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

"NATO is not the thing that Russia is afraid of. Russia is afraid of democracy expanding to Russia. Why are we in NATO? Its because we are afraid of Russia. And the only thing that really works – the only security guarantee that works – is NATO's umbrella," Kaja Kallas said in an interview with AFP

submitted 22 hours ago • 299 comments

I have zero time for anyone who has treated Birbalsingh as a serious commentator. An asbolute disgrace.

submitted 17 hours ago • 47 comments

There’s going to be a lot of hat-eating tonight. Critics will find a way to do the PM down, of course. Say he gave too much or too little. Was too fawning or not enough. They'd have done it better. Nothing will come of it. But in their black shrivelled heart they'll know Starmer played a blinder.

submitted 1 day ago • 112 comments

No one on the left or right wants to give Starmer credit for it. But there was real skill and self-restraint in that performance. Everyone who’s had to deal with a powerful idiot will recognise it.

submitted 1 day ago • 67 comments

It’s very hard to see how that Trump press conference could have gone better for Starmer.

submitted 1 day ago • 10 comments

We now go live to Allister Heath at the Telegraph, after Trump backed the Chagos deal.

submitted 1 day ago • 7 comments

220,000 Romanian Jews were murdered in WW2. And here we are 80 years on

submitted 1 day ago • 41 comments

9/10 of people in England disagree with this simplistic ahistoric nonsense from Braverman.

submitted 2 days ago • 16 comments

"We will never, ever be part of the United States in any way, shape, or form." #MarkCarney

submitted 3 days ago • 41 comments

No-one who has, or has ever had any input into UK foreign, defence or security policy believes or has ever believed this. Kemi Badenoch can't stop hallucinating straw men, surrendering to foreign lawyers, presumably while taking the knee.

submitted 3 days ago • 6 comments

Justin Webb just attempted to sane-wash this on BBC R4 Today.

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

Keir Starmer: "Nigel Farage didn't even turn up for the debate in parliament today. Nigel Farage is fawning over Putin. That's not patriotism, that is not what working people need." www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/putins...

submitted 3 days ago • 1 comment

Kemi Badenoch’s speech in relation to Keir Starmer’s speech. Political point scoring, lies, aggressive rhetoric, threats and the Chagos Islands. Absolutely shameful. Thank god she isn’t PM and never will be at this grave time.

submitted 3 days ago • 5 comments

Former Tory int'l development minister Alistair Burt is a class act. "The risk of further conflict, in giving the sense to Russia that it could act with impunity, would do far more damage to the world than any reduction in aid. This is no time to be partisan. Gov't made the decision it had to." ~AA

submitted 3 days ago • 9 comments

This thread shows how close US is now getting to a constitutional crisis - as opposed to constitutional drama. Once the executive freely disregards court orders without sanction then US pretty much has a constitutional crisis. Things are coming to a head.

submitted 3 days ago • 1 comment

“The world has changed, and one question is whether the government's pre-existing promises on tax and spend might need to change as well.” @benzaranko.bsky.social responds to the government’s announcement of higher defence spending and cuts to aid spending: ifs.org.uk/articles/ifs...

submitted 3 days ago • 0 comments

Keir Starmer is asked by Labour MP if he shares her concerns that Nigel Farage's past praise of Putin and blaming NATO for Russia's invasion of Ukraine "play right into the hands of Britain's enemies" Starmer: "You don't show patriotism by fawning over Putin"👏

submitted 3 days ago • 41 comments

NEW: Big moment in the Commons. Keir Starmer confirms that UK defence spending will rise to 2.5% of GDP by 2027. Commits to 3% in the next parliament. That's a much more rapid increase than anyone was expecting. Starmer says it'll be paid for by cuts in foreign aid.

submitted 3 days ago • 63 comments

Thirty years ago (1995), Irving Kristol wrote that a 'neoconservative' was a liberal mugged by reality. Badenoch says he talked of a conservative being a liberal mugged by reality in 2005. She says she is 'not a neocon' in quoting the 'godfather of neoconservatism' as to why he was a neoconservative

submitted 3 days ago • 6 comments

Looks like not a single one of Reform UK's five MPs made it into the Commons for David Lammy's update on a momentous week for Ukraine. (Two of them were present for the UQ on electric cars minutes before, but then left the chamber).

submitted 4 days ago • 57 comments

Macron is a hero!

submitted 4 days ago • 0 comments

President of Finland Alexander Stubb speaking in Kyiv today: ▪️ It’s not Russia who decides on EU membership,its the European Union who does that ▪️ It’s not Russia that decides on NATO membership,it’s the alliance itself ▪️ It’s not Russia that decides on what Ukraine has by its border,when,where&how

submitted 4 days ago • 111 comments

After playing a fictional member of the Resistance a long time ago, I never could have imagined it ever happening in real life, but here we are.

submitted 4 days ago • 2029 comments

On behalf of the entire Bluesky community may I say how very much I am looking forward to Boris spinning this one.

submitted 4 days ago • 10 comments

Breaking news: U.S. sides with Russia to vote against a U.N. resolution condemning Moscow for the Ukraine war. Washington’s dramatic shift on the conflict marks a major break with its European allies and coincides with the Trump administration’s bid to repair relations with the Kremlin.

submitted 4 days ago • 684 comments

latest from the 'reclaim our sovereignty' campaigners...

submitted 4 days ago • 7 comments

Germany’s likely new chancellor pulling no punches

submitted 5 days ago • 4 comments

That space for the UK between the EU and the US is becoming smaller by the day.

submitted 5 days ago • 10 comments

Tomorrow will mark three years since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. A day that will forever live in infamy. Today we’re hoisting the Ukrainian flag at our headquarters. It is flying high and proud at the heart of Europe. Where it belongs.

submitted 5 days ago • 65 comments

🇪🇺 🇺🇦 The European Parliament is lighting up in the colours of the Ukrainian flag to show its commitment and solidarity with the country and its people. As we mark three years since the start of Russia’s full-scale war of aggression, we continue to #StandWithUkraine.

submitted 5 days ago • 12 comments

Absolutely

submitted 5 days ago • 85 comments

Badenoch didn’t demand Tory PMs increase Defence spending when she was in Govt👇🏼 Instead she let it shrink over 14 years to lower level than the previous Labour Govt.. But now all of a sudden, she wakes up, as an expert and can write a letter demanding Labour fix her mess Pathetic hypocrite❗️🙄

submitted 5 days ago • 4 comments

One Russian paper poses a “core question” about America, Europe and Nato. Another quotes a retired Russian general & former minister as saying that, when the war in Ukraine ends, Russia “must continue to build up its defence capabilities. I repeat, build them up.” #ReadingRussia

submitted 5 days ago • 12 comments

"Trump bullies America's friends – Canada, Denmark, Mexico, Ukraine – & appeases its enemies. He calls Volodymyr Zelensky a dictator but refuses to apply that term to Vladimir Putin" Tim Garton-Ash's History of the Present:essential reading at this time timothygartonash.substack.com?utm_source=s...

submitted 5 days ago • 3 comments

Sending an email to employees asking them to list five things they did that week is a classic move from a manager who has no idea how to manage

submitted 6 days ago • 930 comments

Another one. Any chance of Mason, Kuenesberg, Robinson, Webb or anyone else at BBC asking Farage or Truss what they think about this?

submitted 6 days ago • 1 comment

Love this photo of The Pogues' Cait O'Riordan staring down sieg-heiling Nazis at a gig they were playing in West Berlin in the 80s. 📷 Andrew Catlin

submitted 6 days ago • 2 comments

This isn’t new - the far left & right have history on questioning whether minorities are truly British / English / Scottish / Welsh. But what’s knew is that this is going mainstream with those like Fraser responsible for pushing this message of division for clicks

submitted 6 days ago • 0 comments

"Someone needs to ask the awkward question. And in formulating an answer they should start with geography. European and British security are indivisible. They always have been." Fantastic piece by @philipstephens.bsky.social:

submitted 6 days ago • 17 comments

BBC News, "Trump has carried our a purge of officials at the Pentagon" "Including the highest ranking military officer, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Charles Q. Brown" "Also out is Admiral Lisa Franchetti, the first woman to lead the US Navy" A black general and woman admiral

submitted 6 days ago • 26 comments

What's the difference between firing someone "for DEI" and firing them because they are Black?

submitted 7 days ago • 646 comments

Life imitates art…

submitted 6 days ago • 2 comments

Remembering Ranking Roger on his birthday. Photo taken when The Beat played Birmingham’s Bingley Hall after a Jobs For Youth march in November 1981

submitted 6 days ago • 2 comments