foxcroft has resigned as a government whip, saying that she does not believe that cuts to disability benefits are part of the solution to rising inactivity www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

submitted 8 days ago • 0 comments

@owenjones.bsky.social The tweet about Andrew Neil on Iraq & Afghanistan isn't here yet, but in the meantime, just to note that he's been relaxed about the genocide in Gaza and unconcerned about Israel's attack on Iran. Meanwhile, he shares smears about you.

submitted 8 days ago • 0 comments

Iran: Weeks away from having nuclear weapons since 1995

submitted 10 days ago • 621 comments

Israel is being portrayed as the victim as it launches a war of aggression against Iran. It's committing genocide, invading its neighbours, committing every war crime under the sun. Feel like you're losing your mind? Well, you're not. New column 👇 www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

submitted 9 days ago • 17 comments

Yet another elected Democratic official violently arrested and detained by Trump’s ICE Gestapo. This isn’t frog in boiling water. This fascism is happening quickly, clearly, brazenly.

submitted 10 days ago • 73 comments

Andrew Neil, ostensibly still a journalist, spreading obvious misinformation to smear Owen Jones. Rather disgusting for Neil to use horrific crimes in this way.

submitted 10 days ago • 0 comments

Says the man who invited Jim Davidson on his BBC politics show.

submitted 11 days ago • 0 comments

Does protest do more harm than good? Does voting do more harm than good? Some interesting answers stumblingandmumbling.typepad.com/stumbling_an...

submitted 13 days ago • 0 comments

Few of the unforgiving rules of British politics seem to apply to Nigel Farage. How is he able to continue increasing his electoral appeal, despite lacking substance and integrity? Perhaps the gift of the gab helps. And a platform gifted by the BBC. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

submitted 14 days ago • 12 comments

Today they have crossed a deep red line. We, the people, must hold the president and his appointees accountable for this outrageous abuse against American liberty.

submitted 15 days ago • 2261 comments

🇺🇸👀 Full video of Senator Padilla being forcibly removed from Secretary Kristi Noem's press conference.

submitted 15 days ago • 46 comments

Nothing for anywhere south west of Bristol?

submitted 15 days ago • 0 comments

Biden's cognitive decline was public and commented upon endlessly across the media. Trump's cognitive decline is similarly public, but many in the media - Andrew Neil included - ignore it. "Bigger than Watergate"?! Honestly... 🤦

submitted 17 days ago • 0 comments

I've had enough of the BBC's blatant and repeated bias, disproportionately promoting a party with just 5 MPs. What can we do about it? Do what Brits do best: complain. The more complaints they receive, the more likely they are to do something about it. www.bbc.co.uk/contact/comp...

submitted 19 days ago • 0 comments

Badenoch refusing to represent Muslim women wearing burqas is a bad decision. As Afzal Khan says, "Britain faces serious challenges: a struggling NHS, a deepening cost of living crisis, economic uncertainty... These problems won’t be solved by scapegoating" www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

"Ministers repeatedly dodge the simple question: has the UK government conducted a risk assessment of genocide in Gaza? If not, why not? And if so, what does it say?" Read my op-ed on the UK's duty to prevent genocide in Gaza here: parliamentnews.co.uk/we-cannot-wa...

The latest YouGov MRP poll is WILD. 140 MPs elected on less than 30% of the vote, including 1 on just 23.5%. An average winning share of just 35%. Only 17 MPs would represent a majority of their voters. Without electoral reform, Parliament risks a serious crisis of legitimacy.

Why aren't politicians doing their jobs? stumblingandmumbling.typepad.com/stumbling_an...

The point is that there is a growing number of PIP claimants, and there is a way to tackle it in the longer term - improving the state of the nation's health. That looks like the emergency to me. #r4today

Chair: Do you accept working-age social security spending has been about five per cent of GDP for a decade? And more PIP recipients is due to demographic change, the nation’s poor health, and higher state pension age? Minister: Well, yeah, I mean, much of what you say, I completely accept #r4today

1. Starmer was warned and warned that his benefits cuts were not just cruel and unfair, but a political disaster. He dismissed the warnings, even this week, as no more than "noises off". Now, as the disaster materialises, he's desperately backtracking. Here's an idea: how about listening? 🧵

He's not wrong www.theguardian.com/world/2025/j...

Excellent piece by @faizashaheen.bsky.social explaining the deceptive brilliance of Farage's Britannia Card. It sounds like a Robin Hood plan to tax the rich to help the hardworking poor. It's actually a £34bn windfall for a few very wealthy non-doms. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Why is it that our politics has become so degraded that it has abandoned basic economic reasoning? asks @chrisdillow.bsky.social stumblingandmumbling.typepad.com/stumbling_an...

SPECIAL REPORTS // Exeter City Council fields false prospectus in determination to close Northbrook pool Ian Collinson reports double down on misrepresentation, material omission and flat denial as council plans to rend more of city’s fabric from its roots. exeterobserver.org/2025/06/23/e...

If you are not concerned by the proscription of Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation because you think it doesn’t impact you, you are wrong. This is an authoritarian abuse of power by the government & it curtails all of our civil liberties #r4today

This is insane by Yvette Cooper. Spray-painting planes is not terrorism. Criminal damage, yes - but you cannot “terrorise” inanimate objects. It does not serve to cause terror in victims. Therefore it is not terrorism. The authoritarian Home Secretary has lost the plot.

Sure, Andrew, the news media are dominated by the left. 🤨

Perfectly expressed.

@o7rise.bsky.social Hi, not sure why I'm on your Conservatives block list, as I'm not any kind of right-winger! I don't think I've ever followed any of the listed accounts, though I do sometimes follow conservatives (e.g. David Frum) when they're doing interesting critiques of fascists (e.g. Trump)

On the contrary, the unprovoked US attack on Iran shows that Trump is a weak president who can be bounced by Netanyahu into going against the avowed anti-interventionist platform on which Trump was elected. This gives Russia cover to target Eastern Europe, and China cover for Taiwan.

If you are a news reader and you edit quotes from a news report so they say what you want them to say rather than what they actually say, you are no longer a news reader.

Excellent by @nesrinemalik.bsky.social on the moral vacuum at the heart of Western governments. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Thoughtful reflections on disturbing assumptions inherent in some immigration rhetoric. I do think that hurling "racist" at people is generally counterproductive; but also that questioning exactly what their words imply about their beliefs (as this article calmly does) is effective anti-racism.

Have written up some of my thoughts about the increasingly sinister use of 'non-UK born' and 'white British' in the British press. The obsession with 'white British' citizens over other British citizens harms all of us and needs to be called out. benansell.substack.com/p/who-counts

There are still Labour MPs with integrity. Vicky Foxcroft has resigned as a government whip, saying that she does not believe that cuts to disability benefits are part of the solution to rising inactivity www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

@owenjones.bsky.social The tweet about Andrew Neil on Iraq & Afghanistan isn't here yet, but in the meantime, just to note that he's been relaxed about the genocide in Gaza and unconcerned about Israel's attack on Iran. Meanwhile, he shares smears about you.

Iran: Weeks away from having nuclear weapons since 1995

Israel is being portrayed as the victim as it launches a war of aggression against Iran. It's committing genocide, invading its neighbours, committing every war crime under the sun. Feel like you're losing your mind? Well, you're not. New column 👇 www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Yet another elected Democratic official violently arrested and detained by Trump’s ICE Gestapo. This isn’t frog in boiling water. This fascism is happening quickly, clearly, brazenly.

Andrew Neil, ostensibly still a journalist, spreading obvious misinformation to smear Owen Jones. Rather disgusting for Neil to use horrific crimes in this way.

Says the man who invited Jim Davidson on his BBC politics show.

Does protest do more harm than good? Does voting do more harm than good? Some interesting answers stumblingandmumbling.typepad.com/stumbling_an...

Few of the unforgiving rules of British politics seem to apply to Nigel Farage. How is he able to continue increasing his electoral appeal, despite lacking substance and integrity? Perhaps the gift of the gab helps. And a platform gifted by the BBC. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Today they have crossed a deep red line. We, the people, must hold the president and his appointees accountable for this outrageous abuse against American liberty.

🇺🇸👀 Full video of Senator Padilla being forcibly removed from Secretary Kristi Noem's press conference.

Nothing for anywhere south west of Bristol?

Biden's cognitive decline was public and commented upon endlessly across the media. Trump's cognitive decline is similarly public, but many in the media - Andrew Neil included - ignore it. "Bigger than Watergate"?! Honestly... 🤦

I've had enough of the BBC's blatant and repeated bias, disproportionately promoting a party with just 5 MPs. What can we do about it? Do what Brits do best: complain. The more complaints they receive, the more likely they are to do something about it. www.bbc.co.uk/contact/comp...

Badenoch refusing to represent Muslim women wearing burqas is a bad decision. As Afzal Khan says, "Britain faces serious challenges: a struggling NHS, a deepening cost of living crisis, economic uncertainty... These problems won’t be solved by scapegoating" www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

What a day! What a glorious day!

We're going to need a bigger tub

Who, apart from everyone not Maga, could've seen this coming?!